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This course can help prepare students who wish to continue their social studies education after high school, as well as students who wish to perform exceptionally well on the SAT exam. The level of aptitude in this subject will assist students wishing to excel on the SAT and in college courses.
According to the College Board’s website, AP US History is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in US history. It should prepare students for entry level and intermediate level history courses on the college level. While there is no prerequisite for AP US History, students should make sure that they are prepared for the course load associated with an Advanced Placement History course. Most social studies classes include extensive readings of both textbooks and case studies. Students should be prepared to both read and analyze what they read in order to apply it to the class.
AP US History is a serious course and includes many course goals. According to the College Board’s website, by the time students take their AP US History exam (or the SAT exam) they should be prepared to know about the following themes:
Students will also learn to use study notes and other study techniques in conjunction with such AP US History textbooks as The American Pageant, United States History, and America: Past and Present.
Students considering taking AP US History or any other Advanced Placement course should keep in mind that taking advanced classes requires a higher level of commitment than other high school classes. Students that commit themselves to their coursework and do well in their classes will see a huge payoff in both their SAT scores as well as their college preparedness level
Students that wish to get accepted into more prestigious or highly-selective schools should definitely look into taking AP courses. Advanced Placement courses not only set students apart through their transcripts, but they can also give students an extra boost when thinking about what kind of courses they want to take in college. They can also earn college credit while still in high school, saving valuable time, money, and headaches. Most importantly, they can also aid students in developing the study habits they need to succeed over the course of their college career and give students valuable skills that they can use both in and out of the classroom.
Here you find AP US History outlines, notes, vocabulary terms, topic notes, practice quizzes, court cases, political parties, political timelines and biographies. Many of these resources correspond to the American Pageant textbook. We are always adding more AP US History notes so if you have any requests, please use the Contact Us form to let us know what we can do to help.
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Here you will find outlines for AP US History for the American Pageant textbook. We have chapter outlines for the American Pageant 11th Edition, the American Pageant 12th edition, and the American Pageant 13th edition. We are working on adding US History chapter notes for other AP US History textbooks like the Enduring Vision, A People and a Nation, Out of Many, and The American People. These outlines, along with the US History unit notes, practice quizzes, vocabulary terms, topic outlines, court cases, political parties, political timelines, and case briefs will help you prepare for the AP US History exam.
Below are chapter notes and outlines for the American Pageant, 16th edition textbook.
Additional Information:
Below are chapter notes and outlines for the American Pageant, 15th edition.
Additional Information:
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Chapter 01 - New World Beginnings | 19.94 KB |
Most of the new world had been changed profoundly as the seventeenth century dawned. North America was largely unclaimed (the area over Mexico). And the Spanish had set up much of the control in Central and South America.
In 1707 Savannah Indians ended allegiance with Carolinas and migrated back to Maryland and
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Chapter 2 - The Planting of English America | 21.83 KB |
Chapter 3 Settling the Northern colonies 1619-1700
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Chapter 3 - Settling the Northern Colonies | 25.36 KB |
Chapter 4 – American Life in the Seventeenth Century
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Chapter 4 - American Life in the Seventeenth Century | 19.94 KB |
Chapter 5 1700-1775 Colonial society on the eve of Revolution
I. Conquest by the CradleAttachment | Size |
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Chapter 5 - Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution | 11.95 KB |
Chapter 6 the duel for North America 1608-1763
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Chapter 6 - The Duel for North America | 26.44 KB |
Ch. 7 - The Road to Revolution (1763-1775)
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Chapter 7 - The Road to Revolution | 51.5 KB |
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Chapter 8 - America Secedes from the Empire | 22.05 KB |
Chapter 9 The Confederation and the Constitution 1776-1790
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Chapter 9 - The Confederation and the Constitution | 22.34 KB |
Chapter 12- The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism
The Panic of 1819 created trouble in the political and social world. People were imprisoned for debt; mothers were taken from their children for owing a few dollars. X. Growing Pains of the West
The nation was up to 22 states, the “Ohio fever” had people moving and expanding west.
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Chapter 12 - The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism | 25.26 KB |
Chapter 13 The rise of a Mass Democracy 1824-1840
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Chapter 13 - The Rise of a Mass Democracy | 23.08 KB |
Chapter 14 Forging the national economy 1790-1860
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Chapter 14 - Forging the National Economy | 20.27 KB |
Chapter 15 The Ferment of Reform and Culture 1790- 1860
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Chapter 15 - The Ferment of Reform and Culture | 19.95 KB |
Chapter 16 – The south and the slavery controversy 1793-1860
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Chapter 16 - The South and the Slavery Controversy | 17.37 KB |
Chapter 17- Manifest Destiny and its Legacy 1841-1848
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Chapter 17 - Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy | 16.93 KB |
Chapter 18- Renewing the sectional struggle- 1848-1854
* It was hard to get to the far away states
* A transcontinental railroad was the only real solution.
* Building railroads was expensive so only one could be made.
* The best route seemed to travel through a tip of Mexico.
* James Gadsen bought the area for $10 million.
* It was built in the South because it was easier to pass the railroad through the lower mountains and it would pass through already organized territory.
* Northerners were upset.
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Chapter 18 - Renewing the Sectional Struggle | 18.88 KB |
Chapter 19 – Drifting towards Disunion 1854-1861
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Chapter 19 - Drifting Toward Disunion | 18.39 KB |
Chapter 20 – Girding for War: The North and the South 1861- 1865
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Chapter 20 - Girding for War: The North and the South | 18.72 KB |
Chapter 21 The Furnace of Civil War 1861-1865
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Chapter 21 - The Furnace of Civil War | 21.7 KB |
Chapter 22 The Ordeal Of Reconstruction
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Chapter 22 - The Ordeal of Reconstruction | 19.58 KB |
Chapter 24 - Industry Comes Of Age (1865-1900)
* When Lincoln was shot in 1865 there was only 35,000 miles of stream
railways in the United States. By 1900 there were 192,556 miles. *Transcontinental railroad building was very costly and risky; the government gave railroad companies loans 2. Frontier settlements touched with railroads became flourishing cities, cities that were bypassed withered to ghost towns * Towns fought for host privileges
J. Pierpont Morgan, another financial giant, also was involved in steel business.
Carnegie sold his industry to Morgan for 400 million. He gave away about 350 million to giants or libraries. Morgan's new company was America's 1st billion dollar corporation.
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Chapter 24 - Industry Comes of Age | 19.05 KB |
Chapter 26 - The Great West And The Agricultural Revolution (1865-1896)
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Chapter 26 - The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution | 21.28 KB |
Chapter 31 American Life in the “Roaring Twenties” 1919-1929
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Chapter 31 - American Life in the "Roaring Twenties | 20.94 KB |
Chapter 39 The Stalemated Seventies
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Chapter 39 - The Stalemated Seventies | 16.85 KB |
Chapter 40 The Resurgence of Conservatism 1980-1992
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Chapter 40 - The Resurgence of Conservatism | 10.35 KB |
Here you will find AP US History notes for the American Pageant, 14th edition textbook. These American Pageant notes will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
Additional Information:
I. The Shaping of North America
II. Peopling the Americas
III. The Earliest Americans
IV. Indirect Discoverers of the New World
V. Europeans Enter Africa
VI. Columbus Comes upon a New World
VII. When Worlds Collide
VIII. The Spanish Conquistadores
IX. The Conquest of Mexico
X. The Spread of Spanish America
I. England’s Imperial Stirrings
II. Elizabeth Energizes England
III. England on the Eve of the Empire
IV. England Plants the **Jamestown Seedling**
V. Cultural Clash in the Chesapeake
VI. Virginia: Child of Tobacco
VII. Maryland: Catholic Haven
VIII. The West Indies: Way Station to Mainland America
IX. Colonizing the Carolinas
X. The Emergence of North Carolina
XI. Late-Coming Georgia: The Buffer Colony
iv. James Oglethorpe, the ablest of the founders and a dynamic soldier-statesman, repelled Spanish attacks.
* He saved “the Charity Colony” by his energetic leadership and by using his own fortune to help with the colony.
XII. The Plantation Colonies
XIII. Makers of America: The Iroquois
I. The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism
II. The Pilgrims End Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth
III. The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth
IV. Building the Bay Colony
V. Trouble in the Bible Commonwealth
VI. The Rhode Island “Sewer”
VII. New England Spreads Out
VIII. Puritans Versus Indians
IX. Seeds of Colonial Unity and Independence
X. Andros Promotes the First American Revolution
XI. Old Netherlanders at New Netherland
XII. Friction with English and Swedish Neighbors
XIII. Dutch Residues in New York
XIV. Penn’s Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania
XV. Quaker Pennsylvania and Its Neighbors
XVI. The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies
XVII. Makers of America: The English
I. The Unhealthy Chesapeake
II. The Tobacco Economy
III. Frustrated Freemen and Bacon’s Rebellion
IV. Colonial Slavery
V. Africans in America
VI. Southern Society
VII. The New England Family
VIII. Life in the New England Towns
IX. The Half-Way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials
X. The New England Way of Life
XI. The Early Settlers’ Days and Ways
XII. Makers of America: From African to African-American
I. Conquest by the Cradle
II. A Mingling of the Races
III. The Structure of the Colonial Society
IV. Clerics, Physicians, and Jurists
V. Workaday America
VI. Horsepower and Sailpower
VII. Dominant Denominations
VIII. The Great Awakening
IX. Schools and Colleges
X. A Provincial Culture
XI. Pioneer Presses
XII. The Great Game of Politics
XIII. Colonial Folkways
XIV. Makers of America: The Scots-Irish
I. France Finds a Foothold in Canada
II. New France Fans Out
III. The Clash of Empires
IV. George Washington Inaugurates War with France
V. Global War and Colonial Disunity
VI. Braddock’s Blundering and Its Aftermath
VII. Pitt’s Palms of Victory
VIII. Restless Colonists
IX. War’s Fateful Aftermath
X. Makers of America: The French
I. The Deep Roots of Revolution
II. Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances
III. The Merits and Menace of Mercantilism
IV. The Stamp Tax Uproar
V. Forced Repeal the Stamp Act
VI. The Townshend Tea Tax and the Boston “Massacre”
VII. The Seditious Committees of Correspondence
VIII. Tea Brewing in Boston
IX. Parliament Passes the “Intolerable Acts”
X. Bloodshed
XI. Imperial Strength and Weaknesses
XII. American Pluses and Minuses
XIII. A Thin Line of Heroes
I. Congress Drafts George Washington
II. Bunker Hill and Hessian Hirelings
III. The Abortive Conquest of Canada
IV. Thomas Paine Preaches Common Sense
V. Paine and the Idea of “Republicanism”
VI. Jefferson’s “Explanation” of Independence
VII. Patriots and Loyalists
VIII. The Loyalist Exodus
IX. General Washington at Bay
X. Burgoyne’s Blundering Invasion
XI. Revolution in Diplomacy?
XII. The Colonial War Becomes a Wider War
XIII. Blow and Counterblow
XIV. The Land Frontier and the Sea Frontier
XV. Yorktown and the Final Curtain
XVI. Peace at Paris
XVII. A New Nation Legitimized
XVIII. Makers of America: The Loyalists
I. The Pursuit of Equality
II. Constitution Making in the States
III. Economic Crosscurrents
IV. A Shaky Start Toward Union
V. Creating a Confederation
VI. The Articles of the Confederation: America’s First Constitution
VII. Landmarks in Land Laws
VIII. The World’s Ugly Duckling
IX. The Horrid Specter of Anarchy
X. A Convention of “Demigods”
XI. Patriots in Philadelphia
XII. Hammering Out a Bundle of Compromises
XIII. Safeguards for Conservatism
XIV. The Clash of Federalists and Anti-federalists
XV. The Great Debate in the States
XVI. The Four Laggard States
XVII. A Conservative Triumph
I. Growing Pains
II. Washington for President
III. The Bill of Rights
IV. Hamilton Revives the Corpse of Public Credit
V. Customs Duties and Excise Taxes
VI. Hamilton Battles Jefferson for a Bank
VII. Mutinous Moonshiners in Pennsylvania
VIII. The Emergence of Political Parties
IX. The Impact of the French Revolution
X. Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation
XI. Embroilments with Britain
XII. Jay’s Treaty and Washington’s Farewell
XIII. John Adams Becomes President
XIV. Unofficial Fighting with France
XV. Adams Puts Patriotism Above Party
XVI. The Federalist Witch Hunt
XVII. The Virginia (Madison) and Kentucky (Jefferson) Resolutions
XVIII. Federalists Versus Democratic-Republicans
I. Federalist and Republican Mudslingers
II. The Jeffersonian “Revolution of 1800”
III. Responsibility Breeds Moderation
IV. Jeffersonian Restraint
V. The “Dead Clutch” of the Judiciary
VI. Jefferson, a Reluctant Warrior
VII. The Louisiana Godsend
VIII. Louisiana in the Long View
IX. The Aaron Burr Conspiracies
X. A Precarious Neutrality
XI. The Hated Embargo
XII. Madison’s Gamble
XIII. Tecumseh and the Prophet
XIV. Mr. Madison’s War
I. On to Canada Over Land and Lakes
II. Washington Burned and New Orleans Defended
III. The Treaty of Ghent
IV. Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention
V. The Second War for American Independence
VI. Nascent Nationalism
VII. “The American System”
VIII. The So-Called Era of Good Feelings
IX. The Panic of 1819 and the Curse of Hard Times
X. Growing Pains of the West
XI. Slavery and the Sectional Balance
XII. The Uneasy Missouri Compromise
XIII. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism
XIV. Judicial Dikes Against Democratic Excesses
XV. Sharing Oregon and Acquiring Florida
XVI. The Menace of Monarchy in America
XVII. Monroe and His Doctrine
XVIII. Monroe’s Doctrine Appraised
I. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
II. A Yankee Misfit in the White House
III. Going “Whole Hog” for Jackson in 1828”
IV. “Old Hickory” as President
V. The Spoils System
VI. The Tricky “Tariff of Abominations”
VII. “Nullies” in South Carolina
VIII. The Trail of Tears
IX. The Bank War
X. “Old Hickory” Wallops Clay in 1832
XI. Burying Biddle’s Bank
XII. The Birth of the Whigs
XIII. The Election of 1836
XIV. Big Woes for the “Little Magician”
XV. Depression Doldrums and the Independent Treasury
XVI. Gone to Texas
XVII. The Lone Star Rebellion
XVIII. Log Cabins and Hard Cider of 1840
XIX. Politics for the People
XX. The Two-Party System
I. The Westward Movement
II. Shaping the Western Landscape
III. The March of the Millions
IV. The Emerald Isle Moves West
V. The German Forty-Eighters
VI. Flare-ups of Antiforeignism
VII. Creeping Mechanization
VIII. Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine
IX. Marvels in Manufacturing
X. Workers and “Wage Slaves”
XI. Women and the Economy
XII. Western Farmers Reap a Revolution in the Fields
XIII. Highways and Steamboats
XIV. “Clinton’s Big Ditch” in New York
XV. The Iron Horse
XVIII. Cables, Clippers, and Pony Riders
XIX. The Transport Web Binds the Union
XXI. The Market Revolution
I. Reviving Religion
II. Denominational Diversity
III. A Desert Zion in Utah
IV. Free School for a Free People
V. Higher Goals for Higher Learning
VI. An Age of Reform
VII. Demon Rum—The “Old Deluder”
VIII. Women in Revolt
IX. Wilderness Utopias
X. The Dawn of Scientific Achievement
XI. Artistic Achievements
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) painted 60 portraits of Washington
John Trumbull (1756-1843) - captured the Revolutionary War in paint in dramatic fashion
XII. The Blossoming of a National Literature
XIII. Trumpeters of Transcendentalism
XIV. Glowing Literary Lights (not associated with transcendentalism)
XV. Literary Individualists and Dissenters
XVI. Portrayers of the Past
I. “Cotton Is King!”
II. The Planter “Aristocracy”
III. Slaves of the Slave System
IV. The White Majority
V. Free Blacks: Slaves Without Masters
VI. Plantation Slavery
VII. Life Under the Lash
VIII. The Burdens of Bondage
IX. Early Abolitionism
X. Radical Abolitionism
XI. The South Lashes Back
XII. The Abolitionist Impact in the North
I. The Accession of “Tyler Too”
II. John Tyler: A President Without a Party
III. A War of Words with England
IV. Manipulating the Maine Maps
V. The Lone Star of Texas Shines Alone
VI. The Belated Texas Nuptials
VII. Oregon Fever Populates Oregon
VIII. A Mandate (?) for Manifest Destiny
IX. Polk the Purposeful
X. Misunderstandings with Mexico
XI. American Blood on American (?) Soil
XII. The Mastering of Mexico
XIII. Fighting Mexico for Peace
XIV. Profit and Loss in Mexico
I. The Popular Sovereignty Panacea
II. Political Triumphs for General Taylor
III. “Californy Gold”
IV. Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad
V. Twilight of the Senatorial Giants
VI. Deadlock and Danger on Capitol Hill
VII. Breaking the Congressional Logjam
VIII. Balancing the Compromise Scales
IX. Defeat and Doom for the Whigs
X. Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border
XI. The Allure of Asia
XII. Pacific Railroad Promoters and the Gadsden Purchase
XIII. Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Scheme
XIV. Congress Legislates a Civil War
I. Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries
II. The North-South Contest for Kansas
III. Kansas in Convulsion
IV. “Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon
V. “Old Buck” versus “The Pathfinder”
VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856
VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell
VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857
IX. An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges
X. The Great Debate: Lincoln Versus Douglas
XI. John Brown: Murderer or Martyr?
XII. The Disruption of the Democrats
XIII. A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union
XIV. The Electoral Upheaval of 1860
XV. The Secessionist Exodus
XVI. The Collapse of Compromise
XVII. Farewell to Union
I. The Menace of Secession
II. South Carolina Assails Fort Sumter
III. Brother’s Blood and Border Blood
IV. The Balance of Forces
V. Dethroning King Cotton
VI. The Decisiveness of Diplomacy
VII. Foreign Flare-Ups
VIII. President Davis Versus President Lincoln
IX. Limitations on Wartime Liberties
X. Volunteers and Draftees: North and South
XI. The Economic Stresses of War
XII. The North’s Economic Boom
XIII. A Crushed Cotton Kingdom
I. Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day War”
II. “Tardy George” McClellan and the Peninsula Campaign
III. The War at Sea
IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
V. A Proclamation Without Emancipation
VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
VIII. The War in the West
IX. Sherman Scorches Georgia
X. The Politics of War
XI. The Election of 1864
XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
XIII. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
XIV. The Aftermath of the Nightmare.
I. The Problems of Peace
II. Freedmen Define Freedom
III. The Freedman’s Bureau
IV. Johnson: The Tailor President
V. Presidential Reconstruction
VI. The Baleful Black Codes
VII. Congressional Reconstruction
VIII. Johnson Clashes with Congress
IX. Swinging ‘Round the Circle with Johnson
X. Republican Principles and Programs
XI. Reconstruction by Sword
XII. No Women Voters
XIII. The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South
XIV. The Ku Klux Klan
XV. Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank
XVI. A Not-Guilty Verdict for Johnson
XVII. The Purchase of Alaska
XVIII. The Heritage of Reconstruction
I. The “Bloody Shirt” Elects Grant
II. The Era of Good Stealings
III. A Carnival of Corruption
IV. The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872
V. Depression, Deflation, and Inflation
VI. Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age
VII. The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876
VIII. The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction
IX. The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post-Reconstruction South
X. Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes
XI. Garfield and Arthur
XII. The Blaine-Cleveland Mudslingers of 1884
XIII. “Old Grover” Takes Over
XIV. Cleveland Battles for a Lower Tariff
XV. The Billion Dollar Congress
XVI. The Drumbeat of Discontent
XVII. Cleveland and Depression
XVIII. Cleveland Breeds a Backlash
I. The Iron Colt Becomes an Iron Horse
II. Spanning the Continent with Rails
III. Binding the Country with Railroad Ties
IV. Railroad Consolidation and Mechanization
V. Revolution by Railways
VI. Wrongdoing in Railroading
VII. Government Bridles the Iron Horse
VIII. Miracles of Mechanization
IX. The Trust Titan Emerges
X. The Supremacy of Steel
XI. Carnegie and Other Sultans of Steel
XII. Rockefeller Grows an American Beauty Rose
XIII. The Gospel of Wealth
XIV. Government Tackles the Trust Evil
XV. The South in the Age of Industry
XVI. The Impact of the New Industrial Revolution on America
XVII. In Unions There Is Strength
XVIII. Labor Limps Along
XIX. Unhorsing the Knights of Labor
XX. The AF of L to the Fore
I. The Urban Frontier
II. The New Immigration
III. Southern Europe Uprooted
IV. Reactions to the New Immigration
V. Narrowing the Welcome Mat
VI. Churches Confront the Urban Challenge
VII. Darwin Disrupts the Churches
VIII. The Lust for Learning
IX. Booker T. Washington and Education for Black People
X. The Hallowed Halls of Ivy
XI. The March of the Mind
XII. The Appeal of the Press
d. Luckily, the strengthening of the Associated Press, which had been established in the 1840s, helped to offset some of the questionable journalism.
XIII. Apostles of Reform
XIV. Postwar Writing
XV. Literary Landmarks
XVI. The New Morality
XVII. Families and Women in the City
XVIII. Prohibition of Alcohol and Social Progress
XIX. Artistic Triumphs
XX. The Business of Amusement
I. The Clash of Cultures on the Plains
II. Receding Native Population
III. Bellowing Herds of Bison
IV. The End of the Trail
V. Mining: From Dishpan to Ore Breaker
VI. Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive
VII. The Farmers’ Frontier
VIII. The Far West Comes of Age
IX. The Fading Frontier
X. The Farm Becomes a Factory
XI. Deflation Dooms the Debtor
XII. Unhappy Farmers
XIII. The Farmers Take Their Stand
XIV. Prelude to Populism
XV. Coxey’s Army and the Pullman Strike
XVI. Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan
XVII. Class Conflict: Plowholders Versus Bondholders
XVIII. Republican Standpattism Enthroned
I. America Turns Outward
II. Spurning the Hawaiian Pear
III. Cubans Rise in Revolt
IV. Dewey’s May Day Victory at Manila
V. The Confused Invasion of Cuba
VI. America’s Course (Curse?) of Empire
VII. Perplexities in Puerto Rico and Cuba
VIII. New Horizons in Two Hemispheres
IX. “Little Brown Brothers” in the Philippines
X. Hinging the Open Door in China
XI. Imperialism or Bryanism in 1900?
XII. TR: Brandisher of the Big Stick
XIII. Building the Panama Canal
XIV. TR’s Perversion of the Monroe Doctrine
XV. Roosevelt on the World Stage
XVI. Japanese Laborers in California
I. Progressive Roots
II. Raking Muck with the Muckrakers
III. Political Progressivism
IV. Progressivism in the Cities and States
V. Progressive Women
VI. TR’s Square Deal for Labor
VII. TR Corrals the Corporations
VIII. Caring for the Consumer
IX. Earth Control
X. The “Roosevelt Panic” of 1907
XI. The Rough Rider Thunders Out
XII. Taft: A Round Peg in a Square Hole
XIII. The Dollar Goes Abroad as Diplomat
XIV. Taft the Trustbuster
XV. Taft Splits the Republican Party
XVI. The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture
I. The “Bull Moose” Campaign of 1912
II. Woodrow Wilson: A Minority President
III. Wilson: The Idealist in Politics
IV. Wilson Tackles the Tariff
V. Wilson Battles the Bankers
VI. The President Tames the Trusts
VII. Wilsonian Progressivism at High Tide
VIII. New Directions in Foreign Policy
IX. Moralistic Diplomacy in Mexico
X. Thunder Across the Sea
XI. A Precarious Neutrality
XII. America Earns Blood Money
XIII. Wilson Wins Reelection in 1916
I. War by Act of Germany
II. Wilsonian Idealism Enthroned
III. Wilson’s Fourteen Potent Points
IV. Creel Manipulates Minds
V. Enforcing Loyalty and Stiffing Dissent
VI. The Nation’s Factories Go to War
VII. Workers in Wartime
VIII. Suffering Until Suffrage
IX. Forging a War Economy
X. Making Plowboys into Doughboys
XI. Fighting in France—Belatedly
XII. America Helps Hammer the “Hun”
XIII. The Fourteen Points Disarm Germany
XIV. Wilson Steps Down from Olympus
XV. An Idealist Battles the Imperialists in Paris
XVI. Hammering Out the Treaty
XVII. The Peace Treaty That Bred a New War
XVIII. The Domestic Parade of Prejudice
XIX. Wilson’s Tour and Collapse (1919)
XX. Defeat Through Deadlock
XXI. The “Solemn Referendum” of 1920
XXII. The Betrayal of Great Expectations
I. Seeing Red
II. Hooded Hoodlums of the KKK
III. Stemming the Foreign Flood
*This policy still really favored the Slavs and the southeastern Europeans in comparison to other groups. So, a new policy was sought…
* A replacement law was found in the Immigration Act of 1924, which cut the quota down to 2% and the origins base was shifted to that of 1890, when few southeastern Europeans lived in America.
* This change clearly had racial undertones beneath it (New Immigrants out, Old Immigrants in).
* This act also slammed the door against Japanese immigrants.
* By 1931, for the first time in history, more people left America than came here.
IV. The Prohibition “Experiment”
V. The Golden Age of Gangsterism
VI. Monkey Business in Tennessee
VII. The Mass-Consumption Economy
VIII. Putting America on Rubber Tires
IX. The Advent of the Gasoline Age
X. Humans Develop Wings
XI. The Radio Revolution
XII. Hollywood’s Filmland Fantasies
XIII. The Dynamic Decade
XIV. Cultural Liberation
XV. Wall Street’s Big Bull Market
I. The Republican “Old Guard” Returns
II. GOP Reaction at the Throttle
III. The Aftermath of the War
IV. America Seeks Benefits Without Burdens
V. Hiking the Tariff Higher
VI. The Stench of Scandal
VII. “Silent Cal” Coolidge
VIII. Frustrated Farmers
IX. A Three-Way Race for the White House in 1924
X. Foreign-Policy Flounderings
XI. Unraveling the Debt Knot
XII. The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, 1928
XIII. President Hoover’s First Moves
XIV. The Great Crash Ends the Golden Twenties
XV. Hooked on the Horn of Plenty
*Villages of shanties and ragged shacks were called Hoovervilles and were inhabited by the people who had lost their jobs. They popped up everywhere.
XVI. Rugged Times for Rugged Individualists
XVII. Hoover Battles the Great Depression
XVIII. Routing the Bonus Army in Washington
XIX. Japanese Militarists Attack China
XX. Hoover Pioneers the Good Neighbor Policy
I. FDR: A Politician in a Wheelchair
II. Presidential Hopefuls of 1932
III. Hoover's Humiliation in 1932
IV. FDR and the Three R’s: Relief, Recovery, and Reform
V. Roosevelt Manages the Money
VI. Roosevelt Manages the Money
VII. A Day for Every Demagogue
VIII. New Visibility for Women
IX. Helping Industry and Labor
X. Paying Farmers Not to Farm
XI. Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards
XII. Battling Bankers and Big Business
XIII. The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee River
XIV. Housing Reform and Social Security
XV. A New Deal for Labor
XVI. Landon Challenges “the Champ”
XVII. Nine Old Men on the Bench
XVIII. The Court Changes Course
XIX. Twilight of the New Deal
XX. New Deal or Raw Deal?
XXI. FDR’s Balance Sheet
I. The London Conference
II. Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
III. Becoming a Good Neighbor
IV. Secretary Hull’s Reciprocal Trade Agreement
V. Storm-Cellar Isolationism
VI. Congress Legislates Neutrality
VII. America Dooms Loyalist Spain
VIII. Appeasing Japan and Germany
IX. Hitler’s Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
X. The Fall of France
b. The fall of France was shocking, because now, all that stood between Hitler and the world was Britain: if the English lost, Hitler would have all of Europe in which to operate, and he might take over the Americas as well.
XI. Bolstering Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
XII. FDR Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
XIII. Congress Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
XIV. Hitler’s Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
XV. U.S. Destroyers and Hitler’s U-Boats Clash
XVI. Surprise Assault at Pearl Harbor
XVII. America’s Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
I. The Allies Trade Space for Time
II. The Shock of War
III. Building the War Machine
IV. Manpower and Womanpower
V. Wartime Migrations
VI. Holding the Home Front
VII. The Rising Sun in the Pacific
VIII. Japan’s High Tide at Midway
IX. American Leapfrogging Toward Tokyo
X. The Allied Halting of Hitler
XI. A Second Front from North Africa to Rome
XII. D-Day: June 6, 1944
XIII. FDR: The Fourth-Termite of 1944
XIV. Roosevelt Defeats Dewey
XV. The Last Days of Hitler
XVI. Japan Dies Hard
XVII. The Atomic Bombs
XVIII. The Allies Triumphant
I. Postwar Economic Anxieties
II. The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970
III. The Roots of Postwar Prosperity
IV. The Smiling Sunbelt
V. The Rush to the Suburbs
VI. The Postwar Baby Boom
VII. Truman: the “Gutty” Man from Missouri
VIII. Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal?
IX. The United States and the Soviet Union
X. Shaping the Postwar World
XI. The Problem of Germany
XII. The Cold War Congeals
XIII. America Begins to Rearm
XIV. Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia
XV. Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
XVI. Democratic Divisions in 1948
XVII. The Korean Volcano Erupts (1950)
XVIII. The Military Seesaw in Korea
I. Affluence and Its Anxieties
II. Consumer Culture in the Fifties
III. The Advent of Eisenhower
IV. The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy
V. Desegregating American Society
VI. Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution
VII. Eisenhower Republicanism at Home
VIII. A New Look in Foreign Policy
IX. The Vietnam Nightmare
X. Cold War Crises in Europe and the Middle East
XI. Round Two for “Ike”
*The 1958 National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) gave $887 million in loads to needy college students and grants for the improvement of schools.
XII. The Continuing Cold War
XIII. Cuba’s Castroism Spells Communism
XIV. Kennedy Challenges Nixon for the Presidency
XV. An Old General Fades Away
XVI. The Life of the Mind in Postwar America
I. Kennedy’s “New Frontier” Spirit
II. The New Frontier at Home
iii. Kennedy also promoted a project to land Americans on the moon, though apathetic Americans often ridiculed this goal.
III. Rumblings in Europe
IV. Foreign Flare-Ups and “Flexible Response”
V. Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire
VI. Cuban Confrontations
VII. The Struggle for Civil Rights
VIII. The Killing of Kennedy
IX. The LBJ Brand on the Presidency
X. Johnson Battles Goldwater in 1964
XI. The Great Society Congress
XII. Battling for Black Rights
XIII. Black Power
XIV. Combating Communism in Two Hemispheres
XV. Vietnam Vexations
XVI. Vietnam Topples Johnson
XVII. The Presidential Sweepstakes of 1968
XVIII. The Obituary of Lyndon Johnson
XIX. The Cultural Upheaval of the 1960s
I. Sources of Stagnation
II. Nixon “Vietnamizes” the War
III. Cambodianizing the Vietnam War
IV. Nixon’s Détente with Beijing (Peking) and Moscow
V. A New Team on the Supreme Bench
VI. Nixon on the Home Front
VII. The Nixon Landslide of 1972
VIII. The Secret Bombing of Cambodia and the War Powers Act
IX. The Arab Oil Embargo and the Energy Crisis
X. Watergate and the Unmaking of a President
XI. The First Unelected President
XII. Defeat in Vietnam
XIII. Feminist Victories and Defeats
XIV. The Seventies in Black and White
XV. The Bicentennial Campaign and the Carter Victory
XVI. Carter’s Humanitarian Diplomacy
XVII. Economic and Energy Woes
XVIII. Foreign Affairs and the Iranian Imbroglio
I. The Election of Ronald Reagan, 1980
II. The Reagan Revolution
III. The Battle of the Budget
IV. Reagan Renews the Cold War
V. Troubles Abroad
VI. Round Two for Reagan
VII. The Iran-Contra Imbroglio
VIII. Reagan’s Economic Legacy
IX. The Religious Right
X. Conservatism in the Courts
XI. Referendum on Reaganism in 1988
XII. George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War
XIII. The Persian Gulf Crisis
XIV. Bush on the Home Front
I. Bill Clinton: the First Baby-Boomer President
II. A False Start for Reform
III. The Politics of Distrust
IV. Clinton Again
V. Problems Abroad
VI. Scandal and Impeachment
VII. Clinton’s Legacy
VIII. The Bush-Gore Presidential Battle
IX. The Controversial Election of 2000
X. Bush Begins
XI. Terrorism Comes to America
XII. Bush Takes the Offensive Against Iraq
XIII. Owning Iraq
XIV. A Country in Conflict
XV. Reelecting George W. Bush
I. Economic Revolutions
II. Affluence and Inequality
III. The Feminist Revolution
IV. New Families and Old
V. The Aging of America
VI. The New Immigration
VII. Beyond the Melting Pot
VIII. Cities and Suburbs
IX. Minority America
X. E Pluribus Plures
XI. The Life of the Mind
XII. The American Prospect
Here you will find AP US History notes for the American Pageant, 13th edition textbook. These American Pageant notes will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
Additional Information:
I. The Shaping of North America
II. Peopling the Americas
III. The Earliest Americans
IV. Indirect Discoverers of the New World
V. Europeans Enter Africa
VI. Columbus Comes upon a New World
VII. When Worlds Collide
VIII. The Spanish Conquistadores
IX. The Conquest of Mexico
X. The Spread of Spanish America
I. England’s Imperial Stirrings
II. Elizabeth Energizes England
III. England on the Eve of the Empire
IV. England Plants the **Jamestown Seedling**
V. Cultural Clash in the Chesapeake
VI. Virginia: Child of Tobacco
VII. Maryland: Catholic Haven
VIII. The West Indies: Way Station to Mainland America
IX. Colonizing the Carolinas
X. The Emergence of North Carolina
XI. Late-Coming Georgia: The Buffer Colony
iv. James Oglethorpe, the ablest of the founders and a dynamic soldier-statesman, repelled Spanish attacks.
* He saved “the Charity Colony” by his energetic leadership and by using his own fortune to help with the colony.
XII. The Plantation Colonies
XIII. Makers of America: The Iroquois
I. The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism
II. The Pilgrims End Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth
III. The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth
IV. Building the Bay Colony
V. Trouble in the Bible Commonwealth
VI. The Rhode Island “Sewer”
VII. New England Spreads Out
VIII. Puritans Versus Indians
IX. Seeds of Colonial Unity and Independence
X. Andros Promotes the First American Revolution
XI. Old Netherlanders at New Netherland
XII. Friction with English and Swedish Neighbors
XIII. Dutch Residues in New York
XIV. Penn’s Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania
XV. Quaker Pennsylvania and Its Neighbors
xii. New Jersey and Delaware prospered as well.
XVI. The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies
XVII. Makers of America: The English
I. The Unhealthy Chesapeake
II. The Tobacco Economy
III. Frustrated Freemen and Bacon’s Rebellion
IV. Colonial Slavery
V. Africans in America
VI. Southern Society
VII. The New England Family
VIII. Life in the New England Towns
IX. The Half-Way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials
X. The New England Way of Life
XI. The Early Settlers’ Days and Ways
XII. Makers of America: From African to African-American
I. Conquest by the Cradle
II. A Mingling of the Races
III. The Structure of the Colonial Society
IV. Clerics, Physicians, and Jurists
V. Workaday America
VI. Horsepower and Sailpower
VII. Dominant Denominations
VIII. The Great Awakening
IX. Schools and Colleges
X. A Provincial Culture
XI. Pioneer Presses
XII. The Great Game of Politics
XIII. Colonial Folkways
XIV. Makers of America: The Scots-Irish
I. France Finds a Foothold in Canada
II. New France Fans Out
III. The Clash of Empires
IV. George Washington Inaugurates War with France
V. Global War and Colonial Disunity
VI. Braddock’s Blundering and Its Aftermath
VII. Pitt’s Palms of Victory
VIII. Restless Colonists
IX. War’s Fateful Aftermath
X. Makers of America: The French
I. The Deep Roots of Revolution
II. Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances
III. The Merits and Menace of Mercantilism
Merits of mercantilism:
Menace of mercantilism:
IV. The Stamp Tax Uproar
V. Forced Repeal the Stamp Act
VI. The Townshend Tea Tax and the Boston “Massacre”
They put light taxes on lead, paper, paint, and tea, which were later repealed, except tea.
VII. The Seditious Committees of Correspondence
VIII. Tea Brewing in Boston
IX. Parliament Passes the “Intolerable Acts”
X. Bloodshed
XI. Imperial Strength and Weaknesses
XII. American Pluses and Minuses
Advantages
Disadvantages
XIII. A Thin Line of Heroes
I. Congress Drafts George Washington
II. Bunker Hill and Hessian Hirelings
III. The Abortive Conquest of Canada
IV. Thomas Paine Preaches Common Sense
V. Paine and the Idea of “Republicanism”
VI. Jefferson’s “Explanation” of Independence
VII. Patriots and Loyalists
VIII. The Loyalist Exodus
IX. General Washington at Bay
X. Burgoyne’s Blundering Invasion
XI. Revolution in Diplomacy?
XII. The Colonial War Becomes a Wider War
XIII. Blow and Counterblow
XIV. The Land Frontier and the Sea Frontier
XV. Yorktown and the Final Curtain
XVI. Peace at Paris
XVII. A New Nation Legitimized
XVIII. Makers of America: The Loyalists
I. The Pursuit of Equality
II. Constitution Making in the States
III. Economic Crosscurrents
IV. A Shaky Start Toward Union
V. Creating a Confederation
VI. The Articles of the Confederation: America’s First Constitution
VII. Landmarks in Land Laws
VIII. The World’s Ugly Duckling
IX. The Horrid Specter of Anarchy
X. A Convention of “Demigods”
XI. Patriots in Philadelphia
XII. Hammering Out a Bundle of Compromises
XIII. Safeguards for Conservatism
XIV. The Clash of Federalists and Anti-federalists
XV. The Great Debate in the States
XVI. The Four Laggard States
XVII. A Conservative Triumph
I. Growing Pains
II. Washington for President
III. The Bill of Rights
IV. Hamilton Revives the Corpse of Public Credit
V. Customs Duties and Excise Taxes
VI. Hamilton Battles Jefferson for a Bank
VII. Mutinous Moonshiners in Pennsylvania
VIII. The Emergence of Political Parties
IX. The Impact of the French Revolution
X. Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation
XI. Embroilments with Britain
XII. Jay’s Treaty and Washington’s Farewell
XIII. John Adams Becomes President
XIV. Unofficial Fighting with France
XV. Adams Puts Patriotism Above Party
XVI. The Federalist Witch Hunt
XVII. The Virginia (Madison) and Kentucky (Jefferson) Resolutions
XVIII. Federalists Versus Democratic-Republicans
I. Federalist and Republican Mudslingers
II. The Jeffersonian “Revolution of 1800”
III. Responsibility Breeds Moderation
IV. Jeffersonian Restraint
V. The “Dead Clutch” of the Judiciary
VI. Jefferson, a Reluctant Warrior
VII. The Louisiana Godsend
VIII. Louisiana in the Long View
IX. The Aaron Burr Conspiracies
X. A Precarious Neutrality
XI. The Hated Embargo
XII. Madison’s Gamble
XIII. Tecumseh and the Prophet
XIV. Mr. Madison’s War
I. On to Canada Over Land and Lakes
II. Washington Burned and New Orleans Defended
III. The Treaty of Ghent
IV. Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention
V. The Second War for American Independence
VI. Nascent Nationalism
VII. “The American System”
VIII. The So-Called Era of Good Feelings
IX. The Panic of 1819 and the Curse of Hard Times
X. Growing Pains of the West
XI. Slavery and the Sectional Balance
XII. The Uneasy Missouri Compromise
XIII. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism
XIV. Judicial Dikes Against Democratic Excesses
XV. Sharing Oregon and Acquiring Florida
XVI. The Menace of Monarchy in America
XVII. Monroe and His Doctrine
XVIII. Monroe’s Doctrine Appraised
I. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
II. A Yankee Misfit in the White House
III. Going “Whole Hog” for Jackson in 1828”
IV. “Old Hickory” as President
V. The Spoils System
VI. The Tricky “Tariff of Abominations”
VII. “Nullies” in South Carolina
VIII. The Trail of Tears
IX. The Bank War
X. “Old Hickory” Wallops Clay in 1832
against Jackson, a Mason.
* Also, they were supported by churches hoping to pass religious reform.
XI. Burying Biddle’s Bank
XII. The Birth of the Whigs
XIII. The Election of 1836
XIV. Big Woes for the “Little Magician”
XV. Depression Doldrums and the Independent Treasury
XVI. Gone to Texas
XVII. The Lone Star Rebellion
XVIII. Log Cabins and Hard Cider of 1840
XIX. Politics for the People
XX. The Two-Party System
I. The Westward Movement
II. Shaping the Western Landscape
III. The March of the Millions
IV. The Emerald Isle Moves West
V. The German Forty-Eighters
VI. Flare-ups of Antiforeignism
VII. Creeping Mechanization
VIII. Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine
IX. Marvels in Manufacturing
X. Workers and “Wage Slaves”
XI. Women and the Economy
XII. Western Farmers Reap a Revolution in the Fields
XIII. Highways and Steamboats
XIV. “Clinton’s Big Ditch” in New York
XV. The Iron Horse
XVIII. Cables, Clippers, and Pony Riders
XIX. The Transport Web Binds the Union
XXI. The Market Revolution
I. Reviving Religion
II. Denominational Diversity
III. A Desert Zion in Utah
IV. Free School for a Free People
V. Higher Goals for Higher Learning
VI. An Age of Reform
VII. Demon Rum—The “Old Deluder”
VIII. Women in Revolt
IX. Wilderness Utopias
X. The Dawn of Scientific Achievement
XI. Artistic Achievements
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) painted 60 portraits of Washington
John Trumbull (1756-1843) - captured the Revolutionary War in paint in dramatic fashion
XII. The Blossoming of a National Literature
XIII. Trumpeters of Transcendentalism
XIV. Glowing Literary Lights (not associated with transcendentalism)
XV. Literary Individualists and Dissenters
XVI. Portrayers of the Past
I. “Cotton’s Is King!”
II. The Planter “Aristocracy”
III. Slaves of the Slave System
IV. The White Majority
V. Free Blacks: Slaves Without Masters
VI. Plantation Slavery
VII. Life Under the Lash
VIII. The Burdens of Bondage
IX. Early Abolitionism
X. Radical Abolitionism
XI. The South Lashes Back
XII. The Abolitionist Impact in the North
I. The Accession of “Tyler Too”
II. John Tyler: A President Without a Party
III. A War of Words with England
IV. Manipulating the Maine Maps
V. The Lone Star of Texas Shines Alone
VI. The Belated Texas Nuptials
VII. Oregon Fever Populates Oregon
VIII. A Mandate (?) for Manifest Destiny
IX. Polk the Purposeful
X. Misunderstandings with Mexico
XI. American Blood on American (?) Soil
XII. The Mastering of Mexico
XIII. Fighting Mexico for Peace
XIV. Profit and Loss in Mexico
I. The Popular Sovereignty Panacea
II. Political Triumphs for General Taylor
III. “Californy Gold”
IV. Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad
V. Twilight of the Senatorial Giants
VI. Deadlock and Danger on Capitol Hill
VII. Breaking the Congressional Logjam
VIII. Balancing the Compromise Scales
IX. Defeat and Doom for the Whigs
X. Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border
XI. The Allure of Asia
XII. Pacific Railroad Promoters and the Gadsden Purchase
XIII. Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Scheme
XIV. Congress Legislates a Civil War
I. Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries
II. The North-South Contest for Kansas
III. Kansas in Convulsion
IV. “Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon
V. “Old Buck” versus “The Pathfinder”
VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856
VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell
VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857
IX. An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges
X. The Great Debate: Lincoln Versus Douglas
XI. John Brown: Murderer or Martyr?
XII. The Disruption of the Democrats
XIII. A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union
XIV. The Electoral Upheaval of 1860
XV. The Secessionist Exodus
XVI. The Collapse of Compromise
XVII. Farewell to Union
I. The Menace of Secession
II. South Carolina Assails Fort Sumter
III. Brother’s Blood and Border Blood
IV. The Balance of Forces
V. Dethroning King Cotton
VI. The Decisiveness of Diplomacy
VII. Foreign Flare-Ups
VIII. President Davis Versus President Lincoln
IX. Limitations on Wartime Liberties
X. Volunteers and Draftees: North and South
XI. The Economic Stresses of War
XII. The North’s Economic Boom
XIII. A Crushed Cotton Kingdom
I. Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day War”
II. “Tardy George” McClellan and the Peninsula Campaign
III. The War at Sea
IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
V. A Proclamation Without Emancipation
VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
VIII. The War in the West
IX. Sherman Scorches Georgia
X. The Politics of War
XI. The Election of 1864
XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
XIII. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
XIV. The Aftermath of the Nightmare.
I. The Problems of Peace
II. Freedmen Define Freedom
III. The Freedman’s Bureau
IV. Johnson: The Tailor President
V. Presidential Reconstruction
VI. The Baleful Black Codes
VII. Congressional Reconstruction
VIII. Johnson Clashes with Congress
IX. Swinging ‘Round the Circle with Johnson
X. Republican Principles and Programs
XI. Reconstruction by Sword
XII. No Women Voters
XIII. The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South
XIV. The Ku Klux Klan
XV. Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank
XVI. A Not-Guilty Verdict for Johnson
XVII. The Purchase of Alaska
XVIII. The Heritage of Reconstruction
I. The “Bloody Shirt” Elects Grant
II. The Era of Good Stealings
III. A Carnival of Corruption
IV. The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872
V. Depression, Deflation, and Inflation
VI. Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age
VII. The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876
VIII. The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction
IX. The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post-Reconstruction South
X. Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes
XI. Garfield and Arthur
XII. The Blaine-Cleveland Mudslingers of 1884
XIII. “Old Grover” Takes Over
XIV. Cleveland Battles for a Lower Tariff
XV. The Billion Dollar Congress
XVI. The Drumbeat of Discontent
XVII. Cleveland and Depression
XVIII. Cleveland Breeds a Backlash
I. The Iron Colt Becomes an Iron Horse
II. Spanning the Continent with Rails
III. Binding the Country with Railroad Ties
IV. Railroad Consolidation and Mechanization
V. Revolution by Railways
VI. Wrongdoing in Railroading
VII. Government Bridles the Iron Horse
VIII. Miracles of Mechanization
IX. The Trust Titan Emerges
X. The Supremacy of Steel
XI. Carnegie and Other Sultans of Steel
XII. Rockefeller Grows an American Beauty Rose
XIII. The Gospel of Wealth
XIV. Government Tackles the Trust Evil
XV. The South in the Age of Industry
XVI. In Unions There Is Strength
XVII. Labor Limps Along
XVIII. Unhorsing the Knights of Labor
XIX. The AF of L to the Fore
I. The Urban Frontier
II. The New Immigration
III. Southern Europe Uprooted
IV. Reactions to the New Immigration
V. Narrowing the Welcome Mat
VI. Churches Confront the Urban Challenge
VII. Darwin Disrupts the Churches
VIII. The Lust for Learning
IX. Booker T. Washington and Education for Black People
X. The Hallowed Halls of Ivy
XI. The March of the Mind
XII. The Appeal of the Press
d. Luckily, the strengthening of the Associated Press, which had
been established in the 1840s, helped to offset some of the
questionable journalism.
e. Hi Mrs. Kelly!
XIII. Apostles of Reform
XIV. Postwar Writing
XV. Literary Landmarks
XVI. The New Morality
XVII. Families and Women in the City
XVIII. Prohibition of Alcohol and Social Progress
XIX. Artistic Triumphs
XX. The Business of Amusement
I. The Clash of Cultures on the Plains
II. Receding Native Population
III. Bellowing Herds of Bison
IV. The End of the Trail
V. Mining: From Dishpan to Ore Breaker
VI. Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive
VII. The Farmers’ Frontier
VIII. The Far West Comes of Age
IX. The Fading Frontier
X. The Farm Becomes a Factory
XI. Deflation Dooms the Debtor
XII. Unhappy Farmers
XIII. The Farmers Take Their Stand
XIV. Prelude to Populism
XV. Coxey’s Army and the Pullman Strike
XVI. Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan
XVII. Class Conflict: Plowholders Versus Bondholders
XVIII. Republican Standpattism Enthroned
I. America Turns Outward
II. Spurning the Hawaiian Pear
III. Cubans Rise in Revolt
IV. Dewey’s May Day Victory at Manila
V. The Confused Invasion of Cuba
VI. America’s Course (Curse?) of Empire
VII. Perplexities in Puerto Rico and Cuba
VIII. New Horizons in Two Hemispheres
IX. “Little Brown Brothers” in the Philippines
X. Hinging the Open Door in China
XI. Imperialism or Bryanism in 1900?
XII. TR: Brandisher of the Big Stick
XIII. Building the Panama Canal
XIV. TR’s Perversion of the Monroe Doctrine
XV. Roosevelt on the World Stage
XVI. Japanese Laborers in California
I. Progressive Roots
II. Raking Muck with the Muckrakers
III. Political Progressivism
IV. Progressivism in the Cities and States
V. Progressive Women
VI. TR’s Square Deal for Labor
VII. TR Corrals the Corporations
VIII. Caring for the Consumer
IX. Earth Control
X. The “Roosevelt Panic” of 1907
XI. The Rough Rider Thunders Out
XII. Taft: A Round Peg in a Square Hole
XIII. The Dollar Goes Abroad as Diplomat
XIV. Taft the Trustbuster
XV. Taft Splits the Republican Party
XVI. The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture
I. The “Bull Moose” Campaign of 1912
II. Woodrow Wilson: A Minority President
III. Wilson: The Idealist in Politics
IV. Wilson Tackles the Tariff
V. Wilson Battles the Bankers
VI. The President Tames the Trusts
VII. Wilsonian Progressivism at High Tide
VIII. New Directions in Foreign Policy
IX. Moralistic Diplomacy in Mexico
X. Thunder Across the Sea
XI. A Precarious Neutrality
XII. America Earns Blood Money
XIII. Wilson Wins Reelection in 1916
I. War by Act of Germany
II. Wilsonian Idealism Enthroned
III. Wilson’s Fourteen Potent Points
IV. Creel Manipulates Minds
V. Enforcing Loyalty and Stiffing Dissent
VI. The Nation’s Factories Go to War
VII. Workers in Wartime
VIII. Suffering Until Suffrage
IX. Forging a War Economy
X. Making Plowboys into Doughboys
XI. Fighting in France—Belatedly
XII. America Helps Hammer the “Hun”
XIII. The Fourteen Points Disarm Germany
XIV. Wilson Steps Down from Olympus
XV. An Idealist Battles the Imperialists in Paris
XVI. Hammering Out the Treaty
XVII. The Peace Treaty That Bred a New War
XVIII. The Domestic Parade of Prejudice
XIX. Wilson’s Tour and Collapse (1919)
XX. Defeat Through Deadlock
XXI. The “Solemn Referendum” of 1920
XXII. The Betrayal of Great Expectations
I. Seeing Red
II. Hooded Hoodlums of the KKK
III. Stemming the Foreign Flood
*This policy still really favored the Slavs and the southeastern
Europeans in comparison to other groups. So, a new policy was
sought…
* A replacement law was found in the Immigration Act of 1924, which cut
the quota down to 2% and the origins base was shifted to that of 1890,
when few southeastern Europeans lived in America.
* This change clearly had racial undertones beneath it (New Immigrants out, Old Immigrants in).
* This act also slammed the door against Japanese immigrants.
* By 1931, for the first time in history, more people left America than came here.
IV. The Prohibition “Experiment”
V. The Golden Age of Gangsterism
VI. Monkey Business in Tennessee
VII. The Mass-Consumption Economy
VIII. Putting America on Rubber Tires
IX. The Advent of the Gasoline Age
X. Humans Develop Wings
XI. The Radio Revolution
XII. Hollywood’s Filmland Fantasies
XIII. The Dynamic Decade
XIV. Cultural Liberation
XV. Wall Street’s Big Bull Market
I. The Republican “Old Guard” Returns
II. GOP Reaction at the Throttle
III. The Aftermath of the War
IV. America Seeks Benefits Without Burdens
V. Hiking the Tariff Higher
VI. The Stench of Scandal
VII. “Silent Cal” Coolidge
VIII. Frustrated Farmers
IX. A Three-Way Race for the White House in 1924
X. Foreign-Policy Flounderings
XI. Unraveling the Debt Knot
XII. The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, 1928
XIII. President Hoover’s First Moves
XIV. The Great Crash Ends the Golden Twenties
XV. Hooked on the Horn of Plenty
*Villages of shanties and ragged shacks were called Hoovervilles and
were inhabited by the people who had lost their jobs. They popped up
everywhere.
XVI. Rugged Times for Rugged Individualists
XVII. Hoover Battles the Great Depression
XVIII. Routing the Bonus Army in Washington
XIX. Japanese Militarists Attack China
XX. Hoover Pioneers the Good Neighbor Policy
I. FDR: A Politician in a Wheelchair
II. Presidential Hopefuls of 1932
III. Hoover's Humiliation in 1932
IV. FDR and the Three R’s: Relief, Recovery, and Reform
V. Roosevelt Manages the Money
VI. Roosevelt Manages the Money
VII. A Day for Every Demagogue
VIII. New Visibility for Women
IX. Helping Industry and Labor
X. Paying Farmers Not to Farm
XI. Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards
XII. Battling Bankers and Big Business
XIII. The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee River
XIV. Housing Reform and Social Security
XV. A New Deal for Labor
XVI. Landon Challenges “the Champ”
XVII. Nine Old Men on the Bench
XVIII. The Court Changes Course
XIX. Twilight of the New Deal
XX. New Deal or Raw Deal?
XXI. FDR’s Balance Sheet
I. The London Conference
II. Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
III. Becoming a Good Neighbor
IV. Secretary Hull’s Reciprocal Trade Agreement
V. Storm-Cellar Isolationism
VI. Congress Legislates Neutrality
VII. America Dooms Loyalist Spain
VIII. Appeasing Japan and Germany
IX. Hitler’s Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
X. The Fall of France
b. The fall of France was shocking, because now, all that stood
between Hitler and the world was Britain: if the English lost, Hitler
would have all of Europe in which to operate, and he might take over
the Americas as well.
XI. Bolstering Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
XII. FDR Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
XIII. Congress Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
XIV. Hitler’s Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
XV. U.S. Destroyers and Hitler’s U-Boats Clash
XVI. Surprise Assault at Pearl Harbor
XVII. America’s Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
I. The Allies Trade Space for Time
II. The Shock of War
III. Building the War Machine
IV. Manpower and Womanpower
V. Wartime Migrations
VI. Holding the Home Front
VII. The Rising Sun in the Pacific
VIII. Japan’s High Tide at Midway
IX. American Leapfrogging Toward Tokyo
X. The Allied Halting of Hitler
XI. A Second Front from North Africa to Rome
XII. D-Day: June 6, 1944
XIII. FDR: The Fourth-Termite of 1944
XIV. Roosevelt Defeats Dewey
XV. The Last Days of Hitler
XVI. Japan Dies Hard
XVII. The Atomic Bombs
XVIII. The Allies Triumphant
I. Postwar Economic Anxieties
II. The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970
III. The Roots of Postwar Prosperity
IV. The Smiling Sunbelt
V. The Rush to the Suburbs
VI. The Postwar Baby Boom
VII. Truman: the “Gutty” Man from Missouri
VIII. Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal?
IX. The United States and the Soviet Union
X. Shaping the Postwar World
XI. The Problem of Germany
XII. The Cold War Congeals
XIII. America Begins to Rearm
XIV. Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia
XV. Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
XVI. Democratic Divisions in 1948
XVII. The Korean Volcano Erupts (1950)
XVIII. The Military Seesaw in Korea
I. Affluence and Its Anxieties
II. Consumer Culture in the Fifties
III. The Advent of Eisenhower
IV. The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy
V. Desegregating American Society
VI. Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution
VII. Eisenhower Republicanism at Home
VIII. A New Look in Foreign Policy
IX. The Vietnam Nightmare
X. Cold War Crises in Europe and the Middle East
XI. Round Two for “Ike”
*The 1958 National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) gave $887
million in loads to needy college students and grants for the
improvement of schools.
XII. The Continuing Cold War
XIII. Cuba’s Castroism Spells Communism
XIV. Kennedy Challenges Nixon for the Presidency
XV. An Old General Fades Away
XVI. The Life of the Mind in Postwar America
I. Kennedy’s “New Frontier” Spirit
II. The New Frontier at Home
iii. Kennedy also promoted a project to land Americans on the moon, though apathetic Americans often ridiculed this goal.
III. Rumblings in Europe
IV. Foreign Flare-Ups and “Flexible Response”
V. Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire
VI. Cuban Confrontations
VII. The Struggle for Civil Rights
VIII. The Killing of Kennedy
IX. The LBJ Brand on the Presidency
X. Johnson Battles Goldwater in 1964
XI. The Great Society Congress
XII. Battling for Black Rights
XIII. Black Power
XIV. Combating Communism in Two Hemispheres
XV. Vietnam Vexations
XVI. Vietnam Topples Johnson
XVII. The Presidential Sweepstakes of 1968
XVIII. The Obituary of Lyndon Johnson
XIX. The Cultural Upheaval of the 1960s
I. Sources of Stagnation
II. Nixon “Vietnamizes” the War
III. Cambodianizing the Vietnam War
IV. Nixon’s Détente with Beijing (Peking) and Moscow
V. A New Team on the Supreme Bench
VI. Nixon on the Home Front
VII. The Nixon Landslide of 1972
VIII. The Secret Bombing of Cambodia and the War Powers Act
IX. The Arab Oil Embargo and the Energy Crisis
X. Watergate and the Unmaking of a President
XI. The First Unelected President
XII. Defeat in Vietnam
XIII. Feminist Victories and Defeats
XIV. The Seventies in Black and White
XV. The Bicentennial Campaign and the Carter Victory
XVI. Carter’s Humanitarian Diplomacy
XVII. Economic and Energy Woes
XVIII. Foreign Affairs and the Iranian Imbroglio
II. The Reagan Revolution
III. The Battle of the Budget
IV. Reagan Renews the Cold War
V. Troubles Abroad
VI. Round Two for Reagan
VII. The Iran-Contra Imbroglio
VIII. Reagan’s Economic Legacy
IX. The Religious Right
X. Conservatism in the Courts
XI. Referendum on Reaganism in 1988
XII. George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War
XIII. The Persian Gulf Crisis
XIV. Bush on the Home Front
I. Bill Clinton: the First Baby-Boomer President
II. A False Start for Reform
III. The Politics of Distrust
IV. Clinton Again
V. Problems Abroad
VI. Scandal and Impeachment
VII. Clinton’s Legacy
VIII. The Bush-Gore Presidential Battle
IX. The Controversial Election of 2000
X. Bush Begins
XI. Terrorism Comes to America
XII. Bush Takes the Offensive Against Iraq
XIII. Owning Iraq
XIV. A Country in Conflict
XV. Reelecting George W. Bush
I. Economic Revolutions
II. Affluence and Inequality
III. The Feminist Revolution
IV. New Families and Old
V. The Aging of America
Miraculous medical advances lengthened and strengthened lives
VI. The New Immigration
VII. Beyond the Melting Pot
VIII. Cities and Suburbs
IX. Minority America
X. E Pluribus Plures
XI. The Life of the Mind
XII. The American Prospect
This categories contains AP US History notes for the American Pageant, 12th Edition textbook.
Additional Information:
New World Provided: | Old World (Europe) provided: | Africa provided: |
gold, silver | ||
corn, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, beans, chocolate |
wheat, sugar, rice, coffee | |
syphilis | smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, etc | |
Horses, cows, pigs | ||
Enslaved labor |
• Britain controlled 32 colonies in North America but only 13 get the distinction of rebelling
• Distinct social, economic and political structures played a major role
• The colonists doubled their numbers every 25 years
• In 1700 there were 20 English subjects to every one American subject; by 1775 that advantage had fallen to 3 to 1
• Most of the population settled east of the Alleghenies while only a few pioneers ventured into Kentucky and Tennessee
• The most populous states were Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Maryland
• The only cities were Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Charleston
• America had the reputation of a ‘melting pot’ from the outset
• Germans made up 6% of the population and settled largely in Pennsylvania
• Scots-Irish made up 7% of the population, settling in Pennsylvania and pushing west into the frontier
• Numerous European groups made up another 5%
• African accounted for 20%
• All of these groups mingled and intermarried creating a national identity not found anywhere in Europe
• While seventeenth century America was marked by general equality with a lack of a noble class, eighteenth century America began to “Europeanize”
• Merchant elites were class, as were widows and orphans, wage laborers, and public charity cases
• A lower class of paupers and criminals formed
• The lowest class were slaves
• Christian ministry was the most honored profession
• Physicians and doctors were not held in high esteem; remedies were bizarre
• Lawyers were not held in high esteem
• Agriculture was the leading industry, involving 90% of the population
• Fishing and whaling were profitable ventures
• Triangular trade developed between America, Europe, and the Caribbean
• Manufacturing took a backseat to agriculture and trading
• Lumbering was most important among manufacturing fields
• The American colonies built up so many overseas trading partners that Britain began to take notice and become involved
• Roads were horrible and land travel took immense amounts of time
• To avoid roads, people tried to rely on rivers for transport
• Establishments such as halls and taverns sprang up along major routes
• The Church of England , or Anglican Church, was the official faith of Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and part of New York
• The Congregational Church, which had grown out of the Puritan Church, was established in the New England colonies
• Churches were hurt by not having a resident bishop but were wary of strengthening the king’s hand in America
• The Puritan churches had two burdens: their elaborate theological doctrines and their compromising efforts to liberalize membership
• Many followers began to loosen up on the Calvinist idea of predestination
• Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were masterful orators who spread messages of baptism, human helplessness, and the need for divine omnipotence
• Many effects = emotive spirituality undermined older clergy, increased competitiveness between churches, encouraged missionary work, led to founding of colleges
• Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown, Rutgers, Dartmouth
• Education focused on making good Christians before good citizens
• Colonial schools emphasized religion, classical languages, doctrine and dogma
• Colleges were needed to produce new ministers
• Art and culture was still modeled after European tastes
• Architecture was all modeled after the Old World
• Literature and art was undistinguished
• Ben Franklin made strides as the first “civilized” American
• Hand-operated printing presses cranked out pamphlets, leaflets, and journals
• Around 40 newspapers were in circulation in the late 1700’s
• News lagged weeks behind
• The Zenger Trial paved the way for freedom of the press after John Peter Zenger criticized New York’s governor
• Colonial governments took various forms
• Some were royal governors, proprietors, and elected governors
• Every colony used a two-house legislative body
• Voting was done by men that owned property
• Food was plentiful although plain
• Churches were not heated, homes were drafty, there was no running water
• Amusement and social gatherings were sought after and welcomed in many forms
• Despite differences, the colonies bore striking similarities in language, customs, religion
New France Fans Out
The Clash of Empires
George Washington Inaugurates War with France
Global War and Colonial Disunity
Braddock's Blundering and Its Aftermath
War's Fateful Aftermath
Deep Roots ot Revolution
Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances
Merits and Menace of Mercantilism
The Stamp Tax Uproar
Forced Repeal of the Stamp Act
The Townshend Tea Tax and the Boston "Massacre"
-taxed on glass, white lead, paper, paints and, most importantly, tea
The "Intolerable Acts"
-1774 - named by the colonists, the intolerable acts were a British made series of acts designed to mock America
Bloodshed
---> 55 men, most significant action was the creation of The Association
Imperial Strength and Weakness
*1781 - The Articles of Confederation were written
Chapter 8
America Secedes from the Empire
1775-1783
Congress Drafts George Washington
The Second Continental Congress selected George Washington to head the army besieging Boston.
Bunker Hill and Hessian Hirelings
From April 1775 to July 1776, the colonists were both affirming their loyalty to the king by sincerely voicing their desire to patch up difficulties while at the same time raising armies and killing redcoats. In May 1775, a tiny American force under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured the British garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. There, a store of gunpowder and artillery was secured. In June 1775, the colonists captured Bunker Hill. The British took it back with a large number of soldiers. In July 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopted the "Olive Branch Petition", which professed American loyalty to the king and begged to the king to stop further hostilities. The petition was rejected by the king. With the rejection, the Americans were forced to choose to fight to become independent or to submit to British rule and power. In August 1775, King George III proclaimed that the colonies were in rebellion. He then hired German Hessians to bring order to the colonies.
The Abortive Conquest of Canada
In October 1775, the British burned Falmouth (Portland), Maine. In the same month, colonists made an attack on Canada in hopes that it would close it off as a possible source for a British striking point. The attack failed when General Richard Montgomery was killed. In January 1776, the British set fire to Norfolk.
Thomas Paine Preaches Common Sense
The Americans continued to deny any intention of independence because loyalty to the empire was deeply ingrained; many Americans continued to consider themselves apart of a transatlantic community in which the mother country of Britain played a leading role; colonial unity was poor; and open rebellion was dangerous. Thomas Paine released a pamphlet called Common Sense in 1776. It argued that the colonies had outgrown any need for English domination and that they should be given independence.
Paine and the Idea of "Republicanism"
Thomas Paine called for the creation of a new kind of political society, specifically a republic, where power flowed from the people themselves.
Jefferson's Explanation of Independence
On July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia's resolution of declaring independence was passed. It was the formal declaration of independence by the American colonies. Thomas Jefferson was appointed to draft up the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was formally approved by Congress on July 4, 1776. It was an explanation of everything the king had done to the Americans.
Patriots and Loyalists
During the War of Independence, the Loyalists were called "Tories" and the Patriots were called "Whigs." Tory: "a thing whose head is in England, and its body in America, and its neck ought to be stretched." The Loyalists made up 16% of the American population. Many people of education and wealth remained loyal to England. Loyalists were most numerous where the Anglican church was strongest. The Loyalists were well entrenched in New York City, Charleston, Quaker Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. They were least numerous in New England. The Patriots were numerous where Presbyterianism and Congregationalism flourished-mostly in New England.
The Loyalist Exodus
Before the Declaration of Independence, the Loyalists were treated relatively mild. After, though, they were hanged, imprisoned, and roughly handled. They Loyalists were forced to leave because the Patriots had to eliminate their weaknesses.
General Washington at Bay
The British concentrated New York City as a base of operation due to the fact that Boston was evacuated in March 1776. In 1776, General Washington and his men were overpowered by the British at the Battle of Long Island. Washington and his men escaped to Manhattan Island. General William Howe was General Washington's adversary. On December 26, 1776, Washington surprised and captured 1,000 Hessians who were sleeping.
Burgoyne's Blundering Invasion
London officials had an intricate scheme for capturing the vital Hudson River valley in 1777. It would sever New England from the rest of the states and paralyze the American cause. The main invading force, lead by General Burgoyne, would push down the Lake Champlain route from Canada. General Howe's troops in New York, if needed, could advance up the Hudson River to meet Burgoyne near Albany. The 3rd force was commanded by colonel Barry St. Leger, who would come in from the west by way of Lake Ontario and the Mohawk Valley. General Burgoyne was forced to surrender his entire command at Saratoga on October 17, 1777 to American general Horatio Gates (Burgoyne's Blunder). This win made it possible for the urgently needed foreign aid from France. (Turning point in war.)
Strange French Bedfellows
After the shooting at Lexington in April 1775, French secretly provided arms to the Americans. The British offered the Americans home rule after the Battle of Saratoga. The French didn't want Britain to regain its colonies for fear that Britain would seize the sugar rich French West Indies. In order to stop this, the French made an open alliance with the Americans in 1778, offering all the British did with the exception of independence.
The Colonial War Becomes a World War
Spain and Holland became allies against Britain in 1779. The British decided to evacuate Philadelphia and concentrate their strength in New York City.
Blow and Counterblow
General Benedict Arnold turned traitor against the Americans in 1780. General Nathaniel Greene succeeded in clearing most British troops out of Georgia and South Carolina.
The Land Frontier and the Sea Frontier
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix- (1784) the first treaty between the United States and an Indian nation; signed with the Iroquois. George Rogers Clark- conceived the idea of capturing the British of the wild Illinois country in 1778-1779. John Paul Jones is known as the father of the navy. He employed the tactic of privateering. Privateering- when privately owned and crewed vessels were authorized by a government during a wartime to attack and capture enemy vessels, men, cargo, etc; it diverted manpower from the main war effort; it brought in needed gold, harassed the enemy, and raised American morale by providing victories in a time when victories were few.
Yorktown and the Final Curtain
From 1780-1781, the U.S. government fell nearly bankrupt. British General Cornwallis fell back to Chesapeake Bay at Yorktown to await seaborne supplies and reinforcements. This time in war was one of the few times when British naval superiority had been lacking. Admiral de Grasse offered to join the Americans in an assault of Cornwallis via the sea. George Washington, along with Rochambeau's army, and Admiral de Grasse cornered Cornwallis. He was forced to surrender on October 19, 1781.
Peace at Paris
In 1782, a Whig ministry replaced the Tory regime of Lord North. Conditions of the Treaty of Paris of 1783:
Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay negotiated the peace terms with Britain.
I. The Pursuit of Equality
1. Declaration of Independence - "All men are created equal"
2. Fight for separation of church and State
oCongressional Church established in New England States
oStrongest in Virginia
o1786 Thomas Jefferson won passage of Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom
3. 1775 - Philadelphia Quakers Founded 1st antislavery society (in the world)
4. 1774 - Continental Congress tried to abolish slave trade (Some northern states did)
oLaws still discriminated against slaves
oNo state south of Pennsylvania abolish slavery
oAfraid slavery might break union
5. 1776 - Abigail Adams advocated for women’s rights
oWomen keeps of the nations conscience ( republican motherhood)
II. Constitution Making in the States
1. 1776 - Continental Congress called to draft new constitutions
2. Massachusetts created a special convention to creates its constitution
oDirect ratification by the people
o1780 - Mass. adopted Constitution that could only be changed by constitutional convention (later limited to federal Constitution)
3. British - Constitution is a cummulation of laws
4. Most documents had a Bill of Rights
5. All states made executive and judicial branches (weak in comparison to today)
III. Economic Crosscurrents
1. Loyalists large land holdings were taken and divided into small farms
2. America mostly made of farming
3. Britain cut off good imports
4. Americans could trade freely with foreign nations
5. 1784 - Express of China carried ginseng to China
6. Wide divide in rich and poor class
IV. A Shaky Start Toward Union
1. 1786 - Hard times hit bottom
2. 13 states had similar gov't
3. Political leaders of time:
oGeorge Washington
oJames Madison
oJohn Adams
oThomas Jefferson
oAlexander Hamilton
V. Creating a Confederation
1. States:
oCoined money
oraised armies and navies
ohad tariff barriers
2. 1778 - Virginia ratified treaty of alliance with France (alone without others states being involved)
3. 1776 - Articles of Confederation
onot ratified by all 13 states until 1781 (last Maryland)
4. 1787 - Northwest Ordinance
5. Public land handed to Federal gov't (bond of Union)
VI. The Articles of Confederation Americas First Constitution
1. Joint action was to be taken by states
2. No executive branch
3. Each state had one vote in congress
4. 9 States needed for bills to pass
5. 2 Weaknesses of Congress:
1) Congress was weak - no power to regulate commerce
2) Congress could not enforce tax-collection programs.
6. 1783 – Penn soldiers marched to Philadelphia and made threatening demonstrations on Independence Hall
7. Articles of Confederation acted as a model
oThomas Jefferson claimed it to be the best one exsisting
oWeak
oStepping Stone for current constitution (today)
VII. Landmarks in Land Laws
1. 1785 – Land Oridinence – acrage of the old Northwest should be used to pay off national debt.
2. Northwest Ordinance of 1787 – government of the old Northwest
oSolution: judicial compromise
1. 2 evolutionary stages
2. When it has reached 60,000 inhabitants it could be admitted as a state
VIII. The World’s Ugly Ducking
1. Foreign relations with London remain troubled
2. British believed they would win Americas trade back
3. Spain unfriendly to new republic in America
4. 1784 – Spain closed river commerce to American trade
5. Spain claimed large area north of Gulf of Mexico granted to US by British in 1783
6. Dey of Algiers took American commerce and enslaved Yankee Sailors
IX. The Horrid Specter of Anarchy
1. Public debt rising – credit evaporating in foreign nations
2. States had quarrels
3. States printed own paper money
4. Shay’s Rebellion – 1786 in Massachusetts
oBackcountry farmers were loosing farms through mortgages
oLed by Captain Daniel Shay
oThey demanded states issue paper money, lighten taxes, and suspend property takeovers
oMass. responded with small army at Springfield where the movement collapsed
oMass. Legislators soon passed debtor-relief laws
5. Fear of Mobocracy
6. need for stronger central gov’t
X. A Convention of “Demigods”
1. 1786 – Virginia called for convention in 1786 at Annapolis, MD
o9 States appointed delegates
oOnly 5 states were represented
2. Alexander Hamilton asked congress to summon a convention for 1787 inPhiladelphia for speaking of Articles of Confederation
oEvery state except RI choose a delegate
o55 state delegates from 12 states met May 25, 1787
oJefferson called the attendants “Demigods”
3. George Washington elected as chairman
4. James Madison known as Father of the Constitution
5. Hamilton wanted a super powerful gov’t
XI. Patriots in Philadelphia
1. No delegate represented the poor
2. Young group and men and interested in nationalism
3. Lord Sheffield - also a founding father in a sense
4. Delegates wanted to preserve union and restrain states
5. Washington - who seen Shay’s Rebellion - was a founding father
XII. Hammering out a Bundle of Compromises
1. Completely get rid of Articles (instructions were to revise it)
2. Virginia – “large-state plan”
oRepresentation in both houses should be based on population
3. New Jersey – “small-states plan”
oRepresentation in both houses should be equal
4. “Great Compromise”
oHouse of Representatives- based on population (larger states)
oSenate- equal representation (smaller states) each state having two
oEvery tax bill or revenue measure must originate in the house
5. President - broad authority
oMake appointments to domestic offices
oVeto legislation
oPower to wage war – Congress (only) could declare war
oMethod of electing president – Electoral College
6. Slaves counted as 3/5 a person
7. Slave trade could continue till 1807
oStates already forbid slave trade (except Georgia)
XIII. Safeguard for Conservationism
1. 3-branches of gov’t
oChecks and balances among them
2. Federal judges appointed for life
3. President elected indirectly by Electoral College
4. Senators indirectly elected by State Legislator
5. House of Rep. elected directly by citizens
6. 2 principles
o1. Gov’t based on consent of governed
o2. Powers of gov’t should be limited (limited by written Constitution in Americans case)
7. Convention lasting from May 25 – September 17, 1787
oOnly 42 out of 55 delegates stayed to sign the Constitution
o3 out of the 42 refused to sign
oDelegates returned to states for ratification
XIV. The Clash of Federalists and Antifederalists
1. Adopted scheme where only 9/13 states had to ratify the Constitution
2. Antifederalists opposed strong federal gov’t
oAt odds against federalists who favored it
oKey Antifederalists: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee
oWanted attachment of a Bill of Rights
3. Federalists – Washington and Franklin
oControlled press
oWealthier
XV. The Great Debate in States
1. 4 small states accepted Constitution quickly
2. Officially adopted June 21, 1788 by 9 states
oExcluding Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island
XVI. The Four Laggard States
1. Virginia had fierce opposition by Antifederalists
oRatified by 89 to 79
2. James Madison
o“The Federalist” – book of essays commenting the Constitution
3. New York ratified
oDecided it could not prosper without the union
o30 to 27
4. North Carolina and Rhode Island
oBoth unwillingly ratified after new gov’t was in effect
XVII. A Conservative Triumph
1. American minority triumphed twice
oAmerican Radicals vs. British Motherhood
oMinority Conservatives overthrew Articles of Confederation
States in order of Ratification of the Constitution
|
Vote #
|
|
Delaware
|
Dec. 7, 1787
|
Unanimous
|
Pennsylvania
|
Dec. 12, 1787
|
46/23
|
New Jersey
|
Dec. 18, 1787
|
Unanimous
|
Georgia
|
Jan. 2, 1788
|
Unanimous
|
Connecticut
|
Jan. 9, 1788
|
128/40
|
Massachusetts
|
Feb. 7, 1788
|
187/168
|
Maryland
|
Apr. 28, 1788
|
63/11
|
South Carolina
|
May 23, 1788
|
149/73
|
New Hampshire
|
Jun. 21, 1788
|
57/46
|
Virginia
|
Jun. 26, 1788
|
89/79
|
New York
|
Jul. 26, 1788
|
30/27
|
North Carolina
|
May 21, 1788
|
195/77
|
Rhode Island
|
May 29, 1790
|
34/32 |
The Two Political Parties, 1793-1800 | ||||||||||
Federalist Features | Democratic-Republican Features | |||||||||
Rule by the "best people" | Rule by the informed masses | |||||||||
Hostility to extension of democracy | Friendliness toward extension of democracy | |||||||||
A powerful central government at expense of state's rights | A weak central government so as to preserve states' rights | |||||||||
Loose interpretation of Constitution | Strict interpretation of Constitution | |||||||||
Governments to foster business | No special favors for business; agriculture preferred | |||||||||
Protective tariff | No special favors for manufacturers | |||||||||
Pro-British | Pro-French | |||||||||
National debt a blessing, if properly funded | National debt a bane; rigid economy | |||||||||
An expanding bureaucracy | Reduction of federal officeholders | |||||||||
A powerful central bank | Encouragement to state banks | |||||||||
Restrictions on free speech and press | Relatively free speech and press | |||||||||
Concentration in seacoast area | Concentration in South and Southwest; agricultural/backcountry | |||||||||
A strong navy to protect shippers | Minimal navy for coastal defense |
I. On to Canada Over Land and Lakes
II. Washington Burned and New Orleans Defended
III. The Treaty of Ghent
IV. Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention
V. The Second War for American Independence
VI. Nascent Nationalism
VII. “The American System”
VIII. The So-Called Era of Good Feelings
IX. The Panic of 1819 and the Curse of Hard Times
X. Growing Pains of the West
XI. Slavery and the Sectional Balance
XII. The Uneasy Missouri Compromise
XIII. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism
XIV. Judicial Dikes Against Democratic Excesses
XV. Sharing Oregon and Acquiring Florida
XVI. The Menace of Monarchy in America
XVII. Monroe and His Doctrine
XVIII. Monroe’s Doctrine Appraised
What were the advantages and disadvantages of the politics of mass democracy?
What were the basic tenets of “Jeffersonian democracy?”
Improvements in technology, finance and changes in population had far reaching effects on American society and the United States' role in the world.
What is the relationship between the transformative effects of economic and industrial change and the concomitant political changes during this period?
Characterize the American economy and economic structure following independence.
The Iron Hourse were trains. They were cheap, fast, and relatively reliable. Unlike the first railroad made in 1828, these could be used in all seasons. By 1860 the United States had roughly 30 thousand miles of railroad.
During the 1830's and 1840's, new, faster forms of transportation allowing the connection of the east and west. Trade routes shifted more western through Buffalo, instead of New Orleans. The United States economy was split into three sections; Western grain and livestock, Southern cotton, and Eastern machine and textiles. These economic patterns tied the east and the west together.
This Revolution changed the way the economy worked. Now people were working for wages and bought what they beeded. This new economic system fuurthered the gap between the rich and poor. Cities were consequently filled with drifters, people who "drifted" around doing thankless jobs for low wages. With all the new opportunity in America, a surge of immigrants was seen. On average, there was a 1% raise of wage for nonskilled workers each year.
Reviving Religion
Denominational Diversity
Desert Zion in Utah
Free Schools for a Free People
Higher Goals for Higher Learning
An Age of Reform
Demon Rum - the "Old Deluder"
Women in Revolt
Wilderness Utopias
Dawn of Scientific Achievement
Artistic Achievements
Blossoming of a National Literature
Trumpeters of Transcendentalism
Glowing Literary Lights
Literary Individualists & Dissenters
There were several writers during this time period who did not show the human goodness and social progress that other writers of the time were.
Portrayers of the Past
As well as writers several distinguished historians emerged from this time period.3 great historians were George Bancroft, William H. Prescot and Francis Parkman. Many of the great historians were from New England
American expansionism gained momentum in the late 1840s, leading to the acquisition of Texas and Oregon, and then to the Mexican War, adding vast southwestern territories to the United States and igniting political conflict over the slavery issue.
disagreements on slavery, territory, as well as fugitive slave laws (ex. Texans, Southern slave owners)
How did the Whigs and Democrats deal with the issue of slavery in during the 1830s and 1840s?
Major national crises in the late 1850s culminated in the election of the Republican Lincoln to the presidency in 1860, resulting in the secession of seven states and the formation of the Confederate States of America
Why was sectional compromise impossible in 1860, when such compromises had previously worked in 1820, 1833, and 1850?
What issues, including slavery, seemed to divide North and South by the mid 1850s? List them.
Newcomers to Kansas were mostly westward-moving pioneers in search of richer lands beyond the sunset. A small part of the inflow was financed by groups of northern abolitionists or free-soilers. The most famous of these antislavery organizations was the New England Emigrant Aid Company, which sent about 2000 people to the troubled area to forestall the South, and to make a profit. Southern spokesmen raised cries of betrayal. They had supported the Kansas-Nebraska act, with the unspoken understanding that Kansas would become slave and Nebraska free. The northeners were now out to "abolitionize" bothKansas and Nebraska. In 1855, proslavery border ruffians flooded Kansas to vote for a proslavery government, which won. Antislaveryites set up their own government in Topeka.
John Brown came to Kansas, dedicated to the abolitionist cause. In retaliation for the attack on Lawrence, he led a band of followers to Pottawatomie Creek in May 1856, and hacked five men who were suspected to be proslaveryites to pieces.
Civil war in Kansas continued intermittently until it merged with the large-scale Civil War of 1861-1865. The Kansas conflict destroyed millions of dollars worth of property, paralyzed agriculture in certain areas, and cost scores of lives.
By 1857 Kansas had enough people, mainly free-soilers, to apply for statehood on a popular sovereignty basis. The proslaveryites created the Lecompton Constitution. People were not allowed to vote for or against the constitution as a whole, but for either slavery or antislavery. If they voted against slavery, all the owners of slaves already in Kansas would be protected, thus ensuring that whatever the outcome, slavery would be present in Kansas. Antislaveryites boycotted this, so the proslavery forces approved the contitution with slavery late in 1857.
Buchanan threw his weight behind the Lecompton Constitution, but Douglas fought for fair play and democratic principles. The compromise was that the entire Lecompton Constitution was submitted to a popular vote.
Due to the fact that Congress was not in session when the war broke out, President Lincoln proclaimed a blockade, increased the size of the Federal army, directed the secretary of the Treasury to advance $2 million without appropriation or security to 3 private citizens for military purposes, and suspended the habeas corpus (stated that a citizen could not be held without the due process of a trial) - all of which were required to be approved by Congress.
The Civil War evolved into a total war to end slavery and transform the nation
What made Lincoln a great president?
Although Abraham Lincoln made and proceeded with many unconstitutional decisions and actions, they were made in order to save the Union. He understood that he might encounter opposition in his decisions but he knew he must do whatever was needed in order to save the precious democratic Union. Abraham Lincoln was a great president because he understood the importance of situations and knew how to act, whether or not it was constitutional. He was a great public speaker and he could relate situations to the people and he would act any way possible in order to preserve and to save the Union itself- Amanda - Becky
Why did the North win the Civil War?
The North won for many reasons: they had the majority of the populations, black men were able to enlist, and the blockaded of the Southern port. Because the North had the majority of the population that meant they had more men to fight therefore having an endless and expendable amount of troops. It also helped that 10% of the Union army were black men. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 declared “forever free” the slaves not only in the North but to the Confederate states still in rebellion. Because black men were free they began to enlist in the Union Army and Lincoln defended his policies toward blacks’ enlisting, in a letter stating: “You say you will not fight to free Negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you....” Lincoln’s other actions, like the blockade of Southern ports which caused the North to have better feed to maintain its troops while Southern troops lacked even shoes, help win the Civil War.
The War at Sea
Blacks Battle Bondage
The Freedman's Bureau
Coming out of the Reconstruction period, characterize each of the two major political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. Reflect on the philosophy of each party regarding government, economics and finance, civil rights, constituencies, issues of concerns, etc,
REPUBLICANS | DEMOCRATS | |
TARIFF | High rates | Low rates |
GOV'T ACTION | Intervention (where necessary) | States rights; limited activity |
GOV'T SPENDING | High spending | Low spending |
CURRENCY | Mixed- pro-gold, deflation | Mixed- pro-silver, inflation |
REFORM | Mixed- support reform | Mixed- anti-reform |
Because the industrial advances were blooming and the building of railroads were increasing (transcontinental), railroads at this time was a main source of transportation not only for goods but people too.
The elitist American Federation of Labor, born in 1886, was largely the brainchild of squat, square jawed Samuel Gompers. this colorful Jewish cigar maker born in a London tenement and removed from school at age ten was brought to America when thirteen. Taking his turn at reading informative literature to fellow cigar makers in New York, he was pressed into overtime service because of his strong voice.
Significantly. the American Federation of Labor was just what it called itself, a federation. It consisted of an association of self governing national unions each of which kept its independence with the AF of L unifying overall strategy. No individual laborer as such could join the central organization.
It's purpose was to gain better wages, hours, and working conditions.
After reading the article I completely agree with Tyler’s statement that the west was more conquered by suppressing the Native American people rather than the American and European settler actually winning it. When the American settlers moved west, off the back they were bad news spreading disease, taking over their land too by signing treaties with the “chiefs” of various “tribes”, and ruin their culture (like the buffalo). Those examples along with others are reasons why the West was definitely not won but taken over by force =o
In a way, the west was shaping the settlers liking based on how they lived. So in a way it was sort of "tamed" but not really more changed. As an example of the very strange thing i just said it would be like picturing the life style of Native American peoples. They live off of nature and respect it, usually they try to conserve so there is no need to build massive cities. the American settlers on the other hand, do live by building and changing as much as possible in order to for-fill their needs of imperialism and in order to do this they need natural resources and they would sort of suck the land dry of what is has to offer. The frontier is seen as an American icon because of the fact that it helped settlers advance and explore for their lives and merely for entertainment from discovery.
*??? I don’t agree with this statement because when they used “tamed” they meant they controlled and restrained the Native Americans not in the sense of way of living.
In conclusion and to make sense of all this, the west wasnt really won
Other countries around America were expanding and becoming larger and more industrialized. Therefore the United States had an obligation to do so as well or it could fall to other world powers.
Increased industrial output required more raw materials and overseas markets
Race and gender: conquest of "inferior" peoples seemed natural, needed to restore nation's masculine virility, race fueled militarism
It forbid European powers from interfering in the affairs of Latin American countries. This was done to protect the American interests in the Western Hemisphere.
The white mans burden refers to the idea that American culture and customs were superior to those of less fortunate and poorer countries so the felt that it was their duty to help those people. They thought that taking over these people and "americanizing" them was the proper thing to do. It also has to do with social darwinism and the idea that the best and strongest countries will prosper and it was their duty to help the less fortunate. This was also caused by American exceptionalism.
==Pages 652-661
The arguement for imperialism basically says that the Philippines are ours and that we should not abandon them or the markets in China. And it also says that we can not renounce our mission of civilizing the world.
The argument against it says that even though we are a republic if we deprive any other nation their rights then we become just as bad as they are.
The US wanted to see a canal built across Central America for a few different reasons. It would inrease the strength of the navy by increasing its mobility, allowing ships to go from one coast to the other without having to go all the way down around the tip of South America. It also would make defense of acquisitions, such as Puerto Rico, and Hawaii, much easier. It would make trade easier as well.
The Monroe Doctrine orignally stated that European powers were not to interven in Latin American affairs but the Roosevelt Corollary went one step further by saying that Amercia would intervene to prevent them from intervening. Latin Americans cursed the Monroe Doctrine mistakingly as a result of the Corollary and thought that instead of providing a shield the Monroe Doctrine just hid the fact the the Americans were trying to take over.
Wilsonian:
Rooseveltian:
Both: They agreed on these things, but differed in strategy:
Wilson hated aggressive foreign policy imperialism. He didn't like Roosy's big stick (ooohh, that sounds dirty) or Taft's "dollar diplomacy." Although he didn't approve of imperialism, he did take some imperialistic actions. His imperialism was usually forced, though, either by foreign anger or by a wish for complete control of the Caribbean.
SEE NEW DIRECTIONS IN FOREIGN POLICY
Although America claimed it was neutral, it carried on trade with the Allies but not the Central Powers. This was kosher (or as Farley would say, "organic") because America was open for trade with anyone. Unfortunately for the Centrals (namely Germany), Britain controlled the seas with their Almighty and Dominating Navy (ADN for short.) The ADN refused to let German ships pass to America (or back) and adopted a harrassing policy with American ships, in which the ADN "herded" into British ports to prevent them from going to German ones. America was "neutral" legally, but biased towards the Allies.
Because the '20's were the years of consumption in America, the Americans themselves didn't understand all of the consequences of their actions. By buying stock "on the margin," the people contributed to the collapse of the stock market. Using credit cards and other forms of credit led to businesses going bankrupt when people didn't pay their bills. Banks were failing all over the place, and so many people lost their life savings (this was before FDIC). The idea of "have now, pay later" was the major influential factor.
Many Americans were still under the impression that if a select few could do the "self-made man" thing, everyone should be able to. However, with the coming of the Depression, more and more laborers became unemployed. It became nearly impossible to find work, and there was no government welfare agency. Therefore, in order to survive in society, people needed help. The "rugged individualism" theory hurt the starving, destitute poor, who could no longer do it by themselves. Eventually, Hoover had to give out a "stimulus" type thing to the "top of the economic pyramid." He gave money to the RR's and other corporations, hoping that it would trickle to the lower classes. After this more or less failed, he gave money to the lower classes, and hoped it would trickle up.
SEE America's Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent FOR AN EVEN BETTER OVERVIEW
There were quite a few different events and such that allowed the US to join the War. At the beginning, everyone wanted to maintain their isolationist policies. No one wanted to get involved in foreign affairs, whether it was for Britaina and France, the Allies of the previous war, or for Germany, the enemy of the previous war. However, as Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, and then France fell, America realized that it was only Britain standing against Germany, Russia, and Italy. No one wanted Britain to fall, so Congress passed acts that assisted Britain. Japan was showing agression towards China and sympathy with Germany, and so eventually the US felt obligated to end trade with them. Japan retaliated with an attack on Pearl Harbor. This riled the American "Fighting Spirit," and led to the USA joining the war. You could say that Pearl Harbor was the straw (more like bale of hay in this case) that broke the camel's back.
It was both. While at home, some of the civil rights movements gained attention, and managed to succeed. Women moved into business even more, the African-Americans finally got some rights, and corruption in labor was squished (a triumph-ish kind of suppression). However, many other countries (Hungary, Vietnam, Korea) suffered suppression at the hands of their communist parties. On top of that, Senator McCarthy managed to get people to spy on their neighbors, and everyone was worried about saying the wrong thing. Everyone had to fit into a mold in order to avoid being named as a Communist.
Yes. Rosa Parks started a chain reaction with her refusal to stand up on a bus, and a bus boycott was enacted. (If I'm remembering correctly, blacks did get equality on buses shortly thereafter). The sit-in strikes worked wonders, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led people to fight peacefully for equality. Segregation was ended, athe government got involved to defend the integration.
The French owned Vietnam, and nationalists there were trying to become self-governing. There had originally been a hope of help from the US, but the Cold War changed things. The Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, was becoming communist, and the US wouldn't help him fight off the French. Now, the US had to help the French win in order to contain communism. Guerrilla warfare led to the French losing, and the Communists taking over Vietnam.
These "upheavals" were a little of both. There were many political crises, such as Vietnam, the peaceful protests for civil rights, Black Power violence, and outspoken student protests, that caused some "upheaval." The passing of the Civil Rights Act, among other things, was an obvious example. However, because the "baby boomers" and the general prosperity were something a little bit different, some of the upheaval of this time period were caused simply because it was unique. The increased "boom'd" population led to different reactions to political occurances, and the affluence of the time did the same. See The Cultural Upheavals of the 1960s for more details!!
**Improved the lives of millions but undermined the Federal Government’s financial health
Although Watergate and the continued bombing of Cambodia were serious crimes, Nixon did some good for the country (I'm not going to say the good compensates, but it shouldn't be ignored...". He allowed for more aid to go to the needy (Old people, single moms, disabled), such Medicaid, AFDC, and Social Security. He also expanded the idea of "affirmative action." While this in itself wasn't so good, helping the African-Americans wasn't bad. Nixon (and the Court) "...opened broad employment and educational opportunities for minorities and women." He also started the EPA and OSHA.
SEE "Nixon on the Home Front" FOR DETAILS
Because America was no longer a world economic power, it became dependent on the rest of the world. It became impossible to revert to any form of isolationism, and the countries involved with OPEC realized they had power over the US. They increased oil prices to painful highs, and didn't let them down for a long time. The deficits in the federal budget increased drastically, and inflation ran rampant (so much fun to type, FYI). The US would begin having trouble "coercing" other countries now (or bribing them even) because it couldn't just sit in it's own production and be safe. It was dependent.
*Gerald Ford was the first man to be made President solely on the vote of Congress
Here you will find AP US History notes for the American Pageant, 11th edition textbook. These American Pageant notes will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
Additional Information:
Summary:
225 million years ago, Earth was one supercontinent (Pangaea) and ocean. About 10 million years ago, the North America that we know today was formed (geographical shape). The first discoverers of North America were nomadic Asians who wandered over here by way of an exposed land bridge from Russia to Alaska during the Ice Age. Though they were hunters at first, by 5000 BC, they had become hunter-gatherers with a diet of basically corn. Great pre-European Indian cultures included the Pueblos, the Iroquois, the Mound Builders, the Mayans, the Incas, the Aztec, and the Sioux, among others(map of tribes on pg. 8). The Indians revered nature and land, and didn’t carelessly destroy it. Everything was put to use.
In 1000 AD, Vikings discovered Newfoundland, but later abandoned it due to unfavorable conditions. Europeans, though, slowly began to proliferate into non-European worlds starting around the 1400s. After Marco Polo came back with stories of China and its riches, Europeans began to explore. First, they set up settlements in Africa, near the coast, where they used African slaves to work on plantations. In 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India, opening a sea route to the Far East.
Complications and dangers of this eastern sea route influenced Christopher Columbus to sail west. In doing so, he inadvertently discovered the Americas, though he never knew it. The Portuguese were first to settle in America, but the Spanish later became the dominant nation in the Americas. Spanish Conquistadores swept through Latin and South America, destroying the Aztecs and the Incas. Meanwhile, Magellan’s crew sailed around the world in 1519, becoming the first voyage to do so. As the chapter ended, Spain was very much in control of much of the Americas, though other countries were beginning to challenge the Spanish dominance.
Important People:
The Aztecs- Native Americans who that lived in what is now Mexico and routinely offered their gods human sacrifices, these people were violent, yet built amazing pyramids and built a great civilization without having a wheel.
The Mound Builders- Indians of the Ohio River Valley.
The Mississippian settlement- At Cahokia, near present-day East St. Louis, Illionis, was home to about 40,000 people in at 1100 A.D.
Hiawatha- This was legendary leader who inspired the Iroquois, a powerful group of Native Americans in the northeaster woodlands of the U.S.
The Norse- These Vikings discovered America in about 1000 A.D., when they discovered modern-day Newfoundland. They abandoned it later due to bad conditions.
Marco Polo- Italian adventurer who supposedly sailed to the Far East (China) in 1295 and returned with stories and supplies of the Asian life there (silk, pearls, etc…)
Bartholomeu Días- A Portuguese sailor, he was the first to round the southernmost tip of Africa, a feat he did in 1488.
Vasco da Gama- In 1498, he reached India and returned home with a small but tantalizing cargo of jewels and spices.
Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile- The wedded king and queen of Spain, their marriage united the previously non-existing country.
Christopher Columbus- An Italian seafarer who persuaded Spain to give him three ships for which to sail west to look for a better route to India, he “discovered” America in 1492
Vasco Nuñez Balboa- Discoverer of the Pacific Ocean in 1513.
Ferdinand Magellan- In 1519, his crew began a voyage and eventually ended up becoming the first to circumnavigate the world, even though he died in the Philippines. The sole surviving ship returned to Europe in 1522.
Ponce de León- In 1513 and 1521, this Spanish Explorer explored Florida, searching for gold (contrary to the myth of his seeking the “Fountain of Youth”).
Francisco Coronado- From 1540 to 1542, he explored the pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico, penetrating as far east as Kansas. He also discovered the Grand Canyon and enormous herds of bison.
Hernando de Soto- From 1539 to 1542, he explored Florida and crossed the Mississippi River. He brutally abused Indians and died of fever and battle wounds.
Francisco Pizarro- In 1532, he crushed the Incas of Peru and got lots of bounty.
Bartolomé de Las Casas- A Spanish missionary who was appalled by the method of encomienda, calling it “a moral pestilence invented by Satan.”
Hernán Cortés- Annihilator of the Aztec in 1519.
Malinche- A female Indian slave who knew Mayan and Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec.
Montezuma- The leader of the Aztecs at the time of Cortés’ invasion who believed that Cortés was the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.
Giovanni Caboto- AKA John Cabot, he explored the northeastern coaster of North America in 1497-98.
Giovanni da Verranzo- An Italian explorer dispatched by the French king in 1524 to probe the eastern seaboard of U.S.
Don Juan de Oñate- Leader of a Spanish group that traversed parts of Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in 1598, he and his men proclaimed the province of New Mexico in 1609 and founded its capital, Santa Fe.
Robert de La Salle- Sent by the French, he went on an expedition down the Mississippi in the 1680s.
Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo- He explored the California coast in 1542 but failed to find anything of interest.
Father Junipero Serra- The Spanish missionary who founded 21 missions in California, in 1769, he founded Mission San Diego, the first of the chain.
Key Terms:
maize - the Indian word for corn
Conquistadores - the Spanish word for “conqueror,” these explorers claimed much of America for Spain, slaughtering millions of natives in the process
encomienda - a euphemism for slavery in which Indians were given to colonists to be “Christianized.”
Día de la Raza - Spanish for Columbus Day.
Lake Bonneville - massive prehistoric lake, all of which remains today in the form of the Great Salt Lake.
Treaty of Tordesillas - treaty that settled Spanish and Portuguese differences in the Americas, Portugal got modern-day Brazil; Spain got the rest.
Popé’s Rebellion - revolt in which Indians took over New Mexico and held control for nearly half a century.
Places and Countries:
Timbuktu- Capital of the West African kingdom of Mali, a place located in the Niger River Valley.
Madeira, the Canaries, São Tomé, Pricipe- Areas where sugar plantations were established by Portugal then Spain where African slaves were forced to work.
Potosí- A rich silver mine in Bolivia that enriched Spain with lots of wealth.
Timeline:
c. 33,000 – 8000 BC
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First humans come to Americas from land bridge connecting Asia and Alaska.
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c. 5000 BC
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Corn is developed as a stable crop in highland Mexico.
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c. 4000 BC
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First civilized societies develop in the Middle East.
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c. 1200 BC
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Corn planting reaches present-day American Southwest.
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c. 1000 AD
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Norse voyagers discover and briefly settle in Newfoundland (Vinland).
Also, corn cultivation reaches Midwest and southeaster Atlantic seaboard.
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c. 1100 AD
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Height of Mississippian settlement at Cahokia
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c. 1100 – 1300
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Christian crusades arouse European interest in the East.
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1295
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Marco Polo returns to Europe from Asia.
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Late 1400s
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Spain unites.
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1488
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Díaz rounds the southern tip of Africa.
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1492
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Columbus land in the Bahamas.
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1494
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Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal.
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1498
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da Gama reaches India.
Cabot explores northeastern coast of North America for England.
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1513
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Balboa claims all lands touched by the Pacific Ocean for Spain.
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1513 & 1521
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Ponce de León explores Florida.
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1519 – 1521
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Cortés conquers Mexico for Spain, defeating the Aztecs.
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1522
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Magellan’s crew completes circumnavigation of the world.
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1524
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Verrazano explores eastern seaboard of Norh America for France.
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1532
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Pizarro crushes the Incas.
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1534
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Cartier journeys up the St. Lawrence River.
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1539 – 1542
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de Soto explores the Southeast and discoveres the Mississippi River.
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1540 – 1542
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Coronado explores present-day Southwest
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1542
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Cabrillo explores California coast for Spain.
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1565
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Spanish build fortress at St. Augustine.
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Late 1500s
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Iroquois Confederacy founded (according to Iroquois legend)
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c. 1598 – 1609
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Spanish under Oñate conquer Pueblo peoples of Rio Grande Valley.
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1609
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Spanish found New Mexico.
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1680
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Popé’s rebellion of New Mexico.
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1680s
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French expedition down Mississippi River under La Salle
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1769
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Father Junipero Serra founds Mission San Diego, in California.
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Makers of America:
- Conquistadores included Hernán Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, who conquered the Aztecs and the Incas respectively.
- Within half a century of Columbus’ “discovery” of America, they had claimed, for Spain, territory that stretched form Colorado to Argentina.
- They spread from Cuba through Mexico and from Panama, south through Peru.
- As the Spanish crown tightened its grip on its colonies, though, the conquistadors lost more and more power.
- Most of them never achieved their dreams of glory, though a few received royal titles.
- Many of them married Indian women, creating a new class of people called mestizos.
- The mestizos formed a bridge between Latin America’s Indian and European races.
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Chapter 1 - New World Beginnings | 39 KB |
I. England’s Imperial Stirring
A. North America
1. North America in 1600 was largely unclaimed, though the Spanish had much control in Central and South America.
2. Spain had only set up Santa Fe, while France had founded Quebec and Britain had founded Jamestown.
3. In the 1500s, Britain didn’t really colonize because of internal conflicts.
a. King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s and launched the English Protestant Reformation.
b. After Elizabeth I became queen, Britain became basically Protestant, and a rivalry with Catholic Spain intensified.
c. In Ireland, the Catholics sought Spain’s help in revolting against England, but the English crushed the uprising with brutal atrocity, and developed an attitude of sneering contempt for natives.
II. Elizabeth Energizes England
A. Colonization
1. After Britain basically defeated Spain (i.e. Spanish Armada defeat), British swarmed to America and took over lead in colonization and power.
a. Sparked new literature, like Shakespeare
2. After Drake circumnavigated the globe, Liz I knighted him on his ship.
3. However, English tries at colonization in the New World failed often and embarrassingly.
4. Britain and Spain finally signed a peace treaty in 1604.
III. England on the Eve of the Empire
A. Reasons for Emigration
1. In the 1500s, Britain’s population was mushrooming
2. Farmers were enclosing land for farming.
3. Puritanism took a strong root in the woolen districts of western and eastern England.
4. Younger sons of rich folk (who couldn’t inherit money) tried their luck with fortunes elsewhere, like America.
5. By the 1600s, the joint-stock company was perfected, being a forerunner to today’s corporations.
IV. England Plants the Jamestown Seedling
A. Jamestown
1. In 1606, the Virginia Company received a charter from King James I to make a settlement in the New World
a. Such
joint-stock companies usually did not exist long, as stockholders hoped
to form the company, make a profit, and then quickly sell for profit a
few years later.
2. The charter of the Virginia Company guaranteed settlers the same rights as Englishmen in Britain.
3. On May 24, 1607, about a 100 English settlers disembarked from their ship and founded Jamestown
a. Forty colonists perished during the voyage.
b. In mosquito-ridden Virginia, disease was rampant. It didn’t help that a supply ship shipwrecked in the Bahamas in 1609 either.
4. Luckily, in 1608, a Captain John Smith took over control and whipped the colonists into discipline.
a. He
had been kidnapped by local Indians and forced into a mock execution by
the chief Powhatan and had been “saved” by Pocahantas.
b. The act was meant to show that Powhatan wanted peaceful relations with the colonists.
5. Still, the colonists were reduced to eating cats, dogs, rats, even other people.
6. Finally, in 1610, a relief party headed by Lord De La Warr arrived to alleviate the suffering.
7. By 1625, out of an original overall total of 8000 would-be settlers, only 1200 had survived.
V. Cultural Clash in the Chesapeake
A. The Indian’s Begin to Lose Power
1. At
first, Powhatan possibly considered the new colonists potential allies
and tried to be friendly with them, but as time passed and colonists
raided Indian food supplies, relations deteriorated and eventually, war
occurred.
2. The First Anglo-Powhatan War ended in 1614 with a peace settlement sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to colonist John Rolfe.
3. Eight years later, in 1622, the Indians struck again with a series of attacks that left 347 settlers, including John Rolfe, dead.
4. The
Second Anglo-Powhatan War began in 1644, ended in 1646, and effectively
banished the Chesapeake Indians from their ancestral lands.
5. After the settlers began to grow their own food, the Indians were useless, and were therefore banished.
VI. Virginia: Child of Tobacco
A. Tobacco Info
1. Tobacco created a greed for land, since it heavily depleted soil and ruined the land.
2. King James I detested tobacco.
3. Representative self-government was born in Virginia, when in 1619, settlers created the House of Burgesses.
4. Slavery in the Americas was also born in 1619.
VII. Maryland: Catholic Heaven
A. Religious Diversity
1. Founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore, Maryland was the second plantation colony and the fourth overall colony to be formed
2. It was a place for persecuted Catholics to find refuge.
3. Lord
Baltimore gave huge estates to his Catholic relatives, but the poorer
people who settled there where mostly Protestant, creating friction.
4. However, Maryland prospered with tobacco.
5. It had a lot of indentured servants.
6. Only in the later years of the 1600s (in Maryland and Virginia) did Black slavery began to become popular.
7. Maryland’s
religious statute guaranteed toleration to all Christians, but decreed
the death penalty to Jews and atheists and others who didn’t believe in
the divinity of Jesus Christ.
VIII. The West Indies: Way Station to Mainland America
A. Their Use
1. As the British were colonizing Virginia, they were also settling in the West Indies (Spain’s declining power opened the door).
2. By mid-1600s, England had secured claim to several West Indies islands, including Jamaica in 1655.
3. They grew lots of sugar there.
4. Thousands of African slaves were needed to operate sugar plantations, and these weren’t for the poor either.
5. To control so many slaves “codes” were set up that defined the legal status of slaves and the rights of the masters. They were typically strict.
IX. Colonizing the Carolinas
A. Restoration Period
1. In England, King Charles I had been beheaded. Oliver Cromwell had ruled for ten years before tired Englishmen restored Charles II to the throne.
2. The bloody period had interrupted colonization.
3. Carolina was named after Charles II, and was formally created in 1670.
4. Carolina flourished by developing close economic ties with the West Indies.
5. Many original Carolina settlers had come from Barbados.
6. Interestingly, Indians as slaves in Carolina was protested, but to no avail. Slaves were sent to the West Indies to work, as well as New England.
7. Rice emerged as the principle crop in Carolina.
a. African slaves were hired to work on rice fields, due to their immunity to malaria and their familiarity with rice.
8. Despite violence with Spanish and Indians, Carolina proved to be too strong to be wiped out.
X. The Emergence of North Carolina
A. Conflict
1. Many newcomers to Carolina were “squatters,” people who owned no land.
2. North Carolinians developed a strong resistant to authority, due to geographic isolation from neighbors.
3. In 1712, North and South Carolina were officially separated.
4. In
1711, when Tuscarora Indians attacked North Carolinas, the Carolinians
responded by crushing the opposition, selling hundreds to slavery and
leaving the rest to wander north, eventually becoming the Sixth Nation
of the Iroquois
XI. Late-Coming Georgia: The Buffer Colony
A. Georgia’s Purpose
1. Georgia
was intended to be a buffer between the British colonies and the
hostile Spanish settlements in Florida and the enemy French in
Louisiana.
2. Founded in 1733 by a high-minded group of philanthropists, it was the last colony founded.
3. Named after King George II of England, Georgia was also meant to be a haven for wretched souls in debt.
4. James Oglethorpe, the ablest of the founders and a dynamic soldier-statesman, repelled Spanish attacks.
a. He saved “the Charity Colony” by his energetic leadership and by using his own fortune to help with the colony.
5. All Christians except Catholics enjoyed religious toleration, and many missionaries came to try to convert the Indians.
a. John Wesley was one of them, and he later returned to England and founded Methodism.
6. Georgia grew very slowly.
XII. The Plantion Colonies
A. Comparisons and Contrasts
1. Slavery was found in all the plantation colonies.
2. Growth of cities was often stunted by forests.
3. Establishment of schools and churches was difficult.
4. In the South, the crops were tobacco and rice.
5. All the plantation colonies permitted some religious toleration.
6. Confrontations with Native Americans was often.
XIII. Makers of America: The Iroquois
- In what is now New York State, the Iroquois once were a great power.
- They were made up of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Deganawidah, and the Hiawatha.
- They vied with neighboring Indians and later French, English, and Dutch for supremacy.
- The longhouse was the building block of Iroquois society.
- Only
25 feet wide but over 200 feet long, longhouses were typically occupied
by a few blood-related families (on the mother’s side).
- The Mohawks were middlemen with European traders.
- The Senecas were fur suppliers.
- The Five Nations of the Iroquois’ rivals, the neighboring Hurons, Eries, and Petuns, were vanquished.
- Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, the Iroquois allied with the British and French (whichever more beneficial).
- When the American Revolution broke out, the decision to side with who was split.Most sided with the British, but not all.
- Afterwards, the Iroquois were forced to reservations, which proved to be unbearable to these proud people.
- An Iroquois named Handsome Lake arose to warn his tribespeople to mend their ways.
- His teachings live today in the form of the longhouse religion.
- He died in 1815.
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Chapter 3: Settling the Northern Colonies | 39.5 KB |
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Chapter 5: Colonial Society on the Eve of the Revolution 1700 – 1775 | 35.5 KB |
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Chapter 8: America Secedes from the Empire | 42.5 KB |
Please read Varying Viewpoints – “The Constitution: Revolutionary or Counterrevolutionary?” on your own, please.
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Chapter 9: The Confederation and the Constitution 1776 – 1790 | 35.5 KB |
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Chapter 11: The Triumphs and Travails of Jeffersonian Democracy | 37.5 KB |
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Chapter 12: “The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism” | 45.5 KB |
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Chapter 13: “The Rise of Jacksonian Democracy” | 39.5 KB |
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Chapter 18: Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy 1841 – 1848 | 42.5 KB |
Here you will find AP US History notes for the American Pageant, 10th edition textbook. These American Pageant notes will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
225 Million Years Ago - Pangaea started to break apart.
10 Million Years Ago - North America was shaped by nature - Canadian Shield
2 Million Years Ago - Great Ice Age
35,000 Years Ago - The oceans were glaciers and the sea level dropped, leaving an isthmus connecting Asia
and North America. The Bering Isthmus was crossed by people going into North America.
10,000 Years Ago - Ice started to retreat and melt, raising the sea levels and covering up the Bering Isthmus.
Evidence suggests that early people may have come to the Americas in crude boats, or across the Bering Isthmus.
Europeans Enter Africa
People of Europe were able to reach sub-Saharan Africa around 1450 when the Portuguese invented the caravel, a ship that should sail into the wind. This ship allowed sailors to sail back up the western coast of Africa and back to Europe.
The Portuguese set up trading posts along the African beaches trading with slaves and gold, trading habits that were originally done by the Arabs and Africans. The Portuguese shipped the slaves back to Spain and Portugal where they worked on the sugar plantations.
When Worlds Collide
Possibly 3/5 of the crops cultivated around the world today originated in the Americas.
Within 50 years of the Spanish arrival in Hispaniola, the Taino natives decreased from 1 million people to 200 people due to diseases brought by the Spanish.
In centuries following Columbus's landing in the Americas, as much as 90% of the Indians had died due to the diseases.
The Spanish Conquistadores
In the 1500's, Spain became the dominant exploring and colonizing power.
The Spanish conquerors came to the Americas in the service of God as well as in search of gold and glory.
Due to the gold and silver deposits found in the New World, the European economy was transformed.
The islands of the Caribbean Sea served as offshore bases for the staging of the Spanish invasion of the mainland Americas.
By the 1530s in Mexico and the 1550s in Peru, colorless colonial administrators had replaced the conquistadores.
Some of the conquistadores wed Indian women and had children. These offspring were known as mestizos and formed a cultural and biological bridge between Latin America's European and Indian races.
The Conquest of Mexico
In about 1519, Hernan Cortes set sail from Cuba with men and horses. Along the way, he picked up two translators - A Spanish prisoner of Mayan-speaking Indians, and an Indian slave named Malinche.
The Spaniards arrived at Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital with the intention of stealing all of the gold and other riches; they were amazed by the beauty of the capitol.
On June 30, 1520, the Aztecs attacked the Spanish because of the Spaniards' lust for riches. The Spanish countered, though, and took over the capital and the rest of the Aztec empire on August 13, 1521.
Due to the rule of the Spanish, the Indian population in Mexico went from 20 million to 2 million in less than a century.
The Spread of Spanish America
In 1565, the Spanish built a fortress at St. Augustine, Florida to protect the sea-lanes to the Caribbean.
In 1680, after the Spanish captured an area known today as New Mexico in 1609, the natives launched a rebellion known as Popes Rebellion. The natives burned down churches and killed priests. They rebuilt a kiva, or ceremonial religious chamber, on the ruins of the Spanish plaza at Santa Fe.
The misdeeds of the Spanish in the New World led to the birth of the "Black Legend." This false concept stated that the conquerors just tortured and killed the Indians, stole their gold, infected them with smallpox, and left little but misery behind.
Chronology
33,000-8,000 B.C. - First humans cross into Americas from Asia.
5,000 B.C. - Corn is developed as a stable crop in highland Mexico.
4,000 B.C. - First civilized societies develop in the Middle East.
1,200 B.C. - Corn planting reaches present-day American Southwest.
1,000 A.D. - Norse voyagers discover and briefly settle in northeastern North America.
Corn cultivation reaches Midwest and southeastern Atlantic seaboard.
1,100 A.D. - Height of Mississippian settlement at Cahokia.
1,100-1,300 A.D. - Christian crusades arouse European interest in the East.
1295 - Marco Polo returns to Europe.
Late 1400s - Spain becomes united.
1488 - Diaz rounds southern tip of Africa.
1492 - Columbus lands in the Bahamas.
1494 - Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal.
1498 - Da Gama reaches India. Cabot explores northeastern coast of North
America for England.
1513 - Balboa claims all lands touched by the Pacific Ocean for Spain.
1513, 1521 - Ponce de Leon explores Florida.
1519-1521 - Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain.
1522 - Magellan's vessel completes circumnavigation of the world.
1524 - Verrazano explores eastern seaboard of North America for France.
1532 - Pizarro crushes Incas.
1534 - Cartier journeys up the St. Lawrence River.
1539-1542 - De Soto explores the Southeast and discovers the Mississippi River.
1540-1542 - Cabrillo explores present-day Southwest.
1542 - Cabrillo explores California coast for Spain.
1565 - Spanish build fortress at St. Augustine.
Late 1500s - Iroquois Confederacy founded, according to Iroquois legend.
1598-1609 - Spanish under Onate conquer pueblo peoples of Rio Grande valley.
1609 - Spanish found New Mexico.
1680s - French exploration down Mississippi River under La Salle.
1769 - Serra founds first California mission, at San Diego.
The Spanish were at Santa Fe in 1610.
The French were at Quebec in 1608.
The English were at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.
England's Imperial Stirrings
King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, launching the English Protestant Reformation, and intensifying the rivalry with Catholic Spain.
Elizabeth Energizes England
In 1580, Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe, plundering and returning with his ship loaded with Spanish booty. He had a profit of about 4,600%.
When the English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada, Spain's empirical dreams and fighting spirit had been weakened - helping to ensure the English's naval dominance over the North Atlantic.
England on the Eve of an Empire
Because an economic depression hit England in the later part of the 1500s and many people were left without homes, the stage was set for the establishment of an English beachhead in North America.
England Plants the Jamestown Seedling
In 1606, a joint-stock company, known as the Virginia Company of London, received a charter from King James I of England for a settlement in the New World. The company landed in Jamestown on May 24, 1607.
In 1608, Captain John Smith took over the town and forced the settlers into line.
By 1609, of the 400 settlers who came to Virginia, only 60 survived the "starving winter" of 1609-1610.
Cultural Clash in the Chesapeake
Lord De La Warr reached Jamestown in 1610 with supplies and military. He started the First Anglo-Powhatan War.
The Indians were again defeated in the Second Anglo-Powhatan War in 1644.
By 1685, the English considered the Powhatan people to be extinct.
Virginia: Child of Tobacco
John Rolfe married Pocahontas in 1614, ending the First Anglo-Powhatan War.
In 1619, self-government was made in Virginia. The London Company authorized the settlers to summon an assembly, known as the House of Burgesses.
King James I didn't trust the House of Burgesses and so in 1624, he made Virginia a colony of England, directly under his control.
Maryland: Catholic Haven
Maryland was formed in 1634 by Lord Baltimore.
Maryland was made for a refuge for the Catholics to escape the wrath of the Protestant English government.
The Act of Toleration, which was passed in 1649 by the local representative group in Maryland, granted toleration to all Christians.
The West Indies: Way Station to mainland America
By the mid-17th Century, England had secured its claim to several West Indian Islands.
Sugar was, by far, the major crop on the Indian Islands.
To support the massive sugar crops, millions of African slaves were imported. By 1700, the number of black slaves to white settlers in the English West Indies by nearly 4 to 1. In order to control the large number of slaves, theBarbados Slave Code of 1661 denied even the most fundamental rights to slaves.
Colonizing the Carolinas
Civil war plagued England in the 1640s.
In 1707, the Savannah Indians decided to end their alliance with the Carolinians and migrate to the back country of Maryland and Pennsylvania, where a new colony founded by Quakers under William Penn promised better relations. Almost all of the Indians were killed in raids before they could depart - in 1710.
Rice became the primary export of the Carolinas.
Chronology
1558 - Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
1565-1590 - English crush Irish uprising
1577 - Drake circumnavigates the globe
1585 - Raleigh founds Roanoke colony
1588 - England defeats Spanish Armada
1603 - James I becomes king of England
1604 - Spain and England sign peace treaty
1607 - Virginia colony founded at Jamestown
1612 - Rolfe perfects tobacco culture in Virginia
1614 - First Anglo-Powhatan War ends
1619 - First Africans arrive in Jamestown. Virginia House of Burgesses established
1624 - Virginia becomes a royal colony
1634 - Maryland colony founded
1640s - Large-scale slave-labor system established in English West Indies
1644 - Second Anglo-Powhatan War
1649 - Act of Toleration in Maryland. Charles I beheaded; Cromwell rules England
1660 - Charles II restored to English throne
1661 - Barbados slave code adopted
1670 - Carolina colony created
1711-1713 - Tuscarora War in North Carolina
1712 - North Carolina formally separates from South Carolina
1715-1716 - Yamasee War in South Carolina
1733 - Georgia colony founded
The Thirteen Original Colonies
Name Founded By Year
Virginia
London Co.
1607
New Hampshire
John Mason and Others
1623
Massachusetts
Plymouth
Maine
Puritans
Separatists
F. Gorges
1628
1620
1623
Maryland
Lord Baltimore
1634
Connecticut
New Haven
Mass. Emigrants
Mass. Emigrants
1635
1638
Rhode Island
R. Williams
1636
Delaware
Swedes
1638
N. Carolina
Virginians
1653
New York
Dutch
Dutch of York
1613
1664
New Jersey
Berkeley and Carteret
1664
Carolina
Eight Nobles
1670
Pennsylvania
William Penn
1681
Georgia
Oglethorpe and others
1733
The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism
German friar Martin Luther denounced the authority of the priests and popes when he nailed his protests against Catholic doctrines to the door of Wittenberg's cathedral in 1517. He declared that the Bible alone was the source of God's words. He started the "Protestant Reformation."
John Calvin of Geneva elaborated Martin Luther's ideas. He spelled out his basic doctrine in Latin in 1536, entitled Institutes of the Christian Religion. These ideas formed Calvinism.
When King Henry VIII broke his ties with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, he formed the Protestant Church. There were a few people who wanted to see the process of taking Catholicism out of England occur more quickly. These people were called Puritans.
A tiny group of Puritans, called Separatists, broke away from the Church of England. Fearing that his subjects would defy him both as their political leader and spiritual leader, King James I, the head of state of England and head of the church from 1603-1625, threatened to harass the more bothersome the Separatists out of the land.
The Pilgrims End Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth
Losing their identity as English, a group of Separatists in Holland came to America in search for religious freedom. The group settled outside the domain of the Virginia Company and, without legal permission, settled in Plymouth Bayin 1620.
Captain Myles Standish- prominent among the non-belongers of the Mayflower who came to Plymouth Bay; an Indian fighter and negotiator.
Before disembarking from the Mayflower, the Pilgrim leaders drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact. This was a simple agreement to form a crude government and to submit to the will of the majority under the regulations agreed upon. It was signed by 41 adult males. It was the first attempt at a government in America.
In the Pilgrims' first winter of 1620-1621, only 44 of the 102 survived.
In 1621, there was the first Thanksgiving Day in New England.
William Bradford- elected 30 times as governor of the Pilgrims in the annual elections; a self-taught scholar who read Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and Dutch; Pilgrim leader.
The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth
Charles I dismissed Parliament in 1629 and sanctioned the anti-Puritan persecutions of the reactionary Archbishop William Laud.
In 1629, an energetic group of non-Separatist Puritans, fearing for their faith and for England's future, secured a royal charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company. (Massachusetts Bay Colony)
During the Great Migration of the 1630s, about 70,000 refugees left England for America. Most of them were attracted to the warm and fertile West Indies, especially the sugar-rich island of Barbados.
John Winthrop- the Bay Colony's first governor - served for 19 years.
Building the Bay Colony
Governor Winthrop of the Bay Colony did not like Democracy.
The freemen annually elected the governor and his assistants and a representative assembly called the General Court.
Visible Saints was another name for the Puritans.
John Cotton- a very devoted Puritan.
Michael Wigglesworth wrote the poem, "The Day of Doom," in 1662.
Trouble in the Bible Commonwealth
Anne Hutchinson- an intelligent woman who challenged the Puritan orthodoxy; was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony because of her challenges to the Church.
Roger Williams- popular Salem minister who also challenged the Church; an extreme Separatist; was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Rhode Island "Sewer"
Roger Williams fled to the Rhode Island area in 1636. There, he established religious freedom for all kinds of people.
New England Spreads Out
Hartford and Connecticut were founded in 1635. An energetic group of Boston Puritans poured into the Hartford area lead by Reverend Thomas Hooker. (Colony)
In 1639, the settlers of the new Connecticut River colony drafted a document known as the Fundamental Orders. It was basically a constitution.
New Haven was established in 1638.
Part of Maine was purchased by Massachusetts Bay in 1677 from the Sir Ferdinando Gorges heirs.
In 1641, New Hampshire was absorbed by the greedy Massachusetts Bay. The king took it back and made New Hampshire a royal colony in 1679.
Puritans versus Indians
The Wampanoag chieftain, Massasoit, signed a treaty with the Plymouth Pilgrims in 1621. The Wampanoag helped the Pilgrims have the first Thanksgiving in that same year.
In 1637, hostilities exploded between the English settlers and the powerful Pequot tribe. The English militiamen and their Narragansett Indian allies annihilated the Pequot tribe.
In 1675, Massasoit's son, Metacom (also nicknamed King Philip by the English) launched a series of attacks and raids against the colonists' towns. The war ended in 1676.
Seeds of Colonial Unity and Independence
In 1643, 4 colonies banded together to form the New England Confederation. It was made to defend against foes or potential foes. The confederation consisted of only Puritan colonies - two Massachusetts colonies (the Bay Colonyand small Plymouth) and two Connecticut colonies (New Haven and the scattered valley settlements).
Each colony had 2 votes, regardless of size.
As a slap at the Massachusetts Bay Colony, King Charles II gave rival Connecticut in 1662 a sea-to-sea charter grant, which legalized the squatter settlements.
In 1663, the outcasts in Rhode Island received a new charter, which gave kingly sanction to the most religiously tolerant government yet devised in America.
In 1684, the Massachusetts Bay Colony's charter was revoked by London authorities.
Andros Promotes the First American Revolution
In 1686, the Dominion of New England was created by royal authority. Unlike the homegrown New England Confederation, it was imposed from London. It embraced all of New England until in 1688 when it was expanded to New York and East and West Jersey.
The leader of the Dominion of New England was Sir Edmund Andros - an able English military man. He established headquarters in Puritanical Boston.
Andros stopped the town meetings; laid heavy restrictions on the courts, the press, and schools; and revoked all land titles.
In 1688-1689, the people of old England engineered the Glorious (or Bloodless) Revolution. They dethroned Catholic James II and enthroned the Protestant rulers of the Netherlands, the Dutch-born William III and his English wife,Mary, daughter of James II.
In 1691, Massachusetts was made a royal colony.
There was unrest in New York and Maryland from 1689-1691, until newly appointed royal governors restored a semblance of order.
Old Netherlands at New Netherland
Late in the 16th Century, the Netherlands fought for and won its independence from Catholic Spain with the help of England.
In the 17th Century, the Dutch (the Netherlands) became a power. Golden Age. It fought 3 great Anglo-Dutch naval battles. The Dutch Republic became a leading colonial power, with by far its greatest activity in the East Indies.
The Dutch East India Company was nearly a state within a state and at one time supported an army of 10,000 men and a fleet of 190 ships, 40 of them men-of-war.
This company hired an English explorer, Henry Hudson, to seek great riches. He sailed into the Delaware Bay and New York Bay in 1609 and then ascended the Hudson River. He filed a Dutch claim to a wooded and watered area. TheDutch West India Company was less powerful than the Dutch East India Company, and was based in the Caribbean. It was more interested in raiding than trading.
In 1628, in raided a fleet of Spanish treasure ships and stole $15 million.
The company established outposts in Africa and Brazil.
In 1623-1624, the Dutch West India Company established New Netherland in the Hudson River area. It was made for its quick-profit fur trade. The company also purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for worthless trinkets. The island encompassed 22,000 acres.
New Amsterdam, later New York City, was a company town. The Quakers were savagely abused.
Friction with English and Swedish Neighbors
New England was hostile to the growth of its Dutch neighbor, and the people of Connecticut finally ejected intruding Hollanders from their verdant valley. 3 of the 4 member colonies of the New England Confederation were eager to wipe out New Netherland with military force. Massachusetts, providing most of the troops, rejected this.
From 1638-1655, the Swedish trespassed on Dutch preserves by planting the anemic colony of New Sweden on the Delaware River.
The Golden Age for Sweden was during and following the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648, in which its brilliant King Gustavus Adolphus had carried the torch for Protestantism.
Resenting the Swedish intrusion, the Dutch dispatched a small military expedition in 1655. It was led by the able of the directors-general, Peter Stuyvesant, who had lost a leg while soldiering in the West Indies and was dubbed "Father Wooden Leg" by the Indians. The main fort fell after a bloodless siege, whereupon Swedish rule came to an abrupt end.
Dutch Residues in New York
In 1664, the Dutch were forced to surrender their territory (New Netherland) to the English when a strong English squadron appeared off the coast of New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam was named New York, after the Duke of York.
Penn's Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania
A group of dissenters, commonly known as Quakers, arose in England in the mid-1600s. Officially, they were known as the Religious Society of Friends.
Quakers were especially offensive to the authorities, both religious and civil. They refused to support the Church of England with taxes.
William Penn was attracted to the Quaker faith in 1660. In 1681, he managed to secure from King Charles II an immense grant of fertile land, in consideration of a monetary debt owed to his deceased father by the crown. The king called the area Pennsylvania.
Quaker Pennsylvania and Its Neighbors
The Quakers treated the Indians very well. Many immigrants came to Pennsylvania seeking religious freedom.
"Blue Laws" prevented "ungodly revelers" from staging plays, playing cards, dice, games, and excessive hilarity.
By 1700, Pennsylvania surpassed all but Massachusetts and Virginia as the most populous and wealthy colony.
William Penn was never fully liked by his colonists because of his friendly relations with James II. He was arrested for treason thrice and thrown into prison.
In 1664, New Netherland, a territory along the Hudson River, was taken by the English and granted to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. This grant that was given to Carteret and Berkeley divided the region into East and West New Jersey, respectively.
Berkeley sold West New Jersey in 1674 to a William Penn and his group of Quakers, who set up a sanctuary before Pennsylvania was launched.
In 1681 (the same year that Penn was given the region of Pennsylvania from King Charles II), William Penn and his Quakers purchased East New Jersey from Carteret's widow.
In 1702, the proprieters of East and West New Jersey voluntarily surrendered their governmental powers over the region to the royal crown after confusion began to arise over the large number of landowners and growing resentment of authority. England combined the two territories (East and West New Jersey) into one colony in 1702.
The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies
The middle colonies New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, were known as the "bread colonies" because of their heavy exports of grain.
These colonies were more ethnically mixed than any of the other colonies. The people were given more religious tolerance than in any other colonies.
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1706. He moved to Philadelphia at the age of 17.
The Stuart Dynasty in England
Name, Reign Relation to America
James I, 1603-1625
VA., Plymouth founded; Separatists persecuted
Charles I, 1625-1649
Civil Wars, 1642-1649; Mass., MD formed
Interregnum, 1649-1660
Commonwealth; Protectorate (Oliver Cromwell)
Charles II, 1660-1685
The Restoration; Carolina, Pa., N.Y. founded; Conn. chartered
James II, 1685-1688
Catholic trend; Glorious Revolution, 1688
William and Mary, 1689-1702
(Mary died in 1694)
King William's War, 1689-1697
Chronology
1571 - Martin Luther begins Protestant Reformation
1536 - John Calvin of Geneva publishes Institutes of the Christian Religion
1620 - Pilgrims sail on the Mayflower to Plymouth Bay
1624 - Dutch found New Netherland
1629 - Charles I dismisses Parliament and persecutes Puritans
1630 - Puritans found Massachusetts Bay Colony
1635-1636 - Roger Williams convicted of heresy and founds Rhode Island colony
1635-1638 - Connecticut and New Haven colonies founded
1637 - Pequot War
1638 - Anne Hutchinson banished from Massachusetts colony
1639 - Connecticut's Fundamental Orders drafted
1642-1648 - English Civil War
1643 - New England Confederation formed
1655 - New Netherland conquers New Sweden
1664 - England seizes New Netherland from Dutch, East and West Jersey colonies founded
1675-1676 - King Philip's War
1681 - William Penn founds Pennsylvania colony
1686 - Royal authority creates Dominion of New England
1688-1689 - Glorious Revolution overthrows Stuarts and Dominion of New England
The Unhealthy Chesapeake
Half the people born in early Virginia and Maryland did not survive to celebrate their 20th birthday.
At the beginning of the 18th Century, Virginia was the most populous colony with 59,000 people. Maryland was the 3rd largest, after Massachusetts, with 30,000.
The Tobacco Economy
By the 1630s, 1.5 million pounds of tobacco were being shipped out of the Chesapeake Bay every year and almost 40 million by the end of the century.
Because of the massive amounts of tobacco crops planted by families, "indentured servants" were brought in from England to work on the farms. In exchange for working, they received transatlantic passage and eventual "freedom dues", including a few barrels of corn, a suit of clothes, and possibly a small piece of land.
Virginia and Maryland employed the "headright" system to encourage the importation of servant workers. Under its terms, whoever paid the passage of a laborer received the right to acquire 50 acres of land.
Chesapeake planters brought some 100,000 indentured servants to the region by 1700. These "white slaves" represented more than 3/4 of all European immigrants to Virginia and Maryland in the 17th Century.
Frustrated Freemen and Bacon's Rebellion
In 1676, about 1,000 Virginians broke out of control - led by a 29-year-old planter, Nathaniel Bacon. They fiercely resented Virginia's Governor William Berkeley for his friendly policies towards the Indians. When Berkeley refused to retaliate for a series of savage Indian attacks on frontier settlements (due to his monopolization of the fur trading with them), the crowd took matters into their own hands. The crowd murderously attacked Indians and chased Berkeley from Jamestown, Virginia. They torched the capitol.
As the civil war in Virginia continued, Bacon suddenly died from disease. Berkeley took advantage of this and crushed the uprising, hanging more than 20 rebels. Charles II complained of the penalties dealt by Berkeley.
Due to the rebellions and tensions started by Bacon, lordly planters looked for other, less troublesome laborers to work their tobacco plantations. They soon looked to Africa.
Colonial Slavery
Africans had been brought to Jamestown as early as 1619, but as late as 1670, they numbered only about 2,000 in Virginia-only about 7% of the total population of the South.
In the 1680s, the wages in England rose, therefore decreasing the number of indentured servants coming to America. By the mid-1680s, black slaves outnumbered white servants among the plantation colonies' new arrivals.
In 1698, the Royal African Company, first chartered in 1672, lost its monopoly on carrying slaves to the colonies. Due to this, many Americans, including many Rhode Islanders, rushed to cash in on the slave trade. (Eventually, Rhode Island became the first state t abolish slavery.)
Blacks accounted for half the population of Virginia by 1750. In South Carolina, they outnumbered whites 2:1.
Most of the slaves came from the west coast of Africa, especially stretching from present-day Senegal to Angola.
Beginning in Virginia in 1662, statues appeared that formally decreed the iron conditions of slavery for blacks. These earliest "slave codes" made blacks and their children the property of the white masters for life.
Africans in America
By about 1720, the proportion of females in the Chesapeake area soon began to rise, making it possible for family life.
On the Sea Islands off South Carolina's coast, blacks evolved a language, Gullah. It blended English with several African languages, including Yoruba, Ibo, and Hausa.
In New York City in 1712, a slave revolt cost the lives of 12 whites and caused the execution of 21 blacks.
In 1739 in South Carolina along the Stono River, a revolt exploded. The rebels tried to march to Spanish Florida but were stopped by a local militia.
Southern Society
Just before the Revolutionary War, 70% of the leaders of the Virginia legislature came from families established in Virginia before 1690.
Social Scale-
Great Planters-owned gangs of slaves and vast domains of land; ruled the region's economy and monopolized political power.
Small Farmers-largest social group; tilled their own modest plots and may have owned one or two slaves.
Landless Whites-many were former indentured servants.
Black Slaves
The New England Family
In contrast with the Chesapeake, the New Englanders tended to migrate in families as opposed to single individuals.
Family came first with New Englanders.
There were low premarital pregnancy rates, in contrast with the Chesapeake.
Because southern men frequently died young, leaving widows with small children to support, the southern colonies generally allowed married women to retain separate title their property and gave widows the right to inherit their husband's estates. But in New England, Puritan lawmakers worried that recognizing women's separate property rights would undercut the unity of married persons by acknowledging conflicting interests between husband and wife. When a man died, the Church inherited the property, not the wife.
New England women usually gave up their property rights when they married. In contrast to old England, the laws of New England made secure provisions for the property of widows and even extended important protections to women with marriage.
Above all, the laws of Puritan New England sought to defend the integrity of marriages.
Life in the New England Towns
Massachusetts was at the front of the colonies attempting to abolish black slavery.
New towns were legally chartered by the colonial authorities, and the distribution of land was entrusted to proprietors. Every family received several parcels of land.
Towns of more than 50 families had to have an elementary school.
Just 8 years after Massachusetts was formed, the colony established Harvard College, in 1636. Virginia established its first college, William and Mary, in 1693.
Puritans ran their own churches, and democracy in Congregational Church government led logically to democracy in political government.
The Half-Way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials
About the middle of the 17th century, a new form of sermon began to be heard from Puritan pulpits - the "jeremiad."
Troubled ministers in 1662 announced a new formula for church membership, the Half-Way Covenant. This new arrangement modified the covenant, or the agreement between the church and its adherents, to admit to baptism-but not "full communion"-the unconverted children of existing members. This move upped the churches' memberships. This boost in membership was just what the money-stricken church needed.
A group of adolescent girls in Salem, Massachusetts, claimed to have been bewitched by certain older women. A witch hunt ensued, leading to the legal lynching of 20 women in 1692.
In 1693, the witchcraft hysteria ended when the governor of Massachusetts prohibited any further trials and pardoned those already convicted. In 1713, the Massachusetts legislature annulled the "conviction" of the "witches" and made reparation to their heirs.
The New England Way of Life
The soil of New England was stony and hard to plant with.
There was less diversity in New England than in the South because European immigrants did not want to come to a place where there was bad soil. The summers in New England were very hot and the winters very cold.
The Native Americans recognized their right to USE the land, but the concept of OWNING was unknown.
The people of New England became experts at shipbuilding and commerce due to the timber found in the dense forests. They also fished for cod off the coasts.
The combination of Calvinism, soil, and climate in New England made for energy, purposefulness, sternness, stubbornness, self-reliance, and resourcefulness.
The Early Settlers' Days and Ways
Women, slave or free, on southern plantations or northern farms, wove, cooked, cleaned, and care for children. Men cleared land; fenced, planted, and cropped the land; cut firewood; and butchered livestock as needed.
Resentment against upper-class pretensions helped to spark outbursts like Bacon's Rebellion of 1676 in Virginia and the uprising of Maryland's Protestants toward the end of the 17th century. In New York, animosity between lordly landholders and aspiring merchants fueled Leisler's Rebellion, an ill-starred and bloody insurgence that rocked New York City from 1689-1691.
In 1651, Massachusetts prohibited poorer folk from "wearing gold or silver lace," and in 18th century Virginia, a tailor was fined and jailed for arranging to race his horse-"a sport only for gentlemen."
Estimated Slave Imports to the New World, 1601-1810
17th Century
18th Century
Total
Percent
Spanish American
292,500
598,600
871,000
11.7
Brazil
560,000
1,891,400
2,451,400
33
British Caribbean
263,700
1,401,000
1,664,700
22.5
Dutch Caribbean
40,000
460,000
500,000
6.7
French Caribbean
155,800
1,348,400
1,504,200
20.3
Danish Caribbean
4,000
24,000
28,000
0.4
British North America and future United States
10,000
390,000
400,000
5.4
TOTAL
X
X
7,419,300
100
Chronology
1619 - First Africans arrive in Virginia
1636 - Harvard College founded
1662 - Half-Way Covenant for Congregational Church membership established
1670 - Virginia assembly disfranchises landless freeman
1676 - Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia
1680s - Mass expansion of slavery in colonies
1689-1691 - Leisler's Rebellion in New York
1692 - Salem witch trials in Massachusetts
1693 - College of William and Mary founded
1698 - Royal African Company slave trade monopoly ended
1712 - New York City slave revolt
1739 - South Carolina slave revolt
Conquest by the Cradle
In 1775, the most populous colonies were Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Maryland.
About 90% of people lived in rural areas.
A Mingling of the Races
Colonial America was a melting pot.
Germans were 6% of the total population in 1775. Many Germans settled in Pennsylvania, fleeing religious persecution, economic oppression, and the ravages of war.
Scots-Irish were 7% of the population in 1775. They were lawless individuals.
By the mid 18th century, a chain of Scots-Irish settlements lay scattered along the "great wagon road" which hugged the eastern Appalachian foothills from Pennsylvania to Georgia.
The Scots-Irish led the armed march of the Paxton Boys in Philadelphia in 1764, protesting the Quaker oligarchy's lenient policy toward the Indians, and a few years later, spearheaded the Regulator movement in North Carolina, a small but nasty insurrection against eastern domination of the colony's affairs.
About 5% of the multicolored colonial population consisted of other European groups- French Huguenots, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss, and Scots Highlanders.
The Structure of Colonial Society
By the mid 1700s, the richest 10% of Bostonians and Philadelphians owned 2/3 of the taxable wealth in their cities.
By 1750, Boston contained a large number of homeless poor, who were compelled to wear a large red "P" on their clothing.
In all the colonies the ranks of the lower classes were further swelled by the continuing stream of indentured servants.
The black slaves were the lowest in society.
Clerics, Physicians, and Jurists
Most honored of the professions was the Christian ministry.
Most physicians were poorly trained and not highly esteemed. The first medical school came in 1765.
Epidemics were a constant nightmare. A crude form of inoculation was introduced in 1721. Powdered dried toad was a favorite prescription for smallpox. Diphtheria was also a killer, especially of young people.
Workday America
Agriculture was the leading industry, involving about 90% of the people. The staple crop in Maryland and Virginia was tobacco. The fertile middle (bread) colonies produced large quantities of grain.
Fishing was not nearly as prevalent as agriculture, but it was rewarding.
Trade was popular in the New England group- New York and Pennsylvania.
Manufacturing in the colonies was of only secondary importance.
Lumbering was perhaps the most important manufacturing activity. By 1770, about 400 vessels were splashing down the ways each year, and about 1/3 of the British merchant marine was American built.
As early as the 1730s, fast-breeding Americans demanded more and more British products-yet the slow growing British population early reached the saturation point for absorbing imports from America. This trade imbalance prompted the Americans to look for foreign markets to get money to pay for British products.
There was much trade with the West Indies.
In 1773, bowing to pressure from British West Indian planters, Parliament passed the Molasses Act, aimed at crushing North American trade with the French West Indies. The colonists got around this by smuggling.
Horsepower and Sailpower
The roadways in the colonies were in terrible condition.
An intercolonial postal system was established by the mid-1700s.
Dominant Denominations
Two established, or tax-supported, churches were conspicuous in 1775: the Anglican and the Congregational.
The Church of England, Anglicans, became the official faith in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and a part of New York. The College of William and Mary was founded in 1693 to train a better class of clerics for the Anglican Church.
The Congregational Church had grown out of the Puritan Church, and was formally established in all the New England colonies except independent minded Rhode Island. Presbyterianism was never made official in any of the colonies.
Religious toleration had made tremendous strides in America. There were fewer Catholics in America; hence anti-Catholic laws were less severe and less strictly enforced. In general, people could worship or not worship as they pleased.
The Great Awakening
A few churches grudgingly said that spiritual conversion was not necessary for church membership.
Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch theologian who preached that individual free will, not divine decree, determined a person's eternal fate.
The Great Awakening exploded in the 1730s and 1740s. The Awakening was started in Northampton, Massachusetts, by Jonathan Edwards. He said that through faith in God, not through doing good works, could one attain eternal salvation. He had an alive-style of preaching.
George Whitefield gave America a different kind of enthusiastic type of preaching. The old lights, orthodox clergymen, were skeptical of the new ways of preaching. New lights, on the other hand, defended the Awakening for its role in revitalizing American religion.
The Awakening had an emphasis on direct, emotive spirituality and seriously undermined the older clergy. It started many new denominations and greatly increased the numbers and the competitiveness of American churches.
Schools and Colleges
Puritan New England was more interested in education than any other section. Dominated by the Congregational Church, it stressed the need for Bible reading by the individual worshiper.
College education was regarded very highly in New England.
9 local colleges were established during the colonial era.
A Provincial Culture
The red-bricked Georgian style was introduced in 1720.
Art, architecture were popular in the colonies.
Science was behind the old world. Ben Franklin was considered the only first-rank scientist in the New World.
Pioneer Presses
A celebrated legal case in 1734-1735 involved John Peter Zenger, a newspaper printer. He was charged with printing things that assailed the corrupt royal governor of New York. The jury voted him not guilty to the surprise of the judge and many people. This paved the way for freedom of the press.
The Great Game of Politics
By 1775, 8 of the colonies had royal governors, who were appointed by the king. 3-Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware- were under proprietors who themselves chose the governors. 2-Connecticut and Rhode Island- elected their own governors under self-governing characters.
Nearly every colony used a two house legislative body. The upper house, or council, was appointed by the crown in the royal colonies and the proprietor in the proprietary colonies. The lower house, as the popular branch, was elected by the people.
Lord Cornbury: made governor of New York and New Jersey in 1702. He was a drunkard, a spendthrift, and a bad person.
France Finds a Foothold in Canada
In 1598, the Edict of Nantes was issued by the crown of France. It granted limited religious freedom to French Protestants, and stopped religious wars between the Protestants and Catholics.
In 1608, France established Quebec. (Catholic) The leading figure was Samuel de Champlain, an intrepid soldier and explorer whose energy and leadership earned him the title "Father of New France".
The government of New France (Canada) was under direct control of the king. The people did not elect any representative assemblies.
New France Sets Out
New France contained one valuable resource - beaver.
French Catholic missionaries, notably the Jesuits, labored with much enthusiasm to convert the Indians to Christianity and to save them from the fur trappers.
Antoine Cadillac- founded Detroit in 1701 to thwart English settlers pushing into the Ohio Valley.
Robert de La Salle- explored the Mississippi and Gulf basin, naming it Louisiana.
In order to block the Spanish on the Gulf of Mexico, the French planted several fortified posts in Mississippi and Louisiana. The French founded New Orleans in 1718.
Illinois became France's garden empire of North America because much grain was produced there.
The Clash of Empires
The earliest battles among European power for control of North America, known to British colonists as King William's War (1689-1697) and Queen Anne's War (1702-1713). Most of the battles were between the British colonists, the French, and the French ally Spain.
The wars ended in 1713 with peace terms signed at Utrecht. France and Spain were terribly beaten and Britain received French-populated Acadia and Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay. The British also won limited trading rights in Spanish America.
The War of Jenkins's Ear started in 1739 between the British and Spaniards. This small battle became a war and became known as King Georges's War in America. It ended in 1748 with a treaty that handed Louisbourg back to France, enraging the victorious New Englanders.
George Washington Inaugurates War with France
In 1754, George Washington was sent to Ohio Country to secure the land of the Virginians who had secured legal rights to 500,000 acres. His 150 Virginia militia killed the French leader, causing French reinforcements to come. The Virginians were forced to surrender on July 4, 1754.
In 1755, the British uprooted the French Acadians fearing a stab in the back, and scattered them as far as Louisiana.
Global War and Colonial Disunity
The French and Indian War (Seven Years' War) started in 1754. It was fought in America, Europe, the West Indies, the Philippines, Africa, and on the ocean.
In Europe, the principal adversaries were Britain and Prussia on one side and France, Spain, Austria, and Russia on the other. The French wasted so many troops in Europe that they were unable to put enough forces into America.
The Albany Congress met in 1754. Only 7 of 13 colony delegates showed up. It attempted to unite all of the colonies but the plan was hated by individual colonists and the London regime.
Braddock's Blundering and Its Aftermath
General Braddock set out in 1755 with 2,000 men to capture Fort Duquesne. His force was slaughtered by the much smaller French and Indian army. (Braddock's Blunder) Due to this loss of troops, the whole frontier from Pennsylvania to North Carolina was left open to attack. George Washington, with only 300 men, tried to defend the area.
In 1756, the British launched a full-scale invasion of Canada.
Pitt's Palms of Victory
In 1757, William Pitt became the foremost leader in the London government. He was known as the "Great Commoner." He attacked and captured Louisbourg in 1758.
To lead the attack in the Battle of Quebec in 1759, Pitt chose James Wolfe. The two opposing armies faced each other on the Plains of Abraham, the British under Wolfe and the French under Marquis de Montcalm.
Montreal fell in 1760. The Treaty of Paris (1763) ended the battle and threw the French power off the continent of North America.
Restless Colonists
Intercolonial disunity had been caused by enormous distances; geographical barriers; conflicting religions, from Catholics to Quakers; varied nationalities, from German to Irish; differing types of colonial governments; many boundary disputes; and the resentment of the crude back-country settlers against the aristocrats.
Americans: A People of Destiny
In 1763, Ottawa chief, Pontiac, led several tribes, aided by a handful of French traders who remained in the region, in a violent campaign to drive the British out of the Ohio country. His warriors captured Detroit in the spring of that year and overran all but 3 British outposts west of the Appalachians.
The British countered these attacks and eventually defeated the Indians.
London government issued the Proclamation of 1763. It prohibited settlement in the area beyond the Appalachians. (The Appalachian land was acquired after the British beat the Indians). It was made to prevent another bloody eruption between the settlers and Indians. Many colonists disregarded it.
The Deep Roots of Revolution
Two ideas in particular had taken root in the minds of the American colonists by the mid 18th century:
1. Republicanism- a just society in which all citizens willingly subordinated their private, selfish interests to the common good. Both the stability of society and the authority of government thus depended on the virtue of the citizenry-its capacity for selflessness, self-sufficiency, and courage.
2. "Radical Whigs", a group of British political commentators, made attacks on the use of patronage and bribes by the king's ministers. They warned citizens to be on guard for possible corruption.
Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances
Georgia was the only colony to be formed by Britain.
The Navigation Law of 1650 stated that all goods flowing to and from the colonies could only be transported in British vessels. It was aimed to hurt rival Dutch shippers.
The Stamp Tax Uproar
Due to the French and Indian War, Britain had a very large debt.
In 1763, Prime Minister George Grenville ordered the British navy to begin strictly enforcing the Navigation Laws. He also secured from Parliament the Sugar Act of 1764, the first law ever passed by Parliament to raise tax revenue in the colonies for England. The Sugar Act increased the duty on foreign sugar imported from the West Indies.
The Quartering Act of 1765 required certain colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops.
In 1765, George Grenville imposed a stamp tax on the colonies to raise revenues to support the new military force. This stamp tax, known as the Stamp Act, mandated the use of stamped paper or the affixing of stamps, certifying payment of tax.
Parliament Forced to Repeal the Stamp Act
The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 brought together in New York City 27 distinguished delegates from 9 colonies. The members drew up a statement of their rights and grievances and requested the king and Parliament to repeal the hated legislation. The meeting's ripples began to erode sectional suspicions (suspicions between the colonies), for it had brought together around the same table leaders from the different and rival colonies. It was one step towardsintercolonial unity.
Nonimportation agreements (agreements made to not import British goods) were a stride toward unionism.
The Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty took the law into their own hands by enforcing the nonimportation agreements.
The Stamp Act was repealed by Parliament in 1766.
Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, reaffirming its right to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever.
The Townshend Tea Tax and the Boston Massacre
In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts. They put a light import tax on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea.
British officials, faced with a breakdown of law and order, landed 2 regiments of troops in the colonies in 1768.
On March 5, 1770, a crowd of 60 townspeople attacked 10 redcoats and the redcoats opened fired on the civilians, killing/wounding 11 of them. The massacre was known as the Boston Massacre.
The Seditious Committees of Correspondence
Lord North was forced to persuade Parliament to repeal the Townshend revenue duties.
Samuel Adams- master propagandist and engineer of rebellion; formed the first local committee of correspondence in Massachusetts in 1772 (Sons of Liberty).
Committees of Correspondance were created by the American colonies in order to maintain communication with one another. They were organized in the decade before the Revolution when communication between the colonies became essential.
In March of 1773, the Virginia House of Burgesses, the lower house of the Colony of Virginia, proposed that each colonial legislature appoint a standing committee for intercolonial correspondance. Within just a year, nearly all of the colonies had joined.
Tea Parties at Boston and Elsewhere
In 1773, the British East India Company was overstocked with 17 million pounds of unsold tea. If the company collapsed, the London government would lose much money. Therefore, the London government gave the company a full monopoly of the tea sell in America.
Fearing that it was trick to pay more taxes on tea, the Americans rejected the tea. When the ships arrived in the Boston harbor, the governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, forced the citizens to allow the ships to unload their tea.
On December 16, 1773, a band of Bostonians, disguised as Indians, boarded the ships and dumped the tea into the sea. (Boston Tea Party)
Parliament Passes the "Intolerable Acts"
In 1774, Parliament punished the people of Massachusetts for their actions in the Boston Tea Party. Parliament passed laws, known as the Intolerable Acts, which restricted colonists' rights. The laws made restrictions on town meetings, and stated that enforcing officials who killed colonists in the line of duty would be sent to Britain for trial (where it was assumed they would be acquitted of their charges). One such law was the Boston Port Act. It closed the Boston harbor until damages were paid and order could be ensured.
The Quebec Act was also passed in 1774, but was not apart of the Intolerable Acts. It gave Catholic French Canadians religious freedom and restored the French form of civil law; this law nullified many of the Western claims of the coast colonies by extending the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio River on the south and to the Mississippi River on the west.
The Continental Congress and Bloodshed
In 1774, the 1st Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in order to redress colonial grievances over the Intolerable Acts. The 13 colonies, excluding Georgia, sent 55 men to the convention. (The 1st Continental Congress was not a legislative body, rather a consultative body, and convention rather than a congress.)
After 7 weeks of deliberation, the 1st Continental Congress drew up several papers. The papers included a Declaration of Rights and solemn appeals to other British-American colonies, to the king, and to the British people.
The creation of The Association was the most important outcome of the Congress. It called for a complete boycott of British goods; nonimportation, nonexportation, and nonconsumption.
In April 1775, the British commander in Boston sent a detachment of troops to Lexington. They were to seize provisions of colonial gunpowder and to capture the "rebel" ringleaders, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. At Lexington, 8 Americans were shot and killed. This incident was labeled as the "Lexington Massacre." When the British went on to Concord, they were met with American resistance and there were over 300 casualties and 70 deaths. Because of this, the British had a war, rather than a rebellion on their hands.
Imperial Strength and Weaknesses
The population of Britain was over 3 times as large as the population of America. Britain also had a much greater economic wealth and naval power.
Unfortunately for the British, though, there was rebellion brewing in Ireland, and France, bitter from its recent defeat, was waiting for an opportunity to attack Britain. Britain was therefore forced to divert much of its military power and concentration away from the Americas.
Britain's army in America had to operate under numerous difficulties; provisions were short and soldiers were treated brutally.
American Pluses and Minuses
Marquis de Lafayette- French who was made a major general in the colonial army at the age of 19; the "French Gamecock"; his services were invaluable in securing further aid from France.
The Articles of Confederation was adopted in 1781. It was the first written constitution adopted by colonists.
Due to the lack of metallic money in America, Continental Congress was forced to print "Continental" paper money. Within a short time, this money depreciated significantly and individual states were forced to print their own paper money.
A Thin Line of Heroes
At Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, American men went without food for 3 days in the winter of 1777-1778.
Baron von Steuben- German who helped to whip the America fighters into shape for fighting the British.
Lord Dunmore- royal (British) governor of Virginia. In 1775, he issued a proclamation promising freedom for any enslaved black in Virginia who joined the British army. "Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment"
Congress Drafts George Washington
The Second Continental Congress selected George Washington to head the army besieging Boston.
Bunker Hill and Hessian Hirelings
From April 1775 to July 1776, the colonists were both affirming their loyalty to the king by sincerely voicing their desire to patch up difficulties while at the same time raising armies and killing redcoats.
In May 1775, a tiny American force under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured the British garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. There, a store of gunpowder and artillery was secured.
In June 1775, the colonists captured Bunker Hill. The British took it back with a large number of soldiers.
In July 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopted the "Olive Branch Petition", which professed American loyalty to the king and begged to the king to stop further hostilities. The petition was rejected by the king. With the rejection, the Americans were forced to choose to fight to become independent or to submit to British rule and power.
In August 1775, King George III proclaimed that the colonies were in rebellion. He then hired German Hessians to bring order to the colonies.
The Abortive Conquest of Canada
In October 1775, the British burned Falmouth (Portland), Maine. In the same month, colonists made an attack on Canada in hopes that it would close it off as a possible source for a British striking point. The attack failed when General Richard Montgomery was killed.
In January 1776, the British set fire to Norfolk.
Thomas Paine Preaches Common Sense
The Americans continued to deny any intention of independence because loyalty to the empire was deeply ingrained; many Americans continued to consider themselves apart of a transatlantic community in which the mother country of Britain played a leading role; colonial unity was poor; and open rebellion was dangerous.
Thomas Paine released a pamphlet called Common Sense in 1776. It argued that the colonies had outgrown any need for English domination and that they should be given independence.
Paine and the Idea of "Republicanism"
Thomas Paine called for the creation of a new kind of political society, specifically a republic, where power flowed from the people themselves.
Jefferson's Explanation of Independence
On July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia's resolution of declaring independence was passed. It was the formal declaration of independence by the American colonies.
Thomas Jefferson was appointed to draft up the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was formally approved by Congress on July 4, 1776. It was an explanation of everything the king had done to the Americans.
Patriots and Loyalists
During the War of Independence, the Loyalists were called "Tories" and the Patriots were called "Whigs."
Tory: "a thing whose head is in England, and its body in America, and its neck ought to be stretched."
The Loyalists made up 16% of the American population. Many people of education and wealth remained loyal to England. Loyalists were most numerous where the Anglican church was strongest. The Loyalists were well entrenched in New York City, Charleston, Quaker Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. They were least numerous in New England.
The Patriots were numerous where Presbyterianism and Congregationalism flourished-mostly in New England.
The Loyalist Exodus
Before the Declaration of Independence, the Loyalists were treated relatively mild. After, though, they were hanged, imprisoned, and roughly handled.
They Loyalists were forced to leave because the Patriots had to eliminate their weaknesses.
General Washington at Bay
The British concentrated New York City as a base of operation due to the fact that Boston was evacuated in March 1776.
In 1776, General Washington and his men were overpowered by the British at the Battle of Long Island. Washington and his men escaped to Manhattan Island.
General William Howe was General Washington's adversary.
On December 26, 1776, Washington surprised and captured 1,000 Hessians who were sleeping.
Burgoyne's Blundering Invasion
London officials had an intricate scheme for capturing the vital Hudson River valley in 1777. It would sever New England from the rest of the states and paralyze the American cause. The main invading force, lead by General Burgoyne, would push down the Lake Champlain route from Canada. General Howe's troops in New York, if needed, could advance up the Hudson River to meet Burgoyne near Albany. The 3rd force was commanded by colonel Barry St. Leger, who would come in from the west by way of Lake Ontario and the Mohawk Valley.
General Burgoyne was forced to surrender his entire command at Saratoga on October 17, 1777 to American general Horatio Gates (Burgoyne's Blunder). This win made it possible for the urgently needed foreign aid from France. (Turning point in war.)
Strange French Bedfellows
After the shooting at Lexington in April 1775, French secretly provided arms to the Americans.
The British offered the Americans home rule after the Battle of Saratoga. The French didn't want Britain to regain its colonies for fear that Britain would seize the sugar rich French West Indies. In order to stop this, the French made an open alliance with the Americans in 1778, offering all the British did with the exception of independence.
The Colonial War Becomes a World War
Spain and Holland became allies against Britain in 1779.
The British decided to evacuate Philadelphia and concentrate their strength in New York City.
Blow and Counterblow
General Benedict Arnold turned traitor against the Americans in 1780.
General Nathaniel Greene succeeded in clearing most British troops out of Georgia and South Carolina.
The Land Frontier and the Sea Frontier
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix- (1784) the first treaty between the United States and an Indian nation; signed with the Iroquois.
George Rogers Clark- conceived the idea of capturing the British of the wild Illinois country in 1778-1779.
John Paul Jones is known as the father of the navy. He employed the tactic of privateering.
Privateering- when privately owned and crewed vessels were authorized by a government during a wartime to attack and capture enemy vessels, men, cargo, etc; it diverted manpower from the main war effort; it brought in needed gold, harassed the enemy, and raised American morale by providing victories in a time when victories were few.
Yorktown and the Final Curtain
From 1780-1781, the U.S. government fell nearly bankrupt.
British General Cornwallis fell back to Chesapeake Bay at Yorktown to await seaborne supplies and reinforcements. This time in war was one of the few times when British naval superiority had been lacking. Admiral de Grasse offered to join the Americans in an assault of Cornwallis via the sea. George Washington, along with Rochambeau's army, and Admiral de Grasse cornered Cornwallis. He was forced to surrender on October 19, 1781.
Peace at Paris
In 1782, a Whig ministry replaced the Tory regime of Lord North.
Conditions of the Treaty of Paris of 1783:
British formally recognized the independence of the United States.
Florida is given to Spain.
Britain granted generous boundaries, stretching to the Mississippi on the west, to the Great Lakes on the north, and to Spanish Florida on the south.
Yankees were to retain a share in the priceless fisheries of Newfoundland.
The Loyalists were to no longer be prosecuted.
Congress was to recommend to the state legislatures that confiscated Loyalist property be restored. The states vowed to put no lawful obstacles in the way of Loyalist property collection.
Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay negotiated the peace terms with Britain.
The Pursuit of Equality
The Continental Army officers formed an exclusive hereditary order called the Society of the Cincinnati.
Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom- created in 1786 by Thomas Jefferson and his co-reformers; stated that religion should not be imposed on anybody and that each person decided his/her own faith.
The Philadelphia Quakers in 1775 founded the first anti-slavery society.
The 1st Continental Congress called for the complete abolition of the slave trade in 1774. Several northern states went further and either abolished slavery altogether or provided the gradual emancipation of slaves. No states south of Pennsylvania abolished slavery.
Constitution Making in the States
The 2nd Continental Congress called upon the colonies in 1776 to draft new constitutions. Massachusetts called a special convention to draft its constitution and then submitted the final draft to the people.
As written documents, the state constitutions were intended to represent a fundamental law, superior to the short-lived impulses of ordinary legislation.
In the Revolutionary era, the capitals of New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were all moved westward.
Economic Crosscurrents
Economic democracy preceded political democracy.
Due to the independence from Britain, the United States had to make everything on its own which it no longer imported from Britain.
Many Americans were poor because the economy was so bad.
Creating a Confederation
Shortly before declaring independence in 1776, the 2nd Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft a written constitution for the new nation. The finished product was the Articles of Confederation. It was adopted by Congress in 1777 and it convinced France that America had a genuine government in the making. The Articles of Confederation wasn't ratified by all 13 colonies until 1781.
The Articles of Confederation: America's First Constitution
The 13 colonies were joined together for joint action in dealing with common problems such as foreign affairs.
Congress had 2 major handicaps: It had no power to regulate commerce, and this loophole left the states free to establish conflictingly laws regarding tariffs and navigation. Congress couldn't enforce its tax collection program. The states were NOT required to pay the government taxes, they were merely asked.
Landmarks in Land Laws
Land Ordinance of 1785- stated that the acreage of the Old Northwest should be sold and the proceeds should be used to help pay off the national debt.
Northwest Ordinance of 1787- a uniform national land policy; created the Northwest Territories and gave the land to the government, the land could then be purchased by individuals; when a territory had 60,000 people, it might be admitted by Congress as a state, with all the privileges of the 13 other states.
The World's Ugly Duckling
Britain declined to make any commercial treaty with the colonies or to repeal its Navigation Laws. Lord Sheffield argued in his pamphlet that Britain could win back America's trade.
The British remained in the Americas where they maintained their fur trade with the Indians. The American states did not honor the treaty of peace in regard to debts and Loyalists. The British stayed primarily to keep the Indians on the side of the British so to defend against future attacks on Canada by the Americans.
Spain was openly unfriendly to the Americans. It closed off the Mississippi river to commerce in 1784.
The Horrid Specter of Anarchy
Shay's Rebellion- in western Massachusetts in 1786; when impoverished back-country farmers, who were losing their farms through mortgage foreclosures and tax delinquencies, attempted to enforce their demands of cheap paper money, lighter taxes, and a suspension of property takeovers; led by Captain Daniel Shays. The uprising was crushed but it left fear in the propertied class of mobs.
A Convention of "Demigods"
In 1786, Virginia called for a convention at Annapolis, Maryland. There, Alexander Hamilton saved the convention from collapsing - delegates from only 5 states showed up. He called upon Congress to summon a convention to meet in Philadelphia the next year, not to deal with just commerce, but to fix then entire fabric of the Articles of Confederation.
Alexander Hamilton was an advocate of a super-powerful central government.
On May 25, 1787, 55 representatives from all of the states except for Rhode Island were sent to Philadelphia to talk of the government in the future of the country. (Constitutional Convention) George Washington was elected as the leader.
Patriots in Philadelphia
The delegates hoped to save the revolutionary idealism and make it into a strong political structure.
Hammering Out a Bundle of Compromises
Some of the delegates decided they would scrap the old Articles of Confederation, contradicting instructions from Congress to revise it.
The "large-state plan" was proposed by Virginia and was first pushed forward as the framework of the Constitution. It said that the arrangement in Congress should be based upon a state's population.
New Jersey presented the "small-state plan." It centered on equal representation in Congress without regards to a state's size or population.
The "Great Compromise" of the convention was hammered out and finally agreed upon. It called for representation by population in the House of Representatives, and equal representation in the Senate. Each state would have 2 senators. The new Constitution also called for a President. Because of arguments over if the slaves would count towards the general population of the state, the "three-fifths compromise" was created. The new Constitution also called for the end of the slave trade by the end of 1807. All new state constitutions except Georgia's forbade overseas slave trade.
Rhode Island was not present at the Constitutional Convention.
Safeguards for Conservatism
The members of the Constitutional Convention agreed economically-demanded sound money and the protection of private property; and politically-favored a stronger government with 3 branches and with checks and balances among them.
The Clash of Federalists and Anti-federalists
The Anti-federalists were led by Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee. The followers consisted of states' rights devotees, back country dwellers, and one-horse farmers - in general, the poorest class.
Federalists were led by George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Most of the Federalists lived in the settled areas along the seaboard. Overall, they were wealthier than the Anti-federalists, more educated, and better organized. They also controlled the press.
The Great Debate in the States
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire were the first 9 states to sign the Constitution. Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island were the only states to not sign it. (4 Laggard States)
The Four Laggard States
Virginia, New York, and North Carolina all ratified the Constitution before it was put into effect. Rhode Island was the last state to ratify it and it did so only after the new government had been in operation for a few months.
These 4 states did not ratify the Constitution because they wanted to but because they had to. They could not safely exist outside the fold.
A Conservative Triumph
The architects of the Constitution contented that every branch-executive, judiciary, and legislative-effectively represented the people.
By imbedding the principle of self-rule in a self-limiting system of checks and balances among these 3 branches, the Constitution settled the conflicting doctrines of liberty and order.
Washington for President
George Washington was unanimously elected as President by the Electoral College in 1789. He took the oath of office on April 30, 1789. He established the cabinet.
At first, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and Secretary of War Henry Knox served under Washington.
Bill of Rights
James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights and got them passed by Congress in 1791.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the Supreme Court, with a chief justice and five associates, as well as federal district and circuit courts, and established the office of attorney general.
John Jay became the first Chief Justice.
Hamilton Revives the Corpse of Public Credit
In order to create a thriving federal government, Alexander Hamilton set out to create a plan to shape the policies of the administration in such a way as to favor the wealthier groups. These wealthier groups would then gratefully lend their money and political support to the government. The wealth in the government would then trickle down through society.
In this plan, Hamilton persuaded Congress to fund the entire national debt at par, meaning that the federal government would pay off its debts at face value plus accumulated interest. This would strengthen the national credit by creating public confidence in the small Treasury department.
He then convinced Congress to take on the states' debts, which would create confidence in the government by the states. States with large debts, like Massachusetts, were delighted with Hamilton's proposal, but states with small debts, like Virginia, did not want the government to assume state debts. Virginia did, however, want the forthcoming federal district, the District of Columbia, which would bring commerce and prestige. So Virginia made a deal with the government: the government would assume state debts if the District of Columbia was placed on the Potomac River. The deal was passed by Congress in 1790.
Customs, Duties, and Excise Taxes
One of Hamilton's objectives was to keep a national debt, believing that the more creditors to whom the government owed money, the more people there would be with a personal stake in the success of the government.
In this objective, he expected tariff revenues to pay interest on the huge debt and run the government.
The first tariff law, which imposed a low tax of 8% on the value of imports, was passed by Congress in 1789. Its purpose was to create revenue and to create a small protective wall around small industries.
He passed additional internal revenue and, in 1791, convinced Congress to pass an excise tax on a few domestic items, notably whiskey.
Hamilton Battles Jefferson for a Bank
Alexander Hamilton proposed a Bank of the United States that could print paper money and thus provide a stable national currency. The national bank would also be place where the Treasury could deposit monies.
Thomas Jefferson strongly opposed the Bank stating it was unconstitutional. He felt that the states had the right to manage their own money. Most of the opposition came from the south and most of the support came from the north.
Hamilton prevailed and the 1st Bank of the United States was created in 1791. Its charter lasted for 20 years and was located in Philadelphia.
Mutinous Moonshiners in Pennsylvania
The Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania in 1794 was lead by distillers who strongly opposed the 1791 excise tax on whiskey. The rebellion was ended when President Washington sent in federal troops. Although the troops faced no opposition, a strong message was sent by the government stating that it would enforce the law.
The Emergence of Political Parties
Political parties had not existed in America when George Washington took office.
What was once a personal feud between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton had developed into a full-blown and bitter political rivalry.
In the 1790s, Jefferson and Madison organized their opposition to the Hamiltonian program but confined it to Congress. In due time, this organized opposition grew and the two-party system emerged.
The Impact of the French Rebellion
When Washington's first administration had ended in 1793, a formation of two political groups had ensued: Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans and Hamilton Federalists.
The French Revolution started in 1789. It began peacefully but entered a violent phase when France declared war on Austria in 1792. Things started to get worse when King Louis XVI was beheaded in 1793, the church was attacked, and the head-rolling Reign of Terror was begun.
At first, the Federalists supported the revolution but that view suddenly changed when the attitude of the revolution changed.
Washington's Neutrality Proclamation
Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans wanted to get into the French and British War to fight for France. The Federalists were opposed.
Washington issued the Neutrality Proclamation of 1793 stating the country's neutrality from the Britain-France war. He was backed by Hamilton.
Embroilments with Britain
For years, the British had retained the frontier posts on U.S. soil, all in defiance of the peace treaty of 1783. The London government did not want to abandon the valuable fur trade in the Great Lakes region, and British agents openly sold firearms to the Miami Confederacy, an alliance of 8 Indian nations who terrorized Americans.
The Jeffersonians felt that American should again fight Britain in defense of America's liberties. The Federalists opposed this action because Hamilton's hopes for economic development depended on trade with Britain.
Jay's Treaty and Washington's Farewell
In a last attempt to avoid war, President Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to London in 1794 to negotiate. Opposed by Democratic-Republicans, Jay hammered out a treaty, Jay's Treaty, in which the British promised to evacuate the chain of posts on U.S. soil and pay for damages for the seizures of American ships. Britain stopped short of pledging anything about future maritime seizures or about supplying arms to Indians. The treaty also called for the U.S. to continue to pay the debts owed to British merchants on pre-Revolutionary War accounts.
Jay's Treaty caused Spain, which feared an Anglo-American alliance, to strike a deal with the U.S. In Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 with Spain, Spain granted the Americans free navigation of the Mississippi River and the large disputed territory north of Florida.
In his Farewell Address to the nation, Washington urged against permanent alliances. He left office in 1797.
John Adams Becomes President
John Adams beat Thomas Jefferson to become to the 2nd President in 1797.
Hamilton became the leader of the Federalist Party, known as the "High Federalists."
Unofficial Fighting with France
France was upset with Jay's Treaty and it started capturing American merchant ships. President John Adams sent John Marshall to France to negotiate in 1797. Hoping the meet Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, Adams's envoy was secretly approached by 3 go-betweens, later referred to as X, Y, and Z (Mme de Villette, Jean Conrad Hottinguer, and Lucien Hauteral). The French spokesmen demanded a bribe of $250,000 just to talk to Talleyrand. Angered by the intolerable terms, Marshall and the envoy returned to the U.S.
Infuriated with the XYZ Affair, America began preparations for war: the Navy Department was created; the three-ship navy was expanded; the United States Marine Corps was reestablished.
Adams Puts Patriotism Above Party
Because France did not want another enemy, it said that if the Americans sent another negotiator minister, then he would be received with proper respect.
Napoleon Bonaparte was the dictator of France.
Eager to free his hands of a potential enemy, the dictator of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, signed the Convention of 1800 with American representative John Jay. It annulled the peace treaty between France and America and called for France to pay the damage claims of American shippers.
The Federalist Witch Hunt
In order to decrease the number of pro-Jeffersonians, the Federalist Congress passed a series of oppressive laws aimed at "aliens", or foreigners who came to America and supported Jefferson.
These Alien Laws raised the residence requirements for aliens who desired to become citizens from 5 years to 14 years. They also stated that the President could deport or jail foreigners in times of peace or hostilities.
The Sedition Act stated that anyone who impeded the policies of the government or falsely defamed its officials would be liable to a heavy fine and imprisonment.
The Virginia (Madison) and Kentucky (Jefferson) Resolutions
Jefferson's Kentucky resolution and Madison's Virginia resolution concluded that the states had the right to refuse laws created by the government. Virtually no other state followed the two states' resolutions.
Federalists versus Democratic-Republicans
Hamilton Federalists supported a strong central government; they believed that the government should support private enterprise, not interfere with it; and they supported the British.
Jeffersonian anti-Federalists demanded a weak central government and supported states' rights.
Federalist and Republican Mudslingers
Thomas Jefferson became the victim of one of America's first "whispering campaigns." The Federalists accused him of having an affair with one of his slaves.
The Jeffersonian "Revolution of 1800"
Thomas Jefferson beat John Adams to win the election of 1800 by a majority of 73 to 65 electoral votes.
Jeffersonian Restraint
Jefferson quickly pardoned the prisoners of the Sedition Acts. The Naturalization Law of 1802 reduced the requirement of 14 years of residence to the previous 5 years.
Jefferson also did away with the excise tax.
Albert Gallatin- Secretary of Treasury to Jefferson; believed that a national debt wasn't a blessing; he reduced the national debt with a strict economy.
The "Dead Clutch" of the Judiciary
Judiciary Act of 1801- passed by the expiring Federalist Congress; created 16 new federal judgeships and other judicial offices. The new Republican-Democratic Congress quickly repealed the act and kicked out the 16 newly seated judges. One Federalist judge, Chief Justice John Marshall, was not removed. He served under presidents including Jefferson and others for 34 years. He shaped the American legal tradition more than any other person.
James Madison was the new Secretary of State.
Marbury vs. Madison (1803) - James Madison, the new secretary of state, had cut judge Marbury's salary; Marbury sued James Madison for his pay; Marbury ended up getting his pay but the decision showed that the Supreme Court had the final authority in determining the meaning of the Constitution.
Samuel Chase- supreme court justice of whom the Democratic-Republican Congress tried to remove in retaliation of the John Marshall's decision regarding Marbury; was not removed due to a lack of votes in the Senate.
Jefferson, a Reluctant Warrior
Jefferson preferred to make the military smaller.
Jefferson was forced to bend his thoughts of not using military force when the leader of Tripoli informally declared war on the United States. Jefferson sent the new navy to Tripoli and after 4 years of fighting, a deal was reached. The U.S. paid Tripoli $60,000 for the release of captured Americans.
The Louisiana Godsend
Napoleon Bonaparte convinced the king of Spain to give Louisiana land area to France in 1800.
Not wanting to fight Napoleon and France in western America, Jefferson sent James Monroe to join Robert Livingston in Paris in 1803 to buy as much land as he could for $10 million.
Napoleon decided to sell all of Louisiana and abandon his dream of a New World Empire for 2 reasons:
He failed in his efforts to re-conquer the island of Santo Domingo, for which Louisiana was to serve as a source of foodstuffs.
Because Britain controlled the seas, Napoleon didn't want Britain to take over Louisiana. So he wanted the money from the Americans. He also hoped the new land for America would help to thwart the ambitions of the British king in the New World.
Robert Livingston- along with James Monroe, negotiated in Paris for the Louisiana land area; signed a treaty on April 30, 1803 ceding Louisiana to the United States for $15 million. The Americans had signed 3 treaties and gotten much land to the west of the Mississippi. 820,000 square miles at 3 cents/acre.
Jefferson sent his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark to explore the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase.
The Aaron Burr Conspiracies
Aaron Burr- Jefferson's first-term vice president; after being dropped from Jefferson's cabinet, he joined a group of extremist Federalists who plotted the secession of New England and New York; Alexander Hamilton uncovered the plot. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel and Hamilton accepted. Hamilton refused to shoot and he was shot and killed by Burr.
General James Wilkinson- the corrupt military governor of Louisiana Territory; made an allegiance with Burr to separate the western part of the United States from the East and expand their new confederacy with invasions of Spanish-controlled Mexico and Florida; betrayed Burr when he learned that Jefferson knew of the plot; Burr was acquitted of the charges of treason by James Madison and he fled to Europe.
America: A Nutcrackered Neutral
Jefferson was reelected in 1804, capturing 162 electoral votes, while his Federalist opponent (Charles Pinckney) only received 14 votes.
England was the power of the seas, and France had the power of land.
England issued a series of Orders in Council in 1806. They closed the European ports under French control to foreign shipping. The French ordered the seizure of all merchant ships that entered British ports.
The Hated Embargo
In 1807, Jefferson passed the Embargo Act. It banned the exportation of any goods to any countries. With the act, Jefferson planned to force France and England, who both depended on American trade, to respect America and its citizens, who had been killed and captured by both countries. The embargo significantly hurt the profits of U.S. merchants and was consequently hated by Americans.
The act was repealed in 1809 and a substitute act was enacted: The Non-Intercourse Act. It opened up trade to every country except France and Britain.
The embargo failed because Jefferson overestimated the dependence of the 2 countries on America's trade. Britain and France were not as reliant on America as Jefferson had hoped. Britain was able to trade with the Latin American republics and France had enough land in Europe to support itself.
Madison's Gamble
James Madison became president on March 4, 1809.
Congress issued Macon's Bill No. 2. It reopened American trade with the entire world. Napoleon convinced James Madison to give Britain 3 months to lift its Orders in Council. Madison did, but Britain chose not to lift its Orders in Council, and Madison had to reenact the United States's trade embargo, but this time just against Britain.
Macon's Bill No. 2 led to the War of 1812.
Tecumseh and the Prophet
Twelfth Congress- met in 1811; the "war hawks" wanted to go to war with the British and wanted to eliminate the Indian threats to pioneers.
Tecumseh- Shawnee, along with his brother, unified many Indian tribes in a last ditch battle with the settlers; allied with the British.
Tenskwatawa- "the Prophet"; Shawnee, along with his brother, unified many Indian tribes in a last ditch battle with the settlers; allied with the British.
William Henry Harrison- governor of the Indiana territory; defeated the Shawnee at the Battle of Tippecanoe.
Mr. Madison's War
On June 1, 1812, Madison asked Congress to declare war on the British and it agreed.
The Democratic-Republicans who supported the war ("war hawks") felt that the country had to assert American rights to the world. They wanted to invade Canada, the Indians' stronghold, because the Indians were being armed by the British to attack the settlers.
The Federalists were opposed because they supported Britain.
On to Canada over Land and Lakes
The Americans tried to invade Canada from Detroit, Niagara, and Lake Champlain. All were beaten back by the Canadians.
The Americans then attacked by sea and were more successful.
Oliver Hazard Perry- captured a British fleet in Lake Erie.
General Harrison's army overtook the British at Detroit and Fort Malden in the Battle of the Thames in October 1813.
Thomas Macdonough- naval officer who forced the invading British army near Plattsburgh to retreat on September 11, 1814; he saved the upper New York from conquest.
Washington Burned and New Orleans Defended
Andrew Jackson defended New Orleans.
Francis Scott Key- American prisoner aboard a British ship who watched the British fleet bombard Fort McHenry; wrote the "Star Spangled Banner."
Washington burned in 1814.
The Treaty of Ghent
Tsar Alexander I of Russia called the Americans and British to come to peace because he didn't want his British ally to lose strength in the Americas and let Napoleon take over Europe. The Treaty of Ghent, signed on December 24, 1814 in Ghent, Belgium, was an armistice. John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay went to Ghent for the signing. Both sides stopped fighting and conquered territory was restored.
Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island met in 1814 in Hartford, Connecticut for a secret meeting to discuss their disgust of the war and to redress their grievances. The Hartford Convention's final report demanded:
Financial assistance from Washington to compensate for lost trade from embargos.
Constitutional amendments requiring a 2/3 vote in Congress before an embargo could be imposed, new states admitted, or war declared.
The abolition of slavery.
That a President could only serve 1 term.
The abolition of the 3/5 clause.
The prohibition of the election of 2 successive Presidents from the same state.
The Hartford resolutions marked the death of the Federalist party. The party nominated their last presidential candidate in 1816.
The Second War for American Independence
The War of 1812 showed other nations around the world that America would defend its beliefs. The most impressive by-product of the War of 1812 was heightened nationalism.
The army and navy were expanded and the Bank of the United States was revived by Congress in 1816.
"The American System"
Congress instituted the 1st protective tariff, the Tariff of 1816, primarily for protection. British companies were trying to make American factories die off by selling their British goods for much less than the American factories. The tariff placed a 20-25% tax on the value of dutiable imports. Over time, the tax price continued to rise, creating problems of no competition between companies.
Due to nationalism, Henry Clay developed a plan for a profitable home market. It was called the American System. It had 3 main parts:
A strong banking system, to provide easy and abundant credit.
A protective tariff, behind which eastern manufacturing would flourish.
A network of roads and canals.
President Madison vetoed the bill to give states aid for infrastructure, deeming it unconstitutional. The Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans were strongly opposed to building federally-funded roads because they felt that such outlets would further drain away population and create competing states beyond the mountains.
The So-Called Era of Good Feelings
The Federalists ran a candidate for the presidential for the last time in 1816. James Monroe won the election.
The time during the administrations of President Monroe was known as the "Era of Good Feelings" because the 2 political parties were getting along.
The Panic of 1819 and the Curse of Hard Times
The Panic of 1819 was the first financial panic since President Washington took office. The main cause was the over-speculation in frontier lands.
The Bank of the United States became a financial devil to western farmers because it foreclosed many farms.
Growing Pains of the West
Between 1791 and 1819, 9 states from the West had joined the United States. People moved out west because of cheap land.
The Land Act of 1820 authorized a buyer to purchase 80 virgin acres at a minimum of $1.25 an acre. The West also demanded cheap transportation and cheap money.
Slavery and the Sectional Balance
The House of Representatives slowed the plans of the Missourians of becoming a state by passing the Tallmadge Amendment. It called for no more slaves to be brought into Missouri and called for the gradual emancipation of children born to slave parents already there. The amendment was later defeated by the slave states in Congress.
The Uneasy Missouri Compromise
Henry Clay introduced the compromise that decided whether or not Missouri would be admitted as a slave state. Congress decided to admit Missouri as a slave state in 1820. But, Maine, which was apart of Massachusetts, was to be admitted as a separate, free state. Therefore, there were 12 slave states and 12 free states.
The Missouri Compromise by Congress forbade slavery in the remaining territories in the Louisiana Territory north of the line of 36° 30', except for Missouri.
James Monroe was elected again as President in 1820.
John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism
McCulloch vs. Maryland (1819) involved an attempt by the state of Maryland to destroy a branch of the Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on the Bank's notes. John Marshall declared the U.S. Bank constitutional by invoking the Hamiltonian doctrine of implied powers. He strengthened federal authority and slapped at state infringements when he denied the right of Maryland to tax the Bank.
Cohens vs. Virginia (1821) involved the Cohens appealing to the Supreme Court for being found guilty of illegally selling lottery tickets by the state of Virginia. Virginia won and the conviction was withheld.
Gibbons vs. Ogden (1824) grew out of an attempt by the state of New York to grant to a private concern a monopoly of waterborne commerce between New York and New Jersey. (Meaning that no other company could use the waterway.) New York lost.
Judicial Dikes Against Democratic Excesses
Fletcher vs. Peck (1810) Georgia legislature granted 35 million acres to private speculators; the next legislature cancelled the bribery-induced transaction. John Marshall let the state give the acres to the private speculators calling it a contract and constitutional. The decision protected property rights against popular pressures.
Dartmouth College vs. Woodward (1819) Dartmouth College was given a charter by King George III but New Hampshire wanted to take it away. John Marshall ruled in favor of the college.
Daniel Webster- "Expounding Father"; served in both the House and Senate.
Sharing Oregon and Acquiring Florida
John Quincy Adams- Secretary of State to James Monroe.
The Treaty of 1818 permitted the Americans to share the Newfoundland fisheries with the Canadians and provided for a 10-year joint occupation of the Oregon Country without a surrender of the rights or claims of either America or Britain.
With the many revolutions taking place in South America, Spain was forced to take many of its troops out of Florida. General Andrew Jackson went into Florida saying he would punish the Indians and recapture the runaways who were hiding away in Spanish Florida. He did this, but captured St. Marks and Pensacola, the 2 most important Spanish posts in the area.
The Florida Purchase Treaty of 1819, Spain ceded Florida, as well as Spanish claims to Oregon in exchange for America's abandonment of claims to Texas.
The Menace of Monarchy in America
After Napoleon's fall from power in 1815, the Europeans wanted to completely eliminate democracy.
George Canning- British foreign secretary; asked the American minister in London if the United States would band together with the British in a joint declaration renouncing any interest in acquiring Latin American territory, and specifically warning the European dictators to keep their harsh hands off the Latin American republics.
Monroe and His Doctrine
Secretary Adams thought the British feared that the Americans would one day seize Spanish territory in the Americas; jeopardizing Britain's possessions in the Caribbean.
Monroe Doctrine (1823) - President Monroe, in his annual address to Congress, stated a stern warning to the European powers. Its two basic features were non-colonization and nonintervention.
Monroe stated that the era of colonization in the Americas was over.
Monroe also warned against foreign intervention. He warned Britain to stay out of the Western Hemisphere, and stated that the United States would not intervene in foreign wars.
Monroe's Doctrine Appraised
The Europeans powers were offended by the Monroe Doctrine; in a big part because of America's soft military strength.
President Monroe was more concerned with the security of America when he issued the Monroe Doctrine. He had basically warned the Old World power to stay away. The Doctrine thrived off nationalism.
The "Corrupt Bargain" of 1824
There were 4 main "Republican" candidates in the election of 1824: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William Crawford, and Henry Clay.
No candidate won the majority of the electoral votes, so, according to the Constitution, the House of Representatives had to choose the winner. Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House, was thus eliminated although he did have much say in who became president. Clay convinced the House to elect John Quincy Adams as president. Adams agreed to make Clay the Secretary of State for getting him into office. Much of the public felt that a "corrupt bargain" had taken place because Andrew Jackson had received the popular vote.
A Yankee Misfit in the White House
John Quincy Adams was a strong nationalist and he supported the building of national roads and canals. He also supported education.
Going "Whole Hog" for Jackson in 1828
Before the election of 1824, two parties had formed: National Republicans and Democratic-Republicans. Adams and Clay were the figures of the National Republicans and Jackson was with the Democratic-Republicans.
Andrew Jackson beat Adams to win the election of 1828. The majority of his support came from the South, while Adams's support came from the North.
"Old Hickory" as President
Jackson was the first president from the West and 2nd without a college education.
The Spoils System
When the Democrats rose to power in the White House, they replaced most of the people in offices with their own people (the common man). These people were illiterate and incompetent. This system of rewarding political supporters with jobs in the government was known as the "spoils system."
The Tricky "Tariff of Abominations"
In 1824, Congress increased the general tariff significantly.
The Tariff of 1828- called the "Black Tariff" or the "Tariff of Abominations"; also called the "Yankee Tariff". It was hated by Southerners because it was an extremely high tariff and they felt it discriminated against them. The South was having economic struggles and the tariff was a scapegoat.
In 1822, Denmark Vesey led a slave rebellion in Charleston, South Carolina.
The South Carolina Exposition, made by John C. Calhoun, was published in 1828. It was a pamphlet that denounced the Tariff of 1828 as unjust and unconstitutional.
"Nullies" in the South
In an attempt to meet the South's demands, Congress passed the Tariff of 1832, a slightly lower tariff compared to the Tariff of 1828. It fell short of the South's demands.
The state legislature of South Carolina called for the Columbia Convention. The delegates of the convention called for the tariff to be void within South Carolina. The convention threatened to take South Carolina out of the Union if the government attempted to collect the customs duties by force.
Henry Clay introduced the Tariff of 1833. It called for the gradual reduction of the Tariff of 1832 by about 10% over 8 years. By 1842, the rates would be back at the level of 1816.
The compromise Tariff of 1833 ended the dispute over the Tariff of 1832 between the South and the White House. The compromise was supported by South Carolina but not much by the other states of the South.
The Trail of Tears
Jackson's Democrats were committed to western expansion, but such expansion meant confrontation with the Indians who inhabited the land east of the Mississippi.
The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among Indians was founded in 1787 in order to Christianize Indians.
The five civilized tribes were the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles. President Jackson wanted to move the Indians so the white men could expand.
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. It moved more than 100,000 Indians living east of the Mississippi to reservations west of the Mississippi. The five "civilized" tribes were hardest hit.
Black Hawk, who led Sauk and Fox braves from Illinois and Wisconsin, resisted the eviction.
The Seminoles in Florida retreated to the Everglades, fighting for several years until they retreated deeper into the Everglades.
The Bank War
President Andrew Jackson despised the Bank of the United States because he felt it was very monopolistic.
The Bank of the United States was a private institution, accountable not to the people, but to its elite circle of investors. The bank minted gold and silver coins. Nicholas Biddle, the president of the Bank of the United States, held an immense and possibly unconstitutional amount of power over the nation's financial affairs.
The Bank War erupted in 1832 when Daniel Webster and Henry Clay presented Congress with a bill to renew the Bank's charter. Clay pushed to renew the charter in 1832 to make it an issue for the election of that year. He felt that if Jackson signed off on it, then Jackson would alienate the people of the West who hated the Bank. If Jackson vetoed it, then he would alienate the wealthy class of the East who supported the Bank. Clay did not account for the fact that the wealthy class was now a minority. Jackson vetoed the bill calling the Bank unconstitutional.
The veto showed that Jackson felt that the Executive Branch had more power than the Judicial Branch in determining the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States.
"Old Hickory" Wallops Clay in 1833
A third party entered the election in the election of 1832: The Anti-Masonic party. The party opposed the Masonic Order, which was perceived by some as people of privilege and monopoly. Although Jackson was against monopolies, he was a Mason himself; therefore the Anti-Masons were an anti-Jackson party. It gained support from evangelical Protestant groups.
The Jacksonians were opposed to all government meddling in social and economic life.
Andrew Jackson was reelected in the election of 1832.
Burying Biddle's Bank
The Bank of the United States's charter expired in 1836. Jackson wanted to make sure that the Bank would be exterminated.
In 1833, 3 years before the Bank's charter ran out, Jackson decided to remove federal deposits from its vaults. Jackson proposed depositing no more funds in the bank and he gradually shrunk existing deposits by using the funds to pay for day-to-day expenditures of the government.
The death of the Bank of the United States left a financial vacuum in the American economy. Surplus federal funds were placed in several dozen state banks that were political supportive of Jackson.
Smaller, wildcat banks in the west had begun to issue their own currency. But this "wildcat" currency was extremely unreliable because its value was based upon the value of the bank it was issued from. In 1836, "wildcat" currencyhad become so unreliable that Jackson told the Treasury to issue a Specie Circular- a decree that required all public lands to be purchased with metallic money. This drastic step contributed greatly to the financial panic of 1837.
The Birth of the Whigs
The Whigs were conservatives who supported government programs, reforms, and public schools. They called for internal improvements like canals, railroads, and telegraph lines.
The Whigs claimed to be defenders of the common man and declared the Democrats the party of corruption.
The Election of 1836
Martin Van Buren was Andrew Jackson's choice as his successor in the election of 1836. General William Henry Harrison was one of the Whig's many presidential nominees. The Whigs did not win because they did not united behind just one candidate.
Depression Doldrums and the Independent Treasury
The basic cause of the panic of 1837 was the rampant speculation prompted by a get-rich scheme. Gamblers in western lands were doing a "land-office business" on borrowed capital. The speculative craze spread to canals, roads, railroads, and slaves. Jacksonian finance also helped to cause the panic. In 1836, the failure of two British banks caused the British investors to call in foreign loans. These loans were the beginnings of the panic.
The panic of 1837 caused many banks to collapse, commodity prices to drop, sales of public to fall, and the loss of jobs.
Van Buren proposed the Divorce Bill. Not passed by Congress, it called for the dividing of the government and banking altogether.
The Independent Treasury Bill was passed in 1840. An independent treasury would be established and government funds would be locked in vaults.
Gone to Texas
Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1823. Mexico gave a huge chunk of land to Stephen Austin who would bring families into Texas.
The Texans had many differences with the Mexicans. Mexicans were against slavery, while the Texans supported it.
Santa Anna- president of Mexico who, in 1835, wiped out all local rights and started to raise army to suppress the upstart Texans.
The Lone Star Rebellion
Texas declared its independence in 1836. Sam Houston- commander in chief for Texas.
General Houston forced Santa Anna to sign a treaty in 1836 after Houston had captured Santa Anna in the Battle of San Jacinto.
The Texans wanted to become a state in the United States but the northerners did not want them to because of the issue of slavery. Admitting Texas would mean one more slave state.
Log Cabins and Hard Cider of 1840
William Henry Harrison defeated Van Buren to win the election of 1840 for the Whigs. The Whig's campaign included pictures of log cabins and cider.
Politics for the People
There were 2 major changes in politics after the Era of Good Feelings:
1. Politicians who were too clean, too well dressed, too grammatical, and too intellectual were not liked. Aristocracy was not liked by the American people. The common man was moving to the center of the national political stage.
The Two-Party System
2. There was a formation of a two-party system. The two parties consisted of the Democrats and the Whigs (the National Republican Party had died out). Jacksonian Democrats glorified the liberty of the individual. They supported states' rights and federal restraint in social and economic affairs. The Whigs supported the natural harmony of society and the value of community. They favored a renewed national bank, protective tariffs, internal improvements, public schools, and moral reforms, such as the prohibition of liquor and the abolition of slavery.
The Westward Movement
The life as a pioneer was very grim. Pioneers were stricken with disease and loneliness.
Shaping the Western Landscape
Fur trapping was a large industry in the Rocky Mountain area. Each summer, fur trappers would trade beaver pelts for manufactured goods from the East.
George Caitlin- painter and student of Native American life who was among the first Americans to advocate the preservation of nature; proposed the idea of a national park.
The March of Millions
By the mid-1800s, the population was doubling every 25 years. By 1860, there were 33 states and the U.S. was the 4th most populous country in the western world.
The new population and larger cities brought about disease and decreased living standards.
In the 1840s and 1850s, more European immigrants came to the Americas because Europe seemed to be running out of room.
The Emerald Isle Moves West
In the 1840s, the "Black Forties," many Irish came to America because of the massive rot that came upon the potato crops, inducing a famine. Most of the Irish were Roman-Catholic. They were politically powerful because they bonded together as one large voting body. The Irish did not possess many goods. They came to America and were hated by native workers of factories. The Irish hated the blacks with whom they rioted. They also hated the British.
The German Forty-Eighters
Between 1830 and 1860, many Germans came to America because of crop failures and other hardships.
Unlike the Irish, the Germans possessed a modest amount of material goods.
The Germans were more educated than the Americans and were opposed to slavery.
Flare-ups of Antiforeignism
The massive immigration of the Europeans to America inflamed the prejudices of American nativists. The Roman Catholics created an entirely separate Catholic educational system to avoid the American Protestant educational system.
Many people died in riots and attacks between the two religions.
The March of Mechanization
In 1750, steam was used a major way to take the place of human labor. With it came the Industrial Revolution in England.
It took a while for America to embrace the machine because virgin soil in America was cheap and peasants preferred to grow crops as opposed to working in factories. Because of this, labor was scarce and hard to find until the immigrants came to America in the 1840s. There was also not a lot of money for investment in America and consumers were scarce. The large British factories also had a monopoly on the textile industry.
Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine
Samuel Slater- "Father of the Factory System" in America; escaped Britain with the memorized plans for the textile machinery; put into operation the first spinning cotton thread in 1791.
Eli Whitney- built the first cotton gin in 1793.
The cotton gin was much more effective at separating the cotton seed from the cotton fiber than using slaves. It affected not only America, but the rest of the world. Because of the cotton gin, the South's production of cotton greatly increased and the demand for cotton revived the demand for slavery.
New England was favored as the industrial center because it had poor soil for farming; it had a dense population for labor; shipping brought in capital; and seaports made the import of raw materials and the export of the finished products easy.
Marvels in Manufacturing
The War of 1812 prompted a boom of American factories and the use of American products as opposed to British imports.
The surplus in American manufacturing dropped following the Treaty of Ghent in 1815. The British manufacturers sold their products to Americans at very low prices. Congress passed the Tariff of 1816 in order to protect the American manufacturers.
In 1798, Eli Whitney came up with the idea of machines making each part of the musket so that every part of the musket would be the same. The principle of interchangeable parts caught on by 1850 and it became the basis for mass-production.
Elias Howe- invented the sewing machine in 1846.
The sewing machine gave a boost to northern industrialization. It became the foundation of the ready-made clothing industry.
Laws of "free incorporation"- first passed in New York in 1848; meant that businessmen could create corporations without applying for individual charters from the legislature.
Samuel F. B. Morse- invented the telegraph.
Workers and "Wage Slaves"
Impersonal relationships replaced the personal relationships that were once held between workers.
Factory workers were forbidden by law to form labor unions to raise wages. In the 1820s, many children were used as laborers in factories. With Jacksonian democracy came the rights of the laboring man to vote.
President Van Buren established the ten-hour work day in 1840.
Commonwealth vs. Hunt- Supreme Court ruling said that labor unions were not illegal conspiracies, provided that their methods were honorable and peaceful.
Women and the Economy
Farm women and girls had an important place in the pre-industrial economy, spinning yarn, weaving cloth, and making candles, soap, butter, and cheese.
Women were forbidden to form unions and they had few opportunities to share dissatisfactions over their harsh working conditions.
Catharine Beecher- urged women to enter the teaching profession.
The vast majority of working women were single.
During the Industrial Revolution, families were small, affectionate, and child-centered, which provided a special place for women.
Western Farmers Reap a Revolution in the Fields
The trans-Allegheny region became the nation's breadbasket.
Liquor and hogs became the early western farmer's staple market items.
John Deere- produced a steel plow in 1837 which broke through the thick soil of the West.
Highways and Steamboats
Lancaster Turnpike- hard-surfaced highway that ran from Philadelphia to Lancaster; drivers had to pay a toll to use it.
In 1811, the federal government began to construct the National Road, or Cumberland Road. It went from Cumberland, in western Maryland, to Illinois. Its construction was halted during the War of 1812, but the road was completed in 1852.
Robert Fulton- installed a steam engine and created the first steamboat.
The steamboat played a vital role in the opening of the West and South. It played a vital role in binding the West and South.
"Clinton's Big Ditch" in New York
Governor DeWitt Clinton- governor of New York who lead the building of the Erie Canal that connected the Great Lakes with the Hudson River in 1825; the canal lowered shipping prices and decreased passenger transit time.
The Iron Horse
The most significant contribution to the development of such an economy was the railroad. The first one appeared in 1828.
Railroads were at first opposed because of safety flaws and they took away money from the Erie Canal investors.
Cables (Telegraphs), Clippers, and Pony Riders
In the 1840s and 1850s, Yankee navel yards began to produce new crafts called clipper ships. These ships sacrificed cargo room for speed and were able to transport small amounts of goods in short amounts of time. These ships faded away after steam boats were made better and able to carry more goods and, hence, become more profitable.
The Pony Express was established in 1860 to carry mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. The mail service collapsed after 18 months due to lack of profit.
The Transport Web Binds the Union
The desire of the East to move west stimulated the "transportation revolution."
The South raised cotton for export to New England and Britain. The West grew grain and livestock to feed factory workers in the East and in Europe. The East made machines and textiles for the South and the West. All of these products were transported using the railroad; the railroad linked America.
Reviving Religion
Thomas Paine promoted the doctrines of Deism. Deists relied on science rather than the Bible and they denied the divinity of Christ. They did believe in a Supreme Being who had created a universe and endowed human beings with a capacity for moral behavior.
Unitarianism spun off of Deism. Unitarians believed that God existed in only one person. It appealed to mostly intellectuals.
The Second Great Awakening came in 1800. Women were a large part of it.
Peter Cartwright- a revivalist, traveling preacher who converted thousands to Christianity.
Charles Grandison Finney- one of the greatest revivalist preachers.
Denominational Diversity
Many preachers preached in Western New York where the Puritans settled.
The Second Great Awakening widened the lines between the classes and regions. The more prosperous and conservative denominations in the East were little touched by revivalism, and Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Unitarians continued to rise mostly from the wealthier, better-educated levels of society.
The issue of slavery split the churches apart.
A Desert Zion in Utah
Joseph Smith- formed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in 1830 when he deciphered the Book of Mormon from some golden plates given to him by an angel; led the Mormons to Illinois.
After Joseph Smith was killed 1844, Brigham Young led the Mormons to Utah to avoid persecution.
Free Schools for a Free People
Tax-supported public education came about between 1825 -1850. Americans eventually saw they had to educate their children because the children were the future. The teachers of the schools were mostly men and did not know how to teach. There were not very many schools in the U.S. because of their high costs to communities.
Horace Mann- campaigned effectively for a better schooling system.
Higher Goals for Higher Learning
The first state-supported universities showed up in the South in 1795.
The University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson.
Women's schools at the secondary level came in the 1820s because of Emma Willard.
An Age of Reform
States gradually abolished debtors' prisons due to public demand. Criminal codes in the states were being softened. The number of capital offenses was being reduced. The idea that prisons should reform as well as punish arose.
Dorothy Dix- traveled the country, visiting different asylums; released a report on insanity and asylums; her protests resulted in improved conditions for the mentally ill.
In 1828, the American Peace Society was formed. It was led by William Ladd.
Demon Rum - The "Old Deluder"
The problem of drinking was found in women, clergymen, and members of Congress. The American Temperance Society was formed in 1826. Its crusaders persuaded drinkers to stop drinking.
The problem of drinking tore down the family structure.
Neal S. Dow- thought that alcohol should be removed by legislation; "Father of Prohibition"; supported the Maine Law of 1851 which banned the manufacture and sale of liquor in Maine. (The country banned the sale of alcohol with the 18th amendment in 1918.)
Women in Revolt
In the early 19th century, the role of women was to stay at home and be subordinate to her husband. Women could not vote and when married, she could not retain her property. Women actually started to avoid marriage.
Gender differences were emphasized in the 19th century because the market economy was separating women and men into distinct economic roles.
Feminists met at Seneca Falls, New York in a Woman's Rights Convention in 1848 to rewrite the Declaration of Independence to include women.
Wilderness Utopians
Robert Owen- founded in 1825 a communal society in order to seek human betterment.
All utopias failed.
The Dawn of Scientific Achievement
Americans were more interested in practical gadgets than in pure science. Americans invented practical gadgets, but as far as basic science was concerned, Americans borrowed and adapted the findings of Europeans.
Medicine in America was still primitive by modern standards. In the early 1840s, several American doctors and dentists successfully used laughing gas and ether as anesthetics.
Artistic Achievements
Between 1820 and 1850, a Greek revival in architecture came to America. Most of the ideas of art and painting were taken from Europe.
"Dixie" was the battle hymn of the Confederates and was written in 1859.
The Blossoming of a National Literature
Most of the reading material in America was imported or taken from British sources.
Following the War of Independence and the War of 1812, American literature received a boost from the wave of nationalism.
Washington Irving- the first American to win international recognition as a literary figure.
James Fenimore Cooper- the first American novelist to gain world fame.
Trumpeters of Transcendentalism
The transcendentalist movement of the 1830s resulted from a liberalizing of the Puritan theology. It also owed to foreign influences. The transcendentalists rejected the theory that all knowledge comes to the mind through the senses. Truth, rather, transcends the senses and can't be found just by observation. Associated traits included self-reliance, self-culture, and self-discipline.
Ralph Waldo Emerson- transcendentalist poet and philosopher; urged American writers to forget European traditions and write about American interests.
Henry David Thoreau- transcendentalist who believed that one should reduce his bodily wants so as to gain time for a pursuit of truth through study and meditation.
Glowing Literary Lights
Not all poets and writers of the time were transcendentalists.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow- one of the most famous poets to come from America wrote for the refined class; was adopted by the less-cultured class.
Literary Individuals and Dissenters
Edgar Allan Poe- wrote with a pessimistic tone, not like the literature at the time.
Herman Melville- writer of the novel Moby Dick.
Portrayers of the Past
A distinguished group of American historians was emerging at the same time that other international writers were coming about.
Slavery was dying out, but the invention of the cotton gin prompted the plantation owners to keep their slaves as they now produced a high profit harvesting cotton.
"Cotton is King!"
The South controlled Britain because 75% of Britain's cotton came from the South.
The Planter "Aristocracy"
The antebellum South was more of an oligarchy-a government ran by a few. The government was heavily affected by the planter aristocracy. The dominance of aristocracy in the South widened the gap between the rich and poor because the aristocrats made all the decisions in their favor in government.
The Southern plantation wife commanded the female slaves.
Slaves of the Slave System
The economic structure in the South became increasingly monopolistic. The plantation system was very financially unstable. The temptation to over-speculate (no profit w/material held) in land and slaves caused many planters to plunge into debt.
The White Majority
The less wealthy slave owners were below the wealthy slaves owners. The smaller slave owners didn't own a majority of the slaves, but they made up a majority of the masters. Next came the large number of whites (3/4 of South white population) who didn't own slaves. These whites were a support of slavery because they wanted to eventually own a slave or two and achieve the "American dream" of moving up socially in society. The less prosperous nonslave-holding whites were known as "poor white trash" and "hillbillies." Next came the mountain whites who lived in the valley of the Appalachian range. Civilization hadn't reached them yet, and they supported Abraham Lincoln's Union party.
Free Blacks: Slaves Without Masters
Many free blacks settled in New Orleans.
In the South, the free blacks were prohibited from having certain jobs and forbidden from testifying against whites in court. They were known as the "3rd Race."
In the North, the free blacks as individuals were hated more than in the South.
White southerners liked the black as an individual, but hated the race. The white northerner professed to like the race, but disliked the individual.
Plantation Slavery
Because the price of "black ivory" (slaves) was so high, slaves were smuggled into the South despite the importation of African slaves into American ended in 1808. Most slaves were the offspring of slaves already in America.
Planters regarded slaves as major investments.
Life Under the Lash
"Black Belt"- region where most slaves were concentrated; stretched from South Carolina and Georgia into Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Blacks managed to sustain family life in slavery.
Blacks molded their own distinctive religious forms from a mixture of Christian and African elements.
The Burdens of Bondage
Slaves were not permitted to read because reading brought ideas and ideas brought discontent.
Slavery in the South was known as the "peculiar institution."
Early Abolitionism
American Colonization Society- founded in 1817; focused on transporting the blacks back to Africa.
Republic of Liberia- founded in 1822 as a place for former slaves.
The Second Great Awakening inflamed the hearts of many abolitionists against the sin of slavery.
Theodore Dwight Weld- abolitionist who spoke against slavery; wrote the pamphlet American Slavery As It Is (1839) which made arguments against slavery; went to Lane Theological Seminary.
Radical Abolitionism
William Lloyd Garrison- wrote a militantly anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator; publicly burned a copy of the Constitution.
Sojourner Truth- freed black woman who fought for black emancipation and women's rights.
Frederick Douglass- lectured widely for abolitionism; looked to politics to end slavery.
The South Lashes Back
In 1832, states were moving to make the emancipation of any kind illegal. This nullification crisis of 1832 caused the voice of white southern abolitionism to be silenced.
The Southerners argued that slavery was supported by the Bible.
The Gag Resolution required all anti-slavery appeals to be tabled without debate in the House of Representatives.
In 1835, the government ordered the southern postmasters to destroy abolitionist material due to anti-abolitionist mobbing and rioting at a postal office in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Abolitionist Impact in the North
Abolitionists were, for a long time, unpopular in many parts of the North. The southern planters owed much money to the northern bankers-should the Union dissolve, the debts would be lost. New England textile mills were fed with cotton raised by the slaves-if slavery was abolished, then the vital supply would be cut off and there would be unemployment.
"Free soilers" opposed extending slavery to the western territories.
The Accession of "Tyler Too"
Both Whigs, Daniel Webster, as secretary of state, and Henry Clay, the king of the Whigs and their ablest spokesman in the Senate, were set to control the Presidency. Before Henry Harrison's first term, he contracted pneumonia. Only 4 weeks into the term, he died. This hampered Webster and Clay plan.
John Tyler- Vice President to Henry Harrison; successor as President following Harrison's death; "Tyler too"; a Democrat at heart and contradicted many of the Whig Party ideas; vetoes Banks of United States; lowered tariff.
John Tyler: A President without a Party
When the Whig Party came to power in the presidency, many changes came about. The first one was financial reform. The independent treasury system was ended. A bill for a "Fiscal Bank," which would establish a new Bank of the United States went through Congress, but President Tyler vetoed it. The Whigs presented a "Fiscal Corporation" but the president again vetoed it.
President Tyler was rejected by his former Whig Party.
Tyler signed the Tariff of 1842 which was a protective Whig tariff.
A War of Words in Britain
During the 19th Century, there was much hatred of Britain. This sparked the "Third War with England." This war was only fought with paper broadsides.
In 1837, there was a small rebellion in Canada. It failed because it was supported by few Canadians and it could not enforce unpopular laws in the face of popular opposition.
In 1837, the American ship, the Caroline, was sunk by a British force. Washington officials made ineffective protests against the attack. In 1841, British officials in the Bahamas offered asylum to 130 Virginia slaves who had rebelled and captured the American ship Creole.
Manipulating the Maine Maps
In 1842, the British wanted to build a road westward from the seaport of Halifax to Quebec, running through disputed territory. The London Foreign Office sent Lord Ashburton to Washington to settle the dispute. He and Daniel Webster negotiated and gave the Americans 7,000mi2 of the 12,000mi2 of land in dispute.
The Lone Star of Texas Shines Alone
In the 8 years since 1836, Mexico considered Texas as a province in revolt and refused to recognize Texas's independence. Mexico threatened war if the America protected Texas.
Texas made treaties with France, Holland, and Belgium. Britain wanted to have relations with Texas because Britain could try to make Texas tear America apart. Britain wanted Texas as an independent ally.
The Belated Texas Nuptials
Texas became a leading issue in the presidential campaign of 1844. The Democrats were pro-expansion and were for annexing Texas.
President Tyler signed a resolution in 1845 that invited Texas to become the 28th state in America.
Oregon Fever Populates Oregon
Four nations claimed Oregon Country at one time: Spain, Russia, Britain, and the United States. Spain dropped out of America with the Florida Treaty of 1819 and Russia dropped out with the treaties of 1824 and 1825.
Britain controlled the portion north of the Columbia River. By 1846, about 5,000 Americans settled south of the Columbia River. The British had a lesser population but it did not want to give up its claims to the Columbia River. The disputed territory in Oregon Country became an issue in the election of 1844.
A Mandate for Manifest Destiny
In the election of 1844, the Whig party chose Henry Clay, and the Democrats chose James K. Polk. James K. Polk was the Speaker of the House of Representatives for four years and governor of Tennessee for two terms. He beat Henry Clay to win the election of 1844; "Young Hickory"; said he would protect Texas; he avoided the issue of slavery.
In the 1840s and 1850s, many Americans felt that God had "manifestly" destined the American people to spread their democratic institutions over the entire continent and over South America as well.
Democrats strongly supported the idea of Manifest Destiny.
Henry Clay straddled the issue whether or not to annex Texas.
Polk the Purposeful
Polk had four main goals for his presidency -
1. A lower tariff.
Robert J. Walker- Secretary of Treasury to James Polk; devised the Walker Tariff of 1846, a tariff-for-revenue bill that reduced the rates of the Tariff of 1842 from 32% to 25%.
2. The second goal of Polk was to restore the independent treasury, which the Whigs dropped in 1841 because the Whigs won the presidency.
3./4. The third and fourth goals of Polk were the acquisition of California and the settlement of the Oregon dispute without violence. Britain presented Polk with the Oregon Country up to 490. The offer was approved and a reasonable compromise was reached without a shot fired.
Misunderstandings with Mexico
The population of California in 1845 consisted of Spanish-Mexicans and Indians.
Polk wanted to buy California (The Bear Flag Republic) from Mexico but relations with Mexico were poor due to the annexation of Texas.
John Slidell- due to rumors of Britain preparing to buy California, was sent to Mexico City in 1845 by Polk to buy California for $25 million-the offer was rejected.
American Blood on American Soil
On January 13, 1846, Polk ordered 4,000 men under General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande. On May 9, 1846, Polk asked Congress to declare war on Mexico of the basis of unpaid claims and Slidell's rejection of the purchasing of California. Rather, Mexican troops attacked American troops that night and war was declared.
The Mastering of Mexico
Polk wanted California, not war. But when the war came, he hoped that America could pull out with California.
Generals in Mexican-American War:
General Stephen W. Kearny- led 1,700 troops to Santa Fe.
General Zachary Taylor- won many victories including a great victory over a large Mexican force at Buena Vista ; future President
General Winfield Scott- succeeded in battling his way up to Mexico City by September 1847; 1st choice of President Abraham Lincoln to lead the Union army in the Civil War.
Fighting Mexico for Peace
Nicholas P. Trist- chief clear of the State Department; signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave Texas to America and yielded the area stretching westward to Oregon and the ocean, including California, for a cost of $15 million. Southerners realized that the South would do well not to want all of Mexico because Mexico was anti-slavery. The treaty was opposed by those who wanted all of Mexico and those who wanted none of it.
Profit and Loss in Mexico
The Mexican War provided field experience for the officers destined to become generals in the Civil War, including Captain Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant.
The Mexican War brought about the conflict of slavery between the states.
David Wilmot- proposed the amendment that stated that the territory from Mexico should remain slave-free. This Wilmot Amendment never passed the Senate because the Southern members did not want to be robbed of possible slave states to arise in the future from the land gain in the Treaty of Guadalupe.
The Popular Sovereignty Panacea
Popular sovereignty meant that the sovereign people of a territory should determine the statues of slavery. It was popular with politicians because it was a comfortable compromise between the abolitionists and the slaver-holders.
At the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, the Democrats chose General Lewis Cass, a veteran of the war of 1812, as their candidate for presidency. Cass supported slavery.
Political Triumphs for General Taylor
The Whigs, who met in Philadelphia, chose Zachary Taylor as their candidate for presidency. Taylor did not have an official stance on slavery, but he did own many slaves. Henry Clay had not been chosen because he had too many enemies.
The Free Soil Party emerged. It was formed by antislavery men of the North, who didn't trust Cass or Taylor. They supported federal aid for internal improvements. They argued that with slavery, wage labor would wither away and with it, the chance for the American worker to own property.
Zachary Taylor won the election of 1848 (sworn into office in 1849).
"Californy Gold"
In 1848, gold was discovered in California. The rush of people in search of gold in California brought much violence and disease that the small government in California couldn't handle. Needing protection, the Californians bypassed the territorial stage of a state, drafted their own Constitution (excluding slavery) in 1849, and applied to Congress for admission into the Union.
The southerners objected to California's admission as a free state because it would be upset the balance of free and slave states in the Senate.
Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman- conductor of the Underground Railroad who rescued hundreds of slaves.
In 1850, southerners were demanding a new and strict fugitive-slave law. (The old fugitive-slave law passed by Congress in 1793 was very weak.) The slave owners rested their argument on the Constitution, which protected slavery.
Twilight of the Senatorial Giants
The congressional debate of 1850 was called to address the possible admission of California to the Union and threats of secession by southerners. Known as the "immortal trio," Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Daniel Webster spoke at the forum.
Henry Clay, the "Great Pacificator," proposed a series of compromises. He suggested that the North enact a stricter fugitive-slave law.
John Calhoun, the "Great Nullifier," proposed to leave slavery alone, return runaway slaves, give the South its rights as a minority, and restore the political balance. His view was that two presidents would be elected, one from the South and one from the North, each yielding one veto.
Daniel Webster proposed that all reasonable compromises should be made with the South and that a new fugitive-slave law be formed. Although, he was against slavery and he supported Wilmot Proviso, because he felt that cotton could not grow in the territories gained from the Mexican-American War.
Deadlock and Danger on Capital Hill
William H. Seward- senator of New York; antislavery and argued that God's moral law was higher than the Constitution.
President Zachary Taylor seemed bent on vetoing any compromise between the North and South that went through Congress.
Breaking the Congressional Logjam
In 1850, President Taylor died suddenly and Vice President Millard Fillmore took the presidency. President Fillmore signed a series of compromises.
During this time period, a second Era of Good Feelings came about. Talk of succession subsided and the Northerners and Southerners were determined that the compromises would end the issue of slavery.
Balancing the Compromise Scales
Within the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted as a free state and the territories of New Mexico and Utah were open to slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. Thus, the Senate was unbalanced in favor of the North.
The Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850, the Bloodhound Bill, said that fleeing slaves could not testify on their own behalf and they were denied a jury trial. Northerners who aided slaves trying to escape were subject to fines and jail time. This was the one Southern gain from the Compromise of 1850.
The events in the 1850s caused the Northerners to resist succession.
Defeat and Doom for the Whigs
In the Democratic Convention of 1852 in Baltimore, the Democrats chose Franklin Pierce as their candidate for presidency. He supported the finality of everything, including the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law.
Meeting in Baltimore, the Whigs chose Winfield Scott as their candidate for presidency. He also praised the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law.
The votes for the Whig party were split between Northern Whigs, who hated the party's platform but accepted the candidate, and Southern Whigs, who supported the platform but not the candidate.
Franklin Pierce won the election of 1852. The election of 1852 marked the end of the Whig party. It died on the issue of the Fugitive-Slave Law. The Whig party had upheld the ideal of the Union through their electoral strength in the South.
President Pierce the Expansionist
The victory of the Mexican War stimulated the spirit of Manifest Destiny. Americans were looking ahead to possible canal routes and to the islands near them, notably Spain's Cuba.
Americans lusted for territory after the Compromise of 1850.
William Walker installed himself as the President of Nicaragua in July 1856. He legalized slavery, but was overthrown by surrounding Central American countries and killed in 1860.
Nicaragua was the world's leading marine and commercial power. The British, fearing the Americans would monopolize the trade arteries there, secured a foothold in Greytown.
The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty said that neither America nor Britain would fortify or secure exclusive control over any isthmian waterway (waterway between two bodies of land).
In 1854, Japan was persuaded to sign a treaty that started the trade of America with Japan.
Coveted Cuba: Pearl of the Antilles
Cuba was prized by Southerners who saw it as the most desirable slave territory available. They felt future states arising from it would eventually restore the balance in the Senate.
President Polk had offered $100 million to buy from Spain, but Spain refused. In 1850-1851, two expeditions full of Southern men descended upon Cuba, with the hopes of taking it over.
Spanish officials in Cuba seized an American ship, the Black Warrior, in 1854. It was now time for President Pierce to provoke a war with Spain and take Cuba.
The secretary of state instructed the American ministers in Spain, England, and France to prepare confidential recommendations for the acquisition of Cuba. This document was known as the Ostend Manifesto. It stated that if Spain didn't allow America to buy Cuba for $120 million, then America would attack Cuba on grounds that Spain's continued ownership of Cuba endangered American interests. The document eventually leaked out and the Northerners foiled the President's slave-driven plan.
Pacific Railroad Promoters and the Gadsden Purchase
With the acquisition of California and Oregon, the transcontinental railroad was proposed. The question was where to have the railroad begin-the North or the South.
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had James Gadsden buy an area of Mexico from Santa Anna for which the railroad would pass. Gadsden negotiated a treaty in 1853 and the Gadsden Purchase area was ceded to the United States for $10 million.
The railroad ran from California to Houston, Texas.
Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Scheme
Stephen A. Douglas- longed to break the North-South deadlock over westward expansion; proposed the Territory of Nebraska be sliced into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. Their status on slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty. Kansas would be presumed to be a slave state, while Nebraska would be a free state.
This Kansas-Nebraska Act ran into the problem of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which forbade slavery in the proposed Nebraska Territory. Douglas was forced to propose the repealing of the Missouri Compromise. President Pierce fully supported the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.
Congress Legislates a Civil War
The Kansas-Nebraska act wrecked two compromises: the Compromise of 1820 which the act repealed; and the Compromise of 1850, which northern opinion repealed indirectly.
The Democratic Party was shattered by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The Republican Party was formed in the Mid-West and it had moral protests against the gains of slavery. It included Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, and other foes of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Southerners hated the Republican Party.
The Kansas Territory erupted in violence in 1855 between proslavery and antislavery arguments. In 1857, the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision invalidated the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries
Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was white, published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 as an attempt to show the North the horrors of slavery. The novel was published abroad, including France and Britain. It helped to start the Civil War and to end it.
Hinton R. Helper, a non-aristocrat from North Carolina, wrote The Impending Crisis of the South in 1857. Hated by both slavery and blacks, it attempted to use statistics to prove indirectly that the non-slaveholding whites were the ones who suffered the most from slavery.
The North-South Contest for Kansas
Most of the people who came into Kansas were just westward-moving pioneers. A minority of the people moving to Kansas was financed by groups of northern abolitionists who wanted to see Kansas a free state. The New England Emigrant Aid Company was one of these groups.
In 1855, the day that the first territorial legislatures were to be elected, many pro-slavery people came in from slave- state Missouri to vote, enacting pro-slavery officials. The slavery supporters set up their own government at Shawnee Mission. The free-soilers then set up their own government in Topeka, giving the Kansas territory two governments. (Kansas and Nebraska territories were to have popular sovereignty in choosing slavery according to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Nebraska was so far north that its future as a free state was never in question.)
In 1856, the Civil War in Kansas started when a group of pro-slavery riders burned down a part of the free-soil town of Lawrence.
Kansas in Convulsion
John Brown- fanatical abolitionist who, in May of 1856 in response to the pro-slavery events in Lawrence, hacked to death 5 presumed pro-slavery men at Pottawatomie Creek.
Civil War flared up in Kansas in 1856, and continued until in merged with the nation's Civil War of 1861-1865.
In 1857, Kansas had enough people to apply for statehood. Its citizens were going to vote again on whether or not to have slavery in the state of Kansas. In order to keep the free-soilers from creating a free state, the pro-slavery politicians created the Lecompton Constitution. The document stated that the people were not allowed to vote for or against the constitution as a whole, rather, they could vote on whether the constitution would be "with slavery" or "without slavery." If slavery was voted against, then one of the provisions in the constitution would protect those who already owned slaves in Kansas. Many free-soilers boycotted voting, so the pro-slaveryites voted, approving the constitution to include slavery.
James Buchanan, a democrat, succeeded Pierce as the President of the United States. He had a strong southern influence and approved of the Lecompton Constitution. Senator Stephen Douglas was strongly opposed to the document and he campaigned against it. Eventually, a compromise was reached that enabled the people of Kansas to vote on the Lecompton Constitution, itself. It was revoked by the free-soil voters, but Kansas remained a territory until 1861, when the southern states seceded from the Union.
President Buchanan divided the powerful Democratic Party by enraging the Douglas Democrats of the North. He divided the only remaining national party and with it, the Union.
"Bully" Brooks and His Bludgeon
In 1856, abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts made an intense speech condemning pro-slavery men, also insulting South Carolina and state representative, Preston Brooks. In response to this, Brooks, on May 22, 1856, beat Sumner with a cane to unconsciousness.
The speech made by Sumner was applauded in the North, angering the South.
The clash between Sumner and Butler showed how violent and impassioned the Northerners and Southerners were for their cause.
"Old Buck" Versus "The Pathfinder"
Meeting in Cincinnati, the Democrats chose James Buchanan as their presidential candidate to run in the election of 1856 because he wasn't influenced by the Kansas-Nebraska Act as Pierce and Douglas had been. The Democratic platform campaigned for popular sovereignty.
Meeting in Philadelphia, the Republicans chose Captain John C. Fremont because he was also not influenced by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Republican platform campaigned against the extension of slavery.
The American Party, also called the Know-Nothing Party, was formed by Protestants who were alarmed by the increase of immigrants from Ireland and Germany. They chose former president Millard Fillmore as their candidate for theelection of 1856.
The Electoral Fruits of 1856
James Buchanan won the election of 1856.
It was quite possibly a good thing that the Republican Party did not win the election, because some southerners said the election of a Republican president would mean war, forcing them to secede.
This election was a small victory for the Republican Party because the party was just 2 years old, yet putting up a fight for the Democrats.
The Dred Scott Bombshell
Dread Scott, a slave who had lived with his master (residence in Missouri) for 5 years in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory, sued for his freedom on the basis of his long residence on free soil. The Supreme Court ruled that because a slave was private property, he could be taken into any territory and legally held there in slavery. The Fifth Amendment forbade Congress from depriving people of their property without the due process of law. The Court went further and stated that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that Congress had no power to ban slavery from the territories, no matter what the territorial legislatures themselves wanted.
This victory delighted Southerners, while it infuriated Northerners and supporters of popular sovereignty.
The Financial Crash of 1857
The panic of 1857 broke out due to California gold inflating the currency and over-speculation in land and railroads. The North was the hardest hit, while the South, with its cotton, continued to flourish.
Northerners came up with the idea of the government giving 160-acre plots of farming land to pioneers for free. Two groups opposed the idea: Eastern industrialists feared that the free land would drain its supply of workers and the South feared that the West would fill up with free-soilers who would form anti-slavery states, unbalancing the Senate even more. Congress passed a homestead act in 1860, making public lands available at $0.25/acre, but it was vetoed by President Buchanan.
The Tariff of 1857 lowered duties to about 20%. The North blamed it for causing the panic, because they felt they needed higher duties for more protection. This gave the Republicans two economic issues for the election of 1860: protection for the unprotected and farms for the farmless.
An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges
In Illinois's senatorial election of 1858, the Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln to run against Democrat Stephen Douglas. Lincoln served in the Illinois legislature as a Whig politician and he served one term in Congress.
The Great Debate: Lincoln versus Douglas
Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates that were arranged from August to October 1858.
The most famous debate came at Freeport, Illinois. Lincoln asked Douglas, "What if the people of a territory should vote down slavery?" The Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision had decreed that the people could not. Douglas's reply to him became known as the "Freeport Doctrine." Douglas argued that no matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down. Laws to protect slavery would have to be voted on by the territorial legislatures.
Douglas won the senatorial election, but Lincoln won the popular vote.
John Brown: Murderer or Martyr?
Abolitionist John Brown's scheme was to invade the South secretly with a handful of followers, call upon the slaves to rise, give the slaves weapons, and establish a black free state as a sanctuary.
In October 1859, he seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Because many of his supporters failed to show up, he was caught and sent to death by hanging. When Brown died, he lived on as a martyr to the abolitionist cause.
The Disruption of the Democrats
For the election of 1860, the Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina to choose their candidate. The northern wing of the party wanted to nominate Stephen Douglas, but the southern "fire-eaters" saw him as a traitor for his unpopular opposition to the Lecompton Constitution and unpopular Freeport Doctrine reply. After the delegates from most of the cotton states walked out, the Democrats met again in Baltimore to elect a candidate. This time, Douglas was elected, despite the fact that the southerners again walked out.
The southern Democrats met in Baltimore to choose their own Democratic presidential candidate. They chose vice-president John C. Breckenridge. The platform favored the extension of slavery into the territories and the annexation of slave-populated Cuba.
The Constitutional Union Party was formed by former Whigs and Know-Nothings. They nominated John Bell as their presidential candidate.
A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union
The Republican Party met in Chicago and nominated Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate.
The Republican platform had an appeal to nearly every part of the nation. For the free-soilers, non-extension of slavery; for the northern manufacturers, a protective tariff; for the immigrants, no abridgment of rights; for the Northwest, a Pacific railroad; for the West, internal improvements at federal expense; and for the farmers, free homesteads (plots of land) from the public domain.
The Southerners said that if Abraham Lincoln was elected as President, the Union would split.
The Electoral Upheaval of 1860
Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860, but he did not win with the popular vote. 60% of the nation voted for another candidate. 10 southern states didn't even allow Lincoln to appear on the ballot.
South Carolina was happy at the outcome of the election because it now had a reason to secede.
Even though the Republicans won the presidential election, they did not control the House of Representatives, the Senate, or the Supreme Court.
The Secessionist Exodus
In December 1860, South Carolina's legislature met in Charleston and voted unanimously to secede. 6 other states joined South Carolina: Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
The 7 seceders met at Montgomery, Alabama in February 1861 and created a government known as the Confederate States of America. The states chose Jefferson Davis, a recent member of the U.S. Senate from Mississippi, as President.
During this time of secession, Buchanan was still President for Lincoln was not sworn in until 1861. President Buchanan did not hold the seceders in the Union by force because he was surrounded by southern advisors and he could find no authority in the Constitution to stop them with force. One important reason was that the tiny army of 15,000 men of the Union was needed to control the Indians of the West.
The Collapse of Compromise
The Crittenden amendments to the Constitution were designed to appease the South. They said that slavery in the territories was to be prohibited north of 360 30', but south of that line was to be given federal protection in all territories existing or herby acquired. Basically, states north of the line could come into the Union with or without slavery, depending on what they chose, but below that line, there would always be slavery. President Lincoln rejected the amendments.
Farewell to the Union
The southern states seceded fearing that the Republican Party would threaten their rights to own slaves.
Many southerners felt that their secession would be unopposed by the North. They assumed that the northern manufacturers and bankers, dependent upon southern cotton and markets, wouldn't dare cut off the South.
The Menace of Secession
President Abraham Lincoln declared that secession was impractical because the North and South were not geographically divided. He also stated that with secession, new controversies would arise, including the national debt, federal territories, and the fugitive-slave issue.
South Carolina Assails Fort Sumter
When President Lincoln was elected, there were only two significant forts in the South that flew the Union's flag. Fort Sumter, in the Charleston harbor, needed supplies in order to support its men. Therefore, Lincoln adopted amiddle-of-the-road solution. He told the South that the North was sending provisions to the fort, not supplies for reinforcement. Taking the move by Lincoln as an act of aggression, the South Carolinians fired upon Fort Sumter onApril 12, 1861.
Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee all seceded after the attack on Fort Sumter. The 11 seceded states were known as the "submissionists."
Lincoln now had a reason for an armed response, and he called upon the Union states to supply militiamen.
Brothers' Blood and Border Blood
Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia were the Border States. They were the only slave states that hadn't seceded from the Union. The Border States contained the Ohio River, a vital necessity for both the North and the South.
The official statement that Lincoln made for war was to fight to preserve the Union, not to end slavery.
The Five Civilized Tribes (Native American) (Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles) sided with the Confederacy. These tribes were allowed to send delegates to the Confederacy congress. Most of the Plains Indians sided with the Union.
The Balance of Forces
The South had the advantage of fighting defensively on its own land and it did not have to win in order to preserve the Confederacy-it just had to fight to a draw.
Abraham Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee command of the Northern army, but Lee turned the job down deciding to fight for his home state of Virginia. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was Lee's chief lieutenant.
There were not a lot of factories in the South, but the South was able to seize federal weapons from the Union.
The North held ¾ of the nation's wealth, and ¾ of the nation's railroad system. It also had nearly twice as large of a population of the South as more and more immigrants arrived in the North from Europe.
Dethroning King Cotton
The South counted on foreign intervention to win the war.
The common people of Britain supported the North, hoping to extinguish slavery. Britain restrained its own and French ironclads from breaking the Union blockade.
The British manufacturers depended upon cotton from the South, but before the war from 1857 to 1860, a surplus of cotton had developed in Britain, allowing it to function without purchasing cotton from the South. In 1861, the cotton supply ran out and many British factory workers were laid off. As Union armies penetrated the South, they sent cotton to Britain. King Wheat and King Corn, which were produced great quantities in the North, proved to be more powerful than King Cotton. Therefore, Britain wasn't able to break the blockade to gain cotton, because if it had, it would have lost the granary from the North.
The Decisiveness of Diplomacy
The Trent affair occurred in late 1861. A Union warship stopped a British mail steamer, the Trent, and removed 2 Confederate diplomats who were heading to Europe. Britain started to send troops to Canada in retaliation, but the situation was ended when President Lincoln freed the Confederate prisoners.
Britain shipyards were unknowingly producing Confederate commerce-raiders. The British ships left their ports unarmed, picked up arms elsewhere, and captured Union ships. One notable ship was the Alabama.
Foreign Flare-Ups
In 1863, two Confederate warships were being constructed in the British shipyard of John Laid and Sons. Their large iron rams would have destroyed the Union blockade. To avoid infuriating the North, the London government bought the ships for the Royal Navy.
The British established the Dominion of Canada in 1867. It was partly designed to strengthen the Canadians against the possible vengeance of the United States.
Emperor Napoleon III of France dispatched a French army to occupy Mexico City in 1863. He installed Maximilian as emperor of Mexico City. The actions of Napoleon were in direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Napoleon was counting on the Union not retaliating due to its weakness. When the Civil War ended in 1865, Napoleon was forced to abandon Maximilian and Mexico City.
President Davis versus President Lincoln
The one defect of the South was that its own states could secede. Some state troops refused to serve outside their borders.
President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy often had disputes with his own congress. Davis's task as President proved to be beyond his powers. Lincoln and the North enjoyed a long-established government that was financially stable and fully recognized at home and abroad.
Limitations on Wartime Liberties
Due to the fact that Congress was not in session when the war broke out, President Lincoln proclaimed a blockade, increased the size of the Federal army, directed the secretary of the Treasury to advance $2 million without appropriation or security to 3 private citizens for military purposes, and suspended the habeas corpus (stated that a citizen could not be held without the due process of a trial) - all of which were required to be approved by Congress.
Volunteers and Draftees: North and South
Due to lack of volunteers, Congress passed in 1863 a federal draft law. Men who were called in the draft could pay $300 in order to buy a replacement. The Confederacy also passed a draft law.
The Economic Stresses of War
The North increased tariffs and excise taxes to financially support the war. It also created the first income tax.
In early 1861, after enough anti-protection Southern members had seceded, Congress passed the Morrill Tariff Act. It was a high protective tariff that increased duties 5%-10%. The increases were designed to raise additional revenue and provide more protection for the prosperous manufacturers. A protective tariff became identified with the Republican Party.
The Washington Treasury issued green-backed paper money. The greenbacks were backed by the nation's fluctuating gold supply. Hence, the value of the greenback was constantly changing.
In 1863, Congress authorized the National Banking System. It was designed to stimulate the sale of government bonds and to establish a standard bank-note currency. Banks who joined the National Banking System could buy government bonds and issue sound paper money backed by the bonds.
The Confederate government was forced to print blue-backed paper money that was subject to "runaway inflation."
The North's Economic Boom
Newly invented laborsaving machinery enabled the North to expand economically. Mechanical reapers (farm machines used to harvest grain) allowed for men to leave the farms for the war and provided grain that contributed to Northern profits.
The discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania in 1859 led to a rush of people known as the "Fifty-Niners."
The Civil War opened up many jobs for women that were originally occupied by men.
A Crashed Cotton Kingdom
The North's blockade severely hampered the South's economy. Transportation in the South collapsed during the Civil War. Cotton capitalism had lost out to industrial capitalism.
Bull Run Ends the "Ninety-Day War"
President Abraham Lincoln concluded that an attack on a smaller Confederate force at Bull Run would be worth trying. If successful, the victory would show the superiority of Union arms and might eventually lead to the capture ofCharleston.
On July 21, 1861, the Union and Confederate forces met. A Union victory was thought to be for sure, as evident when spectators showed up. The Confederates won as "Stonewall" Jackson held his line of Confederate soldiers until reinforcements arrived.
"Tardy George" McClellan and the Peninsular Campaign
In 1861, General George B. McClellan was given command of the Army of the Potomac.
Starting the Peninsula Campaign, McClellan's army launched a waterborne attack in the spring of 1862 and captured Yorktown. He came within sight of Richmond and attacked "Stonewall" Jackson. General Robert E. Lee launched a counterattack against the Union forces-the Seven Days' Battles-from June 26 to July 2, 1862 and drove McClellan's forces back to the sea.
The Northern military plan had 6 components: 1. Slowly suffocate the South by blockading its coasts.
2. Liberate the slaves and undermine the very economic foundation of the South.
3. Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River.
4. Dismember the Confederacy by sending troops through Georgia and the Carolinas.
5. Capture its capital at Richmond.
6. Try everywhere to engage the enemy's main strength and grind it into submission.
The War at Sea
The Northern sea blockades were concentrated at the principal ports.
Blockade was the chief offensive weapon of Britain. Britain did not want to tie its hands in a future war with the U.S. by insisting that Lincoln maintain impossibly high blockading standards.
In order to combat the strong blockades, ships were developed to run through them. Some fast ships had the capability of running through blockades in order to make profits transporting cotton. These ships were able to break the blockades up until the latter part of the war when blockades were strengthened.
In 1862, the Confederates created the Merrimack, renamed the Virginia. It was an old U.S. wooden ship that was plated with metal armor. It was a great threat to the Northern blockades because it had the ability to crush through the wooden ships.
On March 9, 1862, the Union ironclad, the Monitor, and the Confederate Merrimack met and fought to a standstill.
The Pivotal Point: Antietam
After General Lee crushed McClellan's forces in Richmond, Lee moved northward. In the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30, 1862), General Lee defeated General Pope's Union forces.
As Lee moved into Maryland, he met McClellan's forces again at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. McClellan managed to halt Lee's forces after his forces discovered Lee's battle plans. Although not a victory, the Union stopped the Confederate march northward.
Antietam provided Lincoln with the military backing to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 23, 1862. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued a final proclamation. Lincoln now made the Civil War a war to end slavery because he declared that "the rebels could not experiment for 10 years trying to destroy the government and if they fail still come back into the Union unhurt."
The Confiscation Act of 1862 punished "traitors" by declaring their slaves property of war who shall be free.
A Proclamation without Emancipation
The Emancipation Proclamation called for the freeing of all slaves, although it did not actually free them. Lincoln did not even enforce the freeing of slaves in the Border States for fear that they, too, would secede. The proclamation fundamentally changed the nature of the war because it effectively removed any chance of a negotiated settlement between the North and the South.
The Emancipation Proclamation caused an outcry to rise from the South who said that Lincoln was trying to stir up slave rebellion.
The North now had a much stronger moral cause. It had to preserve the Union and free the slaves.
Blacks Battle Bondage
After the Emancipation Proclamation and as manpower ran low, blacks were allowed to enlist in the Union army. Towards the end of the war, the Confederacy allowed blacks to enlist, but by then it was too late.
Lee's Last Lunge at Gettysburg
After Antietam, Lincoln replaced McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac with General A. E. Burnside. But due to Burnside's massive defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 13, 1862, he was replaced by Hooker. During the battle at Chancellorsville, Virginia on May 2-4, 1863, Hooker was badly beaten, but not before Jackson was mortally wounded. Hooker was replaced by General George G. Meade.
As Lee moved his Confederate force to the north again (this time to Pennsylvania), he was met by Meade's force at Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863. The failure of General George Pickett's charge enabled the Union to win the battle. President Jefferson Davis was planning to deliver negotiators to the Washington D.C. with the Confederate victory at Gettysburg. Since the Union won the battle instead, Lincoln did not allow the negotiators to come.
The War in the West
Ulysses S. Grant became a colonel in the Union volunteer army. His first victory was when he captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862. He then moved to capture the junction of the main Confederate north-south and east-west railroads in the Mississippi Valley at Corinth. His plan was foiled when he was defeated by a Confederate force at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6-7, 1862.
General Grant was given command of the Union forces attacking Vicksburg. The city fell and surrendered on July 4, 1863.
Due to back-to-back Union military victories at the Battle of Gettysburg and the Battle of Vicksburg, all Confederate hopes for foreign help were lost.
Sherman Scorches Georgia
General Grant won the battle at Chattanooga, and the state of Tennessee was cleared of Confederates. Grant was made general in chief due to this win.
The invasion of Georgia was left up to General William Tecumseh Sherman. He captured Atlanta in September of 1864 and burned it in November. He destroyed rail lines and burned buildings. He continued on through Georgia, with the main purposes of destroying supplies destined for the Confederate army and to weaken the morale of the men at the front by waging war on their homes. Sherman captured Savannah on December 22, 1864. He moved up throughSouth Carolina, capturing and burning Columbia on February 17, 1865.
The Politics of War
Critics in President Lincoln's own party were led by secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase.
The Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, formed in late 1861, was dominated by radical Republicans who resented the expansion of presidential power in wartime and who pressed Lincoln on emancipation.
After Stephen A. Douglas, the leader of the Democratic Party in the North, died, the party split between those who supported Lincoln (War Democrats) and those who didn't (Peace Democrats).
Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham was a prominent member in a group called the Copperheads, which were radical Peace Democrats. Vallandigham was banished from the North to the South by Lincoln but he later returned after the war had ended.
The Election of 1864
Fearing defeat, the Republicans joined with the War Democrats to form the Union Party in the election of 1864. Lincoln's running-mate was Andrew Johnson, a local War Democrat.
The Democrats, including the Copperheads, nominated General McClellan was their presidential candidate.
The Northern Democrats lost the election of 1864. This was one of the most crushing losses suffered by the South. The removal of Lincoln was the last hope for a Confederate victory.
Grant Outlasts Lee
President Lincoln chose General Grant to lead the assault on the Confederate capital of Richmond. Grant had 100,000 men and engaged Lee in a series of battles in the Wilderness of Virginia (Wilderness Campaign).
On June 3, 1864, Grant ordered the frontal assault on Cold Harbor. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed within a matter of minutes, but Grant's strategy of losing two men and killing one Confederate worked. He captured Richmond and cornered Lee. On April 9, 1865, Lee was forced to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia (a significant portion of the Confederate army) at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.
The Martyrdom of Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and killed at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson took over as President.
The Aftermath of the Nightmare
The Civil War claimed over 600,000 lives and cost over $15 billion.
The Problems of Peace
All rebel (Confederate) leaders were pardoned by President Johnson in 1868.
Freedmen Define Freedom
Emancipation took effect unevenly in different parts of the conquered Confederacy. Some slaves resisted the liberating Union armies due to their loyalty to their masters.
The church became the focus of black community life in the years following emancipation. Blacks formed their own churches pastured by their own ministers. Education also arose for the blacks due to the emancipation proclamation. Blacks now had the opportunity to learn to read and write.
The Freedmen's Bureau
Because many freedmen (those who were freed from slavery) were unskilled, unlettered, without property or money, and with little knowledge of how to survive as free people, Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau on March 3,1865. It was intended to provide clothing, medical care, food, and education to both freedmen and white refugees. Union general Oliver O. Howard led the bureau. The bureau's greatest success was teaching blacks to read. Because it was despised by the President and by Southerners, the Freedmen's Bureau expired in 1872.
Johnson: The Tailor President
Andrew Johnson was elected to Congress and refused to secede with his own state of Tennessee.
Johnson was made Vice Democrat to Lincoln's Union Party in 1864 in order to gain support from the War Democrats and other pro-Southern elements. Johnson was a strong supporter of state's rights and of the Constitution. He was a Southerner who did not understand the North and a Democrat who had not been accepted by the Republicans.
Presidential Reconstruction
In 1863, Lincoln stated his "10 percent" Reconstruction plan which stated that a state could be reintegrated into the Union when 10% of its voters in the presidential election of 1860 had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States and pledged to abide by emancipation. Then a formal state government would be constructed within the state, and the state would be re-admitted into the Union.
Due to Republican fears over the restoration of planter aristocracy and the possible re-enslavement of blacks, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864. It required that 50% of a state's voters take the oath of allegiance and it demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation. President Lincoln refused to sign the bill.
The disagreement between the President and Congress revealed differences in Republicans and two factions arose: a majority that agreed with Lincoln and believed that the seceded states should be restored to the Union as quickly as possible, and a radical minority that felt the South should suffer greatly before its re-admittance - this minority wanted the South's social structure to be uprooted, the planters to be punished, and the newly-emancipated blacks protected by federal power.
President Johnson issued his own Reconstruction plan on May 29, 1865. It called for special state conventions which were required to: repeal the decrees of secession, repudiate all Confederate debts, and ratify the slave-freeing 13thAmendment.
The Baleful Black Codes
The Black Codes was a series of laws designed to regulate the affairs of the emancipated slaves. Mississippi passed the first such law in November 1865.
The Black Codes aimed to ensure a stable and subservient labor force.
Blacks were forced to continue to work the plantations after their emancipation due to the system of "sharecropping." Plantation owners would rent out pieces of their land to blacks and make the cost of rent higher than the return the land produced. The renters of the land were bound by contract to continue to work the land until debts were repaid to the plantation owner. Unable to repay the debts, blacks began to "jump" their contracts.
The codes imposed harsh penalties on blacks who "jumped" their labor contracts, some of which usually forced the blacks to work for the same employer for one year. The codes also sought to restore the pre-emancipation system of race relations. The codes forbade a black to serve on a jury or to vote. The Black Codes mocked the idea of freedom and imposed terrible hardships on the blacks who were struggling against mistreatment and poverty to make their way as free people.
The Republicans were strongly opposed to the Black Codes.
Congressional Reconstruction
In December 1865, Southern states represented themselves in Congress with former Confederate generals and colonels. This infuriated the Republicans who were apprehensive about embracing their Confederate enemies in Congress.
The Republicans had enjoyed their supreme rule in Congress during the time of the Civil War, but now there would be an opposing party. This time, the South would have much more control in Congress due to the fact that slaves were now counted as a whole person, not just 3/5; giving the South a larger population. Republicans feared that the South would take control of Congress.
On December 4, 1865, Republicans shut the door in the face of the newly-elected Southern delegates.
President Johnson announced on December 6, 1865 that the Southern states had met his conditions and that the Union was now restored - this statement angered the Republicans.
Johnson Clashes with Congress
The clash between President Johnson and Congress erupted in February 1866 when the president vetoed a bill extending the life of the controversial Freedmen's Bureau (later re-passed). Congress (controlled by the Republicans) passed the Civil Rights Bill in March 1866, which gave blacks the privilege of American citizenship and struck at the Black Codes.
Fearing that the Southerners might someday repeal the hated Civil Rights Law, Congress passed the 14th Amendment in 1866. The amendment: 1- gave civil rights, including citizenship, to the freedmen; 2- reduced proportionately the representation of a state in Congress and in the Electoral College if it denied blacks on the ballot; 3- disqualified from federal and state offices former Confederates who, as federal officeholders, had once sworn to support the Constitution of the United States; and 4- guaranteed the federal debt, while the Union assumed all Confederate debts.
Congress began to develop into the dominant role in controlling the government.
All Republicans agreed that no state should be welcomed back into the Union without ratifying the 14th Amendment.
Swinging 'Round the Circle with Johnson
As President Johnson went on a tour of giving speeches denouncing the radical Republicans in Congress, his reputation dropped.
Over 2/3 of the ballots cast in the congressional elections of 1866 had gone to the Republicans.
Republicans Principles and Programs
Charles Sumner led the Republican radicals in the Senate for black freedom and racial equality. Thaddeus Stevens led the radicals in the House of Representatives.
The moderate Republicans, the majority in Congress, preferred policies that restrained the states from cutting citizens' rights, rather than policies that directly involved the federal government in individual lives.
Reconstruction by the Sword
On March 2, 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act. It divided the South into 5 military districts, each commanded by a union general and policed by Union soldiers. It also required that states wishing to be re-admitted into the Union had to ratify the 14th Amendment, and that states' constitutions had to allow former adult male slaves to vote. The moderate Republican goal was to create voters in Southern states that would vote those states back into the Union and thus free the federal government from direct responsibility for the protection of black rights.
The 15th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1869. It granted black men the right to vote.
Military Reconstruction of the South took control of certain functions of the president, who was commander in chief, and set up a martial regime.
In 1877, the last federal arms were removed from Southern politics and the Democratic South was made.
No Women Voters
Feminists were angered that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments gave rights to black males, but not to women.
The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South
After gaining the right to vote from the 15th Amendment, blacks began to organize politically. They were strong participators in the Union League, originally a pro-Union organization. Freedmen turned the Union League into a network of political clubs that educated members and campaigned for Republican candidates. The League also took up building black churches and schools, representing black grievances before local employers and government, and recruiting militias to protect black communities from white retaliation.
From 1868-1876, blacks began to hold major offices in government (senator, congressmen).
"Scalawags" were Southerners who were accused of plundering the treasuries of the Southern states through their political influence in the radical governments.
"Carpetbaggers" were sleazy Northerners who had come to the South to seek power and profit.
The Ku Klux Klan
The "Invisible Empire of the South", otherwise known as the Ku Klux Klan, was founded in Tennessee in 1866. It was formed by disgruntled white Southerners who were angered by the success of black legislators. The group worked through intimidation.
Congress passed the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 in response to the murders the Klan had committed. They enabled Federal troops to stop the atrocities of the Ku Klux Klan. The Acts came too late, though, after the intimidation of the Klan had already been accomplished.
Johnson Walk the Impeachment Plank
Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867. It required the president to secure the consent of the Senate before he could remove his cabinet members once they had been approved by the Senate. Its purpose was to keep the secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton, in the president's cabinet. When Johnson dismissed Stanton in 1868, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors."
A Not-Guilty Verdict for Johnson
The House of Representatives prosecuted the president, while the Senate served as the court to try Johnson on the impeachment charges.
President Johnson argued that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional and that he had fired Stanton in order to bring a case before the Supreme Court so the Court could rule on the Act's constitutionality.
On May 16, 1868, the Senate voted the president "not guilty" by a margin of one vote. The radical Republicans failed to gain the necessary 2/3 majority vote in the Senate to remove the president.
Fears of creating a poor precedent and opposition to abusing the checks and balances system caused Senators to vote "not guilty." These Senators also considered his presidential replacement, Ben Wade. Wade was disliked by many for his economic policies.
The Purchase of Alaska
In 1867, Secretary of State William Seward signed a treaty with Russia that gave Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million.
Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. because it felt that it was over-expanded in North America. Russia also wanted to strengthen the United States as a barrier against its enemy, Britain.
Although the American people were concentrated on Reconstruction and anti-expansion, they supported the purchase of Alaska because they did not want to offend the Russians, who had helped them during the Civil War.
The Heritage of Reconstruction
Many white Southerners felt that Reconstruction was more of a painful process that the war itself.
The Republican Party wanted to protect the freed slaves and to promote the fortunes of the Republican Party. In doing this, though, it extinguished itself in the South for nearly 100 years.
Despite good intentions by the Republicans, the Old South was in many ways more resurrected than reconstructed.
Thaddeus Stevens had a radical program of drastic economic reforms and heftier protection of political rights. This program was never enacted.
The "Bloody Shirt" Elects Grant
The Republicans nominated General Grant for the presidency in 1868. The Republican Party supported the continuation of the Reconstruction of the South, while Grant stood on the platform of "just having peace."
The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour.
Grant won the election of 1868.
The Era of Good Stealings
Jim Fisk and Jay Gould devised a plot to drastically raise the price of the gold market in 1869. On "Black Friday," September 24, 1869, the two bought a large amount of gold, planning to sell it for a profit. In order to lower the high price of gold, the Treasury was forced to sell gold from its reserves.
"Boss" Tweed employed bribery, graft, and fraudulent elections to milk New York of as much as $200 million. (Tweed Ring) Tweed was eventually put into prison.
A Carnival of Corruption
In addition to members of the general public being corrupt, members of the federal government also participated in unethical actions.
The Credit Mobilier scandal erupted in 1872 when Union Pacific Railroad insiders formed the Credit Mobilier construction company and then hired themselves at inflated prices to build the railroad line, earning high dividends. When it was found out that government officials were paid stay quiet about the illicit business, some officials were censured.
The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872
In response to disgust of the political corruption in Washington and of military Reconstruction, the Liberal Republican Party was formed in 1872.
The Liberal Republican Party met in Cincinnati and chose Horace Greeley as their presidential candidate for the election of 1872. The Democratic Party also chose Greeley as their candidate. The Republican Party continued to put its support behind President Grant. Grant won the election of 1872.
The Liberal Republicans caused the Republican Congress to pass a general amnesty act in 1872; removing political disabilities from most of the former Confederate leaders. Congress also reduced high Civil War tariffs and gave mild civil-service reform to the Grant administration.
Depression, Deflation, and Inflation
Over-speculating was the primary cause to the panic of 1873; too much expansion had taken place. Too many people had taken out loans of which they were unable to pay back due to lack of profit from where they had invested their money.
Due to popular mistrust of illegitimate dealings in the government, inflation soon depreciated the value of the greenback. Supported by advocates of hard money (coin money), the Resumption Act of 1875 required the government to continue to withdraw greenbacks from circulation and to redeem all paper currency in gold at face value beginning in 1879.
The coinage of silver dollars was stopped by Congress in 1873 when silver miners began to stop selling their silver to the federal mints - miners could receive more money for the silver elsewhere.
The Treasury began to accumulate gold stocks against the appointed day for the continuation of metallic money payments. This policy, along with the reduction of greenbacks, was known as "contraction."
When the Redemption Day came in 1879 for holders of greenbacks to redeem the greenbacks for gold, few did; the greenback's value had actually increased due to its reduction in circulation.
The Republican hard-money policy had a political backlash and helped to elect a Democratic House of Representatives in 1874.
Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age
Throughout most of the Gilded Age (a name given to the 30 years after the Civil War era by Mark Twain) the political parties in government had balanced out.
Few significant economic issues separated the Democrats and the Republicans.
Republican voters tended to stress strict codes of personal morality and believed that the government should play a role in regulating the economic and the moral affairs of society. They were found in the Midwest and Northeast. Many Republican votes came from the Grand Army of the Republic, a politically active fraternal organization of many Union veterans of the Civil War.
Democrats were immigrant Lutherans and Roman Catholics who believed in toleration of differences in an imperfect world. They also opposed the government imposing a single moral standard on the entire society. Democrats were found in the South and in the northern industrial cities.
A "Stalwart" faction led by Roscoe Conkling supported the system of swapping civil-servant jobs for votes. (Giving someone a job if they vote for a specific party/cause. "Spoils system") Opposed to the Stalwarts were the Half-Breeds, led by James G. Blaine. The main disagreement between the two groups was over who would give the jobs to the people who voted in their favor.
The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876
Congress passed a resolution that reminded the country, and Grant, of the two-term tradition for presidency after Grant was speculating about running for a 3rd term.
The Republicans chose Rutherford B. Hayes as their presidential candidate for the election of 1876. The Democrats chose Samuel J. Tilden.
In the election, Tilden won the popular vote, but was 1 vote shy from winning in the Electoral College. The determining electoral votes would come from three states, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida who had each sent two sets of ballots to Congress, one with the Democrats victorious and the other with the Republicans victorious; there was no winner in these states.
It was necessary to find the true political party winner of the states, although it was unknown who would judge the winner of the states because the president of the Senate was a Republican and the Speaker of the House was a Democrat.
The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction
The Electoral Count Act (Compromise of 1877), passed by Congress in 1877, set up an electoral commission consisting of 15 men selected from the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court. It was made to determine which party would win the election. The committee finally determined, without opening the ballots from the 3 disputed states, that the Republicans had been victorious in the disputed ballots from the three states, giving the Republicans the presidency.
The Democrats were outraged at the outcome, but agreed that Republican Hayes could take office if he withdrew the federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina.
With the Hayes-Tilden deal, the Republican Party abandoned its commitment to racial equality.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 supposedly guaranteed equal accommodations in public places and prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection. The Supreme Court ended up ruling most of the Act unconstitutional, declaring that the 14th Amendment only prohibited government violations of civil rights, not the denial of civil rights by individuals.
The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post-Reconstruction South
As Reconstruction had ended in the South, white Democrats resumed their political power in the South and began to exercise their discrimination upon blacks.
Blacks were forced into sharecropping and tenant farming. Through the "crop-lien" system, small farmers who rented out land from the plantation owners were kept in perpetual debt and forced to continue to work for the owners.
Eventually, state-level legal codes of segregation known as Jim Crow laws were enacted. The Southern states also enacted literacy requirements, voter-registration laws, and poll taxes to ensure the denial of voting for the South's black population.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the South's segregation in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896), declaring that separate but equal facilities for blacks were legal under the 14th Amendment.
Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes
Following the panic of 1873 and the resulting depression, railroad workers went on strike after their wages were cut by President Hayes. The strike failed, exposing the weakness of the labor movement.
Masses of immigrants came to United States in hopes of finding riches, but many were dismayed when they found none. They either returned home or remained in America and faced extraordinary hardships.
People of the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic troubles to the hated Chinese workers. To appease them, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, halting Chinese immigration into America.
Garfield and Arthur
Because President Hayes was despised by his own Republican Party, James A. Garfield was chosen as the presidential candidate for the election of 1880. His vice-president was Chester A. Arthur, a former Stalwart. The Democrats chose Civil War hero, Winfield Scott.
Garfield won the election of 1880, but was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau at a Washington railroad station. Guiteau, claiming to be a Stalwart, shot the president claiming that the Conklingites would now get all the good jobs now that Chester Arthur was President.
The death of Garfield shocked politicians into reforming the spoils system. The reform was supported by President Arthur, shocking his critics. The Pendleton Act of 1883 made campaign contributions from federal employees illegal, and it established the Civil Service Commission to make appointments to federal jobs on the basis of competitive examination. It was basically made to stop political corruption. The civil-service reform forced politicians to gain support and funds from big-business leaders.
The Blaine-Cleveland Mudslingers of 1884
The Republicans chose James G. Blaine as their presidential candidate for the election of 1884. The Democrats chose Grover Cleveland. Grover Cleveland was a very honest and admirable man. Cleveland won the election of 1884.
"Old Grover" Takes Over
Questions were raised about whether Cleveland and the Democratic Party, "the party of disunion," could be trusted to govern the Union.
Cleveland replaced thousands of federal employees with Democrats.
Cleveland summed up his political philosophy when he vetoed a bill in 1887 to provide seeds for drought-ravaged Texas farmers, stating that the government should not support the people.
The Grand Army of the Republic lobbied hundreds of unreasonable military pension bills through Congress, but Cleveland vetoed many of the bills.
Cleveland Battles for a Lower Tariff
The growing surplus of money in the Treasury coming from the high tariff, which was made to raise revenues for the military during the Civil War, caused President Cleveland to propose lowering of the tariff in order to bring lower prices to consumers. The lower tariff, introduced to Congress in 1887 and supported by Cleveland, tremendously hurt the nation's factories and the overall economy. Cleveland lost support because of the tariff.
The Republicans chose Benjamin Harrison as their presidential candidate for the 1888 election. During the election, the first major issue between the two parties had arisen: tariffs. Cleveland won the popular vote, but Harrison still won the election.
The Billion-Dollar Congress
When the Democrats were prepared to stop all House business, the Speaker of the House, Thomas B. Reed, took control and intimidated the House to his imperious will. The Billion-Dollar Congress, named for its lavish spendings, gave pensions to Civil War veterans, increased government purchases on silver, and passed the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890.
The McKinley Tariff Act raised tariffs yet again and brought more troubles to farmers. Farmers were forced to buy expensive products from American manufacturers while selling their own products into the highly competitive world markets.
The Tariff Act caused the Republican Party to lose public support and become discredited. In the congressional elections of 1890, the Republicans lost their majority in Congress.
The Drumbeat of Discontent
The People's Party, or "Populists," formed from frustrated farmers in the agricultural belts of the West and South. The Populists demanded inflation through free and unlimited coinage of silver. They also called for a graduated income tax; government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephone; the direct election of U.S. senators; a one-term limit on the presidency; the adoption of the initiative and referendum to allow citizens to shape legislation more directly; a shorter workday; and immigration restriction.
The Populists nominated General James B. Weaver for the presidential election of 1892.
In 1892, a series of violent worker strikes swept through the nation.
The Populist Party fell far short of winning the election. One of the main reasons was that the party supported and reached out to the black community. Its leaders, such as Thomas Edward Watson, felt that a black man had every right to vote. The Populist Party counted on many blacks votes from the South. Unfortunately, many Southern blacks were denied the right to vote due to literacy tests. The Southern whites voted against the party due the party's equal rights views toward blacks.
Cleveland and Depression
Grover Cleveland again ran for the presidency in the election of 1892 and won, beating out the divided Populist Party and the discredited Republican Party.
The panic of 1893 was the worst economic downturn for the United States during the 19th Century. It was caused by overbuilding and over-speculation, labor disorders, and the ongoing agricultural depression.
The Treasury was required to issue legal tender notes for the silver bullion that it had purchased. Owners of the paper currency would then present it for gold, and by law the notes had to be reissued. This process depleted the gold reserve in the Treasury to less than $100 million.
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 was created by the administration of Benjamin Harrison in order to increase the amount of silver in circulation. The drastic rise in silver caused the American people to believe that the less expensive silver was going to replace gold as the main form of currency. The American people therefore began to withdraw their assets in gold, depleting the Treasury's gold supply. Cleveland was forced to repeal the Sherman Silver Act Purchase in 1893.
Cleveland turned to J.P. Morgan to lend $65 million in gold in order to increase the Treasury's reserve.
Cleveland Breeds a Backlash
The Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894 lowered tariffs and contained a 2% tax on incomes over $4,000. The Supreme Court ruled income taxes unconstitutional in 1895.
The Wilson-Gorman Tariff caused the Democrats to lose positions in Congress, giving the Republicans an advantage.
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, and Cleveland were known as the "forgettable presidents."
The Iron Colt Becomes an Iron Horse
Due to the expansion of the country, many new railroads were built. Congress began to advance liberal money loans to 2 favored cross-continent companies in 1862 in response to the fact that transcontinental railroad construction was so costly and risky.
Growing railroads took up more land than they were allotted because their land grants were given over a broad path through the proposed route. The railroad owners would then choose the route to build on. President Grover Cleveland ended the land dispute in 1887 when he opened up all the unclaimed public portions of the grants to the public.
Spanning the Continent with Rails
The Union Pacific Railroad was commissioned by Congress in 1862 to build a transcontinental railroad starting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Many railroad workers, including Irish "Paddies", were forced to pick up their rifles and fight when Indians attempted to defend their lands.
Rail-lying at the California end of the railroad was taken up by the Central Pacific Railroad. The 4 chief financial backers of the enterprise (the Big Four) included Leland Stanford and Collis P. Huntington. They operated through 2 construction companies.
The Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad companies both received monetary aid from the government.
The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, increasing trade with Asia and opening up the West for expansion.
Binding the Continent with Railroad Ties
There was a total of 5 transcontinental railroads built: The Northern Pacific Railroad, running from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, was completed in 1883; the Atchison, running from Topeka to California, was completed in 1884; theSouthern Pacific, stretching from New Orleans to San Francisco, was also completed in 1884; and the Great Northern, running from Duluth to Seattle, was completed in 1893 by James J. Hill.
Railroad Consolidation and Mechanization
The railroad was Cornelius Vanderbilt's enterprise.
2 significant improvements benefited the railroads; the steel rail and a standard gauge of track width. Steel rails were much stronger and safer than the traditional iron rails.
Revolution by Railways
The railroad stimulated the industrialization of the country in the post-Civil War years. It created an enormous domestic market for American raw materials and manufactured goods. Railroad companies also stimulated immigration.
At this time, every town in the United States had its own local time. In order to keep schedules and avoid wrecks, the major rail lines stated, on November 18, 1883, that the continent would be divided into 4 times zones - most towns accepted the new time method.
Wrongdoing in Railroading
With great wealth and prosperity came much corruption.
In order to increase the weight of cows, "stock watering" was employed. It entailed forcing a cow to bloat itself with water before it was weighed for sale. This technique enabled railroad stock promoters to inflate their claims about a given line's assets and profitability and sell stocks and bonds in excess of the railroad's actual value.
Railroaders, feeling they were above the law, abused the public by bribing judges and legislatures.
Railroad kings were manipulators of a huge natural monopoly and exercised too much direct control over the lives of people.
Many rail barons granted rebates or kickbacks (bribes) to powerful shippers in return for steady traffic.
Railroad companies combined with other companies in order to protect their profits. "Pools", agreements to divide the business in a given area and share the profits, were the earliest form of combinations.
Government Bridles the Iron Horse
With the onset of the depression of the 1870s, came protests from farmers against railroaders who ran the farmers into bankruptcy.
Many Midwestern legislatures tried to regulate the railroad monopoly, but in 1886, the Supreme Court ruled in the Wabash case that individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce.
In 1887, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act. It prohibited rebates and pools, required the railroads to publish their rates openly, forbade unfair discrimination against shippers, and outlawed charging more for a short trip than for a long one over the same line. It also created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to administer and enforce the new legislation. The new laws provided an orderly forum where competing business interests could resolve their conflicts in peaceful ways. The laws tended to stabilize the existing railroad business.
Miracles of Mechanization
The telephone was created in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell. This invention revolutionized the way Americans communicated. Thomas Alva Edison invented numerous devices; the most well-known is his perfection of the electriclight bulb in 1879.
The Trust Titan Emerges
Tycoons like Andrew Carnegie, the steel king; John D. Rockefeller, the oil baron; and J. Pierpont Morgan, the bankers' banker, circumvented their competition. Carnegie used the tactic of "vertical integration" to combine all phases of manufacturing into one organization. He and his business controlled every aspect of production, from mining to marketing. His goal was to improve efficiency.
"Horizontal integration" entailed allying with competitors to monopolize a given market. This tactic of creating trusts was used by Rockefeller.
The Supremacy of Steel
Steel was "king" during the industrialization era. Nearly every aspect of society used it.
The United States soon outdistanced all foreign competitors and was producing 1/3 of the world's steel supply. The Bessemer process allowed for the price of steel to drop dramatically and for its production to be done with relative ease. The process involved blowing cold air on red-hot iron in order to ignite the carbon and eliminate impurities.
Carnegie and Other Sultans of Steel
Andrew Carnegie was not a monopolist and actually disliked monopolistic trusts. He entered the steel business in the Pittsburgh area and created an organization with about 40 "Pittsburg millionaires." By 1900, he was producing ¼ of the nation's Bessemer steel.
J. P. Morgan's financed the reorganization of railroads, insurance companies, and banks.
In 1900, Carnegie was eager to sell his holdings of his company. At that time, Morgan was starting to manufacture steel pipe tubing. Carnegie threatened to ruin his rival (Morgan) by invading the same business if Morgan did not buy him out. Finally Morgan agreed to buy out Carnegie for $400 million.
Morgan expanded his industrial empire and created the United States Steel Corporation in 1901. It was America's first billion-dollar corporation.
Carnegie dedicated the rest of his life to donating the rest of his money to charities.
Rockefeller Grows an American Beauty Rose
Kerosene was the first major product of the oil industry. But, the invention of the light bulb rendered kerosene obsolete.
By 1900, the gasoline-burning internal combustion engine had beaten out its rivals as the primary means of automobile propulsion. The birth of the automobile gave a great lift to the oil industry.
John D. Rockefeller organized the Standard Oil Company of Ohio in 1870, attempting to eliminate the middlemen and knock out his competitors. By 1877, he controlled 95% of all the oil refineries in the nation.
Rockefeller grew to such a great power by eliminating his competitors.
Other trusts grew in addition to the oil American Beauty of oil. These included the sugar trust, the tobacco trust, the leather trust, and the harvester trust.
The Gospel of Wealth
The wealthy proclaimed that they were justified by God to have so much wealth. They claimed that God gave them their money or they were a product of natural selection.
Plutocracy, government controlled by the wealthy, took control of the Constitution. The clause that gave Congress sole jurisdiction over the interstate commerce was a bonus for the monopolists; they used their lawyers to thwart controls by state legislatures. Large trusts also sought safety behind the 14th Amendment, arguing that corporations were actually legal "people."
Government Tackles the Evil Trust
Hailing to public demand, Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. The Act forbade combinations in restraint of trade without any distinction between "good" trusts and "bad" trusts. The law proved ineffective because it contained legal loopholes and it made all large trusts suffer, not just bad ones.
The South in the Age of Industry
Throughout the industrial strive in the North, the South produced a smaller percentage of the nation's manufactured goods. Southern agriculture received a boost in the 1880s when machine-made cigarettes replaced earlier methods of producing cigarettes. This caused tobacco consumption to shoot up.
James Buchanan Duke took advantage of the growing tobacco business and formed the American Tobacco Company in 1890.
Numerous obstacles lay in the path of southern industrialization. Northern-dominated railroad companies charged lower rates on manufactured goods moving southward from the North, but higher rates when raw materials were shipped from the South to the North.
The "Pittsburgh plus" pricing system was economic discrimination against the South in the steel industry. Rich deposits of coal and iron ore were discovered in Birmingham, Alabama. The steel lords of Pittsburgh brought pressure to bear on the compliant railroads. As a result, Birmingham steel was charged a fictional fee, no matter where it was shipped.
The South strived in manufacturing cotton textiles. By 1880, northern capital had created cotton mills in the South. Those who worked the cotton mills were in perpetual debt and were paid extremely low wages.
The Impact of the New Industrial Revolution on America
During the decades after the Civil War, economic miracles increased the standard of living in the United States. The industry of agriculture declined to manufacturing.
Women were most affected by the new industrial age. Women found jobs as inventions arose; the typewriter and the telephone switchboard gave women new economic and social opportunities.
The nation of farmers and independent producers was becoming a nation of wage earners. By the beginning of the 1900s, the vast majority of the nation's population earned wages.
In Unions There Is Strength
Due to the rise in wage-earners in factories, the owners of the factories did not have any relationship with their employees.
New machines displaced employees but in the long run, more jobs were created than destroyed.
Factory workers eventually began to go on strike, complaining of their wages. Corporations sometimes compelled their workers to sign "ironclad oaths" or "yellow-dog contracts" saying that the workers would not join a labor union.
Some corporations even owned the "company town," increasing the prices of basic living so that the company could gain wealth.
The middle-class public grew tired of constant strikes, knowing that American wages were of the highest in the world.
Labor Limps Along
The Civil War, which put a premium on human labor, gave a boost to labor unions.
The National Labor Union, organized in 1866, lasted 6 years and attracted 600,000 members. Black workers also formed their own Colored National Labor Union. The Colored National Labor Union's support for the Republican Party and racism of white unionists prevented it and the National Labor Union from working together.
After the National Labor Union pretty much died out in 1877, the Knights of Labor took over.
Led by Terence V. Powderly, the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor was formed in 1869 as a secret society and remained secret until 1881. It sought to include all workers in one big union and campaigned for economic and social reform, including and codes for safety and health.
Unhorsing the Knights of Labor
On May 4, 1886 in Haymarket Square, Chicago police advanced on a meeting called to protest alleged brutalities by authorities. A dynamite bomb was thrown and killed dozens of people. 8 anarchists were tried and convicted; 5 were sentenced to death while the other 3 were sent to jail. In 1892, the governor of Illinois, John P. Altgeld, pardoned the 3 who were in prison.
The Knights of Labor were blamed for incident at Haymarket Square and as a result, it lost public support. Another downfall of the Knights of Labor was that it included both skilled and unskilled workers. When unskilled workers went on strike, they were just replaced.
The American Federation of Labor's inclusion of only skilled worked drained the Knights of Labor of its participants.
The AF of L to the Fore
The American Federation of Labor was founded in 1886 and was led by Samuel Gompers. The federation consisted of an association of self-governing national unions, each of which kept its own independence. It sought for better wages, hours, and working conditions. The federation's main weapons were the walkout and the boycott.
The greatest weakness of organized labor was that it still embraced only a small minority of all working people.
Labor Day was created by Congress in 1894.
The Urban Frontier
By 1890, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia all had a population greater than 1 million.
Louis Sullivan contributed to the development of the skyscraper. City limits were extended outward by electric trolleys. People were attracted to the cities by amenities such as electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephones.
Trash became a large problem in cities due to throwaway bottles, boxes, bags, and cans.
The New Immigration
The New Immigrants of the 1880s came from southern and eastern Europe. They came from countries with little history of democratic government, where people had grown accustomed to harsh living conditions.
Some Americans feared that the New Immigrants would not assimilate to life in their new land. They began asking if the nation had become a melting pot or a dumping ground.
Southern Europe Uprooted
Immigrants left their native countries because Europe had no room for them. The population of Europe nearly doubled in the century after 1800 due to abundant supplies of fish and grain from America and the widespread cultivation of Europe.
"America fever" caught on in Europe as the United States was portrayed as a land of great opportunities.
Persecutions of minorities in Europe sent many fleeing immigrants to the United States. Many immigrants never intended to stay in America forever; a large number returned home with money. Those immigrants who stayed in the United States struggled to preserve their traditional culture.
Reactions to the New Immigration
The federal government did virtually nothing to ease the assimilation of immigrants into American society.
Trading jobs and services for votes, a powerful boss might claim the loyalty of thousands of followers. In return for their support at the polls, the boss provided jobs on the city's payroll, found housing for new arrivals, and helped get schools, parks, and hospitals built in immigrant neighborhoods.
The nation's social conscience gradually awakened to the troubles of cities. Walter Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden were Protestant clergymen who sought to apply the lessons of Christianity to the slums and factories.
Jane Addams established Hull House, the most prominent American settlement house. Addams condemned war as well as poverty. Hull House offered instruction in English, counseling to help immigrants deal with American big-city life, childcare services for working mothers, and cultural activities for neighborhood residents.
Lillian Wald established Henry Street Settlement in New York in 1893.
The settlement houses became centers of women's activism and of social reform.
Florence Kelley was a lifelong battler for the welfare of women, children, blacks, and consumers.
The pioneering work of Addams, Wald, and Kelley helped to create the trail that many women later followed into careers in the new profession of social work.
The urban frontier opened new possibilities for women. The vast majority of working women were single due to the fact that society considered employment for wives and mothers taboo.
Narrowing the Welcome Mat
Antiforeignism, or nativism, arose in the 1880s with intensity.
Nativists worried that the original Anglo-Saxon population would soon be outnumbered and outvoted. Nativists considered eastern and southern European immigrants inferior to themselves. They blamed the immigrants for the dreadful conditions of urban government, and unionists attacked the immigrants for their willingness to work for small wages.
Among the antiforeigner organizations formed was the American Protective Association (APA). Created in 1887, it urged to vote against Roman Catholic candidates for office.
Organized labor was quick to show its negative attitude towards immigrants. Immigrants were frequently used as strike-breakers.
In 1882, Congress passed the first restrictive law against immigrants. It forced paupers, criminals, and convicts back to their home countries. In 1885, Congress prohibited the importation of foreign workers under contract-usually for substandard wages. Federal laws were later enacted that were made to keep the undesirables out of America.
In 1882, Congress barred the Chinese completely from immigrating to the United States (Chinese Exclusion Act).
Churches Confront the Urban Challenge
Protestant churches suffered significantly from the population move to the cities, where many of their traditional doctrines and pastoral approaches seemed irrelevant.
A new generation of urban revivalists stepped into this spreading moral vacuum. Dwight Lyman Moody, a Protestant evangelist, proclaimed a gospel of kindness and forgiveness. He contributed to adapting the old-time religion to the facts of city life. The Moody Bible Institute was founded in Chicago in 1889 to carry out his work.
Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths were gaining enormous strength from the New Immigration.
By 1890, there were over 150 religious denominations in the United States.
The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy who preached that the true practice of Christianity heals sickness.
Darwin Disrupts the Churches
Published in 1859 by Charles Darwin, On the Origin of the Species stated that humans had slowly evolved from lower forms of life.
The theory of evolution cast serious doubt on the idea of religion. Conservatives stood firmly in their beliefs of God and religion, while Modernists flatly refused to accept the Bible in its entirety.
The Lust for Learning
During this time period, public education and the idea of tax-supported elementary schools and high schools were gathering strength.
Teacher-training schools, called "normal schools", experienced great expansion after the Civil War.
The New Immigration in the 1880s and 1890s brought new strength to the private Catholic parochial schools, which were fast becoming a major part of the nation's educational structure.
Public schools excluded millions of adults. Crowded cities generally provided better educational facilities than the old one-room rural schoolhouses.
Booker T. Washington and Education for Black People
The South lagged far behind other regions in public education, and African-Americans suffered the most.
The leading champion of black education was ex-slave Booker T. Washington. He taught in 1881 at the black normal and industrial school at Tuskegee, Alabama. His self-help approach to solving the nation's racial problems was labeled "accommodationist" because it stopped short of directly challenging white supremacy. Washington avoided the issue of social equality.
George Washington Carver taught and researched at Tuskegee Institute in 1896. He became an internationally famous agricultural chemist.
Black leaders, including Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, attacked Booker T. Washington because Washington condemned the black race to manual labor and perpetual inferiority. Du Bois helped to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910.
The Hallowed Halls of Ivy
Female and black colleges shot up after the Civil War.
The Morrill Act of 1862, passed after the Southern states had seceded, provided a generous grant of the public lands to the states for support of education.
The Hatch Act of 1887 extended the Morrill Act and provided federal funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in connection with the land-grant colleges.
Millionaires and tycoons donated generously to the educational system.
Johns Hopkins University, founded in 1876, maintained the nation's first high-grade graduate school.
The March of the Mind
Due to new scientific gains, public health increased.
William James made a large impact in psychology through his numerous writings.
The Appeal of the Press
The Library of Congress was founded in 1897 from the donations of Andrew Carnegie. The invention of the Linotype in 1885 increased the production of texts.
Joseph Pulitzer was a leader in the techniques of sensationalism in St. Louis.
William Randolph Hearst built up a chain of newspapers beginning with the San Francisco Examiner in 1887.
The Associated Press, founded in the 1840s, was gaining strength and wealth.
Apostles of Reform
Magazines partially satisfied the public appetite for good reading.
Possibly the most influential journal of all was the New York Nation. Started in 1865 by Edwin L. Godkin, it crusaded militantly for civil-service reform, honesty in government, and a moderate tariff.
Henry George, another journalistic author, wrote the book Progress and Poverty in 1879, which attempted to solve the association of progress with poverty. According to George, the pressure of growing population on a fixed supply of land unjustifiably pushed up property values, showering unearned profits on owners of land. He supported a single tax.
Edward Bellamy wrote the socialistic novel, Looking Backward, in which the year 2000 contained nationalized big business to serve the public interest.
Postwar Writing
As literacy increased, so did book reading. "Dime novels" were short books that usually told of the wilds of the West.
General Lewis Wallace wrote the novel, Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ, to combat Darwinism.
Horatio Alger was a Puritan-driven New Englander who wrote more than 100 volumes of juvenile fiction involving New York newsboys in 1866.
Literary Landmarks
In novel writing, the romantic sentiment of a youthful era was giving way to the crude human comedy and drama of the world.
In 1899, feminist Kate Chopin wrote about adultery, suicide, and women's ambitions in The Awakening.
Mark Twain was a journalist, humorist, satirist, and opponent of social injustice. He recaptured the limits of realism and humor in the authentic American dialect.
Bret Harte was also an author of the West, writing in California of gold-rush stories.
William Dean Howells became the editor in chief of the prestigious Boston-based Atlantic Monthly. He wrote about ordinary people and about contemporary, and sometimes controversial, social themes.
Stephen Crane wrote about the unpleasant underside of life in urban, industrial America.
Henry James wrote of the confrontation of innocent Americans with subtle Europeans. His novels frequently included women as the central characters, exploring their inner reactions to complex situations with a skill that marked him as a master of psychological realism.
By 1900, portrayals of modern-day life and social problems were the literary order of the day.
Jack London was a famous nature writer who turned to depicting a possible fascistic revolution in The Iron Heel.
Black writer Paul Laurence Dunbar embraced the use of black dialect and folklore to capture the richness of southern black culture.
Theodore Dreiser wrote with disregard for prevailing moral standards.
The New Morality
Victoria Woodhull wrote the periodical, Woodhull and Clafin's Weekly in 1872, which proclaimed her belief in free love.
Anthony Comstock made a life-long war on the immoral. The Comstock Law censored "immoral" material from the public.
Families and Women in the City
Urban life launched the era of divorce. People in the cities were having fewer children because more children would mean more mouths to feed.
Women were growing more independent in the urban environment. Feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman called upon women to abandon their dependent status and contribute to the larger life of the community through productive involvement in the economy.
In 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association was founded.
The re-born suffrage movement and other women's organization excluded black women.
Ida B. Wells helped to launch the black women's club movement, which led to the establishment of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896.
Prohibition of Alcohol and Social Progress
Liquor consumption had increased in the days of the Civil War and had continued to flourish afterwards.
The National Prohibition Party was formed in 1869. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was formed in 1874 by militant women.
The Anti-Saloon League was sweeping new states into prohibiting alcohol, and in 1919, the national prohibition amendment (18th) was passed.
Artistic Triumphs
Music and portrait painting was gaining popularity.
The phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison, enabled the reproduction of music by mechanical means.
The Business of Amusement
The circus, arising to American demand for fun, emerged in the 1880s. Baseball was also emerging as the national pastime, and in the 1870s a professional league was formed.
The move to spectator sports was exemplified by football.
Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith.
The Clash of Cultures on the Plains
In the West, white soldiers spread cholera, typhoid, and smallpox to the Indians. The whites also put pressure on the shrinking bison population by hunting and grazing their own livestock on the prairie grasses.
The federal government tried to appease the Plains Indians by signing treaties with the "chiefs" of various "tribes" at Fort Laramie in 1851 and at Fort Atkinson in 1853. The treaties marked the beginning of the reservation system in the West.
"Tribes" and "chiefs" were often fictions of the white imagination, for Indians usually recognized no authority outside their own family.
In the 1860s, the federal government herded the Indians into smaller confines, mainly the "Great Sioux reservation" in Dakota Territory, and the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
Receding Native Population
At Sand Creek, Colorado in 1864, Colonel J. M. Chivington's militia massacred 400 Indians who apparently posed no threat.
In 1866, a Sioux war party attempting to block construction of the Bozeman Trail to the Montana goldfields left no survivors when they ambushed Captain William J. Fetterman's command of 81 soldiers and civilians in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains.
In 1874, Colonel George Armstrong Custer's Seventh Cavalry set out to suppress the Indians after the Sioux attacked settlers who were searching for gold in the "Great Sioux reservation." His cavalry was instead slaughtered.
The Nez Percé Indians were forced to surrender and were deceived into being sent to a dusty reservation in Kansas in 1877.
The taming of Indians was accelerated by the railroad, white men's diseases, and white men's alcohol.
Bellowing Herds of Bison
After the Civil War, over 15 million bison grazed the western plains. By 1885, fewer than 1000 were left after the bison had been slaughtered for their tongues, hides, or for amusement.
The End of the Trail
By the 1880s, the nation began to realize the horrors it had committed upon the Indians. Helen Hunt Jackson published A Century of Dishonor in 1881 which told of the record of government ruthlessness in dealing with the Indians. She also wrote Ramona in 1884 which told of injustice to the California Indians.
The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 dissolved many tribes as legal entities, wiped out tribal ownership of land, and set up individual Indian family heads with 160 free acres. If the Indians behaved like "good white settlers" then they would get full title to their holdings as well as citizenship. The Dawes Act attempted to assimilate the Indians with the white men. The Dawes Act remained the basis of the government's official Indian policy until the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
In 1879, the government funded the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.
Mining: From Dishpan to Ore Breaker
In 1858, minerals including gold and silver were discovered in the Rockies, prompting many "fifty-niners" or "Pike's Peakers" to rush to the mountains the following year in search of the precious metals.
"Fifty niners" also rushed to Nevada in 1859 after an abundant amount of gold and silver was discovered at Comstock Lode.
Women gained the right to vote in Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870), Colorado (1893), and Idaho (1896), long before the women of the East.
Frontier mining played a vital role in bringing population and wealth to the West. The discovering of gold and silver also allowed the Treasury to resume specie payments in 1879.
Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive
The problem of bringing cattle meat to the East from Texas was solved with the introduction of the transcontinental railroad and the newly perfected refrigerator cars.
The "Long Drive" consisted of Texas cowboys driving herds of cattle over unfenced plains until they reached a railroad terminal to where they could be sold. It became significantly less profitable when homesteaders and sheepherders began to put up barbed-fences by which the cattle could not cross.
Cattle-raisers organized the Wyoming Stock-Growers' Association in order to make the cattle-raising business profitable.
The Farmer's Frontier
The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30. Instead of public land being sold primarily for revenue, it was now being given away to encourage a rapid filling of empty spaces and to provide a stimulus to the family farm.
The Homestead Act turned out to be a cruel hoax because the land given to the settlers usually had terrible soil and the weather included no precipitation. Many homesteaders were forced to give their homesteads back to the government.
After the devastating 6-year drought in the West in the 1880s had destroyed farmers' crops, "dry farming" took root on the plains. Its methods of frequent shallow cultivation were adapted to the dry western environment, but over time it depleted and dried the soil.
Once wheat was introduced to the West, it flourished. Eventually federally-financed irrigation projects caused the Great American Desert to bloom.
The Far West Comes of Age
The Great West experienced tremendous population growth from the 1870s to the 1890s. Colorado was admitted as a state in 1876 after the Pike's Peak gold rush.
In 1889-1890, the Republican Congress, seeking more Republican electoral and congressional votes, admitted six new states: ND, SD, MT, WA, ID, and WY. Utah was admitted in 1896, after the Mormon Church formally banned polygamy in 1890.
Many "sooners" illegally entered the District of Oklahoma. On April 22, 1889, the district was opened to the public and thousands came. In 1907, Oklahoma was admitted as the "Sooner State."
The Fading Frontier
In 1890, the superintendent of the census announced that for the first time, a frontier line was no longer evident; all the unsettled areas were now broken up by isolated bodies of settlement.
Western migration may have actually caused urban employers to maintain wage rates high enough to discourage workers from leaving to go farm the West.
Cities of the West began to grow as failed farmers, failed miners, and unhappy easterners sought fortune in cities. After 1880, the area from the Rockies to the Pacific Coast was the most urbanized region in America, measured by the percentage of people living in cities.
The Farm Becomes a Factory
High prices prompted farmers to concentrate on growing single "cash" crops, such as wheat or corn, and use their profits to buy produce at the general store and manufactured goods in town.
The speed of harvesting wheat dramatically increased in the 1870s by the invention of the twine binder and the in the 1880s by the combine.
The mechanization of farms brought about the idea that farms were "outdoor grain factories."
Deflation Dooms the Debtor
The farmers of the West became attached to the one-crop economy - wheat or corn - and were in the same lot as the southern cotton farmers. The price of their product was determined in a unprotected world market by the world output.
In 1870, the lack of currency in circulation forced the price of crops to go down. Thousands of farms had mortgages, with the mortgage rates rising ever higher.
Unhappy Farmers
The good soil of the West was becoming poor, and floods added to the problem of erosion. Beginning in the summer of 1887, a series of droughts forced many people to abandon their farms and towns.
Farmers were forced to sell their low-priced products in an unprotected world market, while buying high-priced manufactured goods in a tariff-protected home market.
Farmers were also controlled by corporations and processors. Farmers were at the mercy of the harvester trust, the barbed-wire trust, and the fertilizer trust, all of which could control the output and raise prices to high levels.
Even though farmers made up ½ the population in 1890, they never successfully organized to restrict production until forced to do so by the federal government 50 years later.
The Farmers Take Their Stand
The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (also known as the Grange), organized in 1867, was led by Oliver H. Kelley. Kelley's first objective was to enhance the lives of isolated farmers through social, educational, and fraternal activities.
The Grangers gradually raised their goals from individual self-improvement to improvement of the farmers' collective troubles. They established cooperatively owned stores for consumers and cooperatively owned grain elevators and warehouses for producers.
Some Grangers entered politics and made Grange Laws, which held the idea of public control of private business for the general welfare. The Grangers' influence faded after courts had reversed their laws.
The Greenback Labor Party combined the appeal of the earlier Greenbackers with a program for improving the lot of labor.
Prelude to Populism
Farmers formed the Farmers' Alliance in Texas in the late 1870s in order to break the grip of the railroads and manufacturers through cooperative buying and selling.
The Alliance weakened itself by excluding blacks and landless tenant farmers. The Colored Farmers' National Alliance was formed in the 1880s to attract black farmers.
Out of the Farmers' Alliances the People's Party, also known as the Populists, emerged. It called for nationalizing the railroads, telephones, and telegraph; instituting a graduated income tax; and creating a new federal subtreasury - a scheme to provide farmers with loans for crops stored in government-owned warehouses. Populists also wanted the free and unlimited coinage of silver.
Coxey's Army and the Pullman Strike
The panic of 1893 strengthened the Populists' stance that farmers and laborers were being mistreated by an oppressed economic and political system.
"General" Jacob S. Coxey set out for Washington in 1894 with a demand that the government relieve unemployment by an inflationary public works program.
Eugene V. Debs helped to organize the American Railway Union. The Pullman strike of 1894 was started when the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages. Debs was imprisoned for not ceasing the strike.
Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan
The Republican candidate for the election of 1896 was William McKinley. Marcus Alonzo Hanna led the Republican presidential campaign. Hanna felt that the prime function of government was to aid business. The Republican platform supported the gold standard.
The Democratic candidate was William Jennings Bryan. The platform demanded inflation through the unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold; meaning that the silver in a dollar would be worth about 50 cents.
Class Conflict: Plowholders versus Bondholders
William McKinley won the election of 1896. Many of McKinley votes came from the East. Many of Bryan's votes came from the debt-stricken South and the trans-Mississippi West. The wage earners in the East voted for their jobs and had no reason to favor inflation, which was the heart of Bryan's campaign.
McKinley's election ushered in a new character to the American political system. Diminishing voter participation in elections, the weakening of party organizations and the fading of issues like the money question and civil-service reform came to replaced by the concern for industrial regulation and the welfare of labor. Scholars have dubbed this new political era the period of the "fourth party system."
Republican Stand-pattism Enthroned
The Dingley Tariff Bill, passed in 1897, proposed new high tariff rates to generate enough revenue to cover the annual Treasury deficits.
The panic of 1893 had passed and Republican politicians claimed credit for bringing prosperity to the nation.
The Gold Standard Act of 1900 provided that paper currency be redeemed freely in gold.
Imperialist Stirrings
As America bustled with a new sense of power generated by the strong growth in population, wealth, and productive capacity, labor violence and agrarian unrest increased. It was felt that overseas markets might provide a safety valve to relieve these pressures.
Reverend Josiah Strong's Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis inspired missionaries to travel to foreign nations.
Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan's book of 1890, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783, argued that control of the sea was the key to world dominance; it stimulated the naval race among the great powers.
James G. Blaine published his "Big Sister" policy which aimed to rally the Latin American nations behind America's leadership and to open Latin American markets to American traders.
The willingness of America to risk war over such distance and minor disputes with Italy, Chile, and Canada demonstrated the aggressive new national mood.
Monroe's Doctrine and the Venezuelan Squall
The area between British Guiana and Venezuela had been in dispute for over 50 years. When gold was discovered in the contested area, the prospect of a peaceful resolution faded.
Secretary of State to President Cleveland, Richard Olney, claimed that if Britain attempted to dominate Venezuela in the quarrel and gain more territory, then it would be violating the Monroe Doctrine. When Britain flatly rejected the relevance of the Monroe doctrine, President Cleveland stated that the United States would fight for it.
Although somewhat annoyed by the weaker United States, Britain chose to not to fight a war. Britain's rich merchant marine was vulnerable to American commerce raiders, Russia and France were unfriendly, and Germany was about to challenge the British naval supremacy.
With their eyes open to the European peril, Britain was determined to cultivate an American friendship. The Great Rapprochement, or reconciliation, between the United States and Britain became a cornerstone of both nations' foreign policies.
Spurning the Hawaiian Pear
The first New England missionaries reached Hawaii in 1820.
Beginning in the 1840s, the State Department began to warn other nations to keep their hands off Hawaii. In 1887, a treaty with the native government guaranteed naval-base rights at Pearl Harbor.
The profits of sugar cultivation in Hawaii became less profitable with the McKinley Tariff of 1890. American planters decided that the best way to overcome the tariff would be to annex Hawaii. Queen Liliuokalani insisted that native Hawaiian should control the islands.
A desperate minority of whites organized a successful revolt in 1893. The Queen was overthrown and white revolutionists gained control of Hawaii. When a treaty to annex Hawaii was presented to the Senate, President Grover Cleveland promptly withdrew it.
Cubans Rise in Revolt
Sugar production of Cuba became less profitable when the America passed the tariff of 1894.
Cubans began to revolt against their Spanish captors in 1895 after the Spanish began to place Cubans in reconcentration camps and treat them very poorly. Cuban revolutionaries began to reason that if they destroyed enough of Cuba and did enough damage, then Spain might abandon Cuba or the United States might move in and help the Cubans with their independence.
America had a large investment as well as annual trade stake in Cuba.
Congress passed a resolution in 1896 that recognized the belligerence of the revolted Cubans. President Cleveland refused to budge and fight for Cuba's independence.
The Mystery of the Maine Explosion
William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer led the fabricated atrocities of Cuba apart of the new "yellow journalism." The two men caused the American people to believe that conditions in Cuba were worse then they actually were.
Hearst's Journal published a private letter written by the Spanish minister in Washington, Dupuy de Lome in 1898. The letter, which degraded President McKinley, forced Dupuy de Lome to resign.
On February 15, 1898, the American ship, Maine blew up in the Havana port. The Spanish investigators deduced that it was an accident (spontaneous combustion in one of the coal bunkers) while the American investigators claimed that Spain had sunk it. The American people were convinced by the American investigators and war with Spain became imminent.
McKinley Unleashes the Dogs of War
American diplomats had already gained Madrid's agreement to Washington's 2 basic demands: an end to the reconstruction camps and an armistice with Cuban rebels.
Although President McKinley did not want a war with Spain, the American people did. He felt that the people should rule so he sent his war message to Congress on April 11, 1898. Congress declared war and adopted the Teller Amendment. It proclaimed to the world that when the United States had overthrown the Spanish misrule, it would give the Cubans their freedom.
Dewey's May Day Victory at Manila
The American people plunged into the war with jubilation, which seemed premature to Europeans. The American army numbered 2,100 officers and 28,000 men compared to the 200,000 Spanish troops in Cuba.
The readiness of the navy (ranked 5th world-wide) owed much to the navy secretary John D. Long and his assistant secretary Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt called upon Commodore George Dewey's 6-ship fleet to descend upon Spain's Philippines in the event of war. On May 1, 1898, Dewey slipped by detection at night and attacked and destroyed the 10-ship Spanish fleet atManila.
Unexpected Imperialistic Plums
Foreign ships began to gather in the Manila harbor, protecting their nationals. After several incidents, the potential for battles with other nations blew over.
On August 13, 1898, American troops captured Manila.
The victory in the Philippines prompted the idea that Hawaii was needed as a supply base for Dewey in the Philippines. Therefore, Congress passed a joint resolution of Congress to annex Hawaii on July 7, 1898.
The Confused Invasion of Cuba
Shortly after the outbreak of the war, the Spanish government sent a fleet of warships to Cuba, led by Admiral Cervera. He was blockaded in the Santiago harbor in Cuba by American ships.
Leading the invasion force from the rear to drive out Cervera was General William R. Shafter.
The "Rough Riders," apart of the invading army, was a regiment of volunteers consisting of cowboys and ex-athletes. Commanded by Colonel Leonard Wood, the group was organized principally by Theodore Roosevelt.
William Shafter's landing near Santiago, Cuba was made without serious opposition.
On July 1st, fighting broke out at El Caney and San Juan Hill, up which Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders charged.
Curtains for Spain in America
Admiral Cervera's fleet was entirely destroyed on July 3, 1898 and shortly thereafter Santiago surrendered. General Nelson A. Miles met little resistance when he took over Puerto Rico.
On August 12, 1898, Spain signed an armistice.
Before the war's end, much of the American army was stricken with malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever.
McKinley Heeds Duty, Destiny, and Dollars
In late 1898, Spanish and American negotiators met in Paris to begin heated discussions. The Americans secured Guam and Puerto Rico, but the Philippines presented President McKinley with a problem: he didn't feel he could give the island back to Spanish misrule, and America would be turning its back upon responsibilities if it simply left the Philippines.
McKinley finally decided to Christianize and to civilize all of the Filipinos. Disputes broke out with the Spanish negotiators over control of the Philippines because Manila had been captured the day after the war, and the island could not be listed among the spoils of the war. America therefore agreed to pay Spain $20 million for the Philippines.
America's Course (Curse?) of Empire
The Anti-Imperialistic League sprang up and fought the McKinley administration's expansionist moves.
In the Senate, the Spanish treaty ran into such opposition that is seemed doomed to defeat. Democratic presidential candidate for the election of 1900, William J. Bryan used his influence on Democratic senators to get the treaty approved on February 6, 1899. Bryan argued that the sooner the treaty was passed, the sooner the Filipinos could gain their independence.
Perplexities in Puerto Rico and Cuba
By the Foraker Act of 1900, Congress gave the Puerto Ricans a limited degree of popular government and, in 1917, granted them U.S. citizenship. The American regime in Puerto Rico worked wonders in education, sanitation, transportation, and other improvements.
Beginning in 1901 with the Insular Cases, the Supreme Court declared that the Constitution did not extend to the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
The United States, honoring the Teller Amendment of 1898, withdrew from Cuba in 1902. The U.S. forced the Cubans to write their own constitution of 1901 (the Platt Amendment). The constitution decreed that the United States might intervene with troops in Cuba in order to restore order and to provide mutual protection. The Cubans also promised to sell or lease needed coaling or naval stations to the U.S.
New Horizons in Two Hemispheres
Although the Spanish-American War only lasted 113 days, American prestige as a world power increased.
One of the greatest results of the war was the bonding between the North and the South.
On February 4, 1899, the Filipinos erupted in rebellion against the occupying United States forces after the Senate refused to pass a bill giving the Filipinos their independence. The insurrection was led by Emilio Aguinaldo.
"Little Brown Brothers" in the Philippines
American soldiers as well as Filipino guerillas resorted to brutal fighting tactics.
The backbone of the Filipino rebellion was broken in 1901 when American soldiers captured Emilio Aguinaldo.
President McKinley appointed the Philippine Commission in 1899 to set up a Filipino government. William H. Taft, who referred to the Filipinos to "little brown brothers," led the body in 1900. He genuinely liked the Filipinos while the American soldiers did not.
President McKinley's plan of "benevolent assimilation" of the Filipinos was very slow and involved improving roads, sanitation, and public health. The plan developed economic ties and set a school system with English as the 2ndlanguage. It was ill received by the Filipinos who preferred liberty over assimilation.
Hinging the Open Door in China
Following China's defeat by Japan in 1894-1895, Russia and Germany moved into China. The American public, fearing that Chinese markets would be monopolized by Europeans, demanded that the U.S. Government do something. Secretary of State John Hay dispatched to all the great powers a communication known as the Open Door note. He urged the powers to announce that in their leaseholds or spheres of influence they would respect certain Chinese rights and the ideal of fair competition. The note asked all those who did not have thieving designs to stand up and be counted. Italy was the only major power to accept the Open Door unconditionally and Russia was the only major power not to accept it.
In 1900, a super-patriotic group in China known as the "Boxers" killed hundreds of foreigners. A multinational rescue force came in and stopped the rebellion.
After the failed rebellion, Secretary Hay declared in 1900 that the Open Door would embrace the territorial integrity of China as well as its commercial integrity.
Imperialism or Bryanism in 1900?
President McKinley was the Republican presidential nominee for the election of 1900 because he had led the country through a war, acquired rich real estate, established the gold standard, and brought prosperity to the nation. McKinley and the Republican Party supported the gold standard and imperialism. They proclaimed that "Bryanism" was the paramount election issue. This meant that Bryan would destroy the nation's prosperity once he took office with his free-silver policy and other "dangerous" ideas.
Theodore Roosevelt was nominated as the vice president after the political bosses of New York (where Roosevelt was governor) found it hard to continue their "businesses" with the headstrong governor. They wanted Roosevelt elected as vice president so that Roosevelt would no longer pose an authority problem to the political bosses.
William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic presidential candidate for the election. Bryan and the Democratic Party supported the silver standard and anti-imperialism. They proclaimed that the paramount election issue was Republican overseas imperialism.
McKinley and the Republican Party won the election of 1900.
TR: Brandisher of the Big Stick
In September 1901, a deranged anarchist murdered President McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt took over the presidency.
Roosevelt was a direct actionist in that he believed that the president should lead and keep things moving forward. He had no real respect for the checks and balances system among the 3 branches of government. He felt that he may take any action in the general interest that is not specifically forbidden by the laws of the Constitution.
Colombia Blocks the Canal
In order for ships to cross quickly from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, a canal had to be built across the Central American isthmus. There were initial legal issues blocking the construction of this canal. By the terms of theClayton-Bulwer Treaty, made with Britain in 1850, the U.S. could not gain exclusive control over a route for the canal. But because of friendly relations with Britain, Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty in 1901, which gave the U.S. a helping hand to build the canal and rights to fortify it.
Many Americans favored the Nicaraguan route for the canal, but Congress decided on the Panama route for the canal in June 1902 after the New Panama Canal Company dropped the price of its holdings significantly.
Colombia stood in the way of the construction of the canal. After a treaty to buy land for the canal had been rejected by the Colombian senate, President Roosevelt, who was eager to win the upcoming election, demanded that the canal be built without Colombia's consent.
Uncle Sam Creates Puppet Panama
On November 3, 1903, Panamanians, who feared the United States would choose the Nicaraguan route for the canal, made a successful revolution led by Bunau-Varilla. Bunau-Varilla became the Panamanian minister to the United States and signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty in Washington. The treaty gave the U.S. control of a 10-mile zone around the proposed Panama Canal.
Completing the Canal and Appeasing Colombia
The so-called rape of Panama marked a downward lurch in U.S relations with Latin America.
President Roosevelt defended himself against all charges of doing anything wrong. He claimed that Colombia had wronged the United States by not permitting itself to be benefited by the construction of the canal.
In 1904 the construction of the Panama Canal began, and in 1914 it was completed at a cost of $400 million.
TR's Perversion of Monroe's Doctrine
Several nations of Latin America were in debt to European countries. President Roosevelt feared that if the European nations (mainly the Germany and Britain) got their feet in the door of Latin America, then they might remain there, in violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Roosevelt therefore created a policy known as "preventive intervention." The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine declared that in the event of future monetary problems of Latin American countries with European countries, the U.S. could pay off the Latin American counties' debts to keep European nations out of Latin America.
Latin American countries began to hate the Monroe Doctrine for it had become the excuse for numerous U.S. interventions in Latin America. In actuality, President Roosevelt was the one to be blamed for the interventions.
Roosevelt on the World Stage
Japan began war with Russia in 1904 after Russia failed to withdraw troops from Manchuria and Korea. Japan was defeating Russia in the war when Japan's supply of troops began to run low. Japan therefore asked President Roosevelt to step in and sponsor peace negotiations. Roosevelt agreed and in 1905 forced through an agreement in which the Japanese received no compensation for the losses and only the southern half of Sakhalin.
Because of the treaty, friendship with Russia faded away and Japan became a rival with America in Asia.
Japanese Laborers in California
When the Japanese government lifted its ban on its citizens emigrating in 1884, thousands of Japanese were recruited to work in California. Japanese immigrants were confronted with racist hostility by whites.
In 1906, San Francisco's school board segregated the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean students to make room for white students. The Japanese saw this action as an insult and threatened with war.
President Roosevelt invited the entire San Francisco Board of Education to the White House to settle the dispute. TR broke the deadlock and the Californians were persuaded to repeal the segregation and to accept what came to be known as the "Gentlemen's Agreement." The Japanese agreed to stop the flow of immigrants to the United States.
In 1908, the Root-Takahira agreement was reached with Japan. The U.S. and Japan pledged themselves to respect each other's territorial possessions.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, the ethnically and racially mixed American people were convulsed by a reform movement. The new crusaders, who called themselves "progressives," waged war on many evils including monopolies, corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice.
Progressive Roots
Well before 1900, politicians and writers had begun to pinpoint targets for the progressive attack. Henry Demarest Lloyd assailed the Standard Oil Company in 1894 with his book Wealth Against Commonwealth. Jacob A. Riisshocked middle-class Americans in 1890 with How the Other Half Lives which described the dark and dirty slums of New York.
Socialists and feminists were at the front of social justice.
Raking Muck with the Muckrakers
Popular magazines, Muckrakers, began to appear in American newsstands in 1902. They exposed the corruption and scandal that the public loved to hate.
In 1902, New York reporter, Lincoln Steffens launched a series of articles in McClure's titled "The Shame of the Cities" which unmasked the corrupt alliance between big business and municipal government.
Ida M. Tarbell published a devastating but factual depiction of the Standard Oil Company.
David G. Phillips published a series, "The Treason of the Senate" in Cosmopolitan that charged that 75 of the 90 senators did not represent the people but they rather represented railroads and trusts.
Some of the most effective attacks of the muckrakers were directed at social evils. The suppression of America's blacks was shown in Ray Stannard's Following the Color Line (1908). John Spargo wrote of the abuses of child labor inThe Bitter Cry of the Children (1906).
Political Progressivism
Progressive reformers were mainly middle-class men and women.
The progressives sought 2 goals: to use state power to control the trusts; and to stem the socialist threat by generally improving the common person's conditions of life and labor.
Progressives wanted to regain the power that had slipped from the hands of the people into those of the "interests." Progressives supported direct primary elections and favored "initiative" so that voters could directly propose legislation themselves, thus bypassing the boss-sought state legislatures. They also supported "referendum" and "recall." Referendum would place laws on ballots for final approval by the people, and recall would enable the voters to remove faithless corrupt officials.
As a result of pressure from the public's progressive reformers, the 17th Amendment was passed to the Constitution in 1913. It established the direct election of U.S. senators.
Progressivism in the Cities and States
States began the march toward progressivism when they undertook to regulate railroads and trusts. In 1901, the governor of Wisconsin and significant figure of the progressive era, Robert M. La Follette took considerable control from the corrupt corporations and returned it to the people.
Governor of California, Hiram W. Johnson helped to break the dominant grip of the Southern Pacific Railroad on California politics in 1910.
Progressive Women
A crucial focus for women's activism was the settlement house movement. Settlement houses exposed middle-class women to poverty, political corruption, and intolerable working and living conditions.
Most female progressives defended their new activities as an extension of their traditional roles of wife and mother.
Female activists worked through organizations like the Women's Trade Union League and the National Consumers League.
Florence Kelley took control of the National Consumers League in 1899 and mobilized female consumers to pressure for laws safeguarding women and children in the workplace.
Caught up in the crusade, some states controlled, restricted, or abolished alcohol.
TR's Square Deal for Labor
President Roosevelt believed in the progressive reform. He enacted a "Square Deal" program that consisted of 3 parts: control of the corporations, consumer protection, and conservation of natural resources.
In 1902, coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike and demanded a 20% raise in pay and a workday decrease from 10 hours to 9 hours. When mine spokesman, George F. Baer refused to negotiate, President Roosevelt stepped in a threatened to operate the mines with federal troops. A deal was struck in which the miners received a 10% pay raise and an hour workday reduction.
Congress, aware of the increasing hostilities between capital and labor, created the Department of Commerce in 1903.
TR Corrals the Corporations
Although the Interstate Commerce Commission was created in 1887, railroad barons were still able to have high shipping rates because of their ability to appeal the commission's decisions on high rates to the federal courts.
In 1903, Congress passed the Elkins Act, which allowed for heavy fines to be placed on railroads that gave rebates and on the shippers that accepted them. (Railroad companies would offer rebates as incentives for companies to use their rail lines.)
Congress passed the Hepburn Act of 1906, restricting free passes and expanding the Interstate Commerce Commission to extend to include express companies, sleeping-car companies, and pipelines. (Free passes: rewards offered to companies allowing an allotted number of free shipments; given to companies to encourage future business.)
In 1902, President Roosevelt challenged the Northern Securities Company, a railroad trust company that sought to achieve a monopoly of the railroads in the Northwest. The Supreme Court upheld the President and the trust was forced to be dissolved.
Caring for the Consumer
After botulism was found in American meats, foreign governments threatened to ban all American meat imports. Backed by the public, President Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. The act stated that the preparation of meat shipped over state lines would be subject to federal inspection.
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals.
Earth Control
The first step towards conservation came with the Desert Land Act of 1887, under which the federal government sold dry land cheaply on the condition that the purchaser would irrigate the soil within 3 years. A more successful step was the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. It authorized the president to set aside public forests as national parks and other reserves. The Carey Act of 1894 distributed federal land to the states on the condition that it be irrigated and settled.
President Roosevelt, a naturalist and rancher, convinced Congress to pass the Newlands Act of 1902, which authorized the federal government to collect money from the sale of public lands in western states and then use these funds for the development of irrigation projects.
In 1900 Roosevelt, attempting to preserve the nation's shrinking forests, set aside 125 million acres of land in federal reserves.
Under President Roosevelt, professional foresters and engineers developed a policy of "multiple-use resource management." They sought to combine recreation, sustained-yield logging, watershed protection, and summer stock grazing on the same expanse of federal land. Many westerners soon realized how to work with federal conservation programs and not resist the federal management of natural resources.
The "Roosevelt Panic" of 1907
Theodore Roosevelt was elected as president in 1904. President Roosevelt made it known that he would not run for a 3rd term.
A panic descended upon Wall Street in 1907. The financial world blamed the panic on President Roosevelt for unsettling the industries with his anti-trust tactics.
Responding to the panic of 1907, Congress passed the Aldrich-Vreeland Act in 1908 which authorized national banks to issue emergency currency backed by various kinds of collateral.
The Rough Rider Thunders Out
For the election of 1908, the Republican Party chose William Howard Taft, secretary of war to Theodore Roosevelt. The Democratic Party chose William Jennings Bryan.
William Howard Taft won the election of 1908.
In Roosevelt's term, Roosevelt attempted to protect against socialism and to protect capitalists against popular indignation. He greatly enlarged the power and prestige of the presidential office, and he helped shape the progressive movement and beyond it, the liberal reform campaigns later in the century. TR also opened the eyes of Americans to the fact that they shared the world with other nations.
Taft: A Round Peg in a Square Hole
President Taft had none of the arts of a dashing political leader, such as Roosevelt, and none of Roosevelt's zest. He generally adopted an attitude of passivity towards Congress.
The Dollar Goes Abroad as a Diplomat
Taft encouraged Wall Street bankers to invest in foreign areas of strategic interest to the United States. New York bankers thus strengthened American defenses and foreign policies, while bringing prosperity to America.
In China's Manchuria, Japan and Russia controlled the railroads. President Taft saw in the Manchurian monopoly a possible strangulation of Chinese economic interests and a slamming of the Open Door policy. In 1909, Secretary of State Philander C. Knox proposed that a group of American and foreign bankers buy the Manchurian railroads and then turn them over to China. Both Japan and Russia flatly rejected the selling of their railroads.
Taft the Trustbuster
Taft brought 90 lawsuits against the trusts during his 4 years in office as opposed to Roosevelt who brought just 44 suits in 7 years.
In 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company, stating that it violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.
Also in 1911, the Courts handed down its "rule of reason"; a doctrine that stated that only those trusts that unreasonably restrained trade were illegal.
Taft Splits the Republican Party
President Taft signed the Payne-Aldrich Bill in 1909, a tariff bill that placed a high tariff on many imports. With the signing, Taft betrayed his campaign promises of lowering the tariff.
Taft was a strong conservationist, but in 1910, the Ballinger-Pinchot quarrel erased much of his conservationist record. When Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger opened public lands in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska to corporate development, he was criticized by chief of the Agriculture Department's Division of Forestry, Gifford Pinchot. When Taft dismissed Pinchot, much protest arose from conservationists.
By the spring of 1910, the reformist wing of the Republican Party was furious with Taft and the Republican Party had split. One once supporter of Taft, Roosevelt, was now an enemy. Taft had broken up Roosevelt's U.S. Steel Corporation, which Roosevelt had worked long and hard to form.
The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture
In 1911, the National Progressive Republican League was formed with La Follette as its leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
In February of 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, with his new views on Taft, announced that he would run again for presidency, clarifying that he said he wouldn't run for 3 consecutive terms.
The Taft-Roosevelt explosion happened in June of 1912 when the Republican convention met in Chicago. When it came time to vote, the Roosevelt supporters claimed fraud and in the end refused to vote. Taft subsequently won the Republican nomination.
Woodrow Wilson won the governorship of New Jersey waging a reform campaign in which he attacked the predatory trusts and promised to return the state government to the people.
The "Bull Moose" Campaign of 1912
The Democrats chose Woodrow Wilson as their presidential candidate for the election of 1912. The Democrats saw in Wilson an outstanding reformist leader of whom they felt would beat Republican Taft. The Democrats had a strong progressive platform that called for stronger antirust laws, banking reform, and tariff reductions.
Theodore Roosevelt ran again in the election as a 3rd party candidate. It was unsure whether Roosevelt's New Nationalism or Wilson's New Freedom would prevail. Both men favored a more active government role in economic and social affairs, but they disagreed over specific strategies.
Roosevelt's New Nationalism campaigned for stronger control of trusts, woman suffrage, and programs of social welfare.
Wilson's New Freedom favored small enterprise, entrepreneurship, and the free functioning of unregulated and unmonopolized markets. Democrats shunned the social-welfare programs and supported the fragmentation of trusts.
The campaign cooled down when Roosevelt was shot by a fanatic. He eventually recovered after suspending campaigning for a couple weeks.
Woodrow Wilson: A Minority President
Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican votes, giving Woodrow Wilson the presidency.
Roosevelt's Progressive Party soon died out due to lack of officials elected to state and local offices.
Wilson: The Idealist in Politics
Wilson relied on sincerity and moral appeal to attract the public. He was extremely smart but lacked the common touch with the public. (He didn't have people skills.) Wilson's idealism and sense of moral righteousness made him incredibly stubborn in negotiating.
Wilson Tackles the Tariff
President Wilson called for an all-out war on what he called "the triple wall of privilege": the tariff, the banks, and the trusts.
Wilson called a special meeting of Congress in 1913 to address the tariff. He convinced Congress to pass the Underwood Tariff Bill, which significantly reduced the tariff rates. Under authority from the 16th Amendment, Congress also enacted a graduated income tax.
Wilson Battles the Bankers
The most serious problem of the National Banking Act passed during the Civil War in 1863 was the inelasticity of currency. Banking reserves were located in New York and a handful of other large cities and could not be mobilized in times of financial stress into areas that needed money.
In 1913, President Wilson delivered a plea to Congress for a reform of the banking system. Congress answered and in the same year, he signed the Federal Reserve Act. The new Federal Reserve Board, appointed by the president, oversaw a nationwide system of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks. Each reserve bank was the central bank for its region. The final authority of the Federal Reserve Board guaranteed a substantial level of public control. The board was empowered to issue paper money, Federal Reserve Notes, backed by commercial paper. Thus, the amount of money in circulation could be increased as needed for the requirements of business. (More information)
The President Tames the Trusts
After Wilson's persuasion, Congress passed the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. This law authorized a presidentially-appointed commission to oversee industries engaged in interstate commerce, such as the meatpackers. The commissioners were expected to crush monopolies at the source.
The Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 lengthened the Sherman Act's list of business practices that were deemed objectionable. It also sought to exempt labor and agricultural organizations from anti-trust prosecution, while legalizing strikes and peaceful picketing. Union leader Samuel Gompers praised the act.
Wilsonian Progressivism at High Tide
The Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 made loans available to farmers at low rates of interest. The Warehouse Act of 1916 authorized loans on the security of staple crops.
The La Follette Seamen's Act of 1915 benefited sailors by requiring decent treatment and a living wage on American ships.
President Wilson assisted the workers with the Workingmen's Compensation Act of 1916, giving assistance to federal civil-service employees during periods of disability. Also in 1916, the president approved an act restricting childlabor on products flowing into interstate commerce. The Adamson Act of 1916 established an 8-hour work day for all employees on trains in interstate commerce.
Wilson nominated for the Supreme Court reformer Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jew to be a Supreme Court justice.
New Directions in Foreign Policy
President Wilson was an anti-imperialist and withdrew from aggressive foreign policy.
He persuaded Congress in 1914 to repeal the Panama Canal Tolls Act of 1912, which had exempted American coastal shipping from tolls. He also signed the Jones Act in 1916, which granted the Philippines territorial status and promised independence as soon as a stable government could be established.
When political turmoil broke out in Haiti in 1915, Wilson dispatched marines to protect American lives and property. In 1916, he signed a treaty with Haiti providing for U.S. supervision of finances and the police.
In 1917, Wilson purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
Moralistic Diplomacy in Mexico
In 1913, the Mexican revolution took an ugly turn when the president was murdered and replaced by General Victoriano Huerta. Because of the chaos in Mexico, millions of Spanish-speaking immigrants came to America.
At first, President Wilson refused to intervene with the war in Mexico. But after a small party of American sailors was accidentally captured by the Mexicans, Wilson ordered the navy to seize the Mexican port of Vera Cruz.
Just as war seemed imminent with Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile intervened and pressured Huerta to step down.
Venustiano Carranza became the president of Mexico. Francisco Villa, rival to President Carranza, attempted to provoke a war between Mexico and the U.S by killing Americans. Wilson, rather, ordered General John J. Perishing to break up Villa's band of outlaws. The invading American army was withdrawn from Mexico in 1917 as the threat of war with Germany loomed.
Thunder Across the Sea
In 1914,World War I was sparked when the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary was murdered by a Serb patriot. An outraged Vienna government, backed by Germany, presented an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia, backed by Russia, refused to budge. Russia began to mobilize its army, alarming Germany on the east, and France confronted Germany on the west.
Germany struck at France first and the fighting began. The Central Powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. The Allies consisted of France, Britain, Russia, Japan, and Italy.
A Precarious Neutrality
President Wilson issued the neutrality proclamation at the outbreak of WWI.
Most Americans were anti-Germany from the outset of the war. Kaiser Wilhelm II, the leader of Germany, seemed the embodiment of arrogant autocracy. Yet, the majority of Americans were against war.
America Earns Blood Money
American industry prospered off trade with the Allies. Germany and the Central Powers protested American trading with the Allies, although America wasn't breaking the international neutrality laws -- Germany was free to trade with the U.S., but Britain prevented this trade by controlling the Atlantic Ocean by which Germany had to cross in order to trade with the U.S.
In 1915, several months after Germany started to use submarines in the war, one of Germany's submarines sunk the British liner Lusitania, killing 128 Americans.
Americans demanded war but President Wilson stood strong on his stance against war. When Germany sunk another British liner, the Arabic, in 1915, Berlin agreed to not sink unarmed passenger ships without warning. Germany continued to sink innocent ships as apparent when one of its submarines sank a French passenger steamer, the Sussex. President Wilson informed the Germans that unless they renounced the inhuman practice of sinking merchant ships without warning, he would break diplomatic relations, leading to war. Germany agreed to Wilson's ultimatum, but attached additions to their Sussex pledge: the United States would have to persuade the Allies to modify what Berlin regarded as their illegal blockade. Wilson accepted the Germany pledge, without accepting the "string" of additions.
Wilson Wins the Reelection in 1916
The Progressive Party and the Republican Party met in 1916 to choose their presidential candidate. Although nominated by the Progressives, Theodore Roosevelt refused to run for president. The Republicans chose Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Hughes. The Republican platform condemned the Democratic tariff, assaults on the trusts, and Wilson's dealings with Mexico and Germany.
The Democrats chose Wilson and ran an anti-war campaign. Woodrow Wilson won the election of 1916 and was reelected to the presidency.
In January 31, 1917 Germany announced its decision to wage unrestricted submarine warfare on all ships, including American ships, in the war zone.
War by Act of Germany
German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann secretly proposed a German-Mexican alliance with the Zimmermann note. News of the Zimmermann note leaked out to the public, infuriating Americans.
On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked for a declaration of war from Congress after 4 more unarmed merchant ships had been sunk.
3 Mains Causes of War: Zimmermann Note, Germany declares unrestricted submarine warfare, Bolshevik Revolution.
Wilsonian Idealism Enthroned
President Wilson persuaded the public for war by declaring his twin goals of "a war to end war" and a crusade "to make the world safe for democracy." He argued that America only fought to shape an international order in which democracy could flourish without fear of dictators and militarists.
Wilson was able to get war to appeal to the American public.
Wilson's Fourteen Potent Points
Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points Address to Congress on January 8, 1918.
The message, though intensely idealistic in tone and primarily a peace program, had certain very practical uses as an instrument for propaganda. It was intended to reach the people and the liberal leaders of the Central Powers as a seductive appeal for peace, in which purpose it was successful. It was hoped that the points would provide a framework for peace discussions. The message immediately gave Wilson the position of moral leadership of the Allies and furnished him with a tremendous diplomatic weapon as long as the war persisted.
The first 5 points and their effects were:
1. A proposal to abolish secret treaties pleased liberals of all countries.
2. Freedom of the seas appealed to the Germans, as well as to Americans who distrusted British sea power.
3. A removal of economic barriers among nations was comforting to Germany, which feared postwar vengeance.
4. Reduction of armament burdens was gratifying to taxpayers.
5. An adjustment of colonial claims in the interests of both native people and the colonizers was reassuring to the anti-imperialists.
The largest achievement, #14, foreshadowed the League of Nations - an international organization that Wilson dreamed would provide a system of collective security.
Creel Manipulates Minds
The Committee on Public Information was created to rally public support of war. It was headed by George Creel. His job was to sell America on the war and sell the world on Wilsonian war aims.
The Creel organization employed thousands of workers around the world to spread war propaganda. The entire nation was as a result swept into war fever.
Enforcing Loyalty and Stifling Dissent
There were over 8 million German-Americans; rumors began to spread of spying and sabotage. As a result, a few German-Americans were tarred, feathered, and beaten. A hysterical hatred of Germans and things related to Germany swept the nation.
The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 reflected fears about Germans and antiwar Americans. Kingpin Socialist Eugene V. Debs and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leader William D. Haywood were convicted under the Espionage Act.
At this time, nearly any criticism of the government could be censored and punished. The Supreme Court upheld these laws in Schenck v. United States (1919); it argued that freedom of speech could be revoked when such speech posed a danger to the nation.
The Nation's Factories Go to War
President Wilson created a Civilian Council of National Defense to study problems of economic mobilization; increased the size of the army; and created a shipbuilding program.
No one knew how much steel or explosive powder the country was capable of producing. Fears of big government restricted efforts to coordinate the economy from Washington. States' rights Democrats and businesspeople hated federal economic controls.
In 1918, Wilson appointed Bernard Baruch to head the War Industries Board in order to impose some order on the economic confusion. The Board never really had much control and was disbanded after the end of the war.
Workers in Wartime
Workers were discouraged from striking by the War Department's decree in 1918 that threatened any unemployed male with drafting.
The IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) were victims of some of the worst working conditions in the country. At the end of the war, the AF of L's (American Federation of Labor) membership had more than doubled.
Wartime inflation threatened to eliminate wage gains and thousands of strikes resulted.
In 1919, the greatest strike in American history hit the steel industry. More than 250,000 steelworkers walked off their jobs in an attempt to force their employers to recognize their right to organize and bargain collectively. The steel companies resisted and refused to negotiate with union representatives. The companies brought in 30,000 African-Americans to keep the mills running. After several deadly confrontations, the strike collapsed, marking a grave setback that crippled the union movement for over 10 years.
Thousands of blacks were drawn to the North in wartime by the allure of war-industry employment. The blacks served as meatpackers and strikebreakers. Deadly disputes between whites and blacks consequently erupted.
Suffering Until Suffrage
The National Woman's party, led by Alice Paul, protested the war.
The larger part of the suffrage movement, represented by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, supported Wilson's war.
War mobilization gave momentum to the suffrage movement. Impressed by women's war work, President Wilson supported women suffrage. In 1920, The 19th Amendment was passed, giving all American women the right to vote.
Congress passed the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act of 1921, providing federally financed instruction in maternal and infant health care.
In the postwar decade, feminists continued to campaign for laws to protect women in the workplace and prohibit child labor.
Forging a War Economy
Herbert C. Hoover led the Food Administration. Hoover rejected issuing ration cards and, to save food for export, he proclaimed wheatless Wednesdays and meatless Tuesdays, all on a voluntary basis.
Congress restricted the use of foodstuffs for manufacturing alcoholic beverages, helping to accelerate the wave of prohibition that was sweeping the country. In 1919, the 18th Amendment was passed, prohibiting all alcoholic drinks.
The money-saving tactics of Hoover and other agencies such as the Fuel Administration and Treasury Department yielded about $21 billion towards the war fund. Other funding of the war came through increased taxes and bonds.
Making Plowboys into Doughboys
Although President Wilson opposed a draft, he eventually realized that a draft was necessary to quickly raise the large army that was to be sent to France. Through much tribulation, Congress passed the draft act in 1917. It required the registration of all males between the ages of 18 and 45, and did not allow for a man to purchase his exemption from the draft.
For the first time, women were allowed in the armed forces.
Fighting in France-Belatedly
In 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution in communist Russia toppled the tsar regime. Russia pulled out of the "capitalist" war, freeing up thousands of Germans on the Russian front to fight the western front in France. Russia pulling out allowed the U.S. fight solidly for Democracy in the war.
A year after Congress declared war, the first American troops reached France. They were used as replacements in the Allied armies and were generally deployed in quiet sectors with the British and French. Shipping shortages plagued the Allies.
American troops were also sent to Belgium, Italy, and Russia. Americans hoped to prevent Russian munitions from falling into the hands of the Germans.
America Helps Hammer the "Hun"
In the spring of 1918, the German drive on the western front exploded. Spearheaded by about 500,000 troops, the Germans rolled forward with terrifying momentum. The Allied nations for the first time united under a supreme commander, French marshal Foch.
In order to stop Germany from taking Paris and France, 30,000 American troops were sent to the French frontlines. This was the first significant engagement of American troops in a European war.
By July 1918, the German drive had been halted and Foch made a counteroffensive in the Second Battle of the Marne. This engagement marked the beginning of a German withdrawal.
The Americans, dissatisfied with simply bolstering the French and British, demanded a separate army; General John J. Pershing was assigned a front of 85 miles. Pershing's army undertook the Meuse-Argonne offensive from September 26 to November 11, 1918. One objective was to cut the German railroad lines feeding the western front. Inadequate training left 10% of the Americans involved in the battle injured or killed.
As German supplies ran low and as their allies began to desert them, defeat was in sight for Germany.
The Fourteen Points Disarm Germany
In October of 1918, the Germans were ready for peace based on the Fourteen Points. On November 11, 1918, after the emperor of Germany had fled to Holland, Germany surrendered.
The United States's main contributions to the victory had been foodstuffs, munitions, credits, oil, and manpower. The Americans only fought 2 major battles, at St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne. The prospect of endless U.S. troops, rather than America's actual military performance eventually demoralized the Germans.
Wilson Steps Down from Olympus
President Wilson had gained much world popularity as the moral leader of the war. When he personally appealed for a Democratic victory in the congressional elections of November 1918, the plan backfired and the voters instead returned a Republican majority to Congress.
Wilson's decision to go to Paris in person to negotiate the treaty infuriated the Republicans because no president had ever traveled to Europe.
An Idealist Battles the Imperialists in Paris
The Paris Conference fell into the hands of an inner clique, known as the Big Four. Wilson, having the most power, was joined by Premier Vittorio Orlando of Italy, Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain, and Premier Georges Clemenceau of France.
The Conference opened on January 18, 1919. Wilson's ultimate goal was a world parliament known as the League of Nations. It would contain an assembly with seats for all nations and a council to be controlled by the great powers. In February 1919, the skeptical Old World diplomats agreed to make the League Covenant.
Hammering Out the Treaty
Republicans in America had much animosity towards the League of Nations. The Republican Congress claimed that it would never approve the League of Nations in its existing form. These difficulties delighted Wilson's Allied adversaries in Paris who were now in a stronger bargaining position because Wilson would have to beg them for changes in the covenant that would safeguard the Monroe Doctrine and other American interests valued to the senators.
France settled for a compromise in which the Saar Valley would remain under the League of Nations for 15 years, and then a popular vote would determine its fate. In exchange for dropping its demands for the Rhineland, France got the Security Treaty, in which both Britain and America pledged to come to its aid in the event of another German invasion.
Italy demanded Fiume, a valuable seaport inhabited by both Italians and Yugoslavs. The seaport went to Yugoslavia after Wilson's insisting.
Japan demanded China's Shandong Peninsula and the German islands of the Pacific, which it had seized during the war. After Japan threatened to walk out, Wilson accepted a compromise in which Japan kept Germany's economic holdings in Shandong and pledged to return the peninsula to China at a later date.
The Peace Treaty That Bred a New War
The Treaty of Versailles was forced upon the Germans in June 1919. The Germans were outraged with the treaty, noticing that most of the Fourteen Points were left out.
Wilson, also not happy with the outcome of the treaty, was forced to compromise away some of his Fourteen Points in order to salvage the more precious League of Nations.
The Domestic Parade of Prejudice
Critics of the League of Nations came from all sides. Irish-Americans, isolationists, and principled liberals all denounced the League.
Wilson's Tour and Collapse (1919)
The Republicans in Congress had no real hope of defeating the Treaty of Versailles; they hoped to rather "Americanize" or "Republicanize" it so that the Republicans could claim political credit for the changes.
In an attempt to speed up the passing of the treaty in the Senate, President Wilson decided to go to the country in a speechmaking tour. He would appeal over the heads of the Senate to the sovereign people. The speeches in the Midwest did not go as well as in the Rocky Mountain region and on the Pacific Coast.
On his return to Washington, Wilson suffered a stroke and suffered from physical and nervous exhaustion.
Defeat Through Deadlock
Senator Lodge, a critic to the president, came up with fourteen reservations to the Treaty of Versailles. These safeguards reserved the rights of the U.S. under the Monroe Doctrine and the Constitution and otherwise sought to protect American sovereignty.
After the Senate rejected the Treaty twice, the Treaty of Versailles was defeated. The Lodge-Wilson personal feud, traditionalism, isolationism, disillusionment, and partisanship all contributed to the defeat of the treaty.
The "Solemn Referendum" of 1920
Wilson proposed to settle the treaty issue in the upcoming presidential campaign of 1920 by appealing to the people for a "solemn referendum."
The Republicans chose Senator Warren G. Harding as their presidential nominee for the election of 1920. Their vice-presidential nominee was Governor Calvin Coolidge. The Republican platform appealed to both pro-League and anti-League sentiment in the party.
Democrats nominated pro-League Governor James. M. Cox as their presidential hopeful and chose Franklin D. Roosevelt as their vice-presidential nominee.
Warren Harding won the election of 1920. Harding's victory lead to the death of the League of Nations.
The Betrayal of Great Expectations
The Treaty of Versailles was the only one of the four peace treaties not to succeed.
After the war, America did not embrace the role of global leader. In the interests of its own security, the United States should have used its enormous strength to shape world-shaking events. It instead permitted the world to drift towards yet another war.
Seeing Red
Fear of Russia ran high even after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, which spawned a communist party in America.
The "red scare" of 1919-1920 resulted in a nationwide crusade against those whose Americanism was suspect. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer was chosen to round up immigrants who were in question.
In 1919-1920, a number of states passed criminal syndicalism laws that made the advocacy of violence to secure social change unlawful. Traditional American ideals of free speech were restricted.
Antiredism and antiforeignism were reflected in the criminal case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The two men were convicted in 1921 of the murder of a Massachusetts paymaster and his guard. Although given a trial, the jury and judge were prejudiced against the men because they were Italians, atheists, anarchists, and draft dodgers. Despite criticism from liberals and radicals all over the world, the men were electrocuted in 1927.
Hooded Hoodlums of the KKK
The Ku Klux Klan (Knights of the Invisible Empire) grew quickly in the early 1920s. The Klan was antiforeign, anti-Catholic, anti-black, anti-Jewish, antipacifist, anti-Communist, anti-internationalist, antievolutionist, antibootlegger, antigambling, antiadultery, and anti-birth control. It was pro-Anglo-Saxon, pro-"native" American, and pro-Protestant.
The Klan spread rapidly, especially in the Midwest and the South, claiming 5 million members.
It collapsed in the late 1920s after a congressional investigation exposed the internal embezzling by Klan officials.
The KKK was an alarming manifestation of the intolerance and prejudice plaguing people anxious about the dizzying pace of social change in the 1920s.
Stemming the Foreign Blood
Isolationist Americans of the 1920s felt they had no use for immigrants. The "New Immigration" of the 1920s caused Congress to pass the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, restricting newcomers from Europe in any given year to a definite quota, which was at 3% of the people of their nationality who had been living in the United States in 1910.
The Immigration Act of 1924 replaced the Quota Act of 1921, cutting quotas for foreigners from 3% to 2%. Different countries were only allowed to send an allotted number of its citizens to America every year. Japanese were outright banned from coming to America. Canadians and Latin Americans, whose proximity made them easy to attract for jobs when times were good and just as easy to send back home when times were not, were exempt from the act.
The quota system caused immigration to dwindle.
The Immigration Act of 1924 marked the end of an era of unrestricted immigration to the United States. Many of the most recent arrivals lived in isolated enclaves with their own houses of worship, newspapers, and theaters.
The Prohibition "Experiment"
The 18th Amendment, passed in 1919, banned alcohol. Prohibition, supported by churches and women, was one the last peculiar spasms of the progressive reform movement. It was popular in the South, where white southerners were eager to keep stimulants out of the hands of blacks, and in the West, where alcohol was associated with crime and corruption.
Prohibitionists were naïve in that Federal authorities had never been able to enforce a law where the majority of the people were hostile to it. Prohibition might have started off better if there had been a larger number of enforcement officials.
"Speakeasies" replaced saloons. Prohibition caused bank savings to increase and absenteeism in industry to decrease.
The Golden Age of Gangsterism
The large profits of illegal alcohol led to bribery of police. Violent wars broke out in the big cities between rival gangs, who sought control of the booze market.
Chicago was the most spectacular example of lawlessness. "Scarface" Al Capone, a murderous booze distributor, began 6 years of gang warfare that generated millions of dollars. Capone was eventually tried and convicted of income-tax evasion and sent to prison for 11 years.
Gangsters began to move into other profitable and illicit activities: prostitution, gambling, narcotics, and kidnapping for ransom.
After the son of Charles A. Lindbergh was kidnapped for ransom and murdered, Congress passed the Lindbergh Law in 1932, making interstate abduction in certain circumstances a death-penalty offense.
Monkey Business in Tennessee
Education made great strides in the 1920s. Professor John Dewey set forth the principles of "learning by doing" that formed the foundation of so-called progressive education. He believed that "education for life" should be a primary goal of the teacher.
Science and better health care also resulted out of the 1920s.
Fundamentalists, old-time religionists, claimed that the teaching of Darwinism evolution was destroying faith in God and the Bible, while contributing to the moral breakdown of youth.
In 1925, John T. Scopes was indicted in Tennessee for teaching evolution. At the "Monkey Trial," Scopes was defended by Clarence Darrow, while former presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan prosecuted him. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100.
The Mass-Consumption Economy
WWI and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon's tax policies brought much prosperity to the mid-1920s.
Bruce Barton founded advertising which sought to make Americans want more and more.
Sports became a big business in the consumer economy of the 1920s.
Buying in credit was another new feature of the postwar economy. Prosperity thus accumulated an overhanging cloud of debt, and the economy became increasingly vulnerable to disruptions of the credit structure.
Putting America on Rubber Tires
The automobile industrial started an industrial revolution in the 1920s. It yielded a new industrial system based on assembly-line methods and mass-production techniques. Detroit became the motorcar capital of the world.
Henry Ford, father of the assembly line, created the Model T and erected an immense personal empire on the cornerstone of his mechanical genius. By 1930, the number of Model Ts in the nation had reached 20 million.
The Advent of the Gasoline Age
The automobile industry exploded, creating millions of jobs and supporting industries. America's standard of living rose sharply, and new industries flourished while old ones dwindled. The petroleum business experienced an explosive development and the railroad industry was hard hit by the competition of automobiles.
The automobile freed up women from their dependence on men, and isolation among the sections was broken down. It was responsible for thousands of deaths, while at the same time bringing more convenience, pleasure, and excitement into more people's lives.
Humans Develop Wings
Gasoline engines provided the power that enabled humans to fly. On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flight, lasting 12 seconds and 120 feet.
After the success of airplanes in WWI, private companies began to operate passenger airlines with airmail contracts.
Charles A. Lindberg became the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. His flight energized and gave a strong boost to the new aviation industry.
The Radio Revolution
Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless telegraphy (the telegraph) in the 1890s.
In the 1920s, the first voice-carrying radio broadcasts reached audiences. While automobiles were luring Americans away from the home, the radio was luring them back. Educationally and culturally, the radio also made a significant contribution.
Hollywood's Filmland Fantasies
As early as the 1890s, the motion picture, invented by Thomas A. Edison, had gained some popularity. The true birth of motion picture came in 1903 with the release of the first story sequence: The Great Train Robbery. Hollywood became the movie capital of the world.
Motion picture was used extensively in WWI as anti-German propaganda.
Much of the diversity of the immigrants' cultures was lost, but the standardization of tastes and of language hastened entry into the American mainstream-and set the stage for the emergence of a working-class political coalition that would overcome the divisive ethnic differences of the past.
The Dynamic Decade
In the 1920s, the majority of Americans had shifted from rural areas to urban (city) areas.
Women continued to find jobs in the cities. Margaret Sanger led a birth-control movement. Alice Paul formed the National Women's Party in 1923 to campaign for an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
The Fundamentalists lost ground to the Modernists who believed that God was a "good guy" and the universe was a friendly place.
The 1920s witnessed an explosion in sex appeal in America. Young women, "flappers," rolled their stockings, taped their breasts flat, and roughed their cheeks. Women began to wear one-piece bathing suits.
Dr. Sigmund Freud writings justified this new sexual frankness by arguing that sexual repression was responsible for a variety of nervous and emotional ills.
Jazz thrived in the era of the 1920s.
Racial pride blossomed in the northern black communities. Marcus Garvey founded the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) to promote the resettlement of blacks in Africa. In the United States, the UNIA also sponsored stores and other businesses to keep blacks' dollars in black pockets.
Cultural Liberation
In the decade after WWI, a new generation of writers emerged. They gave American literature new life, imaginativeness, and artistic quality.
H.L. Mencken attacked marriage, patriotism, democracy, and prohibition in his monthly American Mercury.
F. Scott Fitzgerald published This Side of Paradise in 1920 and The Great Gatsby in 1925.
Earnest Hemingway was among the writers most affected by the war. He responded to propaganda and the overblown appeal to patriotism. He wrote of disillusioned, spiritually numb American expatriates in Europe in The Sun Also Rises (1926).
Sinclair Lewis wrote Main Street (1920) and Babbitt (1922).
Sherwood Anderson wrote Winesburg, Ohio (1919).
Architecture also became popular as materialism and functionalism increased.
Wall Street's Big Bull Market
In the 1920s, the stock market became increasingly popular.
In Washington, little was done to curtail money management.
In 1921, the Republican Congress created the Bureau of the Budget in order to assist the president in preparing estimates of receipts and expenditures for submission to Congress as the annual budget. It was designed to prevent haphazardly extravagant appropriations.
Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon's belief was that taxes forced the rich to invest in tax-exempt securities rather than in the factories that provided prosperous payrolls. Mellon helped create a series of tax reductions from 1921-1926 in order to help rich people. Congress followed by abolishing the gift tax, reducing excise taxes, the surtax, the income tax, and estate taxes. Mellon's policies shifted much of the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle-income groups. Mellon reduced the national debt by $10 billion.
The Republican "Old Guard" Returns
Warren G. Harding was inaugurated in 1921. He, like Grant, was unable to detect immoral people working for him. He was also very soft in that he hated to say "no," hurting peoples' feelings.
Charles Evans Hughes was the secretary of state. Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh's multimillionaire aluminum king, was the secretary of the Treasury. Herbert Hoover was the secretary of commerce.
Harding's brightest and most capable officials (above) were offset by two of the worst: Senator Albert B. Fall, an anticonservationist who was the secretary of the interior, and Harry M. Daugherty, a big-time crook chosen to be the attorney general.
GOP Reaction at the Throttle
The newly-elected government officials almost directed the president's actions on the issue of government and business. They wanted not only for the government to have no control over businesses but for the government to help guide businesses along the path to profits.
In the first years of the 1920s, the Supreme Court struck down progressive legislation. The Supreme Court ruling in Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923) declared that under the 19th Amendment, women were no longer deserving of special protection in the workplace.
Corporations under President Harding could once again expand without worry of the antitrust laws.
The Interstate Commerce Commission came to be dominated by men who were sympathetic to the managers of the railroads.
The Aftermath of War
Wartime government controls of the economy were quickly dismantled. With the Esch-Cummins Transportation Act of 1920, Congress returned the railroads to private management. Congress encouraged private ownership of the railroads and pledged the Interstate Commerce Commission to guarantee their profitability.
The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 authorized the Shipping Board to dispose of the wartime fleet of 1500 vessels at extremely low prices.
Under the La Follette Seaman's Act of 1915, American shipping could not thrive in competition with foreigners, who all too often provided their crews with wretched food and starvation wages.
Labor, suddenly deprived of its wartime crutch of friendly government support, limped along poorly in the postwar decade.
In 1921, Congress created the Veterans Bureau to operate hospitals and provide vocational rehabilitation for the disabled. Veterans organized and formed pressure groups. The American Legion was created in 1919 by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Legionnaires met to renew old hardships and let off steam. The legion became distinguished for its militant patriotism, conservatism, and antiradicalism. It convinced Congress in 1924 to pass the Adjusted Compensation Act, giving every former soldier a paid-up insurance policy due in 20 years.
America Seeks Benefits Without Burdens
Because of the rejection of the Treaty of Versailles, the United States had technically been at war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary for 3 years after the armistice. To finally achieve peace, Congress passed a joint resolution in July 1921 that declared the war officially over.
Isolationism was still the idea in Washington. President Harding hated the League of Nations and at first, refused to support the League's world health program.
Harding could not completely turn his back on the world. In the Middle East, a sharp rivalry had developed between America and Britain for oil-drilling rights. Secretary Hughes eventually secured the rights for American oil companies to share the oil-rich land with Britain.
Disarmament was one international issue that Harding eventually tackled. Public pressure brought about the Washington "Disarmament" Conference in 1921-1922. Invitations to the conference went out to all the major naval powers. Secretary Hughes laid out a plan for declaring a ten-year hiatus on construction of battleships and even for scrapping some of the huge ships already built. He proposed that the scaled-down navies of America and Britain should have the same number of battleships and aircraft carriers; the ratio being 5:5:3 (Japan's navy would be smaller than America's and Britain's).
The Five-Power Naval Treaty of 1922 stated that the British and Americans would refrain from fortifying their Far Eastern possessions, including the Philippines. The Japanese were not subjected to such restraints in their possessions.
A Four-Power Treaty between Britain, Japan, France and the United States replaced the 20-year old Anglo-Japanese Treaty and preserved the status quo in the Pacific.
The Hardingites were satisfied with the final results of disarmament of the navy although no restrictions had been placed on small warships, and the other powers churned ahead with the construction of cruisers, destroyers, and submarines.
In the late 1920s, Americans called for the "outlaw of war." When petitions bearing 2 million signatures reached Washington, Calvin Coolidge's secretary of state Frank. B. Kellogg signed with the French foreign minister in 1928 theKellogg-Briand Pact. Known as the Pact of Paris, it was ratified by 62 nations. The new parchment peace was delusory in the extreme. Defensive wars were still permitted; causing one to wonder what scheming aggressor could not make an excuse of self-defense. Although virtually useless if challenged, the pact accurately reflected the American mind in the 1920s.
Hiking the Tariff Higher
Because businessmen did not want Europe flooding American markets with cheap goods after the war, Congress passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Law in 1922, raising the tariff from 27% to 35%.
Presidents Harding and Coolidge were much more prone to increasing tariffs than decreasing them; this presented a problem: Europe needed to sell goods to the U.S. in order to get the money to pay back its war debts, and when it could not sell, it could not repay.
The Stench of Scandal
In 1923, Colonel Charles R. Forbes, head of the Veterans Bureau, was caught stealing $200 million from the government, chiefly in connection with the building of veterans' hospitals.
Most shocking of all was the Teapot Dome scandal that involved priceless naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome and Elk Hills. In 1921, the secretary of the interior, Albert B. Fall, convinced the secretary of the navy to transfer these valuable properties to the Interior Department. Harding indiscreetly signed the secret order. Fall then leased the lands to oilmen Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny, but not until he had received a bribe of $100,000. The Teapot Dome scandal eventually leaked to the public and polluted the Washington government.
More scandals still erupted; there were reports as to the underhanded doings of Attorney General Daugherty, in which he was accused of the illegal sale of pardons and liquor permits. President Harding died in San Francisco onAugust 2, 1923, of pneumonia and thrombosis, not having to live through much of the uproar of the scandal.
"Silent Cal" Coolidge
Vice President Calvin Coolidge took over the presidency following Harding's death. He was extremely shy and delivered very boring speeches.
Coolidge sympathized with Secretary of the Treasury Mellon's efforts to reduce both taxes and debts. He gave the Harding regime a badly needed moral fumigation.
Frustrated Farmers
Peace had brought an end to government-guaranteed high prices and to massive purchases of farm products by other nations. Machines also threatened to plow the farmers under an avalanche of their own overabundant crops. Because farmers were able to create more crops with more efficiency, the size of surpluses decreased prices.
The Capper-Volstead Act exempted farmers' marketing cooperatives from anti-trust prosecution.
The McNary-Haugen Bill sought to keep agricultural prices high by authorizing the government to buy up surpluses and sell them abroad. President Coolidge vetoed the bill twice, keeping farm prices down, and farmers' political temperatures high coming into the election of 1924.
A Three-Way Race for the White House in 1924
After being split between, urbanites and farmers, Fundamentalists and Modernists, northern liberals and southern stand-patters, and immigrants and old-stock Americans, the Democrats finally chose John W. Davis to compete withCalvin Coolidge and La Follette for the presidency.
Senator La Follette from Wisconsin leapt forward to lead a new liberal Progressive party. He was endorsed by the American Federation of Labor and by farmers. The Progressive party platform called for government ownership of railroads and relief for farmers, lashed out at monopoly and antilabor injunctions, and urged a constitutional amendment to limit the Supreme Court's power to invalidate laws passed by Congress.
Calvin Coolidge won the election of 1924.
Foreign-Policy Flounderings
In the Coolidge era, isolationism continued to reign.
The armed interventionism in the Caribbean and Central America was the exception to the United States' isolation policies. American troops remained in Haiti from 1914-1934, and were stationed in Nicaragua from 1926-1933.
In 1926, the Mexican government declared its control over oil resources. Despite American oil companies clamoring for war, Coolidge resolved the situation diplomatically.
World War I had reversed the international financial position of the United States; it was now a creditor nation in the sum of about $16 billion. American investors had loaned about $10 billion to the Allies in WWI, and following the war, they wanted to be paid. The Allies, especially the French and British, protested the demand for repayment pointing out that they had lost many troops and that America should just write off the loans as war costs.
America's postwar tariff walls made it almost impossible for the European Allied nations to sell their goods to earn the dollars to pay their debts.
Unraveling the Debt Knot
America's demand for repayment from France and Britain caused the two countries to press Germany for enormous reparations payments, totaling some $32 billion, as compensation for war-inflicted damages. The Allies hoped to settle their debts with the United States with the money received from Germany.
Disputes in government on whether or not war debts and reparations should have even been paid broke out. Negotiated by Charles Dawes, the Dawes Plan of 1924 resolved this issue. It rescheduled German reparations payments and opened the way for further American private loans to Germany. United States bankers loaned money to Germany, Germany paid reparations to France and Britain, and the Allies paid war debts to the United States. After the well of investors dried up in 1931, the jungle of international finance was turned into a desert. President Herbert Hoover declared a one-year debt suspension in 1931.
The United States never did get its money from Europe.
The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, 1928
When Calvin Coolidge chose not to run for president in the election of 1928, the Republicans chose Herbert Hoover. Hoover was a small-town boy who worked his way through Stanford. His experiences abroad strengthened his faith in American individualism, free enterprise, and small government. His real power lay in his integrity, his humanitarianism, his passion for assembling the facts, his efficiency, his talents for administration, and his ability to inspire loyalty in close associates.
The Democrats nominated Alfred E. Smith. He was a Roman Catholic in an overwhelmingly Protestant country, and was "wet" at a time when the country was still devoted to prohibition.
For the first time, the radio was used prominently in election campaigns. It mostly helped Hoover's campaign.
The combination of Catholicism, wettism, foreignism, and liberalism of Smith was too much for the southerners. Herbert Hoover won the election of 1928 in a landslide, becoming the first Republican candidate in 52 years, except for Harding's Tennessee victory, to win a state that had seceded.
President Hoover's First Moves
Two groups of citizens were not getting rich in the growing economy: the unorganized wage earners and the disorganized farmers.
The Agricultural Marketing Act, passed in 1929, was designed to help the farmers. It set up the Federal Farm Board, which could lend money to farm organizations seeking to buy, sell, and store agricultural surpluses.
In 1930, the Farm Board created the Grain Stabilization Corporation and the Cotton Stabilization Corporation. Their goal was to boost falling prices by buying up surpluses. The two agencies eventually failed.
The Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 started out as a mild tariff before 1,000 amendments were added to it. It raised the tariff to 60%, becoming the nation's highest protective tariff during peacetime. The tariff deepened the depression that had already begun in America and other nations, and it increased international financial chaos.
The Great Crash Ends the Golden Twenties
The catastrophic stock-market crash came in October 1929. It was partially triggered by the British, who raised their interest rates in an effort to bring back capital lured abroad by American investments. The British needed money; they were unable to trade with the United States due the high tariffs.
On "Black Tuesday" of October 29, 1929, millions of stocks were sold in a panic. By the end of 1929, two months after the initial crash, stockholders had lost $40 billion.
As a result of the crash, millions lost their jobs and thousands of banks closed. No other industrialized nation suffered so severe a setback as the United States.
Hooked on the Horn of Plenty
One of the main causes of the Great Depression was overproduction by both farm and factory. The nation's ability to produce goods had outrun its capacity to consume or pay for them. All the money was being invested in factories and other agencies of production; not enough money was going into salaries and wages. Overexpansion of credit also contributed to the depression.
The Great Depression continued the economic destruction of Europe, which had not yet fully recovered from WWI.
In the 1930s, a terrible drought scorched the Mississippi Valley, causing thousands of farms to be sold.
Rugged Times for Rugged Individuals
In the beginning of the Great Depression, President Hoover believed that industry and self-reliance had made America great and that the government should play no role in the welfare of the people. He soon realized, however, that the welfare of the people in a nationwide catastrophe was a direct concern of the government.
Hoover developed a plan in which the government would assist the railroads, banks, and rural credit corporations in the hope that if financial health was restored at the top of the economic pyramid, then unemployment would be relieved as the prosperity trickled down. Hoover's efforts were criticized because he gave government money to the big bankers who had allegedly started the depression.
Herbert Hoover Battles the Great Depression
President Hoover secured from Congress $2.25 billion for useful public works. (ex. the Hoover Dam)
Hoover was strongly opposed to all schemes that he saw as "socialistic." He vetoed the Muscle Shoals Bill, which was designed to dam the Tennessee River and sell government-produced electricity in competition with citizens in private companies.
In 1932, Congress established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which was designed to provide indirect economic relief by assisting insurance companies, banks, agricultural organizations, railroads, and state and local governments.
Congress passed the Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injunction Act in 1932, outlawing antiunion contracts and fording federal courts to issue injunctions to restrain strikes, boycotts, and peaceful picketing.
Routing the Bonus Army in Washington
Veterans of WWI were among the hardest hit by the Great Depression. A drive developed for the premature payment of the suspended bonus vetoed by Congress in 1924.
The "Bonus Expeditionary Force" (BEF), which claimed about 20,000 people, converged on the capital in the summer of 1932, demanding the immediate payment of their entire bonus.
After the BEF refused to leave the capital, President Hoover sent in the army to evacuate the group. The ensuing riots and incidents brought additional public abuse of Hoover.
Japanese Militarists Attack China
In September 1931, Japanese imperialists, seeing that the Western world was bogged down in the Great Depression, invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria. Although a direct violation of the League of Nations, the League was unable to do anything because it could not count on America's support.
In 1932, Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson decided to only diplomatically attack the Japanese aggressors by issuing the Stimson doctrine. It declared that the United States would not recognize any territorial acquisitions achieved by force. Japan ignored the doctrine and moved onto Shanghai in 1932. The violence continued without the League of Nation's intervention as WWII was born.
Hoover Pioneers the Good Neighbor Policy
President Hoover brought better relations with America's Latin American neighbors. An advocate of international goodwill, he withdrew American troops from Latin America.
He had engineered the foundation of a "Good Neighbor" policy.
As the election of 1932 neared, unemployment and poverty brought dissent of President Hoover and a demand for a change in policy. The Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover to run for president in the election of 1932. The Democrats chose Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He had been born to a wealthy New York family and served as the governor of New York.
FDR: Politician in a Wheelchair
Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, was to become the most active First Lady in history. She powerfully influenced the policies of the national government, battling for the impoverished and oppressed.
Roosevelt's commanding presence and golden speaking voice made him the premier American orator of his generation.
Presidential Hopefuls of 1932
In the Democratic campaign of 1932, Roosevelt attacked the Republican Old Deal and concentrated on preaching a New Deal for the "forgotten man." He promised to balance the nation's budget and decrease the heavy Hooverian deficits.
Although the campaign for the Republicans was dire, Herbert Hoover reaffirmed his faith in American free enterprise and individualism. He predicted prosperity if the Hawley-Smoot Tariff was repealed.
Hoover's Humiliation in 1932
Franklin Roosevelt won the election of 1932 by a sweeping majority, in both the popular vote and the Electoral College.
Beginning in the election of 1932, blacks became, notably in the urban centers of the North, a vital element of the Democratic Party.
FDR and the Three R's: Relief, Recovery, Reform
Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933.
On March 6-10, President Roosevelt declared a national banking holiday as a prelude to opening the banks on a sounder basis. The Hundred Days Congress/Emergency Congress (March 9-June 16, 1933) passed a series laws in order to cope with the national emergency (The Great Depression).
Roosevelt's New Deal programs aimed at 3 R's: relief, recovery, reform. Short-range goals were relief and immediate recovery, and long-range goals were permanent recovery and reform of current abuses.
Congress gave President Roosevelt extraordinary blank-check powers: some of the laws it passed expressly delegated legislative authority to the president.
The New Dealers embraced such progressive ideas as unemployment insurance, old-age insurance, minimum-wage regulations, conservation and development of natural resources, and restrictions on child labor.
Roosevelt Tackles Money and Banking
The impending banking crisis caused Congress to pass the Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933. It gave the president power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks. President Roosevelt began to give "fireside chats" over the radio in order to restore public confidence of banks.
Congress then passed the Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act, creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). A reform program, the FDIC insured individual bank deposits up to $5,000, ending the epidemic of bank failures.
In order to protect the shrinking gold reserve, President Roosevelt ordered all private holdings of gold to be given to the Treasury in exchange for paper currency and then the nation to be taken off the gold standard-Congress passed laws providing for these measures.
The goal of Roosevelt's "managed currency" was inflation, which he believed would relieve debtors' burdens and stimulate new production. Inflation was achieved through gold buying; the Treasury purchased gold at increasing prices, increasing the dollar price of gold. This policy increased the amount of dollars in circulation.
Creating Jobs for the Jobless
President Roosevelt had no qualms about using federal money to assist the unemployed in order to jumpstart the economy. Congress created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which provided employment for about 3 million men in government camps. Their work included reforestation, fire fighting, flood control, and swamp drainage.
Congress's first major effort to deal with the massive unemployment was to pass the Federal Emergency Relief Act. The resulting Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was headed by Harry L. Hopkins. Hopkins's agency granted about $3 billion to the states for direct relief payments or for wages on work projects. Created in 1933, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), a branch of the FERA, was designed to provide temporary jobs during the winter emergency. Thousands of unemployed were employed at leaf raking and other manual-labor jobs.
Relief was given to the farmers with the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), making available millions of dollars to help farmers meet their mortgages.
The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) assisted many households that had trouble paying their mortgages.
A Day for Every Demagogue
As unemployment and suffering continued, radical opponents to Roosevelt's New Deal began to arise. Father Charles Coughlin's anti-New Deal radio broadcasts eventually became so anti-Semitic and fascistic that he was forced off the air. Senator Huey P. Long publicized his "Share Our Wealth" program in which every family in the United States would receive $5,000. His fascist plans ended when he was assassinated in 1935. Dr. Francis E. Townsend attracted millions of senior citizens with his plan that each citizen over the age of 60 would receive $200 a month.
Congress passed the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935, with the objective of employment on useful projects (i.e. the construction of buildings, roads, etc.). Taxpayers criticized the agency for paying people to due "useless" jobs such as painting murals.
A Helping Hand for Industry and Labor
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was designed to assist industry, labor, and the unemployed. Individual industries, through "fair competition" codes, were forced to lower their work hours so that more people could be hired; a minimum wage was also established. Workers were formally guaranteed the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their choosing, not through the company's choosing.
Although initially supported by the public, collapse of the NRA came in 1935 with the Supreme Court's Schechter decision in which it was ruled that Congress could not "delegate legislative powers" to the president and that congressional control of interstate commerce could apply to local fowl business.
The Public Works Administration (PWA) was intended for both industrial recovery and for unemployment relief. Headed by Harold L. Ickes, the agency spent over $4 billion on thousands of projects, including public buildings and highways.
In order to raise federal revenue and provide a level of employment, Congress repealed prohibition with the 21st Amendment in late 1933.
Paying Farmers Not to Farm
Congress created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). It established "parity prices" for basic commodities. "Parity" was the price set for a product that gave it the same real value, in purchasing power, that it had from 1909-1914. The agency also paid farmers to reduce their crop acreage, eliminating surpluses, while at the same time increasing unemployment.
The Supreme Court struck down the AAA in 1936, declaring its regulatory taxation provisions unconstitutional.
The New Deal Congress passed the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936. The reduction of crop acreage was now achieved by paying farmers to plant soil-conserving crops.
The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 continued conservation payments; if farmers obeyed acreage restrictions on specific commodities, they would be eligible for parity payments.
Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards
Late in 1933, a prolonged drought struck the states of the trans-Mississippi Great Plains. The Dust Bowl was partially caused by the cultivation of countless acres, dry-farming techniques, and mechanization.
Sympathy towards the affected farmers came with the Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act, passed in 1934. It made possible a suspension of mortgage foreclosures for 5 years. It was struck down in 1935 by the Supreme Court.
In 1935, President Roosevelt set up the Resettlement Administration, given the task of moving near-farmless farmers to better lands.
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 encouraged Native American tribes to establish self-government and to preserve their native crafts and traditions. 77 tribes refused to organize under the law, while hundreds did organize.
Battling Bankers and Big Business
In order to protect the public against fraud, Congress passed the "Truth in Securities Act" (Federal Securities Act), requiring promoters to transmit to the investor sworn information regarding the soundness of their stocks and bonds.
In 1934, Congress took further steps to protect the public with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It was designed as a watchdog administrative agency.
The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee River
Zealous New Dealers accused the electric-power industry of gouging the public with excessive rates.
2.5 million of America's most poverty-stricken people inhabited Muscle Shoals. If the government constructed a dam on the Tennessee River in Muscle Shoals, it could combine the immediate advantage of putting thousands of people to work with a long-term project for reforming the power monopoly.
In 1933, the Hundred Days Congress created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). It was assigned the task of predicting how much the production and distribution of electricity would cost so that a "yardstick" could be set up to test the fairness of rates charged by private companies.
The large project of constructing dams on the Tennessee River brought to the area full employment, the blessings of cheap electric power, low-cost housing, abundant cheap nitrates, the restoration of eroded soil, reforestation, improved navigation, and flood control. The once-poverty-stricken area was being turned into one of the most flourishing regions in the United States.
The conservative reaction against the "socialistic" New Deal would confine the TVA's brand of federally guided resource management and comprehensive regional development to the Tennessee Valley.
Housing Reform and Social Security
To speed recovery and better homes, President Roosevelt set up the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in 1934.
To strengthen the FHA, Congress created the United States Housing Authority (USHA) in 1937. It was designed to lend money to states or communities for low-cost construction.
The more important success of New Dealers was in the field of unemployment insurance and old-age pensions. The Social Security Act of 1935 provided for federal-state unemployment insurance. To provide security for old age, specified categories of retired workers were to receive regular payments from Washington.
Republicans were strongly opposed to Social Security. Social Security was inspired by the example of some of the more highly industrialized nations of Europe.
In an urbanized economy, the government was now recognizing its responsibility for the welfare of its citizens.
A New Deal for Unskilled Labor
When the Supreme Court struck down the National Recovery Administration (NRA), Congress, sympathetic towards labor unions, passed the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act). This law created a powerful National Labor Relations Board for administrative purposes and reasserted the rights of labor to engage in self-organization and to bargain collectively through representatives of its own choice.
The stride for unskilled workers to organize was lead by John L. Lewis, boss of the United Mine Workers. He formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) in 1935. The CIO led a series of strikes including the sit-down strike at the General Motors automobile factory in 1936.
Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (Wages and Hours Bill) in 1938. Industries involved in interstate commerce were to set up minimum-wage and maximum-hour levels. Labor by children under the age of 16 was forbidden.
In 1938, the CIO joined with the AF of L and the name "Committee for Industrial Organization" was changed to "Congress of Industrial Organizations."-led by John Lewis. By 1940, the CIO claimed about 4 million members.
Landon Challenges "the Champ" in 1936
As the election of 1936 neared, the New Dealers had achieved considerable progress, and millions of "reliefers" were grateful to their government.
The Republicans chose Alfred M. Landon to run against President Roosevelt. The Republicans condemned the New Deal for its radicalism, experimentation, confusion, and "frightful waste."
President Roosevelt was reelected as president in a lopsided victory. FDR won primarily because he had appealed to the "forgotten man." He had forged a powerful and enduring coalition of the South, blacks, urbanites, and the poor.
Nine Old Men on the Supreme Bench
Ratified in 1933, the 20th Amendment shortened the period from election to inauguration by 6 weeks. FDR took the presidential oath on January 20, 1937, instead of the traditional March 4.
Roosevelt saw his reelection as a mandate to continue the New Deal reforms. The ultraconservative justices on the Supreme Court proved to be a threat to the New Deal as the Roosevelt administration had been thwarted 7 times in cases against the New Deal.
With his reelection, Roosevelt felt that the American people had wanted the New Deal. If the American way of life was to be preserved, he argued, and then the Supreme Court had to get in line with public opinion. President Roosevelt released his plan to ask Congress to pass legislation allowing him to appoint one new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over the age of 70 who would not retire; the maximum number of justices would now be 15. Shocking both Congress and the public, the plan received much negative feedback.
The Court Changes Course
President Roosevelt was belittled for attempting to break down the checks and balances system among the 3 branches of government.
Justice Owen J. Roberts, formerly regarded as a conservative, began to vote liberal. In March 1937, the Supreme Court upheld the principle of state minimum wage for women, reversing its stand on a different case a year earlier. The Court, now sympathetic towards the New Deal, upheld the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) and the Social Security Act.
A succession of deaths and resignations of justices enabled Roosevelt to appoint 9 justices to the Court.
FDR aroused conservatives of both parties in Congress so that few New Deal reforms were passed after 1937. He lost much of the political goodwill that had helped him to win the election of 1936.
The Twilight of the New Deal
In Roosevelt's first term, from 1933-1937, unemployment still ran high and recovery had been relatively slow. In 1937, the economy took another downturn as new Social Security taxes began to cut into payrolls and as the Roosevelt administration cut back on spending out of the continuing reverence for the orthodox economic doctrine of the balanced budget.
The New Deal had run deficits for several years, but all of them had been somewhat small and none was intended. Roosevelt embraced the recommendations of the British economist John Maynard Keynes. The newly-accepted "Keynesianism" economic program was to stimulate the economy by planned deficit spending.
In 1939, Congress passed the Reorganization Act, giving President Roosevelt limited powers for administrative reforms, including the new Executive Office in the White House.
Congress passed the Hatch Act of 1939, barring federal administrative officials from active political campaigning and soliciting. It also forbade the use of government funds for political purposes as well as the collection of campaign contributions from people receiving relief payments.
New Deal or Raw Deal?
Foes of the New Deal charged the president of spending too much money on his programs, significantly increasing the national debt; by 1939, the national debt was at $40,440,000,000. Lavish financial aid and relief were undermining the old virtue of initiative.
Private enterprise was being suppressed and states' rights were being ignored. The most damning indictment of the New Deal was that it did not end the depression; it merely administered "aspirin, sedatives, and Band-Aids." Not until World War II was the unemployment problem solved.
FDR's Balance Sheet
New Deal supporters had pointed out that relief, not economy, had been the primary objective of their war on the depression. Roosevelt believed that the government was morally bound to prevent mass hunger and starvation by "managing" the economy.
FDR was a Hamiltonian in his idea of big government, but a Jeffersonian in his concern for the "forgotten man."
The London Conference
In the summer of 1933, 66 nations sent delegates to the London Economic Conference. The delegates hoped to organize a coordinated international attack on the global depression. They sought to stabilize the values of various nations' currencies and the rates at which they could be exchanged.
President Roosevelt, at first, agreed to send delegates to the conference, but had second thoughts after he realized that an international agreement to maintain the value of the dollar in terms of other currencies wouldn't allow him to inflate the value of the dollar. He declared that America wouldn't take place in the negotiations.
Without support from the United States, the London Economic Conference fell apart. The collapse strengthened the global trend towards nationalism, while making international cooperation increasingly difficult.
Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
Increasing the nation's isolationism, President Roosevelt withdrew from Asia. Bowing to organized labor's demands of the exclusion of low-wage Filipino workers, Congress passed the Tydings-McDuffie Act in 1934, providing for the independence of the Philippines by 1946. The nation did not want to have to support the Philippines if Japan attacked there.
In 1933, Roosevelt formally recognized the Soviet Union, opening up trade and bolstering a friendly counter-weight to the possible threat of German power in Europe and Japanese power in Asia.
Becoming a Good Neighbor
President Roosevelt initiated the Good Neighbor policy, renouncing armed intervention in Latin America. The last marines left Haiti in 1934; Cuba, under the Platt Amendment, was released from American control; and the grip onPanama was relaxed in 1936.
When the Mexican government seized American oil properties in 1938, President Roosevelt held to his unarmed intervention policy and a settlement was eventually worked out in 1941, causing the oil companies to lose much of their original stake.
Secretary Hull's Reciprocal Trade Agreements
Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in 1934. Designed to lower the tariff, it aimed at both relief and recovery. Secretary of State Hull succeeded in negotiating pacts with 21 countries by the end of 1939. These pacts were essentially trade agreements that stated if the United States lowered its tariff, then the other country would do the same. With the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, the president was empowered to lower existing rates by as much as 50% provided that the other country involved would do the same.
During these years of trade agreements, U.S. foreign trade increased dramatically. The act paved the way for the American-led free-trade international economic system that took shape after WWII.
Impulses Toward Storm-Cellar Isolationism
Joseph Stalin took control of the Communist USSR, Benito Mussolini took control of Italy in 1922, and Adolf Hitler took control of Germany. Hitler was the most dangerous of all of them because he combined tremendous power with impulsiveness.
In 1936, Nazi Hitler and Fascist Mussolini allied themselves in the Rome-Berlin Axis.
Determined to find a place in the Asiatic sun, Japan terminated the Washington Naval Treaty and accelerated their construction of giant battleships.
Mussolini, seeking power and glory in Africa, attacked Ethiopia in 1935.
In 1934, Congress passed the Johnson Debt Default Act, preventing the debt-dodging nations from borrowing further in the United States. Americans maintained the isolationist mentality due to the ocean borders.
Congress Legislates Neutrality
Responding to overwhelming popular pressure, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937. The acts stated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically go into effect. No American could legally sail on a belligerent ship, sell or transport munitions to a belligerent, or make loans to a belligerent.
The Neutrality Acts were made to keep the United States out of a conflict. By declining to use its vast industrial strength to aid its democratic friends and defeat its totalitarian foes, the United States helped to provoke the aggressors.
America Dooms Loyalist Spain
The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 started when Spanish rebels, led by General Francisco Franco, rose against the left-wing Republican government in Madrid. Aided by Mussolini and Hitler, Franco undertook to overthrow theLoyalist regime, which was assisted by the Soviet Union.
Although it was legal for the United States to send aid to the Loyalist regime, the United States desperately wanted to stay out of war; Congress amended the existing neutrality legislation so as to apply an arms embargo to both Loyalists and rebels.
Appeasing Japan and Germany
In 1937, the Japanese militarists touched off an explosion that led to the all-out invasion of China. President Roosevelt declined to invoke the recently passed neutrality legislation by refusing to call the "China incident" an officially declared war. If he had, he would have cut off the trickle of munitions on which the Chinese were dependent. The Japanese, as a result, were able to continue to buy war supplies in the United States.
In 1937, Japanese planes sunk an American gunboat, the Panay. Tokyo was quick to make apologies and the United States accepted.
In 1935, Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles when he introduced mandatory military service in Germany. In 1936, he again violated the treaty when he took over the demilitarized German Rhineland.
In March 1938, Hitler invaded Austria. (Note: Austria actually voted for the occupation, fully aware that if it resisted, Germany would forcefully take over Austria.)
At a conference in Munich, Germany in September 1938, the Western European democracies, unprepared for war, betrayed Czechoslovakia to Germany when they gave away Sudetenland. They hoped that by doing this, Hitler's greed for power would end.
In March 1939, Hitler took control of Czechoslovakia. (See Austria note.)
Hitler's Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression treaty with Hitler. The Hitler-Stalin pact meant that Germany could make war on Poland and the Western democracies without fear of retaliation from the Soviet Union.
Hitler demanded from Poland a return of the areas taken from Germany after WWI. After Poland failed to meet his demands, Hitler militarily invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain and France, honoring their commitments to Poland, declared war on Germany; World War II had started.
Although Americans were strongly anti-Nazi, they were desperately determined to stay out of the war.
The Neutrality Act of 1937 placed a arms trade embargo on Spain and extended the current embargo on Britain and France.
Heeding to the need of France and Britain of war materials from America, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939. It stated that the European democracies could buy American war materials as long as they would transport the munitions on their own ships after paying for them in cash. America thus avoided loans, war debts, and the torpedoing of American arms-carriers.
Overseas demand for war goods brought a sharp upswing from the recession of 1937-1938 and ultimately solved the decade-long unemployment crisis.
The Fall of France
The months following the collapse of Poland were known as the "phony war."
The Soviet Union took over Finland despite Congress loaning $30 million to Finland.
Hitler overran Denmark and Norway in April 1940, ending the "phony war." Hitler then moved on to the Netherlands and Belgium. By late June 1940, France was forced to surrender.
When France surrendered, Americans realized that England was all that stood between Hitler controlling all of Europe. Roosevelt moved with tremendous speed to call upon the nation to build huge airfleets and a two-ocean navy. Congress approved a spending of $37 billion. On September 6, 1940, Congress passed a conscription law; under this measure, America's first peacetime draft was initiated-provision was made for training 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reserves each year.
With the Netherlands, Denmark, and France all fallen to German control, it was unsure what would happen to the colonies of Latin America (the New World). At the Havana Conference of 1940, the United States agreed to share with its 20 New World neighbors the responsibility of upholding the Monroe Doctrine.
Bolstering Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
After France fell to Germany in the Battle of France (June), Hitler launched a series of air attacks against Britain in August 1940. The Battle of Britain raged in the air over the British Isles for months. During the Battle of Britain, radio broadcasts brought the drama from London air raids directly to America homes. Sympathy for Britain grew, but it was not yet sufficient to push the United States into war.
President Roosevelt faced a historic decision: whether to hunker down in the Western Hemisphere and let the rest of the world go it alone; or to bolster Britain by all means short of war itself.
The most powerful group of those who supported aid for Britain was the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies. Isolationists organized the America First Committee, contending that America should concentrate what strength it had to defend its own shores.
On September 2, 1940, President Roosevelt agreed to transfer to 50 destroyers left over from WWI to Britain. In return, Britain agreed to hand over to the United States 8 valuable defensive base sites. Shifting warships from a neutral United States to Britain was a flagrant violation of the neutrality obligations.
FDR Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
The Republicans chose Wendell L. Willkie to run against President Roosevelt. Willkie's great appeal lay in his personality. The Republican platform condemned FDR's alleged dictatorship, as well as the New Deal. Willkie was opposed not so much to the New Deal as to its extravagances and inefficiencies.
Roosevelt challenged the sacred two-term tradition when he decided that in such a grave crisis he owed his experienced hand to the service of his country.
Both presidential nominees promised to stay out of the war, and both promised to strengthen the nation's defenses.
FDR won the election of 1940; voters generally felt that should war come, the experience of FDR was needed.
Congress Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
Fearing the collapse of Britain, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Bill in 1941. Nicknamed "An Act Further to Promote the Defense of the United States," it allowed for American arms to be lent or leased to the democracies of the world that needed them. When the war was over, the guns and tanks could be returned. Key opponents of the bill, such as Senator Taft, criticized it, reporting that the arms would be destroyed and unable to be returned after the war. It was praised by the FDR administration as a device that would keep the nation out of the war rather than dragging it in. America would send a limitless supply of arms to victims of aggression, who would in turn finish the war and keep it on their side of the Atlantic.
Lend-lease was a challenge thrown at the Axis dictators; America pledged itself to bolster those nations that were indirectly fighting it by fighting aggression. The bill marked the abandonment of any pretense of neutrality.
Hitler recognized the Lend-Lease Bill as an unofficial declaration of war. Until then, Germany had avoided attacking U.S. ships. On May 21, 1941, the Robin Moor, an unarmed American merchantman, was destroyed by a German submarine in the South Atlantic, outside the war zone.
Hitler's Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
Two events marked the course of WWII before the assault on Pearl Harbor: the fall of France in June 1940, and Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
Even though the two nations were bound to peace under the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, neither Hitler nor Stalin trusted one another. Hitler decided to crush the Soviet Union, seize the oil and other resources of the Soviet Union, and then have two free hands to battle Britain.
On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched an attack on the Soviet Union. President Roosevelt immediately promised assistance and backed up his words by making some military supplies available.
With the surrender of the Soviet Union a very real possibility, the Atlantic Conference was held in August 1941. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met and discussed common problems of the world. The two men came up with the eight-point Atlantic Charter, outlining the aspirations of the democracies for a better world at the war's end. The Atlantic Charter promised that there would be no territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants; it affirmed the right of a people to choose their own form of government and to regain the governments abolished by the dictators; and it declared for disarmament and a peace of security, pending a new League of Nations.
U.S. Destroyers and Hitler's U-boats Clash
FDR made the decision to escort the shipments of arms to Britain by U.S. warships in July 1941. In September 1941, the U.S. destroyer Greer was attacked by a U-boat, without suffering damage. Roosevelt then proclaimed a shoot-on-sight policy. On October 17 the destroyer Kearny was crippled by a U-boat. Two weeks later, the destroyer Reuben James was sunk off southwestern Iceland.
Congress voted in November 1941 to repeal the Neutrality Act of 1939, enabling merchant ships to be legally armed and enter the combat zones with munitions for Britain.
Surprise Assault of Pearl Harbor
Since September 1940, Japan had been allied with Germany. In late 1940, Washington imposed the first of its embargoes on Japan-bound supplies. The State Department insisted that the Japanese clear out of China, offering to renew trade relations on a limited basis. Forced with the choice of succumbing to the Americans or continued conquest, the Japanese chose to fight.
On "Black Sunday" December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor, killing 2,348 people.
On December 11, 1941, Congress declared war.
America's Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
Pearl Harbor was not the full answer to the question of why the United States went to war. Following the fall of France, Americans were confronted with a devil's dilemma. They desired to stay out of the conflict, yet they did not want Britain to be knocked out. To keep Britain from collapsing, the Roosevelt administration felt compelled to extend the unneutral aid that invited attacks from German submarines. Americans wished to stop Japan's conquests in the Far East. To keep Japan from expanding, Washington undertook to cut off vital Japanese supplies with embargoes that invited possible retaliation.
Rather than let democracy die and dictatorship rule, most Americans were determined to support a policy that might lead to war.
After the bombing at Pearl Harbor, politicians in Washington D.C. adopted the strategy of "getting Germany first"; if America diverted its main strength to the Pacific, Hitler might crush both the Soviet Union and Britain. The politicians' idea was that if Germany was knocked out first (before the Pacific engagements began), then Allied forces could be concentrated on Japan.
The Allies Trade Space for Time
America's task of WWII was far more complex and hard than during WWI. It had to feed, clothe, and transport its forces to far away regions. It also had to send a vast amount of food and munitions to its allies, who stretched all the way from Australia to the USSR.
The Shock of War
American Communists had denounced the Anglo-French war before Hitler attacked Stalin in 1941, but after Pearl Harbor, they clamored for war against the axis powers.
Unlike WWI, when the patriotism of millions of immigrants was questioned, WWII actually sped the assimilation of many ethnic groups into American society. There was almost no government witch-hunting of minority groups. The exception to this was the 110,000 Japanese-Americans on the Pacific Coast who were herded into concentration camps. Washington feared that they might act as saboteurs for Japan in case of invasion. The camps deprived the Japanese-Americans of basic rights, and the internees lost hundreds of millions of dollars in property. In the Supreme Court ruling in Korematsu v. U.S. (1944), the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the concentration camps.
Many programs of the once-popular New Deal were wiped out-including the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the National Youth Administration. President Roosevelt declared in 1943 that the New Deal reform era was over.
Building the War Machine
The lingering Great Depression was brought to an end with the massive military orders. Orchestrated by the War Production Board (WPB), American factories produced an enormous amount of weaponry, such as guns and planes. The War Production Board halted the manufacture of nonessential items such as passenger cars. It assigned priorities for transportation and access to raw materials.
The government imposed a national speed limit and gasoline rationing as America's lifeline of natural rubber from British Malaysia and the Dutch East Indies was broken.
In 1942, a sharp inflationary surge occurred as a result of full employment and scarce consumer goods. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) eventually brought the ascending prices down.
The War Labor Board (WLB) imposed ceilings on wage increases. Unhappy with the wage ceilings, labor unions called their members to go on strike. Threats of lost production through strikes became so worrisome that Congress, in June 1943, passed the Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act. It authorized the federal government to seize and operate tied-up businesses. Washington took control of the coal mines and, for a brief period, the railroads. Though, the vast majority of American workers were committed to the war effort.
Manpower and Womanpower
Even with certain key categories of industrial and agricultural workers being exempt from the draft, the draft left the nation's farms and factories short of personnel. In 1942, an agreement with Mexico brought thousands of Mexican agricultural workers, called braceros, to America to harvest the fruit and grain crops of the West.
The armed services enlisted nearly 216,000 women in WWII. Most commonly known were the WAACs (army), WAVES (navy), and SPARs (Coast Guard). Millions of women also took jobs outside the house, working in the war industry. WWII foreshadowed an eventual revolution in the roles of women in American society.
The immediate post-war period witnessed not a permanent widening of women's employment opportunities, but a widespread rush into suburban domesticity and the mothering of the "baby boomers."
Wartime Migrations
The war churned and shifted the American population. 1.6 million blacks left the South to seek jobs in the war plants of the West and North. Black leader A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, threatened a massive "Negro March on Washington" in 1941 to demand equal opportunities for blacks in war jobs and in the armed forces. As a result, Roosevelt established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to monitor compliance with his executive order forbidding discrimination in defense industries.
During WWII, FDR gave the South a disproportionate share of defense contracts in order to fix the economic crisis of the South.
In 1944, the advent of the mechanical cotton picker made the Cotton South's need for cheap labor disappear. Following the invention, millions of black tenant farmers and sharecroppers headed north.
Some 25,000 Native Americans served in the armed forces. Comanches in Europe and Navajos in the Pacific made such valuable contributions as "code talkers."
Holding the Home Front
Americans on the home front suffered little from the war, compared to the people of the other fighting nations. By war's end, much of the world was in ruins, but in America, the war-stimulated economy was booming.
The hand of government touched more American lives more intimately during the war than every before; every household felt the constraints of the rationing system.
Following the war, the national debt rose from $49 billion in 1941 to $259 billion in 1945. Most of the war costs were borrowed.
The Rising Sun in the Pacific
Simultaneously with the assault on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese launched attacks on various Far Eastern strongholds, including the American outposts of Guam, Wake, and the Philippines.
In the Philippines, American forces, led by General MacArthur, held out against the invading Japanese force for 5 months. The America troops surrendered on April 9, 1942. They were treated with vicious cruelty in the 80-mile Bataan Death March to prisoner-of-war camps.
The island fortress of Corregidor held out until it surrendered on May 6, 1942, giving the Japanese complete control of the Philippines.
Japan's High Tide at Midway
In May 1942, a crucial naval battle was fought in the Coral Sea. An American carrier task force, with Australian support, engaged in the first battle in which all the fighting was done by carrier-based aircraft.
On June 3-6, 1942, a naval battle of extreme importance to both the Japanese and the Americans was fought near Midway. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz directed a smaller but skillfully maneuvered carrier force, under Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, against the powerful invading Japanese fleet. The Japanese retreated after losing 4 carriers. Midway was a turning point in the Pacific war. Combined with the Battle of Coral Sea, the U.S. success at Midway halted the powerful Japanese.
American Leapfrogging Toward Tokyo
In August 1942, American forces gained a foothold on Guadalcanal Island, the Solomon Islands, in an attempt to protect the lifeline from America to Australia through the Southwest Pacific. After several desperate sea battles for naval control, the Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal in February 1943. The casualty ratio of more than 10 to 1, Japanese to American, subsisted after the battle.
The U.S. Navy had been "leapfrogging" the Japanese-held islands in the Pacific. The strategy dictated that the American forces, as they drove towards Tokyo, would reduce the fortified Japanese outposts on their flank. The new strategy of island hopping called for bypassing some of the most heavily fortified Japanese posts, capturing nearby islands, setting up airfields on them, and then neutralizing the enemy bases through heavy bombing. The outposts would then wither and die due to deprivation of essential supplies from the homeland. Success came to the United States as Admiral Chester Nimitz coordinated the efforts of naval, air, and ground units.
Saipan Island, Tinian Island, and the major islands of the Marianas fell to U.S. attackers in July and August 1944. From the Marianas, the United States' new B-29 superbombers were able to carryout round-trip bombing raids on Japan's home islands.
The Allied Halting of Hitler
Hitler had entered the war with a strong, ultramodern fleet of submarine U-Boats. To combat these submarines, Allies used old techniques, such as escorting convoys of merchant vessels and dropping depth bombs from destroyers, which were strengthened by air patrol and the advent of radar.
The turning point in the land-air war against Hitler came in late 1942. In October 1942, British general Bernard Montgomery delivered a withering attack on El Alamein. He drove the Germans, who were led by Marshal Erwin Rommel, all the way back to Tunisia.
In September 1942, the Soviets repelled Hitler's attack on Stalingrad, capturing thousands of German soldiers. (The turning point in the war in the Soviet Union.)
A Second Front from North Africa to Rome
Many Americans, including President Roosevelt, wanted to begin a diversionary invasion of France in 1942 or 1943. They feared that the Soviets, unable to hold out forever against Germany, might make a separate peace as they had in 1918 and leave the Western Allies to face Germany alone.
British military planners, fearing a possible disaster, preferred to attack Hitler through the "soft underbelly" of the Mediterranean. The Americans eventually agreed.
Led by American general, Dwight D. Eisenhower, an assault on French-held North Africa was launched in November 1942. The invasion was the mightiest waterborne effort up to that time in history. The German-Italy army was trapped in Tunisia in May 1943.
At Casablanca, President Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill in January 1943. The two agreed to step up the war in the Pacific, invade Sicily, increase pressure on Italy, and insist upon "unconditional surrender" of the enemy.
After the success of Africa, Allied forces captured Sicily in August 1943. In September 1943, Italy surrendered unconditionally and Mussolini was overthrown. Although Italy surrendered, the Germans would not let the Allies take control of Italy. The Germans fiercely fought the Allies and killed the Italian civilians who had surrendered. Rome was taken on June 4, 1944. On May 2, 1945, thousands of axis troops in Italy surrendered and became prisoners of war. The Italian second front opened the Mediterranean and diverted some German divisions away from the Soviet and French battle lines.
D-Day: June 6, 1944
President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Stalin met in Teheran, Iran from November 28th to December 1st to coordinate a second front. One of the most important achievements of the conference was the agreement on broad plans, especially those for launching Soviet attacks on Germany from the east simultaneously with the Allied assault from the west.
Because the United States was to provide the most Allied troops for the invasion of Europe, American General Eisenhower was given command.
French Normandy was chosen for the point for invasion due to the fact that it was less heavily defended than other parts of the European cost. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the enormous operation took place. After desperate fighting, the Allies finally broke out of the German ring that enclosed the beach. General George S. Patton led armored divisions across France extremely fast and efficiently. Paris was liberated in August 1944.
The first important German city to fall to the Allies was Aachen in October 1944.
FDR: The Fourth-Termite of 1944
For the election of 1944, the Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey for the presidency and isolationist Senator, John W. Bricker for the vice presidency.
The Democrats nominated Roosevelt for the presidency and, after dispute of trust with current vice president Henry A. Wallace, Senator Harry S Truman was chosen for the vice presidency.
Roosevelt Defeats Dewey
Roosevelt won a sweeping majority of the votes in the Electoral College and was reelected. He won primarily because the war was going well. Foreign policy was a decisive factor with many voters, who concluded that Roosevelt's experience was needed for making a future organization for world peace.
The Last Days of Hitler
On December 16, 1944, Hitler threw all of his forces against the thinly held American lines in the Ardennes Forest. His objective was the Belgian port of Antwerp, key to the Allied supply operation. The Americans were driven back, creating a deep "bulge" in the Allied line. The 10-day penetration was halted after the 101st Airborne Division had stood firm. Brigadier General A. C. McAuliffe led the Battle of the Bulge.
In April 1945, General Eisenhower's troops reached the Elbe River, finding the concentration camps where the Nazis had murdered over 6 million Jews. Not until the war's end did all of the atrocities of the "Holocaust" appear.
The Soviets reached and captured Berlin in April 1945. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945.
On April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt died suddenly from a brain hemorrhage. Harry S Truman took over the presidency.
On May 7, 1945, the German government surrendered unconditionally.
Japan Dies Hard
Submarines and bombers inflicted severe damage upon Japan.
After the conquest of New Guinea, General MacArthur returned to the Philippines, en route to Japan, with 600 ships and 250,000 troops. In Leyte Gulf, a series of 3 battles took place from October 23-26, 1944, knocking out Japan's massive and powerful navy. MacArthur then landed on the main Philippine island of Luzon in January 1945, capturing Manila in March 1945. Iwo Jima, needed as a haven for damaged American bombers returning from Japan, was captured in March 1945. The island of was needed for closer bases from which to blast and burn enemy cities and industries. The Americans finally captured the island after fighting from April to June of 1945. The American navy suffered heavy damage from the "kamikaze" Japanese pilots.
The Atomic Bombs
The Potsdam conference near Berlin in 1945 sounded the death of the Japanese. At the conference, President Truman met with Stalin and the British leaders. They issued an ultimatum to Japan: surrender or be destroyed.
On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated. With the Japanese still refusing to surrender, the first of 2 atomic bombs was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. On August 8, Stalin invaded the Japanese defenses of Manchuria and Korea. After the Japanese still refused to surrender, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9.
On August 10, 1945, Tokyo surrendered under the condition that Hirohito be allowed to remain the emperor. The Allies accepted this condition on August 14, 1945. The formal end to the war came on September 2, 1945.
The Allies Triumphant
American forces suffered some 1 million casualties in WWII, while the Soviet Union suffered nearly 20 million.
After the war, much of the world was destroyed while America was virtually left untouched.
The nation was better prepared for the war than any other nation because it had begun to prepare about a year and a half before the war officially began.
Postwar Economic Anxieties
During the 1930s, unemployment and insecurity had pushed up the suicide rate and decreased the marriage rate. The population growth was also declining as couples had economic troubles.
In the initial postwar years, the economy struggled; prices elevated 33% from 1946-1947 after the wartime price controls were removed. An epidemic of strikes swept over the country in 1946.
In 1947, the Republican Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act over President Truman's veto. It outlawed the "closed" (all-union) shop, made unions liable for damages that resulted from jurisdictional disputes among themselves, and required union leaders to take a noncommunist oath. Taft-Hartley was just one of several obstacles that slowed the growth of organized labor in the years following WWII.
The CIO's "Operation Dixie," aimed at unionizing southern textile workers and steelworkers, failed in 1948 to overcome lingering fears of racial mixing.
Congress passed the Employment Act in 1946 to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power. It also created a 3-member Council of Economic Advisers to provide the president with the data and the recommendations to make that policy a reality.
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights or the GI Bill, made generous provisions for sending the former solders to school. By raising educational levels and stimulating the construction industry, the GI Bill powerfully nurtured the long-lived economic expansion that took hold in the late 1940s.
The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970
In the 1950s, the American economy entered a twenty-year period of tremendous growth. During the 1950s and 1960s, national income nearly doubled, giving Americans about 40% of the planet's wealth. The post-World War II era transformed the lives of a majority of citizens and molded the agenda of politics and society for at least two generations. Prosperity underwrote social mobility; it paved the war for the success of the civil rights movement; it funded new welfare programs; and it gave Americans the confidence to exercise unprecedented international leadership in the Cold War era.
The size of the middle class doubled from pre-Great Depression days, including 60% of the population by the mid 1950s.
The majority of new jobs created in the postwar era went to women, as the service sector of the economy dramatically outgrew the old industrial and manufacturing sectors.
The Roots of Postwar Economy
The economic upturn of 1950 was fueled by massive appropriations for the Korean War and defense spending. The military budget helped jumpstart high-technology industries such as aerospace, plastics, and electronics. Cheap energy also fueled the economic boom. American and European companies controlled the flow of abundant petroleum from the expanses of the Middle East, and they kept prices low.
Gains in productivity were enhanced the rising educational level for the work force. By 1970, nearly 90% of the school-age population was enrolled in educational institutions.
The work force shifted out of agriculture, which was achieving higher productivity gains as a result of new, more efficient farming equipment.
The Smiling Sunbelt
In the 30 years after WWII, an average of 30 million people changed residence every year. Families especially felt the strain, as distance divided them.
The "Sunbelt", a 15-state area stretching from Virginia through Florida and Texas to Arizona and California, increased it population at a rate nearly double than that of the old industrial zones of the Northeast (the "Frostbelt"). In the 1950s, California alone accounted for 1/5 of the nation's population. The modern pioneers came in search of jobs, better climate, and lower taxes. The large amount of federal dollars being given to the Sunbelt states accounted for much of the Sunbelt's prosperity. The industry region of the Ohio Valley (the "Rustbelt") was especially hit hard as a result of the loss in funds and population.
The Rush to the Suburbs
In all regions, America's modern white migrants moved from the city to the new suburbs. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Veterans Administration (VA) made home-loan guarantees, making it more economically attractive to own a home in the suburbs rather than to rent an apartment in the city.
"White flight" to the suburbs and the migration of blacks from the South left the inner cities, especially those in the Northeast and Midwest, to become poverty-stricken. The FHA often refused blacks home mortgages for private home purchases, thus limiting black mobility out of the inner cities.
The Postwar Baby Boom
In the decade and a half after 1945, the birth rate in the United States exploded as the "baby boom" took place. More than 50 million babies were born by the end of the 1950s. By 1973, the birth rates had dropped below the point necessary to maintain existing population figures.
Truman: The "Gutty" Man from Missouri
The first president without a college education in many years, President Harry S Truman was known as "average man's average man." He had down-home authenticity, few pretensions, rock-solid probity, and the political ability called "moxie" - the ability to face difficulty with courage.
Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal?
February 1945, the Big Three (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) met in Yalta to discuss the war's end. Final plans were laid for smashing the German lines and shackling the beaten Axis enemy. Stalin agreed that Poland, with revised boundaries, should have a representative government based on free elections-a pledge he soon broke. Bulgaria and Romania were likewise to have free elections-a pledge also broken. The Big Three also announced plans for fashioning a new international peacekeeping organization-the United Nations.
The most controversial decision concerned the Far East. With the atomic bomb not yet tested, Washington analysts expected high American casualties in the assault on Japan. Roosevelt felt that Stalin should enter the Asian war, pin down Japanese troops in Manchuria and Korea, and lighten American losses. But with Soviet casualties already extremely high, Stalin needed incentive to join in the Far East. Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 3 months after the collapse of Germany. In return, the Soviets were promised the southern half of Sakhalin Island, lost by Russia to Japan in 1905, and Japan's Kurile Islands. The Soviet Union was also granted control over the railroads of China's Manchuria and special privileges in the two key seaports of that area, Dairen and Port Arthur. These concessions gave Stalin control over vital industrial centers of America's weakening Chinese ally.
The United States and the Soviet Union
The United States terminated vital lend lease aid to a battered USSR in 1945 and ignored Moscow's plea for a $6 billion reconstruction loan-while approving a similar loan of $3.75 billion to Britain in 1946.
Different visions of the postwar world separated the two superpowers. Stalin aimed above all to guarantee the security of the Soviet Union. He made it clear from the outset of the war that he was determined to have friendly governments along the Soviet western border. By maintaining a Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern and Central Europe, the USSR could protect itself and consolidate its revolutionary base as the world's leading communist country.
These spheres of influence contradicted President FDR's Wilsonian dream of an "open world," decolonized, demilitarized, and democratized.
Unaccustomed to their great-power roles, the Soviet Union and the United States provoked each other into a tense, 40-year standoff known as the Cold War.
Shaping the Postwar World
In 1944, the Western Allies met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire and established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to encourage world trade by regulating currency exchange rates. They also founded the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) to promote economic growth in war-ravaged and underdeveloped areas. Unlike after WWI, the United States took the lead in creating the important international bodies and supplied most of their funding after WWII. The Soviets declined to participate.
The United Nations Conference opened on April 25, 1945. Meeting at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, representatives from 50 nations made the United Nations charter. It included the Security Council, dominated by the Big Five powers (the United States, Britain, the USSR, France, and China), each of whom had the right of veto, and the Assembly, which could be controlled by smaller countries. The Senate overwhelmingly passed the document on July 28, 1945.
Through such arms as the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization), and WHO (World Health Organization), the U.N. brought benefits to people around the world.
In 1946, Bernard Baruch called for a U.N. agency, free from the great-power veto, with worldwide authority over atomic energy, weapons, and research. The plan quickly fell apart as neither the United States nor the Soviet Union wanted to give up their nuclear weapons.
The Problem of Germany
At Nuremberg, Germany from 1945-1946, Nazi leaders were tried and punished for war crimes. Punishments included hangings and long jail times.
Beyond the Nuremberg Trials, the Allies could agree little about postwar Germany. At first, Americans wanted to dismantle German factories and reduce the country to nothing. The Soviets, denied of American economic assistance, were determined to rebuild their nation through reparations from Germany. Eventually, Americans realized that a flourishing German economy was indispensable to the recovery of Europe. The Soviets refused to realize this.
At the end of the war, Austria and Germany had been divided into 4 military occupation zones, each assigned to one of the Big Four powers (France, Britain, America, and the USSR).
As the USSR spread communism to its Eastern zone in Germany and the Western Allies promoted the idea of a reunited Germany, Germany became divided. West Germany eventually became an independent country, and East Germany became bound the Soviet Union as an independent "satellite" state, shutoff from the Western world by the "iron curtain" of the Soviet Union.
Berlin, still occupied by the Four Big powers, was completely surrounded by the Soviet Occupation Zone. In 1948, following controversies over German currency reform and four-power control, the Soviet Union attempted to starve the Allies out of Berlin by cutting off all rail and highway access to the city. In May 1949, after America had flown in many supplies, the blockade was lifted.
In 1949, the governments of East and West Germany were established.
Crystallizing the War
In 1946, Stalin, seeking oil concessions, broke an agreement to remove his troops from Iran's northernmost province. He used the troops to aid a rebel movement. When Truman protested, Stalin backed down.
In 1947, George F. Kennan formulated the "containment doctrine." This concept stated that Russia, whether tsarist or communist, was relentlessly expansionary. Kennan argued that the Soviet Union was also cautious, and the flow of Soviet power could be stemmed by firm and vigilant containment.
President Truman embraced the policy in 1947 when he stated that Britain could no longer bear the financial and military burden of defending Greece against communist pressures. If Greece fell, Turkey and the rest of the eastern Mediterranean would collapse to the Soviet Union.
On March 12, 1947, President Truman came before Congress and requested support for the Truman Doctrine. He declared that it must be the policy of the United States to aid any country that was resisting communist aggression.
In 1947, France, Italy, and Germany were all suffering from the hunger and economic chaos caused in that year. Secretary of State George C. Marshall invited the Europeans to get together and work out a joint plan for their economic recovery. If they did so, then the United States would provide substantial financial assistance. Marshall offered the same aid to the Soviet Union and its allies, but the Soviets refused it. Although quite expensive, legislators passed the plan after realizing that the United States had to get Europe back on its feet. Within a few years, Europe's economy was flourishing. The Marshall Plan led to the eventual creation of the European Community (EC).
Access to Middle Eastern oil was crucial to the European recovery program and to the health of the U.S. economy. Despite threats from the Arab nations to cut off the supply of oil, President Truman officially recognized the state ofIsrael on May 14, 1948.
America Begins to Rearm
The Cold War, the struggle to contain Soviet communism, was not a war, yet it was not a peace.
In 1947, Congress passed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense. The department was headed by a new cabinet officer, the secretary of defense. Under the secretary were the civilian secretaries of the navy, the army, and the air force. The uniformed heads of each service were brought together as the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The National Security Act also established the National Security Council (NSC) to advise the president on security matters and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to coordinate the government's foreign fact-gathering.
In 1948, the United States joined the European pact, called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). American participation strengthened the policy of containing the Soviet Union and provided a framework for the reintegration of Germany into the European family. The pact pledged each signed nation to regard an attack on one as an attack on all. The Senate passed the treaty on July 21, 1949.
The NATO pact marked a dramatic departure from American diplomatic convention, a gigantic boost for European unification, and a significant step in the militarization of the Cold War.
Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia
General Douglas MacArthur took control of the democratization of Japan. The Japanese people cooperated to an astonishing degree; they saw that good behavior and the adoption of democracy would speed the end of the occupation. In 1946, a MacArthur-dictated constitution was adopted. It renounced militarism and introduced western-style democratic government.
From 1946-1948, top Japanese "war criminals" were tried in Tokyo.
Although there was much success in Japan, China was another story. In late 1949, the Chinese Nationalist government of Generalissimo Jiang Jieshi was forced to flee the country to the island of Formosa (Taiwan) when thecommunists, led by Mao Zedong, swept over the country. The collapse of Nationalist China was a depressing loss for America and its allies in the Cold War as ¼ of the world's population fell to communism.
In September 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb, 3 years before experts thought possible. To stay one step ahead, Truman ordered the development of the H-bomb (Hydrogen Bomb). The first H-bomb was exploded in 1952. The Soviets exploded their first H-bomb in 1953, and the nuclear arms race entered a dangerously competitive cycle.
Feeling Out Alleged Communists
In 1947, President Truman launched the Loyalty Review Board to investigate the possibility of communist spies in the government.
In 1949, 11 communists were sent to prison for violating the Smith Act of 1940 (first antisedition law since 1798) in advocating the overthrow of the American government. The ruling was upheld in Dennis v. United States (1951).
In 1938, the House of Representatives established the Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to investigate "subversion." In 1948, Congressman Richard M. Nixon led the hunt for and eventual conviction of Alger Hiss, a prominent ex-New Dealer and a distinguished member of the "eastern establishment." Americans began to join in on the hunt for communist spies of who were thought to riddle America.
In 1950, Truman vetoed the McCarran Internal Security Bill, which authorized the president to arrest and detain suspicious people during an "internal security emergency." Congress overrode Truman's veto and passed the bill.
In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted and sentenced to death for stealing American atomic bomb plans and selling them to the Soviet Union. They were the only people in history to be sentenced to death for espionage.
Democratic Divisions in 1948
In 1948, the Republicans chose Thomas E. Dewey to run for president. After war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower chose not to run for the presidency, the Democrats chose Truman. Truman's nomination split the Democratic Party. Southern Democrats met and nominated Governor J. Strom Thurmond. The new Progressive party nominated Henry A. Wallace. Expected to lose, but not ready to give up, Truman traveled the country, giving energetic speeches. On Election Day, Truman, although not winning the popular vote, beat Dewey and was reelected as president. Truman's victory came from the votes of farmers, workers, and blacks.
President Truman called for a "bold new program" ("Point Four"). The plan was to lend U.S. money and technical aid to underdeveloped lands to help them help themselves. He wanted to spend millions to keep underprivileged people from becoming communists.
At home, Truman outlined a "Fair Deal" program in 1949. It called for improved housing, full employment, a higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVAs, and an extension of Social Security. The only major successes came in raising the minimum wage, providing for public housing in the Housing Act of 1949, and extending old-age insurance to many more beneficiaries in the Social Security Act of 1950.
The Korean Volcano Erupts (1950)
When Japan collapsed in 1945, Korea had been divided up into two sections: the Soviets controlled the north above the 38th parallel and the United States controlled south of that line.
On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army invaded South Korea. President Truman's National Security Council had recommended NSC-68, calling for the quadrupling of the United States' defense spending. Truman ordered a massive military buildup, well beyond what was necessary for the Korean War.
NSC-68 was a key document of the Cold War because it not only marked a major step in the militarization of American foreign policy, but it reflected the sense of almost limitless possibility that encompassed postwar American society.
On June 25, 1950, President Truman obtained from the United Nations Security Council a unanimous condemnation of North Korea as an aggressor. (The Soviet Union was not present at the meeting.) Without Congress's approval, Truman ordered American air and naval units to be sent to support South Korea.
The Military Seesaw in Korea
On September 15, 1950, General MacArthur succeeded in pushing the North Koreans past the 38th parallel. On November 1950, though, hordes of communist Chinese "volunteers" attacked the U.N. forces, pushing them back to the 38th parallel.
Due to General MacArthur's insubordination and disagreement with the Joint Chiefs of Staff about increasing the size of the war, President Truman was forced to remove MacArthur from command on April 11, 1951.
In July 1951, truce discussions dragged out over the issue of prisoner exchange.
The Advent of Eisenhower
Lacking public support for Truman, Democrats nominated Adlai E. Stevenson to run for the presidency in the election of 1952. Republicans chose General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Richard M. Nixon was chosen for vice-president to satisfy the anticommunist wing of the Republican Party.
During the presidential campaign, reports of Nixon secretly tapping government funds arose. After Eisenhower considered dropping Nixon from the ballot, Nixon went on television and stated his apologies in the "Checkers speech"-this saved his place on the ballot.
The new technology of black-and-white television changed political campaigning. Television often over-simplified the complicated issues of the time.
Dwight Eisenhower won the election of 1952 by a large majority.
"Ike" Takes Command
True to his campaign promise, President Eisenhower attempted to end the Korean War. In July 1953, after Eisenhower threatened to use nuclear weapons, an armistice was signed, ending the Korean War. Despite the Korean War, Korea remained divided at the 38th Parallel.
Eisenhower's leadership style of sincerity, fairness, and optimism helped to comfort the nation after the war.
The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy
In February 1950, Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy made a speech accusing Secretary of State Dean Acheson of knowingly employing 205 Communist party members. Even though the accusations later proved to be false, McCarthy gained the support of the public. With the Republican victory in the election of 1952, his rhetoric became bolder as his accusations of communism grew.
Though McCarthy was not the first red-hunter, he was the most ruthless, doing the most damage to American traditions of fair play and free speech.
In 1954, McCarthy went too far and attacked the U.S. Army. Just a few months later, he was condemned by the Senate for "conduct unbecoming a member."
Desegregating the South
All aspects of life of African Americans in the South were governed by the Jim Crow laws. Blacks dealt with an array of separate social arrangements that kept them insulated from whites, economically inferior, and politically powerless. Gunnar Myrdal exposed the contradiction between America's professed belief that all men are created equal and its terrible treatment of black citizens in his book An American Dilemma (1944).
World War II had generated a new militancy and restlessness among many members of the black community. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled the "white primary" unconstitutional, undermining the status of the Democratic Party in the South as a white person's club.
In the Supreme Court case of Sweatt v. Painter (1950), the Court ruled that separate professional schools for blacks failed to meet the test of equality.
In December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest sparked a yearlong black boycott of the city busses and served notice throughout the South that blacks would no longer submit meekly to the absurdities and indignities of segregation.
Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution
Hearing of the lynching of black war veterans in 1946, President Harry S Truman commissioned a report titled "To Secure These Rights." Truman ended segregation in federal civil service and order "equality of treatment and opportunity" in the armed forces in 1948.
When Congress and new President Eisenhower ignored the racial issues, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren stepped up to confront important social issues-especially civil rights for African Americans.
In the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954), the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unequal and thus unconstitutional. The decision reversed the previous ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson(1896).
States in the Deep South resisted the ruling, and more than 100 senators and congressman signed the "Declaration of Constitutional Principles" in 1956, pledging their unyielding resistance to desegregation.
Crisis at Little Rock
President Eisenhower was little inclined toward promoting integration. He shied away from upsetting "the customs and convictions of at least two generations of Americans." In September 1957, Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas mobilized the National Guard to prevent nine black students from enrolling in Little Rock's Central High School. Confronted with a direct challenge to federal authority, Eisenhower sent troops to escort the children to their classes.
In 1957, Congress passed the first Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction Days. It set up a permanent Civil Rights Commission to investigate violations of civil rights and authorized federal injunctions to protect voting rights.
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. It aimed to mobilize the vast power of the black churches on behalf of black rights.
On February 1, 1960, 4 black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina demanded service at a whites-only lunch counter. Within a week, the sit-in reached 1,000 students, spreading a wave of wade-ins, lie-ins, and pray-ins across the South demanding equal rights. In April 1960, southern black students formed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to give more focus and force to their efforts.
Eisenhower Republicanism at Home
When dealing with people, President Eisenhower was liberal, but when dealing with the economy and the government, he was conservative. He strived to balance the federal budget and to guard America from socialism. True to his small government philosophy, Eisenhower supported the transfer of control over offshore oil fields from the federal government to the states.
In 1954, giving in to the Mexican government's worries that illegal Mexican immigration to the United States would undercut the bracero program of legally imported farmworkers, President Eisenhower rounded up a million illegal immigrants in Operation Wetback.
Eisenhower sought to cancel the tribal preservation policies of the "Indian New Deal," in place since 1934. He wanted to terminate the tribes as legal entities and to revert to the assimilationist goals of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. The plan was dropped in 1961 after most tribes refused to be terminated.
Eisenhower knew that he could not cancel all of the programs created in the New Deal and Fair Deal, because of the lack of public support. He actually supported the Interstate Highway Act of 1956, which created countless jobs and sped the suburbanization of America as 42,000 miles of highways were built.
Eisenhower only managed to balance the budget 3 times while in office, and in 1959, he incurred the biggest peacetime deficit in the history of the United States.
A New Look in Foreign Policy
In 1954, secretary of state John Foster Dulles proposed a plan in which Eisenhower would set aside the army and the navy to build up an air fleet of superbombers (called the Strategic Air Command, or SAC) equipped with nuclear bombs. This would allow President Eisenhower to threaten countries such as the Soviet Union and China with nuclear weapons.
At the Geneva summit conference in 1955, President Eisenhower attempted to make peace with the new Soviet Union dictator, Nikita Khrushchev, following Stalin's death. Peace negotiations were rejected.
The Vietnam Nightmare
In the early 1950s, nationalist movements had sought to throw the French out of Indochina. The leaders of the Indochina countries, including Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh, became increasingly communist as America became increasingly anticommunist. In May 1954, a French garrison was trapped in the fortress of Dienbienphu in northwestern Vietnam. President Eisenhower decided not to intervene, wary of another war right after Korea. Dienbienphu fell to the nationalists and the conference at Geneva halted Vietnam at the 17th parallel. The pro-Western government in the south, led by Ngo Dinh Diem, was entrenched at Saigon as Vietnam-wide elections, which were promised by Ho Chi Minh, were never held. President Eisenhower promised economic and military aid to the Diem regime of the south.
A False Lull in Europe
In 1955, West Germany was let into NATO. Also in 1955, the Eastern European countries and the Soviets signed the Warsaw Pact, creating a red military counterweight to the newly-bolstered NATO forces in the West. In May 1955, the Soviets ended the occupation of Austria. In 1956, Hungary rose up against the Soviets attempting to win their independence. When their request for aid from the United States was denied, they were slaughtered by the Soviet forces. America's nuclear weapon was too big of a weapon to use on such a relatively small crisis.
Menaces in the Middle East
In 1953, in an effort to secure Iranian oil for Western countries, the CIA engineered a coup that installed Mohammed Reza Pahlevi as the dictator of Iran.
President Nasser of Egypt was seeking funds to build a dam on the Nile River. After associating with the communists, secretary of state Dulles pulled back U.S. monetary aid for Egypt. As a result, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which was owned by the French and British. In October of 1956, the Suez Crisis ensued as the French and British launched an assault on Egypt. The two countries were forced to withdraw their troops as America refused to release emergency supplies of oil to them.
In 1957, Congress proclaimed the Eisenhower Doctrine, pledging U.S. military and economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression.
In 1960, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela joined together to form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Round Two for Ike
President Eisenhower was reelected in the election of 1956 as he beat his Democratic opponent, Adlai Stevenson.
In 1959, a drastic labor-reform bill grew out of recurrent strikes in important industries and corruption in unions. The Teamsters Union leader, "Dave" Beck was sentenced to prison for embezzlement. When his union replaced him with James R. Hoffa, the AF of L-CIO expelled the Teamsters. Hoffa was later jailed for jury tampering.
In 1959, President Eisenhower passed the Landrum-Griffin Act. It was designed to bring labor leaders to book for financial shenanigans and to prevent bullying tactics.
The Race with the Soviets into Space
On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the Sputnik I satellite into space. In November, they launched the satellite Sputnik II, carrying a dog. The two satellites gave credibility to the Soviet claims that superior industrial production lay through communism.
In response, President Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
As a result of the new technological advances in the Soviet Union, it was thought that the educational system of the Soviet Union was better than the United States'; a move to improve the American education system was taken. In1958, the National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) authorized $887 million in loans to needy college students and in grants for the improvement of teaching sciences and languages.
The Continuing Cold War
In March and October 1958, the Soviet Union and the United States, respectively, proclaimed a suspension of nuclear testing. In July 1958, Lebanon called for aid under the Eisenhower Doctrine as communism threatened to engulf the country. In 1959, Soviet dictator Khrushchev appeared before the U.N. General Assembly and called for complete disarmament. In 1960, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down in Russia, causing feelings of a possibly peaceful resolution to subside.
Cuba's Castroism Spells Communism
Latin Americans began to show dissent towards America as the United States seemed to neglect Latin America's economic needs for favor of Europe's. They also despised constant American intervention - the CIA directed a coup in 1954 that overthrew a leftist government in Guatemala.
Fidel Castro led a coup that overthrew the America-supported government of Cuba in 1959. Annoyed with Castro's anti-American attitude and Castro seizing valuable American properties in Cuba, the United States cut off the heavy U.S. imports of Cuban sugar.
Cuba's left-wing dictatorship quickly had the possibility to become a military satellite for the Soviet Union. In August 1960, Congress authorized $500 million to prevent communism from spreading in Latin America.
Kennedy Challenges Nixon for the Presidency
The Republicans nominated Richard Nixon to run for president and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. for vice president in the election of 1960. The Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy to run for president and Lyndon B. Johnson for vice president.
The Presidential Issues of 1960
John F. Kennedy's Catholicism aroused misgivings in the Protestant, Bible Belt South.
Kennedy charged that the Soviets, with their nuclear bombs and the Sputniks, had gained on America in prestige and power. Nixon was forced to defend the dying administration and claim that America's prestige had not slipped.
Television played a key role in the presidential election as Kennedy's personal appeal attracted many. Kennedy won the election of 1961, gaining support in the large industrial centers where he had strong support from workers, Catholics, and African Americans.
An Old General Fades Away
America was prosperous during the Eisenhower years. Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959. As a Republican president, Eisenhower had further woven the reforms of the Democratic New Deal and Fair Deal into the fabric of national life.
Changing Economic Patterns
The invention of the transistor in 1948 sparked a revolution in electronics, especially computers. Computer giant International Business Machines (IBM) grew tremendously.
Aerospace industries also grew in the 1950s, thanks to Eisenhower's SAC and to an expanding passenger airline business.
In 1956, the number of "white-collar" (no manual labor) workers exceeded the number of "blue-collar" (manual labor) workers. Following suit, union memberships began to steadily decline.
The new white-collar employment opened special opportunities for women. The baby boom during the years after World War II caused the role of women to revert to the typical role of a mother and wife. But the majority of the clerical and service work jobs created after 1950 were filled by women. Women's new dual role as both workers and homemakers raised urgent questions about family life and about traditional definitions of gender differences.
Feminist Betty Friedan published in 1963 The Feminine Mystique, helping to launch the modern women's movement. Friedan spoke to many educated women who supported her indictment of the boredom of a housewife.
Consumer Culture in the Fifties
The innovations of the credit card, fast-food, and new forms of recreation were forerunners of an emerging lifestyle of leisure and affluence. In 1946, only 6 TV stations were broadcasting; by 1956, there were 146. "Televangelists" like Baptist Billy Graham, and Pentecostal Holiness speaker Oral Roberts, and Roman Catholic Fulton J. Sheen took to the television airwaves to spread Christianity.
As the population moved west, sports teams also moved west. Popular music was transformed during the 1950s. Elvis Pressley created the new style known as rock and roll.
Traditionalists were repelled by Presley as well as many of the new social movements during the 1950s. Many critics blamed the implications of "societal deterioration" to the consumerist lifestyle.
The Life of the Mind in Postwar America
Prewar realist, Ernest Hemingway continued to write as he authored The Old Man and the Sea (1952). John Steinbeck, another prewar writer, persisted in graphic portrayals of American society. Over time, realistic writing fell from favor and authors tended to write about the war in fantastic prose. John Heller's Catch-22 (1961) dealt with the improbably antics and anguish of American airmen in the wartime Mediterranean.
The dilemmas created by the new mobility and affluence of American life were explored by John Updike and John Cheever. Louis Auchincloss wrote about upper-class New-Yorkers. Gore Vidal wrote a series of intriguing historical novels.
Poetry and playwrights also flourished during the postwar era. Books by black authors made the best-seller lists. Led by William Faulkner, the South boasted a literary renaissance. Especially bountiful was the harvest of books by Jewish novelists.
Kennedy's "New Frontier" Spirit
President Kennedy, the youngest president to take office, assembled one of the youngest cabinets, including his brother Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General, who planned to reform the priorities of the FBI. Kennedy's new challenge of a "New Frontier" quickened patriotic pulses. He proposed the Peace Corps, an army of idealistic and mostly youthful volunteers to bring American skills to underdeveloped countries.
The New Frontier at Home
Southern Democrats and Republicans despised the president's New Frontier plan. Kennedy had campaigned on the theme of revitalizing the economy after the recessions of the Eisenhower years. To do this, the president tried to curbinflation. In 1962, he negotiated a noninflationary wage agreement with the steel industry. When the steel industry announced significant price increases, promoting inflation, President Kennedy erupted in wrath, causing the industry to lower its prices. Kennedy rejected the advice of those who wished greater government spending and instead chose to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes and putting more money directly into private hands. Kennedy also proposed a multibillion-dollar plan to land an American on the moon.
Rumblings in Europe
President Kennedy met with Soviet leader Khrushchev at Vienna in June 1961. After making numerous threats, the Soviets finally acted. In August 1961, the Soviets began to construct the Berlin Wall, which was designed to stop the large population drain from East Germany to West Germany through Berlin.
Western Europe was prospering after the Marshall Plan aid and the growth of the Common Market, the free-trade area later called the European Union. Focusing on Western Europe, Kennedy secured passage of the Trade Expansion Act in 1962, authorizing tariff cuts of up to 50% to promote trade with Common Market countries.
American policymakers were dedicated to an economically and militarily united "Atlantic Community" with the United States the dominant partner.
President of France, Charles de Gaulle, was suspicious of American intentions in Europe and in 1963, vetoed British application for Common Market membership, fearing that the British "special relationship" with the United States would allow the U.S. to indirectly control European affairs.
Foreign Flare-ups and "Flexible Response"
In 1960, the African Congo received its independence from Belgium and immediately exploded in violence. The U.N. sent in troops while the United States paid for it.
In 1954, Laos gained its independence from France and it, too erupted in violence. Kennedy, avoiding sending troops, sought diplomatic means in the Geneva conference in 1962, which imposed a peace on Laos.
Defense Secretary Robert McNamara pushed the strategy of "flexible response" - that is, developing an array of military options that could be precisely matched to the necessities of the crisis at hand. President Kennedy increased spending on conventional military forces.
Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire
The doctrine of "flexible response" provided a mechanism for a progressive, and possibly endless, stepping-up of the use of force (Vietnam).
In 1961, Kennedy increased the number of "military advisors" in South Vietnam in order to help protect Diem from the communists long enough to allow him to enact basic social reforms favored by the Americans.
In November 1963, after being fed up with U.S. economic aid being embezzled by Diem, the Kennedy encouraged a successful coup and killed Diem.
Cuban Confrontations
In 1961, President Kennedy extended the American hand of friendship to Latin America with the Alliance for Progress, called the Marshall Plan for Latin America. A primary goal was to help the Latin American countries close the gap between the rich and the poor, and thus quiet communist agitation. Results were disappointing as America had few positive impacts on Latin America's immense social problems.
On April 17, 1961, 1,200 exiles landed at Cuba's Bay of Pigs. President Kennedy was against the direct intervention of the overthrow of Fidel Castro in Cuba, failing to provide air support for the exiles. The invasion therefore failed as the exiles were forced to surrender.
The Bay of Pigs blunder pushed the Cuban leader further into the Soviet embrace. In October 1962, it was discovered that the Soviets were secretly installing nuclear missiles in Cuba. Kennedy rejected air force proposals for a bombing strike against the missile sites. Instead, on October 22, 1962, he ordered a naval "quarantine" of Cuba and demanded immediate removal of the weapons. For a week, Americans waited while Soviet ships approached the patrol line established by the U.S. Navy off the island of Cuba. On October 28, Khrushchev agreed to a compromise in which he would pull the missiles out of Cuba. The American government also agreed to end the quarantine and not invade the island.
In late 1963, a pact prohibiting trial nuclear explosions in the atmosphere was signed.
In June 1963, President Kennedy gave a speech at American University, Washington, D.C. encouraging Americans to abandon the negative views of the Soviet Union. He tried to lay the foundations for a realistic policy of peacefulcoexistence with the Soviet Union.
The Struggle for Civil Rights
During his campaign, JFK had gained the black vote by stating that he would pass civil rights legislation.
In 1960, groups of Freedom Riders spread out across the South to end segregation in facilities serving interstate bus passengers. A white mob torched a Freedom Ride bus near Anniston, Alabama in May 1961. When southern officials proved unwilling to stop the violence, federal marshals were dispatched to protect the freedom riders.
For the most part, the Kennedy family and the King family (Martin Luther King, Jr.) had a good relationship.
SNCC and other civil rights groups inaugurated a Voter Education Project to register the South's historically disfranchised blacks.
In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. launched a campaign against discrimination in Birmingham, Alabama, the most segregated big city in America. Civil rights marchers were repelled by police with attack dogs and high-pressure water hoses. In shock, President Kennedy delivered a speech to the nation on June 11, 1963 in which he dedicated himself to finding a solution to the racial problems.
In August 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. led 200,000 black and white demonstrators on a peaceful "March on Washington" in support of the proposed new civil rights legislation.
The Killing of Kennedy
On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot and killed as he was riding in an open limousine in Dallas, Texas. The alleged gunman was Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was shot and killed by self-appointed avenger, Jack Ruby. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into office, retaining most of Kennedy's cabinet. Kennedy was acclaimed more for the ideals he had spoken and the spirit he had kindled for the goals he had achieved.
The LBJ Brand on the Presidency
After prodding from President Johnson, Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning racial discrimination in most private facilities open to the public. It strengthened the federal government's power to end segregation in schools and other public places. It also created the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to eliminate discrimination in hiring. Part of the act's Title VII passed with sexual clause ensuring some special attention for women. In 1965, President Johnson issued an executive order requiring all federal contractors to take "affirmative action" against discrimination.
Johnson added proposals of his own to Kennedy's stalled tax bill to allow for a billion-dollar "War on Poverty." He dubbed his domestic program the "Great Society" - a sweeping set of New Dealish economic and welfare measures aimed at transforming the American way of life.
Johnson Battles Goldwater in 1964
The Democrats nominated Lyndon Johnson to run for president for the election of 1964. The Republicans chose Senator Barry Goldwater. Goldwater attacked the federal income tax, the Social Security System, the Tennessee Valley Authority, civil rights legislation, the nuclear test-ban treaty, and the Great Society.
In August 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin, U.S. Navy ships had been cooperating with the South Vietnamese in raids along the coast of North Vietnam. On August 2th and August 4th, two U.S. ships were allegedly fired upon. Johnson called the attack "unprovoked" and moved to make political gains out of the incident. He ordered a "limited" retaliatory air raid against the North Vietnamese bases. He also used the event to spur congressional passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution; lawmakers virtually gave up their war-declaring powers and handed the president a blank check to use further force in Southeast Asia. Lyndon Johnson overwhelmingly won the election of 1964.
The Great Society Congress
Congress passed a flood of legislation, comparable to output of the Hundred Days Congress. Escalating the War on Poverty, Congress doubled the funding of the Office of Economic Opportunity to $2 billion. Congress also created two new cabinet offices: the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities was designed to lift the level of American cultural life.
The Big Four legislative achievements that crowned LBJ's Great Society program were: aid to education, medical care for the elderly and poor, immigration reform, and a new voting rights bill. Johnson gave educational aid tostudents, not schools, avoiding the issue of separation of church and state. In 1965 came Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system that had been in place since 1921. It also doubled the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country annually. The sources of immigration shifted from Europe to Latin American and Asia. Conservatives charged that the problem of poverty could not be fixed with money spent by the Great Society programs, yet the poverty rate did decline in the following decade.
Battling for Black Rights
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the federal government more power to enforce school-desegregation orders and to prohibit racial discrimination in all kinds of public accommodations and employment.
President Johnson realized the problem that few blacks were registered to vote. The 24th Amendment, passed in 1964, abolished the poll tax in federal elections, yet blacks were still severely hampered from voting. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, banning literacy tests and sending federal voter registers into several southern states.
Black Power
Days after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, a bloody riot erupted in Watts, a black ghetto in Los Angeles. Blacks were enraged by police brutality and burned and looted their own neighborhoods for a week. The Watts explosion marked increasing militant confrontation in the black struggle. Malcolm X deepened the division among black leaders. He was first inspired by the militant clack nationalists in the Nation of Islam. He rallied black separatism and disapproved of the "blue-eyed white devils." In 1965, he was shot and killed by a rival Nation of Islam.
The violence or threat of violence increased as the Black Panther party emerged, openly carrying weapons in the streets of Oakland, California. Just as the civil rights movement had achieved its greatest legal and political triumphs, more riots erupted. Black unemployment was nearly double than for whites.
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed by a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee. Black voter registration eventually increased, and by the late 1960s, several hundred blacks held elected office in the Old South.
Combating Communism in Two Hemispheres
In April 1965, President Johnson sent 25,000 troops to the Dominican Republic to restore order after a revolt against the military government started. Johnson claimed, with shaky evidence, that the Dominican Republic was the target of a Castrolike coup. He was widely condemned for his actions.
In February 1965, Viet Cong guerrillas attacked an American air base at Pleiku, South Vietnam, prompting Johnson to send retaliatory bomb raids and, for the first time, order attacking U.S. troops to land. By the middle of March 1965, "Operation Rolling Thunder" was in full swing - regular full-scale bombing attacks against North Vietnam.
The South Vietnamese watched as their own war became more Americanized. Corrupt and collapsible governments fell one after another in Saigon, yet American officials continued to talk of defending a faithful democratic ally. Pro-war hawks argued that if the United Sates were to leave Vietnam, other nations would doubt America's word and crumble to communism. By 1968, Johnson had put more than 500,000 troops in Southeast Asia, and the annual cost for the war was exceeding $30 billion.
Vietnam Vexations
Overcommitment in Southeast Asia tied America's hands elsewhere.
In June 1967, after numerous military threats presented by Egypt, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt's airforce, starting the Six-Day War. Following the war, Israel gained the territories of the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. Arab Palestinians and their Arab allies complained about Israel's doing, but all to no avail.
Antiwar demonstrations increased significantly as more and more American soldiers died in the Vietnam War. Protesters' sayings included, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" Senator William Fulbright staged a series of televised hearings in 1966 and 1967 in which he convinced the public that it had been deceived about the causes and "winnability" of the war.
When Defense Secretary McNamara expressed discomfort about the war, he was quietly removed from office.
By early 1968, the war had become the longest and most unpopular foreign war in the nation's history. The government failed to explain to the people what was supposed to be at stake in Vietnam. Casualties, killed, and wounded had exceeded 100,000, and more bombs had been dropped in Vietnam than in World War II.
In 1967, Johnson ordered the CIA to spy on domestic antiwar activists. He also encouraged the FBI to turn its counterintelligence program, code-named "Cointelpro," against the peace movement.
Vietnam Topples Johnson
In January 1968, the Viet Cong attacked 27 key South Vietnamese cities, including Saigon. The Tet Offensive ended in a military defeat for the VC, but it caused the American public to demand an immediate end to the war. American military leaders responded to the attacks for a request of 200,000 more troops. President Johnson himself now began to seriously doubt the wisdom of continuing to raise the stakes.
Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy both entered the race for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination.
On March 31, 1968, President Johnson issued an address to the nation stating that he would freeze American troop levels and gradually shift more responsibility to the South Vietnamese themselves. Bombing would also be scaled down. He also declared that he would not be a candidate for the presidency in 1968.
The Presidential Sweepstakes of 1968
On June 5, 1968, the night of the California primary, Robert Kennedy was shot and killed by an Arab immigrant resentful of the candidate's pro-Israel views. When the Democrats met in Chicago in August 1968, angry antiwar zealots, protesting outside the convention hall, violently clashed with police.
Hubert H. Humphrey, vice president of Johnson, won the Democratic nomination.
The Republicans nominated Richard Nixon for president and Spiro T. Agnew for vice president. The Republican platform called for a victory in Vietnam and a strong anticrime policy.
The American Independent party, headed by George C. Wallace, entered the race and called for the continuation of segregation of blacks.
Victory for Nixon
Richard Nixon won the election of 1968 as Humphrey was scorched by the LBJ brand. Nixon did not win a single major city, attesting to the continuing urban strength of the Democrats, who also won about 95% of the black vote.
The Obituary of Lyndon Johnson
No president since Lincoln had done more for civil rights than LBJ. By 1966, the Vietnam War brought dissent to Johnson, and as war costs sucked tax dollars, Great Society programs began to wither. LBJ was persuaded by his advisors that an easy victory in Vietnam would be achieved by massive aerial bombing and large troop commitments. His decision to not escalate the fighting offended the "hawks," and his refusal to back off altogether provoked the "doves."
The Cultural Upheaval of the 1960s
Everywhere in 1960s America, a newly negative attitude toward all kinds of authority took hold. Disillusioned by the discovery that American society was not free of racism, sexism, imperialism, and oppression, many young people lost their morals.
One of the first organized protests against established authority took place at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964, in the Free Speech Movement. Leader Mario Savio condemned the impersonal university "machine." Angered by the war in Vietnam, some middle class sons and daughters became radical political rebels.
The 1960s also witnessed a "sexual revolution." The introduction of the birth control pill made unwanted pregnancies easy to avoid. By the 1960s, gay men and lesbians were increasingly emerging and demanding sexual tolerance. The Mattachine Society, founded in 1951, was an advocate for gay rights. Worries in the 1980s of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases finally slowed the sexual revolution.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), had, by the end of the 1960s, spawned an underground terrorist group called the Weathermen.
The upheavals of the 1960s could be largely attributed to the three Ps: the youthful population bulge, protest against racism and the Vietnam War, and the apparent permanence of prosperity.
The Economy Stagnates in the 1970s
Following the economic boom in America during the 1950s and 1960s, the economy of the 1970s was declining. A large part of the decline was caused by more women and teens entering the works force; these groups typically were less skilled and made less money than males. Deteriorating machinery and new regulations also hindered growth. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson's lavish spending on the Vietnam War and on his Great Society also depleted the U.S. Treasury, giving citizens too much money and creating too great a demand for too few products.
As the United States lacked advancement, countries such as Japan and Germany leaped forward in the production of steel, automobiles, and consumer electronics.
Nixon "Vietnamizes" the War
President Nixon brought to the White House his broad knowledge and thoughtful expertise in foreign affairs. He applied himself to putting America's foreign-policy in order. President Nixon's announced policy, called "Vietnamization," was to withdraw the 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam over an extended period. The South Vietnamese, with American money, weapons, training, and advice, would then gradually take over the war.
The Nixon Doctrine proclaimed that the United States would honor its existing defense commitments but in the future, Asians and others would have to fight their own wars without the support of large numbers of American troops.
On November 3, 1969, Nixon delivered a televised speech to the "silent majority," who presumably supported the war; he hoped to gain supporters.
Cambodianizing the Vietnam War
For several years, the North Vietnamese and the VC had been using Cambodia as a springboard for troops, weapons, and supplies. On April 29, 1970, President Nixon widened the war when he ordered American forces to join with the South Vietnamese in cleaning out the enemy in officially neutral Cambodia. The United States fell into turmoil as protests turned violent. Nixon withdrew the troops from Cambodia on June 29, 1970, although the bitterness between the "hawks" and the "doves" increased.
In 1971, the 26th Amendment was passed, lowering the voting age to 18.
In the spring of 1971, mass rallies and marches erupted again all over the country as antiwar sentiment grew.
Nixon's Détente with Beijing (Peking) and Moscow
The two great communist powers, the Soviet Union and China, were clashing bitterly over their rival interpretations of Marxism. Nixon perceived that the Chinese-Soviet tension gave the United States an opportunity to play off one antagonist against the other and to enlist the aid of both in pressuring North Vietnam into peace.
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger reinforced Nixon's thinking. In 1969, Kissinger had begun meeting secretly with North Vietnamese officials in Paris to negotiate an end to the war in Vietnam.
In 1972, Nixon made a visit to China and paved the way for improved relations between the United States and Beijing. In May 1972, Nixon traveled to Moscow, which was ready to deal. Nixon's visits ushered in an era of détente, or relaxed tensions between the Soviet Union and China. The great grain deal of 1972 was a 3-year arrangement by which the United States agreed to sell the Soviets at least $750 million worth of wheat, corn, and other cereals.
More important steps were taken to stem the dangerous race of nuclear arms. The first major achievement, an anti-ballistic missile (AMB) treaty, limited the U.S. and the Soviet Union to two clusters of defensive missiles. The second significant pact, known as SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), froze the numbers of long-range nuclear missiles for 5 years.
A New Team on the Supreme Bench
Earl Warren was appointed as a Justice to the Supreme Court, making many controversial rulings-
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) struck down a state law that banned the use of contraceptives, even by married couples, creating a "right to privacy."
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) ruled that all criminals were entitled to legal counsel, even if they were unable to afford it.
Escobedo (1964) and Miranda (1966) ruled that those who were arrested had to the "right to remain silent."
Engel v. Vitale (1962) and School District of Abington Township vs. Schempp (1963) led to the Supreme Court ruling against required prayers and having the Bible in public schools, basing the judgment on the First Amendment, which separated church and state.
Reynolds vs. Sims (1964) ruled that the state legislatures would be required to be reapportioned according to population.
In an attempt to end the liberal rulings, President Nixon set Warren E. Burger to replace the retiring Earl Warren in 1969. With this a success, the Supreme Court had four new Nixon-appointed members by the end of 1971.
Nixon on the Home Front
Nixon expanded the Great Society programs by increasing funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). He also created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), giving benefits to the poor aged, blind, and disabled.
Nixon's Philadelphia Plan of 1969 required construction-trade unions working on the federal pay roll to establish "goals and timetables" for black employees. This plan changed the definition of "affirmative action" to include preferable treatment on groups, not individuals; the Supreme Court's ruling on Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) upheld this. Whites protested to this decision, calling it "reverse discrimination."
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA) were created.
In 1962, Rachel Carson boosted the environmental movement with her book Silent Spring, which exposed the disastrous effects of pesticides. By 1950, Los Angeles had an Air Pollution Control Office.
The Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 both aimed at protecting and preserving the environment.
Worried about inflation, Nixon imposed a 90-day wage freeze and then took the nation off the gold standard, thus ending the "Bretton Woods" system of international currency stabilization, which had functioned for more than a quarter of a century after WWII.
The Nixon Landslide of 1972
In the spring of 1972, the North Vietnamese burst through the demilitarized zone separating the two Vietnams. Nixon ordered massive bombing attacks on strategic centers, halting the North Vietnamese offensive.
Senator George McGovern won the 1972 Democratic nomination. He based his campaign on pulling out of Vietnam in 90 days. President Nixon, though, won the election of 1972 in a landslide.
Bombing North Vietnam to the Peace Table
Nixon launched the heaviest assault of the war when he ordered a two-week bombing of North Vietnam in an attempt to force the North Vietnamese to the conference table. It worked and on January 23, 1973, North Vietnamese negotiators agreed to a cease-fire agreement. The shaky "peace" was in reality little more than a thinly disguised American retreat.
Watergate Woes
On June 17, 1972, five men working for the Republican Committee for the Re-election of the President were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel and bugging rooms.
Following was a great scandal in which many prominent members of the president's administration resigned. Lengthy hearings proceeded, headed by Senator Sam Erving. John Dean III testified of all the corruption, illegal activities, and scandal.
The Great Tape Controversy
When conversations involving the Watergate scandal were discovered on tapes, President Nixon quickly refused to hand them over to Congress, despite denying any participation in the scandal. In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnewwas forced to resign due to tax evasion. In accordance with the newly-passed 25th Amendment (1967), Nixon submitted to Congress, for approval as the new vice president, Gerald Ford.
On October 20, 1973 ("Saturday Night Massacre"), Archibald Cox, the prosecutor of the Watergate scandal case who had issued a subpoena of the tapes, was fired. Both the attorney general and deputy general resigned because they, themselves did not want to fire Cox.
The Secret Bombing of Cambodia and the War Powers Act
Despite federal assurances to the American public that Cambodia's neutrality was being respected, it was discovered that secret bombing raids on North Vietnamese forces in Cambodia had taken place since March of 1969; this caused the public to question trust of the government. Nixon ended the bombing in June 1973.
However, Cambodia was soon taken over by the cruel dictator Pol Pot, who later committed genocide of over 2 million people over a span of a few years.
In November 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, requiring the president to report all commitments of U.S. troops to foreign exchanges within 48 hours. A new feeling of "New Isolationism" that discouraged U.S. troops in other countries began to take hold, yet Nixon stood strong.
The Arab Oil Embargo and the Energy Crisis
Following U.S. support of Israel during Israel's war against Syria and Egypt to regain territory lost during the Six-Day War, the Arab nations imposed an oil embargo, strictly limiting oil in the United States. A speed limit of 55 MPH was imposed, the oil pipeline in Alaska was approved in 1974 despite environmentalists' cries, and other forms of energy were researched.
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) lifted the embargo in 1974, yet it then quadrupled the price of oil.
The Unmaking of a President
On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that President Nixon had to submit all tapes to Congress. Late in July 1974, the House approved its first article of impeachment for obstruction of justice. On August 5, 1974, Nixon released the three tapes that held the most damaging information-the same three tapes that had been "missing." On August 8 of the same year, Nixon resigned, realizing that he would be convicted if impeached, and with resignation, he could at least keep the privileges of a president.
The First Unelected President
Gerald Ford became the first unelected president; his name had been submitted by Nixon as a vice-presidential candidate. All other previous vice presidents that had ascended to presidency had at least been supported as running mates of the president that had been elected.
President Ford's popularity and respect sank when he issued a full pardon of Nixon, thus setting off accusations of a "buddy deal."
In July 1975, Ford signed the Helsinki accords, which recognized Soviet boundaries and helped to ease tensions between the two nations.
Defeat in Vietnam
Early in 1975, the North Vietnamese made their full invasion of South Vietnam. President Ford request aid for South Vietnam, but was rejected by Congress. South Vietnam quickly fell. The last of Americans were evacuated on April 29, 1975.
The United States had fought the North Vietnamese to a standstill and had then withdrawn its troops in 1973, leaving the South Vietnamese to fight their own war. The estimated cost to America was $188 billion, with 56,000 dead and 300,000 wounded. America had lost more than a war; it had lost face in the eyes of foreigners, lost its own self-esteem, lost confidence in its military power, and lost much of the economic strength that had made possible its global leadership after WWII.
The Bicentennial Campaign and the Carter Victory
In the election of 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter beat Republican Gerald Ford to win the presidency. Carter promised to never lie to the American public.
In 1978, President Carter convinced Congress to pass an $18 billion tax cut. Despite this, the economy continued to tumble.
Although early in his presidency he was relatively popular, the popularity of President Carter soon dropped as world events took a turn for the worse.
Carter's Humanitarian Diplomacy
Carter championed for human rights, and in Rhodesia (known today as Zimbabwe) and South Africa, he championed for black rights.
On September 17, 1978, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel signed peace accords at Camp David. Mediated by Carter after relations had strained, this was a great success. Israel agreed to withdraw from territory gained in the 1967 war as long as Egypt respected Israel's territories.
In Africa, though, many communist revolutions were taking place; although not all were successful, the revolutions did cause disheartenment and spread fear.
President Carter pledged to return the Panama Canal to Panama by the year 2000 and resume full diplomatic relations with China in 1979.
Carter Tackles the Ailing Economy
Inflation had been steadily rising, and by 1979, it was at 13%. Americans learned that they could no longer hide behind their ocean moats and live happily.
Carter diagnosed America's problems as stemming primarily from the nation's costly dependence on foreign oil. He called for legislation to improve energy conservation, without much public support.
Carter's Energy Woes
In 1979, Iran's shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, who had been installed by America in 1953 and had ruled Iran as a dictator, was overthrown and succeeded by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iranian fundamentalists were very opposed Western customs, and because of this, Iran stopped exporting oil; OPEC also raised oil prices, thus causing another oil crisis.
In July 1979, Carter retreated to Camp David and met with hundreds of advisors to contemplate a solution to America's problems. On July 15, 1979, Carter chastised the American people for their obsession of material woes ("If it's cold, turn down the thermostat and put on a sweater."), stunning the nation. A few days later, he fired four cabinet secretaries and tightened the circle around his advisors.
Foreign Affairs and the Iranian Imbroglio
In 1979, Carter signed the SALT II agreements with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, but the U.S. senate refused to ratify it.
On November 4, 1979, a group of anti-American Muslim militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took hostages, demanding that the U.S. return the exiled shah who had arrived in the U.S. two weeks earlier for cancer treatments.
On December 27, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, which ended up turning into the Soviet Union's own Vietnam. Because of the invasion of Afghanistan however, the Soviet Union posed a threat to America's precious oil supplies. President Carter placed an embargo on the Soviet Union and boycotted the Olympic Games in Moscow. He also proposed a "Rapid Deployment Force" that could quickly respond to crises anywhere in the world.
The Iranian Hostage Humiliation
During the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the American hostages languished in cruel captivity while news reports showed images of Iranian mobs burning the American flag and spitting on effigies of Uncle Sam. Carter first tried economic sanctions to force the release of the hostages, but this failed. He then tried a commando rescue mission, but that had to be aborted. When two military aircraft collided, eight of the would-be rescuers were killed.
The stalemate hostage situation dragged on for most of Carter's term, and the hostages were never released until January 20, 1981-the inauguration day of Ronald Reagan.
The Triumph of Conservatism
President Jimmy Carter's administration appeared to be stumped and faltering when it was unable to control the rampant inflation or handle foreign affairs. It also refused to remove hampering regulatory controls from major industries such as airlines.
Late in 1979, Edward Kennedy ("Ted") declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the election of 1980. His popularity sputtered and died when the suspicious 1969 accident in which a young female passenger drowned arose.
As the Democrats ducked out, the Republicans, realizing that the average American was older and more mature than during the stormy sixties and was therefore more likely to favor the right, chose conservative and former actor Ronald Reagan, signaling the return of conservatism. New groups that later spearheaded the "new right" movement included Moral Majority and other conservative Christian groups.
In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled in Milliken v. Bradley that desegregation plans could not require students to move across school-district lines. This reinforced the "white flight" that pitted the poorest whites and blacks against each other, often with explosively violent results.
Affirmative action was another burning issue, but some whites used this to argue "reverse discrimination." In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in University of California v. Bakke that Allan Bakke had not been admitted into U.C. because the university preferred minority races only; the Court ordered the college to admit Bakke. The Supreme Court's only black justice, Thurgood Marshall, warned that the denial of racial preferences might sweep away the progress gained by the civil rights movement.
The Election of Ronald Reagan, 1980
Ronald Reagan backed a political philosophy that condemned federal intervention in local affairs, favoritism for minorities, and the elitism of arrogant bureaucrats. He drew on the ideas of the "neoconservatives"-supporting free-market capitalism, questioning liberal welfare programs and affirmative-action policies, and calling for reassertion of traditional values of individualism and the centrality of family.
Ronald Reagan won the election of 1980, beating Democratic president Jimmy Carter.
The Regan Revolution
The Iranian's released the hostages on Reagan's Inauguration Day, January 20, 1981, after 444 days of captivity.
Reagan assembled a conservative cabinet when he took office. Much to the dismay of environmentalists, James Watt became the secretary of the interior.
A major goal of Reagan was to reduce the size of the government by shrinking the federal budget and cutting taxes. He proposed a new federal budget that called for cuts of $35 billion, mostly in social programs like food stamps and federally-funded job-training centers. On March 6, 1981, Reagan was shot. 12 days later, Reagan recovered and returned to work.
The Battle of the Budget
The second part of Reagan's economic program called for tremendous tax cuts, amounting to 25% across-the-board reductions over a period of 3 years. In August 1981, Congress approved a set of tax reforms that lowered individual tax rates, reduced federal estate taxes, and created new tax-free saving plans for small investors. With the combination of budgetary discipline and tax reduction, the "supply-side" economics would stimulate new investment, boost productivity, promote dramatic economic growth, and reduce the federal deficit.
The economy slipped into its deepest recession since the 1930s as unemployment rose and banks closed. The anti-inflationary polices that caused the recession of 1982 had actually been initiated by the Federal Reserve Board in 1979, during Carter's presidency.
For the first time in the 20th century, income gaps widened between the rich and the poor. Some economists located the sources of the economic upturn in the massive military expenditures. Reagan gave the Pentagon nearly $2 trillion in the 1980s. He plunged the government into major deficit that made the New Deal look cheap.
Reagan Renews the Cold War
Reagan's strategy for dealing with the Soviet Union was simple: by enormously expanding U.S. military capabilities, he could threaten the Soviets with an expensive new round in the arms race. The American economy could better bear this new financial burden than could the Soviet system. In March 1983, Reagan announced his intention to pursue a high-technology missile-defense system called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars. The plan called for orbiting battle satellites in space that could fire laser beams to vaporize intercontinental missile on liftoff.
In 1983, a Korean passenger airliner was shot down when it flew into Soviet airspace. By the end of 1983, all arms-control negotiations were broken, and the Cold War was intensified.
Troubles Abroad
In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, seeking to destroy the guerrilla bases from which Palestinian fighters attacked Israel. Reagan sent peacekeeping troops, but after a suicide bomber killed 200 marines, he withdrew the force. In1979, Reagan sent "military advisors" to El Salvador to prop up the pro-American government. In October 1983, he dispatched a heavy-fire-power invasion force to the island of Grenada, where a military coup had killed the prime minister and broth Marxists to power. Overrunning the island and ousting the insurgents, American troops demonstrated Reagan's determination to assert the dominance of the United States in the Caribbean.
Round Two for Reagan
Ronald Reagan overwhelmingly won the election of 1984, beating Democrat Walter Mondale and his woman vice presidential nominee, Geraldine Ferraro.
Foreign policy issues dominated Reagan's second term. Mikhail Gorbachev became the chairman of the Soviet Communist party in March 1985. Committed to radical reforms in the Soviet Union, he announced two policies, Glasnostand Perestroika, aimed at ventilating the Soviet society by introducing free speech and a measure of liberty, and reviving the Soviet economy by adopting many of the free-market practices, respectively. The two policies required the Soviet Union to reduce the size of its military and concentrate aid on the citizens. This necessitated an end to the Cold War. In December 1985, Reagan and Gorbachev signed the IFN treaty, banning all intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. The two leaders capped their friendship in May 1988 at a final summit in Moscow.
The Iran-Contra Imbroglio
Two foreign policy problems arose to Reagan: the continuing captivity of a number of American hostages seized by Muslim extremist groups in battered Lebanon; and the continuing grip on power of the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Money from the payment for arms to the Iranians was secretly diverted to the contras, who fought the Sandinista government, although it violated a congressional ban on military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels. In November 1986, news of the secret dealings broke and ignited a firestorm of controversy. Reagan claimed he had no idea of the illicit activities. Criminal indictments were brought against Oliver North, Admiral John Poindexter, and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. The Iran-contra affair cast a shadow over the Reagan record in foreign policy, tending to obscure the president's achievements in establishing a new relationship with the Soviets.
Reagan's Economic Legacy
Ronald Reagan had taken office vowing to stimulate the American economy by rolling back government regulations, lowering taxes, and balancing the budget. Supply-side economic theory had promised that lower taxes would actually increase government revenue because they would stimulate the economy as a whole. The combination of tax reduction and huge increases in military spending caused $200 billion in annual deficits. The large deficits of the Reagan years assuredly constituted a great economic failure. By appearing to make new social spending both practically and politically impossible for the foreseeable future, though, the economic deficits served their purpose. They achieved Reagan's highest political objective: the containment of the welfare state.
In the early 1990s, median household income actually declined.
The Religious Right
In 1979, Reverend Jerry Falwell founded a political organization called the Moral Majority. He preached with great success against sexual permissiveness, abortion, feminism, and the spread of gay rights. Collecting millions of dollars and members, the organization became an aggressive political advocate of conservative causes.
Conservatism in the Courts
The Supreme Court had become Reagan's principal instrument in the "cultural wars." By the time he had left office, Reagan had appointed 3 conservative-minded judges, including Sandra Day O'Connor, the first women to become a Supreme Court Justice. Reaganism rejected two icons of the liberal political culture: affirmative action and abortion.
Affirmative Action - In two cases in 1989 (Ward's Cove Packing v. Antonia and Martin v. Wilks), the Court made it more difficult to prove that an employer practiced racial discrimination in hiring.
Abortion - In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Court had prohibited states from making laws that interfered with a woman's right to an abortion during the early months of pregnancy. In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), the Supreme Court approved a Missouri law that imposed certain restrictions on abortion, signaling that a state could legislate in an area in which Roe had previously forbidden them to legislate. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the Court ruled that states could restrict access to abortion as long they did not place an "undue burden" on the woman.
Referendum on Reagansim in 1988
Corruption in the government gave Democrats political opportunities. Signs of economic trouble seemed to open more political opportunities for Democrats as the "twin towers" of deficits-the federal budget deficit and international trade deficit-continued to mount. On "Black Monday," October 19, 1987, the stock market plunged 508 points-the largest one-day decline in history.
The Republicans nominated George Bush for the election of 1988. Black candidate Jesse Jackson, a rousing speech-maker who hoped to forge a "rainbow collation" of minorities and the disadvantaged, campaigned energetically, but the Democrats chose Michael Dukakis. Despite Reagan's recent problems in office, George Bush won the election.
George Bush and the End of the Cold War
After receiving an education at Yale and serving in World War II, George Bush had gained a fortune in the oil business in Texas. He left the business, though, to serve in public service. He served as a congressman and then held various posts in several Republican administrations, including ambassador to China, ambassador to the United Nations, director of the CIA, and vice president.
In 1989, thousands of prodemocracy demonstrators protested in Tiananmen Square in China. In June of that year, China's autocratic rulers grew angry and brutally crushed the movement. Tanks and machine gunners killed hundreds of protestors. World opinion condemned the bloody suppression of the prodemocracy demonstrators.
In early 1989, the Solidarity movement in Poland toppled the communist regime. Communist regimes also collapsed in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Romania. In December 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, and the two Germanies were reunited in October 1990.
In August 1991, a military coup attempted to preserve the communist system by trying to dislodge Gorbachev from power. With support of Boris Yelstin, the president of the Russian Republic (one of the several republics that composed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR), Gorbachev foiled the plotters. In December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president. He had become a leader without a country as the Soviet Union dissolved into its component parts, 15 republics loosely confederated in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with Russia the most powerful state and Yelstin the dominant leader. The demise of the Soviet Union finished to the Cold War.
Throughout the former Soviet Union, waves of nationalistic fervor and long-suppressed ethnic and racial hatreds were exposed. In 1991, the Chechnyan minority tried to declare its independence from Russia. Boris Yelstin was forced to send in Russian troops. Ethnic warfare in other communist countries was took place as vicious "ethnic cleaning" campaigns against minorities arose. Western Europe was now threatened by the social and economic weakness of the former communist lands.
Now that the Soviet Union had dissolved and there was no longer a Cold War, America's economy suffered. During the Cold War, the U.S. economy had been dependent upon defense spending.
In 1990, the white regime in South Africa freed African leader Nelson Mandela, who had served 27 years in prison for conspiring for overthrow the government. Four years later, he was elected as South Africa's president. In 1990, free elections removed the leftist Sandinistas in Nicaragua from power. In 1992, peace came to El Salvador.
The Persian Gulf Crisis
On August 2, 1990, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, seeking oil. The United Nations Security Council condemned the invasion and on August 3, demanded the immediate withdrawal of Iraq's troops. After Hussein refused to comply by the mandatory date of January 15, 1991, the United States spearheaded a massive international military deployment, sending 539,000 troops to the Persian Gulf region.
Fighting "Operation Desert Storm"
On January 16, 1991, the U.S. and the U.N. launched a 37-day air war against Iraq. Allied commander, American general Norman Schwarzkopf, planned to soften the Iraqis with relentless bombing and then send in waves of ground troops and armor. On February 23, the land war, "Operation Desert Storm," began. Lasting only 4 days, Saddam Hussein was forced to sign a cease-fire on February 27. The war had failed to dislodge Saddam Hussein from power.
Bush on the Home Front
President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, prohibiting discrimination against citizens with physical or mental disabilities. In 1992, he signed a major water projects bill that reformed the distribution of subsidized federal water in the West. In 1990, Bush's Department of Education challenged the legality of college scholarships targeted for racial minorities.
In 1991, Bush nominated conservative African American Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Thomas's nomination was approved by the Senate despite accusations from Anita Hill that Thomas had sexually harassed her.
By 1992, the unemployment rate had exceeded 7%, and the federal budget deficit continued to grow.
Bill Clinton: The First Baby-Boomer President
For the election of 1992, the Democrats chose Bill Clinton as their candidate (despite accusations of womanizing and draft evasion) and Albert Gore, Jr. as his running mate. The Democrats tried a new approach, promoting growth, strong defense, and anticrime policies, while campaigning to stimulate the economy.
The Republicans dwelled on "family values" and selected Bush for the presidency and J. Danforth Quayle for the vice presidency.
Third party candidate, Ross Perot entered the race and ended up winning 19,237,247 votes, although he won no Electoral votes.
Clinton won the election of 1992, by a count of 370 to 168 in the Electoral College. Along with the presidency, Democrats also gained control of both the House and the Senate.
Presidency Clinton placed in Congress and his presidential cabinet minorities and more women, including the first female attorney general, Janet Reno, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, and Ruth Bader Ginsburgin the Supreme Court
A False Start for Reform
Upon entering office, Clinton called for accepting homosexuals in the armed forces, but he had to settle for a "don't ask, don't tell" policy that unofficially accepted gays and lesbians.
Clinton appointed his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to revamp the nation's health and medical care system. When the plan was revealed in October 1993, critics blasted it as cumbersome, confusing, and stupid. The previous image of Hillary as an equal political partner of her husband changed to a liability.
In 1993, Clinton passed the Brady Bill, a gun-control law named after presidential aide James Brady, who had been wounded in President Reagan's attempted assassination.
By 1996, Clinton had shrunk the federal deficit to its lowest levels in ten years.
In July 1994, Clinton convinced Congress to pass a $30 billion anticrime bill.
On February 26, 1993, a radical Muslim group bombed the World Trade Center in New York, killing six people. On April 19, 1993, a fiery standoff at Waco, Texas between the government and the Branch Davidian cult took place; it ended in a huge fire that killed 82 people. On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh bombed a federal building in Oklahoma, killing 169 people. By the time all these events had taken place, few Americans trusted the government.
The Politics of Distrust
In 1994, Newt Gingrich led Republicans on a sweeping attack of Clinton's liberal failures with a conservative "Contract with America." That year, Republicans won eight more seats in the Senate and 53 more seats in the House, where Gingrich became the new Speaker of the House.
The Republicans, however, went too far, imposing federal laws that put new obligations on state and local governments without providing new revenues.
Clinton tried to fight back, but the American public gradually grew tired of Republican conservatism; Gingrich's suggestion of sending children of welfare families to orphanages, and the 1995 shut down of Congress due to a lack of a sufficient budget package aided to this public disliking.
In the election of 1996, Clinton beat Republican Bob Dole. Ross Perot, the third party candidate, again finished third.
Problems Abroad
Clinton sent troops to Somalia, but eventually withdrew them. He also got involved with the conflicts in Northern Ireland, but to no positive effect. Before serving as presidency, Clinton denounced China's abuses of human rights and threatened to punish China. However, as president, Clinton discovered that trade with China was far too important to "waste" over human rights.
Clinton committed American troops to NATO to keep the peace in the former Yugoslavia and sent 20,000 troops to return Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in Haiti. He fully supported the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) that made a free-trade zone surrounding Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. He then helped to form the World Trade Organization, the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). He also provided $20 billion to Mexico in 1995 to help its faltering economy.
Clinton presided over the 1993 reconciliation meeting between Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Yasir Arafat at the White House. Two years later, though, Rabin was assassinated, ending hopes for peace in the Middle East.
A Sea of Troubles
The end of the Cold War left the U.S. probing for a diplomatic formula to replace anti-Communism, revealing misconduct by the CIA and the FBI.
Political reporter Joe Klein wrote Primary Colors, mirroring some of Clinton's personal life/womanizing. Clinton ran into trouble with his failed real estate investment in the Whitewater Land Corporation.
In 1993, White House councilman, Vincent Foster, Jr. apparently committed suicide, perhaps overstressed at having to (possibly immorally) manage Clinton's legal and financial affairs.
As Clinton began his second term, the first by a Democratic president since FDR, there were Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
I. Economic Revolutions
II. Affluence and Inequality
III. The Feminist Revolution
IV. New Families and Old
V. The Aging of America
VI. The New Immigration
VII. Beyond the Melting Pot
VIII. Cities and Suburbs
IX. Minority America
X. E Pluribus Plures
XI. The Life of the Mind
XII. The American Prospect
Here you will find AP US History notes for the A People and a Nation: 8th Edition Textbook. These A People and a Nation: 8th Edition Notes will help you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
Additional Information:
I. Introduction
Conflict between European kingdoms led to an interest in colonies and trading posts that might strengthen the emerging nations. This expansionism introduced Europeans to African and American societies that had evolved over centuries, and the cultural interaction that followed initial contacts between these civilizations profoundly influenced western history.
II. American Societies
A. Paleo-Indians
Paleo-Indians arrived some 12,000 to 14,000 years ago and survived by hunting large game. As the prehistoric animals disappeared, however, people grew more dependent on agriculture, a change that allowed for the emergence of more sophisticated civilizations.
B. Importance of Agriculture
By 9,000 years ago, the inhabitants of Central and South America began cultivating various crops, and wherever agriculture dominated the economy, complex civilizations flourished.
C. Mesoamerican Civilizations
Early civilizations emerged in what is now Mexico as early as 3,000 years ago. A number of powerful and complex societies developed, including the Olmecs, the Mayas, and the Aztecs.
D. Mound Builders, Anasazi, and Mississippians
Besides the empires of Mesoamerica, great civilizations arose further north including the Moundbuilders of the Ohio River region, the Anasazi people of the modern states of Arizona and New Mexico, and the Mississippian culture of the Midwestern and southeastern United States.
E. Aztecs
The Aztecs moved into the Valley of Mexico in the twelfth century where they ultimately established an empire built on a warrior tradition that included human sacrifice and conquered people’s tribute.
III. North America in 1492
A. Sexual Division of Labor in North America
The nomadic tribes assigned the task of hunting to men, while women prepared the food, made clothing, and raised children. In the agricultural tribes of the West the men farmed, but in the East women performed that task.
B. Social Organization
The social organizations of the agricultural peoples of the southwest and east were similar, with extended families being defined matrilineally. The nomadic Indians of the Great Plains, by contrast, were usually related patrilineally.
C. War and Politics
The Indians of North America engaged in wars with each other long before the coming of Europeans. Indian leadership reflected a widespread democracy, but political structure, including the role of women, varied widely from tribe to tribe.
D. Religion
Generally polytheistic, Indian religion was more varied than their politics.
IV. African Societies
A. West Africa (Guinea)
Most of the enslaved Africans that came to America originated in West Africa, or Guinea. Upper Guinea had a culture that reflected contact with the Islamic Mediterranean region, while Lower Guinea remained less cosmopolitan.
B. Slavery in West Africa
Slavery existed in West Africa primarily as a means of accumulating lands and wealth, but after contact with Europeans and the establishment of slave-trading posts, the internal slave trade adapted readily to meet the new demands from abroad.
C. Sexual Division of Labor in West Africa
In West Africa men and women shared agricultural duties, with the men also hunting or herding while the women performed household tasks and managed local commerce. In Lower Guinea, society developed based on the “dual-sex principle.”
D. West African Religion
West African religious beliefs stressed complimentary male and female roles.
V. European Societies
A. Sexual Division of Labor in Europe
Males did most of the farming or herding; women concentrated on the household and children. Men dominated European society, relegating females to positions of inferiority.
B. Black Death
Bubonic Plague first struck Europe in 1346, then struck again in the 1360s and 1370s, killing a third of the continent’s population.
C. Political, Economic, and Technological Change
European leaders took advantage of the chaos resulting from the Black Plague and the Hundred Years’ War to engender nationalism as a means of consolidating power. Along with this political innovation, economic and technological changes shaped Europe in the fifteenth century.
D. Motives for Exploration
Developments in Europe made possible an era of exploration designed both to gain access to markets and to spread Christianity.
VI. Early European Explorations
A. Sailing in the Mediterranean Atlantic
European sailors learned much of navigation, winds, and currents by sailing in the Mediterranean Atlantic, a region bounded by the Canary Island, the Azores, and the Madeiras. The most important concept being sailing “around the wind” or picking up westerly breezes that allowed ships to return safely to port.
B. Islands of the Mediterranean Atlantic
In the fifteenth century Europeans, particularly Portuguese and Spanish, settled the Azores, Madeiras, and Canary islands, and began plantation economies.
C. Portuguese Trading Posts in Africa
The Portuguese established mutually beneficial trading posts in West Africa. Later on São Tomé, the Portuguese established sugar plantations dependent on slave labor from the African interior.
D. Lessons of Early Colonization
Europeans learned that they could transplant crops and livestock successfully to new lands, that the inhabitants of these new regions could be conquered, and slave-based plantations could be profitable.
VII. The Voyages of Columbus, Cabot, and their Successors
A. Columbus’s Voyage
Christopher Columbus sailed west in an effort to reach Asia, but he encountered the Bahamas instead a month after starting.
B. Columbus’s Observations
Columbus made obvious his intentions by asking the natives about gold, pearls, and spices. He also marveled at the new plants and animals he encountered, and described how they could be exploited.
C. The Taíno People
Columbus also reported that the human inhabitants he encountered would be useful as converts and as laborers.
D. Naming of America
Even though Columbus died believing he had found Asia, map makers named the new region America in honor of Florentine explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.
E. Northern Voyages
Because of the winds they confronted, mariners who sailed to the region that was to become the United States and Canada followed a route different from those who sailed to the south.
F. Norse Seafarers
Leif Ericsson had established a short-lived settlement in modern Newfoundland in the year 1001.
G. John Cabot’s Explorations
John Cabot deserves credit for the first formal exploration of the continent’s northern coast. Other mariners added to Europe’s knowledge of the Western Hemisphere.
VIII. Spanish Exploration and Conquest
A. Hernán Cortés and Malinche
Having first arrived in the West Indies in 1504, Cortés embarked for the mainland in 1519. Malinche, one of 20 slaves given to Cortés by the Mayas, became his mistress and translator. In 1521 the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán fell to the Spaniards.
B. Spanish Colonization
Spanish conquerors established a colonial system that stressed strict royal control, the predominance of male settlers, and exploitation of Americans and Africans.
C. Christianity in New Spain
Franciscan and Dominican friars established a number of missions to Christianize Native Americans and to Hispanicize their culture, in which they were very successful.
IX. The Columbian Exchange
A. Smallpox and Other Diseases
Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans died from European diseases, particularly smallpox, to which they had no immunity.
B. Syphilis
Syphilis apparently traveled from America to Europe, with the first recorded case occurring in 1493.
C. Sugar, Horses, and Tobacco
1. By the 1520s, sugar was being transported from the Greater Antilles to Spain. By the 1570s the Portuguese cultivated sugar in Brazil for sale in the European market, and after 1640 sugar was produced in the English and French colonies in the Caribbean.
2. The introduction of horses into the Americas by the Spanish in 1493 ultimately led to changes in the subsistence cultures of North American natives.
3. Europeans believed that tobacco had beneficial medicinal effects.
X. Europeans in North America
A. Trade Among Indians and Europeans
Rich fishing banks off the coast of North America attracted many Europeans to the New World. The English also developed a lucrative fur trade with the Indians. The Indians, in turn, desired European goods. This mutually beneficial trade arrangement not only affected Indian cultures but had serious ecological consequences as well.
B. Contest of Spain and England
Geopolitical conflict with Spain led England to desire colonies in North America.
C. Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke Colony
Early efforts by the English to settle the region they called Virginia had disastrous results.
D. Thomas Harriot’s Briefe and True Report
Harriot, a noted scientist, publicized the benefits of Virginia, including its natural resources like copper, iron, furs, grapes, and people.
I. Introduction
Europeans arrived in North America for a variety of reasons. The English, however, hoped to recreate the society they had left behind, with some reforms and improvements. In any case, Europeans enjoyed little success until they adapted to the alien environment and developed viable relations with Native Americans and with each other.
II. New Spain, New France, and New Netherland
A. Florida
Spain established a fort and settlement at St. Augustine in 1565 to keep the French out of present-day Florida.
B. New Mexico
Spaniards under Juan de Oñate invaded and conquered the Pueblo country, but the colony they established turned out to be poor and indefensible, but fertile ground for missionaries.
C. Quebec and Montreal
By the middle of the seventeenth century, France had founded Quebec and Montreal, outposts that served as that nation’s claim to what is now Canada.
D. Jesuit Missions in New France
Friars from the Society of Jesus eventually converted thousands of natives to the Catholic faith and introduced them to European culture.
E. New Netherland
In 1614, the Dutch established a post near present Albany, New York. The presence of the Dutch traders helped spawn competition, and war, among the various tribes.
III. The Caribbean
A. Conflict in the Caribbean
The Caribbean provided the area of greatest conflict between European powers, especially as the lucrative sugar industry emerged in the region.
B. The Importance of Sugar
European wrangling over the Caribbean islands was motivated by a desire to establish sugar plantations to satisfy the demand of the European market.
IV. English Interest in Colonization
A. Social Change in England
A swelling population led to geographical and social mobility, and many viewed the New World as a siphon for surplus population.
B. The English Reformation
The English Reformation, which King Henry VIII initiated in 1533, set the stage for large numbers of English dissenters to leave their homeland.
C. Puritans
Conflict between the Stuart monarchs and dissenters called Puritans caused thousands of settlers to leave England in the 1630s.
D. The First Stuart Monarchs
James I established a new dynasty in England that was intolerant of Puritans and representative government.
V. The Founding of Virginia
A. Joint-Stock Companies
English investors established joint-stock companies to finance early colonization projects. These forerunners of modern corporations enjoyed limited success in providing the vast long-term investment funds necessary for colonization.
B. Jamestown
Great difficulties beset Jamestown, the first permanent settlement in Virginia.
C. The Powhatan Confederacy
Jamestown survived largely as a result of aid from the Algonkian Indians, but problems arose between the Englishmen and members of the Powhatan Confederacy.
D. Algonkian and English Cultural Differences
The Indians and the Europeans had many differing views, but the Englishmen’s attitude of cultural superiority led to the greatest problems between the two peoples.
E. The Cultivation of Tobacco
Tobacco provided Virginia with a cash crop that guaranteed the colony’s survival.
F. Virginia Company Policies
First under the Virginia Company, and later under James I, settlers to Virginia could claim 50 acres of land as a headright. In 1619 the Virginia Company allowed major landowners to elect representatives to an assembly called the House of Burgesses.
G. Indian Uprisings
Fearful of English encroachment, Powhatan’s successor Opechancanough attacked Jamestown on March 22, 1622, killing 347, or one quarter of its inhabitants. This sparked warfare that ended only with the subjugation of the Powhatan Confederacy.
H. End of the Virginia Company
James I revoked the charter of the Virginia Company in 1624, making Virginia a royal colony.
VI. Life in the Chesapeake
A. Founding of Maryland
Maryland, founded in 1632, mirrored Virginia in many ways. One important difference set Maryland apart: the colony tolerated all Christian faiths and therefore served as a haven for Catholics.
B. Need for Laborers
Tobacco cultivation required a vast need for laborers, and Virginians experimented with several solutions, including Indian and African workers.
C. Indentured Servant Immigrants
Virginians met their labor needs by bringing indentured servants to the colony.
D. Conditions of Servitude
Life for these migrants proved difficult, but opportunities existed for those who fulfilled their contracts.
E. Standard of Living
For everyone in the Chesapeake, life was severe with material wealth in short supply.
F. Chesapeake Families
The predominance of males, the economic conditions, and high mortality rates in the Chesapeake led to fewer, smaller, and shorter-lived families in Virginia and Maryland.
G. Chesapeake Politics
A native-born elite with local ties and interests failed to emerge in Virginia and Maryland, leading to political instability.
VII. The Founding of New England
A. Contrasting Regional Religious Patterns
Most immigrants to the Chesapeake were not affected by religious motives. By contrast, religion motivated many people who moved to the New England colonies.
B. Congregationalists and Separatists
Puritans believed in an omnipotent God who had predestined some people for salvation and some for damnation. Congregationalists wanted to reform the Church of England, while Separatists thought the Church of England was too corrupt to be saved.
C. Plymouth
Separatists, who wanted to leave the Church of England, arrived in America in 1620 and founded the settlement of Plymouth.
D. Pokanokets
This branch of the Wampanoags served as allies to the Pilgrims, ensuring their success.
E. Massachusetts Bay Company
When Charles I ascended to the throne in 1625 his anti-Puritan policy led thousands of Congregationalists to leave England for America.
F. Governor John Winthrop
John Winthrop, first elected governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629, envisioned a communal society based on Christian charity that put the common good before the needs of the individual.
G. Ideal of a Covenant
The concept of covenant permeated Puritan society. This faith in mutual consent manifested itself in the colony’s political institutions.
H. New England Towns
Puritan ideas influenced land distribution in the New England colonies. Massachusetts often gave land to groups rather than to individuals, grants that led to the growth of communities rather than to large personal holdings.
I. Internal Migration and the Pequot War
English migration into the Connecticut valley spawned conflict with the Pequot tribe.
J. John Eliot and the Praying Towns
Puritans focused on “civilizing” Indians, but met with little success.
K. Puritan and Jesuit Missions Compared
In New England, cultural assimilation remained limited, and Jesuit missions in New France enjoyed more success than did Puritan missions in New England.
VIII. Life in New England
A. New England Families
Big families, religious intolerance, and strict morality characterized life in New England.
B. Impact of Religion
Religion permeated every facet of New England life.
C. Roger Williams
Roger Williams advocated Indians’ rights, separation of church and state, and religious tolerance. In 1635, he founded the town of Providence in what became Rhode Island.
D. Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson emphasized the covenant of grace and direct communication with God. Her ideas threatened Puritan religious orthodoxy and traditional gender relationships.
I. Introduction
Between 1640 and 1720, the mainland colonies became increasingly involved in a network of trade and international contacts that led to territorial expansion and economic growth. The introduction of slavery, changing relations with England, and conflicts with their neighbors shaped this colonial development.
II. The Restoration Colonies
A. Proprietorships
Six new proprietary colonies, known as the Restoration colonies, were founded during the reign of Charles II (1660-1685).
B. New York
Charles gave his younger brother, the Duke of York, claim to the area the Dutch had previously settled as New Netherland.
C. The Duke’s Laws
Proclaimed by the Duke of York in 1665, the Duke’s Laws tolerated the maintenance of Dutch legal practices and allowed each town in New York to decide which church to support with its tax revenues. However, no provision was made for a representative assembly.
D. Founding of New Jersey
The Duke of York regranted much of his land to two friends, thereby limiting the geographical extent and economic growth of New York.
E. Pennsylvania: A Quaker Haven
Charles II gave William Penn a grant in 1681 to repay a debt he owed Penn’s father. A leading member of the Society of Friends, William Penn sought to establish a tolerant, humane, and dynamic colony.
F. William Penn’s Indian Policy
Penn attempted to treat Indians fairly, which in turn attracted many Indian immigrants to his colony. These newcomers often clashed with Europeans also attracted by Penn’s policies.
G. Founding of Carolina
Charles chartered Carolina in 1663. The northern region remained linked to Virginia and developed differently than did the area around Charleston.
III. 1670-1680: A Decade of Crisis
A. New France and the Iroquois
The French claimed the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. This expansion brought France into conflict with the Iroquois Confederacy, which exerted great influence in what became the northeastern United States. Competition for European trade sparked a series of wars in the region that lasted until 1701.
B. French Expansion into the Mississippi Valley
After the French founded New Orleans in 1718, its posts along the Mississippi became the glue of empire.
C. Popé and the Pueblo Revolt
Resentment over Spanish treatment led a shaman named Popé to lead a revolt among the Pueblo Indians in 1680. This uprising was the most successful Indian resistance in North America.
D. Spain’s North American Possessions
By using forts and missions, Spain expanded its holdings to include California and Texas.
E. Population Pressures in New England
The population increase in the New England area placed great pressure on available land.
F. King Philip’s War
Concerned by the encroachment of English settlers King Philip, chief of the Pokanokets, led a bloody war in New England in 1675-1676.
G. Bacon’s Rebellion
Conflict between English settlers and Indians in Virginia turned into a political struggle between Nathaniel Bacon and Governor William Berkeley.
IV. The Introduction of African Slavery
A. Labor-Supply Problems in the Chesapeake
As fewer English men and women came to the Chesapeake as indentured servants, Chesapeake tobacco growers sought a new source of labor for their plantations.
B. Why African Slavery?
Slavery had been practiced in Europe (although not in England) for centuries. European Christians also believed that enslaving heathen peoples was justifiable.
C. Atlantic Creoles in Societies with Slaves
In the early English colonies, residents of African descent varied in status. These early mainland colonies have been characterized as “societies with slaves” as opposed to “slave societies.”
D. The Beginnings of Mainland Slave Societies
Mainland colonists began the large-scale importation of Africans in the 1670s, at first bringing slaves in from the Caribbean islands but eventually carrying them directly from Africa.
V. The Web of Empire and the Atlantic Slave Trade
A. Atlantic Trading System
The traffic in slaves became the linchpin of a complicated web of exchange that tied the peoples of the Atlantic world together.
B. New England and the Caribbean
The sale of New England foodstuffs and wood products to Caribbean sugar planters provided New Englanders with a major source of income.
C. The Human Tragedy of the Slave Trade
This voyage that transported Africans to the Americas proved particularly deadly, with high percentages of black slaves and white overseers dying in Africa or at sea.
D. West Africa and the Slave Trade
West Africa experienced profound demographic changes because of the slave trade. Also, some African kings consolidated their political power as a result of the role they played in the commerce.
E. European Rivalries and the Slave Trade
Europeans benefited the most from the slave trade, and their economies shifted away from trade in Asia and the Mediterranean to the Atlantic trade. Furthermore, attempts to control the slave trade caused rivalries among European nations.
F. Mercantilism
England used its colonies in an attempt to become self-sufficient while maintaining a favorable balance of trade with other countries.
G. Navigation Acts
Parliament sought to advance its mercantilist policies through a series of trade laws passed between 1651 and 1673. These acts, which made England the center of all trade, met with resistance in North America.
H. Board of Trade and Plantations
In 1696, Parliament hoped to improve its administration over the colonies when it established the Board of Trade and Plantations.
VI. Enslavement in North America
A. Enslavement in the Chesapeake
By 1710, Africans made up 20 percent of the population in the Chesapeake.
B. Impact of Slavery on the Anglo-American Chesapeake
This concentration of slaves influenced the economic activities, demographic patterns, and social values of the region.
C. Enslavement in South Carolina
The large number of slaves in South Carolina, along with similarities in the climates of West Africa and the colony, helped ensure the survival of African culture.
D. Rice and Indigo
South Carolina developed a rice economy based mostly on skills brought in by enslaved Africans. Indigo, too, flourished because of knowledge bought by West Indian slaves.
E. Indian Enslavement in North and South Carolina
Indians were among the many people held in slavery in both the Carolinas. Bitterness over the trade in Indian slaves caused the Tuscarora War.
F. Yamasee War
The abuses associated with the trade in Indian slaves also led to the Yamasee War in South Carolina.
G. Slaves in Spanish North America
Spanish authorities in Florida in 1693 offered freedom to runaway slaves who would convert to Catholicism.
H. Slaves in French Louisiana
Both Africans and Indians were held as slaves in French Louisiana, but Louisiana remained a society with slaves rather than a slave society.
I. Enslavement in the North
Involvement of the northern colonies in the slave trade ensured that many people of African descent lived in that region.
VII. Colonial Political Development, Imperial Reorganization, and the Witchcraft Crisis
A. Colonial Political Structures
Each of the colonies generally had a governor, some form of council, and an assembly. Local political institutions, such as town meetings or county courts, also developed in America.
B. A Tradition of Autonomy Challenged
James II and his successors attempted to tighten the reins of government by reducing the colonies’ political autonomy.
C. Dominion of New England
James II attempted to strengthen royal control over the New England colonies by creating the Dominion of New England in 1686.
D. Glorious Revolution in America
News of the Glorious Revolution encouraged New Englanders to overthrow Governor Edmund Andros.
E. King William’s War
A war with the French and their Algonquian allies added to New England’s problems.
F. The 1692 Witchcraft Crisis
A witch hunt broke out in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. The intense but short-lived incident reflected the social and political stresses of the day.
G. Accommodation to Empire
Although the colonists resented the new imperial order, they adjusted to its demands and restrictions.
I. Introduction
After 1720, the American colonies expanded to cover most of the territory between the Atlantic coast and the Appalachian Mountains. Also, the population came to include a larger number of non-English people and a variety of ethnic groups and religious sects.
II. Population Growth and Ethnic Diversity
A. Newcomers from Africa and Europe
About 260,000 Africans arrived on the mainland during the eighteenth century, making them the largest ethnic or racial group that came to the colonies.
B. Scots-Irish, Germans, and Scots
One of the largest groups of immigrants¾about 150,000¾came from Ireland and Scotland. They were joined by about 85,000 Germans.
C. Maintaining Ethnic Identities
By 1775, half of the population south of New England was of non-English stock. Assimilation of these migrants into Anglo-American culture depended on patterns of settlement, the size of the group, and the strength of the migrants’ ties to their cultural roots. To retain power, the English elites sometimes fostered antagonism among ethnic groups. However, in the 1770s the elites realized they needed the support of non-English Americans in their rebellion against Great Britain.
III. Economic Growth and Development
A. Overview of the Anglo-American Economy
Large populations made British colonies economically stable while the widely scattered people of the French and Spanish colonies left them weak and vulnerable and often dependent on foreign colonies for goods.
B. Growth of Consumption
Generally, the American economy improved, leading to a better standard of living for many people. Economic stratification, on the other hand, also shaped social and economic structures.
C. Urban Poverty
New immigrants usually faced fewer opportunities for advancement than had the earliest arrivals. Although rural poverty remained limited, a poor class did begin to emerge in urban areas.
D. New England and King George’s War
King George’s War increased the wealth of some New Englanders, but many Bostonians suffered economically as a result of the conflict.
E. Prosperity of the Middle Colonies
King George’s War spurred an economic boom in the Middle Colonies.
F. Change in the Chesapeake
During the 1740s, grain crops made important inroads into the tobacco culture of the Chesapeake, causing a change in settlement patterns.
G. Trade and the Lower South
The Lower South experienced several economic fluctuations.
H. Georgia
Founded in 1732, Georgia served as a haven for debtors and as a garrison colony to protect England’s southernmost claims on the North American mainland.
IV. Colonial Cultures
A. Genteel Culture
Well-to-do Americans formed the core of a genteel elite that constructed a culture different from that of the seventeenth century and from that of ordinary colonists in the eighteenth century.
B. Education
Men from wealthy families prided themselves on their level of education and their intellectual connections to Europe.
C. The Enlightenment
In the eighteenth century, Europeans’ fascination with natural law led to an emphasis on acquiring knowledge through reason. This movement¾known as the Enlightenment¾ affected American culture and politics, particularly among the elite.
D. Contract Theory of Government
John Locke and other Enlightenment philosophers advanced the theory that governments were created by men and existed for the good of the people. A ruler who did not fulfill his contract with the people could be ousted from power.
E. Oral Cultures
The majority of British Americans could not read, and conversation provided the primary means of communication. Consequently, the exchange of information remained slow and restricted.
F. Religious Rituals
Many cultural identities grew out of public rituals, including attendance at church. These gatherings reinforced local attitudes, mores, and hierarchies.
G. Civic Rituals
Important public rituals included church festivals, militia musters, and, especially in the Chesapeake, court days and political events.
H. Rituals of Consumption
The growth of prosperity led to shopping and conspicuous consumption.
I. Importance of Tea
Tea drinking was an important consumption ritual.
J. Rituals on the “Middle Ground”
Relations with Indians led to innovative rituals, including those relating to trade, crimes, and punishment.
V. Colonial Families
A. Indian Families
Pressure from European settlers forced most Indians to change their traditional marriage views and roles.
B. Mixed-Race Families
Sexual liaisons occurred among European men and Indian women, producing a mixed-race population. The offspring of mixed unions were generally accepted in New France and in the Anglo-American backcountry but were considered degraded individuals in the Spanish Borderlands.
C. European-American Families
In these more stable households, men held dominion over family external affairs but women ruled the home.
D. African-American Families
The shape of African-Americans’ family lives were determined by the setting in which African Americans lived.
E. Running Away and Other Forms of Resistance
Since slavery existed in all of the English colonies, slaves had few options if they considered running away. The extended family helped African Americans deal with the uncertainties associated with the institution of slavery, and slave families struggled to gain some sort of autonomy.
F. Life in the Cities
Urban dwellers had much more contact with the outside world than their rural counterparts, but sometimes the benefits of city life were overshadowed by epidemics.
VI. Politics: Stability and Crisis in British America
A. Rise of the Assemblies
American political leaders sought to exert influence through increasingly important assemblies.
B. Interpretations of the Assemblies
By the middle of the century, Americans expressed a belief in balanced government, and they viewed the assembly as the representative of the people.
C. Stono Rebellion
The first in a series of colonial crises occurred with the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739, an uprising that led to stiffer laws regarding slaves.
D. New York Conspiracy
News of the Stono Rebellion was one factor that led to fears in New York of a conspiracy to foment a slave insurrection.
E. Land Riots in New Jersey and New York
Growing competition for good farmland resulted in a number of violent disputes in New Jersey and along the Hudson River.
F. Regulators in the Carolinas
In the Carolinas, frontier people’s unhappiness with the colonial governments led to violence in the 1760s and 1770s.
VII. A Crisis in Religion
A. The First Great Awakening
The most widespread crisis took a religious form, called the Great Awakening, that began in Massachusetts and spread throughout the colonies by the 1760s.
B. New England and the Great Awakening
The Great Awakening began in New England and was furthered by the preaching of Jonathan Edwards.
C. George Whitefield
George Whitefield, a Methodist minister from England, played a key role in spreading the excitement of the Great Awakening.
D. Impact of the Awakening
Many congregations splintered as a result of the Awakening, but the revival also introduced a strain of egalitarianism to the colonies. The religious experience thus had vast consequences as it helped break Americans’ ties to their seventeenth-century origins.
E. Virginia Baptists
These religious dissenters challenged the status quo in Virginia by condemning the lifestyle of the gentry and by preaching equality of races in the eyes of the church.
I. Introduction
An ever-widening split developed between America and England. The Seven Years’ War played an important role in events, because the absence of the French altered relations between colonials and the English. Also, Britain levied taxes to pay for the war, and resistance to those taxes brought on the movement for independence.
II. Renewed Warfare Among Europeans and Indians
A. Iroquois Neutrality
During Queen Anne’s War and King George’s War, the Iroquois skillfully maintained their neutrality. Conflict over the region west of the Iroquois, however, touched off a war that spread from the colonies to Europe.
B. Albany Congress
In response to the French threat to the west, delegates from seven colonies met in Albany, New York, in 1754. They failed to create an Iroquois alliance against the French and they could not coordinate colonial defenses.
C. Seven Years’ War
William Pitt enacted policies that brought about a British victory. As a result of the Treaty of Paris, England gained Canada and Florida, and French holdings west of the Mississippi went to Spain.
D. American Soldiers
The war meant that many Americans had their first prolonged contact with Englishmen, an experience that taught them that the British were haughty and disrespectful.
III. 1763: A Turning Point
A. Neolin and Pontiac
Angered over British policy, an Ottawa war chief named Pontiac accepted ideas expressed by the shaman Neolin and led a violent uprising against western forts and settlements. The Indians, defeated in battle at Bushy Run, Pennsylvania, negotiated a treaty in 1766.
B. Proclamation of 1763
Pontiac’s war showed the English the difficulties they faced in governing their new territories, and Parliament outlawed any settlement beyond the Appalachians.
C. George III
George III, a man of mediocre intelligence and mediocre education, was an erratic judge of character. He chose George Grenville as prime minister in 1763, and assigned him the task of finding a way to pay the huge debt incurred by the British government in the Seven Years’ War. Grenville believed the Americans should bear more of the cost of running the empire.
D. Theories of Representation
The English believed that Parliament collectively represented the people, while Americans advocated individual representation. Americans also preferred limited government, but many Englishmen insisted on tighter controls.
E. Real Whigs
Americans identified themselves with theorists opposing centralized governments.
F. Sugar and Currency Acts
Many Americans believed that the Sugar and Currency Acts revealed the potential threat from the government. Still, the laws met with feeble resistance in the colonies.
IV. The Stamp Act Crisis
A. James Otis’s Rights of the British Colonies
James Otis, Jr., cogently argued that Americans had to obey English laws, and many prepared reluctantly to accept the Stamp Act.
B. Patrick Henry and the Virginia Stamp Act Resolves
Patrick Henry proposed a series of resolutions protesting Parliament’s policy toward the colonies. Passed in a limited form, they revealed the difficulty Americans faced in working out their relationship to Parliament.
C. Continuing Loyalty to Britain
Despite the clamor and protests, most American remained loyal British subjects.
D. Loyal Nine
In 1765, a Boston social club organized a demonstration against the Stamp Act that succeeded in getting Andrew Oliver to promise not to collect the tax. This victory encouraged a more violent demonstration against the governor, which met with general disapproval.
E. Americans’ Divergent Interests
The colonial elite wanted effective, but controlled, protest against unpopular laws. Many people, however, felt empowered as they demonstrated, and they expressed themselves in ways that often threatened local leaders.
F. Sons of Liberty
In an effort to channel resistance into an acceptable form, merchants and artisans created the Sons of Liberty to protest the Stamp Act.
G. Repeal of the Stamp Act
Lord Rockingham withdrew the Stamp Act because he thought it was unwise and divisive, but to ensure the power of Parliament he also saw to passage of the Declaratory Act.
V. Resistance to the Townshend Acts
A. James Dickinson’s Farmer’s Letters
In these widely published essays, Dickinson contended that Parliament could regulate trade but could not do so for the purpose of raising a revenue.
B. Massachusetts Assembly Dissolved
The Massachusetts assembly responded to the Townshend Acts with a suggestion of joint protest. When representatives refused to follow Governor Francis Bernard’s order to recall the Circular Letter, he dissolved the assembly.
C. Daughters of Liberty
Women took an active role in the resistance by creating the Daughters of Liberty. They also performed public rituals, such as spinning cloth and denouncing tea, as expressions of their support for the American cause.
D. Divided Opinion over Boycotts
Differing economic interests led to a split in the alliance that had reacted to the Stamp Act. In response to the Townshend Duties artisans mounted successful boycotts, but their use of coercion angered many Americans.
E. Repeal of the Townshend Duties
A new prime minister, Lord North, persuaded Parliament to revoke duties on trade within the empire. The Tea Tax and the other Townshend Acts remained in force, but the repeal of taxes appeared to make the laws less offensive.
VI. Confrontations in Boston
A. Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a group of soldiers facing an unruly crowd opened fire and killed five Bostonians. Patriot leaders used this “massacre” as effective propaganda, but they also worked to ensure a fair trial to keep the soldiers from becoming martyrs for the loyalist cause.
B. A British Plot?
Patriot writers editorialized that Britain planned the political enslavement of America.
C. Samuel Adams
This outspoken patriot worked to build anti-British consensus in Massachusetts.
D. Boston Committee of Correspondence
When the North ministry took steps to enforce the Townshend Acts, Boston Patriots created a Committee of Correspondence to publicize the move. The Committee sought to establish a consensus that recognized the need to protect American liberties.
VII. Tea and Turmoil
A. Tea Act
In May of 1773, Parliament approved a tea tax designed to save the East India Company from bankruptcy. Patriots feared the subtle implications of the law.
B. The Boston Tea Party
In Boston, protesters “disguised” as Indians dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.
C. Coercive and Quebec Acts
Parliament responded to the Tea Party by passing four Coercive, or Intolerable, Acts to punish Boston and Massachusetts. At the same time, Parliament approved a bill that allowed the Catholic Church and French Civil Law in Quebec, while also increasing the size of that territory.
D. Implications of the Coercive Acts
Americans became convinced that the British planned to deprive them of their liberty.
I. Introduction
The American Revolution required patriot leaders to establish a coalition in favor of independence, to gain foreign recognition, and to triumph over the British army.
II. Government by Congress and Committee
A. First Continental Congress
The Congress had to define its grievances and define a plan of resistance. A third goal¾outlining constitutional relations with England¾proved more troublesome.
B. Declaration of Rights and Grievances
Delegates declared that the colonies would obey bona fide acts of Parliament. Americans would not condone taxes in disguise, and Congress enacted a boycott of England and demanded nonexportation of American goods.
C. Committees of Observation
Congress called for the creation of committees of observation and inspection to enforce its economic proposals. These committees became de facto governments.
D. Provincial Conventions
By the early spring of 1775, many colonial governments collapsed in the face of patriot challenges to their authority.
III. Choosing Sides: Loyalists, African Americans, and Indians
A. Loyalists
About 20 percent of Americans recognized dangers in resistance and remained loyal to England. One thing that loyalists had in common was their opposition to men who became patriot leaders.
B. Patriots and Neutrals
Those who became active revolutionaries constituted about 40 percent of the population and came primarily from those who had dominated colonial society. Another 40 percent chose to be neutral and, along with loyalists, suffered persecution at the hands of the patriots.
C. The Slaves’ Dilemma
Slaves generally sought to escape their bondage by supporting the English. The fear of slave uprisings shaped events in the Caribbean and on the mainland.
D. Slavery and Revolutionary Fervor
Colonies with the highest percentages of African Americans expressed the lowest support for the revolution.
E. Indians’ Grievances
By 1775, Indians felt great resentment and bitterness toward Americans’ aggressive expansionism. Both the British and the Americans sought to maintain Indian neutrality rather than active participation in the war.
F. Indians During the Revolution
Some Shawnee and Cherokee tribes attacked settlements, but the Indians suffered defeat. The Iroquois, like most tribes, followed policies of nonalignment.
IV. War and Independence
A. Battles of Lexington and Concord
General Thomas Gage moved to confiscate weapons the patriots held. Militiamen awaiting the British at Lexington and Concord drove the troops back to Boston with heavy losses.
B. First Year of War
Both sides used a year-long lull in the fighting to plan their future strategies.
C. British Strategy
British leaders assumed, erroneously, that the Americans would not stand up to professional troops, that the English could fight a conventional war, and that military victory would win the war.
D. Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress quickly moved to establish a viable government. One of its most important decisions resulted in the Continental Army.
E. George Washington: A Portrait of Leadership
George Washington, commander-in-chief of the army, had attributes essential to an American victory: moral integrity, physical stamina, and intense patriotism.
F. British Evacuation of Boston
The arrival of American cannon convinced Sir William Howe to evacuate Boston.
G. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
Thomas Paine stridently attacked English mistreatment of the colonies, and he unequivocally advocated creation of an independent republic. His popular book helped many Americans accept separation from Britain.
H. Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence
Congress approved Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, which contained a list of grievances against George III and a stirring statement of American political ideals.
V. The Long Struggle in the North
A. Loss of New York
The American’s faced potential disaster in defending New York. Although Washington deserted the city, he managed to hold the core of the army together.
B. Battles in New Jersey
British plundering of New Jersey rallied many reluctant Americans to the patriot cause and convinced Washington to strike. Victories at Trenton and Princeton cheered American spirits as the army settled in for the winter.
C. The American Army
The Continental Army included white and black troops, augmented by short-term militiamen. Officers developed a powerful sense of pride and commitment to their cause.
D. Planning the 1777 Campaign
General John Burgoyne planned a three-pronged invasion of New York that required close cooperation between all commanders but gave Burgoyne the glory.
E. Howe Takes Philadelphia
Ignoring Burgoyne’s plan and operating independently, Howe moved against Philadelphia in 1777, but logistical delays and American resistance prevented him from gaining any real advantage when he captured the city in September.
F. Burgoyne’s Campaign in New York
General John Burgoyne suffered a disastrous defeat in 1777. He hoped to divide the colonies by marching through New York, but he was forced to surrender with 6,000 men near Saratoga on October 17.
G. Split of the Iroquois Confederacy
The Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777, revealed a split in the 300-year-old Iroquois Confederacy. Despite pledges of neutrality, several tribes supported the British; others fought for the Americans.
H. Franco-American Alliance of 1778
The victory at Saratoga led to French recognition of American independence, and a Treaty of Alliance brought France into the war in support of the new nation.
VI. The Long Struggle in the South
A. British Victories in South Carolina
Charleston fell in May 1780, but the English never really established control over South Carolina, and they remained vulnerable to the French navy.
B. Greene and the Southern Campaign
Nathanael Greene assumed command of American forces in South Carolina, and he instituted effective policies toward the British, loyalists, and Indians.
VII. Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris
A. Surrender at Yorktown
Lord Cornwallis led his troops into Virginia and encamped at Yorktown, where American and French operations forced him to surrender.
B. The Cost of Victory
Over 25,000 American men lost their lives in the war, the South’s economy was shattered, and indebtedness soared.
C. Treaty of Paris
The war ended with a treaty signed on September 3, 1783. England recognized independence, accepted the Atlantic Ocean, the Mississippi River, Canada, and Florida as the American boundaries, and gave up fishing rights off of Newfoundland.
I. Introduction
Americans sought to establish a republic based on the concepts of a representative government and a virtuous citizenry. Problems existed, however, because people understood the fragility of republics and they realized many problems needed resolution to ensure the survival of the nation.
II. Creating a Virtuous Republic
A. Varieties of Republicanism
Three definitions of republicanism emerged in the United States: one based on classical political thinking, one that emphasized rational self-interest, and one that called for broad popular participation.
B. Virtue and the Arts
Americans expected the republic to replace the corruption of Europe, and the fine arts reflected people’s faith in virtue.
C. Educational Reform
Education served to inculcate virtue. In the North, public schools emerged, and, throughout the nation, educational opportunities for girls improved.
D. Judith Sargent Murray and Women’s Education
Judith Sargent Murray argued that women and men had the same intellectual capabilities. Her contentions reflected a postrevolutionary rethinking of traditional gender roles.
E. Abigail Adams: “Remember the Ladies”
Abigail Adams advocated legal reform to protect the rights of married women. Others wanted female suffrage.
F. Women’s Role in the Republic
In the young republic, women assumed great responsibility for the welfare of the community. This role allowed men to pursue more individualistic goals.
III. The First Emancipation and the Growth of Racism
A. Emancipation and Manumission
In the North, states outlawed slavery, but representatives favored gradual emancipation. In the South, legislators approved some reforms in the legal status of slaves, but slavery remained entrenched.
B. Growth of Free Black Population
Before the Revolution, there had been few free blacks, but by 1800 nearly 108,000 of them lived in the United States. Many of the African Americans migrated to northeastern cities.
C. Migration to Northern Cities
Free blacks often made their way to northern cities.
D. Freed People’s Churches and Associations
Free blacks faced pervasive discrimination, leading them to create their own economic and social institutions.
E. Development of Racist Theory
To defend slavery in light of the Revolutionary idea that all men were equal, southerners developed theories on the inherent inferiority of Africans and African Americans.
F. A Republic for White Men Only
Some scholars believe that racism emerged in the new republic because discrimination against blacks enhanced the sense of equality for whites.
IV. Designing Republican Governments
A. Drafting of State Constitutions
Reflecting their colonial experience, writers of state constitutions emphasized the limits of power.
B. Limits on State Government
Framers put deliberate and clear limits on the powers of their executives.
C. Rewriting the State Constitutions
In the mid-1780s, some political leaders began to embody theory of checks and balances and the primary means of controlling government power.
D. Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation established an unwieldy, sometimes inefficient government.
V. Trials of the Confederation
A. Inflation and Taxation
Finances provided great difficulty for governments. Paper money retained its value until 1776 but suffered severe devaluation by the end of the war.
B. Inability to Regulate Commerce
The Confederation Congress was denied the power to establish a national commercial policy.
C. Relations with Spain and Britain
When Spain closed the Mississippi to American navigation, U.S. leaders failed to agree on a national reaction. Furthermore, Congress could not enforce total compliance by Great Britain with the Treaty of Paris.
VI. Order and Disorder in the West
A. Relations with the Indians
The United States signed a series of treaties with the Indians in order to validate government claims to tribal lands. Many tribes accepted these agreements only in the face of America’s overwhelming power.
B. Ordinances of 1784 and 1785
These ordinances outlined the process through which land in the Northwest Territory could be sold and formal governments organized.
C. Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was the most important of the three land policies passed by the Confederation Congress.
D War in the Old Northwest
An Indian confederacy under Little Turtle scored major victories over American troops in 1790 and 1791. An Indian defeat at Fallen Timbers led to a treaty that opened up much of Ohio to settlement, but the accord also protected some Indian claims.
VII. From Crisis to the Constitution
A. Economic Change
The inability of Congress to deal with economic concerns led Virginia and Maryland to call a convention to discuss trade policy.
B. Annapolis Convention
A meeting in Annapolis investigated changes to the Articles of Confederation, but failed because of a lack of participation forcing a call for a new convention the following year.
C. Shays’s Rebellion
This armed rebellion in Massachusetts convinced doubters that reform was necessary.
D. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia, were generally reform-minded property owners.
E. James Madison: Father of the Constitution
James Madison gained recognition as the Father of the Constitution. Well-prepared when he arrived in Philadelphia, he set forth the fundamental concepts of checks and balances.
F. Virginia and New Jersey Plans
Virginians wanted a powerful central government. The New Jersey delegation advocated a limited national authority. The convention spent much of its time reconciling these positions.
G. The Debates: Houses of Congress
The issue of representation and election complicated debate over a bicameral legislature.
H. The Debates: Slavery and Representation
Delegates accepted a “three-fifths clause” to define the place of slaves in regards to taxation and representation.
I. Constitutional Protections for Slavery
This compromise, and other provisions, implicitly recognized the institution of slavery.
J. The Presidency
Foreign affairs, the military, and federal appointments became the domain of a chief executive, the President, chosen by the electoral college.
K. Separation of Powers
Separation of powers between the branches and levels of government is the essential element of the Constitution.
VIII. Opposition and Ratification
A. Federalists
Ratification required the approval of special conventions in at least nine states. Those who favored the Constitution called themselves Federalists¾the opposition became Antifederalists.
B. Antifederalists
Opponents of the Constitution feared the threat it posed to the states and to the people. They advocated a bill of rights to protect individual liberties.
C. Importance of a Bill of Rights
Opponents of the Constitution believed the document needed guarantees of certain rights.
D. Ratification of the Constitution
The arguments presented in The Federalist and the promise of a bill of rights led to ratification of the Constitution with New York’s approval on July 26, 1788.
E. Celebrating Ratification
Parades in many cities to celebrate ratification of the Constitution also served as political lessons for both literate and illiterate Americans.
I. Introduction
Americans assumed that the Constitution would create consensus, but the nation still faced political, economic, and diplomatic questions that led to partisan politics during the 1790s.
II. Building a Workable Government
A. Tasks of the First Congress
The First Congress had the tasks of raising money, creating a bill of rights, setting up the executive departments, and organizing the federal judiciary.
B. Madison and the First Congress
James Madison persuaded Congress to adopt the Revenue Act of 1789. Madison also took the lead in presenting the constitutional amendments that came to be called the Bill of Rights.
C. Bill of Rights
The states ratified ten amendments, which became part of the Constitution on December 15, 1791.
D. Executive Branch
Congress organized the executive branch with three main departments¾War, State, and Treasury¾and granted the President the authority to dismiss appointed officials.
E. Federal Judiciary
The Judiciary Act established a Supreme Court, defined federal jurisdiction, created district and appeals courts, and allowed for appeals from state courts to federal courts.
III. Domestic Policy Under Washington and Hamilton
A. Washington’s First Steps
Washington understood the importance his actions would have as precedents, and moved cautiously at first.
B. Alexander Hamilton
Hamilton’s zeal had attracted the favor of Washington, who appointed him Secretary of the Treasury. Nationalism and cynicism shaped Hamilton’s policies.
C. National and State Debts
Hamilton wanted the government to repay its debt at full value and to assume the war debts of the states.
D. Hamilton’s Financial Plan
Hamilton hoped to extend the authority of the national government and gain the support of securities holders.
E. First Bank of the United States
Hamilton advocated a national bank, touching off an intense constitutional debate. His brilliant defense of what became known as “broad constructionism” eventually assured creation of the bank.
F. Strict and Broad Constructions of the Constitution
The actions of the Washington administration led to debates over the authority of Congress to pass laws not specifically authorized by the Constitution.
G. Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures
Hamilton’s Report outlined a plan intended to encourage and protect the nation’s infant industries. The report was rejected by Congress.
H. Whiskey Rebellion
When farmers protested a federal tax on whiskey, which they distilled from their grain, Washington forcefully demonstrated the strength of the national government.
IV. The French Revolution and the Development of Partisan Politics
A. Democratic-Republicans and Federalists
Supporters of Hamilton and Jefferson gradually divided into opposing camps.
B. The French Revolution
The U.S. divided as observers welcomed republicanism to Europe but recoiled at its excesses. Commercial interests tied the U.S. to Great Britain, enemy of the revolution.
C. Citizen Genêt
Disagreements over the American response to the French Revolution led to partisanship. Still, both sides agreed that the United States should remain impartial when Citizen Edmund Genêt called on President Washington.
D. Democratic-Republican Societies
Democratic-Republican Societies expressed opposition to administration policies and thereby generated the first formal political dissent in the United States.
V. Partisan Politics and Relations with Great Britain
A. Jay Treaty
In 1794, John Jay negotiated a treaty with Great Britain in an effort to resolve several differences between the two nations. The treaty faced strong opposition, but eventually won the approval of Congress.
B. Partisan Divisions in Congress
Politicians in the U.S. witnessed the evolution of political parties.
C. Bases of Partisanship
Democratic-Republicans, generally from the southern and middle states, tended to be optimistic, to espouse democracy, and to embrace individualism. Federalists, mostly from New England, expressed more fears for the future and tended to come from the commercial class.
D. Washington’s Farewell Address
As he left office, Washington encouraged Americans to maintain commercial ties but not political relations with other nations and to avoid permanent alliances. He also expressed sorrow over factional divisions within the republic. In effect, Washington was calling on his fellow countrymen to rally behind the Federalist banner and to reject the Democratic-Republicans in the upcoming elections.
E. Election of 1796
Federalist John Adams won the presidency in 1796, but the constitutional means of determining a vice president led to the election of Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican.
VI. John Adams and Political Dissent
A. XYZ Affair
When Americans learned that French agents had demanded a bribe of American negotiators, anti-French sentiment swept the United States.
B. Quasi-War with France
The U.S. fought an undeclared naval war with France, mostly in Caribbean waters.
C. Alien and Sedition Acts
Federalists hoped to capitalize politically on Americans’ anger toward France by passing four laws to suppress dissent and limit the growth of the Republican Party.
D. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
Jefferson and Madison responded to the Alien and Sedition Acts by claiming that since a compact among the states created the Constitution, the states could review the constitutionality of federal actions.
E. Convention of 1800
A meeting between French and American diplomats ended the Quasi-War.
F. Election of 1800
In the 1800 election, electoral procedures resulted in a tie between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. After 35 ballots, the lame-duck, Federalist-dominated House of Representatives finally settled the election in favor of Jefferson.
VII. Race Relations at the End of the Century
A. “Civilizing” the Indians
The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1793 was a well-intentioned plan to “civilize” Native Americans, but the plan ignored the cultural traditions of the eastern Indian peoples.
B. Iroquois and Cherokees
The Cherokees adapted some of the teachings of Quaker missionaries to their own culture. Iroquois culture, due largely to the influence of Handsome Lake, adapted to European patterns to survive changed circumstances.
C. African Americans and Ideas of Freedom
Like the Indians, Africans Americans adapted the dominant society’s ideas to their own circumstances.
D. Gabriel’s Rebellion
Gabriel Prosser led an unsuccessful revolt in Virginia that he hoped would bring equality for African Americans.
I. Introduction
Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration heralded a change from the Federalist-controlled government that had preceded. The nation’s political system became better defined and its nationalistic and international positions grew clearer over the next 15 years.
II. The Jefferson Presidency and the Marshall Court
A. Jefferson’s Inaugural
In his inaugural address, Jefferson tried to heal the wounds of the 1800 campaign by appealing to the electorate as citizens with shared common beliefs.
B. Democratic-Republican Ascendancy
Jefferson refused to recognize any of Adams’s late-term Federalist appointments and where possible filled government positions with loyal Democratic-Republicans. Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, cut the federal budget and moved to reduce the national debt.
C. War on the Judiciary
Jefferson had Congress repeal the Judiciary Act of 1801. The Democratic-Republican Congress also impeached and removed Federal District Judge John Pickering. They could not, however, remove Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.
D. John Marshall
As Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall upheld federal supremacy over the states and protected the interests of commerce and capital. Under Marshall, the Court became an equal branch of the government.
E. Marbury v. Madison
In this case, John Marshall ended criticism that the Supreme Court functioned as a partisan instrument. He also advanced the concept of judicial review, enhancing the independence of the judiciary.
III. Louisiana and Lewis and Clark
A. Louisiana
Spain’s decision to deny Americans the right to store their products at New Orleans prior to transshipment to foreign markets and the subsequent transfer of the Louisiana Territory to the French, threatened the American economy.
B. Louisiana Purchase
James Monroe joined Robert Livingston in France with orders to buy New Orleans. Napoleon offered all 827,000 square miles of the Territory to the United States for fifteen million dollars.
C. Lewis and Clark
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were commissioned by President Jefferson to head an exploratory expedition to the Pacific coast.
D. Corps of Discovery
The Corps of Discovery was a diverse groups consisting of immigrants, Clark’s slave York, the French Canadian trader Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife, Sacagawea. The expedition brought valuable information on the West to an expansion-minded United States.
E. Exploration of the West
Zebulon Pike’s wanderings led him to tour and describe Spanish holdings.
IV. Political Factionalism and Jefferson’s Reelection
A. A New Style of Campaigning
Popular campaigning and political organization would become an essential part of the new style of democracy. Several younger Federalists decided to emulate the political style of the Democratic-Republicans.
B. Grassroots Electioneering
The new style of campaign was symbolized by political barbecues. Federalists, however, never mastered the art of campaigning.
C. Hamilton-Burr Duel
In American politics in the early nineteenth century, divisiveness and personal animosities were as strong a force as ideology. And, as seen in the Hamilton-Burr duel, political disagreements sometimes erupted into violence. In the famous duel, Burr killed Hamilton. Burr then conspired to create a political empire in the Southwest. Tried for treason, he was acquitted and fled to Europe.
D. Jefferson’s Reelection
Jefferson carried 15 of 17 states in the 1804 election.
E. Indian Resistance
F. The Prophet
Before the War of 1812, Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Prophet attempted to create an Indian federation. Prophet (Lalawethika) claimed to have returned from the dead, and he encouraged Indians not to fear whites.
G. Tecumseh
Prophet and Tecumseh encouraged resistance. Tecumseh turned Prophet’s religious message into a political one and traveled widely in an attempt to unify northern and southern Indians.
V. American Neutrality Imperiled by a World at War
A. Impressment of American Sailors
Britain resorted to stopping American ships to remove deserters, although many of them had become American citizens.
B. Chesapeake Affair
In 1807, the crew of the H. M. S. Leopard attacked and boarded the U.S.S. Chesapeake in American waters. The incident led many Americans to demand war, but Jefferson responded instead with “peaceable coercion.”
C. Embargo Act
The Embargo of 1807 forbade virtually all exports from the United States and became extremely unpopular as the American economy collapsed.
D. Election of 1808
Jefferson, emulating Washington, declined a third term leading to the contested nomination of Democratic-Republican James Madison who later won the election.
E. Non-Intercourse Act
The Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 resumed trade with all countries except Britain and France. In 1810, Congress substituted Macon’s Bill Number 2, which Napoleon used to trick the United States into declaring non-intercourse with Great Britain.
VI. Commerce and Industry
A. Stimulants to Industry
After 1807 embargoes and war stimulated domestic manufacturing.
B. Waltham or Lowell System
This system combined all manufacturing processes in a single location, thereby eliminating numerous problems for the textile industry. To find the people necessary to staff the mill at Waltham, inducements were offered to New England farm daughters and the managers accepted responsibility for their living conditions.
VII. The War of 1812
A. The Vote for War
The War of 1812 revealed a deeply partisan Congress.
B. Recruiting an Army
Payroll and supply problems hampered recruiting efforts in the West. Many Federalists considered the conflict to be “Mr. Madison’s War,” and raising an army in New England also proved difficult.
C. Invasion of Canada
The British captured Fort Dearborn and turned back American troops north of Niagara and near Lake Champlain, thwarting American efforts to invade Canada.
D. Naval Battles
The navy provided the only good news during the first year of the war; however, the British continued to rule the waves.
E. Great Lakes Campaign
Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory gave the Americans control of Lake Erie and allowed William Henry Harrison’s forces to win the Battle of the Thames, killing Tecumseh and crushing Indian unity. However, in August 1814, the British occupied and burned Washington, D.C. In September 1814, the Americans held firm at Baltimore and Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner.”
F. Campaign against the Creeks
Andrew Jackson overcame problems with his own militia to defeat the Creek nation, annex most of their lands, and become a national hero.
G. Battle of New Orleans
Andrew Jackson became a national hero when his troops defeated 6,000 British soldiers near New Orleans. Ironically, the battle occurred two weeks after diplomats had signed the Treaty of Ghent.
VIII. Peace and Consequences
A. Treaty of Ghent
The treaty, signed on December 24, 1814, restored the status quo antebellum. European conflicts had ended, so both sides could afford to accept the accord.
B. Consequences of the War of 1812
The war brought a sense of nationalism and isolationism to Americans, it destroyed Indian resistance, it exposed weaknesses in the national defense and transportation systems, it stimulated economic growth, and sealed the fate of the Federalists.
C. Hartford Convention
Made up of Federalist delegates from New England, the convention that met in Hartford, Connecticut, in the winter of 1814-1815 endorsed radical changes to the constitution.
I. Introduction
Early in the nineteenth century, Americans in increasing numbers moved inland from the seaboard. Developments in transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, and finance helped lead to a nationwide market economy.
II. Postwar Nationalism
A. Nationalist Program
Congressional leadership called for government stimulation of industry, internal improvements, a national bank, and a protective tariff.
B. James Monroe
Monroe was elected president in 1816 and continued Madison’s domestic program.
C. McCulloch v. Maryland
John Marshall reaffirmed the power of the national government in this case regarding the Second Bank of the United States.
D. John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State
John Quincy Adams served brilliantly as Secretary of State.
E. Adams-Onís Treaty
The Adams- Onís Treaty called for Spain to cede Florida to the United States and defined the southwestern border of the Louisiana Territory. America assumed $5 million worth of claims against Spain and gave up claim to Texas.
F. Independent States in Latin America
Between 1808 and 1822 a number of states in Latin America declared their independence from Spain. The U.S. feared that France would aid Spain by attempting to return these states to Spanish rule.
G. Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine demanded noncolonization in the hemisphere by European nations, nonintervention in the affairs of New World nations, and pledged noninterference by the United States in European affairs.
H. The Slavery Issue
The slavery question resurfaced in 1819 when Missouri petitioned to enter the Union as a slave state, a more that would have pushed slavery farther northward and tilted the political balance in the Senate toward the slave states.
I. Missouri Compromise
Henry Clay proposed the compromise that let Maine enter the Union as a free state and Missouri enter as a slave state. The agreement prohibited slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Territory north of 36º 30’.
III. The Market Economy and Government’s Economic Role
A. Definition of a Market Economy
The advent of the market economy, which encouraged specialization, meant that people could sell or purchase goods on the open market and then use the cash they received to purchase goods produced by other people.
B. Boom-and-Bust Cycles
Economic growth proved uneven. Periods of contraction and deflation often countered times of prosperity.
C. Cause of Boom-and-Bust Cycles
The new market economy was a direct cause of boom-and-bust cycles.
D. Government Economic Role
Despite a belief in limited government, the federal government played an active role in technological and industrial growth.
E. Legal Foundations of Commerce
Several Supreme Court cases provided a legal foundation for commerce and the market economy.
F. Corporations
Federal and state courts encouraged the proliferation of corporations by granting limited liability to corporation owners.
G. Charles River Bridge Case
The Court’s ruling in this case promoted individual enterprise and competition.
H. State’s Support for the Economy
State governments surpassed the federal government in promoting the economy. Largely as a result of these efforts, the nation experienced uneven but sustained economic growth from the end of the War of 1812 to mid-century.
IV. Transportation Links
A. East-West Links
Investments in roads, canals, and railroads caused northeastern seaboard cities to become the center of American commerce. New arteries opened east-west travel in the 1820s.
B. Canals
The success of the Erie Canal sparked an explosion of canal construction. By 1840, more than 3,000 miles of canals had been built. High construction costs and a constricting economy caused an end to the canal era in the 1850s.
C. Railroads
Railroad development started in the 1830s and quickly came to compete with canals. By 1850, there were more than 9,000 miles of track.
D. Reduction in Travel Time and Cost
Improved transportation reduced travel time and shipping costs.
V. Commercial Farming
A. Northeastern Agriculture
In response to problems such as soil erosion and competition from western farmers, many in the Northeast either moved west or went to work in factories. Those who stayed on their farms, however, successfully adapted to changing methods of agriculture.
B. Women’s Paid Labor
The commercialization of agriculture meant that women’s earnings became essential for the survival of the family farm.
C. Mechanization of Agriculture
Larger farms in the Old Northwest proved well suited to advances in agriculture. Using credit, farmers bought machinery, such as the McCormick Reaper, that increased production.
D. The Cotton South
The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 led to the expansion of cotton production, making the South the world’s dominant supplier of cotton by 1825. The cotton boom caused the South to become even more dependent on slave labor.
VI. The Rise of Manufacturing and Commerce
A. American System of Manufacturing
Americans contributed new manufacturing ideas, such as machine-made interchangeable parts and machinetools. Both innovations paved the way for the massive industrialization that occurred after the Civil War.
B. Textile Mills
Textiles became the most important industry in the nation in the 1840s. The industry used machines, rather than workers, to spin yarn and weave cloth. Textile mills radically changed the face of New England.
C. Ready-made Clothing
Advances in the textile industry had a profound effect on what Americans wore.
D. Retail Merchants
Retail clothing stores appeared in the 1820s.
E. Specialization of Commerce
Beginning with the cotton industry, commerce expanded in conjunction with manufacturing. Commercial specialization transformed brokers into powerful components of the market economy. In big cities, some traders became virtual merchant princes.
F. Banking and Credit Systems
With reduced restrictions on banking after the fall of the Second Bank of the United States, numerous banks began operation. Free banking thus made credit and capital readily available, thus leading to rapid industrialization expansion.
VII. Workers and the Workplace
A. Boom and Bust in the Textile Mills
Many teenage girls became factory workers because they wanted some degree of independence. In the hard times from 1837 to 1842, the race for profits led to a deterioration of working conditions.
B. Protests
Poor working conditions gave rise to organized protests and a concerted effort to lobby the government for labor laws.
C. Gender Divisions in Work
The new market economy changed traditional gender relationships. Labor came to be defined in terms of wages rather than production. As a result, the unpaid labor of many women was devalued.
D. Changes in the Workplace
The hierarchical control structure of the factory system worked to reduce independence and erode the republican virtues artisans had shared with the Revolutionary generation.
E. Labor Parties
In response to changes in the workplace, some workers began to organize in an attempt to regain control of their work and their lives.
F. Emergence of a Labor Movement
Although workers enjoyed some successes, such as overcoming the threat of conspiracy charges, permanent labor organizations proved difficult to maintain.
VIII. Americans on the Move
A. Westward Movement
By 1850 two-thirds of Americans lived west of the Appalachians, and some five to ten percent of Americans moved each year.
B. The South
After the 1820s the heart of cotton cultivation shifted from the coastal states to Alabama and the Mississippi valley.
C. Moves North and South
A significant number of people moved from the Upper South to the Ohio Valley during the 1820s and 1830s. Hispanics in the Southwest continued to move north.
D. Land Grants and Sales
Combining cheap land with easy credit gave farmers easy access to the western lands.
E. Credit
Most economic activity in the West involved credit. Increasing land prices, speculation, and reduced incomes, however, meant that many westerners had to turn to tenancy.
F. Frontier Cities
The expanding market economy led to urban growth in the West that complemented the vast westward movement. This development helped link the Northeast and the West.
IX. Native American Resistance and Removal
A. Treaty Making
Although the federal government followed international protocol in entering into treaties with Indian leaders, treaty making was in reality simply a tactic to acquire Indian land.
B. Indians in the Market Economy
As many Indian nations attempted to adjust to the market economy, they fell into a cycle of debt, land cessions, and dependency.
C. Shawnees
The Shawnees typified Indian resistance. They had to move numerous times because of white encroachment, but they maintained their language and culture.
D. Assimilation and Education
The government initially followed a policy of assimilating Native Americans through education and Christianity, but the pace of westward expansion continued to put Indian lands at risk.
E. Indian Removal as Federal Policy
The southern tribes had maintained much of their land after the War of 1812. The government eventually forced these tribes to move to the West.
F. Cherokees
The Cherokees faced removal when the state of Georgia declared sovereignty over them.
G. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
Chief John Ross successfully sued Georgia in federal court, but President Andrew Jackson ignored the decision.
H. Trail of Tears
The government forced the southern Indians to move west, and nearly one-quarter of them died along the way.
I. Second Seminole War
When Seminole Indians under the leadership of Osceola resisted removal, federal troops moved to subdue them. Eventually, many Seminoles migrated west, but a number of them remained in the Florida swamps.
I. Introduction
The enormous transformation of the United States after the War of 1812 sparked a fervor for reform beginning in the 1830s.
II. From Revival to Reform
A. Second Great Awakening
Religion motivated much of the social reform. The Second Great Awakening offered salvation through personal conversion to all people, regardless of theology. Revivalists also preached the doctrine of perfectibility in human society, which gave birth to many of the reform movements of the age.
B. Role of Women
Women proved to be the most ardent supporters of evangelism and reform.
C. The Plight of Prostitutes
McDowall’s report on prostitution in New York City caused women to revive the fight against prostitution. Women soon transformed the emotionalism of revivals into an enthusiasm for moral reform by establishing organizations such as the Female Moral Reform Society.
D. Temperance
One of the earliest and strongest concerns for reform resulted in a campaign against the use of alcohol.
E. Temperance Societies
Public associations against drinking led to a sharp decline in the use of alcohol.
F. Penitentiaries and Asylums
Asylums and penitentiaries also came under scrutiny as reformers worked to improve these institutions.
III. Antimasonry
A. Morgan Affair
William Morgan, a disillusioned Mason, published a book in 1826 exposing Masonic practice. His subsequent murder started the Antimasonry movement.
B. Convention System
As Antimasons gained wider support, they organized politically, introducing the nominating convention.
IV. Abolitionism and the Women’s Movement
A. Black Abolitionists
African Americans organized at least 50 abolitionist societies in the United States.
B. William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison became one of the first white abolitionists to demand immediate emancipation.
C. Immediatists
A number of reformers agreed with Garrison, and in their zeal they founded the American Antislavery Society.
D. Opposition to Abolitionists
Many Americans responded violently to abolitionism.
E. Gag Rule
In an effort to avoid answering abolitionist petitions, Congress passed the “gag rule” which automatically tabled such petitions from 1836 to 1844.
F. Women Abolitionists
Women found they could take a more prominent role in the immediatist movement than in any previous reform.
G. Women’s Rights
Women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott compared their position in society to that of slaves.
V. Jacksonianism and Party Politics
A. End of the Caucus System
Popular participation in politics led to the demise of nominating the president by Congressional caucus.
B. Election of 1824
A supposed “corrupt bargain” led to the election of John Quincy Adams.
C. Election of 1828
The Democratic Party became the first well-organized national political party as a result of Jackson’s leadership in this election.
D. Andrew Jackson
Jackson, the first president from the West, gained his popularity from a lifetime of bold achievements.
E. Democrats
The Democrats enjoyed widespread support and fostered a Jeffersonian agrarian viewpoint.
F. Jacksonians as Reformers
Jacksonians considered themselves reformers by limiting the influence of government.
VI. Federalism at Issue: The Nullification and Bank Controversies
A. Tariff of Abominations
The South opposed the Tariff of 1828 and referred to it as the Tariff of Abominations. To defend their interests against the power of the federal government, South Carolina’s political leaders used the doctrine of nullification.
B. Webster-Hayne Debate
Daniel Webster of New Hampshire debated Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina in Congress on the issue of nullification in 1830.
C. Nullification Crisis
When South Carolina nullified the Tariff of 1832, Jackson responded by issuing the Nullification Proclamation and by having Congress issue the Force Act. He also recommended tariff reduction, which temporarily ended the crisis.
D. Second Bank of the United States
The rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States became the central issue in the 1832 election.
E. Jackson’s Second Term
Jackson tried to ensure that the national bank would never be rechartered, and he deposited federal funds in “pet” state banks. Land speculation, however, soon threatened the economy.
F. Specie Circular
Jackson’s “hard-money” policy that required payment in specie to buy federal lands failed to stop speculation.
G. Use of the Veto
Jackson made the veto an effective tool for controlling Congress.
VII. The Whig Challenge and the Second Party System
A. Whigs and Reformers
The Whig Party, which developed as an opposition party to President Jackson and the Democrats, sought to recharter the national bank, create an active federal government, and promote reform. Whig policies embodied the beliefs of many reformers.
B. Election of 1836
In 1836 Democrat Martin Van Buren, enjoying broad-based support, won the presidency. Van Buren managed to head off the as-yet unorganized Whig opposition, but Congress had to decide the vice-presidential race.
C. Van Buren and Hard Times
Just after the election of 1836, the American credit system collapsed. Van Buren’s hard money policies sent the economy spiraling downward.
D. William Henry Harrison and the Election of 1840
The Whig William Henry Harrison emulated the methods of the Democrats to win the election of 1840. He died within a month of taking office, however, and John Tyler could not hold the support of Congressional Whigs.
E. Anglo-American Tensions
The United States and Great Britain neared war over several issues in the late 1830s and early 1840s.
VIII. Manifest Destiny and Expansionism
A. Republic of Texas
When Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836, many people sought annexation to the United States. The volatile slavery issue, however, prevented this action.
B. Oregon Fever
In the early 1840s, thousands of settlers traveled west on the Oregon Trail.
C. James K. Polk and the Election of 1844
Democrat James K. Polk won election over Henry Clay on a platform of the occupation of the entire Oregon territory and the annexation of Texas.
I. Introduction
Social and economic prospects in the United States brought thousands of immigrants to America’s shores between 1830 and 1860. At the same time, the expanding market economy led to numerous social changes.
II. Country Life
A. Farm Communities
The farm village was the center of rural life. The social life of farm men and women consisted of trips to the market and meeting at such events as after-church dinners, prayer groups, and country bees. As people moved to towns and became wage earners and consumers, their daily lives were changed. Some people began to resist such changes by experimenting with cooperative rather than competitive environments.
B. Shakers
The Shakers became one of the first groups of Americans to experiment with utopian communities.
C. Mormon Community of Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints developed into the most successful communal group.
D. Brook Farm
Brook Farm played a significant role in fostering a national literature.
E. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson was the prime mover of the American Renaissance and a cornerstone of the transcendental movement.
III. The West
A. Discovery of Gold
Discovery of gold in 1848 led to the great California Gold Rush of 1849. Thousands went west to seek their fortunes, but most never found enough gold to pay their expenses.
B. Farming
Since most of the gold seekers had to be fed, California experienced an agricultural boom.
C. Women Settlers
Women constituted about one-seventh of the travelers on overland trails, and they found their domestic skills in high demand.
IV. City Life
A. New York City
New York had a population of over 800,000 by 1860.
B. Urban Problems
The rapid growth of nineteenth-century cities eventually forced city governments to take over public services.
C. Horace Mann and Public Schools
Horace Mann helped generate widespread interest in a secular system of education.
D. Leisure
Through organized social actives and associations, leisure in the city became a commodity to be purchased.
E. Reading
The spread of mass education and the wide distribution of books and periodicals meant that Americans read more during their leisure time.
F. Theater
The theater provided an important source of enjoyment for both men and women.
G. Minstrel Show
Minstrel troupes traveled by city to city by the 1840s, but minstrel shows furthered racial divisions because of the stereotypical manner in which blacks were portrayed.
H. Sports
Sports such as horse racing, boxing, and eventually baseball, became popular. City dwellers became less spontaneous, relying more on formal rules.
I. City Culture
The growth of cities encouraged people to form private clubs and associations, while growing neighborhoods created distinctive youth cultures.
J. Urban Riots
City dwellers often rioted, forcing many cities to establish professional police forces in response to the violence.
V. Extremes of Wealth
A. “If Not an Aristocracy”
The egalitarian view of life in America diminished as a new aristocracy based on money and power emerged.
B. Urban Poverty
Growing cities generated a large class of urban poor that resented labor competition from immigrants.
C. The Urban Elite
The urban elite thrived in this period, often using inherited wealth to increase their power and riches.
D. The Middle Class
A comfortable middle class existed in urban America and enjoyed the fruits of the expanding market economy. Separated from the urban elite and from the urban poor, they increasingly looked to the family and home as the core of middle-class life.
VI. Women, Families, and the Domestic Ideal
A. Supporting Families
Many women viewed working in mills, department stores, or schools as temporary occupations before marriage. The poor, widows, and free African Americans, however, worked to support their families.
B. Idealizing the Family
The family was idealized by middle-class Americans as a moral institution characterized by selflessness and cooperation. This view restricted the paying jobs deemed appropriate to middle-class women, with teaching being the one occupation that was suitable to the female role.
C. Decline in Family Size
The birthrate declined, partly because in the market economy smaller families seemed more economical.
D. Limiting Families
Americans employed several forms of contraception.
E. Single Men and Women
Many women decided to remain single, pursue their own interests, and become independent.
VII. Immigrant Lives in America
A. Promotion of Immigration
Numerous enterprises recruited immigrants to the United States, and most of the newcomers ended up in the cities.
B. Settling In
Most immigrants gravitated toward cities. Scandinavians and Netherlanders generally settled in rural areas.
C. Immigrant Disenchantment
Many immigrants grew dissatisfied with life in the United States, and thousands of them returned home.
D. Irish Immigrants
Following the Potato Famine, more than 1 million Irish emigrants came to the United States. Most of them were Catholics who settled in the urban areas of the North.
E. Racial Ideas
Non-British, non-European, non-Protestant people were often described in negative, racial terms by the white, Anglo-Saxon majority.
F. Anti-Catholicism
Many people feared that emigrants subverted American values, leading to widespread anti-Catholicism and anti-Irish sentiment.
G. German Immigrants
By 1854, Germans became the largest immigrant group. Most of them settled in small towns to preserve their cultural identities, but they also had major influences on cities such as Milwaukee and Cincinnati.
H. Hispanics
Many Hispanics became Americans with the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, and the Gadsden Purchase. Their culture persisted, but they lost economic influence.
VIII. Free People of Color
A. African American Communities
Black churches, literary societies, fraternal associations, and schools helped free blacks cope with their hardships.
B. Racial Exclusion and Segregation
In the North, African Americans faced exclusion from or segregation in public places. They also suffered hiring and wage discrimination.
C. African American Women
Because of their domestic skills, African American women found jobs more easily than African American men. However, they continued to bear the burden of gender stereotyping.
D. Black Nationalism
Many free blacks felt frustration with the failure of abolitionism, and racial solidarity, self-help, and an interest in Africa characterized a black nationalism.
I. Introduction
Between 1830 and 1860 the South developed into the world’s largest slaveholding society. Southerners¾white and black, slaveholders and nonslaveholders¾developed a culture quite different from their northern counterparts. Slavery influenced not only southern economics values, customs, and laws, but also the region’s relationship to the nation.
II. The “Peculiar” South?
A. South-North Similarity
North and South were similar in geographic size. Both regions shared the experience of the American Revolution, had a common language, lived under the same Constitution, and believed in the American mission. Both regions also shared in the economic booms and busts of the nation.
B. South-North Dissimilarity
North and South had different climates and growing seasons. The South emerged as an agrarian society with low population density and few of the amenities associated with urban life. The North was far ahead of the South in industrial growth.
C. A Southern World-View and the Proslavery Argument
The southern world-view was one of its most peculiar characteristics. At the heart of the South’s defense of slavery was a deep and abiding racism.
D. A Slave Society
By the 1830s the South had become a slave society as opposed to merely a society with slaves.
III. Free Southerners: Farmers, Planters, and Free Blacks
A. Yeoman Farmers
Yeoman farmers made up the majority of the white southern population. Although a numerical majority, they did not control the political or economic direction of the South.
B. Yeoman Folk Culture
Yeoman folk culture was based on family, church, and local region.
C. Yeoman Livelihoods
John F. Flintoff serves as an example of a yeoman farmer who aspired to become a slave owner. Ferdinand L. Steel serves as an example of a more typical yeoman farmer. He never became a slaveowner, the family and religion remained the focus of his life.
D. Landless Whites
Depending on the state, some 25 to 40 percent of white southerners owned no land.
E. Free Blacks
The lives of free blacks were worse than that of yeomen and little better than that of slaves.
F. Free Black Communities
In some regions the mulatto population was recognized as a distinct class, and in many southern cities free black communities formed.
G. Planters
The planter class stood at the top of the social pyramid in the South.
H. Southern Paternalism
Slaveholding men accepted a paternalistic ideology to justify their dominance of southern society.
I. Plantation Mistresses
Women of the planter class were raised to be wives, mothers, and subordinate companions to men.
J. Marriage and Family
Young white women often approached marriage and child-bearing with anxiety. Women also had to play “the ostrich game” with regard to sexual liaisons between white men and slave women.
IV. Slave Life and Labor
A. Slaves’ Everyday Conditions
Although slaves usually received adequate nourishment, they had a plain and monotonous diet. They owned few clothes, and typically they lived in small, one-room cabins.
B. Slaves’ Work Routine
Long hours in large work gangs characterized the slave work regime. Planters aimed to keep their hands busy all the time, but many slaves resisted overwork by slacking off whenever they could.
C. Violence Against Slaves
Whippings occurred throughout the South, although generally more so on large farms than on small ones. The mental cruelty of slavery¾the hopeless sense of bondage and coercion with no hope for the future¾provided the cruelest element of the system.
D. Slave-Master Relationships
Most slaves felt antagonism and hatred toward whites, feelings that bred resistance, bitterness, and distrust.
V. Slave Culture
A. African Cultural Survival
African influence remained strong in the slave community, with slaves’ appearance, entertainment, and superstitions helping to provide them with a sense of their past.
B. Slaves’ Religion and Music
Christianity offered slaves an important means of coping with bondage, and their faith helped them attain a sense of racial identity. Music, with its rhythm and with physical movement, became central to slaves’ religious experience.
C. The Slave Trade and Separation
Family provided a central part of slaves’ existence, and they lived in the fear that members of their families might be sold to other masters.
D. The Black Family in Slavery
Despite the fear of separation, slaves attempted and often succeeded in forming stable and healthy families.
VI. Slave Resistance and Rebellion
A. Strategies of Resistance
Despite some examples of violent rebellions, most slaves practiced nonviolent forms of resistance, such as occasionally stealing food, negotiating for better working conditions, or temporarily running away.
B. Nat Turner’s Insurrection
An educated black preacher, Nat Turner led a bloody but unsuccessful rebellion. In the aftermath of this rebellion, the state of Virginia held a legislative and public debate over the possibility of gradual emancipation.
VII. Harmony and Tension in a Slave Society
A. Slavery, Wealth, and Social Standing
Slavery served as the basis of wealth and social standing, and the institution therefore had a profound influence on southern values and mores.
B. Aristocratic Values and Frontier Individualism
The aristocratic values of lineage, privilege, pride, and refinement gained a substantial foothold among all levels of southern society. In the recently settled areas, however, frontier values of courage and self-reliance remained the norm.
C. Yeoman Demands for Political Reform
In the 1820s and 1830s many small farmers worked to enact electoral and other reforms in the planter-dominated government. As a result, southern government became more democratic.
D. Antebellum White Class Relations
Despite the unequal distribution of wealth, southern society suffered little class conflict.
E. Hardening of Class Lines
After 1830, the gap between the classes widened. Although urban southerners suffered economic problems, planters remained relatively secure because of their control over government in the Old South.
I. Introduction
Territorial expansion brought the slavery question once again to the forefront. This volatile issue gave rise to a new political party, the Republicans, and moved the nation closer to war.
II. The War with Mexico and Its Consequences
A. Oregon
The Oregon Treaty of 1846 established the northernmost boundary of the Oregon County at the 49th parallel.
B. “Mr. Polk’s War”
After failing in his attempt to buy land to the Pacific from Mexico, Polk waited for war. After Mexican cavalry struck against an American cavalry unit on the north side of the Rio Grande, Polk drafted a war message to Congress. Congress voted in favor of a declaration of war on May 13, 1846.
C. Foreign War and the Popular Imagination
There were public celebrations that accompanied the declaration of war. It was seen as a fulfillment of Anglo-Saxon-Christian destiny.
D. Conquest
Due to steady progress on the part of American forces, and after a daring invasion at Vera Cruz that led to the capture of Mexico City, the U.S. was victorious.
E. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
A treaty with Mexico gave the United States possession of California and the New Mexico Territory, and recognized the Rio Grande as the Texas border. The United States agreed to pay the claims of American citizens against Mexico and to give Mexico another $15 million.
F. “Slave Power Conspiracy”
Many Northerners opposed the Mexican War, insisting that its causes could be found in a slaveholding oligarchy that intended to ensure the institution of slavery.
G. Wilmot Proviso
Congressman David Wilmot proposed a bill that outlawed slavery in territories gained from Mexico, but his proposal failed in the Senate. The Proviso subsequently became a rallying cry for abolitionists.
H. The Election of 1848 and Popular Sovereignty
Slavery in the territories emerged as the primary issue in the 1848 election. The Democrat Lewis Cass supported popular sovereignty, allowing Whig slaveholder Zachary Taylor to win the presidency with the Southern vote.
III. 1850: Compromise or Armistice?
A. Compromise of 1850
California’s request to enter the Union as a free state sparked the first major political conflict following the Mexican War. Although Henry Clay’s omnibus bill did not pass, each compromise measure gained congressional support.
B. Fugitive Slave Act
An important facet of the compromise strengthened southerners’ ability to capture escaped slaves. Abolitionists sharply protested this law.
C. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book enthralled northerners by painting a portrait of the suffering of slaves, a portrayal that appalled white southerners.
D. The Underground Railroad
Southerners were especially disturbed over the Underground Railroad.
E. Election of 1852 and the Collapse of Compromise
Franklin Pierce’s victory gave southerners hope because he believed that each section’s rights should be defended and because he supported the Fugitive Slave Act. Those same stands appalled many northerners.
IV. Slavery Expansion and Collapse of the Party System
A. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill
This bill, proposed by Stephen A. Douglas, exposed the complexity of popular sovereignty. Discord over the bill helped split the Whigs, and the party fell apart.
B. Birth of the Republican Party
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill encouraged antislavery Whigs and Democrats, Free-Soilers, and other reformers to form the Republican Party, which grew rapidly in the North.
C. Know-Nothings
The American Party, called Know-Nothings, started as an anti-immigrant party that exploited fears of foreigners.
D. Party Realignment and the Republicans’ Appeal
The Republicans, Democrats, and Know-Nothings all sought to attract former Whigs. The Republicans appealed to those voters interested in internal improvements, federal land grants, higher tariffs, and the economic development of the West.
E. Republican Ideology
To broaden their ideology beyond antislavery, the Republicans trumpeted “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men.”
F. Southern Democrats
Southern Democrats attracted slaveholders from among the former Whigs. The party used racial fears to keep the political alliance between yeomen and planters intact.
G. Bleeding Kansas
When the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed, thousands of proslavery and antislavery people poured into Kansas, leading to massive bloodshed in the territory.
V. Slavery and the Nation’s Future
A. Dred Scott Case
This case ruled that blacks could not be citizens and that Congress had no power to bar slavery in the territories.
B. Abraham Lincoln on the Slave Power
Lincoln stressed that slavery in the territories affected all citizens of the United States because if left unchecked slavery would soon grow into a nationwide institution.
C. The Lecompton Constitution
Douglas’ stand against the Lecompton Constitution infuriated southern Democrats.
D. Stephen Douglas and the Freeport Doctrine
During his 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign against Lincoln, Douglas insisted that territorial legislatures could effectively end slavery by not supporting it.
VI. Disunion
A. John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
Hoping to bring about a slave rebellion, Brown led a band of men in an attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. This act struck fear into the South.
B. Election of 1860
Lincoln won this election on a sectional basis, with the southern votes split between Douglas, Breckenridge, and Bell. When Republicans refused to accept the Crittendon Compromise, southerners threatened secession.
C. Secession
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union, a step that enticed other southern states to follow.
D. The Confederate States of America
By February 1861, seven states had formed the Confederate States of America. Upon inauguration, Lincoln worked to uphold federal authority without war.
E. Fort Sumter and the Outbreak of War
At Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the Confederates could acquiesce to Lincoln’s intent to supply the federal installation or they could attack the garrison. In April, Southerners bombarded the fort and forced its surrender.
I. Introduction
Northerners and Southerners supported the war for a variety of reasons, such as ending slavery, preserving the Union, defending states’ rights, or protecting the Confederacy. Whatever the purpose of the war, it brought tremendous change to the United States as the conflict spawned new social and racial arrangements in the nation.
II. America Goes to War, 1861-1862
A. First Battle of Bull Run
Upon Lincoln’s call for volunteers to restore the Union, additional states from the upper South seceded. Southerners faced the war with an optimism that grew stronger following the Confederate victory at Bull Run.
B. Grand Strategy
Union strategy¾the “Anaconda plan” called for a blockade of southern ports and the capture of the Mississippi. The Confederacy pursued an “offensive defensive” strategy¾attack when possible, otherwise prevent conquest.
C. Union Naval Campaign
Early in the war Federal ships began to blockade the South, a tactic that enjoyed mixed results. Union coastal victories off South Carolina resulted in a stream of runaway slaves as planters abandoned their lands.
D. Grant’s Tennessee Campaign and the Battle of Shiloh
The first great campaign of the war unfolded as Ulysses S. Grant led troops into Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson which guarded the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. The shocking casualties of the two-day Battle of Shiloh revealed the true nature of the war.
E. McClellan and the Peninsula Campaign
Slow to move, McClellan finally advanced on Richmond, moving within 7 miles of the Confederate capital. Lee moved in behind Union forces, threatening Washington, D.C. The Seven Days’ Battles followed, which forced McClellan to retreat.
F. Confederate Offensive in Maryland and Kentucky
Following early southern victories, President Jefferson Davis ordered his armies to engage in offensive tactics. The attempt to lure Maryland and Kentucky into the Confederacy failed.
III. War Transforms the South
A. The Confederacy and Centralization of Power
In the South, the tradition of localism and states’ rights gave way to centralization as the Confederacy fought to preserve itself. When the South failed to achieve a quick victory, the Confederacy resorted to conscription.
B. Wartime Southern Cities and Industry
Wartime needs led to a new bureaucracy and an emerging industrialism in the South.
C. Changing Roles of Women
With men off to fight, women began to assume many of the responsibilities males had previously held.
D. Human Suffering, Hoarding, and Inflation
The war caused economic dislocations in the South that resulted in great suffering for many people. The Federal blockade created shortages of important commodities in the South, while Confederate financial policies generated intense price inflation.
E. Inequities of the Confederate Draft
Wealthier southerners seemed immune to many of the problems that others faced, and anger over the elite’s exemptions from conscription led to tensions in the South.
IV. Wartime Northern Economy and Society
A. Northern Business, Industry, and Agriculture
The war generally spurred economic activity in the North, but the initial loss of southern markets caused some disruptions for the Union. Federal spending helped many businessmen and farmers because the government needed vast amounts of material to win the war. Fiscal policy, especially the sale of war bonds, also shaped the northern economy.
B. New Militancy Among Northern Workers
Inflation and a tight job market produced problems for the working class, difficulties that led to a growing interest in trade unionism.
C. Government and Business Partnership
Railroads and other companies with government contracts earned especially high profits. New land policies and high tariffs encouraged economic activity.
D. Economic Nationalism
Through the Morrill Land Grant Act Congress authorized sales of large parcels of public lands, the proceeds to be used for public universities promoting education in agriculture, engineering, and military science. The Homestead Act of 1862 offered cheap land to people who would settle the West. A national banking system was created and higher tariffs were enacted.
E. Expansion of Presidential Power
The war fostered great patriotism in the North, but the conflict also led to increased power for the President.
F. The Union Cause
Northerners rallied to the Union cause. While some northerners ostentatiously displayed their new wealth, others advanced more idealistic values.
G. Northern Women
Northern women assumed new roles during the war.
V. The Advent of Emancipation
A. Lincoln and Emancipation
Lincoln understood the political dangers of the slavery issue and at first shied away from advocating abolition. Eventually, he began suggesting that southerners gradually free their bondspersons. He also promoted a plan to colonize blacks outside the United States.
B. Confiscation Acts
Radical Republicans demanded immediate emancipation. One of their first efforts to achieve it came with laws allowing the confiscation of slaves as “contraband.”
C. Emancipation Proclamation
In September 1862, Lincoln announced a plan to free slaves in the Confederate states. In his proclamation of January 1, 1863, all areas in the Confederacy that were under Union control were exempted, the border states included. This ambiguous proclamation provided Lincoln with some political benefits, but by 1864 he recognized the need for a stronger stand on the slave issue and gave his support to a constitutional ban.
D. Who Freed the Slaves?
Emancipation came as the result of two forces: one, Lincoln’s policy; and two, the will and courage of slaves who fled for freedom.
E. A Confederate Plan of Emancipation
Jefferson Davis proposed emancipation of the slaves in exchange for military service against the Union. Southern resistance to abolition proved powerful, however, and Davis could only make a limited effort to free the slaves.
VI. The Soldiers’ War
A. Hospitals and Camp Life
Soldiers endured unsanitary conditions, unsafe water supplies, and badly managed hospitals. In addition, they witnesses mass violence and bloodshed.
B. The Rifled Musket
Development of the “minie ball” made rifles accurate to 400 yards and useful up to 1,000 yards.
C. The Black Soldier’s Fight for Manhood
Thousands of blacks served with honor and distinction in the Union army, but discrimination persisted.
VII. 1863: The Tide of Battle Turns
A. Battle of Chancellorsville
On the battlefield, the southern army began the 1863 campaign with a victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia. However, the Confederate army suffered the loss of Stonewall Jackson.
B. Siege of Vicksburg
This Confederate defeat divided the southern states in two and gave control of the Mississippi to the Union.
C. Battle of Gettysburg
In July 1863, the Union army scored a major victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, inflicting heavy losses on Lee’s army.
VIII. Disunity, South and North
A. Disintegration of Confederate Unity
Planters, unable to adjust to changed circumstances, increasingly opposed the Confederate government.
B. Food Riots in Southern Cities
Food riots occurred in several cities in 1863. Ordinary rural southerners resisted by refusing to cooperate with conscription, tax collection, and impressments of food. Meanwhile, Davis failed to communicate with the masses.
C. Desertions from the Confederate Army
As conditions at home deteriorated, many southern soldiers reacted by deserting from the army.
D. Southern Peace Movements
From 1863 on, military defeats and social disruptions fueled a growing discontent with the war. For many people the solution seemed to be simply to give up on the southern cause.
E. Antiwar Sentiment in the North
Opposition to the war in the North was less severe than in the South. Lincoln, unlike Davis, had the ability to stay in touch with ordinary citizens.
F. Peace Democrats
Some Northerners expressed unhappiness with the war, but much of the northern discord reflected political party differences rather than support for the Confederacy.
G. New York City Draft Riots
One sharp statement of northern anger over the war came in the New York City draft riots. In theory aimed at conscription, these violent demonstrations revealed powerful underlying class and racial tensions.
IX. 1864-1865: The Final Test of Wills
A. Northern Diplomatic Strategy
Lincoln understood the importance of European relations, and he worked diligently to prevent European support of the Confederacy.
B. Battlefield Stalemate and a Union Strategy for Victory
Grant proposed raids into the South on a massive scale to lay waste to all resources useful to the military and to the civilian population of the Confederacy.
C. Atlanta
Sherman’s occupation of Atlanta boosted northern morale and ensured Lincoln’s reelection in 1864.
D. Sherman’s March to the Sea
Sherman adhered to a “burned earth” policy in his march to the sea.
E. Virginia’s Bloody Soil
During the spring and summer of 1864, Grant continually hurled Union forces against Lee’s army in Virginia. Even though losses were appalling, these battles prepared the way for Union victory.
F. Surrender at Appomattox
Lee could not stand up to the Union forces, leading him to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865.
G. Financial Tally
The costs of the war ranged into the billions of dollars, while the social burden to the South remains incalculable.
H. Death Toll
About 600,000 Americans died, more deaths than occurred in all other American wars combined prior to Vietnam. Still, the war left unresolved the crucial issue of the place of African Americans in the United States.
I. Introduction
The end of the Civil War brought profound changes to the United States. Reconstruction changed some things, but it did little regarding social equality and political turmoil. In the end, the government established black suffrage, but this reform proved insufficient to remake the South or to guarantee human rights.
II. Wartime Reconstruction
A. Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan
Lincoln planned for a swift and moderate Reconstruction process. Under his 10 Percent Plan, he proposed that as soon as 10 percent of the voting population in the 1860 election took an oath and established a government, it would be recognized.
B. Congress and the Wade-Davis Bill
Responding negatively to Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan, Thaddeus Stevens advocated a “conquered province” theory and Charles Sumner advanced a “state suicide” theory. In July 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis bill by which the process of readmission to the Union was to be harsh and slow. Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill.
C. Thirteenth Amendment and the Freedmen’s Bureau
Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31, 1865. On March 3, 1865, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands to aid southern refugees.
III. The Meanings of Freedom
A. The Feel of Freedom
Many former slaves began to explore freedom by searching for family members or exercising their right of mobility. Others reacted more cautiously. Most settled as workers on their former farms or plantation but attempted to control the conditions of their labor.
B. Reunion of African American Families
Relying on the black community in the South, thousands of former slaves began odysseys to find family members.
C. Blacks’ Search for Independence
Many blacks tried to avoid contact with overbearing whites by abandoning their slave quarters and relocating their houses. Some even established all-black settlements.
D. African Americans’ Desire for Land
Next to freedom, blacks wanted land most of all. Since they could not secure solid support in the North, however, few obtained their dream of independence.
E. The Black Embrace of Education
Many African Americans eagerly sought an education. Federal aid and northern charity helped start thousands of schools for freedmen in the South.
F. Growth of Black Churches
In an effort to gain more independence from whites, African Americans established their own churches, which became the social center of their new freedom.
G. Rise of the Sharecropping System
Blacks could not get credit, and sharecropping became widespread. Owners often cheated their tenants.
IV. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
A. Who Was Andrew Johnson?
Johnson was the only senator from a seceded state (Tennessee) who refused to follow his state out of the Union. At heart he was really a Jacksonian Democrat, not a Republican. He believed in limited government and was a white supremacist.
B. Johnson’s Leniency and Racial Views
Johnson’s belief that black suffrage could never be imposed on a southern state by the federal government put him on a collision course with the Radical Republicans.
C. Johnson’s Pardon Policy
Johnson hoped to keep prewar leaders from participating in the Reconstructed South. Nevertheless, he ended up pardoning most of them and thus restored the old elite.
D. Black Codes
Johnson’s pardons upset many Republicans, but the discriminatory black codes revealed the depth of southern defiance.
V. The Congressional Reconstruction Plan
A. The Radicals
The Radicals wanted to transform the South, and they were willing to exclude it from the Union until they had achieved their goal. By refusing to work with conservative and moderate Republicans, Johnson and the Democrats forced them to work with the Radicals.
B. Congress Wrests Control from Johnson
Congress worked to extend the Freedmen’s Bureau and to pass a civil rights law counteracting the black codes. Johnson vetoed these bills, ending hopes of compromise.
C. The Fourteenth Amendment
This amendment gave citizenship to freedmen, prohibited states from interfering with constitutional rights, declared the Confederate war debt null and void, barred Confederate leaders from holding state and federal office, and punished any state that restricted extension of the right to vote to black men.
D. The South’s and Johnson’s Defiance, 1866
At the urging of President Johnson, all southern states except Tennessee rejected the Fourteenth Amendment. Having won overwhelmingly in the 1866 congressional elections, Republicans decided to form new southern state governments.
E. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867-1868
Congress set up five military districts in the South, guaranteed freedmen the right to vote in elections for state constitutional conventions, required congressional approval of all new state constitutions, and declared that southern states must accept the Fourteenth Amendment.
F. The Failure of Land Redistribution
Thaddeus Stevens failed to win approval for his plan to confiscate and redistribute land in the former Confederate states.
G. Constitutional Crisis
Congress passed a number of controversial laws, including the Tenure of Office Act, by overriding presidential vetoes. Johnson proceeded to take several belligerent steps, including removal of Secretary of War Stanton.
H. Impeachment of President Johnson
After Johnson removed Secretary of War Stanton, Congress impeached the president. Although acquitted in the Senate, Johnson suffered politically.
I. Election of 1868
Grant, a supporter of congressional Reconstruction and of black suffrage in the South, won the 1868 presidential election.
J. Fifteenth Amendment
In 1869, Radicals succeeded in passing the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited denying the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Voting rights of women could still be denied.
VI. Reconstruction Politics in the South
A. White Resistance
Whites in the South resisted Reconstruction. Some denied freedom to their slaves, while others prevented blacks from getting land.
B. Black Voters and Emergence of a Southern Republican Party
Thanks to a large black voter turnout and restrictions on prominent Confederates, a new southern Republican Party controlled the state constitutional conventions of 1868-1870.
C. Triumph of Republican Governments
Republican victory in the South meant that for the first time black citizens gained political office. Southern Republicans worked to build white support for the party.
D. Industrialization
Republican governments tried to industrialize the South, but higher taxes for that purpose drew money away from education and other reforms.
E. Republican Policies on Racial Equality
Economic progress remained uppermost in the minds of most southern blacks. They accepted segregated facilities in return for other opportunities.
F. The Myth of “Negro Rule”
Southern Conservatives used economic and social pressure on blacks as well as inflammatory racist propaganda to undermine congressional Reconstruction.
G. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
In their propaganda, Conservatives labeled northerners seeking economic opportunity as “carpetbaggers” and white southerners who supported the Republicans as “scalawags.”
H. Tax Policy and Corruption as Political Wedges
Although an increase in taxes was necessary just to maintain traditional services, Republican tax policies aroused strong opposition. The corruption with which Republicans were charged was often true.
I. Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan terrorized black leaders in an effort to curb their support for the Republicans.
J. Failure of Reconstruction
A number of things brought about the collapse of the Republican regimes, forcing them out of office before they instituted social and economic reforms.
VII. Reconstruction Reversed
A. Political Implications of Klan Terrorism
Congress passed two Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871 in an effort to counteract Klan violence. The laws were enforced selectively. Congressional opponents of these laws charged that Congress was infringing on states’ rights.
B. The Liberal Republican Revolt
Although Grant won reelection in 1872, the revolt of the Liberal Republicans in conjunction with opposition from the Democrats reinforced Grant’s desire to avoid confrontation with white southerners.
C. A General Amnesty
In 1872, Congress offered amnesty to most remaining former Confederates, and in 1875 it offered a watered-down Civil Rights Act that the Supreme Court eventually struck down.
D. Reconciliation and Industrial Expansion
Both industrialization and immigration surged in the years immediately after the Civil War. Then came the Panic of 1873.
E. Greenbacks Versus Sound Money
Many Americans wanted to keep “greenbacks” in circulation, but Grant, along with many Congressmen, industrialists, and financiers, supported sound money.
F. Judicial Retreat from Reconstruction
Supreme Court decisions, by narrowing the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and by denying equal rights, encouraged the northern retreat from Reconstruction.
G. Disputed Election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877
The disputed election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden resulted in the Compromise of 1877, effectively ending Reconstruction in the South.
H. Betrayal of Black Rights and the Exodusters
Tens of thousands of southern African Americans felt betrayed by the election of 1876 and decided to leave the South where they could no longer hope for equal rights.
I. Introduction
Between 1870 and 1890, the population of the trans?Mississippi West expanded to nearly 17 million people. Nevertheless, much of the United States remained unsettled, providing Americans with the faith that they could always move on to another opportunity.
II. The Economic Activities of Native Peoples
A. Subsistence Cultures
Western Indians had distinct cultures, but they all lived in subsistence economies. On the Plains, buffalo provided the basis for survival, while the southwestern tribes depended on livestock and those of the Northwest on salmon.
B. Slaughter of Buffalo
White hunters slaughtered millions of buffalo, thus contributing to a complex combination of circumstances that doomed the bison and destroyed the economic and social foundations of the Plains tribes.
C. Decline of Salmon
Commercial fishing in the Northwest was one of several factors that led to the decline of the salmon population.
III. The Transformation of Native Cultures
A. Violence
Most of those who migrated to the West in the late nineteenth century were young males who had few qualms about using their weapons against animals or humans who got in their way.
B. Lack of Native Unity
The Indians of the Southwest and Northwest were separated by some two hundred languages and dialects, making it difficult for them to unite against white intruders.
C. Territorial Treaties
Most treaties that recognized Indian territory were violated.
D. Reservation Policy
From the 1860s to the 1880s, the federal government pursued a policy of placing Indians on reservations.
E. Native Resistance
Tribes reacted against white encroachment in a variety of ways.
F. Indian Wars
Whites responded to resistance by the western Indians through the use of military force.
G. Reform of Indian Policy
Several groups worked to acculturate Indians, but these organizations often tried to force Native Americans to accept middle?class values.
H. Dawes Severalty Act
In 1887, Congress began making individual, rather than tribal, grants of land.
I. Attempts at Assimilation
The government’s Indian policy stressed private ownership of property and education programs in boarding schools away from the reservation.
J. The Losing of the West
The Dawes-Severalty Act, along with political and ecological crises, led to the decline of the western tribes.
IV. The Extraction of Natural Resources
A. Mining and Lumbering
Unlike Indians living in subsistence economies, white Americans brought extractive economies to the West.
B. Women in Mining Regions
Some frontier communities had a substantial white female population, but their independence was limited.
C. A Complex Population
The West was a multiracial and multicultural society.
D. Significance of Race
White settlers made race a distinguishing social characteristic in the West.
E. Conservation Movement
Many Americans believed that federal land should be open to private development.
F. Admission of New States
Several new western states entered the Union by 1890.
G. Legends of the West
The West gave rise to legends that became part of American folk culture.
V. Irrigation and Transportation
Rights to Water
The English heritage of riparian rights placed restrictions on individual access to water resources. Many westerners advocated prior appropriation, which gave the original claimant control over water.
B. California’s Solution
California experienced the most dramatic water?related problems. Largely arid, yet potentially productive, the state led the way in irrigation and reclamation policies.
C. Newlands Reclamation Act
The reclamation law of 1902 allowed the federal government to control the use of western water.
D. Post-Civil War Railroad Construction
As the result of a railroad construction boom after the Civil War, the United States contained one-third of the railroad track in the world by 1900.
E. Rails and Markets
Railroads in the United States accelerated the growth of western and southern regional centers. To encourage construction, all levels of government provided bountiful subsidies to the railroad companies.
F. Standard Time
Railroad construction brought technological and organizational reforms. Railroads also altered American concepts of space and time and led to a nationwide standardization of time through the establishment of time zones.
VI. Farming the Plains
A. Settlement of the Plains
Hundreds of thousands of emigrants moved into the Great Plains during the 1870s and 1880s.
B. Hardships of Life on the Plains
Settlers on the Plains lived in an extremely harsh climate where the terrain was inhospitable and swarms of insects could ravage entire farms.
C. Social Isolation
Pioneers also faced severe social isolation, living lives of loneliness and monotony.
D. Mail?Order Companies and Rural Free Delivery
Plains dwellers benefited from the advent of mail?order catalogues and the extension of federal postal service.
E. Mechanization of Agriculture
After the Civil War, continued demand and high prices for farm commodities encouraged the use of machinery.
F. Legislative and Scientific Aids to Farmers
Congress passed several acts designed to enhance agricultural development. Scientific innovation also helped improve farm output.
VII. The Ranching Frontier
A. Longhorns and the Long Drive
The long drive¾the herding of longhorn cattle from Texas to the West and Midwest¾gave rise to romantic lore but was inefficient.
B. The Open?Range
Many operators ran huge herds on unfenced public lands. These giant operations captured the imaginations of easterners, but ultimately cattle began to overrun the range.
C. Grazing Wars
Use of the public land by both sheepherders and ranchers led to conflict between the two groups.
D. Barbed Wire
The invention of barbed wire in 1873 gave ranchers and farmers an economical means by which to enclose their herds and fields.
I. Introduction
Industrialization increased significantly between 1877 and 1920 in the United States. This development had momentous effects on standards of living and on the nature of everyday life.
II. Technology and the Triumph of Industrialism
A. Birth of the Electrical Industry
Thomas Edison founded the Edison Electric Light Company, perfected the incandescent bulb, and devised a power generation and distribution system.
George Westinghouse
Westinghouse’s use of alternating current made transmission of electric power over long distances cheaper than Edison’s direct current method.
C. Henry Ford and the Automobile Industry
Henry Ford’s use of assembly?line methods in the automobile industry made cars more readily available.
D. Technology and Southern Industry
Invention of a machine to roll cigarettes combined with the marketing techniques of James B. Duke made the American Tobacco Company a large nationwide business by 1900.
E. Southern Textile Mills
Industrialization also aided the growth of southern textile industry and led to the emergence of mill towns in the South.
F. Influence of New Machines
New machines introduced in the late nineteenth century altered the economy and everyday life. Technological innovations also led to the emergence of large companies that could take advantage of economies of scale.
G. Frederick W. Taylor and Efficiency
With industrialization, efficient production became crucial to profits. Frederick W. Taylor’s methods of scientific management greatly influenced American thinking.
III. Mechanization and the Changing Status of Labor
A. Employment of Women
Employers cut wages by hiring more women, particularly for clerical and sales positions. Consequently, the number of women in domestic?service jobs decreased sharply.
B. Child Labor
A larger number of children began working in nonagricultural jobs, performing light tasks at low wages.
C. Wage Work
Many employers believed in the “iron law of wages” which allowed them to pay their workers as little as possible.
D. Industrial Accidents
Repetitive tasks dulled concentration, often resulting in serious injury, and industrial accidents increased steadily.
E. Courts Restrict Labor Reform
The Supreme Court overturned most hour laws, but in Muller v. Oregon, it allowed limiting women to ten?hour days, citing their health as a matter of public interest.
F. Railroad Strikes of 1877
The year 1877 witnessed a violent series of strikes aimed at the railroads. Hard times precipitated the incidents, and the strikers enjoyed the sympathy of other workers.
IV. The Union Movement
A. Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor accepted all workers and advocated a harmony of interests among its members. Because the union opposed strikes, it had little bargaining power.
B. Haymarket Riot
In 1886, a demonstration at Haymarket Square erupted into a riot that revived middle-class fears of unions.
C. American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor emerged as the major union. A craft union, the AFL pressed for shorter hours and the right to bargain collectively.
D. Pullman Strike
In 1894, workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company went on strike. Grover Cleveland, to ensure mail deliveries, sent troops to put down the strike.
E. IWW
Like the Knights of Labor, the IWW welcomed all workers, but it also advocated socialism and espoused the use of violence and sabotage.
F. Women and the Labor Movement
Many unions denied the inclusion of women workers, leading female employees to organize their own unions.
G. Immigrants, African Americans, and Labor Unions
Unions excluded most immigrant and black workers. Tensions increased when these workers served as strikebreakers.
V. Standards of Living
A. New Availability of Products
Products once considered luxuries became increasingly available to middle-class Americans during the late nineteenth century.
B. Cost of Living
Wage increases meant little because the cost of living rose faster than wages. Many working-class Americans could not afford the goods and services that the age offered.
C. Supplements to Family Income
By sending children and women into the labor force, or by renting rooms to boarders, many families earned enough to buy newly available goods.
D. Higher Life Expectancy
Technological and medical advances extended life spans during this period. Nevertheless, more people died of cancer, heart disease, murder, and automobile accidents.
VI. The Quest for Convenience
A. Flush Toilets
The flush toilet, which became a standard fixture in middle-class urban homes in the 1890s, caused a shift in habits and attitudes.
B. Processed and Preserved Foods
Mass-production of tin cans along with the advent of refrigerated railroad cars made available a wider variety of foods to different areas of the country.
C. Ready?Made Clothing
Sewing machines led to mass-produced clothes at low costs and uniform sizes, sparking an interest in fashions.
D. Department and Chain Stores
Department stores fueled consumerism. Also, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) became the first grocery supermarket.
E. Advertising
As supply outpaced demand, advertising helped persuade large groups of people to buy a specific product. Advertisers, mostly through newspapers, were charged with creating consumers who were loyal to a particular brand.
VII. The Corporate Consolidation Movement
A. Role of Corporations
Corporations provided an effective means to raise capital and many saw them as a way to break boom?and?bust cycles. Courts defined corporations as individuals and protected them under the Fourteenth Amendment.
B. Pools
Consolidation swept the United States. Congress outlawed pools, one popular device, in 1887.
C. Trusts
Rockefeller used a “trust” to achieve horizontal integration of the petroleum industry.
D. Holding Companies
The emergence of holding companies led to vertical integration within some industries.
E. Financiers
Corporate growth brought the rise of experts in financial organization. These men sold stock and borrowed from banks, driving the trading of stocks to a feverish level.
VIII. The Gospel of Wealth and its Critics
A. Social Darwinism
Businessmen subscribed to Social Darwinism, turning the theory of natural selection into laissez?faire economics.
B. Government Assistance to Business
Paradoxically, businessmen wanted government help in the form of subsidies, loans, and tariffs. They argued, however, against government assistance for labor.
C. Dissenting Voices
Critics said that trusts and other devices interfered with the American tradition of independence and opportunity.
D. Utopian Economic Schemes
Some critics, such as Henry George and Edward Bellamy, offered economic ideas aimed at the creation of a utopian society.
E. Antitrust Legislation
A few state governments moved to limit monopolies, and in 1890 Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The law was vague and had little immediate effect on trusts since the courts rendered pro?business decisions.
I. Introduction
Cities gained great importance in the 1880s, and by 1900 urbanization affected every section of the United States.
II. Industrial Growth and Transportation in the Modern City
A. Urban Industrial Development
Since the cities of the late nineteenth century provided everything that factories needed, they became the main arenas for industrial growth.
B. Birth of the Modern City
In the late nineteenth century the compact city of the past gave way to urban sprawl and to cities subdivided into distinct districts.
C. Mechanization of Mass Transportation
Commuter railroads, cable cars, and streetcars allowed for greater mobility in urban America.
D. Beginnings of Urban Sprawl
Improved transportation led city dwellers to move into outlying neighborhoods, creating urban sprawl.
III. Peopling the Cities: Migrants and Immigrants
A. How Cities Grew
Cities could grow by annexation, by natural increase, and by migration.
B. Migration from the Countryside
Many Americans migrated from rural to urban areas during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
C. African American and Hispanic Migration to Cities
In the 1880s and 1890s, thousands of rural African Americans seeking better economic situations moved to cities. In the West, many Hispanics also moved from rural to urban areas.
D. Immigration from Other Lands
Most urban newcomers were immigrants from Europe.
E. The New Immigrants
A new wave of immigrants, from eastern and southern Europe, frightened Americans because of the emigrant’s customs, different faiths, illiteracy, and poverty.
F. Residential Mobility
In addition to movement from rural to urban areas, large numbers of people not only moved from city to city but within cities as well.
IV. Urban Neighborhoods
A. Immigrant Cultures
Immigrants’ cultures helped sustain them in their new home, and Old World institutions also helped them adapt.
B. Ethnic and Racial Borderlands
Immigrants in large cities lived in multi-ethnic neighborhoods.
C. Ghettos
By the early twentieth century, institutionalized racism forced African Americans to live in highly segregated ghettos.
D. Barrios
In southwestern and western cities Mexicans found themselves confined in barrios.
E. Americanization
Immigrants adapted their old world cultures to the realities of life in America.
F. Accommodation of Religion
The influx of immigrants from 1870 to 1920 changed the United States from a mostly Protestant nation into one of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Many Catholics and Jews supported liberalizing trends within their religions to accommodate their faiths to their new American environment.
V. Living Conditions in the Inner City
A. Housing
Urban growth meant masses of people jammed into the inner cities, leading to housing shortages and unsanitary living conditions.
B. Housing Reform
Reform campaigns led to some improvements in housing conditions.
C. Sanitation and Construction Technology
The establishment of water purification and sewage disposal systems helped control the spread of disease. Steel-frame construction made possible the building of skyscrapers.
D. Urban Poverty
The uncertainties of the business cycle meant that many families lived in poverty. Private relief agencies often acted out of the belief that poverty was caused by personal defects. However, some humanitarians began to advance the more progressive belief that people’s environments caused poverty.
E. Crime and Violence
Many people feared urban crime. In all likelihood, cities did not have increased crime, but urban problems proved more conspicuous and sensational than rural crime.
VI. Promises of Mobility
A. Occupational Mobility
Urban and industrial expansion allowed for occupational mobility, making many people more upwardly mobile.
B. Acquisition of Property
Many people acquired property as rising wages allowed many families to make down payments on property.
VII. Managing the City
A. Role of the Police
By the early l900s, law enforcement had the complicated role of balancing the idealistic intentions of criminal law with people’s desire for individual freedom.
B. The Machine
Urban growth strained city governments and led to the rise of political machines, which in turn created bosses.
C. The Boss
Bosses held their power because they knew the people’s needs, and they solved the problems of everyday life by exchanging favors for votes or money.
D. Urban Reform
Business-minded reformers wanted to elect officials who would control expenses and prevent corruption.
E. Structural Reform in Government
Civic reformers often supported structural changes such as the city manager and commission forms of government, and the nonpartisan, citywide election of officials.
F. Social Reform
Social reform occurred at all levels of the urban society. Settlement houses fought for school nurses, building codes, public playgrounds, and labor unions.
G. Engineers
Some problems required technical and professional creativity, and cities increasingly depended on engineers.
VIII. Family Life
Family and Household Structures
The vast majority of households consisted of nuclear families, although some extended families existed.
B. Declining Birthrates
As infant mortality rates fell, couples had fewer children. Smaller families also improved standards of living.
C. Boarding
Young people who left their families often became boarders in the cities. Many urban families took in boarders to help pay the rent.
D. Importance of Kinship
Families served as the primary social institution, but some kinship obligations, such as caring for the aged, proved stifling for young immigrants.
E. Unmarried People
A subculture of unmarried young people living separate from their parents emerged in urban areas. Some of the unmarried were homosexuals who formed their own gay subculture.
F. Change in Family Life and Functions
Distinct social changes occurred as decreasing birthrates shortened the period of parental responsibility, and as formal education made childhood more unique. New institutions assumed tasks once performed by the family.
IX. The New Leisure and Mass Culture
A. Increase in Leisure Time
A shorter work-week allowed more Americans to enjoy a variety of leisure?time diversions. As a result, a segment of the economy began providing entertainment.
B. Baseball
Baseball gained great popularity. The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs was founded in 1876, and the American League emerged in 1901. In 1903, the first World Series enshrined baseball as the national pastime.
C. Croquet and Cycling
Both men and women played croquet, and the game swept the nation. The popularity of bicycling grew, especially after the invention of the safety bicycle with pneumatic wheels of identical size.
D. Football
Tennis and golf attracted wealthy folks, but football became widely popular. College football caused a scandal when 18 players died from game?related injuries. This, in turn, led to the founding of the organization that came to be known as the National College Athletic Association.
E. Circuses
Circuses enjoyed great success as railroads increased the mobility of the shows.
F. Popular Drama and Musical Comedy
Dramas with simple plots and settings captured the imaginations of the urban population. Musical comedies raised audiences’ spirits with song, humor, and dance.
G. Vaudeville
Vaudeville shows gained mass appeal. Shows like the Ziegfield Follies gave the nation a new model of femininity, but some producers exploited females. African Americans found new opportunities in vaudeville.
H. Movies
Shortly after 1900, moving pictures started to grow in popularity, and by 1910 motion pictures had become a distinct art form used to tell a story.
I. Yellow Journalism
Yellow journalism, pioneered by people such as Joseph Pulitzer, made the news a consumer product because of growing interest in the bizarre and the sensational.
J. Magazines
In this era, mass?circulation magazines appeared, telephone ownership increased, and Americans sent more mail through the United States Post Office.
K. Mass Culture and Americanization
The new ways in which Americans entertained themselves in their leisure time often had a homogenizing influence by bringing different ethnic and social groups together.
I. Introduction
The transformation of the nation between 1877 and 1900 created corruption and greed that tugged at the fabric of democracy. Special interests, corruption, and control by the wealthy shaped politics. Rural discontent and a deep economic depression brought changes to the political system.
II. The Nature of Party Politics
A. Cultural?Political Alignments
Between 1875 and 1895, neither major party gained control for any sustained period. Presidential elections were
extremely close, and the outcome often hinged on the votes of a few states.
B. Party Factions
The Republican Party divided into the “Stalwarts,” the “Half Breeds,” and the “Mugwumps.” The Democrats tended to split into white?supremacy southerners, immigrant-stock urban machine members, and business?oriented advocates of low tariffs.
III. Politics in the Industrial Age
A. Civil Service Reform
Many Americans expressed opposition to the spoils system of government appointments based on party affiliation. The Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1882 helped reform the civil service.
B. Railroad Regulation
Railroad practices prompted reformers to demand government regulation of the industry. The Supreme Court eventually overturned state efforts to control railroads, leading to passage of the Interstate Commerce Act.
C. Tariff Policy
Republicans supported high tariffs, but Democrats argued that the rates artificially raised prices. Nevertheless, manufacturing interests maintained control of tariff policy.
D. Monetary Policy
Farmers favored the coinage of silver to increase the amount of currency in circulation. Creditors favored a limited money supply, based on a gold standard. This issue shaped political fights throughout the era.
E. Legislative Accomplishments
The amount of legislation passed is surprising, and included laws strengthening the government’s influence in the national economy.
IV. The Presidency Restrengthened
A. Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur
The presidents from 1877 to 1890 proved to be less forceful than their predecessors.
B. Cleveland and Harrison
Grover Cleveland became the first Democratic president since James Buchanan. He used the veto extensively, promoted merit?based civil service, and urged tariff reform. Benjamin Harrison had a Republican majority in Congress, but he alienated many of his supporters. In Cleveland’s second term, the president proved unable to resolve the crises he faced.
V. Limits of Gilded Age Politics
A. Violence Against African Americans
Black southerners endured economic and political oppression, and they often suffered the extreme violence characterized by lynching.
B. Disfranchisement Begins
White politicians sought to limit African American access to the polls through such measures as the poll tax and literacy tests.
C. Legal Segregation
With the decision in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, the South began to institutionalize racism and segregation through the passage of Jim Crow laws.
D. Woman Suffrage
The women’s suffrage movement split into two groups. The National Woman Suffrage Association fought for suffrage on a national level, while the American Woman Suffrage Association worked on the state level.
VI. Agrarian Unrest and Populism
A. Sharecropping and Tenant Farming in the South
In the post-Civil War period, southern agriculture was dominated by landlords who employed sharecroppers and tenants. Under the crop-lien system sharecroppers and tenants pledged their crops as collateral to gain operating capital, but often they could not repay the loans.
B. Hardship in the Midwest and West
Midwestern farmers experienced falling prices for staple crops while expenses remained high. Western farmers and miners suffered due to railroad monopolies.
C. Grange Movement
As agricultural prices dropped, farmers organized. Oliver H. Kelley helped start the Grange movement, but in the late 1870s its influence declined significantly.
D. The White Hats
In the Southwest, Hispanics organized a group known as the White Hats to counter the movement of English-speaking ranchers into communal pastureland.
E. Farmers’ Alliances
The Farmers’ Alliances constituted a genuine mass movement by 1890. Alliances sponsored political rallies, educational meetings, and cooperative marketing agreements.
F. Subtreasury Plan
The Alliance proposed the subtreasury plan, in effect a federally sponsored subsidy program, to relieve shortages of cash and credit. The different Alliance groups could not unite, so they failed to bring about any change.
G. Rise of Populism
In 1890, the Kansas Alliance held a “convention of the People” that formed the People’s Party. In 1892, the People’s Party, or Populists, developed a comprehensive platform addressing the needs of farmers and laborers.
VII. The Depression of the 1890s
A. Continuing Currency Problems
The Panic of 1893 made the currency issue critical. Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893, and President Cleveland finally had to accept an offer of gold from J. P. Morgan to stem the run on the United States Treasury.
B. Effects of a New Economic System
In the 1890s, new economic structures that emphasized consolidation emerged. Response to these new corporate institutions and the distress caused by the depression brought a call for reform.
VIII. Depression?Era Protests
A. Socialists
With the depression of the 1890s, many workers became socialists.
B. Eugene V. Debs
The Pullman Strike elevated Eugene V. Debs to a position of leadership within the socialist movement.
C. Coxey’s Army
Jacob Coxey urged the government to issue unbacked paper money to stimulate spending. His “army” of unemployed workers numbered 500 when it reached Washington, D. C., on April 30, 1894. Congress refused to respond, and the police crushed the protest.
IX. Populists, the Silver Crusade, and the Election of 1896
A. Stifling of Biracial Political Dissent
To stifle support for the Populists and the Alliances, southern Democrats curtailed black voting by requiring poll taxes and literacy tests.
B. Free Silver
By 1896, the Populists made the free coinage of silver their primary issue. They believed that such a policy would end the privileged position of the rich.
C. Republican Nomination of McKinley
William McKinley headed a Republican Party that supported the gold standard.
D. William Jennings Bryan
The Democrats chose William Jennings Bryan to head their ticket for free silver. The Populists also nominated Bryan.
E. Election Results
McKinley won the election in the most lopsided victory since 1872. Free silver did not provide the reform issue that would unite the masses.
F. The McKinley Presidency
McKinley signed the Gold Standard Act in 1900, he oversaw an increase in the tariff, and he encouraged imperialistic ventures in Latin America and the Pacific.
I. Introduction
The crises of the 1890s generated a broad, complex reform movement known as Progressivism that hoped to apply scientific principles and efficient management to economic, social, and political institutions. Many looked to government as the agent of change.
II. The Varied Progressive Impulse
A. Foreign Influences
Organizations began to influence government policy in the 1890s, fragmenting politics and making them more issue oriented. Furthermore, ideas from Europe had an impact on Progressive reformers in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
B. Urban Middle-Class Reformers and Muckrakers
The new middle class formed the vanguard of the Progressive movement. Journalists, called “muckrakers,” raised interest in reform, particularly among urban Americans. Many people, opposed to political parties and bosses, advocated initiative, referendum, and recall.
C. Upper?Class Reformers
Some businessmen supported limited political and economic reform to protect themselves from radical changes. Elite women encouraged social reform.
D. Working?Class Reformers
The working class pushed for labor and safety reform, and inner?city voters elected Progressive legislators.
E. Socialists
Some workers who wanted substantive changes in society turned to socialism.
F. Opponents of Progressivism
Many politicians and capitalists opposed Progressivism as too much government interference in the free market.
III. Governmental and Legislative Reform
A. Restructuring Government
Most Progressives believed that government should be the guardians of the people. Although reformers first tried to eliminate corruption from government at the city level, they began to shift their attention to the state level.
B. Robert M. LaFollette
Several charismatic governors used their powers to enact reform. The most forceful Progressive governor was Wisconsin’s Robert M. LaFollette.
C. Southern Progressivism
Although the South led the way in Progressive political reform, racism tainted southern Progressive politics.
D. Labor Reform
State laws promoting social welfare, such as limited working hours for women and age limits for children, often had greater influence than did political reforms.
E. Moral Reform
Some reformers sought to create a better moral climate through movements such as an anti?liquor crusade and an attack on prostitution.
F. The War on Alcohol
Reformers successfully gained a nationwide ban on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.
G. Prostitution and White Slavery
Reformers next attacked prostitution, and effectively criminalized it by 1915.
IV. New Ideas in Education, Law, and Religion
A. John Dewey and Progressive Education
Progressive educators believed that learning should focus on real?life problems and that children should learn to use their intelligence to control their environment.
B. Growth of Colleges and Universities
College enrollment expanded during this era. Much of the growth stemmed from the creation of new institutions, from the increased numbers of women attending colleges, and, in the South, from the emergence of black schools.
C. Progressive Legal Thought
Progressive lawyers argued that the law should be flexible enough to reflect the needs of society. Judges imbued with laissez?faire theories opposed this view.
D. Public Health
Organizations like the National Consumers League successfully brought about far-reaching reforms in the area of public health.
E. The Social Gospel
Social Gospelers believed they could counter the brutality of competitive capitalism by applying Christian principles to worldly matters.
V. Challenges to Racial and Sexual Discrimination
A. Disadvantages of African Americans
Southern African Americans suffered under repressive Jim Crow laws. African Americans in the North face job discrimination, inferior schools, and segregated housing.
B. Booker T. Washington and Self?Help
Booker T. Washington encouraged African Americans to accommodate themselves to whites, at least temporarily. He believed that blacks should first acquire property and thus prove themselves worthy of other rights.
C. W. E .B. DuBois and the Niagara Movement
W. E. B. DuBois opposed Washington. Believing that blacks should agitate for their rights, DuBois organized the Niagara Movement in 1905 and helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909.
D. Society of American Indians
Native Americans formed their own reform association, the Society of American Indians. The society could not resolve conflicts between tribal loyalties and pressure for assimilation, and it folded early in the 1920s.
E. “The Woman Movement”
Before 1910, those who wanted women to move out of the home and into social activities, higher education, and paid labor called themselves the “woman movement.”
F. Women’s Clubs
Excluded from holding political office, women joined clubs that showed more interest in improving society than in reforming government.
G. Feminism
Around 1910, many women began using a new term, “feminism,” to describe their reform efforts that stressed social justice, economic equality, and sexual freedom.
H. Margaret Sanger’s Crusade
Feminists like Margaret Sanger pushed for widespread use of contraception.
I. Woman Suffrage
Early advocates of women’s rights thought that only educated women should vote, but Progressive reformers wanted all women to have that right. The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the vote in national elections.
VI. Theodore Roosevelt and the Revival of the Presidency
A. Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt believed that the government should direct national affairs. In economic affairs he believed that government should act as an umpire by deciding when big business was good and when it was bad.
B. Regulation of Trusts
Roosevelt first turned his attentions to big business. He triumphed in 1904 when the Supreme Court dissolved the Northern Securities Company. Roosevelt also successfully pushed for regulatory legislation.
C. Pure Food and Drug Laws
With the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in 1906, Roosevelt supported the Meat Inspection Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act addressed abuses in the patent-medicine industry.
D. Conservation
Roosevelt used colorful action, quiet promotion, executive orders, and presidential pressure to support conservation.
E. Taft Administration
William Howard Taft had to face problems with the tariff that Roosevelt had ignored. Under Taft, the progressive and conservative wings of the Republican Party drifted apart.
F. The Bull Moose Party
When it became apparent that Taft’s supporters controlled the 1912 Republican convention, Roosevelt’s supporters walked out of the convention and formed the Progressive, or Bull Moose, Party. The Progressive Party nominated Roosevelt for the presidency.
VII. Woodrow Wilson and the Extension of Reform
A. New Nationalism and New Freedom
Roosevelt’s New Nationalism sought national unity with government coordinating and regulating, not destroying, big business. Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom warned that concentrated economic power threatened liberty and insisted that monopolies should be broken up.
B. Wilson’s Policy on Business Regulation
Finding it necessary to blend his New Freedom ideas with Roosevelt’s New Nationalism ideas, Wilson expanded national power over business through the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Reserve Act.
C. Tariff and Tax Reform
The Underwood Tariff lowered the tariff, but it created a graduated income tax. Wilson supported more reforms in 1916, especially in light of the war in Europe and the upcoming presidential election.
D. Election of 1916
Republican Charles Evans Hughes ran unsuccessfully against Wilson in 1916. America’s entry into World War I shifted focus from reform because the war required cooperation between the public and private sectors.
I. Introduction
Between 1865 and 1914, America grew increasingly expansionist. As expansion became imperialism, the United States became involved in crises and wars around the world.
II. Imperial Promoters: The Foreign Policy Elite and Economic Expansion
A. Foreign Policy Elite
An elite group of Americans shaped foreign policy.
B. Foreign Trade Expansion
Foreign trade proved important in the post?Civil War economic growth. Agriculture accounted for most exports, but businessmen also sought foreign markets.
III. Ideology, Culture, and Empire
A. Race Thinking
Supporters of expansion used theories on race as a justification. The stereotypical manner in which foreigners were portrayed in popular magazines, school textbooks, and world’s fairs reflected an ethnocentric American attitude.
B. Male Ethos
U.S. leaders used gendered language to place weaker nations in the low ranks of the hierarchy of power, thus justifying U.S. hegemony.
C. Missionaries
Missionaries contributed to American expansionism by spreading American religion, and influence, abroad.
D. The “Civilizing” Impulse
When they intervened in other lands, Americans justified it on the grounds that the United States offered these societies the blessings of liberty and prosperity.
IV. Ambitions Abroad, 1860s?1880s
A. William H. Seward’s Quest for Empire
William Seward believed that the nation would eventually establish an empire as the result of a natural process of gravitation toward the United States. To accelerate this process he favored U.S. trade expansion, a Central American canal, a transcontinental American railroad, and improved communications systems.
B. International Communications
In 1866, a transatlantic cable linked the United States to Europe. This innovation made effective international communications a primary goal of American diplomacy.
C. Anglo-Canadian-American Relations
Improved relations between America and England began with the Washington Treaty of 1871, and other events revealed a rapprochement between the powers.
D. Sino?American Troubles
Anti-Chinese riots in the American West and Congress’ suspension of Chinese immigration caused a deterioration of relations with China.
E. Pan?American Conference
The Pan?American Conference demonstrated growing U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere.
F. Alfred T. Mahan, Navalism, and the New Navy
Alfred T. Mahan’ s Influence of Sea Power Upon History convinced expansionists of the need for a modern navy.
V. Crises in the 1890s: Hawaii, Venezuela, and Cuba
A. Annexation of Hawai’i
Americans overthrew Queen Lili’uokalani and asked for annexation to the U.S. in 1893. Annexation was delayed, but McKinley maneuvered it through Congress in 1898.
B. Venezuelan Boundary Dispute
A border dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana led the United States to declare its right to intervene. The British accepted the American position to keep the United States friendly in light of an expansive Germany.
C. U.S. Interests and Revolution in Cuba
The United States had extensive economic interests in Cuba, and cultural ties existed because nearly a hundred thousand Cubans had migrated to the United States. When a revolution against Spanish rule broke out in Cuba in 1895, rebel leader José Martí obtained funds, supplies, and support in the United States.
D. Sinking of the Maine
To protect American interests in Cuba, McKinley ordered the U.S.S. Maine to Havana. In February 1898, the ship blew up, killing 266 sailors.
E. McKinley’s Ultimatum and War Decision
McKinley asked for a declaration of war in order to advance the cause of humanity and to protect American interests. Congress concurred on April 19, 1898.
VI. The Spanish?American?Cuban?Filipino War and the Debate over Empire
A. Motives for War
Complex political, economic, social, and military motives led to war.
B. The U.S. Military at War
Of the 263,000 men who served in the war, most never left the United States. Thousands of black troops stationed in the South had to deal with violent racism.
C. Dewey in the Philippines
The first fighting took place in May, when Admiral Dewey’s squadron destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila.
D. Treaty of Paris
In December 1898, American and Spanish negotiators agreed on terms that granted Cuban independence. America gained the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
E. Anti?Imperialist Arguments
Many critics denounced imperialism as counter to American principles. Others argued that the nation could expand its markets without subjugating other countries. Labor leaders feared that imperialism was bad for American workers.
F. Imperialist Arguments
Imperialists successfully answered their critics by appealing to patriotism, destiny, and commerce.
VII. Asian Encounters: Open Door in China, Philippine Insurrection, and Japan
A. Open Door Policy
Secretary of State John Hay issued the Open Door Note in 1899, asking all nations to guarantee free trade in China. Following the Boxer Rebellion, Hay issued a second note promising to protect the integrity of China.
B. Philippine Insurrection and Pacification
Emilio Aguinaldo declared an independent Philippines in 1899, starting the Philippine Insurrection that lasted until 1902.
C. Japanese Expansion
As the Japanese became the dominant power in Asia, tensions between the United States and Japan increased—especially regarding China.
D. Anti?Japanese Bias in California
West Coast Americans exhibited anti?Asian bias in a number of ways.
VIII. Latin America, Europe, and International Rivalry
A. Economic Hegemony in Latin America
Latin America became a primary target of American economic expansion. Some American companies gained considerable political power in Latin America.
B. Cuba and the Platt Amendment
The Platt Amendment required American approval of all Cuban treaties and assumed for the United States the right to intervene in Cuba.
C. Panama Canal
After settling prior agreements with Britain and supporting a revolution against Colombia, the United States signed a treaty with Panama to build a canal.
D. Roosevelt Corollary
To prevent European intervention in Latin America, Theodore Roosevelt announced a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine that led to American intervention in the region.
E. U.S.-Mexico Relations Under Diaz
Porfirio Diaz invited U.S. investment in Mexico, but revolutionaries reversed the trend.
F. Anglo-American Rapprochement
Rivalry with Germany caused Britain to seek friendship with the U.S. British-American trade and U.S. investment in Britain also helped secure ties between the two countries.
I. Introduction
As the war began, America declared its neutrality. When events drew the nation into the contest, Woodrow Wilson announced that the country would fight to make the world safe for democracy.
II. Precarious Neutrality
A. Outbreak of the First World War
The war began following the assassination of the heir to the Austro?Hungarian throne.
B. Taking Sides
Wilson sought to maintain neutrality, but objections came from German?Americans and Irish?Americans. Wilson’s administration had considerable sympathy for the Allies, providing another impediment to neutrality.
C. Trade and Loans
American economic ties to the Allies, especially commercially and financially, made neutrality difficult.
D. Wilsonianism
Wilson believed that the United States had become the only nation that could lead the world into a new, peaceful era. British victory seemed crucial to these principles.
E. British Violations of Neutral Rights
Britain used its navy in an effort to sever all neutral trade with Germany and cripple the German economy.
F. The German Submarine and International Law
German naval tactics relied on submarines. Wilson interpreted international law to insist that submarines surface before firing on ships. Germany disagreed.
III. Submarine Warfare and Wilson’s Decision for War
A. Secretary Bryan’s Resignation
When 128 Americans died on the British passenger ship Lusitania, Wilson resisted calls for war. Still, he wanted Americans to be safe to travel on belligerent craft. When Wilson rejected Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan’s advice that Americans be prohibited from travel on belligerent ships, Bryan resigned.
B. Gore?McLemore Resolution
A congressional resolution would have prohibited Americans from traveling on belligerent merchant ships, but Wilson’s pressure caused the resolution to fail.
C. Peace Advocates
A strong peace movement existed in the United States because many believed that business profited from war.
D. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
In February 1917, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. The Germans hoped to defeat Britain before American troops could enter the war.
E. Zimmermann Telegram and Mexican Revolution
When British intelligence released the Zimmermann Telegram, Americans took the threat from Germany seriously because of deteriorating relations with Mexico.
F. War Message and War Declaration
Wilson asked for war because of German violations of freedom of the seas and assaults on human rights. He wanted to make the world “safe for democracy.”
IV. Taking Up Arms and Winning the War
A. The Draft and the Soldier
Congress passed the Selective Service Act that made all men between 20 and 30 subject to the draft. Most soldiers were draftees, in their early twenties, and poorly educated. Blacks, at the urging of the NAACP, joined in the U.S. war effort.
B. Indian Enlistees
Most of the 15,000 Native Americans who served sought to escape lives of poverty and prove their patriotism.
C. Commission on Training Camp Activities
A federal commission, established out of concern over saloons and brothels near training camps, coordinated efforts to provide alternative forms of entertainment.
D. Trench Warfare
The nature of World War I combat was marked by a futile stalemate in the trenches.
E. Problem of Venereal Disease
The high prostitution rates in France helped make venereal disease a serious problem for American troops.
F. AEF Battles in France
The American Expeditionary Force remained independent from the Allied forces, but when they entered the lines they tipped the balance of the war in favor of the Allies.
G. Casualties
About 16 million European soldiers and civilians died as a result of the war. Some 50,000 Americans died in battle and another 62,000 died from disease.
V. Mobilizing and Managing the Home Front
A. Business?Government Cooperation
When the war began, government and industry had a strong partnership, with executives serving on war committees. Abuses, however, led to disbanding the committees and to the creation of the War Industries Board.
B. New Agencies for Economic Management
Government agencies were created to manage the task of shifting the nation’s resources to the Allies, the AEF, and war-related production. The largest such agency was the War Industries Board which coordinated the national economy.
C. Economic Performance
Despite mistakes, the mobilized economy delivered enough men and materiel to France to defeat the Central Powers.
D. Inflation
Government policy of liberal credit and setting high prices contributed to wartime inflation.
E. Paying for the War
The government financed one-third of the war through taxes. The other two-thirds came from loans.
F. Labor Unions and the War
Labor unions like the AFL advanced their cause and the cause of their members by entering into a partnership with government. The NWLB was created in 1928 to discourage strikes and urge management to negotiate with existing unions.
G. Women in the Work Force
With much of the work force in the military and with immigration interrupted, women filled many jobs. When the war ended, women lost many of the gains.
H. African American Migration North
Many African Americans moved north to work in industry. This migration changed the black community; it also led northerners to vent their anger on the emigrants.
I. Race Riots
Whites in northern cities reacted violently to the influx of black immigrants.
J. Influenza Pandemic
An influenza pandemic engulfed the world between 1918 and 1919, killing 700,000 Americans.
VI. Emergence of the Civil Liberties Issue
A. Committee on Public Information
Headed by journalist George Creel, the Committee on Public Information acted as a propaganda agency.
B. Espionage and Sedition Acts
The Espionage and Sedition Acts gave the government wide authority to crack down on dissenters. More than 2,000 people faced prosecution under these laws.
C. Imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs
Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs gave a speech extolling freedom of speech and criticizing Wilson. Federal agents arrested him; he was sentenced to ten years in prison.
D. Roger Baldwin and Free Speech
This activist advanced the idea that free speech should be aggressively defended.
VII. The Bolshevik Revolution, Labor Strikes, and the Red Scare
A. Intervention in Russia against Bolsheviks
Wilson sent 15,000 troops into Russia during the Russian Revolution. The United States also enacted an economic blockade in an effort to destroy the Bolsheviks.
B. Labor Strikes and the Red Scare
More than 4,000,000 workers went out on strike in 1919, sparking a Red Scare.
C. Palmer Raids
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer staged illegal raids on meeting halls and homes of alleged Communists. Four thousand went to jail, and many were deported.
VIII. The Peace Conference, League Fight, and Postwar World
A. Obstacles to a Wilsonian Peace
Wilson’s Fourteen Points provided a foundation for peace talks. They summarized Wilson’s international view of a stable world order based on American principles. However, in negotiating a treaty Wilson faced obstacles erected by his political enemies, by the Allies, and by himself.
B. Paris Peace Conference
Wilson underestimated his task in Paris. The victors demanded reparations from Germany, and most of Wilson’s Fourteen Points failed to gain Allied support.
C. League of Nations and Article 10
Wilson worked hardest on establishing the League of Nations to provide for collective security.
D. Critics of the Treaty
Henry Cabot Lodge led opposition to the treaty. Wilson campaigned for ratification of the treaty, but he suffered a stroke that ended any hope for a compromise.
E. Senate Rejection of the Treaty and League
The Senate rejected the Treaty of Paris and the United States refused to join the League of Nations.
F. Collective Security versus Unilateralism
Americans preferred the tradition of nonalignment and chose to act unilaterally in world affairs.
G. Unstable International System
The spread of Wilsonian ideals resulted in the rise of anticolonialism. Also, German resentment of the peace treaty increased the threat of international instability.
I. Introduction
The 1920s witnessed a boom in consumerism, an explosion in artistic expression, and a growth in leisure time. This change came at the expense of many people and without regard for future problems.
II. Big Business Triumphant
A. Business Consolidation and Lobbying
The consolidation movement that began in the late nineteenth century continued into the 1920s. Business and professional associations began to engage in “the new lobbying.”
B. Fate of Organized Labor
Public opinion continued to be generally hostile toward unions. Some large corporations attempted to counter the appeal of union through what is known as welfare capitalism.
III. Politics and Government
A. Harding Administration
Harding began his presidency as a reformer.
B. Teapot Dome
Scandals and corruption plagued the Harding administration.
C. Coolidge Prosperity
Calvin Coolidge, aided by Andrew Mellon, helped private enterprise, a stance that helped him win election in 1924.
D. State and Local Reform
Interest in reform faded in the 1920s, but some innovations occurred on the state and local levels.
E. Indian Affairs
During the 1920s, the government conferred citizenship on all Indians and restructured the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
F. Women and Politics
After attaining suffrage, many women continued to maintain their own organizations through which they engaged in pressure-group politics. Most women, like most men, did not vote.
IV. Materialism Unbound
A. Expansion of Consumer Society
Technological advances, modern marketing, and higher wages helped increase the number of consumers.
B. Effects of the Automobile
Mass production and competition forced automobile prices down. Cars brought more independence, spurred road building, and increased oil consumption.
C. Advertising
Advertising expenditures rose dramatically in the 1920s.
D. Radio
As most Americans acquired a radio, it became an influential advertising and entertainment medium.
V. Cities, Migrants, and Suburbs
A. Farm-to-City Migration
By the 1920s, over half the people of the United States lived in urban areas. Industrial jobs lured thousands of migrants to the cities. African Americans made up a significant percentage of those moving to urban areas.
B. Marcus Garvey
A Jamaican immigrant, Marcus Garvey headed the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which called for black separatism, racial pride, and equal rights.
C. Mexican and Puerto Rican Immigrants
During the 1920s, large numbers of immigrants from Mexico and Puerto Rico entered the United States.
D. Growth of the Suburbs
Advances in transportation allowed many people to flock to the suburbs to escape the crowded cities.
VI. New Rhythms of Everyday Life
A. Family Time
As birth rates declined, divorce rates rose, and life expectancy increased, adult Americans devoted less time to raising children.
B. Household Management
Ready?made clothes, processed food, and mass?produced furniture meant Americans could spend more time on leisure activities, but housewives still worked hard.
C. Nutrition
An emphasis on nutrition led to better diets. That fact coupled with improved sanitation led to increased life expectancy.
D. Older Americans and Retirement
Americans enjoyed improved health in the 1920s, leading to increased numbers of retirees and the need for some minimal assistance for poor elderly people.
E. Social Values
A loosening of social values in the 1920s occurred as traditional ideas of proper behavior came under criticism.
F. Employment for Women
Millions of women continued to move into the work force after World War I, despite gender discrimination.
G. Jobs for Minority Women
The percentage of minority women who worked for pay was double that of white women.
E. The New Woman
Women experimented with new images of femininity, such as the “flapper” look. These changes marked a sharp break with the restraint of the nineteenth century.
F. Gay and Lesbian Culture
An underground homosexual culture began to expand in some cities, despite general intolerance from the rest of society.
VII. Lines of Defense
A. Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan revived in 1915 to ensure the survival of “Native, white, Protestant supremacy.”
B. Immigration Quotas
Congress responded to nativist pressure and set quotas that prevented large numbers of eastern and southern European immigrants from entering the country.
C. Sacco and Vanzetti Case
Antiforeign sentiment characterized the arrest, trial, and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
D. Fundamentalism
Many Americans turned to fundamentalist religious beliefs in reaction to what they perceived to be the skepticism and materialism of American society.
E. Scopes Trial
In 1925, fundamentalism clashed with science when John Scopes stood trial for teaching evolution.
F. Revivalism
Through the use of modern advertising techniques, revivalist preachers attracted more followers.
VIII. The Age of Play
A. Movies
Movies became a premier American medium, and many films, especially comedies, included social commentary.
B. Sports Heroes
Spectator sports boomed. People began to elevate sports personalities to heroic status.
C. Movie Stars
Movie stars satisfied America’s yearning for romance and adventure.
D. Prohibition
Prohibition proved successful at first, but bootleggers soon made the illicit liquor industry into a thriving business in the 1920s.
E. Al Capone
Al Capone met the demand for liquor, gambling, and prostitutes, becoming the best-known gangster of the era.
IX. Cultural Currents
A. Literature of Alienation
Disillusioned writers of the 1920s, known as the “Lost Generation,” indicted modern American society.
B. Harlem Renaissance
Black artists asserted pride in their African heritage. Harlem became the Mecca for many African Americans.
C. Jazz
Jazz, which grew out of the urban experience of African Americans and which blurred the line between composer and performer, influenced a generation of artists.
D. Experiments in Art and Music
Innovations abounded in art, music, and architecture, making the 1920s one of the most creative eras in American history.
X. The Election of 1928, and the End of the New Era
A. Herbert Hoover
Hoover advocated the old values of hard work along with the new ideas of associationalism.
B. Al Smith
The Democrats nominated New York Governor Al Smith in 1928. A Catholic and a second?generation immigrant, he appealed to urban ethnic groups.
C. Hoover’s Administration
Having won the election, Hoover began his term with high hopes and with emphasis on personal responsibility.
D. Stock Market Crash
The stock market crash in 1929 led to further dumping of stock. Hoover believed the economy would stabilize, but the crash instead helped begin a devastating depression.
E. Declining Demand
Overproduction prevented economic expansion, forcing producers to fire workers, which exacerbated problems.
F. Corporate Debt
Oligopolies dominated American industry, and once the pyramids started to fail, corporate structures collapsed.
G. Speculation on the Stock Market
Widespread speculation based on margin buying characterized the bull market. When the market crashed brokers called in loans, adding to the panic.
H. International Economic Troubles
International economic conditions affected Americans, and crises abroad aggravated the deepening depression.
I. Drawbacks of Federal Policies
The government bears some responsibility for the crisis because it failed to regulate or restrict wild speculation.
I. Introduction
The stock market crash in 1929 touched off a crisis that left 13 million Americans unemployed by the time Franklin D. Roosevelt took office. The New Deal transformed the United States, but the Great Depression ended only with outbreak of World War II.
II. Hoover and Hard Times: 1929?1933
A. No Food, No Home
The deepening of the Great Depression left many Americans jobless and often homeless. Deteriorating diets left many vulnerable to disease. The crisis not only affected people in urban areas but caused great social disruption in the farm community as well.
B. Farmers’ Holiday Association
The Farmers’ Holiday Association encouraged farmers to keep products off the market to drive up prices.
C. Bonus Expeditionary Force
Fifteen thousand World War I veterans marched on Washington to support immediate payment of cash bonuses, but the Senate refused.
D. Communists and Socialists
Communists led numerous protests against conditions in America, but they gained few supporters. Although the Socialist Party fared somewhat better, they won few election victories.
E. Hoover’s Response
At first, Hoover expressed hostility at calls for direct government relief. As conditions worsened, however, he supported several federal responses to the Depression.
F. Reconstruction Finance Corporation
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation aided businesses and state and local governments. The effort to stimulate the economy from the top enjoyed little success.
G. Hawley?Smoot Tariff
Hoover approved a tariff increase, believing it would protect American farmers and manufacturers. Instead, the tariff further weakened the economy.
H. Hoover’s Traditionalism
Hoover continued to believe in a balanced budget, and he vetoed a variety of relief bills.
III. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Election of 1932
A. Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt appealed to a broad spectrum of Americans, who admired the optimism that he maintained despite his paralysis from polio.
B. Eleanor Roosevelt
Although shy as a young woman, Eleanor matured into a dynamic and influential advocate of social justice.
C. Roosevelt’s “Brain Trust”
As Governor of New York beginning in 1928, Roosevelt responded vigorously to the Great Depression. Roosevelt and his advisers believed in government regulation of big business and in the need to create scarcity to save the economy.
D. 1932 Election Results
Democrats carried the election handily in 1932. Economic troubles continued during the four-month period between Roosevelt’s election in November and his inauguration in March.
IV. Launching the New Deal and Restoring Confidence
A. Launching the New Deal
Congress convened in an emergency session, beginning the massive legislative output of the First New Deal.
B. First Fireside Chat
On March 12, Roosevelt addressed the nation by radio, reassuring the people that banks were again safe.
C. Beer-Wine Revenue Act
A deflationary measure, the Beer-Wine Revenue Act legalized the sale of low-alcohol wines and beers and imposed taxes on those products.
D. Agricultural Adjustment Act
The AAA paid farmers to reduce production in exchange for government subsidies.
E. Other Relief Measures
The CCC served as a jobs corps for young men; the Federal Emergency Relief Act extended aid to state and local governments; and the Public Works Administration was established.
F. National Recovery Administration
The National Industrial Recovery Act was the industrial cornerstone for the New Deal. The wide?ranging law revealed the New Deal’s faith in national economic planning.
G. TVA
The goal of the TVA was economic revitalization of the entire Tennessee River Valley.
H. End of the First Hundred Days
Congress approved fifteen major laws by the time it adjourned in June 1933.
I. Other Legislation
Additional legislation was passed in late 1933 and in the spring and summer of 1934, which benefited farmers, the unemployed, investors, homeowners, workers, and the environment.
J. Interest?Group Democracy
The New Deal seemed to promise something for everybody. As the economy began to improve, the president enjoyed great popularity.
V. Opposition to the New Deal
A. Conservative Critics of the New Deal
With the arrival of partial economic recovery, many businesspeople and conservatives sharply criticized the New Deal.
B. Farmers and Laborers
Criticism was leveled against codes established by the NRA. The AAA also came under attack.
C. The Dust Bowl
A drought and poor farming practices caused an ecological disaster in the southern plains.
D. Demagogic Attacks
The most notable critics included Father Charles Coughlin, Dr. Francis E. Townsend, and Senator Huey Long.
E. Left?Wing Critics
As the Depression continued, some Americans gravitated toward left?wing parties.
F. Supreme Court Decisions Against the New Deal
The Supreme Court ruled against the New Deal in several cases.
VI. The Second New Deal and Roosevelt’s Second Term
A. Emergency Relief Appropriation Act
The Emergency Relief Appropriation Act allowed the president to establish massive public works programs for the unemployed.
B. The New Deal’s Cultural Programs
Cultural programs such as the Federal Theater Project and the Federal Writers Project provided employment for artists, musicians, writers, and actors.
C. Control of Business
Roosevelt decided that if business would not cooperate with government it should be “cut down to size” through antitrust suits and corporate taxes.
D. National Labor Relations Act
The Wagner Act granted workers the right to unionize and bargain collectively with management. It also created the NLRB.
E. Social Security Act
The Social Security Act established old?age insurance for some Americans, a measure that acknowledged a greater social responsibility for the government.
F. Election of 1936 and the New Deal Coalition
Roosevelt won a landslide victory over Alf Landon. The New Deal appealed to farmers, urban voters, former Socialists, unions, African Americans, and southerners.
G. Roosevelt’s Court?packing Plan
Roosevelt sought to gain control over the courts, but Congress refused to accept his Judiciary Reorganization Bill.
H. Recession of 1937?1939
The economy improved by 1937, but a recession ensued when Roosevelt ordered cutbacks in government spending.
VII. Industrial Workers and the Rise of the CIO
A. Rivalry Between Craft and Industrial Unions
Craft unions and industrial unions fought bitterly over control of the labor movement.
B. Sit?Down Strikes
The United Auto Workers staged a successful sit?down strike against GM, leading to wide use of the tactic.
C. Memorial Day Massacre
Violence at the Republic Steel Plant exemplified the intense animosity between labor and management.
VIII. Mixed Progress for People of Color
A. Hoover and African Americans
African Americans faced racism in the North as well as in the South. Under Hoover, the Republican Party followed discriminatory practices.
B. Scottsboro Trials
In 1931, eight African Americans were convicted of rape in Alabama, even though medical evidence revealed that the female witnesses had lied.
C. Organized Opposition
African American organizations emerged that actively fought for black rights.
D. Black Cabinet
In an unprecedented move, Roosevelt established a group of prominent AfricanAmerican advisers.
E. Racism in the New Deal
African Americans benefited from the New Deal, but the president never fully committed himself to civil rights. Some New Deal programs damaged African Americans.
F. March on Washington Movement
As a protest, many African Americans, under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph, threatened to march on Washington. Roosevelt responded with Executive Order No. 8802, which established the Fair Employment Practices Committee.
G. A New Deal for Native Americans
New Deal legislation aided Native Americans by, among other things, reversing parts of the Dawes Severalty Act.
H. Depression Hardships of Mexican Americans
The New Deal did little to help Mexican Americans.
IX. Women, Work, and the Great Depression
A. Women at Work Outside the Home
Despite public attitudes against it, more women entered the labor force.
B. Job Discrimination Against Married Women
A significant number of employers had policies against hiring married women.
C. Wives and Husbands Face Hard Times
More married women entered the labor force, but this did not improve the status of women in American society.
D. Women in the New Deal
The New Deal made a number of historic appointments, including the first female cabinet member. Still, the New Deal provided only limited advances for women.
X. The Election of 1940 and the Legacy of the New Deal
A. Wendell Wilkie
Roosevelt ran for a historic third term in 1940, and the New Deal coalition handily defeated Wendell Wilkie.
B. Roosevelt and the New Deal Assessed
Assessments of Roosevelt vary widely, but scholars agree that he profoundly transformed the presidency.
C. Origins of America’s Welfare System
Under the New Deal, the federal government assumed new and far?reaching responsibilities.
I. Introduction
After World War I America assumed an independent position in the world, and most people considered themselves isolationists.
II. Searching for Peace and Order in the 1920s
A. Peace Groups
Several peace organizations began working after World War I to ensure international stability.
B. Washington Conference on the Limitations of Armaments
Nine countries met in Washington, D.C., in 1921?1922, and set arms limits in a rare example of disarmament.
C. Kellogg?Briand Pact
The Kellogg?Briand Pact of 1928 renounced war. The accord had no provisions for enforcement, making it more a statement of moral preference than a diplomatic policy.
III. The World Economy, Cultural Expansion, and the Great Depression
A. U.S. Trade and Investment
The United States underwent great economic expansion that lasted through the 1920s.
B. Cultural Expansion
American culture, aided by mass production, began to influence the world.
C. War Debts and German Reparations
Many European nations wanted America to cancel the tremendous war debts they owed the United States, but American leaders insisted on payment. When Germany defaulted on reparations, American investors offered loans to Germany to meet its obligation.
D. Tariffs and Economic Nationalism
By the 1930s the international economy faced collapse, economic nationalism manifested itself through tariff wars.
E. Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act
At the urging of Cordell Hull, Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act to stimulate trade.
IV. United States Hegemony in Latin America
A. Criticisms of United States Interventionism
Critics saw American involvement in Latin America as imperialistic. Many people feared reprisals against American?owned businesses in the region.
B. Good Neighbor Policy
Roosevelt called his approach of exerting more subtle control in Latin America the “Good Neighbor Policy.” American popularity and economic influence increased throughout the hemisphere.
C. National Guards and Dictators
In the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo rose through the ranks of the American-trained national guard to become dictator. American intervention in Nicaragua ended at the urging of César Sandino, but Anastasio Somoza created a pro?American dictatorship that ruled until 1979.
D. Marine Occupation of Haiti
American occupation of Haiti resulted in the exploitation of Haitians, which in turn generated bitterness toward the United States until American troops left in 1929.
E. Backing Batista in Cuba
In 1933 Cubans installed Ramón Grau San Martín as president. When the Cubans seized American property, the United States helped Fulgencio Batista come to power.
F. Control over Puerto Rico
The Jones Act of 1917 gave Puerto Ricans citizenship, but they had little opportunity to govern themselves. In 1952, Puerto Rico gained commonwealth status, but Puerto Ricans remain divided on statehood.
G. Clash with Mexican Nationalism
In 1938 Mexico nationalized foreign?owned petroleum companies. Fearing that Mexican oil would end up in Germany or Japan, Roosevelt acquiesced to the move.
H. Pan?Americanism
America’s status in Latin America improved with the promise of nonintervention at the 1936 Pan American Conference. This agreement helped ensure hemispheric unity at the onset of World War II.
V. Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and War in Europe
A. German Aggression Under Hitler
In 1936, German troops moved into the Rhineland and Hitler formed an alliance with Italy and Japan. The Anti?Comintern Pact united Germany and Japan against Russia. Hitler convinced representatives of Britain and France to not oppose his annexation of Czechoslovakia.
B. Poland and the Outbreak of World War II
Britain and France announced that they would defend Poland’s independence. When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, they declared war on Germany.
C. U.S. Recognition of the Soviet Union
American businesses profited from Soviet purchases in the early 1930s. Roosevelt recognized the Soviet Union in 1933 to improve trade and to deter Japanese aggression.
VI. Isolationism, Neutrality Acts, and Roosevelt’s Cautious Foreign Policy
A. Nye Committee Hearings
Isolationists in the 1930s believed that American involvement in World War I had been a mistake and feared that business interests might take the nation into a war because of ties to Germany and Italy.
B. Neutrality Acts
Roosevelt supported isolationism, a position reflected in the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937.
C. Roosevelt’s Evolving Views
Roosevelt became increasingly troubled by the aggressive behavior of Germany, Italy, and Japan.
D. Repeal of the Arms Embargo
At Roosevelt’s request, in 1939 Congress repealed the embargo and approved cash?and-carry exports of arms.
VII. Japan, China, and a New Order in Asia
A. Jiang Jieshi
In the 1920s, Jiang Jieshi ousted Mao Zedong and won the support of the United States, which increased Japanese suspicions of Chinese?American relations.
B. Manchurian Crisis
Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, and the United States responded with the Stimson Doctrine of nonrecognition.
C. Roosevelt’s Quarantine Speech
In October 1937, Roosevelt denounced international aggression in his “quarantine speech.”
VIII. On a Collision Course with Japan and Germany, 1939-1941
A. Foreign Policy Debate
From 1939 to 1941 American interest in foreign policy issues reached an all?time high.
B. The Fall of France
After France fell in 1940, isolationist sentiments in the United States declined. Roosevelt began to aid the Allies with the sale and lease of American military surpluses.
C. Lend?Lease Act
The Lend?Lease Act of 1940 went into effect to help Britain avoid defeat. The United States became the “arsenal for democracy” by lending and leasing American military goods to those fighting the Axis powers.
D. Atlantic Charter
In August 1941, Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, which set war aims of collective security, self-determination, economic cooperation, and freedom of the seas.
E. Greer Incident
When a German U-boat fired at an American destroyer, Roosevelt used the incident to shape public opinion toward intervention in World War II.
IX. Why War Came: Pearl Harbor and U.S. Entry into World War II
A. U.S. Demands on Japan
When Japan signed the Tripartite Pact the United States stopped selling aviation fuel and scrap metal to them. With the occupation of Indochina, America froze Japanese assets ending most trade, including oil, with Japan.
B. Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese made a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This attack turned American sentiment sharply against the Japanese.
C. Explaining Pearl Harbor
Roosevelt did not conspire to leave the fleet vulnerable to attack; the Japanese caught the American forces off guard because no one thought they would attack so far from home. The United States declared war on Japan, and three days later Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
D. Clash of Systems
The United States sought a liberal capitalist world order with all nations enjoying freedom of trade and investment. The dictators did not.
I. Introduction
World War II marked a watershed in American history. The immediate challenge of defeating the enemy directly affected thousands of men and women, while the new world the war created had ramifications for millions of people.
II. Winning the Second World War
A. Second?Front Controversy
Americans strongly supported the war, but from the beginning Allied leaders had differences. In particular, difficulties arose over how the Americans and the English would carry the war into Europe.
B. Teheran Conference
This meeting managed to ease the strain and renew relations between the allies.
C. D?Day
The second?front offensive began with the Allied landings at Normandy in June 1944. Less than a year later, Germany surrendered.
D. The War in the Pacific
At first the war in the Pacific, largely the responsibility of the United States, did not go well.
E. Battle of Midway
The Japanese enjoyed early successes, but the Battle of Midway in June 1942 was the turning point in the war.
F. Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
Facing intense fighting, American forces “island?hopped” across the Pacific, bypassing a number of strongly held Japanese islands. The Japanese and Americans engaged in especially bloody combat on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
G. The Atomic Bomb
The Japanese surrendered after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.
H. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
A variety of military, scientific, and political reasons motivated the U.S.
III. Mobilizing the American Home Front
A. Office of Price Administration
To control inflation, this agency was given the power to fix price ceilings on commodities and control rents in defense areas.
B. War Production Board and War Manpower Commission
The WPB succeeded in turning the civilian manufacturing economy into a powerhouse of military industrial might. The WMC recruited workers for the nation’s factories.
C. Government Incentives to Business
Wartime policy encouraged the growth of big business.
D. University Research and Weapons Development
Universities benefited from government grants to aid the war effort.
E. Unions and Wartime Labor Strikes
Despite a “no?strike” agreement with the government, some workers staged walkouts during the war. Congress responded with a bill designed to place limits on labor.
F. Wartime Change in Agriculture
Agriculture mechanized to replace workers.
G. Growth in the Federal Government
The American economy expanded dramatically during the war. The national government also experienced remarkable growth.
IV. The Military Life
A. The Ordeal of Combat
Americans faced the stress of combat and struggled to cope.
B. Homosexuals on Active Duty
Many men and women in the armed forces who had a same-sex orientation found the freedom to act on their feelings.
C. Postwar Ambitions
The interaction of people from all over the U.S. facilitated an exchange of ideas. Soldiers returned home with new skills, and many took advantage of the GI Bill of Rights.
V. Enemy Aliens, Conscientious Objectors, and Japanese American Internees
A. “An Enemy Race”
Many in the U.S. saw the war against Japan as a struggle against the “Japanese race.” Despite anti-Japanese sentiment, Japanese?Americans fought valiantly for the United States as evidenced by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
B. Life in the Internment Camps
The camps were bleak and demoralizing.
VI. Jobs and Racism on the Home Front
A. African Americans in Combat
Almost a million African Americans served in the armed forces and distinguished themselves on the battlefield. However, there were a number of racist incidents during the war.
B. Civil Rights Movement
Blacks, more militant and more willing to protest, waged a “Double V” campaign. CORE, which advocated nonviolent direct action, was founded.
C. African American War Workers
When the government prohibited discrimination in defense jobs, thousands of blacks migrated to the North and West to find work.
D. Race Riots of 1943
Racial tensions began to develop in the North. Racial warfare broke out in Detroit in June 1943.
E. Bracero Program
The United States turned to Mexican laborers during the war. The “zoot-suit riot” in Los Angeles in 1943 involved attacks on young Mexican Americans.
VII. Women and Children in the War Effort
A. Women in War Production
Women participated in war production on an unprecedented scale.
B. Discrimination Against Women
Wartime needs made millions of jobs available, and many women went to work for the first time. They found that discrimination often characterized the workplace.
C. Children in Wartime
The government became involved in childcare as a result of wartime pressures. Children contributed to the war effort by buying war bonds. Many also dropped out of school to go to work.
D. Increase in Marriage, Divorce, and Birth Rates
During the war, the number of marriages, births, and divorces, rose markedly. The new social dynamic had long?term consequences for women.
VIII. The Decline of Liberalism and the Election of 1944
A. Wartime Liberalism
As conservatives worked to limit or dismantle the New Deal, Republicans made gains in the election of 1942. However, in his Economic Bill of Rights Roosevelt pledged to provide jobs, food, shelter, clothing, and financial security to every American.
B. Roosevelt and Truman
The President chose a loyal New Deal trooper to aid him in his reelection.
C. Roosevelt’s Fourth-term Victory
In apparent ill health, Roosevelt defeated Thomas Dewey for a fourth term in 1944. Roosevelt died in April 1945, and Vice President Harry Truman became president.
IX. Planning for Peace
A. Allied Disagreement over Eastern Europe
The Allies shared a commitment to defeating the enemy, but they also had a number of differences. The fate of Eastern Europe posed the greatest problem.
B. Creation of the United Nations
In 1944, diplomats established the framework for the United Nations.
C. Jewish Refugees
Six million Jews died in concentration camps during the war, but the Allies took few steps to stop the killings.
D. The Holocaust
The U.S. did too little, too late, to greatly affect the Holocaust.
E. The Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference of February 1945 shaped the postwar world. As the meeting convened, each of the Allies had its own agenda. Russia wanted a friendly Poland to serve as a buffer state. The Allies agreed to accept a coalition government in Poland and to resolve disputed borders at a later date.
F. Potsdam Conference
At Potsdam, Truman, who knew the United States had achieved atomic capability, showed less deference to Stalin than had Roosevelt.
I. Introduction
During the 1940s and l950s, Americans shared a belief in anti-communism and in the importance of economic progress. This consensus lasted throughout the era despite growing social tensions.
II. Cold War Politics: The Truman Presidency
A. Postwar Job Layoffs
The war ended earlier than anticipated, preventing the government from developing an effective reconversion plan. Consequently, unemployment jumped markedly.
B. Beginnings of the Postwar Economic Boom
The economy rocketed on a 25 year boom.
C. Upsurges in Labor Strikes
Falling real income led many workers to go out on strike, particularly in 1946.
D. Consumer Discontent
Problems associated with lifting wartime price controls caused consumers to express discontent with Truman. However, the Republican-controlled Eightieth Congress offended many interest groups.
E. Truman’s Upset Victory
Republicans expressed great confidence during the election campaign, especially since the Democrats splintered at their convention. Nevertheless, Truman won.
F. Korean War Discontent on the Home Front
The Korean War sparked an inflationary spiral that led to a wage and price freeze in 1951. The war also led to an increase in draft calls and the size of the army.
G. Truman’s Historical Standing
Historians now recognize Truman as one of the nation’s greatest presidents.
III. Consensus and Conflict: the Eisenhower Presidency
A. The “Consensus Mood”
White Americans enjoyed a common optimism that the United States was the greatest nation on earth. Historians in the l950s saw conflict as an aberration, not a constant, in American history.
B. “Dynamic Conservatism”
Eisenhower pursued policies friendly to business, but he also recognized that dismantling New Deal and Fair Deal programs was politically impossible.
C. Termination Policy for Native Americans
Under Eisenhower, the federal government moved to limit its role in Indian affairs.
D. Election of 1956
Despite a heart attack in 1955, Eisenhower successfully ran for reelection.
E. Eisenhower Presidency Assessed
Eisenhower produced mixed results, but in recent years historians have judged him in a more favorable light.
F. The “Military?Industrial Complex”
As he left the White House, Eisenhower warned the American people of the “military-industrial complex.”
IV. McCarthyism
A. Truman’s Loyalty Probe
In 1947, Truman ordered loyalty investigations of millions of federal workers.
B. Victims of Anti?Communist Hysteria
Film personalities, homosexuals, and others suffered anti?communist smears. Within many organizations, redbaiting was used by some to discredit the opposition.
C. Hiss Case
The House Committee on Un?American Activities investigated a former State Department official, Alger Hiss, for his links to Communist spies.
D. McCarthy’s Attack on the State Department
When Senator Joseph McCarthy announced that Communists controlled the State Department, he started the hysteria that became known as McCarthyism.
E. Eisenhower’s Reluctance to Confront McCarthy
Eisenhower followed an indirect approach in dealing with McCarthyism.
F. Army?McCarthy Hearings
McCarthy made a crucial error by accusing the Army of harboring Communists during televised Senate hearings.
V. The Civil Rights Movement in the 1940s and 1950s
A. AfricanAmericans Political “Balance of Power”
Black migrations to the North and West led to a shift in the political composition of those regions.
B. President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights
The report of Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights shaped government policy for 20 years.
C. Supreme Court Decisions on Civil Rights
African Americans benefited from court decisions in the late 1940s.
D. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
In 1954, the Supreme Court declared segregated public schools unconstitutional.
E. White Resistance to Civil Rights
Eisenhower objected to a federal role in civil rights, thereby tacitly encouraging resistance to integration.
F. Crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas
When Arkansas tried to block integration of a Little Rock high school, Eisenhower intervened to force compliance.
G. Montgomery Bus Boycott
African Americans protested segregated public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama, by staging a massive boycott of the bus system.
H. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., led the bus boycott, beginning his leadership of the civil rights movement.
I. Sit?Ins
In 1960, young African Americans began sit?in demonstrations that marked a shift in the movement.
J. Civil Rights and the 1960 Election
Support for the Civil Rights Movement earned Kennedy the AfricanAmerican vote.
VI. The Postwar Booms: Babies, Business, and Bigness
A. The Affluent Society
Americans’ appetites for consumer goods increased. Easy credit was the economic basis of the consumer culture that emerged.
B. Increased Purchasing Power
Real per?capita income increased among Americans, creating a boom that seemed to vindicate capitalism.
C. Baby Boom
The baby boom was both a cause and effect of prosperity. The highest birth rate in American history increased demand for houses and schools.
D. Housing Boom
Along with the baby boom, American families became more suburbanized, creating a greater demand for houses. Low?interest GI mortgages and Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance helped many people afford homes. Contractors erected rows of houses in record times to facilitate this housing demand.
E. Highway Construction
The Highway Act of 1956 appropriated billions of dollars for the construction of a modern highway system. Federal expenditures on highways made formerly isolated rural areas accessible to average Americans, a development that hastened suburbanization and promoted uniform lifestyles across the nation.
F. Growth of the Suburbs
People left cities and moved to the suburbs for a variety of reasons.
G. Growth of the Sunbelt
Millions of Americans sought affluence by moving to the “Sunbelt,” the southern third of the United States. This mass migration increased the political clout of the area.
H. Military Spending
Military spending also helped the postwar American economy. Defense spending produced rapid increases in the electronics and “high tech” industries.
I. Conglomerate Mergers
Corporate expansion in the l950s took the form of conglomerate mergers, resulting in unprecedented concentration of industry.
J. Labor Merger
The labor movement also underwent mergers of major labor organizations. Unionized blue?collar workers gained wage increases after the war, and they could lead middle?class lifestyles previously reserved for the white?collar workers.
K. Agribusiness
Consolidation and improved technology also drew large investment into agriculture, which brought the decline of the traditional family farm.
L. Environmental Costs
Development led to damage to the environment, but most Americans remained oblivious to the problems. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring alerted Americans to the dangers of DDT, one of the most damaging pesticides used by Americans. The government banned DDT in 1972.
VII. Conformity and Consumerism
A. Pressures in Education
American families became preoccupied with education, seeing success in school as a prerequisite for economic and social success. When the Soviets launched Sputnik I, education became a matter of national security.
B. Growth of Religion
Membership in religious congregations grew steadily in the 1950s.
C. Television Togetherness
The newest luxury item, television, transformed family life in America.
D. Women’s Conflicting Roles and Dilemmas
Although women were expected to be full-time housewives, women continued to enter the labor force. Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care caused mothers to feel guilty if they did not always think of their children first.
E. Sexuality
Americans’ knowledge of their sexuality was not well advanced as demonstrated by the public outcry against Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.
F. The Youth Subculture
The music industry catered to youth, and youngsters found subtle ways to rebel against social norms. Movies were successful because of the attendance of young Americans.
G. Beat Generation
Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg rejected many of the social mores of the period. They concentrated on freewheeling sexuality and taking drugs, influencing an entire generation in the 1960s.
VIII. The Other America
A. Women
Because of occupational segregation, women constituted a disproportionate share of the poor. Women had little protection, and divorce, desertion, or widowhood often meant that women slipped into poverty.
B. The Inner Cities
By the early 1960s, one out of every four Americans lived in poverty. Most of the poor settled in cities, and African Americans made up the bulk of the urban poor. Mexican Americans became the second?largest group of urban poor. Many of them came into the United States illegally, and they created barrios in several large cities. Native Americans were the nation’s poorest people. Accustomed to reservation life, many had great difficulty adjusting to life in the cities.
C. Rural Poverty
Tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and migratory farm workers often lived in poverty.
IX. The Election of 1960 and the Dawning of a New Decade
Young and charismatic, John Kennedy won the Democratic nomination in 1960. Kennedy defused the question of his Catholicism, courted the black vote, and convinced Americans that the Republicans had hurt America’s international standing.
I. Introduction
Harry Truman introduced a new era that saw the United States and the Soviet Union move toward war and back again, exhausting their power and influence in the process.
II. Why the Cold War Began
A. Decolonization
Economic dislocation and the aftermath of disintegrating empires characterized the world after World War II.
B. U.S. Economic and Strategic Needs
An expanding American economy became part of an activist postwar foreign policy. In the air age, the United States and the Soviet Union collided as each attempted to establish defensive positions.
C. Truman’s Get?Tough Style
Truman had a brash and impatient style not suited to diplomacy.
D. Debate over Soviet Intentions and Behavior
Critics charged that policymakers often exaggerated the Soviet threat.
III. Truman’s Cold War: Europe and Global Containment
A. Atomic Diplomacy
The United States pursued a policy of using the atomic monopoly for leverage.
B. Kennan and Churchill Warn Against Soviet Power
George F. Kennan doubted if Soviets could be trusted, and Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech solidified many Americans’ fears.
C. Truman Doctrine
In response to a British request for American aid against leftist insurgents in Greece and Turkey, Truman announced his commitment to stopping communism.
D. The “X” Article
George Kennan wrote an influential article that argued that the United States should contain Soviet expansion.
E. Marshall Plan
In 1947, the United States initiated the Marshall Plan, funneling billions of dollars into Western Europe.
F. National Security Act
The National Security Act created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the United States Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
G. Fulbright Program and Cultural Expansion
The United States launched what amounted to a “cultural Marshall Plan.”
H. Recognition of Israel
The United States quickly recognized the new state of Israel in 1948.
I. Berlin Blockade and Airlift
In response to the Allied decision to unite their sections of Germany, the Soviets denied them access to Berlin. Truman responded with a massive airlift.
J. Point Four Program
In 1949 Truman instituted the Point Four Program to improve food supplies, public health, housing, and private investment in Third World countries.
K. Founding of NATO
The Berlin crisis and Soviet development of atomic weapons convinced the western nations to sign the North Atlantic Treaty Organization collective security accord.
L. NSC?68
In April 1950, the National Security Council issued NSC? 68, a secret document asking for increased funds and a publicity campaign to gain support for the expenditures.
IV. Asian Acrimony: Japan, China, and Vietnam
A. Reconstruction of Japan
The United States reconstructed Japan after World War II by providing it with a democratic constitution, by revitalizing its economy, and by destroying its weapons.
B. Communist Victory in Chinese Civil War
Despite Jiang Jieshi’s corruption and recalcitrance, the United States continued to back him against Mao Zedong.
C. U.S. Nonrecognition Policy
Mao defeated Jiang and established the People’s Republic of China. Truman did not recognize the new republic.
D. Vietnam’s Quest for Independence
The Vietnamese resisted colonialism, and when French authority collapsed during World War II the Vietminh declared independence in 1945. The Cold War gave the United States several reasons to reject Vietnamese autonomy.
E. U.S. Aid to France In the War Against the Vietminh
The United States bore most of the financial costs of the French war against the Vietminh.
V. The Korean War
A. Origins of the War
The leaders of both North and South Korea sought reunification. Kim Il Sung persuaded a reluctant Stalin to approve the June 1950 invasion against South Korea.
B. Truman Commits U.S. Forces
The United Nations’ Security Council voted to aid South Korea and Truman ordered American troops into the region. Truman sent troops because he believed that the Soviets had orchestrated the attack. MacArthur staged a brilliant amphibious landing behind enemy lines that forced the North Koreans to retreat.
C. Chinese Entry into the War
When the Chinese sent thousands of troops into North Korea, MacArthur demanded full?scale bombing of China.
D. Truman’s Firing of General MacArthur
MacArthur denounced Truman’s actions regarding China, leading the President to fire him.
E. Dispute over POWs
Thousands of North Korean and Chinese prisoners did not want to go home; the United States did not return them.
F. Costs and Consequences of the War
More than four million people died in this limited war. The powers of the presidency grew during the war, and the stalemated war helped elect Eisenhower.
G. Globalization of Containment
Worldwide military containment became entrenched as U.S. policy causing an escalation in defense spending.
VI. Eisenhower, Dulles, and Unrelenting Cold War
A. John Foster Dulles
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles intoned systematic and uncompromising anti-Communism. Dulles purged the State Department of many specialists, among them Asian experts whose absence adversely affected the American role in Vietnam.
B. Eisenhower-Dulles Policies
“Liberation,” “massive retaliation,” and the “New Look” military became bywords of American foreign policy. Backed by increasing stockpiles of nuclear weapons, the U.S. practiced “brinkmanship.”
C. CIA as Foreign Policy Instrument
The CIA put foreign leaders on its payroll, subsidized foreign labor unions, and engaged in “disinformation” campaigns. The CIA also launched covert operations to subvert governments in the Third World.
D. Propaganda and Cultural Infiltration
The U.S. also allocated assets for radio broadcasts and other media.
E. Hydrogen Bomb, Sputnik, and Missiles
American production of the incredibly powerful hydrogen bomb increased Soviet-American tensions. Following Soviet advances in missile technology, the United States stepped up its missile research.
F. Eisenhower’s Critique of Nuclear Arms
Eisenhower expressed his uneasiness over the arms race.
G. Rebellion in Hungary
When troops crushed a revolt against Soviet power in Hungary, America could do nothing to help the rebels without risking full?scale war.
H. U?2 Incident
The Soviets walked out of the 1960 Paris summit when the Americans refused to apologize for U?2 spy missions.
I. Jinmen-Mazu Crisis
The Formosa Resolution of 1955 allowed deployment of American forces to defend the Formosan islands, which prompted China to develop nuclear capability by 1964.
J. “Japanese Miracle”
The United States rebuilt Japan as a bulwark against communist influence in Asia.
VII. At Odds with the Third World
A. Interests in the Third World
Decolonization advanced rapidly after 1945. The Soviets and the Americans sought alliances with the new nations.
B. Nonaligned Movement
Many Third World nations did not want to take sides in the Cold War and declared themselves nonaligned.
C. American Images of Third World Peoples
Americans saw the Third World’s people emotional, irrational, and dependent.
D. Racism and Segregation as U.S. Handicaps
American racism became an embarrassment and a liability in efforts to befriend Third World nations.
E. U.S. Hostility to Nationalist Revolution
Many people believed that Third World revolutions were aimed at American allies and at American investments.
F. Development and Modernization
The U.S. sought to aid developing nations in order to foster stability. The U.S. also directed propaganda toward the Third World to persuade Third World peoples to abandon radical doctrines and neutralism.
G. Third World Views of the United States
People in the developing nations both envied and resented the U.S.
VIII. U.S. Interventions in the Third World
A. CIA in Guatemala
The CIA helped overthrow Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in Guatemala in 1951 because the United Fruit Corporation disliked his confiscation of their lands.
B. The Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro’s ouster of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba sparked a serious crisis. When Cuba moved into a closer relationship with the Soviets, Eisenhower encouraged Cuban exiles to invade their homeland.
C. Operation Bootstrap in Puerto Rico
Operation Bootstrap encouraged investments in Puerto Rico from U.S. corporations.
D. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
American policy in the Middle East centered on upholding Israel and protecting the region’s extensive oil holdings.
E. Suez Crisis
In 1956, Egypt nationalized the British?owned Suez Canal. The Israelis, British, and French moved against Egypt, but the United States refused to support them.
F. Eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower declared that the United States would intervene in the Middle East if any government threatened by a communist takeover asked for aid.
G. Dienbienphu Crisis in Vietnam
The Vietminh surrounded French troops at Dienbienphu, forcing France to end the war.
H. Geneva Accords
A peace accord divided Vietnam and set a 1956 election to unify the county, but Diem refused to hold the election.
I. Backing the Diem Regime in South Vietnam
The United States backed a corrupt and repressive regime in South Vietnam.
I. Introduction
Each administration from 1961 to 1974 promised reforms, but violence also marked the terms of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
II. Civil Rights and the New Frontier
A. “The Best and the Brightest”
Kennedy surrounded himself with intellectuals with fresh ideas.
B. The New Frontier
Kennedy’s program promised more than the president could deliver, especially since Congress was dominated by conservatives.
C. March on Washington
Student volunteers formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and encouraged African Americans to resist segregation and register to vote. Kennedy gradually began to commit himself to first-class citizenship for blacks. In August 1963, thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for a March on Washington. At this event Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history.
D. The Kennedy Assassination
Kennedy died in Dallas Texas, and crushed the hope that many held for the future. Many Americans still wonder if Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.
E. Kennedy in Retrospect
Critics fault Kennedy as president, but he seemed to grow in the office and his untimely death enhanced his reputation.
III. The Great Society and the Triumph of Liberalism
A. Civil Rights Act of 1964
At the urging of President Johnson, Congress outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment.
B. Election of 1964
Johnson and the Democrats won a tremendous victory in 1964, paving the way for numerous domestic programs.
C. Voting Rights Act of 1965
The federal government became involved in voter registration.
D. War on Poverty
Johnson’s ambitious effort to destroy poverty through education and job training enjoyed mixed success.
E. Successes in Reducing Poverty
Federal programs and economic expansion alleviated a number of problems the poor faced.
F. The Warren Court
Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court supported judicial activism and handed down a series of landmark decisions.
G. Civil?Rights Rulings
The Court protected freedom of speech, of privacy, of the rights of accused criminals, and upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
IV. Civil Rights Disillusionment, Race Riots, and Black Power
A. Explosion of Black Anger
Many black leaders advocated nonviolence, but in 1964 frustration erupted into riots in several northern cities.
B. Race Riots
A bloody riot occurred in Los Angeles in 1965. In this case blacks, not whites, initiated the violence. Riots continued from 1966 to 1968. A federal committee found that white racism had led to the disturbances.
C. Malcolm X
Malcolm X, a symbol of AfricanAmerican pride, was killed in 1965 for moderating his hard?line positions.
D. Black Power
In 1966, Stokely Carmichael encouraged African Americans to express their identity through Black Power.
V. The New Left and the Counterculture
A. Free Speech Movement
At the University of California at Berkeley, the Free Speech Movement indicated a new white activism.
B. Students for a Democratic Society and the New Left
Students for a Democratic Society, meeting at Port Huron, Michigan, condemned racism, poverty, and the Cold War. The heterogeneous protest movement referred to itself as the New Left.
C. Countercultural Revolution
Cynicism, drug use, and a contempt for many traditional values shaped the emergence of a counterculture.
D. Rock ‘n’ Roll
The counterculture often found expression for their feelings in rock music.
E. Sexuality
Oral contraceptives led young people to adopt more casual sexual mores.
F. Gay Rights Movement
Many homosexuals became more open, and a 1969 riot in Greenwich Village marked the genesis of “Gay Power.”
G. Antiwar Protests
The counterculture and the New Left both opposed the Vietnam War.
VI. 1968: A Year of Protest, Violence, and Loss
A. Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
In April 1968, James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr., touching off widespread violence.
B. Assassination of Robert Kennedy
In June 1968, an Arab nationalist assassinated Robert Kennedy, increasing a sense of despair in Americans.
C. Violence at the Democratic Convention
In August 1968, a riot between demonstrators at the Democratic convention and the police shocked the nation.
D. Election of 1968
In November 1968, Americans narrowly elected Richard Nixon over Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace.
E. Unraveling of the New Deal Coalition
The Vietnam War and the Democratic Party’s support for civil rights and welfare for the poor shook apart the Democrat’s New Deal coalition.
VII. Rebirth of Feminism
A. National Organization for Women
The need for action in advancing women’s issues led to the 1966 founding of NOW.
B. “Personal Politics”
Radical feminists preferred confrontational, direct action.
C. Working Women’s Burdens
For working women, the most pressing issue was sex discrimination in employment.
D. Women’s Educational and Professional Gains
By 1973, female participation in professional schools rose. Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment failed.
E. Roe v. Wade
In 1973, citing a woman’s constitutional right to privacy, the Supreme Court legalized abortions.
VIII. Nixon and the Divided Nation
A. Kent State and Jackson State
The United States invaded Cambodia in 1970, leading to huge protests and the killing of four demonstrators at Kent State University and two students at Jackson State.
B. Politics of Divisiveness
The Republicans sought to discredit the Democrats as radical at best and treasonous at worst. Still the Democrats made gains in the 1970 elections.
C. Stagflation
In 1971 the United States suffered relatively high inflation and unemployment, or “stagflation.” Nixon took pragmatic, liberal steps to restore the economy.
D. Environmental Issues
Over Nixon’s opposition, environmentalists made gains during his first term.
IX. Nixon’s Reelection and Resignation
A. Liberal Legislative Victories
Democrats still controlled the Congress after 1968, and they continued to enact liberal programs.
B. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”
Nixon’s “southern strategy” appealed to voters from the Sunbelt and helped Nixon defeat George McGovern.
C. Nixon and the Supreme Court
Nixon managed to appoint four conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
D. Election of 1972
Nixon faced very few serious challengers. In 1972 he took elaborately staged trips to China and the Soviet Union. He was also aided by the rumor planted by his aids that the Vietnam War was near its end. Nixon won a smashing victory in 1972, but the Democrats retained control of Congress.
E. Watergate Break?in
During the election, Nixon henchmen burglarized the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex.
F. White House Cover?up
In June 1972, police arrested five men for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters. The White House began feverish efforts to destroy any link with the men.
G. Watergate Hearings and Investigations
Judicial and Congressional investigations uncovered misconduct high in the Nixon administration.
H. Saturday Night Massacre
When pressured for Watergate tape recordings, Nixon fired the Attorney General and a Special Prosecutor.
I. Agnew’s Resignation
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because of income tax evasion and corruption. Gerald Ford replaced him.
J. Nixon’s Resignation
Facing the prospect of impeachment on three counts, Nixon resigned as president on August 9, 1974.
K. Post?Watergate Restrictions on Executive Power
The excesses of Nixon’s term led Congress to pass laws restraining presidents in foreign affairs, preventing the impounding of federal appropriations, limiting campaign funding, and ensuring access to government documents.
I. Introduction
Developing countries became entangled in Cold War diplomacy because both America and the Soviet Union wanted them as allies. The Third World altered the bipolar nature of the Cold War.
II. Kennedy’s Nation Building, Arms Buildup, and the Cuban Missile Crisis
A. Nation Building and Counterinsurgency
Based on the concept of nation building, the Kennedy administration initiated aid programs to help developing nations through the early states of nationhood. The concept of counterinsurgency was the tactic used to defeat revolutionaries in Third World countries friendly to the United States.
B. Military Expansion
John Kennedy vowed to improve the military, and his “flexible response” sought ways to fight any kind of war.
C. Berlin Wall
Kennedy rejected Soviet demands concerning Berlin, and he vowed to defend West Berlin. The Soviets responded by building the Berlin Wall to stop the flow of Eastern Germans into the more prosperous Western zone.
D. Bay of Pigs Invasion
Kennedy inherited the Bay of Pigs invasion plan, but he ordered that no Americans be directly involved. The April 1961 invasion was a disaster.
E. Cuban Missile Crisis
Russia provided military assistance to Cuba and placed nuclear missiles on the island. Discovery of these missiles in 1962 sparked a frightening episode of brinkmanship.
F. Kennedy’s Handling of the Crisis
Critics assert that Kennedy courted disaster in the way in which he handled the crisis.
G. Aftermath
The crisis led to some easing of Soviet?American tensions. However, the Soviet pledge to catch up in the nuclear arms race increased tensions.
III. Johnson and Americanization of the War in Vietnam
A. Nuclear Proliferation Treaty
Johnson signed a non?proliferation treaty in 1968, but Vietnam meant that Cold War tensions would continue.
B. Kennedy’s Legacy in Vietnam
Kennedy sent more than 16,000 advisors to Vietnam. Diem created problems because of his oppressive policies and his persecution of Buddhists. The CIA urged South Vietnamese officers to overthrow Diem, and they murdered him in 1963.
C. Tonkin Gulf Incident
Despite flimsy evidence of attacks on American ships, in 1964 Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution giving Lyndon Johnson authority to wage war on North Vietnam.
D. Bombing Campaigns in Laos and Vietnam
In 1964 stepped-up bombing of Laos. After the Vietcong attacked the American airfield at Pleiku, Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder against North Vietnam.
E. Troop Strength
Johnson decided to increase U.S. ground forces in Vietnam in July 1965. U.S. troop strength peaked in 1969 at 543,400.
IV. Vietnam: Escalation, Carnage, and Protest
A. My Lai Massacre
A gruesome atrocity occurred at the village of My Lai, where Americans killed some 500 civilians.
B. American Soldiers in Vietnam
Many Americans in Vietnam just tried to survive their tours of duty in a brutal and inhospitable environment.
C. Growing Antiwar Sentiment
Protests at home grew along with the military escalation in Vietnam, but Johnson vowed to continue the war.
D. McNamara’s Doubts
McNamara became convinced that continued bombing would not win the war.
E. Tet Offensive
The Vietcong and North Vietnamese offensive in 1968 ended in an American victory, but many people came to believe that the war could not be won.
F. Dollar/Gold Crisis
Rampant deficit spending to finance the war caused Europeans to redeem dollars for gold, providing further pressure on the Johnson Administration to end the war.
G. Johnson’s Exit
On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of most of North Vietnam, asked Hanoi to begin negotiations to end the war, and announced that he would not run for reelection.
V. Nixon, Vietnamization, and the Impact of America’s Longest War
A. Invasion of Cambodia
Richard Nixon announced that the United States would help those nations that helped themselves. In Southeast Asia this doctrine meant “Vietnamization” of the war by replacing Americans with South Vietnamese troops. In 1970 Nixon announced that American and South Vietnamese forces had entered Cambodia. This action sparked violent protests in the United States.
B. Cease?Fire Agreement
In 1973, America and North Vietnam agreed to withdraw American troops, return POWs, account for MIAs, and recognize a role for the Vietcong in South Vietnam.
C. Costs of the Vietnam War
More than 58,000 Americans and a million and a half Vietnamese died in the war. The conflict cost the United States almost 200 billion dollars, and it delayed improved relations with other nations.
D. Debate over the Lessons of Vietnam
Hawks claimed the war taught that the military should be allowed a free hand; doves insisted that losing the war showed the dangers of an imperial presidency.
E. Vietnam Veterans
Post?traumatic stress disorder plagued thousands of veterans, causing them fears and anxiety.
VI. Nixon, Kissinger, and Détente
A. SALT
Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger sought détente that would recognize Soviet?American rivalry while creating cooperation through negotiations. The United States and the Soviets signed the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks treaties, which limited ABM systems for each nation to two sites and imposed a five?year freeze on the offensive missiles each side could possess.
B. Opening to China
Nixon extended détente to the People’s Republic of China, and he made a historic trip there in 1972.
C. War in the Middle East
When Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in 1973, OPEC stopped oil shipments in an effort to gain American support for the Arabs.
D. Chile
Nixon plotted covert actions against Salvador Allende, while continuing to deny it.
E. Containing Radicalism in Africa
Nixon viewed the white minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa as bulwarks against communist inspired radicalism.
F. United States in the World Economy
American interventionism reflected a dependence on raw materials from abroad and the importance of foreign investments. Threats to investments, materials, and markets made intervention appear to be a viable option.
G. Economic Competition with Japan
Economic relations with Japan deteriorated as an influx of Japanese imports caused the United States to suffer from an unfavorable balance of trade.
H. International Environmental Issues
In 1972 the U.S. participated in a U.N.-sponsored environmental conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
VII. Carter, Preventive Diplomacy, and a Reinvigorated Cold War
A. Carter’s Divided Administration
Jimmy Carter suffered from indecision and from squabbles among members of his administration, hampering his attempts to advance human rights.
B. SALT?II
The SALT?II Treaty further limited nuclear weapons, but the treaty stalled when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. In the Carter Doctrine, the President promised to defend the Persian Gulf militarily from any Soviet invasion.
C. Camp David Accords
Jimmy Carter helped ease tensions in the Middle East by negotiating an accord between Egypt and Israel.
D. Iranian Hostage Crisis
In 1979 Iranians stormed the embassy in Teheran and took a number of hostages. The United States unfroze Iranian assets and promised no further intervention in Iran in January 1981, and the hostages were released.
E. Panama Canal Treaties
Carter signed treaties with Panama that turned the Canal Zone over to Panama in the year 2000 and allowed the United States to defend the Canal Zone after that time.
VIII. The Ups and Downs of Reagan’s World
A. Law of the Sea Convention
The Reagan Doctrine announced that the United States would openly support all anti-Communist fighters. A supporter of free-market capitalism, Reagan rejected the 1982 United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea, which dealt with offshore resources. Furthermore, Reagan believed an intensive military buildup would thwart the Soviet threat.
B. Intervention in El Salvador
Reagan considered the revolution in El Salvador a case of communist aggression, and, citing the domino theory, he persuaded Congress to fund the government there.
C. Contra War in Nicaragua
Reagan, afraid of Nicaragua as a Soviet client, worked to topple the Sandinista regime. The CIA trained rebels, mined Nicaraguan harbors, and blew up merchant ships.
D. Iran?Contra Scandal
The Reagan administration sold arms to Iran and sent the profits to anti?Sandinista forces, in violation of the law.
E. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
The troubled Middle East was strategically and economically important to the U.S.
F. Crisis in Lebanon
Reagan sent troops to Lebanon, where a terrorist attack killed 241 American servicemen in Beirut in 1983.
G. South Africa
Reagan struggled with South Africa’s racist policy of apartheid. Because of public pressure, Congress passed economic restrictions against South Africa in 1986.
H. Third World Indebtedness
Indebtedness of Third World nations caused economic instability and political unrest throughout the Third World, and had an adverse economic impact on the United States
I. Debate over Nuclear Weapons
Reagan’s search for nuclear superiority sparked a worldwide debate and appeals for a freeze in the nuclear arms race. Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed that they should limit weapons but could not reach an accord because Reagan wanted the Strategic Defense Initiative.
J. Gorbachev’s Reforms
Gorbachev worked to modernize the Soviet economy and to liberalize the political system, which eased tensions.
I. Introduction
Economic problems during the 1970s made possible a conservative resurgence with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Unfortunately, the Reagan years also polarized America.
II. Economic Crisis and Ford’s Response
A. OPEC Price Increases Fuel Inflation
In 1973 OPEC raised the price of petroleum, which hurt consumers but added to oil companies’ profits.
B. Auto Industry Recession
Americans began buying smaller, foreign?made cars, leading to a major recession for American manufacturers.
C. The Shifting Occupational Structure
Deindustrialization led to layoffs. As Americans lost high?paying industrial jobs many found themselves in lower?paying service occupations.
D. Lagging Productivity
Lack of capital improvements, declining educational standards, and a declining work ethic created a drop in productivity.
E. Easy Credit and Inflation
Increased buying on credit in the 1970s drove prices up.
F. President Ford’s Response
Ford, following the tenets of monetary policy, cut federal spending and encouraged the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates to banks. The nation became mired in its worst recession in 40 years.
G. Nuclear Power
When OPEC lifted its embargo, incentives to find alternative fuel diminished. Despite accidents at nuclear power plants, some advocated more reliance on nuclear energy.
H. Gerald Ford’s Presidency
Throughout his term, very little was accomplished.
I. Election of 1976
Jimmy Carter took advantage of the reaction against Watergate to defeat Gerald Ford in 1976.
III. Continuing Economic Problems and the Carter Presidency
A. Economic Discomfort in 1980
Unemployment and inflation produced a very high “discomfort index.”
B. Carter’s Flagging Popularity
Carter’s economic policies angered liberal Democrats. The Iranian hostage crisis and OPEC price increases led to public disapproval.
C. Carter’s Domestic Accomplishments
Carter took noteworthy steps in the areas of energy, transportation, and conservation policy.
IV. Conservative Resurgence and Reagan
A. Resurgence of Conservatism
The growth of the Sunbelt, political skepticism, and a new political alignment led to a resurgence of conservatism.
B. A Shifting Population
By 1980 the American population had grown older, and people continued to move to the Sunbelt.
C. Reagan as the Republican Candidate
Promising to follow the tenets of “supply-side” economics, Reagan appealed to a broad range of voters and united the old right and the new right within the Republican Party.
D. Election of 1980
Reagan attracted broad support, and Republicans also made gains in the Senate, House, and governors’ offices.
V. “Reaganomics”
A. Tax Cuts
Reagan’s policies produced the largest tax cut in history.
B. Weakened Environmental Enforcement
Reagan appointed opponents of regulation to important environmental posts.
C. Hard Times for Labor Unions
Union negotiators had to settle for less than they were accustomed to receiving.
D. Falling Inflation
Lowered interest rates, increased oil production, and continued unemployment drove down prices.
E. Rising Unemployment
By 1982, unemployment reached 10.8 percent. Supply?side economics did not lift America out of recession.
F. Resurgence of Poverty
Despite increased poverty, especially among minorities and families headed by women, Reagan cut welfare aid.
G. The Election of 1984
An improved economy and his reputation as a strong leader helped Reagan as he faced re?election. Reagan won a landslide, taking every state except Mondale’s home state of Minnesota.
VI. People of Color and New Immigrants
A. Declining Job Opportunities for African Americans
Many African Americans suffered severe economic dislocation as the number of blue-collar jobs declined.
B. African American Middle Class
Although the number of poor African Americans increased, the black middle class was also expanding.
C. White Backlash
Many white Americans expressed racial resentment over affirmative?action programs and forced school busing.
D. Black Anger
African Americans felt great anger over what they perceived as a racist judiciary and administration.
E. Native Americans
Native Americans, suffering a high incidence of certain diseases and high unemployment, began to become more militant.
F. “Red Power”: Indian Self-Determination
In 1973 members of AIM seized 11 hostages and a trading post at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. In 1974 Congress passed the Indian Self-Determination Law.
G. Indian Suits for Lost Land
Many Indians sued for compensation and protection through the Indians Claims Commission, but generally Native?Americans’ rights remain vulnerable.
H. Hispanic Americans
Hispanic Americans comprise a large, and increasingly important, minority group in the United States.
I. Hispanic Cultural Pride
Many Hispanics, who prefer their own culture to that of Anglo?Americans, have resisted assimilation.
J. New Influx of Immigrants
The United States absorbed some 13 million immigrants from 1970 to 1990, many coming from the Third World.
K. Immigration Reform
In 1986, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act to discourage illegal immigration.
VII. Feminism, Anti?Feminism, and Women’s Lives
A. Antifeminist Movement
“Pro-family” groups blamed feminism and the women’s movement for many of America’s social problems.
B. Equal Rights Amendment
Antifeminists succeeded in stopping ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
C. Women Opponents of Reagan’s Conservatism
Many people condemned Reagan for his programs, which they believed hurt women and children.
D. Increased Burdens on Women
Recession, spiraling divorce rates, and responsibility for the home and family put economic pressure on women.
VIII. A Polarized People: American Society in the 1980s
A. Increasing Inequality
Increased poverty caused a widening of the gap between poor and affluent Americans.
B. Changing Job Market
The reliance on low?paying service jobs caused a substantial drop in many American’s standards of living.
C. Drugs and Violence
Illegal drugs, particularly cocaine and “crack,” have been extremely harmful to the urban underclass.
D. AIDS
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome divided communities and led to a change in Americans’ sexual behavior.
IX. Economic Upturn and the Election of 1988
A. Mounting Fiscal Deficit
Under President Reagan, the national deficit rose to an extraordinary level.
B. A Conservative Supreme Court
Reagan appointed more conservative justices to the Supreme Court during his second term.
C. Iran?Contra Scandal
Questions over the illegal sale of arms to the contras and concern with Reagan’s management style hurt the president politically.
D. Reagan’s Decline
The Great Communicator took on the appearance of a tired, bumbling old man.
E. Continuing Economic Recovery
Many people benefited from the six-year economic recovery.
F. George H. W. Bush
After a bitter primary campaign, Vice President George Bush won the Republican nomination.
G. Presidential Campaign of 1988.
The campaign was characterized by the use of clichés and negative attack ads.
H. Bush’s Victory in 1988
Peace abroad and a stable economy at home helped ensure a victory for George Bush over Michael Dukakis.
I. Introduction
George Bush enjoyed great popularity because of his successes in international affairs, but concern over domestic problems hurt him in 1992. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton made the economy and healthcare into issues that helped him defeat Bush and Ross Perot. Although Republicans won control of both houses of Congress in 1994, Clinton won reelection in 1996. As the economic recovery continued, Clinton continued to face political problems. He was impeached by the House for allegedly committing perjury and obstructing justice in the Monica Lewinsky affair, but he was subsequently acquitted by the Senate. With the nation prosperous and at peace, many expected Vice President Al Gore to win the presidency in 2000. Although Gore won the popular vote, returns from Florida were disputed. Ultimately, more than a month after the election, the Supreme Court halted vote recounts in Florida and gave the state and its electoral votes to George W. Bush. Thus, in the most disputed presidential election since the Hayes-Tilden contest of 1876, George W. Bush was elected president.
II. Economic and Social Anxieties: The Presidency of George H. W. Bush
A. Economic and Social Problems
An economic recession began in late 1989. Social problems continued, with even the middle-class experiencing a decline in standard of living. With some 13 percent of the population having no health insurance, healthcare caused increasing anxiety.
B. Americans with Disabilities Act
A 1990 act outlawed discrimination against physically or mentally challenged people.
C. Failed Promises
In 1990 Bush broke his campaign promise not to raise taxes, eroding his popularity. Although he promised to be “the education president” and the “environmental president,” he failed in both areas.
D. Clarence Thomas Nomination
Charges of sexual harassment against Supreme Court appointee Clarence Thomas concerned many voters, especially women.
III. The End of the Cold War and Global Disorder
A. Collapse of Communist Regimes
East Germany repudiated Communism in 1989, and Germany reunited a year later. In 1991 the Soviet Union dissolved and Gorbachev lost power.
B. Why the Cold War Ended
Both superpowers saw their well?being decline, leading to greater cooperation.
C. START Treaties
America signed two Strategic Arms Reduction Talks treaties with Russia, but by 2000 START II had not been approved by the Russian parliament.
D. Tiananmen Square
In 1989 Chinese officials killed untold numbers of students demanding political change. Still, the Bush administration continued to believe that America’s needs required friendly ties with China.
E. Peace and War in Latin America
Latin America was a major source of immigration to the United States. As civil wars ended in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, the U.S. accelerated the drug war by attempting to interrupt supply through interdiction.
F. Invasion of Panama
Authorities had ignored Manual Noriega’s role in the drug trade because he supported American policies. In 1990, however, troops invaded Panama to arrest Noriega.
G. End of Apartheid in South Africa
Partly from U.S. pressure, the white minority South African government yielded power.
H. Persian Gulf War
In 1991 the United States and its allies fought a war in response to the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.
I. Operation Restore Hope in Somalia
American troops entered Somalia in an effort to stabilize the nation and forestall the effects of widespread famine.
IV. Economic Doldrums, American Voters, and the Election of 1992
A. A Stagnant Economy
The United States suffered a recession under Bush, and by 1992 the number of poor people in America reached its highest level since 1964.
B. Scandals in Congress
Americans expressed growing resentment at congressional scandals and the improper use of privilege.
C. Bill Clinton
Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton won the Democratic nomination. Clinton hoped to institute a new brand of liberalism, but many of his proposals seemed traditional.
D. Ross Perot
Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot mounted a third?party candidacy in 1992.
E. Los Angeles Riots
In 1992, the acquittal of policemen accused of beating an African American sparked a massive riot in Los Angeles. However, Bush remained inactive in dealing with the nation’s urban and racial problems.
F. Clinton’s Victory
The Clinton?Gore ticket made inroads into some Republican strongholds, and the Clinton-Gore ticket won 43 percent of the popular vote in the three?way race.
V. Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Political Stalemate
A. Economic Proposals
Clinton’s sponsored tax increases, coupled with what critics considered to be inadequate spending cuts. Tax increases, spending cuts, and economic recovery caused the federal deficit to decline some $83 billion during Clinton’s first fiscal year in office.
B. Legislative Successes
Clinton did manage to lead some important legislation into law.
C. Supreme Court Appointments
Clinton’s appointment of two justices to the Supreme Court during his first term meant that the Court would be less conservative.
D. Defeat of Healthcare Reform
The failure to deliver on healthcare reform was Clinton’s major defeat.
E. A Controversial Couple
Both Bill and Hillary Clinton found themselves in the middle of controversy.
F. Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America
Republican Congressmen made a pledge to reform the nation by endorsing the “Contract with America.”
G. The “Republican Revolution”
Republicans in this election scored one of the most smashing victories in America political history.
VI. Anger, Apathy, and the Election of 1996
A. Hostility to Government and Political Alienation
The U.S. has a long history of antigovernment sentiment. In the 1990s, increasing numbers of Americans shared the three beliefs that all such antigovernment movements have had in common: government has betrayed the people, its leaders are corrupt, and the Constitution has been subverted.
B. Failures and Successes of the “Republican Revolution”
Under the leadership of Newt Gingrich, Republicans in the 104th Congress angered many voters. Clinton began to position himself as the protector of federal programs and policies that the Republicans attacked.
C. The 1996 Election
Clinton easily defeated his opponent, Robert Dole, but did not receive a hoped?for mandate.
VII. The Prospects and Perils of Hegemonic Power: Military Interventions, Peace Diplomacy, Trade, and Culture
A. Ethnic Wars in Former Yugoslavia
Savage ethnic wars, as in Bosnia, replaced Cold War tensions. U.S. and NATO forces began to bomb Yugoslavia in March 1999 ultimately forcing Milosevic to withdraw his troops from Kosovo. The U.S. joined the U.N. in sending a peacekeeping force to the area.
B. Arab-Israeli Agreements
In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, the PLO and Israel seemed more willing to settle their differences. An agreement was signed between the two in 1993 for Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank’s Jericho. Israel and Jordan signed a peace agreement in 1994. Although terrorism continued to plague the region, Israel withdrew its troops from Hebron in 1997.
C. Genocide in Rwanda
The U.S. and the U.N. responded too late to stop the genocide in Rwanda.
D. Pressures against Haiti and Cuba
American troops were sent to Haiti in Operation Uphold Democracy, but they failed to revitalize the island nation and were subsequently withdrawn. Relations with Cuba continued to be strained, and passage of the Helm-Burton Act in 1996 tightened the economic embargo of Cuba.
E. Trade Expansion and Globalization
The Clinton administration continued to try to keep foreign markets open to American products and to close the U.S. trade gap.
F. Weapons of Mass Destruction
Although weapons proliferation continued to be a major concern, Congress rejected the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996.
G. Environmental and Population Crises
Environmental problems and the continued increase in the world’s population continued to cause world disorder and political instability.
H. Human Rights for Women
Despite gains, women still faced great obstacles to equality.
I. Globalization of American Culture
America continued to export its culture during the 1990s, especially to former Communist countries in Eastern Europe.
VIII. Clinton’s Second Term: Scandal, Impeachment, and Political Survival
A. Whitewater Indictments and Investigation
Clinton continued to be plagued by the Whitewater investigation
B. Monica Lewinsky
Kenneth Starr widened his investigation of Clinton to include lying to a grand jury over the President’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
C. Impeachment by the House
Based on Starr’s report, the House passed two articles of impeachment against Clinton in December 1999.
D. Acquittal by the Senate
The Senate acquitted Clinton of the charges against him. Political partisanship continued to prevent passage of much-needed legislation. Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore began to position themselves for the 2000 presidential race.
E. Columbine
IX. The 2000 Elections, a New Bush, and Terrorism
A. Super Tuesday
Democrat Al Gore, Jr., and Republican George W. Bush swept their parties’ primaries on Super Tuesday and went on to become the presidential candidates of their respective parties for the 2000 election.
B. The Polls¾A Close Race
Although many expected Vice President Al Gore to ride the wave of prosperity and peace to victory in November 2000, by election day the Gallup poll indicated that the race was too close to call.
C. Florida and the Supreme Court
Disputed election returns from Florida led to legal action, first, in the Florida Courts and then, in the United States Supreme Court. In rendering its decision in Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 ruling, halted any further recounts in Florida. This decision gave the state and the presidential election to George W. Bush.
D. Early Bush Positions
Bush’s positions pleased social conservatives, the energy industry, tax reduction advocates, and the insurance industry. President Bush was able to secure passage of a ten-year tax reduction program.
E. Economic Slowdown
The economy moved toward recession by mid-2001, unemployment began to rise, and the projected budget surplus vanished
F. Terrorism
The nation had been plagued by terrorist acts dating back at least two decades.
G. September 11 and Its Impact
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were comparable, in the minds of many Americans, to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The spreading of anthrax through the mails, which had caused the deaths of four people by late October, added to the nation’s woes. In response to the attacks of September 11, the government announced a war against terrorism and first conducted an air campaign against the Taliban and al-Queda forces in Afghanistan. Tom Ridge was appointed director of the Office of Homeland Security, and the government suggested that some civil liberties might have to be restricted to deal with the new crisis.
Here you will find AP US History notes for the American History: A Survey, 10th Edition notes. These American History: A Survey notes will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
Additional Information:
1)The Early Chesapeake
a)The Founding of Jamestown
i)Charter granted to London Company in 1604 by King James I, Godspeed, Discovery, and Susan Constant left England and landed in Jamestown, VA in 1607
ii)Colony mostly al men, inadequate diets contributed to disease, by 1608 colony had almost failed (poor leadership, location, disease, food) except Capt. John Smith saved it by imposing work and order and organizing raids against Indians
b)Reorganization
i)London Company became Virginia Company 1609, gained expanded charter, sold stock, wish to grew VA colony with land grants to planters
ii)Winter of 1609-1610= starving time
iii)First governor Lord De La Warr arrived 1609, established harsh discipline w/ work gangs
iv)Communal system didn’t work well, Governor Dale thought better off with personal incentive to work and private ownership
c)Tobacco
i)1612 VA planter John Rolfe began to grow tobacco, cultivation spread, created a tobacco economy that was profitable, uncertain, and high labor and land demands, created need for territorial expansion
d)Expansion
i)Tobacco still not enough to make profits, 1618 campaign to attract settlers
ii)Headright system- land grants to new settles, encouraged family groups to migrate together, rewarded those who paid for passages of others
iii)Company brought women and skilled workers, allowed for a share in self-govt (VA House of Burgesses met July 30, 1619)
iv)1919 saw arrival of first Negro slaves on Dutch ship, but palnters continued to favor indentured servants until at least 1670s b/c cheaper and more abundant
v)Colony grew b/c Indians suppressed, Sir Thomas Dale led assaults, huge uprising staged by Powhatans in 1622 but eventually put down, again 1644
vi)By 1624 Virginia Company defunct, lost all funds, charter revoked by James I and colony put under control of crown
e)Exchanges of Agricultural Tech
i)Survival of Jamestown result of agricultural tech developed by Indians and borrowed by English, such as value of corn w/ its high yields, beans alongside corn to enrich soil
f)Maryland and the Calverts
i)Dream of George Calvert (first Lord Baltimore) as speculative venture + retreat for English Cath. oppressed by Anglican church, 1632 son Cecilius (second Lord Balt) got charter from king, made complete sovereigns of new land
ii)1634 Lord Balt named brother Leonard Calvert governor, settlers arrived in Maryland
iii)Calverts invested heavily, needed many settlers to make profit, encouraged Prot. as well as Catholics (Cath became minority), “Act Concerning Religion” granted toleration; yet politics in MD plagued by tension btwn Catholic minority and Prot. majority, civil war 1655
iv)Proprietor was absolute monarch, Lord Balt. granted land to relatives and other English aristocrats, labor shortages required headright system
g)Turbulent Virginia
i)Mid 17th century VA colony had larger pop, complexity and profitability of economy, debates over how to deal with Indians
ii)Sir William Berkeley apptd governor by King Charles I 1642, put down 1644 Indian uprising and agreed to not cross settlement line. Impossible to protect Indian territory b/c of growth of VA after Cromwell’s victory in English Civil War and flight of opponents to colony
(1)Choice lands along river occupied, new arrivals pressed westward
iii)At first vote extended to all, later only to landowners and elections rare, led to recent settlers in “back country” to be underrepresented
h)Bacon’s Rebellion
i)Nathaniel Bacon and other members of backcountry gentry disagreed on policies toward natives, backcountry in constant danger from Indian attack b/c on land reserved to natives by treaty, believed east. aristocracy wanted to protect dominance by holding down white settlers in west
ii)Bacon on governors council, in 1675 led counter-attacks against Indians against governors orders, kicked off council, unauthorized assault on Indians became a military challenge to colonial govt
iii)Bacon’s army marched on Jamestown twice, died suddenly
iv)Rebellion showed unwillingness of settlers to abide by agreements with natives, also potential for instability in colony’s large population of free, landless men eager for land and against landed gentry—common interest in east and west aristocracy to prevent social unrest, led to African slave trade growing
2)The Growth of New England
a)Plymouth Plantation
i)1608 Pilgrims (Separatists from Ang. Chur) went to Holland to seek freedom, unhappy with children entering Dutch society
ii)Leaders obtained permission from VA Company to settle in VA, king would “not molest them”. William Bradford was their leader and historian
iii)Left 1620 aboard Mayflower with 35 “saints” (members of church) and 67 “strangers”, original destination Hudson River but ended up @ Cape Cod
iv)Land outside of London Company’s territory, therefore signed Mayflower Compact to establish a civil govt and give allegiance to king
v)Found cleared land from Indians killed by disease, natives provided assistance (Squanto), Indians weaker than Southern counterparts, 1622 Miles Standish imposed discipline on Pilgrims to grow corn, develop fur trade
vi)William Bradford elected governor, sought legal permission for colony from Council for New England, ended communal labor and distributed land privately, paid off colonies debt
b)The Massachusetts Bay Experiment
i)Puritans persecuted by James I, and afterward by Charles I who was trying to restore Catholicism to England. 1629 sought charter for land in Massachusetts, some members of Massachusetts Bay Company saw themselves as something more than a business venture, creating a haven for Puritans in N.E.
ii)Governor John Winthrop led seventeen ships in 1630, Boston became company headquarters and capital but many colonists moved into a number of other new towns in E. Mass.
iii)Mass. Bay Company became colonial govt, corporate board of directors gave way to elections by male citizens. Didn’t separate from Anglican church but more leeway in church than centralized structure in England, “congregation church”
iv)Mass Puritans serous and pious ppl, led lies of thrift and hard work, “city upon a hill” (Winthrop). Clergy and govt worked close together, taxes supported church, dissidents little freedom, Mass a “theocracy”
v)Large number of families ensured feeling of commitment to community and sense of order, allowed pop to reproduce very quickly
c)Expansion of New England
i)As more ppl arrived many didn’t accept all religious tenets of colony’s leaders, Connecticut Valley attracted settlers b/c of fertile land and less religious
ii)Thomas Hooker led congregation to Hartford, established Fundamental Orders of Connecticut- created govt with more men given right to vote and hold off
iii)Fundamental Orders of New Haven established New Haven b/c viewed Boston as lacking in religious orthodoxy, later made Connect. with Hartford (royal)
iv)Rhode Island origins in Roger Williams, minister from MA who John Winthrop and others viewed as heretic. Was a Separatist, called for sep of church and state, banished + created Providence, 1644 obtained charter from Parliament to establish govt, “liberty in religious concernments”
v)Anne Hutchinson believed that Mass clergy were not among elect and ad no right to spiritual office, went against assumptions of proper role of women in Puritan society. Developed large following from women who wanted active role in religious affairs, and those opposed to oppressive colonial govt
(1)Unorthodoxy challenged religious beliefs + social order of Puritans, banished and moved to Rhode Island,
vi)Followers of Hutchinson moved to New Hampshire and Maine, established in 1629 by Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges who received grant from Council for New England (former Plymouth Company)
d)Settlers and Natives
i)Natives less powerful rivals to N.E. settlers, small to begin with and nearly extinguished by epidemics
ii)Provided assistance to settlers, whites learned about local food crops + technique, trade with Indians created fortune
iii)Peaceful relations did not last, whites appetite for land grew as pop increased, livestock required more land to graze. Character of conflict and white bruatity emerged in part out of Puritan attitude toward Natives now seen as “heathens” and “savages’
e)The Pequot War, King Philip’s War, and Technology of Battle
i)First major conflict 1637 w/ settlers in Connecticut Valley and Pequot Indians over trade w/ Dutch and land, English allied with rival Indians to Pequots. Capt John Mason killed many Indians, Pequots almost wiped out
ii)Most prolonged and deadly encounter began n 1675 btwn chief of Wampanoags under chief named King Philip, believed only armed resistance could protect land from English invasion and imposition of English law
(1)for three years natives destroyed towns, Mass economy and society weakened, white settlers eventually fought back
(2)1676 joined with rival Indians, Wampanoags shortly defeated, pop decimated and made powerless
iii)Settlements still remained in danger from surviving Indians, & new competition from French and Dutch
iv)Indians had made effective use of new weapon technology: flintlock rifle, which allowed them to inflict higher amounts of casualties. But Indians were no match for advante of English in numbers and firepower
3)The Restoration Colonies
a)The English Civil War
i)Charles I dissolved Parliament 1629 and ruled as absolute monarch, 1642 some members organized military challenge to king. Cavaliers (king, Cath) vs. Roundheads (Parl, Puritans + Prot). 1649 king defeated
ii)After Cromwell’s death in 1658, Stuart Restoration put Charles II back on throne, rewarded courtiers with grants of land. Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania all chartered as proprietary ventures
b)The Carolinas
i)Carved out of Virginia and given to eight proprietors 1663, proposed to sell or give land away using headrights and collect annual payments (quitrents), freedom of worship to Christians, but efforts failed
ii)Anthony Ashley Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury) financed migration from England 1670, founded Charleston 1690. Wanted planned and ordered community, with help of John Locke drew up Fundamental Constitution for Caroline 1669- elaborate system of land distribution and social order
(1)Colony never united, north and south separated socially and economically. N=backwoods, poor. S=Charles Town, trade, prosperous, aristocratic. Rice principal crop
iii)SC close ties to overpopulated Barbados where slavery had taken root. White Carribbean migrants- tough profit seekers- brought with them slave-based plantation society
iv)Tension btwn small N farmers and S wealthy planters, after Coopers death in 1719 colonists seized col from prop., king divided region into 2 royal colonies: North and South Carolina
c)New Netherland, New York, and New Jersey
i)1664 Chalres II gave brother James duke of York territory btwn Connecticut and Deleware River, much of which was claimed by Dutch. Conflict part of wider commercial rivalry, but English fleet under Richard Nicolls forced New Amsterdam and Peter Stuvyesant to surrender it to English. Became New York
ii)Diverse colony w/ may ppl, granted religious toleration, but tension over power distribution. Dutch “patrons” (large landowners”, also wealthy English landlords, fur traders w/ Iroquois ties
iii)Colony was growing and prosperous, most ppl settled within Hudson valley
iv)Duke gave land to political allies in John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, named their territory New Jersey. 1702 ceded control back to crown
d)The Quaker Colonies
i)Pennsylvania born out of effort of dissenting English Prt. to find home for religion and distinctive social order. Led by George Fox, Margaret Fell
ii)Society of Friends (Quakers) anarchistic, democratic, pacifist, no class distinction. They were unpopular, some jailed. Looked to America for asylum
iii)Wanted colony of their own, in William Penn found son of Navy admiral and Quaker. After death of father 1681 claimed debt owed by Charles II in form of a large grant of territory w/ Penn having virtual total authority
iv)Penn advertised PA (wanted profit), became cosmopolitan, settlers flocked there from Eur, but also wanted it to be a “holy experiment”
(1)Created liberal Frame of Government with Rep assembly, 1682 founded Philadelphia, befriended Indians and always paid them for land
(2)PA prospered but was not without conflict. By 1690s ppl upset by power of proprietor, south believed govt unresponsive. 1701 Penn agreed to Charter of Liberties establishing rep assembly with limited power of proprietor, “lower counties” allowed own rep assembly—result was later Delaware
4)Borderland and Middle Grounds
a)The Caribbean Islands
i)Early 17th century migrants flocked to Caribbean. B4 settlers substantial Native populations, wiped out by Eur epidemics, Islands became nearly deserted
ii)Spanish claimed title to al islands but only settled Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico. After Spain and Netherlands went to war 1621 English colonization increased thru 17th century raids by Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch
iii)Colonies built economy on exporting crops, tobacco and cotton unsuccessful, turned to sugar cane and rum. Sugar labor intensive and native population too small for workforce, planters found it necessary to import laborers
(1)Started with indentured servants but work too hard, began to rely more heavily on enslaved African work force. English soon outnumbered
b)Masters and Slaves in the Caribbean
i)Small white, successful population, large bonded African population led to fear of revolt, 1660s legal codes to regulate relations between master and slaves
(1)Many white slave owners concluded cheaper to buy new slaves than to protect well-being, worked them to death
ii)Establishing stable society and culture difficult b/c of harsh and deadly conditions, wealthy returned to England, whites left behind were poor + mostly single and contributed little, no church, family, community
(1)Africans developed world of their own, sustained African religion and social traditions
iii)Caribbean connected to NA colonies, principle source of slaves, plantation system provided models to mainland peoples
c)The Southwestern Borderlands
i)In C and S America Span established impressive empire, settlers prosperous. Areas N of Mexico unimportant economically, peopled by minorities, missionaries, soldiers
ii)New Mexico after Pueblo revolt 1680 developed flourishing agriculture, still not as successful as Span in Mexico and other denser areas
iii)Span began to colonize California after other Eur began to establish presence 1760s. Missions, forts (prestidos) trading areas led to decline in native population, rest forced to convert to Catholicism. Spanish wanted prosperous agricultural economy, used Indian laborers
iv)Late 17th century early 18th cent Spanish considered greatest threat to northern borders French. French traveled down Mississippi R., claimed Louisiana 1682.
(1)Fearing French incursions west + displaced natives, Span began to fortify Texas by building forts, missions, settlements, San Fernando (San Antonio) 1731
(2)North Arizona part of N Mexico ruled by Santa Fe, rest Mexican region Sonora. Heavy Jesuit missionary presence, little success though
v)Spanish colonies in SW created les to increase wealth of empire than to defend it from threats by other Eur powers in NA, but helped create enduring society unlike those established by English. Enlisted natives instead of displacing them
d)The Southeast Borderlands
i)Direcy challenge to English in NA was Spanish in southeastern areas. Florida claimed in 1560s missionaries and traders expanded north into Georgia. 1607 founding of Jamestown Span felt threatened, built forts, area between Carolinas and Florida site of tension btwn Span English and Span French
ii)By 18th century Spanish settlers driven out of Florida, confinded to St Augustine and Pensacola, relied on natives and Africans, intermarried
iii)Eventaully English prevailed, acquired Florida in Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War), English had always wanted to protect southern boundary
e)The Founding of Georgia
i)Founders group of unpaid trustees led by General James Oglethorpe, interested in economic success, military and philanthropic motives. Military barrier against Spanish and refuge for impoverished English to begin anew
ii)Treaty recognized English lands 1676, fighting continued in 1686 w/ raid against Carolina, hostilities broke out in 1701 in Queen Anne’s War/ War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1713
iii)Oglethorpe wanted colony south of Carolinas, wanted prisoners and poor people in debt to be farmer-soldiers of the new colony
iv)1732 King George II granted trustees land, compact settlement to defend against Spanish and Indians, excluded Africans, prohibited rum, regulated trade w/ Indians excluded catholics—all to prevent revolt/conflict
v)1733 founded at mouth of Savanna R, few debtors released form jail so hundreds of impoverished ppl from England and Scotland as well as religious refugees from Switzerland and Germany settled colony
vi)Strict rules stifled early development- ppl demanded right to buy slaves, restrictions on size of individual property, power of trustees
vii)1740 Ogelthorpe failed assault on St Augustine, trustees removed limitation on individual landholdings, 1750 allowed slavery, 1751 gave control of colony to king who then allowed for representative assembly
f)Middle Grounds
i)Struggle for NA not only among Eurs, but btwn Eurs and native populations
ii)In VA and New England settlers quickly established dominance and displaced natives, but in other areas balance of power more precarious
iii)In western borders neither side dominant, in “middle grounds” frequent conflict but each side had to make concessions. In these areas influence of colonial govt invisible, had own relationship with tribes
iv)To Indians Eurs menacing and appealing. Feared powerful weapons, but wanted them to moderate their own conflicts, offer gifts
v)17th century before English settlers French adept at beneficial relationships with tribes, many were solitary fur traders
vi)By mid 18th century French influence declinging and British settlers becoming dominant, had to deal with leaders thru gifts, cememonies, mediation instead of simple commands and raw force
vii)As British and American influece grew, new settlers had difficulty adapting to these complex rituals, stability btwn whites and Indians deteriorated, by 19th century “middle grounds” collapsed. Sotry of whites and Indians not only of conquest and subjugation but in some regions of difficult but stable acomodation and mutual adaption
5)The Evolution of the British Empire
a)The Drive for Reorganization
i)Imperial reorganization some believed would increase colonial profits, power of govt, success of mercantilism. Colonies= market for manufactured goods, source for raw materials, but foreigners had to be excluded
ii)Govt sought to monopolize trade with its colonies, but at times American colonists found it more profitable to trade w/ Spanish, French, Dutch. Trade developed btwn them and non-English markets
iii)@ First govt made no effort to restrict, but during Oliver Cromwell’’s Protectorate in 1650 + 1651 passed laws to keep Dutch ships out of English colonies, Charlies II adopted three Navigation Acts
(1)First 1660 allowed trade to occur only in British ships. Second 1663 all goods to Eur had to pass thru England on way, taxable. Third 1673 created duties on coastal trade and allowed customs officials to enforce Acts
iv)Laws advantage for England, but some for colonies as well: created important shipbuilding industry, encouraged and subsidized the development production of goods English needed
b)The Dominion of New England
i)1679 Charles II tried to increase control over MA yb making New Hampshire a royal colony, five years later after MA refused to enforce Navigation Acts Charles revoked Massachusetts corporation charter, became royal colony
ii)James II 1686 created Dominion of New England, combined govts of MA w/ rest of NE colonies, 1688 NY and NJ as well. Eliminated assemblies, appt a single governor, Sir Edmund Andros. Rigid enforcement of Navigation Acts, dismissal of claims “rights of Englishmen”, strengthened Anglican church
c)The “Glorious Revolution”
i)James II ruled autocratically, Cath. ministers, w/o Parliament, 1688 daughter Mary and husband William of Orange assumed throne= bloodless coup
ii)Bostonians heard of overthrow of James II, unseated unpopular viceroy. Dominion of NE abolished, separate govts restored- except 1691 Plymouth + MA merged 2 royal colony, charter restored General Court but governor too, replaced church membership w/ property ownership as basis 4 voting + office
iii)Adros governed NY thru Captain Francis Nicholson (supported by wealthy merchants and fur traders), dissidents were led by Jacob Leisler who raised militia and captured city fort, drove Nicholson to exile. 1691 William and Mary appd new governor, Leisler charged with treason, rivalry btwn “Leislerians” and “anti-Laslerians” dominated NY poitics for years
iv)Maryland ppl erroneously assumed Cath Lord Baltimore had sided with James II, so 1689 John Coode started revolt, drove out Lord Balt’s officials, thru elected convention chose committee to govern and applied for chater, 1691 William and Mary granted. Church of Eng. offical religion, Cath prevented to hold office, vote, practice religion in public. 1715 5th Lord Baltimore became proprietor after joining Anglican Church
1)The Colonial Population
a)Indentured Servitude
i)Young men and women bound themselves to masters for a fixed term of servitude, in return received passage to America, food shelter, and males clothing, tools, and land at end—in reality left with nothing at all
(1)Provided means of coping with severe labor shortage, masters received headrights, for servants hope to escape troubles, establish themselves
ii)Most former servants formed large floating population of young single men, traveled from place to place, source of social unrest
iii)1670s flow began to decline b/c of prosperity in England, decrease in birth rate
b)Birth and Death
i)Inadequate food, frequent epidemics, large number early deaths. But growth of population even after immigration, after 1650s natural increase= most growth
ii)N= cool climate, relatively disease-free, clean water, no large population centers for epidemics= long lives. S= mortality rates high (infants too), life expectancy low, disease and salt-contaminated water. growth b/c immigration
iii)By late 17th cent ratio of males to females becoming more balanced, led to increase in natural growth
c)Medicine in the Colonies
i)17th + 18th cent no concept of infection + sterilization, midwives in childbirth and recommended herbs
ii)Humoralism led to purging, expulsion, bleeding. Most ppl treated themselves
d)Women and families in the Chesapeake
i)B/c of sex ration women married young, high mortality rates, premarital sex common. Life of childbearing, average of 8 children, 5 of which typically died in childhood or infancy. Had greater levels of freedom @ first b/c of ratio
ii)High mortality rates led to many orphans, special courts and institutions to protect and control them. By 18th century life expectancy increasing, indentured servitude decreasing, more equal sex ratio, life easer for whites
e)Women and Families in New England
i)Family structure more stable + traditional, women minority married young, children more likely to survive, much of life spent rearing and childbearing
ii)Family relationships and women status dictated by religion. S established churches weak, NE power in men who created patriarchal view of society
f)The Beginnings of Slavery in British America
i)Demand for black servants to supplement scare southern labor supply, limited @ first b/c Atlantic slave trade did not serve American colonies- Portuguese to SA and Caribbean, by late 17th century came to America w/ French and Dutch
(1)Sugar economies of Caribbean + Brazil demanded slaves, not until 1670s did traders import blacks directly 2 (b4 mostly W. Indies to America)
ii)Mid 1690s Royal African Company’s monopoly broken, prices fell, number of Africans increased. Small number in NE, more in middle colonies, majority in S b/c flow of white laborers had all but stopped
iii)Early 18th century rigid distinction established btwn blacks and whites, no necessity to free black workers, serve permanently, children= new work force
(1)Assumptions of white superior race, applied like it had to natives. Slave codes limited rights of blacks in law, almost absolute authority of masters
g)Changing Sources of European Immigration
i)BY early 18th century immigration from England in decline- result of better economic conditions and govt restrictions on emigration. French, German, Swiss, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Scandinavian immigration increased
(1)French Huguenots, German Protestants (many from Palatinate)- settled in NY, PA (Dutch mispronunciation of Deutsch), around 1710 Scotch-Irish immigrated + pushed out to edges of Eur settlements- significant in NJ and PA, established Presbyterianism as important religion there
2)The Colonial Economies
a)The Southern Economy
i)Chesapeake- tobacco basis of economy, bust and boom pattern, enabled some planters to grow enormously wealthy
ii)South Carolina and Georgia staple was rice. Arduous + unhealthful, whites refused to cultivate, dependent on African labor more than elsewhere. Blacks showed greater resistance 2 disease, more adept at agricultural tasks than white
(1)Early 1740s indigo contributed to SC economy, high demand in England
iii)B/c of S dependence on cash crops developed less of a commercial or industrial economy, few cities, no large local merchant communities
b)Northern Economic and Technological Life
i)Agriculture dominated, more diverse but conditions less favorable, hard to develop large-scale commercial farming, middle colonies more suited 4 wheat
ii)Home industries, craftsmen and artisans, mills for grinding grain, large scale shipbuilding operations, 1640s MA metals industry w/ ironworks. Metal became important part of colonial economy, largest enterprise was German Peter Hasenclever in NJ- but Iron Act of 1750 limited surpassing England
iii)Biggest obstacles for industrialization were inadequate labor supply small domestic market, inadequate transpiration facilities and energy supplies
iv)Natural resources- lumber, mining, fishing, impt commodities to trade
c)The Extent and Limits of Technology
i)Ppl lacked guns, plows, lack of ownership of tools b/c of poverty, isolation
ii)Few colonists self-sufficient in late 17th early 18th cent, ability of ppl to acquire manufactured implements lagged behind capacity to produce them
d)The Rise of Colonial Commerce
i)At first no commonly accepted medium of exchange, difft forms of paper currency ineffective + could not be used for goods from abroad
ii)Imposing order on trade difficult, production and markets of goods not guaranteed, small competitive companies made stabilization more difficult
iii)Commerce eventually grew, large coastal trade w/ each other + W. Indies, expanding transatlantic trade w/ England, Eur continent, west Africa.
iv)“Triangular trade”, trade in rum, slaves, sugar, manufactured goods
v)New merchant class developed in port cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia), protected from competition by Navigation Acts, access to market in England. Ignored and developed markets with other nations, higher profits, financed import of English manufactured goods
vi)During 18th century commercial system stabilized, merchants expanded
e)The Rise of Consumerism
i)Growing prosperity created new appetite and ability to satisfy, material goods
ii)Increasing division of societies by class, ability to purchase and show goods impt to demonstrate class, especially in cities w/o estate to prove wealth
iii)Industrial Revolution allowed England and Eur to produce more affordable goods, increasingly commercial society created social climate where buying goods considered social good. Merchants and traders began advertising
iv)Things once considered luxuries came to be seen as necessities once readily available, such as tea, linens. Quality of possessions associated with virtue + refinement, strive to become more educated
v)Growth of consumption and refinement led cities to plan growth and ensure elegant public squares, parks, boulevards, public stages for social display
3)Patterns of Society
a)The Plantation
i)Some plantations enormous, but most 17th cent plantations were rough and small estates, work force seldom more than 30 ppl
ii)Economy precarious- good years growers could earn great profit and expand, but couldn’t control markets, when prices fell faced ruin
iii)Most plantations far from towns, forced to become self-contained communities, some larger ones approached size of town
iv)Society highly stratified, wealthy landowners exercised greater social and economic influence. Small farmers with few or no slaves formed majority
b)Plantation Slavery
i)By mid-18th cent ¾ blacks lived on plantations with 10+ slaves, ½ lived w/ 50+
ii)In larger establishments society and culture developed btwn slaves, attempts at nuclear families made but members could be sold at any time, led to extended families. Developed own languages, religion w/ Christianity and African lore
iii)Occasional acts of individual resistance, at least twice actual slave rebellions. Stone Rebellion in SC 1739- 100 Africans rose up + attempted to flee to Florida, quickly crushed by whites. Other slaves tried to run away
iv)Some slaves learned skills, set up own shops, some bought freedom
c)The Puritan Community
i)Social unit of NE was town, “covenant” of members bound all in religious + social commitment to unity. Arranged around a “common”, outlying fields divided by family size, social station. Little colonial interference, self govt
ii)English primogeniture (passing of all to firstborn son) replaced by division amongst all sons, women more mobile than brothers b/c no inheritance
iii)Tight knit community controlled by layout, power of church, town meeting. Strayed by pop increases, ppl began farming further lands, moved houses to be closer, applied for church of their own, eventually led to new town
iv)Patriarchal society weakened by economic necessity, needed help w/ farm, ect.
d)The Witchcraft Phenomenon
i)Gap btwn expectation of united community and reality of increasingly diverse and fluid one difficult for NEers to accept- led to tensions that produced hysteria such as witchcraft (Satanic powers) in the 1680s and 1690s
ii)Salem, MA- accusations spread from W Indians to prominent ppl. This model would repeat itself, mostly middle-aged, childless widowed women who may have inherited property. Puritan society no tolerance for “independent women”
iii)Reflection of highly religious character of society, witchcraft was mainstream
e)Cities
i)Commercial centers emerged along Atlantic by 1770s- New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Charles Town, Newport (RI)
ii)Trading centers for farmers, marts for international trade, leaders merchants w/ large estates, large social distinctions. Center of industry such as ironworks and distilleries, advanced schools, cultural activities. Crime, vice, epidemics, ect.
iii)Vulnerable to fluctuations in trade, countryside effects muted. Places where new ideas could circulate, regular newspapers, books from abroad= new ideas
4)Awakenings and Enlightenments
a)The Pattern of Religions
i)Religious toleration flourished in America b/c of necessity. Church of England official religion for some colonies, ignored except in VA and MA. Protestants extended toleration more readily to each other than to Roman Catholics- persecuted in MA after 1691 overthrow of proprietors. NEers viewed Cath French agents of Rome
ii)Early 18th cent some troubled w/ decline religious piety in society, movement west + scattered settlements= loss with organized religion, commercial success created more secular outlook in urban areas. jeremiads= sermon of despair
b)The Great Awakening
i)Began in 1730s climax 1740s, new spirit of religious fervor, appeal to women and younger sons b/c of rhetoric of potential for every person to break away from constraints and renew relationship with God
ii)Evangelists from England such as John and Charles Wesley, George Whitfield spread revival. Most famously NE Congregationalist Jonathan Edward
c)The Enlightenment
i)Product of great scientific and intellectual discoveries in Eur in 17th cent, natural laws discovered that regulated nature, celebrated human reason + inquiry. Reason and not just faith create progress and knowledge
ii)Ppl should look at themselves for guidance to live and shape society, not to God. Didn’t challenge religion, insisted rational inquiry supported Christianity
d)Education
i)Even b4 Enlightenment colonists placed high value on education, MA 1647 law required each town to have a public school. Most white males were literate, women’s rate lagged, Africans virtually no access to education
ii)Six colleges by 1763, most founded by religious groups: Harvard (Puritans) created to train ministers, William and Mary (Anglicans) Yale (Congregationalists). Despite religious basis, liberal education. Kings College (Columbia) and UPenn created as secular institutions
e)The Spread of Science
i)Prominent members of society members of the Royal Society of London.
ii)Value placed on scientific knowledge can be seen by rise of inoculation, spread by Cotton Mather and adopted in Boston 1720s, became common procedure
f)Concepts of Law and Politics
i)Americans believed they were re-creating institutions of Europe but b/c of lack of lawyers before 1700 English legal system was simplified- rights to trial by jury maintained but pleading and procedure simpler, punishment different b/c of labor-scarce society, govt criticism not libel if accurate
ii)Large degree of self-govt. Local communities ran own affairs, had delegates to colonial assemblies filed role of Parliament, apptd provincial governors powers were limited
iii) Provincial govts accustomed to acting pretty independently, expectations about rights of colonists began to take hold in America that policymakers in England did not share. Few problems before 1760s b/c British did little to exert authority they believed they possessed
1)Loosening Ties
a)A Tradition of Neglect
i)After Glorious Revolution Parliamentary leaders less inclined to tighten imperial control b/c depended on support of merchants + landholders who feared taxes, diminished profits
ii)Colonial administration inefficient split btwn Board of Trade and Plantations, Privy Council, admiralty, treasury. Many Royal officials in America apptd b/c of bribery or favoritism
iii)Resistance centered in colonial legislatures, claimed right to tax, approve appts, pass laws. Saw themselves as little parliaments, checked governor power
b)The Colonies Divided
i)Colonists often felt stronger ties to England than to one another. Yet cnxns still forged, Atlantic settlement created roads, trade, colonial postal service
ii)Loath to cooperate even against French and Indian threat. Still, delegation in Albany to Iroquois proposed establishing a general govt with power to govern relationships with Indians, but colony retaining constitution but power. This Albany Plan was rejected by all the colonies
2)The Struggle for the Continent
a)New France and the Iroquois Nation
i)By 1750s growing English and French settlements produced religious and commercial tensions. Louis XIV sought greater empire, French explorers had traveled down Mississippi R. and looked Westward, held continental interior
ii)To secure holdings founded communities, fortresses, missions, trading posts. Seigneuries (lords) held large estates, Creoles in S had plantation economy
iii)“Middle ground” of interior occupied by French, British, Indians. English offered Indians more and better goods, French offered tolerance + adjusted behavior to Indian patterns- French developed closer relationships
iv)Iroquois Confederacy a defensive alliance, most powerful tribal presence in NE. Forged commercial relationship w/ Dutch and English, played French against English to maintain independence. Ohio valley became battleground
b)Anglo-French Conflicts
i)Glorious Revolution led to William III and later Queen Anne to oppose French
ii)King William’s War (1689-1687), Queen Anne’s War began 1701 brought border fighting w/ Spanish, French and Indian allies. Treaty of Utrech 1713 ended conflicts, gave much land to English
iii)Conflict over trade btwn Spanish and English merged w/ conflict btwn French and English over Prussia + Austria. Resulted in King George’s War 1744-1748
iv)After, relations in America btwn English, French, Iroquois deteriorated. Iroquois granted concessions to British, French built new fortresses in Ohio valley, British did the same. Iroquois balance of power disintegrated
v)1754 VA sent militia under George Washington to challenge French, assaulted Fort Duquesne. F counter-assault on his Fort Necessity resulted in its surrender
c)The Great War for the Empire- The French and Indian War
i)First phase lasted from 1754 after For Necessity to expansion to Eur in 1756. Colonists most on own w/ only moderate British assistance- navy prevented landing of larger French reinforcements, but failed Ohio R. attack.
(1)Local colony forces occupied with defending themselves against W. Indian tribes’ (except Iroquois) raids who allied themselves with French after Fort Necessity defeat. Iroquois hesitant to molest French but allied with English
ii)Second phase began 1756 when French and English opened official hostilities in Seven Years’ War. Realignment of allies. Beginning 1757 British Sec. of State William Pitt began to bring most impt war effort in America under British control: forcibly enlisted colonists (impressments), seized supplies and forced shelter from colonists w/o compensation. By 1758 much friction
iii)Third phase Pitt relaxed policies, reimbursed control, returned military control to assemblies, additional troops to America. Finally tide in England’s favor, after poor French harvests 1756 suffered many defeats at hands of generals Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe thru 1758. Fall of Quebec 1759 by Wolfe resulted in surrender of French 1760
iv)Pitt didn’t pursue peace, but George III ascended throne and signed Peace of Paris 1763. F ceded Canada and land east of Miss. R
v)War expanded England’s New World territory, enlarged English debt. English officials angry at American ineptitude and few financial contributions
vi)Colonists had been forced to act in concert, return of authority to assemblies 1758 seemed to confirm illegitimacy of English interference in local affairs
vii)Disaster for Indians in Ohio Valley allied with French, Iroquois passivity resulted in deteriorated English relationship, Confed began to crumble
3)The New Imperialism
a)Burdens of Empire
i)After 1763 empire management more difficult. In past viewed colonies in terms of trade, now ppl argued land and population’s support and taxes were valuable
ii)Territorial annexations of 1763 doubled size of British Emp in NA. Conflict over whether west should be settled or not, colonial govts competed for jurisdiction, other wanted English to control or make new colonies
iii)English govt had vast war debt, English landlords + merchants objecting to tax increase, troops in India added expense, England couldn’t rely on cooperation of colonial govts. Argued tax administered by London only effective way
iv)New king George III 1760 determined to be active monarch, created unstable majority in Parliament, suffered mental illness, immature, insecure
(1)Apptd PM George Grenville 1763, unlike brother-in-law Pitt didn’t sympathize w/ American view, believed colonists indulged too long and should obey laws and pay cost of defending and administering empire
b)The British and the Tribes
i)To prevent conflict w/ Indians from settlers moving to western lands issued Proclamation of 1763 forbidding settlers to advance beyond Appalachian line
(1)Allowed London to control westward movement, limit depopulation of coastal trade markets, land and fur speculation to British and not colonists
ii)More land taken from natives but many tribes still supported it. John Stuart (south) and Sir William Johnson (north) in charge of native affairs
iii)Proc failure, settlers swarmed over boundary, new agreements failures as well
c)The Colonial Response
i)Grenville stationed British troops in America, Mutiny Act of 1765 required colonists to assist in provisioning of army, British navy patrolled for smugglers, customs service enlarged, no royal official substitutes, limited manufacturing
ii)Sugar Act 1764 tried to eliminate illegal sugar trade btwn colonies, foreigners
iii)Currency Act of 1764 disallowed use of paper currency by assemblies
iv)Stamp Act of 1765 imposed tax on all printed documents
v)New imperial program effort to reapply mercantilism, increased revenues. Colonists had trouble effectively resisting b/c on conflict amongst themselves, tension over “backcountry” settlers
vi)1771 small-scale civil war after Regulators in NC opposed high taxes sheriffs apptd by governor collected + felt underrepresented. Suppressed by governor
vii)After 1763 common grievances began to counterbalance internal divisions. N. merchants opposed commercial + manufacturing restraint, backcountry resented closing land speculation and fur trading, debted plantesr feared new taxes, professionals depended on other colonists, small farmers feared taxes ad abolition of paper money. Restriction came at beginning of economic depression, policies affected cities greatest where resistance first arose. Boston suffering worst economic problems
viii)Great political consequences, Anglo-Americans accustomed to self-govt thru provincial assemblies and right to appropriate money for colonial govt. Circumvention of assemblies by taxing public directly and paying royal officials unconditionally challenged basis of colonial power: public finance
(1)Same time democratic, but also conservative- to conserve liberties Americans believed already possessed
4)Stirrings of Revolt
a)The Stamp Act Crisis
i)Stamp Act of 1765 affected all Americans. Economic burdens were light but colonists disturbed by precedent set- past taxes to regulate commerce and not raise money, stamps obvious attempt to tax w/o assemblies approval
ii)Few colonists did more than grumble- until Patrick Henry 1765 in VA House of Burgesses spoke against British authority. Introduced resolutions known as “Virginia Resolves” declaring Americans possessed same rights as English, right to be taxed only by their own reps
iii)In MA James Otis called for intercolonial congress against tax, October 1765 Stamp Act Congress met in NY to petition king. Summer 1765 riots broke out along coast led by new Sons of Liberty. Boston crowd attacked Lt. Gov.
iv)Some opposition b/c of wealth/power disparity, mostly political + ideological
v)Stamp Act repealed b/c boycott of 1764 Sugar Act expanded to other colonies, aided by Sons of Liberty. Centered in Boston b/c that is where customs commissioners headquartered. English merchants begged for repeal b/c of lost markets, Marquis of Rockingham succeeded Grenville + convinced king to repeal it 1766. (Also, Declaratory Act asserted Parl. control over all colonies)
b)The Townshend Program
i)Negative rxn to appeasement in England. Landlords feared would lead to increased taxes on them, king bowed and appt William Penn (Lord Chatham) PM, but was incapacitated by illness to chairman of the exchequer Charles Townshend held real power
ii)1st problem Quartering Act, British believed reasonable since troops protecting, colonists objected b/c made contribution were mandatory. NY and MA refused
iii)1767 disbanded NY assembly until colonists obeyed Mutiny Act, new tax (Townshend Duties) on goods imported from England- tea, paper. Believed “external” tax would be difft than Stamp Act’s “internal” tax
iv)Colonists still objected b/c saw same purpose as to raise revenue w/o consent
v)MA Assembly lead opposition, urged all colonies stand up against every tax by Parl. Sec of State for Colonies Lord Hillsborough said any assembly endorsing MA would be dissolved. Other colonies railed to support MA
vi)Townshend attempted stronger enforcement of commercial regulations + stop smuggling thru new board of customs commissioners, based in Boston. Boston merchants organized boycott against products with T. Duties, 1768 NY and Philadelphia joined nonimportation agreement
vii)1767 T. died, Lord North repealed all Town. Duties except that on tea
c)The Boston Massacre
i)Before news of repeal reached America impt event in MA. B/c of Boston harassment of customs commissioners Brit govt placed regular troops in city. Tensions ran high, soldiers competed in labor market
ii)March 5, 1770 dockworkers + “liberty boys” pelted customs house sentries w/ rocks, scuffle ensued and British fired into crowd and killed 5 ppl
iii)Incident transformed by local resistance leaders into “Boston Massacre”, Paul Revere’s engraving pictured it as an organized assault on a peaceful crowd
iv)Samuel Adams leading figure in fomenting public outrage, viewed events in moral terms- England sinful and corrupt. Organized committee of correspondence 1772, other networks of dissent spread 1770s
d)The Philosophy of Revolt
i)Three years of calm but 1760s aroused ideological challenge to England. Ideas that would support revolution stemmed from religion (Puritans), politics, “radical” opposed to GB govt (Scots, Whigs), used John Locke for arguments
ii)New concept that govt was necessary to protect individuals from evils of ppl, but govt made up of ppl and therefore safeguards needed against abuses of power, ppl disturbed that king and ministers too powerful to be checked
iii)English const an unwritten flexible changing set of principles, Americans favored permanent inscription of govt powers
iv)Basic principle was right of ppl to be taxed only with their consent, “no taxation w/o representation” absurd to English who employed “virtual representation” (all Parl members rep all interests of whole nation) vs American “actual” representative elected and accountable to community
v)Difft opinion of sovereignty, Americans believed in division of sov btwn Parl and assemblies, British believed must be a single, ultimate authority
e)The Tea Excitement
i)Apperant calm disguised sense of resentment at enforcement of Navigation Acts 1770s. Dissent leaflets and literature, tavern conversation, not only iltellectuals but ordinary ppl haerd, discussed, absorbed new ideas
ii)1773 East India Company had large stock of tea could not sell in England, Tea Act of 1773 passed by Parl allowed company to export tea to America w/o paying navigation taxes paid by colonial merchants, allowed company to sell tea for less than colonists + monopolize colonial tea trade. Enraged merchants
iii)Enraged merchants, revived taxation without rep. issue. Lord North colonists would be happy with reduced tea prices but resistance leaders argued it was another example of unconstitutional tax. Massive boycott of tea followed
iv)Women role in resistance- plays of Mercy Otis Warren, Daughters of Liberty
v)Late 1773 w/ popular support leaders planned to prevent E. India Company from landing its cargoes in colonial ports, NY, Philadelphia, Charleston stopped shipment. December 16, 1773 Bostonians dressed as Mohawks boarded ships, poured tea chests into harbor—“Boston tea party”
vi)When Bostonians refused to pay for destroyed property George III and Lord North passed four Coercion Acts (Intolerable Acts to Americans) in 1774- closed port of Boston, reduced self-govt power, royal officers could be tried in England or other colonies, quartering of troops in empty houses
vii)Quebec Act provided civil govt for French Roman-Caths of Canada, recognized legality of Rom Cath church. Americans inflamed b/c feared was a plot to subject Americans to tyranny of pope, would hinder western expansion
viii)Coercive Acts didn’t isolate MA, made it a martyr, sparked new resistance
5)Cooperation and War
a)New Sources of Authority
i)Passage of authority from royal govt to colonists began on local level where history of autonomy strong. Example- 1768 Samuel Adams called convention of delegates from towns to sit in place of dissolved General Court. Sons of Liberty became source of power, enforced boycotts
ii)Committees of correspondence began 1772 in MA, VA made first intercolonial committee which enabled cooperation btwn colonies. VA 1774 governor dissolved assembly, rump session issued call for Continental Congress
iii)First Continental Congress met Sept 1774 in Philadelphia (no delegates from Georgia), made 5 major decisions
(1)Rejected plan for colonial union under British authority
(2)Endorsed statement of grievances, called 4 repeal of oppressive legislation
(3)Recommended colonists make military preparations for defense of British attack against Boston
(4)Nonimporation, nonexportation, nonconsumption agreement to stop all trade with Britain, formed “Colonial Association” to enforce agreements
(5)Agreed to meet in spring, indicating making CC a continuing organization
iv)CC reaffirmed autonomous status within empire, declared economic war. In Eland Lord Chatham (William Pitt) urged withdrawal of American troops, Edmund Burke for repeal of Coercive Acts. 1775 Lord North passed Conciliatory Propositions- no direct Parl tax, but colonists would tax themselves at Parls demand. Didn’t reach America until after first shot fired
b)Lexington and Concord
i)Farmers and townspeople of MA had been gathering arms and training “minutemen”. IN Boston General Thomas Gage knoew of preparations, received orders from England to arrest rebel leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington vicinity. Heard of minutemen stock in nearby Concord and decided to act on April 18, 1775
ii)William Dawes and Paul revere road from Boston to warn of impending British attack. At Lexington town common shots fired and minutemen fell. On march back from hidden farmers harassed British army
iii)Rebels circulated their account of events, rallied thousands of colonists in north + south to rebel cause. Some saw just another example of tension
1)The States United
a)Defining American War Aims
i)2nd Continental Congress (CC) agreed to support war, disagreed on purpose. One group led by John and Sam Adams favored full independence, others wanted modest reforms in imperial relationship. Most sought middle ground
ii)“Olive Branch Petition” conciliatory appeal to king, then July 1775 “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”
iii)Public @ first fought not for independence but redress of grievances, later began to change reasons b/c cost of war too large for such modest aims, anger over British recruitment of Indians, slaves, mercenaries, and b/c GB rejected Olive Branch Petition and enacted “Prohibitory Act” w/ naval blockade
iv)January 1776 Common Sense by Thomas Paine was revolutionary propaganda, argued that problem was not parliamentary acts but English constitution, king, and ruling system. GB no longer fit to rule b/c of brutality, corruption
b)The Decision for Independence
i)After Common Sense support grew, CC recommended colonies establish independent govt’s from British, July 4 1776 Declaration of Independence
ii)Dec of Indep. written mostly by Thomas Jefferson, restated contract theory of John Locke that govts formed to protect rights of “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”, then listed alleged crimes of king and Parliament
iii)Dec. inspired French Revolution’s Dec. of the rights of Men, claimed sovereign “United States of America”, led to increased foreign aid
c)Responses to Independence
i)At news of Dec many rejoiced others disapproved b/c still had great loyalty to king, called themselves Loyalists but independents called them Tories
ii)States drafted constitutions to replace loyal govts by 1781, states considered centers of authority but war required central direction
iii)1777 Articles of Confederation passed to confirm weak, decentralized system in place. Continental Congress was main coordinator of war effort
d)Mobilizing for War
i)Nation needed to raise, organize, equip, and pay for army. W/o British markets shortages of materials, gunsmiths couldn’t meet demand for funs and ammunition. Most supplies captured from Brits or supplied by Eur nations
ii)Financing problematic, Congress had no power to tax ppl + had to ask states for funds. Eventually issued paper money, led to inflation, value of money plummeted. Most farmers + merchants preferred business w/ British who could pay for goods in gold and silver. Govt forced to borrowed $ from other nations
iii)After patriotic surge 1775 few American army volunteers. States used persuasion, force, drafts. To correct problem of states controlling army units 1775 created Continental army w/ single commander, George Washington. In new nation unsure of structure and govt, he provided the army and the ppl a symbol of stability around which they could rally, held nation together
2)The War for Independence
a)The First Phase: New England
i)After Concord and Lexington American forces besieged army of General Thomas Gage in Boston, Battle of Bunker Hill fought June 1775. Heaviest British casualties of entire war occurred
ii)By 1776 Brits concluded Boston not best place to wage war from b/c of geography and fervor. March 1776 withdrew to Halifax, Nova Scotia
iii)In south Patriots crushed uprising of Loyalists February 1776 at Moore’s Creek Bridge, NC. In north Americans invaded Canada, Patriot General Benedict Arnold + Richard Montgomery threatened Quebec in order to remove British threat and recruit Canadians. Siege failed, Canada not to become part of US
iv)British evacuation not so much victory as changing English assumptions about war. Clear conflict not local phenomenon around Boston but larger war
b)The Second Phase: The Mid-Atlantic Region
i)During summer 1776 British army of 32,000 landed in New York City under William Howe. Americans rejected Howe’s offer or royal pardon, Washington’s 19,000 man army pushed backed from LI, thru NJ, to PA
ii)Eur warfare was seasonal activity, British settled for winter in NJ leaving outpost of Hessians at Trenton. Christmas 1776 Washington attacked across Deleware
iii)British 1777 sought to capture Philadelphia to discourage Patriots, rally Loyalists, end war quickly. Captured city September, Washington defeated at Germanton in October, went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. CC, dislodged from capital, met in York, PA
iv)British John Burgoyne led British campaign in north, at first successful- captured supplies of Fort Ticonderoga. Defeats led Congress to remove General Philip Schuyler and replace with Horatio Gates. But series of Patriot victories followed, Burgoyne forced to withdraw to Saratoga where Gates surrounded him and forced surrender of 5,000 man army
v)Campaign Patriot success, led to alliance btwn US and France
vi)British failure due to William Howe abandoning northern campaign and letting Burgoyne fight alone, allowed Washington to retreat and regroup instead of finishing him, left Continental army unmolested in Valley Forge
c)The Iroquois and the British
i)Iroquois Confederacy declared neutrality in 1776, but Joseph and Mary Brant persuaded some tribes to support British (Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga). Belived British victory would stem white movement onto tribal lands
ii)Only 3 of 6 nations supported British(Oneida, Tuscarora, Onondaga split)
d)Securing Aid From Abroad
i)Failure of Brits to crush Continental army in mid-Atlandtic states + rebel victory at Saratoga was turning point
ii)After Dec of Indep, US sent reps to Europe’s capitals to negotiate commercial treaties. Most promising potential Ally was France where King Louis XVI and his Count de Vergennes eager to see Britain lose part of empire
iii)Thru covert deals French supplied Americans supplies but would not officially recognize US diplomatically. Ben Franklin went to France, after news of Saratoga in February France formally recognized US as nation. Allowed for expanded assistance- money, munitions, navy
e)The Final Phase: The South
i)After defeat at Saratoga and French intervention British govt put limit on commitment to conflict, tried to enlist loyalist dissidents believed to be centered in South to fight from within
ii)British forced moved from battle to battle 1778-1781, but much less Loyalist sentiment than predicted. Some refused to rise up b/c of fear of Patriot reprisal + British attempts to free slaves in order to fight. Patriots=no threat to slavery
iii)British had disadvantage of enemy in hostile territory, new form of combat. Segments of population previously apathetic now forced to involve themselves
iv)In North fighting stalemate after British moved forces to New York. Benedict Arnold became traitor, scheme to betray Patriot fort at West Point was foiled
v)In South British captured Savannah 1778, Port of Charleston 1780. Won conventional battles but harassed as they moved thru countryside by Patriot guerillas. Lord Cornwallis (Brit general for South) defeated Patriot Horatio Gates, led Washing to give command to Gen. Nathanael Greene
vi)Battle of King’s Mountain 1780 a Patriot victory, Greene split army into small, fast contingents and refrained from open battles. British had to abandon Southern campaign after battle at Guilford Courth House, NC in 1781
vii)Cornwalis ordered by Clinton to wait for ships at Yorktown. Washington, French Count Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau, and Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse all coordinated army and navy to surround British on peninsula
viii)Cornwallis surrendered October 17, 1781. Fighting over, but Brits continued to hold seaports of Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, & New York
f)Winning the Peace
i)Cornwallis’s defeat let to outcry aginsnt war, Lord North resigned and Lord Shelbrune succeeded. British emissaries in France began speaking to diplomats there (Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Jay). Final settlement Peace of Paris signed Sept 1783 when France and Spain also agreed to end hostilities
ii)Treaty recognized US independence, gave land from southern Canada to north boundary of Florida, from Atlantic to Mississippi River
3)War and Society
a)Loyalists and Minorities
i)Up to 1/5 of white population Loyalists- some officeholders in imperial govt, others merchants engaged in trade tied to imperial system, others who had lived in isolation of revolutionary ideas, others expected Brits to be victors
ii)Hounded by Patriots, harassed by legislative and judicial actions- fled to Canada or to England. Most Loyalists of average means but many were wealthy, after they left estates and social and economic leadership vacancies
iii)Anglicans were mostly Loyalists, in colonies where it was official religion (such as MA and VA). Taxes to church halted, support from England ceased, few ministers remained. Quakers weakened b/c their pacifism unpopular
iv)Catholic Church gained respect b/c most American Caths supported Patriot cause, French alliance brought Cath troops and ministers. Gratitude eroded hostility, after war Vatican named Father John Caroll American archbishop
b)The War and Slavery
i)War led to some slaves to escape due to British presence in South + their policies meant to disrupt American war effort. Revolutionary ideas introduced slaves to idea of liberty. This situation put slave dominated states like SC and Georgia to be ambivalent to revolution b/c opposed British emancipation efforts but feared revolution would foment slave rebellions
c)Native Americans and the Revolution
i)Patriots and Brits wanted Indians to remain neutral, and by and large they did. Some supported British b/c feared replacing ruling class whom they had developed limited trust with and who had fought against white expansion
ii)Patriot victory weaked natvies bc increased white demand for western lands, many Americans resented Mohawk and other Indians assistance to British and wanted to treat them as conquered people
iii)Revolution increased deep divisions and made it difficult for tribes to form common front for resistance b/c of neutral and pro-Brit alliances
iv)After war Indian and American fighting continued w/ Indian raids against froneir whites, white militia responded with attacks into Indian territories
d)Women’s Rights and the Women’s Roles
i)Patriot men going off to fight eft wives, mothers, sisters in charge of farms and businesses- sometimes successful and other times not so much. In many cities and towns impoverished women class emerged
ii)Sometimes women chose, other times forced to join camps of Patriot armies, raised morale and performed necessary tasks on cooking, nursing, cleaning. Some women ended up in combat (legendary Molly Pitcher)
iii)After revolution certain assumptions about women questioned- some like Abigail Adams called for modest expansion of women’s rights and protections. Others such as Judith Sargent Murray wanted equal education and rights
iv)New era for women did not arrive, legal doctrines of English common law gave married women barely any rights, Rev did not change these legal customs
v)Revolution encouraged ppl to reevaulate contributions of women b/c of womens participation in revolution and part general reevalutaion of American life after struggle- search for a cultural identity
e)The War Economy
i)No longer protection of trade by British navy, no more access to markets of the empire including Britain itself. Privateering used by Americans to pretty on Brit commerce.
ii)End of imperial relation in long run opened up enormous new areas of trade for nation b/c no more Brit regulations. Trade w/ Asia, South America, Caribbean
iii)End of English imports thru prewar boycotts and war itself led to stimulation of domestic manufacturing of necessities, desire for sufficiency grew
4)The Creation of State Governments
a)The Assumptions of Republicanism
i)Republicanism meant all power came from ppl, active citizenry important and could not be just a few powerful aristocrats and mass of dependent workers- idea of independent landowner was basic political ideology
ii)Opposed Eur ideas of inherited aristocracy- talents and energies of individuals and not birth would determine role in society- equality of opportunity
b)The First State Constitutions
i)States decided tat constitutions had to be written b/c believed vagueness of England’s unwritten constitution produced corruption, believed power of executive had to be limited, separation of executive from legislature
ii)Except GA and PA upper and lower chambers, property requirements for voters
c)Revising State Governments
i)By late 1770s state govts divided and unstable, believed to be so b/c they were too democratic—steps taken to limit popular power
ii)To protect constitutions from ordinary politics created the constitutional convention- special assembly to draft constitution that would never meet again
iii)Executive strengthened as rxn to weak governors, fixed salary + elected by ppl
d)Toleration and Slavery
i)New states allowed complete religious freedom, 1786 VA enacted Statue of Religious Liberty by Thomas Jefferson which called for separation of church and state
ii)Slavery abolished in New England and PA b/c of Quakers, every southern state but SC and GA prohibited further importation of slaves from abroad- slavery continued though b/c of racist assumptions about black inferiority, enormous economic investments in slaves, and lack of alternatives
5)The Search for A National Government
a)The Confederation
i)Articles of Confed adopted in 1777, Congress had power to conduct wars, foreign relations, appropriate money- would not regulate trade, draft troops, or levy taxes on ppl. Each state had one vote, articles ratified only after VA and NY gave up western land claims in 1781
b)Diplomatic Failures
i)GB failed to live up to terms of peace treaty of 1783- forces continued to occupy posts, no restitution to slave-owners, restrictions on access to empire’s markets. 1784 John Adams sent to make deal but British refused
ii)Treaty w/ Spain 1786 solidified Florida’s borders, limited US rights to navigate Mississippi R.- Souterhn states blocked ratification, weakened Articles
c)The Confederation and the Northwest
i)Ordinance of 1784 divided western territory into 10 districts, Ordianance of 1785 Congress created surveying + sale system, areas north of Ohio R. were to be parceled and sold w/ some money going to create schools
ii)Northwest Ordinance of 1787 abandoned ten districts, designated five territories that when had 60,000 ppl would become states, slavery prohibited
iii)S of Ohio R. chaotic, Kentucky and Tennessee entrance conflict not resolved
d)Indians and the Western Lands
i)Western land policies meant to bring order and stability to white settlement, but many territories claimed by Confederation were also claimed by Indians
ii)Series of treaties with Indians failed, violence climaxed in early 1790s. Negations not continued until General Anthony Wayne defeated Indians 1794 at Battle of Fallen Timbers. Treaty of Grenville w/ Miami indians ceded lands
e)Debts, Taxies, and Daniel Shays
i)Confederation had war bonds to be repaid, owerd soldiers money, foreign debt- had no way to tax, states only paid 1/6 of requested funds
ii)Group of nationalists led by Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison called for a 5% impost on imported goods, when Congress rejected plan they withdrew involvement from Confederation
iii)To pay war debts states increased taxes, poor farmers burdened by their own debt and new taxes rioted throughout New England
iv)Some farmers rallied behind Daniel Shays, 1786 Shayites prevented debt collection. Boston legislature denounced them as traitors, when rebels advanced on Springfield state militia defeated them January 1787
1)Framing A New Government
a)Advocates of Centralization
i)Confederation had averted the danger of remote and tyrannical authority, but during 1780s powerful groups began to want a national govt capable of dealing with nation’s problems- mainly economic that affected themselves
ii)Artisans wanted a single high national duty, merchants wanted a single, national commercial policy, people owed money wanted states to stop issuing paper money and causing inflation, land owners wanted protection from mobs
iii)Reformers led by Alexander Hamilton called for convention. Inter-state conference on trade held in MA advised congress to call a convention to “render the constitution… adequate to the exigencies of the union” in 1786
iv)George Washington’s support of new convention in Philadelphia 1787 gave it credibility, feared disorders like Shay’s Rebellion spreading
b)A Divided Convention
i)55 delegates from all but RI, mainly young, educated, and propertied
ii)Washington chosen as presiding officer, sessions closed to public and press
iii)VA delegation led by James Madison, had plan drafted. Edmund Randolph proposed a new nat’t govt with executive, judiciary, legislature
iv)VA Plan called for 2 house legislature w/ lower house based on population and upper house elected by lower house
v)Proposal opposed by Delaware, NJ, other small states. Proposal by William Paterson of NJ would reform Confederation + give it power to tax. Tabled, VA Plan remained basis for discussion
vi)VA Plan supporters realized concessions to small states needed for agreement, conceded upper house be elected by state legislatures, each state at least 1 rep
vii)Questions of equal rep in upper house, of slaves counted in states population but feared would be taxed if states taxed based on population
c)Compromise
i)In July grand committee established with Franklin as head, produced basis of “Great Compromise” where lower house would be based on populating with each slave counted as 3/5 o of a person in representation and direct taxation, in upper house each state had 2 reps- July 16, 1787 compromise accepted
ii)Reps agreed legislature forbidden to tax exports b/c of Southern fear of interfering with cotton economy, slave trade couldn’t be stopped for 20 years
iii)Constitution provided no definition of citizenship, absence of list of individual rights that would restrain powers of nat’l govt
d)The Constitution of 1787
i)James Madison created VA Plan, helped resolve question of sovereignty and of limiting power
ii)Sovereignty at all levels, nat’l and state, came from people. States and nat’l govt both had sovereignty from ppl and therefore Constitution could distribute powers btwn federal govt and states- but Constitution was “supreme law”
iii)Federal govt had power to tax, regulate commerce, control currency, pass laws
iv)Leaders frightened of creating a tyrannical govt, believed small nation needed to stop corruption. Madison convinced others that large nation would produce less tyranny b/c many factions would check one from being too powerful
v)Separation of powers + checks and balances forced branches to compete, federal structure divided power btwn states and nation
vi)Fear of despotism, but also fear of the “mob” and “excess of democracy”, only House of Reps elected directly by ppl.
vii)Constitution signed on September 17, 1787
e)Federalists and Antifederalists
i)Delegates decided that Constitution would come into existence when 9 of 13 states had ratified it thru conventions instead of unanimous state legislature approval required by Articles
ii)Supporters of Const well organized, supported by Washington and Franklin, called themselves Federalists. Had best political philosophers in Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay. Wrote Federalist Papers arguing for Const under pseudonym Publius
iii)Antifederalists believed Const would betray principles of Revolution by establish a strong, potentially tyrannical central govt that would increase taxies, obliterate states, favor the “well born”.
(1)Biggest complaint was that Const lacked a bill of rights, any govt with central authority could not be trusted to protect citizens’ liberties, therefore natural rights had to be enumerated in order to be preserved
iv) Federalists feared disorder, anarchy, power of masses, Antifederalists feared the state more than they did the ppl, feared concentrated power
v)Delaware first to ratify, New Hampshire 9th state in June 1788. New govt could not flourish w/o participation of VA and NY. VA, NY, MA ratified on assumption that bill of rights would be added
f)Completing the Structure
i)First elections took place 1789, George Washington elected first president unanimously, John Adams became VP- inauguration April 30, 1789
ii)First Congress passed bill of rights 1789, 10 ratified by states by end of 1791. Nine forbid Congress from infringing basic rights, 10th reserved powers to states unless specifically withheld from them or delegated to fed govt
iii)Judiciary Act of 1789 created 6 member Supreme court, 13 district courts, 3 courts of appeal, Sup Court had final decision in constitutionality of state laws
iv)Congress created departments of executive- State led by Jefferson, Treasury by Hamilton, War by Henry Knox, attorney general Edmund Randolph
2)Federalists and Republicans
a)Hamilton and the Federalists
i)Federalists dominated govt for 12 years under leadership of Treasurer Alexander Hamilton (Washington supported, but avoided direct involvement)
ii)Believed stable and effective govt required enlightened ruling class, therefore rich and powerful needed stake in its success
iii)To do so made govt responsible for existing debt + states debts, would create new large national debt w/ continuous bonds issued to give wealthy stake
iv)Creation of federal bank would fill absence of developed banking system, safe place for deposit of federal funds, collect taxes and pay expenses
v)Funding of debts required new revenue to pay bonds interest, govt sales of Western land not enough. Hamilton proposed tax on alcohol distillers- heavy toll on whiskey distillers of backcountry PA, VA, NC- & tariff on imports to raise $ + stimulate growth of industry- his 1791 “Report on Manufactures
b)Enacting the Federalist Program
i)Few members opposed plan for funding nat’l debt, but disagreement over whether payment should be to original holders or to speculators who bought many bonds from originals during hard times of 1780s. James Madison proposed dividing btwn two. Hamilton won out and current bondholders paid
ii)Hamilton faced stiffer opposition to fed’l assumption of state debts b/c ppl of states with few debts (such as VA) would pay taxes to service large debts of other states (like MA). Compromise w/ Virginians moved capital from Philadelphia to a southern location along Potomac R. for VA support of bill
iii)Bank bill most heated debate, Madison, Jefferson, Randolph, others argued Congress should exercise no powers Const did not assign it. Bill passed House and Senate, Bank of United States began operating 1791 under 20 yr charter
iv)Passage of excise tax and tariff 1792. Whole program won support of the influential population- restored public credit, speculators, manufacturing + merchants prospered. However, small farmers (maj of pop) complained of tax burden, taxes to state, excise tax on distillation, + tariff- feeling Federalist program served interests not of ppl but of wealthy elites
c)The Republican Opposition
i)Framers believed organized political parties dangerous, should be avoided would lead to factions (Madison Fed Papers #10), but eventually Madison and others convinced that Hamilton and Federalists had become a majority and used their power to control appts, offices, and rewards to supporters
ii)B/c Federalist structures thought to resemble corrupt Brit govt and menacing structure, critics felt only alternative vigorous opposition thru emergence of alternative political organization- the Republican Party
iii)By late 1790s Republicans creating even greater apparatus of partisan influence- correspondence btwn groups, influenced state and local elections
iv)Both groups believed represented only legitimate interest group, neither conceded right of other to exist- factionalism known as “first party system”
v)Leaders of Repubs James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson believed in an agrarian republic w/ independent farmer-citizens tilling own soil. Didn’t oppose commerce, trade or industry, but feared cities, urban mobs, and advanced industrial economy b/c of increase of propertyless workers
3)Establishing National Sovereignty
a)Securing the Frontier
i)1791 PA farmers refused to pay whiskey excise tax, Washington called militia from 3 states, Whiskey Rebellion collapsed- intimidation won allegiance
ii)Fed govt won loyalty of frontiersmen by accept territories as new states (NC 1789, RI 1791 last of 13 colonies)- VT 1791, Kentucky 1792, Tennessee 1796
b)Native Americans and the New Nation
i)Clashes with natives raised question of Indians’ place of in federal structure. Constitution recognized tribes as legal entities, but not outright nations
ii)Constitution did not address main issue of land, Indians lived within US boundaries but offered some measure of sovereignty
c)Maintaining Neutrality
i)In 1791 GB sent first minister to US, question of US neutrality arose in 1793 when French govt from revolution of 1789 went to war with GB
ii)French rep to US Edmond Genet violated Neutrality Act and tried to recruit Americans to French cause- US ships as privateers, raids against Spanish
iii)GB Royal Navy began seizing US ships trading w/ French in West Indies1794, anti-British feelings high, Hamilton concerned b/c war meant end to English imports- main revenue for financial system dependent from duties
d)Jay’s Treaty and Pinckney’s Treaty
i)Hamilton feared pro-French State Dept, had Washington send Chief Justice and Federalist John Jay to negotiate treaty with GB
ii)Jay’s Treaty in 1794 failed to compensate Brit assaults on ships and withdrawal of Brit forces from frontier, but prevented war, established American sovereignty over Northwest, satisfactory commercial relationship
iii)American backlash followed b/c not enough Brit promises, Republicans and some Federalists offered opposition but ultimately ratified by Senate
iv)Jay’s treaty allowed peace to be made with Spain b/c raised fears of Brit/American alliance in North America, Pinckney’s treaty 1795 recognized US right to Mississippi, Florida border, control of Indian raids from FL
4)The Downfall of the Federalists
a)The Election of 1796
i)Washington retired 1797, in “Farewell” worried over foreign influence on gov’t, including French efforts to frustrate Federalist diplomatic program
ii)Open expression of political rivalries after Washington- Jefferson running for Republicans, Hamilton too many enemies so VP John Adams Fed candidate
iii)Federalists could win majority of electors 1796 pres. election for Adams but factional fighting within party caused second candidate Thomas Pinckney to receive many votes- resulted in Jefferson finishing second, became VP.
iv)Federalists divided, strong Republicans opposition, Hamilton still lead party
b)The Quasi War with France
i)US relations w/ GB + Spain improved after treaties, deteriorated w/ France b/c of impressments of US ships and sailors
ii)President Adam’s pursued reconciliation by appointing bi-partisan commission of Charles Pinckney, John Marshall, Elbridge Gerry to negotiate
iii)French foreign minister Talleyrand demanded loan and bribe, Adams turned over report of this to Congress w/ names deleted- “XYZ Affair” caused outrage at France, Federalist gained support for response
iv)Adams asked Congress to cut off trade, 1798 created Dept of Navy (very successful capturing French ships), cooperated w/ GB
v)France reconciled, new govt of Napoleon 1800 new commercial arrangements
c)Repression and Protest
i)Conflict w/ France led to Federalist majority 1798, to silence Republican opposition passed the Alien and Sedition Acts
ii)Alien Acts restricted places obstacles for foreigners becoming citizens, Sedition Act allowed govt to prosecute libelous or treasonous activity- but definitions allowed govt to stifle any opposition—Repubs fought back
iii)Adams cautious in implementation but still repressive, Republican leaders hoped for reversal from state legislatures
iv)Jefferson + Madison had VA, KY adopt resolutions arguing when govt exercised undelegated powers, its acts “void”. Used Locke’s “compact theory”: states were part of contract, fed govt had breached contract, therefore states could “nullify” the appropriate laws—only VA and KY did so
v)By late 1790s national crisis b/c nation so politically divided
d)The “Revolution” of 1800
i)1800 pres election saw same candidates- Adams’ and Jefferson’s supporters showed no restraint or dignity in their assaults against other
ii)Crucial contest in New York where Aaron Burr (candidate for VP) mobilized Rev War veterans, the Tammany Society, to serve as Repub political machine- Repubs eventually won the state and election
iii)In partisan atmosphere Jefferson and Burr votes tied, the previous Federalist Congress had to choose between the two in a vote (H of Reps decides when no majority), ultimately Hamilton and Federalists elected Jefferson
iv)After election only judiciary branch still Federalist, Judiciary Act of 1801 had created many new positions which Adams had filled before leaving office
v)Republican viewed victory as savior from tyranny, believed new era would begin where
1)The Rise of Cultural Nationalism
a)Patterns of Education
i)Republican vision included enlightened citizenry, wanted nationwide system of free public schools to create educated electorate required by republic
ii)By 1815 no state had a comprehensive public school system, schooling primary by private institutions open only to those who could pay. Most were aristocratic in outlook, trained students to become elite. Few schools for poor
iii)Idea of “republican mother” to train new generation could not be ignorant, late 18thcentury women began to have limited education to make them better wives and mothers- no professional training
iv)Attempts to educate “noble savages” in white culture and reform tribes, African Americans very little schooling- literacy rate very small
v)Higher education not public, private contribution + tuition necessary, students mostly from prosperous, propertied families. Little professional education
b)Medicine and Science
i)Most doctors learned from established practitioners, struggled w/ introduction of science and combating superstition. Doctors often used dangerous and useless treatments.
ii)Medical profession used its new “scientific” method to justify expanding control to new care- childbirths by doctor and not midwives
c)Cultural Aspirations in the New Nation
i)After Eur independence ppl wanted cultural independence, literary and artistic achievements to rival those of Europe
ii)Nationalism could be found in early American schoolbooks, Noah Webster wanted patriot education- American Spelling Book and American Dictionary of the English Languageestablished national standard of words and usage, simplified and Americanized system of spelling created
iii)High literacy rate and large reading public due to wide circulation of newspapers and political pamphlets. Most printers used cheaper English material, American writers struggled to create strong native literature
(1)Charles Brockden Brown used novels to voice American themes
(2)Washington Irving wrote American fold tales, fables- Rip Van Winkle
(3)Histories that glorified past- Mercy Otis Warren History of the Revolution 1805 emphasized heroism, Mason Weems Life of Washington 1806. History used to instill sense of nationalism
d)Religious Skepticism
i)Revolution detached churches from govt + elevated liberty and reason, by 1790s few members of formal churches, some embraced “deism”
ii)Books and articles attacking religious “superstitions” popular, Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason.
iii)Skepticism led to “universalism” + “unitarianism”, @ first within New England Congregational Church, later separate- rejected predestination, salvation for all, Jesus only great religious teacher not son of God
iv)Spread of rationalism led to less commitment to organized churches + denominations considered too formal and traditional, comeback starting 1801
e)The Second Great Awakening
i)Origin 1790s from efforts to fight spread of religious rationalism. Baptists, Presbyterian, Methodists (founded by John Wesley) successful at combating New Light dissenters (ppl who made religion more compatible w/ rationalism)
ii)By 1800 awakening that began at Yale had spread throughout country and to the west, “camp meetings” by evangelical ministers produced religious frenzy
iii)Second Great Awakening called individuals to readmit God + Christ into daily life, reject skeptical rationalism. New sects rejected predestination, combined piety w/ belief of God as active force whose grace achieved thru faith + works
iv)Accelerated growth of new sects as opposed to return to established churches, provided sense of order + social stability to ppl searching for identity
v)Women particularly drawn to revivalism b/c women more numerous in certain regions, movement of industrial work out of home led to personal and social strains that religion was used to compensate for
vi)Revival led to rise of black preachers who interpreted religious message of salvation available to all into right to freedom
vii) Native American dislocation and defeats after Revolution created sense of crisis and led to Indian religious fervor- missionaries active in south led to conversion, in North prophet Handsome Lake encouraged Christian missionaries and restoration of traditional Iroquois culture
2)Stirrings of Industrialism
a)Technology in America
i)America imported technological advances from England. Brit govt attempted to prevent spread of their tech, but immigrants introduced new machines to America. Samuel Slater built mill in RI 1790, first factory in America
ii)American inventor Oliver Evans created automated flower mill, Eli Whitney revolutionized weapons making and
iii)Invented cotton gin in 1793. Growth of textile industry in England created great demand for cotton, cotton gin allowed for easy separation of cotton seed from cotton allowed tremendous amount of cotton to be cleaned, new business led slavery became more important than ever.
iv)In North cotton supply led NE entrepreneurs to create American textile industry in 1820s/30s- as N became increasingly industrial S more firmly wedded to agriculture
v)His interchangeable parts for weapons invented during Quasi War w/ France adopted by other manufactures for other complicated products
b)Transportation Innovations
i)Industrialization required transporting raw materials to factories and finished goods to create large domestic market for mass-production, US lacked system
ii)To enlarge American market US merchants looked to expand overseas trade, Congress 1789 passed tariff bills that favored American ships in American ports, stimulated growth of domestic shipping. War in Eur in 1790s led US merchants to take over most of trade btwn Eur and Western hemisphere
iii)Improvement in inter-state and interior transport led by improved river transport by new steamship
iv)Oliver Evans had invented efficient steam engine for boats and machinery, Robert Fulton + Robert Livingston perfected steamboat and brought it to national attention w/ theirClermont
c)The Rising Cities
i)America remained largely rural and agrarian nation, only 3% lived in towns of more than 8,000 in 1800 census—yet there were signs of change
ii)Major US cities such as New York + Philadelphia large and complex enough to rival secondary cities of Europe
iii)Urban lifestyle produced affluent people who sought amenities, elegance, dress, and diversions- music, theater, dancing, horse racing
3)Jefferson the President
a)The Federal City and the “People’s President”
i)French architect Pierre L’Enfant designed city on grand scale, but Washington remained little more than provincial village w/ few public buildings
ii)Jefferson acted in spirit of democratic simplicity, made his image plain, disdain for pretension. Eliminated aura of majesty surrounding presidency
iii)Political genius, worked as leader of his party to give Republicans in Congress direction, used appointments as political weapon. Won 1804 reelection easily
b)Dollars and Ships
i)Washington and Adams had increased expenditures, debt, taxation. Jefferson 1802 had Congress abolish all internal taxes leaving only land sales and customs duties, cut govt spending, halved debt
ii) Scaled down armed forces, cut navy due to fear of limiting civil liberty + civilian govt, promoting overseas commerce instead of agriculture
iii)At same time established US Military Academy @ West Point 1802, built up navy after 1801 threats by pasha of Tripoli in Mediterranean following Jefferson’s end to paying ransom demanded by Barbary pirates
c)Conflict With The Courts
i)Judiciary remained in hands of Federalist judges, congress repealed Judiciary Act of 1801 eliminating judgeships Adam’s filled before leaving office
ii)Case of Marbury v. Madison 1803 btwn Justice of Peace William Marbury and Sec of State James Madison
(1)Supreme Court ruled Congress exceeded its authority in creating a statute of the Judiciary Act of 1789 b/c Constitution had already defined judiciary
(2)Court asserted that the act of Congress was void. Enlarged courts power
iii)Chief Justice John Marshall presided over case, battled to give fed govt unity and strength, established judiciary as branch coequal w/ exec and legislature
iv)Jefferson assaulted last Federalist stronghold, urged Congress to impeach obstructive judges. Tried to impeach justice Samuel Chase in 1805 but Republican Senate could not get 2/3 vote necessary- acquittal set precedent impeachment not purely a political weapon, above partisan disagreement
4)Doubling the National Domain
a)Jefferson and Napoleon
i)After failing to seize India Napoleon wanted power in New World. Spain held areas west of Mississippi, 1800 Treaty of San Ildefonso granted French this Louisiana. Also held sugar-rich West Indian islands Guadeloupe, Martinique, Santo Domingo (where slave revolt led by Toussaint L’ouverture put down)
ii)Jefferson unaware of Napoleon’s imperial agenda, pursued pro-French foreign policy- apptd pro-French Robert Livingston minister, secured Franco-American settlement of 1800, disapproved of black Santo Domingo uprising
iii)Reconsidered position when heard of secret transfer of Louisiana and seizure of New Orleans, alarmed n 1802 when Spanish intendant at New Orleans forbade transfer of American cargo to ocean going vessels (which was guaranteed in Pikcney Treaty of 1795)- this closed lower Miss. to US shippers
iv)Westerners demanded govt reopen river, Jefferson ordered Livingston negotiate purchase of New Orleans, in meantime expanded military and river fleet to give impression of New Orleans attack
v)Nap offered sale of whole Louisiana Territory. Plans for American empire awry b/c army decimated by yellow fever, reinforcements frozen
b)The Louisiana Purchase
i)Livingston and James Monroe in Paris decided to proceed with sale of whole territory even though not authorized to do so by govt, treaty signed April 1803
ii)US paid $15 million to France, had to incorporate N.O. residents into Union
iii)Jefferson unsure US had authority to accept offer b/c power not specifically granted in Constitution, ultimately agreed constituted as treaty power. December 1803 territory handed over from Spain to France then US
iv)Govt organized Louisiana territory like Northwest territory w/ various territories to eventually to become states- Louisiana first, admitted 1812
c)Lewis and Clark Explore the West
i)Jefferson planned expedition across continent to Pacific Ocean in 1803 to gather geographical fats and investigate trade w/ Indians
ii)Lewis and Clark set out 1804 from Mississippi R. in St Louis w/ Indian Sacajawea as guide, reached pacific fall 1805
iii)Jefferson dispatched other explorers to other parts of Louisiana Territory, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike led two expeditions btwn Mississppi and Rocky Mts
d)The Burr Conspiracy
i)Reelection of 1804 suggested nation approved of Jefferson’s acquisitions, but some NE Federalists known as Essex Junto felt expansion weakened power of Federalists + region . Felt only answer secession and “Northern Confederacy”
ii)Plan required support of NY, NJ, New England, but leading NY Federalist Alexander Hamilton refused support
iii)Turned to Vice President Aaron Burr (who had no prospect in own party after 1800 election deadlock) to be Federalist candidate for NY governor in 1804
iv)Hamilton accused Burr of treason and negative remarks about character, when Burr lost election blamed defeat on Hamilton’s malevolence
v)Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel 1804, Hamilton mortally wounded
vi)Burr, now political outcast, fled NY for West and along with General James Wilkinson, governor of Louisiana Territory, planned capture of Mexico from Spanish and possibly make his own empire. 1806 tried for treason, acquitted
vii)“Conspiracy” showed perils of central govt that remained deliberately weak w/ vast tracts of nominally controlled land, state of US as stable and united nation
5)Expansion and War
a)Conflict on the Seas
i)US shipping expanded to control trade btwn Eur and W. Indies
ii)Napoleon’s Continental system forbade ships that had docked at any point in British ports from landing on continent- Berlin (1806) + Milan (1807) Decrees
iii) Britain’s “orders in council” required goods to continent be in ships that had at least stopped in British ports- response to Nap’s “Continental System”
iv)American ships caught btwn countries, but England greater threat b/c greater sea power and the worse offender
b)Impressment
i)Brit Navy had terrible conditions, forced service called “impressments” used, many deserted when possible and joined Americans- to stop loss Brit claimed right to stop and search American merchant ships + reimpress deserters
ii)1807 Chesapeake-Leopard incident: Brit fired on US ship that refused search, US Minister James Monroe protested, GB refused to renounce impressments
c)“Peaceable Coercion”
i)To prevent future incidents that might bring war Jefferson proposed The Embargo 1807- prohibited US ship from leaving for any foreign port
ii)Created national depression, ship-owners + merchants of NE (mainly Federalists) hardest hit-before
iii)James Madison, Jefferson’s Sec of State, won election of 1808 but fierce opposition- led Jefferson to end Embargo, replaced with Non-Intercourse Act- reopened trade w/ all nations except GB + France
iv)1810 new Macon’s Bill No. 2 opened trade w/ GB + France but pres had power to prohibit commerce for belligerent behavior against neutral shipping
v)Napoleon announced France would no longer interfere, Madison issued embargo against GB 1811 until it renounced restrictions of American shipping
d)The “Indian Problem” and the British
i)After dislodgement by Americans, Indians looked to Brits for protection
ii)William Henry Harrison had been a promoter of Western expansion (Harrison Land Law 1800), named governor of Indiana 1801 by Jefferson. Offered Indians ultimatum: become farmers and assimilate or move to West of Miss.
iii)By 1807 tribes mainly ceding land. After Chesapeake incident, however, Brits began to renew Indian friendships to begin defense of invasion into Can
e)Tecumseh and the Prophet
i)The Prophet was Indian leader inspired religious revival, rejection of white culture. Attracted thousands from many tribes at Tippecanoe Creek. Prophet’s brother Tecumseh led joint effort to oppose white civilization
ii)Starting 1809 began to unite tribes of Miss. valley, 1811 traveled south to add tribes of the South to alliance
iii)1811 Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison defeated Prophet’s followers and destroyed tribal confederacy. However, thru 1812 continued to attack settlers, encouraged by Brit agents—Americans believed end only thru Can. Invasion
f)Florida and War Fever
i)“Frontiersman” in N wanted Canada, those in S wanted to acquire Spanish Florida in order to stop Indian attacks, gain access to rivers w/ port access
ii)1810 setters in W. Florida captured Spanish fort at Baton Rouge, President Madison agreed to annex territory- Spain Britain’s ally, made pretext for war
iii)By 1812 “war harks” elected during 1810 elections eager for war- some ardent nationalists seeking territorial expansion, others defense of Republican values
iv)Speaker Henry Clay of Kentucky and John Calhoun of SC led Republicans in pressing for Canadian invasion- Madison declared war June 18, 1812
6)The War of 1812
a)Battles with the Tribes
i)Americans forced to surrender Detroit and Fort Dearborn (Chicago) in first months. On seas American frigates and privateers successful, but by 1813 Brit navy (less occupied w/ Napoleon) devoted resources and imposed blockade
ii)US began to have success in Great Lakes- Oliver Perry beat Brits at Put-In-Bay 1813, burned capital at York. William Henry Harrison victorious at Battle of the Thames- disheartened Natives of Northwest and diminished ability to defend claims
iii)Andrew Jackson defeated Creek Indians @ Battle of Horseshoe Bend 1814, continued invasion into Florida and captured Pensacola Sept 1814
b)Battles With the British
i)After Nap surrendered 1814 England prepared to invade US, landed armada in Chesapeake region. Aug 1814 captured and burned Washington
ii)Americans at Fort McHenry in Baltimore repelled Brit attack in Sept. This battle is what Francis Scott Key witnessed, wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”
iii)Brit also repelled in NY at Battle of Plattsburgh in Sept. January 1815 Andrew Jackson wildly successful at Battle of New Orleans- after treaty signed
c)The Revolt of New England
i)US failures 1812-1815 led to increased govt opposition. In NE opposition to war and Repub govt, Federalists led by Daniel Webtser led Congressional opposition. Federalists in NE dreamed of separate nation to escape tyranny of slaveholders and backwoodsmen
ii)Dec 1814 convention at Hartford led to nothing b/c of news of Jackson’s smashing success at New Orleans. Two days later news of peace treaty arrived
d)The Peace Settlement
i)Aug 1814 John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin met in Ghent, Belgium w/ Brit diplomats. Final treaty did little but end fighting- US dropped call to end impressments, Brit dropped call for Indian buffer in NW
ii)Brit accepted b/c exhausted + indebted after Napoleonic conflict, US believed w/ end of Eur conflict less commercial interference would occur
iii)Treaty of Gent signed Dec 1814, free trade agreement 1815later Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 led to disarmament on Great Lakes
iv)War disastrous to Natives, lands captured in fighting never restored, most important allies now gone from NW
)A Growing Economy
a)Banking, Currency, and Protection
i)War of 1812 stimulated manufacturing, but after war produced chaos in shipping and banking- need for new Bank of the United States charter its expiration 1811 and not renewed, protecting new industries, transport systems
ii)After expiration of charter state banks offered difft currencies at difft values- confusion and counterfeiting. Congress passed new charter for Bank of US 1816- its size and power essentially forced state banks to issue safer currency
iii)Manufacturing had grown tremendously due to imports being cut off, textile industry increased exponentially btwn Embargo of 1807 and War. Factories in NE no longer family operations. Francis Lowell developed new loom 1813 in Boston Manufacturing Company- first process of both spinning and weaving
iv)After war English ships swarmed American ports, wanted to reclaim old markets with prices below cost. 1816 Congress passed tariff to protect “infant industries” from competition aboard- farmers objected b/c paid higher price
b)Transportation
i)W/o transport network manufacturers couldn’t access raw materials and send finished goods to markets in US- should fed govt finance roads?
ii)1807 Jefferson’s Sec Treasury Albert Gallatin proposed revenue from Ohio land sale go to fund National Road. Crucial Lancaster Pike built in PA- both allowed for the beginning of transport of commodities like textiles
iii)Steam-powered shipping (advancements of Robert Fulton) expanded on rivers and Great Lakes. Steamboats on Miss. stimulated already agricultural economy of South & West b/c cost to transport products to market lowered
iv)Despite progress of turnpikes + steamships serious gaps in trasportation. 1815 John Calhoun introduced bill to use federal funds to finance internal improvements, but Madison vetoed it in 1817 b/c believed unconstitutional
v)Remained to state govts + private enterprise to build needed transit networks
2)Expanding Westward
a)The Great Migrations
i)Westward movement affected economy, factor in Civil War, peoples thrusted together. Pop. + econ. pressures, land availability, decreased Indian resistance
ii)Immigration and natural growth increased Eastern population, agricultural lands occupied. Slaves in S limited work opportunity. West attractive b/c War of 1812 lessened Native opposition by pushing Indians west + establishing forts on Great Lakes and Miss. R., govt “factor system” of goods to Indians
b)White Settlers in the Old Northwest
i)Shelters primitive, clearings in forest for crops to supplement game and domestic animals, rough existence w/ poverty and loneliness
ii)Migrants journeyed westward in groups, some formed communities and schools, churches, other institutions. Mobility a large part of life
iii)Farm economy based on modest seized farms w/ grain cultivation + livestock
c)The Plantation System in the Southwest
i)Cotton longs in Old South had lost much fertility but market continued to grow for it, Black Belt of SW lands could support thriving cotton
ii)First arrivals small farmers, wealthier planters followed buying and clearing smaller lands. Brought w/ them slaves, eventually mansions grew up from simpler log cabins symbolizing emergence of a newly rich class
iii)Rapid growth in NW and SW resulted in new states after War of 1812: Indiana 1816, Mississippi 1817, Illinois 1818, Alabama 1819
d)Trade and Trapping in the Far West
i)Trade began to develop btwn western regions in US in 19th century + beyond
ii)Mexico (controlled Texas, CA, Southwest) won independence from Spain 1821, opened territories to trade in order to grow their fortunes. US merchants such as William Becknell displaced Indian traders and inferior Mexican products lost out to new US traders- Mexico lost its markets it in own colonies
iii)Fur traders such as Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company eventually extended to Rockies, instead of pelts from Indians increasingly trapped their own
iv)Trappers (“mountain men”) first wedge of white movement, changed society by interacting with Indians and Mexicans. 1822 Andrew and William Ashley founded Rocky Mountain Fur Company, recruited trappers to live permanently in Rockies (Utah, New Mexico)
v)Lives of trappers bound up with expanding market economy- relied on fur companies for credit, depended on Eastern merchants for livelihood
e)Eastern Images of the West
i)Ppl in East only dimly aware of trappers’ world and their reshaping of it
ii)Explorers dispatched by US govt to chart territories. 1819/1820 Steven Long sent by War Dept to explore, wrote influential report with dismissive conclusions for future settlement (like Zebulon Pike 15 yrs before)
3)The Era of Good Feelings
a)The End of the First Party System
i)James Monroe, Madison’s Sec of State, elected Republican president 1816. W/ Federalist decline faced party faced no serious opposition, after War of 1812 no serious international threat- wanted republic w/o partisan factions
ii)For Sec of State chose New Englander and former Federalist John Quincy Adams, John Calhoun named Sec of War- Monroe took pains to include northerners, southerners, easterners, westerners, Feds and Repubs in Cabinet
iii)After election national goodwill tour, re-elected 1820 w/o any opposition
b)John Quincy Adams
i)Committed nationalist, important task promotion of American expansion
ii)US already annexed W Florida, 1817 began negotiations w/ Spanish minister Lius de Onis. Meanwhile, American commander in Florida Andrew Jackson used orders from Sec of War Calhoun to invade Florida to stop Seminole raids—known as Seminole war. Adams wanted to use as excuse to annex
iii)Onis realized he had little choice, Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 ceded Florid and lands north of 42nd parallel to US, US gave up Texas claims
c)The Panic of 1819
i)Panic followed period of high foreign demand for US goods, rising prices had stimulated land boom in western US. Availability for easy credit to settlers and speculators- from govt, state and wildcat banks
ii)1819 management at Bank of US tightened credit, led to series of state bank failures, led to financial panic- those in West blamed it on bank
iii)Depression for 6 years followed, but growth ultimately continued
4)Sectionalism and Nationalism
a)The Missouri Compromise
i)Missouri applied for statehood 1819, although slavery already established NY Rep James Tallmadge’s Amendment gradual emancipation- controversial
ii)Since beginning new states had come into Union in pairs (1 from N, 1 from S), Missouri entrance would increase power of North over South
iii)Maine had also applied for statehood, Henry Clay threatened South would block entrance in Missouri not permitted to be a slave state
iv)Compromise in Maine-Missouri Bill, Senator Jesse Thomas’s Amendment to ban slavery in rest of Louisiana Ter. north of MO’s 3630’ border also passed
b)Marshall and the Court
i)John Marshall chief justice from 1801-1835. Strengthened judicial system at expense of executive and legislature, increased fed power over states, advanced interest of propertied and commercial classes
ii)Supported inviolability contracts in Fletcher v. Peck (1810) which held GA legislature could not repeal contract acts of previous legislature. Dartmouth College v. Woodward(1819) affirmed constitutionality of federal review of state court decisions- states had given up some sovereignty by ratifying Constitution, therefore their courts must submit to federal jurisdiction
iii)“Implied powers” of Congress upheld in McCulloch v Maryland (1819) by upholding Bank of United States, attorney Daniel Webster argued establishment legal under “necessary and proper” clause, power to tax involved “power to destroy”. States therefore could not tax now-legal Bank
iv)Strengthened Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce in Gibbons v Ogden(1824)- Fed govt gave license to Thomas Gibbons for ferry even transport btwn NY and NJ even though NY state had granted Aaron Ogden monopoly- Marshall argued that Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce + navigation “complete in itself” + could exercise to the utmost
v)Decisions established primacy of fed govt over states in regulating economy, protected corporations + private economic institutions from local govt
c)The Court and the Tribes
i)Marshall court decisions w/ Natives affirmed supremacy of US and carved out position for Native Americans within the constitutional structure
ii)In Johnson v McIntosh (1825) Marshall described the basic right of Natives to tribal lands that preceded all other American law. Individual Americans could not buy or take land from tribes, only fed govt could do that
iii)Worchester v Georgia (1832) invalidated law to regulate citizen access to Cherokee lands. Only fed govt had power to do that, tribes described as sovereign entities w/ exclusive authority and territorial boundaries
iv)Marshall court did what Const had not- establish place for Indian tribes in American political system. Sovereign, but fed govt “guardian” over its “ward”
d)The Latin American Revolution and the Monroe Doctrine
i) US foreign policy mainly centered on Eur, but after War of 1812 Spanish Empire in decline w/ new revolutions, US developing profitable trade w/ Latin America rivaling GB as principal trading pattern
ii)1815 US proclaimed neutrality in wars btwn Spain and rebellious colonies, 1822 President Monroe established diplomatic relations w/ 5 new nations
iii)1823 Monroe announced policy (later known as “Monroe Doctrine”) that American continent not be considered subject of future colonization by European powers, any foreign challenge would be unfriendly
iv)Monroe Doctrine developed b/c Americans feared Spanish allies (such as France) would aid it in retaking lost empire, fear of GB taking over Cuba
5)The Revival of Opposition
a)The “Corrupt Bargain”
i)In 1824 Republican caucus nominated William Crawford of Georgia for presidency, but other candidates received nominations from state legislatures
ii)Candidates included: Sec of State John Quincy Adams had little popular appeal, Speaker of the House Henry Clay had personal following and strong program in the “American System” to strengthen home industry and Bank, Andrew Jackson little political experience but a military hero and TN allies
iii)Jackson received more popular and electoral votes tan other candidates but not majority, Twelfth Amendment (passed after contested 1800 election) required House of Reps to choose among top three candidates- Clay threw endorsement behind Adams b/c Jackson a political rival in West + Adams a nationalist and likely American system supporter
iv) Adams named Clay Sec of State, Jackson’s followers enraged at seeming “corrupt bargain”- haunted Adams throughout presidency
b)The Second President Adams
i)Adams proposed nationalist program reminiscent of Clay’s American System but Jacksonians in Congress blocked most of it. Southerners in Congress blocked delegates to international conference called by Simon Bolivar in Panama in 1826 b/c Haiti was sending black delegates
ii)Georgia wished to remove remaining Creek and Cherokee Indians from state to gain more land for cotton planters. Adams refused to enforce treaty made btwn Indians + Georgia. Governor defied president and proceeded w/ removal
iii)Adams supported tariff on imported goods 1828 b/c NE textile manufacturers complained of competition. To be passed concessions made to middle + west states on other tariffs—bill signed hated by all, called “tariff of abominations”
c)Jackson Triumphant
i)By 1828 presidential election new 2-party system had begun to emerge from divisions btwn Republicans. National Republicans supported John Quincy Adams and economic nationalism, opposing them was Democratic Republicans of Andrew Jackson who called for assault on privilege and widening of opportunity
ii)Campaign of personal charges, Jackson’s wife Rachel accused of bigamy, she was so upset that she ultimately died- Jackson blamed opponents
iii)Jackson won decisive but sectional victory. Adams strong in New England & mid-Atlantic. Jackson believed victory similar to Jefferson’s 1800 win
1)The Rise of Mass Politics
a)The Expanding Electorate
i)No economic equality, but transformation of American politics to extend the right to vote to new groups. Until 1820s most states limited franchise to white landowners. Changes began in West w/ Constitutions guaranteeing right to vote to all white males- E. states did likewise in order to stop exodus of ppl
ii)Change provoked resistance- MA conservatives wanted property requirement, state eventually required voters to be taxpayers + Gov had to own large lands
iii)State reforms generally peaceful but in RI instability when 1840 group led by Thomas Dorr and the “People’s Party” submitted and won a new state Const. by the ppl. 1842 2 simultaneous govts, Dorr rebellion quickly failed
iv)In S election laws favored planters and politicians from older counties, limited influence of newly settled western areas
v)Everywhere women could not vote, no secret ballots—despite limitations numbers of voters increased faster than population
vi)Originally electors chosen by legislature, by 1828 popularly elected except SC
b)The Legitimization of Party
i)Higher levels of voter participation due to expanded electorate but also strengthening of party organization and loyalty
ii)1820s/1830s saw permanent, institutionalized parties become desirable part of political process. Began at state level in NY w/ Martin Van Buren’s factional “Bucktails”. Party’s preservation thru favors, rewards, patronage leaders goals
iii)Parties would check/balance one other, politicians forced 2 rep. will of the ppl
iv)By late 1820s new idea of party spreading beyond NY, Jackson’s 1828 election seemed to legitimize new system. By 1830s national 2-party system: anti-Jackson forces called Whigs, his followers called Democrats
c)“President of the Common Man”
i)Democratic party embraced no uniform ideological position, committed to offer equal protection and benefits by assaulting eastern aristocracy to extend opportunity to rising classes of the W + S, preserve white-male democracy thru subjugation of African Americans and Indians
ii)Jackson’s first targets entrenched officeholders of fed govt, wanted to simplify official duties to make office more accessible. Removed nearly 1/5 of office-holders removed b/c misuse of govt funds or corruption
iii)Jackson’s supporters embraced “spoils system”, making right of elected officials to appt followers to office established feature of American politics
iv)Supporters worked to transform presidential nomination system- 1832 national party convention held to replace congressional caucus, considered democratic triumph b/c power from ppl and not aristocratic caucus
v)Spoils system and convention limited power of entrenched elites (permanent officeholders, caucus elite), but neither really transferred true power to the ppl
2)“Our Federal Union”
a)Calhoun and Nullification
i)Late 1820s many in SC came to see “tariff of abominations” as responsible for stagnation of state economy (really due to exhausted farmland unable to compete with new western lands). Some considered remedy thru secession
ii)Vice President Calhoun offered alternative in theory of nullification- idea like Madison and Jefferson’s KY + VA Resolutions of 1798-1799. Argued fed govt created by states, therefore states final arbiter (not Congress or courts) of constitutionality. Convention could be held to null and void law within state
b)The Rise of Van Buren
i)Apptd Sec of State 1829 by Jackson, also member of president’s of unofficial circle of allies in “Kitchen Cabinet”. After supporting Peggy Eaton in affair over acceptance into cabinet wife social circle gained favor w/ President
ii)By 1831 Jackson had chosen Van Buren to succeed him in WH, Calhoun’s presidential dream ended
c)The Webster-Hayne Debate
i)January 1830 proposal to temporarily stop western land sales led SC Sen. Robert Hayne to claim slowing down W growth means for east to retain political and economic power. Hinted at uniting S + W against “tyranny”
ii)Nationalist and Whig Sen. Daniel Webster attacked Hayne + Calhoun for challenging integrity of the Union. Debate ensued over issue of states rights vs national power
iii)Jackson announced at Democratic Party banquet “Our Federal Union-It must be preserved”, lines drawn btwn Jackson and Calhoun
d)The Nullification Crisis
i)1832 tariff bill in Congress gave SC no relief from “tariff of abominations”, state convention held- voted for nullification of tariffs of 1828 & 1832, duties collection w/in state. Calhoun resigned VP became Sen., Hayne now Gov
ii)Jackson insisted nullification treason, strengthened federal forts in SC. 1833 Pres. proposed bill to authorize use of military to see acts of Congress obeyed
iii)No states supported SC, state itself divided. Sen Henry Clay offered compromise that tariff would be gradually lowered so that by 1842 it would be at same level as in 1816. Compromise + force bill passed March 1833
iv)SC state convention met and repealed its nullification of the tariffs, but also nullified the force act (symbolic of null. legitimacy)
3)The Removal of the Indians
a)White Attitudes Toward the Tribes
i)In 18th century many whites considered Indians “noble savages” who had inherent dignity, by 19th century more hostile attitude especially among whites in W and territories, simply “savages”
ii)White westerners wanted removal b/c feared continued contact + expanding white settlements would lead to endless violence, & Indian lands valuable
iii)Only fed govt had power to deal w/ Indians after Sup. Court decisions. Indians created new large political entities to deal w/ whites
b)The Black Hawk War
i)In Old Northwest Black Hawk War 1831-1832 to expel last of Indians there
ii)Conflict notable for violence of white military efforts, attacked even when Chief Black Hawk was surrendering and killed Indians fleeing battle
c)The “Five Civilized Tribes”
i)1830s govt worried about remaining “Five Civilized Tribes” in South- successful agricultural society, Constitution forming Cherokee Nation 1827
ii)Fed govt worked in early 19th century thru treaties to remove tribes to West and open lands to white settlement. Negotiation process unsatisfying + slow
iii)Congress passed Removal Act 1830 to finance def negotiations w/ tribes in order to relocate them West, pressure from state govts to move as well
iv)In GA Sup. Court decisions of Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831) and Worcester v Georgia (1832) seemed to protect tribal lands
v)1835 treaty signed with minority tribe in Cherokee nation ceding all land to GA, but majority of Cherokees refused to recognize its legitimacy. Jackson sent army under General Winfield Scott to drive them westward to reservation
d)Trials of Tears
i)Forced trek to “Indian Territory” began winter 1838. Thousands died before destination, dubbed “Trail of Tears”
ii)Cherokees not alone: btwn 1830-1838 nearly all “Five Civilized Tribes” expelled from Southern states & relocated to Indian Territory created by Congress in Indian Intercourse Act of 1834. Undesirable land far from whites
iii)Only Seminoles in Florida resisted relocation. Under pressure had agreed to cede land and move to Ind. Territory, many members of tribe moved
(1)But 1835 minority led by chief Osceola staged uprising. Jackson sent army, conducted campaign of systematic extermination but successful guerilla warfare forced govt to abandon war in 1842
e)The Meaning of Removal
i)By end of 1830s almost all major Indian societies relocated to far less hospitable lands west of Mississippi on reservations surrounded by forts
ii)White movement west impossible to have stopped, but alternative to removal could have been some form of co-existence like in NW trading posts, TX
iii)BY mid-19th century Americans believed western lands had no pre-existing civilization. Natives could not be equal partners, were obstacles to be removed, “lacked intelligence, industry and moral habits for improvement”
4)Jackson and the Bank War
a)Biddle’s Institution
i)Bank of United States in 1830s had HQ in Philadelphia, branches in 19 cities, by law only place govt could deposit its funds
ii)Conducted private business issuing credit, bank notes used throughout country, restrained less well-managed state banks. Pres Nicholas Biddle had made bank sound + prosperous. Regardless, Jackson wanted to destroy it
iii)Opposition came from “soft-money” faction who wanted more currency in circulation. Made up of state banks, resisted Bank of US’s efforts to restrain free issue of notes from state banks
iv)“Hard money” faction wanted gold and silver to back currency, suspicious of expansion and speculation. Jackson supported hard-money
v)Jackson did not favor renewal of bank charter after 1836 expiration. Biddle tried to save bank by granting financial favors to influential men, named Daniel Webster made legal counsel (gained Clay’s support). Recommended renewal bill 1832 to make bank issue in 1832 elections.
vi)Bill passed Congress but Jackson vetoed it, could not be overridden. In 1832 Jackson + Van Buren elected despite opposition to bank over opposition Clay
b)The “Monster” Destroyed
i)Jackson determined to destroy “monster” Bank quickly. To weaken it removed govt deposits (two Tres. Secretaries fired b/c feared financial destabilization, third Roget Taney complied)
ii)When administration transferred funds from Bank to pet banks, Biddle called in loans and raised interest rates- hoped would cause financial distress and recession that would persuade Congress to recharter Bank
iii)Financial conditions worsened winter 1833/1834, two sides blamed it on each other. Finally Biddle contracted credit too far for his own allies in the business community, began to fear his efforts to save ban threatening their own
iv)Biddle forced to grant credit in abundance on reasonable terms, tactics ended change of re-charter. End in 1836 empowered unstable bank system
c)The Taney Court
i)Jackson moved against economic nationalism support of Supreme Court, after Marshall died 1835 named Roger Taney chief justice
ii)Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge (1837) btwn company chartered by state for toll bridge monopoly and company applying to legislature to pay for toll-free bridge. Taney ruled that govt’s goal to promote general happiness took precedence over right of contract and property, therefore state had right to amend contract o advance well-being of community
iii)Reflected Jacksonian ideal that key to democracy expansion of economic opportunity that could not occur if corporations maintained monopolies and choked off competition from newer companies
5)The Changing Face of American Politics
a)Democrats and Whigs
i)Democrats in 1830s envisioned expanding economic and political opportunity for white males, limited govt but one that removed obstacles to opportunity, defense of Union, attacking corruption, radical branch called Locofocos
ii)Whigs favored expanding power of fed govt, industrial and commercial development, knit country into consolidated economic system, cautious westward expansion b/c feared territorial growth would produce instability, embraced industrial future and commercial and manufacturing greatness
iii)Whigs supported by merchants and manufactures of NE, wealthy Southern planters, western commercialists. Democrats supported by smaller merchants and workingmen of NE, S planters suspicious of industry, agrarian westerners
iv)Above all wanted to win elections: Whigs connected w/ Anti-Masons to resent “undemocratic” Freemasons (such as Jackson and Van Buren). Irish and German Catholic immigrants supported Democrats b/c aversion to commercial development, Evangelical Protestants supported Whigs
v)Whigs led by “Great Triumvirate” of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun. 1836 election Dems united behind Jackson’s choice of Van Buren for candidate, but Whigs could not agree on single candidate. Clay, White, and William Henry Harrison ran for regional interests, defeated by Van Buren
b)Van Buren and the Panic of 1837
i)Van Buren elected on economic boom that reached height 1836- canals and railroads being built, easy credit, land business booming, govt revenues from sales + 1833 tariff created surpluses that allowed reduction of nat’l debt
ii)Congress passed 1836 “distribution” act to return surplus to states, used to fund highways, railroads, canals, created economic boom
iii)Withdrawal of fed funds strained state “pet” banks, forced to call in loans. Jackson issued “specie circular” that required payment for public land sales be in gold or silver or currency backed by them b/c feared rampant speculation
iv)Circular produced financial panic during Van Buren’s presidency banks and business failed, food riots- largest depression in American history to that point
v)Both parties responsible for panic- surplus redistribution a Whig measure, Jackson’s circular, but also panics in England and W. Eur that caused those investors to withdraw funds from American banks, also crop failures
vi)Panic of 1837 led Democrats + Van Buren administration to pay price for no govt intervention. Only success of VB creation of “subtreasury system” to replace Bank of US- govt funds placed in independent treasury in Washington, no private banks could use money to fund loans and speculation
c)The Log Cabin Campaign
i)To win 1840 election Whigs supported only one candidate- William Henry Harrison for pres and John Tyler for VP
ii)1840 campaign first in which “penny press” carried news of candidates to larger audience of workers and tradespeople. Whigs, although represented affluent elements of pop, presented themselves as party of the common people
iii)Whig campaign effective at portraying the wealthy Harrison as a simple log cabin and cider man and VB as an aloof aristocrat--- Harrison won election
d)The Frustration of the Whigs
i)Harrison died of pneumonia 1 month after inauguration, new President Tyler was a former Democrat who refused to let Clay and Webster control policy
ii)Pres supported bills abolishing independent treasury system and raising tariff rate, but refused Clay’s attempt to recharter Bank and vetoed internal improvement bills sponsored by Whigs.
iii)Whigs kicked Tyler out of party, entire cabinet resigned. Tyler and some conservative southern Whigs who supported slavery and states rights prepared to join the Democratic Party
e)Whig Diplomacy
i)Canada uprising caused tension leading to burning of an American steamship carrying arms and the subsequent arrest of a British citizen for burning 1837. Tension over Canada-Maine boundary led to small “Aroostook War” 1838
ii)Finally negotiations to reduce all tensions occurred btwn Sec of State Webster and British Lord Ashburton. 1842 Webster Ashburton treaty established new Maine border, GB refused to interfere w/ American ships-- relations improved
iii)Tyler administration established first diplomatic relations with China, Americans received same privileges as British such as “extraterritoriality” and port use
iv)Whigs lost White House in 1844 elections
1)The Changing American Population
a)The American Population, 1820-1840
i)Population dramatically increased, began to concentrate in industrial centers of Northeast and Northwest, provided labor force for factory system
ii)Growth b/c of improvements in public health (decrease in number and intensity of epidemics), high birth rate, lower infant mortality rates
iii)Immigration did not contribute greatly until 1830s b/c of Eur wars & US economic problems. Immigrant boom caused by lower transport costs, increased US economic opportunity + less econ opportunity in some Eur areas
iv)Immigrant + internal migration led to growth of cities b/c agriculture in New England less profitable (some moved West also). By 1810 NY largest city
b)Immigration and Urban Growth, 1840-1860
i)By 1860 26% of free state populations lived in towns or cities
ii)Booming agricultural economy of west led small villages and trading posts to become cities. Benefited from Mississippi R, centers of Midwest trade
iii)By 1860 American population greater than that of GB and approaching France and Germany. Urban growth from flow of ppl from Northeast farms (competition from Eur farms + Western farms) & influx of immigrants abroad
iv)Majority of immigrants from Ireland and Germany. German industrial revolution had caused poverty, & b/c of collapse of liberal 1848 revolution. In Ireland unpopular English rule & “potato famine” of 1845-1849
v)Most Irish settled in eastern cities + became unskilled laborers (had little $, many were young women- domestic/factory work in cities). Most Germans moved to Northwest, farming or business in towns (many were single men)
c)Rise of Nativism
i)Some native-born Americans saw opportunity in immigration. Industrialists & employers wanted cheap labor, land speculators and politicians hoped would populate west + increase demand for goods, increase influence
ii)Some (Nativists) hostile to foreigners and immigration. Some racist, some argued newcomers socially unfit and did not have sufficient standards of civilization, workers feared low immigrant wages would steal their jobs, Protestants feared Irish Catholics & Rome, many upset b/c voted Democratic
iii)Tension and prejudice led to secret societies to combat “alien menace”, Native American Association 1837, 1845 Native American Party, peak in 1850s with combination in Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. Wanted to ban Catholics form office, restrict naturalization, force literacy tests for voting
iv)Secret order known as Know-Nothings turned to party politics, after 1852 election formed American Party, success in 1854 East elections, declined after
2)Transportation, Communications, and Technology
a)The Canal Age
i)1790-1820s “turnpike era”, but roads not adequate for nation’s growing needs
ii)Traffic on large rivers such as Miss. and Ohio had been mainly flat barges that could not travel upstream, by 1820s steamboats and riverboats carried western and southern crops quickly, from New Orleans ocean ships to Eastern ports
iii)Farmers and merchants unhappy b/c more direct route could lower transport costs and product costs. By 1820s economic advantages of canals had generated boom in expanding water routes to West. Too expensive for private companies, states of Northeast constructed them
iv)NY’s Erie Canal began July 4, 1817 to connect Hudson R and Lake Erie. Opened 1825, tolls repaid construction costs, gave NY access to Great Lakes, Chicago, growing Western markets. NY now competed with New Orleans
v)Water transport system expanded when Ohio + Indiana connected Lake Erie & Ohio R. Increased white settlement, but primacy of NY power + hinterland control alarmed other Atlantic cities. Most attempts limited successes or failed
b)The Early Railroads
i)Railroads played secondary role in 1820s/30s, but laid groundword for mid-century surge. Emerged form technological (tracks, steam-powered locomotive) and entrepreneurial innovations
ii)In 1830s no real rial system, most lines simply connected water routes and not links to other rail systems. Some states and corporations also limited their ability to compete effectively against canals
c)The Triumph of the Rails
i)After 1840 rail gradually supplanted canals. 1850’s trackage tripled. Most comprehensive and efficient system in northeast, but no region untouched
ii)Trend toward consolidation of short lines into longer lines (“trunk lines”), connected Northeast w/ Northwest, from these other railroads traveled into interior of nation. Main Northwest hub was Chicago
iii)Lessened dependence of West on Miss. R, weakening N + S economic cnxn
iv)Capital to finance railroads came from private investors, abroad, and local governments. Fed govt gave public land grants to railroads, states for RRs
d)Innovations in Communications
i)Magnetic telegraph lines along tracks aided train routing, but also allowed instant communication btwn cities, linked N and NW at exclusion of S
ii)1844 Samuel Morse first transmitted. Low cost of construction made it ideal solution to long-distance communication. By 1860 Western Union Telegraph company had been founded linking most independent telegraph lines
iii)In journalism Richard Hoe’s 1846 steam cylinder rotary press allowed rapid and cheap newspapers, telegraph increased news speed. 1846 Associated Press formed to promote cooperate wire transmission
iv)NY’s major papers Horace Greeley’s Tribune, James Bennett’s Herald, Henry Raymond’s Times. In 1840s/50s journalism fed sectional discord, most major magazines and newspapers located in North. New awareness of differences
3)Commerce and Industry
a)The Expansion of Business, 1820-1840
i)Business grew b/c population, transportation revolution, and new practices
ii)Retain distribution became more efficient w/ specialty stores in cities
iii) Individual + small merchant capitalist companies dominated, but some larger businesses gave way to corporations- combined resources of large number of shareholders. Grew 1830s b/c states passed easy incorporation laws. Limited liability meant stockholder risked only value of investment if corp failed
iv)Great demand for capital led businesses to rely on credit, but gold and silver standards of govt led to too little $, led private banks to issue less stable notes
v)Bank failures frequent, insecure deposits. Credit difficulty limited growth
b)The Emergence of the Factory
i)Before War of 1812 most manufacturing occurred in private households in small workshops. Technology and demand led to factories- began in New England textile industry, large water-driven machines increased production
ii)1820s factory system in shoe industry, by 1830s spread throughout Northeast. By 1860 value of manufactured goods roughly equal to agricultural goods. Largest manufacturers located in the Northeast, large amt of ppl employed
c)Advances in Technology
i)Developed industries relatively immature, fine items came from England. But by 1840s rapid machine technology advances, sophisticated textile industry
ii)Manufacture of machine tools (tools used to make machinery) improved by govt supported research for military (at Springfield Armory, MA)- turret lathe and universal milling machine in early 19th century. Later precision grinder
iii)Better machine tools allowed for wide use of interchangeable parts, new uses
iv)Industrialization aided by new energy sources: coal replacing wood + water in factories. Allowed mills to be located away from streams, easier expansion
v)Technological advances due to American inventors, increasing number of patents. Included Howe-Singer sewing machine, Goodyear vulcanized rubber
d)Innovations in Corporate Organization
i)Merchant capitalists still prominent 1840s, their clippers were fastest sailing ships afloat at time. By mid-century merchant capitalism declining b/c British competition stealing export trade, greater profits found in manufacturing than trade. Industry grew in NE b/c this merchant class could finance factories
ii)By 1840s corporations spreading rapidly, especially in textile industry. Ownership moving form families and individuals to many shareholders
4)Men and Women At Work
a)Recruiting A Native Work Force
i)In factory system’s early years recruiting labor difficult b/c of farms and small cities. New farmlands in Midwest + new farm machinery and techniques increased food production, decreased need for labor. Transport allowed importation of food from other regions—ppl in New Eng left for factories
ii)Some recruitment brought whole families form farm to the mill w/ parents and children, but Lowell/Waltham system enlisted young women
iii)Labor conditions relatively good in early years of system, better than Eur. Lowell system used young, unmarried women but had good housing + food
iv)Even well-treated workers found transition from life on farm to in factory difficult- regimented env’t, repetitive tasks. Women had little other choice b/c barred from manual labor, unthinkable to travel in search of opportunity
v)Competitive textile market of 1830s/40s manufactures had difficulty maintaining high standards + conditions, wages fell. Union of Factory Girls Association struck twice, but both failed. Eventually immigrants filled jobs
b)The Immigrant Work Force
i)Increasing supply of immigrant workers after 1840 boom for manufacturers- large and inexpensive labor source. Little leverage with employers, lack of skills and native prejudice led to low, intermittent wages—great poverty
ii)Irish workers predominated 1840s textile industry, arrival led to deteriorating working conditions. Less social pressure on owners to maintain decent env’t, piece rates instead of daily wages to speed production
iii)Factories becoming large, noisy, unsanitary, dangerous places to work, hours long, wages declining. Still however, condition better than England and Eur
c)The Factory System and the Artisan Trade
i)Factory system displaced skilled artisans- had been embodiment of republican independent worker. Unable to compete w/ factory-made goods for fraction of artisan’s prices. Early 19th century began to form organizations and first labor unions to protect position. 1820s/30s trade unions developed in cities
ii)Interconnected economies of cities made national unions or federations of local unions logical. 1834 National Trade’s Union
iii)Labor leaders struggled w/ hostile laws and courts, common law made worker combination as illegal conspiracy. Panic of 1837 also weakened movement
d)Fighting for Control
i)Workers at all levels in industrial economy tried to improve position by making 10-hour workday or restricting child labor. Laws changed little
ii)1842 MA Supreme Court ruled in Commonwealth v Hunt that unions were legal and strikes lawful, other states gradually agreed. Unions still largely ineffective 1840s/50s
iii)Artisans + skilled workers unions more successful 1850s, but their unions more like preindustrial guilds that restricted admission to skilled trades
iv)Working class of 1840s/50s had only modest power- limited by numerous immigrant laborers who could replace strikers, ethnic division led to worker disunity. Industrial capitalists had great economic, political and social power
5)Patterns of Industrial Society
a)The Rich and the Poor
i)Commercial +industrial growth raised average income of Americans, but wealth distributed unequally – for slaves, Indians, landless farmers, many unskilled workers little change. Small % of families owned majority of wealth
ii)There had always been wealthy classes from beginning but extent and character was changing. Newly wealthy merchants & industrialists settled in cities- found new ways to display wealth in mansions, social clubs, clothing…
iii)Large population of destitute ppl in growing urban areas- little resources, often homeless. Included recent immigrants, widows, orphans, ppl w/ mental illness. Free blacks=only menial jobs, little pay, no vote, no public schools
b)Social Mobility
i)Class conflict quelled b/c working standards declined but living standard improving, opportunity for social mobility for workers captured imagination
ii)Geographic mobility more extensive than Eur, Western lands “safety valve” for discontent. Also travel form city to city to search for new opportunity
iii)Opportunity to participate in politics expanded, ballot tied ppl to community
c)Middle-Class Life
i)Fastest growing group in America middle class. Economic development offered opportunity to own and work for businesses, land no longer=wealth
ii)Middle class life most influential cultural form of urban America, good neighborhoods, women stayed in home to care for children, cast-iron stoves used to cook, diets improved w/ new access to meats, grains, dairy
d)The Changing Family
i)Movement of families from farms to cities where jobs, not land, most important. Patriarchal system of inherited farm land disappeared
ii)Work moved out of home and into shop, mill, factory. Family as principal economic unit gave way to individual wage earners. Even farms became commercialized b/c larger lands required more labor than just family
iii)Changing family role led to decline in birth rate by mid-19th century. Deliberate effort to limit family size result of future planning. Secular, rational
e)Women and the “Cult of Domesticity”
i)Growing distinction btwn workplace and home led to distinction in societal roles of men + women. Women had long been denied legal + political rights, little access to business, less access to education at high levels
ii)Middle class husband seen as wage earner, wife to engage in domestic activities- “guardians of domestic virtues”, central role to nurture young
iii)“Separate sphere” female culture emerged. Women seen as having special qualities difft than men-custodians of morality and shape home to be refuge from competitive marketplace. Provide religious, moral instruction to kids
iv)By 1840s few genteel women considered working, seen as “lower class”, owners rarely hired women anyway b/c of “cult”. But Working-class women couldn’t afford to stay home, many went into domestic service
f)Leisure Activities
i)Leisure time scarce for all but wealthy, vacations rare, Sunday often only day of rest + Church. Reading expanded, new newspapers, magazines, books for affluent. Theaters, minstrel shows, public sporting events increasingly popular
ii)Circus amazed ppl (PT Barnum), lectures also very popular
6)The Agricultural North
a)Northeastern Agriculture
i)After 1840 decline and transformation- farmers couldn’t compete with new rich soil of Northwest. Rural population declined. Some farmers moved west for new farms, others moved to mill towns and became laborers. Others turned to providing eastern urban centers vegetables, fruit, profitable dairy products
b)The Old Northwest
i)Some industry (more than in South), industrial growth, before Civil War- much served agriculture or relied on agricultural products
ii)Lands from urban centers primarily agricultural, owned by workers. Rising world farm prices gave incentive for commercial agriculture: growing single crop for market, international market for American food
iii)Growth of factories + cities increased demand for farm goods. Northwest farmers sold most goods to ppl in Northeast + dependent on their purchasing power, Eastern industry found market for products in prosperous West
iv)To expand production Western expansion into prairie regions during 1840s/50s, new farm techniques and inventions used- John Deere’s steel plow
v)Automatic reaper by Cyrus McCormick + thresher revolutionized grain production
vi)NW democracy based on defense of economic freedom and rights of property
c)Rural Life
i)Religion powerful force drawing farm communities together. Also joined together to share tasks difficult for single family (such as barn raising)
ii)Rural life not always isolated, but less contact w/ popular culture and public social life than in towns and cities. Cherished farm life autonomy
1)The Cotton Economy
a)The Rise of King Cotton
i)19th century upper South (VA, MD, NC) cultivated tobacco, but unstable prices and exhaustive of soil. By 1830s upper South began to grow wheat, tobacco growing shifted westward. Southern regions of South (SC, GA, FL) continued growing rice, Gulf some sugar—crops limited b/c hard to cultivate
ii)Decline of tobacco in upper South led not to industrialization but growing of short-staple cotton- could grow in difft env’ts, w/ cotton gin now profitable. Demand for cotton growing b/c of rise of textile industry in GB 1820s/30s and New England 1840s/50s—new lands and expansion to meet new demand
iii)Beginning 1820s production of cotton moved westward into Alabama, Mississippi, LA, TX, AK. By 1850s dominated economy
iv)“Lower South”/ “Cotton Kingdom” attracted many seeking profits, also slaves
b)Southern Trade and Industry
i)Business classes and manufacturers unimportant, slow growth + mainly in upper South. Non-farm commercial sectors mainly served needs of plantation economy- brokers who marketed crops, acted as merchants and lenders
ii)Primitive banking system did not allow for structures necessary for industrial development. Inadequate transport system: few roads, canals, nat’l railroads
iii)Some southerners recognized economic subordination to north and advocated for economic independence- New Orlean James De Bow- De Bow’s Review
c)Sources of Southern Difference
i)Despite “colonial dependency” South did little to industrialize b/c agricultural system + cotton so profitable, little incentive to look beyond. Wealthy had already invested much of their capital into land + slaves
ii)Lack of commercial growth also b/c traditional values distinctive to South discouraged cities + industry- elegance, more refined life than rapid growth
2)White Society in The South
a)The Planter Class
i)Majority of ppl didn’t own slaves (only ¼ did), of those small % owned many
ii)Planter aristocracy (those earning 40+ slaves and 800+ acres of land) exercised power and influence greater than their number. Political economic, social control. Saw themselves as aristocracy, though most wealth was recent
iii)Growing crops profitable but as competitive and risky as industry in North
iv)After struggling to reach their position in society they were determined to defend it—perhaps why defense of slavery and South’s “rights” stronger in booming lower South and weaker in more established areas
b)“Honor”
i)White males adopted code of chivalry that obligated them to defend their “honor”. Ethical ideal and bravery but also public appearance of dignity & authority- anything to challenge dignity or social station a challenge
c)The “Southern Lady”
i)Lives of affluent centered in home, little role in public activities or as wage earners. White men more dominant + women subordinate than in North- solitary farm life w/ no access to “public world” led to main role wife, mother
ii)Less educational opportunities, higher birth rate and infant mortality rate
d)The Plain Folk
i)Typical person not planter + slaveholder but modest yeoman farmer. Mainly subsistence farming- lacked resources for cotton or to expand operations
ii)Little prospect of bettering position b/c southern educational system provided poor whites with little opportunity to learn and therefore advance
iii)Majority excluded from planter society, but opposition to elite limited mainly to “hill” and “backcountry” ppl who were secluded, unconnected to commercial economy, and loyal to whole nation and above sectional fighting
iv)Most nonslave-owning whites lived in middle of plantation system and were tied to it, relied on planters for markets, credit, and linked thru kinship. Also large sense of democracy + political participation gave sense of cnxn to societal order. Cotton boom of 1850s gave them hope of economic betterment
v)Belief that assault on one hierarchical system (slavery) would threaten another hierarchical system (patriarchy)
vi)Even the south’s poorest members (“clay eaters”) who owned no profitable land did not offer great opposition to society—greatest factor binding all classes together was perception of race and members of ruling race
3)Slavery: The “Peculiar Institution”
a)Varieties of Slavery
i)Called “peculiar” by Southerners b/c was distinctive from N., Western world
ii)Slavery regulated by law, slave codes forbade property, congregation, teaching a slave. Anyone suspected w/ trace of African blood defined as black
iii)Despite provisions of law variety within slave system b/c white owners handled most transgressions, conditions. Size of farm, # of slaves varied
iv)Majority of slave-owners small farmers, but majority of slaves lived on medium + large plantations-less intimate owner/slave relationship
b)Life Under Slavery
i)Generally received enough necessities to enable them to live and work; lived in slave quarters. Slaves worked hard, women labored in fields w/ men and had other chores, often single b/c husbands sold away (single parents)
ii)High death rate and less children survived to adulthood than whites
iii)Some say material condition of slavery may have been better than some northern factory workers, less sever than slaves in Caribbean + South Amer. Law preventing slave import incentive to Southern elite to provide some care
iv)Other cheap laborer (such as Irish) used to perform most dangerous and least healthy tasks to protect investment. Still overseers hired by owners often treated slave badly, and household servants often sexually abused by master
c)Slavery in the Cities
i)On isolated plantations masters maintained direct control. Slaves in cities were often hired out to do labor and unskilled jobs in cities + towns
ii)In cities line btwn slavery + freedom less clear, white southerners viewed slavery incompatible w/ city life- sold slaves to countryside, used segregation
d)Free African Americans
i)About 250,000 free African Americans in slaveholding states before Civil War, most in VA and MD. Some had earned money and bought freedom for themselves and family- mostly urban blacks able to do this
ii)Some slaves freed by master for moral reasons, other after master died
iii)During 1830s state laws for slaves tightened b/c growing number of free blacks, abolition movement in North—made manumission of slaves harder
iv)Most free blacks very poor, limited opportunity, only quasi-free
e)The Slave Trade
i)Transfer of slaves from one part of South to another important consequence of development of Southwest. Sometimes moved with master, more often transferred thru slave traders
ii)Domestic slave trade impt to growth and prosperity of system, but dehumanizing- children separated from parents
f)Slave Resistance
i)Most slaves unhappy with being slaves, wanted freedom- but dealt w/ slavery thru adaptation (slaves who acted as white world expected him, charade for whites) or resistance (those who could not come to accommodate their status)
ii)1831 Nat Turner, a slave preacher, led armed African Americans in VA, overpowered by state + federal troops. Only actual slave insurrection 19th century, but fear of slave conspiracies renewed violence + led to stricter laws
iii)Some attempted to resist by running away, escaping to the North or Canada using underground railroad + sympathetic whites. Odds of success low
iv)Resisted also by refusing to work hard, stealing from master
4)The Culture of Slavery
a)Language and Music
i)Slaves incorporated African speech w/ English- called “pidgin”
ii)Songs very impt- to pass time, some political, emotional, religious
b)African-American Religion
i)By 19th century nearly all slaves Christians. Black congregations illegal, most went to master’s church led by Baptist or Methodist white minister
ii)A.A. religion more emotional, reflected influence of African customs and practices- chanting, emphasized dream of freedom and deliverance. Christian images central to revel leaders Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner
c)The Slave Family
i)Blacks deprived of legal marriage, but “nuclear family” dominant kinship model nevertheless. Up to 1/3 of black families broken apart by slave trade- led to strong extended kinship networks
ii)Black women often bore children to white masters who didn’t recognize kids
iii)Slaves had complex relationships w/ masters b/c depended on them for material means of existence, sense of security and protection. This paternalism was used as an instrument of white control, sense of mutual dependence reduced resistance to institution that only benefited ruling white race
1)The Romantic Impulse
a)Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting
i)Eurs felt that they alone at center of artistic world, but paintings w/in US popular b/c felt they had artistic traditions of their own: wonder of nation’s landscape, shoe power of nature thru wild outdoor scenes- “awe & wonder”
ii)First great school of American painters from Hudson River School in NY: Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty, Asher Durand. Hoped to express “wild nature” that existed in America but not Eur
b)Literature and the Quest for Liberation
i)Early 19th century American literature unpopular, British novelist Sir Walter Scott was. But even during 1820s great American novelist James Fenimore Cooper- evocation of wilderness, adventure, westward expansion- his “Leatherstocking Tales were The Last of the Mohicans & The Deerslayer
ii)Cooper’s novels showed effort to produce truly American literature, ideal of independent individual with natural inner goodness, fear of disorder
iii)Later American romantic works included: poet Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855)- celebration of democracy, individual liberty. Other works more bleak- Herman Melville’sMoby Dick (1851) of individual will but tragedy of pride and revenge, writer Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” (1845) established him as literary figure- humans exploring deeper world of spirit and emotions
c)Literature in the Antebellum South
i)Southern writers wanted to create American literary culture as well, but often produced historical romances for eulogies of plantation system of Upper South. Most famous William Gilmore Simms- believed duty of intellectual to defend southern lifestyle + slavery, sectional
ii)Augustus Longstreet, Joseph Baldwin, Johnson Hooper focused not on “cavaliers” but on ordinary ppl and poor whites
d)The Transcendentalists
i)New England writers who focused on distinction btwn “reason” and inner capacity to grasp beauty and emotional expression vs “understanding” and repression of instinct and imposed learning- goal to cultivate “reason”
ii)Centered in Concord, MA. Leader Ralph Waldo Emerson- essays “Nature” (1836) argued self-fulfillment thru communion w/ nature, “Self-Reliance” (1841) called for individual fully explore inner capacity, unity w/ universe
iii)Emerson a nationalist, lecture “The American Scholar” (1837), argued beauty from instant vs learning, therefore Americans can still have artistic greatness
iv)Henry David Thoreau- ppl should seek self-realization by not conforming to society’s expectations & responding to own instincts. His Walden (1845) of him living simply in the woods, essay “Resistance to Civil Government” (1849)- govt that required violation of personal mortality not legitimate
e)The Defense of Nature
i)Some uneasy w/ rapid economic development, feared impact on natural world. Nature not just for economic activity (farmers, miners) or for study by scientists- but vehicle for human inspiration, realize truth within the soul
f)Visions of Utopia
i)Transcendentalism spawned communal living experiments
ii)Brook Farm established by George Ripley 1841 in MA, create community that would permit full opportunity for self-realization, equal labor, share leisure
iii)Conflict btwn individual freedom & communal society led to dissenters: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance (1852) submission equals oppression, The Scarlet Letter (1850)- price ind. pay for not being in society
iv)French philosopher Charles Fourier’s idea of socialist communities led Robert Owen 1825 to create experiment New Harmony in Ind, economic failure
g)Redefining Gender Roles
i)Transcendentalism + utopian communities led to some sense of feminism
ii)Margaret Fuller’s Women of the Nineteenth Century (1844)- feminist ideas
iii)Johm Humphrey’s Oneida Community “Perfectionists” rejected traditional ideas of family and marriage, communal raising of children. An Lee’s Shaker Society committed to celibacy, equality of sexes, God neither male or female
h)The Mormons
i)Mormons effort to create new and more ordered society thru Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Began upstate NY by Joseph Smith w/ his 1830 Book of Mormon. Began looking for sanctuary for follower “New Jerusalem”
ii)Ideas of polygamy and secrecy led surrounding communities to fear them. Mob killed Smith, his protégé Brigham Young led exodus to new community in present Salt Lake City, Utah. Family structure very impt
iii)Belief in human perfectibility, but not individual liberty. Organized, centrally directed society- refuge from disorder and insecurity of secular world
iv)Members mostly ppl dislodged by economic growth & social progress of era
2)Remaking Society
a)Revivalism, Mortality, and Order
i)Reform b/c rejection of Calvinist doctrines + preached divinity of individual (Unitarians, Universalism), and b/c of Protestant revivalism
ii)New Light revivalists believed every individual capable of salvation. Charles Finney impt leader- predestination and human helplessness obsolete
iii)Revivals in “burned-over district” in upstate NY (economic change b/c where Erie Canal had been built). Successful among those who felt threatened by change (including the prosperous worried about social changes), and women
b)The Temperance Crusade
i)Alcohol seen as responsible for crime, disorder, poverty. Large problem in West where farmers made extra grain into whiskey, in East as leisure activity
ii)Earlier temperance movement revived by new reformers- 1826 American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, 1840 Western Temperance Society.
iii)Growth led to factions: which alcohol to ban, method (law v. conscience)
iv)Trying to impose discipline on society- Protestants vs Catholic immigrants for which drinking social ritual, disturbing to old residents of communities
c)Health Fads and Phrenology
i)Interest in individual + social perfection led to new health theories, also threat to public health by cholera epidemics 1830s/40s led to city health boards
ii)B/c boards found few solutions Americans turned toward nonscientific theories to improve health: “water cure (hydrotherapy)”, Sylvester Graha’s new diet theories, German “phrenology” 1830s thru efforts of Fowler brothers- shape and regions of skull impt indicator of character + intelligence
d)Medical Science
i)Science of medicine lagged behind other tech. + scientific advances b/c lack of regulation led many poorly educated ppl to be physicians, absence of basic knowledge of disease- vaccination, anesthesia result of luck vs study
ii)W/o appetence of scientific methods + experimentation little learned about treating + transmission of disease
e)Reforming Education
i)Reform toward universal public education-by 1830 no state had system (some limited state versions [MA, ect.])- reflection of new belief on innate capacity of every person, society’s obligation to tap that, expose kids to social values
ii)Greatest reformer Horace Mann- educated electorate essential to work free political system. Academic year lengthened, better teacher salaries + training
iii)By 1850s tax-supported elementary schools in all states. Quality of education varied widely- Horace Mann’s MA professional + trained, elsewhere some barely literate, limited funding. West dispersed pop=less opportunity, South blacks barred from formal education, only 1/3 children nationwide in school
iv)School reform achievements: US literacy rate highest in world, new emphasis led to new institutions to help handicapped- greater Benevolent
v)School efforts to impose set of social values on children seen as impt in industrial nation- thrift, order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority
f)Rehabilitation
i)“Asylums” for criminals + mentally ill. Antiquated jails replaced w/ new penitentiaries and mental institutions, jailing debtors + paupers decreased
ii)Reform & rehabilitate inmates- rigid discipline to curb criminal “laxness”, solitary confinement to contemplate crimes. Overcrowding became problem
iii)Idea properly structured institution to prevent moral failure + rescue ppl from failure led to orphanages, almshouses for poor, homes for “friendless” women
g)The Indian Reservation
i)Main US Indian policy had been relocation to make way for expanding white civilization. Reform led to idea of reservation- enclosed area for Indians to live in isolation from white society. Served economic interest of whites, but also attempt to teach ways of civilization in protected setting
h)The Rise of Feminism
i)Women 1830s/40s had to deal w/ traditional limitations + new role in family to focus energy on home and children, leave income-earning to husbands
ii)Resentment over limitations. Leaders of women’s movement (Grimke sisters, Stowe sisters, Lucrecia Matt, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dorothy Dix) began to draw cnxn btwn their abolitionist ideas and plight of women
iii)1848 organized convention at Seneca Falls, NY to discuss women’s rights- led to “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” stating all men + women equal, call for women’s suffrage. Many women in feminist movement Quaker
iv)Progress limited in antebellum yrs- only few became physicians, ministers
v)Women benefited from association w/ other reform movements (very impt abolition), but led some to consider their demands secondary to slave rights
3)The Crusade Against Slavery
a)Early Opposition to Slavery
i)Early 19th century opposition by genteel lot. 1817 American Colonization Society- Virginians who wanted manumission & transportation out of country but also maintain property rights by compensating slaveholder—1830 Liberia
ii)Failed b/c not enough private + state funding, too many slaves to be possible, opposition from 3rd/4th generation Africans far removed from society + lands
iii)By 1830 movement losing strength- colonization not viable, cotton boom in Deep South + planter commitment to “peculiar institution” led to dead end
b)Garrison and Abolitionism
i)William Lloyd Garrison employed by antislavery newspaper (Genius of Universal Emancipation), but impatient w/ moderate tone + reform proposals
ii)1831 founded his own Liberator, should look from black perspective, shouldn’t talk in terms of damage to white society. Reject “gradualism”, extend African Americans full rights of American citizens
iii)Gained Northern following, founded New England Antislavery Society 1832, year later American Antislavery Society- membership grew rapidly
iv)Growth b/c like other reform movements committed to unleashing individual human spirit, eliminate artificial social barriers
c)Black Abolitionists
i)Abolitionism appealed to Northern free blacks who were poor, had little access to education, suffered mob violence, only menial occupations
ii)P of their freedom, realized own position in society tied to existence of slavery. David Walker came to be a leader w/ violent rhetoric, most blacks less violent speech- Sojourner Truth became antislavery spokesman
iii)Greatest abolitionist Frederick Douglass- escaped slavery, lectured in NE. His newspaperNorth Star, autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845). Demanded freedom, but also social + economic equality
d)Anti-Abolitionism
i)White southerners opposed abolition, but also many in the North. Seen as threat to social system, feared war btwn sections & influx of blacks to North
ii)Escalating violence against abolitionists 1830s- abolitionist headquarters “Temple of Liberty” in Philadelphia burned by mob, Garrison seized
iii)Yet movement grew despite, suggesting members strong-willed + passionate, great courage and moral strength. Majority sentiment ambivalent to slavery
e)Abolitionism Divided
i)By 1830s abolitionists faced serious internal strains + divisions. Prompted b/c anti-abolitionist violence made some favor moderation, radicalism of William Garrison and his attacks on slavery, opposition to slavery, call for full equality for women, extreme pacifism, call for northern disunion from South. Moderates called for “moral suasion” of slaveholders, later political action
ii)1839 Amistad- slaves seized ship tried to return to Africa. US navy captured ship. Supreme Court 1841 declared the Africans free 1
iii)842 Prigg v. Pennsylvania ruled states need not enforce 1793 law requiring return of fugitive slaves, “personal liberty laws” in northern states forbade officials to assist in capture + return of runaways
iv)Nat’t govt pressured to abolish slavery in areas of federal govt jurisdiction, prohibit interstate slave trade. No political party ever founded, but “free-soil” movement to keep slave out of territories became popular
v)Some abolitionists violent, American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of A Thousand Witnesses (1839) distorted images of slavery
vi)Most powerful abolitionist propaganda Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin(1851)- combined sentimental novel w/ political ideas of abolitionist. Story of good, kindly blacks victimized by cruel system movement. Brought message to new audience, but also inflamed sectional tensions to new level
1)Looking Westward
a)Manifest Destiny
i)Reflected pride of American nationalism + idealistic vision of social perfection that had fueled reform movements- US destined by God & history- to expand over a vast area that included North America.
ii)Extend liberty + US political system to others, but also racist justifications- superiority of “American” race, ppl of territories unfit for republican system
iii)By 1840s idea of Manifest Destiny had spread thru “penny press” (mass audience). Almost all but not everyone embraced- Henry Clay feared tension
b)Americans in Texas
i)1820s Mexican govt encouraged American immigration into Texas hoping to strengthen territory’s economy and increase tax revenues, buffer against Indians, would prevent US expansion- 1824 Mex bill offered cheap land
ii)Thousands took deal, land suitable for cotton, soon American population larger than Mexican. American intermediaries to Mex govt brought settlers- most famous Stephen Austin. Later attempts to stem US immigration failed
c)Tensions Between the United States and Mexico
i)Tension btwn US settlers and Mex govt grew b/c immigrants continued cultural + economic ties to US, also b/c desire to legalize slavery after it was outlawed in 1830
ii)Mid 1830s Mex General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power as dictator- new law increased power of nat’l govt over state govts, Austin imprisoned. 1835 Mex sent more troops, 1836 Texans declared independence
iii)Santa Anna led large army into TX, Americans unorganized and easily defeated (Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio). Then General Sam Houston defeated Mexicans 1836 at Battle of San Jacinto, the captured Santa Anna signed treaty making TX independent. [MXs living in TX called tejanos]
iv)Texans wanted to be annexed by US, delegation sent to D.C. had expansionist support, but northerners feared large new slave state + empowering the south w/ more Congressional/electoral votes- incl. Andrew Jackson who feared sectional controversy, Pres Van Buren and Pres Harrison also ignored issue
v)TX sought allies in Eur who wanted to check US power, Pres Tyler sought TX to reapply for statehood 1844, rejected by Senateissue in 1844 election
d)Oregon
i)Both GB and US claimed sovereignty over Oregon region. 1818 treaty allowed citizens equal access to area-“joint occupation” for 20 yrs
ii)US interest grew 1820s/30s b/c desire to convert Indians and oppose Canadian Cath. Missionaries- native rejection Christianity=repudiating right to land
iii)Large amt of Americans began emigrating to Oregon early 1840s, soon outnumbered GB’s settlers, destroyed native pop. Mid-1840s desire for annex.
e)The Westward Migration
i)Growth of TX and Oregon population part of greater movement of population westward 1840-1860. Southerners went mainly to TX, largest numbers from Old Northwest – majority sought mainly new economic opportunity
ii)Some wanted riches after CA gold discovery 1848, others take advance of cheap land fed govt selling, others on religious mission (Mormons)
f)Life on the Trail
i)Most migrants gathered major depots in Iowa or MI, joined wagon trains led by hired guides. Main route Oregon Trail to CA + WA, others Santa Fe Trail
ii)Trip very difficult, especially in mountain and desert terrain. Fear of conflict w/ Indians (although very little fighting occurred), trade developed w/ Natives
2)Expansion and War
a)The Democrats and Expansion
i)Two candidates for 1844 election Whig Henry Clay and the Democrat/former president Martin Van Buren. Clay chosen, but many Southern democrats supported TX annexation, chose stronger support James K. Polk
ii)Polk able to win b/c wished to occupy Oregon and annex TX, thereby appealing to both northern and southern expansionists
iii)Outgoing Pres John Tyler saw election as mandate for annexing TX, did so in 1845. Polk proposed Oregon border @ 49th parallel, GB refused, led to US cry “Fifty-four forty or fight!”. 1846 GB accepted treaty w/ border at 49th parallel
b)The Southwest and California
i)Oregon treaty accepted readily by Pres b/c tension growing in Southwest with Mex. After TX became state 1845 dispute over border- TX and Polk believed it to be at Rio Grande, sent Gen Zachary Taylor to protect from invasion
ii)Part of disputed area was New Mexico where Mex had originally invited American settlers into. Interest in California growing as well as US fur traders gave way to merchants and farmers arriving. Settlers dreamed of annexation
iii)Polk wanted California and New Mexico for US. At same time ordered Gen Taylor to TX, ordered navy seize CA ports if Mexico declared war
c)The Mexican War
i)Polk attempted diplomacy by sending special minister to Mex to purchase lands. When Polk heard MX rejected offer sent Gen. Taylor’s army from Nueces R to Rio Grande R January 1846
ii)May 1846 US declaration of war. Whig critics of war b/c thought Polk instigated, intensified as war cont and public aware of casualties and expense
iii)American forces successful in capturing NE Mexico, Polk ordered offensive against New Mexico and California. Col Stephen Kearny captured Santa Fe, then aided US forces in CA’s “Bear Flag Revolution”, captured CA
iv)When Mex refused to cede defeat Polk sent Gen Winfield Scott to capture Mexico City. After taking city new Mex govt took power that was willing to negotiate treaty. Some in US wanted to annex part of Mexico, but w/ election soon Polk wanted war ended quickly. Sent envoy Nicolas Trist for settlement
v)Feb 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo agreed to where Mex ceded CA and NM to US and acknowledged Rio Grande boundary of TX. US agreed to pay Mex $15 million. Despite to Mex annexations Polk accepted treaty
3)The Sectional Debate
a)Slavery and the Territories
i)Rep David Wilmot’s “Wilmot Proviso”: prohibit slavery from territories acquired by Mex- failed Senate. Polk extended Missouri Compromise line to territory on West coast. Alternative- “popular sovereignty”- states decided
ii)1848 election Polk didn’t run again. Dem candidate Lewis Cass, Whig General Zachary Taylor. Slavery opponents formed “Free-Soil” Party w/ Van Buren for pres. Showed inability of existing parties to contain slavery passions
b)The California Gold Rush
i)Taylor won 1848 election, pressure to resolve slavery in territories urgent b/c of events in CA- 1848 Gold Rush lead to dramatic increase in CA’s population, migrants known as “Forty-niners” mainly men
ii)Gold Rush led to many Chinese migrants to Western US. Labor shortage in CA (due to ppl flocking to fold fields) created opportunities for ppl who needed work. Also led to exploitation of Natives, “Indian hunters”
iii)Most didn’t find gold, but many sated in CA and swelled agricultural + urban populations. Population diverse- white Americans, Eurs, Chinese, Mexicans, free blacks, slaves of southern migrants—tension led territory to be a turbulent place, therefore pressure to create a stable and effective govt to bring order
c)Rising Sectional Tensions
i)Taylor believed statehood solution to territory issue b/c territories controlled by fed govt, but states govt could settle slave issue w/in own state
ii)Taylor 1849 proposed CA (which had constitution banning slavery) and New Mexico apply for statehood, decide slavery w/in state. Congress refused b/c at time 15 free and 15 slave states existed, South feared admission of New states would upset balance, make South minority in Sen. Tempers rising
d)The Compromise of 1850
i)Henry Clay proposed compromise to Congress in 1850- admitted CA as free state, new territorial govts w/o slave restrictions, new tough fugitive slave law
ii)First phase of debating comp led by older voices of Clay, Calhoun, Webster and broad ideal of settling slave issue once and for all
iii)After Clay proposal defeated, second phase of debate led by younger group: William Seward of NY opposed compromise, Jefferson Davis of MI saw slavery in terms of South’s economic self-interest, Stephen Douglas of IL
iv)W/ death of Taylor in 1850 (who refused compromise until CA admitted), new Pres Millard Fillmore supported compromise, rallied N Whig support
v)Douglas proposed Clay compromise split into smaller measured and voted on (difft sections could vote for measures that they supported), used govt bonds and railroad construction to gain support. Comp passed in September- less widespread agreement on ideals then victory of self-interest
4)The Crisis of the 1850s
a)The Uneasy Truce
i)1852 pres election candidates very sectional. Dem Franklin Pierce, Whig Gen Winfield Scott, Free-Soil John Hale. Whigs suffered from massive defection from antislavery members, Democrats won
ii)Pres Pierce tried to ignore divisive issues, but N opposition to Fugitive Slave Act after 1850 as mobs prevented slave catchers in cities. S angered, alarmed
b)“Young America”
i)Pierce supported Democrat’s “Young America”- saw expansion of US democracy throughout world as way of diverting attention from slavery
ii)Efforts to expand entangled in sectionalism- attempts to capture Cuba opposed by antislavery northerners who feared administration trying to bring new slave state to Union, south opposed acquiring Hawaii b/c prohibited slavery
c)Slavery, Railroads, and the West
i)1850s settlers began moving into plains to areas suitable for farming, dislodge Indians from reservations there. Settlement led to issue of railroad and slavery
ii) RR used to solve communication problems btwn old states + areas W of Miss. R., movement for transcontinental RR. Disagreement over whether eastern terminus should be in North’s Chicago or in the South. Jefferson Davis organized Gadsden Purchase 1853 from Mex to make S route possible
d)The Kansas-Nebraska Controversy
i)Stephen Douglas 1854 proposed opening Nebraska Territory for white settlement (to clear Indians in way of possible transcont. RR from Chicago)
ii)Nebraska North of Missouri Compromise line, therefore had to be free
iii)To gain passage Douglas proposed dividing Nebraska in two (Nebraska and Kansas) and each would decide slavery by “popular sovereignty” (state legislature), repealed Missouri Compromise entirely
iv)Kansas-Nebraska Act passed 1854 w/ Pres Pierce support. Had immediate, sweeping consequences: divided and destroyed Whig Party (disappeared by 1856), divided northern Democrats (disagreed w/ repealing Miss. Comp)
v)Ppl in both parties opposed to bill formed Republican Party 1854
e)“Bleeding Kansas”
i)Settlers from N + S settling Kansas, but for 1855 elections southerners from Missouri traveled to Kansas to vote. Pro-slavery legislature elected, legalized slavery. Free-state supporters in state formed own Const, applied statehood
ii)Pro-slave forces burned down anti-slave govt, abolitionist John Brown then killed 5 pro-slave settlers (Pottawatomie Massacre). Led to armed warfare by armed bands, “Bleeding Kansas” became symbol of sectional controversy
iii)1856 anti-slavery Charles Sumner of MA gave speech entitled “The Crime Against Kansas” critical of slavery defender Sen Butler of SC. Butler’s nephew Preston Brooks came to Sen, beat Sumner w/ cane- both became hero
f)The Free-Soil Ideology
i)Tension from economic, territorial interest, but also sectional vision of US
ii)North believed in “free soil” + “free labor”. Slavery not so much immoral but wrong b/c threatened whites- every citizen had right to own property, control labor, access to opportunity. To them South closed, static society where slavery preserved entrenched aristocracy & common white had no opportunity
iii)North growing + prospering, S stagnant + rejecting individualism, progress. Believed S conspiring to extend slavery thru whole nation and thus destroy N capitalism, replace it with closed aristocracy of S- “slave power conspiracy”
iv)This ideology @ heart of Repub Party. Committed to Union b/c growth + prosperity central to free-labor vision, breakup= smaller size+ less econ power
g)The Pro-Slavery Argument
i)Incompatible Southern ideology result of desire for security after Nat Turner 1831 uprising, lucrative nature of cotton economy into Deep South and expansion there, growth of Garrisonian abolition movement against S society
ii)Intellectual defense of slavery begun by Professor Thomas Dew, others later gave ideology name The Pro-Slavery Argument- said that S should not apologize for slavery b/c was a good thing, slaved enjoyed better conditions than industrial workers in N, allowed for peace btwn races, helped nat’l econ
iii)Also argued slavery good b/c basis of way S way of life, which was superior to any other. N greedy, destructive, factories horrific, cities crowded + immigrant filled- but S stable, orderly, protected worker welfare
iv)Defense also on biological inferiority of blacks, inherently unfit to care for themselves and be citizens. Clergy also gave religious + biblical justification
h)Buchanan and Depression
i)In 1856 pres election Dems wanted candidate unassociated w/ “Bleeding Kansas” so chose James Buchanan, Repubs chose John Fremont (platform against Kansas-Nebraska Act and of Whiggish internal improvements reflecting N economic aspirations), Know-Nothings chose Millard Fillmore
ii)Buchanan won, but proved indecisive at critical moment in history. After taking office financial panic + depression hit country
iii)In N Repubs strengthened b/c manufacturers, workers, farmers joined--depression seen as result of unsound policies of southern Dem administrations
i)The Dred Scott Decision
i)March 1857 Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v Sandford- Scott was slave who after masters death sued widow for freedom on grounds that master had moved residence to a free state, but John Sanford (brother of deceased owner, Sup C. misspelled name) claimed ownership of Scott
ii)Defeat for antislavery movement. Supreme Court had multiple decisions, Chief Justice Roger Taney: Scott could not bring suit in fed court b/c was not a citizen, blacks had virtually no rights under Const, slaves property & 5th Amendment forbid taking property w/o “due process” and therefore Congress had no authority to pass law depriving persons of slave property in territories (thereby ruling Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional)
iii)Did not challenge rights of state to limit slavery, but fed govt now powerless
j)Deadlock Over Kansas
i)Pres Buchanan endorsed Dred Scott decision, to solve Kansas problem supported admission to Union as slave state. 1857 new KS Const legalized slavery, but election of new legislature saw antislavery majority who put Const to ppl to vote on- widely rejected
ii)1858 Buchanan pressured Congress to admit it as slave state anyway but Cong rejected, compromise allowed KS to vote on Const again—rejected again
iii)1861, after sever S states had already seceded, KS entered Union as free state
k)The Emergence of Lincoln
i)In 1858 Congressional elections Repub Abraham Lincoln ran against famed Dem Stephen Douglas. Lincoln-Douglas debates attracted attention
ii)Lincoln’s attacks on slavery prominent- argued if nation didn’t accept blacks had human rights then it could accept other groups such as immigrant laborers could be deprived of rights too. Also, extension of slavery in territories would lead to lost opportunity for betterment by poor white laborers
iii)Lincoln opposed slavery but not abolitionist b/c did not see easy alternative to slavery in areas where it existed. Prevent spread of slavery to territories, trust institution would gradually die out in areas where it existed
iv)Douglas won but Lincoln gained following. Dems lost maj in House, kept Sen
l)John Brown’s Raid
i)1859 antislavery zealot from KS John Brown led followers to capture fort in Harpers Ferry VA hoping to lead slave rebellion. Uprising never occurred, Brown surrendered, tried for treason by VA and hanged
ii)Convinced white southerners that they could not live safely in Union, believed raid supported by Repub party and that North now wanted slave insurrection
m)The Election of Lincoln
i)In Pres election of 1860 Dems torn btwn southerners (who demanded strong endorsement of slavery) & westerners (who supported popular sovereignty)
ii)After popular sovereignty endorsed by convention southern states walked out, eventually nominated John Breckinridge of KY, rest chose Stephen Douglas
iii)Still others formed Constitutional Union Party w/ John Bell as candidate- endorsed Union but remained silent regarding slavery
iv)Republicans tried to broaden appeal to earn majority in North who feared S blocking its economic interests. Platform endorsed high tariff, internal improvements, homestead bill, Pacific railroad, popular sovereignty but Congress nor territory legislatures could legalize slavery in territories
v)Repubs chose Abraham Lincoln as nominee b/c moderate positions on slavery, relative obscurity, and western origins to attract votes from region
vi)Lincoln won presidency w/ majority of electoral votes but only 2/5 of popular vote but failed to win maj in Congress
vii)Election of Lincoln final signal for many southerners that their position in Union hopeless, within weeks process of disunion began
1)The Secession Crisis
a)The Withdrawal of the South
i)South Carolina voted Dec 1860 to secede, by time Lincoln came to office six more states (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, TX) seceded
ii)Seceded states formed Confederate States of America Feb1861. These states started seizing federal property but at first lacked power to seize the military instillations at Fort Sumter, SC and For Pickens, FL
b)The Failure of Compromise
i)Compromise proposed by Sen John Crittenden of KY proposed constitutional amdts w/ permanent slavery in slave states, fugitive slave returned. At heart was plan to reinstitute Missouri Compromise Line for western lands
ii)Repubs rejected compromise. Lincoln came to office, stated: Union older than Const therefore no state could leave it, supporting secession= insurrection
c)Fort Sumter
i)Forces in fort running out of supplies, Lincoln informed SC govt that supply ships were being sent. South feared looking weak, ordered General PGT Beauregard to capture fort. Bombarded April 12-12,1861. Fort surrendered
ii)After defeat of fort Lincoln began mobilizing for war, but 4 more slave states also seceded- VA, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina. Other 4 slave states remained in Union- MD, Delaware, KY, Missouri)
iii)Ppl in N&S had come to believe two distinct and incompatible civilizations had developed in US, both incapable of living together in peace
d)The Opposing Sides
i)North held all the important material advantages- N had more than double the population (manpower for army and work force) advanced industrial system to manufacture war material (S had to rely on Eur imports), N had better transportation systems + more railroads
ii)Advantages tempered b/c at first South fighting defensive war on own land w/ strong support of population. N more divided and support shaky throughout
2)The Mobilization of the North
a)Economic Measures
i)W/o Southern forces in Congress it enacted nationalistic program to promote econ development- Homestead Act of 1862 gave public land to settlers for small fee, Morrill Land Grant Act gave land to state govts to sell for $ for public education. High tariffs passed- boom to domestic industries, protect from foreign producers
ii)To build transcontinental RR created the Union Pacific RR Company to build westward from Omaha + Central Pacific to build east from CA
iii) National Bank Acts of 1863-1864 created new bank system- banks could join if they invested in govt, in turn could issue US Treasure notes as currency
iv)Govt financed war thru taxes, paper currency, and borrowing. 1861 first ever income tax levied, govt “greenbacks” (paper money) issued (not on gold or silver standard), but mostly thru bonds sold to individuals and larger financial bodies
b)Raising Union Armies
i)To increase army Congress authorized enlisting 500,000 volunteers- produced adequate forces only briefly. By March 1863 govt had to pass national draft law (but ppl could avoid service by hiring someone in his place or paying $)
ii)Ppl were accustomed to remote, inactive nat’l govt so conscription had widespread opposition- mainly from laborers, immigrants, “Peace Democrats”
c)Wartime Politics
i)Lincoln moved to assert his authority- apptd cabinet representing every faction of Repub party, used war powers of president and disregarded parts of Const- e.x. never asking Congress for declaration of war (believed declaration would recognize Confederacy as an independent nation)
ii)Lincoln’s greatest problem was popular opposition to war mobilized by parts of Democratic Party (“Copperheads”) who feared agriculture and Northwest losign influence + deterioration of states rights by strong nat’l govt
iii)Lincoln suppressed opposition by ordering military arrests of civilian dissenters, suspending habeas corpus, stating all ppl who discouraged enlistment or disloyal practices subject to martial law. Lincoln defied Supreme Court when ordered to release secession leader (Ex parte Merryman), military courts declared unconst after war (Ex parte Milligan)
iv)In1864 presidential election coalition formed btwn Repubs & War Democrats in Union Party- nominated Lincoln. Dems nominated Gen George McClellan, platform for truce. N victories (e.x. Sept capture of Atlanta) led to Lincoln win
d)The Politics of Emancipation
i)Republicans disagreed on slavery- Radicals incl. Sen Charles Sumner wanted to use war to abolish slavery, Conservatives= gradual, less destructive process
ii)Lincoln cautious of emancipation but momentum gathered behind it- 1861 Confiscation Act freed all slaves used for “insurrectionary” purposes, second Confiscation Act in 1862 freed all slaves of ppl supporting the insurrection
iii)North began to accept emancipation as central war aim b/c nothing less would justify sacrifices of struggle, Radical Repub influence on the rise
iv)Lincoln seized leadership of antislavery sentiment- Sept 1862 after success at Battle of Antietam issued Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in all Confederate areas (but not Union slave states). Established war not only to maintain Union but also to eliminate slavery
v)1865 Congress ratified 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in all parts of US
e)African Americans and the Union Cause
i)About 180,000 emancipated blacks and more free blacks from North served as soldiers and laborers for Union forces. At start of war African Americans excluded from war, but after Emancipation Proc joined in great numbers
f)The War and Economic Development
i)War slowed some growth by cutting manufactueres off from Southern markets and raw materials and diverting labor, but mostly the war sped economic development in the North
ii)Econ growth from Repub nationalistic legislation + new sectors of economy. Difficult for workers though purchasing power declined, mechanization
g)Women, Nursing, and the War
i)Women entered new roles b/c of need for money and labor needs to fill positions vacated by men
ii)Nursing (previously dominated by men) taken up by women, staffed field hospitals thru US Sanitary Commission. Countered resistance from doctors by associating care with women’s role as maternal + nurturing wife and mother
iii)Many found war liberating, seen as opportunity to win support for own goals. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded National Woman’s Loyal League in 1863- worked for abolition and suffrage to women
3)The Mobilization of the South
a)The Confederate Government
i)Confederate const similar to US Const but acknowledged sovereignty of individual states, sanctioned slavery and made abolition nearly impossible. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi named president, led like Union by moderates of new Western aristocracy as opposed to entrenched Eastern elements
b)Money and Manpower
i)To finance war South needed to create national revenue system in society not used to tax burdens. Small banking system, little liquid capital b/c of investments in land + slaves. Govt requested funds from state govts who issued questionable bonds
ii)1863 Income tax created but raised little revenue, borrowing from Eur and bonds to citizens unsuccessful. Turned to issuing paper money but created inflation of over 9,000% vs North’s 80%, no uniform currency
iii)To raise military called for volunteers, but decline in enlistment led to April 1862 Conscription Act. N capture of Confederate lands led to loss of source for manpower, 1864 shortage so desperate draft widened but still ineffective
c)States’ Rights versus Centralization
i)States’ rights supporters obstructed war effort by limiting Davis’ ability to declare martial law and obstructed conscription
ii)Confed did centralize power in S- bureaucracy larger than that of Washington, impressed slaves to work for military, regulated industry + profits
d)Economic and Social Effects of the War
i)War devastating on S economy- cut off planters from markets in S, overseas cotton sales more difficult, industries w/o large slave forces suffered. Production declined by 1/3, fighting on S land destroyed RRs, farmland
ii)N naval blockade led to shortages of everything- agriculture had focused on cotton and not enough food to meet needs, few doctors b/c of conscription
iii)Like in N, w/ men leaving farms to fight the role of women changed- led slaves and family, became nurses. Led women to question S assumption that females unsuited for certain activities and to be in public sphere. War created gender imbalance w/ many more women, unmarried + widowed sought work
iv)Whites feared slave revolts + enforced slave codes severely, but many slaves tried to escape or resisted authority of women and boys overseeing plantations
4)Strategy and Diplomacy
a)The Commanders
i)Most impt Union commander was commander-in-chief Abraham Lincoln- realized N material advantages, goal defeat of Confed armies, not occupation
ii)Lincoln had trouble finding a competent chief of staff for war- Gen Winifield Scott, Gen George McCllellan, Gen Henry Halleck. Finally found commander in Gen Ulysses S. Grant- goal to target enemy army + resources, not territory
iii)Lincoln and Grant scrutinized by Congress’ Committee on the Conduct of the War chaired by OH Sen Benjamin Wade - complained of lack of ruthlessness by of N generals
iv)Southern command centered on Pres Davis, 1862 named Gen Robert E. Lee principal military adviser (w/ Lee in field Davis controlled strategy). 1864 Gen Braxton Bragg named military adviser, later 1865 Confed Congress created position of general in chief, Davis named Lee, but Davis still decider
v)Most commanders from both N & S had attended one of the US service academies- US Military Academy at West Point, US Naval Acad at Annapolis
b)The Role of Sea Power
i)Union had overwhelming naval advantage- used to enforce blockade of S coast, assisted Union army in field operations especially on large rivers
ii)Blockade prevented most ships out of Confed ports. Confederates tried to break blockade w/ new weapons such as the ironclad warship the Merrimac, which the Union stopped with one of their ironclads the Monitor
c)Europe and the Disunited States
i)Judith P Benjamin was Confed secretary of state, counterpart in Washington was the great William Seward
ii)At start of war ruling classes of England + France sympathetic to Confed b/c imported cotton for textile industries from S, wanted to see a weaker US, admired aristocratic social order of S. France waited to take sides until England did, English didn’t act b/c of popular support of ppl for the Union
iii)S countered w/ “King Cotton diplomacy” arguing S cotton vital for these nations textile industries. Surpluses in these nations allowed S to be ignored, later imports from mills from Egypt and India
iv)No Eur nation diplomatically recognized Confed, no nation wanted to antagonize US unless Confed seemed likely to win- never reached that point
v)Still, there was tension btwn US and GB + France b/c these nations had declared neutrality. Also 1861 Trent affair over arrest of Confed diplomats aboard English steamer from Cuba, later crisis over sale of Brit ships to S
d)The American West and the War
i)Most states and territories of West remained loyal to Union except TX, although Southerners and S sympathizers active in organizing opposition
ii)Fighting occurred btwn Unionists and secessionists in Kansas and Missouri. Confed William Quantrill led guerilla fighters, Union Jayhawkers in KS
iii)Confed tried to ally w/ Five Civilized Tribes in Indian territory to recruit support against Union, Indians divided. Never formally allied w/ either side
5)The Course of Battle
a)The Technology of Battle
i)Battlefield of Civil War reflected changes in tech that transformed combat
ii)Both sides began to use repeating weapons- Samuel Colt’s 1835 repeating revolver, Oliver Winchester’s 1660 rifle. Also, improved artillery + cannon
iii)Changes in weapons effectiveness led soldiers to change from infantry lines firing volleys to use of no fighting formations but use of cover, fortifications, trenches. Observation balloons, ironclad ships also appeared during war
iv)Railroad impt in war where millions of soldiers mobilized + tons of supplies. Allowed large armies to assemble and move, but forced to protect stationary lines. Telegraph limited but allowed commanders to communicate during fight
b)The Opening Clashes, 1861
i)First major battle of war occurred in northern VA btwn Union Gen Irvin McDowell and Confed Gen PGT Beauregard at First Battle of Bull Run
ii)Union lost, forced to retreat to Washington, dispelled illusion of quick war
iii)1863 Union army under Gen George McClellan “liberated” anti-secessionists in western VA, area admitted to Union as West Virginia 1863
c)The Western Theater
i)Stalemate in East led to 1862 military operations in West. April 1862 Union forced surrender of New Orleans, closed Mississippi R to Confed trade and took away South’s largest city and most impt banking center
ii)Gen Ulysses S. Grant captured forts under command of Confed Gen Albert Johnston. In doing so Grant forced Confed out of Kentucky and Tennessee
iii)Grant then marched south, fought forced of Gen Sidney and Gen Beauregard at Battle of Shiloh April 1862. Narrow Union victory allowed capture of several impt railroad lines vital to the Confederacy
d)The Virginia Front, 1862
i)Union operations 1862 directed by Gen McClellan (commander of the Army of the Potomac), he was controversial b/c often reluctant to put troops in battle
ii)McClellan planned Peninsular Campaign- use navy to transport troops, attack Confed capital at Richmond from behind. Gen McDowell left to defend D.C.
iii)Then Confed Gen Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson looked as if planning to cross Potomac to Washington, defeated Union forces in Valley campaign, withdrew
iv)Meanwhile, McClellan battled and defeated Confed Gen Joseph Johnston at Battle of Fair Oaks. Johnston replaced by Gen Robert E. Lee who battled McClellan at Battle of the Seven Days. Union able to advance near Richmond
v)When McClellan delayed attack Lincoln ordered him to move to northern VA to forces under Gen John Pope. But as Army of Potomac moved Lee attacked Pope with his Army of Northern Virginia at 2nd Battle of Bull Run (August)
vi)Lincoln replaced Pope and McClellan led all forces. Lee planned offensive, resulted in Battle of Antietam Creek- bloodiest single-day of war w/ 6,000 dead & 17,000 injured. Confed withdrew but McClellan could have defeated Lee w/ last assault. Lincoln relieved McClellan from command in November, his replacement Gen Ambrose Burnside relieved in December after failures
e)1863: Year of Decision
i)New commander of Army of the Potomac Gen Joseph Hooker attacked by Lee + Jackson at Battle of Chancellorsville, barely able to escape w/ army
ii)While Union frustrated in East won impt victories in the West
iii)In July besieged Confed stronghold at Vicksburg, MI surrendered to Grant
iv)Union now controlled entire Mississippi R, Confederacy split in two- Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas cut off from other seceded states
v)To divert Union forces away from Missippi and Vicksburg and to gain major victory on N soil to get English and French aid, Lee proposed PA invasion
vi)New Army of the Potomac commander Gen George Meade battled Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3. Meade defeated Lee w/ surrender on July 4, same day as Vicksburg defeat
vii) Weakened Confed forced now unable to seriously threaten N territory
viii)In September Gen Braxton Braggfought Union army under William Rosecrans, Union defeated at Battle of Chickamauga
ix)Bragg then fought remaining Union forces at Battle of Chattanooga (Tennessee) in November. Grant reinforced the Union army, Union won and occupied most of eastern TN and controlled important Tennessee River
x)Confed could not only hope to win independence thru holding on and exhausting N will to fight, not thru decisive military victory
f)The Last Stage, 1864-1865
i)Beginning 1864 Grant named general-in-chief of all Union armies. Planned two offensives: use Army of Potomac in VA to fight Lee near Richmond, and use western army under Gen William Sherman to advance toward Atlanta
ii)Grant’s Overland campaign in VA led Lee to win three battles (Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Battle of Cold Harbor)
iii)Grant then decided to bypass Richmond to railroad center at Petersburg- strong defenses and reinforcement by Lee led to 9-month siege
iv)In Georgia Gen Sherman fought Gen Johnston and his replacement Gen Hood, took Atlanta in Sept- electrified N + united Repub Party behind Lincoln
v)Sherman defeated Confed at Battle of Nashville, while beginning his March to the Sea- sought to deprive Confed army of war materials and railroad but also break will of Southern ppl by burning towns and plantations along route
vi)Sherman captured Savannah, GA in Dec, turned north thru SC and NC
vii)April 1865 Grant’s Army of the Potomac captured vital railroad juncture in Petersburg. W/o rail access to South and cut off rom other Confed forces Lee no longer able to defend Richmond
viii)Lee attempted to move army around Union in hope of meeting forces with Gen Johnston in North Carolina, but Union blocked and pursued him
ix) Realizng more bloodshed was futile Lee met w/ Grant in town of Appomattox Courthouse, VA- surrendered there on April 9
x)Nine days later Gen Johnston surrendered to Sherman in North Carolina
xi)In military war was effectively over even though Jefferson Davis refused to accept defeat. He fled Richmond but was captured in Georgia
1)The Problems of Peacemaking
a)The Aftermath of the War and Emancipation
i)Southern towns and fields ruined, many whites stripped of slaves and capital, currency worthless, little property. Thousands of soldiers (>20% of adult white male pop) had died, ppl wanted to preserve what was left
ii)Many emancipated slaves wandered looking for family, work. Almost none owned land or possessions
b)Competing Notions of Freedom
i)Freedom to blacks meant end to slavery, injustice, humiliation. Rights and protections of free men also desired
ii)AAs differed over how to achieve freedom: some wanted economic redistribution including land, others wanted legal equality and opportunity. All wanted independence from white control
iii)Whites wanted life w/o interference of North or federal govt. Thirteenth Amendment (Dec 1865) had abolished slavery, but many planters wanted blacks to be tied to plantations
iv)March 1865 Congress created Freedmen’s Bureau to distribute food, create schools, & help poor whites. Only a temporary solution, only operated for 1 yr
c)Issues of Reconstruction
i)Political issue when S states rejoined Union b/c Democrats would be reunited, threatened Repub nationalistic legislation for railroads, tariffs, bank and currency. Many in N wished to see S punished for suffering rebellion caused
ii)Repubs split btwn Conservatives and Radicals- Con wanted abolition but few other conditions for readmission, Radicals (led by Rep Thaddeus Stevens of PA + Sen Charles Sumner of MA) wanted Confed leaders punished, black legal rights protected, property confiscation. Moderates in between
d)Plans for Reconstruction
i)Lincoln proposed 1863 lenient Reconstruction plan- favored recruiting former Whigs to Repubs, amnesty to white Southerners other than high Confed officials. When 10% of ppl took loyalty oath state govt could be established. Questions of future of freedmen deferred for sake of rapid reunification
ii)The occupied Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee rejoined under plan in 1864
iii)Radicals unhappy with mild plan. Wade-Davis Bill 1864 proposed governor for each state, when majority of ppl took allegiance oath constitutional convention could be held w/ slavery abolished, former Confed leaders couldn’t vote. After Congress would readmit to Union. Lincoln pocket vetoed
e)The Death of Lincoln
i)April 14, 1865 Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
ii)Hysteria in N w/ accusations of conspiracy. Militant republicans exploited suspicions for months, ensured a mild plan would not come soon
f)Johnson and “Restoration”
i)Johnson became leader of Moderate and Conservative factions, enacted his “Restoration” plan while Congress in recess during summer 1865
ii)Plan offered amnesty to southerners taking allegiance oath, Confed officials + wealthy planters needed special presidential pardon. Like Wade-Davis Bill had provisional governors, constitutional convention had to revoke ordinance of secession, abolish slavery, ratify 13th Amdt. State govts, then readmission
iii)By end of 1865 all seceded states has new govts, waiting for Congress to recognize. Radicals refused to recognize Johnson govts b/c public sentiment more hostile- (e.g. Georgia’s choice of Confed Alexander Stephens as Sen)
2)Radical Reconstruction
a)The Black Codes
i)1865 + 1866 S state legislatures passed laws known as Black Codes- gave whites power over former slaves, prevent farm ownership or certain jobs
ii)Congress reacted by widening powers of Freemen’s Bureau to nullify agreements forced on blacks. 1866 passed first Civil Rights Act- made blacks US citizens, gave fed govt power to intervene to protect rights of citizens
iii)Johnson vetoed both bills, but both were overridden
b)The Fourteenth Amendment
i)14th Amendment defined citizenship- anybody born in US or naturalized automatically a citizen + guaranteed all rights of Const. No other citizenship requirements allowed, penalties for restricting male suffrage. Former Confed members couldn’t hold state or fed office unless pardoned by Congress
ii)Radicals offered to readmit those who ratified amendment, only TN did so
iii)S race riots helped lead to overwhelming Repub majority (mostly Radicals) in 1866 Congressional elections, could now act over President’s objections
c)The Congressional Plan
i)Radicals passed 3 Reconstruction plans in 1867, established coherent plan
ii)TN readmitted, but other state govts rejected. Cong formed five military districts w/ commanders who registered voters (blacks + white males uninvolved in rebellion) for const convention that must include black suffrage
iii)After const ratified needed Congressional approval, state legislature had to ratify 14thAmdt. By 1868 10 former Confed states fulfilled these conditions (14th Amdt now part of Const) and readmitted to Union
iv)Congress also passed 1867 the Tenure of Office Act (forbade pres to remove civil officials w/o Senate consent) and the Command of the Army Act (no military orders except thru commanding general of army or w/ Sen approval)
v)Supreme Court case Ex parte Milligan had declared military tribunals where civil courts existed unconst, Radicals feared same ruling would apply to military districts so proposed bills threatening court—court didn’t hear Reconstruction cases for 2 years
d)The Impeachment of President Johnson
i)Pres Johnson obstacle to Radical legislation, yet tasked with administering Reconstruction programs. 1868 Johnson impeached for violation of Tenure of Office Act for dismissing Sec of War Stanton- Sen acquitted by 1 vote
3)The South in Reconstruction
a)The Reconstruction Governments
i)In ten states recognized under congressional plans up to ¼ of whites excluded from voting and office. These restrictions later lifted, but Repubs kept control w/ support of many southern whites called “scalawags” (most former Whigs, wealthy planters, businessman), felt Repub better for their economic interests
ii)“Carpetbaggers” were northerners (mostly professionals or veterans) who moved South after war to take advantage of new opportunity
iii)Most republicans, however, were black freedmen who held conventions and created black churches that gave them unity and political self-confidence. Were delegates to const conventions, held office- although white charges of “Negro” governments were over exaggerated or false
iv)Reconstruction governments’ records were mixed- there were charges of corruption and extravagance. But corruption also rampant in N- both result of economic expansion of govt services that put new strains on elected officials. Larger budgets reflected needed services previous govts had not offered: public education, public works, and poor relief
b)Education
i)Education improvement benefited whites and blacks- large network of schools for former slaves created (over white opposition of giving blacks “false notions of equality”), by 1870s comprehensive public school system led to great percentage of white and black population attending school
ii)System divided into black and white system, integration efforts failed
c)Landownership and Tenancy
i)Freedmen’s Bureau and Radicals had hoped to make Reconstruction vehicle for southern landownership reform. Some redistribution of land in early years, but Pres Johnson and govt returned most confiscated land to returning plantation owners
ii)White landownership decreased b/c of debt, taxes or rentals. Black landownership increased, some relied on help of failed Freedman’s Bank
iii)Most ppl did not own land during Reconstruction, worked for others. Many black agricultural laborers worked only for wages, but most worked own plots of land and paid landlords rent or share of their crop
d)The Crop-Lien System
i)Postwar years saw economic progress for African Americans, great increase in income. Result of black profit share increasing, greater return on labor
ii)Redistribution did not lift many blacks out of poverty- black per capita income rose from ¼ of whites to ½, then grew little more afterward
iii)Gains of blacks and poor whites overshadowed by ravages of crop-lien system. After war few credit institutions such as banks returned, new credit system centered on local country stores
iv)Farmers did not have steady cash flow so relied on credit to buy what they needed. W/o competition stores charged incredibly high interest rates. Had to give lien (claim) on crops as collateral- bad years trapped them in debt cycle
v)Effects included leading some blacks who had gained land to lose it as they became indebted, S farmers became dependent on nearly all cash crops (only possibility to escape debt). Lack of diversity led to decline in agric economy
e)The African-American Family in Freedom
i)Major black response during Reconstruction was effort to build or rebuild family structures, reason why many immediately left plantations was to seek relatives and family
ii)Women began performing more domestic work + child caring, less field labor
iii)Poverty + economic necessity led many black women to do income-producing activity for wages, reminiscent of slave activities: domestic servants, laundry
4)The Grant Administration
a)The Soldier President
i)Grant accepted Repub nomination for president in 1868 election. Had no political experience, apptd incompetent cabinet members, relied on party leaders and spoils system. Alienated Northerners disillusioned w/ Radical reconstruction and corruption
ii)Opposing Repubs formed faction called Liberal Republicans, supported Dem nominee Horace Greeley in 1872 elections—but Grant won reelection
b)The Grant Scandals
i)Series of scandals emerged plaguing Grant and Repubs. Involved French-owned Credit Mobilier construction company helping build Union Pacific RR. Company heads steered contracts to company costing fed govt and Union Pacific millions, stock given to Congress members to stop investigation
ii)Later, “whiskey ring” found officials helping distillers cheat out of taxes. Later “Indian ring” scandal idea that “Grantism” brought corruption to govt
c)The Greenback Question
i)Grant’s and nation’s problems confounded by Panic of 1873- began w/ failure of investment bank, later debtors wanted govt to redeem war bonds w/ greenbacks (paper currency)
ii)Grant and other Repubs wanted “sound” currency based on gold that would favor banks and other creditors, didn’t want to put more money in circulation
iii)1875 Repubs passed Specie Resumption Act- pegged greenback dollars to the price of gold. Satisfied creditors, hard for debtors b/c money supply grew little
iv)National Greenback Party formed, unsuccessful but kept money issue alive
d)Republican Diplomacy
i)Johnson and Grant administrations had great foreign affairs successes b/c of Secretaries of State William Seward and Hamilton Fish
ii)Seward bought Alaska from Russia (“Seward’s Folly”), annexed Midway Islands. Fish resolved claims against GB of violating neutrality by building ships for Confed. Treaty of Washington allowed for arbitration of claims
5)The Abandonment of Reconstruction
a)The Southern States “Redeemed”
i)By 1872 nearly all S whites regained suffrage, worked as majority to overthrow Repubs. In areas of black majority whites used intimidations and violence (Ku Klux Klan, ect.) to prevent blacks from political activity
ii)Klan led by former Confed Gen Nathan Forrest. Worked to advance interest of those who would gain from white supremacy- mainly planter class and Democratic party. Most of all, however, economic pressure used
b)The Ku Klux Klan Acts
i)Repubs tried to stop white repression, 1870 passed Enforcement Acts (known as Ku Klux Klan Acts)- prohibited states from discriminating against voters on race, fed govt given power to prosecute violations. Allowed pres to use military to protect civil rights, suspend habeas corpus in some situations
ii)Grant used law in 1871 for “lawless” counties in SC
c)Waning Northern Commitment
i)Enforcement Acts peak of Repub enforcement of Reconstruction. After 1870 adoption of 15th Amdt many in N felt blacks should take care of themselves. Support for Liberal Democrats grew, some moves into Democratic Party
ii)Panic of 1873 undermined Reconstruction support further, N industrialists explained poverty and instability thru “Social Darwinism” where those who suffered did so b/c of own weakness. Viewed poor blacks in this light, favored little govt intervention to help. Depleted treasury led ppl to want to spend little on freedmen, poor state govts cut back on social services
iii)In Congressional elections of 1874 Dems won majority in House for first time since 1861, Grant used army to maintain Repub control in SC, FL, LA
d)The Compromise of 1877
i)In 1876 elections Repubs sought new candidate to distance from corruption and attract Liberals back- chose Rutherford B Hayes, Dems chose Sam Tilden
ii)Tilden won popular vote but dispute over 20 electoral votes from 3 states. Tilden one vote shy of electoral vote majority, Hayes needed all 20 votes to win. Congress created special electoral commission to judge disputed votes, chose 8-7 to give all votes to Hayes—won election
iii)Resolution result of compromises btwn Repubs w/ southern Dems- Hayes would withdraw last fed troops from S if Dems abandoned filibuster of bill
iv)“Compromise of 1877” also involved more financial aid for railroads and internal improvements in S in order to help Dems grow business and industrialize, withdraw troops to rid S of last Repub state govts
e)The Legacies of Reconstruction
i)Reconstruction made strides in helping former slaves but a failure b/c failed to resolve issue of race, created such bitterness that solution not attempted for another century. Failure b/c of ppl directing it, unwillingness to infringe on rights of states and individuals
6)The New South
a)The “Redeemers”
i)By 1877 w/ final withdrawal of troops every southern state govt “redeemed” (white Dems held power). “Redeemers”/“Bourbons” members of powerful ruling elite, mostly new class of merchants, industrialists, financiers. Committed to “home rule”, social conservatism, economic development
ii)Dem govts lowered taxes, reduced services (incl. public education)
iii)By 1870s dissenters protesting service cuts and Redeemer govt commitment to pay off prewar and Reconstruction debts (e.g. VA Readjuster movement)
b)Industrialization and the “New South”
i)Leaders in post-Reconstruction south wanted to develop industrial economy, New South of industry, progress, thrift
ii)Literature of time indicates reference for the “Lost Cause” and Old South- Joel Chandler Harris’ 1880 Uncle Remus. Also, growth of minstrel shows
iii)New South included growth of textile manufacturing b/c of water power, cheap labor, low taxes. Tobacco-processing industry also grew, including James Duke’s American Tobacco Company. Iron + steel industry also grew
iv)Railroad development increased dramatically, 1886 greater integration with rest of country when changed its gauge
v)However, growth of South merely regained what it had done before war, average income in the South substantially lower than that of North
vi)Manufacturing growth required industrial labor force. Most were women, wages much lower than in N. Mill towns restricted by company w/ labor unions suppressed, credit thru company- but led to sense of community
c)Tenants and Sharecroppers
i)S still primarily agrarian. 1870s/1880s growth of tenantry and debt peonage, reliance on cash crops. Crop-lien system resulted in many losing land, maj of ppl in S became tenant farmers
ii)“Sharecropping” system where farmers promised large share of crop for land, tools- little money left over after payments. Subsistence farming gave way to only growth of cash crops- increased poverty. Coupled w/ “fence laws” (prevented ppl from raising livestock) led to decline in living self-sufficiently
iii)Backcountry + blacks affected led populist protests to follow in 1880s/1890s
d)African Americans and the New South
i)Some blacks attracted to New South ideals of progress + self improvement, entered middle class by becoming professionals, owning land or business
ii)This small rising group of blacks believed education vital to future of race- supported black colleges
iii)Spokesman for this idea was Booker T Washington (founder of Tuskegee Institute)- believed blacks should attend school and learn skills in agricultural or trade, win respect of white population by adopting middle class standards of dress. His “Atlanta Compromise” sought to forgo political rights, concentrate on self-improvement and economic gains to earn recognition
e)The Birth of Jim Crow
i)Pullout of fed troops, loss of interest in Congress, and Supreme Court decisions regarding 14th & 15th Amdts (civil rights cases of 1883 prevented state discrimination but not private organizations of individuals)
ii)Court validated separation of races- Plessy v Ferguson (1896) ruled separate accommodations did not deprive blacks of equal rights if accommodations were equal.Cumming v County Board of Education (1899)- laws for separate schools valid even if no comparable school for blacks existed
iii)White policies shifted from subordination to segregation- black voting rights had been used by Bourbons to keep their control of Dem party, but when poor white farmers saw this they sought to disenfranchise blacks. Got around 15th Amdt thru “poll tax”/property requirement or “literacy”/understanding test
iv)Jim Crow Laws segregated almost every area of southern life. 1890s increased violence (lynchings, ect) to inhibit black movement for equal rights. An anti-lynching movement did emerge led by Ida B. Wells to pass national law enabling fed got to punish those responsible for lynchings
v)White supremacy diluted class animosities btwn poor whites and Bourbon oligarchs. Economic issues played secondary role to race, distracting ppl from social inequalities that affected blacks and whites
1)The Societies of the Far West
a)The Western Tribes
i)Some dislocated eastern tribes in “Indian Territory”, others western tribes such as Pueblos had permanent settlements/farms + interaction w/ Spanish & Mexicans- caste system over other Ind tribes (genizaros=Ind w/o tribes)
ii)Plains Indians- some nomadic, some farmers. Many (including Sioux) hunted buffalo as main source of food + materials
iii)Warriors unable to defeat white settlers b/c disunited, internal conflict, disease
b)Hispanic New Mexico
i)American capitalist integration led Spanish-speaking to erosion of communal society + economies, land aristocracy from Santa Fe + Span/Mex peasants
ii)Territorial govt in 1850, in 1870s govt dominated by “territorial ring” where business ppl took advantage of impending statehood, used fed money for profit
iii)Arrival of RRs in in SW during 1880s/1890s brought new ranching, farming, mining brought new Mexican migrants
c)Hispanic California and Texas
i)Most Spanish missions that employed Ind as near slaves until 1830s. White settlers expelled Hispanic californios from the land. Market for cattle allowed some rancheros to continue to own land, but most Mexs became working class
ii)In Texas Mexs also unable to compete with enormous Anglo-American ranching kingdoms- most relegated to unskilled farm + industrial labor
d)The Chinese Migration
i)After 1848 gold rush, Chinese migration dramatically increased, settling mostly in CA. White sentiment soon turned negative b/c Chinese industrious and successful
ii)Chinese excluded from gold mining by CA 1852 “foreign miner tax”, other laws 1850s discouraged immigration—Chinese began to work on transcontinental Central Pacific RR
iii)After RR completion 1869 many Chinese moved to cities- formed “Chinatowns” w/ benevolent societies, “tongs”-secret criminal societies
iv)Many Chinese occupied lower jobs- unskilled laborers. Many started laundries
e)Anti-Chinese Sentiment
i)“Anti-coolie” clubs in 1860s/1870s sought ban on employing Chinese, formed b/c some whites felt Chinese laborers accepted low wages + undercut unions
ii)In CA, Democratic Party + Denis Kearney’s Workingmen’s Party attacked Chinese interest- based on economic tension, cultural + racial- “inassimilable”
iii)1882 Congress responded to pressure, passed Chinese Exclusion Act- halted Chinese migration, barred naturalization- aimed to help “American” labor
f)Migration from the East
i)Extremely great postwar migration to empty and settled areas alike. Most white Anglo-Americans, others foreign-born Eur immigrants—attracted by metal deposits, lands for farming and ranching
ii)Fed land policies encouraged settlement: Homestead Act of 1862 gave 160 acres of land for small fee, in return would improve land, create new markets mechanization + rising farm costs forced some small farmers off this land
iii)In response Congress passed Timber Culture Act (1863), Desert Land Act (1877), Timber and Stone Act (1878) to allow ppl to buy/develop more cheap land
g)1860s saw development of territorial govt, statehood soon followed for most
2)The Changing Western Economy
a)Labor in the West
i)Labor shortage led to higher wages than in East, but job instability (after harvest or RR completion, ect) led to communities of jobless in cities. Workers mostly mobile, single men
ii)Working class highly multiracial, but whites generally occupied higher job levels (management + skilled labor) than nonwhites in unskilled labor. Dual labor system reinforced by racial assumptions that held nonwhites more suited for worse conditions + harder labor- allowed whites greater social mobility
b)The Arrival of the Miners
i)First Western economic boom came from mining strikes in 1860s-1890s. During Pike’s Peak strike 1858 mining camps blossomed into “cities”, later Comstock Lode silver found in Nevada, 1874 Black Hill strike in Dakota Terr.
ii)After surface wealth used up, eastern capitalists often bought claims of pioneer prospectors, began retrieving from deeper veins w/ corporate mines
iii)In boom towns vigilantism used to combat outlaws. Men outnumbered women, prostitution very common. After boom most remained in town as wage laborer in corporate mine
c)The Cattle Kingdom
i)Economy also affected by the open range- provided cattle raisers w/ free lands to graze, RRs gave access to markets. Largest herds found in Texas
ii)After success of the long drive proven, easier routes to access rest of country sought- market facility grew up at Abilene, KS as railhead of cattle kingdom. Agricultural development in 1870s in W. Kansas led other routes to grow
iii)As settlement of plans increased new forms of competition emerged- sheep breeders used range to feed flock, farmers from the East fenced in their lands—“range wars” developed btwn ranchers and farmers
iv)Large profits in cattle business led cattle economy to become more corporate. This expansion onto already shrunken ranges from RRs and farmers became overstocked, and combined with bad winters from 1885-1887, thousands of cattle died—open-range industry never recovered, but ranches survived + grew
v)Although cattle industry mostly male, large number of women led them to have impt political presence- women won vote earlier in West than rest of nation (some states to swell population for statehood, bring “morals” to politics)
3)The Romance of the West
a)The Western Landscape
i)Painters of the “Rocky Mountain School
“ celebrated the West in grandiose paintings that attracted great crowds- emphasized ruggedness and variety of region, awe toward land that had been previously expressed by Hudson River valley painters
b)The Cowboy Culture
i)Cowboy life romanticized in contrast to stable, orderly world of the East. Owen Wister’sThe Virginian (1902) showed freedom from social contraints, only one example of magazine articles, novels, ect. about Western life
c)The Idea of the Frontier
i)Many Americans considered the West the last frontier. Mark Twain wrote about (mostly early) frontier life is Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
ii)Painter/sculptor Frederic Turner captured romance of West in his works comparing it to the East
iii)Theodore Roosevelt wrote history of West- The Winning of the West (1890s)
d)Frederick Jackson Turner
i)The historian Turner contended that by 1890s no single frontier line existed and the end of an era had come. Expansion has stimulated individualism, nationalism, democracy, American uniqueness. Mirrored sentiments of US
ii)Turner inaccurate and premature- ppl had always lived in “empty, uncivilized” lands and had been displaced, also in coming years much land still available
e)The Loss of Utopia
i)With nation feeling that there had been a “passing of the frontier”, ppl felt opportunities closing and with it ability to control own destiny
ii)“Myth of the garden” (West as Garden of Eden) lost
4)The Dispersal of the Tribes
a)White Tribal Policies
i)Traditional policy was to regard tribes as nations and wards of the president, therefore negotiate treaties w/ them ratified by Senate. As white settlers demanded more lands during 1850s led ppl to abandon idea of one large Indian Territory to policy of “concentration”- each tribe given negotiated reservation
ii)In 1867 after bloody conflicts Congress created Indian peace Commission to make permanent Indian policy- move all Plains Indians into Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and Dakotas. Failed b/c of poor administration by Bureau of Indian Affairs & killing of buffalo herds by whites + reduced Indian ability to resist white advance -led to violence
b)The Indian Wars
i)1850s-1880s showed nearly constant fighting as Indians struggled against threats to their civilizations- during Civil War conflict w/ Indians in Old Northwest and the Southwest
ii)Not only military that threatened tribes; white vigilantes participated in “Indian hunting” killed tribes for sport or bounties, wanted retaliation after raids
iii)Treaties made in 1867 saw temporary lull, but influx of settlers in 1870s penetrated Dakota Territory + change in govt policy to not recognize tribes as independent nations led to violence in 1875
iv)Sioux rose up under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in the Black Hills- at Battle of Little Bighorn 1876 Indians killed Colonel George Custer and regiment, Indians became disunited after and forced to return to reservation
v)Nez Perce Indians under Chief Joseph 1877 attempted to flee Idaho for Canada but caught by soldiers, forced to travel for years afterward to difft areas
vi)Last organized resistance came from Apaches under Chiefs Mangas Colorados, Cochise, and finally Geronimo- unwilling to bow to white pressures Geronimo conducted raids on white outposts (“Apache Wars”), surrendered 1886
vii)Atrocities against Indians had prompted much fighting- in 1890 Sioux religious revival under the prophet Wovoka led to “Ghost Dance” that celebrated vision of whites leaving + buffalo return- in Dec troops tried to round up some Indians at Wounded Knee, SD which turned into an Indian massacre
c)The Dawes Act
i)Efforts taken to destroy reservation + communal land ownership in order to force Indians to become farmers, landowners - abandon culture for white civili.
ii)Dawes Act of 1887 eliminated tribal ownership and gave land to individual owners. Bureau of Indian Affairs promoted assimilation, sometimes by removing children and sending them to white boarding schools, build churches
iii)Indians unprepared for capitalist individualism + corrupt administration led to abandonment of program, later Burke Act of 1906 also failed to divide lands
5)The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer
a)Farming on the Plains
i)Before Civil War lands accessible only by wagon, transcontinental RR completed 1869 and subsidiary lines built afterward w/ land grants and loans
ii)Easier access to Great Plains spurred agriculture- RRs offered cheap land and credit, rainfall allowed farming
iii) Farmers faced problems: enclosing land expensive, but 1873 Joseph Glidden and IL Ellwood invited barbwire; arid land needed irrigation, especially after 1887 when series of dry spells followed- during 1880s booms credit easy, but arid weather of late 1880smany farmers unable to pay debt and forced to abandon farms
b)Commercial Agriculture
i)Commercial farmers specialized in cash crops sold on national/international markets. Relied on town stores for supplies and food, dependent on bankers’ interest rates, railroad freight rates, and US/Eur markets
ii)During late 19th century agriculture became an international business- US commercial farmers relied on risky world market to absorb surpluses
iii)Overproduction in 1880s led to price drops, economic crisis for small farmers
c)The Farmers’ Grievances
i)Farmers resented railroads and their higher freight rates for farm goods, credit institutions for their high interest rates and payments that had to be made in years when currency scarce, and prices that they had to pay for goods and the money they received- believed manufactures keeping farm good prices low
d)The Agrarian Malaise
i)Farmers isolated, lacked education for children, proper medical facilities, and community- this sense of obsolescence lead to growing malaise among farmers that created great political movement in 1890sSturdy yeoman farmers had viewed themselves as the backbone of American life, now they were becoming aware that their position was declining in relation to the rising urban-industrial society in the East
1)Sources of Industrial Growth
a)Industrial Technologies
i)Most impt tech development was new iron + steel production techniques- Henry Bessemer and William Kelly invented process to turn iron to steel, possible to produce large quantities and dimensions for construction, RRs
ii)Steel industry emerged in Pennsylvania and Ohio (Pittsburgh notably)- iron industry existed, fuel could be found in PA coal
iii)New transportation systems emerged to serve steel industry- freighters for the Great Lakes, RRs used steel to grow + transported it (sometimes merged w/ one another). Oil industry also grew b/c of need to lubricate mill machinery
b)The Airplane and the Automobile
i)Development of automobile dependent upon growth of two technologies: creation of gasoline from crude oil extraction, and 1870s Eur development of “internal combustion engine”. By 1910 car industry major role in economy
ii)First gas-car built by Duryea brothers 1903, Henry For began production 1906
iii)Search for flight by Wright Bros lead to famous 1903 flight. US govt created National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics 1915 to match Eur research
c)Research and Development
i)New industrial technologies lead companies to sponsor own research- General Electric established first corp lab 1900, marked decentralization of govt-sponsored research. At same time cnxn began btwn university research + needs of industrial economy- partnership btwn academic + commercial
d)The Science of Production
i)Principles of “scientific management” began to be employed- fathered by Frederick Taylor who argued employers subdivide tasks to decrease need for highly skilled workers, increase efficiency by doing simple tasks w/ machines
ii)Emphasis on industrial research led to corporate labs (e.g. Edison’s Menlo Park)
iii)Most impt change in production was mass production + assembly line. First used by Henry Ford in automobile plant 1914- cut production time, prices
e)Railroad Expansion
i)Industrial development b/c of RR expansion- gave industrialists access to new markets + raw materials, spent large sums on construction and equipment
ii)Possible b/c of govt subsidies, investment capital from abroad, and combinations of RRs by Cornelius Vanderbilt, James Hill, Collis Huntington
f)The Corporation
i)Modern corp emerged after Civil War when industrialists realized no person or group of limited partners able to finance great ventures
ii)Businesses began to sell stock, appealing b/c “limited liability” meant lost only amt of investment + not liable for debts- allowed vast capital to be raised
iii)Began in RR industry, spread to others- in steel industry Andrew Carnegie struck deals with RRs, bought up rivals, purchased coal mines w/ partner Henry Clay Frick controlled steel process from mine to market
iv)Financed undertaking by selling stock. Bought out 1901 by JP Morgan who formed United States Steel- controlled 2/3 of nation’s steel production
v)Corporate organizations developed new management techniques- division of responsibilities, control hierarchy, cost-accounting procedures, and “middle manager” btwn owners and labor introduced. Consolidation now a possibility
g)Consolidating Corporate America
i)Consolidation occurred thru “horizontal integration” (forming competing firms into single corporation) and “vertical integration” (control production from raw materials to distribution). Also thru pool arrangements (most failed)
ii)Most famous corp empire John D Rockefeller’s Standard Oil- thru horizontal & vertical integration came to control 90% of refined oil in US
iii)Consolidation used to cope w/ “cutthroat competition”- feared too much competition lead to instability, best was to eliminate/absorb competition
h)The Trust and the Holding Company
i)Failure of pools (informal agreements to stabilize rates, divide markets) led to less cooperation and more centralized control- “trust” emerged (stock transferred to group of trustees who made all decisions but shared profits)
ii)Beginning w/ NJ 1889 states changed laws to allow companies to buy other companies, trust unnecessary—“holding companies” emerged as corporate body to buy up stock and establish formal ownership of corporations in trust
iii)End of 19th cent 1% of corps controlled 33% of manufacturing, system where power in hands of a few men- NY bankers (JP Morgan), industrialists (Rockefeller), ect.
iv)Substantial economic growth ultimately from this arrangement- costs cut, industrial infrastructure formed, new markets stimulated, new unskilled jobs
2)Capitalism and Its Critics
a)The “Self-Made Man”
i)Defenders argued capitalist economy expanding opportunities for individual advancement, and some tycoons were self-made men. But most came to be wealthy as a result of ruthlessness, arrogance, corruption (financial contributions to political, parties)
ii)Many industrialists were modest entrepreneurs trying to carve role for their business in an unstable economy & fragmented, highly competitive industries
b)Survival of the Fittest
i)Assumptions that wealth earned thru hard work and thrift and that those who failed earned their failure became basis of Social Darwinism- only fittest individuals survived and flourished in the marketplace
ii)English philosopher Herbert Spencer championed theory, in America William Graham Sumner promoted similar ideas- absolute freedom to struggle, compete, succeed, and fail
iii)Appealed to businessmen b/c justified their tactics- efforts to raise wages by labor thru unions or govt regulation would fail, laws of supply and demand and “invisible hand” or market forces would determine wages and prices
iv)Yet tycoons themselves thru monopolies tried to eliminate competition
c)The Gospel of Wealth
i)Gospel of Wealth (1901) by Andrew Carnegie advocated idea that w/ great wealth came great responsibility to use riches to advance social progress
ii)Author Horatio Alger promoted stories of individual success in his works- anybody could become rich thru work, perseverance, and luck
d)Alternative Visions
i)Groups emerged challenging corporate and capitalistic ethos
ii)Sociologist Lester Ward in Dynamic Sociology (1883) argued natural selection didn’t shape society, and active govt in positive planning best for society. Skeptical of laissez-fire, ppl should intervene to serve their needs
iii)Famous dissidents emerged to challenge ideas: Socialist Labor Party founded 1870s by Daniel De Leon; Henry George and his Progress and Poverty (1879) argued poverty due to wealth of monopolists and their high land values; Edward Bellamy and his Looking Backward (1888) spoke of “fraternal cooperation” and of future society where govt distributed wealth equally
e)The Problems of Monopoly
i)Few questioned capitalism itself but movement grew in opposition to monopolies + economic concentrations- seen as creating artificially high prices, unstable economy. Recessions and havoc 1873 every 5-6 yrs
ii)Resentment increased b/c of new class of conspicuously wealthy ppl who lived opulent lifestyle- flagrant wealth in face of 4/5 who lived modestly
iii)Standard of living rising for everyone, but gap btwn rich + poor growing
3)Industrial Workers in the New Economy
a)The Immigrant Work Force
i)Industrial work force grew late 19th century b/c of migration to industrial cities from both rural areas and foreign immigration- late century most migrants from England, Ireland, N Eur, by end shit toward S and E Europeans
ii)Immigrants came to escape poverty, lured by opportunity and advertisements by companies. Ethnic tensions increased b/c of job displacement, competition
b)Wages and Working Conditions
i)Average standard of living rose but wages low, little job security b/c boom-bust cycle, monotonous tasks that required little skill, long hours in unsafe conditions- loss of control over work conditions seen as worst part of factory labor as corporate efficiency and managers centralized workplace
c)Women and Children at Work
i)Decreasing need for skilled labor led to increase use of women and children who could be paid lower than men
ii)Most women were young immigrants, concentrated in textile industry and domestic service. Some single, others supplemented husband’s earnings
iii)Children employed in agriculture and factories w/ little regulation, dangerous
d)The Struggle to Unionize
i)Labor attempted to fight conditions by creating large combinations (unions) but had little success by century’s end. Fist attempt to federate separate unions came 1866 w/ National labor Union (disintegrated after Panic of 1873)
ii)Unions faced difficulty during 1870s recessions b/c of high unemployment, hostility of middle class
e)The Great Railroad Strike
i)Railroad Strike of 1877 began after 10% wage cut announced. Strikers disrupted rail service, state militia mobilized and in July President Hayes ordered some federal troops. Strike collapsed eventually after many deaths
ii)Showed disputes could no longer be localized in national economy, depth of resentment toward employers, frailty of labor movement
f)The Knights of Labor
i)First effort at national labor organization 1869 Noble Order of the Knights of Labor under Uriah Stephens- lacked strong central direction but local “assemblies” championed 8-hour workday, end to child labor, but also interested in long-range reform of economy. Allowed women to join
ii)During 1870s under Terence Powderly rapid expansion, but by 1890 Knights had collapsed due to failure of strikes in the Gould railway system
g)The AFL
i)1880s American Federation of Labor created, became most impt +enduring national labor group- collection of autonomous craft unions of skilled workers
ii)Led by Samuel Gompers- goal to secure greater share of capitalism’s material rewards to workers, opposed fundamental economic reform
iii)Wanted creation of national 8-hour work day, national strike May 1, 1886 to achieve goal- in Chicago violence broke out btwn strikers and police after deaths in Haymarket Square bombing- “anarchism” became widely feared by middle class, associated it with radical labor
h)The Homestead Strike
i)The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (craft union in AFL) held large amt of power in steel industry b/c of reliance on skilled workers
ii)By 1880s Efficient Carnegie process led management to want more control over labor + needed fewer skilled workers
iii)Carnegie and Henry Frick began to cut wages at Homestead plant in Pittsburgh to break union. 1892 strike called after company stopped consulting the Amalgamated, Pinkerton Detective Agency security guards brought in as strikebreakers- were attacked, National Guard of PA called in
iv)Eventually protected strikebreakers ended strike, by 1900 Amalgamated had lost nearly every major steel plant
i)The Pullman Strike
i)Strike at Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894 after Pullman cut wages. Workers began to strike w/ the American Railway Union of Eugene V. Debs
ii)Within few days thousands of railway workers struck and transportation nationwide frozen. General Manager’s Association asked Pres Grover Cleveland to send in federal troops b/c passage of mail being blocked
iii)Pres complied and sent 2,000 troops to protect strikebreakers. Strike collapsed
j)Sources of Labor Weakness
i)Late 19th century labor suffered many losses- wages rose slowly, whatever progress made not enforced
ii)Reasons for failures included: leading labor organizations represented only small percentage of industrial work force; ethnic tensions; many immigrant workers planned to stay in country for short while and moved very often- eroded willingness to organize, believed not part of permanent working class; couldn’t match efforts of powerful + wealthy corporations
1)The Urbanization of America
a)The Life of the City
i)Urban pop increased 7x in 50 yrs after Civil War, by 1920 majority of ppl lived in urban areas. Occurred partly b/c of natural growth, mostly b/c immigrants and rural ppl flocked b/c offered better paying jobs than rural areas, cultural experiences available, transportation to cities easier than ever
b)Migrations
i)Late 19th century saw geographic mobility- Americans left declining Eastern agricultural regions for new farmlands in West and for cities of East
ii)Women moved from farms where mechanization decreased their value; Southern blacks moved to cities to escape rural poverty, oppression, violence
iii)Largest source of urban growth immigrants: until 1880s mainly educated N Europeans who were sometimes skilled laborers, businessmen or moved West to start farms. After 1880s largely S and E Europeans, lacked capital (like poor Irish immigrants before Civil War) so took mainly unskilled jobs
c)The Ethnic City
i)Not only was amt of immigrants tremendous, but so was diversity of immigrant population (no single national group dominated)
ii)Most immigrants were rural ppl so formed close-knit ethnic communities to ease transition-offered native newspapers, food, links to national past
iii)Assimilation of ethnic groups into capitalist economy depended on values of community, but also prejudices among employers, individual skills and capital
d)Assimilation
i)Most immigrants had desire to become true “Americans” and break with old national ways. Particular strain w/ women who in America shared more freedoms- adjust to more fluid life of American city
ii)Assimilation encouraged by Natives thru public schools and employer requirement to learn English, religious leaders
e)Exclusion
i)Immigrant arrival provoked many fears + resentments of some native-born ppl. Reacted out of prejudice, foreign willingness to accept lower wages
ii)Political response to these resentments- American Protective Association founded by Henry Bowers 1887, Immigration Restriction League sought to screen/reduce immigrants. 1882 Congress passed Chinese Exclusion Act, also denied entry to all “undesirables” and placed small tax on immigrants
iii)New laws kept only small amt out. Literacy requirement vetoed by president Grover Cleveland—anti-immigrant measures failed mainly b/c many natives welcomed it, provided growing economy w/ cheap and plentiful labor
2)The Urban Landscape
a)The Creation of Public Space
i)By mid-19th century reformers and planners began to call for ordered vision of city, resulted in creation of public spaces and public services
ii)Urban parks solution to congestion, allowed escape from strain of urban life. 1850s Central Park famously planned by Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
iii)Great public buildings (libraries, museums, theaters), spurred by wealthy residents who wanted amenities to match material and social aspirations
iv)Urban leaders undertook massive city rebuilding projects- “City Beautiful Movement” inspired by architect Daniel Burnham- provide order and symmetry to disorderly life of city (faced opposition from private landowners)
b)Housing the Well-to-Do
i)Availability of cheap labor + materials lowered cost of building in late 19th century. Most wealthy lived in mansions, but later moderately well-to-do and wealthy both began to build and commute from suburban communities nearby
c)Housing Workers and the Poor
i)Most residentsforced to stay in city and rent- demand high and space scarce led to little bargaining power. Landlords tried to get most ppl in smallest space
ii)“Tenements” came to refer to overcrowded slum dwellings. Poverty and rough tenement life showcased by reporter Jacob Riis in his 1890 How the Other Half Lives. Some immigrants also boarded in small family homes
d)Urban Transportation
i)Old, narrow dirty streets insufficient to deal w/ urban growth and need for ppl to move everyday to difft parts of city- new forms of mass transit needed
ii)Cities experimented w/ elevated railways, cable cars, by 1895 electric trolley lines, and in 1897 Boston opened first subway in nation
iii)New road, bridge tech also developed (e.g. John Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge)
e)The “Skyscraper”
i)Inadequate structural materials and stairs prevented tall buildings until 1870s iron and steal beam development. After Civil War buildings grew successively taller, 1890s term “skyscraper” introduced
ii)Steel girder construction allowed city’s w/ limited space to expand upward if not outward. Architect Louis Sullivan famous skyscraper designer
3)Strains of Urban Life
a)Fire and Disease
i)Fires destroyed large parts of downtown areas w/ buildings made mainly of wood. “Great fires” led to fireproof buildings, professional fire departments
ii)Diseases from poor neighborhoods w/ inadequate sanitation and sewage disposal threatened epidemics that could spread thru whole city
b)Environmental Degradation
i)Industrialization and rapid urbanization led to improper disposal of human and industrial waste that threatened waterways and drinking water, air quality suffered from burning of stoves and furnaces
ii)By early 20th century reformers: seeking new sewage and drainage systems; Physician Alive Hamilton looked to identify and correct pollution in workplace; 1912 fed govt created Public Health Service created factory health standards to prevent occupational diseases (weak b/c no enforcement power)
c)Urban Poverty
i)Expansion of city created poverty, sheer number of ppl meant many unable to earn decent subsistence. Public agencies and private philanthropic groups offered limited relief, and if they did mostly only to the poorest
ii)Some groups focused on religious revivalism as relief; others alarmed at great number of poor children in streets (some lives on their own)– “street arabs”
d)Crime and Violence
i)Poverty and crowding created violence, crime. Murder rate rose nationwide, and rising crime rates prompted cities to create larger, more professional police forces. Armories also developed b/c of fear of urban insurrections
e)Fear of the City
i)City offered allure and excitement, but also alienation and feelings of anonymity (e.g. Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 Sister Carrie about displaced single women)
f)The Machine and the Boss
i)Newly arrived immigrants sought assistance from political machines- created by power vacuum of cities, voting power of large immigrant communities
ii)Urban “bosses” sought votes for his organization by winning loyalty of constituents thru relief, jobs for unemployed, patronage
iii)Machines enriched politicians b/c of graft and corruption from contractors or investment from inside knowledge- most notorious was William Tweed of NY’s Tammany Hall during 1860s/1870s
iv)In spite of middle class reformers citing machines as obstacles to progress, boss rule possible b/c immigrant voters wanted services first and foremost & weakness of city govts
4)The Rise of Mass Consumption
a)Patterns of Income and Consumption
i)Growing markets and demand turn of century b/c of production and mass distribution made goods less expensive, also b/c of rising incomes of “white collar” professionals and working-class ppl despite union failures
ii)Mass market also grew b/c affordable prices and new merchandising techniques allowed goods to reach more consumers (e.g. ready-made clothing after Civil War and rise of fashion)
iii)Food transformed by tin cans, refrigerated RR cars for perishables, home iceboxes. Allowed for better diet and higher life expectancy
b)Chain Stores and Mail-Order Houses
i)Way in which Americans bought goods altered- local stores faced competition from “chain stores” whose national network could sell manufactured goods at lower prices. Customers couldn’t resist great variety + lower prices of chains
ii)Chain stores slow to rural areas but gained access thru mail-order houses-notably 1880s Montgomery Wary and Sears Roebuck mail order catalogues
c)Department Stores
i)Dept stores transformed shopping by bringing together many products under one roof (clothing, furniture) previously in separate shops; gave allure and excitement to shopping; economies of scale enabled lower prices than comp
d)Women as Consumers
i)Mass consumption affected women greatest b/c primary consumers in family. Spawned consumer protection movement w/ National Consumers League 1890s under Florence Kelley to force retainers for better wages, conditions
5)Leisure in the Consumer Society
a)Redefining Leisure
i)Leisure had been previously scorned, but redefinition in late 19th century b/c economic expansion and greater worker time away from work leisure began to be a normal part of everyday life (economist Simon Pattern wrote of this in his 1902 The Theory of Prosperity and 1910 The New Basis of Civilization)
ii)New forms of leisure had public character- time spent mostly in public spaces, part of appeal of leisure was time spent w/ large crowds
b)Spectator Sports
i)Search for public forms of leisure led to rise of organized spectator sports
ii)Saw rise of baseball as “national pastime”, leagues formed in 1870s. Football became standardized 1870s and began to grew. Boxing grew in the 1880s after adoption of Marquis of Queensberry rules
iii)Spectator sports had close association with gambling w/ elaborate betting syndicates. Prompted sports to “clean up” and regulate games
c)Music and Theater
i)Large market of cities allowed theaters to be maintained in ethnic communities, musical comedies developed, and vaudeville widely popular
d)The Movies
i)Thomas Edison and others laid tech for motion picture 1880s, soon projectors allowed showings on big screens in theaters w/ large audiences. By 1900 very popular, especially after DW Griffith introduced his silent epics
e)Working-Class Leisure
i)Workers spent great amt of leisure time on streets b/c had much time but little money. Also popular were neighborhood saloons (often ethnic), served as political centers b/c saloonkeepers often involved in political machines (largely b/c they had regular contact w/ many men in a neighborhood)
ii)Boxing also emerged as a poplar sport- bare knuckle fights by ethnic clubs
f)The Fourth of July
i)B/c most ppl worked six-day workweek w/o vacations, 4th of July became a full day of leisure and an impt highlight in the year of ethnic, working-class communities. Massive neighborhood celebrations often w/ drinking
g)Private Pursuits
i)Reading remained popular as leisure activity, w/ Louisa Alcott’s Little Women (1869) capturing a large women audience
ii)Public music performances popular, but also learning instrument w/in home
h)Mass Communications
i)Large urban market for transmitting news and information in urban industrial society- rise in publishing in journalism after Civil War w/ increase in newspaper circulation, rise of national press services using telegraph to supply news to papers across country
ii)Rise of newspaper chains, especially competition btwn William Randolph Hearst + Joseph Pulitzer (rise of sensational “yellow journalism to sell papers)
6)High Culture in the Age of the City
a)The Literature of Urban America
i)Some writers responded to new industrial civilization by evoking more natural world, others sought to use literature to recreate urban social reality
ii)Realism led by Stephen Crane (famous for The Red Badge of Courage in 1895) who showed urban poverty and slum life. Theodore Dreiser highlighted social dislocations and injustices. There authors followed by Frank Norris’ The Octopus (1901) and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) which showed depravity of capitalism by exposing abuses in meatpacking industry
b)Art in the Age of the City
i)By 1900 many American artists breaking from Old World traditions of Eur and experiment w/ new styles. Some turning away from traditional, academic style toward exploring grim aspects of modern life
ii)Ashcan School produced stark portrayal of social realities, showcased expressionism and abstraction at famous 1913 art “Armory Show”
iii)Beginning of modernism- rejected past and embraced new subjects, glorified the ordinary, coarse over genteel tradition +“dignified” aspects of civilization, embraced the future over “standards” of past- individual creativity
c)The Impact of Darwinism
i)Darwin argued evolution from earlier species thru “natural selection”, challenged traditional American religious faith. By end of century most urban professionals and members of educated classes converted; taught in schools
ii)Darwinism led to schism btwn culture of city receptive to new ideas and the traditional, provincial culture of rural areas tied to religion and older values
iii)Other intellectual movements included Social Darwinism of William Sumner, “pragmatism” of William James that valued scientific inquiry + experience
iv)Relativism spawned by Darwinism led to growth of anthropology and study of other cultures (notably Native American culture)
d)Toward Universal Schooling
i)Dependence on specialized skills and scientific knowledge led to demand for education. Spread of free public primary and secondary education, compulsory attendance laws in many states. Rural education still lagged
ii)Some reformers including Richard Pratt targeted native tribes to “civilize” them- urged practical “industrial” education. Failed b/c resistance, funding
iii)Colleges grew late 19th century, benefited from Morrill Land Grant Act of Civil War era that donated large amt of land for colleges; also from contributions made by business and financial tycoons
e)Education for Women
i)Expansion of educational opportunities for women (although lagged behind that of men). Public high schools accepted women, and network of women’s colleges emerged that served to create distinctive women’s community
1)The Politics of Equilibrium
a)The Party System
i)Party system of late 19th century very stable w/ little fluctuation in state loyalties. Repubs held most presidencies and Senate, Dems lead House
ii)Public intensely loyal to parties, voter turnout was tremendous- loyalty result of region (Dems in S, Repubs in N), religion and ethnicity (Dems attracted Catholics, new immigrants, poor; Repubs middle class, N Protestants)
iii)Party identification more cultural than of economic interest
b)The National Government
i)Federal govt held little power/responsibility- aside from supporting economic development (land grant subsidies, strike intervention), delivering pensions to Civil War veterans. Party leaders cared more about holding office than policy
c)Presidents and Patronage
i)President had little power save to make govt appointments (patronage used)
ii)Pres Rutherford B. Hayes had to deal w/ factional Repub party split btwn Stalwarts (favored machine politics) and the Half-Breeds (favored reform). Patronage system overshadowed presidency, civil service system effort failed
iii)Repubs won presidency in 1880 election, Pres James Garfield (Half-Breed) and VP Chester Arthur (Stalwart). Garfield attempted to defy Stalwarts, create civil service reform- assassinated 1881
iv)New Pres Chester attempted supported civil service reform over Stalwarts- 1883 Congress passed Pendleton Act requiring exams for some govt jobs
d)Cleveland, Harrison, and the Tariff
i)In 1884 election Repub nominee Sen James Blaine symbol of party politics, “liberal” Repubs flocked to Dem reform candidate Grover Cleveland
ii)Cleveland opposed to graft and special interest, wished to see limited govt- asked Congress to reduce protective tariff rate 1887 to reduce govt surpluses and size. Dems passed bill, Republicans opposed it—>issue in 1888 elections
iii)Dems renominated Cleveland; Repubs named Benjamin Harrison, won Pres
e)New Public Issues
i)Pres Harrison made little effort to influence Congress, but public opinion forced govt to begin to confront social and economic issues- especially trusts
ii)By mid 1880s some states limiting combinations preventing competition, but reformers wanted nat’l movement- 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act passed, but little enforced, weakened by courts, and had little impact
iii)Repubs main issue was dealing w/ tariff- passed McKinley Tariff 1890 (highest protective tariff ever). Public opposed bill, by 1892 Pres election Repubs lost both House + Senate, Dem nominee Cleveland won Pres election
iv)Cleveland’s 2nd term like 1st (devoted to minimal govt). Supported tariff reduction (Wilson-Gorman Tariff passed). Movement 1880s in may states to regulate RRs- after 1886 Supreme Court case Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad vs Illinois ruled only fed govt able to regulate interstate commerce
v)To appease public Congress passed 1887 Interstate Commerce Act- banned rate discrimination + injustice, Interstate Commerce Commission formed
2)The Agrarian Revolt
a)The Grangers
i)First major effort to organize farmers was Grange movement of 1860s (at firs goal to teach new scientific techniques), not until 1873 recession + fall of farm prices did it become highly political and large
ii)Grange urged cooperative political action to fight monopolistic RR and warehouse practices, setup up co-op stores, insurance companies, and Montgomery Ward mail-order business (sought to challenge middle-men)
iii)Elected Grange politicians 1870s to state legislatures to focus on RR reform; regulations destroyed by courts, temporary boom late-1870s destroyed Grange
b)The Farmers’ Alliance
i)Farmers’ Alliances formed in South, Northwest- like Grange focused on local problems (co-op banks, processing plants) but also larger goal to create society of cooperation. Like Grange cooperatives not very successful, harnessed frustrations into creating national political organization 1880s
ii)1889 Southern and Northwestern Alliances merged, issued Ocala Demands (party platform), won seats in 1890 elections. Sentiments forming toward national third party, 1892 created People’s Party (Populists)
iii)In 1892 elections Populists did surprising well, won seats in states + Congress
c)The Populist Constituency
i)Populism appealed mainly to small farmers, those whose farming becoming less viable in face of mechanized, consolidated commercial agriculture
ii)Populists failed to attract much labor support, but attracted miners in Rocky Mountain states w/ “free silver” policy that allowed for silver to be currency, expand money supply. African Americans allowed limited involvement in S
d)Populist Ideas
i)Ocala platform 1892 outlined Populist reform programs- “subtreasuries” to strengthen cooperatives; govt warehouse system; abolish national banks; direct election of US Senators, other ways for ppl to influence political system; regulation and ownership of RRs, telephones; graduated income tax; currency inflation; silver remonetization. Populism associated w/ anti-Semitism
ii)Rejection of laissez-faire, uphold absolutism of ownership
3)The Crisis of the 1890s
a)The Panic of 1893
i)Panic of 1893 led to severe depression- caused by bankruptcy of few corporations that led to bank failure, led to credit contraction. Also caused by depressed farm prices of late 1880s, Eur depression, RR expansion beyond market demand- showed how dependent economy was on powerful RRs
ii)Businesses, banks, RRs failed. Unemployment soared, led to social unrest- 1894 Populist Jacob Coxey called for massive public works program for unemployed + currency inflation, protested in D.C. w/ “Coxey’s Army”
b)The Silver Question
i)Financial panic weakened monetary system, Pres Cleveland believed currency instability cause of depression. Many ppl believed specie (precious metal) must back money to give it value
ii)“Bimetal” standard discontinued 1873 by Congress b/c market value of silver high than 16:1 standard. Late 1870s silver became less valuable than standard but ppl unable to convert silver b/c of “Crime of ‘73”; opposition by silver-miners + farmers who wanted greater $ circulation (inflation) to ease debts
iii)At same time decreasing govt gold reserves led Pres Cleveland 1893 to seek repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890- divided Dem party
iv)Presidential of 1986 incredibly fierce b/c supporters of gold standard saw it as essential to national stability, supporters of “free silver” (guided by William Harvey’s 1894 Coin’s Financial School) saw gold standard as tyrannous and advantageous to wealthy, silver would decrease debt
4)“A Cross of Gold”
a)The Emergence of Bryan
i)Repubs in 1896 election confident of victory b/c of Cleveland+ Dems failure to deal w/ depression nominated William McKinley w/ platform opposed to free coinage of silver
ii)Dems of West sought to weaken People’s Party by adopting Populist demands, debated platform of free silver, tariff reduction, income tax, RR and trust regulation- opposed by eastern Dems
iii)William Jennings Bryan delivered “Cross of Gold” speech opposed to gold standard at convention, next day voted nominee
iv)Populists split as to whether or not to fuse w/ Dem party b/c felt some of their unique needs addressed; concluded no other alternative, supported Bryan
b)The Conservative Party
i)Business + finance communities donated heavily to Repubs, Bryan’s national stump and camp-meeting style alienated Cath + ethnic voters who feared he embodied Protestants who so firmly opposed them
ii)McKinley carried election b/c Dem platform had proved to be too narrow (sectional) to win nationally. B/c of “fusion” gamble w/ Democrats the People’s Party began to dissolve in wake of defeat
c)McKinley and Recovery
i)McKinley administration saw return to calm b/c labor unrest and agrarian protest had subsided by 1897, economic crisis gradually easing
ii)McKinley focused on implementing high tariff rate, Congress soon passed Dingley Tariff. Repubs passed Currency (Gold Standard) Act of 1900 that confirmed nation’s gold standard, pegged dollar to specific gold value
iii)Foreign crop failures resulted in economic uptick, nation entered period of expansion once again—clear trend btwn prosperity + gold standard support
iv)Free-silver movement had failed- during late 19th century money supply had expanded much more slowly than increase in production and population, but by late 1890s increase in gold supply inflated money, satisfied free-silver ppl
1)Stirrings of Imperialism
a)The New Manifest Destiny
i)American attention shifted to foreign lands b/c “closing of the frontier” 1890s led some to fear natural resources would dwindle and must be found abroad, growing importance of foreign trade and desire for new markets, fears that Eur imperialism would lead America to be left out of spoils
ii)Justifications provided by Social Darwinism- only fittest nations survive, therefore just for strong nations to dominate weaker ones
iii) Josiah Strong’s Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (1885) states Anglo-Saxon “race” represented liberty, Christianity and should spread them; John Burgess wrote that duty of A-S to uplift less fortunate ppl
iv)Famous Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote in The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890) that countries w/ sea power great nations of history- US needed to have foreign commerce, merchant marine, navy to defend routes, and colonies to provide raw materials and bases- claim Pacific Islands, HI
b)Hemispheric Hegemony
i)Sec of State James Blaine 1880s sought to expand US influence in Latin America to provide markets for surplus goods- 1889 organized Pan-American Congress. Pres Cleveland 1895 had dispute w/ GB over Venezuela border
c)Hawaii and Samoa
i)Hawaii appealing b/c Navy wanted Pearl Harbor as base, Americans who had settled on island had come to dominate political + economic life of islands
ii)Hawaii had been series of islands w/ self-sufficient communities. After 1810 American traders, missionaries, planters began settling there. Disease decimated Native populations; by 1840s Americans spread thru islands
iii)1887 US Navy negotiated to use Pearl Harbor as Navy base; by that time sugar exports to US basis of economy, American plantation system was displacing natives from their lands
iv)In response elevated nationalist Queen Liliuokalani 1891. 1890 US eliminated duty-free status of HI sugar, American planters felt only way to survive to join US- 1893 stages revolution. Pres Harrison signed annex agreement 1893 but delayed by Dem Senate and Dem Pres Cleveland until 1898 return of Repubs
v)Samoa had served as station for US chips in Pacific trade; Pres Hayes 1878 got treaty to use harbor at Pago Pago for Navy. Power share btwn US, GB, Germany over islands- 1899 US and Germany split islands, compensated GB
2)War with Spain
a)Controversy Over Cuba
i)Cubans had resisted Spanish rule of Cuba since 1868 for independence; in 1895 Cubans rose up violently again, Span under Gen Valeriano Weyler used harsh tactics + concentration camps in turn- US press skewered mainly Span
ii)Pulitzer’s NY World and Hearst’s NY Journal catered to broad, economically lower audience- used sensational “yellow journalism” + Cuban crisis to fight each other for circulation; Cuban Americans urged Cuba Libre as well
iii)Pres Cleveland proclaimed American neutrality; Pres McKinley took office 1897, protested Spanish conduct- withdrew Weyler
iv)Two events Feb 1898 ruined peaceful settlement: the leak of a letter from Spain’s minister to Washington touting McKinley as “bidder…of the crowd; and the destruction of the US battleship The Maine in Havana Harbor- Spain initially blamed, Congress mobilized for war- war declared in April
b)“A Splendid Little War”
i)Sec of State John Hay called Spanish-American War “a splendid little war” b/c only lasted April-August, few US battle deaths (but 5000+ from disease)
ii)War effort hampered by army supply problems, regular army w/o experience fighting large-scale war (used to Indian battles)- Nat’l Guard units used like in Civil War. Racial conflict w/ black army unites used in invasion
c)Seizing the Philippines
i)Sec of Navy Theodore Roosevelt strengthened Pacific Fleet, ordered Commodore George Dewey to attack Spanish forces in Philippines (Span colony) if war broke. May 1898 captured Manila Bay, later troops took city
ii)War to free Cuba had become war to strip Spain of its colonies w/o any decisions as to what to do with them after capture
d)The Battle for Cuba
i)American forces staged landing in June after Spanish fleet arrived in Santiago harbor. US battled Spanish forces in on way to Santiago at Las Guasimos and then later El Caney and San Juan Hill in July
ii)At Battle of Kettle Hill (part of Battle for San Juan Hill) unit called Rough Riders lead by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt (who had resigned as from Navy to fight in war) had famous charge
iii)US forces soon took Santiago, later US army landed + captured Puerto Rico
iv)Armistice w/ Spain in August ended war- recognized independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to US, accepted Manila (Philippines) occupation
e)Puerto Rico and the United States
i)Annexation of Puerto Rico produced little controversy- American military controlled island until 1900 Foraker Act created colonial got w/ American governor, 2-chamber legislature, and US could amend/veto any legislation
ii)Puerto Ricans (who had history of demanding independence from Spanish) clamored for independence- 1917 Congress passed Jones Act that made PR US territory + PRicans American citizens
iii)PR sugar economy flourished now w/o tariffs (as in HI); plantations formed, many PR farmers became paid laborers, dependent on int’l sugar prices
f)The Debate over the Philippines
i)Debate over Philippines difft b/c not in W. Hemisphere, densely populated and far away—McKinley reluctant but believed no other alternative (could not be retuned to Spain, given to other imperialist, and Filips “unfit for self govt”)
ii)War w/ Spain ended 1898 w/ Treaty of Paris, US paid $20 million for Philippines. Fierce resistance in US to ratification
iii)Anti-imperialists (under Anti-Imperialist League) opposed b/c imperialism immoral, industrial workers feared cheap labor
iv)Ratification supported by imperialists such as Theodore Roosevelt saw empire as means to reinvigorate nation, dominate Oriental trade, Repubs could come out of Repub war w/ new territory, and easy b/c US already occupied islands
v)Ratified in 1899 b/c anti-imperialist Dem Williams Jennings Bryan wanted to make is issue in 1900 election. Bryan ran against McKinley, referendum on war showed American ppl supported imperialism- McKinley won decisively
3)The Republic As Empire
a)Governing the Colonies
i)American dependents Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico got territory status (residents became US citizens)
ii)US military remained in Cuba. After Cuban constitution failed to mention US, Congress passed 1901 Platt Amendment that would bar Cuba from making treaties, gave US right to intervene in Cuba (little political independence given). American capital bought up much of Cuban economy and dominated it
b)The Philippine War
i)US subjugation of natives led to long, bloody war w/ insurgent independence fighters. US used same brutal tactics that it had opposed Spain using in Cuba
ii)Rebellion led by Emilio Aguinaldo w/ large popular following. By 1902 brutal and savage US tactics had changed American public opinion on war, but by then war already over (Aguinaldo captured 1901)
iii)Power given to US administrator William Howard Taft who believed US mission to prepare Filipinos for independence, so gave broad local autonomy. Trade w/ US grew and islands came to almost depend on US markets
c)The Open Door Policy
i)Philippine occupation strengthened US interest in Asia and Chinese trade
ii)Eur nations were carving up China for themselves; McKinley wanted to protect US interest in China w/o war. Sec of State John Hay proposed 1898 “Open Door notes” to Eur nations allowing access to China but give no nation special advantages. Allowed free trade w/o colony, military involvement
iii)Boxer Rebellion arose against foreigners in China. Siege of foreign diplomatic corps resulted in McKinley and Hay participating in quelling rebellion
d)A Modern Military System
i)War w/ Spain showed weakness of US military system in training, supply, coordination. McKinley apptd Elihu Root as Sec of War to overhaul forces
ii)Root enlarged army, federal standards for Nat’l Guard, created officer training schools, created Joint Chiefs of Staff to advise Sec of War, supervise military establishment, plan possible wars—modern military system by turn of century
1)The Progressive Impulse
a)Varieties of Progressivism
i)Progressives varied on how to intervene + reform- popular idea of “antimonopoly” (fear of concentrated power, limit + disperse wealth, power)
ii)Social cohesion- welfare of single person dependent on welfare of society
iii)Faith in knowledge, principles of natural + social sciences, modernized govt
b)The Muckrakers
i)Muckrakers were crusading journalists who exposed social, economic, political injustices and corruption
ii)At first targeted trusts (particularly RR barons)- Ida Tarbell’s study on Standard Oil. Later, attention toward govt + political machines- writings of Lincoln Steffens helped arouse sentiment for urban reforms
c)The Social Gospel
i)Muckrakers moralistic tone prompted outrage at social + econ injustice, led to rise of Protestant Social Gospel- fusion of religion w/ reform
ii)Salvation Army was Christian social welfare organization; ministers left parish to serve in troubled cities; Father John Ryan wrote of expanding scope of Cath social welfare groups
iii)Religion w/ reform gave Progressivism moral component + commitment to redeem lives of even least favored citizens
d)The Settlement House Movement
i)Progressives believed env’t influenced individual development. To help distressed required improving their conditions
ii)Ppl believed crowded immigrant neighbors created distress- creation of settlement houses a response. Most famous was Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago- sought to help immigrant families adapt to language + culture, belief that middle-class had responsibility to share values w/ immigrants
iii)College educated women often involved in settlement house movement; movement helped spawn profession of social work
e)The Allure of Expertise
i)Progressivism values application of scientific methods, knowledge, expertise- well-designed bureaucracy needed. Some proposed civilization where science could solve social + econ problems- advocated in A Theory of The Leisure Class (1899) by Thorstein Veblen
ii)Rise of social sciences- scientific methods used to study society + its institutions
f)The Professions
i)Late 19th century more ppl engaged in administrative + professional tasks (managers, scientists, teachers). This new middle class valued education, individual accomplishments
ii)As demand for professionals increased so did their desire for reform to create organized professions
iii)Doctors saw creation of professional American Medical Association1901- strict standards for admissions, govt passed laws requiring licensing; also rise of rigorous, scientific training and research
iv)Similar movements in other professions- lawyers formed bar associations w/ central examining boards businessmen formed Chamber of Commerce
g)Women and the Professions
i)Some women encountered obstacles in entering professions, but many from women’s colleges did enter “appropriate professions”- settlement houses and social work, teaching, nursing (all had vague “domestic”/“helping” image)
2)Women and Reform
a)The “New Woman”
i)“New woman” product of social + economic changes- wage earning activity had moved out of house and into factory or office, children enrolled in school at earlier ages, technology (running water, electricity) made housework less of a burden, declining family size; “Boston marriages”- women living w/ women
b)The Clubwomen
i)Late 19th/early 20th century rise of women’s clubs- network of associations that lead many reform movements. General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) at first cultural, later focused on social betterment
ii)Clubs represented effort to extend women’s influence out of traditional role in home and create a public space for women. Worked to lobby legislatures for regulation of children + women work conditions, food inspection, temperance
iii)Women’s Trade Union League rallied women to join unions, aid female labor
c)Woman Suffrage
i)Women’s suffrage movement at first advanced thru arguments that women deserved same “natural rights” as men, opponents said society needed distinct female “sphere”
ii)Early 20th century suffragists more organized-- Anna Shaw + Carrie Chapman Catt formed National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
iii)Began to make “safer” arguments for suffrage in that voting would not ruin distinct sphere but allow women to bring special virtues to society’s problems and contribute to politics. Some claimed could soothe male aggression (WWI)
iv)1910 Washington extended suffrage to women, more hesitant in East b/c of associations w/ ethnic conflict (Catholics) over temperance movement
v)1920 Nineteenth Amendment ratified guaranteeing female political rights; others (including Alice Paul’s Woman’s Party) wanted to fight on for an Equal Rights Amendment to prohibit all discrimination based on sex
3)The Assault on the Parties
a)Early Attacks
i)Late 19th century populism and rise of Independent Republicans had attempted to break party lock on power- resulted in secret ballot
ii)Argued party rule could be dealt w/ by increasing power of ppl + ability to express will at polls, also put more power in nonpartisan, nonelected officials
b)Municipal Reform
i)Many progressives believed party rule most powerful in cities. Muckrakers mobilized urban middle-class progressives against city bosses, special interests who benefited from machine organizations, immigrant laborers
c)New Forms of Governance
i)Commission Plan- replaced mayor and council replaced w/ nonpartisan commission. First used in Galveston, TX in 1900, others followed
ii)City-Manager Plan- elected officials hired outside expert to run govt, remain above corruption of politics
iii)Successful reformer Cleveland Mayor Tom Johnson from conventional political structure controlled by progressives- fought special interests
d)Statehouse Progressivism
i)Failure of some attacks on city boss rule led reformers to turn to state govt for change- progressives looked to circumvent incompetent state legislatures
ii)Initiative allowed reformers to submit legislation directly to voters in general election; Referendum put actions of legislature directly to the ppl for approval
iii)Direct primary allowed ppl instead of bosses to choose candidates; Recall gave voters right to remove elected official thru special election
iv)Famous state-level reformer was Gov Robert LaFollette in Wisconsin- regulated RRs, utilities, workplace, graduated taxes on inherited wealth
e)Parties and Interest Groups
i)Reform did not destroy parties but led to decline in their influence- seen by decreasing voter turnout. “Interest groups” emerged from professional organizations or labor to advance own demands directly to govt, not thru party
4)Sources of Progressive Reform
a)Labor, the Machine, and Reform
i)Samuel Gompers’s American Federation of Labor mostly uninvolved in reform at time, but local unions played role in passing some state reform laws
ii)Parties tried to preserve interest by adapting- some bosses allowed their machines to be vehicle of social reform (e.g. Charles Murphy of Tammany Hall supported legislation for working conditions, child labor)
iii)Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 1911 in NY killed many women workers b/c bosses had locked emergency exits. Commission delivered report calling for reform in labor conditions- reform lead in legislature by Tammany Dems. Imposed regulation on factory owners and mechanisms for enforcement
b)Western Progressives
i)In Western states reformers targeted federal govt b/c powerful as it never had been in East (power over lands and resources, subsidies for RRs and water projects, issues transcended state borders). Weaker local + state govts political led to weaker W polit. parties, govts passed progressive reforms more quickly
c)African Americans and Reform
i)AAs faced large legal, social, economic, political obstacles in challenging their oppressed status and seeking reform- many embraced Booker T Washington’s message of self-improvement over long-term social change
ii)1900s new Niagara Movement led by WEB Du Bois (author of 1903 The Souls of Black Folk)called for immediate civil rights, professional education
iii)1909 joined w/ supportive white progressives to form National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), used federal lawsuits in pursuit of equal rights. In Guinn v. United States (1915) Supreme Court ruled grandfather clause illegal; Buchanan v. Worley (1917) Court outlawed some segregation—NAACP established itself as leading black organization
5)Crusade for Social Order and Reform
a)The Temperance Crusade
i)Many progressives saw elimination of alcohol as way to restore societal order- women saw alcohol as source of problems for families, employers saw it as roadblock to efficiency, political reformers saw saloon as Machine institution
ii)1873 temperance supporters formed Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) led by Frances Willard, together w/ Anti-Saloon League called for abolition of saloons and prohibition of manufacture and sale of alcohol
iii)Opposition by immigrant and working-class voters; regardless, national effort and start of WWI moral fervor led to 1920 Eighteenth Amendment prohibition
b)Immigration Restriction
i)Reformers saw growing immigrant population as source of social problems- some wanted to help assimilation, others to limit flow of new immigrants
ii)Early century pressure to slow immigration, heightened by growth of eugenics movement arguing human inequalities hereditary and immigration (especially of non-Anglo E. Eurs and Asians) resulting in growth of unfit peoples
iii)Publicist Madison Grant’s 1916 The Passing of the Great Race tied together eugenics + Nativism; Congress’s Dillingham Report said new immigrants less assimilable than earlier groups, restrictions should be based on nationality
iv)Others supported restrictions as means to solve urban overcrowding, unemployment, strained social services, and unrest
6)Challenging the Capitalist Order
a)The Dream of Socialism
i)Radical opposition to capitalist system strongest btwn 1900-1914, Socialist Party under Eugene V. Debs grew during progressive era. Socialists wanted to change structure of economy, but disagreement as to extent and tactics
ii)Some moderates favored nationalizing only major industries, use electoral politics; radicals including union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) under William Haywood wanted abolition of “wage slave” system, favored use of general strike, supported unskilled workers (strong force in West)
iii)1917 strike by IWW led to federal government crackdown on union b/c needed materials in mobilization for war; IWW never fully recovered
iv)Socialist Party refusal to support war + growing antiradicalism led to decline of socialism as powerful political force in America
b)Decentralization and Regulation
i)Most progressives also saw major problem in great corporate centralization + consolidation, but instead of nationalizing industries wanted federal govt to create balance btwn need for big business and need for competition
ii)Lawyer Louis Brandeis argued about “curse of bigness”, saw it as threat to efficiency and freedom, limited individual control of own destiny
iii)Others believed combinations sometimes helped efficiency, therefore govt should distinguish btwn “good” and “bad” trusts to protect against abuses by “bad” concentrations. Supported by “nationalist” Herbert Croly in 1909 The Promise of American Life
iv)Movement growing for industry cooperation and self-regulation; others wanted active govt role in regulation and planning economy
1)Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency
a)The Accidental President
i)VP Theodore Roosevelt assumed presidency September 1901after Pres McKinley assassinated. Reputation as an independent and wild man; became champion of cautious an moderate change, reform to protect society against more radical changes
b)Government, Capital, and Labor
i)Roosevelt saw fed govt as mediator of the public good. Not opposed to industrial combinations but realized potential for abuse of power
ii)Supported regulation of trusts- created Department of Commerce and Labor 1903 to publicly investigate corporations. Did make effort to break up some trusts- used Sherman Antitrust Act to break up Northern Securities Company monopoly over RRs in Northwest
iii)Saw govt as impartial regulator for labor as well- 1902 strike by United Mine workers led Roosevelt to ask labor and management to accept impartial federal arbitration, threatened to seize mines if management balked
c)“The Square Deal”
i)Reform not priority during first years as president, more concerned w/ winning reelection by not alienating conservative Republicans, winning support of businessmen and using patronage—won 1904 election
ii)First targeted RR industry by asking Congress to increase fed power to oversee rates- Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act of 1906 restored some govt regulatory power
iii)Supported Congress passing Pure Food and Drug Act, after Upton Sinclair’s 1906 The Jungle supported Meat Inspection Act. Also favored 8 hour work day for labor, workmen’s compensation, and inheritance and income taxes
d)Roosevelt and Conservation
i)Concerned w/ unregulated exploitation of resources and wilderness- used executive power to restrict private development on govt land, saw goal of “conservation” to carefully manage development and to apply same scientific method of management being used in cities
ii)President supported public reclamation and irrigation projects- 1902 Newlands Act funded dam construction, reservoirs, canals in West to open new lands for irrigation, cultivation and power development
e)Roosevelt and Preservation
i)Pres also sympathized w/ naturalists who wanted to protect land, wildlife from human intrusion- expanded National Forest System for “rational” lumbering, but also grew National Park System to protect lands from any development
f)The Hetch Hetchy Controversy
i)Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite seen as beautiful land by naturalists, but San Francisco residents + Roosevelt’s head of National Forest System Gifford Pinchot wanted land to build dam + reservoir for city’s growing water needs
ii)Pinchot saw needs of city more important than claims of preservation; issue placed in 1908 referendum, dam approved by large margin in election
g)The Panic of 1907
i)Despite reforms govt still had little control over industrial economy; in 1907 production outgrew domestic + foreign demand, speculation + poor management led to panic.
ii)JP Morgan pooled assets of NY banks to prop up banks, made deal with Pres to allow US Steel to purchase Tennessee Coal and Iron Company shares
iii)B/c of Panic of 1907 and promise made in 1904 to step down four years later, did not seek renomination and reelection for 1908 bid
2)The Troubled Succession
a)Taft and the Progressives
i)During early administration called on Congress to lower tariff (a progressive demand), refused to oppose Repub Old Guard. Result was Payne-Aldrich Tariff - reduced tariffs little, raised others- progressives resented inaction
ii)1909 Ballinger-Pinchot Dispute in which Head of Forest Service Gifford Pinchot was told that Sec of Interior Richard Ballinger had sold public lands in Alaska for personal profit. Taft thought charges groundless, Pinchot leaked info to press-- Taft fired Pinchot, progressives alienated
b)The Return of Roosevelt
i)Roosevelt upset w/ Taft and believed only he was capable of reuniting Republican Party; 1910 outlined “New Nationalism” that moved away from conservatism + argued only effort of strong fed govt could bring social justice
c)Spreading Insurgency
i)In 1910 Congressional elections many conservative Repub candidates lost and progressives reelected; Dems gained maj in House, seats in Senate
ii)Reform sentiment on the rise, but Roosevelt claimed he only wanted to pressure Taft into action; Roosevelt decided to run, however, after Taft charged US Steel acquisition of Tennessee Coal and Iron Company had been illegal and reform candidate Robert LaFollette’s campaign collapsed
d)Roosevelt versus Taft
i)Taft had support of conservative Repubs and party leaders, Roosevelt supported by progressives- at convention Republican National Committee gave nomination to Taft. Roosevelt left Repub Party and established own Progressive Party w/ himself as nominee (nicknamed Bull Moose Party)
3)Woodrow Wilson and The New Freedom
a)Woodrow Wilson
i)Reform support growing in Democratic Party as well as Repub Party; Dems chose progressive Woodrow Wilson as 1912 Presidential election nominee
ii)Wilson supported “New Freedom”- held that bigness was unjust and wanted to destroy, not regulate monopoly (whereas Roosevelt’s New Nationalism believed in govt regulation of concentration)
iii)Roosevelt and Taft split Repub vote, Wilson elected
b)The Scholar as President
i)Wilson bold and forceful- used position as leader of Dems to build coalition to support his program (Dem majorities existed in both houses)
ii)Greatly lowered tariff in Underwood-Simmons Tariff in order to introduce competition into market + breakup trusts; to make up for revenues past graduated income tax
iii)1913 Congress passed Federal Reserve Act- regional Fed banks made up of regional banks + issued loans at “discount” rate, issued Fed Reserve notes backed by govt, shifted funds to meet credit demands + protect banks. Supervising Federal Reserve Board members selected by Pres
iv)1914 Wilson began to deal w/ monopoly, Congress passed Federal Trade Commission Act and Clay Antitrust Act
(1)FTC was regulatory agency to help business determine whether their actions were legal, also power to prosecute “unfair trade practices”
(2)Clayton Antitrust Bill to allow break up of trusts weakened by conservative opposition; ultimately administration decided that government supervision and regulation by FTC sufficient
c)Retreat and Advance
i)Pres believed New Freedom accomplished, therefore didn’t support progressive suffrage movement and efforts to halt segregation in federal agencies after Dems had heavy losses in Congress in 1914 elections to Repubs (who won support from Progressive party) Wilson began new reforms
ii)Wilson supported appointment of progressive Louis Brandeis to Supreme Court; supported measured expanding role of federal govt 1916 Keating-Owen Act regulated child labor (struck down by Sup C b/c relied on interstate commerce clause in Const), 1914 Smith-Lever Act to help agricultural extension education
4)The “Big Stick”: America and The World, 1901-1917
a)Roosevelt and “Civilization”
1)The Road to War
a)The Collapse of the European Peace
i)Eur divided into alliances- “Triple Entente” of GB, France, Russia & “Triple Alliance” of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy (GB-German tension notable)
ii)After June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbs, A-H invaded Serbia who called on Russian help- b/c alliances other nations entered
b)Wilson’s Neutrality
i)1914 Wilson urged neutrality but many Americans sympathized w/ certain nations (German + Irish immigrants=Central, but most ppl= GB+Allies)
ii)Strong US-GB economic ties + blockade of Central Powers led US to continue trade w/ GB , shun trade w/ Central nations- “arsenal of Allies”
iii)Germany began using submarine warfare 1915 to combat GB naval domination; 1915 sinking of Lusitania and 1916 Sussex sinking led Wilson to call on Germans to recognize rights of neutrals- Germans relented and stopped attacking merchant ships to stop US entrance into war
c)Preparedness vs Pacifism
i)Wilson did not intervene for either side b/c of re-election + domestic division
ii)Economic + militarily preparations debated by pacifists and interventionists. However, by 1916 military armament largely under way
iii)Wilson won extremely close 1916 b/c of association w/ ability to keep US independent, although Dems barely held on to Congressional majorities
d)A War for Democracy
i)After election Wilson wanted country unified and justified if to enter war, should fight to create new progressive world order + not for material gains
ii)January 1917 Germany began offensive + continuation of unrestricted submarine warfare to defeat Allies before US entrance; February Zimmerman Telegram urged Mex to join w/ Germany (increased public sentiment toward war); March Russian Revolution toppled czar for republican govt
iii)April 1917 US officially declared war on side of Allies
2)“War Without Stint”
a)Entering the War
i)Immediately w/ US entrance Allied navy able to dramatically reduce sinking’s in troop + supply convoys
ii)1917 withdrawal of Russian forces after Bolshevik Revolution (Lenin) led Germans to put resources on Western Front, Allies needed US ground troops
b)The American Expeditionary Force
i)US army too small to supply needed troops- April 1917 Wilson urged passage of Selective Service Act to draft soldiers into American Expeditionary Force
ii)AEF was diverse-- women served as auxiliaries in non-combat roles; African-American soldiers served in segregated units or had menial roles
c)The Military Struggle
i)US ground forces insignificant until spring 1918; AEF under Gen John Pershing maintained command structure independent from other Allies
ii)US forced tipped stalemate + balance of power to Allies--- June 1918 helped repel German offensive at Chateau-Thierry
iii)Beginning Sept US forced fighting in Argonne Forest (as part of Allied Meuse-Argonne Offensive); pushed Germans back + cut off supply routes
iv)11/11/1918 Great War ended w/ Allies on German border
d)The New Technology of Warfare
i)New military weapons + tactics more deadly (tanks, machine guns, trenches, chemical weapons). Logistics and materials transport gained increased importance. Rise of planes, dreadnought battleships, submarines
ii)Casualties extremely high for war (British lost 1 million, Germany 2 million); even victors overwhelmed by sheer magnitude of deaths
3)The War and American Society
a)Organizing the Economy for War
i)US appropriated $32 billion for war- to raise money sold “Liberty Bonds” to public & put new graduated taxes on income + inheritance
ii)To organize economy Wilson created Council of National Defense; but emphasis Civilian Advisory Commission tasked w/ mobilizing at local level
iii)CND members urged “scientific management” + centralization, proposed dividing economy based on function and not geography w/ “war boards” coordinating efforts in each sector
iv)War Industries Board oversaw purchase of military supplies, under Bernard Baruch organized factories, set prices, and distributed needed materials. Instead of restricting profits, govt entered alliance w/ private sector
b)Labor and the War
i)National War Labor Board pressured industry for concessions to workers (8-hour day, living standards, collective bargaining) but workers forced to forgo strikes. Right before war Ludlow Massacre when striking miners killed
c)Economic and Social Results of the War
i)Economic boom during period from Eur demand, later US need. Industrial production expanded, opportunities for female + minorities b/c of men at war
ii)War years saw “Great Migration” of hundreds of thousands of African- Americans from rural South to northern industrial cities. S poverty + racism and appeal of N factory jobs + freedom led to movement. Growing black communities near white neighborhoods sometimes resulted in race riots
iii)Women took higher-paying industrial jobs that were unavailable in peace time
4)The Search for Social Unity
a)The Peace Movement
i)Public sentiment divided over US involvement in war—peace movement supported by German Americans, Irish who opposed GB, religious pacifists, intellectuals and leftist groups
ii) Peaces support also from women’s movement- maternal pacifism
b)Selling the War and Suppressing Dissent
i)Once America intervened most of country became patriotic and supportive of troops. Religious revivalism also became source of support for war
ii)Govt concerned about minority in opposition to war, believed victory possible only thru united public opinion Committee on Public Information under George Creel distributed pro-war propaganda—portrayals of savage Germans
iii)Espionage Act of 1917 gave govt power to punish spies and obstructers of war effort, respond to reports of disloyalty. Sabotage Act and Sedition Act of 1918 made any public expression of opposition illegal- targeted socialist groups
iv)Local govts and private citizen groups worked to repress opposition- “vigilante mob” discipline, also American Protective League w/ thousands of members who spied on neighbors to ensure unity of opinion in communities
v)Repressive efforts targeted socialists and labor leaders, but also largely immigrants (Germans, Irish, Jews)- “Loyalist” Americans called for “100 Percent Americanism”. German Americans faced fierce discrimination
5)The Search for a New World Order
a)The Fourteen Points
i)Wilson’s Fourteen Poitns addressed three areas: self-determination and new boundaries; new international governance laws including freedom of the seas, end to secret treaties, free trade, determination of colonial claims; league of nations to implement points and resolve future disagreements
ii)Fourteen Points also effort to combat Bolshevik (Lenin) aspiration to lead new postwar world order—US established itself thru the points
b)Early Obstacles
i)Wilson hoped popular support would help garner Allied support for Points,
ii)However, most Allies so decimated by war and so bitter against Germany that they did not with to be generous GB Prime Minister Lloyd George and French Premier Georges Clemenceau determined to gain compensation
iii)At home Wilson + Dems lost control of Congress to Repub majorities in 1918 election, domestic economic issues + Repub opposition weakened his position
c)The Paris Peace Conference
i)Big Four nations to negotiate treaty were GB, France, Italy, US
ii)Wilson’s idealism met by effort by other nations to improve own lot, concerns about eastern Europe and communism (US did not recognize Bolshevik govt until 1933). His economic + strategic demands suffered from conflict w/ cultural nationalism
iii)Wilson initially rejected reparations from Central Powers, but Allies forced him to accept idea in order to keep Germany weak + unable to threaten Eur
iv)Wilson was successful and placing some colonies under League of Nations “mandate” system, created Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
v)Allies accepted “covenant” of League of Nations-- to meet to resolve disputes + protect peace, Wilson believed problems w/ treaty could be fixed by League
d)The Ratification Battle
i)Americans used to isolation questioned international commitment, Wilson refused to compromise or modify League too much—when Treaty of Versailles introduced by Wilson to Senate in 1919
ii)Opposition lead by Repub Irreconcilables who wanted isolation, but also by personal hatred of Sen Henry Cabot Lodge for Wilson—wanted to delay so public approval would subside, make treaty issue in 1920 election
e)Wilson’s Ordeal
i)Wilson began traveling country to gain public support for treaty. The traveling and speaking tour exacerbated his already bad health and he suffered stroke that rendered him incapable for weeks
ii)Condition made his views of world in moral terms and loathing for compromise stronger. When Treaty sent to Sen for approval w/ “reservations” (amendments) attached, Wilson urged Dems to vote against it- both amended treaty and original failed to reach 2/3 majority to be ratified
6)A Society in Turmoil
a)Industry and Labor
i)After war govt began cancelling contracts. War boom continued for short while b/c of foreign demand + deficit spending
ii)In 1920 bubble burst—GDP decreased, inflation and unemployment rose
iii)In postwar env’t 1919 management sought to rescind worker rights that they had been forced to grant during war—use of union strikes increased to combat these moves: Boston Police Strike, great Steel Worker’s Strike failure
b)The Demands of African-Americans
i)Retruning blacks from war wanted social reward+ rights for service, black factory workers from war wanted to retain economic gains they had made
ii)Racial tension increased as retrurning whites displaced black workers- contributed to large 1919 Chicago race riots
iii)Marcus Garvey’s ideas of Black Nationalism gained popularity among blacks- advocated embracing heritage + return to Africa, reject white assimilation
c)The Red Scare
i)Industrial problems, racial violence, dissent, creation of Communist International in 1919 by Soviets to spread revolution, also bombings in US by radicals fueled middle class fears of instability + radicalism
ii)Growing movement to fight radicalism + embrace “100 Percent Americanism” Red Scare
iii)Antiradicals saw any instability or protest as radical threat; Jan 1920 Attorney General A Mitchell Palmer conducted nationwide raids in radical crackdown
iv)1920 Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial showed American bias toward perceived radicals (they had been immigrant anarchists); they were executed in 1927
d)The Retreat from Idealism
i)Passage of 19th Amendment in 1920 (to give women suffrage) marked end of reform era—due to economic problems, labor unrest, and antiradicalism that all lead to sense of disillusionment
ii)1920 Presidential election pitted idealists Dem James Cox (and VP Franklin Roosevelt) against conservative Republican Warren Harding who promised “return to normalcy”—Harding won by a large margin
iii)Election a repudiation of League of Nation and postwar order of democratic ideals
1)The New Economy
a)Technology and Economic Growth
i)After 1921-1922 recession tremendous economic growth in output + income
ii)Growth result of collapse of Eur industry after war, important technological advances: rise of auto manufacturing (and in turn gas production, road construction), assembly line, rise of radio and commercial broadcasting, advances in air travel, development of electronics + synthetic materials
iii)Maturation of electricity and telecommunications fields; work during 1920s and 1930s on primitive computer technologies
b)Economic Organization
i)Certain industries (e.g. steel) continued toward national organization and consolidation- these companies adopted new modern administrative systems w/ efficient division structures to allow subsidiary control + easier expansion
ii)In industries w/ more competition stabilization reached thru cooperation—rise of trade association to coordinate production + marketing
iii)Industrialists feared overproduction and recession, and efforts to curb competition thru either consolidation or cooperation reflected this
c)Labor in the New Era
i)Some employers 1920s used “welfare capitalism” to give workers more rights, improve safety, raise wages in order to avoid labor unrest + independent union growth. System survived only if industry prospering- collapsed in 1929
ii)Welfare capitalism helped only a few workers, employers wage increases disproportional to their increase in profits. Ultimately workers still mainly impoverished and powerless, families relied on multiple wage earners
iii)Organized labor + independent unions often failed to adapt to changing nature of modern economy. American Federation of Labor still used craft union system based on skills, did not allow growing unskilled industrial workers
d)Women and Minorities in the Work Force
i)Number of women in workforce increased, especially in “pink-collar” jobs- low-paying service jobs, most unions refused to organize them
ii)African-Americans in cities after 1914 Great Migration largely excluded from unions (A. Philip Randolph’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters exception)
iii)In West + Southwest unskilled and unorganized workers mainly Hispanics and Mexican immigrants, Asians (mainly Japanese who replaced Chinese after Exclusion Acts in menial jobs)
e)The “American” Plan
i)After 1919 economic uneasiness corporations rallied strongly against “subversive” unionism and wanted to protect idea of open shop (in which workers not forced to join union)—known as “American Plan”
ii)Govt intervened on behalf of management, courts often ruled against striking workers. Btwn this and corporate efforts union membership saw large decline
f)Agricultural Technology and the Plight of the Farmer
i)American agriculture adopted new technolgoies (e.g. tractor, combine) allowed more crops w/ fewer workers; hybrid corn + fertilizers increased productivity led to overprodution and collapse in food prices
ii)Farmers called on govt price support- idea of “parity” (govt set price, farmers reimbursed if good sold for less in fluctuating market) and high foreign crop tariffs introduced in Congress in McNary-Haugen Bill (vetoed by Coolidge)
2)The New Culture
a)Consumerism
i)Industrial growth led to rise of consumer culture in which ppl had discretionary funds w/ which to buy items for pleasure (appliances, fashion)
ii)Most revolutionary product was automobile- allowed rural ppl to escape isolation, city ppl to escape crowded urban life; rise of vacation traveling
b)Advertising
i)Techniques first used in wartime propaganda came of age in new age of advertising + work of publicists. Famous book of time The Man Nobody Knows by Bruce Burton about Jesus as “salesman”
ii)Ads possible b/c of mass audience in national chains of newspapers, mass-circulation magazine growth
c)The Movies and Broadcasting
i)1920s saw rise of Hollywood, creation of Motion Picture Association and the Hays Code as industry self-ban on objectionable material
ii)Phenomenal rise of radio beginning w/ first commercial station broadcasting in 1920. By 1929 12 million families owned radio sets
d)Modernist Religion
i)Growing consumer culture w/ emphasis on immediate self-fulfillment had influence on religion—abandonment by some of traditional + literal
ii)Harry Emerson Fosdick spokesman for new liberal Protestantism of 1920s
e)Professional Women
i)Most employed women were working class b/c of professional struggle btwn career and family. Few professional women limited to mainly “feminine” fields of fashion, education, social work, nursing
f)Changing Ideas of Motherhood
i)Belief grew that maternal affection not adequate preparation for child rearing, advice and help of professionals needed instead
ii)Motherhood increasingly relied on institutions out of home, allowing time to devote to “companionate marriage”- involved more as wives, in social life
iii)Growth of birth control related to sense of sex as recreation vs only creation
g)The “Flapper”: Image and Reality
i)Some women came to believe rigid and Victorian “feminism” unnecessary “flapper” women expressed themselves freely thru dress, speech, behavior
h)Pressing for Women’s Rights
i)Women formed League of Women Voters, many women helped growing consumer groups
ii)1921 Sheppard-Towner Act gave federal funds to states for prenatal and child healthcare. Fought my American Medical Association, others; repealed in 1929--- showed women didn’t vote as single block, even on “female” issues
i)Education and Youth
i)Growing secularism, emphasis on training and expertise manifested itself in growing upper education attendance rates, teaching of technical skills
ii)Emergence of distinct youth culture w/ growing idea of adolescence, belief this was time for child to develop institutions w/ peers separate form family
j)The Decline of the “Self-Made Man”
i)Myth of “self-made man” who could gain wealth and fame thru hard work and natural talent gave way to belief that nothing possible without education and training (men felt losing independence, control, “masculinity”)
ii)Idolized self-made men in Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh
k)The Disenchanted
i)New generation of artists and intellectuals viewed society w/ contempt; isolated themselves instead of playing reform role
ii)Lost Generation’s critique American system in which individual had no means of personal fulfillment rose out of WWI experience and sense of deaths in vain, end of Wilsonian idealism, growing business + consumerism
iii)Ernest Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1929) expressed contempt of war; other “debunkers” critical of society included H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis
iv)Many of these critics who rejected the “success ethics” of America became expatriates living abroad. Paris was center of American artistic life
l)The Harlem Renaissance
i)Other intellectuals saw solution to problems in exploration of own culture and its origins—great example Harlem during “Harlem Renaissance”
ii)Harlem center of black artists and intellectuals; literature, poetry , and art drew on African roots—famously Alan Locke, Langston Hughes
m)The Southern Agrarians
i)Group of Southern intellectuals and poets known as the Fugitives rebelled against depersonalization and materialism due to industrialization by recalling the Southern nonindustrial, agrarian way of life
ii)Wrote reactionary ideas in their 1930 agrarian manifesto I’ll Take My Stand
3)A Conflict of Cultures
a)Prohibition
i)Prohibition took effect 1920; within a year “noble experiment” failing b/c even though some drinking rates fell alcohol still widely available and legitimate businesses being replaced by organized crime (famous Al Capone)
ii)Prohibition supported by rural Protestants who they associated drinking w/ Catholic immigrants + new valueless culture
b)Nativism and the Klan
i)After war many Americans associated immigration w/ radicalism; efforts to restrict influx grew, 1921 Congress passed emergency law w/ quota system
ii)Nativists wanted harsher law--- National Origins Act of 1924 banned all east Asian immigration, reduced especially eastern Eur quotas
iii)Ku Klux Klan re-emerged as force b/c of fear by some older Americans of disruption of culture by new peoples—“New Klan” emerged in 1915 after meeting in Stone Mountain, GA
iv)At first targeted blacks, after the war targeted Catholics, Jews, and foreigners- purge “alien” influences; membership grew in S but also N industrial cities
v) Wanted to threaten anyone who challenged “traditional values”- irreligion, drunkenness, ect. Defend racial homogeneity + defend traditional culture against modernity; provided disenfranchised w/ sense of community, power
c)Religious Fundamentalism
i)Fight over role of religion in modern society—split in Protestantism btwn urban, middle-class ppl who wanted to adapt religion to modern science and secular society vs traditional rural ppl who wanted to retain religious import
ii)Fundamentalists wanted traditional interpretation of bible, opposed Darwinism; evangelical movement wanting to spread doctrine (famous preacher Billy Sunday)
iii)When teaching Darwinism outlawed in Tennessee, ACLU promised to defend teacher John Scopes who defied law—Scopes trial isolated Fundamentalists from mainstream Protestants, ended their growing political activism
d)The Democrat’s Ordeal
i)Democrats split btwn urban and rural factions; party included prohibitionists, Klansmen, fundamentalists but also Caths, urban workers, immigrants
ii)At 1924 Democratic National Convention in NY conflict btwn urban wing wanting prohibition repealed, denunciation of clan, and supported Alfred Smith for nominee; W + S supported William McAdoo. After deadlock both withdrew and John Davis chosen as nominee
iii)In 1928 AL Smith won nomination, but party still divided b/c of southern anti-Catholicism; lost election to Herbert Hoover
4)Republican Government
a)Harding and Coolidge
i)Pres Warren Harding elected 1920; appointed party elite who had helped win him nomination to positions in administration, ultimately this corrupt “Ohio Gang” committed fraud and corruption in Teapot Dome oil reserve scandal
ii)Harding died of a heart attack 1923, VP Calvin Coolidge ascended to presidency (known for crushing Boston Police riot)
iii)Coolidge a passive president like Harding, believed govt should not interfere little in life of nation; won re-election 1924 but did not seek office in 1928
b)Government and Business
i)Even though New Era presidents passive, fed govt as a whole worked to helped business + industry operate efficient and productively
ii)Sec of Treasury Andrew Mellon reduced tax on corporate profits, personal incomes, inheritances, and cut federal budget
iii)Sec of Commerce Herbert Hoover favored voluntary cooperation of businesses in private sector for stability. Supported business “Associationalism” in which businessmen in an industry worked together to promote stability, efficient production, and marketing
iv)Hoover won the Presidential election of 1928, but nation entered Depression in 1929
1)The Coming of the Great Depression
a)The Great Crash
i)From Feb 1928 until October 1929 economic boom, stock prices rose dramatically w/ credit easily available
ii)October 29, 1929- “Black Tuesday”- stock market crashed
b)Unemployment and Relief
i)In capitalist system recessions cyclical, but Great Depression direly severe
ii)Such large crash b/c lack of diversification (many overinvested in automobiles + construction), maldistribution of wealth resulting in consumers receiving too little money to spend to keep pace w/ growing markets + supplies (coupled w/ rising unemployment due to natural cycle + from technology)
iii)Credit structures + indebtedness of farmers threatened banks, but banks also threatened by risky investments + loans in stock markets
iv)US foreign exports declined b/c some Eur nations productivity increasing but others facing financial difficulties; international debt structure after WWI in which nations sought new loans to pay off existing Allied loans + Central nation reparations weakened US economy after 1929 left countries w/o source with which to repay loans, began to default
c)Progress of Depression
i)Stock market crash triggered chain of events that further weakened economy over next 3 years
ii)Banking system collapsed and billions of dollars in deposits lost; money supply contraction exacerbated by 1931 Fed Reserve interest raises
iii)GDP, capital investment, gross farm product all down at least 25% by 1933; in 1932 national unemployment had risen to 25% (much more in some cities)
2)The American People in Hard Times
a)Unemployment and Relief
i)Americans taught to believe that individual responsible for own fate, poverty sign of own failure; nevertheless the small relief system of the 1920s incapable of dealing w/ new demands and govts hesitant to increase support b/c of decreasing tax revenues + welfare stigma. Bread lines found in cities
ii)In rural areas income declined 60%, 1/3 of farmers lost land, massive drought extended thru the “Dust Bowl” starting in 1930 lasting for a decade farm prices so low that many farmers left homes to seek employment (“Okies”)
iii)Nationwide problems of malnutrition, homelessness; growth of shantytowns, massive migrations of ppl across country seeking jobs, better living conditions
b)African-Americans and the Depression
i)Most S blacks were farmers, collapse of cotton + staple crop prices led them to leave land; menial jobs they had held in cities began to be given to whites (Black Shirts in Atlanta 1930 called for dismissal of all blacks from jobs so that they would be available for struggling whites to take)
ii)Mass migration of jobless southern blacks to Northern urban centers
iii)Segregation + black disenfranchisement remained, but famous Scottsboro case in which group of 7 blacks falsely accused of rape resulted in national attention b/c of NAACP support
iv)NAACP began working to increase black participation in unions + organized labor
c)Mexican Americans in Depression America
i)Large Mex immigration population (known as Chicanos) centered mostly in Southwest, worked mainly menial jobs or as unskilled laborers in urban areas
ii)When Depression hit many whites forced them from their jobs, relief to Mexicans severely limited + many rounded up to be sent back to Mexico—all highlighted the discrimination of Hispanics that swept region
d)Asian Americans in Hard Times
i)Depression strengthened pattern of economic marginalization of Asian American populations which were centered mainly on the West coast; frequently lost jobs to whites desperate for employment
ii)Some Japanese sought to form clubs to advance political agendas: Japanese American Democratic Club worked for laws against discrimination; Japanese American Citizens League sought to make immigrants more assimilated
e)Women and the Workplace in the Great Depression
i)Ppl believed that b/c jobs so scarce whatever was available should go to men—this belief strengthened notion of women’s main role staying in home, also feelings that no woman with an employed husband should hold a job
ii)Single and married women both continued to work during Depression b/c money so necessary- result of nonprofessional nature of “pink-collar” jobs as more secure than those in heavy industry, male stigma about taking them
iii)Support for Reform Era ideas of women economically and professionally independent began to wane; Depression saw death of National Woman’s Party
f)Depression Families
i)Middle- and working-class families used to rising standard of living now uncertain b/c of unemployment or income reductions
ii)Retreat from consumerism as women made clothes in home, home businesses established, banding together of extended family units
3)The Depression and American Culture
a)Depression Values
i)Pre-Depression acceptance of affluence and consumerism remained unchanged as ppl worked even more hard to achieve ideals
ii)Longstanding belief that individual controlled own fate and success thru hard work (“success ethic”) largely survived Depression as many unemployed simply blamed themselves and remained passive b/c felt ashamed
iii)Masses responded messages that they themselves could restore own wealth + success—best-selling How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
b)Artists and Intellectuals in the Great Depression
i)Just as urban poverty had received attention during Reform Era, during 1930s many shocked at “discovery” of rural poverty- photography of Farm Security Administration photographers highlighted impact of hostile env’t on ppl
ii)Many writers began to highlight social injustices- Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road(1932) of rural poverty; Richard Wright’s Native Son of urban ghettos; John Steinbeck’s novels of migrant workers; John Dos Passso’s USA trilogy attacked capitalism
c)Radio
i)Almost every family had radio, listening often a communal activity
ii)Most radio programming was entertaining and escapist in nature (comedies or adventures, soap operas); live programming of performances also developed
iii)Radio allowed access to major public events in news, sports, politics
iv)Drew nation together b/c of widespread availability of same cultural and informational programming, gathered family together in the home
d)The Movies
i)Early 1930s movie attendance dropped b/c of economic hardship, but by mid-1930s many seeing them again
ii)Most movies censored heavily and studio system kept projects largely uncontroversial; some films did manage to explore social and political questions, but most remained escapist in order to keep attention of audience away from troubles. Walt Disney movies emerged during 1930s
e)Popular Literature and Journalism
i)Literature more reflective of growing radicalism + discontentedness than radio and movies, although escapist and romantic works still widely popular (Mitchell’s 1936 Gone With The Wind; photographic Life Magazine)
ii)Other works challenged American popular values: John Dos Passos’s U.S.A. trilogy (1930-1936) attacked American materialism; Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts(1933) of a woman overwhelmed by the life stories of others
f)The Popular Front and the Left
i)Late 1930s more literature more optimistic of society b/c of rise of Popular Front coalition lead by American Communist Party- supported Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal, mobilized intellectuals toward social criticism
ii)Intellectual detachment of 1920s targeted by Popular Front- mobilized some men into Lincoln Brigade to fight in Spanish Civil War against the fascists
iii)Communist Party organized unemployed, unions, supported racial justice; however party under control of Soviet Union- when Stalin signed 1939 nonaggression pact w/ Hitler Party abandoned Popular Front and returned to criticizing liberals
iv)Socialist Party of America under Norman Thomas attempted to argue crisis failure of capitalist system and tried to win support for party, especially targeting rural poor—supported Southern Tenant Farmers Union but never gained strength
v)Antiradicalism a strong force in 1930s and hostility existed toward Communist Party, yet at the same time Left widely respected amongst workers and intellectuals; temporary widening of mainstream culture
vi)Famous accounts of social conditions of the era provided by James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) and more famously John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath(1939)
4)The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover
a)The Hoover Program
i)Hoover responded to Depression by trying to restore confidence in economy- tried to gather business into voluntary program of cooperation to aid recovery; by 1931 voluntarism had collapsed b/c of worsening economy
ii)Hoover tried using govt spending to boost economy; spending not enough in face of huge economic problems, sought to raise taxes 1932 to balance budget
iii)Offered Agricultural Marketing Act to help farmers w/ low crop prices, raised foreign agricultural tariffs in Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930- neither helped
iv)Dems gained majority in House + increase in Senate in 1930 elections by promising government economic assistance; presidents unpopularity grew (shantytowns called “Hoovervilles”) especially after international financial panic in spring 1931 w/ Austrian bank collapse
v)1932 Congress created Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to give loans to imperiled banks, RRs, businesses- RFC failed to improve economy b/c lent largely to big institutions, didn’t sponsor enough relief + public works
b)Popular Protest
i)By 1932 dissent beginning to come to a head: Farmers’ Holiday Association attempted farmer’s product strike; veterans in “Bonus Army” marched on Washington to protest withholding of bonuses, Hoover called on Army units under Gen Douglas MacArthur to clear Bonus Army out of city
ii)Popular image of Hoover as unsympathetic + unable to act effectively
c)The Election of 1932
i)Repubs re-nominated Hover as candidate; Democrats nominated NY Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt
ii)Roosevelt avoided religion and prohibition, focused on economic grievances of nation
iii)Roosevelt won large majority of popular vote and even more overwhelmingly in electoral college; Dems majorities elected to House and Senate- signified mandate for change
d)The “Interregnum”
i)Period between election and inauguration one of increasing economic problems b/c of expanding banking crisis + more depositors seeking to withdraw money in a panic; more banks declared bankruptcy
ii)Roosevelt refused to make public commitments asked of him by Hoover to maintain economic orthodoxy or not institute broad economic reforms
1)Launching the New Deal
a)Restoring Confidence
i)Roosevelt projected optimism- famous quote “all we have to fear is fear itself”
ii)Two days after taking office issued “Bank Holiday” closing all banks for four days to give Congress time to discuss reforms; Emergency Banking Act required Treasury Dept inspection of banks, assistance to troubled institutions
iii)Bank Holiday restored ¾ of closed banks; Economy Act passed a few days later forced balanced fed budget thru cutting govt salaries + veterans pensions
b)Agricultural Adjustment
i)Agricultural Adjustment Act 1933 reduced crop production to end surpluses + raise prices; Agricultural Adjustment Administration would enforce industry limits + subsidize vacant lands to parity-- farm income began increasing
ii)1936 Agricultural Adjustment Act declared unconstitutional b/c it required farmers to limit production; new Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act passed to pay farmers to reduce production in order to “conserve soil”
iii)Resettlement Administration and later Farm Security Administration gave loans to small farmers to help relocate to better lands; Rural Electrification Administration attempted to make power more available to farmers
c)Industrial Recovery
i)Administration allowed for relaxing of some antitrust laws to stabilize industry prices in return for concessions to labor to allow collective bargaining and unions led to 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act
ii)Act created National Recovery Administration under Hugh Johnson called on adoption of labor codes + industrial codes to set floor prices-- sought to maintain employment + production
iii)NRA weakened b/c codes poorly written and administered; Section 7(a) of NIR Act gave workers right to unionize but no enforcement so many corps. ignored it; Public Works Administration of NIR Act slow to distribute monies
iv)NRA failed to raise production; 1935 Supreme C. held NRA unconstitutional
d)Regional Planning
i)AAA and NRA examples of economic planning that allowed private interests to dictate planning process; others wanted govt in charge of planning
ii)Tennessee Valley Authority created after failure of electric utility companies to develop water resources for cheap power; 1933 TVA began building dams in Tennessee Valley region + sell electricity at reasonable rates
iii)TVA revitalized region by improving transport, limiting flooding, making electricity more available, and lowered power rates nationwide
e)Currency, Banks, and the Stock Market
i)1933 president took president took nation off gold standard; govt began manipulating value of dollar by buying/selling large amts of silver
ii)Efforts to increase govt regulation in 1933 Glass-Steagall Act- govt power to curb speculation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect deposits
iii)1933 Truth in Securities Act required corporations to give truthful disclosures
iv)1934 Securities and Exchange Commission created to police stock market
f)The Growth of Federal Relief
i)Administration saw need to help impoverished until economy improved—Federal Emergency Relief Administration gave cash to state relief groups
ii)Work relief provided by the Civil Works Administration that gave millions temporary work- built roads + schools, and pumped money into economy
iii)Civilian Conservation Corps gave unemployed men jobs in national parks planting trees and improving irrigation
iv)To aid in mortgage relief created Farm Credit Administration to help farmers refinance; 1933 Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act aided foreclosed farmers; 1933 Home Owners’ Loan Corporation refinanced households
2)The new Deal in Transition
a)Critics of the new Deal
i)Conservatives and businesses leaders main opponents to New Deal, 1934 formed American Liberty League decrying “attacks” on free enterprise
ii)Another threat to New Deal in Townsend Plan- proposed giving all over 60 monthly pension; idea gained much support older ppl, forerunner to Soc Sec
iii)Father Charles Coughlin’s nat’l radio sermons called for banking + currency reform (recoining of silver, nationalization of banks) to restore economic justice, felt admin unresponsive so founded National Union for Social Justice
iv)Sen Huey Long gained popularity for attacks on banks, oil companies, utilities and b/c of progressive voting record; like Coughlin felt administration not acting strongly enough so proposed Share-Our-Wealth Plan to redistribute wealth (and created Share-Our-Wealth Society)
v)Growing dissident movements threat to president, so Roosevelt began to consider measures to counter their growing popularity
b)The “Second New Deal”
i)Second New Deal of 1935 marked beginning of open critique of big business
ii)Holding Company Act sought to break up monopoly of utility industry; 1935 tax reforms established progressive tax w/ very high rate for wealthy
iii)National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) gave enforcement to NIR Act’s Section 7(a) (right to unionize) in National Labor Relations Board
c)Labor Militancy
i)Trade union power increased dramatically in 1930s b/c of efforts to strengthen unions + growing labor militancy to challenge conservative groups
ii)After Wagner Act attempts to find new forms of organization; American Federation of Labor still committed to organizing workers based on skill, but b/c mass of labor force unskilled industrial unionism gained popularity (all workers in industry organized regardless of role)
iii)AFL hesitancy to adopt industrial unionism led John L Lewis in 1936 to create independent Congress of Industrial Organizations- grew into new areas
d)Organizing Battles
i)Laborers in auto industry increasingly joining unrecognized United Auto Workers; 1936 staged sit-down strike that stopped all production and prevented strikebreakers- most auto makers soon recognized union
ii)In steel Steel Worker’s Organizing Committee recognized by US Steel 1937 to prevent costly stroke; “Little Steel” committed “Memorial Day Massacre” when strikers attempted protest- strike failed, SWOC not recognized for years
iii)Period saw union membership increase by millions, growing recognition
e)Social Security
i)Lobbying for social insurance for elderly and unemployed led to 1935 Social Security Act—payroll tax created to create pension system for workers upon retirement, unemployment insurance paid by employers gave laid off workers temporary govt assistance, disability + dependent children aid created
ii)Seen as insurance in which participants contributed and benefits for all
f)New Directions in Relief
i)SS for long term needs; to help currently unemployed created 1935 Works Progress Administration under Harry Hopkins to build + renovate public buildings, employ millions, pump money into economy
ii)WPA replaced smaller CWA after 1934 fall- $5 billion budget vs $1 billion
iii)Federal Writers Project of WPA (Music Proj, Theater Proj, ect.) provided govt salary to those ppl to continue work
iv)Men often given relief in form of work relief and employment whereas women mainly given cash assistance
g)The 1936 “Referendum”
i)With 1936 revival of economy doubts about re-election from 1935 troubles largely dispelled. Repub nominee Alf Landon ran poor campaign, other Roosevelt dissidents (e.g. Coughlin and Townsend’s Union Party) very weak
ii)Election largest landslide to date, Dems increased majorities in both Congressional houses; results highlighted Dem coalition of farmers, urban working ppl, unemployed and poor, progressive liberals, and blacks
3)The New Deal in Disarray
a)The Court Fight
i)1936 landslide led Roosevelt to deal with Supreme Court whose conservative rulings (against NRA, AAA) he feared would ruin more legislation
ii)1937 Roosevelt proposed overhaul of court system to Congress, including adding six new justices to Supreme Court so that he could appoint liberals and change ideological balance. Conservatives outraged as “Court-packing plan”
iii)Legislation failed but more moderate court no longer a New Deal obstacle, although administration was damaged and Roosevelt viewed as power hungry
b)Retrenchment and Recession
i)In summer 1937 Roosevelt feared inflation so began to cut fed govt programs and reduce deficit—led to recession of 1937 (“Roosevelt’s Recession”); increased govt spending in 1938 for public works seemed to lead to recovery
ii)Roosevelt began to denounce economic concentrations + sought antirust law reform- Congress formed Temporary National Economic Committee, apptd Thurman Arnold head of the antitrust division at the Justice Dept
iii)1938 Fair Labor Standards Act established nat’l minimum wage, 40 hour work week, child labor limits
iv)By end of 1938 New Deal largely over b/c of Congressional opposition + growing global crisis and Roosevelt’s concentration on war preparation
4)Limits and Legacies of the New Deal
a)The Idea of the “Broker State”
i)New Deal backers originally sought to remake American capitalism and create new controls to make new economic order. Instead, transformation of government as “broker state” in which govt was a mediator in competition btwn interest groups rather than force to create universal harmony
ii)Before 1930s main interest group corporations, but by end of 1930s business interests competing with labor, agricultural economy, and consumers
b)African Americans and the New Deal
i)New Deal did little to assist African Americans; Roosevelt himself not opposed to blacks- his “Black Cabinet” of blacks in second-level administrative positions, many blacks received govt relief or assistance
ii)Electoral shift as blacks no longer overwhelmingly voted Republican but by 1936 90% voting Democratic- even though race not part of New Deal agenda
iii)New Deal agencies reinforced discrimination by separating blacks in CCC and NRA codes, WPA gave minorities lower-paying jobs
c)The new Deal and the “Indian Problem”
i)Federal government sought to erase Indian problem by assimilating them and decreasing amt who identified as members of tribe
ii)Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier proponent of cultural relativism and therefore supported legislation to reverse Native pressures to assimilate and instead be given right to live traditionally—Indian reorganization Act of 1934 advanced many of these goals by re-allowing collective ownership
d)Women and the New Deal
i)Administration mostly unconcerned w/ feminist movement b/c lack of popular support but nevertheless had symbolic gestures (Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins first female Cabinet member, other women appts in govt)
ii)New Deal supported notion that women withdraw from working to open up positions for men—agencies offered women few jobs
iii)Like with AAs New Deal not against women but still accepted cultural norms
e)The New Deal in the West and the South
i)West and South given special attention by New Deal relief and public works programs; these programs didn’t challenge racial and ethnic prejudices
ii)New Deal had profound impact on West b/c farming central to economy and was a good site for and had the need for dams, electricity, other public works
iii)New Deal programs profound in South b/c less economically developed than rest of nation in 1930s, gave federal attention to South that no previous administration had ever done b/c of view of S as “backward”
f)The new Deal and the National Economy
i)New Deal failed to end Depression, change drastically the maldistribution of wealth. New Deal did allow new groups previously unheld powers (labor, women, farmers), economically developed South and West, increased govt regulation, created welfare state thru relief and Social Security that broke w/ tradition of providing little public help to citizens deeply in need
g)The New Deal and American Politics
i)Roosevelt strengthened power of federal government as local govt took second seat to national govt, presidency established as center of power and shifted Congress to more secondary role
ii)New Deal led to political shifts—Dem Party now strong coalition ready to dominate national politics; reawakened interest in economy over cultural issues; changed expectations American people had of government
1)The Diplomacy of the New Era
a)Replacing the League
i)Harding administration sought to negotiate separate peace treaties w/ Central Powers, find impermanent way to replace League as guarantor of world peace
ii)Washington Conference of 1921 sought to deal w/ naval arms race btwn US, GB, Japan: Five-Power Pact limited armaments; Nine-Power Act continued Chinese Open Door policy; Four-Power Act acknowledged Pacific territories
iii)Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928 btwn 14 nations to outlaw war as policy measure
iv)New Era efforts to protect peace w/o active international duties
b)Debts and Diplomacy
i)Diplomacy used to ensure free overseas trade thru reducing war and making financial arrangements w/ other nations
ii)US prosperity depended on Eur economy, which was suffering from war destruction, Allied debt on US loans, Central reparations US acted to head off collapse thru 1924 Dawes Plan that created circular loan system where US loaned Germany money to pay GB + French debt who used $ to pay US debt
iii)System led to increase in Eur debt, US banks and corporations took advantage of collapsed industries to assert themselves; high US tariffs under Republicans prevented Eur export of goods to earn money to repay loans
iv)US economic expansion into Latin America during 1920s to better access rich natural resources, give loans to governments
c)Hoover and the World Crisis
i)Stock market crash of 1929 and worsening problems after 1931, growing nationalism + new hostile governments faced by Hoover administration
ii)Hoover promised to recognize new Latin American govt if any collapsed, did not intervene some defaulted on US loans (against M. Doctrine + R.Corollary)
iii)In efforts to restore Eur economic stability Pres refused to cancel debts- some nations defaulted; 1932 World Disarmament Conference ended in failure
iv)Difficulties increased b/c of control by Benito Mussolini’s nationalistic Fascist Party in Italy & Adolf Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist Party (Nazis)
v)Crisis in Asia when in 1931 Japanese military staged coup against liberal govt b/c it had allowed China’s leader Chiang Kai-Shek to expand his power in Manchuria (which had been economically dominated by Japan) Japan invaded Manchuria + then China itself (Hoover refused to issue sanctions)
vi)Interwar diplomacy of international voluntary cooperation and refusal to actively commit itself a failure; nation could now adopt internationalism or become even more nationalistic + isolated would try measures of both
2)Isolationism and Internationalism
a)Depression Diplomacy
i)Early Roosevelt admin foreign policy concerned mainly w/ pressing economic issues- sought to differ from Hoover by solving war debts + adopting gold standard. However, 1933 World Economic Conference accomplished little
ii)FDR forbid continuation of circular loan system, did little to stabilize international currencies; did adopt Reciprocal trade Agreement Act of 1934 to advance principles of free trade
b)American and the Soviet Union
i)FDR agreed to recognize Soviet Union in 1933 in hopes of increasing trade btwn nations (not b/c of lessening of hatred toward Communism)
c)The Good Neighbor Policy
i)“Good Neighbor Policy” toward Latin America focused on trade reciprocity (free trade);1933 Inter-American Conference administration officially pledged to not intervene in affairs of Latin nations. Closer economic ties emerged
d)The Rise of Isolationism
i)Geneva Conference on disarmament disbanded and Japan withdrew from 1921 Washington Conference; agreements of 1920s collapsed during 1930s
ii)Many Americans supported isolationism b/c internationalism of League of Nations failed to restrain Japanese Asian aggression, belief US business interests had led to WW I involvement; FDR helpless to change tide
iii)Neutrality Acts of 1935, ’36, ’37 meant to prevent issues of WWI from allowing US entrance into new war- “neutral rights” of US citizens defined, “cash-and-carry” policy allowed only nonmilitary goods to be sold to warring countries who had to provide own transportation
iv)Military neutrality upheld after Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia and during Spain’s civil war btwn fascist Falangists + repub govt
v)Alarm over Japan’s 1937 new assaults into China (after 1931 Manchuria invasion) led FDR to question isolationism, delivered “Quarantine speech” saying aggressors should be prevented from spreading war; speech unpopular
e)The Failure of Munich
i)In 1936 Hitler moved army into demilitarized Rhineland, 1938 invaded Austria to create union (anschluss) + demanded Czechoslovakia cede Sudetenland to increase lands for Germans to live (lebensraum); 1938 Munich Conference GB + France appeased Hitler for promise would be last expansion
ii)1939 “appeasement” collapsed w/ German invasion of whole Czechoslovakia and then Poland- GB + France honored defense agreement w/ Poland, in September declared war against Germany
3)From Neutrality to Intervention
a)Neutrality Tested
i)Most Americans supported Allies, FDR wanted to grant assistance by allowing arms sales to belligerents using “cash-and-carry” policy
ii)Quiet “phony war” period shattered by spring 1940 German blitzkrieg invasion of W. Eur, by June France had fallen + GB retreated at Dunkirk
iii)Roosevelt increased aid to Allies + monies for US self-defense, “scraped bottom of the barrel” to give GB’s Churchill war materials
iv)FDR able to take steps b/c public opinion shift after fall of France Germany now seen as threat to US by majority; debate still btwn “interventionists” who wanted increased US war involvement and “isolationist” America First Committee supported by many Repubs
b)The Third-Term Campaign
i)Roosevelt sought 3rd term in 1940 presidential election; Repubs nominated Wendell Willkie. Roosevelt won election w/ heavy measure of support
c)Neutrality Abandoned
i)After election Roosevelt changed US war role-- cash-short GB extended “lend-lease” agreement that allowed sale but also lending of armaments, began ensuring shipments reached GB by Navy patrolling Atlantic for subs
ii)After Germany broke 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact by invading the USSR, US extended “lend-lease” to Russians; Nazi subs began attacking US ships, Congress voted to allow arming of merchants + US attacks on subs
iii)1941 Churchill and Roosevelt released Atlantic Charter tying two nations together to war aims to destroy “Nazi tyranny”
d)The Road to Pearl Harbor
i)1940 Japan signed Tripartite Pact allying itself w/ Germany and Italy; in spite of Roosevelt denouncing Japanese aggression in 1941 it invaded Indochina
ii)US froze Jap assets + placed trade embargo preventing Japan from buying impt supplies (including oil). Tokyo attempted to negotiate w/ US to continue flow of supplies, but Jap PM Konoye forced out of office by Gen Hideki Tojo
iii)Tojo govt refused to recognize US calls to guarantee Chinese territorial rights so negotiations broke down, by November war imminent; on December 7, 1941 Jap aircraft carriers attacked US Pacific Navy HQ at Pearl Harbor
iv)US lost 8 battleships, 2,000 soldiers dead, US Pacific forces weakened; resulted in unifying American ppl into commitment to war
v)December 8, 1941 US declared war on Japan; December 11 Germany and Italy declared war on US, likewise same say us declared war on them
1)War on Two Fronts
a)Containing the Japanese
i)After Pearl Harbor US forces surrendered in the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island; to turn tide US lead 2 offensives- Gen Douglas MacArthur’s attacks from the south, and Admiral Chester Nimitz attacked from HI to the west
ii)May 1942 Battle of Coral Sea weakened Jap navy; more important Battle of Midway Island June 1942 regained US central Pacific control
iii)Mid-1943 after fighting in Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal) US turned tide
b)Holding Off the Germans
i)US military plans in Europe influenced by Soviet Union and GB; FDR decided to delay invasion into France in favor of October 1942 counter-offensive in N. Africa against Nazi Gen Erwin Rommel; by May 1943 Gen George Patton and British Gen Montgomery had driven Germans from Africa
ii)Soviet Red Army held off immense German 1942-1943 winter offensive at Stalingrad, Hitler’s forces exhausted and forced to abandon eastern advance
iii)July 1943 US agreed to British plan to invade Sicily, Mussolini govt collapsed but German reinforcements prevented capture of Rome until June 1944; slow, costly Italy campaign delayed French channel invasion Soviets had called for
c)America and the Holocaust
i)By 1942 news of Holocaust (Nazi campaign to exterminate European Jews) prompting public cries to end killing, but US govt resisted calls for military aid + officials at the State Dept deliberately refused to let Jews enter US
2)The American People In Wartime
a)Prosperity
i)WWII ended Great Depression problems of unemployment, deflation, production b/c of wartime economic expansion + massive govt spending (federal budget grew from 1939 $9 billion to 1945 $100 billion)
b)The War and the West
i)West shared disproportionally in massive govt capital investments;
ii)Businessman Henry Kaiser steered federal funds to make Pacific Coast major industrial center for shipbuilding, aircraft; launching stage for Japanese war
c)Labor and the War
i)Labor shortage caused by military recruitment; unemployed from Depression worked, but also women + other previously unused groups entered workforce
ii)Union membership increased; new govt limits on wage increases +“no-strike” promise, in return govt allowed all new workers to automatically join unions
iii)Govt+ public sought to reduce inflation + guarantee production w/o disruption
d)Stabilizing Boom
i)1942 Congress passed Anti-Inflation Act which allowed Pres to freeze prices and wages, set rations; enforced by the Office of Price Administration
ii)Govt spent 2X more $ btwn 1941-1945 than it had during whole existence; raised $ thru bond sales, Revenue Act of 1942 created new high tax brackets
e)Mobilizing Production
i)1942 War Production Board created to organize mobilization effort but was largely unable to direct military purchases + include small businesses; program later replaced by White House Office of War Mobilization
ii)Nevertheless, US economy met all war needs; new factories were built, entire rubber industry created. By 1944 output 2X that of all Axis nations combined
f)Wartime Science and Technology
i)Govt stimulated new military technologies by funneling massive funds to National Defense Research Committee
ii)Originally Germany (w/ sophisticated tanks + submarines) and Japan (w/ strong naval-air power) technologically ahead of Allies; US, however, had experience w/ mass production in auto industry and was able to convert many of these plants to produce armaments
iii)Allied advances in radar + sonar beyond Axis capabilities helped limit effectiveness of U-Boats in Atlantic; Allies developed more effective anti-aircraft tech and produced large amount of powerful 4-engine aircraft (British Lancaster + US B17) able to attack military forces + industrial centers
iv)Greatest Allied advantage found in intelligence gathering—British Ultra project able to break German “Enigma” code and intercept info on enemy movements; American Magic operation broke Japanese “Purple” code
g)African-Americans and the War
i)Blacks wanted to use war as means of improving own conditions. A Philip Roth (head of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters) wanted all companies w/ war contracts to integrate work force
ii)Fearing black workers strike, FDR created Fair Employment Practices Commission to investigate labor discrimination. Later, Congress of Racial equality combated discrimination in society at large using popular resistance
iii)War saw migration of blacks from rural South to industrial cities of North in greater numbers than those found of first Great Migration during WWI
h)Native Americans and the War
i)Some Native Americans served in military (some as famous “Code Talkers”), many others left reservations seeking work in war industries
i)Mexican-American War Workers
i)War labor shortages lead to large Mex immigration of braceros (contract laborers); ethnic tensions from growing immigrant neighborhoods w/ existing white communities led to “Zoot-Suit Riots” in Los Angeles in 1943
j)Women and Children of War
i)Large number of women entered roles they were previously excluded from
ii)Many women worked in factories to replace men who had entered military, but some inequality existed in what jobs they could hold in factories
iii)Most women took service-sector jobs in growing govt bureaucracies; limited others worked in “male” heavy-industry (famous Rosie the Riveter image)
iv)Over 1/3 of teenagers took jobs during war; crime rate also rose during war
k)Wartime Life and Culture
i)Increased prosperity from war led to marked rise in theater and movie attendance, magazine and news circulation, hotel, casino, dance hall visits
ii)War effort largely seen as means of protecting material comfort + consumer choice of “home”; visions of home and future women romanticized by troops
l)The Internment of Japanese Americans
i)WWII did not largely see restrictions of civil liberties + growth of hatred toward fringe groups as during WWI; little ethnic tension in part due to propaganda attacking enemy’s political system but not people
ii)Glaring exception in treatment of Japanese Americans who were painted as scheming + cruel (re-enforced by Pearl Harbor); white Eur groups largely accepted by now, but assimilated Japs faced prejudice + viewed as “foreign”
iii)Conspiracy theories of Jap-Americans aiding in Pearl Harbor attacks led govt + military to see them as a threat; 1942 Roosevelt created War Relocation Authority to move Japanese citizens to “relocation camps” for monitoring
iv)Starting 1943 condition began to improve as some Japs allowed to got o college or take jobs on East Coast; although 1944 Supreme Court case Korematsu v U.S. ruled relocation constitutional, by that time most of internees had been allowed to leave camps
m)Chinese Americans and the War
i)US war alliance w/ China helped Chinese Americans advance legal + social position—1943 Congress repealed Chinese Exclusion acts
ii)Many Chinese took jobs in industry or were drafted into the military
n)The Retreat from Reform
i)FDR wanted to shift priority from reform to war effort and victory
ii)With massive unemployment no longer an issue + Republican gains, Congress dismantled relief programs and other New Deal programs
iii)In 1944 Pres election Repubs nominated Thomas Dewey; Dems re-nominated Roosevelt but w/ new, less liberal VP candidate Harry Truman
iv)Despite deteriorating health Roosevelt was popularly elected; Dems maintained control of both Houses of Congress
3)The Defeat of the Axis
a)The Liberation of France
i)By 1944 devastating Allied strategic bombing against German industry at Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin reduced production + complicated transport; German Luftwaffe forced to retreat to bases w/in Germany itself, weakened it
ii)After 2 year buildup in England Supreme Allied Commander Gen Dwight Eisenhower ordered invasion across English Channel into Normandy, France on “D-Day” (June 6, 1944); Allies drove Germans from the coast, by September forced them to retreat from France, Belgium
iii)In December Germany counter-attacked during Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest, but soon repelled; with Soviet advances on Eastern front, Allies began moving into Germany across Rhine
iv)April 30 Hitler commits suicide; May 8, 1945 full surrender + “V-E” Day
b)The Pacific Offensive
i)Thru 1944 American navy crippling Japanese shipping and economy in Pacific; on mainland Asia Japan attacking thru Chinese interior trying to cutoff Gen Stilwell’s Burma Road for supplies
ii)June 1944 Americans captured Mariana Islands, in September Battle of Leyte Gulf Japanese navy decimated by US sinking of its aircraft carriers; in next few months Japanese fought desperate battles of resistance in Feb at Iwo Jima, in June at Okinawa (used Kamikaze suicide bombers throughout)
iii)Many feared bloody island battles would ensue w/ invasion of Japanese mainland, but by 1945 Japanese weakened by firebombing in Tokyo, shelling of industrial centers; moderates in govt trying to sue peace against will of military leaders wanting to continue fight
c)The Manhattan Project
i)After news in 1939 that Nazis pursuing atomic bomb, US and +GB began race to develop one before them; work based on discovery of uranium radioactivity by Enrico Fermi 1930s, Einstein’s theory of relativity
ii)Army took over control of research and poured billions of $ into Manhattan Project which gathered scientists to create nuclear chain reactions w/ a bomb
iii)On July 16 1945 the plutonium bomb Trinity, created by scientist Robert Oppenheimer at the Los Alamos Laboratory, successfully tested
d)Atomic Warfare
i)Pres Truman issues ultimatum to Japanese for “unconditional surrender” by Aug 3rd or face annihilation; after Jap moderates unable to convince military leaders to accept Truman ordered use of atomic weapon
ii)Some argue atomic weapon unnecessary b/c in time Japs would have sued for peace; others argue only atomic bomb could convince radical military leaders that surrender necessary. Truman saw weapon as military device that could end war quickly, but some say he used it to intimidate Stalin and Soviets
iii)August 6, 1945 bomber Enola Gay dropped atomic weapon on Japanese city Hiroshima, killing 80,000 civilians; because Jap govt didn’t respond, on August 8 second atomic bomb dropped on city of Nagasaki killing 100,000
iv)By Aug 14 emperor agreed to surrender; September 2, 1945 Japan signed articles of surrender (“V-J Day”) marking end of WWII
v)14 million combatants had died during war, even more civilians; threat of nuclear war loomed between two emerging super-powers in US and Soviet Union
1)Origins of the Cold War
a)Sources of Soviet-American Tensions
i)Rivalry emerged b/c of difft visions of postwar world: US foresaw world where nations shed military alliances and used democratic international bodies as mediators; Soviet Union sought to control areas of strategic influence
b)Wartime Diplomacy
i)Tensions began in 1943 b/c of Allied refusal to open second front w/ French invasion, dispute over governance of Poland unresolved at Tehran Conference
c)Yalta
i)Meeting of Big Three at Yalta in 1945 led to plan to create United Nations (w/ General Asembly and Security Council w/ permanent members)
ii)Disagreement existed over future of Polish govt (independent + democratic vs Communist); US wanted to German reconstruction, Stalin wanted heavy reparations- finally agreed to commission and each Ally given German “zone”
2)The Collapse of the Peace
a)The Failure of Potsdam
i)After Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, new Pres Truman decided US needed to “Get Tough” w Soviets to honor Yalta accords
ii)Potsdam Conference in July ended w/ Stalin receiving increased land w/ new Polish-German border, US refusing to allow German reparations from Allied zones but US recognizing new communist Polish govt under Soviet influence
b)The China Problem
i)US had vision of open world “policed” by major powers; vision troubled by unpopular + corrupt Chinese govt under Chiang Kai-shek (supported by US aid during civil war) who battled communists under Mao Zedong
ii)B/c Kai-shek govt sure to collapse, US sought to create new, Pro-West Japan by encouraging industrial development, lift trade restrictions
c)The Containment Doctrine
i)US no longer sought “open” world but rather “containment” of Soviet expansion; new Truman Doctrine sought aid for those forces in Turkey + Greece opposing take-over of Communist forces under Soviet influence
d)The Marshall Plan
i)Sec of State George Marshall 1947 plan to provide aid to all Eur nations (for humanitarian reasons, to rebuild to create markets for US goods, and to strengthen Pro-US govts against communists); 1948 created the Economic Cooperation Administration to channel billions of $ to aid economic revival
e)Mobilization at Home
i)US maintained wartime military levels, established Atomic Energy Commission to continue nuclear research
ii)National Security Act of 1947 restructured military by creating Department of Defense to combine all armed services, create National Security Council in White House and Central Intelligence Agency to collect information
f)The Road to NATO
i)Truman merged German “Western zones” into the West German republic; Stalin responded by blockading Western Berlin, Truman responded w/ airlift to re-supply inhabitants; Federal Republic became govt of west Germany, Democratic Republic of east
ii)To strengthen military position US and Western Eur naions1949 created North Atlantic Treaty Organization as alliance to protect all members against threat of Soviet invasion (communists 1955 formed similar Warsaw Pact)
g)Reevaluating Cold War Policy
i)1949 saw Soviet Union explode atomic weapon and collapse of Nationalists in China to Mao’s Communists
ii)To reevaluate foreign policy, National Security Council released report NSC-68 that held US should lead noncommunist world and oppose communist expansion everywhere it existed, also expand US military power dramatically
3)American Society and Politics After the War
a)The Problems of Reconversion
i)After end of war Truman attempted to quickly return nation to normal economic conditions, but problems ensued
ii)No economic collapse b/c of increase in spending on consumer goods from savings, Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) provided education + economic aid to returning soldiers that further increased spending
iii)Problems arose w/ high inflation, union strikes in RR + mining industries, and displacement of some minorities and women b/c of returning soldiers to labor
b)The Fair Deal Rejected
i)After Jap surrender Truman proposed “Fair Deal” to enact liberal reforms—included raising minimum wage, enacting Fair Employment Practices Act, expanding Social Security, and creating nation health insurance plan
ii)Fair Deal opposed by Repubs who gained majority in both Houses of Congress in 1946 elections; Repubs sought to reduce govt spending and economic controls, cut taxes for wealthy, refused to raise wages
iii)Repubs wanted to decrease powers unions gained in 1935 Wagner Act by passing 1947 Labor-Management Relations Act of (Taft-Hartley Act)- made “closed-shop” illegal; limited efforts help those not yet organized (minorities)
c)The Election of 1948
i)Truman sought to make re-election about liberal reforms but electorate saw him as weak; Southern Dems (Dixiecrats) + progressives refused full support
ii)Repubs nominated Thomas Dewey and seemed to be in strong position to win, but intense campaigning by Truman and his platform to reduce inflation + help common man allowed him to win Pres; Dems also won both Houses of C
d)The Fair Deal Revivied
i)New Dem Congress allowed for minimum wage increase + Social Security expansion, but hostile to Fair Deal programs expanding education aid, national healthcare, and civil rights
ii)Truman did end govt hiring discrimination, desegregated armed forces; Supreme Court inSkelley v. Kraemer rules community “covenants” preventing movement of blacks unenforceable by courts
e)The Nuclear Age
i)Nuclear weapons viewed w/ fear b/c of threat from Soviet Union (expressed in pop culture,film noir, and govt preparations for nuclear attack), but public also awed by technological potential of nuclear power (Dreams of prosperity and unlimited + cheap electricity)
4)The Korean War
a)The Divided Peninsula
i)Korea divided at 38th Parallel into Communist North and Southern government of capitalist Syngman Rhee (supported by US)
ii)Nationalists in North invaded S in 1950 in effort to reunite countries; US won UN resolution calling for support of S. Korea armies (Russia unable to veto b/c boycotting Security Council at time)—“containment” but also “liberation”
b)From Invasion to Stalemante
i)Gen MacArthur (head of UN forces) able to advance far into North, but new communist Chinese govt feared American forces + entered conflict late 1950
ii)UN armies force dto retreat to 38th parallel long stalemate ensued until 1953
iii)Truman wanted peace andnot new world war w/ China; Gen MacArthur publicly opposed peace effort and was relieved of command by Pres in 1951
c)Limited Mobilization
i)War led to only limited mobilization: Truman created Office of Defense Mobilization to combat rising inflation; govt seized RRs + steel mills during union strikes, increased govt spending stimulated economy
ii)Inability of US to quickly end “small” war led to growth of fears of growth of communist at home
5)The Crusade Against Subversion
a)HUAC and Alger Hiss
i)“Red Scare” prompted by fear of Stalin, Communist growth (“loss” of China, Korean frustrations) many sought to blame US communist conspiracy
ii)Repubs soguht to use anticommunist feeligns to win support against Dems; Congress created House Un-American Activities Committee 1947 to investigate communist subversion
iii)Investigation into former State Dept official Alger Hiss revaled some complicity w/ communists increased fear of communist infiltrations
b)The Federal Loyalty Program and the Rosenberg Case
i)Truman began 1947 program to determine “loyalty” of fed employees; FBI monitored radicals; 1950 Congress passed McCarran Interal Secuity Act forcing communist groups to register w/ government
ii)Explosion of atomic bomb by Soviets led to famous Rosenberg tiral to find out how Russia had learned of technology so quickly; Rosenbergs executed
iii)HUAC, Rosenberg trial, “Loyalty” program, Hiss ordeal, McCarran Act all lead to national anticommunist hysteria at national, state, and local level
c)McCarthyism
i)Wisconsin Sen Joseph McCarthy 1951 began leveling charges of communist agents in State Dept and other agencies; his subcommittee was at the fore of anticommunist hysteria + partisan politics
d)The Republican Revival
i)Korean stalemate + anticommunist sentiments led to Dem disappointments
ii)Dem nominated Adlai Stevenson (viewed as liberal and weak on Communism); Repubs nominated popular Gen Dwight Eisenhower and VP Richard Nixon (Eisenhower talked of Korean peace, Nixon of communist subversion)
iii)Eisenhower won election by huge margin & Republicans gained control of both Houses of Congress
Sources of Economic Growth
·By 1949, despite the continuing problems of postwar reconversion, an
economic expansion had begun that would continue with only
brief interruptions for almost twenty years
· The causes of this growth varied
1. Government spending continued to stimulate growth
through public funding of schools, housing, veteran’s benefits,
welfare, and the $100 billion interstate highway program
·Technological progress also contributed to the boom
1. Technological progress also contributed to the boom
a. There was the development of electronic
computers
b. The first modern computer emerged as a result of
efforts during WWII to decipher enemy codes
c. Not until the 1980s did most Americans come into
direct and regular contact with computers, but the new
machines were having a substantial effect on the
economy long before that
·The national birth rate reversed a long pattern of decline with the socalled
baby boom
1. The baby boom meant increased consumer demand and
expanding economic growth
·The rapid expansion of suburbs helped stimulate growth in several
important sectors of the economy
·Because of this unprecedented growth, the economy grew nearly ten
times as fast as the population in their thirty years after the war
1. The American people had achieved the highest standard
of living of any society in the history of the world
The Rise of the Modern West
· No region of the country experience more dramatic changes as a
result of the new economic growth than the American West
·By the 1960s some parts of the West were among the most important
industrial and cultural centers of the nation in their own right
·As during WWII much of the growth of the West was a result of federal
spending and investment 1. Dams, power stations, highways,
and other infrastructure projects
·The enormous increase in automobile use after WWII gave a large
stimulus to the petroleum industry and contributed to the rapid
growth of oil fields in Texas and Colorado
·State governments in the West invested heavily in their universities
·Climate also contributed
The New Economics
·The exciting discovery of the power of the American economic system
was a major cause of the confident, even arrogant tone of much
American political life in the 1950s
1. There was the belief that Keynesian economics made it
possible for government to regulate and stabilize the
economy without intruding directly into the private sector
·By the mid-1950s, Keynesian theory was rapidly becoming a
fundamental article of faith
1. Armed with these fiscal and monetary tools, many
economists now believed, it was possible for the government to
maintain a permanent prosperity
·If any doubters remained, there was ample evidence to dispel their
misgivings during the era
·Accompanying the belief in the possibility of permanent economic
stability was the equally exhilarating belief in permanent
economic growth by the mid-1950s, reformers concerned about
economic deprivation were arguing that the solution lay in
increased production
·The Keynesians never managed to remake federal economic policy
entirely to their liking
1. Still, the new economics gave many Americans a
confidence in their ability to solve economic problems that
previous generations had never developed
Captial and Labor
·A relatively small number or large-scale organizations controlled an
enormous proportion oft eh nation’s economic activity
·A similar consolidation was occurring in the agricultural economy
·Corporations enjoying booming growth were reluctant to allow strikes
to interfere with their operations
·By the early 1950s large labor unions had developed a new kind of
relationship with employers
1. “Postwar Contract”
·Workers in steel, automobiles, and other large unionized industries
were receiving generous increases in wages and benefits
1. In return the unions tacitly agreed to refrain from raising
other issues
·The contract served the corporations and the union leadership well
·Many rank-and-file workers resented the abandonment of efforts to
give them more control over the conditions of their labor
·The economic successes of the 1950s helped pave the way for a
reunification of the labor movement
1. 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations ended their 20 year rivalry
and merged to create the AFL- CIO
·But success also bread stagnation and corruption in some union
bureaucracies
·While the labor movement enjoyed significant success in winning
better wages and benefits for workers already organized in
strong unions, the majority of laborers who were as yet
unorganized made fewer advances
1. New obstacles to organization
a. Taft-Hartley Act and the state right-to-work laws
·In the American South impediments to unionization were enormous
1. Antiunion sentiment was so powerful in the South that
almost all organizing drives encountered crushing and usually
fatal resistance
The Explosion of Science and Technology
Medical Breakthroughs
·The development of antibiotics had its origins=2 0in the discoveries of
Louis Pasteur and Jules-Francois Joubert.
·Working in France in the 1870s they produced the first conclusive
evidence that virulent bacterial infections could be defeated by
other, more ordinary bacteria.
·In 1920, in the meantime, Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered
the antibacterial properties of an organism that he named
penicillin.
·There was also dramatic progress in immunization-the development of
vaccines that can protect humans from contracting both
bacterial and viral diseases.
·In 1954, the American scientist Jonas Salk introduced an effective
vaccine against the disease that had killed and crippled
thousands of children and adults.
·Average life expectancy in that same period rose by five years, to 71.
Pesticides
·The most famous pesticides was dichlorodiphenyl-dichloromethane
[DDT] a compound discovered in 1939 by Paul Muller.
Postwar Electronic Research
·Researchers in the 1940s produced the first commercially viable
televisions and created a technology that made it possible to
broadcast programming over large areas.
·In 1948 bell Labs, the research arm of AT&T, produced=2 0the first
transistor, a solid-state device capable of amplying electrical
signals, which was much smaller and more efficient than the
cumbersome vacuum tubes that had powered most electronic
equipment in the past.
·Integrated circuits combined a number of once-separate electronic
elements and embedded them into a single, microscopically
small device.
Postwar Computer Technology
·In the 1950s computers began to perform commercial functions for
the first time, as data-processing devices used by businesses and
other organizations.
·The first significant computer of the 1950s was the Universal
Automatic Computer, which was developed initially for the U.S
Bureau of the Census by the Remington Rand company.
Bombs, Rockets, and Missles
·In 1952, the U.S successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb.
·The development of the hydrogen bomb gave considerable impetus to
a stalled scientific project in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The Space Program
·The Shock of Sputnik , th e united states had yet perform any similar
feats , and the American government (and much of American
society ) reacted to the announcement with alarm , as if the
Soviet achievement was also a massive American failure .
·The centerpiece of space exploration , however . soon became the
manned space program , established in 1958 through the
creation of a new agency , the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA ) and through the selection of the first
American space pilots , or “astronauts”
· They quickly became the nation’s most revered heroes .
· The Apollo Program , Mercury and Gemini were followed by the Apollo
program , whose purpose was to land men on the moon .
· July 20 , 1969 , Neil Armstrong , Edwin Aldrin , and Michael Collins
successfully traveled in a space capsule into orbit around the
moon .
· Armstrong and Aldrin , and Michael then detached a smaller craft from
the capsule , landed on the surface of the moon , and became
the first men to walk on a body other than earth .
People of Plenty
The Consumer Culture
· At the center of middle-class culture in the 1950s was a growing
absorption with consumer goods
· It was a result of:
1. Increased prosperity
2. Increasing variety and availability of products
3. Advertiser’s adeptness in creating a demand for those
product
4. A growth of consumer credit
To a striking degree, the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s was
consumer driven
· Because consumer goods were so often marketed nationally, the
1950s were notable for the rapid spread of creation national
consumer crazes
The Suburban Nation
· By 1960 a third of the nation’s population was living in suburbs
· The most famous of the postwar suburban developers, William Levitt,
came to symbolize the new suburban growth with his use of
mass-production techniques to construct a large housing
development on Long Island, NY
1. They helped to meet an enormous demand for housing
that had been growing for more than a decade
· Many Americans wanted to move to the suburbs
1. One reason was the enormous importance postwar
Americans place on family life after five years of war in which
families had often been separated or otherwise disrupted
2. They provided privacy
3. A place to raise a large family
4. They provided security from the noise and dangers of
urban living
5. They offered space for the new consumer goods
6. Suburban life also helped provide a sense of community
· Suburban neighborhoods
1. They were not uniform
The Suburban Family
· For professional men, suburban life generally meant a rigid division
between their working and personal worlds
· For many middle-class married women, it meant an increase isolation
from the workplace
· One of the most influential books in postwar American life was a
famous guide to child rearing
1. Baby and Child Care
a. Said that the needs of the child come before
everything else
b. Women who could afford not to work faced heavy
pressures to remain in the home and concentrate on
raising their children
c. Yet by 1960, nearly a third of all married women
were in the paid workforce
· The increasing numbers of women in the workplace laid the
groundwork for demands for equal treatment by employers that
became and important part of the feminist crusades of the 1960s
and 1970s
The Birth of Television
· Television is perhaps the most powerful medium of mass
communication in history
· The television industry emerged directly out of the radio industry
· Like radio, the television business was driven by advertising
· The impact of television on American life was rapid, pervasive, and
profound
1. Television entertainment programming replace movies
and radio as the principal source of diversion for American
families
· Much of the programming of the 1950s and early 1960s created a
common image of American life
1. An image that was predominately white, middle-class,
and suburban
2. Programming also reinforced the concept of gender roles
3. Television inadvertently created conditions that could
accentuate social conflict
Travel, Outdoor Recreation, and Environmentalism
·
Organized Society and Its Detractors
· Large-scale organizations and bureaucracies increased their influence
over American life in the postwar era
·More and more Americans were becoming convinced that the key to a
successful future lay in acquiring the specialized training and
skills necessary for work in large organizations
1. The National Defense Education Act of 1958
a. Provided federal funding for development of
programs in those areas of science, mathematics, and
foreign languages
2. As in earlier eras, many Americans reacted to these
developments with ambivalence, even hostility
·Novelists expressed misgivings in their work about the enormity and
impersonality of modern society
The Beats and the Restless Culture of Youth
·The most derisive critics of bureaucracy, and of middle-class society
in general, were a group of young poets, writers, and artists
generally known as the “beats” – beatniks
·The beats were the most visible evidence of a widespread
restlessness among young Americans in the 1950s
·In part, that restlessness was a result of prosperity itself
1. Tremendous public attention was directed at the
phenomenon of “juvenile delinquency” and in both politics and
popular culture there were dire warnings about the growing
criminality of American youth
·Also disturbing to many older Americans was the style of youth
culture
1. The culture of alienation that the beats so vividly
represented had counterparts even in ordinary middle-class
behavior
a. Teenage rebelliousness toward parents, youthful
fascination with fast cars and motorcycles, and an
increasing visibility of teenage sex, assisted by the
greater availability of birth-control devices and the
spreading automobile culture that came to dominated the social
lives of teenagers in much of the nation
2. The popularity of James Dean was a particularly vivid
sign of this aspect of youth culture in the 1950s
a. Dean became an icon of the unfocused
rebelliousness of American youth in his time
Rock 'n' Roll
·One of the most powerful signs of the restiveness of American youth
was the enormous popularity of rock ‘n’ roll and of the greatest
early rock star
1. Elvis Presley
a. Presley became a symbol of a youthful
determination to push at the borders of the
conventional and acceptable
b. Presley’s music, like that of most early white rock
musicians, drew heavily from black rhythm and blues
traditions
c. Rock also drew from country western music, gospel
music, even from jazz
·The rise of such white rock musicians as Presley was a result in part of
the limited willingness of white audience to accept black
musicians
·The rapid rise and enormous popularity of rock owed a great deal to
innovations in radio and television programming
1. Early in the 1950s, a new breed of radio announcers
began to create programming aimed specifically at young fans
of rock music
a. Disk Jockeys
·Radio and television were important to the recording industry because
they encouraged the sale of records
1. Also important were jukeboxes
·Rock music began in the 1950s to do what jazz and swing had done in
the 1920s – 40s
1. To define both youth culture as a whole and the
experience of a generation
The "Other America"
On the Margins of the Affluent Society
·In 1962, The Other America was published
a. Chronicles of the continuing existence of poverty in
America
·The great economic expansion of the postwar years reduced poverty
dramatically but did not eliminate it
·Most of the poor experience poverty intermittently and temporarily
·This poverty was a poverty that the growing prosperity of the postwar
era seemed to affect hardly at all
Rural Poverty
·Among those on the margins of the affluent society were many rural
Americans
·Not all farmers were poor
1. But the agrarian economy did produce substantial
numbers of genuinely impoverished people
·Migrant farm workers and coal miners fell to the same kind of poverty
The Inner Cities
·As white families moved from cities to suburbs in vast numbers, more
and more inner-city neighborhoods became vast repositories for
the poor
1. Ghettos from which there was no easy escape
a. African Americans helped this growth
·Similar migrations from Mexico and Puerto Rico expanded poor
Hispanic barrios in many American cities at the same time
·For many years, the principal policy response to the poverty of inner
cities was “urban renewal”
1. The effort to tear down buildings in the poorest and
most degraded areas
a. In some cases, urban renewal provided new public
housing for poor city residents
b. In many cases, urban renewal projects replaced
“slums” with middle and upper-income housing, office
towers, or commercial buildings
·One result of inner-city poverty was a rising rate of juvenile crime
The Rise of the Civil Rights Movement
The Brown Decision and "Massive Resistance"
·On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court announced its decision in the
case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
1. Ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional
·The Brown decision was the culmination of many decades of effort by
black opponents of segregation
·The Topeka suit involved the case of an African-American girl who had
to travel several miles to a segregated public school every day
even though she lived virtually next door to a white elementary
school
1. The Court concluded that school segregation inflicted
unacceptable damage on those it affected
·The following year, the Court issued another decision to provide rules
for implementing the 1954 order
1. It ruled that communities must work to desegregate
their schools “with all deliberate speed,” but it set no
timetable and left specific decisions up to lower courts
·Strong local opposition produced long delays and bitter conflicts
1. More than 100 southern members of Congress signed a
“manifesto” in 1956 denouncing the Brown decision and
urging their constituents to defy it
·Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education (1958)
1. Refused to declare “pupil placement laws”, placing a
student in a school based on academic or social behaviors,
unconstitutional
·The Brown decision, far from ending segregation, had launched a
prolonged battle between federal authority and state and local
governments, and between those who believed in racial equality
and those who did not
·In 1957, federal courts had ordered the desegregation of Central High
School in Little Rick, Arkansas
1. An angry white mob tried to prevent implementation of
the order by blockading the entrances to the school
2. President Eisenhower responded by federalizing the
National Guard and sending troops to Little Rock to restore
order and ensure that the court orders would be obeyed
The Expanding Movement
·The Brown decision helped spark a growing number of popular
challenges to segregation in the South
·December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama,
when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a
white passenger
1. The arrest of this admired woman produced outrage in
the city’s African-American community and helped local
leaders organize a successful boycott of the bus system to
demand an end to segregated seating
2. The bus boycott put economic pressure not only on the
bus company but on many Montgomery merchants
a. The bus boycotters found it difficult to get to
downtown stores and tended to shop instead in their own
neighborhoods
·A Supreme Court decision in 1956 declared segregation in public
transportation to be illegal
·More important than the immediate victories of the Montgomery
boycott was its success in establishing a new form of racial
protest and in elevating to prominence a new figure in the
movement for civil rights
1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
a. King’s approach to black protest was based on the
doctrine of nonviolence
b. He urged African Americans to engage in peaceful
demonstrations
2. The popular movement he came to represent soon
spread throughout the South and throughout the country
·One important color line had been breached as early as 1947, when
the Brooklyn Dodgers signed the great Jackie Robinson as the
first African American to play Major League Baseball
·President Eisenhower signed a civil rights act in 1957
1. Providing federal protection for blacks who wished to
register to vote
Cause of the Civil Rights Movement
·Several factors contributed to the rise of African-American protest in
these years
1. Millions of black men and women had served in the
military or worked in war plants during the war and had
derived from the experience a broader view of the world
and their place in it
2. Another factor was the growth of an urban black middle
class
3. Television and other forms of popular culture were
another factor in the rising consciousness of racism among
blacks
·Other forces were at work mobilizing many white Americans to
support the movement once it began
1. The Cold War
2. Political mobilization of northern blacks
3. Labor unions with substantial black memberships
· By the early 1960s, this movement had made it one of the most
powerful forces in America
Eisenhower Republicanism
"What was Good for...General Motors"
· The first Republican administration in 20 years was staffed mostly
with men drawn from the same quarter as those who had staffed
Republican administrations in the 1920s
1. The business community
· Many of the nation's leading businessmen and financiers ha
reconciled themselves to at least the broad outlines of the
Keynesian welfare state the New Deal had launched and had
come to see it as something that actually benefited them
· To his cabinet, Eisenhower appointed wealthy corporate lawyers and
business executives
· Eisenhower’s leadership style helped enhance the power of his
cabinet officers and others
· Eisenhower’s consistent inclination was to limit federal activities and
encourage private enterprise
The Survival of the Welfare State
· The president took few new initiatives in domestic policy
· Perhaps the most significant legislative accomplishment of the
Eisenhower administration was the Federal Highway Act of 1956
1. Authorized $25 billion for a ten-year effort to construct
over 40,000 miles of interstate highways
2. The program was to be funded through a highway “trust
fund” whose revenues would come from new taxes on the
purchase of fuel, automobiles, trucks, and tires
· In 1956, Eisenhower ran for a second term
1. Republicans – Adlai Stevenson
2. Eisenhower won
· Democrats still held power over Congress
The Decline of McCarthyism
· In its first years in office the Eisenhower administration did little to
discourage the anticommunist furor that had gripped the nation
· Among the most celebrated controversies of the new administration’s
first year was the case of J. Robert Oppenheimer
1. He opposed the building of the Hydrogen Bomb
2. In 1953, the FBI distributed a dossier within the
administration detailing Oppenheimer’s prewar association
with various left-wing groups
a. In 1953, the FBI distributed a dossier within the
administration detailing Oppenheimer’s prewar
association with various left-wing groups
· But by 1954, such policies were beginning to produce significant
opposition
1. The clearest signal of that change was the political
demise of Senator Joseph McCarthy
a. He overstepped his boundaries when he charged
Secretary of Army Robert Stevens
b. Army-McCarthy hearings
2. In December 1954, he was condemned for “conduct
unbecoming a senator”
Eisenhower, Dulles, and the Cold War
Dulles and "Massive Retaliation"
· Eisenhower’s secretary of state, and the dominant figure in the
nation’s foreign policy in the 1950s, was John Foster Dulles
· He entered office denouncing the containment policies of the Truman
years
1. Arguing that the United States should pursue an active
program of “liberation” which would lead to a “rollback” of
communism expansion
· “Massive Retaliation”
1. The United States would, he explained, respond to
communist threats to its allies not by using conventional forces
to local conflicts but by relying on “the deterrent of massive
retaliatory power” (nuclear weapons)
· By the end of the decade, the United States had become a party to
almost a dozen such treaties of mutual defense in NATO in all
areas of the world
France, America, and Vietnam
·
Cold War Crisis
·
Europe and the Soviet Union
· Although the problems of the Third World were moving slowly to the
center of American foreign policy, the direct relationship with the
Soviet Union and the effort to resist communist expansion in
Europe remained the principal concerns of the Eisenhower
administration
· In 1955, Eisenhower and other NATO leaders met with the Soviet
premier, Nikolai Bulganin, at a cordial summit conference in
Geneva
1. They could find no basis for agreement
· Relations between the Soviet Union and the West soured further in
1956 in response to the Hungarian Revolution
1. Hungarians were demanding democratic reforms
a. Soviets came in to crush the uprising
2. The suppression of the uprising convinced many
American leaders that Soviet policies had not softened as much
as the events of the previous two years had suggested
·The failure of conciliation brought renewed vigor to the Cold War and
greatly intensified the Soviet-American arms race
·The arms race not only increased tensions between the United States
and Russia
1. It increased tensions within each nation as well
The U-2 Crisis
·In this tense and fearful atmosphere, the Soviet Union raised new
challenges to the West in Berlin
·In November 1958, Nikita Khrushchev renewed his predecessors’
demands that NATO powers abandon the city
1. The United States and its allies refused
·Khrushchev suggested that he and Eisenhower discuss the issue
personally
1. The United States agreed
·Only days before Eisenhower was to leave for Moscow the Soviet
Union announced that it had shot down an American U-2, a spy
plane, over Russian territory
·By the spring of 1960, Khrushchev knew that no agreement was
possible on the Berlin issue
·The events of 1960 provided a somber backdrop for the end of the
Eisenhower administration
·He warned in his farewell address of 1961 of the “unwarranted
influence” of a vast “military-industrial complex”
1. His caution, in both domestic and international affairs,
stood in marked contrast to the attitudes of his successors, who
argued that the United States must act more boldly and
aggressively on behalf of its goals at home and abroad
Expanding the Liberal State
John Kennedy
·The campaign of 1960 produced two young candidates who claimed
to offer the nation active leadership.
·The Republican nomination went almost uncontested to Vice President
Richard Nixon, who promised moderate reform.
·John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the son of the wealthy powerful, and
highly controversial Joseph P. Kennedy, former American
ambassador to Britain.
·He premised his campaign, he said, “on the single assumption that
the American people are uneasy at the present drift in our
national course”.
·Kennedy had campaigned promising a set of domestic reforms more
ambitious than any since the New Deal, a program he described
as the “New Frontier”.
·Kennedy had traveled to Texas with his wife and Vice President Lyndon
Johnson for a series of=2 0political appearances.
·While the presidential motorcade rode slowly through the streets of
Dallas, shots rang out.
·He got shot in the throat and head, he was rushed to a hospital, where
minutes later he was pronounced dead.
·Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested for the crime later that day, and
then mysteriously murdered by a Dallas nightclub owner, Jack
Ruby, 2 days later as he was being moved from one jail to
another.
·In years later years many Americans came to believe that the Warren
Commission report had ignored evidence of a wider conspiracy
behind the murders.
Lyndon Johnson
·The Kennedy assassination was a national trauma-a defining event for
almost everyone old enough to be aware of it.
·Johnson was a native of the poor “hill country” of west Texas and had
risen to become majority leader of the U.S. Senate by dint of
extraordinary, even obsessive, effort and ambition.
·Between 1963 and 1966, he compiled the most impressive legislative
record of any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
·He created the “Great Society”.
·Record Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, any of
whose members had been swept into office=2 0only because of
the margin of Johnson’s victory, ensured that the president would
be able to fulfill many of his goals.
The Assault on Poverty
·The most important welfare program was Medicare: a program to
provide federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses.
·Its enactment in 1965 came at the end of a bitter, 20 year debate
between those who believed in the concept of national health
assistance and those who denounced it as “socialized medicine”.
·Medicare benefits available to all elderly Americans, regardless of
need.
·Medicare simply shifted responsibility for paying those fees from the
patient to the government.
·The centerpiece of this “war on poverty”, as Johnson called it, was the
Office of economic Opportunity, which created an array of new
educational, employment, housing, and health-care programs.
·The Community Action programs provided jobs for many poor people
and gave them valuable experience in administrative and
political work.
·The OEO spent nearly $3 billion during its first two years of existence,
and it helped reduce poverty in some areas.
Cities, Schools, and Immigration
·The Housing Act of 1961 offered $4.9 billion in federal grants to cities
for the preservation of open spaces, the development of mass
transit systems, and the subsidization of middle income housing.
·In 1966, Johnson established a new cabinet agency, the Department
of Housing and Urban Development.
·Johnson also inaugurated the Model Cites program, which offered
federal subsidies for urban redevelopment pilot programs.
·Johnson managed to circumvent both objections with the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and a series of subsequent
measures.
·Total federal expenditures for education and technical training rose
from $5 billion to $12 billion between 1964 and 1967.
·The Immigration Act of 1965 maintained a strict limit on the number
of newcomers admitted to the country each year (170,000), but
it eliminated the “national origins” system established in the
1920s, which gave preference to immigrants from northern
Europe over those from other parts of the world.
Legacies of the Great Society
·In 1964, Johnson managed to win passage of the $11.5 bill ion tax cut
that Kennedy had first proposed in 1962.
·The cut increased the federal deficit, but substantial economic growth
over the next several years made up for much of the revenue
initially lost.
·The high costs of the Great Society programs, the deficiencies and
failures of many of them, and the inability of the government to
find the revenues to pay for them contributed to a growing
disillusionment in later years with the idea of federal efforts to
solve social problems.
The Battle for the Racial Equality
Expanding Protests
·John Kennedy had long been vaguely sympathetic to the cause of
racial justice, but he was hardly a committed crusader.
·In February 1960, black college students in Greensboro, North
Carolina, staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch
counter, and in the following weeks, similar demonstrations
spread throughout the South, forcing many merchants to
integrate their facilities.
·The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, worked to keep the
spirit of resistance alive.
·In 1961, an interracial group of students, working with the Congress of
Racial Equality, began what t hey called “freedom rides”.
·Traveling by bus throughout the South, the freedom riders tried to
force the desegregation of bus stations.
·SNCC workers began fanning out through black communities and even
into remote rural areas to encourage blacks to challenge the
obstacles to voting that the Jim Crow laws had created and that
powerful social custom sustained.
·In April, Martin Luther King, Jr., helped launch a series of nonviolent
demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, a city unsurpassed in
the strength of its commitment to segregation.
·Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi.
A National Commitment
·To generate support for the legislation, and to dramatize the power of
the growing movement, ore than 200,000 demonstrators
marched down the Mall in Washington, D.C., in August 1963 and
gathered before the Lincoln Memorial for the greatest civil rights
demonstration in the nation’s history.
·Early in 1964, after Johnson applied both public and private pressure,
supporters of the measure finally mustered the two-thirds
majority necessary to close debate and end a filibuster by
southern senators; and the Senate passed the most
comprehensive civil rights bill in the nation’s history.
The Battle for Voting Rights
·During the summer of 1964, thousands of civil rights workers, black
and white, northern and southern, spread out through the South,
but primarily in Mississippi.
·The campaign was known as “freedom summer”, and it produced a
violent response from some southern whites.
·The “freedom summer” also produced the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party, and integrated alternative to the regular state
party organization.
·It permitted the MFDP to be seated as observers, with promises of
party reforms later on, while the regular party retained its official
standing.
·A year later, in March 1965, King helped organize a major
demonstration in Selma, Alabama to press the demand for the
right of blacks to register to vote.
·Two northern whites participating in the Selma march were murdered
in the course of the effort there- one, a minister, beaten to death
in the streets of the town; the other, a Detroit housewife, shot as
she drove along a highway at night with a black passenger in her
car.
·The Civil Rights Act of 1965, better known as the Voting Rights Act,
which provided federal protection to blacks attempting to
exercise their right to vote.
The Changing Movement
·By 1966, 69 percent of American blacks were living in metropolitan
areas and 45 percent outside the South.
·Well over half of all American non-whites lived in poverty at the
beginning of the 1960s; black unemployment was twice that of
whites.
·Over the next decade, affirmative action guidelines gradually
extended to virtually all institutions doing business with or
receiving funds from the federal government- and to many
others as well.
·Organizers of the Chicago campaign hoped to direct national attention
to housing and employment discrimination in northern industrial
cities in much the same way similar campaigns had exposed
legal racism in the South.
Urban Violence
·Well before the Chicago campaign, the problem of urban poverty had
thrust itself into national attention when violence broke out in
black neighborhoods in major cities.
·The first large race riot since the end of World War II occurred the
following summer in the Watts section of Los Angeles.
·The incident triggered a storm of anger and a week of violence.
·34 people died during the Watts uprising, which was eventually
quelled by the National Guard; 28 of the dead were black.
·Televised reports of the violence alarmed millions of Americans and
created both a new sense of urgency and a growing sense of
doubt among many of those whites who had embraced the cause
of racial justice only a few years before.
·A special Commission on Civil Disorders, created by the president in
response to the disturbances, issued a celebrated report in the
spring of 1968 recommending massive spending to eliminate the
abysmal conditions of the ghettoes.
Black Power
·Disillusioned with the ideal of peaceful change in cooperation with
whites, an increasing number of African Americans were turning
to a new approach to the racial issue: the philosophy of “black
power”.
·The most enduring impact of the black-power ideology was a social
and psychological one: instilling racial pride in African Americans,
who lived in a society whose dominant culture generally
portrayed blacks as inferior to whites.
·It encouraged the growth of black studies in schools and universities.
·Traditional black organizations that had emphasized cooperation=2
0with sympathetic whites- groups such as the NAACP, the Urban
League, and King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conferencenow
faced competition from more radical groups.
·In Oakland, California the Black Panther Party promised to defend
black rights even if that required violence.
Malcolm X
·In Detroit, a once-obscure black nationalist group, the Nation of Islam,
gained new prominence.
·Founded in 1931 by Wali Farad and Elijah Poole, the movement taught
blacks to take responsibility for their own lives, to be disciplined,
to live by strict codes of behavior, and to reject any dependence
on whites.
·Malcolm became one of the movement’s most influential spokesmen,
particularly among younger blacks, as a result of his intelligence,
his oratorical skills, and his harsh, uncompromising opposition to
all forms of racism and oppression.
·He did not advocate violence, but he insisted that black people had
the right to defend themselves, violently if necessary from those
who assaulted them.
·Malcolm died in 1965 when black gunmen, presumably under orders
from rivals within the Nation of Islam, assassinated him in New
York.
"Flexible Response and the Cold War"
Diversifying Foreign Policy
· The Kennedy administration entered office convinced that the United
States needed to be able to counter communist aggression in
more flexible ways than the atomic weapons-oriented defense
strategy of the Eisenhower years permitted.
· Kennedy was unsatisfied with the nation’s ability to meet communist
threats in “emerging areas” of the Third World- the areas in
which, Kennedy believed, the real struggle against communism
would be waged in the future.
· Kennedy also inaugurated the Agency for International Development
to coordinate foreign aid.
· The Peace Corps, sent young American volunteers abroad to work in
developing areas.
· On April 17, 1961, with the approval of the new president, 2,000 of
the armed exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, expecting
first American air support and then a spontaneous uprising by
the Cuban people on their behalf.
Confrontations with the Soviet Union
· In the grim aft ermath of the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy traveled to Vienna
in June 1961 for his first meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev.
· Before dawn on August 13, 1961, the East German government,
complying with directives from Moscow, constructed a wall
between East and West Berlin.
· For nearly 30 years the Berlin Wall served as the most potent physical
symbol of the conflict between the communist and
noncommunist worlds.
· On October 14, aerial reconnaissance photos produced clear evidence
that the Soviets were constructing sites on the island for
offensive nuclear weapons.
· On October 22, he ordered a naval and air blockade around Cuba, a
“quarantine” against all offensive weapons.
Johnson and the World
· Lyndon Johnson entered the presidency lacking even John Kennedy’s
limited prior experience with international affairs.
· A 1961 assassination had toppled the repressive dictatorship of
General Rafael Trujillo, and for the next four years various
fascinations in the country had struggled for dominance.
· In the spring of 1965, a conservative military regime began to
collapse in the face of a revolt by a broad range of groups on
behalf of the left-wing nationalist Juan Bosch.
· Only after a conservative candidate defeated Bosch in a 1966 election
were the forces withdrawn.
The Agony of Vietnam
The First Indochina War
· Vietnam had a long history both as an independent kingdom and
major power in its region, and as a subjugated province of China;
its people were both proud of their past glory and painfully aware
of their many years of subjugation.
· In the mi-19th century, Vietnam became a colony of France.
· The French wanted to reassert their control over Vietnam.
· In the fall of 1945, after the collapse of Japan and before the western
powers had time to return, the Vietminh declared Vietnam an
independent nation and set up a nationalist government under
Ho Chi Mihn in Hanoi.
· For the next 4 years, during what has become known as the First
Indochina War, Truman and then Eisenhower continued to
support the French military campaign against the Vietminh; by
1954, by some calculations, the United States was paying 80
percent of France’s war costs.
Geneva and the Two Vietnams
· An international conference at Geneva, planned many months before
to settle the Korean dispute and other controversies, now took up
the fate of Vietnam as well.
· Secretary of State Dulles, who reluctantly attended but left early; the
United States was not a party to the accords.
· Vietnam would be temporarily portioned along the 17th parallel, with
the Vietminh in control of North Vietnam, and a pro-western
regime in control of the South.
America and Diem
· The U.S almost immediately stepped into the vacuum and became the
principal benefactor of the new government in the South, led by
NGO Dihn Diem.
· The Buddhist crisis was alarming and embarrassing to the Kennedy
Administration.
From Aid to Intervention
· Lyndon Johnson thus inherited what was already a substantial
American commitment to the survival of an anticommunist South
Vietnam.
· Intervention in South Vietnam was fully consistent with nearly 20
years of American foreign policy.
· In August 1964, the president announced that American destroyers on
patrol in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin had been
attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats.
The Quagmire
· There was a continuous stream of optimistic reports from American
military commanders, government officials, and others.
· The “attrition” was a strategy premised on the belief that the Unites
States could inflict so many causalities and so much damage on
the enemy that eventually they would be unable and unwilling to
continue the struggle.
· By the end of 1967, virtually every identifiable target of any strategic
importance in North Vietnam had been destroyed.
· Another crucial part of the American strategy was the “pacification”
program, which was intended to push the Viet Cong from
particular regions and then pacify those regions by winning the
“hearts and minds” of the people.
The War at Home
· A series of “teach-ins” on university campuses, beginning at the
University of Michigan in 196 sparked a national debate over the
war before such debate developed inside the government itself.
· Opposition to the war had become a central issue in left-wing politics
and in the culture of colleges and universities.
The Traumas of 1968
The Tet Offensive
· On January 31, 1968, the 1st day of the Vietnamese New Year (TET),
communist forces launched an enormous, concerted attack on
American strongholds throughout South Vietnam.
The Political Challenge
· On March 31, Johnson went on television to announce a limited halt in
the bombing of North Vietnam.
The King and Kennedy Assassinations
· On April 4, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while standing on
the balcony of his motel.
· In the days after the assassination, major riots broke out in more than
60 American cities.
· Rober t Kennedy shaped what some would later call the “Kennedy
Legacy”, a set of ideas that would for a time become central to
American liberalism.
· The passions Kennedy had aroused made his violent death a
particularly shattering experience for many Americans.
The Conservation Response
· George Wallace established himself in 1963 as one of the nation's
leading spokesmen for the defense of segregation.
· As a governor of Alabama, he attempted to block the admission of
black students to the University of Alabama.
· In 1964, he has run a few Democratic presidential primaries and
although had done surprisingly well, standing in the polls with
20%, he had no serious chance of winning the election.
The Youth Culture
The New Left
·The postwar baby-boom generation, the unprecedented number of
people born in a few years just after World War II, was growing
up.
·One of the most visible results of the increasingly assertive youth
movement was a radicalization of many American college and
university students, who in the course of the 1960s formed what
became known as the New Left- a large, diverse group of men
and women energized by the polarizing developments of their
time to challenge the political system.
·The New Left embraced the cause of African Americans and other
minorities, but its own ranks consisted overwhelmingly of white
people.
·The New Left drew from many sources.
·The New Left drew as well from the writings of some of the important
social critics of the 1950s-among them C. Wright Mills, a soci
ologist at Columbia University who wrote a series of scathing and
brilliant critiques of modern bureaucracies.
·The New Left drew its inspiration above all from the civil rights
movement, in which many idealistic young white Americans had
become involved in the early 1960s.
·In 1962, a group of students, most of them from prestigious
universities, gathered in Michigan to form an organization to give
voice to their demands: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
·A 1964 dispute at the University of California at Berkeley over the
rights of students to engage in political activities on campus
gained national attention.
·The Free Speech Movement, created turmoil at Berkeley as students
challenged campus police, occupied administrative offices, and
produced a strike in which nearly ¾ of the Berkeley students
participated.
·The revolt at Berkeley was the first outburst of what was to be nearly
a decade of campus turmoil.
·Also in 1969, Berkeley became the scene of perhaps the most
prolonged and traumatic conflict of any American college
campus in the 1960s: a battle over the efforts of a few students
to build a “People’s Park” on a vacant lot the university planned
to use to build a parking garage.
·By the end of the People’s Park battle, which lasted for more than a
week, the Berkeley campus was completely polarized.
·Student radicals were, for the20first time, winning large audiences for
their extravagant rhetoric linking together university
administrators, the police, and the larger political and economic
system, describing them all as part of one united, oppressive
force.
·As time went on, moreover, the student fringe groups became
increasingly militant.
·Student activists tried to drive out training programs for military
officers (ROTC) and bar military recruiters from college
campuses.
·The October 1967 march on the Pentagon, where demonstrators were
met by a solid line of armed troops; the “spring mobilization” of
April 1968, which attracted hundreds of thousands of
demonstrators in cities around the country.
·Many draft-age Americans simply refused induction, accepting what
occasionally what were long terms in jail as a result.
The Counterculture
·The most visible characteristic of the counterculture was a change in
lifestyle.
·Young Americans flaunted long hair, shabby or flamboyant clothing,
and a rebellious disdain for traditional speech and decorum,
which they replaced with their own “hippie” idiom.
·Also central to the counterculture were drugs: marijuana smokingwhich
after 1966 became almost as common a youthful diversion
as b eer drinking-and the less widespread but still substantial use
of other, more potent hallucinogens, such as LSD.
·To some degree, the emergence of more relaxed approaches to
sexuality was a result less of the counterculture than of the new
accessibility of effective contraceptives, most notably the birthcontrol
pill and, after 1973, legalized abortion.
·The counterculture’s rejection of traditional values and its open
embrace of sensual pleasure sometimes masked its philosophy,
which offered a fundamental challenge to the American middleclass
mainstream.
·The most adherents of the counterculture-the hippies, who came to
dominate the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco and
other places, and the social dropouts, many of whom retreated to
rural communes-rejected modern society altogether and
attempted to find refuge in a simpler, more “natural” existence.
·Theodore Roszak, whose book the Making of a Counter Culture(1969)
became a significant document of the era, captured much of the
spirit of the movement in his frank admission that “the primary
project of our counterculture is to proclaim a new heaven and a
new earth so vast, so marvelous that the inordinate claims of
technical expertise must of necessity withdraw to a subordinate
and marginal status in the lives of men.”
·The use of marijuana, the freer attitudes toward sex, the iconoclastic
(and sometimes obscene) language- all spread far beyond the
realm of the true devotes of the counterculture.
·Rock n Roll first achieved wide popularity in the 1950s, on the
strength of such early performers as Buddy Holly and Elvis
Presley.
·Early in the 1960s, its influence began to spread, a result in large part
of the phenomenal popularity of the Beatles, the English group
whose first visit to the United States in 1964 created a
remarkable sensation, “Beatlemania”.
·Other groups such as the Rolling Stones turned even more openly to
themes of anger, frustration, and rebelliousness.
·Television began to turn to programming that reflected social and
cultural conflict- as exemplified by the enormously popular All in
the Family, whose protagonist, Archie Bunker, was a lowermiddle-
class bigot.
The Mobilization of Minorities
Seeds of Indian Militancy
·Indians were the least prosperous, least healthy, and least stable
group in the nation.
·They constituted less than one percent of the population.
·The Native American unemployment rate was ten times the national
rate.
·Life expectancy among Indians was more than twenty years less than
the national average.
·For much of the postwar era, and particularly after the resignation of
John Collier as commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1946, federal
policy toward the tribes had been shaped by a determination to
incorporate Indians into mainstream American society, whether
Indians wanted to assimilate or not.
·Through termination, the federal government withdrew all official
recognition of the tribes as legal entities, administratively
separate from state governments, and made them subject to the
same local jurisdictions as white residents.
·Many Native Americans adapted to life in the cites, at least to a
degree.
The Indian Civil Rights Movement
·The National Indian Youth Council, created in the aftermath of the
1961 Chicago meeting, promoted the idea of Indian nationalism
and intertribal unity.
·In 1968, a group of young of young militant Indian Movement, which
drew its greatest support from those Indians who lived in urban
areas but soon established a significant presence on the rese
rvations as well.
·In 1968, Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act, which
guaranteed reservation Indians many of the protections accorded
other citizens by the Bill of Rights, but which also recognized the
legitimacy of tribal laws within the reservations.
·The Indian civil rights movement fell far short of winning full justice
and equality for its constituents.
Latino Activism
·Latinos were the fastest-growing minority group in the United States.
·Large numbers of Puerto Ricans had migrated to eastern cities,
particularly New York.
·In 1980, a second, much poorer wave of Cuban immigrants-the so
called Marielitos, named for the port from which they left Cubaarrived
in Florida when Castro temporarily relaxed exit
restrictions.
·Large numbers of Mexican Americans had entered the country during
the war in response to the labor shortage, and may had
remained in the cities of the Southwest and the Pacific Coast.
·After the war, when the legal agreements that had allowed Mexican
contract workers to enter the country expired, large numbers of
immigrants continued to move to the United States illegally.
·By the late 1960s, therefore, Mexican Americans were one of the
largest population=2 0groups in the West-outnumbering African
Americans-and had established communities in most other parts
of the nation as well.
·Young Mexican-American activist began themselves “Chicanos” as a
way of emphasizing the shared culture of Spanish-speaking use
among Mexican Americans.
·Cesar Chavez, created an effective union itinerant farm workers.
·In 1965 his United Farmers Workers (UFW), a largely Chicano
organization, launched a prolonged strike against growers to
demand, first, recognition of their union and, second, increased
wages and benefits.
·Supporters of bilingualism in education argued that non-Englishspeaking
Americans were entitled to schooling in their own
language, that otherwise they would be at a grave disadvantage
in comparison with native English speakers.
Challenging the "Melting Pot" Ideal
·The efforts of blacks, Latinos, Indians, Asians, and others to forge a
clearer group identity challenged a longstanding premise of
American political thought: the idea of the “melting pot”.
·The newly assertive ethnic groups of the 1960s and after appeared
less willing to accept the standards of the larger society and
more likely to demand recognition of their own ethnic identities.
Gay Liberation
·The last important liberation movement to make major gains in the
1960s, and the most surprising to many Americans, was the
effort by homosexuals to win political and economic rights and,
equally important, social acceptance.
·On June 27, 1969, police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay
nightclub in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and began
arresting patrons simply for frequenting the place.
·The raid was not unusual.
·The “Stonewall Riot” marked the beginning of the gay liberation
movement-one of the most controversial challenges to traditional
values and assumptions of its time.
·Universities were establishing gay and lesbian studies programs.
·Laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual preference were
making slow, halting progress at the local level.
The New Feminism
The Rebirth
·A few determined women kept feminist political demands alive in the
National Woman’s Party and other organizations.
·The 1963 publication of Betty Friedan’s the Feminine Mystique is often
cited as the first event of contemporary women’s liberation.
·In 1963 the Kennedy administration helped win passage of the Equal
Pay Act, which barred the pervasive practice of paying women
less than men for equal work.
·The conflict between the ideal and the reality was crucial to the
rebirth of feminism.
·The National Organization for Women, which was to become the
nation’s largest and most influential feminist organization.
The new organization reflected the varying constituencies of the
emerging feminist movement.
Women's Liberation
·The new feminists were mostly younger, the vanguard of the bayboom
generation.
·Many had found that even within those movements, they faced
discrimination and exclusion or subordination to male leaders.
·In its most radical form, the new feminism rejected the whole notion
of marriage.
Expanding Achievements
·In 1971, the government extended its affirmative action guidelines to
include women-linking sexism with racism as an officially
acknowledged social problem.
·Nearly half of all married women held jobs by the mid-1970s, and
almost 9/10 of all women with college degrees worked.
·There were also important symbolic changes, such as the refusal of
many women to adopt their husbands’ names when they married
and the use of the term “Ms.” in place of “Mrs.” or “Miss” to
denote the irrelevance of a woman’s marital status.
The Abortion Controversy
· In least controversial form, this impulse helped produce an increasing
awareness in the 1960s and 1970s of the problems of rape,
sexual abuse, and wife beating.
· There continued to be some controversy over the dissemination of
contraceptives and birth-control inf ormation; but that issue, at
least, seemed to have lost much of the explosive character it had
had in the 1920s, when Margaret Sanger had become a heroine
to some and a figure of public scorn to others for her efforts on
its behalf.
Environmentalism in a Turbulent Society
The New Science of Ecology
· Until the mid-twentieth century, most people who considered
themselves environmentalists based their commitment on
aesthetic or moral grounds.
· They wanted to preserve nature because it was too beautiful to
despoil, or because it was a mark of divinity on the world, or
because it permitted humans a spiritual experience that would
otherwise be unavailable to them.
· They called it ecology.
Funded by government agencies, by universities, by foundations, and
eventually even by some corporations, ecological science
gradually established itself as a significant field of its own- not,
perhaps, with the same stature as such traditional fields as
physics, chemistry, and biology, but certainly a field whose
importance and appeal grew rapidly in the last decades of the
20th century
Environmental Advocacy
· Academic ecologists often have close ties to environmental
organizations committed to public action and political lobbying.
· The professional zed environmental advocacy they provided gave the
movement a political strength it had never enjoyed in the past.
· Lawyers fought battles with government agencies and in the courts.
· When Congress or state legislatures considered environmental
legislation, more often than not the environmental organizations
played a critical role in drafting it.
Environmental Degradation
· Many other forces contributed as well in the 1960s and 1970s to
create what became the environmental movement.
· Water pollution- which had been a problem in some areas of the
country for many decades- was becoming so widespread that
almost every major city was dealing with the unpleasant sight
and odor, as well as the very real health risks, of polluted rivers
and lakes.
· In some large cities-Los Angeles and Denver among them-smog
became an almost perpetual fact of life,=2 0rising steadily
through the day, blotting out the sun, and creating respiratory
difficulties for many citizens.
· Environmentalist also brought to public attention some longer-term
dangers of unchecked industrial development: the rapid
depletion of oil and other irreplaceable fossil fuels; the
destruction of lakes and forests as a result of “acid rain”; the
rapid destruction of vast rain forests, in Brazil and elsewhere,
which limited the earth’s capacity to replenish its oxygen supply.
Earth Day and Beyond
· On April 22, 1970, people all over the United States gathered in
schools and universities, in churches and clubs, in parks and
auditoria, for the first “Earth Day”.
· The Clean Air Act, also passed in 1970, and the Clean Water Act,
passed in 1972, added additional tools to government’s arsenal
of weapons against environmental degradation.
· Different administrations displayed varying levels of support for
environmental goals, and advocacy groups remained ready to
spring into action to force them to change their positions.
Nixon, Kissinger, and the War
Vietnamization
· Henry Kissinger, a Harvard professor whom the president appointed
as his special assistance for national security affairs.
· The new Vietnam policy moved along several fronts.
· By 1973, the Selective Service System was on its way to least
temporary extinction.
· In the fall of 1969, Nixon announced reduction of American ground
troops from Vietnam by 60,000 the first reduction in U.S. troop
strength since the beginning of the war.
Escalation
·By the end of their first year in office, Nixon and Kissinger had
concluded that the most effective ay to tip the military balance in
America’s favor was to destroy the bases in Cambodia from
which the American military believed the North Vietnamese were
launching many of their attacks.
·Four college students were killed and nine others injured when
members of the National Guard opened fire on antiwar
demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio.
·The trail and conviction in 1971 of Lieutenant William Calley, who was
charged wit h overseeing a massacre of more than 300
unharmed South Vietnamese civilians, attracted wide public
attention.
"Peace with Honor"
·In April 1972, the president dropped his longtime insistence on a
removal of North Vietnamese troops from the south before any
American withdrawal.
·On December 17, American B-52s began the heaviest and most
destructive air raids of the entire war on Hanoi, Haiphong, and
other North Vietnamese targets.
Defeat in Indochina
·Late in April 1975, communist forces marched into Saigon, shortly
after officials of the Thieu regime and the staff of the American
embassy had fled the country in humiliating disarray.
Nixon, Kissinger, and the World
China and the Soviet Union
·Nixon and Kissinger wanted to forge a new relationship with the
Chinese communists- in part to strengthen them as a
counterbalance to the Soviet Union.
·In July 1971, Nixon sent Henry Kissinger on a secret mission to Beijing.
·In February 1972, Nixon paid a formal visits to China and, in a single
stroke, erased much of the deep American animosity toward the
Chinese communists regime, but in 1972 the United states and
China began low-level diplomatic relations.
·In 1969, America and Soviet diplomats met in Helsinki, Finland, to
begin talks on limiting nuclear weapons.
In 1972, they produced the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT
I), which froze the nuclear missiles (ICBMs) of both sides at present
levels.
The Problems of Multipolarity
·In 1969 and 1970, the president described what became known as the
Nixon Doctrine, by which the United States would “participate in
the defense and development of allies and friends” but would
leave the “basic responsibility” for the future of those “friends”
to the nations themselves.
·In practice, the Nixon Doctrine meant a declining American interest in
contributing to Third World development; a growing contempt for
the United Nations, where less-developed nations were gaining
influence through their sheer numbers; and increasing support to
authoritarian regimes attempting to withstand radical challenges
from within.
·In 1973, a military junta seized power from Allende, who was
subsequently murdered.
·In October 1973, on the Jewish High Holy day of Yom Kippur, Egyptian
and Syrian forces attacked Israel.
·The imposed settlement of the Yom Kippur War demonstrated the
growing dependence of the United States and its allies on Arab
oil.
·The United States could no longer depend on cheap, easy access to
raw materials as it had in the past.
Politics and Economics Under Nixon
Domestic Initiatives
·He forbade the department of Health, Education, and Welfare to cut
off the federal funds from school districts that had failed to
comply with court orders to integrate.
In 1973, he abolished the Office of economic Opportunity, the
centerpiece of the antipoverty program of the Office of economic
Opportunity, the centerpiece of the antipoverty program20of the
Johnson years.
From the Warren Court to the Nixon Court
·In Engel v. Vitale (1962), the court had ruled that prayers in public
schools were unconstitutional, sparking outrage among religious
fundamentalists and others.
The Election of 1972
·Nixon was most fortunate in 1972, however, in his opposition.
·The possibility of such a campaign vanished in May, when a would-be
assassin shot the Alabama governor during a rally at a Maryland
shopping center.
The Troubled Economy
·The American dollar had been the strongest currency in the world, and
the American standard of living had risen steadily from its
already substantial heights.
·Its most visible cause was significant increase in federal deficit
spending in the 1960s, when the Johnson administration tried to
fund the war in Vietnam and its ambitious social prog rams
without raising taxes.
·Domestic petroleum reserves were no longer sufficient to meet this
demand, and the nation was heavily dependent on imports from
the Middle East and Africa.
·The U.S manufacturing now faced major completion from aboard-not
only in world trade but also at home.
The Nixon Response
·The government moved first to reduce spending and raises taxes.
·The United States was encountering a new and puzzling dilemma:
“stagflation”, a combination of rising prices and general
economic stagnation.
In 1973, prices rose 9 percent; in 1974, after the Arab oil embargo and
the OPEC price increases, they rose 12 percent-the highest rate since
the relaxation of price controls shortly after World War II.
The Watergate Crisis
The Scandals
·Early on the morning of June 17, 1972 police arrested five men who
had broken into the offices of the Democratic National
Committee in the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C.
Two others were seized a short time porters for the Washington Post
began researching the backgrounds of the culprits, they discovered
that among those involved in the burglary were former employees of
the Committee for the Re-Election of the President.
The Fall of Richard Nixon
·In April 1974, the president released some transcripts of relevent
conversations, claiming that they proved his innocence, but
investigators believed them to be edited for a cover-up.
·The Supreme Court ruled unanimously, in the United States v. Richard
M. Nixon, that the president must relinquish the tapes to Special
Prosecutor Jaworski.
·The House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend three articles of
impeachment:
1. Charging that Nixon had obstructed justice in the
Watergate cover-up.
2. Misused federal agencies to violate the rights of citizens.
3. Defied the authority of Congress by refusing to deliever
tapes and other materials suboenaed by the committee.
·On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced his resignation, the first
president in American history to ever do so.
·Gerald Ford became president.
Politics and Diplomacy After Watergate
The Ford Custodianship
·Gerald Ford had to try to rebuild confidence in government in the face of the widespread
cynicism the Watergate scandals had produced.
·He had to try to restore prosperity in the face of major domestic and international
challenges to the American economy.
·Ford explained that he was attempting to spare the nation the ordeal of years of litigation
and to spare Nixon himself any further suffering.
·The Ford administration enjoyed less success in its effort to solve the problems of the
American economy.
·In the aftermath of the Arab oil embargo of 1973, the OPEC cartel began to raise thr
price of oil-by 400 percent in 1974 alone.
·Ford retained Henry Kissinger as secretary of state and continued the general policies of
the Nixon years.
·Late in 1974, Ford met with Leonid Brezhnev at Vladivostok in Siberia and signed an
arms control accord that was to serve as the basis for SALT II, thus achieving a
goal the Nixon administration had long sought.
In the republican primary campaign Ford faced a powerful challenge from former
California governor Ronald Reagan, leader of the party’s conservative wing, who
spoke for many on the right who were unhappy with any conciliation of
communists.
The Trials of Jimmy Carter
·Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency at a moment when the nation faced problems of
staggering complexity and difficulty.
·He left office in 1981 one of the least popular presidents of the country.
·He surrounded himself in the White House with group of close-knit associates from
Georgia; and in the beginning, at least, he seemed deliberately to spurn assistance
from more experienced political figures.
·He moved first to reduce unemployment by raising public spending and cutting federal
taxes.
He appointed G. William Miller and then Paul Volcker, both conservative economists, to
head the Federal Reserve Board, thus ensuring a policy of high interest rates and
reduced currency supplies.
Human Rights and National Interests
·Among Jimmy Carter’s most frequent campaign promises was a pledge to build a new
basis for American foreign policy, one in which the defense of “human rights”
would replace the pursuit of “selfish interest.
·Domestic opposition to the treaties was intense, especially among conservatives who
viewed the new arrangements as part of a general American retreat from
international power.
·Middle East negotiations had seemed hopelessly stalled when a dramatic breakthrough
occurred in Nove mber 1977.
·In Tel Aviv, he announced that Egypt was now willing to accept the state of Israel as a
legitimate political entity.
·On September 17, Carter escorted the two leaders into the White House to announce
agreement on a “framework” for an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
·On December 15, 1978, Washington and Beijing announced the resumption of formal
diplomatic relations between the two nations.
·The treaty set limits on the number of long-range missiles, bombers, and nuclear
warheads on each side.
By the fall of 1979, with the Senate scheduled to begin debate over the treaty shortly,
ratification was already in jeopardy.
The Year of the Hostages
·By 1979, the Shah of Iran, hoping to make his nation a bulwark against Soviet
expansion in the Middle East.
·In January 1979, the Shah fled the country.
·By late 1979, revolutionary chaos in Iran was making any normal relations impossible.
·In late October 1979, the deposed Shah arrived in New York to be treated for cancer.
Days later, on November 4, an armed mob invaded the American embassy in
Teheran, seized the diplomats and military personnel inside, and demanded the
return of the Shah to Iran in exchange for their freedom.
·53 Americans remained hostages in the embassy for over a year.
·Only weeks after the hostage seizure, on December 27, 1979, Soviet troops invaded
Afghanistan, the mountaino us Islamic nation lying between the USSR and Iran.
·The combination of domestic economic troubles and international crises created
widespread anxiety, frustration, and anger in the United States-damaging
President Carter already low stranding with the public, and giving added strength
to an alternative political force that had already made great strides.
The Rise of the New American Right
The Sunbelt and Its Politics
·The most widely discusses demographic phenomenon of the 1970s was the rise of what
became known as the “Sunbelt”- a term coined by the political analyst Kevin
Phillips to describe a collection of regions that emerged together in the postwar
era to become the most dynamically growing parts of the country.
·By 1980, the population of the Sunbelt had risen to exceed that of the older industrial
regions of the North and the East.
·White southerners equated the federal government’s effort to change racial norms in the
region with what they believed was tyranny of Reconstruction.
·In the 1970s and early 1980s, the boom mentality of some of these rapidly growing
areas conflicted sharply with the concerns of the older industrial states of the
Northeast and Midwest.
·The so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, which emerged in parts of the West in the late
1970s, mobilized conservative opposition to environmental laws and restrictions
on development.
Suburbanization also fueled the rise of the right.
Religious Revivalism
·In the 1960s, may critics had predicted the virtual extinction of religious influence in
American life.
·By early 1980s, it was no longer possible to ignore them.
·More than 70 million Americans now described themselves as “born-again” Christiansmen
and women who had established a “direct personal relationship with Jesus”.
·For Jimmy Carter and for some others, evangelical Christianity had formed the basis for
a commitment to racial and economic justice and to world peace.
The Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and other organizations of similar
inclination opposed federal interference in local affairs; denounced abortion,
divorce, enterprise; and supported a strong American posture in the world.
The Emergnece of the New Right
·Evangelical Christians were an important part, but only a part, of what became known
as the new right- a diverse but powerful movement that enjoyed rapid growth in
the 1970s and early 1980s.
·Conservative campaigns had for many years been less well funded and organized than
those of their rivals.
·By the late 1970s, there were right-wing think tanks, consulting forms, lobbyists,
foundations, and scholarly centers.
·In the early 1950s Roosevelt became a corporate spokesman for General Electric and
won a wide following on the right with his smooth, eloquent speeches in defense
of individual freedom and private enterprise.
In 1966, with the support of a group of a group of wealthy conservatives, he won the first
of two terms as governor of California-which gave him a much more visible
platform for promoting himself and his ideas. [Ronald Reagan]
The Tax Revolt
·At least equally important to the success of the new right was a new and potent
conservative issue: the tax revolt.
·The biggest and most expensive programs-Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and
others-had the broadest support.
In Proposition 13 and similar initiatives, members of the right found a better way to
discredit government than by attacking specific programs: attacking taxes.
The Campaign of 1980
·Jimmy Carter's standing in popularity polls were lower than that of any
president.
·On election day 1980, Reagan(R) won 51% of the vote to 41% for
Jimmy Carter(D) and 7% for John Anderson(I)
1. Electoral botes: Reagan 489, Carter 49.
·The Republican Party won control of the Senate for the first time since
1952.
The "Reagan Revolution"
The Reagan Coalition
·Reagan owed his election to widespread disillusionment with Carter and to the crises
and disappointments that many voters, perhaps unfairly, associated with him.
·The Reagan coalition included a relatively small but highly influential group of wealthy
Americans associated with the corporate and financial world-the kind of people
who had dominated American politics and government through much of the
nations history until the New Deal began to challenge their preeminence.
·A second element of the Reagan coalition was even smaller, but also disproportionately
influential: a group of intellectuals commonly known as “neo-conservatives,” who
gave to the right something it had not had in may years-a firm base among
“opinion leaders”, people with access to the most influential public forums for
ideas.
Neo-conservatives were sympathetic to the complaints and demands of capitalists, but
their principal concern was to reassert legitimate authority and reaffirm Western
democratic, anticommunists values and commitments.
Reagan in the White House
·Reagan was the master of television, a gifted public speaker, and -in public at leastrugged,
fearless, and seemingly impervious to danger or misfortune.
·He spent his many vacations on a California ranch, where he chopped wood and rode
horses.
At times, the president revealed a startling ignorance about the nature of his own policies
or the actions of his subordinates.
"Supply-Side" Economics
·Reagan’s 1980 campaign for the presidency had promised, among other things, to
restore the economy to health by a bold experiment that became known as
“supply-side” economics or, to some, “Reaganomics”.
·In its first months in office, accordingly , the new administration hastily assembled a
legislative program based on the supply-side idea.
·The recession convinced many people, including some conservatives, that the Reagan
economic program failed.
·The gross national product had grown 3.6 percent in a year, the largest increase since the
-1970s.
·The economy continued to grow, a nd both inflation and unemployment remained low
through most of the decade.
A worldwide “energy glut” and the virtual collapse of the OPEC cartel had produced at
least a temporary end to the inflationary pressures of spiraling fuel costs.
The Fiscal Crisis
·By the mid-1980s, this growing fiscal crisis had become one of the central issues in
American politics.
·Throughout the 1980s, the annual budget deficit consistently exceeded $100 billion.
·The 1981 tax cuts, the largest in American history, contributed to the deficit.
·There were reductions in funding for food stamps; a major cut in federal subsidies for
low-income housing; strict new limitations on Medicare and Medicaid payments;
reductions in student loans, school lunches, and other educational programs; and
an end to many forms of federal assistance to the states and cities-which helped
precipitate years of local fiscal crises as well.
By the late 1980s, may fiscal conservatives were calling for a constitutional amendment
mandating a balanced budget-a provision the president himself claimed to
support.
Reagan and the World
·Determined to restore American pride and prestige in the world, he argued that the
United States should once again become active and assertive in opposing
communism and in supporting friendly governments whatever their internal
policies.
·The president spoke harshly of Soviet regime accusing it of sponsori ng world terrorism
and declaring that any armaments negotiations must be linked to negotiations on
Soviet behavior in other areas.
·Although the president had long denounced the SALT II arms control treaty as
unfavorable to the United States, he continued to honor it provisions.
·The Soviet Union claimed that the new program would elevate the arms race to new and
more dangerous levels and insisted that any arms control agreement begin with an
American abandonment of SDI.
·The New Policy became known as the Reagan Doctrine, and it meant, above all, a new
American activism came in Latin America.
The Reagan administration spoke bravely about its resolve to punish terrorism; and at one
point in 1986, the president ordered American planes to bomb site in Tripoli, the
capital of Libya, whose controversial leader was widely believed to be a leading
sponsor of terrorism.
The Election of 1984
·Reagan was victorious in the election winning 59% of the vote,
carrying every state but Mondale's native Minnesota and the
District of Columbia.
·The election of 1984 was the first campaign of the Cold War.
America and the Waning of the Cold War
The Fall of the Soviet Union
·The first he called glasnost (openness): the dismantling many of the repressive
mechanisms that had been conspicuous features of Soviet life for over half a
century.
·The Communists Parties of Eastern Europe collapsed or redefined themselves into more
conventional left-leaning social democratic parties.
Among other things, it legalized the chief black party in the nation, the African National
Congress, which had been banned for dec ades; and on February 11, 1990, it
released from prison the leader of the ANC, and a revered hero too black south
Africans, Nelson Mandela, who had been in jail for 27 years.
Reagan and Gorbachev
·At a summit meeting with Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986, Gorbachev proposed
reducing the nuclear arsenals of both sides by 50 percent or more, although
continuing disputes over Reagan’s commitment to the SDI program prevented
agreements.
The Fading of the Reagan Revolution
·There were revelations of illegality, corruption, and ethical lapses in the Environmental
Protection Agency, the CIA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Labor,
the Department of Justice, and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development.
The most politically damaging scandal of the Reagan years came to light in November
1986, when the White House conceded that it had sold weapons to the
revolutionary government of Iran as part of a largely unsuccessful effort to secure
the release of several Americans being held hostage by radical Islamic groups in
the Middle East.
The Election of 1988
·The Bush campaign was almost the most negative of the 20th
century, with Bush attacking Dukakis by tying him to all the
unpopular social and cultural stances Americans had come to
identify with "liberals."
·It was also one of the most effective, although the listless, indecisive
character of the Dukakis effort contributed to the Republican
cause as well.
·Bush won the election with 54% of the popular vote to Dukakis' 46%,
and 426 electoral votes to Dukakis' 112.
The Bush Presidency
·The Bush presidency was notable for the dramatic developments in international affairs
with which it coincided and at times helped to advance, and for the absence of
important initiatives or ideas on domestic issues.
·The broad popularity Bush enjoyed during his first three years in office was partly a res
ult of his subdued, unthreading public image.
·On domestic issues, the Bush administration was less successful-partly because the
president himself seemed to have little interest in promoting a domestic agenda
and partly because he faced serious obstacles.
In 1990, the president bowed to congressional pressure and agreed to a significant tax
increase as part of a multiyear “budget package” designed to reduce the deficit.
The Gulf War
·The events of 1989-1991 ad left the United States in the unanticipated position of being
the only real superpower in the world.
·The United States would reduce its military strength dramatically and concentrate its
energies and resources on pressing domestic problems.
·America would continue to use its power actively, not to fight communism but to defend
its regional and economic interests.
·In 1989, that led the administration to order an invasion of Panama.
·On August 2, 1990, the armed forces of Iraq invaded and quickly overwhelmed their
small, oil-rich neighbor, the emirate of Kuwait.
On February 28 Iraq announced its acceptance of allied terms for a cease-fire, and the
brief Persian Gulf War came to an end.
A Resurgence of Partisanship
Launching the Clinton Presidency
·The new administration compounded its problems with a series of missteps and
misfortunes in its first months.
·A long time friend of the president, Vince Foster, serving in the office of the White
House counsel, committed suicide in the summer of 1993.
·Despite its many problems the Clinton administration could boast of some significant
achievements in its first year.
·Clinton was a committed advocate of free trade and a proponent of many aspects of
what came to be known as globalism.
·He won approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which
eliminated most trade barriers among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
·Early in 1993, he appointed his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, which proposed a
sweeping reform designed to guarantee coverage to every American and hold
down the costs of medical care.
·The foreign policy of the Clinton administration was at first cautious and even tentativea
reflection, perhaps, of the president’s relative inexperience in international
affairs, but also of the rapidly changing character of international politics.
The United States was among the nations to send peaceke eping troops to Bosnia to
police the fragile settlement, which-despite many pessimistic predictions-was still
largely in place 7 years later, although terrible new conflicts soon emerged in
other areas of the Balkans.
The Republican Resurgence
·For the first time in 40 years, Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress.
·Newt Gingrich of Georgia, released a set of campaign promises signed by almost all
Republican candidates for he House and called it the “Contract with America”.
·It called for tax reductions, dramatic changes in federal spending to produce a balanced
budget, and a host of other promises consistent with the long-time goals of the
Republican Party’s conservative wing.
·The Republican Congress proposed a series of measures to transfer important powers
from the federal government to the states.
Medicare program to reduce costs.
·In November 1995 and again in January 1996, the federal government literally shut
down for several days because the president and Congress could not agree on a
budget.
The Election of 1996
·The United States presidential election of 1916 took place while Europe was embroiled
in World War I.
· Public sentiment in the still neutral United States leaned towards the British and French
(allied) forces, due to the harsh treatment of civilians by the German Army, which
had invaded and occupied large parts of Belgium and northern France.
· Despite their sympathy with the allied forces most American voters wanted to avoid
involvement in the war, and preferred to continue a policy of neutrality.
Clinton Triumpant and Embattled
·He proposed a relatively modest domestic agenda, consisting primarily of tax cuts and
tax credits targeted at middle-class Americans and designed to help them educate
their children.
·In early 1998, inquiries associated with the Paula Jones case led to charges that the
president had had a sexua l relationship with a young White House intern, Monica
Lewinsky; that he had lied about it in his deposition before Jones’s attorneys; and
that he had encouraged her to do the same.
·Clinton admitted that he had an “improper relationship” with Monica.
The president seemed to have escaped his difficulties as a result of strong popular
support.
Impeachment, Acquittal, and Resurgence
·House leaders resisted all calls for dismissal of the charges or compromise.
·First the House Judiciary Committee and then, on December 19, 1998, the full House,
both voting on strictly partisan lines, approved 2 counts of impeachment: lying to
the grand jury and obstructing justice.
·Expanding role of scandal in American politics driven by an increasingly sensationalist
media culture, the legal device of independent counsels, and the intensely
adversarial quality of partisan politics.
·Numerous reports of Serbian atrocities against the Kosovans, and an enormous refugee
crisis spurred by Yugoslavian military action in the province, slowly roused world
opinion.
The Two-Tiered Economy
·The increasing attendance created enormous new wealth that enriched those talented, or
luck, enough to profit from the areas of booming growth.
·Between 1980 and the mid-1990s, the average family incomes of he wealthiest 20
percent of the population grew by nearly 20 percent.
·Poverty in America had declined steadily and at times dramatically in the years after
World War II, so that by the end of the 1970s the percentage of people living in
poverty had fallen 12 percent.
Globalization
·The most important economic change, and certainly the one whose impact was the most
difficult to gauge, was what became known as the “globalization” of the economy.
·As late as 1970, international trade still played a relatively small role in the American
economy as a whole, which thrived on the basis of the huge domestic market in
North America.
·Imports rose.
·The North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Trade and
Tariffs, were the boldest of a long series of treaties designed to lower trade
barriers stretching back to the 1960s.
Science and Technology in the New Economy
The Personal Computer
·The most visible element of the technological revolution to most Americans was the
dramatic growth in the use of computers in almost every area of life.
·The development of the microprocessor, first introduced in 1971 by Intel, which
represented a notable advance in the technology of integrated circuitry.
·Apple launched its Apple II personal computer, the first such machine to be widely
available to the public.
·3 years later, Apple introduced its Macintosh computer technology, among other things.
·Computerized word processing replaced typewriters and spreadsheets revolutionized
bookkeeping.
·The computer revolution created thousands of new, lucrative businesses: computer
manufacturers themselves (IBM, Apple, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Sun, Digital,
and many others).
The Internet
·The Internet is, a vast, geographically far-flung network of computers that allows people
connected to the network to communicate with others all over the world.
·In 1989, a laboratory in Geneva introduced the World Wide Web, through which
individual users could publish information for the Internet, which helped establish
an orderly system for both the distribution and retrieval of electronic information.
·Newspapers, magazines, and other publications have begun to publish on the Internet.
Breakthroughs in Genetics
·The Human Genome Project set out to identify all of the more than 100,000 genes by
2005.
Anti-Abortion advocates20denounced the research, claiming that it exploited unborn
children.
A Changing Society
The Graying of America
·The declining birth rate and a significant rise in life expectancy produced a substantial
increase in proportion of elderly citizens.
·Increasing costliness of Social Security pensions.
New Patterns of Immigration and Ethnicity
·The nation’s immigration quotas expanded significantly in those years, allowing more
newcomers to enter the United States legally than at any point since the beginning
of the 20h century.
·In 1965, 90 percent of the immigrants to the united States came from Europe.
·Mexico alone accounted for over one-fourth of all the immigrants living in the United
States in 2000.
·In the 1980s and 1990s, Asian immigrants arrived in even greater numbers than Latinos,
constituting more than 40 percent of the total of legal newcomers.
·Many of the new Asian immigrants were refugees, including Vietnamese driven from
their homes in the aftermath of the diatoms war in which the United States had so
long been involved.
The Black Middle Class
·There were increased opportunities for advancement available to those in a position to
take advantage of them.
·As the industrial economy declined and government services dwindled, there was a
growing sense of helplessness and despair among the large groups of nonwhites
who continued to find themselves barred from=2 0upward mobility.
·The percentage of black high-school graduates going on to college was virtually the
same as that of white high0school graduates by the end of the 20th century.
·There were few areas of American life from which blacks were any longer entirely
excluded.
Poor and Working-Class African Americans
·The “underclass” made up as much as a third of the nation’s black population.
·The black family structure suffered as well from the dislocations of urban poverty.
·There was an increase in the number of single-parent, female-headed black households.
·A bystander videotaped several Los Angeles police officers beating a helpless black
man, Rodney King.
·Black residents of South Central Los Angeles erupted in anger.
Modern Plagues: Drugs and AIDS
·The new immigrants arrived in cities with a dramatic increase in drug use, which
penetrated nearly every community in the nation.
·AIDS is the product of the HIV virus, which is transmitted by the exchange of bodily
fluids (blood or semen).
·The first American victims of AIDS, group among whom cases remained the most
numerous were homosexual men.
·In 2000, U.S. government agencies estimated that about 780,000 Americans were
infected with the HIV virus and that another 427,000 had already died from the
disease.
The Decline in Crime
·There was a dramatic reduction in crime=2 0rates across most of the United States.
·New incarceration policies-longer, tougher sentences and fewer paroles and early
releases for violent criminals-led to a radical. Increase in the prison population
and a reduction in the number of criminals at liberty to commit crimes.
A Contested Culture
·Battles over Feminism and Abortion
·Leaders of the New Right had campaigned successfully against the proposed Equal
Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
·The played a central role over the controversy over abortion rights.
·The opposition of some other anti-abortion activists had less to do with religion than
with their commitment to traditional notions of family and gender relations.
·The Reagan and Bush administrations imposed further restrictions on federal funding
and even on the right of doctors in federally funded clinics to give patients any
information on abortion.
The Changing Left and the Growth of Environmentalism
·The environmental movement continued to expand in the last decades of the 20th
century.
·They blocked the construction of roads, airports, and other projects that they claimed
would be ecologically dangerous, taking advantage of new legislations protecting
endangered species and environmentally fragile regions.
The Fragmentation of Mass Culture
·The institutions of the media, news, entertainment grew more powerful.
·Fast food chains became the most widely known restaurants in America.=0 A
·Viewers could now rent or buy videotapes.
The Perils of Globalization
Opposing the "New World Order"
·Environmentalists argued that globalization, in exporting industry to low-wage
countries, also exported industrial pollution and toxic waste into nations that had
no effective laws to control them.
·In November 1999, when the leaders of the 7 nations gathered for their meeting many of
them clashed with police.
Defending Orthodoxy
·The Iranian Revolution of 1979, in which orthodox Muslims ousted a despotic
government whose leaders had embraced many aspects of modern western
culture, was one of the first large and visible manifestations of a phenomenon that
would eventually reach across much of the Islamic world and threaten the stability
of the globe.
The Rise of Terrorism
·The U.S has experienced terrorism for many years.
·Due to the events on September 11, 2001, new security measures began to change the
way Americans traveled.
·A puzzling and frightening epidemic of anthrax began in the weeks after 9/11.
·The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, government intelligence
indicated, had been planned and orchestrated by Middle Eastern agents of a
powerful terrorist network known as Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden.
·In his State of the Union address to Congress in January 2002, Bush spoke of an “axis of
evil”.
The New Era
·In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, may Americans came to believe that
they had entered a new era in their history.
The reaction to the catastrophe exposed a side of American life and culture that had
always existed but that had not always been visible.
Here you will find AP US History notes for the American History: A Survey, 11th Edition notes. These American History: A Survey notes will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
Additional Information:
1)The Early Chesapeake
a)The Founding of Jamestown
i)Charter granted to London Company in 1604 by King James I, Godspeed, Discovery, and Susan Constant left England and landed in Jamestown, VA in 1607
ii)Colony mostly al men, inadequate diets contributed to disease, by 1608 colony had almost failed (poor leadership, location, disease, food) except Capt. John Smith saved it by imposing work and order and organizing raids against Indians
b)Reorganization
i)London Company became Virginia Company 1609, gained expanded charter, sold stock, wish to grew VA colony with land grants to planters
ii)Winter of 1609-1610= starving time
iii)First governor Lord De La Warr arrived 1609, established harsh discipline w/ work gangs
iv)Communal system didn’t work well, Governor Dale thought better off with personal incentive to work and private ownership
c)Tobacco
i)1612 VA planter John Rolfe began to grow tobacco, cultivation spread, created a tobacco economy that was profitable, uncertain, and high labor and land demands, created need for territorial expansion
d)Expansion
i)Tobacco still not enough to make profits, 1618 campaign to attract settlers
ii)Headright system- land grants to new settles, encouraged family groups to migrate together, rewarded those who paid for passages of others
iii)Company brought women and skilled workers, allowed for a share in self-govt (VA House of Burgesses met July 30, 1619)
iv)1919 saw arrival of first Negro slaves on Dutch ship, but palnters continued to favor indentured servants until at least 1670s b/c cheaper and more abundant
v)Colony grew b/c Indians suppressed, Sir Thomas Dale led assaults, huge uprising staged by Powhatans in 1622 but eventually put down, again 1644
vi)By 1624 Virginia Company defunct, lost all funds, charter revoked by James I and colony put under control of crown
e)Exchanges of Agricultural Tech
i)Survival of Jamestown result of agricultural tech developed by Indians and borrowed by English, such as value of corn w/ its high yields, beans alongside corn to enrich soil
f)Maryland and the Calverts
i)Dream of George Calvert (first Lord Baltimore) as speculative venture + retreat for English Cath. oppressed by Anglican church, 1632 son Cecilius (second Lord Balt) got charter from king, made complete sovereigns of new land
ii)1634 Lord Balt named brother Leonard Calvert governor, settlers arrived in Maryland
iii)Calverts invested heavily, needed many settlers to make profit, encouraged Prot. as well as Catholics (Cath became minority), “Act Concerning Religion” granted toleration; yet politics in MD plagued by tension btwn Catholic minority and Prot. majority, civil war 1655
iv)Proprietor was absolute monarch, Lord Balt. granted land to relatives and other English aristocrats, labor shortages required headright system
g)Turbulent Virginia
i)Mid 17th century VA colony had larger pop, complexity and profitability of economy, debates over how to deal with Indians
ii)Sir William Berkeley apptd governor by King Charles I 1642, put down 1644 Indian uprising and agreed to not cross settlement line. Impossible to protect Indian territory b/c of growth of VA after Cromwell’s victory in English Civil War and flight of opponents to colony
(1)Choice lands along river occupied, new arrivals pressed westward
iii)At first vote extended to all, later only to landowners and elections rare, led to recent settlers in “back country” to be underrepresented
h)Bacon’s Rebellion
i)Nathaniel Bacon and other members of backcountry gentry disagreed on policies toward natives, backcountry in constant danger from Indian attack b/c on land reserved to natives by treaty, believed east. aristocracy wanted to protect dominance by holding down white settlers in west
ii)Bacon on governors council, in 1675 led counter-attacks against Indians against governors orders, kicked off council, unauthorized assault on Indians became a military challenge to colonial govt
iii)Bacon’s army marched on Jamestown twice, died suddenly
iv)Rebellion showed unwillingness of settlers to abide by agreements with natives, also potential for instability in colony’s large population of free, landless men eager for land and against landed gentry—common interest in east and west aristocracy to prevent social unrest, led to African slave trade growing
2)The Growth of New England
a)Plymouth Plantation
i)1608 Pilgrims (Separatists from Ang. Chur) went to Holland to seek freedom, unhappy with children entering Dutch society
ii)Leaders obtained permission from VA Company to settle in VA, king would “not molest them”. William Bradford was their leader and historian
iii)Left 1620 aboard Mayflower with 35 “saints” (members of church) and 67 “strangers”, original destination Hudson River but ended up @ Cape Cod
iv)Land outside of London Company’s territory, therefore signed Mayflower Compact to establish a civil govt and give allegiance to king
v)Found cleared land from Indians killed by disease, natives provided assistance (Squanto), Indians weaker than Southern counterparts, 1622 Miles Standish imposed discipline on Pilgrims to grow corn, develop fur trade
vi)William Bradford elected governor, sought legal permission for colony from Council for New England, ended communal labor and distributed land privately, paid off colonies debt
b)The Massachusetts Bay Experiment
i)Puritans persecuted by James I, and afterward by Charles I who was trying to restore Catholicism to England. 1629 sought charter for land in Massachusetts, some members of Massachusetts Bay Company saw themselves as something more than a business venture, creating a haven for Puritans in N.E.
ii)Governor John Winthrop led seventeen ships in 1630, Boston became company headquarters and capital but many colonists moved into a number of other new towns in E. Mass.
iii)Mass. Bay Company became colonial govt, corporate board of directors gave way to elections by male citizens. Didn’t separate from Anglican church but more leeway in church than centralized structure in England, “congregation church”
iv)Mass Puritans serous and pious ppl, led lies of thrift and hard work, “city upon a hill” (Winthrop). Clergy and govt worked close together, taxes supported church, dissidents little freedom, Mass a “theocracy”
v)Large number of families ensured feeling of commitment to community and sense of order, allowed pop to reproduce very quickly
c)Expansion of New England
i)As more ppl arrived many didn’t accept all religious tenets of colony’s leaders, Connecticut Valley attracted settlers b/c of fertile land and less religious
ii)Thomas Hooker led congregation to Hartford, established Fundamental Orders of Connecticut- created govt with more men given right to vote and hold off
iii)Fundamental Orders of New Haven established New Haven b/c viewed Boston as lacking in religious orthodoxy, later made Connect. with Hartford (royal)
iv)Rhode Island origins in Roger Williams, minister from MA who John Winthrop and others viewed as heretic. Was a Separatist, called for sep of church and state, banished + created Providence, 1644 obtained charter from Parliament to establish govt, “liberty in religious concernments”
v)Anne Hutchinson believed that Mass clergy were not among elect and ad no right to spiritual office, went against assumptions of proper role of women in Puritan society. Developed large following from women who wanted active role in religious affairs, and those opposed to oppressive colonial govt
(1)Unorthodoxy challenged religious beliefs + social order of Puritans, banished and moved to Rhode Island,
vi)Followers of Hutchinson moved to New Hampshire and Maine, established in 1629 by Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges who received grant from Council for New England (former Plymouth Company)
d)Settlers and Natives
i)Natives less powerful rivals to N.E. settlers, small to begin with and nearly extinguished by epidemics
ii)Provided assistance to settlers, whites learned about local food crops + technique, trade with Indians created fortune
iii)Peaceful relations did not last, whites appetite for land grew as pop increased, livestock required more land to graze. Character of conflict and white bruatity emerged in part out of Puritan attitude toward Natives now seen as “heathens” and “savages’
e)The Pequot War, King Philip’s War, and Technology of Battle
i)First major conflict 1637 w/ settlers in Connecticut Valley and Pequot Indians over trade w/ Dutch and land, English allied with rival Indians to Pequots. Capt John Mason killed many Indians, Pequots almost wiped out
ii)Most prolonged and deadly encounter began n 1675 btwn chief of Wampanoags under chief named King Philip, believed only armed resistance could protect land from English invasion and imposition of English law
(1)for three years natives destroyed towns, Mass economy and society weakened, white settlers eventually fought back
(2)1676 joined with rival Indians, Wampanoags shortly defeated, pop decimated and made powerless
iii)Settlements still remained in danger from surviving Indians, & new competition from French and Dutch
iv)Indians had made effective use of new weapon technology: flintlock rifle, which allowed them to inflict higher amounts of casualties. But Indians were no match for advante of English in numbers and firepower
3)The Restoration Colonies
a)The English Civil War
i)Charles I dissolved Parliament 1629 and ruled as absolute monarch, 1642 some members organized military challenge to king. Cavaliers (king, Cath) vs. Roundheads (Parl, Puritans + Prot). 1649 king defeated
ii)After Cromwell’s death in 1658, Stuart Restoration put Charles II back on throne, rewarded courtiers with grants of land. Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania all chartered as proprietary ventures
b)The Carolinas
i)Carved out of Virginia and given to eight proprietors 1663, proposed to sell or give land away using headrights and collect annual payments (quitrents), freedom of worship to Christians, but efforts failed
ii)Anthony Ashley Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury) financed migration from England 1670, founded Charleston 1690. Wanted planned and ordered community, with help of John Locke drew up Fundamental Constitution for Caroline 1669- elaborate system of land distribution and social order
(1)Colony never united, north and south separated socially and economically. N=backwoods, poor. S=Charles Town, trade, prosperous, aristocratic. Rice principal crop
iii)SC close ties to overpopulated Barbados where slavery had taken root. White Carribbean migrants- tough profit seekers- brought with them slave-based plantation society
iv)Tension btwn small N farmers and S wealthy planters, after Coopers death in 1719 colonists seized col from prop., king divided region into 2 royal colonies: North and South Carolina
c)New Netherland, New York, and New Jersey
i)1664 Chalres II gave brother James duke of York territory btwn Connecticut and Deleware River, much of which was claimed by Dutch. Conflict part of wider commercial rivalry, but English fleet under Richard Nicolls forced New Amsterdam and Peter Stuvyesant to surrender it to English. Became New York
ii)Diverse colony w/ may ppl, granted religious toleration, but tension over power distribution. Dutch “patrons” (large landowners”, also wealthy English landlords, fur traders w/ Iroquois ties
iii)Colony was growing and prosperous, most ppl settled within Hudson valley
iv)Duke gave land to political allies in John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, named their territory New Jersey. 1702 ceded control back to crown
d)The Quaker Colonies
i)Pennsylvania born out of effort of dissenting English Prt. to find home for religion and distinctive social order. Led by George Fox, Margaret Fell
ii)Society of Friends (Quakers) anarchistic, democratic, pacifist, no class distinction. They were unpopular, some jailed. Looked to America for asylum
iii)Wanted colony of their own, in William Penn found son of Navy admiral and Quaker. After death of father 1681 claimed debt owed by Charles II in form of a large grant of territory w/ Penn having virtual total authority
iv)Penn advertised PA (wanted profit), became cosmopolitan, settlers flocked there from Eur, but also wanted it to be a “holy experiment”
(1)Created liberal Frame of Government with Rep assembly, 1682 founded Philadelphia, befriended Indians and always paid them for land
(2)PA prospered but was not without conflict. By 1690s ppl upset by power of proprietor, south believed govt unresponsive. 1701 Penn agreed to Charter of Liberties establishing rep assembly with limited power of proprietor, “lower counties” allowed own rep assembly—result was later Delaware
4)Borderland and Middle Grounds
a)The Caribbean Islands
i)Early 17th century migrants flocked to Caribbean. B4 settlers substantial Native populations, wiped out by Eur epidemics, Islands became nearly deserted
ii)Spanish claimed title to al islands but only settled Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico. After Spain and Netherlands went to war 1621 English colonization increased thru 17th century raids by Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch
iii)Colonies built economy on exporting crops, tobacco and cotton unsuccessful, turned to sugar cane and rum. Sugar labor intensive and native population too small for workforce, planters found it necessary to import laborers
(1)Started with indentured servants but work too hard, began to rely more heavily on enslaved African work force. English soon outnumbered
b)Masters and Slaves in the Caribbean
i)Small white, successful population, large bonded African population led to fear of revolt, 1660s legal codes to regulate relations between master and slaves
(1)Many white slave owners concluded cheaper to buy new slaves than to protect well-being, worked them to death
ii)Establishing stable society and culture difficult b/c of harsh and deadly conditions, wealthy returned to England, whites left behind were poor + mostly single and contributed little, no church, family, community
(1)Africans developed world of their own, sustained African religion and social traditions
iii)Caribbean connected to NA colonies, principle source of slaves, plantation system provided models to mainland peoples
c)The Southwestern Borderlands
i)In C and S America Span established impressive empire, settlers prosperous. Areas N of Mexico unimportant economically, peopled by minorities, missionaries, soldiers
ii)New Mexico after Pueblo revolt 1680 developed flourishing agriculture, still not as successful as Span in Mexico and other denser areas
iii)Span began to colonize California after other Eur began to establish presence 1760s. Missions, forts (prestidos) trading areas led to decline in native population, rest forced to convert to Catholicism. Spanish wanted prosperous agricultural economy, used Indian laborers
iv)Late 17th century early 18th cent Spanish considered greatest threat to northern borders French. French traveled down Mississippi R., claimed Louisiana 1682.
(1)Fearing French incursions west + displaced natives, Span began to fortify Texas by building forts, missions, settlements, San Fernando (San Antonio) 1731
(2)North Arizona part of N Mexico ruled by Santa Fe, rest Mexican region Sonora. Heavy Jesuit missionary presence, little success though
v)Spanish colonies in SW created les to increase wealth of empire than to defend it from threats by other Eur powers in NA, but helped create enduring society unlike those established by English. Enlisted natives instead of displacing them
d)The Southeast Borderlands
i)Direcy challenge to English in NA was Spanish in southeastern areas. Florida claimed in 1560s missionaries and traders expanded north into Georgia. 1607 founding of Jamestown Span felt threatened, built forts, area between Carolinas and Florida site of tension btwn Span English and Span French
ii)By 18th century Spanish settlers driven out of Florida, confinded to St Augustine and Pensacola, relied on natives and Africans, intermarried
iii)Eventaully English prevailed, acquired Florida in Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War), English had always wanted to protect southern boundary
e)The Founding of Georgia
i)Founders group of unpaid trustees led by General James Oglethorpe, interested in economic success, military and philanthropic motives. Military barrier against Spanish and refuge for impoverished English to begin anew
ii)Treaty recognized English lands 1676, fighting continued in 1686 w/ raid against Carolina, hostilities broke out in 1701 in Queen Anne’s War/ War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1713
iii)Oglethorpe wanted colony south of Carolinas, wanted prisoners and poor people in debt to be farmer-soldiers of the new colony
iv)1732 King George II granted trustees land, compact settlement to defend against Spanish and Indians, excluded Africans, prohibited rum, regulated trade w/ Indians excluded catholics—all to prevent revolt/conflict
v)1733 founded at mouth of Savanna R, few debtors released form jail so hundreds of impoverished ppl from England and Scotland as well as religious refugees from Switzerland and Germany settled colony
vi)Strict rules stifled early development- ppl demanded right to buy slaves, restrictions on size of individual property, power of trustees
vii)1740 Ogelthorpe failed assault on St Augustine, trustees removed limitation on individual landholdings, 1750 allowed slavery, 1751 gave control of colony to king who then allowed for representative assembly
f)Middle Grounds
i)Struggle for NA not only among Eurs, but btwn Eurs and native populations
ii)In VA and New England settlers quickly established dominance and displaced natives, but in other areas balance of power more precarious
iii)In western borders neither side dominant, in “middle grounds” frequent conflict but each side had to make concessions. In these areas influence of colonial govt invisible, had own relationship with tribes
iv)To Indians Eurs menacing and appealing. Feared powerful weapons, but wanted them to moderate their own conflicts, offer gifts
v)17th century before English settlers French adept at beneficial relationships with tribes, many were solitary fur traders
vi)By mid 18th century French influence declinging and British settlers becoming dominant, had to deal with leaders thru gifts, cememonies, mediation instead of simple commands and raw force
vii)As British and American influece grew, new settlers had difficulty adapting to these complex rituals, stability btwn whites and Indians deteriorated, by 19th century “middle grounds” collapsed. Sotry of whites and Indians not only of conquest and subjugation but in some regions of difficult but stable acomodation and mutual adaption
5)The Evolution of the British Empire
a)The Drive for Reorganization
i)Imperial reorganization some believed would increase colonial profits, power of govt, success of mercantilism. Colonies= market for manufactured goods, source for raw materials, but foreigners had to be excluded
ii)Govt sought to monopolize trade with its colonies, but at times American colonists found it more profitable to trade w/ Spanish, French, Dutch. Trade developed btwn them and non-English markets
iii)@ First govt made no effort to restrict, but during Oliver Cromwell’’s Protectorate in 1650 + 1651 passed laws to keep Dutch ships out of English colonies, Charlies II adopted three Navigation Acts
(1)First 1660 allowed trade to occur only in British ships. Second 1663 all goods to Eur had to pass thru England on way, taxable. Third 1673 created duties on coastal trade and allowed customs officials to enforce Acts
iv)Laws advantage for England, but some for colonies as well: created important shipbuilding industry, encouraged and subsidized the development production of goods English needed
b)The Dominion of New England
i)1679 Charles II tried to increase control over MA yb making New Hampshire a royal colony, five years later after MA refused to enforce Navigation Acts Charles revoked Massachusetts corporation charter, became royal colony
ii)James II 1686 created Dominion of New England, combined govts of MA w/ rest of NE colonies, 1688 NY and NJ as well. Eliminated assemblies, appt a single governor, Sir Edmund Andros. Rigid enforcement of Navigation Acts, dismissal of claims “rights of Englishmen”, strengthened Anglican church
c)The “Glorious Revolution”
i)James II ruled autocratically, Cath. ministers, w/o Parliament, 1688 daughter Mary and husband William of Orange assumed throne= bloodless coup
ii)Bostonians heard of overthrow of James II, unseated unpopular viceroy. Dominion of NE abolished, separate govts restored- except 1691 Plymouth + MA merged 2 royal colony, charter restored General Court but governor too, replaced church membership w/ property ownership as basis 4 voting + office
iii)Adros governed NY thru Captain Francis Nicholson (supported by wealthy merchants and fur traders), dissidents were led by Jacob Leisler who raised militia and captured city fort, drove Nicholson to exile. 1691 William and Mary appd new governor, Leisler charged with treason, rivalry btwn “Leislerians” and “anti-Laslerians” dominated NY poitics for years
iv)Maryland ppl erroneously assumed Cath Lord Baltimore had sided with James II, so 1689 John Coode started revolt, drove out Lord Balt’s officials, thru elected convention chose committee to govern and applied for chater, 1691 William and Mary granted. Church of Eng. offical religion, Cath prevented to hold office, vote, practice religion in public. 1715 5th Lord Baltimore became proprietor after joining Anglican Church
1)The Colonial Population
a)Indentured Servitude
i)Young men and women bound themselves to masters for a fixed term of servitude, in return received passage to America, food shelter, and males clothing, tools, and land at end—in reality left with nothing at all
(1)Provided means of coping with severe labor shortage, masters received headrights, for servants hope to escape troubles, establish themselves
ii)Most former servants formed large floating population of young single men, traveled from place to place, source of social unrest
iii)1670s flow began to decline b/c of prosperity in England, decrease in birth rate
b)Birth and Death
i)Inadequate food, frequent epidemics, large number early deaths. But growth of population even after immigration, after 1650s natural increase= most growth
ii)N= cool climate, relatively disease-free, clean water, no large population centers for epidemics= long lives. S= mortality rates high (infants too), life expectancy low, disease and salt-contaminated water. growth b/c immigration
iii)By late 17th cent ratio of males to females becoming more balanced, led to increase in natural growth
c)Medicine in the Colonies
i)17th + 18th cent no concept of infection + sterilization, midwives in childbirth and recommended herbs
ii)Humoralism led to purging, expulsion, bleeding. Most ppl treated themselves
d)Women and families in the Chesapeake
i)B/c of sex ration women married young, high mortality rates, premarital sex common. Life of childbearing, average of 8 children, 5 of which typically died in childhood or infancy. Had greater levels of freedom @ first b/c of ratio
ii)High mortality rates led to many orphans, special courts and institutions to protect and control them. By 18th century life expectancy increasing, indentured servitude decreasing, more equal sex ratio, life easer for whites
e)Women and Families in New England
i)Family structure more stable + traditional, women minority married young, children more likely to survive, much of life spent rearing and childbearing
ii)Family relationships and women status dictated by religion. S established churches weak, NE power in men who created patriarchal view of society
f)The Beginnings of Slavery in British America
i)Demand for black servants to supplement scare southern labor supply, limited @ first b/c Atlantic slave trade did not serve American colonies- Portuguese to SA and Caribbean, by late 17th century came to America w/ French and Dutch
(1)Sugar economies of Caribbean + Brazil demanded slaves, not until 1670s did traders import blacks directly 2 (b4 mostly W. Indies to America)
ii)Mid 1690s Royal African Company’s monopoly broken, prices fell, number of Africans increased. Small number in NE, more in middle colonies, majority in S b/c flow of white laborers had all but stopped
iii)Early 18th century rigid distinction established btwn blacks and whites, no necessity to free black workers, serve permanently, children= new work force
(1)Assumptions of white superior race, applied like it had to natives. Slave codes limited rights of blacks in law, almost absolute authority of masters
g)Changing Sources of European Immigration
i)BY early 18th century immigration from England in decline- result of better economic conditions and govt restrictions on emigration. French, German, Swiss, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Scandinavian immigration increased
(1)French Huguenots, German Protestants (many from Palatinate)- settled in NY, PA (Dutch mispronunciation of Deutsch), around 1710 Scotch-Irish immigrated + pushed out to edges of Eur settlements- significant in NJ and PA, established Presbyterianism as important religion there
2)The Colonial Economies
a)The Southern Economy
i)Chesapeake- tobacco basis of economy, bust and boom pattern, enabled some planters to grow enormously wealthy
ii)South Carolina and Georgia staple was rice. Arduous + unhealthful, whites refused to cultivate, dependent on African labor more than elsewhere. Blacks showed greater resistance 2 disease, more adept at agricultural tasks than white
(1)Early 1740s indigo contributed to SC economy, high demand in England
iii)B/c of S dependence on cash crops developed less of a commercial or industrial economy, few cities, no large local merchant communities
b)Northern Economic and Technological Life
i)Agriculture dominated, more diverse but conditions less favorable, hard to develop large-scale commercial farming, middle colonies more suited 4 wheat
ii)Home industries, craftsmen and artisans, mills for grinding grain, large scale shipbuilding operations, 1640s MA metals industry w/ ironworks. Metal became important part of colonial economy, largest enterprise was German Peter Hasenclever in NJ- but Iron Act of 1750 limited surpassing England
iii)Biggest obstacles for industrialization were inadequate labor supply small domestic market, inadequate transpiration facilities and energy supplies
iv)Natural resources- lumber, mining, fishing, impt commodities to trade
c)The Extent and Limits of Technology
i)Ppl lacked guns, plows, lack of ownership of tools b/c of poverty, isolation
ii)Few colonists self-sufficient in late 17th early 18th cent, ability of ppl to acquire manufactured implements lagged behind capacity to produce them
d)The Rise of Colonial Commerce
i)At first no commonly accepted medium of exchange, difft forms of paper currency ineffective + could not be used for goods from abroad
ii)Imposing order on trade difficult, production and markets of goods not guaranteed, small competitive companies made stabilization more difficult
iii)Commerce eventually grew, large coastal trade w/ each other + W. Indies, expanding transatlantic trade w/ England, Eur continent, west Africa.
iv)“Triangular trade”, trade in rum, slaves, sugar, manufactured goods
v)New merchant class developed in port cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia), protected from competition by Navigation Acts, access to market in England. Ignored and developed markets with other nations, higher profits, financed import of English manufactured goods
vi)During 18th century commercial system stabilized, merchants expanded
e)The Rise of Consumerism
i)Growing prosperity created new appetite and ability to satisfy, material goods
ii)Increasing division of societies by class, ability to purchase and show goods impt to demonstrate class, especially in cities w/o estate to prove wealth
iii)Industrial Revolution allowed England and Eur to produce more affordable goods, increasingly commercial society created social climate where buying goods considered social good. Merchants and traders began advertising
iv)Things once considered luxuries came to be seen as necessities once readily available, such as tea, linens. Quality of possessions associated with virtue + refinement, strive to become more educated
v)Growth of consumption and refinement led cities to plan growth and ensure elegant public squares, parks, boulevards, public stages for social display
3)Patterns of Society
a)The Plantation
i)Some plantations enormous, but most 17th cent plantations were rough and small estates, work force seldom more than 30 ppl
ii)Economy precarious- good years growers could earn great profit and expand, but couldn’t control markets, when prices fell faced ruin
iii)Most plantations far from towns, forced to become self-contained communities, some larger ones approached size of town
iv)Society highly stratified, wealthy landowners exercised greater social and economic influence. Small farmers with few or no slaves formed majority
b)Plantation Slavery
i)By mid-18th cent ¾ blacks lived on plantations with 10+ slaves, ½ lived w/ 50+
ii)In larger establishments society and culture developed btwn slaves, attempts at nuclear families made but members could be sold at any time, led to extended families. Developed own languages, religion w/ Christianity and African lore
iii)Occasional acts of individual resistance, at least twice actual slave rebellions. Stone Rebellion in SC 1739- 100 Africans rose up + attempted to flee to Florida, quickly crushed by whites. Other slaves tried to run away
iv)Some slaves learned skills, set up own shops, some bought freedom
c)The Puritan Community
i)Social unit of NE was town, “covenant” of members bound all in religious + social commitment to unity. Arranged around a “common”, outlying fields divided by family size, social station. Little colonial interference, self govt
ii)English primogeniture (passing of all to firstborn son) replaced by division amongst all sons, women more mobile than brothers b/c no inheritance
iii)Tight knit community controlled by layout, power of church, town meeting. Strayed by pop increases, ppl began farming further lands, moved houses to be closer, applied for church of their own, eventually led to new town
iv)Patriarchal society weakened by economic necessity, needed help w/ farm, ect.
d)The Witchcraft Phenomenon
i)Gap btwn expectation of united community and reality of increasingly diverse and fluid one difficult for NEers to accept- led to tensions that produced hysteria such as witchcraft (Satanic powers) in the 1680s and 1690s
ii)Salem, MA- accusations spread from W Indians to prominent ppl. This model would repeat itself, mostly middle-aged, childless widowed women who may have inherited property. Puritan society no tolerance for “independent women”
iii)Reflection of highly religious character of society, witchcraft was mainstream
e)Cities
i)Commercial centers emerged along Atlantic by 1770s- New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Charles Town, Newport (RI)
ii)Trading centers for farmers, marts for international trade, leaders merchants w/ large estates, large social distinctions. Center of industry such as ironworks and distilleries, advanced schools, cultural activities. Crime, vice, epidemics, ect.
iii)Vulnerable to fluctuations in trade, countryside effects muted. Places where new ideas could circulate, regular newspapers, books from abroad= new ideas
4)Awakenings and Enlightenments
a)The Pattern of Religions
i)Religious toleration flourished in America b/c of necessity. Church of England official religion for some colonies, ignored except in VA and MA. Protestants extended toleration more readily to each other than to Roman Catholics- persecuted in MA after 1691 overthrow of proprietors. NEers viewed Cath French agents of Rome
ii)Early 18th cent some troubled w/ decline religious piety in society, movement west + scattered settlements= loss with organized religion, commercial success created more secular outlook in urban areas. jeremiads= sermon of despair
b)The Great Awakening
i)Began in 1730s climax 1740s, new spirit of religious fervor, appeal to women and younger sons b/c of rhetoric of potential for every person to break away from constraints and renew relationship with God
ii)Evangelists from England such as John and Charles Wesley, George Whitfield spread revival. Most famously NE Congregationalist Jonathan Edward
c)The Enlightenment
i)Product of great scientific and intellectual discoveries in Eur in 17th cent, natural laws discovered that regulated nature, celebrated human reason + inquiry. Reason and not just faith create progress and knowledge
ii)Ppl should look at themselves for guidance to live and shape society, not to God. Didn’t challenge religion, insisted rational inquiry supported Christianity
d)Education
i)Even b4 Enlightenment colonists placed high value on education, MA 1647 law required each town to have a public school. Most white males were literate, women’s rate lagged, Africans virtually no access to education
ii)Six colleges by 1763, most founded by religious groups: Harvard (Puritans) created to train ministers, William and Mary (Anglicans) Yale (Congregationalists). Despite religious basis, liberal education. Kings College (Columbia) and UPenn created as secular institutions
e)The Spread of Science
i)Prominent members of society members of the Royal Society of London.
ii)Value placed on scientific knowledge can be seen by rise of inoculation, spread by Cotton Mather and adopted in Boston 1720s, became common procedure
f)Concepts of Law and Politics
i)Americans believed they were re-creating institutions of Europe but b/c of lack of lawyers before 1700 English legal system was simplified- rights to trial by jury maintained but pleading and procedure simpler, punishment different b/c of labor-scarce society, govt criticism not libel if accurate
ii)Large degree of self-govt. Local communities ran own affairs, had delegates to colonial assemblies filed role of Parliament, apptd provincial governors powers were limited
iii) Provincial govts accustomed to acting pretty independently, expectations about rights of colonists began to take hold in America that policymakers in England did not share. Few problems before 1760s b/c British did little to exert authority they believed they possessed
1)Loosening Ties
a)A Tradition of Neglect
i)After Glorious Revolution Parliamentary leaders less inclined to tighten imperial control b/c depended on support of merchants + landholders who feared taxes, diminished profits
ii)Colonial administration inefficient split btwn Board of Trade and Plantations, Privy Council, admiralty, treasury. Many Royal officials in America apptd b/c of bribery or favoritism
iii)Resistance centered in colonial legislatures, claimed right to tax, approve appts, pass laws. Saw themselves as little parliaments, checked governor power
b)The Colonies Divided
i)Colonists often felt stronger ties to England than to one another. Yet cnxns still forged, Atlantic settlement created roads, trade, colonial postal service
ii)Loath to cooperate even against French and Indian threat. Still, delegation in Albany to Iroquois proposed establishing a general govt with power to govern relationships with Indians, but colony retaining constitution but power. This Albany Plan was rejected by all the colonies
2)The Struggle for the Continent
a)New France and the Iroquois Nation
i)By 1750s growing English and French settlements produced religious and commercial tensions. Louis XIV sought greater empire, French explorers had traveled down Mississippi R. and looked Westward, held continental interior
ii)To secure holdings founded communities, fortresses, missions, trading posts. Seigneuries (lords) held large estates, Creoles in S had plantation economy
iii)“Middle ground” of interior occupied by French, British, Indians. English offered Indians more and better goods, French offered tolerance + adjusted behavior to Indian patterns- French developed closer relationships
iv)Iroquois Confederacy a defensive alliance, most powerful tribal presence in NE. Forged commercial relationship w/ Dutch and English, played French against English to maintain independence. Ohio valley became battleground
b)Anglo-French Conflicts
i)Glorious Revolution led to William III and later Queen Anne to oppose French
ii)King William’s War (1689-1687), Queen Anne’s War began 1701 brought border fighting w/ Spanish, French and Indian allies. Treaty of Utrech 1713 ended conflicts, gave much land to English
iii)Conflict over trade btwn Spanish and English merged w/ conflict btwn French and English over Prussia + Austria. Resulted in King George’s War 1744-1748
iv)After, relations in America btwn English, French, Iroquois deteriorated. Iroquois granted concessions to British, French built new fortresses in Ohio valley, British did the same. Iroquois balance of power disintegrated
v)1754 VA sent militia under George Washington to challenge French, assaulted Fort Duquesne. F counter-assault on his Fort Necessity resulted in its surrender
c)The Great War for the Empire- The French and Indian War
i)First phase lasted from 1754 after For Necessity to expansion to Eur in 1756. Colonists most on own w/ only moderate British assistance- navy prevented landing of larger French reinforcements, but failed Ohio R. attack.
(1)Local colony forces occupied with defending themselves against W. Indian tribes’ (except Iroquois) raids who allied themselves with French after Fort Necessity defeat. Iroquois hesitant to molest French but allied with English
ii)Second phase began 1756 when French and English opened official hostilities in Seven Years’ War. Realignment of allies. Beginning 1757 British Sec. of State William Pitt began to bring most impt war effort in America under British control: forcibly enlisted colonists (impressments), seized supplies and forced shelter from colonists w/o compensation. By 1758 much friction
iii)Third phase Pitt relaxed policies, reimbursed control, returned military control to assemblies, additional troops to America. Finally tide in England’s favor, after poor French harvests 1756 suffered many defeats at hands of generals Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe thru 1758. Fall of Quebec 1759 by Wolfe resulted in surrender of French 1760
iv)Pitt didn’t pursue peace, but George III ascended throne and signed Peace of Paris 1763. F ceded Canada and land east of Miss. R
v)War expanded England’s New World territory, enlarged English debt. English officials angry at American ineptitude and few financial contributions
vi)Colonists had been forced to act in concert, return of authority to assemblies 1758 seemed to confirm illegitimacy of English interference in local affairs
vii)Disaster for Indians in Ohio Valley allied with French, Iroquois passivity resulted in deteriorated English relationship, Confed began to crumble
3)The New Imperialism
a)Burdens of Empire
i)After 1763 empire management more difficult. In past viewed colonies in terms of trade, now ppl argued land and population’s support and taxes were valuable
ii)Territorial annexations of 1763 doubled size of British Emp in NA. Conflict over whether west should be settled or not, colonial govts competed for jurisdiction, other wanted English to control or make new colonies
iii)English govt had vast war debt, English landlords + merchants objecting to tax increase, troops in India added expense, England couldn’t rely on cooperation of colonial govts. Argued tax administered by London only effective way
iv)New king George III 1760 determined to be active monarch, created unstable majority in Parliament, suffered mental illness, immature, insecure
(1)Apptd PM George Grenville 1763, unlike brother-in-law Pitt didn’t sympathize w/ American view, believed colonists indulged too long and should obey laws and pay cost of defending and administering empire
b)The British and the Tribes
i)To prevent conflict w/ Indians from settlers moving to western lands issued Proclamation of 1763 forbidding settlers to advance beyond Appalachian line
(1)Allowed London to control westward movement, limit depopulation of coastal trade markets, land and fur speculation to British and not colonists
ii)More land taken from natives but many tribes still supported it. John Stuart (south) and Sir William Johnson (north) in charge of native affairs
iii)Proc failure, settlers swarmed over boundary, new agreements failures as well
c)The Colonial Response
i)Grenville stationed British troops in America, Mutiny Act of 1765 required colonists to assist in provisioning of army, British navy patrolled for smugglers, customs service enlarged, no royal official substitutes, limited manufacturing
ii)Sugar Act 1764 tried to eliminate illegal sugar trade btwn colonies, foreigners
iii)Currency Act of 1764 disallowed use of paper currency by assemblies
iv)Stamp Act of 1765 imposed tax on all printed documents
v)New imperial program effort to reapply mercantilism, increased revenues. Colonists had trouble effectively resisting b/c on conflict amongst themselves, tension over “backcountry” settlers
vi)1771 small-scale civil war after Regulators in NC opposed high taxes sheriffs apptd by governor collected + felt underrepresented. Suppressed by governor
vii)After 1763 common grievances began to counterbalance internal divisions. N. merchants opposed commercial + manufacturing restraint, backcountry resented closing land speculation and fur trading, debted plantesr feared new taxes, professionals depended on other colonists, small farmers feared taxes ad abolition of paper money. Restriction came at beginning of economic depression, policies affected cities greatest where resistance first arose. Boston suffering worst economic problems
viii)Great political consequences, Anglo-Americans accustomed to self-govt thru provincial assemblies and right to appropriate money for colonial govt. Circumvention of assemblies by taxing public directly and paying royal officials unconditionally challenged basis of colonial power: public finance
(1)Same time democratic, but also conservative- to conserve liberties Americans believed already possessed
4)Stirrings of Revolt
a)The Stamp Act Crisis
i)Stamp Act of 1765 affected all Americans. Economic burdens were light but colonists disturbed by precedent set- past taxes to regulate commerce and not raise money, stamps obvious attempt to tax w/o assemblies approval
ii)Few colonists did more than grumble- until Patrick Henry 1765 in VA House of Burgesses spoke against British authority. Introduced resolutions known as “Virginia Resolves” declaring Americans possessed same rights as English, right to be taxed only by their own reps
iii)In MA James Otis called for intercolonial congress against tax, October 1765 Stamp Act Congress met in NY to petition king. Summer 1765 riots broke out along coast led by new Sons of Liberty. Boston crowd attacked Lt. Gov.
iv)Some opposition b/c of wealth/power disparity, mostly political + ideological
v)Stamp Act repealed b/c boycott of 1764 Sugar Act expanded to other colonies, aided by Sons of Liberty. Centered in Boston b/c that is where customs commissioners headquartered. English merchants begged for repeal b/c of lost markets, Marquis of Rockingham succeeded Grenville + convinced king to repeal it 1766. (Also, Declaratory Act asserted Parl. control over all colonies)
b)The Townshend Program
i)Negative rxn to appeasement in England. Landlords feared would lead to increased taxes on them, king bowed and appt William Penn (Lord Chatham) PM, but was incapacitated by illness to chairman of the exchequer Charles Townshend held real power
ii)1st problem Quartering Act, British believed reasonable since troops protecting, colonists objected b/c made contribution were mandatory. NY and MA refused
iii)1767 disbanded NY assembly until colonists obeyed Mutiny Act, new tax (Townshend Duties) on goods imported from England- tea, paper. Believed “external” tax would be difft than Stamp Act’s “internal” tax
iv)Colonists still objected b/c saw same purpose as to raise revenue w/o consent
v)MA Assembly lead opposition, urged all colonies stand up against every tax by Parl. Sec of State for Colonies Lord Hillsborough said any assembly endorsing MA would be dissolved. Other colonies railed to support MA
vi)Townshend attempted stronger enforcement of commercial regulations + stop smuggling thru new board of customs commissioners, based in Boston. Boston merchants organized boycott against products with T. Duties, 1768 NY and Philadelphia joined nonimportation agreement
vii)1767 T. died, Lord North repealed all Town. Duties except that on tea
c)The Boston Massacre
i)Before news of repeal reached America impt event in MA. B/c of Boston harassment of customs commissioners Brit govt placed regular troops in city. Tensions ran high, soldiers competed in labor market
ii)March 5, 1770 dockworkers + “liberty boys” pelted customs house sentries w/ rocks, scuffle ensued and British fired into crowd and killed 5 ppl
iii)Incident transformed by local resistance leaders into “Boston Massacre”, Paul Revere’s engraving pictured it as an organized assault on a peaceful crowd
iv)Samuel Adams leading figure in fomenting public outrage, viewed events in moral terms- England sinful and corrupt. Organized committee of correspondence 1772, other networks of dissent spread 1770s
d)The Philosophy of Revolt
i)Three years of calm but 1760s aroused ideological challenge to England. Ideas that would support revolution stemmed from religion (Puritans), politics, “radical” opposed to GB govt (Scots, Whigs), used John Locke for arguments
ii)New concept that govt was necessary to protect individuals from evils of ppl, but govt made up of ppl and therefore safeguards needed against abuses of power, ppl disturbed that king and ministers too powerful to be checked
iii)English const an unwritten flexible changing set of principles, Americans favored permanent inscription of govt powers
iv)Basic principle was right of ppl to be taxed only with their consent, “no taxation w/o representation” absurd to English who employed “virtual representation” (all Parl members rep all interests of whole nation) vs American “actual” representative elected and accountable to community
v)Difft opinion of sovereignty, Americans believed in division of sov btwn Parl and assemblies, British believed must be a single, ultimate authority
e)The Tea Excitement
i)Apperant calm disguised sense of resentment at enforcement of Navigation Acts 1770s. Dissent leaflets and literature, tavern conversation, not only iltellectuals but ordinary ppl haerd, discussed, absorbed new ideas
ii)1773 East India Company had large stock of tea could not sell in England, Tea Act of 1773 passed by Parl allowed company to export tea to America w/o paying navigation taxes paid by colonial merchants, allowed company to sell tea for less than colonists + monopolize colonial tea trade. Enraged merchants
iii)Enraged merchants, revived taxation without rep. issue. Lord North colonists would be happy with reduced tea prices but resistance leaders argued it was another example of unconstitutional tax. Massive boycott of tea followed
iv)Women role in resistance- plays of Mercy Otis Warren, Daughters of Liberty
v)Late 1773 w/ popular support leaders planned to prevent E. India Company from landing its cargoes in colonial ports, NY, Philadelphia, Charleston stopped shipment. December 16, 1773 Bostonians dressed as Mohawks boarded ships, poured tea chests into harbor—“Boston tea party”
vi)When Bostonians refused to pay for destroyed property George III and Lord North passed four Coercion Acts (Intolerable Acts to Americans) in 1774- closed port of Boston, reduced self-govt power, royal officers could be tried in England or other colonies, quartering of troops in empty houses
vii)Quebec Act provided civil govt for French Roman-Caths of Canada, recognized legality of Rom Cath church. Americans inflamed b/c feared was a plot to subject Americans to tyranny of pope, would hinder western expansion
viii)Coercive Acts didn’t isolate MA, made it a martyr, sparked new resistance
5)Cooperation and War
a)New Sources of Authority
i)Passage of authority from royal govt to colonists began on local level where history of autonomy strong. Example- 1768 Samuel Adams called convention of delegates from towns to sit in place of dissolved General Court. Sons of Liberty became source of power, enforced boycotts
ii)Committees of correspondence began 1772 in MA, VA made first intercolonial committee which enabled cooperation btwn colonies. VA 1774 governor dissolved assembly, rump session issued call for Continental Congress
iii)First Continental Congress met Sept 1774 in Philadelphia (no delegates from Georgia), made 5 major decisions
(1)Rejected plan for colonial union under British authority
(2)Endorsed statement of grievances, called 4 repeal of oppressive legislation
(3)Recommended colonists make military preparations for defense of British attack against Boston
(4)Nonimporation, nonexportation, nonconsumption agreement to stop all trade with Britain, formed “Colonial Association” to enforce agreements
(5)Agreed to meet in spring, indicating making CC a continuing organization
iv)CC reaffirmed autonomous status within empire, declared economic war. In Eland Lord Chatham (William Pitt) urged withdrawal of American troops, Edmund Burke for repeal of Coercive Acts. 1775 Lord North passed Conciliatory Propositions- no direct Parl tax, but colonists would tax themselves at Parls demand. Didn’t reach America until after first shot fired
b)Lexington and Concord
i)Farmers and townspeople of MA had been gathering arms and training “minutemen”. IN Boston General Thomas Gage knoew of preparations, received orders from England to arrest rebel leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington vicinity. Heard of minutemen stock in nearby Concord and decided to act on April 18, 1775
ii)William Dawes and Paul revere road from Boston to warn of impending British attack. At Lexington town common shots fired and minutemen fell. On march back from hidden farmers harassed British army
iii)Rebels circulated their account of events, rallied thousands of colonists in north + south to rebel cause. Some saw just another example of tension
1)The States United
a)Defining American War Aims
i)2nd Continental Congress (CC) agreed to support war, disagreed on purpose. One group led by John and Sam Adams favored full independence, others wanted modest reforms in imperial relationship. Most sought middle ground
ii)“Olive Branch Petition” conciliatory appeal to king, then July 1775 “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”
iii)Public @ first fought not for independence but redress of grievances, later began to change reasons b/c cost of war too large for such modest aims, anger over British recruitment of Indians, slaves, mercenaries, and b/c GB rejected Olive Branch Petition and enacted “Prohibitory Act” w/ naval blockade
iv)January 1776 Common Sense by Thomas Paine was revolutionary propaganda, argued that problem was not parliamentary acts but English constitution, king, and ruling system. GB no longer fit to rule b/c of brutality, corruption
b)The Decision for Independence
i)After Common Sense support grew, CC recommended colonies establish independent govt’s from British, July 4 1776 Declaration of Independence
ii)Dec of Indep. written mostly by Thomas Jefferson, restated contract theory of John Locke that govts formed to protect rights of “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”, then listed alleged crimes of king and Parliament
iii)Dec. inspired French Revolution’s Dec. of the rights of Men, claimed sovereign “United States of America”, led to increased foreign aid
c)Responses to Independence
i)At news of Dec many rejoiced others disapproved b/c still had great loyalty to king, called themselves Loyalists but independents called them Tories
ii)States drafted constitutions to replace loyal govts by 1781, states considered centers of authority but war required central direction
iii)1777 Articles of Confederation passed to confirm weak, decentralized system in place. Continental Congress was main coordinator of war effort
d)Mobilizing for War
i)Nation needed to raise, organize, equip, and pay for army. W/o British markets shortages of materials, gunsmiths couldn’t meet demand for funs and ammunition. Most supplies captured from Brits or supplied by Eur nations
ii)Financing problematic, Congress had no power to tax ppl + had to ask states for funds. Eventually issued paper money, led to inflation, value of money plummeted. Most farmers + merchants preferred business w/ British who could pay for goods in gold and silver. Govt forced to borrowed $ from other nations
iii)After patriotic surge 1775 few American army volunteers. States used persuasion, force, drafts. To correct problem of states controlling army units 1775 created Continental army w/ single commander, George Washington. In new nation unsure of structure and govt, he provided the army and the ppl a symbol of stability around which they could rally, held nation together
2)The War for Independence
a)The First Phase: New England
i)After Concord and Lexington American forces besieged army of General Thomas Gage in Boston, Battle of Bunker Hill fought June 1775. Heaviest British casualties of entire war occurred
ii)By 1776 Brits concluded Boston not best place to wage war from b/c of geography and fervor. March 1776 withdrew to Halifax, Nova Scotia
iii)In south Patriots crushed uprising of Loyalists February 1776 at Moore’s Creek Bridge, NC. In north Americans invaded Canada, Patriot General Benedict Arnold + Richard Montgomery threatened Quebec in order to remove British threat and recruit Canadians. Siege failed, Canada not to become part of US
iv)British evacuation not so much victory as changing English assumptions about war. Clear conflict not local phenomenon around Boston but larger war
b)The Second Phase: The Mid-Atlantic Region
i)During summer 1776 British army of 32,000 landed in New York City under William Howe. Americans rejected Howe’s offer or royal pardon, Washington’s 19,000 man army pushed backed from LI, thru NJ, to PA
ii)Eur warfare was seasonal activity, British settled for winter in NJ leaving outpost of Hessians at Trenton. Christmas 1776 Washington attacked across Deleware
iii)British 1777 sought to capture Philadelphia to discourage Patriots, rally Loyalists, end war quickly. Captured city September, Washington defeated at Germanton in October, went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. CC, dislodged from capital, met in York, PA
iv)British John Burgoyne led British campaign in north, at first successful- captured supplies of Fort Ticonderoga. Defeats led Congress to remove General Philip Schuyler and replace with Horatio Gates. But series of Patriot victories followed, Burgoyne forced to withdraw to Saratoga where Gates surrounded him and forced surrender of 5,000 man army
v)Campaign Patriot success, led to alliance btwn US and France
vi)British failure due to William Howe abandoning northern campaign and letting Burgoyne fight alone, allowed Washington to retreat and regroup instead of finishing him, left Continental army unmolested in Valley Forge
c)The Iroquois and the British
i)Iroquois Confederacy declared neutrality in 1776, but Joseph and Mary Brant persuaded some tribes to support British (Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga). Belived British victory would stem white movement onto tribal lands
ii)Only 3 of 6 nations supported British(Oneida, Tuscarora, Onondaga split)
d)Securing Aid From Abroad
i)Failure of Brits to crush Continental army in mid-Atlandtic states + rebel victory at Saratoga was turning point
ii)After Dec of Indep, US sent reps to Europe’s capitals to negotiate commercial treaties. Most promising potential Ally was France where King Louis XVI and his Count de Vergennes eager to see Britain lose part of empire
iii)Thru covert deals French supplied Americans supplies but would not officially recognize US diplomatically. Ben Franklin went to France, after news of Saratoga in February France formally recognized US as nation. Allowed for expanded assistance- money, munitions, navy
e)The Final Phase: The South
i)After defeat at Saratoga and French intervention British govt put limit on commitment to conflict, tried to enlist loyalist dissidents believed to be centered in South to fight from within
ii)British forced moved from battle to battle 1778-1781, but much less Loyalist sentiment than predicted. Some refused to rise up b/c of fear of Patriot reprisal + British attempts to free slaves in order to fight. Patriots=no threat to slavery
iii)British had disadvantage of enemy in hostile territory, new form of combat. Segments of population previously apathetic now forced to involve themselves
iv)In North fighting stalemate after British moved forces to New York. Benedict Arnold became traitor, scheme to betray Patriot fort at West Point was foiled
v)In South British captured Savannah 1778, Port of Charleston 1780. Won conventional battles but harassed as they moved thru countryside by Patriot guerillas. Lord Cornwallis (Brit general for South) defeated Patriot Horatio Gates, led Washing to give command to Gen. Nathanael Greene
vi)Battle of King’s Mountain 1780 a Patriot victory, Greene split army into small, fast contingents and refrained from open battles. British had to abandon Southern campaign after battle at Guilford Courth House, NC in 1781
vii)Cornwalis ordered by Clinton to wait for ships at Yorktown. Washington, French Count Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau, and Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse all coordinated army and navy to surround British on peninsula
viii)Cornwallis surrendered October 17, 1781. Fighting over, but Brits continued to hold seaports of Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, & New York
f)Winning the Peace
i)Cornwallis’s defeat let to outcry aginsnt war, Lord North resigned and Lord Shelbrune succeeded. British emissaries in France began speaking to diplomats there (Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Jay). Final settlement Peace of Paris signed Sept 1783 when France and Spain also agreed to end hostilities
ii)Treaty recognized US independence, gave land from southern Canada to north boundary of Florida, from Atlantic to Mississippi River
3)War and Society
a)Loyalists and Minorities
i)Up to 1/5 of white population Loyalists- some officeholders in imperial govt, others merchants engaged in trade tied to imperial system, others who had lived in isolation of revolutionary ideas, others expected Brits to be victors
ii)Hounded by Patriots, harassed by legislative and judicial actions- fled to Canada or to England. Most Loyalists of average means but many were wealthy, after they left estates and social and economic leadership vacancies
iii)Anglicans were mostly Loyalists, in colonies where it was official religion (such as MA and VA). Taxes to church halted, support from England ceased, few ministers remained. Quakers weakened b/c their pacifism unpopular
iv)Catholic Church gained respect b/c most American Caths supported Patriot cause, French alliance brought Cath troops and ministers. Gratitude eroded hostility, after war Vatican named Father John Caroll American archbishop
b)The War and Slavery
i)War led to some slaves to escape due to British presence in South + their policies meant to disrupt American war effort. Revolutionary ideas introduced slaves to idea of liberty. This situation put slave dominated states like SC and Georgia to be ambivalent to revolution b/c opposed British emancipation efforts but feared revolution would foment slave rebellions
c)Native Americans and the Revolution
i)Patriots and Brits wanted Indians to remain neutral, and by and large they did. Some supported British b/c feared replacing ruling class whom they had developed limited trust with and who had fought against white expansion
ii)Patriot victory weaked natvies bc increased white demand for western lands, many Americans resented Mohawk and other Indians assistance to British and wanted to treat them as conquered people
iii)Revolution increased deep divisions and made it difficult for tribes to form common front for resistance b/c of neutral and pro-Brit alliances
iv)After war Indian and American fighting continued w/ Indian raids against froneir whites, white militia responded with attacks into Indian territories
d)Women’s Rights and the Women’s Roles
i)Patriot men going off to fight eft wives, mothers, sisters in charge of farms and businesses- sometimes successful and other times not so much. In many cities and towns impoverished women class emerged
ii)Sometimes women chose, other times forced to join camps of Patriot armies, raised morale and performed necessary tasks on cooking, nursing, cleaning. Some women ended up in combat (legendary Molly Pitcher)
iii)After revolution certain assumptions about women questioned- some like Abigail Adams called for modest expansion of women’s rights and protections. Others such as Judith Sargent Murray wanted equal education and rights
iv)New era for women did not arrive, legal doctrines of English common law gave married women barely any rights, Rev did not change these legal customs
v)Revolution encouraged ppl to reevaulate contributions of women b/c of womens participation in revolution and part general reevalutaion of American life after struggle- search for a cultural identity
e)The War Economy
i)No longer protection of trade by British navy, no more access to markets of the empire including Britain itself. Privateering used by Americans to pretty on Brit commerce.
ii)End of imperial relation in long run opened up enormous new areas of trade for nation b/c no more Brit regulations. Trade w/ Asia, South America, Caribbean
iii)End of English imports thru prewar boycotts and war itself led to stimulation of domestic manufacturing of necessities, desire for sufficiency grew
4)The Creation of State Governments
a)The Assumptions of Republicanism
i)Republicanism meant all power came from ppl, active citizenry important and could not be just a few powerful aristocrats and mass of dependent workers- idea of independent landowner was basic political ideology
ii)Opposed Eur ideas of inherited aristocracy- talents and energies of individuals and not birth would determine role in society- equality of opportunity
b)The First State Constitutions
i)States decided tat constitutions had to be written b/c believed vagueness of England’s unwritten constitution produced corruption, believed power of executive had to be limited, separation of executive from legislature
ii)Except GA and PA upper and lower chambers, property requirements for voters
c)Revising State Governments
i)By late 1770s state govts divided and unstable, believed to be so b/c they were too democratic—steps taken to limit popular power
ii)To protect constitutions from ordinary politics created the constitutional convention- special assembly to draft constitution that would never meet again
iii)Executive strengthened as rxn to weak governors, fixed salary + elected by ppl
d)Toleration and Slavery
i)New states allowed complete religious freedom, 1786 VA enacted Statue of Religious Liberty by Thomas Jefferson which called for separation of church and state
ii)Slavery abolished in New England and PA b/c of Quakers, every southern state but SC and GA prohibited further importation of slaves from abroad- slavery continued though b/c of racist assumptions about black inferiority, enormous economic investments in slaves, and lack of alternatives
5)The Search for A National Government
a)The Confederation
i)Articles of Confed adopted in 1777, Congress had power to conduct wars, foreign relations, appropriate money- would not regulate trade, draft troops, or levy taxes on ppl. Each state had one vote, articles ratified only after VA and NY gave up western land claims in 1781
b)Diplomatic Failures
i)GB failed to live up to terms of peace treaty of 1783- forces continued to occupy posts, no restitution to slave-owners, restrictions on access to empire’s markets. 1784 John Adams sent to make deal but British refused
ii)Treaty w/ Spain 1786 solidified Florida’s borders, limited US rights to navigate Mississippi R.- Souterhn states blocked ratification, weakened Articles
c)The Confederation and the Northwest
i)Ordinance of 1784 divided western territory into 10 districts, Ordianance of 1785 Congress created surveying + sale system, areas north of Ohio R. were to be parceled and sold w/ some money going to create schools
ii)Northwest Ordinance of 1787 abandoned ten districts, designated five territories that when had 60,000 ppl would become states, slavery prohibited
iii)S of Ohio R. chaotic, Kentucky and Tennessee entrance conflict not resolved
d)Indians and the Western Lands
i)Western land policies meant to bring order and stability to white settlement, but many territories claimed by Confederation were also claimed by Indians
ii)Series of treaties with Indians failed, violence climaxed in early 1790s. Negations not continued until General Anthony Wayne defeated Indians 1794 at Battle of Fallen Timbers. Treaty of Grenville w/ Miami indians ceded lands
e)Debts, Taxies, and Daniel Shays
i)Confederation had war bonds to be repaid, owerd soldiers money, foreign debt- had no way to tax, states only paid 1/6 of requested funds
ii)Group of nationalists led by Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison called for a 5% impost on imported goods, when Congress rejected plan they withdrew involvement from Confederation
iii)To pay war debts states increased taxes, poor farmers burdened by their own debt and new taxes rioted throughout New England
iv)Some farmers rallied behind Daniel Shays, 1786 Shayites prevented debt collection. Boston legislature denounced them as traitors, when rebels advanced on Springfield state militia defeated them January 1787
1)Framing A New Government
a)Advocates of Centralization
i)Confederation had averted the danger of remote and tyrannical authority, but during 1780s powerful groups began to want a national govt capable of dealing with nation’s problems- mainly economic that affected themselves
ii)Artisans wanted a single high national duty, merchants wanted a single, national commercial policy, people owed money wanted states to stop issuing paper money and causing inflation, land owners wanted protection from mobs
iii)Reformers led by Alexander Hamilton called for convention. Inter-state conference on trade held in MA advised congress to call a convention to “render the constitution… adequate to the exigencies of the union” in 1786
iv)George Washington’s support of new convention in Philadelphia 1787 gave it credibility, feared disorders like Shay’s Rebellion spreading
b)A Divided Convention
i)55 delegates from all but RI, mainly young, educated, and propertied
ii)Washington chosen as presiding officer, sessions closed to public and press
iii)VA delegation led by James Madison, had plan drafted. Edmund Randolph proposed a new nat’t govt with executive, judiciary, legislature
iv)VA Plan called for 2 house legislature w/ lower house based on population and upper house elected by lower house
v)Proposal opposed by Delaware, NJ, other small states. Proposal by William Paterson of NJ would reform Confederation + give it power to tax. Tabled, VA Plan remained basis for discussion
vi)VA Plan supporters realized concessions to small states needed for agreement, conceded upper house be elected by state legislatures, each state at least 1 rep
vii)Questions of equal rep in upper house, of slaves counted in states population but feared would be taxed if states taxed based on population
c)Compromise
i)In July grand committee established with Franklin as head, produced basis of “Great Compromise” where lower house would be based on populating with each slave counted as 3/5 o of a person in representation and direct taxation, in upper house each state had 2 reps- July 16, 1787 compromise accepted
ii)Reps agreed legislature forbidden to tax exports b/c of Southern fear of interfering with cotton economy, slave trade couldn’t be stopped for 20 years
iii)Constitution provided no definition of citizenship, absence of list of individual rights that would restrain powers of nat’l govt
d)The Constitution of 1787
i)James Madison created VA Plan, helped resolve question of sovereignty and of limiting power
ii)Sovereignty at all levels, nat’l and state, came from people. States and nat’l govt both had sovereignty from ppl and therefore Constitution could distribute powers btwn federal govt and states- but Constitution was “supreme law”
iii)Federal govt had power to tax, regulate commerce, control currency, pass laws
iv)Leaders frightened of creating a tyrannical govt, believed small nation needed to stop corruption. Madison convinced others that large nation would produce less tyranny b/c many factions would check one from being too powerful
v)Separation of powers + checks and balances forced branches to compete, federal structure divided power btwn states and nation
vi)Fear of despotism, but also fear of the “mob” and “excess of democracy”, only House of Reps elected directly by ppl.
vii)Constitution signed on September 17, 1787
e)Federalists and Antifederalists
i)Delegates decided that Constitution would come into existence when 9 of 13 states had ratified it thru conventions instead of unanimous state legislature approval required by Articles
ii)Supporters of Const well organized, supported by Washington and Franklin, called themselves Federalists. Had best political philosophers in Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay. Wrote Federalist Papers arguing for Const under pseudonym Publius
iii)Antifederalists believed Const would betray principles of Revolution by establish a strong, potentially tyrannical central govt that would increase taxies, obliterate states, favor the “well born”.
(1)Biggest complaint was that Const lacked a bill of rights, any govt with central authority could not be trusted to protect citizens’ liberties, therefore natural rights had to be enumerated in order to be preserved
iv) Federalists feared disorder, anarchy, power of masses, Antifederalists feared the state more than they did the ppl, feared concentrated power
v)Delaware first to ratify, New Hampshire 9th state in June 1788. New govt could not flourish w/o participation of VA and NY. VA, NY, MA ratified on assumption that bill of rights would be added
f)Completing the Structure
i)First elections took place 1789, George Washington elected first president unanimously, John Adams became VP- inauguration April 30, 1789
ii)First Congress passed bill of rights 1789, 10 ratified by states by end of 1791. Nine forbid Congress from infringing basic rights, 10th reserved powers to states unless specifically withheld from them or delegated to fed govt
iii)Judiciary Act of 1789 created 6 member Supreme court, 13 district courts, 3 courts of appeal, Sup Court had final decision in constitutionality of state laws
iv)Congress created departments of executive- State led by Jefferson, Treasury by Hamilton, War by Henry Knox, attorney general Edmund Randolph
2)Federalists and Republicans
a)Hamilton and the Federalists
i)Federalists dominated govt for 12 years under leadership of Treasurer Alexander Hamilton (Washington supported, but avoided direct involvement)
ii)Believed stable and effective govt required enlightened ruling class, therefore rich and powerful needed stake in its success
iii)To do so made govt responsible for existing debt + states debts, would create new large national debt w/ continuous bonds issued to give wealthy stake
iv)Creation of federal bank would fill absence of developed banking system, safe place for deposit of federal funds, collect taxes and pay expenses
v)Funding of debts required new revenue to pay bonds interest, govt sales of Western land not enough. Hamilton proposed tax on alcohol distillers- heavy toll on whiskey distillers of backcountry PA, VA, NC- & tariff on imports to raise $ + stimulate growth of industry- his 1791 “Report on Manufactures
b)Enacting the Federalist Program
i)Few members opposed plan for funding nat’l debt, but disagreement over whether payment should be to original holders or to speculators who bought many bonds from originals during hard times of 1780s. James Madison proposed dividing btwn two. Hamilton won out and current bondholders paid
ii)Hamilton faced stiffer opposition to fed’l assumption of state debts b/c ppl of states with few debts (such as VA) would pay taxes to service large debts of other states (like MA). Compromise w/ Virginians moved capital from Philadelphia to a southern location along Potomac R. for VA support of bill
iii)Bank bill most heated debate, Madison, Jefferson, Randolph, others argued Congress should exercise no powers Const did not assign it. Bill passed House and Senate, Bank of United States began operating 1791 under 20 yr charter
iv)Passage of excise tax and tariff 1792. Whole program won support of the influential population- restored public credit, speculators, manufacturing + merchants prospered. However, small farmers (maj of pop) complained of tax burden, taxes to state, excise tax on distillation, + tariff- feeling Federalist program served interests not of ppl but of wealthy elites
c)The Republican Opposition
i)Framers believed organized political parties dangerous, should be avoided would lead to factions (Madison Fed Papers #10), but eventually Madison and others convinced that Hamilton and Federalists had become a majority and used their power to control appts, offices, and rewards to supporters
ii)B/c Federalist structures thought to resemble corrupt Brit govt and menacing structure, critics felt only alternative vigorous opposition thru emergence of alternative political organization- the Republican Party
iii)By late 1790s Republicans creating even greater apparatus of partisan influence- correspondence btwn groups, influenced state and local elections
iv)Both groups believed represented only legitimate interest group, neither conceded right of other to exist- factionalism known as “first party system”
v)Leaders of Repubs James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson believed in an agrarian republic w/ independent farmer-citizens tilling own soil. Didn’t oppose commerce, trade or industry, but feared cities, urban mobs, and advanced industrial economy b/c of increase of propertyless workers
3)Establishing National Sovereignty
a)Securing the Frontier
i)1791 PA farmers refused to pay whiskey excise tax, Washington called militia from 3 states, Whiskey Rebellion collapsed- intimidation won allegiance
ii)Fed govt won loyalty of frontiersmen by accept territories as new states (NC 1789, RI 1791 last of 13 colonies)- VT 1791, Kentucky 1792, Tennessee 1796
b)Native Americans and the New Nation
i)Clashes with natives raised question of Indians’ place of in federal structure. Constitution recognized tribes as legal entities, but not outright nations
ii)Constitution did not address main issue of land, Indians lived within US boundaries but offered some measure of sovereignty
c)Maintaining Neutrality
i)In 1791 GB sent first minister to US, question of US neutrality arose in 1793 when French govt from revolution of 1789 went to war with GB
ii)French rep to US Edmond Genet violated Neutrality Act and tried to recruit Americans to French cause- US ships as privateers, raids against Spanish
iii)GB Royal Navy began seizing US ships trading w/ French in West Indies1794, anti-British feelings high, Hamilton concerned b/c war meant end to English imports- main revenue for financial system dependent from duties
d)Jay’s Treaty and Pinckney’s Treaty
i)Hamilton feared pro-French State Dept, had Washington send Chief Justice and Federalist John Jay to negotiate treaty with GB
ii)Jay’s Treaty in 1794 failed to compensate Brit assaults on ships and withdrawal of Brit forces from frontier, but prevented war, established American sovereignty over Northwest, satisfactory commercial relationship
iii)American backlash followed b/c not enough Brit promises, Republicans and some Federalists offered opposition but ultimately ratified by Senate
iv)Jay’s treaty allowed peace to be made with Spain b/c raised fears of Brit/American alliance in North America, Pinckney’s treaty 1795 recognized US right to Mississippi, Florida border, control of Indian raids from FL
4)The Downfall of the Federalists
a)The Election of 1796
i)Washington retired 1797, in “Farewell” worried over foreign influence on gov’t, including French efforts to frustrate Federalist diplomatic program
ii)Open expression of political rivalries after Washington- Jefferson running for Republicans, Hamilton too many enemies so VP John Adams Fed candidate
iii)Federalists could win majority of electors 1796 pres. election for Adams but factional fighting within party caused second candidate Thomas Pinckney to receive many votes- resulted in Jefferson finishing second, became VP.
iv)Federalists divided, strong Republicans opposition, Hamilton still lead party
b)The Quasi War with France
i)US relations w/ GB + Spain improved after treaties, deteriorated w/ France b/c of impressments of US ships and sailors
ii)President Adam’s pursued reconciliation by appointing bi-partisan commission of Charles Pinckney, John Marshall, Elbridge Gerry to negotiate
iii)French foreign minister Talleyrand demanded loan and bribe, Adams turned over report of this to Congress w/ names deleted- “XYZ Affair” caused outrage at France, Federalist gained support for response
iv)Adams asked Congress to cut off trade, 1798 created Dept of Navy (very successful capturing French ships), cooperated w/ GB
v)France reconciled, new govt of Napoleon 1800 new commercial arrangements
c)Repression and Protest
i)Conflict w/ France led to Federalist majority 1798, to silence Republican opposition passed the Alien and Sedition Acts
ii)Alien Acts restricted places obstacles for foreigners becoming citizens, Sedition Act allowed govt to prosecute libelous or treasonous activity- but definitions allowed govt to stifle any opposition—Repubs fought back
iii)Adams cautious in implementation but still repressive, Republican leaders hoped for reversal from state legislatures
iv)Jefferson + Madison had VA, KY adopt resolutions arguing when govt exercised undelegated powers, its acts “void”. Used Locke’s “compact theory”: states were part of contract, fed govt had breached contract, therefore states could “nullify” the appropriate laws—only VA and KY did so
v)By late 1790s national crisis b/c nation so politically divided
d)The “Revolution” of 1800
i)1800 pres election saw same candidates- Adams’ and Jefferson’s supporters showed no restraint or dignity in their assaults against other
ii)Crucial contest in New York where Aaron Burr (candidate for VP) mobilized Rev War veterans, the Tammany Society, to serve as Repub political machine- Repubs eventually won the state and election
iii)In partisan atmosphere Jefferson and Burr votes tied, the previous Federalist Congress had to choose between the two in a vote (H of Reps decides when no majority), ultimately Hamilton and Federalists elected Jefferson
iv)After election only judiciary branch still Federalist, Judiciary Act of 1801 had created many new positions which Adams had filled before leaving office
v)Republican viewed victory as savior from tyranny, believed new era would begin where true founding principles would govern
1)The Rise of Cultural Nationalism
a)Patterns of Education
i)Republican vision included enlightened citizenry, wanted nationwide system of free public schools to create educated electorate required by republic
ii)By 1815 no state had a comprehensive public school system, schooling primary by private institutions open only to those who could pay. Most were aristocratic in outlook, trained students to become elite. Few schools for poor
iii)Idea of “republican mother” to train new generation could not be ignorant, late 18thcentury women began to have limited education to make them better wives and mothers- no professional training
iv)Attempts to educate “noble savages” in white culture and reform tribes, African Americans very little schooling- literacy rate very small
v)Higher education not public, private contribution + tuition necessary, students mostly from prosperous, propertied families. Little professional education
b)Medicine and Science
i)Most doctors learned from established practitioners, struggled w/ introduction of science and combating superstition. Doctors often used dangerous and useless treatments.
ii)Medical profession used its new “scientific” method to justify expanding control to new care- childbirths by doctor and not midwives
c)Cultural Aspirations in the New Nation
i)After Eur independence ppl wanted cultural independence, literary and artistic achievements to rival those of Europe
ii)Nationalism could be found in early American schoolbooks, Noah Webster wanted patriot education- American Spelling Book and American Dictionary of the English Languageestablished national standard of words and usage, simplified and Americanized system of spelling created
iii)High literacy rate and large reading public due to wide circulation of newspapers and political pamphlets. Most printers used cheaper English material, American writers struggled to create strong native literature
(1)Charles Brockden Brown used novels to voice American themes
(2)Washington Irving wrote American fold tales, fables- Rip Van Winkle
(3)Histories that glorified past- Mercy Otis Warren History of the Revolution 1805 emphasized heroism, Mason Weems Life of Washington 1806. History used to instill sense of nationalism
d)Religious Skepticism
i)Revolution detached churches from govt + elevated liberty and reason, by 1790s few members of formal churches, some embraced “deism”
ii)Books and articles attacking religious “superstitions” popular, Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason.
iii)Skepticism led to “universalism” + “unitarianism”, @ first within New England Congregational Church, later separate- rejected predestination, salvation for all, Jesus only great religious teacher not son of God
iv)Spread of rationalism led to less commitment to organized churches + denominations considered too formal and traditional, comeback starting 1801
e)The Second Great Awakening
i)Origin 1790s from efforts to fight spread of religious rationalism. Baptists, Presbyterian, Methodists (founded by John Wesley) successful at combating New Light dissenters (ppl who made religion more compatible w/ rationalism)
ii)By 1800 awakening that began at Yale had spread throughout country and to the west, “camp meetings” by evangelical ministers produced religious frenzy
iii)Second Great Awakening called individuals to readmit God + Christ into daily life, reject skeptical rationalism. New sects rejected predestination, combined piety w/ belief of God as active force whose grace achieved thru faith + works
iv)Accelerated growth of new sects as opposed to return to established churches, provided sense of order + social stability to ppl searching for identity
v)Women particularly drawn to revivalism b/c women more numerous in certain regions, movement of industrial work out of home led to personal and social strains that religion was used to compensate for
vi)Revival led to rise of black preachers who interpreted religious message of salvation available to all into right to freedom
vii) Native American dislocation and defeats after Revolution created sense of crisis and led to Indian religious fervor- missionaries active in south led to conversion, in North prophet Handsome Lake encouraged Christian missionaries and restoration of traditional Iroquois culture
2)Stirrings of Industrialism
a)Technology in America
i)America imported technological advances from England. Brit govt attempted to prevent spread of their tech, but immigrants introduced new machines to America. Samuel Slater built mill in RI 1790, first factory in America
ii)American inventor Oliver Evans created automated flower mill, Eli Whitney revolutionized weapons making and
iii)Invented cotton gin in 1793. Growth of textile industry in England created great demand for cotton, cotton gin allowed for easy separation of cotton seed from cotton allowed tremendous amount of cotton to be cleaned, new business led slavery became more important than ever.
iv)In North cotton supply led NE entrepreneurs to create American textile industry in 1820s/30s- as N became increasingly industrial S more firmly wedded to agriculture
v)His interchangeable parts for weapons invented during Quasi War w/ France adopted by other manufactures for other complicated products
b)Transportation Innovations
i)Industrialization required transporting raw materials to factories and finished goods to create large domestic market for mass-production, US lacked system
ii)To enlarge American market US merchants looked to expand overseas trade, Congress 1789 passed tariff bills that favored American ships in American ports, stimulated growth of domestic shipping. War in Eur in 1790s led US merchants to take over most of trade btwn Eur and Western hemisphere
iii)Improvement in inter-state and interior transport led by improved river transport by new steamship
iv)Oliver Evans had invented efficient steam engine for boats and machinery, Robert Fulton + Robert Livingston perfected steamboat and brought it to national attention w/ theirClermont
c)The Rising Cities
i)America remained largely rural and agrarian nation, only 3% lived in towns of more than 8,000 in 1800 census—yet there were signs of change
ii)Major US cities such as New York + Philadelphia large and complex enough to rival secondary cities of Europe
iii)Urban lifestyle produced affluent people who sought amenities, elegance, dress, and diversions- music, theater, dancing, horse racing
3)Jefferson the President
a)The Federal City and the “People’s President”
i)French architect Pierre L’Enfant designed city on grand scale, but Washington remained little more than provincial village w/ few public buildings
ii)Jefferson acted in spirit of democratic simplicity, made his image plain, disdain for pretension. Eliminated aura of majesty surrounding presidency
iii)Political genius, worked as leader of his party to give Republicans in Congress direction, used appointments as political weapon. Won 1804 reelection easily
b)Dollars and Ships
i)Washington and Adams had increased expenditures, debt, taxation. Jefferson 1802 had Congress abolish all internal taxes leaving only land sales and customs duties, cut govt spending, halved debt
ii) Scaled down armed forces, cut navy due to fear of limiting civil liberty + civilian govt, promoting overseas commerce instead of agriculture
iii)At same time established US Military Academy @ West Point 1802, built up navy after 1801 threats by pasha of Tripoli in Mediterranean following Jefferson’s end to paying ransom demanded by Barbary pirates
c)Conflict With The Courts
i)Judiciary remained in hands of Federalist judges, congress repealed Judiciary Act of 1801 eliminating judgeships Adam’s filled before leaving office
ii)Case of Marbury v. Madison 1803 btwn Justice of Peace William Marbury and Sec of State James Madison
(1)Supreme Court ruled Congress exceeded its authority in creating a statute of the Judiciary Act of 1789 b/c Constitution had already defined judiciary
(2)Court asserted that the act of Congress was void. Enlarged courts power
iii)Chief Justice John Marshall presided over case, battled to give fed govt unity and strength, established judiciary as branch coequal w/ exec and legislature
iv)Jefferson assaulted last Federalist stronghold, urged Congress to impeach obstructive judges. Tried to impeach justice Samuel Chase in 1805 but Republican Senate could not get 2/3 vote necessary- acquittal set precedent impeachment not purely a political weapon, above partisan disagreement
4)Doubling the National Domain
a)Jefferson and Napoleon
i)After failing to seize India Napoleon wanted power in New World. Spain held areas west of Mississippi, 1800 Treaty of San Ildefonso granted French this Louisiana. Also held sugar-rich West Indian islands Guadeloupe, Martinique, Santo Domingo (where slave revolt led by Toussaint L’ouverture put down)
ii)Jefferson unaware of Napoleon’s imperial agenda, pursued pro-French foreign policy- apptd pro-French Robert Livingston minister, secured Franco-American settlement of 1800, disapproved of black Santo Domingo uprising
iii)Reconsidered position when heard of secret transfer of Louisiana and seizure of New Orleans, alarmed n 1802 when Spanish intendant at New Orleans forbade transfer of American cargo to ocean going vessels (which was guaranteed in Pikcney Treaty of 1795)- this closed lower Miss. to US shippers
iv)Westerners demanded govt reopen river, Jefferson ordered Livingston negotiate purchase of New Orleans, in meantime expanded military and river fleet to give impression of New Orleans attack
v)Nap offered sale of whole Louisiana Territory. Plans for American empire awry b/c army decimated by yellow fever, reinforcements frozen
b)The Louisiana Purchase
i)Livingston and James Monroe in Paris decided to proceed with sale of whole territory even though not authorized to do so by govt, treaty signed April 1803
ii)US paid $15 million to France, had to incorporate N.O. residents into Union
iii)Jefferson unsure US had authority to accept offer b/c power not specifically granted in Constitution, ultimately agreed constituted as treaty power. December 1803 territory handed over from Spain to France then US
iv)Govt organized Louisiana territory like Northwest territory w/ various territories to eventually to become states- Louisiana first, admitted 1812
c)Lewis and Clark Explore the West
i)Jefferson planned expedition across continent to Pacific Ocean in 1803 to gather geographical fats and investigate trade w/ Indians
ii)Lewis and Clark set out 1804 from Mississippi R. in St Louis w/ Indian Sacajawea as guide, reached pacific fall 1805
iii)Jefferson dispatched other explorers to other parts of Louisiana Territory, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike led two expeditions btwn Mississppi and Rocky Mts
d)The Burr Conspiracy
i)Reelection of 1804 suggested nation approved of Jefferson’s acquisitions, but some NE Federalists known as Essex Junto felt expansion weakened power of Federalists + region . Felt only answer secession and “Northern Confederacy”
ii)Plan required support of NY, NJ, New England, but leading NY Federalist Alexander Hamilton refused support
iii)Turned to Vice President Aaron Burr (who had no prospect in own party after 1800 election deadlock) to be Federalist candidate for NY governor in 1804
iv)Hamilton accused Burr of treason and negative remarks about character, when Burr lost election blamed defeat on Hamilton’s malevolence
v)Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel 1804, Hamilton mortally wounded
vi)Burr, now political outcast, fled NY for West and along with General James Wilkinson, governor of Louisiana Territory, planned capture of Mexico from Spanish and possibly make his own empire. 1806 tried for treason, acquitted
vii)“Conspiracy” showed perils of central govt that remained deliberately weak w/ vast tracts of nominally controlled land, state of US as stable and united nation
5)Expansion and War
a)Conflict on the Seas
i)US shipping expanded to control trade btwn Eur and W. Indies
ii)Napoleon’s Continental system forbade ships that had docked at any point in British ports from landing on continent- Berlin (1806) + Milan (1807) Decrees
iii) Britain’s “orders in council” required goods to continent be in ships that had at least stopped in British ports- response to Nap’s “Continental System”
iv)American ships caught btwn countries, but England greater threat b/c greater sea power and the worse offender
b)Impressment
i)Brit Navy had terrible conditions, forced service called “impressments” used, many deserted when possible and joined Americans- to stop loss Brit claimed right to stop and search American merchant ships + reimpress deserters
ii)1807 Chesapeake-Leopard incident: Brit fired on US ship that refused search, US Minister James Monroe protested, GB refused to renounce impressments
c)“Peaceable Coercion”
i)To prevent future incidents that might bring war Jefferson proposed The Embargo 1807- prohibited US ship from leaving for any foreign port
ii)Created national depression, ship-owners + merchants of NE (mainly Federalists) hardest hit-before
iii)James Madison, Jefferson’s Sec of State, won election of 1808 but fierce opposition- led Jefferson to end Embargo, replaced with Non-Intercourse Act- reopened trade w/ all nations except GB + France
iv)1810 new Macon’s Bill No. 2 opened trade w/ GB + France but pres had power to prohibit commerce for belligerent behavior against neutral shipping
v)Napoleon announced France would no longer interfere, Madison issued embargo against GB 1811 until it renounced restrictions of American shipping
d)The “Indian Problem” and the British
i)After dislodgement by Americans, Indians looked to Brits for protection
ii)William Henry Harrison had been a promoter of Western expansion (Harrison Land Law 1800), named governor of Indiana 1801 by Jefferson. Offered Indians ultimatum: become farmers and assimilate or move to West of Miss.
iii)By 1807 tribes mainly ceding land. After Chesapeake incident, however, Brits began to renew Indian friendships to begin defense of invasion into Can
e)Tecumseh and the Prophet
i)The Prophet was Indian leader inspired religious revival, rejection of white culture. Attracted thousands from many tribes at Tippecanoe Creek. Prophet’s brother Tecumseh led joint effort to oppose white civilization
ii)Starting 1809 began to unite tribes of Miss. valley, 1811 traveled south to add tribes of the South to alliance
iii)1811 Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison defeated Prophet’s followers and destroyed tribal confederacy. However, thru 1812 continued to attack settlers, encouraged by Brit agents—Americans believed end only thru Can. Invasion
f)Florida and War Fever
i)“Frontiersman” in N wanted Canada, those in S wanted to acquire Spanish Florida in order to stop Indian attacks, gain access to rivers w/ port access
ii)1810 setters in W. Florida captured Spanish fort at Baton Rouge, President Madison agreed to annex territory- Spain Britain’s ally, made pretext for war
iii)By 1812 “war harks” elected during 1810 elections eager for war- some ardent nationalists seeking territorial expansion, others defense of Republican values
iv)Speaker Henry Clay of Kentucky and John Calhoun of SC led Republicans in pressing for Canadian invasion- Madison declared war June 18, 1812
6)The War of 1812
a)Battles with the Tribes
i)Americans forced to surrender Detroit and Fort Dearborn (Chicago) in first months. On seas American frigates and privateers successful, but by 1813 Brit navy (less occupied w/ Napoleon) devoted resources and imposed blockade
ii)US began to have success in Great Lakes- Oliver Perry beat Brits at Put-In-Bay 1813, burned capital at York. William Henry Harrison victorious at Battle of the Thames- disheartened Natives of Northwest and diminished ability to defend claims
iii)Andrew Jackson defeated Creek Indians @ Battle of Horseshoe Bend 1814, continued invasion into Florida and captured Pensacola Sept 1814
b)Battles With the British
i)After Nap surrendered 1814 England prepared to invade US, landed armada in Chesapeake region. Aug 1814 captured and burned Washington
ii)Americans at Fort McHenry in Baltimore repelled Brit attack in Sept. This battle is what Francis Scott Key witnessed, wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”
iii)Brit also repelled in NY at Battle of Plattsburgh in Sept. January 1815 Andrew Jackson wildly successful at Battle of New Orleans- after treaty signed
c)The Revolt of New England
i)US failures 1812-1815 led to increased govt opposition. In NE opposition to war and Repub govt, Federalists led by Daniel Webtser led Congressional opposition. Federalists in NE dreamed of separate nation to escape tyranny of slaveholders and backwoodsmen
ii)Dec 1814 convention at Hartford led to nothing b/c of news of Jackson’s smashing success at New Orleans. Two days later news of peace treaty arrived
d)The Peace Settlement
i)Aug 1814 John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin met in Ghent, Belgium w/ Brit diplomats. Final treaty did little but end fighting- US dropped call to end impressments, Brit dropped call for Indian buffer in NW
ii)Brit accepted b/c exhausted + indebted after Napoleonic conflict, US believed w/ end of Eur conflict less commercial interference would occur
iii)Treaty of Gent signed Dec 1814, free trade agreement 1815later Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 led to disarmament on Great Lakes
iv)War disastrous to Natives, lands captured in fighting never restored, most important allies now gone from NW
1)A Growing Economy
a)Banking, Currency, and Protection
i)War of 1812 stimulated manufacturing, but after war produced chaos in shipping and banking- need for new Bank of the United States charter its expiration 1811 and not renewed, protecting new industries, transport systems
ii)After expiration of charter state banks offered difft currencies at difft values- confusion and counterfeiting. Congress passed new charter for Bank of US 1816- its size and power essentially forced state banks to issue safer currency
iii)Manufacturing had grown tremendously due to imports being cut off, textile industry increased exponentially btwn Embargo of 1807 and War. Factories in NE no longer family operations. Francis Lowell developed new loom 1813 in Boston Manufacturing Company- first process of both spinning and weaving
iv)After war English ships swarmed American ports, wanted to reclaim old markets with prices below cost. 1816 Congress passed tariff to protect “infant industries” from competition aboard- farmers objected b/c paid higher price
b)Transportation
i)W/o transport network manufacturers couldn’t access raw materials and send finished goods to markets in US- should fed govt finance roads?
ii)1807 Jefferson’s Sec Treasury Albert Gallatin proposed revenue from Ohio land sale go to fund National Road. Crucial Lancaster Pike built in PA- both allowed for the beginning of transport of commodities like textiles
iii)Steam-powered shipping (advancements of Robert Fulton) expanded on rivers and Great Lakes. Steamboats on Miss. stimulated already agricultural economy of South & West b/c cost to transport products to market lowered
iv)Despite progress of turnpikes + steamships serious gaps in trasportation. 1815 John Calhoun introduced bill to use federal funds to finance internal improvements, but Madison vetoed it in 1817 b/c believed unconstitutional
v)Remained to state govts + private enterprise to build needed transit networks
2)Expanding Westward
a)The Great Migrations
i)Westward movement affected economy, factor in Civil War, peoples thrusted together. Pop. + econ. pressures, land availability, decreased Indian resistance
ii)Immigration and natural growth increased Eastern population, agricultural lands occupied. Slaves in S limited work opportunity. West attractive b/c War of 1812 lessened Native opposition by pushing Indians west + establishing forts on Great Lakes and Miss. R., govt “factor system” of goods to Indians
b)White Settlers in the Old Northwest
i)Shelters primitive, clearings in forest for crops to supplement game and domestic animals, rough existence w/ poverty and loneliness
ii)Migrants journeyed westward in groups, some formed communities and schools, churches, other institutions. Mobility a large part of life
iii)Farm economy based on modest seized farms w/ grain cultivation + livestock
c)The Plantation System in the Southwest
i)Cotton longs in Old South had lost much fertility but market continued to grow for it, Black Belt of SW lands could support thriving cotton
ii)First arrivals small farmers, wealthier planters followed buying and clearing smaller lands. Brought w/ them slaves, eventually mansions grew up from simpler log cabins symbolizing emergence of a newly rich class
iii)Rapid growth in NW and SW resulted in new states after War of 1812: Indiana 1816, Mississippi 1817, Illinois 1818, Alabama 1819
d)Trade and Trapping in the Far West
i)Trade began to develop btwn western regions in US in 19th century + beyond
ii)Mexico (controlled Texas, CA, Southwest) won independence from Spain 1821, opened territories to trade in order to grow their fortunes. US merchants such as William Becknell displaced Indian traders and inferior Mexican products lost out to new US traders- Mexico lost its markets it in own colonies
iii)Fur traders such as Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company eventually extended to Rockies, instead of pelts from Indians increasingly trapped their own
iv)Trappers (“mountain men”) first wedge of white movement, changed society by interacting with Indians and Mexicans. 1822 Andrew and William Ashley founded Rocky Mountain Fur Company, recruited trappers to live permanently in Rockies (Utah, New Mexico)
v)Lives of trappers bound up with expanding market economy- relied on fur companies for credit, depended on Eastern merchants for livelihood
e)Eastern Images of the West
i)Ppl in East only dimly aware of trappers’ world and their reshaping of it
ii)Explorers dispatched by US govt to chart territories. 1819/1820 Steven Long sent by War Dept to explore, wrote influential report with dismissive conclusions for future settlement (like Zebulon Pike 15 yrs before)
3)The Era of Good Feelings
a)The End of the First Party System
i)James Monroe, Madison’s Sec of State, elected Republican president 1816. W/ Federalist decline faced party faced no serious opposition, after War of 1812 no serious international threat- wanted republic w/o partisan factions
ii)For Sec of State chose New Englander and former Federalist John Quincy Adams, John Calhoun named Sec of War- Monroe took pains to include northerners, southerners, easterners, westerners, Feds and Repubs in Cabinet
iii)After election national goodwill tour, re-elected 1820 w/o any opposition
b)John Quincy Adams
i)Committed nationalist, important task promotion of American expansion
ii)US already annexed W Florida, 1817 began negotiations w/ Spanish minister Lius de Onis. Meanwhile, American commander in Florida Andrew Jackson used orders from Sec of War Calhoun to invade Florida to stop Seminole raids—known as Seminole war. Adams wanted to use as excuse to annex
iii)Onis realized he had little choice, Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 ceded Florid and lands north of 42nd parallel to US, US gave up Texas claims
c)The Panic of 1819
i)Panic followed period of high foreign demand for US goods, rising prices had stimulated land boom in western US. Availability for easy credit to settlers and speculators- from govt, state and wildcat banks
ii)1819 management at Bank of US tightened credit, led to series of state bank failures, led to financial panic- those in West blamed it on bank
iii)Depression for 6 years followed, but growth ultimately continued
4)Sectionalism and Nationalism
a)The Missouri Compromise
i)Missouri applied for statehood 1819, although slavery already established NY Rep James Tallmadge’s Amendment gradual emancipation- controversial
ii)Since beginning new states had come into Union in pairs (1 from N, 1 from S), Missouri entrance would increase power of North over South
iii)Maine had also applied for statehood, Henry Clay threatened South would block entrance in Missouri not permitted to be a slave state
iv)Compromise in Maine-Missouri Bill, Senator Jesse Thomas’s Amendment to ban slavery in rest of Louisiana Ter. north of MO’s 3630’ border also passed
b)Marshall and the Court
i)John Marshall chief justice from 1801-1835. Strengthened judicial system at expense of executive and legislature, increased fed power over states, advanced interest of propertied and commercial classes
ii)Supported inviolability contracts in Fletcher v. Peck (1810) which held GA legislature could not repeal contract acts of previous legislature. Dartmouth College v. Woodward(1819) affirmed constitutionality of federal review of state court decisions- states had given up some sovereignty by ratifying Constitution, therefore their courts must submit to federal jurisdiction
iii)“Implied powers” of Congress upheld in McCulloch v Maryland (1819) by upholding Bank of United States, attorney Daniel Webster argued establishment legal under “necessary and proper” clause, power to tax involved “power to destroy”. States therefore could not tax now-legal Bank
iv)Strengthened Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce in Gibbons v Ogden(1824)- Fed govt gave license to Thomas Gibbons for ferry even transport btwn NY and NJ even though NY state had granted Aaron Ogden monopoly- Marshall argued that Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce + navigation “complete in itself” + could exercise to the utmost
v)Decisions established primacy of fed govt over states in regulating economy, protected corporations + private economic institutions from local govt
c)The Court and the Tribes
i)Marshall court decisions w/ Natives affirmed supremacy of US and carved out position for Native Americans within the constitutional structure
ii)In Johnson v McIntosh (1825) Marshall described the basic right of Natives to tribal lands that preceded all other American law. Individual Americans could not buy or take land from tribes, only fed govt could do that
iii)Worchester v Georgia (1832) invalidated law to regulate citizen access to Cherokee lands. Only fed govt had power to do that, tribes described as sovereign entities w/ exclusive authority and territorial boundaries
iv)Marshall court did what Const had not- establish place for Indian tribes in American political system. Sovereign, but fed govt “guardian” over its “ward”
d)The Latin American Revolution and the Monroe Doctrine
i) US foreign policy mainly centered on Eur, but after War of 1812 Spanish Empire in decline w/ new revolutions, US developing profitable trade w/ Latin America rivaling GB as principal trading pattern
ii)1815 US proclaimed neutrality in wars btwn Spain and rebellious colonies, 1822 President Monroe established diplomatic relations w/ 5 new nations
iii)1823 Monroe announced policy (later known as “Monroe Doctrine”) that American continent not be considered subject of future colonization by European powers, any foreign challenge would be unfriendly
iv)Monroe Doctrine developed b/c Americans feared Spanish allies (such as France) would aid it in retaking lost empire, fear of GB taking over Cuba
5)The Revival of Opposition
a)The “Corrupt Bargain”
i)In 1824 Republican caucus nominated William Crawford of Georgia for presidency, but other candidates received nominations from state legislatures
ii)Candidates included: Sec of State John Quincy Adams had little popular appeal, Speaker of the House Henry Clay had personal following and strong program in the “American System” to strengthen home industry and Bank, Andrew Jackson little political experience but a military hero and TN allies
iii)Jackson received more popular and electoral votes tan other candidates but not majority, Twelfth Amendment (passed after contested 1800 election) required House of Reps to choose among top three candidates- Clay threw endorsement behind Adams b/c Jackson a political rival in West + Adams a nationalist and likely American system supporter
iv) Adams named Clay Sec of State, Jackson’s followers enraged at seeming “corrupt bargain”- haunted Adams throughout presidency
b)The Second President Adams
i)Adams proposed nationalist program reminiscent of Clay’s American System but Jacksonians in Congress blocked most of it. Southerners in Congress blocked delegates to international conference called by Simon Bolivar in Panama in 1826 b/c Haiti was sending black delegates
ii)Georgia wished to remove remaining Creek and Cherokee Indians from state to gain more land for cotton planters. Adams refused to enforce treaty made btwn Indians + Georgia. Governor defied president and proceeded w/ removal
iii)Adams supported tariff on imported goods 1828 b/c NE textile manufacturers complained of competition. To be passed concessions made to middle + west states on other tariffs—bill signed hated by all, called “tariff of abominations”
c)Jackson Triumphant
i)By 1828 presidential election new 2-party system had begun to emerge from divisions btwn Republicans. National Republicans supported John Quincy Adams and economic nationalism, opposing them was Democratic Republicans of Andrew Jackson who called for assault on privilege and widening of opportunity
ii)Campaign of personal charges, Jackson’s wife Rachel accused of bigamy, she was so upset that she ultimately died- Jackson blamed opponents
iii)Jackson won decisive but sectional victory. Adams strong in New England & mid-Atlantic. Jackson believed victory similar to Jefferson’s 1800 win
1)The Rise of Mass Politics
a)The Expanding Electorate
i)No economic equality, but transformation of American politics to extend the right to vote to new groups. Until 1820s most states limited franchise to white landowners. Changes began in West w/ Constitutions guaranteeing right to vote to all white males- E. states did likewise in order to stop exodus of ppl
ii)Change provoked resistance- MA conservatives wanted property requirement, state eventually required voters to be taxpayers + Gov had to own large lands
iii)State reforms generally peaceful but in RI instability when 1840 group led by Thomas Dorr and the “People’s Party” submitted and won a new state Const. by the ppl. 1842 2 simultaneous govts, Dorr rebellion quickly failed
iv)In S election laws favored planters and politicians from older counties, limited influence of newly settled western areas
v)Everywhere women could not vote, no secret ballots—despite limitations numbers of voters increased faster than population
vi)Originally electors chosen by legislature, by 1828 popularly elected except SC
b)The Legitimization of Party
i)Higher levels of voter participation due to expanded electorate but also strengthening of party organization and loyalty
ii)1820s/1830s saw permanent, institutionalized parties become desirable part of political process. Began at state level in NY w/ Martin Van Buren’s factional “Bucktails”. Party’s preservation thru favors, rewards, patronage leaders goals
iii)Parties would check/balance one other, politicians forced 2 rep. will of the ppl
iv)By late 1820s new idea of party spreading beyond NY, Jackson’s 1828 election seemed to legitimize new system. By 1830s national 2-party system: anti-Jackson forces called Whigs, his followers called Democrats
c)“President of the Common Man”
i)Democratic party embraced no uniform ideological position, committed to offer equal protection and benefits by assaulting eastern aristocracy to extend opportunity to rising classes of the W + S, preserve white-male democracy thru subjugation of African Americans and Indians
ii)Jackson’s first targets entrenched officeholders of fed govt, wanted to simplify official duties to make office more accessible. Removed nearly 1/5 of office-holders removed b/c misuse of govt funds or corruption
iii)Jackson’s supporters embraced “spoils system”, making right of elected officials to appt followers to office established feature of American politics
iv)Supporters worked to transform presidential nomination system- 1832 national party convention held to replace congressional caucus, considered democratic triumph b/c power from ppl and not aristocratic caucus
v)Spoils system and convention limited power of entrenched elites (permanent officeholders, caucus elite), but neither really transferred true power to the ppl
2)“Our Federal Union”
a)Calhoun and Nullification
i)Late 1820s many in SC came to see “tariff of abominations” as responsible for stagnation of state economy (really due to exhausted farmland unable to compete with new western lands). Some considered remedy thru secession
ii)Vice President Calhoun offered alternative in theory of nullification- idea like Madison and Jefferson’s KY + VA Resolutions of 1798-1799. Argued fed govt created by states, therefore states final arbiter (not Congress or courts) of constitutionality. Convention could be held to null and void law within state
b)The Rise of Van Buren
i)Apptd Sec of State 1829 by Jackson, also member of president’s of unofficial circle of allies in “Kitchen Cabinet”. After supporting Peggy Eaton in affair over acceptance into cabinet wife social circle gained favor w/ President
ii)By 1831 Jackson had chosen Van Buren to succeed him in WH, Calhoun’s presidential dream ended
c)The Webster-Hayne Debate
i)January 1830 proposal to temporarily stop western land sales led SC Sen. Robert Hayne to claim slowing down W growth means for east to retain political and economic power. Hinted at uniting S + W against “tyranny”
ii)Nationalist and Whig Sen. Daniel Webster attacked Hayne + Calhoun for challenging integrity of the Union. Debate ensued over issue of states rights vs national power
iii)Jackson announced at Democratic Party banquet “Our Federal Union-It must be preserved”, lines drawn btwn Jackson and Calhoun
d)The Nullification Crisis
i)1832 tariff bill in Congress gave SC no relief from “tariff of abominations”, state convention held- voted for nullification of tariffs of 1828 & 1832, duties collection w/in state. Calhoun resigned VP became Sen., Hayne now Gov
ii)Jackson insisted nullification treason, strengthened federal forts in SC. 1833 Pres. proposed bill to authorize use of military to see acts of Congress obeyed
iii)No states supported SC, state itself divided. Sen Henry Clay offered compromise that tariff would be gradually lowered so that by 1842 it would be at same level as in 1816. Compromise + force bill passed March 1833
iv)SC state convention met and repealed its nullification of the tariffs, but also nullified the force act (symbolic of null. legitimacy)
3)The Removal of the Indians
a)White Attitudes Toward the Tribes
i)In 18th century many whites considered Indians “noble savages” who had inherent dignity, by 19th century more hostile attitude especially among whites in W and territories, simply “savages”
ii)White westerners wanted removal b/c feared continued contact + expanding white settlements would lead to endless violence, & Indian lands valuable
iii)Only fed govt had power to deal w/ Indians after Sup. Court decisions. Indians created new large political entities to deal w/ whites
b)The Black Hawk War
i)In Old Northwest Black Hawk War 1831-1832 to expel last of Indians there
ii)Conflict notable for violence of white military efforts, attacked even when Chief Black Hawk was surrendering and killed Indians fleeing battle
c)The “Five Civilized Tribes”
i)1830s govt worried about remaining “Five Civilized Tribes” in South- successful agricultural society, Constitution forming Cherokee Nation 1827
ii)Fed govt worked in early 19th century thru treaties to remove tribes to West and open lands to white settlement. Negotiation process unsatisfying + slow
iii)Congress passed Removal Act 1830 to finance def negotiations w/ tribes in order to relocate them West, pressure from state govts to move as well
iv)In GA Sup. Court decisions of Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831) and Worcester v Georgia (1832) seemed to protect tribal lands
v)1835 treaty signed with minority tribe in Cherokee nation ceding all land to GA, but majority of Cherokees refused to recognize its legitimacy. Jackson sent army under General Winfield Scott to drive them westward to reservation
d)Trials of Tears
i)Forced trek to “Indian Territory” began winter 1838. Thousands died before destination, dubbed “Trail of Tears”
ii)Cherokees not alone: btwn 1830-1838 nearly all “Five Civilized Tribes” expelled from Southern states & relocated to Indian Territory created by Congress in Indian Intercourse Act of 1834. Undesirable land far from whites
iii)Only Seminoles in Florida resisted relocation. Under pressure had agreed to cede land and move to Ind. Territory, many members of tribe moved
(1)But 1835 minority led by chief Osceola staged uprising. Jackson sent army, conducted campaign of systematic extermination but successful guerilla warfare forced govt to abandon war in 1842
e)The Meaning of Removal
i)By end of 1830s almost all major Indian societies relocated to far less hospitable lands west of Mississippi on reservations surrounded by forts
ii)White movement west impossible to have stopped, but alternative to removal could have been some form of co-existence like in NW trading posts, TX
iii)BY mid-19th century Americans believed western lands had no pre-existing civilization. Natives could not be equal partners, were obstacles to be removed, “lacked intelligence, industry and moral habits for improvement”
4)Jackson and the Bank War
a)Biddle’s Institution
i)Bank of United States in 1830s had HQ in Philadelphia, branches in 19 cities, by law only place govt could deposit its funds
ii)Conducted private business issuing credit, bank notes used throughout country, restrained less well-managed state banks. Pres Nicholas Biddle had made bank sound + prosperous. Regardless, Jackson wanted to destroy it
iii)Opposition came from “soft-money” faction who wanted more currency in circulation. Made up of state banks, resisted Bank of US’s efforts to restrain free issue of notes from state banks
iv)“Hard money” faction wanted gold and silver to back currency, suspicious of expansion and speculation. Jackson supported hard-money
v)Jackson did not favor renewal of bank charter after 1836 expiration. Biddle tried to save bank by granting financial favors to influential men, named Daniel Webster made legal counsel (gained Clay’s support). Recommended renewal bill 1832 to make bank issue in 1832 elections.
vi)Bill passed Congress but Jackson vetoed it, could not be overridden. In 1832 Jackson + Van Buren elected despite opposition to bank over opposition Clay
b)The “Monster” Destroyed
i)Jackson determined to destroy “monster” Bank quickly. To weaken it removed govt deposits (two Tres. Secretaries fired b/c feared financial destabilization, third Roget Taney complied)
ii)When administration transferred funds from Bank to pet banks, Biddle called in loans and raised interest rates- hoped would cause financial distress and recession that would persuade Congress to recharter Bank
iii)Financial conditions worsened winter 1833/1834, two sides blamed it on each other. Finally Biddle contracted credit too far for his own allies in the business community, began to fear his efforts to save ban threatening their own
iv)Biddle forced to grant credit in abundance on reasonable terms, tactics ended change of re-charter. End in 1836 empowered unstable bank system
c)The Taney Court
i)Jackson moved against economic nationalism support of Supreme Court, after Marshall died 1835 named Roger Taney chief justice
ii)Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge (1837) btwn company chartered by state for toll bridge monopoly and company applying to legislature to pay for toll-free bridge. Taney ruled that govt’s goal to promote general happiness took precedence over right of contract and property, therefore state had right to amend contract o advance well-being of community
iii)Reflected Jacksonian ideal that key to democracy expansion of economic opportunity that could not occur if corporations maintained monopolies and choked off competition from newer companies
5)The Changing Face of American Politics
a)Democrats and Whigs
i)Democrats in 1830s envisioned expanding economic and political opportunity for white males, limited govt but one that removed obstacles to opportunity, defense of Union, attacking corruption, radical branch called Locofocos
ii)Whigs favored expanding power of fed govt, industrial and commercial development, knit country into consolidated economic system, cautious westward expansion b/c feared territorial growth would produce instability, embraced industrial future and commercial and manufacturing greatness
iii)Whigs supported by merchants and manufactures of NE, wealthy Southern planters, western commercialists. Democrats supported by smaller merchants and workingmen of NE, S planters suspicious of industry, agrarian westerners
iv)Above all wanted to win elections: Whigs connected w/ Anti-Masons to resent “undemocratic” Freemasons (such as Jackson and Van Buren). Irish and German Catholic immigrants supported Democrats b/c aversion to commercial development, Evangelical Protestants supported Whigs
v)Whigs led by “Great Triumvirate” of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun. 1836 election Dems united behind Jackson’s choice of Van Buren for candidate, but Whigs could not agree on single candidate. Clay, White, and William Henry Harrison ran for regional interests, defeated by Van Buren
b)Van Buren and the Panic of 1837
i)Van Buren elected on economic boom that reached height 1836- canals and railroads being built, easy credit, land business booming, govt revenues from sales + 1833 tariff created surpluses that allowed reduction of nat’l debt
ii)Congress passed 1836 “distribution” act to return surplus to states, used to fund highways, railroads, canals, created economic boom
iii)Withdrawal of fed funds strained state “pet” banks, forced to call in loans. Jackson issued “specie circular” that required payment for public land sales be in gold or silver or currency backed by them b/c feared rampant speculation
iv)Circular produced financial panic during Van Buren’s presidency banks and business failed, food riots- largest depression in American history to that point
v)Both parties responsible for panic- surplus redistribution a Whig measure, Jackson’s circular, but also panics in England and W. Eur that caused those investors to withdraw funds from American banks, also crop failures
vi)Panic of 1837 led Democrats + Van Buren administration to pay price for no govt intervention. Only success of VB creation of “subtreasury system” to replace Bank of US- govt funds placed in independent treasury in Washington, no private banks could use money to fund loans and speculation
c)The Log Cabin Campaign
i)To win 1840 election Whigs supported only one candidate- William Henry Harrison for pres and John Tyler for VP
ii)1840 campaign first in which “penny press” carried news of candidates to larger audience of workers and tradespeople. Whigs, although represented affluent elements of pop, presented themselves as party of the common people
iii)Whig campaign effective at portraying the wealthy Harrison as a simple log cabin and cider man and VB as an aloof aristocrat--- Harrison won election
d)The Frustration of the Whigs
i)Harrison died of pneumonia 1 month after inauguration, new President Tyler was a former Democrat who refused to let Clay and Webster control policy
ii)Pres supported bills abolishing independent treasury system and raising tariff rate, but refused Clay’s attempt to recharter Bank and vetoed internal improvement bills sponsored by Whigs.
iii)Whigs kicked Tyler out of party, entire cabinet resigned. Tyler and some conservative southern Whigs who supported slavery and states rights prepared to join the Democratic Party
e)Whig Diplomacy
i)Canada uprising caused tension leading to burning of an American steamship carrying arms and the subsequent arrest of a British citizen for burning 1837. Tension over Canada-Maine boundary led to small “Aroostook War” 1838
ii)Finally negotiations to reduce all tensions occurred btwn Sec of State Webster and British Lord Ashburton. 1842 Webster Ashburton treaty established new Maine border, GB refused to interfere w/ American ships-- relations improved
iii)Tyler administration established first diplomatic relations with China, Americans received same privileges as British such as “extraterritoriality” and port use
iv)Whigs lost White House in 1844 elections
1)The Changing American Population
a)The American Population, 1820-1840
i)Population dramatically increased, began to concentrate in industrial centers of Northeast and Northwest, provided labor force for factory system
ii)Growth b/c of improvements in public health (decrease in number and intensity of epidemics), high birth rate, lower infant mortality rates
iii)Immigration did not contribute greatly until 1830s b/c of Eur wars & US economic problems. Immigrant boom caused by lower transport costs, increased US economic opportunity + less econ opportunity in some Eur areas
iv)Immigrant + internal migration led to growth of cities b/c agriculture in New England less profitable (some moved West also). By 1810 NY largest city
b)Immigration and Urban Growth, 1840-1860
i)By 1860 26% of free state populations lived in towns or cities
ii)Booming agricultural economy of west led small villages and trading posts to become cities. Benefited from Mississippi R, centers of Midwest trade
iii)By 1860 American population greater than that of GB and approaching France and Germany. Urban growth from flow of ppl from Northeast farms (competition from Eur farms + Western farms) & influx of immigrants abroad
iv)Majority of immigrants from Ireland and Germany. German industrial revolution had caused poverty, & b/c of collapse of liberal 1848 revolution. In Ireland unpopular English rule & “potato famine” of 1845-1849
v)Most Irish settled in eastern cities + became unskilled laborers (had little $, many were young women- domestic/factory work in cities). Most Germans moved to Northwest, farming or business in towns (many were single men)
c)Rise of Nativism
i)Some native-born Americans saw opportunity in immigration. Industrialists & employers wanted cheap labor, land speculators and politicians hoped would populate west + increase demand for goods, increase influence
ii)Some (Nativists) hostile to foreigners and immigration. Some racist, some argued newcomers socially unfit and did not have sufficient standards of civilization, workers feared low immigrant wages would steal their jobs, Protestants feared Irish Catholics & Rome, many upset b/c voted Democratic
iii)Tension and prejudice led to secret societies to combat “alien menace”, Native American Association 1837, 1845 Native American Party, peak in 1850s with combination in Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. Wanted to ban Catholics form office, restrict naturalization, force literacy tests for voting
iv)Secret order known as Know-Nothings turned to party politics, after 1852 election formed American Party, success in 1854 East elections, declined after
2)Transportation, Communications, and Technology
a)The Canal Age
i)1790-1820s “turnpike era”, but roads not adequate for nation’s growing needs
ii)Traffic on large rivers such as Miss. and Ohio had been mainly flat barges that could not travel upstream, by 1820s steamboats and riverboats carried western and southern crops quickly, from New Orleans ocean ships to Eastern ports
iii)Farmers and merchants unhappy b/c more direct route could lower transport costs and product costs. By 1820s economic advantages of canals had generated boom in expanding water routes to West. Too expensive for private companies, states of Northeast constructed them
iv)NY’s Erie Canal began July 4, 1817 to connect Hudson R and Lake Erie. Opened 1825, tolls repaid construction costs, gave NY access to Great Lakes, Chicago, growing Western markets. NY now competed with New Orleans
v)Water transport system expanded when Ohio + Indiana connected Lake Erie & Ohio R. Increased white settlement, but primacy of NY power + hinterland control alarmed other Atlantic cities. Most attempts limited successes or failed
b)The Early Railroads
i)Railroads played secondary role in 1820s/30s, but laid groundword for mid-century surge. Emerged form technological (tracks, steam-powered locomotive) and entrepreneurial innovations
ii)In 1830s no real rial system, most lines simply connected water routes and not links to other rail systems. Some states and corporations also limited their ability to compete effectively against canals
c)The Triumph of the Rails
i)After 1840 rail gradually supplanted canals. 1850’s trackage tripled. Most comprehensive and efficient system in northeast, but no region untouched
ii)Trend toward consolidation of short lines into longer lines (“trunk lines”), connected Northeast w/ Northwest, from these other railroads traveled into interior of nation. Main Northwest hub was Chicago
iii)Lessened dependence of West on Miss. R, weakening N + S economic cnxn
iv)Capital to finance railroads came from private investors, abroad, and local governments. Fed govt gave public land grants to railroads, states for RRs
d)Innovations in Communications
i)Magnetic telegraph lines along tracks aided train routing, but also allowed instant communication btwn cities, linked N and NW at exclusion of S
ii)1844 Samuel Morse first transmitted. Low cost of construction made it ideal solution to long-distance communication. By 1860 Western Union Telegraph company had been founded linking most independent telegraph lines
iii)In journalism Richard Hoe’s 1846 steam cylinder rotary press allowed rapid and cheap newspapers, telegraph increased news speed. 1846 Associated Press formed to promote cooperate wire transmission
iv)NY’s major papers Horace Greeley’s Tribune, James Bennett’s Herald, Henry Raymond’s Times. In 1840s/50s journalism fed sectional discord, most major magazines and newspapers located in North. New awareness of differences
3)Commerce and Industry
a)The Expansion of Business, 1820-1840
i)Business grew b/c population, transportation revolution, and new practices
ii)Retain distribution became more efficient w/ specialty stores in cities
iii) Individual + small merchant capitalist companies dominated, but some larger businesses gave way to corporations- combined resources of large number of shareholders. Grew 1830s b/c states passed easy incorporation laws. Limited liability meant stockholder risked only value of investment if corp failed
iv)Great demand for capital led businesses to rely on credit, but gold and silver standards of govt led to too little $, led private banks to issue less stable notes
v)Bank failures frequent, insecure deposits. Credit difficulty limited growth
b)The Emergence of the Factory
i)Before War of 1812 most manufacturing occurred in private households in small workshops. Technology and demand led to factories- began in New England textile industry, large water-driven machines increased production
ii)1820s factory system in shoe industry, by 1830s spread throughout Northeast. By 1860 value of manufactured goods roughly equal to agricultural goods. Largest manufacturers located in the Northeast, large amt of ppl employed
c)Advances in Technology
i)Developed industries relatively immature, fine items came from England. But by 1840s rapid machine technology advances, sophisticated textile industry
ii)Manufacture of machine tools (tools used to make machinery) improved by govt supported research for military (at Springfield Armory, MA)- turret lathe and universal milling machine in early 19th century. Later precision grinder
iii)Better machine tools allowed for wide use of interchangeable parts, new uses
iv)Industrialization aided by new energy sources: coal replacing wood + water in factories. Allowed mills to be located away from streams, easier expansion
v)Technological advances due to American inventors, increasing number of patents. Included Howe-Singer sewing machine, Goodyear vulcanized rubber
d)Innovations in Corporate Organization
i)Merchant capitalists still prominent 1840s, their clippers were fastest sailing ships afloat at time. By mid-century merchant capitalism declining b/c British competition stealing export trade, greater profits found in manufacturing than trade. Industry grew in NE b/c this merchant class could finance factories
ii)By 1840s corporations spreading rapidly, especially in textile industry. Ownership moving form families and individuals to many shareholders
4)Men and Women At Work
a)Recruiting A Native Work Force
i)In factory system’s early years recruiting labor difficult b/c of farms and small cities. New farmlands in Midwest + new farm machinery and techniques increased food production, decreased need for labor. Transport allowed importation of food from other regions—ppl in New Eng left for factories
ii)Some recruitment brought whole families form farm to the mill w/ parents and children, but Lowell/Waltham system enlisted young women
iii)Labor conditions relatively good in early years of system, better than Eur. Lowell system used young, unmarried women but had good housing + food
iv)Even well-treated workers found transition from life on farm to in factory difficult- regimented env’t, repetitive tasks. Women had little other choice b/c barred from manual labor, unthinkable to travel in search of opportunity
v)Competitive textile market of 1830s/40s manufactures had difficulty maintaining high standards + conditions, wages fell. Union of Factory Girls Association struck twice, but both failed. Eventually immigrants filled jobs
b)The Immigrant Work Force
i)Increasing supply of immigrant workers after 1840 boom for manufacturers- large and inexpensive labor source. Little leverage with employers, lack of skills and native prejudice led to low, intermittent wages—great poverty
ii)Irish workers predominated 1840s textile industry, arrival led to deteriorating working conditions. Less social pressure on owners to maintain decent env’t, piece rates instead of daily wages to speed production
iii)Factories becoming large, noisy, unsanitary, dangerous places to work, hours long, wages declining. Still however, condition better than England and Eur
c)The Factory System and the Artisan Trade
i)Factory system displaced skilled artisans- had been embodiment of republican independent worker. Unable to compete w/ factory-made goods for fraction of artisan’s prices. Early 19th century began to form organizations and first labor unions to protect position. 1820s/30s trade unions developed in cities
ii)Interconnected economies of cities made national unions or federations of local unions logical. 1834 National Trade’s Union
iii)Labor leaders struggled w/ hostile laws and courts, common law made worker combination as illegal conspiracy. Panic of 1837 also weakened movement
d)Fighting for Control
i)Workers at all levels in industrial economy tried to improve position by making 10-hour workday or restricting child labor. Laws changed little
ii)1842 MA Supreme Court ruled in Commonwealth v Hunt that unions were legal and strikes lawful, other states gradually agreed. Unions still largely ineffective 1840s/50s
iii)Artisans + skilled workers unions more successful 1850s, but their unions more like preindustrial guilds that restricted admission to skilled trades
iv)Working class of 1840s/50s had only modest power- limited by numerous immigrant laborers who could replace strikers, ethnic division led to worker disunity. Industrial capitalists had great economic, political and social power
5)Patterns of Industrial Society
a)The Rich and the Poor
i)Commercial +industrial growth raised average income of Americans, but wealth distributed unequally – for slaves, Indians, landless farmers, many unskilled workers little change. Small % of families owned majority of wealth
ii)There had always been wealthy classes from beginning but extent and character was changing. Newly wealthy merchants & industrialists settled in cities- found new ways to display wealth in mansions, social clubs, clothing…
iii)Large population of destitute ppl in growing urban areas- little resources, often homeless. Included recent immigrants, widows, orphans, ppl w/ mental illness. Free blacks=only menial jobs, little pay, no vote, no public schools
b)Social Mobility
i)Class conflict quelled b/c working standards declined but living standard improving, opportunity for social mobility for workers captured imagination
ii)Geographic mobility more extensive than Eur, Western lands “safety valve” for discontent. Also travel form city to city to search for new opportunity
iii)Opportunity to participate in politics expanded, ballot tied ppl to community
c)Middle-Class Life
i)Fastest growing group in America middle class. Economic development offered opportunity to own and work for businesses, land no longer=wealth
ii)Middle class life most influential cultural form of urban America, good neighborhoods, women stayed in home to care for children, cast-iron stoves used to cook, diets improved w/ new access to meats, grains, dairy
d)The Changing Family
i)Movement of families from farms to cities where jobs, not land, most important. Patriarchal system of inherited farm land disappeared
ii)Work moved out of home and into shop, mill, factory. Family as principal economic unit gave way to individual wage earners. Even farms became commercialized b/c larger lands required more labor than just family
iii)Changing family role led to decline in birth rate by mid-19th century. Deliberate effort to limit family size result of future planning. Secular, rational
e)Women and the “Cult of Domesticity”
i)Growing distinction btwn workplace and home led to distinction in societal roles of men + women. Women had long been denied legal + political rights, little access to business, less access to education at high levels
ii)Middle class husband seen as wage earner, wife to engage in domestic activities- “guardians of domestic virtues”, central role to nurture young
iii)“Separate sphere” female culture emerged. Women seen as having special qualities difft than men-custodians of morality and shape home to be refuge from competitive marketplace. Provide religious, moral instruction to kids
iv)By 1840s few genteel women considered working, seen as “lower class”, owners rarely hired women anyway b/c of “cult”. But Working-class women couldn’t afford to stay home, many went into domestic service
f)Leisure Activities
i)Leisure time scarce for all but wealthy, vacations rare, Sunday often only day of rest + Church. Reading expanded, new newspapers, magazines, books for affluent. Theaters, minstrel shows, public sporting events increasingly popular
ii)Circus amazed ppl (PT Barnum), lectures also very popular
6)The Agricultural North
a)Northeastern Agriculture
i)After 1840 decline and transformation- farmers couldn’t compete with new rich soil of Northwest. Rural population declined. Some farmers moved west for new farms, others moved to mill towns and became laborers. Others turned to providing eastern urban centers vegetables, fruit, profitable dairy products
b)The Old Northwest
i)Some industry (more than in South), industrial growth, before Civil War- much served agriculture or relied on agricultural products
ii)Lands from urban centers primarily agricultural, owned by workers. Rising world farm prices gave incentive for commercial agriculture: growing single crop for market, international market for American food
iii)Growth of factories + cities increased demand for farm goods. Northwest farmers sold most goods to ppl in Northeast + dependent on their purchasing power, Eastern industry found market for products in prosperous West
iv)To expand production Western expansion into prairie regions during 1840s/50s, new farm techniques and inventions used- John Deere’s steel plow
v)Automatic reaper by Cyrus McCormick + thresher revolutionized grain production
vi)NW democracy based on defense of economic freedom and rights of property
c)Rural Life
i)Religion powerful force drawing farm communities together. Also joined together to share tasks difficult for single family (such as barn raising)
ii)Rural life not always isolated, but less contact w/ popular culture and public social life than in towns and cities. Cherished farm life autonomy
1)The Cotton Economy
a)The Rise of King Cotton
i)19th century upper South (VA, MD, NC) cultivated tobacco, but unstable prices and exhaustive of soil. By 1830s upper South began to grow wheat, tobacco growing shifted westward. Southern regions of South (SC, GA, FL) continued growing rice, Gulf some sugar—crops limited b/c hard to cultivate
ii)Decline of tobacco in upper South led not to industrialization but growing of short-staple cotton- could grow in difft env’ts, w/ cotton gin now profitable. Demand for cotton growing b/c of rise of textile industry in GB 1820s/30s and New England 1840s/50s—new lands and expansion to meet new demand
iii)Beginning 1820s production of cotton moved westward into Alabama, Mississippi, LA, TX, AK. By 1850s dominated economy
iv)“Lower South”/ “Cotton Kingdom” attracted many seeking profits, also slaves
b)Southern Trade and Industry
i)Business classes and manufacturers unimportant, slow growth + mainly in upper South. Non-farm commercial sectors mainly served needs of plantation economy- brokers who marketed crops, acted as merchants and lenders
ii)Primitive banking system did not allow for structures necessary for industrial development. Inadequate transport system: few roads, canals, nat’l railroads
iii)Some southerners recognized economic subordination to north and advocated for economic independence- New Orlean James De Bow- De Bow’s Review
c)Sources of Southern Difference
i)Despite “colonial dependency” South did little to industrialize b/c agricultural system + cotton so profitable, little incentive to look beyond. Wealthy had already invested much of their capital into land + slaves
ii)Lack of commercial growth also b/c traditional values distinctive to South discouraged cities + industry- elegance, more refined life than rapid growth
2)White Society in The South
a)The Planter Class
i)Majority of ppl didn’t own slaves (only ¼ did), of those small % owned many
ii)Planter aristocracy (those earning 40+ slaves and 800+ acres of land) exercised power and influence greater than their number. Political economic, social control. Saw themselves as aristocracy, though most wealth was recent
iii)Growing crops profitable but as competitive and risky as industry in North
iv)After struggling to reach their position in society they were determined to defend it—perhaps why defense of slavery and South’s “rights” stronger in booming lower South and weaker in more established areas
b)“Honor”
i)White males adopted code of chivalry that obligated them to defend their “honor”. Ethical ideal and bravery but also public appearance of dignity & authority- anything to challenge dignity or social station a challenge
c)The “Southern Lady”
i)Lives of affluent centered in home, little role in public activities or as wage earners. White men more dominant + women subordinate than in North- solitary farm life w/ no access to “public world” led to main role wife, mother
ii)Less educational opportunities, higher birth rate and infant mortality rate
d)The Plain Folk
i)Typical person not planter + slaveholder but modest yeoman farmer. Mainly subsistence farming- lacked resources for cotton or to expand operations
ii)Little prospect of bettering position b/c southern educational system provided poor whites with little opportunity to learn and therefore advance
iii)Majority excluded from planter society, but opposition to elite limited mainly to “hill” and “backcountry” ppl who were secluded, unconnected to commercial economy, and loyal to whole nation and above sectional fighting
iv)Most nonslave-owning whites lived in middle of plantation system and were tied to it, relied on planters for markets, credit, and linked thru kinship. Also large sense of democracy + political participation gave sense of cnxn to societal order. Cotton boom of 1850s gave them hope of economic betterment
v)Belief that assault on one hierarchical system (slavery) would threaten another hierarchical system (patriarchy)
vi)Even the south’s poorest members (“clay eaters”) who owned no profitable land did not offer great opposition to society—greatest factor binding all classes together was perception of race and members of ruling race
3)Slavery: The “Peculiar Institution”
a)Varieties of Slavery
i)Called “peculiar” by Southerners b/c was distinctive from N., Western world
ii)Slavery regulated by law, slave codes forbade property, congregation, teaching a slave. Anyone suspected w/ trace of African blood defined as black
iii)Despite provisions of law variety within slave system b/c white owners handled most transgressions, conditions. Size of farm, # of slaves varied
iv)Majority of slave-owners small farmers, but majority of slaves lived on medium + large plantations-less intimate owner/slave relationship
b)Life Under Slavery
i)Generally received enough necessities to enable them to live and work; lived in slave quarters. Slaves worked hard, women labored in fields w/ men and had other chores, often single b/c husbands sold away (single parents)
ii)High death rate and less children survived to adulthood than whites
iii)Some say material condition of slavery may have been better than some northern factory workers, less sever than slaves in Caribbean + South Amer. Law preventing slave import incentive to Southern elite to provide some care
iv)Other cheap laborer (such as Irish) used to perform most dangerous and least healthy tasks to protect investment. Still overseers hired by owners often treated slave badly, and household servants often sexually abused by master
c)Slavery in the Cities
i)On isolated plantations masters maintained direct control. Slaves in cities were often hired out to do labor and unskilled jobs in cities + towns
ii)In cities line btwn slavery + freedom less clear, white southerners viewed slavery incompatible w/ city life- sold slaves to countryside, used segregation
d)Free African Americans
i)About 250,000 free African Americans in slaveholding states before Civil War, most in VA and MD. Some had earned money and bought freedom for themselves and family- mostly urban blacks able to do this
ii)Some slaves freed by master for moral reasons, other after master died
iii)During 1830s state laws for slaves tightened b/c growing number of free blacks, abolition movement in North—made manumission of slaves harder
iv)Most free blacks very poor, limited opportunity, only quasi-free
e)The Slave Trade
i)Transfer of slaves from one part of South to another important consequence of development of Southwest. Sometimes moved with master, more often transferred thru slave traders
ii)Domestic slave trade impt to growth and prosperity of system, but dehumanizing- children separated from parents
f)Slave Resistance
i)Most slaves unhappy with being slaves, wanted freedom- but dealt w/ slavery thru adaptation (slaves who acted as white world expected him, charade for whites) or resistance (those who could not come to accommodate their status)
ii)1831 Nat Turner, a slave preacher, led armed African Americans in VA, overpowered by state + federal troops. Only actual slave insurrection 19th century, but fear of slave conspiracies renewed violence + led to stricter laws
iii)Some attempted to resist by running away, escaping to the North or Canada using underground railroad + sympathetic whites. Odds of success low
iv)Resisted also by refusing to work hard, stealing from master
4)The Culture of Slavery
a)Language and Music
i)Slaves incorporated African speech w/ English- called “pidgin”
ii)Songs very impt- to pass time, some political, emotional, religious
b)African-American Religion
i)By 19th century nearly all slaves Christians. Black congregations illegal, most went to master’s church led by Baptist or Methodist white minister
ii)A.A. religion more emotional, reflected influence of African customs and practices- chanting, emphasized dream of freedom and deliverance. Christian images central to revel leaders Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner
c)The Slave Family
i)Blacks deprived of legal marriage, but “nuclear family” dominant kinship model nevertheless. Up to 1/3 of black families broken apart by slave trade- led to strong extended kinship networks
ii)Black women often bore children to white masters who didn’t recognize kids
iii)Slaves had complex relationships w/ masters b/c depended on them for material means of existence, sense of security and protection. This paternalism was used as an instrument of white control, sense of mutual dependence reduced resistance to institution that only benefited ruling white race
1)The Romantic Impulse
a)Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting
i)Eurs felt that they alone at center of artistic world, but paintings w/in US popular b/c felt they had artistic traditions of their own: wonder of nation’s landscape, shoe power of nature thru wild outdoor scenes- “awe & wonder”
ii)First great school of American painters from Hudson River School in NY: Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty, Asher Durand. Hoped to express “wild nature” that existed in America but not Eur
b)Literature and the Quest for Liberation
i)Early 19th century American literature unpopular, British novelist Sir Walter Scott was. But even during 1820s great American novelist James Fenimore Cooper- evocation of wilderness, adventure, westward expansion- his “Leatherstocking Tales were The Last of the Mohicans & The Deerslayer
ii)Cooper’s novels showed effort to produce truly American literature, ideal of independent individual with natural inner goodness, fear of disorder
iii)Later American romantic works included: poet Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855)- celebration of democracy, individual liberty. Other works more bleak- Herman Melville’sMoby Dick (1851) of individual will but tragedy of pride and revenge, writer Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” (1845) established him as literary figure- humans exploring deeper world of spirit and emotions
c)Literature in the Antebellum South
i)Southern writers wanted to create American literary culture as well, but often produced historical romances for eulogies of plantation system of Upper South. Most famous William Gilmore Simms- believed duty of intellectual to defend southern lifestyle + slavery, sectional
ii)Augustus Longstreet, Joseph Baldwin, Johnson Hooper focused not on “cavaliers” but on ordinary ppl and poor whites
d)The Transcendentalists
i)New England writers who focused on distinction btwn “reason” and inner capacity to grasp beauty and emotional expression vs “understanding” and repression of instinct and imposed learning- goal to cultivate “reason”
ii)Centered in Concord, MA. Leader Ralph Waldo Emerson- essays “Nature” (1836) argued self-fulfillment thru communion w/ nature, “Self-Reliance” (1841) called for individual fully explore inner capacity, unity w/ universe
iii)Emerson a nationalist, lecture “The American Scholar” (1837), argued beauty from instant vs learning, therefore Americans can still have artistic greatness
iv)Henry David Thoreau- ppl should seek self-realization by not conforming to society’s expectations & responding to own instincts. His Walden (1845) of him living simply in the woods, essay “Resistance to Civil Government” (1849)- govt that required violation of personal mortality not legitimate
e)The Defense of Nature
i)Some uneasy w/ rapid economic development, feared impact on natural world. Nature not just for economic activity (farmers, miners) or for study by scientists- but vehicle for human inspiration, realize truth within the soul
f)Visions of Utopia
i)Transcendentalism spawned communal living experiments
ii)Brook Farm established by George Ripley 1841 in MA, create community that would permit full opportunity for self-realization, equal labor, share leisure
iii)Conflict btwn individual freedom & communal society led to dissenters: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance (1852) submission equals oppression, The Scarlet Letter (1850)- price ind. pay for not being in society
iv)French philosopher Charles Fourier’s idea of socialist communities led Robert Owen 1825 to create experiment New Harmony in Ind, economic failure
g)Redefining Gender Roles
i)Transcendentalism + utopian communities led to some sense of feminism
ii)Margaret Fuller’s Women of the Nineteenth Century (1844)- feminist ideas
iii)Johm Humphrey’s Oneida Community “Perfectionists” rejected traditional ideas of family and marriage, communal raising of children. An Lee’s Shaker Society committed to celibacy, equality of sexes, God neither male or female
h)The Mormons
i)Mormons effort to create new and more ordered society thru Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Began upstate NY by Joseph Smith w/ his 1830 Book of Mormon. Began looking for sanctuary for follower “New Jerusalem”
ii)Ideas of polygamy and secrecy led surrounding communities to fear them. Mob killed Smith, his protégé Brigham Young led exodus to new community in present Salt Lake City, Utah. Family structure very impt
iii)Belief in human perfectibility, but not individual liberty. Organized, centrally directed society- refuge from disorder and insecurity of secular world
iv)Members mostly ppl dislodged by economic growth & social progress of era
2)Remaking Society
a)Revivalism, Mortality, and Order
i)Reform b/c rejection of Calvinist doctrines + preached divinity of individual (Unitarians, Universalism), and b/c of Protestant revivalism
ii)New Light revivalists believed every individual capable of salvation. Charles Finney impt leader- predestination and human helplessness obsolete
iii)Revivals in “burned-over district” in upstate NY (economic change b/c where Erie Canal had been built). Successful among those who felt threatened by change (including the prosperous worried about social changes), and women
b)The Temperance Crusade
i)Alcohol seen as responsible for crime, disorder, poverty. Large problem in West where farmers made extra grain into whiskey, in East as leisure activity
ii)Earlier temperance movement revived by new reformers- 1826 American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, 1840 Western Temperance Society.
iii)Growth led to factions: which alcohol to ban, method (law v. conscience)
iv)Trying to impose discipline on society- Protestants vs Catholic immigrants for which drinking social ritual, disturbing to old residents of communities
c)Health Fads and Phrenology
i)Interest in individual + social perfection led to new health theories, also threat to public health by cholera epidemics 1830s/40s led to city health boards
ii)B/c boards found few solutions Americans turned toward nonscientific theories to improve health: “water cure (hydrotherapy)”, Sylvester Graha’s new diet theories, German “phrenology” 1830s thru efforts of Fowler brothers- shape and regions of skull impt indicator of character + intelligence
d)Medical Science
i)Science of medicine lagged behind other tech. + scientific advances b/c lack of regulation led many poorly educated ppl to be physicians, absence of basic knowledge of disease- vaccination, anesthesia result of luck vs study
ii)W/o appetence of scientific methods + experimentation little learned about treating + transmission of disease
e)Reforming Education
i)Reform toward universal public education-by 1830 no state had system (some limited state versions [MA, ect.])- reflection of new belief on innate capacity of every person, society’s obligation to tap that, expose kids to social values
ii)Greatest reformer Horace Mann- educated electorate essential to work free political system. Academic year lengthened, better teacher salaries + training
iii)By 1850s tax-supported elementary schools in all states. Quality of education varied widely- Horace Mann’s MA professional + trained, elsewhere some barely literate, limited funding. West dispersed pop=less opportunity, South blacks barred from formal education, only 1/3 children nationwide in school
iv)School reform achievements: US literacy rate highest in world, new emphasis led to new institutions to help handicapped- greater Benevolent
v)School efforts to impose set of social values on children seen as impt in industrial nation- thrift, order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority
f)Rehabilitation
i)“Asylums” for criminals + mentally ill. Antiquated jails replaced w/ new penitentiaries and mental institutions, jailing debtors + paupers decreased
ii)Reform & rehabilitate inmates- rigid discipline to curb criminal “laxness”, solitary confinement to contemplate crimes. Overcrowding became problem
iii)Idea properly structured institution to prevent moral failure + rescue ppl from failure led to orphanages, almshouses for poor, homes for “friendless” women
g)The Indian Reservation
i)Main US Indian policy had been relocation to make way for expanding white civilization. Reform led to idea of reservation- enclosed area for Indians to live in isolation from white society. Served economic interest of whites, but also attempt to teach ways of civilization in protected setting
h)The Rise of Feminism
i)Women 1830s/40s had to deal w/ traditional limitations + new role in family to focus energy on home and children, leave income-earning to husbands
ii)Resentment over limitations. Leaders of women’s movement (Grimke sisters, Stowe sisters, Lucrecia Matt, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dorothy Dix) began to draw cnxn btwn their abolitionist ideas and plight of women
iii)1848 organized convention at Seneca Falls, NY to discuss women’s rights- led to “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” stating all men + women equal, call for women’s suffrage. Many women in feminist movement Quaker
iv)Progress limited in antebellum yrs- only few became physicians, ministers
v)Women benefited from association w/ other reform movements (very impt abolition), but led some to consider their demands secondary to slave rights
3)The Crusade Against Slavery
a)Early Opposition to Slavery
i)Early 19th century opposition by genteel lot. 1817 American Colonization Society- Virginians who wanted manumission & transportation out of country but also maintain property rights by compensating slaveholder—1830 Liberia
ii)Failed b/c not enough private + state funding, too many slaves to be possible, opposition from 3rd/4th generation Africans far removed from society + lands
iii)By 1830 movement losing strength- colonization not viable, cotton boom in Deep South + planter commitment to “peculiar institution” led to dead end
b)Garrison and Abolitionism
i)William Lloyd Garrison employed by antislavery newspaper (Genius of Universal Emancipation), but impatient w/ moderate tone + reform proposals
ii)1831 founded his own Liberator, should look from black perspective, shouldn’t talk in terms of damage to white society. Reject “gradualism”, extend African Americans full rights of American citizens
iii)Gained Northern following, founded New England Antislavery Society 1832, year later American Antislavery Society- membership grew rapidly
iv)Growth b/c like other reform movements committed to unleashing individual human spirit, eliminate artificial social barriers
c)Black Abolitionists
i)Abolitionism appealed to Northern free blacks who were poor, had little access to education, suffered mob violence, only menial occupations
ii)P of their freedom, realized own position in society tied to existence of slavery. David Walker came to be a leader w/ violent rhetoric, most blacks less violent speech- Sojourner Truth became antislavery spokesman
iii)Greatest abolitionist Frederick Douglass- escaped slavery, lectured in NE. His newspaperNorth Star, autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845). Demanded freedom, but also social + economic equality
d)Anti-Abolitionism
i)White southerners opposed abolition, but also many in the North. Seen as threat to social system, feared war btwn sections & influx of blacks to North
ii)Escalating violence against abolitionists 1830s- abolitionist headquarters “Temple of Liberty” in Philadelphia burned by mob, Garrison seized
iii)Yet movement grew despite, suggesting members strong-willed + passionate, great courage and moral strength. Majority sentiment ambivalent to slavery
e)Abolitionism Divided
i)By 1830s abolitionists faced serious internal strains + divisions. Prompted b/c anti-abolitionist violence made some favor moderation, radicalism of William Garrison and his attacks on slavery, opposition to slavery, call for full equality for women, extreme pacifism, call for northern disunion from South. Moderates called for “moral suasion” of slaveholders, later political action
ii)1839 Amistad- slaves seized ship tried to return to Africa. US navy captured ship. Supreme Court 1841 declared the Africans free 1
iii)842 Prigg v. Pennsylvania ruled states need not enforce 1793 law requiring return of fugitive slaves, “personal liberty laws” in northern states forbade officials to assist in capture + return of runaways
iv)Nat’t govt pressured to abolish slavery in areas of federal govt jurisdiction, prohibit interstate slave trade. No political party ever founded, but “free-soil” movement to keep slave out of territories became popular
v)Some abolitionists violent, American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of A Thousand Witnesses (1839) distorted images of slavery
vi)Most powerful abolitionist propaganda Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin(1851)- combined sentimental novel w/ political ideas of abolitionist. Story of good, kindly blacks victimized by cruel system movement. Brought message to new audience, but also inflamed sectional tensions to new level
1)Looking Westward
a)Manifest Destiny
i)Reflected pride of American nationalism + idealistic vision of social perfection that had fueled reform movements- US destined by God & history- to expand over a vast area that included North America.
ii)Extend liberty + US political system to others, but also racist justifications- superiority of “American” race, ppl of territories unfit for republican system
iii)By 1840s idea of Manifest Destiny had spread thru “penny press” (mass audience). Almost all but not everyone embraced- Henry Clay feared tension
b)Americans in Texas
i)1820s Mexican govt encouraged American immigration into Texas hoping to strengthen territory’s economy and increase tax revenues, buffer against Indians, would prevent US expansion- 1824 Mex bill offered cheap land
ii)Thousands took deal, land suitable for cotton, soon American population larger than Mexican. American intermediaries to Mex govt brought settlers- most famous Stephen Austin. Later attempts to stem US immigration failed
c)Tensions Between the United States and Mexico
i)Tension btwn US settlers and Mex govt grew b/c immigrants continued cultural + economic ties to US, also b/c desire to legalize slavery after it was outlawed in 1830
ii)Mid 1830s Mex General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power as dictator- new law increased power of nat’l govt over state govts, Austin imprisoned. 1835 Mex sent more troops, 1836 Texans declared independence
iii)Santa Anna led large army into TX, Americans unorganized and easily defeated (Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio). Then General Sam Houston defeated Mexicans 1836 at Battle of San Jacinto, the captured Santa Anna signed treaty making TX independent. [MXs living in TX called tejanos]
iv)Texans wanted to be annexed by US, delegation sent to D.C. had expansionist support, but northerners feared large new slave state + empowering the south w/ more Congressional/electoral votes- incl. Andrew Jackson who feared sectional controversy, Pres Van Buren and Pres Harrison also ignored issue
v)TX sought allies in Eur who wanted to check US power, Pres Tyler sought TX to reapply for statehood 1844, rejected by Senateissue in 1844 election
d)Oregon
i)Both GB and US claimed sovereignty over Oregon region. 1818 treaty allowed citizens equal access to area-“joint occupation” for 20 yrs
ii)US interest grew 1820s/30s b/c desire to convert Indians and oppose Canadian Cath. Missionaries- native rejection Christianity=repudiating right to land
iii)Large amt of Americans began emigrating to Oregon early 1840s, soon outnumbered GB’s settlers, destroyed native pop. Mid-1840s desire for annex.
e)The Westward Migration
i)Growth of TX and Oregon population part of greater movement of population westward 1840-1860. Southerners went mainly to TX, largest numbers from Old Northwest – majority sought mainly new economic opportunity
ii)Some wanted riches after CA gold discovery 1848, others take advance of cheap land fed govt selling, others on religious mission (Mormons)
f)Life on the Trail
i)Most migrants gathered major depots in Iowa or MI, joined wagon trains led by hired guides. Main route Oregon Trail to CA + WA, others Santa Fe Trail
ii)Trip very difficult, especially in mountain and desert terrain. Fear of conflict w/ Indians (although very little fighting occurred), trade developed w/ Natives
2)Expansion and War
a)The Democrats and Expansion
i)Two candidates for 1844 election Whig Henry Clay and the Democrat/former president Martin Van Buren. Clay chosen, but many Southern democrats supported TX annexation, chose stronger support James K. Polk
ii)Polk able to win b/c wished to occupy Oregon and annex TX, thereby appealing to both northern and southern expansionists
iii)Outgoing Pres John Tyler saw election as mandate for annexing TX, did so in 1845. Polk proposed Oregon border @ 49th parallel, GB refused, led to US cry “Fifty-four forty or fight!”. 1846 GB accepted treaty w/ border at 49th parallel
b)The Southwest and California
i)Oregon treaty accepted readily by Pres b/c tension growing in Southwest with Mex. After TX became state 1845 dispute over border- TX and Polk believed it to be at Rio Grande, sent Gen Zachary Taylor to protect from invasion
ii)Part of disputed area was New Mexico where Mex had originally invited American settlers into. Interest in California growing as well as US fur traders gave way to merchants and farmers arriving. Settlers dreamed of annexation
iii)Polk wanted California and New Mexico for US. At same time ordered Gen Taylor to TX, ordered navy seize CA ports if Mexico declared war
c)The Mexican War
i)Polk attempted diplomacy by sending special minister to Mex to purchase lands. When Polk heard MX rejected offer sent Gen. Taylor’s army from Nueces R to Rio Grande R January 1846
ii)May 1846 US declaration of war. Whig critics of war b/c thought Polk instigated, intensified as war cont and public aware of casualties and expense
iii)American forces successful in capturing NE Mexico, Polk ordered offensive against New Mexico and California. Col Stephen Kearny captured Santa Fe, then aided US forces in CA’s “Bear Flag Revolution”, captured CA
iv)When Mex refused to cede defeat Polk sent Gen Winfield Scott to capture Mexico City. After taking city new Mex govt took power that was willing to negotiate treaty. Some in US wanted to annex part of Mexico, but w/ election soon Polk wanted war ended quickly. Sent envoy Nicolas Trist for settlement
v)Feb 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo agreed to where Mex ceded CA and NM to US and acknowledged Rio Grande boundary of TX. US agreed to pay Mex $15 million. Despite to Mex annexations Polk accepted treaty
3)The Sectional Debate
a)Slavery and the Territories
i)Rep David Wilmot’s “Wilmot Proviso”: prohibit slavery from territories acquired by Mex- failed Senate. Polk extended Missouri Compromise line to territory on West coast. Alternative- “popular sovereignty”- states decided
ii)1848 election Polk didn’t run again. Dem candidate Lewis Cass, Whig General Zachary Taylor. Slavery opponents formed “Free-Soil” Party w/ Van Buren for pres. Showed inability of existing parties to contain slavery passions
b)The California Gold Rush
i)Taylor won 1848 election, pressure to resolve slavery in territories urgent b/c of events in CA- 1848 Gold Rush lead to dramatic increase in CA’s population, migrants known as “Forty-niners” mainly men
ii)Gold Rush led to many Chinese migrants to Western US. Labor shortage in CA (due to ppl flocking to fold fields) created opportunities for ppl who needed work. Also led to exploitation of Natives, “Indian hunters”
iii)Most didn’t find gold, but many sated in CA and swelled agricultural + urban populations. Population diverse- white Americans, Eurs, Chinese, Mexicans, free blacks, slaves of southern migrants—tension led territory to be a turbulent place, therefore pressure to create a stable and effective govt to bring order
c)Rising Sectional Tensions
i)Taylor believed statehood solution to territory issue b/c territories controlled by fed govt, but states govt could settle slave issue w/in own state
ii)Taylor 1849 proposed CA (which had constitution banning slavery) and New Mexico apply for statehood, decide slavery w/in state. Congress refused b/c at time 15 free and 15 slave states existed, South feared admission of New states would upset balance, make South minority in Sen. Tempers rising
d)The Compromise of 1850
i)Henry Clay proposed compromise to Congress in 1850- admitted CA as free state, new territorial govts w/o slave restrictions, new tough fugitive slave law
ii)First phase of debating comp led by older voices of Clay, Calhoun, Webster and broad ideal of settling slave issue once and for all
iii)After Clay proposal defeated, second phase of debate led by younger group: William Seward of NY opposed compromise, Jefferson Davis of MI saw slavery in terms of South’s economic self-interest, Stephen Douglas of IL
iv)W/ death of Taylor in 1850 (who refused compromise until CA admitted), new Pres Millard Fillmore supported compromise, rallied N Whig support
v)Douglas proposed Clay compromise split into smaller measured and voted on (difft sections could vote for measures that they supported), used govt bonds and railroad construction to gain support. Comp passed in September- less widespread agreement on ideals then victory of self-interest
4)The Crisis of the 1850s
a)The Uneasy Truce
i)1852 pres election candidates very sectional. Dem Franklin Pierce, Whig Gen Winfield Scott, Free-Soil John Hale. Whigs suffered from massive defection from antislavery members, Democrats won
ii)Pres Pierce tried to ignore divisive issues, but N opposition to Fugitive Slave Act after 1850 as mobs prevented slave catchers in cities. S angered, alarmed
b)“Young America”
i)Pierce supported Democrat’s “Young America”- saw expansion of US democracy throughout world as way of diverting attention from slavery
ii)Efforts to expand entangled in sectionalism- attempts to capture Cuba opposed by antislavery northerners who feared administration trying to bring new slave state to Union, south opposed acquiring Hawaii b/c prohibited slavery
c)Slavery, Railroads, and the West
i)1850s settlers began moving into plains to areas suitable for farming, dislodge Indians from reservations there. Settlement led to issue of railroad and slavery
ii) RR used to solve communication problems btwn old states + areas W of Miss. R., movement for transcontinental RR. Disagreement over whether eastern terminus should be in North’s Chicago or in the South. Jefferson Davis organized Gadsden Purchase 1853 from Mex to make S route possible
d)The Kansas-Nebraska Controversy
i)Stephen Douglas 1854 proposed opening Nebraska Territory for white settlement (to clear Indians in way of possible transcont. RR from Chicago)
ii)Nebraska North of Missouri Compromise line, therefore had to be free
iii)To gain passage Douglas proposed dividing Nebraska in two (Nebraska and Kansas) and each would decide slavery by “popular sovereignty” (state legislature), repealed Missouri Compromise entirely
iv)Kansas-Nebraska Act passed 1854 w/ Pres Pierce support. Had immediate, sweeping consequences: divided and destroyed Whig Party (disappeared by 1856), divided northern Democrats (disagreed w/ repealing Miss. Comp)
v)Ppl in both parties opposed to bill formed Republican Party 1854
e)“Bleeding Kansas”
i)Settlers from N + S settling Kansas, but for 1855 elections southerners from Missouri traveled to Kansas to vote. Pro-slavery legislature elected, legalized slavery. Free-state supporters in state formed own Const, applied statehood
ii)Pro-slave forces burned down anti-slave govt, abolitionist John Brown then killed 5 pro-slave settlers (Pottawatomie Massacre). Led to armed warfare by armed bands, “Bleeding Kansas” became symbol of sectional controversy
iii)1856 anti-slavery Charles Sumner of MA gave speech entitled “The Crime Against Kansas” critical of slavery defender Sen Butler of SC. Butler’s nephew Preston Brooks came to Sen, beat Sumner w/ cane- both became hero
f)The Free-Soil Ideology
i)Tension from economic, territorial interest, but also sectional vision of US
ii)North believed in “free soil” + “free labor”. Slavery not so much immoral but wrong b/c threatened whites- every citizen had right to own property, control labor, access to opportunity. To them South closed, static society where slavery preserved entrenched aristocracy & common white had no opportunity
iii)North growing + prospering, S stagnant + rejecting individualism, progress. Believed S conspiring to extend slavery thru whole nation and thus destroy N capitalism, replace it with closed aristocracy of S- “slave power conspiracy”
iv)This ideology @ heart of Repub Party. Committed to Union b/c growth + prosperity central to free-labor vision, breakup= smaller size+ less econ power
g)The Pro-Slavery Argument
i)Incompatible Southern ideology result of desire for security after Nat Turner 1831 uprising, lucrative nature of cotton economy into Deep South and expansion there, growth of Garrisonian abolition movement against S society
ii)Intellectual defense of slavery begun by Professor Thomas Dew, others later gave ideology name The Pro-Slavery Argument- said that S should not apologize for slavery b/c was a good thing, slaved enjoyed better conditions than industrial workers in N, allowed for peace btwn races, helped nat’l econ
iii)Also argued slavery good b/c basis of way S way of life, which was superior to any other. N greedy, destructive, factories horrific, cities crowded + immigrant filled- but S stable, orderly, protected worker welfare
iv)Defense also on biological inferiority of blacks, inherently unfit to care for themselves and be citizens. Clergy also gave religious + biblical justification
h)Buchanan and Depression
i)In 1856 pres election Dems wanted candidate unassociated w/ “Bleeding Kansas” so chose James Buchanan, Repubs chose John Fremont (platform against Kansas-Nebraska Act and of Whiggish internal improvements reflecting N economic aspirations), Know-Nothings chose Millard Fillmore
ii)Buchanan won, but proved indecisive at critical moment in history. After taking office financial panic + depression hit country
iii)In N Repubs strengthened b/c manufacturers, workers, farmers joined--depression seen as result of unsound policies of southern Dem administrations
i)The Dred Scott Decision
i)March 1857 Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v Sandford- Scott was slave who after masters death sued widow for freedom on grounds that master had moved residence to a free state, but John Sanford (brother of deceased owner, Sup C. misspelled name) claimed ownership of Scott
ii)Defeat for antislavery movement. Supreme Court had multiple decisions, Chief Justice Roger Taney: Scott could not bring suit in fed court b/c was not a citizen, blacks had virtually no rights under Const, slaves property & 5th Amendment forbid taking property w/o “due process” and therefore Congress had no authority to pass law depriving persons of slave property in territories (thereby ruling Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional)
iii)Did not challenge rights of state to limit slavery, but fed govt now powerless
j)Deadlock Over Kansas
i)Pres Buchanan endorsed Dred Scott decision, to solve Kansas problem supported admission to Union as slave state. 1857 new KS Const legalized slavery, but election of new legislature saw antislavery majority who put Const to ppl to vote on- widely rejected
ii)1858 Buchanan pressured Congress to admit it as slave state anyway but Cong rejected, compromise allowed KS to vote on Const again—rejected again
iii)1861, after sever S states had already seceded, KS entered Union as free state
k)The Emergence of Lincoln
i)In 1858 Congressional elections Repub Abraham Lincoln ran against famed Dem Stephen Douglas. Lincoln-Douglas debates attracted attention
ii)Lincoln’s attacks on slavery prominent- argued if nation didn’t accept blacks had human rights then it could accept other groups such as immigrant laborers could be deprived of rights too. Also, extension of slavery in territories would lead to lost opportunity for betterment by poor white laborers
iii)Lincoln opposed slavery but not abolitionist b/c did not see easy alternative to slavery in areas where it existed. Prevent spread of slavery to territories, trust institution would gradually die out in areas where it existed
iv)Douglas won but Lincoln gained following. Dems lost maj in House, kept Sen
l)John Brown’s Raid
i)1859 antislavery zealot from KS John Brown led followers to capture fort in Harpers Ferry VA hoping to lead slave rebellion. Uprising never occurred, Brown surrendered, tried for treason by VA and hanged
ii)Convinced white southerners that they could not live safely in Union, believed raid supported by Repub party and that North now wanted slave insurrection
m)The Election of Lincoln
i)In Pres election of 1860 Dems torn btwn southerners (who demanded strong endorsement of slavery) & westerners (who supported popular sovereignty)
ii)After popular sovereignty endorsed by convention southern states walked out, eventually nominated John Breckinridge of KY, rest chose Stephen Douglas
iii)Still others formed Constitutional Union Party w/ John Bell as candidate- endorsed Union but remained silent regarding slavery
iv)Republicans tried to broaden appeal to earn majority in North who feared S blocking its economic interests. Platform endorsed high tariff, internal improvements, homestead bill, Pacific railroad, popular sovereignty but Congress nor territory legislatures could legalize slavery in territories
v)Repubs chose Abraham Lincoln as nominee b/c moderate positions on slavery, relative obscurity, and western origins to attract votes from region
vi)Lincoln won presidency w/ majority of electoral votes but only 2/5 of popular vote but failed to win maj in Congress
vii)Election of Lincoln final signal for many southerners that their position in Union hopeless, within weeks process of disunion began
1)The Secession Crisis
a)The Withdrawal of the South
i)South Carolina voted Dec 1860 to secede, by time Lincoln came to office six more states (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, TX) seceded
ii)Seceded states formed Confederate States of America Feb1861. These states started seizing federal property but at first lacked power to seize the military instillations at Fort Sumter, SC and For Pickens, FL
b)The Failure of Compromise
i)Compromise proposed by Sen John Crittenden of KY proposed constitutional amdts w/ permanent slavery in slave states, fugitive slave returned. At heart was plan to reinstitute Missouri Compromise Line for western lands
ii)Repubs rejected compromise. Lincoln came to office, stated: Union older than Const therefore no state could leave it, supporting secession= insurrection
c)Fort Sumter
i)Forces in fort running out of supplies, Lincoln informed SC govt that supply ships were being sent. South feared looking weak, ordered General PGT Beauregard to capture fort. Bombarded April 12-12,1861. Fort surrendered
ii)After defeat of fort Lincoln began mobilizing for war, but 4 more slave states also seceded- VA, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina. Other 4 slave states remained in Union- MD, Delaware, KY, Missouri)
iii)Ppl in N&S had come to believe two distinct and incompatible civilizations had developed in US, both incapable of living together in peace
d)The Opposing Sides
i)North held all the important material advantages- N had more than double the population (manpower for army and work force) advanced industrial system to manufacture war material (S had to rely on Eur imports), N had better transportation systems + more railroads
ii)Advantages tempered b/c at first South fighting defensive war on own land w/ strong support of population. N more divided and support shaky throughout
2)The Mobilization of the North
a)Economic Measures
i)W/o Southern forces in Congress it enacted nationalistic program to promote econ development- Homestead Act of 1862 gave public land to settlers for small fee, Morrill Land Grant Act gave land to state govts to sell for $ for public education. High tariffs passed- boom to domestic industries, protect from foreign producers
ii)To build transcontinental RR created the Union Pacific RR Company to build westward from Omaha + Central Pacific to build east from CA
iii) National Bank Acts of 1863-1864 created new bank system- banks could join if they invested in govt, in turn could issue US Treasure notes as currency
iv)Govt financed war thru taxes, paper currency, and borrowing. 1861 first ever income tax levied, govt “greenbacks” (paper money) issued (not on gold or silver standard), but mostly thru bonds sold to individuals and larger financial bodies
b)Raising Union Armies
i)To increase army Congress authorized enlisting 500,000 volunteers- produced adequate forces only briefly. By March 1863 govt had to pass national draft law (but ppl could avoid service by hiring someone in his place or paying $)
ii)Ppl were accustomed to remote, inactive nat’l govt so conscription had widespread opposition- mainly from laborers, immigrants, “Peace Democrats”
c)Wartime Politics
i)Lincoln moved to assert his authority- apptd cabinet representing every faction of Repub party, used war powers of president and disregarded parts of Const- e.x. never asking Congress for declaration of war (believed declaration would recognize Confederacy as an independent nation)
ii)Lincoln’s greatest problem was popular opposition to war mobilized by parts of Democratic Party (“Copperheads”) who feared agriculture and Northwest losign influence + deterioration of states rights by strong nat’l govt
iii)Lincoln suppressed opposition by ordering military arrests of civilian dissenters, suspending habeas corpus, stating all ppl who discouraged enlistment or disloyal practices subject to martial law. Lincoln defied Supreme Court when ordered to release secession leader (Ex parte Merryman), military courts declared unconst after war (Ex parte Milligan)
iv)In1864 presidential election coalition formed btwn Repubs & War Democrats in Union Party- nominated Lincoln. Dems nominated Gen George McClellan, platform for truce. N victories (e.x. Sept capture of Atlanta) led to Lincoln win
d)The Politics of Emancipation
i)Republicans disagreed on slavery- Radicals incl. Sen Charles Sumner wanted to use war to abolish slavery, Conservatives= gradual, less destructive process
ii)Lincoln cautious of emancipation but momentum gathered behind it- 1861 Confiscation Act freed all slaves used for “insurrectionary” purposes, second Confiscation Act in 1862 freed all slaves of ppl supporting the insurrection
iii)North began to accept emancipation as central war aim b/c nothing less would justify sacrifices of struggle, Radical Repub influence on the rise
iv)Lincoln seized leadership of antislavery sentiment- Sept 1862 after success at Battle of Antietam issued Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in all Confederate areas (but not Union slave states). Established war not only to maintain Union but also to eliminate slavery
v)1865 Congress ratified 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in all parts of US
e)African Americans and the Union Cause
i)About 180,000 emancipated blacks and more free blacks from North served as soldiers and laborers for Union forces. At start of war African Americans excluded from war, but after Emancipation Proc joined in great numbers
f)The War and Economic Development
i)War slowed some growth by cutting manufactueres off from Southern markets and raw materials and diverting labor, but mostly the war sped economic development in the North
ii)Econ growth from Repub nationalistic legislation + new sectors of economy. Difficult for workers though purchasing power declined, mechanization
g)Women, Nursing, and the War
i)Women entered new roles b/c of need for money and labor needs to fill positions vacated by men
ii)Nursing (previously dominated by men) taken up by women, staffed field hospitals thru US Sanitary Commission. Countered resistance from doctors by associating care with women’s role as maternal + nurturing wife and mother
iii)Many found war liberating, seen as opportunity to win support for own goals. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded National Woman’s Loyal League in 1863- worked for abolition and suffrage to women
3)The Mobilization of the South
a)The Confederate Government
i)Confederate const similar to US Const but acknowledged sovereignty of individual states, sanctioned slavery and made abolition nearly impossible. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi named president, led like Union by moderates of new Western aristocracy as opposed to entrenched Eastern elements
b)Money and Manpower
i)To finance war South needed to create national revenue system in society not used to tax burdens. Small banking system, little liquid capital b/c of investments in land + slaves. Govt requested funds from state govts who issued questionable bonds
ii)1863 Income tax created but raised little revenue, borrowing from Eur and bonds to citizens unsuccessful. Turned to issuing paper money but created inflation of over 9,000% vs North’s 80%, no uniform currency
iii)To raise military called for volunteers, but decline in enlistment led to April 1862 Conscription Act. N capture of Confederate lands led to loss of source for manpower, 1864 shortage so desperate draft widened but still ineffective
c)States’ Rights versus Centralization
i)States’ rights supporters obstructed war effort by limiting Davis’ ability to declare martial law and obstructed conscription
ii)Confed did centralize power in S- bureaucracy larger than that of Washington, impressed slaves to work for military, regulated industry + profits
d)Economic and Social Effects of the War
i)War devastating on S economy- cut off planters from markets in S, overseas cotton sales more difficult, industries w/o large slave forces suffered. Production declined by 1/3, fighting on S land destroyed RRs, farmland
ii)N naval blockade led to shortages of everything- agriculture had focused on cotton and not enough food to meet needs, few doctors b/c of conscription
iii)Like in N, w/ men leaving farms to fight the role of women changed- led slaves and family, became nurses. Led women to question S assumption that females unsuited for certain activities and to be in public sphere. War created gender imbalance w/ many more women, unmarried + widowed sought work
iv)Whites feared slave revolts + enforced slave codes severely, but many slaves tried to escape or resisted authority of women and boys overseeing plantations
4)Strategy and Diplomacy
a)The Commanders
i)Most impt Union commander was commander-in-chief Abraham Lincoln- realized N material advantages, goal defeat of Confed armies, not occupation
ii)Lincoln had trouble finding a competent chief of staff for war- Gen Winifield Scott, Gen George McCllellan, Gen Henry Halleck. Finally found commander in Gen Ulysses S. Grant- goal to target enemy army + resources, not territory
iii)Lincoln and Grant scrutinized by Congress’ Committee on the Conduct of the War chaired by OH Sen Benjamin Wade - complained of lack of ruthlessness by of N generals
iv)Southern command centered on Pres Davis, 1862 named Gen Robert E. Lee principal military adviser (w/ Lee in field Davis controlled strategy). 1864 Gen Braxton Bragg named military adviser, later 1865 Confed Congress created position of general in chief, Davis named Lee, but Davis still decider
v)Most commanders from both N & S had attended one of the US service academies- US Military Academy at West Point, US Naval Acad at Annapolis
b)The Role of Sea Power
i)Union had overwhelming naval advantage- used to enforce blockade of S coast, assisted Union army in field operations especially on large rivers
ii)Blockade prevented most ships out of Confed ports. Confederates tried to break blockade w/ new weapons such as the ironclad warship the Merrimac, which the Union stopped with one of their ironclads the Monitor
c)Europe and the Disunited States
i)Judith P Benjamin was Confed secretary of state, counterpart in Washington was the great William Seward
ii)At start of war ruling classes of England + France sympathetic to Confed b/c imported cotton for textile industries from S, wanted to see a weaker US, admired aristocratic social order of S. France waited to take sides until England did, English didn’t act b/c of popular support of ppl for the Union
iii)S countered w/ “King Cotton diplomacy” arguing S cotton vital for these nations textile industries. Surpluses in these nations allowed S to be ignored, later imports from mills from Egypt and India
iv)No Eur nation diplomatically recognized Confed, no nation wanted to antagonize US unless Confed seemed likely to win- never reached that point
v)Still, there was tension btwn US and GB + France b/c these nations had declared neutrality. Also 1861 Trent affair over arrest of Confed diplomats aboard English steamer from Cuba, later crisis over sale of Brit ships to S
d)The American West and the War
i)Most states and territories of West remained loyal to Union except TX, although Southerners and S sympathizers active in organizing opposition
ii)Fighting occurred btwn Unionists and secessionists in Kansas and Missouri. Confed William Quantrill led guerilla fighters, Union Jayhawkers in KS
iii)Confed tried to ally w/ Five Civilized Tribes in Indian territory to recruit support against Union, Indians divided. Never formally allied w/ either side
5)The Course of Battle
a)The Technology of Battle
i)Battlefield of Civil War reflected changes in tech that transformed combat
ii)Both sides began to use repeating weapons- Samuel Colt’s 1835 repeating revolver, Oliver Winchester’s 1660 rifle. Also, improved artillery + cannon
iii)Changes in weapons effectiveness led soldiers to change from infantry lines firing volleys to use of no fighting formations but use of cover, fortifications, trenches. Observation balloons, ironclad ships also appeared during war
iv)Railroad impt in war where millions of soldiers mobilized + tons of supplies. Allowed large armies to assemble and move, but forced to protect stationary lines. Telegraph limited but allowed commanders to communicate during fight
b)The Opening Clashes, 1861
i)First major battle of war occurred in northern VA btwn Union Gen Irvin McDowell and Confed Gen PGT Beauregard at First Battle of Bull Run
ii)Union lost, forced to retreat to Washington, dispelled illusion of quick war
iii)1863 Union army under Gen George McClellan “liberated” anti-secessionists in western VA, area admitted to Union as West Virginia 1863
c)The Western Theater
i)Stalemate in East led to 1862 military operations in West. April 1862 Union forced surrender of New Orleans, closed Mississippi R to Confed trade and took away South’s largest city and most impt banking center
ii)Gen Ulysses S. Grant captured forts under command of Confed Gen Albert Johnston. In doing so Grant forced Confed out of Kentucky and Tennessee
iii)Grant then marched south, fought forced of Gen Sidney and Gen Beauregard at Battle of Shiloh April 1862. Narrow Union victory allowed capture of several impt railroad lines vital to the Confederacy
d)The Virginia Front, 1862
i)Union operations 1862 directed by Gen McClellan (commander of the Army of the Potomac), he was controversial b/c often reluctant to put troops in battle
ii)McClellan planned Peninsular Campaign- use navy to transport troops, attack Confed capital at Richmond from behind. Gen McDowell left to defend D.C.
iii)Then Confed Gen Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson looked as if planning to cross Potomac to Washington, defeated Union forces in Valley campaign, withdrew
iv)Meanwhile, McClellan battled and defeated Confed Gen Joseph Johnston at Battle of Fair Oaks. Johnston replaced by Gen Robert E. Lee who battled McClellan at Battle of the Seven Days. Union able to advance near Richmond
v)When McClellan delayed attack Lincoln ordered him to move to northern VA to forces under Gen John Pope. But as Army of Potomac moved Lee attacked Pope with his Army of Northern Virginia at 2nd Battle of Bull Run (August)
vi)Lincoln replaced Pope and McClellan led all forces. Lee planned offensive, resulted in Battle of Antietam Creek- bloodiest single-day of war w/ 6,000 dead & 17,000 injured. Confed withdrew but McClellan could have defeated Lee w/ last assault. Lincoln relieved McClellan from command in November, his replacement Gen Ambrose Burnside relieved in December after failures
e)1863: Year of Decision
i)New commander of Army of the Potomac Gen Joseph Hooker attacked by Lee + Jackson at Battle of Chancellorsville, barely able to escape w/ army
ii)While Union frustrated in East won impt victories in the West
iii)In July besieged Confed stronghold at Vicksburg, MI surrendered to Grant
iv)Union now controlled entire Mississippi R, Confederacy split in two- Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas cut off from other seceded states
v)To divert Union forces away from Missippi and Vicksburg and to gain major victory on N soil to get English and French aid, Lee proposed PA invasion
vi)New Army of the Potomac commander Gen George Meade battled Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3. Meade defeated Lee w/ surrender on July 4, same day as Vicksburg defeat
vii) Weakened Confed forced now unable to seriously threaten N territory
viii)In September Gen Braxton Braggfought Union army under William Rosecrans, Union defeated at Battle of Chickamauga
ix)Bragg then fought remaining Union forces at Battle of Chattanooga (Tennessee) in November. Grant reinforced the Union army, Union won and occupied most of eastern TN and controlled important Tennessee River
x)Confed could not only hope to win independence thru holding on and exhausting N will to fight, not thru decisive military victory
f)The Last Stage, 1864-1865
i)Beginning 1864 Grant named general-in-chief of all Union armies. Planned two offensives: use Army of Potomac in VA to fight Lee near Richmond, and use western army under Gen William Sherman to advance toward Atlanta
ii)Grant’s Overland campaign in VA led Lee to win three battles (Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Battle of Cold Harbor)
iii)Grant then decided to bypass Richmond to railroad center at Petersburg- strong defenses and reinforcement by Lee led to 9-month siege
iv)In Georgia Gen Sherman fought Gen Johnston and his replacement Gen Hood, took Atlanta in Sept- electrified N + united Repub Party behind Lincoln
v)Sherman defeated Confed at Battle of Nashville, while beginning his March to the Sea- sought to deprive Confed army of war materials and railroad but also break will of Southern ppl by burning towns and plantations along route
vi)Sherman captured Savannah, GA in Dec, turned north thru SC and NC
vii)April 1865 Grant’s Army of the Potomac captured vital railroad juncture in Petersburg. W/o rail access to South and cut off rom other Confed forces Lee no longer able to defend Richmond
viii)Lee attempted to move army around Union in hope of meeting forces with Gen Johnston in North Carolina, but Union blocked and pursued him
ix) Realizng more bloodshed was futile Lee met w/ Grant in town of Appomattox Courthouse, VA- surrendered there on April 9
x)Nine days later Gen Johnston surrendered to Sherman in North Carolina
xi)In military war was effectively over even though Jefferson Davis refused to accept defeat. He fled Richmond but was captured in Georgia
1)The Problems of Peacemaking
a)The Aftermath of the War and Emancipation
i)Southern towns and fields ruined, many whites stripped of slaves and capital, currency worthless, little property. Thousands of soldiers (>20% of adult white male pop) had died, ppl wanted to preserve what was left
ii)Many emancipated slaves wandered looking for family, work. Almost none owned land or possessions
b)Competing Notions of Freedom
i)Freedom to blacks meant end to slavery, injustice, humiliation. Rights and protections of free men also desired
ii)AAs differed over how to achieve freedom: some wanted economic redistribution including land, others wanted legal equality and opportunity. All wanted independence from white control
iii)Whites wanted life w/o interference of North or federal govt. Thirteenth Amendment (Dec 1865) had abolished slavery, but many planters wanted blacks to be tied to plantations
iv)March 1865 Congress created Freedmen’s Bureau to distribute food, create schools, & help poor whites. Only a temporary solution, only operated for 1 yr
c)Issues of Reconstruction
i)Political issue when S states rejoined Union b/c Democrats would be reunited, threatened Repub nationalistic legislation for railroads, tariffs, bank and currency. Many in N wished to see S punished for suffering rebellion caused
ii)Repubs split btwn Conservatives and Radicals- Con wanted abolition but few other conditions for readmission, Radicals (led by Rep Thaddeus Stevens of PA + Sen Charles Sumner of MA) wanted Confed leaders punished, black legal rights protected, property confiscation. Moderates in between
d)Plans for Reconstruction
i)Lincoln proposed 1863 lenient Reconstruction plan- favored recruiting former Whigs to Repubs, amnesty to white Southerners other than high Confed officials. When 10% of ppl took loyalty oath state govt could be established. Questions of future of freedmen deferred for sake of rapid reunification
ii)The occupied Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee rejoined under plan in 1864
iii)Radicals unhappy with mild plan. Wade-Davis Bill 1864 proposed governor for each state, when majority of ppl took allegiance oath constitutional convention could be held w/ slavery abolished, former Confed leaders couldn’t vote. After Congress would readmit to Union. Lincoln pocket vetoed
e)The Death of Lincoln
i)April 14, 1865 Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
ii)Hysteria in N w/ accusations of conspiracy. Militant republicans exploited suspicions for months, ensured a mild plan would not come soon
f)Johnson and “Restoration”
i)Johnson became leader of Moderate and Conservative factions, enacted his “Restoration” plan while Congress in recess during summer 1865
ii)Plan offered amnesty to southerners taking allegiance oath, Confed officials + wealthy planters needed special presidential pardon. Like Wade-Davis Bill had provisional governors, constitutional convention had to revoke ordinance of secession, abolish slavery, ratify 13th Amdt. State govts, then readmission
iii)By end of 1865 all seceded states has new govts, waiting for Congress to recognize. Radicals refused to recognize Johnson govts b/c public sentiment more hostile- (e.g. Georgia’s choice of Confed Alexander Stephens as Sen)
2)Radical Reconstruction
a)The Black Codes
i)1865 + 1866 S state legislatures passed laws known as Black Codes- gave whites power over former slaves, prevent farm ownership or certain jobs
ii)Congress reacted by widening powers of Freemen’s Bureau to nullify agreements forced on blacks. 1866 passed first Civil Rights Act- made blacks US citizens, gave fed govt power to intervene to protect rights of citizens
iii)Johnson vetoed both bills, but both were overridden
b)The Fourteenth Amendment
i)14th Amendment defined citizenship- anybody born in US or naturalized automatically a citizen + guaranteed all rights of Const. No other citizenship requirements allowed, penalties for restricting male suffrage. Former Confed members couldn’t hold state or fed office unless pardoned by Congress
ii)Radicals offered to readmit those who ratified amendment, only TN did so
iii)S race riots helped lead to overwhelming Repub majority (mostly Radicals) in 1866 Congressional elections, could now act over President’s objections
c)The Congressional Plan
i)Radicals passed 3 Reconstruction plans in 1867, established coherent plan
ii)TN readmitted, but other state govts rejected. Cong formed five military districts w/ commanders who registered voters (blacks + white males uninvolved in rebellion) for const convention that must include black suffrage
iii)After const ratified needed Congressional approval, state legislature had to ratify 14thAmdt. By 1868 10 former Confed states fulfilled these conditions (14th Amdt now part of Const) and readmitted to Union
iv)Congress also passed 1867 the Tenure of Office Act (forbade pres to remove civil officials w/o Senate consent) and the Command of the Army Act (no military orders except thru commanding general of army or w/ Sen approval)
v)Supreme Court case Ex parte Milligan had declared military tribunals where civil courts existed unconst, Radicals feared same ruling would apply to military districts so proposed bills threatening court—court didn’t hear Reconstruction cases for 2 years
d)The Impeachment of President Johnson
i)Pres Johnson obstacle to Radical legislation, yet tasked with administering Reconstruction programs. 1868 Johnson impeached for violation of Tenure of Office Act for dismissing Sec of War Stanton- Sen acquitted by 1 vote
3)The South in Reconstruction
a)The Reconstruction Governments
i)In ten states recognized under congressional plans up to ¼ of whites excluded from voting and office. These restrictions later lifted, but Repubs kept control w/ support of many southern whites called “scalawags” (most former Whigs, wealthy planters, businessman), felt Repub better for their economic interests
ii)“Carpetbaggers” were northerners (mostly professionals or veterans) who moved South after war to take advantage of new opportunity
iii)Most republicans, however, were black freedmen who held conventions and created black churches that gave them unity and political self-confidence. Were delegates to const conventions, held office- although white charges of “Negro” governments were over exaggerated or false
iv)Reconstruction governments’ records were mixed- there were charges of corruption and extravagance. But corruption also rampant in N- both result of economic expansion of govt services that put new strains on elected officials. Larger budgets reflected needed services previous govts had not offered: public education, public works, and poor relief
b)Education
i)Education improvement benefited whites and blacks- large network of schools for former slaves created (over white opposition of giving blacks “false notions of equality”), by 1870s comprehensive public school system led to great percentage of white and black population attending school
ii)System divided into black and white system, integration efforts failed
c)Landownership and Tenancy
i)Freedmen’s Bureau and Radicals had hoped to make Reconstruction vehicle for southern landownership reform. Some redistribution of land in early years, but Pres Johnson and govt returned most confiscated land to returning plantation owners
ii)White landownership decreased b/c of debt, taxes or rentals. Black landownership increased, some relied on help of failed Freedman’s Bank
iii)Most ppl did not own land during Reconstruction, worked for others. Many black agricultural laborers worked only for wages, but most worked own plots of land and paid landlords rent or share of their crop
d)The Crop-Lien System
i)Postwar years saw economic progress for African Americans, great increase in income. Result of black profit share increasing, greater return on labor
ii)Redistribution did not lift many blacks out of poverty- black per capita income rose from ¼ of whites to ½, then grew little more afterward
iii)Gains of blacks and poor whites overshadowed by ravages of crop-lien system. After war few credit institutions such as banks returned, new credit system centered on local country stores
iv)Farmers did not have steady cash flow so relied on credit to buy what they needed. W/o competition stores charged incredibly high interest rates. Had to give lien (claim) on crops as collateral- bad years trapped them in debt cycle
v)Effects included leading some blacks who had gained land to lose it as they became indebted, S farmers became dependent on nearly all cash crops (only possibility to escape debt). Lack of diversity led to decline in agric economy
e)The African-American Family in Freedom
i)Major black response during Reconstruction was effort to build or rebuild family structures, reason why many immediately left plantations was to seek relatives and family
ii)Women began performing more domestic work + child caring, less field labor
iii)Poverty + economic necessity led many black women to do income-producing activity for wages, reminiscent of slave activities: domestic servants, laundry
4)The Grant Administration
a)The Soldier President
i)Grant accepted Repub nomination for president in 1868 election. Had no political experience, apptd incompetent cabinet members, relied on party leaders and spoils system. Alienated Northerners disillusioned w/ Radical reconstruction and corruption
ii)Opposing Repubs formed faction called Liberal Republicans, supported Dem nominee Horace Greeley in 1872 elections—but Grant won reelection
b)The Grant Scandals
i)Series of scandals emerged plaguing Grant and Repubs. Involved French-owned Credit Mobilier construction company helping build Union Pacific RR. Company heads steered contracts to company costing fed govt and Union Pacific millions, stock given to Congress members to stop investigation
ii)Later, “whiskey ring” found officials helping distillers cheat out of taxes. Later “Indian ring” scandal idea that “Grantism” brought corruption to govt
c)The Greenback Question
i)Grant’s and nation’s problems confounded by Panic of 1873- began w/ failure of investment bank, later debtors wanted govt to redeem war bonds w/ greenbacks (paper currency)
ii)Grant and other Repubs wanted “sound” currency based on gold that would favor banks and other creditors, didn’t want to put more money in circulation
iii)1875 Repubs passed Specie Resumption Act- pegged greenback dollars to the price of gold. Satisfied creditors, hard for debtors b/c money supply grew little
iv)National Greenback Party formed, unsuccessful but kept money issue alive
d)Republican Diplomacy
i)Johnson and Grant administrations had great foreign affairs successes b/c of Secretaries of State William Seward and Hamilton Fish
ii)Seward bought Alaska from Russia (“Seward’s Folly”), annexed Midway Islands. Fish resolved claims against GB of violating neutrality by building ships for Confed. Treaty of Washington allowed for arbitration of claims
5)The Abandonment of Reconstruction
a)The Southern States “Redeemed”
i)By 1872 nearly all S whites regained suffrage, worked as majority to overthrow Repubs. In areas of black majority whites used intimidations and violence (Ku Klux Klan, ect.) to prevent blacks from political activity
ii)Klan led by former Confed Gen Nathan Forrest. Worked to advance interest of those who would gain from white supremacy- mainly planter class and Democratic party. Most of all, however, economic pressure used
b)The Ku Klux Klan Acts
i)Repubs tried to stop white repression, 1870 passed Enforcement Acts (known as Ku Klux Klan Acts)- prohibited states from discriminating against voters on race, fed govt given power to prosecute violations. Allowed pres to use military to protect civil rights, suspend habeas corpus in some situations
ii)Grant used law in 1871 for “lawless” counties in SC
c)Waning Northern Commitment
i)Enforcement Acts peak of Repub enforcement of Reconstruction. After 1870 adoption of 15th Amdt many in N felt blacks should take care of themselves. Support for Liberal Democrats grew, some moves into Democratic Party
ii)Panic of 1873 undermined Reconstruction support further, N industrialists explained poverty and instability thru “Social Darwinism” where those who suffered did so b/c of own weakness. Viewed poor blacks in this light, favored little govt intervention to help. Depleted treasury led ppl to want to spend little on freedmen, poor state govts cut back on social services
iii)In Congressional elections of 1874 Dems won majority in House for first time since 1861, Grant used army to maintain Repub control in SC, FL, LA
d)The Compromise of 1877
i)In 1876 elections Repubs sought new candidate to distance from corruption and attract Liberals back- chose Rutherford B Hayes, Dems chose Sam Tilden
ii)Tilden won popular vote but dispute over 20 electoral votes from 3 states. Tilden one vote shy of electoral vote majority, Hayes needed all 20 votes to win. Congress created special electoral commission to judge disputed votes, chose 8-7 to give all votes to Hayes—won election
iii)Resolution result of compromises btwn Repubs w/ southern Dems- Hayes would withdraw last fed troops from S if Dems abandoned filibuster of bill
iv)“Compromise of 1877” also involved more financial aid for railroads and internal improvements in S in order to help Dems grow business and industrialize, withdraw troops to rid S of last Repub state govts
e)The Legacies of Reconstruction
i)Reconstruction made strides in helping former slaves but a failure b/c failed to resolve issue of race, created such bitterness that solution not attempted for another century. Failure b/c of ppl directing it, unwillingness to infringe on rights of states and individuals
6)The New South
a)The “Redeemers”
i)By 1877 w/ final withdrawal of troops every southern state govt “redeemed” (white Dems held power). “Redeemers”/“Bourbons” members of powerful ruling elite, mostly new class of merchants, industrialists, financiers. Committed to “home rule”, social conservatism, economic development
ii)Dem govts lowered taxes, reduced services (incl. public education)
iii)By 1870s dissenters protesting service cuts and Redeemer govt commitment to pay off prewar and Reconstruction debts (e.g. VA Readjuster movement)
b)Industrialization and the “New South”
i)Leaders in post-Reconstruction south wanted to develop industrial economy, New South of industry, progress, thrift
ii)Literature of time indicates reference for the “Lost Cause” and Old South- Joel Chandler Harris’ 1880 Uncle Remus. Also, growth of minstrel shows
iii)New South included growth of textile manufacturing b/c of water power, cheap labor, low taxes. Tobacco-processing industry also grew, including James Duke’s American Tobacco Company. Iron + steel industry also grew
iv)Railroad development increased dramatically, 1886 greater integration with rest of country when changed its gauge
v)However, growth of South merely regained what it had done before war, average income in the South substantially lower than that of North
vi)Manufacturing growth required industrial labor force. Most were women, wages much lower than in N. Mill towns restricted by company w/ labor unions suppressed, credit thru company- but led to sense of community
c)Tenants and Sharecroppers
i)S still primarily agrarian. 1870s/1880s growth of tenantry and debt peonage, reliance on cash crops. Crop-lien system resulted in many losing land, maj of ppl in S became tenant farmers
ii)“Sharecropping” system where farmers promised large share of crop for land, tools- little money left over after payments. Subsistence farming gave way to only growth of cash crops- increased poverty. Coupled w/ “fence laws” (prevented ppl from raising livestock) led to decline in living self-sufficiently
iii)Backcountry + blacks affected led populist protests to follow in 1880s/1890s
d)African Americans and the New South
i)Some blacks attracted to New South ideals of progress + self improvement, entered middle class by becoming professionals, owning land or business
ii)This small rising group of blacks believed education vital to future of race- supported black colleges
iii)Spokesman for this idea was Booker T Washington (founder of Tuskegee Institute)- believed blacks should attend school and learn skills in agricultural or trade, win respect of white population by adopting middle class standards of dress. His “Atlanta Compromise” sought to forgo political rights, concentrate on self-improvement and economic gains to earn recognition
e)The Birth of Jim Crow
i)Pullout of fed troops, loss of interest in Congress, and Supreme Court decisions regarding 14th & 15th Amdts (civil rights cases of 1883 prevented state discrimination but not private organizations of individuals)
ii)Court validated separation of races- Plessy v Ferguson (1896) ruled separate accommodations did not deprive blacks of equal rights if accommodations were equal.Cumming v County Board of Education (1899)- laws for separate schools valid even if no comparable school for blacks existed
iii)White policies shifted from subordination to segregation- black voting rights had been used by Bourbons to keep their control of Dem party, but when poor white farmers saw this they sought to disenfranchise blacks. Got around 15th Amdt thru “poll tax”/property requirement or “literacy”/understanding test
iv)Jim Crow Laws segregated almost every area of southern life. 1890s increased violence (lynchings, ect) to inhibit black movement for equal rights. An anti-lynching movement did emerge led by Ida B. Wells to pass national law enabling fed got to punish those responsible for lynchings
v)White supremacy diluted class animosities btwn poor whites and Bourbon oligarchs. Economic issues played secondary role to race, distracting ppl from social inequalities that affected blacks and whites
1)The Societies of the Far West
a)The Western Tribes
i)Some dislocated eastern tribes in “Indian Territory”, others western tribes such as Pueblos had permanent settlements/farms + interaction w/ Spanish & Mexicans- caste system over other Ind tribes (genizaros=Ind w/o tribes)
ii)Plains Indians- some nomadic, some farmers. Many (including Sioux) hunted buffalo as main source of food + materials
iii)Warriors unable to defeat white settlers b/c disunited, internal conflict, disease
b)Hispanic New Mexico
i)American capitalist integration led Spanish-speaking to erosion of communal society + economies, land aristocracy from Santa Fe + Span/Mex peasants
ii)Territorial govt in 1850, in 1870s govt dominated by “territorial ring” where business ppl took advantage of impending statehood, used fed money for profit
iii)Arrival of RRs in in SW during 1880s/1890s brought new ranching, farming, mining brought new Mexican migrants
c)Hispanic California and Texas
i)Most Spanish missions that employed Ind as near slaves until 1830s. White settlers expelled Hispanic californios from the land. Market for cattle allowed some rancheros to continue to own land, but most Mexs became working class
ii)In Texas Mexs also unable to compete with enormous Anglo-American ranching kingdoms- most relegated to unskilled farm + industrial labor
d)The Chinese Migration
i)After 1848 gold rush, Chinese migration dramatically increased, settling mostly in CA. White sentiment soon turned negative b/c Chinese industrious and successful
ii)Chinese excluded from gold mining by CA 1852 “foreign miner tax”, other laws 1850s discouraged immigration—Chinese began to work on transcontinental Central Pacific RR
iii)After RR completion 1869 many Chinese moved to cities- formed “Chinatowns” w/ benevolent societies, “tongs”-secret criminal societies
iv)Many Chinese occupied lower jobs- unskilled laborers. Many started laundries
e)Anti-Chinese Sentiment
i)“Anti-coolie” clubs in 1860s/1870s sought ban on employing Chinese, formed b/c some whites felt Chinese laborers accepted low wages + undercut unions
ii)In CA, Democratic Party + Denis Kearney’s Workingmen’s Party attacked Chinese interest- based on economic tension, cultural + racial- “inassimilable”
iii)1882 Congress responded to pressure, passed Chinese Exclusion Act- halted Chinese migration, barred naturalization- aimed to help “American” labor
f)Migration from the East
i)Extremely great postwar migration to empty and settled areas alike. Most white Anglo-Americans, others foreign-born Eur immigrants—attracted by metal deposits, lands for farming and ranching
ii)Fed land policies encouraged settlement: Homestead Act of 1862 gave 160 acres of land for small fee, in return would improve land, create new markets mechanization + rising farm costs forced some small farmers off this land
iii)In response Congress passed Timber Culture Act (1863), Desert Land Act (1877), Timber and Stone Act (1878) to allow ppl to buy/develop more cheap land
g)1860s saw development of territorial govt, statehood soon followed for most
2)The Changing Western Economy
a)Labor in the West
i)Labor shortage led to higher wages than in East, but job instability (after harvest or RR completion, ect) led to communities of jobless in cities. Workers mostly mobile, single men
ii)Working class highly multiracial, but whites generally occupied higher job levels (management + skilled labor) than nonwhites in unskilled labor. Dual labor system reinforced by racial assumptions that held nonwhites more suited for worse conditions + harder labor- allowed whites greater social mobility
b)The Arrival of the Miners
i)First Western economic boom came from mining strikes in 1860s-1890s. During Pike’s Peak strike 1858 mining camps blossomed into “cities”, later Comstock Lode silver found in Nevada, 1874 Black Hill strike in Dakota Terr.
ii)After surface wealth used up, eastern capitalists often bought claims of pioneer prospectors, began retrieving from deeper veins w/ corporate mines
iii)In boom towns vigilantism used to combat outlaws. Men outnumbered women, prostitution very common. After boom most remained in town as wage laborer in corporate mine
c)The Cattle Kingdom
i)Economy also affected by the open range- provided cattle raisers w/ free lands to graze, RRs gave access to markets. Largest herds found in Texas
ii)After success of the long drive proven, easier routes to access rest of country sought- market facility grew up at Abilene, KS as railhead of cattle kingdom. Agricultural development in 1870s in W. Kansas led other routes to grow
iii)As settlement of plans increased new forms of competition emerged- sheep breeders used range to feed flock, farmers from the East fenced in their lands—“range wars” developed btwn ranchers and farmers
iv)Large profits in cattle business led cattle economy to become more corporate. This expansion onto already shrunken ranges from RRs and farmers became overstocked, and combined with bad winters from 1885-1887, thousands of cattle died—open-range industry never recovered, but ranches survived + grew
v)Although cattle industry mostly male, large number of women led them to have impt political presence- women won vote earlier in West than rest of nation (some states to swell population for statehood, bring “morals” to politics)
3)The Romance of the West
a)The Western Landscape
i)Painters of the “Rocky Mountain School
“ celebrated the West in grandiose paintings that attracted great crowds- emphasized ruggedness and variety of region, awe toward land that had been previously expressed by Hudson River valley painters
b)The Cowboy Culture
i)Cowboy life romanticized in contrast to stable, orderly world of the East. Owen Wister’sThe Virginian (1902) showed freedom from social contraints, only one example of magazine articles, novels, ect. about Western life
c)The Idea of the Frontier
i)Many Americans considered the West the last frontier. Mark Twain wrote about (mostly early) frontier life is Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
ii)Painter/sculptor Frederic Turner captured romance of West in his works comparing it to the East
iii)Theodore Roosevelt wrote history of West- The Winning of the West (1890s)
d)Frederick Jackson Turner
i)The historian Turner contended that by 1890s no single frontier line existed and the end of an era had come. Expansion has stimulated individualism, nationalism, democracy, American uniqueness. Mirrored sentiments of US
ii)Turner inaccurate and premature- ppl had always lived in “empty, uncivilized” lands and had been displaced, also in coming years much land still available
e)The Loss of Utopia
i)With nation feeling that there had been a “passing of the frontier”, ppl felt opportunities closing and with it ability to control own destiny
ii)“Myth of the garden” (West as Garden of Eden) lost
4)The Dispersal of the Tribes
a)White Tribal Policies
i)Traditional policy was to regard tribes as nations and wards of the president, therefore negotiate treaties w/ them ratified by Senate. As white settlers demanded more lands during 1850s led ppl to abandon idea of one large Indian Territory to policy of “concentration”- each tribe given negotiated reservation
ii)In 1867 after bloody conflicts Congress created Indian peace Commission to make permanent Indian policy- move all Plains Indians into Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and Dakotas. Failed b/c of poor administration by Bureau of Indian Affairs & killing of buffalo herds by whites + reduced Indian ability to resist white advance -led to violence
b)The Indian Wars
i)1850s-1880s showed nearly constant fighting as Indians struggled against threats to their civilizations- during Civil War conflict w/ Indians in Old Northwest and the Southwest
ii)Not only military that threatened tribes; white vigilantes participated in “Indian hunting” killed tribes for sport or bounties, wanted retaliation after raids
iii)Treaties made in 1867 saw temporary lull, but influx of settlers in 1870s penetrated Dakota Territory + change in govt policy to not recognize tribes as independent nations led to violence in 1875
iv)Sioux rose up under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in the Black Hills- at Battle of Little Bighorn 1876 Indians killed Colonel George Custer and regiment, Indians became disunited after and forced to return to reservation
v)Nez Perce Indians under Chief Joseph 1877 attempted to flee Idaho for Canada but caught by soldiers, forced to travel for years afterward to difft areas
vi)Last organized resistance came from Apaches under Chiefs Mangas Colorados, Cochise, and finally Geronimo- unwilling to bow to white pressures Geronimo conducted raids on white outposts (“Apache Wars”), surrendered 1886
vii)Atrocities against Indians had prompted much fighting- in 1890 Sioux religious revival under the prophet Wovoka led to “Ghost Dance” that celebrated vision of whites leaving + buffalo return- in Dec troops tried to round up some Indians at Wounded Knee, SD which turned into an Indian massacre
c)The Dawes Act
i)Efforts taken to destroy reservation + communal land ownership in order to force Indians to become farmers, landowners - abandon culture for white civili.
ii)Dawes Act of 1887 eliminated tribal ownership and gave land to individual owners. Bureau of Indian Affairs promoted assimilation, sometimes by removing children and sending them to white boarding schools, build churches
iii)Indians unprepared for capitalist individualism + corrupt administration led to abandonment of program, later Burke Act of 1906 also failed to divide lands
5)The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer
a)Farming on the Plains
i)Before Civil War lands accessible only by wagon, transcontinental RR completed 1869 and subsidiary lines built afterward w/ land grants and loans
ii)Easier access to Great Plains spurred agriculture- RRs offered cheap land and credit, rainfall allowed farming
iii) Farmers faced problems: enclosing land expensive, but 1873 Joseph Glidden and IL Ellwood invited barbwire; arid land needed irrigation, especially after 1887 when series of dry spells followed- during 1880s booms credit easy, but arid weather of late 1880smany farmers unable to pay debt and forced to abandon farms
b)Commercial Agriculture
i)Commercial farmers specialized in cash crops sold on national/international markets. Relied on town stores for supplies and food, dependent on bankers’ interest rates, railroad freight rates, and US/Eur markets
ii)During late 19th century agriculture became an international business- US commercial farmers relied on risky world market to absorb surpluses
iii)Overproduction in 1880s led to price drops, economic crisis for small farmers
c)The Farmers’ Grievances
i)Farmers resented railroads and their higher freight rates for farm goods, credit institutions for their high interest rates and payments that had to be made in years when currency scarce, and prices that they had to pay for goods and the money they received- believed manufactures keeping farm good prices low
d)The Agrarian Malaise
i)Farmers isolated, lacked education for children, proper medical facilities, and community- this sense of obsolescence lead to growing malaise among farmers that created great political movement in 1890sSturdy yeoman farmers had viewed themselves as the backbone of American life, now they were becoming aware that their position was declining in relation to the rising urban-industrial society in the East
1)Sources of Industrial Growth
a)Industrial Technologies
i)Most impt tech development was new iron + steel production techniques- Henry Bessemer and William Kelly invented process to turn iron to steel, possible to produce large quantities and dimensions for construction, RRs
ii)Steel industry emerged in Pennsylvania and Ohio (Pittsburgh notably)- iron industry existed, fuel could be found in PA coal
iii)New transportation systems emerged to serve steel industry- freighters for the Great Lakes, RRs used steel to grow + transported it (sometimes merged w/ one another). Oil industry also grew b/c of need to lubricate mill machinery
b)The Airplane and the Automobile
i)Development of automobile dependent upon growth of two technologies: creation of gasoline from crude oil extraction, and 1870s Eur development of “internal combustion engine”. By 1910 car industry major role in economy
ii)First gas-car built by Duryea brothers 1903, Henry For began production 1906
iii)Search for flight by Wright Bros lead to famous 1903 flight. US govt created National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics 1915 to match Eur research
c)Research and Development
i)New industrial technologies lead companies to sponsor own research- General Electric established first corp lab 1900, marked decentralization of govt-sponsored research. At same time cnxn began btwn university research + needs of industrial economy- partnership btwn academic + commercial
d)The Science of Production
i)Principles of “scientific management” began to be employed- fathered by Frederick Taylor who argued employers subdivide tasks to decrease need for highly skilled workers, increase efficiency by doing simple tasks w/ machines
ii)Emphasis on industrial research led to corporate labs (e.g. Edison’s Menlo Park)
iii)Most impt change in production was mass production + assembly line. First used by Henry Ford in automobile plant 1914- cut production time, prices
e)Railroad Expansion
i)Industrial development b/c of RR expansion- gave industrialists access to new markets + raw materials, spent large sums on construction and equipment
ii)Possible b/c of govt subsidies, investment capital from abroad, and combinations of RRs by Cornelius Vanderbilt, James Hill, Collis Huntington
f)The Corporation
i)Modern corp emerged after Civil War when industrialists realized no person or group of limited partners able to finance great ventures
ii)Businesses began to sell stock, appealing b/c “limited liability” meant lost only amt of investment + not liable for debts- allowed vast capital to be raised
iii)Began in RR industry, spread to others- in steel industry Andrew Carnegie struck deals with RRs, bought up rivals, purchased coal mines w/ partner Henry Clay Frick controlled steel process from mine to market
iv)Financed undertaking by selling stock. Bought out 1901 by JP Morgan who formed United States Steel- controlled 2/3 of nation’s steel production
v)Corporate organizations developed new management techniques- division of responsibilities, control hierarchy, cost-accounting procedures, and “middle manager” btwn owners and labor introduced. Consolidation now a possibility
g)Consolidating Corporate America
i)Consolidation occurred thru “horizontal integration” (forming competing firms into single corporation) and “vertical integration” (control production from raw materials to distribution). Also thru pool arrangements (most failed)
ii)Most famous corp empire John D Rockefeller’s Standard Oil- thru horizontal & vertical integration came to control 90% of refined oil in US
iii)Consolidation used to cope w/ “cutthroat competition”- feared too much competition lead to instability, best was to eliminate/absorb competition
h)The Trust and the Holding Company
i)Failure of pools (informal agreements to stabilize rates, divide markets) led to less cooperation and more centralized control- “trust” emerged (stock transferred to group of trustees who made all decisions but shared profits)
ii)Beginning w/ NJ 1889 states changed laws to allow companies to buy other companies, trust unnecessary—“holding companies” emerged as corporate body to buy up stock and establish formal ownership of corporations in trust
iii)End of 19th cent 1% of corps controlled 33% of manufacturing, system where power in hands of a few men- NY bankers (JP Morgan), industrialists (Rockefeller), ect.
iv)Substantial economic growth ultimately from this arrangement- costs cut, industrial infrastructure formed, new markets stimulated, new unskilled jobs
2)Capitalism and Its Critics
a)The “Self-Made Man”
i)Defenders argued capitalist economy expanding opportunities for individual advancement, and some tycoons were self-made men. But most came to be wealthy as a result of ruthlessness, arrogance, corruption (financial contributions to political, parties)
ii)Many industrialists were modest entrepreneurs trying to carve role for their business in an unstable economy & fragmented, highly competitive industries
b)Survival of the Fittest
i)Assumptions that wealth earned thru hard work and thrift and that those who failed earned their failure became basis of Social Darwinism- only fittest individuals survived and flourished in the marketplace
ii)English philosopher Herbert Spencer championed theory, in America William Graham Sumner promoted similar ideas- absolute freedom to struggle, compete, succeed, and fail
iii)Appealed to businessmen b/c justified their tactics- efforts to raise wages by labor thru unions or govt regulation would fail, laws of supply and demand and “invisible hand” or market forces would determine wages and prices
iv)Yet tycoons themselves thru monopolies tried to eliminate competition
c)The Gospel of Wealth
i)Gospel of Wealth (1901) by Andrew Carnegie advocated idea that w/ great wealth came great responsibility to use riches to advance social progress
ii)Author Horatio Alger promoted stories of individual success in his works- anybody could become rich thru work, perseverance, and luck
d)Alternative Visions
i)Groups emerged challenging corporate and capitalistic ethos
ii)Sociologist Lester Ward in Dynamic Sociology (1883) argued natural selection didn’t shape society, and active govt in positive planning best for society. Skeptical of laissez-fire, ppl should intervene to serve their needs
iii)Famous dissidents emerged to challenge ideas: Socialist Labor Party founded 1870s by Daniel De Leon; Henry George and his Progress and Poverty (1879) argued poverty due to wealth of monopolists and their high land values; Edward Bellamy and his Looking Backward (1888) spoke of “fraternal cooperation” and of future society where govt distributed wealth equally
e)The Problems of Monopoly
i)Few questioned capitalism itself but movement grew in opposition to monopolies + economic concentrations- seen as creating artificially high prices, unstable economy. Recessions and havoc 1873 every 5-6 yrs
ii)Resentment increased b/c of new class of conspicuously wealthy ppl who lived opulent lifestyle- flagrant wealth in face of 4/5 who lived modestly
iii)Standard of living rising for everyone, but gap btwn rich + poor growing
3)Industrial Workers in the New Economy
a)The Immigrant Work Force
i)Industrial work force grew late 19th century b/c of migration to industrial cities from both rural areas and foreign immigration- late century most migrants from England, Ireland, N Eur, by end shit toward S and E Europeans
ii)Immigrants came to escape poverty, lured by opportunity and advertisements by companies. Ethnic tensions increased b/c of job displacement, competition
b)Wages and Working Conditions
i)Average standard of living rose but wages low, little job security b/c boom-bust cycle, monotonous tasks that required little skill, long hours in unsafe conditions- loss of control over work conditions seen as worst part of factory labor as corporate efficiency and managers centralized workplace
c)Women and Children at Work
i)Decreasing need for skilled labor led to increase use of women and children who could be paid lower than men
ii)Most women were young immigrants, concentrated in textile industry and domestic service. Some single, others supplemented husband’s earnings
iii)Children employed in agriculture and factories w/ little regulation, dangerous
d)The Struggle to Unionize
i)Labor attempted to fight conditions by creating large combinations (unions) but had little success by century’s end. Fist attempt to federate separate unions came 1866 w/ National labor Union (disintegrated after Panic of 1873)
ii)Unions faced difficulty during 1870s recessions b/c of high unemployment, hostility of middle class
e)The Great Railroad Strike
i)Railroad Strike of 1877 began after 10% wage cut announced. Strikers disrupted rail service, state militia mobilized and in July President Hayes ordered some federal troops. Strike collapsed eventually after many deaths
ii)Showed disputes could no longer be localized in national economy, depth of resentment toward employers, frailty of labor movement
f)The Knights of Labor
i)First effort at national labor organization 1869 Noble Order of the Knights of Labor under Uriah Stephens- lacked strong central direction but local “assemblies” championed 8-hour workday, end to child labor, but also interested in long-range reform of economy. Allowed women to join
ii)During 1870s under Terence Powderly rapid expansion, but by 1890 Knights had collapsed due to failure of strikes in the Gould railway system
g)The AFL
i)1880s American Federation of Labor created, became most impt +enduring national labor group- collection of autonomous craft unions of skilled workers
ii)Led by Samuel Gompers- goal to secure greater share of capitalism’s material rewards to workers, opposed fundamental economic reform
iii)Wanted creation of national 8-hour work day, national strike May 1, 1886 to achieve goal- in Chicago violence broke out btwn strikers and police after deaths in Haymarket Square bombing- “anarchism” became widely feared by middle class, associated it with radical labor
h)The Homestead Strike
i)The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (craft union in AFL) held large amt of power in steel industry b/c of reliance on skilled workers
ii)By 1880s Efficient Carnegie process led management to want more control over labor + needed fewer skilled workers
iii)Carnegie and Henry Frick began to cut wages at Homestead plant in Pittsburgh to break union. 1892 strike called after company stopped consulting the Amalgamated, Pinkerton Detective Agency security guards brought in as strikebreakers- were attacked, National Guard of PA called in
iv)Eventually protected strikebreakers ended strike, by 1900 Amalgamated had lost nearly every major steel plant
i)The Pullman Strike
i)Strike at Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894 after Pullman cut wages. Workers began to strike w/ the American Railway Union of Eugene V. Debs
ii)Within few days thousands of railway workers struck and transportation nationwide frozen. General Manager’s Association asked Pres Grover Cleveland to send in federal troops b/c passage of mail being blocked
iii)Pres complied and sent 2,000 troops to protect strikebreakers. Strike collapsed
j)Sources of Labor Weakness
i)Late 19th century labor suffered many losses- wages rose slowly, whatever progress made not enforced
ii)Reasons for failures included: leading labor organizations represented only small percentage of industrial work force; ethnic tensions; many immigrant workers planned to stay in country for short while and moved very often- eroded willingness to organize, believed not part of permanent working class; couldn’t match efforts of powerful + wealthy corporations
1)The Urbanization of America
a)The Life of the City
i)Urban pop increased 7x in 50 yrs after Civil War, by 1920 majority of ppl lived in urban areas. Occurred partly b/c of natural growth, mostly b/c immigrants and rural ppl flocked b/c offered better paying jobs than rural areas, cultural experiences available, transportation to cities easier than ever
b)Migrations
i)Late 19th century saw geographic mobility- Americans left declining Eastern agricultural regions for new farmlands in West and for cities of East
ii)Women moved from farms where mechanization decreased their value; Southern blacks moved to cities to escape rural poverty, oppression, violence
iii)Largest source of urban growth immigrants: until 1880s mainly educated N Europeans who were sometimes skilled laborers, businessmen or moved West to start farms. After 1880s largely S and E Europeans, lacked capital (like poor Irish immigrants before Civil War) so took mainly unskilled jobs
c)The Ethnic City
i)Not only was amt of immigrants tremendous, but so was diversity of immigrant population (no single national group dominated)
ii)Most immigrants were rural ppl so formed close-knit ethnic communities to ease transition-offered native newspapers, food, links to national past
iii)Assimilation of ethnic groups into capitalist economy depended on values of community, but also prejudices among employers, individual skills and capital
d)Assimilation
i)Most immigrants had desire to become true “Americans” and break with old national ways. Particular strain w/ women who in America shared more freedoms- adjust to more fluid life of American city
ii)Assimilation encouraged by Natives thru public schools and employer requirement to learn English, religious leaders
e)Exclusion
i)Immigrant arrival provoked many fears + resentments of some native-born ppl. Reacted out of prejudice, foreign willingness to accept lower wages
ii)Political response to these resentments- American Protective Association founded by Henry Bowers 1887, Immigration Restriction League sought to screen/reduce immigrants. 1882 Congress passed Chinese Exclusion Act, also denied entry to all “undesirables” and placed small tax on immigrants
iii)New laws kept only small amt out. Literacy requirement vetoed by president Grover Cleveland—anti-immigrant measures failed mainly b/c many natives welcomed it, provided growing economy w/ cheap and plentiful labor
2)The Urban Landscape
a)The Creation of Public Space
i)By mid-19th century reformers and planners began to call for ordered vision of city, resulted in creation of public spaces and public services
ii)Urban parks solution to congestion, allowed escape from strain of urban life. 1850s Central Park famously planned by Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
iii)Great public buildings (libraries, museums, theaters), spurred by wealthy residents who wanted amenities to match material and social aspirations
iv)Urban leaders undertook massive city rebuilding projects- “City Beautiful Movement” inspired by architect Daniel Burnham- provide order and symmetry to disorderly life of city (faced opposition from private landowners)
b)Housing the Well-to-Do
i)Availability of cheap labor + materials lowered cost of building in late 19th century. Most wealthy lived in mansions, but later moderately well-to-do and wealthy both began to build and commute from suburban communities nearby
c)Housing Workers and the Poor
i)Most residentsforced to stay in city and rent- demand high and space scarce led to little bargaining power. Landlords tried to get most ppl in smallest space
ii)“Tenements” came to refer to overcrowded slum dwellings. Poverty and rough tenement life showcased by reporter Jacob Riis in his 1890 How the Other Half Lives. Some immigrants also boarded in small family homes
d)Urban Transportation
i)Old, narrow dirty streets insufficient to deal w/ urban growth and need for ppl to move everyday to difft parts of city- new forms of mass transit needed
ii)Cities experimented w/ elevated railways, cable cars, by 1895 electric trolley lines, and in 1897 Boston opened first subway in nation
iii)New road, bridge tech also developed (e.g. John Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge)
e)The “Skyscraper”
i)Inadequate structural materials and stairs prevented tall buildings until 1870s iron and steal beam development. After Civil War buildings grew successively taller, 1890s term “skyscraper” introduced
ii)Steel girder construction allowed city’s w/ limited space to expand upward if not outward. Architect Louis Sullivan famous skyscraper designer
3)Strains of Urban Life
a)Fire and Disease
i)Fires destroyed large parts of downtown areas w/ buildings made mainly of wood. “Great fires” led to fireproof buildings, professional fire departments
ii)Diseases from poor neighborhoods w/ inadequate sanitation and sewage disposal threatened epidemics that could spread thru whole city
b)Environmental Degradation
i)Industrialization and rapid urbanization led to improper disposal of human and industrial waste that threatened waterways and drinking water, air quality suffered from burning of stoves and furnaces
ii)By early 20th century reformers: seeking new sewage and drainage systems; Physician Alive Hamilton looked to identify and correct pollution in workplace; 1912 fed govt created Public Health Service created factory health standards to prevent occupational diseases (weak b/c no enforcement power)
c)Urban Poverty
i)Expansion of city created poverty, sheer number of ppl meant many unable to earn decent subsistence. Public agencies and private philanthropic groups offered limited relief, and if they did mostly only to the poorest
ii)Some groups focused on religious revivalism as relief; others alarmed at great number of poor children in streets (some lives on their own)– “street arabs”
d)Crime and Violence
i)Poverty and crowding created violence, crime. Murder rate rose nationwide, and rising crime rates prompted cities to create larger, more professional police forces. Armories also developed b/c of fear of urban insurrections
e)Fear of the City
i)City offered allure and excitement, but also alienation and feelings of anonymity (e.g. Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 Sister Carrie about displaced single women)
f)The Machine and the Boss
i)Newly arrived immigrants sought assistance from political machines- created by power vacuum of cities, voting power of large immigrant communities
ii)Urban “bosses” sought votes for his organization by winning loyalty of constituents thru relief, jobs for unemployed, patronage
iii)Machines enriched politicians b/c of graft and corruption from contractors or investment from inside knowledge- most notorious was William Tweed of NY’s Tammany Hall during 1860s/1870s
iv)In spite of middle class reformers citing machines as obstacles to progress, boss rule possible b/c immigrant voters wanted services first and foremost & weakness of city govts
4)The Rise of Mass Consumption
a)Patterns of Income and Consumption
i)Growing markets and demand turn of century b/c of production and mass distribution made goods less expensive, also b/c of rising incomes of “white collar” professionals and working-class ppl despite union failures
ii)Mass market also grew b/c affordable prices and new merchandising techniques allowed goods to reach more consumers (e.g. ready-made clothing after Civil War and rise of fashion)
iii)Food transformed by tin cans, refrigerated RR cars for perishables, home iceboxes. Allowed for better diet and higher life expectancy
b)Chain Stores and Mail-Order Houses
i)Way in which Americans bought goods altered- local stores faced competition from “chain stores” whose national network could sell manufactured goods at lower prices. Customers couldn’t resist great variety + lower prices of chains
ii)Chain stores slow to rural areas but gained access thru mail-order houses-notably 1880s Montgomery Wary and Sears Roebuck mail order catalogues
c)Department Stores
i)Dept stores transformed shopping by bringing together many products under one roof (clothing, furniture) previously in separate shops; gave allure and excitement to shopping; economies of scale enabled lower prices than comp
d)Women as Consumers
i)Mass consumption affected women greatest b/c primary consumers in family. Spawned consumer protection movement w/ National Consumers League 1890s under Florence Kelley to force retainers for better wages, conditions
5)Leisure in the Consumer Society
a)Redefining Leisure
i)Leisure had been previously scorned, but redefinition in late 19th century b/c economic expansion and greater worker time away from work leisure began to be a normal part of everyday life (economist Simon Pattern wrote of this in his 1902 The Theory of Prosperity and 1910 The New Basis of Civilization)
ii)New forms of leisure had public character- time spent mostly in public spaces, part of appeal of leisure was time spent w/ large crowds
b)Spectator Sports
i)Search for public forms of leisure led to rise of organized spectator sports
ii)Saw rise of baseball as “national pastime”, leagues formed in 1870s. Football became standardized 1870s and began to grew. Boxing grew in the 1880s after adoption of Marquis of Queensberry rules
iii)Spectator sports had close association with gambling w/ elaborate betting syndicates. Prompted sports to “clean up” and regulate games
c)Music and Theater
i)Large market of cities allowed theaters to be maintained in ethnic communities, musical comedies developed, and vaudeville widely popular
d)The Movies
i)Thomas Edison and others laid tech for motion picture 1880s, soon projectors allowed showings on big screens in theaters w/ large audiences. By 1900 very popular, especially after DW Griffith introduced his silent epics
e)Working-Class Leisure
i)Workers spent great amt of leisure time on streets b/c had much time but little money. Also popular were neighborhood saloons (often ethnic), served as political centers b/c saloonkeepers often involved in political machines (largely b/c they had regular contact w/ many men in a neighborhood)
ii)Boxing also emerged as a poplar sport- bare knuckle fights by ethnic clubs
f)The Fourth of July
i)B/c most ppl worked six-day workweek w/o vacations, 4th of July became a full day of leisure and an impt highlight in the year of ethnic, working-class communities. Massive neighborhood celebrations often w/ drinking
g)Private Pursuits
i)Reading remained popular as leisure activity, w/ Louisa Alcott’s Little Women (1869) capturing a large women audience
ii)Public music performances popular, but also learning instrument w/in home
h)Mass Communications
i)Large urban market for transmitting news and information in urban industrial society- rise in publishing in journalism after Civil War w/ increase in newspaper circulation, rise of national press services using telegraph to supply news to papers across country
ii)Rise of newspaper chains, especially competition btwn William Randolph Hearst + Joseph Pulitzer (rise of sensational “yellow journalism to sell papers)
6)High Culture in the Age of the City
a)The Literature of Urban America
i)Some writers responded to new industrial civilization by evoking more natural world, others sought to use literature to recreate urban social reality
ii)Realism led by Stephen Crane (famous for The Red Badge of Courage in 1895) who showed urban poverty and slum life. Theodore Dreiser highlighted social dislocations and injustices. There authors followed by Frank Norris’ The Octopus (1901) and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) which showed depravity of capitalism by exposing abuses in meatpacking industry
b)Art in the Age of the City
i)By 1900 many American artists breaking from Old World traditions of Eur and experiment w/ new styles. Some turning away from traditional, academic style toward exploring grim aspects of modern life
ii)Ashcan School produced stark portrayal of social realities, showcased expressionism and abstraction at famous 1913 art “Armory Show”
iii)Beginning of modernism- rejected past and embraced new subjects, glorified the ordinary, coarse over genteel tradition +“dignified” aspects of civilization, embraced the future over “standards” of past- individual creativity
c)The Impact of Darwinism
i)Darwin argued evolution from earlier species thru “natural selection”, challenged traditional American religious faith. By end of century most urban professionals and members of educated classes converted; taught in schools
ii)Darwinism led to schism btwn culture of city receptive to new ideas and the traditional, provincial culture of rural areas tied to religion and older values
iii)Other intellectual movements included Social Darwinism of William Sumner, “pragmatism” of William James that valued scientific inquiry + experience
iv)Relativism spawned by Darwinism led to growth of anthropology and study of other cultures (notably Native American culture)
d)Toward Universal Schooling
i)Dependence on specialized skills and scientific knowledge led to demand for education. Spread of free public primary and secondary education, compulsory attendance laws in many states. Rural education still lagged
ii)Some reformers including Richard Pratt targeted native tribes to “civilize” them- urged practical “industrial” education. Failed b/c resistance, funding
iii)Colleges grew late 19th century, benefited from Morrill Land Grant Act of Civil War era that donated large amt of land for colleges; also from contributions made by business and financial tycoons
e)Education for Women
i)Expansion of educational opportunities for women (although lagged behind that of men). Public high schools accepted women, and network of women’s colleges emerged that served to create distinctive women’s community
1)The Politics of Equilibrium
a)The Party System
i)Party system of late 19th century very stable w/ little fluctuation in state loyalties. Repubs held most presidencies and Senate, Dems lead House
ii)Public intensely loyal to parties, voter turnout was tremendous- loyalty result of region (Dems in S, Repubs in N), religion and ethnicity (Dems attracted Catholics, new immigrants, poor; Repubs middle class, N Protestants)
iii)Party identification more cultural than of economic interest
b)The National Government
i)Federal govt held little power/responsibility- aside from supporting economic development (land grant subsidies, strike intervention), delivering pensions to Civil War veterans. Party leaders cared more about holding office than policy
c)Presidents and Patronage
i)President had little power save to make govt appointments (patronage used)
ii)Pres Rutherford B. Hayes had to deal w/ factional Repub party split btwn Stalwarts (favored machine politics) and the Half-Breeds (favored reform). Patronage system overshadowed presidency, civil service system effort failed
iii)Repubs won presidency in 1880 election, Pres James Garfield (Half-Breed) and VP Chester Arthur (Stalwart). Garfield attempted to defy Stalwarts, create civil service reform- assassinated 1881
iv)New Pres Chester attempted supported civil service reform over Stalwarts- 1883 Congress passed Pendleton Act requiring exams for some govt jobs
d)Cleveland, Harrison, and the Tariff
i)In 1884 election Repub nominee Sen James Blaine symbol of party politics, “liberal” Repubs flocked to Dem reform candidate Grover Cleveland
ii)Cleveland opposed to graft and special interest, wished to see limited govt- asked Congress to reduce protective tariff rate 1887 to reduce govt surpluses and size. Dems passed bill, Republicans opposed it—>issue in 1888 elections
iii)Dems renominated Cleveland; Repubs named Benjamin Harrison, won Pres
e)New Public Issues
i)Pres Harrison made little effort to influence Congress, but public opinion forced govt to begin to confront social and economic issues- especially trusts
ii)By mid 1880s some states limiting combinations preventing competition, but reformers wanted nat’l movement- 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act passed, but little enforced, weakened by courts, and had little impact
iii)Repubs main issue was dealing w/ tariff- passed McKinley Tariff 1890 (highest protective tariff ever). Public opposed bill, by 1892 Pres election Repubs lost both House + Senate, Dem nominee Cleveland won Pres election
iv)Cleveland’s 2nd term like 1st (devoted to minimal govt). Supported tariff reduction (Wilson-Gorman Tariff passed). Movement 1880s in may states to regulate RRs- after 1886 Supreme Court case Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad vs Illinois ruled only fed govt able to regulate interstate commerce
v)To appease public Congress passed 1887 Interstate Commerce Act- banned rate discrimination + injustice, Interstate Commerce Commission formed
2)The Agrarian Revolt
a)The Grangers
i)First major effort to organize farmers was Grange movement of 1860s (at firs goal to teach new scientific techniques), not until 1873 recession + fall of farm prices did it become highly political and large
ii)Grange urged cooperative political action to fight monopolistic RR and warehouse practices, setup up co-op stores, insurance companies, and Montgomery Ward mail-order business (sought to challenge middle-men)
iii)Elected Grange politicians 1870s to state legislatures to focus on RR reform; regulations destroyed by courts, temporary boom late-1870s destroyed Grange
b)The Farmers’ Alliance
i)Farmers’ Alliances formed in South, Northwest- like Grange focused on local problems (co-op banks, processing plants) but also larger goal to create society of cooperation. Like Grange cooperatives not very successful, harnessed frustrations into creating national political organization 1880s
ii)1889 Southern and Northwestern Alliances merged, issued Ocala Demands (party platform), won seats in 1890 elections. Sentiments forming toward national third party, 1892 created People’s Party (Populists)
iii)In 1892 elections Populists did surprising well, won seats in states + Congress
c)The Populist Constituency
i)Populism appealed mainly to small farmers, those whose farming becoming less viable in face of mechanized, consolidated commercial agriculture
ii)Populists failed to attract much labor support, but attracted miners in Rocky Mountain states w/ “free silver” policy that allowed for silver to be currency, expand money supply. African Americans allowed limited involvement in S
d)Populist Ideas
i)Ocala platform 1892 outlined Populist reform programs- “subtreasuries” to strengthen cooperatives; govt warehouse system; abolish national banks; direct election of US Senators, other ways for ppl to influence political system; regulation and ownership of RRs, telephones; graduated income tax; currency inflation; silver remonetization. Populism associated w/ anti-Semitism
ii)Rejection of laissez-faire, uphold absolutism of ownership
3)The Crisis of the 1890s
a)The Panic of 1893
i)Panic of 1893 led to severe depression- caused by bankruptcy of few corporations that led to bank failure, led to credit contraction. Also caused by depressed farm prices of late 1880s, Eur depression, RR expansion beyond market demand- showed how dependent economy was on powerful RRs
ii)Businesses, banks, RRs failed. Unemployment soared, led to social unrest- 1894 Populist Jacob Coxey called for massive public works program for unemployed + currency inflation, protested in D.C. w/ “Coxey’s Army”
b)The Silver Question
i)Financial panic weakened monetary system, Pres Cleveland believed currency instability cause of depression. Many ppl believed specie (precious metal) must back money to give it value
ii)“Bimetal” standard discontinued 1873 by Congress b/c market value of silver high than 16:1 standard. Late 1870s silver became less valuable than standard but ppl unable to convert silver b/c of “Crime of ‘73”; opposition by silver-miners + farmers who wanted greater $ circulation (inflation) to ease debts
iii)At same time decreasing govt gold reserves led Pres Cleveland 1893 to seek repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890- divided Dem party
iv)Presidential of 1986 incredibly fierce b/c supporters of gold standard saw it as essential to national stability, supporters of “free silver” (guided by William Harvey’s 1894 Coin’s Financial School) saw gold standard as tyrannous and advantageous to wealthy, silver would decrease debt
4)“A Cross of Gold”
a)The Emergence of Bryan
i)Repubs in 1896 election confident of victory b/c of Cleveland+ Dems failure to deal w/ depression nominated William McKinley w/ platform opposed to free coinage of silver
ii)Dems of West sought to weaken People’s Party by adopting Populist demands, debated platform of free silver, tariff reduction, income tax, RR and trust regulation- opposed by eastern Dems
iii)William Jennings Bryan delivered “Cross of Gold” speech opposed to gold standard at convention, next day voted nominee
iv)Populists split as to whether or not to fuse w/ Dem party b/c felt some of their unique needs addressed; concluded no other alternative, supported Bryan
b)The Conservative Party
i)Business + finance communities donated heavily to Repubs, Bryan’s national stump and camp-meeting style alienated Cath + ethnic voters who feared he embodied Protestants who so firmly opposed them
ii)McKinley carried election b/c Dem platform had proved to be too narrow (sectional) to win nationally. B/c of “fusion” gamble w/ Democrats the People’s Party began to dissolve in wake of defeat
c)McKinley and Recovery
i)McKinley administration saw return to calm b/c labor unrest and agrarian protest had subsided by 1897, economic crisis gradually easing
ii)McKinley focused on implementing high tariff rate, Congress soon passed Dingley Tariff. Repubs passed Currency (Gold Standard) Act of 1900 that confirmed nation’s gold standard, pegged dollar to specific gold value
iii)Foreign crop failures resulted in economic uptick, nation entered period of expansion once again—clear trend btwn prosperity + gold standard support
iv)Free-silver movement had failed- during late 19th century money supply had expanded much more slowly than increase in production and population, but by late 1890s increase in gold supply inflated money, satisfied free-silver ppl
1)Stirrings of Imperialism
a)The New Manifest Destiny
i)American attention shifted to foreign lands b/c “closing of the frontier” 1890s led some to fear natural resources would dwindle and must be found abroad, growing importance of foreign trade and desire for new markets, fears that Eur imperialism would lead America to be left out of spoils
ii)Justifications provided by Social Darwinism- only fittest nations survive, therefore just for strong nations to dominate weaker ones
iii) Josiah Strong’s Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (1885) states Anglo-Saxon “race” represented liberty, Christianity and should spread them; John Burgess wrote that duty of A-S to uplift less fortunate ppl
iv)Famous Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote in The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890) that countries w/ sea power great nations of history- US needed to have foreign commerce, merchant marine, navy to defend routes, and colonies to provide raw materials and bases- claim Pacific Islands, HI
b)Hemispheric Hegemony
i)Sec of State James Blaine 1880s sought to expand US influence in Latin America to provide markets for surplus goods- 1889 organized Pan-American Congress. Pres Cleveland 1895 had dispute w/ GB over Venezuela border
c)Hawaii and Samoa
i)Hawaii appealing b/c Navy wanted Pearl Harbor as base, Americans who had settled on island had come to dominate political + economic life of islands
ii)Hawaii had been series of islands w/ self-sufficient communities. After 1810 American traders, missionaries, planters began settling there. Disease decimated Native populations; by 1840s Americans spread thru islands
iii)1887 US Navy negotiated to use Pearl Harbor as Navy base; by that time sugar exports to US basis of economy, American plantation system was displacing natives from their lands
iv)In response elevated nationalist Queen Liliuokalani 1891. 1890 US eliminated duty-free status of HI sugar, American planters felt only way to survive to join US- 1893 stages revolution. Pres Harrison signed annex agreement 1893 but delayed by Dem Senate and Dem Pres Cleveland until 1898 return of Repubs
v)Samoa had served as station for US chips in Pacific trade; Pres Hayes 1878 got treaty to use harbor at Pago Pago for Navy. Power share btwn US, GB, Germany over islands- 1899 US and Germany split islands, compensated GB
2)War with Spain
a)Controversy Over Cuba
i)Cubans had resisted Spanish rule of Cuba since 1868 for independence; in 1895 Cubans rose up violently again, Span under Gen Valeriano Weyler used harsh tactics + concentration camps in turn- US press skewered mainly Span
ii)Pulitzer’s NY World and Hearst’s NY Journal catered to broad, economically lower audience- used sensational “yellow journalism” + Cuban crisis to fight each other for circulation; Cuban Americans urged Cuba Libre as well
iii)Pres Cleveland proclaimed American neutrality; Pres McKinley took office 1897, protested Spanish conduct- withdrew Weyler
iv)Two events Feb 1898 ruined peaceful settlement: the leak of a letter from Spain’s minister to Washington touting McKinley as “bidder…of the crowd; and the destruction of the US battleship The Maine in Havana Harbor- Spain initially blamed, Congress mobilized for war- war declared in April
b)“A Splendid Little War”
i)Sec of State John Hay called Spanish-American War “a splendid little war” b/c only lasted April-August, few US battle deaths (but 5000+ from disease)
ii)War effort hampered by army supply problems, regular army w/o experience fighting large-scale war (used to Indian battles)- Nat’l Guard units used like in Civil War. Racial conflict w/ black army unites used in invasion
c)Seizing the Philippines
i)Sec of Navy Theodore Roosevelt strengthened Pacific Fleet, ordered Commodore George Dewey to attack Spanish forces in Philippines (Span colony) if war broke. May 1898 captured Manila Bay, later troops took city
ii)War to free Cuba had become war to strip Spain of its colonies w/o any decisions as to what to do with them after capture
d)The Battle for Cuba
i)American forces staged landing in June after Spanish fleet arrived in Santiago harbor. US battled Spanish forces in on way to Santiago at Las Guasimos and then later El Caney and San Juan Hill in July
ii)At Battle of Kettle Hill (part of Battle for San Juan Hill) unit called Rough Riders lead by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt (who had resigned as from Navy to fight in war) had famous charge
iii)US forces soon took Santiago, later US army landed + captured Puerto Rico
iv)Armistice w/ Spain in August ended war- recognized independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to US, accepted Manila (Philippines) occupation
e)Puerto Rico and the United States
i)Annexation of Puerto Rico produced little controversy- American military controlled island until 1900 Foraker Act created colonial got w/ American governor, 2-chamber legislature, and US could amend/veto any legislation
ii)Puerto Ricans (who had history of demanding independence from Spanish) clamored for independence- 1917 Congress passed Jones Act that made PR US territory + PRicans American citizens
iii)PR sugar economy flourished now w/o tariffs (as in HI); plantations formed, many PR farmers became paid laborers, dependent on int’l sugar prices
f)The Debate over the Philippines
i)Debate over Philippines difft b/c not in W. Hemisphere, densely populated and far away—McKinley reluctant but believed no other alternative (could not be retuned to Spain, given to other imperialist, and Filips “unfit for self govt”)
ii)War w/ Spain ended 1898 w/ Treaty of Paris, US paid $20 million for Philippines. Fierce resistance in US to ratification
iii)Anti-imperialists (under Anti-Imperialist League) opposed b/c imperialism immoral, industrial workers feared cheap labor
iv)Ratification supported by imperialists such as Theodore Roosevelt saw empire as means to reinvigorate nation, dominate Oriental trade, Repubs could come out of Repub war w/ new territory, and easy b/c US already occupied islands
v)Ratified in 1899 b/c anti-imperialist Dem Williams Jennings Bryan wanted to make is issue in 1900 election. Bryan ran against McKinley, referendum on war showed American ppl supported imperialism- McKinley won decisively
3)The Republic As Empire
a)Governing the Colonies
i)American dependents Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico got territory status (residents became US citizens)
ii)US military remained in Cuba. After Cuban constitution failed to mention US, Congress passed 1901 Platt Amendment that would bar Cuba from making treaties, gave US right to intervene in Cuba (little political independence given). American capital bought up much of Cuban economy and dominated it
b)The Philippine War
i)US subjugation of natives led to long, bloody war w/ insurgent independence fighters. US used same brutal tactics that it had opposed Spain using in Cuba
ii)Rebellion led by Emilio Aguinaldo w/ large popular following. By 1902 brutal and savage US tactics had changed American public opinion on war, but by then war already over (Aguinaldo captured 1901)
iii)Power given to US administrator William Howard Taft who believed US mission to prepare Filipinos for independence, so gave broad local autonomy. Trade w/ US grew and islands came to almost depend on US markets
c)The Open Door Policy
i)Philippine occupation strengthened US interest in Asia and Chinese trade
ii)Eur nations were carving up China for themselves; McKinley wanted to protect US interest in China w/o war. Sec of State John Hay proposed 1898 “Open Door notes” to Eur nations allowing access to China but give no nation special advantages. Allowed free trade w/o colony, military involvement
iii)Boxer Rebellion arose against foreigners in China. Siege of foreign diplomatic corps resulted in McKinley and Hay participating in quelling rebellion
d)A Modern Military System
i)War w/ Spain showed weakness of US military system in training, supply, coordination. McKinley apptd Elihu Root as Sec of War to overhaul forces
ii)Root enlarged army, federal standards for Nat’l Guard, created officer training schools, created Joint Chiefs of Staff to advise Sec of War, supervise military establishment, plan possible wars—modern military system by turn of century
1)The Progressive Impulse
a)Varieties of Progressivism
i)Progressives varied on how to intervene + reform- popular idea of “antimonopoly” (fear of concentrated power, limit + disperse wealth, power)
ii)Social cohesion- welfare of single person dependent on welfare of society
iii)Faith in knowledge, principles of natural + social sciences, modernized govt
b)The Muckrakers
i)Muckrakers were crusading journalists who exposed social, economic, political injustices and corruption
ii)At first targeted trusts (particularly RR barons)- Ida Tarbell’s study on Standard Oil. Later, attention toward govt + political machines- writings of Lincoln Steffens helped arouse sentiment for urban reforms
c)The Social Gospel
i)Muckrakers moralistic tone prompted outrage at social + econ injustice, led to rise of Protestant Social Gospel- fusion of religion w/ reform
ii)Salvation Army was Christian social welfare organization; ministers left parish to serve in troubled cities; Father John Ryan wrote of expanding scope of Cath social welfare groups
iii)Religion w/ reform gave Progressivism moral component + commitment to redeem lives of even least favored citizens
d)The Settlement House Movement
i)Progressives believed env’t influenced individual development. To help distressed required improving their conditions
ii)Ppl believed crowded immigrant neighbors created distress- creation of settlement houses a response. Most famous was Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago- sought to help immigrant families adapt to language + culture, belief that middle-class had responsibility to share values w/ immigrants
iii)College educated women often involved in settlement house movement; movement helped spawn profession of social work
e)The Allure of Expertise
i)Progressivism values application of scientific methods, knowledge, expertise- well-designed bureaucracy needed. Some proposed civilization where science could solve social + econ problems- advocated in A Theory of The Leisure Class (1899) by Thorstein Veblen
ii)Rise of social sciences- scientific methods used to study society + its institutions
f)The Professions
i)Late 19th century more ppl engaged in administrative + professional tasks (managers, scientists, teachers). This new middle class valued education, individual accomplishments
ii)As demand for professionals increased so did their desire for reform to create organized professions
iii)Doctors saw creation of professional American Medical Association1901- strict standards for admissions, govt passed laws requiring licensing; also rise of rigorous, scientific training and research
iv)Similar movements in other professions- lawyers formed bar associations w/ central examining boards businessmen formed Chamber of Commerce
g)Women and the Professions
i)Some women encountered obstacles in entering professions, but many from women’s colleges did enter “appropriate professions”- settlement houses and social work, teaching, nursing (all had vague “domestic”/“helping” image)
2)Women and Reform
a)The “New Woman”
i)“New woman” product of social + economic changes- wage earning activity had moved out of house and into factory or office, children enrolled in school at earlier ages, technology (running water, electricity) made housework less of a burden, declining family size; “Boston marriages”- women living w/ women
b)The Clubwomen
i)Late 19th/early 20th century rise of women’s clubs- network of associations that lead many reform movements. General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) at first cultural, later focused on social betterment
ii)Clubs represented effort to extend women’s influence out of traditional role in home and create a public space for women. Worked to lobby legislatures for regulation of children + women work conditions, food inspection, temperance
iii)Women’s Trade Union League rallied women to join unions, aid female labor
c)Woman Suffrage
i)Women’s suffrage movement at first advanced thru arguments that women deserved same “natural rights” as men, opponents said society needed distinct female “sphere”
ii)Early 20th century suffragists more organized-- Anna Shaw + Carrie Chapman Catt formed National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
iii)Began to make “safer” arguments for suffrage in that voting would not ruin distinct sphere but allow women to bring special virtues to society’s problems and contribute to politics. Some claimed could soothe male aggression (WWI)
iv)1910 Washington extended suffrage to women, more hesitant in East b/c of associations w/ ethnic conflict (Catholics) over temperance movement
v)1920 Nineteenth Amendment ratified guaranteeing female political rights; others (including Alice Paul’s Woman’s Party) wanted to fight on for an Equal Rights Amendment to prohibit all discrimination based on sex
3)The Assault on the Parties
a)Early Attacks
i)Late 19th century populism and rise of Independent Republicans had attempted to break party lock on power- resulted in secret ballot
ii)Argued party rule could be dealt w/ by increasing power of ppl + ability to express will at polls, also put more power in nonpartisan, nonelected officials
b)Municipal Reform
i)Many progressives believed party rule most powerful in cities. Muckrakers mobilized urban middle-class progressives against city bosses, special interests who benefited from machine organizations, immigrant laborers
c)New Forms of Governance
i)Commission Plan- replaced mayor and council replaced w/ nonpartisan commission. First used in Galveston, TX in 1900, others followed
ii)City-Manager Plan- elected officials hired outside expert to run govt, remain above corruption of politics
iii)Successful reformer Cleveland Mayor Tom Johnson from conventional political structure controlled by progressives- fought special interests
d)Statehouse Progressivism
i)Failure of some attacks on city boss rule led reformers to turn to state govt for change- progressives looked to circumvent incompetent state legislatures
ii)Initiative allowed reformers to submit legislation directly to voters in general election; Referendum put actions of legislature directly to the ppl for approval
iii)Direct primary allowed ppl instead of bosses to choose candidates; Recall gave voters right to remove elected official thru special election
iv)Famous state-level reformer was Gov Robert LaFollette in Wisconsin- regulated RRs, utilities, workplace, graduated taxes on inherited wealth
e)Parties and Interest Groups
i)Reform did not destroy parties but led to decline in their influence- seen by decreasing voter turnout. “Interest groups” emerged from professional organizations or labor to advance own demands directly to govt, not thru party
4)Sources of Progressive Reform
a)Labor, the Machine, and Reform
i)Samuel Gompers’s American Federation of Labor mostly uninvolved in reform at time, but local unions played role in passing some state reform laws
ii)Parties tried to preserve interest by adapting- some bosses allowed their machines to be vehicle of social reform (e.g. Charles Murphy of Tammany Hall supported legislation for working conditions, child labor)
iii)Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 1911 in NY killed many women workers b/c bosses had locked emergency exits. Commission delivered report calling for reform in labor conditions- reform lead in legislature by Tammany Dems. Imposed regulation on factory owners and mechanisms for enforcement
b)Western Progressives
i)In Western states reformers targeted federal govt b/c powerful as it never had been in East (power over lands and resources, subsidies for RRs and water projects, issues transcended state borders). Weaker local + state govts political led to weaker W polit. parties, govts passed progressive reforms more quickly
c)African Americans and Reform
i)AAs faced large legal, social, economic, political obstacles in challenging their oppressed status and seeking reform- many embraced Booker T Washington’s message of self-improvement over long-term social change
ii)1900s new Niagara Movement led by WEB Du Bois (author of 1903 The Souls of Black Folk)called for immediate civil rights, professional education
iii)1909 joined w/ supportive white progressives to form National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), used federal lawsuits in pursuit of equal rights. In Guinn v. United States (1915) Supreme Court ruled grandfather clause illegal; Buchanan v. Worley (1917) Court outlawed some segregation—NAACP established itself as leading black organization
5)Crusade for Social Order and Reform
a)The Temperance Crusade
i)Many progressives saw elimination of alcohol as way to restore societal order- women saw alcohol as source of problems for families, employers saw it as roadblock to efficiency, political reformers saw saloon as Machine institution
ii)1873 temperance supporters formed Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) led by Frances Willard, together w/ Anti-Saloon League called for abolition of saloons and prohibition of manufacture and sale of alcohol
iii)Opposition by immigrant and working-class voters; regardless, national effort and start of WWI moral fervor led to 1920 Eighteenth Amendment prohibition
b)Immigration Restriction
i)Reformers saw growing immigrant population as source of social problems- some wanted to help assimilation, others to limit flow of new immigrants
ii)Early century pressure to slow immigration, heightened by growth of eugenics movement arguing human inequalities hereditary and immigration (especially of non-Anglo E. Eurs and Asians) resulting in growth of unfit peoples
iii)Publicist Madison Grant’s 1916 The Passing of the Great Race tied together eugenics + Nativism; Congress’s Dillingham Report said new immigrants less assimilable than earlier groups, restrictions should be based on nationality
iv)Others supported restrictions as means to solve urban overcrowding, unemployment, strained social services, and unrest
6)Challenging the Capitalist Order
a)The Dream of Socialism
i)Radical opposition to capitalist system strongest btwn 1900-1914, Socialist Party under Eugene V. Debs grew during progressive era. Socialists wanted to change structure of economy, but disagreement as to extent and tactics
ii)Some moderates favored nationalizing only major industries, use electoral politics; radicals including union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) under William Haywood wanted abolition of “wage slave” system, favored use of general strike, supported unskilled workers (strong force in West)
iii)1917 strike by IWW led to federal government crackdown on union b/c needed materials in mobilization for war; IWW never fully recovered
iv)Socialist Party refusal to support war + growing antiradicalism led to decline of socialism as powerful political force in America
b)Decentralization and Regulation
i)Most progressives also saw major problem in great corporate centralization + consolidation, but instead of nationalizing industries wanted federal govt to create balance btwn need for big business and need for competition
ii)Lawyer Louis Brandeis argued about “curse of bigness”, saw it as threat to efficiency and freedom, limited individual control of own destiny
iii)Others believed combinations sometimes helped efficiency, therefore govt should distinguish btwn “good” and “bad” trusts to protect against abuses by “bad” concentrations. Supported by “nationalist” Herbert Croly in 1909 The Promise of American Life
iv)Movement growing for industry cooperation and self-regulation; others wanted active govt role in regulation and planning economy
1)Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency
a)The Accidental President
i)VP Theodore Roosevelt assumed presidency September 1901after Pres McKinley assassinated. Reputation as an independent and wild man; became champion of cautious an moderate change, reform to protect society against more radical changes
b)Government, Capital, and Labor
i)Roosevelt saw fed govt as mediator of the public good. Not opposed to industrial combinations but realized potential for abuse of power
ii)Supported regulation of trusts- created Department of Commerce and Labor 1903 to publicly investigate corporations. Did make effort to break up some trusts- used Sherman Antitrust Act to break up Northern Securities Company monopoly over RRs in Northwest
iii)Saw govt as impartial regulator for labor as well- 1902 strike by United Mine workers led Roosevelt to ask labor and management to accept impartial federal arbitration, threatened to seize mines if management balked
c)“The Square Deal”
i)Reform not priority during first years as president, more concerned w/ winning reelection by not alienating conservative Republicans, winning support of businessmen and using patronage—won 1904 election
ii)First targeted RR industry by asking Congress to increase fed power to oversee rates- Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act of 1906 restored some govt regulatory power
iii)Supported Congress passing Pure Food and Drug Act, after Upton Sinclair’s 1906 The Jungle supported Meat Inspection Act. Also favored 8 hour work day for labor, workmen’s compensation, and inheritance and income taxes
d)Roosevelt and Conservation
i)Concerned w/ unregulated exploitation of resources and wilderness- used executive power to restrict private development on govt land, saw goal of “conservation” to carefully manage development and to apply same scientific method of management being used in cities
ii)President supported public reclamation and irrigation projects- 1902 Newlands Act funded dam construction, reservoirs, canals in West to open new lands for irrigation, cultivation and power development
e)Roosevelt and Preservation
i)Pres also sympathized w/ naturalists who wanted to protect land, wildlife from human intrusion- expanded National Forest System for “rational” lumbering, but also grew National Park System to protect lands from any development
f)The Hetch Hetchy Controversy
i)Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite seen as beautiful land by naturalists, but San Francisco residents + Roosevelt’s head of National Forest System Gifford Pinchot wanted land to build dam + reservoir for city’s growing water needs
ii)Pinchot saw needs of city more important than claims of preservation; issue placed in 1908 referendum, dam approved by large margin in election
g)The Panic of 1907
i)Despite reforms govt still had little control over industrial economy; in 1907 production outgrew domestic + foreign demand, speculation + poor management led to panic.
ii)JP Morgan pooled assets of NY banks to prop up banks, made deal with Pres to allow US Steel to purchase Tennessee Coal and Iron Company shares
iii)B/c of Panic of 1907 and promise made in 1904 to step down four years later, did not seek renomination and reelection for 1908 bid
2)The Troubled Succession
a)Taft and the Progressives
i)During early administration called on Congress to lower tariff (a progressive demand), refused to oppose Repub Old Guard. Result was Payne-Aldrich Tariff - reduced tariffs little, raised others- progressives resented inaction
ii)1909 Ballinger-Pinchot Dispute in which Head of Forest Service Gifford Pinchot was told that Sec of Interior Richard Ballinger had sold public lands in Alaska for personal profit. Taft thought charges groundless, Pinchot leaked info to press-- Taft fired Pinchot, progressives alienated
b)The Return of Roosevelt
i)Roosevelt upset w/ Taft and believed only he was capable of reuniting Republican Party; 1910 outlined “New Nationalism” that moved away from conservatism + argued only effort of strong fed govt could bring social justice
c)Spreading Insurgency
i)In 1910 Congressional elections many conservative Repub candidates lost and progressives reelected; Dems gained maj in House, seats in Senate
ii)Reform sentiment on the rise, but Roosevelt claimed he only wanted to pressure Taft into action; Roosevelt decided to run, however, after Taft charged US Steel acquisition of Tennessee Coal and Iron Company had been illegal and reform candidate Robert LaFollette’s campaign collapsed
d)Roosevelt versus Taft
i)Taft had support of conservative Repubs and party leaders, Roosevelt supported by progressives- at convention Republican National Committee gave nomination to Taft. Roosevelt left Repub Party and established own Progressive Party w/ himself as nominee (nicknamed Bull Moose Party)
3)Woodrow Wilson and The New Freedom
a)Woodrow Wilson
i)Reform support growing in Democratic Party as well as Repub Party; Dems chose progressive Woodrow Wilson as 1912 Presidential election nominee
ii)Wilson supported “New Freedom”- held that bigness was unjust and wanted to destroy, not regulate monopoly (whereas Roosevelt’s New Nationalism believed in govt regulation of concentration)
iii)Roosevelt and Taft split Repub vote, Wilson elected
b)The Scholar as President
i)Wilson bold and forceful- used position as leader of Dems to build coalition to support his program (Dem majorities existed in both houses)
ii)Greatly lowered tariff in Underwood-Simmons Tariff in order to introduce competition into market + breakup trusts; to make up for revenues past graduated income tax
iii)1913 Congress passed Federal Reserve Act- regional Fed banks made up of regional banks + issued loans at “discount” rate, issued Fed Reserve notes backed by govt, shifted funds to meet credit demands + protect banks. Supervising Federal Reserve Board members selected by Pres
iv)1914 Wilson began to deal w/ monopoly, Congress passed Federal Trade Commission Act and Clay Antitrust Act
(1)FTC was regulatory agency to help business determine whether their actions were legal, also power to prosecute “unfair trade practices”
(2)Clayton Antitrust Bill to allow break up of trusts weakened by conservative opposition; ultimately administration decided that government supervision and regulation by FTC sufficient
c)Retreat and Advance
i)Pres believed New Freedom accomplished, therefore didn’t support progressive suffrage movement and efforts to halt segregation in federal agencies after Dems had heavy losses in Congress in 1914 elections to Repubs (who won support from Progressive party) Wilson began new reforms
ii)Wilson supported appointment of progressive Louis Brandeis to Supreme Court; supported measured expanding role of federal govt 1916 Keating-Owen Act regulated child labor (struck down by Sup C b/c relied on interstate commerce clause in Const), 1914 Smith-Lever Act to help agricultural extension education
4)The “Big Stick”: America and The World, 1901-1917
a)Roosevelt and “Civilization”
1)The Road to War
a)The Collapse of the European Peace
i)Eur divided into alliances- “Triple Entente” of GB, France, Russia & “Triple Alliance” of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy (GB-German tension notable)
ii)After June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbs, A-H invaded Serbia who called on Russian help- b/c alliances other nations entered
b)Wilson’s Neutrality
i)1914 Wilson urged neutrality but many Americans sympathized w/ certain nations (German + Irish immigrants=Central, but most ppl= GB+Allies)
ii)Strong US-GB economic ties + blockade of Central Powers led US to continue trade w/ GB , shun trade w/ Central nations- “arsenal of Allies”
iii)Germany began using submarine warfare 1915 to combat GB naval domination; 1915 sinking of Lusitania and 1916 Sussex sinking led Wilson to call on Germans to recognize rights of neutrals- Germans relented and stopped attacking merchant ships to stop US entrance into war
c)Preparedness vs Pacifism
i)Wilson did not intervene for either side b/c of re-election + domestic division
ii)Economic + militarily preparations debated by pacifists and interventionists. However, by 1916 military armament largely under way
iii)Wilson won extremely close 1916 b/c of association w/ ability to keep US independent, although Dems barely held on to Congressional majorities
d)A War for Democracy
i)After election Wilson wanted country unified and justified if to enter war, should fight to create new progressive world order + not for material gains
ii)January 1917 Germany began offensive + continuation of unrestricted submarine warfare to defeat Allies before US entrance; February Zimmerman Telegram urged Mex to join w/ Germany (increased public sentiment toward war); March Russian Revolution toppled czar for republican govt
iii)April 1917 US officially declared war on side of Allies
2)“War Without Stint”
a)Entering the War
i)Immediately w/ US entrance Allied navy able to dramatically reduce sinking’s in troop + supply convoys
ii)1917 withdrawal of Russian forces after Bolshevik Revolution (Lenin) led Germans to put resources on Western Front, Allies needed US ground troops
b)The American Expeditionary Force
i)US army too small to supply needed troops- April 1917 Wilson urged passage of Selective Service Act to draft soldiers into American Expeditionary Force
ii)AEF was diverse-- women served as auxiliaries in non-combat roles; African-American soldiers served in segregated units or had menial roles
c)The Military Struggle
i)US ground forces insignificant until spring 1918; AEF under Gen John Pershing maintained command structure independent from other Allies
ii)US forced tipped stalemate + balance of power to Allies--- June 1918 helped repel German offensive at Chateau-Thierry
iii)Beginning Sept US forced fighting in Argonne Forest (as part of Allied Meuse-Argonne Offensive); pushed Germans back + cut off supply routes
iv)11/11/1918 Great War ended w/ Allies on German border
d)The New Technology of Warfare
i)New military weapons + tactics more deadly (tanks, machine guns, trenches, chemical weapons). Logistics and materials transport gained increased importance. Rise of planes, dreadnought battleships, submarines
ii)Casualties extremely high for war (British lost 1 million, Germany 2 million); even victors overwhelmed by sheer magnitude of deaths
3)The War and American Society
a)Organizing the Economy for War
i)US appropriated $32 billion for war- to raise money sold “Liberty Bonds” to public & put new graduated taxes on income + inheritance
ii)To organize economy Wilson created Council of National Defense; but emphasis Civilian Advisory Commission tasked w/ mobilizing at local level
iii)CND members urged “scientific management” + centralization, proposed dividing economy based on function and not geography w/ “war boards” coordinating efforts in each sector
iv)War Industries Board oversaw purchase of military supplies, under Bernard Baruch organized factories, set prices, and distributed needed materials. Instead of restricting profits, govt entered alliance w/ private sector
b)Labor and the War
i)National War Labor Board pressured industry for concessions to workers (8-hour day, living standards, collective bargaining) but workers forced to forgo strikes. Right before war Ludlow Massacre when striking miners killed
c)Economic and Social Results of the War
i)Economic boom during period from Eur demand, later US need. Industrial production expanded, opportunities for female + minorities b/c of men at war
ii)War years saw “Great Migration” of hundreds of thousands of African- Americans from rural South to northern industrial cities. S poverty + racism and appeal of N factory jobs + freedom led to movement. Growing black communities near white neighborhoods sometimes resulted in race riots
iii)Women took higher-paying industrial jobs that were unavailable in peace time
4)The Search for Social Unity
a)The Peace Movement
i)Public sentiment divided over US involvement in war—peace movement supported by German Americans, Irish who opposed GB, religious pacifists, intellectuals and leftist groups
ii) Peaces support also from women’s movement- maternal pacifism
b)Selling the War and Suppressing Dissent
i)Once America intervened most of country became patriotic and supportive of troops. Religious revivalism also became source of support for war
ii)Govt concerned about minority in opposition to war, believed victory possible only thru united public opinion Committee on Public Information under George Creel distributed pro-war propaganda—portrayals of savage Germans
iii)Espionage Act of 1917 gave govt power to punish spies and obstructers of war effort, respond to reports of disloyalty. Sabotage Act and Sedition Act of 1918 made any public expression of opposition illegal- targeted socialist groups
iv)Local govts and private citizen groups worked to repress opposition- “vigilante mob” discipline, also American Protective League w/ thousands of members who spied on neighbors to ensure unity of opinion in communities
v)Repressive efforts targeted socialists and labor leaders, but also largely immigrants (Germans, Irish, Jews)- “Loyalist” Americans called for “100 Percent Americanism”. German Americans faced fierce discrimination
5)The Search for a New World Order
a)The Fourteen Points
i)Wilson’s Fourteen Poitns addressed three areas: self-determination and new boundaries; new international governance laws including freedom of the seas, end to secret treaties, free trade, determination of colonial claims; league of nations to implement points and resolve future disagreements
ii)Fourteen Points also effort to combat Bolshevik (Lenin) aspiration to lead new postwar world order—US established itself thru the points
b)Early Obstacles
i)Wilson hoped popular support would help garner Allied support for Points,
ii)However, most Allies so decimated by war and so bitter against Germany that they did not with to be generous GB Prime Minister Lloyd George and French Premier Georges Clemenceau determined to gain compensation
iii)At home Wilson + Dems lost control of Congress to Repub majorities in 1918 election, domestic economic issues + Repub opposition weakened his position
c)The Paris Peace Conference
i)Big Four nations to negotiate treaty were GB, France, Italy, US
ii)Wilson’s idealism met by effort by other nations to improve own lot, concerns about eastern Europe and communism (US did not recognize Bolshevik govt until 1933). His economic + strategic demands suffered from conflict w/ cultural nationalism
iii)Wilson initially rejected reparations from Central Powers, but Allies forced him to accept idea in order to keep Germany weak + unable to threaten Eur
iv)Wilson was successful and placing some colonies under League of Nations “mandate” system, created Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
v)Allies accepted “covenant” of League of Nations-- to meet to resolve disputes + protect peace, Wilson believed problems w/ treaty could be fixed by League
d)The Ratification Battle
i)Americans used to isolation questioned international commitment, Wilson refused to compromise or modify League too much—when Treaty of Versailles introduced by Wilson to Senate in 1919
ii)Opposition lead by Repub Irreconcilables who wanted isolation, but also by personal hatred of Sen Henry Cabot Lodge for Wilson—wanted to delay so public approval would subside, make treaty issue in 1920 election
e)Wilson’s Ordeal
i)Wilson began traveling country to gain public support for treaty. The traveling and speaking tour exacerbated his already bad health and he suffered stroke that rendered him incapable for weeks
ii)Condition made his views of world in moral terms and loathing for compromise stronger. When Treaty sent to Sen for approval w/ “reservations” (amendments) attached, Wilson urged Dems to vote against it- both amended treaty and original failed to reach 2/3 majority to be ratified
6)A Society in Turmoil
a)Industry and Labor
i)After war govt began cancelling contracts. War boom continued for short while b/c of foreign demand + deficit spending
ii)In 1920 bubble burst—GDP decreased, inflation and unemployment rose
iii)In postwar env’t 1919 management sought to rescind worker rights that they had been forced to grant during war—use of union strikes increased to combat these moves: Boston Police Strike, great Steel Worker’s Strike failure
b)The Demands of African-Americans
i)Retruning blacks from war wanted social reward+ rights for service, black factory workers from war wanted to retain economic gains they had made
ii)Racial tension increased as retrurning whites displaced black workers- contributed to large 1919 Chicago race riots
iii)Marcus Garvey’s ideas of Black Nationalism gained popularity among blacks- advocated embracing heritage + return to Africa, reject white assimilation
c)The Red Scare
i)Industrial problems, racial violence, dissent, creation of Communist International in 1919 by Soviets to spread revolution, also bombings in US by radicals fueled middle class fears of instability + radicalism
ii)Growing movement to fight radicalism + embrace “100 Percent Americanism” Red Scare
iii)Antiradicals saw any instability or protest as radical threat; Jan 1920 Attorney General A Mitchell Palmer conducted nationwide raids in radical crackdown
iv)1920 Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial showed American bias toward perceived radicals (they had been immigrant anarchists); they were executed in 1927
d)The Retreat from Idealism
i)Passage of 19th Amendment in 1920 (to give women suffrage) marked end of reform era—due to economic problems, labor unrest, and antiradicalism that all lead to sense of disillusionment
ii)1920 Presidential election pitted idealists Dem James Cox (and VP Franklin Roosevelt) against conservative Republican Warren Harding who promised “return to normalcy”—Harding won by a large margin
iii)Election a repudiation of League of Nation and postwar order of democratic ideals
1)The New Economy
a)Technology and Economic Growth
i)After 1921-1922 recession tremendous economic growth in output + income
ii)Growth result of collapse of Eur industry after war, important technological advances: rise of auto manufacturing (and in turn gas production, road construction), assembly line, rise of radio and commercial broadcasting, advances in air travel, development of electronics + synthetic materials
iii)Maturation of electricity and telecommunications fields; work during 1920s and 1930s on primitive computer technologies
b)Economic Organization
i)Certain industries (e.g. steel) continued toward national organization and consolidation- these companies adopted new modern administrative systems w/ efficient division structures to allow subsidiary control + easier expansion
ii)In industries w/ more competition stabilization reached thru cooperation—rise of trade association to coordinate production + marketing
iii)Industrialists feared overproduction and recession, and efforts to curb competition thru either consolidation or cooperation reflected this
c)Labor in the New Era
i)Some employers 1920s used “welfare capitalism” to give workers more rights, improve safety, raise wages in order to avoid labor unrest + independent union growth. System survived only if industry prospering- collapsed in 1929
ii)Welfare capitalism helped only a few workers, employers wage increases disproportional to their increase in profits. Ultimately workers still mainly impoverished and powerless, families relied on multiple wage earners
iii)Organized labor + independent unions often failed to adapt to changing nature of modern economy. American Federation of Labor still used craft union system based on skills, did not allow growing unskilled industrial workers
d)Women and Minorities in the Work Force
i)Number of women in workforce increased, especially in “pink-collar” jobs- low-paying service jobs, most unions refused to organize them
ii)African-Americans in cities after 1914 Great Migration largely excluded from unions (A. Philip Randolph’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters exception)
iii)In West + Southwest unskilled and unorganized workers mainly Hispanics and Mexican immigrants, Asians (mainly Japanese who replaced Chinese after Exclusion Acts in menial jobs)
e)The “American” Plan
i)After 1919 economic uneasiness corporations rallied strongly against “subversive” unionism and wanted to protect idea of open shop (in which workers not forced to join union)—known as “American Plan”
ii)Govt intervened on behalf of management, courts often ruled against striking workers. Btwn this and corporate efforts union membership saw large decline
f)Agricultural Technology and the Plight of the Farmer
i)American agriculture adopted new technolgoies (e.g. tractor, combine) allowed more crops w/ fewer workers; hybrid corn + fertilizers increased productivity led to overprodution and collapse in food prices
ii)Farmers called on govt price support- idea of “parity” (govt set price, farmers reimbursed if good sold for less in fluctuating market) and high foreign crop tariffs introduced in Congress in McNary-Haugen Bill (vetoed by Coolidge)
2)The New Culture
a)Consumerism
i)Industrial growth led to rise of consumer culture in which ppl had discretionary funds w/ which to buy items for pleasure (appliances, fashion)
ii)Most revolutionary product was automobile- allowed rural ppl to escape isolation, city ppl to escape crowded urban life; rise of vacation traveling
b)Advertising
i)Techniques first used in wartime propaganda came of age in new age of advertising + work of publicists. Famous book of time The Man Nobody Knows by Bruce Burton about Jesus as “salesman”
ii)Ads possible b/c of mass audience in national chains of newspapers, mass-circulation magazine growth
c)The Movies and Broadcasting
i)1920s saw rise of Hollywood, creation of Motion Picture Association and the Hays Code as industry self-ban on objectionable material
ii)Phenomenal rise of radio beginning w/ first commercial station broadcasting in 1920. By 1929 12 million families owned radio sets
d)Modernist Religion
i)Growing consumer culture w/ emphasis on immediate self-fulfillment had influence on religion—abandonment by some of traditional + literal
ii)Harry Emerson Fosdick spokesman for new liberal Protestantism of 1920s
e)Professional Women
i)Most employed women were working class b/c of professional struggle btwn career and family. Few professional women limited to mainly “feminine” fields of fashion, education, social work, nursing
f)Changing Ideas of Motherhood
i)Belief grew that maternal affection not adequate preparation for child rearing, advice and help of professionals needed instead
ii)Motherhood increasingly relied on institutions out of home, allowing time to devote to “companionate marriage”- involved more as wives, in social life
iii)Growth of birth control related to sense of sex as recreation vs only creation
g)The “Flapper”: Image and Reality
i)Some women came to believe rigid and Victorian “feminism” unnecessary “flapper” women expressed themselves freely thru dress, speech, behavior
h)Pressing for Women’s Rights
i)Women formed League of Women Voters, many women helped growing consumer groups
ii)1921 Sheppard-Towner Act gave federal funds to states for prenatal and child healthcare. Fought my American Medical Association, others; repealed in 1929--- showed women didn’t vote as single block, even on “female” issues
i)Education and Youth
i)Growing secularism, emphasis on training and expertise manifested itself in growing upper education attendance rates, teaching of technical skills
ii)Emergence of distinct youth culture w/ growing idea of adolescence, belief this was time for child to develop institutions w/ peers separate form family
j)The Decline of the “Self-Made Man”
i)Myth of “self-made man” who could gain wealth and fame thru hard work and natural talent gave way to belief that nothing possible without education and training (men felt losing independence, control, “masculinity”)
ii)Idolized self-made men in Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh
k)The Disenchanted
i)New generation of artists and intellectuals viewed society w/ contempt; isolated themselves instead of playing reform role
ii)Lost Generation’s critique American system in which individual had no means of personal fulfillment rose out of WWI experience and sense of deaths in vain, end of Wilsonian idealism, growing business + consumerism
iii)Ernest Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1929) expressed contempt of war; other “debunkers” critical of society included H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis
iv)Many of these critics who rejected the “success ethics” of America became expatriates living abroad. Paris was center of American artistic life
l)The Harlem Renaissance
i)Other intellectuals saw solution to problems in exploration of own culture and its origins—great example Harlem during “Harlem Renaissance”
ii)Harlem center of black artists and intellectuals; literature, poetry , and art drew on African roots—famously Alan Locke, Langston Hughes
m)The Southern Agrarians
i)Group of Southern intellectuals and poets known as the Fugitives rebelled against depersonalization and materialism due to industrialization by recalling the Southern nonindustrial, agrarian way of life
ii)Wrote reactionary ideas in their 1930 agrarian manifesto I’ll Take My Stand
3)A Conflict of Cultures
a)Prohibition
i)Prohibition took effect 1920; within a year “noble experiment” failing b/c even though some drinking rates fell alcohol still widely available and legitimate businesses being replaced by organized crime (famous Al Capone)
ii)Prohibition supported by rural Protestants who they associated drinking w/ Catholic immigrants + new valueless culture
b)Nativism and the Klan
i)After war many Americans associated immigration w/ radicalism; efforts to restrict influx grew, 1921 Congress passed emergency law w/ quota system
ii)Nativists wanted harsher law--- National Origins Act of 1924 banned all east Asian immigration, reduced especially eastern Eur quotas
iii)Ku Klux Klan re-emerged as force b/c of fear by some older Americans of disruption of culture by new peoples—“New Klan” emerged in 1915 after meeting in Stone Mountain, GA
iv)At first targeted blacks, after the war targeted Catholics, Jews, and foreigners- purge “alien” influences; membership grew in S but also N industrial cities
v) Wanted to threaten anyone who challenged “traditional values”- irreligion, drunkenness, ect. Defend racial homogeneity + defend traditional culture against modernity; provided disenfranchised w/ sense of community, power
c)Religious Fundamentalism
i)Fight over role of religion in modern society—split in Protestantism btwn urban, middle-class ppl who wanted to adapt religion to modern science and secular society vs traditional rural ppl who wanted to retain religious import
ii)Fundamentalists wanted traditional interpretation of bible, opposed Darwinism; evangelical movement wanting to spread doctrine (famous preacher Billy Sunday)
iii)When teaching Darwinism outlawed in Tennessee, ACLU promised to defend teacher John Scopes who defied law—Scopes trial isolated Fundamentalists from mainstream Protestants, ended their growing political activism
d)The Democrat’s Ordeal
i)Democrats split btwn urban and rural factions; party included prohibitionists, Klansmen, fundamentalists but also Caths, urban workers, immigrants
ii)At 1924 Democratic National Convention in NY conflict btwn urban wing wanting prohibition repealed, denunciation of clan, and supported Alfred Smith for nominee; W + S supported William McAdoo. After deadlock both withdrew and John Davis chosen as nominee
iii)In 1928 AL Smith won nomination, but party still divided b/c of southern anti-Catholicism; lost election to Herbert Hoover
4)Republican Government
a)Harding and Coolidge
i)Pres Warren Harding elected 1920; appointed party elite who had helped win him nomination to positions in administration, ultimately this corrupt “Ohio Gang” committed fraud and corruption in Teapot Dome oil reserve scandal
ii)Harding died of a heart attack 1923, VP Calvin Coolidge ascended to presidency (known for crushing Boston Police riot)
iii)Coolidge a passive president like Harding, believed govt should not interfere little in life of nation; won re-election 1924 but did not seek office in 1928
b)Government and Business
i)Even though New Era presidents passive, fed govt as a whole worked to helped business + industry operate efficient and productively
ii)Sec of Treasury Andrew Mellon reduced tax on corporate profits, personal incomes, inheritances, and cut federal budget
iii)Sec of Commerce Herbert Hoover favored voluntary cooperation of businesses in private sector for stability. Supported business “Associationalism” in which businessmen in an industry worked together to promote stability, efficient production, and marketing
iv)Hoover won the Presidential election of 1928, but nation entered Depression in 1929
1)The Coming of the Great Depression
a)The Great Crash
i)From Feb 1928 until October 1929 economic boom, stock prices rose dramatically w/ credit easily available
ii)October 29, 1929- “Black Tuesday”- stock market crashed
b)Unemployment and Relief
i)In capitalist system recessions cyclical, but Great Depression direly severe
ii)Such large crash b/c lack of diversification (many overinvested in automobiles + construction), maldistribution of wealth resulting in consumers receiving too little money to spend to keep pace w/ growing markets + supplies (coupled w/ rising unemployment due to natural cycle + from technology)
iii)Credit structures + indebtedness of farmers threatened banks, but banks also threatened by risky investments + loans in stock markets
iv)US foreign exports declined b/c some Eur nations productivity increasing but others facing financial difficulties; international debt structure after WWI in which nations sought new loans to pay off existing Allied loans + Central nation reparations weakened US economy after 1929 left countries w/o source with which to repay loans, began to default
c)Progress of Depression
i)Stock market crash triggered chain of events that further weakened economy over next 3 years
ii)Banking system collapsed and billions of dollars in deposits lost; money supply contraction exacerbated by 1931 Fed Reserve interest raises
iii)GDP, capital investment, gross farm product all down at least 25% by 1933; in 1932 national unemployment had risen to 25% (much more in some cities)
2)The American People in Hard Times
a)Unemployment and Relief
i)Americans taught to believe that individual responsible for own fate, poverty sign of own failure; nevertheless the small relief system of the 1920s incapable of dealing w/ new demands and govts hesitant to increase support b/c of decreasing tax revenues + welfare stigma. Bread lines found in cities
ii)In rural areas income declined 60%, 1/3 of farmers lost land, massive drought extended thru the “Dust Bowl” starting in 1930 lasting for a decade farm prices so low that many farmers left homes to seek employment (“Okies”)
iii)Nationwide problems of malnutrition, homelessness; growth of shantytowns, massive migrations of ppl across country seeking jobs, better living conditions
b)African-Americans and the Depression
i)Most S blacks were farmers, collapse of cotton + staple crop prices led them to leave land; menial jobs they had held in cities began to be given to whites (Black Shirts in Atlanta 1930 called for dismissal of all blacks from jobs so that they would be available for struggling whites to take)
ii)Mass migration of jobless southern blacks to Northern urban centers
iii)Segregation + black disenfranchisement remained, but famous Scottsboro case in which group of 7 blacks falsely accused of rape resulted in national attention b/c of NAACP support
iv)NAACP began working to increase black participation in unions + organized labor
c)Mexican Americans in Depression America
i)Large Mex immigration population (known as Chicanos) centered mostly in Southwest, worked mainly menial jobs or as unskilled laborers in urban areas
ii)When Depression hit many whites forced them from their jobs, relief to Mexicans severely limited + many rounded up to be sent back to Mexico—all highlighted the discrimination of Hispanics that swept region
d)Asian Americans in Hard Times
i)Depression strengthened pattern of economic marginalization of Asian American populations which were centered mainly on the West coast; frequently lost jobs to whites desperate for employment
ii)Some Japanese sought to form clubs to advance political agendas: Japanese American Democratic Club worked for laws against discrimination; Japanese American Citizens League sought to make immigrants more assimilated
e)Women and the Workplace in the Great Depression
i)Ppl believed that b/c jobs so scarce whatever was available should go to men—this belief strengthened notion of women’s main role staying in home, also feelings that no woman with an employed husband should hold a job
ii)Single and married women both continued to work during Depression b/c money so necessary- result of nonprofessional nature of “pink-collar” jobs as more secure than those in heavy industry, male stigma about taking them
iii)Support for Reform Era ideas of women economically and professionally independent began to wane; Depression saw death of National Woman’s Party
f)Depression Families
i)Middle- and working-class families used to rising standard of living now uncertain b/c of unemployment or income reductions
ii)Retreat from consumerism as women made clothes in home, home businesses established, banding together of extended family units
3)The Depression and American Culture
a)Depression Values
i)Pre-Depression acceptance of affluence and consumerism remained unchanged as ppl worked even more hard to achieve ideals
ii)Longstanding belief that individual controlled own fate and success thru hard work (“success ethic”) largely survived Depression as many unemployed simply blamed themselves and remained passive b/c felt ashamed
iii)Masses responded messages that they themselves could restore own wealth + success—best-selling How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
b)Artists and Intellectuals in the Great Depression
i)Just as urban poverty had received attention during Reform Era, during 1930s many shocked at “discovery” of rural poverty- photography of Farm Security Administration photographers highlighted impact of hostile env’t on ppl
ii)Many writers began to highlight social injustices- Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road(1932) of rural poverty; Richard Wright’s Native Son of urban ghettos; John Steinbeck’s novels of migrant workers; John Dos Passso’s USA trilogy attacked capitalism
c)Radio
i)Almost every family had radio, listening often a communal activity
ii)Most radio programming was entertaining and escapist in nature (comedies or adventures, soap operas); live programming of performances also developed
iii)Radio allowed access to major public events in news, sports, politics
iv)Drew nation together b/c of widespread availability of same cultural and informational programming, gathered family together in the home
d)The Movies
i)Early 1930s movie attendance dropped b/c of economic hardship, but by mid-1930s many seeing them again
ii)Most movies censored heavily and studio system kept projects largely uncontroversial; some films did manage to explore social and political questions, but most remained escapist in order to keep attention of audience away from troubles. Walt Disney movies emerged during 1930s
e)Popular Literature and Journalism
i)Literature more reflective of growing radicalism + discontentedness than radio and movies, although escapist and romantic works still widely popular (Mitchell’s 1936 Gone With The Wind; photographic Life Magazine)
ii)Other works challenged American popular values: John Dos Passos’s U.S.A. trilogy (1930-1936) attacked American materialism; Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts(1933) of a woman overwhelmed by the life stories of others
f)The Popular Front and the Left
i)Late 1930s more literature more optimistic of society b/c of rise of Popular Front coalition lead by American Communist Party- supported Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal, mobilized intellectuals toward social criticism
ii)Intellectual detachment of 1920s targeted by Popular Front- mobilized some men into Lincoln Brigade to fight in Spanish Civil War against the fascists
iii)Communist Party organized unemployed, unions, supported racial justice; however party under control of Soviet Union- when Stalin signed 1939 nonaggression pact w/ Hitler Party abandoned Popular Front and returned to criticizing liberals
iv)Socialist Party of America under Norman Thomas attempted to argue crisis failure of capitalist system and tried to win support for party, especially targeting rural poor—supported Southern Tenant Farmers Union but never gained strength
v)Antiradicalism a strong force in 1930s and hostility existed toward Communist Party, yet at the same time Left widely respected amongst workers and intellectuals; temporary widening of mainstream culture
vi)Famous accounts of social conditions of the era provided by James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) and more famously John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath(1939)
4)The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover
a)The Hoover Program
i)Hoover responded to Depression by trying to restore confidence in economy- tried to gather business into voluntary program of cooperation to aid recovery; by 1931 voluntarism had collapsed b/c of worsening economy
ii)Hoover tried using govt spending to boost economy; spending not enough in face of huge economic problems, sought to raise taxes 1932 to balance budget
iii)Offered Agricultural Marketing Act to help farmers w/ low crop prices, raised foreign agricultural tariffs in Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930- neither helped
iv)Dems gained majority in House + increase in Senate in 1930 elections by promising government economic assistance; presidents unpopularity grew (shantytowns called “Hoovervilles”) especially after international financial panic in spring 1931 w/ Austrian bank collapse
v)1932 Congress created Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to give loans to imperiled banks, RRs, businesses- RFC failed to improve economy b/c lent largely to big institutions, didn’t sponsor enough relief + public works
b)Popular Protest
i)By 1932 dissent beginning to come to a head: Farmers’ Holiday Association attempted farmer’s product strike; veterans in “Bonus Army” marched on Washington to protest withholding of bonuses, Hoover called on Army units under Gen Douglas MacArthur to clear Bonus Army out of city
ii)Popular image of Hoover as unsympathetic + unable to act effectively
c)The Election of 1932
i)Repubs re-nominated Hover as candidate; Democrats nominated NY Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt
ii)Roosevelt avoided religion and prohibition, focused on economic grievances of nation
iii)Roosevelt won large majority of popular vote and even more overwhelmingly in electoral college; Dems majorities elected to House and Senate- signified mandate for change
d)The “Interregnum”
i)Period between election and inauguration one of increasing economic problems b/c of expanding banking crisis + more depositors seeking to withdraw money in a panic; more banks declared bankruptcy
ii)Roosevelt refused to make public commitments asked of him by Hoover to maintain economic orthodoxy or not institute broad economic reforms
1)Launching the New Deal
a)Restoring Confidence
i)Roosevelt projected optimism- famous quote “all we have to fear is fear itself”
ii)Two days after taking office issued “Bank Holiday” closing all banks for four days to give Congress time to discuss reforms; Emergency Banking Act required Treasury Dept inspection of banks, assistance to troubled institutions
iii)Bank Holiday restored ¾ of closed banks; Economy Act passed a few days later forced balanced fed budget thru cutting govt salaries + veterans pensions
b)Agricultural Adjustment
i)Agricultural Adjustment Act 1933 reduced crop production to end surpluses + raise prices; Agricultural Adjustment Administration would enforce industry limits + subsidize vacant lands to parity-- farm income began increasing
ii)1936 Agricultural Adjustment Act declared unconstitutional b/c it required farmers to limit production; new Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act passed to pay farmers to reduce production in order to “conserve soil”
iii)Resettlement Administration and later Farm Security Administration gave loans to small farmers to help relocate to better lands; Rural Electrification Administration attempted to make power more available to farmers
c)Industrial Recovery
i)Administration allowed for relaxing of some antitrust laws to stabilize industry prices in return for concessions to labor to allow collective bargaining and unions led to 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act
ii)Act created National Recovery Administration under Hugh Johnson called on adoption of labor codes + industrial codes to set floor prices-- sought to maintain employment + production
iii)NRA weakened b/c codes poorly written and administered; Section 7(a) of NIR Act gave workers right to unionize but no enforcement so many corps. ignored it; Public Works Administration of NIR Act slow to distribute monies
iv)NRA failed to raise production; 1935 Supreme C. held NRA unconstitutional
d)Regional Planning
i)AAA and NRA examples of economic planning that allowed private interests to dictate planning process; others wanted govt in charge of planning
ii)Tennessee Valley Authority created after failure of electric utility companies to develop water resources for cheap power; 1933 TVA began building dams in Tennessee Valley region + sell electricity at reasonable rates
iii)TVA revitalized region by improving transport, limiting flooding, making electricity more available, and lowered power rates nationwide
e)Currency, Banks, and the Stock Market
i)1933 president took president took nation off gold standard; govt began manipulating value of dollar by buying/selling large amts of silver
ii)Efforts to increase govt regulation in 1933 Glass-Steagall Act- govt power to curb speculation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect deposits
iii)1933 Truth in Securities Act required corporations to give truthful disclosures
iv)1934 Securities and Exchange Commission created to police stock market
f)The Growth of Federal Relief
i)Administration saw need to help impoverished until economy improved—Federal Emergency Relief Administration gave cash to state relief groups
ii)Work relief provided by the Civil Works Administration that gave millions temporary work- built roads + schools, and pumped money into economy
iii)Civilian Conservation Corps gave unemployed men jobs in national parks planting trees and improving irrigation
iv)To aid in mortgage relief created Farm Credit Administration to help farmers refinance; 1933 Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act aided foreclosed farmers; 1933 Home Owners’ Loan Corporation refinanced households
2)The new Deal in Transition
a)Critics of the new Deal
i)Conservatives and businesses leaders main opponents to New Deal, 1934 formed American Liberty League decrying “attacks” on free enterprise
ii)Another threat to New Deal in Townsend Plan- proposed giving all over 60 monthly pension; idea gained much support older ppl, forerunner to Soc Sec
iii)Father Charles Coughlin’s nat’l radio sermons called for banking + currency reform (recoining of silver, nationalization of banks) to restore economic justice, felt admin unresponsive so founded National Union for Social Justice
iv)Sen Huey Long gained popularity for attacks on banks, oil companies, utilities and b/c of progressive voting record; like Coughlin felt administration not acting strongly enough so proposed Share-Our-Wealth Plan to redistribute wealth (and created Share-Our-Wealth Society)
v)Growing dissident movements threat to president, so Roosevelt began to consider measures to counter their growing popularity
b)The “Second New Deal”
i)Second New Deal of 1935 marked beginning of open critique of big business
ii)Holding Company Act sought to break up monopoly of utility industry; 1935 tax reforms established progressive tax w/ very high rate for wealthy
iii)National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) gave enforcement to NIR Act’s Section 7(a) (right to unionize) in National Labor Relations Board
c)Labor Militancy
i)Trade union power increased dramatically in 1930s b/c of efforts to strengthen unions + growing labor militancy to challenge conservative groups
ii)After Wagner Act attempts to find new forms of organization; American Federation of Labor still committed to organizing workers based on skill, but b/c mass of labor force unskilled industrial unionism gained popularity (all workers in industry organized regardless of role)
iii)AFL hesitancy to adopt industrial unionism led John L Lewis in 1936 to create independent Congress of Industrial Organizations- grew into new areas
d)Organizing Battles
i)Laborers in auto industry increasingly joining unrecognized United Auto Workers; 1936 staged sit-down strike that stopped all production and prevented strikebreakers- most auto makers soon recognized union
ii)In steel Steel Worker’s Organizing Committee recognized by US Steel 1937 to prevent costly stroke; “Little Steel” committed “Memorial Day Massacre” when strikers attempted protest- strike failed, SWOC not recognized for years
iii)Period saw union membership increase by millions, growing recognition
e)Social Security
i)Lobbying for social insurance for elderly and unemployed led to 1935 Social Security Act—payroll tax created to create pension system for workers upon retirement, unemployment insurance paid by employers gave laid off workers temporary govt assistance, disability + dependent children aid created
ii)Seen as insurance in which participants contributed and benefits for all
f)New Directions in Relief
i)SS for long term needs; to help currently unemployed created 1935 Works Progress Administration under Harry Hopkins to build + renovate public buildings, employ millions, pump money into economy
ii)WPA replaced smaller CWA after 1934 fall- $5 billion budget vs $1 billion
iii)Federal Writers Project of WPA (Music Proj, Theater Proj, ect.) provided govt salary to those ppl to continue work
iv)Men often given relief in form of work relief and employment whereas women mainly given cash assistance
g)The 1936 “Referendum”
i)With 1936 revival of economy doubts about re-election from 1935 troubles largely dispelled. Repub nominee Alf Landon ran poor campaign, other Roosevelt dissidents (e.g. Coughlin and Townsend’s Union Party) very weak
ii)Election largest landslide to date, Dems increased majorities in both Congressional houses; results highlighted Dem coalition of farmers, urban working ppl, unemployed and poor, progressive liberals, and blacks
3)The New Deal in Disarray
a)The Court Fight
i)1936 landslide led Roosevelt to deal with Supreme Court whose conservative rulings (against NRA, AAA) he feared would ruin more legislation
ii)1937 Roosevelt proposed overhaul of court system to Congress, including adding six new justices to Supreme Court so that he could appoint liberals and change ideological balance. Conservatives outraged as “Court-packing plan”
iii)Legislation failed but more moderate court no longer a New Deal obstacle, although administration was damaged and Roosevelt viewed as power hungry
b)Retrenchment and Recession
i)In summer 1937 Roosevelt feared inflation so began to cut fed govt programs and reduce deficit—led to recession of 1937 (“Roosevelt’s Recession”); increased govt spending in 1938 for public works seemed to lead to recovery
ii)Roosevelt began to denounce economic concentrations + sought antirust law reform- Congress formed Temporary National Economic Committee, apptd Thurman Arnold head of the antitrust division at the Justice Dept
iii)1938 Fair Labor Standards Act established nat’l minimum wage, 40 hour work week, child labor limits
iv)By end of 1938 New Deal largely over b/c of Congressional opposition + growing global crisis and Roosevelt’s concentration on war preparation
4)Limits and Legacies of the New Deal
a)The Idea of the “Broker State”
i)New Deal backers originally sought to remake American capitalism and create new controls to make new economic order. Instead, transformation of government as “broker state” in which govt was a mediator in competition btwn interest groups rather than force to create universal harmony
ii)Before 1930s main interest group corporations, but by end of 1930s business interests competing with labor, agricultural economy, and consumers
b)African Americans and the New Deal
i)New Deal did little to assist African Americans; Roosevelt himself not opposed to blacks- his “Black Cabinet” of blacks in second-level administrative positions, many blacks received govt relief or assistance
ii)Electoral shift as blacks no longer overwhelmingly voted Republican but by 1936 90% voting Democratic- even though race not part of New Deal agenda
iii)New Deal agencies reinforced discrimination by separating blacks in CCC and NRA codes, WPA gave minorities lower-paying jobs
c)The new Deal and the “Indian Problem”
i)Federal government sought to erase Indian problem by assimilating them and decreasing amt who identified as members of tribe
ii)Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier proponent of cultural relativism and therefore supported legislation to reverse Native pressures to assimilate and instead be given right to live traditionally—Indian reorganization Act of 1934 advanced many of these goals by re-allowing collective ownership
d)Women and the New Deal
i)Administration mostly unconcerned w/ feminist movement b/c lack of popular support but nevertheless had symbolic gestures (Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins first female Cabinet member, other women appts in govt)
ii)New Deal supported notion that women withdraw from working to open up positions for men—agencies offered women few jobs
iii)Like with AAs New Deal not against women but still accepted cultural norms
e)The New Deal in the West and the South
i)West and South given special attention by New Deal relief and public works programs; these programs didn’t challenge racial and ethnic prejudices
ii)New Deal had profound impact on West b/c farming central to economy and was a good site for and had the need for dams, electricity, other public works
iii)New Deal programs profound in South b/c less economically developed than rest of nation in 1930s, gave federal attention to South that no previous administration had ever done b/c of view of S as “backward”
f)The new Deal and the National Economy
i)New Deal failed to end Depression, change drastically the maldistribution of wealth. New Deal did allow new groups previously unheld powers (labor, women, farmers), economically developed South and West, increased govt regulation, created welfare state thru relief and Social Security that broke w/ tradition of providing little public help to citizens deeply in need
g)The New Deal and American Politics
i)Roosevelt strengthened power of federal government as local govt took second seat to national govt, presidency established as center of power and shifted Congress to more secondary role
ii)New Deal led to political shifts—Dem Party now strong coalition ready to dominate national politics; reawakened interest in economy over cultural issues; changed expectations American people had of government
1)The Diplomacy of the New Era
a)Replacing the League
i)Harding administration sought to negotiate separate peace treaties w/ Central Powers, find impermanent way to replace League as guarantor of world peace
ii)Washington Conference of 1921 sought to deal w/ naval arms race btwn US, GB, Japan: Five-Power Pact limited armaments; Nine-Power Act continued Chinese Open Door policy; Four-Power Act acknowledged Pacific territories
iii)Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928 btwn 14 nations to outlaw war as policy measure
iv)New Era efforts to protect peace w/o active international duties
b)Debts and Diplomacy
i)Diplomacy used to ensure free overseas trade thru reducing war and making financial arrangements w/ other nations
ii)US prosperity depended on Eur economy, which was suffering from war destruction, Allied debt on US loans, Central reparations US acted to head off collapse thru 1924 Dawes Plan that created circular loan system where US loaned Germany money to pay GB + French debt who used $ to pay US debt
iii)System led to increase in Eur debt, US banks and corporations took advantage of collapsed industries to assert themselves; high US tariffs under Republicans prevented Eur export of goods to earn money to repay loans
iv)US economic expansion into Latin America during 1920s to better access rich natural resources, give loans to governments
c)Hoover and the World Crisis
i)Stock market crash of 1929 and worsening problems after 1931, growing nationalism + new hostile governments faced by Hoover administration
ii)Hoover promised to recognize new Latin American govt if any collapsed, did not intervene some defaulted on US loans (against M. Doctrine + R.Corollary)
iii)In efforts to restore Eur economic stability Pres refused to cancel debts- some nations defaulted; 1932 World Disarmament Conference ended in failure
iv)Difficulties increased b/c of control by Benito Mussolini’s nationalistic Fascist Party in Italy & Adolf Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist Party (Nazis)
v)Crisis in Asia when in 1931 Japanese military staged coup against liberal govt b/c it had allowed China’s leader Chiang Kai-Shek to expand his power in Manchuria (which had been economically dominated by Japan) Japan invaded Manchuria + then China itself (Hoover refused to issue sanctions)
vi)Interwar diplomacy of international voluntary cooperation and refusal to actively commit itself a failure; nation could now adopt internationalism or become even more nationalistic + isolated would try measures of both
2)Isolationism and Internationalism
a)Depression Diplomacy
i)Early Roosevelt admin foreign policy concerned mainly w/ pressing economic issues- sought to differ from Hoover by solving war debts + adopting gold standard. However, 1933 World Economic Conference accomplished little
ii)FDR forbid continuation of circular loan system, did little to stabilize international currencies; did adopt Reciprocal trade Agreement Act of 1934 to advance principles of free trade
b)American and the Soviet Union
i)FDR agreed to recognize Soviet Union in 1933 in hopes of increasing trade btwn nations (not b/c of lessening of hatred toward Communism)
c)The Good Neighbor Policy
i)“Good Neighbor Policy” toward Latin America focused on trade reciprocity (free trade);1933 Inter-American Conference administration officially pledged to not intervene in affairs of Latin nations. Closer economic ties emerged
d)The Rise of Isolationism
i)Geneva Conference on disarmament disbanded and Japan withdrew from 1921 Washington Conference; agreements of 1920s collapsed during 1930s
ii)Many Americans supported isolationism b/c internationalism of League of Nations failed to restrain Japanese Asian aggression, belief US business interests had led to WW I involvement; FDR helpless to change tide
iii)Neutrality Acts of 1935, ’36, ’37 meant to prevent issues of WWI from allowing US entrance into new war- “neutral rights” of US citizens defined, “cash-and-carry” policy allowed only nonmilitary goods to be sold to warring countries who had to provide own transportation
iv)Military neutrality upheld after Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia and during Spain’s civil war btwn fascist Falangists + repub govt
v)Alarm over Japan’s 1937 new assaults into China (after 1931 Manchuria invasion) led FDR to question isolationism, delivered “Quarantine speech” saying aggressors should be prevented from spreading war; speech unpopular
e)The Failure of Munich
i)In 1936 Hitler moved army into demilitarized Rhineland, 1938 invaded Austria to create union (anschluss) + demanded Czechoslovakia cede Sudetenland to increase lands for Germans to live (lebensraum); 1938 Munich Conference GB + France appeased Hitler for promise would be last expansion
ii)1939 “appeasement” collapsed w/ German invasion of whole Czechoslovakia and then Poland- GB + France honored defense agreement w/ Poland, in September declared war against Germany
3)From Neutrality to Intervention
a)Neutrality Tested
i)Most Americans supported Allies, FDR wanted to grant assistance by allowing arms sales to belligerents using “cash-and-carry” policy
ii)Quiet “phony war” period shattered by spring 1940 German blitzkrieg invasion of W. Eur, by June France had fallen + GB retreated at Dunkirk
iii)Roosevelt increased aid to Allies + monies for US self-defense, “scraped bottom of the barrel” to give GB’s Churchill war materials
iv)FDR able to take steps b/c public opinion shift after fall of France Germany now seen as threat to US by majority; debate still btwn “interventionists” who wanted increased US war involvement and “isolationist” America First Committee supported by many Repubs
b)The Third-Term Campaign
i)Roosevelt sought 3rd term in 1940 presidential election; Repubs nominated Wendell Willkie. Roosevelt won election w/ heavy measure of support
c)Neutrality Abandoned
i)After election Roosevelt changed US war role-- cash-short GB extended “lend-lease” agreement that allowed sale but also lending of armaments, began ensuring shipments reached GB by Navy patrolling Atlantic for subs
ii)After Germany broke 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact by invading the USSR, US extended “lend-lease” to Russians; Nazi subs began attacking US ships, Congress voted to allow arming of merchants + US attacks on subs
iii)1941 Churchill and Roosevelt released Atlantic Charter tying two nations together to war aims to destroy “Nazi tyranny”
d)The Road to Pearl Harbor
i)1940 Japan signed Tripartite Pact allying itself w/ Germany and Italy; in spite of Roosevelt denouncing Japanese aggression in 1941 it invaded Indochina
ii)US froze Jap assets + placed trade embargo preventing Japan from buying impt supplies (including oil). Tokyo attempted to negotiate w/ US to continue flow of supplies, but Jap PM Konoye forced out of office by Gen Hideki Tojo
iii)Tojo govt refused to recognize US calls to guarantee Chinese territorial rights so negotiations broke down, by November war imminent; on December 7, 1941 Jap aircraft carriers attacked US Pacific Navy HQ at Pearl Harbor
iv)US lost 8 battleships, 2,000 soldiers dead, US Pacific forces weakened; resulted in unifying American ppl into commitment to war
v)December 8, 1941 US declared war on Japan; December 11 Germany and Italy declared war on US, likewise same say us declared war on them
1)War on Two Fronts
a)Containing the Japanese
i)After Pearl Harbor US forces surrendered in the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island; to turn tide US lead 2 offensives- Gen Douglas MacArthur’s attacks from the south, and Admiral Chester Nimitz attacked from HI to the west
ii)May 1942 Battle of Coral Sea weakened Jap navy; more important Battle of Midway Island June 1942 regained US central Pacific control
iii)Mid-1943 after fighting in Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal) US turned tide
b)Holding Off the Germans
i)US military plans in Europe influenced by Soviet Union and GB; FDR decided to delay invasion into France in favor of October 1942 counter-offensive in N. Africa against Nazi Gen Erwin Rommel; by May 1943 Gen George Patton and British Gen Montgomery had driven Germans from Africa
ii)Soviet Red Army held off immense German 1942-1943 winter offensive at Stalingrad, Hitler’s forces exhausted and forced to abandon eastern advance
iii)July 1943 US agreed to British plan to invade Sicily, Mussolini govt collapsed but German reinforcements prevented capture of Rome until June 1944; slow, costly Italy campaign delayed French channel invasion Soviets had called for
c)America and the Holocaust
i)By 1942 news of Holocaust (Nazi campaign to exterminate European Jews) prompting public cries to end killing, but US govt resisted calls for military aid + officials at the State Dept deliberately refused to let Jews enter US
2)The American People In Wartime
a)Prosperity
i)WWII ended Great Depression problems of unemployment, deflation, production b/c of wartime economic expansion + massive govt spending (federal budget grew from 1939 $9 billion to 1945 $100 billion)
b)The War and the West
i)West shared disproportionally in massive govt capital investments;
ii)Businessman Henry Kaiser steered federal funds to make Pacific Coast major industrial center for shipbuilding, aircraft; launching stage for Japanese war
c)Labor and the War
i)Labor shortage caused by military recruitment; unemployed from Depression worked, but also women + other previously unused groups entered workforce
ii)Union membership increased; new govt limits on wage increases +“no-strike” promise, in return govt allowed all new workers to automatically join unions
iii)Govt+ public sought to reduce inflation + guarantee production w/o disruption
d)Stabilizing Boom
i)1942 Congress passed Anti-Inflation Act which allowed Pres to freeze prices and wages, set rations; enforced by the Office of Price Administration
ii)Govt spent 2X more $ btwn 1941-1945 than it had during whole existence; raised $ thru bond sales, Revenue Act of 1942 created new high tax brackets
e)Mobilizing Production
i)1942 War Production Board created to organize mobilization effort but was largely unable to direct military purchases + include small businesses; program later replaced by White House Office of War Mobilization
ii)Nevertheless, US economy met all war needs; new factories were built, entire rubber industry created. By 1944 output 2X that of all Axis nations combined
f)Wartime Science and Technology
i)Govt stimulated new military technologies by funneling massive funds to National Defense Research Committee
ii)Originally Germany (w/ sophisticated tanks + submarines) and Japan (w/ strong naval-air power) technologically ahead of Allies; US, however, had experience w/ mass production in auto industry and was able to convert many of these plants to produce armaments
iii)Allied advances in radar + sonar beyond Axis capabilities helped limit effectiveness of U-Boats in Atlantic; Allies developed more effective anti-aircraft tech and produced large amount of powerful 4-engine aircraft (British Lancaster + US B17) able to attack military forces + industrial centers
iv)Greatest Allied advantage found in intelligence gathering—British Ultra project able to break German “Enigma” code and intercept info on enemy movements; American Magic operation broke Japanese “Purple” code
g)African-Americans and the War
i)Blacks wanted to use war as means of improving own conditions. A Philip Roth (head of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters) wanted all companies w/ war contracts to integrate work force
ii)Fearing black workers strike, FDR created Fair Employment Practices Commission to investigate labor discrimination. Later, Congress of Racial equality combated discrimination in society at large using popular resistance
iii)War saw migration of blacks from rural South to industrial cities of North in greater numbers than those found of first Great Migration during WWI
h)Native Americans and the War
i)Some Native Americans served in military (some as famous “Code Talkers”), many others left reservations seeking work in war industries
i)Mexican-American War Workers
i)War labor shortages lead to large Mex immigration of braceros (contract laborers); ethnic tensions from growing immigrant neighborhoods w/ existing white communities led to “Zoot-Suit Riots” in Los Angeles in 1943
j)Women and Children of War
i)Large number of women entered roles they were previously excluded from
ii)Many women worked in factories to replace men who had entered military, but some inequality existed in what jobs they could hold in factories
iii)Most women took service-sector jobs in growing govt bureaucracies; limited others worked in “male” heavy-industry (famous Rosie the Riveter image)
iv)Over 1/3 of teenagers took jobs during war; crime rate also rose during war
k)Wartime Life and Culture
i)Increased prosperity from war led to marked rise in theater and movie attendance, magazine and news circulation, hotel, casino, dance hall visits
ii)War effort largely seen as means of protecting material comfort + consumer choice of “home”; visions of home and future women romanticized by troops
l)The Internment of Japanese Americans
i)WWII did not largely see restrictions of civil liberties + growth of hatred toward fringe groups as during WWI; little ethnic tension in part due to propaganda attacking enemy’s political system but not people
ii)Glaring exception in treatment of Japanese Americans who were painted as scheming + cruel (re-enforced by Pearl Harbor); white Eur groups largely accepted by now, but assimilated Japs faced prejudice + viewed as “foreign”
iii)Conspiracy theories of Jap-Americans aiding in Pearl Harbor attacks led govt + military to see them as a threat; 1942 Roosevelt created War Relocation Authority to move Japanese citizens to “relocation camps” for monitoring
iv)Starting 1943 condition began to improve as some Japs allowed to got o college or take jobs on East Coast; although 1944 Supreme Court case Korematsu v U.S. ruled relocation constitutional, by that time most of internees had been allowed to leave camps
m)Chinese Americans and the War
i)US war alliance w/ China helped Chinese Americans advance legal + social position—1943 Congress repealed Chinese Exclusion acts
ii)Many Chinese took jobs in industry or were drafted into the military
n)The Retreat from Reform
i)FDR wanted to shift priority from reform to war effort and victory
ii)With massive unemployment no longer an issue + Republican gains, Congress dismantled relief programs and other New Deal programs
iii)In 1944 Pres election Repubs nominated Thomas Dewey; Dems re-nominated Roosevelt but w/ new, less liberal VP candidate Harry Truman
iv)Despite deteriorating health Roosevelt was popularly elected; Dems maintained control of both Houses of Congress
3)The Defeat of the Axis
a)The Liberation of France
i)By 1944 devastating Allied strategic bombing against German industry at Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin reduced production + complicated transport; German Luftwaffe forced to retreat to bases w/in Germany itself, weakened it
ii)After 2 year buildup in England Supreme Allied Commander Gen Dwight Eisenhower ordered invasion across English Channel into Normandy, France on “D-Day” (June 6, 1944); Allies drove Germans from the coast, by September forced them to retreat from France, Belgium
iii)In December Germany counter-attacked during Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest, but soon repelled; with Soviet advances on Eastern front, Allies began moving into Germany across Rhine
iv)April 30 Hitler commits suicide; May 8, 1945 full surrender + “V-E” Day
b)The Pacific Offensive
i)Thru 1944 American navy crippling Japanese shipping and economy in Pacific; on mainland Asia Japan attacking thru Chinese interior trying to cutoff Gen Stilwell’s Burma Road for supplies
ii)June 1944 Americans captured Mariana Islands, in September Battle of Leyte Gulf Japanese navy decimated by US sinking of its aircraft carriers; in next few months Japanese fought desperate battles of resistance in Feb at Iwo Jima, in June at Okinawa (used Kamikaze suicide bombers throughout)
iii)Many feared bloody island battles would ensue w/ invasion of Japanese mainland, but by 1945 Japanese weakened by firebombing in Tokyo, shelling of industrial centers; moderates in govt trying to sue peace against will of military leaders wanting to continue fight
c)The Manhattan Project
i)After news in 1939 that Nazis pursuing atomic bomb, US and +GB began race to develop one before them; work based on discovery of uranium radioactivity by Enrico Fermi 1930s, Einstein’s theory of relativity
ii)Army took over control of research and poured billions of $ into Manhattan Project which gathered scientists to create nuclear chain reactions w/ a bomb
iii)On July 16 1945 the plutonium bomb Trinity, created by scientist Robert Oppenheimer at the Los Alamos Laboratory, successfully tested
d)Atomic Warfare
i)Pres Truman issues ultimatum to Japanese for “unconditional surrender” by Aug 3rd or face annihilation; after Jap moderates unable to convince military leaders to accept Truman ordered use of atomic weapon
ii)Some argue atomic weapon unnecessary b/c in time Japs would have sued for peace; others argue only atomic bomb could convince radical military leaders that surrender necessary. Truman saw weapon as military device that could end war quickly, but some say he used it to intimidate Stalin and Soviets
iii)August 6, 1945 bomber Enola Gay dropped atomic weapon on Japanese city Hiroshima, killing 80,000 civilians; because Jap govt didn’t respond, on August 8 second atomic bomb dropped on city of Nagasaki killing 100,000
iv)By Aug 14 emperor agreed to surrender; September 2, 1945 Japan signed articles of surrender (“V-J Day”) marking end of WWII
v)14 million combatants had died during war, even more civilians; threat of nuclear war loomed between two emerging super-powers in US and Soviet Union
1)Origins of the Cold War
a)Sources of Soviet-American Tensions
i)Rivalry emerged b/c of difft visions of postwar world: US foresaw world where nations shed military alliances and used democratic international bodies as mediators; Soviet Union sought to control areas of strategic influence
b)Wartime Diplomacy
i)Tensions began in 1943 b/c of Allied refusal to open second front w/ French invasion, dispute over governance of Poland unresolved at Tehran Conference
c)Yalta
i)Meeting of Big Three at Yalta in 1945 led to plan to create United Nations (w/ General Asembly and Security Council w/ permanent members)
ii)Disagreement existed over future of Polish govt (independent + democratic vs Communist); US wanted to German reconstruction, Stalin wanted heavy reparations- finally agreed to commission and each Ally given German “zone”
2)The Collapse of the Peace
a)The Failure of Potsdam
i)After Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, new Pres Truman decided US needed to “Get Tough” w Soviets to honor Yalta accords
ii)Potsdam Conference in July ended w/ Stalin receiving increased land w/ new Polish-German border, US refusing to allow German reparations from Allied zones but US recognizing new communist Polish govt under Soviet influence
b)The China Problem
i)US had vision of open world “policed” by major powers; vision troubled by unpopular + corrupt Chinese govt under Chiang Kai-shek (supported by US aid during civil war) who battled communists under Mao Zedong
ii)B/c Kai-shek govt sure to collapse, US sought to create new, Pro-West Japan by encouraging industrial development, lift trade restrictions
c)The Containment Doctrine
i)US no longer sought “open” world but rather “containment” of Soviet expansion; new Truman Doctrine sought aid for those forces in Turkey + Greece opposing take-over of Communist forces under Soviet influence
d)The Marshall Plan
i)Sec of State George Marshall 1947 plan to provide aid to all Eur nations (for humanitarian reasons, to rebuild to create markets for US goods, and to strengthen Pro-US govts against communists); 1948 created the Economic Cooperation Administration to channel billions of $ to aid economic revival
e)Mobilization at Home
i)US maintained wartime military levels, established Atomic Energy Commission to continue nuclear research
ii)National Security Act of 1947 restructured military by creating Department of Defense to combine all armed services, create National Security Council in White House and Central Intelligence Agency to collect information
f)The Road to NATO
i)Truman merged German “Western zones” into the West German republic; Stalin responded by blockading Western Berlin, Truman responded w/ airlift to re-supply inhabitants; Federal Republic became govt of west Germany, Democratic Republic of east
ii)To strengthen military position US and Western Eur naions1949 created North Atlantic Treaty Organization as alliance to protect all members against threat of Soviet invasion (communists 1955 formed similar Warsaw Pact)
g)Reevaluating Cold War Policy
i)1949 saw Soviet Union explode atomic weapon and collapse of Nationalists in China to Mao’s Communists
ii)To reevaluate foreign policy, National Security Council released report NSC-68 that held US should lead noncommunist world and oppose communist expansion everywhere it existed, also expand US military power dramatically
3)American Society and Politics After the War
a)The Problems of Reconversion
i)After end of war Truman attempted to quickly return nation to normal economic conditions, but problems ensued
ii)No economic collapse b/c of increase in spending on consumer goods from savings, Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) provided education + economic aid to returning soldiers that further increased spending
iii)Problems arose w/ high inflation, union strikes in RR + mining industries, and displacement of some minorities and women b/c of returning soldiers to labor
b)The Fair Deal Rejected
i)After Jap surrender Truman proposed “Fair Deal” to enact liberal reforms—included raising minimum wage, enacting Fair Employment Practices Act, expanding Social Security, and creating nation health insurance plan
ii)Fair Deal opposed by Repubs who gained majority in both Houses of Congress in 1946 elections; Repubs sought to reduce govt spending and economic controls, cut taxes for wealthy, refused to raise wages
iii)Repubs wanted to decrease powers unions gained in 1935 Wagner Act by passing 1947 Labor-Management Relations Act of (Taft-Hartley Act)- made “closed-shop” illegal; limited efforts help those not yet organized (minorities)
c)The Election of 1948
i)Truman sought to make re-election about liberal reforms but electorate saw him as weak; Southern Dems (Dixiecrats) + progressives refused full support
ii)Repubs nominated Thomas Dewey and seemed to be in strong position to win, but intense campaigning by Truman and his platform to reduce inflation + help common man allowed him to win Pres; Dems also won both Houses of C
d)The Fair Deal Revivied
i)New Dem Congress allowed for minimum wage increase + Social Security expansion, but hostile to Fair Deal programs expanding education aid, national healthcare, and civil rights
ii)Truman did end govt hiring discrimination, desegregated armed forces; Supreme Court inSkelley v. Kraemer rules community “covenants” preventing movement of blacks unenforceable by courts
e)The Nuclear Age
i)Nuclear weapons viewed w/ fear b/c of threat from Soviet Union (expressed in pop culture,film noir, and govt preparations for nuclear attack), but public also awed by technological potential of nuclear power (Dreams of prosperity and unlimited + cheap electricity)
4)The Korean War
a)The Divided Peninsula
i)Korea divided at 38th Parallel into Communist North and Southern government of capitalist Syngman Rhee (supported by US)
ii)Nationalists in North invaded S in 1950 in effort to reunite countries; US won UN resolution calling for support of S. Korea armies (Russia unable to veto b/c boycotting Security Council at time)—“containment” but also “liberation”
b)From Invasion to Stalemante
i)Gen MacArthur (head of UN forces) able to advance far into North, but new communist Chinese govt feared American forces + entered conflict late 1950
ii)UN armies force dto retreat to 38th parallel long stalemate ensued until 1953
iii)Truman wanted peace andnot new world war w/ China; Gen MacArthur publicly opposed peace effort and was relieved of command by Pres in 1951
c)Limited Mobilization
i)War led to only limited mobilization: Truman created Office of Defense Mobilization to combat rising inflation; govt seized RRs + steel mills during union strikes, increased govt spending stimulated economy
ii)Inability of US to quickly end “small” war led to growth of fears of growth of communist at home
5)The Crusade Against Subversion
a)HUAC and Alger Hiss
i)“Red Scare” prompted by fear of Stalin, Communist growth (“loss” of China, Korean frustrations) many sought to blame US communist conspiracy
ii)Repubs soguht to use anticommunist feeligns to win support against Dems; Congress created House Un-American Activities Committee 1947 to investigate communist subversion
iii)Investigation into former State Dept official Alger Hiss revaled some complicity w/ communists increased fear of communist infiltrations
b)The Federal Loyalty Program and the Rosenberg Case
i)Truman began 1947 program to determine “loyalty” of fed employees; FBI monitored radicals; 1950 Congress passed McCarran Interal Secuity Act forcing communist groups to register w/ government
ii)Explosion of atomic bomb by Soviets led to famous Rosenberg tiral to find out how Russia had learned of technology so quickly; Rosenbergs executed
iii)HUAC, Rosenberg trial, “Loyalty” program, Hiss ordeal, McCarran Act all lead to national anticommunist hysteria at national, state, and local level
c)McCarthyism
i)Wisconsin Sen Joseph McCarthy 1951 began leveling charges of communist agents in State Dept and other agencies; his subcommittee was at the fore of anticommunist hysteria + partisan politics
d)The Republican Revival
i)Korean stalemate + anticommunist sentiments led to Dem disappointments
ii)Dem nominated Adlai Stevenson (viewed as liberal and weak on Communism); Repubs nominated popular Gen Dwight Eisenhower and VP Richard Nixon (Eisenhower talked of Korean peace, Nixon of communist subversion)
iii)Eisenhower won election by huge margin & Republicans gained control of both Houses of Congress
Sources of Economic Growth
·By 1949, despite the continuing problems of postwar reconversion, an
economic expansion had begun that would continue with only
brief interruptions for almost twenty years
· The causes of this growth varied
1. Government spending continued to stimulate growth
through public funding of schools, housing, veteran’s benefits,
welfare, and the $100 billion interstate highway program
·Technological progress also contributed to the boom
1. Technological progress also contributed to the boom
a. There was the development of electronic
computers
b. The first modern computer emerged as a result of
efforts during WWII to decipher enemy codes
c. Not until the 1980s did most Americans come into
direct and regular contact with computers, but the new
machines were having a substantial effect on the
economy long before that
·The national birth rate reversed a long pattern of decline with the socalled
baby boom
1. The baby boom meant increased consumer demand and
expanding economic growth
·The rapid expansion of suburbs helped stimulate growth in several
important sectors of the economy
·Because of this unprecedented growth, the economy grew nearly ten
times as fast as the population in their thirty years after the war
1. The American people had achieved the highest standard
of living of any society in the history of the world
The Rise of the Modern West
· No region of the country experience more dramatic changes as a
result of the new economic growth than the American West
·By the 1960s some parts of the West were among the most important
industrial and cultural centers of the nation in their own right
·As during WWII much of the growth of the West was a result of federal
spending and investment 1. Dams, power stations, highways,
and other infrastructure projects
·The enormous increase in automobile use after WWII gave a large
stimulus to the petroleum industry and contributed to the rapid
growth of oil fields in Texas and Colorado
·State governments in the West invested heavily in their universities
·Climate also contributed
The New Economics
·The exciting discovery of the power of the American economic system
was a major cause of the confident, even arrogant tone of much
American political life in the 1950s
1. There was the belief that Keynesian economics made it
possible for government to regulate and stabilize the
economy without intruding directly into the private sector
·By the mid-1950s, Keynesian theory was rapidly becoming a
fundamental article of faith
1. Armed with these fiscal and monetary tools, many
economists now believed, it was possible for the government to
maintain a permanent prosperity
·If any doubters remained, there was ample evidence to dispel their
misgivings during the era
·Accompanying the belief in the possibility of permanent economic
stability was the equally exhilarating belief in permanent
economic growth by the mid-1950s, reformers concerned about
economic deprivation were arguing that the solution lay in
increased production
·The Keynesians never managed to remake federal economic policy
entirely to their liking
1. Still, the new economics gave many Americans a
confidence in their ability to solve economic problems that
previous generations had never developed
Captial and Labor
·A relatively small number or large-scale organizations controlled an
enormous proportion oft eh nation’s economic activity
·A similar consolidation was occurring in the agricultural economy
·Corporations enjoying booming growth were reluctant to allow strikes
to interfere with their operations
·By the early 1950s large labor unions had developed a new kind of
relationship with employers
1. “Postwar Contract”
·Workers in steel, automobiles, and other large unionized industries
were receiving generous increases in wages and benefits
1. In return the unions tacitly agreed to refrain from raising
other issues
·The contract served the corporations and the union leadership well
·Many rank-and-file workers resented the abandonment of efforts to
give them more control over the conditions of their labor
·The economic successes of the 1950s helped pave the way for a
reunification of the labor movement
1. 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations ended their 20 year rivalry
and merged to create the AFL- CIO
·But success also bread stagnation and corruption in some union
bureaucracies
·While the labor movement enjoyed significant success in winning
better wages and benefits for workers already organized in
strong unions, the majority of laborers who were as yet
unorganized made fewer advances
1. New obstacles to organization
a. Taft-Hartley Act and the state right-to-work laws
·In the American South impediments to unionization were enormous
1. Antiunion sentiment was so powerful in the South that
almost all organizing drives encountered crushing and usually
fatal resistance
The Explosion of Science and Technology
Medical Breakthroughs
·The development of antibiotics had its origins=2 0in the discoveries of
Louis Pasteur and Jules-Francois Joubert.
·Working in France in the 1870s they produced the first conclusive
evidence that virulent bacterial infections could be defeated by
other, more ordinary bacteria.
·In 1920, in the meantime, Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered
the antibacterial properties of an organism that he named
penicillin.
·There was also dramatic progress in immunization-the development of
vaccines that can protect humans from contracting both
bacterial and viral diseases.
·In 1954, the American scientist Jonas Salk introduced an effective
vaccine against the disease that had killed and crippled
thousands of children and adults.
·Average life expectancy in that same period rose by five years, to 71.
Pesticides
·The most famous pesticides was dichlorodiphenyl-dichloromethane
[DDT] a compound discovered in 1939 by Paul Muller.
Postwar Electronic Research
·Researchers in the 1940s produced the first commercially viable
televisions and created a technology that made it possible to
broadcast programming over large areas.
·In 1948 bell Labs, the research arm of AT&T, produced=2 0the first
transistor, a solid-state device capable of amplying electrical
signals, which was much smaller and more efficient than the
cumbersome vacuum tubes that had powered most electronic
equipment in the past.
·Integrated circuits combined a number of once-separate electronic
elements and embedded them into a single, microscopically
small device.
Postwar Computer Technology
·In the 1950s computers began to perform commercial functions for
the first time, as data-processing devices used by businesses and
other organizations.
·The first significant computer of the 1950s was the Universal
Automatic Computer, which was developed initially for the U.S
Bureau of the Census by the Remington Rand company.
Bombs, Rockets, and Missles
·In 1952, the U.S successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb.
·The development of the hydrogen bomb gave considerable impetus to
a stalled scientific project in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The Space Program
·The Shock of Sputnik , th e united states had yet perform any similar
feats , and the American government (and much of American
society ) reacted to the announcement with alarm , as if the
Soviet achievement was also a massive American failure .
·The centerpiece of space exploration , however . soon became the
manned space program , established in 1958 through the
creation of a new agency , the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA ) and through the selection of the first
American space pilots , or “astronauts”
· They quickly became the nation’s most revered heroes .
· The Apollo Program , Mercury and Gemini were followed by the Apollo
program , whose purpose was to land men on the moon .
· July 20 , 1969 , Neil Armstrong , Edwin Aldrin , and Michael Collins
successfully traveled in a space capsule into orbit around the
moon .
· Armstrong and Aldrin , and Michael then detached a smaller craft from
the capsule , landed on the surface of the moon , and became
the first men to walk on a body other than earth .
People of Plenty
The Consumer Culture
· At the center of middle-class culture in the 1950s was a growing
absorption with consumer goods
· It was a result of:
1. Increased prosperity
2. Increasing variety and availability of products
3. Advertiser’s adeptness in creating a demand for those
product
4. A growth of consumer credit
To a striking degree, the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s was
consumer driven
· Because consumer goods were so often marketed nationally, the
1950s were notable for the rapid spread of creation national
consumer crazes
The Suburban Nation
· By 1960 a third of the nation’s population was living in suburbs
· The most famous of the postwar suburban developers, William Levitt,
came to symbolize the new suburban growth with his use of
mass-production techniques to construct a large housing
development on Long Island, NY
1. They helped to meet an enormous demand for housing
that had been growing for more than a decade
· Many Americans wanted to move to the suburbs
1. One reason was the enormous importance postwar
Americans place on family life after five years of war in which
families had often been separated or otherwise disrupted
2. They provided privacy
3. A place to raise a large family
4. They provided security from the noise and dangers of
urban living
5. They offered space for the new consumer goods
6. Suburban life also helped provide a sense of community
· Suburban neighborhoods
1. They were not uniform
The Suburban Family
· For professional men, suburban life generally meant a rigid division
between their working and personal worlds
· For many middle-class married women, it meant an increase isolation
from the workplace
· One of the most influential books in postwar American life was a
famous guide to child rearing
1. Baby and Child Care
a. Said that the needs of the child come before
everything else
b. Women who could afford not to work faced heavy
pressures to remain in the home and concentrate on
raising their children
c. Yet by 1960, nearly a third of all married women
were in the paid workforce
· The increasing numbers of women in the workplace laid the
groundwork for demands for equal treatment by employers that
became and important part of the feminist crusades of the 1960s
and 1970s
The Birth of Television
· Television is perhaps the most powerful medium of mass
communication in history
· The television industry emerged directly out of the radio industry
· Like radio, the television business was driven by advertising
· The impact of television on American life was rapid, pervasive, and
profound
1. Television entertainment programming replace movies
and radio as the principal source of diversion for American
families
· Much of the programming of the 1950s and early 1960s created a
common image of American life
1. An image that was predominately white, middle-class,
and suburban
2. Programming also reinforced the concept of gender roles
3. Television inadvertently created conditions that could
accentuate social conflict
Travel, Outdoor Recreation, and Environmentalism
·
Organized Society and Its Detractors
· Large-scale organizations and bureaucracies increased their influence
over American life in the postwar era
·More and more Americans were becoming convinced that the key to a
successful future lay in acquiring the specialized training and
skills necessary for work in large organizations
1. The National Defense Education Act of 1958
a. Provided federal funding for development of
programs in those areas of science, mathematics, and
foreign languages
2. As in earlier eras, many Americans reacted to these
developments with ambivalence, even hostility
·Novelists expressed misgivings in their work about the enormity and
impersonality of modern society
The Beats and the Restless Culture of Youth
·The most derisive critics of bureaucracy, and of middle-class society
in general, were a group of young poets, writers, and artists
generally known as the “beats” – beatniks
·The beats were the most visible evidence of a widespread
restlessness among young Americans in the 1950s
·In part, that restlessness was a result of prosperity itself
1. Tremendous public attention was directed at the
phenomenon of “juvenile delinquency” and in both politics and
popular culture there were dire warnings about the growing
criminality of American youth
·Also disturbing to many older Americans was the style of youth
culture
1. The culture of alienation that the beats so vividly
represented had counterparts even in ordinary middle-class
behavior
a. Teenage rebelliousness toward parents, youthful
fascination with fast cars and motorcycles, and an
increasing visibility of teenage sex, assisted by the
greater availability of birth-control devices and the
spreading automobile culture that came to dominated the social
lives of teenagers in much of the nation
2. The popularity of James Dean was a particularly vivid
sign of this aspect of youth culture in the 1950s
a. Dean became an icon of the unfocused
rebelliousness of American youth in his time
Rock 'n' Roll
·One of the most powerful signs of the restiveness of American youth
was the enormous popularity of rock ‘n’ roll and of the greatest
early rock star
1. Elvis Presley
a. Presley became a symbol of a youthful
determination to push at the borders of the
conventional and acceptable
b. Presley’s music, like that of most early white rock
musicians, drew heavily from black rhythm and blues
traditions
c. Rock also drew from country western music, gospel
music, even from jazz
·The rise of such white rock musicians as Presley was a result in part of
the limited willingness of white audience to accept black
musicians
·The rapid rise and enormous popularity of rock owed a great deal to
innovations in radio and television programming
1. Early in the 1950s, a new breed of radio announcers
began to create programming aimed specifically at young fans
of rock music
a. Disk Jockeys
·Radio and television were important to the recording industry because
they encouraged the sale of records
1. Also important were jukeboxes
·Rock music began in the 1950s to do what jazz and swing had done in
the 1920s – 40s
1. To define both youth culture as a whole and the
experience of a generation
The "Other America"
On the Margins of the Affluent Society
·In 1962, The Other America was published
a. Chronicles of the continuing existence of poverty in
America
·The great economic expansion of the postwar years reduced poverty
dramatically but did not eliminate it
·Most of the poor experience poverty intermittently and temporarily
·This poverty was a poverty that the growing prosperity of the postwar
era seemed to affect hardly at all
Rural Poverty
·Among those on the margins of the affluent society were many rural
Americans
·Not all farmers were poor
1. But the agrarian economy did produce substantial
numbers of genuinely impoverished people
·Migrant farm workers and coal miners fell to the same kind of poverty
The Inner Cities
·As white families moved from cities to suburbs in vast numbers, more
and more inner-city neighborhoods became vast repositories for
the poor
1. Ghettos from which there was no easy escape
a. African Americans helped this growth
·Similar migrations from Mexico and Puerto Rico expanded poor
Hispanic barrios in many American cities at the same time
·For many years, the principal policy response to the poverty of inner
cities was “urban renewal”
1. The effort to tear down buildings in the poorest and
most degraded areas
a. In some cases, urban renewal provided new public
housing for poor city residents
b. In many cases, urban renewal projects replaced
“slums” with middle and upper-income housing, office
towers, or commercial buildings
·One result of inner-city poverty was a rising rate of juvenile crime
The Rise of the Civil Rights Movement
The Brown Decision and "Massive Resistance"
·On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court announced its decision in the
case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
1. Ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional
·The Brown decision was the culmination of many decades of effort by
black opponents of segregation
·The Topeka suit involved the case of an African-American girl who had
to travel several miles to a segregated public school every day
even though she lived virtually next door to a white elementary
school
1. The Court concluded that school segregation inflicted
unacceptable damage on those it affected
·The following year, the Court issued another decision to provide rules
for implementing the 1954 order
1. It ruled that communities must work to desegregate
their schools “with all deliberate speed,” but it set no
timetable and left specific decisions up to lower courts
·Strong local opposition produced long delays and bitter conflicts
1. More than 100 southern members of Congress signed a
“manifesto” in 1956 denouncing the Brown decision and
urging their constituents to defy it
·Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education (1958)
1. Refused to declare “pupil placement laws”, placing a
student in a school based on academic or social behaviors,
unconstitutional
·The Brown decision, far from ending segregation, had launched a
prolonged battle between federal authority and state and local
governments, and between those who believed in racial equality
and those who did not
·In 1957, federal courts had ordered the desegregation of Central High
School in Little Rick, Arkansas
1. An angry white mob tried to prevent implementation of
the order by blockading the entrances to the school
2. President Eisenhower responded by federalizing the
National Guard and sending troops to Little Rock to restore
order and ensure that the court orders would be obeyed
The Expanding Movement
·The Brown decision helped spark a growing number of popular
challenges to segregation in the South
·December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama,
when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a
white passenger
1. The arrest of this admired woman produced outrage in
the city’s African-American community and helped local
leaders organize a successful boycott of the bus system to
demand an end to segregated seating
2. The bus boycott put economic pressure not only on the
bus company but on many Montgomery merchants
a. The bus boycotters found it difficult to get to
downtown stores and tended to shop instead in their own
neighborhoods
·A Supreme Court decision in 1956 declared segregation in public
transportation to be illegal
·More important than the immediate victories of the Montgomery
boycott was its success in establishing a new form of racial
protest and in elevating to prominence a new figure in the
movement for civil rights
1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
a. King’s approach to black protest was based on the
doctrine of nonviolence
b. He urged African Americans to engage in peaceful
demonstrations
2. The popular movement he came to represent soon
spread throughout the South and throughout the country
·One important color line had been breached as early as 1947, when
the Brooklyn Dodgers signed the great Jackie Robinson as the
first African American to play Major League Baseball
·President Eisenhower signed a civil rights act in 1957
1. Providing federal protection for blacks who wished to
register to vote
Cause of the Civil Rights Movement
·Several factors contributed to the rise of African-American protest in
these years
1. Millions of black men and women had served in the
military or worked in war plants during the war and had
derived from the experience a broader view of the world
and their place in it
2. Another factor was the growth of an urban black middle
class
3. Television and other forms of popular culture were
another factor in the rising consciousness of racism among
blacks
·Other forces were at work mobilizing many white Americans to
support the movement once it began
1. The Cold War
2. Political mobilization of northern blacks
3. Labor unions with substantial black memberships
· By the early 1960s, this movement had made it one of the most
powerful forces in America
Eisenhower Republicanism
"What was Good for...General Motors"
· The first Republican administration in 20 years was staffed mostly
with men drawn from the same quarter as those who had staffed
Republican administrations in the 1920s
1. The business community
· Many of the nation's leading businessmen and financiers ha
reconciled themselves to at least the broad outlines of the
Keynesian welfare state the New Deal had launched and had
come to see it as something that actually benefited them
· To his cabinet, Eisenhower appointed wealthy corporate lawyers and
business executives
· Eisenhower’s leadership style helped enhance the power of his
cabinet officers and others
· Eisenhower’s consistent inclination was to limit federal activities and
encourage private enterprise
The Survival of the Welfare State
· The president took few new initiatives in domestic policy
· Perhaps the most significant legislative accomplishment of the
Eisenhower administration was the Federal Highway Act of 1956
1. Authorized $25 billion for a ten-year effort to construct
over 40,000 miles of interstate highways
2. The program was to be funded through a highway “trust
fund” whose revenues would come from new taxes on the
purchase of fuel, automobiles, trucks, and tires
· In 1956, Eisenhower ran for a second term
1. Republicans – Adlai Stevenson
2. Eisenhower won
· Democrats still held power over Congress
The Decline of McCarthyism
· In its first years in office the Eisenhower administration did little to
discourage the anticommunist furor that had gripped the nation
· Among the most celebrated controversies of the new administration’s
first year was the case of J. Robert Oppenheimer
1. He opposed the building of the Hydrogen Bomb
2. In 1953, the FBI distributed a dossier within the
administration detailing Oppenheimer’s prewar association
with various left-wing groups
a. In 1953, the FBI distributed a dossier within the
administration detailing Oppenheimer’s prewar
association with various left-wing groups
· But by 1954, such policies were beginning to produce significant
opposition
1. The clearest signal of that change was the political
demise of Senator Joseph McCarthy
a. He overstepped his boundaries when he charged
Secretary of Army Robert Stevens
b. Army-McCarthy hearings
2. In December 1954, he was condemned for “conduct
unbecoming a senator”
Eisenhower, Dulles, and the Cold War
Dulles and "Massive Retaliation"
· Eisenhower’s secretary of state, and the dominant figure in the
nation’s foreign policy in the 1950s, was John Foster Dulles
· He entered office denouncing the containment policies of the Truman
years
1. Arguing that the United States should pursue an active
program of “liberation” which would lead to a “rollback” of
communism expansion
· “Massive Retaliation”
1. The United States would, he explained, respond to
communist threats to its allies not by using conventional forces
to local conflicts but by relying on “the deterrent of massive
retaliatory power” (nuclear weapons)
· By the end of the decade, the United States had become a party to
almost a dozen such treaties of mutual defense in NATO in all
areas of the world
France, America, and Vietnam
·
Cold War Crisis
·
Europe and the Soviet Union
· Although the problems of the Third World were moving slowly to the
center of American foreign policy, the direct relationship with the
Soviet Union and the effort to resist communist expansion in
Europe remained the principal concerns of the Eisenhower
administration
· In 1955, Eisenhower and other NATO leaders met with the Soviet
premier, Nikolai Bulganin, at a cordial summit conference in
Geneva
1. They could find no basis for agreement
· Relations between the Soviet Union and the West soured further in
1956 in response to the Hungarian Revolution
1. Hungarians were demanding democratic reforms
a. Soviets came in to crush the uprising
2. The suppression of the uprising convinced many
American leaders that Soviet policies had not softened as much
as the events of the previous two years had suggested
·The failure of conciliation brought renewed vigor to the Cold War and
greatly intensified the Soviet-American arms race
·The arms race not only increased tensions between the United States
and Russia
1. It increased tensions within each nation as well
The U-2 Crisis
·In this tense and fearful atmosphere, the Soviet Union raised new
challenges to the West in Berlin
·In November 1958, Nikita Khrushchev renewed his predecessors’
demands that NATO powers abandon the city
1. The United States and its allies refused
·Khrushchev suggested that he and Eisenhower discuss the issue
personally
1. The United States agreed
·Only days before Eisenhower was to leave for Moscow the Soviet
Union announced that it had shot down an American U-2, a spy
plane, over Russian territory
·By the spring of 1960, Khrushchev knew that no agreement was
possible on the Berlin issue
·The events of 1960 provided a somber backdrop for the end of the
Eisenhower administration
·He warned in his farewell address of 1961 of the “unwarranted
influence” of a vast “military-industrial complex”
1. His caution, in both domestic and international affairs,
stood in marked contrast to the attitudes of his successors, who
argued that the United States must act more boldly and
aggressively on behalf of its goals at home and abroad
Expanding the Liberal State
John Kennedy
·The campaign of 1960 produced two young candidates who claimed
to offer the nation active leadership.
·The Republican nomination went almost uncontested to Vice President
Richard Nixon, who promised moderate reform.
·John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the son of the wealthy powerful, and
highly controversial Joseph P. Kennedy, former American
ambassador to Britain.
·He premised his campaign, he said, “on the single assumption that
the American people are uneasy at the present drift in our
national course”.
·Kennedy had campaigned promising a set of domestic reforms more
ambitious than any since the New Deal, a program he described
as the “New Frontier”.
·Kennedy had traveled to Texas with his wife and Vice President Lyndon
Johnson for a series of=2 0political appearances.
·While the presidential motorcade rode slowly through the streets of
Dallas, shots rang out.
·He got shot in the throat and head, he was rushed to a hospital, where
minutes later he was pronounced dead.
·Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested for the crime later that day, and
then mysteriously murdered by a Dallas nightclub owner, Jack
Ruby, 2 days later as he was being moved from one jail to
another.
·In years later years many Americans came to believe that the Warren
Commission report had ignored evidence of a wider conspiracy
behind the murders.
Lyndon Johnson
·The Kennedy assassination was a national trauma-a defining event for
almost everyone old enough to be aware of it.
·Johnson was a native of the poor “hill country” of west Texas and had
risen to become majority leader of the U.S. Senate by dint of
extraordinary, even obsessive, effort and ambition.
·Between 1963 and 1966, he compiled the most impressive legislative
record of any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
·He created the “Great Society”.
·Record Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, any of
whose members had been swept into office=2 0only because of
the margin of Johnson’s victory, ensured that the president would
be able to fulfill many of his goals.
The Assault on Poverty
·The most important welfare program was Medicare: a program to
provide federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses.
·Its enactment in 1965 came at the end of a bitter, 20 year debate
between those who believed in the concept of national health
assistance and those who denounced it as “socialized medicine”.
·Medicare benefits available to all elderly Americans, regardless of
need.
·Medicare simply shifted responsibility for paying those fees from the
patient to the government.
·The centerpiece of this “war on poverty”, as Johnson called it, was the
Office of economic Opportunity, which created an array of new
educational, employment, housing, and health-care programs.
·The Community Action programs provided jobs for many poor people
and gave them valuable experience in administrative and
political work.
·The OEO spent nearly $3 billion during its first two years of existence,
and it helped reduce poverty in some areas.
Cities, Schools, and Immigration
·The Housing Act of 1961 offered $4.9 billion in federal grants to cities
for the preservation of open spaces, the development of mass
transit systems, and the subsidization of middle income housing.
·In 1966, Johnson established a new cabinet agency, the Department
of Housing and Urban Development.
·Johnson also inaugurated the Model Cites program, which offered
federal subsidies for urban redevelopment pilot programs.
·Johnson managed to circumvent both objections with the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and a series of subsequent
measures.
·Total federal expenditures for education and technical training rose
from $5 billion to $12 billion between 1964 and 1967.
·The Immigration Act of 1965 maintained a strict limit on the number
of newcomers admitted to the country each year (170,000), but
it eliminated the “national origins” system established in the
1920s, which gave preference to immigrants from northern
Europe over those from other parts of the world.
Legacies of the Great Society
·In 1964, Johnson managed to win passage of the $11.5 bill ion tax cut
that Kennedy had first proposed in 1962.
·The cut increased the federal deficit, but substantial economic growth
over the next several years made up for much of the revenue
initially lost.
·The high costs of the Great Society programs, the deficiencies and
failures of many of them, and the inability of the government to
find the revenues to pay for them contributed to a growing
disillusionment in later years with the idea of federal efforts to
solve social problems.
The Battle for the Racial Equality
Expanding Protests
·John Kennedy had long been vaguely sympathetic to the cause of
racial justice, but he was hardly a committed crusader.
·In February 1960, black college students in Greensboro, North
Carolina, staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch
counter, and in the following weeks, similar demonstrations
spread throughout the South, forcing many merchants to
integrate their facilities.
·The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, worked to keep the
spirit of resistance alive.
·In 1961, an interracial group of students, working with the Congress of
Racial Equality, began what t hey called “freedom rides”.
·Traveling by bus throughout the South, the freedom riders tried to
force the desegregation of bus stations.
·SNCC workers began fanning out through black communities and even
into remote rural areas to encourage blacks to challenge the
obstacles to voting that the Jim Crow laws had created and that
powerful social custom sustained.
·In April, Martin Luther King, Jr., helped launch a series of nonviolent
demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, a city unsurpassed in
the strength of its commitment to segregation.
·Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi.
A National Commitment
·To generate support for the legislation, and to dramatize the power of
the growing movement, ore than 200,000 demonstrators
marched down the Mall in Washington, D.C., in August 1963 and
gathered before the Lincoln Memorial for the greatest civil rights
demonstration in the nation’s history.
·Early in 1964, after Johnson applied both public and private pressure,
supporters of the measure finally mustered the two-thirds
majority necessary to close debate and end a filibuster by
southern senators; and the Senate passed the most
comprehensive civil rights bill in the nation’s history.
The Battle for Voting Rights
·During the summer of 1964, thousands of civil rights workers, black
and white, northern and southern, spread out through the South,
but primarily in Mississippi.
·The campaign was known as “freedom summer”, and it produced a
violent response from some southern whites.
·The “freedom summer” also produced the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party, and integrated alternative to the regular state
party organization.
·It permitted the MFDP to be seated as observers, with promises of
party reforms later on, while the regular party retained its official
standing.
·A year later, in March 1965, King helped organize a major
demonstration in Selma, Alabama to press the demand for the
right of blacks to register to vote.
·Two northern whites participating in the Selma march were murdered
in the course of the effort there- one, a minister, beaten to death
in the streets of the town; the other, a Detroit housewife, shot as
she drove along a highway at night with a black passenger in her
car.
·The Civil Rights Act of 1965, better known as the Voting Rights Act,
which provided federal protection to blacks attempting to
exercise their right to vote.
The Changing Movement
·By 1966, 69 percent of American blacks were living in metropolitan
areas and 45 percent outside the South.
·Well over half of all American non-whites lived in poverty at the
beginning of the 1960s; black unemployment was twice that of
whites.
·Over the next decade, affirmative action guidelines gradually
extended to virtually all institutions doing business with or
receiving funds from the federal government- and to many
others as well.
·Organizers of the Chicago campaign hoped to direct national attention
to housing and employment discrimination in northern industrial
cities in much the same way similar campaigns had exposed
legal racism in the South.
Urban Violence
·Well before the Chicago campaign, the problem of urban poverty had
thrust itself into national attention when violence broke out in
black neighborhoods in major cities.
·The first large race riot since the end of World War II occurred the
following summer in the Watts section of Los Angeles.
·The incident triggered a storm of anger and a week of violence.
·34 people died during the Watts uprising, which was eventually
quelled by the National Guard; 28 of the dead were black.
·Televised reports of the violence alarmed millions of Americans and
created both a new sense of urgency and a growing sense of
doubt among many of those whites who had embraced the cause
of racial justice only a few years before.
·A special Commission on Civil Disorders, created by the president in
response to the disturbances, issued a celebrated report in the
spring of 1968 recommending massive spending to eliminate the
abysmal conditions of the ghettoes.
Black Power
·Disillusioned with the ideal of peaceful change in cooperation with
whites, an increasing number of African Americans were turning
to a new approach to the racial issue: the philosophy of “black
power”.
·The most enduring impact of the black-power ideology was a social
and psychological one: instilling racial pride in African Americans,
who lived in a society whose dominant culture generally
portrayed blacks as inferior to whites.
·It encouraged the growth of black studies in schools and universities.
·Traditional black organizations that had emphasized cooperation=2
0with sympathetic whites- groups such as the NAACP, the Urban
League, and King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conferencenow
faced competition from more radical groups.
·In Oakland, California the Black Panther Party promised to defend
black rights even if that required violence.
Malcolm X
·In Detroit, a once-obscure black nationalist group, the Nation of Islam,
gained new prominence.
·Founded in 1931 by Wali Farad and Elijah Poole, the movement taught
blacks to take responsibility for their own lives, to be disciplined,
to live by strict codes of behavior, and to reject any dependence
on whites.
·Malcolm became one of the movement’s most influential spokesmen,
particularly among younger blacks, as a result of his intelligence,
his oratorical skills, and his harsh, uncompromising opposition to
all forms of racism and oppression.
·He did not advocate violence, but he insisted that black people had
the right to defend themselves, violently if necessary from those
who assaulted them.
·Malcolm died in 1965 when black gunmen, presumably under orders
from rivals within the Nation of Islam, assassinated him in New
York.
"Flexible Response and the Cold War"
Diversifying Foreign Policy
· The Kennedy administration entered office convinced that the United
States needed to be able to counter communist aggression in
more flexible ways than the atomic weapons-oriented defense
strategy of the Eisenhower years permitted.
· Kennedy was unsatisfied with the nation’s ability to meet communist
threats in “emerging areas” of the Third World- the areas in
which, Kennedy believed, the real struggle against communism
would be waged in the future.
· Kennedy also inaugurated the Agency for International Development
to coordinate foreign aid.
· The Peace Corps, sent young American volunteers abroad to work in
developing areas.
· On April 17, 1961, with the approval of the new president, 2,000 of
the armed exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, expecting
first American air support and then a spontaneous uprising by
the Cuban people on their behalf.
Confrontations with the Soviet Union
· In the grim aft ermath of the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy traveled to Vienna
in June 1961 for his first meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev.
· Before dawn on August 13, 1961, the East German government,
complying with directives from Moscow, constructed a wall
between East and West Berlin.
· For nearly 30 years the Berlin Wall served as the most potent physical
symbol of the conflict between the communist and
noncommunist worlds.
· On October 14, aerial reconnaissance photos produced clear evidence
that the Soviets were constructing sites on the island for
offensive nuclear weapons.
· On October 22, he ordered a naval and air blockade around Cuba, a
“quarantine” against all offensive weapons.
Johnson and the World
· Lyndon Johnson entered the presidency lacking even John Kennedy’s
limited prior experience with international affairs.
· A 1961 assassination had toppled the repressive dictatorship of
General Rafael Trujillo, and for the next four years various
fascinations in the country had struggled for dominance.
· In the spring of 1965, a conservative military regime began to
collapse in the face of a revolt by a broad range of groups on
behalf of the left-wing nationalist Juan Bosch.
· Only after a conservative candidate defeated Bosch in a 1966 election
were the forces withdrawn.
The Agony of Vietnam
The First Indochina War
· Vietnam had a long history both as an independent kingdom and
major power in its region, and as a subjugated province of China;
its people were both proud of their past glory and painfully aware
of their many years of subjugation.
· In the mi-19th century, Vietnam became a colony of France.
· The French wanted to reassert their control over Vietnam.
· In the fall of 1945, after the collapse of Japan and before the western
powers had time to return, the Vietminh declared Vietnam an
independent nation and set up a nationalist government under
Ho Chi Mihn in Hanoi.
· For the next 4 years, during what has become known as the First
Indochina War, Truman and then Eisenhower continued to
support the French military campaign against the Vietminh; by
1954, by some calculations, the United States was paying 80
percent of France’s war costs.
Geneva and the Two Vietnams
· An international conference at Geneva, planned many months before
to settle the Korean dispute and other controversies, now took up
the fate of Vietnam as well.
· Secretary of State Dulles, who reluctantly attended but left early; the
United States was not a party to the accords.
· Vietnam would be temporarily portioned along the 17th parallel, with
the Vietminh in control of North Vietnam, and a pro-western
regime in control of the South.
America and Diem
· The U.S almost immediately stepped into the vacuum and became the
principal benefactor of the new government in the South, led by
NGO Dihn Diem.
· The Buddhist crisis was alarming and embarrassing to the Kennedy
Administration.
From Aid to Intervention
· Lyndon Johnson thus inherited what was already a substantial
American commitment to the survival of an anticommunist South
Vietnam.
· Intervention in South Vietnam was fully consistent with nearly 20
years of American foreign policy.
· In August 1964, the president announced that American destroyers on
patrol in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin had been
attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats.
The Quagmire
· There was a continuous stream of optimistic reports from American
military commanders, government officials, and others.
· The “attrition” was a strategy premised on the belief that the Unites
States could inflict so many causalities and so much damage on
the enemy that eventually they would be unable and unwilling to
continue the struggle.
· By the end of 1967, virtually every identifiable target of any strategic
importance in North Vietnam had been destroyed.
· Another crucial part of the American strategy was the “pacification”
program, which was intended to push the Viet Cong from
particular regions and then pacify those regions by winning the
“hearts and minds” of the people.
The War at Home
· A series of “teach-ins” on university campuses, beginning at the
University of Michigan in 196 sparked a national debate over the
war before such debate developed inside the government itself.
· Opposition to the war had become a central issue in left-wing politics
and in the culture of colleges and universities.
The Traumas of 1968
The Tet Offensive
· On January 31, 1968, the 1st day of the Vietnamese New Year (TET),
communist forces launched an enormous, concerted attack on
American strongholds throughout South Vietnam.
The Political Challenge
· On March 31, Johnson went on television to announce a limited halt in
the bombing of North Vietnam.
The King and Kennedy Assassinations
· On April 4, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while standing on
the balcony of his motel.
· In the days after the assassination, major riots broke out in more than
60 American cities.
· Rober t Kennedy shaped what some would later call the “Kennedy
Legacy”, a set of ideas that would for a time become central to
American liberalism.
· The passions Kennedy had aroused made his violent death a
particularly shattering experience for many Americans.
The Conservation Response
· George Wallace established himself in 1963 as one of the nation's
leading spokesmen for the defense of segregation.
· As a governor of Alabama, he attempted to block the admission of
black students to the University of Alabama.
· In 1964, he has run a few Democratic presidential primaries and
although had done surprisingly well, standing in the polls with
20%, he had no serious chance of winning the election.
The Youth Culture
The New Left
·The postwar baby-boom generation, the unprecedented number of
people born in a few years just after World War II, was growing
up.
·One of the most visible results of the increasingly assertive youth
movement was a radicalization of many American college and
university students, who in the course of the 1960s formed what
became known as the New Left- a large, diverse group of men
and women energized by the polarizing developments of their
time to challenge the political system.
·The New Left embraced the cause of African Americans and other
minorities, but its own ranks consisted overwhelmingly of white
people.
·The New Left drew from many sources.
·The New Left drew as well from the writings of some of the important
social critics of the 1950s-among them C. Wright Mills, a soci
ologist at Columbia University who wrote a series of scathing and
brilliant critiques of modern bureaucracies.
·The New Left drew its inspiration above all from the civil rights
movement, in which many idealistic young white Americans had
become involved in the early 1960s.
·In 1962, a group of students, most of them from prestigious
universities, gathered in Michigan to form an organization to give
voice to their demands: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
·A 1964 dispute at the University of California at Berkeley over the
rights of students to engage in political activities on campus
gained national attention.
·The Free Speech Movement, created turmoil at Berkeley as students
challenged campus police, occupied administrative offices, and
produced a strike in which nearly ¾ of the Berkeley students
participated.
·The revolt at Berkeley was the first outburst of what was to be nearly
a decade of campus turmoil.
·Also in 1969, Berkeley became the scene of perhaps the most
prolonged and traumatic conflict of any American college
campus in the 1960s: a battle over the efforts of a few students
to build a “People’s Park” on a vacant lot the university planned
to use to build a parking garage.
·By the end of the People’s Park battle, which lasted for more than a
week, the Berkeley campus was completely polarized.
·Student radicals were, for the20first time, winning large audiences for
their extravagant rhetoric linking together university
administrators, the police, and the larger political and economic
system, describing them all as part of one united, oppressive
force.
·As time went on, moreover, the student fringe groups became
increasingly militant.
·Student activists tried to drive out training programs for military
officers (ROTC) and bar military recruiters from college
campuses.
·The October 1967 march on the Pentagon, where demonstrators were
met by a solid line of armed troops; the “spring mobilization” of
April 1968, which attracted hundreds of thousands of
demonstrators in cities around the country.
·Many draft-age Americans simply refused induction, accepting what
occasionally what were long terms in jail as a result.
The Counterculture
·The most visible characteristic of the counterculture was a change in
lifestyle.
·Young Americans flaunted long hair, shabby or flamboyant clothing,
and a rebellious disdain for traditional speech and decorum,
which they replaced with their own “hippie” idiom.
·Also central to the counterculture were drugs: marijuana smokingwhich
after 1966 became almost as common a youthful diversion
as b eer drinking-and the less widespread but still substantial use
of other, more potent hallucinogens, such as LSD.
·To some degree, the emergence of more relaxed approaches to
sexuality was a result less of the counterculture than of the new
accessibility of effective contraceptives, most notably the birthcontrol
pill and, after 1973, legalized abortion.
·The counterculture’s rejection of traditional values and its open
embrace of sensual pleasure sometimes masked its philosophy,
which offered a fundamental challenge to the American middleclass
mainstream.
·The most adherents of the counterculture-the hippies, who came to
dominate the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco and
other places, and the social dropouts, many of whom retreated to
rural communes-rejected modern society altogether and
attempted to find refuge in a simpler, more “natural” existence.
·Theodore Roszak, whose book the Making of a Counter Culture(1969)
became a significant document of the era, captured much of the
spirit of the movement in his frank admission that “the primary
project of our counterculture is to proclaim a new heaven and a
new earth so vast, so marvelous that the inordinate claims of
technical expertise must of necessity withdraw to a subordinate
and marginal status in the lives of men.”
·The use of marijuana, the freer attitudes toward sex, the iconoclastic
(and sometimes obscene) language- all spread far beyond the
realm of the true devotes of the counterculture.
·Rock n Roll first achieved wide popularity in the 1950s, on the
strength of such early performers as Buddy Holly and Elvis
Presley.
·Early in the 1960s, its influence began to spread, a result in large part
of the phenomenal popularity of the Beatles, the English group
whose first visit to the United States in 1964 created a
remarkable sensation, “Beatlemania”.
·Other groups such as the Rolling Stones turned even more openly to
themes of anger, frustration, and rebelliousness.
·Television began to turn to programming that reflected social and
cultural conflict- as exemplified by the enormously popular All in
the Family, whose protagonist, Archie Bunker, was a lowermiddle-
class bigot.
The Mobilization of Minorities
Seeds of Indian Militancy
·Indians were the least prosperous, least healthy, and least stable
group in the nation.
·They constituted less than one percent of the population.
·The Native American unemployment rate was ten times the national
rate.
·Life expectancy among Indians was more than twenty years less than
the national average.
·For much of the postwar era, and particularly after the resignation of
John Collier as commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1946, federal
policy toward the tribes had been shaped by a determination to
incorporate Indians into mainstream American society, whether
Indians wanted to assimilate or not.
·Through termination, the federal government withdrew all official
recognition of the tribes as legal entities, administratively
separate from state governments, and made them subject to the
same local jurisdictions as white residents.
·Many Native Americans adapted to life in the cites, at least to a
degree.
The Indian Civil Rights Movement
·The National Indian Youth Council, created in the aftermath of the
1961 Chicago meeting, promoted the idea of Indian nationalism
and intertribal unity.
·In 1968, a group of young of young militant Indian Movement, which
drew its greatest support from those Indians who lived in urban
areas but soon established a significant presence on the rese
rvations as well.
·In 1968, Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act, which
guaranteed reservation Indians many of the protections accorded
other citizens by the Bill of Rights, but which also recognized the
legitimacy of tribal laws within the reservations.
·The Indian civil rights movement fell far short of winning full justice
and equality for its constituents.
Latino Activism
·Latinos were the fastest-growing minority group in the United States.
·Large numbers of Puerto Ricans had migrated to eastern cities,
particularly New York.
·In 1980, a second, much poorer wave of Cuban immigrants-the so
called Marielitos, named for the port from which they left Cubaarrived
in Florida when Castro temporarily relaxed exit
restrictions.
·Large numbers of Mexican Americans had entered the country during
the war in response to the labor shortage, and may had
remained in the cities of the Southwest and the Pacific Coast.
·After the war, when the legal agreements that had allowed Mexican
contract workers to enter the country expired, large numbers of
immigrants continued to move to the United States illegally.
·By the late 1960s, therefore, Mexican Americans were one of the
largest population=2 0groups in the West-outnumbering African
Americans-and had established communities in most other parts
of the nation as well.
·Young Mexican-American activist began themselves “Chicanos” as a
way of emphasizing the shared culture of Spanish-speaking use
among Mexican Americans.
·Cesar Chavez, created an effective union itinerant farm workers.
·In 1965 his United Farmers Workers (UFW), a largely Chicano
organization, launched a prolonged strike against growers to
demand, first, recognition of their union and, second, increased
wages and benefits.
·Supporters of bilingualism in education argued that non-Englishspeaking
Americans were entitled to schooling in their own
language, that otherwise they would be at a grave disadvantage
in comparison with native English speakers.
Challenging the "Melting Pot" Ideal
·The efforts of blacks, Latinos, Indians, Asians, and others to forge a
clearer group identity challenged a longstanding premise of
American political thought: the idea of the “melting pot”.
·The newly assertive ethnic groups of the 1960s and after appeared
less willing to accept the standards of the larger society and
more likely to demand recognition of their own ethnic identities.
Gay Liberation
·The last important liberation movement to make major gains in the
1960s, and the most surprising to many Americans, was the
effort by homosexuals to win political and economic rights and,
equally important, social acceptance.
·On June 27, 1969, police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay
nightclub in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and began
arresting patrons simply for frequenting the place.
·The raid was not unusual.
·The “Stonewall Riot” marked the beginning of the gay liberation
movement-one of the most controversial challenges to traditional
values and assumptions of its time.
·Universities were establishing gay and lesbian studies programs.
·Laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual preference were
making slow, halting progress at the local level.
The New Feminism
The Rebirth
·A few determined women kept feminist political demands alive in the
National Woman’s Party and other organizations.
·The 1963 publication of Betty Friedan’s the Feminine Mystique is often
cited as the first event of contemporary women’s liberation.
·In 1963 the Kennedy administration helped win passage of the Equal
Pay Act, which barred the pervasive practice of paying women
less than men for equal work.
·The conflict between the ideal and the reality was crucial to the
rebirth of feminism.
·The National Organization for Women, which was to become the
nation’s largest and most influential feminist organization.
The new organization reflected the varying constituencies of the
emerging feminist movement.
Women's Liberation
·The new feminists were mostly younger, the vanguard of the bayboom
generation.
·Many had found that even within those movements, they faced
discrimination and exclusion or subordination to male leaders.
·In its most radical form, the new feminism rejected the whole notion
of marriage.
Expanding Achievements
·In 1971, the government extended its affirmative action guidelines to
include women-linking sexism with racism as an officially
acknowledged social problem.
·Nearly half of all married women held jobs by the mid-1970s, and
almost 9/10 of all women with college degrees worked.
·There were also important symbolic changes, such as the refusal of
many women to adopt their husbands’ names when they married
and the use of the term “Ms.” in place of “Mrs.” or “Miss” to
denote the irrelevance of a woman’s marital status.
The Abortion Controversy
· In least controversial form, this impulse helped produce an increasing
awareness in the 1960s and 1970s of the problems of rape,
sexual abuse, and wife beating.
· There continued to be some controversy over the dissemination of
contraceptives and birth-control inf ormation; but that issue, at
least, seemed to have lost much of the explosive character it had
had in the 1920s, when Margaret Sanger had become a heroine
to some and a figure of public scorn to others for her efforts on
its behalf.
Environmentalism in a Turbulent Society
The New Science of Ecology
· Until the mid-twentieth century, most people who considered
themselves environmentalists based their commitment on
aesthetic or moral grounds.
· They wanted to preserve nature because it was too beautiful to
despoil, or because it was a mark of divinity on the world, or
because it permitted humans a spiritual experience that would
otherwise be unavailable to them.
· They called it ecology.
Funded by government agencies, by universities, by foundations, and
eventually even by some corporations, ecological science
gradually established itself as a significant field of its own- not,
perhaps, with the same stature as such traditional fields as
physics, chemistry, and biology, but certainly a field whose
importance and appeal grew rapidly in the last decades of the
20th century
Environmental Advocacy
· Academic ecologists often have close ties to environmental
organizations committed to public action and political lobbying.
· The professional zed environmental advocacy they provided gave the
movement a political strength it had never enjoyed in the past.
· Lawyers fought battles with government agencies and in the courts.
· When Congress or state legislatures considered environmental
legislation, more often than not the environmental organizations
played a critical role in drafting it.
Environmental Degradation
· Many other forces contributed as well in the 1960s and 1970s to
create what became the environmental movement.
· Water pollution- which had been a problem in some areas of the
country for many decades- was becoming so widespread that
almost every major city was dealing with the unpleasant sight
and odor, as well as the very real health risks, of polluted rivers
and lakes.
· In some large cities-Los Angeles and Denver among them-smog
became an almost perpetual fact of life,=2 0rising steadily
through the day, blotting out the sun, and creating respiratory
difficulties for many citizens.
· Environmentalist also brought to public attention some longer-term
dangers of unchecked industrial development: the rapid
depletion of oil and other irreplaceable fossil fuels; the
destruction of lakes and forests as a result of “acid rain”; the
rapid destruction of vast rain forests, in Brazil and elsewhere,
which limited the earth’s capacity to replenish its oxygen supply.
Earth Day and Beyond
· On April 22, 1970, people all over the United States gathered in
schools and universities, in churches and clubs, in parks and
auditoria, for the first “Earth Day”.
· The Clean Air Act, also passed in 1970, and the Clean Water Act,
passed in 1972, added additional tools to government’s arsenal
of weapons against environmental degradation.
· Different administrations displayed varying levels of support for
environmental goals, and advocacy groups remained ready to
spring into action to force them to change their positions.
Nixon, Kissinger, and the War
Vietnamization
· Henry Kissinger, a Harvard professor whom the president appointed
as his special assistance for national security affairs.
· The new Vietnam policy moved along several fronts.
· By 1973, the Selective Service System was on its way to least
temporary extinction.
· In the fall of 1969, Nixon announced reduction of American ground
troops from Vietnam by 60,000 the first reduction in U.S. troop
strength since the beginning of the war.
Escalation
·By the end of their first year in office, Nixon and Kissinger had
concluded that the most effective ay to tip the military balance in
America’s favor was to destroy the bases in Cambodia from
which the American military believed the North Vietnamese were
launching many of their attacks.
·Four college students were killed and nine others injured when
members of the National Guard opened fire on antiwar
demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio.
·The trail and conviction in 1971 of Lieutenant William Calley, who was
charged wit h overseeing a massacre of more than 300
unharmed South Vietnamese civilians, attracted wide public
attention.
"Peace with Honor"
·In April 1972, the president dropped his longtime insistence on a
removal of North Vietnamese troops from the south before any
American withdrawal.
·On December 17, American B-52s began the heaviest and most
destructive air raids of the entire war on Hanoi, Haiphong, and
other North Vietnamese targets.
Defeat in Indochina
·Late in April 1975, communist forces marched into Saigon, shortly
after officials of the Thieu regime and the staff of the American
embassy had fled the country in humiliating disarray.
Nixon, Kissinger, and the World
China and the Soviet Union
·Nixon and Kissinger wanted to forge a new relationship with the
Chinese communists- in part to strengthen them as a
counterbalance to the Soviet Union.
·In July 1971, Nixon sent Henry Kissinger on a secret mission to Beijing.
·In February 1972, Nixon paid a formal visits to China and, in a single
stroke, erased much of the deep American animosity toward the
Chinese communists regime, but in 1972 the United states and
China began low-level diplomatic relations.
·In 1969, America and Soviet diplomats met in Helsinki, Finland, to
begin talks on limiting nuclear weapons.
In 1972, they produced the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT
I), which froze the nuclear missiles (ICBMs) of both sides at present
levels.
The Problems of Multipolarity
·In 1969 and 1970, the president described what became known as the
Nixon Doctrine, by which the United States would “participate in
the defense and development of allies and friends” but would
leave the “basic responsibility” for the future of those “friends”
to the nations themselves.
·In practice, the Nixon Doctrine meant a declining American interest in
contributing to Third World development; a growing contempt for
the United Nations, where less-developed nations were gaining
influence through their sheer numbers; and increasing support to
authoritarian regimes attempting to withstand radical challenges
from within.
·In 1973, a military junta seized power from Allende, who was
subsequently murdered.
·In October 1973, on the Jewish High Holy day of Yom Kippur, Egyptian
and Syrian forces attacked Israel.
·The imposed settlement of the Yom Kippur War demonstrated the
growing dependence of the United States and its allies on Arab
oil.
·The United States could no longer depend on cheap, easy access to
raw materials as it had in the past.
Politics and Economics Under Nixon
Domestic Initiatives
·He forbade the department of Health, Education, and Welfare to cut
off the federal funds from school districts that had failed to
comply with court orders to integrate.
In 1973, he abolished the Office of economic Opportunity, the
centerpiece of the antipoverty program of the Office of economic
Opportunity, the centerpiece of the antipoverty program20of the
Johnson years.
From the Warren Court to the Nixon Court
·In Engel v. Vitale (1962), the court had ruled that prayers in public
schools were unconstitutional, sparking outrage among religious
fundamentalists and others.
The Election of 1972
·Nixon was most fortunate in 1972, however, in his opposition.
·The possibility of such a campaign vanished in May, when a would-be
assassin shot the Alabama governor during a rally at a Maryland
shopping center.
The Troubled Economy
·The American dollar had been the strongest currency in the world, and
the American standard of living had risen steadily from its
already substantial heights.
·Its most visible cause was significant increase in federal deficit
spending in the 1960s, when the Johnson administration tried to
fund the war in Vietnam and its ambitious social prog rams
without raising taxes.
·Domestic petroleum reserves were no longer sufficient to meet this
demand, and the nation was heavily dependent on imports from
the Middle East and Africa.
·The U.S manufacturing now faced major completion from aboard-not
only in world trade but also at home.
The Nixon Response
·The government moved first to reduce spending and raises taxes.
·The United States was encountering a new and puzzling dilemma:
“stagflation”, a combination of rising prices and general
economic stagnation.
In 1973, prices rose 9 percent; in 1974, after the Arab oil embargo and
the OPEC price increases, they rose 12 percent-the highest rate since
the relaxation of price controls shortly after World War II.
The Watergate Crisis
The Scandals
·Early on the morning of June 17, 1972 police arrested five men who
had broken into the offices of the Democratic National
Committee in the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C.
Two others were seized a short time porters for the Washington Post
began researching the backgrounds of the culprits, they discovered
that among those involved in the burglary were former employees of
the Committee for the Re-Election of the President.
The Fall of Richard Nixon
·In April 1974, the president released some transcripts of relevent
conversations, claiming that they proved his innocence, but
investigators believed them to be edited for a cover-up.
·The Supreme Court ruled unanimously, in the United States v. Richard
M. Nixon, that the president must relinquish the tapes to Special
Prosecutor Jaworski.
·The House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend three articles of
impeachment:
1. Charging that Nixon had obstructed justice in the
Watergate cover-up.
2. Misused federal agencies to violate the rights of citizens.
3. Defied the authority of Congress by refusing to deliever
tapes and other materials suboenaed by the committee.
·On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced his resignation, the first
president in American history to ever do so.
·Gerald Ford became president.
Politics and Diplomacy After Watergate
The Ford Custodianship
·Gerald Ford had to try to rebuild confidence in government in the face of the widespread
cynicism the Watergate scandals had produced.
·He had to try to restore prosperity in the face of major domestic and international
challenges to the American economy.
·Ford explained that he was attempting to spare the nation the ordeal of years of litigation
and to spare Nixon himself any further suffering.
·The Ford administration enjoyed less success in its effort to solve the problems of the
American economy.
·In the aftermath of the Arab oil embargo of 1973, the OPEC cartel began to raise thr
price of oil-by 400 percent in 1974 alone.
·Ford retained Henry Kissinger as secretary of state and continued the general policies of
the Nixon years.
·Late in 1974, Ford met with Leonid Brezhnev at Vladivostok in Siberia and signed an
arms control accord that was to serve as the basis for SALT II, thus achieving a
goal the Nixon administration had long sought.
In the republican primary campaign Ford faced a powerful challenge from former
California governor Ronald Reagan, leader of the party’s conservative wing, who
spoke for many on the right who were unhappy with any conciliation of
communists.
The Trials of Jimmy Carter
·Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency at a moment when the nation faced problems of
staggering complexity and difficulty.
·He left office in 1981 one of the least popular presidents of the country.
·He surrounded himself in the White House with group of close-knit associates from
Georgia; and in the beginning, at least, he seemed deliberately to spurn assistance
from more experienced political figures.
·He moved first to reduce unemployment by raising public spending and cutting federal
taxes.
He appointed G. William Miller and then Paul Volcker, both conservative economists, to
head the Federal Reserve Board, thus ensuring a policy of high interest rates and
reduced currency supplies.
Human Rights and National Interests
·Among Jimmy Carter’s most frequent campaign promises was a pledge to build a new
basis for American foreign policy, one in which the defense of “human rights”
would replace the pursuit of “selfish interest.
·Domestic opposition to the treaties was intense, especially among conservatives who
viewed the new arrangements as part of a general American retreat from
international power.
·Middle East negotiations had seemed hopelessly stalled when a dramatic breakthrough
occurred in Nove mber 1977.
·In Tel Aviv, he announced that Egypt was now willing to accept the state of Israel as a
legitimate political entity.
·On September 17, Carter escorted the two leaders into the White House to announce
agreement on a “framework” for an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
·On December 15, 1978, Washington and Beijing announced the resumption of formal
diplomatic relations between the two nations.
·The treaty set limits on the number of long-range missiles, bombers, and nuclear
warheads on each side.
By the fall of 1979, with the Senate scheduled to begin debate over the treaty shortly,
ratification was already in jeopardy.
The Year of the Hostages
·By 1979, the Shah of Iran, hoping to make his nation a bulwark against Soviet
expansion in the Middle East.
·In January 1979, the Shah fled the country.
·By late 1979, revolutionary chaos in Iran was making any normal relations impossible.
·In late October 1979, the deposed Shah arrived in New York to be treated for cancer.
Days later, on November 4, an armed mob invaded the American embassy in
Teheran, seized the diplomats and military personnel inside, and demanded the
return of the Shah to Iran in exchange for their freedom.
·53 Americans remained hostages in the embassy for over a year.
·Only weeks after the hostage seizure, on December 27, 1979, Soviet troops invaded
Afghanistan, the mountaino us Islamic nation lying between the USSR and Iran.
·The combination of domestic economic troubles and international crises created
widespread anxiety, frustration, and anger in the United States-damaging
President Carter already low stranding with the public, and giving added strength
to an alternative political force that had already made great strides.
The Rise of the New American Right
The Sunbelt and Its Politics
·The most widely discusses demographic phenomenon of the 1970s was the rise of what
became known as the “Sunbelt”- a term coined by the political analyst Kevin
Phillips to describe a collection of regions that emerged together in the postwar
era to become the most dynamically growing parts of the country.
·By 1980, the population of the Sunbelt had risen to exceed that of the older industrial
regions of the North and the East.
·White southerners equated the federal government’s effort to change racial norms in the
region with what they believed was tyranny of Reconstruction.
·In the 1970s and early 1980s, the boom mentality of some of these rapidly growing
areas conflicted sharply with the concerns of the older industrial states of the
Northeast and Midwest.
·The so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, which emerged in parts of the West in the late
1970s, mobilized conservative opposition to environmental laws and restrictions
on development.
Suburbanization also fueled the rise of the right.
Religious Revivalism
·In the 1960s, may critics had predicted the virtual extinction of religious influence in
American life.
·By early 1980s, it was no longer possible to ignore them.
·More than 70 million Americans now described themselves as “born-again” Christiansmen
and women who had established a “direct personal relationship with Jesus”.
·For Jimmy Carter and for some others, evangelical Christianity had formed the basis for
a commitment to racial and economic justice and to world peace.
The Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and other organizations of similar
inclination opposed federal interference in local affairs; denounced abortion,
divorce, enterprise; and supported a strong American posture in the world.
The Emergnece of the New Right
·Evangelical Christians were an important part, but only a part, of what became known
as the new right- a diverse but powerful movement that enjoyed rapid growth in
the 1970s and early 1980s.
·Conservative campaigns had for many years been less well funded and organized than
those of their rivals.
·By the late 1970s, there were right-wing think tanks, consulting forms, lobbyists,
foundations, and scholarly centers.
·In the early 1950s Roosevelt became a corporate spokesman for General Electric and
won a wide following on the right with his smooth, eloquent speeches in defense
of individual freedom and private enterprise.
In 1966, with the support of a group of a group of wealthy conservatives, he won the first
of two terms as governor of California-which gave him a much more visible
platform for promoting himself and his ideas. [Ronald Reagan]
The Tax Revolt
·At least equally important to the success of the new right was a new and potent
conservative issue: the tax revolt.
·The biggest and most expensive programs-Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and
others-had the broadest support.
In Proposition 13 and similar initiatives, members of the right found a better way to
discredit government than by attacking specific programs: attacking taxes.
The Campaign of 1980
·Jimmy Carter's standing in popularity polls were lower than that of any
president.
·On election day 1980, Reagan(R) won 51% of the vote to 41% for
Jimmy Carter(D) and 7% for John Anderson(I)
1. Electoral botes: Reagan 489, Carter 49.
·The Republican Party won control of the Senate for the first time since
1952.
The "Reagan Revolution"
The Reagan Coalition
·Reagan owed his election to widespread disillusionment with Carter and to the crises
and disappointments that many voters, perhaps unfairly, associated with him.
·The Reagan coalition included a relatively small but highly influential group of wealthy
Americans associated with the corporate and financial world-the kind of people
who had dominated American politics and government through much of the
nations history until the New Deal began to challenge their preeminence.
·A second element of the Reagan coalition was even smaller, but also disproportionately
influential: a group of intellectuals commonly known as “neo-conservatives,” who
gave to the right something it had not had in may years-a firm base among
“opinion leaders”, people with access to the most influential public forums for
ideas.
Neo-conservatives were sympathetic to the complaints and demands of capitalists, but
their principal concern was to reassert legitimate authority and reaffirm Western
democratic, anticommunists values and commitments.
Reagan in the White House
·Reagan was the master of television, a gifted public speaker, and -in public at leastrugged,
fearless, and seemingly impervious to danger or misfortune.
·He spent his many vacations on a California ranch, where he chopped wood and rode
horses.
At times, the president revealed a startling ignorance about the nature of his own policies
or the actions of his subordinates.
"Supply-Side" Economics
·Reagan’s 1980 campaign for the presidency had promised, among other things, to
restore the economy to health by a bold experiment that became known as
“supply-side” economics or, to some, “Reaganomics”.
·In its first months in office, accordingly , the new administration hastily assembled a
legislative program based on the supply-side idea.
·The recession convinced many people, including some conservatives, that the Reagan
economic program failed.
·The gross national product had grown 3.6 percent in a year, the largest increase since the
-1970s.
·The economy continued to grow, a nd both inflation and unemployment remained low
through most of the decade.
A worldwide “energy glut” and the virtual collapse of the OPEC cartel had produced at
least a temporary end to the inflationary pressures of spiraling fuel costs.
The Fiscal Crisis
·By the mid-1980s, this growing fiscal crisis had become one of the central issues in
American politics.
·Throughout the 1980s, the annual budget deficit consistently exceeded $100 billion.
·The 1981 tax cuts, the largest in American history, contributed to the deficit.
·There were reductions in funding for food stamps; a major cut in federal subsidies for
low-income housing; strict new limitations on Medicare and Medicaid payments;
reductions in student loans, school lunches, and other educational programs; and
an end to many forms of federal assistance to the states and cities-which helped
precipitate years of local fiscal crises as well.
By the late 1980s, may fiscal conservatives were calling for a constitutional amendment
mandating a balanced budget-a provision the president himself claimed to
support.
Reagan and the World
·Determined to restore American pride and prestige in the world, he argued that the
United States should once again become active and assertive in opposing
communism and in supporting friendly governments whatever their internal
policies.
·The president spoke harshly of Soviet regime accusing it of sponsori ng world terrorism
and declaring that any armaments negotiations must be linked to negotiations on
Soviet behavior in other areas.
·Although the president had long denounced the SALT II arms control treaty as
unfavorable to the United States, he continued to honor it provisions.
·The Soviet Union claimed that the new program would elevate the arms race to new and
more dangerous levels and insisted that any arms control agreement begin with an
American abandonment of SDI.
·The New Policy became known as the Reagan Doctrine, and it meant, above all, a new
American activism came in Latin America.
The Reagan administration spoke bravely about its resolve to punish terrorism; and at one
point in 1986, the president ordered American planes to bomb site in Tripoli, the
capital of Libya, whose controversial leader was widely believed to be a leading
sponsor of terrorism.
The Election of 1984
·Reagan was victorious in the election winning 59% of the vote,
carrying every state but Mondale's native Minnesota and the
District of Columbia.
·The election of 1984 was the first campaign of the Cold War.
America and the Waning of the Cold War
The Fall of the Soviet Union
·The first he called glasnost (openness): the dismantling many of the repressive
mechanisms that had been conspicuous features of Soviet life for over half a
century.
·The Communists Parties of Eastern Europe collapsed or redefined themselves into more
conventional left-leaning social democratic parties.
Among other things, it legalized the chief black party in the nation, the African National
Congress, which had been banned for dec ades; and on February 11, 1990, it
released from prison the leader of the ANC, and a revered hero too black south
Africans, Nelson Mandela, who had been in jail for 27 years.
Reagan and Gorbachev
·At a summit meeting with Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986, Gorbachev proposed
reducing the nuclear arsenals of both sides by 50 percent or more, although
continuing disputes over Reagan’s commitment to the SDI program prevented
agreements.
The Fading of the Reagan Revolution
·There were revelations of illegality, corruption, and ethical lapses in the Environmental
Protection Agency, the CIA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Labor,
the Department of Justice, and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development.
The most politically damaging scandal of the Reagan years came to light in November
1986, when the White House conceded that it had sold weapons to the
revolutionary government of Iran as part of a largely unsuccessful effort to secure
the release of several Americans being held hostage by radical Islamic groups in
the Middle East.
The Election of 1988
·The Bush campaign was almost the most negative of the 20th
century, with Bush attacking Dukakis by tying him to all the
unpopular social and cultural stances Americans had come to
identify with "liberals."
·It was also one of the most effective, although the listless, indecisive
character of the Dukakis effort contributed to the Republican
cause as well.
·Bush won the election with 54% of the popular vote to Dukakis' 46%,
and 426 electoral votes to Dukakis' 112.
The Bush Presidency
·The Bush presidency was notable for the dramatic developments in international affairs
with which it coincided and at times helped to advance, and for the absence of
important initiatives or ideas on domestic issues.
·The broad popularity Bush enjoyed during his first three years in office was partly a res
ult of his subdued, unthreading public image.
·On domestic issues, the Bush administration was less successful-partly because the
president himself seemed to have little interest in promoting a domestic agenda
and partly because he faced serious obstacles.
In 1990, the president bowed to congressional pressure and agreed to a significant tax
increase as part of a multiyear “budget package” designed to reduce the deficit.
The Gulf War
·The events of 1989-1991 ad left the United States in the unanticipated position of being
the only real superpower in the world.
·The United States would reduce its military strength dramatically and concentrate its
energies and resources on pressing domestic problems.
·America would continue to use its power actively, not to fight communism but to defend
its regional and economic interests.
·In 1989, that led the administration to order an invasion of Panama.
·On August 2, 1990, the armed forces of Iraq invaded and quickly overwhelmed their
small, oil-rich neighbor, the emirate of Kuwait.
On February 28 Iraq announced its acceptance of allied terms for a cease-fire, and the
brief Persian Gulf War came to an end.
A Resurgence of Partisanship
Launching the Clinton Presidency
·The new administration compounded its problems with a series of missteps and
misfortunes in its first months.
·A long time friend of the president, Vince Foster, serving in the office of the White
House counsel, committed suicide in the summer of 1993.
·Despite its many problems the Clinton administration could boast of some significant
achievements in its first year.
·Clinton was a committed advocate of free trade and a proponent of many aspects of
what came to be known as globalism.
·He won approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which
eliminated most trade barriers among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
·Early in 1993, he appointed his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, which proposed a
sweeping reform designed to guarantee coverage to every American and hold
down the costs of medical care.
·The foreign policy of the Clinton administration was at first cautious and even tentativea
reflection, perhaps, of the president’s relative inexperience in international
affairs, but also of the rapidly changing character of international politics.
The United States was among the nations to send peaceke eping troops to Bosnia to
police the fragile settlement, which-despite many pessimistic predictions-was still
largely in place 7 years later, although terrible new conflicts soon emerged in
other areas of the Balkans.
The Republican Resurgence
·For the first time in 40 years, Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress.
·Newt Gingrich of Georgia, released a set of campaign promises signed by almost all
Republican candidates for he House and called it the “Contract with America”.
·It called for tax reductions, dramatic changes in federal spending to produce a balanced
budget, and a host of other promises consistent with the long-time goals of the
Republican Party’s conservative wing.
·The Republican Congress proposed a series of measures to transfer important powers
from the federal government to the states.
Medicare program to reduce costs.
·In November 1995 and again in January 1996, the federal government literally shut
down for several days because the president and Congress could not agree on a
budget.
The Election of 1996
·The United States presidential election of 1916 took place while Europe was embroiled
in World War I.
· Public sentiment in the still neutral United States leaned towards the British and French
(allied) forces, due to the harsh treatment of civilians by the German Army, which
had invaded and occupied large parts of Belgium and northern France.
· Despite their sympathy with the allied forces most American voters wanted to avoid
involvement in the war, and preferred to continue a policy of neutrality.
Clinton Triumpant and Embattled
·He proposed a relatively modest domestic agenda, consisting primarily of tax cuts and
tax credits targeted at middle-class Americans and designed to help them educate
their children.
·In early 1998, inquiries associated with the Paula Jones case led to charges that the
president had had a sexua l relationship with a young White House intern, Monica
Lewinsky; that he had lied about it in his deposition before Jones’s attorneys; and
that he had encouraged her to do the same.
·Clinton admitted that he had an “improper relationship” with Monica.
The president seemed to have escaped his difficulties as a result of strong popular
support.
Impeachment, Acquittal, and Resurgence
·House leaders resisted all calls for dismissal of the charges or compromise.
·First the House Judiciary Committee and then, on December 19, 1998, the full House,
both voting on strictly partisan lines, approved 2 counts of impeachment: lying to
the grand jury and obstructing justice.
·Expanding role of scandal in American politics driven by an increasingly sensationalist
media culture, the legal device of independent counsels, and the intensely
adversarial quality of partisan politics.
·Numerous reports of Serbian atrocities against the Kosovans, and an enormous refugee
crisis spurred by Yugoslavian military action in the province, slowly roused world
opinion.
The Two-Tiered Economy
·The increasing attendance created enormous new wealth that enriched those talented, or
luck, enough to profit from the areas of booming growth.
·Between 1980 and the mid-1990s, the average family incomes of he wealthiest 20
percent of the population grew by nearly 20 percent.
·Poverty in America had declined steadily and at times dramatically in the years after
World War II, so that by the end of the 1970s the percentage of people living in
poverty had fallen 12 percent.
Globalization
·The most important economic change, and certainly the one whose impact was the most
difficult to gauge, was what became known as the “globalization” of the economy.
·As late as 1970, international trade still played a relatively small role in the American
economy as a whole, which thrived on the basis of the huge domestic market in
North America.
·Imports rose.
·The North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Trade and
Tariffs, were the boldest of a long series of treaties designed to lower trade
barriers stretching back to the 1960s.
Science and Technology in the New Economy
The Personal Computer
·The most visible element of the technological revolution to most Americans was the
dramatic growth in the use of computers in almost every area of life.
·The development of the microprocessor, first introduced in 1971 by Intel, which
represented a notable advance in the technology of integrated circuitry.
·Apple launched its Apple II personal computer, the first such machine to be widely
available to the public.
·3 years later, Apple introduced its Macintosh computer technology, among other things.
·Computerized word processing replaced typewriters and spreadsheets revolutionized
bookkeeping.
·The computer revolution created thousands of new, lucrative businesses: computer
manufacturers themselves (IBM, Apple, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Sun, Digital,
and many others).
The Internet
·The Internet is, a vast, geographically far-flung network of computers that allows people
connected to the network to communicate with others all over the world.
·In 1989, a laboratory in Geneva introduced the World Wide Web, through which
individual users could publish information for the Internet, which helped establish
an orderly system for both the distribution and retrieval of electronic information.
·Newspapers, magazines, and other publications have begun to publish on the Internet.
Breakthroughs in Genetics
·The Human Genome Project set out to identify all of the more than 100,000 genes by
2005.
Anti-Abortion advocates20denounced the research, claiming that it exploited unborn
children.
A Changing Society
The Graying of America
·The declining birth rate and a significant rise in life expectancy produced a substantial
increase in proportion of elderly citizens.
·Increasing costliness of Social Security pensions.
New Patterns of Immigration and Ethnicity
·The nation’s immigration quotas expanded significantly in those years, allowing more
newcomers to enter the United States legally than at any point since the beginning
of the 20h century.
·In 1965, 90 percent of the immigrants to the united States came from Europe.
·Mexico alone accounted for over one-fourth of all the immigrants living in the United
States in 2000.
·In the 1980s and 1990s, Asian immigrants arrived in even greater numbers than Latinos,
constituting more than 40 percent of the total of legal newcomers.
·Many of the new Asian immigrants were refugees, including Vietnamese driven from
their homes in the aftermath of the diatoms war in which the United States had so
long been involved.
The Black Middle Class
·There were increased opportunities for advancement available to those in a position to
take advantage of them.
·As the industrial economy declined and government services dwindled, there was a
growing sense of helplessness and despair among the large groups of nonwhites
who continued to find themselves barred from=2 0upward mobility.
·The percentage of black high-school graduates going on to college was virtually the
same as that of white high0school graduates by the end of the 20th century.
·There were few areas of American life from which blacks were any longer entirely
excluded.
Poor and Working-Class African Americans
·The “underclass” made up as much as a third of the nation’s black population.
·The black family structure suffered as well from the dislocations of urban poverty.
·There was an increase in the number of single-parent, female-headed black households.
·A bystander videotaped several Los Angeles police officers beating a helpless black
man, Rodney King.
·Black residents of South Central Los Angeles erupted in anger.
Modern Plagues: Drugs and AIDS
·The new immigrants arrived in cities with a dramatic increase in drug use, which
penetrated nearly every community in the nation.
·AIDS is the product of the HIV virus, which is transmitted by the exchange of bodily
fluids (blood or semen).
·The first American victims of AIDS, group among whom cases remained the most
numerous were homosexual men.
·In 2000, U.S. government agencies estimated that about 780,000 Americans were
infected with the HIV virus and that another 427,000 had already died from the
disease.
The Decline in Crime
·There was a dramatic reduction in crime=2 0rates across most of the United States.
·New incarceration policies-longer, tougher sentences and fewer paroles and early
releases for violent criminals-led to a radical. Increase in the prison population
and a reduction in the number of criminals at liberty to commit crimes.
A Contested Culture
·Battles over Feminism and Abortion
·Leaders of the New Right had campaigned successfully against the proposed Equal
Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
·The played a central role over the controversy over abortion rights.
·The opposition of some other anti-abortion activists had less to do with religion than
with their commitment to traditional notions of family and gender relations.
·The Reagan and Bush administrations imposed further restrictions on federal funding
and even on the right of doctors in federally funded clinics to give patients any
information on abortion.
The Changing Left and the Growth of Environmentalism
·The environmental movement continued to expand in the last decades of the 20th
century.
·They blocked the construction of roads, airports, and other projects that they claimed
would be ecologically dangerous, taking advantage of new legislations protecting
endangered species and environmentally fragile regions.
The Fragmentation of Mass Culture
·The institutions of the media, news, entertainment grew more powerful.
·Fast food chains became the most widely known restaurants in America.=0 A
·Viewers could now rent or buy videotapes.
The Perils of Globalization
Opposing the "New World Order"
·Environmentalists argued that globalization, in exporting industry to low-wage
countries, also exported industrial pollution and toxic waste into nations that had
no effective laws to control them.
·In November 1999, when the leaders of the 7 nations gathered for their meeting many of
them clashed with police.
Defending Orthodoxy
·The Iranian Revolution of 1979, in which orthodox Muslims ousted a despotic
government whose leaders had embraced many aspects of modern western
culture, was one of the first large and visible manifestations of a phenomenon that
would eventually reach across much of the Islamic world and threaten the stability
of the globe.
The Rise of Terrorism
·The U.S has experienced terrorism for many years.
·Due to the events on September 11, 2001, new security measures began to change the
way Americans traveled.
·A puzzling and frightening epidemic of anthrax began in the weeks after 9/11.
·The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, government intelligence
indicated, had been planned and orchestrated by Middle Eastern agents of a
powerful terrorist network known as Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden.
·In his State of the Union address to Congress in January 2002, Bush spoke of an “axis of
evil”.
The New Era
·In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, may Americans came to believe that
they had entered a new era in their history.
The reaction to the catastrophe exposed a side of American life and culture that had
always existed but that had not always been visible.
Here you will find AP US History notes for the American History: A Survey, 12th Edition notes. These American History: A Survey outlines will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
Additional Information:
1)The Early Chesapeake
a)The Founding of Jamestown
i)Charter granted to London Company in 1604 by King James I, Godspeed, Discovery, and Susan Constant left England and landed in Jamestown, VA in 1607
ii)Colony mostly al men, inadequate diets contributed to disease, by 1608 colony had almost failed (poor leadership, location, disease, food) except Capt. John Smith saved it by imposing work and order and organizing raids against Indians
b)Reorganization
i)London Company became Virginia Company 1609, gained expanded charter, sold stock, wish to grew VA colony with land grants to planters
ii)Winter of 1609-1610= starving time
iii)First governor Lord De La Warr arrived 1609, established harsh discipline w/ work gangs
iv)Communal system didn’t work well, Governor Dale thought better off with personal incentive to work and private ownership
c)Tobacco
i)1612 VA planter John Rolfe began to grow tobacco, cultivation spread, created a tobacco economy that was profitable, uncertain, and high labor and land demands, created need for territorial expansion
d)Expansion
i)Tobacco still not enough to make profits, 1618 campaign to attract settlers
ii)Headright system- land grants to new settles, encouraged family groups to migrate together, rewarded those who paid for passages of others
iii)Company brought women and skilled workers, allowed for a share in self-govt (VA House of Burgesses met July 30, 1619)
iv)1919 saw arrival of first Negro slaves on Dutch ship, but palnters continued to favor indentured servants until at least 1670s b/c cheaper and more abundant
v)Colony grew b/c Indians suppressed, Sir Thomas Dale led assaults, huge uprising staged by Powhatans in 1622 but eventually put down, again 1644
vi)By 1624 Virginia Company defunct, lost all funds, charter revoked by James I and colony put under control of crown
e)Exchanges of Agricultural Tech
i)Survival of Jamestown result of agricultural tech developed by Indians and borrowed by English, such as value of corn w/ its high yields, beans alongside corn to enrich soil
f)Maryland and the Calverts
i)Dream of George Calvert (first Lord Baltimore) as speculative venture + retreat for English Cath. oppressed by Anglican church, 1632 son Cecilius (second Lord Balt) got charter from king, made complete sovereigns of new land
ii)1634 Lord Balt named brother Leonard Calvert governor, settlers arrived in Maryland
iii)Calverts invested heavily, needed many settlers to make profit, encouraged Prot. as well as Catholics (Cath became minority), “Act Concerning Religion” granted toleration; yet politics in MD plagued by tension btwn Catholic minority and Prot. majority, civil war 1655
iv)Proprietor was absolute monarch, Lord Balt. granted land to relatives and other English aristocrats, labor shortages required headright system
g)Turbulent Virginia
i)Mid 17th century VA colony had larger pop, complexity and profitability of economy, debates over how to deal with Indians
ii)Sir William Berkeley apptd governor by King Charles I 1642, put down 1644 Indian uprising and agreed to not cross settlement line. Impossible to protect Indian territory b/c of growth of VA after Cromwell’s victory in English Civil War and flight of opponents to colony
(1)Choice lands along river occupied, new arrivals pressed westward
iii)At first vote extended to all, later only to landowners and elections rare, led to recent settlers in “back country” to be underrepresented
h)Bacon’s Rebellion
i)Nathaniel Bacon and other members of backcountry gentry disagreed on policies toward natives, backcountry in constant danger from Indian attack b/c on land reserved to natives by treaty, believed east. aristocracy wanted to protect dominance by holding down white settlers in west
ii)Bacon on governors council, in 1675 led counter-attacks against Indians against governors orders, kicked off council, unauthorized assault on Indians became a military challenge to colonial govt
iii)Bacon’s army marched on Jamestown twice, died suddenly
iv)Rebellion showed unwillingness of settlers to abide by agreements with natives, also potential for instability in colony’s large population of free, landless men eager for land and against landed gentry—common interest in east and west aristocracy to prevent social unrest, led to African slave trade growing
2)The Growth of New England
a)Plymouth Plantation
i)1608 Pilgrims (Separatists from Ang. Chur) went to Holland to seek freedom, unhappy with children entering Dutch society
ii)Leaders obtained permission from VA Company to settle in VA, king would “not molest them”. William Bradford was their leader and historian
iii)Left 1620 aboard Mayflower with 35 “saints” (members of church) and 67 “strangers”, original destination Hudson River but ended up @ Cape Cod
iv)Land outside of London Company’s territory, therefore signed Mayflower Compact to establish a civil govt and give allegiance to king
v)Found cleared land from Indians killed by disease, natives provided assistance (Squanto), Indians weaker than Southern counterparts, 1622 Miles Standish imposed discipline on Pilgrims to grow corn, develop fur trade
vi)William Bradford elected governor, sought legal permission for colony from Council for New England, ended communal labor and distributed land privately, paid off colonies debt
b)The Massachusetts Bay Experiment
i)Puritans persecuted by James I, and afterward by Charles I who was trying to restore Catholicism to England. 1629 sought charter for land in Massachusetts, some members of Massachusetts Bay Company saw themselves as something more than a business venture, creating a haven for Puritans in N.E.
ii)Governor John Winthrop led seventeen ships in 1630, Boston became company headquarters and capital but many colonists moved into a number of other new towns in E. Mass.
iii)Mass. Bay Company became colonial govt, corporate board of directors gave way to elections by male citizens. Didn’t separate from Anglican church but more leeway in church than centralized structure in England, “congregation church”
iv)Mass Puritans serous and pious ppl, led lies of thrift and hard work, “city upon a hill” (Winthrop). Clergy and govt worked close together, taxes supported church, dissidents little freedom, Mass a “theocracy”
v)Large number of families ensured feeling of commitment to community and sense of order, allowed pop to reproduce very quickly
c)Expansion of New England
i)As more ppl arrived many didn’t accept all religious tenets of colony’s leaders, Connecticut Valley attracted settlers b/c of fertile land and less religious
ii)Thomas Hooker led congregation to Hartford, established Fundamental Orders of Connecticut- created govt with more men given right to vote and hold off
iii)Fundamental Orders of New Haven established New Haven b/c viewed Boston as lacking in religious orthodoxy, later made Connect. with Hartford (royal)
iv)Rhode Island origins in Roger Williams, minister from MA who John Winthrop and others viewed as heretic. Was a Separatist, called for sep of church and state, banished + created Providence, 1644 obtained charter from Parliament to establish govt, “liberty in religious concernments”
v)Anne Hutchinson believed that Mass clergy were not among elect and ad no right to spiritual office, went against assumptions of proper role of women in Puritan society. Developed large following from women who wanted active role in religious affairs, and those opposed to oppressive colonial govt
(1)Unorthodoxy challenged religious beliefs + social order of Puritans, banished and moved to Rhode Island,
vi)Followers of Hutchinson moved to New Hampshire and Maine, established in 1629 by Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges who received grant from Council for New England (former Plymouth Company)
d)Settlers and Natives
i)Natives less powerful rivals to N.E. settlers, small to begin with and nearly extinguished by epidemics
ii)Provided assistance to settlers, whites learned about local food crops + technique, trade with Indians created fortune
iii)Peaceful relations did not last, whites appetite for land grew as pop increased, livestock required more land to graze. Character of conflict and white bruatity emerged in part out of Puritan attitude toward Natives now seen as “heathens” and “savages’
e)The Pequot War, King Philip’s War, and Technology of Battle
i)First major conflict 1637 w/ settlers in Connecticut Valley and Pequot Indians over trade w/ Dutch and land, English allied with rival Indians to Pequots. Capt John Mason killed many Indians, Pequots almost wiped out
ii)Most prolonged and deadly encounter began n 1675 btwn chief of Wampanoags under chief named King Philip, believed only armed resistance could protect land from English invasion and imposition of English law
(1)for three years natives destroyed towns, Mass economy and society weakened, white settlers eventually fought back
(2)1676 joined with rival Indians, Wampanoags shortly defeated, pop decimated and made powerless
iii)Settlements still remained in danger from surviving Indians, & new competition from French and Dutch
iv)Indians had made effective use of new weapon technology: flintlock rifle, which allowed them to inflict higher amounts of casualties. But Indians were no match for advante of English in numbers and firepower
3)The Restoration Colonies
a)The English Civil War
i)Charles I dissolved Parliament 1629 and ruled as absolute monarch, 1642 some members organized military challenge to king. Cavaliers (king, Cath) vs. Roundheads (Parl, Puritans + Prot). 1649 king defeated
ii)After Cromwell’s death in 1658, Stuart Restoration put Charles II back on throne, rewarded courtiers with grants of land. Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania all chartered as proprietary ventures
b)The Carolinas
i)Carved out of Virginia and given to eight proprietors 1663, proposed to sell or give land away using headrights and collect annual payments (quitrents), freedom of worship to Christians, but efforts failed
ii)Anthony Ashley Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury) financed migration from England 1670, founded Charleston 1690. Wanted planned and ordered community, with help of John Locke drew up Fundamental Constitution for Caroline 1669- elaborate system of land distribution and social order
(1)Colony never united, north and south separated socially and economically. N=backwoods, poor. S=Charles Town, trade, prosperous, aristocratic. Rice principal crop
iii)SC close ties to overpopulated Barbados where slavery had taken root. White Carribbean migrants- tough profit seekers- brought with them slave-based plantation society
iv)Tension btwn small N farmers and S wealthy planters, after Coopers death in 1719 colonists seized col from prop., king divided region into 2 royal colonies: North and South Carolina
c)New Netherland, New York, and New Jersey
i)1664 Chalres II gave brother James duke of York territory btwn Connecticut and Deleware River, much of which was claimed by Dutch. Conflict part of wider commercial rivalry, but English fleet under Richard Nicolls forced New Amsterdam and Peter Stuvyesant to surrender it to English. Became New York
ii)Diverse colony w/ may ppl, granted religious toleration, but tension over power distribution. Dutch “patrons” (large landowners”, also wealthy English landlords, fur traders w/ Iroquois ties
iii)Colony was growing and prosperous, most ppl settled within Hudson valley
iv)Duke gave land to political allies in John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, named their territory New Jersey. 1702 ceded control back to crown
d)The Quaker Colonies
i)Pennsylvania born out of effort of dissenting English Prt. to find home for religion and distinctive social order. Led by George Fox, Margaret Fell
ii)Society of Friends (Quakers) anarchistic, democratic, pacifist, no class distinction. They were unpopular, some jailed. Looked to America for asylum
iii)Wanted colony of their own, in William Penn found son of Navy admiral and Quaker. After death of father 1681 claimed debt owed by Charles II in form of a large grant of territory w/ Penn having virtual total authority
iv)Penn advertised PA (wanted profit), became cosmopolitan, settlers flocked there from Eur, but also wanted it to be a “holy experiment”
(1)Created liberal Frame of Government with Rep assembly, 1682 founded Philadelphia, befriended Indians and always paid them for land
(2)PA prospered but was not without conflict. By 1690s ppl upset by power of proprietor, south believed govt unresponsive. 1701 Penn agreed to Charter of Liberties establishing rep assembly with limited power of proprietor, “lower counties” allowed own rep assembly—result was later Delaware
4)Borderland and Middle Grounds
a)The Caribbean Islands
i)Early 17th century migrants flocked to Caribbean. B4 settlers substantial Native populations, wiped out by Eur epidemics, Islands became nearly deserted
ii)Spanish claimed title to al islands but only settled Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico. After Spain and Netherlands went to war 1621 English colonization increased thru 17th century raids by Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch
iii)Colonies built economy on exporting crops, tobacco and cotton unsuccessful, turned to sugar cane and rum. Sugar labor intensive and native population too small for workforce, planters found it necessary to import laborers
(1)Started with indentured servants but work too hard, began to rely more heavily on enslaved African work force. English soon outnumbered
b)Masters and Slaves in the Caribbean
i)Small white, successful population, large bonded African population led to fear of revolt, 1660s legal codes to regulate relations between master and slaves
(1)Many white slave owners concluded cheaper to buy new slaves than to protect well-being, worked them to death
ii)Establishing stable society and culture difficult b/c of harsh and deadly conditions, wealthy returned to England, whites left behind were poor + mostly single and contributed little, no church, family, community
(1)Africans developed world of their own, sustained African religion and social traditions
iii)Caribbean connected to NA colonies, principle source of slaves, plantation system provided models to mainland peoples
c)The Southwestern Borderlands
i)In C and S America Span established impressive empire, settlers prosperous. Areas N of Mexico unimportant economically, peopled by minorities, missionaries, soldiers
ii)New Mexico after Pueblo revolt 1680 developed flourishing agriculture, still not as successful as Span in Mexico and other denser areas
iii)Span began to colonize California after other Eur began to establish presence 1760s. Missions, forts (prestidos) trading areas led to decline in native population, rest forced to convert to Catholicism. Spanish wanted prosperous agricultural economy, used Indian laborers
iv)Late 17th century early 18th cent Spanish considered greatest threat to northern borders French. French traveled down Mississippi R., claimed Louisiana 1682.
(1)Fearing French incursions west + displaced natives, Span began to fortify Texas by building forts, missions, settlements, San Fernando (San Antonio) 1731
(2)North Arizona part of N Mexico ruled by Santa Fe, rest Mexican region Sonora. Heavy Jesuit missionary presence, little success though
v)Spanish colonies in SW created les to increase wealth of empire than to defend it from threats by other Eur powers in NA, but helped create enduring society unlike those established by English. Enlisted natives instead of displacing them
d)The Southeast Borderlands
i)Direcy challenge to English in NA was Spanish in southeastern areas. Florida claimed in 1560s missionaries and traders expanded north into Georgia. 1607 founding of Jamestown Span felt threatened, built forts, area between Carolinas and Florida site of tension btwn Span English and Span French
ii)By 18th century Spanish settlers driven out of Florida, confinded to St Augustine and Pensacola, relied on natives and Africans, intermarried
iii)Eventaully English prevailed, acquired Florida in Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War), English had always wanted to protect southern boundary
e)The Founding of Georgia
i)Founders group of unpaid trustees led by General James Oglethorpe, interested in economic success, military and philanthropic motives. Military barrier against Spanish and refuge for impoverished English to begin anew
ii)Treaty recognized English lands 1676, fighting continued in 1686 w/ raid against Carolina, hostilities broke out in 1701 in Queen Anne’s War/ War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1713
iii)Oglethorpe wanted colony south of Carolinas, wanted prisoners and poor people in debt to be farmer-soldiers of the new colony
iv)1732 King George II granted trustees land, compact settlement to defend against Spanish and Indians, excluded Africans, prohibited rum, regulated trade w/ Indians excluded catholics—all to prevent revolt/conflict
v)1733 founded at mouth of Savanna R, few debtors released form jail so hundreds of impoverished ppl from England and Scotland as well as religious refugees from Switzerland and Germany settled colony
vi)Strict rules stifled early development- ppl demanded right to buy slaves, restrictions on size of individual property, power of trustees
vii)1740 Ogelthorpe failed assault on St Augustine, trustees removed limitation on individual landholdings, 1750 allowed slavery, 1751 gave control of colony to king who then allowed for representative assembly
f)Middle Grounds
i)Struggle for NA not only among Eurs, but btwn Eurs and native populations
ii)In VA and New England settlers quickly established dominance and displaced natives, but in other areas balance of power more precarious
iii)In western borders neither side dominant, in “middle grounds” frequent conflict but each side had to make concessions. In these areas influence of colonial govt invisible, had own relationship with tribes
iv)To Indians Eurs menacing and appealing. Feared powerful weapons, but wanted them to moderate their own conflicts, offer gifts
v)17th century before English settlers French adept at beneficial relationships with tribes, many were solitary fur traders
vi)By mid 18th century French influence declinging and British settlers becoming dominant, had to deal with leaders thru gifts, cememonies, mediation instead of simple commands and raw force
vii)As British and American influece grew, new settlers had difficulty adapting to these complex rituals, stability btwn whites and Indians deteriorated, by 19th century “middle grounds” collapsed. Sotry of whites and Indians not only of conquest and subjugation but in some regions of difficult but stable acomodation and mutual adaption
5)The Evolution of the British Empire
a)The Drive for Reorganization
i)Imperial reorganization some believed would increase colonial profits, power of govt, success of mercantilism. Colonies= market for manufactured goods, source for raw materials, but foreigners had to be excluded
ii)Govt sought to monopolize trade with its colonies, but at times American colonists found it more profitable to trade w/ Spanish, French, Dutch. Trade developed btwn them and non-English markets
iii)@ First govt made no effort to restrict, but during Oliver Cromwell’’s Protectorate in 1650 + 1651 passed laws to keep Dutch ships out of English colonies, Charlies II adopted three Navigation Acts
(1)First 1660 allowed trade to occur only in British ships. Second 1663 all goods to Eur had to pass thru England on way, taxable. Third 1673 created duties on coastal trade and allowed customs officials to enforce Acts
iv)Laws advantage for England, but some for colonies as well: created important shipbuilding industry, encouraged and subsidized the development production of goods English needed
b)The Dominion of New England
i)1679 Charles II tried to increase control over MA yb making New Hampshire a royal colony, five years later after MA refused to enforce Navigation Acts Charles revoked Massachusetts corporation charter, became royal colony
ii)James II 1686 created Dominion of New England, combined govts of MA w/ rest of NE colonies, 1688 NY and NJ as well. Eliminated assemblies, appt a single governor, Sir Edmund Andros. Rigid enforcement of Navigation Acts, dismissal of claims “rights of Englishmen”, strengthened Anglican church
c)The “Glorious Revolution”
i)James II ruled autocratically, Cath. ministers, w/o Parliament, 1688 daughter Mary and husband William of Orange assumed throne= bloodless coup
ii)Bostonians heard of overthrow of James II, unseated unpopular viceroy. Dominion of NE abolished, separate govts restored- except 1691 Plymouth + MA merged 2 royal colony, charter restored General Court but governor too, replaced church membership w/ property ownership as basis 4 voting + office
iii)Adros governed NY thru Captain Francis Nicholson (supported by wealthy merchants and fur traders), dissidents were led by Jacob Leisler who raised militia and captured city fort, drove Nicholson to exile. 1691 William and Mary appd new governor, Leisler charged with treason, rivalry btwn “Leislerians” and “anti-Laslerians” dominated NY poitics for years
iv)Maryland ppl erroneously assumed Cath Lord Baltimore had sided with James II, so 1689 John Coode started revolt, drove out Lord Balt’s officials, thru elected convention chose committee to govern and applied for chater, 1691 William and Mary granted. Church of Eng. offical religion, Cath prevented to hold office, vote, practice religion in public. 1715 5th Lord Baltimore became proprietor after joining Anglican Church
1)The Colonial Population
a)Indentured Servitude
i)Young men and women bound themselves to masters for a fixed term of servitude, in return received passage to America, food shelter, and males clothing, tools, and land at end—in reality left with nothing at all
(1)Provided means of coping with severe labor shortage, masters received headrights, for servants hope to escape troubles, establish themselves
ii)Most former servants formed large floating population of young single men, traveled from place to place, source of social unrest
iii)1670s flow began to decline b/c of prosperity in England, decrease in birth rate
b)Birth and Death
i)Inadequate food, frequent epidemics, large number early deaths. But growth of population even after immigration, after 1650s natural increase= most growth
ii)N= cool climate, relatively disease-free, clean water, no large population centers for epidemics= long lives. S= mortality rates high (infants too), life expectancy low, disease and salt-contaminated water. growth b/c immigration
iii)By late 17th cent ratio of males to females becoming more balanced, led to increase in natural growth
c)Medicine in the Colonies
i)17th + 18th cent no concept of infection + sterilization, midwives in childbirth and recommended herbs
ii)Humoralism led to purging, expulsion, bleeding. Most ppl treated themselves
d)Women and families in the Chesapeake
i)B/c of sex ration women married young, high mortality rates, premarital sex common. Life of childbearing, average of 8 children, 5 of which typically died in childhood or infancy. Had greater levels of freedom @ first b/c of ratio
ii)High mortality rates led to many orphans, special courts and institutions to protect and control them. By 18th century life expectancy increasing, indentured servitude decreasing, more equal sex ratio, life easer for whites
e)Women and Families in New England
i)Family structure more stable + traditional, women minority married young, children more likely to survive, much of life spent rearing and childbearing
ii)Family relationships and women status dictated by religion. S established churches weak, NE power in men who created patriarchal view of society
f)The Beginnings of Slavery in British America
i)Demand for black servants to supplement scare southern labor supply, limited @ first b/c Atlantic slave trade did not serve American colonies- Portuguese to SA and Caribbean, by late 17th century came to America w/ French and Dutch
(1)Sugar economies of Caribbean + Brazil demanded slaves, not until 1670s did traders import blacks directly 2 (b4 mostly W. Indies to America)
ii)Mid 1690s Royal African Company’s monopoly broken, prices fell, number of Africans increased. Small number in NE, more in middle colonies, majority in S b/c flow of white laborers had all but stopped
iii)Early 18th century rigid distinction established btwn blacks and whites, no necessity to free black workers, serve permanently, children= new work force
(1)Assumptions of white superior race, applied like it had to natives. Slave codes limited rights of blacks in law, almost absolute authority of masters
g)Changing Sources of European Immigration
i)BY early 18th century immigration from England in decline- result of better economic conditions and govt restrictions on emigration. French, German, Swiss, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Scandinavian immigration increased
(1)French Huguenots, German Protestants (many from Palatinate)- settled in NY, PA (Dutch mispronunciation of Deutsch), around 1710 Scotch-Irish immigrated + pushed out to edges of Eur settlements- significant in NJ and PA, established Presbyterianism as important religion there
2)The Colonial Economies
a)The Southern Economy
i)Chesapeake- tobacco basis of economy, bust and boom pattern, enabled some planters to grow enormously wealthy
ii)South Carolina and Georgia staple was rice. Arduous + unhealthful, whites refused to cultivate, dependent on African labor more than elsewhere. Blacks showed greater resistance 2 disease, more adept at agricultural tasks than white
(1)Early 1740s indigo contributed to SC economy, high demand in England
iii)B/c of S dependence on cash crops developed less of a commercial or industrial economy, few cities, no large local merchant communities
b)Northern Economic and Technological Life
i)Agriculture dominated, more diverse but conditions less favorable, hard to develop large-scale commercial farming, middle colonies more suited 4 wheat
ii)Home industries, craftsmen and artisans, mills for grinding grain, large scale shipbuilding operations, 1640s MA metals industry w/ ironworks. Metal became important part of colonial economy, largest enterprise was German Peter Hasenclever in NJ- but Iron Act of 1750 limited surpassing England
iii)Biggest obstacles for industrialization were inadequate labor supply small domestic market, inadequate transpiration facilities and energy supplies
iv)Natural resources- lumber, mining, fishing, impt commodities to trade
c)The Extent and Limits of Technology
i)Ppl lacked guns, plows, lack of ownership of tools b/c of poverty, isolation
ii)Few colonists self-sufficient in late 17th early 18th cent, ability of ppl to acquire manufactured implements lagged behind capacity to produce them
d)The Rise of Colonial Commerce
i)At first no commonly accepted medium of exchange, difft forms of paper currency ineffective + could not be used for goods from abroad
ii)Imposing order on trade difficult, production and markets of goods not guaranteed, small competitive companies made stabilization more difficult
iii)Commerce eventually grew, large coastal trade w/ each other + W. Indies, expanding transatlantic trade w/ England, Eur continent, west Africa.
iv)“Triangular trade”, trade in rum, slaves, sugar, manufactured goods
v)New merchant class developed in port cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia), protected from competition by Navigation Acts, access to market in England. Ignored and developed markets with other nations, higher profits, financed import of English manufactured goods
vi)During 18th century commercial system stabilized, merchants expanded
e)The Rise of Consumerism
i)Growing prosperity created new appetite and ability to satisfy, material goods
ii)Increasing division of societies by class, ability to purchase and show goods impt to demonstrate class, especially in cities w/o estate to prove wealth
iii)Industrial Revolution allowed England and Eur to produce more affordable goods, increasingly commercial society created social climate where buying goods considered social good. Merchants and traders began advertising
iv)Things once considered luxuries came to be seen as necessities once readily available, such as tea, linens. Quality of possessions associated with virtue + refinement, strive to become more educated
v)Growth of consumption and refinement led cities to plan growth and ensure elegant public squares, parks, boulevards, public stages for social display
3)Patterns of Society
a)The Plantation
i)Some plantations enormous, but most 17th cent plantations were rough and small estates, work force seldom more than 30 ppl
ii)Economy precarious- good years growers could earn great profit and expand, but couldn’t control markets, when prices fell faced ruin
iii)Most plantations far from towns, forced to become self-contained communities, some larger ones approached size of town
iv)Society highly stratified, wealthy landowners exercised greater social and economic influence. Small farmers with few or no slaves formed majority
b)Plantation Slavery
i)By mid-18th cent ¾ blacks lived on plantations with 10+ slaves, ½ lived w/ 50+
ii)In larger establishments society and culture developed btwn slaves, attempts at nuclear families made but members could be sold at any time, led to extended families. Developed own languages, religion w/ Christianity and African lore
iii)Occasional acts of individual resistance, at least twice actual slave rebellions. Stone Rebellion in SC 1739- 100 Africans rose up + attempted to flee to Florida, quickly crushed by whites. Other slaves tried to run away
iv)Some slaves learned skills, set up own shops, some bought freedom
c)The Puritan Community
i)Social unit of NE was town, “covenant” of members bound all in religious + social commitment to unity. Arranged around a “common”, outlying fields divided by family size, social station. Little colonial interference, self govt
ii)English primogeniture (passing of all to firstborn son) replaced by division amongst all sons, women more mobile than brothers b/c no inheritance
iii)Tight knit community controlled by layout, power of church, town meeting. Strayed by pop increases, ppl began farming further lands, moved houses to be closer, applied for church of their own, eventually led to new town
iv)Patriarchal society weakened by economic necessity, needed help w/ farm, ect.
d)The Witchcraft Phenomenon
i)Gap btwn expectation of united community and reality of increasingly diverse and fluid one difficult for NEers to accept- led to tensions that produced hysteria such as witchcraft (Satanic powers) in the 1680s and 1690s
ii)Salem, MA- accusations spread from W Indians to prominent ppl. This model would repeat itself, mostly middle-aged, childless widowed women who may have inherited property. Puritan society no tolerance for “independent women”
iii)Reflection of highly religious character of society, witchcraft was mainstream
e)Cities
i)Commercial centers emerged along Atlantic by 1770s- New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Charles Town, Newport (RI)
ii)Trading centers for farmers, marts for international trade, leaders merchants w/ large estates, large social distinctions. Center of industry such as ironworks and distilleries, advanced schools, cultural activities. Crime, vice, epidemics, ect.
iii)Vulnerable to fluctuations in trade, countryside effects muted. Places where new ideas could circulate, regular newspapers, books from abroad= new ideas
4)Awakenings and Enlightenments
a)The Pattern of Religions
i)Religious toleration flourished in America b/c of necessity. Church of England official religion for some colonies, ignored except in VA and MA. Protestants extended toleration more readily to each other than to Roman Catholics- persecuted in MA after 1691 overthrow of proprietors. NEers viewed Cath French agents of Rome
ii)Early 18th cent some troubled w/ decline religious piety in society, movement west + scattered settlements= loss with organized religion, commercial success created more secular outlook in urban areas. jeremiads= sermon of despair
b)The Great Awakening
i)Began in 1730s climax 1740s, new spirit of religious fervor, appeal to women and younger sons b/c of rhetoric of potential for every person to break away from constraints and renew relationship with God
ii)Evangelists from England such as John and Charles Wesley, George Whitfield spread revival. Most famously NE Congregationalist Jonathan Edward
c)The Enlightenment
i)Product of great scientific and intellectual discoveries in Eur in 17th cent, natural laws discovered that regulated nature, celebrated human reason + inquiry. Reason and not just faith create progress and knowledge
ii)Ppl should look at themselves for guidance to live and shape society, not to God. Didn’t challenge religion, insisted rational inquiry supported Christianity
d)Education
i)Even b4 Enlightenment colonists placed high value on education, MA 1647 law required each town to have a public school. Most white males were literate, women’s rate lagged, Africans virtually no access to education
ii)Six colleges by 1763, most founded by religious groups: Harvard (Puritans) created to train ministers, William and Mary (Anglicans) Yale (Congregationalists). Despite religious basis, liberal education. Kings College (Columbia) and UPenn created as secular institutions
e)The Spread of Science
i)Prominent members of society members of the Royal Society of London.
ii)Value placed on scientific knowledge can be seen by rise of inoculation, spread by Cotton Mather and adopted in Boston 1720s, became common procedure
f)Concepts of Law and Politics
i)Americans believed they were re-creating institutions of Europe but b/c of lack of lawyers before 1700 English legal system was simplified- rights to trial by jury maintained but pleading and procedure simpler, punishment different b/c of labor-scarce society, govt criticism not libel if accurate
ii)Large degree of self-govt. Local communities ran own affairs, had delegates to colonial assemblies filed role of Parliament, apptd provincial governors powers were limited
iii) Provincial govts accustomed to acting pretty independently, expectations about rights of colonists began to take hold in America that policymakers in England did not share. Few problems before 1760s b/c British did little to exert authority they believed they possessed
1)Loosening Ties
a)A Tradition of Neglect
i)After Glorious Revolution Parliamentary leaders less inclined to tighten imperial control b/c depended on support of merchants + landholders who feared taxes, diminished profits
ii)Colonial administration inefficient split btwn Board of Trade and Plantations, Privy Council, admiralty, treasury. Many Royal officials in America apptd b/c of bribery or favoritism
iii)Resistance centered in colonial legislatures, claimed right to tax, approve appts, pass laws. Saw themselves as little parliaments, checked governor power
b)The Colonies Divided
i)Colonists often felt stronger ties to England than to one another. Yet cnxns still forged, Atlantic settlement created roads, trade, colonial postal service
ii)Loath to cooperate even against French and Indian threat. Still, delegation in Albany to Iroquois proposed establishing a general govt with power to govern relationships with Indians, but colony retaining constitution but power. This Albany Plan was rejected by all the colonies
2)The Struggle for the Continent
a)New France and the Iroquois Nation
i)By 1750s growing English and French settlements produced religious and commercial tensions. Louis XIV sought greater empire, French explorers had traveled down Mississippi R. and looked Westward, held continental interior
ii)To secure holdings founded communities, fortresses, missions, trading posts. Seigneuries (lords) held large estates, Creoles in S had plantation economy
iii)“Middle ground” of interior occupied by French, British, Indians. English offered Indians more and better goods, French offered tolerance + adjusted behavior to Indian patterns- French developed closer relationships
iv)Iroquois Confederacy a defensive alliance, most powerful tribal presence in NE. Forged commercial relationship w/ Dutch and English, played French against English to maintain independence. Ohio valley became battleground
b)Anglo-French Conflicts
i)Glorious Revolution led to William III and later Queen Anne to oppose French
ii)King William’s War (1689-1687), Queen Anne’s War began 1701 brought border fighting w/ Spanish, French and Indian allies. Treaty of Utrech 1713 ended conflicts, gave much land to English
iii)Conflict over trade btwn Spanish and English merged w/ conflict btwn French and English over Prussia + Austria. Resulted in King George’s War 1744-1748
iv)After, relations in America btwn English, French, Iroquois deteriorated. Iroquois granted concessions to British, French built new fortresses in Ohio valley, British did the same. Iroquois balance of power disintegrated
v)1754 VA sent militia under George Washington to challenge French, assaulted Fort Duquesne. F counter-assault on his Fort Necessity resulted in its surrender
c)The Great War for the Empire- The French and Indian War
i)First phase lasted from 1754 after For Necessity to expansion to Eur in 1756. Colonists most on own w/ only moderate British assistance- navy prevented landing of larger French reinforcements, but failed Ohio R. attack.
(1)Local colony forces occupied with defending themselves against W. Indian tribes’ (except Iroquois) raids who allied themselves with French after Fort Necessity defeat. Iroquois hesitant to molest French but allied with English
ii)Second phase began 1756 when French and English opened official hostilities in Seven Years’ War. Realignment of allies. Beginning 1757 British Sec. of State William Pitt began to bring most impt war effort in America under British control: forcibly enlisted colonists (impressments), seized supplies and forced shelter from colonists w/o compensation. By 1758 much friction
iii)Third phase Pitt relaxed policies, reimbursed control, returned military control to assemblies, additional troops to America. Finally tide in England’s favor, after poor French harvests 1756 suffered many defeats at hands of generals Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe thru 1758. Fall of Quebec 1759 by Wolfe resulted in surrender of French 1760
iv)Pitt didn’t pursue peace, but George III ascended throne and signed Peace of Paris 1763. F ceded Canada and land east of Miss. R
v)War expanded England’s New World territory, enlarged English debt. English officials angry at American ineptitude and few financial contributions
vi)Colonists had been forced to act in concert, return of authority to assemblies 1758 seemed to confirm illegitimacy of English interference in local affairs
vii)Disaster for Indians in Ohio Valley allied with French, Iroquois passivity resulted in deteriorated English relationship, Confed began to crumble
3)The New Imperialism
a)Burdens of Empire
i)After 1763 empire management more difficult. In past viewed colonies in terms of trade, now ppl argued land and population’s support and taxes were valuable
ii)Territorial annexations of 1763 doubled size of British Emp in NA. Conflict over whether west should be settled or not, colonial govts competed for jurisdiction, other wanted English to control or make new colonies
iii)English govt had vast war debt, English landlords + merchants objecting to tax increase, troops in India added expense, England couldn’t rely on cooperation of colonial govts. Argued tax administered by London only effective way
iv)New king George III 1760 determined to be active monarch, created unstable majority in Parliament, suffered mental illness, immature, insecure
(1)Apptd PM George Grenville 1763, unlike brother-in-law Pitt didn’t sympathize w/ American view, believed colonists indulged too long and should obey laws and pay cost of defending and administering empire
b)The British and the Tribes
i)To prevent conflict w/ Indians from settlers moving to western lands issued Proclamation of 1763 forbidding settlers to advance beyond Appalachian line
(1)Allowed London to control westward movement, limit depopulation of coastal trade markets, land and fur speculation to British and not colonists
ii)More land taken from natives but many tribes still supported it. John Stuart (south) and Sir William Johnson (north) in charge of native affairs
iii)Proc failure, settlers swarmed over boundary, new agreements failures as well
c)The Colonial Response
i)Grenville stationed British troops in America, Mutiny Act of 1765 required colonists to assist in provisioning of army, British navy patrolled for smugglers, customs service enlarged, no royal official substitutes, limited manufacturing
ii)Sugar Act 1764 tried to eliminate illegal sugar trade btwn colonies, foreigners
iii)Currency Act of 1764 disallowed use of paper currency by assemblies
iv)Stamp Act of 1765 imposed tax on all printed documents
v)New imperial program effort to reapply mercantilism, increased revenues. Colonists had trouble effectively resisting b/c on conflict amongst themselves, tension over “backcountry” settlers
vi)1771 small-scale civil war after Regulators in NC opposed high taxes sheriffs apptd by governor collected + felt underrepresented. Suppressed by governor
vii)After 1763 common grievances began to counterbalance internal divisions. N. merchants opposed commercial + manufacturing restraint, backcountry resented closing land speculation and fur trading, debted plantesr feared new taxes, professionals depended on other colonists, small farmers feared taxes ad abolition of paper money. Restriction came at beginning of economic depression, policies affected cities greatest where resistance first arose. Boston suffering worst economic problems
viii)Great political consequences, Anglo-Americans accustomed to self-govt thru provincial assemblies and right to appropriate money for colonial govt. Circumvention of assemblies by taxing public directly and paying royal officials unconditionally challenged basis of colonial power: public finance
(1)Same time democratic, but also conservative- to conserve liberties Americans believed already possessed
4)Stirrings of Revolt
a)The Stamp Act Crisis
i)Stamp Act of 1765 affected all Americans. Economic burdens were light but colonists disturbed by precedent set- past taxes to regulate commerce and not raise money, stamps obvious attempt to tax w/o assemblies approval
ii)Few colonists did more than grumble- until Patrick Henry 1765 in VA House of Burgesses spoke against British authority. Introduced resolutions known as “Virginia Resolves” declaring Americans possessed same rights as English, right to be taxed only by their own reps
iii)In MA James Otis called for intercolonial congress against tax, October 1765 Stamp Act Congress met in NY to petition king. Summer 1765 riots broke out along coast led by new Sons of Liberty. Boston crowd attacked Lt. Gov.
iv)Some opposition b/c of wealth/power disparity, mostly political + ideological
v)Stamp Act repealed b/c boycott of 1764 Sugar Act expanded to other colonies, aided by Sons of Liberty. Centered in Boston b/c that is where customs commissioners headquartered. English merchants begged for repeal b/c of lost markets, Marquis of Rockingham succeeded Grenville + convinced king to repeal it 1766. (Also, Declaratory Act asserted Parl. control over all colonies)
b)The Townshend Program
i)Negative rxn to appeasement in England. Landlords feared would lead to increased taxes on them, king bowed and appt William Penn (Lord Chatham) PM, but was incapacitated by illness to chairman of the exchequer Charles Townshend held real power
ii)1st problem Quartering Act, British believed reasonable since troops protecting, colonists objected b/c made contribution were mandatory. NY and MA refused
iii)1767 disbanded NY assembly until colonists obeyed Mutiny Act, new tax (Townshend Duties) on goods imported from England- tea, paper. Believed “external” tax would be difft than Stamp Act’s “internal” tax
iv)Colonists still objected b/c saw same purpose as to raise revenue w/o consent
v)MA Assembly lead opposition, urged all colonies stand up against every tax by Parl. Sec of State for Colonies Lord Hillsborough said any assembly endorsing MA would be dissolved. Other colonies railed to support MA
vi)Townshend attempted stronger enforcement of commercial regulations + stop smuggling thru new board of customs commissioners, based in Boston. Boston merchants organized boycott against products with T. Duties, 1768 NY and Philadelphia joined nonimportation agreement
vii)1767 T. died, Lord North repealed all Town. Duties except that on tea
c)The Boston Massacre
i)Before news of repeal reached America impt event in MA. B/c of Boston harassment of customs commissioners Brit govt placed regular troops in city. Tensions ran high, soldiers competed in labor market
ii)March 5, 1770 dockworkers + “liberty boys” pelted customs house sentries w/ rocks, scuffle ensued and British fired into crowd and killed 5 ppl
iii)Incident transformed by local resistance leaders into “Boston Massacre”, Paul Revere’s engraving pictured it as an organized assault on a peaceful crowd
iv)Samuel Adams leading figure in fomenting public outrage, viewed events in moral terms- England sinful and corrupt. Organized committee of correspondence 1772, other networks of dissent spread 1770s
d)The Philosophy of Revolt
i)Three years of calm but 1760s aroused ideological challenge to England. Ideas that would support revolution stemmed from religion (Puritans), politics, “radical” opposed to GB govt (Scots, Whigs), used John Locke for arguments
ii)New concept that govt was necessary to protect individuals from evils of ppl, but govt made up of ppl and therefore safeguards needed against abuses of power, ppl disturbed that king and ministers too powerful to be checked
iii)English const an unwritten flexible changing set of principles, Americans favored permanent inscription of govt powers
iv)Basic principle was right of ppl to be taxed only with their consent, “no taxation w/o representation” absurd to English who employed “virtual representation” (all Parl members rep all interests of whole nation) vs American “actual” representative elected and accountable to community
v)Difft opinion of sovereignty, Americans believed in division of sov btwn Parl and assemblies, British believed must be a single, ultimate authority
e)The Tea Excitement
i)Apperant calm disguised sense of resentment at enforcement of Navigation Acts 1770s. Dissent leaflets and literature, tavern conversation, not only iltellectuals but ordinary ppl haerd, discussed, absorbed new ideas
ii)1773 East India Company had large stock of tea could not sell in England, Tea Act of 1773 passed by Parl allowed company to export tea to America w/o paying navigation taxes paid by colonial merchants, allowed company to sell tea for less than colonists + monopolize colonial tea trade. Enraged merchants
iii)Enraged merchants, revived taxation without rep. issue. Lord North colonists would be happy with reduced tea prices but resistance leaders argued it was another example of unconstitutional tax. Massive boycott of tea followed
iv)Women role in resistance- plays of Mercy Otis Warren, Daughters of Liberty
v)Late 1773 w/ popular support leaders planned to prevent E. India Company from landing its cargoes in colonial ports, NY, Philadelphia, Charleston stopped shipment. December 16, 1773 Bostonians dressed as Mohawks boarded ships, poured tea chests into harbor—“Boston tea party”
vi)When Bostonians refused to pay for destroyed property George III and Lord North passed four Coercion Acts (Intolerable Acts to Americans) in 1774- closed port of Boston, reduced self-govt power, royal officers could be tried in England or other colonies, quartering of troops in empty houses
vii)Quebec Act provided civil govt for French Roman-Caths of Canada, recognized legality of Rom Cath church. Americans inflamed b/c feared was a plot to subject Americans to tyranny of pope, would hinder western expansion
viii)Coercive Acts didn’t isolate MA, made it a martyr, sparked new resistance
5)Cooperation and War
a)New Sources of Authority
i)Passage of authority from royal govt to colonists began on local level where history of autonomy strong. Example- 1768 Samuel Adams called convention of delegates from towns to sit in place of dissolved General Court. Sons of Liberty became source of power, enforced boycotts
ii)Committees of correspondence began 1772 in MA, VA made first intercolonial committee which enabled cooperation btwn colonies. VA 1774 governor dissolved assembly, rump session issued call for Continental Congress
iii)First Continental Congress met Sept 1774 in Philadelphia (no delegates from Georgia), made 5 major decisions
(1)Rejected plan for colonial union under British authority
(2)Endorsed statement of grievances, called 4 repeal of oppressive legislation
(3)Recommended colonists make military preparations for defense of British attack against Boston
(4)Nonimporation, nonexportation, nonconsumption agreement to stop all trade with Britain, formed “Colonial Association” to enforce agreements
(5)Agreed to meet in spring, indicating making CC a continuing organization
iv)CC reaffirmed autonomous status within empire, declared economic war. In Eland Lord Chatham (William Pitt) urged withdrawal of American troops, Edmund Burke for repeal of Coercive Acts. 1775 Lord North passed Conciliatory Propositions- no direct Parl tax, but colonists would tax themselves at Parls demand. Didn’t reach America until after first shot fired
b)Lexington and Concord
i)Farmers and townspeople of MA had been gathering arms and training “minutemen”. IN Boston General Thomas Gage knoew of preparations, received orders from England to arrest rebel leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington vicinity. Heard of minutemen stock in nearby Concord and decided to act on April 18, 1775
ii)William Dawes and Paul revere road from Boston to warn of impending British attack. At Lexington town common shots fired and minutemen fell. On march back from hidden farmers harassed British army
iii)Rebels circulated their account of events, rallied thousands of colonists in north + south to rebel cause. Some saw just another example of tension
1)The States United
a)Defining American War Aims
i)2nd Continental Congress (CC) agreed to support war, disagreed on purpose. One group led by John and Sam Adams favored full independence, others wanted modest reforms in imperial relationship. Most sought middle ground
ii)“Olive Branch Petition” conciliatory appeal to king, then July 1775 “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”
iii)Public @ first fought not for independence but redress of grievances, later began to change reasons b/c cost of war too large for such modest aims, anger over British recruitment of Indians, slaves, mercenaries, and b/c GB rejected Olive Branch Petition and enacted “Prohibitory Act” w/ naval blockade
iv)January 1776 Common Sense by Thomas Paine was revolutionary propaganda, argued that problem was not parliamentary acts but English constitution, king, and ruling system. GB no longer fit to rule b/c of brutality, corruption
b)The Decision for Independence
i)After Common Sense support grew, CC recommended colonies establish independent govt’s from British, July 4 1776 Declaration of Independence
ii)Dec of Indep. written mostly by Thomas Jefferson, restated contract theory of John Locke that govts formed to protect rights of “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”, then listed alleged crimes of king and Parliament
iii)Dec. inspired French Revolution’s Dec. of the rights of Men, claimed sovereign “United States of America”, led to increased foreign aid
c)Responses to Independence
i)At news of Dec many rejoiced others disapproved b/c still had great loyalty to king, called themselves Loyalists but independents called them Tories
ii)States drafted constitutions to replace loyal govts by 1781, states considered centers of authority but war required central direction
iii)1777 Articles of Confederation passed to confirm weak, decentralized system in place. Continental Congress was main coordinator of war effort
d)Mobilizing for War
i)Nation needed to raise, organize, equip, and pay for army. W/o British markets shortages of materials, gunsmiths couldn’t meet demand for funs and ammunition. Most supplies captured from Brits or supplied by Eur nations
ii)Financing problematic, Congress had no power to tax ppl + had to ask states for funds. Eventually issued paper money, led to inflation, value of money plummeted. Most farmers + merchants preferred business w/ British who could pay for goods in gold and silver. Govt forced to borrowed $ from other nations
iii)After patriotic surge 1775 few American army volunteers. States used persuasion, force, drafts. To correct problem of states controlling army units 1775 created Continental army w/ single commander, George Washington. In new nation unsure of structure and govt, he provided the army and the ppl a symbol of stability around which they could rally, held nation together
2)The War for Independence
a)The First Phase: New England
i)After Concord and Lexington American forces besieged army of General Thomas Gage in Boston, Battle of Bunker Hill fought June 1775. Heaviest British casualties of entire war occurred
ii)By 1776 Brits concluded Boston not best place to wage war from b/c of geography and fervor. March 1776 withdrew to Halifax, Nova Scotia
iii)In south Patriots crushed uprising of Loyalists February 1776 at Moore’s Creek Bridge, NC. In north Americans invaded Canada, Patriot General Benedict Arnold + Richard Montgomery threatened Quebec in order to remove British threat and recruit Canadians. Siege failed, Canada not to become part of US
iv)British evacuation not so much victory as changing English assumptions about war. Clear conflict not local phenomenon around Boston but larger war
b)The Second Phase: The Mid-Atlantic Region
i)During summer 1776 British army of 32,000 landed in New York City under William Howe. Americans rejected Howe’s offer or royal pardon, Washington’s 19,000 man army pushed backed from LI, thru NJ, to PA
ii)Eur warfare was seasonal activity, British settled for winter in NJ leaving outpost of Hessians at Trenton. Christmas 1776 Washington attacked across Deleware
iii)British 1777 sought to capture Philadelphia to discourage Patriots, rally Loyalists, end war quickly. Captured city September, Washington defeated at Germanton in October, went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. CC, dislodged from capital, met in York, PA
iv)British John Burgoyne led British campaign in north, at first successful- captured supplies of Fort Ticonderoga. Defeats led Congress to remove General Philip Schuyler and replace with Horatio Gates. But series of Patriot victories followed, Burgoyne forced to withdraw to Saratoga where Gates surrounded him and forced surrender of 5,000 man army
v)Campaign Patriot success, led to alliance btwn US and France
vi)British failure due to William Howe abandoning northern campaign and letting Burgoyne fight alone, allowed Washington to retreat and regroup instead of finishing him, left Continental army unmolested in Valley Forge
c)The Iroquois and the British
i)Iroquois Confederacy declared neutrality in 1776, but Joseph and Mary Brant persuaded some tribes to support British (Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga). Belived British victory would stem white movement onto tribal lands
ii)Only 3 of 6 nations supported British(Oneida, Tuscarora, Onondaga split)
d)Securing Aid From Abroad
i)Failure of Brits to crush Continental army in mid-Atlandtic states + rebel victory at Saratoga was turning point
ii)After Dec of Indep, US sent reps to Europe’s capitals to negotiate commercial treaties. Most promising potential Ally was France where King Louis XVI and his Count de Vergennes eager to see Britain lose part of empire
iii)Thru covert deals French supplied Americans supplies but would not officially recognize US diplomatically. Ben Franklin went to France, after news of Saratoga in February France formally recognized US as nation. Allowed for expanded assistance- money, munitions, navy
e)The Final Phase: The South
i)After defeat at Saratoga and French intervention British govt put limit on commitment to conflict, tried to enlist loyalist dissidents believed to be centered in South to fight from within
ii)British forced moved from battle to battle 1778-1781, but much less Loyalist sentiment than predicted. Some refused to rise up b/c of fear of Patriot reprisal + British attempts to free slaves in order to fight. Patriots=no threat to slavery
iii)British had disadvantage of enemy in hostile territory, new form of combat. Segments of population previously apathetic now forced to involve themselves
iv)In North fighting stalemate after British moved forces to New York. Benedict Arnold became traitor, scheme to betray Patriot fort at West Point was foiled
v)In South British captured Savannah 1778, Port of Charleston 1780. Won conventional battles but harassed as they moved thru countryside by Patriot guerillas. Lord Cornwallis (Brit general for South) defeated Patriot Horatio Gates, led Washing to give command to Gen. Nathanael Greene
vi)Battle of King’s Mountain 1780 a Patriot victory, Greene split army into small, fast contingents and refrained from open battles. British had to abandon Southern campaign after battle at Guilford Courth House, NC in 1781
vii)Cornwalis ordered by Clinton to wait for ships at Yorktown. Washington, French Count Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau, and Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse all coordinated army and navy to surround British on peninsula
viii)Cornwallis surrendered October 17, 1781. Fighting over, but Brits continued to hold seaports of Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, & New York
f)Winning the Peace
i)Cornwallis’s defeat let to outcry aginsnt war, Lord North resigned and Lord Shelbrune succeeded. British emissaries in France began speaking to diplomats there (Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Jay). Final settlement Peace of Paris signed Sept 1783 when France and Spain also agreed to end hostilities
ii)Treaty recognized US independence, gave land from southern Canada to north boundary of Florida, from Atlantic to Mississippi River
3)War and Society
a)Loyalists and Minorities
i)Up to 1/5 of white population Loyalists- some officeholders in imperial govt, others merchants engaged in trade tied to imperial system, others who had lived in isolation of revolutionary ideas, others expected Brits to be victors
ii)Hounded by Patriots, harassed by legislative and judicial actions- fled to Canada or to England. Most Loyalists of average means but many were wealthy, after they left estates and social and economic leadership vacancies
iii)Anglicans were mostly Loyalists, in colonies where it was official religion (such as MA and VA). Taxes to church halted, support from England ceased, few ministers remained. Quakers weakened b/c their pacifism unpopular
iv)Catholic Church gained respect b/c most American Caths supported Patriot cause, French alliance brought Cath troops and ministers. Gratitude eroded hostility, after war Vatican named Father John Caroll American archbishop
b)The War and Slavery
i)War led to some slaves to escape due to British presence in South + their policies meant to disrupt American war effort. Revolutionary ideas introduced slaves to idea of liberty. This situation put slave dominated states like SC and Georgia to be ambivalent to revolution b/c opposed British emancipation efforts but feared revolution would foment slave rebellions
c)Native Americans and the Revolution
i)Patriots and Brits wanted Indians to remain neutral, and by and large they did. Some supported British b/c feared replacing ruling class whom they had developed limited trust with and who had fought against white expansion
ii)Patriot victory weaked natvies bc increased white demand for western lands, many Americans resented Mohawk and other Indians assistance to British and wanted to treat them as conquered people
iii)Revolution increased deep divisions and made it difficult for tribes to form common front for resistance b/c of neutral and pro-Brit alliances
iv)After war Indian and American fighting continued w/ Indian raids against froneir whites, white militia responded with attacks into Indian territories
d)Women’s Rights and the Women’s Roles
i)Patriot men going off to fight eft wives, mothers, sisters in charge of farms and businesses- sometimes successful and other times not so much. In many cities and towns impoverished women class emerged
ii)Sometimes women chose, other times forced to join camps of Patriot armies, raised morale and performed necessary tasks on cooking, nursing, cleaning. Some women ended up in combat (legendary Molly Pitcher)
iii)After revolution certain assumptions about women questioned- some like Abigail Adams called for modest expansion of women’s rights and protections. Others such as Judith Sargent Murray wanted equal education and rights
iv)New era for women did not arrive, legal doctrines of English common law gave married women barely any rights, Rev did not change these legal customs
v)Revolution encouraged ppl to reevaulate contributions of women b/c of womens participation in revolution and part general reevalutaion of American life after struggle- search for a cultural identity
e)The War Economy
i)No longer protection of trade by British navy, no more access to markets of the empire including Britain itself. Privateering used by Americans to pretty on Brit commerce.
ii)End of imperial relation in long run opened up enormous new areas of trade for nation b/c no more Brit regulations. Trade w/ Asia, South America, Caribbean
iii)End of English imports thru prewar boycotts and war itself led to stimulation of domestic manufacturing of necessities, desire for sufficiency grew
4)The Creation of State Governments
a)The Assumptions of Republicanism
i)Republicanism meant all power came from ppl, active citizenry important and could not be just a few powerful aristocrats and mass of dependent workers- idea of independent landowner was basic political ideology
ii)Opposed Eur ideas of inherited aristocracy- talents and energies of individuals and not birth would determine role in society- equality of opportunity
b)The First State Constitutions
i)States decided tat constitutions had to be written b/c believed vagueness of England’s unwritten constitution produced corruption, believed power of executive had to be limited, separation of executive from legislature
ii)Except GA and PA upper and lower chambers, property requirements for voters
c)Revising State Governments
i)By late 1770s state govts divided and unstable, believed to be so b/c they were too democratic—steps taken to limit popular power
ii)To protect constitutions from ordinary politics created the constitutional convention- special assembly to draft constitution that would never meet again
iii)Executive strengthened as rxn to weak governors, fixed salary + elected by ppl
d)Toleration and Slavery
i)New states allowed complete religious freedom, 1786 VA enacted Statue of Religious Liberty by Thomas Jefferson which called for separation of church and state
ii)Slavery abolished in New England and PA b/c of Quakers, every southern state but SC and GA prohibited further importation of slaves from abroad- slavery continued though b/c of racist assumptions about black inferiority, enormous economic investments in slaves, and lack of alternatives
5)The Search for A National Government
a)The Confederation
i)Articles of Confed adopted in 1777, Congress had power to conduct wars, foreign relations, appropriate money- would not regulate trade, draft troops, or levy taxes on ppl. Each state had one vote, articles ratified only after VA and NY gave up western land claims in 1781
b)Diplomatic Failures
i)GB failed to live up to terms of peace treaty of 1783- forces continued to occupy posts, no restitution to slave-owners, restrictions on access to empire’s markets. 1784 John Adams sent to make deal but British refused
ii)Treaty w/ Spain 1786 solidified Florida’s borders, limited US rights to navigate Mississippi R.- Souterhn states blocked ratification, weakened Articles
c)The Confederation and the Northwest
i)Ordinance of 1784 divided western territory into 10 districts, Ordianance of 1785 Congress created surveying + sale system, areas north of Ohio R. were to be parceled and sold w/ some money going to create schools
ii)Northwest Ordinance of 1787 abandoned ten districts, designated five territories that when had 60,000 ppl would become states, slavery prohibited
iii)S of Ohio R. chaotic, Kentucky and Tennessee entrance conflict not resolved
d)Indians and the Western Lands
i)Western land policies meant to bring order and stability to white settlement, but many territories claimed by Confederation were also claimed by Indians
ii)Series of treaties with Indians failed, violence climaxed in early 1790s. Negations not continued until General Anthony Wayne defeated Indians 1794 at Battle of Fallen Timbers. Treaty of Grenville w/ Miami indians ceded lands
e)Debts, Taxies, and Daniel Shays
i)Confederation had war bonds to be repaid, owerd soldiers money, foreign debt- had no way to tax, states only paid 1/6 of requested funds
ii)Group of nationalists led by Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison called for a 5% impost on imported goods, when Congress rejected plan they withdrew involvement from Confederation
iii)To pay war debts states increased taxes, poor farmers burdened by their own debt and new taxes rioted throughout New England
iv)Some farmers rallied behind Daniel Shays, 1786 Shayites prevented debt collection. Boston legislature denounced them as traitors, when rebels advanced on Springfield state militia defeated them January 1787
1)Framing A New Government
a)Advocates of Centralization
i)Confederation had averted the danger of remote and tyrannical authority, but during 1780s powerful groups began to want a national govt capable of dealing with nation’s problems- mainly economic that affected themselves
ii)Artisans wanted a single high national duty, merchants wanted a single, national commercial policy, people owed money wanted states to stop issuing paper money and causing inflation, land owners wanted protection from mobs
iii)Reformers led by Alexander Hamilton called for convention. Inter-state conference on trade held in MA advised congress to call a convention to “render the constitution… adequate to the exigencies of the union” in 1786
iv)George Washington’s support of new convention in Philadelphia 1787 gave it credibility, feared disorders like Shay’s Rebellion spreading
b)A Divided Convention
i)55 delegates from all but RI, mainly young, educated, and propertied
ii)Washington chosen as presiding officer, sessions closed to public and press
iii)VA delegation led by James Madison, had plan drafted. Edmund Randolph proposed a new nat’t govt with executive, judiciary, legislature
iv)VA Plan called for 2 house legislature w/ lower house based on population and upper house elected by lower house
v)Proposal opposed by Delaware, NJ, other small states. Proposal by William Paterson of NJ would reform Confederation + give it power to tax. Tabled, VA Plan remained basis for discussion
vi)VA Plan supporters realized concessions to small states needed for agreement, conceded upper house be elected by state legislatures, each state at least 1 rep
vii)Questions of equal rep in upper house, of slaves counted in states population but feared would be taxed if states taxed based on population
c)Compromise
i)In July grand committee established with Franklin as head, produced basis of “Great Compromise” where lower house would be based on populating with each slave counted as 3/5 o of a person in representation and direct taxation, in upper house each state had 2 reps- July 16, 1787 compromise accepted
ii)Reps agreed legislature forbidden to tax exports b/c of Southern fear of interfering with cotton economy, slave trade couldn’t be stopped for 20 years
iii)Constitution provided no definition of citizenship, absence of list of individual rights that would restrain powers of nat’l govt
d)The Constitution of 1787
i)James Madison created VA Plan, helped resolve question of sovereignty and of limiting power
ii)Sovereignty at all levels, nat’l and state, came from people. States and nat’l govt both had sovereignty from ppl and therefore Constitution could distribute powers btwn federal govt and states- but Constitution was “supreme law”
iii)Federal govt had power to tax, regulate commerce, control currency, pass laws
iv)Leaders frightened of creating a tyrannical govt, believed small nation needed to stop corruption. Madison convinced others that large nation would produce less tyranny b/c many factions would check one from being too powerful
v)Separation of powers + checks and balances forced branches to compete, federal structure divided power btwn states and nation
vi)Fear of despotism, but also fear of the “mob” and “excess of democracy”, only House of Reps elected directly by ppl.
vii)Constitution signed on September 17, 1787
e)Federalists and Antifederalists
i)Delegates decided that Constitution would come into existence when 9 of 13 states had ratified it thru conventions instead of unanimous state legislature approval required by Articles
ii)Supporters of Const well organized, supported by Washington and Franklin, called themselves Federalists. Had best political philosophers in Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay. Wrote Federalist Papers arguing for Const under pseudonym Publius
iii)Antifederalists believed Const would betray principles of Revolution by establish a strong, potentially tyrannical central govt that would increase taxies, obliterate states, favor the “well born”.
(1)Biggest complaint was that Const lacked a bill of rights, any govt with central authority could not be trusted to protect citizens’ liberties, therefore natural rights had to be enumerated in order to be preserved
iv) Federalists feared disorder, anarchy, power of masses, Antifederalists feared the state more than they did the ppl, feared concentrated power
v)Delaware first to ratify, New Hampshire 9th state in June 1788. New govt could not flourish w/o participation of VA and NY. VA, NY, MA ratified on assumption that bill of rights would be added
f)Completing the Structure
i)First elections took place 1789, George Washington elected first president unanimously, John Adams became VP- inauguration April 30, 1789
ii)First Congress passed bill of rights 1789, 10 ratified by states by end of 1791. Nine forbid Congress from infringing basic rights, 10th reserved powers to states unless specifically withheld from them or delegated to fed govt
iii)Judiciary Act of 1789 created 6 member Supreme court, 13 district courts, 3 courts of appeal, Sup Court had final decision in constitutionality of state laws
iv)Congress created departments of executive- State led by Jefferson, Treasury by Hamilton, War by Henry Knox, attorney general Edmund Randolph
2)Federalists and Republicans
a)Hamilton and the Federalists
i)Federalists dominated govt for 12 years under leadership of Treasurer Alexander Hamilton (Washington supported, but avoided direct involvement)
ii)Believed stable and effective govt required enlightened ruling class, therefore rich and powerful needed stake in its success
iii)To do so made govt responsible for existing debt + states debts, would create new large national debt w/ continuous bonds issued to give wealthy stake
iv)Creation of federal bank would fill absence of developed banking system, safe place for deposit of federal funds, collect taxes and pay expenses
v)Funding of debts required new revenue to pay bonds interest, govt sales of Western land not enough. Hamilton proposed tax on alcohol distillers- heavy toll on whiskey distillers of backcountry PA, VA, NC- & tariff on imports to raise $ + stimulate growth of industry- his 1791 “Report on Manufactures
b)Enacting the Federalist Program
i)Few members opposed plan for funding nat’l debt, but disagreement over whether payment should be to original holders or to speculators who bought many bonds from originals during hard times of 1780s. James Madison proposed dividing btwn two. Hamilton won out and current bondholders paid
ii)Hamilton faced stiffer opposition to fed’l assumption of state debts b/c ppl of states with few debts (such as VA) would pay taxes to service large debts of other states (like MA). Compromise w/ Virginians moved capital from Philadelphia to a southern location along Potomac R. for VA support of bill
iii)Bank bill most heated debate, Madison, Jefferson, Randolph, others argued Congress should exercise no powers Const did not assign it. Bill passed House and Senate, Bank of United States began operating 1791 under 20 yr charter
iv)Passage of excise tax and tariff 1792. Whole program won support of the influential population- restored public credit, speculators, manufacturing + merchants prospered. However, small farmers (maj of pop) complained of tax burden, taxes to state, excise tax on distillation, + tariff- feeling Federalist program served interests not of ppl but of wealthy elites
c)The Republican Opposition
i)Framers believed organized political parties dangerous, should be avoided would lead to factions (Madison Fed Papers #10), but eventually Madison and others convinced that Hamilton and Federalists had become a majority and used their power to control appts, offices, and rewards to supporters
ii)B/c Federalist structures thought to resemble corrupt Brit govt and menacing structure, critics felt only alternative vigorous opposition thru emergence of alternative political organization- the Republican Party
iii)By late 1790s Republicans creating even greater apparatus of partisan influence- correspondence btwn groups, influenced state and local elections
iv)Both groups believed represented only legitimate interest group, neither conceded right of other to exist- factionalism known as “first party system”
v)Leaders of Repubs James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson believed in an agrarian republic w/ independent farmer-citizens tilling own soil. Didn’t oppose commerce, trade or industry, but feared cities, urban mobs, and advanced industrial economy b/c of increase of propertyless workers
3)Establishing National Sovereignty
a)Securing the Frontier
i)1791 PA farmers refused to pay whiskey excise tax, Washington called militia from 3 states, Whiskey Rebellion collapsed- intimidation won allegiance
ii)Fed govt won loyalty of frontiersmen by accept territories as new states (NC 1789, RI 1791 last of 13 colonies)- VT 1791, Kentucky 1792, Tennessee 1796
b)Native Americans and the New Nation
i)Clashes with natives raised question of Indians’ place of in federal structure. Constitution recognized tribes as legal entities, but not outright nations
ii)Constitution did not address main issue of land, Indians lived within US boundaries but offered some measure of sovereignty
c)Maintaining Neutrality
i)In 1791 GB sent first minister to US, question of US neutrality arose in 1793 when French govt from revolution of 1789 went to war with GB
ii)French rep to US Edmond Genet violated Neutrality Act and tried to recruit Americans to French cause- US ships as privateers, raids against Spanish
iii)GB Royal Navy began seizing US ships trading w/ French in West Indies1794, anti-British feelings high, Hamilton concerned b/c war meant end to English imports- main revenue for financial system dependent from duties
d)Jay’s Treaty and Pinckney’s Treaty
i)Hamilton feared pro-French State Dept, had Washington send Chief Justice and Federalist John Jay to negotiate treaty with GB
ii)Jay’s Treaty in 1794 failed to compensate Brit assaults on ships and withdrawal of Brit forces from frontier, but prevented war, established American sovereignty over Northwest, satisfactory commercial relationship
iii)American backlash followed b/c not enough Brit promises, Republicans and some Federalists offered opposition but ultimately ratified by Senate
iv)Jay’s treaty allowed peace to be made with Spain b/c raised fears of Brit/American alliance in North America, Pinckney’s treaty 1795 recognized US right to Mississippi, Florida border, control of Indian raids from FL
4)The Downfall of the Federalists
a)The Election of 1796
i)Washington retired 1797, in “Farewell” worried over foreign influence on gov’t, including French efforts to frustrate Federalist diplomatic program
ii)Open expression of political rivalries after Washington- Jefferson running for Republicans, Hamilton too many enemies so VP John Adams Fed candidate
iii)Federalists could win majority of electors 1796 pres. election for Adams but factional fighting within party caused second candidate Thomas Pinckney to receive many votes- resulted in Jefferson finishing second, became VP.
iv)Federalists divided, strong Republicans opposition, Hamilton still lead party
b)The Quasi War with France
i)US relations w/ GB + Spain improved after treaties, deteriorated w/ France b/c of impressments of US ships and sailors
ii)President Adam’s pursued reconciliation by appointing bi-partisan commission of Charles Pinckney, John Marshall, Elbridge Gerry to negotiate
iii)French foreign minister Talleyrand demanded loan and bribe, Adams turned over report of this to Congress w/ names deleted- “XYZ Affair” caused outrage at France, Federalist gained support for response
iv)Adams asked Congress to cut off trade, 1798 created Dept of Navy (very successful capturing French ships), cooperated w/ GB
v)France reconciled, new govt of Napoleon 1800 new commercial arrangements
c)Repression and Protest
i)Conflict w/ France led to Federalist majority 1798, to silence Republican opposition passed the Alien and Sedition Acts
ii)Alien Acts restricted places obstacles for foreigners becoming citizens, Sedition Act allowed govt to prosecute libelous or treasonous activity- but definitions allowed govt to stifle any opposition—Repubs fought back
iii)Adams cautious in implementation but still repressive, Republican leaders hoped for reversal from state legislatures
iv)Jefferson + Madison had VA, KY adopt resolutions arguing when govt exercised undelegated powers, its acts “void”. Used Locke’s “compact theory”: states were part of contract, fed govt had breached contract, therefore states could “nullify” the appropriate laws—only VA and KY did so
v)By late 1790s national crisis b/c nation so politically divided
d)The “Revolution” of 1800
i)1800 pres election saw same candidates- Adams’ and Jefferson’s supporters showed no restraint or dignity in their assaults against other
ii)Crucial contest in New York where Aaron Burr (candidate for VP) mobilized Rev War veterans, the Tammany Society, to serve as Repub political machine- Repubs eventually won the state and election
iii)In partisan atmosphere Jefferson and Burr votes tied, the previous Federalist Congress had to choose between the two in a vote (H of Reps decides when no majority), ultimately Hamilton and Federalists elected Jefferson
iv)After election only judiciary branch still Federalist, Judiciary Act of 1801 had created many new positions which Adams had filled before leaving office
v)Republican viewed victory as savior from tyranny, believed new era would begin where true founding principles would govern
1)The Rise of Cultural Nationalism
a)Patterns of Education
i)Republican vision included enlightened citizenry, wanted nationwide system of free public schools to create educated electorate required by republic
ii)By 1815 no state had a comprehensive public school system, schooling primary by private institutions open only to those who could pay. Most were aristocratic in outlook, trained students to become elite. Few schools for poor
iii)Idea of “republican mother” to train new generation could not be ignorant, late 18thcentury women began to have limited education to make them better wives and mothers- no professional training
iv)Attempts to educate “noble savages” in white culture and reform tribes, African Americans very little schooling- literacy rate very small
v)Higher education not public, private contribution + tuition necessary, students mostly from prosperous, propertied families. Little professional education
b)Medicine and Science
i)Most doctors learned from established practitioners, struggled w/ introduction of science and combating superstition. Doctors often used dangerous and useless treatments.
ii)Medical profession used its new “scientific” method to justify expanding control to new care- childbirths by doctor and not midwives
c)Cultural Aspirations in the New Nation
i)After Eur independence ppl wanted cultural independence, literary and artistic achievements to rival those of Europe
ii)Nationalism could be found in early American schoolbooks, Noah Webster wanted patriot education- American Spelling Book and American Dictionary of the English Languageestablished national standard of words and usage, simplified and Americanized system of spelling created
iii)High literacy rate and large reading public due to wide circulation of newspapers and political pamphlets. Most printers used cheaper English material, American writers struggled to create strong native literature
(1)Charles Brockden Brown used novels to voice American themes
(2)Washington Irving wrote American fold tales, fables- Rip Van Winkle
(3)Histories that glorified past- Mercy Otis Warren History of the Revolution 1805 emphasized heroism, Mason Weems Life of Washington 1806. History used to instill sense of nationalism
d)Religious Skepticism
i)Revolution detached churches from govt + elevated liberty and reason, by 1790s few members of formal churches, some embraced “deism”
ii)Books and articles attacking religious “superstitions” popular, Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason.
iii)Skepticism led to “universalism” + “unitarianism”, @ first within New England Congregational Church, later separate- rejected predestination, salvation for all, Jesus only great religious teacher not son of God
iv)Spread of rationalism led to less commitment to organized churches + denominations considered too formal and traditional, comeback starting 1801
e)The Second Great Awakening
i)Origin 1790s from efforts to fight spread of religious rationalism. Baptists, Presbyterian, Methodists (founded by John Wesley) successful at combating New Light dissenters (ppl who made religion more compatible w/ rationalism)
ii)By 1800 awakening that began at Yale had spread throughout country and to the west, “camp meetings” by evangelical ministers produced religious frenzy
iii)Second Great Awakening called individuals to readmit God + Christ into daily life, reject skeptical rationalism. New sects rejected predestination, combined piety w/ belief of God as active force whose grace achieved thru faith + works
iv)Accelerated growth of new sects as opposed to return to established churches, provided sense of order + social stability to ppl searching for identity
v)Women particularly drawn to revivalism b/c women more numerous in certain regions, movement of industrial work out of home led to personal and social strains that religion was used to compensate for
vi)Revival led to rise of black preachers who interpreted religious message of salvation available to all into right to freedom
vii) Native American dislocation and defeats after Revolution created sense of crisis and led to Indian religious fervor- missionaries active in south led to conversion, in North prophet Handsome Lake encouraged Christian missionaries and restoration of traditional Iroquois culture
2)Stirrings of Industrialism
a)Technology in America
i)America imported technological advances from England. Brit govt attempted to prevent spread of their tech, but immigrants introduced new machines to America. Samuel Slater built mill in RI 1790, first factory in America
ii)American inventor Oliver Evans created automated flower mill, Eli Whitney revolutionized weapons making and
iii)Invented cotton gin in 1793. Growth of textile industry in England created great demand for cotton, cotton gin allowed for easy separation of cotton seed from cotton allowed tremendous amount of cotton to be cleaned, new business led slavery became more important than ever.
iv)In North cotton supply led NE entrepreneurs to create American textile industry in 1820s/30s- as N became increasingly industrial S more firmly wedded to agriculture
v)His interchangeable parts for weapons invented during Quasi War w/ France adopted by other manufactures for other complicated products
b)Transportation Innovations
i)Industrialization required transporting raw materials to factories and finished goods to create large domestic market for mass-production, US lacked system
ii)To enlarge American market US merchants looked to expand overseas trade, Congress 1789 passed tariff bills that favored American ships in American ports, stimulated growth of domestic shipping. War in Eur in 1790s led US merchants to take over most of trade btwn Eur and Western hemisphere
iii)Improvement in inter-state and interior transport led by improved river transport by new steamship
iv)Oliver Evans had invented efficient steam engine for boats and machinery, Robert Fulton + Robert Livingston perfected steamboat and brought it to national attention w/ theirClermont
c)The Rising Cities
i)America remained largely rural and agrarian nation, only 3% lived in towns of more than 8,000 in 1800 census—yet there were signs of change
ii)Major US cities such as New York + Philadelphia large and complex enough to rival secondary cities of Europe
iii)Urban lifestyle produced affluent people who sought amenities, elegance, dress, and diversions- music, theater, dancing, horse racing
3)Jefferson the President
a)The Federal City and the “People’s President”
i)French architect Pierre L’Enfant designed city on grand scale, but Washington remained little more than provincial village w/ few public buildings
ii)Jefferson acted in spirit of democratic simplicity, made his image plain, disdain for pretension. Eliminated aura of majesty surrounding presidency
iii)Political genius, worked as leader of his party to give Republicans in Congress direction, used appointments as political weapon. Won 1804 reelection easily
b)Dollars and Ships
i)Washington and Adams had increased expenditures, debt, taxation. Jefferson 1802 had Congress abolish all internal taxes leaving only land sales and customs duties, cut govt spending, halved debt
ii) Scaled down armed forces, cut navy due to fear of limiting civil liberty + civilian govt, promoting overseas commerce instead of agriculture
iii)At same time established US Military Academy @ West Point 1802, built up navy after 1801 threats by pasha of Tripoli in Mediterranean following Jefferson’s end to paying ransom demanded by Barbary pirates
c)Conflict With The Courts
i)Judiciary remained in hands of Federalist judges, congress repealed Judiciary Act of 1801 eliminating judgeships Adam’s filled before leaving office
ii)Case of Marbury v. Madison 1803 btwn Justice of Peace William Marbury and Sec of State James Madison
(1)Supreme Court ruled Congress exceeded its authority in creating a statute of the Judiciary Act of 1789 b/c Constitution had already defined judiciary
(2)Court asserted that the act of Congress was void. Enlarged courts power
iii)Chief Justice John Marshall presided over case, battled to give fed govt unity and strength, established judiciary as branch coequal w/ exec and legislature
iv)Jefferson assaulted last Federalist stronghold, urged Congress to impeach obstructive judges. Tried to impeach justice Samuel Chase in 1805 but Republican Senate could not get 2/3 vote necessary- acquittal set precedent impeachment not purely a political weapon, above partisan disagreement
4)Doubling the National Domain
a)Jefferson and Napoleon
i)After failing to seize India Napoleon wanted power in New World. Spain held areas west of Mississippi, 1800 Treaty of San Ildefonso granted French this Louisiana. Also held sugar-rich West Indian islands Guadeloupe, Martinique, Santo Domingo (where slave revolt led by Toussaint L’ouverture put down)
ii)Jefferson unaware of Napoleon’s imperial agenda, pursued pro-French foreign policy- apptd pro-French Robert Livingston minister, secured Franco-American settlement of 1800, disapproved of black Santo Domingo uprising
iii)Reconsidered position when heard of secret transfer of Louisiana and seizure of New Orleans, alarmed n 1802 when Spanish intendant at New Orleans forbade transfer of American cargo to ocean going vessels (which was guaranteed in Pikcney Treaty of 1795)- this closed lower Miss. to US shippers
iv)Westerners demanded govt reopen river, Jefferson ordered Livingston negotiate purchase of New Orleans, in meantime expanded military and river fleet to give impression of New Orleans attack
v)Nap offered sale of whole Louisiana Territory. Plans for American empire awry b/c army decimated by yellow fever, reinforcements frozen
b)The Louisiana Purchase
i)Livingston and James Monroe in Paris decided to proceed with sale of whole territory even though not authorized to do so by govt, treaty signed April 1803
ii)US paid $15 million to France, had to incorporate N.O. residents into Union
iii)Jefferson unsure US had authority to accept offer b/c power not specifically granted in Constitution, ultimately agreed constituted as treaty power. December 1803 territory handed over from Spain to France then US
iv)Govt organized Louisiana territory like Northwest territory w/ various territories to eventually to become states- Louisiana first, admitted 1812
c)Lewis and Clark Explore the West
i)Jefferson planned expedition across continent to Pacific Ocean in 1803 to gather geographical fats and investigate trade w/ Indians
ii)Lewis and Clark set out 1804 from Mississippi R. in St Louis w/ Indian Sacajawea as guide, reached pacific fall 1805
iii)Jefferson dispatched other explorers to other parts of Louisiana Territory, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike led two expeditions btwn Mississppi and Rocky Mts
d)The Burr Conspiracy
i)Reelection of 1804 suggested nation approved of Jefferson’s acquisitions, but some NE Federalists known as Essex Junto felt expansion weakened power of Federalists + region . Felt only answer secession and “Northern Confederacy”
ii)Plan required support of NY, NJ, New England, but leading NY Federalist Alexander Hamilton refused support
iii)Turned to Vice President Aaron Burr (who had no prospect in own party after 1800 election deadlock) to be Federalist candidate for NY governor in 1804
iv)Hamilton accused Burr of treason and negative remarks about character, when Burr lost election blamed defeat on Hamilton’s malevolence
v)Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel 1804, Hamilton mortally wounded
vi)Burr, now political outcast, fled NY for West and along with General James Wilkinson, governor of Louisiana Territory, planned capture of Mexico from Spanish and possibly make his own empire. 1806 tried for treason, acquitted
vii)“Conspiracy” showed perils of central govt that remained deliberately weak w/ vast tracts of nominally controlled land, state of US as stable and united nation
5)Expansion and War
a)Conflict on the Seas
i)US shipping expanded to control trade btwn Eur and W. Indies
ii)Napoleon’s Continental system forbade ships that had docked at any point in British ports from landing on continent- Berlin (1806) + Milan (1807) Decrees
iii) Britain’s “orders in council” required goods to continent be in ships that had at least stopped in British ports- response to Nap’s “Continental System”
iv)American ships caught btwn countries, but England greater threat b/c greater sea power and the worse offender
b)Impressment
i)Brit Navy had terrible conditions, forced service called “impressments” used, many deserted when possible and joined Americans- to stop loss Brit claimed right to stop and search American merchant ships + reimpress deserters
ii)1807 Chesapeake-Leopard incident: Brit fired on US ship that refused search, US Minister James Monroe protested, GB refused to renounce impressments
c)“Peaceable Coercion”
i)To prevent future incidents that might bring war Jefferson proposed The Embargo 1807- prohibited US ship from leaving for any foreign port
ii)Created national depression, ship-owners + merchants of NE (mainly Federalists) hardest hit-before
iii)James Madison, Jefferson’s Sec of State, won election of 1808 but fierce opposition- led Jefferson to end Embargo, replaced with Non-Intercourse Act- reopened trade w/ all nations except GB + France
iv)1810 new Macon’s Bill No. 2 opened trade w/ GB + France but pres had power to prohibit commerce for belligerent behavior against neutral shipping
v)Napoleon announced France would no longer interfere, Madison issued embargo against GB 1811 until it renounced restrictions of American shipping
d)The “Indian Problem” and the British
i)After dislodgement by Americans, Indians looked to Brits for protection
ii)William Henry Harrison had been a promoter of Western expansion (Harrison Land Law 1800), named governor of Indiana 1801 by Jefferson. Offered Indians ultimatum: become farmers and assimilate or move to West of Miss.
iii)By 1807 tribes mainly ceding land. After Chesapeake incident, however, Brits began to renew Indian friendships to begin defense of invasion into Can
e)Tecumseh and the Prophet
i)The Prophet was Indian leader inspired religious revival, rejection of white culture. Attracted thousands from many tribes at Tippecanoe Creek. Prophet’s brother Tecumseh led joint effort to oppose white civilization
ii)Starting 1809 began to unite tribes of Miss. valley, 1811 traveled south to add tribes of the South to alliance
iii)1811 Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison defeated Prophet’s followers and destroyed tribal confederacy. However, thru 1812 continued to attack settlers, encouraged by Brit agents—Americans believed end only thru Can. Invasion
f)Florida and War Fever
i)“Frontiersman” in N wanted Canada, those in S wanted to acquire Spanish Florida in order to stop Indian attacks, gain access to rivers w/ port access
ii)1810 setters in W. Florida captured Spanish fort at Baton Rouge, President Madison agreed to annex territory- Spain Britain’s ally, made pretext for war
iii)By 1812 “war harks” elected during 1810 elections eager for war- some ardent nationalists seeking territorial expansion, others defense of Republican values
iv)Speaker Henry Clay of Kentucky and John Calhoun of SC led Republicans in pressing for Canadian invasion- Madison declared war June 18, 1812
6)The War of 1812
a)Battles with the Tribes
i)Americans forced to surrender Detroit and Fort Dearborn (Chicago) in first months. On seas American frigates and privateers successful, but by 1813 Brit navy (less occupied w/ Napoleon) devoted resources and imposed blockade
ii)US began to have success in Great Lakes- Oliver Perry beat Brits at Put-In-Bay 1813, burned capital at York. William Henry Harrison victorious at Battle of the Thames- disheartened Natives of Northwest and diminished ability to defend claims
iii)Andrew Jackson defeated Creek Indians @ Battle of Horseshoe Bend 1814, continued invasion into Florida and captured Pensacola Sept 1814
b)Battles With the British
i)After Nap surrendered 1814 England prepared to invade US, landed armada in Chesapeake region. Aug 1814 captured and burned Washington
ii)Americans at Fort McHenry in Baltimore repelled Brit attack in Sept. This battle is what Francis Scott Key witnessed, wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”
iii)Brit also repelled in NY at Battle of Plattsburgh in Sept. January 1815 Andrew Jackson wildly successful at Battle of New Orleans- after treaty signed
c)The Revolt of New England
i)US failures 1812-1815 led to increased govt opposition. In NE opposition to war and Repub govt, Federalists led by Daniel Webtser led Congressional opposition. Federalists in NE dreamed of separate nation to escape tyranny of slaveholders and backwoodsmen
ii)Dec 1814 convention at Hartford led to nothing b/c of news of Jackson’s smashing success at New Orleans. Two days later news of peace treaty arrived
d)The Peace Settlement
i)Aug 1814 John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin met in Ghent, Belgium w/ Brit diplomats. Final treaty did little but end fighting- US dropped call to end impressments, Brit dropped call for Indian buffer in NW
ii)Brit accepted b/c exhausted + indebted after Napoleonic conflict, US believed w/ end of Eur conflict less commercial interference would occur
iii)Treaty of Gent signed Dec 1814, free trade agreement 1815later Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 led to disarmament on Great Lakes
iv)War disastrous to Natives, lands captured in fighting never restored, most important allies now gone from NW
1)A Growing Economy
a)Banking, Currency, and Protection
i)War of 1812 stimulated manufacturing, but after war produced chaos in shipping and banking- need for new Bank of the United States charter its expiration 1811 and not renewed, protecting new industries, transport systems
ii)After expiration of charter state banks offered difft currencies at difft values- confusion and counterfeiting. Congress passed new charter for Bank of US 1816- its size and power essentially forced state banks to issue safer currency
iii)Manufacturing had grown tremendously due to imports being cut off, textile industry increased exponentially btwn Embargo of 1807 and War. Factories in NE no longer family operations. Francis Lowell developed new loom 1813 in Boston Manufacturing Company- first process of both spinning and weaving
iv)After war English ships swarmed American ports, wanted to reclaim old markets with prices below cost. 1816 Congress passed tariff to protect “infant industries” from competition aboard- farmers objected b/c paid higher price
b)Transportation
i)W/o transport network manufacturers couldn’t access raw materials and send finished goods to markets in US- should fed govt finance roads?
ii)1807 Jefferson’s Sec Treasury Albert Gallatin proposed revenue from Ohio land sale go to fund National Road. Crucial Lancaster Pike built in PA- both allowed for the beginning of transport of commodities like textiles
iii)Steam-powered shipping (advancements of Robert Fulton) expanded on rivers and Great Lakes. Steamboats on Miss. stimulated already agricultural economy of South & West b/c cost to transport products to market lowered
iv)Despite progress of turnpikes + steamships serious gaps in trasportation. 1815 John Calhoun introduced bill to use federal funds to finance internal improvements, but Madison vetoed it in 1817 b/c believed unconstitutional
v)Remained to state govts + private enterprise to build needed transit networks
2)Expanding Westward
a)The Great Migrations
i)Westward movement affected economy, factor in Civil War, peoples thrusted together. Pop. + econ. pressures, land availability, decreased Indian resistance
ii)Immigration and natural growth increased Eastern population, agricultural lands occupied. Slaves in S limited work opportunity. West attractive b/c War of 1812 lessened Native opposition by pushing Indians west + establishing forts on Great Lakes and Miss. R., govt “factor system” of goods to Indians
b)White Settlers in the Old Northwest
i)Shelters primitive, clearings in forest for crops to supplement game and domestic animals, rough existence w/ poverty and loneliness
ii)Migrants journeyed westward in groups, some formed communities and schools, churches, other institutions. Mobility a large part of life
iii)Farm economy based on modest seized farms w/ grain cultivation + livestock
c)The Plantation System in the Southwest
i)Cotton longs in Old South had lost much fertility but market continued to grow for it, Black Belt of SW lands could support thriving cotton
ii)First arrivals small farmers, wealthier planters followed buying and clearing smaller lands. Brought w/ them slaves, eventually mansions grew up from simpler log cabins symbolizing emergence of a newly rich class
iii)Rapid growth in NW and SW resulted in new states after War of 1812: Indiana 1816, Mississippi 1817, Illinois 1818, Alabama 1819
d)Trade and Trapping in the Far West
i)Trade began to develop btwn western regions in US in 19th century + beyond
ii)Mexico (controlled Texas, CA, Southwest) won independence from Spain 1821, opened territories to trade in order to grow their fortunes. US merchants such as William Becknell displaced Indian traders and inferior Mexican products lost out to new US traders- Mexico lost its markets it in own colonies
iii)Fur traders such as Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company eventually extended to Rockies, instead of pelts from Indians increasingly trapped their own
iv)Trappers (“mountain men”) first wedge of white movement, changed society by interacting with Indians and Mexicans. 1822 Andrew and William Ashley founded Rocky Mountain Fur Company, recruited trappers to live permanently in Rockies (Utah, New Mexico)
v)Lives of trappers bound up with expanding market economy- relied on fur companies for credit, depended on Eastern merchants for livelihood
e)Eastern Images of the West
i)Ppl in East only dimly aware of trappers’ world and their reshaping of it
ii)Explorers dispatched by US govt to chart territories. 1819/1820 Steven Long sent by War Dept to explore, wrote influential report with dismissive conclusions for future settlement (like Zebulon Pike 15 yrs before)
3)The Era of Good Feelings
a)The End of the First Party System
i)James Monroe, Madison’s Sec of State, elected Republican president 1816. W/ Federalist decline faced party faced no serious opposition, after War of 1812 no serious international threat- wanted republic w/o partisan factions
ii)For Sec of State chose New Englander and former Federalist John Quincy Adams, John Calhoun named Sec of War- Monroe took pains to include northerners, southerners, easterners, westerners, Feds and Repubs in Cabinet
iii)After election national goodwill tour, re-elected 1820 w/o any opposition
b)John Quincy Adams
i)Committed nationalist, important task promotion of American expansion
ii)US already annexed W Florida, 1817 began negotiations w/ Spanish minister Lius de Onis. Meanwhile, American commander in Florida Andrew Jackson used orders from Sec of War Calhoun to invade Florida to stop Seminole raids—known as Seminole war. Adams wanted to use as excuse to annex
iii)Onis realized he had little choice, Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 ceded Florid and lands north of 42nd parallel to US, US gave up Texas claims
c)The Panic of 1819
i)Panic followed period of high foreign demand for US goods, rising prices had stimulated land boom in western US. Availability for easy credit to settlers and speculators- from govt, state and wildcat banks
ii)1819 management at Bank of US tightened credit, led to series of state bank failures, led to financial panic- those in West blamed it on bank
iii)Depression for 6 years followed, but growth ultimately continued
4)Sectionalism and Nationalism
a)The Missouri Compromise
i)Missouri applied for statehood 1819, although slavery already established NY Rep James Tallmadge’s Amendment gradual emancipation- controversial
ii)Since beginning new states had come into Union in pairs (1 from N, 1 from S), Missouri entrance would increase power of North over South
iii)Maine had also applied for statehood, Henry Clay threatened South would block entrance in Missouri not permitted to be a slave state
iv)Compromise in Maine-Missouri Bill, Senator Jesse Thomas’s Amendment to ban slavery in rest of Louisiana Ter. north of MO’s 3630’ border also passed
b)Marshall and the Court
i)John Marshall chief justice from 1801-1835. Strengthened judicial system at expense of executive and legislature, increased fed power over states, advanced interest of propertied and commercial classes
ii)Supported inviolability contracts in Fletcher v. Peck (1810) which held GA legislature could not repeal contract acts of previous legislature. Dartmouth College v. Woodward(1819) affirmed constitutionality of federal review of state court decisions- states had given up some sovereignty by ratifying Constitution, therefore their courts must submit to federal jurisdiction
iii)“Implied powers” of Congress upheld in McCulloch v Maryland (1819) by upholding Bank of United States, attorney Daniel Webster argued establishment legal under “necessary and proper” clause, power to tax involved “power to destroy”. States therefore could not tax now-legal Bank
iv)Strengthened Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce in Gibbons v Ogden(1824)- Fed govt gave license to Thomas Gibbons for ferry even transport btwn NY and NJ even though NY state had granted Aaron Ogden monopoly- Marshall argued that Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce + navigation “complete in itself” + could exercise to the utmost
v)Decisions established primacy of fed govt over states in regulating economy, protected corporations + private economic institutions from local govt
c)The Court and the Tribes
i)Marshall court decisions w/ Natives affirmed supremacy of US and carved out position for Native Americans within the constitutional structure
ii)In Johnson v McIntosh (1825) Marshall described the basic right of Natives to tribal lands that preceded all other American law. Individual Americans could not buy or take land from tribes, only fed govt could do that
iii)Worchester v Georgia (1832) invalidated law to regulate citizen access to Cherokee lands. Only fed govt had power to do that, tribes described as sovereign entities w/ exclusive authority and territorial boundaries
iv)Marshall court did what Const had not- establish place for Indian tribes in American political system. Sovereign, but fed govt “guardian” over its “ward”
d)The Latin American Revolution and the Monroe Doctrine
i) US foreign policy mainly centered on Eur, but after War of 1812 Spanish Empire in decline w/ new revolutions, US developing profitable trade w/ Latin America rivaling GB as principal trading pattern
ii)1815 US proclaimed neutrality in wars btwn Spain and rebellious colonies, 1822 President Monroe established diplomatic relations w/ 5 new nations
iii)1823 Monroe announced policy (later known as “Monroe Doctrine”) that American continent not be considered subject of future colonization by European powers, any foreign challenge would be unfriendly
iv)Monroe Doctrine developed b/c Americans feared Spanish allies (such as France) would aid it in retaking lost empire, fear of GB taking over Cuba
5)The Revival of Opposition
a)The “Corrupt Bargain”
i)In 1824 Republican caucus nominated William Crawford of Georgia for presidency, but other candidates received nominations from state legislatures
ii)Candidates included: Sec of State John Quincy Adams had little popular appeal, Speaker of the House Henry Clay had personal following and strong program in the “American System” to strengthen home industry and Bank, Andrew Jackson little political experience but a military hero and TN allies
iii)Jackson received more popular and electoral votes tan other candidates but not majority, Twelfth Amendment (passed after contested 1800 election) required House of Reps to choose among top three candidates- Clay threw endorsement behind Adams b/c Jackson a political rival in West + Adams a nationalist and likely American system supporter
iv) Adams named Clay Sec of State, Jackson’s followers enraged at seeming “corrupt bargain”- haunted Adams throughout presidency
b)The Second President Adams
i)Adams proposed nationalist program reminiscent of Clay’s American System but Jacksonians in Congress blocked most of it. Southerners in Congress blocked delegates to international conference called by Simon Bolivar in Panama in 1826 b/c Haiti was sending black delegates
ii)Georgia wished to remove remaining Creek and Cherokee Indians from state to gain more land for cotton planters. Adams refused to enforce treaty made btwn Indians + Georgia. Governor defied president and proceeded w/ removal
iii)Adams supported tariff on imported goods 1828 b/c NE textile manufacturers complained of competition. To be passed concessions made to middle + west states on other tariffs—bill signed hated by all, called “tariff of abominations”
c)Jackson Triumphant
i)By 1828 presidential election new 2-party system had begun to emerge from divisions btwn Republicans. National Republicans supported John Quincy Adams and economic nationalism, opposing them was Democratic Republicans of Andrew Jackson who called for assault on privilege and widening of opportunity
ii)Campaign of personal charges, Jackson’s wife Rachel accused of bigamy, she was so upset that she ultimately died- Jackson blamed opponents
iii)Jackson won decisive but sectional victory. Adams strong in New England & mid-Atlantic. Jackson believed victory similar to Jefferson’s 1800 win
1)The Rise of Mass Politics
a)The Expanding Electorate
i)No economic equality, but transformation of American politics to extend the right to vote to new groups. Until 1820s most states limited franchise to white landowners. Changes began in West w/ Constitutions guaranteeing right to vote to all white males- E. states did likewise in order to stop exodus of ppl
ii)Change provoked resistance- MA conservatives wanted property requirement, state eventually required voters to be taxpayers + Gov had to own large lands
iii)State reforms generally peaceful but in RI instability when 1840 group led by Thomas Dorr and the “People’s Party” submitted and won a new state Const. by the ppl. 1842 2 simultaneous govts, Dorr rebellion quickly failed
iv)In S election laws favored planters and politicians from older counties, limited influence of newly settled western areas
v)Everywhere women could not vote, no secret ballots—despite limitations numbers of voters increased faster than population
vi)Originally electors chosen by legislature, by 1828 popularly elected except SC
b)The Legitimization of Party
i)Higher levels of voter participation due to expanded electorate but also strengthening of party organization and loyalty
ii)1820s/1830s saw permanent, institutionalized parties become desirable part of political process. Began at state level in NY w/ Martin Van Buren’s factional “Bucktails”. Party’s preservation thru favors, rewards, patronage leaders goals
iii)Parties would check/balance one other, politicians forced 2 rep. will of the ppl
iv)By late 1820s new idea of party spreading beyond NY, Jackson’s 1828 election seemed to legitimize new system. By 1830s national 2-party system: anti-Jackson forces called Whigs, his followers called Democrats
c)“President of the Common Man”
i)Democratic party embraced no uniform ideological position, committed to offer equal protection and benefits by assaulting eastern aristocracy to extend opportunity to rising classes of the W + S, preserve white-male democracy thru subjugation of African Americans and Indians
ii)Jackson’s first targets entrenched officeholders of fed govt, wanted to simplify official duties to make office more accessible. Removed nearly 1/5 of office-holders removed b/c misuse of govt funds or corruption
iii)Jackson’s supporters embraced “spoils system”, making right of elected officials to appt followers to office established feature of American politics
iv)Supporters worked to transform presidential nomination system- 1832 national party convention held to replace congressional caucus, considered democratic triumph b/c power from ppl and not aristocratic caucus
v)Spoils system and convention limited power of entrenched elites (permanent officeholders, caucus elite), but neither really transferred true power to the ppl
2)“Our Federal Union”
a)Calhoun and Nullification
i)Late 1820s many in SC came to see “tariff of abominations” as responsible for stagnation of state economy (really due to exhausted farmland unable to compete with new western lands). Some considered remedy thru secession
ii)Vice President Calhoun offered alternative in theory of nullification- idea like Madison and Jefferson’s KY + VA Resolutions of 1798-1799. Argued fed govt created by states, therefore states final arbiter (not Congress or courts) of constitutionality. Convention could be held to null and void law within state
b)The Rise of Van Buren
i)Apptd Sec of State 1829 by Jackson, also member of president’s of unofficial circle of allies in “Kitchen Cabinet”. After supporting Peggy Eaton in affair over acceptance into cabinet wife social circle gained favor w/ President
ii)By 1831 Jackson had chosen Van Buren to succeed him in WH, Calhoun’s presidential dream ended
c)The Webster-Hayne Debate
i)January 1830 proposal to temporarily stop western land sales led SC Sen. Robert Hayne to claim slowing down W growth means for east to retain political and economic power. Hinted at uniting S + W against “tyranny”
ii)Nationalist and Whig Sen. Daniel Webster attacked Hayne + Calhoun for challenging integrity of the Union. Debate ensued over issue of states rights vs national power
iii)Jackson announced at Democratic Party banquet “Our Federal Union-It must be preserved”, lines drawn btwn Jackson and Calhoun
d)The Nullification Crisis
i)1832 tariff bill in Congress gave SC no relief from “tariff of abominations”, state convention held- voted for nullification of tariffs of 1828 & 1832, duties collection w/in state. Calhoun resigned VP became Sen., Hayne now Gov
ii)Jackson insisted nullification treason, strengthened federal forts in SC. 1833 Pres. proposed bill to authorize use of military to see acts of Congress obeyed
iii)No states supported SC, state itself divided. Sen Henry Clay offered compromise that tariff would be gradually lowered so that by 1842 it would be at same level as in 1816. Compromise + force bill passed March 1833
iv)SC state convention met and repealed its nullification of the tariffs, but also nullified the force act (symbolic of null. legitimacy)
3)The Removal of the Indians
a)White Attitudes Toward the Tribes
i)In 18th century many whites considered Indians “noble savages” who had inherent dignity, by 19th century more hostile attitude especially among whites in W and territories, simply “savages”
ii)White westerners wanted removal b/c feared continued contact + expanding white settlements would lead to endless violence, & Indian lands valuable
iii)Only fed govt had power to deal w/ Indians after Sup. Court decisions. Indians created new large political entities to deal w/ whites
b)The Black Hawk War
i)In Old Northwest Black Hawk War 1831-1832 to expel last of Indians there
ii)Conflict notable for violence of white military efforts, attacked even when Chief Black Hawk was surrendering and killed Indians fleeing battle
c)The “Five Civilized Tribes”
i)1830s govt worried about remaining “Five Civilized Tribes” in South- successful agricultural society, Constitution forming Cherokee Nation 1827
ii)Fed govt worked in early 19th century thru treaties to remove tribes to West and open lands to white settlement. Negotiation process unsatisfying + slow
iii)Congress passed Removal Act 1830 to finance def negotiations w/ tribes in order to relocate them West, pressure from state govts to move as well
iv)In GA Sup. Court decisions of Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831) and Worcester v Georgia (1832) seemed to protect tribal lands
v)1835 treaty signed with minority tribe in Cherokee nation ceding all land to GA, but majority of Cherokees refused to recognize its legitimacy. Jackson sent army under General Winfield Scott to drive them westward to reservation
d)Trials of Tears
i)Forced trek to “Indian Territory” began winter 1838. Thousands died before destination, dubbed “Trail of Tears”
ii)Cherokees not alone: btwn 1830-1838 nearly all “Five Civilized Tribes” expelled from Southern states & relocated to Indian Territory created by Congress in Indian Intercourse Act of 1834. Undesirable land far from whites
iii)Only Seminoles in Florida resisted relocation. Under pressure had agreed to cede land and move to Ind. Territory, many members of tribe moved
(1)But 1835 minority led by chief Osceola staged uprising. Jackson sent army, conducted campaign of systematic extermination but successful guerilla warfare forced govt to abandon war in 1842
e)The Meaning of Removal
i)By end of 1830s almost all major Indian societies relocated to far less hospitable lands west of Mississippi on reservations surrounded by forts
ii)White movement west impossible to have stopped, but alternative to removal could have been some form of co-existence like in NW trading posts, TX
iii)BY mid-19th century Americans believed western lands had no pre-existing civilization. Natives could not be equal partners, were obstacles to be removed, “lacked intelligence, industry and moral habits for improvement”
4)Jackson and the Bank War
a)Biddle’s Institution
i)Bank of United States in 1830s had HQ in Philadelphia, branches in 19 cities, by law only place govt could deposit its funds
ii)Conducted private business issuing credit, bank notes used throughout country, restrained less well-managed state banks. Pres Nicholas Biddle had made bank sound + prosperous. Regardless, Jackson wanted to destroy it
iii)Opposition came from “soft-money” faction who wanted more currency in circulation. Made up of state banks, resisted Bank of US’s efforts to restrain free issue of notes from state banks
iv)“Hard money” faction wanted gold and silver to back currency, suspicious of expansion and speculation. Jackson supported hard-money
v)Jackson did not favor renewal of bank charter after 1836 expiration. Biddle tried to save bank by granting financial favors to influential men, named Daniel Webster made legal counsel (gained Clay’s support). Recommended renewal bill 1832 to make bank issue in 1832 elections.
vi)Bill passed Congress but Jackson vetoed it, could not be overridden. In 1832 Jackson + Van Buren elected despite opposition to bank over opposition Clay
b)The “Monster” Destroyed
i)Jackson determined to destroy “monster” Bank quickly. To weaken it removed govt deposits (two Tres. Secretaries fired b/c feared financial destabilization, third Roget Taney complied)
ii)When administration transferred funds from Bank to pet banks, Biddle called in loans and raised interest rates- hoped would cause financial distress and recession that would persuade Congress to recharter Bank
iii)Financial conditions worsened winter 1833/1834, two sides blamed it on each other. Finally Biddle contracted credit too far for his own allies in the business community, began to fear his efforts to save ban threatening their own
iv)Biddle forced to grant credit in abundance on reasonable terms, tactics ended change of re-charter. End in 1836 empowered unstable bank system
c)The Taney Court
i)Jackson moved against economic nationalism support of Supreme Court, after Marshall died 1835 named Roger Taney chief justice
ii)Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge (1837) btwn company chartered by state for toll bridge monopoly and company applying to legislature to pay for toll-free bridge. Taney ruled that govt’s goal to promote general happiness took precedence over right of contract and property, therefore state had right to amend contract o advance well-being of community
iii)Reflected Jacksonian ideal that key to democracy expansion of economic opportunity that could not occur if corporations maintained monopolies and choked off competition from newer companies
5)The Changing Face of American Politics
a)Democrats and Whigs
i)Democrats in 1830s envisioned expanding economic and political opportunity for white males, limited govt but one that removed obstacles to opportunity, defense of Union, attacking corruption, radical branch called Locofocos
ii)Whigs favored expanding power of fed govt, industrial and commercial development, knit country into consolidated economic system, cautious westward expansion b/c feared territorial growth would produce instability, embraced industrial future and commercial and manufacturing greatness
iii)Whigs supported by merchants and manufactures of NE, wealthy Southern planters, western commercialists. Democrats supported by smaller merchants and workingmen of NE, S planters suspicious of industry, agrarian westerners
iv)Above all wanted to win elections: Whigs connected w/ Anti-Masons to resent “undemocratic” Freemasons (such as Jackson and Van Buren). Irish and German Catholic immigrants supported Democrats b/c aversion to commercial development, Evangelical Protestants supported Whigs
v)Whigs led by “Great Triumvirate” of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun. 1836 election Dems united behind Jackson’s choice of Van Buren for candidate, but Whigs could not agree on single candidate. Clay, White, and William Henry Harrison ran for regional interests, defeated by Van Buren
b)Van Buren and the Panic of 1837
i)Van Buren elected on economic boom that reached height 1836- canals and railroads being built, easy credit, land business booming, govt revenues from sales + 1833 tariff created surpluses that allowed reduction of nat’l debt
ii)Congress passed 1836 “distribution” act to return surplus to states, used to fund highways, railroads, canals, created economic boom
iii)Withdrawal of fed funds strained state “pet” banks, forced to call in loans. Jackson issued “specie circular” that required payment for public land sales be in gold or silver or currency backed by them b/c feared rampant speculation
iv)Circular produced financial panic during Van Buren’s presidency banks and business failed, food riots- largest depression in American history to that point
v)Both parties responsible for panic- surplus redistribution a Whig measure, Jackson’s circular, but also panics in England and W. Eur that caused those investors to withdraw funds from American banks, also crop failures
vi)Panic of 1837 led Democrats + Van Buren administration to pay price for no govt intervention. Only success of VB creation of “subtreasury system” to replace Bank of US- govt funds placed in independent treasury in Washington, no private banks could use money to fund loans and speculation
c)The Log Cabin Campaign
i)To win 1840 election Whigs supported only one candidate- William Henry Harrison for pres and John Tyler for VP
ii)1840 campaign first in which “penny press” carried news of candidates to larger audience of workers and tradespeople. Whigs, although represented affluent elements of pop, presented themselves as party of the common people
iii)Whig campaign effective at portraying the wealthy Harrison as a simple log cabin and cider man and VB as an aloof aristocrat--- Harrison won election
d)The Frustration of the Whigs
i)Harrison died of pneumonia 1 month after inauguration, new President Tyler was a former Democrat who refused to let Clay and Webster control policy
ii)Pres supported bills abolishing independent treasury system and raising tariff rate, but refused Clay’s attempt to recharter Bank and vetoed internal improvement bills sponsored by Whigs.
iii)Whigs kicked Tyler out of party, entire cabinet resigned. Tyler and some conservative southern Whigs who supported slavery and states rights prepared to join the Democratic Party
e)Whig Diplomacy
i)Canada uprising caused tension leading to burning of an American steamship carrying arms and the subsequent arrest of a British citizen for burning 1837. Tension over Canada-Maine boundary led to small “Aroostook War” 1838
ii)Finally negotiations to reduce all tensions occurred btwn Sec of State Webster and British Lord Ashburton. 1842 Webster Ashburton treaty established new Maine border, GB refused to interfere w/ American ships-- relations improved
iii)Tyler administration established first diplomatic relations with China, Americans received same privileges as British such as “extraterritoriality” and port use
iv)Whigs lost White House in 1844 elections
1)The Changing American Population
a)The American Population, 1820-1840
i)Population dramatically increased, began to concentrate in industrial centers of Northeast and Northwest, provided labor force for factory system
ii)Growth b/c of improvements in public health (decrease in number and intensity of epidemics), high birth rate, lower infant mortality rates
iii)Immigration did not contribute greatly until 1830s b/c of Eur wars & US economic problems. Immigrant boom caused by lower transport costs, increased US economic opportunity + less econ opportunity in some Eur areas
iv)Immigrant + internal migration led to growth of cities b/c agriculture in New England less profitable (some moved West also). By 1810 NY largest city
b)Immigration and Urban Growth, 1840-1860
i)By 1860 26% of free state populations lived in towns or cities
ii)Booming agricultural economy of west led small villages and trading posts to become cities. Benefited from Mississippi R, centers of Midwest trade
iii)By 1860 American population greater than that of GB and approaching France and Germany. Urban growth from flow of ppl from Northeast farms (competition from Eur farms + Western farms) & influx of immigrants abroad
iv)Majority of immigrants from Ireland and Germany. German industrial revolution had caused poverty, & b/c of collapse of liberal 1848 revolution. In Ireland unpopular English rule & “potato famine” of 1845-1849
v)Most Irish settled in eastern cities + became unskilled laborers (had little $, many were young women- domestic/factory work in cities). Most Germans moved to Northwest, farming or business in towns (many were single men)
c)Rise of Nativism
i)Some native-born Americans saw opportunity in immigration. Industrialists & employers wanted cheap labor, land speculators and politicians hoped would populate west + increase demand for goods, increase influence
ii)Some (Nativists) hostile to foreigners and immigration. Some racist, some argued newcomers socially unfit and did not have sufficient standards of civilization, workers feared low immigrant wages would steal their jobs, Protestants feared Irish Catholics & Rome, many upset b/c voted Democratic
iii)Tension and prejudice led to secret societies to combat “alien menace”, Native American Association 1837, 1845 Native American Party, peak in 1850s with combination in Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. Wanted to ban Catholics form office, restrict naturalization, force literacy tests for voting
iv)Secret order known as Know-Nothings turned to party politics, after 1852 election formed American Party, success in 1854 East elections, declined after
2)Transportation, Communications, and Technology
a)The Canal Age
i)1790-1820s “turnpike era”, but roads not adequate for nation’s growing needs
ii)Traffic on large rivers such as Miss. and Ohio had been mainly flat barges that could not travel upstream, by 1820s steamboats and riverboats carried western and southern crops quickly, from New Orleans ocean ships to Eastern ports
iii)Farmers and merchants unhappy b/c more direct route could lower transport costs and product costs. By 1820s economic advantages of canals had generated boom in expanding water routes to West. Too expensive for private companies, states of Northeast constructed them
iv)NY’s Erie Canal began July 4, 1817 to connect Hudson R and Lake Erie. Opened 1825, tolls repaid construction costs, gave NY access to Great Lakes, Chicago, growing Western markets. NY now competed with New Orleans
v)Water transport system expanded when Ohio + Indiana connected Lake Erie & Ohio R. Increased white settlement, but primacy of NY power + hinterland control alarmed other Atlantic cities. Most attempts limited successes or failed
b)The Early Railroads
i)Railroads played secondary role in 1820s/30s, but laid groundword for mid-century surge. Emerged form technological (tracks, steam-powered locomotive) and entrepreneurial innovations
ii)In 1830s no real rial system, most lines simply connected water routes and not links to other rail systems. Some states and corporations also limited their ability to compete effectively against canals
c)The Triumph of the Rails
i)After 1840 rail gradually supplanted canals. 1850’s trackage tripled. Most comprehensive and efficient system in northeast, but no region untouched
ii)Trend toward consolidation of short lines into longer lines (“trunk lines”), connected Northeast w/ Northwest, from these other railroads traveled into interior of nation. Main Northwest hub was Chicago
iii)Lessened dependence of West on Miss. R, weakening N + S economic cnxn
iv)Capital to finance railroads came from private investors, abroad, and local governments. Fed govt gave public land grants to railroads, states for RRs
d)Innovations in Communications
i)Magnetic telegraph lines along tracks aided train routing, but also allowed instant communication btwn cities, linked N and NW at exclusion of S
ii)1844 Samuel Morse first transmitted. Low cost of construction made it ideal solution to long-distance communication. By 1860 Western Union Telegraph company had been founded linking most independent telegraph lines
iii)In journalism Richard Hoe’s 1846 steam cylinder rotary press allowed rapid and cheap newspapers, telegraph increased news speed. 1846 Associated Press formed to promote cooperate wire transmission
iv)NY’s major papers Horace Greeley’s Tribune, James Bennett’s Herald, Henry Raymond’s Times. In 1840s/50s journalism fed sectional discord, most major magazines and newspapers located in North. New awareness of differences
3)Commerce and Industry
a)The Expansion of Business, 1820-1840
i)Business grew b/c population, transportation revolution, and new practices
ii)Retain distribution became more efficient w/ specialty stores in cities
iii) Individual + small merchant capitalist companies dominated, but some larger businesses gave way to corporations- combined resources of large number of shareholders. Grew 1830s b/c states passed easy incorporation laws. Limited liability meant stockholder risked only value of investment if corp failed
iv)Great demand for capital led businesses to rely on credit, but gold and silver standards of govt led to too little $, led private banks to issue less stable notes
v)Bank failures frequent, insecure deposits. Credit difficulty limited growth
b)The Emergence of the Factory
i)Before War of 1812 most manufacturing occurred in private households in small workshops. Technology and demand led to factories- began in New England textile industry, large water-driven machines increased production
ii)1820s factory system in shoe industry, by 1830s spread throughout Northeast. By 1860 value of manufactured goods roughly equal to agricultural goods. Largest manufacturers located in the Northeast, large amt of ppl employed
c)Advances in Technology
i)Developed industries relatively immature, fine items came from England. But by 1840s rapid machine technology advances, sophisticated textile industry
ii)Manufacture of machine tools (tools used to make machinery) improved by govt supported research for military (at Springfield Armory, MA)- turret lathe and universal milling machine in early 19th century. Later precision grinder
iii)Better machine tools allowed for wide use of interchangeable parts, new uses
iv)Industrialization aided by new energy sources: coal replacing wood + water in factories. Allowed mills to be located away from streams, easier expansion
v)Technological advances due to American inventors, increasing number of patents. Included Howe-Singer sewing machine, Goodyear vulcanized rubber
d)Innovations in Corporate Organization
i)Merchant capitalists still prominent 1840s, their clippers were fastest sailing ships afloat at time. By mid-century merchant capitalism declining b/c British competition stealing export trade, greater profits found in manufacturing than trade. Industry grew in NE b/c this merchant class could finance factories
ii)By 1840s corporations spreading rapidly, especially in textile industry. Ownership moving form families and individuals to many shareholders
4)Men and Women At Work
a)Recruiting A Native Work Force
i)In factory system’s early years recruiting labor difficult b/c of farms and small cities. New farmlands in Midwest + new farm machinery and techniques increased food production, decreased need for labor. Transport allowed importation of food from other regions—ppl in New Eng left for factories
ii)Some recruitment brought whole families form farm to the mill w/ parents and children, but Lowell/Waltham system enlisted young women
iii)Labor conditions relatively good in early years of system, better than Eur. Lowell system used young, unmarried women but had good housing + food
iv)Even well-treated workers found transition from life on farm to in factory difficult- regimented env’t, repetitive tasks. Women had little other choice b/c barred from manual labor, unthinkable to travel in search of opportunity
v)Competitive textile market of 1830s/40s manufactures had difficulty maintaining high standards + conditions, wages fell. Union of Factory Girls Association struck twice, but both failed. Eventually immigrants filled jobs
b)The Immigrant Work Force
i)Increasing supply of immigrant workers after 1840 boom for manufacturers- large and inexpensive labor source. Little leverage with employers, lack of skills and native prejudice led to low, intermittent wages—great poverty
ii)Irish workers predominated 1840s textile industry, arrival led to deteriorating working conditions. Less social pressure on owners to maintain decent env’t, piece rates instead of daily wages to speed production
iii)Factories becoming large, noisy, unsanitary, dangerous places to work, hours long, wages declining. Still however, condition better than England and Eur
c)The Factory System and the Artisan Trade
i)Factory system displaced skilled artisans- had been embodiment of republican independent worker. Unable to compete w/ factory-made goods for fraction of artisan’s prices. Early 19th century began to form organizations and first labor unions to protect position. 1820s/30s trade unions developed in cities
ii)Interconnected economies of cities made national unions or federations of local unions logical. 1834 National Trade’s Union
iii)Labor leaders struggled w/ hostile laws and courts, common law made worker combination as illegal conspiracy. Panic of 1837 also weakened movement
d)Fighting for Control
i)Workers at all levels in industrial economy tried to improve position by making 10-hour workday or restricting child labor. Laws changed little
ii)1842 MA Supreme Court ruled in Commonwealth v Hunt that unions were legal and strikes lawful, other states gradually agreed. Unions still largely ineffective 1840s/50s
iii)Artisans + skilled workers unions more successful 1850s, but their unions more like preindustrial guilds that restricted admission to skilled trades
iv)Working class of 1840s/50s had only modest power- limited by numerous immigrant laborers who could replace strikers, ethnic division led to worker disunity. Industrial capitalists had great economic, political and social power
5)Patterns of Industrial Society
a)The Rich and the Poor
i)Commercial +industrial growth raised average income of Americans, but wealth distributed unequally – for slaves, Indians, landless farmers, many unskilled workers little change. Small % of families owned majority of wealth
ii)There had always been wealthy classes from beginning but extent and character was changing. Newly wealthy merchants & industrialists settled in cities- found new ways to display wealth in mansions, social clubs, clothing…
iii)Large population of destitute ppl in growing urban areas- little resources, often homeless. Included recent immigrants, widows, orphans, ppl w/ mental illness. Free blacks=only menial jobs, little pay, no vote, no public schools
b)Social Mobility
i)Class conflict quelled b/c working standards declined but living standard improving, opportunity for social mobility for workers captured imagination
ii)Geographic mobility more extensive than Eur, Western lands “safety valve” for discontent. Also travel form city to city to search for new opportunity
iii)Opportunity to participate in politics expanded, ballot tied ppl to community
c)Middle-Class Life
i)Fastest growing group in America middle class. Economic development offered opportunity to own and work for businesses, land no longer=wealth
ii)Middle class life most influential cultural form of urban America, good neighborhoods, women stayed in home to care for children, cast-iron stoves used to cook, diets improved w/ new access to meats, grains, dairy
d)The Changing Family
i)Movement of families from farms to cities where jobs, not land, most important. Patriarchal system of inherited farm land disappeared
ii)Work moved out of home and into shop, mill, factory. Family as principal economic unit gave way to individual wage earners. Even farms became commercialized b/c larger lands required more labor than just family
iii)Changing family role led to decline in birth rate by mid-19th century. Deliberate effort to limit family size result of future planning. Secular, rational
e)Women and the “Cult of Domesticity”
i)Growing distinction btwn workplace and home led to distinction in societal roles of men + women. Women had long been denied legal + political rights, little access to business, less access to education at high levels
ii)Middle class husband seen as wage earner, wife to engage in domestic activities- “guardians of domestic virtues”, central role to nurture young
iii)“Separate sphere” female culture emerged. Women seen as having special qualities difft than men-custodians of morality and shape home to be refuge from competitive marketplace. Provide religious, moral instruction to kids
iv)By 1840s few genteel women considered working, seen as “lower class”, owners rarely hired women anyway b/c of “cult”. But Working-class women couldn’t afford to stay home, many went into domestic service
f)Leisure Activities
i)Leisure time scarce for all but wealthy, vacations rare, Sunday often only day of rest + Church. Reading expanded, new newspapers, magazines, books for affluent. Theaters, minstrel shows, public sporting events increasingly popular
ii)Circus amazed ppl (PT Barnum), lectures also very popular
6)The Agricultural North
a)Northeastern Agriculture
i)After 1840 decline and transformation- farmers couldn’t compete with new rich soil of Northwest. Rural population declined. Some farmers moved west for new farms, others moved to mill towns and became laborers. Others turned to providing eastern urban centers vegetables, fruit, profitable dairy products
b)The Old Northwest
i)Some industry (more than in South), industrial growth, before Civil War- much served agriculture or relied on agricultural products
ii)Lands from urban centers primarily agricultural, owned by workers. Rising world farm prices gave incentive for commercial agriculture: growing single crop for market, international market for American food
iii)Growth of factories + cities increased demand for farm goods. Northwest farmers sold most goods to ppl in Northeast + dependent on their purchasing power, Eastern industry found market for products in prosperous West
iv)To expand production Western expansion into prairie regions during 1840s/50s, new farm techniques and inventions used- John Deere’s steel plow
v)Automatic reaper by Cyrus McCormick + thresher revolutionized grain production
vi)NW democracy based on defense of economic freedom and rights of property
c)Rural Life
i)Religion powerful force drawing farm communities together. Also joined together to share tasks difficult for single family (such as barn raising)
ii)Rural life not always isolated, but less contact w/ popular culture and public social life than in towns and cities. Cherished farm life autonomy
1)The Cotton Economy
a)The Rise of King Cotton
i)19th century upper South (VA, MD, NC) cultivated tobacco, but unstable prices and exhaustive of soil. By 1830s upper South began to grow wheat, tobacco growing shifted westward. Southern regions of South (SC, GA, FL) continued growing rice, Gulf some sugar—crops limited b/c hard to cultivate
ii)Decline of tobacco in upper South led not to industrialization but growing of short-staple cotton- could grow in difft env’ts, w/ cotton gin now profitable. Demand for cotton growing b/c of rise of textile industry in GB 1820s/30s and New England 1840s/50s—new lands and expansion to meet new demand
iii)Beginning 1820s production of cotton moved westward into Alabama, Mississippi, LA, TX, AK. By 1850s dominated economy
iv)“Lower South”/ “Cotton Kingdom” attracted many seeking profits, also slaves
b)Southern Trade and Industry
i)Business classes and manufacturers unimportant, slow growth + mainly in upper South. Non-farm commercial sectors mainly served needs of plantation economy- brokers who marketed crops, acted as merchants and lenders
ii)Primitive banking system did not allow for structures necessary for industrial development. Inadequate transport system: few roads, canals, nat’l railroads
iii)Some southerners recognized economic subordination to north and advocated for economic independence- New Orlean James De Bow- De Bow’s Review
c)Sources of Southern Difference
i)Despite “colonial dependency” South did little to industrialize b/c agricultural system + cotton so profitable, little incentive to look beyond. Wealthy had already invested much of their capital into land + slaves
ii)Lack of commercial growth also b/c traditional values distinctive to South discouraged cities + industry- elegance, more refined life than rapid growth
2)White Society in The South
a)The Planter Class
i)Majority of ppl didn’t own slaves (only ¼ did), of those small % owned many
ii)Planter aristocracy (those earning 40+ slaves and 800+ acres of land) exercised power and influence greater than their number. Political economic, social control. Saw themselves as aristocracy, though most wealth was recent
iii)Growing crops profitable but as competitive and risky as industry in North
iv)After struggling to reach their position in society they were determined to defend it—perhaps why defense of slavery and South’s “rights” stronger in booming lower South and weaker in more established areas
b)“Honor”
i)White males adopted code of chivalry that obligated them to defend their “honor”. Ethical ideal and bravery but also public appearance of dignity & authority- anything to challenge dignity or social station a challenge
c)The “Southern Lady”
i)Lives of affluent centered in home, little role in public activities or as wage earners. White men more dominant + women subordinate than in North- solitary farm life w/ no access to “public world” led to main role wife, mother
ii)Less educational opportunities, higher birth rate and infant mortality rate
d)The Plain Folk
i)Typical person not planter + slaveholder but modest yeoman farmer. Mainly subsistence farming- lacked resources for cotton or to expand operations
ii)Little prospect of bettering position b/c southern educational system provided poor whites with little opportunity to learn and therefore advance
iii)Majority excluded from planter society, but opposition to elite limited mainly to “hill” and “backcountry” ppl who were secluded, unconnected to commercial economy, and loyal to whole nation and above sectional fighting
iv)Most nonslave-owning whites lived in middle of plantation system and were tied to it, relied on planters for markets, credit, and linked thru kinship. Also large sense of democracy + political participation gave sense of cnxn to societal order. Cotton boom of 1850s gave them hope of economic betterment
v)Belief that assault on one hierarchical system (slavery) would threaten another hierarchical system (patriarchy)
vi)Even the south’s poorest members (“clay eaters”) who owned no profitable land did not offer great opposition to society—greatest factor binding all classes together was perception of race and members of ruling race
3)Slavery: The “Peculiar Institution”
a)Varieties of Slavery
i)Called “peculiar” by Southerners b/c was distinctive from N., Western world
ii)Slavery regulated by law, slave codes forbade property, congregation, teaching a slave. Anyone suspected w/ trace of African blood defined as black
iii)Despite provisions of law variety within slave system b/c white owners handled most transgressions, conditions. Size of farm, # of slaves varied
iv)Majority of slave-owners small farmers, but majority of slaves lived on medium + large plantations-less intimate owner/slave relationship
b)Life Under Slavery
i)Generally received enough necessities to enable them to live and work; lived in slave quarters. Slaves worked hard, women labored in fields w/ men and had other chores, often single b/c husbands sold away (single parents)
ii)High death rate and less children survived to adulthood than whites
iii)Some say material condition of slavery may have been better than some northern factory workers, less sever than slaves in Caribbean + South Amer. Law preventing slave import incentive to Southern elite to provide some care
iv)Other cheap laborer (such as Irish) used to perform most dangerous and least healthy tasks to protect investment. Still overseers hired by owners often treated slave badly, and household servants often sexually abused by master
c)Slavery in the Cities
i)On isolated plantations masters maintained direct control. Slaves in cities were often hired out to do labor and unskilled jobs in cities + towns
ii)In cities line btwn slavery + freedom less clear, white southerners viewed slavery incompatible w/ city life- sold slaves to countryside, used segregation
d)Free African Americans
i)About 250,000 free African Americans in slaveholding states before Civil War, most in VA and MD. Some had earned money and bought freedom for themselves and family- mostly urban blacks able to do this
ii)Some slaves freed by master for moral reasons, other after master died
iii)During 1830s state laws for slaves tightened b/c growing number of free blacks, abolition movement in North—made manumission of slaves harder
iv)Most free blacks very poor, limited opportunity, only quasi-free
e)The Slave Trade
i)Transfer of slaves from one part of South to another important consequence of development of Southwest. Sometimes moved with master, more often transferred thru slave traders
ii)Domestic slave trade impt to growth and prosperity of system, but dehumanizing- children separated from parents
f)Slave Resistance
i)Most slaves unhappy with being slaves, wanted freedom- but dealt w/ slavery thru adaptation (slaves who acted as white world expected him, charade for whites) or resistance (those who could not come to accommodate their status)
ii)1831 Nat Turner, a slave preacher, led armed African Americans in VA, overpowered by state + federal troops. Only actual slave insurrection 19th century, but fear of slave conspiracies renewed violence + led to stricter laws
iii)Some attempted to resist by running away, escaping to the North or Canada using underground railroad + sympathetic whites. Odds of success low
iv)Resisted also by refusing to work hard, stealing from master
4)The Culture of Slavery
a)Language and Music
i)Slaves incorporated African speech w/ English- called “pidgin”
ii)Songs very impt- to pass time, some political, emotional, religious
b)African-American Religion
i)By 19th century nearly all slaves Christians. Black congregations illegal, most went to master’s church led by Baptist or Methodist white minister
ii)A.A. religion more emotional, reflected influence of African customs and practices- chanting, emphasized dream of freedom and deliverance. Christian images central to revel leaders Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner
c)The Slave Family
i)Blacks deprived of legal marriage, but “nuclear family” dominant kinship model nevertheless. Up to 1/3 of black families broken apart by slave trade- led to strong extended kinship networks
ii)Black women often bore children to white masters who didn’t recognize kids
iii)Slaves had complex relationships w/ masters b/c depended on them for material means of existence, sense of security and protection. This paternalism was used as an instrument of white control, sense of mutual dependence reduced resistance to institution that only benefited ruling white race
1)The Romantic Impulse
a)Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting
i)Eurs felt that they alone at center of artistic world, but paintings w/in US popular b/c felt they had artistic traditions of their own: wonder of nation’s landscape, shoe power of nature thru wild outdoor scenes- “awe & wonder”
ii)First great school of American painters from Hudson River School in NY: Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty, Asher Durand. Hoped to express “wild nature” that existed in America but not Eur
b)Literature and the Quest for Liberation
i)Early 19th century American literature unpopular, British novelist Sir Walter Scott was. But even during 1820s great American novelist James Fenimore Cooper- evocation of wilderness, adventure, westward expansion- his “Leatherstocking Tales were The Last of the Mohicans & The Deerslayer
ii)Cooper’s novels showed effort to produce truly American literature, ideal of independent individual with natural inner goodness, fear of disorder
iii)Later American romantic works included: poet Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855)- celebration of democracy, individual liberty. Other works more bleak- Herman Melville’sMoby Dick (1851) of individual will but tragedy of pride and revenge, writer Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” (1845) established him as literary figure- humans exploring deeper world of spirit and emotions
c)Literature in the Antebellum South
i)Southern writers wanted to create American literary culture as well, but often produced historical romances for eulogies of plantation system of Upper South. Most famous William Gilmore Simms- believed duty of intellectual to defend southern lifestyle + slavery, sectional
ii)Augustus Longstreet, Joseph Baldwin, Johnson Hooper focused not on “cavaliers” but on ordinary ppl and poor whites
d)The Transcendentalists
i)New England writers who focused on distinction btwn “reason” and inner capacity to grasp beauty and emotional expression vs “understanding” and repression of instinct and imposed learning- goal to cultivate “reason”
ii)Centered in Concord, MA. Leader Ralph Waldo Emerson- essays “Nature” (1836) argued self-fulfillment thru communion w/ nature, “Self-Reliance” (1841) called for individual fully explore inner capacity, unity w/ universe
iii)Emerson a nationalist, lecture “The American Scholar” (1837), argued beauty from instant vs learning, therefore Americans can still have artistic greatness
iv)Henry David Thoreau- ppl should seek self-realization by not conforming to society’s expectations & responding to own instincts. His Walden (1845) of him living simply in the woods, essay “Resistance to Civil Government” (1849)- govt that required violation of personal mortality not legitimate
e)The Defense of Nature
i)Some uneasy w/ rapid economic development, feared impact on natural world. Nature not just for economic activity (farmers, miners) or for study by scientists- but vehicle for human inspiration, realize truth within the soul
f)Visions of Utopia
i)Transcendentalism spawned communal living experiments
ii)Brook Farm established by George Ripley 1841 in MA, create community that would permit full opportunity for self-realization, equal labor, share leisure
iii)Conflict btwn individual freedom & communal society led to dissenters: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance (1852) submission equals oppression, The Scarlet Letter (1850)- price ind. pay for not being in society
iv)French philosopher Charles Fourier’s idea of socialist communities led Robert Owen 1825 to create experiment New Harmony in Ind, economic failure
g)Redefining Gender Roles
i)Transcendentalism + utopian communities led to some sense of feminism
ii)Margaret Fuller’s Women of the Nineteenth Century (1844)- feminist ideas
iii)Johm Humphrey’s Oneida Community “Perfectionists” rejected traditional ideas of family and marriage, communal raising of children. An Lee’s Shaker Society committed to celibacy, equality of sexes, God neither male or female
h)The Mormons
i)Mormons effort to create new and more ordered society thru Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Began upstate NY by Joseph Smith w/ his 1830 Book of Mormon. Began looking for sanctuary for follower “New Jerusalem”
ii)Ideas of polygamy and secrecy led surrounding communities to fear them. Mob killed Smith, his protégé Brigham Young led exodus to new community in present Salt Lake City, Utah. Family structure very impt
iii)Belief in human perfectibility, but not individual liberty. Organized, centrally directed society- refuge from disorder and insecurity of secular world
iv)Members mostly ppl dislodged by economic growth & social progress of era
2)Remaking Society
a)Revivalism, Mortality, and Order
i)Reform b/c rejection of Calvinist doctrines + preached divinity of individual (Unitarians, Universalism), and b/c of Protestant revivalism
ii)New Light revivalists believed every individual capable of salvation. Charles Finney impt leader- predestination and human helplessness obsolete
iii)Revivals in “burned-over district” in upstate NY (economic change b/c where Erie Canal had been built). Successful among those who felt threatened by change (including the prosperous worried about social changes), and women
b)The Temperance Crusade
i)Alcohol seen as responsible for crime, disorder, poverty. Large problem in West where farmers made extra grain into whiskey, in East as leisure activity
ii)Earlier temperance movement revived by new reformers- 1826 American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, 1840 Western Temperance Society.
iii)Growth led to factions: which alcohol to ban, method (law v. conscience)
iv)Trying to impose discipline on society- Protestants vs Catholic immigrants for which drinking social ritual, disturbing to old residents of communities
c)Health Fads and Phrenology
i)Interest in individual + social perfection led to new health theories, also threat to public health by cholera epidemics 1830s/40s led to city health boards
ii)B/c boards found few solutions Americans turned toward nonscientific theories to improve health: “water cure (hydrotherapy)”, Sylvester Graha’s new diet theories, German “phrenology” 1830s thru efforts of Fowler brothers- shape and regions of skull impt indicator of character + intelligence
d)Medical Science
i)Science of medicine lagged behind other tech. + scientific advances b/c lack of regulation led many poorly educated ppl to be physicians, absence of basic knowledge of disease- vaccination, anesthesia result of luck vs study
ii)W/o appetence of scientific methods + experimentation little learned about treating + transmission of disease
e)Reforming Education
i)Reform toward universal public education-by 1830 no state had system (some limited state versions [MA, ect.])- reflection of new belief on innate capacity of every person, society’s obligation to tap that, expose kids to social values
ii)Greatest reformer Horace Mann- educated electorate essential to work free political system. Academic year lengthened, better teacher salaries + training
iii)By 1850s tax-supported elementary schools in all states. Quality of education varied widely- Horace Mann’s MA professional + trained, elsewhere some barely literate, limited funding. West dispersed pop=less opportunity, South blacks barred from formal education, only 1/3 children nationwide in school
iv)School reform achievements: US literacy rate highest in world, new emphasis led to new institutions to help handicapped- greater Benevolent
v)School efforts to impose set of social values on children seen as impt in industrial nation- thrift, order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority
f)Rehabilitation
i)“Asylums” for criminals + mentally ill. Antiquated jails replaced w/ new penitentiaries and mental institutions, jailing debtors + paupers decreased
ii)Reform & rehabilitate inmates- rigid discipline to curb criminal “laxness”, solitary confinement to contemplate crimes. Overcrowding became problem
iii)Idea properly structured institution to prevent moral failure + rescue ppl from failure led to orphanages, almshouses for poor, homes for “friendless” women
g)The Indian Reservation
i)Main US Indian policy had been relocation to make way for expanding white civilization. Reform led to idea of reservation- enclosed area for Indians to live in isolation from white society. Served economic interest of whites, but also attempt to teach ways of civilization in protected setting
h)The Rise of Feminism
i)Women 1830s/40s had to deal w/ traditional limitations + new role in family to focus energy on home and children, leave income-earning to husbands
ii)Resentment over limitations. Leaders of women’s movement (Grimke sisters, Stowe sisters, Lucrecia Matt, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dorothy Dix) began to draw cnxn btwn their abolitionist ideas and plight of women
iii)1848 organized convention at Seneca Falls, NY to discuss women’s rights- led to “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” stating all men + women equal, call for women’s suffrage. Many women in feminist movement Quaker
iv)Progress limited in antebellum yrs- only few became physicians, ministers
v)Women benefited from association w/ other reform movements (very impt abolition), but led some to consider their demands secondary to slave rights
3)The Crusade Against Slavery
a)Early Opposition to Slavery
i)Early 19th century opposition by genteel lot. 1817 American Colonization Society- Virginians who wanted manumission & transportation out of country but also maintain property rights by compensating slaveholder—1830 Liberia
ii)Failed b/c not enough private + state funding, too many slaves to be possible, opposition from 3rd/4th generation Africans far removed from society + lands
iii)By 1830 movement losing strength- colonization not viable, cotton boom in Deep South + planter commitment to “peculiar institution” led to dead end
b)Garrison and Abolitionism
i)William Lloyd Garrison employed by antislavery newspaper (Genius of Universal Emancipation), but impatient w/ moderate tone + reform proposals
ii)1831 founded his own Liberator, should look from black perspective, shouldn’t talk in terms of damage to white society. Reject “gradualism”, extend African Americans full rights of American citizens
iii)Gained Northern following, founded New England Antislavery Society 1832, year later American Antislavery Society- membership grew rapidly
iv)Growth b/c like other reform movements committed to unleashing individual human spirit, eliminate artificial social barriers
c)Black Abolitionists
i)Abolitionism appealed to Northern free blacks who were poor, had little access to education, suffered mob violence, only menial occupations
ii)P of their freedom, realized own position in society tied to existence of slavery. David Walker came to be a leader w/ violent rhetoric, most blacks less violent speech- Sojourner Truth became antislavery spokesman
iii)Greatest abolitionist Frederick Douglass- escaped slavery, lectured in NE. His newspaperNorth Star, autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845). Demanded freedom, but also social + economic equality
d)Anti-Abolitionism
i)White southerners opposed abolition, but also many in the North. Seen as threat to social system, feared war btwn sections & influx of blacks to North
ii)Escalating violence against abolitionists 1830s- abolitionist headquarters “Temple of Liberty” in Philadelphia burned by mob, Garrison seized
iii)Yet movement grew despite, suggesting members strong-willed + passionate, great courage and moral strength. Majority sentiment ambivalent to slavery
e)Abolitionism Divided
i)By 1830s abolitionists faced serious internal strains + divisions. Prompted b/c anti-abolitionist violence made some favor moderation, radicalism of William Garrison and his attacks on slavery, opposition to slavery, call for full equality for women, extreme pacifism, call for northern disunion from South. Moderates called for “moral suasion” of slaveholders, later political action
ii)1839 Amistad- slaves seized ship tried to return to Africa. US navy captured ship. Supreme Court 1841 declared the Africans free 1
iii)842 Prigg v. Pennsylvania ruled states need not enforce 1793 law requiring return of fugitive slaves, “personal liberty laws” in northern states forbade officials to assist in capture + return of runaways
iv)Nat’t govt pressured to abolish slavery in areas of federal govt jurisdiction, prohibit interstate slave trade. No political party ever founded, but “free-soil” movement to keep slave out of territories became popular
v)Some abolitionists violent, American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of A Thousand Witnesses (1839) distorted images of slavery
vi)Most powerful abolitionist propaganda Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin(1851)- combined sentimental novel w/ political ideas of abolitionist. Story of good, kindly blacks victimized by cruel system movement. Brought message to new audience, but also inflamed sectional tensions to new level
1)Looking Westward
a)Manifest Destiny
i)Reflected pride of American nationalism + idealistic vision of social perfection that had fueled reform movements- US destined by God & history- to expand over a vast area that included North America.
ii)Extend liberty + US political system to others, but also racist justifications- superiority of “American” race, ppl of territories unfit for republican system
iii)By 1840s idea of Manifest Destiny had spread thru “penny press” (mass audience). Almost all but not everyone embraced- Henry Clay feared tension
b)Americans in Texas
i)1820s Mexican govt encouraged American immigration into Texas hoping to strengthen territory’s economy and increase tax revenues, buffer against Indians, would prevent US expansion- 1824 Mex bill offered cheap land
ii)Thousands took deal, land suitable for cotton, soon American population larger than Mexican. American intermediaries to Mex govt brought settlers- most famous Stephen Austin. Later attempts to stem US immigration failed
c)Tensions Between the United States and Mexico
i)Tension btwn US settlers and Mex govt grew b/c immigrants continued cultural + economic ties to US, also b/c desire to legalize slavery after it was outlawed in 1830
ii)Mid 1830s Mex General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power as dictator- new law increased power of nat’l govt over state govts, Austin imprisoned. 1835 Mex sent more troops, 1836 Texans declared independence
iii)Santa Anna led large army into TX, Americans unorganized and easily defeated (Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio). Then General Sam Houston defeated Mexicans 1836 at Battle of San Jacinto, the captured Santa Anna signed treaty making TX independent. [MXs living in TX called tejanos]
iv)Texans wanted to be annexed by US, delegation sent to D.C. had expansionist support, but northerners feared large new slave state + empowering the south w/ more Congressional/electoral votes- incl. Andrew Jackson who feared sectional controversy, Pres Van Buren and Pres Harrison also ignored issue
v)TX sought allies in Eur who wanted to check US power, Pres Tyler sought TX to reapply for statehood 1844, rejected by Senateissue in 1844 election
d)Oregon
i)Both GB and US claimed sovereignty over Oregon region. 1818 treaty allowed citizens equal access to area-“joint occupation” for 20 yrs
ii)US interest grew 1820s/30s b/c desire to convert Indians and oppose Canadian Cath. Missionaries- native rejection Christianity=repudiating right to land
iii)Large amt of Americans began emigrating to Oregon early 1840s, soon outnumbered GB’s settlers, destroyed native pop. Mid-1840s desire for annex.
e)The Westward Migration
i)Growth of TX and Oregon population part of greater movement of population westward 1840-1860. Southerners went mainly to TX, largest numbers from Old Northwest – majority sought mainly new economic opportunity
ii)Some wanted riches after CA gold discovery 1848, others take advance of cheap land fed govt selling, others on religious mission (Mormons)
f)Life on the Trail
i)Most migrants gathered major depots in Iowa or MI, joined wagon trains led by hired guides. Main route Oregon Trail to CA + WA, others Santa Fe Trail
ii)Trip very difficult, especially in mountain and desert terrain. Fear of conflict w/ Indians (although very little fighting occurred), trade developed w/ Natives
2)Expansion and War
a)The Democrats and Expansion
i)Two candidates for 1844 election Whig Henry Clay and the Democrat/former president Martin Van Buren. Clay chosen, but many Southern democrats supported TX annexation, chose stronger support James K. Polk
ii)Polk able to win b/c wished to occupy Oregon and annex TX, thereby appealing to both northern and southern expansionists
iii)Outgoing Pres John Tyler saw election as mandate for annexing TX, did so in 1845. Polk proposed Oregon border @ 49th parallel, GB refused, led to US cry “Fifty-four forty or fight!”. 1846 GB accepted treaty w/ border at 49th parallel
b)The Southwest and California
i)Oregon treaty accepted readily by Pres b/c tension growing in Southwest with Mex. After TX became state 1845 dispute over border- TX and Polk believed it to be at Rio Grande, sent Gen Zachary Taylor to protect from invasion
ii)Part of disputed area was New Mexico where Mex had originally invited American settlers into. Interest in California growing as well as US fur traders gave way to merchants and farmers arriving. Settlers dreamed of annexation
iii)Polk wanted California and New Mexico for US. At same time ordered Gen Taylor to TX, ordered navy seize CA ports if Mexico declared war
c)The Mexican War
i)Polk attempted diplomacy by sending special minister to Mex to purchase lands. When Polk heard MX rejected offer sent Gen. Taylor’s army from Nueces R to Rio Grande R January 1846
ii)May 1846 US declaration of war. Whig critics of war b/c thought Polk instigated, intensified as war cont and public aware of casualties and expense
iii)American forces successful in capturing NE Mexico, Polk ordered offensive against New Mexico and California. Col Stephen Kearny captured Santa Fe, then aided US forces in CA’s “Bear Flag Revolution”, captured CA
iv)When Mex refused to cede defeat Polk sent Gen Winfield Scott to capture Mexico City. After taking city new Mex govt took power that was willing to negotiate treaty. Some in US wanted to annex part of Mexico, but w/ election soon Polk wanted war ended quickly. Sent envoy Nicolas Trist for settlement
v)Feb 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo agreed to where Mex ceded CA and NM to US and acknowledged Rio Grande boundary of TX. US agreed to pay Mex $15 million. Despite to Mex annexations Polk accepted treaty
3)The Sectional Debate
a)Slavery and the Territories
i)Rep David Wilmot’s “Wilmot Proviso”: prohibit slavery from territories acquired by Mex- failed Senate. Polk extended Missouri Compromise line to territory on West coast. Alternative- “popular sovereignty”- states decided
ii)1848 election Polk didn’t run again. Dem candidate Lewis Cass, Whig General Zachary Taylor. Slavery opponents formed “Free-Soil” Party w/ Van Buren for pres. Showed inability of existing parties to contain slavery passions
b)The California Gold Rush
i)Taylor won 1848 election, pressure to resolve slavery in territories urgent b/c of events in CA- 1848 Gold Rush lead to dramatic increase in CA’s population, migrants known as “Forty-niners” mainly men
ii)Gold Rush led to many Chinese migrants to Western US. Labor shortage in CA (due to ppl flocking to fold fields) created opportunities for ppl who needed work. Also led to exploitation of Natives, “Indian hunters”
iii)Most didn’t find gold, but many sated in CA and swelled agricultural + urban populations. Population diverse- white Americans, Eurs, Chinese, Mexicans, free blacks, slaves of southern migrants—tension led territory to be a turbulent place, therefore pressure to create a stable and effective govt to bring order
c)Rising Sectional Tensions
i)Taylor believed statehood solution to territory issue b/c territories controlled by fed govt, but states govt could settle slave issue w/in own state
ii)Taylor 1849 proposed CA (which had constitution banning slavery) and New Mexico apply for statehood, decide slavery w/in state. Congress refused b/c at time 15 free and 15 slave states existed, South feared admission of New states would upset balance, make South minority in Sen. Tempers rising
d)The Compromise of 1850
i)Henry Clay proposed compromise to Congress in 1850- admitted CA as free state, new territorial govts w/o slave restrictions, new tough fugitive slave law
ii)First phase of debating comp led by older voices of Clay, Calhoun, Webster and broad ideal of settling slave issue once and for all
iii)After Clay proposal defeated, second phase of debate led by younger group: William Seward of NY opposed compromise, Jefferson Davis of MI saw slavery in terms of South’s economic self-interest, Stephen Douglas of IL
iv)W/ death of Taylor in 1850 (who refused compromise until CA admitted), new Pres Millard Fillmore supported compromise, rallied N Whig support
v)Douglas proposed Clay compromise split into smaller measured and voted on (difft sections could vote for measures that they supported), used govt bonds and railroad construction to gain support. Comp passed in September- less widespread agreement on ideals then victory of self-interest
4)The Crisis of the 1850s
a)The Uneasy Truce
i)1852 pres election candidates very sectional. Dem Franklin Pierce, Whig Gen Winfield Scott, Free-Soil John Hale. Whigs suffered from massive defection from antislavery members, Democrats won
ii)Pres Pierce tried to ignore divisive issues, but N opposition to Fugitive Slave Act after 1850 as mobs prevented slave catchers in cities. S angered, alarmed
b)“Young America”
i)Pierce supported Democrat’s “Young America”- saw expansion of US democracy throughout world as way of diverting attention from slavery
ii)Efforts to expand entangled in sectionalism- attempts to capture Cuba opposed by antislavery northerners who feared administration trying to bring new slave state to Union, south opposed acquiring Hawaii b/c prohibited slavery
c)Slavery, Railroads, and the West
i)1850s settlers began moving into plains to areas suitable for farming, dislodge Indians from reservations there. Settlement led to issue of railroad and slavery
ii) RR used to solve communication problems btwn old states + areas W of Miss. R., movement for transcontinental RR. Disagreement over whether eastern terminus should be in North’s Chicago or in the South. Jefferson Davis organized Gadsden Purchase 1853 from Mex to make S route possible
d)The Kansas-Nebraska Controversy
i)Stephen Douglas 1854 proposed opening Nebraska Territory for white settlement (to clear Indians in way of possible transcont. RR from Chicago)
ii)Nebraska North of Missouri Compromise line, therefore had to be free
iii)To gain passage Douglas proposed dividing Nebraska in two (Nebraska and Kansas) and each would decide slavery by “popular sovereignty” (state legislature), repealed Missouri Compromise entirely
iv)Kansas-Nebraska Act passed 1854 w/ Pres Pierce support. Had immediate, sweeping consequences: divided and destroyed Whig Party (disappeared by 1856), divided northern Democrats (disagreed w/ repealing Miss. Comp)
v)Ppl in both parties opposed to bill formed Republican Party 1854
e)“Bleeding Kansas”
i)Settlers from N + S settling Kansas, but for 1855 elections southerners from Missouri traveled to Kansas to vote. Pro-slavery legislature elected, legalized slavery. Free-state supporters in state formed own Const, applied statehood
ii)Pro-slave forces burned down anti-slave govt, abolitionist John Brown then killed 5 pro-slave settlers (Pottawatomie Massacre). Led to armed warfare by armed bands, “Bleeding Kansas” became symbol of sectional controversy
iii)1856 anti-slavery Charles Sumner of MA gave speech entitled “The Crime Against Kansas” critical of slavery defender Sen Butler of SC. Butler’s nephew Preston Brooks came to Sen, beat Sumner w/ cane- both became hero
f)The Free-Soil Ideology
i)Tension from economic, territorial interest, but also sectional vision of US
ii)North believed in “free soil” + “free labor”. Slavery not so much immoral but wrong b/c threatened whites- every citizen had right to own property, control labor, access to opportunity. To them South closed, static society where slavery preserved entrenched aristocracy & common white had no opportunity
iii)North growing + prospering, S stagnant + rejecting individualism, progress. Believed S conspiring to extend slavery thru whole nation and thus destroy N capitalism, replace it with closed aristocracy of S- “slave power conspiracy”
iv)This ideology @ heart of Repub Party. Committed to Union b/c growth + prosperity central to free-labor vision, breakup= smaller size+ less econ power
g)The Pro-Slavery Argument
i)Incompatible Southern ideology result of desire for security after Nat Turner 1831 uprising, lucrative nature of cotton economy into Deep South and expansion there, growth of Garrisonian abolition movement against S society
ii)Intellectual defense of slavery begun by Professor Thomas Dew, others later gave ideology name The Pro-Slavery Argument- said that S should not apologize for slavery b/c was a good thing, slaved enjoyed better conditions than industrial workers in N, allowed for peace btwn races, helped nat’l econ
iii)Also argued slavery good b/c basis of way S way of life, which was superior to any other. N greedy, destructive, factories horrific, cities crowded + immigrant filled- but S stable, orderly, protected worker welfare
iv)Defense also on biological inferiority of blacks, inherently unfit to care for themselves and be citizens. Clergy also gave religious + biblical justification
h)Buchanan and Depression
i)In 1856 pres election Dems wanted candidate unassociated w/ “Bleeding Kansas” so chose James Buchanan, Repubs chose John Fremont (platform against Kansas-Nebraska Act and of Whiggish internal improvements reflecting N economic aspirations), Know-Nothings chose Millard Fillmore
ii)Buchanan won, but proved indecisive at critical moment in history. After taking office financial panic + depression hit country
iii)In N Repubs strengthened b/c manufacturers, workers, farmers joined--depression seen as result of unsound policies of southern Dem administrations
i)The Dred Scott Decision
i)March 1857 Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v Sandford- Scott was slave who after masters death sued widow for freedom on grounds that master had moved residence to a free state, but John Sanford (brother of deceased owner, Sup C. misspelled name) claimed ownership of Scott
ii)Defeat for antislavery movement. Supreme Court had multiple decisions, Chief Justice Roger Taney: Scott could not bring suit in fed court b/c was not a citizen, blacks had virtually no rights under Const, slaves property & 5th Amendment forbid taking property w/o “due process” and therefore Congress had no authority to pass law depriving persons of slave property in territories (thereby ruling Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional)
iii)Did not challenge rights of state to limit slavery, but fed govt now powerless
j)Deadlock Over Kansas
i)Pres Buchanan endorsed Dred Scott decision, to solve Kansas problem supported admission to Union as slave state. 1857 new KS Const legalized slavery, but election of new legislature saw antislavery majority who put Const to ppl to vote on- widely rejected
ii)1858 Buchanan pressured Congress to admit it as slave state anyway but Cong rejected, compromise allowed KS to vote on Const again—rejected again
iii)1861, after sever S states had already seceded, KS entered Union as free state
k)The Emergence of Lincoln
i)In 1858 Congressional elections Repub Abraham Lincoln ran against famed Dem Stephen Douglas. Lincoln-Douglas debates attracted attention
ii)Lincoln’s attacks on slavery prominent- argued if nation didn’t accept blacks had human rights then it could accept other groups such as immigrant laborers could be deprived of rights too. Also, extension of slavery in territories would lead to lost opportunity for betterment by poor white laborers
iii)Lincoln opposed slavery but not abolitionist b/c did not see easy alternative to slavery in areas where it existed. Prevent spread of slavery to territories, trust institution would gradually die out in areas where it existed
iv)Douglas won but Lincoln gained following. Dems lost maj in House, kept Sen
l)John Brown’s Raid
i)1859 antislavery zealot from KS John Brown led followers to capture fort in Harpers Ferry VA hoping to lead slave rebellion. Uprising never occurred, Brown surrendered, tried for treason by VA and hanged
ii)Convinced white southerners that they could not live safely in Union, believed raid supported by Repub party and that North now wanted slave insurrection
m)The Election of Lincoln
i)In Pres election of 1860 Dems torn btwn southerners (who demanded strong endorsement of slavery) & westerners (who supported popular sovereignty)
ii)After popular sovereignty endorsed by convention southern states walked out, eventually nominated John Breckinridge of KY, rest chose Stephen Douglas
iii)Still others formed Constitutional Union Party w/ John Bell as candidate- endorsed Union but remained silent regarding slavery
iv)Republicans tried to broaden appeal to earn majority in North who feared S blocking its economic interests. Platform endorsed high tariff, internal improvements, homestead bill, Pacific railroad, popular sovereignty but Congress nor territory legislatures could legalize slavery in territories
v)Repubs chose Abraham Lincoln as nominee b/c moderate positions on slavery, relative obscurity, and western origins to attract votes from region
vi)Lincoln won presidency w/ majority of electoral votes but only 2/5 of popular vote but failed to win maj in Congress
vii)Election of Lincoln final signal for many southerners that their position in Union hopeless, within weeks process of disunion began
1)The Secession Crisis
a)The Withdrawal of the South
i)South Carolina voted Dec 1860 to secede, by time Lincoln came to office six more states (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, TX) seceded
ii)Seceded states formed Confederate States of America Feb1861. These states started seizing federal property but at first lacked power to seize the military instillations at Fort Sumter, SC and For Pickens, FL
b)The Failure of Compromise
i)Compromise proposed by Sen John Crittenden of KY proposed constitutional amdts w/ permanent slavery in slave states, fugitive slave returned. At heart was plan to reinstitute Missouri Compromise Line for western lands
ii)Repubs rejected compromise. Lincoln came to office, stated: Union older than Const therefore no state could leave it, supporting secession= insurrection
c)Fort Sumter
i)Forces in fort running out of supplies, Lincoln informed SC govt that supply ships were being sent. South feared looking weak, ordered General PGT Beauregard to capture fort. Bombarded April 12-12,1861. Fort surrendered
ii)After defeat of fort Lincoln began mobilizing for war, but 4 more slave states also seceded- VA, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina. Other 4 slave states remained in Union- MD, Delaware, KY, Missouri)
iii)Ppl in N&S had come to believe two distinct and incompatible civilizations had developed in US, both incapable of living together in peace
d)The Opposing Sides
i)North held all the important material advantages- N had more than double the population (manpower for army and work force) advanced industrial system to manufacture war material (S had to rely on Eur imports), N had better transportation systems + more railroads
ii)Advantages tempered b/c at first South fighting defensive war on own land w/ strong support of population. N more divided and support shaky throughout
2)The Mobilization of the North
a)Economic Measures
i)W/o Southern forces in Congress it enacted nationalistic program to promote econ development- Homestead Act of 1862 gave public land to settlers for small fee, Morrill Land Grant Act gave land to state govts to sell for $ for public education. High tariffs passed- boom to domestic industries, protect from foreign producers
ii)To build transcontinental RR created the Union Pacific RR Company to build westward from Omaha + Central Pacific to build east from CA
iii) National Bank Acts of 1863-1864 created new bank system- banks could join if they invested in govt, in turn could issue US Treasure notes as currency
iv)Govt financed war thru taxes, paper currency, and borrowing. 1861 first ever income tax levied, govt “greenbacks” (paper money) issued (not on gold or silver standard), but mostly thru bonds sold to individuals and larger financial bodies
b)Raising Union Armies
i)To increase army Congress authorized enlisting 500,000 volunteers- produced adequate forces only briefly. By March 1863 govt had to pass national draft law (but ppl could avoid service by hiring someone in his place or paying $)
ii)Ppl were accustomed to remote, inactive nat’l govt so conscription had widespread opposition- mainly from laborers, immigrants, “Peace Democrats”
c)Wartime Politics
i)Lincoln moved to assert his authority- apptd cabinet representing every faction of Repub party, used war powers of president and disregarded parts of Const- e.x. never asking Congress for declaration of war (believed declaration would recognize Confederacy as an independent nation)
ii)Lincoln’s greatest problem was popular opposition to war mobilized by parts of Democratic Party (“Copperheads”) who feared agriculture and Northwest losign influence + deterioration of states rights by strong nat’l govt
iii)Lincoln suppressed opposition by ordering military arrests of civilian dissenters, suspending habeas corpus, stating all ppl who discouraged enlistment or disloyal practices subject to martial law. Lincoln defied Supreme Court when ordered to release secession leader (Ex parte Merryman), military courts declared unconst after war (Ex parte Milligan)
iv)In1864 presidential election coalition formed btwn Repubs & War Democrats in Union Party- nominated Lincoln. Dems nominated Gen George McClellan, platform for truce. N victories (e.x. Sept capture of Atlanta) led to Lincoln win
d)The Politics of Emancipation
i)Republicans disagreed on slavery- Radicals incl. Sen Charles Sumner wanted to use war to abolish slavery, Conservatives= gradual, less destructive process
ii)Lincoln cautious of emancipation but momentum gathered behind it- 1861 Confiscation Act freed all slaves used for “insurrectionary” purposes, second Confiscation Act in 1862 freed all slaves of ppl supporting the insurrection
iii)North began to accept emancipation as central war aim b/c nothing less would justify sacrifices of struggle, Radical Repub influence on the rise
iv)Lincoln seized leadership of antislavery sentiment- Sept 1862 after success at Battle of Antietam issued Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in all Confederate areas (but not Union slave states). Established war not only to maintain Union but also to eliminate slavery
v)1865 Congress ratified 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in all parts of US
e)African Americans and the Union Cause
i)About 180,000 emancipated blacks and more free blacks from North served as soldiers and laborers for Union forces. At start of war African Americans excluded from war, but after Emancipation Proc joined in great numbers
f)The War and Economic Development
i)War slowed some growth by cutting manufactueres off from Southern markets and raw materials and diverting labor, but mostly the war sped economic development in the North
ii)Econ growth from Repub nationalistic legislation + new sectors of economy. Difficult for workers though purchasing power declined, mechanization
g)Women, Nursing, and the War
i)Women entered new roles b/c of need for money and labor needs to fill positions vacated by men
ii)Nursing (previously dominated by men) taken up by women, staffed field hospitals thru US Sanitary Commission. Countered resistance from doctors by associating care with women’s role as maternal + nurturing wife and mother
iii)Many found war liberating, seen as opportunity to win support for own goals. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded National Woman’s Loyal League in 1863- worked for abolition and suffrage to women
3)The Mobilization of the South
a)The Confederate Government
i)Confederate const similar to US Const but acknowledged sovereignty of individual states, sanctioned slavery and made abolition nearly impossible. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi named president, led like Union by moderates of new Western aristocracy as opposed to entrenched Eastern elements
b)Money and Manpower
i)To finance war South needed to create national revenue system in society not used to tax burdens. Small banking system, little liquid capital b/c of investments in land + slaves. Govt requested funds from state govts who issued questionable bonds
ii)1863 Income tax created but raised little revenue, borrowing from Eur and bonds to citizens unsuccessful. Turned to issuing paper money but created inflation of over 9,000% vs North’s 80%, no uniform currency
iii)To raise military called for volunteers, but decline in enlistment led to April 1862 Conscription Act. N capture of Confederate lands led to loss of source for manpower, 1864 shortage so desperate draft widened but still ineffective
c)States’ Rights versus Centralization
i)States’ rights supporters obstructed war effort by limiting Davis’ ability to declare martial law and obstructed conscription
ii)Confed did centralize power in S- bureaucracy larger than that of Washington, impressed slaves to work for military, regulated industry + profits
d)Economic and Social Effects of the War
i)War devastating on S economy- cut off planters from markets in S, overseas cotton sales more difficult, industries w/o large slave forces suffered. Production declined by 1/3, fighting on S land destroyed RRs, farmland
ii)N naval blockade led to shortages of everything- agriculture had focused on cotton and not enough food to meet needs, few doctors b/c of conscription
iii)Like in N, w/ men leaving farms to fight the role of women changed- led slaves and family, became nurses. Led women to question S assumption that females unsuited for certain activities and to be in public sphere. War created gender imbalance w/ many more women, unmarried + widowed sought work
iv)Whites feared slave revolts + enforced slave codes severely, but many slaves tried to escape or resisted authority of women and boys overseeing plantations
4)Strategy and Diplomacy
a)The Commanders
i)Most impt Union commander was commander-in-chief Abraham Lincoln- realized N material advantages, goal defeat of Confed armies, not occupation
ii)Lincoln had trouble finding a competent chief of staff for war- Gen Winifield Scott, Gen George McCllellan, Gen Henry Halleck. Finally found commander in Gen Ulysses S. Grant- goal to target enemy army + resources, not territory
iii)Lincoln and Grant scrutinized by Congress’ Committee on the Conduct of the War chaired by OH Sen Benjamin Wade - complained of lack of ruthlessness by of N generals
iv)Southern command centered on Pres Davis, 1862 named Gen Robert E. Lee principal military adviser (w/ Lee in field Davis controlled strategy). 1864 Gen Braxton Bragg named military adviser, later 1865 Confed Congress created position of general in chief, Davis named Lee, but Davis still decider
v)Most commanders from both N & S had attended one of the US service academies- US Military Academy at West Point, US Naval Acad at Annapolis
b)The Role of Sea Power
i)Union had overwhelming naval advantage- used to enforce blockade of S coast, assisted Union army in field operations especially on large rivers
ii)Blockade prevented most ships out of Confed ports. Confederates tried to break blockade w/ new weapons such as the ironclad warship the Merrimac, which the Union stopped with one of their ironclads the Monitor
c)Europe and the Disunited States
i)Judith P Benjamin was Confed secretary of state, counterpart in Washington was the great William Seward
ii)At start of war ruling classes of England + France sympathetic to Confed b/c imported cotton for textile industries from S, wanted to see a weaker US, admired aristocratic social order of S. France waited to take sides until England did, English didn’t act b/c of popular support of ppl for the Union
iii)S countered w/ “King Cotton diplomacy” arguing S cotton vital for these nations textile industries. Surpluses in these nations allowed S to be ignored, later imports from mills from Egypt and India
iv)No Eur nation diplomatically recognized Confed, no nation wanted to antagonize US unless Confed seemed likely to win- never reached that point
v)Still, there was tension btwn US and GB + France b/c these nations had declared neutrality. Also 1861 Trent affair over arrest of Confed diplomats aboard English steamer from Cuba, later crisis over sale of Brit ships to S
d)The American West and the War
i)Most states and territories of West remained loyal to Union except TX, although Southerners and S sympathizers active in organizing opposition
ii)Fighting occurred btwn Unionists and secessionists in Kansas and Missouri. Confed William Quantrill led guerilla fighters, Union Jayhawkers in KS
iii)Confed tried to ally w/ Five Civilized Tribes in Indian territory to recruit support against Union, Indians divided. Never formally allied w/ either side
5)The Course of Battle
a)The Technology of Battle
i)Battlefield of Civil War reflected changes in tech that transformed combat
ii)Both sides began to use repeating weapons- Samuel Colt’s 1835 repeating revolver, Oliver Winchester’s 1660 rifle. Also, improved artillery + cannon
iii)Changes in weapons effectiveness led soldiers to change from infantry lines firing volleys to use of no fighting formations but use of cover, fortifications, trenches. Observation balloons, ironclad ships also appeared during war
iv)Railroad impt in war where millions of soldiers mobilized + tons of supplies. Allowed large armies to assemble and move, but forced to protect stationary lines. Telegraph limited but allowed commanders to communicate during fight
b)The Opening Clashes, 1861
i)First major battle of war occurred in northern VA btwn Union Gen Irvin McDowell and Confed Gen PGT Beauregard at First Battle of Bull Run
ii)Union lost, forced to retreat to Washington, dispelled illusion of quick war
iii)1863 Union army under Gen George McClellan “liberated” anti-secessionists in western VA, area admitted to Union as West Virginia 1863
c)The Western Theater
i)Stalemate in East led to 1862 military operations in West. April 1862 Union forced surrender of New Orleans, closed Mississippi R to Confed trade and took away South’s largest city and most impt banking center
ii)Gen Ulysses S. Grant captured forts under command of Confed Gen Albert Johnston. In doing so Grant forced Confed out of Kentucky and Tennessee
iii)Grant then marched south, fought forced of Gen Sidney and Gen Beauregard at Battle of Shiloh April 1862. Narrow Union victory allowed capture of several impt railroad lines vital to the Confederacy
d)The Virginia Front, 1862
i)Union operations 1862 directed by Gen McClellan (commander of the Army of the Potomac), he was controversial b/c often reluctant to put troops in battle
ii)McClellan planned Peninsular Campaign- use navy to transport troops, attack Confed capital at Richmond from behind. Gen McDowell left to defend D.C.
iii)Then Confed Gen Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson looked as if planning to cross Potomac to Washington, defeated Union forces in Valley campaign, withdrew
iv)Meanwhile, McClellan battled and defeated Confed Gen Joseph Johnston at Battle of Fair Oaks. Johnston replaced by Gen Robert E. Lee who battled McClellan at Battle of the Seven Days. Union able to advance near Richmond
v)When McClellan delayed attack Lincoln ordered him to move to northern VA to forces under Gen John Pope. But as Army of Potomac moved Lee attacked Pope with his Army of Northern Virginia at 2nd Battle of Bull Run (August)
vi)Lincoln replaced Pope and McClellan led all forces. Lee planned offensive, resulted in Battle of Antietam Creek- bloodiest single-day of war w/ 6,000 dead & 17,000 injured. Confed withdrew but McClellan could have defeated Lee w/ last assault. Lincoln relieved McClellan from command in November, his replacement Gen Ambrose Burnside relieved in December after failures
e)1863: Year of Decision
i)New commander of Army of the Potomac Gen Joseph Hooker attacked by Lee + Jackson at Battle of Chancellorsville, barely able to escape w/ army
ii)While Union frustrated in East won impt victories in the West
iii)In July besieged Confed stronghold at Vicksburg, MI surrendered to Grant
iv)Union now controlled entire Mississippi R, Confederacy split in two- Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas cut off from other seceded states
v)To divert Union forces away from Missippi and Vicksburg and to gain major victory on N soil to get English and French aid, Lee proposed PA invasion
vi)New Army of the Potomac commander Gen George Meade battled Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3. Meade defeated Lee w/ surrender on July 4, same day as Vicksburg defeat
vii) Weakened Confed forced now unable to seriously threaten N territory
viii)In September Gen Braxton Braggfought Union army under William Rosecrans, Union defeated at Battle of Chickamauga
ix)Bragg then fought remaining Union forces at Battle of Chattanooga (Tennessee) in November. Grant reinforced the Union army, Union won and occupied most of eastern TN and controlled important Tennessee River
x)Confed could not only hope to win independence thru holding on and exhausting N will to fight, not thru decisive military victory
f)The Last Stage, 1864-1865
i)Beginning 1864 Grant named general-in-chief of all Union armies. Planned two offensives: use Army of Potomac in VA to fight Lee near Richmond, and use western army under Gen William Sherman to advance toward Atlanta
ii)Grant’s Overland campaign in VA led Lee to win three battles (Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Battle of Cold Harbor)
iii)Grant then decided to bypass Richmond to railroad center at Petersburg- strong defenses and reinforcement by Lee led to 9-month siege
iv)In Georgia Gen Sherman fought Gen Johnston and his replacement Gen Hood, took Atlanta in Sept- electrified N + united Repub Party behind Lincoln
v)Sherman defeated Confed at Battle of Nashville, while beginning his March to the Sea- sought to deprive Confed army of war materials and railroad but also break will of Southern ppl by burning towns and plantations along route
vi)Sherman captured Savannah, GA in Dec, turned north thru SC and NC
vii)April 1865 Grant’s Army of the Potomac captured vital railroad juncture in Petersburg. W/o rail access to South and cut off rom other Confed forces Lee no longer able to defend Richmond
viii)Lee attempted to move army around Union in hope of meeting forces with Gen Johnston in North Carolina, but Union blocked and pursued him
ix) Realizng more bloodshed was futile Lee met w/ Grant in town of Appomattox Courthouse, VA- surrendered there on April 9
x)Nine days later Gen Johnston surrendered to Sherman in North Carolina
xi)In military war was effectively over even though Jefferson Davis refused to accept defeat. He fled Richmond but was captured in Georgia
1)The Problems of Peacemaking
a)The Aftermath of the War and Emancipation
i)Southern towns and fields ruined, many whites stripped of slaves and capital, currency worthless, little property. Thousands of soldiers (>20% of adult white male pop) had died, ppl wanted to preserve what was left
ii)Many emancipated slaves wandered looking for family, work. Almost none owned land or possessions
b)Competing Notions of Freedom
i)Freedom to blacks meant end to slavery, injustice, humiliation. Rights and protections of free men also desired
ii)AAs differed over how to achieve freedom: some wanted economic redistribution including land, others wanted legal equality and opportunity. All wanted independence from white control
iii)Whites wanted life w/o interference of North or federal govt. Thirteenth Amendment (Dec 1865) had abolished slavery, but many planters wanted blacks to be tied to plantations
iv)March 1865 Congress created Freedmen’s Bureau to distribute food, create schools, & help poor whites. Only a temporary solution, only operated for 1 yr
c)Issues of Reconstruction
i)Political issue when S states rejoined Union b/c Democrats would be reunited, threatened Repub nationalistic legislation for railroads, tariffs, bank and currency. Many in N wished to see S punished for suffering rebellion caused
ii)Repubs split btwn Conservatives and Radicals- Con wanted abolition but few other conditions for readmission, Radicals (led by Rep Thaddeus Stevens of PA + Sen Charles Sumner of MA) wanted Confed leaders punished, black legal rights protected, property confiscation. Moderates in between
d)Plans for Reconstruction
i)Lincoln proposed 1863 lenient Reconstruction plan- favored recruiting former Whigs to Repubs, amnesty to white Southerners other than high Confed officials. When 10% of ppl took loyalty oath state govt could be established. Questions of future of freedmen deferred for sake of rapid reunification
ii)The occupied Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee rejoined under plan in 1864
iii)Radicals unhappy with mild plan. Wade-Davis Bill 1864 proposed governor for each state, when majority of ppl took allegiance oath constitutional convention could be held w/ slavery abolished, former Confed leaders couldn’t vote. After Congress would readmit to Union. Lincoln pocket vetoed
e)The Death of Lincoln
i)April 14, 1865 Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
ii)Hysteria in N w/ accusations of conspiracy. Militant republicans exploited suspicions for months, ensured a mild plan would not come soon
f)Johnson and “Restoration”
i)Johnson became leader of Moderate and Conservative factions, enacted his “Restoration” plan while Congress in recess during summer 1865
ii)Plan offered amnesty to southerners taking allegiance oath, Confed officials + wealthy planters needed special presidential pardon. Like Wade-Davis Bill had provisional governors, constitutional convention had to revoke ordinance of secession, abolish slavery, ratify 13th Amdt. State govts, then readmission
iii)By end of 1865 all seceded states has new govts, waiting for Congress to recognize. Radicals refused to recognize Johnson govts b/c public sentiment more hostile- (e.g. Georgia’s choice of Confed Alexander Stephens as Sen)
2)Radical Reconstruction
a)The Black Codes
i)1865 + 1866 S state legislatures passed laws known as Black Codes- gave whites power over former slaves, prevent farm ownership or certain jobs
ii)Congress reacted by widening powers of Freemen’s Bureau to nullify agreements forced on blacks. 1866 passed first Civil Rights Act- made blacks US citizens, gave fed govt power to intervene to protect rights of citizens
iii)Johnson vetoed both bills, but both were overridden
b)The Fourteenth Amendment
i)14th Amendment defined citizenship- anybody born in US or naturalized automatically a citizen + guaranteed all rights of Const. No other citizenship requirements allowed, penalties for restricting male suffrage. Former Confed members couldn’t hold state or fed office unless pardoned by Congress
ii)Radicals offered to readmit those who ratified amendment, only TN did so
iii)S race riots helped lead to overwhelming Repub majority (mostly Radicals) in 1866 Congressional elections, could now act over President’s objections
c)The Congressional Plan
i)Radicals passed 3 Reconstruction plans in 1867, established coherent plan
ii)TN readmitted, but other state govts rejected. Cong formed five military districts w/ commanders who registered voters (blacks + white males uninvolved in rebellion) for const convention that must include black suffrage
iii)After const ratified needed Congressional approval, state legislature had to ratify 14thAmdt. By 1868 10 former Confed states fulfilled these conditions (14th Amdt now part of Const) and readmitted to Union
iv)Congress also passed 1867 the Tenure of Office Act (forbade pres to remove civil officials w/o Senate consent) and the Command of the Army Act (no military orders except thru commanding general of army or w/ Sen approval)
v)Supreme Court case Ex parte Milligan had declared military tribunals where civil courts existed unconst, Radicals feared same ruling would apply to military districts so proposed bills threatening court—court didn’t hear Reconstruction cases for 2 years
d)The Impeachment of President Johnson
i)Pres Johnson obstacle to Radical legislation, yet tasked with administering Reconstruction programs. 1868 Johnson impeached for violation of Tenure of Office Act for dismissing Sec of War Stanton- Sen acquitted by 1 vote
3)The South in Reconstruction
a)The Reconstruction Governments
i)In ten states recognized under congressional plans up to ¼ of whites excluded from voting and office. These restrictions later lifted, but Repubs kept control w/ support of many southern whites called “scalawags” (most former Whigs, wealthy planters, businessman), felt Repub better for their economic interests
ii)“Carpetbaggers” were northerners (mostly professionals or veterans) who moved South after war to take advantage of new opportunity
iii)Most republicans, however, were black freedmen who held conventions and created black churches that gave them unity and political self-confidence. Were delegates to const conventions, held office- although white charges of “Negro” governments were over exaggerated or false
iv)Reconstruction governments’ records were mixed- there were charges of corruption and extravagance. But corruption also rampant in N- both result of economic expansion of govt services that put new strains on elected officials. Larger budgets reflected needed services previous govts had not offered: public education, public works, and poor relief
b)Education
i)Education improvement benefited whites and blacks- large network of schools for former slaves created (over white opposition of giving blacks “false notions of equality”), by 1870s comprehensive public school system led to great percentage of white and black population attending school
ii)System divided into black and white system, integration efforts failed
c)Landownership and Tenancy
i)Freedmen’s Bureau and Radicals had hoped to make Reconstruction vehicle for southern landownership reform. Some redistribution of land in early years, but Pres Johnson and govt returned most confiscated land to returning plantation owners
ii)White landownership decreased b/c of debt, taxes or rentals. Black landownership increased, some relied on help of failed Freedman’s Bank
iii)Most ppl did not own land during Reconstruction, worked for others. Many black agricultural laborers worked only for wages, but most worked own plots of land and paid landlords rent or share of their crop
d)The Crop-Lien System
i)Postwar years saw economic progress for African Americans, great increase in income. Result of black profit share increasing, greater return on labor
ii)Redistribution did not lift many blacks out of poverty- black per capita income rose from ¼ of whites to ½, then grew little more afterward
iii)Gains of blacks and poor whites overshadowed by ravages of crop-lien system. After war few credit institutions such as banks returned, new credit system centered on local country stores
iv)Farmers did not have steady cash flow so relied on credit to buy what they needed. W/o competition stores charged incredibly high interest rates. Had to give lien (claim) on crops as collateral- bad years trapped them in debt cycle
v)Effects included leading some blacks who had gained land to lose it as they became indebted, S farmers became dependent on nearly all cash crops (only possibility to escape debt). Lack of diversity led to decline in agric economy
e)The African-American Family in Freedom
i)Major black response during Reconstruction was effort to build or rebuild family structures, reason why many immediately left plantations was to seek relatives and family
ii)Women began performing more domestic work + child caring, less field labor
iii)Poverty + economic necessity led many black women to do income-producing activity for wages, reminiscent of slave activities: domestic servants, laundry
4)The Grant Administration
a)The Soldier President
i)Grant accepted Repub nomination for president in 1868 election. Had no political experience, apptd incompetent cabinet members, relied on party leaders and spoils system. Alienated Northerners disillusioned w/ Radical reconstruction and corruption
ii)Opposing Repubs formed faction called Liberal Republicans, supported Dem nominee Horace Greeley in 1872 elections—but Grant won reelection
b)The Grant Scandals
i)Series of scandals emerged plaguing Grant and Repubs. Involved French-owned Credit Mobilier construction company helping build Union Pacific RR. Company heads steered contracts to company costing fed govt and Union Pacific millions, stock given to Congress members to stop investigation
ii)Later, “whiskey ring” found officials helping distillers cheat out of taxes. Later “Indian ring” scandal idea that “Grantism” brought corruption to govt
c)The Greenback Question
i)Grant’s and nation’s problems confounded by Panic of 1873- began w/ failure of investment bank, later debtors wanted govt to redeem war bonds w/ greenbacks (paper currency)
ii)Grant and other Repubs wanted “sound” currency based on gold that would favor banks and other creditors, didn’t want to put more money in circulation
iii)1875 Repubs passed Specie Resumption Act- pegged greenback dollars to the price of gold. Satisfied creditors, hard for debtors b/c money supply grew little
iv)National Greenback Party formed, unsuccessful but kept money issue alive
d)Republican Diplomacy
i)Johnson and Grant administrations had great foreign affairs successes b/c of Secretaries of State William Seward and Hamilton Fish
ii)Seward bought Alaska from Russia (“Seward’s Folly”), annexed Midway Islands. Fish resolved claims against GB of violating neutrality by building ships for Confed. Treaty of Washington allowed for arbitration of claims
5)The Abandonment of Reconstruction
a)The Southern States “Redeemed”
i)By 1872 nearly all S whites regained suffrage, worked as majority to overthrow Repubs. In areas of black majority whites used intimidations and violence (Ku Klux Klan, ect.) to prevent blacks from political activity
ii)Klan led by former Confed Gen Nathan Forrest. Worked to advance interest of those who would gain from white supremacy- mainly planter class and Democratic party. Most of all, however, economic pressure used
b)The Ku Klux Klan Acts
i)Repubs tried to stop white repression, 1870 passed Enforcement Acts (known as Ku Klux Klan Acts)- prohibited states from discriminating against voters on race, fed govt given power to prosecute violations. Allowed pres to use military to protect civil rights, suspend habeas corpus in some situations
ii)Grant used law in 1871 for “lawless” counties in SC
c)Waning Northern Commitment
i)Enforcement Acts peak of Repub enforcement of Reconstruction. After 1870 adoption of 15th Amdt many in N felt blacks should take care of themselves. Support for Liberal Democrats grew, some moves into Democratic Party
ii)Panic of 1873 undermined Reconstruction support further, N industrialists explained poverty and instability thru “Social Darwinism” where those who suffered did so b/c of own weakness. Viewed poor blacks in this light, favored little govt intervention to help. Depleted treasury led ppl to want to spend little on freedmen, poor state govts cut back on social services
iii)In Congressional elections of 1874 Dems won majority in House for first time since 1861, Grant used army to maintain Repub control in SC, FL, LA
d)The Compromise of 1877
i)In 1876 elections Repubs sought new candidate to distance from corruption and attract Liberals back- chose Rutherford B Hayes, Dems chose Sam Tilden
ii)Tilden won popular vote but dispute over 20 electoral votes from 3 states. Tilden one vote shy of electoral vote majority, Hayes needed all 20 votes to win. Congress created special electoral commission to judge disputed votes, chose 8-7 to give all votes to Hayes—won election
iii)Resolution result of compromises btwn Repubs w/ southern Dems- Hayes would withdraw last fed troops from S if Dems abandoned filibuster of bill
iv)“Compromise of 1877” also involved more financial aid for railroads and internal improvements in S in order to help Dems grow business and industrialize, withdraw troops to rid S of last Repub state govts
e)The Legacies of Reconstruction
i)Reconstruction made strides in helping former slaves but a failure b/c failed to resolve issue of race, created such bitterness that solution not attempted for another century. Failure b/c of ppl directing it, unwillingness to infringe on rights of states and individuals
6)The New South
a)The “Redeemers”
i)By 1877 w/ final withdrawal of troops every southern state govt “redeemed” (white Dems held power). “Redeemers”/“Bourbons” members of powerful ruling elite, mostly new class of merchants, industrialists, financiers. Committed to “home rule”, social conservatism, economic development
ii)Dem govts lowered taxes, reduced services (incl. public education)
iii)By 1870s dissenters protesting service cuts and Redeemer govt commitment to pay off prewar and Reconstruction debts (e.g. VA Readjuster movement)
b)Industrialization and the “New South”
i)Leaders in post-Reconstruction south wanted to develop industrial economy, New South of industry, progress, thrift
ii)Literature of time indicates reference for the “Lost Cause” and Old South- Joel Chandler Harris’ 1880 Uncle Remus. Also, growth of minstrel shows
iii)New South included growth of textile manufacturing b/c of water power, cheap labor, low taxes. Tobacco-processing industry also grew, including James Duke’s American Tobacco Company. Iron + steel industry also grew
iv)Railroad development increased dramatically, 1886 greater integration with rest of country when changed its gauge
v)However, growth of South merely regained what it had done before war, average income in the South substantially lower than that of North
vi)Manufacturing growth required industrial labor force. Most were women, wages much lower than in N. Mill towns restricted by company w/ labor unions suppressed, credit thru company- but led to sense of community
c)Tenants and Sharecroppers
i)S still primarily agrarian. 1870s/1880s growth of tenantry and debt peonage, reliance on cash crops. Crop-lien system resulted in many losing land, maj of ppl in S became tenant farmers
ii)“Sharecropping” system where farmers promised large share of crop for land, tools- little money left over after payments. Subsistence farming gave way to only growth of cash crops- increased poverty. Coupled w/ “fence laws” (prevented ppl from raising livestock) led to decline in living self-sufficiently
iii)Backcountry + blacks affected led populist protests to follow in 1880s/1890s
d)African Americans and the New South
i)Some blacks attracted to New South ideals of progress + self improvement, entered middle class by becoming professionals, owning land or business
ii)This small rising group of blacks believed education vital to future of race- supported black colleges
iii)Spokesman for this idea was Booker T Washington (founder of Tuskegee Institute)- believed blacks should attend school and learn skills in agricultural or trade, win respect of white population by adopting middle class standards of dress. His “Atlanta Compromise” sought to forgo political rights, concentrate on self-improvement and economic gains to earn recognition
e)The Birth of Jim Crow
i)Pullout of fed troops, loss of interest in Congress, and Supreme Court decisions regarding 14th & 15th Amdts (civil rights cases of 1883 prevented state discrimination but not private organizations of individuals)
ii)Court validated separation of races- Plessy v Ferguson (1896) ruled separate accommodations did not deprive blacks of equal rights if accommodations were equal.Cumming v County Board of Education (1899)- laws for separate schools valid even if no comparable school for blacks existed
iii)White policies shifted from subordination to segregation- black voting rights had been used by Bourbons to keep their control of Dem party, but when poor white farmers saw this they sought to disenfranchise blacks. Got around 15th Amdt thru “poll tax”/property requirement or “literacy”/understanding test
iv)Jim Crow Laws segregated almost every area of southern life. 1890s increased violence (lynchings, ect) to inhibit black movement for equal rights. An anti-lynching movement did emerge led by Ida B. Wells to pass national law enabling fed got to punish those responsible for lynchings
v)White supremacy diluted class animosities btwn poor whites and Bourbon oligarchs. Economic issues played secondary role to race, distracting ppl from social inequalities that affected blacks and whites
1)The Societies of the Far West
a)The Western Tribes
i)Some dislocated eastern tribes in “Indian Territory”, others western tribes such as Pueblos had permanent settlements/farms + interaction w/ Spanish & Mexicans- caste system over other Ind tribes (genizaros=Ind w/o tribes)
ii)Plains Indians- some nomadic, some farmers. Many (including Sioux) hunted buffalo as main source of food + materials
iii)Warriors unable to defeat white settlers b/c disunited, internal conflict, disease
b)Hispanic New Mexico
i)American capitalist integration led Spanish-speaking to erosion of communal society + economies, land aristocracy from Santa Fe + Span/Mex peasants
ii)Territorial govt in 1850, in 1870s govt dominated by “territorial ring” where business ppl took advantage of impending statehood, used fed money for profit
iii)Arrival of RRs in in SW during 1880s/1890s brought new ranching, farming, mining brought new Mexican migrants
c)Hispanic California and Texas
i)Most Spanish missions that employed Ind as near slaves until 1830s. White settlers expelled Hispanic californios from the land. Market for cattle allowed some rancheros to continue to own land, but most Mexs became working class
ii)In Texas Mexs also unable to compete with enormous Anglo-American ranching kingdoms- most relegated to unskilled farm + industrial labor
d)The Chinese Migration
i)After 1848 gold rush, Chinese migration dramatically increased, settling mostly in CA. White sentiment soon turned negative b/c Chinese industrious and successful
ii)Chinese excluded from gold mining by CA 1852 “foreign miner tax”, other laws 1850s discouraged immigration—Chinese began to work on transcontinental Central Pacific RR
iii)After RR completion 1869 many Chinese moved to cities- formed “Chinatowns” w/ benevolent societies, “tongs”-secret criminal societies
iv)Many Chinese occupied lower jobs- unskilled laborers. Many started laundries
e)Anti-Chinese Sentiment
i)“Anti-coolie” clubs in 1860s/1870s sought ban on employing Chinese, formed b/c some whites felt Chinese laborers accepted low wages + undercut unions
ii)In CA, Democratic Party + Denis Kearney’s Workingmen’s Party attacked Chinese interest- based on economic tension, cultural + racial- “inassimilable”
iii)1882 Congress responded to pressure, passed Chinese Exclusion Act- halted Chinese migration, barred naturalization- aimed to help “American” labor
f)Migration from the East
i)Extremely great postwar migration to empty and settled areas alike. Most white Anglo-Americans, others foreign-born Eur immigrants—attracted by metal deposits, lands for farming and ranching
ii)Fed land policies encouraged settlement: Homestead Act of 1862 gave 160 acres of land for small fee, in return would improve land, create new markets mechanization + rising farm costs forced some small farmers off this land
iii)In response Congress passed Timber Culture Act (1863), Desert Land Act (1877), Timber and Stone Act (1878) to allow ppl to buy/develop more cheap land
g)1860s saw development of territorial govt, statehood soon followed for most
2)The Changing Western Economy
a)Labor in the West
i)Labor shortage led to higher wages than in East, but job instability (after harvest or RR completion, ect) led to communities of jobless in cities. Workers mostly mobile, single men
ii)Working class highly multiracial, but whites generally occupied higher job levels (management + skilled labor) than nonwhites in unskilled labor. Dual labor system reinforced by racial assumptions that held nonwhites more suited for worse conditions + harder labor- allowed whites greater social mobility
b)The Arrival of the Miners
i)First Western economic boom came from mining strikes in 1860s-1890s. During Pike’s Peak strike 1858 mining camps blossomed into “cities”, later Comstock Lode silver found in Nevada, 1874 Black Hill strike in Dakota Terr.
ii)After surface wealth used up, eastern capitalists often bought claims of pioneer prospectors, began retrieving from deeper veins w/ corporate mines
iii)In boom towns vigilantism used to combat outlaws. Men outnumbered women, prostitution very common. After boom most remained in town as wage laborer in corporate mine
c)The Cattle Kingdom
i)Economy also affected by the open range- provided cattle raisers w/ free lands to graze, RRs gave access to markets. Largest herds found in Texas
ii)After success of the long drive proven, easier routes to access rest of country sought- market facility grew up at Abilene, KS as railhead of cattle kingdom. Agricultural development in 1870s in W. Kansas led other routes to grow
iii)As settlement of plans increased new forms of competition emerged- sheep breeders used range to feed flock, farmers from the East fenced in their lands—“range wars” developed btwn ranchers and farmers
iv)Large profits in cattle business led cattle economy to become more corporate. This expansion onto already shrunken ranges from RRs and farmers became overstocked, and combined with bad winters from 1885-1887, thousands of cattle died—open-range industry never recovered, but ranches survived + grew
v)Although cattle industry mostly male, large number of women led them to have impt political presence- women won vote earlier in West than rest of nation (some states to swell population for statehood, bring “morals” to politics)
3)The Romance of the West
a)The Western Landscape
i)Painters of the “Rocky Mountain School
“ celebrated the West in grandiose paintings that attracted great crowds- emphasized ruggedness and variety of region, awe toward land that had been previously expressed by Hudson River valley painters
b)The Cowboy Culture
i)Cowboy life romanticized in contrast to stable, orderly world of the East. Owen Wister’sThe Virginian (1902) showed freedom from social contraints, only one example of magazine articles, novels, ect. about Western life
c)The Idea of the Frontier
i)Many Americans considered the West the last frontier. Mark Twain wrote about (mostly early) frontier life is Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
ii)Painter/sculptor Frederic Turner captured romance of West in his works comparing it to the East
iii)Theodore Roosevelt wrote history of West- The Winning of the West (1890s)
d)Frederick Jackson Turner
i)The historian Turner contended that by 1890s no single frontier line existed and the end of an era had come. Expansion has stimulated individualism, nationalism, democracy, American uniqueness. Mirrored sentiments of US
ii)Turner inaccurate and premature- ppl had always lived in “empty, uncivilized” lands and had been displaced, also in coming years much land still available
e)The Loss of Utopia
i)With nation feeling that there had been a “passing of the frontier”, ppl felt opportunities closing and with it ability to control own destiny
ii)“Myth of the garden” (West as Garden of Eden) lost
4)The Dispersal of the Tribes
a)White Tribal Policies
i)Traditional policy was to regard tribes as nations and wards of the president, therefore negotiate treaties w/ them ratified by Senate. As white settlers demanded more lands during 1850s led ppl to abandon idea of one large Indian Territory to policy of “concentration”- each tribe given negotiated reservation
ii)In 1867 after bloody conflicts Congress created Indian peace Commission to make permanent Indian policy- move all Plains Indians into Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and Dakotas. Failed b/c of poor administration by Bureau of Indian Affairs & killing of buffalo herds by whites + reduced Indian ability to resist white advance -led to violence
b)The Indian Wars
i)1850s-1880s showed nearly constant fighting as Indians struggled against threats to their civilizations- during Civil War conflict w/ Indians in Old Northwest and the Southwest
ii)Not only military that threatened tribes; white vigilantes participated in “Indian hunting” killed tribes for sport or bounties, wanted retaliation after raids
iii)Treaties made in 1867 saw temporary lull, but influx of settlers in 1870s penetrated Dakota Territory + change in govt policy to not recognize tribes as independent nations led to violence in 1875
iv)Sioux rose up under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in the Black Hills- at Battle of Little Bighorn 1876 Indians killed Colonel George Custer and regiment, Indians became disunited after and forced to return to reservation
v)Nez Perce Indians under Chief Joseph 1877 attempted to flee Idaho for Canada but caught by soldiers, forced to travel for years afterward to difft areas
vi)Last organized resistance came from Apaches under Chiefs Mangas Colorados, Cochise, and finally Geronimo- unwilling to bow to white pressures Geronimo conducted raids on white outposts (“Apache Wars”), surrendered 1886
vii)Atrocities against Indians had prompted much fighting- in 1890 Sioux religious revival under the prophet Wovoka led to “Ghost Dance” that celebrated vision of whites leaving + buffalo return- in Dec troops tried to round up some Indians at Wounded Knee, SD which turned into an Indian massacre
c)The Dawes Act
i)Efforts taken to destroy reservation + communal land ownership in order to force Indians to become farmers, landowners - abandon culture for white civili.
ii)Dawes Act of 1887 eliminated tribal ownership and gave land to individual owners. Bureau of Indian Affairs promoted assimilation, sometimes by removing children and sending them to white boarding schools, build churches
iii)Indians unprepared for capitalist individualism + corrupt administration led to abandonment of program, later Burke Act of 1906 also failed to divide lands
5)The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer
a)Farming on the Plains
i)Before Civil War lands accessible only by wagon, transcontinental RR completed 1869 and subsidiary lines built afterward w/ land grants and loans
ii)Easier access to Great Plains spurred agriculture- RRs offered cheap land and credit, rainfall allowed farming
iii) Farmers faced problems: enclosing land expensive, but 1873 Joseph Glidden and IL Ellwood invited barbwire; arid land needed irrigation, especially after 1887 when series of dry spells followed- during 1880s booms credit easy, but arid weather of late 1880smany farmers unable to pay debt and forced to abandon farms
b)Commercial Agriculture
i)Commercial farmers specialized in cash crops sold on national/international markets. Relied on town stores for supplies and food, dependent on bankers’ interest rates, railroad freight rates, and US/Eur markets
ii)During late 19th century agriculture became an international business- US commercial farmers relied on risky world market to absorb surpluses
iii)Overproduction in 1880s led to price drops, economic crisis for small farmers
c)The Farmers’ Grievances
i)Farmers resented railroads and their higher freight rates for farm goods, credit institutions for their high interest rates and payments that had to be made in years when currency scarce, and prices that they had to pay for goods and the money they received- believed manufactures keeping farm good prices low
d)The Agrarian Malaise
i)Farmers isolated, lacked education for children, proper medical facilities, and community- this sense of obsolescence lead to growing malaise among farmers that created great political movement in 1890sSturdy yeoman farmers had viewed themselves as the backbone of American life, now they were becoming aware that their position was declining in relation to the rising urban-industrial society in the East
1)Sources of Industrial Growth
a)Industrial Technologies
i)Most impt tech development was new iron + steel production techniques- Henry Bessemer and William Kelly invented process to turn iron to steel, possible to produce large quantities and dimensions for construction, RRs
ii)Steel industry emerged in Pennsylvania and Ohio (Pittsburgh notably)- iron industry existed, fuel could be found in PA coal
iii)New transportation systems emerged to serve steel industry- freighters for the Great Lakes, RRs used steel to grow + transported it (sometimes merged w/ one another). Oil industry also grew b/c of need to lubricate mill machinery
b)The Airplane and the Automobile
i)Development of automobile dependent upon growth of two technologies: creation of gasoline from crude oil extraction, and 1870s Eur development of “internal combustion engine”. By 1910 car industry major role in economy
ii)First gas-car built by Duryea brothers 1903, Henry For began production 1906
iii)Search for flight by Wright Bros lead to famous 1903 flight. US govt created National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics 1915 to match Eur research
c)Research and Development
i)New industrial technologies lead companies to sponsor own research- General Electric established first corp lab 1900, marked decentralization of govt-sponsored research. At same time cnxn began btwn university research + needs of industrial economy- partnership btwn academic + commercial
d)The Science of Production
i)Principles of “scientific management” began to be employed- fathered by Frederick Taylor who argued employers subdivide tasks to decrease need for highly skilled workers, increase efficiency by doing simple tasks w/ machines
ii)Emphasis on industrial research led to corporate labs (e.g. Edison’s Menlo Park)
iii)Most impt change in production was mass production + assembly line. First used by Henry Ford in automobile plant 1914- cut production time, prices
e)Railroad Expansion
i)Industrial development b/c of RR expansion- gave industrialists access to new markets + raw materials, spent large sums on construction and equipment
ii)Possible b/c of govt subsidies, investment capital from abroad, and combinations of RRs by Cornelius Vanderbilt, James Hill, Collis Huntington
f)The Corporation
i)Modern corp emerged after Civil War when industrialists realized no person or group of limited partners able to finance great ventures
ii)Businesses began to sell stock, appealing b/c “limited liability” meant lost only amt of investment + not liable for debts- allowed vast capital to be raised
iii)Began in RR industry, spread to others- in steel industry Andrew Carnegie struck deals with RRs, bought up rivals, purchased coal mines w/ partner Henry Clay Frick controlled steel process from mine to market
iv)Financed undertaking by selling stock. Bought out 1901 by JP Morgan who formed United States Steel- controlled 2/3 of nation’s steel production
v)Corporate organizations developed new management techniques- division of responsibilities, control hierarchy, cost-accounting procedures, and “middle manager” btwn owners and labor introduced. Consolidation now a possibility
g)Consolidating Corporate America
i)Consolidation occurred thru “horizontal integration” (forming competing firms into single corporation) and “vertical integration” (control production from raw materials to distribution). Also thru pool arrangements (most failed)
ii)Most famous corp empire John D Rockefeller’s Standard Oil- thru horizontal & vertical integration came to control 90% of refined oil in US
iii)Consolidation used to cope w/ “cutthroat competition”- feared too much competition lead to instability, best was to eliminate/absorb competition
h)The Trust and the Holding Company
i)Failure of pools (informal agreements to stabilize rates, divide markets) led to less cooperation and more centralized control- “trust” emerged (stock transferred to group of trustees who made all decisions but shared profits)
ii)Beginning w/ NJ 1889 states changed laws to allow companies to buy other companies, trust unnecessary—“holding companies” emerged as corporate body to buy up stock and establish formal ownership of corporations in trust
iii)End of 19th cent 1% of corps controlled 33% of manufacturing, system where power in hands of a few men- NY bankers (JP Morgan), industrialists (Rockefeller), ect.
iv)Substantial economic growth ultimately from this arrangement- costs cut, industrial infrastructure formed, new markets stimulated, new unskilled jobs
2)Capitalism and Its Critics
a)The “Self-Made Man”
i)Defenders argued capitalist economy expanding opportunities for individual advancement, and some tycoons were self-made men. But most came to be wealthy as a result of ruthlessness, arrogance, corruption (financial contributions to political, parties)
ii)Many industrialists were modest entrepreneurs trying to carve role for their business in an unstable economy & fragmented, highly competitive industries
b)Survival of the Fittest
i)Assumptions that wealth earned thru hard work and thrift and that those who failed earned their failure became basis of Social Darwinism- only fittest individuals survived and flourished in the marketplace
ii)English philosopher Herbert Spencer championed theory, in America William Graham Sumner promoted similar ideas- absolute freedom to struggle, compete, succeed, and fail
iii)Appealed to businessmen b/c justified their tactics- efforts to raise wages by labor thru unions or govt regulation would fail, laws of supply and demand and “invisible hand” or market forces would determine wages and prices
iv)Yet tycoons themselves thru monopolies tried to eliminate competition
c)The Gospel of Wealth
i)Gospel of Wealth (1901) by Andrew Carnegie advocated idea that w/ great wealth came great responsibility to use riches to advance social progress
ii)Author Horatio Alger promoted stories of individual success in his works- anybody could become rich thru work, perseverance, and luck
d)Alternative Visions
i)Groups emerged challenging corporate and capitalistic ethos
ii)Sociologist Lester Ward in Dynamic Sociology (1883) argued natural selection didn’t shape society, and active govt in positive planning best for society. Skeptical of laissez-fire, ppl should intervene to serve their needs
iii)Famous dissidents emerged to challenge ideas: Socialist Labor Party founded 1870s by Daniel De Leon; Henry George and his Progress and Poverty (1879) argued poverty due to wealth of monopolists and their high land values; Edward Bellamy and his Looking Backward (1888) spoke of “fraternal cooperation” and of future society where govt distributed wealth equally
e)The Problems of Monopoly
i)Few questioned capitalism itself but movement grew in opposition to monopolies + economic concentrations- seen as creating artificially high prices, unstable economy. Recessions and havoc 1873 every 5-6 yrs
ii)Resentment increased b/c of new class of conspicuously wealthy ppl who lived opulent lifestyle- flagrant wealth in face of 4/5 who lived modestly
iii)Standard of living rising for everyone, but gap btwn rich + poor growing
3)Industrial Workers in the New Economy
a)The Immigrant Work Force
i)Industrial work force grew late 19th century b/c of migration to industrial cities from both rural areas and foreign immigration- late century most migrants from England, Ireland, N Eur, by end shit toward S and E Europeans
ii)Immigrants came to escape poverty, lured by opportunity and advertisements by companies. Ethnic tensions increased b/c of job displacement, competition
b)Wages and Working Conditions
i)Average standard of living rose but wages low, little job security b/c boom-bust cycle, monotonous tasks that required little skill, long hours in unsafe conditions- loss of control over work conditions seen as worst part of factory labor as corporate efficiency and managers centralized workplace
c)Women and Children at Work
i)Decreasing need for skilled labor led to increase use of women and children who could be paid lower than men
ii)Most women were young immigrants, concentrated in textile industry and domestic service. Some single, others supplemented husband’s earnings
iii)Children employed in agriculture and factories w/ little regulation, dangerous
d)The Struggle to Unionize
i)Labor attempted to fight conditions by creating large combinations (unions) but had little success by century’s end. Fist attempt to federate separate unions came 1866 w/ National labor Union (disintegrated after Panic of 1873)
ii)Unions faced difficulty during 1870s recessions b/c of high unemployment, hostility of middle class
e)The Great Railroad Strike
i)Railroad Strike of 1877 began after 10% wage cut announced. Strikers disrupted rail service, state militia mobilized and in July President Hayes ordered some federal troops. Strike collapsed eventually after many deaths
ii)Showed disputes could no longer be localized in national economy, depth of resentment toward employers, frailty of labor movement
f)The Knights of Labor
i)First effort at national labor organization 1869 Noble Order of the Knights of Labor under Uriah Stephens- lacked strong central direction but local “assemblies” championed 8-hour workday, end to child labor, but also interested in long-range reform of economy. Allowed women to join
ii)During 1870s under Terence Powderly rapid expansion, but by 1890 Knights had collapsed due to failure of strikes in the Gould railway system
g)The AFL
i)1880s American Federation of Labor created, became most impt +enduring national labor group- collection of autonomous craft unions of skilled workers
ii)Led by Samuel Gompers- goal to secure greater share of capitalism’s material rewards to workers, opposed fundamental economic reform
iii)Wanted creation of national 8-hour work day, national strike May 1, 1886 to achieve goal- in Chicago violence broke out btwn strikers and police after deaths in Haymarket Square bombing- “anarchism” became widely feared by middle class, associated it with radical labor
h)The Homestead Strike
i)The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (craft union in AFL) held large amt of power in steel industry b/c of reliance on skilled workers
ii)By 1880s Efficient Carnegie process led management to want more control over labor + needed fewer skilled workers
iii)Carnegie and Henry Frick began to cut wages at Homestead plant in Pittsburgh to break union. 1892 strike called after company stopped consulting the Amalgamated, Pinkerton Detective Agency security guards brought in as strikebreakers- were attacked, National Guard of PA called in
iv)Eventually protected strikebreakers ended strike, by 1900 Amalgamated had lost nearly every major steel plant
i)The Pullman Strike
i)Strike at Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894 after Pullman cut wages. Workers began to strike w/ the American Railway Union of Eugene V. Debs
ii)Within few days thousands of railway workers struck and transportation nationwide frozen. General Manager’s Association asked Pres Grover Cleveland to send in federal troops b/c passage of mail being blocked
iii)Pres complied and sent 2,000 troops to protect strikebreakers. Strike collapsed
j)Sources of Labor Weakness
i)Late 19th century labor suffered many losses- wages rose slowly, whatever progress made not enforced
ii)Reasons for failures included: leading labor organizations represented only small percentage of industrial work force; ethnic tensions; many immigrant workers planned to stay in country for short while and moved very often- eroded willingness to organize, believed not part of permanent working class; couldn’t match efforts of powerful + wealthy corporations
1)The Urbanization of America
a)The Life of the City
i)Urban pop increased 7x in 50 yrs after Civil War, by 1920 majority of ppl lived in urban areas. Occurred partly b/c of natural growth, mostly b/c immigrants and rural ppl flocked b/c offered better paying jobs than rural areas, cultural experiences available, transportation to cities easier than ever
b)Migrations
i)Late 19th century saw geographic mobility- Americans left declining Eastern agricultural regions for new farmlands in West and for cities of East
ii)Women moved from farms where mechanization decreased their value; Southern blacks moved to cities to escape rural poverty, oppression, violence
iii)Largest source of urban growth immigrants: until 1880s mainly educated N Europeans who were sometimes skilled laborers, businessmen or moved West to start farms. After 1880s largely S and E Europeans, lacked capital (like poor Irish immigrants before Civil War) so took mainly unskilled jobs
c)The Ethnic City
i)Not only was amt of immigrants tremendous, but so was diversity of immigrant population (no single national group dominated)
ii)Most immigrants were rural ppl so formed close-knit ethnic communities to ease transition-offered native newspapers, food, links to national past
iii)Assimilation of ethnic groups into capitalist economy depended on values of community, but also prejudices among employers, individual skills and capital
d)Assimilation
i)Most immigrants had desire to become true “Americans” and break with old national ways. Particular strain w/ women who in America shared more freedoms- adjust to more fluid life of American city
ii)Assimilation encouraged by Natives thru public schools and employer requirement to learn English, religious leaders
e)Exclusion
i)Immigrant arrival provoked many fears + resentments of some native-born ppl. Reacted out of prejudice, foreign willingness to accept lower wages
ii)Political response to these resentments- American Protective Association founded by Henry Bowers 1887, Immigration Restriction League sought to screen/reduce immigrants. 1882 Congress passed Chinese Exclusion Act, also denied entry to all “undesirables” and placed small tax on immigrants
iii)New laws kept only small amt out. Literacy requirement vetoed by president Grover Cleveland—anti-immigrant measures failed mainly b/c many natives welcomed it, provided growing economy w/ cheap and plentiful labor
2)The Urban Landscape
a)The Creation of Public Space
i)By mid-19th century reformers and planners began to call for ordered vision of city, resulted in creation of public spaces and public services
ii)Urban parks solution to congestion, allowed escape from strain of urban life. 1850s Central Park famously planned by Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
iii)Great public buildings (libraries, museums, theaters), spurred by wealthy residents who wanted amenities to match material and social aspirations
iv)Urban leaders undertook massive city rebuilding projects- “City Beautiful Movement” inspired by architect Daniel Burnham- provide order and symmetry to disorderly life of city (faced opposition from private landowners)
b)Housing the Well-to-Do
i)Availability of cheap labor + materials lowered cost of building in late 19th century. Most wealthy lived in mansions, but later moderately well-to-do and wealthy both began to build and commute from suburban communities nearby
c)Housing Workers and the Poor
i)Most residentsforced to stay in city and rent- demand high and space scarce led to little bargaining power. Landlords tried to get most ppl in smallest space
ii)“Tenements” came to refer to overcrowded slum dwellings. Poverty and rough tenement life showcased by reporter Jacob Riis in his 1890 How the Other Half Lives. Some immigrants also boarded in small family homes
d)Urban Transportation
i)Old, narrow dirty streets insufficient to deal w/ urban growth and need for ppl to move everyday to difft parts of city- new forms of mass transit needed
ii)Cities experimented w/ elevated railways, cable cars, by 1895 electric trolley lines, and in 1897 Boston opened first subway in nation
iii)New road, bridge tech also developed (e.g. John Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge)
e)The “Skyscraper”
i)Inadequate structural materials and stairs prevented tall buildings until 1870s iron and steal beam development. After Civil War buildings grew successively taller, 1890s term “skyscraper” introduced
ii)Steel girder construction allowed city’s w/ limited space to expand upward if not outward. Architect Louis Sullivan famous skyscraper designer
3)Strains of Urban Life
a)Fire and Disease
i)Fires destroyed large parts of downtown areas w/ buildings made mainly of wood. “Great fires” led to fireproof buildings, professional fire departments
ii)Diseases from poor neighborhoods w/ inadequate sanitation and sewage disposal threatened epidemics that could spread thru whole city
b)Environmental Degradation
i)Industrialization and rapid urbanization led to improper disposal of human and industrial waste that threatened waterways and drinking water, air quality suffered from burning of stoves and furnaces
ii)By early 20th century reformers: seeking new sewage and drainage systems; Physician Alive Hamilton looked to identify and correct pollution in workplace; 1912 fed govt created Public Health Service created factory health standards to prevent occupational diseases (weak b/c no enforcement power)
c)Urban Poverty
i)Expansion of city created poverty, sheer number of ppl meant many unable to earn decent subsistence. Public agencies and private philanthropic groups offered limited relief, and if they did mostly only to the poorest
ii)Some groups focused on religious revivalism as relief; others alarmed at great number of poor children in streets (some lives on their own)– “street arabs”
d)Crime and Violence
i)Poverty and crowding created violence, crime. Murder rate rose nationwide, and rising crime rates prompted cities to create larger, more professional police forces. Armories also developed b/c of fear of urban insurrections
e)Fear of the City
i)City offered allure and excitement, but also alienation and feelings of anonymity (e.g. Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 Sister Carrie about displaced single women)
f)The Machine and the Boss
i)Newly arrived immigrants sought assistance from political machines- created by power vacuum of cities, voting power of large immigrant communities
ii)Urban “bosses” sought votes for his organization by winning loyalty of constituents thru relief, jobs for unemployed, patronage
iii)Machines enriched politicians b/c of graft and corruption from contractors or investment from inside knowledge- most notorious was William Tweed of NY’s Tammany Hall during 1860s/1870s
iv)In spite of middle class reformers citing machines as obstacles to progress, boss rule possible b/c immigrant voters wanted services first and foremost & weakness of city govts
4)The Rise of Mass Consumption
a)Patterns of Income and Consumption
i)Growing markets and demand turn of century b/c of production and mass distribution made goods less expensive, also b/c of rising incomes of “white collar” professionals and working-class ppl despite union failures
ii)Mass market also grew b/c affordable prices and new merchandising techniques allowed goods to reach more consumers (e.g. ready-made clothing after Civil War and rise of fashion)
iii)Food transformed by tin cans, refrigerated RR cars for perishables, home iceboxes. Allowed for better diet and higher life expectancy
b)Chain Stores and Mail-Order Houses
i)Way in which Americans bought goods altered- local stores faced competition from “chain stores” whose national network could sell manufactured goods at lower prices. Customers couldn’t resist great variety + lower prices of chains
ii)Chain stores slow to rural areas but gained access thru mail-order houses-notably 1880s Montgomery Wary and Sears Roebuck mail order catalogues
c)Department Stores
i)Dept stores transformed shopping by bringing together many products under one roof (clothing, furniture) previously in separate shops; gave allure and excitement to shopping; economies of scale enabled lower prices than comp
d)Women as Consumers
i)Mass consumption affected women greatest b/c primary consumers in family. Spawned consumer protection movement w/ National Consumers League 1890s under Florence Kelley to force retainers for better wages, conditions
5)Leisure in the Consumer Society
a)Redefining Leisure
i)Leisure had been previously scorned, but redefinition in late 19th century b/c economic expansion and greater worker time away from work leisure began to be a normal part of everyday life (economist Simon Pattern wrote of this in his 1902 The Theory of Prosperity and 1910 The New Basis of Civilization)
ii)New forms of leisure had public character- time spent mostly in public spaces, part of appeal of leisure was time spent w/ large crowds
b)Spectator Sports
i)Search for public forms of leisure led to rise of organized spectator sports
ii)Saw rise of baseball as “national pastime”, leagues formed in 1870s. Football became standardized 1870s and began to grew. Boxing grew in the 1880s after adoption of Marquis of Queensberry rules
iii)Spectator sports had close association with gambling w/ elaborate betting syndicates. Prompted sports to “clean up” and regulate games
c)Music and Theater
i)Large market of cities allowed theaters to be maintained in ethnic communities, musical comedies developed, and vaudeville widely popular
d)The Movies
i)Thomas Edison and others laid tech for motion picture 1880s, soon projectors allowed showings on big screens in theaters w/ large audiences. By 1900 very popular, especially after DW Griffith introduced his silent epics
e)Working-Class Leisure
i)Workers spent great amt of leisure time on streets b/c had much time but little money. Also popular were neighborhood saloons (often ethnic), served as political centers b/c saloonkeepers often involved in political machines (largely b/c they had regular contact w/ many men in a neighborhood)
ii)Boxing also emerged as a poplar sport- bare knuckle fights by ethnic clubs
f)The Fourth of July
i)B/c most ppl worked six-day workweek w/o vacations, 4th of July became a full day of leisure and an impt highlight in the year of ethnic, working-class communities. Massive neighborhood celebrations often w/ drinking
g)Private Pursuits
i)Reading remained popular as leisure activity, w/ Louisa Alcott’s Little Women (1869) capturing a large women audience
ii)Public music performances popular, but also learning instrument w/in home
h)Mass Communications
i)Large urban market for transmitting news and information in urban industrial society- rise in publishing in journalism after Civil War w/ increase in newspaper circulation, rise of national press services using telegraph to supply news to papers across country
ii)Rise of newspaper chains, especially competition btwn William Randolph Hearst + Joseph Pulitzer (rise of sensational “yellow journalism to sell papers)
6)High Culture in the Age of the City
a)The Literature of Urban America
i)Some writers responded to new industrial civilization by evoking more natural world, others sought to use literature to recreate urban social reality
ii)Realism led by Stephen Crane (famous for The Red Badge of Courage in 1895) who showed urban poverty and slum life. Theodore Dreiser highlighted social dislocations and injustices. There authors followed by Frank Norris’ The Octopus (1901) and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) which showed depravity of capitalism by exposing abuses in meatpacking industry
b)Art in the Age of the City
i)By 1900 many American artists breaking from Old World traditions of Eur and experiment w/ new styles. Some turning away from traditional, academic style toward exploring grim aspects of modern life
ii)Ashcan School produced stark portrayal of social realities, showcased expressionism and abstraction at famous 1913 art “Armory Show”
iii)Beginning of modernism- rejected past and embraced new subjects, glorified the ordinary, coarse over genteel tradition +“dignified” aspects of civilization, embraced the future over “standards” of past- individual creativity
c)The Impact of Darwinism
i)Darwin argued evolution from earlier species thru “natural selection”, challenged traditional American religious faith. By end of century most urban professionals and members of educated classes converted; taught in schools
ii)Darwinism led to schism btwn culture of city receptive to new ideas and the traditional, provincial culture of rural areas tied to religion and older values
iii)Other intellectual movements included Social Darwinism of William Sumner, “pragmatism” of William James that valued scientific inquiry + experience
iv)Relativism spawned by Darwinism led to growth of anthropology and study of other cultures (notably Native American culture)
d)Toward Universal Schooling
i)Dependence on specialized skills and scientific knowledge led to demand for education. Spread of free public primary and secondary education, compulsory attendance laws in many states. Rural education still lagged
ii)Some reformers including Richard Pratt targeted native tribes to “civilize” them- urged practical “industrial” education. Failed b/c resistance, funding
iii)Colleges grew late 19th century, benefited from Morrill Land Grant Act of Civil War era that donated large amt of land for colleges; also from contributions made by business and financial tycoons
e)Education for Women
i)Expansion of educational opportunities for women (although lagged behind that of men). Public high schools accepted women, and network of women’s colleges emerged that served to create distinctive women’s community
1)The Politics of Equilibrium
a)The Party System
i)Party system of late 19th century very stable w/ little fluctuation in state loyalties. Repubs held most presidencies and Senate, Dems lead House
ii)Public intensely loyal to parties, voter turnout was tremendous- loyalty result of region (Dems in S, Repubs in N), religion and ethnicity (Dems attracted Catholics, new immigrants, poor; Repubs middle class, N Protestants)
iii)Party identification more cultural than of economic interest
b)The National Government
i)Federal govt held little power/responsibility- aside from supporting economic development (land grant subsidies, strike intervention), delivering pensions to Civil War veterans. Party leaders cared more about holding office than policy
c)Presidents and Patronage
i)President had little power save to make govt appointments (patronage used)
ii)Pres Rutherford B. Hayes had to deal w/ factional Repub party split btwn Stalwarts (favored machine politics) and the Half-Breeds (favored reform). Patronage system overshadowed presidency, civil service system effort failed
iii)Repubs won presidency in 1880 election, Pres James Garfield (Half-Breed) and VP Chester Arthur (Stalwart). Garfield attempted to defy Stalwarts, create civil service reform- assassinated 1881
iv)New Pres Chester attempted supported civil service reform over Stalwarts- 1883 Congress passed Pendleton Act requiring exams for some govt jobs
d)Cleveland, Harrison, and the Tariff
i)In 1884 election Repub nominee Sen James Blaine symbol of party politics, “liberal” Repubs flocked to Dem reform candidate Grover Cleveland
ii)Cleveland opposed to graft and special interest, wished to see limited govt- asked Congress to reduce protective tariff rate 1887 to reduce govt surpluses and size. Dems passed bill, Republicans opposed it—>issue in 1888 elections
iii)Dems renominated Cleveland; Repubs named Benjamin Harrison, won Pres
e)New Public Issues
i)Pres Harrison made little effort to influence Congress, but public opinion forced govt to begin to confront social and economic issues- especially trusts
ii)By mid 1880s some states limiting combinations preventing competition, but reformers wanted nat’l movement- 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act passed, but little enforced, weakened by courts, and had little impact
iii)Repubs main issue was dealing w/ tariff- passed McKinley Tariff 1890 (highest protective tariff ever). Public opposed bill, by 1892 Pres election Repubs lost both House + Senate, Dem nominee Cleveland won Pres election
iv)Cleveland’s 2nd term like 1st (devoted to minimal govt). Supported tariff reduction (Wilson-Gorman Tariff passed). Movement 1880s in may states to regulate RRs- after 1886 Supreme Court case Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad vs Illinois ruled only fed govt able to regulate interstate commerce
v)To appease public Congress passed 1887 Interstate Commerce Act- banned rate discrimination + injustice, Interstate Commerce Commission formed
2)The Agrarian Revolt
a)The Grangers
i)First major effort to organize farmers was Grange movement of 1860s (at firs goal to teach new scientific techniques), not until 1873 recession + fall of farm prices did it become highly political and large
ii)Grange urged cooperative political action to fight monopolistic RR and warehouse practices, setup up co-op stores, insurance companies, and Montgomery Ward mail-order business (sought to challenge middle-men)
iii)Elected Grange politicians 1870s to state legislatures to focus on RR reform; regulations destroyed by courts, temporary boom late-1870s destroyed Grange
b)The Farmers’ Alliance
i)Farmers’ Alliances formed in South, Northwest- like Grange focused on local problems (co-op banks, processing plants) but also larger goal to create society of cooperation. Like Grange cooperatives not very successful, harnessed frustrations into creating national political organization 1880s
ii)1889 Southern and Northwestern Alliances merged, issued Ocala Demands (party platform), won seats in 1890 elections. Sentiments forming toward national third party, 1892 created People’s Party (Populists)
iii)In 1892 elections Populists did surprising well, won seats in states + Congress
c)The Populist Constituency
i)Populism appealed mainly to small farmers, those whose farming becoming less viable in face of mechanized, consolidated commercial agriculture
ii)Populists failed to attract much labor support, but attracted miners in Rocky Mountain states w/ “free silver” policy that allowed for silver to be currency, expand money supply. African Americans allowed limited involvement in S
d)Populist Ideas
i)Ocala platform 1892 outlined Populist reform programs- “subtreasuries” to strengthen cooperatives; govt warehouse system; abolish national banks; direct election of US Senators, other ways for ppl to influence political system; regulation and ownership of RRs, telephones; graduated income tax; currency inflation; silver remonetization. Populism associated w/ anti-Semitism
ii)Rejection of laissez-faire, uphold absolutism of ownership
3)The Crisis of the 1890s
a)The Panic of 1893
i)Panic of 1893 led to severe depression- caused by bankruptcy of few corporations that led to bank failure, led to credit contraction. Also caused by depressed farm prices of late 1880s, Eur depression, RR expansion beyond market demand- showed how dependent economy was on powerful RRs
ii)Businesses, banks, RRs failed. Unemployment soared, led to social unrest- 1894 Populist Jacob Coxey called for massive public works program for unemployed + currency inflation, protested in D.C. w/ “Coxey’s Army”
b)The Silver Question
i)Financial panic weakened monetary system, Pres Cleveland believed currency instability cause of depression. Many ppl believed specie (precious metal) must back money to give it value
ii)“Bimetal” standard discontinued 1873 by Congress b/c market value of silver high than 16:1 standard. Late 1870s silver became less valuable than standard but ppl unable to convert silver b/c of “Crime of ‘73”; opposition by silver-miners + farmers who wanted greater $ circulation (inflation) to ease debts
iii)At same time decreasing govt gold reserves led Pres Cleveland 1893 to seek repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890- divided Dem party
iv)Presidential of 1986 incredibly fierce b/c supporters of gold standard saw it as essential to national stability, supporters of “free silver” (guided by William Harvey’s 1894 Coin’s Financial School) saw gold standard as tyrannous and advantageous to wealthy, silver would decrease debt
4)“A Cross of Gold”
a)The Emergence of Bryan
i)Repubs in 1896 election confident of victory b/c of Cleveland+ Dems failure to deal w/ depression nominated William McKinley w/ platform opposed to free coinage of silver
ii)Dems of West sought to weaken People’s Party by adopting Populist demands, debated platform of free silver, tariff reduction, income tax, RR and trust regulation- opposed by eastern Dems
iii)William Jennings Bryan delivered “Cross of Gold” speech opposed to gold standard at convention, next day voted nominee
iv)Populists split as to whether or not to fuse w/ Dem party b/c felt some of their unique needs addressed; concluded no other alternative, supported Bryan
b)The Conservative Party
i)Business + finance communities donated heavily to Repubs, Bryan’s national stump and camp-meeting style alienated Cath + ethnic voters who feared he embodied Protestants who so firmly opposed them
ii)McKinley carried election b/c Dem platform had proved to be too narrow (sectional) to win nationally. B/c of “fusion” gamble w/ Democrats the People’s Party began to dissolve in wake of defeat
c)McKinley and Recovery
i)McKinley administration saw return to calm b/c labor unrest and agrarian protest had subsided by 1897, economic crisis gradually easing
ii)McKinley focused on implementing high tariff rate, Congress soon passed Dingley Tariff. Repubs passed Currency (Gold Standard) Act of 1900 that confirmed nation’s gold standard, pegged dollar to specific gold value
iii)Foreign crop failures resulted in economic uptick, nation entered period of expansion once again—clear trend btwn prosperity + gold standard support
iv)Free-silver movement had failed- during late 19th century money supply had expanded much more slowly than increase in production and population, but by late 1890s increase in gold supply inflated money, satisfied free-silver ppl
1)Stirrings of Imperialism
a)The New Manifest Destiny
i)American attention shifted to foreign lands b/c “closing of the frontier” 1890s led some to fear natural resources would dwindle and must be found abroad, growing importance of foreign trade and desire for new markets, fears that Eur imperialism would lead America to be left out of spoils
ii)Justifications provided by Social Darwinism- only fittest nations survive, therefore just for strong nations to dominate weaker ones
iii) Josiah Strong’s Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (1885) states Anglo-Saxon “race” represented liberty, Christianity and should spread them; John Burgess wrote that duty of A-S to uplift less fortunate ppl
iv)Famous Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote in The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890) that countries w/ sea power great nations of history- US needed to have foreign commerce, merchant marine, navy to defend routes, and colonies to provide raw materials and bases- claim Pacific Islands, HI
b)Hemispheric Hegemony
i)Sec of State James Blaine 1880s sought to expand US influence in Latin America to provide markets for surplus goods- 1889 organized Pan-American Congress. Pres Cleveland 1895 had dispute w/ GB over Venezuela border
c)Hawaii and Samoa
i)Hawaii appealing b/c Navy wanted Pearl Harbor as base, Americans who had settled on island had come to dominate political + economic life of islands
ii)Hawaii had been series of islands w/ self-sufficient communities. After 1810 American traders, missionaries, planters began settling there. Disease decimated Native populations; by 1840s Americans spread thru islands
iii)1887 US Navy negotiated to use Pearl Harbor as Navy base; by that time sugar exports to US basis of economy, American plantation system was displacing natives from their lands
iv)In response elevated nationalist Queen Liliuokalani 1891. 1890 US eliminated duty-free status of HI sugar, American planters felt only way to survive to join US- 1893 stages revolution. Pres Harrison signed annex agreement 1893 but delayed by Dem Senate and Dem Pres Cleveland until 1898 return of Repubs
v)Samoa had served as station for US chips in Pacific trade; Pres Hayes 1878 got treaty to use harbor at Pago Pago for Navy. Power share btwn US, GB, Germany over islands- 1899 US and Germany split islands, compensated GB
2)War with Spain
a)Controversy Over Cuba
i)Cubans had resisted Spanish rule of Cuba since 1868 for independence; in 1895 Cubans rose up violently again, Span under Gen Valeriano Weyler used harsh tactics + concentration camps in turn- US press skewered mainly Span
ii)Pulitzer’s NY World and Hearst’s NY Journal catered to broad, economically lower audience- used sensational “yellow journalism” + Cuban crisis to fight each other for circulation; Cuban Americans urged Cuba Libre as well
iii)Pres Cleveland proclaimed American neutrality; Pres McKinley took office 1897, protested Spanish conduct- withdrew Weyler
iv)Two events Feb 1898 ruined peaceful settlement: the leak of a letter from Spain’s minister to Washington touting McKinley as “bidder…of the crowd; and the destruction of the US battleship The Maine in Havana Harbor- Spain initially blamed, Congress mobilized for war- war declared in April
b)“A Splendid Little War”
i)Sec of State John Hay called Spanish-American War “a splendid little war” b/c only lasted April-August, few US battle deaths (but 5000+ from disease)
ii)War effort hampered by army supply problems, regular army w/o experience fighting large-scale war (used to Indian battles)- Nat’l Guard units used like in Civil War. Racial conflict w/ black army unites used in invasion
c)Seizing the Philippines
i)Sec of Navy Theodore Roosevelt strengthened Pacific Fleet, ordered Commodore George Dewey to attack Spanish forces in Philippines (Span colony) if war broke. May 1898 captured Manila Bay, later troops took city
ii)War to free Cuba had become war to strip Spain of its colonies w/o any decisions as to what to do with them after capture
d)The Battle for Cuba
i)American forces staged landing in June after Spanish fleet arrived in Santiago harbor. US battled Spanish forces in on way to Santiago at Las Guasimos and then later El Caney and San Juan Hill in July
ii)At Battle of Kettle Hill (part of Battle for San Juan Hill) unit called Rough Riders lead by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt (who had resigned as from Navy to fight in war) had famous charge
iii)US forces soon took Santiago, later US army landed + captured Puerto Rico
iv)Armistice w/ Spain in August ended war- recognized independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to US, accepted Manila (Philippines) occupation
e)Puerto Rico and the United States
i)Annexation of Puerto Rico produced little controversy- American military controlled island until 1900 Foraker Act created colonial got w/ American governor, 2-chamber legislature, and US could amend/veto any legislation
ii)Puerto Ricans (who had history of demanding independence from Spanish) clamored for independence- 1917 Congress passed Jones Act that made PR US territory + PRicans American citizens
iii)PR sugar economy flourished now w/o tariffs (as in HI); plantations formed, many PR farmers became paid laborers, dependent on int’l sugar prices
f)The Debate over the Philippines
i)Debate over Philippines difft b/c not in W. Hemisphere, densely populated and far away—McKinley reluctant but believed no other alternative (could not be retuned to Spain, given to other imperialist, and Filips “unfit for self govt”)
ii)War w/ Spain ended 1898 w/ Treaty of Paris, US paid $20 million for Philippines. Fierce resistance in US to ratification
iii)Anti-imperialists (under Anti-Imperialist League) opposed b/c imperialism immoral, industrial workers feared cheap labor
iv)Ratification supported by imperialists such as Theodore Roosevelt saw empire as means to reinvigorate nation, dominate Oriental trade, Repubs could come out of Repub war w/ new territory, and easy b/c US already occupied islands
v)Ratified in 1899 b/c anti-imperialist Dem Williams Jennings Bryan wanted to make is issue in 1900 election. Bryan ran against McKinley, referendum on war showed American ppl supported imperialism- McKinley won decisively
3)The Republic As Empire
a)Governing the Colonies
i)American dependents Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico got territory status (residents became US citizens)
ii)US military remained in Cuba. After Cuban constitution failed to mention US, Congress passed 1901 Platt Amendment that would bar Cuba from making treaties, gave US right to intervene in Cuba (little political independence given). American capital bought up much of Cuban economy and dominated it
b)The Philippine War
i)US subjugation of natives led to long, bloody war w/ insurgent independence fighters. US used same brutal tactics that it had opposed Spain using in Cuba
ii)Rebellion led by Emilio Aguinaldo w/ large popular following. By 1902 brutal and savage US tactics had changed American public opinion on war, but by then war already over (Aguinaldo captured 1901)
iii)Power given to US administrator William Howard Taft who believed US mission to prepare Filipinos for independence, so gave broad local autonomy. Trade w/ US grew and islands came to almost depend on US markets
c)The Open Door Policy
i)Philippine occupation strengthened US interest in Asia and Chinese trade
ii)Eur nations were carving up China for themselves; McKinley wanted to protect US interest in China w/o war. Sec of State John Hay proposed 1898 “Open Door notes” to Eur nations allowing access to China but give no nation special advantages. Allowed free trade w/o colony, military involvement
iii)Boxer Rebellion arose against foreigners in China. Siege of foreign diplomatic corps resulted in McKinley and Hay participating in quelling rebellion
d)A Modern Military System
i)War w/ Spain showed weakness of US military system in training, supply, coordination. McKinley apptd Elihu Root as Sec of War to overhaul forces
ii)Root enlarged army, federal standards for Nat’l Guard, created officer training schools, created Joint Chiefs of Staff to advise Sec of War, supervise military establishment, plan possible wars—modern military system by turn of century
1)The Progressive Impulse
a)Varieties of Progressivism
i)Progressives varied on how to intervene + reform- popular idea of “antimonopoly” (fear of concentrated power, limit + disperse wealth, power)
ii)Social cohesion- welfare of single person dependent on welfare of society
iii)Faith in knowledge, principles of natural + social sciences, modernized govt
b)The Muckrakers
i)Muckrakers were crusading journalists who exposed social, economic, political injustices and corruption
ii)At first targeted trusts (particularly RR barons)- Ida Tarbell’s study on Standard Oil. Later, attention toward govt + political machines- writings of Lincoln Steffens helped arouse sentiment for urban reforms
c)The Social Gospel
i)Muckrakers moralistic tone prompted outrage at social + econ injustice, led to rise of Protestant Social Gospel- fusion of religion w/ reform
ii)Salvation Army was Christian social welfare organization; ministers left parish to serve in troubled cities; Father John Ryan wrote of expanding scope of Cath social welfare groups
iii)Religion w/ reform gave Progressivism moral component + commitment to redeem lives of even least favored citizens
d)The Settlement House Movement
i)Progressives believed env’t influenced individual development. To help distressed required improving their conditions
ii)Ppl believed crowded immigrant neighbors created distress- creation of settlement houses a response. Most famous was Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago- sought to help immigrant families adapt to language + culture, belief that middle-class had responsibility to share values w/ immigrants
iii)College educated women often involved in settlement house movement; movement helped spawn profession of social work
e)The Allure of Expertise
i)Progressivism values application of scientific methods, knowledge, expertise- well-designed bureaucracy needed. Some proposed civilization where science could solve social + econ problems- advocated in A Theory of The Leisure Class (1899) by Thorstein Veblen
ii)Rise of social sciences- scientific methods used to study society + its institutions
f)The Professions
i)Late 19th century more ppl engaged in administrative + professional tasks (managers, scientists, teachers). This new middle class valued education, individual accomplishments
ii)As demand for professionals increased so did their desire for reform to create organized professions
iii)Doctors saw creation of professional American Medical Association1901- strict standards for admissions, govt passed laws requiring licensing; also rise of rigorous, scientific training and research
iv)Similar movements in other professions- lawyers formed bar associations w/ central examining boards businessmen formed Chamber of Commerce
g)Women and the Professions
i)Some women encountered obstacles in entering professions, but many from women’s colleges did enter “appropriate professions”- settlement houses and social work, teaching, nursing (all had vague “domestic”/“helping” image)
2)Women and Reform
a)The “New Woman”
i)“New woman” product of social + economic changes- wage earning activity had moved out of house and into factory or office, children enrolled in school at earlier ages, technology (running water, electricity) made housework less of a burden, declining family size; “Boston marriages”- women living w/ women
b)The Clubwomen
i)Late 19th/early 20th century rise of women’s clubs- network of associations that lead many reform movements. General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) at first cultural, later focused on social betterment
ii)Clubs represented effort to extend women’s influence out of traditional role in home and create a public space for women. Worked to lobby legislatures for regulation of children + women work conditions, food inspection, temperance
iii)Women’s Trade Union League rallied women to join unions, aid female labor
c)Woman Suffrage
i)Women’s suffrage movement at first advanced thru arguments that women deserved same “natural rights” as men, opponents said society needed distinct female “sphere”
ii)Early 20th century suffragists more organized-- Anna Shaw + Carrie Chapman Catt formed National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
iii)Began to make “safer” arguments for suffrage in that voting would not ruin distinct sphere but allow women to bring special virtues to society’s problems and contribute to politics. Some claimed could soothe male aggression (WWI)
iv)1910 Washington extended suffrage to women, more hesitant in East b/c of associations w/ ethnic conflict (Catholics) over temperance movement
v)1920 Nineteenth Amendment ratified guaranteeing female political rights; others (including Alice Paul’s Woman’s Party) wanted to fight on for an Equal Rights Amendment to prohibit all discrimination based on sex
3)The Assault on the Parties
a)Early Attacks
i)Late 19th century populism and rise of Independent Republicans had attempted to break party lock on power- resulted in secret ballot
ii)Argued party rule could be dealt w/ by increasing power of ppl + ability to express will at polls, also put more power in nonpartisan, nonelected officials
b)Municipal Reform
i)Many progressives believed party rule most powerful in cities. Muckrakers mobilized urban middle-class progressives against city bosses, special interests who benefited from machine organizations, immigrant laborers
c)New Forms of Governance
i)Commission Plan- replaced mayor and council replaced w/ nonpartisan commission. First used in Galveston, TX in 1900, others followed
ii)City-Manager Plan- elected officials hired outside expert to run govt, remain above corruption of politics
iii)Successful reformer Cleveland Mayor Tom Johnson from conventional political structure controlled by progressives- fought special interests
d)Statehouse Progressivism
i)Failure of some attacks on city boss rule led reformers to turn to state govt for change- progressives looked to circumvent incompetent state legislatures
ii)Initiative allowed reformers to submit legislation directly to voters in general election; Referendum put actions of legislature directly to the ppl for approval
iii)Direct primary allowed ppl instead of bosses to choose candidates; Recall gave voters right to remove elected official thru special election
iv)Famous state-level reformer was Gov Robert LaFollette in Wisconsin- regulated RRs, utilities, workplace, graduated taxes on inherited wealth
e)Parties and Interest Groups
i)Reform did not destroy parties but led to decline in their influence- seen by decreasing voter turnout. “Interest groups” emerged from professional organizations or labor to advance own demands directly to govt, not thru party
4)Sources of Progressive Reform
a)Labor, the Machine, and Reform
i)Samuel Gompers’s American Federation of Labor mostly uninvolved in reform at time, but local unions played role in passing some state reform laws
ii)Parties tried to preserve interest by adapting- some bosses allowed their machines to be vehicle of social reform (e.g. Charles Murphy of Tammany Hall supported legislation for working conditions, child labor)
iii)Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 1911 in NY killed many women workers b/c bosses had locked emergency exits. Commission delivered report calling for reform in labor conditions- reform lead in legislature by Tammany Dems. Imposed regulation on factory owners and mechanisms for enforcement
b)Western Progressives
i)In Western states reformers targeted federal govt b/c powerful as it never had been in East (power over lands and resources, subsidies for RRs and water projects, issues transcended state borders). Weaker local + state govts political led to weaker W polit. parties, govts passed progressive reforms more quickly
c)African Americans and Reform
i)AAs faced large legal, social, economic, political obstacles in challenging their oppressed status and seeking reform- many embraced Booker T Washington’s message of self-improvement over long-term social change
ii)1900s new Niagara Movement led by WEB Du Bois (author of 1903 The Souls of Black Folk)called for immediate civil rights, professional education
iii)1909 joined w/ supportive white progressives to form National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), used federal lawsuits in pursuit of equal rights. In Guinn v. United States (1915) Supreme Court ruled grandfather clause illegal; Buchanan v. Worley (1917) Court outlawed some segregation—NAACP established itself as leading black organization
5)Crusade for Social Order and Reform
a)The Temperance Crusade
i)Many progressives saw elimination of alcohol as way to restore societal order- women saw alcohol as source of problems for families, employers saw it as roadblock to efficiency, political reformers saw saloon as Machine institution
ii)1873 temperance supporters formed Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) led by Frances Willard, together w/ Anti-Saloon League called for abolition of saloons and prohibition of manufacture and sale of alcohol
iii)Opposition by immigrant and working-class voters; regardless, national effort and start of WWI moral fervor led to 1920 Eighteenth Amendment prohibition
b)Immigration Restriction
i)Reformers saw growing immigrant population as source of social problems- some wanted to help assimilation, others to limit flow of new immigrants
ii)Early century pressure to slow immigration, heightened by growth of eugenics movement arguing human inequalities hereditary and immigration (especially of non-Anglo E. Eurs and Asians) resulting in growth of unfit peoples
iii)Publicist Madison Grant’s 1916 The Passing of the Great Race tied together eugenics + Nativism; Congress’s Dillingham Report said new immigrants less assimilable than earlier groups, restrictions should be based on nationality
iv)Others supported restrictions as means to solve urban overcrowding, unemployment, strained social services, and unrest
6)Challenging the Capitalist Order
a)The Dream of Socialism
i)Radical opposition to capitalist system strongest btwn 1900-1914, Socialist Party under Eugene V. Debs grew during progressive era. Socialists wanted to change structure of economy, but disagreement as to extent and tactics
ii)Some moderates favored nationalizing only major industries, use electoral politics; radicals including union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) under William Haywood wanted abolition of “wage slave” system, favored use of general strike, supported unskilled workers (strong force in West)
iii)1917 strike by IWW led to federal government crackdown on union b/c needed materials in mobilization for war; IWW never fully recovered
iv)Socialist Party refusal to support war + growing antiradicalism led to decline of socialism as powerful political force in America
b)Decentralization and Regulation
i)Most progressives also saw major problem in great corporate centralization + consolidation, but instead of nationalizing industries wanted federal govt to create balance btwn need for big business and need for competition
ii)Lawyer Louis Brandeis argued about “curse of bigness”, saw it as threat to efficiency and freedom, limited individual control of own destiny
iii)Others believed combinations sometimes helped efficiency, therefore govt should distinguish btwn “good” and “bad” trusts to protect against abuses by “bad” concentrations. Supported by “nationalist” Herbert Croly in 1909 The Promise of American Life
iv)Movement growing for industry cooperation and self-regulation; others wanted active govt role in regulation and planning economy
1)Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency
a)The Accidental President
i)VP Theodore Roosevelt assumed presidency September 1901after Pres McKinley assassinated. Reputation as an independent and wild man; became champion of cautious an moderate change, reform to protect society against more radical changes
b)Government, Capital, and Labor
i)Roosevelt saw fed govt as mediator of the public good. Not opposed to industrial combinations but realized potential for abuse of power
ii)Supported regulation of trusts- created Department of Commerce and Labor 1903 to publicly investigate corporations. Did make effort to break up some trusts- used Sherman Antitrust Act to break up Northern Securities Company monopoly over RRs in Northwest
iii)Saw govt as impartial regulator for labor as well- 1902 strike by United Mine workers led Roosevelt to ask labor and management to accept impartial federal arbitration, threatened to seize mines if management balked
c)“The Square Deal”
i)Reform not priority during first years as president, more concerned w/ winning reelection by not alienating conservative Republicans, winning support of businessmen and using patronage—won 1904 election
ii)First targeted RR industry by asking Congress to increase fed power to oversee rates- Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act of 1906 restored some govt regulatory power
iii)Supported Congress passing Pure Food and Drug Act, after Upton Sinclair’s 1906 The Jungle supported Meat Inspection Act. Also favored 8 hour work day for labor, workmen’s compensation, and inheritance and income taxes
d)Roosevelt and Conservation
i)Concerned w/ unregulated exploitation of resources and wilderness- used executive power to restrict private development on govt land, saw goal of “conservation” to carefully manage development and to apply same scientific method of management being used in cities
ii)President supported public reclamation and irrigation projects- 1902 Newlands Act funded dam construction, reservoirs, canals in West to open new lands for irrigation, cultivation and power development
e)Roosevelt and Preservation
i)Pres also sympathized w/ naturalists who wanted to protect land, wildlife from human intrusion- expanded National Forest System for “rational” lumbering, but also grew National Park System to protect lands from any development
f)The Hetch Hetchy Controversy
i)Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite seen as beautiful land by naturalists, but San Francisco residents + Roosevelt’s head of National Forest System Gifford Pinchot wanted land to build dam + reservoir for city’s growing water needs
ii)Pinchot saw needs of city more important than claims of preservation; issue placed in 1908 referendum, dam approved by large margin in election
g)The Panic of 1907
i)Despite reforms govt still had little control over industrial economy; in 1907 production outgrew domestic + foreign demand, speculation + poor management led to panic.
ii)JP Morgan pooled assets of NY banks to prop up banks, made deal with Pres to allow US Steel to purchase Tennessee Coal and Iron Company shares
iii)B/c of Panic of 1907 and promise made in 1904 to step down four years later, did not seek renomination and reelection for 1908 bid
2)The Troubled Succession
a)Taft and the Progressives
i)During early administration called on Congress to lower tariff (a progressive demand), refused to oppose Repub Old Guard. Result was Payne-Aldrich Tariff - reduced tariffs little, raised others- progressives resented inaction
ii)1909 Ballinger-Pinchot Dispute in which Head of Forest Service Gifford Pinchot was told that Sec of Interior Richard Ballinger had sold public lands in Alaska for personal profit. Taft thought charges groundless, Pinchot leaked info to press-- Taft fired Pinchot, progressives alienated
b)The Return of Roosevelt
i)Roosevelt upset w/ Taft and believed only he was capable of reuniting Republican Party; 1910 outlined “New Nationalism” that moved away from conservatism + argued only effort of strong fed govt could bring social justice
c)Spreading Insurgency
i)In 1910 Congressional elections many conservative Repub candidates lost and progressives reelected; Dems gained maj in House, seats in Senate
ii)Reform sentiment on the rise, but Roosevelt claimed he only wanted to pressure Taft into action; Roosevelt decided to run, however, after Taft charged US Steel acquisition of Tennessee Coal and Iron Company had been illegal and reform candidate Robert LaFollette’s campaign collapsed
d)Roosevelt versus Taft
i)Taft had support of conservative Repubs and party leaders, Roosevelt supported by progressives- at convention Republican National Committee gave nomination to Taft. Roosevelt left Repub Party and established own Progressive Party w/ himself as nominee (nicknamed Bull Moose Party)
3)Woodrow Wilson and The New Freedom
a)Woodrow Wilson
i)Reform support growing in Democratic Party as well as Repub Party; Dems chose progressive Woodrow Wilson as 1912 Presidential election nominee
ii)Wilson supported “New Freedom”- held that bigness was unjust and wanted to destroy, not regulate monopoly (whereas Roosevelt’s New Nationalism believed in govt regulation of concentration)
iii)Roosevelt and Taft split Repub vote, Wilson elected
b)The Scholar as President
i)Wilson bold and forceful- used position as leader of Dems to build coalition to support his program (Dem majorities existed in both houses)
ii)Greatly lowered tariff in Underwood-Simmons Tariff in order to introduce competition into market + breakup trusts; to make up for revenues past graduated income tax
iii)1913 Congress passed Federal Reserve Act- regional Fed banks made up of regional banks + issued loans at “discount” rate, issued Fed Reserve notes backed by govt, shifted funds to meet credit demands + protect banks. Supervising Federal Reserve Board members selected by Pres
iv)1914 Wilson began to deal w/ monopoly, Congress passed Federal Trade Commission Act and Clay Antitrust Act
(1)FTC was regulatory agency to help business determine whether their actions were legal, also power to prosecute “unfair trade practices”
(2)Clayton Antitrust Bill to allow break up of trusts weakened by conservative opposition; ultimately administration decided that government supervision and regulation by FTC sufficient
c)Retreat and Advance
i)Pres believed New Freedom accomplished, therefore didn’t support progressive suffrage movement and efforts to halt segregation in federal agencies after Dems had heavy losses in Congress in 1914 elections to Repubs (who won support from Progressive party) Wilson began new reforms
ii)Wilson supported appointment of progressive Louis Brandeis to Supreme Court; supported measured expanding role of federal govt 1916 Keating-Owen Act regulated child labor (struck down by Sup C b/c relied on interstate commerce clause in Const), 1914 Smith-Lever Act to help agricultural extension education
4)The “Big Stick”: America and The World, 1901-1917
a)Roosevelt and “Civilization”
1)The Road to War
a)The Collapse of the European Peace
i)Eur divided into alliances- “Triple Entente” of GB, France, Russia & “Triple Alliance” of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy (GB-German tension notable)
ii)After June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbs, A-H invaded Serbia who called on Russian help- b/c alliances other nations entered
b)Wilson’s Neutrality
i)1914 Wilson urged neutrality but many Americans sympathized w/ certain nations (German + Irish immigrants=Central, but most ppl= GB+Allies)
ii)Strong US-GB economic ties + blockade of Central Powers led US to continue trade w/ GB , shun trade w/ Central nations- “arsenal of Allies”
iii)Germany began using submarine warfare 1915 to combat GB naval domination; 1915 sinking of Lusitania and 1916 Sussex sinking led Wilson to call on Germans to recognize rights of neutrals- Germans relented and stopped attacking merchant ships to stop US entrance into war
c)Preparedness vs Pacifism
i)Wilson did not intervene for either side b/c of re-election + domestic division
ii)Economic + militarily preparations debated by pacifists and interventionists. However, by 1916 military armament largely under way
iii)Wilson won extremely close 1916 b/c of association w/ ability to keep US independent, although Dems barely held on to Congressional majorities
d)A War for Democracy
i)After election Wilson wanted country unified and justified if to enter war, should fight to create new progressive world order + not for material gains
ii)January 1917 Germany began offensive + continuation of unrestricted submarine warfare to defeat Allies before US entrance; February Zimmerman Telegram urged Mex to join w/ Germany (increased public sentiment toward war); March Russian Revolution toppled czar for republican govt
iii)April 1917 US officially declared war on side of Allies
2)“War Without Stint”
a)Entering the War
i)Immediately w/ US entrance Allied navy able to dramatically reduce sinking’s in troop + supply convoys
ii)1917 withdrawal of Russian forces after Bolshevik Revolution (Lenin) led Germans to put resources on Western Front, Allies needed US ground troops
b)The American Expeditionary Force
i)US army too small to supply needed troops- April 1917 Wilson urged passage of Selective Service Act to draft soldiers into American Expeditionary Force
ii)AEF was diverse-- women served as auxiliaries in non-combat roles; African-American soldiers served in segregated units or had menial roles
c)The Military Struggle
i)US ground forces insignificant until spring 1918; AEF under Gen John Pershing maintained command structure independent from other Allies
ii)US forced tipped stalemate + balance of power to Allies--- June 1918 helped repel German offensive at Chateau-Thierry
iii)Beginning Sept US forced fighting in Argonne Forest (as part of Allied Meuse-Argonne Offensive); pushed Germans back + cut off supply routes
iv)11/11/1918 Great War ended w/ Allies on German border
d)The New Technology of Warfare
i)New military weapons + tactics more deadly (tanks, machine guns, trenches, chemical weapons). Logistics and materials transport gained increased importance. Rise of planes, dreadnought battleships, submarines
ii)Casualties extremely high for war (British lost 1 million, Germany 2 million); even victors overwhelmed by sheer magnitude of deaths
3)The War and American Society
a)Organizing the Economy for War
i)US appropriated $32 billion for war- to raise money sold “Liberty Bonds” to public & put new graduated taxes on income + inheritance
ii)To organize economy Wilson created Council of National Defense; but emphasis Civilian Advisory Commission tasked w/ mobilizing at local level
iii)CND members urged “scientific management” + centralization, proposed dividing economy based on function and not geography w/ “war boards” coordinating efforts in each sector
iv)War Industries Board oversaw purchase of military supplies, under Bernard Baruch organized factories, set prices, and distributed needed materials. Instead of restricting profits, govt entered alliance w/ private sector
b)Labor and the War
i)National War Labor Board pressured industry for concessions to workers (8-hour day, living standards, collective bargaining) but workers forced to forgo strikes. Right before war Ludlow Massacre when striking miners killed
c)Economic and Social Results of the War
i)Economic boom during period from Eur demand, later US need. Industrial production expanded, opportunities for female + minorities b/c of men at war
ii)War years saw “Great Migration” of hundreds of thousands of African- Americans from rural South to northern industrial cities. S poverty + racism and appeal of N factory jobs + freedom led to movement. Growing black communities near white neighborhoods sometimes resulted in race riots
iii)Women took higher-paying industrial jobs that were unavailable in peace time
4)The Search for Social Unity
a)The Peace Movement
i)Public sentiment divided over US involvement in war—peace movement supported by German Americans, Irish who opposed GB, religious pacifists, intellectuals and leftist groups
ii) Peaces support also from women’s movement- maternal pacifism
b)Selling the War and Suppressing Dissent
i)Once America intervened most of country became patriotic and supportive of troops. Religious revivalism also became source of support for war
ii)Govt concerned about minority in opposition to war, believed victory possible only thru united public opinion Committee on Public Information under George Creel distributed pro-war propaganda—portrayals of savage Germans
iii)Espionage Act of 1917 gave govt power to punish spies and obstructers of war effort, respond to reports of disloyalty. Sabotage Act and Sedition Act of 1918 made any public expression of opposition illegal- targeted socialist groups
iv)Local govts and private citizen groups worked to repress opposition- “vigilante mob” discipline, also American Protective League w/ thousands of members who spied on neighbors to ensure unity of opinion in communities
v)Repressive efforts targeted socialists and labor leaders, but also largely immigrants (Germans, Irish, Jews)- “Loyalist” Americans called for “100 Percent Americanism”. German Americans faced fierce discrimination
5)The Search for a New World Order
a)The Fourteen Points
i)Wilson’s Fourteen Poitns addressed three areas: self-determination and new boundaries; new international governance laws including freedom of the seas, end to secret treaties, free trade, determination of colonial claims; league of nations to implement points and resolve future disagreements
ii)Fourteen Points also effort to combat Bolshevik (Lenin) aspiration to lead new postwar world order—US established itself thru the points
b)Early Obstacles
i)Wilson hoped popular support would help garner Allied support for Points,
ii)However, most Allies so decimated by war and so bitter against Germany that they did not with to be generous GB Prime Minister Lloyd George and French Premier Georges Clemenceau determined to gain compensation
iii)At home Wilson + Dems lost control of Congress to Repub majorities in 1918 election, domestic economic issues + Repub opposition weakened his position
c)The Paris Peace Conference
i)Big Four nations to negotiate treaty were GB, France, Italy, US
ii)Wilson’s idealism met by effort by other nations to improve own lot, concerns about eastern Europe and communism (US did not recognize Bolshevik govt until 1933). His economic + strategic demands suffered from conflict w/ cultural nationalism
iii)Wilson initially rejected reparations from Central Powers, but Allies forced him to accept idea in order to keep Germany weak + unable to threaten Eur
iv)Wilson was successful and placing some colonies under League of Nations “mandate” system, created Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
v)Allies accepted “covenant” of League of Nations-- to meet to resolve disputes + protect peace, Wilson believed problems w/ treaty could be fixed by League
d)The Ratification Battle
i)Americans used to isolation questioned international commitment, Wilson refused to compromise or modify League too much—when Treaty of Versailles introduced by Wilson to Senate in 1919
ii)Opposition lead by Repub Irreconcilables who wanted isolation, but also by personal hatred of Sen Henry Cabot Lodge for Wilson—wanted to delay so public approval would subside, make treaty issue in 1920 election
e)Wilson’s Ordeal
i)Wilson began traveling country to gain public support for treaty. The traveling and speaking tour exacerbated his already bad health and he suffered stroke that rendered him incapable for weeks
ii)Condition made his views of world in moral terms and loathing for compromise stronger. When Treaty sent to Sen for approval w/ “reservations” (amendments) attached, Wilson urged Dems to vote against it- both amended treaty and original failed to reach 2/3 majority to be ratified
6)A Society in Turmoil
a)Industry and Labor
i)After war govt began cancelling contracts. War boom continued for short while b/c of foreign demand + deficit spending
ii)In 1920 bubble burst—GDP decreased, inflation and unemployment rose
iii)In postwar env’t 1919 management sought to rescind worker rights that they had been forced to grant during war—use of union strikes increased to combat these moves: Boston Police Strike, great Steel Worker’s Strike failure
b)The Demands of African-Americans
i)Retruning blacks from war wanted social reward+ rights for service, black factory workers from war wanted to retain economic gains they had made
ii)Racial tension increased as retrurning whites displaced black workers- contributed to large 1919 Chicago race riots
iii)Marcus Garvey’s ideas of Black Nationalism gained popularity among blacks- advocated embracing heritage + return to Africa, reject white assimilation
c)The Red Scare
i)Industrial problems, racial violence, dissent, creation of Communist International in 1919 by Soviets to spread revolution, also bombings in US by radicals fueled middle class fears of instability + radicalism
ii)Growing movement to fight radicalism + embrace “100 Percent Americanism” Red Scare
iii)Antiradicals saw any instability or protest as radical threat; Jan 1920 Attorney General A Mitchell Palmer conducted nationwide raids in radical crackdown
iv)1920 Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial showed American bias toward perceived radicals (they had been immigrant anarchists); they were executed in 1927
d)The Retreat from Idealism
i)Passage of 19th Amendment in 1920 (to give women suffrage) marked end of reform era—due to economic problems, labor unrest, and antiradicalism that all lead to sense of disillusionment
ii)1920 Presidential election pitted idealists Dem James Cox (and VP Franklin Roosevelt) against conservative Republican Warren Harding who promised “return to normalcy”—Harding won by a large margin
iii)Election a repudiation of League of Nation and postwar order of democratic ideals
1)The New Economy
a)Technology and Economic Growth
i)After 1921-1922 recession tremendous economic growth in output + income
ii)Growth result of collapse of Eur industry after war, important technological advances: rise of auto manufacturing (and in turn gas production, road construction), assembly line, rise of radio and commercial broadcasting, advances in air travel, development of electronics + synthetic materials
iii)Maturation of electricity and telecommunications fields; work during 1920s and 1930s on primitive computer technologies
b)Economic Organization
i)Certain industries (e.g. steel) continued toward national organization and consolidation- these companies adopted new modern administrative systems w/ efficient division structures to allow subsidiary control + easier expansion
ii)In industries w/ more competition stabilization reached thru cooperation—rise of trade association to coordinate production + marketing
iii)Industrialists feared overproduction and recession, and efforts to curb competition thru either consolidation or cooperation reflected this
c)Labor in the New Era
i)Some employers 1920s used “welfare capitalism” to give workers more rights, improve safety, raise wages in order to avoid labor unrest + independent union growth. System survived only if industry prospering- collapsed in 1929
ii)Welfare capitalism helped only a few workers, employers wage increases disproportional to their increase in profits. Ultimately workers still mainly impoverished and powerless, families relied on multiple wage earners
iii)Organized labor + independent unions often failed to adapt to changing nature of modern economy. American Federation of Labor still used craft union system based on skills, did not allow growing unskilled industrial workers
d)Women and Minorities in the Work Force
i)Number of women in workforce increased, especially in “pink-collar” jobs- low-paying service jobs, most unions refused to organize them
ii)African-Americans in cities after 1914 Great Migration largely excluded from unions (A. Philip Randolph’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters exception)
iii)In West + Southwest unskilled and unorganized workers mainly Hispanics and Mexican immigrants, Asians (mainly Japanese who replaced Chinese after Exclusion Acts in menial jobs)
e)The “American” Plan
i)After 1919 economic uneasiness corporations rallied strongly against “subversive” unionism and wanted to protect idea of open shop (in which workers not forced to join union)—known as “American Plan”
ii)Govt intervened on behalf of management, courts often ruled against striking workers. Btwn this and corporate efforts union membership saw large decline
f)Agricultural Technology and the Plight of the Farmer
i)American agriculture adopted new technolgoies (e.g. tractor, combine) allowed more crops w/ fewer workers; hybrid corn + fertilizers increased productivity led to overprodution and collapse in food prices
ii)Farmers called on govt price support- idea of “parity” (govt set price, farmers reimbursed if good sold for less in fluctuating market) and high foreign crop tariffs introduced in Congress in McNary-Haugen Bill (vetoed by Coolidge)
2)The New Culture
a)Consumerism
i)Industrial growth led to rise of consumer culture in which ppl had discretionary funds w/ which to buy items for pleasure (appliances, fashion)
ii)Most revolutionary product was automobile- allowed rural ppl to escape isolation, city ppl to escape crowded urban life; rise of vacation traveling
b)Advertising
i)Techniques first used in wartime propaganda came of age in new age of advertising + work of publicists. Famous book of time The Man Nobody Knows by Bruce Burton about Jesus as “salesman”
ii)Ads possible b/c of mass audience in national chains of newspapers, mass-circulation magazine growth
c)The Movies and Broadcasting
i)1920s saw rise of Hollywood, creation of Motion Picture Association and the Hays Code as industry self-ban on objectionable material
ii)Phenomenal rise of radio beginning w/ first commercial station broadcasting in 1920. By 1929 12 million families owned radio sets
d)Modernist Religion
i)Growing consumer culture w/ emphasis on immediate self-fulfillment had influence on religion—abandonment by some of traditional + literal
ii)Harry Emerson Fosdick spokesman for new liberal Protestantism of 1920s
e)Professional Women
i)Most employed women were working class b/c of professional struggle btwn career and family. Few professional women limited to mainly “feminine” fields of fashion, education, social work, nursing
f)Changing Ideas of Motherhood
i)Belief grew that maternal affection not adequate preparation for child rearing, advice and help of professionals needed instead
ii)Motherhood increasingly relied on institutions out of home, allowing time to devote to “companionate marriage”- involved more as wives, in social life
iii)Growth of birth control related to sense of sex as recreation vs only creation
g)The “Flapper”: Image and Reality
i)Some women came to believe rigid and Victorian “feminism” unnecessary “flapper” women expressed themselves freely thru dress, speech, behavior
h)Pressing for Women’s Rights
i)Women formed League of Women Voters, many women helped growing consumer groups
ii)1921 Sheppard-Towner Act gave federal funds to states for prenatal and child healthcare. Fought my American Medical Association, others; repealed in 1929--- showed women didn’t vote as single block, even on “female” issues
i)Education and Youth
i)Growing secularism, emphasis on training and expertise manifested itself in growing upper education attendance rates, teaching of technical skills
ii)Emergence of distinct youth culture w/ growing idea of adolescence, belief this was time for child to develop institutions w/ peers separate form family
j)The Decline of the “Self-Made Man”
i)Myth of “self-made man” who could gain wealth and fame thru hard work and natural talent gave way to belief that nothing possible without education and training (men felt losing independence, control, “masculinity”)
ii)Idolized self-made men in Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh
k)The Disenchanted
i)New generation of artists and intellectuals viewed society w/ contempt; isolated themselves instead of playing reform role
ii)Lost Generation’s critique American system in which individual had no means of personal fulfillment rose out of WWI experience and sense of deaths in vain, end of Wilsonian idealism, growing business + consumerism
iii)Ernest Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1929) expressed contempt of war; other “debunkers” critical of society included H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis
iv)Many of these critics who rejected the “success ethics” of America became expatriates living abroad. Paris was center of American artistic life
l)The Harlem Renaissance
i)Other intellectuals saw solution to problems in exploration of own culture and its origins—great example Harlem during “Harlem Renaissance”
ii)Harlem center of black artists and intellectuals; literature, poetry , and art drew on African roots—famously Alan Locke, Langston Hughes
m)The Southern Agrarians
i)Group of Southern intellectuals and poets known as the Fugitives rebelled against depersonalization and materialism due to industrialization by recalling the Southern nonindustrial, agrarian way of life
ii)Wrote reactionary ideas in their 1930 agrarian manifesto I’ll Take My Stand
3)A Conflict of Cultures
a)Prohibition
i)Prohibition took effect 1920; within a year “noble experiment” failing b/c even though some drinking rates fell alcohol still widely available and legitimate businesses being replaced by organized crime (famous Al Capone)
ii)Prohibition supported by rural Protestants who they associated drinking w/ Catholic immigrants + new valueless culture
b)Nativism and the Klan
i)After war many Americans associated immigration w/ radicalism; efforts to restrict influx grew, 1921 Congress passed emergency law w/ quota system
ii)Nativists wanted harsher law--- National Origins Act of 1924 banned all east Asian immigration, reduced especially eastern Eur quotas
iii)Ku Klux Klan re-emerged as force b/c of fear by some older Americans of disruption of culture by new peoples—“New Klan” emerged in 1915 after meeting in Stone Mountain, GA
iv)At first targeted blacks, after the war targeted Catholics, Jews, and foreigners- purge “alien” influences; membership grew in S but also N industrial cities
v) Wanted to threaten anyone who challenged “traditional values”- irreligion, drunkenness, ect. Defend racial homogeneity + defend traditional culture against modernity; provided disenfranchised w/ sense of community, power
c)Religious Fundamentalism
i)Fight over role of religion in modern society—split in Protestantism btwn urban, middle-class ppl who wanted to adapt religion to modern science and secular society vs traditional rural ppl who wanted to retain religious import
ii)Fundamentalists wanted traditional interpretation of bible, opposed Darwinism; evangelical movement wanting to spread doctrine (famous preacher Billy Sunday)
iii)When teaching Darwinism outlawed in Tennessee, ACLU promised to defend teacher John Scopes who defied law—Scopes trial isolated Fundamentalists from mainstream Protestants, ended their growing political activism
d)The Democrat’s Ordeal
i)Democrats split btwn urban and rural factions; party included prohibitionists, Klansmen, fundamentalists but also Caths, urban workers, immigrants
ii)At 1924 Democratic National Convention in NY conflict btwn urban wing wanting prohibition repealed, denunciation of clan, and supported Alfred Smith for nominee; W + S supported William McAdoo. After deadlock both withdrew and John Davis chosen as nominee
iii)In 1928 AL Smith won nomination, but party still divided b/c of southern anti-Catholicism; lost election to Herbert Hoover
4)Republican Government
a)Harding and Coolidge
i)Pres Warren Harding elected 1920; appointed party elite who had helped win him nomination to positions in administration, ultimately this corrupt “Ohio Gang” committed fraud and corruption in Teapot Dome oil reserve scandal
ii)Harding died of a heart attack 1923, VP Calvin Coolidge ascended to presidency (known for crushing Boston Police riot)
iii)Coolidge a passive president like Harding, believed govt should not interfere little in life of nation; won re-election 1924 but did not seek office in 1928
b)Government and Business
i)Even though New Era presidents passive, fed govt as a whole worked to helped business + industry operate efficient and productively
ii)Sec of Treasury Andrew Mellon reduced tax on corporate profits, personal incomes, inheritances, and cut federal budget
iii)Sec of Commerce Herbert Hoover favored voluntary cooperation of businesses in private sector for stability. Supported business “Associationalism” in which businessmen in an industry worked together to promote stability, efficient production, and marketing
iv)Hoover won the Presidential election of 1928, but nation entered Depression in 1929
1)The Coming of the Great Depression
a)The Great Crash
i)From Feb 1928 until October 1929 economic boom, stock prices rose dramatically w/ credit easily available
ii)October 29, 1929- “Black Tuesday”- stock market crashed
b)Unemployment and Relief
i)In capitalist system recessions cyclical, but Great Depression direly severe
ii)Such large crash b/c lack of diversification (many overinvested in automobiles + construction), maldistribution of wealth resulting in consumers receiving too little money to spend to keep pace w/ growing markets + supplies (coupled w/ rising unemployment due to natural cycle + from technology)
iii)Credit structures + indebtedness of farmers threatened banks, but banks also threatened by risky investments + loans in stock markets
iv)US foreign exports declined b/c some Eur nations productivity increasing but others facing financial difficulties; international debt structure after WWI in which nations sought new loans to pay off existing Allied loans + Central nation reparations weakened US economy after 1929 left countries w/o source with which to repay loans, began to default
c)Progress of Depression
i)Stock market crash triggered chain of events that further weakened economy over next 3 years
ii)Banking system collapsed and billions of dollars in deposits lost; money supply contraction exacerbated by 1931 Fed Reserve interest raises
iii)GDP, capital investment, gross farm product all down at least 25% by 1933; in 1932 national unemployment had risen to 25% (much more in some cities)
2)The American People in Hard Times
a)Unemployment and Relief
i)Americans taught to believe that individual responsible for own fate, poverty sign of own failure; nevertheless the small relief system of the 1920s incapable of dealing w/ new demands and govts hesitant to increase support b/c of decreasing tax revenues + welfare stigma. Bread lines found in cities
ii)In rural areas income declined 60%, 1/3 of farmers lost land, massive drought extended thru the “Dust Bowl” starting in 1930 lasting for a decade farm prices so low that many farmers left homes to seek employment (“Okies”)
iii)Nationwide problems of malnutrition, homelessness; growth of shantytowns, massive migrations of ppl across country seeking jobs, better living conditions
b)African-Americans and the Depression
i)Most S blacks were farmers, collapse of cotton + staple crop prices led them to leave land; menial jobs they had held in cities began to be given to whites (Black Shirts in Atlanta 1930 called for dismissal of all blacks from jobs so that they would be available for struggling whites to take)
ii)Mass migration of jobless southern blacks to Northern urban centers
iii)Segregation + black disenfranchisement remained, but famous Scottsboro case in which group of 7 blacks falsely accused of rape resulted in national attention b/c of NAACP support
iv)NAACP began working to increase black participation in unions + organized labor
c)Mexican Americans in Depression America
i)Large Mex immigration population (known as Chicanos) centered mostly in Southwest, worked mainly menial jobs or as unskilled laborers in urban areas
ii)When Depression hit many whites forced them from their jobs, relief to Mexicans severely limited + many rounded up to be sent back to Mexico—all highlighted the discrimination of Hispanics that swept region
d)Asian Americans in Hard Times
i)Depression strengthened pattern of economic marginalization of Asian American populations which were centered mainly on the West coast; frequently lost jobs to whites desperate for employment
ii)Some Japanese sought to form clubs to advance political agendas: Japanese American Democratic Club worked for laws against discrimination; Japanese American Citizens League sought to make immigrants more assimilated
e)Women and the Workplace in the Great Depression
i)Ppl believed that b/c jobs so scarce whatever was available should go to men—this belief strengthened notion of women’s main role staying in home, also feelings that no woman with an employed husband should hold a job
ii)Single and married women both continued to work during Depression b/c money so necessary- result of nonprofessional nature of “pink-collar” jobs as more secure than those in heavy industry, male stigma about taking them
iii)Support for Reform Era ideas of women economically and professionally independent began to wane; Depression saw death of National Woman’s Party
f)Depression Families
i)Middle- and working-class families used to rising standard of living now uncertain b/c of unemployment or income reductions
ii)Retreat from consumerism as women made clothes in home, home businesses established, banding together of extended family units
3)The Depression and American Culture
a)Depression Values
i)Pre-Depression acceptance of affluence and consumerism remained unchanged as ppl worked even more hard to achieve ideals
ii)Longstanding belief that individual controlled own fate and success thru hard work (“success ethic”) largely survived Depression as many unemployed simply blamed themselves and remained passive b/c felt ashamed
iii)Masses responded messages that they themselves could restore own wealth + success—best-selling How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
b)Artists and Intellectuals in the Great Depression
i)Just as urban poverty had received attention during Reform Era, during 1930s many shocked at “discovery” of rural poverty- photography of Farm Security Administration photographers highlighted impact of hostile env’t on ppl
ii)Many writers began to highlight social injustices- Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road(1932) of rural poverty; Richard Wright’s Native Son of urban ghettos; John Steinbeck’s novels of migrant workers; John Dos Passso’s USA trilogy attacked capitalism
c)Radio
i)Almost every family had radio, listening often a communal activity
ii)Most radio programming was entertaining and escapist in nature (comedies or adventures, soap operas); live programming of performances also developed
iii)Radio allowed access to major public events in news, sports, politics
iv)Drew nation together b/c of widespread availability of same cultural and informational programming, gathered family together in the home
d)The Movies
i)Early 1930s movie attendance dropped b/c of economic hardship, but by mid-1930s many seeing them again
ii)Most movies censored heavily and studio system kept projects largely uncontroversial; some films did manage to explore social and political questions, but most remained escapist in order to keep attention of audience away from troubles. Walt Disney movies emerged during 1930s
e)Popular Literature and Journalism
i)Literature more reflective of growing radicalism + discontentedness than radio and movies, although escapist and romantic works still widely popular (Mitchell’s 1936 Gone With The Wind; photographic Life Magazine)
ii)Other works challenged American popular values: John Dos Passos’s U.S.A. trilogy (1930-1936) attacked American materialism; Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts(1933) of a woman overwhelmed by the life stories of others
f)The Popular Front and the Left
i)Late 1930s more literature more optimistic of society b/c of rise of Popular Front coalition lead by American Communist Party- supported Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal, mobilized intellectuals toward social criticism
ii)Intellectual detachment of 1920s targeted by Popular Front- mobilized some men into Lincoln Brigade to fight in Spanish Civil War against the fascists
iii)Communist Party organized unemployed, unions, supported racial justice; however party under control of Soviet Union- when Stalin signed 1939 nonaggression pact w/ Hitler Party abandoned Popular Front and returned to criticizing liberals
iv)Socialist Party of America under Norman Thomas attempted to argue crisis failure of capitalist system and tried to win support for party, especially targeting rural poor—supported Southern Tenant Farmers Union but never gained strength
v)Antiradicalism a strong force in 1930s and hostility existed toward Communist Party, yet at the same time Left widely respected amongst workers and intellectuals; temporary widening of mainstream culture
vi)Famous accounts of social conditions of the era provided by James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) and more famously John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath(1939)
4)The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover
a)The Hoover Program
i)Hoover responded to Depression by trying to restore confidence in economy- tried to gather business into voluntary program of cooperation to aid recovery; by 1931 voluntarism had collapsed b/c of worsening economy
ii)Hoover tried using govt spending to boost economy; spending not enough in face of huge economic problems, sought to raise taxes 1932 to balance budget
iii)Offered Agricultural Marketing Act to help farmers w/ low crop prices, raised foreign agricultural tariffs in Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930- neither helped
iv)Dems gained majority in House + increase in Senate in 1930 elections by promising government economic assistance; presidents unpopularity grew (shantytowns called “Hoovervilles”) especially after international financial panic in spring 1931 w/ Austrian bank collapse
v)1932 Congress created Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to give loans to imperiled banks, RRs, businesses- RFC failed to improve economy b/c lent largely to big institutions, didn’t sponsor enough relief + public works
b)Popular Protest
i)By 1932 dissent beginning to come to a head: Farmers’ Holiday Association attempted farmer’s product strike; veterans in “Bonus Army” marched on Washington to protest withholding of bonuses, Hoover called on Army units under Gen Douglas MacArthur to clear Bonus Army out of city
ii)Popular image of Hoover as unsympathetic + unable to act effectively
c)The Election of 1932
i)Repubs re-nominated Hover as candidate; Democrats nominated NY Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt
ii)Roosevelt avoided religion and prohibition, focused on economic grievances of nation
iii)Roosevelt won large majority of popular vote and even more overwhelmingly in electoral college; Dems majorities elected to House and Senate- signified mandate for change
d)The “Interregnum”
i)Period between election and inauguration one of increasing economic problems b/c of expanding banking crisis + more depositors seeking to withdraw money in a panic; more banks declared bankruptcy
ii)Roosevelt refused to make public commitments asked of him by Hoover to maintain economic orthodoxy or not institute broad economic reforms
1)Launching the New Deal
a)Restoring Confidence
i)Roosevelt projected optimism- famous quote “all we have to fear is fear itself”
ii)Two days after taking office issued “Bank Holiday” closing all banks for four days to give Congress time to discuss reforms; Emergency Banking Act required Treasury Dept inspection of banks, assistance to troubled institutions
iii)Bank Holiday restored ¾ of closed banks; Economy Act passed a few days later forced balanced fed budget thru cutting govt salaries + veterans pensions
b)Agricultural Adjustment
i)Agricultural Adjustment Act 1933 reduced crop production to end surpluses + raise prices; Agricultural Adjustment Administration would enforce industry limits + subsidize vacant lands to parity-- farm income began increasing
ii)1936 Agricultural Adjustment Act declared unconstitutional b/c it required farmers to limit production; new Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act passed to pay farmers to reduce production in order to “conserve soil”
iii)Resettlement Administration and later Farm Security Administration gave loans to small farmers to help relocate to better lands; Rural Electrification Administration attempted to make power more available to farmers
c)Industrial Recovery
i)Administration allowed for relaxing of some antitrust laws to stabilize industry prices in return for concessions to labor to allow collective bargaining and unions led to 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act
ii)Act created National Recovery Administration under Hugh Johnson called on adoption of labor codes + industrial codes to set floor prices-- sought to maintain employment + production
iii)NRA weakened b/c codes poorly written and administered; Section 7(a) of NIR Act gave workers right to unionize but no enforcement so many corps. ignored it; Public Works Administration of NIR Act slow to distribute monies
iv)NRA failed to raise production; 1935 Supreme C. held NRA unconstitutional
d)Regional Planning
i)AAA and NRA examples of economic planning that allowed private interests to dictate planning process; others wanted govt in charge of planning
ii)Tennessee Valley Authority created after failure of electric utility companies to develop water resources for cheap power; 1933 TVA began building dams in Tennessee Valley region + sell electricity at reasonable rates
iii)TVA revitalized region by improving transport, limiting flooding, making electricity more available, and lowered power rates nationwide
e)Currency, Banks, and the Stock Market
i)1933 president took president took nation off gold standard; govt began manipulating value of dollar by buying/selling large amts of silver
ii)Efforts to increase govt regulation in 1933 Glass-Steagall Act- govt power to curb speculation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect deposits
iii)1933 Truth in Securities Act required corporations to give truthful disclosures
iv)1934 Securities and Exchange Commission created to police stock market
f)The Growth of Federal Relief
i)Administration saw need to help impoverished until economy improved—Federal Emergency Relief Administration gave cash to state relief groups
ii)Work relief provided by the Civil Works Administration that gave millions temporary work- built roads + schools, and pumped money into economy
iii)Civilian Conservation Corps gave unemployed men jobs in national parks planting trees and improving irrigation
iv)To aid in mortgage relief created Farm Credit Administration to help farmers refinance; 1933 Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act aided foreclosed farmers; 1933 Home Owners’ Loan Corporation refinanced households
2)The new Deal in Transition
a)Critics of the new Deal
i)Conservatives and businesses leaders main opponents to New Deal, 1934 formed American Liberty League decrying “attacks” on free enterprise
ii)Another threat to New Deal in Townsend Plan- proposed giving all over 60 monthly pension; idea gained much support older ppl, forerunner to Soc Sec
iii)Father Charles Coughlin’s nat’l radio sermons called for banking + currency reform (recoining of silver, nationalization of banks) to restore economic justice, felt admin unresponsive so founded National Union for Social Justice
iv)Sen Huey Long gained popularity for attacks on banks, oil companies, utilities and b/c of progressive voting record; like Coughlin felt administration not acting strongly enough so proposed Share-Our-Wealth Plan to redistribute wealth (and created Share-Our-Wealth Society)
v)Growing dissident movements threat to president, so Roosevelt began to consider measures to counter their growing popularity
b)The “Second New Deal”
i)Second New Deal of 1935 marked beginning of open critique of big business
ii)Holding Company Act sought to break up monopoly of utility industry; 1935 tax reforms established progressive tax w/ very high rate for wealthy
iii)National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) gave enforcement to NIR Act’s Section 7(a) (right to unionize) in National Labor Relations Board
c)Labor Militancy
i)Trade union power increased dramatically in 1930s b/c of efforts to strengthen unions + growing labor militancy to challenge conservative groups
ii)After Wagner Act attempts to find new forms of organization; American Federation of Labor still committed to organizing workers based on skill, but b/c mass of labor force unskilled industrial unionism gained popularity (all workers in industry organized regardless of role)
iii)AFL hesitancy to adopt industrial unionism led John L Lewis in 1936 to create independent Congress of Industrial Organizations- grew into new areas
d)Organizing Battles
i)Laborers in auto industry increasingly joining unrecognized United Auto Workers; 1936 staged sit-down strike that stopped all production and prevented strikebreakers- most auto makers soon recognized union
ii)In steel Steel Worker’s Organizing Committee recognized by US Steel 1937 to prevent costly stroke; “Little Steel” committed “Memorial Day Massacre” when strikers attempted protest- strike failed, SWOC not recognized for years
iii)Period saw union membership increase by millions, growing recognition
e)Social Security
i)Lobbying for social insurance for elderly and unemployed led to 1935 Social Security Act—payroll tax created to create pension system for workers upon retirement, unemployment insurance paid by employers gave laid off workers temporary govt assistance, disability + dependent children aid created
ii)Seen as insurance in which participants contributed and benefits for all
f)New Directions in Relief
i)SS for long term needs; to help currently unemployed created 1935 Works Progress Administration under Harry Hopkins to build + renovate public buildings, employ millions, pump money into economy
ii)WPA replaced smaller CWA after 1934 fall- $5 billion budget vs $1 billion
iii)Federal Writers Project of WPA (Music Proj, Theater Proj, ect.) provided govt salary to those ppl to continue work
iv)Men often given relief in form of work relief and employment whereas women mainly given cash assistance
g)The 1936 “Referendum”
i)With 1936 revival of economy doubts about re-election from 1935 troubles largely dispelled. Repub nominee Alf Landon ran poor campaign, other Roosevelt dissidents (e.g. Coughlin and Townsend’s Union Party) very weak
ii)Election largest landslide to date, Dems increased majorities in both Congressional houses; results highlighted Dem coalition of farmers, urban working ppl, unemployed and poor, progressive liberals, and blacks
3)The New Deal in Disarray
a)The Court Fight
i)1936 landslide led Roosevelt to deal with Supreme Court whose conservative rulings (against NRA, AAA) he feared would ruin more legislation
ii)1937 Roosevelt proposed overhaul of court system to Congress, including adding six new justices to Supreme Court so that he could appoint liberals and change ideological balance. Conservatives outraged as “Court-packing plan”
iii)Legislation failed but more moderate court no longer a New Deal obstacle, although administration was damaged and Roosevelt viewed as power hungry
b)Retrenchment and Recession
i)In summer 1937 Roosevelt feared inflation so began to cut fed govt programs and reduce deficit—led to recession of 1937 (“Roosevelt’s Recession”); increased govt spending in 1938 for public works seemed to lead to recovery
ii)Roosevelt began to denounce economic concentrations + sought antirust law reform- Congress formed Temporary National Economic Committee, apptd Thurman Arnold head of the antitrust division at the Justice Dept
iii)1938 Fair Labor Standards Act established nat’l minimum wage, 40 hour work week, child labor limits
iv)By end of 1938 New Deal largely over b/c of Congressional opposition + growing global crisis and Roosevelt’s concentration on war preparation
4)Limits and Legacies of the New Deal
a)The Idea of the “Broker State”
i)New Deal backers originally sought to remake American capitalism and create new controls to make new economic order. Instead, transformation of government as “broker state” in which govt was a mediator in competition btwn interest groups rather than force to create universal harmony
ii)Before 1930s main interest group corporations, but by end of 1930s business interests competing with labor, agricultural economy, and consumers
b)African Americans and the New Deal
i)New Deal did little to assist African Americans; Roosevelt himself not opposed to blacks- his “Black Cabinet” of blacks in second-level administrative positions, many blacks received govt relief or assistance
ii)Electoral shift as blacks no longer overwhelmingly voted Republican but by 1936 90% voting Democratic- even though race not part of New Deal agenda
iii)New Deal agencies reinforced discrimination by separating blacks in CCC and NRA codes, WPA gave minorities lower-paying jobs
c)The new Deal and the “Indian Problem”
i)Federal government sought to erase Indian problem by assimilating them and decreasing amt who identified as members of tribe
ii)Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier proponent of cultural relativism and therefore supported legislation to reverse Native pressures to assimilate and instead be given right to live traditionally—Indian reorganization Act of 1934 advanced many of these goals by re-allowing collective ownership
d)Women and the New Deal
i)Administration mostly unconcerned w/ feminist movement b/c lack of popular support but nevertheless had symbolic gestures (Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins first female Cabinet member, other women appts in govt)
ii)New Deal supported notion that women withdraw from working to open up positions for men—agencies offered women few jobs
iii)Like with AAs New Deal not against women but still accepted cultural norms
e)The New Deal in the West and the South
i)West and South given special attention by New Deal relief and public works programs; these programs didn’t challenge racial and ethnic prejudices
ii)New Deal had profound impact on West b/c farming central to economy and was a good site for and had the need for dams, electricity, other public works
iii)New Deal programs profound in South b/c less economically developed than rest of nation in 1930s, gave federal attention to South that no previous administration had ever done b/c of view of S as “backward”
f)The new Deal and the National Economy
i)New Deal failed to end Depression, change drastically the maldistribution of wealth. New Deal did allow new groups previously unheld powers (labor, women, farmers), economically developed South and West, increased govt regulation, created welfare state thru relief and Social Security that broke w/ tradition of providing little public help to citizens deeply in need
g)The New Deal and American Politics
i)Roosevelt strengthened power of federal government as local govt took second seat to national govt, presidency established as center of power and shifted Congress to more secondary role
ii)New Deal led to political shifts—Dem Party now strong coalition ready to dominate national politics; reawakened interest in economy over cultural issues; changed expectations American people had of government
1)The Diplomacy of the New Era
a)Replacing the League
i)Harding administration sought to negotiate separate peace treaties w/ Central Powers, find impermanent way to replace League as guarantor of world peace
ii)Washington Conference of 1921 sought to deal w/ naval arms race btwn US, GB, Japan: Five-Power Pact limited armaments; Nine-Power Act continued Chinese Open Door policy; Four-Power Act acknowledged Pacific territories
iii)Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928 btwn 14 nations to outlaw war as policy measure
iv)New Era efforts to protect peace w/o active international duties
b)Debts and Diplomacy
i)Diplomacy used to ensure free overseas trade thru reducing war and making financial arrangements w/ other nations
ii)US prosperity depended on Eur economy, which was suffering from war destruction, Allied debt on US loans, Central reparations US acted to head off collapse thru 1924 Dawes Plan that created circular loan system where US loaned Germany money to pay GB + French debt who used $ to pay US debt
iii)System led to increase in Eur debt, US banks and corporations took advantage of collapsed industries to assert themselves; high US tariffs under Republicans prevented Eur export of goods to earn money to repay loans
iv)US economic expansion into Latin America during 1920s to better access rich natural resources, give loans to governments
c)Hoover and the World Crisis
i)Stock market crash of 1929 and worsening problems after 1931, growing nationalism + new hostile governments faced by Hoover administration
ii)Hoover promised to recognize new Latin American govt if any collapsed, did not intervene some defaulted on US loans (against M. Doctrine + R.Corollary)
iii)In efforts to restore Eur economic stability Pres refused to cancel debts- some nations defaulted; 1932 World Disarmament Conference ended in failure
iv)Difficulties increased b/c of control by Benito Mussolini’s nationalistic Fascist Party in Italy & Adolf Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist Party (Nazis)
v)Crisis in Asia when in 1931 Japanese military staged coup against liberal govt b/c it had allowed China’s leader Chiang Kai-Shek to expand his power in Manchuria (which had been economically dominated by Japan) Japan invaded Manchuria + then China itself (Hoover refused to issue sanctions)
vi)Interwar diplomacy of international voluntary cooperation and refusal to actively commit itself a failure; nation could now adopt internationalism or become even more nationalistic + isolated would try measures of both
2)Isolationism and Internationalism
a)Depression Diplomacy
i)Early Roosevelt admin foreign policy concerned mainly w/ pressing economic issues- sought to differ from Hoover by solving war debts + adopting gold standard. However, 1933 World Economic Conference accomplished little
ii)FDR forbid continuation of circular loan system, did little to stabilize international currencies; did adopt Reciprocal trade Agreement Act of 1934 to advance principles of free trade
b)American and the Soviet Union
i)FDR agreed to recognize Soviet Union in 1933 in hopes of increasing trade btwn nations (not b/c of lessening of hatred toward Communism)
c)The Good Neighbor Policy
i)“Good Neighbor Policy” toward Latin America focused on trade reciprocity (free trade);1933 Inter-American Conference administration officially pledged to not intervene in affairs of Latin nations. Closer economic ties emerged
d)The Rise of Isolationism
i)Geneva Conference on disarmament disbanded and Japan withdrew from 1921 Washington Conference; agreements of 1920s collapsed during 1930s
ii)Many Americans supported isolationism b/c internationalism of League of Nations failed to restrain Japanese Asian aggression, belief US business interests had led to WW I involvement; FDR helpless to change tide
iii)Neutrality Acts of 1935, ’36, ’37 meant to prevent issues of WWI from allowing US entrance into new war- “neutral rights” of US citizens defined, “cash-and-carry” policy allowed only nonmilitary goods to be sold to warring countries who had to provide own transportation
iv)Military neutrality upheld after Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia and during Spain’s civil war btwn fascist Falangists + repub govt
v)Alarm over Japan’s 1937 new assaults into China (after 1931 Manchuria invasion) led FDR to question isolationism, delivered “Quarantine speech” saying aggressors should be prevented from spreading war; speech unpopular
e)The Failure of Munich
i)In 1936 Hitler moved army into demilitarized Rhineland, 1938 invaded Austria to create union (anschluss) + demanded Czechoslovakia cede Sudetenland to increase lands for Germans to live (lebensraum); 1938 Munich Conference GB + France appeased Hitler for promise would be last expansion
ii)1939 “appeasement” collapsed w/ German invasion of whole Czechoslovakia and then Poland- GB + France honored defense agreement w/ Poland, in September declared war against Germany
3)From Neutrality to Intervention
a)Neutrality Tested
i)Most Americans supported Allies, FDR wanted to grant assistance by allowing arms sales to belligerents using “cash-and-carry” policy
ii)Quiet “phony war” period shattered by spring 1940 German blitzkrieg invasion of W. Eur, by June France had fallen + GB retreated at Dunkirk
iii)Roosevelt increased aid to Allies + monies for US self-defense, “scraped bottom of the barrel” to give GB’s Churchill war materials
iv)FDR able to take steps b/c public opinion shift after fall of France Germany now seen as threat to US by majority; debate still btwn “interventionists” who wanted increased US war involvement and “isolationist” America First Committee supported by many Repubs
b)The Third-Term Campaign
i)Roosevelt sought 3rd term in 1940 presidential election; Repubs nominated Wendell Willkie. Roosevelt won election w/ heavy measure of support
c)Neutrality Abandoned
i)After election Roosevelt changed US war role-- cash-short GB extended “lend-lease” agreement that allowed sale but also lending of armaments, began ensuring shipments reached GB by Navy patrolling Atlantic for subs
ii)After Germany broke 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact by invading the USSR, US extended “lend-lease” to Russians; Nazi subs began attacking US ships, Congress voted to allow arming of merchants + US attacks on subs
iii)1941 Churchill and Roosevelt released Atlantic Charter tying two nations together to war aims to destroy “Nazi tyranny”
d)The Road to Pearl Harbor
i)1940 Japan signed Tripartite Pact allying itself w/ Germany and Italy; in spite of Roosevelt denouncing Japanese aggression in 1941 it invaded Indochina
ii)US froze Jap assets + placed trade embargo preventing Japan from buying impt supplies (including oil). Tokyo attempted to negotiate w/ US to continue flow of supplies, but Jap PM Konoye forced out of office by Gen Hideki Tojo
iii)Tojo govt refused to recognize US calls to guarantee Chinese territorial rights so negotiations broke down, by November war imminent; on December 7, 1941 Jap aircraft carriers attacked US Pacific Navy HQ at Pearl Harbor
iv)US lost 8 battleships, 2,000 soldiers dead, US Pacific forces weakened; resulted in unifying American ppl into commitment to war
v)December 8, 1941 US declared war on Japan; December 11 Germany and Italy declared war on US, likewise same say us declared war on them
1)War on Two Fronts
a)Containing the Japanese
i)After Pearl Harbor US forces surrendered in the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island; to turn tide US lead 2 offensives- Gen Douglas MacArthur’s attacks from the south, and Admiral Chester Nimitz attacked from HI to the west
ii)May 1942 Battle of Coral Sea weakened Jap navy; more important Battle of Midway Island June 1942 regained US central Pacific control
iii)Mid-1943 after fighting in Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal) US turned tide
b)Holding Off the Germans
i)US military plans in Europe influenced by Soviet Union and GB; FDR decided to delay invasion into France in favor of October 1942 counter-offensive in N. Africa against Nazi Gen Erwin Rommel; by May 1943 Gen George Patton and British Gen Montgomery had driven Germans from Africa
ii)Soviet Red Army held off immense German 1942-1943 winter offensive at Stalingrad, Hitler’s forces exhausted and forced to abandon eastern advance
iii)July 1943 US agreed to British plan to invade Sicily, Mussolini govt collapsed but German reinforcements prevented capture of Rome until June 1944; slow, costly Italy campaign delayed French channel invasion Soviets had called for
c)America and the Holocaust
i)By 1942 news of Holocaust (Nazi campaign to exterminate European Jews) prompting public cries to end killing, but US govt resisted calls for military aid + officials at the State Dept deliberately refused to let Jews enter US
2)The American People In Wartime
a)Prosperity
i)WWII ended Great Depression problems of unemployment, deflation, production b/c of wartime economic expansion + massive govt spending (federal budget grew from 1939 $9 billion to 1945 $100 billion)
b)The War and the West
i)West shared disproportionally in massive govt capital investments;
ii)Businessman Henry Kaiser steered federal funds to make Pacific Coast major industrial center for shipbuilding, aircraft; launching stage for Japanese war
c)Labor and the War
i)Labor shortage caused by military recruitment; unemployed from Depression worked, but also women + other previously unused groups entered workforce
ii)Union membership increased; new govt limits on wage increases +“no-strike” promise, in return govt allowed all new workers to automatically join unions
iii)Govt+ public sought to reduce inflation + guarantee production w/o disruption
d)Stabilizing Boom
i)1942 Congress passed Anti-Inflation Act which allowed Pres to freeze prices and wages, set rations; enforced by the Office of Price Administration
ii)Govt spent 2X more $ btwn 1941-1945 than it had during whole existence; raised $ thru bond sales, Revenue Act of 1942 created new high tax brackets
e)Mobilizing Production
i)1942 War Production Board created to organize mobilization effort but was largely unable to direct military purchases + include small businesses; program later replaced by White House Office of War Mobilization
ii)Nevertheless, US economy met all war needs; new factories were built, entire rubber industry created. By 1944 output 2X that of all Axis nations combined
f)Wartime Science and Technology
i)Govt stimulated new military technologies by funneling massive funds to National Defense Research Committee
ii)Originally Germany (w/ sophisticated tanks + submarines) and Japan (w/ strong naval-air power) technologically ahead of Allies; US, however, had experience w/ mass production in auto industry and was able to convert many of these plants to produce armaments
iii)Allied advances in radar + sonar beyond Axis capabilities helped limit effectiveness of U-Boats in Atlantic; Allies developed more effective anti-aircraft tech and produced large amount of powerful 4-engine aircraft (British Lancaster + US B17) able to attack military forces + industrial centers
iv)Greatest Allied advantage found in intelligence gathering—British Ultra project able to break German “Enigma” code and intercept info on enemy movements; American Magic operation broke Japanese “Purple” code
g)African-Americans and the War
i)Blacks wanted to use war as means of improving own conditions. A Philip Roth (head of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters) wanted all companies w/ war contracts to integrate work force
ii)Fearing black workers strike, FDR created Fair Employment Practices Commission to investigate labor discrimination. Later, Congress of Racial equality combated discrimination in society at large using popular resistance
iii)War saw migration of blacks from rural South to industrial cities of North in greater numbers than those found of first Great Migration during WWI
h)Native Americans and the War
i)Some Native Americans served in military (some as famous “Code Talkers”), many others left reservations seeking work in war industries
i)Mexican-American War Workers
i)War labor shortages lead to large Mex immigration of braceros (contract laborers); ethnic tensions from growing immigrant neighborhoods w/ existing white communities led to “Zoot-Suit Riots” in Los Angeles in 1943
j)Women and Children of War
i)Large number of women entered roles they were previously excluded from
ii)Many women worked in factories to replace men who had entered military, but some inequality existed in what jobs they could hold in factories
iii)Most women took service-sector jobs in growing govt bureaucracies; limited others worked in “male” heavy-industry (famous Rosie the Riveter image)
iv)Over 1/3 of teenagers took jobs during war; crime rate also rose during war
k)Wartime Life and Culture
i)Increased prosperity from war led to marked rise in theater and movie attendance, magazine and news circulation, hotel, casino, dance hall visits
ii)War effort largely seen as means of protecting material comfort + consumer choice of “home”; visions of home and future women romanticized by troops
l)The Internment of Japanese Americans
i)WWII did not largely see restrictions of civil liberties + growth of hatred toward fringe groups as during WWI; little ethnic tension in part due to propaganda attacking enemy’s political system but not people
ii)Glaring exception in treatment of Japanese Americans who were painted as scheming + cruel (re-enforced by Pearl Harbor); white Eur groups largely accepted by now, but assimilated Japs faced prejudice + viewed as “foreign”
iii)Conspiracy theories of Jap-Americans aiding in Pearl Harbor attacks led govt + military to see them as a threat; 1942 Roosevelt created War Relocation Authority to move Japanese citizens to “relocation camps” for monitoring
iv)Starting 1943 condition began to improve as some Japs allowed to got o college or take jobs on East Coast; although 1944 Supreme Court case Korematsu v U.S. ruled relocation constitutional, by that time most of internees had been allowed to leave camps
m)Chinese Americans and the War
i)US war alliance w/ China helped Chinese Americans advance legal + social position—1943 Congress repealed Chinese Exclusion acts
ii)Many Chinese took jobs in industry or were drafted into the military
n)The Retreat from Reform
i)FDR wanted to shift priority from reform to war effort and victory
ii)With massive unemployment no longer an issue + Republican gains, Congress dismantled relief programs and other New Deal programs
iii)In 1944 Pres election Repubs nominated Thomas Dewey; Dems re-nominated Roosevelt but w/ new, less liberal VP candidate Harry Truman
iv)Despite deteriorating health Roosevelt was popularly elected; Dems maintained control of both Houses of Congress
3)The Defeat of the Axis
a)The Liberation of France
i)By 1944 devastating Allied strategic bombing against German industry at Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin reduced production + complicated transport; German Luftwaffe forced to retreat to bases w/in Germany itself, weakened it
ii)After 2 year buildup in England Supreme Allied Commander Gen Dwight Eisenhower ordered invasion across English Channel into Normandy, France on “D-Day” (June 6, 1944); Allies drove Germans from the coast, by September forced them to retreat from France, Belgium
iii)In December Germany counter-attacked during Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest, but soon repelled; with Soviet advances on Eastern front, Allies began moving into Germany across Rhine
iv)April 30 Hitler commits suicide; May 8, 1945 full surrender + “V-E” Day
b)The Pacific Offensive
i)Thru 1944 American navy crippling Japanese shipping and economy in Pacific; on mainland Asia Japan attacking thru Chinese interior trying to cutoff Gen Stilwell’s Burma Road for supplies
ii)June 1944 Americans captured Mariana Islands, in September Battle of Leyte Gulf Japanese navy decimated by US sinking of its aircraft carriers; in next few months Japanese fought desperate battles of resistance in Feb at Iwo Jima, in June at Okinawa (used Kamikaze suicide bombers throughout)
iii)Many feared bloody island battles would ensue w/ invasion of Japanese mainland, but by 1945 Japanese weakened by firebombing in Tokyo, shelling of industrial centers; moderates in govt trying to sue peace against will of military leaders wanting to continue fight
c)The Manhattan Project
i)After news in 1939 that Nazis pursuing atomic bomb, US and +GB began race to develop one before them; work based on discovery of uranium radioactivity by Enrico Fermi 1930s, Einstein’s theory of relativity
ii)Army took over control of research and poured billions of $ into Manhattan Project which gathered scientists to create nuclear chain reactions w/ a bomb
iii)On July 16 1945 the plutonium bomb Trinity, created by scientist Robert Oppenheimer at the Los Alamos Laboratory, successfully tested
d)Atomic Warfare
i)Pres Truman issues ultimatum to Japanese for “unconditional surrender” by Aug 3rd or face annihilation; after Jap moderates unable to convince military leaders to accept Truman ordered use of atomic weapon
ii)Some argue atomic weapon unnecessary b/c in time Japs would have sued for peace; others argue only atomic bomb could convince radical military leaders that surrender necessary. Truman saw weapon as military device that could end war quickly, but some say he used it to intimidate Stalin and Soviets
iii)August 6, 1945 bomber Enola Gay dropped atomic weapon on Japanese city Hiroshima, killing 80,000 civilians; because Jap govt didn’t respond, on August 8 second atomic bomb dropped on city of Nagasaki killing 100,000
iv)By Aug 14 emperor agreed to surrender; September 2, 1945 Japan signed articles of surrender (“V-J Day”) marking end of WWII
v)14 million combatants had died during war, even more civilians; threat of nuclear war loomed between two emerging super-powers in US and Soviet Union
1)Origins of the Cold War
a)Sources of Soviet-American Tensions
i)Rivalry emerged b/c of difft visions of postwar world: US foresaw world where nations shed military alliances and used democratic international bodies as mediators; Soviet Union sought to control areas of strategic influence
b)Wartime Diplomacy
i)Tensions began in 1943 b/c of Allied refusal to open second front w/ French invasion, dispute over governance of Poland unresolved at Tehran Conference
c)Yalta
i)Meeting of Big Three at Yalta in 1945 led to plan to create United Nations (w/ General Asembly and Security Council w/ permanent members)
ii)Disagreement existed over future of Polish govt (independent + democratic vs Communist); US wanted to German reconstruction, Stalin wanted heavy reparations- finally agreed to commission and each Ally given German “zone”
2)The Collapse of the Peace
a)The Failure of Potsdam
i)After Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, new Pres Truman decided US needed to “Get Tough” w Soviets to honor Yalta accords
ii)Potsdam Conference in July ended w/ Stalin receiving increased land w/ new Polish-German border, US refusing to allow German reparations from Allied zones but US recognizing new communist Polish govt under Soviet influence
b)The China Problem
i)US had vision of open world “policed” by major powers; vision troubled by unpopular + corrupt Chinese govt under Chiang Kai-shek (supported by US aid during civil war) who battled communists under Mao Zedong
ii)B/c Kai-shek govt sure to collapse, US sought to create new, Pro-West Japan by encouraging industrial development, lift trade restrictions
c)The Containment Doctrine
i)US no longer sought “open” world but rather “containment” of Soviet expansion; new Truman Doctrine sought aid for those forces in Turkey + Greece opposing take-over of Communist forces under Soviet influence
d)The Marshall Plan
i)Sec of State George Marshall 1947 plan to provide aid to all Eur nations (for humanitarian reasons, to rebuild to create markets for US goods, and to strengthen Pro-US govts against communists); 1948 created the Economic Cooperation Administration to channel billions of $ to aid economic revival
e)Mobilization at Home
i)US maintained wartime military levels, established Atomic Energy Commission to continue nuclear research
ii)National Security Act of 1947 restructured military by creating Department of Defense to combine all armed services, create National Security Council in White House and Central Intelligence Agency to collect information
f)The Road to NATO
i)Truman merged German “Western zones” into the West German republic; Stalin responded by blockading Western Berlin, Truman responded w/ airlift to re-supply inhabitants; Federal Republic became govt of west Germany, Democratic Republic of east
ii)To strengthen military position US and Western Eur naions1949 created North Atlantic Treaty Organization as alliance to protect all members against threat of Soviet invasion (communists 1955 formed similar Warsaw Pact)
g)Reevaluating Cold War Policy
i)1949 saw Soviet Union explode atomic weapon and collapse of Nationalists in China to Mao’s Communists
ii)To reevaluate foreign policy, National Security Council released report NSC-68 that held US should lead noncommunist world and oppose communist expansion everywhere it existed, also expand US military power dramatically
3)American Society and Politics After the War
a)The Problems of Reconversion
i)After end of war Truman attempted to quickly return nation to normal economic conditions, but problems ensued
ii)No economic collapse b/c of increase in spending on consumer goods from savings, Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) provided education + economic aid to returning soldiers that further increased spending
iii)Problems arose w/ high inflation, union strikes in RR + mining industries, and displacement of some minorities and women b/c of returning soldiers to labor
b)The Fair Deal Rejected
i)After Jap surrender Truman proposed “Fair Deal” to enact liberal reforms—included raising minimum wage, enacting Fair Employment Practices Act, expanding Social Security, and creating nation health insurance plan
ii)Fair Deal opposed by Repubs who gained majority in both Houses of Congress in 1946 elections; Repubs sought to reduce govt spending and economic controls, cut taxes for wealthy, refused to raise wages
iii)Repubs wanted to decrease powers unions gained in 1935 Wagner Act by passing 1947 Labor-Management Relations Act of (Taft-Hartley Act)- made “closed-shop” illegal; limited efforts help those not yet organized (minorities)
c)The Election of 1948
i)Truman sought to make re-election about liberal reforms but electorate saw him as weak; Southern Dems (Dixiecrats) + progressives refused full support
ii)Repubs nominated Thomas Dewey and seemed to be in strong position to win, but intense campaigning by Truman and his platform to reduce inflation + help common man allowed him to win Pres; Dems also won both Houses of C
d)The Fair Deal Revivied
i)New Dem Congress allowed for minimum wage increase + Social Security expansion, but hostile to Fair Deal programs expanding education aid, national healthcare, and civil rights
ii)Truman did end govt hiring discrimination, desegregated armed forces; Supreme Court inSkelley v. Kraemer rules community “covenants” preventing movement of blacks unenforceable by courts
e)The Nuclear Age
i)Nuclear weapons viewed w/ fear b/c of threat from Soviet Union (expressed in pop culture,film noir, and govt preparations for nuclear attack), but public also awed by technological potential of nuclear power (Dreams of prosperity and unlimited + cheap electricity)
4)The Korean War
a)The Divided Peninsula
i)Korea divided at 38th Parallel into Communist North and Southern government of capitalist Syngman Rhee (supported by US)
ii)Nationalists in North invaded S in 1950 in effort to reunite countries; US won UN resolution calling for support of S. Korea armies (Russia unable to veto b/c boycotting Security Council at time)—“containment” but also “liberation”
b)From Invasion to Stalemante
i)Gen MacArthur (head of UN forces) able to advance far into North, but new communist Chinese govt feared American forces + entered conflict late 1950
ii)UN armies force dto retreat to 38th parallel long stalemate ensued until 1953
iii)Truman wanted peace andnot new world war w/ China; Gen MacArthur publicly opposed peace effort and was relieved of command by Pres in 1951
c)Limited Mobilization
i)War led to only limited mobilization: Truman created Office of Defense Mobilization to combat rising inflation; govt seized RRs + steel mills during union strikes, increased govt spending stimulated economy
ii)Inability of US to quickly end “small” war led to growth of fears of growth of communist at home
5)The Crusade Against Subversion
a)HUAC and Alger Hiss
i)“Red Scare” prompted by fear of Stalin, Communist growth (“loss” of China, Korean frustrations) many sought to blame US communist conspiracy
ii)Repubs soguht to use anticommunist feeligns to win support against Dems; Congress created House Un-American Activities Committee 1947 to investigate communist subversion
iii)Investigation into former State Dept official Alger Hiss revaled some complicity w/ communists increased fear of communist infiltrations
b)The Federal Loyalty Program and the Rosenberg Case
i)Truman began 1947 program to determine “loyalty” of fed employees; FBI monitored radicals; 1950 Congress passed McCarran Interal Secuity Act forcing communist groups to register w/ government
ii)Explosion of atomic bomb by Soviets led to famous Rosenberg tiral to find out how Russia had learned of technology so quickly; Rosenbergs executed
iii)HUAC, Rosenberg trial, “Loyalty” program, Hiss ordeal, McCarran Act all lead to national anticommunist hysteria at national, state, and local level
c)McCarthyism
i)Wisconsin Sen Joseph McCarthy 1951 began leveling charges of communist agents in State Dept and other agencies; his subcommittee was at the fore of anticommunist hysteria + partisan politics
d)The Republican Revival
i)Korean stalemate + anticommunist sentiments led to Dem disappointments
ii)Dem nominated Adlai Stevenson (viewed as liberal and weak on Communism); Repubs nominated popular Gen Dwight Eisenhower and VP Richard Nixon (Eisenhower talked of Korean peace, Nixon of communist subversion)
iii)Eisenhower won election by huge margin & Republicans gained control of both Houses of Congress
Sources of Economic Growth
·By 1949, despite the continuing problems of postwar reconversion, an
economic expansion had begun that would continue with only
brief interruptions for almost twenty years
· The causes of this growth varied
1. Government spending continued to stimulate growth
through public funding of schools, housing, veteran’s benefits,
welfare, and the $100 billion interstate highway program
·Technological progress also contributed to the boom
1. Technological progress also contributed to the boom
a. There was the development of electronic
computers
b. The first modern computer emerged as a result of
efforts during WWII to decipher enemy codes
c. Not until the 1980s did most Americans come into
direct and regular contact with computers, but the new
machines were having a substantial effect on the
economy long before that
·The national birth rate reversed a long pattern of decline with the socalled
baby boom
1. The baby boom meant increased consumer demand and
expanding economic growth
·The rapid expansion of suburbs helped stimulate growth in several
important sectors of the economy
·Because of this unprecedented growth, the economy grew nearly ten
times as fast as the population in their thirty years after the war
1. The American people had achieved the highest standard
of living of any society in the history of the world
The Rise of the Modern West
· No region of the country experience more dramatic changes as a
result of the new economic growth than the American West
·By the 1960s some parts of the West were among the most important
industrial and cultural centers of the nation in their own right
·As during WWII much of the growth of the West was a result of federal
spending and investment 1. Dams, power stations, highways,
and other infrastructure projects
·The enormous increase in automobile use after WWII gave a large
stimulus to the petroleum industry and contributed to the rapid
growth of oil fields in Texas and Colorado
·State governments in the West invested heavily in their universities
·Climate also contributed
The New Economics
·The exciting discovery of the power of the American economic system
was a major cause of the confident, even arrogant tone of much
American political life in the 1950s
1. There was the belief that Keynesian economics made it
possible for government to regulate and stabilize the
economy without intruding directly into the private sector
·By the mid-1950s, Keynesian theory was rapidly becoming a
fundamental article of faith
1. Armed with these fiscal and monetary tools, many
economists now believed, it was possible for the government to
maintain a permanent prosperity
·If any doubters remained, there was ample evidence to dispel their
misgivings during the era
·Accompanying the belief in the possibility of permanent economic
stability was the equally exhilarating belief in permanent
economic growth by the mid-1950s, reformers concerned about
economic deprivation were arguing that the solution lay in
increased production
·The Keynesians never managed to remake federal economic policy
entirely to their liking
1. Still, the new economics gave many Americans a
confidence in their ability to solve economic problems that
previous generations had never developed
Captial and Labor
·A relatively small number or large-scale organizations controlled an
enormous proportion oft eh nation’s economic activity
·A similar consolidation was occurring in the agricultural economy
·Corporations enjoying booming growth were reluctant to allow strikes
to interfere with their operations
·By the early 1950s large labor unions had developed a new kind of
relationship with employers
1. “Postwar Contract”
·Workers in steel, automobiles, and other large unionized industries
were receiving generous increases in wages and benefits
1. In return the unions tacitly agreed to refrain from raising
other issues
·The contract served the corporations and the union leadership well
·Many rank-and-file workers resented the abandonment of efforts to
give them more control over the conditions of their labor
·The economic successes of the 1950s helped pave the way for a
reunification of the labor movement
1. 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations ended their 20 year rivalry
and merged to create the AFL- CIO
·But success also bread stagnation and corruption in some union
bureaucracies
·While the labor movement enjoyed significant success in winning
better wages and benefits for workers already organized in
strong unions, the majority of laborers who were as yet
unorganized made fewer advances
1. New obstacles to organization
a. Taft-Hartley Act and the state right-to-work laws
·In the American South impediments to unionization were enormous
1. Antiunion sentiment was so powerful in the South that
almost all organizing drives encountered crushing and usually
fatal resistance
The Explosion of Science and Technology
Medical Breakthroughs
·The development of antibiotics had its origins=2 0in the discoveries of
Louis Pasteur and Jules-Francois Joubert.
·Working in France in the 1870s they produced the first conclusive
evidence that virulent bacterial infections could be defeated by
other, more ordinary bacteria.
·In 1920, in the meantime, Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered
the antibacterial properties of an organism that he named
penicillin.
·There was also dramatic progress in immunization-the development of
vaccines that can protect humans from contracting both
bacterial and viral diseases.
·In 1954, the American scientist Jonas Salk introduced an effective
vaccine against the disease that had killed and crippled
thousands of children and adults.
·Average life expectancy in that same period rose by five years, to 71.
Pesticides
·The most famous pesticides was dichlorodiphenyl-dichloromethane
[DDT] a compound discovered in 1939 by Paul Muller.
Postwar Electronic Research
·Researchers in the 1940s produced the first commercially viable
televisions and created a technology that made it possible to
broadcast programming over large areas.
·In 1948 bell Labs, the research arm of AT&T, produced=2 0the first
transistor, a solid-state device capable of amplying electrical
signals, which was much smaller and more efficient than the
cumbersome vacuum tubes that had powered most electronic
equipment in the past.
·Integrated circuits combined a number of once-separate electronic
elements and embedded them into a single, microscopically
small device.
Postwar Computer Technology
·In the 1950s computers began to perform commercial functions for
the first time, as data-processing devices used by businesses and
other organizations.
·The first significant computer of the 1950s was the Universal
Automatic Computer, which was developed initially for the U.S
Bureau of the Census by the Remington Rand company.
Bombs, Rockets, and Missles
·In 1952, the U.S successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb.
·The development of the hydrogen bomb gave considerable impetus to
a stalled scientific project in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The Space Program
·The Shock of Sputnik , th e united states had yet perform any similar
feats , and the American government (and much of American
society ) reacted to the announcement with alarm , as if the
Soviet achievement was also a massive American failure .
·The centerpiece of space exploration , however . soon became the
manned space program , established in 1958 through the
creation of a new agency , the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA ) and through the selection of the first
American space pilots , or “astronauts”
· They quickly became the nation’s most revered heroes .
· The Apollo Program , Mercury and Gemini were followed by the Apollo
program , whose purpose was to land men on the moon .
· July 20 , 1969 , Neil Armstrong , Edwin Aldrin , and Michael Collins
successfully traveled in a space capsule into orbit around the
moon .
· Armstrong and Aldrin , and Michael then detached a smaller craft from
the capsule , landed on the surface of the moon , and became
the first men to walk on a body other than earth .
People of Plenty
The Consumer Culture
· At the center of middle-class culture in the 1950s was a growing
absorption with consumer goods
· It was a result of:
1. Increased prosperity
2. Increasing variety and availability of products
3. Advertiser’s adeptness in creating a demand for those
product
4. A growth of consumer credit
To a striking degree, the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s was
consumer driven
· Because consumer goods were so often marketed nationally, the
1950s were notable for the rapid spread of creation national
consumer crazes
The Suburban Nation
· By 1960 a third of the nation’s population was living in suburbs
· The most famous of the postwar suburban developers, William Levitt,
came to symbolize the new suburban growth with his use of
mass-production techniques to construct a large housing
development on Long Island, NY
1. They helped to meet an enormous demand for housing
that had been growing for more than a decade
· Many Americans wanted to move to the suburbs
1. One reason was the enormous importance postwar
Americans place on family life after five years of war in which
families had often been separated or otherwise disrupted
2. They provided privacy
3. A place to raise a large family
4. They provided security from the noise and dangers of
urban living
5. They offered space for the new consumer goods
6. Suburban life also helped provide a sense of community
· Suburban neighborhoods
1. They were not uniform
The Suburban Family
· For professional men, suburban life generally meant a rigid division
between their working and personal worlds
· For many middle-class married women, it meant an increase isolation
from the workplace
· One of the most influential books in postwar American life was a
famous guide to child rearing
1. Baby and Child Care
a. Said that the needs of the child come before
everything else
b. Women who could afford not to work faced heavy
pressures to remain in the home and concentrate on
raising their children
c. Yet by 1960, nearly a third of all married women
were in the paid workforce
· The increasing numbers of women in the workplace laid the
groundwork for demands for equal treatment by employers that
became and important part of the feminist crusades of the 1960s
and 1970s
The Birth of Television
· Television is perhaps the most powerful medium of mass
communication in history
· The television industry emerged directly out of the radio industry
· Like radio, the television business was driven by advertising
· The impact of television on American life was rapid, pervasive, and
profound
1. Television entertainment programming replace movies
and radio as the principal source of diversion for American
families
· Much of the programming of the 1950s and early 1960s created a
common image of American life
1. An image that was predominately white, middle-class,
and suburban
2. Programming also reinforced the concept of gender roles
3. Television inadvertently created conditions that could
accentuate social conflict
Travel, Outdoor Recreation, and Environmentalism
·
Organized Society and Its Detractors
· Large-scale organizations and bureaucracies increased their influence
over American life in the postwar era
·More and more Americans were becoming convinced that the key to a
successful future lay in acquiring the specialized training and
skills necessary for work in large organizations
1. The National Defense Education Act of 1958
a. Provided federal funding for development of
programs in those areas of science, mathematics, and
foreign languages
2. As in earlier eras, many Americans reacted to these
developments with ambivalence, even hostility
·Novelists expressed misgivings in their work about the enormity and
impersonality of modern society
The Beats and the Restless Culture of Youth
·The most derisive critics of bureaucracy, and of middle-class society
in general, were a group of young poets, writers, and artists
generally known as the “beats” – beatniks
·The beats were the most visible evidence of a widespread
restlessness among young Americans in the 1950s
·In part, that restlessness was a result of prosperity itself
1. Tremendous public attention was directed at the
phenomenon of “juvenile delinquency” and in both politics and
popular culture there were dire warnings about the growing
criminality of American youth
·Also disturbing to many older Americans was the style of youth
culture
1. The culture of alienation that the beats so vividly
represented had counterparts even in ordinary middle-class
behavior
a. Teenage rebelliousness toward parents, youthful
fascination with fast cars and motorcycles, and an
increasing visibility of teenage sex, assisted by the
greater availability of birth-control devices and the
spreading automobile culture that came to dominated the social
lives of teenagers in much of the nation
2. The popularity of James Dean was a particularly vivid
sign of this aspect of youth culture in the 1950s
a. Dean became an icon of the unfocused
rebelliousness of American youth in his time
Rock 'n' Roll
·One of the most powerful signs of the restiveness of American youth
was the enormous popularity of rock ‘n’ roll and of the greatest
early rock star
1. Elvis Presley
a. Presley became a symbol of a youthful
determination to push at the borders of the
conventional and acceptable
b. Presley’s music, like that of most early white rock
musicians, drew heavily from black rhythm and blues
traditions
c. Rock also drew from country western music, gospel
music, even from jazz
·The rise of such white rock musicians as Presley was a result in part of
the limited willingness of white audience to accept black
musicians
·The rapid rise and enormous popularity of rock owed a great deal to
innovations in radio and television programming
1. Early in the 1950s, a new breed of radio announcers
began to create programming aimed specifically at young fans
of rock music
a. Disk Jockeys
·Radio and television were important to the recording industry because
they encouraged the sale of records
1. Also important were jukeboxes
·Rock music began in the 1950s to do what jazz and swing had done in
the 1920s – 40s
1. To define both youth culture as a whole and the
experience of a generation
The "Other America"
On the Margins of the Affluent Society
·In 1962, The Other America was published
a. Chronicles of the continuing existence of poverty in
America
·The great economic expansion of the postwar years reduced poverty
dramatically but did not eliminate it
·Most of the poor experience poverty intermittently and temporarily
·This poverty was a poverty that the growing prosperity of the postwar
era seemed to affect hardly at all
Rural Poverty
·Among those on the margins of the affluent society were many rural
Americans
·Not all farmers were poor
1. But the agrarian economy did produce substantial
numbers of genuinely impoverished people
·Migrant farm workers and coal miners fell to the same kind of poverty
The Inner Cities
·As white families moved from cities to suburbs in vast numbers, more
and more inner-city neighborhoods became vast repositories for
the poor
1. Ghettos from which there was no easy escape
a. African Americans helped this growth
·Similar migrations from Mexico and Puerto Rico expanded poor
Hispanic barrios in many American cities at the same time
·For many years, the principal policy response to the poverty of inner
cities was “urban renewal”
1. The effort to tear down buildings in the poorest and
most degraded areas
a. In some cases, urban renewal provided new public
housing for poor city residents
b. In many cases, urban renewal projects replaced
“slums” with middle and upper-income housing, office
towers, or commercial buildings
·One result of inner-city poverty was a rising rate of juvenile crime
The Rise of the Civil Rights Movement
The Brown Decision and "Massive Resistance"
·On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court announced its decision in the
case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
1. Ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional
·The Brown decision was the culmination of many decades of effort by
black opponents of segregation
·The Topeka suit involved the case of an African-American girl who had
to travel several miles to a segregated public school every day
even though she lived virtually next door to a white elementary
school
1. The Court concluded that school segregation inflicted
unacceptable damage on those it affected
·The following year, the Court issued another decision to provide rules
for implementing the 1954 order
1. It ruled that communities must work to desegregate
their schools “with all deliberate speed,” but it set no
timetable and left specific decisions up to lower courts
·Strong local opposition produced long delays and bitter conflicts
1. More than 100 southern members of Congress signed a
“manifesto” in 1956 denouncing the Brown decision and
urging their constituents to defy it
·Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education (1958)
1. Refused to declare “pupil placement laws”, placing a
student in a school based on academic or social behaviors,
unconstitutional
·The Brown decision, far from ending segregation, had launched a
prolonged battle between federal authority and state and local
governments, and between those who believed in racial equality
and those who did not
·In 1957, federal courts had ordered the desegregation of Central High
School in Little Rick, Arkansas
1. An angry white mob tried to prevent implementation of
the order by blockading the entrances to the school
2. President Eisenhower responded by federalizing the
National Guard and sending troops to Little Rock to restore
order and ensure that the court orders would be obeyed
The Expanding Movement
·The Brown decision helped spark a growing number of popular
challenges to segregation in the South
·December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama,
when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a
white passenger
1. The arrest of this admired woman produced outrage in
the city’s African-American community and helped local
leaders organize a successful boycott of the bus system to
demand an end to segregated seating
2. The bus boycott put economic pressure not only on the
bus company but on many Montgomery merchants
a. The bus boycotters found it difficult to get to
downtown stores and tended to shop instead in their own
neighborhoods
·A Supreme Court decision in 1956 declared segregation in public
transportation to be illegal
·More important than the immediate victories of the Montgomery
boycott was its success in establishing a new form of racial
protest and in elevating to prominence a new figure in the
movement for civil rights
1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
a. King’s approach to black protest was based on the
doctrine of nonviolence
b. He urged African Americans to engage in peaceful
demonstrations
2. The popular movement he came to represent soon
spread throughout the South and throughout the country
·One important color line had been breached as early as 1947, when
the Brooklyn Dodgers signed the great Jackie Robinson as the
first African American to play Major League Baseball
·President Eisenhower signed a civil rights act in 1957
1. Providing federal protection for blacks who wished to
register to vote
Cause of the Civil Rights Movement
·Several factors contributed to the rise of African-American protest in
these years
1. Millions of black men and women had served in the
military or worked in war plants during the war and had
derived from the experience a broader view of the world
and their place in it
2. Another factor was the growth of an urban black middle
class
3. Television and other forms of popular culture were
another factor in the rising consciousness of racism among
blacks
·Other forces were at work mobilizing many white Americans to
support the movement once it began
1. The Cold War
2. Political mobilization of northern blacks
3. Labor unions with substantial black memberships
· By the early 1960s, this movement had made it one of the most
powerful forces in America
Eisenhower Republicanism
"What was Good for...General Motors"
· The first Republican administration in 20 years was staffed mostly
with men drawn from the same quarter as those who had staffed
Republican administrations in the 1920s
1. The business community
· Many of the nation's leading businessmen and financiers ha
reconciled themselves to at least the broad outlines of the
Keynesian welfare state the New Deal had launched and had
come to see it as something that actually benefited them
· To his cabinet, Eisenhower appointed wealthy corporate lawyers and
business executives
· Eisenhower’s leadership style helped enhance the power of his
cabinet officers and others
· Eisenhower’s consistent inclination was to limit federal activities and
encourage private enterprise
The Survival of the Welfare State
· The president took few new initiatives in domestic policy
· Perhaps the most significant legislative accomplishment of the
Eisenhower administration was the Federal Highway Act of 1956
1. Authorized $25 billion for a ten-year effort to construct
over 40,000 miles of interstate highways
2. The program was to be funded through a highway “trust
fund” whose revenues would come from new taxes on the
purchase of fuel, automobiles, trucks, and tires
· In 1956, Eisenhower ran for a second term
1. Republicans – Adlai Stevenson
2. Eisenhower won
· Democrats still held power over Congress
The Decline of McCarthyism
· In its first years in office the Eisenhower administration did little to
discourage the anticommunist furor that had gripped the nation
· Among the most celebrated controversies of the new administration’s
first year was the case of J. Robert Oppenheimer
1. He opposed the building of the Hydrogen Bomb
2. In 1953, the FBI distributed a dossier within the
administration detailing Oppenheimer’s prewar association
with various left-wing groups
a. In 1953, the FBI distributed a dossier within the
administration detailing Oppenheimer’s prewar
association with various left-wing groups
· But by 1954, such policies were beginning to produce significant
opposition
1. The clearest signal of that change was the political
demise of Senator Joseph McCarthy
a. He overstepped his boundaries when he charged
Secretary of Army Robert Stevens
b. Army-McCarthy hearings
2. In December 1954, he was condemned for “conduct
unbecoming a senator”
Eisenhower, Dulles, and the Cold War
Dulles and "Massive Retaliation"
· Eisenhower’s secretary of state, and the dominant figure in the
nation’s foreign policy in the 1950s, was John Foster Dulles
· He entered office denouncing the containment policies of the Truman
years
1. Arguing that the United States should pursue an active
program of “liberation” which would lead to a “rollback” of
communism expansion
· “Massive Retaliation”
1. The United States would, he explained, respond to
communist threats to its allies not by using conventional forces
to local conflicts but by relying on “the deterrent of massive
retaliatory power” (nuclear weapons)
· By the end of the decade, the United States had become a party to
almost a dozen such treaties of mutual defense in NATO in all
areas of the world
France, America, and Vietnam
·
Cold War Crisis
·
Europe and the Soviet Union
· Although the problems of the Third World were moving slowly to the
center of American foreign policy, the direct relationship with the
Soviet Union and the effort to resist communist expansion in
Europe remained the principal concerns of the Eisenhower
administration
· In 1955, Eisenhower and other NATO leaders met with the Soviet
premier, Nikolai Bulganin, at a cordial summit conference in
Geneva
1. They could find no basis for agreement
· Relations between the Soviet Union and the West soured further in
1956 in response to the Hungarian Revolution
1. Hungarians were demanding democratic reforms
a. Soviets came in to crush the uprising
2. The suppression of the uprising convinced many
American leaders that Soviet policies had not softened as much
as the events of the previous two years had suggested
·The failure of conciliation brought renewed vigor to the Cold War and
greatly intensified the Soviet-American arms race
·The arms race not only increased tensions between the United States
and Russia
1. It increased tensions within each nation as well
The U-2 Crisis
·In this tense and fearful atmosphere, the Soviet Union raised new
challenges to the West in Berlin
·In November 1958, Nikita Khrushchev renewed his predecessors’
demands that NATO powers abandon the city
1. The United States and its allies refused
·Khrushchev suggested that he and Eisenhower discuss the issue
personally
1. The United States agreed
·Only days before Eisenhower was to leave for Moscow the Soviet
Union announced that it had shot down an American U-2, a spy
plane, over Russian territory
·By the spring of 1960, Khrushchev knew that no agreement was
possible on the Berlin issue
·The events of 1960 provided a somber backdrop for the end of the
Eisenhower administration
·He warned in his farewell address of 1961 of the “unwarranted
influence” of a vast “military-industrial complex”
1. His caution, in both domestic and international affairs,
stood in marked contrast to the attitudes of his successors, who
argued that the United States must act more boldly and
aggressively on behalf of its goals at home and abroad
Expanding the Liberal State
John Kennedy
·The campaign of 1960 produced two young candidates who claimed
to offer the nation active leadership.
·The Republican nomination went almost uncontested to Vice President
Richard Nixon, who promised moderate reform.
·John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the son of the wealthy powerful, and
highly controversial Joseph P. Kennedy, former American
ambassador to Britain.
·He premised his campaign, he said, “on the single assumption that
the American people are uneasy at the present drift in our
national course”.
·Kennedy had campaigned promising a set of domestic reforms more
ambitious than any since the New Deal, a program he described
as the “New Frontier”.
·Kennedy had traveled to Texas with his wife and Vice President Lyndon
Johnson for a series of=2 0political appearances.
·While the presidential motorcade rode slowly through the streets of
Dallas, shots rang out.
·He got shot in the throat and head, he was rushed to a hospital, where
minutes later he was pronounced dead.
·Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested for the crime later that day, and
then mysteriously murdered by a Dallas nightclub owner, Jack
Ruby, 2 days later as he was being moved from one jail to
another.
·In years later years many Americans came to believe that the Warren
Commission report had ignored evidence of a wider conspiracy
behind the murders.
Lyndon Johnson
·The Kennedy assassination was a national trauma-a defining event for
almost everyone old enough to be aware of it.
·Johnson was a native of the poor “hill country” of west Texas and had
risen to become majority leader of the U.S. Senate by dint of
extraordinary, even obsessive, effort and ambition.
·Between 1963 and 1966, he compiled the most impressive legislative
record of any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
·He created the “Great Society”.
·Record Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, any of
whose members had been swept into office=2 0only because of
the margin of Johnson’s victory, ensured that the president would
be able to fulfill many of his goals.
The Assault on Poverty
·The most important welfare program was Medicare: a program to
provide federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses.
·Its enactment in 1965 came at the end of a bitter, 20 year debate
between those who believed in the concept of national health
assistance and those who denounced it as “socialized medicine”.
·Medicare benefits available to all elderly Americans, regardless of
need.
·Medicare simply shifted responsibility for paying those fees from the
patient to the government.
·The centerpiece of this “war on poverty”, as Johnson called it, was the
Office of economic Opportunity, which created an array of new
educational, employment, housing, and health-care programs.
·The Community Action programs provided jobs for many poor people
and gave them valuable experience in administrative and
political work.
·The OEO spent nearly $3 billion during its first two years of existence,
and it helped reduce poverty in some areas.
Cities, Schools, and Immigration
·The Housing Act of 1961 offered $4.9 billion in federal grants to cities
for the preservation of open spaces, the development of mass
transit systems, and the subsidization of middle income housing.
·In 1966, Johnson established a new cabinet agency, the Department
of Housing and Urban Development.
·Johnson also inaugurated the Model Cites program, which offered
federal subsidies for urban redevelopment pilot programs.
·Johnson managed to circumvent both objections with the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and a series of subsequent
measures.
·Total federal expenditures for education and technical training rose
from $5 billion to $12 billion between 1964 and 1967.
·The Immigration Act of 1965 maintained a strict limit on the number
of newcomers admitted to the country each year (170,000), but
it eliminated the “national origins” system established in the
1920s, which gave preference to immigrants from northern
Europe over those from other parts of the world.
Legacies of the Great Society
·In 1964, Johnson managed to win passage of the $11.5 bill ion tax cut
that Kennedy had first proposed in 1962.
·The cut increased the federal deficit, but substantial economic growth
over the next several years made up for much of the revenue
initially lost.
·The high costs of the Great Society programs, the deficiencies and
failures of many of them, and the inability of the government to
find the revenues to pay for them contributed to a growing
disillusionment in later years with the idea of federal efforts to
solve social problems.
The Battle for the Racial Equality
Expanding Protests
·John Kennedy had long been vaguely sympathetic to the cause of
racial justice, but he was hardly a committed crusader.
·In February 1960, black college students in Greensboro, North
Carolina, staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch
counter, and in the following weeks, similar demonstrations
spread throughout the South, forcing many merchants to
integrate their facilities.
·The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, worked to keep the
spirit of resistance alive.
·In 1961, an interracial group of students, working with the Congress of
Racial Equality, began what t hey called “freedom rides”.
·Traveling by bus throughout the South, the freedom riders tried to
force the desegregation of bus stations.
·SNCC workers began fanning out through black communities and even
into remote rural areas to encourage blacks to challenge the
obstacles to voting that the Jim Crow laws had created and that
powerful social custom sustained.
·In April, Martin Luther King, Jr., helped launch a series of nonviolent
demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, a city unsurpassed in
the strength of its commitment to segregation.
·Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi.
A National Commitment
·To generate support for the legislation, and to dramatize the power of
the growing movement, ore than 200,000 demonstrators
marched down the Mall in Washington, D.C., in August 1963 and
gathered before the Lincoln Memorial for the greatest civil rights
demonstration in the nation’s history.
·Early in 1964, after Johnson applied both public and private pressure,
supporters of the measure finally mustered the two-thirds
majority necessary to close debate and end a filibuster by
southern senators; and the Senate passed the most
comprehensive civil rights bill in the nation’s history.
The Battle for Voting Rights
·During the summer of 1964, thousands of civil rights workers, black
and white, northern and southern, spread out through the South,
but primarily in Mississippi.
·The campaign was known as “freedom summer”, and it produced a
violent response from some southern whites.
·The “freedom summer” also produced the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party, and integrated alternative to the regular state
party organization.
·It permitted the MFDP to be seated as observers, with promises of
party reforms later on, while the regular party retained its official
standing.
·A year later, in March 1965, King helped organize a major
demonstration in Selma, Alabama to press the demand for the
right of blacks to register to vote.
·Two northern whites participating in the Selma march were murdered
in the course of the effort there- one, a minister, beaten to death
in the streets of the town; the other, a Detroit housewife, shot as
she drove along a highway at night with a black passenger in her
car.
·The Civil Rights Act of 1965, better known as the Voting Rights Act,
which provided federal protection to blacks attempting to
exercise their right to vote.
The Changing Movement
·By 1966, 69 percent of American blacks were living in metropolitan
areas and 45 percent outside the South.
·Well over half of all American non-whites lived in poverty at the
beginning of the 1960s; black unemployment was twice that of
whites.
·Over the next decade, affirmative action guidelines gradually
extended to virtually all institutions doing business with or
receiving funds from the federal government- and to many
others as well.
·Organizers of the Chicago campaign hoped to direct national attention
to housing and employment discrimination in northern industrial
cities in much the same way similar campaigns had exposed
legal racism in the South.
Urban Violence
·Well before the Chicago campaign, the problem of urban poverty had
thrust itself into national attention when violence broke out in
black neighborhoods in major cities.
·The first large race riot since the end of World War II occurred the
following summer in the Watts section of Los Angeles.
·The incident triggered a storm of anger and a week of violence.
·34 people died during the Watts uprising, which was eventually
quelled by the National Guard; 28 of the dead were black.
·Televised reports of the violence alarmed millions of Americans and
created both a new sense of urgency and a growing sense of
doubt among many of those whites who had embraced the cause
of racial justice only a few years before.
·A special Commission on Civil Disorders, created by the president in
response to the disturbances, issued a celebrated report in the
spring of 1968 recommending massive spending to eliminate the
abysmal conditions of the ghettoes.
Black Power
·Disillusioned with the ideal of peaceful change in cooperation with
whites, an increasing number of African Americans were turning
to a new approach to the racial issue: the philosophy of “black
power”.
·The most enduring impact of the black-power ideology was a social
and psychological one: instilling racial pride in African Americans,
who lived in a society whose dominant culture generally
portrayed blacks as inferior to whites.
·It encouraged the growth of black studies in schools and universities.
·Traditional black organizations that had emphasized cooperation=2
0with sympathetic whites- groups such as the NAACP, the Urban
League, and King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conferencenow
faced competition from more radical groups.
·In Oakland, California the Black Panther Party promised to defend
black rights even if that required violence.
Malcolm X
·In Detroit, a once-obscure black nationalist group, the Nation of Islam,
gained new prominence.
·Founded in 1931 by Wali Farad and Elijah Poole, the movement taught
blacks to take responsibility for their own lives, to be disciplined,
to live by strict codes of behavior, and to reject any dependence
on whites.
·Malcolm became one of the movement’s most influential spokesmen,
particularly among younger blacks, as a result of his intelligence,
his oratorical skills, and his harsh, uncompromising opposition to
all forms of racism and oppression.
·He did not advocate violence, but he insisted that black people had
the right to defend themselves, violently if necessary from those
who assaulted them.
·Malcolm died in 1965 when black gunmen, presumably under orders
from rivals within the Nation of Islam, assassinated him in New
York.
"Flexible Response and the Cold War"
Diversifying Foreign Policy
· The Kennedy administration entered office convinced that the United
States needed to be able to counter communist aggression in
more flexible ways than the atomic weapons-oriented defense
strategy of the Eisenhower years permitted.
· Kennedy was unsatisfied with the nation’s ability to meet communist
threats in “emerging areas” of the Third World- the areas in
which, Kennedy believed, the real struggle against communism
would be waged in the future.
· Kennedy also inaugurated the Agency for International Development
to coordinate foreign aid.
· The Peace Corps, sent young American volunteers abroad to work in
developing areas.
· On April 17, 1961, with the approval of the new president, 2,000 of
the armed exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, expecting
first American air support and then a spontaneous uprising by
the Cuban people on their behalf.
Confrontations with the Soviet Union
· In the grim aft ermath of the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy traveled to Vienna
in June 1961 for his first meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev.
· Before dawn on August 13, 1961, the East German government,
complying with directives from Moscow, constructed a wall
between East and West Berlin.
· For nearly 30 years the Berlin Wall served as the most potent physical
symbol of the conflict between the communist and
noncommunist worlds.
· On October 14, aerial reconnaissance photos produced clear evidence
that the Soviets were constructing sites on the island for
offensive nuclear weapons.
· On October 22, he ordered a naval and air blockade around Cuba, a
“quarantine” against all offensive weapons.
Johnson and the World
· Lyndon Johnson entered the presidency lacking even John Kennedy’s
limited prior experience with international affairs.
· A 1961 assassination had toppled the repressive dictatorship of
General Rafael Trujillo, and for the next four years various
fascinations in the country had struggled for dominance.
· In the spring of 1965, a conservative military regime began to
collapse in the face of a revolt by a broad range of groups on
behalf of the left-wing nationalist Juan Bosch.
· Only after a conservative candidate defeated Bosch in a 1966 election
were the forces withdrawn.
The Agony of Vietnam
The First Indochina War
· Vietnam had a long history both as an independent kingdom and
major power in its region, and as a subjugated province of China;
its people were both proud of their past glory and painfully aware
of their many years of subjugation.
· In the mi-19th century, Vietnam became a colony of France.
· The French wanted to reassert their control over Vietnam.
· In the fall of 1945, after the collapse of Japan and before the western
powers had time to return, the Vietminh declared Vietnam an
independent nation and set up a nationalist government under
Ho Chi Mihn in Hanoi.
· For the next 4 years, during what has become known as the First
Indochina War, Truman and then Eisenhower continued to
support the French military campaign against the Vietminh; by
1954, by some calculations, the United States was paying 80
percent of France’s war costs.
Geneva and the Two Vietnams
· An international conference at Geneva, planned many months before
to settle the Korean dispute and other controversies, now took up
the fate of Vietnam as well.
· Secretary of State Dulles, who reluctantly attended but left early; the
United States was not a party to the accords.
· Vietnam would be temporarily portioned along the 17th parallel, with
the Vietminh in control of North Vietnam, and a pro-western
regime in control of the South.
America and Diem
· The U.S almost immediately stepped into the vacuum and became the
principal benefactor of the new government in the South, led by
NGO Dihn Diem.
· The Buddhist crisis was alarming and embarrassing to the Kennedy
Administration.
From Aid to Intervention
· Lyndon Johnson thus inherited what was already a substantial
American commitment to the survival of an anticommunist South
Vietnam.
· Intervention in South Vietnam was fully consistent with nearly 20
years of American foreign policy.
· In August 1964, the president announced that American destroyers on
patrol in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin had been
attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats.
The Quagmire
· There was a continuous stream of optimistic reports from American
military commanders, government officials, and others.
· The “attrition” was a strategy premised on the belief that the Unites
States could inflict so many causalities and so much damage on
the enemy that eventually they would be unable and unwilling to
continue the struggle.
· By the end of 1967, virtually every identifiable target of any strategic
importance in North Vietnam had been destroyed.
· Another crucial part of the American strategy was the “pacification”
program, which was intended to push the Viet Cong from
particular regions and then pacify those regions by winning the
“hearts and minds” of the people.
The War at Home
· A series of “teach-ins” on university campuses, beginning at the
University of Michigan in 196 sparked a national debate over the
war before such debate developed inside the government itself.
· Opposition to the war had become a central issue in left-wing politics
and in the culture of colleges and universities.
The Traumas of 1968
The Tet Offensive
· On January 31, 1968, the 1st day of the Vietnamese New Year (TET),
communist forces launched an enormous, concerted attack on
American strongholds throughout South Vietnam.
The Political Challenge
· On March 31, Johnson went on television to announce a limited halt in
the bombing of North Vietnam.
The King and Kennedy Assassinations
· On April 4, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while standing on
the balcony of his motel.
· In the days after the assassination, major riots broke out in more than
60 American cities.
· Rober t Kennedy shaped what some would later call the “Kennedy
Legacy”, a set of ideas that would for a time become central to
American liberalism.
· The passions Kennedy had aroused made his violent death a
particularly shattering experience for many Americans.
The Conservation Response
· George Wallace established himself in 1963 as one of the nation's
leading spokesmen for the defense of segregation.
· As a governor of Alabama, he attempted to block the admission of
black students to the University of Alabama.
· In 1964, he has run a few Democratic presidential primaries and
although had done surprisingly well, standing in the polls with
20%, he had no serious chance of winning the election.
Politics and Diplomacy After Watergate
The Ford Custodianship
·Gerald Ford had to try to rebuild confidence in government in the face of the widespread
cynicism the Watergate scandals had produced.
·He had to try to restore prosperity in the face of major domestic and international
challenges to the American economy.
·Ford explained that he was attempting to spare the nation the ordeal of years of litigation
and to spare Nixon himself any further suffering.
·The Ford administration enjoyed less success in its effort to solve the problems of the
American economy.
·In the aftermath of the Arab oil embargo of 1973, the OPEC cartel began to raise thr
price of oil-by 400 percent in 1974 alone.
·Ford retained Henry Kissinger as secretary of state and continued the general policies of
the Nixon years.
·Late in 1974, Ford met with Leonid Brezhnev at Vladivostok in Siberia and signed an
arms control accord that was to serve as the basis for SALT II, thus achieving a
goal the Nixon administration had long sought.
In the republican primary campaign Ford faced a powerful challenge from former
California governor Ronald Reagan, leader of the party’s conservative wing, who
spoke for many on the right who were unhappy with any conciliation of
communists.
The Trials of Jimmy Carter
·Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency at a moment when the nation faced problems of
staggering complexity and difficulty.
·He left office in 1981 one of the least popular presidents of the country.
·He surrounded himself in the White House with group of close-knit associates from
Georgia; and in the beginning, at least, he seemed deliberately to spurn assistance
from more experienced political figures.
·He moved first to reduce unemployment by raising public spending and cutting federal
taxes.
He appointed G. William Miller and then Paul Volcker, both conservative economists, to
head the Federal Reserve Board, thus ensuring a policy of high interest rates and
reduced currency supplies.
Human Rights and National Interests
·Among Jimmy Carter’s most frequent campaign promises was a pledge to build a new
basis for American foreign policy, one in which the defense of “human rights”
would replace the pursuit of “selfish interest.
·Domestic opposition to the treaties was intense, especially among conservatives who
viewed the new arrangements as part of a general American retreat from
international power.
·Middle East negotiations had seemed hopelessly stalled when a dramatic breakthrough
occurred in Nove mber 1977.
·In Tel Aviv, he announced that Egypt was now willing to accept the state of Israel as a
legitimate political entity.
·On September 17, Carter escorted the two leaders into the White House to announce
agreement on a “framework” for an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
·On December 15, 1978, Washington and Beijing announced the resumption of formal
diplomatic relations between the two nations.
·The treaty set limits on the number of long-range missiles, bombers, and nuclear
warheads on each side.
By the fall of 1979, with the Senate scheduled to begin debate over the treaty shortly,
ratification was already in jeopardy.
The Year of the Hostages
·By 1979, the Shah of Iran, hoping to make his nation a bulwark against Soviet
expansion in the Middle East.
·In January 1979, the Shah fled the country.
·By late 1979, revolutionary chaos in Iran was making any normal relations impossible.
·In late October 1979, the deposed Shah arrived in New York to be treated for cancer.
Days later, on November 4, an armed mob invaded the American embassy in
Teheran, seized the diplomats and military personnel inside, and demanded the
return of the Shah to Iran in exchange for their freedom.
·53 Americans remained hostages in the embassy for over a year.
·Only weeks after the hostage seizure, on December 27, 1979, Soviet troops invaded
Afghanistan, the mountaino us Islamic nation lying between the USSR and Iran.
·The combination of domestic economic troubles and international crises created
widespread anxiety, frustration, and anger in the United States-damaging
President Carter already low stranding with the public, and giving added strength
to an alternative political force that had already made great strides.
The Rise of the New American Right
The Sunbelt and Its Politics
·The most widely discusses demographic phenomenon of the 1970s was the rise of what
became known as the “Sunbelt”- a term coined by the political analyst Kevin
Phillips to describe a collection of regions that emerged together in the postwar
era to become the most dynamically growing parts of the country.
·By 1980, the population of the Sunbelt had risen to exceed that of the older industrial
regions of the North and the East.
·White southerners equated the federal government’s effort to change racial norms in the
region with what they believed was tyranny of Reconstruction.
·In the 1970s and early 1980s, the boom mentality of some of these rapidly growing
areas conflicted sharply with the concerns of the older industrial states of the
Northeast and Midwest.
·The so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, which emerged in parts of the West in the late
1970s, mobilized conservative opposition to environmental laws and restrictions
on development.
Suburbanization also fueled the rise of the right.
Religious Revivalism
·In the 1960s, may critics had predicted the virtual extinction of religious influence in
American life.
·By early 1980s, it was no longer possible to ignore them.
·More than 70 million Americans now described themselves as “born-again” Christiansmen
and women who had established a “direct personal relationship with Jesus”.
·For Jimmy Carter and for some others, evangelical Christianity had formed the basis for
a commitment to racial and economic justice and to world peace.
The Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and other organizations of similar
inclination opposed federal interference in local affairs; denounced abortion,
divorce, enterprise; and supported a strong American posture in the world.
The Emergnece of the New Right
·Evangelical Christians were an important part, but only a part, of what became known
as the new right- a diverse but powerful movement that enjoyed rapid growth in
the 1970s and early 1980s.
·Conservative campaigns had for many years been less well funded and organized than
those of their rivals.
·By the late 1970s, there were right-wing think tanks, consulting forms, lobbyists,
foundations, and scholarly centers.
·In the early 1950s Roosevelt became a corporate spokesman for General Electric and
won a wide following on the right with his smooth, eloquent speeches in defense
of individual freedom and private enterprise.
In 1966, with the support of a group of a group of wealthy conservatives, he won the first
of two terms as governor of California-which gave him a much more visible
platform for promoting himself and his ideas. [Ronald Reagan]
The Tax Revolt
·At least equally important to the success of the new right was a new and potent
conservative issue: the tax revolt.
·The biggest and most expensive programs-Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and
others-had the broadest support.
In Proposition 13 and similar initiatives, members of the right found a better way to
discredit government than by attacking specific programs: attacking taxes.
The Campaign of 1980
·Jimmy Carter's standing in popularity polls were lower than that of any
president.
·On election day 1980, Reagan(R) won 51% of the vote to 41% for
Jimmy Carter(D) and 7% for John Anderson(I)
1. Electoral botes: Reagan 489, Carter 49.
·The Republican Party won control of the Senate for the first time since
1952.
The "Reagan Revolution"
The Reagan Coalition
·Reagan owed his election to widespread disillusionment with Carter and to the crises
and disappointments that many voters, perhaps unfairly, associated with him.
·The Reagan coalition included a relatively small but highly influential group of wealthy
Americans associated with the corporate and financial world-the kind of people
who had dominated American politics and government through much of the
nations history until the New Deal began to challenge their preeminence.
·A second element of the Reagan coalition was even smaller, but also disproportionately
influential: a group of intellectuals commonly known as “neo-conservatives,” who
gave to the right something it had not had in may years-a firm base among
“opinion leaders”, people with access to the most influential public forums for
ideas.
Neo-conservatives were sympathetic to the complaints and demands of capitalists, but
their principal concern was to reassert legitimate authority and reaffirm Western
democratic, anticommunists values and commitments.
Reagan in the White House
·Reagan was the master of television, a gifted public speaker, and -in public at leastrugged,
fearless, and seemingly impervious to danger or misfortune.
·He spent his many vacations on a California ranch, where he chopped wood and rode
horses.
At times, the president revealed a startling ignorance about the nature of his own policies
or the actions of his subordinates.
"Supply-Side" Economics
·Reagan’s 1980 campaign for the presidency had promised, among other things, to
restore the economy to health by a bold experiment that became known as
“supply-side” economics or, to some, “Reaganomics”.
·In its first months in office, accordingly , the new administration hastily assembled a
legislative program based on the supply-side idea.
·The recession convinced many people, including some conservatives, that the Reagan
economic program failed.
·The gross national product had grown 3.6 percent in a year, the largest increase since the
-1970s.
·The economy continued to grow, a nd both inflation and unemployment remained low
through most of the decade.
A worldwide “energy glut” and the virtual collapse of the OPEC cartel had produced at
least a temporary end to the inflationary pressures of spiraling fuel costs.
The Fiscal Crisis
·By the mid-1980s, this growing fiscal crisis had become one of the central issues in
American politics.
·Throughout the 1980s, the annual budget deficit consistently exceeded $100 billion.
·The 1981 tax cuts, the largest in American history, contributed to the deficit.
·There were reductions in funding for food stamps; a major cut in federal subsidies for
low-income housing; strict new limitations on Medicare and Medicaid payments;
reductions in student loans, school lunches, and other educational programs; and
an end to many forms of federal assistance to the states and cities-which helped
precipitate years of local fiscal crises as well.
By the late 1980s, may fiscal conservatives were calling for a constitutional amendment
mandating a balanced budget-a provision the president himself claimed to
support.
Reagan and the World
·Determined to restore American pride and prestige in the world, he argued that the
United States should once again become active and assertive in opposing
communism and in supporting friendly governments whatever their internal
policies.
·The president spoke harshly of Soviet regime accusing it of sponsori ng world terrorism
and declaring that any armaments negotiations must be linked to negotiations on
Soviet behavior in other areas.
·Although the president had long denounced the SALT II arms control treaty as
unfavorable to the United States, he continued to honor it provisions.
·The Soviet Union claimed that the new program would elevate the arms race to new and
more dangerous levels and insisted that any arms control agreement begin with an
American abandonment of SDI.
·The New Policy became known as the Reagan Doctrine, and it meant, above all, a new
American activism came in Latin America.
The Reagan administration spoke bravely about its resolve to punish terrorism; and at one
point in 1986, the president ordered American planes to bomb site in Tripoli, the
capital of Libya, whose controversial leader was widely believed to be a leading
sponsor of terrorism.
The Election of 1984
·Reagan was victorious in the election winning 59% of the vote,
carrying every state but Mondale's native Minnesota and the
District of Columbia.
·The election of 1984 was the first campaign of the Cold War.
America and the Waning of the Cold War
The Fall of the Soviet Union
·The first he called glasnost (openness): the dismantling many of the repressive
mechanisms that had been conspicuous features of Soviet life for over half a
century.
·The Communists Parties of Eastern Europe collapsed or redefined themselves into more
conventional left-leaning social democratic parties.
Among other things, it legalized the chief black party in the nation, the African National
Congress, which had been banned for dec ades; and on February 11, 1990, it
released from prison the leader of the ANC, and a revered hero too black south
Africans, Nelson Mandela, who had been in jail for 27 years.
Reagan and Gorbachev
·At a summit meeting with Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986, Gorbachev proposed
reducing the nuclear arsenals of both sides by 50 percent or more, although
continuing disputes over Reagan’s commitment to the SDI program prevented
agreements.
The Fading of the Reagan Revolution
·There were revelations of illegality, corruption, and ethical lapses in the Environmental
Protection Agency, the CIA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Labor,
the Department of Justice, and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development.
The most politically damaging scandal of the Reagan years came to light in November
1986, when the White House conceded that it had sold weapons to the
revolutionary government of Iran as part of a largely unsuccessful effort to secure
the release of several Americans being held hostage by radical Islamic groups in
the Middle East.
The Election of 1988
·The Bush campaign was almost the most negative of the 20th
century, with Bush attacking Dukakis by tying him to all the
unpopular social and cultural stances Americans had come to
identify with "liberals."
·It was also one of the most effective, although the listless, indecisive
character of the Dukakis effort contributed to the Republican
cause as well.
·Bush won the election with 54% of the popular vote to Dukakis' 46%,
and 426 electoral votes to Dukakis' 112.
The Bush Presidency
·The Bush presidency was notable for the dramatic developments in international affairs
with which it coincided and at times helped to advance, and for the absence of
important initiatives or ideas on domestic issues.
·The broad popularity Bush enjoyed during his first three years in office was partly a res
ult of his subdued, unthreading public image.
·On domestic issues, the Bush administration was less successful-partly because the
president himself seemed to have little interest in promoting a domestic agenda
and partly because he faced serious obstacles.
In 1990, the president bowed to congressional pressure and agreed to a significant tax
increase as part of a multiyear “budget package” designed to reduce the deficit.
The Gulf War
·The events of 1989-1991 ad left the United States in the unanticipated position of being
the only real superpower in the world.
·The United States would reduce its military strength dramatically and concentrate its
energies and resources on pressing domestic problems.
·America would continue to use its power actively, not to fight communism but to defend
its regional and economic interests.
·In 1989, that led the administration to order an invasion of Panama.
·On August 2, 1990, the armed forces of Iraq invaded and quickly overwhelmed their
small, oil-rich neighbor, the emirate of Kuwait.
On February 28 Iraq announced its acceptance of allied terms for a cease-fire, and the
brief Persian Gulf War came to an end.
A Resurgence of Partisanship
Launching the Clinton Presidency
·The new administration compounded its problems with a series of missteps and
misfortunes in its first months.
·A long time friend of the president, Vince Foster, serving in the office of the White
House counsel, committed suicide in the summer of 1993.
·Despite its many problems the Clinton administration could boast of some significant
achievements in its first year.
·Clinton was a committed advocate of free trade and a proponent of many aspects of
what came to be known as globalism.
·He won approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which
eliminated most trade barriers among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
·Early in 1993, he appointed his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, which proposed a
sweeping reform designed to guarantee coverage to every American and hold
down the costs of medical care.
·The foreign policy of the Clinton administration was at first cautious and even tentativea
reflection, perhaps, of the president’s relative inexperience in international
affairs, but also of the rapidly changing character of international politics.
The United States was among the nations to send peaceke eping troops to Bosnia to
police the fragile settlement, which-despite many pessimistic predictions-was still
largely in place 7 years later, although terrible new conflicts soon emerged in
other areas of the Balkans.
The Republican Resurgence
·For the first time in 40 years, Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress.
·Newt Gingrich of Georgia, released a set of campaign promises signed by almost all
Republican candidates for he House and called it the “Contract with America”.
·It called for tax reductions, dramatic changes in federal spending to produce a balanced
budget, and a host of other promises consistent with the long-time goals of the
Republican Party’s conservative wing.
·The Republican Congress proposed a series of measures to transfer important powers
from the federal government to the states.
Medicare program to reduce costs.
·In November 1995 and again in January 1996, the federal government literally shut
down for several days because the president and Congress could not agree on a
budget.
The Election of 1996
·The United States presidential election of 1916 took place while Europe was embroiled
in World War I.
· Public sentiment in the still neutral United States leaned towards the British and French
(allied) forces, due to the harsh treatment of civilians by the German Army, which
had invaded and occupied large parts of Belgium and northern France.
· Despite their sympathy with the allied forces most American voters wanted to avoid
involvement in the war, and preferred to continue a policy of neutrality.
Clinton Triumpant and Embattled
·He proposed a relatively modest domestic agenda, consisting primarily of tax cuts and
tax credits targeted at middle-class Americans and designed to help them educate
their children.
·In early 1998, inquiries associated with the Paula Jones case led to charges that the
president had had a sexua l relationship with a young White House intern, Monica
Lewinsky; that he had lied about it in his deposition before Jones’s attorneys; and
that he had encouraged her to do the same.
·Clinton admitted that he had an “improper relationship” with Monica.
The president seemed to have escaped his difficulties as a result of strong popular
support.
Impeachment, Acquittal, and Resurgence
·House leaders resisted all calls for dismissal of the charges or compromise.
·First the House Judiciary Committee and then, on December 19, 1998, the full House,
both voting on strictly partisan lines, approved 2 counts of impeachment: lying to
the grand jury and obstructing justice.
·Expanding role of scandal in American politics driven by an increasingly sensationalist
media culture, the legal device of independent counsels, and the intensely
adversarial quality of partisan politics.
·Numerous reports of Serbian atrocities against the Kosovans, and an enormous refugee
crisis spurred by Yugoslavian military action in the province, slowly roused world
opinion.
The Two-Tiered Economy
·The increasing attendance created enormous new wealth that enriched those talented, or
luck, enough to profit from the areas of booming growth.
·Between 1980 and the mid-1990s, the average family incomes of he wealthiest 20
percent of the population grew by nearly 20 percent.
·Poverty in America had declined steadily and at times dramatically in the years after
World War II, so that by the end of the 1970s the percentage of people living in
poverty had fallen 12 percent.
Globalization
·The most important economic change, and certainly the one whose impact was the most
difficult to gauge, was what became known as the “globalization” of the economy.
·As late as 1970, international trade still played a relatively small role in the American
economy as a whole, which thrived on the basis of the huge domestic market in
North America.
·Imports rose.
·The North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Trade and
Tariffs, were the boldest of a long series of treaties designed to lower trade
barriers stretching back to the 1960s.
Science and Technology in the New Economy
The Personal Computer
·The most visible element of the technological revolution to most Americans was the
dramatic growth in the use of computers in almost every area of life.
·The development of the microprocessor, first introduced in 1971 by Intel, which
represented a notable advance in the technology of integrated circuitry.
·Apple launched its Apple II personal computer, the first such machine to be widely
available to the public.
·3 years later, Apple introduced its Macintosh computer technology, among other things.
·Computerized word processing replaced typewriters and spreadsheets revolutionized
bookkeeping.
·The computer revolution created thousands of new, lucrative businesses: computer
manufacturers themselves (IBM, Apple, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Sun, Digital,
and many others).
The Internet
·The Internet is, a vast, geographically far-flung network of computers that allows people
connected to the network to communicate with others all over the world.
·In 1989, a laboratory in Geneva introduced the World Wide Web, through which
individual users could publish information for the Internet, which helped establish
an orderly system for both the distribution and retrieval of electronic information.
·Newspapers, magazines, and other publications have begun to publish on the Internet.
Breakthroughs in Genetics
·The Human Genome Project set out to identify all of the more than 100,000 genes by
2005.
Anti-Abortion advocates20denounced the research, claiming that it exploited unborn
children.
A Changing Society
The Graying of America
·The declining birth rate and a significant rise in life expectancy produced a substantial
increase in proportion of elderly citizens.
·Increasing costliness of Social Security pensions.
New Patterns of Immigration and Ethnicity
·The nation’s immigration quotas expanded significantly in those years, allowing more
newcomers to enter the United States legally than at any point since the beginning
of the 20h century.
·In 1965, 90 percent of the immigrants to the united States came from Europe.
·Mexico alone accounted for over one-fourth of all the immigrants living in the United
States in 2000.
·In the 1980s and 1990s, Asian immigrants arrived in even greater numbers than Latinos,
constituting more than 40 percent of the total of legal newcomers.
·Many of the new Asian immigrants were refugees, including Vietnamese driven from
their homes in the aftermath of the diatoms war in which the United States had so
long been involved.
The Black Middle Class
·There were increased opportunities for advancement available to those in a position to
take advantage of them.
·As the industrial economy declined and government services dwindled, there was a
growing sense of helplessness and despair among the large groups of nonwhites
who continued to find themselves barred from=2 0upward mobility.
·The percentage of black high-school graduates going on to college was virtually the
same as that of white high0school graduates by the end of the 20th century.
·There were few areas of American life from which blacks were any longer entirely
excluded.
Poor and Working-Class African Americans
·The “underclass” made up as much as a third of the nation’s black population.
·The black family structure suffered as well from the dislocations of urban poverty.
·There was an increase in the number of single-parent, female-headed black households.
·A bystander videotaped several Los Angeles police officers beating a helpless black
man, Rodney King.
·Black residents of South Central Los Angeles erupted in anger.
Modern Plagues: Drugs and AIDS
·The new immigrants arrived in cities with a dramatic increase in drug use, which
penetrated nearly every community in the nation.
·AIDS is the product of the HIV virus, which is transmitted by the exchange of bodily
fluids (blood or semen).
·The first American victims of AIDS, group among whom cases remained the most
numerous were homosexual men.
·In 2000, U.S. government agencies estimated that about 780,000 Americans were
infected with the HIV virus and that another 427,000 had already died from the
disease.
The Decline in Crime
·There was a dramatic reduction in crime=2 0rates across most of the United States.
·New incarceration policies-longer, tougher sentences and fewer paroles and early
releases for violent criminals-led to a radical. Increase in the prison population
and a reduction in the number of criminals at liberty to commit crimes.
A Contested Culture
·Battles over Feminism and Abortion
·Leaders of the New Right had campaigned successfully against the proposed Equal
Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
·The played a central role over the controversy over abortion rights.
·The opposition of some other anti-abortion activists had less to do with religion than
with their commitment to traditional notions of family and gender relations.
·The Reagan and Bush administrations imposed further restrictions on federal funding
and even on the right of doctors in federally funded clinics to give patients any
information on abortion.
The Changing Left and the Growth of Environmentalism
·The environmental movement continued to expand in the last decades of the 20th
century.
·They blocked the construction of roads, airports, and other projects that they claimed
would be ecologically dangerous, taking advantage of new legislations protecting
endangered species and environmentally fragile regions.
The Fragmentation of Mass Culture
·The institutions of the media, news, entertainment grew more powerful.
·Fast food chains became the most widely known restaurants in America.=0 A
·Viewers could now rent or buy videotapes.
The Perils of Globalization
Opposing the "New World Order"
·Environmentalists argued that globalization, in exporting industry to low-wage
countries, also exported industrial pollution and toxic waste into nations that had
no effective laws to control them.
·In November 1999, when the leaders of the 7 nations gathered for their meeting many of
them clashed with police.
Defending Orthodoxy
·The Iranian Revolution of 1979, in which orthodox Muslims ousted a despotic
government whose leaders had embraced many aspects of modern western
culture, was one of the first large and visible manifestations of a phenomenon that
would eventually reach across much of the Islamic world and threaten the stability
of the globe.
The Rise of Terrorism
·The U.S has experienced terrorism for many years.
·Due to the events on September 11, 2001, new security measures began to change the
way Americans traveled.
·A puzzling and frightening epidemic of anthrax began in the weeks after 9/11.
·The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, government intelligence
indicated, had been planned and orchestrated by Middle Eastern agents of a
powerful terrorist network known as Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden.
·In his State of the Union address to Congress in January 2002, Bush spoke of an “axis of
evil”.
The New Era
·In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, may Americans came to believe that
they had entered a new era in their history.
The reaction to the catastrophe exposed a side of American life and culture that had
always existed but that had not always been visible.
Here you will find AP US History notes for the American History: A Survey, 13th Edition notes. These American History: A Survey outlines will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
Additional Information:
1)The Early Chesapeake
a)The Founding of Jamestown
i)Charter granted to London Company in 1604 by King James I, Godspeed, Discovery, and Susan Constant left England and landed in Jamestown, VA in 1607
ii)Colony mostly al men, inadequate diets contributed to disease, by 1608 colony had almost failed (poor leadership, location, disease, food) except Capt. John Smith saved it by imposing work and order and organizing raids against Indians
b)Reorganization
i)London Company became Virginia Company 1609, gained expanded charter, sold stock, wish to grew VA colony with land grants to planters
ii)Winter of 1609-1610= starving time
iii)First governor Lord De La Warr arrived 1609, established harsh discipline w/ work gangs
iv)Communal system didn’t work well, Governor Dale thought better off with personal incentive to work and private ownership
c)Tobacco
i)1612 VA planter John Rolfe began to grow tobacco, cultivation spread, created a tobacco economy that was profitable, uncertain, and high labor and land demands, created need for territorial expansion
d)Expansion
i)Tobacco still not enough to make profits, 1618 campaign to attract settlers
ii)Headright system- land grants to new settles, encouraged family groups to migrate together, rewarded those who paid for passages of others
iii)Company brought women and skilled workers, allowed for a share in self-govt (VA House of Burgesses met July 30, 1619)
iv)1919 saw arrival of first Negro slaves on Dutch ship, but palnters continued to favor indentured servants until at least 1670s b/c cheaper and more abundant
v)Colony grew b/c Indians suppressed, Sir Thomas Dale led assaults, huge uprising staged by Powhatans in 1622 but eventually put down, again 1644
vi)By 1624 Virginia Company defunct, lost all funds, charter revoked by James I and colony put under control of crown
e)Exchanges of Agricultural Tech
i)Survival of Jamestown result of agricultural tech developed by Indians and borrowed by English, such as value of corn w/ its high yields, beans alongside corn to enrich soil
f)Maryland and the Calverts
i)Dream of George Calvert (first Lord Baltimore) as speculative venture + retreat for English Cath. oppressed by Anglican church, 1632 son Cecilius (second Lord Balt) got charter from king, made complete sovereigns of new land
ii)1634 Lord Balt named brother Leonard Calvert governor, settlers arrived in Maryland
iii)Calverts invested heavily, needed many settlers to make profit, encouraged Prot. as well as Catholics (Cath became minority), “Act Concerning Religion” granted toleration; yet politics in MD plagued by tension btwn Catholic minority and Prot. majority, civil war 1655
iv)Proprietor was absolute monarch, Lord Balt. granted land to relatives and other English aristocrats, labor shortages required headright system
g)Turbulent Virginia
i)Mid 17th century VA colony had larger pop, complexity and profitability of economy, debates over how to deal with Indians
ii)Sir William Berkeley apptd governor by King Charles I 1642, put down 1644 Indian uprising and agreed to not cross settlement line. Impossible to protect Indian territory b/c of growth of VA after Cromwell’s victory in English Civil War and flight of opponents to colony
(1)Choice lands along river occupied, new arrivals pressed westward
iii)At first vote extended to all, later only to landowners and elections rare, led to recent settlers in “back country” to be underrepresented
h)Bacon’s Rebellion
i)Nathaniel Bacon and other members of backcountry gentry disagreed on policies toward natives, backcountry in constant danger from Indian attack b/c on land reserved to natives by treaty, believed east. aristocracy wanted to protect dominance by holding down white settlers in west
ii)Bacon on governors council, in 1675 led counter-attacks against Indians against governors orders, kicked off council, unauthorized assault on Indians became a military challenge to colonial govt
iii)Bacon’s army marched on Jamestown twice, died suddenly
iv)Rebellion showed unwillingness of settlers to abide by agreements with natives, also potential for instability in colony’s large population of free, landless men eager for land and against landed gentry—common interest in east and west aristocracy to prevent social unrest, led to African slave trade growing
2)The Growth of New England
a)Plymouth Plantation
i)1608 Pilgrims (Separatists from Ang. Chur) went to Holland to seek freedom, unhappy with children entering Dutch society
ii)Leaders obtained permission from VA Company to settle in VA, king would “not molest them”. William Bradford was their leader and historian
iii)Left 1620 aboard Mayflower with 35 “saints” (members of church) and 67 “strangers”, original destination Hudson River but ended up @ Cape Cod
iv)Land outside of London Company’s territory, therefore signed Mayflower Compact to establish a civil govt and give allegiance to king
v)Found cleared land from Indians killed by disease, natives provided assistance (Squanto), Indians weaker than Southern counterparts, 1622 Miles Standish imposed discipline on Pilgrims to grow corn, develop fur trade
vi)William Bradford elected governor, sought legal permission for colony from Council for New England, ended communal labor and distributed land privately, paid off colonies debt
b)The Massachusetts Bay Experiment
i)Puritans persecuted by James I, and afterward by Charles I who was trying to restore Catholicism to England. 1629 sought charter for land in Massachusetts, some members of Massachusetts Bay Company saw themselves as something more than a business venture, creating a haven for Puritans in N.E.
ii)Governor John Winthrop led seventeen ships in 1630, Boston became company headquarters and capital but many colonists moved into a number of other new towns in E. Mass.
iii)Mass. Bay Company became colonial govt, corporate board of directors gave way to elections by male citizens. Didn’t separate from Anglican church but more leeway in church than centralized structure in England, “congregation church”
iv)Mass Puritans serous and pious ppl, led lies of thrift and hard work, “city upon a hill” (Winthrop). Clergy and govt worked close together, taxes supported church, dissidents little freedom, Mass a “theocracy”
v)Large number of families ensured feeling of commitment to community and sense of order, allowed pop to reproduce very quickly
c)Expansion of New England
i)As more ppl arrived many didn’t accept all religious tenets of colony’s leaders, Connecticut Valley attracted settlers b/c of fertile land and less religious
ii)Thomas Hooker led congregation to Hartford, established Fundamental Orders of Connecticut- created govt with more men given right to vote and hold off
iii)Fundamental Orders of New Haven established New Haven b/c viewed Boston as lacking in religious orthodoxy, later made Connect. with Hartford (royal)
iv)Rhode Island origins in Roger Williams, minister from MA who John Winthrop and others viewed as heretic. Was a Separatist, called for sep of church and state, banished + created Providence, 1644 obtained charter from Parliament to establish govt, “liberty in religious concernments”
v)Anne Hutchinson believed that Mass clergy were not among elect and ad no right to spiritual office, went against assumptions of proper role of women in Puritan society. Developed large following from women who wanted active role in religious affairs, and those opposed to oppressive colonial govt
(1)Unorthodoxy challenged religious beliefs + social order of Puritans, banished and moved to Rhode Island,
vi)Followers of Hutchinson moved to New Hampshire and Maine, established in 1629 by Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges who received grant from Council for New England (former Plymouth Company)
d)Settlers and Natives
i)Natives less powerful rivals to N.E. settlers, small to begin with and nearly extinguished by epidemics
ii)Provided assistance to settlers, whites learned about local food crops + technique, trade with Indians created fortune
iii)Peaceful relations did not last, whites appetite for land grew as pop increased, livestock required more land to graze. Character of conflict and white bruatity emerged in part out of Puritan attitude toward Natives now seen as “heathens” and “savages’
e)The Pequot War, King Philip’s War, and Technology of Battle
i)First major conflict 1637 w/ settlers in Connecticut Valley and Pequot Indians over trade w/ Dutch and land, English allied with rival Indians to Pequots. Capt John Mason killed many Indians, Pequots almost wiped out
ii)Most prolonged and deadly encounter began n 1675 btwn chief of Wampanoags under chief named King Philip, believed only armed resistance could protect land from English invasion and imposition of English law
(1)for three years natives destroyed towns, Mass economy and society weakened, white settlers eventually fought back
(2)1676 joined with rival Indians, Wampanoags shortly defeated, pop decimated and made powerless
iii)Settlements still remained in danger from surviving Indians, & new competition from French and Dutch
iv)Indians had made effective use of new weapon technology: flintlock rifle, which allowed them to inflict higher amounts of casualties. But Indians were no match for advante of English in numbers and firepower
3)The Restoration Colonies
a)The English Civil War
i)Charles I dissolved Parliament 1629 and ruled as absolute monarch, 1642 some members organized military challenge to king. Cavaliers (king, Cath) vs. Roundheads (Parl, Puritans + Prot). 1649 king defeated
ii)After Cromwell’s death in 1658, Stuart Restoration put Charles II back on throne, rewarded courtiers with grants of land. Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania all chartered as proprietary ventures
b)The Carolinas
i)Carved out of Virginia and given to eight proprietors 1663, proposed to sell or give land away using headrights and collect annual payments (quitrents), freedom of worship to Christians, but efforts failed
ii)Anthony Ashley Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury) financed migration from England 1670, founded Charleston 1690. Wanted planned and ordered community, with help of John Locke drew up Fundamental Constitution for Caroline 1669- elaborate system of land distribution and social order
(1)Colony never united, north and south separated socially and economically. N=backwoods, poor. S=Charles Town, trade, prosperous, aristocratic. Rice principal crop
iii)SC close ties to overpopulated Barbados where slavery had taken root. White Carribbean migrants- tough profit seekers- brought with them slave-based plantation society
iv)Tension btwn small N farmers and S wealthy planters, after Coopers death in 1719 colonists seized col from prop., king divided region into 2 royal colonies: North and South Carolina
c)New Netherland, New York, and New Jersey
i)1664 Chalres II gave brother James duke of York territory btwn Connecticut and Deleware River, much of which was claimed by Dutch. Conflict part of wider commercial rivalry, but English fleet under Richard Nicolls forced New Amsterdam and Peter Stuvyesant to surrender it to English. Became New York
ii)Diverse colony w/ may ppl, granted religious toleration, but tension over power distribution. Dutch “patrons” (large landowners”, also wealthy English landlords, fur traders w/ Iroquois ties
iii)Colony was growing and prosperous, most ppl settled within Hudson valley
iv)Duke gave land to political allies in John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, named their territory New Jersey. 1702 ceded control back to crown
d)The Quaker Colonies
i)Pennsylvania born out of effort of dissenting English Prt. to find home for religion and distinctive social order. Led by George Fox, Margaret Fell
ii)Society of Friends (Quakers) anarchistic, democratic, pacifist, no class distinction. They were unpopular, some jailed. Looked to America for asylum
iii)Wanted colony of their own, in William Penn found son of Navy admiral and Quaker. After death of father 1681 claimed debt owed by Charles II in form of a large grant of territory w/ Penn having virtual total authority
iv)Penn advertised PA (wanted profit), became cosmopolitan, settlers flocked there from Eur, but also wanted it to be a “holy experiment”
(1)Created liberal Frame of Government with Rep assembly, 1682 founded Philadelphia, befriended Indians and always paid them for land
(2)PA prospered but was not without conflict. By 1690s ppl upset by power of proprietor, south believed govt unresponsive. 1701 Penn agreed to Charter of Liberties establishing rep assembly with limited power of proprietor, “lower counties” allowed own rep assembly—result was later Delaware
4)Borderland and Middle Grounds
a)The Caribbean Islands
i)Early 17th century migrants flocked to Caribbean. B4 settlers substantial Native populations, wiped out by Eur epidemics, Islands became nearly deserted
ii)Spanish claimed title to al islands but only settled Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico. After Spain and Netherlands went to war 1621 English colonization increased thru 17th century raids by Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch
iii)Colonies built economy on exporting crops, tobacco and cotton unsuccessful, turned to sugar cane and rum. Sugar labor intensive and native population too small for workforce, planters found it necessary to import laborers
(1)Started with indentured servants but work too hard, began to rely more heavily on enslaved African work force. English soon outnumbered
b)Masters and Slaves in the Caribbean
i)Small white, successful population, large bonded African population led to fear of revolt, 1660s legal codes to regulate relations between master and slaves
(1)Many white slave owners concluded cheaper to buy new slaves than to protect well-being, worked them to death
ii)Establishing stable society and culture difficult b/c of harsh and deadly conditions, wealthy returned to England, whites left behind were poor + mostly single and contributed little, no church, family, community
(1)Africans developed world of their own, sustained African religion and social traditions
iii)Caribbean connected to NA colonies, principle source of slaves, plantation system provided models to mainland peoples
c)The Southwestern Borderlands
i)In C and S America Span established impressive empire, settlers prosperous. Areas N of Mexico unimportant economically, peopled by minorities, missionaries, soldiers
ii)New Mexico after Pueblo revolt 1680 developed flourishing agriculture, still not as successful as Span in Mexico and other denser areas
iii)Span began to colonize California after other Eur began to establish presence 1760s. Missions, forts (prestidos) trading areas led to decline in native population, rest forced to convert to Catholicism. Spanish wanted prosperous agricultural economy, used Indian laborers
iv)Late 17th century early 18th cent Spanish considered greatest threat to northern borders French. French traveled down Mississippi R., claimed Louisiana 1682.
(1)Fearing French incursions west + displaced natives, Span began to fortify Texas by building forts, missions, settlements, San Fernando (San Antonio) 1731
(2)North Arizona part of N Mexico ruled by Santa Fe, rest Mexican region Sonora. Heavy Jesuit missionary presence, little success though
v)Spanish colonies in SW created les to increase wealth of empire than to defend it from threats by other Eur powers in NA, but helped create enduring society unlike those established by English. Enlisted natives instead of displacing them
d)The Southeast Borderlands
i)Direcy challenge to English in NA was Spanish in southeastern areas. Florida claimed in 1560s missionaries and traders expanded north into Georgia. 1607 founding of Jamestown Span felt threatened, built forts, area between Carolinas and Florida site of tension btwn Span English and Span French
ii)By 18th century Spanish settlers driven out of Florida, confinded to St Augustine and Pensacola, relied on natives and Africans, intermarried
iii)Eventaully English prevailed, acquired Florida in Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War), English had always wanted to protect southern boundary
e)The Founding of Georgia
i)Founders group of unpaid trustees led by General James Oglethorpe, interested in economic success, military and philanthropic motives. Military barrier against Spanish and refuge for impoverished English to begin anew
ii)Treaty recognized English lands 1676, fighting continued in 1686 w/ raid against Carolina, hostilities broke out in 1701 in Queen Anne’s War/ War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1713
iii)Oglethorpe wanted colony south of Carolinas, wanted prisoners and poor people in debt to be farmer-soldiers of the new colony
iv)1732 King George II granted trustees land, compact settlement to defend against Spanish and Indians, excluded Africans, prohibited rum, regulated trade w/ Indians excluded catholics—all to prevent revolt/conflict
v)1733 founded at mouth of Savanna R, few debtors released form jail so hundreds of impoverished ppl from England and Scotland as well as religious refugees from Switzerland and Germany settled colony
vi)Strict rules stifled early development- ppl demanded right to buy slaves, restrictions on size of individual property, power of trustees
vii)1740 Ogelthorpe failed assault on St Augustine, trustees removed limitation on individual landholdings, 1750 allowed slavery, 1751 gave control of colony to king who then allowed for representative assembly
f)Middle Grounds
i)Struggle for NA not only among Eurs, but btwn Eurs and native populations
ii)In VA and New England settlers quickly established dominance and displaced natives, but in other areas balance of power more precarious
iii)In western borders neither side dominant, in “middle grounds” frequent conflict but each side had to make concessions. In these areas influence of colonial govt invisible, had own relationship with tribes
iv)To Indians Eurs menacing and appealing. Feared powerful weapons, but wanted them to moderate their own conflicts, offer gifts
v)17th century before English settlers French adept at beneficial relationships with tribes, many were solitary fur traders
vi)By mid 18th century French influence declinging and British settlers becoming dominant, had to deal with leaders thru gifts, cememonies, mediation instead of simple commands and raw force
vii)As British and American influece grew, new settlers had difficulty adapting to these complex rituals, stability btwn whites and Indians deteriorated, by 19th century “middle grounds” collapsed. Sotry of whites and Indians not only of conquest and subjugation but in some regions of difficult but stable acomodation and mutual adaption
5)The Evolution of the British Empire
a)The Drive for Reorganization
i)Imperial reorganization some believed would increase colonial profits, power of govt, success of mercantilism. Colonies= market for manufactured goods, source for raw materials, but foreigners had to be excluded
ii)Govt sought to monopolize trade with its colonies, but at times American colonists found it more profitable to trade w/ Spanish, French, Dutch. Trade developed btwn them and non-English markets
iii)@ First govt made no effort to restrict, but during Oliver Cromwell’’s Protectorate in 1650 + 1651 passed laws to keep Dutch ships out of English colonies, Charlies II adopted three Navigation Acts
(1)First 1660 allowed trade to occur only in British ships. Second 1663 all goods to Eur had to pass thru England on way, taxable. Third 1673 created duties on coastal trade and allowed customs officials to enforce Acts
iv)Laws advantage for England, but some for colonies as well: created important shipbuilding industry, encouraged and subsidized the development production of goods English needed
b)The Dominion of New England
i)1679 Charles II tried to increase control over MA yb making New Hampshire a royal colony, five years later after MA refused to enforce Navigation Acts Charles revoked Massachusetts corporation charter, became royal colony
ii)James II 1686 created Dominion of New England, combined govts of MA w/ rest of NE colonies, 1688 NY and NJ as well. Eliminated assemblies, appt a single governor, Sir Edmund Andros. Rigid enforcement of Navigation Acts, dismissal of claims “rights of Englishmen”, strengthened Anglican church
c)The “Glorious Revolution”
i)James II ruled autocratically, Cath. ministers, w/o Parliament, 1688 daughter Mary and husband William of Orange assumed throne= bloodless coup
ii)Bostonians heard of overthrow of James II, unseated unpopular viceroy. Dominion of NE abolished, separate govts restored- except 1691 Plymouth + MA merged 2 royal colony, charter restored General Court but governor too, replaced church membership w/ property ownership as basis 4 voting + office
iii)Adros governed NY thru Captain Francis Nicholson (supported by wealthy merchants and fur traders), dissidents were led by Jacob Leisler who raised militia and captured city fort, drove Nicholson to exile. 1691 William and Mary appd new governor, Leisler charged with treason, rivalry btwn “Leislerians” and “anti-Laslerians” dominated NY poitics for years
iv)Maryland ppl erroneously assumed Cath Lord Baltimore had sided with James II, so 1689 John Coode started revolt, drove out Lord Balt’s officials, thru elected convention chose committee to govern and applied for chater, 1691 William and Mary granted. Church of Eng. offical religion, Cath prevented to hold office, vote, practice religion in public. 1715 5th Lord Baltimore became proprietor after joining Anglican Church
1)The Colonial Population
a)Indentured Servitude
i)Young men and women bound themselves to masters for a fixed term of servitude, in return received passage to America, food shelter, and males clothing, tools, and land at end—in reality left with nothing at all
(1)Provided means of coping with severe labor shortage, masters received headrights, for servants hope to escape troubles, establish themselves
ii)Most former servants formed large floating population of young single men, traveled from place to place, source of social unrest
iii)1670s flow began to decline b/c of prosperity in England, decrease in birth rate
b)Birth and Death
i)Inadequate food, frequent epidemics, large number early deaths. But growth of population even after immigration, after 1650s natural increase= most growth
ii)N= cool climate, relatively disease-free, clean water, no large population centers for epidemics= long lives. S= mortality rates high (infants too), life expectancy low, disease and salt-contaminated water. growth b/c immigration
iii)By late 17th cent ratio of males to females becoming more balanced, led to increase in natural growth
c)Medicine in the Colonies
i)17th + 18th cent no concept of infection + sterilization, midwives in childbirth and recommended herbs
ii)Humoralism led to purging, expulsion, bleeding. Most ppl treated themselves
d)Women and families in the Chesapeake
i)B/c of sex ration women married young, high mortality rates, premarital sex common. Life of childbearing, average of 8 children, 5 of which typically died in childhood or infancy. Had greater levels of freedom @ first b/c of ratio
ii)High mortality rates led to many orphans, special courts and institutions to protect and control them. By 18th century life expectancy increasing, indentured servitude decreasing, more equal sex ratio, life easer for whites
e)Women and Families in New England
i)Family structure more stable + traditional, women minority married young, children more likely to survive, much of life spent rearing and childbearing
ii)Family relationships and women status dictated by religion. S established churches weak, NE power in men who created patriarchal view of society
f)The Beginnings of Slavery in British America
i)Demand for black servants to supplement scare southern labor supply, limited @ first b/c Atlantic slave trade did not serve American colonies- Portuguese to SA and Caribbean, by late 17th century came to America w/ French and Dutch
(1)Sugar economies of Caribbean + Brazil demanded slaves, not until 1670s did traders import blacks directly 2 (b4 mostly W. Indies to America)
ii)Mid 1690s Royal African Company’s monopoly broken, prices fell, number of Africans increased. Small number in NE, more in middle colonies, majority in S b/c flow of white laborers had all but stopped
iii)Early 18th century rigid distinction established btwn blacks and whites, no necessity to free black workers, serve permanently, children= new work force
(1)Assumptions of white superior race, applied like it had to natives. Slave codes limited rights of blacks in law, almost absolute authority of masters
g)Changing Sources of European Immigration
i)BY early 18th century immigration from England in decline- result of better economic conditions and govt restrictions on emigration. French, German, Swiss, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Scandinavian immigration increased
(1)French Huguenots, German Protestants (many from Palatinate)- settled in NY, PA (Dutch mispronunciation of Deutsch), around 1710 Scotch-Irish immigrated + pushed out to edges of Eur settlements- significant in NJ and PA, established Presbyterianism as important religion there
2)The Colonial Economies
a)The Southern Economy
i)Chesapeake- tobacco basis of economy, bust and boom pattern, enabled some planters to grow enormously wealthy
ii)South Carolina and Georgia staple was rice. Arduous + unhealthful, whites refused to cultivate, dependent on African labor more than elsewhere. Blacks showed greater resistance 2 disease, more adept at agricultural tasks than white
(1)Early 1740s indigo contributed to SC economy, high demand in England
iii)B/c of S dependence on cash crops developed less of a commercial or industrial economy, few cities, no large local merchant communities
b)Northern Economic and Technological Life
i)Agriculture dominated, more diverse but conditions less favorable, hard to develop large-scale commercial farming, middle colonies more suited 4 wheat
ii)Home industries, craftsmen and artisans, mills for grinding grain, large scale shipbuilding operations, 1640s MA metals industry w/ ironworks. Metal became important part of colonial economy, largest enterprise was German Peter Hasenclever in NJ- but Iron Act of 1750 limited surpassing England
iii)Biggest obstacles for industrialization were inadequate labor supply small domestic market, inadequate transpiration facilities and energy supplies
iv)Natural resources- lumber, mining, fishing, impt commodities to trade
c)The Extent and Limits of Technology
i)Ppl lacked guns, plows, lack of ownership of tools b/c of poverty, isolation
ii)Few colonists self-sufficient in late 17th early 18th cent, ability of ppl to acquire manufactured implements lagged behind capacity to produce them
d)The Rise of Colonial Commerce
i)At first no commonly accepted medium of exchange, difft forms of paper currency ineffective + could not be used for goods from abroad
ii)Imposing order on trade difficult, production and markets of goods not guaranteed, small competitive companies made stabilization more difficult
iii)Commerce eventually grew, large coastal trade w/ each other + W. Indies, expanding transatlantic trade w/ England, Eur continent, west Africa.
iv)“Triangular trade”, trade in rum, slaves, sugar, manufactured goods
v)New merchant class developed in port cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia), protected from competition by Navigation Acts, access to market in England. Ignored and developed markets with other nations, higher profits, financed import of English manufactured goods
vi)During 18th century commercial system stabilized, merchants expanded
e)The Rise of Consumerism
i)Growing prosperity created new appetite and ability to satisfy, material goods
ii)Increasing division of societies by class, ability to purchase and show goods impt to demonstrate class, especially in cities w/o estate to prove wealth
iii)Industrial Revolution allowed England and Eur to produce more affordable goods, increasingly commercial society created social climate where buying goods considered social good. Merchants and traders began advertising
iv)Things once considered luxuries came to be seen as necessities once readily available, such as tea, linens. Quality of possessions associated with virtue + refinement, strive to become more educated
v)Growth of consumption and refinement led cities to plan growth and ensure elegant public squares, parks, boulevards, public stages for social display
3)Patterns of Society
a)The Plantation
i)Some plantations enormous, but most 17th cent plantations were rough and small estates, work force seldom more than 30 ppl
ii)Economy precarious- good years growers could earn great profit and expand, but couldn’t control markets, when prices fell faced ruin
iii)Most plantations far from towns, forced to become self-contained communities, some larger ones approached size of town
iv)Society highly stratified, wealthy landowners exercised greater social and economic influence. Small farmers with few or no slaves formed majority
b)Plantation Slavery
i)By mid-18th cent ¾ blacks lived on plantations with 10+ slaves, ½ lived w/ 50+
ii)In larger establishments society and culture developed btwn slaves, attempts at nuclear families made but members could be sold at any time, led to extended families. Developed own languages, religion w/ Christianity and African lore
iii)Occasional acts of individual resistance, at least twice actual slave rebellions. Stone Rebellion in SC 1739- 100 Africans rose up + attempted to flee to Florida, quickly crushed by whites. Other slaves tried to run away
iv)Some slaves learned skills, set up own shops, some bought freedom
c)The Puritan Community
i)Social unit of NE was town, “covenant” of members bound all in religious + social commitment to unity. Arranged around a “common”, outlying fields divided by family size, social station. Little colonial interference, self govt
ii)English primogeniture (passing of all to firstborn son) replaced by division amongst all sons, women more mobile than brothers b/c no inheritance
iii)Tight knit community controlled by layout, power of church, town meeting. Strayed by pop increases, ppl began farming further lands, moved houses to be closer, applied for church of their own, eventually led to new town
iv)Patriarchal society weakened by economic necessity, needed help w/ farm, ect.
d)The Witchcraft Phenomenon
i)Gap btwn expectation of united community and reality of increasingly diverse and fluid one difficult for NEers to accept- led to tensions that produced hysteria such as witchcraft (Satanic powers) in the 1680s and 1690s
ii)Salem, MA- accusations spread from W Indians to prominent ppl. This model would repeat itself, mostly middle-aged, childless widowed women who may have inherited property. Puritan society no tolerance for “independent women”
iii)Reflection of highly religious character of society, witchcraft was mainstream
e)Cities
i)Commercial centers emerged along Atlantic by 1770s- New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Charles Town, Newport (RI)
ii)Trading centers for farmers, marts for international trade, leaders merchants w/ large estates, large social distinctions. Center of industry such as ironworks and distilleries, advanced schools, cultural activities. Crime, vice, epidemics, ect.
iii)Vulnerable to fluctuations in trade, countryside effects muted. Places where new ideas could circulate, regular newspapers, books from abroad= new ideas
4)Awakenings and Enlightenments
a)The Pattern of Religions
i)Religious toleration flourished in America b/c of necessity. Church of England official religion for some colonies, ignored except in VA and MA. Protestants extended toleration more readily to each other than to Roman Catholics- persecuted in MA after 1691 overthrow of proprietors. NEers viewed Cath French agents of Rome
ii)Early 18th cent some troubled w/ decline religious piety in society, movement west + scattered settlements= loss with organized religion, commercial success created more secular outlook in urban areas. jeremiads= sermon of despair
b)The Great Awakening
i)Began in 1730s climax 1740s, new spirit of religious fervor, appeal to women and younger sons b/c of rhetoric of potential for every person to break away from constraints and renew relationship with God
ii)Evangelists from England such as John and Charles Wesley, George Whitfield spread revival. Most famously NE Congregationalist Jonathan Edward
c)The Enlightenment
i)Product of great scientific and intellectual discoveries in Eur in 17th cent, natural laws discovered that regulated nature, celebrated human reason + inquiry. Reason and not just faith create progress and knowledge
ii)Ppl should look at themselves for guidance to live and shape society, not to God. Didn’t challenge religion, insisted rational inquiry supported Christianity
d)Education
i)Even b4 Enlightenment colonists placed high value on education, MA 1647 law required each town to have a public school. Most white males were literate, women’s rate lagged, Africans virtually no access to education
ii)Six colleges by 1763, most founded by religious groups: Harvard (Puritans) created to train ministers, William and Mary (Anglicans) Yale (Congregationalists). Despite religious basis, liberal education. Kings College (Columbia) and UPenn created as secular institutions
e)The Spread of Science
i)Prominent members of society members of the Royal Society of London.
ii)Value placed on scientific knowledge can be seen by rise of inoculation, spread by Cotton Mather and adopted in Boston 1720s, became common procedure
f)Concepts of Law and Politics
i)Americans believed they were re-creating institutions of Europe but b/c of lack of lawyers before 1700 English legal system was simplified- rights to trial by jury maintained but pleading and procedure simpler, punishment different b/c of labor-scarce society, govt criticism not libel if accurate
ii)Large degree of self-govt. Local communities ran own affairs, had delegates to colonial assemblies filed role of Parliament, apptd provincial governors powers were limited
iii) Provincial govts accustomed to acting pretty independently, expectations about rights of colonists began to take hold in America that policymakers in England did not share. Few problems before 1760s b/c British did little to exert authority they believed they possessed
1)Loosening Ties
a)A Tradition of Neglect
i)After Glorious Revolution Parliamentary leaders less inclined to tighten imperial control b/c depended on support of merchants + landholders who feared taxes, diminished profits
ii)Colonial administration inefficient split btwn Board of Trade and Plantations, Privy Council, admiralty, treasury. Many Royal officials in America apptd b/c of bribery or favoritism
iii)Resistance centered in colonial legislatures, claimed right to tax, approve appts, pass laws. Saw themselves as little parliaments, checked governor power
b)The Colonies Divided
i)Colonists often felt stronger ties to England than to one another. Yet cnxns still forged, Atlantic settlement created roads, trade, colonial postal service
ii)Loath to cooperate even against French and Indian threat. Still, delegation in Albany to Iroquois proposed establishing a general govt with power to govern relationships with Indians, but colony retaining constitution but power. This Albany Plan was rejected by all the colonies
2)The Struggle for the Continent
a)New France and the Iroquois Nation
i)By 1750s growing English and French settlements produced religious and commercial tensions. Louis XIV sought greater empire, French explorers had traveled down Mississippi R. and looked Westward, held continental interior
ii)To secure holdings founded communities, fortresses, missions, trading posts. Seigneuries (lords) held large estates, Creoles in S had plantation economy
iii)“Middle ground” of interior occupied by French, British, Indians. English offered Indians more and better goods, French offered tolerance + adjusted behavior to Indian patterns- French developed closer relationships
iv)Iroquois Confederacy a defensive alliance, most powerful tribal presence in NE. Forged commercial relationship w/ Dutch and English, played French against English to maintain independence. Ohio valley became battleground
b)Anglo-French Conflicts
i)Glorious Revolution led to William III and later Queen Anne to oppose French
ii)King William’s War (1689-1687), Queen Anne’s War began 1701 brought border fighting w/ Spanish, French and Indian allies. Treaty of Utrech 1713 ended conflicts, gave much land to English
iii)Conflict over trade btwn Spanish and English merged w/ conflict btwn French and English over Prussia + Austria. Resulted in King George’s War 1744-1748
iv)After, relations in America btwn English, French, Iroquois deteriorated. Iroquois granted concessions to British, French built new fortresses in Ohio valley, British did the same. Iroquois balance of power disintegrated
v)1754 VA sent militia under George Washington to challenge French, assaulted Fort Duquesne. F counter-assault on his Fort Necessity resulted in its surrender
c)The Great War for the Empire- The French and Indian War
i)First phase lasted from 1754 after For Necessity to expansion to Eur in 1756. Colonists most on own w/ only moderate British assistance- navy prevented landing of larger French reinforcements, but failed Ohio R. attack.
(1)Local colony forces occupied with defending themselves against W. Indian tribes’ (except Iroquois) raids who allied themselves with French after Fort Necessity defeat. Iroquois hesitant to molest French but allied with English
ii)Second phase began 1756 when French and English opened official hostilities in Seven Years’ War. Realignment of allies. Beginning 1757 British Sec. of State William Pitt began to bring most impt war effort in America under British control: forcibly enlisted colonists (impressments), seized supplies and forced shelter from colonists w/o compensation. By 1758 much friction
iii)Third phase Pitt relaxed policies, reimbursed control, returned military control to assemblies, additional troops to America. Finally tide in England’s favor, after poor French harvests 1756 suffered many defeats at hands of generals Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe thru 1758. Fall of Quebec 1759 by Wolfe resulted in surrender of French 1760
iv)Pitt didn’t pursue peace, but George III ascended throne and signed Peace of Paris 1763. F ceded Canada and land east of Miss. R
v)War expanded England’s New World territory, enlarged English debt. English officials angry at American ineptitude and few financial contributions
vi)Colonists had been forced to act in concert, return of authority to assemblies 1758 seemed to confirm illegitimacy of English interference in local affairs
vii)Disaster for Indians in Ohio Valley allied with French, Iroquois passivity resulted in deteriorated English relationship, Confed began to crumble
3)The New Imperialism
a)Burdens of Empire
i)After 1763 empire management more difficult. In past viewed colonies in terms of trade, now ppl argued land and population’s support and taxes were valuable
ii)Territorial annexations of 1763 doubled size of British Emp in NA. Conflict over whether west should be settled or not, colonial govts competed for jurisdiction, other wanted English to control or make new colonies
iii)English govt had vast war debt, English landlords + merchants objecting to tax increase, troops in India added expense, England couldn’t rely on cooperation of colonial govts. Argued tax administered by London only effective way
iv)New king George III 1760 determined to be active monarch, created unstable majority in Parliament, suffered mental illness, immature, insecure
(1)Apptd PM George Grenville 1763, unlike brother-in-law Pitt didn’t sympathize w/ American view, believed colonists indulged too long and should obey laws and pay cost of defending and administering empire
b)The British and the Tribes
i)To prevent conflict w/ Indians from settlers moving to western lands issued Proclamation of 1763 forbidding settlers to advance beyond Appalachian line
(1)Allowed London to control westward movement, limit depopulation of coastal trade markets, land and fur speculation to British and not colonists
ii)More land taken from natives but many tribes still supported it. John Stuart (south) and Sir William Johnson (north) in charge of native affairs
iii)Proc failure, settlers swarmed over boundary, new agreements failures as well
c)The Colonial Response
i)Grenville stationed British troops in America, Mutiny Act of 1765 required colonists to assist in provisioning of army, British navy patrolled for smugglers, customs service enlarged, no royal official substitutes, limited manufacturing
ii)Sugar Act 1764 tried to eliminate illegal sugar trade btwn colonies, foreigners
iii)Currency Act of 1764 disallowed use of paper currency by assemblies
iv)Stamp Act of 1765 imposed tax on all printed documents
v)New imperial program effort to reapply mercantilism, increased revenues. Colonists had trouble effectively resisting b/c on conflict amongst themselves, tension over “backcountry” settlers
vi)1771 small-scale civil war after Regulators in NC opposed high taxes sheriffs apptd by governor collected + felt underrepresented. Suppressed by governor
vii)After 1763 common grievances began to counterbalance internal divisions. N. merchants opposed commercial + manufacturing restraint, backcountry resented closing land speculation and fur trading, debted plantesr feared new taxes, professionals depended on other colonists, small farmers feared taxes ad abolition of paper money. Restriction came at beginning of economic depression, policies affected cities greatest where resistance first arose. Boston suffering worst economic problems
viii)Great political consequences, Anglo-Americans accustomed to self-govt thru provincial assemblies and right to appropriate money for colonial govt. Circumvention of assemblies by taxing public directly and paying royal officials unconditionally challenged basis of colonial power: public finance
(1)Same time democratic, but also conservative- to conserve liberties Americans believed already possessed
4)Stirrings of Revolt
a)The Stamp Act Crisis
i)Stamp Act of 1765 affected all Americans. Economic burdens were light but colonists disturbed by precedent set- past taxes to regulate commerce and not raise money, stamps obvious attempt to tax w/o assemblies approval
ii)Few colonists did more than grumble- until Patrick Henry 1765 in VA House of Burgesses spoke against British authority. Introduced resolutions known as “Virginia Resolves” declaring Americans possessed same rights as English, right to be taxed only by their own reps
iii)In MA James Otis called for intercolonial congress against tax, October 1765 Stamp Act Congress met in NY to petition king. Summer 1765 riots broke out along coast led by new Sons of Liberty. Boston crowd attacked Lt. Gov.
iv)Some opposition b/c of wealth/power disparity, mostly political + ideological
v)Stamp Act repealed b/c boycott of 1764 Sugar Act expanded to other colonies, aided by Sons of Liberty. Centered in Boston b/c that is where customs commissioners headquartered. English merchants begged for repeal b/c of lost markets, Marquis of Rockingham succeeded Grenville + convinced king to repeal it 1766. (Also, Declaratory Act asserted Parl. control over all colonies)
b)The Townshend Program
i)Negative rxn to appeasement in England. Landlords feared would lead to increased taxes on them, king bowed and appt William Penn (Lord Chatham) PM, but was incapacitated by illness to chairman of the exchequer Charles Townshend held real power
ii)1st problem Quartering Act, British believed reasonable since troops protecting, colonists objected b/c made contribution were mandatory. NY and MA refused
iii)1767 disbanded NY assembly until colonists obeyed Mutiny Act, new tax (Townshend Duties) on goods imported from England- tea, paper. Believed “external” tax would be difft than Stamp Act’s “internal” tax
iv)Colonists still objected b/c saw same purpose as to raise revenue w/o consent
v)MA Assembly lead opposition, urged all colonies stand up against every tax by Parl. Sec of State for Colonies Lord Hillsborough said any assembly endorsing MA would be dissolved. Other colonies railed to support MA
vi)Townshend attempted stronger enforcement of commercial regulations + stop smuggling thru new board of customs commissioners, based in Boston. Boston merchants organized boycott against products with T. Duties, 1768 NY and Philadelphia joined nonimportation agreement
vii)1767 T. died, Lord North repealed all Town. Duties except that on tea
c)The Boston Massacre
i)Before news of repeal reached America impt event in MA. B/c of Boston harassment of customs commissioners Brit govt placed regular troops in city. Tensions ran high, soldiers competed in labor market
ii)March 5, 1770 dockworkers + “liberty boys” pelted customs house sentries w/ rocks, scuffle ensued and British fired into crowd and killed 5 ppl
iii)Incident transformed by local resistance leaders into “Boston Massacre”, Paul Revere’s engraving pictured it as an organized assault on a peaceful crowd
iv)Samuel Adams leading figure in fomenting public outrage, viewed events in moral terms- England sinful and corrupt. Organized committee of correspondence 1772, other networks of dissent spread 1770s
d)The Philosophy of Revolt
i)Three years of calm but 1760s aroused ideological challenge to England. Ideas that would support revolution stemmed from religion (Puritans), politics, “radical” opposed to GB govt (Scots, Whigs), used John Locke for arguments
ii)New concept that govt was necessary to protect individuals from evils of ppl, but govt made up of ppl and therefore safeguards needed against abuses of power, ppl disturbed that king and ministers too powerful to be checked
iii)English const an unwritten flexible changing set of principles, Americans favored permanent inscription of govt powers
iv)Basic principle was right of ppl to be taxed only with their consent, “no taxation w/o representation” absurd to English who employed “virtual representation” (all Parl members rep all interests of whole nation) vs American “actual” representative elected and accountable to community
v)Difft opinion of sovereignty, Americans believed in division of sov btwn Parl and assemblies, British believed must be a single, ultimate authority
e)The Tea Excitement
i)Apperant calm disguised sense of resentment at enforcement of Navigation Acts 1770s. Dissent leaflets and literature, tavern conversation, not only iltellectuals but ordinary ppl haerd, discussed, absorbed new ideas
ii)1773 East India Company had large stock of tea could not sell in England, Tea Act of 1773 passed by Parl allowed company to export tea to America w/o paying navigation taxes paid by colonial merchants, allowed company to sell tea for less than colonists + monopolize colonial tea trade. Enraged merchants
iii)Enraged merchants, revived taxation without rep. issue. Lord North colonists would be happy with reduced tea prices but resistance leaders argued it was another example of unconstitutional tax. Massive boycott of tea followed
iv)Women role in resistance- plays of Mercy Otis Warren, Daughters of Liberty
v)Late 1773 w/ popular support leaders planned to prevent E. India Company from landing its cargoes in colonial ports, NY, Philadelphia, Charleston stopped shipment. December 16, 1773 Bostonians dressed as Mohawks boarded ships, poured tea chests into harbor—“Boston tea party”
vi)When Bostonians refused to pay for destroyed property George III and Lord North passed four Coercion Acts (Intolerable Acts to Americans) in 1774- closed port of Boston, reduced self-govt power, royal officers could be tried in England or other colonies, quartering of troops in empty houses
vii)Quebec Act provided civil govt for French Roman-Caths of Canada, recognized legality of Rom Cath church. Americans inflamed b/c feared was a plot to subject Americans to tyranny of pope, would hinder western expansion
viii)Coercive Acts didn’t isolate MA, made it a martyr, sparked new resistance
5)Cooperation and War
a)New Sources of Authority
i)Passage of authority from royal govt to colonists began on local level where history of autonomy strong. Example- 1768 Samuel Adams called convention of delegates from towns to sit in place of dissolved General Court. Sons of Liberty became source of power, enforced boycotts
ii)Committees of correspondence began 1772 in MA, VA made first intercolonial committee which enabled cooperation btwn colonies. VA 1774 governor dissolved assembly, rump session issued call for Continental Congress
iii)First Continental Congress met Sept 1774 in Philadelphia (no delegates from Georgia), made 5 major decisions
(1)Rejected plan for colonial union under British authority
(2)Endorsed statement of grievances, called 4 repeal of oppressive legislation
(3)Recommended colonists make military preparations for defense of British attack against Boston
(4)Nonimporation, nonexportation, nonconsumption agreement to stop all trade with Britain, formed “Colonial Association” to enforce agreements
(5)Agreed to meet in spring, indicating making CC a continuing organization
iv)CC reaffirmed autonomous status within empire, declared economic war. In Eland Lord Chatham (William Pitt) urged withdrawal of American troops, Edmund Burke for repeal of Coercive Acts. 1775 Lord North passed Conciliatory Propositions- no direct Parl tax, but colonists would tax themselves at Parls demand. Didn’t reach America until after first shot fired
b)Lexington and Concord
i)Farmers and townspeople of MA had been gathering arms and training “minutemen”. IN Boston General Thomas Gage knoew of preparations, received orders from England to arrest rebel leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington vicinity. Heard of minutemen stock in nearby Concord and decided to act on April 18, 1775
ii)William Dawes and Paul revere road from Boston to warn of impending British attack. At Lexington town common shots fired and minutemen fell. On march back from hidden farmers harassed British army
iii)Rebels circulated their account of events, rallied thousands of colonists in north + south to rebel cause. Some saw just another example of tension
1)The States United
a)Defining American War Aims
i)2nd Continental Congress (CC) agreed to support war, disagreed on purpose. One group led by John and Sam Adams favored full independence, others wanted modest reforms in imperial relationship. Most sought middle ground
ii)“Olive Branch Petition” conciliatory appeal to king, then July 1775 “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”
iii)Public @ first fought not for independence but redress of grievances, later began to change reasons b/c cost of war too large for such modest aims, anger over British recruitment of Indians, slaves, mercenaries, and b/c GB rejected Olive Branch Petition and enacted “Prohibitory Act” w/ naval blockade
iv)January 1776 Common Sense by Thomas Paine was revolutionary propaganda, argued that problem was not parliamentary acts but English constitution, king, and ruling system. GB no longer fit to rule b/c of brutality, corruption
b)The Decision for Independence
i)After Common Sense support grew, CC recommended colonies establish independent govt’s from British, July 4 1776 Declaration of Independence
ii)Dec of Indep. written mostly by Thomas Jefferson, restated contract theory of John Locke that govts formed to protect rights of “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”, then listed alleged crimes of king and Parliament
iii)Dec. inspired French Revolution’s Dec. of the rights of Men, claimed sovereign “United States of America”, led to increased foreign aid
c)Responses to Independence
i)At news of Dec many rejoiced others disapproved b/c still had great loyalty to king, called themselves Loyalists but independents called them Tories
ii)States drafted constitutions to replace loyal govts by 1781, states considered centers of authority but war required central direction
iii)1777 Articles of Confederation passed to confirm weak, decentralized system in place. Continental Congress was main coordinator of war effort
d)Mobilizing for War
i)Nation needed to raise, organize, equip, and pay for army. W/o British markets shortages of materials, gunsmiths couldn’t meet demand for funs and ammunition. Most supplies captured from Brits or supplied by Eur nations
ii)Financing problematic, Congress had no power to tax ppl + had to ask states for funds. Eventually issued paper money, led to inflation, value of money plummeted. Most farmers + merchants preferred business w/ British who could pay for goods in gold and silver. Govt forced to borrowed $ from other nations
iii)After patriotic surge 1775 few American army volunteers. States used persuasion, force, drafts. To correct problem of states controlling army units 1775 created Continental army w/ single commander, George Washington. In new nation unsure of structure and govt, he provided the army and the ppl a symbol of stability around which they could rally, held nation together
2)The War for Independence
a)The First Phase: New England
i)After Concord and Lexington American forces besieged army of General Thomas Gage in Boston, Battle of Bunker Hill fought June 1775. Heaviest British casualties of entire war occurred
ii)By 1776 Brits concluded Boston not best place to wage war from b/c of geography and fervor. March 1776 withdrew to Halifax, Nova Scotia
iii)In south Patriots crushed uprising of Loyalists February 1776 at Moore’s Creek Bridge, NC. In north Americans invaded Canada, Patriot General Benedict Arnold + Richard Montgomery threatened Quebec in order to remove British threat and recruit Canadians. Siege failed, Canada not to become part of US
iv)British evacuation not so much victory as changing English assumptions about war. Clear conflict not local phenomenon around Boston but larger war
b)The Second Phase: The Mid-Atlantic Region
i)During summer 1776 British army of 32,000 landed in New York City under William Howe. Americans rejected Howe’s offer or royal pardon, Washington’s 19,000 man army pushed backed from LI, thru NJ, to PA
ii)Eur warfare was seasonal activity, British settled for winter in NJ leaving outpost of Hessians at Trenton. Christmas 1776 Washington attacked across Deleware
iii)British 1777 sought to capture Philadelphia to discourage Patriots, rally Loyalists, end war quickly. Captured city September, Washington defeated at Germanton in October, went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. CC, dislodged from capital, met in York, PA
iv)British John Burgoyne led British campaign in north, at first successful- captured supplies of Fort Ticonderoga. Defeats led Congress to remove General Philip Schuyler and replace with Horatio Gates. But series of Patriot victories followed, Burgoyne forced to withdraw to Saratoga where Gates surrounded him and forced surrender of 5,000 man army
v)Campaign Patriot success, led to alliance btwn US and France
vi)British failure due to William Howe abandoning northern campaign and letting Burgoyne fight alone, allowed Washington to retreat and regroup instead of finishing him, left Continental army unmolested in Valley Forge
c)The Iroquois and the British
i)Iroquois Confederacy declared neutrality in 1776, but Joseph and Mary Brant persuaded some tribes to support British (Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga). Belived British victory would stem white movement onto tribal lands
ii)Only 3 of 6 nations supported British(Oneida, Tuscarora, Onondaga split)
d)Securing Aid From Abroad
i)Failure of Brits to crush Continental army in mid-Atlandtic states + rebel victory at Saratoga was turning point
ii)After Dec of Indep, US sent reps to Europe’s capitals to negotiate commercial treaties. Most promising potential Ally was France where King Louis XVI and his Count de Vergennes eager to see Britain lose part of empire
iii)Thru covert deals French supplied Americans supplies but would not officially recognize US diplomatically. Ben Franklin went to France, after news of Saratoga in February France formally recognized US as nation. Allowed for expanded assistance- money, munitions, navy
e)The Final Phase: The South
i)After defeat at Saratoga and French intervention British govt put limit on commitment to conflict, tried to enlist loyalist dissidents believed to be centered in South to fight from within
ii)British forced moved from battle to battle 1778-1781, but much less Loyalist sentiment than predicted. Some refused to rise up b/c of fear of Patriot reprisal + British attempts to free slaves in order to fight. Patriots=no threat to slavery
iii)British had disadvantage of enemy in hostile territory, new form of combat. Segments of population previously apathetic now forced to involve themselves
iv)In North fighting stalemate after British moved forces to New York. Benedict Arnold became traitor, scheme to betray Patriot fort at West Point was foiled
v)In South British captured Savannah 1778, Port of Charleston 1780. Won conventional battles but harassed as they moved thru countryside by Patriot guerillas. Lord Cornwallis (Brit general for South) defeated Patriot Horatio Gates, led Washing to give command to Gen. Nathanael Greene
vi)Battle of King’s Mountain 1780 a Patriot victory, Greene split army into small, fast contingents and refrained from open battles. British had to abandon Southern campaign after battle at Guilford Courth House, NC in 1781
vii)Cornwalis ordered by Clinton to wait for ships at Yorktown. Washington, French Count Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau, and Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse all coordinated army and navy to surround British on peninsula
viii)Cornwallis surrendered October 17, 1781. Fighting over, but Brits continued to hold seaports of Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, & New York
f)Winning the Peace
i)Cornwallis’s defeat let to outcry aginsnt war, Lord North resigned and Lord Shelbrune succeeded. British emissaries in France began speaking to diplomats there (Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Jay). Final settlement Peace of Paris signed Sept 1783 when France and Spain also agreed to end hostilities
ii)Treaty recognized US independence, gave land from southern Canada to north boundary of Florida, from Atlantic to Mississippi River
3)War and Society
a)Loyalists and Minorities
i)Up to 1/5 of white population Loyalists- some officeholders in imperial govt, others merchants engaged in trade tied to imperial system, others who had lived in isolation of revolutionary ideas, others expected Brits to be victors
ii)Hounded by Patriots, harassed by legislative and judicial actions- fled to Canada or to England. Most Loyalists of average means but many were wealthy, after they left estates and social and economic leadership vacancies
iii)Anglicans were mostly Loyalists, in colonies where it was official religion (such as MA and VA). Taxes to church halted, support from England ceased, few ministers remained. Quakers weakened b/c their pacifism unpopular
iv)Catholic Church gained respect b/c most American Caths supported Patriot cause, French alliance brought Cath troops and ministers. Gratitude eroded hostility, after war Vatican named Father John Caroll American archbishop
b)The War and Slavery
i)War led to some slaves to escape due to British presence in South + their policies meant to disrupt American war effort. Revolutionary ideas introduced slaves to idea of liberty. This situation put slave dominated states like SC and Georgia to be ambivalent to revolution b/c opposed British emancipation efforts but feared revolution would foment slave rebellions
c)Native Americans and the Revolution
i)Patriots and Brits wanted Indians to remain neutral, and by and large they did. Some supported British b/c feared replacing ruling class whom they had developed limited trust with and who had fought against white expansion
ii)Patriot victory weaked natvies bc increased white demand for western lands, many Americans resented Mohawk and other Indians assistance to British and wanted to treat them as conquered people
iii)Revolution increased deep divisions and made it difficult for tribes to form common front for resistance b/c of neutral and pro-Brit alliances
iv)After war Indian and American fighting continued w/ Indian raids against froneir whites, white militia responded with attacks into Indian territories
d)Women’s Rights and the Women’s Roles
i)Patriot men going off to fight eft wives, mothers, sisters in charge of farms and businesses- sometimes successful and other times not so much. In many cities and towns impoverished women class emerged
ii)Sometimes women chose, other times forced to join camps of Patriot armies, raised morale and performed necessary tasks on cooking, nursing, cleaning. Some women ended up in combat (legendary Molly Pitcher)
iii)After revolution certain assumptions about women questioned- some like Abigail Adams called for modest expansion of women’s rights and protections. Others such as Judith Sargent Murray wanted equal education and rights
iv)New era for women did not arrive, legal doctrines of English common law gave married women barely any rights, Rev did not change these legal customs
v)Revolution encouraged ppl to reevaulate contributions of women b/c of womens participation in revolution and part general reevalutaion of American life after struggle- search for a cultural identity
e)The War Economy
i)No longer protection of trade by British navy, no more access to markets of the empire including Britain itself. Privateering used by Americans to pretty on Brit commerce.
ii)End of imperial relation in long run opened up enormous new areas of trade for nation b/c no more Brit regulations. Trade w/ Asia, South America, Caribbean
iii)End of English imports thru prewar boycotts and war itself led to stimulation of domestic manufacturing of necessities, desire for sufficiency grew
4)The Creation of State Governments
a)The Assumptions of Republicanism
i)Republicanism meant all power came from ppl, active citizenry important and could not be just a few powerful aristocrats and mass of dependent workers- idea of independent landowner was basic political ideology
ii)Opposed Eur ideas of inherited aristocracy- talents and energies of individuals and not birth would determine role in society- equality of opportunity
b)The First State Constitutions
i)States decided tat constitutions had to be written b/c believed vagueness of England’s unwritten constitution produced corruption, believed power of executive had to be limited, separation of executive from legislature
ii)Except GA and PA upper and lower chambers, property requirements for voters
c)Revising State Governments
i)By late 1770s state govts divided and unstable, believed to be so b/c they were too democratic—steps taken to limit popular power
ii)To protect constitutions from ordinary politics created the constitutional convention- special assembly to draft constitution that would never meet again
iii)Executive strengthened as rxn to weak governors, fixed salary + elected by ppl
d)Toleration and Slavery
i)New states allowed complete religious freedom, 1786 VA enacted Statue of Religious Liberty by Thomas Jefferson which called for separation of church and state
ii)Slavery abolished in New England and PA b/c of Quakers, every southern state but SC and GA prohibited further importation of slaves from abroad- slavery continued though b/c of racist assumptions about black inferiority, enormous economic investments in slaves, and lack of alternatives
5)The Search for A National Government
a)The Confederation
i)Articles of Confed adopted in 1777, Congress had power to conduct wars, foreign relations, appropriate money- would not regulate trade, draft troops, or levy taxes on ppl. Each state had one vote, articles ratified only after VA and NY gave up western land claims in 1781
b)Diplomatic Failures
i)GB failed to live up to terms of peace treaty of 1783- forces continued to occupy posts, no restitution to slave-owners, restrictions on access to empire’s markets. 1784 John Adams sent to make deal but British refused
ii)Treaty w/ Spain 1786 solidified Florida’s borders, limited US rights to navigate Mississippi R.- Souterhn states blocked ratification, weakened Articles
c)The Confederation and the Northwest
i)Ordinance of 1784 divided western territory into 10 districts, Ordianance of 1785 Congress created surveying + sale system, areas north of Ohio R. were to be parceled and sold w/ some money going to create schools
ii)Northwest Ordinance of 1787 abandoned ten districts, designated five territories that when had 60,000 ppl would become states, slavery prohibited
iii)S of Ohio R. chaotic, Kentucky and Tennessee entrance conflict not resolved
d)Indians and the Western Lands
i)Western land policies meant to bring order and stability to white settlement, but many territories claimed by Confederation were also claimed by Indians
ii)Series of treaties with Indians failed, violence climaxed in early 1790s. Negations not continued until General Anthony Wayne defeated Indians 1794 at Battle of Fallen Timbers. Treaty of Grenville w/ Miami indians ceded lands
e)Debts, Taxies, and Daniel Shays
i)Confederation had war bonds to be repaid, owerd soldiers money, foreign debt- had no way to tax, states only paid 1/6 of requested funds
ii)Group of nationalists led by Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison called for a 5% impost on imported goods, when Congress rejected plan they withdrew involvement from Confederation
iii)To pay war debts states increased taxes, poor farmers burdened by their own debt and new taxes rioted throughout New England
iv)Some farmers rallied behind Daniel Shays, 1786 Shayites prevented debt collection. Boston legislature denounced them as traitors, when rebels advanced on Springfield state militia defeated them January 1787
1)Framing A New Government
a)Advocates of Centralization
i)Confederation had averted the danger of remote and tyrannical authority, but during 1780s powerful groups began to want a national govt capable of dealing with nation’s problems- mainly economic that affected themselves
ii)Artisans wanted a single high national duty, merchants wanted a single, national commercial policy, people owed money wanted states to stop issuing paper money and causing inflation, land owners wanted protection from mobs
iii)Reformers led by Alexander Hamilton called for convention. Inter-state conference on trade held in MA advised congress to call a convention to “render the constitution… adequate to the exigencies of the union” in 1786
iv)George Washington’s support of new convention in Philadelphia 1787 gave it credibility, feared disorders like Shay’s Rebellion spreading
b)A Divided Convention
i)55 delegates from all but RI, mainly young, educated, and propertied
ii)Washington chosen as presiding officer, sessions closed to public and press
iii)VA delegation led by James Madison, had plan drafted. Edmund Randolph proposed a new nat’t govt with executive, judiciary, legislature
iv)VA Plan called for 2 house legislature w/ lower house based on population and upper house elected by lower house
v)Proposal opposed by Delaware, NJ, other small states. Proposal by William Paterson of NJ would reform Confederation + give it power to tax. Tabled, VA Plan remained basis for discussion
vi)VA Plan supporters realized concessions to small states needed for agreement, conceded upper house be elected by state legislatures, each state at least 1 rep
vii)Questions of equal rep in upper house, of slaves counted in states population but feared would be taxed if states taxed based on population
c)Compromise
i)In July grand committee established with Franklin as head, produced basis of “Great Compromise” where lower house would be based on populating with each slave counted as 3/5 o of a person in representation and direct taxation, in upper house each state had 2 reps- July 16, 1787 compromise accepted
ii)Reps agreed legislature forbidden to tax exports b/c of Southern fear of interfering with cotton economy, slave trade couldn’t be stopped for 20 years
iii)Constitution provided no definition of citizenship, absence of list of individual rights that would restrain powers of nat’l govt
d)The Constitution of 1787
i)James Madison created VA Plan, helped resolve question of sovereignty and of limiting power
ii)Sovereignty at all levels, nat’l and state, came from people. States and nat’l govt both had sovereignty from ppl and therefore Constitution could distribute powers btwn federal govt and states- but Constitution was “supreme law”
iii)Federal govt had power to tax, regulate commerce, control currency, pass laws
iv)Leaders frightened of creating a tyrannical govt, believed small nation needed to stop corruption. Madison convinced others that large nation would produce less tyranny b/c many factions would check one from being too powerful
v)Separation of powers + checks and balances forced branches to compete, federal structure divided power btwn states and nation
vi)Fear of despotism, but also fear of the “mob” and “excess of democracy”, only House of Reps elected directly by ppl.
vii)Constitution signed on September 17, 1787
e)Federalists and Antifederalists
i)Delegates decided that Constitution would come into existence when 9 of 13 states had ratified it thru conventions instead of unanimous state legislature approval required by Articles
ii)Supporters of Const well organized, supported by Washington and Franklin, called themselves Federalists. Had best political philosophers in Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay. Wrote Federalist Papers arguing for Const under pseudonym Publius
iii)Antifederalists believed Const would betray principles of Revolution by establish a strong, potentially tyrannical central govt that would increase taxies, obliterate states, favor the “well born”.
(1)Biggest complaint was that Const lacked a bill of rights, any govt with central authority could not be trusted to protect citizens’ liberties, therefore natural rights had to be enumerated in order to be preserved
iv) Federalists feared disorder, anarchy, power of masses, Antifederalists feared the state more than they did the ppl, feared concentrated power
v)Delaware first to ratify, New Hampshire 9th state in June 1788. New govt could not flourish w/o participation of VA and NY. VA, NY, MA ratified on assumption that bill of rights would be added
f)Completing the Structure
i)First elections took place 1789, George Washington elected first president unanimously, John Adams became VP- inauguration April 30, 1789
ii)First Congress passed bill of rights 1789, 10 ratified by states by end of 1791. Nine forbid Congress from infringing basic rights, 10th reserved powers to states unless specifically withheld from them or delegated to fed govt
iii)Judiciary Act of 1789 created 6 member Supreme court, 13 district courts, 3 courts of appeal, Sup Court had final decision in constitutionality of state laws
iv)Congress created departments of executive- State led by Jefferson, Treasury by Hamilton, War by Henry Knox, attorney general Edmund Randolph
2)Federalists and Republicans
a)Hamilton and the Federalists
i)Federalists dominated govt for 12 years under leadership of Treasurer Alexander Hamilton (Washington supported, but avoided direct involvement)
ii)Believed stable and effective govt required enlightened ruling class, therefore rich and powerful needed stake in its success
iii)To do so made govt responsible for existing debt + states debts, would create new large national debt w/ continuous bonds issued to give wealthy stake
iv)Creation of federal bank would fill absence of developed banking system, safe place for deposit of federal funds, collect taxes and pay expenses
v)Funding of debts required new revenue to pay bonds interest, govt sales of Western land not enough. Hamilton proposed tax on alcohol distillers- heavy toll on whiskey distillers of backcountry PA, VA, NC- & tariff on imports to raise $ + stimulate growth of industry- his 1791 “Report on Manufactures
b)Enacting the Federalist Program
i)Few members opposed plan for funding nat’l debt, but disagreement over whether payment should be to original holders or to speculators who bought many bonds from originals during hard times of 1780s. James Madison proposed dividing btwn two. Hamilton won out and current bondholders paid
ii)Hamilton faced stiffer opposition to fed’l assumption of state debts b/c ppl of states with few debts (such as VA) would pay taxes to service large debts of other states (like MA). Compromise w/ Virginians moved capital from Philadelphia to a southern location along Potomac R. for VA support of bill
iii)Bank bill most heated debate, Madison, Jefferson, Randolph, others argued Congress should exercise no powers Const did not assign it. Bill passed House and Senate, Bank of United States began operating 1791 under 20 yr charter
iv)Passage of excise tax and tariff 1792. Whole program won support of the influential population- restored public credit, speculators, manufacturing + merchants prospered. However, small farmers (maj of pop) complained of tax burden, taxes to state, excise tax on distillation, + tariff- feeling Federalist program served interests not of ppl but of wealthy elites
c)The Republican Opposition
i)Framers believed organized political parties dangerous, should be avoided would lead to factions (Madison Fed Papers #10), but eventually Madison and others convinced that Hamilton and Federalists had become a majority and used their power to control appts, offices, and rewards to supporters
ii)B/c Federalist structures thought to resemble corrupt Brit govt and menacing structure, critics felt only alternative vigorous opposition thru emergence of alternative political organization- the Republican Party
iii)By late 1790s Republicans creating even greater apparatus of partisan influence- correspondence btwn groups, influenced state and local elections
iv)Both groups believed represented only legitimate interest group, neither conceded right of other to exist- factionalism known as “first party system”
v)Leaders of Repubs James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson believed in an agrarian republic w/ independent farmer-citizens tilling own soil. Didn’t oppose commerce, trade or industry, but feared cities, urban mobs, and advanced industrial economy b/c of increase of propertyless workers
3)Establishing National Sovereignty
a)Securing the Frontier
i)1791 PA farmers refused to pay whiskey excise tax, Washington called militia from 3 states, Whiskey Rebellion collapsed- intimidation won allegiance
ii)Fed govt won loyalty of frontiersmen by accept territories as new states (NC 1789, RI 1791 last of 13 colonies)- VT 1791, Kentucky 1792, Tennessee 1796
b)Native Americans and the New Nation
i)Clashes with natives raised question of Indians’ place of in federal structure. Constitution recognized tribes as legal entities, but not outright nations
ii)Constitution did not address main issue of land, Indians lived within US boundaries but offered some measure of sovereignty
c)Maintaining Neutrality
i)In 1791 GB sent first minister to US, question of US neutrality arose in 1793 when French govt from revolution of 1789 went to war with GB
ii)French rep to US Edmond Genet violated Neutrality Act and tried to recruit Americans to French cause- US ships as privateers, raids against Spanish
iii)GB Royal Navy began seizing US ships trading w/ French in West Indies1794, anti-British feelings high, Hamilton concerned b/c war meant end to English imports- main revenue for financial system dependent from duties
d)Jay’s Treaty and Pinckney’s Treaty
i)Hamilton feared pro-French State Dept, had Washington send Chief Justice and Federalist John Jay to negotiate treaty with GB
ii)Jay’s Treaty in 1794 failed to compensate Brit assaults on ships and withdrawal of Brit forces from frontier, but prevented war, established American sovereignty over Northwest, satisfactory commercial relationship
iii)American backlash followed b/c not enough Brit promises, Republicans and some Federalists offered opposition but ultimately ratified by Senate
iv)Jay’s treaty allowed peace to be made with Spain b/c raised fears of Brit/American alliance in North America, Pinckney’s treaty 1795 recognized US right to Mississippi, Florida border, control of Indian raids from FL
4)The Downfall of the Federalists
a)The Election of 1796
i)Washington retired 1797, in “Farewell” worried over foreign influence on gov’t, including French efforts to frustrate Federalist diplomatic program
ii)Open expression of political rivalries after Washington- Jefferson running for Republicans, Hamilton too many enemies so VP John Adams Fed candidate
iii)Federalists could win majority of electors 1796 pres. election for Adams but factional fighting within party caused second candidate Thomas Pinckney to receive many votes- resulted in Jefferson finishing second, became VP.
iv)Federalists divided, strong Republicans opposition, Hamilton still lead party
b)The Quasi War with France
i)US relations w/ GB + Spain improved after treaties, deteriorated w/ France b/c of impressments of US ships and sailors
ii)President Adam’s pursued reconciliation by appointing bi-partisan commission of Charles Pinckney, John Marshall, Elbridge Gerry to negotiate
iii)French foreign minister Talleyrand demanded loan and bribe, Adams turned over report of this to Congress w/ names deleted- “XYZ Affair” caused outrage at France, Federalist gained support for response
iv)Adams asked Congress to cut off trade, 1798 created Dept of Navy (very successful capturing French ships), cooperated w/ GB
v)France reconciled, new govt of Napoleon 1800 new commercial arrangements
c)Repression and Protest
i)Conflict w/ France led to Federalist majority 1798, to silence Republican opposition passed the Alien and Sedition Acts
ii)Alien Acts restricted places obstacles for foreigners becoming citizens, Sedition Act allowed govt to prosecute libelous or treasonous activity- but definitions allowed govt to stifle any opposition—Repubs fought back
iii)Adams cautious in implementation but still repressive, Republican leaders hoped for reversal from state legislatures
iv)Jefferson + Madison had VA, KY adopt resolutions arguing when govt exercised undelegated powers, its acts “void”. Used Locke’s “compact theory”: states were part of contract, fed govt had breached contract, therefore states could “nullify” the appropriate laws—only VA and KY did so
v)By late 1790s national crisis b/c nation so politically divided
d)The “Revolution” of 1800
i)1800 pres election saw same candidates- Adams’ and Jefferson’s supporters showed no restraint or dignity in their assaults against other
ii)Crucial contest in New York where Aaron Burr (candidate for VP) mobilized Rev War veterans, the Tammany Society, to serve as Repub political machine- Repubs eventually won the state and election
iii)In partisan atmosphere Jefferson and Burr votes tied, the previous Federalist Congress had to choose between the two in a vote (H of Reps decides when no majority), ultimately Hamilton and Federalists elected Jefferson
iv)After election only judiciary branch still Federalist, Judiciary Act of 1801 had created many new positions which Adams had filled before leaving office
v)Republican viewed victory as savior from tyranny, believed new era would begin where true founding principles would govern
1)The Rise of Cultural Nationalism
a)Patterns of Education
i)Republican vision included enlightened citizenry, wanted nationwide system of free public schools to create educated electorate required by republic
ii)By 1815 no state had a comprehensive public school system, schooling primary by private institutions open only to those who could pay. Most were aristocratic in outlook, trained students to become elite. Few schools for poor
iii)Idea of “republican mother” to train new generation could not be ignorant, late 18thcentury women began to have limited education to make them better wives and mothers- no professional training
iv)Attempts to educate “noble savages” in white culture and reform tribes, African Americans very little schooling- literacy rate very small
v)Higher education not public, private contribution + tuition necessary, students mostly from prosperous, propertied families. Little professional education
b)Medicine and Science
i)Most doctors learned from established practitioners, struggled w/ introduction of science and combating superstition. Doctors often used dangerous and useless treatments.
ii)Medical profession used its new “scientific” method to justify expanding control to new care- childbirths by doctor and not midwives
c)Cultural Aspirations in the New Nation
i)After Eur independence ppl wanted cultural independence, literary and artistic achievements to rival those of Europe
ii)Nationalism could be found in early American schoolbooks, Noah Webster wanted patriot education- American Spelling Book and American Dictionary of the English Languageestablished national standard of words and usage, simplified and Americanized system of spelling created
iii)High literacy rate and large reading public due to wide circulation of newspapers and political pamphlets. Most printers used cheaper English material, American writers struggled to create strong native literature
(1)Charles Brockden Brown used novels to voice American themes
(2)Washington Irving wrote American fold tales, fables- Rip Van Winkle
(3)Histories that glorified past- Mercy Otis Warren History of the Revolution 1805 emphasized heroism, Mason Weems Life of Washington 1806. History used to instill sense of nationalism
d)Religious Skepticism
i)Revolution detached churches from govt + elevated liberty and reason, by 1790s few members of formal churches, some embraced “deism”
ii)Books and articles attacking religious “superstitions” popular, Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason.
iii)Skepticism led to “universalism” + “unitarianism”, @ first within New England Congregational Church, later separate- rejected predestination, salvation for all, Jesus only great religious teacher not son of God
iv)Spread of rationalism led to less commitment to organized churches + denominations considered too formal and traditional, comeback starting 1801
e)The Second Great Awakening
i)Origin 1790s from efforts to fight spread of religious rationalism. Baptists, Presbyterian, Methodists (founded by John Wesley) successful at combating New Light dissenters (ppl who made religion more compatible w/ rationalism)
ii)By 1800 awakening that began at Yale had spread throughout country and to the west, “camp meetings” by evangelical ministers produced religious frenzy
iii)Second Great Awakening called individuals to readmit God + Christ into daily life, reject skeptical rationalism. New sects rejected predestination, combined piety w/ belief of God as active force whose grace achieved thru faith + works
iv)Accelerated growth of new sects as opposed to return to established churches, provided sense of order + social stability to ppl searching for identity
v)Women particularly drawn to revivalism b/c women more numerous in certain regions, movement of industrial work out of home led to personal and social strains that religion was used to compensate for
vi)Revival led to rise of black preachers who interpreted religious message of salvation available to all into right to freedom
vii) Native American dislocation and defeats after Revolution created sense of crisis and led to Indian religious fervor- missionaries active in south led to conversion, in North prophet Handsome Lake encouraged Christian missionaries and restoration of traditional Iroquois culture
2)Stirrings of Industrialism
a)Technology in America
i)America imported technological advances from England. Brit govt attempted to prevent spread of their tech, but immigrants introduced new machines to America. Samuel Slater built mill in RI 1790, first factory in America
ii)American inventor Oliver Evans created automated flower mill, Eli Whitney revolutionized weapons making and
iii)Invented cotton gin in 1793. Growth of textile industry in England created great demand for cotton, cotton gin allowed for easy separation of cotton seed from cotton allowed tremendous amount of cotton to be cleaned, new business led slavery became more important than ever.
iv)In North cotton supply led NE entrepreneurs to create American textile industry in 1820s/30s- as N became increasingly industrial S more firmly wedded to agriculture
v)His interchangeable parts for weapons invented during Quasi War w/ France adopted by other manufactures for other complicated products
b)Transportation Innovations
i)Industrialization required transporting raw materials to factories and finished goods to create large domestic market for mass-production, US lacked system
ii)To enlarge American market US merchants looked to expand overseas trade, Congress 1789 passed tariff bills that favored American ships in American ports, stimulated growth of domestic shipping. War in Eur in 1790s led US merchants to take over most of trade btwn Eur and Western hemisphere
iii)Improvement in inter-state and interior transport led by improved river transport by new steamship
iv)Oliver Evans had invented efficient steam engine for boats and machinery, Robert Fulton + Robert Livingston perfected steamboat and brought it to national attention w/ theirClermont
c)The Rising Cities
i)America remained largely rural and agrarian nation, only 3% lived in towns of more than 8,000 in 1800 census—yet there were signs of change
ii)Major US cities such as New York + Philadelphia large and complex enough to rival secondary cities of Europe
iii)Urban lifestyle produced affluent people who sought amenities, elegance, dress, and diversions- music, theater, dancing, horse racing
3)Jefferson the President
a)The Federal City and the “People’s President”
i)French architect Pierre L’Enfant designed city on grand scale, but Washington remained little more than provincial village w/ few public buildings
ii)Jefferson acted in spirit of democratic simplicity, made his image plain, disdain for pretension. Eliminated aura of majesty surrounding presidency
iii)Political genius, worked as leader of his party to give Republicans in Congress direction, used appointments as political weapon. Won 1804 reelection easily
b)Dollars and Ships
i)Washington and Adams had increased expenditures, debt, taxation. Jefferson 1802 had Congress abolish all internal taxes leaving only land sales and customs duties, cut govt spending, halved debt
ii) Scaled down armed forces, cut navy due to fear of limiting civil liberty + civilian govt, promoting overseas commerce instead of agriculture
iii)At same time established US Military Academy @ West Point 1802, built up navy after 1801 threats by pasha of Tripoli in Mediterranean following Jefferson’s end to paying ransom demanded by Barbary pirates
c)Conflict With The Courts
i)Judiciary remained in hands of Federalist judges, congress repealed Judiciary Act of 1801 eliminating judgeships Adam’s filled before leaving office
ii)Case of Marbury v. Madison 1803 btwn Justice of Peace William Marbury and Sec of State James Madison
(1)Supreme Court ruled Congress exceeded its authority in creating a statute of the Judiciary Act of 1789 b/c Constitution had already defined judiciary
(2)Court asserted that the act of Congress was void. Enlarged courts power
iii)Chief Justice John Marshall presided over case, battled to give fed govt unity and strength, established judiciary as branch coequal w/ exec and legislature
iv)Jefferson assaulted last Federalist stronghold, urged Congress to impeach obstructive judges. Tried to impeach justice Samuel Chase in 1805 but Republican Senate could not get 2/3 vote necessary- acquittal set precedent impeachment not purely a political weapon, above partisan disagreement
4)Doubling the National Domain
a)Jefferson and Napoleon
i)After failing to seize India Napoleon wanted power in New World. Spain held areas west of Mississippi, 1800 Treaty of San Ildefonso granted French this Louisiana. Also held sugar-rich West Indian islands Guadeloupe, Martinique, Santo Domingo (where slave revolt led by Toussaint L’ouverture put down)
ii)Jefferson unaware of Napoleon’s imperial agenda, pursued pro-French foreign policy- apptd pro-French Robert Livingston minister, secured Franco-American settlement of 1800, disapproved of black Santo Domingo uprising
iii)Reconsidered position when heard of secret transfer of Louisiana and seizure of New Orleans, alarmed n 1802 when Spanish intendant at New Orleans forbade transfer of American cargo to ocean going vessels (which was guaranteed in Pikcney Treaty of 1795)- this closed lower Miss. to US shippers
iv)Westerners demanded govt reopen river, Jefferson ordered Livingston negotiate purchase of New Orleans, in meantime expanded military and river fleet to give impression of New Orleans attack
v)Nap offered sale of whole Louisiana Territory. Plans for American empire awry b/c army decimated by yellow fever, reinforcements frozen
b)The Louisiana Purchase
i)Livingston and James Monroe in Paris decided to proceed with sale of whole territory even though not authorized to do so by govt, treaty signed April 1803
ii)US paid $15 million to France, had to incorporate N.O. residents into Union
iii)Jefferson unsure US had authority to accept offer b/c power not specifically granted in Constitution, ultimately agreed constituted as treaty power. December 1803 territory handed over from Spain to France then US
iv)Govt organized Louisiana territory like Northwest territory w/ various territories to eventually to become states- Louisiana first, admitted 1812
c)Lewis and Clark Explore the West
i)Jefferson planned expedition across continent to Pacific Ocean in 1803 to gather geographical fats and investigate trade w/ Indians
ii)Lewis and Clark set out 1804 from Mississippi R. in St Louis w/ Indian Sacajawea as guide, reached pacific fall 1805
iii)Jefferson dispatched other explorers to other parts of Louisiana Territory, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike led two expeditions btwn Mississppi and Rocky Mts
d)The Burr Conspiracy
i)Reelection of 1804 suggested nation approved of Jefferson’s acquisitions, but some NE Federalists known as Essex Junto felt expansion weakened power of Federalists + region . Felt only answer secession and “Northern Confederacy”
ii)Plan required support of NY, NJ, New England, but leading NY Federalist Alexander Hamilton refused support
iii)Turned to Vice President Aaron Burr (who had no prospect in own party after 1800 election deadlock) to be Federalist candidate for NY governor in 1804
iv)Hamilton accused Burr of treason and negative remarks about character, when Burr lost election blamed defeat on Hamilton’s malevolence
v)Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel 1804, Hamilton mortally wounded
vi)Burr, now political outcast, fled NY for West and along with General James Wilkinson, governor of Louisiana Territory, planned capture of Mexico from Spanish and possibly make his own empire. 1806 tried for treason, acquitted
vii)“Conspiracy” showed perils of central govt that remained deliberately weak w/ vast tracts of nominally controlled land, state of US as stable and united nation
5)Expansion and War
a)Conflict on the Seas
i)US shipping expanded to control trade btwn Eur and W. Indies
ii)Napoleon’s Continental system forbade ships that had docked at any point in British ports from landing on continent- Berlin (1806) + Milan (1807) Decrees
iii) Britain’s “orders in council” required goods to continent be in ships that had at least stopped in British ports- response to Nap’s “Continental System”
iv)American ships caught btwn countries, but England greater threat b/c greater sea power and the worse offender
b)Impressment
i)Brit Navy had terrible conditions, forced service called “impressments” used, many deserted when possible and joined Americans- to stop loss Brit claimed right to stop and search American merchant ships + reimpress deserters
ii)1807 Chesapeake-Leopard incident: Brit fired on US ship that refused search, US Minister James Monroe protested, GB refused to renounce impressments
c)“Peaceable Coercion”
i)To prevent future incidents that might bring war Jefferson proposed The Embargo 1807- prohibited US ship from leaving for any foreign port
ii)Created national depression, ship-owners + merchants of NE (mainly Federalists) hardest hit-before
iii)James Madison, Jefferson’s Sec of State, won election of 1808 but fierce opposition- led Jefferson to end Embargo, replaced with Non-Intercourse Act- reopened trade w/ all nations except GB + France
iv)1810 new Macon’s Bill No. 2 opened trade w/ GB + France but pres had power to prohibit commerce for belligerent behavior against neutral shipping
v)Napoleon announced France would no longer interfere, Madison issued embargo against GB 1811 until it renounced restrictions of American shipping
d)The “Indian Problem” and the British
i)After dislodgement by Americans, Indians looked to Brits for protection
ii)William Henry Harrison had been a promoter of Western expansion (Harrison Land Law 1800), named governor of Indiana 1801 by Jefferson. Offered Indians ultimatum: become farmers and assimilate or move to West of Miss.
iii)By 1807 tribes mainly ceding land. After Chesapeake incident, however, Brits began to renew Indian friendships to begin defense of invasion into Can
e)Tecumseh and the Prophet
i)The Prophet was Indian leader inspired religious revival, rejection of white culture. Attracted thousands from many tribes at Tippecanoe Creek. Prophet’s brother Tecumseh led joint effort to oppose white civilization
ii)Starting 1809 began to unite tribes of Miss. valley, 1811 traveled south to add tribes of the South to alliance
iii)1811 Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison defeated Prophet’s followers and destroyed tribal confederacy. However, thru 1812 continued to attack settlers, encouraged by Brit agents—Americans believed end only thru Can. Invasion
f)Florida and War Fever
i)“Frontiersman” in N wanted Canada, those in S wanted to acquire Spanish Florida in order to stop Indian attacks, gain access to rivers w/ port access
ii)1810 setters in W. Florida captured Spanish fort at Baton Rouge, President Madison agreed to annex territory- Spain Britain’s ally, made pretext for war
iii)By 1812 “war harks” elected during 1810 elections eager for war- some ardent nationalists seeking territorial expansion, others defense of Republican values
iv)Speaker Henry Clay of Kentucky and John Calhoun of SC led Republicans in pressing for Canadian invasion- Madison declared war June 18, 1812
6)The War of 1812
a)Battles with the Tribes
i)Americans forced to surrender Detroit and Fort Dearborn (Chicago) in first months. On seas American frigates and privateers successful, but by 1813 Brit navy (less occupied w/ Napoleon) devoted resources and imposed blockade
ii)US began to have success in Great Lakes- Oliver Perry beat Brits at Put-In-Bay 1813, burned capital at York. William Henry Harrison victorious at Battle of the Thames- disheartened Natives of Northwest and diminished ability to defend claims
iii)Andrew Jackson defeated Creek Indians @ Battle of Horseshoe Bend 1814, continued invasion into Florida and captured Pensacola Sept 1814
b)Battles With the British
i)After Nap surrendered 1814 England prepared to invade US, landed armada in Chesapeake region. Aug 1814 captured and burned Washington
ii)Americans at Fort McHenry in Baltimore repelled Brit attack in Sept. This battle is what Francis Scott Key witnessed, wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”
iii)Brit also repelled in NY at Battle of Plattsburgh in Sept. January 1815 Andrew Jackson wildly successful at Battle of New Orleans- after treaty signed
c)The Revolt of New England
i)US failures 1812-1815 led to increased govt opposition. In NE opposition to war and Repub govt, Federalists led by Daniel Webtser led Congressional opposition. Federalists in NE dreamed of separate nation to escape tyranny of slaveholders and backwoodsmen
ii)Dec 1814 convention at Hartford led to nothing b/c of news of Jackson’s smashing success at New Orleans. Two days later news of peace treaty arrived
d)The Peace Settlement
i)Aug 1814 John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin met in Ghent, Belgium w/ Brit diplomats. Final treaty did little but end fighting- US dropped call to end impressments, Brit dropped call for Indian buffer in NW
ii)Brit accepted b/c exhausted + indebted after Napoleonic conflict, US believed w/ end of Eur conflict less commercial interference would occur
iii)Treaty of Gent signed Dec 1814, free trade agreement 1815later Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 led to disarmament on Great Lakes
iv)War disastrous to Natives, lands captured in fighting never restored, most important allies now gone from NW
1)A Growing Economy
a)Banking, Currency, and Protection
i)War of 1812 stimulated manufacturing, but after war produced chaos in shipping and banking- need for new Bank of the United States charter its expiration 1811 and not renewed, protecting new industries, transport systems
ii)After expiration of charter state banks offered difft currencies at difft values- confusion and counterfeiting. Congress passed new charter for Bank of US 1816- its size and power essentially forced state banks to issue safer currency
iii)Manufacturing had grown tremendously due to imports being cut off, textile industry increased exponentially btwn Embargo of 1807 and War. Factories in NE no longer family operations. Francis Lowell developed new loom 1813 in Boston Manufacturing Company- first process of both spinning and weaving
iv)After war English ships swarmed American ports, wanted to reclaim old markets with prices below cost. 1816 Congress passed tariff to protect “infant industries” from competition aboard- farmers objected b/c paid higher price
b)Transportation
i)W/o transport network manufacturers couldn’t access raw materials and send finished goods to markets in US- should fed govt finance roads?
ii)1807 Jefferson’s Sec Treasury Albert Gallatin proposed revenue from Ohio land sale go to fund National Road. Crucial Lancaster Pike built in PA- both allowed for the beginning of transport of commodities like textiles
iii)Steam-powered shipping (advancements of Robert Fulton) expanded on rivers and Great Lakes. Steamboats on Miss. stimulated already agricultural economy of South & West b/c cost to transport products to market lowered
iv)Despite progress of turnpikes + steamships serious gaps in trasportation. 1815 John Calhoun introduced bill to use federal funds to finance internal improvements, but Madison vetoed it in 1817 b/c believed unconstitutional
v)Remained to state govts + private enterprise to build needed transit networks
2)Expanding Westward
a)The Great Migrations
i)Westward movement affected economy, factor in Civil War, peoples thrusted together. Pop. + econ. pressures, land availability, decreased Indian resistance
ii)Immigration and natural growth increased Eastern population, agricultural lands occupied. Slaves in S limited work opportunity. West attractive b/c War of 1812 lessened Native opposition by pushing Indians west + establishing forts on Great Lakes and Miss. R., govt “factor system” of goods to Indians
b)White Settlers in the Old Northwest
i)Shelters primitive, clearings in forest for crops to supplement game and domestic animals, rough existence w/ poverty and loneliness
ii)Migrants journeyed westward in groups, some formed communities and schools, churches, other institutions. Mobility a large part of life
iii)Farm economy based on modest seized farms w/ grain cultivation + livestock
c)The Plantation System in the Southwest
i)Cotton longs in Old South had lost much fertility but market continued to grow for it, Black Belt of SW lands could support thriving cotton
ii)First arrivals small farmers, wealthier planters followed buying and clearing smaller lands. Brought w/ them slaves, eventually mansions grew up from simpler log cabins symbolizing emergence of a newly rich class
iii)Rapid growth in NW and SW resulted in new states after War of 1812: Indiana 1816, Mississippi 1817, Illinois 1818, Alabama 1819
d)Trade and Trapping in the Far West
i)Trade began to develop btwn western regions in US in 19th century + beyond
ii)Mexico (controlled Texas, CA, Southwest) won independence from Spain 1821, opened territories to trade in order to grow their fortunes. US merchants such as William Becknell displaced Indian traders and inferior Mexican products lost out to new US traders- Mexico lost its markets it in own colonies
iii)Fur traders such as Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company eventually extended to Rockies, instead of pelts from Indians increasingly trapped their own
iv)Trappers (“mountain men”) first wedge of white movement, changed society by interacting with Indians and Mexicans. 1822 Andrew and William Ashley founded Rocky Mountain Fur Company, recruited trappers to live permanently in Rockies (Utah, New Mexico)
v)Lives of trappers bound up with expanding market economy- relied on fur companies for credit, depended on Eastern merchants for livelihood
e)Eastern Images of the West
i)Ppl in East only dimly aware of trappers’ world and their reshaping of it
ii)Explorers dispatched by US govt to chart territories. 1819/1820 Steven Long sent by War Dept to explore, wrote influential report with dismissive conclusions for future settlement (like Zebulon Pike 15 yrs before)
3)The Era of Good Feelings
a)The End of the First Party System
i)James Monroe, Madison’s Sec of State, elected Republican president 1816. W/ Federalist decline faced party faced no serious opposition, after War of 1812 no serious international threat- wanted republic w/o partisan factions
ii)For Sec of State chose New Englander and former Federalist John Quincy Adams, John Calhoun named Sec of War- Monroe took pains to include northerners, southerners, easterners, westerners, Feds and Repubs in Cabinet
iii)After election national goodwill tour, re-elected 1820 w/o any opposition
b)John Quincy Adams
i)Committed nationalist, important task promotion of American expansion
ii)US already annexed W Florida, 1817 began negotiations w/ Spanish minister Lius de Onis. Meanwhile, American commander in Florida Andrew Jackson used orders from Sec of War Calhoun to invade Florida to stop Seminole raids—known as Seminole war. Adams wanted to use as excuse to annex
iii)Onis realized he had little choice, Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 ceded Florid and lands north of 42nd parallel to US, US gave up Texas claims
c)The Panic of 1819
i)Panic followed period of high foreign demand for US goods, rising prices had stimulated land boom in western US. Availability for easy credit to settlers and speculators- from govt, state and wildcat banks
ii)1819 management at Bank of US tightened credit, led to series of state bank failures, led to financial panic- those in West blamed it on bank
iii)Depression for 6 years followed, but growth ultimately continued
4)Sectionalism and Nationalism
a)The Missouri Compromise
i)Missouri applied for statehood 1819, although slavery already established NY Rep James Tallmadge’s Amendment gradual emancipation- controversial
ii)Since beginning new states had come into Union in pairs (1 from N, 1 from S), Missouri entrance would increase power of North over South
iii)Maine had also applied for statehood, Henry Clay threatened South would block entrance in Missouri not permitted to be a slave state
iv)Compromise in Maine-Missouri Bill, Senator Jesse Thomas’s Amendment to ban slavery in rest of Louisiana Ter. north of MO’s 3630’ border also passed
b)Marshall and the Court
i)John Marshall chief justice from 1801-1835. Strengthened judicial system at expense of executive and legislature, increased fed power over states, advanced interest of propertied and commercial classes
ii)Supported inviolability contracts in Fletcher v. Peck (1810) which held GA legislature could not repeal contract acts of previous legislature. Dartmouth College v. Woodward(1819) affirmed constitutionality of federal review of state court decisions- states had given up some sovereignty by ratifying Constitution, therefore their courts must submit to federal jurisdiction
iii)“Implied powers” of Congress upheld in McCulloch v Maryland (1819) by upholding Bank of United States, attorney Daniel Webster argued establishment legal under “necessary and proper” clause, power to tax involved “power to destroy”. States therefore could not tax now-legal Bank
iv)Strengthened Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce in Gibbons v Ogden(1824)- Fed govt gave license to Thomas Gibbons for ferry even transport btwn NY and NJ even though NY state had granted Aaron Ogden monopoly- Marshall argued that Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce + navigation “complete in itself” + could exercise to the utmost
v)Decisions established primacy of fed govt over states in regulating economy, protected corporations + private economic institutions from local govt
c)The Court and the Tribes
i)Marshall court decisions w/ Natives affirmed supremacy of US and carved out position for Native Americans within the constitutional structure
ii)In Johnson v McIntosh (1825) Marshall described the basic right of Natives to tribal lands that preceded all other American law. Individual Americans could not buy or take land from tribes, only fed govt could do that
iii)Worchester v Georgia (1832) invalidated law to regulate citizen access to Cherokee lands. Only fed govt had power to do that, tribes described as sovereign entities w/ exclusive authority and territorial boundaries
iv)Marshall court did what Const had not- establish place for Indian tribes in American political system. Sovereign, but fed govt “guardian” over its “ward”
d)The Latin American Revolution and the Monroe Doctrine
i) US foreign policy mainly centered on Eur, but after War of 1812 Spanish Empire in decline w/ new revolutions, US developing profitable trade w/ Latin America rivaling GB as principal trading pattern
ii)1815 US proclaimed neutrality in wars btwn Spain and rebellious colonies, 1822 President Monroe established diplomatic relations w/ 5 new nations
iii)1823 Monroe announced policy (later known as “Monroe Doctrine”) that American continent not be considered subject of future colonization by European powers, any foreign challenge would be unfriendly
iv)Monroe Doctrine developed b/c Americans feared Spanish allies (such as France) would aid it in retaking lost empire, fear of GB taking over Cuba
5)The Revival of Opposition
a)The “Corrupt Bargain”
i)In 1824 Republican caucus nominated William Crawford of Georgia for presidency, but other candidates received nominations from state legislatures
ii)Candidates included: Sec of State John Quincy Adams had little popular appeal, Speaker of the House Henry Clay had personal following and strong program in the “American System” to strengthen home industry and Bank, Andrew Jackson little political experience but a military hero and TN allies
iii)Jackson received more popular and electoral votes tan other candidates but not majority, Twelfth Amendment (passed after contested 1800 election) required House of Reps to choose among top three candidates- Clay threw endorsement behind Adams b/c Jackson a political rival in West + Adams a nationalist and likely American system supporter
iv) Adams named Clay Sec of State, Jackson’s followers enraged at seeming “corrupt bargain”- haunted Adams throughout presidency
b)The Second President Adams
i)Adams proposed nationalist program reminiscent of Clay’s American System but Jacksonians in Congress blocked most of it. Southerners in Congress blocked delegates to international conference called by Simon Bolivar in Panama in 1826 b/c Haiti was sending black delegates
ii)Georgia wished to remove remaining Creek and Cherokee Indians from state to gain more land for cotton planters. Adams refused to enforce treaty made btwn Indians + Georgia. Governor defied president and proceeded w/ removal
iii)Adams supported tariff on imported goods 1828 b/c NE textile manufacturers complained of competition. To be passed concessions made to middle + west states on other tariffs—bill signed hated by all, called “tariff of abominations”
c)Jackson Triumphant
i)By 1828 presidential election new 2-party system had begun to emerge from divisions btwn Republicans. National Republicans supported John Quincy Adams and economic nationalism, opposing them was Democratic Republicans of Andrew Jackson who called for assault on privilege and widening of opportunity
ii)Campaign of personal charges, Jackson’s wife Rachel accused of bigamy, she was so upset that she ultimately died- Jackson blamed opponents
iii)Jackson won decisive but sectional victory. Adams strong in New England & mid-Atlantic. Jackson believed victory similar to Jefferson’s 1800 win
1)The Rise of Mass Politics
a)The Expanding Electorate
i)No economic equality, but transformation of American politics to extend the right to vote to new groups. Until 1820s most states limited franchise to white landowners. Changes began in West w/ Constitutions guaranteeing right to vote to all white males- E. states did likewise in order to stop exodus of ppl
ii)Change provoked resistance- MA conservatives wanted property requirement, state eventually required voters to be taxpayers + Gov had to own large lands
iii)State reforms generally peaceful but in RI instability when 1840 group led by Thomas Dorr and the “People’s Party” submitted and won a new state Const. by the ppl. 1842 2 simultaneous govts, Dorr rebellion quickly failed
iv)In S election laws favored planters and politicians from older counties, limited influence of newly settled western areas
v)Everywhere women could not vote, no secret ballots—despite limitations numbers of voters increased faster than population
vi)Originally electors chosen by legislature, by 1828 popularly elected except SC
b)The Legitimization of Party
i)Higher levels of voter participation due to expanded electorate but also strengthening of party organization and loyalty
ii)1820s/1830s saw permanent, institutionalized parties become desirable part of political process. Began at state level in NY w/ Martin Van Buren’s factional “Bucktails”. Party’s preservation thru favors, rewards, patronage leaders goals
iii)Parties would check/balance one other, politicians forced 2 rep. will of the ppl
iv)By late 1820s new idea of party spreading beyond NY, Jackson’s 1828 election seemed to legitimize new system. By 1830s national 2-party system: anti-Jackson forces called Whigs, his followers called Democrats
c)“President of the Common Man”
i)Democratic party embraced no uniform ideological position, committed to offer equal protection and benefits by assaulting eastern aristocracy to extend opportunity to rising classes of the W + S, preserve white-male democracy thru subjugation of African Americans and Indians
ii)Jackson’s first targets entrenched officeholders of fed govt, wanted to simplify official duties to make office more accessible. Removed nearly 1/5 of office-holders removed b/c misuse of govt funds or corruption
iii)Jackson’s supporters embraced “spoils system”, making right of elected officials to appt followers to office established feature of American politics
iv)Supporters worked to transform presidential nomination system- 1832 national party convention held to replace congressional caucus, considered democratic triumph b/c power from ppl and not aristocratic caucus
v)Spoils system and convention limited power of entrenched elites (permanent officeholders, caucus elite), but neither really transferred true power to the ppl
2)“Our Federal Union”
a)Calhoun and Nullification
i)Late 1820s many in SC came to see “tariff of abominations” as responsible for stagnation of state economy (really due to exhausted farmland unable to compete with new western lands). Some considered remedy thru secession
ii)Vice President Calhoun offered alternative in theory of nullification- idea like Madison and Jefferson’s KY + VA Resolutions of 1798-1799. Argued fed govt created by states, therefore states final arbiter (not Congress or courts) of constitutionality. Convention could be held to null and void law within state
b)The Rise of Van Buren
i)Apptd Sec of State 1829 by Jackson, also member of president’s of unofficial circle of allies in “Kitchen Cabinet”. After supporting Peggy Eaton in affair over acceptance into cabinet wife social circle gained favor w/ President
ii)By 1831 Jackson had chosen Van Buren to succeed him in WH, Calhoun’s presidential dream ended
c)The Webster-Hayne Debate
i)January 1830 proposal to temporarily stop western land sales led SC Sen. Robert Hayne to claim slowing down W growth means for east to retain political and economic power. Hinted at uniting S + W against “tyranny”
ii)Nationalist and Whig Sen. Daniel Webster attacked Hayne + Calhoun for challenging integrity of the Union. Debate ensued over issue of states rights vs national power
iii)Jackson announced at Democratic Party banquet “Our Federal Union-It must be preserved”, lines drawn btwn Jackson and Calhoun
d)The Nullification Crisis
i)1832 tariff bill in Congress gave SC no relief from “tariff of abominations”, state convention held- voted for nullification of tariffs of 1828 & 1832, duties collection w/in state. Calhoun resigned VP became Sen., Hayne now Gov
ii)Jackson insisted nullification treason, strengthened federal forts in SC. 1833 Pres. proposed bill to authorize use of military to see acts of Congress obeyed
iii)No states supported SC, state itself divided. Sen Henry Clay offered compromise that tariff would be gradually lowered so that by 1842 it would be at same level as in 1816. Compromise + force bill passed March 1833
iv)SC state convention met and repealed its nullification of the tariffs, but also nullified the force act (symbolic of null. legitimacy)
3)The Removal of the Indians
a)White Attitudes Toward the Tribes
i)In 18th century many whites considered Indians “noble savages” who had inherent dignity, by 19th century more hostile attitude especially among whites in W and territories, simply “savages”
ii)White westerners wanted removal b/c feared continued contact + expanding white settlements would lead to endless violence, & Indian lands valuable
iii)Only fed govt had power to deal w/ Indians after Sup. Court decisions. Indians created new large political entities to deal w/ whites
b)The Black Hawk War
i)In Old Northwest Black Hawk War 1831-1832 to expel last of Indians there
ii)Conflict notable for violence of white military efforts, attacked even when Chief Black Hawk was surrendering and killed Indians fleeing battle
c)The “Five Civilized Tribes”
i)1830s govt worried about remaining “Five Civilized Tribes” in South- successful agricultural society, Constitution forming Cherokee Nation 1827
ii)Fed govt worked in early 19th century thru treaties to remove tribes to West and open lands to white settlement. Negotiation process unsatisfying + slow
iii)Congress passed Removal Act 1830 to finance def negotiations w/ tribes in order to relocate them West, pressure from state govts to move as well
iv)In GA Sup. Court decisions of Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831) and Worcester v Georgia (1832) seemed to protect tribal lands
v)1835 treaty signed with minority tribe in Cherokee nation ceding all land to GA, but majority of Cherokees refused to recognize its legitimacy. Jackson sent army under General Winfield Scott to drive them westward to reservation
d)Trials of Tears
i)Forced trek to “Indian Territory” began winter 1838. Thousands died before destination, dubbed “Trail of Tears”
ii)Cherokees not alone: btwn 1830-1838 nearly all “Five Civilized Tribes” expelled from Southern states & relocated to Indian Territory created by Congress in Indian Intercourse Act of 1834. Undesirable land far from whites
iii)Only Seminoles in Florida resisted relocation. Under pressure had agreed to cede land and move to Ind. Territory, many members of tribe moved
(1)But 1835 minority led by chief Osceola staged uprising. Jackson sent army, conducted campaign of systematic extermination but successful guerilla warfare forced govt to abandon war in 1842
e)The Meaning of Removal
i)By end of 1830s almost all major Indian societies relocated to far less hospitable lands west of Mississippi on reservations surrounded by forts
ii)White movement west impossible to have stopped, but alternative to removal could have been some form of co-existence like in NW trading posts, TX
iii)BY mid-19th century Americans believed western lands had no pre-existing civilization. Natives could not be equal partners, were obstacles to be removed, “lacked intelligence, industry and moral habits for improvement”
4)Jackson and the Bank War
a)Biddle’s Institution
i)Bank of United States in 1830s had HQ in Philadelphia, branches in 19 cities, by law only place govt could deposit its funds
ii)Conducted private business issuing credit, bank notes used throughout country, restrained less well-managed state banks. Pres Nicholas Biddle had made bank sound + prosperous. Regardless, Jackson wanted to destroy it
iii)Opposition came from “soft-money” faction who wanted more currency in circulation. Made up of state banks, resisted Bank of US’s efforts to restrain free issue of notes from state banks
iv)“Hard money” faction wanted gold and silver to back currency, suspicious of expansion and speculation. Jackson supported hard-money
v)Jackson did not favor renewal of bank charter after 1836 expiration. Biddle tried to save bank by granting financial favors to influential men, named Daniel Webster made legal counsel (gained Clay’s support). Recommended renewal bill 1832 to make bank issue in 1832 elections.
vi)Bill passed Congress but Jackson vetoed it, could not be overridden. In 1832 Jackson + Van Buren elected despite opposition to bank over opposition Clay
b)The “Monster” Destroyed
i)Jackson determined to destroy “monster” Bank quickly. To weaken it removed govt deposits (two Tres. Secretaries fired b/c feared financial destabilization, third Roget Taney complied)
ii)When administration transferred funds from Bank to pet banks, Biddle called in loans and raised interest rates- hoped would cause financial distress and recession that would persuade Congress to recharter Bank
iii)Financial conditions worsened winter 1833/1834, two sides blamed it on each other. Finally Biddle contracted credit too far for his own allies in the business community, began to fear his efforts to save ban threatening their own
iv)Biddle forced to grant credit in abundance on reasonable terms, tactics ended change of re-charter. End in 1836 empowered unstable bank system
c)The Taney Court
i)Jackson moved against economic nationalism support of Supreme Court, after Marshall died 1835 named Roger Taney chief justice
ii)Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge (1837) btwn company chartered by state for toll bridge monopoly and company applying to legislature to pay for toll-free bridge. Taney ruled that govt’s goal to promote general happiness took precedence over right of contract and property, therefore state had right to amend contract o advance well-being of community
iii)Reflected Jacksonian ideal that key to democracy expansion of economic opportunity that could not occur if corporations maintained monopolies and choked off competition from newer companies
5)The Changing Face of American Politics
a)Democrats and Whigs
i)Democrats in 1830s envisioned expanding economic and political opportunity for white males, limited govt but one that removed obstacles to opportunity, defense of Union, attacking corruption, radical branch called Locofocos
ii)Whigs favored expanding power of fed govt, industrial and commercial development, knit country into consolidated economic system, cautious westward expansion b/c feared territorial growth would produce instability, embraced industrial future and commercial and manufacturing greatness
iii)Whigs supported by merchants and manufactures of NE, wealthy Southern planters, western commercialists. Democrats supported by smaller merchants and workingmen of NE, S planters suspicious of industry, agrarian westerners
iv)Above all wanted to win elections: Whigs connected w/ Anti-Masons to resent “undemocratic” Freemasons (such as Jackson and Van Buren). Irish and German Catholic immigrants supported Democrats b/c aversion to commercial development, Evangelical Protestants supported Whigs
v)Whigs led by “Great Triumvirate” of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun. 1836 election Dems united behind Jackson’s choice of Van Buren for candidate, but Whigs could not agree on single candidate. Clay, White, and William Henry Harrison ran for regional interests, defeated by Van Buren
b)Van Buren and the Panic of 1837
i)Van Buren elected on economic boom that reached height 1836- canals and railroads being built, easy credit, land business booming, govt revenues from sales + 1833 tariff created surpluses that allowed reduction of nat’l debt
ii)Congress passed 1836 “distribution” act to return surplus to states, used to fund highways, railroads, canals, created economic boom
iii)Withdrawal of fed funds strained state “pet” banks, forced to call in loans. Jackson issued “specie circular” that required payment for public land sales be in gold or silver or currency backed by them b/c feared rampant speculation
iv)Circular produced financial panic during Van Buren’s presidency banks and business failed, food riots- largest depression in American history to that point
v)Both parties responsible for panic- surplus redistribution a Whig measure, Jackson’s circular, but also panics in England and W. Eur that caused those investors to withdraw funds from American banks, also crop failures
vi)Panic of 1837 led Democrats + Van Buren administration to pay price for no govt intervention. Only success of VB creation of “subtreasury system” to replace Bank of US- govt funds placed in independent treasury in Washington, no private banks could use money to fund loans and speculation
c)The Log Cabin Campaign
i)To win 1840 election Whigs supported only one candidate- William Henry Harrison for pres and John Tyler for VP
ii)1840 campaign first in which “penny press” carried news of candidates to larger audience of workers and tradespeople. Whigs, although represented affluent elements of pop, presented themselves as party of the common people
iii)Whig campaign effective at portraying the wealthy Harrison as a simple log cabin and cider man and VB as an aloof aristocrat--- Harrison won election
d)The Frustration of the Whigs
i)Harrison died of pneumonia 1 month after inauguration, new President Tyler was a former Democrat who refused to let Clay and Webster control policy
ii)Pres supported bills abolishing independent treasury system and raising tariff rate, but refused Clay’s attempt to recharter Bank and vetoed internal improvement bills sponsored by Whigs.
iii)Whigs kicked Tyler out of party, entire cabinet resigned. Tyler and some conservative southern Whigs who supported slavery and states rights prepared to join the Democratic Party
e)Whig Diplomacy
i)Canada uprising caused tension leading to burning of an American steamship carrying arms and the subsequent arrest of a British citizen for burning 1837. Tension over Canada-Maine boundary led to small “Aroostook War” 1838
ii)Finally negotiations to reduce all tensions occurred btwn Sec of State Webster and British Lord Ashburton. 1842 Webster Ashburton treaty established new Maine border, GB refused to interfere w/ American ships-- relations improved
iii)Tyler administration established first diplomatic relations with China, Americans received same privileges as British such as “extraterritoriality” and port use
iv)Whigs lost White House in 1844 elections
1)The Changing American Population
a)The American Population, 1820-1840
i)Population dramatically increased, began to concentrate in industrial centers of Northeast and Northwest, provided labor force for factory system
ii)Growth b/c of improvements in public health (decrease in number and intensity of epidemics), high birth rate, lower infant mortality rates
iii)Immigration did not contribute greatly until 1830s b/c of Eur wars & US economic problems. Immigrant boom caused by lower transport costs, increased US economic opportunity + less econ opportunity in some Eur areas
iv)Immigrant + internal migration led to growth of cities b/c agriculture in New England less profitable (some moved West also). By 1810 NY largest city
b)Immigration and Urban Growth, 1840-1860
i)By 1860 26% of free state populations lived in towns or cities
ii)Booming agricultural economy of west led small villages and trading posts to become cities. Benefited from Mississippi R, centers of Midwest trade
iii)By 1860 American population greater than that of GB and approaching France and Germany. Urban growth from flow of ppl from Northeast farms (competition from Eur farms + Western farms) & influx of immigrants abroad
iv)Majority of immigrants from Ireland and Germany. German industrial revolution had caused poverty, & b/c of collapse of liberal 1848 revolution. In Ireland unpopular English rule & “potato famine” of 1845-1849
v)Most Irish settled in eastern cities + became unskilled laborers (had little $, many were young women- domestic/factory work in cities). Most Germans moved to Northwest, farming or business in towns (many were single men)
c)Rise of Nativism
i)Some native-born Americans saw opportunity in immigration. Industrialists & employers wanted cheap labor, land speculators and politicians hoped would populate west + increase demand for goods, increase influence
ii)Some (Nativists) hostile to foreigners and immigration. Some racist, some argued newcomers socially unfit and did not have sufficient standards of civilization, workers feared low immigrant wages would steal their jobs, Protestants feared Irish Catholics & Rome, many upset b/c voted Democratic
iii)Tension and prejudice led to secret societies to combat “alien menace”, Native American Association 1837, 1845 Native American Party, peak in 1850s with combination in Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. Wanted to ban Catholics form office, restrict naturalization, force literacy tests for voting
iv)Secret order known as Know-Nothings turned to party politics, after 1852 election formed American Party, success in 1854 East elections, declined after
2)Transportation, Communications, and Technology
a)The Canal Age
i)1790-1820s “turnpike era”, but roads not adequate for nation’s growing needs
ii)Traffic on large rivers such as Miss. and Ohio had been mainly flat barges that could not travel upstream, by 1820s steamboats and riverboats carried western and southern crops quickly, from New Orleans ocean ships to Eastern ports
iii)Farmers and merchants unhappy b/c more direct route could lower transport costs and product costs. By 1820s economic advantages of canals had generated boom in expanding water routes to West. Too expensive for private companies, states of Northeast constructed them
iv)NY’s Erie Canal began July 4, 1817 to connect Hudson R and Lake Erie. Opened 1825, tolls repaid construction costs, gave NY access to Great Lakes, Chicago, growing Western markets. NY now competed with New Orleans
v)Water transport system expanded when Ohio + Indiana connected Lake Erie & Ohio R. Increased white settlement, but primacy of NY power + hinterland control alarmed other Atlantic cities. Most attempts limited successes or failed
b)The Early Railroads
i)Railroads played secondary role in 1820s/30s, but laid groundword for mid-century surge. Emerged form technological (tracks, steam-powered locomotive) and entrepreneurial innovations
ii)In 1830s no real rial system, most lines simply connected water routes and not links to other rail systems. Some states and corporations also limited their ability to compete effectively against canals
c)The Triumph of the Rails
i)After 1840 rail gradually supplanted canals. 1850’s trackage tripled. Most comprehensive and efficient system in northeast, but no region untouched
ii)Trend toward consolidation of short lines into longer lines (“trunk lines”), connected Northeast w/ Northwest, from these other railroads traveled into interior of nation. Main Northwest hub was Chicago
iii)Lessened dependence of West on Miss. R, weakening N + S economic cnxn
iv)Capital to finance railroads came from private investors, abroad, and local governments. Fed govt gave public land grants to railroads, states for RRs
d)Innovations in Communications
i)Magnetic telegraph lines along tracks aided train routing, but also allowed instant communication btwn cities, linked N and NW at exclusion of S
ii)1844 Samuel Morse first transmitted. Low cost of construction made it ideal solution to long-distance communication. By 1860 Western Union Telegraph company had been founded linking most independent telegraph lines
iii)In journalism Richard Hoe’s 1846 steam cylinder rotary press allowed rapid and cheap newspapers, telegraph increased news speed. 1846 Associated Press formed to promote cooperate wire transmission
iv)NY’s major papers Horace Greeley’s Tribune, James Bennett’s Herald, Henry Raymond’s Times. In 1840s/50s journalism fed sectional discord, most major magazines and newspapers located in North. New awareness of differences
3)Commerce and Industry
a)The Expansion of Business, 1820-1840
i)Business grew b/c population, transportation revolution, and new practices
ii)Retain distribution became more efficient w/ specialty stores in cities
iii) Individual + small merchant capitalist companies dominated, but some larger businesses gave way to corporations- combined resources of large number of shareholders. Grew 1830s b/c states passed easy incorporation laws. Limited liability meant stockholder risked only value of investment if corp failed
iv)Great demand for capital led businesses to rely on credit, but gold and silver standards of govt led to too little $, led private banks to issue less stable notes
v)Bank failures frequent, insecure deposits. Credit difficulty limited growth
b)The Emergence of the Factory
i)Before War of 1812 most manufacturing occurred in private households in small workshops. Technology and demand led to factories- began in New England textile industry, large water-driven machines increased production
ii)1820s factory system in shoe industry, by 1830s spread throughout Northeast. By 1860 value of manufactured goods roughly equal to agricultural goods. Largest manufacturers located in the Northeast, large amt of ppl employed
c)Advances in Technology
i)Developed industries relatively immature, fine items came from England. But by 1840s rapid machine technology advances, sophisticated textile industry
ii)Manufacture of machine tools (tools used to make machinery) improved by govt supported research for military (at Springfield Armory, MA)- turret lathe and universal milling machine in early 19th century. Later precision grinder
iii)Better machine tools allowed for wide use of interchangeable parts, new uses
iv)Industrialization aided by new energy sources: coal replacing wood + water in factories. Allowed mills to be located away from streams, easier expansion
v)Technological advances due to American inventors, increasing number of patents. Included Howe-Singer sewing machine, Goodyear vulcanized rubber
d)Innovations in Corporate Organization
i)Merchant capitalists still prominent 1840s, their clippers were fastest sailing ships afloat at time. By mid-century merchant capitalism declining b/c British competition stealing export trade, greater profits found in manufacturing than trade. Industry grew in NE b/c this merchant class could finance factories
ii)By 1840s corporations spreading rapidly, especially in textile industry. Ownership moving form families and individuals to many shareholders
4)Men and Women At Work
a)Recruiting A Native Work Force
i)In factory system’s early years recruiting labor difficult b/c of farms and small cities. New farmlands in Midwest + new farm machinery and techniques increased food production, decreased need for labor. Transport allowed importation of food from other regions—ppl in New Eng left for factories
ii)Some recruitment brought whole families form farm to the mill w/ parents and children, but Lowell/Waltham system enlisted young women
iii)Labor conditions relatively good in early years of system, better than Eur. Lowell system used young, unmarried women but had good housing + food
iv)Even well-treated workers found transition from life on farm to in factory difficult- regimented env’t, repetitive tasks. Women had little other choice b/c barred from manual labor, unthinkable to travel in search of opportunity
v)Competitive textile market of 1830s/40s manufactures had difficulty maintaining high standards + conditions, wages fell. Union of Factory Girls Association struck twice, but both failed. Eventually immigrants filled jobs
b)The Immigrant Work Force
i)Increasing supply of immigrant workers after 1840 boom for manufacturers- large and inexpensive labor source. Little leverage with employers, lack of skills and native prejudice led to low, intermittent wages—great poverty
ii)Irish workers predominated 1840s textile industry, arrival led to deteriorating working conditions. Less social pressure on owners to maintain decent env’t, piece rates instead of daily wages to speed production
iii)Factories becoming large, noisy, unsanitary, dangerous places to work, hours long, wages declining. Still however, condition better than England and Eur
c)The Factory System and the Artisan Trade
i)Factory system displaced skilled artisans- had been embodiment of republican independent worker. Unable to compete w/ factory-made goods for fraction of artisan’s prices. Early 19th century began to form organizations and first labor unions to protect position. 1820s/30s trade unions developed in cities
ii)Interconnected economies of cities made national unions or federations of local unions logical. 1834 National Trade’s Union
iii)Labor leaders struggled w/ hostile laws and courts, common law made worker combination as illegal conspiracy. Panic of 1837 also weakened movement
d)Fighting for Control
i)Workers at all levels in industrial economy tried to improve position by making 10-hour workday or restricting child labor. Laws changed little
ii)1842 MA Supreme Court ruled in Commonwealth v Hunt that unions were legal and strikes lawful, other states gradually agreed. Unions still largely ineffective 1840s/50s
iii)Artisans + skilled workers unions more successful 1850s, but their unions more like preindustrial guilds that restricted admission to skilled trades
iv)Working class of 1840s/50s had only modest power- limited by numerous immigrant laborers who could replace strikers, ethnic division led to worker disunity. Industrial capitalists had great economic, political and social power
5)Patterns of Industrial Society
a)The Rich and the Poor
i)Commercial +industrial growth raised average income of Americans, but wealth distributed unequally – for slaves, Indians, landless farmers, many unskilled workers little change. Small % of families owned majority of wealth
ii)There had always been wealthy classes from beginning but extent and character was changing. Newly wealthy merchants & industrialists settled in cities- found new ways to display wealth in mansions, social clubs, clothing…
iii)Large population of destitute ppl in growing urban areas- little resources, often homeless. Included recent immigrants, widows, orphans, ppl w/ mental illness. Free blacks=only menial jobs, little pay, no vote, no public schools
b)Social Mobility
i)Class conflict quelled b/c working standards declined but living standard improving, opportunity for social mobility for workers captured imagination
ii)Geographic mobility more extensive than Eur, Western lands “safety valve” for discontent. Also travel form city to city to search for new opportunity
iii)Opportunity to participate in politics expanded, ballot tied ppl to community
c)Middle-Class Life
i)Fastest growing group in America middle class. Economic development offered opportunity to own and work for businesses, land no longer=wealth
ii)Middle class life most influential cultural form of urban America, good neighborhoods, women stayed in home to care for children, cast-iron stoves used to cook, diets improved w/ new access to meats, grains, dairy
d)The Changing Family
i)Movement of families from farms to cities where jobs, not land, most important. Patriarchal system of inherited farm land disappeared
ii)Work moved out of home and into shop, mill, factory. Family as principal economic unit gave way to individual wage earners. Even farms became commercialized b/c larger lands required more labor than just family
iii)Changing family role led to decline in birth rate by mid-19th century. Deliberate effort to limit family size result of future planning. Secular, rational
e)Women and the “Cult of Domesticity”
i)Growing distinction btwn workplace and home led to distinction in societal roles of men + women. Women had long been denied legal + political rights, little access to business, less access to education at high levels
ii)Middle class husband seen as wage earner, wife to engage in domestic activities- “guardians of domestic virtues”, central role to nurture young
iii)“Separate sphere” female culture emerged. Women seen as having special qualities difft than men-custodians of morality and shape home to be refuge from competitive marketplace. Provide religious, moral instruction to kids
iv)By 1840s few genteel women considered working, seen as “lower class”, owners rarely hired women anyway b/c of “cult”. But Working-class women couldn’t afford to stay home, many went into domestic service
f)Leisure Activities
i)Leisure time scarce for all but wealthy, vacations rare, Sunday often only day of rest + Church. Reading expanded, new newspapers, magazines, books for affluent. Theaters, minstrel shows, public sporting events increasingly popular
ii)Circus amazed ppl (PT Barnum), lectures also very popular
6)The Agricultural North
a)Northeastern Agriculture
i)After 1840 decline and transformation- farmers couldn’t compete with new rich soil of Northwest. Rural population declined. Some farmers moved west for new farms, others moved to mill towns and became laborers. Others turned to providing eastern urban centers vegetables, fruit, profitable dairy products
b)The Old Northwest
i)Some industry (more than in South), industrial growth, before Civil War- much served agriculture or relied on agricultural products
ii)Lands from urban centers primarily agricultural, owned by workers. Rising world farm prices gave incentive for commercial agriculture: growing single crop for market, international market for American food
iii)Growth of factories + cities increased demand for farm goods. Northwest farmers sold most goods to ppl in Northeast + dependent on their purchasing power, Eastern industry found market for products in prosperous West
iv)To expand production Western expansion into prairie regions during 1840s/50s, new farm techniques and inventions used- John Deere’s steel plow
v)Automatic reaper by Cyrus McCormick + thresher revolutionized grain production
vi)NW democracy based on defense of economic freedom and rights of property
c)Rural Life
i)Religion powerful force drawing farm communities together. Also joined together to share tasks difficult for single family (such as barn raising)
ii)Rural life not always isolated, but less contact w/ popular culture and public social life than in towns and cities. Cherished farm life autonomy
1)The Cotton Economy
a)The Rise of King Cotton
i)19th century upper South (VA, MD, NC) cultivated tobacco, but unstable prices and exhaustive of soil. By 1830s upper South began to grow wheat, tobacco growing shifted westward. Southern regions of South (SC, GA, FL) continued growing rice, Gulf some sugar—crops limited b/c hard to cultivate
ii)Decline of tobacco in upper South led not to industrialization but growing of short-staple cotton- could grow in difft env’ts, w/ cotton gin now profitable. Demand for cotton growing b/c of rise of textile industry in GB 1820s/30s and New England 1840s/50s—new lands and expansion to meet new demand
iii)Beginning 1820s production of cotton moved westward into Alabama, Mississippi, LA, TX, AK. By 1850s dominated economy
iv)“Lower South”/ “Cotton Kingdom” attracted many seeking profits, also slaves
b)Southern Trade and Industry
i)Business classes and manufacturers unimportant, slow growth + mainly in upper South. Non-farm commercial sectors mainly served needs of plantation economy- brokers who marketed crops, acted as merchants and lenders
ii)Primitive banking system did not allow for structures necessary for industrial development. Inadequate transport system: few roads, canals, nat’l railroads
iii)Some southerners recognized economic subordination to north and advocated for economic independence- New Orlean James De Bow- De Bow’s Review
c)Sources of Southern Difference
i)Despite “colonial dependency” South did little to industrialize b/c agricultural system + cotton so profitable, little incentive to look beyond. Wealthy had already invested much of their capital into land + slaves
ii)Lack of commercial growth also b/c traditional values distinctive to South discouraged cities + industry- elegance, more refined life than rapid growth
2)White Society in The South
a)The Planter Class
i)Majority of ppl didn’t own slaves (only ¼ did), of those small % owned many
ii)Planter aristocracy (those earning 40+ slaves and 800+ acres of land) exercised power and influence greater than their number. Political economic, social control. Saw themselves as aristocracy, though most wealth was recent
iii)Growing crops profitable but as competitive and risky as industry in North
iv)After struggling to reach their position in society they were determined to defend it—perhaps why defense of slavery and South’s “rights” stronger in booming lower South and weaker in more established areas
b)“Honor”
i)White males adopted code of chivalry that obligated them to defend their “honor”. Ethical ideal and bravery but also public appearance of dignity & authority- anything to challenge dignity or social station a challenge
c)The “Southern Lady”
i)Lives of affluent centered in home, little role in public activities or as wage earners. White men more dominant + women subordinate than in North- solitary farm life w/ no access to “public world” led to main role wife, mother
ii)Less educational opportunities, higher birth rate and infant mortality rate
d)The Plain Folk
i)Typical person not planter + slaveholder but modest yeoman farmer. Mainly subsistence farming- lacked resources for cotton or to expand operations
ii)Little prospect of bettering position b/c southern educational system provided poor whites with little opportunity to learn and therefore advance
iii)Majority excluded from planter society, but opposition to elite limited mainly to “hill” and “backcountry” ppl who were secluded, unconnected to commercial economy, and loyal to whole nation and above sectional fighting
iv)Most nonslave-owning whites lived in middle of plantation system and were tied to it, relied on planters for markets, credit, and linked thru kinship. Also large sense of democracy + political participation gave sense of cnxn to societal order. Cotton boom of 1850s gave them hope of economic betterment
v)Belief that assault on one hierarchical system (slavery) would threaten another hierarchical system (patriarchy)
vi)Even the south’s poorest members (“clay eaters”) who owned no profitable land did not offer great opposition to society—greatest factor binding all classes together was perception of race and members of ruling race
3)Slavery: The “Peculiar Institution”
a)Varieties of Slavery
i)Called “peculiar” by Southerners b/c was distinctive from N., Western world
ii)Slavery regulated by law, slave codes forbade property, congregation, teaching a slave. Anyone suspected w/ trace of African blood defined as black
iii)Despite provisions of law variety within slave system b/c white owners handled most transgressions, conditions. Size of farm, # of slaves varied
iv)Majority of slave-owners small farmers, but majority of slaves lived on medium + large plantations-less intimate owner/slave relationship
b)Life Under Slavery
i)Generally received enough necessities to enable them to live and work; lived in slave quarters. Slaves worked hard, women labored in fields w/ men and had other chores, often single b/c husbands sold away (single parents)
ii)High death rate and less children survived to adulthood than whites
iii)Some say material condition of slavery may have been better than some northern factory workers, less sever than slaves in Caribbean + South Amer. Law preventing slave import incentive to Southern elite to provide some care
iv)Other cheap laborer (such as Irish) used to perform most dangerous and least healthy tasks to protect investment. Still overseers hired by owners often treated slave badly, and household servants often sexually abused by master
c)Slavery in the Cities
i)On isolated plantations masters maintained direct control. Slaves in cities were often hired out to do labor and unskilled jobs in cities + towns
ii)In cities line btwn slavery + freedom less clear, white southerners viewed slavery incompatible w/ city life- sold slaves to countryside, used segregation
d)Free African Americans
i)About 250,000 free African Americans in slaveholding states before Civil War, most in VA and MD. Some had earned money and bought freedom for themselves and family- mostly urban blacks able to do this
ii)Some slaves freed by master for moral reasons, other after master died
iii)During 1830s state laws for slaves tightened b/c growing number of free blacks, abolition movement in North—made manumission of slaves harder
iv)Most free blacks very poor, limited opportunity, only quasi-free
e)The Slave Trade
i)Transfer of slaves from one part of South to another important consequence of development of Southwest. Sometimes moved with master, more often transferred thru slave traders
ii)Domestic slave trade impt to growth and prosperity of system, but dehumanizing- children separated from parents
f)Slave Resistance
i)Most slaves unhappy with being slaves, wanted freedom- but dealt w/ slavery thru adaptation (slaves who acted as white world expected him, charade for whites) or resistance (those who could not come to accommodate their status)
ii)1831 Nat Turner, a slave preacher, led armed African Americans in VA, overpowered by state + federal troops. Only actual slave insurrection 19th century, but fear of slave conspiracies renewed violence + led to stricter laws
iii)Some attempted to resist by running away, escaping to the North or Canada using underground railroad + sympathetic whites. Odds of success low
iv)Resisted also by refusing to work hard, stealing from master
4)The Culture of Slavery
a)Language and Music
i)Slaves incorporated African speech w/ English- called “pidgin”
ii)Songs very impt- to pass time, some political, emotional, religious
b)African-American Religion
i)By 19th century nearly all slaves Christians. Black congregations illegal, most went to master’s church led by Baptist or Methodist white minister
ii)A.A. religion more emotional, reflected influence of African customs and practices- chanting, emphasized dream of freedom and deliverance. Christian images central to revel leaders Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner
c)The Slave Family
i)Blacks deprived of legal marriage, but “nuclear family” dominant kinship model nevertheless. Up to 1/3 of black families broken apart by slave trade- led to strong extended kinship networks
ii)Black women often bore children to white masters who didn’t recognize kids
iii)Slaves had complex relationships w/ masters b/c depended on them for material means of existence, sense of security and protection. This paternalism was used as an instrument of white control, sense of mutual dependence reduced resistance to institution that only benefited ruling white race
1)The Romantic Impulse
a)Nationalism and Romanticism in American Painting
i)Eurs felt that they alone at center of artistic world, but paintings w/in US popular b/c felt they had artistic traditions of their own: wonder of nation’s landscape, shoe power of nature thru wild outdoor scenes- “awe & wonder”
ii)First great school of American painters from Hudson River School in NY: Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty, Asher Durand. Hoped to express “wild nature” that existed in America but not Eur
b)Literature and the Quest for Liberation
i)Early 19th century American literature unpopular, British novelist Sir Walter Scott was. But even during 1820s great American novelist James Fenimore Cooper- evocation of wilderness, adventure, westward expansion- his “Leatherstocking Tales were The Last of the Mohicans & The Deerslayer
ii)Cooper’s novels showed effort to produce truly American literature, ideal of independent individual with natural inner goodness, fear of disorder
iii)Later American romantic works included: poet Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855)- celebration of democracy, individual liberty. Other works more bleak- Herman Melville’sMoby Dick (1851) of individual will but tragedy of pride and revenge, writer Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” (1845) established him as literary figure- humans exploring deeper world of spirit and emotions
c)Literature in the Antebellum South
i)Southern writers wanted to create American literary culture as well, but often produced historical romances for eulogies of plantation system of Upper South. Most famous William Gilmore Simms- believed duty of intellectual to defend southern lifestyle + slavery, sectional
ii)Augustus Longstreet, Joseph Baldwin, Johnson Hooper focused not on “cavaliers” but on ordinary ppl and poor whites
d)The Transcendentalists
i)New England writers who focused on distinction btwn “reason” and inner capacity to grasp beauty and emotional expression vs “understanding” and repression of instinct and imposed learning- goal to cultivate “reason”
ii)Centered in Concord, MA. Leader Ralph Waldo Emerson- essays “Nature” (1836) argued self-fulfillment thru communion w/ nature, “Self-Reliance” (1841) called for individual fully explore inner capacity, unity w/ universe
iii)Emerson a nationalist, lecture “The American Scholar” (1837), argued beauty from instant vs learning, therefore Americans can still have artistic greatness
iv)Henry David Thoreau- ppl should seek self-realization by not conforming to society’s expectations & responding to own instincts. His Walden (1845) of him living simply in the woods, essay “Resistance to Civil Government” (1849)- govt that required violation of personal mortality not legitimate
e)The Defense of Nature
i)Some uneasy w/ rapid economic development, feared impact on natural world. Nature not just for economic activity (farmers, miners) or for study by scientists- but vehicle for human inspiration, realize truth within the soul
f)Visions of Utopia
i)Transcendentalism spawned communal living experiments
ii)Brook Farm established by George Ripley 1841 in MA, create community that would permit full opportunity for self-realization, equal labor, share leisure
iii)Conflict btwn individual freedom & communal society led to dissenters: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance (1852) submission equals oppression, The Scarlet Letter (1850)- price ind. pay for not being in society
iv)French philosopher Charles Fourier’s idea of socialist communities led Robert Owen 1825 to create experiment New Harmony in Ind, economic failure
g)Redefining Gender Roles
i)Transcendentalism + utopian communities led to some sense of feminism
ii)Margaret Fuller’s Women of the Nineteenth Century (1844)- feminist ideas
iii)Johm Humphrey’s Oneida Community “Perfectionists” rejected traditional ideas of family and marriage, communal raising of children. An Lee’s Shaker Society committed to celibacy, equality of sexes, God neither male or female
h)The Mormons
i)Mormons effort to create new and more ordered society thru Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Began upstate NY by Joseph Smith w/ his 1830 Book of Mormon. Began looking for sanctuary for follower “New Jerusalem”
ii)Ideas of polygamy and secrecy led surrounding communities to fear them. Mob killed Smith, his protégé Brigham Young led exodus to new community in present Salt Lake City, Utah. Family structure very impt
iii)Belief in human perfectibility, but not individual liberty. Organized, centrally directed society- refuge from disorder and insecurity of secular world
iv)Members mostly ppl dislodged by economic growth & social progress of era
2)Remaking Society
a)Revivalism, Mortality, and Order
i)Reform b/c rejection of Calvinist doctrines + preached divinity of individual (Unitarians, Universalism), and b/c of Protestant revivalism
ii)New Light revivalists believed every individual capable of salvation. Charles Finney impt leader- predestination and human helplessness obsolete
iii)Revivals in “burned-over district” in upstate NY (economic change b/c where Erie Canal had been built). Successful among those who felt threatened by change (including the prosperous worried about social changes), and women
b)The Temperance Crusade
i)Alcohol seen as responsible for crime, disorder, poverty. Large problem in West where farmers made extra grain into whiskey, in East as leisure activity
ii)Earlier temperance movement revived by new reformers- 1826 American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, 1840 Western Temperance Society.
iii)Growth led to factions: which alcohol to ban, method (law v. conscience)
iv)Trying to impose discipline on society- Protestants vs Catholic immigrants for which drinking social ritual, disturbing to old residents of communities
c)Health Fads and Phrenology
i)Interest in individual + social perfection led to new health theories, also threat to public health by cholera epidemics 1830s/40s led to city health boards
ii)B/c boards found few solutions Americans turned toward nonscientific theories to improve health: “water cure (hydrotherapy)”, Sylvester Graha’s new diet theories, German “phrenology” 1830s thru efforts of Fowler brothers- shape and regions of skull impt indicator of character + intelligence
d)Medical Science
i)Science of medicine lagged behind other tech. + scientific advances b/c lack of regulation led many poorly educated ppl to be physicians, absence of basic knowledge of disease- vaccination, anesthesia result of luck vs study
ii)W/o appetence of scientific methods + experimentation little learned about treating + transmission of disease
e)Reforming Education
i)Reform toward universal public education-by 1830 no state had system (some limited state versions [MA, ect.])- reflection of new belief on innate capacity of every person, society’s obligation to tap that, expose kids to social values
ii)Greatest reformer Horace Mann- educated electorate essential to work free political system. Academic year lengthened, better teacher salaries + training
iii)By 1850s tax-supported elementary schools in all states. Quality of education varied widely- Horace Mann’s MA professional + trained, elsewhere some barely literate, limited funding. West dispersed pop=less opportunity, South blacks barred from formal education, only 1/3 children nationwide in school
iv)School reform achievements: US literacy rate highest in world, new emphasis led to new institutions to help handicapped- greater Benevolent
v)School efforts to impose set of social values on children seen as impt in industrial nation- thrift, order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority
f)Rehabilitation
i)“Asylums” for criminals + mentally ill. Antiquated jails replaced w/ new penitentiaries and mental institutions, jailing debtors + paupers decreased
ii)Reform & rehabilitate inmates- rigid discipline to curb criminal “laxness”, solitary confinement to contemplate crimes. Overcrowding became problem
iii)Idea properly structured institution to prevent moral failure + rescue ppl from failure led to orphanages, almshouses for poor, homes for “friendless” women
g)The Indian Reservation
i)Main US Indian policy had been relocation to make way for expanding white civilization. Reform led to idea of reservation- enclosed area for Indians to live in isolation from white society. Served economic interest of whites, but also attempt to teach ways of civilization in protected setting
h)The Rise of Feminism
i)Women 1830s/40s had to deal w/ traditional limitations + new role in family to focus energy on home and children, leave income-earning to husbands
ii)Resentment over limitations. Leaders of women’s movement (Grimke sisters, Stowe sisters, Lucrecia Matt, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dorothy Dix) began to draw cnxn btwn their abolitionist ideas and plight of women
iii)1848 organized convention at Seneca Falls, NY to discuss women’s rights- led to “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” stating all men + women equal, call for women’s suffrage. Many women in feminist movement Quaker
iv)Progress limited in antebellum yrs- only few became physicians, ministers
v)Women benefited from association w/ other reform movements (very impt abolition), but led some to consider their demands secondary to slave rights
3)The Crusade Against Slavery
a)Early Opposition to Slavery
i)Early 19th century opposition by genteel lot. 1817 American Colonization Society- Virginians who wanted manumission & transportation out of country but also maintain property rights by compensating slaveholder—1830 Liberia
ii)Failed b/c not enough private + state funding, too many slaves to be possible, opposition from 3rd/4th generation Africans far removed from society + lands
iii)By 1830 movement losing strength- colonization not viable, cotton boom in Deep South + planter commitment to “peculiar institution” led to dead end
b)Garrison and Abolitionism
i)William Lloyd Garrison employed by antislavery newspaper (Genius of Universal Emancipation), but impatient w/ moderate tone + reform proposals
ii)1831 founded his own Liberator, should look from black perspective, shouldn’t talk in terms of damage to white society. Reject “gradualism”, extend African Americans full rights of American citizens
iii)Gained Northern following, founded New England Antislavery Society 1832, year later American Antislavery Society- membership grew rapidly
iv)Growth b/c like other reform movements committed to unleashing individual human spirit, eliminate artificial social barriers
c)Black Abolitionists
i)Abolitionism appealed to Northern free blacks who were poor, had little access to education, suffered mob violence, only menial occupations
ii)P of their freedom, realized own position in society tied to existence of slavery. David Walker came to be a leader w/ violent rhetoric, most blacks less violent speech- Sojourner Truth became antislavery spokesman
iii)Greatest abolitionist Frederick Douglass- escaped slavery, lectured in NE. His newspaperNorth Star, autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845). Demanded freedom, but also social + economic equality
d)Anti-Abolitionism
i)White southerners opposed abolition, but also many in the North. Seen as threat to social system, feared war btwn sections & influx of blacks to North
ii)Escalating violence against abolitionists 1830s- abolitionist headquarters “Temple of Liberty” in Philadelphia burned by mob, Garrison seized
iii)Yet movement grew despite, suggesting members strong-willed + passionate, great courage and moral strength. Majority sentiment ambivalent to slavery
e)Abolitionism Divided
i)By 1830s abolitionists faced serious internal strains + divisions. Prompted b/c anti-abolitionist violence made some favor moderation, radicalism of William Garrison and his attacks on slavery, opposition to slavery, call for full equality for women, extreme pacifism, call for northern disunion from South. Moderates called for “moral suasion” of slaveholders, later political action
ii)1839 Amistad- slaves seized ship tried to return to Africa. US navy captured ship. Supreme Court 1841 declared the Africans free 1
iii)842 Prigg v. Pennsylvania ruled states need not enforce 1793 law requiring return of fugitive slaves, “personal liberty laws” in northern states forbade officials to assist in capture + return of runaways
iv)Nat’t govt pressured to abolish slavery in areas of federal govt jurisdiction, prohibit interstate slave trade. No political party ever founded, but “free-soil” movement to keep slave out of territories became popular
v)Some abolitionists violent, American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of A Thousand Witnesses (1839) distorted images of slavery
vi)Most powerful abolitionist propaganda Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin(1851)- combined sentimental novel w/ political ideas of abolitionist. Story of good, kindly blacks victimized by cruel system movement. Brought message to new audience, but also inflamed sectional tensions to new level
1)Looking Westward
a)Manifest Destiny
i)Reflected pride of American nationalism + idealistic vision of social perfection that had fueled reform movements- US destined by God & history- to expand over a vast area that included North America.
ii)Extend liberty + US political system to others, but also racist justifications- superiority of “American” race, ppl of territories unfit for republican system
iii)By 1840s idea of Manifest Destiny had spread thru “penny press” (mass audience). Almost all but not everyone embraced- Henry Clay feared tension
b)Americans in Texas
i)1820s Mexican govt encouraged American immigration into Texas hoping to strengthen territory’s economy and increase tax revenues, buffer against Indians, would prevent US expansion- 1824 Mex bill offered cheap land
ii)Thousands took deal, land suitable for cotton, soon American population larger than Mexican. American intermediaries to Mex govt brought settlers- most famous Stephen Austin. Later attempts to stem US immigration failed
c)Tensions Between the United States and Mexico
i)Tension btwn US settlers and Mex govt grew b/c immigrants continued cultural + economic ties to US, also b/c desire to legalize slavery after it was outlawed in 1830
ii)Mid 1830s Mex General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power as dictator- new law increased power of nat’l govt over state govts, Austin imprisoned. 1835 Mex sent more troops, 1836 Texans declared independence
iii)Santa Anna led large army into TX, Americans unorganized and easily defeated (Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio). Then General Sam Houston defeated Mexicans 1836 at Battle of San Jacinto, the captured Santa Anna signed treaty making TX independent. [MXs living in TX called tejanos]
iv)Texans wanted to be annexed by US, delegation sent to D.C. had expansionist support, but northerners feared large new slave state + empowering the south w/ more Congressional/electoral votes- incl. Andrew Jackson who feared sectional controversy, Pres Van Buren and Pres Harrison also ignored issue
v)TX sought allies in Eur who wanted to check US power, Pres Tyler sought TX to reapply for statehood 1844, rejected by Senateissue in 1844 election
d)Oregon
i)Both GB and US claimed sovereignty over Oregon region. 1818 treaty allowed citizens equal access to area-“joint occupation” for 20 yrs
ii)US interest grew 1820s/30s b/c desire to convert Indians and oppose Canadian Cath. Missionaries- native rejection Christianity=repudiating right to land
iii)Large amt of Americans began emigrating to Oregon early 1840s, soon outnumbered GB’s settlers, destroyed native pop. Mid-1840s desire for annex.
e)The Westward Migration
i)Growth of TX and Oregon population part of greater movement of population westward 1840-1860. Southerners went mainly to TX, largest numbers from Old Northwest – majority sought mainly new economic opportunity
ii)Some wanted riches after CA gold discovery 1848, others take advance of cheap land fed govt selling, others on religious mission (Mormons)
f)Life on the Trail
i)Most migrants gathered major depots in Iowa or MI, joined wagon trains led by hired guides. Main route Oregon Trail to CA + WA, others Santa Fe Trail
ii)Trip very difficult, especially in mountain and desert terrain. Fear of conflict w/ Indians (although very little fighting occurred), trade developed w/ Natives
2)Expansion and War
a)The Democrats and Expansion
i)Two candidates for 1844 election Whig Henry Clay and the Democrat/former president Martin Van Buren. Clay chosen, but many Southern democrats supported TX annexation, chose stronger support James K. Polk
ii)Polk able to win b/c wished to occupy Oregon and annex TX, thereby appealing to both northern and southern expansionists
iii)Outgoing Pres John Tyler saw election as mandate for annexing TX, did so in 1845. Polk proposed Oregon border @ 49th parallel, GB refused, led to US cry “Fifty-four forty or fight!”. 1846 GB accepted treaty w/ border at 49th parallel
b)The Southwest and California
i)Oregon treaty accepted readily by Pres b/c tension growing in Southwest with Mex. After TX became state 1845 dispute over border- TX and Polk believed it to be at Rio Grande, sent Gen Zachary Taylor to protect from invasion
ii)Part of disputed area was New Mexico where Mex had originally invited American settlers into. Interest in California growing as well as US fur traders gave way to merchants and farmers arriving. Settlers dreamed of annexation
iii)Polk wanted California and New Mexico for US. At same time ordered Gen Taylor to TX, ordered navy seize CA ports if Mexico declared war
c)The Mexican War
i)Polk attempted diplomacy by sending special minister to Mex to purchase lands. When Polk heard MX rejected offer sent Gen. Taylor’s army from Nueces R to Rio Grande R January 1846
ii)May 1846 US declaration of war. Whig critics of war b/c thought Polk instigated, intensified as war cont and public aware of casualties and expense
iii)American forces successful in capturing NE Mexico, Polk ordered offensive against New Mexico and California. Col Stephen Kearny captured Santa Fe, then aided US forces in CA’s “Bear Flag Revolution”, captured CA
iv)When Mex refused to cede defeat Polk sent Gen Winfield Scott to capture Mexico City. After taking city new Mex govt took power that was willing to negotiate treaty. Some in US wanted to annex part of Mexico, but w/ election soon Polk wanted war ended quickly. Sent envoy Nicolas Trist for settlement
v)Feb 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo agreed to where Mex ceded CA and NM to US and acknowledged Rio Grande boundary of TX. US agreed to pay Mex $15 million. Despite to Mex annexations Polk accepted treaty
3)The Sectional Debate
a)Slavery and the Territories
i)Rep David Wilmot’s “Wilmot Proviso”: prohibit slavery from territories acquired by Mex- failed Senate. Polk extended Missouri Compromise line to territory on West coast. Alternative- “popular sovereignty”- states decided
ii)1848 election Polk didn’t run again. Dem candidate Lewis Cass, Whig General Zachary Taylor. Slavery opponents formed “Free-Soil” Party w/ Van Buren for pres. Showed inability of existing parties to contain slavery passions
b)The California Gold Rush
i)Taylor won 1848 election, pressure to resolve slavery in territories urgent b/c of events in CA- 1848 Gold Rush lead to dramatic increase in CA’s population, migrants known as “Forty-niners” mainly men
ii)Gold Rush led to many Chinese migrants to Western US. Labor shortage in CA (due to ppl flocking to fold fields) created opportunities for ppl who needed work. Also led to exploitation of Natives, “Indian hunters”
iii)Most didn’t find gold, but many sated in CA and swelled agricultural + urban populations. Population diverse- white Americans, Eurs, Chinese, Mexicans, free blacks, slaves of southern migrants—tension led territory to be a turbulent place, therefore pressure to create a stable and effective govt to bring order
c)Rising Sectional Tensions
i)Taylor believed statehood solution to territory issue b/c territories controlled by fed govt, but states govt could settle slave issue w/in own state
ii)Taylor 1849 proposed CA (which had constitution banning slavery) and New Mexico apply for statehood, decide slavery w/in state. Congress refused b/c at time 15 free and 15 slave states existed, South feared admission of New states would upset balance, make South minority in Sen. Tempers rising
d)The Compromise of 1850
i)Henry Clay proposed compromise to Congress in 1850- admitted CA as free state, new territorial govts w/o slave restrictions, new tough fugitive slave law
ii)First phase of debating comp led by older voices of Clay, Calhoun, Webster and broad ideal of settling slave issue once and for all
iii)After Clay proposal defeated, second phase of debate led by younger group: William Seward of NY opposed compromise, Jefferson Davis of MI saw slavery in terms of South’s economic self-interest, Stephen Douglas of IL
iv)W/ death of Taylor in 1850 (who refused compromise until CA admitted), new Pres Millard Fillmore supported compromise, rallied N Whig support
v)Douglas proposed Clay compromise split into smaller measured and voted on (difft sections could vote for measures that they supported), used govt bonds and railroad construction to gain support. Comp passed in September- less widespread agreement on ideals then victory of self-interest
4)The Crisis of the 1850s
a)The Uneasy Truce
i)1852 pres election candidates very sectional. Dem Franklin Pierce, Whig Gen Winfield Scott, Free-Soil John Hale. Whigs suffered from massive defection from antislavery members, Democrats won
ii)Pres Pierce tried to ignore divisive issues, but N opposition to Fugitive Slave Act after 1850 as mobs prevented slave catchers in cities. S angered, alarmed
b)“Young America”
i)Pierce supported Democrat’s “Young America”- saw expansion of US democracy throughout world as way of diverting attention from slavery
ii)Efforts to expand entangled in sectionalism- attempts to capture Cuba opposed by antislavery northerners who feared administration trying to bring new slave state to Union, south opposed acquiring Hawaii b/c prohibited slavery
c)Slavery, Railroads, and the West
i)1850s settlers began moving into plains to areas suitable for farming, dislodge Indians from reservations there. Settlement led to issue of railroad and slavery
ii) RR used to solve communication problems btwn old states + areas W of Miss. R., movement for transcontinental RR. Disagreement over whether eastern terminus should be in North’s Chicago or in the South. Jefferson Davis organized Gadsden Purchase 1853 from Mex to make S route possible
d)The Kansas-Nebraska Controversy
i)Stephen Douglas 1854 proposed opening Nebraska Territory for white settlement (to clear Indians in way of possible transcont. RR from Chicago)
ii)Nebraska North of Missouri Compromise line, therefore had to be free
iii)To gain passage Douglas proposed dividing Nebraska in two (Nebraska and Kansas) and each would decide slavery by “popular sovereignty” (state legislature), repealed Missouri Compromise entirely
iv)Kansas-Nebraska Act passed 1854 w/ Pres Pierce support. Had immediate, sweeping consequences: divided and destroyed Whig Party (disappeared by 1856), divided northern Democrats (disagreed w/ repealing Miss. Comp)
v)Ppl in both parties opposed to bill formed Republican Party 1854
e)“Bleeding Kansas”
i)Settlers from N + S settling Kansas, but for 1855 elections southerners from Missouri traveled to Kansas to vote. Pro-slavery legislature elected, legalized slavery. Free-state supporters in state formed own Const, applied statehood
ii)Pro-slave forces burned down anti-slave govt, abolitionist John Brown then killed 5 pro-slave settlers (Pottawatomie Massacre). Led to armed warfare by armed bands, “Bleeding Kansas” became symbol of sectional controversy
iii)1856 anti-slavery Charles Sumner of MA gave speech entitled “The Crime Against Kansas” critical of slavery defender Sen Butler of SC. Butler’s nephew Preston Brooks came to Sen, beat Sumner w/ cane- both became hero
f)The Free-Soil Ideology
i)Tension from economic, territorial interest, but also sectional vision of US
ii)North believed in “free soil” + “free labor”. Slavery not so much immoral but wrong b/c threatened whites- every citizen had right to own property, control labor, access to opportunity. To them South closed, static society where slavery preserved entrenched aristocracy & common white had no opportunity
iii)North growing + prospering, S stagnant + rejecting individualism, progress. Believed S conspiring to extend slavery thru whole nation and thus destroy N capitalism, replace it with closed aristocracy of S- “slave power conspiracy”
iv)This ideology @ heart of Repub Party. Committed to Union b/c growth + prosperity central to free-labor vision, breakup= smaller size+ less econ power
g)The Pro-Slavery Argument
i)Incompatible Southern ideology result of desire for security after Nat Turner 1831 uprising, lucrative nature of cotton economy into Deep South and expansion there, growth of Garrisonian abolition movement against S society
ii)Intellectual defense of slavery begun by Professor Thomas Dew, others later gave ideology name The Pro-Slavery Argument- said that S should not apologize for slavery b/c was a good thing, slaved enjoyed better conditions than industrial workers in N, allowed for peace btwn races, helped nat’l econ
iii)Also argued slavery good b/c basis of way S way of life, which was superior to any other. N greedy, destructive, factories horrific, cities crowded + immigrant filled- but S stable, orderly, protected worker welfare
iv)Defense also on biological inferiority of blacks, inherently unfit to care for themselves and be citizens. Clergy also gave religious + biblical justification
h)Buchanan and Depression
i)In 1856 pres election Dems wanted candidate unassociated w/ “Bleeding Kansas” so chose James Buchanan, Repubs chose John Fremont (platform against Kansas-Nebraska Act and of Whiggish internal improvements reflecting N economic aspirations), Know-Nothings chose Millard Fillmore
ii)Buchanan won, but proved indecisive at critical moment in history. After taking office financial panic + depression hit country
iii)In N Repubs strengthened b/c manufacturers, workers, farmers joined--depression seen as result of unsound policies of southern Dem administrations
i)The Dred Scott Decision
i)March 1857 Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v Sandford- Scott was slave who after masters death sued widow for freedom on grounds that master had moved residence to a free state, but John Sanford (brother of deceased owner, Sup C. misspelled name) claimed ownership of Scott
ii)Defeat for antislavery movement. Supreme Court had multiple decisions, Chief Justice Roger Taney: Scott could not bring suit in fed court b/c was not a citizen, blacks had virtually no rights under Const, slaves property & 5th Amendment forbid taking property w/o “due process” and therefore Congress had no authority to pass law depriving persons of slave property in territories (thereby ruling Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional)
iii)Did not challenge rights of state to limit slavery, but fed govt now powerless
j)Deadlock Over Kansas
i)Pres Buchanan endorsed Dred Scott decision, to solve Kansas problem supported admission to Union as slave state. 1857 new KS Const legalized slavery, but election of new legislature saw antislavery majority who put Const to ppl to vote on- widely rejected
ii)1858 Buchanan pressured Congress to admit it as slave state anyway but Cong rejected, compromise allowed KS to vote on Const again—rejected again
iii)1861, after sever S states had already seceded, KS entered Union as free state
k)The Emergence of Lincoln
i)In 1858 Congressional elections Repub Abraham Lincoln ran against famed Dem Stephen Douglas. Lincoln-Douglas debates attracted attention
ii)Lincoln’s attacks on slavery prominent- argued if nation didn’t accept blacks had human rights then it could accept other groups such as immigrant laborers could be deprived of rights too. Also, extension of slavery in territories would lead to lost opportunity for betterment by poor white laborers
iii)Lincoln opposed slavery but not abolitionist b/c did not see easy alternative to slavery in areas where it existed. Prevent spread of slavery to territories, trust institution would gradually die out in areas where it existed
iv)Douglas won but Lincoln gained following. Dems lost maj in House, kept Sen
l)John Brown’s Raid
i)1859 antislavery zealot from KS John Brown led followers to capture fort in Harpers Ferry VA hoping to lead slave rebellion. Uprising never occurred, Brown surrendered, tried for treason by VA and hanged
ii)Convinced white southerners that they could not live safely in Union, believed raid supported by Repub party and that North now wanted slave insurrection
m)The Election of Lincoln
i)In Pres election of 1860 Dems torn btwn southerners (who demanded strong endorsement of slavery) & westerners (who supported popular sovereignty)
ii)After popular sovereignty endorsed by convention southern states walked out, eventually nominated John Breckinridge of KY, rest chose Stephen Douglas
iii)Still others formed Constitutional Union Party w/ John Bell as candidate- endorsed Union but remained silent regarding slavery
iv)Republicans tried to broaden appeal to earn majority in North who feared S blocking its economic interests. Platform endorsed high tariff, internal improvements, homestead bill, Pacific railroad, popular sovereignty but Congress nor territory legislatures could legalize slavery in territories
v)Repubs chose Abraham Lincoln as nominee b/c moderate positions on slavery, relative obscurity, and western origins to attract votes from region
vi)Lincoln won presidency w/ majority of electoral votes but only 2/5 of popular vote but failed to win maj in Congress
vii)Election of Lincoln final signal for many southerners that their position in Union hopeless, within weeks process of disunion began
1)The Secession Crisis
a)The Withdrawal of the South
i)South Carolina voted Dec 1860 to secede, by time Lincoln came to office six more states (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, TX) seceded
ii)Seceded states formed Confederate States of America Feb1861. These states started seizing federal property but at first lacked power to seize the military instillations at Fort Sumter, SC and For Pickens, FL
b)The Failure of Compromise
i)Compromise proposed by Sen John Crittenden of KY proposed constitutional amdts w/ permanent slavery in slave states, fugitive slave returned. At heart was plan to reinstitute Missouri Compromise Line for western lands
ii)Repubs rejected compromise. Lincoln came to office, stated: Union older than Const therefore no state could leave it, supporting secession= insurrection
c)Fort Sumter
i)Forces in fort running out of supplies, Lincoln informed SC govt that supply ships were being sent. South feared looking weak, ordered General PGT Beauregard to capture fort. Bombarded April 12-12,1861. Fort surrendered
ii)After defeat of fort Lincoln began mobilizing for war, but 4 more slave states also seceded- VA, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina. Other 4 slave states remained in Union- MD, Delaware, KY, Missouri)
iii)Ppl in N&S had come to believe two distinct and incompatible civilizations had developed in US, both incapable of living together in peace
d)The Opposing Sides
i)North held all the important material advantages- N had more than double the population (manpower for army and work force) advanced industrial system to manufacture war material (S had to rely on Eur imports), N had better transportation systems + more railroads
ii)Advantages tempered b/c at first South fighting defensive war on own land w/ strong support of population. N more divided and support shaky throughout
2)The Mobilization of the North
a)Economic Measures
i)W/o Southern forces in Congress it enacted nationalistic program to promote econ development- Homestead Act of 1862 gave public land to settlers for small fee, Morrill Land Grant Act gave land to state govts to sell for $ for public education. High tariffs passed- boom to domestic industries, protect from foreign producers
ii)To build transcontinental RR created the Union Pacific RR Company to build westward from Omaha + Central Pacific to build east from CA
iii) National Bank Acts of 1863-1864 created new bank system- banks could join if they invested in govt, in turn could issue US Treasure notes as currency
iv)Govt financed war thru taxes, paper currency, and borrowing. 1861 first ever income tax levied, govt “greenbacks” (paper money) issued (not on gold or silver standard), but mostly thru bonds sold to individuals and larger financial bodies
b)Raising Union Armies
i)To increase army Congress authorized enlisting 500,000 volunteers- produced adequate forces only briefly. By March 1863 govt had to pass national draft law (but ppl could avoid service by hiring someone in his place or paying $)
ii)Ppl were accustomed to remote, inactive nat’l govt so conscription had widespread opposition- mainly from laborers, immigrants, “Peace Democrats”
c)Wartime Politics
i)Lincoln moved to assert his authority- apptd cabinet representing every faction of Repub party, used war powers of president and disregarded parts of Const- e.x. never asking Congress for declaration of war (believed declaration would recognize Confederacy as an independent nation)
ii)Lincoln’s greatest problem was popular opposition to war mobilized by parts of Democratic Party (“Copperheads”) who feared agriculture and Northwest losign influence + deterioration of states rights by strong nat’l govt
iii)Lincoln suppressed opposition by ordering military arrests of civilian dissenters, suspending habeas corpus, stating all ppl who discouraged enlistment or disloyal practices subject to martial law. Lincoln defied Supreme Court when ordered to release secession leader (Ex parte Merryman), military courts declared unconst after war (Ex parte Milligan)
iv)In1864 presidential election coalition formed btwn Repubs & War Democrats in Union Party- nominated Lincoln. Dems nominated Gen George McClellan, platform for truce. N victories (e.x. Sept capture of Atlanta) led to Lincoln win
d)The Politics of Emancipation
i)Republicans disagreed on slavery- Radicals incl. Sen Charles Sumner wanted to use war to abolish slavery, Conservatives= gradual, less destructive process
ii)Lincoln cautious of emancipation but momentum gathered behind it- 1861 Confiscation Act freed all slaves used for “insurrectionary” purposes, second Confiscation Act in 1862 freed all slaves of ppl supporting the insurrection
iii)North began to accept emancipation as central war aim b/c nothing less would justify sacrifices of struggle, Radical Repub influence on the rise
iv)Lincoln seized leadership of antislavery sentiment- Sept 1862 after success at Battle of Antietam issued Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in all Confederate areas (but not Union slave states). Established war not only to maintain Union but also to eliminate slavery
v)1865 Congress ratified 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in all parts of US
e)African Americans and the Union Cause
i)About 180,000 emancipated blacks and more free blacks from North served as soldiers and laborers for Union forces. At start of war African Americans excluded from war, but after Emancipation Proc joined in great numbers
f)The War and Economic Development
i)War slowed some growth by cutting manufactueres off from Southern markets and raw materials and diverting labor, but mostly the war sped economic development in the North
ii)Econ growth from Repub nationalistic legislation + new sectors of economy. Difficult for workers though purchasing power declined, mechanization
g)Women, Nursing, and the War
i)Women entered new roles b/c of need for money and labor needs to fill positions vacated by men
ii)Nursing (previously dominated by men) taken up by women, staffed field hospitals thru US Sanitary Commission. Countered resistance from doctors by associating care with women’s role as maternal + nurturing wife and mother
iii)Many found war liberating, seen as opportunity to win support for own goals. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded National Woman’s Loyal League in 1863- worked for abolition and suffrage to women
3)The Mobilization of the South
a)The Confederate Government
i)Confederate const similar to US Const but acknowledged sovereignty of individual states, sanctioned slavery and made abolition nearly impossible. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi named president, led like Union by moderates of new Western aristocracy as opposed to entrenched Eastern elements
b)Money and Manpower
i)To finance war South needed to create national revenue system in society not used to tax burdens. Small banking system, little liquid capital b/c of investments in land + slaves. Govt requested funds from state govts who issued questionable bonds
ii)1863 Income tax created but raised little revenue, borrowing from Eur and bonds to citizens unsuccessful. Turned to issuing paper money but created inflation of over 9,000% vs North’s 80%, no uniform currency
iii)To raise military called for volunteers, but decline in enlistment led to April 1862 Conscription Act. N capture of Confederate lands led to loss of source for manpower, 1864 shortage so desperate draft widened but still ineffective
c)States’ Rights versus Centralization
i)States’ rights supporters obstructed war effort by limiting Davis’ ability to declare martial law and obstructed conscription
ii)Confed did centralize power in S- bureaucracy larger than that of Washington, impressed slaves to work for military, regulated industry + profits
d)Economic and Social Effects of the War
i)War devastating on S economy- cut off planters from markets in S, overseas cotton sales more difficult, industries w/o large slave forces suffered. Production declined by 1/3, fighting on S land destroyed RRs, farmland
ii)N naval blockade led to shortages of everything- agriculture had focused on cotton and not enough food to meet needs, few doctors b/c of conscription
iii)Like in N, w/ men leaving farms to fight the role of women changed- led slaves and family, became nurses. Led women to question S assumption that females unsuited for certain activities and to be in public sphere. War created gender imbalance w/ many more women, unmarried + widowed sought work
iv)Whites feared slave revolts + enforced slave codes severely, but many slaves tried to escape or resisted authority of women and boys overseeing plantations
4)Strategy and Diplomacy
a)The Commanders
i)Most impt Union commander was commander-in-chief Abraham Lincoln- realized N material advantages, goal defeat of Confed armies, not occupation
ii)Lincoln had trouble finding a competent chief of staff for war- Gen Winifield Scott, Gen George McCllellan, Gen Henry Halleck. Finally found commander in Gen Ulysses S. Grant- goal to target enemy army + resources, not territory
iii)Lincoln and Grant scrutinized by Congress’ Committee on the Conduct of the War chaired by OH Sen Benjamin Wade - complained of lack of ruthlessness by of N generals
iv)Southern command centered on Pres Davis, 1862 named Gen Robert E. Lee principal military adviser (w/ Lee in field Davis controlled strategy). 1864 Gen Braxton Bragg named military adviser, later 1865 Confed Congress created position of general in chief, Davis named Lee, but Davis still decider
v)Most commanders from both N & S had attended one of the US service academies- US Military Academy at West Point, US Naval Acad at Annapolis
b)The Role of Sea Power
i)Union had overwhelming naval advantage- used to enforce blockade of S coast, assisted Union army in field operations especially on large rivers
ii)Blockade prevented most ships out of Confed ports. Confederates tried to break blockade w/ new weapons such as the ironclad warship the Merrimac, which the Union stopped with one of their ironclads the Monitor
c)Europe and the Disunited States
i)Judith P Benjamin was Confed secretary of state, counterpart in Washington was the great William Seward
ii)At start of war ruling classes of England + France sympathetic to Confed b/c imported cotton for textile industries from S, wanted to see a weaker US, admired aristocratic social order of S. France waited to take sides until England did, English didn’t act b/c of popular support of ppl for the Union
iii)S countered w/ “King Cotton diplomacy” arguing S cotton vital for these nations textile industries. Surpluses in these nations allowed S to be ignored, later imports from mills from Egypt and India
iv)No Eur nation diplomatically recognized Confed, no nation wanted to antagonize US unless Confed seemed likely to win- never reached that point
v)Still, there was tension btwn US and GB + France b/c these nations had declared neutrality. Also 1861 Trent affair over arrest of Confed diplomats aboard English steamer from Cuba, later crisis over sale of Brit ships to S
d)The American West and the War
i)Most states and territories of West remained loyal to Union except TX, although Southerners and S sympathizers active in organizing opposition
ii)Fighting occurred btwn Unionists and secessionists in Kansas and Missouri. Confed William Quantrill led guerilla fighters, Union Jayhawkers in KS
iii)Confed tried to ally w/ Five Civilized Tribes in Indian territory to recruit support against Union, Indians divided. Never formally allied w/ either side
5)The Course of Battle
a)The Technology of Battle
i)Battlefield of Civil War reflected changes in tech that transformed combat
ii)Both sides began to use repeating weapons- Samuel Colt’s 1835 repeating revolver, Oliver Winchester’s 1660 rifle. Also, improved artillery + cannon
iii)Changes in weapons effectiveness led soldiers to change from infantry lines firing volleys to use of no fighting formations but use of cover, fortifications, trenches. Observation balloons, ironclad ships also appeared during war
iv)Railroad impt in war where millions of soldiers mobilized + tons of supplies. Allowed large armies to assemble and move, but forced to protect stationary lines. Telegraph limited but allowed commanders to communicate during fight
b)The Opening Clashes, 1861
i)First major battle of war occurred in northern VA btwn Union Gen Irvin McDowell and Confed Gen PGT Beauregard at First Battle of Bull Run
ii)Union lost, forced to retreat to Washington, dispelled illusion of quick war
iii)1863 Union army under Gen George McClellan “liberated” anti-secessionists in western VA, area admitted to Union as West Virginia 1863
c)The Western Theater
i)Stalemate in East led to 1862 military operations in West. April 1862 Union forced surrender of New Orleans, closed Mississippi R to Confed trade and took away South’s largest city and most impt banking center
ii)Gen Ulysses S. Grant captured forts under command of Confed Gen Albert Johnston. In doing so Grant forced Confed out of Kentucky and Tennessee
iii)Grant then marched south, fought forced of Gen Sidney and Gen Beauregard at Battle of Shiloh April 1862. Narrow Union victory allowed capture of several impt railroad lines vital to the Confederacy
d)The Virginia Front, 1862
i)Union operations 1862 directed by Gen McClellan (commander of the Army of the Potomac), he was controversial b/c often reluctant to put troops in battle
ii)McClellan planned Peninsular Campaign- use navy to transport troops, attack Confed capital at Richmond from behind. Gen McDowell left to defend D.C.
iii)Then Confed Gen Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson looked as if planning to cross Potomac to Washington, defeated Union forces in Valley campaign, withdrew
iv)Meanwhile, McClellan battled and defeated Confed Gen Joseph Johnston at Battle of Fair Oaks. Johnston replaced by Gen Robert E. Lee who battled McClellan at Battle of the Seven Days. Union able to advance near Richmond
v)When McClellan delayed attack Lincoln ordered him to move to northern VA to forces under Gen John Pope. But as Army of Potomac moved Lee attacked Pope with his Army of Northern Virginia at 2nd Battle of Bull Run (August)
vi)Lincoln replaced Pope and McClellan led all forces. Lee planned offensive, resulted in Battle of Antietam Creek- bloodiest single-day of war w/ 6,000 dead & 17,000 injured. Confed withdrew but McClellan could have defeated Lee w/ last assault. Lincoln relieved McClellan from command in November, his replacement Gen Ambrose Burnside relieved in December after failures
e)1863: Year of Decision
i)New commander of Army of the Potomac Gen Joseph Hooker attacked by Lee + Jackson at Battle of Chancellorsville, barely able to escape w/ army
ii)While Union frustrated in East won impt victories in the West
iii)In July besieged Confed stronghold at Vicksburg, MI surrendered to Grant
iv)Union now controlled entire Mississippi R, Confederacy split in two- Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas cut off from other seceded states
v)To divert Union forces away from Missippi and Vicksburg and to gain major victory on N soil to get English and French aid, Lee proposed PA invasion
vi)New Army of the Potomac commander Gen George Meade battled Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3. Meade defeated Lee w/ surrender on July 4, same day as Vicksburg defeat
vii) Weakened Confed forced now unable to seriously threaten N territory
viii)In September Gen Braxton Braggfought Union army under William Rosecrans, Union defeated at Battle of Chickamauga
ix)Bragg then fought remaining Union forces at Battle of Chattanooga (Tennessee) in November. Grant reinforced the Union army, Union won and occupied most of eastern TN and controlled important Tennessee River
x)Confed could not only hope to win independence thru holding on and exhausting N will to fight, not thru decisive military victory
f)The Last Stage, 1864-1865
i)Beginning 1864 Grant named general-in-chief of all Union armies. Planned two offensives: use Army of Potomac in VA to fight Lee near Richmond, and use western army under Gen William Sherman to advance toward Atlanta
ii)Grant’s Overland campaign in VA led Lee to win three battles (Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Battle of Cold Harbor)
iii)Grant then decided to bypass Richmond to railroad center at Petersburg- strong defenses and reinforcement by Lee led to 9-month siege
iv)In Georgia Gen Sherman fought Gen Johnston and his replacement Gen Hood, took Atlanta in Sept- electrified N + united Repub Party behind Lincoln
v)Sherman defeated Confed at Battle of Nashville, while beginning his March to the Sea- sought to deprive Confed army of war materials and railroad but also break will of Southern ppl by burning towns and plantations along route
vi)Sherman captured Savannah, GA in Dec, turned north thru SC and NC
vii)April 1865 Grant’s Army of the Potomac captured vital railroad juncture in Petersburg. W/o rail access to South and cut off rom other Confed forces Lee no longer able to defend Richmond
viii)Lee attempted to move army around Union in hope of meeting forces with Gen Johnston in North Carolina, but Union blocked and pursued him
ix) Realizng more bloodshed was futile Lee met w/ Grant in town of Appomattox Courthouse, VA- surrendered there on April 9
x)Nine days later Gen Johnston surrendered to Sherman in North Carolina
xi)In military war was effectively over even though Jefferson Davis refused to accept defeat. He fled Richmond but was captured in Georgia
1)The Problems of Peacemaking
a)The Aftermath of the War and Emancipation
i)Southern towns and fields ruined, many whites stripped of slaves and capital, currency worthless, little property. Thousands of soldiers (>20% of adult white male pop) had died, ppl wanted to preserve what was left
ii)Many emancipated slaves wandered looking for family, work. Almost none owned land or possessions
b)Competing Notions of Freedom
i)Freedom to blacks meant end to slavery, injustice, humiliation. Rights and protections of free men also desired
ii)AAs differed over how to achieve freedom: some wanted economic redistribution including land, others wanted legal equality and opportunity. All wanted independence from white control
iii)Whites wanted life w/o interference of North or federal govt. Thirteenth Amendment (Dec 1865) had abolished slavery, but many planters wanted blacks to be tied to plantations
iv)March 1865 Congress created Freedmen’s Bureau to distribute food, create schools, & help poor whites. Only a temporary solution, only operated for 1 yr
c)Issues of Reconstruction
i)Political issue when S states rejoined Union b/c Democrats would be reunited, threatened Repub nationalistic legislation for railroads, tariffs, bank and currency. Many in N wished to see S punished for suffering rebellion caused
ii)Repubs split btwn Conservatives and Radicals- Con wanted abolition but few other conditions for readmission, Radicals (led by Rep Thaddeus Stevens of PA + Sen Charles Sumner of MA) wanted Confed leaders punished, black legal rights protected, property confiscation. Moderates in between
d)Plans for Reconstruction
i)Lincoln proposed 1863 lenient Reconstruction plan- favored recruiting former Whigs to Repubs, amnesty to white Southerners other than high Confed officials. When 10% of ppl took loyalty oath state govt could be established. Questions of future of freedmen deferred for sake of rapid reunification
ii)The occupied Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee rejoined under plan in 1864
iii)Radicals unhappy with mild plan. Wade-Davis Bill 1864 proposed governor for each state, when majority of ppl took allegiance oath constitutional convention could be held w/ slavery abolished, former Confed leaders couldn’t vote. After Congress would readmit to Union. Lincoln pocket vetoed
e)The Death of Lincoln
i)April 14, 1865 Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
ii)Hysteria in N w/ accusations of conspiracy. Militant republicans exploited suspicions for months, ensured a mild plan would not come soon
f)Johnson and “Restoration”
i)Johnson became leader of Moderate and Conservative factions, enacted his “Restoration” plan while Congress in recess during summer 1865
ii)Plan offered amnesty to southerners taking allegiance oath, Confed officials + wealthy planters needed special presidential pardon. Like Wade-Davis Bill had provisional governors, constitutional convention had to revoke ordinance of secession, abolish slavery, ratify 13th Amdt. State govts, then readmission
iii)By end of 1865 all seceded states has new govts, waiting for Congress to recognize. Radicals refused to recognize Johnson govts b/c public sentiment more hostile- (e.g. Georgia’s choice of Confed Alexander Stephens as Sen)
2)Radical Reconstruction
a)The Black Codes
i)1865 + 1866 S state legislatures passed laws known as Black Codes- gave whites power over former slaves, prevent farm ownership or certain jobs
ii)Congress reacted by widening powers of Freemen’s Bureau to nullify agreements forced on blacks. 1866 passed first Civil Rights Act- made blacks US citizens, gave fed govt power to intervene to protect rights of citizens
iii)Johnson vetoed both bills, but both were overridden
b)The Fourteenth Amendment
i)14th Amendment defined citizenship- anybody born in US or naturalized automatically a citizen + guaranteed all rights of Const. No other citizenship requirements allowed, penalties for restricting male suffrage. Former Confed members couldn’t hold state or fed office unless pardoned by Congress
ii)Radicals offered to readmit those who ratified amendment, only TN did so
iii)S race riots helped lead to overwhelming Repub majority (mostly Radicals) in 1866 Congressional elections, could now act over President’s objections
c)The Congressional Plan
i)Radicals passed 3 Reconstruction plans in 1867, established coherent plan
ii)TN readmitted, but other state govts rejected. Cong formed five military districts w/ commanders who registered voters (blacks + white males uninvolved in rebellion) for const convention that must include black suffrage
iii)After const ratified needed Congressional approval, state legislature had to ratify 14thAmdt. By 1868 10 former Confed states fulfilled these conditions (14th Amdt now part of Const) and readmitted to Union
iv)Congress also passed 1867 the Tenure of Office Act (forbade pres to remove civil officials w/o Senate consent) and the Command of the Army Act (no military orders except thru commanding general of army or w/ Sen approval)
v)Supreme Court case Ex parte Milligan had declared military tribunals where civil courts existed unconst, Radicals feared same ruling would apply to military districts so proposed bills threatening court—court didn’t hear Reconstruction cases for 2 years
d)The Impeachment of President Johnson
i)Pres Johnson obstacle to Radical legislation, yet tasked with administering Reconstruction programs. 1868 Johnson impeached for violation of Tenure of Office Act for dismissing Sec of War Stanton- Sen acquitted by 1 vote
3)The South in Reconstruction
a)The Reconstruction Governments
i)In ten states recognized under congressional plans up to ¼ of whites excluded from voting and office. These restrictions later lifted, but Repubs kept control w/ support of many southern whites called “scalawags” (most former Whigs, wealthy planters, businessman), felt Repub better for their economic interests
ii)“Carpetbaggers” were northerners (mostly professionals or veterans) who moved South after war to take advantage of new opportunity
iii)Most republicans, however, were black freedmen who held conventions and created black churches that gave them unity and political self-confidence. Were delegates to const conventions, held office- although white charges of “Negro” governments were over exaggerated or false
iv)Reconstruction governments’ records were mixed- there were charges of corruption and extravagance. But corruption also rampant in N- both result of economic expansion of govt services that put new strains on elected officials. Larger budgets reflected needed services previous govts had not offered: public education, public works, and poor relief
b)Education
i)Education improvement benefited whites and blacks- large network of schools for former slaves created (over white opposition of giving blacks “false notions of equality”), by 1870s comprehensive public school system led to great percentage of white and black population attending school
ii)System divided into black and white system, integration efforts failed
c)Landownership and Tenancy
i)Freedmen’s Bureau and Radicals had hoped to make Reconstruction vehicle for southern landownership reform. Some redistribution of land in early years, but Pres Johnson and govt returned most confiscated land to returning plantation owners
ii)White landownership decreased b/c of debt, taxes or rentals. Black landownership increased, some relied on help of failed Freedman’s Bank
iii)Most ppl did not own land during Reconstruction, worked for others. Many black agricultural laborers worked only for wages, but most worked own plots of land and paid landlords rent or share of their crop
d)The Crop-Lien System
i)Postwar years saw economic progress for African Americans, great increase in income. Result of black profit share increasing, greater return on labor
ii)Redistribution did not lift many blacks out of poverty- black per capita income rose from ¼ of whites to ½, then grew little more afterward
iii)Gains of blacks and poor whites overshadowed by ravages of crop-lien system. After war few credit institutions such as banks returned, new credit system centered on local country stores
iv)Farmers did not have steady cash flow so relied on credit to buy what they needed. W/o competition stores charged incredibly high interest rates. Had to give lien (claim) on crops as collateral- bad years trapped them in debt cycle
v)Effects included leading some blacks who had gained land to lose it as they became indebted, S farmers became dependent on nearly all cash crops (only possibility to escape debt). Lack of diversity led to decline in agric economy
e)The African-American Family in Freedom
i)Major black response during Reconstruction was effort to build or rebuild family structures, reason why many immediately left plantations was to seek relatives and family
ii)Women began performing more domestic work + child caring, less field labor
iii)Poverty + economic necessity led many black women to do income-producing activity for wages, reminiscent of slave activities: domestic servants, laundry
4)The Grant Administration
a)The Soldier President
i)Grant accepted Repub nomination for president in 1868 election. Had no political experience, apptd incompetent cabinet members, relied on party leaders and spoils system. Alienated Northerners disillusioned w/ Radical reconstruction and corruption
ii)Opposing Repubs formed faction called Liberal Republicans, supported Dem nominee Horace Greeley in 1872 elections—but Grant won reelection
b)The Grant Scandals
i)Series of scandals emerged plaguing Grant and Repubs. Involved French-owned Credit Mobilier construction company helping build Union Pacific RR. Company heads steered contracts to company costing fed govt and Union Pacific millions, stock given to Congress members to stop investigation
ii)Later, “whiskey ring” found officials helping distillers cheat out of taxes. Later “Indian ring” scandal idea that “Grantism” brought corruption to govt
c)The Greenback Question
i)Grant’s and nation’s problems confounded by Panic of 1873- began w/ failure of investment bank, later debtors wanted govt to redeem war bonds w/ greenbacks (paper currency)
ii)Grant and other Repubs wanted “sound” currency based on gold that would favor banks and other creditors, didn’t want to put more money in circulation
iii)1875 Repubs passed Specie Resumption Act- pegged greenback dollars to the price of gold. Satisfied creditors, hard for debtors b/c money supply grew little
iv)National Greenback Party formed, unsuccessful but kept money issue alive
d)Republican Diplomacy
i)Johnson and Grant administrations had great foreign affairs successes b/c of Secretaries of State William Seward and Hamilton Fish
ii)Seward bought Alaska from Russia (“Seward’s Folly”), annexed Midway Islands. Fish resolved claims against GB of violating neutrality by building ships for Confed. Treaty of Washington allowed for arbitration of claims
5)The Abandonment of Reconstruction
a)The Southern States “Redeemed”
i)By 1872 nearly all S whites regained suffrage, worked as majority to overthrow Repubs. In areas of black majority whites used intimidations and violence (Ku Klux Klan, ect.) to prevent blacks from political activity
ii)Klan led by former Confed Gen Nathan Forrest. Worked to advance interest of those who would gain from white supremacy- mainly planter class and Democratic party. Most of all, however, economic pressure used
b)The Ku Klux Klan Acts
i)Repubs tried to stop white repression, 1870 passed Enforcement Acts (known as Ku Klux Klan Acts)- prohibited states from discriminating against voters on race, fed govt given power to prosecute violations. Allowed pres to use military to protect civil rights, suspend habeas corpus in some situations
ii)Grant used law in 1871 for “lawless” counties in SC
c)Waning Northern Commitment
i)Enforcement Acts peak of Repub enforcement of Reconstruction. After 1870 adoption of 15th Amdt many in N felt blacks should take care of themselves. Support for Liberal Democrats grew, some moves into Democratic Party
ii)Panic of 1873 undermined Reconstruction support further, N industrialists explained poverty and instability thru “Social Darwinism” where those who suffered did so b/c of own weakness. Viewed poor blacks in this light, favored little govt intervention to help. Depleted treasury led ppl to want to spend little on freedmen, poor state govts cut back on social services
iii)In Congressional elections of 1874 Dems won majority in House for first time since 1861, Grant used army to maintain Repub control in SC, FL, LA
d)The Compromise of 1877
i)In 1876 elections Repubs sought new candidate to distance from corruption and attract Liberals back- chose Rutherford B Hayes, Dems chose Sam Tilden
ii)Tilden won popular vote but dispute over 20 electoral votes from 3 states. Tilden one vote shy of electoral vote majority, Hayes needed all 20 votes to win. Congress created special electoral commission to judge disputed votes, chose 8-7 to give all votes to Hayes—won election
iii)Resolution result of compromises btwn Repubs w/ southern Dems- Hayes would withdraw last fed troops from S if Dems abandoned filibuster of bill
iv)“Compromise of 1877” also involved more financial aid for railroads and internal improvements in S in order to help Dems grow business and industrialize, withdraw troops to rid S of last Repub state govts
e)The Legacies of Reconstruction
i)Reconstruction made strides in helping former slaves but a failure b/c failed to resolve issue of race, created such bitterness that solution not attempted for another century. Failure b/c of ppl directing it, unwillingness to infringe on rights of states and individuals
6)The New South
a)The “Redeemers”
i)By 1877 w/ final withdrawal of troops every southern state govt “redeemed” (white Dems held power). “Redeemers”/“Bourbons” members of powerful ruling elite, mostly new class of merchants, industrialists, financiers. Committed to “home rule”, social conservatism, economic development
ii)Dem govts lowered taxes, reduced services (incl. public education)
iii)By 1870s dissenters protesting service cuts and Redeemer govt commitment to pay off prewar and Reconstruction debts (e.g. VA Readjuster movement)
b)Industrialization and the “New South”
i)Leaders in post-Reconstruction south wanted to develop industrial economy, New South of industry, progress, thrift
ii)Literature of time indicates reference for the “Lost Cause” and Old South- Joel Chandler Harris’ 1880 Uncle Remus. Also, growth of minstrel shows
iii)New South included growth of textile manufacturing b/c of water power, cheap labor, low taxes. Tobacco-processing industry also grew, including James Duke’s American Tobacco Company. Iron + steel industry also grew
iv)Railroad development increased dramatically, 1886 greater integration with rest of country when changed its gauge
v)However, growth of South merely regained what it had done before war, average income in the South substantially lower than that of North
vi)Manufacturing growth required industrial labor force. Most were women, wages much lower than in N. Mill towns restricted by company w/ labor unions suppressed, credit thru company- but led to sense of community
c)Tenants and Sharecroppers
i)S still primarily agrarian. 1870s/1880s growth of tenantry and debt peonage, reliance on cash crops. Crop-lien system resulted in many losing land, maj of ppl in S became tenant farmers
ii)“Sharecropping” system where farmers promised large share of crop for land, tools- little money left over after payments. Subsistence farming gave way to only growth of cash crops- increased poverty. Coupled w/ “fence laws” (prevented ppl from raising livestock) led to decline in living self-sufficiently
iii)Backcountry + blacks affected led populist protests to follow in 1880s/1890s
d)African Americans and the New South
i)Some blacks attracted to New South ideals of progress + self improvement, entered middle class by becoming professionals, owning land or business
ii)This small rising group of blacks believed education vital to future of race- supported black colleges
iii)Spokesman for this idea was Booker T Washington (founder of Tuskegee Institute)- believed blacks should attend school and learn skills in agricultural or trade, win respect of white population by adopting middle class standards of dress. His “Atlanta Compromise” sought to forgo political rights, concentrate on self-improvement and economic gains to earn recognition
e)The Birth of Jim Crow
i)Pullout of fed troops, loss of interest in Congress, and Supreme Court decisions regarding 14th & 15th Amdts (civil rights cases of 1883 prevented state discrimination but not private organizations of individuals)
ii)Court validated separation of races- Plessy v Ferguson (1896) ruled separate accommodations did not deprive blacks of equal rights if accommodations were equal.Cumming v County Board of Education (1899)- laws for separate schools valid even if no comparable school for blacks existed
iii)White policies shifted from subordination to segregation- black voting rights had been used by Bourbons to keep their control of Dem party, but when poor white farmers saw this they sought to disenfranchise blacks. Got around 15th Amdt thru “poll tax”/property requirement or “literacy”/understanding test
iv)Jim Crow Laws segregated almost every area of southern life. 1890s increased violence (lynchings, ect) to inhibit black movement for equal rights. An anti-lynching movement did emerge led by Ida B. Wells to pass national law enabling fed got to punish those responsible for lynchings
v)White supremacy diluted class animosities btwn poor whites and Bourbon oligarchs. Economic issues played secondary role to race, distracting ppl from social inequalities that affected blacks and whites
1)The Societies of the Far West
a)The Western Tribes
i)Some dislocated eastern tribes in “Indian Territory”, others western tribes such as Pueblos had permanent settlements/farms + interaction w/ Spanish & Mexicans- caste system over other Ind tribes (genizaros=Ind w/o tribes)
ii)Plains Indians- some nomadic, some farmers. Many (including Sioux) hunted buffalo as main source of food + materials
iii)Warriors unable to defeat white settlers b/c disunited, internal conflict, disease
b)Hispanic New Mexico
i)American capitalist integration led Spanish-speaking to erosion of communal society + economies, land aristocracy from Santa Fe + Span/Mex peasants
ii)Territorial govt in 1850, in 1870s govt dominated by “territorial ring” where business ppl took advantage of impending statehood, used fed money for profit
iii)Arrival of RRs in in SW during 1880s/1890s brought new ranching, farming, mining brought new Mexican migrants
c)Hispanic California and Texas
i)Most Spanish missions that employed Ind as near slaves until 1830s. White settlers expelled Hispanic californios from the land. Market for cattle allowed some rancheros to continue to own land, but most Mexs became working class
ii)In Texas Mexs also unable to compete with enormous Anglo-American ranching kingdoms- most relegated to unskilled farm + industrial labor
d)The Chinese Migration
i)After 1848 gold rush, Chinese migration dramatically increased, settling mostly in CA. White sentiment soon turned negative b/c Chinese industrious and successful
ii)Chinese excluded from gold mining by CA 1852 “foreign miner tax”, other laws 1850s discouraged immigration—Chinese began to work on transcontinental Central Pacific RR
iii)After RR completion 1869 many Chinese moved to cities- formed “Chinatowns” w/ benevolent societies, “tongs”-secret criminal societies
iv)Many Chinese occupied lower jobs- unskilled laborers. Many started laundries
e)Anti-Chinese Sentiment
i)“Anti-coolie” clubs in 1860s/1870s sought ban on employing Chinese, formed b/c some whites felt Chinese laborers accepted low wages + undercut unions
ii)In CA, Democratic Party + Denis Kearney’s Workingmen’s Party attacked Chinese interest- based on economic tension, cultural + racial- “inassimilable”
iii)1882 Congress responded to pressure, passed Chinese Exclusion Act- halted Chinese migration, barred naturalization- aimed to help “American” labor
f)Migration from the East
i)Extremely great postwar migration to empty and settled areas alike. Most white Anglo-Americans, others foreign-born Eur immigrants—attracted by metal deposits, lands for farming and ranching
ii)Fed land policies encouraged settlement: Homestead Act of 1862 gave 160 acres of land for small fee, in return would improve land, create new markets mechanization + rising farm costs forced some small farmers off this land
iii)In response Congress passed Timber Culture Act (1863), Desert Land Act (1877), Timber and Stone Act (1878) to allow ppl to buy/develop more cheap land
g)1860s saw development of territorial govt, statehood soon followed for most
2)The Changing Western Economy
a)Labor in the West
i)Labor shortage led to higher wages than in East, but job instability (after harvest or RR completion, ect) led to communities of jobless in cities. Workers mostly mobile, single men
ii)Working class highly multiracial, but whites generally occupied higher job levels (management + skilled labor) than nonwhites in unskilled labor. Dual labor system reinforced by racial assumptions that held nonwhites more suited for worse conditions + harder labor- allowed whites greater social mobility
b)The Arrival of the Miners
i)First Western economic boom came from mining strikes in 1860s-1890s. During Pike’s Peak strike 1858 mining camps blossomed into “cities”, later Comstock Lode silver found in Nevada, 1874 Black Hill strike in Dakota Terr.
ii)After surface wealth used up, eastern capitalists often bought claims of pioneer prospectors, began retrieving from deeper veins w/ corporate mines
iii)In boom towns vigilantism used to combat outlaws. Men outnumbered women, prostitution very common. After boom most remained in town as wage laborer in corporate mine
c)The Cattle Kingdom
i)Economy also affected by the open range- provided cattle raisers w/ free lands to graze, RRs gave access to markets. Largest herds found in Texas
ii)After success of the long drive proven, easier routes to access rest of country sought- market facility grew up at Abilene, KS as railhead of cattle kingdom. Agricultural development in 1870s in W. Kansas led other routes to grow
iii)As settlement of plans increased new forms of competition emerged- sheep breeders used range to feed flock, farmers from the East fenced in their lands—“range wars” developed btwn ranchers and farmers
iv)Large profits in cattle business led cattle economy to become more corporate. This expansion onto already shrunken ranges from RRs and farmers became overstocked, and combined with bad winters from 1885-1887, thousands of cattle died—open-range industry never recovered, but ranches survived + grew
v)Although cattle industry mostly male, large number of women led them to have impt political presence- women won vote earlier in West than rest of nation (some states to swell population for statehood, bring “morals” to politics)
3)The Romance of the West
a)The Western Landscape
i)Painters of the “Rocky Mountain School
“ celebrated the West in grandiose paintings that attracted great crowds- emphasized ruggedness and variety of region, awe toward land that had been previously expressed by Hudson River valley painters
b)The Cowboy Culture
i)Cowboy life romanticized in contrast to stable, orderly world of the East. Owen Wister’sThe Virginian (1902) showed freedom from social contraints, only one example of magazine articles, novels, ect. about Western life
c)The Idea of the Frontier
i)Many Americans considered the West the last frontier. Mark Twain wrote about (mostly early) frontier life is Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
ii)Painter/sculptor Frederic Turner captured romance of West in his works comparing it to the East
iii)Theodore Roosevelt wrote history of West- The Winning of the West (1890s)
d)Frederick Jackson Turner
i)The historian Turner contended that by 1890s no single frontier line existed and the end of an era had come. Expansion has stimulated individualism, nationalism, democracy, American uniqueness. Mirrored sentiments of US
ii)Turner inaccurate and premature- ppl had always lived in “empty, uncivilized” lands and had been displaced, also in coming years much land still available
e)The Loss of Utopia
i)With nation feeling that there had been a “passing of the frontier”, ppl felt opportunities closing and with it ability to control own destiny
ii)“Myth of the garden” (West as Garden of Eden) lost
4)The Dispersal of the Tribes
a)White Tribal Policies
i)Traditional policy was to regard tribes as nations and wards of the president, therefore negotiate treaties w/ them ratified by Senate. As white settlers demanded more lands during 1850s led ppl to abandon idea of one large Indian Territory to policy of “concentration”- each tribe given negotiated reservation
ii)In 1867 after bloody conflicts Congress created Indian peace Commission to make permanent Indian policy- move all Plains Indians into Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and Dakotas. Failed b/c of poor administration by Bureau of Indian Affairs & killing of buffalo herds by whites + reduced Indian ability to resist white advance -led to violence
b)The Indian Wars
i)1850s-1880s showed nearly constant fighting as Indians struggled against threats to their civilizations- during Civil War conflict w/ Indians in Old Northwest and the Southwest
ii)Not only military that threatened tribes; white vigilantes participated in “Indian hunting” killed tribes for sport or bounties, wanted retaliation after raids
iii)Treaties made in 1867 saw temporary lull, but influx of settlers in 1870s penetrated Dakota Territory + change in govt policy to not recognize tribes as independent nations led to violence in 1875
iv)Sioux rose up under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in the Black Hills- at Battle of Little Bighorn 1876 Indians killed Colonel George Custer and regiment, Indians became disunited after and forced to return to reservation
v)Nez Perce Indians under Chief Joseph 1877 attempted to flee Idaho for Canada but caught by soldiers, forced to travel for years afterward to difft areas
vi)Last organized resistance came from Apaches under Chiefs Mangas Colorados, Cochise, and finally Geronimo- unwilling to bow to white pressures Geronimo conducted raids on white outposts (“Apache Wars”), surrendered 1886
vii)Atrocities against Indians had prompted much fighting- in 1890 Sioux religious revival under the prophet Wovoka led to “Ghost Dance” that celebrated vision of whites leaving + buffalo return- in Dec troops tried to round up some Indians at Wounded Knee, SD which turned into an Indian massacre
c)The Dawes Act
i)Efforts taken to destroy reservation + communal land ownership in order to force Indians to become farmers, landowners - abandon culture for white civili.
ii)Dawes Act of 1887 eliminated tribal ownership and gave land to individual owners. Bureau of Indian Affairs promoted assimilation, sometimes by removing children and sending them to white boarding schools, build churches
iii)Indians unprepared for capitalist individualism + corrupt administration led to abandonment of program, later Burke Act of 1906 also failed to divide lands
5)The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer
a)Farming on the Plains
i)Before Civil War lands accessible only by wagon, transcontinental RR completed 1869 and subsidiary lines built afterward w/ land grants and loans
ii)Easier access to Great Plains spurred agriculture- RRs offered cheap land and credit, rainfall allowed farming
iii) Farmers faced problems: enclosing land expensive, but 1873 Joseph Glidden and IL Ellwood invited barbwire; arid land needed irrigation, especially after 1887 when series of dry spells followed- during 1880s booms credit easy, but arid weather of late 1880smany farmers unable to pay debt and forced to abandon farms
b)Commercial Agriculture
i)Commercial farmers specialized in cash crops sold on national/international markets. Relied on town stores for supplies and food, dependent on bankers’ interest rates, railroad freight rates, and US/Eur markets
ii)During late 19th century agriculture became an international business- US commercial farmers relied on risky world market to absorb surpluses
iii)Overproduction in 1880s led to price drops, economic crisis for small farmers
c)The Farmers’ Grievances
i)Farmers resented railroads and their higher freight rates for farm goods, credit institutions for their high interest rates and payments that had to be made in years when currency scarce, and prices that they had to pay for goods and the money they received- believed manufactures keeping farm good prices low
d)The Agrarian Malaise
i)Farmers isolated, lacked education for children, proper medical facilities, and community- this sense of obsolescence lead to growing malaise among farmers that created great political movement in 1890sSturdy yeoman farmers had viewed themselves as the backbone of American life, now they were becoming aware that their position was declining in relation to the rising urban-industrial society in the East
1)Sources of Industrial Growth
a)Industrial Technologies
i)Most impt tech development was new iron + steel production techniques- Henry Bessemer and William Kelly invented process to turn iron to steel, possible to produce large quantities and dimensions for construction, RRs
ii)Steel industry emerged in Pennsylvania and Ohio (Pittsburgh notably)- iron industry existed, fuel could be found in PA coal
iii)New transportation systems emerged to serve steel industry- freighters for the Great Lakes, RRs used steel to grow + transported it (sometimes merged w/ one another). Oil industry also grew b/c of need to lubricate mill machinery
b)The Airplane and the Automobile
i)Development of automobile dependent upon growth of two technologies: creation of gasoline from crude oil extraction, and 1870s Eur development of “internal combustion engine”. By 1910 car industry major role in economy
ii)First gas-car built by Duryea brothers 1903, Henry For began production 1906
iii)Search for flight by Wright Bros lead to famous 1903 flight. US govt created National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics 1915 to match Eur research
c)Research and Development
i)New industrial technologies lead companies to sponsor own research- General Electric established first corp lab 1900, marked decentralization of govt-sponsored research. At same time cnxn began btwn university research + needs of industrial economy- partnership btwn academic + commercial
d)The Science of Production
i)Principles of “scientific management” began to be employed- fathered by Frederick Taylor who argued employers subdivide tasks to decrease need for highly skilled workers, increase efficiency by doing simple tasks w/ machines
ii)Emphasis on industrial research led to corporate labs (e.g. Edison’s Menlo Park)
iii)Most impt change in production was mass production + assembly line. First used by Henry Ford in automobile plant 1914- cut production time, prices
e)Railroad Expansion
i)Industrial development b/c of RR expansion- gave industrialists access to new markets + raw materials, spent large sums on construction and equipment
ii)Possible b/c of govt subsidies, investment capital from abroad, and combinations of RRs by Cornelius Vanderbilt, James Hill, Collis Huntington
f)The Corporation
i)Modern corp emerged after Civil War when industrialists realized no person or group of limited partners able to finance great ventures
ii)Businesses began to sell stock, appealing b/c “limited liability” meant lost only amt of investment + not liable for debts- allowed vast capital to be raised
iii)Began in RR industry, spread to others- in steel industry Andrew Carnegie struck deals with RRs, bought up rivals, purchased coal mines w/ partner Henry Clay Frick controlled steel process from mine to market
iv)Financed undertaking by selling stock. Bought out 1901 by JP Morgan who formed United States Steel- controlled 2/3 of nation’s steel production
v)Corporate organizations developed new management techniques- division of responsibilities, control hierarchy, cost-accounting procedures, and “middle manager” btwn owners and labor introduced. Consolidation now a possibility
g)Consolidating Corporate America
i)Consolidation occurred thru “horizontal integration” (forming competing firms into single corporation) and “vertical integration” (control production from raw materials to distribution). Also thru pool arrangements (most failed)
ii)Most famous corp empire John D Rockefeller’s Standard Oil- thru horizontal & vertical integration came to control 90% of refined oil in US
iii)Consolidation used to cope w/ “cutthroat competition”- feared too much competition lead to instability, best was to eliminate/absorb competition
h)The Trust and the Holding Company
i)Failure of pools (informal agreements to stabilize rates, divide markets) led to less cooperation and more centralized control- “trust” emerged (stock transferred to group of trustees who made all decisions but shared profits)
ii)Beginning w/ NJ 1889 states changed laws to allow companies to buy other companies, trust unnecessary—“holding companies” emerged as corporate body to buy up stock and establish formal ownership of corporations in trust
iii)End of 19th cent 1% of corps controlled 33% of manufacturing, system where power in hands of a few men- NY bankers (JP Morgan), industrialists (Rockefeller), ect.
iv)Substantial economic growth ultimately from this arrangement- costs cut, industrial infrastructure formed, new markets stimulated, new unskilled jobs
2)Capitalism and Its Critics
a)The “Self-Made Man”
i)Defenders argued capitalist economy expanding opportunities for individual advancement, and some tycoons were self-made men. But most came to be wealthy as a result of ruthlessness, arrogance, corruption (financial contributions to political, parties)
ii)Many industrialists were modest entrepreneurs trying to carve role for their business in an unstable economy & fragmented, highly competitive industries
b)Survival of the Fittest
i)Assumptions that wealth earned thru hard work and thrift and that those who failed earned their failure became basis of Social Darwinism- only fittest individuals survived and flourished in the marketplace
ii)English philosopher Herbert Spencer championed theory, in America William Graham Sumner promoted similar ideas- absolute freedom to struggle, compete, succeed, and fail
iii)Appealed to businessmen b/c justified their tactics- efforts to raise wages by labor thru unions or govt regulation would fail, laws of supply and demand and “invisible hand” or market forces would determine wages and prices
iv)Yet tycoons themselves thru monopolies tried to eliminate competition
c)The Gospel of Wealth
i)Gospel of Wealth (1901) by Andrew Carnegie advocated idea that w/ great wealth came great responsibility to use riches to advance social progress
ii)Author Horatio Alger promoted stories of individual success in his works- anybody could become rich thru work, perseverance, and luck
d)Alternative Visions
i)Groups emerged challenging corporate and capitalistic ethos
ii)Sociologist Lester Ward in Dynamic Sociology (1883) argued natural selection didn’t shape society, and active govt in positive planning best for society. Skeptical of laissez-fire, ppl should intervene to serve their needs
iii)Famous dissidents emerged to challenge ideas: Socialist Labor Party founded 1870s by Daniel De Leon; Henry George and his Progress and Poverty (1879) argued poverty due to wealth of monopolists and their high land values; Edward Bellamy and his Looking Backward (1888) spoke of “fraternal cooperation” and of future society where govt distributed wealth equally
e)The Problems of Monopoly
i)Few questioned capitalism itself but movement grew in opposition to monopolies + economic concentrations- seen as creating artificially high prices, unstable economy. Recessions and havoc 1873 every 5-6 yrs
ii)Resentment increased b/c of new class of conspicuously wealthy ppl who lived opulent lifestyle- flagrant wealth in face of 4/5 who lived modestly
iii)Standard of living rising for everyone, but gap btwn rich + poor growing
3)Industrial Workers in the New Economy
a)The Immigrant Work Force
i)Industrial work force grew late 19th century b/c of migration to industrial cities from both rural areas and foreign immigration- late century most migrants from England, Ireland, N Eur, by end shit toward S and E Europeans
ii)Immigrants came to escape poverty, lured by opportunity and advertisements by companies. Ethnic tensions increased b/c of job displacement, competition
b)Wages and Working Conditions
i)Average standard of living rose but wages low, little job security b/c boom-bust cycle, monotonous tasks that required little skill, long hours in unsafe conditions- loss of control over work conditions seen as worst part of factory labor as corporate efficiency and managers centralized workplace
c)Women and Children at Work
i)Decreasing need for skilled labor led to increase use of women and children who could be paid lower than men
ii)Most women were young immigrants, concentrated in textile industry and domestic service. Some single, others supplemented husband’s earnings
iii)Children employed in agriculture and factories w/ little regulation, dangerous
d)The Struggle to Unionize
i)Labor attempted to fight conditions by creating large combinations (unions) but had little success by century’s end. Fist attempt to federate separate unions came 1866 w/ National labor Union (disintegrated after Panic of 1873)
ii)Unions faced difficulty during 1870s recessions b/c of high unemployment, hostility of middle class
e)The Great Railroad Strike
i)Railroad Strike of 1877 began after 10% wage cut announced. Strikers disrupted rail service, state militia mobilized and in July President Hayes ordered some federal troops. Strike collapsed eventually after many deaths
ii)Showed disputes could no longer be localized in national economy, depth of resentment toward employers, frailty of labor movement
f)The Knights of Labor
i)First effort at national labor organization 1869 Noble Order of the Knights of Labor under Uriah Stephens- lacked strong central direction but local “assemblies” championed 8-hour workday, end to child labor, but also interested in long-range reform of economy. Allowed women to join
ii)During 1870s under Terence Powderly rapid expansion, but by 1890 Knights had collapsed due to failure of strikes in the Gould railway system
g)The AFL
i)1880s American Federation of Labor created, became most impt +enduring national labor group- collection of autonomous craft unions of skilled workers
ii)Led by Samuel Gompers- goal to secure greater share of capitalism’s material rewards to workers, opposed fundamental economic reform
iii)Wanted creation of national 8-hour work day, national strike May 1, 1886 to achieve goal- in Chicago violence broke out btwn strikers and police after deaths in Haymarket Square bombing- “anarchism” became widely feared by middle class, associated it with radical labor
h)The Homestead Strike
i)The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (craft union in AFL) held large amt of power in steel industry b/c of reliance on skilled workers
ii)By 1880s Efficient Carnegie process led management to want more control over labor + needed fewer skilled workers
iii)Carnegie and Henry Frick began to cut wages at Homestead plant in Pittsburgh to break union. 1892 strike called after company stopped consulting the Amalgamated, Pinkerton Detective Agency security guards brought in as strikebreakers- were attacked, National Guard of PA called in
iv)Eventually protected strikebreakers ended strike, by 1900 Amalgamated had lost nearly every major steel plant
i)The Pullman Strike
i)Strike at Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894 after Pullman cut wages. Workers began to strike w/ the American Railway Union of Eugene V. Debs
ii)Within few days thousands of railway workers struck and transportation nationwide frozen. General Manager’s Association asked Pres Grover Cleveland to send in federal troops b/c passage of mail being blocked
iii)Pres complied and sent 2,000 troops to protect strikebreakers. Strike collapsed
j)Sources of Labor Weakness
i)Late 19th century labor suffered many losses- wages rose slowly, whatever progress made not enforced
ii)Reasons for failures included: leading labor organizations represented only small percentage of industrial work force; ethnic tensions; many immigrant workers planned to stay in country for short while and moved very often- eroded willingness to organize, believed not part of permanent working class; couldn’t match efforts of powerful + wealthy corporations
1)The Urbanization of America
a)The Life of the City
i)Urban pop increased 7x in 50 yrs after Civil War, by 1920 majority of ppl lived in urban areas. Occurred partly b/c of natural growth, mostly b/c immigrants and rural ppl flocked b/c offered better paying jobs than rural areas, cultural experiences available, transportation to cities easier than ever
b)Migrations
i)Late 19th century saw geographic mobility- Americans left declining Eastern agricultural regions for new farmlands in West and for cities of East
ii)Women moved from farms where mechanization decreased their value; Southern blacks moved to cities to escape rural poverty, oppression, violence
iii)Largest source of urban growth immigrants: until 1880s mainly educated N Europeans who were sometimes skilled laborers, businessmen or moved West to start farms. After 1880s largely S and E Europeans, lacked capital (like poor Irish immigrants before Civil War) so took mainly unskilled jobs
c)The Ethnic City
i)Not only was amt of immigrants tremendous, but so was diversity of immigrant population (no single national group dominated)
ii)Most immigrants were rural ppl so formed close-knit ethnic communities to ease transition-offered native newspapers, food, links to national past
iii)Assimilation of ethnic groups into capitalist economy depended on values of community, but also prejudices among employers, individual skills and capital
d)Assimilation
i)Most immigrants had desire to become true “Americans” and break with old national ways. Particular strain w/ women who in America shared more freedoms- adjust to more fluid life of American city
ii)Assimilation encouraged by Natives thru public schools and employer requirement to learn English, religious leaders
e)Exclusion
i)Immigrant arrival provoked many fears + resentments of some native-born ppl. Reacted out of prejudice, foreign willingness to accept lower wages
ii)Political response to these resentments- American Protective Association founded by Henry Bowers 1887, Immigration Restriction League sought to screen/reduce immigrants. 1882 Congress passed Chinese Exclusion Act, also denied entry to all “undesirables” and placed small tax on immigrants
iii)New laws kept only small amt out. Literacy requirement vetoed by president Grover Cleveland—anti-immigrant measures failed mainly b/c many natives welcomed it, provided growing economy w/ cheap and plentiful labor
2)The Urban Landscape
a)The Creation of Public Space
i)By mid-19th century reformers and planners began to call for ordered vision of city, resulted in creation of public spaces and public services
ii)Urban parks solution to congestion, allowed escape from strain of urban life. 1850s Central Park famously planned by Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
iii)Great public buildings (libraries, museums, theaters), spurred by wealthy residents who wanted amenities to match material and social aspirations
iv)Urban leaders undertook massive city rebuilding projects- “City Beautiful Movement” inspired by architect Daniel Burnham- provide order and symmetry to disorderly life of city (faced opposition from private landowners)
b)Housing the Well-to-Do
i)Availability of cheap labor + materials lowered cost of building in late 19th century. Most wealthy lived in mansions, but later moderately well-to-do and wealthy both began to build and commute from suburban communities nearby
c)Housing Workers and the Poor
i)Most residentsforced to stay in city and rent- demand high and space scarce led to little bargaining power. Landlords tried to get most ppl in smallest space
ii)“Tenements” came to refer to overcrowded slum dwellings. Poverty and rough tenement life showcased by reporter Jacob Riis in his 1890 How the Other Half Lives. Some immigrants also boarded in small family homes
d)Urban Transportation
i)Old, narrow dirty streets insufficient to deal w/ urban growth and need for ppl to move everyday to difft parts of city- new forms of mass transit needed
ii)Cities experimented w/ elevated railways, cable cars, by 1895 electric trolley lines, and in 1897 Boston opened first subway in nation
iii)New road, bridge tech also developed (e.g. John Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge)
e)The “Skyscraper”
i)Inadequate structural materials and stairs prevented tall buildings until 1870s iron and steal beam development. After Civil War buildings grew successively taller, 1890s term “skyscraper” introduced
ii)Steel girder construction allowed city’s w/ limited space to expand upward if not outward. Architect Louis Sullivan famous skyscraper designer
3)Strains of Urban Life
a)Fire and Disease
i)Fires destroyed large parts of downtown areas w/ buildings made mainly of wood. “Great fires” led to fireproof buildings, professional fire departments
ii)Diseases from poor neighborhoods w/ inadequate sanitation and sewage disposal threatened epidemics that could spread thru whole city
b)Environmental Degradation
i)Industrialization and rapid urbanization led to improper disposal of human and industrial waste that threatened waterways and drinking water, air quality suffered from burning of stoves and furnaces
ii)By early 20th century reformers: seeking new sewage and drainage systems; Physician Alive Hamilton looked to identify and correct pollution in workplace; 1912 fed govt created Public Health Service created factory health standards to prevent occupational diseases (weak b/c no enforcement power)
c)Urban Poverty
i)Expansion of city created poverty, sheer number of ppl meant many unable to earn decent subsistence. Public agencies and private philanthropic groups offered limited relief, and if they did mostly only to the poorest
ii)Some groups focused on religious revivalism as relief; others alarmed at great number of poor children in streets (some lives on their own)– “street arabs”
d)Crime and Violence
i)Poverty and crowding created violence, crime. Murder rate rose nationwide, and rising crime rates prompted cities to create larger, more professional police forces. Armories also developed b/c of fear of urban insurrections
e)Fear of the City
i)City offered allure and excitement, but also alienation and feelings of anonymity (e.g. Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 Sister Carrie about displaced single women)
f)The Machine and the Boss
i)Newly arrived immigrants sought assistance from political machines- created by power vacuum of cities, voting power of large immigrant communities
ii)Urban “bosses” sought votes for his organization by winning loyalty of constituents thru relief, jobs for unemployed, patronage
iii)Machines enriched politicians b/c of graft and corruption from contractors or investment from inside knowledge- most notorious was William Tweed of NY’s Tammany Hall during 1860s/1870s
iv)In spite of middle class reformers citing machines as obstacles to progress, boss rule possible b/c immigrant voters wanted services first and foremost & weakness of city govts
4)The Rise of Mass Consumption
a)Patterns of Income and Consumption
i)Growing markets and demand turn of century b/c of production and mass distribution made goods less expensive, also b/c of rising incomes of “white collar” professionals and working-class ppl despite union failures
ii)Mass market also grew b/c affordable prices and new merchandising techniques allowed goods to reach more consumers (e.g. ready-made clothing after Civil War and rise of fashion)
iii)Food transformed by tin cans, refrigerated RR cars for perishables, home iceboxes. Allowed for better diet and higher life expectancy
b)Chain Stores and Mail-Order Houses
i)Way in which Americans bought goods altered- local stores faced competition from “chain stores” whose national network could sell manufactured goods at lower prices. Customers couldn’t resist great variety + lower prices of chains
ii)Chain stores slow to rural areas but gained access thru mail-order houses-notably 1880s Montgomery Wary and Sears Roebuck mail order catalogues
c)Department Stores
i)Dept stores transformed shopping by bringing together many products under one roof (clothing, furniture) previously in separate shops; gave allure and excitement to shopping; economies of scale enabled lower prices than comp
d)Women as Consumers
i)Mass consumption affected women greatest b/c primary consumers in family. Spawned consumer protection movement w/ National Consumers League 1890s under Florence Kelley to force retainers for better wages, conditions
5)Leisure in the Consumer Society
a)Redefining Leisure
i)Leisure had been previously scorned, but redefinition in late 19th century b/c economic expansion and greater worker time away from work leisure began to be a normal part of everyday life (economist Simon Pattern wrote of this in his 1902 The Theory of Prosperity and 1910 The New Basis of Civilization)
ii)New forms of leisure had public character- time spent mostly in public spaces, part of appeal of leisure was time spent w/ large crowds
b)Spectator Sports
i)Search for public forms of leisure led to rise of organized spectator sports
ii)Saw rise of baseball as “national pastime”, leagues formed in 1870s. Football became standardized 1870s and began to grew. Boxing grew in the 1880s after adoption of Marquis of Queensberry rules
iii)Spectator sports had close association with gambling w/ elaborate betting syndicates. Prompted sports to “clean up” and regulate games
c)Music and Theater
i)Large market of cities allowed theaters to be maintained in ethnic communities, musical comedies developed, and vaudeville widely popular
d)The Movies
i)Thomas Edison and others laid tech for motion picture 1880s, soon projectors allowed showings on big screens in theaters w/ large audiences. By 1900 very popular, especially after DW Griffith introduced his silent epics
e)Working-Class Leisure
i)Workers spent great amt of leisure time on streets b/c had much time but little money. Also popular were neighborhood saloons (often ethnic), served as political centers b/c saloonkeepers often involved in political machines (largely b/c they had regular contact w/ many men in a neighborhood)
ii)Boxing also emerged as a poplar sport- bare knuckle fights by ethnic clubs
f)The Fourth of July
i)B/c most ppl worked six-day workweek w/o vacations, 4th of July became a full day of leisure and an impt highlight in the year of ethnic, working-class communities. Massive neighborhood celebrations often w/ drinking
g)Private Pursuits
i)Reading remained popular as leisure activity, w/ Louisa Alcott’s Little Women (1869) capturing a large women audience
ii)Public music performances popular, but also learning instrument w/in home
h)Mass Communications
i)Large urban market for transmitting news and information in urban industrial society- rise in publishing in journalism after Civil War w/ increase in newspaper circulation, rise of national press services using telegraph to supply news to papers across country
ii)Rise of newspaper chains, especially competition btwn William Randolph Hearst + Joseph Pulitzer (rise of sensational “yellow journalism to sell papers)
6)High Culture in the Age of the City
a)The Literature of Urban America
i)Some writers responded to new industrial civilization by evoking more natural world, others sought to use literature to recreate urban social reality
ii)Realism led by Stephen Crane (famous for The Red Badge of Courage in 1895) who showed urban poverty and slum life. Theodore Dreiser highlighted social dislocations and injustices. There authors followed by Frank Norris’ The Octopus (1901) and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) which showed depravity of capitalism by exposing abuses in meatpacking industry
b)Art in the Age of the City
i)By 1900 many American artists breaking from Old World traditions of Eur and experiment w/ new styles. Some turning away from traditional, academic style toward exploring grim aspects of modern life
ii)Ashcan School produced stark portrayal of social realities, showcased expressionism and abstraction at famous 1913 art “Armory Show”
iii)Beginning of modernism- rejected past and embraced new subjects, glorified the ordinary, coarse over genteel tradition +“dignified” aspects of civilization, embraced the future over “standards” of past- individual creativity
c)The Impact of Darwinism
i)Darwin argued evolution from earlier species thru “natural selection”, challenged traditional American religious faith. By end of century most urban professionals and members of educated classes converted; taught in schools
ii)Darwinism led to schism btwn culture of city receptive to new ideas and the traditional, provincial culture of rural areas tied to religion and older values
iii)Other intellectual movements included Social Darwinism of William Sumner, “pragmatism” of William James that valued scientific inquiry + experience
iv)Relativism spawned by Darwinism led to growth of anthropology and study of other cultures (notably Native American culture)
d)Toward Universal Schooling
i)Dependence on specialized skills and scientific knowledge led to demand for education. Spread of free public primary and secondary education, compulsory attendance laws in many states. Rural education still lagged
ii)Some reformers including Richard Pratt targeted native tribes to “civilize” them- urged practical “industrial” education. Failed b/c resistance, funding
iii)Colleges grew late 19th century, benefited from Morrill Land Grant Act of Civil War era that donated large amt of land for colleges; also from contributions made by business and financial tycoons
e)Education for Women
i)Expansion of educational opportunities for women (although lagged behind that of men). Public high schools accepted women, and network of women’s colleges emerged that served to create distinctive women’s community
1)The Politics of Equilibrium
a)The Party System
i)Party system of late 19th century very stable w/ little fluctuation in state loyalties. Repubs held most presidencies and Senate, Dems lead House
ii)Public intensely loyal to parties, voter turnout was tremendous- loyalty result of region (Dems in S, Repubs in N), religion and ethnicity (Dems attracted Catholics, new immigrants, poor; Repubs middle class, N Protestants)
iii)Party identification more cultural than of economic interest
b)The National Government
i)Federal govt held little power/responsibility- aside from supporting economic development (land grant subsidies, strike intervention), delivering pensions to Civil War veterans. Party leaders cared more about holding office than policy
c)Presidents and Patronage
i)President had little power save to make govt appointments (patronage used)
ii)Pres Rutherford B. Hayes had to deal w/ factional Repub party split btwn Stalwarts (favored machine politics) and the Half-Breeds (favored reform). Patronage system overshadowed presidency, civil service system effort failed
iii)Repubs won presidency in 1880 election, Pres James Garfield (Half-Breed) and VP Chester Arthur (Stalwart). Garfield attempted to defy Stalwarts, create civil service reform- assassinated 1881
iv)New Pres Chester attempted supported civil service reform over Stalwarts- 1883 Congress passed Pendleton Act requiring exams for some govt jobs
d)Cleveland, Harrison, and the Tariff
i)In 1884 election Repub nominee Sen James Blaine symbol of party politics, “liberal” Repubs flocked to Dem reform candidate Grover Cleveland
ii)Cleveland opposed to graft and special interest, wished to see limited govt- asked Congress to reduce protective tariff rate 1887 to reduce govt surpluses and size. Dems passed bill, Republicans opposed it—>issue in 1888 elections
iii)Dems renominated Cleveland; Repubs named Benjamin Harrison, won Pres
e)New Public Issues
i)Pres Harrison made little effort to influence Congress, but public opinion forced govt to begin to confront social and economic issues- especially trusts
ii)By mid 1880s some states limiting combinations preventing competition, but reformers wanted nat’l movement- 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act passed, but little enforced, weakened by courts, and had little impact
iii)Repubs main issue was dealing w/ tariff- passed McKinley Tariff 1890 (highest protective tariff ever). Public opposed bill, by 1892 Pres election Repubs lost both House + Senate, Dem nominee Cleveland won Pres election
iv)Cleveland’s 2nd term like 1st (devoted to minimal govt). Supported tariff reduction (Wilson-Gorman Tariff passed). Movement 1880s in may states to regulate RRs- after 1886 Supreme Court case Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad vs Illinois ruled only fed govt able to regulate interstate commerce
v)To appease public Congress passed 1887 Interstate Commerce Act- banned rate discrimination + injustice, Interstate Commerce Commission formed
2)The Agrarian Revolt
a)The Grangers
i)First major effort to organize farmers was Grange movement of 1860s (at firs goal to teach new scientific techniques), not until 1873 recession + fall of farm prices did it become highly political and large
ii)Grange urged cooperative political action to fight monopolistic RR and warehouse practices, setup up co-op stores, insurance companies, and Montgomery Ward mail-order business (sought to challenge middle-men)
iii)Elected Grange politicians 1870s to state legislatures to focus on RR reform; regulations destroyed by courts, temporary boom late-1870s destroyed Grange
b)The Farmers’ Alliance
i)Farmers’ Alliances formed in South, Northwest- like Grange focused on local problems (co-op banks, processing plants) but also larger goal to create society of cooperation. Like Grange cooperatives not very successful, harnessed frustrations into creating national political organization 1880s
ii)1889 Southern and Northwestern Alliances merged, issued Ocala Demands (party platform), won seats in 1890 elections. Sentiments forming toward national third party, 1892 created People’s Party (Populists)
iii)In 1892 elections Populists did surprising well, won seats in states + Congress
c)The Populist Constituency
i)Populism appealed mainly to small farmers, those whose farming becoming less viable in face of mechanized, consolidated commercial agriculture
ii)Populists failed to attract much labor support, but attracted miners in Rocky Mountain states w/ “free silver” policy that allowed for silver to be currency, expand money supply. African Americans allowed limited involvement in S
d)Populist Ideas
i)Ocala platform 1892 outlined Populist reform programs- “subtreasuries” to strengthen cooperatives; govt warehouse system; abolish national banks; direct election of US Senators, other ways for ppl to influence political system; regulation and ownership of RRs, telephones; graduated income tax; currency inflation; silver remonetization. Populism associated w/ anti-Semitism
ii)Rejection of laissez-faire, uphold absolutism of ownership
3)The Crisis of the 1890s
a)The Panic of 1893
i)Panic of 1893 led to severe depression- caused by bankruptcy of few corporations that led to bank failure, led to credit contraction. Also caused by depressed farm prices of late 1880s, Eur depression, RR expansion beyond market demand- showed how dependent economy was on powerful RRs
ii)Businesses, banks, RRs failed. Unemployment soared, led to social unrest- 1894 Populist Jacob Coxey called for massive public works program for unemployed + currency inflation, protested in D.C. w/ “Coxey’s Army”
b)The Silver Question
i)Financial panic weakened monetary system, Pres Cleveland believed currency instability cause of depression. Many ppl believed specie (precious metal) must back money to give it value
ii)“Bimetal” standard discontinued 1873 by Congress b/c market value of silver high than 16:1 standard. Late 1870s silver became less valuable than standard but ppl unable to convert silver b/c of “Crime of ‘73”; opposition by silver-miners + farmers who wanted greater $ circulation (inflation) to ease debts
iii)At same time decreasing govt gold reserves led Pres Cleveland 1893 to seek repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890- divided Dem party
iv)Presidential of 1986 incredibly fierce b/c supporters of gold standard saw it as essential to national stability, supporters of “free silver” (guided by William Harvey’s 1894 Coin’s Financial School) saw gold standard as tyrannous and advantageous to wealthy, silver would decrease debt
4)“A Cross of Gold”
a)The Emergence of Bryan
i)Repubs in 1896 election confident of victory b/c of Cleveland+ Dems failure to deal w/ depression nominated William McKinley w/ platform opposed to free coinage of silver
ii)Dems of West sought to weaken People’s Party by adopting Populist demands, debated platform of free silver, tariff reduction, income tax, RR and trust regulation- opposed by eastern Dems
iii)William Jennings Bryan delivered “Cross of Gold” speech opposed to gold standard at convention, next day voted nominee
iv)Populists split as to whether or not to fuse w/ Dem party b/c felt some of their unique needs addressed; concluded no other alternative, supported Bryan
b)The Conservative Party
i)Business + finance communities donated heavily to Repubs, Bryan’s national stump and camp-meeting style alienated Cath + ethnic voters who feared he embodied Protestants who so firmly opposed them
ii)McKinley carried election b/c Dem platform had proved to be too narrow (sectional) to win nationally. B/c of “fusion” gamble w/ Democrats the People’s Party began to dissolve in wake of defeat
c)McKinley and Recovery
i)McKinley administration saw return to calm b/c labor unrest and agrarian protest had subsided by 1897, economic crisis gradually easing
ii)McKinley focused on implementing high tariff rate, Congress soon passed Dingley Tariff. Repubs passed Currency (Gold Standard) Act of 1900 that confirmed nation’s gold standard, pegged dollar to specific gold value
iii)Foreign crop failures resulted in economic uptick, nation entered period of expansion once again—clear trend btwn prosperity + gold standard support
iv)Free-silver movement had failed- during late 19th century money supply had expanded much more slowly than increase in production and population, but by late 1890s increase in gold supply inflated money, satisfied free-silver ppl
1)Stirrings of Imperialism
a)The New Manifest Destiny
i)American attention shifted to foreign lands b/c “closing of the frontier” 1890s led some to fear natural resources would dwindle and must be found abroad, growing importance of foreign trade and desire for new markets, fears that Eur imperialism would lead America to be left out of spoils
ii)Justifications provided by Social Darwinism- only fittest nations survive, therefore just for strong nations to dominate weaker ones
iii) Josiah Strong’s Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (1885) states Anglo-Saxon “race” represented liberty, Christianity and should spread them; John Burgess wrote that duty of A-S to uplift less fortunate ppl
iv)Famous Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote in The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890) that countries w/ sea power great nations of history- US needed to have foreign commerce, merchant marine, navy to defend routes, and colonies to provide raw materials and bases- claim Pacific Islands, HI
b)Hemispheric Hegemony
i)Sec of State James Blaine 1880s sought to expand US influence in Latin America to provide markets for surplus goods- 1889 organized Pan-American Congress. Pres Cleveland 1895 had dispute w/ GB over Venezuela border
c)Hawaii and Samoa
i)Hawaii appealing b/c Navy wanted Pearl Harbor as base, Americans who had settled on island had come to dominate political + economic life of islands
ii)Hawaii had been series of islands w/ self-sufficient communities. After 1810 American traders, missionaries, planters began settling there. Disease decimated Native populations; by 1840s Americans spread thru islands
iii)1887 US Navy negotiated to use Pearl Harbor as Navy base; by that time sugar exports to US basis of economy, American plantation system was displacing natives from their lands
iv)In response elevated nationalist Queen Liliuokalani 1891. 1890 US eliminated duty-free status of HI sugar, American planters felt only way to survive to join US- 1893 stages revolution. Pres Harrison signed annex agreement 1893 but delayed by Dem Senate and Dem Pres Cleveland until 1898 return of Repubs
v)Samoa had served as station for US chips in Pacific trade; Pres Hayes 1878 got treaty to use harbor at Pago Pago for Navy. Power share btwn US, GB, Germany over islands- 1899 US and Germany split islands, compensated GB
2)War with Spain
a)Controversy Over Cuba
i)Cubans had resisted Spanish rule of Cuba since 1868 for independence; in 1895 Cubans rose up violently again, Span under Gen Valeriano Weyler used harsh tactics + concentration camps in turn- US press skewered mainly Span
ii)Pulitzer’s NY World and Hearst’s NY Journal catered to broad, economically lower audience- used sensational “yellow journalism” + Cuban crisis to fight each other for circulation; Cuban Americans urged Cuba Libre as well
iii)Pres Cleveland proclaimed American neutrality; Pres McKinley took office 1897, protested Spanish conduct- withdrew Weyler
iv)Two events Feb 1898 ruined peaceful settlement: the leak of a letter from Spain’s minister to Washington touting McKinley as “bidder…of the crowd; and the destruction of the US battleship The Maine in Havana Harbor- Spain initially blamed, Congress mobilized for war- war declared in April
b)“A Splendid Little War”
i)Sec of State John Hay called Spanish-American War “a splendid little war” b/c only lasted April-August, few US battle deaths (but 5000+ from disease)
ii)War effort hampered by army supply problems, regular army w/o experience fighting large-scale war (used to Indian battles)- Nat’l Guard units used like in Civil War. Racial conflict w/ black army unites used in invasion
c)Seizing the Philippines
i)Sec of Navy Theodore Roosevelt strengthened Pacific Fleet, ordered Commodore George Dewey to attack Spanish forces in Philippines (Span colony) if war broke. May 1898 captured Manila Bay, later troops took city
ii)War to free Cuba had become war to strip Spain of its colonies w/o any decisions as to what to do with them after capture
d)The Battle for Cuba
i)American forces staged landing in June after Spanish fleet arrived in Santiago harbor. US battled Spanish forces in on way to Santiago at Las Guasimos and then later El Caney and San Juan Hill in July
ii)At Battle of Kettle Hill (part of Battle for San Juan Hill) unit called Rough Riders lead by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt (who had resigned as from Navy to fight in war) had famous charge
iii)US forces soon took Santiago, later US army landed + captured Puerto Rico
iv)Armistice w/ Spain in August ended war- recognized independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to US, accepted Manila (Philippines) occupation
e)Puerto Rico and the United States
i)Annexation of Puerto Rico produced little controversy- American military controlled island until 1900 Foraker Act created colonial got w/ American governor, 2-chamber legislature, and US could amend/veto any legislation
ii)Puerto Ricans (who had history of demanding independence from Spanish) clamored for independence- 1917 Congress passed Jones Act that made PR US territory + PRicans American citizens
iii)PR sugar economy flourished now w/o tariffs (as in HI); plantations formed, many PR farmers became paid laborers, dependent on int’l sugar prices
f)The Debate over the Philippines
i)Debate over Philippines difft b/c not in W. Hemisphere, densely populated and far away—McKinley reluctant but believed no other alternative (could not be retuned to Spain, given to other imperialist, and Filips “unfit for self govt”)
ii)War w/ Spain ended 1898 w/ Treaty of Paris, US paid $20 million for Philippines. Fierce resistance in US to ratification
iii)Anti-imperialists (under Anti-Imperialist League) opposed b/c imperialism immoral, industrial workers feared cheap labor
iv)Ratification supported by imperialists such as Theodore Roosevelt saw empire as means to reinvigorate nation, dominate Oriental trade, Repubs could come out of Repub war w/ new territory, and easy b/c US already occupied islands
v)Ratified in 1899 b/c anti-imperialist Dem Williams Jennings Bryan wanted to make is issue in 1900 election. Bryan ran against McKinley, referendum on war showed American ppl supported imperialism- McKinley won decisively
3)The Republic As Empire
a)Governing the Colonies
i)American dependents Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico got territory status (residents became US citizens)
ii)US military remained in Cuba. After Cuban constitution failed to mention US, Congress passed 1901 Platt Amendment that would bar Cuba from making treaties, gave US right to intervene in Cuba (little political independence given). American capital bought up much of Cuban economy and dominated it
b)The Philippine War
i)US subjugation of natives led to long, bloody war w/ insurgent independence fighters. US used same brutal tactics that it had opposed Spain using in Cuba
ii)Rebellion led by Emilio Aguinaldo w/ large popular following. By 1902 brutal and savage US tactics had changed American public opinion on war, but by then war already over (Aguinaldo captured 1901)
iii)Power given to US administrator William Howard Taft who believed US mission to prepare Filipinos for independence, so gave broad local autonomy. Trade w/ US grew and islands came to almost depend on US markets
c)The Open Door Policy
i)Philippine occupation strengthened US interest in Asia and Chinese trade
ii)Eur nations were carving up China for themselves; McKinley wanted to protect US interest in China w/o war. Sec of State John Hay proposed 1898 “Open Door notes” to Eur nations allowing access to China but give no nation special advantages. Allowed free trade w/o colony, military involvement
iii)Boxer Rebellion arose against foreigners in China. Siege of foreign diplomatic corps resulted in McKinley and Hay participating in quelling rebellion
d)A Modern Military System
i)War w/ Spain showed weakness of US military system in training, supply, coordination. McKinley apptd Elihu Root as Sec of War to overhaul forces
ii)Root enlarged army, federal standards for Nat’l Guard, created officer training schools, created Joint Chiefs of Staff to advise Sec of War, supervise military establishment, plan possible wars—modern military system by turn of century
1)The Progressive Impulse
a)Varieties of Progressivism
i)Progressives varied on how to intervene + reform- popular idea of “antimonopoly” (fear of concentrated power, limit + disperse wealth, power)
ii)Social cohesion- welfare of single person dependent on welfare of society
iii)Faith in knowledge, principles of natural + social sciences, modernized govt
b)The Muckrakers
i)Muckrakers were crusading journalists who exposed social, economic, political injustices and corruption
ii)At first targeted trusts (particularly RR barons)- Ida Tarbell’s study on Standard Oil. Later, attention toward govt + political machines- writings of Lincoln Steffens helped arouse sentiment for urban reforms
c)The Social Gospel
i)Muckrakers moralistic tone prompted outrage at social + econ injustice, led to rise of Protestant Social Gospel- fusion of religion w/ reform
ii)Salvation Army was Christian social welfare organization; ministers left parish to serve in troubled cities; Father John Ryan wrote of expanding scope of Cath social welfare groups
iii)Religion w/ reform gave Progressivism moral component + commitment to redeem lives of even least favored citizens
d)The Settlement House Movement
i)Progressives believed env’t influenced individual development. To help distressed required improving their conditions
ii)Ppl believed crowded immigrant neighbors created distress- creation of settlement houses a response. Most famous was Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago- sought to help immigrant families adapt to language + culture, belief that middle-class had responsibility to share values w/ immigrants
iii)College educated women often involved in settlement house movement; movement helped spawn profession of social work
e)The Allure of Expertise
i)Progressivism values application of scientific methods, knowledge, expertise- well-designed bureaucracy needed. Some proposed civilization where science could solve social + econ problems- advocated in A Theory of The Leisure Class (1899) by Thorstein Veblen
ii)Rise of social sciences- scientific methods used to study society + its institutions
f)The Professions
i)Late 19th century more ppl engaged in administrative + professional tasks (managers, scientists, teachers). This new middle class valued education, individual accomplishments
ii)As demand for professionals increased so did their desire for reform to create organized professions
iii)Doctors saw creation of professional American Medical Association1901- strict standards for admissions, govt passed laws requiring licensing; also rise of rigorous, scientific training and research
iv)Similar movements in other professions- lawyers formed bar associations w/ central examining boards businessmen formed Chamber of Commerce
g)Women and the Professions
i)Some women encountered obstacles in entering professions, but many from women’s colleges did enter “appropriate professions”- settlement houses and social work, teaching, nursing (all had vague “domestic”/“helping” image)
2)Women and Reform
a)The “New Woman”
i)“New woman” product of social + economic changes- wage earning activity had moved out of house and into factory or office, children enrolled in school at earlier ages, technology (running water, electricity) made housework less of a burden, declining family size; “Boston marriages”- women living w/ women
b)The Clubwomen
i)Late 19th/early 20th century rise of women’s clubs- network of associations that lead many reform movements. General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) at first cultural, later focused on social betterment
ii)Clubs represented effort to extend women’s influence out of traditional role in home and create a public space for women. Worked to lobby legislatures for regulation of children + women work conditions, food inspection, temperance
iii)Women’s Trade Union League rallied women to join unions, aid female labor
c)Woman Suffrage
i)Women’s suffrage movement at first advanced thru arguments that women deserved same “natural rights” as men, opponents said society needed distinct female “sphere”
ii)Early 20th century suffragists more organized-- Anna Shaw + Carrie Chapman Catt formed National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
iii)Began to make “safer” arguments for suffrage in that voting would not ruin distinct sphere but allow women to bring special virtues to society’s problems and contribute to politics. Some claimed could soothe male aggression (WWI)
iv)1910 Washington extended suffrage to women, more hesitant in East b/c of associations w/ ethnic conflict (Catholics) over temperance movement
v)1920 Nineteenth Amendment ratified guaranteeing female political rights; others (including Alice Paul’s Woman’s Party) wanted to fight on for an Equal Rights Amendment to prohibit all discrimination based on sex
3)The Assault on the Parties
a)Early Attacks
i)Late 19th century populism and rise of Independent Republicans had attempted to break party lock on power- resulted in secret ballot
ii)Argued party rule could be dealt w/ by increasing power of ppl + ability to express will at polls, also put more power in nonpartisan, nonelected officials
b)Municipal Reform
i)Many progressives believed party rule most powerful in cities. Muckrakers mobilized urban middle-class progressives against city bosses, special interests who benefited from machine organizations, immigrant laborers
c)New Forms of Governance
i)Commission Plan- replaced mayor and council replaced w/ nonpartisan commission. First used in Galveston, TX in 1900, others followed
ii)City-Manager Plan- elected officials hired outside expert to run govt, remain above corruption of politics
iii)Successful reformer Cleveland Mayor Tom Johnson from conventional political structure controlled by progressives- fought special interests
d)Statehouse Progressivism
i)Failure of some attacks on city boss rule led reformers to turn to state govt for change- progressives looked to circumvent incompetent state legislatures
ii)Initiative allowed reformers to submit legislation directly to voters in general election; Referendum put actions of legislature directly to the ppl for approval
iii)Direct primary allowed ppl instead of bosses to choose candidates; Recall gave voters right to remove elected official thru special election
iv)Famous state-level reformer was Gov Robert LaFollette in Wisconsin- regulated RRs, utilities, workplace, graduated taxes on inherited wealth
e)Parties and Interest Groups
i)Reform did not destroy parties but led to decline in their influence- seen by decreasing voter turnout. “Interest groups” emerged from professional organizations or labor to advance own demands directly to govt, not thru party
4)Sources of Progressive Reform
a)Labor, the Machine, and Reform
i)Samuel Gompers’s American Federation of Labor mostly uninvolved in reform at time, but local unions played role in passing some state reform laws
ii)Parties tried to preserve interest by adapting- some bosses allowed their machines to be vehicle of social reform (e.g. Charles Murphy of Tammany Hall supported legislation for working conditions, child labor)
iii)Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 1911 in NY killed many women workers b/c bosses had locked emergency exits. Commission delivered report calling for reform in labor conditions- reform lead in legislature by Tammany Dems. Imposed regulation on factory owners and mechanisms for enforcement
b)Western Progressives
i)In Western states reformers targeted federal govt b/c powerful as it never had been in East (power over lands and resources, subsidies for RRs and water projects, issues transcended state borders). Weaker local + state govts political led to weaker W polit. parties, govts passed progressive reforms more quickly
c)African Americans and Reform
i)AAs faced large legal, social, economic, political obstacles in challenging their oppressed status and seeking reform- many embraced Booker T Washington’s message of self-improvement over long-term social change
ii)1900s new Niagara Movement led by WEB Du Bois (author of 1903 The Souls of Black Folk)called for immediate civil rights, professional education
iii)1909 joined w/ supportive white progressives to form National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), used federal lawsuits in pursuit of equal rights. In Guinn v. United States (1915) Supreme Court ruled grandfather clause illegal; Buchanan v. Worley (1917) Court outlawed some segregation—NAACP established itself as leading black organization
5)Crusade for Social Order and Reform
a)The Temperance Crusade
i)Many progressives saw elimination of alcohol as way to restore societal order- women saw alcohol as source of problems for families, employers saw it as roadblock to efficiency, political reformers saw saloon as Machine institution
ii)1873 temperance supporters formed Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) led by Frances Willard, together w/ Anti-Saloon League called for abolition of saloons and prohibition of manufacture and sale of alcohol
iii)Opposition by immigrant and working-class voters; regardless, national effort and start of WWI moral fervor led to 1920 Eighteenth Amendment prohibition
b)Immigration Restriction
i)Reformers saw growing immigrant population as source of social problems- some wanted to help assimilation, others to limit flow of new immigrants
ii)Early century pressure to slow immigration, heightened by growth of eugenics movement arguing human inequalities hereditary and immigration (especially of non-Anglo E. Eurs and Asians) resulting in growth of unfit peoples
iii)Publicist Madison Grant’s 1916 The Passing of the Great Race tied together eugenics + Nativism; Congress’s Dillingham Report said new immigrants less assimilable than earlier groups, restrictions should be based on nationality
iv)Others supported restrictions as means to solve urban overcrowding, unemployment, strained social services, and unrest
6)Challenging the Capitalist Order
a)The Dream of Socialism
i)Radical opposition to capitalist system strongest btwn 1900-1914, Socialist Party under Eugene V. Debs grew during progressive era. Socialists wanted to change structure of economy, but disagreement as to extent and tactics
ii)Some moderates favored nationalizing only major industries, use electoral politics; radicals including union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) under William Haywood wanted abolition of “wage slave” system, favored use of general strike, supported unskilled workers (strong force in West)
iii)1917 strike by IWW led to federal government crackdown on union b/c needed materials in mobilization for war; IWW never fully recovered
iv)Socialist Party refusal to support war + growing antiradicalism led to decline of socialism as powerful political force in America
b)Decentralization and Regulation
i)Most progressives also saw major problem in great corporate centralization + consolidation, but instead of nationalizing industries wanted federal govt to create balance btwn need for big business and need for competition
ii)Lawyer Louis Brandeis argued about “curse of bigness”, saw it as threat to efficiency and freedom, limited individual control of own destiny
iii)Others believed combinations sometimes helped efficiency, therefore govt should distinguish btwn “good” and “bad” trusts to protect against abuses by “bad” concentrations. Supported by “nationalist” Herbert Croly in 1909 The Promise of American Life
iv)Movement growing for industry cooperation and self-regulation; others wanted active govt role in regulation and planning economy
1)Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency
a)The Accidental President
i)VP Theodore Roosevelt assumed presidency September 1901after Pres McKinley assassinated. Reputation as an independent and wild man; became champion of cautious an moderate change, reform to protect society against more radical changes
b)Government, Capital, and Labor
i)Roosevelt saw fed govt as mediator of the public good. Not opposed to industrial combinations but realized potential for abuse of power
ii)Supported regulation of trusts- created Department of Commerce and Labor 1903 to publicly investigate corporations. Did make effort to break up some trusts- used Sherman Antitrust Act to break up Northern Securities Company monopoly over RRs in Northwest
iii)Saw govt as impartial regulator for labor as well- 1902 strike by United Mine workers led Roosevelt to ask labor and management to accept impartial federal arbitration, threatened to seize mines if management balked
c)“The Square Deal”
i)Reform not priority during first years as president, more concerned w/ winning reelection by not alienating conservative Republicans, winning support of businessmen and using patronage—won 1904 election
ii)First targeted RR industry by asking Congress to increase fed power to oversee rates- Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act of 1906 restored some govt regulatory power
iii)Supported Congress passing Pure Food and Drug Act, after Upton Sinclair’s 1906 The Jungle supported Meat Inspection Act. Also favored 8 hour work day for labor, workmen’s compensation, and inheritance and income taxes
d)Roosevelt and Conservation
i)Concerned w/ unregulated exploitation of resources and wilderness- used executive power to restrict private development on govt land, saw goal of “conservation” to carefully manage development and to apply same scientific method of management being used in cities
ii)President supported public reclamation and irrigation projects- 1902 Newlands Act funded dam construction, reservoirs, canals in West to open new lands for irrigation, cultivation and power development
e)Roosevelt and Preservation
i)Pres also sympathized w/ naturalists who wanted to protect land, wildlife from human intrusion- expanded National Forest System for “rational” lumbering, but also grew National Park System to protect lands from any development
f)The Hetch Hetchy Controversy
i)Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite seen as beautiful land by naturalists, but San Francisco residents + Roosevelt’s head of National Forest System Gifford Pinchot wanted land to build dam + reservoir for city’s growing water needs
ii)Pinchot saw needs of city more important than claims of preservation; issue placed in 1908 referendum, dam approved by large margin in election
g)The Panic of 1907
i)Despite reforms govt still had little control over industrial economy; in 1907 production outgrew domestic + foreign demand, speculation + poor management led to panic.
ii)JP Morgan pooled assets of NY banks to prop up banks, made deal with Pres to allow US Steel to purchase Tennessee Coal and Iron Company shares
iii)B/c of Panic of 1907 and promise made in 1904 to step down four years later, did not seek renomination and reelection for 1908 bid
2)The Troubled Succession
a)Taft and the Progressives
i)During early administration called on Congress to lower tariff (a progressive demand), refused to oppose Repub Old Guard. Result was Payne-Aldrich Tariff - reduced tariffs little, raised others- progressives resented inaction
ii)1909 Ballinger-Pinchot Dispute in which Head of Forest Service Gifford Pinchot was told that Sec of Interior Richard Ballinger had sold public lands in Alaska for personal profit. Taft thought charges groundless, Pinchot leaked info to press-- Taft fired Pinchot, progressives alienated
b)The Return of Roosevelt
i)Roosevelt upset w/ Taft and believed only he was capable of reuniting Republican Party; 1910 outlined “New Nationalism” that moved away from conservatism + argued only effort of strong fed govt could bring social justice
c)Spreading Insurgency
i)In 1910 Congressional elections many conservative Repub candidates lost and progressives reelected; Dems gained maj in House, seats in Senate
ii)Reform sentiment on the rise, but Roosevelt claimed he only wanted to pressure Taft into action; Roosevelt decided to run, however, after Taft charged US Steel acquisition of Tennessee Coal and Iron Company had been illegal and reform candidate Robert LaFollette’s campaign collapsed
d)Roosevelt versus Taft
i)Taft had support of conservative Repubs and party leaders, Roosevelt supported by progressives- at convention Republican National Committee gave nomination to Taft. Roosevelt left Repub Party and established own Progressive Party w/ himself as nominee (nicknamed Bull Moose Party)
3)Woodrow Wilson and The New Freedom
a)Woodrow Wilson
i)Reform support growing in Democratic Party as well as Repub Party; Dems chose progressive Woodrow Wilson as 1912 Presidential election nominee
ii)Wilson supported “New Freedom”- held that bigness was unjust and wanted to destroy, not regulate monopoly (whereas Roosevelt’s New Nationalism believed in govt regulation of concentration)
iii)Roosevelt and Taft split Repub vote, Wilson elected
b)The Scholar as President
i)Wilson bold and forceful- used position as leader of Dems to build coalition to support his program (Dem majorities existed in both houses)
ii)Greatly lowered tariff in Underwood-Simmons Tariff in order to introduce competition into market + breakup trusts; to make up for revenues past graduated income tax
iii)1913 Congress passed Federal Reserve Act- regional Fed banks made up of regional banks + issued loans at “discount” rate, issued Fed Reserve notes backed by govt, shifted funds to meet credit demands + protect banks. Supervising Federal Reserve Board members selected by Pres
iv)1914 Wilson began to deal w/ monopoly, Congress passed Federal Trade Commission Act and Clay Antitrust Act
(1)FTC was regulatory agency to help business determine whether their actions were legal, also power to prosecute “unfair trade practices”
(2)Clayton Antitrust Bill to allow break up of trusts weakened by conservative opposition; ultimately administration decided that government supervision and regulation by FTC sufficient
c)Retreat and Advance
i)Pres believed New Freedom accomplished, therefore didn’t support progressive suffrage movement and efforts to halt segregation in federal agencies after Dems had heavy losses in Congress in 1914 elections to Repubs (who won support from Progressive party) Wilson began new reforms
ii)Wilson supported appointment of progressive Louis Brandeis to Supreme Court; supported measured expanding role of federal govt 1916 Keating-Owen Act regulated child labor (struck down by Sup C b/c relied on interstate commerce clause in Const), 1914 Smith-Lever Act to help agricultural extension education
4)The “Big Stick”: America and The World, 1901-1917
a)Roosevelt and “Civilization”
1)The Road to War
a)The Collapse of the European Peace
i)Eur divided into alliances- “Triple Entente” of GB, France, Russia & “Triple Alliance” of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy (GB-German tension notable)
ii)After June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbs, A-H invaded Serbia who called on Russian help- b/c alliances other nations entered
b)Wilson’s Neutrality
i)1914 Wilson urged neutrality but many Americans sympathized w/ certain nations (German + Irish immigrants=Central, but most ppl= GB+Allies)
ii)Strong US-GB economic ties + blockade of Central Powers led US to continue trade w/ GB , shun trade w/ Central nations- “arsenal of Allies”
iii)Germany began using submarine warfare 1915 to combat GB naval domination; 1915 sinking of Lusitania and 1916 Sussex sinking led Wilson to call on Germans to recognize rights of neutrals- Germans relented and stopped attacking merchant ships to stop US entrance into war
c)Preparedness vs Pacifism
i)Wilson did not intervene for either side b/c of re-election + domestic division
ii)Economic + militarily preparations debated by pacifists and interventionists. However, by 1916 military armament largely under way
iii)Wilson won extremely close 1916 b/c of association w/ ability to keep US independent, although Dems barely held on to Congressional majorities
d)A War for Democracy
i)After election Wilson wanted country unified and justified if to enter war, should fight to create new progressive world order + not for material gains
ii)January 1917 Germany began offensive + continuation of unrestricted submarine warfare to defeat Allies before US entrance; February Zimmerman Telegram urged Mex to join w/ Germany (increased public sentiment toward war); March Russian Revolution toppled czar for republican govt
iii)April 1917 US officially declared war on side of Allies
2)“War Without Stint”
a)Entering the War
i)Immediately w/ US entrance Allied navy able to dramatically reduce sinking’s in troop + supply convoys
ii)1917 withdrawal of Russian forces after Bolshevik Revolution (Lenin) led Germans to put resources on Western Front, Allies needed US ground troops
b)The American Expeditionary Force
i)US army too small to supply needed troops- April 1917 Wilson urged passage of Selective Service Act to draft soldiers into American Expeditionary Force
ii)AEF was diverse-- women served as auxiliaries in non-combat roles; African-American soldiers served in segregated units or had menial roles
c)The Military Struggle
i)US ground forces insignificant until spring 1918; AEF under Gen John Pershing maintained command structure independent from other Allies
ii)US forced tipped stalemate + balance of power to Allies--- June 1918 helped repel German offensive at Chateau-Thierry
iii)Beginning Sept US forced fighting in Argonne Forest (as part of Allied Meuse-Argonne Offensive); pushed Germans back + cut off supply routes
iv)11/11/1918 Great War ended w/ Allies on German border
d)The New Technology of Warfare
i)New military weapons + tactics more deadly (tanks, machine guns, trenches, chemical weapons). Logistics and materials transport gained increased importance. Rise of planes, dreadnought battleships, submarines
ii)Casualties extremely high for war (British lost 1 million, Germany 2 million); even victors overwhelmed by sheer magnitude of deaths
3)The War and American Society
a)Organizing the Economy for War
i)US appropriated $32 billion for war- to raise money sold “Liberty Bonds” to public & put new graduated taxes on income + inheritance
ii)To organize economy Wilson created Council of National Defense; but emphasis Civilian Advisory Commission tasked w/ mobilizing at local level
iii)CND members urged “scientific management” + centralization, proposed dividing economy based on function and not geography w/ “war boards” coordinating efforts in each sector
iv)War Industries Board oversaw purchase of military supplies, under Bernard Baruch organized factories, set prices, and distributed needed materials. Instead of restricting profits, govt entered alliance w/ private sector
b)Labor and the War
i)National War Labor Board pressured industry for concessions to workers (8-hour day, living standards, collective bargaining) but workers forced to forgo strikes. Right before war Ludlow Massacre when striking miners killed
c)Economic and Social Results of the War
i)Economic boom during period from Eur demand, later US need. Industrial production expanded, opportunities for female + minorities b/c of men at war
ii)War years saw “Great Migration” of hundreds of thousands of African- Americans from rural South to northern industrial cities. S poverty + racism and appeal of N factory jobs + freedom led to movement. Growing black communities near white neighborhoods sometimes resulted in race riots
iii)Women took higher-paying industrial jobs that were unavailable in peace time
4)The Search for Social Unity
a)The Peace Movement
i)Public sentiment divided over US involvement in war—peace movement supported by German Americans, Irish who opposed GB, religious pacifists, intellectuals and leftist groups
ii) Peaces support also from women’s movement- maternal pacifism
b)Selling the War and Suppressing Dissent
i)Once America intervened most of country became patriotic and supportive of troops. Religious revivalism also became source of support for war
ii)Govt concerned about minority in opposition to war, believed victory possible only thru united public opinion Committee on Public Information under George Creel distributed pro-war propaganda—portrayals of savage Germans
iii)Espionage Act of 1917 gave govt power to punish spies and obstructers of war effort, respond to reports of disloyalty. Sabotage Act and Sedition Act of 1918 made any public expression of opposition illegal- targeted socialist groups
iv)Local govts and private citizen groups worked to repress opposition- “vigilante mob” discipline, also American Protective League w/ thousands of members who spied on neighbors to ensure unity of opinion in communities
v)Repressive efforts targeted socialists and labor leaders, but also largely immigrants (Germans, Irish, Jews)- “Loyalist” Americans called for “100 Percent Americanism”. German Americans faced fierce discrimination
5)The Search for a New World Order
a)The Fourteen Points
i)Wilson’s Fourteen Poitns addressed three areas: self-determination and new boundaries; new international governance laws including freedom of the seas, end to secret treaties, free trade, determination of colonial claims; league of nations to implement points and resolve future disagreements
ii)Fourteen Points also effort to combat Bolshevik (Lenin) aspiration to lead new postwar world order—US established itself thru the points
b)Early Obstacles
i)Wilson hoped popular support would help garner Allied support for Points,
ii)However, most Allies so decimated by war and so bitter against Germany that they did not with to be generous GB Prime Minister Lloyd George and French Premier Georges Clemenceau determined to gain compensation
iii)At home Wilson + Dems lost control of Congress to Repub majorities in 1918 election, domestic economic issues + Repub opposition weakened his position
c)The Paris Peace Conference
i)Big Four nations to negotiate treaty were GB, France, Italy, US
ii)Wilson’s idealism met by effort by other nations to improve own lot, concerns about eastern Europe and communism (US did not recognize Bolshevik govt until 1933). His economic + strategic demands suffered from conflict w/ cultural nationalism
iii)Wilson initially rejected reparations from Central Powers, but Allies forced him to accept idea in order to keep Germany weak + unable to threaten Eur
iv)Wilson was successful and placing some colonies under League of Nations “mandate” system, created Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
v)Allies accepted “covenant” of League of Nations-- to meet to resolve disputes + protect peace, Wilson believed problems w/ treaty could be fixed by League
d)The Ratification Battle
i)Americans used to isolation questioned international commitment, Wilson refused to compromise or modify League too much—when Treaty of Versailles introduced by Wilson to Senate in 1919
ii)Opposition lead by Repub Irreconcilables who wanted isolation, but also by personal hatred of Sen Henry Cabot Lodge for Wilson—wanted to delay so public approval would subside, make treaty issue in 1920 election
e)Wilson’s Ordeal
i)Wilson began traveling country to gain public support for treaty. The traveling and speaking tour exacerbated his already bad health and he suffered stroke that rendered him incapable for weeks
ii)Condition made his views of world in moral terms and loathing for compromise stronger. When Treaty sent to Sen for approval w/ “reservations” (amendments) attached, Wilson urged Dems to vote against it- both amended treaty and original failed to reach 2/3 majority to be ratified
6)A Society in Turmoil
a)Industry and Labor
i)After war govt began cancelling contracts. War boom continued for short while b/c of foreign demand + deficit spending
ii)In 1920 bubble burst—GDP decreased, inflation and unemployment rose
iii)In postwar env’t 1919 management sought to rescind worker rights that they had been forced to grant during war—use of union strikes increased to combat these moves: Boston Police Strike, great Steel Worker’s Strike failure
b)The Demands of African-Americans
i)Retruning blacks from war wanted social reward+ rights for service, black factory workers from war wanted to retain economic gains they had made
ii)Racial tension increased as retrurning whites displaced black workers- contributed to large 1919 Chicago race riots
iii)Marcus Garvey’s ideas of Black Nationalism gained popularity among blacks- advocated embracing heritage + return to Africa, reject white assimilation
c)The Red Scare
i)Industrial problems, racial violence, dissent, creation of Communist International in 1919 by Soviets to spread revolution, also bombings in US by radicals fueled middle class fears of instability + radicalism
ii)Growing movement to fight radicalism + embrace “100 Percent Americanism” Red Scare
iii)Antiradicals saw any instability or protest as radical threat; Jan 1920 Attorney General A Mitchell Palmer conducted nationwide raids in radical crackdown
iv)1920 Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial showed American bias toward perceived radicals (they had been immigrant anarchists); they were executed in 1927
d)The Retreat from Idealism
i)Passage of 19th Amendment in 1920 (to give women suffrage) marked end of reform era—due to economic problems, labor unrest, and antiradicalism that all lead to sense of disillusionment
ii)1920 Presidential election pitted idealists Dem James Cox (and VP Franklin Roosevelt) against conservative Republican Warren Harding who promised “return to normalcy”—Harding won by a large margin
iii)Election a repudiation of League of Nation and postwar order of democratic ideals
1)The New Economy
a)Technology and Economic Growth
i)After 1921-1922 recession tremendous economic growth in output + income
ii)Growth result of collapse of Eur industry after war, important technological advances: rise of auto manufacturing (and in turn gas production, road construction), assembly line, rise of radio and commercial broadcasting, advances in air travel, development of electronics + synthetic materials
iii)Maturation of electricity and telecommunications fields; work during 1920s and 1930s on primitive computer technologies
b)Economic Organization
i)Certain industries (e.g. steel) continued toward national organization and consolidation- these companies adopted new modern administrative systems w/ efficient division structures to allow subsidiary control + easier expansion
ii)In industries w/ more competition stabilization reached thru cooperation—rise of trade association to coordinate production + marketing
iii)Industrialists feared overproduction and recession, and efforts to curb competition thru either consolidation or cooperation reflected this
c)Labor in the New Era
i)Some employers 1920s used “welfare capitalism” to give workers more rights, improve safety, raise wages in order to avoid labor unrest + independent union growth. System survived only if industry prospering- collapsed in 1929
ii)Welfare capitalism helped only a few workers, employers wage increases disproportional to their increase in profits. Ultimately workers still mainly impoverished and powerless, families relied on multiple wage earners
iii)Organized labor + independent unions often failed to adapt to changing nature of modern economy. American Federation of Labor still used craft union system based on skills, did not allow growing unskilled industrial workers
d)Women and Minorities in the Work Force
i)Number of women in workforce increased, especially in “pink-collar” jobs- low-paying service jobs, most unions refused to organize them
ii)African-Americans in cities after 1914 Great Migration largely excluded from unions (A. Philip Randolph’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters exception)
iii)In West + Southwest unskilled and unorganized workers mainly Hispanics and Mexican immigrants, Asians (mainly Japanese who replaced Chinese after Exclusion Acts in menial jobs)
e)The “American” Plan
i)After 1919 economic uneasiness corporations rallied strongly against “subversive” unionism and wanted to protect idea of open shop (in which workers not forced to join union)—known as “American Plan”
ii)Govt intervened on behalf of management, courts often ruled against striking workers. Btwn this and corporate efforts union membership saw large decline
f)Agricultural Technology and the Plight of the Farmer
i)American agriculture adopted new technolgoies (e.g. tractor, combine) allowed more crops w/ fewer workers; hybrid corn + fertilizers increased productivity led to overprodution and collapse in food prices
ii)Farmers called on govt price support- idea of “parity” (govt set price, farmers reimbursed if good sold for less in fluctuating market) and high foreign crop tariffs introduced in Congress in McNary-Haugen Bill (vetoed by Coolidge)
2)The New Culture
a)Consumerism
i)Industrial growth led to rise of consumer culture in which ppl had discretionary funds w/ which to buy items for pleasure (appliances, fashion)
ii)Most revolutionary product was automobile- allowed rural ppl to escape isolation, city ppl to escape crowded urban life; rise of vacation traveling
b)Advertising
i)Techniques first used in wartime propaganda came of age in new age of advertising + work of publicists. Famous book of time The Man Nobody Knows by Bruce Burton about Jesus as “salesman”
ii)Ads possible b/c of mass audience in national chains of newspapers, mass-circulation magazine growth
c)The Movies and Broadcasting
i)1920s saw rise of Hollywood, creation of Motion Picture Association and the Hays Code as industry self-ban on objectionable material
ii)Phenomenal rise of radio beginning w/ first commercial station broadcasting in 1920. By 1929 12 million families owned radio sets
d)Modernist Religion
i)Growing consumer culture w/ emphasis on immediate self-fulfillment had influence on religion—abandonment by some of traditional + literal
ii)Harry Emerson Fosdick spokesman for new liberal Protestantism of 1920s
e)Professional Women
i)Most employed women were working class b/c of professional struggle btwn career and family. Few professional women limited to mainly “feminine” fields of fashion, education, social work, nursing
f)Changing Ideas of Motherhood
i)Belief grew that maternal affection not adequate preparation for child rearing, advice and help of professionals needed instead
ii)Motherhood increasingly relied on institutions out of home, allowing time to devote to “companionate marriage”- involved more as wives, in social life
iii)Growth of birth control related to sense of sex as recreation vs only creation
g)The “Flapper”: Image and Reality
i)Some women came to believe rigid and Victorian “feminism” unnecessary “flapper” women expressed themselves freely thru dress, speech, behavior
h)Pressing for Women’s Rights
i)Women formed League of Women Voters, many women helped growing consumer groups
ii)1921 Sheppard-Towner Act gave federal funds to states for prenatal and child healthcare. Fought my American Medical Association, others; repealed in 1929--- showed women didn’t vote as single block, even on “female” issues
i)Education and Youth
i)Growing secularism, emphasis on training and expertise manifested itself in growing upper education attendance rates, teaching of technical skills
ii)Emergence of distinct youth culture w/ growing idea of adolescence, belief this was time for child to develop institutions w/ peers separate form family
j)The Decline of the “Self-Made Man”
i)Myth of “self-made man” who could gain wealth and fame thru hard work and natural talent gave way to belief that nothing possible without education and training (men felt losing independence, control, “masculinity”)
ii)Idolized self-made men in Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh
k)The Disenchanted
i)New generation of artists and intellectuals viewed society w/ contempt; isolated themselves instead of playing reform role
ii)Lost Generation’s critique American system in which individual had no means of personal fulfillment rose out of WWI experience and sense of deaths in vain, end of Wilsonian idealism, growing business + consumerism
iii)Ernest Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1929) expressed contempt of war; other “debunkers” critical of society included H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis
iv)Many of these critics who rejected the “success ethics” of America became expatriates living abroad. Paris was center of American artistic life
l)The Harlem Renaissance
i)Other intellectuals saw solution to problems in exploration of own culture and its origins—great example Harlem during “Harlem Renaissance”
ii)Harlem center of black artists and intellectuals; literature, poetry , and art drew on African roots—famously Alan Locke, Langston Hughes
m)The Southern Agrarians
i)Group of Southern intellectuals and poets known as the Fugitives rebelled against depersonalization and materialism due to industrialization by recalling the Southern nonindustrial, agrarian way of life
ii)Wrote reactionary ideas in their 1930 agrarian manifesto I’ll Take My Stand
3)A Conflict of Cultures
a)Prohibition
i)Prohibition took effect 1920; within a year “noble experiment” failing b/c even though some drinking rates fell alcohol still widely available and legitimate businesses being replaced by organized crime (famous Al Capone)
ii)Prohibition supported by rural Protestants who they associated drinking w/ Catholic immigrants + new valueless culture
b)Nativism and the Klan
i)After war many Americans associated immigration w/ radicalism; efforts to restrict influx grew, 1921 Congress passed emergency law w/ quota system
ii)Nativists wanted harsher law--- National Origins Act of 1924 banned all east Asian immigration, reduced especially eastern Eur quotas
iii)Ku Klux Klan re-emerged as force b/c of fear by some older Americans of disruption of culture by new peoples—“New Klan” emerged in 1915 after meeting in Stone Mountain, GA
iv)At first targeted blacks, after the war targeted Catholics, Jews, and foreigners- purge “alien” influences; membership grew in S but also N industrial cities
v) Wanted to threaten anyone who challenged “traditional values”- irreligion, drunkenness, ect. Defend racial homogeneity + defend traditional culture against modernity; provided disenfranchised w/ sense of community, power
c)Religious Fundamentalism
i)Fight over role of religion in modern society—split in Protestantism btwn urban, middle-class ppl who wanted to adapt religion to modern science and secular society vs traditional rural ppl who wanted to retain religious import
ii)Fundamentalists wanted traditional interpretation of bible, opposed Darwinism; evangelical movement wanting to spread doctrine (famous preacher Billy Sunday)
iii)When teaching Darwinism outlawed in Tennessee, ACLU promised to defend teacher John Scopes who defied law—Scopes trial isolated Fundamentalists from mainstream Protestants, ended their growing political activism
d)The Democrat’s Ordeal
i)Democrats split btwn urban and rural factions; party included prohibitionists, Klansmen, fundamentalists but also Caths, urban workers, immigrants
ii)At 1924 Democratic National Convention in NY conflict btwn urban wing wanting prohibition repealed, denunciation of clan, and supported Alfred Smith for nominee; W + S supported William McAdoo. After deadlock both withdrew and John Davis chosen as nominee
iii)In 1928 AL Smith won nomination, but party still divided b/c of southern anti-Catholicism; lost election to Herbert Hoover
4)Republican Government
a)Harding and Coolidge
i)Pres Warren Harding elected 1920; appointed party elite who had helped win him nomination to positions in administration, ultimately this corrupt “Ohio Gang” committed fraud and corruption in Teapot Dome oil reserve scandal
ii)Harding died of a heart attack 1923, VP Calvin Coolidge ascended to presidency (known for crushing Boston Police riot)
iii)Coolidge a passive president like Harding, believed govt should not interfere little in life of nation; won re-election 1924 but did not seek office in 1928
b)Government and Business
i)Even though New Era presidents passive, fed govt as a whole worked to helped business + industry operate efficient and productively
ii)Sec of Treasury Andrew Mellon reduced tax on corporate profits, personal incomes, inheritances, and cut federal budget
iii)Sec of Commerce Herbert Hoover favored voluntary cooperation of businesses in private sector for stability. Supported business “Associationalism” in which businessmen in an industry worked together to promote stability, efficient production, and marketing
iv)Hoover won the Presidential election of 1928, but nation entered Depression in 1929
1)The Coming of the Great Depression
a)The Great Crash
i)From Feb 1928 until October 1929 economic boom, stock prices rose dramatically w/ credit easily available
ii)October 29, 1929- “Black Tuesday”- stock market crashed
b)Unemployment and Relief
i)In capitalist system recessions cyclical, but Great Depression direly severe
ii)Such large crash b/c lack of diversification (many overinvested in automobiles + construction), maldistribution of wealth resulting in consumers receiving too little money to spend to keep pace w/ growing markets + supplies (coupled w/ rising unemployment due to natural cycle + from technology)
iii)Credit structures + indebtedness of farmers threatened banks, but banks also threatened by risky investments + loans in stock markets
iv)US foreign exports declined b/c some Eur nations productivity increasing but others facing financial difficulties; international debt structure after WWI in which nations sought new loans to pay off existing Allied loans + Central nation reparations weakened US economy after 1929 left countries w/o source with which to repay loans, began to default
c)Progress of Depression
i)Stock market crash triggered chain of events that further weakened economy over next 3 years
ii)Banking system collapsed and billions of dollars in deposits lost; money supply contraction exacerbated by 1931 Fed Reserve interest raises
iii)GDP, capital investment, gross farm product all down at least 25% by 1933; in 1932 national unemployment had risen to 25% (much more in some cities)
2)The American People in Hard Times
a)Unemployment and Relief
i)Americans taught to believe that individual responsible for own fate, poverty sign of own failure; nevertheless the small relief system of the 1920s incapable of dealing w/ new demands and govts hesitant to increase support b/c of decreasing tax revenues + welfare stigma. Bread lines found in cities
ii)In rural areas income declined 60%, 1/3 of farmers lost land, massive drought extended thru the “Dust Bowl” starting in 1930 lasting for a decade farm prices so low that many farmers left homes to seek employment (“Okies”)
iii)Nationwide problems of malnutrition, homelessness; growth of shantytowns, massive migrations of ppl across country seeking jobs, better living conditions
b)African-Americans and the Depression
i)Most S blacks were farmers, collapse of cotton + staple crop prices led them to leave land; menial jobs they had held in cities began to be given to whites (Black Shirts in Atlanta 1930 called for dismissal of all blacks from jobs so that they would be available for struggling whites to take)
ii)Mass migration of jobless southern blacks to Northern urban centers
iii)Segregation + black disenfranchisement remained, but famous Scottsboro case in which group of 7 blacks falsely accused of rape resulted in national attention b/c of NAACP support
iv)NAACP began working to increase black participation in unions + organized labor
c)Mexican Americans in Depression America
i)Large Mex immigration population (known as Chicanos) centered mostly in Southwest, worked mainly menial jobs or as unskilled laborers in urban areas
ii)When Depression hit many whites forced them from their jobs, relief to Mexicans severely limited + many rounded up to be sent back to Mexico—all highlighted the discrimination of Hispanics that swept region
d)Asian Americans in Hard Times
i)Depression strengthened pattern of economic marginalization of Asian American populations which were centered mainly on the West coast; frequently lost jobs to whites desperate for employment
ii)Some Japanese sought to form clubs to advance political agendas: Japanese American Democratic Club worked for laws against discrimination; Japanese American Citizens League sought to make immigrants more assimilated
e)Women and the Workplace in the Great Depression
i)Ppl believed that b/c jobs so scarce whatever was available should go to men—this belief strengthened notion of women’s main role staying in home, also feelings that no woman with an employed husband should hold a job
ii)Single and married women both continued to work during Depression b/c money so necessary- result of nonprofessional nature of “pink-collar” jobs as more secure than those in heavy industry, male stigma about taking them
iii)Support for Reform Era ideas of women economically and professionally independent began to wane; Depression saw death of National Woman’s Party
f)Depression Families
i)Middle- and working-class families used to rising standard of living now uncertain b/c of unemployment or income reductions
ii)Retreat from consumerism as women made clothes in home, home businesses established, banding together of extended family units
3)The Depression and American Culture
a)Depression Values
i)Pre-Depression acceptance of affluence and consumerism remained unchanged as ppl worked even more hard to achieve ideals
ii)Longstanding belief that individual controlled own fate and success thru hard work (“success ethic”) largely survived Depression as many unemployed simply blamed themselves and remained passive b/c felt ashamed
iii)Masses responded messages that they themselves could restore own wealth + success—best-selling How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
b)Artists and Intellectuals in the Great Depression
i)Just as urban poverty had received attention during Reform Era, during 1930s many shocked at “discovery” of rural poverty- photography of Farm Security Administration photographers highlighted impact of hostile env’t on ppl
ii)Many writers began to highlight social injustices- Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road(1932) of rural poverty; Richard Wright’s Native Son of urban ghettos; John Steinbeck’s novels of migrant workers; John Dos Passso’s USA trilogy attacked capitalism
c)Radio
i)Almost every family had radio, listening often a communal activity
ii)Most radio programming was entertaining and escapist in nature (comedies or adventures, soap operas); live programming of performances also developed
iii)Radio allowed access to major public events in news, sports, politics
iv)Drew nation together b/c of widespread availability of same cultural and informational programming, gathered family together in the home
d)The Movies
i)Early 1930s movie attendance dropped b/c of economic hardship, but by mid-1930s many seeing them again
ii)Most movies censored heavily and studio system kept projects largely uncontroversial; some films did manage to explore social and political questions, but most remained escapist in order to keep attention of audience away from troubles. Walt Disney movies emerged during 1930s
e)Popular Literature and Journalism
i)Literature more reflective of growing radicalism + discontentedness than radio and movies, although escapist and romantic works still widely popular (Mitchell’s 1936 Gone With The Wind; photographic Life Magazine)
ii)Other works challenged American popular values: John Dos Passos’s U.S.A. trilogy (1930-1936) attacked American materialism; Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts(1933) of a woman overwhelmed by the life stories of others
f)The Popular Front and the Left
i)Late 1930s more literature more optimistic of society b/c of rise of Popular Front coalition lead by American Communist Party- supported Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal, mobilized intellectuals toward social criticism
ii)Intellectual detachment of 1920s targeted by Popular Front- mobilized some men into Lincoln Brigade to fight in Spanish Civil War against the fascists
iii)Communist Party organized unemployed, unions, supported racial justice; however party under control of Soviet Union- when Stalin signed 1939 nonaggression pact w/ Hitler Party abandoned Popular Front and returned to criticizing liberals
iv)Socialist Party of America under Norman Thomas attempted to argue crisis failure of capitalist system and tried to win support for party, especially targeting rural poor—supported Southern Tenant Farmers Union but never gained strength
v)Antiradicalism a strong force in 1930s and hostility existed toward Communist Party, yet at the same time Left widely respected amongst workers and intellectuals; temporary widening of mainstream culture
vi)Famous accounts of social conditions of the era provided by James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) and more famously John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath(1939)
4)The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover
a)The Hoover Program
i)Hoover responded to Depression by trying to restore confidence in economy- tried to gather business into voluntary program of cooperation to aid recovery; by 1931 voluntarism had collapsed b/c of worsening economy
ii)Hoover tried using govt spending to boost economy; spending not enough in face of huge economic problems, sought to raise taxes 1932 to balance budget
iii)Offered Agricultural Marketing Act to help farmers w/ low crop prices, raised foreign agricultural tariffs in Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930- neither helped
iv)Dems gained majority in House + increase in Senate in 1930 elections by promising government economic assistance; presidents unpopularity grew (shantytowns called “Hoovervilles”) especially after international financial panic in spring 1931 w/ Austrian bank collapse
v)1932 Congress created Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to give loans to imperiled banks, RRs, businesses- RFC failed to improve economy b/c lent largely to big institutions, didn’t sponsor enough relief + public works
b)Popular Protest
i)By 1932 dissent beginning to come to a head: Farmers’ Holiday Association attempted farmer’s product strike; veterans in “Bonus Army” marched on Washington to protest withholding of bonuses, Hoover called on Army units under Gen Douglas MacArthur to clear Bonus Army out of city
ii)Popular image of Hoover as unsympathetic + unable to act effectively
c)The Election of 1932
i)Repubs re-nominated Hover as candidate; Democrats nominated NY Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt
ii)Roosevelt avoided religion and prohibition, focused on economic grievances of nation
iii)Roosevelt won large majority of popular vote and even more overwhelmingly in electoral college; Dems majorities elected to House and Senate- signified mandate for change
d)The “Interregnum”
i)Period between election and inauguration one of increasing economic problems b/c of expanding banking crisis + more depositors seeking to withdraw money in a panic; more banks declared bankruptcy
ii)Roosevelt refused to make public commitments asked of him by Hoover to maintain economic orthodoxy or not institute broad economic reforms
1)Launching the New Deal
a)Restoring Confidence
i)Roosevelt projected optimism- famous quote “all we have to fear is fear itself”
ii)Two days after taking office issued “Bank Holiday” closing all banks for four days to give Congress time to discuss reforms; Emergency Banking Act required Treasury Dept inspection of banks, assistance to troubled institutions
iii)Bank Holiday restored ¾ of closed banks; Economy Act passed a few days later forced balanced fed budget thru cutting govt salaries + veterans pensions
b)Agricultural Adjustment
i)Agricultural Adjustment Act 1933 reduced crop production to end surpluses + raise prices; Agricultural Adjustment Administration would enforce industry limits + subsidize vacant lands to parity-- farm income began increasing
ii)1936 Agricultural Adjustment Act declared unconstitutional b/c it required farmers to limit production; new Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act passed to pay farmers to reduce production in order to “conserve soil”
iii)Resettlement Administration and later Farm Security Administration gave loans to small farmers to help relocate to better lands; Rural Electrification Administration attempted to make power more available to farmers
c)Industrial Recovery
i)Administration allowed for relaxing of some antitrust laws to stabilize industry prices in return for concessions to labor to allow collective bargaining and unions led to 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act
ii)Act created National Recovery Administration under Hugh Johnson called on adoption of labor codes + industrial codes to set floor prices-- sought to maintain employment + production
iii)NRA weakened b/c codes poorly written and administered; Section 7(a) of NIR Act gave workers right to unionize but no enforcement so many corps. ignored it; Public Works Administration of NIR Act slow to distribute monies
iv)NRA failed to raise production; 1935 Supreme C. held NRA unconstitutional
d)Regional Planning
i)AAA and NRA examples of economic planning that allowed private interests to dictate planning process; others wanted govt in charge of planning
ii)Tennessee Valley Authority created after failure of electric utility companies to develop water resources for cheap power; 1933 TVA began building dams in Tennessee Valley region + sell electricity at reasonable rates
iii)TVA revitalized region by improving transport, limiting flooding, making electricity more available, and lowered power rates nationwide
e)Currency, Banks, and the Stock Market
i)1933 president took president took nation off gold standard; govt began manipulating value of dollar by buying/selling large amts of silver
ii)Efforts to increase govt regulation in 1933 Glass-Steagall Act- govt power to curb speculation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect deposits
iii)1933 Truth in Securities Act required corporations to give truthful disclosures
iv)1934 Securities and Exchange Commission created to police stock market
f)The Growth of Federal Relief
i)Administration saw need to help impoverished until economy improved—Federal Emergency Relief Administration gave cash to state relief groups
ii)Work relief provided by the Civil Works Administration that gave millions temporary work- built roads + schools, and pumped money into economy
iii)Civilian Conservation Corps gave unemployed men jobs in national parks planting trees and improving irrigation
iv)To aid in mortgage relief created Farm Credit Administration to help farmers refinance; 1933 Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act aided foreclosed farmers; 1933 Home Owners’ Loan Corporation refinanced households
2)The new Deal in Transition
a)Critics of the new Deal
i)Conservatives and businesses leaders main opponents to New Deal, 1934 formed American Liberty League decrying “attacks” on free enterprise
ii)Another threat to New Deal in Townsend Plan- proposed giving all over 60 monthly pension; idea gained much support older ppl, forerunner to Soc Sec
iii)Father Charles Coughlin’s nat’l radio sermons called for banking + currency reform (recoining of silver, nationalization of banks) to restore economic justice, felt admin unresponsive so founded National Union for Social Justice
iv)Sen Huey Long gained popularity for attacks on banks, oil companies, utilities and b/c of progressive voting record; like Coughlin felt administration not acting strongly enough so proposed Share-Our-Wealth Plan to redistribute wealth (and created Share-Our-Wealth Society)
v)Growing dissident movements threat to president, so Roosevelt began to consider measures to counter their growing popularity
b)The “Second New Deal”
i)Second New Deal of 1935 marked beginning of open critique of big business
ii)Holding Company Act sought to break up monopoly of utility industry; 1935 tax reforms established progressive tax w/ very high rate for wealthy
iii)National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) gave enforcement to NIR Act’s Section 7(a) (right to unionize) in National Labor Relations Board
c)Labor Militancy
i)Trade union power increased dramatically in 1930s b/c of efforts to strengthen unions + growing labor militancy to challenge conservative groups
ii)After Wagner Act attempts to find new forms of organization; American Federation of Labor still committed to organizing workers based on skill, but b/c mass of labor force unskilled industrial unionism gained popularity (all workers in industry organized regardless of role)
iii)AFL hesitancy to adopt industrial unionism led John L Lewis in 1936 to create independent Congress of Industrial Organizations- grew into new areas
d)Organizing Battles
i)Laborers in auto industry increasingly joining unrecognized United Auto Workers; 1936 staged sit-down strike that stopped all production and prevented strikebreakers- most auto makers soon recognized union
ii)In steel Steel Worker’s Organizing Committee recognized by US Steel 1937 to prevent costly stroke; “Little Steel” committed “Memorial Day Massacre” when strikers attempted protest- strike failed, SWOC not recognized for years
iii)Period saw union membership increase by millions, growing recognition
e)Social Security
i)Lobbying for social insurance for elderly and unemployed led to 1935 Social Security Act—payroll tax created to create pension system for workers upon retirement, unemployment insurance paid by employers gave laid off workers temporary govt assistance, disability + dependent children aid created
ii)Seen as insurance in which participants contributed and benefits for all
f)New Directions in Relief
i)SS for long term needs; to help currently unemployed created 1935 Works Progress Administration under Harry Hopkins to build + renovate public buildings, employ millions, pump money into economy
ii)WPA replaced smaller CWA after 1934 fall- $5 billion budget vs $1 billion
iii)Federal Writers Project of WPA (Music Proj, Theater Proj, ect.) provided govt salary to those ppl to continue work
iv)Men often given relief in form of work relief and employment whereas women mainly given cash assistance
g)The 1936 “Referendum”
i)With 1936 revival of economy doubts about re-election from 1935 troubles largely dispelled. Repub nominee Alf Landon ran poor campaign, other Roosevelt dissidents (e.g. Coughlin and Townsend’s Union Party) very weak
ii)Election largest landslide to date, Dems increased majorities in both Congressional houses; results highlighted Dem coalition of farmers, urban working ppl, unemployed and poor, progressive liberals, and blacks
3)The New Deal in Disarray
a)The Court Fight
i)1936 landslide led Roosevelt to deal with Supreme Court whose conservative rulings (against NRA, AAA) he feared would ruin more legislation
ii)1937 Roosevelt proposed overhaul of court system to Congress, including adding six new justices to Supreme Court so that he could appoint liberals and change ideological balance. Conservatives outraged as “Court-packing plan”
iii)Legislation failed but more moderate court no longer a New Deal obstacle, although administration was damaged and Roosevelt viewed as power hungry
b)Retrenchment and Recession
i)In summer 1937 Roosevelt feared inflation so began to cut fed govt programs and reduce deficit—led to recession of 1937 (“Roosevelt’s Recession”); increased govt spending in 1938 for public works seemed to lead to recovery
ii)Roosevelt began to denounce economic concentrations + sought antirust law reform- Congress formed Temporary National Economic Committee, apptd Thurman Arnold head of the antitrust division at the Justice Dept
iii)1938 Fair Labor Standards Act established nat’l minimum wage, 40 hour work week, child labor limits
iv)By end of 1938 New Deal largely over b/c of Congressional opposition + growing global crisis and Roosevelt’s concentration on war preparation
4)Limits and Legacies of the New Deal
a)The Idea of the “Broker State”
i)New Deal backers originally sought to remake American capitalism and create new controls to make new economic order. Instead, transformation of government as “broker state” in which govt was a mediator in competition btwn interest groups rather than force to create universal harmony
ii)Before 1930s main interest group corporations, but by end of 1930s business interests competing with labor, agricultural economy, and consumers
b)African Americans and the New Deal
i)New Deal did little to assist African Americans; Roosevelt himself not opposed to blacks- his “Black Cabinet” of blacks in second-level administrative positions, many blacks received govt relief or assistance
ii)Electoral shift as blacks no longer overwhelmingly voted Republican but by 1936 90% voting Democratic- even though race not part of New Deal agenda
iii)New Deal agencies reinforced discrimination by separating blacks in CCC and NRA codes, WPA gave minorities lower-paying jobs
c)The new Deal and the “Indian Problem”
i)Federal government sought to erase Indian problem by assimilating them and decreasing amt who identified as members of tribe
ii)Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier proponent of cultural relativism and therefore supported legislation to reverse Native pressures to assimilate and instead be given right to live traditionally—Indian reorganization Act of 1934 advanced many of these goals by re-allowing collective ownership
d)Women and the New Deal
i)Administration mostly unconcerned w/ feminist movement b/c lack of popular support but nevertheless had symbolic gestures (Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins first female Cabinet member, other women appts in govt)
ii)New Deal supported notion that women withdraw from working to open up positions for men—agencies offered women few jobs
iii)Like with AAs New Deal not against women but still accepted cultural norms
e)The New Deal in the West and the South
i)West and South given special attention by New Deal relief and public works programs; these programs didn’t challenge racial and ethnic prejudices
ii)New Deal had profound impact on West b/c farming central to economy and was a good site for and had the need for dams, electricity, other public works
iii)New Deal programs profound in South b/c less economically developed than rest of nation in 1930s, gave federal attention to South that no previous administration had ever done b/c of view of S as “backward”
f)The new Deal and the National Economy
i)New Deal failed to end Depression, change drastically the maldistribution of wealth. New Deal did allow new groups previously unheld powers (labor, women, farmers), economically developed South and West, increased govt regulation, created welfare state thru relief and Social Security that broke w/ tradition of providing little public help to citizens deeply in need
g)The New Deal and American Politics
i)Roosevelt strengthened power of federal government as local govt took second seat to national govt, presidency established as center of power and shifted Congress to more secondary role
ii)New Deal led to political shifts—Dem Party now strong coalition ready to dominate national politics; reawakened interest in economy over cultural issues; changed expectations American people had of government
1)The Diplomacy of the New Era
a)Replacing the League
i)Harding administration sought to negotiate separate peace treaties w/ Central Powers, find impermanent way to replace League as guarantor of world peace
ii)Washington Conference of 1921 sought to deal w/ naval arms race btwn US, GB, Japan: Five-Power Pact limited armaments; Nine-Power Act continued Chinese Open Door policy; Four-Power Act acknowledged Pacific territories
iii)Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928 btwn 14 nations to outlaw war as policy measure
iv)New Era efforts to protect peace w/o active international duties
b)Debts and Diplomacy
i)Diplomacy used to ensure free overseas trade thru reducing war and making financial arrangements w/ other nations
ii)US prosperity depended on Eur economy, which was suffering from war destruction, Allied debt on US loans, Central reparations US acted to head off collapse thru 1924 Dawes Plan that created circular loan system where US loaned Germany money to pay GB + French debt who used $ to pay US debt
iii)System led to increase in Eur debt, US banks and corporations took advantage of collapsed industries to assert themselves; high US tariffs under Republicans prevented Eur export of goods to earn money to repay loans
iv)US economic expansion into Latin America during 1920s to better access rich natural resources, give loans to governments
c)Hoover and the World Crisis
i)Stock market crash of 1929 and worsening problems after 1931, growing nationalism + new hostile governments faced by Hoover administration
ii)Hoover promised to recognize new Latin American govt if any collapsed, did not intervene some defaulted on US loans (against M. Doctrine + R.Corollary)
iii)In efforts to restore Eur economic stability Pres refused to cancel debts- some nations defaulted; 1932 World Disarmament Conference ended in failure
iv)Difficulties increased b/c of control by Benito Mussolini’s nationalistic Fascist Party in Italy & Adolf Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist Party (Nazis)
v)Crisis in Asia when in 1931 Japanese military staged coup against liberal govt b/c it had allowed China’s leader Chiang Kai-Shek to expand his power in Manchuria (which had been economically dominated by Japan) Japan invaded Manchuria + then China itself (Hoover refused to issue sanctions)
vi)Interwar diplomacy of international voluntary cooperation and refusal to actively commit itself a failure; nation could now adopt internationalism or become even more nationalistic + isolated would try measures of both
2)Isolationism and Internationalism
a)Depression Diplomacy
i)Early Roosevelt admin foreign policy concerned mainly w/ pressing economic issues- sought to differ from Hoover by solving war debts + adopting gold standard. However, 1933 World Economic Conference accomplished little
ii)FDR forbid continuation of circular loan system, did little to stabilize international currencies; did adopt Reciprocal trade Agreement Act of 1934 to advance principles of free trade
b)American and the Soviet Union
i)FDR agreed to recognize Soviet Union in 1933 in hopes of increasing trade btwn nations (not b/c of lessening of hatred toward Communism)
c)The Good Neighbor Policy
i)“Good Neighbor Policy” toward Latin America focused on trade reciprocity (free trade);1933 Inter-American Conference administration officially pledged to not intervene in affairs of Latin nations. Closer economic ties emerged
d)The Rise of Isolationism
i)Geneva Conference on disarmament disbanded and Japan withdrew from 1921 Washington Conference; agreements of 1920s collapsed during 1930s
ii)Many Americans supported isolationism b/c internationalism of League of Nations failed to restrain Japanese Asian aggression, belief US business interests had led to WW I involvement; FDR helpless to change tide
iii)Neutrality Acts of 1935, ’36, ’37 meant to prevent issues of WWI from allowing US entrance into new war- “neutral rights” of US citizens defined, “cash-and-carry” policy allowed only nonmilitary goods to be sold to warring countries who had to provide own transportation
iv)Military neutrality upheld after Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia and during Spain’s civil war btwn fascist Falangists + repub govt
v)Alarm over Japan’s 1937 new assaults into China (after 1931 Manchuria invasion) led FDR to question isolationism, delivered “Quarantine speech” saying aggressors should be prevented from spreading war; speech unpopular
e)The Failure of Munich
i)In 1936 Hitler moved army into demilitarized Rhineland, 1938 invaded Austria to create union (anschluss) + demanded Czechoslovakia cede Sudetenland to increase lands for Germans to live (lebensraum); 1938 Munich Conference GB + France appeased Hitler for promise would be last expansion
ii)1939 “appeasement” collapsed w/ German invasion of whole Czechoslovakia and then Poland- GB + France honored defense agreement w/ Poland, in September declared war against Germany
3)From Neutrality to Intervention
a)Neutrality Tested
i)Most Americans supported Allies, FDR wanted to grant assistance by allowing arms sales to belligerents using “cash-and-carry” policy
ii)Quiet “phony war” period shattered by spring 1940 German blitzkrieg invasion of W. Eur, by June France had fallen + GB retreated at Dunkirk
iii)Roosevelt increased aid to Allies + monies for US self-defense, “scraped bottom of the barrel” to give GB’s Churchill war materials
iv)FDR able to take steps b/c public opinion shift after fall of France Germany now seen as threat to US by majority; debate still btwn “interventionists” who wanted increased US war involvement and “isolationist” America First Committee supported by many Repubs
b)The Third-Term Campaign
i)Roosevelt sought 3rd term in 1940 presidential election; Repubs nominated Wendell Willkie. Roosevelt won election w/ heavy measure of support
c)Neutrality Abandoned
i)After election Roosevelt changed US war role-- cash-short GB extended “lend-lease” agreement that allowed sale but also lending of armaments, began ensuring shipments reached GB by Navy patrolling Atlantic for subs
ii)After Germany broke 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact by invading the USSR, US extended “lend-lease” to Russians; Nazi subs began attacking US ships, Congress voted to allow arming of merchants + US attacks on subs
iii)1941 Churchill and Roosevelt released Atlantic Charter tying two nations together to war aims to destroy “Nazi tyranny”
d)The Road to Pearl Harbor
i)1940 Japan signed Tripartite Pact allying itself w/ Germany and Italy; in spite of Roosevelt denouncing Japanese aggression in 1941 it invaded Indochina
ii)US froze Jap assets + placed trade embargo preventing Japan from buying impt supplies (including oil). Tokyo attempted to negotiate w/ US to continue flow of supplies, but Jap PM Konoye forced out of office by Gen Hideki Tojo
iii)Tojo govt refused to recognize US calls to guarantee Chinese territorial rights so negotiations broke down, by November war imminent; on December 7, 1941 Jap aircraft carriers attacked US Pacific Navy HQ at Pearl Harbor
iv)US lost 8 battleships, 2,000 soldiers dead, US Pacific forces weakened; resulted in unifying American ppl into commitment to war
v)December 8, 1941 US declared war on Japan; December 11 Germany and Italy declared war on US, likewise same say us declared war on them
1)War on Two Fronts
a)Containing the Japanese
i)After Pearl Harbor US forces surrendered in the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island; to turn tide US lead 2 offensives- Gen Douglas MacArthur’s attacks from the south, and Admiral Chester Nimitz attacked from HI to the west
ii)May 1942 Battle of Coral Sea weakened Jap navy; more important Battle of Midway Island June 1942 regained US central Pacific control
iii)Mid-1943 after fighting in Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal) US turned tide
b)Holding Off the Germans
i)US military plans in Europe influenced by Soviet Union and GB; FDR decided to delay invasion into France in favor of October 1942 counter-offensive in N. Africa against Nazi Gen Erwin Rommel; by May 1943 Gen George Patton and British Gen Montgomery had driven Germans from Africa
ii)Soviet Red Army held off immense German 1942-1943 winter offensive at Stalingrad, Hitler’s forces exhausted and forced to abandon eastern advance
iii)July 1943 US agreed to British plan to invade Sicily, Mussolini govt collapsed but German reinforcements prevented capture of Rome until June 1944; slow, costly Italy campaign delayed French channel invasion Soviets had called for
c)America and the Holocaust
i)By 1942 news of Holocaust (Nazi campaign to exterminate European Jews) prompting public cries to end killing, but US govt resisted calls for military aid + officials at the State Dept deliberately refused to let Jews enter US
2)The American People In Wartime
a)Prosperity
i)WWII ended Great Depression problems of unemployment, deflation, production b/c of wartime economic expansion + massive govt spending (federal budget grew from 1939 $9 billion to 1945 $100 billion)
b)The War and the West
i)West shared disproportionally in massive govt capital investments;
ii)Businessman Henry Kaiser steered federal funds to make Pacific Coast major industrial center for shipbuilding, aircraft; launching stage for Japanese war
c)Labor and the War
i)Labor shortage caused by military recruitment; unemployed from Depression worked, but also women + other previously unused groups entered workforce
ii)Union membership increased; new govt limits on wage increases +“no-strike” promise, in return govt allowed all new workers to automatically join unions
iii)Govt+ public sought to reduce inflation + guarantee production w/o disruption
d)Stabilizing Boom
i)1942 Congress passed Anti-Inflation Act which allowed Pres to freeze prices and wages, set rations; enforced by the Office of Price Administration
ii)Govt spent 2X more $ btwn 1941-1945 than it had during whole existence; raised $ thru bond sales, Revenue Act of 1942 created new high tax brackets
e)Mobilizing Production
i)1942 War Production Board created to organize mobilization effort but was largely unable to direct military purchases + include small businesses; program later replaced by White House Office of War Mobilization
ii)Nevertheless, US economy met all war needs; new factories were built, entire rubber industry created. By 1944 output 2X that of all Axis nations combined
f)Wartime Science and Technology
i)Govt stimulated new military technologies by funneling massive funds to National Defense Research Committee
ii)Originally Germany (w/ sophisticated tanks + submarines) and Japan (w/ strong naval-air power) technologically ahead of Allies; US, however, had experience w/ mass production in auto industry and was able to convert many of these plants to produce armaments
iii)Allied advances in radar + sonar beyond Axis capabilities helped limit effectiveness of U-Boats in Atlantic; Allies developed more effective anti-aircraft tech and produced large amount of powerful 4-engine aircraft (British Lancaster + US B17) able to attack military forces + industrial centers
iv)Greatest Allied advantage found in intelligence gathering—British Ultra project able to break German “Enigma” code and intercept info on enemy movements; American Magic operation broke Japanese “Purple” code
g)African-Americans and the War
i)Blacks wanted to use war as means of improving own conditions. A Philip Roth (head of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters) wanted all companies w/ war contracts to integrate work force
ii)Fearing black workers strike, FDR created Fair Employment Practices Commission to investigate labor discrimination. Later, Congress of Racial equality combated discrimination in society at large using popular resistance
iii)War saw migration of blacks from rural South to industrial cities of North in greater numbers than those found of first Great Migration during WWI
h)Native Americans and the War
i)Some Native Americans served in military (some as famous “Code Talkers”), many others left reservations seeking work in war industries
i)Mexican-American War Workers
i)War labor shortages lead to large Mex immigration of braceros (contract laborers); ethnic tensions from growing immigrant neighborhoods w/ existing white communities led to “Zoot-Suit Riots” in Los Angeles in 1943
j)Women and Children of War
i)Large number of women entered roles they were previously excluded from
ii)Many women worked in factories to replace men who had entered military, but some inequality existed in what jobs they could hold in factories
iii)Most women took service-sector jobs in growing govt bureaucracies; limited others worked in “male” heavy-industry (famous Rosie the Riveter image)
iv)Over 1/3 of teenagers took jobs during war; crime rate also rose during war
k)Wartime Life and Culture
i)Increased prosperity from war led to marked rise in theater and movie attendance, magazine and news circulation, hotel, casino, dance hall visits
ii)War effort largely seen as means of protecting material comfort + consumer choice of “home”; visions of home and future women romanticized by troops
l)The Internment of Japanese Americans
i)WWII did not largely see restrictions of civil liberties + growth of hatred toward fringe groups as during WWI; little ethnic tension in part due to propaganda attacking enemy’s political system but not people
ii)Glaring exception in treatment of Japanese Americans who were painted as scheming + cruel (re-enforced by Pearl Harbor); white Eur groups largely accepted by now, but assimilated Japs faced prejudice + viewed as “foreign”
iii)Conspiracy theories of Jap-Americans aiding in Pearl Harbor attacks led govt + military to see them as a threat; 1942 Roosevelt created War Relocation Authority to move Japanese citizens to “relocation camps” for monitoring
iv)Starting 1943 condition began to improve as some Japs allowed to got o college or take jobs on East Coast; although 1944 Supreme Court case Korematsu v U.S. ruled relocation constitutional, by that time most of internees had been allowed to leave camps
m)Chinese Americans and the War
i)US war alliance w/ China helped Chinese Americans advance legal + social position—1943 Congress repealed Chinese Exclusion acts
ii)Many Chinese took jobs in industry or were drafted into the military
n)The Retreat from Reform
i)FDR wanted to shift priority from reform to war effort and victory
ii)With massive unemployment no longer an issue + Republican gains, Congress dismantled relief programs and other New Deal programs
iii)In 1944 Pres election Repubs nominated Thomas Dewey; Dems re-nominated Roosevelt but w/ new, less liberal VP candidate Harry Truman
iv)Despite deteriorating health Roosevelt was popularly elected; Dems maintained control of both Houses of Congress
3)The Defeat of the Axis
a)The Liberation of France
i)By 1944 devastating Allied strategic bombing against German industry at Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin reduced production + complicated transport; German Luftwaffe forced to retreat to bases w/in Germany itself, weakened it
ii)After 2 year buildup in England Supreme Allied Commander Gen Dwight Eisenhower ordered invasion across English Channel into Normandy, France on “D-Day” (June 6, 1944); Allies drove Germans from the coast, by September forced them to retreat from France, Belgium
iii)In December Germany counter-attacked during Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest, but soon repelled; with Soviet advances on Eastern front, Allies began moving into Germany across Rhine
iv)April 30 Hitler commits suicide; May 8, 1945 full surrender + “V-E” Day
b)The Pacific Offensive
i)Thru 1944 American navy crippling Japanese shipping and economy in Pacific; on mainland Asia Japan attacking thru Chinese interior trying to cutoff Gen Stilwell’s Burma Road for supplies
ii)June 1944 Americans captured Mariana Islands, in September Battle of Leyte Gulf Japanese navy decimated by US sinking of its aircraft carriers; in next few months Japanese fought desperate battles of resistance in Feb at Iwo Jima, in June at Okinawa (used Kamikaze suicide bombers throughout)
iii)Many feared bloody island battles would ensue w/ invasion of Japanese mainland, but by 1945 Japanese weakened by firebombing in Tokyo, shelling of industrial centers; moderates in govt trying to sue peace against will of military leaders wanting to continue fight
c)The Manhattan Project
i)After news in 1939 that Nazis pursuing atomic bomb, US and +GB began race to develop one before them; work based on discovery of uranium radioactivity by Enrico Fermi 1930s, Einstein’s theory of relativity
ii)Army took over control of research and poured billions of $ into Manhattan Project which gathered scientists to create nuclear chain reactions w/ a bomb
iii)On July 16 1945 the plutonium bomb Trinity, created by scientist Robert Oppenheimer at the Los Alamos Laboratory, successfully tested
d)Atomic Warfare
i)Pres Truman issues ultimatum to Japanese for “unconditional surrender” by Aug 3rd or face annihilation; after Jap moderates unable to convince military leaders to accept Truman ordered use of atomic weapon
ii)Some argue atomic weapon unnecessary b/c in time Japs would have sued for peace; others argue only atomic bomb could convince radical military leaders that surrender necessary. Truman saw weapon as military device that could end war quickly, but some say he used it to intimidate Stalin and Soviets
iii)August 6, 1945 bomber Enola Gay dropped atomic weapon on Japanese city Hiroshima, killing 80,000 civilians; because Jap govt didn’t respond, on August 8 second atomic bomb dropped on city of Nagasaki killing 100,000
iv)By Aug 14 emperor agreed to surrender; September 2, 1945 Japan signed articles of surrender (“V-J Day”) marking end of WWII
v)14 million combatants had died during war, even more civilians; threat of nuclear war loomed between two emerging super-powers in US and Soviet Union
1)Origins of the Cold War
a)Sources of Soviet-American Tensions
i)Rivalry emerged b/c of difft visions of postwar world: US foresaw world where nations shed military alliances and used democratic international bodies as mediators; Soviet Union sought to control areas of strategic influence
b)Wartime Diplomacy
i)Tensions began in 1943 b/c of Allied refusal to open second front w/ French invasion, dispute over governance of Poland unresolved at Tehran Conference
c)Yalta
i)Meeting of Big Three at Yalta in 1945 led to plan to create United Nations (w/ General Asembly and Security Council w/ permanent members)
ii)Disagreement existed over future of Polish govt (independent + democratic vs Communist); US wanted to German reconstruction, Stalin wanted heavy reparations- finally agreed to commission and each Ally given German “zone”
2)The Collapse of the Peace
a)The Failure of Potsdam
i)After Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, new Pres Truman decided US needed to “Get Tough” w Soviets to honor Yalta accords
ii)Potsdam Conference in July ended w/ Stalin receiving increased land w/ new Polish-German border, US refusing to allow German reparations from Allied zones but US recognizing new communist Polish govt under Soviet influence
b)The China Problem
i)US had vision of open world “policed” by major powers; vision troubled by unpopular + corrupt Chinese govt under Chiang Kai-shek (supported by US aid during civil war) who battled communists under Mao Zedong
ii)B/c Kai-shek govt sure to collapse, US sought to create new, Pro-West Japan by encouraging industrial development, lift trade restrictions
c)The Containment Doctrine
i)US no longer sought “open” world but rather “containment” of Soviet expansion; new Truman Doctrine sought aid for those forces in Turkey + Greece opposing take-over of Communist forces under Soviet influence
d)The Marshall Plan
i)Sec of State George Marshall 1947 plan to provide aid to all Eur nations (for humanitarian reasons, to rebuild to create markets for US goods, and to strengthen Pro-US govts against communists); 1948 created the Economic Cooperation Administration to channel billions of $ to aid economic revival
e)Mobilization at Home
i)US maintained wartime military levels, established Atomic Energy Commission to continue nuclear research
ii)National Security Act of 1947 restructured military by creating Department of Defense to combine all armed services, create National Security Council in White House and Central Intelligence Agency to collect information
f)The Road to NATO
i)Truman merged German “Western zones” into the West German republic; Stalin responded by blockading Western Berlin, Truman responded w/ airlift to re-supply inhabitants; Federal Republic became govt of west Germany, Democratic Republic of east
ii)To strengthen military position US and Western Eur naions1949 created North Atlantic Treaty Organization as alliance to protect all members against threat of Soviet invasion (communists 1955 formed similar Warsaw Pact)
g)Reevaluating Cold War Policy
i)1949 saw Soviet Union explode atomic weapon and collapse of Nationalists in China to Mao’s Communists
ii)To reevaluate foreign policy, National Security Council released report NSC-68 that held US should lead noncommunist world and oppose communist expansion everywhere it existed, also expand US military power dramatically
3)American Society and Politics After the War
a)The Problems of Reconversion
i)After end of war Truman attempted to quickly return nation to normal economic conditions, but problems ensued
ii)No economic collapse b/c of increase in spending on consumer goods from savings, Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) provided education + economic aid to returning soldiers that further increased spending
iii)Problems arose w/ high inflation, union strikes in RR + mining industries, and displacement of some minorities and women b/c of returning soldiers to labor
b)The Fair Deal Rejected
i)After Jap surrender Truman proposed “Fair Deal” to enact liberal reforms—included raising minimum wage, enacting Fair Employment Practices Act, expanding Social Security, and creating nation health insurance plan
ii)Fair Deal opposed by Repubs who gained majority in both Houses of Congress in 1946 elections; Repubs sought to reduce govt spending and economic controls, cut taxes for wealthy, refused to raise wages
iii)Repubs wanted to decrease powers unions gained in 1935 Wagner Act by passing 1947 Labor-Management Relations Act of (Taft-Hartley Act)- made “closed-shop” illegal; limited efforts help those not yet organized (minorities)
c)The Election of 1948
i)Truman sought to make re-election about liberal reforms but electorate saw him as weak; Southern Dems (Dixiecrats) + progressives refused full support
ii)Repubs nominated Thomas Dewey and seemed to be in strong position to win, but intense campaigning by Truman and his platform to reduce inflation + help common man allowed him to win Pres; Dems also won both Houses of C
d)The Fair Deal Revivied
i)New Dem Congress allowed for minimum wage increase + Social Security expansion, but hostile to Fair Deal programs expanding education aid, national healthcare, and civil rights
ii)Truman did end govt hiring discrimination, desegregated armed forces; Supreme Court inSkelley v. Kraemer rules community “covenants” preventing movement of blacks unenforceable by courts
e)The Nuclear Age
i)Nuclear weapons viewed w/ fear b/c of threat from Soviet Union (expressed in pop culture,film noir, and govt preparations for nuclear attack), but public also awed by technological potential of nuclear power (Dreams of prosperity and unlimited + cheap electricity)
4)The Korean War
a)The Divided Peninsula
i)Korea divided at 38th Parallel into Communist North and Southern government of capitalist Syngman Rhee (supported by US)
ii)Nationalists in North invaded S in 1950 in effort to reunite countries; US won UN resolution calling for support of S. Korea armies (Russia unable to veto b/c boycotting Security Council at time)—“containment” but also “liberation”
b)From Invasion to Stalemante
i)Gen MacArthur (head of UN forces) able to advance far into North, but new communist Chinese govt feared American forces + entered conflict late 1950
ii)UN armies force dto retreat to 38th parallel long stalemate ensued until 1953
iii)Truman wanted peace andnot new world war w/ China; Gen MacArthur publicly opposed peace effort and was relieved of command by Pres in 1951
c)Limited Mobilization
i)War led to only limited mobilization: Truman created Office of Defense Mobilization to combat rising inflation; govt seized RRs + steel mills during union strikes, increased govt spending stimulated economy
ii)Inability of US to quickly end “small” war led to growth of fears of growth of communist at home
5)The Crusade Against Subversion
a)HUAC and Alger Hiss
i)“Red Scare” prompted by fear of Stalin, Communist growth (“loss” of China, Korean frustrations) many sought to blame US communist conspiracy
ii)Repubs soguht to use anticommunist feeligns to win support against Dems; Congress created House Un-American Activities Committee 1947 to investigate communist subversion
iii)Investigation into former State Dept official Alger Hiss revaled some complicity w/ communists increased fear of communist infiltrations
b)The Federal Loyalty Program and the Rosenberg Case
i)Truman began 1947 program to determine “loyalty” of fed employees; FBI monitored radicals; 1950 Congress passed McCarran Interal Secuity Act forcing communist groups to register w/ government
ii)Explosion of atomic bomb by Soviets led to famous Rosenberg tiral to find out how Russia had learned of technology so quickly; Rosenbergs executed
iii)HUAC, Rosenberg trial, “Loyalty” program, Hiss ordeal, McCarran Act all lead to national anticommunist hysteria at national, state, and local level
c)McCarthyism
i)Wisconsin Sen Joseph McCarthy 1951 began leveling charges of communist agents in State Dept and other agencies; his subcommittee was at the fore of anticommunist hysteria + partisan politics
d)The Republican Revival
i)Korean stalemate + anticommunist sentiments led to Dem disappointments
ii)Dem nominated Adlai Stevenson (viewed as liberal and weak on Communism); Repubs nominated popular Gen Dwight Eisenhower and VP Richard Nixon (Eisenhower talked of Korean peace, Nixon of communist subversion)
iii)Eisenhower won election by huge margin & Republicans gained control of both Houses of Congress
Sources of Economic Growth
·By 1949, despite the continuing problems of postwar reconversion, an
economic expansion had begun that would continue with only
brief interruptions for almost twenty years
· The causes of this growth varied
1. Government spending continued to stimulate growth
through public funding of schools, housing, veteran’s benefits,
welfare, and the $100 billion interstate highway program
·Technological progress also contributed to the boom
1. Technological progress also contributed to the boom
a. There was the development of electronic
computers
b. The first modern computer emerged as a result of
efforts during WWII to decipher enemy codes
c. Not until the 1980s did most Americans come into
direct and regular contact with computers, but the new
machines were having a substantial effect on the
economy long before that
·The national birth rate reversed a long pattern of decline with the socalled
baby boom
1. The baby boom meant increased consumer demand and
expanding economic growth
·The rapid expansion of suburbs helped stimulate growth in several
important sectors of the economy
·Because of this unprecedented growth, the economy grew nearly ten
times as fast as the population in their thirty years after the war
1. The American people had achieved the highest standard
of living of any society in the history of the world
The Rise of the Modern West
· No region of the country experience more dramatic changes as a
result of the new economic growth than the American West
·By the 1960s some parts of the West were among the most important
industrial and cultural centers of the nation in their own right
·As during WWII much of the growth of the West was a result of federal
spending and investment 1. Dams, power stations, highways,
and other infrastructure projects
·The enormous increase in automobile use after WWII gave a large
stimulus to the petroleum industry and contributed to the rapid
growth of oil fields in Texas and Colorado
·State governments in the West invested heavily in their universities
·Climate also contributed
The New Economics
·The exciting discovery of the power of the American economic system
was a major cause of the confident, even arrogant tone of much
American political life in the 1950s
1. There was the belief that Keynesian economics made it
possible for government to regulate and stabilize the
economy without intruding directly into the private sector
·By the mid-1950s, Keynesian theory was rapidly becoming a
fundamental article of faith
1. Armed with these fiscal and monetary tools, many
economists now believed, it was possible for the government to
maintain a permanent prosperity
·If any doubters remained, there was ample evidence to dispel their
misgivings during the era
·Accompanying the belief in the possibility of permanent economic
stability was the equally exhilarating belief in permanent
economic growth by the mid-1950s, reformers concerned about
economic deprivation were arguing that the solution lay in
increased production
·The Keynesians never managed to remake federal economic policy
entirely to their liking
1. Still, the new economics gave many Americans a
confidence in their ability to solve economic problems that
previous generations had never developed
Captial and Labor
·A relatively small number or large-scale organizations controlled an
enormous proportion oft eh nation’s economic activity
·A similar consolidation was occurring in the agricultural economy
·Corporations enjoying booming growth were reluctant to allow strikes
to interfere with their operations
·By the early 1950s large labor unions had developed a new kind of
relationship with employers
1. “Postwar Contract”
·Workers in steel, automobiles, and other large unionized industries
were receiving generous increases in wages and benefits
1. In return the unions tacitly agreed to refrain from raising
other issues
·The contract served the corporations and the union leadership well
·Many rank-and-file workers resented the abandonment of efforts to
give them more control over the conditions of their labor
·The economic successes of the 1950s helped pave the way for a
reunification of the labor movement
1. 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations ended their 20 year rivalry
and merged to create the AFL- CIO
·But success also bread stagnation and corruption in some union
bureaucracies
·While the labor movement enjoyed significant success in winning
better wages and benefits for workers already organized in
strong unions, the majority of laborers who were as yet
unorganized made fewer advances
1. New obstacles to organization
a. Taft-Hartley Act and the state right-to-work laws
·In the American South impediments to unionization were enormous
1. Antiunion sentiment was so powerful in the South that
almost all organizing drives encountered crushing and usually
fatal resistance
The Explosion of Science and Technology
Medical Breakthroughs
·The development of antibiotics had its origins=2 0in the discoveries of
Louis Pasteur and Jules-Francois Joubert.
·Working in France in the 1870s they produced the first conclusive
evidence that virulent bacterial infections could be defeated by
other, more ordinary bacteria.
·In 1920, in the meantime, Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered
the antibacterial properties of an organism that he named
penicillin.
·There was also dramatic progress in immunization-the development of
vaccines that can protect humans from contracting both
bacterial and viral diseases.
·In 1954, the American scientist Jonas Salk introduced an effective
vaccine against the disease that had killed and crippled
thousands of children and adults.
·Average life expectancy in that same period rose by five years, to 71.
Pesticides
·The most famous pesticides was dichlorodiphenyl-dichloromethane
[DDT] a compound discovered in 1939 by Paul Muller.
Postwar Electronic Research
·Researchers in the 1940s produced the first commercially viable
televisions and created a technology that made it possible to
broadcast programming over large areas.
·In 1948 bell Labs, the research arm of AT&T, produced=2 0the first
transistor, a solid-state device capable of amplying electrical
signals, which was much smaller and more efficient than the
cumbersome vacuum tubes that had powered most electronic
equipment in the past.
·Integrated circuits combined a number of once-separate electronic
elements and embedded them into a single, microscopically
small device.
Postwar Computer Technology
·In the 1950s computers began to perform commercial functions for
the first time, as data-processing devices used by businesses and
other organizations.
·The first significant computer of the 1950s was the Universal
Automatic Computer, which was developed initially for the U.S
Bureau of the Census by the Remington Rand company.
Bombs, Rockets, and Missles
·In 1952, the U.S successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb.
·The development of the hydrogen bomb gave considerable impetus to
a stalled scientific project in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The Space Program
·The Shock of Sputnik , th e united states had yet perform any similar
feats , and the American government (and much of American
society ) reacted to the announcement with alarm , as if the
Soviet achievement was also a massive American failure .
·The centerpiece of space exploration , however . soon became the
manned space program , established in 1958 through the
creation of a new agency , the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA ) and through the selection of the first
American space pilots , or “astronauts”
· They quickly became the nation’s most revered heroes .
· The Apollo Program , Mercury and Gemini were followed by the Apollo
program , whose purpose was to land men on the moon .
· July 20 , 1969 , Neil Armstrong , Edwin Aldrin , and Michael Collins
successfully traveled in a space capsule into orbit around the
moon .
· Armstrong and Aldrin , and Michael then detached a smaller craft from
the capsule , landed on the surface of the moon , and became
the first men to walk on a body other than earth .
People of Plenty
The Consumer Culture
· At the center of middle-class culture in the 1950s was a growing
absorption with consumer goods
· It was a result of:
1. Increased prosperity
2. Increasing variety and availability of products
3. Advertiser’s adeptness in creating a demand for those
product
4. A growth of consumer credit
To a striking degree, the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s was
consumer driven
· Because consumer goods were so often marketed nationally, the
1950s were notable for the rapid spread of creation national
consumer crazes
The Suburban Nation
· By 1960 a third of the nation’s population was living in suburbs
· The most famous of the postwar suburban developers, William Levitt,
came to symbolize the new suburban growth with his use of
mass-production techniques to construct a large housing
development on Long Island, NY
1. They helped to meet an enormous demand for housing
that had been growing for more than a decade
· Many Americans wanted to move to the suburbs
1. One reason was the enormous importance postwar
Americans place on family life after five years of war in which
families had often been separated or otherwise disrupted
2. They provided privacy
3. A place to raise a large family
4. They provided security from the noise and dangers of
urban living
5. They offered space for the new consumer goods
6. Suburban life also helped provide a sense of community
· Suburban neighborhoods
1. They were not uniform
The Suburban Family
· For professional men, suburban life generally meant a rigid division
between their working and personal worlds
· For many middle-class married women, it meant an increase isolation
from the workplace
· One of the most influential books in postwar American life was a
famous guide to child rearing
1. Baby and Child Care
a. Said that the needs of the child come before
everything else
b. Women who could afford not to work faced heavy
pressures to remain in the home and concentrate on
raising their children
c. Yet by 1960, nearly a third of all married women
were in the paid workforce
· The increasing numbers of women in the workplace laid the
groundwork for demands for equal treatment by employers that
became and important part of the feminist crusades of the 1960s
and 1970s
The Birth of Television
· Television is perhaps the most powerful medium of mass
communication in history
· The television industry emerged directly out of the radio industry
· Like radio, the television business was driven by advertising
· The impact of television on American life was rapid, pervasive, and
profound
1. Television entertainment programming replace movies
and radio as the principal source of diversion for American
families
· Much of the programming of the 1950s and early 1960s created a
common image of American life
1. An image that was predominately white, middle-class,
and suburban
2. Programming also reinforced the concept of gender roles
3. Television inadvertently created conditions that could
accentuate social conflict
Travel, Outdoor Recreation, and Environmentalism
·
Organized Society and Its Detractors
· Large-scale organizations and bureaucracies increased their influence
over American life in the postwar era
·More and more Americans were becoming convinced that the key to a
successful future lay in acquiring the specialized training and
skills necessary for work in large organizations
1. The National Defense Education Act of 1958
a. Provided federal funding for development of
programs in those areas of science, mathematics, and
foreign languages
2. As in earlier eras, many Americans reacted to these
developments with ambivalence, even hostility
·Novelists expressed misgivings in their work about the enormity and
impersonality of modern society
The Beats and the Restless Culture of Youth
·The most derisive critics of bureaucracy, and of middle-class society
in general, were a group of young poets, writers, and artists
generally known as the “beats” – beatniks
·The beats were the most visible evidence of a widespread
restlessness among young Americans in the 1950s
·In part, that restlessness was a result of prosperity itself
1. Tremendous public attention was directed at the
phenomenon of “juvenile delinquency” and in both politics and
popular culture there were dire warnings about the growing
criminality of American youth
·Also disturbing to many older Americans was the style of youth
culture
1. The culture of alienation that the beats so vividly
represented had counterparts even in ordinary middle-class
behavior
a. Teenage rebelliousness toward parents, youthful
fascination with fast cars and motorcycles, and an
increasing visibility of teenage sex, assisted by the
greater availability of birth-control devices and the
spreading automobile culture that came to dominated the social
lives of teenagers in much of the nation
2. The popularity of James Dean was a particularly vivid
sign of this aspect of youth culture in the 1950s
a. Dean became an icon of the unfocused
rebelliousness of American youth in his time
Rock 'n' Roll
·One of the most powerful signs of the restiveness of American youth
was the enormous popularity of rock ‘n’ roll and of the greatest
early rock star
1. Elvis Presley
a. Presley became a symbol of a youthful
determination to push at the borders of the
conventional and acceptable
b. Presley’s music, like that of most early white rock
musicians, drew heavily from black rhythm and blues
traditions
c. Rock also drew from country western music, gospel
music, even from jazz
·The rise of such white rock musicians as Presley was a result in part of
the limited willingness of white audience to accept black
musicians
·The rapid rise and enormous popularity of rock owed a great deal to
innovations in radio and television programming
1. Early in the 1950s, a new breed of radio announcers
began to create programming aimed specifically at young fans
of rock music
a. Disk Jockeys
·Radio and television were important to the recording industry because
they encouraged the sale of records
1. Also important were jukeboxes
·Rock music began in the 1950s to do what jazz and swing had done in
the 1920s – 40s
1. To define both youth culture as a whole and the
experience of a generation
The "Other America"
On the Margins of the Affluent Society
·In 1962, The Other America was published
a. Chronicles of the continuing existence of poverty in
America
·The great economic expansion of the postwar years reduced poverty
dramatically but did not eliminate it
·Most of the poor experience poverty intermittently and temporarily
·This poverty was a poverty that the growing prosperity of the postwar
era seemed to affect hardly at all
Rural Poverty
·Among those on the margins of the affluent society were many rural
Americans
·Not all farmers were poor
1. But the agrarian economy did produce substantial
numbers of genuinely impoverished people
·Migrant farm workers and coal miners fell to the same kind of poverty
The Inner Cities
·As white families moved from cities to suburbs in vast numbers, more
and more inner-city neighborhoods became vast repositories for
the poor
1. Ghettos from which there was no easy escape
a. African Americans helped this growth
·Similar migrations from Mexico and Puerto Rico expanded poor
Hispanic barrios in many American cities at the same time
·For many years, the principal policy response to the poverty of inner
cities was “urban renewal”
1. The effort to tear down buildings in the poorest and
most degraded areas
a. In some cases, urban renewal provided new public
housing for poor city residents
b. In many cases, urban renewal projects replaced
“slums” with middle and upper-income housing, office
towers, or commercial buildings
·One result of inner-city poverty was a rising rate of juvenile crime
The Rise of the Civil Rights Movement
The Brown Decision and "Massive Resistance"
·On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court announced its decision in the
case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
1. Ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional
·The Brown decision was the culmination of many decades of effort by
black opponents of segregation
·The Topeka suit involved the case of an African-American girl who had
to travel several miles to a segregated public school every day
even though she lived virtually next door to a white elementary
school
1. The Court concluded that school segregation inflicted
unacceptable damage on those it affected
·The following year, the Court issued another decision to provide rules
for implementing the 1954 order
1. It ruled that communities must work to desegregate
their schools “with all deliberate speed,” but it set no
timetable and left specific decisions up to lower courts
·Strong local opposition produced long delays and bitter conflicts
1. More than 100 southern members of Congress signed a
“manifesto” in 1956 denouncing the Brown decision and
urging their constituents to defy it
·Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education (1958)
1. Refused to declare “pupil placement laws”, placing a
student in a school based on academic or social behaviors,
unconstitutional
·The Brown decision, far from ending segregation, had launched a
prolonged battle between federal authority and state and local
governments, and between those who believed in racial equality
and those who did not
·In 1957, federal courts had ordered the desegregation of Central High
School in Little Rick, Arkansas
1. An angry white mob tried to prevent implementation of
the order by blockading the entrances to the school
2. President Eisenhower responded by federalizing the
National Guard and sending troops to Little Rock to restore
order and ensure that the court orders would be obeyed
The Expanding Movement
·The Brown decision helped spark a growing number of popular
challenges to segregation in the South
·December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama,
when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a
white passenger
1. The arrest of this admired woman produced outrage in
the city’s African-American community and helped local
leaders organize a successful boycott of the bus system to
demand an end to segregated seating
2. The bus boycott put economic pressure not only on the
bus company but on many Montgomery merchants
a. The bus boycotters found it difficult to get to
downtown stores and tended to shop instead in their own
neighborhoods
·A Supreme Court decision in 1956 declared segregation in public
transportation to be illegal
·More important than the immediate victories of the Montgomery
boycott was its success in establishing a new form of racial
protest and in elevating to prominence a new figure in the
movement for civil rights
1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
a. King’s approach to black protest was based on the
doctrine of nonviolence
b. He urged African Americans to engage in peaceful
demonstrations
2. The popular movement he came to represent soon
spread throughout the South and throughout the country
·One important color line had been breached as early as 1947, when
the Brooklyn Dodgers signed the great Jackie Robinson as the
first African American to play Major League Baseball
·President Eisenhower signed a civil rights act in 1957
1. Providing federal protection for blacks who wished to
register to vote
Cause of the Civil Rights Movement
·Several factors contributed to the rise of African-American protest in
these years
1. Millions of black men and women had served in the
military or worked in war plants during the war and had
derived from the experience a broader view of the world
and their place in it
2. Another factor was the growth of an urban black middle
class
3. Television and other forms of popular culture were
another factor in the rising consciousness of racism among
blacks
·Other forces were at work mobilizing many white Americans to
support the movement once it began
1. The Cold War
2. Political mobilization of northern blacks
3. Labor unions with substantial black memberships
· By the early 1960s, this movement had made it one of the most
powerful forces in America
Eisenhower Republicanism
"What was Good for...General Motors"
· The first Republican administration in 20 years was staffed mostly
with men drawn from the same quarter as those who had staffed
Republican administrations in the 1920s
1. The business community
· Many of the nation's leading businessmen and financiers ha
reconciled themselves to at least the broad outlines of the
Keynesian welfare state the New Deal had launched and had
come to see it as something that actually benefited them
· To his cabinet, Eisenhower appointed wealthy corporate lawyers and
business executives
· Eisenhower’s leadership style helped enhance the power of his
cabinet officers and others
· Eisenhower’s consistent inclination was to limit federal activities and
encourage private enterprise
The Survival of the Welfare State
· The president took few new initiatives in domestic policy
· Perhaps the most significant legislative accomplishment of the
Eisenhower administration was the Federal Highway Act of 1956
1. Authorized $25 billion for a ten-year effort to construct
over 40,000 miles of interstate highways
2. The program was to be funded through a highway “trust
fund” whose revenues would come from new taxes on the
purchase of fuel, automobiles, trucks, and tires
· In 1956, Eisenhower ran for a second term
1. Republicans – Adlai Stevenson
2. Eisenhower won
· Democrats still held power over Congress
The Decline of McCarthyism
· In its first years in office the Eisenhower administration did little to
discourage the anticommunist furor that had gripped the nation
· Among the most celebrated controversies of the new administration’s
first year was the case of J. Robert Oppenheimer
1. He opposed the building of the Hydrogen Bomb
2. In 1953, the FBI distributed a dossier within the
administration detailing Oppenheimer’s prewar association
with various left-wing groups
a. In 1953, the FBI distributed a dossier within the
administration detailing Oppenheimer’s prewar
association with various left-wing groups
· But by 1954, such policies were beginning to produce significant
opposition
1. The clearest signal of that change was the political
demise of Senator Joseph McCarthy
a. He overstepped his boundaries when he charged
Secretary of Army Robert Stevens
b. Army-McCarthy hearings
2. In December 1954, he was condemned for “conduct
unbecoming a senator”
Eisenhower, Dulles, and the Cold War
Dulles and "Massive Retaliation"
· Eisenhower’s secretary of state, and the dominant figure in the
nation’s foreign policy in the 1950s, was John Foster Dulles
· He entered office denouncing the containment policies of the Truman
years
1. Arguing that the United States should pursue an active
program of “liberation” which would lead to a “rollback” of
communism expansion
· “Massive Retaliation”
1. The United States would, he explained, respond to
communist threats to its allies not by using conventional forces
to local conflicts but by relying on “the deterrent of massive
retaliatory power” (nuclear weapons)
· By the end of the decade, the United States had become a party to
almost a dozen such treaties of mutual defense in NATO in all
areas of the world
France, America, and Vietnam
·
Cold War Crisis
·
Europe and the Soviet Union
· Although the problems of the Third World were moving slowly to the
center of American foreign policy, the direct relationship with the
Soviet Union and the effort to resist communist expansion in
Europe remained the principal concerns of the Eisenhower
administration
· In 1955, Eisenhower and other NATO leaders met with the Soviet
premier, Nikolai Bulganin, at a cordial summit conference in
Geneva
1. They could find no basis for agreement
· Relations between the Soviet Union and the West soured further in
1956 in response to the Hungarian Revolution
1. Hungarians were demanding democratic reforms
a. Soviets came in to crush the uprising
2. The suppression of the uprising convinced many
American leaders that Soviet policies had not softened as much
as the events of the previous two years had suggested
·The failure of conciliation brought renewed vigor to the Cold War and
greatly intensified the Soviet-American arms race
·The arms race not only increased tensions between the United States
and Russia
1. It increased tensions within each nation as well
The U-2 Crisis
·In this tense and fearful atmosphere, the Soviet Union raised new
challenges to the West in Berlin
·In November 1958, Nikita Khrushchev renewed his predecessors’
demands that NATO powers abandon the city
1. The United States and its allies refused
·Khrushchev suggested that he and Eisenhower discuss the issue
personally
1. The United States agreed
·Only days before Eisenhower was to leave for Moscow the Soviet
Union announced that it had shot down an American U-2, a spy
plane, over Russian territory
·By the spring of 1960, Khrushchev knew that no agreement was
possible on the Berlin issue
·The events of 1960 provided a somber backdrop for the end of the
Eisenhower administration
·He warned in his farewell address of 1961 of the “unwarranted
influence” of a vast “military-industrial complex”
1. His caution, in both domestic and international affairs,
stood in marked contrast to the attitudes of his successors, who
argued that the United States must act more boldly and
aggressively on behalf of its goals at home and abroad
Expanding the Liberal State
John Kennedy
·The campaign of 1960 produced two young candidates who claimed
to offer the nation active leadership.
·The Republican nomination went almost uncontested to Vice President
Richard Nixon, who promised moderate reform.
·John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the son of the wealthy powerful, and
highly controversial Joseph P. Kennedy, former American
ambassador to Britain.
·He premised his campaign, he said, “on the single assumption that
the American people are uneasy at the present drift in our
national course”.
·Kennedy had campaigned promising a set of domestic reforms more
ambitious than any since the New Deal, a program he described
as the “New Frontier”.
·Kennedy had traveled to Texas with his wife and Vice President Lyndon
Johnson for a series of=2 0political appearances.
·While the presidential motorcade rode slowly through the streets of
Dallas, shots rang out.
·He got shot in the throat and head, he was rushed to a hospital, where
minutes later he was pronounced dead.
·Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested for the crime later that day, and
then mysteriously murdered by a Dallas nightclub owner, Jack
Ruby, 2 days later as he was being moved from one jail to
another.
·In years later years many Americans came to believe that the Warren
Commission report had ignored evidence of a wider conspiracy
behind the murders.
Lyndon Johnson
·The Kennedy assassination was a national trauma-a defining event for
almost everyone old enough to be aware of it.
·Johnson was a native of the poor “hill country” of west Texas and had
risen to become majority leader of the U.S. Senate by dint of
extraordinary, even obsessive, effort and ambition.
·Between 1963 and 1966, he compiled the most impressive legislative
record of any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
·He created the “Great Society”.
·Record Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, any of
whose members had been swept into office=2 0only because of
the margin of Johnson’s victory, ensured that the president would
be able to fulfill many of his goals.
The Assault on Poverty
·The most important welfare program was Medicare: a program to
provide federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses.
·Its enactment in 1965 came at the end of a bitter, 20 year debate
between those who believed in the concept of national health
assistance and those who denounced it as “socialized medicine”.
·Medicare benefits available to all elderly Americans, regardless of
need.
·Medicare simply shifted responsibility for paying those fees from the
patient to the government.
·The centerpiece of this “war on poverty”, as Johnson called it, was the
Office of economic Opportunity, which created an array of new
educational, employment, housing, and health-care programs.
·The Community Action programs provided jobs for many poor people
and gave them valuable experience in administrative and
political work.
·The OEO spent nearly $3 billion during its first two years of existence,
and it helped reduce poverty in some areas.
Cities, Schools, and Immigration
·The Housing Act of 1961 offered $4.9 billion in federal grants to cities
for the preservation of open spaces, the development of mass
transit systems, and the subsidization of middle income housing.
·In 1966, Johnson established a new cabinet agency, the Department
of Housing and Urban Development.
·Johnson also inaugurated the Model Cites program, which offered
federal subsidies for urban redevelopment pilot programs.
·Johnson managed to circumvent both objections with the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and a series of subsequent
measures.
·Total federal expenditures for education and technical training rose
from $5 billion to $12 billion between 1964 and 1967.
·The Immigration Act of 1965 maintained a strict limit on the number
of newcomers admitted to the country each year (170,000), but
it eliminated the “national origins” system established in the
1920s, which gave preference to immigrants from northern
Europe over those from other parts of the world.
Legacies of the Great Society
·In 1964, Johnson managed to win passage of the $11.5 bill ion tax cut
that Kennedy had first proposed in 1962.
·The cut increased the federal deficit, but substantial economic growth
over the next several years made up for much of the revenue
initially lost.
·The high costs of the Great Society programs, the deficiencies and
failures of many of them, and the inability of the government to
find the revenues to pay for them contributed to a growing
disillusionment in later years with the idea of federal efforts to
solve social problems.
The Battle for the Racial Equality
Expanding Protests
·John Kennedy had long been vaguely sympathetic to the cause of
racial justice, but he was hardly a committed crusader.
·In February 1960, black college students in Greensboro, North
Carolina, staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch
counter, and in the following weeks, similar demonstrations
spread throughout the South, forcing many merchants to
integrate their facilities.
·The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, worked to keep the
spirit of resistance alive.
·In 1961, an interracial group of students, working with the Congress of
Racial Equality, began what t hey called “freedom rides”.
·Traveling by bus throughout the South, the freedom riders tried to
force the desegregation of bus stations.
·SNCC workers began fanning out through black communities and even
into remote rural areas to encourage blacks to challenge the
obstacles to voting that the Jim Crow laws had created and that
powerful social custom sustained.
·In April, Martin Luther King, Jr., helped launch a series of nonviolent
demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, a city unsurpassed in
the strength of its commitment to segregation.
·Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi.
A National Commitment
·To generate support for the legislation, and to dramatize the power of
the growing movement, ore than 200,000 demonstrators
marched down the Mall in Washington, D.C., in August 1963 and
gathered before the Lincoln Memorial for the greatest civil rights
demonstration in the nation’s history.
·Early in 1964, after Johnson applied both public and private pressure,
supporters of the measure finally mustered the two-thirds
majority necessary to close debate and end a filibuster by
southern senators; and the Senate passed the most
comprehensive civil rights bill in the nation’s history.
The Battle for Voting Rights
·During the summer of 1964, thousands of civil rights workers, black
and white, northern and southern, spread out through the South,
but primarily in Mississippi.
·The campaign was known as “freedom summer”, and it produced a
violent response from some southern whites.
·The “freedom summer” also produced the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party, and integrated alternative to the regular state
party organization.
·It permitted the MFDP to be seated as observers, with promises of
party reforms later on, while the regular party retained its official
standing.
·A year later, in March 1965, King helped organize a major
demonstration in Selma, Alabama to press the demand for the
right of blacks to register to vote.
·Two northern whites participating in the Selma march were murdered
in the course of the effort there- one, a minister, beaten to death
in the streets of the town; the other, a Detroit housewife, shot as
she drove along a highway at night with a black passenger in her
car.
·The Civil Rights Act of 1965, better known as the Voting Rights Act,
which provided federal protection to blacks attempting to
exercise their right to vote.
The Changing Movement
·By 1966, 69 percent of American blacks were living in metropolitan
areas and 45 percent outside the South.
·Well over half of all American non-whites lived in poverty at the
beginning of the 1960s; black unemployment was twice that of
whites.
·Over the next decade, affirmative action guidelines gradually
extended to virtually all institutions doing business with or
receiving funds from the federal government- and to many
others as well.
·Organizers of the Chicago campaign hoped to direct national attention
to housing and employment discrimination in northern industrial
cities in much the same way similar campaigns had exposed
legal racism in the South.
Urban Violence
·Well before the Chicago campaign, the problem of urban poverty had
thrust itself into national attention when violence broke out in
black neighborhoods in major cities.
·The first large race riot since the end of World War II occurred the
following summer in the Watts section of Los Angeles.
·The incident triggered a storm of anger and a week of violence.
·34 people died during the Watts uprising, which was eventually
quelled by the National Guard; 28 of the dead were black.
·Televised reports of the violence alarmed millions of Americans and
created both a new sense of urgency and a growing sense of
doubt among many of those whites who had embraced the cause
of racial justice only a few years before.
·A special Commission on Civil Disorders, created by the president in
response to the disturbances, issued a celebrated report in the
spring of 1968 recommending massive spending to eliminate the
abysmal conditions of the ghettoes.
Black Power
·Disillusioned with the ideal of peaceful change in cooperation with
whites, an increasing number of African Americans were turning
to a new approach to the racial issue: the philosophy of “black
power”.
·The most enduring impact of the black-power ideology was a social
and psychological one: instilling racial pride in African Americans,
who lived in a society whose dominant culture generally
portrayed blacks as inferior to whites.
·It encouraged the growth of black studies in schools and universities.
·Traditional black organizations that had emphasized cooperation=2
0with sympathetic whites- groups such as the NAACP, the Urban
League, and King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conferencenow
faced competition from more radical groups.
·In Oakland, California the Black Panther Party promised to defend
black rights even if that required violence.
Malcolm X
·In Detroit, a once-obscure black nationalist group, the Nation of Islam,
gained new prominence.
·Founded in 1931 by Wali Farad and Elijah Poole, the movement taught
blacks to take responsibility for their own lives, to be disciplined,
to live by strict codes of behavior, and to reject any dependence
on whites.
·Malcolm became one of the movement’s most influential spokesmen,
particularly among younger blacks, as a result of his intelligence,
his oratorical skills, and his harsh, uncompromising opposition to
all forms of racism and oppression.
·He did not advocate violence, but he insisted that black people had
the right to defend themselves, violently if necessary from those
who assaulted them.
·Malcolm died in 1965 when black gunmen, presumably under orders
from rivals within the Nation of Islam, assassinated him in New
York.
"Flexible Response and the Cold War"
Diversifying Foreign Policy
· The Kennedy administration entered office convinced that the United
States needed to be able to counter communist aggression in
more flexible ways than the atomic weapons-oriented defense
strategy of the Eisenhower years permitted.
· Kennedy was unsatisfied with the nation’s ability to meet communist
threats in “emerging areas” of the Third World- the areas in
which, Kennedy believed, the real struggle against communism
would be waged in the future.
· Kennedy also inaugurated the Agency for International Development
to coordinate foreign aid.
· The Peace Corps, sent young American volunteers abroad to work in
developing areas.
· On April 17, 1961, with the approval of the new president, 2,000 of
the armed exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, expecting
first American air support and then a spontaneous uprising by
the Cuban people on their behalf.
Confrontations with the Soviet Union
· In the grim aft ermath of the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy traveled to Vienna
in June 1961 for his first meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev.
· Before dawn on August 13, 1961, the East German government,
complying with directives from Moscow, constructed a wall
between East and West Berlin.
· For nearly 30 years the Berlin Wall served as the most potent physical
symbol of the conflict between the communist and
noncommunist worlds.
· On October 14, aerial reconnaissance photos produced clear evidence
that the Soviets were constructing sites on the island for
offensive nuclear weapons.
· On October 22, he ordered a naval and air blockade around Cuba, a
“quarantine” against all offensive weapons.
Johnson and the World
· Lyndon Johnson entered the presidency lacking even John Kennedy’s
limited prior experience with international affairs.
· A 1961 assassination had toppled the repressive dictatorship of
General Rafael Trujillo, and for the next four years various
fascinations in the country had struggled for dominance.
· In the spring of 1965, a conservative military regime began to
collapse in the face of a revolt by a broad range of groups on
behalf of the left-wing nationalist Juan Bosch.
· Only after a conservative candidate defeated Bosch in a 1966 election
were the forces withdrawn.
The Agony of Vietnam
The First Indochina War
· Vietnam had a long history both as an independent kingdom and
major power in its region, and as a subjugated province of China;
its people were both proud of their past glory and painfully aware
of their many years of subjugation.
· In the mi-19th century, Vietnam became a colony of France.
· The French wanted to reassert their control over Vietnam.
· In the fall of 1945, after the collapse of Japan and before the western
powers had time to return, the Vietminh declared Vietnam an
independent nation and set up a nationalist government under
Ho Chi Mihn in Hanoi.
· For the next 4 years, during what has become known as the First
Indochina War, Truman and then Eisenhower continued to
support the French military campaign against the Vietminh; by
1954, by some calculations, the United States was paying 80
percent of France’s war costs.
Geneva and the Two Vietnams
· An international conference at Geneva, planned many months before
to settle the Korean dispute and other controversies, now took up
the fate of Vietnam as well.
· Secretary of State Dulles, who reluctantly attended but left early; the
United States was not a party to the accords.
· Vietnam would be temporarily portioned along the 17th parallel, with
the Vietminh in control of North Vietnam, and a pro-western
regime in control of the South.
America and Diem
· The U.S almost immediately stepped into the vacuum and became the
principal benefactor of the new government in the South, led by
NGO Dihn Diem.
· The Buddhist crisis was alarming and embarrassing to the Kennedy
Administration.
From Aid to Intervention
· Lyndon Johnson thus inherited what was already a substantial
American commitment to the survival of an anticommunist South
Vietnam.
· Intervention in South Vietnam was fully consistent with nearly 20
years of American foreign policy.
· In August 1964, the president announced that American destroyers on
patrol in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin had been
attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats.
The Quagmire
· There was a continuous stream of optimistic reports from American
military commanders, government officials, and others.
· The “attrition” was a strategy premised on the belief that the Unites
States could inflict so many causalities and so much damage on
the enemy that eventually they would be unable and unwilling to
continue the struggle.
· By the end of 1967, virtually every identifiable target of any strategic
importance in North Vietnam had been destroyed.
· Another crucial part of the American strategy was the “pacification”
program, which was intended to push the Viet Cong from
particular regions and then pacify those regions by winning the
“hearts and minds” of the people.
The War at Home
· A series of “teach-ins” on university campuses, beginning at the
University of Michigan in 196 sparked a national debate over the
war before such debate developed inside the government itself.
· Opposition to the war had become a central issue in left-wing politics
and in the culture of colleges and universities.
The Traumas of 1968
The Tet Offensive
· On January 31, 1968, the 1st day of the Vietnamese New Year (TET),
communist forces launched an enormous, concerted attack on
American strongholds throughout South Vietnam.
The Political Challenge
· On March 31, Johnson went on television to announce a limited halt in
the bombing of North Vietnam.
The King and Kennedy Assassinations
· On April 4, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while standing on
the balcony of his motel.
· In the days after the assassination, major riots broke out in more than
60 American cities.
· Rober t Kennedy shaped what some would later call the “Kennedy
Legacy”, a set of ideas that would for a time become central to
American liberalism.
· The passions Kennedy had aroused made his violent death a
particularly shattering experience for many Americans.
The Conservation Response
· George Wallace established himself in 1963 as one of the nation's
leading spokesmen for the defense of segregation.
· As a governor of Alabama, he attempted to block the admission of
black students to the University of Alabama.
· In 1964, he has run a few Democratic presidential primaries and
although had done surprisingly well, standing in the polls with
20%, he had no serious chance of winning the election.
The Youth Culture
The New Left
·The postwar baby-boom generation, the unprecedented number of
people born in a few years just after World War II, was growing
up.
·One of the most visible results of the increasingly assertive youth
movement was a radicalization of many American college and
university students, who in the course of the 1960s formed what
became known as the New Left- a large, diverse group of men
and women energized by the polarizing developments of their
time to challenge the political system.
·The New Left embraced the cause of African Americans and other
minorities, but its own ranks consisted overwhelmingly of white
people.
·The New Left drew from many sources.
·The New Left drew as well from the writings of some of the important
social critics of the 1950s-among them C. Wright Mills, a soci
ologist at Columbia University who wrote a series of scathing and
brilliant critiques of modern bureaucracies.
·The New Left drew its inspiration above all from the civil rights
movement, in which many idealistic young white Americans had
become involved in the early 1960s.
·In 1962, a group of students, most of them from prestigious
universities, gathered in Michigan to form an organization to give
voice to their demands: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
·A 1964 dispute at the University of California at Berkeley over the
rights of students to engage in political activities on campus
gained national attention.
·The Free Speech Movement, created turmoil at Berkeley as students
challenged campus police, occupied administrative offices, and
produced a strike in which nearly ¾ of the Berkeley students
participated.
·The revolt at Berkeley was the first outburst of what was to be nearly
a decade of campus turmoil.
·Also in 1969, Berkeley became the scene of perhaps the most
prolonged and traumatic conflict of any American college
campus in the 1960s: a battle over the efforts of a few students
to build a “People’s Park” on a vacant lot the university planned
to use to build a parking garage.
·By the end of the People’s Park battle, which lasted for more than a
week, the Berkeley campus was completely polarized.
·Student radicals were, for the20first time, winning large audiences for
their extravagant rhetoric linking together university
administrators, the police, and the larger political and economic
system, describing them all as part of one united, oppressive
force.
·As time went on, moreover, the student fringe groups became
increasingly militant.
·Student activists tried to drive out training programs for military
officers (ROTC) and bar military recruiters from college
campuses.
·The October 1967 march on the Pentagon, where demonstrators were
met by a solid line of armed troops; the “spring mobilization” of
April 1968, which attracted hundreds of thousands of
demonstrators in cities around the country.
·Many draft-age Americans simply refused induction, accepting what
occasionally what were long terms in jail as a result.
The Counterculture
·The most visible characteristic of the counterculture was a change in
lifestyle.
·Young Americans flaunted long hair, shabby or flamboyant clothing,
and a rebellious disdain for traditional speech and decorum,
which they replaced with their own “hippie” idiom.
·Also central to the counterculture were drugs: marijuana smokingwhich
after 1966 became almost as common a youthful diversion
as b eer drinking-and the less widespread but still substantial use
of other, more potent hallucinogens, such as LSD.
·To some degree, the emergence of more relaxed approaches to
sexuality was a result less of the counterculture than of the new
accessibility of effective contraceptives, most notably the birthcontrol
pill and, after 1973, legalized abortion.
·The counterculture’s rejection of traditional values and its open
embrace of sensual pleasure sometimes masked its philosophy,
which offered a fundamental challenge to the American middleclass
mainstream.
·The most adherents of the counterculture-the hippies, who came to
dominate the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco and
other places, and the social dropouts, many of whom retreated to
rural communes-rejected modern society altogether and
attempted to find refuge in a simpler, more “natural” existence.
·Theodore Roszak, whose book the Making of a Counter Culture(1969)
became a significant document of the era, captured much of the
spirit of the movement in his frank admission that “the primary
project of our counterculture is to proclaim a new heaven and a
new earth so vast, so marvelous that the inordinate claims of
technical expertise must of necessity withdraw to a subordinate
and marginal status in the lives of men.”
·The use of marijuana, the freer attitudes toward sex, the iconoclastic
(and sometimes obscene) language- all spread far beyond the
realm of the true devotes of the counterculture.
·Rock n Roll first achieved wide popularity in the 1950s, on the
strength of such early performers as Buddy Holly and Elvis
Presley.
·Early in the 1960s, its influence began to spread, a result in large part
of the phenomenal popularity of the Beatles, the English group
whose first visit to the United States in 1964 created a
remarkable sensation, “Beatlemania”.
·Other groups such as the Rolling Stones turned even more openly to
themes of anger, frustration, and rebelliousness.
·Television began to turn to programming that reflected social and
cultural conflict- as exemplified by the enormously popular All in
the Family, whose protagonist, Archie Bunker, was a lowermiddle-
class bigot.
The Mobilization of Minorities
Seeds of Indian Militancy
·Indians were the least prosperous, least healthy, and least stable
group in the nation.
·They constituted less than one percent of the population.
·The Native American unemployment rate was ten times the national
rate.
·Life expectancy among Indians was more than twenty years less than
the national average.
·For much of the postwar era, and particularly after the resignation of
John Collier as commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1946, federal
policy toward the tribes had been shaped by a determination to
incorporate Indians into mainstream American society, whether
Indians wanted to assimilate or not.
·Through termination, the federal government withdrew all official
recognition of the tribes as legal entities, administratively
separate from state governments, and made them subject to the
same local jurisdictions as white residents.
·Many Native Americans adapted to life in the cites, at least to a
degree.
The Indian Civil Rights Movement
·The National Indian Youth Council, created in the aftermath of the
1961 Chicago meeting, promoted the idea of Indian nationalism
and intertribal unity.
·In 1968, a group of young of young militant Indian Movement, which
drew its greatest support from those Indians who lived in urban
areas but soon established a significant presence on the rese
rvations as well.
·In 1968, Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act, which
guaranteed reservation Indians many of the protections accorded
other citizens by the Bill of Rights, but which also recognized the
legitimacy of tribal laws within the reservations.
·The Indian civil rights movement fell far short of winning full justice
and equality for its constituents.
Latino Activism
·Latinos were the fastest-growing minority group in the United States.
·Large numbers of Puerto Ricans had migrated to eastern cities,
particularly New York.
·In 1980, a second, much poorer wave of Cuban immigrants-the so
called Marielitos, named for the port from which they left Cubaarrived
in Florida when Castro temporarily relaxed exit
restrictions.
·Large numbers of Mexican Americans had entered the country during
the war in response to the labor shortage, and may had
remained in the cities of the Southwest and the Pacific Coast.
·After the war, when the legal agreements that had allowed Mexican
contract workers to enter the country expired, large numbers of
immigrants continued to move to the United States illegally.
·By the late 1960s, therefore, Mexican Americans were one of the
largest population=2 0groups in the West-outnumbering African
Americans-and had established communities in most other parts
of the nation as well.
·Young Mexican-American activist began themselves “Chicanos” as a
way of emphasizing the shared culture of Spanish-speaking use
among Mexican Americans.
·Cesar Chavez, created an effective union itinerant farm workers.
·In 1965 his United Farmers Workers (UFW), a largely Chicano
organization, launched a prolonged strike against growers to
demand, first, recognition of their union and, second, increased
wages and benefits.
·Supporters of bilingualism in education argued that non-Englishspeaking
Americans were entitled to schooling in their own
language, that otherwise they would be at a grave disadvantage
in comparison with native English speakers.
Challenging the "Melting Pot" Ideal
·The efforts of blacks, Latinos, Indians, Asians, and others to forge a
clearer group identity challenged a longstanding premise of
American political thought: the idea of the “melting pot”.
·The newly assertive ethnic groups of the 1960s and after appeared
less willing to accept the standards of the larger society and
more likely to demand recognition of their own ethnic identities.
Gay Liberation
·The last important liberation movement to make major gains in the
1960s, and the most surprising to many Americans, was the
effort by homosexuals to win political and economic rights and,
equally important, social acceptance.
·On June 27, 1969, police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay
nightclub in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and began
arresting patrons simply for frequenting the place.
·The raid was not unusual.
·The “Stonewall Riot” marked the beginning of the gay liberation
movement-one of the most controversial challenges to traditional
values and assumptions of its time.
·Universities were establishing gay and lesbian studies programs.
·Laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual preference were
making slow, halting progress at the local level.
The New Feminism
The Rebirth
·A few determined women kept feminist political demands alive in the
National Woman’s Party and other organizations.
·The 1963 publication of Betty Friedan’s the Feminine Mystique is often
cited as the first event of contemporary women’s liberation.
·In 1963 the Kennedy administration helped win passage of the Equal
Pay Act, which barred the pervasive practice of paying women
less than men for equal work.
·The conflict between the ideal and the reality was crucial to the
rebirth of feminism.
·The National Organization for Women, which was to become the
nation’s largest and most influential feminist organization.
The new organization reflected the varying constituencies of the
emerging feminist movement.
Women's Liberation
·The new feminists were mostly younger, the vanguard of the bayboom
generation.
·Many had found that even within those movements, they faced
discrimination and exclusion or subordination to male leaders.
·In its most radical form, the new feminism rejected the whole notion
of marriage.
Expanding Achievements
·In 1971, the government extended its affirmative action guidelines to
include women-linking sexism with racism as an officially
acknowledged social problem.
·Nearly half of all married women held jobs by the mid-1970s, and
almost 9/10 of all women with college degrees worked.
·There were also important symbolic changes, such as the refusal of
many women to adopt their husbands’ names when they married
and the use of the term “Ms.” in place of “Mrs.” or “Miss” to
denote the irrelevance of a woman’s marital status.
The Abortion Controversy
· In least controversial form, this impulse helped produce an increasing
awareness in the 1960s and 1970s of the problems of rape,
sexual abuse, and wife beating.
· There continued to be some controversy over the dissemination of
contraceptives and birth-control inf ormation; but that issue, at
least, seemed to have lost much of the explosive character it had
had in the 1920s, when Margaret Sanger had become a heroine
to some and a figure of public scorn to others for her efforts on
its behalf.
Environmentalism in a Turbulent Society
The New Science of Ecology
· Until the mid-twentieth century, most people who considered
themselves environmentalists based their commitment on
aesthetic or moral grounds.
· They wanted to preserve nature because it was too beautiful to
despoil, or because it was a mark of divinity on the world, or
because it permitted humans a spiritual experience that would
otherwise be unavailable to them.
· They called it ecology.
Funded by government agencies, by universities, by foundations, and
eventually even by some corporations, ecological science
gradually established itself as a significant field of its own- not,
perhaps, with the same stature as such traditional fields as
physics, chemistry, and biology, but certainly a field whose
importance and appeal grew rapidly in the last decades of the
20th century
Environmental Advocacy
· Academic ecologists often have close ties to environmental
organizations committed to public action and political lobbying.
· The professional zed environmental advocacy they provided gave the
movement a political strength it had never enjoyed in the past.
· Lawyers fought battles with government agencies and in the courts.
· When Congress or state legislatures considered environmental
legislation, more often than not the environmental organizations
played a critical role in drafting it.
Environmental Degradation
· Many other forces contributed as well in the 1960s and 1970s to
create what became the environmental movement.
· Water pollution- which had been a problem in some areas of the
country for many decades- was becoming so widespread that
almost every major city was dealing with the unpleasant sight
and odor, as well as the very real health risks, of polluted rivers
and lakes.
· In some large cities-Los Angeles and Denver among them-smog
became an almost perpetual fact of life,=2 0rising steadily
through the day, blotting out the sun, and creating respiratory
difficulties for many citizens.
· Environmentalist also brought to public attention some longer-term
dangers of unchecked industrial development: the rapid
depletion of oil and other irreplaceable fossil fuels; the
destruction of lakes and forests as a result of “acid rain”; the
rapid destruction of vast rain forests, in Brazil and elsewhere,
which limited the earth’s capacity to replenish its oxygen supply.
Earth Day and Beyond
· On April 22, 1970, people all over the United States gathered in
schools and universities, in churches and clubs, in parks and
auditoria, for the first “Earth Day”.
· The Clean Air Act, also passed in 1970, and the Clean Water Act,
passed in 1972, added additional tools to government’s arsenal
of weapons against environmental degradation.
· Different administrations displayed varying levels of support for
environmental goals, and advocacy groups remained ready to
spring into action to force them to change their positions.
Nixon, Kissinger, and the War
Vietnamization
· Henry Kissinger, a Harvard professor whom the president appointed
as his special assistance for national security affairs.
· The new Vietnam policy moved along several fronts.
· By 1973, the Selective Service System was on its way to least
temporary extinction.
· In the fall of 1969, Nixon announced reduction of American ground
troops from Vietnam by 60,000 the first reduction in U.S. troop
strength since the beginning of the war.
Escalation
·By the end of their first year in office, Nixon and Kissinger had
concluded that the most effective ay to tip the military balance in
America’s favor was to destroy the bases in Cambodia from
which the American military believed the North Vietnamese were
launching many of their attacks.
·Four college students were killed and nine others injured when
members of the National Guard opened fire on antiwar
demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio.
·The trail and conviction in 1971 of Lieutenant William Calley, who was
charged wit h overseeing a massacre of more than 300
unharmed South Vietnamese civilians, attracted wide public
attention.
"Peace with Honor"
·In April 1972, the president dropped his longtime insistence on a
removal of North Vietnamese troops from the south before any
American withdrawal.
·On December 17, American B-52s began the heaviest and most
destructive air raids of the entire war on Hanoi, Haiphong, and
other North Vietnamese targets.
Defeat in Indochina
·Late in April 1975, communist forces marched into Saigon, shortly
after officials of the Thieu regime and the staff of the American
embassy had fled the country in humiliating disarray.
Nixon, Kissinger, and the World
China and the Soviet Union
·Nixon and Kissinger wanted to forge a new relationship with the
Chinese communists- in part to strengthen them as a
counterbalance to the Soviet Union.
·In July 1971, Nixon sent Henry Kissinger on a secret mission to Beijing.
·In February 1972, Nixon paid a formal visits to China and, in a single
stroke, erased much of the deep American animosity toward the
Chinese communists regime, but in 1972 the United states and
China began low-level diplomatic relations.
·In 1969, America and Soviet diplomats met in Helsinki, Finland, to
begin talks on limiting nuclear weapons.
In 1972, they produced the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT
I), which froze the nuclear missiles (ICBMs) of both sides at present
levels.
The Problems of Multipolarity
·In 1969 and 1970, the president described what became known as the
Nixon Doctrine, by which the United States would “participate in
the defense and development of allies and friends” but would
leave the “basic responsibility” for the future of those “friends”
to the nations themselves.
·In practice, the Nixon Doctrine meant a declining American interest in
contributing to Third World development; a growing contempt for
the United Nations, where less-developed nations were gaining
influence through their sheer numbers; and increasing support to
authoritarian regimes attempting to withstand radical challenges
from within.
·In 1973, a military junta seized power from Allende, who was
subsequently murdered.
·In October 1973, on the Jewish High Holy day of Yom Kippur, Egyptian
and Syrian forces attacked Israel.
·The imposed settlement of the Yom Kippur War demonstrated the
growing dependence of the United States and its allies on Arab
oil.
·The United States could no longer depend on cheap, easy access to
raw materials as it had in the past.
Politics and Economics Under Nixon
Domestic Initiatives
·He forbade the department of Health, Education, and Welfare to cut
off the federal funds from school districts that had failed to
comply with court orders to integrate.
In 1973, he abolished the Office of economic Opportunity, the
centerpiece of the antipoverty program of the Office of economic
Opportunity, the centerpiece of the antipoverty program20of the
Johnson years.
From the Warren Court to the Nixon Court
·In Engel v. Vitale (1962), the court had ruled that prayers in public
schools were unconstitutional, sparking outrage among religious
fundamentalists and others.
The Election of 1972
·Nixon was most fortunate in 1972, however, in his opposition.
·The possibility of such a campaign vanished in May, when a would-be
assassin shot the Alabama governor during a rally at a Maryland
shopping center.
The Troubled Economy
·The American dollar had been the strongest currency in the world, and
the American standard of living had risen steadily from its
already substantial heights.
·Its most visible cause was significant increase in federal deficit
spending in the 1960s, when the Johnson administration tried to
fund the war in Vietnam and its ambitious social prog rams
without raising taxes.
·Domestic petroleum reserves were no longer sufficient to meet this
demand, and the nation was heavily dependent on imports from
the Middle East and Africa.
·The U.S manufacturing now faced major completion from aboard-not
only in world trade but also at home.
The Nixon Response
·The government moved first to reduce spending and raises taxes.
·The United States was encountering a new and puzzling dilemma:
“stagflation”, a combination of rising prices and general
economic stagnation.
In 1973, prices rose 9 percent; in 1974, after the Arab oil embargo and
the OPEC price increases, they rose 12 percent-the highest rate since
the relaxation of price controls shortly after World War II.
The Watergate Crisis
The Scandals
·Early on the morning of June 17, 1972 police arrested five men who
had broken into the offices of the Democratic National
Committee in the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C.
Two others were seized a short time porters for the Washington Post
began researching the backgrounds of the culprits, they discovered
that among those involved in the burglary were former employees of
the Committee for the Re-Election of the President.
The Fall of Richard Nixon
·In April 1974, the president released some transcripts of relevent
conversations, claiming that they proved his innocence, but
investigators believed them to be edited for a cover-up.
·The Supreme Court ruled unanimously, in the United States v. Richard
M. Nixon, that the president must relinquish the tapes to Special
Prosecutor Jaworski.
·The House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend three articles of
impeachment:
1. Charging that Nixon had obstructed justice in the
Watergate cover-up.
2. Misused federal agencies to violate the rights of citizens.
3. Defied the authority of Congress by refusing to deliever
tapes and other materials suboenaed by the committee.
·On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced his resignation, the first
president in American history to ever do so.
·Gerald Ford became president.
Here you will find AP US History notes for the Enduring Vision Textbook Notes. These outlines will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
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Please find the Enduring Vision Chapter 2 outline attached below.
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Chapter 02 - The Rise of the Atlantic World 1400-1625 | 73 KB |
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Chapter 03 - Expansion and Diversity: The Rise of Colonial America, 1625-1700 | 95 KB |
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Chapter 05 - The Triumph of the British Empire | 116 KB |
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Chapter 06 - Securing Independence, Defining Nationhood, 1776-88 | 88.5 KB |
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Chapter 09 – The Transformation of American Society, 1815-1840 | 62 KB |
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Chapter 10 - Democratic Politics, Religions Revival, and Reform, 1824-1840 | 76 KB |
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Chapter 11 - Technology, Culture, and Everyday Life | 78.02 KB |
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Chapter 12 - The old south and slavery 1830-1860 | 49.5 KB |
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Chapter 15 - Crucible of Freedom: Civil War | 206 KB |
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Chapter 22 - Global Involvements and World War I | 57.54 KB |
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Chapter 23 - The 1920s: Coping with Change (1920-1929) | 50.5 KB |
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Chapter 24 - The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929-1939 | 24.95 KB |
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Chapter 25 - Americans and a World in Crisis | 106 KB |
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Chapter 26 - The Cold War Abroad and at Home, 1945-1952 | 52 KB |
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Chapter 28 - The Liberal Era (1960-1968) | 75 KB |
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Chapter 29: A Time of Upheaval, 1968-1974 | 68.61 KB |
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Chapter 31 - Beyond the Cold War: Charting a New Course, 1988-1885 | 80 KB |
Here you will find AP US History notes for the Give Me Liberty! An American History 2nd Edition Textbook. These Give Me Liberty! An American History 2nd Edition Notes will help you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
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Here you will find AP US History notes for the Out of Many, 3rd edition textbook. These Out of Many notes and outlines will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
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Here you will find AP US History notes for the Out of Many, 5th edition textbook. These Out of Many notes and outlines will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
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Settling the Continent
o Christopher Columbus called the Native Americans “Indios” because he thought that he had landed in India
· Who Are the Indian People?
o The term “Indian” refers to a variety of different cultures (over 2000), with hundreds of different languages and different ways of living.
o Indians had long, dark hair, almond shaped eyes and tan skin.
o After the realization that America was not a part of Asia a debate began over how people got there.
o Joseph de Acosta said that since there were old world animals in the new world, humans must have crossed a land bridge with them.
· Migration from Asia
o Scientific evidence shows that there are close genetic similarities between Asians and Native Americans.
o The migrants started leaving Asia about 30000 years ago.
o Sea level were around 300 feet lower at the time and so the land. These lower seas led to the creation of a land bridge, Beringia.
o Because they migrated across ocean’s it is called a transoceanic migration.
o Scientist hypothesized that Native Americans moved to the south after the climate warmed and the glaciers melted.
o New findings dispute this theory (Kennewick man).
· Clovis: The First American Technology
o About 11000 years ago native Americas developed a more sophisticated style of tool making (fluted blades and lance points) called the Clovis tradition.
New Ways of Living on the Land
· Hunting Traditions
o After the end of the Ice Age large mammals, like mastodons, died off, because of the climate change and the “Pleistocene Overkill”
o The Pleistocene Overkill was brought about because the Indians had intensified efforts because there were less of the large mammals.
o They began hunting bison with weapons that could be thrown quickly with great accuracy and speed.
o The technology was called Folsom and was a refinement of the Clovis tradition.
· Desert Culture
o The retreat of the glaciers led to new ways of getting food: hunting-arctic, foraging-desert, fishing-coasts, and hunter-gatherer-forests.
o Took place around 10000 to 2500 years ago; called the Archaic period.
o In the desert food was obtained through small game hunting and intensified foraging.
o Lived in caves and rock shelters.
o Shoshones scorned greed and promoted gift giving to prevent any one family from gaining to mush wealth.
o The desert culture spread west and developed densely populated settled communities.
· Forest Efficiency
o Forest culture called “Forest Efficiency” because they had a rich and sophisticated knowledge of the land and how to use it.
The Development of Farming
· Mexico
o Farmed Corn (Maize)
o Corn and Potatoes were miracle crops, fueled Europe for three centuries
o Maize adapted to a wide range of American climates and provided the foundation for the farming system.
· Increasing Social Complexity
o Farming reshaped society.
o Foraging took 100 mi2 for 100 people farming required only 1 mi2
o Because people needed to stay in one place to tend the crops, people moved into permanent villages with permanent architecture.
o Families began to group into clans.
o Division of labor by gender.
o Mesoamerica was the region stretching from Mexico to Central America.
o Mesoamerica was the birthplace of agriculture in North America.
o Farming societies were very vulnerable to climatic changes.
o The Olmecs were the first literate urban culture in this region.
o Mayan civilization flourished between 300 B.C.E. and 900 C.E.
· The Resisted Revolution
o The adoption of farming was a gradual process.
o Today’s Hunter-gatherers regard their method of obtaining food as superior, because farming requires tedious labor; Skeletal evidence shows that farming peoples suffered from degenerate joint diseases.
· Farmers of the Southwest
o One of the first groups to farm in the southwest was the Mogollon; they lived in pit structures that may have been precursors of the Kivas.
o The Hohokam built the first irrigation system in America north of Mexico; water was channeled through 500 miles of canals to fields of crops.
· The Anasazis
o They were the best known Farming culture in the southwest.
o Because of dense populations the Anasazis switched from pit houses to multistoried apartment complexes that the Spaniards called “pueblos.”
o Used Bow and Arrow to hunt.
o Due to an increasingly arid climate, the Anasazis had to build increasingly more complicated irrigation system.
o They also faced attacks from other tribes.
· Farmers of the Eastern Woodlands
o Combined hunting and gathering with farming.
o Lived in permanent homes most of the year, but moved seasonally to take advantage of fishing resources.
o Known for mound building; largest mound is the Great Serpent Mound: 1300 ft long, built by the Mississippian.
· Mississippian Society
o Innovations: Bow and Arrow, Northern Flint (Maize that grew fast and was bigger), flint hoes.
o These innovations led to the development of the Mississippian culture.
o Mississippians were master maize farmers and lived in permanent settlements along the Mississippi flood plains.
o Hierarchical chiefdoms had political control.
o The Mississippian society had all of the traits of European civilization (urbanization, social stratification, craft specialization, and regional trade) except a writing system.
· The Politics of Warfare and Violence
o Scientist hypothesis that a long drought may have led to violence and social unrest amongst the Native Americans.
o Warfare was common among farming cultures that wanted more land.
o Some people moved into communities enclosed by heavy log stockades.
Cultural Regions of North America on the Eve of Colonization
· The Population of Indian America
o The population of North America (excluding Mexico) was between 5 and 10 million.
o The population of the western hemisphere was around 50 million at the time, which was in the same range as Europe.
o Population varied by cultural region.
o The arctic, subarctic, Great Plains, and Great Basin had very low populations at this time.
o The largest populations were found in the southwest, south, northeast.
· The Southwest
o Aridity made life difficult; they made use of the nearby rivers for irrigation.
o Indians in the southwest lived in Rancherias, which were dispersed settlements of Indian farmers in the southwest.
o Southwestern peoples took part kachinas, which were impersonations of ancestral spirits.
· The South
o Mild moist climate.
o Indian peoples of the south farmed, fished, and hunted.
o Peoples of the south shared agricultural festivals.
· The Northeast
o Varied geography of plains, mountains, rivers, lakes, and valleys.
o The Iroquois have lived in the region for 4500 years.
1. B.
Native populations were not racially homogenous. Native people did not consider themselves a homogenous culture with common origins. Native populations were found in the colder Northeastern region of North America, not only in warm regions of Mesoamerica. More than a few thousand natives were found in America and the native spoke hundreds of various languages.
2. E.
When scientists have compared DNA between American Indians and other cultures, the closest genetic relationship was to Asians.
3. B.
The archeological findings along the Pacific coast of North and South America have led some scholars to conclude that the migration to North America occurred by water as people used boats to travel along the western coastline of the continent.
4. D.
Clovis technology quickly spread throughout the Americas. The Clovis technology was a more sophisticated style of tool making (fluted blades and lance points) which allowed the people to hunt more efficiently. This influenced the people by allowing them the travel in small hunting bands.
5. E.
The Archaic period refers to a period roughly 10,000 to 2,500 years ago when glaciers were retreating and the environment was changing after the Ice Age.
6. B
The “miracle crops” found in North America are potatoes and maize (corn).
7. A
The “resisted revolution” is the refusal of some Native American tribes to give up a hunter-and-gatherer society and switch to an agricultural society.
8. B
Not 100% on this one, but I’m almost positive that this is the answer Mr. Vincent gave.
9. E.
The key to understanding not only US history but history in general is to have an appreciation for the ways that human beings adapted to geography and climate. An understanding of this allows you to understand the reasons why certain social orders and political ideas spring up in certain regions.
10. C.
The larger native populations in North America were all located in the Southeast, South, or Northeast parts.
11. C
I found this answer on page 22, second chapter, first sentence.
12. E
The Indian tribes in the South did not have superior technology. The tribes did not adopt Spanish farming techniques. Many native crops would grow in cooler climates. Northern tribes did not all remain hunters rather than becoming farmers. The South’s mild, moist climate, and rich, fertile soil did allow agriculture to flourish in the region.
13. A
The five Iroquois chiefdoms (nations) were recorded to have engaged in a period of persistent violence, most likely over territory conflicts. To control this violence, the Iroquois Confederacy was founded, and war among members was outlawed. Gift exchange and payment replaced revenge.
14. C
The “New World” was a not truly a new world since it had already been settled by another group of people. Christopher Columbus had a large influence on history. Since both worlds were technically old worlds, settled by varying populations, Columbus simply established contact between the two old worlds. He was not likely to have been the first European in America due to Leif Ericson. Columbus did very little to help other Europeans understand the history of North America.
The Expansion of Europe
The Spanish in the Americas
Northern Explorations and Encounters
· Fish and Furs
o Fisherman had been exploring coastal North American waters long before colonies were founded.
o The Grand Banks of the coast of Newfoundland had abundant cod; by 1500 hundreds of ships sailed annually to the Grand Banks.
o Genovese explorer Giovanni Caboto (sailing for England) (John Cabot) reached Labrador in 1497.
o In 1524, Tuscan captain Giovanni da Verrazano (sailing for France), explored from Cape Fear (NC) to the Penobscot (ME).
o Captain Cartier established France’s claims to the land of Canada.
o Fur Traders were crucial to New France’s success.
o Indians were active participants in the trade.
o In the early seventeenth century, the French made an effort to monopolize the trade.
· The Protestant Reformation and the First French Colonies
o The Protestant reformation refers to the challenge by Martin Luther to the Catholic Church, initiated in 1517, calling for a return to what he understood to the purer practices and beliefs of the early church.
o John Calvin developed the theological doctrine of predestination, the belief that god decided at the moment of creation which humans would achieve salvation.
o Protestants were the European supporters of the religious reform under Charles V’s Holy Roman Empire.
o French colony made by Jean Ribault failed because he left to get supplies, but got caught up into religious wars; the colonists starved, resorted to cannibalism, and were eventually rescued by a passing British Ship.
· Sixteenth-Century England
o Lords in England needed to make more money due to “New World” inflation, so they started to take land from farming tenants to graze sheep for the woolen trade.
o King Henry VIII converted to the Church of England in 1534 with himself at its head.
o After Henry 8 died his son, Edward VI, who died pretty soon, he was then succeeded by his half-sister Mary; Mary tried to undo the reform by killing lots of protestants, she was nicknamed “Bloody Mary.”
o After Mary died her half-sister Elizabeth I took over, she tried to end religious turmoil by tolerating a variety of views.
o She tried to take the Catholic Ireland, but the Irish fought back; their fighting back led the English to view them as a lesser people.
· Early English Efforts in the Americas
o England’s first voyages in the New World were made with the backdrop of a Spanish conflict.
o John Hawkins violated Spanish trade laws and then got attacked on a later voyage.
o England decided to join the hunt for American colonies.
o Gilbert died on his return to England after sailing to Newfoundland in 1583.
o His brother Raleigh made a colony at Roanoke which failed and became known as the lost colony.
o Unlike the French (who focused on commerce) the English decided to take a violent approach to colonization.
o Spain got mad at England because England took land that was “given” to Spain by the pope.
AP Questions
1. B
The Roanoke colony is known as the lost colony.\
2. B
Europe, as far as the economy goes, was stagnant for centuries, and things did change rather quickly once America was discovered.
3. D
During the Age of Exploration the emerging European monarchs were developing close relationships with the merchant class so that both parties could further their wealth and prosperity.
4. B
They wanted to get there faster.
5. C
Reconquista was a century-long struggle, which caused the Spanish to develop a military tradition that thrived of conquest and plunder.
6. A
While Spain and Columbus did have other goals, their objects were simply imperial.
7. D
Columbus’s journal says, “…I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion.”
8. A
Due to disease and warfare the native populations in North America were decimated to the point of extinction.
9. A
Due to the Aztec military strength the only reason Cortes was able to be successful was that the Aztec population was dying off because of disease and then the native allies of the Spanish also helped Cortes.
10. C
The Europeans brought over coffee, rice, and sugar because they realized that they could make a profit.
11. B
Honestly, this is the answer I recall Mr. Vincent saying.
12. E
Spain and France didn’t like each other. Avoiding war, France decided to concentrate their efforts in the north.
13. C
The French like their furs.
14. E
Throughout England the church and wealthy merchants were fencing off common land that farms used. This caused farms to want to move to America.
15. D
Spain, France, and Britain all had different ways that they established colonies in America.
o The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico rose in revolt in August 1680, taking Santa Fe and trapping 3,000 survivors in the Palace of Governors of Santa Fe, sending two crosses—white for surrender and survival, red for defiance and death.
o In 1609, colonists founded La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco, the “royal town of the holy faith of St. Francis,” and began to convert the Pueblo people into Christians, Spanish subjects, and a labor force for the colonial elite.
o The Pueblo, faced with Spanish military might, adopted Spanish customs, but merely incorporated them into their own traditions. The missionaries attempted to stamp out Pueblo traditions such as underground kivas (sites for sacred rituals), destroyed religious relics, humiliated holy men, and forced entire villages to perform “penance” by working in the fields and irrigation ditches. The governor hanged four religious leaders and whipped dozens more in 1675. These, combined with widespread famine caused by a severe drought and an epidemic, led to the Pueblo revolt of 1680. Pope, of San Juan Pueblo, organized a conspiracy among more than twenty towns.
o The Santa Fe colonists returned the red cross, but the Pueblos let them retreat to El Paso in the south after five days. The Pueblos ransacked missionary buildings and converted the palace into a communal dwelling, with the chapel as a new kiva.
o Without the Spanish, the Pueblo were unable to fend off attacks by the Apaches and Navajos, who used stolen horses and guns to raid the Pueblo villages. Pope was deposed in 1690 in the chaos.
Spain and its Competitors in North America
England in the Chesapeake
The New England Colonies
The Proprietary Colonies
Conflict and War
1. B.
Like the Roanoke Algonquians, the Pueblo tribe in New Mexico attempted to use the colonists to support them in their struggle against their traditional allies, but Mexican repression of Pueblo traditions and religion led to a mass revolt in 1680. After driving out the Spanish and making Santa Fe their new capital, the Pueblos were attacked by the Apaches and Navajos, who used stolen horses and weapons in their raids. The Spanish returned under Governor Diego de Vargas and reestablished control in 1692. The Pueblos revolted again, but were crushed by military might. However, under new policy, Spanish authorities practiced greater restraint, with the Puebols adopting some Catholic practices while continuing their own and the Spanish ending the practice of forced labor.
2. E.
The French and Spanish practiced “frontiers of inclusion” in their colonies, mixing colonial and native cultures. This was largely because the Spanish required native labor on their sugar plantations and mines, and the French did not have the manpower to conquer native peoples and instead forged trading and military alliances with them to dominate the fur trade in the North Atlantic. Neither nation was willing to send many settlers to their colonies, and therefore relied on the native populations. The English, and later the Dutch, practiced “frontiers of exclusion” because their colonies were receiving many immigrants, based on the economic transformation in England, caused by enclosures (which turned out the rural farmer population and sent them into the cities, looking for work), that established a rising merchant and commercial class. With a much larger labor force, the English had no need for native populations and therefore excluded them from society. This need was filled by indentured servants and later slaves.
3. C.
Champlain settled Quebec in 1608 along the St. Lawrence River in a spot that allowed them to intercept the fur trade. They allied with the Huron and, in 1609 and 1610, helped them war against their traditional enemies, the Five Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Various factors contributed to the stagnated growth of New France: the St. Lawrence River froze in winter, isolating the colonists and allowing for only a short growing period; the French could have populated New France with the Huguenots (French Calvinists, part of the Protestant Reformation), but decided to keep the colony Catholic; engages (hired men) contracted to the colony for the fishery or fur trade, but nine out of ten returned to France.
4. D.
Jamestown, populated by “adventurers, gentlemen, and ne’er do wells (as in ‘never-do-wells,’ thugs and vagabonds)” looking for gold and a passage to the Indies, and finding neither, fell into drinking and gambling, only surviving because the Powhatan Confederacy gave them corn. Wahunsonacook (“King Powhatan”) thought the English would make valuable allies in helping him war against his traditional allies. After more settlers arrived and demanded food, however, the Powhatans reconsidered their policy, realizing that the English had come to invade rather than to trade. During the 1609-10 winter, 400 colonists starved and the survivors turned to cannibalism. Only 40 remained by the spring. Following this, the Virginia Company that sponsored the Jamestown colony attacked the Powhatans, starting a war that ended in 1613 with the capture of Matoaka, or Pocahontas, and her later marriage to a prominent colonist called John Rolfe.
5. D.
The Virginia Company, looking for a “merchantable commodity,” found it in tobacco. John Rolfe developed a mild variety of tobacco, which gave the Company their first returns. Tobacco, which required a large amount of hand labor and quickly exhausted the land, required both the labor of indentured servants and more lands from the natives. The Company handed out “headright grants,” where wealthy investors would receive large plantations on the condition they would transport the workers to the colony on their own dime. The unemployed, newly cheated out of their traditional lands, turned up in thousands, anxious for work; 10,000 were sent to Jamestown by 1622. Most died, however, of typhoid and malaria epidemics, keeping the population just above a thousand. The focus on immigrant labor turned Virginia into a “frontier of exclusion” that did not require native labor. For land, the colonists pressed the Powhatans; Opechancanough, the brother of Wahunsonacook, led his tribe in a war against the settlers. A shaman priest named Nemattanew supported his actions, and for that was murdered by the English in March 1622. The Powhatans attacked two weeks later. Eventually, the Powhatans sued for peace in 1632, but the Virginia Company was bankrupted; by 1624 Virginia colony had already been turned into a royal colony, though the colonists kept the House of Burgesses, the first representative government in the English colonies.
6. B.
Most indentured servants were unskilled young men, though some were unmarried women, skilled craftsmen, or parentless children. A minority were vagabonds and other convicts. They served for a fixed term (2-7 years was the norm, but convicts were held for as much as 14 years, and children were expected to serve until they were 21) and, at the end of their term, received “freedom dues”—land, clothes, a gun or a spinning wheel, and help to get started on their own—but most returned to England. They were badly treated on the tobacco plantations—2 out of every 5 died.
7. A
Unlike the independent French and Spanish colonies, the Chesapeake colonies relied on immigrants from the Old World for their labor. Thus, Virginia remained closely tied to England.
8. B.
Puritans and Pilgrims, operating under royal charters, arrived in New England with a system of government based off the joint-stock companies that sponsored their trips and English local government. Their civil government formed the basis of the bicameral legislative system in use today.
9. Swine.
We asked Mr. Vincent in class and he said it was swine, though the answer was not in the book... Or we couldn't find it at least.
10. E.
Their frontier of exclusion did not require native labor, just native land.
11. B.
The Puritans created a system of public schools and colleges, including Harvard College. However, women were excluded from this system, and thus most were illiterate.
12. C.
The Stuart Restoration followed the English Civil War of 1642-1649 that deposed Charles I. The Restoration placed his son, Charles II, on the throne, and he gave out many royal charters to establish colonies in New England, including the Carolinas, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania.
13. D.
Frontier planters, led by Nathaniel Bacon, broke out in revolt in 1675 against the colonial governor William Berkeley. This revolt was caused in part by Berkeley’s reluctance to help the frontiersmen wage war against the native tribes, but also by social differences among the frontier planters and the coastal communities where the “Indian problem” no longer existed. The rebellion fell apart after Bacon died in 1676.
14. B.
The Glorious Revolution deposed James II, Charles II brother and successor, who tried to tighten his control over Parliament, the rising Puritans in Parliament, and the colonies. Parliament, fearing a Catholic dynasty under James II after the birth of a son, replaced him with his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, Mary and William of Orange. They agreed to a Bill of Rights that established England as a constitutional monarchy, or a monarchy limited by laws, as opposed to the previous absolute monarchy.
15. E.
Look above. Much settlement of Mexico, Canada, and New England occurred over this time period. The English experienced several changes in power, from the Catholic monarchy under Charles I, the English Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, to the Protestant rule of Charles II, another Catholic monarchy under James II, and then the constitutional monarchy of William I. Native tribes were decimated by warfare and disease, brought into society in the frontiers of inclusion in New France and New Mexico, and excluded from New England society. The warfare for colonial dominance in the late end of the 17th century would lead to new conflicts in the 18th century, notably the emergence of a revolution.
African Slaves Build their Own Community in Coastal Georgia
The Beginnings of African Slavery
The African Slave Trade
The Development of North American Slave Societies
African to African American
Slavery and Empire
Slavery and Freedom
1. D
Venetian and Genoese traders dominated the early European slave trade of the 15th century, concentrating on the Slavic region (Eurasia-ish; the word slave comes from Slav). The enslavement of Christians disturbed many Europeans; Muslim and African slaves, however, were fair game.
2. A
African immigrants outnumbered European immigrants six to one; the Atlantic slave trade that began with the Portuguese did not end in the US until 1807 (though slavery itself continued on) and continued in other parts of the Americas until the 1870s.
3. D
European traders preferred to let West African slave raiders do their dirty work for them. Slavery existed in African society, but it was “house” slavery, where the slaves were treated as family members rather than property and were accorded a certain amount of rights. Slaves were allowed to marry and their children were born free.
4. D
The “Middle Passage” of the Atlantic slave trade was built for profit; as such, slave comfort was at a very, very bare minimum. Slaves were crowded into ship holds and chained together, and the rocking of the ship as it sailed would skin the slaves. Ships built to hold 450 slaves regularly held over 600. Many attempted to throw themselves overboard as an act of protest, so much so that ship captains began to install nets over the side of their ships.
5. E
The African slave trade essentially depopulated Africa as thousands were shipped off to slavery in the Americas and many others died during the warfare and raiding that provided the slaves in the first place, with at least one dying on the raids for every one taken captive. West African societies became increasingly dependent on European goods and weapons, creating a vicious “guns-slaves” cycle. The depopulated farming communities could no longer support themselves, and foreign goods stifled local manufacturing. This would lead to the European domination of Africa in the centuries after.
6. B
Indian slaves were used initially, but West African slaves, having come from an agricultural society, were preferred in the booming rice and indigo plantations that sprung up in South Carolina. In contrast to the small tobacco farms of the Chesapeake that did not require large amounts of slaves, rice plantations required a minimum of thirty slaves and regularly staffed fifty to seventy-five. The large amount of slaves led to large black majorities in the Lower South.
7. E
Though some areas had less than others (French Louisiana being a prominent example), slavery existed all parts of North American society, working the fields and as house servants. It was a thoroughly accepted practice.
8. E
Answer under construction
9. B
The appearance of distinctly African customs and culture revealed the strength with which the Africans resisted slavery and contributed to the Africanization of the South.
10. A
Though slavery and slave labor was initially a very profitable enterprise, the availability of “free” labor slowed innovation and, therefore, the development of a diverse economy, leading to economic stagnation. The New England colonies that did not as heavily rely on agriculture and slave labor would become the centers of industrial development in the century ahead.
11. C
Under mercantilism, there was a certain amount of wealth in the world. Trade was viewed as a zero-sum game, with clear winners or losers, and value could only be gained by somehow cheating the opposing party of value. In slavery, this came through by stealing the labor and productive values of the slaves.
12. E
Ironically, slavery created the sort of economic security and prosperity that would allow rich white landowners freedom, creating a Southern aristocracy not unlike the European nobility. The landed gentry rose in power in prominence in this time; slaves, of course, remained in a stagnant position, while landless white settlers dropped into poverty.
13. A
See above.
Middle Colonies
I. The Middle Colonies
a. Location
i. Along the lower Hudson River
ii. Included New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
b. Religion
i. Puritan, Baptist, Quaker, Catholic, and Jewish congregations
ii. Lutherans or Calvinists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Baptists
iii. Tolerance of religious practices and distinctions
c. Politics and government
i. Justices appointed by colonial officials
ii. Landowning farmers chose local officials
d. Economy
i. Some of the best farmland in North America
ii. Exported abundant produce
iii. Booming port in Philadelphia
e. Social and cultural aspects
i. Ethnically diverse, including Dutch, Huguenots, Flemish, German
ii. Communities connected by kinship and neighborly bonds
iii. Social stability and prosperity
iv. Lots sold individually rather than in communal packages
f. Physical characteristics
i. Rich farmland
ii. Ports
iii. Human environment interaction
1. Agriculture
g. Historical context
i. Quakers rented land to various ethnic and religious groups, creating “salad bowl”
Indian America
I. Relative location of regions
a. Hundreds of Indian cultures ranged from foothills of Appalachians to western flank of Sierra Nevada in California
b. Colonists forced Indians to relocate
i. Moved from Atlantic coastal plain
ii. Moved into or beyond Appalachian mountains
c. Became active in the fur trade
II. Relations with colonists
a. Dependency on colonists
i. Began using firearms and metal tools
ii. Built homes out of logs
iii. Participated in commercial economy
iv. Received clothing
b. Colonial power conflicts
i. Iroquois Five Nations vs. French and Indian allies (King William’s War)
ii. 1701: Treaty of neutrality with France
c. Had better relations with French than English
i. Sided with French in wars and occasionally traded
ii. Traded with English
III. Population decrease
a. European disease
i. 7 to 10 million in 1500 dropped to 1 million in 1800
ii. Natives with contact with colonists lost 50% or greater
iii. Indian societies on the interior did not endure the epidemics
IV. Indians of the Great Plains
a. Migrated during the early eighteenth century
b. Indians on the Southern fringe of the Plains stole horses from the Spanish colonists in New Mexico
i. Enabled Indians to hunt buffalo herds more efficiently
ii. More productive economy based on nomadic culture
New England
I) Location of Region
A) All of the New England Colonies except Rhode Island
II) Human Characteristics
A) Religion
1) Every local community was free to run its own affairs under the guidance of the General Court
2) Religious persecution
3) After Toleration Act, religious persecution was stopped and many Anglican, Baptist, and Presbyterian lived in New England
B) Politics
1) Mix of freedom and repression
C) Government
1) Governor and representatives elected by the towns
2) Free men chose their minister, voted on his salary and support, and elected local men to offices ranging from town clerk to fence viewer
3) Autonomy
D) Economy
1) Towns grew too large, reached limit of land and supply
E) Social
1) Each village was based around a Church, land was split on a basis of status and seniority
2) Banded and pursued people of other faiths or people who questioned their faith
F) Cultural
1) Adult male members constituted freedom of the town
2) Little distinction between secular and religious authority
III) Physical Characteristics
A) Communal land centered around a Church
Backcountry
Geography
A. Region extend from Maryland to Virginia
B. Included Appalachian Highlands
C. Land West of established colonies
I. People
A. Indians
1. Cherokee
2. Delaware
3. Shawnees
B. White Pioneers
1. Claimed land that they had no legal title to
II. Lifestyle
A. Strived to become commercial farmers
B. Planted corn
C. Hunted in the woods
D. Built log cabins
E. Great violence resulted from the westward expansion. Indians worried about the threat of new people taking their land
F. Men
1. Hunted
2. Warriors
G. Women
1. Domestic workers
Southern North America (Chesapeake and Lower South)
I. Population
a. Triracial society
i. Made up of white colonists, black slaves, and substantial Indian communities
ii. 40% were African slaves
b. Colonies of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia
II. Agriculture
a. Southern colonies were overwhelmingly rural
b. Specialized in commercial crops
i. Rice
ii. Tobacco
c. Tobacco was more profitable than rice
i. Farmers planted more tobacco in the Chesapeake region
ii. Tobacco, however, drained the nutrients from the soil
III. Religion
a. Church of England the state religion
i. Citizens required to attend services and pay taxes supporting the Church
b. No other Church was supported
c. Dissenters of the Church of England were shunned from the colony
d. Anglican establishment was weak
IV. Society
a. Farms and plantations were spread across this region
b. Few town or villages
c. Dominant social institution was the large plantation
d. Poor families lived in wooden cabins with poor conditions
e. Richer families lived in better conditions and had slaves
i. Not as substantial as other houses of New England
f. Lower South had little community
g. Chesapeake had well developed neighborhoods
h. Growing sense of racial solidarity as African population increased
V. Government
a. Lower South had little to no established government
b. Chesapeake had developed a form of government
i. Developed kinship networks and economic connections
ii. Country court had executive and judicial power
iii. The governor appoints gentlemen justices, who appoint the grand jury
VI. Physical Characteristics
a. Fertile land
b. Wooden homes
c. Swamps and marshes
d. Bordered by water
The French Crescent
The Spanish Borderlands
1. Relative location of region
a. What is now known as the sunbelt of the United States
b. Also, northern, present day, Florida
i. Conflict with Indians and British reduced the Spanish Presence in Florida
2. Human Characteristics
a. Religion
i. Franciscan missions constructed among the Indian peoples of Texas
ii. Jesuit missions built among the desert Indians of the Indians of the lower Colorado River and Gala River Valleys
iii. Established missions in Baja (lower) California
1. Indians were not forced to join missions, but once they did they could not leave them.
a. Franciscan missionaries resulted to cruel and violent means of controlling Indians
i. Shackles, solitary confinement, whipping posts
ii. Indians resisted and ran away
1. Native population of coastal California dropped by 74%
iv. Catholic Church played a dominant role in the community life of the borderlands
b. Politics and Government
i. Ruled by riceroyalty of New Spain
c. Economy
i. Colonial outposts founded west of New Mexico (today’s southern Arizona)
ii. Cattle herding became the dominant economic activity for the next 200 years
iii. Limited by a restrictive colonial economic policy
1. Required colonists to exchange wool, pottery, and buffalo hides for imported goods at unfavorable rates
d. Social and Cultural Aspects
1. Approximately 1 million Spanish colonists and mezitos
2. At least 2 million Indians
e. Military
i. Military posts, presidios, established on the fringes of Louisiana because Spanish were worried about the French activity in the Mississippi
3. Physical Characteristics of Region
a. The northern borders of Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and California were considered as buffer zones (to protect New Spain from rivaling New World colonies)
b. How it affected the people living there
i. Cattle ranching was the dominant way of life
ii. Human Environment Interaction
4. Significant historical context important to region
a. Was the largest and most prosperous European colony on the North American Continent
b. In Florida, the oldest colonies in North America, war reduced colonial presence to mere forts surrounded by colonized territories for families
i. Because of size and weakness, Spain’s forts had no choice but to establish relations with Creek and Seminole Indians and hundreds of runaway African Americans
ii. Florida consisted of a growing mezito population and a considerable number of free African American and Hispanicized Indians
c. New Mexico borders expanded as people headed North along valleys and streams
5. Mexico City
a. Administrative capital of New Spain
b. Most sophisticated city in the Western Hemisphere
c. Site of one of the world’s greatest universities
d. Great architecture
e. Broad avenues
Traditional Culture in the New World
· Oral cultures
o Some cultures passed on traditions orally through story and song as opposed to printing
o Rhythms of life were regulated by sunlight and seasons of the year
o Farmed with simple tools and were subject to drought, flood, or pestilence
o Demands of the season determined working routines
· Communal cultures
o Quebec- villagers worked side by side to repair the roads
o New Mexico- collectively maintained the irrigation canals
o New England- gathered in town meetings to decide the dates when common fields were to be tended to
o Very little privacy within homes
o Majority of 18th century North American farmers grew crops and raised livestock for their own needs or local barter
o The primary goal of farmers was ownership of land and the assurance that children and descendants would have nearby lands to settle upon
· Colonial cities
o Places of commerce
o Artisans and craftsmen work full time
o Young men pursuing a trade (job) served several years as apprentices in exchange for learning the skills and secrets of the trade
o Some men had to migrate and became known as “journeymen”
o Ultimate goal of journeymen was independence
· Few opportunities for women outside of the household
o Men held managerial rights over family property; widows received 1/3 lifetime interest in a deceased husband’s real estate (dower)
o Some colonial women played active roles in 18th century journalism
The Frontier Heritage
· Distinction between North America and Europe: land was cheap and abundant in North America
· Labor was the key to prosperity; labor was in short supply in the colonies
· Because free men and women could work for themselves on their own land; there was little incentive to work
· Landowners could secure an agricultural workforce through forced labor
· More than half the immigrants to 18th century British America were indentured servants
· Agents paid their way to America through several years of service in America
· Property ownership led to rising demands in colonial regions that land be taken from the Indians and opened to colonial settlement
· Tried to justify their war actions against Indians by saying the Indians failed to maximize the potential of the property and saying the Indians were savages
Population Growth and Immigration
· High fertility and low mortality rates
· Colonies in the 18th century grew about 3% per year
· Women typically gave birth to seven kids or more
· Abundance in food allowed for good health and low mortality
· British sent families, Spanish limited the migration of their subjects, and French sent Catholic engages as opposed to Protestant Huguenots
· British were the imperial power to encourage the immigration of foreign nationals to the colonies
· “Trade in strangers”- Carrying migrants provided English and Dutch merchants with a way of making a profit on the voyage of vessels sent to bring back tobacco, rice, indigo, timber, and flour
· British colonies enacted liberal naturalization laws that allowed Protestant immigrants who swore allegiance to the British crown to become free “denizens” with all the privileges of natural-born subjects
· Parliament passed the Plantation act of 1740, which allowed prohibited naturalization for Catholic and Jewish immigrants, but allowed it for others
· Majority of European immigrants were bonded servants or slaves
· In 1750, Pennsylvania passed a law to prevent the overcrowding of ships filled with indentured passengers
· Backcountry majorly populated by Scots-Irish
Social Class
· North American society was not aristocratic like Europe, but was not without social hierarchy
· In New Spain, Espanoles (Spaniards) were the highest in social class while mestizos, mulattoes, and other ethnicities were on lower levels
· African slaves and Indians were at the bottom of the social classes
· In British colonies, upper class was made up of large landowners, merchants, and prosperous professionals
· As opposed from Spanish and French , British celebrated social mobility
· Large and impoverished lower class in the British colonies- slaves, bonded servants, and poor laboring family make up 40% or more of the population
· British contained a large and influential middle class; Spanish and French did not have a middle class
· About 70% of Pennsylvanian colonists were middle class
· Most were moderate landowning farmers
· Enjoyed better living in America than “mother country”- due to many reasons such as the enclosure movement
Economic Growth and Increasing Equality
· Heavy regulation leads to stagnation in New Spain and New France while impressive economic growth takes place in the British colonies
· Middle and upper class British people began enjoying improved living conditions
· Growth resulted in increasing social inequality
· Rich were getting richer and poor were getting poorer
· Greatest amount of wealth occurred in commercial farming cities
Contrasts in Colonial Politics
· French Canada was ruled by a superior council, and intendant, and a bishop
· New Spain was governed by the Council of the Indies- direct executive authorities
· British Prime Minister Robert Walpole established a decentralized administration; felt this would best accomplish the nation’s economic goals
· With the exception of Connecticut and Rhode Island (who elected their own governors by charter), colonies were administered by royally appointed governors
· Taxation and spending were controlled by elected assemblies
· Only men with property could vote; adult white males who qualified was 50% or higher in the colonies
· Those who could vote elected wealthy landowners, planters, or merchants to serve as their leaders
The Enlightenment Challenge
· Enlightenment thinkers in Britain and Europe argued that the universe was governed by natural laws that people could understand and apply to their own advantage
· John Locke proposed that the state existed to provide for the happiness and securities of individuals,
· Locke also believed the state existed to provide for those with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property
· Enlightenment writers emphasized rationality, harmony, and order
· Enlightenment thinking appealed to those whose ordered lives improved their lot
· Cotton Mather wrote about the existence of witches
· About ½ of adult men and ¼ of adult women could read
· Boston News-Letter was the first continuously published Newspaper in North America
· The almanac, a combination calendar, astrological guide, and sourcebook of medical advice and farming tips, was another popular literary work
A Decline in Religious Devotion
· Anglican and Puritan churches suffered declining memberships and falling attendance at services
· Once Puritanism became an established church, attendance was expected of all townspeople
· The Half-Way Covenant of 1662 allowed children who had not experienced conversion to join the church as half-way members who could do everything except participate in communion
· In 1708, the churches of Connecticut agreed to the Saybrook Platform, which enacted a system of governance by councils of ministers and rather than by congregations; this weakened the passion and commitment of church members
· Congregationalists began to question the Calvinist theology of predestination—the belief that God had predetermined the few men and women who would be saved in the Second Coming
· Puritans believed that God had given people the freedom to choose salvation by developing their faith and by doing good works—known as Arminianism
The Great Awakening- George Whitefield
· The colonial widespread colonial revival of religion in the New England colonies became known as the Great Awakening
· Religious leaders condemned the laxity, corruption, and officialism of Protestantism and reenergized it with calls for piety and purity
· Religious factions known as the Old and New Lights accused each other of heresy
· New Lights fought against a rationalist heresy and called for a revival of Calvinism
· Old Lights condemned emotional enthusiasm as part of the heresy of believing in a personal and direct relationship with God outside the order of the church
· Many “unchurched” colonists were brought back to Protestantism by 18th century revivalism
1. Eighteenth-century America was: E. made up of a wide variety of Indian groups and settlers from a wide number of European nations.
All of Western Europe, and parts of the rest of Europe, was in on colonization. Individual communities, however, had their own little quirks. Indian America, though battered by epidemics brought on by European diseases, continued to assert their independence, though many tribes in close contact with the Europeans adopted European goods and became reliant on them. The Spanish Borderlands, which served as a buffer zone for sophisticated New Spain (Mexico), isolated from the prosperous inland colonies, grew slowly, and often became centers to convert natives to Catholicism for a monarchy that was reluctant to deplete its fields in Spain proper. The French Crescent established a French trading empire in North America, stretching from Quebec at the mouth of the St. Lawrence to New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi, with a strong Catholic character mixed with heavy native intermingling. New England colonies exhibited a highly repressive and ethnically homogenous Puritan ideology based on a close integration of church and state, though this was slowly chipped away at after the English Civil War and the Toleration Act. The ethnically diverse Middle colonies had many cultures, but they remained distinct from one another, forming a salad bowl rather than a melting pot, with a large amount of free settlement and social mobility for the landowning white settlers. The Backcountry represented the frontier and the settlers hostile to natives in it. The South was a triracial society of whites, African slaves, and Indians with an economy based on plantation labor.
2. One of the first Americans to advocate religious toleration was: C. Roger Williams
For his trouble, Roger Williams was excommunicated by the Puritan congregations and went on to form the colony of Rhode Island.
3. The development of Pennsylvania was strongly influenced by the: A. Society of Friends
Though the Quakers quickly became a minority in Pennsylvania, due to its large immigrant populations attracted by the low prices for land, they continued to exert a strong influence, establishing a loose government and preventing religious persecution.
4. The Chesapeake settlements and the colonies of the Lower South were: C. Ethnically diverse because of the presence of Africans, Europeans, and Indians.
See 1. While Africans made up a substantial part of the population (40%), they were not the majority.
5. In colonial America: E. Women were generally denied careers or opportunities outside of the household.
Women had some social rights, though not many. In employment, women were limited, though some inherited printing presses from their husbands and became prominent journalists.
6. The presence of the frontier and the availability of land in the colonies: D. helped create social assumptions and practices that were not especially democratic
The frontier economy was based on the idea of forced labor, strongly stratified class structures and subordination, and a “might makes right” mentality towards natives and each other.
7. During the eighteenth century: C. for a variety of reasons the British colonies began to differ socially and politically from New France and New Spain.
These reasons are: influxes of immigrants (contrasted to French and Spanish reluctance to send settlers) from English immigration and liberal naturalization laws, high growth rates, African slavery, and a locally based government in contrast to the centrally managed governments of New Spain and New France that encouraged upwards mobility for the upwardly mobile.
8. One striking thing about British North America in the 1700s was: B. the presence of a dynamic middle class.
The middle-class often came to join the colonial elite as rising profits increased their social status—often at the expense of the poor becoming poorer.
9. In North America during the eighteenth century: E. the English colonies began to develop the institutions of representative government.
British Prime Minister Robert Wadpole encouraged decentralized government and salutary neglect in the economy. Though royal governors controlled the colonies, elected assemblies were the ones who decided on taxation and spending, with the white landowners as the voters. This created a self-perpetuating elite of white landowners who would vote in other white landowners. This elite viewed democracy negatively, inferring mob rule. These “representative” governments slowly began to take more and more power away from the royal governors, who often could do nothing to the money-controlling assemblies.
10. The intellectual movement that led to a significant transformation in British North America was: b. the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment, which started in Europe, was a time of scientific discovery and rationalism. John Locke, a political theorist, would propose that people had unalienable rights to life, liberty, and property and that the state existed to protect such rights. The Enlightenment led to a burst of literature, both the practical (Poor Richard’s Almanack) and the satirical.
11. By early in the 1700s: D. America was experience an apparent decline in religious devotion.
At about the same time as the Enlightenment, religious devotion began to drop off, with about maybe only one in fifteen adults a member of a congregation. The Puritan Church, which had become an official religion, established the Half-Way Covenant to receive members who had not formally converted, and struggled with lessening piety when councils of ministers became the main governing body instead of congregations. Many Congregationalists (Calvinists) began to question the theology of predestination (that God had predetermined who exactly would be saved in the Second Coming) and began to turn to Arminianism, which taught that people could be saved by having faith and doing good works, in line with humanist Enlightenment ideas.
12. The Anglican minister who helped spread the Great Awakening throughout the English colonies was: D. George Whitefield
Whitefield toured the colonies giving sermons and oratories, ignoring sectarian differences and proselytizing all denominations equally.
13. The Great Awakening: B. provided many Americans with their first opportunity to engage in public debate and action.
The Great Awakening inspired two groups—the Old Lights, who represented the old guard and the wealthy elite, and the New Lights, who represented revivalism and the poorer classes. The Old Lights supported the religious rationalism of the Enlightenment while the New Lights condemned it a heresy and lobbied for a return to Calvinism. The new supporters of the New Lights would engage in heavy debate against the entrenched Old Lights. Some credence should be given to answer D, however; religion provided an out for the poor, who saw religion as a way to sidestep pressing social problems and giving the rich a reprieve.
14. The expansionism of colonies in British North America during the eighteenth century: A. created the potential for competition with the French and with the Indians.
Frontier planters in the Middle Colonies and the Backcountry pushed to grab more land from the Indians, provoking them and attracting the ire of the expansionist French. This would set the stage for the French and Indian War, a precursor to the Revolution.
The Seven Years’ War in America
· The Albany Conference of 1754
o British officials wanted the colonies to consider a collective response to the continuing conflict with New France and the Indians of the interior.
o The conference adopted Benjamin Franklin’s Plan of the Union, which proposed that Indian affairs, western settlement, and other items of mutual interest be placed under the authority of one general government for the colonies, consisting of a president-general appointed by British rule and a Grand Council, legislative body that makes laws and raises money. This plan was rejected.
· Colonial Aims and Indian Interests
o There were three flash points of conflict in North America
§ Northern Atlantic Coast
· Fortress of Louisburg (France) reinforced subsequently; known as the Gibraltar of the New World.
§ Border region between New France and New York (Niagara Falls to Lake Champlain)
· Canadians and New Yorkers were competing for the Indian Trade; the French could not match the superior English goods so the attacked. The Iroquois Confederacy held the advantage.
§ Ohio Country (the trans-Appalachian region along the Ohio River)
· The Ohio River was important for France’s Mississippi trade empire and the expanding English population was fast approaching.
o The British made the port of Halifax in Nova Scotia to counter the French Louisburg.
o The Iroquois were hoping to play off one European power against the other, because if either of the European powers had an overwhelming victory their position would be greatly undermined.
· Frontier Warfare
o Colonel George Washington lost to a French Force near the Monongahela River at Fort Necessity.
o The British then sent two Irish regiments led by General Edward Braddock to attack that area while the colonial militia attacked New York frontier.
§ Both offensive strikes failed completely and Gen. Braddock was killed.
o After Braddock’s defeat Britain and France went into full-scale warfare.
§ The war in Europe was called the Seven Years’ War and the war in NA. was called The French and Indian War.
o The lack of cooperation between the colonies was catastrophic, because it hindered Britain’s ability to mount a successful counterattack. When British commanders did try to take control they only angered the local commanders.
o The British got made at the Acadians, because they would not fight against France, and as a result kicked them out and sold their land for cheap prices to immigrants from New England. Many of the Acadians ended up in Louisiana under Spanish rule where they became known as Cajuns.
· The Conquest of Canada
o In 1757 William Pitt became Prime Minister of Britain.
o Pitt used Prussia to fight the war in Europe so that he could focus British troops in NA. He told the colonists that the King’s money would now fund the war, which won him their support.
o He then amassed a North American force of over 50,000 men to fight against Canada, 20,000 were British troops.
o To get rid of the threat that the Indians posed they promised the m some land and specific boundaries after the war.
o Pitt’s plan was successful. In 1759 the British attacked Quebec and were successful although both side’s commander (Brits=James Wolfe, French=Marquis de Montcalm) died.
o Montreal fell the very next year and so ended the NA Empire of France.
o Britain then destroyed the French ships in NA, invaded Havana, and took Cuba as well as several other Spanish and French colonies in the Caribbean Sea.
o The Treaty of Paris gave Britain all of France’s land in NA east of the Mississippi except NO, and Spain gave them Florida. NO and the rest of the stuff Britain did not take from France went to Spain.
· The Struggle of the West
o Indians were mad that France gave away their land and Britain was harsh and uncaring for the Indians whose lands they were taking.
o The Indian Chief Pontiac and his followers attacked the British. The British decided that biological warfare would be the best way to go and “graciously” gave small pox infected blankets to the Indians.
o Pontiac’s Rebellion as it came to be known ended in a stalemate.
o The Royal Proclamation of 1763 set aside an “Indian Country” where the Native Americans would live.
o The colonists were outraged by the fact that Britain would set aside land for the Indians and some like the Paxton Boys turned to violence against the Indians.
o Britain gave up and let the colonists move west.
o Britain asked the Indians for land in Indian Country and the Indians gave them lands that were either already being settled or lands that were away from their own settlements to avoid another conflict that in their weakened state they could handle.
o Despite the Indians best efforts the colonists grew impatient, greedy, and aggressive and started conflicts with the Indians for more land.
The Imperial Crisis in British North America
· The Emergence of American Nationalism
o The end of the Seven Years’ War left the colonists proud of their place I the British Empire.
o From 1735 to 1775 trade with Britain double and commerce in the colonies improved by a factor of 4.
· The Press, Politics, and Republicanism
o A case against a New York printer in 1735, John peter Zenger, led to freedom of speech.
o Intercolonial coverage increased six-fold in the four decades before the revolution; Newspapers brought together the colonies.
o Newspapers printed papers of the radical Whigs of 18th century England. They warned of the threat to liberty posed by the unchecked exercise of power.
§ These ideas came to define the view point called republicanism, a view point that had increasing popularity in the colonies.
· The Sugar and Stamp Acts
o The cost of troops in NA led Britain to seek new revenue in the form of more and higher taxes.
o The sugar act was passed in 1764 and it lowered the duty from 6pence to 3 pence per gallon on foreign molasses and increased the restrictions on colonial commerce.
o Opponents of the taxes linked it them to larger issues of political rights.
o Some argued against them on the basis that the taxes were much lower in the motherland.
· The Stamp Act Crisis
o The Stamp Act was passed in 1765 and it put a tax on stamped paper, publications, playing cards, etc.
o Colonist argued against taxation without representation, but the British argued that colonists had virtual representation (meaning that the members of parliament represented the colonies as well as their own districts). The colonists responded saying they wanted actual representation (meaning they would actually elect people for their representation).
o The Stamp Act led to numerous protests in the form of pamphlets, boycotts, etc.
· Repeal of the Stamp Act
o To put pressure on Britain the colonist began a Nonimportation movement where they would stop buying goods from Britain.
o This pressure led to Britain’s repealing of the Stamp Act.
o The Declaratory Act was coupled with the repealing of the Stamp Act and it gave Parliament the authority to legislate for the colonies.
o This act made it clear to the colonists that the conflict had not been resolved, but only postponed.
“Save Your Money and Save Your Country”
· The Townsend Revenue Acts
o Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, took Pitt’s place as Prime Minister when Pitt became sick and retired.
o England faced problems such as unemployment, price riots, and tax protests. Townshend passed the Revenue Acts, putting taxes on tea, lead, paint, paper, and gas in the colonies to bring in revenue without further angering citizens in the motherland.
o A lawyer in Pennsylvania, John Dickenson, posed as a farmer in his articles about the taxes, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.
o The colonists’ fears of oppression were strengthened when Townshend began to enforce the new Revenue Acts strictly.
o Despite colonial outrage at this time to sentiment for independence existed.
· Nonimportation: An Early Political Boycott
o New York and Boston merchants launch nonimportation and nonconsumption movements in response to the Revenue Acts.
o In 1768 and 1769 newspapers put a great deal of focus on women’s support of the boycott.
o The nonimportation movement was strengthened when the Virginia House of burgesses enacted the first provincial legislation banning the importation of goods enumerated in the Townshend Acts
o Response to the revenue Acts was intense and overwhelming.
· The Massachusetts Circular Letter
o Massachusetts was at the center of the agitation over the Townshend Revenue Acts; The MA House of Representatives approved a letter drawn up By Samuel Adams, second cousin of John Adams. The letter served as a call to action for the colonies to Harmonize with each other.
o Some of the other colonies (NJ, NH, and CT) commended Massachusetts and Virginia even issued their own Circular Letter.
o John Hancock, who was the wealthiest merchant in the colonies and spoke against the British measures, was targeted by customs officials for not paying duties. The customs officials that seized Hancock were attacked by colonists.
o As a response to assaults such as this the British occupied Boston with infantry and artillery regiments on Oct. 1, 1768.
· The Politics of the Revolt and the Boston Massacre
o The Sons of Liberty were a group of radicals that would erect “liberty poles” and had many conflicts with soldiers.
o After the NY assembly bowed to Townshend and voted to support the soldiers the Sons of Liberty erected a large Liberty Pole. The soldiers chopped the pole down, cut it into pieces and left in front of a tavern frequented by members of the Sons. This led to a large riot in which several men were wounded.
o Confrontations also happened in Boston; an 11 year old boy was killed by a customs officer that fired on a group of rock-throwers. That heightened tensions.
o The Boston Massacre: On March 5, 1770 a crowd of people started calling a soldier names in front of the Customs House and so a captain and seven soldiers came to his rescue, but were pelted with snow balls and rocks. In response the soldiers began to fire without orders. Five of the crowd fell dead, and six were injured, two of which died later.
o On the same day as the Boston Massacre many of the Townshend Revenue Acts were repealed. As a show of Parliament’s supremacy the tax on tea was not removed.
From Resistance to Rebellion
· Intercolonial Cooperation
o The colonies began forming committee’s to share information and work together with the other colonies.
o In 1773, a set of letters sent by Hutchinson set off a conspiracy theory that created a torrent of anger from the colonies.
· The Boston Tea Party
o The colonists were a major consumer of tea, but when Britain passed the Tea Act, the colonists stopped buying the tea and the East India Company fell to the brink of bankruptcy.
o Tea importers were thought of as enemies of the country in the colonies.
o When a tea ship arrived in late November Governor Hutchinson refused to let it leave the harbor. On December 16, 1773 thousands crowded in a church to see the captain report to Sam Adams. Adams signaled a group of 50-60 men, dressed as Indians, to board the ship and dump 45 tons, worth £10000, into the harbor.
o As word spread of what had happened in Boston other colonies followed their example and had their own “Tea party.”
· The Intolerable Acts
o In response to the BTP parliament passed the Coercive Acts, known to Americans as the Intolerable Acts.
o The Coercive Acts consisted of:
§ Boston Port Act- stopped ships from unloading in Boston Harbor until the town compensated the East India Company.
§ Massachusetts Government Act- delegates of the upper house would be chosen by the King.
§ Administration of Justice Act- protected British officials from colonial courts.
§ Quartering Act of 1774- people had to house British shoulders.
o The Quebec Act was passed in 1774 and it appointed a government for Canada, enlarged the boundaries of Quebec, and confirmed the privileges of the Catholic Church.
o In response to the Intolerable Acts, the colonists created the Committees of Correspondence to keep Americans informed about British measures that affected the colonists.
o The replacement of Boston officials with men chosen by the king was a “Hostile Invasion” in the eyes of the colonists.
· The First Continental Congress
o Delegates from most of the colonies met in 1774 to respond to the Coercive Acts
o The Congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, adopted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, and agreed to establish the Continental Association.
o All of the delegates agreed that the Intolerable Acts were unconstitutional.
o They sought to impose a set of sanctions against the British.
o They urged the creation of Committees of Observation and Safety.
· Lexington and Concord
o On September 1, 1774, General Gage sent soldiers to seize stores of the Massachusetts Militia’s ammunition.
o The Massachusetts committee of safety created special units called minutemen that were ready at a moment’s notice.
o Pitt tried to convince parliament not to attack again, but he was overruled.
o On April 18, 1775 General Gage attacked the ammunition stores in Concord.
o The colonists brought reinforcements to Lexington and vastly outnumbered the British.
Deciding For Independence
· The Second Continental Congress
o Opened on May 10, 1775
o May15: Congress put the colonies into a state of defense.
o June 15: George Washington was nominated to be commander-in-chief.
· Canada, the Spanish Borderlands, and the Revolution
o The colonies sent soldiers to Canada to eliminate the possibility of an invasion from that quarter, but this also killed the chance of the Canadians joining them in an anti-British effort.
o The British Navy prevented the colonists from talking with assemblies in the Caribean.
o Many Spanish Floridans in Cuba supported American independence.
o In 1775, Spain adopted Havana’s recommendations and declared a policy of neutrality in the coming war.
o However the Spanish secretly sought to support the Americans.
o The ability to do this came when Americans went to Spanish New Orleans and requested that they sell weapons to the patriots.
o Havana and NO became important American supply centers.
· Fighting in the North and South
o The Americans were forced back from Canada.
o The British were forced out of Boston and were pushed to Halifax.
o The Americans turned back the British assault in Charleston.
· No Turning Back
o 2nd Cont. Congress formed the American Navy and declared British ships oped to capture.
o The French joined Spain in supporting America.
o Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, reshaped American thinking and was one of the most important pieces of writings from this era.
o The Declaration of Independence announced and justified the breaking of the colonies’ allegiance to Britain.
· The Declaration of Independence
o Written by TJ with some changes by other members of the 2nd Cont. Congress
o Approved on July 4, 1776 with to dissent.
1. B
A was the 2nd cont. congress. C was the 2nd cont. congress to. D: That came later. E never happened.
2. E
The war in Europe led to conflicts between colonies in NA held by the countries involved in the war.
3. D
Basically, because of European competition, both France and England wanted to extend their "world empires" into the Ohio River Valley. And each recruited Indian tribes (the original inhabitants) to fight on their side. Although struggles for supremacy had been going on for many decades between France and England in the New World, hostilities intensified in the early 1750's as both English and French settlers had attempted to colonize land in the Ohio River Valley, near present day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The English settlers, who had moved northwest from Virginia, and French settlers, who had moved east from the Great Lakes, or south from Canada, each thought they owned the rights to the land.
4. C
The Treaty of Paris gave Britain all of France’s land in NA east of the Mississippi except N.O., and Spain gave them Florida. N.O. and the rest of the stuff Britain did not take from France went to Spain.
5. E
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 set aside an “Indian Country” where the Native Americans would live.
6. C (I Think)
Not A, because we still treated the natives terribly and had slaves. Not D, that’s a command economy. Not E, because that’s what Britain had, a monarchy. Maybe B.
7. C
Colonist argued against taxation without representation, but the British argued that colonists had virtual representation (meaning that the members of parliament represented the colonies as well as their own districts). The colonists responded saying they wanted actual representation (meaning they would actually elect people for their representation).
8. A
B and E came later. D was rare and when it happened it was not really planned. C: yes, but the boycotts were more effective.
9. E.
It was fear and tension combined with terrible misfortune. It really wasn’t anybody’s fault so that eliminates most of the wrong answers. This wasn’t the thing the colonists most upset.
10. C
Textbook
11. A
B did not happen. C is wrong. D: Britain had many casualties. E: the militia responded quickly to the attacks.
12. E
A+D: 1776 B+C: Wrong
13. E
Several of them were influential, but none as much as Common Sense.
14. A
B: they had plenty in common with the British. C: Extreme exaggeration. D+E: The White Man was still considered above women and blacks.
· The War For Independence
o Introduction
§ At the start of the war Britain had the best-equipped and most disciplined army, along with a navy that was unopposed in American waters
§ Due to the native officer corps and considerable experience in colonial wars, the Patriot forces proved formidable
§ Initially the British thought they could regain political control by having one military victory
§ This strategy did not work due to the geography on eastern North America
§ Patriots had the advantage of fighting on their own land and the popular support for the American cause
o The Patriot Forces
§ Forces include:
· 350,000 eligible men
· Over 200,000 saw action
· No more than 25,000 were engaged at one time
· Over 100,000 served in the Continental Army under George Washington and the Continental Congress
· The rest served in Patriot militia groups
§ Militias played a vital role in defending their own areas, but they alone did not win the Revolutionary War
· This was due to lack of discipline, short terms of enlistment, and appalling rates of desertion
· The victory of the war resulted from the constant struggle of the Continental Army
§ Washington and his officers wanted a force that could directly engage the British, but Congress initially refused to invoke a draft or mandate army enlistments lasting over one year
· This was due to the fear of a standing army
§ After the militias failed in early battles of the war congress enlarged state quotas for the Continental Army and extended the enlistment term to three years
§ To spur enlistments Congress offered bounties, regular wages, and promises of free land after victory
§ Discipline was important in the Continental Army because men fired at close range, charged with bayonets ready, and engaged in hand-to-hand combat
§ At the end of the war 25,324 American men died
· About 6,800 from wounds suffered in battle
· About 8,000 from disease
· The rest as POWs and MIA
§ The Continental Army and militias played a major political role by creating a powerful nationalist sentiment
§ Food and pay shortages resulted in multiple mutinies
§ Patriot gained control of most local governments during the period of committee organization in 1774 and 1775
§ As men left for war, women took up the management of family farms and businesses
§ Women also followed both armies; some were prostitutes, wives, cooks, launderers, and nurses
§ Women also dressed up as men and enlisted in militias or the Continental Army
o The Loyalists
§ Some half a million to a million Americans, called Loyalist or Tories, remained loyal to the British crown
§ Loyalists were often newcomers to America, royal officeholders, people dependant on the British for a salary, or members of a minority
§ Patriots passed state treason acts that prohibited speaking out against the Revolution
§ Patriots punished Tories by using the “grand Tory ride” or by tarring and feathering
§ Benedict Arnold was a hero of early American battles, but in 1779 he became a paid informer to British General Henry Clinton
· In 1780 the Patriots found him out and he fled to the British and helped them
§ The British strategy was to mobilize Loyalists and many Loyalists did
· About 50,000 Loyalist fought for Britain during the war
§ During and after the war many Loyalist fled to England, the British West Indies, or Canada
o The Campaign for New York and New Jersey
§ In the winter of 1775-76 the British developed the strategy of having Sir William Howe work his way up from New York and have another army head south from Canada
§ Washington anticipated this strategy and set up fortifications in Brooklyn
§ In July of 1776 The Battle of Long Island ended in disaster for the Patriots giving the British New York City
§ On September 6, 1776 Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge engaged in peace talks with General Howe and Admiral Richard Howe
· These talks ended when Admiral Howe asked for the repeal of the Declaration of Independence
§ The British invaded Manhattan and only an American stand at Harlem Heights prevented the destruction of a large part of the Patriot forces
§ The British then had some victories that pushed Washington back at White Plains and overran the American posts at Fort Washington and Fort Lee
§ By November the Americans were fleeing south across New Jersey
§ With morale low and many people deserting or announcing the end of their terms Washington and his officers feared the dissolution of the Continental Army and the war effort
§ On Christmas night 1776, Washington lead 2,400 troops back across the Delaware in a surprise counterattack defeating the Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey
§ The Americans also pushed the British back and inflicted heavy loses at Princeton
§ The victories had little strategic importance, but they allowed Washington to realize he needed to stick with a defensive strategy and avoid direct confrontation with the British
o The Northern Campaigns of 1777
§ Fighting with American forces had stopped Howe from heading north and the British forces from Canada were stopped by American resistance at Lake Champlain
§ In 1777 the British retried the strategy sending 8,000 British and German troops under General John Burgoyne from Canada and Howe was to move his troops north
§ Fort Ticonderoga fell to Burgoyne on July 6, but he was bogged down by Patriot militia in the rough country south of Lake George
§ After several defeats by Patriot forces under General Horatio Gates, Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga
§ At Saratoga Burgoyne and his forces were surrounded by Patriot forces and on October 19, he surrendered his nearly 6,000 men
§ The British General Howe had many victories like:
· September 11 at Brandywine Creek
· September 21 at Paoli
· September 26 at Philadelphia
· October 4 at Germantown
§ The Continental Congress fled to the town of York while the British occupied Philadelphia
§ Washington and his forces settled in at Valley Forge for the winter after the various victories
§ Though the British won many victories during the two years of war their strategy for suppressing the Revolution was judged a failure
o The French Alliance and the Spanish Borderlands
§ During the first two years of fighting Americans were sustained by loans from France and Spain
§ Ben Franklin was sent by Congress to Paris as a delegate for America and he was successful in negotiating recognition of American independence, a Franco-American alliance, and multiple loans
§ In England Whig opposition argued against the war
§ France signed a the Treaty of Alliance with the US
§ The treaty states:
· France is to aid America in war
· Neither party shall enter into a treaty with Britain without consent of the other
· France guarantees the US all of the northern parts of America and other “conquests” gained by the war
· The US promised to recognize French acquisition of British islands in the West Indies
§ In March 1777 the French ambassador formally notifies Britain of the treaty
§ Fighting between France and Britain broke out in June
§ A year later Spain entered the war
§ The Spanish had their own independent fight against the British fearing the threat Americans posed to New Spain
§ The French like the Spanish feared an independent American nation and the French ambassador arrived with orders to prevent American expansion
§ Worried of the consequences of French involvement Lord North sent a peace commissioner wish promises to repeal the legislation that caused the war, but the attempt was 3 years too late
§ Britain rethought its strategy, sent 5,000 troops to the Caribbean, and evacuated Philadelphia in June 1778
§ The American-French forces pushed the British all the way back to New York, but after a defeat at Newport, Rhode Island, Washington decided on a defensive strategy and the war in the northeast went into a stall
o Indian People and the Revolution in the West
§ At the start of the war both sides had managed to solicit Indian support, but many tribes did not want to become involved in the conflict
§ The British managed to persuade the Indians the best and most Indians that did fight in the war fought on the side of Great Britain
§ The Indians along with the British attacked in the southern and northern fronts, and then the Americans counterattacked the Iroquois homelands
§ Many frontier towns were destroyed by constant attacks by Indians
o The War in the South
§ The most intense fighting of the war occurred in the South
§ This was due to a massive number of loyalists and the number of slaves who left to join the British side to gain freedom
§ The British strategy was to take town by town and then turn it over to Loyalist control
§ The British endured a lose at Charleston, but then quickly regained victory against General Horatio’s force and eventually the resistance in the south faded
§ When Cornwallis decided to move his base to Yorktown instead of the Carolinas the Patriots were able to regain control of the Lower South
o Yorktown
§ The American forces under Washington and the French forces under General Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau defeat the British
§ On October 19, 1781, between lines of victorious American and Frnech troops Cornwallis’s second-in-command (because he was “ill”) surrendered to George Washington
o Introduction
§ The Articles of Confederation was the first written government of the US
§ It created a weak government with almost no power
o The Articles of Confederation
§ In the November of 1777, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Articles of Confederation
§ The Articles set up a national assembly called Congress in which each state had one vote and one representative who was chosen in a manner determined by the state legislatures and that representative could serve no more than three years out of six
§ A presiding president was picked by Congress every year and could only serve one year out of three
§ All issues would be decided by a simple majority, except for major issues which required 9 votes
§ Congress had authority in:
· The conduct of foreign affairs
· Matters of war and peace
· Maintenance of the armed forces
§ Congress could:
· Raise loans
· Issue bills of credit
· Establish coinage
· Regulate trade with Indian nations
· Be the final authority in jurisdictional debates between states
· Establish a national postal system
· Establish a weights and measures system
§ 12 state legislatures voted for the Articles, but ratification was held up for 3 years by Maryland
· Maryland demanded that 8 states with western claims cede the land to Congress “for the good of the whole”
· The States refused to do that
· In 1781 when Virginia, who had the most westward claims, promised to cede its land Maryland ratified the Articles
§ The Articles took effect in March of 1781
o Financing the War
§ Congress borrows $9 million from allies
§ Prints $200 million in paper money
§ Asks the states to raise taxes to cover the debt
§ The states refuse to raise taxes and print altogether $200 million of state currency
§ Robert Morris becomes secretary of finance in May 1781 and persuades Congress to create a “Bank of North America” funded $30 million by Holland and France to deal with the crisis
o Negotiating Independence
§ Peace talks between Britain and the US open in July 1782 when Ben Franklin sat down with the British emissary in Paris
§ Congress issued its first war aims in 1779 asking for:
· The largest territorial limits, including Canada
· Withdrawal of British troops
· Recognition of American independence
· American rights to fish in North Atlantic waters
§ In June 1781 due to French pressure Congress issued a new set of instructions: to settle for only the removal of British troops and the recognition of independence and for the peace commissioners to be subject to the guidance and control of the French during negotiations
§ Britain and the US negotiate a preliminary treaty in Paris behind France’s back to ensure that the US gets better negotiation terms
§ France signed a treaty with Britain when it hear of the agreement fearing an American-British alliance
§ Spain claimed sovereignty over much of the trans-Appalachian territory granted to the US and made a separate treaty with Britain to regain Florida
§ The actual Treaty of Paris—many separate treaties between the US, France, Spain, and Britain—was signed at Versailles on September 3, 1783
o The Crisis of Demobilization
§ During the two years between surrender at Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris there was still wartime tensions and many soldiers had long awaited pay and were worried about postwar bounties and land warrents promised to them by Congress
§ In January 1783 some prominent senior officers, associated with General Horatio Gates, petition Congress to get a bonus equal to 5 years pay and plan a military coup
§ Washington calls a meeting of his officers, gives an emotional speech talking them out of a military coup, and urges Congress to pay the bonuses
§ In May 1783, Congress pays the bonuses equal to 3 months pay, the Continental Army disbands, and by the start of 1784 the Army was no more than a few hundred men
o The Problem of the West
§ After Yorktown, the British left the West for the new United States, abandoning their Indian alllies. The Iroquois and the Ohio tribes, who had fought with the British, did not consider themselves defeated, but the US thought that their victory extended over the natives as well. The US began to press these tribes for land, including tribes that had fought with the Patriots, such as the allied Oneida.
§ Thousands of settlers migrated even during the war, and afterwards thousands more poured over the Appalachian mountains and down the Ohio River. They clashed with Indan tribes in the country north of the Ohio River, and British troops still stationed in the Northwest encouraged Indian attacks on the settlements. Spain, who refused to accept the territory settlements of the Treaty of Paris, closed the Mississippi to Americans, enraging traders.
§ John Jay, appointed secretary for foreign affairs by the Confederation Congress of 1784, tried to negotiate with the British to withdraw from the Northwest and with the Spanish for guarantees of territorial sovereignty and commercial relations. The British said they could not until outstanding debt from before the war was settled and the Spanish insisted the US give up free navigation of the Mississippi. Congress would agree to neither. Many Westerners considered leaving the Confederation, some advocating joining the British, and others such as George Rogers Clark and General James Williamson worked for the Spanish as spies and informants. In the west, local interests took precendence over national community sentiment.
§ In 1784, Congress drafted legislation (primarily written by Jefferson) to provide for the "Government of the Western Territory" that would allow the territories to draft their own constitution and government once its population reached 20,000 and become a state once its population reached the smallest of the original thirteen, provided it forever remain a part of the Confederation. Congress accepted these proposals, but rejected by a vote of seven to six a clause prohibiting slavery in the West.
§ The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for the survey and sale of western lands, dividing the land into townships of 36 sq. miles (640 acres) each. Jefferson argued that the land should be given to settlers, but the land was instead to be auctioned for no less than one dollar per acre. The treaties of Fort Stanwix in 1784 and Fort McIntosh in 1785 forced the Iroquois and Ohio Indians to cede some of their land by seizing hostages and forcing the tribes to comply. Congress, desperate for cash, sold 1.5 million acres for 1 million dollars to the Ohio Company before the lands went up for sale tp the public.
§ Thousands of Westerners did not wait for the official opening of the land north of the Ohio River and instead illegally settled. Congress forced them off the land in 1785 after raising troops and evicting them, but the squatters returned after the troops left, leading Congress to revise Jefferson's territorial plan.
§ In the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Congress created a governemnt for the Northwest Territory. Three to five states were to be carved from the territory. Slavery was prohibited. However, self-governance was replaced by the rule of congressionally appointed court of judges and a governor until the population had grown to 5,000 free white males, who could then petition for an assembly, though the governor would retain absolute veto power. This territory included the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Congress chose Arthur St. Clair, president of the Ohio Company, to be the Territory's first governor.
· Revolutionary Politics in the States
o The Broadened Base of Politics
§ The political mobilization of 1774 and 1775 greatly broadened public participation. A greater proportion of the population began to participate in elections, and the new state legislatures contained more men from rural and western districts compared to colonial assemblies. In Massachusetts, for example, many delegates were men from farming communities who lacked formal education and owned little property.
§ The political debate, which once revolved around the Tories (pro-monarchy) and the Whigs (pro-republic), changed to radical democrats challenging Whig positions, the Tories having lost legitimacy following the Revolution.
§ The 1776 pamphlet The People are the Best Governors argued that power should be vested in a single elected assembly with no property qualifications for voting or holding office, with the governor serving only to carry out the wishes of the people and the judges popularly elected and reviewed by the assembly. The ideal government was one where people set their own taxes, mustered the local militia, operated their own schools and churches, and regulated the local economy in community or town meetings. National government was necessary only for coordination.
§ Conservatives took on the Whig argument to separate government from popular control by a strong executive and upper house. Political positions would be insulated by instituting property qualifications for office to prevent majority tyranny.
o The First State Constitutions
§ Fourteen states—the original thirteen and Vermont—adopted constitutions between 1776 and 1780, each shaped by the debate between radicals and conservatives. Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York represented the political range.
§ In Pennsylvania, the majority of conservatives had been Loyalists, so the resulting government was very democratic. There was a unicameral assembly elected annually by all free male taxpayers, open to the public with roll-call votes, and with an elected executive committee instead of a governor. Judges served at the pleasure of the assembly.
§ Maryland’s constitution was written by conservatives, who placed property requirements on office that left only 10 percent of the men eligible to serve in the assembly and 7 percent in the senate. Governors controlled a strongly centralized government. They and judges served for life. Georgia, Vermont, and North Carolina followed Pennsylvania’s example, while South Carolina was much like Maryland.
§ New York’s constitutional convention included many democrats, but conservatives such as John jay, Gouverneur Morris, and Robert R. Livingston produced a document that reflected Whig principles while appealing to the people, creating a bicameral legislature with stiff property requirements for the upper house, which was apportioned by wealth instead of population. This reflected a document that had as much conservative ideals in it as possible. New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Massachusetts also mixed democratic and conservative elements.
o Declarations of Rights
§ The Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason, ensured certain “inherent rights, …namely the enjoyment of life and liberty” and that sovereignty resided with the people, that government was the servant of the people, and that the people had the right to reform, alter, or abolish their government. It also ensured civil liberties such as trial by jury, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.
§ Other state constitutions included similar declarations, some incorporating specific guarantees. These declarations would form the precedent for the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.
o A Spirit of Reform
§ The 1776 Constitution of New Jersey inadvertently granted women the right to vote, leading to male protests that limited the vote to “free while male citizens.”
§ The Revolution did not change women’s role in society from a legal and political perspective, but it did change expectations.
§ Thomas Jefferson, who joined the Virginia House of Delegates after drafting the Declaration of Independence, introduced a bill abolishing the law of entails (inheritance law) and introducing theBill for Establishing Religious Freedom.
§ Many states maintained a close tie between church and state, supporting certain congregations and retaining religious tests in their legal codes.
§ Thomas Jefferson introduced further reforms, none of which passed. Jefferson and the Revolutionary generation raised questions rather than accomplished reform, leaving penal reform, education, and slavery as problems for later generations to solve.
o A Spirit of Reform
§ African Americans had little to celebrate in an American victory which perpetuated slavery. Many fled to the West Indies, Canada, and Africa with the Loyalists and British following the end of the war. In Virginia alone, 30,000 slaves fled.
§ The Revolution raised a contradiction of waging a war for liberty while slavery continued. Revolutionary ideals and the shift away from tobacco led to a weakening of slavery, with many freeing their slaves or providing for gradual emancipation. All states except for Georgia and South Carolina prohibited or heavily taxed international slave trading between 1776 and 1786.
§ The free black population grew following the Revolution. Though excluded from white society, the African American community now had enough strength to establish its own schools, churches, and other institutions, though this was opposed by white Americans.
§ By 1804, every Northern state provided for the abolition or gradual emancipation of slaves, though 30,000 African Americans remained enslaved by 1810.
§ A small group of African American writers rose to prominence during the Revolution, such as Benjamin Banneker (astronomer and mathematician), Jupiter Hammon (poet and essayist), and most famously Phyllis Wheatley, celebrated poet.
AP Questions
1. E
2. B
3. E
4. E
5. A
6. C
7. D
8. B
9. A
10. C
11. E
12. B
13. A
14. D
North American Communities from Coast to Coast
· The Former American Colonies
o Great population growth in U.S.A.: 1790-1800 pop grew 3.9 mil. to 5.3 mil.
o From 1800-1850, huge territorial expansion, from sea to sea in fifty years.
· Spanish Colonies
o Tensions mounted between peninsulares and criollos.
o Spanish established a chain of 21 missions in a last effort to protect Mexico.
o American traders were making inroads on Spanish-held territory along the Mississippi River.
· Haiti and the Caribbean
o Provided 80-90% of European sugar.
o French colony, Saint-Domingue, black slave revolt in 1791.
o Led by L’Ouverture, the colony was renamed Haiti and became NA’s first independent black nation.
o This revolt scared white slave owners and sent hope to enslaved peoples.
· British North America
o British NA is mostly just Canada
§ Population was mostly French with some loyalists that were kicked out of U.S.
o The govt. in Canada reflected lessons learned in the colonies.
· Russian America
o Rapidly expanding presence in Alaska and the Northwest.
o Fur Trade on Aleutian Islands fueled expansion.
o Americans did not really care since they were distracted by the Brits in Canada.
· Trans-Appalachia: Cincinnati
o People moved to the Ohio River system for fertile land.
o Due to an increasing population the area earned state hood
§ Kentucky- 1792
§ Tennessee- 1796
o Migration was a principal feature of American life,
§ From 1790 to 1800 1/3 of the homes on the Atlantic coast had moved.
o Cincinnati was a good representation of then rapid growth seen during this time period; it’s pop. tripled from 1800-10.
o This was also a key location, because goods could be sent downstream to N.O.
· Atlantic Ports: From Charleston to Boston
o Despite the migrations seen at this time, Atlantic Ports were still the centers of trade, since most merchants found it easier to cross the Atlantic than to travel inward the country.
o Important Ports:
§ Charleston
§ Baltimore
§ Philadelphia
§ New York
§ Boston
o The cities led the nation politically, socially, and economically.
A National Economy
· Cotton and the Economy of the Young Republic (1800)
o Predominantly rural
o 94% of Americans lived in communities of less than 2500 people
o Crops were grown for home use rather than sale
· Shipping and the Economic Boom (1793-1807)
o French Revolution started war between France and Britain.
o American merchants wanted to sell to both sides.
o Expansion of trade led to the development of the shipbuilding industry and the growth of coastal cities.
The Jefferson Presidency
· Republican Agrarianism
o Jefferson:
§ “life, liberty and . . . the pursuit of happiness”
§ American could achieve a republican form of govt. because it had room to grow.
o Thomas Malthus:
§ Warned of population explosion
§ TJ said we have enough room
o Agrarian Republic- a nation of small family farms clustered together in rural communities.
o Jefferson’s agrarianism led to unstable and constantly mobile groups rather than stable communities. Also fostered ruthlessness towards Indians who were pushed out of the way to make room for white settlers.
· Jefferson’s Government
o Promised to:
§ cut all internal taxes
§ reduce the size of the army (4000 to 2500 men) and the Navy (25 to 7 ships)
§ eliminate the national debt
o Wanted to cut Govt.
o Federal Govt. covered very little (mostly just mail); states did most of the work
o Washington was small because the govt. couldn’t get the money they thought they would get from land sales.
· An Independent Judiciary
o Marbury v. Madison
o Case sparked by Jefferson’s refusal to recognize Adam’s ‘midnight judges”
o Justice Marshall ruled that the duty of the courts was “to say what the law is.”
o Ruling made the Supreme Court a powerful nationalizing force.
· Opportunity: The Louisiana Purchase
o Napoleon v. Britain started in 1799 with Napoleon’s rise ended with his defeat at waterloo 1815.
o Napoleon secretly got back Louisiana from Spain and wanted to conquer Haiti.
o 1802: Jeff. sent Robert Livingston to buy NO from France for $2-10 mil.
o Bargaining did not go well, but then Napoleon’s army in Haiti was destroyed by yellow fever and an army of former slaves led by Toussaint L’Ouverture.
o Napoleon then offered the entire LA territory rather than just NO. Monroe and Livingston accepted the offer for $15 mil.
· Incorporating Louisiana
o Louisiana (especially NO) was very diverse and so the Americans did not know what to do with them all.
o The people of LA insisted that they be recognized a having all of the same rights as an American citizen and that their property and beliefs be respected.
o Originally the Americans wanted to eliminate the culture of LA and plug in their own, but instead it became a fusion of 2 cultures, American and French.
o The governor of lower LA, William Claiborne, adopted a legal code in 1808 that was based on French civil law rather than English common law. LA became the first slave state attained from the LA purchase in 1812.
· Texas and the Struggle for Mexican Independence
o When France took over Spain Mexico divided into royalists and populists.
o Revolts
§ 1810- Led by Father Miguel Hidalgo- Defeated by royalists
§ 1813- Led by Father Jose Maria Morelos- Defeated by royalists
§ 1812- Led by Bernardo Gutierrez- Invaded Texas, captured San Antonio, and killed gov. Salcedo, and declared Texas independent; One year later they were defeated by royalists
Renewed Imperial Rivalry in North America
· Problems of Neutral Rights
o The Brits were mad at Americans because Americans wanted to stay Neutral and trade with everyone so they to U.S. Ships that were trading with France.
o About ¼ of British sailors started to sail on American ships.
o American citizens were forced into impressments in the British Navy.
o A British ship, the Leopard, stopped a U.S. ship, the Chesapeake, and demanded to search for deserters, but when the captain of the U.S. ship refused they opened fire.
· The Embargo Act
o Imposed by Jefferson in 1807
o Forbade American ships from sailing to foreign ports
o Intended to force Britain and France to recognize Neutral rights
o Act was Economic disaster for the U.S.
· Madison and Failure of “Peaceable Coercion”
o Jefferson hands presidency to Madison after failing to achieve “peaceable coercion”
o Embargo Act= total failure
§ French used it as an excuse to capture U.S. ships (claiming they were British ships in disguise)
§ British open new markets in South America because of U.S. absence
§ U.S. economy was devastated
§ Repealed in 1809
o More Acts, like Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 and Macon’s Bill #2 in 1810, were passed, but also failed to solve the issue of neutrality.
· A Contradictory Indian Policy
o Indians were resisting westward American expansion
o Americans weren’t supposed to take Indian land unless it was acquired in a treaty (Indian Intercourse Act of 1790), but settlers pushed anyway.
o Cycle of invasion, resistance, and defeat for Indians
o Jeff. wanted to “civilize” them (teach them to read and make them Christians)
§ Jeff’s plan found little support from settlers and territorial govs.
o Jeff set aside land further back for Indians after the LA purchase, but less than 20 yrs later white settlers were at their doorsteps again
o The Indians, once again backed into a corner, split between Accommodationists (wanted to adapt their life style to live with the White man) and traditionalists (wanted nothing to do with the White man)
· Indian Resistance
o William Henry Harrison tricked the Indians into 15 treaties through coercion and bribery.
o In 1805 Tenskwatawa, AKA The Prophet, preached a message of Indian revitalization; a rejection of all contact with the White man
o Tecumseh molds his brother’s religious massage into the Pan-Indian military resistance movement, which called the Indian tribes to join together in cultural and political unity to resist the White man. Also got British support from Canada (Ironic since his brother said no contact with the White man)
o Tecumseh argued for Indian land back, and said that settlers that stepped on their land would risk their lives.
o Tecumseh’s people and Harrison’s people fought and while Harrison won the casualties each side faced were about the same.
The War of 1812
· The War Hawks
o Members of congress from the south and west, who pushed for war against the Brits after their election in 1810; also wanted to steal Florida so slave could not run there
o The Brits were about to adopt a more conciliatory policy towards the U.S. ships, but then Madison declared war in June 1812
o The War of 1812
§ Went from June 1812 to Jan. 1815 and split the Govt. by party.
§ U.S. army and navy was small and weak compared to the British
§ Brits burned Washington in summer 1814
§ Key wrote “Star Spangled Banner” while watching the U.S. beat back a British attack on Baltimore and Fort McHenry
§ U.S. navy saw few successes among them, Constitution defeated the Guerriere and theJava, 2 British men-of-war.
· The Campaigns Against the Northern and Southern Indians
o While the Americans envisaged a quick victory over the British-Indian alliance, but instead they were defeated.
o Brit-Indians took Detroit and Fort Dearborn in August, 1812 after repulsing an American foray in July.
o In Sept. 1813 U.S. Captain Oliver Perry took Lake Erie at the Battle of Put-in-Bay, which led to the recapture of Detroit by Harrison.
o Perry and Harrison defeated British and Indian defenders in the Battle of Thames in Oct. 1813.
o The Brits and the Americans fought to invade each other in the Niagara area.
o 3 reasons for Failure
§ Brit-Indian force was stronger than we thought
§ New England states didn’t approve of the war
§ Canada really did not want to become part of the U.S.
o Southern Indians started to fight like in the Northwest
§ they were divided on what to do accommodation v. tradition
§ Some like Red Sticks joined the Brits
o 1813 and 1814: Andrew Jackson v. The Red Sticks. Red Sticks were attacking Creeks that sided with the U.S.
o At the end of the War in 1814 Jackson demanded land concessions from the Creeks; he wanted more than half their land (about 23 million acres).
o Battle of NO 1815; Jacksons most famous victory’ he won improbably over veteran British soldiers, after the Treaty was signed
· The Hartford Convention
o Federalists did not like War of 1812.
o At 1st there were threats of Secession, but cooler heads took charge and insisted that states had the power of Nullification, The doctrine that states had the right to ignore federal laws within their borders.
o These nullification threats were ignored, because of the announcement of peace with Britain
· The Treaty of Ghent
o Treaty signed in December 1814 in Ghent, Belgium.
o Brits agreed to evacuate western posts and abandoned the insistence on a buffer state for neutral Indian peoples.
o Although there was no real winner the Battle of NO made America think they had won and the war stopped the British from thinking of the U.S. as a colony.
o War of 1812 was the most divisive war; more opposition than even Vietnam.
o The Indians were the only real losers in the War
§ Tecumseh died in the Battle of Thames-1813
§ Southern Creeks were defeated-1814
§ The Brits abandoned them in the Treaty of Ghent-1814
§ The U.S. was once again pushing into them-1815
Defining the Boundaries
· Another Westward Surge
o Population Redistribution
§ 1790: 95% in ocean bordering states
§ 1820: 25% west of Appalachians
o Reasons for Westward Surge
§ Population nearly doubled; needed “elbow room” so they moved west (5.3 mil to 9.6 mil)
§ Indians weren’t a problem because of war of 1812
§ Land Ordinance of 1785 made western land really expensive—nobody moved there so Congress was forced to make it cheaper. Squatters took land before it was open for sale then asked for “preemption” rights to buy the land at a lower price. Land Act of 1820, Congress gave in and sold it cheap(1.25 $/acre)
o 4 Migration Routes
§ New York: Mohawk and Genesee Turnpike leads to Lake Erie
§ Turnpike from Philidelphia to Pittsburgh + National Road led to Ohio River
§ South: Wilderness Road leads to Kentucky +Tenessee
§ South Carolina + Georgia: Federal Road leads to Alabama + Mississippi
§ Geography decided where you went.
o Moses Cleaveland settles Cleveland in 1795.
o Northerners bring their religion, education, and opposition to slavery.
o South made their slaves clear the land so it could be farmed. After 1812 half of the Migrants to the Southwest were slaves.
o New states in the west did not create new political regions, because people that moved brought their politics with them.
· The Election of 1816 and the Era of Good Feeling
o James Monroe elected in 1816; Last of Virginia Dynasty; beat Federalist Rufus King (183 to 34); 1820 won again against nobody (231 to 1).
o Convinced Colombian Centinel to proclaim an “Era of Good Feeling.” The phrase is applied to Monroe’s presidency(1817-25)
· The American System
o Monroe wanted a balanced cabinet, so he took people from different political views from different parts of the country.
o Supported the American System, a program of govt. subsidies used to promote American economic growth and protect domestic manufacturers from foreign competition.
o The federal govt. played a role in assuring people an economy in which they can succeed.
o In 1816, Congress chartered the Second Bank of the United States, they had extensive regulatory powers over currency and credit, for 20 years.
o Commercial Interests began to rival farmers
o The Tariff of 1816 was the 1st substantial protective tariff in U.S. history. Put in tariff because they thought the British that had come there to open markets were selling products cheap, because they wanted to hinder U.S. industry.
o Internal improvements (roads, and canals) were controversial. Madison and Monroe only wanted to fund interstate roads. Things like the Erie Canal were funded by state and private money.
o Three parts of the American system—bank, tariff, and roads.
· The Diplomacy of John Quincy Adams
o The diplomatic achievements of the Era of Good Feelings were due almost entirely to the efforts of john Quincy Adams.
o Fixed issues with the Brits
§ Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817 and Convention of 1818
§ U.S.-Canada border became 49th parallel
§ settled dispute over Oregon
o Adams-Onis/Transcontinental Treaty of 1819 We gave $5 mil and Texas; Spain gave Florida, claims to Louisiana, and Oregon.
o Adams drew up the Monroe Doctrine. The President presented it in 1823 to congress. The Monroe Doctrine said that the U.S. would not intervene in the affairs of other countries and that the U.S. would consider it a threat to their safety if any European nation colonized the “New World.”
o The U.S. did not have the power to back up its threat, but the Brits did, and that’s what kept the Europeans out of the “New World.” Despite this, the Monroe Doctrine did help Adams talk with the Russians to give us the Oregon territory up to the54”40’ line.
o Achievements of the Era
§ Russian Expansion Contained
§ Peace with Britain
§ U.S. much larger
o All thanks to Adams
· The Panic of 1819
o First major financial crisis in the United States
o Marked the end of the economic expansion that had followed the War of 1812 and ushered in new financial policies that would shape economic development
o Caused by bad loans for land purchases during a land buying explosion (1 mil acres in 1815 to 3.5 mil acres in 1818)
o Workers were further harmed by British competition.
o Southern planters protested over harm by the protective tariff (cotton prices were low even though imports were high). They also questioned the fairness of the political system.
o The Panic of 1819 showed how far the country had come since the Jeff. Presidency.
· The Missouri Compromise
o 1820: Admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
o Dealt with the issue of slavery in newly acquired territory.
o Henry Clay played a key role in reaching compromise.
o Maine entered the Union as a slave state.
1. B
2. E
3. D
4. B
5. E
6. A
7. D
8. B
9. D
10. E
11. C
12. B
13. A
14. B
Natchez-Under-The-Hill
o A tax of $10 per flatboat, designed to rid the wharf district of Natchez-Under-the-Hill in Mississippi of poor flatboatmen, causes protests from those whose cargoes were confiscated for being unable to pay the tax. The militia is called up and disperses the protest.
o Europeans did not settle Natchez land until 1720, when the French established the port Fort Rosalie and destroyed the Natchez, the fort becoming a major trading site on the Mississippi.
o The Spanish took control of Fort Rosalie in 1763, moved the town up a bluff away from floodwaters, and renamed the port Natchez-Under-the-Hill. It was taken by the Americans in 1798.
o The port became known as the last stop before New Orleans and was a site of racial intermingling, ‘
o The town of Natchez became home to planter aristocrats, whose livelihoods were sustained by slavery. They were wary of the multiracial Under-the-Hill, and in November 1837 issued a threat to the “gamblers, pimps, and whores” twenty-four hours to evacuate.
o Under-the-Hill, with its racial and social mixing, threatened the slave-owner’s system of control that relied on control and clear distinctions between free whites and enslaved blacks.
King Cotton and Southern Expansion
To Be a Slave
The African American Community
The White Majority
Planters
· Small Slave Owners
o The largest group of slave owners were yeomen farmers who tried to make the switch from subsistence farming to commercial production, which require slaves. However, gaining capital for more slaves was difficult. Yeomen often used slaves for farm work while they worked another job, worked with the slaves in the field, or hired out their slaves to other planters.
o The owner was economically vulnerable: a drop in cotton prices or poor crop could force an owner to sell his slaves. This began again when good times returned, but the roller-coaster economy and the Panic of 1837 sharply limited upward mobility.
o Middle-class professionals—lawyers, doctors, merchants—became large slave owners because they had capital (their pay) to invest in land and slaves. These men owned skilled slaves and rented them out. They slowly made their way into the slave-owning elite and confirmed their position by marrying their children into the aristocracy.
· The Planter Elite
o The 2.5 percent who owned fifty slaves or more enjoyed prestige, political leadership, and a lifestyle many envied. Most inherited their wealth. Planters learned how to appeal to the popular vote, as smaller slave owners made up the clear majority in state legislatures.
o The eastern seaboard had given rise to a class of rich planters in the colonial period, ranging from land-rich to labor-poor planters like Thomas Chaplin to rich planters like Nathaniel Heyward who, through wealthy marriages and land purchases, amassed 45,000 acres and over 2,000 slaves.
o As slave owning spread westward, membership in the elite grew to include the new wealth of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The rich planters of the Natchez community were popularly called “nabobs” (from a Hindi word for wealthy Europeans in India).
o Natchez, the richest county in the nation in 1850, fostered an elite lifestyle of new money rather than tradition.
· Plantation Life
o Wealthy planters lived in isolation with their families and slaves. Family networks, boarding schools, politics, and frequent visiting modeled the English aristocracy as understood by Southerners. Men were expected to be masculine and women feminine.
o Slaves had to be forced to support this system. Plantations aimed to be self-sufficient, which required many hands and extensive management, often taking direct financial control or exercising power over their subordinates.
o The planters developed paternalism to justify slavery by portraying the plantation as a family, with the master as the head and the mistress as the “helpmate.” Planters imagined this to be a benevolent system, and expected gratitude from their slaves.
· The Plantation Mistress
o Paternalism force plantation mistresses into positions of responsibility but no authority.
o Mistresses spent their lives “tending” family members, including slaves, and supervising daily tasks such as sewing, cooking, etc. She was also expected to act as hostess.
o Husbands controlled the plantation—if a wife challenged the paternalistic system, why shouldn’t slaves?
o Plantation wives “suffered” from isolation from friends and family because of their responsibilities. Husbands traveled extensively for politics and business.
o Though some southern women railed against “the curse of slavery,” they referred to their own responsibilities rather than slavery itself, and few white women understood the suffering of their slaves.
· Coercion and Violence
o Most slave owners believed that force was necessary to make slaves work.
o Slave owners often sexually abused their female slaves, violating both law and their own paternalism. Sometimes, relationships formed (such as in the case of TJ and Sally Hemings), but most slave women had little hope of escaping the abuse.
o Masters rarely acknowledged their illegitimate children and mistresses were silent based on their subordinate position in society.
o Plantation owners held absolute power, often abusing it. The credit for saving humanity belongs not to white paternalism but to African Americans and their communities.
The Defense of Slavery
· Developing Proslavery Arguments
o The South developed justifications for slavery based on the Bible and the histories of Greece and Rome. They also used a legal argument, that the Constitution recognized slavery, which it did, due to the compromises made at the Convention.
o Denmark Vesey’s conspiracy, occurring two years after the Missouri Crisis of 1819-20, alarmed Southerners to anti-slavery talk. Legislation jailed black seamen as they came into the Charleston, Charlestonians believing they were spreading antislavery.
o Nat Turner’s rebellion was blamed on “Yankee peddlers and traders” with antislavery opinions. The South’s attitude, which the North viewed as paranoid, was based on the idea that anything that challenged the master-slave relationship was a threat to the entire system.
· After Nat Turner
o The South closed ranks on slavery, due to Nat Turner’s rebellion, the publication of William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator newspaper in 1831, the emancipation of British West Indian slaves in 1834 (too close to home for most Southerners), and the 1831 Nullification Crisis. Southerner’s felt that the federal government had no right to interfere with their states’ rights (slavery) and militantly defended them.
o The South rejected antislavery propaganda and began passing legislation to ban teaching slaves how to read or write to limit the effect of propaganda, restricted gatherings or social activity without whites present, made insurrection a capital offense, and limited the rights of free blacks.
o The South introduced a “gag rule” in Washington to limit debate on slavery and pressured dissenters to remain silent or leave. Christian ministers received the greatest pressure to conform, who preached obedience as a way to make slavery humane.
o The South fueled fears of a pro-slave South surrounded by anti-slave states and riots by freed black slaves.
o The South moved beyond defensiveness to promote slavery as a benevolent institution and a necessity. They contrasted Southern slavery with Northern wage slavery, saying slavery was bound by “a community of interests” compared to Northern selfishness.
· Changes in the South
o It became more difficult to become a slaveowner as the price of owning a slave rose. Slaveowning decreased from 36% to 25% from 1830 to 1860. Slaves were increasingly sold from the Upper South to the Lower South, showing regional differences as the Upper South economy began to diversify.
o Slavery decreased in southern cities. Urban slaves often had daily contact with poor whites and freedmen, and often were hired out or hired themselves out, making their labor indistinguishable from Northern “free labor.” Planters viewed the cities with suspicion.
o Increased commercialization of agriculture (causing rising land prices) made it difficult for poor whites to own land. Yeomen, exposed to the market economy by expanding railroads, worried that banks, railroads, and activist state governments would threaten their independence.
o Hinton Helper published The Impending Crisis in 1857, attacking slavery, and indicated the growing tensions between the haves and the have-nots in the South.
o Despite the changes, the South remained fixed in its defense of slavery, ending debate on alternative labor systems and stifling national cooperation.
1. In the years following the American Revolution:
c. large scale cotton production and the slave system on which it depended made the South quite different from the North.
“a” is not correct since slavery began long before the Revolution.
“b” is not correct as the slave system was growing stronger even before the Purchase.
“d” is not correct as it is a blanket statement, but it is partially correct (see Missouri Compromise).
“e” is not correct as Southern farmers did support slavery, despite not being wealthy themselves
2. A crucial element in the rapid growth of cotton production between 1790 and mid 1840:
b. was the development of the mechanical reaper to harvest the valuable crop. (Supposedly, but the cotton gin isn’t a reaper, but the other answers just don’t fit.)
“a” is not correct as textile mills were concentrated in the North and overseas in Britain
“c” is not correct as cotton was expanding long before Texas.
“d” could be correct, if we count the gin as a “new farming technique”
“e” could also be correct, as the Industrial Revolution in Britain opened a market for Southern cotton
3. As a result of large-scale cotton production in the South:
a. capital in the region was concentrated in land and slaves.
“b” is not correct as the Southern elite continually concentrated land and slaves into their hands.
“c” is not correct as the use of slave labor discouraged innovation
“d” is not correct for the same reason as b.
“e” is not correct for the same reason as c.
4. In the cotton-producing South:
e. a viable but often vulnerable African-American community developed
“a” is not correct as the rise of cotton concentrated slaves into groups of ten or more on plantations.
“b” is not correct as Ohio was a free state
“c” is not correct as only a small number of elite families owned many slaves.
“d” is not correct as the slave trade officially ended in the states on January 1, 1808.
5. The organization of slave labor on large plantations came to be known as:
b. the gang system.
6. Within the slaves’ world:
d. a diversity of occupations and circumstances developed
“a” is not correct as slaves were often separated into skilled, house, and field slaves.
“b” is not correct as labor roles often mixed.
“c” is not correct as house slaves often had contact with other whites.
“e” is not correct as children were taken as the property of the master.
7. One result of the slaves’ existence was:
d. the development of strong familial and non-kinship relationships.
“a” is not correct as it’s wrong.
“b” is partially correct, but not the point of the question.
“c” is not correct as slaves often took parts of white culture.
“e” is partially correct, but d is more correct.
8. Black Christianity was a religion that:
c. provided a sense of spiritual freedom that profoundly shaped slave culture.
“a” is not correct as Christianity first gained a foothold during the first Great Awakening and swept through the South in the Second Great Awakening of the 1790s.
“b” is not correct as it incorporated elements of African culture.
“d” is not correct as Black Christianity rejected those principles.
“e” is not correct as it did not preach militancy, but spiritual freedom and eventual salvation.
9. In the South during the years prior to 1850:
e. free African Americans experienced tremendous social and racial discrimination.
“a” is not correct as racial equality was not practiced in the Western territories.
“b” is not correct as some free blacks were employed in a wide range of occupations.
“c” is not correct as social equality simply didn’t happen.
“d” is not correct for the same reason as b.
10. From 1790 until the 1840s:
b. the largest group of slave owners were small independent farmers hoping to improve their economic circumstances.
“a” is not correct as 30-50 percent of white men were landless, with the rest having only small farms.
“c” is not correct as only 36% of white men owned slaves.
“d” is not correct as 75% of slaves lived in groups of ten or more.
“e” is not correct in that the relationship was reversed.
11. The ideology that Southerners developed to rationalize their treatment of slaves was:
b. paternalism.
12. One of the most striking things about the Southern slave system was:
a. just how compassionate most white people really were to slaves =D =D =D
No explanations. All objections are moot.
12. One of the most striking things about the Southern slave system was:
d. how much humanity survived despite the awful brutality of slavery.
“a” is not correct because we aren’t crazy stupid.
“b” is subjective. The book is just a little (read: the Klan is at work!) too apologetic.
“c” is not correct because, again, we’re not stupid.
“e” is not correct because TJ didn’t know how to keep his frock out of other frocks.
13. Beginning in the 1830s:
a. the defense of slavery became the overwhelming current in Southern Society.
14. As the United States approached the 1850s:
e. the South began a defense system to protect itself against Northern hostility to slavery.
· Martin Van Buren Forges a New Kind of Political Community
o Dewitt Clinton
o Bucktail faction – Albany Regency
o New York Constitutional Convention of 1821
§ Eliminates patronage
§ Expanded manhood suffrage (4/5 of white men)
· The New Democratic Politics in North America
o Introduction
§ Early years of the 19th century were a time of extraordinary growth and change for many countries in the Americas including the US
§ American embrace of popular democracy was unusual because elsewhere crises over popular rights dominated
o Continental Struggles Over Popular Rights
§ 1821 – Mexico achieves independence from Spain
· Originally Mexico was a constitutional monarchy under Colonel Agustin de Iturbide
o The constitutional monarchy was short lived with Iturbide ruling as Emperor of Mexico for little more than a year
· The Constitution of 1824 created a federal republic which gave the president extraordinary power in times of emergency and gave the Catholic Church a powerful political role
· General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna – president 1833-1853
o National hero saving Mexico from a Spanish invasion in 1829 and overthrowing an unpopular dictatorship in 1832
o Loses Texas 1836
o More territorial loss to US in 1848 – Mexican Cession – result of Mexican-American War
§ Haiti gained independence in 1804 setting the pattern for events in many other Caribbean islands
§ Britain abolishes slavery in their American colonies (Jamaica, Barbados, etc.)
§ Canada rebelled against Great Britain in 1837 because of the limited representation imposed on them in the Constitutional Act of 1791
· Act of Union 1840 – eliminates lower and upper Canada – establishes the Province of Canada
§ Spanish Cuba – sugar producing slave colony until 1880
§ In contradiction to the events in the Americas the US had a rapid spread of suffrage, a vibrant but stable democratic political culture, and a basic sectional difference—slavery
o The Expansion and Limits of Suffrage
§ Prior to 1800 limited white property owners and /or taxpayers
· Traditional elite
§ Many westward states that entered the Union during the late 1700s and early 1800s had either universal manhood suffrage (like Kentucky) or low taxpayer qualifications (like Tennessee and Ohio)
§ 1840 – more than 90% of adult males could vote
§ Free African Americans voting
· Free African Americans could vote in ME, NH, MA, VT, RI
· Democrats opposed African American suffrage
· Ohio constitution of 1802 denied free African Americans the right to vote, hold public office, and testify against white men in court cases
· Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Oregon denied African Americans entry into the state
· All blacks were prohibited to vote in the South
· The reason behind this lack of suffrage was RACISM
§ Women
· Women could not vote due to the idea that men headed households and represented the interests of all household members
· Even single wealthy women were considered subordinate to male relatives and couldn’t vote
· Women managed to play a role in politics still
o The wives of presidents provided social settings in which their husbands could conduct political business
o Women who ran the boardinghouses where most congressmen stayed were often valuable sources of information and official contacts
o Locally women in various groups, usually church-related, provided charity and raised money for community institutions setting community priorities
§ The exclusion of minorities marked the limits of liberalization
§ Although minorities and women were excluded, nowhere else in the world was the right to vote as widespread as it was in the US.
· Europe – Could “mob rule” succeed?
o Election of 1824
§ Marked the end of the “Era of Good Feelings”
§ 5 Republican candidates ran for the presidency:
· Secretary of State – JQA – New England support
· Speaker of the House – Clay – Western support
· Secretary of Treasury – William Crawford – southern support
· Former US Senator & Rep, War Hero – Andrew Jackson – south and west
· Secretary of War—John C. Calhoun—dropped out before election to run as VP
§ Jackson won 43% of the popular vote and 99 electoral votes, while the runner-up JQA won only 31% of the popular vote and 84 electoral votes
§ JQA won after Henry Clay gave his support and the House elected Adams
· After this ordeal Adams elected Clay his Secretary of State and many of Jackson’s followers accused them of “corrupt bargaining”
§ JQA presidency
· Strong opposition in Congress from Jackson’s supporters to “American System” legislation
· Did fund the extension of National Road
· Southerners limited his hemispheric influence in fear of legitimizing Haiti
o The New Popular Democratic Culture
§ Was vastly influenced by the increase in suffrage and print revolution
§ Van Buren style party loyalty leading into election of 1828
· Richmond Junto – John C. Calhoun
· Nashville Junto – supported Andrew Jackson
· NH Concord Regency
· Albany Regency – Martin Van Buren
o The Election of 1828
§ Jackson:
· Van Buren – Jackson’s campaign advisor
· Appealed to “common man”
· Pegged JQA as aristocratic
· Dropped the “Republicans” and called party the Democrats
· Calhoun – vice presidential running mate
· Decisive victory over JQA – 1780 to 83
· The Democrats emerge as a true national party (North, South, West all represented)
· The Jackson Presidency
o Introduction
§ Age of the Common man?
· Rich slave owner, military hero, belligerent, prideful – killed men in duels, ruthless towards Indians
o Symbolized pioneer independence
o A Popular Figure
§ Jackson was born in 1767, raised in North Carolina, and during the Revolution he was captured and beaten by the British
§ As a young man he moved west to the frontier station at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1788
§ He got the nickname Old Hickory
§ He made his career as a lawyer and his wealth as a slave-owning planter
§ Jackson got into many duels to defend his honor
§ He gained fame winning the Battle of New Orleans in 1815
§ He came to symbolize pioneer independence
§ On March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson was inaugurated president while still mourning the death of his wife Rachel
· His inaugural address was almost drown out by the sound of cheering and afterwards he was mobbed by well-wishers
o A Strong Executive
§ Jackson’s presidency signaled higher levels of controversy in national politics and quickly stripped national politics of the polite and gentlemanly aura of cooperation it had during the Era of Good Feelings
§ Except for Martin Van Buren Jackson ignored the department heads who were official members of his cabinet
§ Kitchen Cabinet – Van Buren and western friends
· Calhoun not included
o Eaton episode & open disagreements over Nullification
o Eventually he resigns (1832)
§ Jackson used social distancing to separate himself from other politicians
· When John Henry Eaton married Peggy Eaton, who was a “fallen woman” not fit for polite society, Jackson urged his cabinet to make their wives hang out with her
§ Jackson used the power of presidential veto more times in his presidency than did all previous presidents combined
§ Jackson’s vehement and popular leadership made it easy for him to make Congress consider his opinion and restrict federal activities
o The Nation’s Leader Versus Sectional Spokesmen
§ Jackson was more concerned with asserting strong national leadership than promoting sectional compromise
· He believed that since the president symbolized the popular will of the people the president should dominate politics
§ Jackson thought that the majority should govern and that politics shouldn’t be sectional things
§ John C. Calhoun of South Carolina represented the South’s sectional interests
§ Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts was the main spokesperson for the new northern commercial interests
§ Henry Clay of Kentucky was Speaker of the House from 1811 to 1825 and later a Senator; he was the spokesman of the West
§ The prominence and popularity of those three men show how deep sectional differences were in the era even with President Jackson who was determined to override them and disrupt “politics as usual”
o Nullification Crisis
§ Exposition and Protest –Written anonymously by John C. Calhoun
§ Tariff of 1816 – supposedly a postwar measure
§ Tariff of 1828 – “Tariff of Abominations”
· High tariffs on iron and textiles (up to 50%)
· 2 reasons why tariffs made southerners mad
· Jackson’s congressional supporters passed it to gain more northern support for presidential election
§ Tariff of 1832
· SC Ordinance of Nullification
o Nullification – SC declares tariff null and void in their state
o Calls on local militia and threatens secession if Jackson used force
· President issues Force Bill
§ Tariff of 1833
· Henry Clay – Great Pacificator
· SC nullifies Force Bill – Jackson ignores them – crisis averted
· Changing the Course of Government
o Introduction
§ Jackson came into his presidency with a clear agenda to do three things:
· Remove the Indians from the white population to beyond the Mississippi
· Stop abuses of the federal government in regards to internal improvements
· Oppose existing re-incorporation of the existing National Bank
o Indian Removal
§ From assimilation to removal
§ Five Civilized tribes – Cherokees, Seminoles, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaw
§ States began invalidating federal land treaties…. Nullification?
§ Doesn’t matter – Jackson wants Indians gone anyway – he supports “land-hungry whites”
§ Indian Removal Act 1830
· Ignored Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1831 & Worcester v. Georgia1832
o Marshall - “domestic dependent nations” – cannot be forced to relocate
· Trail of Tears
o Cherokee marched from TN to OK
o Quarter of 16,000 Cherokees die
· Northern (Women and Protestants) protest
o Women gain a voice of petition – gain momentum for abolitionist cause
o Internal Improvements
§ Jackson was strict about federal govt. funding internal improvements – states funded most infrastructure
· By 1842, 9 states defaulted on transportation loans
o Legal Support for Private Enterprise
§ Marshall
· Dartmouth College v. Woodward(1819) – states cannot interfere in contracts
· Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) – inventions are protected by patents but not commercial application of the invention
o NY, steamboat, Robert Fulton
o Bank War
§ Congress reapproves National Bank Charter in 1832
§ Jackson (distruster of business and banks) vetos
§ Jackson reelected in 1832 – sees it as a mandate to kill the bank
· Anti-Masonic Party
o Innovation – first national nominating convention
§ Transfers US deposits (10 million) to pet banks
§ End of American System – beginning of laissez faire economic policy where commercial interests regulate the economy instead of govt.
§ Infuriated opposition to Jackson’s bank war establish a new political party, the Whigs
· Formed to resist King Andrew
o Whigs, Van Buren, and the Election of 1836
§ Election of 1836
· Whig strategy – run four sectional candidates and get election thrown into the house
o A 2,000 vote swing in PA would have done this but, Van Buren prevailed
§ Martin “Van Ruin”
· Adopts the looming financial crisis spurred by the bank wars
· Panic of 1837
o State banks – eager to loan on speculative ventures
§ Many end up failing
o Inflation – government distributes $37 million to states
o Increased use of paper currency
§ Specie Circular (Jackson 1836)
o British Banks called in their American loans
§ Contraction of credit
o Banks suspend business in 1837
o Unemployment reaches 10%
o No govt. aid –seen as cyclical
· The Second American Party System
o Introduction
§ The First American Party System was between Jeffersonian Republicans and the Hamilton Federalists
§ By the 1830s expansion of suffrage, economic growth, and social changes due to expansion caused the emergence of two major political parties
· This pattern, called the Second American Party System, remains today
o Whigs and Democrats
§ The two parties did not have sectional differences, but they did reflect just-emerging class and cultural differences
§ Democrats:
· The Democrats inherited Thomas Jefferson’s belief in the democratic rights of the small, independent yeoman farmers
· They had national appeal but more so in the South and West (the rural areas)
· They favored expansion, Indian removal, and the freedom to do as they which on the frontier
§ Whigs:
· The Whigs inherited the Federalist views a strong federal role in the economy
· The Whigs were initiators and beneficiaries of economic change
· The Whigs supported the American System
· Favored government interference in not only economic but social reforms as well
· Most support in New England and the northern part of the West
§ Neither parties were monolithic, but were important because they were a coalition of interests affected by many local and regional factors
§ Van Buren realized the job of the party leader was to forge the divergent local party interests to win a national majority
· The Democrats had to appeal to the northern workers, who could care less about the Democrats stand on rural issues, somehow
o Election of 1840
§ Whigs try to duplicate Jackson’s winning appeal by not only nominating an aging Indian fighter William Henry Harrison, but also a Southerner (gasp), John Tyler
§ Whigs win - William Henry Harrison and John Tyler
· Tippecanoe and Tyler too
o The Whig Victory Turns to Loss: The Tyler Presidency
§ Harrison dies 1 month into office
· Whoops – Tyler is a Democrat as well as an anti-Whig and anti-Jackson
o Only on Harrison’s ticket for sectional support (South)
§ Tyler’s Presidency
· He vetoes a series of bills embodying all the elements of Henry Clay’s American System
· Tyler gets thrown out of the Whig party and his cabinet of Whigs resign
· Tyler replaces his cabinet with former Democrats like himself
§ The Whig victory ended as a stalemate between Tyler and the Whig majority in Congress
§ Whigs only win one more election in 1848
· American Arts and Letters
o Print Revolution begins in 1826
§ American Tract Society installs country’s first steam-powered press
· 300,000 Bibles and 6 million tracts in three years
§ Newspaper
· 1810 – 376 newspapers, 1835 – 1,200
· Some were scandalous and libelous in nature and reflected America’s growing interest in politics
· 1819 – Washington Irvin – The Sketch Book
o Rip Van Winkle and Headless Horsemen
· 1826 – James Fenimore Cooper – Leatherstocking Novels
o Last of the Mohicans
o Samuel F. B. Morse – 1844 sends first telegraph from Washington to Baltimore
§ Communication breakthrough – Morse Code
1. C; page 349 stated in the last paragraph of the beginning excerpt.
2. D; Page 349 intro paragraph to “The New Democratic Politics in North America” & if anyone wants to say A is correct you'd be wrong because of the way it is worded.
3. E; Many states during the 1800s began to increase suffrage to the majority of WHITE MALES and by 1840, around 90% of all white males could vote.
4. A; Page 353 first two sentences under “The Election of 1824” subsection
5. D; Page 356 last paragraph of “The New Popular Democratic Culture” subsection
6. E; Page 357 intro paragraph to “The Jackson Presidency” section
7. B; Page 359 last paragraph of “A Strong Executive” subsection
8. D; Read the “Nullification Crisis” subsection
9. E; Answers A & B are laughable, C was Jefferson, and answer D is wrong because we didn’t exterminate all of them we just relocated them
10. B; Page 360 second sentence of the first paragraph on the page
11. E; Page 366 read “The Bank War” subsection and you’ll see I’m correct
12. D; Page 368 read the first sentence on the page
13. A; Page 372 intro paragraph to “American Arts and Letters” section
14. C; cuz Amy says so
Preindustrial Ways of Working
· Rural and Urban Home Production
o People rarely used money; services and products were paid for mostly through trades and barters
o Home and work were the same place and nobody was on a schedule, meaning things got done as they needed to be done.
o Skills were learned through apprenticeship. An apprenticeship lasted form 3-7 yrs. Apprentices lived with their master during this time. Basically the trade was knowledge for work.
o Women could not get an apprenticeship. They were taught domestic skills by their mother; this was, because it was assumed that the woman would marry.
o Some women would work respectably as: servants, laundresses, seamstresses, cooks, and food vendors—or not respected as prostitutes.
· Patriarchy in Family, Work, and Society
o Men directed lives of family and apprentices: decided on occupations for sons, marriages for daughters, etc.
o Wife was responsible for: food, clothing, child rearing, and taking care of apprentices; but still subject to men’s direction.
o Country’s power was just like in homes, Men decided everything.
o The man of the house represented the whole house for elections.
· The Social Order
o Ranked kind of like this:
1. Large landowners (plantation owners)
2. Merchants
3. Artisans and Yeomen farmers were about the same
4. Tenant farmers
5. farm laborers
o Social status and rank was distinguished by dress and manner; people of one class did not intermingle with the others.
The Transportation Revolution
· Roads
o Travel by roads was difficult and the roads themselves were poor, because the federal government only funded interstate projects.
o In 1808 the federal government made the national road. It cost $7 million, but connected the east to the west.
· Canals and Steamboats
o Waterborne travel was cheapest, but you could only move north to south (MS river + Atlantic Ocean), but east and west routes (Canals) needed to be built.
o Erie Canal
§ Idea of DeWitt Clinton, he envisioned a link between NUC and the Great lakes through the Hudson River, and a 364 mile canal from Albany to Buffalo.
§ Clinton convinced the NY legislature and some private interests to give $7 mil.
§ Canal stats: 40 ft wide, 4 ft deep, 364 mi long, 83 locks, 300 bridges.
§ Labor- Built by farmers for $8/month until wiped out by malaria; replaced by Irish who were paid $.50/day, but many died.
§ As Clinton promised the canal was done in less than 10 yrs. declared open 10-26-1825 by sending the Seneca Chief from Buffalo to NY.
· A side note: the Seneca Indians, who the boat was named after, were moved and put onto small reservations, because they were on the path of the canal.
§ Thousands moved west and shipping boomed.
§ Towns near the canal quickly grew into important shipping cities. (Utica, Rochester, Buffalo)
§ Other states seen the Erie canal success and between 1820-40, $200 mil was put into building canals.
o Steamboats
§ Robert Fulton demonstrated the feasibility of steamboats in 1807
§ Led to shipping boom for the MS River and its tributaries.
§ Cities that produced steamboats saw economic booms
· Railroads
o Started in 1830 with Baltimore and Ohio railroad and grew to 31,000 miles in 1860.
o To get started they faced many tech. and supply problems:
§ To move the locomotives had to be heavy and thus the railroad had to be iron not wood so this forced the iron industry into modernization.
§ Heavy also meant a solid gravel roadbed and strong wooden ties
§ They had to standardize the width of the track, because without a standardized track width there would have to several train changes and when shipping things this was very difficult.
§ Railroads started being put into real use in the 1850’s before this it was cheaper to use sea travel due to the problems with railroads.
· The Effects of the Transportation Revolution
o The transportation revolution meant that people could access markets that were farther away.
o When people saw that there was money to be made off of the new methods of transport investors started supporting the transportation revolution.
o Down side was that diseases spread just as fast as the people who carried them, which meant that epidemics of diseases like cholera broke out.
o Created a larger market which commercialization and industrialization depended upon.
The Market Revolution
· The Accumulation of Capital
o Market Revolution= Transportation + Industrialization+ Commercialization
o In the northern states, the business community was composed largely of merchants in seaboard cities.
o When international trade faced difficulties the nation’s wealthiest men turned to local investment.
o Much of the capital came from banks, both those for international trade and those for local investments.
o Southern cotton provided the $ for continuing development.
o Another big part was the willingness of Americans to take monetary risks.
· The Putting-Out System
o Production of goods at home under the supervision of a merchant.
o Lynn, Massachusetts, used the putting out system to become a center of the shoe making industry.
o System gave control of production to merchant capitalists.
· The Spread of Commercial Markets
o Because of the putting-out system farm families moved from local barter systems to a larger market economy.
o Commercialization is the replacement of barter by a cash economy and it took time and certain places took longer.
· Commercial Agriculture in the Old Northwest
o Technological developments lead to farmers permanently moving toward commercialization.
o Erie Canal led to accelerated migration in the Old Northwest in the 1830’s.
o Land was cheaper now, but most still either squatted or relied on credit to buy their land.
o Regions specialized in certain foods to produce. ex. Ohio was Porkopolis
o New farming tech:
§ Steel plow (John Deere)
§ Seed drills
§ Reaper (Cyrus McCormick)
o Farmers faced failure if they could not produce enough to pay off the debt on their machines.
· British Technology and American Industrialization
o Industrialization started in Britain and Americans thought that the best way to industrialize was to copy the Brits.
o Samuel Slater, Father of the American Factory System, brought British textile technology to America. Slater established tenant farms and towns around his textile mills. He used primarily children in his factories (b because that’s who Britain used)
o The Brits tried to put Americans out of business by lowering their prices and so congress defended the American businesses by passing a protective tariff in 1816.
· The Lowell Mills
o Francis Cabot Lowell went to Britain and stayed with English hosts that owned textile mills, but based on memory of what he saw he made schematics of the machines.
o He then brought the schematics back to the U.S. and improved the designs and that improved efficiency allowed him to compete with the Brits.
o Size mattered; only the larger mills were efficient enough to compete in this industry.
· Family Mills
o Most mills opened in existing farm communities and hired entire families of people from nearby (thus why they are called family mills)
o Work force:
§ 50% kids (YO)
§ 25% Adult women
§ 25% Adult men (they got paid way more than the Women and Children)
o Most of the workforce came in search of better lives and rarely stayed long (they lost 50% of the workforce each year)
o Slater controlled his mill towns completely so the workers got mad and disagreed with how he ruled (they wanted a democracy).
· “The American System of Manufactures”
o Many Americans invented their mill technology (instead of stealing from the Brits)
o Standardized parts: when something was made all of its parts came from the same mold so that every part fit every product (they wasted less; less waste=more money). Also made repairs easier; they just sold replacement parts instead of each part having to be made especially for a single product.
o Brits called this the American System.
o Also greatly sped up production.
From Artisan to Worker
· Personal Relationships
o Apprenticeship system was effectively replaced with child labor.
o This was empowering for the women and children, because they earned wages and women could kind of make choices for themselves.
o Southern slave owners compared the treatment of their slaves with the treatment of the workers in the Northern mills.
o Slaves were often cared for better than the factory workers of the North. (Slaves cost money whereas there were plenty of poor whites to replace factory workers).
· Mechanization and Women’s Work
o Industrialization and mechanization threatened skilled male workers.
o Mechanization created opportunities for women to work outside the home.
o The growing garment industry of the 1820s depended on cheap female labor.
· Time, Work, and Leisure
o Before factory work the work day ended at sunset, but Slater demanded that people worked at night by candle light.
o Workers slowly adjusted, but still considered the owners of the mill and the communities’ tyrants.
o Time became divided between work and leisure. (Longer work day=less leisure time)
o Men started going to taverns after work and cities began to replace community wide celebrations with spectator sports.
· The Cash Economy
o Shift from barter system to cash economy.
o The pay envelope was the only direct contact between owner and worker.
o Artisans had to move if they wanted to continue their craft, their other option being factory work.
· Free Labor
o Free labor= hard work, self-discipline, and a striving for economic independence.
o Many factory workers argued that they weren’t really free because their voices were not heard.
· Early Strikes
o Rural women led the first strikes against the American labor system.
o The strike at Lowell was one famous example of these strikes. Workers considered themselves mistreated, but the owner thought they were ungrateful.
o Most of these strikes were not completely unsuccessful.
A New Social Order
· Wealth and Class
o Social class always existed in America
o Market revolution downgraded some independent artisans and elevated others.
o New work patterns helped form distinctive attitudes of new middle class.
· Religion and Personal Life
o Religion played a key role in the development of new attitudes.
o The 2nd Great Awakening had supplanted the orderly and intellectual Puritan religion of early New England.
o The 2nd Great Awakening was most successful on the western frontier, but it reached a new audience by the 1820s; it gave hope to the workers whose lives were changed by the market revolution.
o Women were particularly religious and prayed and pleaded to the men they lived with.
· The New Middle-Class Family
o Economic changes lead to changes in family roles:
§ Father the breadwinner
§ Mother the nurturer
§ Together raising children to successfully work.
o Production moved away from the family home and its members
o Catharine Beecher’s Treatise on Domestic Economy became the standard housekeeping guide for a generation of middle-class American women.
o As the work roles of middle-class men and women diverged, so did social attitudes about appropriate male and female characteristics and behavior.
o The maintenance or achievement of a middle-class lifestyle required the joint efforts of husband and wife.
· Family Limitation
o Middle class chose to have fewer children, because now they cost more (education, training, care, etc.)
o They did so through methods of birth control although condoms were not used very often since most associated them with prostitution rather than family planning.
o Abortion began to be used as birth control in the 1830s (1 in 4 pregnancies ended in abortion), states found out about this and for some reason decided to ban it (20 states by 1860)
o Women were urged in books to tell their husbands to limit their sexuality for reasons of “morality”.
o This reduction in the amount of children people had is an example of how economic changes affect people personal lives.
· Middle-Class Children
o The children of this time period were thought to need more nurturing, a job the mother would do.
o Mothers read magazines put out by churches to learn how to be a good parent.
o Children now started working later in their lives (unlike before where they went to work at 15). They really weren’t self-made men since the families were a route to success for them through money and training.
· Sentimentalism
o The individualistic competitiveness engendered by the market revolution caused members of the new middle class to place emphasis on sincerity and feeling.
o For guidance women turned to the sentimental novel; thus women became more literate. The novels quickly became more popular than the sermons and essays that would have been read before.
o “Lady novelists” were looked down on in the writing world
§ Susan Warner’s The Wide Wide World
o Sentimentalism developed into an etiquette for many occasions
· Transcendentalism and Self-Reliance
o Transcendentalism is a group of ideas in literature and philosophy that developed in the 1830s and '40s as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity School.
o Among transcendentalists' core beliefs was the belief in an ideal spirituality that "transcends" the physical and empirical and is realized only through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions.
o People:
§ Ralph Waldo Emerson
§ Henry David Thoreau
§ Margaret Fuller
1.) E |
2.) C |
3.) A |
4.) D |
5.) A |
6.) E |
7.) C |
8.) D |
9.) B |
10.) E |
11.) C |
12.) B |
13.) D |
14.) A |
1. Women Reformers of Seneca Falls Respond to the Market Revolution
a. 1848- Charlotte Woodward persuaded six of her friends to travel to Seneca Falls to attend a “convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.”
b. Surprisingly, almost 300 people (men and women) attended the 2 day meeting
c. Declaration of Sentiments- The resolutions passed at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 calling for full female equality, including the right to vote.
i. Men had originally deprived women of legal rights, of the right to their own property, of custody of their children in cases of divorce, of the right to higher education, of full participation in religious worship and activity, and of the right to vote.
ii. Attendees approved all but one of the resolutions unanimously. The last, which was voted against, was thought too radical.
d. The struggle for women’s rights was only one of many reform movements that emerged in the United States in the wake of the economic and social disruptions of the market revolution that deeply affected regions like Seneca Falls.
e. Many of the reformers belonged to liberal religious groups with wide social perspectives.
f. Seneca Falls- early 1840s- “Temperance Reformation”- a more limited, but extremely popular reform cause dedicated to promoting abstinence from alcohol.
g. Nation’s best-known woman reformer- Lucretia Mott
i. Well known antislavery orator- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
h. The reforming women of Seneca Falls, grouped together on behalf of social improvement, had found in the first women’s rights convention a way to speak for the needs of working women.
2. Immigration and Ethnicity
a. Introduction
i. The impact of the market revolution was most noticeable in cities because of immigration.
b. Patterns of Immigration
i. Immigration increased began in the 1820s and increased dramatically after 1830
1. 20,000 in 1831 to 430,000in 1854
2. Declined in the years prior to the Civil War
3. Proportion of immigration in the population increased from 1.6% in 1820 to 11.2% in 1860.
4. By 1860, almost half New York’s population was foreign born
ii. Most of the immigrants came from Germany and Ireland.
1. Political unrest and poor economy in Germany
2. Potato Famine (1845-1849) in Ireland
3. Irish arrived poor
4. Most of the Irish and some of the Germans were Catholic and this provoked a nativist backlash among Protestant Americans
iii. Industries needed immigrants for workers.
1. Many of the changes in industry and transportation that accompanied the market revolution would have been impossible without immigrants.
2. Irish contract workers—Erie Canal (1825)
3. Irish- Lowell Mill
iv. Few immigrants had an easy or pleasant life in America
1. Endured harsh living and working conditions.
2. The state governments dealt with immigrants; not federal governments
a. New York did not establish an official reception center until 1855
c. Irish Immigration
i. The Irish had been emigrating to the United States long before the Potato Famine
1. Young people who wished to own land, but knew they could not in Ireland came to the US
ii. The British, who were governing Ireland as a colony, could not handle the Potato Famine
1. Irish were forced to either starve or die
a. 1mil died, 1.5mil emigrated
b. They were starving, diseased (typhus), and poor
iii. The Irish immigrants lacked the money to settle inland, so they settled in cities close to the New England Coast.
1. They settled in New York, but did not make a big difference.
2. Boston had a smaller population and there was a big difference there (by 1850, ¼ of population Irish).
a. Puritan-rich Boston did not appreciate the influx of illiterate Irish Catholic peasants.
i. “No Irish Need Apply” for jobs in the area.
d. German Immigration
i. By 1790, Germans made up 1/3 of Pennsylvania’s population.
ii. The typical German immigrant was a small farmer of artisan dealing with the same problems of the market revolution
iii. Germans were not nearly as poor as the Irish
1. Germans could afford to move away from the coastal cities
iv. Major ports Germans left from were Bremen (N. Germany) and Le Havre (N. France)
1. These ports were also the main ports for the importation of American tobacco and cotton
a. The tobacco ships took the immigrants to Baltimore and the cotton ships took them to New Orleans
v. Gold Rush in California drew in a lot of Chinese people
1. Chinese workers made up 90% of the people building the Central Pacific Railroad
2. San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest Chinese enclave in America
e. Ethnic Neighborhoods
i. Irish raised money to erect Catholic churches and schools
ii. Germans build their own “Little Germanies”
1. Formed leisure organizations and churches
2. Published German-language newspapers
iii. Americans were suspicious of the ethnic neighborhoods
f. Ethnicity and Whiteness in Urban Popular Culture
i. 1820-1860—New York experienced the replacement of artisanal labor with wagework, two serious depressions (1837-43 and 1857), and a large influx of immigrants
1. Response: violence
a. Brawls, riots, gangs
ii. Irish immigrants were depicted as monkeys similar to blacks, but Irish insisted on their “whiteness”
iii. Astor Place Riot of 1849 began as a theater riot by Irish immigrants and escalated into a battle between mod and militia (22 dead)
iv. Actors (mostly Irish) would paint their faces black and perform
3. Urban America
a. Introduction
i. It was within the new urban development that new American political and social forms began to emerge.
b. The Growth of Cities
i. The market revolution dramatically increased the size of America’s cities
1. 7% in 1820, 20% in 1860
a. Largest population jump in American history
ii. Nation’s top five largest cities: New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and New Orleans (New Orleans replaced Charleston from 1800)
iii. New York- most populous city, largest port, and financial center of the nation.
iv. Result of market revolution- “instant cities” at critical points in the new transportation network
c. Class Structure and Living Patterns in the Cities
i. Preindustrial cities in America had been small and compact to where people, rich and poor, lived near their workplace in a small scale housing pattern that encouraged friendliness
1. Growth of immigration changed that
ii. Although the per capita income had almost doubled between 1800 and 1850, the gap between rich and poor also increased greatly
1. The top 1% of the population owned 40% of the nation’s wealth while 1/3 of the population owned virtually nothing
a. Poor- unskilled working jobs, lived in cheap rented housing, moved frequently, depended on more than one income
b. Artisans and skilled workers- liked in cramped quarters that doubled as shops
c. Middle class- nice houses
d. Rich- mansions and townhouses with servants, multiple houses
2. “Streetcar suburbs”
iii. Sanitation was a big problem
1. Lacked municipal water supplies, sewers, and garbage collection
a. People drank from wells, used outhouses that often contaminated the water supply, and threw garbage out the door
i. Yellow fever, cholera, typhus
2. Some cities completed water systems, but only the wealthy could afford them
3. When disease epidemics hit, rich people usually left the area
iv. Slums developed as middle class families left the area
1. Worst slum in New York was Five Points
2. Immigrants, free blacks, criminals
3. Starvation and murder were common
4. Diseases were blamed on the slums
d. Civic Order
i. The challenges of the middle class were publicized by political papers and popular “penny papers” (began 1833)
1. These challenges were the inspiration for authors like Democratic Party activist and poet, Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass, 1855)
2. Edgar Allen Poe wrote “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) and “The Mystery of Marie Roget” (1842) about contemporary American crimes
ii. Working-class used the streets for parades, celebrations, and marches.
1. New Orleans was most notable for this
a. African American bands played funeral processions
b. Dances in Congo Square attracted hundreds of slaves
2. Choctaw Indians drummed
3. Respectable middle-class men rang cowbells as they took part in rowdy protests
iii. New York’s New Year’s Eve “frolics”
1. Members of the lower class paraded through the streets playing music
2. By 1828, the event was taken over by gangs who walked through the city vandalizing it.
3. 1829- parade was banned
iv. New York’s first response to violence was to hire more city watchmen
1. Militia was called to restrain riots
a. Deaths were common
2. 1845- NY created a permanent police force
v. Beginning in 1830s, series of riots broke out against Catholics (Irish) and free blacks
e. Urban Life of Free African Americans
i. ½ mil free blacks by 1860 (11% of black population)
1. More than half lived in North
a. Competed with immigrants and poor people for jobs
ii. Free African Americans faces discrimination and segregation
1. Residential segregation, pervasive job discrimination, segregated public schools, severe limitations of civil rights
2. Exclusion from leisure activities and places and public transportation
a. Frederick Douglass was denied admittance to a zoo, a public lecture, a restaurant, and a public omnibus all within a span of a few days
iii. African Americans, like the Irish and German, created their own communities
1. Formed associations for helping the poor of their community, self-improvement, and socializing
2. Established their own newspapers
3. Major community organization- African Methodist Episcopal (AME) or black Baptist
iv. Employment prospects for black men deteriorated
1. Forced from jobs and sons were denied apprenticeships
2. Blacks made up a large portion of sailors
a. Pay was poor, conditions were miserable
b. More equality on ships than land
3. Women worked as domestic servants, washerwomen, and seamstresses
v. Free African Americans worked to help slaves
1. There were many riots against the free blacks themselves also
a. Philadelphia- “City of Brotherly Love” was the worst
4. The Labor Movement and Urban Policies
a. Introduction
i. Traditional political leadership of wealthy elite was replaced by professional politicians.
b. The Tradition of Artisanal Politics
i. Urban centers had been strongholds of craft associations for artisans and skilled workers
1. Workers’ organizations were strong and solid
ii. Riots and demonstrations over matters simple and complex were traditions by workers
1. Urban workers had been an integral part of the older social order controlled by the wealthy elite.
iii. By the 1830s, the status of the artisans and independent craftsmen in the nation’s cities had changed
iv. Open antagonism between workers and employers was new
1. Workers realized they had to depend on other workers, not their employers, for support.
c. The Union Movement
i. Urban worker protests took forms of party politics
1. The Workingmen’s Party (founded in Philadelphia 1827)
a. “Workies” campaigned for 10 hour day and the preservation of the small artisanal shop
b. Jacksonian Democrats picked up on their themes
i. Neither major political party really spoke for the workers
1. Unhappy with the political parties, workers turned to labor organizations
ii. Between 1833 and 1837 there was a wave of strikes in NY
1. Workers wanted higher wages and the strike was won because a bunch of other workers helped
2. Formed General Trades Union (GTU) in 9 different trades
a. Forty strikes between 1833 and 1837
b. Formation of more than 50 unions
3. Formed National Trades Union (NTU)
iii. Employers very upset with Unions
1. One case in NY, employers took tailors to court over strikes
a. Judge Ogden Edwards declared the strikers guilty of conspiracy and declared unions un-American
b. GTU responded with a burned effigy of Edwards
c. GTU collapsed during the Panic of 1837
iv. Early unions included only white men in skilled trades
1. Made up only a small portion of all workers
2. Majority of workers were excluded
d. Big-City Machines
i. Workers were not able to create strong unions or political parties that favored their interests, but they managed to shape urban politics
1. As population grew, so did the number of voters
a. Half of the voters were foreign born by 1855
i. There was a big difference between the immediate immigrant suffrage and the continuing restrictions on African Americans
b. At the time, America was the only nation where property less white men had the right to vote
ii. Old system of leadership= social unity of eighteenth century cities; new machine system= class structure of nineteenth century cities
1. Feelings of community were now cultivated politically
2. Legally, three years of residence were required before citizenship, but evidence of faster naturalization was evident
3. Irish typically were Democrats while Germans, who were less politically active, voted Republican
a. Irish and Germans destroyed the Whig party
iii. Tammany Society- a fraternal organization of artisans begun in the 1780s that evolved into a key organization of the new mass politics in New York City
1. Affiliated with Democrats
2. Parades, rallies, current songs, party newspapers
iv. Tight system of political control beginning at the neighborhood level with ward committees and topped by a chairman of a citywide general committee
v. Machine politics- bosses, at the citywide level, bartered the loyalty and votes of their followers for positions on the city payroll for party members and community services for their neighborhood
1. The machines offered personal ties and loyalties to recent arrivals in big cities and help during hard times to the workers who voted for them
vi. Critics said the big-city machines were corrupt; they often were
5. Social Reform Movements
a. Introduction
i. Middle class people tried to deal with the social changes in their community by joining groups dedicated to reforms.
ii. Printing presses greatly intensified the messages of the reforms.
b. Evangelism, Reform, and Social Control
i. The Evangelical religion was fundamental to social reform
1. Evangelismàpersonal reformàsocial reform
2. “perfectionism”—it was possible for all Christians to personally understand and live by God’s will and thereby become “as perfect as God”
3. Members of evangelistic religions really expected to convert the world and create the perfect moral and religious community on earth
ii. The new middle class set the agenda for reform
1. Reformers realized that large cities had to make large-scale provisions for social misfits and that institutional (i.e. insane asylums) rather than private efforts were needed
iii. Moralistic dogmatism
1. They knew they were right and intended to see improvements enacted
2. People did not always want to be the subject of the reformers concern
iv. Evangelical reformers promoted dangerous hostility towards Catholics (Irish and German immigrants
1. Sought uniformity rather than tolerance
a. Strong nativism infected American politics between 1840-60
v. Regional and national reform organizations grew from local projects to dealing with drinking, prostitution, mental illness, and crime
1. Lyman Beecher- General Union for Promoting the Observance of the Christian Union
a. Beecher also leader of anti-Catholic and anti-immigration movement
vi. Sabbatarianism- reform movement that aimed to prevent business on Sundays
1. Controversial
a. 6-day workers upset that their taverns were forced closed on Sundays
b. Were unable to stop the traffic of passenger and freight boats
c. Education and Women Teachers
i. Women became involved in reform movements through their churches
1. Women got together to talk about how to raise their children—reflected a new and more positive definition of childhood
2. Puritans believed children were born with sin and punishment was harsh and physical.
a. Educational reformers believed children needed gentle nurturing and encouragement
ii. Schooling for white children aged 5-19 was common
1. Term only a month or so long
2. Uniformity in curriculum and grading spread rapidly to other states
iii. The spread of public education created the first real career opportunity for women
1. Grades separated by age were created
2. Wanted to create a friendly atmosphere
a. Who better than women?
iv. Women usually taught in years between their own schooling and marriage
1. Though teaching was an adventure
2. Half the pay as male teachers
3. Teaching was appealing for marriage prospects
d. Temperance
i. American Society for the Promotion of Temperance- Largest reform organization of its time dedicated to ending the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages
ii. Temperance- Reform movement originating in the 1820s that sought to eliminate the consumption of alcohol
1. Social and political issue
iii. Excessive drinking was a national problem
1. Women did not normally drink in public
2. Drinking was a part of a man’s typical working life
3. They drank FOUR TIMES as much as we do now!!!! (Holy cow..)
iv. Reasons against it
1. Spending money on alcohol impeded families economically
a. Women could not control the money of the family legally
b. Divorce was difficult and socially unacceptable
2. Drinking led to violence and crime (within the family and in society)
3. New industrial machinery was dangerous and workers needed to be sober to operate them
a. Employers eventually banned alcohol at work
i. Also found workers who drank unreliable and immoral
v. Whigs favored it, Democrats were opposed
vi. Germans and Irish were hostile towards the temperance movement
vii. Panic of 1837
1. Most men had to cut back on drinking in order to survive economically
viii. Women’s groups stressed that alcoholism posed harm on families
ix. By mid 1840s, alcohol consumption had been halved (about the level of today)
e. Moral Reforms, Asylums, and Prisons
i. Female Moral Reform Society- antiprostitution group founded by evangelical women in New York in 1834
1. Evangelical believers believed that prostitutes needed to be saved and offered them salvation and shelter and real jobs
2. Surprising that so many women were willing to recognize something so distasteful
ii. Asylum movement- Dorothea Dix
1. 1843- Told Mass. state legislature about the things insane women were subjected to (housing with criminals)
2. Her efforts established insane asylum in Massachusetts
a. She went on to publicize the movement
i. By 1860, 28 states had insane asylums
iii. Reformers were active in prison reform, establishment of orphanages, homes of refuge, and hospitals
f. Utopianism and Mormonism
i. Seneca Falls Convention- The first convention for women’s equality in legal rights, held in upstate New York in 1848
ii. Shakers- The followers of Mother Ann Lee, who preached a religion of strict celibacy and communal living
1. Opposite them was the Oneida community (John Humphrey Noyes) who practiced “complex marriage” of very high sexual activity.
a. Only few “spiritually advanced” men could father children, who were raised by everyone
iii. Millerites (William Miller) believed the Second Coming of Christ would be on October 22, 1843
a. Members sold their belongings and bought white robes for their ascension into heaven
b. Never happened- most followers drifted away
i. Small group of them left, those are Seventh-Day Adventists (still active today)
iv. Transcendental Wild Oats (Louisa May Alcott)
v. Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints based off the Book of Mormon
1. Mormons believed in polygamy
a. Outsiders did not like that
i. Faced discrimination and were forced out of places such as New York
6. Antislavery and Abolitionism
a. Introduction
i. Free African Americans, Quakers, and militant white reformers sought an end to slavery
ii. By 1800, slavery had been either abolished or gradual emancipation was enacted in most of the Northern states.
b. The American Colonization Society
i. First attempt to “solve” slavery was a plan for gradual emancipation and resettlement in Africa
1. American Colonization Society- an organization, founded in 1817 by anti-slavery reformers, that called the removal of freed blacks to Africa
ii. Most Northerners were happy to send their free blacks to Africa because they were ignorant, degraded, miserable, mentally diseased, and broken-spirited.
iii. This society was terribly ineffective; more slaves were born in a week than they sent to Africa in a year.
c. African Americans’ Fight Against Slavery
i. Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World- written by David Walker, a published insistence that “America is more our country, than it is the whites’—we have enriched it with our blood and tears.”
ii. Most free blacks rejected colonization and demanded the immediate end to slavery and equality among races.
iii. Famous African American abolitionists—Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth
iv. First African American newspaper (Freedom’s Journal) founded in 1827 by John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish
d. Abolitionists
i. Best known group of antislavery reformers was headed by William Lloyd Garrison
1. Began publishing his own newspaper- Liberator
2. Garrison demanded the immediate abolishment of slavery
a. Though he did not expect all slaves to be free at one time at that moment, but he wanted everyone to see the immorality of slavery
3. Theodore Weld joined Garrison in 1833 and formed the American Antislavery Society
ii. Slavery enraged many Northerners
1. Many read Theodore Weld’s American Slavery As It Is (1839)
a. Based in part of the recollections of Angelina Grimké whom he had married
iii. Abolitionists produces millions of antislavery tracts and sent them to southern states
1. South banned antislavery literature and burned the tracts
2. Encouraged the harassment of people distributing it
3. Georgia legislature offered $5,000 to anyone to kidnap Garrison so he could stand trial for inciting rebellion
4. States reacted by toughening laws on and about slaves
iv. Controversy over slavery was common even in the north
1. Activists faced riots and physical attacks on their lives
e. Abolitionism and Politics
i. “gag rule” (1836) prohibited discussion of antislavery petitions
ii. Although abolitionists groups raised the nation’s emotional temperature, they failed to achieve moral unity
1. White and black abolitionists split
a. Frederic Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison
2. Though Quakers were activists for antislavery, they still maintained segregated seating in churches
3. While they liked the idea of no slavery, they were still not comfortable with equality
iii. 1840—abolitionist movement formally split
iv. Liberty Party- The first antislavery political party, formed in 1840
7. The Women’s Rights Movement
a. Introduction
i. Because women could not vote or be active in the government, they had some activity in social reforms.
1. Some women even formed all-female chapters of the reforms so they could implement their own policies and programs
ii. The majority of women did not participate in reforms because they were busy with housekeeping and taking care of their children.
iii. Few women (who had servants) had the time and energy to participate in extra activities.
b. The Grimké Sisters
i. Sarah and Angelina Grimké were members of a wealthy South Carolina Slave-holding family
1. They did not accept these views and went to live in a Quaker community near Philadelphia
ii. The sisters had become the first female public speakers in America because they would speak about their experiences with slavery to antislavery groups
1. They were criticized for speaking because they were women
2. Women in the antislavery movement constantly struggled to be heard
iii. A group of ministers reprimanded the sisters for stepping out of their bubble of silence.
1. Sarah responded that women and man are created equal and whatever is right for a man to do is right for a woman.
iv. Women were normally granted a secondary role in these reforms, even when the majority of members were women
c. Women’s Rights
i. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was the first women’s rights convention in American history
ii. Over the years, in response to persistent petition, states passed laws more favorable to women
1. More jobs opened to women
2. Women gained the right to vote in some states (first was Wyoming territory in 1869)
iii. 1920 (22 years after universal women’s suffrage was proposed at Seneca Falls) the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.
8. Conclusion
a. The market revolution changed the size and social order of America’s cities
b. Immigration, rapid population growth, and changes in working life and class structure contributed to problems
i. These problems came on so quickly that they were overwhelming
ii. Old methods of social control didn’t work
1. New associations were created to fill the gap
c. Americans came to terms with the market revolution by engaging in a passion for improvement
INTRO: TEXANS AND TEJANOS “REMEMBER THE ALAMO!”
· Thirteen days within February and March 1836:
o 187 Texans held the fortress, the Alamo, against the siege of 5,000 Mexican troops.
§ The President of Mexico: General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
§ The reason he came was to subdue the “rebellious Texas”
o March 6th: The final assault
§ Claimed 1,500 Mexican lives
§ All of the Alamo’s defenders were killed. Including:
· Commander William Travis
· Well known frontiersmen Jim Bowie and Davy Crokett
o Although the defense of the fort failed, the battle rallied and spurred remaining forces to route the Mexican army and force Santa Anna to grant Texas independence.
· Tejanos: Spanish-Speaking people born in Texas
o 1820s: The Mexican government established and authorized several American colonies (concentrated in the central and eastern portions of Texas).
§ These colonies were managed by empresarios (land agents)
o These settler communities consisted of farmers from the Mississippi Valley.
§ They introduced slavery and cotton growing to coastal and upland Texas.
o Few remembered that a lot of Tejanos joined American settlers to fight for independence.
o
New France:
· In the 17th century, France was determined to monopolize northern fur trade
· In 1605, Samuel de Champlain, acted as an agent of a royal monopoly.
o First set up outpost on the Bay of Fundy (province of Acadia)
§ Proved impossible to control coastal trade
o In 1608, Champlain founded Quebec on the St. Laurence River
§ This geographic area controlled the trafficking of fur trade
· Champlain forged an alliance with the Huron Indians, who controlled the rich fur grounds of the Great Lakes.
o In 1610, he joined the Hurons to make war against their traditional enemies, the Five Nation Iroquois Confederacy.
· St. Laurence River was a great roadway leading directly to the American center and provided a great geographical and political advantage.
· By 1840, America has expanded to all of the land east of the Mississippi River and organized all of it (aside from Florida and Wisconsin) into states.
· Nine of the ten states that were admitted between 1800s and 1840s were west of the Appalachian Mountains.
· The market revolution, expansion of transportation, and commerce caused the rapid expansion.
o Because of the speed and success of the expansion spurred national pride and greed of further expansion.
The Fur Trade
· The fur trade was an important part of exploration in North America.
· British/French Canada:
o In the 1670s, the rivaling British Hudson’s Bay Company and French Canadian’s Montreal North West Company began exploring the Great Lakes (in the Canadian West).
o Both companies depended on the natives’ cooperation and goodwill for the help of searching for beaver pelts.
§ Natives such as the Blackfeet, Ventres, and the Crees moved freely across the present US-Canadian border.
§ Metis: A mix-raced group that descended from European men with native women.
o The British-dominated fur trade was an important aspect in international trade.
§ Americans wanted to part of this fur trade
§ In 1803, Jefferson set out Lewis and Clark west to challenge the British dominance.
· Challenging the British fur trade dominance:
o In 1824, William Henry Ashley instituted the “rendezvous system”
§ “Rendezvous System”: A yearly trade fair held in the Rocky Mountains, where trappers can bring their furs.
§ This system was based off of Indian trade gatherings
§ The system was a multi-day affair and was held for many nationalities: from Mexicans from Santa Fe to Americans.
· Activities would include gambling, drinking, and trading.
o American Mountain Men (trap and prepare for the trade): The only contact made to American Society was during the rendezvous.
o British and French Trappers: Sought friendship with the Natives. Nearly half married native women for the help of the trapping and preparing the pelts and diplomatic links between white and Indian societies.
§ One trapper adapted so well to the point where he became the Crow Chief: African American Jim Beckwourth.
o The American fur trade was short lived by the 1840s.
§ The beaver population was severely depleted.
o Jerdiah Smith: first American to enter California over the Sierra Nevada. He gave a clear picture to the mountain men of western geography.
Government Sponsored Exploration
· The federal government played a major part in exploration of the west.
o The Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-1806) set many government financed quasi-military expeditions.
o In 1806-1807, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike led an expedition to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
o In 1819-1820, Major Stephen Long explored and mapped the Great Plains.
§ His exploration was meant to scare British traders out of the West.
o In 1843-1844, John C. Fremont mapped the overland trails to Oregon and California.
o Western exploration still continued after the Civil War.
§ 1869 Grand Canyon exploration (Major Wesley Powell)
· Results of the surveys were published by the government:
o Included: Maps and illustrations (after the Civil War, photographs)
o The scenery of the West fed the appetite to see the breathtaking scenery and information of the natives.
§ Artists traveled with government expeditions and went home to paint stunning paintings of landscapes such as Yosemite Valley and Yellowstone River.
§ The paintings created an emergence of American self-image
o In the wake of the pathfinders came hundreds of government geologists and botanists, mapping the land sold in the Land Ordinance of 1785 and given away to veterans of the War of 1812, with the federal government taking charge of removing the Indians in those areas.
· Expansion and Indian Policy
o Eastern Indian tribes were being moved to Indian Territory (Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska), popularly called the Great American Desert and thought of as unfarmable. Though made so whites could live without the natives, the government misunderestimated westward expansion.
o Settlers crossed Indian Territory on the Santa Fe trail; the Overland Trails to California, Oregon, and Mormon Utah. Northern Indian Territory was abolished and the tribes there were pressured to move onto smaller reservations or take private land (which they would then be pressured to sell), losing their autonomy.
o The southern tribes—Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole—divided the land and established their own nations, very similar to American communities, also bringing along slavery. They were able to resist pressure until after the Civil War.
o Removing Eastern tribes did not solve the “Indian problem”. Nomadic Great Plains tribes, the tribes of the Rockies, and farming tribes in the Southwest remained. Western settlers ignored these.
The Politics of Expansion
· Manifest Destiny: An Expansionist Ideology
o Manifest destiny, first termed by journalist John O’Sullivan in the Democratic Review (Democratic Party paper), argued that Americans had a god-given right to expand democracy, by force if needed.
o Manifest destiny was accompanied by the idea that American prosperity needed increased trade with Asia, which could occur far more easily if America owned the west coast.
o Democrats supported expansion, Whigs opposed, fearing slavery would extend to the new territories.
o Democrats opposed the industrialization Whigs supported, supporting Thomas Jefferson’s idea of expanding agriculture as a counterbalance to industry, including Southern cotton expansion
· The Overland Trials
o 2000 mile trip from the Missouri River to Oregon to California; took 7 months or more of slow, dangerous travel; pioneers often arrived with little food and belongings, forced to discard them to lighten their load; 5,000 settlers in Oregon by 1845 and 3,000 in California in 1848.
o Pioneers motivated by promises of health, wealth, and adventure.
o Pioneers traveled with family and in trains ward off Indian attack to protect against Indian attacks and to cooperate to ford rivers and cross mountains.
o Wagon trains moved as the pastures turned green (livestock feed). Men took care of moving equipment and animals, women cooked and kept track of children. The wagon moved at about 15 mi a day, facing many natural obstacles (wagons such as the Donner party often succumbed).
Wagon trains were more threatened by illness and accident than by Indian attacks.
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Lincoln-Douglas Debates Series of seven debates in the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign during which Douglas and Lincoln staked out their differing opinions on the issue of slavery I. America in 1850 a. Expansion and Growth i. War and diplomacy caused America to triple in size ii. 890,000 square miles to 3 million square miles iii. Population increased from 5.3 million in 1800 to 23 million (4 million African Americans, 2 million immigrants) in 1850 iv. 16 states in 1800, 31 states in 1850 b. Politics, Culture, and National Identity i. “Manifest destiny” was a model for liberal revolutions throughout Europe 1. Italy, France, Germany, Hungary, and parts of Austrian Empire 2. Lajos Kossuth – famed Hungarian revolutionary; visited the US in 1851 ii. American Renaissance 1. Burst of creative activity in writing 2. Nathanial Hawthorne: “Young Goodman Brown”, The Scarlet Letter, and The House of the Seven Gables showed the hypocrisy of Puritan NE 3. Poets with unrhymed and “off-rhyme” verse: Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson 4. Herman Melville: Moby Dick used to critique the evil American society 5. Frederick Douglas’ autobiography: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas was about his brutal life as a slave 6. Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851) a. Combined the literary style of the then-popular women’s domestic novels with vivid details of slavery culled from firsthand accounts byf northern abolitionists and escaped slaves b. Christ-like slave Uncle Tom patiently endured the cruel treatment of his slave-owner Simon Legree c. All time American best seller in proportion to population II. Compromise of 1850 a. Political Parties and Slavery i. Politicians attempted to create an organized party structures that overrode deeply-rooted sectional differences ii. Failed: by 1848, sectional interests were the most important again iii. Religious groups were split based upon opinion of slavery 1. Presbyterians in 1837, Methodists in 1844, and the Baptists in 1845 iv. Theodore Weld, abolitionist leader, said the splits were inevitable b. Congressional Debate i. Preceded the Compromise of 1850 1. Henry Clay (west) a. Argued for compromise 2. John Calhoun (south) a. Believed South had the right to secede if necessary b. Argued using Nullification Crisis c. Congress did not have the right to prohibit slavery in territories because they were common property of all the states 3. Daniel Webster (north) a. Rejected southern claims that secession was possible or desirable ii. President Zachary Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis during the middle of the debate iii. “Slave Power” 1. Used first by Liberty Party leader James Birney in 1844 2. Claimed a group of aristocratic slave owners conspired to control federal government and national politics c. Two Communities, Two Perspectives i. Both regions (north and south) supported expansion ii. Used basic rights/liberties to defend their opinion on expansion 1. North spoke of personal liberties 2. South meant their right own a particular type of property such as slaves iii. Created fixed stereotypes of each other 1. South was labeled as an “economic backwater” that was dominated by a few slave-owning men that lived off the profits of forced labor 2. North was labeled as hypocritical because their factory workers were practically slaves (“wage slavery”) and they relied on goods produced in the south (cotton) d. Compromises i. Popular sovereignty 1. Solution to the slavery crisis suggested by Michigan senator Lewis Cass by which territorial residents, not Congress, would decide slavery’s fate ii. Compromise of 1850 1. 5 separate bills embodying 3 separate compromises a. Admitted California as a free state b. Allowed the residents of New Mexico and Utah territories to decide the slavery issue for themselves c. Ended the slave trade in DC d. Passed a new fugitive slave law e. Fugitive Slave Act i. North encouraged slaves to escape and promised assistance/support ii. Northern free African Americans were often taken from their community and shipped south back into slavery: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave iii. Fugitive Slave Law 1. Required the authorities in the North to assist southern slave catchers and return runaway slaves to their owners 2. Fugitives were guaranteed a hearing before a federal commissioner 3. Imposed federal penalties on citizens who protected or assisted fugitives iv. As result, 30,000 to 40,000 Blacks immigrated to upper Canada v. Boston was famous for abolitionists storming into courthouses, retrieving the convicted slave, and sending him or her to Canada; Webster and Filmore called it “mob rule” 1. Shadrach Minkind 2. Anthony Burns (failed attempt) vi. Frederick Douglas supported armed resistance vii. More and more northerners thought slavery was wrong and immoral f. Election of 1852 i. Whigs struggled to find a suitable party-head and finally decided on William Seward of NY 1. Seward preferred General Winfield Scott, a military hero like the party’s 2 previous candidates, to the pro-Southern Fillmore and managed to get him nominated ii. Democrats had more options 1. Lewiss Cass, Stephen Douglas, James Buchanan, and Franklin Pierce 2. Campaigns included pledging “faithful execution” to the Compromise of 1850 iii. Democrats received support in North and South iv. Pierce won the election g. “Young America” : The Politics of Expansion i. Young American movement began as a group of writers and politicians in the NY Democratic Party who believed in the democratic and nationalistic promise of “manifest destiny” ii. Goals were to conquer Central America and Cuba iii. Private “filibusters” invaded Caribbean and Central American countries, mostly to proclaim the extension of slave territory iv. William Walker 1. Led 3 invasions of Nicaragua 2. Regional revolt in 1857 3. Captured and executed by firing squad in Honduras v. Pierce’s attempts at expansion 1. authorized minister Pierre Soule to Spain to purchase Cuba for $130 million 2. Secret Ostend Manifesto, proclaiming the deep affinities between Cuba and America, was leaked and the Pierce administration repealed it 3. Dispatched Commodore Matthew Perry across the Pacific to Japan, which resulted in a commercial treaty that opened Japan (which was traditionally hostile to outsiders) to American trade in 1854 III. The Crisis of the National Party System a. The Kansas-Nebraska Act i. Law passed in 1854 creating the Kansas and Nebraska territories but leaving the question of slavery open to residents, thereby repealing the Missouri Compromise ii. Introduced by Stephen Douglas in order to further the Transcontinental Railroad to California iii. Strained the political parties: Southern Whigs were in favor, Northern Whigs were not iv. 300 anti-Nebraska rallies broke out in the North v. Kansas 1854, Indians either: agreed to relocate to small reservations elsewhere, sold their land to the whites, or kept the western portion of the territory until Gold was discovered there in 1859 b. “Bleeding Kansas” i. Missourians (proslavery) were the first to migrate and settle in Kansas 1. Established Leavenworth, Kickapoo, and Atchison 2. They had many fraudulent elections in attempt to politically control Kansas 3. Majority were “border ruffians” - crazy, obnoxious frontiersman ii. New Englanders established free-soil towns such as Lawrence iii. Groups were complete opposites and clashed, creating a bloody battleground 1. Free-Soilers in Lawrence received weapons from eastern supporters in boxes marked “BOOKS” 2. Border ruffians were already armed and called for reinforcements from the South iv. Border ruffians burned and looted the Free-Soil town of Lawrence v. John Brown, a Free-Soiler, led his sons in a raid of the proslavery areas of Pottawatomie Creek, killing 5 unarmed people vi. Burnings and killings were common and peaceful residents were forced to take refuge at military camps c. Politics of Nativism i. Violence throughout the Nation was common (ie. New York, New Orleans, Chicago) and was caused by the sectional breakup of the Whig Party ii. Whigs disapproved of the immigrants 1. Poor, Catholic, and disdainful of the temperance movement 2. Did not support revolutions, which many Americans took pride in 3. Felt they caused an increase in crime and rising cost of relief for the poor iii. Know-Nothings (American Party) 1. Anti-immigrant party formed from the broken Whig Party and some dissatisfied Northern Democrats in 1854 2. When questioned about their beliefs, party members maintained secrecy by responding “I know nothing” 3. Won many northern state elections (ie. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania) 4. By 1855, the party split based on differing sectional opinions regarding slavery iv. Republican Party 1. Party that emerged in 1854 in the aftermath of the bitter controversy over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, consisting of former Whigs, northern democrats, and many Know-Nothings d. The Republican Party and the Election of 1856 i. Adopted the economic views of the old Whig party: merchants and industrialists who wanted a strong national government to promote economic growth ii. The new Republican Party quickly established because of the sectional crisis iii. While the Democrat Party was falling apart due to ill support in the North, the Republican Party and Know-Nothings continued to grow iv. Candidates of 1856 election: Democratic James Buchanan vs. Republican explorer John Fremont vs. Know-Nothing’s Millard Fillmore v. Buchanan won because he was the only national candidate vi. Republicans were close, but accepted “victorious defeat” because they knew they only needed support from 2 more states and would wait it out IV. The Differences Deepen a. The Dred Scott Decision i. Dred Scott v. Sanford 1. Dred Scott, a lifelong slave, was taken on military assignments to free states Illinois and Wisconsin by his master John Emerson 2. Scott met and married another slave named Harriet during that time and they had a daughter named Eliza, who was born in a free territory 3. Emerson took Scott and his family back to Missouri (slave state) and Scott sued for his freedom as well as his family’s 4. It took 11 years to reach the Supreme Court ii. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and asserted that the federal government had no right to interfere with the free movement of property throughout the territories. He then dismissed the Dred Scott case altogether, stating that only citizens could bring suits before federal courts and black people were not considered citizens. 1. All southern Supreme Court members and one Northerner (Grier) supported Taney’s decision 2. Historians found that Buchanan had pressured Grier into voting with the majority iii. The Southerners supported this decision while the Northerners disagreed iv. Republicans thought the decision foreshadowed the future expansion of slavery 1. Both Abraham Lincoln and William Seward accused President Buchanan of conspiring with the southern Supreme Court judges b. The Lecompton Constitution i. Proslavery draft written in 1857 by Kansas territorial delegates elected under questionable circumstances ii. It was rejected by two governors, supported by President Buchanan (he wanted to ensure southern Democratic support) , and decisively defeated by Congress (particularly Stephen Douglas; he believed it violated the principle of popular sovereignty and that the Kansas citizens were not represented properly due to fraudulent elections) iii. Kansas was admitted as a Free State in January 1861, causing more bloodshed within the region 1. Sporadic ambushes and killings 2. Mass shootings of free-soilers 3. Free-for-all involving thirty congressman broke out in the House c. The Panic of 1857 i. Banking crisis that caused a credit crunch in the North; less severe in the South, where high cotton prices spurred a quick recovery 1. Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina gloated about the South’s economic superiority in his “King Cotton” speech in 1858 ii. Technology played a part: in 1857, the failure of an Ohio investment house was broadcasted to Wall Street and other financial markets, resulting in many people frantically selling, causing business failure and unemployment iii. Cause: a sharp, but temporary, downturn in agricultural exports to Britain, and recovery was well under way in early 1859 d. John Brown’s Raid i. John Brown: Self-proclaimed avenger who slaughtered many proslavery men in Kansas in 1856 ii. Brown wanted to cause a slave uprising and believed he would receive support once he sparked the interests of the slaves iii. His attempt, the planned raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA, in 1859 failed 1. Led 22 white and black men against the arsenal, but made no provision to escape 2. Failed to notify the VA slaves whose uprising he was supposed to initiate 3. Brown was captured and 8 of his men (2 were his sons) were killed 4. Brown was tried and convicted of treason, murder, and fomenting insurrection. He was hanged on December 2, 1859 iv. Supported the South’s greatest fear- slave rebellion 1. Documents were found showing Brown received financial support from 6 members of the northern elite, called the “Secret Six”: Gerrit Smith, George Sterns, Franklin Sanborn, Thomas Higginson, Theodore Parker, and Samuel Howe 2. Northerners mourned for Brown’s death V. The South Secedes a. The Election of 1860 i. Democrats had trouble choosing a candidate due to sectional debates 1. Northern Democrats chose Douglas who supported popular sovereignty 2. Southern Democrats nominated Buchanan’s VP John Breckinridge of Kentucky 3. Was honestly worried about the secession of the south ii. Constitutional Union Party 1. National party formed in 1860, mainly by former Whigs, that emphasized allegiance to the Union and strict enforcement of all national legislation 2. Nominated John Bell of Tennessee who supported compromise iii. Republicans built upon “victorious defeat” and acquired more support 1. Nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois who strongly opposed slavery 2. Condemned John Brown’s Raid 3. Did not believe south would secede if Lincoln won the presidency iv. Second highest voter turnout in history (81.2%) v. Election was 2 regional contests 1. Breckinridge vs. Bell in the South 2. Lincoln vs. Douglas in the North vi. Lincoln won b. The South Leaves the Union i. Results of the election humiliated and angered southerners ii. Governors of South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi (who swore to secede if Lincoln was elected President) called immediate state conventions 1. Conventions were accompanied by bands, firework displays, and huge rallies 2. Seven states ( South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) voted to secede from the Union with 80% support from their delegates iii. Cooperationists were those opposed to immediate secession, and they were either intimidated into silence of left out of events iv. Northerners hoped that non slave owning southerners (such as Yeoman farmers and city workers) would slow the secession, but most southerners were faithful to their region and believed the Northerners threatened their way of life c. The North’s Political Options i. Buchanan did not respond to the secession so Lincoln had to step up before he was inaugurated 1. Lincoln denied suggested compromises and had faith (a little too much) in the pro-Union sentiment in the South 2. First option: Give pro-Union members time to mobilize 3. Second option (suggested by Horace Greeley of the New York Times): Let the seven seceding states “go in peace”. This method was widely unpopular with Lincoln and other Northerners 4. Third option: Force the seceding states to join the Union again through war ii. Lincoln decided to wait for the South to “strike the first blow” d. Establishment of the Confederacy i. Delegates from the seven seceding states met in Alabama to create the Confederate States of America and establish a new constitution 1. Constitution was almost identical to the US Constitution 2. Differences: Strongly supported states’ rights and made the abolition of slavery practically impossible ii. Confederate States of America 1. Nation proclaimed in Montgomery, Alabama, in February 1861, after the seven stated of the Lower South seceded from the US iii. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was chose as President and Alexander Stephens of Georgia was chosen as VP (both men were known as moderates) iv. In Davis’ Inaugural address, he stated that secession was a legal and acceptable course of action and the North should not get upset about it. It was simply progress. e. Lincoln’s Inauguration i. Before his inaugural address, Lincoln was careful not to say anything controversial and worsen the already delicate situation ii. These signs of moderation and caution did not appeal to the American public who wanted leadership and action iii. In his inaugural address, Lincoln offered “nonbelligerent firmness” and moderation, calling the pieces of the split nation “friends” and predicting that one day the Union would be reestablished |
1. C
2. B
3. E
4. A
5. E
6. C
7. A
8. E
9. A
10. B
11. C
12. E
13. D
14. B
15. A
I. President of the Disunited States of America
1. On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated president, having slipped into Washington D.C. to thwart assassins, and in his inaugural address, he stated that there would be no conflict unless the South provoked it.
i. He stated that geographically, the United States could not be split (true).
2. A split U.S. brought up questions about the sharing of the national debt and the allocation of federal territories.
3. A split U.S. also pleased the European countries, since the U.S. was the only major display of democracy in the Western Hemisphere, and with a split U.S. the Monroe Doctrine could be broken as well.
II. Fort Sumter: The War Begins
1. Most of the forts in the South had relinquished their power to the Confederacy, but Fort Sumterwas among the few that didn’t, and since its supplies were running out against a besieging South Carolinian army, Lincoln had a problem of how to deal with the situation.
2. Lincoln intelligently chose to send supplies to the fort, and he told the South Carolinian governor that the ship to the fort only held provisions, not reinforcements.
3. However, to the South, provisions were reinforcements, and on April 12, 1861, cannons were fired onto the fort; after 34 hours of non-lethal firing, the fort surrendered.
4. Northerners were inflamed by the South’s actions, and Lincoln now called on 75,000 volunteers; so many came that they had to be turned away.
5. On April 19 and 27, Lincoln also called a blockade that was leaky at first but soon clamped down tight.
6. The South, feeling that Lincoln was now waging an aggressive war, was joined by four of theBorder States: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
7. The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery to Richmond.
III. Border States
1. The remaining Border States were crucial for both sides, as they would have almost doubled the manufacturing capacity of the South and increased its supply of horses and mules by half.
2. Thus, to retain them, Lincoln used moral persuasion…and methods of dubious legality:
i. In Maryland, he declared martial law in order to retain a state that would isolate Washington D.C. within Confederacy territory if it went to the South and also sent troops to western Virginia and Missouri.
3. At the beginning, in order to hold the remaining Border States, Lincoln repeated said that the war was to save the Union, not free the slaves, since a war for the slaves would have lost the Border States
4. Most of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole) sided with the South, although parts of the Cherokee and most of the Plains Indians were pro-North.
5. The war was one of brother vs. brother, with the mountain men of (now) West Virginia sending some 50,000 men to the Union.
IV. The Balance of Forces
1. The South, at the beginning of the war, did have many advantages:
i. It only had to fight to a draw to win, since all it had to do was keep the North from invading and taking over all of its territory.
ii. It had the most talented officers, including Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and most of the Southerners had been trained to fight in the harsh South since they were children, as opposed to the tame Northerners.
2. However, the South was handicapped by a shortage of factories and manufacturing plants, but during the war, those developed in the South.
3. Still, as the war dragged on, the South found itself with a shortage of shoes, uniforms, blankets, clothing, and food, which didn’t reach soldiers due to supply problems.
4. However, the North had a huge economy, much more men available to fight, and it controlled the sea, though its officers weren’t as well trained as some in the South.
5. As the war dragged on, Northern strengths beat Southern advantages.
V. Dethroning King Cotton
1. The South was depending on foreign intervention to win the war, but didn’t get it.
2. While the European countries wanted the Union to be split, their people had were pro-North and anti-slavery, and sensing that this was could eliminate slavery once and for all, they would not allow any intervention by their nations on behalf of the South.
3. Still, the war would produce a shortage of cotton, which would draw England et al into the war, right? Wrong.
i. In the pre-war years, cotton production had been immense, and thus, England and France had huge surpluses of cotton.
ii. As the North won Southern territory, it sent cotton and food over to Europe.
iii. India and Egypt upped their cotton production to offset the hike in the price of cotton.
4. So, King Wheat and King Corn (of the North) beat King Cotton, since Europe needed the food much more than it needed the cotton.
VI. The Decisiveness of Diplomacy
1. The South still hoped for foreign intervention, and it almost got it on a few occasions.
2. Late in 1861, a Union warship stopped the British mail steamer the Trent and forcibly removed two Confederate diplomats bound for Europe.
i. Britain was outraged at the upstart Americans and threatened war, but luckily, Lincoln released the prisoners and tensions cool. “One war at a time,” he said.
ii. British-build sea vessels that went to the Confederacy were also a problem.
a. In 1862, the Alabama escaped to the Portuguese Azores, took on weapons and crew from Britain, but never sailed into a Confederate base, thus using a loophole to help the South.
3. Charles Francis Adams persuaded Britain not to build any more ships for the Confederacy, since they might someday be used against England.
VII. Foreign Flare-Ups
1. Britain also had two Laird rams—two Confederate warships that could destroy wooden Union ships and wreck havoc on the North, but after the threat of war by the U.S., Britain backed down and used those ships for its Royal Navy.
2. Near Canada, Confederate agents plotted (and sometimes succeeded) to burn down American cities, and as a result, there were several mini-armies (raised mostly by British-hating Irish-Americans) sent to Canada.
3. Napoleon III of France also installed a puppet government in Mexico City, putting in the Austrian Archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico, but after the war, the U.S. threatened violence, and Napoleon left Maximilian to doom at the hands of the Mexican firing squad.
VIII. President Davis versus President Lincoln
1. The Problem with the South was that it gave states the ability to secede in the future, and getting Southern states to send troops to help other states was always difficult to do.
2. Jefferson Davis was never really popular and overworked himself.
3. Lincoln, though with his problems, had the benefit of leading an established government and grew patient and relaxed as the war dragged on.
IX. Limitations on Wartime Liberties
1. Abe Lincoln did do some tyrannical acts during his term as president, such as illegally proclaiming a blockade, proclaiming acts without Congressional consent, and sending in troops to the Border States, but he justified his actions by saying that such acts weren’t permanent, and he had to do those things in order to preserve the Union.
2. Such actions included the advancement of $2 million to three private citizens for war purposes, the suspension of habeas corpus so that anti-Unionists could be arrested, and the intimidation of voters in the Border States.
3. The Confederacy’s states’ refusal to sacrifice some states’ rights led to the handicapping of the South, and perhaps to its ultimate downfall.
X. Volunteers and Draftees: North and South
1. At first, there were a lot of volunteers, but after enthusiasm slacked off, Congress passed its first conscription law ever (the draft), one that angered the poor because rich men could hire a substitute instead of entering the war just by paying $300 to Congress.
i. As a result, many riots broke out, such as one in New York City.
2. Volunteers manned more than 90% of the Union army, and as volunteers became scarce, money was offered to them in return for service; still, there were many deserters.
3. The South had to resort to a draft nearly a year before the North, and it also had its privileges for the rich, since those who owned or oversaw 20 slaves or more were exempt from the draft.
XI. The Economic Stresses of War
1. The North passed the Morril Tariff Act, increasing tariff rates by about 5 to 10%, but war soon drove those rates even higher.
2. The Washington Treasury also issued green-backed paper money totaling nearly $450 million, but this money was very unstable and sank to as low as 39 cents per gold dollar.
3. The federal Treasury also netted $2,621,916,786 in the sale of bonds.
4. The National Banking System was a landmark of the war, created to establish a standard bank-note currency, and banks that joined the National Banking System could buy government bonds and issue sound paper money.
i. The National Banking Act was the first step toward a unified national banking network since 1836, when the Bank of the United States (BUS) was killed by Andrew Jackson.
5. In the South, runaway inflation plagued the Confederates, and overall, in the South inflation went up to 9000%, as opposed to just 80% in the North.
XII. The North’s Economic Boom
1. The North actually emerged from the Civil War more prosperous than before, since new factories had been formed; a millionaire class was born for the first time in history.
2. However, many Union suppliers used shoddy equipment in their supplies, such as using cardboard as the soles of shoes, etc…
3. Sizes for clothing were invented, and the reaper helped feed millions.
4. In 1859, a discovery of petroleum oil sent people to Pennsylvania.
5. Women gained new advances in the war, taking the jobs left behind by men going off to battle, and other women posed as men and became soldiers with their husbands.
6. Clara Burton and Dorothea Dix helped transform nursing from a lowly service to a respected profession, and in the South, Sally Tompkins ran a Richmond infirmary for wounded Confederate soldiers and was awarded the rank of Captain by Jefferson Davis.
XIII. A Crushed Cotton Kingdom
1. The South was ruined by the war, as transportation collapsed and supplies of everything became scarce, and by the end of the war, the South claimed only 12% of the national wealth as opposed to 30% before the war, and it’s per capita income was now 2/5 that of Northerners, as opposed to 2/3 of Northerners before the war.
2. Still, many women were resourceful and spirited, but the South just couldn’t win
XIV Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day War”
1. When President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen on April 15, 1861, he and just about everyone else in the North expected a swift war lasting about 90 days, with a quick suppression of the South to prove the North’s superiority and end this foolishness.
2. On July 21, 1861, ill-trained Yankee recruits swaggered out toward Bull Run to engage a smaller Confederate unit.
i. The atmosphere was like that of a sporting event, as Congressmen gathered in picnics.
ii. However, after initial success by the Union, Confederate reinforcements arrived and, coupled with Stonewall Jackson’s line holding, sent the Union soldiers into disarray.
3. The Battle of Bull Run showed both sides that this would not be a short, easy war.
XV “Tardy George” McClellan and the Peninsula Campaign
1. Later in 1861, command of the Army of the Potomac (name of the Union army) was given to 34 year old General George B. McClellan, an excellent drillmaster and organizer of troops but also a perfectionist who constantly believed that he was outnumbered, never took risks, and held the army without moving for months before finally ordered by Lincoln to advance.
2. Finally, he decided upon a water-borne approach to Richmond, called the Peninsula Campaign, taking about a month to capture Yorktown before coming to the Richmond.
i. At this moment, President Lincoln took McClellan’s expected reinforcements and sent them chasing Stonewall Jackson, and after “Jeb” Stuart’s Confederate cavalry rode completely around McClellan’s army, Southern General Robert E. Lee launched a devastating counterattack—the Seven Days’ Battles—on June 26 to July 2 of 1862.
ii. The victory at Bull Run ensured that the South, if it lost, would lose slavery as well, and it was after this battle that Lincoln began to draft an emancipation proclamation.
3. The Union strategy now turned to total war:
i. Suffocate the South through an oceanic blockade.
ii. Free the slaves to undermine the South’s very economic foundations.
iii. Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River.
iv. Chop the Confederacy to pieces by marching through Georgia and the Carolinas.
v. Capture its capital, Richmond, Virginia.
vi. Try everywhere to engage the enemy’s main strength and grind it to submission.
XVI The War at Sea/Naval Blockade
1. The Union blockade started leakily at first, but it clamped down later.
2. Britain, who would ordinarily protest such interference in the seas that she “owned,” recognized the blockade as binding, since Britain herself often used blockades in her wars.
3. Blockade-running, or the process of smuggling materials through the blockade, was a risky but profitable business, but the Union navy also seized British freighters on the high seas, citing “ultimate destination” [to the South] as their reasons; the British relented, since they might have to do the same thing in later wars (as they did in World War I).
4. The biggest Confederate threat to the Union came in the form of an old U.S. warship reconditioned and plated with iron railroad rails: the Virginia (formerly called the Merrimack), which threatened to break the Union blockade, but fortunately, the Monitor arrived just in time to fight theMerrimack to a standstill, and the Confederate ship was destroyed later by the South to save it from the North.
XVII The Pivotal Point: Antietam/ Turning Point
1. In the Second Battle of Bull Run, Robert E. Lee crushed the arrogant General John Pope.
2. After this battle, Lee hoped to thrust into the North and win, hopefully persuading the Border States to join the South and foreign countries to intervene on behalf of the South.
i. At this time, Lincoln reinstated General McClellan.
3. McClellan’s men found a copy of Lee’s plans and were able to stop the Southerners at Antietamon September 17, 1862 in one of the bloodiest days of the Civil War.
i. Jefferson Davis was never so close to victory as he was that day, since European powers were very close to helping the South, but after the Union army displayed unexpected power at Antietam, that help faded.
ii. Antietam was also the Union display of power that Lincoln needed to announce his Emancipation Proclamation, which didn’t actually free the slaves, but gave the general idea; it was announced on January 1, 1863.
iii. Now, the war wasn’t just to save the Union, it was to save the slaves a well.
XVIII A Proclamation without Emancipation
1. The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in not-yet-conquered Southern territories, but slaves in the Border States and the conquered territories were not liberated; Lincoln freed the slaves where he couldn’t and wouldn’t free the slaves where he could.
2. The proclamation was very controversial, as many soldiers refused to fight for abolition and deserted.
3. However, since many slaves, upon hearing the proclamation, left their plantations, the Emancipation Proclamation did succeed in one of its purposes: the undermine the labor of the South.
4. Angry Southerners cried that Lincoln was stirring up trouble and trying to have a slave insurrection.
XIV Blacks Battle Bondage
1. At first, Blacks weren’t enlisted in the army, but as men ran low, these men were eventually allowed in; by war’s end, Black’s accounted for about 10% of the Union army.
2. Until 1864, Southerners refused to recognize Black soldiers as prisoners of war, and often executed them as runaways and rebels, and in one case at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, Blacks who had surrendered were massacred.
i. Afterwards, vengeful Black units swore to take no prisoners, crying, “Remember Fort Pillow!”
3. Many Blacks, whether through fear, loyalty, lack of leadership, or strict policing, didn’t cast off their chains when they heard the Emancipation Proclamation, but many others walked off of their jobs when Union armies conquered territory that included the plantations that they worked on.
XX Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
1. After Antietam, A. E. Burnside (known for sideburns) took over the Union army, but he lost badly after launching a rash frontal attack at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Dec. 13, 1862.
2. “Fighting Joe” Hooker (known for his girls, aka prostitutes) was badly beaten atChancellorsville, Virginia, when Lee divided his outnumbered army into two and sent “Stonewall” Jackson to attack the Union flank, but later in that battle, Jackson’s own men mistakenly shot him during dusk, and he died.
3. Lee now prepared to invade the North for the second and final time, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but he was met by new General George G. Meade, who by accident took a stand atop a low ridge flanking a shallow valley and the Union and Confederate armies fought a bloody and brutal battle in which the North “won.”
i. In the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), General George Pickettled a hopeless, bloody, and pitiful charge up a hill that ended in the pig-slaughter of Confederates.
ii. A few months later, Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address.
XXI The War in the West
1. Lincoln finally found a good general in Ulysses S. Grant, a mediocre West Point graduate who drank a lot and also fought under the ideal of “immediate and unconditional surrender.”
2. Grant won at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, but then lost a hard battle at Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862), just over the Tennessee border.
3. In the spring of 1862, a flotilla commanded by David G. Farragut joined with a Northern army to seize New Orleans.
4. At Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S. Grant besieged the city and captured it on July 4, 1863, thus securing the important Mississippi River.
5. The Union victory at the Battle of Vicksburg came the day after the Union victory at Gettysburg, and afterwards, the Confederate hope for foreign intervention was lost.
XXII Sherman Scorches Georgia
1. After Grant cleared out Tennessee, General William Tecumseh Sherman was given command to march through Georgia, and he delivered, capturing and burning down Atlanta before completing his famous “march to the sea” at Savannah.
i. His men cut a trail of destruction one-mile wide, waging “total war” by cutting up railroad tracks, burning fields, and destroying everything.
XXIII The Politics of War
1. The Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War was created in 1861 was dominated by “radical” Republicans and gave Lincoln much trouble.
2. The Northern Democrats split after the death of Stephen Douglas, as “War Democrats” supported Lincoln while “Peace Democrats” did not.
i. Copperheads were those who totally against the war, and denounced the president (the “Illinois Ape”) and his “nigger war.”
ii. The most famous of the copperheads was Clement L. Valandigham, who harshly denounced the war but was imprisoned, then banished to the South, then came back to Ohio illegally but was not further punished, and also inspired the story “The Man without a Country.”
XXVI. The Election of 1864
1. In 1864, the Republicans joined the War Democrats to form the Union Party and renominated Abe Lincoln despite a bit of opposition, while the Copperheads and Peace Democrats ran George McClellan.
i. The Union Party chose Democrat Andrew Johnson to ensure that the War Democrats would vote for Lincoln, and the campaign was once again full of mudslinging, etc…
ii. Near Election Day, the victories at New Orleans and Atlanta occurred, and the Northern soldiers were pushed to vote, and Lincoln killed his opponent in the Electoral College, 212-21.
a. The popular vote was closer: 2,206,938-1,803,787.
XXV. Grant Outlasts Lee
1. Grant was a man who could send thousands of men out to die just so that the Confederates would lose, because he knew that he could afford to lose many men while Lee could not.
i. In a series of wilderness encounters, Grant fought Lee, with Grant losing about 50,000 men.
ii. At Cold Harbor, Union soldiers with papers pinned on their backs showing their names and addresses rushed the fort, and over 7000 died in a few minutes.
iii. The public was outraged and shocked over this kind of gore and death, and demanded the relief of General Grant, but Ulysses stayed.
2. Finally, Grant and his men captured Richmond, burning it, and cornered Lee at Appomattox Courthouse at Virginia in April of 1865, where Lee formally surrendered; the war was over.
XXVI. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
1. On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth and died shortly.
2. Before his death, few people had suspected his greatness, but his sudden and dramatic death erased his shortcomings and made people remember him for his good things.
3. The South cheered Lincoln’s death at first, but later, his death proved to be worse than if he had lived, because he would have almost certainly treated the South much better than they were actually treated during Reconstruction.
I. Hale County, Alabama: From Slavery to Freedom in a Black Belt Community
a.
II. The Politics of Reconstruction
a. The Civil War was bloodiest war in American history (600,000 soldiers died). It began as way to preserve Union but evolved into a struggle for African American freedom, resulting in the death of slavery in the United States and the unification of the states under a stronger central government.
b. The Defeated South
i. South destroyed after defeat: towns ruined, slavery (means of labor in cotton fields) lost, destroyed cotton fields, depressed economy
ii. Defeat aroused hatred within Southerners, whom were "robbed of their slave property"
iii. Racism became one of the main forces in the South during Reconstruction
c. Abraham Lincoln's Plan
i. Lincoln wanted to respect private property (excluding slaves) and did not want to impose harsh punishments on the South for rebellion
1. Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction of Dec. 1863: Southerners (except Confederate military leaders) had to swear an oath of allegiance to the US and its laws (including the Emancipation Proclamation) in order to be pardoned and offered restoration of property
2. Ten Percent Plan: When 10 percent of a state's population took this oath, Lincoln would recognize the formation of a new state government in that state
ii. Radical Republicans, such as Benjamin Wade and Henry Davis) favored the abolition of slavery at the beginning of the war, but later advocated harsh treatment of the defeated South
1. Lincoln vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill, which required 50 percent of a seceding state's white male citizens to take the loyalty oath before the state could form its constitution, and it also guaranteed equality before the law for former slaves
iii. Sherman's Special Field Order 15 of 1865 set aside 400,000 acres of abandoned Southern land for forty-acre grants to freedmen
iv. The Republican Party prevented the development of a land distribution system, but supported other methods to aid the freed slaves
1. In 1865, Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau to provide social, educational, and economic services to emancipated slaves or white Unionists, which lasted seven years
v. Lincoln's plans seemed to favor quick restoration of the South and limited federal intervention, but his policies were cut short after his assassination, when he was replaced with Andrew Johnson
d. Andrew Johnson and Presidential Reconstruction
i. Johnson was a Democrat and former slaveholder from a poor southern background who supported yeomen farmers and hated southern aristocrats
ii. He remained loyal to the Union throughout the war and held planter elite responsible for southern rebellion and defeat
iii. He was appointed as military governor of Tennessee in 1862 and nominated as vice president by the Republicans in the 1864 election
iv. Immediately after taking office, he appeared to side with the Radical Republicans by talking of indicting Confederate officials for treason and confiscating their property
v. Saw Reconstruction as power of the executive--not legislative--branch
vi. However, since he blamed individual planters and elite for secession rather than entire states, he proposed mild terms for reentry to the Union
1. He followed Lincoln's policy for pardoning Southerners (excluding some Confederate officials and wealthy landowners)
2. These men could apply for presidential pardons and Johnson pardoned 90% of those who applied
3. December 1865: Johnson declared "restoration" of the Union complete by allowing ten of eleven Confederate states to reenter the Union
vii. Johnson was committed to white supremacy; he opposed political rights for the freedmen and determined
e. The Radical Republican Vision
i. Radical Republicans (example: George Julian) promoted equal political rights and economic opportunity as well as a powerful national government
ii. Wanted federal government to control the reformation of Southern society
iii. Radicals wanted to grant freedmen civil rights and suffrage and give them land confiscated from wealthy Southerners
iv. Radicals opposed the "black codes" passed in South Carolina to deny many rights of citizenship to free African Americans
1. Southerners could not accept full freedom of African Americans
2. Moderate Republicans joined Radicals in the belief that old Confederates were in power in the South and the black codes and racial violence required increase protection for African Americans
v. Republicans established the Joint Committee on Reconstruction
vi. 1866: Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment to define African Americans as citizens and the Civil Rights Act that bestowed full citizenship on African Americans, overturning the 1857 Dred Scott decision and black codes
1. African Americans acquired "full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens"
vii. Congress also expanded the Freedmen's Bureau to build schools and prosecute those depriving blacks of their civil rights
viii. Johnson vetoed these two measures; Republicans in Congress overrode his veto
ix. November 1866: Republicans gained control of the House, Senate, and northern states
x. Conflict between president and Congress: Johnson's "restoration" orCongressional Reconstruction?
f. Congressional Reconstruction and the Impeachment Crisis
i. Republicans took control of Reconstruction in 1867 by passing the FirstReconstruction Act, which divided the South into five military districts subject to martial law
ii. Southern states were required to hold new constitutional conventions, guarantee universal manhood suffrage, and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before they would be readmitted to the Union
iii. Invalidated the new governments established under Johnson and limited Johnson's executive power
1. The Tenure of Office Act stipulated that any officeholder appointed by the president with the Senate's advice and consent could not be removed until the Senate had approved a successor (protecting Republican congressional leaders such as Edwin Stanton who implemented Congressional Reconstruction)
iv. However, when Congress adjourned in 1867, Johnson suspended Stanton and appointed Ulysses Grant as secretary of war; he replaced several radicals
v. 1868: Senate overruled Stanton's suspension; Stanton resumed his position
vi. Johnson tried to remove Stanton again, but the Rep. in the House of Reps. impeached the president on the basis of violating the Tenure of Office Act
1. Real reasons for wanting Johnson impeached: Johnson's political views and his opposition to the Reconstruction Acts
2. During his Senate trial, Johnson agreed to abide by Reconstruction Acts and the Senate voted one shy of the two-thirds necessary for removal from office
3. Johnson's narrow acquittal established the precedent that only criminal actions by a president--not political disagreements--warranted removal from office
g. The Election of 1868
i. AL, AR, FL, LA, NC, SC, and TN were readmitted to the Union; GA, MS, TX, VA still waiting readmission
ii. Republican Ulysses Grant vs. Democrat Horatio Seymour (who wanted to reverse Congressional Reconstruction; foe of emancipation and supporter of states' rights)
iii. State referendums calling for black suffrage failed in eight northern states between 1865 and 1868, succeeding in only Iowa and Minnesota
iv. Ku Klux Klan, founded as TN social club in 1866, terrorized black and white Republicans in LA, AR, GA, and SC to keep them from voting
1. This worked only in LA and GA, but lost northern votes for the Democrats
v. Grant won the election, receiving a remarkable 500,000 votes from African Americans
vi. Republicans also retained control of Congress
vii. February 1869 (ratified in 1870): Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment that guaranteed the right of American men to vote, regardless of race
viii. MS, TX, and VA ratified the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments before readmission in 1870; their readmission completed Reconstruction
h. Woman Suffrage and Reconstruction
i. Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments inspired/frustrated women's rights activists
ii. During the war, many women worked through the National Women's Loyal League and the US Sanitary Commission
iii. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were two leaders of the antislavery and feminist movements
iv. Stanton, Anthony, and Lucy Stone founded the American Equal Rights Association in 1866 to remove gender and race related restrictions on voting
v. Radical wing (Stanton and Anthony) opposed the Fifteenth Amendment, arguing it would establish an "aristocracy of sex"
vi. Woman suffragists split into the moderate American Woman Suffrage Association and the more radical all-female National Woman Suffrage Association
1. AWSA included Lucy Stone, Ward Howe, Henry Blackwell; focused on achieving women's suffrage on state level, while maintaining ties with Republican party and supported the Fifteenth Amendment; sought support of men
2. NWSA supported more rights than suffrage, including those discussed in the Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls convention in 1848
III. The Meaning of Freedom
a. Former slaves struggled to establish economic, political, and cultural autonomy
b. They built on the family and the church to lay expand the African American community
c. Moving About
i. Many freed slaves left home to test their freedom, wanting to separate themselves from former owners, and moved to predominantly black communities in the cities
ii. Many who left soon returned to the general vicinity because they cherished familial ties and friendships
d. The African American Family
i. Strengthened family ties; some African Americans reunited with their families
ii. Some searches were unsuccessful or disappointing though
iii. African Americans began to follow white gender roles: men asserted their male authority, voted, and received higher wages, while women devoted more time to domestic chores and child rearing
e. African American Churches and Schools
i. Blacks pooled resources (money, labor, housing, supplies, etc.) to establish their own churches and schools
ii. Church became social and religious institution that defined the black community
1. Methodist and Baptist churches were the most prominent
iii. More than 90% of the South's adult black population was illiterate in 1860
iv. Access to education = freedom
v. Freemen's Bureau gave educational aid to the South by providing resources and some teachers
vi. FB and the American Missionary Association (AMA) assisted in the founding of black colleges and the training of teachers
f. Land and Labor after Slavery
i. Whites tried to restrict the employment of former slaves
1. South Carolina legislation in 1865 required costly permits for African Americans in certain trades
ii. Most African Americans hoped to become self-sufficient farmers and believed they were entitled to land
1. Sought economic opportunity and land promised independence
2. Colored Convention in Montgomery, AL in 1867: wanted to confiscate land from wealthy planters
iii. Johnson directed General Howard of the FB to evict freed people who squatted on confiscated and abandoned lands in LA, GA, VA, and SC
iv. Sharecropping - labor system that evolved during and after Reconstruction whereby landowners furnished laborers with a house, farm animals, and tools in exchange for a share of the laborers' crop - became common
1. Compromise between planters and former slaves that broke up plantations into family-sized plots
2. Beneficial for landowners and African Americans
3. Dominated southern agricultural economy and African American life (nearly 75% of black Southerners were sharecroppers)
4. By 1880, 80% of land in MS, AL, GA was divided into family-sized farms
g. The Origins of African American Politics
i. African Americans aimed for political inclusion rather than separation
ii. Increased political involvement in 1865-1867: blacks gathered to promote civil rights and suffrage
iii. First Reconstruction Act in 1867 encouraged more political activity
1. AL, FL, LA, MS, and SC had black electoral majorities
2. Four-fifths of the registered black voters cast ballots in the state constitutional conventions in 1867 and 1868
iv. Union League - Republican Party organizations in northern cities that became an important organizing device among freedmen in southern cities after 1865
1. Brought together African Americans, soldiers, and FB agents to demand suffrage and end discrimination
v. Politics was the only field where black and white Southerners might engage each other on an equal basis
IV. Southern Politics and Society
a. Political structure of the South fragile over the next decade
b. Federal troops required to protect Republicans from violent opposition in the South
c. Republicans had control of south for most of Reconstruction, but by 1877, Democrats had regained political control of all the former Confederate states
d. Southern Republicans
i. African Americans, which only outnumbered whites in three southern states
ii. White Northerners (“carpetbaggers”) wanted to reform the South by introducing free labor, free public schools, developing resources
1. Most were veterans of the Union army, agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and businessmen who invested in cotton and other enterprises
2. Tended to be well educated middle-class citizens
3. Small percentage of population, but large role in southern politics
iii. Native Southern whites termed “scalawags” who were mainly small landowning farmers and well-off merchants and planters
1. Saw the Republican Party as the best chance to regain political influence
2. Wanted modernization and economic expansion
3. Sought relief from debt and wartime devastation
iv. Moderate Republicans who favored white control of the party, economic investment, and economic development outnumbered the radical Republicans who focused on African American civil liberties
e. Reconstructing the States: A Mixed Record
i. With many old Confederate leaders barred from political participation, Republicans dominated the ten southern constitutional conventions of 1867-69
ii. Most conventions produced constitutions that expanded democracy
1. Guaranteed political and civil rights of African Americans
2. Abolished property qualifications for officeholding and jury service
3. Created state-funded public education
4. Established orphanages, penitentiaries, asylums
iii. Republicans had to balance reform and attempts to gain Southern acceptance
1. Clear motion towards equal rights and against discrimination, but moderate action
2. African Americans demanded desegregation of railroad cars, theaters, etc. but moderate white Republicans feared that such laws would alienate potential white supporters
3. Even if these civil rights laws were passed, they were difficult to enforce
iv. Segregation was the norm in public school systems, but African Americans were more interesting in having educational and employment opportunities than integrated education
v. Republicans failed to grant land to African Americans
vi. Republicans raised taxes on land, attempting to weaken the plantation system and promote black ownership
1. Government seized land for nonpayment of taxes, but this was ineffective in promoting black land ownership
vii. Promoted capitalist development (factories, large cities, diversified agriculture)
1. Encouraged railroad construction
a. Southern railroad system increased 40 percent (3,000 miles) between 1868 and 1972
2. Difficult to attract significant amounts of northern and European capital investments
3. Also opened doors to corruption and bribery of public officials
4. Failure of railroads and failure to modernize the economy in the South eroded public confidence in the Republicans
f. White Resistance and "Redemption"
i. Democrats did not acknowledge Republicans' right to participate in southern politics
ii. Republicans were split between those who wanted to gain white acceptance in the South and those who emphasized consolidating the party under the protection of the military
iii. KKK was powerful in southern states, acting like a guerilla military force in the service of the Dem. Party, planter class, and white supremacists
1. Planters sometimes employed KKK to harass
iv. October 1870: bands of white people drove 150 African Americans from their homes and murdered 13 white and black Republican activists
v. March 1871: three blacks arrested in Meridian, MS for "incendiary" speeches
1. At their trial, KKK killed two defendants and the Republican judge, which lead to rioting in which thirty African Americans were murdered
vi. The bloodiest episode of Reconstruction-era violence occurred in Colfax, LA on Easter Sunday 1873 when 100 African Americans were killed after they failed to hole a besieged courthouse during a contested election
vii. In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed Enforcement Acts designed to counterattack racial terrorism because, they claimed, interference with voting was a federal offense
1. Federal supervision of voting
2. Authorized president to send army and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in districts declared to be in a state of insurrection
3. Ku Klux Klan Act of April 1871 made the violent infringement of civil and political rights a federal crime
a. Attorney General Akerman prosecuted several Klansmen in NC and MS
b. In October 1871, President grant sent federal troops to SC to break up KKK and restore law and order
4. Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlawed discrimination in public places such as railroads and theaters
a. More assertion of principle than federal intervention
viii. Northern Republicans became less inclined to intervene in the South, eventually abandoning freedmen and their southern allies
ix. Democrats gained majority in the House in 1874 and a few northern states fell to the Democrats
x. Republicans were blamed for the fiscal crisis caused by excessive government spending (mainly on schools, roads, orphanages, etc.)
xi. Democrats "redeemed" VA and TN in 1869, NC in 1870, GA in 1871, TX in 1873, AL and AR in 1874, MS in 1876, and LA in 1877
xii. African Americans faced obstacles to voting and social services
xiii. Supreme Court rulings constrained federal protection of African American civil rights
xiv. Slaughterhouse cases of 1873 - rulings in which the Supreme Court contradicted the intent of the Fourteenth Amendment by decreeing that most citizenship rights remained under state, not federal, control
xv. Decisions that curtailed federal protection of black civil rights
1. United States v. Reese (1876) and United States v. Cruikshank (1876) - Court restricted congressional power to enforce the KKK Act
2. Court ruled that the Fifteenth Amendment didn't guarantee a citizen's right to vote, so states found loopholes to disfranchise blacks by passing laws restricting voter eligibility through poll taxes and property requirements
3. 1883 Civil Rights Cases decision: Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, stating that the Fourteenth Amendment allowed Congress to outlaw discrimination by states, but not by private individuals
xvi. Supreme Court decisions marked the end of federal attempts to protect black rights until the next century
g. White Yeomen, White Merchants, and "King Cotton"
i. South declined into the country's poorest agricultural region after failed Republican attempts to modernize the South
ii. Southern economy vulnerable due to its dependence on the price of cotton
iii. After the Civil War, "King Cotton" expanded; small white farmers switched from subsistence farming to growing cotton
iv. Local merchants and planters were the sole sources of credit; they granted loans and supplies to sharecroppers, owners, and farmers in exchange for a lien or claim on the year's cotton crop
v. "Crop lien" system as main form of credit forced the expansion of cotton
vi. Railroads, commercial fertilizers, and new land cultivation were key to this transformation
vii. Demand for cotton brought high prices through the end of the war to the late 1860s, but soon expanded production depressed prices
1. Competing Indian and Egyptian cotton also led to a decline in cotton prices
2. Cycle of low cotton prices, debt, and dwindling food crops
3. Local merchants benefited from this cotton cycle by providing goods and credit to local farmers
viii. Elite ideals rested on the belief that womanhood and manhood rested on moral character and individual choice
V. Reconstructing the North
a. Lincoln claimed that the northern system of “free labor” was superior over slavery
b. Argued that laborers hire and train other people in a continuous cycle
c. However, the spread of factory system, growth of corporation, and extension of capitalist enterprises resulted in the development of a large unskilled workforce consigned to wage labor
d. Grim reality of class conflicts: society was more hierarchical than equal, causing strikes
e. 1877: end of Reconstruction Era; North had undergone reconstruction as well
f. The Age of Capital
i. After end of Civil War, the North continued its industrial boom
1. By 1873, industrial production grew 75 percent since 1865
ii. North: number of nonagricultural workers surpassed farmers
iii. 3 million immigrants arrived in America between 1860-1880
iv. Federal government funded the transcontinental railroad
1. Largest subsidy in American history
2. Pacific Railway Act of 1862 gave Union Pacific and Central Pacific rights to land extending from Nebraska to Sacramento, CA
v. Union Pacific hired gangs of Irish Americans and African Americans to lay track heading west from Omaha, NB
vi. Central Pacific hired Chinese laborers (90% of workforce) to push eastward from Sacramento
1. Burlingame Treaty (1863) gave Chinese the right to emigrate to the US
vii. After completion of the trans. railroad in Utah in 1869 , anti-Chinese sentiment built up in the US
1. 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act suspended Chinese immigration for 10 years
viii. Southern Pacific – San Francisco to Los Angeles to AZ and NM to New Orleans
ix. Railroad corporations became America’s first big business
1. Railroad executives: Vanderbilt, Gould, Huntington, Hill were wealthy
x. Railroad commissioners received large sums and land grants from government subsidies; they also resorted to corruption/scandals
xi. Scandal: Credit Mobilier construction company was created to divert funds for the building of the Union Pacific Railroad; several prominent Republicans received stock in the company in exchange for political favors
1. Discovered in 1872, ruining VP Colfax
xii. Boom in industries extracting minerals and processing natural resources
xiii. National Mineral Act of 1886 - mining companies received millions of acres of free public land
xiv. By the late 1870s, Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company controlled 90% of nation's oil-refining capacity
g. Liberal Republicans and the Election of 1872
i. Republicans increasingly favored the interests of business rather than the rights of freedom or "free labor"
ii. State Republicans organized more around federal patronage
iii. Democrats corrupt as well: in 1871, Democratic Party boss William Tweed and the "Tweed Ring" stole tens of millions of dollars from the NYC treasury
iv. Liberal Republicans emphasized the doctrines of classic economics (supply and demand, free trade, defense of property rights, and individualism)
1. Called for limited government and now opposed federal intervention in the South
2. Argued that corruption came from excessive interference in the economy
v. Suspicious of expanding democracy--especially universal suffrage
vi. Wanted politics to be left for "the best men" - educated and elite
vii. Liberal Republicans nominated Horace Greeley for 1872 pres. election
viii. Grant won, carrying every northern state
ix. Election follower trend of federal abandonment of African American citizenship rights
x. Lib. Rep. ideals defined growing conservativeness in North, attracting middle-class people and businessmen
1. Retreat from racial justice, hostility toward trade unions, suspicion of immigrants and working-class power, competitive individualism, opposition to federal intervention in economy
h. The Depression of 1873
i. Post war boom ends in 1873 triggering a deep economic depression
1. From commercial overexpansion of railroad investment
ii. Banks and brokerage houses caved, New York stock exchange suspended operations
iii. Half railroads deflated bonds, 100 banks folded, 18,000 businesses shut their doors from 1876 to 1878
iv. Factories close, unemployment rate reaches 15%
1. One fourth of New York City workers were unemployed
v. Calls to government to create more jobs through public works were rejected
vi. People were angry at large corporations that showed great economic power
vii. Political organizations like Chicago’s Citizens Associations united businesses for fiscal conservation and defense of property rights
i. The Electoral Crisis of 1876
i. Democrats believe that they would win the next election because of the depression
ii. Republican party was weakened by scandals
iii. 1875 conspiracy
1. Distillers and U.S. revenue agents to cheat government out of millions in tax revenues
2. Indictment against 200 members of “Whiskey Ring” were acquitted because of Grants intervention
iv. Democrats exposed Republicans low standard of honesty
v. 1871 “Tweed Ring” “Canal Right”
vi. Issue of corruption was linked to Republican party
vii. Republican Nominee: Rutherford B. Hayes- governor of Ohio; lawyer in Cincinnati; defended runaway slaves; General in Union army; supported an efficient civil service system, to vigorously prosecute officials who betrayed the public trust, and to introduce a system of free universal education
viii. Democrat Nominee: Samuel Tilden- charged with disloyalty during the war, income tax evasion, and close relations with powerful railroad interests
ix. Tilden received 250,000 more popular votes than Hayes but Republicans refused to concede victory
x. Uncontested electoral votes, Tilden: 184 (one short of majority to win); Hayes: 164
1. 20 disputed voted from Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon
2. Southern states returned two sets of electoral votes
3. Oregon: Hayes carried but Democratic governor replaced a disputed Republican elector with a democrat
xi. January 1877, Congress moved to settle the deadlock
xii. Electoral Commission established
1. Five senators, five representatives, and five Supreme Court justices
a. Eight Republican and seven democrats
2. Voted along party lines
xiii. Democrats angry and threatened a filibuster to block Hayes’ inauguration
xiv. Compromise in February, more money for southern internal improvements, to appoint a southerner to cabinets, and pursue a policy of noninterference in southern affairs
xv. Hayes removed the federal troops in LA and SC
1. Democrats took power of these states
xvi. ‘Home Rule’ (noninterference) meant abandonment of freed people, radicals, carpetbaggers, and scalawags and nullified the 14th and 15th Amendments and the Civil rights act of 1866
xvii. Compromise of 1877- the congressional settling of the 1876 election that installed Republican Hayes in the White House and gave Democrats control of all state governments in the South
AP Questions:
1. B
2. E
3. A
4. B
5. D
6. C
7. E
8. B
9. E
10. D
11. C
12. A
13. B
14. B
· Oklahoma Land Rush
o Oklahoma Indian Territory
§ 5 civilized tribes –Cherokees, Chickasaw, Choctaws, Creek, Seminole
o Land Rush on “No Man’s Land” – April 22, 1889 – white settlers given opportunity to settle far western portion of OK
o Curtis Act 1889 – formally ended Indian communal land ownership thereby legally dissolving Indian Territory
o Oklahoma – “land of the Red Man”
· At the close of the Civil War 360,000 Indians still lived in Trans-Miss. West. Most in Great Plains.
o Plain Indians used guns, horses, relied on Buffalo
§ Sioux & Buffalo – gunpowder, improved guns, hunting by non-Indian traders led to rapid decline in Buffalo population. Exterminating of Buffalo sometimes encouraged by US Army Commanders to bring the Sioux to a point of desperation and cooperation.
· Sioux – “fight or die”
o Many tribes took dramatic steps towards assimilation.
§ Cherokee – learned English, converted to Christianity, established a Constitutional Republic, and adopted yeoman-like lifestyle
o Bureau of Indian Affairs – in exchange for agreeing to live in defined zones (reservations) – Bureau would take care of basic needs and provide guidance.
§ Sometimes corrupt govt. officials withheld relief/supplies for personal gain.
o Medicine Lodge Treaty 1867 – Comanche, Kiowa, Apaches, Cheyenne, Arapahoe moved into reservations in existing Indian Territory (Sioux, Shoshone, Bannocks) . Conditions and cooperation between tribes caused hardships.
· Indian Wars
o Cheyenne – Chief Black Kettle v. Colorado Volunteers
§ Colorado territorial governor John Evans terminates all treaties with tribes in CO.
§ Black Kettle went to US fort for protection – they were given orders to set up at Sand Creek
§ There they were attacked by Colorado Volunteers – 133 dead – Sand Creek Massacre
· Retaliatory raids followed
o Great Sioux War – 1865-67
§ Sioux Warrior, Red Cloud fought US forces to a stalemate in Wyoming.
§ Treaty of Fort Laramie – 1868 – temporary peace
· Sioux were allowed to inhabit their sacred land the Black Hills “Paha Sapa”
§ Treaty undermined when General George Custer reports that large easily extracted veins of ore were in region.
§ Speculators move into Indian lands, General Custer rushes ahead to a site in Montana called Little Bighorn. Met by one of the largest Indian contingents ever assembled. Custer and his men were wiped out – “Custer’s last stand” – 6/25/1876
§ Feb 1877 – Sioux leaders were forced to surrender by pursuing US forces.
o Apaches
§ Generally followed Medicine Lodge Treaty, but in 1874 some bands began to steal cattle seize territory.
§ Led by brilliant strategist, Geronimo, they conducted lightning-swift raids against white outposts earning a reputation as intrepid warriors.
§ Red River War
· Apaches joined by Kiowa and Comanche
· US Army prevails by preventing food supplies to reach Indians. Geronimo surrenders in September of 1886.
o Nez Perce – “pierced nose”
§ Formerly helped white settlers including Lewis and Clark expedition.
§ Gold discovered in their territory (parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon).
· Nez Perce ordered to cede 6 million acres (nine-tenths of their land)
§ Chief Joseph reluctant but willing to cooperate arranged for movement onto reservations. However, younger members of his tribe killed white settlers avenging a death of a peer. This turned into skirmishes with US military.
§ Eventually completely removed from all parts of their sacred land and moved onto reservations.
· Internal Empire
o Mining Towns – gold, silver, and copper found in CO, AZ, CA, OR, WA, AK, & SD
§ Boomtown phenomenon
· CA pop 1848 – 14,000, CA pop 1852 – 223,856
§ Sometimes ore veins were large enough to sustain communities for a long time and created permanent cities – Butte, Montana
o Most consistently successful were the entrepreneurs who invested in mining equipment (drills etc.) and employers of engineers and other people with technical knowledge related to mining.
o Anaconda Copper Mining Co. – example of monopolizing both vertically and horizontally
o 1892 – Coeur d’Alene, Idaho – Western Federation of Miners
o Unions began to secure 8 hour workdays and worker’s compensation (by 1910s) – long before many eastern states.
o Early unions refused African Americans, Chinese, Mexicans, and Indians
o Caminetti Act 1893 – US Govt. gives state power to regulate mines (flooding)
§ Sacramento River Commission
· Mormon Sanctuary gone
o US v. Reynolds – US Supreme Court rules against polygamy
o Edmunds Act 1882 – disfranchised polygamists and threatened fines and imprisonment
o Edmunds-Tucker Act 1887 – confiscated all Mormon assets creating a federal commission to oversee elections in territory
o Mormons eventually renounce plural marriage and communal life altogether.
· Mexican Borderland Community
o Mexicans allowed to stay in land gained by US via Mexican Cession and Gadsden Purchase. Mexican culture remained in southwest.
§ Also Roman Catholic Church retains influence in southwest
· Farming Communities on the Plains
o Homestead Act 1862 – 160 acres for free, but must improve land and live on it for five years. Or, settler could buy it for $1.25 an acre for only six months.
§ Success in upper Midwest
§ Not so much in Great Plains interior – Great Desert
· Half of all homesteaders failed to improve land and lost their settlements.
o WINNING
§ Land speculators - bought choice land at bargain prices sold at big profit
§ Railroads – received land grants from government and sold of their holdings near their railroad for top dollar
o Population greatly influenced by railroad – in designing routes and local depots railroad communities put whole communities on the map or left them behind.
§ Western railroads encouraged settlement
· Aggressive promotional campaigns – also targeted foreigners
o Santa Fe Railroad agent CB Schmidt enticed 60,000 Germans to settle along their rail line.
§ benefits - Long term loans, free passage to west
o 2 million Europeans settled the Great Plains between 1870-1900
§ 25% of Nebraska foreign born in 1870
· Heavy German influx
· Communities eventually flourished and served the larger agricultural region
o Grand Island, NE; Fargo, ND;
o Social hierarchy based on education (doctors, lawyers, etc.) and investment property
· World’s Breadbasket
o Commercial farms employed the most extensive and intensive agricultural methods in the world.
§ John Deere – “singing plow” 1837
§ Cyrus McCormick’s reaper – mass produced in 1850s
§ Harvester – 1870s
· Automatic binder – 1880s
§ 1875 farmer could only plant about 8 acres – 1890, 135 acres
o Wheat became chief grain and not only fed domestic households but became a chief export
§ International demand high, profits were great
o California Agribusiness
§ Investors spent a lot of money on latest technologies, building dams and canals. Farming became chief business of CA
· 2/3 of arable land in CA was in 1000 acre farms
· CA national leader in wheat production 1880
· Took advantage of new refrigerated cars – cherries, apricots, oranges
o Sunkist, Sun Maid
o Toll on Land
§ Timber Culture Act – 1873 – allotted homesteaders an additional 160 acres of land in return for planting and cultivating 40 acres of trees.
§ National Reclamation Act – 1902 – added 1 million acres of irrigated land to the US
· States added 10 million more
· Irrigation also had a huge environmental impact – Lake Tulare CA – 760 square mile lake completely drained.
§ General Land Revision Act – 1891 – Gave the president authority to establish forest reserves to protect watersheds from lumbering, overgrazing, forest fires etc.
§ Forest Management Act – set the government up for large scale regulatory activities
· Forest Service 1905
The Rise of Industry, The Triumph of Business
Labor in the Age of Big Business
The New South
The Industrial City
The Rise of Consumer Society
Cultures in Conflict, Culture in Common
Governmental Problems:
· 1877 Great Uprising (first nationwide strike)
o Wage cuts and railroad workers
· Tariffs
o Democrats wanted reduction
o Republicans wanted increase
· Executive branch yielded power to Congress and the state legislature in the late 1800’s
· Spoils System (bosses, patronage)- Political parties would give bribes (jobs and food) to persuade people to vote for them
· Revenue Increased
Politics and Legislation:
· Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act 1883
· Circuit Court of Appeals Act 1891
· Granger Laws-- Midwest 1870s
o Supreme Court overturned
Special Interests
· Angry farmers—Grangers Prices
· Sothern Farmers’ Alliance
o Colored and Northern Farmers Alliance
· Populists Party—People’s Party
o Hated rich people
o Headed by James Weaver
· WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union)
o Frances E. Willard
o Reform Prison system, eradicate prostitution, eliminate wage system
o Temperance
· AWSA (American Woman Suffrage Association) and NWSA (National Woman Suffrage Association)
o Combined to form NAWSA
· Depression of 1893
o Rail, big industry, stock market, banks
o 150 banks in receivership, 100s more closed, 200 railroads & 15,000 businesses slip into bankruptcy – unemployment 25%
o Vagrancy laws made matters worse
o Coxey’s Army
· Strikes
o “protective association” & Coeur D’Alene Idaho 1892-
§ Owners join ideas and collaborate so that there is no competition between them
§ Wages are cut
o Amalgamated Iron, Steel and Tin Workers Union – member of AFL- works for Andrew Carnegie (steel monopoly)- they strike because of cut wages by Carnegie
§ Work days were lengthened
§ Wages were cut by 25% for those who chose to work on the job
o Homestead, PA – Carnegie owned factory – 1892
§ Army and strikers began a shootout
§ Strike works in Carnegie’s favor and PA national guard comes in to control strikers (national guards were established specifically for this purpose)
o Pullman, IL – 1894
§ Provided wages, but deducted rent, library fees, and grocery bills
§ Eugene V. Debs – American Railway Union (ARU)
· Works with unionized members against Pullman rail company
· Army puts down the strike and arrested Eugene V. Debs
· Social Gospel- Protestant churches no longer sanction the situation of the lower class such as long hours, unhealthy conditions, and subsistence wages (just enough to live on)
o Washington Gladden – Applied Christianity 1886- Pleads for owners to treat their workers (pay, conditions, etc.)
o W.T. Stead – If Christ came to Chicago 1894- Question equality in Chicago
o Edward Everett Hale – If Jesus Came to Boston 1894
o Charles Sheldon – In His Steps 1896- Urges middle class people to rethink their actions by saying WWJD
§ WWJD?
o YWCA- Young Women’s Christian Association- Provided job training, homes for elderly, and provided unmarried mothers with vocational instruction and help with physical fitness.
o African American Women and the Baptist Church
§ Phyllis Wheatley Home, Chicago – 1908
· Election of 1896
o Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1890- Changes how currency is backed, allows silver and gold to back currency
§ Repealed by influence from Cleveland 1893
§ “free silver”- silver mines were prevalent, Populists wanted U.S. to sanction the use of silver
o William Jennings Bryan – D- Populists back him up
o William McKinley – R
§ Dingley Tariff 1897- Raised import duties to an all-time high
§ Erdman Act 1898- Act that established a system of arbitration to avoid rail strikes
§ Gold Standard Act 1900- Act that stated all currency must be backed up with gold
· Nativism and Jim Crow
o AFL- Samuel Gompers (Jewish Immigrant) lobbied Congress to restrict immigration from eastern and southern Europe
o NAWSA-
o Civil Rights Cases 1883- Overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875
o Plessy v. Ferguson 1896- Court upheld a Louisiana state law formally segregating railroad passenger cars on the basis of “separate but equal” doctrine, which established a precedent for segregation
§ John Marshall Harlan- Only Supreme Court justice who disagreed with Plessy v. Ferguson, he lamented that the Court’s majority rulings gave power to the states ”to place in a condition of legal inferiority a large body of American citizens.”
o Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Ed 1899- Court allowed separate schools for blacks and whites, even where facilities for African American children did not exist
o Grandfather clauses & poll taxes
§ Grandfather clauses- A measure that enfranchised whites and barred African Americans, it allowed poor whites to vote even though they were illiterate and didn’t own much property as long as they were entitled to vote on January 1, 1867.
§ Poll taxes- Another measure enacted by the Supreme Court to keep African Americans (and some poor whites) from voting.
The Henry Street Settlement House: Women Settlement House Workers Create a Community of Reform
Currents of Progressivism
Social control and its limits
· Intro
o Edward Ross: Social Control: said society needs ethical elite.
o Progressives thought they should frame laws regulations for social control
· The Prohibition movement
o WCTU:
§ women don’t like men drinking alcohol and abusing them
§ 1911 ¼ million members
o Anti-saloon League
§ local option campaigns making small towns and counties ban liquor
o Opponents of alcohol were protestants
· The Social Evil
o Anti-prostitution from the same guys reached all new highs
o Reformers made media for anti-prost.
o Made foreigners scapegoats for sexual anxieties of native whites.
o 1910: congress passed legislation that permitted deportation of foreign prostitutes and foreigners who helped them and employed them.
o They didn’t get rid of it they just put it underground.
· The Redemption of Leisure
o Progressives did not want the commercialization of leisure.
o Frederic C. Howe: “Commercialized leisure, must be controlled by the community, if it is to become an agency of civilization rather than the reverse”
o Movies most popular leisure activity in 1908
o National Board of Censorship (NBC)
§ reformers regulated movies to improve the commercial; recreation of the urban poor
§ 1914 NBC review 95% of films
· Standardizing Education
o Went from reading, writing, and math to also include respect and patriotism
o Elwood Cubberley argued in Changing Conceptions of Education that education would allow immigrant children to break free from parochial ethnic neighborhoods.
o Important trends for public schools:
§ Expansion
§ Bureaucratization
o Children began school earlier and stayed there longer.
o 1918: every state had some form of compulsory school attendance.
o 1930: 47% of kids (14-17) were enrolled in school
o 1918 National Education Association defined Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education.
o Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 provided federal grants to support vocational programs and set up the Federal Board for Vocational Education.
Working-Class Communities and Protest
Women’s Movement and Black Awakening
· Introduction
o Women took part in the settlement house movement, prohibition, suffrage, and birth control.
o Fought so that their rights would not be undermined as racism grew.
· The New Woman
o 40% of the people that graduated from college were women.
o General Federation of Women’s Clubs
§ Clubs brought women together based on their values; cooperation, uplift, service.
§ Women participated in the stopping of child labor
o NCL tried to bring women together despite class differences
· Birth Control
o Margaret Sanger
§ Coined the term “birth control”
§ mom had eleven kids
§ Organizer of IWW
§ Fled to Europe after being sentenced to 45 yrs in jail, because she gave out birth control pamphlet.
o New generation of women used contraception to advance sexual freedom
· Racism and Accommodation
o Blacks were gaining wealth and influence, but were held back by racism.
o Racist like Benjamin Tillman (SC senator) and Thomas Dixon (The Clansmen) referred to them as beasts.
o Southern Progressives agreed that blacks were inferior, but wanted them to progress for economic gain.
o B. T. Washington
§ Born slave in 1856
§ Formed Tuskegee Institute
§ Most influential black leader of the day
§ Autobiography: Up from Slavery (1901)
· Racial Justice, The NAACP, Black Women’s Activism
o W.E.B. Du Bois
§ Alternative to BTW’s leadership
§ First black to get a Ph.D.
§ DU Bois did not like BTW, because he “accepted the inferiority of blacks”
o Niagara Movement
§ Organized in 1905
§ Wanted to promote racial integration, civil and political right, and equal access to economic opportunity.
o NAACP
§ National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led by W.E.B. Du Bois.
§ 1909: NAACP formed at National Negro Conference in NY.
§ Fought for political and civil equality.
o The disfranchisement of black voters in the south severely curtailed African American political influence.
National Progressivism
· Intro
o Both major political parties took a more aggressive stance on reform issues of the day
o Both President Theodore Roosevelt and President Woodrow Wilson reshaped the office of president in the pursuit of their reform agendas
· Theodore Roosevelt and Presidential Activism
o William McKinley assassinated in 1901 and Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest president to ever hold the office
o Roosevelt’s History:
§ Born 1858 and was a sick child
§ Graduated from Harvard
§ Won an election for the state assembly of NY
§ Ran unsuccessful campaign for mayor of NY
§ Served as president of the NY City Board of Police Commissioners
§ Became assistant secretary of the navy in Washington
§ Lead the Rough Riders in Cuba during the Spanish-American War
§ Elected governor of NY
§ 1900 became vice president
o “Bully pulpit”-a platform from which he could exhort Americans to reform their society
o Roosevelt preached the virtues of the “strenuous life” and believed the educated, wealthy Americans had a responsibility to serve, guide, and inspire the poor
o 1902 Roosevelt intervened in a strike by coal miners
§ Won better pay and working conditions without recognition of the miners’ union
§ Pushed efficient government as the solution to social problems
· Trust-busting and Regulation
o Sherman Antitrust Act—first federal antitrust measure passed in 1890
o 1902 Roosevelt directed the Justice Department to begin a series of prosecutions under the Sherman Antitrust Act
o Northern Securities v. United States ruled that the stock transactions of the company constituted illegal combination in restraint of interstate commerce
o In Roosevelt’s two terms the Justice Department filed 43 cases under the Sherman Antitrust Act
o Roosevelt did not believe in breaking up large corporations, however
o He considered government regulation the best way to deal with big business
o The Pure Food and Drug Act established the Food and Drug Administration which tested and approved drugs before they went on the market
o Meat Inspection Act allowed the Department of Agriculture to inspect and label meat products
o Big businesses like these regulations and viewed them as a way to eliminate smaller competitors who could not meet the regulations
· Conservation, Preservation, and the Environment
o 1905 Theodore Roosevelt created the US Forest Service and named Gifford Pinchot to head it
o By 1909 the total timber and forest reserves had increased from 45 to 195 million acres, and more than 80 million acres of mineral lands had been withdrawn from public sale
o The Roosevelt administration took a middle ground between preservation and unrestricted commercial development
o John Muir was an essayist and founder of the modern environmentalist movement
§ Served as the first president of the Sierra Club, founded in 1892 to preserve and protect the mountain regions of the west coast as well as the Yellow Stone National Park
o After an earthquake in 1906 San Francisco wanted to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley, but met much conservationist opposition
§ The project was approved by Congress in 1913
o In 1916, preservationists obtained their own bureaucracy in Washington with the creation of the National Park System
o The Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 established the Reclamation Bureau within the Department of Interior and provided federal funding for dam canal projects
· Republican Spilt
o Roosevelt promised to retire after his second term and named Secretary of War William Howard Taft his successor
o The gap between the “insurgent” progressives and “stand pat” wing split the Republican party
o Taft was much different from Roosevelt
§ He brought a much more restrained concept of the presidency to the White House
§ He supported constitutional amendments legalizing a graduated income tax, he supported safety regulations for mines and railroads, and the creation of the federal Children’s Bureau
§ He differed from progressive and Roosevelt on political fights involving tariff, antitrust, and conservation policies
o In 1910, when Roosevelt came back from a safari to Africa and a European tour he directly challenged Taft
o In June 1912, Taft was nominated again for president
o Mad, Roosevelt left and was nominated by the Progressive Party as presidential nominee in August 1912
o Roosevelt ran on a platform called “New Nationalism” which focused on a vision of a strong federal government, ran by an active president, regulating and protecting various interests in American society
· The Election of 1912: A Four-Way Race
o Republicans were badly split
o Democrats had Governor Woodrow Wilson as their candidate
§ Got the nomination with the help of William Jennings Bryan
o Wilson declared that his party was full of true progressives and found Roosevelt, not Taft, to be his true rival
o Wilson’s New Freedom campaign ran in contrast to Roosevelt’s and emphasized restoring conditions of free competition and equality in economic opportunity
o Wilson argued that the federal government had become too large and focused on states’ rights and small government
o Eugene V. Debs was the fourth, and most radical, choice for votes and ran for the Socialist party
o Debs:
§ He drew large and sympathetic crowds when he spoke
§ His speeches were filled with radical socialist ideals
§ His speeches caused Roosevelt and Wilson to have very left wing platforms which included many things that were considered radical only 10 years before
o In the end, the Republican split gave Wilson the election and in many aspects this election was the first “modern” presidential race
· Woodrow Wilson’s First Term
o Underwood-Simmons Act of 1913—substantially reduced tariff duties on a variety of raw materials and manufactured goods
o Sixteenth Amendment—gave Congress the power to levy taxes on income, and imposed an gradual tax on personal income
o Federal Reserve Act—restructured the nation’s banking and currency system
§ Created 12 Federal Reserve Banks, regulated by a central board in Washington
o Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914—replaced the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 as the nation’s basic antitrust law
o Federal Trade Commission (FTC)—established in 1914, sought to give federal government the same sort of regulatory control over corporations that the ICC has over railroads
o On social issues Wilson was more cautious his first two years
o After fear of losing support from his party he changed
§ He supported a rural credits act which gave government capital to federal farm banks and federal aid to agricultural extension programs in schools
§ He favored a workers’ compensation bill for federal works
§ He signed the Keating-Owen Act, banning child labor under the age of 14 from companies involved in interstate commerce
· Conclusion
o The political and social landscape reflected the tensions and ambiguities of progressivism itself
o Blacks couldn’t vote
o Laws made it harder for big-city machines to control voting
o In one party cities the majority’s primary usually decided the general election
o Stricter election laws made it harder for third parties to get on the ballot give voters less choices
o What became important in this time period was political participation, Interest-group activity, congressional and statehouse lobbying, and direct appeals to public opinion
o Social progressives and their allies made many advances through a range of social legislation
o Emphasis on efficiency, uplift, and rational administration collided with humane impulses
o Progressives confronted new realities and changed many things through reform
1. B (Unifying Themes Pg 724)
2. C (The Female Dominion Pg 725)
3. A (Political Progressives and Urban Reform Pg 728)
4. D (Progressivism in the statehouse: West and South Pg 729)
5. B (Intellectual Trends Promoting Reform Pg 731-732)
6. E (Bottom of Intellectual Trends Promoting Reform Pg 732)
7. E
8. B (Standardizing Education pg 735)
9. C (The AFL: “Unions, Pure and Simple pg 742)
10. B
11. A
12. E
13. A
14. C
Becoming a World Power
· In the beginning of the new century, the US began a more vigorous foreign policy
o Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson all contributed to progressive diplomacy, in which commercial expansion was backed by a military presence in the Caribbean, Asia, and Mexico
· This type of policy reflected a view that stressed moralism, order, and a special, God-given, role for the US
Roosevelt: The Big Stick
· Roosevelt left a strong imprint on the nation’s foreign policy and like many, took for granted the superiority of Protestant white culture and believed that to maintain and increase in economic and political stature, the US had to be militarily strong
o “I have always been fond of the West African proverb, ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick, you will go far’”
· Panama Canal
o Creating the Panama Canal, where others had failed, was a top priority for Roosevelt, and he worked hard to negotiate with Colombia
o When the Colombian Senate rejected all US offers in 1903, Roosevelt got mad
§ With a combination of native forces and foreign promoters, a revolt was planned against Colombia
o On November 3, 1903, the USS Nashville arrived in Colon harbor and the province of Panama declared independence
§ The US immediately rocognixed the new Republic of Panama and two weeks later, Bunau-Varilla, a minister from Panama, gave the US a 10-mile-wide canal zone under US sovereignty
§ The US gave Panama its independence, 10 million, and 250,000 every year
§ They also gave Colombia 25 million as compensation
o The canal used $720 million but gave the US a great economic advantage
o The US was worried that foreign countries would try to take control so Roosevelt issued the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which justified “the exercise of an international police power” anywhere in the hemisphere
§ This was first used with the Dominican Republic in 1905, but because of anger from other nations, the US assumed management of their debt and customs services
§ This was also used in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Mexico
· With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, Roosevelt became worried that America’s trading with China might be damaged if either got an overwhelming victory
o To solve this problem, Roosevelt mediated a settlement of the War at Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1905 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for doing so
o Japan won Korea but Russia won Manchuria
o Relations were strained with Japan because of discrimination in California
§ Yellow peril forced the school board to segregate Asians
o In 1908, Roosevelt sent battleships in visit Japan in a display of sea power and then the Root-Takahira Agreement affirmed the existing status quo in Asia
Taft: Dollar Diplomacy
· Believed in being subtle and using effective weapon of business investment rather than a big stick
o Taft and Secretary of State, Philander C. Knox, followed a strategy in which they assumed that political influence would follow increased US trade and investment (dollar diplomacy)
o Taft advocated “active intervention to secure for our merchandise and our capitalists opportunity for profitable investment”
o American investment in Central America grew from $41 million in 1908 to $93 million in 1914
§ Most of this went to railroad construction, mining, and plantations
· Dollar Diplomacy would require military support
o The Taft administration sent the navy and marines to intervene in lots of Central American nations
o Taft’s greed for a greater share of the pie in China went downhill when he supported the Chinese government in buying all foreign railroads and creating new ones
§ Russia and Japan resisted and formed a new friendship treaty, causing the Open Door to Chine to be Closed
Wilson: Moralism and Realism in Mexico
· Even without any experience in diplomacy, Wilson brought to foreign affairs a set of fundamental principles that combined a moralist’s faith in American democracy with the understanding of the power of international commerce
o He emphasized foreign investments and industrial exports and believed that there should be free trade
o He also saw this as a moral crusade, and saw all this trade as showing people the American life
· Wilson’s problems in Mexico foreshadowed the problems he would have in WWI
o The 1911 Mexican Rebellion brought up popular leader Francisco Madero
§ This made US investors scared because they owed ¼ of all the land in Mexico and 4/5 of all gold, silver, and copper
o At first, Wilson gave his blessing to the new regime but was shocked when Madero’s chief lieutenant, General Victoriano Huerta, killed Madero and took over
o Huerta was supported by Britain, Japan and other nations but Wilson refused and also persuaded Britain to not support them either but rather supported an armed faction that opposed Huerta, led by Venustiano Carranza
o In April 1914, Wilson used a minor insult to US sailors as an excuse to occupy Veracruz, but Huerto wouldn’t submit and was later taken out by Carranza, who played the national sentiment and denounced Wilson’s intervention
o Wilson later supported Francisco Villa who had a rebel army in northern Mexico but when war loomed in Europe, Wilson recognized Carranza as the de facto president
§ Feeling betrayed, Villa went around attacking US towns and was chased by General Pershings, which became a fruitless mission
§ Just when Wilson was going to ask Congress for permission to occupy northern Mexico, he decided not to because of the looming trouble in Europe
o The principle that the US was an international police that protected capitalist development, democracy, and free trade, would soon engage American into WWI
The Great War
· With both sides hoping for a swift victory, both were surprised when it lasted 4 years and the death toll was incredible
· The war shifted country borders and changed the US’s economy, politics, and cultural life
The Guns of August
· Only a complex system of alliance had kept powers at peace with each other
· The two great camps were the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) and the Allies (Great Britain, France, and Russia)
o The heart of the division was Germany and Great Britain who were competing to be the largest commercial power
· The alliance system threatened to entangle many nations in any war that did erupt
o On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia
o The assassin was a Serbian nationalist who wanted Bosnia to become part of Serbia
o Germany pushed Hungary to attack and the Serbians in turn called for the Russians and by early August, both sides had exchanged declarations of war and began mobilizing
o Germany invaded Belgium and was trying to invade France but was stopped at a stalemate
§ New guns and tanks and trench warfare made the death toll 5 million people
American Neutrality
· At the outset of the war, Wilson issued a formal proclamation of neutrality and urged citizens to do so
o This was hard because of the different ethnic groups who were tied to their Old World countries
o 8 million German Americans and 4 million Irish Americans supported the Central Powers extremely
o Many Americans were mildly pro-Allies due to cultural and language bonds with Great Britain and the tradition of Franco-American friendship
o Both sides used propaganda campaigns to sway Americans
§ The British effectively exploited their bonds of language and heritage with Americans by reporting looting, raping, and the killing of innocent civilians by German troops
§ Germans blamed the war on Russian expansionism and France’s anger at losing a previous war but the terrible cost of war made Americans want to stay out
· Economic ties with the Allies was the greatest barrier of neutrality
o Early in the war, Britain put a blockade on Germany and even though the US protested the blockage, Wilson wanted to avoid antagonizing Britain
o Trade with Germany all but ended, while trade with the Allies increased dramatically
Preparedness and Peace
· Angry, Germany declared that waters around Britain to be a war zone and enforced this using unrestricted submarine warfare
o Neutral powers were warned that their ships could be at risk
o The US became angry and issued a protest and threatened to hold Germany accountable
o On May 7, 1915, the Lusitania was destroyed killing 1198 people, 128 of them America
o Tensions heated up again in March 1916 when a U-boat took out the Sussex injuring four Americans
o In June 1916, the National Defense Act doubled the size of the army and added the state National Guards
o In August, Congress passed a bill that increased spending for new battleships, cruisers, and destroyers
· Not all Americans supported this
o On August 29, 1914, 1500 women marched down the New York’s Fifth Avenue in the Woman’s Peace Parade
o Out of this the American Union against Militarism came into being
o A group of 30-50 House Democrats opposed Wilson’s military buildup
o Majority leader Claude Kitchin of NC, Jane Addams, Lillian D. Wald, and others spoke for freedom
· Wilson wins the reelection
o He used the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War” in 1916 and won the campaign
o He beat Charles Evans Hughes in a close election
Safe for Democracy
· Germany had decided against a negotiated peace settlement
o On February 1, 1917, Germany declares unlimited submarine warfare against all shipping
o This was done in hope to take out the Allies before the US could join in
· Wilson was outraged and disappointed
o Wilson had hoped for peace but reluctantly broke off relations with Germany and armed all US merchant ships
o On March 1, the White House was shocked with the arrival of an intercepted message known as the Zimmerman notes that said that Germany would team up with Mexico and take back their lost territory if they attacked the US
o In the March of 1917, U-boats sank seven US merchant ships, leaving a heavy death toll, and Wilson with nothing else to do
o On April 2, 1917, Wilson gave his case, stressing that as mankind’s most enlightened and advanced nation, the US had a duty to protect the rights of small nations, and bring peace and safety to all nations
§ America joins the war
American Mobilization
· The overall public response to the call to war was enthusiastic but the administration was less certain about ordinary Americans and their willingness to fight in Europe
o The government took immediate steps to win over public support, place a muzzle on antiwar dissenters, and establish a draft
Selling the War
· Wilson creates the Committee on Public Information to organize public opinion
o It was headed by George Creel who was a friend of Wilson and who quickly transformed it into a sophisticated and aggressive agency to promote the war
o He enlisted more than 150,000 people to work with the CPI, who in turn produced more than 100 million pieces of literature explaining the war
o The CPI used lots of propaganda including using movies stars such as Charlie Chaplin and getting famous journalists such as muckraker Ida Tarbell
§ Across the Nation 75,000 “Four Minute Men” gave brief and patriotic speeches before stage and movies shows
o The CPI also attack all things Germany and depicted them as Huns (bestial monsters outside the civilized world)
§ Everything German was banished from concert halls, schools, and libraries
§ The CPI urged many to become “unhyphenated Americans” but all of this led to thousands of local and sometimes violent campaigns against German-Americans, radicals, and peace activists
Fading Opposition to War
· Because Wilson defined the call to war as a great moral crusade, many Americans were won over to his side
o Liberals and progressives were attracted to the possibilities of war as a force for social change
o Many agreed with Wilson that this was an idealistic crusade to defend democracy, spread liberal principles, and redeem European decadence and militarism
o John Dewey (philosopher) believed that the war offered great social possibilities
o One of few voices of dissent among intellectuals was Randolph Bourne who, through his antiwar essays, predicted sharp infringements on political and intellectual freedoms
· The Woman’s Peace Party (est. 1915), opposed the preparedness campaign dissolved
o Most of its leaders, Florence Kelley, Lillian D. Wald, and Carrie Chapman Catt, joined volunteer work
o Catt, leader of NAWSA, joined the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense and encouraged women to help in war services
§ Although some women were still against the war, many enjoyed leading roles in their communities by selling bonds, coordination food conservation drives, and working for hospitals and the Red Cross
“You’re in the Army Now”
· The central military issue was how to get more armed forces
o When the war was declared there were only 200,000 men in the army and very low volunteer rates after April 6
o The administration introduced the Selective Service Act when drafted men from 21-35 with no exception for paying for a substitute
o On June 5, 1917, 10 million men registered for the draft and by the end of the war 24 million had done so
o Of the 2.8 million called for service only 12% didn’t show and another 2 million Americans volunteered
· Progressives saw this as an opportunity for pressing reform measures involving education, alcohol, and sex
o Army psychologists gave an intelligence test to everyone and were shocked to find that illiteracy rates were as high as 25%
o After the war, these intelligence tests became a standard feature of America’s educational system
Racism in the Military
· African Americans found severe limitations in the US military
o They were organized in segregated units and barred from the marines and the Coast Guard as well as put as cooks laundrymen, and stevedores
o Thousands of black soldiers endured humiliating and sometimes violent treatment, especially from Southern white officers as well as civilians when trying to go to certain restaurants and theaters
o The ugliest incident was in Houston August 1917 when black infantrymen took arms and killing 17 civilians
§ 30 blacks were executed and 41 imprisoned for life
o More than 200,000 blacks served in France but only 1 in 5 saw combat as opposed to 2 in 3 whites
o Blacks were actually loved by the French and the 369th US Infantry regiment was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government
§ 171 officers and enlisted men were cited for exceptional bravery
Americans in Battle
· Wilson appointed General John J. Pershing as commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF)
o Pershing wanted the AEF to be separate from the other countries’ armies and was reluctant to send soldiers who didn’t have at least 16 months of training
o The AEF had a short but intense combat role, only being in the front lines for the last 8 months of the war
o Pershing believed the object of war to be total destruction of the enemy’s military power and didn’t like the defensive tactics of trench warfare
§ Sadly there was nothing to be done because of the new weapons and technology in use
o In the spring if 1918, Germanys launched an offensive that brought them within 50 miles of Paris
§ In June, 70,000 AEF soldiers helped the French stop the Germans and in July, Allied forces led by Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France, began a counteroffensive to end it all
§ Reinforcements came to help the allied forces and by September, Pershing had over 1 million Americans at his back
o In late September 1918, the AEF took over a 200 mile front offensive and quickly took out the Germans in seven weeks
§ On November 11, 1918, the war ended with an armistice
· The massive influx of Americans and their supplies gave a quick end to the war
o 52,000 Americans died in battle, 60,000 from influenza and pneumonia, 200,000 injured
o 9 million dead in Russia, 6 million in Germany, 5 million in France, 2 million for both Great Britain and Italy
· Roxy’s theatre opens in March 1927
o 60 million Americans “worshiped” at movie theatres each week
o Movies emerged as the most popular form of entertainment
· Hollywood
o Sunny and dry climate was ideal for year-round filming
o Scenic locations
§ Mountains
§ Deserts
§ Ocean
o Land and labor were cheap and plentiful
o Most top studio executives were Jewish immigrants from eastern and central Europe
o Resentment towards new popular culture was widespread
· Postwar prosperity and its price
o Warren G. Harding won presidency in 1920
§ “return to normalcy”
o After World War I…
§ American economy underwent profound structural changes that guaranteed life would never be the same as before the war
§ Increase in the efficiency of production
§ Steady climb in real wages
§ Decline in work hours
§ Boom in consumer-goods industries
· The second industrial revolution
o Technological innovations made it possible to increase industrial output WITHOUT more labor force
o Electricity replaced steam in most industries
§ Older machinery replaced with more efficient electric machinery
§ Could be operated by unskilled and semiskilled workers
o By 1929, 70% of factories relied on electric power
o Machine industry supplied 35% of the world market
o Mass-production techniques used to make large profits while keeping prices affordable
o Double industrial production in the 1920s by…
§ Efficient management
§ Greater mechanization
§ Intensive product research
§ Ingenious sales and advertising methods
· The modern corporation
o John D. Rockefeller (oil) & Andrew Carnegie (steel)
§ Maintained both corporate control (ownership) and business leadership (management) in their enterprises
· Found in men such as Alfred P. Sloan of GM and Owen D. Young of the Radio Corporation of America
§ Stressed scientific management and the latest theories of behavioral psychology to make workplaces more productive, stable, and profitable
o Most successful in this era led in…
§ The integration of production and distribution
§ Product diversification
§ Explanation of industrial research
o In 1929, 200 largest corporations owned almost half the nation’s corporate wealth
§ Physical plant
§ Sock
§ Property
o Oligopoly
§ Control of a market by a few large producers
§ Was normal during this time
o Americans were increasingly members of national consumer communities
§ Buying the same brands all over the country, as opposed to locally produced goods
· Welfare capitalism
o Wartime gains made by organized labor troubled corporate leaders
§ Large employers promoted a variety of new programs to improve worker well-being and morale
· Encourage workers to acquire property through stock purchase plans
o Beneficial to workers of that company
· Offered workers insurance policies covering accidents, illness, old age, and death
o Similar to life insurance
· Plant managers worked to improve safety conditions, provide medical services, and establish sports and recreation programs for workers
o Encourage workers to identify personally with the company; stop complaining on the job
§ Welfare capitalism could not solve problems of:
· Seasonal unemployment
· Low wages
· Long hours
· Unhealthy factory conditions
§ The American Plan
· Meant to associate unionism with foreign and un-American ideas
· Backed by the National Association of Manufacturers and the Chamber of Commerce
· Open shop
o No employee would be compelled to join a union
o Put organizers at a disadvantage
§ Large employers set up company unions (part of welfare capitalism)
· Substitute largely symbolic employee representations in management conferences for the more confrontational process of collective bargaining
o US Steel
o International Harvester
· Decline in the ranks of organized labor
· Endears companies to employees
· Gives workers a stake in the vision of the company
§ William Green
· President of the American Federation of Labor after the death of Samuel Gompers
· No interest in getting unorganized workers into unions
· Decrease in AFL influence
§ Federal government reverted to a more pro-business posture
· Supreme Court was unsympathetic toward unions; upholding the use of injunctions to prevent strikes
· The auto age
o Auto industry offered the clearest example of the rise to prominence of consumer durables
o 1929; 4.8 million new cars added to the roads
o Henry Ford
§ Continuous assembly line drastically reduced the number of worker hours required to produce a vehicle
§ More efficient factory shop and layout
· Maximize output
§ “Every piece of work in the shop moves”
§ Integrated new wage:
· $5 per 8 hour day
· Reduced high turnover rate in his labor force
o If you pay the best, workers are less likely to leave
o By 1927, Ford faced stiff competition from General Motors
o Alfred P. Sloan
§ GM organized into separate divisions which appealed to a different market segment
§ Example: Cadillac for wealthy buyers; Chevrolet for working-class buyers
· Widely copied model for other large American corporations
o Auto industry provided a large market for makers of:
§ Steel
§ Rubber
§ Glass
§ Petroleum
§ Diners, motels, billboard advertising
o Auto industry:
§ Extended the housing boom to new suburbs
§ Showrooms, repair shops, and gas stations were abundant
§ New small enterprises sprang up as motorist took the highway
§ Made the exploration of the world outside the local community easier to reach
§ Allowed young people to gain privacy from their parents
· Cities and suburbs
o Cars promoted urban and suburban growth
o Steady increase in the number of big cities
o Cities promised…
§ Business opportunity
§ Good jobs
§ Cultural richness
§ Personal freedom
o Immigrants were drawn to cities because of already established ethnic communities
o Suburban communities grew at twice the rate of core cities
§ Automobile boom
· Exceptions: Agriculture, ailing industries
o Increased wartime demand had led to record-high prices for many crops
o With war’s end, American farmers began to suffer from a chronic worldwide surplus
§ Land values dropped, wiping out billions in capital investment
o The South:
§ Lagged farther behind the rest of the nation in both agricultural diversity and standard of living
§ Farmers found it extremely difficult to find reliable markets for:
· Vegetables
· Fruit
· Poultry
· Dairy
§ Black tenantry declined slightly as a result of the Great Migration
o McNary-Haugen bills
§ Complicated measure designed to prop up and stabilize farm prices
§ Basic idea was for the government to purchase farm surpluses and either:
· Store them until prices rose
· Sell them on the world market
§ Result…
· Higher domestic prices for farm products
§ However, Calvin Coolidge viewed these measures as unwarranted federal interference in the economy
· Vetoed the bill
o Some farmers thrived
§ Improved transportation and chain supermarkets allowed for a wider distribution of some foods
§ Wheat, citrus, dairy prospered
o Disastrous dust storms in the 1930s rolled across the grassless plains
o American coal mines became less important source for energy
§ Shrinking demand
§ New mining technology
§ Series of losing strikes
o United Mine Workers shrank drastically
o Number of miles of railroad track decreased after 1920
§ Automobiles and trucks began to displace trains
o Overcapacity was a chronic problem (too many factories)
o Women’s fashions of the 1920’s required less material than earlier fashions
§ Synthetic fibers such as rayon depressed demand for cotton textiles
o Textile manufacturers in New England and other parts of the Northeast began a long-range shift of operations to the South
§ Nonunion shops and sub standard wages became the rule
o Center of textile industry shifted permanently to the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina
§ Southern mills generally operated night and day
· Used the newest labor-saving machinery
· Cut back on the wage gains of the WWI years
· The new mass culture
o “Roaring Twenties”
§ Explosion of image and sound making machinery that dominated American life
o Culture changed
§ Habit, dress, language, sounds, & social behavior
§ New media altered the rhythms of everyday life
§ Redefined “the good life”
o Movie-made America
§ Movie industry centered in New York
§ Migration to Hollywood – cheaper, lots of land, scenery, great weather, etc.
§ Movie-going was a regular habit especially for immigrants & working class citizens
· Cheap theaters called “nickelodeons”
§ Paramount, Fox, MGM, Universal, and Warner Brothers dominated the business
· Feature films
· Founded and controlled by European immigrants
· Adoph Zukor – Paramount
· Samuel Goldwyn – MGM
· William Fox – Fox
§ Each studio combined:
· Production, distribution, & exhibition
§ “talkies”
· Movies with sound
§ Stars became vital to fans – Charlie Chaplain, etc.
· studio publicity
· fan magazines
· gossip columns
§ Movies generally emphasized sexual themes and celebrated youth, athleticism, & the liberating power of consumer goods
§ Americans (mostly rural areas) worried about Hollywood’s impact on traditional sexual morality
· States created censorship boards to screen movies before allowing them to be shown to the public
§ Movies promote consumerism
§ Will Hays
· Head the Motion Picture Producers and Distrubutors of America
· Former postmaster general under President Harding
· Lobbied against censorship laws
· Wrote pamphlets defending the movie business
· Began setting guidelines for what could and could not be shown on the screen
o Radio Broadcasting
§ Harry P. Davis
· Noticed that amateur broadcasts attracted attention in the local Pittsburgh press
· Converted the amateur broadcast to a stronger one
§ KDKA offered regular nightly broadcasts that were heard by only a few hundred people
· Before KDKA, wireless technology was only interesting to the military, and the telephone industry
§ Radio broadcasting begun as a service for selling cheap radio sets left over from World War I
§ By 1923, 600 stations had been licensed by the Department of commerce
· 600,000 Americans had bought radios
· Programs included…
o Live popular music
o Playing of the phonograph records
o Talks by college professors
o Church services
o News and weather reports
o Amos and Andy
§ Radios provided a new link to the larger national community
§ Toll broadcasting emerged in the late 1920s
· Sponsors were the customers
o Sponsors advertised to the audience through shows
· CONSUMERISM IN ADVERTISING
§ Dominant radio corporations…
· General Electric
· Westinghouse
· Radio Corporation of America (RCA)
· American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T)
§ AT&T leased a nationwide system of telephone wires to allow linking of many stations
· National Broadcasting Company (1926)
· Columbia Broadcasting System (1928)
§ NBC and CBS led in creating popular radio programs
· Relied on older cultural forms
§ Sports games were especially popular
§ Radio broadcasting created a national community of listeners
§ Had a powerful hemispheric impact
· Canada and Mexico, national broadcasting systems helped bolster cultural and political nationalism
§ American shows dominated Canada’s airwaves
§ Mexican radio stations partnered with American corporations
· Language barriers limited direct impact of US broadcasting
o New forms of journalism
§ Tabloid became popular in post-war years
· New York Daily News achieved this style first
o Founded by Joseph M. Patterson
· Folded-in-halfpage size made it convenient to read on buses and subways
· Devoted much space to photos and other illustrations
· Terse, lively reporting style
o Emphasized sex, scandal, and sports
§ Most new readers were poorly educated city-dwellers
· Immigrants or children of immigrants
§ Gossip column was popular
· Invented by Walter Winchell
· Described the secret lives of public figures
§ Journalism followed the larger economic trend towards consolidation and merger
o Advertising modernity
§ Thriving advertising industry encouraged importance of consumer goods
§ CPI suggested that new techniques could convince people to buy a wide range of goods & services
§ Advertising reached a higher level of respectability and economic power
§ Larger agencies:
· Moved toward a more scientific approach
o Sponsored market research
o Welcomed the language of psychology
· Focused on needs of the consumer, rather than the quality of the product
§ High-powered ad campaigns made new products that became known throughout the country
· Fleischmann’s Yeast
· Kleenex
· Listerine
§ New advertising ethic promised that products would contribute to the buyer’s physical or emotional well being
§ Strategies that were a success…
· Appeals to nature
· Medical authority
· Personal freedom
o The phonograph and the recording industry
§ Phonograph was a popular entertainment medium
· Success transformed the popular music business
· Displaced both cylinders and sheet music as the major source of music
§ Dance crazes boosted the record business tremendously
· Fox trot
· Tango
· Grizzly bear
§ Records provided the music for new popular dances
· The Charleston
· The black bottom
§ Record sales declined towards the end of the decade
· Competition from the radio
§ Many Americans began to hear musical styles and performers who had previously been isolated from the general population
o Sports and celebrity
§ In the 1920’s, sports grew in popularity and profitability
§ Athletes took their place alongside movie stars
· Defined a new culture of celebrity
§ Athletes themselves who attracted millions of new fans
§ Image of the modern athlete:
· Rich
· Famous
· Glamorous
· A rebel against social convention
§ Major league baseball was most popular
· Babe Ruth was its greatest star
o Hobnobbed with politicians, movie stars, and gangsters
o Regularly visited sick children in hospitals
o First athlete sought after for celebrity endorsement
§ Baseball suffered a PR disaster with the “Black Sox” scandal
· Players agreed to “throw” the World Series for money from gamblers
· Banned the players for life
§ Newspapers began including larger sports sections
§ William K. Wrigley
· Owner of the Chicago Cubs
o Discovered that by letting local radio stations broadcast games, new fans would emerge
§ African Americans were banned from baseball
· Developed a world of their own
o Professional and semiprofessional leagues
§ Negro National League, organized by Andrew Foster
o Josh Gibson & Satchel Paige – stars in the African American league
§ College football was also a big time sport
· Teams gained national following
o A new morality?
§ Elite figures in the new culture defined by the mass media
· Movie starts
· Radio personalities
· Sports heroes
· Popular musicians
§ The flapper
· “women who danced the Charleston”
· Portrayed as…
o a young, sexually aggressive woman with bobbed hair, rouged cheeks, and a short skirt
o Loved to dance to jazz music
o Enjoyed smoking cigarettes
o Drank bootleg liquor
o Competitive, assertive
· Not as new or widespread as the image would suggest
· Social role between women and men becomes less significant
· WTC
o Women’s Temperance Committee
§ Emergence of homosexual subcultures
· Previously been largely confined to working-class saloons associated with the urban underworld
· Middle-class enclaves of homosexuals began to take root in New York, Chicago, and San Fransisco
o Met in “speak-easies”; generally in Harlem
o Speak-easy: place that served liquor illegally
§ On fringe of “illegal, and who cares?”
· 1927; Mae West presented an original play on Broadway that featured male drag queens playing themselves
o Protest forced authorities to padlock the theater
· Can be associated with:
o Troops in the armed forces during World War I were exposed to sex education
o New psychological and social theories stressed the central role of sexuality in human experience
§ Sex is a positive, healthy impulse
· Margaret Sanger
o Author of “Birth Control Review”
§ After 1910, likelihood of women being virgins when they got married dropped drastically
o Educated women in birth control
o Made contraception freely available to all women
· Resistance to Modernity
o Prohibition
§ Actually does reduce alcohol consumption
§ 18th Amendment: banning the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages (January 1920)
§ Culmination of campaign that associated drinking with the degradation of working-class family life and the worst evils of urban politics
§ Supporters of Prohibition believed it “a noble experiment”
· Group of women’s temperance group
· Middle-class progressives
· Rural Protestants
§ Enforcing the law was extremely difficult
· Volstead Act of 1919
o Established federal Prohibition Bureau to enforce the 18th Amendment
o Bureau was understaffed
o Only about 1500 agents in the entire country
§ Public demand for alcohol led to lawbreaking
· Especially in large cities
· Drinking was a routine for many Americans
· Led to bootlegging
· Illegal stills and breweries and liquor smuggled from Canada were bought by many Americans
· Almost every town and city had at least one “speakeasy” where people drank and enjoyed music or other entertainment
o Local law enforcement were easily bribed to overlook it
· Organized crime
o Al Capone
§ By the early 1920’s, many Eastern states gave up on enforcing the law
· Capone: “Everybody calls me racketeer. I call myself a businessman. When I sell liquor it’s bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on a silver tray on Lake Shore Drive, it’s hospitality”
o Immigration Restriction
§ Sentiment to restrict immigration began in the late 19th century
· Reached a peak immediately after WWI
§ Antiimmigrant feeling reflected growing prevalence after 1890 of “new immigrants”
· Those from southern and western Europe
o From 1891-1920 about 10.5 million immigrants had arrived from these areas
· Mostly Catholic and Jewish
· Darker-skinned than the “old immigrants”
o Immigrants seemed more exotic and foreign, and less willing to assimilate the nation’s political and cultural values
· Relatively poorer
· Lived in more physically isolated cities and less politically strong than earlier immigrants
§ 1890’s, anti-Catholic American Protective Association called for a curb on immigration
· Exploited the economic depression of that decade
o Reached membership of 2.5 million
§ Immigration Restriction League (1894)
· Formed by a group of Harvard graduates
o Henry Cabot Lodge and John Fiske
· Provided an influential forum for the fears of the nation’s elite
· League used newer scientific arguments based on flawed application of Darwinian evolutionary theory and genetics to support immigration restrictions
· Theories of scientific racism
o Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race (1916)
§ Distorted generic theory to argue that America was committing “race suicide”
§ Inferior Alpine, Mediterranean, and Jewish stock threatened to extinguish superior Nordic race
§ Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
· Asians banned
o Labor shortage
· 1924 Immigration Act
o Aliens ineligible to citizenship
· Ozawa vs. US & US vs. Thind
o Asian Indians are racially ineligible to become US citizens
§ Wanted to maximize immigrants from Britain, etc. and minimize immigrants coming from Asia and smaller countries
§ Eugenicists
· Enjoyed vogue in those years
· Believed heredity determined almost all of a person’s capacities
o Genetic inferiority predisposed people to crime and poverty
o Thinking sought to explain historical and social development solely as a function of racial differences
§ War and its aftermath
· Provided final push for immigration restriction
· “100% American” fervor of war years fueled nativist passions
· Red Scare off 1919-1920 linked foreigners with Bolshevism and radicalism
· Postwar depression coincided with resumption of massive immigration
o Brought hostile comments on the relationship between rising unemployment and influx of immigrants
§ American Federation of Labor
· Proposed stopping all immigration for 2 years
· Press coverage of organized crime figures played a part
§ 1921, Immigration Act
· Set a maximum of 357,000 new immigrants a year
· Quotas limited annual immigration from any European country to 3% of the number of its natives counted in the census
· Restrictionists complained the law still allowed too many southern and eastern Europeans in
§ Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924
· Revised the quotas to 2% of the number of foreign-born counted for each nationality
· Maximum total allowed was cut to 164,000
· Quota laws did not apply to any country on the western hemisphere
· Included a clause prohibiting the entry of “aliens ineligible to citizenship”
o Excluding immigrants from the nations of East and South Asia
§ Most Asians had already been barred from legal immigration by Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 or the “barred Asiatic zone”
§ Outraged Japanese government imposed a 100% tariff on goods imported from America
· This led the Supreme Court to hold that Japanese and Asian Indians were ineligible for US citizenship
o Ku Klux Klan
§ Most effective mass movement
§ Original Ku Klux Klan had been formed in the Reconstruction South as instrument of white racial terror against newly freed slaves
· Died out in the 1870’s
§ New Klan started in Stone Mountain, GA in 1915
· Inspired by DW Griffith’s racist The Birth of a Nation
o Film released that depicted the original KKK as heroic
· Patterned itself on secret rituals and antiblack hostility of predecessors
o Until 1920, limited to GA and AL
· Hiram Evans (Dallas dentist) became imperial wizard of the Klan in 1922, he transformed the organization
o Hired professional fundraisers and publicists that paid a commission to sponsor new members
o Advocated “100% Americanism” and “the faithful maintenance of White Supremacy”
o Supported prohibition
o Attacked birth control and Darwinism
o Made special target of the Roman Catholics
§ Labeled hostile and dangerous alien power
· Presented itself as righteous defender of embattled traditional values of small-town Protestant America
· To build its membership, relied heavily on publicity, public relations, and business techniques associated with modern urban culture
· By 1924, they had over 3 million members across the country
· Klansmen boycotted businesses, threatened families, and sometimes resorted to violence
· Targets sometimes white Protestants accused of sexual promiscuity, blasphemy, or drunkenness
· Most victims African Americans, Jews, and Catholics
· Prohibition united the Klan more than anything
· Popular social movement
o More attracted to spectacular social events and effort to reinvigorate community life than its attacks on “outsiders”
· Half a million women joined the Women of the KKK
o Women constituted half of the Klan membership in some states
§ The Klan’s power was strong in many communities because it fit into everyday life of white Protestants
§ Became a powerful force in Democratic Party politics
· Had strong presence among delegates in 1924 Democratic National Convention
§ Began to fade in 1925
· When its Indiana leader, Grand Dragon David Stephenson, was involved in a personal affair
o He got a young secretary drunk and assaulted her on a train
o The woman took poison and died
o Convicted of manslaughter
o Klan began to lose members
o Religious Fundamentalism
§ Congregations focused less on religious practice and worship than on social and reform activities in larger communities
§ By early 1920’s, fundamentalist revival had developed a reaction to these tendencies
§ Emphasized literal reading of the Bible, rejected tenets of modern science as inconsistent with work of God
· Believed origin of species by Darwin was an attack on Christian values and revealed word of God
§ Fundamentalist publications and Bible colleges grew
· Particularly among Southern Baptists
§ Special target of fundamentalists was theory of evolution
· Using fossil evidence, evolutionary theory suggested that over time many species had become extinct, and new ones had emerged through natural selection
· Ideas contradicted fixed creation of the Book of Genesis
· Clergymen have long since found ways to blend scientific theory with theology
o Fundamentalists launched attack on teaching of Darwinism in schools and universities
§ Young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, broke Tennessee law that prohibited the teaching of Darwinism in 1925
· Trial drew international attention
· Called the “monkey trial” because fundamentalists trivialized Darwin’s theory that claimed humans descended from monkeys
· Most publicized moment of the decade
· Jury convicted Scopes, verdict later thrown out
· Prosecutions for teaching evolution ceased
· John Scopes is represented by ACLU
o Tennessee is wrong in disallowing the teaching of evolution
§ Fundamentalism continued to have a strong appeal for millions of Americans
· Cultural defense against uncertainties of modern life
§ William Jennings Bryan
· Don’t allow science communities to testify
· Bryan is allowed to testify as an “expert on the Bible”
· Wins case and Scopes loses
· Dies a week after the trial
· The State, the Economy, and Business
o 1920’s, Republican Party dominated national politics and believed they had ushered a “new era” in American life
o New, closer relationship between the federal government and American business became the hallmark of the Republican policy
§ Both in domestic and foreign affairs during the administrations of 3 successive Republican presidents
· Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover
o Republicans claimed their business-government partnership was responsible for the nation’s economic prosperity
o Warren Harding
§ Handsome, genial, well-spoken, however, he was shallow and weak
· Unfit to be a president
· During the campaign, publicists kept Harding out of the public eye because they did not want to expose his inability to be president
§ Harding chose his close friends, called the “Ohio gang,” for places of administrative power
§ President conducted business as if he were in the environment of a small-town saloon
§ Summer of 1923, scandals his administration were best known for began
§ After Harding’s death from a heart attack in 1923, congressional investigations revealed a deep pattern of corruption in Harding’s administration
· Attorney General Harry Daugherty received bribes from violators of the Prohibition statutes
o Also failed to investigate graft in the Veterans Bureau when Charles Forbes had stolen $250 million spent on hospitals and supplies
· Teapot Dome Scandal
o Involved Interior Secretary Albert Fall
§ Fall received hundreds of thousands of dollars in a payoff where he secretly leased navy oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hills, California to two private oil developers
§ Became the first cabinet officer to go to jail
§ Positive points of Harding’s administration
· Andrew Mellon, influential Pittsburgh banker, served as secretary of the treasury under all 3 Republican presidents of the 1920s
o Leading investor in the Aluminum Corporation of America and Gulf Oil
o Believed government should be run based on conservative principles in corporations
o Trimmed the federal budget, cut taxes on incomes, corporate profits, and inheritances
§ Cuts would free up capital for new investments and promote general economic growth
§ Sharply cut taxes for higher income brackets and for businesses
§ By 1926, a person with an income of $1 million a year paid 1/3 less income tax than in 1921
o Policies succeeded to reduce much of the progressive taxation associated with Woodrow Wilson
o Calvin Coolidge
§ Temperamental opposite of Harding
§ “Silent Cal” was the quintessential New England Yankee
§ Cold, refined, and honest, Coolidge believed in the littlest amount of government possible
§ “The business of American is business”
· Captured core of philosophy of Republican era
§ In awe of wealthy men like Andrew Mellon
· Thought these men best suited to make society’s key decisions
§ Easily won election of 1924
· Benefited from prosperity and the contrast he provided against Harding
· Defeated Democrat John Davis
o Compromise of his party
o Democrats badly divided between its rural and urban wings
§ Coolidge showed most interest in reducing federal spending, lowering taxes and blocking congressional initiatives
§ Saw his primary function as clearing the way for American businessmen
· Agents of the era’s unprecedented prosperity
o Herbert Hoover and the “Associative State”
§ Secretary of commerce, dominating the cabinets of Harding Coolidge
§ Became president in 1929
§ Successful engineer, administrator, and politician
§ Effectively embodied the belief that enlightened businesses that were enlightened and informed by the government would act in the public’s interests
§ Believed the government only needed to advise private citizens groups about what national or international policies to pursue
§ Fused a faith in old-fashioned individualism with a strong commitment to the progressive possibilities offered by efficiency and rationality
· Wanted to assist the business community
o Spoke of creating an “associative state”
§ Government would encourage voluntary cooperation among corporations, consumers, workers, farmers, and small businessmen
o Became central occupation of the Department of Commerce
o Bureau of Standards
§ Became the nation’s leading research center, setting engineering standards for key American industries such as machine, tools, and automobiles
§ Helped standardize the styles, sizes, and designs of consumer products such as canned goods and refrigerators
§ Actively encouraged the creation and expansion of national trade associations
· By 1929, about 2000 of them
§ Industrial conferences called by the Commerce Department
· Government officials explained advantages of mutual cooperation in figuring prices and costs and then publishing the information
o Idea was to improve efficiency by reducing competition
o To some, the process violated the spirit of antitrust laws
o In 1920s, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division took a relaxed view of responsibility
o Supreme Court consistently upheld the legality of trade associations
o Government provided climate for the concentration of corporate wealth and power
§ By 1929, the 200 largest American corporations owned almost half the total corporate wealth and about a fifth of the total national wealth
§ Concentration strong in manufacturing, retailing, mining, banking, and utilities
§ Number of vertical combinations increased
· Large integrated firms that controlled the raw materials, manufacturing processes, and distribution networks for their produces
· Common in automobile, electrical, radio, motion picture, and other industries
· War debts, reparations, keeping the peace
o US emerged from WWI as the strongest economic power in the world
§ War transformed US from the world’s leading debtor to its most important creditor
§ European governments owed the US government about $10 million in 1919
§ In private sector, the war ushered an era of expanding American investment abroad
· In late 1914, foreign investments in the US were about $3 billion more than the total of American capital invested abroad
· By 1929, surplus was $8 billion
§ New York replaced London as the center of international finance and capital markets
o 1920s, war debts and reparations were single most divisive issue in international economics
o France and Great Britain both owed US large amounts in war loans
§ Many concluded that while US had loaned large sums during the war, they were really loan sharks in disguise
§ Many Americans viewed Europeans as ungrateful debtors
o In 1922, US Foreign Debt Commission negotiated an agreement with debtor nations that called for them to repay $11.5 billion over a 62 year period
§ By late 1920s, European financial situations became so bad that America cancelled a large amount of their debt
§ Insistence of Americans for Europeans to repay some of their debt increased anti-American feelings in Europe and isolationism in America
o Germans believed the war reparations unfairly punished them and prevented them of any means to repay
§ Dawes Plan
· Herbert Hoover and Chicago banker Charles Dawes worked a plan to aid the recovery of the German economy
· Reduced Germany’s debt, stretched out the repayment period, and arranged for American bankers to lend funds to Germany
· Measures helped stabilize Germany’s currency and allowed it to make reparations payments to France and Great Britain
· Allies, in turn, were better able to pay back the US
o US never joined the League of Nations
§ It still maintained an active, but selective, involvement in world affairs
§ US joined the league-sponsored World Count in 1926
· Represented at numerous league conferences
§ Pact of Paris (aka Kellogg-Briand Pact)
· US and 62 other nations signed it in 1928
· Grandly and naively renounced war in principle
· Peace groups hailed the pact for formally outlawing war
· Critics said the pact was essentially meaningless since it lacked powers of enforcement and relied on the moral force of world opinion
· Within weeks of ratification, US Congress had appropriated $250 million for new battleships
o Commerce and Foreign Policy
§ In 1920s, Secretary of State Charles Hughes and other Republican leaders pursued policies designed to expand American economic activity abroad
§ Understood capitalist economies must be dynamic
· Markets were to be expanded if they were to thrive
· focus on friendly nations and investments that would help foreign citizens to buy American goods
§ Republican leaders urged close cooperation between bankers and the government as a strategy for expanding American investment and economic influence abroad
· Insisted that investment capital not be spent on US enemies (like the Soviet Union) or nonproductive enterprises (like weapons)
§ Investment bankers routinely submitted loan projects to Hughes and Secretary of Commerce Hoover for informal approval
· Reinforcing close ties between investments and foreign policy
§ American oil, auto, farm machinery, and electrical equipment supplied a growing world market
· Much expansion took place through establishment of branch plants overseas by American companies
· America’s overall direct investment abroad increased from $3.8 billion in 1919 to $7.5 billion in 1929
· Leading the US to domination of the world market were General Electric, Ford, and Monsanto Chemical
§ American oil companies, with the support of the State Department, challenged Britain’s dominance in oil fields in the Middle East and Latin America, forming powerful cartels with English firms
§ Maximum freedom for private enterprises with limited government advice and assistance boosted the power and profits of American overseas investors
· Central and Latin America, aggressive US investment fostered chronically underdeveloped economies, dependent on a few staple crops for export
· American investments in Latin America doubled
o Large part of the money went to taking over vital mineral resources
§ Growing wealth and power of US companies made it more difficult for 3rd world countries to grow their own food or diversify their economies
§ US economic dominance in the hemisphere hampered the growth of democratic politics by favoring autocratic, military regimes that would protect US investments
· Promises Postponed
o Prosperity of the 1920s unevenly distributed
§ Older, progressive reform movements had pointed inequities, faltered in the conservative political climate
o Republican new era inspired a range of critics troubled by unfulfilled promises in American life
o Feminism in Transition
§ Achievement of the suffrage removed central issue that had given unity to the forces of female reform activism
§ Female activists had political idealism
§ 1920s, women movement split into two main wings over disagreement about female identity
· Split between if women should stress women’s differences or equalities to men
§ 1920, NAWSA reorganized into the League of Women Voters
· Represented the historical mainstream of the suffrage movement
· Believed that the vote for women would bring nurturing sensibility and reform vision to American politics
o View rooted in politicized domesticity, the nation that women had a role to play in bettering society
o Improving conditions for working women, abolishing child labor, humanizing prisons and mental hospitals, and serving urban poor
o Encouraged women to run for office and supported laws for the protection of women and children
§ National Woman’s Party (NWP) 1916
· Founded by Alice Paul
· Downplayed significance of woman’s suffrage and argued women were still being treated as insubordinate to men
· Opposed protective legislation for women
o Claimed legislation reinforced sex stereotypes
· Focused on passage of a brief Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution (ERA 1923)
§ Older generation of women disagreed with ERA, arguing more women benefited from its passage than hurt by it
· Mary Anderson, director of the Women’s Bureau in the Department of Labor
§ Small number of women made gains in the fields of real estate, banking, and journalism
§ Less than 18% of employed women worked in clerical, managerial, sales, and professional areas
· By 1930, the number was 44%
· Studies show most women were clustered in the low-paying areas of typing, stenography, bookkeeping, cashiering, and sales clerking
§ Men still dominated high-paid and managerial white-collar occupations
§ 1921 Sheppard Towner Act
· Established the first federally funded health care program
· Provided matching funds for states to set up prenatal and child health care centers
o Centers provided public health nurses for house calls
· Act aroused opposition
o NWP disliked the assumption that all women were mothers
o Birth control advocates (Margaret Sanger) complained contraception was not part of the program
o American Medical Association objected to government-sponsored health care and to nurses who functioned outside the supervision of physicians
· By 1929, mostly due to the AMA, government cut off funds for the program
o Mexican Immigration
§ 1920s brought influx of Mexican immigrants to US
§ Mexicans not included in the immigration law of 1921 and 1924
§ Immigration picked up substantially after the Mexican Revolution in 1911
§ US Immigration Service estimated 459,000 Mexicans entered the US between 1921 and 1930
· More than double the number for the previous decade
· Underrepresented true number of Mexican immigrants
§ Many Mexicans shunned main borders to avoid the $8 a head tax and $10 visa fee
§ Primary pull was agricultural expansion occurring in American Southwest
· Irrigation and large-scale agribusiness begun transforming California’s Imperial and San Joaquin Valleys from arid desert to lucrative fruit and vegetable fields
§ More immigrants were staying in the country than before, and moving into cities
· Party due to unintended consequence of new policies designed to make immigration more difficult
o Border Patrol (est. 1924) made border crossing more difficult
§ Many immigrants alternated between agricultural and factory jobs
§ Women often worked in the fields with their husbands
§ Racism and local patterns of residential segregation confined most Mexicans to barrios
§ Housing conditions poor
§ Disease and infant mortality rates much higher than average
§ Most Mexicans worked low-paying, unskilled jobs with inadequate health care
§ Many felt ambivalence about applying for American citizenship
· Loyalty to their old country was strong, and many dreamed of returning to Mexico
§ Mutualistas
· Key social and political institution in Mexican communities of the Southwest and Midwest
· Provided death benefits and widow’s pensions for members and served as centers of resistance to civil rights violations
· Federation of Mexican Workers Unions formed in response to farm strike in California
o The “New Negro”
§ Harlem was the largest and most influential black community
· Attracted middle-class African Americans in prewar years
· Emerged as demographic and cultural capital of black America
· ¼ of population came from Barbados, Trinidad, and the Bahamas
· A large number carried entrepreneurial experience
· Intraracial tensions between American born blacks and islanders reflected on Harlem
§ Demand for housing led to skyrocketing rents, but most Harlems had low-wage jobs
· Led to overcrowded housing, unsanitary conditions, disease and death
· Harlem was on its way to becoming a slum
· Still boasted a large middle-class population and supported a array of churches, theaters, newspapers, etc.
· Became political and intellectual center
§ Harlem Renaissance
· Assertion of cultural independence
o Langston Hughes, Zora Hurston, Jessie Fauset, etc.
o Political side
§ Newly militant spirit that black veterans brought home from WWI matured and found a variety of expression in Harlem
o New leaders and movements began to appear
o Intellectuals and Alienation
§ Hemingway and Fitzgerald most influential novelists of the era
§ Fitzgerald joined the army during WWI, but did not serve overseas
· Works celebrated the “Jazz Age”
§ Writers engaged in attacks on small-town America and what they viewed as its provincial values
§ Aftermath of the postwar Red Scare
· Radicalism found itself on the defensive throughout the 1920s
o Election of 1928
§ Served as similar to a national referendum on the Republican new era
§ Revealed how important ethnic and cultural differences are to defining American politics
§ Al Smith (Democrat) and Herbert Hoover (Republican)
§ Hoover easily won the nomination
· Epitomized the successful and forward0looking American
· Stood for a commitment to voluntarism and individualism to advance public welfare
· Hard times
o The bull market
§ Stock market resembled a sporting arena
· Millions following stock prices
§ Business leaders and economists told Americans it was their duty to buy stocks
§ John J. Raskob
· Chairman of the board of GM
· Wrote an article stating that a person who invested $15 in a good common stock per month would have $80,000 within 20 years
§ Bull market of the 1920s
· Stock prices increased at twice the rate of industrial production
· Paper value outran real value
§ 4 million Americans owned stocks
· Had been lured into the market through margin accounts
o Allowed investors to purchase stocks by making a small down payment and borrowing the rest from a broker
o The Crash
§ The Wall Street crash if 1929 was not a one or two day catastrophe
· It was a steep slide
§ Bull market peaked in early September
· Prices lowered
§ October 23
· Dow Jones industrials lost 21 points in one hour
· Large investors concluded that the boom was over
§ October 28
· Dow lost 28 points (13% of its value)
§ October 29, “Black Tuesday”
· More than 16 million shares were traded as panic selling took hold
§ The market’s foundation of credit crumbled
· Based on margin debt
§ Many investors with margin accounts had no choice but to sell when the stock values fell
§ Shares themselves represented the security for their loans
· More money had to be put up to cover the loans when prices declined
§ Mid-November
· $30 billion in the market price of stocks had been wiped out
§ Half of the value of stocks listed in The New York Times was lost within 10 weeks
§ Political and economic leaders downplayed the impact of the crash
§ Andrew Mellon
· “It will purge the rottenness out of the system High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people”
o Underlying Weaknesses
§ The economy after the crash became less resistant to existing problems
· Workers and consumers received too small a share of the enormous increases in labor productivity
o 1923-1929: manufacturing output per worker-hour increased by 32%
o Wages only rose 8% during the same time
o Rise in productivity encouraged overproduction
§ Farmers hadn’t regained their prosperity from the World War I years
· Suffered from declining prices, drop in exports, and large debts incurred by wartime expansion
§ Unequal distribution of income and wealth
· 1929: top .1% of Americans had and aggregate income equal to the bottom 42%
· Top 5% of Americans received 30% of the nation’s income
· Bottom 60% got only 26% of nation’s income
· 80% of the nation had no savings
· .5% of Americans owned 32.4% of net wealth of the entire population
§ Manufacturers decreased their production and laid off workers
· Layoffs brought further declines in consumer spending
o Prompted another round of production cutbacks
· Consumers had less to spend
· Businesses were hesitant to expand
§ Banks began to fail as depositors withdrew their uninsured funds
· Thousands of families lost their savings
o Mass Unemployment
§ Unemployment insurance did not exist; public relief was inadequate
· Loss of a job meant economic catastrophe for workers
§ Unemployment across America became a sign of a deepening depression
§ 1930; Department of Labor
· 9% of the labor force was out of work
· Doubled by 1931
· By 1933, more than ¼ of workers didn’t have jobs
§ ***no statistics tell how long these people were without work or if they had part-time jobs***
§ Many Americans blamed themselves for their failure in finding work
· Feelings of shame, guilt, inadequacy, uselessness, and despair
§ Joblessness was most difficult for men between 35-55
· Family responsibilities were heaviest on these men
§ Unemployment upset the psychological balance in many families by undermining the traditional authority of the male
§ Women found it easier to hold onto jobs
· Wages were lower
§ Summed up strains found in families
· “Fathers feel they have lost their prestige in the home; there is much nagging, mothers nag at the fathers, parents nag at the children. Children of working age who earn meager salaries find it hard to turn over all their earning and deny themselves even the greatest necessities as a result leave home”
o Hoover’s Failure
§ Companies lacked the money and resources to deal with the worsening situation
§ Detroit and Chicago
· 50% unemployment by 1932
§ Los Angeles
· 70,000 nonresident jobless and homeless men
§ Hoover failed to respond to human suffering
· Administered large-scale humanitarian efforts during WWI with efficiency, but failed to face the facts of the Depression
§ 1931 State of the Union Address
· “Our people are providing against distress from unemployment in true American fashion by magnificent response to public appeal and by action of the local governments”
§ Resisted calls from Congress
· Wanted a greater federal role in relief efforts or public works projects
· Worried about “injuring the initiative and enterprise of the American people”
§ The President’s Emergency Committee for Unemployment (1930) and the President’s Organization for Unemployment Relief (POUR)
· Encouraged local groups to raise money to help the unemployed
· Plan for recovery centered on restoring business confidence
§ Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)
· Based on the War Finance Corporation of the WWI years
· Made government credit available to banks, railroads, insurance companies
· Stimulated economic activity
· Assumed the credit problem was one of supply rather than demand
§ 1932; Democrats pushed through the Emergency Relief Act
· Authorized the RFC to lend $300 million to states that had exhausted their own relief funds
· Hoover reluctantly signed the bill
o Protest and the Election of 1932
§ March 7
· Communist organizers led a march of auto workers and unemployed for the Ford River Rouge factory
o Ford-controlled police fired tear gas and bullets
o Killed four and wounded 50 others
· Farmers’ Holiday Associations
o Desperate farmers in Iowa
o Aimed to raise prices by refusing to sell product
o 1,500 farmers turned back cargo trucks outside Sious City
§ Dumped milk and other perishables into ditches
· Bonus Army
o Protest descending on Washington D.C. in 1932
o Veterans who were given bonds after WWI demanded immediate payment of the bonus in cash
o By the summer, they camped out all over the capital city
o House passed a bill for immediate payment
§ Senate rejected the bill, most of the veterans left
o July
§ General Douglas MacArthur forcibly evicted the remaining veterans from their encampment
o Provided the most disturbing evidence of the failure of Hoover’s administration
· 1932; Democrats nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt as their candidate
o “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people”
o Roosevelt’s plans for recovery were vague
o Roosevelt won the election by a landslide
o Democrats won big majorities in both the House and the Senate
· FDR and the First New Deal
o FDR the man
§ Born in 1882 in Dutchess Country, New York
§ Was an only child
§ His mother, Sara Delano, was the dominant figure in his childhood
§ Roosevelt’s education reinforced the aristocratic values of his family
· Groton
· Harvard
· Columbia Law School
§ He believed in:
· A strong sense of civic duty
· The importance of competitive athletics
· Commitment to public service
§ In 1905, FDR married Eleanor Roosevelt (distant cousin)
· Niece of Theodore Roosevelt
§ Elected as a Democrat to the NY State Senate in 1910
§ Was assistant navy secretary from 1913-1920
§ Summer of 1921:
· FDR gets polio
o Was told he would never walk again without support
· Eleanor encouraged him to fight his handicap and continue his political career
· “Once I spent two years lying in bed trying to move my big toe, anything else seems easy”
§ Governor of New York in 1928:
· Instituting unemployment insurance
· Strengthened child labor laws
· Provided tax relief for farmers
· Provided pensions for the old
· Set up a Temporary Emergency Relief Administration
· Set up a group of key advisers; the “brains trust”: rejected the old progressive dream of re-creating an ideal society
o Raymond Moley
o Rexford G. Tugwell
o Adolf A. Berle
o Samuel Rosenman
o Basil O’Connor
o Felix Frankfurter
o Restoring Confidence
§ Roosevelt conveyed a sense of optimism
· Helped restore the shaken confidence of the nation
§ Called for a four day “bank holiday”
· Help the country’s ailing financial system
· More than 1,300 banks failed in 1930
· Contemporary investigations revealed…
o Illegal loans to bank officials
o Tax evasion that helped erode public confidence in the banking system
· Between election day and the inauguration the bank system had come close to shutting down altogether
o Due to widespread bank failures and hoarding of currency
§ Fireside chat
· Radio broadcasts that became a standard part of Roosevelt’s political technique
· Were enormously successful
· Gave courage to Americans
· Communicated a sense of compassion from the White House
§ Emergency Banking Act
· Gave the president broad powers over all banking transactions and foreign exchange
· Authorized healthy banks to reopen under licenses from the Treasury Department
· Provided greater federal authority to be present in managing the affairs of failed banks
o The hundred days
§ March to June 1933
· “The Hundred Days”
· FDR pushed a number of acts through Congress
o Designed to combat various aspects of the Depression
· New Deal was no unified program to end the Depression
o Improvised series of reform and relief measures
§ Some contradicted each other
· Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
o Unemployment relief effort
o Provided work for jobless young men in protecting and conserving the nation’s natural resources
§ Road construction
§ Reforestation
§ Flood control
§ National park improvements
o Workers received room and board and $30 a month
· Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
o $500 million given from Congress
o ½ the money went as direct relief to the states
o The rest was distributed on the basis of:
§ A dollar of federal aid for ever three dollars of state and local funds spent for relief
o Establishment of work relief projects was left to state and local governments
o Harry Hopkins
§ Former NYC social worker
§ Driven by deep moral passion to help the less fortunate
§ Emerged as a key figure for New Deal relief programs
· Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
o Provided immediate relief to the nation’s farmers
o Established a new federal role in agricultural planning and price setting
o Established parity prices for basic farm commodities
§ Corn, wheat, hogs, etc
§ Parity pricing
· Based on the purchasing power that farmers had enjoyed during the prosperous years of 1909-1914
o Incorporated the principle of subsidy
§ Farmers received benefit payments in return for reducing acreage or cutting production where surpluses existed
o Landlords often failed to share their AAA payments with tenant farmers
§ Frequently used benefits to buy tractors and other equipment that displaced sharecroppers
· Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
o One of the most unique projects of the New Deal era
o Built dams and power plants
o Produced cheap fertilizer for farmers
o Brought cheap electricity for the first time to thousands of people
o Stood as a model of how careful government planning could dramatically improve the social and economic welfare of an underdeveloped region
· National Industrial Recovery Act
o Each industry would be self-governed by a code hammered out by representatives of business and labor
o Led by General Hugh Johnson
o Symbolized by the Blue Eagle stamp
o Almost all the NRA codes were written by the largest firms in any industry
· Public Works Administration (PWA)
o Led by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes
§ Authorized $3.3 billion for the construction of roads, public building, and other projects
o Idea was to provide jobs
§ Stimulate the economy through increased consumer spending
o “priming the pump”
§ The government had to prime the economy with jobs for the unemployed
o PWA spent more than $4.2 billion building roads, schools, post offices, bridges, courthouses
· Left Turn and the Second New Deal
o Hundred Days Legislature package tried to offer something for everybody.
o Washington brought reassurance that the nation was back on track, although the Depression made millions of people think otherwise
o The New Deal had critics that complained that FDR ruined the traditional boundaries of government action while others argued that Roosevelt hadn’t done enough
· Roosevelt’s critics
o Republican newspapers and the American Liberty League denounced Roosevelt and his advisors.
- They held the administration responsible for what they considered an attack on property rights, the growing welfare state, and the decline of personal liberty.
o American Liberty League
o dominated by executives of DuPont and General Motors
- League attracted support from a group of conservative Democrats, including Al Smith
- Al Smith was the former presidential candidate who declared the New Deal’s laws “socialistic.”
o League supported anti-New Dealers for Congress
o In the 1934 election, Democrats built up their majorities from 310 to 319 in the House and 60-69 in the Senate
· Roosevelt’s loyal supporters turned critical
o Father Charles E. Coughlin
- attracted a national radio audience of 40 million listeners with sermons attacking wall streets, international bankers, and “plutocratic capitalism”
- supported Roosevelt and the New Deal at first and tried to build a relationship with the president
- In 1934, he was frustrated with his limited influence on the administration and began attacking FDR.
o New Deal policies were part of a Communists Conspiracy
- Threatened community autonomy with centralized federal power.
o Couglin broke from the FDR and founded the National Union for Social Justice
o The movements on the left were very troublesome for Roosevelt for they thought the New Deal was too timid in its measures
· End Poverty in California
o Upton Sinclar
- Well known novelist and socialist
- Entered the 1934 Democratic primary party for governor by running EPIC
- Proposed a $50 a month pension for all poor people over 60
- Campaign emphasized the government system of “production for use” workshops for the unemployed
- Lost a close general election only because the republican candidate received heavy financial and tactical support from Hollywood studio executives and frightened regular Democrats.
· Old Age Revolving Pension plan
o Created by Francis E. Townsend
- Retired doctor
- Created a large following among citizens with this plan
- He called for payments of 200 dollars per month to all people over 60, but had to be spent within 30 days
o Attracted a nationwide following of more than 3 million by 1936
· Huey Long
o posed as the greatest potential threat to Roosevelt’s leadership
o Long captured LA’s governor ship in 1928 by attacking the state’s oil industry
o He significantly improves public education, roads, medical care, and other public services
o Long first supported Roosevelt but in 1934, his own presidential ambitions and his impatience with the pace of the New Deal measures led it a break with Roosevelt
· Share Our Wealth Society
o Organized by Huey Long
o Its purpose was to “break up the swollen fortunes of America and to spread the wealth among all our people.”
o homestead worth $5000 and a $2500 annual income for everyone was promised by Long
o Long’s economics were not clear
o A secret poll of the summer of 1935 stunned the Democratic National Committee by showing that Long might attract three or four million votes
o Long’s third-party candidacy was prevented due to his assignation in that September
· New Deal in the South and West
· Southern Farming and Landholding
o Impact on South and West
§ Farm programs moved agriculture away from sharecropping and tenant farming
§ Wage labor and agribusiness
§ Dam building projects created electricity for Southerners
§ West got the most payments for welfare, work relief, and loans
§ New Deal – rational resource use
o Farming in the South
§ 1930 – less than half of farmers owned land
o Sharecroppers
§ ¾ African American farmers were sharecroppers
§ Half of white farmers
§ About $100 annually if any
§ Cotton and tobacco
o AAA
§ Agricultural Adjustment Administration
§ Boosted prices by paying farmers to “plow under”
· Take land out of production
§ Went to mostly large landowners
§ Planters did not usually share payments with sharecroppers and tenants
o STFU
§ Southern Tenant Farmers Union
§ Founded in 1934
§ Protested AAA policies
· Protested evictions
· Called for strikes for higher wages
· Challenged landlords for fair share of payments
§ Six southern states
§ About 30,000 farmers
· Half black
§ Drew attention but did not change national farm policy
o Labor-saving machinery
§ Tractors
§ Mechanical harvesters
o Impacts of Cash Infusion
§ Lower demand for labor and higher eviction rate
§ Many migrated to cities in search of work
o Help of New Deal
§ Destroyed old sharecropping and tenant system
§ Helped landowners prosper
§ Access to government funds
· Diversify crops
· Consolidate holdings
· Work land more efficiently
§ 1 to 2 million sharecroppers would move to bigger cities
· Memphis, Birmingham, Chicago, Detroit, etc.
· Rural Electrification and Public Works
o Early 1930s – 3% of southerners had electricity
o Farmhouses
§ No electric lighting
§ No indoor plumbing
§ No refrigerators of washing machines
o Tennessee Valley Authority
§ Made electricity available for the first time
§ Public investment and government planning
§ Built 16 dams across 800 miles of Tennessee River
· Brought flood control and electric power to hundreds of thousands of families
· 7 southern states
§ Reduced consumer electric rates
§ Created landscaped parks
§ Built public libraries and better school systems
§ 1944 – largest power producer in US
§ Provided luxuries for farmers and families
· Radio
· Electric lights
· The Dust Bowl
o Disaster in the Great Plains in the mid-1930s
o Droughts through early 1930s
o Violent dust storms during droughts
§ Result of stripping the landscape of vegetation
o Great Plains became “vast wheat factory”
o Great Plains suited for:
§ Mechanized farming
§ Gasoline-powered tractors
§ Harvester-thresher
§ Disc plows
· All increased productivity
o In 1830, it took 58 hours to ship an acre of wheat to granary
§ In 1930s, it took less than three hours
o Farmers broke more land to compensate for low wheat prices in 1920s
o Nothing to prevent soil erosion
§ Dust storms blew away tens of millions of acres of topsoil
o Economic and psychological losses for those who stayed
§ Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico
§ Denver journalist called calamity the “Dust Bowl”
o Difficult for humans and livestock to breathe
§ “Dust pneumonia” and other respiratory infections
o Destroyed crops and trees
o Travelers stuck in automobiles and trains
o Worst storms – Spring 1935
o Intervention from federal agencies
§ Resettlement Administration
· Direct emergency relief to families
§ Crop and seed loans
§ Moratoriums (freezes) on loan payments
§ Works Progress Administration
· Provided temporary jobs
§ 1/5 to 1/3 applied for relief
· 90% in hardest-hit cities
§ Agricultural Adjustment Administration
· Paid wheat farmers millions of dollars
o Farmers could not grow what they could not sell
o Diversion of soil for different crops
o Governmental policies
§ Designed to
· Alter land use patterns
· Reverse soil erosion
· Nourish the return of grasslands
§ Department of Agriculture
· Led by Henry A. Wallace
o Secretary of State
· Designed to change farming practices
§ Soil Conservation Service (SCS)
· Researched controlling wind and water erosion
· Set up demonstration projects
· Offered equipment, supplies, and assistance to farmers in conservation work
· Pumped funds into Great Plains
o Created soil conservation district
§ Administered conservation regulations locally
o Dust Bowl reduced by 1940
§ From 5 million acres to 4 million acres
§ New Deal restricted market forces in agriculture
§ SCS techniques abandoned due to heavy rainfall and WWII
· Long-term farming reduced concern for land
o Policies and organizations had little effect on sharecroppers and tenants
§ Thousands of sharecropper and tenant families forced off land
§ Became “Okies”
· About 300,000 people that migrated to California in the 1930s
· Included victims of the Dust Bowl but most came from blue-collar and businessmen workers looking to improve economic lot
· California had better opportunities
o More jobs
o Higher wages
o Higher relief payments
· Most only found low-paying agriculture jobs in fertile areas
o San Joaquin and Imperial Valley districts
· Discriminated as “poor white trash”
o Struggles to create communities within migrant labor camps
· Improved situation through WWII and demand for labor
o Competition for Mexican laborers
§ By 1936, 85-90% of migratory workers were white Americans
· Less than 20% before Great Depression
§ Mexicans who were still employed had decreases in their wages
§ Southwestern communities sought to deport Mexicans and Mexican Americans
· Supported by:
o Employers
o Private charities
o Immigration and Naturalization Service
· Little effort to distinguish citizens from aliens
o Most deported children were actually citizens
· Most aggressive campaign in Los Angeles County
o Shipped out over 13,000 Mexicans by boxcar from 1931-1934
o About 1/3 of LA’s 150,000 Mexicans left the city in the early 1930s
§ Nearly half a million (500,000) total left the United States in the 1930s
· Water Policy
o Large-scale water irrigation projects due to New Deal
§ Designed for cheaper power and flood prevention
o Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior
§ Established under the national Reclamation Act of 1902
§ Originally purposed to create dams and irrigation works
· Encourage growth of small farms in arid regions in West
· Unsuccessful until 1920s
§ Focus changed to multipurpose dams to control entire river systems
· Boulder (Hoover) Dam
o Designed to harness Colorado River
§ Wildest and most isolated Western river
o Had many anticipated effects:
§ Flood prevention
§ Irrigation of Imperial Valley in California
§ Domestic water for southern California
§ Cheap electricity for Los Angeles and southern Arizona
o Hoover opposed public power aspect
§ Government should not compete with private companies
· Contrary to most Westerners
o Believed cheap public power was critical for development
· Roosevelt’s support for public power gained political backing of West in 1932
o Completed in 1935
o Funds from Public Works Administration
§ Total cost was $114 million
· Offset by cost of hydroelectric power
· Los Angeles aqueduct
o 259 miles
o $220 million
o Channel water to growing population
o Lake Mead
§ Created by construction of dam
§ World’s largest artificial lake
· 115 miles up canyon
§ Helped make Imperial Valley one of the most productive agricultural districts in the world
· Boulder Dam transformed Bureau of Reclamation into major federal agency
o Huge resources
o Completed All-American Canal in 1938
§ 80 mile channel
§ Connects Colorado River to Imperial Valley
§ 130 mile branch to Coachella Valley
§ $24 million
§ Carried flow of water equal to Potomac River
§ More than 1 million acres of desert land open for cultivation
· Fruits
· Melons
· Vegetables
· Cotton
§ Irrigation projects promised to repay cost of canal in 40 years
· Interest-free loan was government subsidy to private growers
o Central Valley Project (CVP)
§ Watershed that stretched through California interior
§ 500 miles long and about 125 miles wide
§ Brought water from Sacramento River in North to arid lands of San Joaquin Valley in South
§ Completed in 1947
§ Cost $2.3 billion
§ Stored and transferred water
§ Provided
· Electricity
· flood control
· municipal water
§ cost paid by
· federal government
· local municipalities
· buyers of electric power
§ proved a boon to large-scale farmers in Sacramento and San Joaquin River Valleys
o Grand Coulee Dam
§ Northwest of Spokane Washington
§ Completed in 1941
§ Designed to
· Convert power of Columbia River to cheap electricity
· Irrigate uncultivated land
· Stimulate economic development of Pacific Northwest
§ Employed tens of thousands of workers
§ Pumped millions of dollars into depressed economy
· Washington ranked first in per capita federal expenditures from 1933 to 1940
§ Provided cheapest electricity in US in the long run
§ Attract new manufacturing to area of previously just lumber and metals
o Environmental and human cost
§ Grand Coulee and other dams reduced Columbia River
§ Tens of thousands of workers, mostly Mexican, now worked in fertile fields for very low wages
· Health suffered from contact with pesticides
§ Colorado River no longer empties into Pacific Ocean
· Built up salt deposits
o Water unfit for drinking or irrigation
· Water pollution still plagues river today
· A New Deal for Indians
o Important changes for Indians
§ 1933 – Indians lived on reservations
· About 320,000 people in about 200 tribes
· Mostly in Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, and South Dakota
§ Indians suffered from poverty worse than any other group
· Infant mortality rate was twice that of white people
· Diseases were more prevalent on the reservation
o Alcoholism, measles, tuberculosis, etc.
· Half of Indians on reservations were landless
o Lived with relatives instead
o BIA
§ Bureau of Indian Affairs
§ Oldest federal bureaucracy in West
· Corruption and mismanagement
· Tried to assimilate Indians through education
o Interfered with religious affairs and tribal customs
o Merriam Report
§ 1928
§ Prepared by Institute for Government Research
§ Critiqued BIA management
· Scathing and widely public
§ No effort from Hoover to reform BIA
o John Collier
§ Appointed by Roosevelt in 1933
§ Roots in service and community organizations in eastern slums
§ Interested in Indians
· Spent time with Indians in Taos, New Mexico
· Involved with struggle to help Pueblo Indians hold onto tribal lands
§ Executive secretary of American Indian Defense Association
§ Driving force behind IRA
o IRA
§ Indian Recognition Act of 1934
§ Reversed allotment provisions of Dawes Severalty Act of 1887
· Weakened tribal sovereignty
· Shifted land from tribes to individuals
§ Permitted restoration of surplus lands
§ Allocated funds for purchase of additional land
§ Sought to restore tribal structure
· Wanted to make tribes part of federal government
o Tribes that ratified IRA could elect tribal council as legal tribal government
§ Congress wanted to change Collier’s original plan
o IRA approval from Indians
§ Mixed feelings on reservations
§ Linguistic barriers made support and communication difficult
· Ex. Papagos from Arizona had no word for “budget” or “representative”
o “law,” “constitution,” “charter,” and “rule” were all the same word
o “reservation agent,” “king,” “president,” and “Indian commissioner” were all the same word
§ Approved by 181 tribes
§ Rejected by 77 tribes
o Navajos
§ Nation’s largest tribe
· More than 40,000 members
§ Rejected IRA
§ Protest against BIA forced reduction of livestock
· Part of soil conservation program
o Blamed Navajo sheep for erosion
§ Threatened to make Lake Mead and the Boulder Dam inoperable
o Navajos believed erosion was due to lack of water and acreage
· Navajos took anger out on Collier
o Sensitive BIA
§ BIA more sensitive to Indian culture
§ Increase in Indians employed in BIA
· 1933 – a few hundred
· 1940 – over 4,600
§ Indian political autonomy
· BIA and Congress interfered with reservation governments
o Especially in money matters
o Dictated and underfunded tribes
o Margold Opinion
§ Nathan Margold
· Lawyer for Department of the Interior
· Wrote legal opinion of tribal governments in 1934
o Sovereignty except for when limited in Congress Act
§ “Margold Opinion” upheld in United States
· Led to restoration of tribal rights and land for Indian people in the West
· Depression-Era Culture
o American culture in the 1930s, like all other aspects of national life, was profoundly shaped by the Great Depression.
o A New Deal for the Arts
§ The Depression hit America’s writers, artists, and teachers just as hard as blue-collar workers
· In 1935, the WPA allocated $300 million for the unemployed in these fields
· Federal Project No. 1
o “Federal One”
o An umbrella agency covering writing, theater, music, and the visual arts which proved to be one of the most innovative and successful New Deal programs
o Offered work to desperate artist and intellectuals, enriched the cultural lives of millions, and left a substantial legacy of artistic and cultural production
· Federal Writers Project
o At its height, employed 5,000 writers on a variety of programs
o A popular series of state and city guidebooks, each combining history, folklore, and tourism
o “Life in America”
§ Included valuable oral histories of former slaves, studies of ethnic and Indian cultures, and pioneering collections of American songs and folk tales
§ American writers helped by the Writers Project:
· Ralph Ellison
· Richard Wright
· Margaret Walker
· John Cheever
· Saul Bellow
· Zora Neale Hurston
· Federal Theater Project (FTP)
o Reached as many as 30 million Americans with its productions under the direction of the dynamic Hallie Flanagan of Vassar College
o Sought to expand the audience for theater beyond the regular patrons of the commercial stage
o Successful productions:
§ “Living Newspaper”
§ T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral
§ Maxwell Anderson’s Valley Force
§ Orson Welle’s Macbeth
o Brought vital and exciting theater to millions who had never attended before
· Federal Music Project
o Under Nikolai Sokoloff of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra
o Employed 15,000 musicians and financed hundreds of thousands of low priced public concerts by touring orchestras.
o The Composers’ Forum Laboratory supported new works by American composers such as Aaron Copland and William Schuman
· Other painters who received government assistance through the FAP:
o Willem de Kooning
o Jackson Pollock
o Louise Nevelson
· Holger Cahill
o Director of the FAP
o Documentary impulse
§ Documentary Impulse
· A deep desire to record and communicate the experiences of ordinary Americans
· During the 1930s, an enormous number of artists, novelists, journalists, photographers, and filmmakers tried to document the devastation wrought by the Depression in American communities; they also depicted people’s struggles to cope with, and reverse, hard times.
· Mainstream media also adapted this stance
§ The “documentary impulse” became a prominent style in 1930s cultural expression
§ Photograph
· In 1935, Roy Stryker, chief of the Historical Section of the Resettlement Administration gathered a remarkable group of photographers to help document the work of the agency
· Stryker encouraged them to photograph whatever caught their interest, even if the pictures had no direct connection with RA projects
· Photographers:
o Dorothea Lange
o Walker Evans
o Arthur Rothstein
o Russell Lee
o Ben Shahn
o Marion Post Wolcott
· THE SINGLE MOST SIGNIFICANT VISUAL RECORD OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION
o Photographers traveled through rural areas, small towns, and migrant labor camps and produced powerful images of despair and resignation as well as hope and resilience
· The double vision ^, combining pain with faith, could be found in many other cultural works of the period
o John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath (1939)
§ Sympathetically portrayed the hardships of Oklahoma Dust Bowl migrants on their way to California
o Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 bestseller Gone with the Wind
o Elizabeth Noble
§ “With real events looming larger than any imagined happenings, documentary films and still photographs, reportage and the like have taken the place once held by grand invention
o James Rorty, in Where Life Is Better (1936)
§ Was encouraged by his cross-country trip
o Waiting for Lefty
§ Capitalism
· For some, the capitalist system was the culprit responsible for the Great Depression
§ Communism
· Relatively few Americans became Communists or Socialists in the 1930s – at its height, the Communist Party of the United States had perhaps 100,000 members—and many of these remained active for only a brief time
· Marxist analysis, with its emphasis on class conflict and the failures of capitalism, had a wide influence on the era’s thought and writing
· Some writers joined the Communist Party believing it to be the best hope for political revolution
· Soviet Union
o An alternative to an American system that appeared mired in exploitation, racial inequality, and human misery.
· Communist writers
o Writers:
§ Michael Gold (novelist)
§ Meridel LeSueur (poet)
§ Granville Hicks (editor)
o Sought to radicalize art and literature and celebrated collective struggle over individual achievement
· Intellectuals
o A more common pattern for intellectuals, especially when they were young, was brief flirtation with communism
o African American writers, attracted by the Communist Party’s militant opposition to lynching, job discrimination, and segregation, briefly joined the party or found their first supportive audiences there
§ Richard Wright
§ Ralph Ellison
§ Langston Hughes
o Many playwrights and actors associated with New York’s influential Group Theater were part of the Communist Party orbit in those years
§ Clifford Odets’s Waiting for Lefty
· Depicted a union organizing drive among taxi drivers
· Left-wing influence
o Reached its height after 1935 during the “Popular Front” period
§ Alarmed by the rise of fascism in Europe, Communists around the word followed the Soviet line of uniting with liberals and all other antifascists
§ The American Communist Party
· “Communism is Twentieth-Century Americanism”
· Communists became strong supporters of Roosevelt’s New Deal, and their influence was especially strong within various WPA arts projects
· Abraham Lincoln Brigade
o American volunteers against fascists
o Sense of commitment and sacrifice appealed to millions of Americans sympathetic to the republican cause
§ Communists and other radicals, known for their dedication and effectiveness, also played a leading role in the difficult CIO unionizing drives in the auto, steel, and electrical industries
o Film and Radio in the 1930s
§ Despite the Depression, the mass-culture industry expanded enormously during the 1930s
· Played an more integral role than ever in shaping the rhythms and desires of the nation’s everyday life
· Moviegoing itself, usually enjoyed with friends, family, or a date, was perhaps the most significant development of all
§ Film Genres
· Gangster films did very well in the early Depression years
o Little Caesar (1930), starring Edward G. Robinson
o Public Enemy (1931) with James Cagney
o They depicted violent criminals brought to justice by society, but along the way they gave audiences a vicarious exposure to the pleasures of wealth, power, and lawbreaking
· Social disorder
o Marx Brothers films
§ Duck Soup (1933)
§ A Night at the Opera (1935)
o Mae West’s popular comedies
§ She Done Him Wrong (1933)
§ I’m No Angel (1933)
· Movie musicals
o Busby Berkeley’s Gold Diggers of 1933, and 42nd Street (1933)
· Screwball comedies
o Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934)
o Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby (1938)
· Socially conscious view of the Depression era
o Warner Brothers studio
§ I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
§ Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
§ Black Legion (1936)
· Walt Disney
o Moral tales that stressed keeping order and following the rules
o Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1935)
· Frank Capra
o Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
o You Can’t Take It with You (1938)
§ Radio broadcasting emerged as the most powerful medium of communication in the home, profoundly changing the rhythms and routines of everyday life.
· National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
· Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)
§ The Depression actually helped radio expand
· The well-financed networks offered an attractive outlet to advertisers seeking a national audience
· Radio programming achieved a regularity and professionalism absent in the 1920s, making it much easier for a listener to identify a show with its sponsor
· Older cultural forms
o Eddie Cantor
o Ed Wynn
o Kate Smith
o Al Jolson
· Amos ‘n’ Andy
o Adapted the minstrel “blackface” tradition to the new medium
· White comedians
o Freeman Gosden
o Charles Correll
o Used only their two voices to invent a world of stereotyped African Americans for their millions of listeners
§ Soap Operas
· Aimed mainly at women working in the home, these serials alone constituted 60% of all daytime shows by 1940.
· Soaps
o Ma Perkins
o Helen Trent
o Clara Lou and Em
· Revolved around strong, warm female characters who provided advice and strength to weak, indecisive friends and relaives
· Thrillers:
o Inner Sanctum
o The Shadow
o Emphasized crime and suspense, made great use of music and sound effects to sharpen their impact
§ Radio News
· Arrived in the 1930s
· Showed the medium’s potential for direct and immediate coverage of events
· Network news and commentary shows multiplied rapidly over the decade
· Complex political and economic issues and the impending European crisis fueled a news hunger among Americans
o The Swing Era
§ One measure of radio’s cultural impact was its role in popularizing jazz
· Pre-1930s, jazz was heard largely among African Americans and a small coterie of white fans and musicians
· Broadcasts of live performances began to expose a broader public to the music
o As well as radio disc jockeys who played jazz records on their shows
· Black Musicians began to enjoy reputations outside of traditional jazz centers like Chicago, Kansas City, and New York
o Duke Ellington
o Count Basie
o Benny Moten
· Benny Goodman
o The key figure in the “swing era” largely through radio exposure
o A white, classically trained clarinetist had been inspired by African American bandleaders Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman
§ Purchased arrangements from them and attracted attention on late-Saturday-night broadcasts
o In 1935, at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, Goodman made the breakthrough that established his enormous popularity
§ The young crowd roared its approval and began to dance wildly to Henderson’s arrangements
§ Goodman’s music was perfect for doing the jitterbug or lindy hop (dances borrowed from African American culture)
o “The King of Swing”
§ Goodman helped make big-band jazz a hit with millions of teenagers and young adults from all backgrounds
· Big band music accounted for the majority of million-selling records
o Goodman
o Basie
o Jimmie Lunceford
o Artie Shaw
· The Limits of Reform
o In his second inaugural address, Roosevelt emphasized what still need to be done to remedy effects of the Great Depression
§ Stunning electoral victory made social reform seem bright
§ By 1937, the New Deal was in retreat
o Court Packing
§ May 1935, Schecter v. United States
· The Supreme Court found the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional in its entirety
§ Early 1936, Butler v. United States
· Court invalidated the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, declaring it an unconstitutional attempt at regulating agriculture
· Court mostly composed of Republicans over 70 years old
o Roosevelt began looking for ways to get more reform friendly judges on the court
§ February 1937, FDR asked Congress for legislation that would expand the Supreme Court from 9 justices to a maximum of 15
· President empowered to make new appointments whenever an incumbent judge failed to retire upon reaching age 70
· Roosevelt argued that age prevented justices from keeping up with their workload
o Few people believed this logic
o Newspapers denounced the “court-packing bill”
· Opposition of conservatives and outraged New Dealers in Congress
o Ex. Democratic senator Burton Wheeler
· President argued the purpose was to restore the balance of power among the 3 branches of federal government
· Battle for bill dragged on, and FDR’s claims weakened
· When justice Willis Devanter announced plans to retire, Roosevelt had the first chance to make a Court appointment
§ Court upheld the constitutionality of some key laws from the Second New Deals
· Including the Social Security Act and National Labor Relations Act
· In August, FDR backed off from his plan and accepted compromise bill that reformed lower court procedures, but left Supreme Court untouched
· FDR won a more responsive Court
§ Court fight weakened Roosevelt’s relations with Congress
· More conservative Democrats felt free to oppose further New Deal measures
o The Women’s Network
§ Great Depression and New Deal brought significant changes for women in American economics and politics
§ Women continued to perform unpaid domestic labor within their homes
· Work was not covered by Social Security Act
o Growing minority worked for wages and salaries outside of the act
§ 1940, 25% of the workforce was female
· Increase in married working women as a result of hard times
· Sexual stereotyping still forced women into low-paying and low-status jobs
§ New Deal brought measurable, but temporary, increase in women’s political influence
· New Deal opened possibilities to effect change for women associated with social reform
§ “Women’s network” was linked by personal friendships and professional connections
· Made a presence in national politics and government
· Most women in the network had been active in movements promoting suffrage, labor law reform, and welfare programs
§ Eleanor Roosevelt was a powerful political figure in her own rights
· Used her prominence as First Lady to fight for liberal causes she believed in
· Revolutionized the role of political wife by taking a position involving no institutional duties, and turning it into a base for independent action
· Enjoyed great influence with her husband
· Her support for a cause gave the cause instant credibility
· Strong supporter of protective labor legislation for women
· Convened a White House Conference on the Emergency Needs of Women in 1933
o Helped Ellen Woodward, head of women’s projects in the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, find jobs for 100,000 women
§ In jobs ranging from nursery school teaching to sewing
· Worked for anti-lynching legislation, compulsory health insurance, and child labor reform
· Fought racial discrimination in New Deal programs
· Guardian of “human values” within the administration
o Buffer between Depression victims and political bureaucracy
· Testified before legislative committees, lobbied her husband and Congress, wrote a widely syndicated newspaper column
§ Closest political ally was Molly Dewon
· Dewon was director of the Women’s Division of the Democratic Party
o Women for the first time played a central role in shaping the party platform and running election campaigns
o Proved tireless organizer, traveled to cities and towns educating women about Democratic policies and candidates
· Dewon’s success impressed FDR, and he went to her for advice on political appointments
· Dewon placed more than 100 women in New Deal programs
· Persuaded FDR to appoint Frances Perkins as secretary of labor
o The first woman cabinet member in US history
o Veteran activist for social welfare and reform
o Served as FDR’s industrial commissioner in NY before appointment
o Perkins embodied the gains made by women in appointive offices
o Department was responsible for creating the Social Security Act and Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
§ Both incorporated protective measures long advocated by women reformers
o Defined feminism as the movement of women to participate in service to society
o New Deal agencies were spaces for scores of women in the federal bureaucracy
§ FERA, WPA, Social Security Board
o Social work profession (roughly 2/3 female in the 1930s) grew rapidly in response to massive relief and welfare programs
o New Deal for Minorities
§ African Americans
· Always around the bottom of the economic ladder
· During the Depression, they suffered disproportionately
o Black workers were the “last hired, first fired”
o Because jobs were scarce during the Depression, domestic service jobs (cooking, janitorial work, elevator opening) were coveted
· Roosevelt administration made little effort to combat racism and segregation in American life
o Worked about offending the powerful southern Democratic congressman key for political coalition
o Local administration of many federal programs meant most New Deal programs accepted discrimination
· CCC established separate workers for people with the same jobs
· NRA codes tolerated lower wages for black workers
· TVA would not hire black Americans
· AAA committees in the South reduced acreage and production to boost prices, thousands of black sharecroppers and laborers were forced off the land
· Racism was also in the Social Security Act
o Excluded domestics and casual laborers from old-age insurance
§ Those holding these jobs were mostly African American
· FDR issued executive order in 1935 banning discrimination in WPA programs
o Between 15-20% of WPA employees were black
o The minimum wage of $12 a week was what allowed many African Americans to survive
· FDR appointed many African Americans to second level positions in his administration
o “Black Cabinet”
§ Mexicans
· Great Depression reduced their demand for labor
· Faced massive layoffs, deepened poverty, and deportation
· During the 1930s, 400,000 Mexican nationals and children returned to Mexico
o Often coerced by local officials unwilling to provide them relief, but happy to offer train fare to border towns
· Many native born Americans said deporting Mexicans could reduce unemployment for US citizens
o Claims reflected deep racial prejudice
· New Deal programs did little to help the Mexicans still in America
o AAA benefited large growers, not stoop laborers
· National Labor Relations Act and Social Security Act made no provisions for farm laborers
· FERA and WPA at first tried to provide relief and jobs to needy, regardless of citizenship status
o After 1937, these reliefs were eliminated
§ New Deal record for minorities was mixed
· African Americans in the cities benefited from the New Deal relief
o Though assistance was not color-blind
· New Deal made no attempt to attack deeply rooted patterns of racism and discrimination in American life
· Deterioration faced by Mexicans resulted in a reverse exodus
· By 1936, for the first time, a majority of black voters switched political allegiances to the Democrats
o Evidence that they supported the direction taken by the New Deals
o The Roosevelt Recession
§ Economy had improved by 1937
· Unemployment had declined to 14%
· Farm prices had improved to 1930 levels
· Industrial production was slightly higher than the 1929 mark
§ Economic traditionalists called for reducing the federal deficit
· Grown to over $4 billion in fiscal year 1936
§ Roosevelt was uneasy about the growing debt, and called for large reductions in federal spending
· Particularly in WPA and farm programs
§ Federal Reserve System worried about inflation and tightened credit policies
§ Instead of stimulating business, the retrenchment brought a steep recession
· The stock market crashed again in August 1937
o Industrial output and farm prices dropped
o Big increase in unemployment
· As conditions worsened, FDR blamed the “strike of capital”
o Claimed businessmen had refused to invest because they wanted to hurt his prestige
o In reality, the administration’s severe spending cutbacks were mostly responsible for the decline
§ After 5 years, the New Deal had not brought economic recovery
· Through 1937-1938, administration drifted
· Roosevelt received conflicting advice
o Some urged a massive antitrust campaign against monopolies
o Some urged a return to the strategy of stimulating the economy with more federal spending
· Republican gains in 1938 made new reform efforts tougher to gain
§ 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act
· Established the first federal minimum wage and set a maximum workweek of 44 hours for employees engaged in interstate commerce
§ National Housing Act of 1937 (aka Wagner-Steagall Act)
· Funded public housing construction and slum clearance and provided rent subsidies for low-income families
§ By 1938, the whirlwind of New Deal was over
· Conclusion
o New Deal did little to alter fundamental property relations or distribution of wealth
§ Programs largely failed to help the most powerless groups in America
§ Changed many areas of American life
o New Deal increased the role of federal government in American lives and communities
§ Western and southern communities were transformed through federal intervention
§ Relief programs established framework for welfare state
o Efforts to end racial and gender discrimination were modest at best
· Monday, July 16, 1945
o First atomic bomb exploded
§ Heat generated by the blast was 4 times the temperature at the center of the sun
§ Blew out windows in houses more than 200 miles away
§ Killed every living creature within a mile
o Ruby Wilkening joined several other women waiting for the blast
§ Worried about her husband who was already at the test site
§ No one knew what to expect
o Franklin D. Roosevelt was convinced that the Nazis might develop an atomic bomb
§ Inaugurated a small nuclear research program in 1939
o President released resources to create the Manhattan project
§ Placed it under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers
o 1942: Enrico Fermi, Novel Prize winner, produced the first chain reaction in uranium under the University of Chicago’s football stadium
o Government moved key researchers to Los Alamos, New Mexico
§ slowly build houses
§ men averaged at an age of 27
§ these scientists and their families formed a close-knit community
· united by the need for secrecy & shared antagonism toward their army guardians
§ Army atmosphere was oppressive
· Cordoned off by barbed wire and guarded by military police
· Scientists were followed by security personnel whenever they left Los Alamos
· Outgoing mail was censored
· Code names were used
· 16 million men and women left home for military service
o “a great arsenal of democracy”
o States in the South and Southwest experienced huge surges in population
o President Roosevelt ordered relocation for 112,000 people to internment camps
§ Suspecting Japanese Americans of disloyalty
· The coming of World War II
o The shadows of war
§ War spread first across Asia
· Japan turned its sight on China
o Seized Manchuria in 1931
· Japan withdrew from the League of Nations
· Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937
· Japan’s army murdered 300,000 Chinese people while destroying the city
· Within a year, Japan controlled all but China’s western interior and threatened all of Asia and the Pacific
§ Italy and Germany
· Rise of authoritarian nationalism
§ Germany
· Resentment over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
o Rise of demagogic mass movements
· National Socialists (Nazis)
o Led by Adolf Hitler
o Combined militaristic rhetoric & racist doctrine of Aryan supremacy
§ Biological superiority for peoples of northern Europe and classified nonwhites as “degenerate races”
· Hitler prepared for war
o Destroyed opposition and made himself dictator
o Began to rebuild German armies
· Hitler sent 35,000 troops to occupy Rhineland
o Region demilitarized by the Versailles treaty
§ Italy
· Benito Mussolini
o Italian Fascist dictator
o “We have buried the putrid corps of liberty”
· Invaded Ethiopia and claimed the impoverished area as a colony
§ When the Spanish Civil War broke out later in 1936, Italy and Germany both supported the fascist insurrection of General Francisco Franco
· Drew up a alliance in November
o Rome-Berlin Axis
· Hitler then was ready to put his plan to secure living space for Germany into action (Lebensraum)
o Further territorial expansion
§ After annexing Austria, Hitler turned his attention to Czechoslovakia
· Both Britain and France were pledged to treaty to assist
· Munich Conference allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland
· Hitler pledged to stop his territorial advance
o Less than 6 months later, Hitler broke this pledge and seized the rest of Czechoslovakia
§ 1935: Hitler published the Nuremberg Laws
· Denying civil rights to Jews
· Campaign against them became more vicious
§ November 9, 1938: Kristallnacht; “Night of Broken Glass”
· Nazis rounded up Jews
· Beat and murdered them
· Smashed windows in Jewish shops, hospitals, and orphanages
· Burned synagogues to the ground
· Hungary and Italy also enacted laws against Jews
o Isolationism
§ Many Americans believed that the US should stay clear of “entangling alliances”
§ In 1937, 70% of Americans in a poll thought that US involvement in WWI was a mistake
§ Gerald P. Nye
· Headed a special Congress committee that charged weapons manufacturers with driving the US into WWI
§ 1935
· Congress passed the first of five Neutrality Acts
o Deter future entanglements
o Required the president to declare an embargo on the sale and shipment of munitions to all belligerent nations
§ 1938: Keep America Out of War Congress
· Led by Norman Thomas
· Communist-influenced
· Against War and Fascism
· More than 1 million members
§ 1940: Committee to Defend America First
· Led by Robert E. Wood
· Opposed US intervention
· Some members championed the Nazis; some simply advocated American neutrality
· Gained attention from many celebrities
o Roosevelt Readies for War
§ October 1937
· FDR called for international cooperation to “quarantine the aggressors”
· 2/3 Congress opposed economic sanctions
o “back door to war”
· FDR still won $1 billion to enlarge the navy
§ September 1, 1939
· Hitler invades Poland
§ Great Britain and France issued joint declaration of war against Germany
§ After the fall of Warsaw, the fighting slowed
· French and German troops did not exchange fire even on their border
§ Two weeks before Hitler attacked Poland, the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with its former enemy
· Red Army entered Poland
· Split the nation between them
· Headed north; invaded Finland
§ April 1940
· Hitler begins a crushing offensive against western Europe
· Blitzkrieg
o Lightning war
o Fast-moving columns of tanks supported by air power
· Nazis take Denmark and Norway; then Holland, Belgium, & Luxembourg
§ Germany & Italy took over France in June 1940
§ Battle of Britain
· Nazis pounded population and industrial centers while U-boats cut off incoming supplies
§ Opinion polls in the US during this time still wanted to stay out of the war
· Roosevelt believed that the security of the US depended on
o A strong defense
o The defeat of Germany
§ Neutrality Act of 1939
· Permitted the sale of arms to Britain, France, & China
· “all aid to the Allies short of war”
· Started to transfer surplus US planes and equipment to Allies
§ First peacetime military draft in US history
· Selective Service Act of 1940
o Sent 1.4 million men to army training camps
§ Roosevelt’s popularity weakened
· “Roosevelt recession”
· In his campaign for his third term, he promised not to “send your boys to any foreign wars”
· Beat Wendell L. Willkie of Indiana by 5 million popular votes
§ Lend Lease Act
· Roosevelt proposed a bill that would allow the president to sell, exchange, or lease arms to any country whose defense appeared vital to US security
o Passed by Congress in March 1941
· Made Great Britain the first beneficiary of massive aid
· Congress authorized the merchant marine to sail fully armed while conveying lend-lease supplies directly to Britain
o Formal declaration of war was coming
§ Atlantic Charter
· Roosevelt met secretly with Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister)
o Mapped military strategy
o Declared common goals for the postwar world
· Specified the right of all peoples to live in freedom from fear, want, and tyranny
· Called for free trade among all nations
· Called to an end to territorial seizures
§ Hitler set aside the Nazi-Soviet Pact to resume his quest for all of Europe
· 1941; Hitler invaded the Soviet Union
o Promising its rich agricultural land to Germans
· US observed this event and moved closer to intervention
· Pearl Harbor
o US had been focusing on Europe instead of Asia
o Roosevelt transferred Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbor
§ May 1940
§ Oahu, Hawai’i
o Japan joined Germany and Ital as Asian partner of Axis alliance
§ September 27
o Roosevelt wanted to save resources
o Japan thought that they could take over Southeast Asia if US was preoccupied
§ French colonies in Indochina
· Vietnam
· Cambodia
· Laos
§ British possessions
· Burma
· India
§ Indochina invasion of July 1941
· Roosevelt cut off Japanese assets and oil supplies
o Confrontation with Japan became inevitable
§ US intelligence broke through Japanese secret code
§ Roosevelt knew Japan would attack Pacific
· All forces on high alert by end of November
o December 7, 1941
§ Japanese carriers attacked Pearl Harbor early in the morning
§ Japanese pilots destroyed about 200 American planes in 2 hours
· 2,400 Americans were killed
· 1,200 Americans wounded
§ Japan struck other US bases
· Philippines
· Guam
· Wake Island
o Next day
§ FDR – “date which will live in infamy”
§ Congress voted on entering WWII
· Only pacifist Jeannette Rankin of Montana voted no
· Congress approved FDR’s declaration of war
o 3 days later
§ Germany and Italy declared war on the United States
Arsenal of Democracy
· FDR called for “great arsenal of democracy” in 1940
o US economy already prepared for military purposes
o Federal government poured large amount of energy and money into economy once US entered war
o Gave power to federal government
o Brought an end to the Great Depression
· Mobilizing for War
o War Powers Act
§ Passed a few days after US declared war on Germany
§ Established precedent for executive authority
§ President had power to
· reorganize government and create new agencies
· establish programs censoring news and information
o abridged civil liberties
· seize property owned by foreigners
· award government contracts without competitive bidding
o Wartime agencies
§ Reorientation and management of economy
§ Supply Priorities and Allocation Board (SPAB)
· Oversaw use of scarce materials and resources
· Adjusted domestic consumption for war needs
§ Office of Price Administration (OPA)
· Imposed price controls to prevent inflation
§ National War Labor Board (NWLB)
· Mediated disputes between labor and management
§ War Manpower Commission (WMC)
· Directed mobilization of military and civilian services
§ Office of War Mobilization (OWM)
· Coordination operations among all agencies
o Propaganda
§ Office of War Information (OWI)
· Created in June 1942
· Regulated media to sell the war to citizens
· Engaged press, radio, and film industry in an informational campaign
· Gathered data and controlled release of news
· Similar to the Committee of Public Information from WWI
o Banned publications of advertisements or photographs that showed dead Americans
§ Thought they would demoralize public
· Worried that Americans had become too confident
o Published picture of wounded American in a 1943 Newsweek
o Sought to “harden home-front morale”
§ War bonds
· Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
o Secretary of Treasury
o Encouraged Americans to purchase government bonds
o Planned campaign “to use bonds to sell the war, rather than vice versa”
· America felt more antagonism to Japan rather than Germany
o Morgenthau used more Japanese stereotypes in advertising
· Most Americans bought bonds to invest safely, counter inflation, and save for postwar purchases
o $185.7 billion in bonds by end of war
o Other supportive measures
§ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
· Allotted money increased from $6 million to $16 million in two years
· Attorney general authorized wiretapping for espionage or sabotage
o Used illegally for domestic services as well
§ Office Strategic Services (OSS)
· Created Joint Chiefs of Staff
· Used to:
o Assess enemy’s military strength
o Gather intelligence information
o Oversee espionage activities
· Headed by Colonel William Donovan
o Wanted to plot psychological warfare against enemies
o Increase in size of government
§ Cost about $250 million a day to engage in warfare
§ Spent twice as much during war than in entire prior history
§ Number of federal employees quadrupled
· 1 million in 1940 to 4 million at end of war
§ 1942 Roosevelt
· Went from “Dr. New Deal” to “Dr. Win the War”
· Shifted focus from getting country out of depression to allocating all resources for war efforts
· 1942 election weakened New Deal coalition
o Many Democrats unseated
o Republicans gained 46 seats in the House of Representatives
§ More opportunities to end special program proposals
o New Deal agencies vanished
· Organizing the Economy
o US ability to out-produce enemies
§ Decisive factor for victory
§ US advantages
· Large industrial base
· Abundant natural resources
o Free from interference of war
· Large civilian population
o Increase labor force and armed forces
§ Defense spending ended Great Depression
· Created biggest economic boom in history of any nation
o Government money in defense production
§ Summer 1941
§ Allocations for war equipment topped $100 billion six months after Pearl Harbor attack
· Preceded American production for previous wars
§ Large war orders led to all-out production
· Factories operated around the clock
o Seven days a week
§ War Production Board
· Created by Roosevelt in January 1943
· “exercise general responsibility” for activity
o American productiveness
§ Better equipment and more motivation
§ Twice as productive as Germans
§ Five times as productive as Japanese
§ Military production increased from 2% of total gross national product in 1939 to 40% in 1943
o Profits for businesses from military contracts
§ Government provided low-interest loans and direct subsidies for expansion of facilities
· Generous tax write-offs for retooling
§ 100 largest corporations
· Produced 30% of all goods in 1940
· Received 70% of all war and civilian contracts and bulk of war profits
§ Half a million small businesses closed between 1941 and 1943
o Other impacts of defense production
§ Strong impact in West
· Major staging area for war in the Pacific
· Federal government spent $40 billion for military and industrial expansion
· California
o 10% of all federal funds
o Los Angeles
§ Second largest manufacturing center by 1944
· Detroit was largest
§ South
· 60 of the army’s 100 new camps
· Textile factories prospered
o Army needed 520 million pairs of socks and 230 million pairs of pants
· Lifted entire populations out of sharecropping and tenancy into industrial jobs in cities
· Rural population decreased by 20%
· American farmers could not keep up with demand
o Despite “Food for Freedom” program
o Domestic demand for milk, potatoes, fruits, and sugar
· Sped up development of large-scale, mechanized production of crops
o First widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides
· Farm income doubled by 1945
· Thousands of small farms had permanently disappeared
· New Workers
o New workers in labor force as a result of wartime economy
§ Bracero program
· Negotiated by US and Mexico in 1942
· Brought over 200,000 Mexicans to US for short-term employment as farmers
· Opened trade such as shipbuilding to Mexicans
o Previously not open to Mexicans
§ Sioux and Navajos were hired to build ordinance depots and military training centers
§ African Americans
· Much greater variety of jobs
· Black workers increased from 2,900,000 to 3,800,000
o Wage-earning patterns in women
§ Female labor force grew by 50%
· 19.5 million by 1945
§ Married women became majority of female wage earners
§ Rate of growth high for women over 35
§ Changed little for African American women
· 90% in labor force in 1940
· Many left domestic service for higher-paying industry jobs
o No rush to recruit women
§ Summer 1942
· Department of War advised businesses to stop hiring women until all make workers were hired first
§ Women not expected to keep jobs after war ended
§ “Rosie the Riveter”
· Appeared in posters and advertisements
· Model female citizen “only for the duration”
§ Washington D.C. female bus drivers
· Wore patches that sais “I am taking the place of a man who went to war”
o Gender stereotypes
§ Made wartime jobs appealing to women
· Made industrial jobs look like simple variations of domestic tasks
o Curtains to parachutes
o Vacuuming to riveting on ships
o WWII opened up new jobs for married women
§ Different from Great Depression when married women were barred from many jobs
§ Women automobile workers
· From 29,000 to 200,000
§ Female electrical workers
· 100,000 to 374,000
§ When polled, 75% of women workers wanted to keep their jobs
o Uneven distribution of economic gains
§ 17 million new jobs created total
§ Wages increased up to 50%, but not as fast as profits or prices
§ Produced one of the most turbulent periods in American labor history
· More workers went on strike in 1941 than in any other year except 1919
§ United Auto Workers (UAW)
· Union drive at Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge plant
· One of most powerful labor organizations in world
§ Union membership increased
· 10.5 million to 14.7 million
· 11% to 23% in women
· 1,250,000 African American union members
o Double the prewar number
o No-strike pledges
§ For duration of US involvement in WWII
§ Illegal “wildcat” strikes
· Most dramatic in 1943
· Half-million coal miners walked out
· Led by John L. Lewis
· Roosevelt ordered mines to be seized
o Saw that Lewis war right and coal could not be mined with bayonets
§ Democratic party of Congress passed first antistrike bill
· Gave president power to penalize or draft strikers
§ Number of strikes grew regardless
· While Americans benefited from the burst of prosperity brought on by wartime production, they experienced…
o Food rationing
o Long workdays
o Separation from loved ones
o Racial and ethnic hostilities flared repeatedly
§ On several occasions erupted into violence
§ National unity ran deep conflicts on the home front
· Families in Wartime
o Men and women rushed into marriage due to wartime uncertainties
§ Wartime economic boom allowed young couples to afford their own households
§ “Economic conditions were ripe for a rush to the altar”
§ Bureau estimated that between 1940 and 1943, over 1 million more people married than would be expected without the war
§ Marriage rate peaked in 1946
· Divorce rates set records by 1946
o Housing shortages were acute, rent was high
§ Apartments were so scarce that taxi drivers became guides to vacancies
§ Landlords frequently discriminated against families with children
· Even more so against racial minorities
o Retailers extended store hours
§ Shopping time had to be squeezed between long workdays
§ Extra planning needed for purchasing government-rationed staples
· Meat, cheese, sugar, milk, coffee, gasoline, and even shoes
§ To free up commercially grown produce for troops overseas, many families grew their own fruits and vegetables
§ 1943: Victory Gardens
· 3/5 of the population was growing their own
o Amounted to 8 million tons of food that year
o Office of Price Administration
§ Tired to prevent inflation to ensure an equitable distribution of foodstuffs
· Many women found it almost impossible to manage a job and a household
· Dual responsibility of women contributed to high turnover and absentee rates in factories
o Care of small children became a major problem
§ Wartime employment or military service separated husbands and wives
· Leaving children with only one parent
§ Even families that stayed together normally had 2 parents working long hours
· Sometimes on different shifts
§ War Manpower Commission estimated as many as 2 million children needed some form of child care
· Federally funded day-care centers served less than 10% of defense workers’ children
· Limited facilities sponsored by industry or municipal governments could not keep up with growing number of “latchkey” children
o Juvenile delinquency rose
§ Employers often relaxed minimum age requirements for employment
· Many teenagers quit school for high factory wages
· Runaways drifted from city to city, finding temporary work at wartime plants or military installations
§ Gangs formed in major urban areas
· Led to brawling, prostitution, or automobile theft
§ With so many young men employed in the armed forces, crime by juvenile and adult males declined
§ On the other hand, complaints against girls increased significantly
· Normally for sexual offenses or for running away from home
§ Local officials created various youth agencies and charged them with developing more recreational and welfare programs
§ Local school boards appealed to employers to hire only older workers
· Toward the end of the war, student dropout rates declined
o Public health improved greatly
§ While many were forced to cut back on medical care during the depression, many Americans began to spend large portions of their wartime paychecks on doctors, dentists, and prescription drugs
§ Over 16 million men inducted into the armed forces and their dependents were provided medical benefits
§ Incidents of communicable diseases fell by over a third
§ Life expectancy increased by 3 years
§ Death rate in 1942 (excluding battle deaths) was the lowest in the nation’s history
§ South and Southwest racism and widespread poverty combined to halt or even reverse these trends
· These regions continued to have the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the nation
· Internment of Japanese Americans
o Many Americans feared an invasion of the mainland and suspected Japanese Americans of secret loyalty to an enemy government
o December 8, 1941, federal government froze the financial assets of those born in Japan who had been barred from US citizenship
§ Known as Issei
o A coalition of politicians, patriotic organizations, business groups, and military officials called for the removal of all Americans of Japanese descent from Pacific coastal areas
o State department intelligence report certified their loyalty
§ Japanese American still became the only ethnic group signaled out for legal sanctions
· 2/3 were American born citizens
o Sedition masked long standing racial prejudices
§ Press used the word “Jap” in headlines while political cartoonists used blatant racial stereotypes
o February 19, 1942: FDR signed Executive Order 9066
§ Authorized the exclusion of more than 112,000 Japanese American men, women, and children from designated military areas
· Mainly in California, but also in Oregon, Washington, and southern Arizona
§ Army prepared for forced evacuation
§ Rounded up Japanese Americans from the communities where they lived and worked, sometimes for generations
o Spring 1942, Japanese American families received one week’s notice to close up their businesses and homes
§ Could only bring what they could carry
§ Transported to one of ten internment camps
· Managed by the War Relocation Authority
· Camps were located as far away as Arkansas
§ By August, almost every west coast resident who had at least one Japanese grandparent was interned
o Japanese American Citizens League
§ Charged that “racial animosity” rather than military necessity dictated internment policy
o Korematsu v. United States (1944)
§ Upheld the constitutionality of relocation on grounds of national security
§ By this time, plans of gradual release was in place
o In protest, nearly 6000 Japanese Americans renounced their US citizenship
o Japanese Americans lost homes and businesses valued at $500 million
§ Worst violation of American civil liberties during the war
o 1998: US Congress voted reparations of $20000 and a public apology to each of the 60,000 surviving victims
· Double V: Victory at Home and Abroad
o African American activists conducted a Double V campaign
§ Mobilized for the allied victory and their own rights as citizens
o Black militants demanded fair housing and equal employment opportunities
o A. Randolph: president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and National Negro Congress
§ Mobilized against discrimination
o African Americans prepared for a “great rally” by the Lincoln Memorial on the 4th of July
§ 100,000 people expected to attend
§ To stop the protest, FDR met with Randolph
· Randolph proposed an executive order that would make it mandatory for Negroes to be allowed to work in defense plants
· Executive Order 8802 (1941): banned discrimination in defense industries and government
· FDR later appointed a Fair Employment Practices Committee to hear complaints and redress grievances
§ Randolph called off the march, but said they should still “shake up white Americans”
o Civil right organizations formed to fight discrimination and Jim Crow practices
§ Interracial Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
· Formed by pacifists in 1942
· Staged sit-ins in restaurants that refused to serve African Americans
· Used nonviolent means to challenge racial segregation in public facilities
§ National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
· Took a strong stand against discrimination in defense plants and military
· Grew from 50,000 to 450,000 from 1940-1946
o Toughest struggles took place in local communities
§ About 1.2 million African Americans left the rural South to take wartime jobs
· Faced serious housing shortages
· Whites were intent on keeping African Americans out of the best jobs and neighborhoods
§ “hate strikes”
· Broke out in defense plants across the country when blacks were hired or upgraded to positions normally held by white workers
· 1942: 20,000 white workers at Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit walked out to protest the promotion of 3 black workers
· US Rubber Company factory 1943: over half the white workers walked out when black women began to operate machinery
o Detroit race riot
§ February 1942: 20 black families attempted to move into new federally funded apartments adjacent to a Polish American community
· Mob of 700 white protesters halted moving vans and burned a cross on the project’s ground
· Two months later, 1750 city police and state troopers supervised the move of families into the Sojourner Truth Housing Project
§ The following summer, racial violence reached wartime peak
· 25 blacks and nine whites were killed and more than 700 were injured
o By the time 6000 federal troops restored order, property losses were over $2 million
o In the summer of 1943, over 270 racial conflicts occurred in nearly 50 cities
· Zoot-Suit Riots
o June 4, 1943: sailors poured into nearly 200 cars and taxis to drive through East Los Angeles to look for Mexican Americans dressed in zoot suits
§ Sailors assaulted victims at random
§ Riots broke out and continued for 5 days
o Two communities collided
§ Sailors had recently been uprooted from their hometowns an regrouped under the strict discipline of boot camp
· Stationed in southern CA while awaiting departure overseas
· Saw Mexican American teenagers wearing long-draped coast, pegged pants, pocket watches with oversized chains, and big floppy hats
o The sailors found the zoot suits as defiance to patriotism
o Zoot-suiters represented less than 10% of the community’s youth
§ Over 300,000 Mexican Americans served in the armed forces
· A large number representing a greater proportion of their draft age population than other Americans)
· Served in the most hazardous branches
o Paratrooper and marine corps
· Others were employed in war industries in LA
o For the first time, Mexican Americans were finding well-paying jobs
§ Unlike African Americans, Mexicans expected government protection from discrimination
o Military and civilian authorities eventually contained the zoot-suit riots by ruling several sections of LA off-limits to military personnel
§ City council passed legislation making the wearing of a zoot suit in public a criminal offense
· Many Mexican Americans showed concern for their personal safety
o Feared that government would send them to internment camps like the Japanese
· Popular Culture and “The Good War”
o Global events shaped American civilians’ lives, but appeared to only indirectly touch their everyday activities
o Food shortages, long hours in factories, and separation from loved ones did not take away the pleasure of wartime employment and prosperity
§ Americans spent freely at vacation resorts, country clubs, racetracks, nightclubs, dance halls, and movie theaters
§ Book sales skyrocketed
§ Spectator sports attracted huge audiences
o Popular music bridged the growing racial divisions of the neighborhood and work place
§ Southern musicians brought regional styles to northern cities
§ Music played on jukeboxes in bars, bus stations, and cafes
§ Country and rhythm and blues won over new audiences and inspired musicians to cross old boundaries
§ Musicians of the war years paved the way musically for the emergence of rock and roll a decade later
o Song featured war themes
§ Personal sentiment meshed with government directive to depict “a good war”
· Justify massive sacrifice
§ War was to be seen as a worthy and noble cause
o Hollywood artists threw themselves into fundraising and morale-boosting public events
§ Movie stars called on fans to buy war bonds and support the troops
§ Combat films made heroes of ordinary Americans under fire
§ Movies with anti-fascist themes promoted friendship among Russians and Americans
§ Other films portrayed the loyalty and resilience of families with servicemen stationed overseas
o Wartime spirits infected juvenile world of comics
§ Nickel books spawned a proliferation of patriotic superheroes
· Green Lantern and Captain Marvel
· Bugs Bunny even started wearing a uniform and fought sinister-looking enemies
o Fashion
§ Padded shoulders and straight lines became popular for men and women
§ Patriotic Americans liked uniforms
· Civil defense volunteers and Red Cross workers
§ Women employed in defense plants wore pants for the first time
§ Material restrictions influenced fashion
· Production of nylon stockings was halted because the material was needed for parachutes
§ Women’s skirts were shortened
§ War Production Board encouraged cuffless “victory Suits” for men
§ Executive Order M-217
· Restricted the colors of shoes manufactured during the war to black, white, navy blue, and 3 shades of brown
o Even those who did not serve in the war experienced intense change during the war years
§ Popular music, Hollywood movies, radio programs, and advertisements encouraged a sense of personal involvement in collective effort to preserve democracy at home and save the world from fascism
· All was screened by the Office of War Information
In World War I, Americans served for a short amount of time and in small numbers. World War II had 16.4 million Americans in the armed forces where only 34% saw combat—majority saw combat during the final year of the war. However, the experience of the war affected everyone in the military, reshaping their lives in unpredictable ways.
· Creating the Armed Forces
o European war broke out
§ 1939
§ 200,000 men in the U.S. armed force
· Patrolling Mexican border
· Occupying Philippines
· U.S. Marine Corps
o Planning since 1920s to extort control of western Pacific from Japan
o National Registration Day
§ October 16, 1940
§ Men between ages 21 and 36 were legally obligated to register
§ During the war, the draft age was 18
· Local boards were encouraged to draft the youngest
o Selective Service
§ 1/3 of men were rejected from the draft
· Physically unfit
· Screened for “neuropsychiatric disorders or emotional problems”
o 1.6 million men for this reason
· Illiterate
§ Those who passed the screening had entered the best-educated army in history
· Half of white draftees graduated high school
· 10% went to college
o Command and General Staff School
§ Fort Leavenworth
§ Highly professional
§ politically conservative
§ personally autocratic
§ General Douglas MacArthur
· Supreme commander in Pacific theater
· Admire German discipline
§ General Dwight D. Eisenhower
· Supreme commander of All
o Transformation of the officer corps
§ Shortage of officers in WWI
· Prompted expansion of the Reserve Officer Training Corps
· Still could not meet demand
· Racing to fix the problem
o Army Chief of Staff George Marshall opened schools for officers
o 1942
§ 17 week training
§ Produced more than 54,000 platoon leaders
§ GI’s (“government issue”)
· Majority of draftees
· Had limited contact with officers
· Forged bonds with company commanders and combat union
· “Everyone wants someone to look up to when he’s scared”
o Soldiers depended on solidarity between groups and loyalty between buddies to get through the war
o Most soldiers wanted ”to get the task done” to return to their families
· Women Enter the Military
o Edith Nourse Rogers
§ Massachusetts Republican Congresswoman
§ Proposed the formation of women’s corps
o Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), later changed to Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
§ Supported by Edith Rogers and Eleanor Roosevelt
o Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WAVES)
§ Creation of the women’s division of the navy
o Marine Corps Women’s Reserve
o Overall, more than 350,000 women served in WWII
o As a group, they were better educated and more skilled than an average soldier
§ Paid less
o Military policy
§ Prohibited women supervising men
o Women were prohibited from combat
o However, not protected from danger
§ Nurses accompanied soldiers in Africa, Italy, France
§ More than a 1,000 women flew planes (not in combat)
§ Photographers and Cryptanalysts
o Majority of women were far from battle
§ Stationed in the U.S.
§ Serving in administration, communication, clerical, or health-care facilities
o Bad Commentary and Publicity
§ WAC’s and WAVES
· Most WAC’s were believed to be prostitutes
· War Department set stricter rules for women because of fear of “immorality”
· U.S. Marine Corps used intelligence officers to track down homosexuality in women
o Dishonorable discharge was granted if suspected
· Old Practices and New Horizons
o Selective Service Act
§ With demands of African American leaders, if stated:
· “there shall be no discrimination against any person on account of race or color”
§ Draft brought hundreds of thousands black men to the army
o African Americans in the Armed Forces
§ Enlisted at a rate of 60% above proportion to the population
§ 1944, they represented 10% of the army
· 1 million served in the armed forces in WWII
§ They were channeled into segregated units
· Poorly equipped
· Commanded by white officers
o Secretary of War Henry Stimson did not challenge this policy since he thought it operated efficiently as “a sociological laboratory”
§ Majority served in the Signal, Engineer, and Quartermaster Corps
· Constructing or stevedoring
§ Towards the end of WWII
· Shortage of infantry permitted the first African Americans to enter combat
· The 761st Tank Battalion
o First African American unit in combat
o Won Medal of Honor after 183 days of action
· The 99th Pursuit Squadron
o Small number of African Americans in Airforce
o Despite that, they earned high marks against German airforce, Luftwaffe
· Marine Corps and Coast Guard agreed to recruit more African Americans
o A small number
· To improve morale, the army relaxed its policy of segregation
§ Ordinary black soldiers, sailors, or marines
· Encounters discrimination
o Army canteen, chapel, blood banks, and more
§ A black physician, Dr. Charles Drew invented the process of storing plasma
o 1943
§ Violent confrontations of whites and blacks at military installations
· Especially in the South, where majority of blacks were stationed
§ Policy of segregation was relaxed in the military
· Mainly in recreational facilities
§ Military service provided a bride to postwar civil rights agitation
· Amzie Moore
o Helped organize Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
o “people are just people”
§ He acquired this philosophy while in the military
o Japanese Americans in the military
§ Were stationed in segregated units
§ Most were sent to fight in the Pacific theatre
§ Nisei soldiers
· Knew Japanese and served as interpreters and translators
· The regiment of these soldiers created more than 10,000 volunteers step forward
o 1 in 5 were selected
· The Nisei 442nd heroically fought in France and Italy
o Jews and second-generation European immigrants
§ Military action described as:
· An “Americanizing” experience
o Indian Peoples
§ Left reservation for the first time
· 25,000 serving in the armed forces
§ Navajo “code talkers”
· They used a special code to transmit information among military units
· They learned English
o Homosexuals
§ Despite being barred from the military, some slipped through the screening
§ Emotional pressure during wartime
· Created fear of death
· Encouraged close friendships
§ Homosexuals found more room in the military than in civilian life
· Men often danced with one another (this would be subject to ridicule or arrest in the civilian world)
§ “The war is a tragedy to my mind and soul, but to my physical being, it’s a memorable experience.”
o The war created a memorable experience to all soldiers that served in WWII
§ Twenty-Seven Solider (1944)
· Film created for the troops by the government
· It sowed Allied soldiers or several nationalities working together
· The Medical Corps
o Death and Injury chances
§ There was a small chance of being killed in combat during WWII
· 1 in 50 were killed
· 175,000 were killed in action
§ Risk of injury was higher
· 949,000 causalities, including 175,000 killed in action
o European Theatre
§ Produced most causalities
o Pacific Theatre
§ Illnesses and artillery fire were the concerns for death in this region
· Soldier fought in hot, humid jungles
· Illnesses included malaria, typhus, diarrhea, or dengue fever
§ The 25th Infantry Division
· Landed in Guadalcanal in 1943
· Malaria-carrying mosquitoes terrorized more than Japanese forces
o “Battle Fatigue”
§ Prolonged stress of combat
§ More than 1 million soldiers suffered debilitating psychiatric symptoms
§ Soldier discharges for neuropsychiatric reasons was 2.5 times greater than in previous wars
§ France
· Men spent up to 200 days in combat
o Self-inflicting injuries were popular in order to be sent home
§ Private Eddie Slovik
· Fled the battlefront
· Tried and executed for desertion
o First such execution since the Civil War
§ In 1944, 8 months in combat was the maximum
· Rotational system used to relieve exhausted soldiers
o Medical personnel
§ All soldiers received first aid training
§ Doctors
· They worked in makeshift tent hospitals
· They advanced surgical techniques
o With help of “new wonder” drugs such as penicillin
§ Saved many lives of wounded soldiers
o More than 85% survived emergency surgery on the fields
o Less than 4% died from their injuries after medical care
o Success of treatment came from the use of blood plasma
§ Reduced shock from severe bleeding
o Red Cross Blood Bank
§ Formed four years before war
§ By 1945, they collected about 13 million units of blood which was converted to dried plasma
· Surgeons were considered heroes of the battlefront
· Between 30 to 40 medics were assigned to each infantry battalion
§ Nurses
· In military hospitals, supplied care to recovering soldiers
· Army Nurse Corps
o Created in 1901
§ It was scarcely a military organization
§ Nurses did not get military pay nor rank
o 1944
§ To overcome shortage, military ranks were extended to nurses for six months after the war
· By 1945, 56,000 women were active in the Army Nurse Corps
o Including 500 African American women
o Staffing medical facilities in every theatre
· Prisoners of War (POW)
o About 120,000 Americans became POW’s
o Captured by the Germans
§ Taken back to camps
· Oflag for officers
· Stalags for enlisted men
· They sat out the remainder of the war
§ Russian POWs were starved and murdered
o Captured in the Pacific theatre
§ Worse than abysmal
§ 20,000 Americans were captured
· Only 40% survived to return home in 1945
§ At least 6,000 Americans and Filipinos were:
· Beaten, denied food and water, died on the notorious “Death March”
§ “Death March”
· Eight mile walk through the jungles on the Bataan Peninsula in 1942
· Survivors arrived at former U.S. Army base Camp O’ Donnell
o Hundreds died weekly of disease and squalor
§ Japanese Army felt scorn for POWs
· Their own soldiers killed themselves before becoming POWs
§ The Imperial Army assigned strict and brutal discipline in the POW camps
§ Postwar survey from POWs in the Pacific Theatre
· 90% reported to have been beaten
o To avenge fellow soldiers captured by other nations, GIs treated Japanese POWs more brutal than enemy soldiers from Africa an
· The World at War
o The World at War
§ First year of declared war
· Allies remained on the defensive
· Axis powers were winning
§ Allies had a few advantages
· Vast natural resources
· Skilled workforce with sufficient reserves to accelerate the production of weapons and ammo
· The determination of millions of antifascists throughout Europe and Asia
· The capacity of the Soviet Union (now an ally BTW) to endure immense losses
o Soviets Halt Nazi Drive
§ Weapons and tactics of WWI and II were different
· WWII was a war of offensive maneuvers punctuated by surprise attacks
o Tanks
o Airplanes
o Combined mobility and concentrated firepower
§ Artillery and explosives
· Major improvements in communication systems
o Two-way radio transmission
o Radiotelephony
§ Hitler used these methods to grab an early advantage
§ Battle of Britain
· The Royal Air Force (Britain) fought the Luftwaffe (Germany) to a standstill and saved England
§ 1941
· Hitler tried to invade and conquer the Soviet Union before the US entered the war
· The invasion had to be delayed to support Mussolini
o His weak army had been pushed back in North Africa and Greece
· The attack was late, too late to achieve its goals before the Russian winter
§ Burden of war fell to the USSR
· From June to September, Hitler’s forces overran the Red Army
· But the Nazis didn’t count on civilian resistance leading to the rally of the Soviets
o They cut German supply lines and sent all resources to troops in Moscow
· The onset of the severe winter weather =massive counterattack on the Germans. For the first time, the Nazi war machine suffered a major setback.
§ Summer 1942
· Germans headed toward Crimea (rich oil fields of the Caucasus) and attacked Stalingrad but failed
§ February 1943
· The German Sixth Army had been defeated (100,000 Germans surrendered); overpowered by Soviet Union
§ Battle of Kursk
· In retreat, the Germans tried one last desperate attempt to halt the Red Army
· Kursk, Ukraine, July 1943
· The greatest land battle in history
o 2 million troops and 6,000 tanks
· Germans were annihilated, turning the tide of the war
o The Allied Offensive
§ Spring 1942
· Germany, Italy, and Japan
o Commanded a territory extending from France to the Pacific Ocean
o Central Europe
o Large Section of the Soviet Union, parts of China, and the Pacific
· Momentum was flagging
· US out produced them
o Sub-sinking destroyers reduced Nazi sub threat
o Landing craft and amphibious vehicles
§ Two of the most important innovations of the war
§ Still, German forces were a might opponent on the European Continent
· Soviets wanted a Second Front against Germany from the west
§ “Desert Fox”
· October 23-24, 1942
· El Alamein in the desert
· British Eighth Army halted a major offensive and destroyed the Italian North African Army and Germany’s Afrika Korps
§ Operation Torch
· The landing of Brits and US troops on the coast of Morocco and Algeria in November 1942
o Largest amphibious military landing to that date
· January 1943
o Roosevelt meets Winston Churchill in Morocco to talk about plans for the war; unconditional surrender
§ May 1943
· Allied control of North Africa with a secure position in the Mediterranean
§ Aerial bombing increased pressure on Germany
· B-17 Flying Fortess
o Capable of hitting specific targets and sparing civilian life
o Bombing missions over the Rhineland and the Ruhr successfully took out many German factories
§ The Royal Air Force (British Air Force)
· Determined to break German resistance
o Leveled Hamburg
o Destroyed Dresden (worst air raids)
o 60 other cities
· Weakened German economy and undermined civilian morale
· Trying to defend its cities, the Luftwaffe sacrificed many of its fighter planes
· When the allies finally invaded western Europe, they had air superiority
o The Allied Invasion of Europe
§ Summer 1943
· Ally advance on southern Italy
· July 10, Brit/US troops conquered Sicily
o Italians celebrated
· Italy surrendered September 8
· But Hitler occupied northern peninsula and stalled the Allied campaign
§ Armed Uprisings against the Nazis spread
· Warsaw had riots during the winter and spring of 1943
· Scattered revolts followed
§ Operation Overlord (turns into D-Day)
· A campaign to retake Europe with a decisive counter attack through France
· Began with a pre-invasion air assault that dropped 76,000 tons of bombs on Nazi targets
· Dwight Eisenhower: commander in Europe
· Fake an invasion in Calle
o Inflatable tanks, etc
§ D-Day
· June 6, 1944
· 175,000 troops and 20,000 vehicles
· Allies storm Omaha Beach, Normandy
· Load up everything we got!
o LCVP
§ Landing Craft for Vehicle and Personnel Use
§ Boats with no roofs, have ramps, Higgins boats
§ Paris
· July 14, 1944
· French Resistance unfurled the French flag on Bastille Day
· General Charles de Gaulle – head of new French government
o Arrived in Paris on August 25 to become president of the reestablished French Republic
§ Occupied nation after nation fell to the allied armies
o The High Cost of European Victory
§ 1944
· Allied commanders searched for a strategy to end the war quickly
o Missed a chance to invade Berlin
o Turned north, opening the Netherlands for Allied armies on their way to Germany’s industrial heartland
§ Battle of the Bulge
· Hitler’s final, desperate effort to reverse the Allied momentum
· Quarter million men at Allied lines in the Belgian forest of the Ardennes
· Drove the allies back 50 miles before they were stopped
o The bloodiest single campaign Americans had been involved in since the battle of Gettysburg
o Exhausted the German capacity for counterattack
§ Christmas Day 1944
· The Germans fell back, retreating into their own territory
§ March 1945
· Allies took the Rhine and the Ruhr Valley with its precious industrial resources
§ May 8
· German surrender
· Hitler had committed suicide
· Nazi officials were planning their escape routes
§ Eastern Front
· 200,000 killed
· 800,000 wounded
o The War in Asia and the Pacific
§ Scattered fighting across a region of the world far larger than all of Europe
§ Japan cut supply routes between Burma and China
· Seized
o Philippines
o Hong Kong
o Wake Island
o British Malaya
o Thailand
§ China joined the Allies on December 9, 1941 but was still on the defensive
§ Nationalist and anticolonial sentiment played into Japanese hands
· Took the occupations with only 200,000 men because Britain/France didn’t want to fight to defend
§ Japanese set up puppet governments in the conquered settlements
· Led to famines and guerilla resistance armies
§ 6 months after Pearl Harbor
· The US began to regain naval superiority in the central Pacific and halt Japanese expansion
§ Battle of the Coral Sea
· May 7/8
· Blocking of Japanese threat to Australia
§ Battle of Midway
· Fought over Midway Island
o Strategically vital to US communications and the defense of Hawai’i
o US intelligence led to the knowledge of the attack
o American planes sank four of Japan’s vital aircraft carriers
o Destroyed hundreds of planes
o Ended Japan’s offensive threat to Hawai’I and the U.S. west coast
§ Pulled back the offensive perimeter
· Concentration of forces.
§ US Command
· Southwest
o General Douglas MacArthur
· Central
o Admiral Chester Nimitz
§ Allied counteroffensive
· Solomon Islands and Papua, near New Guinea
o Stronghold of Guadalcanal
· Victorious in February 1943
o Proved that they could defeat Japanese forces in brutal jungle combat
§ Island hopping
· U.S. Navy and Marine Corps pushed to capture a series of important atolls from their well-armed Japanese defenders and open a path to Japan
o Tarawa – November 1943
o 1944 (Within air range of the Jap home islands)
§ Guam
§ Saipan
§ Tinian
o Battle of the Philippine Sea
§ June – the Jap fleet suffered a crippling loss
§ October 1944
· General MacArthur led a force of 250,000 to retake the Philippines
o Battle of Leyte Gulf
§ The largest naval battle in history
§ Japs lost 18 ships
§ US control of the Pacific
o Iwo Jima invasion was successful
§ Okinawa
· 350 miles southwest of the home islands of Japan
· Vital airbases
· The struggle proved even more bloody
· The invasion of the island, which began on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, was the largest amphibious operation mounted by Americans in the Pacific war
· Kamikaze
o “divine wind”
o Pilots flying suicide missions in planes with a 500-pound bomb and only enough fuel for a one-way flight
· More Americans died or were wounded in Okinawa than at Normandy
§ Post-Euro war
· Allies concentrated on Japan
· The air and sea attacks on the mainland began to take its toll
· US subs reduced the ability of ships to reach Japan with supplies
· Since the taking of Guam, US bombers could reach Tokyo
§ US wanted Japan to surrender ASAP so the Red army didn’t take any Japanese territories
· Set up for the last stages of war: the atomic bomb
· The Last Stages of War
o Roosevelt and his advisors focused on military strength rather than plans on peace
o Reconsidered their thoughts after the defeat of Nazi Germany
o Roosevelt wanted to crush the axis powers and establish a system of collective security to prevent another war world
o Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchhill were known as the “Big Three”
§ They met to “hammer out the shape of the postwar world”
o No nations expected to reach a final agreement and they did not anticipate the sudden global events
§ Became clear that the only thing holding the Allies together was the mission of destroying the Axis.
· The Holocaust
o Americans learned the extend of Hitler’s atrocities during the last stages of the war
§ Hitler ordered the systematic extermination of Jews, Gypsies, other “inferior races,” homosexuals , and anyone deemed an enemy of the Reich
§ 1933-1941
- Nazis murdered as many as 6 million Jews, 250,000 Gypsies, and 60,000 homosexuals
o U.S. government released little information on the Holocaust
§ Liberal magazines such as the Nation and small committees of intellectuals tried to call attention to what was happening in German concentration camps
§ Major news media like the New York Times and Time magazine made treated the Nazi genocide as minor news
§ 1943- only 43 percent of Americans polled believed that Hitler was systematically murdering European Jews
o Leaders of the American Jewish Community were better informed than the general population
§ Mid 1930’s- petitioning the government to suspend the immigration quotas to allow German Jews to take refuge in the United States
o Roosevelt and Congress denied their requests
§ President maintained that the liberation of the European Jews depended on Allied victory
§ brushed off a delegation that presented him with the solid evidence of Nazi genocide
- December 1942
§ Roosevelt agreed to change government policy
§ Treasury Henry Morgenthau gave the president a report on “one of the greatest crimes in history, the slaughter of the Jewish people in Europe”
- Suggested that it was-Anti-Semitism in the State Department that had stalled the development of an aggressive plan of action
o Roosevelt issued an executive order creating the War Refugee Board in order to avoid scandal
§ American Jews pleased with the president for a military strike against the rail lines
- Lead to the extermination camp in Auschwitz, Poland
§ The War of Department affirmed that Allied armed forces would not be employed “for the purpose of rescuing victims of enemy oppression unless such rescues are the direct result of military operations conducted with the objective of defeating the armed forcesecitver res of the enemy.”
- The government viewed civilian rescue as a diversion from the decisive military operations.
o The extent of the Nazi depravity was finally revealed to Americans when Allied troops invaded Germany and liberated the death camps
§ General Eisenhower found barracks crowded corpses and crematories while touring the Ohrdruf concentration camp in April 1945
· The Yale Conference
o In preparing for the end of the war, Allied leaders began to reconsider their goals
o The Atlantic Charter stated noble objectives for the world after the defeat of fascism
o Roosevelt realized that neither Britain nor the Soviet Union intended to abide by any code of conduct that compromised its national security or conflicted with its economic interests in other nations or in colonial territories
o Roosevelt held his last meeting with Churchhill and Stalin at Yalta
§ Roosevelt recognized that prospects for postwar peace also depended on compromise
§ U.S. and Great Britain objected to the to the Soviet Union’s plan to retain Baltic states and part of Poland as a buffer zone to protect it against any future German aggression
§ Britain planned to reclaim its empire in Asia, and the united states hoped to hold several pacific islands in order to monitor any military resurgence in Japan
§ The delegates also negotiated the terms of membership in the United Nations
o Soviet entry into the Pacific War
§ Biggest and most controversial item
§ Roosevelt believed it was necessary for a fast Allied victory
§ Stalin agreed to declare war against Japan within two or three months of Germany’s surrender
o Roosevelt announced to congress that the Yalta meeting was a great success
§ Proof that the wartime alliance remained intact
§ Roosevelt concluded that the outcome of conference revealed that the Atlantic Charter had been nothing more than a “beautiful idea.”
o Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 from a stroke
o Roosevelt had rebounded in 1944 to win a fourth term as president
o In an electoral college victory(432 to 99), he defeated Republican New York governor Thomas E. Dewey
o Surrender of Germany took place on May 8, 1945.
· The atomic bomb
o Harry Truman
§ Kansas City politician
§ Missouri judge
§ U.S. state senator
§ Lacked diplomatic experience
§ Roosevelt’s finesse
o Negotiations at the Potsdam Conference
§ Held just outside Berlin from July 17th to August 2, 1945
§ Lacked the spirited cooperation characteristic of the wartime meetings of allied leaders that Roosevelt had attended
o The American, British, and soviet delegations had a huge agenda
§ Reparations
§ the future of Germany
§ the status of other Axis powers such as Italy
o during the Potsdam ,Truman first learned about the success testing of an atomic bomb in New Mexico
o the U.S. had been pushing the Soviet Union to enter the Pacific war as a means to avoid a costly U.S. land invasion
§ Potsdam Truman secured Stalin’s promise to be in war against Japan by August 15
§ After Secretary of War Stimson received a cable reading “Babies satisfactorily born” U.S. concluded that Soviet assistance was no longer needed to bring that war to an end.
o An editorialist wrote in the Japanese Nippon Times, “This is not war, this is not even murder; this is pure nihilism…a crime against God which strikes at the very basis of moral existence.”
§ Several leading religious publications agreed
§ The Christian Century interpreted the use of the bomb as a “moral earthquake”
§ Albert Einstein observed that the atomic bomb had changed everything except the nature of man
o On August 7, the news media reported the destruction and death the bomb caused in Hiroshima
o Japan surrendered on August 14 after a second bomb destroyed Nagasaki
§ Killed another 70, 000 people
o The Allied Insistence on unconditional surrender and the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan remain 2 of the most controversial aspects of war
§ Truman states that he gave the offer no such official estimate exists
§ An intelligence document of April 30, 1946, states, “the dropping of the bomb was the pretext seized upon by all leaders as the reason for ending the war, but [even if the bomb had not been used] the Japanese would have been capitulated upon the entry of Russia into the war.”
o The use of the nuclear force strengthened the U.S. diplomatic mission
§ it intimidated the Soviet Union
§ Truman and his advisors knew their atomic monopoly could not last
· University of Washington, Seattle: Students and Faculty Face the Cold War
o May 1948
§ University of Washington in Seattle
· Melvin Radar
o A professor accused of communist actions by two state legislators, members of the state’s Committee on Un-American Activities
o Never was a communist
o He was a self-described liberal
o He was in several organizations supported by Communists
o Served as president of the University of Washington Teacher’s Union
o He was invited to the Communist party
§ Refused
o “I was an American in search of a way—but it was no the Communist way”
o He was caught up in a Red Scare that abridged freedom of speech and political activity
o FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
§ Set camps in universities around the United States
§ Spying on students and faculty
§ Screened credentials for jobs and scholarship applicants
§ Sought students to report roommates as Communists
o University of Washing administration
§ Refused to hire J. Robert Oppenheimer
· Atomic scientist that ran the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
· Robert became an opponent of arms race ad proliferation of nuclear weapons
§ 150 faculty members
· 6 were convicted of being in the Communist party
o Were brought up to the university’s Faculty Committee on Tenure and Academic Freedom
o Charged with violations ranging from neglect of duty and not stating their party membership
o Three were dismissed and three went on probation
o Icy Relations (provoked this paranoia)
§ United States vs. Soviet Union after WWII
· Uneasy allies during WWII
· Countries lined up with one or the other
§ In the United States
· Cold War
o Demanded pledges of loyalty from:
§ Citizens
§ Universities
§ Trade unions
§ Mass media (Hollywood)
· Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (Known as the G.I. Bill of Rights)
o Passed by Congress in 1944
o Offered stipends covering tuition and housing for veterans
o Between 1945-1950
§ 2.3 million students benefitted
§ More than $10 billion was spent by the government
· J. Edgar Hoover
o Director of the FBI
o Said that college campuses were centers of
§ “red propaganda”
§ Filled with teachers “tearing down respect for agencies of government, belittling tradition and moral custom and…creating doubts in the validity of the American way of life”
· Nationwide stats and facts
o 200 faculty members were dismissed
o Thousands of students
§ Dropped out of organizations
§ Changed friends after “visits” from FBI agents
o Main effect of the Cold War
§ Restraint of freedom of speech
§ Fear of criticizing U.S. racial, military, or diplomatic policies
· Global Insecurities at War’s End
§ WWII engulfed the world from 1939 to 1945
§ A 1945 poll indicated
· Peace rested on harmony between the Soviet Union and the US
o Facing the Future
§ 1941, Henry Luce
· Publisher of Time, Life, and Fortune magazines
· Forecasted the dawn of “the American Century”
· He said Americans must “accept wholeheartedly our duty and our opportunity as the most powerful and vital nation in the world and in consequence to assert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such means as we see fit.”
§ 1945, Truman
· After bombing of Japan, he said the United States is “the most powerful nation in the world—and the most powerful nation, perhaps, in all history.”
§ Post WWII United States
· Unlike great Britain and France, the U.S. prospered
· Capital assets of manufacturing increased 65% over prewar levels
o Equal to half the world’s goods and services
· Prosperity of the economy
o Due to massive government spending for the war rather than New Deal programs
§ $340 billion
· Citizens questioned the duration of the striving economy
o After veterans got home
o After war production slowed
§ Solution to Postwar Economy
· Will Clayton
o Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs
o “We need markets—big markets—in which to buy and sell”
· Maintaining the level of growth in economy
o Needed an estimated $14 billion in exports
· The U.S. became interested in integrating Western Europe and Asia into international economy open to American trade and investment
§ Final Stages of WWII
· Roosevelt and advisers planned to establish U.S. primacy
· July 1944, Brent Woods Conference
o International Monetary Fund (IMF) was created
§ By stabilizing exchange rates, IMF would deter currency and trade conflicts
o International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) was established
o They helped rebuild war-torn Europe
o Assisted development in other nations
o The US had the greatest influence over policy for these organizations
§ Supplied funds, $7 billion
o Soviet Union was part of Brent Woods conference but refused involvement
§ Allowing the US to build economies along capitalist lines
o The Division of Europe
§ Atlantic Charter of 1941
· recognized each nation with the right to self determination and to renounce all claims to new territories
· The Allied leaders violated this by dividing occupied Europe into “spheres of influences”
· Soviet Union
o Wanted to reestablish borders in 1941
o Potsdam Conference July 1945
§ Regained and extended territory
· Most of Eastern Europe
o Portion of Poland
o Baltic Nations
o Did the USSR want all of Europe to be Communist?
§ Germany’s Future
· Allies decided to divide the nation into four occupation zones
o Each government by one Allied nation
o No agreement was made for long term plans
· France and Soviet Union opposed reunification of Germany
o Roosevelt shared the belief with the Soviets
· Truman and Churchill hoped for rebuilding Germany into a powerful counterforce against the Soviet and a good market for U.S. and Britain
· July 1946
o Americans began to have compensation from their zone to have a program of amnesty for former Nazi
· December 1946
o American, British, and French merged zones
o Soviet Union refused offer in fear of resurgence of united Germany
· U.S. envisioned a united Germany as a fortification against Soviet expansion
o The United Nations and Hopes for Collective Security
§ Dumbarton Oaks Conference
· In Washington D.C. late summer and fall of 1944
· Again in April 1945 in San Francisco
· The Allies worked to shape the United Nations
o A world organization that would handle disputes among members as well as hold back aggressors by military force if necessary
§ The United Nations
· All fifty nations that signed the UN charter participated in the General Assembly
· Five Nations served permanently on the Security Council
o United States
o Great Britain
o France
o Soviet Union
o Nationalist China
· The Security Council
o “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security”
§ They enjoyed veto power
· UN’s Greatest Success was in Humanitarian programs
o Relief agency for Europe and Asia
§ Provided war-torn nations with billions of dollars for:
· Medical supplies
· Food
· Clothing
· UN Protects Human Rights
o High standards of human dignity is owed much to the lobbying of Eleanor Roosevelt
· Cold War
o Operated strictly with this
o Western nations allied with the US
§ Help the balance of power
§ Successfully excluded Communist China
o Polarization between East and West made negotiations settlements impossible
· The Policy of Containment
o Idea of a community of nations dissolved
o Winston Churchill
§ “an iron curtain has descended across the [European] continent”
§ Called the United States to recognize its “awe-inspiring accountability to the future”
· Act aggressively to turn back Soviet expansion
o United States committed to leadership in a struggle against the spread of communism
o The Truman Doctrine
§ Many Americans believed that FDR would have been able to prevent the tensions between the Soviet Union and the US
· His successor lacked talent in diplomacy
§ Truman liked to talk tough and act defiantly
§ February 21, 1947
· Great Britain informed the US State Department that they could no longer afford to prop up the anti-Communist government there
· Announced intention to withdraw all aid
· Truman concluded that Greece, Turkey, and the Middle East would fall under Soviet control
§ March 12, 2947
· Truman appealed for all-out resistance to a “certain ideology” (Communism) wherever it appeared in the world
§ Truman Doctrine:
· Congress approved a $400 million appropriation in aid for Greece and Turkey
o Helped the monarchy and right-wing military crush the rebel movement
§ This victory helped Truman’s popularity in the 1948 election
· “contain” communism, both home and abroad
· Outlasted the events in the Mediterranean
o US declared its right to intervene to save other nations from communism
§ February 1946:
· George F. Kennan sent an 8,000 word telegram to the State Department insisting that Soviet fanaticism made cooperation impossible
o USSR intended to extend its realm by:
§ Military means
§ Subversion within free nations
· US needed to safeguard the “Free World” by diplomatic economic, and military means (if necessary)
o Fused anticommunism and internationalism into an aggressive foreign policy
o The Marshall Plan
§ Marshall Plan:
· Sought to reduce hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos
· Restore the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole
o Aimed to run back both socialist and Communist electoral bids for power in Europe
· Most successful postwar US diplomatic venture
· Improved the climate for a viable capitalist economy in western Europe
· Brought recipients of aid into a bilateral agreement with the US
· Introduced many Europeans to American consumer goods and lifestyle
· Drove a deeper wedge between the US and the Soviet Union
§ General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
· Reduced commercial barriers among member mnations and opened all to US trade and investment
· Was costly to Americans but effective
o Taking 12% of the federal budget in the first year
· Industrial production in European nations covered by the plan rose 200% between 1947 and 1952
· Deflationary programs cut wages and increased unemployment
o HOWEVER, profits soared and the standard of living improved
§ Federal Employees Loyalty and Security Program
· Executive Order 9835:
o Barred Communists and fascists from federal employment
o Outlined procedures for investigating current and prospective federal employees
§ National Security Act
· Established Department of Defense, National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency
§ Smith-Mundt Act
· Launched an overseas campaign of anti-Communist propaganda
§ NSC-68
· National Security Council Paper calling for an expanded and aggressive US defense policy
o Included greater military spending and higher taxes
§ Internal Security Act
· Also known as McCarran Act and Subversive Activities Control Act
· Provided for the registration of all Communist and totalitarian groups
· Authorized the arrest of suspect persons during a national emergency
§ Psychological Strategy Board created
· Created to coordinate anti-Communist propaganda campaigns
§ Immigration and Nationality Act (McCarran Walter Immigration Act)
· Reaffirmed the national origins quota system
· Tightened immigration controls
· Barred homosexuals and people considered subversive from entering the US
o The Berlin Crisis and the Formation of NATO
§ US and Britain introduced a common currency in the western zones
§ Berlin Blockade: June 24, 1948
· Stalin halted all traffic to West Berlin
o Formally controlled by Western allies but situated deep within the Soviet occupied zone
· Created a crisis as well as an opportunity for the Truman administration to test itself
§ US began an around-the-clock airlift of historic proportions
· Royal Air Force
· Operation Vittles
o Delivered nearly 2 million tons of supplies to West Berliners
§ Soviet Union finally lifted the blockade in May 1949
· Federal Republic of West Germany
o Cleared the way for the Western powers to merge their occupation zones into a single nation
§ German Democratic Republic
· USSR countered in their sector
§ Berlin crisis made a US led military alliance against the USSR attractive to western European nations
§ North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
· April 1949
· Included 10 European nations, US, & Canada
· A mutual defense pact in which “an armed attack against one or more of them…shall be considered an attack against them all”
· Complemented the Marchall Plan
o Strengthened economic ties among the member nations by keeping “the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”
· Deepened divisions between eastern and western Europe
o Permanent military mobilization on both side inevitable
§ Congress approved $1.3 billion in military aid
· Involved the creation of US Army bases and the deployment of American troops abroad
§ Robert A. Taft
· Warned that the US could not afford to police all Europe without sidetracking domestic policies and undercutting the UN
§ Opinion polls revealed strong support for Truman’s line against the Soviets
§ When NATO extended membership to West Germany, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, which included East Germany
· Division of East and West was complete
o Atomic diplomacy
§ Truman invested his faith in the US monopoly of atomic weapons
· US began to build atomic stockpiles
· Conducted test s on the Bikini Islands in the Pacific
· By 1950, the US “had a stockpile capable of somewhat more than reproducing World War II in a single day”
§ US military analysts estimated it would take the USSR 3-10 years to produce an atomic bomb
· Proved wrong in 1949 when the Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb
§ Within a few years...
· Both the US and the Soviet Union had tested hydrogen bombs a thousand times more powerful than the weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
§ US and Soviet Union were now firmly locked into the Cold War
· Nuclear arms race imperiled their futures
· Diverted their economics
· Fostered fears of impending doom
§ Prospects of global peace had disappeared
· The world had again divided into hostile camps
· Cold War Liberalism
o Truman portrayed himself as a fighter against all challengers
§ Wanted to enlarge the New Deal
· Settled on a modest agenda to promote social welfare and an anti-Communist policy
§ Cold war liberalism
· Domestic and foreign policy became more entangled
o “To Err is Truman”
§ Harry Truman rated lower in public approval than any 20th century president EXCEPT Herbert Hoover
· Responsibility of reestablishing peacetime conditions overwhelmed Truman’s administration
§ From wartime to peacetime economy…
· President faced millions of consumers that were tired of rationing
o Eager to spend their wartime savings
o Rapidly outran supply which fueled inflation and created a huge black market
· Truman asked Congress to extend wartime price controls
o Republicans (backed by business leaders) refused and cut back the powers of the OPA
§ Prices kept skyrocketing
§ 1945-1946
· Homemakers protested rising prices by boycotting
· Industrial workers struck in large numbers
· Employers slashed wages or at least held them steady
o Workers wanted a bigger cut of the huge war profits they heard about
· Nearly 4.6 million workers on picket line
§ May 1946
· Truman suggested to draft striking railroad workers into the army
o Conservative Senate denied this plan
§ Congress defeated most of Truman’s ideas to revive the New Deal
§ One week after Japan’s surrender:
· President introduced a 21 point program which included:
o Greater unemployment compensation
o Higher minimum wages
o Housing assistance
o Later added proposals for national health insurance & atomic energy legislation
§ Congress turned back most of the bills
o Passed the Employment Act of 1946
§ Created a new executive body
· The Council of Economic Advisers
o Conferred with the president and formulated policies for maintaining employment, production, and purchasing power
o Did not include funding mechanisms to guarantee full employment
§ By 1946 Truman’s popularity went downhill
· Republicans began asking voters, “Had enough?”
· Gave Republicans majorities in both houses of Congress and in the state capitals
· Repudiation of Roosevelt
o Passed an amendment to the Constitution establishing a two-term limit for the presidency
§ Republicans dominant for the first time since 1931
· Prepared counteroffensive against the New Deal
o Attack on organized labor
o Unions had reached a peak in size
§ Membership topping 15 million
§ Encompassing 40% of wage earners
· “labor had gone too far”
o Republican-dominated Eightieth Congress aimed to outlaw many practices approved by the Wagner Act of 1935
§ Taft-Hartley Act (Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947)
· Brought an end to…
o Closed shop
o Secondary boycott
o Use of union dues for political activities
· Mandated an eighty day cooling off period in case of strikes affecting national safety or health
· Required all union officials to swear under oath that they were not Communists
o Abridged freedoms ordinarily guaranteed by the First Amendment
· Unions that refused to cooperate were denied the services of the National Labor Relations Board
o Arbitrated strikes and issued credentials to unions
§ Truman regained some support when he vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act
· It would “conflict with important principles of our democratic society”
· Congress overrode his veto
· The 1948 Election
o By 1946, Truman had forced out advisers who had been the social planners of the New Deals
§ Believed some of Roosevelt’s advisers to have been “crackpots and lunatic fringe”
§ Fired secretary of commerce Henry Wallace for advocating a more conciliatory policy toward the Soviet Union
· Refused to retreat
· Made plans to run against Truman for the presidency
· Pledged to expand New Deal programs by moving bolding to establish full employment, racial equality, and stronger labor unions
· Promoted peace with the Soviet Union
· As 1948 election approached, Wallace appeared viable candidate for the New Progressive Party
o Then…Truman accused him of being a tool of Communists
o Truman had to contend with Democrats defecting from the Right
§ At the party convention, Democrats endorsed a civil rights platform that called on Congress to “wipe out discrimination”
· Proposed by liberal Minneapolis mayor Hubert Humphrey
· Plank almost passed
o Then the bulk of the conservative southern delegation bolted
§ Southern Democrats then endorsed the States’ Rights (Dixiecrat) ticket
· Headed by Governor Thurmond of South Carolina that was known for having racist views
o As the South began to seem a lost cause to Truman, Republicans Thomas Dewey appeared to be a tough opponent for Truman in the coming election
o Truman set to reposition himself by discrediting congressional Republicans
§ Proposed bold programs calling for federal funds for education and new housing and a national program of medical insurance
§ Also called a reluctant Congress back for a special session
· Truman then signed two executive orders
o One integrated the federal workforce
o Another integrated the US armed forces
§ Then began to hammer away at the Republican controlled “do-nothing Congress”
o “Give ‘em Hell Harry”
§ Campaigned vigorously and garnered lots of grassroots support
§ Fear of the Republicans won back the bulk of organized labor
§ Recognition of the new State or Israel (1948) helped prevent the defection of many liberal Jewish voters from Democratic ranks
§ Success of the Berlin airlift also buoyed Truman’s popularity
§ By the election, Truman had deprived Wallace of almost all his liberal support and had gone far in reviving the New Deal coalition
o On the other hand, Dewey was expected to coast to victory
o Truman won the popular vote by a margin of 5% and trounced Dewey in the electoral college 303 to 189
§ Democrats again had majorities in both houses of Congress
o However, Truman had hit his highest point of popularity and was about to begin a steady downfall
· The Fair Deal
o “Every segment of our population and every individual his a right to expect from our Government a fair deal” ~Truman (1949)
o The return of Democratic congressional majorities, he hoped, would enable him to translate campaign promises into concrete legislative achievements and expand the New Deal
§ However, a powerful block of conservative southern Democrats and Midwestern Republicans turned back his domestic agenda
o Truman broke no new ground
§ Congress passed a National Housing Act (1949)
· Promoted federally funded construction of low income housing
· Raised the minimum wage
· Expanded the Social Security Program to cover an additional 10 million people
§ Otherwise, Truman made little other impacts
o Truman and other congressional liberals introduced a variety of bills
§ Weaken southern segregationism (federal antilynching laws)
§ Outlaw the poll tax
§ Prohibit discrimination in interstate transportation
§ *these measures were defeated by southern led filibusters*
o Proposals to create a national health insurance plan, provide federal aid for education, and repeal or modify Taft-Hartley remained bottled up in committees
o Truman managed best to lay out basic principles of cold war liberalism
§ Toned down the rhetoric of economic equality espoused by the visionary wing of the Roosevelt coalition
§ Fair Deals exalted economic growth, not the reapportionment of wealth or political power, as the proper mechanism for ensuring social harmony and national welfare
§ The administration insisted on an ambitious program of expanded foreign trade while relying on the government to encourage high levels of productivity at home
§ Truman further reshaped liberalism by making anticommunism a key in both foreign and domestic agendas
· The Cold War at Home
o Republican senator McCarthy claimed to have in his possession a list of Communists secretly serving in government agencies
o By this time, the Communist Party of the USA was losing ground
o In the earliest days of the cold war, anticommunism already occupied the center stage of domestic policies
§ FBI director Hoover characteristically warned Americans not to be complacent in the face of low number of Communists
o The federal government with the help of the media led a campaign to find in the threat of communism a rationale for the massive recording of its operation and the quieting of the voices of dissent
o Far reaching quest for security led to a greater concentration of power in government
· Also promised to lead the “free world” by allowing many of their own rights to be circumscribed
o Imperative of national security destroyed old0fashioned isolation
§ Forced the US into international alliances such as NATO and into the role of world leader
§ Truman successfully argued that national security demanded a substantial increase in the size of the federal government
· Both military and surveillance
§ Security measures were required to keep the nation in a steady state of preparedness, readily justified during wartime, and extended into peacetime
o National Security Act of 1947
§ Laid the foundation for expansion for national security
§ Act established the Department of Defense and the National Security Council (NSC) to administer and coordinate defense policies and advise the president
§ Department of Defense replaced the War Department and untied the armed forces (army, navy, and air force) under the jurisdiction of a single secretary with cabinet-level status
· The distinction between citizen and soldier blurred
· The ties between the armed forces and the State Department grew closer as former military officers began to fill State Department and diplomatic corps positions
§ The act created the National Security Resources Board (NSRB)
· Coordinated plans throughout the government “in the event of a war”
§ The Department of Defense in alliance with the NSRB became the principal sponsor of scientific research during the first ten years of the cold war
§ Established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
o The Loyalty-Security Program
§ National security required increased surveillance at home
§ Within two weeks of the Truman Doctrine, Truman signed Executive Order 9835 (1947)
· Established a loyalty program for all federal employees
· The Federal Employees Loyalty and Security Program established a political test for federal employment and outlined procedures for investigating current and prospective federal employees
o The Red Scare in Hollywood
§ Anti-Communist Democratic representative Martin Dies of Texas chaired a congressional committee on “un-American activities”
· A few years later, J. Thomas of New Jersey directed the committee to investigate supposed Communist infiltration of the movie industry
§ House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
· Had the power to subpoena witnesses and compel them to answer all questions of face contempt of Congress charges
· Small, but prominent minority refused to cooperate with HUAC
known as “unfriendly witnesses”
· Declined to testify by claiming freedom and speech
· Several received prison sentences
§ Hollywood studios refused to employ anyone who refused to cooperate with HUAC
· Resulted in a blacklist that remained in effect until the 1960s
o Spy Cases
§ Hiss was president of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former member of FDR’s State Department
· Charged as a fellow Communist in the Washington underground during the 1930s
· Convicted of perjury and received a 5 year prison term
· Hiss was released two years later
§ Many Democrats including Truman at first dismissed the allegations against Hiss
§ The most dramatic spy case involved Julius Rosenberg
· Former government engineer
· Accused of stealing and plotting to convey atomic secrets to Soviet agents during WWII
· Government had a weak case
· Found guilty of conspiring to commit espionage
· Press showed no sympathy, but convictions were largely protested in the US and abroad
· McCarthyism
o Joseph R. McCarthy
§ Republican senator of Wisconsin
§ Announced that the US had been sold out by the “traitorous actions” of men holding important positions in the federal government
§ Conspiracy theory; charging 205 card-carrying Communists who were working in the State Department
§ But he refused to reveal names
o Investigations uncovered not a single Communist in the State Department
§ However, there was an offensive against New Deal Democrats and the Truman administration for failing to defend national security
o McCarthyism
§ The entire campaign to silence critics of the cold war
o Communism seemed to many Americans to be much more than a military threat
§ “Better Dead Than Red”
§ People proclaimed themselves ready for atomic warfare
o Civil rights organizations faced the worst persecution since the 1920s
§ Destruction of the Civil Rights Congress and the Negro Youth Council
§ Public Figures lost popularity
· W. E. B. Du Bois
· Paul Robeson
o Anti-Communist rhetoric cloaked deep fears about changing sexual mores
§ John Peurify
· Deputy under-secretary
§ “purge of the perverts”
· Firing of up to sixty homosexuals per month
· Dishonorable discharge of up to 2,000 per year
o McCarthy’s rhetoric was a ruthless attempt to gain power and fame by exploiting cold war fears
o But he brought on his own demise
§ In 1954 he accused several high-ranking officers in the Army of plotting subversion
§ He failed to prove his wild charges, and in the glare of television cameras he appeared deranged.
§ The media lost interest in his, McCarthy became an alcoholic, and he died three years later
· Cold War Culture
o Cold War Culture
§ The cold war did not necessarily depend on military confrontation; nor was it defined exclusively by a quest for economic supremacy
§ It was a contest of values
o An Anxious Mood
§ Manny Americans feared an economic backslide
· If war production had ended the hardships of the Great Depression, how would the economy fare in peacetime
§ Peace seemed precarious
· President Truman himself suggested that WW III appeared inevitable
· “Permanent alert”
§ Anxieties by the cold war surfaced major themes in popular culture
· The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
· The feeling of community shared with wartime buddies dissipated, leaving only a profound sense of loneliness
§ The genre of film noir deepened the mood into an aesthetic
§ Movies that featured stories of ruthless fate and betrayal
· Out of the Past
· Detour
· They Live by Night
· Feelings of frustration and loss of control came alive in tough, cynical characters
§ Plays and novels also described alienation and anxiety in vivid terms
· Arthur Miller
o Death of a Salesman (1949)
o An exacting portrait of self-destructive individualism
· J. D. Salinger
o Catcher in the Rye (1951)
§ The mental anguish of a teenage boy estranged from the crass materialism of his parents
§ Cold war anxiety manifested itself in a flurry of UFO sightings
· Americans imagined Communist-like invasions from outer space
· Or they hoped that superior creatures might arrive to show the way to world peace
· The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
· The Family As Bulwark
o Postwar prosperity helped to strengthen the ideal of domesticity
§ Rush to marriage and parenthood
o The ultimate symbol of postwar prosperity was the new home in the suburbs
o Atomic Age
§ Boom in real estate with country properties located at least fifty miles outside of major cities
§ Many suburbanites built underground shelters made of steel-reinforced concrete and outfitted with provisions to maintain a family for several weeks after an atomic explosion
o Baby boom
§ Young couples were marrying younger and producing more children than at any time in the past century
§ The birthrate continued to grow at a record pace, peaking in 1957
o Life magazine
§ “The year 1946 finds the U.S. on the threshold of marvels, ranging from runless stockings and shineless serge suits to jet-propelled airplanes that will flash across the country in just a little less than the speed of sound.”
o By 1950, the majority of Americans could own consumer durables
o The baby boom and high rates of consumer spending encouraged a major change in the middle-class family
§ Women wished to continue full-time employment
§ By 1952, 2 million more wives worked than during the war
§ But they had to get minimum-wage jobs
· Clerical work
· Health care
· Education
· Restaurant
· Hotel
· Retail services
§ Older women worked because they had come to value a job for its own sake
§ Younger women often worked for reasons of “economic necessity”
· To maintain a middle-class standard of living that now required more than one income
§ But popular opinion and expert advice urged women to return to their homes
o Modern Woman: The Lost Sex (1947)
§ Attributed the “super-jittery age in which we live” to women’s abandonment of the home to pursue careers
§ Proposed federally funded psychotherapy to readjust women to their housewifely roles
o Articles in popular magazines, television shows, and high-profile experts chimed in with similar messages
§ Talcott Parsons
· DISTINGUISHED Harvard sociologist
· Delineated the parameters of the “democratic” family
o Husbands served as breadwinners while wives, “the emotional hub of the family,” stayed home to care for their families
o Patterns of women’s higher education reflected this conservative trend
§ G.I. Bill
· Huge upsurge in male enrollment in college
· Women represented 40% of all college grads in 1940 but only 25% a decade later
o “American Woman’s Dilemma”
§ How could women comfortably take part in a world beyond the home and at the same time heed the advice of FBI director Hoover who told the nation’s women to fight “the twin enemies of freedom – crime and communism” by being homemakers and mothers?
· Military-Industrial Communities in the West
o Trans-Mississippi West most impacted by cold war
o WWII spending stimulated economy in the west
§ Caused mass migration of people looking for jobs in industry
o Successful peacetime production
§ Los Angeles
· 1/8 all new businesses in nation
o Cold war boosted western economy
§ Revived defense funding
§ Department of Defense and other private corporations invested billions of dollars in research and development of military equipment
o Federal government poured defense money into California
§ 10% of entire military budget
§ California’s economic growth rate from 1949 to 1952 exceeded the country’s
§ 40% from manufacture of aircrafts
§ 1/3 of all workers in Los Angeles were employed in defense industries
· Mostly aerospace
§ Concentration on defense greater in LA suburbs
· Orange County became major producer of communication equipment
· Cities like San Francisco Bay, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and San Jose also prospered economically and in technology
o Cold war pumped new life into grown communities
§ Centers for Manhattan Project
· Created many jobs in the construction of cold war nuclear arsenal
o More jobs than for the construction of the WWII atomic bombs
· Hanford, Washington
· Los Alamos, New Mexico
o Grew into fast pace city in 30 years
o Had one of the highest population densities in the state
o Still secretive and restrictive
o Government still in charge of architecture
§ Espanola Valley, New Mexico
· Population 90% Hispanic and Native American
· Growing economy
· Center of Waste Isolation Pilot Project
o Dump site of laboratory’s waste
§ Alamogordo, New Mexico
· 200% increase in population during first decade of cold war
· Located next to White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base
o New communities resulted from growth of US military bases and training camps
§ Hospitals and supply depots
· Some lasted and expanded until virtual warfare end of cold war
§ Twenty western bases reopened from 1950 to 1953
§ California and Texas become home to many military personnel
§ Land availability made the west more attractive
· Especially to military planners
o White Sands Missile Range in New Mexican Desert
o Developments welcomed by politicians, real estate agents, and merchants
§ Sources of revenue and employment
o Costs for unplanned growth
§ Government money for highways to accommodate for new population
· Did nothing for public transportation
§ Traffic congestion, air pollution, and limited water and energy resources
§ Environmental degradation in communities near nuclear weapons testing grounds
· Also increased cancer rates later on
· Zeal for Democracy
o Revitalized patriotism from WWII
§ Pledging allegiance to flag became more meaningful
§ Children taught to avoid saluting
· Thought to be similar to Nazi hand-raising
· Right hand over heart instead
§ Flag Day became more important
o Americans chastised for “national apathy” by organizations
§ Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge
· Wanted to defend “the American way”
§ American Heritage Foundation
· Founded in 1947
§ American Legion
§ Chamber of Commerce
§ Other local businesses and veterans groups
o “Democracy Beats Communism” Week
§ Supported by Junior Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City in 1948 election year
§ Speakers explained American democratic virtues over Soviet slavery
· Superiority of free enterprise over state-controlled economy
· 1 in 5 Americans have a phone while 1 in 188 Russians had a phone
§ “Torch of Freedom” parade
· Carried message to all parts of Kansas City
o American Legion of Mosinee, Wisconsin
§ Used political theatre to demonstrate American virtues
§ Orchestrated imaginary Communist coup
§ May Day 1950
· Traditional Communist holiday
· “Communist agents” forced mayor out of his home
o Announced Council of People’s Commissars had taken over local government
· Similar things happened to chief of police
· Restaurants served Soviet fare
o Black bread, potato soup, and coffee
· Mosinee Times printed special edition on pink paper with masthead “Red Star”
· All property taken over by states and all rights were annulled
· All adults had to work four extra hours without compensation
· Residents rallied in “Red Square” and declared an end to Communist rule
· Covered in the media as “Day Under Communism”
o “Freedom Train”
§ Planned by Attorney General Tom Clark
§ American Heritage Foundation
§ Funded by private donors
§ Supported by President Truman
§ Carried copies of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution to various cities
§ About 8,500 people went to see patriotic displays each day
§ Songwriter Irving Berlin said “you’ll find a precious freight”
o Patriotic messages in public education
§ Truman told teachers to “strengthen national security through education”
· Lesson plans designed to show the superiority of America
§ “Zeal for Democracy”
· Launched in 1947 by the federal Office of Education
· Implemented by school boards across the nation
· Propaganda
o Promote and strengthen democratic thinking
§ Children taught to duck and cover in case of surprise nuclear attack from the Soviets
o Protest of cold war programs
§ Langston Hughes
· Hoped Freedom Train would not carry a Jim Crow car
§ Scholars claimed infringement of academic freedom
§ Many were reluctant to express contrary ideas
Stalemate for the Democrats
· United States and Soviet Union did not think they would come close to a war
o Communists in China seized power in 1949
§ “loss of China”
o Communists threatened to take Korea in June 1950
§ Americans sanctioned police action in Korea
· 1.8 million Americans sent to war with no victory in sight
§ Stalemate in Korea
o Proved political suicide to Truman
· The “Loss” of China
o US secured Japan as stabilizing force in Asia after WWII
o General Douglas MacArthur
§ Created interim government and reconstruction program
· Included
o Creation of independent trade unions
o Abolition of contract marriages
o Granting of woman suffrage
o Sweeping demilitarization
o Constitutional democracy that barred Communists from all posts
§ Americans tried to recreate nation’s economy with capital ideas
· Integrate Japan into an anti-Soviet bloc
o Japan housed military bases to hold US troops and weapons close to Soviet Union
o Difficult situation in China
§ Pro-Western Nationalist government of Jiang Jieshi collapsed after civil war
· US sent aid to unpopular government since end of WWII
· Warned Jiang that government would fall without reforms
· Wanted Jiang to accept a coalition government
§ Jiang’s troops forced to surrender to C0mmunists
· Led by Mao Zedong
o Had support of Chinese countryside
§ 85% of population
· Surrendered entire China mainland
§ Withdrew to Formosa (Taiwan)
§ Established People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949
o Fall of China created uproar in United States
§ Asia First wing of Republican Party
· Envisioned Far East as prime site for US trade and investment
· Blamed Truman administration for “loss” of China
§ Worse for Truman
· USSR and PRC formed alliance in February 1950
· Called Democrats “party of treason”
The Korean War
· Allies divided the small peninsula of Korea at the 38th parallel
· They hoped to reunite the Korean Government under its own government
o The line between the north and the south hardened
§ Syngman Rhee(The Republic of Korea)
§ Soviet Union sponsored North Korea Kim II Sung
· June 25, 1950 North Korea attacks South Korea
o Truman asks the UN council to send troops to South Korea
o The UN council agrees but only because the soviet delegate was not present
o Truman send troops to North Korea under General Douglas Macarthur
· Seoul the capital city of South Korea falls to the communist North Korea
o Truman reacts and tells the authorizes General Macarthur for an amphibious invasion
o On September 15,1960 The general lands on Inchon and halts the North Koreans
o October 1960 UN troops take back South Korea
· Truman wanted more than to get back South Korea
o Wanted to show that the democrats were not soft on communism
o Wanted to push the communists behind the 38th parallel and reunite the nation
o Macarthur told Truman he would win with ease at a conference on Wake Island.
· China warned the Americans that any attempt to cross the 38th parallel would be considered a threat to national security
o MacArthur attacked but was surprised
o The Chinese attacked in human waves and crushed MacArthur’s force
o The Chinese also blockaded the Chinese coast
§ These actions would eventually lead to the Chinese-American war
· April 10,1951
· Truman dismissed MacArthur for insubordination and other unauthorized activates
I. The Price of National Security
· Korean War had profound implications for the use of executive power
o Truman by passed congressional authority by instituting a peacetime draft in 1948 and ordering American troops into Korea
o Taft called the Truman’s actions “a complete usurpation” of democratic checks and balances
§ Taft charged Truman with transforming his office into an “imperial presidency.”
§ Truman avoided the criticisms and their constitutional implications by referring to the military deployment as unsanctioned “police action”
· NSC-68
o President derived his authority
o Paper released to Truman by the National Security Council Act in April 1950
o reinterpreted both the basic policy of containment and decision making at the highest levels of government
o pledged the US to contain communism and take a further step back to drive communist influence wherever it appeared
§ “foster the seeds of destruction within the Soviet Union”
o Specified that American citizens must be willing to make sacrifices
o Articulated the intellectual and psychological rationale behind US national security policies for the next forty years
· Truman fulfilled the prescriptions of NSC-68 after the outbreak of the Korean War
o Agreed to its mandate for rapid and permanent military build uo
o Defense budget quadrupled in 1953
§ $13.5 billion to more than $52 billion
o US army grown six times its size at the beginning of the conflict
§ Went up to $13.5 billion in 1953
o Federal government accelerated the development conventional and nonconventional weapons in 1953
§ H-bomb was tested in November 1952
· President Truman had taken steps to transform the OWI into a peacetime program that operated a smaller budget
o By 1948, Congress doubled the budget for such programming,
§ granted $3 million to revive the Voice of America
§ Voice of America- short-wave internatiofnal radio program
o Funded the development of film, print media, cultural exchange programs
o Created a foundation to promote anti-Communist propaganda throughout the world
o By mid-1950, the immediate goal was the “reorientation” of North Korea toward the Free World
· Government’s vast “information programs” were designed to literate countries already taken under communist rule by causing disaffection among the people
o Campaign of Truth 1951
o Reached 53 nations
o Voice of America broadcasted anti-communist programming in 45 languages
· Project Troy
o Initially designed by professors from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
o Aimed to penetrate the Iron Curtain
§ Used air balloons to distribute leaflets and cheap American goods, such as playing cards and plastic chess sets
o Army pilots joined the effort dropping leaflets on North Korean troops
o On April 4, 1951, President Truman signed the order that created Psychological strategy Board to coordinate various operations aimed to rollback Soviet power
§ Requested $155 million to fund these programs but he managed to only get $85 million
o Korean War cost the US approximately$100 billion
§ inaugurated an era of huge deficits in the federal budget
§ massive national debt but did nothing to improve the case for rolling back communism
o settlement was reached in which North Korea and South Korea occupied almost the same territory as when the war began
o approximately 54 thousand Americans died in Korea
§ north Koreans and Chinese lost well over 2 million people
o UN troops had employed carpet booming and napalm
§ Destroyed most of their housing and food supplies in both Korea’s
§ Majority of people killed were women and children
§ Nearly 1 million Koreans were left homeless
o Korean War did much to establish ominous trade by contrasting the Communist North with the “democratic” south
§ Casted the conflict in the ideological terms of the cold war
o MacArthur’s early victories had promised the liberation of North Korea and even the eventual disintegration of the Soviet and Chinese regimes
· Americans recognized that Truman had pledged the US to defend a corrupt government and a brutal dictator
o Korean War inspired M*A*S*H
§ Adapted for television from film from written by Hollywood screen writer Ring Lardner Jr.
o Ring Lardner Jr.
§ “unfriendly witness” before HUAC
§ Jailed during Korean War for contempt of congress
· The Korean War was only one burning issue during the election campaign of 152
o Truman’s popularity had wavered continually since he took office in 1945
§ Sunk to an all time low in the early 1950’s after he dismissed MacArthur as commander of the UN troops in Korea
§ Congress received many letters and telegrams calling for Truman’s impeachment
· Dissatisfaction with Truman increased
o The Asia First lobby argued that if the president had acted more aggressively to turn back communism in China, the “limited war” in Korea would not have been necessary
o Accusations in large scale corruption
o Newspaper reported that several agencies had been dealing in 5 percent kickbacks for government contracts
o 1952- Guallup poll showed the president’s approval for rating 23 percent
· Truman turned to the governor of Illinois, Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.
o Admired his honestly and intelligence
o Offered no solutions to the conflict in Korea
· Republicans made the most of the Democrat’s dilemma
o K1C2
§ Korea, Communism, and Corruption
§ Took steady aim at the Truman Administration
· Richard Nixon
o Eisenhower’s vice president
o Waged a relentless and defamatory attack on Stevenson
o Called him an Adlai the Appeaser”
· Republic Campaign
o Nixon had been caught accepting personal gifts from wealthy benefactors
§ Pleading his case on television, admitting he accepted one gift, a puppy.
§ “the Poor Richard Show”, defused the scandal without answering the most important charges
· Eisenhower continued to enchant the voters to a peace candidate
o Ten days before the election he announced “I shall go to Korea” to settle the war.
o Received 55 percent of the vote and carried thirty nine states
o Won the popular vote in much of the south and in the northern cities of New York, Boston, and Cleveland
o Republicans regained narrow control of congress
o The New Deal coalition of ethnic and black voters, labor, northern liberals, and southern conservatives no longer commanded a majority
· Popular Music in Memphis
o Elvis Presley
§ 19 years old
§ Overton Park – Memphis’s outdoor amphitheater
§ July 1954
§ Headliner country star Slim Whitman
§ Elvis’s first record
· Sun Records
§ First big show
§ Crowd went wild for “That’s All Right”
o Start of rock ‘n’ roll
§ Elvis combined blues, country music, and riveting performance style
§ Made for teenagers
· Brought teens together around jukeboxes, in cars, at sock hops, and at private parties
§ Enormous consumer power of emerging youth culture
§ Post war teenagers
· Most affluent generation of young people in American history
· Ability and eagerness to purchase
o Records
o Phonograph players
o Transistor radios
o Clothing
o Makeup
o Cars
· Helped define affluent society of post war era
o Memphis
§ Halfway between St. Louis and New Orleans
§ Grew in World War II
· Lumber mills, furniture factories, chemical manufacturing supplementing the cotton market
§ Diversity of popular theater and music
· Opera house, brass bands, vaudeville and burlesque, minstrel shows, jug bands, and blues clubs
§ Legally segregated between blacks and whites
§ Class differences among whites
· Elvis moved from Mississippi to Memphis in 1949 like many other poor rural whites
o Presleys poor enough to qualify for public housing
· All-white middle-class like James Conaway considered people like the Presleys “white trash”
o Not above or below negroes; from a different universe
o Gloria Wade-Gales
§ Lived in all-black Foote Homes housing project in Memphis
§ Acknowledged lack of power but believed in strength
§ “Surviving meant being black, and being black meant believing in our humanity.”
o Challenge to class and racial barriers
§ Elvis
· Dreamy shy boy who turned to music for release
· Wide range of music styles from Memphis
· Influence from choir at Assembly of God Church
· Beatle Street
o Main black thoroughfare of Memphis
o One of nation’s most influential centers of African American music
o Attracted both black and white fans
· Performed with black contestants in amateur shows
· Distinct style of music
· Said that “colored folks been singing and playing it just like I’m doing now, man, for more years than I know.”
§ White teenagers
· Dissatisfied with cloying pop music
· Turned to rhythmic drive and emotional intensity of black rhythm and blues
· Adopted rock ‘n’ roll
o Was an attitude, a celebration of being young, and a sense of having something that adult authority could not understand or control
o Expression of revolt against conformity
o Elvis as international star
§ Signed onto RCA Records in 1956
§ Topped charts and blurred musical boundaries
§ Television appearances made him more popular
· Uproar of sexual performance style
§ Established rock ‘n’ roll as interracial phenomenon
§ Rock ‘n’ roll heralded shift in American society
· American Society at Midcentury
o Economist John Kenneth Galbraith
§ The Affluent Society (1958) – most famous work
· Gave label to postwar America
§ American capitalism had been successful
§ Thought Americans needed to spend less on themselves and more on public funds
§ Most Americans considered strong economic growth fact of postwar period
o The Eisenhower Presidency
§ Dwight D. Eisenhower landslide victory in 1952
· First full two-term presidency since Grant
· Conservative vision of community
o America is corporate commonwealth
§ Like Hoover’s “associative state”
o Believed industrial strife, high inflation, and fierce partisan politics could be fixed through cooperation, self-restraint, and disinterested public service
o Limits to New Deal
o Encouraged voluntary relationship between business and government
§ Often chose to remain in the “middle of the road”
· Easily satirized by liberals and intellectuals for baldness, verbal gaffes, vagueness, and contradictory pronouncements
· Majority of American population agreed with Eisenhower
· Kept conservative and liberal wings united
· Appealed to many Democratic and independent voters
§ Wanted to run government like a business while letting states and corporate interests guide domestic policy and economy
· Appointed 9 businessmen to first cabinet
o Three from GM
o Charles Wilson
§ Former GM chief
§ Secretary of Defense
§ Famous aphorism
· “What was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.”
· Appointed men congenial to corporate interests to Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and Federal Power Commission
· Secured passage of Submerged Lands Act in 1953
o Transferred $40 billion worth of offshore oil lands from government to Gulf states
o Greater role in states and private companies
o Cost Treasury billions
§ Greater federal responsibility from New Deal
· Rejected Republican calls to dismantle Social Security
· Moderate expansion of Social Security and unemployment insurance and small increases in minimum wage
· Created Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
o Appointed Oveta Culp Hobby as secretary
§ Second woman to hold cabinet post
· Continued agricultural parity payments designed to sustain farm prices
o Federal agriculture spending went from $1 billion to $7 billion from 1952-1960
§ Hesitant to use fiscal policy to pump up economy
· Economy was in recession after Korean War in 1953 and 1958
o Unemployment reached 7.5%
· Refused to cut taxes or increase spending to stimulate economy
o Feared starting inflationary spiral
· Real wages for average family rose 20% during Eisenhower’s presidency
· Low inflation and steady growth
o Greater prosperity to most Americans
· Created “an atmosphere of greater serenity and mutual confidence”
o Subsidizing Prosperity
§ Federal government played crucial role in subsidizing programs that helped American families reach middle-class status
§ Federal aid
· Buy homes
· Attend college and technical schools
· Live in new suburbs
· Began in New Deal and World War II
· Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
o Established in 1934
o Extended government’s role in subsidizing housing industry
o Insured long time mortgage loans by private lenders for home building
o Attracted private capital and revolutionized the industry
o FHA mortgage loan required less than 10%for down payment and spread low-interest monthly payments over thirty years
· Long-range drawbacks of FHA
o Insurance went overwhelmingly to new residential developments
§ Hastened decline of older, inner-city neighborhoods
§ Bias towards suburban, middle-class communities
§ FHA policy to favor construction of single-family housing
· Discouraged multi-unit housing
§ Refused loans for reconstruction of older structures and rental units
§ Required “unbiased professional estimate” before loan guarantee
o Discriminated against racially mixed communities
§ Inscribed racial and income segregation in suburbia
· Suburbs built as planned communities
o Levittown
§ Opened in Hempstead, Long Island in 1947
§ 1,500 acres of former potato fields
§ Developed by William Levitt
· Called it the “General Motors of the housing industry”
· First entrepreneur to bring mass production techniques to housing
§ Materials were precut and prefabricated and put together by unskilled, nonunion workers
§ More than 17,000 houses and 82,000 people
§ No residents were African American
· Owners were only allowed to rent out houses to people of the Caucasian race
· 1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act
o Known as the G.I. Bill of Rights
o Provided veterans with low-interest mortgages and business loans
§ Subsidized growth of suburbs
o Nearly 10 million veterans received tuition and training benefits in 1956
o Loans from Veteran’s Administration totaled more than $50 billion by 1962
· Federal Highway Act of 1956
o Authorized $32 billion for construction of a national interstate highway system
§ Money came from new taxes on gasoline, oil, tires, buses, and trucks
§ Revenue held separately in a Highway Trust Fund
o Single largest public works program by 1972
§ 41,000 miles of highway
§ $76 billion
o Stimulated automobile industry and suburb building
o Accelerated decline of American mass transit and older cities
o 1970
§ One of world’s nets roads
§ One of worst public transportation system
· New initiatives for aid of education
o After Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, America thought they weren’t training enough scientists and engineers
o Eisenhower administration wanted to strengthen education in science, technology and mathematics
· National Defense Education Act (NDEA)
o Allocated $280 million in grants in 1958
§ Matching grants from states
o State universities upgraded science facilities
o $300 million in low-interest student loans
§ Only had to repay half if they taught elementary school or high school afterwards
§ Fellowship support for students who wanted to teach at colleges and universities
o New importance on high quality education
· Suburban Life
o Suburban boom strengthened the domestic ideal of the nuclear family as the model for American life
o The picture of the perfect suburban wife became a dominate image in television, movies and magazines
§ Efficient
§ Patient
§ Charming
o Suburban domesticity was usually presented as women’s only path to happiness and fulfillment
§ Cultural image often masked existence defined by housework, child care, and boredom
o Betty Friedan
§ Wife, mother, and journalist
§ Began a systematic survey of her Smith College classmates
§ Found a “ strange discrepancy between the reality of our lives as women and the image to which we were trying to conform”
§ Expanded her research and in 1963 published The Feminine Mystique
- Landmark book that articulated the frustrations of suburban women and helped to launch a feminist movement
o For millions of suburban families the middle class life could be achieved only with 2 incomes
o Expansion of the female labor force was a central economic fact of post war world II
§ Grew from 17 million in 1946 to 22 million in 1958
§ 40 percent of women were employed full-time or part-time
§ 30 percent of all married women worked outside of the home
o Married women looked to supplement income and ensure a middle-class standard of living for their families
§ The opportunity to move to a more fashionable neighborhood, to purchase a new car, or take a family vacation often depended upon a wife’s second income
o The postwar rebirth of religious life was strongly associated with suburban living
§ In 1940, less than half of the American population belonged to institutionalized churches
§ By the mid-1950’s nearly three quarters of identified themselves as church members
o A church building boom was centered in the expanding suburbs
o Norman Vincent Peale and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
§ Best selling religious authors
§ Offered reassurance and the “power of positive thinking”
§ Stressed individual solutions to problems, opposing social or political activism
§ Their emphasis on the importance of belonging , of fitting in, meshed well with suburban social life and the ideal of family-centered domesticity
o California came to embody postwar suburban life
o Center of the lifestyle was the automobile
§ Cars were a necessity for commuting to work
§ California also led the nation in the development of drive-in facilities: motels, movies, shopping malls, fast-food restaurants, and banks
§ More than 50, 000 miles of highways would be constructed around Los Angeles alone
o Orange County
§ Southeast of Los Angeles
§ The “centeress city”
§ Emerged as the dominant form of the community
o Contemporary journalists, novelists, and social scientists contributed to the popular image of suburban life as dull, conformist, and people exclusively by the educated middle class
o John Cheever
§ Won the National Book Award for the Wapshot Chronicle
o Writers tended to obscure the real class and ethnic differences found among and between suburban communities
o Many new suburbs had a blue-collar cast
· Organized labor and the AFL-CIO
o By the mid-1950s American trade unions reached a high point in their penetration of the labor market
§ Reflected the gains made during the organizing drives in core mass-production industries during the New Deal and World War II
o Union influence in political life increased
§ The republican swept to power in 1952, meaning was without an ally in the White House
o American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) pushed for a merger of the two groups as the way to protect and build on the movement’s recent gains.
o George Meany
§ Head of the AFL
§ Epitome of the modern labor boss
§ Originally a plumber
§ Worked his way through the AFL bureaucracy and had played a leading role on the National War Labor Board during World War II
§ Pushed the AFL closer to the Democratic Party
§ Believed unions must focus on improving the economic well-being of their members
o Walter Reuther
§ Meany’s counterpart in the CIO
§ Originally a tool-and-die maker in the auto shops of Detroit
§ Come to prominence as a leader of the United Automobile Workers during organizing drives of the 1930’s and 40’s
§ Believed that American unions ought to stand for something beyond the bread-and-butter needs of their members
§ Supported broader social vision including racial equality, aggressive union organizing, and expansion of the welfare state
o Meany and Reuther believed a merger of their organizations offered the best strategy for the labor movement
o In 1955, the newly combined AFL-CLO brought some 12.5 million union members under one banner
§ Meany was president and Reuther was the director of the Industrial Union Department
o Merger marked the apex of trade union membership
§ Share of labor market began a slow and steady decline
§ Union membership helped bring the trappings of middle-class prosperity to millions of workers and their families
- Home ownership, higher education for children, travel, and comfortable retirement
o AFL-CIO showed little commitment in bringing unorganized workers into the fold
§ Scandals involving union corruption and racketeering hurt the labor movement’s public image
o In 1957, the AFL-CIO expelled the International Brotherhood of Teamsters because of its close ties with the organized crime
o Congress passed the Landrum-Act in 1959 after highly publicized hearings into corruption
§ Widened government control over union affairs
§ further restricted union use of secondary boycotts during strikes
o during the 1950’s and 60’s union membership increased dramatically
§ only 400,000 government works belonged to unions in 1955
§ by early 1970’s, the figure reached 4 million
· Lonely crowds and organization men
o David Riesman’s “The Lonely Crowd” (1950)
§ Most ambitious and controversial critique of postwar suburban America
o Riesman argued that modern America had created the “other-directed” man
§ Peer-oriented
§ Previously, America had cultivated “inner-directed” people
- Self-reliant individualists who early on in life had internalized self-discipline and moral standards
§ Riesman thought Americans were less likely to take risks and act independently
o William H. Whyte’s “Organization Man” (1956)
§ Study of the Chicago suburb of Park Forest
§ Offered a picture of people obsessed with fitting into communities and jobs
o Whyte believed middle-class suburbanites strove mainly for a comfortable, secure niche in the system
§ They held to a new social ethic
o C.Wright Mills
§ “White Collar” (1951)
- Analyzed the job culture that typified life for middle-class salaried employees, office workers, and bureaucrats
§ “The Power Elite” (1956)
- Argued that a small, interconnected group of corporate executives, military men, and political leaders had come to dominate American society
· Expansion of higher education
o American higher education experienced rapid growth after the war
§ The number of students enrolled colleges and universities went from 2.6 million in 1950 to 3.2 million in 1960
§ Doubled to 7.2 million in 1970, as the baby boom generation came
o Reasons to the rapid increase…
§ GI Bill
§ National Defense Education Act
§ Government spending on research and development in universities
o 20 percent of all college graduates majored in business or other commercial fields by the mid 1950’s
§ The degree was a gateway to the middle-class
§ Became a requirement for a whole range of expanding white-collar jobs in banking, insurance, real estate, marketing, ect.
· Health and Medicine
o New antibiotics such as penicillin were manufactured and distributed on a mass basis
§ After the war, they became widely available to the general population
§ Federal support for research continued after the war with the reorganization of the national Institutes of Health in 1948
o By 1960, many dreaded epidemic diseases had virtually disappeared from American life
§ Tuberculosis
§ Diphtheria
§ Whooping cough
§ Measles
§ Poliomyelitis
o Most celebrated achievement of postwar medicine was the victory over poliomyelitis
§ Between 1947-1951 killed an annual average of 39,000 Americans
§ Crippled those who didn’t die
§ In 1952, 58,000 cases were reported
- Most from crowded swimming pools or other gathering places
o In 1955, Jonas Salk pioneered the first effective vaccine against poliomyelitis
§ Used a preparation of killed virus
§ A national wide program of polio vaccination virtually eliminated polio by the 1960’s
o Benefits of “wonder drugs” and advanced medical techniques were not shared equally by all Americans
§ More sophisticated treatments and expensive new hospital facilities increases the costs of health care
§ The very poor and many elderly Americans found themselves unable to afford modern medicine
§ Thousands of communities lacked doctors or decent hospital facilities
§ Critics of the medical establishment charged that medical specialists and large hospital complexes has increased the number of unnecessary surgical operations
§ The decline of the general practitioner
- meant fewer physicians made house calls
- more and more people went to hospital emergency rooms or outpatient clinics for treatment
o The American Medical Association(AMA)
§ Certified medical schools
§ Did nothing to increase the flow of doctors
§ Lobbied hard against efforts to expand government responsibility for public health
o Number of physicians per 100,000 people declined between 1950-1960
§ Shortage was made up by doctors trained in other countries
o Eisenhower and Truman’s Plans
§ Truman had advanced a plan for national health insurance, to be run along the lines of Social Security
§ Eisenhower proposed a program that would offer government assistance to private health insurance companies
§ AMA denounced both proposals as “socialized medicine
- Helped block direct federal involvement in health care until the creation of Medicare (for the elderly) and Medicaid (for the poor) in 1965
· Health and Medicine
o Improvements in medical care allowed many Americans to enjoy longer, healthier lives
§ Penicillin was manufactured on a mass basis
· After the war, became widely available to the general population
§ Federal support for research continued after the war with the reorganization of the National Institutes of Health in 1948
o By 1960, many deadly diseases virtually disappeared from American life
§ Tuberculosis
§ Diphtheria
§ Whooping cough
§ Measles
o Poliomyelitis
§ 1947-1951: crippled those it did not kill
§ Struck an annual average of 39,000 Americans
§ 1952: 58,000 cases reported
§ 1955: Jonas Salk pioneered the 1st effective vaccine against it
· Virtually eliminated polio by the 1960s
o More sophisticated treatments increased the costs of health care
§ Poor and elderly found themselves unable to afford modern medicine
§ Rural areas and small towns lacked doctors of decent hospital facilities
o Critics stated…
§ The medical establishment increased the number of unnecessary surgical operations
· Especially for women and children
§ Fewer physicians made house calls
§ More and more people went to hospital emergency rooms or outpatient clinics for treatment
o American Medical Association (AMA)
§ Certified medical schools
§ Did nothing to increase the flow of new doctors
· Number of physicians per 100,000 people decreased between 1950-1952
· Shortage was made up by doctors from other countries
§ Lobbied hard against efforts to expand government responsibility for public health
o Harry Truman had advanced a plan for national health insurance
o Dwight Eisenhower proposed a program to offer government assistance to private health insurance companies
§ AMA denounced both programs as “socialized medicine”
· Helped block direct federal involvement in health care until the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965
· Youth Culture
o The term “teenager” entered standard usage at the end of WWII
§ “a separate entity whose influence, fads, and fashions are worthy of discussion apart from the adult world”
o Teenagers often found themselves caught between :
§ Their desire to carve out their own sphere
§ The pressure to become an adult as quickly as possible
· The youth market
o Birthrates accelerated during the late 1930s & more rapidly during the war years
§ These babies were now teenagers
· Older siblings of the “baby boomers”
o Demographic growth of teens and postwar economic expansion created a large youth market
§ Advertisers focused on the special needs and desires of young consumers
· Cosmetics
· Clothing
· Radios
· Phonographs
· Cars
o 1959, Life summarized the new power of the youth market
§ “Counting only what is spent to satisfy their special teenage demands, the youngsters and their parents will shell out about $10 billion this year, a billion more than the total sales of GM.”
o Advertisers found that teenagers often played a critical role as “secret persuaders” in family purchase decisions
o Special market research organizations sprang up
§ Eugene Gilbert & company and Teen-Age Survey Incorporated
· Served business clients who were eager to attract teen consumers and instill brand loyalty
o 1950s and 1960s:
§ Teenagers had a major voice in determining America’s cultural fads
o Many parents thought that the overwhelming youth culture was dangerous to their authority
o Increasing uniformity of public school education contributed to public recognition of the status of teenagers
§ 1900: 1/8 of teens were in school
§ 1950s: 6/8 teens were in school
o Social scientists stressed the importance of peer pressure to understand teen behavior
· “Hail! Hail! Rock n’ Roll!”
o Demands of the new teen market reshaped the nation’s popular music
o Television broadcasting was replacing radio as the center of family entertainment
§ People began using radios in new ways
§ Production of portable transistor radios & car radios grew rapidly in the 1950s
· Listeners tuned them in for diversion from or an accompaniment to other activities
§ 1950: 2,700 AM stations on air
· 70% given to record shows
o Concentrated on popular music
§ Pop ballads, novelty songs, show tunes
o Recording industry:
§ Small independent record labels started recording African American rhythm and blues artists
§ Atlantic Records
· Most influential galaxy of artists
o Ray Charles
o Ruth Brown
o Joe Turner
§ Chess
· Blues-based artists
o Chuck Berry
o Bo Diddley
§ In New Orleans
· Imperial
o Fats Domino
· Specialty
o Little Richard
§ African Americans “crossed over” by adding millions of white teens to their fan base
§ Older companies (RCA, Decca, MGM, Capitol) ignored black music
· They wanted to offer “cover” versions by white pop singers
o Pallid imitations, artistically inferior to the originals
§ Racism was still a powerful force in American life
· Limited how closely white kids could identify with black performers
· Because of power of major companies, white covers usually outsold black originals
· Some disc jockeys refused to play covers
o Attracted enthusiastic audiences (both black and white)
· Alan Freed (disc jockey)
o Popularized the term “rock n’ roll”
§ Describing black rhythm and blues that he played on the air
§ Stage was then set for white rock n’ roll artists
· Elvis Presley
o Reinvented American Pop music
o Challenged the old lines separating black music from white
o Symbol of rebellious youth
· Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis
§ Chuck Berry
· African American who was adept at capturing teen spirit with humor, irony, and passion
o Defined what it meant to be young in postwar America
· Almost Grown
o Teens remade landscape of pop music into their own turf
o Dollar value of annual record sales tripled between 1954 and 1959
§ From $213 million to $603 million
o New magazines that were aimed at teens flourished in postwar years
§ Modern Teen
§ Teen Digest
§ Dig
o Most teens focused on the rituals, pleasures, and sorrows surrounding teens
§ Behaviors patters among white teenagers exhibited a new kind of youth
· At the same time, a more pronounced identification with adults
o Teens seemed to be determined to become adults as quickly as possible
o Postwar affluence multiplied the number of two-car families
§ Easier for 16 year olds to get driving privileges
· Formerly reserved for 18 year olds
o Girls began dating
§ Wearing brassieres, nylon stockings, and using cosmetics at an earlier age than before
§ Factors contributing to this trend:
· Continuing decline in age of first menstruation
· Sharp drop in the age of marriage after WWII
· Precocious social climate of junior highs
§ Idea of “going steady” became common in high school
o Teenagers often felt torn between their identification with youth culture and the pressure to assume adult responsibilities
§ Many young people had part time jobs, along with school & social life
· Many teen-oriented magazines, music, and movies gave advice and sympathy
· Deviance and Delinquency
o Many adults blamed rock n’ roll for the decline in parental control over teens
§ Opposition to rock n’ roll played on long-standing racist fears that white females may be attracted to black music & performers
o Undercurrent for all of this opposition:
§ Anxiety over the more open expression of sexual feeling by performers & audiences
o Increase in juvenile delinquency
§ Many magazines, books, and newspaper stories asserted that criminal behavior among the nation’s young was chronic
o Most attention went to:
§ Gang fights
§ Drug and alcohol abuse
§ Car theft
§ Sexual offenses
o US Senate established a special subcommittee on juvenile delinquency
§ Convinced much of the public that youthful criminals were terrorizing the country
· Public perception of the problem was exaggerated
o Juvenile delinquency tells more about anxieties over family life & erosion of adult authority
§ Teenagers seemed more loyal to peer culture than their parents
§ Growing importance of mass media brought efforts to regulate forms believed to cause juvenile delinquency
o 1954: Fredric Wertham
§ Published Seduction of the Innocent
· Argued that crime comic books incited teens to criminal acts
· Mass culture could overwhelm the traditional influences of family, school, & religion
· Eventually the comic book industry adopted a code to limit violence & crime
o Movies indicated that teens & their parents interpreted youthful deviance in different ways
§ The Wild One
· Adults thought the film was a critique of mindless gang violence
· Teenagers identified with the main character
§ Rebel Without a Cause
· Suggested that parents can cause delinquency when they fail to conform to conventional roles
· MISSING DANNYS PART
· Covert Action
o Eisenhower combined the overt threat of massive retaliation in his “new look” approach to foreign affairs
§ Heavy reliance on covert interventions
§ Support of CIA
o Eisenhower was a supporter of covert operations during WWII
§ During his presidency…
· CIA sponsored covert paramilitary operations became a key facet of American foreign policy
· American public wary of direct US military interventions
o CIA promise of cheap, quick, and quiet ways to depose hostile or unstable regimes, or prop up more conservative governments under siege by indigenous revolutionaries
o CIA director Allen Dulles
§ Brother of secretary of state and former leader of CIA’s WWII precursor
§ CIA’s mandate was to collect and analyze information
· Did much more under Dulles’s command
o Thousands of covert agents stationed all over the world carried out a wide range of political activities
o Some agents arranged large, secret financial payments to friendly political parties
§ Conservative Christian Democrats in Italy and in Latin America or foreign trade unions opposed to socialist parties
o Soviet Union tried to win influence
§ Africa, Asia, and Latin America
§ Attempted to appeal to a shared “anti-imperialism”
§ Offered modest amounts of foreign aid
§ Normally, Communists played only small roles in 3rd world independence movements
§ Issue of race and popular desire to recover national resources from foreign investors inflamed already widespread anti-European and anti-American feelings
§ When new nations or familiar allies threatened to interfere with US regional security arrangements or expropriate the property of American businesses…
· The Eisenhower administration turned to covert action and military intervention
· Intervening around the World
o CIA produced a swift, major victory in Iran in 1953
§ Iran’s popular prime minister had nationalized Britain’s Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
· State Department worried this would set a precedent in the oil-rich Middle East
§ Kermit Roosevelt (CIA chief in Iran) organized and financed an opposition within the Iranian army and on Teheran streets
· Led to CIA led movement that forced the prime minister out of office and replaced him with Riza Shah Pahlavi
o Proved his loyalty to American sponsors by renegotiating oil contracts
§ Assured American companies 40% of Iran’s oil concessions
o Rivalry between Israel and its Arab neighbors
§ Complicated US policy in the rest of the Middle East
§ Arab countries launched an all-out attack on Israel in 1948
· Immediately after the US and the Soviet Union recognized its independence
· Israel repulsed the attack, drove thousands of Palestinians from their home, occupied territory, and seized lands
· Arab states refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist and subjected it to a damaging economic boycott
· Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians languished in refugee camps
· Eisenhower believed that Truman had been too hasty in encouraging the Israelites
o But most Americans supported Israel as a refuge for a people who had suffered persecution (especially during the Holocaust)
§ Israel was a reliable US ally in an unstable region
· Arab nationalism continued to vex American policymakers
o Culminated in the Suez crisis of 1956
§ Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser looked for American and British economic aid
· Dreamed of building the Aswar High Dam on the Nile to create more arable land and provide cheap electricity
o When negotiations broke, Nasser announced he would nationalize the strategically sensitive Suez Canal
§ Turned to Soviet Union for aid
o Eisenhower refused European appeals for the US to help seize the canal and returned it to the British
o When British, French, and Israeli forces attacked Egypt in October 1956….
§ The US sponsored a UN resolution for calling for cease-fire and withdrawal of foreign forces
o British and French forces withdrew and eventually so did the Israelis
o Eisenhower won a major diplomatic battle through patience and pressure, but did not succeed in bring lasting peace
o CIA intervention in Guatemala
§ Fragile democracy had taken root in 1944
§ President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman aggressively pursued land reform and encouraged the formation of trade unions
§ 2% of Guatemalan population owned 72% of the farmland
§ Arbenz challenged the long standing dominance fo the American based United Fruit Company
· Threatened to expropriate hundreds of thousands of acres that United Fruit was not cultivating
· Company had powerful friends in the administration and began intensive lobbying for US intervention
· United Fruit linked the land reform program to the evils of communism
o Spent $7 million training antigovernment dissidents based in Honduras
§ The American navy stopped ships bound for Guatemala and seized their cargoes
§ June 1954: US sponsored military invasion began
· Citizens resisted by seizing United Fruit buildings
· US Air Force’s bombing saved the invasion effort
· Guatemalans appealed in vain to the UN for help
o Eisenhower denied any knowledge of CIA activities
· Widespread terror followed
o Unions were outlawed and thousands were arrested
§ United Fruit circulated photos of Guatemalans murdered by the invaders
· Labeled them “victims of communism”
§ Castillo Armas was assassinated and a decades long civil war ensued between military factions and peasant guerrillas
§ American intervention in Guatemala increased suspicion of and resentment against American foreign policy throughout Central and Latin America
· Nixon declared that the new Guatemalan government had earned “the overwhelming support of the Guatemalan people”
o CIA intervention in Vietnam
§ From 1950 to 1954, the US poured in $2.6 billion into the fight against the nationalist Vietminh movement
· Led by Communist Ho Chi Minh
§ Vietminh forces surrounded 25,000 French troops at Dien Bien Phu in March 1954
· French asked US to intervene
§ Dulles and Nixon recommended the use of nuclear weapons and a commitment of ground troops
§ Domino theory
· Eisenhower feared that the loss of one country to Communist would lead to others
§ Geneva accord
· Established a cease-fire and a temporary division along the Vietnam 17thparallel into northern and southern sectors
· The US refused to sign the accord
§ SEATO
· Eisenhower administration created the pact treaty
· Ike’s Warning: Military Industrial Complex
o National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy
§ Claimed 25,000 members
o Small but well-publicized actions against civil defense drills took place in big cities
§ People marched streets instead of entering bomb shelters
o Eisenhower found it difficult to restrain the system he helped create
§ In his Farewell Address, warned the nation about the dangers of what he termed the military industrial complex
· JFK the New Frontier
o Election of 1960
§ Election featured the first ever televised presidential debates
§ Political analysts have long argued over the impact of encounters
§ Both candidates emphasized foreign policy
§ Close election
· JFK did not fare well in the South
· First Catholic president
o New Frontier Liberalism
§ Advocated liberal programs
· Minimum wage
· Greater federal aid for education
· Increased social security benefits
· Medical care for the elderly
· Support for public housing
o NASA
§ Established under Eisenhower in response to the Soviet success with Sputnik
§ Kennedy announced that the US’s goal was to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade
o Strengthened the executive branch
§ White House staff assumed many of the decision making and advisory functions previously held by cabinet members
· Increased congressional oversight and confirmation proceedings
· White House aides lacked an independent constituency
o Their power and authority was derived directly to the president
§ Kennedy strengthened a pattern whereby American presidents increasingly operated through small groups of fiercely loyal aides
· Often acted in secret
· Kennedy and The Cold War
o Kennedy’s approach to foreign policy shifted
§ Aggressive containment à efforts at easing U.S.—Soviet tensions
§ At first, Kennedy considered it his task to confront the Communist threat
· State of the Union Address, January 1961, Kennedy told Congress that America must seize the initiative in the cold war
§ State Department
· Dean Rusk: conservative
§ Secretary of Defense
· Robert McNamara
o A Republican and Ford Motor Company executive determined to streamline military procedures and weapons buying
§ CIA director
· Allen Dulles
o Between 1960 and 1962
§ Defense appropriations increased by nearly a third
· $43 billion to $56 billion
§ Expansion of Eisenhower’s policy of covert operations, deploying the army’s elite Special Forces as a supplement to CIA covert operations in counterinsurgency battles against third world guerrillas
§ President wanted greater flexibility, secrecy, and independence in the conduct of foreign policy
o Limits on the ability of covert action
§ Became apparent in Southeast Asia
§ Laos
· The US had ignored the 1954 Geneva agreement and installed a friendly military regime, the CIA-backed government could not defeat Soviet-backed Pathet Lao guerillas
· The president arranged with the Soviets to neutralize Laos
§ Vietnam
· Communist Vietcong guerrillas launched a civil war in South Vietnam against Saigon, Kennedy sent reinforcements to support the rule of Ngo Dinh Diem
· Kennedy’s approach reflected an analysis of the situation in that country by two aides, General Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow
o “The Communists are pursuing a clear and systematic strategy in Southeast Asia
· BY 1963, Diem’s army was un able to contain the Vietcong rebellion even with 16,000 support and combat troops in South Vietnam
· Many South Vietnamese even hated Diem, including highly respected Buddhist monks and their students
o News reports showed footage of Buddhists burning themselves to death on the streets of Saigon – the ultimate protest against Diem’s repressive rule
o Also showed the mounting casualty lists of U.S. forces in Vietnam
· Fall 1963
o President Diem was killed
§ Latin America
· Kennedy looked for ways to forestall various revolutionary movements that were gaining ground
o Millions of peasants were forced to relocate to already crowded cities
· Alliance for Progress
o A ten-year, $100 billion plan to spur economic development in Latin America
o The US committed $20 billion to the project with the Latin nations responsible for the rest
o Main goals
§ Greater industrial growth and agricultural productivity
§ More equitable distribution of income
§ Improved health and housing
o Intended to be similar to the Marshall Plan that would benefit the poor and middle classes of the continent
§ Helped raise growth rates in Latin American economies
§ Did little to aid the poor or encourage democracy
§ Eventually degenerated into just another foreign aid program, incapable of generating genuine social change
· The Cuban Revolution and The Bay of Pigs
o The direct impetus for the Alliance for Progress was the Cuban Revolution of 1959, which loomed over Latin America
§ The U.S. economic domination of Cuba that began with the Spanish-America War had continued through the 1950s
· All of the oil production
· 90% of its mines
· Half of its railroads and sugar and cattle industries
· Havana, the island’s capital, was an attractive tourist center for Americans
§ Early 1950s
· A peasant based revolutionary movement, led by Fidel Castro, begain gaining strength in the rural districts and mountains outside Havana
§ New Year’s Day 1959
· After years of guerilla war, the rebels entered Havana and seized power amid great public rejoicing
· Castro seemed a hero to many North Americans as well
· However, Castro’s land-reform program, involving the seizure of acreage from the tiny minority that controlled much of the fertile land, threatened to set an example for other Latin American countries
· Castro had not joined the Cuban Communist Party, but he turned to the Soviet Union after the US withdrew economic aid
o Began to sell sugar to the Soviets
o Nationalized American-owned oil companies and other enterprises
o Eisenhower established an economic boycott of Cuba in 1960, then severed diplomatic relations
§ Plans to invade Cuba
· The secret arming and training of Cuban exiles
· Based on the assumption that a U.S.-led invasion would trigger a popular uprising of the Cuban people and bring down Castro
· Kennedy went along with the plan, but did not supply an Air Force cover for the operation
· April 17, 1961
o A ragtag army of 1,400 counterrevolutionaries led by CIA operatives landed at the Bay of Pigs
§ Sit in Cuba of an unsuccessful landing by fourteen hundred anti-Castro Cuban refugees in April 1961
o Castro’s efficient and loyal army easily subdued them
§ The debacle revealed that the CIA had fail to understand the Cuban Revolution
· No popular uprising against Castro
· The invasion strengthened Castro’s standing among the urban poor and peasants
o Attracted by his programs of universal literacy and medical care
· Castro stifled internal opposition
o Cuban intellectuals and professionals fled to the United States
· Kennedy reluctantly took the blame for the abortive invasion
o His administration was censured time and again by third world delegates to the United Nations
· American liberals criticized Kennedy for plotting Castro’s overthrow while conservatives blamed him for not supporting the invasion
· Despite the failure, Kennedy remained committed to getting rid of Castro and keeping up the economic boycott
· The CIA continued to support anti-Castro operations and launched at least eight attempts to assassinate the Cuban leader
· The Missile Crisis
o The aftermath of the Bay of Pigs led to the most serious confrontation of the war: the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962
o Cuban missile crisis
§ Crisis between the Soviet Union and the United States over the placement of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba
o Frightened by U.S. belligerency, Castro asked Soviet Union for help
§ Khrushchev
§ Shipped Cuba a large amount of sophisticated weaponry
· Intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
§ Early October, U.S. recon planes found camouflaged missile silos dotting the island
§ Aides demanded an immediate bombing of Cuban bases
§ Kennedy’s aggressive attempts to exploit Cuba in the 1960 election now came back to haunt him
· Critics would accuse him of weakness in failing to stand up to the Soviets
§ Kennedy went on national tv on October 22
· Announced
o Discovery of the missile sites
o Demanded the removal of all missiles
o Ordered a strict naval blockade of all offensive military equipment shipped to Cuba
o Requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and promised than any missiles launched from Cuba would bring a “full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union”
§ October 26/27
· Khrushchev yielded, ordering 25 Soviet ships off their course to Cuba
§ US and Soviet Union made a deal
· Removal of missiles in return for a pledge from the US not to invade Cuba
· Removal of American weapons from Turkey, as close to the USSR as Cuba is to the US
§ November 20
· Public announcement
o The withdrawal of Soviet missiles
o Respect Cuban sovereignty
o The crisis had passed
§ The Soviets began the largest weapons buildup in their history
§ Kennedy made gestures toward peaceful coexistence with the Soviets
§ Both sides had been “caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counter weapons”
o Washington and Moscow set up a “hot line”
§ Direct phone connection to permit instant communication during times of crisis
o Limited Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
§ August 1963
§ US, USSR, Great Britain
§ Prohibited aboveground, outer space, and underwater nuclear weapons tests
§ Eased international anxieties over radioactive fallout
§ Underground testing continued to accelerate for years
§ More symbolic than substantive (psychological breakthrough)
· The Assassination of President Kennedy
o Assassination
§ The assassination of JFK in Dallas on November 22, 1963 sent the entire nation into shock and mourning
§ Kennedy ascended to martyrdom
§ Millions had identified his strengths as those of American society
· Intelligence
· Optimism
· Wit
· Charm
· Coolness under fire
§ Kennedy placed television at the center of American political life
· Tv riveted a badly chocked nation
§ Lee Harvey Oswald
· Accused killer
· Obscure political misfit
· He was assassinated as well
§ Although a special commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren found the killing to be the work of Oswald acting along, many Americans doubted this conclusion
§ Kennedy’s death led to a lot of non-provable conspiracy theories
o We will never know what Kennedy might have achieved in a second term
§ When he was alive he demonstrated a capacity to change and grow in office
· Launched new initiatives toward peaceful coexistence
· At the time of his death, US and USSR relations were the best since the end of WWII
Great Society:
· Progressive expansion
o Biggest since New Deal
· “war on poverty”
· OEO
o Network of federal programs to attack poverty and social issues faced by Americans
· Neighborhood youth corps
o Work for 2 million young people
o Low paying jobs, dead end
· Job corps
o Gives vocational training for people that need it
o Manufacturing, welding, etc.
o Some jobs are obsolete with new technologies coming out
· VISTA
o Volunteers in Service to America
o Domestic version of Peace Corps
o Community service
· Community Action Plan (CAP)
o Urban areas are experiencing plight
§ People are now leaving to go to suburbs
o Helps people in poor communities to mobilize
§ Give them a voice politically
· Medicare
o Established in 1965
o Healthcare for elderly
§ Social medicine
· Expanded social security benefits
· Look at page 1062
· ***spending on social welfare jumped***
o Departure from what other presidents were doing
§ From foreign to domestic
· Great Society only did a fraction of what it was meant to do
o Sometimes aid didn’t go to where it belonged
o Spent too much money & time on the war
1968:
· Vietnam war officially becomes unpopular
o Majority opposes it
· Tet offensive
o Lunar new year for Vietnamese
o Vietcong launch offensive to strike urban areas in South Vietnam
o US succeeded by…
§ We stopped it convincingly
o US failed by…
§ Civilian casualties are very high
§ US citizens are against it
§ No advances
§ Credibility gap is shattered
· Claimed that the war was pretty much over
· Media shows people in despair, fighting, etc
o US military asks Congress for more troops
§ They deny
· 1968 election
o LBJ starts running
§ Doesn’t do well in primaries
§ Decides not to run again
o Robert Kennedy
§ Appeared to be a strong candidate
§ Progressive
§ Attorney general
§ Against Vietcong
· Goes against LBJ
§ Assassinated
· Sirhan Sirhan
o Eugene McCarthy
§ Popular amongst youth
§ Anti-war
§ Once delegates saw that Robert Kennedy wasn’t there, LBJ gone…
· Huburt Humphrey
· Democratic party divided
Nixon Presidency:
· Southern strategy
o Democratic party split over Vietnam
§ LBJ takes blame
o Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964
§ “delivered South to Republicans for a very long time”
o Sunbelt communities
§ Modern agricultural techniques
§ Southern and Midwestern
o Richard Nixon doesn’t win the deep south
§ George Wallace wins in 5 states
· 13% of popular votes
o “just and honorable peace in Asia” –Nixon
§ Wins presidency
o Henry Kissinger
§ Part of the national security council
§ Wins Nobel Peace Prize
§ Advises Nixon that US needs to look strong
· Can’t afford a loss in Vietnam
o “stabilize Vietnam then leave”
§ Majority of Americans feel like it was a mistake to send troops to Vietnam
o Summer 1969
§ Nixon withdraws 60,000 troops
§ One final attempt to win the war
· Take it to Cambodia and Laos
o Cut off supply lines
· US doesn’t support this
o Protesting
o Senate outlaws use of military in Cambodia
§ Doesn’t pass in House of Representatives
§ Nixon can still put his plan into action
o Advance into Laos was a failure
§ Guerrilla tactics
§ Nixon pulls troops out
o Nixon sends Kissinger to start a treaty with Vietnam
§ Cease-fire
· South Vietnam doesn’t want to sign this
· March 1973
o US troops leave
o $150 billion
o Objective was a failure
· 1975
o North Vietnamese take over South Vietnam
· War crimes
o Murdering civilians
o Raping and beating civilians
o Happened more than once
· American soldiers take bad reputation with them when they come home
o “baby killers”
· Nixon & China
o Détente with China
o US sees China as a good trader
o Ease tensions between the USSR and US
o Pros:
§ Opens up an opportunity
§ Eases Cold War tensions
§ SALT
· Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
· US and USSR moving towards peace
o Cons:
§ Fighting Communism in Vietnam but keeping peace with Communism in China
§ Double dipping
§ Nationalist Government in Taiwan
· They rely on us
· US has less relations with them
· Watergate
o Nixon considered imperial president
o Uses wiretaps and CIA
o Pentagon Papers
§ “deceiving American public” about operations in Vietnam
o Nixon tries to bar Pentagon papers from getting to the NY times
§ They do anyway
o Age of dirty tricks
§ Readddd
o Committee to Reelect the President
· Stagflation
o High inflation in a stagnant economy
o Slowing of US economy
o Inflation: reduction of purchasing power of the dollar
§ Wages don’t increase but dollars are worth less in the marketplace
o Unemployment reached 9% by 1975
§ Greatest since the Great Depression
o GDP slows in growth by 25%
· OPEC and US Oil Consumption
o 1973: gasoline prices nearly doubled (40 to 70 cents)
o US uses 70% of all oil produced
o Have to move from US supply to other nation’s supplies
§ Dependent on other countries to get our oil and have our “American way of life”
o 1973:
§ US is importing 1/3 of its crude oil from Middle Eastern countries
§ OPEC forms
· Mainly Arabic oil producing nations
o Conflict with US ally of Israel
§ Embargo from OPEC
· Expand oil trade with Mexico
· Oil crisis!
§ Hyper-inflation because oil is an inelastic product
· Move to post industrial era
o Leads to stagflation
o Era where services are a bigger part of the economy
o Hallmark
§ Country begins to look towards foreign countries for goods
· Cheaper to import foreign goods than to make our own
o Impact on labor (AFL-CIO)
§ Against this move in our economy
§ “nation of hamburger stands”
§ Labor needs industry to organize
§ 1970-1982
· AFL-CIO loses almost 30% of its membership
· Industry is moving away from industrial jobs
o Moving towards a service-based economy
· Begins to gain members from teaching unions, other service unions
· Sunbelt Migration
o Sunbelt – southern and western states
o People leaving industrial areas
§ “rust-belt”
o Population doubles from 1940 to 1970 in sunbelt
§ Elderly begin to migrate to the South
§ Now have Medicare! Better retirement funds!
· Pensions and retirement packages
· Social security benefits
§ Baby boom is coming to an end
· READ ABOUT ENDANGERED ENVIRONMENT
· Fall of Saigon; 1975 (during Ford’s presidency)
o North Vietnamese makes Vietnam a Communist economy
o US did not meet their objective in the Vietnam War
o Saigon is renamed Ho Chi Minh City
· Carter and foreign diplomacy
o Doesn’t want CIA to do operations to overthrow government, etc.
o Egypt wants to take over the Sinai peninsula
§ Israel agrees to stop pushing into the peninsula
§ Demilitarization between the two sides
· Camp David Accord
o Two advisers for foreign policy – Zbigniew Brzezinski and Cyrus Vance
§ They both have differing opinions
· Carter wanted to decrease defense spending
o Federal debt goes through the roof
o US falling on productivity
§ Money being take for defense spending
· Let’s eliminate it!
o National Security Adviser
§ Brzezinski
· Cold warrior
o Animosity towards the USSR
o Secretary of State
§ Vance
· Wants détente
o More diplomacy and negotiations
o Détente
§ Renewed peace with China
§ “hopefully will correlate into lesser defense spending”
· Ease financial burden in the US
o SALT II
§ Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II
§ Signed in 1979
§ Senate refuses passage because USSR invades Afghanistan
· Didn’t want to sign a treaty with the USSR because they were “anti-containment”
o Hostage crisis
§ Iran government formally ruled by Shah Pahzavi
· Friendly to the US
§ Islamic fundamentalists overthrow him
§ US allows the Shah to come into the United States for medical treatment
· Nationalists in Iran are angered
o 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days in US Embassy
§ Brzezinski:
· We need to invade and take care of this
§ Vance:
· We need to enter into negotiations with Iran and get our Americans back
§ Carter listens to Brzezinski
· Bad idea!
· Mission is a disaster
· Nighttime helicopter mission
o Sandstorm that night and aircraft crash
o 8 Americans die and Iranians are outraged
o Camp David Accords signed in 1978
§ 13 day retreat
§ Leaders of Egypt and Israel met
· Mutual diplomatic relations
§ Not a long lasting peace
· Leader of Egypt is eventually assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists
o Carter platform was committed to human rights
§ Hard to achieve because of Brzezinski and Vance
o El Salvador/Nicaragua/Apartheid
§ US will support anyone who is pro-US and anti-Communist
o US gives missiles and backs an Islamic Fundamentalist group against the USSR in Afghanistan
§ Cold war isn’t over!
· Conservative Ascendency
o Historical causes
§ New Deal – 1970s
· Tax hikes to fund government programs
o Some programs benefited minorities
§ When minorities are making gains at typical “American’s” expense, problems occur
o Expanded social services for poor
§ Tax hikes, more money out of working man’s pocket
o Environmental protection
§ Spend a lot of money to conserve the environment
o Health care/planned parenthood
§ Great idea, but average Americans get upset!
§ Voting increases in conservative citizens
o Wedge issues
§ Affirmative action
· A policy designed to redress past discrimination against women and minority groups through measures to improve their economic and educational opportunities
o Taking place in education programs, work places, government contracts
· The New Right charged government at all levels of favoring minorities, the jobless, and criminals over the law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying majority
§ Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
· Stated that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex”
· New Right argued that the supporters of the ERA were “a bunch of bitter women seeking a constitutional cure for their personal problems”
o The felt it would cancel protective labor legislation
o Had a steady campaign against abortion as well
· Against more affirmative action
§ Homosexuality/Morality
· New Right: moral majority – advocated laws against homosexuality and pornography
§ Abortion/Roe v. Wade
· New right was against abortion
· “the beginning of life supersede a woman’s right to control her own body”
· Roe v. Wade
o Legalizes abortion
o Divided pregnancy into 3 trimesters
§ 1st – abortion is legal
§ 2nd – consult a doctor
§ 3rd – only can have a special circumstance
o Wasn’t voted for or enacted by legislatures
Here you will find AP US History notes for the National Experience, 8th edition textbook. These National Experience outlines will you study more effectively for your AP US History tests and exams.
Additional Information:
Chapter 1: Making Use of a New World
Exploration
The Rise of Kings and Commerce
Spices, dyes, textiles
Prince Henry (Azores), Diaz (Cape Good Hope), de Gama (rounded tip)
Columbus and the Spanish
The Europeans in North America
Tudor England and the New World
Henry VIII and the Reformation
The Results of Henry’s Break with Rome
Gilbert Finds a Use for North America
Raleigh and Roanoke
The Founding of Virginia
Jamestown
No gold, no Pacific, unkind to Indians, described as a tyrant
The Virginia Company’s Great Effort
1. Get land to those who paid the fare
2. Govern colonies under the same English laws
3. Give settlers a representative assembly for laws
4. Send craftsmen to diversify the economy
The Founding of New England
Puritanism
The Pilgrims
The Massachusetts Bay Colony
Puritan New England
Fish, corn, wheat, cattle lumber, ships
Propriety Ventures
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Chapter 2: The Pattern of Empire
Mercantilism
England’s Imperial Delay
The Navigation Acts
Sugar, cotton, dyes, tobacco
Rice, naval stores, furs, coppers, Wool Act, Hat Act, Iron Act
The Dutch
Best traders, pirates, controlled lumber, fish, textiles, etc.
The Restoration Colonies
New York
Woulter van Twiller, Wilhelm Kieft, Peter Stuyvesant
Richard Nicolls, Francis Lovelace, Edmund Andros, Thomas Dongan
New Jersey
The Carolinas
John and William (Gov. of VA) Berkeley, Carteret, Cooper (Earl of Shaftesbury), Duke of Albemarle and Earls of Craven and Clarendon
William Penn’s Holy Experiment
James Naylor, who thought he was Christ
Problems of Enforcement
Recalcitrant Colonists
The Dominion of New England
Rose taxes, denied rights, declared all landownership to be null
The Revolution of 1688
The Reorganization of 1696
Lords of Trade given wider duties, William preventing war with France
Maryland, NJ, the Carolinas, and Massachusetts with Plymouth and Maine
The Old Colonial System
Juried/admiralty courts, customs officials, royal governors
The Contest for the Continent
Indian Warfare
Rivalry with France and Spain
Radisson and Chouart found Hudson’s Bay Company for England
Nova Scotia, St. Lawrence River, Louisiana
War of the League of Augsburg, War of the Spanish Succession
The Founding of Georgia
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Chapter 3: The First American Way of Life
1. Tobacco, rice, fur, fish; 2. The Navigation Acts
Patterns of Existence
Southern plantation, New England town, individual farm, city
The Plantation
VA/MD: tobacco; SC: rice/indigo; West Indies: sugar
No rights, harsh punishments, unarmed, revealed by race
Had alone time, gardens for food and free time after finishing tasks
Tobacco plantations with maximum 100 slaves, rice with 30
White or black artisans, carpenters, blacksmiths, tailor, cobbler
The New England Town
Boroughs, villages and parishes
Took care of church, poor, children, taxes and was sometimes a jury
The Farm
Plot would be cleared, planted until infertile, abandoned while the farmers moved on, and would eventually reforest
School, hospital, church
The City
The Emerging American Mind
Responsible Representative Government
Clergy and Laity
The Great Awakening
Education
The Enlightenment
Life, liberty, property
Mather and Boylston inoculated against smallpox, Rittenhouse replicated solar system
Social Structure
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These American Pageant 13th edition notes are intended to provide you with a general understanding of the themes that are covered in the chapter. These can be helpful when writing US History essays and DBQs.
The over-arching theme of chapter 1 is the Old World meeting and clashing with the New World.
The over-arching theme of chapter 2 is that the English colonies quickly gained a foothold and grew along the Atlantic coast of America.
The over-arching theme of chapter 3 is that the northern colonies were started out of religious fervor and they largely grew out of religious fervor.
The over-arching theme of chapter 4 is that the American colonies quickly became unique as compared to any other land. And, that each region quickly assumed its own personality.
The over-arching theme of chapter 5 is that the American colonies quickly became unique from any other country. Although the people came from established nations, they blended into “Americans.”
The over-arching theme of chapter 6 is that England defeated France to gain control over North America.
The over-arching theme of chapter 7 is how England repeatedly forced its laws and regulations down the unappreciative Americans’ throats; and eventually led to bloodshed.
The over-arching theme of chapter 8 is that America drew out the American Revolution, and in doing so, won.
The Treaty of Paris 1763 legitimized the new nation.
The over-arching theme of chapter 9 is that the new nation started out of fear of a strong government. And then, out of necessity, strengthened the government.
The over-arching theme of chapter 10 is that President Washington, and especially Secretary of State
The over-arching theme of chapter 11 is that although Jefferson floundered a bit with foreign affairs, the fantastic Louisiana Purchase seemed to make up for everything.
The over-arching theme of chapter 12 is how the young U.S. proved itself to the rest of the world. The U.S. did this by “sticking up” for herself against Britain in the War of 1812. This caused American patriotism to surge.
The over-arching theme of chapter 13 is that through Andrew Jackson, political power fell to the people more than any other time in history.
The over-arching theme of chapter 14 is that American began to “grow up” economically in the early 1800s.
The over-arching theme of chapter 15 is that Americans began to recognize problems and began attempts to clean them up. The major areas were religion, temperance (no alcohol), women's rights, and equality.
The over-arching theme of chapter 16 is that antebellum (pre-Civil War) society in the South was built on slave labor.
The over-arching theme of chapter 17 is that the United States chose to pursue a national policy of expansion called “Manifest Destiny.” The U.S. chose to expand it’s borders, and then did it.
The over-arching theme of chapter 18 is that the nation again fell into sectional dispute over slavery and states’ rights.
The over-arching theme of chapter 19 is that compromise had prevailed earlier over the slavery issue, but this time, it failed.
The over-arching theme of chapter 20 is that both sides prepared for war. The North relied on numbers to their advantage, the South hoped for England to intervene on their side, and the border states were in the balance.
Both sides turned to a draft, the nation’s first. The draft was very unpopular and many riots broke out.
The over-arching theme of chapter 21 is that the North wore down and then forced the South to surrender.
The over-arching theme of chapter 22 is that the South was placed under strict watch for years after the Civil War. Southern blacks saw some brief improvements, until the U.S. pulled back up North and left Southern blacks “hanging out to dry.”
The over-arching theme of chapter 23 is that the Republicans and Democrats fell into an era of do-little politics. Each was concerned only with getting their party reelected.
The over-arching theme of chapter 24 is that America’s economy turns from agricultural and handiwork to industrial and machine work.
The over-arching theme of chapter 25 is that in the late 1800s, the Industrial Revolution forced the American city to gain dominance over rural America.
The over-arching theme of chapter 26 is the West was opened up for settlement. This meant the Native Americans were forced out for farmers, miners, and ranchers.
The over-arching theme of chapter 27 is that America took over new lands, mostly in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The over-arching theme of chapter 28 is that reformers called “Progressives” sought to clean up America on behalf of the people. Teddy Roosevelt became the best-known and most active Progressive.
The over-arching theme of chapter 29 is that Woodrow Wilson was an idealist (he had high principles and would not bend them for practical purposes).
The over-arching theme of chapter 30 is that America reluctantly joined WWI, she then threw herself into the war effort with full force.
The over-arching theme of chapter 31 is that America clipped along through the 20s at a fast pace and ran through many cultural changes.
The over-arching theme of chapter 32 is that 20s politics were a time of corruption and business running wild, kind of a throwback to late 1800s.
The over-arching theme of chapter 33 is that FDR led the federal government into his massive New Deal programs. The goal was to re-invigorate the U.S. economy and jolt it right up out of the Great Depression.
The over-arching theme of chapter 34 is that dictatorships overseas forced FDR to stray from American issues and look outside of the U.S. FDR wanted peace, but events slowly drew the U.S. closer and then into WWII.
The over-arching theme of chapter 35 is the U.S. fought a two-front war: in Europe and in the Pacific. To win, America mobilized its massive resources of people and materials, then steadily fought to overwhelm the enemy.
The over-arching theme of chapter 36 is that post-war America found a new prosperity economically and a new enemy in communist Russia. Opposition to communism would dominate foreign policy for over 40 years.
The over-arching theme of chapter 37 is how 1950s America entered a period of conformity where middle-class America largely shared the same ideals and to do differently was a major no-no.
The over-arching theme of chapter 38 is that the 1960s were a decade of upheaval. Abroad, the Vietnam War drug throughout the decade; at home, cultural changes were staggering.
The over-arching theme of chapter 39 was that America’s post-war economic prosperity began to take a sharp slide downward.
The over-arching theme of chapter 40 is that Ronald Reagan returned America to more traditional policies and values.
The over-arching themes of chapter 41 is that Bill Clinton and the federal government largely bumbled through eight years of presidency yet enjoyed a robust economy. And George W. Bush took the “War on Terror” overseas to Afghanistan and Iraq.
The over-arching theme of chapter 42 is that America faces new challenges in the future.
Key vocabulary terms for the corresponding chapter in the American Pageant, 11th Edition textbook.
Aztecs
The Azetcs were a Native American Empire who lived in Mexico. Their capital was Tenochtitlan. They worshipped everything around them especially the sun. Cortes conquered them in 1521.
Pueblo Indians
The Pueblo Indians lived in the Southwestern United States. They built extensive irrigation systems to water their primary crop, which was corn. Their houses were multi-storied buildings made of adobe.
Joint Stock Companies
These were developed to gather the savings from the middle class to support finance colonies. Ex. London Company and Plymouth Company.
Spanish Armada
"Invincible" group of ships sent by King Philip II of Spain to invade England in 1588; Armada was defeated by smaller, more maneuverable English "sea dogs" in the Channel; marked the beginning of English naval dominance and fall of Spanish dominance.
black legend
The idea developed during North American colonial times that the Spanish utterly destroyed the Indians through slavery and disease while the English did not. It is a false assertion that the Spanish were more evil towards the Native Americans than the English were.
Conquistadores
Spanish explorers that invaded Central and South America for it's riches during the 1500's. In doing so they conquered the Incas, Aztecs, and other Native Americans of the area. Eventually they intermarried these tribes.
Renaissance
After the Middle Ages there was a rebirth of culture in Europe where art and science were developed. It was during this time of enrichment that America was discovered.
Canadian Shield
geological shape of North America; 10 million years ago; held the northeast corner of North America in place; the first part of North America to come above sea level.
Mound Builders
The mound builders of the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippian culture of the lower Midwest did sustain some large settlements after the incorporation of corn planting into their way of life during the first millennium AD. The Mississippian settlement at Cohokia, near present-day East St. Louis, Ill., was perhaps home to 40,000 people in about AD 1100. But mysteriously, around the year 1300, both the Mound Builder and the Mississippian cultures had fallen to decline.
Montezuma
Aztec chieftan; encountered Cortes and the Spanish and saw that they rode horses; Montezuma assumed that the Soanush were gods. He welcomed them hospitably, but the explorers soon turned on the natives and ruled them for three centuries.
Christopher Columbus
An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish Government to find a passage to the Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to India. He made four voyages to the "New World." The first sighting of land was on October 12, 1492, and three other journies until the time of his death in 1503.
Hernan Cortes
He was a Spanish explorer who conquered the Native American civilization of the Aztecs in 1519 in what is now Mexico.
Francisco Coronado
A Spanish soldier and commander; in 1540, he led an expedition north from Mexico into Arizona; he was searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold, but only found Adobe pueblos.
Treaty of Tordesillas
In 1494 Spain and Portugal were disputing the lands of the new world, so the Spanish went to the Pope, and he divided the land of South America for them. Spain got the vast majority, the west, and Portugal got the east.
Mestizos
The Mestizos were the race of people created when the Spanish intermarried with the surviving Indians in Mexico.
Marco Polo
Italian explorer; spent many years in China or near it; his return to Europe in 1295 sparked a European interest in finding a quicker route to Asia.
Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro -- New World conqueror; Spanish conqueror who crushed the Inca civilization in Peru; took gold, silver and enslaved the Incas in 1532.
Juan Ponce de Leon
Spanish Explorer; in 1513 and in 1521, he explored Florida, thinking it was an island. Looking for gold and the "fountain of youth", he failed in his search for the fountain of youth but established Florida as territory for the Spanish, before being killed by a Native American arrow.
Hernando de Soto
Spanish Conquistador; explored in 1540's from Florida west to the Mississippi with six hundred men in search of gold; discovered the Mississippi, a vital North American river.
Virginia Company
A joint-stock company: based in Virginia in 1607: founded to find gold and a water way to the Indies: confirmed all Englishmen that they would have the same life in the New World, as they had in England, with the same rights: 3 of their ships transported the people that would found Jamestown in 1607.
Iroquois Confederacy
The Iroquois Confederacy was nearly a military power consisting of Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Senecas.IT was founded in the late 1500s.The leaders were Degana Widah and Hiawatha. The Indians lived in log houses with relatives. Men dominated, but a person's background was determined by the women's family. Different groups banded together but were separate fur traders and fur suppliers. Other groups joined; they would ally with either the French or the English depending on which would be the most to their advantage.
Squatter
A person who settles on land without title or right: Early settlers in North Carolina became squatters when they put their small farms on the new land. They raised tobacco on the land that they claimed, and tobacco later became a major cash crop for North Carolina.
Primogeniture
A system of inheritance in which the eldest son in a family received all of his father's land. The nobility remained powerful and owned land, while the 2nd and 3rd sons were forced to seek fortune elsewhere. Many of them turned to the New World for their financial purposes and individual wealth.
Indentured Servitude
Indentured servants were Englishmen who were outcasts of their country, would work in the Americas for a certain amount of time as servants.
starving time
The winter of 1609 to 1610 was known as the "starving time" to the colonists of Virginia. Only sixty members of the original four-hundred colonists survived. The rest died of starvation because they did not possess the skills that were necessary to obtain food in the new world.
Act of Toleration
A legal document that allowed all Christian religions in Maryland: Protestants invaded the Catholics in 1649 around Maryland: protected the Catholics religion from Protestant rage of sharing the land: Maryland became the #1 colony to shelter Catholics in the New World.
Royal Charter
A document given to the founders of a colony by the monarch that allows for special privileges and establishes a general relationship of one of three types: (1) Royal- direct rule of colony by monarch, (2) Corporate- Colony is run by a joint-stock company, (3) Proprietary- colony is under rule of someone chosen by the monarch. Royal Charters guaranteed that colonists would have "rights as all Englishmen".
Slave Codes
In 1661 a set of "codes" was made. It denied slaves basic fundamental rights, and gave their owners permission to treat them as they saw fit.
Yeoman
An owner and cultivator of a small farm.
Proprietor
a person who was granted charters of ownership by the king: proprietary colonies were Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware: proprietors founded colonies from 1634 until 1681:a famous proprietor is William Penn.
Longhouse
The chief dwelling place of the Iroquois Indians; c. 1500s-1600s; longhouses served as a meeting place as well as the homes for many of the Native Americans. They also provided unity between tribes of Iroquois Confederacy.
Slavery
the process of buying people (generally Africans) who come under the complete authority of their owners for life, and intended to be worked heavily; became prominent in Colonial times around the mid to late 1600's ( but also to a lesser degree, concerning natives during the early 1500's) because of the labor intensive nature of the crops being grown, and the desire for a profit; mainly used on southern plantations, but also a little bit in the north; brought Africans to America, who have now become an integral part of our culture.
Enclosure
caused by the desire of land-owning lords to raise sheep instead of crops, lowering the needed workforce and unemploying thousands of poor former-farmers; the lords fenced off the their great quantities of land from the mid to late 1500's forcing many farmers out and into the cities, leading many of them to hire themselves as indentured servants for payment of passage into the New World, and therefore supporting many of the needs of the labor-thirsty plantation owners of the New World.
House of Burgeses
The House of Burgeses was the first representative assembly in the New World. The London Company authorized the settlers to summon an assembly, known as the House of Burgeses. A momentous precedent was thus feebly established, for this assemblage was the first of many miniature parliaments to sprout form the soil of America.
James Oglethorpe
founder of Georgia in 1733; soldier, statesman , philanthropist. Started Georgia as a haven for people in debt because of his interest in prison reform. Almost single-handedly kept Georgia afloat.
John Smith
John Smith took over the leadership role of the English Jamestown settlement in 1608. Most people in the settlement at the time were only there for personal gain and did not want to help strengthen the settlement. Smith therefore told the people, "people who do not work do not eat." His leadership saved the Jamestown settlement from collapsing.
nation-state
A unified country under a ruler which share common goals and pride in a nation. The rise of the nation-state began after England's defeat of the Spanish Armada. This event sparked nationalistic goals in exploration which were not thought possible with the commanding influence of the Spanish who may have crushed their chances of building new colonies.
Powhatan
Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy and father to Pocahontas. At the time of the English settlement of Jamestown in 1607, he was a friend to John Smith and John Rolfe. When Smith was captured by Indians, Powhatan left Smith's fate in the hands of his warriors. His daughter saved John Smith, and the Jamestown colony. Pocahontas and John Rolfe were wed, and there was a time of peace between the Indians and English until Powhatan's death.
John Rolfe
Rolfe was an Englishman who became a colonist in the early settlement of Virginia. He is best known as the man who married the Native American, Pocahontas and took her to his homeland of England. Rolfe was also the savior of the Virginia colony by perfecting the tobacco industry in North America. Rolfe died in 1622, during one of many Indian attacks on the colony.
Lord Baltimore - 1694
He was the founder of Maryland, a colony which offered religious freedom, and a refuge for the persecuted Roman Catholics.
Raleigh, Sir Walter
An English adventurer and writer, who was prominent at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and became an explorer of the Americas. In 1585, Raleigh sponsored the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. It failed and is known as " The Lost Colony."
Oliver Cromwell
Englishman; led the army to overthrow King Charles I and was successful in 1646. Cromwell ruled England in an almost democratic style until his death. His uprising drew English attention away from Jamestown and the other American colonies.
Lord De la War
An Englishman who came to America in 1610. He brought the Indians in the Jamestown area a declaration of war from the Virginia Company. This began the four year Anglo-Powhatan War. De la War brought in "Irish tactics" to use in battle with the Indians.
Pocahontas
A native Indian of America, daughter of Chief Powahatan, who was one of the first to marry an Englishman, John Rolfe, and return to England with him; about 1595-1617; Pocahontas' brave actions in saving an Englishman paved the way for many positive English and Native relations.
Fundamental Orders
In 1639 the Connecticut River colony settlers had an open meeting and they established a constitution called the Fundamental Orders. It made a Democratic government. It was the first constitution in the colonies and was a beginning for the other states' charters and constitutions.
Protestant ethic
mid 1600's; a commitment made by the Puritans in which they seriously dwelled on working and pursuing worldly affairs.
Mayflower Compact - 1620
A contract made by the voyagers on the Mayflower agreeing that they would form a simple government where majority ruled.
Navigation Laws
In the 1660's England restricted the colonies; They couldn't trade with other countries. The colonies were only allowed to trade with England.
The Puritans
They were a group of religious reformists who wanted to "purify" the Anglican Church. Their ideas started with John Calvin in the 16th century and they first began to leave England in 1608. Later voyages came in 1620 with the Pilgrims and in 1629, which was the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
General Court
a Puritan representative assembly elected by the freemen; they assisted the governor; this was the early form of Puritan democracy in the 1600's
Separatists
Pilgrims that started out in Holland in the 1620's who traveled over the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower. These were the purest, most extreme Pilgrims existing, claiming that they were too strong to be discouraged by minor problems as others were.
Quakers
Members of the Religious Society of Friends; most know them as the Quakers. They believe in equality of all peoples and resist the military. They also believe that the religious authority is the decision of the individual (no outside influence.) Settled in Pennsylvania.
Pilgrims
Separatists; worried by "Dutchification" of their children they left Holland on the Mayflower in 1620; they landed in Massachusetts; they proved that people could live in the new world
New England Confederation
New England Confederation was a Union of four colonies consisting of the two Massachusetts colonies (The Bay colony and Plymouth colony) and the two Connecticut colonies (New Haven and scattered valley settlements) in 1643. The purpose of the confederation was to defend against enemies such as the Indians, French, Dutch, and prevent intercolonial problems that effected all four colonies.
Calvinism
Set of beliefs that the Puritans followed. In the 1500's John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism, preached virtues of simple worship, strict morals, pre-destination and hard work. This resulted in Calvinist followers wanting to practice religion, and it brought about wars between Huguenots (French Calvinists) and Catholics, that tore the French kingdom apart.
Massachusetts Bay Colony
One of the first settlements in New England; established in 1630 and became a major Puritan colony. Became the state of Massachusetts, originally where Boston is located. It was a major trading center, and absorbed the Plymouth community
Dominion of New England
In 1686, New England, in conjunction with New York and New Jersey, consolidated under the royal authority -- James II. Charters and self rule were revoked, and the king enforced mercantile laws. The new setup also made for more efficient administration of English Navigation Laws, as well as a better defense system. The Dominion ended in 1688 when James II was removed from the throne.
Freemen
colonial period; term used to describe indentured servants who had finished their terms of indenture and could live freely on their own land.
visible saints
A religious belief developed by John Calvin held that a certain number of people were predestined to go to heaven by God. This belief in the elect, or "visible saints," figured a major part in the doctrine of the Puritans who settled in New England during the 1600's.
covenant
A binding agreement made by the Puritans whose doctrine said the whole purpose of the government was to enforce God's laws. This applied to believers and non-believers.
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Revolution was a religious revolution, during the 16th century. It ended the supremacy of the Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant Churches. Martin Luther and John Calvin were influential in the Protestant Revolution.
Predestination
Primary idea behind Calvinism; states that salvation or damnation are foreordained and unalterable; first put forth by John Calvin in 1531; was the core belief of the Puritans who settled New England in the seventeenth century.
King Philip II
He was king of Spain during 1588. During this year he sent out his Spanish Armada against England. He lost the invasion of England. Philip II was also the leader against the Protestant Reformation.
John Cotton
John Cotton, a puritan who was a fiery early clergy educated at Cambridge University, emigrated to Massachusetts to avoid persecution by the church of England. He defended the government's duty to enforce religious rules. He preached and prayed up to six hours in a single day.
Sir Edmond Andros
Head of the Dominion of New England in 1686, militaristic, disliked by the colonists because of his affiliation with the Church of England, changed many colonial laws and traditions without the consent of the representatives, tried to flee America after England's Glorious Revolution, but was caught and shipped to England
The "elect"
John Calvin and the Puritans souls who have been destined for eternal bliss or eternal torment; since the beginning of time ; it was discussed by John Calvin in "Institutes of the Christian Religion"
Patroonship
Patroonship was vast Dutch feudal estates fronting the Hudson River in the early 1600's. They were granted to promoters who agreed to settle fifty people on them.
Henry Hudson
Discovered what today is known as the Hudson River. Sailed for the Dutch even though he was originally from England. He was looking for a northwest passage through North America.
William Bradford
A pilgrim that lived in a north colony called Plymouth Rock in 1620. He was chosen governor 30 times. He also conducted experiments of living in the wilderness and wrote about them; well known for "Of Plymouth Plantation."
Peter Stuyvesant
A Dutch General; He led a small military expedition in 1664. He was known as "Father Wooden Leg". Lost the New Netherlands to the English. He was governor of New Netherlands
Thomas Hooker
1635; a Boston Puritan, brought a group of fellow Boston Puritans to newly founded Hartford, Connecticut.
William Penn
English Quaker;" Holy Experiment"; persecuted because he was a Quaker; 1681 he got a grant to go over to the New World; area was Pennsylvania; "first American advertising man"; freedom of worship there
John Winthrop
John Winthrop immigrated from the Mass. Bay Colony in the 1630's to become the first governor and to led a religious experiment. He once said, "we shall be a city on a hill."
John Calvin
John Calvin was responsible for founding Calvinism, which was reformed Catholicism. He writes about it in "Institutes of a Christian Religion" published in 1536. He believed God was all knowing and everyone was predestined for heaven or hell.
Anne Hutchinson
A religious dissenter whose ideas provoked an intense religious and political crisis in the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1636 and 1638. She challenged the principles of Massachusetts's religious and political system. Her ideas became known as the heresy of Antinomianism, a belief that Christians are not bound by moral law. She was latter expelled, with her family and followers, and went and settled at Pocasset ( now Portsmouth, R.I.)
Jeremiads
In the 1600's, Puritan preachers noticed a decline in the religious devotion of second-generation settlers. To combat this decreasing piety, they preached a type of sermon called the jeremiad. The jeremiads focused on the teachings of Jeremiah, a Biblical prophet who warned of doom.
Middle Passage
middle segment of the forced journey that slaves made from Africa to America throughout the 1600's; it consisted of the dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean; many slaves perished on this segment of the journey.
BACON'S REBELLION
In 1676, Bacon, a young planter led a rebellion against people who were friendly to the Indians. In the process he torched Jamestown, Virginia and was murdered by Indians.
LEISLER'S REBELLION - 1689-1691
an ill- starred bloody insurgency in New York City took place between landholders and merchants.
Halfway Covenant
A Puritan church document; In 1662, the Halfway Covenant allowed partial membership rights to persons not yet converted into the Puritan church; It lessened the difference between the "elect" members of the church from the regular members; Women soon made up a larger portion of Puritan congregations.
William Berkeley
He was a British colonial governor of Virginia from 1642-52. He showed that he had favorites in his second term which led to the Bacon's rebellion in 1676 ,which he ruthlessly suppressed. He had poor frontier defense.
Headright system
way to attract immigrants; gave 50 acres of land to anyone who paid their way and/or any plantation owner that paid an immigrants way; mainly a system in the southern colonies.
Regulator Movement
It was a movement during the 1760's by western North Carolinians, mainly Scots-Irish, that resented the way that the Eastern part of the state dominated political affairs. They believed that the tax money was being unevenly distributed. Many of its members joined the American Revolutionists.
Old and New Lights
In the early 1700's, old lights were simply orthodox members of the clergy who believed that the new ways of revivals and emotional preaching were unnecessary. New lights were the more modern- thinking members of the clergy who strongly believed in the Great Awakening. These conflicting opinions changed certain denominations, helped popularize missionary work and assisted in the founding educational centers now known as Ivy League schools.
triangular trade
Triangular trade was a small, profitable trading route started by people in New England who would barter a product to get slaves in Africa, and then sell them to the West Indies in order to get the same cargo of goods that would help in repeating this process. This form of trading was used by New Englanders in conjunction with other countries in the 1750's.
Molasses Act
A British law passed in 1773 to change a trade pattern in the American colonies by taxing molasses imported into colonies not ruled by Britain. Americans responded to this attempt to damage their international trade by bribing and smuggling. Their protest of this and other laws led to revolution.
Scots-Irish
A group of restless people who fled their home in Scotland in the 1600s to escape poverty and religious oppression. They first relocated to Ireland and then to America in the 1700s. They left their mark on the backcountry of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. These areas are home to many Presbyterian churches established by the Scots-Irish. Many people in these areas are still very independent like their ancestors.
Paxton Boys
They were a group of Scots-Irish men living in the Appalachian hills that wanted protection from Indian attacks. They made an armed march on Philadelphia in 1764. They protested the lenient way that the Quakers treated the Indians. Their ideas started the Regulator Movement in North Carolina.
Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was a religious revival held in the 1730's and 1740's to motivate the colonial America. Motivational speakers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield helped to bring Americans together.
Catawba Nation
A group of the remains of several different Indian tribes that joined together in the late 1700's. The Catawba Nation was in the Southern Piedmont region. Forced migration made the Indians join in this group.
Phillis Wheatley
Born around 1753, Wheatley was a slave girl who became a poet. At age eight, she was brought to Boston. Although she had no formal education, Wheatley was taken to England at age twenty and published a book of poetry. Wheatley died in 1784.
John S. Copley - 1738-1815
a famous Revolutionary era painter, Copley had to travel to England to finish his study of the arts. Only in the Old World could Copley find subjects with the leisure time required to be painted, and the money needed to pay him for it. Although he was an American citizen, he was loyal to England during The Revolution.
Edwards, Johnathan
Johnathan Edwards, an American theologian and Congregational clergyman, whose sermons stirred the religious revival, called the Great Awakening. He is known for his " Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God " sermon.
Benjamin Franklin
He was born January 17, 1706 in Boston Massachusetts. Franklin taught himself math, history, science, English, and five other languages. He owned a successful printing and publishing company in Philadelphia. He conducted studies of electricity, invented bifocal glasses, the lighting rod, and the stove. He was a important diplomat and statesman and eventually signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
Michel-Guillaume de Crevecour
French settler on America in the 1770's; he posed the question of what "American" is after seeing people in America like he had never seen before. American really became a mixture of many nationalities.
George Whitefield
Whitefield came into the picture in 1738 during the Great Awakening, which was a religious revival that spread through all of the colonies. He was a great preacher who had recently been an alehouse attendant. Everyone in the colonies loved to hear him preach of love and forgiveness because he had a different style of preaching. This led to new missionary work in the Americas in converting Indians and Africans to Christianity, as well as lessening the importance of the old clergy.
Huguenots
The Huguenots were a groups of French Protestants that lived from about 1560 to 1629. Protestantism was introduced into France between 1520 and 1523, and the principles were accepted by many members of the nobility, the intellectual classes, and the middle class. At first the new religious group was royally protected, but toward the end of the reign of King Francis I they were persecuted. Nevertheless, they continued to grow.
French and Indian War
Was a war fought by French and English on American soil over control of the Ohio River Valley-- English defeated French in1763. Historical Significance: established England as number one world power and began to gradually change attitudes of the colonists toward England for the worse.
Albany Congress
A conference in the United States Colonial history form June 19 through July 11, 1754 in Albany New York. It advocated a union of the British colonies for their security and defense against French Held by the British Board of Trade to help cement the loyalty of the Iroquois League. After receiving presents, provisions and promises of Redress of grievances. 150 representatives if tribes withdrew without committing themselves to the British cause.
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was an English law enacted after gaining territory from the French at the end of the French and Indian War. It forbade the colonists from settling beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The Colonists were no longer proud to be British citizens after the enactment. The Proclamation of 1763 caused the first major revolt against the British.
William Pitt
William Pitt was a British leader from 1757-1758. He was a leader in the London government, and earned himself the name, "Organizer of Victory". He led and won a war against Quebec. Pittsburgh was named after him.
Robert de La Salle
Robert de La Salle was responsible for naming Louisiana. He was the first European to float down the Mississippi river to the tip from Canada and upon seeing the beautiful river valley named Louisiana after his king Louis XIV in 1682.
James Wolfe
Wolfe was the British general whose success in the Battle of Quebec won Canada for the British Empire. Even though the battle was only fifteen minutes, Wolfe was killed in the line of duty. This was a decisive battle in the French and Indian War.
Edward Braddock
Edward Braddock was a British commander during the French and Indian War. He attempted to capture Fort Duquesne in 1755. He was defeated by the French and the Indians. At this battle, Braddock was mortally wounded.
Pontiac
Indian Chief; led post war flare-up in the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes Region in 1763; his actions led to the Proclamation of 1763; the Proclamation angered the colonists.
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer who sailed to the West Indies, Mexico, and Panama. He wrote many books telling of his trips to Mexico City and Niagara Falls. His greatest accomplishment was his exploration of the St. Lawrence River and his latter settlement of Quebec.
Stamp Act Congress
met in New York City with twenty-seven delegates from nine colonies in 1765; had little effect at the time but broke barriers and helped toward colonial unity; the act caused an uprising because there was no one to sell the stamps and the British did not understand why the Americans could not pay for their own defense; the act was repealed in 1766.
Intolerable Acts
The Acts passed in 1774, following the Boston Tea Party, that were considered unfair because they were designed to chastise Boston in particular, yet effected all the colonies by the Boston Port Act which closed Boston Harbor until damages were paid.
Continental
The name Continental is associated to two congresses. The first is in 1774 and the second is in 1775. They both take place in Philadelphia. the Continental Congress brought the leaders of the thirteen colonies together. This was the beginning of our national union.
Quartering Act
Law passed by Britain to force colonists to pay taxes to house and feed British soldiers. Passed in the same few years as the Navigation Laws of 1763, the Sugar Act of 1764, and the Stamp Act of 1765 Stirred up even more resentment for the British. The Legislature of New York was suspended in 1767 for failing to comply with the Quartering Act.
The Association
A document produced by the Continental Congress in 1775 that called for a complete boycott of British goods. This included non-importation, non-exportation and non-consumption. It was the closest approach to a written constitution yet from the colonies. It was hoped to bring back the days before Parliamentary taxation. Those who violated The Association in America were tarred and feathered.
Stamp Act
In 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act, requiring the colonists to pay for a stamp to go on many of the documents essential to their lives. These documents included deeds, mortgages, liquor licenses, playing cards, and almanacs. The colonists heartily objected to this direct tax and in protest petitioned the king, formed the Stamp Act Congress, and boycotted English imports. In 1766 Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, a major victory for colonists.
Committees of Correspondence
Samuel Adams started the first committee in Boston in 1772 to spread propaganda and secret information by way of letters. They were used to sustain opposition to British policy. The committees were extremely effective and a few years later almost every colony had one. This is another example of the colonies breaking away from Europe to become Americans.
Hessians
German soldiers hired by George III to smash Colonial rebellion, proved good in mechanical sense but they were more concerned about money than duty.
Loyalists
(Tories) Colonials loyal to the king during the American Revolution.
Navigation Acts
Between late 1600s and the early 1700s, the British passed a series of laws to put pressure on the colonists (mostly tax laws). These laws are known as the Navigation Acts. Example: 1651- All goods must be shipped in colonial or English ships, and all imports to colonies must be on colonial or English ships or the ships of the producer. 1660- incorporation of law of 1651. it also enumerated articles, such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton, can only be exported to England from the colonies. 1663- a.k.a. the staple act of 1663- all imports to the colonies must go through England.
Declaratory Act
In 1766, the English Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and at the same time signed the Declaratory Act. This document stated that Parliament had the right "to bind" the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." It is important in history because it stopped the violence and rebellions against the tax on stamps. Also, it restarted trade with England, which had temporarily stopped as a defiant reaction to the Stamp Act.
First Continental Congress
a convention and a consultative body that met for seven weeks, from September 5 to October 26, 1774, in Philadelphia; it was the American's response to the Intolerable Acts; considered ways of redressing colonial grievances; all colonies except Georgia sent 55 distinguished men in all; John Adams persuaded his colleagues toward revolution; they wrote a Declaration of Rights and appeals to British American colonies, the king, and British people; created the Association which called for a complete boycott of English goods; the Association was the closet thing to a written constitution until the
Sugar Act 1764
The Sugar Act was the first law ever passed by Parliament. The act was put in place for raising revenue in the colonies for the crown. It increased the duties on foreign sugar, mainly from the West Indies. After protests from the colonists, the duties were lowered.
Townshend Acts
In 1767 "Champagne Charley" Townshend persuaded Parliament to pass the Townshend Acts. These acts put a light import duty on such things as glass, lead, paper, and tea. The acts met slight protest from the colonists, who found ways around the taxes such as buying smuggled tea. Due to its minute profits, the Townshend Acts were repealed in 1770, except for the tax on tea. The tax on tea was kept to keep alive the principle of Parliamentary taxation.
"Virtual" representation
Theory that claimed that every member of Parliament represented all British subjects, even those Americans in Boston or Charleston who had never voted for a member of the London Parliament.
Boycott
To abstain from using, buying, or dealing with; happens all of the time everywhere all over the world; labor unions, consumer groups, countries boycott products to force a company or government to change its politics.
The Boards of Trade
An English legislative body, based in London, that was instituted for the governing and economic controlling of the American colonies. It lacked many powers, but kept the colonies functioning under the mercantile system while its influence lasted. The height of the Boards' power was in the late 1690's.
Sons of Liberty
An organization established in 1765, these members (usually in the middle or upper class) resisted the Stamp Act of 765. Even though the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, the Sons of Liberty combined with the Daughters of Liberty remained active in resistance movements.
Quebec Act
After the French and Indian War, the English had claim the Quebec Region, a French speaking colony. Because of the cultural difference, English had a dilemma on what to do with the region. The Quebec Act, passed in 1774, allow the French Colonist to go back freely to their own customs. The colonists have the right to have access to the Catholic religion freely. Also, it extended to Quebec Region north and south into the Ohio River Valley. This act created more tension between the colonists and the British which lead to the American Revolution.
Internal/External Taxation
Internal taxation taxed goods within the colonies and acted much like a sales tax. The Stamp Act of 1765 is an example of internal taxation. External taxation applied to imports into the colonies. The merchant importing the good paid the tax on it, much like the Sugar Act of 1764. Colonists were more accepting of external taxation and more opposed to internal taxation.
King George III
King George the third was the king of England in the 1770's.Though he was a good man he was not a good ruler. He lost all of the 13 American colonies and caused America to start to gain its freedom.
Baron Von Steuben
A stern, Prussian drillmaster that taught American soldiers during the Revolutionary War how to successfully fight the British.
Mercantilism
According to this doctrine, the colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country; they should add to its wealth, prosperity, and self-sufficiency. The settlers were regarded more or less as tenants. They were expected to produce tobacco and other products needed in England and not to bother their heads with dangerous experiments in agriculture or self-government.
No Taxation without Representation"
This is a theory of popular government that developed in England. This doctrine was used by the colonists to protest the Stamp Act of 1765. The colonists declared that they had no one representing them in Parliament, so Parliament had no right to tax them. England continued to tax the colonists causing them to deny Parliament's authority completely. Thus, the colonists began to consider their own political independence. This eventually led to revolutionary consequences.
Royal Veto
A royal veto was when legislation passed by the colonial assemblies conflicted with British regulations. It was then declared void by the Privy Council. It was resented by the colonists but was only used 469 times out of 8563 laws.
Lord North
1770's-1782 King George III's stout prime minister (governor during Boston Tea Party) in the 1770's. Lord North's rule fell in March of 1782, which therefore ended the rule of George III for a short while.
George Grenville
George Grenville was the British Prime Minister from 1763-1765. To obtain funds for Britain after the costly 7-Years War, in 1763 he ordered the Navy to enforce the unpopular Navigation Laws, and in 1764 he got Parliament to pass the Sugar Act, which increased duties on sugar imported from the West Indies. He also, in 1765, brought about the Quartering Act, which forced colonists to provide food and shelter to British soldiers, who many colonists believed were only present to keep the colonists in line.
Samuel Adams
Often called the "Penman of the Revolution" He was a Master propagandist and an engineer of rebellion. Though very weak and feeble in appearance, he was a strong politician and leader that was very aware and sensitive to the rights of the colonists. He organized the local committees of correspondence in Massachusetts, starting with Boston in 1772. These committees were designed to oppose British policy forced on the colonists by spreading propaganda.
Charles Townshend
Charles Townshend was control of the British ministry and was nicknamed "Champagne Charley" for his brilliant speeches in Parliament while drunk. He persuaded Parliament in 1767 to pass the Townshend Acts. These new regulations was a light import duty on glass, white lead, paper, and tea. It was a tax that the colonist were greatly against and was a near start for rebellions to take place.
John Adams
patriot of the American Revolution, second president of the US; president from 1796-1800; attended the Continental Congress in 1774 as a delegate from Georgia; swayed his countrymen to take revolutionary action against England which later gained America independence from the English.
John Hancock
Nicknamed "King of the Smugglers" ; He was a wealthy Massachusetts merchant in 1776 who was important in persuading the American colonies to declare their independence from England. He was the ring leader in the plot to store gunpowder which resulted in the battles in Lexington and Concord. These battles began the American Revolution.
Declaration of Independence
Formally approved by the Congress on July 4, 1776. This "shout heard round the world" has been a source of inspiration to countless revolutionary movements against arbitrary authority. The document sharply separated Loyalists from Patriots and helped to start the American Revolution by allowing England to hear of the colonists disagreements with British authority.
Loyalists / Tories
A colonist in the new world who remained loyal to the British during the American Revolution.
Whigs/Patriots
Name given to party of patriots of the new land resisting England prior to the Declaration of Independence.
Treaty of Paris of 1783
The British recognized the independence of the United States. It granted boundaries, which stretched from the Mississippi on the west, to the Great Lakes on the north, and to Spanish Florida on the south. The Yankees retained a share of Newfoundland. It greatly upset the Canadians.
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. Three delegates added to the Congress were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Hancock. The Congress took on governmental duties. (United all the colonies for the war effort.) They selected George Washington as Commander in Chief. They encouraged the colonies to set themselves up as states. On July 4, 1776 they adopted the Declaration of Independence. The Congress ended March 1, 1781 when a Congress authorized by the Articles of Confederation took over.
Common Sense
Common Sense written in 1776 was one of the most potent pamphlets ever written. It called for the colonists to realize their mistreatment and push for independence from England. The author Thomas Paine introduced such ideas as nowhere in the universe sis a smaller heavenly body control a larger. For this reason their is no reason for England to have control over the vast lands of America. The pamphlet with its high-class journalism as well as propaganda sold a total of 120,000 copies within a few months.
John Jay
John Jay was the First Chief Justice of the United States, and also an American statesman and jurist. Elected to the Continental Congress, he also helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris w/ Great Britain, ending the American Revolution. Serving as governor of New York State from 1795 to 1801, he was a advocate of a strong national government. Appointed by Washington, Jay negotiated a settlement when was w/ Britain threatened due to controversies over the Treaty of Paris: it became known as Jay's Treaty.
Mercenaries
A mercenary is a person hired for service in the army of a foreign country. For example, in the late 1760's George III hired soldiers to fight in the British army against Americans
Natural Rights Theory
The theory that people are born with certain "natural rights." Some say these rights are anything people do in the pursuit of liberty--as long as the rights of others are not impeded.
Privateering
Privately owned armed ships specifically authorized by congress to prey on enemy shipping. There were over a thousand American privateers who responded to the call of patriotism and profit. The privateers brought in urgently needed gold, harassed the enemy, and raised American morale. (American Revolution, 1775-1783)
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was a member of the House of Burgesses, wrote the Declaration of Independence, was ambassador to France, and was the President of the United States of America. He did all these things before, during, and after the Revolutionary war. With his Declaration of Independence he declared the colonies' freedom from England. While President, he bought the Louisiana Purchase and had Lewis and Clark to explore it.
Marquis de Lafayette
A wealthy French nobleman, nicknamed "French Gamecock", made major general of colonial army, got commission on part of his family.
Admiral de Grasse
Admiral de Grasse operated a powerful French fleet in the West Indies. He advised America he was free to join with them in an assault on Cornwallis at Yorktown. Rochambeau's French army defended British by land and Admiral de Grasse blockaded them by sea. This resulted in Cornwallis's surrender on October 19, 1781.
Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry was a fiery lawyer during revolutionary War times. Supporting a break from Great Britain, he is famous for the words, "give me liberty, or give me death!" which concluded a speech given to the Virginia Assembly in 1775. This quote is a symbol of American patriotism still today. After the American Revolution, Henry served two terms as governor of Virginia and was also instrumental in the development of the Bill of Rights.
Comte de Rochambeau
Commanded a powerful French army of six thousand troops in the summer of 1780 and arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. They were planning a Franco - American attack on New York.
Barry St. Leger
Barry St. Leger was a British officer in the American Revolutionary War. He led a British advance into New York's Mohawk Valley in the summer of 1777. Hoping to join the British army of General John Burgoyne at Albany, St. Leger was halted by American militia in Fort Stanwix. His forces were nearly destroyed while repelling an American relief unit at Oriskany, and the approach of additional American troops forced St. Leger to retreat to Canada.
George Rogers Clark
Frontiersman; led the seizing of 3 British forts in 1777; led to the British giving the region north of the Ohio River to the United States.
Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee was a member of the Philadelphia Congress during the late 1770's. On June 7, 1776 he declared, "These United colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." This resolution was the start of the Declaration of Independence and end to British relations.
Horatio Gates
Horatio Gates started in the English army and worked his way up through the ranks. Latter during the revolution he turned sides and was appointed to take charge of the Continental army of the North. One of Gates accomplishments was his victory at Saratoga. His career in the army ended when he lost to General Charles Cornwallis.
John Paul Jones
The commander of one of America's ships; daring, hard-fighting young Scotsman; helped to destroy British merchant ships in 1777; brought war into the water of the British seas.
Charles Cornwallis
Cornwallis was a British general who fought in the Seven Years War, was elected to the House of Commons in 1760, and lost battles to George Washington on December 26, 1776 and on January 3, 1777. Cornwallis made his mark on history, even though he could never ensure an overall British win over the Americans. He had many individual victories and losses against the Americans in the American Revolution and will always be remembered as a great and powerful general.
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was a passionate and persuasive writer who published the bestseller, Common Sense in 1776. Paine had the radical idea that the colonies should set up America as an independent, democratic, republic away from England. Over 120,000 copies of his book were sold and this helped spark the colonists rebellion later that year.
Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene was a colonial general who fought the English in the late eighteenth century-- used fighting tactic of retreating and getting the English to pursue for miles. Historical Significance: Cleared Georgia and South Carolina of British troops.
Benedict Arnold
He was an American General during the Revolutionary War (1776). He prevented the British from reaching Ticonderoga. Later, in 1778, he tried to help the British take West Point and the Hudson River but he was found out and declared a traitor.
John Burgoyne
Burgoyne was a British general that submitted a plan for invading New York state from Canada. He was then given charge of the army. Though defeated, he advanced troops near Lake Champlain to near Albany. Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga on Oct. 17, 1777. This battle helped to bring France into the war as an ally for the United States, this has been called one of the decisive battles of history
George Washington
Washington pulled his small force back into Fort Necessity where he was overwhelmed (1754) by the French. He was the commander of Virginia's frontier troops as a colonel. Left the army in 1758. Also the first President of the United States. Took office (Apr.30, 1789) in New York City.
William Howe
English General who commanded the English forces at Bunker Hill. Howe did not relish the rigors of winter campaigning, and he found more agreeable the bedtime company of his mistress. At a time when it seemed obvious that he should join the forces in New York, he joined the main British army for an attack on Philadelphia.
The Federalist
The Federalist was a series of articles written in New York newspapers as a source of propaganda for a stronger central government. The articles, written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, were a way for the writers to express their belief that it is better to have a stronger central government. The papers turned out to be a penetrating commentary written on the Constitution.
Confederation
A confederation is a group of sovereign states, each of which is free to act independently from the others. In 1776, when America gained its independence, a loose confederation was formed among the thirteen colonies. Under this confederation, the states were united by a weak national government, which was completely lacking constitutional authority. The national government had some control over issues such as military affairs and foreign policy. The states, however, took the majority of power into their own hands, such as the power to coin money and raise armies.
Constitution of the United States
The foundation of our country's national government; was drafted in Philadelphia in 1787; the Constitution establishes a government with direct authority over all citizens, it defines the powers of the national government, and it establishes protection for the rights of states and of every individual.
Anti-Federalists
People against federalists in 1787; disagreed with the Constitution because they believed people's rights were being taken away without a Bill of Rights; also did not agree with annual elections and the non-existence of God in the government.
Shay's Rebellion
1786- Led by Captain Daniel Shays, Revolutionary war veteran. An uprising that flared up in western Massachusetts. Impoverished backcountry farmers, many of them Revolutionary war veterans, were losing their farms through mortgage foreclosures and tax delinquencies. They demanded cheap paper money, lighter taxes, and a suspension of mortgage fore closures. Hundreds of angry agitators attempted to enforce these demands. Massachusetts authorities, supported by wealthy citizens, raised a small army under General Lincoln.
Federalists
A United States political party consisting of the more respectable citizens of the time; Federalists lived along the eastern seaboard in the 1790's; believed in advocating a strong federal government and fought for the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1787-1788.
The "large-state plan"
It was the plan purposed by Virginia to set up a bi-cameral congress based on population, giving the larger states an advantage. It was first written as a framework for the constitution.
Articles of Confederation
The first "constitution" governing the Untied States after the Revolution; it was ratified in 1781 and it provided for a "firm league of friendship;" the legislative branch (Congress) had no power to regulate commerce or forcibly collect taxes and there was no national executive or judicial branch; it was an important stepping-stone towards the present constitution because without it the states would never have consented to the Constitution.
Electoral College
The Electoral College is a group of electors that are elected by the people to elect the President of the United States in every election year. This system was born along side the U.S. Constitution. This system is a way of speeding up Presidential elections and is still in force today. The representatives of each state must reflect the interests of the people within their respective states during each election. After the people in a state have voted, the votes are tallied. Whichever candidate has the most votes gets all of that state's votes in the Electoral College.
Land Ordinance of 1785
A red letter law which stated that disputed land the Old Northwest was to be equally divided into townships and sold for federal income; promoted education and ended confusing legal disagreements over land.
Three-Fifths Compromise
The three-fifths compromise was where a black slave was counted as three-fifths of a person when they were counting the population. The southern states wanted them counted as one whole person for more representatives in the House of Representatives. The northern states did not want them counted at all.
Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance took place in 1787. They said that sections of land were similar to colonies for a while, and under the control of the Federal Government. Once a territory was inhabited by 60,000 then congress would admit it as a state. The original thirteen colonies were charters. Slavery was prohibited in these Northwest Territories. This plan worked so good it became the model for other frontier areas.
States' rights
The anti-federalists opposed the constitution because they thought it did not give enough power to the states. They believed that each state deserved certain rights that were not clearly defined in the constitution but were pertinent in democracy. Since these rights were not included in the original draft of the constitution there was a delay in the ratification process until the states were granted individual powers in an added clause.
Popular Sovereignty
Popular Sovereignty is the idea that people should have the right to rule themselves. This idea had revolutionary consequences in colonial America.
Anarchy
In Chapter 8 Anarchy is described as a lack of a strong centralized government. Often resulting in chaos, giving no security to landowners or upper-class people (wealthy). There is no stability, and what few laws exist are openly defied with no form of punishment. There are often problems in creating a usable and effective currency (this was a problem in inter-state relations.) In chapter 8 Anarchy it is referring to the period of time just prior to the creation of the constitution.
Society of the Cincinnati
Group of Continental Army officers formed a military order in1783. They were criticized for their aristocratic ideals.
Great Compromise
1787; This compromise was between the large and small states of the colonies. The Great Compromise resolved that there would be representation by population in the House of Representatives, and equal representation would exist in the Senate. Each state, regardless of size, would have 2 senators. All tax bills and revenues would originate in the House. This compromise combined the needs of both large and small states and formed a fair and sensible resolution to their problems.
Consent of the governed
The people of a country have to consent to be governed, otherwise they have the right to over-throw the government. This theory was coined by John Locke
Republicanism
The theory of Republicanism was that the government was under the authority of the people it governs. The power in the peoples hand's is the basis for Democracy. The writers of the constitution used the Republicanism theory.
Checks & Balances
Checks and Balances "is the principle of government under which separate branches are employed to prevent actions by the other branches and are induced to share power." The framers of the constitution for the U.S. saw the policy of checks and balances necessary for the government to run smoothly. Third principle has prevented anyone Branch from taking over the government and making all the decisions. (Having a dictatorship.)
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is defined as supreme political power. When the Continental Congress in 1776 asked the colonies to draft new constitutions, it was asking them to become new states, whose sovereignty, according to republicanism, would rest on the peoples authority. Power in the peoples hands is the basis for democracy.
Mobocracy
Mobocracy- To be ruled by a mob. An example of people who used this method would be the American colonists. When England would impose taxes and acts, such as the Stamp Act, the colonists would become angered and protest it by forming mobs and doing such things as ransacking houses and stealing the money of stamp agents. The Stamp Act was eventually nullified because all the stamp agents had been forced to resign leaving no one to uphold it. This is an example of Mobocracy.
Daniel Shays
Captain Daniel Shays was a radical veteran of the Revolution. He led a rebellion, fittingly named Shays Rebellion. He felt he was fighting against a tyranny. The rebellion was composed of debtors demanding cheap paper money, lighter taxes, and suspension of mortgage foreclosures. He was sentenced to death but was later pardoned. The rebellion in 1786 helped lead to the Constitution and Shay somewhat became one of the Founding Fathers.
Alexander Hamilton
High Political leader-1786- 32 year old New Yorker who saved the convention from complete failure by engineering the adoption of his report. It called upon Congress to summon a convention to meet in Philadelphia the next year, not to deal with commerce alone but to bolster the entire fabric of the Articles of Confederation. Congress, because of Hamilton's influence, issued the call for a convention "for the sole and express purpose of revising" the Articles of Confederation. (1787) Hamilton was present as an advocate of super-powerful central government.
James Madison
Nicknamed "the Father of the Constitution"; talented politician sent to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787; his notable contributions to the Constitution helped to convince the public to ratify it.
Primogeniture
An English law in colonial times that said only the eldest son of the parents could inherit a landed estate. This left the wealthy but landless younger sons to seek their fortune elsewhere. Many of the younger sons went to the New World, and they included Gilbert, Raleigh, and Drake.
Federation
Thomas Jefferson wanted a tightly knit federation. This involved the yielding by the states of their sovereignty to a completely new federal government. This would give the states freedom to control their local affairs.
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams was the wife of second president John Adams. She attempted to get rights for the "Ladies" from her husband who at the time was on the committee for designing the Declaration of Independence.
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were put into practice in 1798 by Jefferson and James Madison. These resolutions were secretly made to get the rights back taken away by the Alien and Sedition Acts. These laws took away freedom of speech and press guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. These resolutions also brought about the later compact theory which gave the states more power than the federal government.
Treaty of Greenville
Gave America all of Ohio after General Mad Anthony Wayne battled and defeated the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. 1795 Allowed Americans to explore the area with peace of mind that the land belonged to America and added size and very fertile land to America.
Battle of Fallen Timber
An attack made by American General "Mad Anthony Wayne" against invading Indians from the northwest. The defeat of the Indians ended the alliance made with the British and Indians.
Farewell Address
The Farewell Address was a document by George Washington in 1796, when he retired from office. It wasn't given orally, but was printed in newspapers. It did not concern foreign affairs; most of it was devoted to domestic problems. He stressed that we should stay away from permanent alliances with foreign countries; temporary alliances wouldn't be quite as dangerous, but they should be made only in "extraordinary emergencies". He also spoke against partisan bitterness. The document was rejected by the Jeffersonians, who favored the alliance with France.
Jay Treaty 1794
a treaty which offered little concessions from Britain to the U.S. and greatly disturbed the Jeffersonians. Jay was able to get Britain to say they would evacuate the chain of posts on U.S. soil and pay damages for recent seizures of American ships. The British, however, would not promise to leave American ships alone in the future, and they decided that the Americans still owed British merchants for pre-Revolutionary war debts. Because of this, many Southerners especially, were angry and rioted and called John Jay the "Damn'd Arch traitor." (176)
Pinckey Treaty 1795
Gave America what they demanded from the Spanish. Free navigation of the Mississippi, large area of north Florida. (helped America to have unexpected diplomatic success) Jay Treaty-helped prompt the Spanish to deal with the port of New Orleans.
Convention of 1800 Treaty
signed in Paris that ended France's peacetime military alliance with America. Napoleon was eager to sign this treaty so he could focus his attention on conquering Europe and perhaps create a New World empire in Louisiana. This ended the "quasi-war" between France and America.
Neutrality Proclamation 1793
issued by George Washington, established isolationist policy, proclaimed government's official neutrality in widening European conflicts also warned American citizens about intervening on either side of conflict
Alien and Sedition Acts 1798
Contains four parts: 1. Raised the residence requirement for American citizenship from 5 to 14 years. 2. Alien Act-gave the President the power in peacetime to order any alien out of the country. 3. Alien Enemies Act-permitted the President in wartime to jail aliens when he wanted to.-No arrests made under the Alien Act or the Alien Enemies Act. 4. The Sedition Act-key clause provided fines and jail penalties for anyone guilty of sedition. Was to remain in effect until the next Presidential inauguration.
John Adams
A Federalist who was Vice President under Washington in 1789, and later became President by three votes in 1796. Known for his quarrel with France, and was involved in the xyz Affair, Quais War, and the Convention of 1800. Later though he was also known for his belated push for peace w/ France in 1800. Regarding his personality he was a "respectful irritation".
Talleyrand French
foreign minister; In 1797, Adams sent a diplomatic commission to France to settle matters about the upset of the Jay Treaty of 1794. The French thought that America was siding with the English violating the Franco-American Treaty of 1778. The commission was sent to talk to Talleyrand about the seizing of American ships by the French. Communication between the commission and Talleyrand existed between three go betweeners (XYZ) because talking to Talleyrand in person would cost a quarter of a million dollars. Americans soon negotiated and this act subtly started an undeclared war with France.
Compact Theory
The Compact theory was popular among the English political philosophers in the eighteenth century. In America, it was supported by Jefferson and Madison. It meant that the thirteen states, by creating the federal government, had entered into a contract about its jurisdiction. The national government was the agent of the states. This meant that the individual states were the final judges of the national government's actions. The theory was the basis for the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions passed in 1798.
Nullification
The federalist party had passed the alien and sedition acts to regulate the strong opinions of the republicans. These laws violated the freedoms of the first amendment granted to the people, and prosecuted them for speaking out. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison protested the laws by writing the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, which asked the states to declare the laws null. They thought that "nullification was the rightful remedy". Virginia and Kentucky were the only states that voted for this nullification, which is to make a law invalid.
French Revolution
The French Revolution began in 1789 with some nonviolent restrictions on the king, but became more hostile in 1792 when France declared war on Austria. Seeking help from America, the French pointed to the Franco-American alliance of 1778. Not wanting to get involved for fear of damage to the trade business, Washington gave the Neutrality Proclamation, which made America neutral. This led to arguments between Americans and French. After fighting with the French over such things as the Jay Treaty, the Americans came to peace with France in 1800.
Jeffersonian Republicans
one of nations first political parties, led by Thomas Jefferson and stemming from the anti-federalists, emerged around 1792, gradually became today's Democratic party. The Jeffersonian republicans were pro-French, liberal, and mostly made up of the middle class. They favored a weak central govt., and strong states' rights.
Judiciary Act of 1789
The Judiciary Act of 1789 organized the Supreme Court, originally with five justices and a chief justice, along with several federal district and circuit courts. It also created the attorney general's office. This Act created the judiciary branch of the U.S. government and thus helped to shape the future of this country.
Citizen Genet
1. He was a representative of the French Republic who came to America in order to recruit Americans to help fight in the French Revolution. 2. He landed in Charleston SC around 1793 after the outbreak of war between France and Britain. 3. The actions of Citizen Genet the new government was exposed as being vulnerable. It also showed how the government was maturing.
Anthony Wayne
A General, nicknamed "Mad Anthony". Beat Northwest Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794. Left British made arms on the fields of battle. After that the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 led to the Indians ceding their claims to a vast tract in the Ohio Country.
Amendment Nine
The amendment states that the enumeration in the constitution shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. It was written by James Madison in 1791 to stop the possibility that enumerating such rights might possibly lead to the assumption that the rights were the only ones protected.
Tenth Amendment
The Tenth Amendment is the last Amendment in the Bill of Rights which was created to protect American citizens natural rights. The Tenth Amendment states that the "powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states and the people." This allows for a strong central government but it does not allow it to become all powerful by still allowing states and people rights.
Agrarian
Means having to do with agriculture. The agrarian society were the farmers and plantation owners of the south. This was the society that Jefferson wanted to see become the future of America. He appreciated the many virtuous and beneficial characteristics.
Excise Tax
a tax on the manufacturing of an item. Helped Hamilton to achieve his theory on a strong central government, supported by the wealthy manufacturers. This tax mainly targeted poor Western front corn farmers (Whiskey). This was used to demonstrate the power of the Federal Government, and sparked the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.
The Cabinet
A body of executive department heads that serve as the chief advisors to the President. Formed during the first years of Washington's Presidency, the original members of the cabinet included the Sec. of State, of the Tres. and of War. The cabinet is extremely important to the presidency, because these people influence the most powerful man in the nation.
Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments of the Constitution, the bill of rights was added in 1791 when it was adopted by the necessary number of states. It guarantees such civil liberties as freedom of speech, free press, and freedom of religion. Written by James Madison.
Whiskey Rebellion
A small rebellion, that began in Southwestern Pennsylvania in 1794 that was a challenge to the National Governments unjust use of an excise tax on an "economic medium of exchange". Washington crushed the rebellion with excessive force, proving the strength of the national governments power in its military, but was condemned for using a "sledge hammer to crush a gnat."
John Jay
Chief Justice of the United States; in 1794 George Washington sent him to negotiate a treaty with England; The Jay Treaty was a failure because it didn't mention British impressments and America had to pay Pre-Revolutionary debts. It did prevent a war with England and helped in the signing of the Pinckney Treaty with Spain.
Funding at Par
an economic plan devised in 1790 by Hamilton in order to "bolster the nation's credit" and strengthen the central government. It was a plan to exchange old bonds for new bonds at face value. This would take on the dents of all the states and reinforce faith in the government bonds. (168)
Strict Constitution
Jefferson and his states' right disciples believed the Constitution should be interpreted "literally" or "strictly". The reason why was to protect individual rights. Jefferson did not want the Bank of the United States, Hamilton thought it would not only be proper, but also necessary. Jefferson thought it was up to the states and Hamilton thought it was up to Congress. The Bank was created by Congress in 1791. Having a strong central government made people fear that their rights would be taken away from them.
Assumption
Part of Hamilton's economic theory. Stated that the federal government would assume all the states' debts for the American Revolution. This angered states such as Virginia who had already paid off their debts.
Implied Powers
Implied powers refers to the powers of the government found in the constitution in unwritten forms. Although some situations, such as the creation of the National Bank, are not specifically referred to in the constitution through the elastic clause they are not illegal or unconstitutional. After Hamilton was appointed head of treasury in 1789, debates began between his interpretation of the constitution and Jefferson's views. Eventually this became an issue contributing to the formation of political parties.
Thomas Jefferson
Under the executive branch of the new constitution, Thomas Jefferson was the Secretary of State. When Alexander Hamilton wanted to create a new national bank, Jefferson adamantly spoke against it. He felt it would violate states rights by causing a huge competitor for the state banks, then causing a federal monopoly. Jefferson's argument was that since the Constitution did not say Congress could create a bank they should not be given that power. This is the philosophy of strict construction. Thomas Jefferson's beliefs led to the creation of the political party, Democratic Republicans.
Alexander Hamilton
Great political leader; youngest and brightest of Federalists; "father of the National Debt"; from New York; became a major general; military genius; Secretary of Treasury; lived from 1755-1804; became Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington in 1789; established plan for economy that went in to affect in 1790 including a tariff that passed in 1789, the assumption of state debts which went into affect in 1790, an excise on different products (including whiskey) in 1791, and a plan for a national bank which was approved in 1791; plan to take care of the national debt--a.
Henry Knox
was the first secretary of war; came to power in 1789; was the first to be entrusted with the infant army and navy.
Embargo Act
The Embargo Act of 1807 was a law passed by Congress forbidding all exportation of goods from the United States. Britain and France had been continuously harassing the U.S. and seizing U.S. ship's and men. The U.S. was not prepared to fight in a war, so Pres. Jefferson hoped to weaken Britain and France by stopping trade. The Embargo Act ended up hurting our economy more than theirs. It was repealed in 1809. The Embargo Act helped to revive the Federalists. It caused New England's industry to grow. It eventually led to the War of 1812.
Louisiana Purchase
In 1803 Thomas Jefferson purchased 828,000 square miles of land for 15 million dollars from Napoleon the leader of France. The land mass stretched from the Gulf of Mexico all the to Rocky Mountains and Canada. The purchase of this land sprouted national pride and ensured expansion.
Non-Intercoarse Act
Formally reopened trade with all nations except England and France on March 1, 1809. A replacement of the Embargo Act. Made by the Republican Congress in an attempt to make England and France stop harassing the American ships and recognize the neutrality of America.
Midnight Judges
Midnight Judges a nick name given to group of judges that was appointed by John Adams the night before he left office. He appointed them to go to the federal courts to have a long term federalist influence, because judges serve for life instead of limited terms
The Judiciary Act of 1801
The Judiciary Act of 1801 was passed by the Federalist congress where the old capital was located. It was one of the last laws passed by the federalist congress. This law allowed the president, then President Adams, would stay up until midnight signing in new federal judges across the nation. It allowed the Federalists to still maintain power in the nation after they were a minority party in congress. This act brought bitterness between the two parties. These judges that were passed during the last day of President Adams were called "midnight Judges".
Orders in Council
The Orders in Council was a law passed by the English Parliament in 1793. It was when the British were fighting the French. The British closed off all port vessels that France went through so they couldn't get supplies. American ships were seized also and Americans were impressed into the British navy. This lead to the War of 1812.
The Chesapeake Incident
An incident that happened on June 22, 1807. The Chesapeake, a US frigate, was boarded by a British ship, the Leopard. The Chesapeake was not fully armed. The British seized four alleged deserters (the commander of the Chesapeake was later court marshaled for not taking any action). This is the most famous example of impressment, in which the British seized American sailors and forced them to serve on British ships. Impressment was one of the major factors leading to the War of 1812.
Marbury V. Madison
Sec. of State James Madison held up one of John Adams' "Midnight Judges" appointments. The appointment was for a Justice of the Peace position for William Marbury. Marbury sued. Fellow Hamiltonian and Chief Justice John Marshall dismissed Marbury's suit, avoiding a political showdown and magnifying the power of the Court. This case cleared up controversy over who had final say in interpreting the Constitution: the states did not, the Supreme Court did. This is judicial review.
Meriwether Lewis
Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The expedition was one of the main explorations of the West. The area explored was: The Missouri River through the Rockie Mountains.
Patronage
Patronage is like the "spoils system." When an elected official fills appointed positions with friends that helped him/her get elected, it is considered patronage. Thomas Jefferson did not change many of the appointed positions in the government when he was elected in 1801.
Judicial Review
Until 1803, the case of Marbury vs. Madison took place this year, there was controversy over who had the final say in determining the meaning of the Constitution, whether loose or strict interpretation should be used and who would decide. Jefferson tried to give the rights to the states in the Kentucky resolutions, but his cousin, John Marshall of the Supreme Court, proposed "judicial review," which gave the Supreme Court the power to decide if a law is or is not constitutional. "Judicial review" was accepted as a result of the famous case of Marbury vs.
Impeachment
Impeachment is to accuse a public official of misconduct in office. The Jeffersonians were angry about a ruling made by Chief Justice John Marshall. The House of Representatives attempted to impeach the unpopular Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Chase. Although there were enough votes in the House of Representatives, the Senate did not have enough. Since this attempt in 1804, there has been no serious attempt to impeach members of the Supreme Court.
Impressment
the forcible enlistment of soldiers. This was a rude form of conscription that the British have employed for over four hundred years. At this time the London authorities claimed the right to impress only British subjects on their own soil, harbor, or merchant ships. However, many Americans were mistaken for Englishmen and between 1808 and 1811 alone some six thousand United States citizens were impressed by the "piratical man-stealers" of England. This was one of the major causes of the war of 1812.
Economic Coercion
The English navy stole American sailors from 1806 until 1811 angering Jefferson and the country. Jefferson, however, did not wish to engage in war with England because of the countries weak navy and army. So he came up with the idea of using economic coercion to force Britain to come to Jefferson, and agree to his terms. He came up with the Embargo Act which cut off all trade with England and everyone else. Jefferson hoped this would force the English to come to his terms and stop stealing American sailors. This, however, did not work and greatly hurt American trade.
Samuel Chase
Samuel Chase was a strong supporter of the American Revolution, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, an ardent Federalist, and the only Supreme Court Justice ever to be impeached. A lawyer by profession, in 1796 he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by president Washington. This was after he served as Chief Justice of the General Court of Maryland in 1791. In 1804, for alleged prejudice against the Jeffersonians in treason and sedition trials.
John Marshall
Appointed by John Adams (1801) as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court- was a Virginia Federalist who was disliked by the state's rights Jeffersonians. (Served 30 days under Federalist administration and 34 years under the Jeffersonians and their successors) The Federalists died out but Marshall continued to hand down Federalist decisions. IMPORTANT ACT- Although he dismissed the Marbury suit ( 1801) to avoid direct political showdown, he said that part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, on which Marbury tried to base his appeal was unconstitutional.
Aaron Burr
Burr was a running mate with Thomas Jefferson. They tied for the presidency. Jefferson won the run off. Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel. He was tried and acquitted for treason involving a plan to separate the US and combine with Spain.
William Marbury (1801)
President Adams named him a justice of the peace for the District of Columbia. Marbury sued James Madison when he learned his appointment would never take place. (Marbury vs. Madison)
Toussaint L' Overture
L' Overture skillfully led a group of angry ex-slaves against French troops in Santo Domingo. The French were unable to reconquer this valuable island and hence, had no use for Louisiana to serve as a granary for Santo Domingo. The inability of the French to regain possession of the island caused Napoleon to cede the Louisiana territory to the United States for 15 million dollars. Thus, Toussaint L' Overture's military vigor indirectly provoked Napoleon's decision to sell Louisiana to the Americans.
James Monroe
James Monroe was sent to Paris in 1803 to buy New Orleans and as much land as possible to the east for a maximum of ten million dollars. Monroe and Robert Livingston arranged the of all of Louisiana for fifteen million dollars. Monroe later became James Madison's Secretary of State.
William Clark
Explorer along with Merriwether Lewis sent out to explore the recently purchased Louisiana Territory. He served as the artist and cartographer. Their exploring lasted from 1804-1806. They traveled up the Missouri River, through the Rockies, and to the mouth of the Columbia River. This exploration bolstered America's claim to western lands as well as opening the west to Indian trade and further exploration. p. 188
Albert Gallatin
Albert Gallatin was the secretary of the treasury under Thomas Jefferson. He was called the "Watchdog of the Treasury," and proved to be as able as Alexander Hamilton. He agreed with Jefferson that a national debt was a bane rather than a blessing. Using strict controls of the economy, he succeeded in reducing the debt, and he balanced the budget.
Robert Livingston
Robert Livingston bought New Orleans and all the French territory west of the Mississippi River from Napoleon for 15 million dollars. He was only supposed to negotiate for a small part of New Orleans for 10 million so Jefferson was upset when he heard about Livingston's deal.
Zebulon M. Pike
A pioneer who explored the Louisiana territory between 1805 - 1807. He explored Colorado, New Mexico, & Mississippi. He was a leader of the new land. He has set up the portal to allow people to migrate toward west. (A paragon - First example to move into the Louisiana territory) P.188
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was a Republican who believed that the future of the U.S. would lie in the hands of farmers. "Long Tom" Jefferson was inaugurated to the presidency in the swampy village of Washington on March 4, 1801. While Jefferson was president, the Louisiana Purchase was made, Lewis and Clark were sent to explore the newly acquired land, the Barbary Pirate threat was silenced, and the Embargo Act was passed. While all of Jefferson's presidential acts were not always successful, he always put the country ahead of himself. His patriotism and loyalty to the U.S.
Bonus Bill of 1817
Securing funding for roads and canals was hard. This bill was passed by Congress to give states $1.5 million for internal improvements, but it was immediately vetoed by Pres. Madison. In his opinion, he believed states should pay for their own improvements.
Fletcher v. Peck
Fletcher v. Peck was a court case from 1810. The Georgia legislature, swayed by a bribe, gave 35 million acres of Mississippi land to private speculators. The next legislature cancelled the original ruling. Then the Supreme Court decided the grant was a contract and state law cannot impair contracts. This is one of the first court cases to illustrate the power of the Supreme Court to invalidate state laws conflicting with the federal Constitution. Their decision protected the peoples' rights against popular pressures.
Era of Good Feelings
the years of Monroe's presidency, during 1817-1825 people had good feelings caused by the nationalistic pride after the Battle of New Orleans and second war for Independence with British, only one political party was present, on the surface everything looked fine, but underneath it all everything was troubled, conflict over slavery was appearing and sectionalism was inevitable, Missouri Compromise had a very dampening effect on those good feelings
Treaty of 1818
A negotiated treaty between the Monroe administration and England. This treaty came after the War of 1812 to settle disputes between Britain and U.S. It permitted Americans to share Newfoundland fisheries w/ the Canadians, and fixed the vague northern limits of Louisiana from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. It also provided for a 10-year joint occupation of untamed Oregon country. Surprisingly, neither Britain or America had to surrender rights or claims for this to occur.
Land Act of 1820
The Land Act of 1820 was an act replacing the Land Act of 1800. It was a result of the depression, bank failures, bankruptcies, soup kitchens, unemployment, etc. of 1819. The original Land Act allowed Americans to buy 160 acres of land (minimum) at $2.00 an acre over a period of four years. The Land Act of 1820 offered less acreage, but it also cost less. It allowed Americans to buy 80 acres at $1.25 an acre. This helped to calm the westerners when they demanded cheaper land.
Monroe Doctrine
What: an expression of the post-1812 nationalism energizing the U.S. Proved to be the most famous of the long-lived offspring of that nationalism. Might have been called the Self-Defense Doctrine. Where & When: Incorporated into President Monroe's annual message to Congress in 1823. Its two basic features were:(1) Non-Colonization (2) Non-Intervention. Colonization's era had ended and England and other foreign powers needed to keep their monarchial systems out of the U.S. Old World powers could not gain anymore settlements. The U.S.
McCulloch v.Maryland
Trial during chief Justice John Marchalls reign; involving the state of Maryland& their right to tax the federal bank--sets precedent for the "loose clause"--increased power of Fed, government.
Tariff of 1816
caused by British cutting prices below cost in an effort to strangle the American war-baby factories in the cradle. Americans saw British seeking to crush Yankee factories. Nationalist Congress passed the Tariff(1816)- created taxes on imports to protect nation, while at the same time promote welfare. It was the first tariff in American history with aims that were primarily protective to merchants. It was bold beginning to adequate safeguards. A strong protective trend was started that stimulated the appetites of the protected for more protection.
Cohen's v Virginia
The Cohen's were a Virginia family accused of selling lottery tickets illegally. The Virginia Supreme Court found the Cohen's guilty, so they appealed to the Supreme Court in 1821. Virginia won in having the Cohen's convicted. Virginia lost in that Judge Marshal made it so that the federal Supreme Court had the right to review any decision involving powers of the federal government. This was a major blow on states' rights.
The American System
A plan proposed by Henry Clay, in 1824, to work on economic reform. Henry Clay wanted to help stabilize the country and begin the pursuit for worked recognition. The plan called for a protective tariff to be put in place for the manufacturers, a new Federal Bank to be put in place, and to begin work on many internal improvements.
Gibbons v Ogden
This case involved New York trying to grant a monopoly on waterborne trade between New York and New Jersey. Judge Marshal, of the Supreme Court, sternly reminded the state of New York that the Constitution gives Congress alone the control of interstate commerce. Marshal's decision, in 1824, was a major blow on states' rights.
Internal Improvements
Henry Clay developed a plan for profitable home markets called the American System in 1824. It enforced a protective tariff to get funding for transportation improvements. These improvements would be the construction of better roads and canals. This would allow industrialization to prosper since the raw materials of the South and West could easily and inexpensively get to the North and East to be manufactured. The manufactured goods could then be shipped back out to the South and West.
Non-intervention
Nonintervention was one of the two features located in the Monroe Doctrine. Monroe declared a new policy on foreign intervention. The policy declared that the United States would not become involved in European affairs. Europe would stay out of the Western Hemisphere 1823 as well.
Virginia Dynasty
The last four of the Presidents from Virginia. (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe) The people wondered if all of the presidents were going to be from Virginia. This "dynasty" ended in 1824.
Isolationism
Isolationism deals with the Americans trying to separate themselves from foreign affairs. Isolationism takes place on North America and the oceans around it. Washington tries to separate the Americans from all British and foreign continents. Washington displays this in 1793 by the Proclamation of Neutrality and Washington' s Farewell Address in 1796.
2nd Bank of the United States
It was a federal establishment operated by the gov't as an attempt to save the welfare of the economy after the War of 1812. It was part of Henry Clay's American System and forced state banks to call in their loans which led to foreclosures and the Panic of 1819.
George Canning
British foreign secretary circa 1823 He wanted America to join Britain in a declaration - wanted the protection of the Latin America states. Keep other European countries out of the western Hemisphere. John Adams thought it was best the U.S. make the declaration. It became the Monroe Doctrine.
Nationalism
Nationalism is a popular sentiment that places the existence and well being of the nation highest in the scale of political loyalties. It's significance lies in it's role of supplying the ties that bond the nation. An important and impressive result of post Revolutionary and 1812 wars, it was growing rapidly and began to cause a national unity the United States had not seen until this point. Citizens began calling themselves Americans over citizens of their states. Nationalism helped further stabilize our newly formed nation on all accounts, including financially.
Peculiar Institution
Another term for slavery; The owning of human beings existed in a country that practiced liberty.
Protective Tariff
It was a tariff imposing 8% on the value of dutiable imports. It was passed by the first Congress. Revenue was the main goal. It was also designed to protect small industries just getting started. Hamilton wanted more protection for the well-to-do manufacturing groups. Congress still had agriculture and commercial interest dominating. This was part of Hamilton's economic plan to support the industrialists.
Noncolonization
Noncolonization is part of the Monroe Doctrine that was written in 1823. Noncolonization said that America was closed to anymore colonization. A colonization attempt by anyone would be deemed a threat to the United States. It was created by the U.S. to protect the Western Hemisphere.
Henry Clay
Clay was a Political Scientist during the 1820's. He was also a Congressman from Kentucky. He developed the American System which US adopted after the War of 1812. The American System created a protective tariff to American Markets. It also used the tariff to build road and canal for better transportation. (The American System started a cycle to trading for US market)
John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun was part of the New Southern Congress of 1811. He was a representative for South Carolina and one of the original War Hawks. Calhoun supported the Tariff Bill of 1811 because he thought the bill would lead to manufacturing in the south and cultivation of cotton. He later changed his mind, though, and opposed it because the bill was being used to enrich Northern manufacturers.
John Quincey Adams
was in power 1810-1825; he forcibly informed Spain of their violation of the Appoint-American Treaty of 1795. This led to the ceding of Florida to the U.S. He was also responsible for keeping the U.S. from signing the Canning Proposal, which would have hindered American expansion. He then drafted the Monroe Doctrine which established the U.S. as the protector of the Western Hemisphere.
Daniel Webster "Black Dan"
was a war hawk in Congress in 1816 and was a strong spokesman for New England. He opposed the Tariff of 1816, because it was not in the interest of the shippers that were the majority and that he represented, but was in the interest of manufacturers.
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. In the eyes of many people he helped end the War of 1812. He also was a well known Indian fighter. He took military control of Spanish Fla. this encouraged the treaty with Spain 1819.
Hartford Convention
In 1814 a regional secret convention was held in Hartford, Connecticut due to the Federalist discontent because of the lessened voting weight of New England in Congress and Electoral College due to adding states to the Union and also they were not happy with the War of 1812. They were meeting to discuss their minority status in the Union and some Federalist even suggested secession. These Federalists were seen as traitors by the public. Led to the downfall of their party. they met to secure assistance from Washington, due to the blockading British squadrons on the shores of New England.
Washington Irving 1783-1859
first American to win international recognition as an author, example of the post war nationalism from the revolution and war of 1812
James Monroe
1. The President of the United States of America during the Era of Good Feeling. He delivered a speech to congress named the Monroe Doctrine. The doctrines' two main points were; 1) There would be no colonization of the western hemisphere. 2) Nonintervention from the rest of the world in the western hemisphere. 2. Around 1824 3. Monroe showed a strong since of nationalism, creating national pride. He also helped establish America as a world power.
James Fenimore Cooper
one of the nation's first writers of importance; attained recognition in the 1820's; changed the mood of national literature, started textbooks in America being written by Americans, two pieces of his literature include THE SPY and THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, American themes-example of the nationalism after the Revolution and War of 1812. (pg. 212-213).
Washington Irving 1783-1859
first American to win international recognition as an author, example of the post war nationalism from the revolution and war of 1812
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the puritan son of President John Adams. He led five American peace-makers to Ghent to draw up a treaty between America and Britain to end the War of 1812. The treaty was signed by both sides on Christmas Eve in 1814. Adams was also Monroe's Secretary of State and the real author of Monroe's Doctrine which established isolationism.
Sectionalism
Sectionalism is a narrow-minded concern for a devotion to the interests of one section of the country. This began to occur in 1796. This caused the development of two political parties. Washington disagreed with sectionalism. The country split politically and the North voted for Adams and the South voted for Jefferson.
Constitution
an American warship, nicknamed "Old Ironsides," in 1812 the Americans created the super frigate which had thicker sides, heavier fire power, and a larger crew than the original British frigate, was a notable ship in the war of 1812 against the British Navy
Battle of Thames
The Battle of Thames was fought at the River Thames in Canada on October 13, 1813. In this battle, the redcoats were overtaken by General Harrison and his army after they had withdrawn from Fort Malden. A Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, fought for the British and lost his life. With his death came the death of his confederacy.
Treaty of Ghent
It was an agreement signed by the Americans and the British that agreed to stop fighting which potentially led to the end of the War of 1812. It was signed before the Battle of New Orleans, but Americans did not learn of the treaty until after the victory at New Orleans. Americans assumed the "victory" for the war. The British signed quickly because they were more concerned with European affairs.
Tecumseh
He was a Shawnee Indian twin brother to the Prophet. They made a stand against western moving settlers by uniting other tribes. He died in the Battle of Thames while fighting for the British. He was one of the most gifted and noble Indian leaders in American history.
Francis Scott Key
Poet that wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" in 1814 during the War of 1812. Written while watching Americans defend Fort McHenry. The poem has become an important part of American identity.
The Prophet
Who: The twin brother of the Shawnee Indian Tecumseh Where and When: Banded together many of the tribes along the Mississippi River in 1811 to stop the white settlers from pushing farther into the western wilderness. The groups of braves forswore firewater in order to be fit for the last-ditch battle with the whites. Significance: The war hawk Congress sent General William H. Harrison to repel a surprise attack at Tippecanoe and burn the settlement. The war hawks began to feel that the only way to remove Indian menace was to wipe out their Canadian base
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson the seventh president of the United States was born on March 15, 1767 in New Lancaster County, South Carolina. He became a general in 1812 and was the leader in the Battle of New Orleans. Two weeks after he had won the battle, the diplomats that returned from Britain came back with a treaty, thus the Americans had believed that the British had once again surrendered and a new era of nationalism came. As president he introduced the spoils system.
William H. Harrison
General-Indian fighter-president--hero of Battle of Tippecanoe and Battle of the Thames in the War of 1812--major asset to America by keeping Indians at bay, redcoats from massacre's, and gaining/clearing land in West
James Madison
The author of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Madison was also the father of the Federalist party and the fourth President of the United States. He was President during the war of 1812 and was also Vice-President under Jefferson. He was a great statesman but was not a strong president.
Oliver Hazard Perry
American naval officer; managed a fleet on the shores of Lake Erie in 1813; captured a British fleet on Lake Erie, his victory slogan "We have met the enemy and they are ours" brought new life and inspiration to the American troops, he was a hero during the war.(pg.202).
Eaton Affair
Eaton, Secretary of War, married the daughter of a Washington boardinghouse keeper, Peggy O'Neal. She had rumors spread about her and the male boarders. She was snubbed by ladies in Jackson's family and Vice President Calhoun's wife. The President wanted to help her because his wife had been the object of many rumors. He tried to force the social acceptance of Peggy. This was called the "Petticoat War." The Eaton scandal played into the hands of Secretary of State Van Buren. He paid attention to Mrs. Eaton so he could get on Jackson's good side.
South Carolina Exposition
A pamphlet published by the South Carolina legislature, written by John C. Calhoun. It spoke against the "Tariff of Abominations," and proposed nullification of the tariff. Calhoun wished to use nullification to prevent secession, yet address the grievances of sectionalist Southerners. These sectionalist ideas helped lead to the Civil War.
Maysville Road
Maysville road was a road built within Kentucky and was considered an individual state road, but was connected to an interstate. Andrew Jackson withheld funds from localized roads and vetoed a bill for improving the Maysville road. This was a great setback for the internal improvements of the American society.
Twelfth Amendment
Amendment to the Constitution; Election of 1824, 1825; allowed the House of Representatives to elect John Q. Adams as President because Andrew Jackson received the most votes but did not get a majority of the votes; angered Jackson and his followers. p.235
King Mob
Nickname for all the new participants in government that came with Jackson's presidency. This nickname was negative and proposed that Jackson believed in too much democracy, perhaps leading to anarchy.
Corrupt Bargain
Immediately after John Quincy Adams became President, he appointed Henry Clay as Secretary of State. Jacksonians were furious because all former Secretaries of State became Presidents. This "corrupt bargain" occurred after the Election of 1824 when Andrew Jackson had the most electoral votes, but not majority. Then, Henry Clay (having the least of the electoral votes) gave them to John Q. Adams, giving him the majority and making him President. Jacksonians question whether John Q. Adams made Henry Clay Sec. of State for payback in giving his votes.
Kitchen Cabinet
President Jackson had an official cabinet, but its members were used more as executive clerks than anything else. Jackson had a private cabinet of about thirteen members that were always changing. The cabinet grew out of Jackson's unofficial meetings and was known as "the Kitchen Cabinet." Jackson's adversaries and enemies gave the group of advisors this name.
Tariff of Abominations
1) An extremely high tariff that Jacksonian Democrats tried to get Adams to veto. 2) 1828- Around Presidential elections 3)Jackson was elected as President.
Revolution of 1828
What: Election of 1828 - running candidates for president were John Q. Adams and Andrew Jackson. When: 1828 Why: The election of 1828 is often called the "Revolution of 1828." There was an increased turnout of voters at this election. The large turnout proved that the common people now had the vote and the will to use it for their ends. The results of the election show that the political center of gravity was shifting away from the conservative seaboard East toward the emerging states across the mountains. The revolution was peaceful, achieved by ballots.
Spoils system
a system that Andrew Jackson set up not long after his election into the presidency in 1828; it had already developed a strong hold in the industrial states such as New York and Pennsylvania; it gave the public offices to the political supporters of the campaign; the name came from Senator Marcy's remark in 1832, "to the victor belongs the spoils of the enemy; made politics a full time business.
Rotation in Office
supported by the New Democracy; like the spoils system but used by Jackson, same as patronage-based on favors for those who helped another get into office; Jackson felt it made the government more democratic by having more participation, etc.
King Caucus
In 1824, voters were crying that the people must be heard and down with King Caucus. This new and more democratic method of nominating presidential candidates was the have a national nominating convention. A caucus are the leaders of a small political organization.
Democratic-Republicans
Once shortened to "Republicans", when Andrew Jackson came into power he renamed the party "Democrats". The Jacksonian Democrats were very democratic and were opposed to the Whigs. Jackson was a real common man and believed in the common man. Opposed to very strong national bank. When he was president the Whigs called him "King Jackson". This party is the present day Democratic party.
Anti-Masonic Party
The Anti-Masonic Party was basically against elite groups such as the Masons (a private organization). They were also opposed to Jackson, who was a Mason. The Anti-Masonic party did not hold much bearing while they existed.
Denmark Vesey
Denmark Vesey was a free black slave who lived in the Carolinas. Vesey led a slave rebellion in Charleston in 1822. This slave rebellion was part of what led to the anxieties of the South especially in South Carolina. the Missouri Compromise and the slave rebellion both caused the South to worry about Federal government interference in slavery issues.
Robert Hayne
Senator from South Carolina, a major player in the sectional debate during 1829 and 1830. A great orator, he denounced New England. He pointed out New England's treasonous activities during the War of 1812. He also spoke out against the "Tariff of Abominations," which hurt the South. He supported Calhoun's idea of nullification. While he did not want secession, he did add fuel to the sectional flames, and this led to secession.
Common Man
a political leader who worked his way up to the top from the bottom. Andrew Jackson was the model common man. He had been orphaned, so he fought in the Revolutionary War at age thirteen. In the War of 1812, he became a hero and launched his political career soon after. He was like the rest of the country, and that's why they liked him so much. The common man began to take over during the Jacksonian Democracy.
New Democracy (1824 - 1850)
The New Democracy got more people involved in the government. There were also fewer voter restrictions and voter turn-out increased.
Nullification
What: states that any law passed by the federal government can be declared null and void by the states When: 1828; the South was extremely upset about the extremely high Tariff of Abominations. " The South Carolina Exposition" written by John C. Calhoun denounced the tariff as unjust and unconstitutional. The document bluntly proposed that the states should nullify the Tariff. Why: The theory of this nullification was further publicized. The even more dangerous doctrine of secession was foreshadowed.
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was a Democratic-Republican who was voted into office in 1828. The people wanted representation and reform from the administration of John Quincy Adams. Jackson believed that the people should rule. He was the first president from the west, and he represented many of the characteristics of the west. Jackson appealed to the common man as he was said to be one. He believed in the strength of the Union and the supremacy of the federal government over the state government.
William Crawford
Originally from Georgia, Crawford ran in the 1824 election representing the south. He was forced to drop out of the race due to a stroke.
Peggy Eaton
1) Married Sec. of War Eaton. She was snubbed by ladies of the White House. Jackson tried to help her be excepted, but failed. 2)1831 3) The lady in charge of the White House affairs was Henry Clay's wife. It helped in the dissolution of Jackson and Clay.
John Quincy Adams
He was the sixth president of the United States. He was a republican from Mass. who was the first minority president. He served only four years, from 1824-1828. He could never gain the support of the Americans because he was a minority president. He was in favor of funding national research and he appointed Henry Clay as his Secretary of State. During his presidency the National Republicans were formed in support of him. He was essentially chosen by the House of Representatives.
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a nationalist from New Hampshire. He was involved in the Webster-Haynes debate over states' rights. He served as Secretary of State under the Tyler administration. In 1836 he ran for the Presidency as a member of the Whig party, losing to Martin Van Buren. He was also America's greatest orator.
Independent Treasury
Martin Van Buren passed the "Divorce Bill" in 1840 which created an independent treasury that took the government's funds out of the pet banks that Jackson created and put them in vaults in several of the largest cities. This way the funds would be safe from inflation and denied to the state banks as revenue.
Anti-Masonic Party
The Anti-Masonic Party was a third political party that developed during the campaign of 1832 because of the fierce debate between Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson. This party also developed as opposition to the Masons (secret societies). It gained support from evangelical Protestant groups and people who were neglected by Jackson; however, it never took a majority position in elections.
Pet Banks
were state banks; existed in the 1830's; state banks that received federal funds from Jackson. These funds were from the removal of the deposits in the BUS in order to insure of the bank's demise when its charter ran out. These banks then loaned money and printed paper to increase spending, which lead to inflation. Jackson attempts to stop this inflation with the Specie Circular, which lead to the Panic of 1837
Whig Party
The Whig party was a party that formed for those who opposed Jackson's views. It was created in the 1830s and the 1840s. When Jackson was elected, Clay and Calhoun formed a party for those who opposed Democratic views. The first Whig to become president was Harrison in the 1840 election. Whigs thought that Jackson's views were selfish.
Lone Star State
Lone Star State - Texas was first ruled by Spain for over 300 years as a part of Mexico. When Mexico became an independent country in 1821, Texas became a Mexican State and new settlers from the United States were welcomed . The large influx of Americans led to skirmishes with Mexican troops. After a successful war of independence against Mexico, Texans raised the Lone Star flag over their own republic in 1836. Their government was recognized by the United States and several other European countries. In 1845 Texas accepted annexation by the United States and was admitted as the 28th state.
Force Bill
Bill passed by the Congress in 1833. (aka "Bloody Bill" to the southerners) This bill allows the US president to use the Army and the Navy to collect federal tariff duties. (If necessary) It is an attachment to the Nullification Crisis during this time.
Seminole Indians
They lived in Florida. They waged a seven years war against the Americans to try and remain in the east instead of being forcibly removed to the west. They were tricked into a truce where their chief Osceola was captured. Most were moved to Oklahoma while others remained hidden in the everglades.
Divorce Bill
bill proposed by Martin Van Buren; idea: federal money in a separate bank vault so it would not be connected with the ups and downs of the federal economy; barley pass in 1840 by Democrats, then repealed when Whigs came into power a year later.
Bank of United States
The federal bank of US was first created in 1791under Hamilton's economic plan. In 1816, the Bank of US's charter was renewed. Because of the economic recession of the 1810's, the bank suffered great mismanagement until 1822 when Nicholas Biddle, a Philadelphia financier, became its president. Andrew Jackson, in 1831, vetoed the charter act to renew the bank's charter which would expire in 1836. This made the government to store all its funds to the state banks (aka King Andrew's pet banks).
favorite son
The term "favorite son" referred to the Whig candidates of 1836 that were not nationally known. They were only popular in their home states. The Whigs tried to use these men to scatter the vote and force the House of Representatives to choose the President.
Tariff of 1832
tariff passed in 1832; passed to meet Southern demands about previous tariffs; failed because it didn't meet demands but it did do away with the worst of the abominations of 1828 and lowered tariff of 1824 by ten percent; caused Nullification Crisis; was amended by the Compromise Tariff of 1833
Specie Circular Jackson
authorized the U.S. Treasury to issue the Specie Circular in 1836. It was a decree which stated that all public lands must be purchase with gold or silver money, because the BUS was collapsing and the paper money floating around was almost worthless. This decree caused a run on the banks for gold and silver and, in turn, ignited the Panic of 1837.
Slavocracy
Slavocracy was the northerners' idea of the south. The idea had to do with Texas joining the union. People from the north thought the southern slavocracy was involved in a conspiracy to bring new slave states to America. "Slavocracy" was what the north used to refer to the south's system of slavery.
Tariff of 1833
This was a compromise bill. It would gradually reduce the tariff of 1832 by10% over an8 year period. It would be a 20-25% tax on dutiable goods. Henry Clay wrote the bill. It ended the nullification crisis when South Carolina accepted the compromise.
Panic of 1837
Nations first economic depression. Banks loaned too much money out for Western expansion and they began to fail one by one. Hardship was acute and widespread and hundreds of banks collapsed. Martin Van Buren (who was president at the time) tried to "divorce" the government from banking altogether. This idea was not highly supported but the Independent Treasury Bill passed congress in 1840. Although the Whigs repealed it the next year, the scheme was reenacted by the democrats in 1846.
Black Hawk
The leader of the Illinois tribes of Indians in the 1830's. When the Indians were uprooted, and forced out of their homes, Black Hawk led the Indians in resisting the move. However, he wasn't powerful enough, because in 1832 they were brutally defeated, and forced to move into Oklahoma.
William Travis
William Travis was a colonel during the Texas Revolution. He fought on the side of the Texans against the Mexicans in 1836 at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. Colonel Travis and two hundred Texans were trapped at the Alamo by Santa Anna and his six thousand men. During this siege, all but one of the Texans was killed.
Nullification
It is a right by the states to declare something issued by the national gov't as constitutional or unconstitutional, (as stated in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions). Calhoun tried to protect the minority (south), instead of seceding. He tried to settle them down without destroying the nation.
Annexation
A method used by the government to acquire and establish sovereignty over new territory. Sometimes force is used in annexation, but other times it is done through a legal system, such as a purchase. The United States annexed Texas in 1845 after a consent from Mexico.
Antislavery
Antislavery was a wide spread idea (with most of its supporters being in the New England areas) in the 1800's. the North readily opposed the idea of slavery, because it was abusive and their economy didn't rely on it. But even in the South, in the 1820's, there were numerous antislavery societies. These societies were actually more numerous south of Mason and Dixon's line.
Santa Anna
Santa Anna was a Mexican dictator who in 1835 wiped out all local rights in Texas and started to raise an army to put down the Texans. With six thousand men he swept through Texas till he was finally defeated by Sam Houston's army. He then signed two treaties dealing with the border of Texas and the withdrawal of Mexican troops. (pg. 259-60)
Henry Clay
Who: A National Republican and chief gladiator in the presidential contest of 1832. Threw himself behind the Senate's move to re-charter the bank. Was able to pass a compromise bill that would slowly reduce the 1832 Tariff. When and Where: he came from Kentucky and strongly disliked Jackson. Clay had 50,000 dollars in funds for " life insurance" with the Bank of the United States. Lost the presidential election in 1832:the rich people did not create enough support to elect him president.
Sam Houston
Mexicans and Texans were in conflict over issues such as slavery and immigration. In 1836 the Texans declared their independence from Mexico and made Sam Houston their commander in chief. Santa Anna, the dictator of Mexico, resented this American decree and charged into Texas with Mexican forces. Houston and his troops initially retreated, but eventually they defeated the Mexican army and captured Santa Anna.
John Tyler Ran
as Vice-President to William Henry Harrison in the election of 1840 as a Whig. Harrison was elected, but shortly died, so Tyler became the first Vice-President to take the office of a dead President. The position gave him experience for becoming President later.
John C. Calhoun
In 1834, Calhoun joined with Henry Clay against President Jackson, forming the beginning of the Whig Party. The Whigs along with the Democrats, began the two-system party.
Osceola
Who: Leader of the Seminole Indians When and Where: The Seminole Indians in Florida were engaged in a bitter guerrilla war that proved to be the costliest Indian conflict.(1835-1842) Fifteen hundred American soldiers lost their lives in the battle. The war ended when the Americans captured Osceola and held him captive. Osceola eventually died in captivity. Why: Split up the Seminole tribe into the Everglades and Oklahoma. (The costliest Indian conflict) One of the many Indian conflicts that furthered westward expansion for the Americans.
Martin Van Buren From New York
Martin Van Buren was Jackson's own choice as his successor. Van Buren became our eighth president in 1836. He was doomed from the start, though, as the people thought he was only "mediocre" and the democrats hated him. He was also left to deal with some very difficult situations, such as a developing depression. Van Buren tried to do his best through such things as the controversial "Divorce Bill," but Martin Van Buren's efforts were futile, as he is not our most memorable president.
Andrew Jackson
He was the seventh president, supported mostly but the West and South (the common people). He had no formal education. His beliefs were simple, but his military background often influenced him. He introduced the spoil's system into American gov't, or rotation in office as he called it. His cabinet was called the "kitchen cabinet" because they were thought of as Jackson's friends, not political office holders.
Stephen Austin
Stephen Austin was an American colonizer and pioneer from Virginia who worked on the independence of Texas. His father, Moses Austin, secured a land grant from Spain, and Stephen later renewed this grant with the independent Mexico. Austin succeeded in bringing over 20,000 Americans to Texas, by 1830. He requested self-government for the territory, and was subsequently thrown into a Mexican prison. In 1835 he returned, and took the command of a Texan army ready to fight for independence. He soon resigned. After Texas became a republic in 1836, Austin worked for its US annexation
William Henry Harrison
1) He was pushed into presidential race. He was a war hero and was not nominated for his ability. 2)1840 Presidential elections. 3) 1st Whig President & 1st President to die in office.
Nicholas Biddle
nicknamed "Czar Nicholas I," he was president of the Bank of the United States. He was known for his massive loans as bribes ("Emperor Nick of the Bribery Bank"). Jackson wanted to weaken the Bank and Biddle, so he gradually stopped making deposits, instead stowing his money in his "pet banks." Jackson destroyed the Bank in 1832.
Cotton Gin
The cotton gin is a machine that would separate the seed from the short-staple cotton fiber that was fifty times more effective than the handpicking process. It was constructed by Eli Whitney. It was developed in 1793 in Georgia. It was used all over the South. The cotton gin brought a miraculous change to the U.S. and the world. Practically overnight the production of the cotton was very profitable. Not only the South prospered, but the North as well. Many acres were cleared westward to make more room for cotton.
Boston Associates
They were a group of Boston families who joined to form one of the earliest and most powerful joint-capital ventures. They eventually came to dominate the textile industry, the railroad, insurance, and banking business' in all of Massachusetts. With Pride the Boston Associates considered their textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts a showplace factory. The labor there was mostly New England farm girls who were supervised on and off the job and worked from "dark to dark." (Ch 17, pgs 293-295)
Clipper ships
American boats, built during the 1840's in Boston, that were sleek and fast but inefficient in carrying a lot of cargo or passengers. British steamers were more efficient than these ships and so Britain remained the #1 naval power.
General Incorporation Law
This was a law created to greatly help in "building" capitalism. It stated that businesspeople could create a corporation if they complied with the terms of the law. It was a great boost to capitalism. It was signed in New York in 1848 to save businesspeople the need to apply for characters form the legislature.
Pony Express
A Mail carrying service; ran from 1860-1861; was established to carry mail speedily along the 2000 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California; they could make the trek in 10 days.
Industrial Revolution
Began in the 1750's in Britain with a group of inventors perfecting textile machines. These British developments eventually found their way into American Industry. Factories were made to work with the South's raw textiles Industrialization started in the North because of its dense population, reliance of shipping, and its number of seaports The rapid rivers of the North also provided power for turning the cogs of machines The majority of the industrialization occurred between the 1790's and the 1860's
Limited Liability
This is a term that applies to the principles of the corporation. This started in a big way in the early 1800's for most Americans. It basically refers to the fact that a business with public stock can fail without any one person losing all of their money. It lowers the risk of new business ventures.
Cyrus McCormick
Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia on 1809, he was very interested in helping out the fellow farmer. In 1831, he revolutionized the farming industry by inventing the mechanical reaper. He later improved upon it and patented it in 1834. He then started a company that manufactured this reaper and sold it on the market. He became tremendously rich doing this and later married. He was very generous to his nearby churches and schools.
Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts. He was a mechanical genius that graduated from Yale. After college he traveled to Georgia to be a tutor while preparing for the law. While in Georgia he was told that the South would make a lot of money if someone could invent a machine to separate the seed from cotton. In 1793, within ten days of being told this, Whitney had constructed a rough machine fifty times more effective than the handpicking process.
Robert Fulton
A painter/ engineer who got financial backing to build a powerful steam engine (Clermont). Skeptics called it ''Fulton's Folly''. But in 1807 the boat made the 150 mile run from New York City up the Hudson River to Albany in 32 hours. Within a few years Fulton changed all of America's navigable streams into two-way arteries and forever changed the way the West and the South could transport their goods.
Samuel Slater
He was a British mechanic that moved to America and in 1791 invented the first American machine for spinning cotton. He is known as "the Father of the Factory System" and he started the idea of child labor in America's factories.
John Geenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier lived from 1807-1892. He was insulted and stoned for writing against slavery. Whittier rose the awareness of the people of America about slavery through his poems.
American Temperance Society
An organization group in which reformers are trying to help the ever present drink problem. This group was formed in Boston in 1826, and it was the first well-organized group created to deal with the problems drunkards had on societies well being, and the possible well-being of the individuals that are heavily influenced by alcohol.
Hudson River School
A type of painting with a romantic, heroic, mythic style that flourished in the 19th century. It tended to paint American landscapes as beautiful and brooding.
Women's Rights Convention
Meeting in Seneca Falls, New York of feminists; 1848; First meeting for women's rights, helped in long struggle for women to be equal to men
Transcendentalism
The Transcendentalist movement of the 1830's consisted of mainly modernizing the old puritan beliefs. This system of beliefs owed a lot to foreign influences, and usually resembled the philosophies of John Locke. Transcendentalists believe that truth transcends the body through the senses, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were two of the more famous transcendentalists.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
American poet and professor of modern languages at Harvard. Lived 1807-1882. During a period which was dominated in the literary field by Transcendentalists, Longfellow was an urbane poet who catered to the upper classes and the more educated of the citizens. He was also popular in Europe, and is the only American poet to have a bust in Westminster Abbey.
William H. Prescott
He was an historian who lived from 1796-1859. He published classic accounts of the conquest of Mexico and Peru. Prescott lost sight in one eye during college
Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)
A painter from Rhode Island who painted several portraits of Washington, creating a sort of idealized image of Washington. When Stuart was painting these portraits, the former president had grown old and lost some teeth. Stuart's paintings created an ideal image of him.
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman was a poet who lived in Brooklyn from 1819-1892. His most famous collection of poems entitled Leaves of Grass, gained him the title "Poet Laureate of Democracy."
John J. Audubon
Audubon lived from 1785 to 1851. He was of French descent, and an artist who specialized in painting wild fowl. He had such works as Birds of America and Passenger Pigeons. Ironically, he shot a lot of birds for sport when he was young. He is remembered as America's greatest ornithologist.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
He wrote the Scarlet Letter in 1850. This was his masterpiece. He also wrote The Marble Faun. Many of his works had early American themes. The Scarlet Letter is about a woman who commits adultery in a Puritan village. Hawthorn's upbringing was heavily influenced by his puritan ancestors.
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a wealthy and idealistic Scottish textile manufacturer. He sought to better the human race and set up a communal society in 1825. There were about a thousand persons at New Harmony, Indiana. The enterprise was not a success.
Henry David Thoreau
He was a poet, a mystic, a transcendentalist, a nonconformist, and a close friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson who lived from 1817-1862. He condemned government for supporting slavery and was jailed when he refused to pay his Mass. poll tax. He is well known for his novel about the two years of simple living he spent on the edge of Walden Pond called "Walden" , Or Life in the Woods. This novel furthered many idealistic thoughts. He was a great transcendentalist writer who not only wrote many great things, but who also encouraged, by his writings, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an author born in New York in 1819. He was uneducated and an orphan. Melville served eighteen months as a whaler. These adventuresome years served as a major part in his writing. Melville wrote Moby Dick in 1851 which was much less popular than his tales of the South seas. Herman Melville died in 1891.
Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz was a professor at Harvard College. He was a student of biology who insisted on original research. He hated the overemphasis on memory work. Agassiz was one of the most influential American scientists in the nineteenth century.
William Gilmore Simms
Novelist, "the Cooper of the South" mostly wrote about southern frontier and revolutionary war
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a member of the women's right's movement in 1840. She was a mother of seven, and she shocked other feminists by advocating suffrage for women at the first Women's Right's Convention in Seneca, New York 1848. Stanton read a "Declaration of Sentiments" which declared "all men and women are created equal."
William Cullen Bryant
Bryant was born in Cummington, Mass. on Nov. 3, 1794. He was a journalist, literary critic, public speaker, and the first significant poet in 19th century American Literature. He supported Andrew Jackson and the Democrats, defended the right of workers to strike, spoke out against slavery, proposed a central park for the city, helped to organize the Republican party, and fought the Tweed ring.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe lived from 1809-1849 and was cursed with hunger, cold, poverty, and debt. He was orphaned as a child and when he married his fourteen year old wife, she died of tuberculosis. He wrote books that deal with the ghostly and ghastly, such as "The Fall of the House of Usher." (pg. 345)
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony was a lecturer for women's rights. She was a Quaker. Many conventions were held for the rights of women in the 1840s. Susan B. Anthony was a strong woman who believed that men and women were equal. She fought for her rights even though people objected. Her followers were called Suzy B's.
Washington Irving
Irving published Knickerbockers History of New York in 1809 which had interesting caricatures of the Dutch. Washington Irving's The Sketch Book, published in 1819-1820, was an immediate success. This book made Irving world renown. The Sketch Book was influenced by both American and English themes, and therefore popular in the Old and New World.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
An anatomy teacher at Harvard Medical school who was regarded as a prominent poet, essayist, novelist, lecturer and wit from 1809-1894. Poem " the Last Leaf" in honor of the last "white Indian" at the Boston Tea Party, which really applied to himself.
Lucretia Mott
A Quaker who attended an anti-slavery convention in 1840 and her party of women was not recognized. She and Stanton called the first women's right convention in New York in 1848
James F. Cooper
Writer who lived in New York in 1789-1851. Historical Significance: first novelist to gain world fame and make New World themes respectable.
Neal Dow
Mayor of Portland, Maine and one of the leaders against alcohol;1850s; helped pass laws against manufacturing of intoxicating liquor.
Tammany Hall
In New York, taken over by Irish, home of powerful city machines; 1850s; Helped in growing population of Irish in America.
Burned-over District
This is a term that refers to western New York. The term came at a time when revivals were rampant. Puritan sermonizers were preaching "hell-fire and damnation." Mormons. A religion, newly established by Joseph Smith, who claimed to have had a revelation from angel. The Mormons faced much persecution from the people and were eventually forced to move west. (Salt Lake City) After the difficult journey they greatly improved their land through wise forms of irrigation.
Dorthea Dix
A New England teacher and author who spoke against the inhumane treatment of insane prisoners, ca. 1830's. People who suffered from insanity were treated worse than normal criminals. Dorothea Dix traveled over 60,000 miles in 8 years gathering information for her reports, reports that brought about changes in treatment, and also the concept that insanity was a disease of the mind, not a willfully perverse act by an individual.
Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster was a white Pennsylvanian that wrote, ironically, the most famous black songs. H lived from 1826 to 1864. His one excursion into the South occurred in 1852, after he had published "Old Folks at Home". Foster made a valuable contribution to American Folk music by capturing the plaintive spirit of the slaves.
James Russell Lowell
Lowell lived from 1819 to 1891. He was an American poet, essayist, diplomat, editor, and literary critic. He is remembered for his political satire, especially in the Billow Papers ( which condemned president Polk's policy for expanding slavery). He succeeded professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as teacher of modern languages at Harvard.
Catharine Beecher
who: unmarried daughter of a famous preacher and sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe. when: 1800's why: She urged women to enter the teaching profession. She succeeded because school teaching became a thoroughly "feminized" occupation. Other work "opportunities" for women beckoned in domestic service. Beecher helped get women jobs that would allow them to be self-supported.
Phineas T. Barnum
Phineas T. Barnum was the most famous showman of his era (1810-1891). He was a Connecticut Yankee who earned the title, "the Prince of Humbug." Beginning in New York City, he "humbugged" the American public with bearded ladies and other freaks. Under his golden assumption that a "sucker" was born every minute, Barnum made several prize hoaxes, including the 161-year-old (actually 80) wizened black "nurse" of George Washington.
Nativism antiforeignism
it was a fear of new immigrants coming to America. It was feared the new comers would bring a higher birthrate and poverty to America.
Cult of Domesticity
Widespread cultural creed that glorified the traditional functions of the homemaker around 1850. Married women commanded immense moral power, and they increasingly made decisions that altered the family. Work opportunities for women increased particularly in teaching.
Unitarianism
a "spin-off" faith from the severe Puritanism of the past. Unitarians believed that God existed in only one person and not in the orthodox trinity. They also denied the divinity of Jesus, stressed the essential goodness of human nature, proclaimed their belief in free will and the possibility of salvation through good works, and pictured God as a loving father rather than a stern creator. The Unitarian movement began in New England at the end of the eighteenth century and was embraced by many of the leading "thinkers" or intellectuals of the day.
Horace Mann
He was an idealistic graduate of Brown University, secretary of the Massachusetts board of education. He was involved in the reformation of public education (1825-1850). He campaigned for better school houses, longer school terms, higher pay for teachers, and an expanded curriculum. He caused a reformation of the public schools, many of the teachers were untrained for that position. Led to educational advances in text books by Noah Webster and Ohioan William H. McGuffey.
Peter Cartwright
Born in 1785, he was the best known of Methodist "Circuit riders". He was a traveling frontier preacher. Ill-educated but still powerful, he reigned for 50 years going from Tennessee to Illinois. He converted thousands of people doing this. He also liked to pick a fight if someone spoke against his religion.
Noah Webster
Born in Connecticut. Educated at Yale. Lived 1758-1843. Called "Schoolmaster of the Republic." Wrote reading primers and texts for school use. He was most famous for his dictionary, first published in 1828, which standardized the English language in America.
Joseph Smith
reported to being visited by an angel and given golden plates in 1840; the plates, when deciphered, brought about the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Book of Mormon; he ran into opposition from Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri when he attempted to spread the Mormon beliefs; he was killed by those who opposed him.
Brigham Young
A Mormon leader that led his oppressed followers to Utah in 1846. Under Young's management, his Mormon community became a prosperous frontier theocracy and a cooperative commonwealth. He became the territorial governor in 1850. Unable to control the hierarchy of Young, Washington sent a federal army in 1857 against the harassing Mormons.
Carl Shurz
he was a zealous German liberal who contributed to the elevation of American political life. Shurz was a relentless foe of slavery and public corruption. Shurz could be considered on of the liberal German "Forty-fighters," who left Germany and came to America, distraught by the collapse of the democratic revolutions of 1848, and in search of a stable democratic society. (Ch 18, pg 318)
Lane Rebels
In 1832 Theodore Dwight Weld went to the Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Seminary was presided over by Lyman Beecher. Weld and some of his comrades were kicked out for their actions of anti-slavery. The young men were known as the "Lane Rebels." They helped lead and continue the preaching of anti-slavery ideas.
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth was a freed slave who lived in America during the late 1800's. She was also known as Isabella. From her home in New York she waged a constant battle for the abolition of slavery. She was also a prominent figure in the fight for women's rights.
Theodore Dwight Weld
Theodore Dwight Weld was a prominent abolitionist in the 1830's. He was self-educated and very outspoken. Weld put together a group called the "Land Rebels." He and his group traveled across the Old Northwest preaching antislavery gospel. Weld also put together a propaganda pamphlet called American Slavery As It Is.
Frederick Douglass
A former slave who was an abolitionist, gifted with eloquent speech and self-educated. In 1838 he was "discovered" as a great abolitionist to give antislavery speeches. He swayed many people to see that slavery was wrong by publishing "Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass" which depicted slavery as being cruel. He also looked for ways politically to end slavery.
David Walker
He was a black abolitionist who called for the immediate emancipation of slaves. He wrote the "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World." It called for a bloody end to white supremacy. He believed that the only way to end slavery was for slaves to physically revolt.
Nat Turner
Black priest; led a revolt in Virginia 1831, killed 60 people(mostly women and children). This scared the Southerners because it was the first really violent action of the slaves. As a result slave codes were made stricter.
Walker Tariff
tariff reducing tariff devised by Robert J. Walker during James Polk's presidency; reduce Tariff of 1842 by 7%;1846
Wilmot Proviso
Dispute over whether any Mexican territory that America won during the Mexican War should be free or a slave territory. A representative named David Wilmot introduced an amendment stating that any territory acquired from Mexico would be free. This amendment passed the House twice, but failed to ever pass in Senate. The "Wilmot Proviso", as it became known as, became a symbol of how intense dispute over slavery was in the U.S.
The Tariff of 1842
A protective tax that was used to create more money for the government. It was reluctantly passed by President John Tyler. The tariff was made to get the government out of a recession
Bear Flag Revolt
a revolt from Fort Devenworth to Santa Fe; 1846; John C. Frement- Americans in California wanted to be independent of Mexican rule; when the war with Mexico begin these Californians revolted and established an independent republic; hoisted short lived California Bear Flag Republic
Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo
Mexico sold the United States all of the southwest for 15 million dollars in agreement that the rights and religion of the Mexican inhabitants of this land would be recognized by the United States government. It was drawn up by Nicholas P. Trist and sent to congress. The anti slavery congressmen passed the treaty and signed it on February 2nd, 1848.
Creole (1841)
an American ship captured by 130 Virginian slaves in the Bahamas. British officials offered refuge to these slaves because there was immense tension between the Americans and British. Other acts of unlawful invasion had occurred because of the British and the possibility of yet another US/ England War was at large.
Aroostook War
It was over the Maine boundary dispute. The British wanted to build a road from Halifax to Quebec. It ran through land already claimed by Maine. Fights started on both sides and they both got their local militia. It could have been a war, but it never proceeded that far.
John C. Fremont
A captain and an explorer who was in California with several dozen well-armed men when the Mexican War broke out. He helped to overthrow the Mexican rule in 1846 by collaborating with Americans who had tried to raise the banner of the California Bear Republic. Fremont helped to take California from the inside.
Joint Resolution
Passed in 1845 by President James K. Polk gained a majority of the two house congress and formally invited Texas to become the 28th state.
Manifest Destiny
The Manifest Destiny was an emotional upsurge of certain beliefs in the US in the 1840's and 1850's. Citizens of the US believed they should spread their democratic government over the entire North America and possibly extend into South America. The campaign of 1844 was included in this new surge. James Polk represented the Democrats while Henry Clay was nominated by the Whigs. The campaign and mudslinging was as harsh as ever and spread all over the continent.
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
a compromise over the Maine boundary; America received more land but England got the Halifax-Quebec route; it patched up the Caroline Affair of 1837
Spot Resolutions
Proposed by Abraham Lincoln in the spring of 1846. After news from president James K. Polk that 16 American service men had been killed or wounded on the Mexican border in American territory, Abraham Lincoln, then a congressman from Illinois, proposed these resolutions to find out exactly on what spot the American soldier's blood had been shed. In Polk's report to congress the President stated that the American soldiers fell on American soil, but they actually fell on disputed territory that Mexico had historical claims to.
Robert Gray
Ship captain who explored the Oregon territory in the late 1700's Discovered the Columbia River in 1792. Named the river after his ship
Zachary Taylor
A major general from 1846-1847 in the Mexican War. Known as "Old Rough and Ready," he defeated the Mexicans in a campaign that took him to Buena Vista in Mexico. The victorious campaign helped pressure the Mexicans into peace.
Nicolas P. Trist
Chief clerk of the State Department, 1848; arranged armistice with Santa Anna; signed Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo; secured Texas and other land as American territories. p.285
Stephen Kearny
American Army officer in the Mexican War. In 1846, he led 1700 troops over the Santa Fe Trail to Santa Fe. He conquered New Mexico and moved his troops over to Los Angeles. He was defeated by the Mexicans at San Pascual in 1846. He was arrested for refusing to carry out orders and sent into Mexico, where he died in 1848
Wilmot, David
A representative from Pennsylvania who introduced an amendment that would make slavery illegal in territory to be gained from Mexico. He proposed the amendment in 1846. This amendment was at the center of the slavery debate and inflamed both sides.
John Tyler
An after-thought Vice President to William Henry Harrison in the election of 1840. He was a democrat but switched over to the Whig Party because he didn't like Andrew Jackson. After Harrison died after a month in office, Tyler took over. Since he was a Democrat in his principle he was against many of the things the Whigs tried to do. He became the first Vice President to take office because of a presidents death.
John Slidell
American and Mexico were on unfriendly terms with each other. The disagreement came over boundaries along Texas and in California. John Slidell was sent to Mexico in 1845 as a minister, He was given instructions to offer $25 million to the Mexicans for California. He was rejected by the Mexicans and they called this offer "insulting". After Mexico refused it lead to the Mexico American war.
Winfield Scott
Old Fuss and Feathers, led American troops in Mexico City during the Mexican American War Mexicans surrendered to him
Lord Ashburton
Lord Ashburton was sent by England to Washington in 1842 to work things out with Secretary Webster over boundary disputes. He was a nonprofessional diplomat that was married to a wealthy American woman. Ashburton and Webster finally compromised on the Maine boundary. They split the area of land and Britain kept the Halifax-Quebec route.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act, set forth in 1854, said that Kansas and Nebraska should come into the Union under popular sovereignty. Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduced it, and it pushed the country even closer the Civil War.
Free-Soil Party
The Free-Soil Party was organized by anti-slavery men in the north, democrats who were resentful at Polk's actions, and some conscience Whigs. The Free-Soil Party was against slavery in the new territories. They also advocated federal aid for internal improvements and urged free government homesteads for settlers. This Free-Soil Party foreshadowed the emergence of the Republican party.
Fugitive Slave Law
a law passed just before the Civil War also called the "Bloodhound Bill", slaves who escaped could not testify in their behalf and were not allowed a trial by jury. If the judge in the case freed the slave they would receive five dollars, if not they would get ten dollars. Those found helping slaves would be fined or jailed. This added to the rage in the North.
Underground Railroad
chain of anti-slavery homes at which slaves were hidden and taken to the north, Harriet Tubman is known for her role in this
Compromise 1850
This compromise signed by Millard Fillmore deals with disputed territory, and the controversy of whether California should join. The results were that California joined as a free state, and what was left of the Mexican Cession land became New Mexico and Utah, and did not restrict slavery. The compromise benefited the North more than the South.
Ostend manifesto
The Ostend Manifesto took place in 1854. A group of southerners met with Spanish officials in Belgium to attempt to get more slave territory. They felt this would balance out congress. They tried to buy Cuba but the Spanish would not sell it. Southerners wanted to take it by force and the northerners were outraged by this thought.
Henry Clay
Should have been nominated by the Whigs in the 1848 election because he was the ideal Whig. However, he made too many speeches which created too many enemies. He also came up with the Compromise of 1850.
Zachary Taylor
Taylor was a general and hero of the Mexican-American war. He was elected to the presidency in 1848, representing the Whig party. He was a good soldier but a poor administrator. He was in office during the crisis of California's admittance to the Union but died in office before a compromise could be worked out, and left vice president Filmore to finalize a deal between the hostile north and south.
John C. Calhoun
a sixty-eight year old South Carolina senator who died in 1850 of tuberculosis. The tension between the North and South had not began to build and become unbearable. An associate delivered a speech that he wrote which declared slavery okay. He proposed to leave slavery as it was and restore the slavocracy by returning the runaway slaves to their owners. He wanted to preserve the Union and he believed in the Constitution.
Winfield Scott
He was the old general figure that the Whigs used to symbolize them. Scott, however, did not win the election of 1852. His personality did not fit with the masses which cost him the election. Pierce won the election of 1852. (P.381)
Matthew C. Perry
He was the military leader who convinced the Japanese to sign a treaty in 1853 with the U.S. The treaty allowed for a commercial foot in Japan which was helpful with furthering a relationship with Japan.
Lewis Cass
Named father of "popular sovereignty." Ran for president in 1848 but Gen. Taylor won. The north was against Cass because popular sovereignty made it possible for slavery to spread.
Stephen Douglas
Stephen Douglas took over for Henry Clay in the Compromise of 1850. Clay could not get the compromised passed because neither party wanted to pass it as a whole since they would be passing things for the opposite party as well as their own. Douglas split the compromise up to get it passed.
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was elected president in the 1852 election as the second Democratic "dark horse." He was a pro-southern northerner who supported the Compromise of 1850 and especially the Fugitive Slave Law. He also tried to gain Cuba for the South as a slave state, but was stopped because of Northern public opinion after the incident in Ostend, Belgium. He also supported the dangerous Kansas-Nebraska Act pushed for by Senator Douglas. He was succeeded in 1856 by James Buchanan.
Freeport Doctrine
The Freeport Doctrine occurred in Freeport, Illinois during the debates of Lincoln and Douglas for senator. This was a question that Lincoln asked Douglas that made Douglas answer in such a way that the South would know that he was not truly supporting them.
Harper's Ferry Raid
Occurred in October of 1859. John Brown of Kansas attempted to create a major revolt among the slaves. He wanted to ride down the river and provide the slaves with arms from the North, but he failed to get the slaves organized. Brown was captured. The effects of Harper's Ferry Raid were as such: the South saw the act as one of treason and were encouraged to separate from the North, and Brown became a martyr to the northern abolitionist cause.
Constitutional Union Party
also known as the "do-nothings" or "Old Gentlemen's" party; 1860 election; it was a middle of the road group that feared for the Union- consisted mostly of Whigs and Know-Nothings, met in Baltimore and nominated John Bell from Tennessee as candidate for presidency-the slogan for this candidate was "The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of the laws."
American Know Nothing Party
Developed from the order of the Star Spangled Banner and was made up of nativists. This party was organized due to its secretiveness and in 1865 nominated the ex-president Fillmore. These super-patriots were antiforeign and anti-Catholic and adopted the slogan "American's must rule America!" Remaining members of the Whig party also backed Fillmore for President.
Panic of 1857
The California gold rush increased inflation; speculation in land and railroads "ripped economic fabric"; hit the North harder than South because the South had cotton as a staple source of income; the North wanted free land from the government; drove Southerners closer to a showdown; caused an increase in tariffs; gave Republicans an issue for the election of 1860.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate 1858
Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas to a series of 7 debates. Though Douglas won the senate seat, these debates gave Lincoln fame and helped him to later on win the presidency. These debates were a foreshadowing of the Civil War.
The Impending Crisis of the South
A book written by Hinton Helper. Helper hated both slavery and blacks and used this book to try to prove that non-slave owning whites were the ones who suffered the most from slavery. The non-aristocrat from N.C. had to go to the North to find a publisher that would publish his book.
Bleeding Kansas
Kansas was being disputed for free or slave soil during 1854-1857, by popular sovereignty. In 1857, there were enough free-soilers to overrule the slave-soilers. So many people were feuding that disagreements eventually led to killing in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces.
Roger Taney
He was Chief Justice for the Dred Scott case. A decision was made on March 6, 1857. Roger Taney ruled against Dred Scott. Scott was suing for freedom because of his long residence in free territory. He was denied freedom because he was property and his owner could take him into any territory and legally hold him as a slave. This court ruling was major cause in starting the Civil War.
John Breckinridge
John Breckinridge was the vice-president elected in 1856. Breckinridge was nominated for the presidential election of 1860 for the Southern Democrats. After Democrats split, the Northern Democrats would no longer support him. Breckenridge favored the extension of slavery, but was not a Disunionist. Breckinridge also wanted to keep the Union together, but when the polls started he couldn't even get the votes of his own party.
John Bell
Nominated for presidency in 1860 by the Constitutional Union Party, which formed a split in the Union. He was a compromise candidate.
Abraham Lincoln
nicknamed "Old Abe" and "Honest Abe"; born in Kentucky to impoverished parents and mainly self-educated; a Springfield lawyer. Republicans chose him to run against Senator Douglas (a Democrat) in the senatorial elections of 1858. Although he loss victory to senatorship that year, Lincoln came to be one of the most prominent northern politicians and emerged as a Republican nominee for president. Although he won the presidential elections of 1860, he was a minority and sectional president (he was not allowed on the ballot in ten southern states).
John Crittenden
A Senator of Kentucky, that fathered two sons: one became a general in the Union Army, the other a general in the Confederate Army. He is responsible for the Crittenden Compromise. This augments the fact that the war was often between families, and its absurdity. Kentucky and other states were split up between the Union and Confederacy, and both in the North and South sent people to the other side. This makes it clear that the war is primarily over slavery.
Hinton Helper 1875
book entitled 'Impending Crisis of the South' that stirred trouble. Attempted to prove that indirectly the non-slave holding whites were the ones who suffered the most from slavery; the book was banned in the South but countless copies were distributed as campaign material for republicans
John Brown
John Brown was a militant abolitionist that took radical extremes to make his views clear. In May of 1856, Brown led a group of his followers to Pottawattamie Creek and launched a bloody attack against pro-slavery men killing five people. This began violent retaliation against Brown and his followers. This violent attack against slavery helped give Kansas its nick name, "bleeding Kansas".
Charles Sumner
He was an unpopular senator from Mass., and a leading abolitionist. In 1856, he made an assault in the pro-slavery of South Carolina and the South in his coarse speech, "The Crime Against Kansas." The insult angered Congressmen Brooks of South Carolina. Brooks walked up to Sumner's desk and beat him unconscious. This violent incident helped touch off the war between the North and the South.
Dred Scott
Scott was a black slave who had lived with his master for five years in Illinois and Wisconsin territory. He sued for his freedom on the basis of his long residence in free territory. The Dred Scott court decision was handed down by the Supreme Court on March 6,1857. The Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott was a black slave and not a citizen. Hence, he could not sue in a federal court.
Portsmouth Conference
The meeting between Japan, Russia, and the U.S. that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the fighting between those two countries.
Gentleman's Agreement
An agreement that was negotiated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 with the Japanese government. The Japanese agreed to limit immigration, and Roosevelt agreed to discuss with the San Francisco School Board that segregation of Japanese children in school would be stopped.
Root-Takahira Agreement
In 1908 the United States and Japan signed this agreement saying they would both honor the territorial possessions of the respective countries that were in the Pacific Ocean, and they would also uphold China's Open Door Policy.
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
In 1901 the United States and Great Britain created an agreement in which the United States would receive exclusive rights to construct the Panama Canal, and presumably control and fortify it. In previous years the agreement had been that the United States and Britain would build and fortify the canal jointly.
Hay-Buanu-Vanilla Treaty
The treaty signed in1903 between the United States and Panama that allowed the United States to build the Panama Canal. The United States leased the 10-mile wide canal zone with a down payment of $10 million and an annual payment of $250,000 for ninety-nine years.
Panama Canal
The United States built the Panama Canal to have a quicker passage to the Pacific from the Atlantic and vice versa. It cost $400,000,000 to build. Columbians would not let Americans build the canal, but then with the assistance of the United States a Panamanian Revolution occurred. The new ruling people allowed the United States to build the canal.
Roosevelt Corollary
Roosevelt stated that the U.S. would use the military to intervene in Latin American affairs if necessary.
Big Stick Policy
The policy held by Teddy Roosevelt in foreign affairs. The "big stick" symbolizes his power and readiness to use military force if necessary. It is a way of intimidating countries without actually harming them.
Clayton -Bulwar Treaty
The Clayton Bulwar Treaty of 1850 between the British and the US stated that any canal project on the isthmus of Panama would be a joint effort by the two countries.
benevolent assimilation
McKinley and the U.S. were trying to assimilate the Philippines to help them become better. American dollars went to the Philippines to improve roads, sanitation, and public health. Although the U.S. might have looked intrusive, they were actually trying to improve the condition of the Philippines.
Open Door notes
In 1899 the United States feared that countries with "spheres of influence" in China might choose to limit or restrict trade to and from their respective areas. John Hay avoided any problems with trade by sending notes to each country who held power in China asking them to keep trade open and tariffs low.
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxers were a group of Chinese revolutionaries that despised western intervention in China. The rebellion resulted in the deaths of thousands of converted Chinese Christians, missionaries, and foreign legions. It took 5 countries' armies and four months to stop the rebellion.
John Hay
Was the Secretary of State in 1899; dispatched the Open Door Notes to keep the countries that had spheres of influence in China from taking over China and closing the doors on trade between China and the U.S.
Spheres of Influence
European powers, such as Britain and Russia, moved in to divide up China in 1895. These countries gained control of certain parts of China's economy. These were called spheres of influence. The U.S. feared that these European powers would divide up China so they proposed the Open Door policy. The Chinese did not like the idea of unwelcome foreigners trading freely within their country, so they started the Boxer Rebellion.
Philippine Insurrection
Even before the Philippines were annexed by the U.S. there was tension between U.S. troops and Filipinos. One U.S. sentry shot a Filipino who was crossing a bridge. The situation deteriorated and eventually we entered into a war with the Philippines. It would take two years to settle this dispute, as compared to the four months needed to defeat the once powerful Spain. Though the U.S. had better arms, the guerilla warfare employed by the Filipinos left the Americans outmatched. Between 200,000 and 600,000 Filipinos died in the war, most from sickness and disease caused by the war.
Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
Ballinger, who was the Secretary of Interior, opened public lands in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska against Roosevelt's conservation policies. Pinchot, who was the Chief of Forestry, supported former President Roosevelt and demanded that Taft dismiss Ballinger. Taft, who supported Ballinger, dismissed Pinchot on the basis of insubordination. This divided the Republican Party.
Meat Inspection Act
Passed in 1906. It stated that the preparation of meat shipped over state lines would be subject to federal inspection. Part of the Progressive reforms, which helped out the consumer.
Pure Food and Drug Act
It was created in 1906 and was designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals. It was made to protect the consumer.
Newlands Act
Congressional response to Theodore Roosevelt in 1902. Washington was to collect money from sales of public lands in western states and use funds for development of irrigation projects
Dollar diplomacy
Taft's foreign policy which replaced "bullets with dollars"; involved investors instead of military. Eventually worked better in Latin America than China.
Payne-Aldrich Act
Signed by Taft in March of 1909 in contrast to campaign promises. Was supposed to lower tariff rates but Senator Nelson N. Aldrich of Rhode Island put revisions that raised tariffs. This split the Republican party into progressives (lower tariff) and conservatives (high tariff).
Seventeenth Amendment
The Seventeenth Amendment was adopted in 1913 shortly after "direct primaries" were adopted. U.S. Senators were previously chosen by state legislators who were controlled by political machines. These Senators were known for dealing with mainly business matters in politics. The 17th Amendment stated that Senators were now elected by popular vote from the citizens.
Eighteenth Amendment
Amendment forbids the sale and manufacture of liquor and made it illegal in 1919.
Elkins Act
The Elkins Act of 1903 was an act passed by Congress against the Railroad industries. It was specifically targeted at the use of rebates. It allowed for heavy fining of companies who used rebates and those who accepted them. It is part of the Progressive Reform movement.
Hepburn Act
1906 - This Act was signed by Teddy Roosevelt to give the ICC the right to set rates that would be reasonable. It also extended the jurisdiction of the ICC to cover express, sleeping car, and pipeline companies. It prohibited free passes and rebates. It was the first time in U.S. history that a government agency was given power to establish rates for private companies.
Northern Securities Case
The Northern Securities Company was a holding company in 1902. The company was forced to dissolve after they were challenged by Roosevelt, his first trust-bust.
Initiative
the process of petitioning a legislature to introduce a bill. It was part of the Populist Party's platform in 1891, along with referendum and recall. These all intended to make the people more responsible for their laws and allow them to make political decisions rather than the legislature.
Referendum
When citizens vote on laws instead of the state or national governments. The referendum originated as a populous reform in the populist party, but was later picked up by the progressive reform movement.
Recall
The people could possibly remove an incompetent politician from office by having a second election.
Recall
A second election could be called by the people, and could possibly remove an incompetent politician from office.
conservation
Movement in America to begin preserving natural resources and stop the rapid destruction of these resources and land.
Muckrakers
Muckrakers- nickname given to young reporters of popular magazines. These magazines spent a lot of money on researching and digging up "muck," hence the name muckrakers. This name was given to them by Pres. Roosevelt- 1906. These investigative journalists were trying to make the public aware of problems that needed fixing.
Robert M. La Follete
Governor of Wisconsin nicknamed " Fighting Bob" who was a progressive Republican leader. His "Wisconsin Idea" was the model for state progressive government. He used the "brain trust", a panel of experts, to help him create effective, efficient government. He was denied the nomination for the Republicans in favor of Theodore Roosevelt.
Hiram Johnson
A progressive reformer of the early 1900s. He was elected the republican governor of California in 1910, and helped to put an end to trusts. He put an end to the power that the Southern Pacific Railroad had over politics.
Charles Evans Hughes
A reformist Republican governor of New York, who had gained fame as an investigator of malpractices by gas and insurance companies and by the coal trust. He later ran against Wilson in the 1916 election.
Upton Sinclair
He was the author of the sensational novel, THE JUNGLE, published in 1906. His intention was to describe the conditions of canning factory workers. Instead, Americans were disgusted by his descriptions of dirty food production. His book influenced consumers to demand safer canned products.
William Howard Taft
In the 1908 election Taft was chosen over William Jennings Bryan to succeed Roosevelt. As president he approached foreign policy by using America's wealth to negotiate politically. He also brought suits against 90 trusts during his administration. Due to his lack of political skills, he helped divide the Republican Party.
Henry Demarest Lloyd
He wrote the book "Wealth Against Commonwealth" in 1894. It was part of the progressive movement and the book's purpose was to show the wrong in the monopoly of the Standard Oil Company.
Jacob Riis
Jacob Riss was a reporter for the New York Sun. He was a photo journalist. His book HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES detailed life in the slums. He was trying to bring attention to the situation of the poor to bring about some sort of change.
Ida Tarbell
Ida Tarbell was a "Muckraker" who wrote in the magazine McClure's (1921). As a younger woman, in 1904, Tarbell made her reputation by publishing the history of the Standard Oil Company, the "Mother of Trusts."
LUSITANIA
The Lusitania was a British passenger ship that was sunk by a German U-Boat on May 7, 1915. 128 Americans died. The unrestricted submarine warfare caused the U.S. to enter World War I against the Germans.
Sussex
Germany agreed not to sink unarmed passenger ships with out warning. They violated this in 1916 when they torpedoed this French passenger ship. Wilson threatened to break diplomatic relations because of this.
Federal Trade Commission
A committee formed to investigate industries engaging in interstate commerce. It was created to stop unfair trade practices and to regulate and crush monopolies.
Clayton Act
This helped to control monopolies by lengthening the Sherman Act's list of business practices that were objectionable (interlocking directorates). It exempted labor and agricultural organizations from antitrust prosecution; legalized strikes and peaceful picketing.
Federal Farm Loan Act
Passed by president Wilson in 1916. Was originally a reform wanted by the Populist party. It gave farmers the chance to get credit at low rates of interest.
Jones Act
Jones Act (1916): signed by President Wilson, it granted territorial status to the Philippines and promised to grant independence as soon as a stable government was established.
Allies
Composed of France, Britain, and Russia, and later Japan and Italy, the Allies fought the Central Powers in World War I. The United States joined the Allies in 1917, and after major economic and military blows, World War I ended with the Treaty of Versailles.
Federal Reserve Act
The most important piece of economic legislation between the Civil War and the New Deal. It created a regulatory agency for banking with 12 regional reserve districts. Each bank was independent but was controlled by the Federal Reserve Board, which was controlled by the public. The Federal Reserve controls the amount of money in circulation through reserves and interest rates.
Charles Evans Hughes
He was a Republican governor of New York who was a reformer. He was later a supreme court justice who ran for President against Woodrow Wilson in 1916. The Democrats said that if Hughes won then the country would end up going to war. Hughes lost a very close race for the position to Wilson.
New Nationalism
Progressive policy of Theodore Roosevelt--1912 Progressive party platform--favored a more active government role in economic and social affairs--favored continued consolidation of trusts and labor unions and the growth of powerful regulatory agencies in Washington--favored women's suffrage and social welfare programs (including minimum-wage laws and "socialistic" social insurance).
New Freedom
Wilson's policy that favored the small business, entrepreneurship, and the free functioning of unregulated and unmonopolized markets.
Underwood Tariff (1913)
The Underwood Tariff, substantially reduced import fees. Lost tax revenue would be replaced with an income tax that was implemented with the 16th amendment.
Sixteenth Amendment
It was adopted in 1913 and stated that Congress shall have the power to lay and collect income taxes. This amendment was passed because earlier the Supreme Court had declared that an income tax was unconstitutional. It was part of the progressive movement. It was created to shift the burden of taxes to the wealthy.
Louis D. Brandeis
A prominent reformer and Attorney in "Muller vs. Oregon" (1908) that persuaded Supreme Court to accept constitutionality of laws protecting women workers saying conditions are harder on women's weaker bodies. Wrote book "Other People's Money and How Bankers use it" (1914) that pushed reform within the banks. Nominated in 1916 by Woodrow Wilson for Supreme Court.
Venustiano Carranza
He became president of Mexico in 1914. He succeeded the harsh President Huerta. President Carranza at first supported Wilson's sending General Pershing into Mexico to look for the criminal Pancho Villa, but when he saw the number of troops he became outraged and opposed Wilson.
Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa was a combination of a bandit and a Robin Hood. He was a rival of President Carranza of Mexico. He alluded Pershing and was never caught because Pershing was forced to go fight in WWI.
John J. Pershing
Pershing was an American general who led troops against "Pancho" Villa in 1916. He took on the Meuse-Argonne offensive in 1918 which was one of the longest lasting battles- 47 days in World War I. He was the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I.
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Ruler of Germany; congratulated the Boers of South Africa for capturing a British raiding party; this turned British anger toward Germany and prevented a war between the US and Britain over the Venezuelan Crisis
Central Powers
During WWI, the powers opposing the Allies. These countries included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
Woodrow Wilson
The Democratic representative in the presidential elections of 1912 and 1916. He was elected into the presidency as a minority president. He was born in Virginia and was raised in a very religious family. He was widely known for his political sermons. He was an aggressive leader and believed that Congress could not function properly without good leadership provided by the president. His progressive program was known as New Freedom and his foreign policy program was Moral Diplomacy. He was president during World War I.
Herbert Croly
He favored the regulation of trusts and labor unions with a strong national government and inspired the book The Promise of American Life
Eugene Debs
Represented the Socialist Party in the 1908 and 1912 elections; high number of votes in the 1912 election made Socialists think that they would win the presidency in 1916
Food Administration
An administration created to feed wartime America and its allies. Herbert Hoover, a Quaker-humanitarian, was chosen as the leader, mostly because of his already existent title of "hero" that he acquired leading a massive charitable drive to feed the starving people of war-racked Belgium. This was the most successful of the wartime administrations.
Bolsheviks
These communists organized a revolution in Russia to overthrow the tsar. The communist revolution caused Russia to pull out of WWI.
Doughboys
The nickname given to regular soldiers in World War I. They were part of the American Legion that was lobbying for veteran's benefits. They wanted to receive their "dough" to make up for the wages that they lost when they joined the military.
Big Four
The "Big Four" refers to the four countries that were allied together in WWI. The countries were the U.S. represented by President Wilson, England represented by David Lloyd George, France represented by Georges Clemenceau, and Italy represented by Vittorio Orlando.
Irreconcilables
During World War I, senators William Borah of Idaho and Hiram Johnson of California, led a group of people who were against the United States joining the League of Nations. Also known as "the Battalion of Death". They were extreme isolationists and were totally against the U.S. joining the League of Nations.
Treaty of Versailles
This treaty was created to solve problems made by World War I. Germany was forced to accept the treaty. It was composed of only four of the original points made by President Woodrow Wilson. The treaty punished Germany and did nothing to stop the threat of future wars. It maintained the pre-war power structure.
Nineteenth Amendment
This amendment gave women suffrage in 1920. Women were guaranteed the right to vote after a century of conflicts.
Committee on Public Information
It was headed by George Creel. The purpose of this committee was to mobilize people's minds for war, both in America and abroad. Tried to get the entire U.S. public to support U.S. involvement in WWI. Creel's organization, employed some 150,000 workers at home and oversees. He proved that words were indeed weapons.
Espionage and Sedition Acts
Espionage Act of 1917; Sedition Act of 1918; reflected current fear about Germans and antiwar Americans; Among the 1,900 prosecuted under these laws were antiwar Socialists and members of the radical union Industrial Workers of the World; were enacted during WWI to keep Americans united in favor of the war effort.
Industrial Workers of the World
Also known as "Wobblies," a more radical labor organization that was against war.
War Industries Board
President Wilson appointed Bernard Baruch to head the board in March of 1918 during WWI--intended to restore economic order- to make sure we were producing enough at home and abroad--never had more than feeble formal powers--was disbanded a few days after the armistice.
Collective security
Described what the League of Nations should do. It said that the League of Nations was supposed to guarantee the political independence and territorial integrity of all countries.
normalcy
After a long reign of high morality, outrageous idealism, and "bothersome do-goodism", people longed for the "normalcy" of the old America, and were ready to accept a lower quality president who would not force them to be so involved. Harding coined the phrase a "return to normalcy".
Zimmerman note
Written by Arthur Zimmerman, a German foreign secretary. In this note he had secretly proposed a German- Mexican alliance. He tempted Mexico with the ideas of recovering Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The note was intercepted on March 1, 1917 by the U.S. government. This was a major factor that led us into WWI.
Fourteen Points
The Fourteen Points were introduced by Wilson in 1918. It was Wilson's peace plan. Each of the points were designed to prevent future wars. He compromised each point at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The only point which remained was the 14th (League of Nations). Each one was appealing to a specific group in the war and each one held a specific purpose.
League of Nations
In 1919, after the war, Wilson proposed the League in the 14th point of his peace plan. He envisioned it as an Assembly with seats for all nations and a special council for the great powers. The US voted not to join the League because in doing so, it would have taken away our self-determination, and Congress could not decide whether to go to war or not.
Marshal Foch
The quiet Frenchman who became the supreme commander of the Allied forces during Germany's attack on the Western front in World War I; his axiom was, "To make war is to attack."
Henry Cabot Lodge
Lodge was an outspoken senator from Massachusetts. He came from a distinguished lineage that dated back to the colonial times. He introduced the Literacy Test bill in 1896 to be taken by immigrants, but it was vetoed by Cleveland. The bill however was passed and enacted in 1917. Lodge also led a group of Republicans against the League of Nations. Lodge proposed amendments to the League Covenant but Wilson would not accept. We did not join the League.
Warren G. Harding
He was easygoing and kind, and therefore one of the best liked men of his time. As a president, however, he had a weak. He won the 1920 election but he was unable to detect moral wrongs in his associates. He appointed "great minds" to office because he knew he lacked in intelligence, but a few of the men he appointed were morally lacking. He was called an "amiable boob,". He died in 1923 from a stroke.
James M. Cox
He was the democrat nominee chosen to run for the presidency against Harding in the 1920 election. His vice-presidential running mate was Franklin Roosevelt.
Self-Determination
The idea that all people can have independence and make up their own government. This was one of Wilson's fourteen points.
Eugene V. Debs
Socialist, Eugene V. Debs, was accused of espionage and sent to a federal penitentiary for ten years. All this came about because of a speech that he made in Columbus, Ohio at an anti- war rally. Despite his imprisonment he ran for presidency in 1920. Although he didn't win, he had many votes; in fact he had the most that any candidate of the Socialist party had ever had.
Bernard Baruch
Bernard Baruch was a stock speculator appointed by Wilson to head the War Industries Board. The Board had only formal powers and was disbanded. He was later a United States delegate for the U.N. during the Cold War.
George Creel
Journalist who was responsible for selling America on WWI and was head of the Committee on Public Information. He was also responsible for selling the world on Wilsonian war aims.
Flappers
The dynamic 1920's revealed women notorious for their risky attire and dance styles. Referred to as "wild abandons," these girls exemplified the new sexually frank generation.
Modernists
believed that God was a "good guy" and the universe a pretty chummy place; these were the people who believed in God but were also able to except evolution and modern science
Sacco and Vanzetti Case
Nicola Sacco was a shoe-factory worker and Bartholomew Vanzetti was a fish peddler. They were both convicted of murdering a Massachusetts paymaster and his guard in 1921. They were supported by Liberals and Radicals. The case lasted 6 years and resulted in execution based on weak evidence. Mainly because Americans were xenophobic (afraid of foreigners).
Ku Klux Klan
In the 1920s this group was very anti-foreign. It was against all groups which did not have a protestant background. They were most prevalent in the Midwest and the south. They eventually became less popular when Klan officials were caught embezzling money.
Emergency Quota Act 1921
This law restricted immigration to 3% of each nationality that was in the United States in 1910.
Immigration Quota Act 1924
was passed in 1924--cut quotas for foreigners from 3 % to 2% of the total number of immigrants in 1890--purpose was to freeze America's existing racial composition (which was largely Northern European) --prevented Japanese from immigrating, causing outrage in Japan.
Volstead Act
The Volstead Act implemented the 18th Amendment. It established illegal alcohol at above .5%.
Fundamentalism
A movement that pushed that the teachings of Darwin were destroying faith in God and the Bible. It consisted of the old-time religionists who didn't want to conform to modern science.
Sinclair Lewis
Lewis was the chief chronicler of Midwestern life. He was a master of satire and wrote "
Main Street
" in 1920. Then he wrote "Babbit" which describe a materialistic middle-class American businessman.
William Faulkner
He was a writer. In 1926 he wrote a bitter war novel called "Soldier's Pay". He also wrote many other powerful books about the lives of Southerners during the Civil War.
Buying on Margin
This kind of buying stocks was usually only used by poor and middle class people. They would buy the stock, but only pay for part of it and borrow money from the stockbrokers to pay the rest. Then when they sold the stock for a higher price, they would pay the broker off and keep the rest of the profit. This practice led to the great depression, because the banks couldn't get their money back when the stock market crashed.
Red Scare
The Red Scare erupted in the early 1920's. The American public was scared that communism would come into the US. Left-winged supporters were suspected. This fear of communism helped businessman who used it to stop labor strikes.
Sigmund Freud
The Viennese physician that believed sexual repression was responsible for a variety of nervous and emotional diseases. He argued that health demanded sexual gratification and liberation. His writings seemed to justify the new sexual frankness of the 1920s.
H. L. Mencken
H.L. Mencken was a patron to many young writers in the 1920's. He criticized many subjects like the middle class, democracy, marriage and patriotism in his monthly AMERICAN MERCURY.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
He belonged to the Lost Generation of Writers. He wrote the famous novel "The Great Gatsby" which explored the glamour and cruelty of an achievement-oriented society.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway fought in Italy in 1917. He later became a famous author who wrote "The Sun Also Rises" (about American expatriates in Europe) and "A Farewell to Arms." In the 1920's he became upset with the idealism of America versus the realism he saw in World War I. He was very distraught, and in 1961 he shot himself in the head.
Margaret Sanger
She led an organized birth control movement that openly championed the use of contraceptives.
Andrew Mellon
Mellon was the Secretary of the Treasury during the Harding Administration. He felt it was best to invest in tax-exempt securities rather than in factories that provided prosperous payrolls. He believed in trickle down economics. (Hamiltonian economics)
Bruce Barton
A founder of the "new profession" of advertising, which used the persuasion ploy, seduction, and sexual suggestion. He was a prominent New York partner in a Madison Avenue firm. He published a best seller in 1925, The Man Nobody Knows, suggesting that Jesus Christ was the greatest ad man of all time. He even praised Christ's "executive ability." He encouraged any advertising man to read the parables of Jesus.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford - he made assembly line production more efficient in his Rouge River plant near Detroit- a finished car would come out every 10 seconds. He helped to make car inexpensive so more Americans could buy them.
Frederick W. Taylor
Taylor was an engineer, an inventor, and a tennis player. He sought to eliminate wasted motion. Famous for scientific-management especially time-management studies.
Margaret Sanger
she organized a birth-control movement which openly championed the use of contraceptives in the 1920's.
A. Mitchell Palmer
Attorney General who rounded up many suspects who were thought to be un-American and socialistic; he helped to increase the Red Scare; he was nicknamed the "Fighting Quaker" until a bomb destroyed his home; he then had a nervous breakdown and became known as the "Quaking Fighter."
John Dewey
He was a philosopher who believed in "learning by doing" which formed the foundation of progressive education. He believed that the teachers' goal should be "education for life and that the workbench is just as important as the blackboard."
John T. Scopes
In 1925 Scopes was indicted for teaching evolution in Tennessee. His trial was watched all over the country. This trial represented the Fundamentalist vs. the Modernalist. In the outcome Scopes was only fined $100.00 dollars. While it seemed the Fundamentalists had won, the trial made them look bad.
William Jennings Bryan
Joined the prosecution in the " Monkey Trials" (Scopes Trial) against the teachings of evolution in schools, he was supposed to be an expert on the Bible, but was made to look silly in the case and died soon afterward
Clarence Darrow
A famed criminal defense lawyer for Scopes, who supported evolution. He caused William Jennings Bryan to appear foolish when Darrow questioned Bryan about the Bible.
Federal Housing Authority
Established by FDR during the depression in order to provide low-cost housing coupled with sanitary condition for the poor
Herbert Hoover
He was the head of the Food Administration during World War I. He became the Secretary of Commerce and encouraged businesses to regulate themselves. Hoover was a Republican known for his integrity who won the election of 1928. He had to deal with the Great Crash of 1929, which caused the Great Depression. He signed the Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injunction Act. His belief in "rugged individualism" kept him from giving people direct relief during the Great Depression.
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
Began as a protective measure to assist farmers, but turned out to be the highest protective tariff in the nation's peace time history. It raised the duty on goods from 38.5 percent to 60 percent in 1930.
Black Tuesday
It occurred on October 29, 1929, when 16,410,030 shares of stocks were sold in a save-who-may scramble. It marked the beginning of the Great Depression.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
(1932) This corporation became a government lending bank. It was designed to provide indirect assistance to insurance companies, banks, agricultural organizations, railroads, and even hard-pressed state and local governments. Under this plan, to preserve individualism, no loans were made to individuals. In the election of 1932, Hoover ran against FDR and this was part of Hoover's plan.
Bonus Army
A group of almost 20,000 World War I veterans who were hard-hit victims of the depression, who wanted what the government owed them for their services and "saving" democracy. They marched to Washington and set up public camps and erected shacks on vacant lots. They tried to intimidate Congress into paying them, but Hoover had them removed by the army, which shed a negative light on Hoover.
Hoover-Stimson doctrine
This said that the United States would not recognize any territorial acquisitions that were taken over by force. (This doctrine is related to Japanese aggression in Manchuria in 1931)
Kellogg-Briand Pact
(1929) created by Frank B. Kellogg and Aristide Briand, this pact promised to never make war again and settle all disputes peacefully. Sixty-two nations signed this pact. The treaty was hard to enforce and had no provisions for the use of economic or military force against a nation that may break the treaty.
Fordney-McCumber Tariff Law
In 1922, Congress passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Law. As a result, foreign tariff 's became as high as 38.5%. This was designed to equalize the price of American and Foreign products
Teapot Dome Scandal
One of many scandals under Harding. Involved priceless naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming. Albert B. Fall got Secretary of Navy, Denby to transfer valuable goods to Interior Department secretly. Harry Sinclair and Edward L Dohney were released the lands after paying a large bribe. Scandal polluted governments prestige and made public wonder about the sufficiency of government and undermined faith in courts
McNary -Haugen Bill
This bill was favored by agricultural states. It was pushed to keep high prices on agricultural products by authorizing the government to purchase agricultural surpluses and selling them. The losses of the government could be repaid by a special tax on the farmers. It was passed twice by Congress and vetoes twice by Coolidge.
Dawes Plan
Calvin Coolidge's running mate, Charles Dawes is largely responsible for the Dawes plan of 1924; an attempt to pay off the damages from WWI. This intricate monetary "merry-go-round", as it was often called, gave money to Germany who then paid France and Britain for debts of the war. Former allies then paid the U.S. When the Depression hit, the "merry-go-round" stopped. Finland was the only nation to pay off their debts to the very last penny in 1976. The U.S. never received the money it was owed.
John W. Davis
John W. Davis: Democratic convention nominee in 1924 against Coolidge. He was a wealthy lawyer connected with J.P. Morgan and Company. Coolidge easily defeated Davis.
Robert La Follette
A senator from Wisconsin who ran for the presidency of 1924 on the Progressive party's ticket. Their platform called for government ownership of the railroads and relief for farmers and it lashed out at monopolies. He lost however to Coolidge.
Alfred E. Smith
He ran for president in the 1928 election for the Democrat Party. He was known for his drinking and he lost the election to Herbert Hoover. Prohibition was one of the issues of the campaign. He was the first Roman Catholic to run for president, and it was during a time many people were prejudice toward Catholics.
Ohio Gang
A group of poker-playing, men that were friends of President Warren Harding. Harding appointed them to offices and they used their power to gain money for themselves. They were involved in scandals that ruined Harding's reputation even though he wasn't involved.
Washington conference
The Washington Conference 1921-1922 was a meeting between most major world powers. This conference was for the disarmament of these countries. This meeting also prevented the U. S. and Britain from fortifying their Far East possessions and established the Four Power treaty. The major powers promised to preserve the status-quo in the Pacific. Reduced the number of large battleships for the major powers.
Andrew Mellon
He was the Secretary of the Treasury during the 1920s and under Harding that had the theory that high taxes forced the rich to invest in tax-exempt securities rather than in factories that provided prosperous payrolls. He had followers in his theory called Mellonites. He helped engineer a series of tax reductions and reduced national debt by $10 billion. He was accused of indirectly encouraging the bull market and starting the descent into the stock market crash.
Herbert Hoover
The president of the United States from 1929 to 1932 He was a republican who ran on a campaign of prohibition and prosperity. The early years of his presidency brought about a great deal of prosperity for the United States. Many people blamed him for the stock market crash.
Albert B. Fall
He was Secretary of the Interior during Harding's administration, and was a scheming anticonservationist. He was convicted of leasing naval oil reserves and collecting bribes, which was called the Tea Pot Dome scandal.
Harry M. Daugherty
Attorney General during the 1922 strike against the Railroad Labor Board. The strike ended when Daugherty stopped the strikers in one of the most sweeping injunctions in American history. He was a member of Harding's Ohio Gang. He was accused of the illegal sale of pardons and liquor permits. He was forced to resign. He was tried but a jury failed to convict him.
Charles R. Forbes
In 1923 he resigned as head of the Veteran's Bureau. He swindled $200 million from the government in building Veteran's hospitals. He was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. This was part of the Harding scandal and the "Ohio gang"
Calvin Coolidge
became president when Harding died of pneumonia. He was known for practicing a rigid economy in money and words, and acquired the name "Silent Cal" for being so soft-spoken. He was a true republican and industrialist. Believed in the government supporting big business.
Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding - one of the best liked men of the generation, he was spineless and a bad judge of character. He is compared to Grant because his term in office was scandalous. Many corporations could expand, antitrust laws were ignored, and he achieved disarmament with the Open Door in China. The tariff increased also. He died on August 2, 1923 of pneumonia and thrombosis while making speeches.
Charles Evan Hughes
He was the Republican governor of New York who ran for the presidency in 1916. He lost to Wilson. He was a strong reformer who gained his national fame as an investigator of malpractices in gas and insurance companies. In 1921 he became Harding's Secretary of State. He called together the major powers to the Washington Disarmament Conference in 1921.
Congress of Industrial Organizations
Also known as the CIO, this labor union formed in the ranks of the AFL. It consisted of unskilled workers. The AFL got scared of their influence on workers and suspended all members of the CIO. In 1938 it broke with the AF of L. By 1940 it had 4 million members.
Liberty League
The Liberty League consisted of the conservatives that opposed the New Deal introduced by FDR. Their common opinion was that FDR was pushing the United States too close to socialism. They saw the New Deal as being more apt to hurt United States economics than to help it. (Herbert Hoover and General Motors)
Twentieth and Twenty-first Amendments
The Twentieth Amendment changed the calendar of Congressional sessions and the date of the presidential inauguration (January 20th). In short, it shortened the length of lame duck periods for the presidency. The Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution ended prohibition and allowed the distribution and drinking of alcoholic beverages to commence once again.
Court-packing scheme
Roosevelt tried to put an extra justice on the Supreme Court for every justice over 70 years old who wouldn't retire. These justices would be supporters of Roosevelt and there would be a maximum of 15 judges. The plan failed. Congress would not accept.
National Recovery Act
During the Great Depression, this act was created in 1933 as a helping hand for industry, labor, and the unemployed. It granted labor additional benefits and guaranteed the right to organize through representatives of their own choosing. It was a part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's new plan, but was later declared unconstitutional. Symbol was the "Blue Eagle"
Tennessee Valley Authority
First Government owned corporation. Started to create jobs and build dams in the Tennessee River Valley to supply electricity to poorer areas after the depression.
Social Security Act of 1935
It created a federal insurance program based on the automatic collection of taxes from employees and employers throughout people's working careers. They would receive this money in a monthly pension when they reached the age of 65. The unemployed, disabled, and mothers with dependent children would also receive this money.
Wagner Act
Same as the National Labor Relations Act (1935) and set up the National Labor Relations Board and reasserted the right of labor to engage in self-organization and to bargain collectively.
National Labor Relation Board
Created by the National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act it was created in the 1930's by congressman Wagner who was sympathetic to labor unions. The National Labor Relation Board was an administrative board that gave laborers the rights of self-organization and collective bargaining.
The three R's
Roosevelt's New Deal programs aimed at the three R's- relief, recovery, and reform. Roosevelt's plan was announced on March 4, 1933 to lift the burden of the Great Depression.
Glass-Steagall Act
In 1933, this act allowed the banks to reopen and it gave the president the power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
The CCC was created by the Unemployment Relief Act of 1933. It provided employment in government camps for 3 million uniformed single, young men during the Great Depression. The work they were involved in included reforestation, fire fighting, flood control, and swamp drainage.
Works Progress Administration
Congress created this in 1935 as an agency that gave jobs to people who needed them. They worked on bridges, roads, and buildings. They spent 11 billion dollars and gave almost 9 million people jobs. It was one of the New Deal Agencies.
New Deal
After Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933, he decided the U.S. must improve economically to recover from the Great Depression. His policy, the New Deal, focused on relief, recovery, and reform. Short term goals were relief and immediate recovery. Permanent recovery and reform were done by long-range goals. Programs were established to improve unemployment, regulate minimum wage, and reform many other social issues.
Brain Trusts)
Small group of reform minded intellectuals, mainly young college professors. Considered much of the New Deal legislation and worked as a kitchen cabinet for Franklin Roosevelt.
George W. Norris
He was a Senator from Nebraska, whose steadfast vision and zeal helped an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority to be passed in 1933.
John L. Lewis
John L. Lewis was the leader of the United Mine Workers. He also formed the CIO (Committee for Industrial Organization). He led a "sit-down" strike on General Motors at Flint, Michigan in 1936. Unionists from the Republic Steel Co. wanted to join the CIO, and a fight broke out in 1937 called the
Memorial Day Massacre.
Lewis is responsible for the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Acts (Wages and Hour Bill) which set minimum wage, overtime pay for work over 40 hours in one week, and kids under age 16 could not work.
Alfred M. Landon
Alfred M. Landon was the republican candidate in 1936. This honest and wealthy man from Kansas lost greatly to the Democrat Franklin Roosevelt. He had stressed balancing the budget.
Parity
A plan to help farmers injured from low prices and over-production. From 1909-1914, farms had enjoyed a period of prosperity. Parity was the price placed on a product that gave it the same value, in buying power, that it had from 1909-1914. The AAA paid farmers to reduce production. The payment for this came from taxes gotten from the makers of expensive farm equipment.
Frances Perkins
First woman appointed to a cabinet position. Appointed by FDR, she became Secretary of Labor. She received a lot of undeserved criticism from male politicians and businessmen.
Father Coughlin
Anti-New Deal Catholic Priest; began broadcasting in 1930; called the "microphone messiah"; slogan was "Social Justice"; silenced in 1942 when his broadcasts became too radical.
Huey Long
Nickname "Kingfish"; Senator of Louisiana. He pushed his "Share Our Wealth" program, which would make "Every Man a King". Long planned to run against FDR in the 1936 elections, but he was assassinated.
Francis Townshend
Townshend was a retired physician who developed a plan in which the government would give monetary resources to senior citizens ages sixty and over. This plan was a type of pension for older Americans. He had a lot of followers. This people thought FDR wasn't doing enough.
Harold Ickes
"Honest Harold"; Secretary of the interior; became head of the Public Works Administration (PWA); dealt with industrial recovery and unemployment relief by creating jobs (over thirty-four thousand project jobs for workers). His determination to prevent waste prevented maximum relief.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
--- governor of NY -- 5th cousin to Theodore Roosevelt --- wealthy family -- went to Harvard -- served as secretary of the navy -- was suave and conciliatory -- handicapped --came up with New Deal --- elected as a democrat President in 1932 --elected 4 times (only one to do so) --dealt with Great Depression and WWI
Eleanor Roosevelt
Wife of Franklin Roosevelt; she traveled everywhere with him on behalf of all his campaigns; she became the most active First Lady in history. She fought for the rights of all Americans.
Harry Hopkins
The head of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). A friend and advisor to President FDR. He was very involved in reforms in the Great Depression and in the 30's and 40's in such issues as unemployment and mortgages.
America First Committee
A committee organized by isolationists before WWII, who wished to spare American lives. They wanted to protect America before we went to war in another country. Charles A. Lindbergh (the aviator) was its most effective speaker.
Lend-Lease
A law passed in March of 1941 by sweeping majorities in both houses of Congress. This law said that the U.S. would lend or lease weapons to overseas countries and victims of aggression who would in turn finish the job of the fighting, and keep the war overseas from the U.S.
Atlantic Charter
This was created by Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a secret conference. It outlined the hopes of the democracies and their intentions for improvements after World War II.
Nye Committee
The Nye Committee investigated arms manufacturers and bankers of World War I. Claimed they had caused America's entry into WWI. Public opinion pushed Congress to pass the Neutrality Acts to keep us out of WWII.
Neutrality Acts
Congress made an effort to legislate the nation out of war. The Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war certain restrictions would automatically go into effect. No American could legally sail on a belligerent ship, or sell or transport munitions to a belligerent nation, or make loans to a belligerent.
Hitler-Stalin Nonaggression Pact
This pact was signed by Hitler and Stalin on August 23, 1939. It allowed Hitler to attack Poland without fear of an attack from Russia. This pact helped spur the start of World War II.
"cash and carry"
Only way that Europe could buy American war materials in World War II. They would have to transport the munitions in their own ships and they could only purchase the munitions with cash.
"Phony war"
During World War II Hitler removed his forces from Poland to focus his efforts in France and Britain. All of Europe fell rather silent at the shock of Hitler's move. This silence and period of inactivity in Europe came to an end when Hitler again moved his forces, and attacked the weaker Norway and Denmark. The period of silence in Europe was known as the phony war.
Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act
(1934) The Act was designed to raise American exports and was aimed at both relief and recovery. Led by Cordell Hull, it helped reverse the high-tariff policy.
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party was established in Germany with much of the same beliefs as the Fascists. Nazis believed that the state is more important than the individual and that there should be a strong central government with absolute power. Adolph Hitler is known for leading the Nazi Party. Hitler is also credited with taking the Fascist beliefs a step further and adding the racism into the beliefs. Nazis believed that white people with blonde hair and blue eyes made up a superior race of humans that would one day rule the world.
Rome-Berlin Axis
In 1936 Hitler and Mussolini allied together in the Rome-Berlin Axis. They were both allied with Japan. They fought against the Allies in World War II.
Isolationism
The opposition of the involvement of a country in international alliances, agreements, etc. The U.S. remained isolated in the 1920's because of the disillusionment in WWI. This isolationist sentiment was prevalent during WWII.
Good Neighbor Policy
This was established by Herbert Hoover to create good relations with Latin America. It took much of the American military out of these countries. It also nullified the Roosevelt Corollary.
Winston Churchill
He was the prime minister of England during World War II. He was known as the bull-dog jawed orator who gave his people the nerve to fight off the air bombings occurring in their cities. He was in favor of the Eight-point Atlantic Charter and he was involved in the first conference. He was also one of the Big Three.
Charles Lindbergh
In 1927, he was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in his plane, the Spirit of Saint Louis. He later became an ambassador of goodwill for the United States.
Wendle Willkie
Republican presidential candidate versus Roosevelt in the election of 1940. He lost, but put up a good "race."
Reciprocity
a recognition of two countries or institutions of the validity of licenses or privileges granted by the other. Part of the New Deal trade policy was to reduce tariffs to encourage trade. Idea was that if we reduce tariffs other countries will reduce tariffs on us.
Totalitarianism
Type of government where the government has complete control and the people are powerless.
Urenburg Trials
After WWII, the Allied forces agreed that Nazism had to be cut out of Germany. They tried twenty-two Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, Germany in 1945-1946. Twelve of the tried were hung, and seven sent to jail.
Cordell Hull
Secretary of State during FDR's presidency; believed in reciprocal trade policy of the New Dealers, as well as a low tariff; led to passage of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934; also believed in Good Neighborism.
Joseph Stalin
Harsh and strict Communist dictator of Russia. One of the three big powers during WWII along with Roosevelt from the US and Churchill from Great Britain. Constantly asked for a western front to be established to relieve USSR during WWII.
Benito Mussolini
The Facist dictator of Italy. He sought to create a new empire, much like the Roman one. He became an ally with Adolf Hitler in the Rome-Berlin Axis, and led his forces against the Allied powers in WWII. He was overthrown and beheaded in 1943, after the fall of Sicily during the war.
Francisco Franco
With the help of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, Franco overthrew the Loyalist regime and became the dictator of Spain in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.
Adolf Hitler
A very crude leader that took advantage of a disillusioned and depression-stricken nation. After the Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for WWI, Hitler lead the nation into WWII under the "big lie." He was a manipulative and feared dictator that vented his anger on the Jewish Nation.
Second Front
The second Front was the invasion of western Europe by the US ,British, and French in 1944. This invasion was to take pressure off the Russians and divide the Germans. It was established by the D-Day Invasion.
D-Day
D-day was the first day of the Normandy landings which started the invasion of western Europe and liberated France from the Germans.
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day. The German government surrendered unconditionally during WWII on May 7, 1945
Potsdam Conference
Held near Berlin in 1945 with Truman, Stalin and Clement Atlee who issued an ultimatum to Japan to surrender or be destroyed. This is where Truman learned about the Atomic Bomb.
V-J Day
Victory in Japan Day was celebrated on August 15, 1945 after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. The celebrations continued through the official end of World War II on September 2, 1945 when Japan officially surrendered.
War Production Board (WWII)
This board halted the manufacture of nonessential items such as passenger cars. It assigned priorities for transportation and access to raw materials. It imposed a national speed limit and gasoline rationing because, due to the Dutch East Indies ending their exports of natural rubber to the U.S., they wanted to conserve rubber. They also built fifty-one synthetic rubber plants.
Office of Price Administration
FDR created this in order to prevent inflation in the economy during WWII.
Fair Employment Practice Commission
Roosevelt established this initially to give fair employment to blacks. Eventually, and to this day, its purpose is to protect and serve all races, sexes, ages, and ethnicities involving employment.
Harry S. Truman
He took over the presidency during World War II with the death of Roosevelt. He was called by many the "average man's average man" for his appearance and personality, and he was one of the only presidents without a college education. He was an artillery officer in World War One. He was responsible for the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to end World War II..
Albert Einstein
A German-born scientist who encouraged Roosevelt and America to build the first atomic bomb.
Chester Nimitz
Nimitz served as an Admiral in the Battle of Midway in 1942. He commanded the American fleet into in the Pacific Ocean and learned the Japanese plans through "magic" decoding of their radio messages. With this intercepted information, Nimitz headed the Japanese off and defeated them.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
He was the U. S. general who led the attack in North Africa in Nov. of 1942.He was the master organizer of the D-Day invasion in Europe (June 6, 1944). He ran for the Republican ticket in the 1952 and the1956 elections and won. He was very well liked by the public.
Stalin
Soviet Dictator during WWII and the beginning of the Cold War. In 1943 regained two-thirds of Soviet motherland taken from him by Hitler. Leader of Soviet Union against Hitler, allied with United States. Met with Churchill and Roosevelt at Teheran from November 28 - December 1, 1943 and agreed to attack Germany from all sides.
George S. Patton
"Blood 'n' Guts"; commanded lunges across France by American armored tank division; commander during WWII
Thomas E. Dewey
The Republican presidential nominee in 1944, Dewey was the popular governor of New York. Roosevelt won a sweeping victory in this election of 1944. Dewey also ran against Harry Truman in the 1948 presidential election. Dewey, arrogant and wooden, seemed certain to win the election, and the newspapers even printed, "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" on election night. However, the morning results showed that Truman swept the election, much to Dewey's embarrassment.
Dust bowl
A region in South-central US that had a harsh changing climate for farmers during the Great Depression. (Successive years of drought destroyed farms.)
A. Philip Randolph
He was the black leader of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He demanded equal opportunities in war jobs and armed forces during WWII.
Taft-Hartley Act
(1947) It outlawed the "closed" shop, made unions liable for damages that resulted from jurisdictional disputes among themselves, and required union leaders to take a non-Communist oath.
Fair Deal
Made by Truman in his 1949 message to Congress. It was a program that called for improved housing , full employment, higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVA's, and the extension of social security. Its only successes: raised the minimum wage, better public housing, extended old-age insurance to more people.
Thirty-eighth parallel
The line dividing Korea into two sections, north of the parallel the communist Soviet Union was in charge and south of the parallel was democratic America was in charge. This line would become the demilitarized zone after the Korean conflict.
NSC-68
First drawn up in 1950, NSC-68, or National Security Council Memorandum Number 68, was buried until the Korean crisis later that year. This document suggested that the U.S. could afford to spend upward of 50% of its gross national product for security.
Inchon landing
The landing of UN troops, by General Douglas MacArthur, behind enemy lines at Inchon in Korea. In order to push back the North Korean troops.
Containment
US foreign policy after WWII designed to stop the spread of communism. (Truman Doctrine)
Truman Doctrine
Truman wanted to prevent the spread of communism. He wanted it "contained". The first implementation of the Truman Doctrine was $400 million given to aid Greece and Turkey to prevent a communist takeover.
Marshall Plan
Issued in response to the struggling European countries, the Marshall Plan would allow the U.S. to give financial assistance to certain countries. This was done to prevent communism from rising in countries like France and Italy, whose economies where suffering after WWII. It was agreed in July 1947 that the U.S. would spend $12.5 billion, over four years, in sixteen different nations. In order to receive financial assistance you had to have a democratic government.
National Security Act
Passed by Congress in 1947 and it created the Department of Defense. It also established a National Security Council (NSC) to advise the president on security matters and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to coordinate the government foreign fact-gathering.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Military alliance between the US, Canada and 10 European nations signed on April 4, 1949. It was committed to building military defense of Europe against Communist Russia. Dwight D.Eisenhower became the Supreme Commander of NATO.
Yalta Conference
A conference between Stalin and FDR in an attempt to get Russian support in the highly anticipated invasion of Japan. Russia ,in return, received the southern part of Sakilin Island that it had lost to Japan and joint control of Manchuria's railroads. The Allies also reluctantly allowed Poland to become communist. Many Americans saw this deal as a failure.
Cold War
The Cold War began in 1945 after WWII. It was a global ideological conflict between democracy and communism. (United States versus Soviet Union)
United Nations
United Nations conference took place on April 25, 1945 --FDR died on April 12, but had chosen Republican and Democratic representatives to meet at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House with representatives from 50 nations, fashioning a United Nations' charter similar to the old League of Nations covenant --- featured a Security Council dominated by the US, Britain, USSR, France, and China (the big 5 powers) who could veto, and an Assembly that could be controlled by smaller countries --the UN's permanent home was in NY city.
Iron Curtain
The "iron curtain" refers to the secrecy and isolation of the Soviet Union and its satellite states, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland, after World War II. The phrase was first used by Winston Churchill while he was giving a speech in the United States.
Berlin airlift
The USSR had embargoed all supplies that would go into the Allied Germany. In response, America used many planes to take and drop food and supplies into Berlin. They did this to show the USSR that they were determined to maintain control of Berlin. It worked, the Soviets lifted the blockade.
J. Strom Thurmond
He was nominated for president on a States' Rights Party (Dixiecrats) in the 1948 election. Split southern Democrats from the party due to Truman's stand in favor of Civil Rights for African American. He only got 39 electoral votes.
Thomas Dewey
He worked for a well known New York City law firm. He was Governor of New York State and was elected District Attorney in 1937. He was Governor 3 different times and ran for president twice although he was defeated both times. 1948 the newspapers had him defeating Truman but Truman won.
Adlai Stevenson
The Democratic candidate who ran against Eisenhower in 1952. His intellectual speeches earned him and his supporters the term "eggheads". Lost to Eisenhower.
Dwight Eisenhower
Called "The Republican's Choice" along with his vice president Richard Nixon. He was the commander of the allied forces in Europe, the army chief-of-staff after the war, and the director of NATO for two years. Dwight displayed "grandfatherly good will". The night before the 1952 presidential elections, he declared that he would personally go to Korea and end the war. This helped to win the majority in 41 of the lower 48 states. Eisenhower reigned over a period of unstable peace and prosperity. He was elected to another term in 1956.
Richard Nixon
He was a committee member of the House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities (to investigate "subversion"). He tried to catch Alger Hiss who was accused of being a communist agent in the 1930's. This brought Nixon to the attention of the American public. In 1956 he was Eisenhower's Vice-President.
George F. Kennan
A brilliant young diplomat, and a Soviet specialist, who crafted the "containment doctrine."
Douglas MacArthur
He was the supreme allied commander during the Cold War in 1945. After World War II, MacArthur was put in charge of putting Japan back together. In the Korean War, he commanded the United Nations troops. He was later fired by Harry Truman for insubordination.
Douglas MacArthur
Allied commander and five star general in the U.S. army. He headed the U.S. army in Japan and Korea but was fired by Truman for questioning the actions of his superiors in the midst of the Korean war.
Joseph McCarthy
A Republican Senator from Wisconsin who was strongly against communism. McCarthy claimed there were many communists in the State Department. He did not have much evidence to support his accusations, and his search for communists was considered a type of "witch-hunt." When his lack of evidence was discovered, he was censored by Congress and lost his seat in Congress.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
They were convicted in 1951 of giving atomic bomb data found by American scientists to the Soviet Union. They are the only Americans ever executed during peacetime for espionage.
Harry S. Truman
He was called the "accidental president" and "the average man's average man." He was the first president in many years without a college education, he had farmed, served as an artillery officer in France during WWI, and failed as a haberdasher. Then he rose from precinct-level politics in Missouri to a judgeship to the U.S. Senate. Though a protege of the political machine in Kansas City, he had kept his own hands clean.
Sputnik
The first satellite ever launched into space, was launched by the Russians; began the "race for space" where Americans competed with the Russians to get farther into space. Was launched on Oct. 4, 1957 (Sputnik I).
Missile Gap
The United States and the Soviet Union were involved in a race to discover who had more missiles and war equipment. The missile gap was the difference in how much the United States had compared to how much the Soviet Union had.
National Defense and Education Act
(NDEA) After the Russian satellite "Sputnik" was successfully launched, there was a critical comparison of the Russian to the American education system. The American education system was already seen as too easygoing. So in 1958 Congress made the NDEA, authorizing $887 million in loans to needy college students and in grants for the purpose of improving the teaching of the sciences and languages.
U-2 Incident
Under Eisenhower administration just before the "summit conference" in Paris scheduled for May 1960, the American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia. Eisenhower was forced to step up and assume personal responsibility for the incident. Francis Gary Powers was the pilot that was captured by the Russians but returned. Incident kept Khrushchev from meeting with Eisenhower.
Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis: when President Nasser of Egypt announced his intention to build a damn in the Suez to provide power and irrigation to Egypt, the United States offered its financial support, withdrawing it when Nasser spoke with the Communists on the subject. Nasser responded by nationalizing the Suez canal, which was previously owned by British and French stockholders. This hurt Europe by crippling their oil supply, most of which came from the Persian Gulf.
Eisenhower Doctrine
1957 - Congress and US President pledged US military and economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression. Under the Doctrine the US was able to openly land several thousand troops and help restore order without taking a single life.
Landrum-Griffith Act
America was in desperate need of labor reform. Union leaders and big industries were involved in many scandals. In 1959 Congress passed the Landrum-Griffith Act. It would prevent bullying tactics and would make labor leaders keep accurate financial records.
South East Asia Treaty Organization
SEATO was introduced by secretary Dulles as a prop for his shaky policy in Vietnam. (Similar to NATO)
Hungarian Revolt
When the Hungarians tried to win their freedom from the Communist regime in 1956, they were crushed down by Soviet tanks. There was killing and slaughtering of the rebels going on by military forces.
desegregation
During the 1960's, integration of southern universities began. President Kennedy supported black's civil rights. Some desegregation was painless, but much of it resulted in violent campaigns and riots.
massive retaliation
John Foster Dulles formulated this policy for Eisenhower. He was Eisenhower's secretary of state in the 1950's. It stated that America would be willing to use nuclear weapons against aggressor nations instead of "limited" warfare. This led to the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.
military-industrial complex
During the Cold War military funding increased tremendously and at the end of Eisenhower's administration he warned about forming a "military-industrial complex" in which industry received huge government contracts to build for the military.
Brown v. Board of Education
The case brought before the Supreme Court in May 1954 in which the Court ruled that segregation of races in public schools was unconstitutional.
Geneva Conference
The Geneva conference split the nation of Vietnam roughly in half along the seventeenth parallel., and established a shaky peace in the nation of Laos.
Gamal Abdel Nasser
The hard-nosed Arab-nationalist president of Egypt during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956. He seized the Suez Canal from the English and French. England and France were willing to use force to get it back. Soviets try to interfere. Eisenhower made them back down when he put the Strategic Air Command on alert.
Nikita Khrushnev
The premier of Russia during the race to get satellites into space between Russia and the United States. He used many propaganda techniques to try to fool the world of Russia's intentions. President's Eisenhower and Kennedy dealt with his communist attitudes.
Fidel Castro
He engineered a revolution in Cuba in 1959. He denounced the imperialists and took valuable American property for a land-distribution program. When the U.S. cut off U.S. imports of Cuban sugar, Castro took more U.S. land and resulting from that his dictatorship became similar to Stalin's in Russia. (Communism in the Western Hemisphere)
John F. Kennedy
He was the youngest president ever elected, as well as the only Catholic to take office. He represented the democratic party with his "New Frontier" platform in the 1960 election. He was a major contributor to the space program and to the civil rights movement. He was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.
McCarthyisim
McCarthyism was the communist witch hunts of the 1950's. This fear of Communism ruined many lives and families. The Senate hearings on communism were run by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Earl Warren
Chief Justice and former governor of California; brought originally taboo social issues, such as civil rights to African Americans, to the attention of Congress and the country. Known for the "Brown v. Board of Education" case of 1954.
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks a seamstress and a secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, was known as the "mother of the civil rights movement." In December of 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white rider. She was jailed and fined $14 for the offense. This led to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Ho Chi Minh
The Vietnamese leader who believed in Asian nationalism and anti-colonialism in his country. He was trying to get rid of the French colonial rule in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh's beliefs were discouraged by the Cold War and he became increasingly communist. He lead the North Vietnamese against the U.S. and the south Vietnamese. He was the enemy in Vietnam.
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem, a strong anti-communist, proclaimed South Vietnam a republic on Oct. 26, 1956 and became its first president. He was formerly the Premier of Vietnam. He was assassinated by a military coup d'etat.
Dwight Eisenhower
when elected President, he was the most popular American; "I like Ike!" button; elected to two consecutive terms in 1952 and 1956. President during the prosperous 1950's. Modern Republicanism---didn't undo the New Deal of the Democrats.
Tet Offensive
The name given to a campaign in January 1968 by the Viet Cong to attack twenty-seven South Vietnamese cities, including Saigon. It ended in a military defeat for the Viet Cong, but at the same time, proved that Johnson's "gradual escalation" strategy was not working, shocking an American public that believed the Vietnam conflict was a sure victory.
Civil Right Act of 1964
Passed by Congress in 1964 in honor of the late President Kennedy. This act banned racial discrimination in places such as hospitals and restaurants. This act also gave the government the power to desegregate schools. It led to the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Twenty-Fourth Amendment
(1964) abolished the poll tax in federal elections. This joined the blacks with the whites during the civil rights movement.
Voting Rights Act
This act, passed in 1965, outlawed literacy tests and sent federal voter registrars into several Southern states. This act did not end discrimination and oppression overnight, but it helped blacks get a foothold on change.
Operation Rolling Thunder
President Johnson launched Operation Rolling Thunder, a massive air bombardment of North Vietnam, in April of 1965. The targets were directly chosen by the president. These were regular full scale bombing attacks against Vietnam.
Pueblo Incident
In January 1968 during the Vietnam War the North Koreans seized the "Pueblo", a U.S. intelligence ship, evidently in international waters. They imprisoned the crew of some eighty men for eleven months. This episode stirred American anger, but provoked no military response.
Great Society
The Great Society was President Johnson's policy. It was a continuation of the democratic ideals of FDR's New Deal and Truman's Fair Deal. It was a war on poverty in which such issues as health care, education, and welfare were covered and increased in importance. (Medicare and Medicaid)
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
In August 1964 shots were allegedly fired at American navy ships by the North Vietnamese. LBJ quickly ordered an air raid on North Vietnamese bases, and pushed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution through Congress. This gave the president a blank check to uses for further force in Southeast Asia. Because of this, LBJ had total control, and did not need the approval of Congress to enter the war.
nuclear-test ban treaty
(1963) Kennedy and the Russians signed a pact prohibiting trial nuclear explosions in the atmosphere. This was signed following the Cuban missile crisis.
March on Washington
In August of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a massive protest on Washington, D.C. where he gave his "I have a dream" speech. The march was organized to protest racial discrimination and to demonstrate support for major civil-rights legislation that was pending in Congress.
War on Poverty
The name President Lyndon Johnson gave to his crusade to improve the lifestyle of America's poor, especially those in Appalachia. It included economic and welfare measures aimed at helping the large percentage of Americans who lived in poverty.
New Frontier
The New Frontier was the new programs introduced by President Kennedy in the early 1960's. These programs included the space program to the moon and the peace corp.
Peace Corps
Kennedy proposed this which was an army of idealistic and mostly youthful volunteers to bring American skills to underdeveloped countries.
Alliance of Progress
Alliance of Progress - this was a Marshall Plan for Latin America that was suggested by President Kennedy to help the Good Neighbors close the gap between the rich and the poor and to help quiet the communist agitation. It was unsuccessful because there was little alliance and no progress.
Bay of Pigs
Kennedy was told that there were enough people in Cuba that would support an uprising, so he sent American troops along with Cuban exiles to the Bay of Pigs. When no one was there to support the raid, Kennedy withdrew air support. Therefore, Castro was able to defeat the uprising. This was Kennedy's big failure in his foreign policy.
Cuban Missile Crisis
In Oct. of 1962, U.S. intelligence confirmed reports that the U.S.S.R. was constructing missile launching sites in Cuba. President Kennedy rejected a full-scale attack and, instead, delivered a public ultimatum to the U.S.S.R. The U.S.S.R. backed down and the U.S. promised not to overthrow the Cuban government.
Richard M. Nixon
Richard M. Nixon - elected President in 1968 and 1972 representing the Republican party. He was responsible for getting the United States out of the Vietnam War by using "Vietnamization", which was the withdrawal of 540,000 troops from South Vietnam for an extended period. He was responsible for the Nixon Doctrine also. He was involved in D�tente, which was a way to create peaceful relations between the United States and the communist countries of Moscow and Beijing.
Richard M. Nixon
He was the Republican President of the United States during the Vietnam War (1969-1974). He made many improvements for the environment, and he took the United States off the gold standard. As a result of the Watergate Scandal, Nixon was forced to resign. Many other problems hurt his term such as the energy crisis, but mainly Watergate. He removed US troops from Vietnam in 1973 with his Vietnamization policy.
George Wallace
A third party ticket candidate for the American Independent party in 1968 that lost against Nixon. He was a former governor of Alabama and had stood in the doorway to prevent black students from entering the University of Alabama.
Flexible response
Kennedy's plan to deal with foreign powers by not always resorting to nuclear weapons but using specialist like the Green Beret
Credibility Gap
This was the gap between the people and the government that grew as the people became disillusioned with the Vietnam war and Watergate.
Stokely Carmichael
Carmichael was a black civil rights activist in the 1960's. Leader of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. He did a lot of work with Martin Luther King Jr. but later changed his attitude. Carmichael urged giving up peaceful demonstrations and pursuing black power. He was known for saying," black power will smash everything Western civilization has created."
Eugene McCarthy
a little known Democratic Senator from Minnesota, he represented the Democratic party in the 1968 presidential election. He was a devout Catholic and a soft-spoken, sometimes poet. He used a group of antiwar college students as his campaign workers. He, with the help of his "Children's Crusade", got 42% of the democratic votes and 20 out of 24 convention delegates.
Hubert H. Humphrey
The democratic nominee for the presidency in the election of 1968. He was LBJ's vice president, and was supportive of his Vietnam policies. This support split the Democratic party, allowing Nixon to win the election for the Republicans.
Barry Goldwater
Republican senator from Arizona nominated on the Republican ticket for the Presidency in the election of 1964. He ran against Lyndon B. Johnson and lost the election.
Malcolm X
a black Muslim preacher who favored black separation and condemned the "blue-eyed white devils". He was shot by a black gunmen while giving a speech in New York City.
Robert S. McNamara
Robert S. McNamara was the secretary of defense under Kennedy. He helped develop the flexible response policy. He was against the war in Vietnam and was removed from office because of this.
Charles de Gaulle
President of France, he was suspicious of American plans for Europe, and wanted to recapture the feeling of the Napoleonic era. He constantly vetoed actions by or in the interest of the U.S. that would increase their control in European affairs.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
A leader in the civil rights movement in the 1950's and 1960's. Preached non-violent forms of revolting such as sit-ins and friendly protests. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.
Lee Harvey Oswald
On November 22, 1963, he assassinated President Kennedy who was riding downtown Dallas, Texas. Oswald was later shot in front of television cameras by Jack Ruby.
Lyndon B. Johnson
A democratic egotist. He was Kennedy's vice president, and became president when Kennedy was assassinated. He escalated the war in Vietnam and the failure to win the war was blamed on him. Johnson had a great domestic policy called " The Great Society" and helped push for the passing of the civil rights act to end discrimination. He also issued all federal contractors to take "affirmative action" against discrimination.
John F. Kennedy
He was the youngest most glamorous president ever elected. He won the 1960 presidential election against Nixon. He was the first Catholic president. During his presidency, he sent the Green Beret (Marines) to Vietnam. He helped develop the Peace Corps. His foreign policy was Flexible Response. His domestic program was the New Frontier. He appointed his brother, Robert Kennedy as Attorney General. Robert Kennedy dealt with the Civil Rights issue as well. John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov.22,1963.
OPEC
"Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries." -this oil cartel doubled their petroleum charges in 1979, helping American inflation rise well above 13%.
Iranian Hostage Crisis
called Carter's and America's bed of nails; captured Americans languished in cruel captivity; American nightly television news cast showed scenes of Iranians burning the American flag; Carter tried to apply economic sanctions and the pressure of world opinion against Iranians. Carter then called for rescue mission; rescue attempt failed; The stalemate with Iran went on through the rest of Carter's term hurting his bid for reelection.
SALT
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks- A pact that served to freeze the numbers of long-range nuclear missiles for five years in 1972. This treaty between Nixon (U.S.), China, and the Soviet Union served to slow the arms race that had been going on between these nations since World War II.
MIRVS (Multiple Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicles)
MIRVS were designed to overcome any defense by "saturating" it with large numbers of nuclear warheads, similar to a rocket.
The Watergate Scandal
The Watergate Scandal was a problem in Washington during the presidency of Richard Nixon. The members of an association working to have Nixon re-elected, CREEP, were involved in a burglary, and it was then linked to Nixon. The CREEP group had also gotten lots of money from unidentifiable places. Suspicion set in and Nixon was accused of getting illegal help in being re-elected. Nixon tried to use government to cover-up his involvement. Impeachment proceedings were started but Nixon resigned from his office in August of 1974.
CREEP
Richard Nixon's committee for re-electing the president. Found to have been engaged in a "dirty tricks" campaign against the democrats in 1972. They raised tens of millions of dollars in campaign funds using unethical means. They were involved in the infamous Watergate cover-up.
War Powers Act
Passed during the Vietnam War, Congress passed this act to restrict Presidential powers dealing with war. It was passed over Nixon's veto, and required the President to report to Congress within 48 hours after committing troops to a foreign conflict or enlarging units in a foreign country.
Nixon Doctrine
During the Vietnam War, the Nixon Doctrine was created. It stated that the United States would honor its existing defense commitments, but in the future other countries would have to fight their own wars without support of American troops.
My Lai massacre
In 1968 American troops massacred women and children in the Vietnamese village of My Lai; this deepened American people's disgust for the Vietnam War.
Kent State Killings
In April of 1970, police fired into an angry crowd of college students at Kent State University. Four students were killed and many others were wounded. The students were protesting against Nixon ordering US troops to seize Cambodia without consulting Congress.
Twenty-Sixth Amendment
This lowered the voting age to 18 years old. It was a result of the Vietnam war, in which young men felt that if they could fight, they should be able to vote.
Pentagon Papers
Papers that "leaked" to "The New York Times" about the blunders and deceptions of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations in Vietnam, especially the provoking of the 1964 N. Vietnamese attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. This is linked to Watergate.
Aytollah Khomeini
He was a Muslim holy man who sparked opposition toward the United States in the Middle East.
D�tente
A period of relaxed tension between the communist powers of the Soviet Union and China and the U.S. set up by Richard Nixon that established better relations between these countries to ease the Cold War. During this time the Anti-ballistic Missile treaty as well as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks were set up to prevent nuclear war
Executive Privilege
This policy came into effect during the Nixon administration when members of the executive branch were being questioned by authorities. The policy stated that Congress could not question any of the past or present employees about any topic without the president's approval.
Vietnamization
President Nixon's policy to withdraw the 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam over an extended period. It would bring and end to the war in 1973.
Shah of Iran
Pahlavi became Shah in 1941, when the allies of WWII forced the abdication of his father. Communist and Nationalist movements created unrest and tension during the early years of his reign. The Shah distributed royal lands to poverty-stricken farmers. He is known for both social and economic reform in Iran. With the abundance of oil-drinking machines, Pahlavi became a powerful world leader, and the main military power in the Middle East. Muslims and the Ayatollah forced the Shah and his family into exile in 1979, where he died in Cairo on July 27, 1980.
Warren Burger
Burger was the Supreme Court justice during the Nixon administration. He was chosen by Nixon because of his strict interpretation of the Constitution. He presided over the extremely controversial case of abortion in Roe vs. Wade.
George McGovern
A Senator from South Dakota who ran for President in 1972 on the Democrat ticket. His promise was to pull the remaining American troops out of Vietnam in ninety days which earned him the support of the Anti-war party, and the working-class supported him, also. He lost however to Nixon.
Sam Ervin
Ervin was a North Carolinian who headed a Senate committee that investigated the Watergate incident. The hearings, which were held in 1973-1974, were widely televised in order to inform the nation of the White House dealings in the crime. Ervin subsequently became rather well-known across the country for his involvement.
John Dean
He testified against Nixon as well as other cabinet members in the Watergate hearings. His testimony helped led to the removal of several White House officials and the resignation of Nixon. Before his testimony he had been a White House lawyer.
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford was the first president to be solely elected by a vote from Congress. He entered the office in August of 1974 when Nixon resigned. He pardoned Nixon of all crimes that he may have committed. The Vietnam War ended in 1975, in which Ford evacuated nearly 500,000 Americans and South Vietnamese from Vietnam. He closed the war.
Jimmy Carter
He was Georgia's governor for four years before he was elected the dark-horse president of 1976, promising to never lie to the people. He was politically successful at first, but was accused of being isolated with Georgians after a while. His greatest foreign policy achievement was when he peacefully resolved Egypt and Israel relations in 1978.
Spiro Agnew
Governor of Maryland who ran as Vice President with Richard Nixon in 1968. He was known for his tough stands against dissidents and black militants. He strongly supported Nixon's desire to stay in Vietnam. He was forced to resign in October 1973 after having been accused of accepting bribes or "kickbacks" from Maryland contractors while governor and Vice President.
Daniel Ellsberg
He was a former employee of the Defense Department and gave the New York Times the "Pentagon Paper" which was information on how the US government got involved in Vietnam. Very embarrassing to the government.
Henry Kissinger
Nixon's national security adviser. He and his family escaped Hitler's anti-Jewish persecutions. Former Harvard professor. In 1969, he had begun meeting secretly on Nixon's behalf with North Vietnamese officials in Paris to negotiate an end to the war in Vietnam. He was also preparing the president's path to Beijing and Moscow.
Earl Warren
He was the Chief Justice who discussed taboo issues like black civil rights. He made the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, which said that segregation in public schools was not equal. He conducted the investigation into Kennedy's assassination. Accepted the ruling of the lone gunman.
ROE V. WADE
ROE V. WADE was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973. It prohibited state legislatures from interfering with a woman's right to abortion. Norma McCarvey, a.k.a. Jane Roe, said in 1995 that she no longer believed in abortion rights.
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action: programs designed to encourage employers and colleges to hire or accept more minorities and women to even out the workforce, eliminate racism in the hiring process, and improve the lives of impoverished minorities in America. The programs were opposed by many as reverse discrimination against those who were not hired in an effort to keep the workplace ethnically diverse.
Neoconservatism
neoconservatives were a small influential group of thinkers who were supporters of Ronald Regan. They were acting against the 1960's liberalism. They took tough anti-Soviet positions in foreign policy. They championed free-market capitalism liberated from gov't restraints. They questioned liberal forms of welfare programs and affirmative action policies. They encouraged traditional values, individualism, and the centrality of the family.
Sunbelt
15 state area from Virginia to Florida and west to California. It included Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Everyone was moving into these areas because they had a great and strong economy.
Grenada Invasion
Ronald Reagan dispatched a heavy- fire- power invasion force to the island of Grenada, where a military coup had killed the prime minister and brought Marxists to power ----Americans captured the island quickly demonstrating Reagan's determination to assert the dominance of the US in the Caribbean
Yuppies
young, urban professionals who wore ostentatious gear such Rolex watches or BMW cars. They came to symbolize the increased pursuit of wealth and materialism of Americans in the 1980s.
Strategic Defense Initiative
This was Regan's proposed high-tech, anti-nuclear missile, defense system. It was said to be scientifically impossible. It was nicknamed "Star Wars."
Betty Friedan
She was a leader in the modern feminist movement in the 1960s. She wrote "The Feminist Mystique."
Reverse Discrimination
During the 1970's, white workers and students felt that they were being discriminated against by employers and admission offices because too much weight was put on race and ethnic background. In the court case, Bakke vs. California, the Supreme Court declared that preference in admissions to a college could not be given to a certain race, but racial factors could be taken into account in a school's overall admissions policy.
Geraldine Ferraro
In 1984 she was the first woman to appear on a major-party presidential ticket. She was a congresswoman running for Vice President with Walter Modale.
Sandra Day O'Connor
She was appointed by Reagan as a Supreme Court justice. She is a brilliant Stanford Law School graduate. She was sworn in on Sept.25, 1981. She was the first woman to ascend to the high bench in the Court's nearly 200 yr. History.
"supply-side economics"
The nickname given to the type of economy that Ronald Reagan brought before Congress. It involved, among other things, a 25% tax cut that encouraged budgetary discipline and would hopefully spur investments. However, the plan was not a success and the economy was sent into its deepest recession since the 1930's.
Moral Majority
An evangelical Christian group that was created to fight against the liberal ideas and politics that developed in the 60's and after. It is a "right-wing," conservative group.
Chappaquiddick
Senator Edward Kennedy, brother of John F. Kennedy, was at a Batchelor party on an island. There were some young women there and there was some drinking and Kennedy ended up taking one of the young ladies off the island. But when they were crossing a bridge Kennedy's car went off the bridge. The young woman was killed. Kennedy's story was that he swam across a bay to get help but it was too late. There was much controversy over this incident about Kennedy's motives, such as if he was trying to kill the lady because she knew something and that Kennedy was already married.
Anwar Sadat
President of Egypt; Carteer invited Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin to a conference at Camp David; the two signed an agreement that served as a step toward peace between Egypt and Israel.
Walter Mondale
He was the vice president of Carter and when he won the democratic nomination he was defeated by a landslide by Reagan. He was the first presidential candidate to have a woman vice president, Geraldine Ferraro.
Jesse Jackson
A black candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1988 election who attempted to appeal to minorities, but eventually lost the nomination to Michael Dukakis
Edward Kennedy
He is a Senator from Massachusetts and the last of the Kennedy brothers. In 1979, he said that he was going to challenge Carter for the Presidency, but an incident back in '69 with a car crash, handicapped his decision.
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan was first elected president in 1980 and elected again in 1984. He ran on a campaign based on the common man and "populist" ideas. He served as governor of California from 1966-1974, and he participated in the McCarthy Communist scare. Iran released hostages on his Inauguration Day in 1980. While president, he developed Reagannomics, the trickle down effect of government incentives. He cut out many welfare and public works programs. He used the Strategic Defense Initiative to avoid conflict. His meetings with Gorbachev were the first steps to ending the Cold War.
John Anderson
Ran against Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter on the independent ticket, tallying 7 percent of the popular vote and not a single electoral vote.
Martin Luther King Jr.
He was an African American minister who was instrumental in starting the Black Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. He formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of 1957. Led a peaceful "March on Washington" King fought for, and won, the outlaw of literacy tests in the voting booth. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Viet Cong
South Vietnamese Communists.
Jimmy Carter
He was a Democratic, dark-horse candidate who won the 1976 presidential election. Carter was a humanitarian, and got Israel and Egypt to sign a peace treaty in 1978 at Camp David.
Underclass
The underclass in America is made up of mostly blacks and minorities living in the ghettoes of old industrial cities. This is due to all the minority groups that settled in the old industrial cities while most whites and upper class blacks moved away from the big cities at the end of the twentieth century. Without a middle class in the cities, the underclass suffered. They had poor schooling, unemployment, drug addiction, and a lack of hope.
stagflation
Took place in the 1970's and was the product of high inflation and high unemployment rates.
Cultural nationalism
In the 1980's new social issues came up as conservatives fought new-right activists. During this time, many Americans with different cultural backgrounds (like the Japanese, Chinese, etc.) began to seek rights like the African-Americans had in the 1960's. They often fought such things as unfair laws and segregation.
Immigration and Nationality Act
This act was signed by Johnson in 1965. It abolished the national origins system, this new act stated that no more than 20,000 people from any one country could immigrate over to America in a year.
Equal Rights Amendment
In 1923, the National Women's Party campaigned for the equal rights of women in the work place. It was never passed.
International Economy
Beginning in the 1920's and continuing to the present day, the U.S. has become a mass consumer economy with heavy machinery and automobile corporations. The "information age" developed, and technology has become and industry in itself. Communication to businessmen became much quicker and also made business transactions in different areas of the world much easier. The U.S. has become more and more involved with foreign trade as technology and communication has advanced.
Information superhighway
A phrase associated with the new computer age. It refers to the communication revolution that occurred in the 1990's that involved the Internet.
"classrooms without walls"
The idea that supports having classrooms in which students are able to use a computer to do their studies without a teacher giving a lecture but there to be more of a mediator.
biological engineering
A modern scientific question in America is about whether or not the human gene pool should be engineered and conformed with how scientists want it to be. The question may never be answered, but biological engineering is the manipulation of human genes to produce the desired outcome.
Family Leave Bill
In 1993, Congress passed this to mandate job protection for working fathers as well as mothers who needed to take time off work for family-related reasons.
Electronic Revolution
The electronic revolution was in the 1970's. The information economy brought the large use of computers to America. The silicon chip, made in 1959, is a small one quarter of an inch square that can hold incredible amounts of information. This is called a microchip, and it helped to cause the electronic revolution.
Immigration and Nationality Act
(1965) This law made it easier for entire families to migrate and established "special categories" for political refugees. This act increased the amount of immigration.
United Farm Workers
Organizing Committee Headed by Cesar Chavez, it succeeded in helping to improve working conditions. It was organized to help mainly the Chicano population.
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
Passed to decrease the number of illegal aliens in US; penalized employers of aliens and granted amnesty to aliens already in US
OJ Simpson Trial
This case gained world wide exposure because OJ was a star football player and was accused of murdering his wife. The main issue in this case that may have caused turmoil was the allowing cameras in the courtroom.
Comparable Worth
The principle that states the people should receive equal pay for work that is different form, but just as demanding as, other types of work. This idea has been applied to many discrimination cases including race, age, and gender discrimination.
IBM
IBM, International Business Machines, was part of the historic shift to a mass consumer economy after World War II, and symbolized another momentous transformation to the fast-paced "Information Age."
Microsoft
This computer company sent the U.S. down an information superhighway. The internet and computer discs allowed for more information to be available to anyone at the click of a button
OPEC
(the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) Through the OPEC Middle Eastern Sheiks quadrupled the price for crude oil in 1974, disrupting the balance of international trade for the U.S. This helped show the U.S. government that they could never have economic isolation.
New Immigration
The New Immigrates in the 1980's and 1990's came from Asia, Latin America and mostly from Mexico. These new immigrates came for many of the same reasons that the old immigrates came such as growth in population, and to look for jobs. They mostly settled in the Southwest. During this time nearly a million people came to America each year.
gated communities
These were suburban housing communities with gates and guards that started to gain popularity in the later half of this century
Ceser Chavez
Leader of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee who improved working conditions for Chicano workers.
One page US History outlines of the topics below. These topic outlines, along with the US History outlines, unit notes, practice quizzes, vocabulary terms, court cases, political parties, political timelines, and case briefs will help you prepare for the AP US History exam.
I. Prehistory
A. Bering Land Bridge
B. Hundreds of independent tribes
C. Civilizations – Mayans – Central, Incas – South, Aztecs – Mexico
D. Mount Builders – Ohio
II. Early Discoverers
A. Vikings – Leif Ericsson – Greenland – Northern Canada – 1000 AD
B. Italian Christopher Columbus – for Spain – 1492 - Guanahani
III. Spanish/Portugese Exploration
A. Reasons for exploring
a. Wealthy nations – gold based
b. Renaissance – optimism/humanism – we can do anything
c. Trade routes
d. Printing press – ideas spread
e. Mariner’s compass – exploration possible
B. Spain – peace w/ Isabella and Ferdinand uniting plus no Moors/Muslims
a. Conquistadores – Spanish – gold/glory – fighting tradition
C. Portugal
a. Looking water route to Asia – brought slavery from Africa
D. Treaty of Tordesillas – 1494 – Pope divides New World
a. Brazil to Portugal – Rest to Spain
IV. Explorers – conquest – weapons + disease + use rival tribes
A. Ponce de Leon – fountain of youth
B. Pizarro – defeated Incas
C. Cortez – defeated Aztecs/Montezuma
V. Spanish
A. Encomienda System – Spaniard gets land and all inhabitants become laborers
B. Missions – Junipero Serra – San Diego + 21 missions
a. Spread religion – centers of trade/education
b. “Black Legend” – missionaries kill Indians – disease kind of true
VI. Exchange of goods
A. Improved diet of Europeans – corn, tobacco, tomato, avocado – balanced
B. Cattle, horses, germs to New World
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Exploration Topic Outline | 26.5 KB |
I. England
A. Buccaneers – Protestantism and Plunder – Sir Francis Drake
B. Roanoke Island – 1585 – “lost colony” – forgotten during war – CROATOAN
C. Reasons for Colonization
1. Enclosure – small farmers forced out
2. Unemployed farmers
3. Primogeniture – oldest son
4. Joint Stock Company – investment
5. Peace with Spain
6. Adventure
II. South – Rivers, plantations, seasons – suitable for farming – started by single males
A. Virginia - Jamestown – Virginia Company – Starving Time – Pocahontas – John Smith
a. “He who shall not work shall not eat” – John Smith
b. wrong type of explorers/colonists – age, gender, motivation – gold
c. John Rolfe – Tobacco – “bewitching weed”
B. Maryland – Catholic haven
C. West Indies – Sugar – absentee slave owners – mostly male slaves
D. Carolinas – linked to W. Indies – Charles
a. N. Carolina – less aristocratic, independent, some outcasts, religious
E. Georgia – buffer zone and philanthropic experiment – new start for criminals
III. Northern Colonies – Protestant, shipping, fishing, small farms, harsh winters, harbors
A. Protestant Reformation – Puritanism – Church of England not reformed/true
a. Puritans – Separatists – Holland – Mayflower – landed N. of Virginia
i. Brought “strangers” – useful labor
ii. Mayflower Compact – gov’t by majority
iii. Plymouth Colony – not large or important economically
b. Non-Separatists – change English religion from within – interact
i. Massachussetts Bay Colony – City on a Hill – 11 ships, 1000
ii. Church and state – theocracy
iii. Protestant work ethic – follow your calling – God likes effort
c. Anti-Puritan – Anne Hutchinson – meetings, questioned teaching/banish
d. Rhode Island – Roger Williams “new and dangerous opinions”
i. Believed – pay Indians for land, separate church/state, outcasts
e. Connecticut – Thomas Hooker – women’s rights – Fundamental Orders
f. New Hampshire – fishing
IV. Middle Colonies – fertile soil, industry, shipbuilding, some aristocrats, plantations/small – farms
A. New York – Old Netherlands – Dutch company – aristocratic
B. Delaware – New Sweden
C. Pennysylvania – William Penn – pacifist, bought Indian land
V. New England Confederation – 1643 – unite for Indians/runaways/internal problems
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I. Social Structure/Family Life
A. South – gap wide between rich and poor – hierarchy of wealth and status
1. Planter aristocracy w/ slaves mimicking feudalism of Europe
2. However, these planters were hardworking, involved in day-to-day affairs
3. Few cities – poor transportation
4. Women more powerful – men die leaving property to widows
a. Weaker gender – see Eve’s failure
b. Divorce rare – courts could order you to reunite
B. North– not as much disease due to weather, reproduction high – fertile people/not soil
1. Early marriage = high birth rates, several mothers – death during childbirth
a. Habits of obedience, strong links to grandparents
b. Women’s role not as powerful – no property rights
II. Farm and Town Life
A. Towns in New England united – geography/fear of Indians force close relations
1. Puritanism makes unity important
2. More than 50 families in town requires education
3. Puritans ran churches democratically – led to democratic government
4. New England way of life – climate, bad soil, Puritanism made people touch, self-reliant
a. Seasons led to diversified agriculture and industry to survive
b. Dense forests led to shipbuilding
c. Not diverse at first – immigrants not attracted
B. Southern settlement random by independent individual
III. Immigration – melting pot from the beginning
A. Germans – left for war, religion, bad economy – settle in Pennsylvania – not pro-British
B. Scotts-Irish – Scottish kicked out of Ireland because not Catholic – settled in mountains
1. Lawless, individualistic – lived in Appalachian hills – whickey making
2. Not wanted by Germans or New Englanders – forced to hills
C. Other groups embraced – French, Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss
D. Largest immigrant group – slaves
IV. Economy – triangle trade in South – natural resources to England > weapons/textiles to Africa >slaves to Indies/South > sugar to America > England
A. Economy – Agriculture #1 but, putting out system at home – manufacturing/lumbering
B. South – staple crops of indigo, rice, tobacco
V. Great Awakening – people swaying from the lord – God all powerful – must return to church
A. Started by Jonathan Edwards – Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
B. Powerful, angry, animated speaking spread across colonies – United colonies ***
VI. Education – New England – colleges for lawyers, priests – theology and dead languages
A. Independent thinking not encouraged – discipline severe – stuck in the classics
VII. Colonial Folkways – life not romantic, pretty boring
A. Food pretty high protein, homes poorly made
B. pleasure came from working together – quilting, raising barn, painting, funerals, weddings
C. Lotteries, horse racing, holidays celebrated, but not Christmas in New England
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Colonial Society in the Mid-Eighteenth Century Topic Outline | 23.5 KB |
I. Revolution Questions
a. Necessary – Coming of Age/Time Had Come or America would have remained obedient had England not made mistakes
b. A true revolution or merely transfer of power from one wealthy group to another
c. Capitalist motivation to keep money in America instead of taxes going overseas
II. Decades before 1754 – proud to be Englishmen
a. Colonists annoyed at Navigation Acts, Brits annoyed with chaotic legislatures
b. Grown apart - could govern selves better than overseas
III. Causes
a. Sprit of self-reliance – decades of colonial legislatures, economicly indep.
b. Religious annoyance – haven’t forgotten being kicked out
c. England trying to improve trade/industry at America’s expense
d. Colonists should pay for expense –no “taxation without representation”
e. Enlightenment – well-read Jefferson, Adams
f. Mercantilism clashes with capitalism – trade w/ everyone
IV. Irritants
a. America forced to take in British criminals
b. Northern colonies that wanted to stop slave trade could not
c. Royal governors looked down noses at colonists
V. British Debt – Americans seen as Englishmen, must bear cost/taxes
a. Centuries of fighting/French and Indian War costly
b. Troops needed to remain in America to protect against Indians
VI. Types of Protests
a. Speeches – James Otix/Patrick Henry
b. Harassment – burning governors homes/tar and feathering tax collectors
c. Boycotts – refuse to buy British goods
d. Committees of Correspondence – method of colonies talking
e. Propaganda/Pamphlets – Common Sense – Thomas Paine
VII. Catalysts
a. 1763 – Proclamation of 1763 – Colonists can’t move west of Appalachian
b. 1764 – Sugar Act – duties on sugar, textiles, coffee, wine
c. 1764 – Currency Act – colonists can’t make paper money – how to trade?
d. 176 5 – Stamp Act – all legal documents - $ goes back to England – a first
e. 1765 – Quartering Act – colonists house and feed British troops
f. 1765 – Virginia Resolutions – Patrick Henry – only Virginia can tax
g. 1767 – Towshend Acts – more taxes
h. 1770 – Boston Massacre – 5 killed after harassment – propaganda wins
i. 1772 – Gaspee ship attacked and burned – culprits threatened back to Engl
j. 1773 – Boston Tea Party – Sons of Liberty mad Tea Act not enforced
k. 1774 – Coercive Acts/Intolerable Acts – punish Boston
l. 1774 – First Continental Congress – colonial militia
m. 1775 – Concord and Lexington – fight starts after Brits try to get weapons
n. 1776 – Declaration of Independence – 12 of 13 endorse, 55 sign “hang apart”
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I. State Constitutions
a. Kept some of old – provincial assemblies
1. Colonial self-government for 150 years
2. “their just powers from the consent of the governed”
b. Methods – written constitutions
1. written by provincial assemblies
2. Mass. – town meetings, state conventions
c. Format – dec. of independence + citizen rights + executive/legislative
1. weaken powers of governor
2. white males with property eligible to vote
d. Anti-slavery
1. Dec. of Indep. Mentions slavery – South forced out
2. Mass. 1783 – slave sued “all men are created equal” – freed
II. Continental Congress
a. 1777 – Articles of Confederation – ratified in 1781
b. Until ratified – Continental Congress governed
1. Lost power as war progressed – most talented returned to state
c. Succeses – army, navy, marines, appointed George Washington, supplied army
d. Failure – financing war – taxes optional, money worthless “not worth a Continental”
III. Articles of Confederation - failures
a. States jealous of others/competitive – 9 of 13 states to pass
b. Taxes voluntary
c. Fear of strong executive – no one to enforce laws
d. Individual trade agreements w/ foreign nations & states – nobody wants to trade with U.S. – fearful of stability
e. Still left England in possession of frontier
IV. Articles of Confederation – successes
a. Precedent – something to work with
b. Northwest Ordinance
1. land-locked states feared other states would get too big
i. Easily pay war debts – too much representation
ii. Maryland refuses – leads protest
2. Virginia finally gives land claims to federal gov’t – others follow
3. Land could be sold to make money for fed gov’t
4. Add-A-State Plan – Northwest Ordinance 1787
i. Population + legislature + 60,000 men can + religious freedom
c. Peace treaty with England
V. Shay’s Rebellion – 1787 – debtors can’t pay and rebel – proved to wealthy that something must be done – catalyst for Constitutional Convention
a. Post-war depression made life worse
b. Jefferson – “a little rebellion every now and then is a good thing”
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Critical Period – 1776-1787 Topic Outline | 23 KB |
I. Constitutional Convention – 55 delegates meet in Philadelphia – Washington – Presid.
A. Virginia Plan – large state plan – representation based on population
B. New Jersey Plan – small state plan – every state receives equal rep
1. Great Compromise – House + Senate
2. Slaves = 3/5 of the population for House rep counting purposes
C. Bill of Rights – citizens rights to prevent oppressive gov’t - 1791
D. Hesitancy to ratify – Anti-Federalists believe states should have more power – Federalists believe strong executive necessary
1. Federalist Papers convince New York/Virginia – Rhode Island last
II. Finalizing the Executive
A. Judiciary Act – 1789 – created Supreme Court, federal and district courts
B. Hamilton’s Plan – if gov’t benefits wealthy, they’ll invest in gov’t
a. Assume all debt of states – Virginia already paid off debt – get D.C.
b. Debt good – more people owed, more have stake in success of gov’t
c. Tariff taxes + duties on whiskey
d. National Bank – Jefferson wanted states to control $, Hamilton wins
i. First National Bank – 1791-1811 – Philadelphia
C. Whiskey Rebellion – proves executive tough – sent in thousands to put down
D. Alien and Sedition Acts – Adams oversteps power of president – punishes Democratic Republicans – Alien – 5-14 years, jail/Sedition – jail for libel
a. Virginia/Kentucky Resolutions – states can ignore bad laws – sets states/federal gov’t conflict
E. Strengthening Supreme Court – Marbury vs. Madison
a. Supreme Court can say laws are unconstitutional – gives power
IV. Foreign Policy
A. Barbary Pirates
1. Been paying bribes to Tripoli, African Barbary pirates to not steal stuff
2. sent Navy to Tripoli to fight pirates – finally got peace treaty – America values Navy
B. Lousiana Purchase – wanted New Orleans, got all of Louisiana Territory
1. Napoleon couldn’t have American empire – lost in Haiti – Toussant L’Ouverture
2. Doubled size, 3 cents per acre
3. Created Constitutional Conflict – loose/strict interpretation
a. Says nowhere in Constitution about buying land – Jefferson hypocrite?
4. Lewis and Clark explore – sets off wave off Westward movement
5. Increases nationalism – pride for U.S.
6. Federal gov’t power now shifting West – away from New England/Virg
C. Monroe Doctrine – follows Washington’s Farewell
1. US stay out of Europe, Europe stays out of Americas – our sphere of influence
V. American System – Henry Clay’s idea federal gov’t pays for roads, canals, business
A. Protects American business through high tariffs – 25% - buy US goods vs. better/cheaper European goods
VI. Avoiding conflict – Missouri Compromise – draws slave line – keeps slavery in U.S.
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Making a Nation – 1788-1810 Topic Outline | 32.5 KB |
I. Causes Foreign– France and England attacking American merchant ships/impressment
A. French Revolution turns violent – Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans favor
B. Washington stays out – Neutrality Proclamation 1793 – U.S. just beginning
C. Jay’s Treaty – Britain won’t attack in future, but won’t pay for past attacks
D. Washington’s Farewell Address – stay out of foreign alliances – policy for next 100 years
E. Adams next president – XYZ Affair – American ambassadors not bribed
F. Jefferson deals with France
a. Embargo Act – don’t trade with anyone – totally fails/destroys econ.
b. Nonintercourse Act – Trade w/ everyone but Britain/France
c. Macon’s Bill No. 2 – Madison – trade again w/BritainFrance if…
II. Causes Domestic
A. British forts along frontier
B. Helping Native Americans fight colonists moving west
a. Wipe out Canada – Indians will have no home base/British support
b. Tecumseh tries to unite Indians – big battle lost at Tippecanoe
III. Federalists opposed to war
A. Take Canada – a ton more farmers to join Democratic Republicans
B. Hurting trade
C. Supported Britain
D. Later have Hartford Convention and threaten to have New England break away
a. Signals end of Federalist Party – bad idea to talk of new country during wartime
IV. Importance
A. Peace Treaty changes nothing – status quo ante bellum – same as before
B. Gives war hero – Andrew Jackson
C. Gives national song – Star Spangled Banner
D. Unites Americans against common enemy
E. American beginnings of strong navy – USS Constitution – Old Ironsides
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War of 1812 Topic Outline | 26.5 KB |
I. Definitions
A. Series of reforms – altering federal government and bringing vote to people
B. Andrew Jackson and Democratic Party running country
C. Contradiction – period of slavery and horrible treatment of Native Americans – Jackson also develops “monarchical” attributes
D. Attractive candidate - Andrew Jackson attractive – war hero, man’s man, self-made wealth, westerner – “old hickory” “man of the people”
II. Causes – economic shift + no longer belief that aristocracy of old should rule all
A. Causes by economic and social changes - shift in power
1. Transportation + immigration takes power from plantation aristocracy and New England elite
2. Cotton increase power of Southern economy
3. Westward movement – taking of Native American/Hispanic land
B. Non large property holding whites get worried
1. Immigrants, nonslaveholding Southerners, westerners nervous that they will be abused by growing capitalists
C. Who should rule? Old aristocracy/new wealthy/majority of other whites
D. During Era of Good Feelings – Supreme Court and Federal government choices looked like power was moving toward an elite few in fed. gov’t
III. Reforms – radical shift to create equality for all white men - take power from moneyed elite and ignore class -meritocracy
A. Political – voters, campaigns, election process
1. End state property requirements for voting
2. Electors chosen by people not state legislatures
3. Changed elections – buttons, kissing babies, parades, bbqs, free drinks, smear campaign – Jackson marriage illegal – wife died soon after
4. Spoils system – give gov’t jobs to people who helped get elected
i. “Kitchen cabinet” – old friends
5. Increased power of executive – ignored Supreme Court, vetoed laws
B. Economic changes – men should be economically independent
1. Southerners want low tariffs and more states rights
a. Jackson makes high tariffs first to increase national economy – lowers during second term
2. Westerners want cheaper land + relief from debt collectors and banks
a. Veted Second National Bank – supported “pet banks” in states
3. Interstate roads good – roads within states not good
V. Opposition – for nonwhites a total disaster
A. Wealthy planters feared him – federal government getting too much power
1. Threaten nullification of tariffs – secession
B. Whigs – named for anti-king movement of Revolutionary War – King Andrew
C. Racial treatment - Western movement assumed Hispanics and Native Americans inferior races – “manifest destiny” policy pushed
1. Trail of Tears – even Europeanized Cherokees kicked out
D. Allowed slavery to continue – white supremacy
1. Fought abolitionists – allowed gag rule on slavery in Congress
E. Propagandists – supported wealthy but said they acted for commoners
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Jacksonian Democracy Topic Outline | 31 KB |
Creating an American Culture – 1790-1860
I. Religion – by 1850 ¾ claim to be religious, but not most far from Puritan form
A. Deism – God is great clockmaker – founding fathers
B. Unitarianism – God is loving creator, father figure, people control destiny
C. Second Great Awakening – attempt to return to conservative religious practice
1. Effects – more converted, some churches destroyed, others created
a. Methodists/Baptists – poor attracted/non-traditional
2. Camp Meetings – traveling preachers, thousands gather, get “saved”
D. Mormon – Joseph Smith – organized, group dynamic – new message from God
1. Feared by neighbors – voted as unit, polygamy, n ot individualistic
2. Brigham Young moved to Utah – MO and Ohio kicked out
II. Education Reform – creation of public schools/state sponsored universities
A. Before – public schools seen as for poor only – convinced that education benefits society
B. Little Red Schoolhouse – not effective, multiple grades one room, poorly trained teachers
C. Horace Mann – longer school term, better teacher training/pay
D. Universities start for women + state supported universities
E. Create common school texts to be shared across nation – Webster’s Speller
III. Reform Movements – inspired by Great Awakening – on earth you should try to combat evil
A. Women – considered keeper’s of nation’s morals – led movement
a. Gained more power – especially on frontier – supply and demand
B. Some say those involved for self-centered reasons – they get to create society to benefit self
C. Temperance – excess drinking affecting labor, family, crime, and rowdy social occasions
a. Choices – temperance (moderate use) or legislation
i. Women’s usage actually decreases
D. Jails – not just punishment but help “penitentiaries” (penance) or “correctional facilities”
E. Mentally ill – Dorothea Dix – better treatment living conditions at mental hospitals
IV. Transcendentalists – avoid conformity, get to know nature, think about world, Civil Disobedience
V. Literature – Begins to be dark – looks at faults of human soul – Edgar Allen Poe
VI. Utopian Movements – design perfect societies where everyone works together
A. Over 40 attempted – failed – uncommon sexual practices + lazy people
a. People end up desiring independence and market economy/free enterprise
B. Oneida – free love, male birth control
C. Shakers – religious group, eugenic selection of parents
VII. Alexis de Tocqueville – What then is this American?
A. America successful because based on meritocracy not birth
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Creating an American Culture – 1790-1860 Topic Outline | 27 KB |
I. 17th and 18th Century - disease
A. New England – lived separate – Squanto interpret saved > Thanksgiving
1. King Phillip > relative Squanto’s tribe > unites New England
2. Pennsylvania/William Penn & Rhode Island/Roger Williams buy land
3. 1704 Deerfield Massacre – raid/tomahawk/kidnap
4. Albany Plan of Union – Franklin – union 1754 w/ Iroquois against other tribes
B. Virginia – “starving time” > stealing > Indian Raids
C. Spanish – encomienda – slavery, missions - California
D. French – worked with – fur trappers
E. French and Indian War – 1757-1763 – Proclamation Line of 1763 – no west of Appalach.
II. 19th Century
A. War of 1812 – 1795-1809 48 million acres sold to gov’t
1. Battle of Tippecanoe – Tecumseh – united – treaties others Indians – defeated
a. British helped > Native Americans warpath > kill settlers > war begins
B. Andrew Jackson – move > west Mississippi
1. 94 Treaties – some peaceably, some fought
2. Seminoles – Florida swamps – Chief Osceola – 1830s
3. Cherokees – Americanized – Georgia
1. Clothes, farms, factories, schools – Sequoya – alphabet
2. Worcester v. Georgia – Marshall saved lands
3. Jackson “Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.”
a. Trail of Tears – 1838 – 15,000 – 1500 died
C. 1850-1900 – 420,000 > 250,000 left
D. Indian Wars – 1850 > 1890 – buffalo basis of life, slaughtered by whites
1. White settlers move onto lands, forts to protect travel
2. 1868-1869 – gather onto big reservations – forced out of wilderness
a. Many resisted – “Wild West” – Custer’s Last Stand – Sioux – Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse Chief Joseph “From where the sun now stands I will fight no more, forever.”
3. Wounded Knee – kids, women slaughtered – signaled the end
III. 20th Century – by 1990 – 2 mill. #s up – but worst health, income, unemployment, suicide
A. Snyder Act – 1924 – citizenship
B. FDR – Indian New Deal – no sell lands, rebuild culture
C. WWII – 25,000 soldiers – Windtalkers – code
D. Eisenhower – termination – no fed. Involvement > but states don’t help
1. “relocation” – urbanization > 45% urban by 1970 > but displaced, Indian ghettos
E. Lyndon Johnson – “The Forgotten American” - $510 mil. – Indian aid programs
F. Richard Nixon – Indians run reservations, positions in Bureau of Indian Affairs
G. Education – 1970s/1980s – bilingual – good>pride – bad> compete jobs
1. Education peaked 1970s then declined
2. study tribal history, culture & language also
H. Indian Power –AIM – American Indian Movement
1. violence – occupy buildings – want $/recognition for treaties– 1969>1971 – Alcatraz
I. State courts – return land – 1970s-1980s
1. 1850-1900 – 420,000 > 250,000
J. Multibillion $ gambling industry – 1990s
K. Stages: 1) Part of wilderness to be cleared, 2) “wards” of the state, taken care of – reservations, 3) relocated to cities, 4) given autonomy over reservations
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Native American Treatment Tropic Outline | 24.5 KB |
The South – low immigration, huge income disparity, replicated Medieval Europe
A. Cotton Kingdom – 1788 – South dying, overworked land, unmarketable products
a. Slavery increased – Eli Whitney – Cotton Gin
i. Increased labor also improved Northern shipping industry
b. ½ cotton in world from the South, England 75% from South
i. England economy depended on Southern cotton
B. Planter Aristocracy – “cottonocracy” – oligarchy – few control many
a. Biggest planters controlled social, political, economic life
b. Received finest education – statesmen who served public
i. Public education suffers
c. Women bought into system – controlled households
C. Poor whites – accepted system, dream of moving up, needed racial superiority
D. Scotch Irish – Appalachian Mountains – “white trash” – civilization ignored
E. Nature of Slavery
a. One 20th century view – slavery ending, owners paternalistic, blacks naturally inferior – need to be taken care of
i. Not true – economically still expanding, not dying
ii. 1954 Slavery compares to concentration camps
iii. Paternalistic – selfish method just to get more labor
iv. Slaves fake “Sambo” laziness as method of coping/rebel
b. Black women must balance as white caregiver, laborer, family anchor
The North – industry, manufacturing, heavy immigration – urbanized
A. Immigration – 95% came to the North
a. Irish – NY/Boston – low skilled labor – left due to potato famine
b. German – left due to crop failures, democracy failure of 1848 revolution
i. Midwest – contributed - gave US literature, kindergarten, Xmas tree
The West – young attracted, adventurous opportunities – life actually sucks
A. Gradually destroyed land – overworked, just moved on – pushed out Indians, animals
B. Frontier – belief that you can always start out fresh out West
C. More equality for women, supply and demand, they can leave if not treated properly
D. Squatters – simply move to land, build house, claim property – hard to kick off
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Sectionalism 1820-1860 Topic Outline | 22.5 KB |
I. Gradual Expansion of Frontier – Each addition adds to slavery issue, moves frontier, Indian problems
A. Proclamation of 1763 – Colonists not west of Appalachians – annoys colonists
B. Treaty of 1783 – Britain gives US land to Mississippi
C. 1803 - Louisiana Purchase – Napoleon realizes he can’t keep French empire - $15 mil
i. Brings up issue of constitutionality of president purchasing land
ii. Lewis and Clarke – ecology, Native Americans, surveying, claiming Oregon
1. Open up westward movement
D. 1820s-1830s – Texas – Mexico encourages movement – $.12 per acre – become Catholic
i. After Santa Anna – Alamo – country Republic of Texas
ii. Not annexed right away – fear it would be broken into many slave states
E. 1847 – Utah – Mormons – organized voting block/feared for organization – kicked out
F. 1846 – Polk – 54 40 or Fight! – extend America into Canada above Washington
i. America can’t fight Mexico and Britain – agree to make boundary above Wash.
G. 1946-1848 – Mexican War – looks like land grabbing – Zachary Taylor creates catalyst
i. Defeats Mexico City – Guadalupe Hidalgo gives Southwest – 1848 Gold discover
II. Transportation
A. Turnpikes – toll roads – 1812-1825
B. Cumberland Road – federal road – 1806-1850 connects Midwest to Virginia
C. Canal Building – 1825-1840 – Erie Canal starts
i. 1 ton of goods now for 1 cent per mile not 20 cents per mile
ii. Takes away farming from Northeast – moves to Midwest
iii. People can now move to Midwest and get supplies still to Atlantic Ocean
D. Steamboat – 1810-1840 – up and down rivers – not mercy of wind
E. Railroads – bought by federal government, made privately
i. Faulty creation, corruption, accidents of both railroads and steamship building
F. Mail – 1896 – finally mailbox delivery – before if rural must go to post office
G. Morse/Telegraph – 1844 – “What hath God wrought?” DC > Baltimore – Samuel Morse
III. Towns – build city infrastructure first, people come later
A. Balloon frame + nails – quick building
B. Wagons – families come out – Oregon Trail – leave Independence, MO – near St. Louis
C. Passing of frontier after Civil War
D. Buffalo slaughter – 15 million down to 1 thousand – sport – destroys Native American lives
E. Mining towns – boom bust – Northwest territories – become ghost towns – no other source of income – minerals gone, town gone
i. Women gain equality here first – state voting first – have power supply/demand
F. Cattle drives big until fenced in – changes American landscape
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Westward Expansion Topic Outline | 25 KB |
I. Slavery – not on the minds of Northern soldiers when war started, but clearly an issue that pervaded all of the social, political and economic causes
a. Would there have been a split without slavery – no – root of all conflicts
b. Conflicts existed from birth of nation
II. Economic – two competing industries – industrial north vs. agrarian south – free labor vs. slave labor
a. Tariff battle for almost a century – south wants low, north high
i. Believed in nullification of Congressional laws
1. Goes back to Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions regarding Alien and Sedition Acts
ii. South needed low tariffs because they existed on King Cotton
iii. Recession of 1857 causes bigger divide
III. Political
a. Representation in Senate/Congress
i. Every new state could ruin balance – both sides feared other side would try to mandate their society on the other federally
ii. Ostend Manifesto – slavery in Cuba as well as slavery in West? – bad news
b. State power vs. Federal power
i. Southern states still felt states were sovereign – goes back to Federalist/Anti-Federalist battle
c. Free Soil Party – 1847 – no slavery in territories
IV. Social – North sees south as aristocratic medieval country, South sees North as corrupt immigrant urban
a. Abolitionisism – slavery moral wrong – Second Great Awakening
b. Anti-aristocratic ethos – common man better than gentry south
V. Catalysts – events that made both sides look evil, and created larger tension
a. Compromise of 1850 – CA admitted, popular sovereignty, DC no slaves, tougher/enforced fugitive slave act
b. Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Stowe – first glimpse of Europe and North of life in South – kept England out of war – queen allegedly cried
c. Fugitive Slave Act – force Northerners to return blacks to South
d. Kansas-Nebraska Act – 1854 split territories– dissenters create Republican Party
i. Popular Sovereignty – let states decide for themselves – ignore 1820 compromise
ii. Bleeding Kansas – Jayhawkers vs. Bushwackers fight for control
1. Pottawatomie Creek Massacre – Brown hacks bodies - radical
iii. Caning of Sumner – Senate violence after anti-South speech
e. Realignment of Parties
i. Whigs die
ii. Republicans – Northern party to outlaw slavery Free Soil + anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats
f. Dred Scott – Justice Taney – slaves aren’t human/can’t sue – Comp. 1820 illegal
g. Lecompton Compromise – bad Constitution proposal where your only choices were limited slavery or full slavery – anti-slavery people don’t even vote
h. Lincoln Douglas Debates – run for Senator – Lincoln proves more logical for why slavery should not be expanded – loses Senate, but gains prominence
i. John Brown – Harper’s Ferry – tries to take over South – idiot or martyr?
j. Election of 1860 – S.C. threatens and does secede after Lincoln elected
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Causes of the Civil War Topic Outline | 23.5 KB |
I. The Union Homefront
A. Mobilization and Finance
1. First conscription – can buy way out, Lincoln asks for more troops before Congress meets
2. Increased tariffs, income tax, sold bonds, printed currency “greenbacks”
3. War profiteers – industry/manufacturing make a lot of money – some corrupt
B. Suspension of Civil Liberties/Ignoring the Constitution
1. Lincoln thought better to save United States than follow Constitution
A. Blockade, increased army, $2 million to 3 men for army purchases – none of this in Constitution
2. Needs to keep border states
A. Suspends habeus corpus – don’t tell why arrested
B. “supervised” voting – colored ballots – march past armed guards
C. Newspapers/editors influenced/pressured
C. Election of 1864 – Republican Party becomes Union Party for a bit
1. “bayonet vote” – some soldiers return to vote - 49 times/others vote on front
2. Sherman captures Atlanta – gives boost to cause
II. Southern Homefront – President Jefferson Davis declared martial law – suspended habeus corpus
A. Confederate Constitution – can’t have strong fed. gov’t when some states still want to threaten secession
B. Mobilization and Finance – must have conscription – leads to class conflict – poor serve
1. Tariffs hard to collect due to blockade – money made through bonds
2. Prints a lot of money with no value – extreme inflation
III. Foreign Affairs/Diplomacy – must gain European support (South) keep Europe out (USA)
A. Trent Affair – Union takes two diplomats off ship for Britain – looks bad
B. Some Canadians working with South to bomb Northern cities
C. Napoleon III takes opportunity to ignore Monroe Doctrine and take over Mexico
IV. Military strategy – Mississippi River, Capitals, Blockade “Anaconda”, Attrition, Wait
V. Ending Slavery – Confiscation Act – army seizes property of South – slaves
A. Emancipation Proclamation – after Antietam – frees none – only in seceding states
B. Freedmen’s Bureau – gov’t sponsored agency – goes South to educate blacks
C. Thirteenth Amendment – frees slaves
VI. Major effects – slavery banned, secession issue finally ended, industry can now expand
A. Industry/North decides future path of nation – no longer aristocracy/agrarian
B. Role of Central Government expanded
1. 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments – first amendments that don’t take power away
2. Taxation – printing currency – National Banking System
3. Standing army
4. Freedmen’s Bureau – American sponsored welfare program – precedent
C. Labor Saving Devices – change occupations – move to petroleum/coal jobs
1. Labor moves West looking for jobs
D. Women – took jobs of men – gov’t workers
1. Fighting – spies, impersonating men
2. Nurses – Clara Barton – starts Red Cross later
3. Raised money for cause – soldiers – organized bazaars/fairs/made goods to sell
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The Civil War Topic Outline | 23 KB |
I. Presidential Plans – tough to be successful with Radical Republicans demanding revenge
A. Lincoln – if lived – impeached like Johnson or more sensitive to the South?
1. Believed South never legally withdrawn – 10% plan + create new state gov’t
2. Congressional fear that South would return to aristocracy and re-enslave blacks
a. Wade-Davis Plan – 50% sign oath + emancipation guarantees
1. Lincoln pocket vetoes and allows states to choose either plan
3. Congress is a majority moderate Republicans with some Radical Republicans
B. Johnson – surprised Congress – followed 10% plan and some states reentered
1. State constitutions only have to 1) repeal secession, 2) repudiate debts, 3) ratify 13th
2. Johnson pardoned many aristocrats
II. Congressional Reconstruction
A. December 1865 – Southern delegates arrive in D.C. – many of same Confederate leaders
1. Republicans outraged at seeing these elected Confederate aristocrats return
a. December 4, 1865 – Congress closes doors – fears too much Democrat power
1. Can’t be enemies one minute – peers the next
2. South actually has more power – more electors/Reps due to cancelled 3/5
3. If Southern Dems. Join with Northern Dems. – they control gov’t and can repeal laws passed during Civil War and re-enslave blacks
B. Pass through 14th Amendment – gives freedmen (former slaves) citizenship +
1. Any state that refuses black voting rights – loses reps
2. Former Confederate leaders can’t run for U.S. Congress
3. Repudiates Southern debts
C. Andrew Johnson “Sir Veto” starts vetoing Radical Republican Congress laws
1. 1866 election vetoproofs Congress – they now have 2/3 to overrule
D. Military Reconstruction – Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner – lead Radicals
1. 5 Military Districts run by Union General + 20,000 soldiers – Supreme Court allows
2. Blacks must be allowed to vote – 15th Amendment makes voting permanent
3. Because only forced on them, as soon as soldiers leave “white redeemers” return South
III. Realities of Radical Reconstruction
A. Benefits – Blacks in South AND North can now vote – Union League organized blacks
1. New Southern constitutions written
2. Black participation in Congress – 14 black Congressmen, 2 black senators
3. Improved Southern infrastructure – schools, public works, property rights for women
IV. Impeachment of Johnson – Congress passes laws they know he will have to disobey
A. Tenure of Office Act – Senate approval before any Presidential firings
B. Johnson impeached after firing Secretary of War Stanton – he was spying for Radical Republ
1. Almost impeached, but luckily Senate didn’t because 1) replacement bad 2) would hurt country, 3) Johnson said he’d stop vetoing
V. Overall Assessment of Reconstruction
A. Theory – failed because North cared about helping Republican Party and free slaves quickly
B. Fails because most Northerners stop caring
C. Fails -US beliefs in personal property, self-govt, state control conflict with Reconstruction
D. Opinions – North wronged South through Reconstruction – just as bad as Civil War
1. or…Noble attempt to give equal rights to slaves – blacks received unprecedented freedoms initially
VI. Reconstruction ends - Hayes-Tilden corrupt election 1876 – Hayes wins but agrees to pull out troops
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Reconstruction – 1865-1877 Topic Outline | 23 KB |
I. Industrial Growth in America - Reasons
A. Natural Resources – coal, oil, iron
B. Immigration – steady flow both Asia and Europe
C. Capitalist mentality supported by laissez faire government
D. Ingenuity – 440,000 patents in 1800s – inventions – Edison’s invention factory
E. Railroads – 1865 – 35,000 Miles > 1900 – 200,000 miles
A. Land claiming – railroad companies given land claims – size of Texas
B. Success of town based on railroad stop – no railroad > “ghost town”
C. Transcontinental – Leland Stanford Union Pacific meets Central Pacific
D. Corruption – money from government not used appropriately – Credit Mobilier
1. Abuse of Chinese, other immigrant labor
2. Faulty tracks just to make a dime
E. Improvements – steel – safer/stronger – standardized size – standardized time
F. “Stock watering” – make stock in railroads look better than it is – bribed judges
F. Steel – Andrew Carnegie – monopolized then gave away $450 million by death
A. America producing 1/3 of world’s steel thanks to Bessemer Process
B. Carnegie - $1.4 billion more than US worth in 1800
G. Oil – Rockefeller – kerosene first pushed – then automobile
A. Consolidation – own supply and distribution
1. 95% of oil refineries
2. Rockefeller – uses illegal rebates and spies to control industry
II. Laissez Faire Conservatism – government policy in late 19th century > industry controls gov’t
A. Gospel of Wealth – Lord gave money to wealthy class – must be morally responsible
B. Social Darwinism – wealthy deserve it – inherently better
1. Poor by own shortcomings – “Acres of Diamonds” – poor deserve it
III. Effects on worker – Business becomes depersonalized – feel like merely a cog in a machine – hurts creativity
A. Free enterprise/farming replaced by corporation
B. Factory controls life – whistle and artificial discipline – become subservient
C. Gibson Girl – advertising campaign encourages women to work in offices
D. 2/3 dependent on wage – unemployment not based on effort, but larger economic issues
VI. Union Movement
A. Manual laborers vulnerable – employers can always bring in cheaper immigrant labor
B. Machines displace workers
C. Corporations make labor organization impossible
1. Control legal process – best lawyers, politicians corrupt
2. employs “scabs”/strike breakers – Gould “I can hire one half to kill the other half
3. Force workers to take ironclad oath – won’t join a union
4. Create company town – employees in debt to company stores
D. Knights of Labor – replaced National Labor Union – began as a secret society
1. Open to everyone – regardless of gender/race
2. Overzealous – talked about social reform/changing society – goals to unrealistic
E. Haymarket Square – Chicago – dynamite injures cops – anarchists linked to unions
1. Leads to massive riot – destroys reputation of Knights of Labor
F. American Federation of Labor – Samuel Gompers – “bread and butter” unionism
1. More realistic – wages, hours, working conditions
2. Used walkout and boycott to get way
3. by 1900 view of labor starts to change – not seen as chaos starters
VII. Industrialization Judgment – were capitalists “Captains of Industry” or “Robber Barons”
A. Class tension never as big a deal in America as in Europe
B. Creates belief in upward mobility
C. But…destroyed traditional farmer’s values/spiritual lives for capitalism
D. Two classes resulted – owners of labor class and the labor class
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Industrialization Topic Outline | 24 KB |
A. Cities – offer jobs, entertainment, plumbing, electricity, phones, department stores, architecture
1. Immigration – antiforeignism – Nativistist Movement – Know-Nothing Party
A. Pre 1880 – immigrants came from Germany, British Isles – high literacy
B. Post 1880 – New Immigrant – Mediterranean, Slavic – poor literacy, arrive impoverished
C. Reasons for leaving – population explosion, persecution, exaggerated letters – streets paved with gold
2. City Problems – waste disposal of packaged products, sewage
A. Criminals, sanitoriums – homeless roaming the streets
B. Slums – dumbbell tenement – one toilet, poor ventilation, disease spreads – easy to build
3. Machine Politics – Boss System – a political machine “machine politics” controls who gets elected
A. Boss Tweed – help immigrants in exchange for votes – government leaders then have to give them kick-backs/money from government projects
B. Provides services/infrastructure for cities, but above the law – controls judges/politicians
B. Politics – existed for benefit of interest groups – conservative leaders who want to avoid conflict
1. Conservative Presidencies – 1876-1992 – “Forgettable Presidents” – laissez faire policies
A. “Rutherfraud” B. Hayes – ended Reconstruction in exchange for votes – election 1876
B. Garfield – Killed by civil servant – eventually led to civil service reform – who gets what background jobs
C. Chester Arthur – elected due to strong boss system of New York
2. Tariff Controversy - $145 million budget surplus per year due to high tariffs
A. Solution – 1) pork-barrel bills or 2) lower tariffs – politicians and industry both interested
3. Railroad regulation – hesitant to intervene – building industry – American Dream
A. Wabash Case – 1886 – states can’t regulate interstate railroads
B. Interstate Commerce Act – creates Interstate Commerce Commission – supposed to regulate commerce, but hard to enforce – at least it’s a step to regulate monopolies
4. Trusts – competition hurts prices so companies unite to control prices/earnings – hurts customer
A. Veritical Integration – control all areas of production – oil from ground to gas station
B. Horizontal Integration – competitive companies from same industry form a trust
C. Agrarian Discontent - Land not as productive – grasshoppers, overused soil, droughts
1. Land easy to tax – other industries can had profits/parts of company
2. Trusts – barbed wire, fertilizer, harvester trusts push prices too high – hurts farmers
3. Railroads control price of transportation
4. ½ population farmers, but can’t organize – consolidation not part of American independence ethos
5. Rising expenses plus lower prices for goods = can’t pay back debts – want free silver
D. Crisis of 1890s – common man fights back – tired of being abused
1. Populism – People’s Party (Populists) came from Farmer’s Alliance – big gains in 1892 election
A. Free coinage silver – 16 to 1 ration
B. Graduated income tax based on wealth
C. Government ownership of utilities – railroad, telephone, telegraph – think Monopoly
D. Direct election of Senators/ One term presidents
E. Initiatives and Referundums for civilians to control municipal issues
F. Shorter workday
G. Immigration Restriction
H. Solicited black vote – black participation only increased anti-voting laws in South
E. Election 1892 – free silver, William Jennings Bryan –Messiah- Democrat – Cross of Gold – great speaker
1. Populists have no party since Bryan’s silver views are theirs
2. Republicans create massive war chest from all industrialists/bankers who fear free silver
3. Millions show up to vote
4. Shift in politics – next 30 years, people become apathetic politically, Republicans dominate
5. Third Phase of Party System eras…
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The Gilded Age Topic Outline | 24.5 KB |
I. Purchase of Alaska – Russia realizes too hard to keep, and might lose in a battle with Britain
A. Why America? Buffer zone.
B. America agrees – 1) Russia helped Civil War, 2) oil, gas, gold fish
C. William Seward – “Seward’s Folly” and “Seward’s Icebox” – started anti-imperialism
II. New Imperialism – Secretary of State James Blaine – goal open markets to U.S. traders
A. Minor incidents bring US to verge of conflicts
1. Chile – 2 US Sailors killed, Canada – seal hunting, Italy – lynching of Italians
2. Venezuela – disputed land with British Guiana
a. President Cleveland says Britain breaking Monroe Doctrine
III. Spanish American War – Spanish misrule of Cuba, America supports Cuban nationalists
A. Yellow journalism – exaggerates brutality of Butcher Wegler
B. U.S.S. Maine sunk in Havana harbor, yellow press blames it on Spanish
C. Cuban independence guaranteed with Teller Amendment
1. Platt Amendment says US can still intervene
D. Philippines – first time American taking heavily populated territory
1. Starts our imperialism
IV. Arguments about Imperialism
A. Against – Hypocrisy – America claims gov’t chosen by people, but…
1. America will now be involved in Asian conflicts
B. Reasons for Imperialism
1. White Man’s Burden – white civilized men help out heathen brothers
2. Missionary - Spread Protestantism to Catholics, Democracy to autocracies
3. Capitalism – natural resources + markets
4. Social Darwinism – Europeans strongest for a reason
5. Manifest Destiny – god made us chosen ones – continuation of City on a Hill
V. John Jay – Open Door Note – after China defeated by Japan, Europe moves in to carve up China
A. Jay sends Open Door Note to European powers asking/demanding equal access to Chinese markets
B. Boxer Rebellion – Chinese nationalists “Kill Foreign Devils”
1. 200 whites/missionaries killed
2. America joins in FIRST European alliance to overthrow rebels
VI. Theodore Roosevelt – traveler, adventurer, tough guy image, not afraid to use war
A. Gained fame through the Rough Riders attack on San Juan Hill at Cuba
B. Election of 1900 tried to pit anti-Imperialist Bryan vs. enslaver of Malayans Roosevelt
1. Roosevelt won – economy doing well at home
C. Big Stick Policy – military force used when necessary – “speak softly and carry a big stick”
D. Panama Canal – 1) needed for trading, 2) needed to move military easily
1. Panama breaks from Columbia in revolution, America looks bad
2. Panama Canal land bought for $10 million
3. “Cowboy Diplomacy” – America looks bad
E. Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine – America will help Latin American countries in debt pay off European debtors – “Bad Neighbor Policy” – look like an Empire
F. Taft – Dollar Diplomacy – foreign investment will keep Latin America on our side
G. Wilson – Moral Diplomacy – let nation’s citizens decide on leader – gave money to Mexican resistance because they had a corrupt leader
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I. Definition – the middle class feels those above are abusing the system and those below are becoming a Socialist threat – must have government become an “agency of human welfare”
II. Progressive Roots
A. Jane Addams – Hull House – starts Settlement House movement
1. Neighborhood activities, counseling, childcare, education for the poor
B. Protestant Clergymen – “Social Gospel” – “Christian Socialists” – God says must help society
C. Greenback Labor Party 1870s and Populists 1890s – demanded social help
D. Nation becoming frustrated with monopolies
E. Prided individualism to justify inaction no longer makes sense in machine age
F. How the Other Half Lives – Jacob Riis – shows life of poor
III. Muckrakers – publishers make money off exposing ills of society – term given by Teddy Roosevelt
A. Magazines – McClures, Cosmopolitan, Colliers
1. Lincoln Steffens – Shame of the Cities – business and cities have corrupt alliance
2. Ida Tarbell – Standard Oil Company – how monopolistic practices destroy small companies
IV. Municipal, State, National Reform – how to solve problem that elected officials who make laws are corrupt
A. Initiative – propose laws, Referendum – people vote on laws, Recall – chance to remove bad officials
B. Laws to limit election, political gifts
C. Direct election of Senators to avoid “Millionaire’s Club”
D. Public commissioner and city manager – outside position to regulate how city is being run
E. Stop monopolies at city level – stop selling of streetcars and utilities to private companies
V. Social Problems
A. Try to stop prostitution – force police to enforce laws
B. Safety, sanitation and child labor laws
1. Prompted by Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 – women trapped in factory and die
C. Temperance/Prohibition of Alcohol – some states and counties passing “dry laws”
1. Alcohol blamed for crime, unemployment, prostitution, wasting of wages, hurts family
D. Women’s Suffrage – western states pass first – Suffragettes still seen as women who want to be men
E. Blacks – WEB Dubois demands immediate equality – NAACP pushes for laws
1. Booker T. Washington work with system – get educated in manual labor
2. Marcus Garvey – preaches black solidarity – “back to Africa” movement – black pride
VI. Progressive Presidents
A. Theodore Roosevelt – a “Square Deal” for all Americans – 3 C’s
1. Control of Corporations – sides with strikers in 1902 coal strike – a first
a. Trustbuster – 1st railroad then others – brings 44 indictments – goes to Supreme Court
2. Consumer Protection – after Upton Sinclair’s – The Jungle - Meat Inspection Act
a. Pure, Food and Drug Act – can’t change or alter goods or labels on goods
3. Conservation of Natural Resources – saves America’s forests
a. Newlands Act – sell land and with money pay for irrigation
b. Saved 125 million acres of forest – actually implemented National Parks law
c. More efficiently balanced corporate interests with those of nature – Sierra Club
4. Set precedents – social reform, used publicity to increase presidential power
B. Taft – bigger trustbuster than Roosevelt – 90 indictments vs. 44
1. Ballinger-Pinchot controversy – Ballinger selling public land, Pinchot complains then fired
2. Payne-Aldrich Tariff – actually signs bill that increases tariffs on most items – angers support
C. Wilson’s New Freedom – assault on “the triple wall of privilege” – tariff, banks, trust
1. Tariffs – Underwood Tariff Bill – pressured reps. to pass, graduated income tax revenue
2. Banking – Federal Reserve Act 1913 – 12 regional banks run by gov’t - $ now easily increased
3. Anti-Trust Act of 1914 – Clayton Anti-Trust Act – allows for labor protests – tries to control sneaky tricks of trusts – one man runs 4-5 different companies – controls costs
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I. Problems of neutrality – Wilson says be neutral in thought/deed
A. Submarines – British navy blockades German ports, u-boats only way to fight back
1. Lusitania – part cruise ship, part munitions transport
2. At first Germany gives Sussex Pledge, don’t shoot without warning, but then…
B. Economic ties – America was in a recession – JP Morgan and bankers loan money
1. Military orders from France and Britain huge
C. Psychological and ethnic ties – align with British – control propaganda/Kaiser embodies autocrat
1. Germany’s strike on neutral Belgium – makes Germans look like Huns
2. Wilson an anglophile
3. 11 million w/ ties to Germany/Austria-Hungary – recent immigrants
II. Preparedness and pacifism – Teddy Roosevelt pushes for war – cries of America to stay out
A. Russia turns communist and drops out, now America can fight for “democracy”
B. 1915 – Council of National Defense – look into how to mobilize for war/launched shipbuilding
C. Most labor unions support war, except for IWW “Wobblies)
III. Mobilization
A. Fighting the war – army ranked 15th – Americans feared gov’t intervention
1. Doughboys – conscription – no draft dodgers to buy selves out – 18-45 register
2. Work or fight
3. America’s biggest contribution through food/munitions – only two big battles
B. Financing the war – no forced rationing- propaganda – Herbert Hoover controls food admin.
1. Voluntary – farm production increased
2. Victory Loan Drives “Halt the Hun” – 1/5 of all money, $21 billion
a) Extreme peer pressure to buy war bonds
3. Rest of money from taxes
C. War boards – gov’t tries to takes over production
1. Bernard Baruch – War Industries Board – not effective – companies want laissez faire
D. Propaganda, public opinion, civil liberties
1. George Creel – Committee of Public Information – sell America on war and war aims
a) Four-minute men to give speeches, posters, billboards, booklets, movies
b) World expects too much – inspired with passion to want to buy bonds/participate
2. German-Americans targeted – blamed for diarrhea, sickness, spying – some tarred
a) Espionage Act – Sedition Act – anything against America can be jailed
(1) Targeted anti-war socialists, and union leaders (IWWW)
(2) Pardons given once war over, but civil liberties still broken
IV. Wilson's Fourteen Points – Wilson idealist – “make the world safe for democracy” – goal to prevent war
A. No treaties, freedom of seas, reduce military
B. Self-determination – let peoples decide their fate
C. Create League of Nations to settle international disputes
D. Treaty of Versailles – Idealist Wilson vs. Imperialist Europeans who want revenge
1. Punishes Germany – unrealistic reparations, demilitarize, accept full blame
E. Ratification fight – League of Nations – Senate can’t lose war declaration power
1. America’s history of avoiding entangling alliances
a) Senate – Henry Cabot Lodge – afraid of Article X – must fight in war
2. Strong German sentiment in Mid-West makes Wilson’s tour unsuccessful
3. America’s refusal makes League powerless and America looks pathetic not agreeing to what they proposed
V. Postwar demobilization – America wants to return to normalcy – keep economy going, go America
A. Red scare – Russian communism spreading – Crusade against left-wingers – anti-Americans
1. Palmer Raids – Mitchell Palmer arrest anyone considered radical
B. Labor strife – gov’t goes back to laissez faire – helping corps. – unions look red/communist
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Complaints: Left – didn’t go far enough to remake society, Right – created welfare state
I. Wall Street Crash – started business depression home/abroad unprecedented
A. 5000 banks collapse, 25% unemployed nationwide
B. Hoover’s reaction – “rugged individualism” – locals gov’t and indiv. Take care of selves
C. Depression Economy – Hoover actually pioneered New Deal – just didn’t market it properly
1. Created public works projects - $2.25 billion – Hoover Dam
2. Reconstruction Finance Corporation – gave loans to needy
2. Fought against anti-union behavior
3. But…didn’t have help from Congress – couldn’t pass a lot
4. Set important precedent that FDR would take further
D. Hawley Smoot Tariff – 38% to 60% - world responds with similarly high tariffs – out of control
II. Moods of Despair
A. Bonus Army – Bonus Expeditionary Force – demand payment of 1945 retirement money
1. 20,000 march on Washington – set up Hoovervilles – 2 die
2. Riots put down by General Douglas MacArthur – tear gas – injured – Hoover looks bad
III. Franklin D. Roosevelt – 1921 paralyzed, wife Eleanor – “conscience of New Deal” –
A. Loved by liberals – golden speaking voice – “traitor to his class”
B. New Deal – for “forgotten man” – Brain Trust – relief, recovery, reform
C. 100 days – “alphabet agencies”- based on Progressive Movement
1. unemployment insurance, old age insurance, minimum wage, conservation, child labor
2. Created jobs – CCC, CWA, FERA
D. Critics – either too autocratic or not going far enough
1. Father Charles Coughlin – Catholic Priest
2. Huey Long – Kingfish – “Share our Wealth” “Every Man a King” – assassinated
3. Court packing – Supreme Court sees practices as socialist – add 6 judges because tired
a. Seen as dictator – destroying checks and balances – but courts start changing > liberal
4. Some graft and abuses, depression still exists in 36 (hey that rhymes)
5. Capitalists – thought they were being punished
a. Many say his programs saved capitalism, just got rid of abusers
E. Rise of CIO – labor strikes – Roosevelt passes minimum wage, max hour work week
1. CIO emerges – 4 million members by 1940s – 200,000 blacks
2. Seemed like civil war between AFL and CIO
F. Recession of 1938 – eventually runs out of new programs – depression still exists
1. “Spendocracy” – Keynes – run massive deficit spending – Keynesian
2. National debt - $19 billion to $40 billion
IV. American People in the Depression
A. Social values, women, ethnic groups – start working together – everyone suffering
1. Eleanor Roosevelt – women first time have influence – Mary Dewson
a. Frances Perkins – first cabinet –Secretary of Labor
2. But women take women’s jobs to not take away job from male “breadwinners”
3. Birth rates drop, men’s #1 role in family diminishes
B. South – 1938 – worst section of nation – economics, schools, housing, income – blacks worst
C. Indian Reorganization Act – slowed loss of Indian lands – encourages self- government
1. Some thought it demeaning – “back to the blanket” – treated like museums
D. Mexican-American Deportation – 1-2 million deported to free up jobs for “real” Americans
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I. Hoover/Stimson Diplomacy Japan
A. Japan alleges provocation – invades Manchuria – Japan quits League of Nations
1. Interventionist Sec. of State Stimson encourages embargo/Isolationist Hoover disagrees
2. 1932 - Stimson doctrine – US would not recognize new territorial acquisitions
3. League proves useless World War II technically begins
II. Good Neighbor Policy – economic imperialism difficult with slowing economy – alters Roosevelt Corollary
A. Hoover takes troops out of some S. American nations – treat Southern neighbors more fairly
III. London Economic Conference – Summer 1933
A. American wants to stay isolated so doesn’t meet with other nations to work on ending Depression
1. Led to extreme nationalism among European countries – working together ain’t happening
IV. Disarmament
A.
V. Congress Legislates Neutrality – World War I blamed on munitions makers wanting money
A. Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937 – America could not sell/transport to belligerents, sail on their boats, or make loans – only effects American-declared wars
1. Ended freedom of the seas – also won’t even help victims – considered belligerent
2. Some even ask for Constitutional Amendment
VI. Aggressors: Japan, Italy, and Germany – nations swept up in nationalism, militarism – dictators rule
VII. Appeasement – avoiding World War II at all costs – gives into demands of leaders
A. Germany – Ignore Treaty of Versailles – Austria > Czechoslovakia – Munich Conference
B. Japan invades China – Roosevelt’s Quarantine Speech decried by isolationists
VII. Rearmament – cash and carry policy first – to stop Germany’s blitzkrieg (lightning fast war)
A. Lend-lease – US would be arsenal of democracy – send guns, not sons – lend arms and then they can return later – led to America’s rearmament
B. Destroyers for bases – give old destroyers in exchange for bases around world
VIII. Atlantic Charter – Atlantic Conference 1941 – Churchill and Roosevelt meet for first time
A. Discuss how to make world safer for democracies at end of war
B. People can choose own government, can take no territory without consent of people
C. Looked at as non-isolationist – Roosevelt making treaties with other nations
IX. Pearl Harbor – 1940 embargo on Japan bound supplies – taking oil hurts Japan
A. Broke Japanese code – knew war was coming – thought in Malaya or Philippines
B. December 8, 1941declared war on Japan after “date that will live in infamy” short by one vote
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I. Organizing for war – Total War – Government controls everything, citizens willing to help
A. Mobilizing production – massive military orders pulled US out of Depression
1. War Production Board – government takes over manufacturing
a) Stops production of nonessentials – cars
b) Wartime rationing after supply of rubber cut off by Japan’s invasion of Malaya
B. Full employment led to inflation
a) Office of Price Administration – regulated prices
C. Labor unions increase in size
1. Women – Rosie the Riveter, African-Americans enter workforce in masse
2. Some strikes led to Government taking over industry – Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Law
D. Propaganda – buy war bonds, support rationing, work harder
1. Posters, movies, demonize/dehumanizes Japanese
E. Roosevelt works with businesses – in capitalism “you have to let business make money”
F. Internment of Japanese Americans – Executive Order 9066
1. Moved for protection, but mostly fear of spying or aiding invasion
2. Constitutionality upheld by Korematsu vs. U.S. case – acceptable during wartime
3. 1988 - $20,000 to each camp survivor
II. The war in Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean; D Day
A. Strategy – take Africa > go through Italy to set up Southern Front – Russia holds Eastern Front > Create Massive Western Front > D-Day Normandy “Beginning of the End”
III. The war in the Pacific: Hiroshima, Nagasaki
A. Priority take out Germany first
B. Island hopping – take island at a time to provide landing bases – get closer to prepare for invasion
1. Firebombing Tokyo and other cities
C. Manhattan Project – secret plan to create Nuclear Bomb
1. Hiroshima/Nagasaki Fat Man/Little Boy bombed
a) Save Japanese civilians/American soldiers lives if invasion
b) Warning to Russia – starts arms race
IV. Diplomacy
A. War aims – work with Russia – Russia holds off Germany until America/Britain can hold front – hesitant friends – realize communism will be problem after war
B. Wartime conferences: Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam – Big Three – Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill
1. Casablanca Conference. – invade Italy/unconditional surrender;
2. Teheran – set up U.N.
3. Yalta – divide Germany into four sections
4. Potsdam – hot to govern Germany, attack Japan next
V. Postwar atmosphere; the United Nations
A. America feels like king of the world, homeland relatively unhurt
B. Russia takes over Germany’s Eastern holdings, promises to let them have free elections, but…
1. Threat of WWIII with Russia almost immediate
C. Hiroshima and Nagasaki – first shots of Cold War – attempt to frighten Soviets unnecessary
D. Racial/gender inequality returns
E. Economy falters at first – potentially huge unrest – would US return to Depression
1. What to do about returning men – industries drop output at first
2. Massive inflation
3. Organized labor has more power
4. War industry buildings sold cheaply to private industries
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I. Postwar Domestic Adjustments
A. Initial faltering economy – inflation rises, GDP down, strikes
1. Taft-Hartley Act – put limits on labor unions
a. Outlawed closed shop, labor leaders take non-Communist oath
2. Sold war factories cheaply to private companies
3. G.I. Bill – paid for school for soldiers; home, farm, and small business loans
B. GDP growth lasts next two decades – Americans – 6% of population controlled 40% of earth’s $
1. Middle class doubles, home ownership increases
2. Not touched by war – America dominates ruined global landscape
3. Rising education level, better technology, workforce leaves agriculture
4. Move to suburbs – massive baby boom
II. Civil Rights - war generated new militancy among blacks, generation of college grads
A. 1948 – Truman ends segregation in federal civil service, equality of treatment in military
B. Election of 1948 – Democrats against Truman because of civil rights stance
1. Form Dixiecrats – States Right – nominated Governor Strom Thurmond of S. Carolina
2. Vice-President Henry Wallace enters election for Progressive Party – pro-Soviet platform
3. Harry delivers 300 “give ‘em hell Harry” speeches – Republican Dewey should have won
a. Chicago Tribune ran newspaper – Dewey Defeats Truman – but…farmers, workers, blacks not interested with Republicans
III. Containment in Europe and the Middle East
A. Truman Doctrine - $400 million for Greece and Turkey – help fight Communism
1. Bigger issue – protect any “free peoples” from outside Communist pressure
a. Problem – any tyrant can claim Communist threat and get help
B. Marshall Plan – 1) make capitalism attractive, resist Communism 2) help rebuild Europe
1. $12.5 billion – reverse of Versailles – helps nations rebuild – became economic miracle
C. Berlin crisis – Berlin divided among four allied powers – France, England, Britain, Russia
1. Becomes East and West Berlin – Russia wants Eastern Europe as “satellite nation”
2. 1948 – Soviets cut off train/highway access – Allies respond w/ massive airlift
a. Symbolic importance – America determined to protect interests
D. NATO – 12 original say an attack on one is an attack on all – isolationists defeated
1. Officially ended American isolationism, helped unite Europe, militarizes Western Europe for Cold War
E. 1949 – Truman announces Soviets had tested nuclear bomb
1. US in 1952 gets Hydrogen bomb, then Soviets get hydrogen bomb next year
IV. Revolution in China
A. American backed Jiang Jieshi defeated by Communist Mao Zedong and banished to Taiwan
1. Looks like America “lost” China to Communism – US looks for someone to blame
V. Korean War – Korea divided into Russia and US spheres of influence at 38 degrees
A. N. Korea invades and then pushed back by MacArthur and UN soldiers, drives to China border
1. China then attacks and pushes forces back to start – 38 degrees
B. NSC-68- Truman quadruples defense spending
1. Belief that American economy can handle any expenditure on defense
C. MacArthur calls Truman a communist appeaser because he has to fight limited war
1. Wants to drop nukes and invade China
2. Truman has to fire MacArthur – returns a hero
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I. Modern Republicanism – keep social/economic programs but push for military build-up
A. Ike allowed McCarthy because his target was oftentimes previous Democ. Administration
1. Master of manipulating media – careers ended because he “named” you
2. Majority of polled Americans approved of McCarthy – made it hard to criticize
3. Army hearings destroy him in front of 20 million on TV – dies alcohol 3 yrs. Later
II. Civil Rights Movement
A. The Warren Court – Congress resists change, Ike not interested – go to courts
1. Brown v. Board of Education reverses Plessy vs. Ferguson - unanimous
2. Confronted important social issues instead of refusing to hear
3. Little Rock 9 – high school integrated only after Eisenhower intervenes over gov.
B. Montgomery Bus Boycott – year long successful boycott after Rosa Parks refuses seat
1. Martin Luther King – Southern Christian Leadership Conference – gains status
2. Proved blacks could unite
C. Greensboro sit-in – spontaneous sit-in at Woolworth’s – later fad spread all over South in pools, restaurants, public places
III. John Foster Dulles – churchgoer – push back Communist advances, “liberate captive people”
1. Also try to balance budget by reducing military spending
A. Massive retaliation – build-up of Strategic Air Command + nukes to level cities
1. “More bang for the buck” – turned out to be extremely expensive
a. Eventually Ike warns against “military-industrial complex”
2. Problem – can’t use massive nuclear attack threat on minor issues – Hungary
B. Southeast Asia – Ho Chi Minh wants independence – America can’t let go Communist
1. French forces fail at Dien Bien Phu – America must support France for help in Eur.
a. Loss forces compromise – divide country and elect in a year
b. South Vietnam U.S. backed leader Diem takes money but doesn’t help
c. America firmly involved backing losing horse
C. Empires die out – Middle East and Latin America push for independence – democracy
1. Iranians seen as supporting USSR, so US sponsors coup and puts in dictator – shah
a. Arab world angered at US intervention
2. Egyptians not given US money for dam, they end up nationalizing Suez Canal
a. Britain and France go to war against Egypt without US help
b. Demonstrates reliance of west on oil – power shifts to Middle East
D. Khrushchev – tensions only get more fierce after failed attempts at summits
1. Khrushchev shallowly promises disarmament to UN
2. Ike looks stupid when U-2 plane crashes after US says we don’t fly spy missions
IV. American people – homogenized society – buys same thing/has same values – keeping up with the Joneses
A. White collar jobs outnumber blue collar jobs
B. Women – return to female jobs – domestic – baby boom
1. Cult of domesticity – later refuted by Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique
2. Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver – TV shows with perfect suburban fams
C. Consumer culture – Diner’s Club 1st credit card, McDonalds
1. Rapid TV growth – movie attendance sinks
2. Cultural and social growth destroyed by consumerism and TV media
3. Popular music turns to “crossover” Elvis Presley – black, country, British
4. Americans buy mass-produced, standardized products – where’s the difference
V. Space Race – Sputnik USSR satellite – communism actually key to future – USSR ahead of US
1. Fear – USSR education stronger, could now attack US from space w/ missile
a. Education – too easygoing – substitute square roots for square dancing
b. Authorized loans for college
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I. New Domestic Programs – New Frontier to “get the country moving again”
A. Tax cut – though at odds with companies over Steel threats, he regained favor with tax cuts to business – seen as a Republican measure
1. Additional tax cuts pushed through by Johnson after Kennedy assassinated
B. War on Poverty – Johnson – Great Society – “rights revolution” – helped Americans/hurt budget
1. Proposed $1 Bill(Later $2 bill. dollar package – focused on Appalachian mountains and poor
a. Economic and welfare programs – similar to New Deal
b. Michael Harrington’s The Other America – shows 20% of population in poverty
2. Two new cabinet offices – Housing and Urban Development, Department of Transportation
3. Big Four Feats – education, aid to elderly/indigent, immigration reform, voting
a. Education – loans straight to kids, not schools – Project Head Start
b. Medicare/Medicid
II. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
A. The New Left and the Counterculture – divides America’s into two morals
1. Negative attitude toward authority – America not free of racism, sexism, imperialism, povert
2. 1950s – “Beat” poets - Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Rebel without a Cause
3. UC Berkeley – Free Speech Movement, sexual revolution, lived in communes
4. Turned into violence and cynicism
B. Republican Party – reaction to “flower children” – silent majority
1. Republicans in South – Kennedy – anti-Catholic – Bible belt
2. 1968 – American Independent Party – George Wallace – South really doesn’t want integration – can no longer follow Democrats
3. Blacks move to cities, Democrats begin appealing to urban areas, Republicans elsewhere
C. The Supreme Court – Warren’s Court – After 1953
1. Cases affect sexual freedom, criminals’ rights, religious rights, structure of political representation
A. Griswold v. Connecticut – Condoms OK – people have privacy in lives
B. Gideon v. Wainwright – Defendants have right to legal counsel
C. Miranda/Escobedo – right to remain silent, can’t get confession from torture
D. New York Times v. Sullivan – public figures only win libel if malice intended
E. Engel v. Vitale – prayer illegal in schools
F. Reynolds v. Sims – redraw district lines to better represent population
III. Foreign Policy – Cold war still dominates thinking
A. Bay of Pigs – plan made under Eisenhower to have CIA help Cuban exiles retake gov’t from Castro
1. Fails miserably when Cubans don’t side with Cuban exiles
2. America looks like idiots for sponsoring a revolution – Kennedy held responsible
B. Cuban Missile Crisis – closest America gets to WWIII – US tells USSR to get missiles out of Cuba
1. Puts in “quarantine” – can’t do blockade because it’s an act of war
2. If Russia doesn’t back down > Cuba invaded > Berlin invaded > World War III
3. Khruschev - Russia eventually back down for America’s promise to take out missiles Turkey
4. Created direct phone line between leaders – too close to death
C. Vietnam Quagmire – no-win situation – escalation not possible, N. Vietnamese won’t quit
1. Can’t escalate because might bring in China or Russia, but can’t win without escalation
2. American public – due to media – getting tired of unwinnable wore and empty promises
3. Victory confusing – based on body counts and not land taken (land gets retaken later)
4. People begin dodging draft, tons of protests, Veterans not welcomed back
5. Tet Offensive actually a victory but media portrayal makes it look like gov’t has no touch w/ reality – they had just promised a huge victory
6. Destroys Johnson’s policies
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I. Election of 1968 – most heated political season in history
A. Democratic convention has mass riots – mobs bait officers – feces, shouts
1. Eventually police riot breaks out
2. Robert Kennedy had been killed – leaves pro-war Humphrey in power
B. Republicans – victory in Vietnam and strong anticrime policy
C. George Wallace – segregation campaign – gets 45 electoral votes from South
C. Nixon wins – doesn’t win one city – Democrats vote cities, blacks vote cities
II. Johnson remembered – Vietnam failure, but done more for Civil Rights than Lincoln
III. Nixon-Kissinger Foreign Policy
A. Vietnam – escalation and then pull-out troops
1. Asians and others have to fight own wars
2. Vietnamization – train Vietnamese to fight war for selves
3. Bomb Cambodia to clear out Vietnamese
B. China – restoring relations – road to getting out of Vietnam requires help of China
1. China starting to clash with Soviets – take opportunity
2. 1972 makes journey to China
C. Soviet Union – détente – relaxed tension – slowing of arms race
1. Soviets need U.S. food and are afraid of US supported Chinese
a. $750 million in wheat, corn
3. Anti-ballistic missile treaty – limited nations to defensive weapons
a. SALT – freeze number of missiles for 5 years
IV. New Federalism- Expands welfare programs – not liked by Conservatives
A. Increases for food stamps and Medicaid
B. Supplemental Security Income for disabled
C. Poverty rate reduced to 11% - lowest in modern history
D. Attack on racial discrimination – affirmative action – protection for groups not just individuals
1. Supreme Court prohibits intelligence or other tests that hurt women/blacks
E. Environmental Protection Agency – dealt with smog, pesticides and pollution
V. Supreme Court – Roe v. Wade – prohibited states from passing laws against abortion
A. Warren Court of previous two decades had changed face of nation - reformist
1. Rights of accused, legality of contraception, sue for libel if you could prove malice, support black people in civil rights cases, redraw district lines
VI. Watergate Crisis and resignation
A. Nixon paranoid – believes liberals of Kennedy/Johnson destroyed political career
B. Wins 1972 election by landslide but actions come back to haunt him
1. Plumbers supposed to seal “leaks” after Pentagon Papers show fault in previous presidents
2. Group caught in Watergate Hotel at Democratic Party
3. CREEP – committee to reelect president has tons of money to play “dirty tricks” on opposition
C. Reports Woodward and Bernstein uncover story – eventually traced to Nixon
D. Nixon resigns before impeachment – later pardoned by Ford – only
E. John Dean states that Nixon had bugged rooms to record conversations
1. Eventually Nixon tapes asked for, but denied – minutes “lost”
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POLITICAL
1. Women followed England’s example
1. Running in front of horses
2. 1848 – Seneca Falls
1. Declaration of Sentiments
3. Organizations:
1. 1869 – NWSA
a. fighting in Congress
b. 1869 - AWSA
a. fighting in states
c. 1966 – NOW
a. equality in workplace
3. Federal Acts
a. 1893 – CO lets women vote
b. 1920 – 19th Amendment
c. 1960 – FDA approves birth control pills
d. 1963 – Equal Pay Act
e. 1973 – Roe vs. Wade
a. safe and legal abortion
f. 1978 – Pregnancy Discrimination Act
g. 1994 – Violence Against Women Act
SOCIAL
1. Women’s Role
1. no vote, husband has control, no property unless widowed
2. women are few in the west / have more power
2. 1920’s
1. flappers, new ideas of women
a. seen as deteriorating society
b. clothing shorter – WWI rationing
a. showing knees, calve
b. birth control
a. women have power to control life
c. Car - changed dating
d. Alcohol
a. women drinking in bars, more equal
3. 1930’s – Great Depression
1. huge destruction of family unit
a. women becoming breadwinners
b. FDR – 1st woman in cabinet
a. Eleanor Roosevelt – fought for everyone
4. 1940’s – WWI
1. Rosie the Riveter
2. Sexual Evolution
i. Sinatra, bobbysoxers
ii. Relationships pushed with men going to war
5. 1950’s – Return to Normalcy
a. backwards movement / women back to the home
i. gov’t told women to return home
1. housing boom – track homes
b. advertising
i. TV consumerism - products for women in the home
ii. Ideal mother - Leave it to Beaver etc.
6. 1960’s & 70’s
a. birth control approved
a. women have the right to choose home/career
b. Feminism movement
a. learns from civil rights movement
1. civil disobedience – bra burning, pageant protesting
c. 1963 - Feminine Mystique - Betty Freidan
I) Events
a) Murder of Emmett Till-boy from Chicago
i) Whistle @ white women…murdered by women’s husband and brother
(1) Emmett=martyr
ii) Open-casket funeral…huge media coverage
iii) Mrs. Till & Mose Wright (uncle) spoke against whites
iv) Murders convicted not guilty…all white jury
b) Montgomery Bus Boycott (Dec.1, 1955)
i) Non-violent
ii) Rosa Parks-white section >SC integrating buses
c) Little Rock, Arkansas
i) Desegregation of schools-state vs. federal
(1) Nt’l Guard vs. U.S. Army
ii) “Little Rock 9”-good AA students
(1) Escorted by “101st Hall Monitors”(U.S. Air Force)
iii) 1st integrated school
d) Sit-ins-Greensboro, NC…Nashville, TN…big media… Purpose-be arrested
i) Jim Lawson non-violent workshop…rules on sitting, clothes etc
ii) Both black and whites worked together
e) Freedom Rides…integrate buses on state line
i) Washington D.C. >deep south
ii) SNCC-main org.
iii) JFK sends federal troops
f) March on Washington…250,000-300,000 b&w together
i) “I have a dream”
ii) No riots – fed gov’t expected chaos
g) Birmingham-“Bombingham”…AL
i) Media=big…spraying water
ii) Church bombing…4 kids killed
h) Mississippi Burning…shows S problems
i) Get AA to vote (3 guys…two white, one black, one Jew)…KKK kills them
ii) Kennedy passes-Voting Rights Act of 1965
(1) Verify 15th Amendment
i) Black Power Movement…Malcolm X founded ideology…ghetto-ised
i) Black panthers…stop being “victims”
ii) Olympics-black fists
II) People
a) Martin Luther King-minister from church…non-violent civil rights activist…killed 1968
b) JFK-35 pres…not elected as civil rights activist…brother Robert Attorney G. more active than JFK killed in 1963 (end of CRM)
c) Malcolm X-fighting back…Islam…black supremacy…big media…killed by Islams (blacks)
III) Phases – NAACP lawsuits, legislative branch won’t budge – senate filibuster
a) Go to courts – Brown v. Board, but not enforceable
b) Executive branch finally steps in Ike>Little Rock, Kennedy>Freedom Rides, Johnson>Civil Rights Act
i. Before governors and states had ruled, finally federal gov’t stops allowing South to have separate rules
IV) Cooperation – Early part, blacks and whites worked together in SNCC, CORE
a) Conflicts between conservative SCLC and NAACP, the big moneymakers and SNCC & CORE the actual activists
b) By late 1960s, Black Power mvmt emerges wanting nothing to do with white help
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I. Red fear- radical ideas – Russia – anti-union/pro business
A. Strikes – labor = Bolsheviks, Left wing = un-American
B. Sacco/Vanzetti – Mass. murder, Ital, atheists, anarchists, draft dodgers
C. A.Gen. Palmer – “Fighting Quaker” – bomb – paranoid dude
D. Buford “Soviet Ark” – 249 deported – not nice
II. Race/Immigration Issues
A. KKK – anti Jew, foreign, Catholic, pacifist, bootlegger, birth control – crabby dudes
1. 1925 - 5 mil, march on Wash
2. Died w/ corruption of leaders
B. Immigration – new immigration bad, we like Northern Europeans, white, white people – first time America restricts immigration
1. Emergency Quota Act – 1921 – 3 % of 1910 numbers
2. Immigration Act of 1924 – 2% of 1890 #s – no Japanese
III. Social Lives
A. Prohibition – 1919 18th Amendment, Volstead Act enforces
1. South likes (conservative, don’t want drunk blacks), N.Eastern cities no
2. Joke – can’t legislate personal lives – tough to enforce – speakeasies, home brew
B. Consumerism – war + Mellon’s nice taxes + machines + oil + assembly line + electricity + buy on credit/installment
1. Car symbol of all – advertising, rubber, glass follows – 1930 20 mill.
a. Freedom, roads, women free, death toll “demon machine”
C. Entertainment
1. Watching Sports – Babe Ruth - baseball, Jack Dempsey – boxing
2. Airplanes – “flying coffins” – WWI, but others famous
a. Charles Lindbergh – Lucky Lindy – New York/Paris $25K
3. Radio – 1920 Pittsburg – announces election – national programming – home
4. Hollywood- movies – nickelodeons – 1927 Jazz Singer, 1915 Birth of Nation
a. $100,000 salaries, Americanization – vulgar pop culture
D. Battle of Morals – change, move to cities
1. Feminism – Sanger – birth control, 1923 Equal Rights Amendment failed
2. Religion – Modernism – God nice guy
3. Sexuality – “struck sex o’clock” – flappers – danced, knees, dark movies
4. Scopes Monkey Trial – Tennessee – old Bryan vs. young Darrow - $100 fine
E. Music – jazz, blues – Big Bands
1. Racial pride – Harlem Renaissance – Langston Hughes – poetry
a. Marcus Garvey – African Homeland – United Negro Improvement Association – support black communities – pay for improve
F. Literature – not all white protestants, energy – resented old ideals
1. Mencken – journal – mocked old ideals – American Mercury
2. Fitzgerald – jazz age – This Side of Paradise/Gatsby
3. Hemingway – anti-progovt-propaganda – Farewell to Arms
4. Poetry – T.S. Eliot – Wasteland, Hughes, ee cummings – dared to be diff.
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I. The New Right and the Resurgence of Conservatism – response to counterculture of 1960s
A. Most concerned about social issues – not economics
1. Denounced homosexuality, pornography, abortion, feminism, affirmative action
2. Wanted prayer and tougher penalties on criminals
3. Milliken v. Bradley – says you don’t have to bus kids across lines, whites move to suburbs
II. Ford and Rockefeller – Ford seen as dumb, pardoning Nixon seen as “buddy deal”
A. Tries to continue Détente at Helsinki Accords – finalized boundaries of East – gave freedoms
III. Jimmy Carter
A. Double-digit inflation – more than 10% per year – oil prices from OPEC killed them
1. High lending rate – 20% - don’t want to be repaid with cheap money
2. Calls to improve energy conservation
3. Eventually escapes to Camp David where he meets with advisors, then chastises Americans
B. Iranian Hostage Crisis – hostages taken because US aided in revolution – putting Shah in power
1. Nightly news show Iranians burning US flags – failed economic sanctions and commando escape attempt
C. Camp David Accords – Israel and Egypt agree to withdraw to pre-1967 territory to avoid conflict
IV. Ronald Reagan – former actor, California governor, helps wealthy, return to good old days – US pride
A. Reaganomics – trickle-down – supply-side economics – help out wealthy, economy improves for all
1. Huge tax cuts for wealthy, gov’t has huge budget deficits pay for weapons/economy – but OK
B. Defense buildup – method of bankrupting Soviet Union – can’t keep up with us, eventually kills them
1. Money taken from school lunches for huge weapons programs – military industrial complex
C. Disarmament Treaties – “Star Wars” – Strategic Defense Initiative – blowing up nukes in space
1. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” – glasnost “openness”, “perestroika” restructuring
a. INF treaty – bans all intermediate missiles in Europe
D. Iran-Contra – America sells weapons to Iranians covertly and gives money to Contra rebels Nicaragua
1. Violates congressional ban on sending weapons to Contras – President ignores
2. Daily TV congressional hearings show President probably knew but everyone pleads 5th
V. Society – two nations – affluence and inequality – poverty rates highest among minorities
A. Feminist revolution – Working moms, athletics, anti-sexual discrimination cases – still “glass ceiling”
1. Sandra Day O’Connor First Justice, women leaders of companies
2. Women authors
B. African-Americans – Clarence Thomas Judge
C. New immigration – Asia/Mexico – urban coastal cities and Southwest (Mexicans) dominated
1. Concentration of Mexicans unprecedented
2. Ethnic pride – some people anti-American and/or hold their groups as most important
D. Urban problems – minorities centralized, money not put into rebuilding, drugs, welfare, poor schools
1. Pollution, traffic – endangering species
Unit notes that cover an entire section of US History and not just one particular chapter. These unit notes, along with the US History outlines, practice quizzes, vocabulary terms, topic outlines, court cases, political parties, political timelines, and case briefs will help you prepare for the AP US History exam.
Below are the US History topics covered in this unit:
Exploration
Explorers in the late 15th, 16th, nad early 17th centuries began the European phase of American history. Their "discoveries" in the New dispelled rumors of a northwest passage and settled ancient questions of world geography. Contact between Europeans and Native Americans would have a dramatic effect on Europe, but a devastating impact on those who were wrongly called "Indians."
Christopher Columbus: Spanish explorer who, with the backing of Ferdinand V and Isabella I, discovered the North American continent on October 12,1492. Though he was originally seeking a westward route to India, his fleet of ships consisting of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria reached the island of Hispanola, claiming it for Spain.
Giovanni Verrazano: Mariner who explored the East coast of the United States and Nova Scotia under the commission of France in 1524. He was commissioned to claim new lands in the New World and find a route to China. He was the first European to enter New York Bay. His land claims were not colonized until the 17th century.
Ferdinand Magellan: Portuguese explorer who was the first person to sail across the Pacific Ocean and to circumnavigate the globe. Sailing under a Spanish commission, he attempted to reach the Spice Islands. After crossing the Pacific, Magellan was killed battling natives in the Philippines but two of his ships returned to Spain.
Francisco Pizarro: Spanish explorer and military leader who conquered Peru. Pizarro was part of many early explorations of the New World and was involved in the colonization of Panama. When he found the Inca empire in Peru he organized a expedition of 180 men and destroyed the empire in 1531.
John Cabot: Explorer sent by Henry VII in 1497 who explored and claimed Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and the Grand Banks for England. Cabot was originally sent by Henry in violation of the treaty of Tordesillas to find a direct route to Asia. Cabot, like Columbus thought he had reached Asia, unaware he was exploring a new continent.
Pedro Alvares Cabral: Portuguese navigator and explorer who explored what is now Brazil. While making a trip to India on April, 22, 1500 his fleet was forced off course by weather and he reached what is now the state of Bahia, Brazil. He claimed this land for Portugal.
Vasco Nunez de Balboa: Spanish explorer who is best known for being the first to reach the Pacific Ocean in 1513. While attempting to escape debt he joined an expedition lead by Martin Fernandez de Enciso where he took control of the party and led it across the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean, which he claimed for the Spanish monarchs.
Jacques Cartier: French explorer who explored the Saint Lawrence River. In 1534 Cartier lead a two ship party to find the northwest passage to Asia. He explored Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. While exploring, he claimed the lands for France which made up most of its claim to Canada.
Juan Ponce de Leon: Spanish explorer who discovered the present day state of Florida on March 27, 1512. Following reports of a fountain of youth, he sailed from his colony in Puerto Rico to the eastern shore of Florida where, upon landing, his party was attacked by natives and where he was mortally wounded before retreating to Cuba.
Hernando Cortez: Spanish conquistador who is best known for the destruction of the Aztec Empire in present day Mexico. On February 19,1519 Cortez left Cuba with a force of 600 men. Upon landing, Cortez was greeted by the Aztecs who he began to subjugate. He destroyed all resistance and destroyed the Aztec capital in present day Mexico City.
encomiendas: Grants that give a person the right to take labor in the form of slaves or any type of homage form a designated group of Indians. Christopher Columbus who was sailing for Spain and who was one of the first conquistadors also began this practice in Hispanolia.
Spanish Armada, 1588: Naval force launched by Phillip II of Spain to fight England. The Fleet was the largest of its time in the 16th century. The Armada was severely damaged when it was attacked off the coast of England on August 7,1588 and cut nearly in half by storms upon return to Spain, making Britain the dominant sea power.
Colombian Exchange: The exchange of biological organisms between continents. The diseases brought to the American continent that helped to nearly destroy the native populations is one example of that exchange. Besides disease, many plants and animals have been brought to new environments with varying consequences.
Order of Colonization: (colony, date, prominent figure) Virginia in 1607, John Smith; Plymouth in 1620, William Bradford; New York in 1626, Peter Minuit; Massachusetts Bay in 1630, John Winthrop; Maryland in 1633, George Calvert; Rhode Island in 1636, Roger Williams; Connecticut in 1636, Thomas Hooker; New Hampshire in 1638; Delaware in 1638; North Carolina in 1653; South Carolina in 1663; New Jersey in 1664; Pennsylvania in 1682, William Penn; Georgia in 1732, James Oglethorpe.
Great Awakening
A series of religious revivals swept through the colonies in the 1730s. Key players were Theodore Frelinghuysen, William and Gilbert Tenant, Jonathan Edwards, and George Whitefield. Through the awakening emerged the decline of Quakers, founding of colleges, an increase of Presbyterians, denomenationalism, and religious toleration.
Jonathan Edwards - Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, A Careful and Strict Enquiry into. . . That freedom of Will: Sermon about how one must have a personal faith and relationship with Jesus Christ to gain salvation instead of an afterlife in hell. The sermon also used the fury of the divine wrath to arouse religious fervor.
George Whitefield: English clergyman who was known for his ability to convince many people through his sermons. He involved himself in the Great Awakening in 1739 preaching his belief in gaining salvation. Coming from Connecticut, most of his speeches were based there. His presence helped raise the population by about 3000 people.
William Tennent: Presbyterian minister who played a chief role in the Great Awakening in Central New Jersey by calling prayer meetings known as the Refreshings around the 1730’s. Another one of his significant projects was the founding of his influential Log College which had teachers educated in all areas of study.
Gilbert Tennent: American Presbyterian minister, in 1740 delivered a harsh sermon, "The Dangers of Unconverted Ministry," in which he criticized conservative ministers who opposed the fervor of the Great Awakening. The result was a schism (1741) in the Presbyterian church between the "Old Lights" and the "New Lights," led by Tennent.
Old Lights, New lights: Two groups of ministries who frequently had heated debates on the issue of God during the Great Awakening. The Old Lights rejected the Great Awakening and the New Lights, who accepted it and sometimes suffered persecution because of their religious fervor.
Harvard University: University located in Cambridge, Mass. that was founded in 1636 on a grant from the Mass. Bay Colony. The school was originally organized to educate ministers because of the scarcity of clergy and lack of an educational institution in the new colony. The university eventually developed a more secular format
effects of the Great Awakening on religion in America: Long term effects of the Great Awakening were the decline of Quakers, Anglicans, and Congregationalists as the Presbyterians and Baptists increased. It also caused an emergence in black Protestantism, religious toleration, an emphasis on inner experience, and denominationalism.
Puritans
The Puritans first came to America in 1620 on the Mayflower. The Pilgrims, as they were called, were separating from the Anglican church and escaping religious persecution in England by escaping to America. Other Puritans soon flocked to America hoping to "purify" the Anglican Church and develop a colony which would be a model to the world ("a city upon a hill")
Calvinism: The teachings and doctrine of John Calvin, a leader in the Protestant reformation. Calvinism is unique in its rejection of consubstantiation, the Eucharist and in its doctrine of predestination, the belief that no actions taken during a persons life would effect their salvation. The Puritan colonies were based on Calvinist doctrine.
Church of England: The established church in England that is also known as the Anglican church. The Church of England was founded in 1534 by Henry VIII after a dispute with the Roman Catholic church over the annulment of his marriage which culminated in the Act of Supremacy, declaring the King to be the head of the church.
Mayflower Compact: Agreement made by the Pilgrims in 1620 when they landed at Plymouth. The compact created the Plymouth colony and made a civil government under James I based on the will of the colonists. The Compact was important in the early organization and success of the colony.
William Bradford: The second governor of the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts, he was elected over John Carver in 1621 and was reelected thirty times. He was important in the organization and success of the colony and kept a history of the development of the Plymouth colony that was published in 1856.
Pilgrims: The original group of puritan separatists that fled religious persecution in England and found refuge in what is now Massachusetts. The Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic and reached America in 1620 where they founded the Plymouth colony and organized a government based on the Mayflower compact.
Puritans: Reform movement in the Anglican church in the 16th and 17th centuries and came to America in 1629. The movement aimed at purifying the church of corruption split into separatists, who wanted to end ties with the established church and non-separatists. Seeking religious freedom was a strong motivation for colonies in America.
Pilgrims vs. Puritans: Pilgrims and Puritans were extremely similar in most practices and beliefs, but Pilgrims were a distinct group of puritans who were not only against the Anglican church but called for total separation from the church, a dangerous belief in religiously tense England. For this reason they fled the town of Scrooby, England, where they originally had assembled and ended up in Plymouth with intentions of creating a community free of English control.
Separatists vs. Non-Separatists: Separatists were a group of Puritans who advocated total withdrawal from the Church of England and wanted the freedom to worship independently from English authority. They included the Pilgrims who migrated to America. Non-Separatists sought to reform the Church from within.
Massachusetts Bay Colony: Colony created by the Massachusetts Bay Company. Under the leadership of John Winthrop, the colony was created to provide the world with a model Christian society. The colony was created in 1630 and it was governed through a General Court selected by church members.
City Upon a Hill: Name given to the Puritan society that was to be created in the New World. The leader of the Puritan migration, John Winthrop planned to create a utopian society based on Puritanism that would have no class distinction and would stress the importance of community and church. The society was to be an example to all the world of what could be achieved. It was anticipated that once the world saw this great city it would follow it example.
Cambridge agreement: Plan used in 1629 to colonize America by allowing immigration of puritan settlers who would control the government and the charter of the Massachusetts Bay company. The agreement was based on the creation of a market for trade but instead developed a religiously based government.
Puritan Migration: The term given to the migration of Puritans to America in the early 17th century. Following the restoration of James I to the throne Puritans in England became persecuted and with the accession of Charles I to the throne the situation became worse. The puritans fled England and came to America to have freedom of religion.
John Winthrop: The first governor and one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a member of the Massachusetts Bay Company. He played a key role in the puritan migration and intended to create a utopian society in America. He was elected governor twelve times and pursued a conservative religious and governmental policy.
saints: High standing members of the church who gained recognition and were put on a council that governed the congregation. Under Puritan doctrine, to become a saint the person had to be a member of the congregation and have been chosen by the church council.
New England Way: The Puritan dominance of New England and their desire to create a utopian society based on their doctrine created a distinct society in New England. Unlike other colonies, Puritans were guided by their religion and created a government and society tied to the church.
Covenant Theology: Christian Theology that stressed that a agreement was made by God with humans with the death of Jesus for the salvation of mankind. The theology differs from sect to sect, some assert that salvation is granted to all, some that its is earned and others that it can be achieved by faith alone.
conversion relation: Part of the Massachusetts Puritans practice, it was a requirement of new members. The Relation required that any member of the congregation must go through an examination before the congregation. Because of its unpleasantness, later generations did not go accept it and the half-way covenant was adopted.
Congregationalism: Protestant organizational system based on the freedom of each church to control its affairs. An offshoot of the separatist, it was continued by the pilgrims in America where it was adopted by the new churches as a way to maintain local independence. Congregationalism was part of the strong independence of the colonies.
Cambridge Platform: Agreement and plan formed by Puritans before they landed in 1629. The platform was the source for the Puritans of the government and organization for their colony, and it established a government under the authority of the King of England.
Contrast Puritan Colonies with others: Because most colonies were created with financial or political gains in mind, puritan colonies had a special distinction from them. The puritans came to American seeking religious freedom and had a strong work ethic enabling them to achieve a success not seen in other colonies.
dissenters: People objected to the accepted doctrine of the established church. The puritans who migrated to America were dissenters from the Church of England who created a new church in the colonies. Religious outcasts from the puritan church such as Ann Hutchinson and Roger Williams were also dissenters.
Anne Hutchinson, antinomianism: Early New England religious leader who founded the doctrine of antinomianism, the belief that the Gospel frees Christians from required obedience to laws. She was banished to Rhode Island in 1637 for her belief in antinomianism and her insistence on salvation by faith and not works.
Roger Williams, Rhode Island: Early colonial clergyman who founded the religiously tolerant colony of Rhode Island in 1636. Williams was banished from Massachusetts for his belief in religious freedom, he established a colony at Providence in 1636 that tolerated all dissenters and was in good relations with the Natives.
Massachusetts School Law: Law also Known as the Old Deluder Act of 1647, that replaced home education by creating a system in which small towns would have a person capable of teaching the children and every town of over one hundred homes would have a school. The law was a step towards creating a universal education system.
town meetings: The center of Colonial America political life especially in New England. Town Meetings were gatherings where all the voters in the town or nearby countryside would all congregate and go over issues that most interested them, such as town officers, and taxes for the following season.
Voting Granted to Church Members: The New England puritans developed a more democratic system of government than in England that gave the power to elect the governor to all male saints. The idea was furthered in 1644 when it adopted a bicameral court with elected delegates.
Half Way Covenant: A modification in the Cambridge Platform in 1662 that enabled people who had not experienced the conversion relation to become part of the congregation. With the later generations of Protestant settlers unwilling to undergo the conversion relation, church membership was threatened and the compromise was made.
Brattle Street Church: Church located in Boston, Mass. Completed in 1699. Thomas Brattle, a wealthy merchant and official of Harvard College organized the church against the will of Cotton Mather because of its closeness to the Church of England. The Church was strongly opposed to the Salem Witchcraft trials in 1692.
Salem Witch Trials: The fear of witchcraft that came to a head in the 1691-1963, especially boiling over in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. This fear ended with the death of many innocent women. Most of the women were middle aged wives or widows. Many implicated others for fear of their lives. The Salem Witch Trials pinpointed the underlying tension that was coming to head in many colonies due to religion and social standings.
Puritan Ethic: Term that characterizes the strong sense of purpose and discipline that Puritans had. Part of the work ethic also resulted from a belief that wealth and success were a sign of saintliness and that idleness was a sin. This work ethic also helped the Puritans find success in the colonies and translated to an American colonial work ethic.
Red, White, and Black
With the colonization of certain regions in America came conflicts with the Native Americans and the earliest traces of slavery in America. Originally using African-Americans only as indentured servants, the growers and farmers eventually began to rely on African-Americans and Native Americans as a free source of labor.
Iroquois Confederacy: The joining of six sects of the Iroquoian family and of the Eastern Woodlands area. By the 1700s, the tribes in the confederacy were the Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, and Tuscarors. By combining they were a stronger force against the colonists.
Native American Relations in the first settlements: Relations characterized by resistance to the expansion of English settlement, submission into "praying towns," and devastation through war and disease. Many of the Massachusetts Indians sought protection from Winthrop by selling their land and surrendering their independence.
Pequot War: So-called war consisting of clumsy plundering by Massachusetts troops and raids by Pequots in 1637. The colonists eventually won the alliance of rival tribes and waged a ruthless campaign. The war tipped the balance of military power to the English, opening the way to New England’s settlement.
King Phillips War: War between the Native American tribes of New England and British colonists that took place from 1675-1676. The war was the result of tension caused by encroaching white settlers. The chief of the Wampanoags, King Philip lead the natives. The war ended Indian resistance in New England and left a hatred of whites.
Tuscaroras and Yamasees: Two opposing Indians tribes whose disunity lead both to destruction. The Tuscaroran people were defeated by the colonists with the help of the Yamasees in 1713, and the Yamasees were themselves defeated around 1715. Both tribes were scattered and soon disappeared.
praying towns: Towns set up by puritan missionaries for Indian converts to spread puritan Christianity, the first of which, Natick, was founded in 1651. As the Indian population in the east waned, assimilation as "Praying Indians" became the only option besides retreating farther west.
Beaver Wars: Wars that resulted from furious trading and hunting of Beaver pelts by the Dutch, the French, and the New Netherlands. The Overhunting of Beavers sent prices so high in 1742 that the Dutch armed the Iroquois and what resulted was bloody battles against Pro-French tribes.
Slavery Begins: Followed the exploration of the African coast and the establishment of a slave trade Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The slave trade then moved in to America as the development of a plantation system in Virginia offered a market for slavery and the first slaves arrived there in 1619. Slavery remained small among the colonies, however because it was not yet profitable for slavery under the conditions. As trade and agriculture grew and a plantation system grew so did slavery.
Barbados Code: Code adopted by Carolina in 1696 to control slaves at the will of their masters. It was often noted as an inhumane code but the society revolved around slaves, so laws like this were created in order to keep control in the society. White owners relied on force and fear to control the growing black majority in the Carolinas.
Maryland Slave Code, 1661: The first actual definition by the colonies of slavery as a "lifelong, inheritable, racial status." It was issued by Maryland in 1661 in order to set up a distinct place for the slaves in the society. Out of the Maryland Slave Code of 1661 came the establishing of other slave codes that set up strict legal codes.
Stono Rebellion: Slave uprising in South Carolina in 1739, in which twenty slaves robbed guns and ammunition from the Stono River Bridge along with killing civilians. Officials suppressed the rebellion and stopped any more chaos and damage. It was a significant encounter because it caused white apprehension and led to a new slave code.
Regionalism
As life in the colonies progressed, certain regions of America developed distinct characteristics and each had its own unique niche. The contrasts between the different regions were involving crops, religion, and control. The distinct regions were New England ,the Chesapeake Bay area, the southern colonies, the middle colonies, and the frontier.
New England: Region of the colonies lying on the northeast Atlantic Coast. It started as a highly religious, Puritan society, but eventually became a commercialized "Yankee" society. Of all the colonies, the New Englanders prospered the least, had the most overpopulated towns, and had the poorest soil. To make up for the lack of farming, New Englanders turned to fishing and the merchant marine, and by 1700, this was one of the largest industries in the colonies.
New England Confederation, 1643: A concord among the New England colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven in the years from 1643-1684. The union was for the purpose of ensuring safety and peace between the colonies. The confederation was used most effectively advising during King Phillips War.
The Dominion of New England: Centralized government imposed upon the New England colonies by England in 1686 as a result of the Restoration monarchy’s need for control and renewed colonial interest. The Dominion was governed by New York governor Sir Edmund Andros. The consolidation was strongly opposed by the colonists because of the elimination of all colonial legislatures, and was ended by colonial insurrection.
Massachusetts Bay Company: Company in 1628 to govern the Massachusetts Bay Colony on granted by the Council of New England in America. Puritan settlers who founded their settlement at Boston first colonized the land, starting a trend of religiously independent settlements. The Company was dissolved in 1684.
Sir Edmund Andros: Political leader appointment as governor of the Dominion of New England in 1686. Andros was extremely unpopular because of his suppression of colonial legislatures, town meetings and enforcement of the Navigation Acts. Boston colonists forcefully removed Andros from office in 1689.
Thomas Hooker: Religious leader in colonial America and founder of Hartford, Conn. As a clergyman in Massachusetts, Hooker grew dissatisfied with the rigid practices and government of the Puritan church. In 1635 he lead a group of followers to start a more liberal colony in Hartford.
Saybrook Platform: A modified version of the Cambridge platform that was used by Connecticut Congregationalists and contained a more centralized church government. The government was for the colony at Saybrook of which John Winthrop’s son was governor.
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut: The constitution of the Connecticut colony that was established in 1639. Written by Thomas Hooker and similar to the government of Massachusetts Bay, it contained a preamble and 11 orders. Following the puritan ideal, it put the welfare of the community above that of individuals.
Poor Richard’s Almanack: Publication written by Benjamin Franklin in 1732 that gained an immense following with its home remedies and practical wisdom. It can be said that Poor Richard’s Almanack helped define the American culture by giving them traditions and wisdom’s all their own, separate from Britain.
Phillis Wheatly: African American poet who was brought to America by slave traders at the age of eight and was bought by the Wheatly family. In 1767, at the age of 8, Phillis found her first fame while escorting one of the Wheatly’s in England. One of her works is "To the University of Cambridge in New England."
Ann Bradstreet: The first woman to write poems in colonial America and receive acclaim for them. She was born in 1612 as the daughter of the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her poems, which were published as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America, asserted that women had the right to gain knowledge.
Southern Colonies: Region consisting mainly of the Carolinas and Georgia. The Southern Colonies were distinct from other colonies mostly on their dependence for slave labor and for farming. The main crop in the South was rice, leading to an absence of large cities in the south. But although most southern cities were tiny, Charleston became the fourth largest city in the colonies. The Southern Colonies were also the only colonies with a large population of blacks and an ethnically stratified society.
Culpeper’s Rebellion: Rebellion against the colonial government in Carolina in 1677. The rebellion was lead by John Culpeper and was directed against the government’s acceptance of English trade laws. The rebellion succeeded in disposing the governor and placing Culpeper in his position, but he was removed in 1679.
Georgia: Colony founded in 1733 by a charter granted to James Oglethorpe. The colony started with a settlement in Savanna created by Oglethorpe as a debtor’s colony. The high ideals of Oglethorpe, such as bans on slavery and rum, slowed growth as large settlement did not occur until after slavery was brought to Georgia.
James Oglethorpe: English soldier and founder of the colony of Georgia in 1733. Oglethorpe founded Georgia after a grant from King George II and settled with a small group on the Savanna River. Oglethorpe’s ideals in creating a debtors colony free of vice were a distinction from other colonies.
Tidewater vs. Piedmont: Two regions of contrasting economic opportunity. The Tidewater was along the coast, where most of the opportunity was in shipping and fishing. the Piedmont, on the other hand, was where farming took place. This contrast represented an East-West dichotomy to accompany the North-South one.
Maryland: Proprietary colony originally intended to be a refuge for English Catholics. Maryland was created in 1632 when Lord Baltimore (Cecilius Calvert) was given a land grant and created a manor based state with a headright system. However, Protestants formed a majority and the manors evolved into plantations.
sugar colonies: Colonies that produced sugar for England, like New Netherlands, New England, Virginia, Maryland, and the Caribbean. Sugar was produced because it could make people rich quickly because it was sold at very high prices. Sugar plantation owners liked to use black slaves because they were able to work harder and longer.
Chesapeake Society: Society characterized by few neighbors and isolated families whose lives depended on tobacco. Chesapeake society also revolved around fertile soil near navigable water because tobacco needed such an environment to be grown profitably. Because of this, most farms were located along Chesapeake Bay. Chesapeake society also had a powerful merchant class who controlled both export and import commerce. Slow urbanization also characterized society around the Chesapeake.
Lord Baltimore: Founder of Maryland who, in 1632, received a charter from King Charles I for a tract of land to the northeast of the colony of Virginia. It comprised the present-day states of Maryland and Delaware. He wrote the charter for the colony but died before he got it.
Maryland Act of Toleration: Act that resulted when the Catholics began feeling threatened by the overwhelming Protestant population. The Maryland Act of Toleration was passed in 1649 so all types of Christians could have equal political rights. Along with this equality Lord Calvert allowed a representative assembly for the Catholics.
Maryland’s Protestant Association: Group of Protestants in Maryland during late 1600s who controlled the lower house but not the upper, which the Catholics ruled. Eventually, after the Act of Religious Toleration was passed, the Protestant majority barred Catholics from voting and threw out the governor and repealed the act.
Huguenots: French Protestants. The enlightened and religiously skeptical spirit of the 18th century, however, was opposed to religious persecution, and during this time the French Protestants gradually regained many of their rights. The Huguenots slowed the colonization process for the French, because of the religious wars with French Catholics.
Carolinas: Colonies created when Charles II rewarded eight of the noblemen who had helped him regain the throne from the Puritan rule in 1663 by giving them land. North Carolina originated as an extension of Virginia and South Carolina came from planters from Barbados, who founded Charleston in 1670.
John Locke, Fundamental Constitution: Intricate constitution written by Cooper and John Locke in 1670, meant to stabilize the government of Carolina by basing the social rank on one’s "landed wealth." It formed the three orders of nobility with the proprietors at the top, the caciques in the middle, and the landgraves at the bottom.
Charleston: City that became the fourth largest city in North America. It was a place where the upper class could pass their time so they could stay away from the heat of their plantations. Many whites were lured to Charleston in hopes of reducing the black majority. These job seekers usually ended up competing for jobs with the black slaves.
staple crops of the South: The major staple crop of the south was rice, which was picked by African-American planters who were imported by the Dutch in 1616. Other crops were tobacco, indigo, various grains, wood, and skins. All of these products were exported to Europe and the west Indies. Most of the colonists’ profit came from farming.
Middle Colonies: The middle colonies were Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, all of which produced iron, grain, flour, wood, and tobacco which were exported to Britain, Europe and the West Indies. Pennsylvania was built on the basis of being a religious haven for Quakers. New York was built upon the rule of James Duke of York who sent out John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret to be the first two proprietors of New Jersey.
Restoration Colonies: Colonies created following the Stuart restoration in 1660 when England again took interest in America. The colonies enabled England to control the East Coast, Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. These colonies had governments that made a social hierarchy geared toward a dominant wealthy class.
Primogeniture, entail: The practice of passing on land to a son, usually the eldest, when no will was left for the land. This practice became came over with the colonists and was introduced into common law, but it did not take long for the practice to die out in the colonies.
quitrents: Federal payments that the freeholders had to pay the people who were getting the land from proprietors. With the Restoration and the creation of Restoration Colonies, the dues were still enforced, with the money no longer going to the proprietors but instead to the king or queen as royal revenue.
SPG, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel: An organization founded in 1701 to serve the spiritual welfare of the colonists. After a visit to Maryland, Thomas Bray received a royal charter from King William for overseas missionary work. It was seen as a conspiracy, thus showing a fear of tyranny of the church and state.
Pennsylvania, William Penn: Pennsylvania was founded as a refuge for Quakers by William Penn in 1681. The Quakers believed that an "inner-light" allowed them to be on a personal level with God. Penn and his people did not experience a starving time which was very common for starting colonies. They started with a strong government.
Quakers: Religious movement founded in 1600 by a religious belief that divine revelation is immediate and individual and that all persons may perceive the word of God in their soul. They rejected a formal creed and regarded every participant as a potential vessel for the word of God. They were based in Pennsylvania.
George Fox: Preacher of the "inner-light" doctrine who spoke against formalized religion, mainly Presbyterianism, and advocated divine communion as he practiced it. He objected to political and religious authority, opposed war and slavery, and believed that all human actions must be directed by inner contemplation.
George Keith: Member of the Quaker church who told the Quakers that they needed a formal doctrine. His ideas were not accepted among the Quaker majority, so in 1692 he joined the Church of England. With his heresy conviction the Quaker population in Pennsylvania dropped, and the Anglican population and political power rose.
liberal land laws in PA: Laws that were set up by William Penn which were very liberal because that was his nature. The 1701 Frame of Government stated that the proprietors had no power to do mischief. Penn himself carefully oversaw land sales in the colonies to avoid improper disputes. This liberal planning ensured no starving time.
Holy Experiment: The main part of this theology that George Fox taught was that people had an inner light that could spiritually inspire their souls. He objected to political and religious authority, opposed war and slavery, and believed that all human actions should be directed by inner contemplation and a social conscience inspired by God.
1701 Frame of Government: The first set of laws set up in Pennsylvania which were written by William Penn. In his constitutional type document Penn preached "that the will of one man may not hinder the good of the whole company." The document was revised seven times and held a strong executive, and a limited lower legislative chamber.
New York: Dutch, 1664 English: Charles II gave his brother James title to all the Dutch lands in America in 1664. James became King in 1685 and appointed Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret as the first proprietors of New Jersey. For years to come there were conflicting claims to the territory and finally in 1702 it became a royal colony.
East/ West Jersey: They were colonies that resulted from the sale of the Jersey territory to Quakers. English settlers resisted the original proprietors’ authority, so in 1674 Berkeley sold his half to a union of Quakers. East Jersey then became dominated by Scottish Quakers whereas West Jersey became the home to many English Quakers.
patroon system: The system of feudal estates created by large New York landowners in the early 1700s. The estates were created in order to raise revenue by collecting tenant rents. Later, by about 1750, the patroon owners emerged as a class of landed elite, almost like the British landed aristocracy.
Peter Struyvesant: Dutch governor who was attacked by Charles II in 1664 so that the British could control North America. Struyvesant, whose army was already hurt from Indian attacks, peacefully surrendered and gave New Netherlands to Charles II, forming the New York and Jersey colonies with a large remaining Dutch population.
the middle colonies as a religious haven: William Penn founded Pennsylvania originally as a religious haven for Quakers who were not accepted elsewhere in 1681. Similarly, Maryland was founded by George Calvert in 1632 and served as a refuge for English Catholics. Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams in 1644 for dissenting Puritans.
crops in the middle colonies: The middle colonies rich level lands produced lengthy growing seasons and gave good bumper crops. The middle colonies were major exporting colonies because of their accessible sea ports. Their exports were rice, iron, grain, flour, wood, and tobacco which were shipped to Europe and the West Indies.
New York City and Philadelphia as urban centers: Both cities were the two biggest exporting cities in America thus making them rapidly growing urban centers. High population and bad sanitation allowed many of the people to catch viruses and diseases. Recessions hit frequently and the job force was very unstable.
Leisler’s Rebellion: Anti-Stuart rebellion in which Captain Jacob Leisler took command over New York in hopes of protecting it from Andros and other supporters of James II. In 1691, Leisler denied the passing of English troops to important forts, leading to his arrest and death when his enemies gained control of the government.
Benjamin Franklin: A notable American printer, author, diplomat, philosopher, and scientist, his contributions epitomized the Enlightenment. In 1731 he founded what was probably the first public library in America. He first published Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1732 and played a crucial role in the American Revolution and community.
John Bartram: Botanist who was known as the father of American Botany. Bartram traveled extensively through the colonies, observing wildlife, writing, collecting plants, and making maps. He performed important experiments involving plant hybridization and in 1728 he founded the first botanical garden in America near Philadelphia.
Frontier: Area of land important in the development of a distinctly American culture and political life, as explained by Fredrick Turner’s Frontier Thesis. The frontier also offered limitless land, which democratized America by elimating the significance of voting property requirements. Finally, the frontier represented a raw environment that helped mold American civilization by giving it coarseness, strength, acuteness, pragmatism, and inventiveness.
North-South economic differences: The North was much more concerned with shipping, fishing, and industry whereas the South was based on an agricultural society. Also, the North had more towns, cities, and ports. In contrast, the South was characterized by cash crops, an aristocracy, and plantations.
Salutary Neglect
Britain’s absence in colonial America due to pressing issues in England left the colonies alone for the most part to govern themselves. During this time they flourished and developed a British origin, yet with a distinctly American flavor. It was because of this absence that the colonies became more self sufficient and eventually it led them to a feeling of individuality that they feared losing, thus bringing forth the Declaration of Independence after a series of events.
mercantilism: features, rationale, impact on Great Britain, impact on the different colonies: Economic policy prevailing in Europe during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries under which governmental control was exercised over industry and trade in accordance with the theory that national strength is increased by a majority of exports over imports. The colonies adopted mercantilism as business in which the mother country could benefit.
triangular trade: Trade that takes place between three places is called triangular trade. Colonial trade was not very triangular because the Navigation Acts forced American merchants to trade only with Britain. However, the Americans still managed to smuggle goods with the French Caribbean and India.
consignment systems: A system of drafting sailors into the British navy. The British could freely use the soldiers at their convenience by the rules of this draft. The draft caused many problems in the life of young American men. Many teenagers tried to avoid the draft by giving false information about themselves.
Molasses Act, 1733: Legislation by the British Parliament for taxing and imposing shipment restrictions on sugar and molasses imported into the profitable colonies from the West Indies. It was meant to create profitable trade as a protective tariff, but it was never meant to raise revenue.
Woolens Act, 1699; Hat Act, 1732: Iron Act, 1750: Act specifying certain enumerated goods—principally tobacco, rice, and indigo—that the colonists could export only to another English colony or to England. These were attempts to prevent manufacturing in the British colonies that might threaten the economy of England.
Currency Act, 1751: Act passed by British Parliament that affected the colonies by adjusting the currency. The point of this attack was to raise revenue for Great Britain. It was a clear example of how Salutary Neglect was coming to an end with the French and Indian War.
Currency Act, 1764: Another Act passed by the British Parliament that affected the colonies and was meant to raise revenue for Great Britain. It was very similar to the other previous Currency Act but this act was targeted towards the people and raising the taxes so that the Parliament could make more money.
Magna Carta, 1215: A charter granted by King John, that exactly established the relationship between the kings and barons and guaranteed ideas of free commerce, the right to a fair trial, and the right to a trial by your peers. Many of the base rights in the United States Constitution are included in it.
Petition of Right, 1628: Petition given to Charles I by parliament, asking him to stop sending soldiers to live in private citizens homes, stop taxing without its consent and stop declaring martial law in a time of peace. This occurred partially because Charles was trying to pay off his war debt.
Habeas Corpus Act: Act saying that a person can not be held in prison without being charged and tried. They put this into effect to help stop innocent people from being thrown into jail with no specific reason why. This idea was adopted into our Constitution in Article 1, Section 9. It can only be revoked in time of rebellion.
Navigation Act, 1651: Parliament passed this legislation in 1651 in order to protect English trade from foreign competition. It was only temporary and it stated that goods imported or exported by the colonies in Africa and Asia must be shipped out or imported only by English vessels and the crews must be 75% British. It also helped U.S. capitalism.
Navigation Act, 1660: This Parliamentary act renewed the 1651 act and specified certain innumerable articles which could be exported only to the English or to another English colony in 1660. Among these goods were tobacco, rice, and indigo. American shipbuilding thus prospered and there was a stable protected market for producers.
Navigation Act, 1663: This Parliamentary act disallowed colonial merchants from exporting products like sugar and tobacco anywhere except to England and from importing goods in ships not made and produced by the English. Along with the 1660 act, it was passed to help English commercial interests in 1663 but helped the U.S.
Navigation Act, 1696: This was the fifth and final Parliamentary Navigation Act. It allowed for methods of enforcing the acts, provided more penalties for evasion, and introduced use of vice-admiralty courts. It was passed in 1696 in an effort to strengthen its effect on colonists. It was felt much more harshly by the colonists and led to hostility
admiralty courts: These were courts that were created to bring sailors to trial for going against the navigation acts. They were often held away from the colonies, a fact that the colonies viewed as being unconstitutional. Also, the courts awarded judges money for every conviction, thus judges became more apt to find people guilty.
merchants/markets: People and places involved in the trading system of the colonies were merchants and the markets with which they traded. The Navigation Acts opened up British markets to American merchants, and the number of merchants increased during the 1750’s as well.
Board of Trade, (of the Privy Council): This board was part of the Privy Council which was one of the committees formed by the British Parliament In 1793 Britain’s Privy Council sent out orders that any foreign ships caught trading with the French Islands located in the Caribbean to be automatically captured and taken away. They deliberately waited to publish these instructions so that American ships would be seized, causing over 250 ships were captured.
Robert Walpole: Statesman who is considered Britain’s first prime minister. He entered the English Parliament in 1701 and became a well known speaker for the Whig Party. In 1708 he was named Secretary of War. In 1739 he declared war on Spain, which caused division in his party (Whigs) for support for him in elections.
the Enlightenment: A period in the 1700s when a new method of thought was employed. It was a time when great minds awoke and started thinking, affecting the colonies as well as Europe. Some beliefs brought to the forefront were the laws of nature, optimism, confidence in human reason, and deism. Its ideas lead to revolutionary ideas.
John Locke’s Ideas: John Locke was a philosopher that supported Colonial America. He criticized the "divine right" kings had and believed that the people should have a say and that the supreme power should be state power, but only if they were governed by "natural" law. His ideas can be seen in the Constitution.
John Peter Zenger Trial: Trial involving the founder of the New York Weekly Journal , who received money from influential town members. So when Zenger published articles by his contributors that criticized Colonial government he was arrested and put on trial. He was announced not guilty, his success paving the way for freedom of the press.
Characterized by regular assemblies and appointed militia, law, and local administration. Often, these were dominated by the colonial elite despite libera
Colonial Government: l qualifications for male voters. Because of low voter participation and indifference toward politics, colonial government only truly flourished in the major seaports. The most significant development of colonial government was the rise of the assembly and the limiting of the power of governors.
Rise of the lower house: In Colonial America the lower house had increasingly equal if not more power than the upper house. The house had the power of the purse which led them to being the more dominant house. More common people could get into government than before and make a difference which helped build the foundations of America.
Proprietary, Charter, Royal Colonies: These are three ways one could come upon owning land in Colonial America. One such way was for a company to give out land so an area would become populated. Kings and Queens could also give away land as well as people having property passed on to them, therefore having an influence on decisions the new powers would make. All of these ideas helped shape America’s way of government life.
colonial agents: Representatives sent by Great Britain to the colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. They would observe the colonies and then send the information back to England. The problem is by the time it got back to England the information that had once been true was now old and wrong.
Glorious Revolution: When Mary and William over run James II in England in 1688, British citizens saw this as a win in liberty for parliament would have more control than ever. Moderate uprising that came out of the Colonial America during this time ended with William and Mary taking apart the Dominion of New England.
Bill of Rights, 1689: Bill that said no Roman Catholics could hold a position of king or queen in England. It also made it illegal for a monarch to postpone laws, have a standing army, or levy taxes without the okay of the British Parliament. The colonies then interpreted the law and used it against the British (levy tax).
Virginia Settlement
One of the New England colonies and chartered by James I in 1606, Virginia was founded to give the English territorial claims to America as well as to offer a colonial market for trade. Jamestown, became a prosperous shipping and tobacco producing colony and the colony developed the House of Burgesses, a bicameral legislature in 1619.
Joint Stock Company: A business owned by investors through control of stocks. Examples operated in England and dealt with colonial markets in America. Such companies organized and supported the colonies through charters from the British government and while they worked with the government they made private profits.
Jamestown: The first successful settlement in the Virginia colony founded in May, 1607. Harsh conditions nearly destroyed the colony but in 1610 supplies arrived with a new wave of settlers. The settlement became part of the Virginia Company of London in 1620. The population remained low due to lack of supplies until agriculture was solidly established. Jamestown grew to be a prosperous shipping port when John Rolfe introduced tobacco as a major export and cash crop.
starving time: The period early in any settlements development when food and supplies are scarce due to lack of preparation, unfamiliarity with the surroundings, weather, and inability to successfully grow crops. The starving time usually cost a large percentage of the settlers lives and lasted for the first few years.
John Smith: Colonial leader who brought structure and stability to Jamestown during its starting years. As a member of the governing council of Virginia he was chosen to replace the previous president in 1608. Smith is credited with organizing trade with the Powhatan Confederacy and leading the colony through its roughest years.
John Rolfe: English colonist and farmer who greatly aided the colony. Rolfe is credited with introducing tobacco as a crop for export, which ensured the colony of profits as well as bringing eight years of peace between Indians and colonists through his marriage to Pocahontas.
purpose of Virginia: Virginia was founded primarily for the purpose of profit by the joint-stock owned Virginia Company of London. It was also important in giving England territorial claims in America to match Spanish and French expansion, and to also give England markets and resources in the New World.
indentured servants: People who promised their lives as servants in order to get to the colonies. The servants, who were usually white, worked for a certain amount of time so to pay off their debt. This practice led to social tensions with such eruptions as Bacon’s Rebellion and eventually was replaced by race slavery.
problems and failures of Virginia: Included trouble with Indians and a "starving time" in the winter of 1609 which the colony barely survived. Virginia also suffered from debt, a high death rate, fraudulent local officials, and more Indian trouble. The problems eventually made the Virginia Company go bankrupt.
headright system: System enacted first in Virginia then in Baltimore to attract people to the sparsely populated colonies. The system worked by granting large amount of land to anyone who brought over a certain amount of colonists. In Baltimore, anyone bringing five adults at their own expense would receive two thousand acres.
House of Burgesses: A regular assembly of elected representatives that developed in the Virginia colony in the 1630’s. The House of Burgesses was split into two chambers in 1650, creating the House of Burgesses and the Governors Council. The House was a bicameral legislature that was a model for our congress.
successes of Virginia: Virginia succeeded politically in terms of creating the House of Burgesses as a semi-democratic assembly and forcing governors to cooperate with the legislature. They did this through the power of the purse as governors did not control money, and therefore depended on the legislature for they salaries.
Cavalier: The group of supporters of Charles I in the English Civil War which lasted from 1642-1648. The term Cavalier continued to be used to mean any supporter of the British crown, especially Americans who were British sympathizers during the American Revolution.
Bacon’s Rebellion: Colonial rebellion against the governor of Virginia in 1676. Nathaniel Bacon was the leader of the uprising protesting Governor Berkeley’s neglect of calls for a stronger military presence in the frontier to end problems caused by Indian hostility. The revolt succeeded in driving away the governor and it appeared it would achieve success when Bacon died shortly after the initial success before any progress was made and the rebellion dissipated.
Below are the US History topics covered in this unit:
Great Britain Versus France
With America as a new prospect for both France and Great Britain, tensions grew between the two countries. The result was a series of wars like King William’s War, Queen Anne’s War, the War of Jenkin’s Ear, King George’s War, and the French and Indian War.
Changes in land Claims of 1689, 1713, 1763: Before 1689 almost all of the land belonged to Spain, and France with Britain only starting. Then by 1713 France was dominating the North America and Britain was spreading up and down the coast. In 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, Britain became the overwhelming power.
Differences between French and British colonization: The French mostly had fur traders and posts in North America so they could get goods, they were more inland and made friends with the Indians. While the English were settling for good on the shore, making homes and government- they were all there to start a new life.
Why Great Britain eventually won: When William Pitt joined the British leaders he turned things around. He began to treat the Americans like equals or allies instead of subordinates. This lead Americans to feel a sense of pride and a renewed sense of spirit that sent them into several victories that made France eventually concede.
King William’s War: In Europe a war fought between the Grand Alliance and France which also embroiled the colonies. The entire war was battled over who would reign in England. In the colonies the Indians were fighting for the French. In 1697 fighting ceased due to the Peace of Ryswick which restored Port Royal to the French.
Queen Anne’s War: The second of the four imperial wars that were fought between Britain, France and Spain. It took place from 1702-1713. Though many Spanish colonial towns were captured and burned by English forces, American colonists met with military failure creating a feeling of dependence on Britain. The war ended with Peace of Utrecht.
Peace of Utrecht: Treaty that ended Queen Anne's War in 1713. Due to this treaty France had to give up Acadia, Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay territory to England but got to keep Cape Breton Island. The treaty also introduced a period of peace in which the American colonists experienced growth economically and politically.
War of Jenkin’s Ear: This war was British versus Spain. It was fought in Georgia and North Carolina. Lieutenant Governor William Gooch led Virginia’s 400 men into the whole 3000 men colonial army and after their Colonel died Gooch succeeded him. When they attacked Cartagena it proved disastrous, though Gooch wouldn’t report it that way.
King George’s War: War fought between Britain and France and Spain. It took place not only in Europe but also in North America with American colonists supporting the British with thousands of troops. In the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle Britain gained lands in India but lost Louisburg, which embittered Anglo-American relations.
French and Indian War: The French and Indian war was fought between Britain and France. It lasted from 1754-1760, with the colonies supporting Britain and the Indians supporting France. This war spanned three different continents and it was the main factor in the ending of "salutary neglect." This war planted the seeds of misunderstanding between Britain and the colonies and indirectly was one of the causes of the Revolutionary War. Britain came out victoriously with the Treaty of Paris.
Coureurs de Bois: Unlicensed trader who traded illegally with Indians. Many young men seeing only the prospective wealth left their families and traded illegally with Indians, some even married into the tribes. They also enlisted Indians in the French Army. These Coureurs de Bois were important in setting up fur trade in Canada.
Francis Parkman: Francis Parkman was one of the prominent historians of his time (1823-1893). Most of his work concerned the conflict that arose between France and Britain for land in Colonial America. Later on in his career he went west and traveled with tribes, such as the Sioux, which ended with the book, The Oregon Trail.
Albany Plan of Union, Benjamin Franklin: Colonial confederation based on the ideas of Franklin calling for each town to have independence in a large whole, known as a Grand Council. It was used for military defense and Indian policies and set a precedent for later American unity.
Edward Braddock: Braddock was the General of all the British Troops (French and Indian War), he led an attack against Fort Duquesne, never reaching his destination for they were attacked by the Monongahela River where 900 of his 1200 men were wounded or killed. Braddock was wounded at this battle and died soon afterwards.
William Pitt: Prime minister for Britain, who helped Britain bounce back after the Revolutionary War and who lead the war effort against France. Pitt had two terms, 1783 to 1801 and 1804 to 1806. He was considered a moderate, with the backing of the king and the parliament. Pitt’s time in office became a foundation for future prime ministers.
Fort Duquesne: This was the fort that General Braddock tried to take during the French and Indian War but him and his troops were slaughtered in an ambush at the Monongahela, where 900 of the 1200 troops were wounded or killed. Later General Amherst captured the fort.
Wolfe, Montecalm, Quebec- the Plains of Abraham: The battle of the French and Indian War, between General Wolfe and General Montecalm in which both were killed . It ended with the capturing of Quebec and was one of the final steps that lead Montreal to surrender, thus making Canada no longer a threat.
Land squabbles in North America, where, why and what over: Any of the imperial wars that were fought in North America, for if when Britain won they would usually gain territory they had wanted before. Also various battles with Indians over pieces of land because colonists pushed their way onto Indian land, not caring if it belonged to them.
Treaty of Paris (1763): Treaty that ended the French and Indian War was ended by the Treaty of Paris. This treaty ended French reign in Canada. The treaty also called for Spain to give Florida to Britain, and for France to give all lands east of the Mississippi River to Britain. It also was a precursor, for colonial politics would follow Britain.
Proclamation of 1763: This proclamation stated that no white settlers could go past the crest of the Appalachians. While this upset many colonists who had claims that far west, Britain explained it was only temporary, for it was meant to calm the Indians, sure enough five years later the boundary was moved further west.
Pontiac’s Rebellion, 1763: After France had to give up the territory they had near and around the Appalachian Mountains the Indians were afraid that the British would come in and start to settle down permanently, to make sure this didn’t happen Chief Pontiac launched an offensive at Bushy Run and Pontiac’s forces won for the time being.
Proclamation of 1763: The British issued this in 1763 in hopes of conciliating the Indians and to lessen white expansion. It banned colonists from settling west if the Appalachian mountains. Though it was supposedly a temporary measure, colonists were angered and the line was moved further west five years later for speculators.
New British Policy and Colonial Resistance
In order to tighten control over the colonies, Great Britain instated many acts and taxes which enraged colonists who argued that it was unfair to tax them when they had no direct representation in Parliament. This resistance was the beginning of America’s revolt against its mother country.
writs of assistance: The royal governor of Massachusetts allowed British revenue officers to use this in 1760 in order to capture goods imported illegally in: It was a search warrant allowing officials to enter buildings in which smuggled goods may be. It required no cause for suspicion and homes were often ransacked. It also contributed to the Revolution.
James Otis: He was a colonial leader who was also advocate general of the Boston Vice Admiralty Court in 1756. His opposition to the writs of assistance and Townshend Acts led him to declare that Parliament did not have the right to violate natural rights of colonists. He thus published The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proven.
Pontiac’s Rebellion: Ottawa chief Pontiac attacked and besieged ten British forts in May, 1763, in order to keep British out of the Appalachians. An uneasy truce was negotiated by 1764, and as a result, the Proclamation of 1763 was put forth in order for Britain to maintain 10,000 soldiers in the U.S. to occupy French ceded territories.
Paxton Boys: This group of Rangers from Pennsylvania Paxton in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, killed some Sasquehannock Indians in 1764. The conflict arose as a result of the desire to expand westward. Governor John Penn in 1764 attempted to punish them, but the people of the area were so upset that a revolt ensued; Benjamin Franklin solved it.
Grenville’s Program: British Prime Minister George Grenville was the principal architect of the Sugar Act; his method of taxation and crackdown on colonial smuggling were widely disliked by Americans. He passed the Stamp Act arguing that colonists received virtual representation in Parliament, even though Americans didn’t elect members.
Sugar Act, 1764: George Grenville introduced this act which amended the Molasses Act that had taxed all foreign molasses entering the U.S. at sixpence a gallon in 1764. The new act ended the previous British policy of keeping Americans out of all revenue-raising measures. It stated that colonists exported certain items to foreign countries only if they passed through Britain first. Parliament hoped that Americans would buy more British items and it increased British sale of European wine.
Currency Act, 1764: extended currency Act, 1751: A Parliamentary act, which was originally applicable only in Massachusetts in 1751, but in 1764, it was applied to all the colonies as a means of raising revenue. It increased colonial resentment toward Britain because it disallowed the issuance of colonial money.
vice-admiralty courts: Parliament was responsible for this new form of juryless court in Nova Scotia. From 1763 to 1765, when Americans were caught smuggling in violation of the Acts of Trade, they were tried by corrupt judges who received a percentage of the confiscated goods if they found the defendants guilty.
A Democracy or not?: Colonial America was a place with more liberal voting qualification, no aristocracy and rise of the assembly. But the ruling class was still the wealthy, they had the power, also voters turn out wasn’t large. One had a better chance in becoming part of the "system" but it wasn’t democratic.
Deism: most of the religious thinkers during the Enlightenment were deist. The deists believed that God was a clockmaker who created the world but now just watches it work. They believed that we lived in a perfect universe and that we are laws that we created were natural.
Non-consumption: The Sons of Liberty began the idea of non-consumption in 1774 with their vow of non-importation of British goods. When the Boston Port Bill was passed, colonists once again agreed to ban all British goods in order to boycott the British until demands were met. Because of this, state or individual opposition was despised.
virtual, actual representation: Parliament felt colonists had virtual representation because every member of Parliament considered the rights of all subjects; the House of Commons was responsible for protecting the rights of all British and colonists. Because the British elected members, they enjoyed actual representation, but colonists had none.
no taxation without representation: John Adams, in his Circular Letter, in 1768, openly criticized Parliament’s practice of taxation without proper colonial representation. It was said that no tax that was issued in order to produce revenue for Great Britain was constitutional because American representatives had not voted to allow the tax.
colonial view of the constitution: Colonial views toward the Constitution varied greatly in 1781, due mostly to regional and bipartisan differences. Federalists were those who advocated a strong central government, at state’s expense. Antifederalists demanded more state power. Depending on size, states wanted different types of representation.
Compact theory: First expressed by Jefferson and Madison in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves of 1798, it declared that each state comprised the national government through a compact whose provisions were established in the Constitution. Hence, the states could decide when the compact was broken. It further led to the doctrine of States Rights.
Stamp Act: British prime minister George Grenville’s most detested act, the Stamp Act was introduced in 1765 as a means of raising revenue in the colonies, and was passed by Parliament. It stated that all legal documents, contracts, licenses, pamphlets, and newspapers must carry a stamp that is taxed. It was intended to raise money for keeping up defense in colonies. It infuriated colonists because it was an internal tax that few could escape. Opposition to the Stamp Act led to formation of the Stamp Act Congress.
stamp distributors: These were the men who had the job of accepting money from the special water-marked paper put into circulation with the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765. They were a target for such associations as the Loyal Nine and Sons of Liberty who attempted, through violence, to force the distributors to resign before taxes were due.
Patrick Henry: He was an orator and statesman who played a key role in igniting patriotism and leading the colonists toward the American Revolution. In 1763 he became a member of the House of Burgesses where he introduced seven resolutions against the Stamp Act. He is famous for his comment "Give me liberty or give me death."
Virginia Resolves: American leader Patrick Henry persuaded the Virginia House of Burgesses to state their opposition to taxation in 1765. They adopted several resolutions which refuted the power of Parliament to tax the colonies. Henry’s fiery orations caused, by the end of the year, eight other colonies to also denounce taxation and declare rights.
Stamp Act Congress, 1765: This was an assembly of delegates from nine of the original thirteen colonies in 1765 which was intended to protest the Stamp Act. They met in New York City and presented the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, but the group’s demand for no taxation without representation was refused by the House of Commons.
Non-importation: There existed, between many of the colonial merchants, an agreement to not import any British goods until the Townshend acts were repealed. When the tea tax was kept, they were unsure whether or not to keep the boycott going. When non-importation collapsed, the Sons of Liberty agreed not to consume British tea in protest.
Sons of Liberty: Members included Samuel Adams and Paul Revere; it was a secret society of patriots which was organized in 1765 in the colonies. They formed a Committee of Correspondence to defend themselves against British actions. One of the actions they took was to adopt a policy of non-importation in which merchants refused to import goods sent from Great Britain. They also participated in terrorizing the stamp distributors through house-wrecking and tar-and-feathering in order to achieve respect.
Daughters of Liberty: Upper class female patriots who formed a union in 1765 in order to give aid to the cause of defeating the reviled Stamp Act. They proved their value to the cause both by attending political rallies and protests and also by refusing association with men who were Loyalists, however, they ultimately played a small role.
internal/external taxes: Introduced by the British Parliament in 1765, the Stamp Act was an internal tax which few colonists could escape, all of the colonists were drastically affected by this tax. An example of an external tax is the Sugar Act passed in 1764 which raised costs only for a select group of people; public opposition to the tax was minute.
Revenue Act: Parliament passed the Revenue taxes in 1767. The Act taxed glass, paint, lead, paper, paint, and tea. In colonial opinion, it was just like the Stamp Act in that, though it was said to be an external tax, it was still put into effect solely to raise revenue for the British treasury. It further angered colonial resentment to Charles Townshend.
Right of revolution: In John Lock’s Two Treatises of Government, written in 1690, it is stated that "It is a state of perfect freedom [for man] to do as they wish and dispose of themselves and their possessions." He claims that any person has the right to revolt if the government does not fulfill its duties. His ideas led to the Declaration of Independence.
The Loyal Nine: A group of middle class workers joined this association in the summer of 1765 in order to resist the Stamp Act. They realized that if they could intimidate stamp distributors with house-wrecking and tar-and-feathers, they could bully them into resigning before the act could be put into effect, making it impracticable.
Guy Fawkes Day: Thousands of ardent Bostonians gathered to celebrate this day on November 5, 1765. The day was named for the anniversary of the day Catholic Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament and King James I. In celebration of his failure, mobs gathered in the streets of Boston to protest and to set fire to figures of the Pope.
Declaratory Act. 1766: This was a Parliamentary act which was issued in 1766 in order to confirm the British government’s right to pass acts which were legally binding to the colonists. Because the Stamp Act was so opposed by the colonists as well as the British business community, it was repealed, but only with the passage of this confirmation.
Quartering Act (called the Mutiny Act by the British): Passed by Congress, this was one of the Intolerable Acts in 1774. It effectively served to further punish the colonists. Basically, it allowed for much-hated British officers to be permitted to requisition empty, private buildings. All resistance was repressed by this blatant attempt to force troops in.
Reactions to the Townshend Acts: Under the control of British Prime Minister Charles Townshend, Parliament passed these measures in 1767. The first called for suspension of the New York Assembly because it would not abide by the Quartering Act. The Revenue Act called for customs duties on imports of glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. As a result of unrest over these acts, the Massachusetts legislature was dissolved. Colonial reaction was that of further discontent toward their motherland.
John Dickinson, "Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania": He was a lawyer in Philadelphia and a leader in the movement against taxation on the colonies in the 1760s. Formulating a declaration of rights at the Stamp Act Congress, he argued against the duties of the Townshend acts in this publication. He sought appeasement of the British.
Massachusetts Circular Letter: The Massachusetts legislature sent the other 12 colonies a letter in 1767 in response to the Townshend Acts and asked for a united response from the colonies. The British threatened to dissolve the Massachusetts court unless it was withdrawn. They refused and were dismissed. The other assemblies defiantly signed.
Sam Adams: He was an outspoken advocate of the Sugar Act, and served on the General Court of Massachusetts in 1765. Moreover, he was a main proponent of opposition to the Townshend Acts and a key figure in the formation of the Sons of Liberty. Starting a movement for an uprising against the Boston Massacre, he led several other angry colonists in the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Due to his literary agitation, Adams contributed to the movement for revolution.
The Association: The First Continental Congress agreed to this "association," which was a simple sort of agreement in 1774. It was formed in response to anger over the recently passed Tea Act. Members pledged not to import, export, or consume products of Britain unless their demands were met. This led to increased hostility toward the colonists.
repeal of the Townshend Acts exept tax on tea: Lord North, in a Parliamentary act in 1770, wanted to eliminate the Townshend duties due to increased hostility against the British and to keep the boycott from gaining momentum. However, he still recommended they maintain the tea tax, because it was profitable for the Royal Treasury in Great Britain.
American Board of Customer Commissioners: Townshend introduced legislation in 1767, serving to create an American Board of Customs Commissioners whose sole job would be to enforce the Navigation Acts . They were created because Townshend wanted to crack down on colonial smuggling. The corrupt members of the Board practiced customs racketeering, which was a legalized form of piracy. This led to a major movement between colonists of anger and violence toward the Board members.
John Hancock’s Liberty: Customs commissioners in Boston requested an armed force for protection and the government dispatched the Romney to Boston in June, 1768. When told that a customs official had been locked up, while John Hancock unloaded without paying the duty, the Liberty was seized. This led to further discontent towards Britain.
Boston Massacre, 1770: British troops, (which were resumed in the city in 1770 in order to discourage opposition to the Townshend Acts), when hit by hecklers within the crowd, opened fire upon the innocent; five men were killed. Eight soldiers were tried for murder; their attorney was John Adams. Many were acquitted and anti-British feelings rose.
Crispus Attucks: He was the leader of a group of colonists who were killed in the 1770 Boston Massacre. Though he was the first man to be shot, he was only one of five colonists. He was either African-American or Native American and he may have been a runaway slave. In 1888 a monument of him was erected in his honor in Boston.
John Adams: He was the lawyer for the soldiers who were tried for murder in the Boston Massacre in 1770. He successfully defended his clients in defense that they were trying to protect their own lives. He additionally denounced the Stamp Act, analyzed the demands facing the colonists, and was a member of both Continental Congresses.
Carolina Regulators: This name applies to several groups of insurgents who, in 1764, wanted to protect the rights of their community. The North Carolina Regulators threatened to rebel and not pay taxes. The South Carolina Regulators, in 1767, opposed corrupt government and cleared their homeland of outlaw bands of terrorists.
Battle of the Alamance: The North Carolina Regulators found their movement peak in this battle on May 16, 1771. With an army of 2500, these Regulators fought a band of eastern militia started up by the governor of North Carolina, and 300 casualties were inflicted. The Regulator uprising fell apart and colonies found it harder to resist British.
Gaspee Incident: A customs schooner was beached in Providence, RI, on June 9, 1772. This upset Americans because it was one of the last of the customs racketeering ships. Stuck in the mud, it was burned down by local inhabitants. When investigators were sent to find the initiators, they failed; the suspects would have faced trial without jury.
Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Mass.: A colonial governor, he opposed taxes that harmed U.S. trade, but still supported Britain’s right to impose taxes. When the Stamp Act controversy was in effect, his home was ransacked in 1765. In 1773, he refused to allow British ships to be returned without unloading and the Boston Tea party resulted.
committees of correspondence: They were colonial groups in 1772 which were organized to form resistance to British tyranny. The Boston town meeting made up a 21 member committee "To state the Rights of Colonists and of this Province in Particular." This committee became a major political force responsible for the Boston Tea Party.
Lord North: He was a British member of the House of Commons during the 1770s. Under the orders of King George III, he taxed Americans, though he found it morally wrong to do so. By 1776, he demanded an early peace with the Americans hoping to put an end to the Revolutionary War. By 1779, he realized the war was a lost cause.
Tea Act: The Parliamentary Tea Act eliminated import duties entering England, lowering the selling price to consumers, also allowing selling directly to consumers, hurting middlemen. Colonial smuggling was very harmful to the East India Company which had held a monopoly on tea. The act provided savings for Britain.
Boston Tea Party: A group of Boston citizens organized a protest on December 16, 1773, which was against the British tax on tea imported to the colonies The citizens were angry and disallowed three British ships to unload their cargo in Boston. Led by Samuel Adams and members of the Sons of Liberty, the group, disguised as Indians boarded the ships and dumped all the tea into Boston Harbor in protest. The American government later refused to pay for the tea and was punished through closure of the port.
Coercive Acts: Passed by the British Parliament, several laws were composed in 1774 in response to colonial rebellion. The Boston Tea Party was the last straw leading to the passage of these harsh acts as measures against the colony of Massachusetts. The four measures passed were to serve as warnings to the rest of the colonies. They included the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Quartering Act, and the Administration of Justice Act. Americans united in sympathy for Massachusetts.
Boston Port Act: Parliament passed this act on April 1, 1774, as one of the Intolerable Acts; it ordered the U.S. navy to close Boston Harbor. Unless they paid for the ruined tea, the port would be subject to permanent closure. They imposed a deliberately short deadline to ensure that the harbor would close, which would lead to economic difficulties.
Massachusetts Government Act: Parliament passed this act in 1774 as the second of the Townshend Acts which revoked the Massachusetts charter and restructured the government. The Governor gained control over naming sheriffs, who, in turn, gained control over jurymen. The number of Massachusetts town meetings were also reduced.
Quebec Act: Parliament passed this greatly detested law which established Roman-Catholicism as the official religion in Quebec, making Protestants angry. Also, Canada’s government was awarded an abundance of powers, but was in turn, given no legislature. The law also extended Quebec’s 1774 land claims, further angering colonists.
First Continental Congress, 1774: The First Continental Congress convened in Philidelphia in September, 1774, to consider the situation resulting from the Intolerable Acts. They issued the Declaration of Rights and Grievances to George III, and called for the Continental Association, and agreement to boycott trade with Britain. committees of Safety were in charge of enforcing the Continental Association. Before it was adjourned, the delegates agreed to meet in May, 1775 if the situation still hadn’t been resolved.
Suffolk Resolves: The first Continental Congress passed this in 1774 in response to the Intolerable Acts. They called for non-importation and preparation of local soldiers in the event that the British should have restorted to military force. The passage of these resolves marked the willingness of the colonies to defend their rights militarily.
Galloway Plan: Joseph Galloway called for a union of the colonies and a rearrangement of relations with Parliament, but it was refected by Congress by a narrow margin. Most delegates felt that such a mild measure would not help, since matters had already gone too far.
"country ideology": The plain farmer had this mind set in the 1770s due to the corruption of rulers and "court" hangers-on. It warned against the natural tendency of all governments to enfringe on the natural rights to liberty for all its people. This honest wisdom further led to the Quid’s mind set during the time of Jeffersonian Democracy.
Continental Association: Issued by the First Continental Congress, it was an agreement to boycott trade with Britain, or non-importation, designed to pressure Britain’s economy. Any colony that did not follow those provisions was to be boycotted. By taking these drastic measures, the colonies moved away from reconciliation towards war.
Revolt to Revolution
With such events as Lexington and Concord as well as the actions of the Second Continental Congress and America’s faith held in the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Paine’s "Common Sense," America’s revolt against Great Britain became a revolution.
Lexington and Concord, April 19th, 1775: American Captain John Parker and seventy Minutemen waited for the British at Lexington, on April 19. A British officer ordered the Minutemen to lay down their arms, but a shot from an unknown source was fired. The British then opened fire and charged. Afterwards, the British continued on the Concord only to find that almost all of the weapons and supplies had been moved. While retreating to Boston, they were fired on by Minutemen from local cities.
Paul Revere, William Dawes: Seven hundred British troops, on the night of April 18, 1775, were sent to find and destroy a cache of colonial weapons and supplies at Concord. However, they were detected by Americans, and news was dispatched throughout the countryside by Paul Revere and William Dawes.
Second Continental Congress: The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. They drew up the Olive Branch Petition, which begged George III to restore peace, and adopted a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking up Arms. Congress was divided into two main factions: the delegates that were ready to go to war and declare independence, and those that weren’t ready to go that far. The Second Continental Congress later evolved into the revolutionary government.
Olive Branch Petition: The Second Continental Congress issued this petition to King George III on July 5, pleading with him to intercede with Parliament to restore peace. After he ignored it, he issued a Prohibitory act, which declared all colonies in a state of rebellion no longer under his protection. Thus, Americans prepared for an all out war with Britain.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense: Thomas Paine published this in January 1776, which called for immediate independence. Although its arguments were extreme, it had much influence in favor of independence. Combined with the Prohibitory Act, it convinced many Americans that the British had every intention to carry out a full scale war.
natural rights philosophy: Thomas Jefferson was influenced by the natural rights philosophy. He emphasized the equality of all people and their natural right to justice, liberty, and self-fulfillment. In the writing of the Declaration of Independence, he draw upon some of the ideas of natural rights.
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government: John Locke stressed that governments were legitimate only if they rested on the consent of the governed and protected basic rights of their people. If the government and laws lacked the consent, then they were not legitimate, and had to be dissolved and replaced with legitimate government or just laws.
"First American Revolution" (Possiter Thesis): This thesis is the idea that the real American Revolution could not have been made possible had not a First American Revolution paved the way. The First Revolution consists of the first sparks of discontent. Previously, there had been a great deal of affection between the U.S. and its mother country, due to the protection colonists enjoyed. However, with colonial governments, colonists were enjoying democracy, leading to opposition against taxation.
George III: After the Battle of Bunker Hill, the people of Britain wanted retaliation, and King George III, on August 23, proclaimed New England in a state of rebellion. In December Parliament declared all colonies in a state of rebellion, and made their ships liable to seizure.
Richard Henry Lee’s Resolution: Colonial leader Richard Henry Lee presented several formal resolutions to Congress on June 7, 1776. These resolutions called for independence and a national government. As a result, the Committee on Independence was formed to further accommodate his proposal.
Committee on Independence: After Richard Henry Lee’s resolution on June 7, 1776, the Committee on Independence was formed. Members included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Its purpose was to draft a statement of reasons for independence which led to the Declaration of Independence.
July 4th, 1776 and the Declaration of Independence: Written by the Committee on Independence, he Declaration of Independence contained a list of grievances placing the blame on George III. Additionally, it asserted certain natural rights: "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and the "Consent of the governed" to revolt against tyrannical governments. The English Revolution of 1688 and Enlightenment writers inspired some of the ideas in the Declaration of independence.
Preamble of the Declaration of Independence: Written by the Committee on Independence in 1776, the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal," and are furthermore allotted unalienable rights by God. Moreover, it is believed that this is a statement of faith displays wisdom; it’s not a fact revealing truth.
slavery clause in the Declaration of Independence: Two passages in Jefferson’s original draft were rejected by the Second Continental Congress in 1775. The first passage was an exorbitant reference to the English people, and the second passage was an attack on the slave trade.
Somerset Case (in Great Britain): Despite the Enlightenment’s condemnation of black slavery, sugar produced by black slaves was considered of utmost importance. Granville Sharp defended several blacks in the case Somerset v. Stewart. The decision reached was regarded as the end of slavery in England.
Quock Walker case- Mass: Nathaniel Jennison was accused of assaulting Quock Walker, a negro. Jennison defended himself on the grounds that Walker was his slave. Although slavery wasn’t forbidden by the constitution of Massachusetts, the Superior Court rejected his defense because it was unconstitutional in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
War for Independence
With the Declaration of Independence as its fuel, America entered a war for independence with Great Britain: the Revolutionary War. Throughout the war, America developed its first real feelings of nationalism and ended up being victorious in its fight for freedom.
Advantages/Disadvantages for Britain: The British were well equipped, well trained, and well disciplined. They had a strong navy to land troops, transport troops, guard communication and supply lines. Also, they had a large sum of money which could be used to hire foreign mercenaries. However, they were outnumbered by the U.S.
Advantages/Disadvantages for U.S.: Many colonists knew how to use firearms. They had a superior rifle range and accuracy over the smoothbore British muskets. Washington was a highly respected, experienced commander-in-chief, and they were fighting in their own territory. However, their naval power was less than that of Britain.
Loyalists/Tories: They were Anglican clergymen, ethnic and religious minorities, government officials, and some wealthy merchants comprised the Loyalists. About one-fifth to one-third of the population remained loyal to Britain. They felt that war was unnecessary to preserve the rights of the colonists, and maintained a respect for the monarchy. The majority of ethnic and religious minorities, however, were supporters of the revolution. Eighty thousand Loyalists left, leaving their positions for others.
John Adams: He was one of the first men to propose American independence when the Revolution began. Moreover, he served on the Committee on Independence, and also helped persuade the Second Continental Congress to adopt the Declaration of Independence. In Congress and in diplomatic missions abroad, he served the patriot cause.
Abigail Adams: Even though she had a scarce formal education, she was among the most influential women of her day, particularly as a leader of fashion and social mediator. She was the wife of John Adams, and mother of John Quincy Adams. Also, she challenged the lack of equality for women and was a strong advocate of the Revolutionary War.
Mercy Otis Warren: Before the imperial crisis, she was known for her nonpolitical poetry, but soon began writing political satires in the early 1770s. In doing so, she challenged the assumption that women were naturally dependent on men. The subordination of women, which was taken for granted, later became the subject of debate.
George Washington and the Revolution: George Washington created the Continental Army that had fought against the British. He was a strong influence in persuading the states to partake in the Constitutional Convention, and he used his prestige to help gain ratification of the Constitution. He earned a good reputation from the French and Indian War in 1763. His early military experience taught him the dangers of overconfidence and the necessity of determination when faced with defeat.
Edmund Burke: In 1766 he was elected to Parliament. Almost immediately Burke sought repeal of the Stamp Act. He urged justice and conciliation towards the American colonies in a pamphlet, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, and in two speeches, "On American Taxation" and "Conciliation with America".
Benjamin Franklin and the Revolution: From, Pennsylvania, he served on the Committee for Independence in 1776. Moreover, as a prime minister to Britain, he along with John Adams and John Jay, signed a peace treaty between the U.S. and England, which concerned new American borders, on November 30, 1782.
Lafayette: The Marquis de Lafayette’s close connections with the French court in 1778 indicated that Louis XVI might recognize U.S. independence and declare war on Britain. After France and the United States entered into an alliance against Great Britain, Lafayette returned to France to further the granting of financial and military aid to the Americans.
George Rogers Clark: George Rogers Clark led 175 militia and French volunteers down the Ohio River and took several British forts along the northwestern Ohio Valley in the spring of 1778. He was a surveyor and a frontiersmen who also led successful military operations against Indians allied to the British on the western frontier.
Benedict Arnold: He led one of the Continental Armies into Canada but was defeated. A fervent patriot, he later turned into a traitor. With 400 men, he attacked Fort Ticonderoga in April of 1775, along with Ethan Allen, who raised an army for the same purpose, but without command.
Robert Morris: When the United States, under the Articles of Confederation, was unable to prevent national bankruptcy, Congress turned to him. Hoping to panic the country into creating a regular source of national revenue, he engineered the Newburgh conspiracy along with Alexander Hamilton.
John Paul Jones: United States Captain John Paul Jones attacked the British territory, which raised American morale and prestige. He also led the famous ship, Bonhomme Richard, against Britain’s ship, the Serapis, in which the war was brought to England’s shores, boosting American morale and credibility.
The War at Sea: American captains such as John Paul Jones fought in this War at Sea during the War for Independence against Britain. Despite Britain’s naval advantage, on September 23, 1779, Jones engaged the British frigate, the Serapis, in the North Sea. This was the most famous naval battle in the war.
Continental Army: Composed of colonial men, the Continental Army consisted of less than 10,000 men prepared for duty at one time. Out of the potential 250,000 men living in the colonies, the Continental Army was quite diminutive at the dawn of the war. Led by George Washington, this army fought in various battles such as Valley Forge.
Native Americans in the Revolutionary War: The colonists’ expansion into the Ohio Valley drove the western Indians into allying with the British. In the East, the Iroquois in New York were neutral until 1777, when the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy split, leaving all but the Tuscaroras and most Oneidas on the side of the British.
Black Americans in the Revolutionary War: About 5,000 blacks served in the army and navy, mostly New England freemen, and fought in every major battle of the war. However, the South feared possible slave revolts, which inhibited use of blacks in the South. Governor Dunmore offered freedom to slaves who joined the British army.
Invasion of Canada: U.S. General Richard Montgomery forced the British to evacuate Montreal in 1775 and invade Canada. A second force led by Benedict Arnold invaded the land by combining an attack on Quebec; however, it was a failure in that Montgomery was killed, Benedict was shot, and one-third of the colonial troops were killed or captured.
Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill): Three British generals arrived in Boston in May, 1775 to assist General Gage. After two failed British attacks on Breed’s Hill, the colonists ran out of ammunition, and the British succeeded. The colonists now had two choices: to commit to a full-scale revolution, or to accept the rule of the British.
"Bonhomme Richard" and the "Serapis": John Paul Jones took command of a rebuilt French merchant ship and renamed it the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard. On September 23, 1779, he engaged the British frigate, the Serapis, in the North Sea. This was the most famous naval battle in the American Revolution.
Conway Cabal: United States Major General Thomas Conway wrote a letter to General Horatio Gates that revealed a military side of the Conway Cabal, which aimed at the removal of Washington as the leader of the Continental Army. Conway later resigned after subsequent public revelations, and was replaced by Friedrich von Steuben.
Reasons for the French Alliance of 1778: France entered into two treaties with America, in February, 1778. The first was a treaty of goodwill and commerce, and granted most favored nation status to one another. The second treaty was the French Alliance of 1778, to be effective if war broke out between Britain and France.
Saratoga: British General John Burgoyne felt overwhelmed by a force three times larger than his own, and surrendered on October 17, 1777. This forced the British to consider whether or not to continue the war. The U.S. victory at the Battle of Saratoga convinced the French that the U.S. deserved diplomatic recognition.
Valley Forge: American survivors from the Battle at Brandywine Creek marched through Valley Forge in early December, 1777. The Continental Army marched through Valley Forge while the British army rested miles away in Philadelphia. After the arrival of Baron Friedrich von Steuben, the Continental army emerged from Valley Forge.
Hessians: They were German mercenaries who were comprised of approximately 30,000 soldiers in the British army during the Revolutionary War. They fought among 162,000 other Britons and loyalists but were outnumbered by the 220,000 troops of the Continental Army.
the "black" regiment: They were a group of dignified clergymen who preached against British tyranny and resistance to British authority in 1765. Because sermons were such a common form of communication, nearly every colonist saw public fasting and communication and were infected with the idea that it was a sin not to reject Britain.
General Thomas Gage: He was the commander in chief of Britain’s military forces in America from 1763 to 1775. In April 1775, he issued the order for British troops to march on to concord and seize American weapons stored up there. During his career as commander in chief, he was appointed as the new governor of Massachussetts.
British Generals: Henry Clinton, William Howe, John Burgoyne: General Howe planned to set up headquarters in New York in 1776 but was delayed by Washington’s escape to Long Island. General Burgoyne was trapped at Saratoga in 1777 and was forced to surrender. General Clinton succeeded Howe as commander in chief in 1778.
Yorktown, Lord Cornwallis: Washington, along with Admiral de Grasse’s French fleet, trapped British General Cornwallis on the Yorktown peninsula. The Siege of Yorktown began in September of 1781, and ended when Cornwallis realized that he lost three key points around Yorktown and surrendered.
League of Armed Neutrality: The empress of Russia, Catherine II, made a declaration in 1780, restricting the category of contrabands to munitions and essential instruments of war. She also secured the freedom of the navigation of neutral nations, even to ports of belligerents. The U.S. could not join because it was fighting in the Revolutionary war.
Treaty of Paris, 1783: Great Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, which brought an end to the American Revolution, on September 3. Great Britain recognized the former 13 colonies as the free and self-governing United States of America.
French and British intrigue over U.S. boundaries (in Treaty of Paris): France and Britain shared much interest in American territory following the War for Independence. The French wanted to further continue their residence in Virginia, which led to further dispute between them and the colonists.
social impact of the war: Women did not receive the status implied by the American Revolution’s ideals. Though the Revolution was fought in the name of liberty, slavery still existed, creating a paradox between the slavery and the freedom. However, slavery virtually ended in the North during the Revolutionary era.
How Revolutionary?: Even though the former colonies were joined under a central government provided by the Articles of Confederation, they still acted independently in various areas. Some state constitutions were identical to the English charters that had governed them. On the other hand, the idea of the separation of church and state grew stronger, toleration of religious minorities became more prevalent, inflation became widespread, industry was stimulated, and trade with foreign nations increased.
Disestablishment, Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom: Thomas Jefferson worked on the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom after independence was declared. It became a law in 1786, and was the model for the clause in the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of religion. Separation of church and state became more popular.
New States Constitutions: It was necessary for the former colonies to assemble new state governments after the fall of British authority in 1775. Massachusetts voters insisted that a constitution were made by a convention rather than the legislature, in hopes of implicitly making it superior to the legislatures. Most state constitutions included a bill of rights, although the constitutions ranged from extremely democratic models to unicameral legislatures.
Newburgh conspiracy: The new nation under the Articles of Confederation was in a financial crisis. Through the Newburgh Conspiracy, which was engineered by Alexander Hamilton and Robert Morris, the army, whose pay was overdue, threatened to force the states into surrendering more power to the national government.
Below are the US History topics covered in this unit:
Articles of Confederation
Drafted in 1796 by John Dickinson, the Articles of Confederation established a single-chamber national Congress elected by state legislatures, in which each state held only one vote. These Articles notably left out both and executive and judicial branch, and provided Congress no power to tax or regulate commerce. However, the Articles established states’ rights and also provided for American independence, uniting all the colonies during the war.
Maryland, cession of western land claims: Maryland waited to agree to the new government until lands north of the Ohio River were turned over to the United States in 1779. Maryland did not want big states (NY, VA) to grow and dominate the new nation, instead equalizing the power of the states and opening the union up for expansion.
Strengths of the Articles of Confederation: The thirteen states established a permanent government in 1781 in the form of a confederation which included a congress that represented the states and had the power to conduct Indian and foreign affairs, mediate disputes between states, and establish a standard for weights and measures. The Articles protected against an oppressive central government, such as a monarchy or oligarchy, by placing power within the fragmented states.
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation: The government established in 1781, was a confederation; each state was its own powerful entity and had its own tariffs and currencies, making it harder for interstate commerce to occur. The federal government lacked the power to tax and form a militia without the approval of all the states. Amending the Articles was a difficult and tedious process, because the amendment would have to be accepted by each state in order to be passed.
Pennsylvania militia routs Congress, 1783: Eighty soldiers marched from Lancaster to Philadelphia to obtain justice from the state government and Congress on June 17, 1783. Protesting in front of Independence Hall, which housed Congress and the state government, the rebels were successful in moving the government away from Philadelphia.
Northwest Posts: After the Revolutionary war, the British did not leave their posts in an effort to preserve both the flourishing fur trade and the improving relations with the Native Americans. This showed Britain’s unwillingness to give up and the weakness of the American government, problems which culminated in the War of 1812.
Land Ordinance of 1785: Congress enacted this law to set a uniform procedure for surveying land in 1785. It established that the settlement of a town would be six square miles and would contain land set aside for schools, setting a precedent for the public education system in the United States.
Northwest Ordinance, 1787: Congress passed this law to define the steps for the formation and admission of states into the Union in 1787. It applied to the lands north of the Ohio River which had been established as the Northwest Territory. The existence of slavery could be determined by popular sovereignty in these territories.
Proposed Jay-Gardoqui Treaty, 1785: John Jay tried to negotiate with Spain for trading rights in New Orleans in 1785, but returned with a treaty that renounced Spanish claims to southwestern lands and opened Spanish markets to eastern merchants. In exchange, the U.S. gave up Mississippi trading rights, thus fueling the North-South conflict.
Shays’ Rebellion: A group of Massachusetts farmers led by Daniel Shays protested after taxes were raised to pay for Revolutionary debts in 1786. The high taxes, combined with the depression that hit after British markets were lost, forced the farmers to revolt. The result was an increase in tension between the North and South.
Annapolis Convention, 1786: A group of delegates from five states met in Annapolis, Maryland in 1786, in an effort to solve the problems of interstate commerce. Because there was little representation, the delegates decided that a convention of all states should be held the year after in order to amend the Articles of Confederation.
1780’s depression: The first major depression of the American states occurred after the Revolutionary War in New England. The causes included high taxes imposed to finance the war debt, the tightening of credit, and a short growing season that kept crop yields low. Shays’ rebellion occurred ultimately because of this depression
Federalists and Republicans
By the election of 1796, the United States political system had become bipartisan, largely a result of the disagreements over Hamilton’s programs and foreign policies. The split in the Federalist party became official with Jefferson’s resignation from Washington’s cabinet in 1793, upon which he formed the Republicans, whose ideology claimed that the Federalists had become a party geared toward enriching the wealthy at the expense of the poor.
election of 1796: President Adams, Vice-president Jefferson: Jefferson was supported by the Republicans, while Adams was supported by the Federalists. Adams was victorious in the election, Jefferson was made Vice-president, as a constitutional law stated that the candidate with the second highest number of electoral votes got that position.
new states: Vt, Ky, Tenn: Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee were all admitted into the United States between 1791 and 1796 by the federal government. Their admission was spurred by the hope that they would then become completely loyal to the Union, as they had not been before.
Federalists: The Federalist party was the starting point of the movement to draft and later ratify the new Constitution. It urged for a stronger national government to take shape after 1781. Its leaders included Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, and George Washington rose to power between 1789-1801. Under Hamilton, the Federalists solved the problem of revolutionary debt, created Jay’s Treaty and also the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Democratic-Republicans: The first political party in the United States, the Democratic-Republican party was created by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in opposition to the views of Alexander Hamilton. It arose to power in the 1790s and opposed the Federalist party, while advocating states rights and an agricultural society. The party expressed sympathy towards the French Revolution but opposed close ties with the British.
Society of the Cincinnati: A post-war organization of veteran officers from the Continental Army, the Society of the Cincinnati was feared by many because its charter had the possibility of becoming a hereditary aristocracy, as it gave membership to descendants.
Democratic Societies: An organization in which the wealthy are on a level of equality with the poor. This is best exemplified by the Philadelphia Democratic Society, in which Republicans were united by wealth rather then by status, as well as believed that those with talent and ambition should not forget their dreams.
Alien and Sedition Acts: In 1798, the Neutralization Act said residence must remain in the United States for five years before becoming naturalized while the Alien Act allowed the exportation of any alien believed to be a threat to national security. The Alien Enemies Act allowed the President to export aliens during times of war and the Sedition Act made it a criminal offense to plot against government. These acts were criticized because they oppressed the people’s First Amendment rights.
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: Written by Jefferson and Madison in protest to the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Virginia Resolution stated that states possessed the right to intervene in unconstitutional acts in government, and the Kentucky Resolution stated that federal government could not extend powers outside of constitutionally granted powers.
Fries Rebellion: Pennsylvanian German farmers, in 1799, rebelled against the government after it released debtors and citizens who did not pay taxes. This action infuriated the farmers because the money was needed to fund the expansion of the nation’s army. This rebellion alerted those in power to the general disgruntlement of much of the nation.
doctrine of nullification: A group of Kentucky Resolutions adopted in 1799, the Doctrine of Nullification stated that any federal laws considered by the people to be "objectionable" may be nullified by the states. The passage of these resolutions proved the probability of upcoming violent disagreements of how the law should be interpreted.
Convention of 1800: The Federalist party split into two factions during the Convention of 1800, as the party was undecided as to who their presidential candidate should be. The Federalists wanted to nominate Adams, while the "High Federalists," led by Alexander Hamilton, denounced his candidacy.
Second Great Awakening: Occurring mainly in the frontier states, the Second Great Awakening began in the 1790s and was characterized by "camp meetings," or open air revivals which lasted for weeks at a time where revivalists spoke of the second coming of Jesus. Charles Finney, an especially prominent preacher of the time, preached not only the second coming of Jesus, but also the gospel of free will, which lead to a greater democratic power commonly seen in the ideals of Jacksonian democracy.
Fugitive Slave Law: Enacted by congress in 1793, the law required judges to give a slave back to its owner or his representative if caught after running away. This law indicated tightening racial tensions, as well as stripped slaves of the right to trial by jury or presentation of evidence of freedom.
Gabriel’s Rebellion: Led by Gabriel Prosser in August 1800, the rebellion broke out near Richmond, Virginia when 1,000 slaves marched to the capital. Thirty five slaves were executed by a swift state militia, but whites still feared what many occur in the future with slave uprisings. The rebellion increased tensions between the North and the South.
Logan Act: Enacted in 1795 by the legislative assembly, the Logan Act allowed city councils the power to establish, as well as to support and to regulate, a system consisting schools for the general public. This act led to the establishment of school systems throughout the U.S.
Legal equality for free blacks: These measures first appeared in the 1780s and 1790s, when states dropped restrictions on freedom of movement, protected the property of blacks, and allowed them to enroll in the state militia. By 1796, all but three states allowed blacks voting rights.
Alexander McGillivray: The leader of the Creek Indians, who in 1790 signed a peace treaty with the United States that allowed whites to occupy lands in the Georgia piedmont, but spared the rest of the Creek lands from white settlement. He received a large bribe for signing the treaty.
Gilbert Stuart: An American painter who is particularly well known for his many portraits of wartime hero and President George Washington. His three styles of portrait painting: the "Vaughan" half-length, the "Lansdowne" full-length, and the "Athenaeum" head have often been mimicked.
Charles Wilson Peale: As a portrait painter of the Federalist period, Peale is best known for his fourteen portraits of George Washington. In 1786, Peale began a museum of parts of nature in Independence Hall, Philadelphia of portraits and helped to found the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1805.
The Constitution
After the Revolutionary War, the problems with the Articles of Confederation became increasingly obvious, resulting in the Philadelphia Convention, whose purpose was to rewrite the Articles. However, instead of submitting the Articles for revision, the delegates decided to begin again, resulting in the drafting of a new frame of government outlined in the Constitution, a document that compromised conflicting interests, unifying all the states under a powerful federal government.
Philadelphia Convention: A congressional convention met in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation in 1788. The delegates, which included Madison, Hamilton, and Franklin, believed that there should be checks and balances in the government to give each branch equal amounts of power. The convention ultimately scrapped the Articles and came up with the much more effective Constitution, in which various compromises were made to pacify sectional differences.
Delegates: Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin: At the Philadelphia Convention in 1788, George Washington presided over the convention while he and Franklin helped in mediating heated debates. Hamilton wrote the "Federalist Papers," along with John Jay, in defense of the Constitution.
Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws: Montesquieu was a French writer whose writings helped bring about the French Revolution. His book "The Spirit of the Laws," written in 1748, examines types of government and how each evolves through factors such as location and climate. He believed in separate and balanced branches of government.
Hobbes: Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan in 1651, as a commentary on his doctrine of sovereignty. His philosophies represented a reaction against the chaotic Reformation of the seventeenth century. These ideas generally stated that all men should submit to absolute supremacy, influencing the idea of sovereignty in the United States.
James Madison, "Father of the Constitution": Madison drafted the Virginia Plan of national government that became the basis for its bicameral structure in 1788. He also assisted in the writing of the "Federalist Papers" in order to persuade delegates who were fearful of centralized power.
Great Compromise: Also called the Connecticut compromise, this compromise was introduced by the Connecticut delegation in 1788, and contained both the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. It provided for a presidency, a senate with states represented with two senators each, and a House of Representatives with representation according to population. The plan resolved the dilemma of using only one of the two self serving documents in the Constitution.
VA Plan, NJ Plan: The Virginia Plan called for an executive branch with two houses of Congress which were both based on population. The New Jersey Plan, introduced by William Patterson, called for a legislature with equal representation and increased powers for the national government.
Checks and balances—examples: Examples of checks and balances in the Constitution are the congressional power to impeach the president and the presidential power to appoint his cabinet. This system helps to keep all three branches of the government in check and maintain equal amounts of power.
North-South Compromises: There are two main North-South compromises in the Constitution. One dealt with the structure of Congress, the Great Compromise; the other dealt with slavery and the three-fifths clause. Both aided in easing the problems that arose because of the imbalance of power between states in the Articles of Confederation.
Slavery and the constitution: slave trade, three-fifths clause, Fugitive Slave law: Although the word "slavery" was not used in the Constitution, the idea surfaces in three places in the Constitution: the three-fifths clause, which lessened the power of the voting south by making the votes of three slaves equal that of five white votes; the Fugitive Slave Law, which captured and returned runaway slaves who fled into free territories, and lastly Congress’ option to ban the slave trade in Washington D. C. after 1808.
procedures for amendments: To amend the Constitution, a bill must first be proposed by either two-thirds of both houses or each state conventions. For the amendment to be ratified, three-fourths have to approve the bill. In order to protect the United States and its citizens, this process made it difficult to alter the Constitution without valid reason.
Beard thesis, his critics: Beard criticized the Constitution in his "Economic Interpretation of the Constitution" in 1913. Unlike his opponents, who believed in the Constitution’s democratic purpose, Beard argues that it was written to give them economic advantages that would stem from the stability of the economy.
Fiske, The Critical Period of American History: John Fiske, an American historian and philosopher, wrote The Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789 in 1788. In the book, Fiske argues that the Constitution had saved the nation from imminent interstate conflict.
Antifederalists: Antifederalists were opponents of the Constitution who thought that it failed to balance power between the national and state governments. Believing that a balance was impossible to reach, the opponents thought that the new government would ultimately ruin the states.
supporters of the Constitution: The supporters of the Constitution, including Hamilton, Jay, and Madison, who called themselves the Federalists. These men became important in the ratification process of the Constitution; they persuaded many of its opponents to ratify it through their speeches, the Federalist Papers, and other propaganda.
opponents of the Constitution: The opponents of the Constitution were called the Antifederalists; they opposed it because it failed to balance power between the national and state governments. They thought that a balance would be impossible to reach and that the new government would ultimately ruin the states.
George Mason, Bill of Rights: Mason was a delegate at the Constitutional Convention and helped draft the Constitution. Troubled by its power and its failure to limit slavery or contain a bill of rights, he would not sign it. Some states refused to ratify the Constitution until 1791, when a bill of rights was added to the Constitution.
The ratification fights: Critics, such as Sam Adams, were successfully won over by the Federalists in Massachusetts. The fight in Virginia ended after the addition of the Bill of Rights, defeating Mason and Henry, and affected the decision in New York, where Hamilton won the fight using the "Federalist Papers."
The Federalist Papers, Jay, Hamilton, Madison: The Federalist papers were written by Jay, Hamilton, and Madison in 1788, during the Philadelphia Convention as a response to Antifederalist objections to the Constitution. The eighty-five newspaper essays offered a glimpse of the framers’ intentions in designing the Constitution, and shaped the American philosophy of the government. They explained that the Constitution would protect the minority’s rights but would not make them too powerful.
The Federalist, number 10: Madison, in the Federalist number ten, rejected the Antifederalist argument that establishing a republic in United States would lead to a struggle for power. He also argued that the Constitution would prevent the formation of national factions and parties.
implied powers, elastic clause, necessary and proper clause: An implied power is one not granted in a job description, yet is meant to be taken. The elastic clause was included into the Constitution to allow flexibility. Congress was granted the right to make all laws which they deemed necessary and proper thus expanding their power.
loose, strict interpretation of the Constitution: The strict interpretation of the constitution meant that it was to be followed exactly to the word, a philosophy adopted by Jefferson. Hamilton believed in a loose interpretation, or that powers implied within the Constitution should be included in the new government to fit changes over time.
Reserved and Delegated Powers: Delegated powers were specifically enumerated rights granted to Congress and the President. The delegated powers of Congress included the ability to tax, issue currency, borrow money, declare war and sustain an army. All powers not stated specifically in the Constitution were reserved to the states as stated in the Tenth Amendment. These reserved powers were the result of flexibility in the Constitution to adapt over time.
Undemocratic Elements in the Constitution: According to Charles Beard, the Constitution was written to the advantage of the elite in the United States. The founding fathers did not believe in total democracy, or mob rule, and so used state legislatures and the electoral college to elect senators and the president, respectively.
Flexibility in the Constitution: The flexibility in the Constitution enabled it to adapt over time; there have only been sixteen amendments since 1791. Our founding fathers used vague language, and so Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution changed over time; the Elastic clause and the reserved powers are examples of this ambiguity.
Upper and Lower House: The senate was seen as the upper house because there were less delegates, the age requirement was higher, and the term limits were six years as opposed to two for the House of Representatives. As a result the Senate was seen as more of an elitist institution while the House was viewed as reflective of the common people.
Electoral College: In order to protect the interests of the elite, land owning class, the framers of the Constitution added the electoral college as a safeguard against the majority opinion. As a result, electors could elect a presidential candidate without considering the popular vote and elections could be won without a majority in the popular vote.
Washington and Hamilton
As the first president of the newly formed United States, George Washington played a largely passive role, suggesting few laws to Congress, attempting to reassure the public he was above favoritism and sectional interests. Alexander Hamilton, on the other hand, took advantage of Washington’s reluctance to be involved with domestic issues, and, as secretary of the treasury, attempted to restore American credit by advocating a perpetual debt.
Post Revolutionary America—West: In the late eighteenth century, masses of people had moved into the trans-Appalachian frontier to escape post-revolutionary depression, despite the risk of violence presented by Indians and the British in their Northwest posts. Congress aided the expansion with the Land and Northwest Ordinances
Post Revolutionary America—South: Many of the southern citizens had bought land in the west and watched the price of land eagerly. Aside from the unstable land speculation, the south had recovered from the war. It had diversified its crops and exported them at prewar levels.
Post Revolutionary America—North: Plagued by high taxes, overpopulation, and rebellion, the North’s efforts at postwar recovery was impeded by the depression of the 1780s. Manufacturing and merchant marine industries were also, negatively affected by independence; the British imposed new embargoes and tariffs on the United States.
President George Washington: George Washington was elected president in 1788 and again in 1792. Washington’s two terms set the precedent for being President of the United States. He tended to shy away from the affairs of Congress and also formed the first Presidential cabinet, appointing two of the ablest men into high positions of responsibility into his cabinet. His farewell address cautioned the American people to stay out of international affairs, remain isolationist, and to beware of impending bipartisanship.
Washington’s Definition of the Presidency: George Washington set the precedent for being the President of the United States. He humbly served two terms and appointed the first cabinet. Washington stayed out of Congress’ way and supported the United States’ isolationist stance in world affairs.
Vice President John Adams: Because he ran second to George Washington in the elections of 1788 and 1792, he became the nation’s first Vice President, limiting himself to presiding over the senate. Prior to his term as Vice President, he was a diplomat to European nations such as France, Britain, and the Dutch Republic.
Judiciary Act, 1789: The Congress passed the Judiciary Act in 1789, in an effort to create a federal-court system and replace the old system, in which the courts varied from state to state. They were burdened with filling in the holes of the judiciary system left by the Constitution.
Secretary of Treasury Hamilton: Hamilton was appointed in 1789, when the nation’s economy was in shambles. In 1790, he submitted to Congress a Report of the Public Credit that provided for the payments of all debts assumed during the war. He wanted a national bank and encouraged manufacturing through financial government protection.
Secretary of State Jefferson: As Secretary of State for Washington’s first term, Thomas Jefferson wanted to establish reciprocal trade agreements with European nations and deny it to the British. This plan, in 1783, died in Congress, along with his other plans to try to manipulate the European countries. He resigned after the Citizen Genet scandal.
Secretary of War Knox: Henry Knox was the Secretary of War from 1789-1794, the first one under the United States Constitution. Prior to this, he fought in major Revolutionary battles, was in command of the West Point fortress in New York, and was the Secretary of War under the Articles of Confederation.
Attorney General Randolph: Edmund Jennings Randolph was the Attorney General under the Washington Administration from 1789-1794; before which he was the head of the Virginia delegation at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and submitted the Virginia Plan.
Hamilton’s program: ideas, proposals, reasons for it: Alexander Hamilton wrote to Congress a Report on Public Credit which proposed a way in which the national and foreign debts could be funded and how the federal government would take charge of the debts left by states from the resolution in 1790. The plans attempted to end wartime debt problems. Hamilton believed that constant deficit was necessary to stimulate the nation’s economy, and also believed that the U.S. should immediately repay its foreign debt.
Hamilton’s Legacy: Hamilton’s devices for restoring the credit of the nation led to great monetary gains for merchants, speculators, and others working in the port cities. The government’s takeover of state debts freed those of New England, New Jersey, and South Carolina from harsh taxes.
Tariff of 1789: A revenue raising tariff enacted by Congress, it encouraged the people of the U.S. to manufacture earthenware, glass, and other products in their home in order to avoid importation. With a duty of 8.5%, the tariff succeeded in raising much needed funds for Congress
Bank of the U.S.: Chartered by the newly formed federal government, the bank was established in Philadelphia in 1791, and was permitted by the government to issue legal tender bank notes that could be exchanged for gold. The bank successfully established a national currency, but the charter ended in 1811, for economic and political reasons.
national debt, state debt, foreign debt: National debt accumulated by the US during the Revolutionary war continued to plague Americans. The states were also in debt after borrowing heavily from the government. Hamilton, in his Report on Public Credit, wanted to pay off foreign debt immediately and then through tariffs repay the national debt.
excise taxes: A fixed charge on items of consumption, usually used for revenue raising. The first excise tax placed upon the United States in 1791, by Parliament was one which taxed all domestic distilled spirits. Anger towards this excise tax led directly to the Whiskey Rebellion.
Report on Manufacturers: Presented to Congress in 1791, by Alexander Hamilton, the report suggested that protective tariffs on imports from foreign lands would lead Americans to produce more in their homelands, thus building national wealth and attracting foreigners.
Report on Public Credit: Hamilton submitted his report to Congress in 1790, hoping to seize it as an opportunity to rebuild the country’s credit base. He reported that the US was 54 million dollars in debt: 12 million to foreigners, and the rest to Americans. On top of that, he estimated that the states held debts of over 25 million dollars.
location of the capital: logrolling, D.C.: The nation’s capital was originally located in New York, but later was transferred to Washington D.C.. Originally planned by Charles L’Enfant, the city consisted of beautiful walkways, tree lined streets, and masterfully architecture buildings.
Indian Decline: The frontier warfare during the post-revolutionary era combined with the continuing penetration of western ways into Indian culture caused severe reductions in Indian population and territory. An increasing amount of hatred towards the "redskins" further encouraged the violence towards Indians.
Residence Act: Determined that a ten mile square area for the capital of the United States would be chosen along the Potomac River along the Virginia-Maryland boarder. The area was to be named the District of Columbia, after Christopher Columbus, and was selected by George Washington.
Major L’Enfant, Benjamin Banneker: Pierre Charles L’Enfant was the French architect who, in 1791, drew the plans for the nations capital in Washington D.C., on which the city is now based. Benjamin Banneker was appointed in 1791, by President Washington to assist L’Enfant in surveying the land where the capital city was to be built.
Whiskey Rebellion: An organized resistance in 1794, to the excise tax on whiskey in which federal revenue officials were tarred and feathered, riots were conducted, and mobs burned homes of excise inspectors. The federal militia captured many of the protesters, but most were released.
French Alliance of 1778: Alliance made between France and the United Sates during America’s civil war in 1778. The alliance was used to convince French citizens living in United States territory to become citizens of American, and therefore to bear arms or participate in the war.
French Revolution: The revolution was a period consisting of social and political upheaval from 1789-1799. Caused by the inability of the ruling class and clergy to solve the states problems, the hunger of the workers, the taxation of the poor, and the American Revolution, it led to the establishment of the First Republic and the end of the monarchy.
Citizen Genet: Sent to the United States by the French in 1793 to find soldiers to attack British ships and conquer the territories held by the Spanish, Edmund Genet founded the American Foreign Legion despite Washington’s April 22 proclamation of American neutrality.
Neutrality Proclamation: Issued by President George Washington on April 22, 1793, the Neutrality Proclamation stated that the United States would remain a neutral faction in the war with France against Britain and Spain despite heavy French pressures to join their forces. Many Americans felt the war to be a violation of their neutrality.
XYZ Affair, Talleyrand: When a commission was sent to France in 1797 in order to negotiate problems between the two countries, they were told by the French foreign minister Talleyrand that the agents X, Y, Z, three officials who did not take the process seriously, would only negotiate for a lend of $10 million to the French government.
undeclared naval war with France: Otherwise known as the Quasi-War, the undeclared conflict between the two nations lasted from 1798 to 1800. In the conflict, the United States managed to capture ninety-three French ships while France captured just one U.S. ship.
British seizure of American ships: The Privy Council issued a secret order on November 6, 1793, to confiscate any foreign ships trading with French Caribbean islands. In this decision, they seized over 250 American ships which were conducting trade with the islands.
Royal Navy: They navy of the British empire, the Royal Navy began to inspect American ships in 1793 for suspected defects of the British Navy, who they then forcibly placed back into their own navy. These bold actions commonly referred to as impressment, further strengthened hostilities between the two countries.
"Rule of 1756": The French opened colonial trade to the Dutch, who were a neutral party. British prize courts, in response, stated that neutrals could not engage in wartime trade with a country if they were not permitted to trade with that country at times of peace.
Jay’s Treaty: Negotiated between the United States and France in 1794, the treaty evacuated British posts in the West, appointed a committee to set up the U.S.-French boundary, and named a commission to determine how much the British should pay for illegally seizing American ships. It did not resolve the British West Indies trade dispute.
Pinckney’s Treaty, right of deposit at New Orleans: Ratified in 1796, the treaty gave westerners the right to access the world markets duty-free through the Mississippi River. Spain promised to recognize the thirty-first parallel, to end U.S. camps, and to discourage Indian attacks on western settlers.
Spanish intrigue in the Southwest: Spain attempted, in many cases, to detach the West from the United States, hoping to further expand their territory into the vast land. Washington’s attempts at a failed alliance with the Creek Indians to expand into their lands only led to further conflicts between America and Spain.
James Wilkinson: An American soldier who participated in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Wilkinson was the man who reported Burr’s conspiracy to access Louisiana to President Jefferson. He served as Secretary to the Board of War and was a brigadier general under Anthony Wayne.
"Mad" Anthony Wayne: Known as Mad Anthony due to his quick temper and his bravery, Wayne was a General during the American Revolution. He began his service with the Pennsylvania militia. He participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown and distinguished himself in the Battle of Monmouth.
Battle of Fallen Timbers: At the Battle of Fallen Timbers, in 1794, Anthony Wayne defeated a coalition of Native American tribes as the major general and commander in chief of the troops. The battle took place around present day Toledo and led to the Treaty of Greenville which opened up the Northwest to American settlers.
Treaty of Greenville, 1795: This treaty, which was drafted in 1795, opened the Northwest Territory to settlement by white United States citizens. The territory had formerly only been inhabited by Indians, so therefore the treaty between the two races was an important one. The treaty served to end white-Indian hostilities for sixteen years.
Barbary Pirates: Following the American Revolution, the Barbary pirates began to raid the ships of the United States. The United States therefore formed treaties with Morocco, Tripoli, and Tunis, as European nations already had, that gave them immunity from these attacks.
Tripolitan War: From 1801-1805, the war was a battle between the North African state Tripoli and the United States. The Tripolitans had seized U.S. ships in the U.S. refusal to pay in increase in the tribute paid to the pasha of Tripoli. In the end, the demand for payment was ended and the U.S. paid $60,000 to free Americans caught captive.
Washington’s Farewell Address: In his realization of the important role that he had take in developing the role of the president of the United States, Washington’s farewell address asked the citizens of the United States to avoid involvement in political problems between foreign nations.
Below are the US History topics covered in this unit:
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is support for a complete, immediate, and uncompensated end to slavery. In the North before the Civil War, there were only a few abolitionists and these were generally considered radicals. However, they were prominent and vocal, and as sectional tension mounted, they became more prominent and influential.
Abolitionism: Abolitionism was the movement in opposition to slavery, often demanding immediate, uncompensated emancipation of all slaves. This was generally considered radical, and there were only a few adamant abolitionists prior to the Civil War. Almost all abolitionists advocated legal, but not social equality for blacks. Many abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison were extremely vocal and helped to make slavery a national issue, creating sectional tension because most abolitionists were from the North.
American Antislavery Society: The American Antislavery Society was an organization in opposition to slavery founded in 1833. In 1840, issues such as the role of women in the abolitionist movement, and role of abolitionists as a political party led to the division of the organization into the American Antislavery Society and Foreign Antislavery Society. Because the organization never had control over the many local antislavery societies, its division did not greatly damage abolitionism.
William Lloyd Garrison: William Lloyd Garrison was a radical who founded The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper, in Boston in 1831. He advocated immediate, uncompensated emancipation and even civil equality for blacks. This made Garrison a famous and highly controversial abolitionist whose main tactic was to stir up emotions on the slavery issue.
The Liberator: The Liberator was an anti-slavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp beginning in 1831. Its bitter attacks on slavery and slaveowners, as well as its articles and speeches using arguments based on morality to advocate immediate emancipation made it one of the most persuasive periodicals in the United States at the time.
Theodore Weld: Weld was an abolitionist student at the Lane Theological Seminary. He was dismissed when, in 1834, the trustees of the seminary tried to suppress abolitionism. He led an antislavery demonstration on campus and a mass withdrawal of students from the school. These students then centered their activities at Oberlin College.
Grimké sisters: Angelina and Sarah Grimké were sisters who toured New England, lecturing against slavery, in 1837. They became controversial by lecturing to both men and women. In 1838 both sisters wrote classics of American feminism; Sarah wrote Letters on the Condition of Women and the Equality of the Sexes and Angelina wrote Letters to Catherine E. Beecher.
Theodore Parker: Parker was a clergyman, theologian, and the author of A Letter to the People and A Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion. He was also an active opponent of slavery who aided in the escape of slaves and the rescue of Anthony Burns, supported New England Emigrant Society, and participated in John Brown’s raid in 1859.
Elijah Lovejoy: Lovejoy was American abolitionist and the editor of the an antislavery periodical, The Observer. Violent opposition from slaveholders in 1836 forced him to move his presses from Missouri to Illinois, where he established the Alton Observer. Lovejoy was killed by an mob in 1837, and his death stimulated the growth of abolitionist movement.
Wendell Phillips: Phillips was an American orator, abolitionist, and reformer. He also spoke publicly in favor of women’s rights, temperance, abolition and elimination of capital punishment. His most famous speech, The Murder of Lovejoy speech protested the murder of Elijah Lovejoy and gained him recognition from the public.
Nat Turner's Insurrection: Turner was a slave who became convinced that he was chosen by God to lead his people to freedom. In Virginia in 1831, Turner led about 70 blacks into a revolt against their masters. Before the uprising was brought to a halt by white militiamen, 55 whites were killed by Turner and his followers and many blacks were lynched by white mobs. Turner and fifteen of his companions were hanged. The rebellion convinced white southerners that a successful slave insurrection was an constant threat..
Gabriel Prosser: Prosser a Virginia slave who planned a slave uprising in 1800 with the intent of creating a free black state. They intended to sieze the federal arsenal at Richmond, but the plan was betrayed by other slaves. Prosser and his comrades were captured by the state militia and executed.
Denmark Vesey: Vessy was a slave from South Carolina who bought his freedom with $1,500 that he won in a lottery. In 1822, he planned to lead a group of slaves in an attacking Charleston and stealing the city’s arms. However, the plan was betrayed by other slaves, resulting in the hanging of Vessy and his followers.
David Walker, Walker’s Appeal: David Walker was a free black from Boston who published his Appeal in 1829, advocating a black rebellion to crush slavery. The purpose of Walker’s Appeal was to remind his people that they were Americans and should be treated fairly.
Frederick Douglass: Douglass was an escaped slave, who became a powerful aboltionist orator. He captured his audiences with descriptions of his life as a slave. He also published a newspaper, the North Star, in the early 1830s. Douglass’ influential speeches encouraged slaves to escape as he did and motivated northerners to oppose slavery.
Sojourner Truth: Sojourner Truth was a runaway slave who became an influential figure in both women’s societies and the abolitionist movement. In spite of her illiteracy, she traveled widely through New England and the Midwest, making eloquent speeches against sex discrimination, Godlessness, and slavery which attracted large audiences.
Harriet Tubman: Tubman was a black woman who, after escaping from slavery in 1849, made 19 journeys back into the South to help as many as 300 other slaves escape. She was the most famous leader of the underground railroad. Because of her efforts to lead her people to freedom, Tubman was known as "Moses" among blacks.
underground railroad: The underground railroad was a secret network of antislavery northerners who illegally helped fugitive slaves escape to free states or Canada during the period before the American Civil War. The system had no formal organization, but it helped thousands of slaves escape and contributed to the hostility between the North and South.
Creole affair: The Creole Affair was an uprising by a group of slaves who were in the process of being transported in the ship, the Creole. They killed the captain, took control of ship and sailed for Bahamas, where they became free under British. Incidents such as this contributed to the intensification of sectional conflict in the United States.
Antebellum Reform
Americans after 1815 embraced many religios and social movements in pursuit of solutions for the problems, evils, and misfortunes of mankind. These movements were generally more active in the Northern states.
Hudson River school of art: Americans painters also sought to achieve a sense of nationality in art. Flourishing between the 1829s and 1870s, the painter realized that the American landscape lacked the "poetry of decay" of Europe. Realizing this, they began to paint the awesomeness of nature in America.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: A French Civil servant, he traveled to this country in the early 1930s to study the prison system. DiA was a result of his observations. It reflected the broad interest in the entire spectrum of the American democratic process and the society which it had developed.
millenialism: In the 1830s, William Miller claimed the Second coming of Christ would occur in 1843. Following him were the Millerites. After the failure of his prophecies, his disciples divided into smaller Adventist groups of which the two largest are the Advent Christian Church and the Seventh-Day Adventists
Charles G. Finney: Known as the "father of modern revivalism," he was a pioneer of cooperation among Protestant denominations. He believed that conversions were human creations instead of the divine works of God, and that people’s destinies were in their own hands. His "Social Gospel" offered salvation to all.
Mormons, Brigham Young: Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints after receiving "Sacred writings" in New York Unpopular because of their polygamy, they moved to Missouri, then to Nauvoo, Illinois. They were then led to the Great Salt Lake by Brigham young after Smith was killed.
Brook Farm, New Harmony, Onieda, Amana Community: Attempting to improve man’s life during industrialism, these cooperative communities, known as Utopian communities, were formed. These communities often condemned social isolation, religion, marriage, the institution of private property.
lyceum movement: Began by Josiah Holbrok in the 1820, lyceums were local organizations that sponsored public lectures. Lectures were held on such topics as astronomy, biology, physiology, geology, conversation. The spread of these lecture revealed the widespread hunger for knowledge and refinement.
Dorothea Dix: In 1843, after discovering the maltreatment of the insane in 1841, presented a memorial to the state legislature which described the abhor conditions in which the insane were kept. She, along with help from Horace Mann and Samuel G. Howe, led the fight for asylums and more humane treatment for the insane.
National Trade Union: Organized in 1834, this association was created after the New York Trades Union called a convention of delegates from numerous city centrals. Headed by Ely Moore, who was elected to Congress on the Tammany ticket, this union disintegrated along with a number of other national conventions with the Panic of 1837.
Commonwealth vs. Hunt: This decision deemed that the trade union and their strike techniques were legal, contradicting the traditional idea of unions being illegal under the conspiracy laws of the English common law. Although this was a milestone, it in fact did not open a new era for labor unions. Most judges still believed unions were illegal.
criminal conspiracy laws: Initially, trade unions were persecuted for their strikes because they were construed as illegal conspiracies under the common law.. The early unions strove for higher wages, shorter hours, union control of apprenticeship and a closed shop.
Oberlin, 1833; Mt. Holyoke, 1836: After it was established in 1833, Oberlin College was converted into the center of western abolition by Theodore Dwight Weld. Founded by Mary Lyon in 1836, Mt Holyoke College in Massachusetts is the oldest U.S. college devoted to women’s education.
public education, Horace Mann: The most influential of reformers, Man became the secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. For the next ten years, Mann promoted a wholistic change in public education. Mann wanted to put the burden of cost on the state, grade the schools, standardize textbooks, and compel attendance.
American Temperance Union: The first national temperance organization, it was created by evangelical Protestants. Created in 1826, they followed Lyman Beecher in demanding total abstinence from alcohol. They denounced the evil of drinking and promoted the expulsion of drinkers from church.
Irish, German immigration- 1845-1854: In this single decade, the largest immigration proportionate to the American population occurred. The Irish was the largest source of immigration with the German immigrants ranking second in number. This spurred new sentiment for nativism and a new anti-Catholic fervor.
Nativism: The Irish immigration surge during the second quarter of the nineteenth century revived anti-Catholic fever .Extremely anti-Catholic, in 1835 Morse warned that the governments of Europe were filling the US with Catholic immigrants as part of a conspiracy to undermine and destroy republican institutions.
Women’s rights: Women could not vote and if married, they had no right to own property or retain their own earnings. They were also discriminated in the areas of education and employment, not receiving the opportunities that men possessed. This encouraged the development of educational institutions for women.
Lucretia Mott: 1848, Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized a women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, proclaiming a Declaration of Sentiments Months earlier, along with Stanton, they successfully worked for the passage of the New York Married Women’s Property Act which recognized women’s right to her separate property.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: She along with Lucretia Mott planned a women’s right convention at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls which sparked the women’s movement. She was also active in the fight for abolition and temperance, but was devoted to women’s rights.
Seneca Falls, 1848: Under the eye of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this convention adopted resolutions for women’s rights. Among those adopted were a demand for women’s suffrage and a diminution of sexual discrimination in education and employment.
Emma Willard: In 1814, Willard established the Middlebury Female Seminary where she devised new innovations in female education. She also established the Troy Female Seminary in 1821. She provided instruction in math and philosophy in which women could not take earlier. She led the fight for educational equality among sexes.
Catherine Beecher: Lyman Beecher’s daughter and a militant opponent of female equality, she fought for a profession in which females could be appreciated. With this, she discovered the institution of education in which women could play an important part in. In this profession, women became the main source of teachers.
"Cult of True Womanhood": The alternate ideal of domesticity, this slowed the advance of feminism. Because it sanctioned numerous activities in reform such as temperance and education, it provided women with worthwhile pursuits beyond the family.
American Peace Society: In a social reform movement, William Ladd led the peace movement by establishing the American Peace Society in 1828. He was joined in the peace movement by Elihu Burritt who founded the League of Universal Brotherhood in 1846 and promoted the 2d Universal Peace Conference held in Brussels in 1848
prison reform: Prison were meant to rehabilitate as well as punish. The Auburn System allowed prisoners to work together but never make contact and remain confined at night in a windowless cell. The Pennsylvania system made each prisoner spend of his/her time in a single cell with no outside contact.
Economic Growth
Industrialization and the transportation revolution were a considerable force in American history, changing the character of life in America by facilitation westward expansion, and urbanization. This period was distinguished by the establishment of factories and the creation of many new inventions to save time, improve transportation and communication, and increase productivity.
transportation revolution: The transportation revolution was the period in which steam power, railroads, canals, roads, bridges, and clipper ships emerged as new forms of transportation, beginning in the 1830s. This allowed Americans to travel across the country and transport goods into new markets that weren’t previously available.
Erie Canal: The Erie Canal, the first major canal project America, was built by New York beginning 1817. Stretching 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo, it was longest canal in western world at the time. It was a symbol of progress when it was opened in 1825, and it later sparked artistic interest in the Hudson River when its use peaked in the 1880s.
National Road(Cumberland Road): The National Road was a highway across America. Construction began in 1811; the road progressed west during early 1800s, advancing father west with each year. Its crushed-stone surface helped and encouraged many settlers to travel into the frontier west.
Commonwealth v. Hunt: In the case of Commonwealth v. Hunt, the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 1842 ruled that labor unions were not illegal conspiracies in restraint of trade. Although this decision made strikes legal, it did not bring significant changes in the rights of laborers because many Massachusetts judges still considered unions illegal.
Robert Fulton, steamships: Fulton was an artist turned inventor. In 1807, he and his partner, Robert Livingston, introduced a steamship, the Clermont, on the Hudson River and obtained a monopoly on ferry service there until 1824. Steamships created an efficient means of transporting goods upstream, and this led to an increase in the building of canals.
clipper ships: Clipper ships were sailing ships built for great speed. The first true clipper ship, the Rainbow, was designed by John W. Griffiths, launched in 1845, but this was modeled after earlier ships developed on the Chesapeake Bay. During the Gold Rush, from 1849 to 1857, clipper ships were a popular means to travel to California quickly.
Samuel Slater: Slater was the supervisor of machinery in a textile factory in England. He left England illegally in 1790 to come to Rhode Island, where, in 1793, he founded the first permanent mill in America for spinning cotton into yarn. In doing this, Slater founded the cotton textile industry in America.
Boston Associates: The Boston Associates were a group of merchants in Boston who created Boston Manufacturing Company in 1813. Capitalizing on new technology, they built textile factories in the towns of Waltham and Lowell which produced finished products, challenging cottage industries. Also, they hired young, unmarried women, rather than entire families.
Lowell factory: The Lowell factory was a factory established in 1813 by the Boston Manufacturing Company on the Merrimack River in Massachusetts. It was a cotton textile mill that produced finished clothing, eliminating the need for cottage industries. Also, the Lowell factory hired mainly young girls, separating these girls from their families.
factory girls (Lowell factory): "Factory girls" were young, unmarried women, usually between 15 and 30 years old, working in textile factories such as the Lowell factory. Most of these girls left their families’ farms in order to gain independence or to help their families financially. In the factories, they found poor working conditions and strict discipline.
ten-hour movement: The ten-hour movement was the attempt by workers to obtain restrictions on the number of hours they worked per day. They wanted to limit the day to 10 hours, from the 12 or 14 hour days that were not uncommon. The movement was supported by Lowell Female Reform Association and other reform associations.
Elias Howe: Howe invented the sewing machine in 1845 and patented it in 1846. After a difficult battle defending his patent, he made a fortune on his invention. The sewing machine allowed clothing to be stitched in factories very quickly, contributing to the transition from handmade garments to inexpensive, mass-produced clothing.
Eli Whitney, interchangeable parts: Whitney was an inventor who introduced the concept of interchangeable parts in 1798. The tools and machines he invented allowed unskilled workers to build absolutely uniform parts for guns, so that the whole gun no longer had to be replaced if a single part malfunctioned or broke. This was the beginning of mass production.
Cyrus McCormick, mechanical reaper: McCormick was an inventor who improved upon previous designs for the mechanical reaper. He patented his reaper in 1834 and built a factory to mass produce it in 1847. This invention lessened the work of western farmers by mechanizing the process of harvesting wheat.
Samuel F.B. Morse, telegraph: Morse invented the telegraph in 1844. This invention was enthusiastically accepted by the American people; telegraph companies were formed and lines erected quickly. The telegraph allowed rapid communication across great distances, usually transmitting political and commercial messages.
Cyrus Field: Field was a financier who promoted the first transatlantic telegraph cable. In 1841, Field founded a company, Cyrus W. Field and Co. After four failed attempts, Field laid a cable between Irealand and Newfoundland in 1866. This cable was 2,000 miles long and laid from the Great Eastern, a ship. This allowed for rapid transatlantic communication.
Expansion to 1840
1n 1790, a great majority of Americans lived east of the Appalachian Mountains, but many began moving west intermittently. Before, 1840, they mainly settled the areas east of the Mississippi River and avoided the arid Great Plains region. Texas was a popular destination for American settlers, especially southern planters with slaves, so when the Mexican government tried to restrict the rights of these settlers, the Texas War for Independence resulted.
Stephen Austin: Austin was a prominant leader of Americans in Texas. In the 1820s, he was a highly successful empresario, who had contracted 300 American families to move to Texas by 1825. After Mexican president Santa Anna invaded Texas in1835, Austin became one of the leaders of the Texas Revolution.
Texan War for Independence: In 1836, Mexican president Santa Anna invaded Texas and brutally crushed the rebels at the battle of the Alamo. However, the leader to the Texans, Sam Houston, retaliated at the battle of San Jacinto. At San Jacinto, the Texans killed half of Santa Anna’s men in 15 minutes and Houstan captured Santa Anna and forced him to sign a treaty recognizing Texan independence. The Mexican government never recognized this treaty, but could no longer afford to fight, so Texas became the Lone Star Republic.
Alamo: The Alamo was a mission in San Antonio, Texas, that became the setting for and important episode in Texan war for independence from Mexico. In 1836, Mexican forces under Santa Anna besieged San Antonio and the city’s 200 Texan defenders retreated into the abandoned mission. All of the Texans were killed in their attempt to fight the Mexican army.
Davy Crockett: Davy Crockett was a politician, a frontiersman, and a soldier. From 1827 to 1835 Crockett represented Tennessee in Congress. In he 1835 went to Texas and joined the revolution against Mexico. He was killed while defending the Alamo in 1836. Exaggerated stories written after his death made Crockett an American folk hero.
William Barrett Travis: Travis was a lawyer before he moved to Texas in 1831. In 1835, became colonel in Texas Revolution. In 1836, Travis became a war hero when he was ordered to defend San Antonio and the Alamo. When Santa Anna and his men attacked, greatly outnumbering Travis’ 200 troops, Travis and all of his men died in battle.
San Jacinto: The battle of San Jacinto was the last battle of Texan war for independence. Texan General Sam Houston and 800 of his men ambushed Santa Anna and the Mexican army. The battle lasted less than 20 minutes, during which after Santa Anna was captured and forced to signed a treaty granting Texans their independence.
Santa Anna: Santa Anna was elected president of Mexico in 1833. However, in 1834, he overthrew government and named himself dictator. He invaded Texas in 1835, but got captured at the battle of San Jacinto in 1836. After this defeat, he was forced into retirement until 1838. He was overthrown in 1845, but called back in 1846 to fight in the Mexican War.
Sam Houston: Houston was a military commander and an American statesman who served in House of Representatives from 1823 to 1827. In 1836, Houston was chosen as president of the Texan rebels. He led them in the battle of San Jacinto, where he captured Santa Anna and achieved Texan independence.
Republic of Texas: Texan rebels declared their independence from Mexico in 1836. They drafted a constitution modeled after the United States Constitution and chose Sam Houston as their president. Texas was an autonomous nation from the time Santa Anna recognized Texan independence at the battle of San Jacinto until it was annexed by the United States in 1845.
Jacksonian Democracy
Jackson personified the desireable and undesireable qualities of Westerners. He stood for the right of the common people to have a greater voice in government. Distinct changes in laws, practices, and popular attitudes gave rise to Jacksonian Democracy and were in turn accelerated by the new equilitarian spirit.
Jacksonian Revolution of 1828: Jackson won more than twice the electoral vote of John Quincy Adams. However the popular vote was much closer. Adams had strong support in New England while Jackson swept the South and Southwest. In the middle states and the Northwest, the popular vote was close.
age of the common man: All white males had access to the polls. Jackson was portrayed by the opposition as a common man, an illiterate backwoodsman, during the election of 1828. He was depicted as being uncorrupt, natural, and plain. His supporters described his simple and true morals and fierce and resolute will.
spoils system: Jackson defended the principle of "rotation in office," the removal of officeholders of the rival party on democratic grounds. He wanted to give as many individuals as possible a chance to work for the government and to prevent the development of an elite bureaucracy.
National Republicans: They became the Whig party during Jackson’s second term. John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay guided this party in the 1830s. They were the Jeffersonian Republicans, along with numerous former Federalists who believed that the national government should advocate economic development.
Trail of Tears: A pro-removal chief signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835 which ceded all Cherokee land to the United States for $5.6 million. Most Cherokees condemned the treaty. Between 1835 and 1838, 16,000 Cherokees migrated west to the Mississippi along the Trail of Tears. 2,000 to 4,000 Cherokees died.
kitchen cabinets: During his first term, Jackson repeatedly relied on an informal group of partisan supporters for advice while ignoring his appointed cabinet officers. Supposedly, they met in the White House kitchen. Martin Van Buren and John H. Eaton belonged to this group, but were also members of the official cabinet.
Worcester v. Georgia, 1832: Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokees were not a state nor a foreign nation and therefore lacked standing to bring suit. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 1831: Marshall ruled that the Cherokees were a "domestic dependent nation" entitled to federal protection from mistreatment by Georgia.
Whigs: The National Republican party altered its name to the Whig party during Jackson’s second term. They were united by their opposition of Jackson’s policies, committed to Clay’s American System and believed in active intervention by the government to change society. They became a national party with appeal by 1836.
Maysville Road veto: President Jackson vetoed a bill to grant federal aid for a road in Kentucky between Maysville and Lexington in 1830. He believed that internal improvements violated the principle that Congress could appropriate money for objectives only shared by all Americans. It increased Jackson’s popularity in the South.
election of 1832: Jackson, a strong defender of states’ rights and Unionism won the presidency. The National Republicans ran Henry Clay whose platform consisted of his American System. The Anti-Masonic Party ran William Wirt who received 7 electoral votes.
Bank War: Nicholas Biddle operated the Bank of the United States since 1823. Many opposed the Bank because it was big and powerful. Some disputed its constitutionality. Jackson tried to destroy the Bank by vetoing a bill to recharter the Bank. He removed the federal government’s deposits from the Bank and put them into various state and local banks or "pet banks." Biddle tightened up on credit and called in loans, hoping for a retraction by Jackson, which never occurred. A financial recession resulted.
Roger B. Taney: Jackson’s policy was to remove federal deposits form the Bank of US and put them in state banks. Secretary of treasury Roger B. Taney implemented the policy. Critics called the state-bank depositories pet banks because they were chosen for their loyalty to the Democratic party.
Webster-Hayne Debate: Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina made a speech in favor of cheap land in 1830. He used Calhoun’s anti-tariff arguments to support his position and referred to the plausibility of nullification. Webster contended that the Union was indissoluble and sovereign over the individual states.
Peggy Eaton affair: Jackson’s secretary of war, John H. Eaton, married Peggy Eaton in 1829. They were socially disregarded by Calhoun’s wife and Calhoun’s friends in the cabinet. Jackson believed that the Eaton affair was Calhoun’s plot to discredit him and advance Calhoun’s presidential ambitions.
Calhoun resigns: When Jackson favored the higher rates for the Tariff of 1832, Calhoun resigned in the same year. He went back to South Carolina and composed an Ordinance of Nullification which was approved by a special convention, and the customs officials were ordered to stop collecting the duties at Charleston.
Nullification Crisis: Calhoun introduced the idea in his SC Exposition and Protest. States that suffered from the tariff of 1828 had the right to nullify or override the law within their borders. Jackson proclaimed that nullification was unconstitutional and that the Constitution established "a single nation," not a league of states. A final resolution of the question of nullification was postponed until 1861, when South Carolina, accompanied by other southern states, seceded from the Union and started the Civil War.
Clay Compromise: He devised the Compromise Tariff which provided for a gradual lowering of duties between 1833-1842. The Force Bill authorized the president to use arms to collect customs duties in South Carolina. Without the compromise, he believed that the Force Bill would produce a civil war.
Martin Van Buren: The accepted name for a group of Democratic party politicians, their activities were centered in Albany, NY. They took a leading role in national and NY State politics between 1820 and 1850. One of the earliest, competent political machines in the US, prominent members included Van Buren.
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney: The Charles River Bridge Company sued to prevent Mass. from permitting the construction of a new bridge across the Charles River. Taney ruled that no charter given to a private corporation forever vested rights that might hurt the public interest.
panic of 1837: Prices began to fall in May 1837 and bank after bank refused specie payments. The Bank of the United States also failed. The origins of the depression included Jackson’s Specie Circular. Also, Britain controlled the flow of specie from its shores to the US in an attempt to hinder the outflow of British investments in 1836.
Dorr’s Rebellion: As a popular movement emerged in Rhode Island to abolish the limitations set forth by the charter granted by Charles II in 1663, so did much violence and serious disturbances. The protesters sought to do away with the state constitution which restricted suffrage to freeholders led the reform to grant suffrage to non-property owners.
Independent Treasury Plan: Instead of depositing its revenue in state banks, Van Buren persuaded Congress to establish an Independent Treasury in which the federal government would keep the revenue itself and thereby withhold public money from the grasp of business cooperation.
election of 1840: Van Buren was nominated but no vice president was put up. His opponent, William Henry Harrison was ridiculed as "Old Granny" by the Democrats, and was given the most successful campaign slogans in history. "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" Harrison won 80% of the electoral vote but died a moth later.
rise of the second party system: Because of the gradual hardening of the line between the two parties, interests in politic erupted among the people. New things such as rousing campaign techniques, strong contrasts, and simple choices began to appeal to the ordinary people.
Tariff of 1842: In August of 1842, due to the need of revenue to run the government, Tyler signed a bill which maintained some tariffs above 20%, but abandoned distribution to the states. This satisfied northern manufacturers, but by abandoning distribution, it infuriated many southerners and westerners
Jeffersonian Democracy
Jefersonian Democracy refers to the term of office of Thomas Jefferson which marks the end of Federalist control of American politics. A milder agrarian aristocracy replaced a commercial aristocracy, thereby setting an example of democratic simplicity. Jeffersonian placed more emphasis in the common man and brought moreidealism into the government.
Election of 1800: Jefferson and fellow Republican Aaron Burr, who ran for Vice-presidency in the same year, received an equal number of electoral votes, thus creating a tie and throwing the presidential election into the House of Representatives, in agreement to Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution. With Hamilton’s coercion, Jefferson was elected as president, with Burr as Vice-president. (The Constitution was amended to require separate votes for each position.)
Revolution of 1800: Described by Jefferson in the his election of 1800, in which he sought to restore the country to the liberty and tranquillity it had known before Alexander Hamilton’s economic program and John Adams’s Alien and Sedition Acts. The national debt, most internal taxes, and the navy, where some of the problems needed to be fixed.
Jeffersonian Demogracy: Jefferson’s administration severely cut naval and military operations. 70 percent of the national revenue was applied to reducing the national debt as well. Most importantly, Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory from the French, though a Constitutional violation. Gallatin was the genius behind the public debt cut and creating a large surplus of funds. He opposed war, seeing it as detrimental to the national economy.
Midnight judges: Federalists dominated the government, but with the election of 1800, Jefferson drove them out, resulting in Adams’s last day in office (December 12, 1800). On this date he appointed last-minute judges to keep the judiciary in the Federalists hands, by using the Judiciary Act of 1801.
Justice Samuel Chase: Associate justice of the Supreme Court and signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1791 by Washington, and was impeached for his criticism of President Jefferson. Chase was defended strongly, and was later acquitted by the Senate.
Tripolitan War: (1802-5) War between the United States and the North African state of Tripoli, to which the US had been paying tribute, since 1784, for shipping access. The US refused to pay in 1801, which resulted in US ships being captured, but the US captured the town of Derna, led by Lieut. Stephen Decatur in 1805, to end the war.
Treaty of San Ildefonso: Treaty on October 1, 1800, in which Spain ceded the Louisiana territory to France, which was becoming a foremost military power. Threat of French expansion was the result of Jefferson’s goal to obtain the territory, not for expansionism, but the opportunities of trade by New Orleans as a sea port.
Louisiana Purchase: When France obtained the territory from Spain, Jefferson’s goal to purchase the territory was the great port of New Orleans, land West of the Mississippi, as well as the threat of French invasion. Jefferson obtained the territory for $15 million, and was ratified as a treaty by the Senate, though purchasing the territory was Constitutionally illegal and going beyond his presidential rights. From this territory became 14 new state governments.
Toussaint L’Ouverture: Haitian general on the island of Santo-Domingo, who succeeded in liberating the island from France in 1801, and becoming president for life of the country. 1802, Napoleon sent troops to crush the Haitians, and Toussaint was defeated, and accused of conspiracy; where he was imprisoned and died in France.
Louisiana Purchase: Most Federalists opposed the Louisiana Purchase on the grounds that it would decrease the relative importance of their strongholds on the eastern seaboard. Jefferson, a Republican, saw no reason to hand the Federalists an issue by dallying over ratification of the treaty made to obtain the territory.
Hamilton-Burr duel: Election of 1800 Between Jefferson and Burr, had turned to the House of Representatives for the decision of the next president Burr’s election in 1804, for the governor of NY State, where Hamilton opposed him, again. Dueled Hamilton on July 11, 1804, where Hamilton was killed.
Burr treason trial: Burr purchased land in the newly acquired Louisiana territory, and intended to invade the Spanish territory and establish a separate republic in the Southwest, or seize land in Spanish America. He was arrested and indicted for treason, and was acquitted on Sept. 1, 1807, after a six-month trial in Richmond, Virginia.
Lewis and Clark: They explored the vast territory west of the Mississippi River by the US, when they where commissioned by Jefferson. They cataloged plants and animals, and established relations with Indian inhabitants. They reached the Rockies, over the Continental Divide, and reached the Pacific in November 1805.
Berlin Decree, 1806: Was created in response to the Orders in Council by the British, in which the French proclaimed a blockade of the British isles, and any ship attempting to enter or leave a British port would be seized by France. The Decree was answered with another Orders in Council, in which all ships must come to England for licenses of trade.
Milan Decree, 1807: Napoleon replied to the continuous British opposition, with the Milan Decree, which was to tighten his so-called Continental System. The decree proclaimed that any vessel that submitted to British regulations or allowed itself to be searched by the Royal Navy, was subject to seizure by France.
Orders in Council: In May 1806, the British followed the Essex decision with the first of several trade regulations, known as the Orders in Council, which established a blockade of part of the continent of Europe and prohibited trade with France, unless American vessels went to British ports for licenses for trade.
impressment: Arbitrary seizure of goods or individuals by a government or its agents for public services. Used by British to regain deserters from the Royal Navy to American vessels during 1790 to 1812. This was one of the reasons for the War of 1812, when British vessels boarded and obtained their crew from the high paying American ships.
Chesapeake-Leopard affair: In 1807 the US Chesapeake was stopped in the mid-Atlantic by the British Leopard. The British demanded the return and surrender of four deserters from the royal navy, in which the Chesapeake’s commanding officer, James Barron, refused, resulting in British attack. Barron relented and the men were seized.
Embargo of 1807: This law was passed in December 1807 over Federalist opposition, and prohibited United States vessels from trading with European nations during the Napoleonic War. The Embargo Act was in response to the restrictive measure imposed on American neutrality by France and Britain, who where at war with each other. To pressure the nations to respect the neutral rights of the US and to demonstrate the value of trade with the US, Jefferson imposed the embargo instead of open warfare.
Non-Intercourse Act: The Non-Intercourse Act of March 1, 1809, repealed the Embargo Act, and reactivated American commerce with all countries except the warring French and the British. The US also agreed to resume trade with the first nation of the two, who would cease violating neutral rights, pressuring the needs for American goods.
Macon’s Bill No. 2: Nathaniel Macon created the Macon’s Bill No. 2, in May 1810, which was designed to discourage the British and the French from interfering with US commerce, by bribing either the England or France in repealing their restrictions on neutral shipping; who ever obliged, the US would halt all commerce with the other nation.
Tecumseh: A Shawnee leader, who fought against the United States expansion into the Midwest. He opposed any surrender of Native American land to whites, and tried with his brother, Tenskwatawa the "Prophet," in uniting the tribes from American customs, especially liquor. He was defeated at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.
Nationalism
The nationalistic movement was one which brought the nation together. The economy of the nation was a large force in the merging of the nation, and the government took considerable actions to piece it together.
Economic Independence after War of 1812: The War of 1812 was in part responsible for creating a great sense of national purpose and awareness. There was a large dependency on trade, evident to merchants when the Embargo of 1807 and the War of 1812 suspended trade to Europe. This was an economic blow that had repercussions.
Second Bank of the US: Andrew Jackson vetoed the recharter bill of the Second Bank of the United States on July 10, 1832, which was a blow against monopoly, aristocratic parasites, and foreign domination, as well as great victory for labor. Instead, Jackson created pet banks and destabilized the national currency and aid.
Tariff of 1816 (protective): This was a protective tariff that was principally intended to hold the production of textiles and goods. This tariff was made in order to defend the industries that were established during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, promoting new industries. A revision was made in 1824 to clear problems that aroused.
Bonus Bill Veto: In 1817, the development of America was creating a need for a well made transportation facilities to link the outlying agricultural regions with the trade eaters in the Eastern sea ports. This was Madison’s last act, which he vetoed the bill on constitutional ground.
Rush-Bagot Treaty: Rush-Bagot was an agreement between the US and Great Britain concerning the Canadian border in 1817. The decision was that there would be a disarmament of the US-Canadian frontier, and that there would be a precedent for the amicable settlement of peace between the US and Canada.
Convention of 1818: Signed at London, by Richard Rush, Great Britain’s Prime minister, and the French prime minister, Albert Gallatin. This treaty fixed the 49th parallel to divide the US and Canadian boundary, and also established fishing privileges for the United States off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland.
Panic of 1819: Occurred when the Second Bank of the United States tightened its loan policy, triggering a depression, that caused distress throughout the country, especially western farmers. Even more so, British exports unloaded textiles, causing a great depression for farmers.
Reform: Social & Intellectual
European Romanticism branched into American mainstream society. The basic goals emphasised were to transced the bounds of intellect and to strive for emotional understranding. It agreed on the scaredness, uniqueness, and the authority of the individual apprehension experience.
Transcendentalists: Transcendalists included many brilliant philosophers, writers, poets lecturers and essayists. These included such intellectuals as Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. They believed in emphasis of the spontaneous and vivid expression of personal feeling over learned analysis.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Serving briefly as a Unitarian minister, he was a popular essayist and lecturer. The topics of his essays were broad and general. He wrote on subjects such as "Beauty," "Nature," and "Power." He was a Transcendalist who believed that knowledge reflected the voice of God, and that truth was inborn and universal.
Henry David Thoreau, On Civil Disobedience: He was considered to be a "doer." He wrote OCD to defend the right to disobey unjust laws. He was also a Transcendalist who believed that one could satisfy their material purposes with only a few weeks work each year and have more time to ponder life’s purpose.
Orestes Brownson: A member of the Transcendentalist movement, Brownson was a flexible theologian and writer. He was particularly active with the founding of the Workingman’s and Loco-Focos parties in New York. These Locos-Focos called for free public education, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, and a ten-hour workday.
Margaret Fuller, The Dial: A feminist, critic, philosopher, and journalist, she edited The Dial, which was a Transcendalist journal with Ralph Waldo Emerson and George Ripley. After writing Summer on the Lakes, she was offered a job and wrote significant literature as a critic of the Tribune from 1844 to 1846.
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, The Spy, The Pioneers: He wrote historical novels under Sir Walter Scott’s influence. To fiction, he introduced characters like frontiersmen, and developed a distinctly American theme with conflict of between the customs of primitive life on the frontier and the advance of civilization.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick: Drawing ideas and theme from his own experiences in life, Melville wrote with much pessimism. His book, which contains much pessimism, focuses on the human mind instead of the social relationships. He, along with Poe and Hawthorne, were concerned with analyzing the mental states of their characters.
Nathanial Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter: Hawthorne turned to his Puritan past in order to examine the psychological and moral effects of the adultery. He, along with Poe and Melville, wrote with concern for the human mind because of their pessimism about the human condition.
Edgar Allen Poe: Poe, with Melville and Hawthorne saw man as a group of conflicting forces that might not ever be balanced. He changed literature by freeing it from its determination to preach a moral and established the idea that literature should be judged by the positive effect they had on the reader.
Washington Irving: Residing in New York and serving in the war of 1812, he left the US and lived in Europe until 1832. He wrote Sketch Book, which contained "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," and "Rip Van Winkle," which continued to give the him the support of Americans who were proud of their best known writer.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Coming from New England, the area from which literature was most prominent, Longfellow, a poet, wrote Evalgeline which was widely read by schoolchildren in America. His poems of Evalgeline and Hiawatha preached of the value of tradition and the impact of the past on the present.
Walt Whitman: By writing Leaves of Grass, Whitman broke the conventions of rhyme and meter to bring new vitality to poetry. Not only did he write in free verse. but his poems took on a different style, being energetic and candid at a time when humility were accepted in the literary world.
Sectionalism and Slavery
In the early 1800s, slavery was becoming an increasingly sectional issue, meaning that it was increasingly dividing the nation along regional lines. Northerners were becoming more opposed to slavery, whether for moral or economic reasons, and Southerners were becoming more united in their defense of slavery as an institution.
sectionalism: Sectionalism is loyalty or support of a particular region or section of the nation, rather than the United States as a whole. Slavery was particularly sectional issue, dividing the country into North and South to the extent that it led to the Civil War; for the most part, southerners supported slavery and northerners opposed it.
"necessary evil": In the South, slavery was considered necessary in order to maintain the agricultural economy of the entire region. Before George Fitzhugh in 1854, southerners did not assert that slavery was a boon to society; they merely protested that it could not be eliminated without destroying the South.
Slave Power: The term Slave Power refers to the belief that pro-slavery southerners were united an attempt to spread slavery throughout the United States. Most Northerners were suspicious of the influence of southern slaveholders in Congress, especially because of the Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
"King Cotton": In the 1800s, cotton became the principal cash crop in the South. The British textile industry created a huge demand for cotton, and the invention of the cotton gin made it practical to grow cotton throughout the South. It was so profitable that the vast majority of southern farms and plantations grew cotton, and the "Cotton Kingdom" spread west into Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. Essentially, the entire Southern economy became dependent on the success of cotton as a crop.
George Fitzhugh, Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society: In 1854, Fitzhugh wrote Sociology for the South, defending slavery. He argued that slavery benefited the slave by providing him with food and shelter, and that free laborers in the North were not treated any better than slaves. This was the first description of slavery as a "positive the farmer groups good."
positive good: In the South, George Fizhugh established the philosophy that slavery was "positive good." It was believed that slavery benefited slaves by providing them with food, shelter, and often Christian religion. Also, Fitzhugh argued that free laborers in northern factories were not treated any better than slaves.
Hinton Helper, The Impending Crisis of the South: In 1857, Helper wrote The Impending Crisis of the South in an attempt to persuade non-slaveholders that slavery harmed the Southern economy, using the poor whites of the pine-barrens as an illustration of how the institution of slavery degrades non-slaveowning southerners.
mountain whites in the South, pine barrens: The poorest class of whites in the Lower South tended to cluster in the mountains and pine-barrens, where they survived by grazing hogs and cattle on land that the usually didn’t own. They were considered lazy and shiftless, and were often cited by northerners as proof that slavery degraded non-slaveholding whites.
West Florida, 1810: Annexed when southern expansionists went into the Spanish Dominion, captured the fort at Baton Rouge, and proclaimed on September 26, the independent State of republic of West Florida. It was adopted as a resolution on January 15, 1811 and authorized as an extenuation of US rule over East Florida.
Purchase of Florida: Spain surrendered Florida to the United States in 1819 by the Adams-Onis Treaty, with a sum of five million dollars. This however began a rebellion by the Indians, starting the Seminole War (1835-42), and becoming another reason for Indian hatred of the white man.
Adams-Onis Treaty: It was the treaty in 1819 that purchased eastern Florida to establish the boundary between Mexico and the Louisiana territory. It provided for the cession of Florida to the United States in return for American settlement of claims of her citzens against Spain.
Quadruple Alliance: Formed in 1815, the Quadruple Alliance consisted of England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and it regulated European politics after the fall of Napoleon. The Holy Alliance was an organization of European states that advanced the principles of the Christian faith.
George Canning: The British foreign minister, he supported nationalist movements throughout Latin America and dissuaded foreign intervention in American affairs. He proposed that the US and Britain issue a joint statement opposing European interference in South America and guaranteed that neither would annex Spain’s old empire.
Monroe Doctrine: origins, provisions, impact: President Monroe’s message to Congress on Dec. 2, 1823, it consisted of 3 principles: U.S. policy was to abstain from European wars unless U.S. interests were involved, European powers could not colonize the American continents and shouldn’t attempt to colonize newly independent Spanish American republics. Ridiculed in Europe, it was used to justify U.S. expansion by presidents John Tyler and James Polk. In 1904, the Roosevelt Corollary was introduced.
Era of good feelings: This phrase exemplifies both of Monroe’s presidencies, from 1816-1824. The War of 1812 eliminated some divisive issues, and Republicans embraced the Federalist’s issues. Monroe made an effort to avoid political controversies, but soon sectionalism divided the nation.
Chief Justice John Marshall decisions: Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) The question was whether New Hampshire could change a private corporation, Dartmouth College into a state university. It was unconstitutional to change it. After a state charters a college or business, it can no longer alter the charter nor regulate the beneficiary.
Tallmadge Amendment: The Tallmadge Amendment (1819) restricted further importation of slaves into Missouri and freed slave descendants born after Missouri’s admission as a state, at age 25. It passed in the House but not the Senate due to sectionalism.
Missouri Compromise: Congress admitted Maine as a free state in 1820 so that Missouri would become a slave state and prohibited slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase territory north of 36 30, the southern boundary of Missouri. Henry Clay proposed the second Missouri Compromise in 1821, which forbade discrimination against citizens from other states in Missouri but did not resolve whether free blacks were citizens. Congress had a right to prohibit slavery in some territories.
Clay’s American System: In his tariff speech to Congress on March 30- 31, 1824, Clay proposed a protective tariff in support of home manufactures, internal improvements such as federal aid to local road and canal projects, a strong national bank, and distribution of the profits of federal land sales to the states.
Daniel Webster: Supporting the tariff of 1828, he was a protector of northern industrial interests. In the debate over the renewal of the charter of the US Bank, Webster advocated renewal and opposed the financial policy of Jackson. Many of the principles of finance he spoke about were later incorporated in the Federal Reserve System.
federal land policy: The federal land law passed in 1796 established a minimum purchase of 640 acres at a minimum price of $2 an acre and a year for full payment. In the federal land law passed in 1804, the minimum purchase was decreased to 160 acres. In 1820, the minimum purchase was reduced to 80 acres. In 1820, it was reduced to $1.25.
John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State: Fla: With Monroe’s support, Adams forced Spain to cede Florida and make an agreeable settlement of the Louisiana boundary, in the Transcontinental (Adams-Onis) Treaty, drafted in 1819. Spain consented to a southern border of the US that ran from the Miss. River to the Rocky Mountains.
Election of 1824: popular vote, electoral vote, House vote: Jackson, Adams, Crawford, Clay: All five candidates, including Calhoun were Republicans, showing that the Republican party was splintering, due to rival sectional components. Calhoun withdrew and ran for the vice presidency. Jackson won more popular and electoral votes than the other candidates but didn’t manage to gain the majority needed Because Clay supported Adams, Adams became president.
"corrupt bargain": After Adams won the presidency, he appointed Clay as secretary of state. Jackson’s supporters called the action a "corrupt bargain" because they thought that Jackson was cheated of the presidency. Although there is no evidence to link Clay’s support to his appointment of the secretary of state, the allegation was widely believed.
Panama Conference: President Adams angered southerners by proposing to send American delegates to a conference of newly independent Latin American nations in Panama in 1826. Southerners worried that U.S. participation would insinuate recognition of Haiti, which gained independence through a slave revolution.
Tariff of Abominations: Named by southerners, this bill favored western agricultural interests by raising tariffs or import taxes on imported hemp, wool, fur, flax, and liquor in 1828. New England manufacturing interests were favored because it raised the tariff on imported textiles. In the South, these tariffs raised the cost of manufactured goods.
Vice-President Calhoun: South Carolina Exposition and Protest, nullification: He anonymously wrote the widely read South Carolina Exposition and Protest, in which he made his argument that the tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional. Adversely affected states had the right to nullify, or override, the law, within their borders. He acknowledged that he wrote the SC Exposition and Protest in 1831. In 1832, he convinced the South Carolina legislature to nullify the federal tariff acts of 1828 and 1832.
internal improvements: President Adams proposed a program of federal support for internal improvements in Dec. 1825; strict Jeffersonians claimed it to be unconstitutional. The South had few plans to build canals and roads. Jackson, with a political base in the South, felt that federal support meant a possibly corrupt giveaway program for the North.
War of 1812
The war of 1812 was one which the Americans were not prepared to fight. The young congressman known as War Hawks pushed Madison into a struggle for which the country was not prepared and which ended without victory.
War Hawks: A group of militants in Madison’s Democratic-Republican party, who wanted more aggressive policies toward the hostile British and French. Thus creating a war spirit by several young congressman elected in 1810. This group in the House of Representatives, led by Henry Clay preferred war to the "ignominious peace."
War against Great Britain: For the most part, the Napoleon Wars were played out in Europe, and the French accepted the United States merchant marine neutrality by the Berlin and Milan Decrees. Hatred of the British persisted, with the constant violations of neutrality on the seas and in the Great Lakes.
Federalist Opposition to the War of 1812: The Federalist party were deeply opposed to the war, for their lack of support for commercial and diplomatic policies of Jefferson and Madison. Even more so, was their opposition to Jefferson and Madison’s trade programs of neutrality and trade, for example the Non-intercourse act.
Naval Battles in the War of 1812: The beginning of the War of 1812, encounters were with single-ship battles. The frigate Constitution defeated the Guerriere in August 1812, and in the same year, the Untied States seized the British frigate Macedonian. However, the Chesapeake lost to the Shannon, continuing British blockade.
Results of the War of 1812: After the treaty of Ghent, the British wanted neutral Indian buffer states in the American Northwest and wanted to revise both the American-Canadian boundary. The Treaty of Ghent secured US maritime rights and peace around Europe and the Americas. Rising Indian opposition to American expansion in the Northwest and Southwest was broken, and there was an increased sense of national purpose and awareness.
Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key: During the War of 1812 on September 13-14, Fort McHenry withstood a 25-hour bombardment by the British Vice-Admiral Alexander Cochane and his fleet, which prompted the famous "Star-spangled Banner," by Francis Scott Key when he saw the flag still standing.
Jackson’s victory at New Orleans: Jackson, during the War of 1812, captured New Orleans with a small army against the British army, which was composed mainly of veterans. This victory on January 8, 1815 occurred after the peace treaty that ended the war.
Essex Junto: The Essex Junto was a name given to the extreme nationalist wing, led by Timothy Pickering, Senator George Cabot, Theophilus Parsons, and several of the Lowell family of merchants and industrialists in New England. It opposed the Embargo act and the War of 1812.
Hartford Convention: The Hartford Convention of 1814 damaged the Federalists with its resolutions to the idea o secession, leaving an idea of disloyalty to use against them. The convention on December 14, 1814 was to oppose the war, which was hurting American industries and commerce. The recommendation of the convention was to have an amendment to the Constitution that would grant taxation and representation in each state, and prohibit congress from the embargo.
Henry Clay, Gallatin, and treaty negotiations: Adams drafted the Monroe Doctrine and arranged for the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812. Gallatin also was a part in the negotiations of the Treaty of Ghent, as well as Clay, with hope of ending the war of 1812.
Treaty of Ghent: This was an agreement between the United States and Great Britain, in Belgium, on December 24, 1814. This treaty ended the War of 1812, and provided that all territory captured would be returned to the rightful owner. Great controversy occurred over fishing rights and the Northwest Boundary, between England and America.
Below are the US History topics covered in this unit:
Expansion and Slavery
The expansion of slavery into new territories and onto the western frontier became a major issue after the Mexican-American War. Southerners fought to assert their rights while many Northerners wished to prevent the expansion of slave labor into new states.
panic of 1857: The causes of the panic were overspeculation in railroads and lands, false banking practices, and a break in the flow of European capital to American investments as a result of the Crimean War. The South’s less industrial economy suffered less than the North, who viewed this as a proof of superiority in both Southern economy and slavery.
Wilmot Proviso: David Wilmot, a Congressman from Pennsylvania, proposed that slavery be banned in land acquired from the Mexican War. The proviso was given to Congress in August 1846. It never passed the Senate, but passed the House. It was taken out of the War Appropriations bill in order for Senate to pass the actual bill.
Barnburners: The Barnburners were a part of the Democratic party in New York. They left in 1848 to form the Free Soil Party but rejoined after the election of 1848. They believed slavery should not be extended into the newly acquired U.S. territory and were pro-Wilmot Proviso. Their party slogan was "Free Trade, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men."
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: This was the peace treaty between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican War. Through the treaty, Mexico gave Texas with Rio Grande boundary, California , and New Mexico to the United States. The U.S. assumed all claims of the American people against the Mexican government and also paid Mexico 15 million dollars. The treaty was signed on February 2, 1848. In the end, the treaty worked to expand the U.S. territory to include parts of Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada.
Free Soil Party: The Free Soil Party created by the Barnburners, Conscience Whigs, and the former Liberty party members in the election of 1844. They nominated Martin Van Buren on a platform of opposition to any kind of slavery. Although they were unable to carry any state, they had enough influence in North to convey their point.
California applies for admission as a state: Because the population grew during the gold rush and they were in need of a better government, California decided to petition to become a state in September of 1849. There was controversy on the issue of it being a free or slave state, but through the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted as a free state.
Compromise of 1850: The Compromise of 1850 was an eight part compromise devised by Henry Clay in order to settle the land disputes between the North and South. As part of the compromise, California was admitted a free state, while a stricter Fugitive Slave Law was enforced. Slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, while slavery itself was not abolished and sectional peace returned to the northern and southern states for a few years. The issue of slavery eventually did lead to future conflicts, though.
Omnibus bill: The omnibus bill is a term used to describe a bill that has many unrelated and separate topics within it. The bill most commonly known for being omnibus is the Compromise of 1850. Henry Clay introduced the bill as a whole, but it was later pushed through Congress as separate measures. Today, most states do nor allow omnibus bills.
Henry Clay: Henry Clay was an influential American politician who earned the title of "The Great Pacificator" with his development of three compromises. He ran, unsuccessfully, for president six times and devised the "American System" that favored a protective tariff and federal support of internal improvements.
Webster’s 7th of March speech: Webster’s speech was an eloquent one presented in favor of the Compromise of 1850. Webster argued that years of tension built up from the North’s growing power would be relieved by the compromise and that the North would make the South its equal, thus saving the Union. Despite his efforts, the speech made few converts.
John C. Calhoun: Calhoun is most known for the "nullification crisis" in 1828 between he and president Jackson over the tariff of 1828 (tariff of abominations). He supported the Compromise of 1850 on the basis of the theory of nullification. He was a senator during the debates over the compromise. Calhoun was also a war hawk.
Fugitive Slave Law: Unlike the previous 1793 slave law, the 1850 slave law was more strictly enforced. The results of the law were that the North became a hunting ground for slaves and slaves were denied a trial by jury and other protections they were entitled to. The anger of the slaves led to riots and other acts of violence.
Personal Liberty Laws: Discontent with the injustice of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, northern states passed "personal liberty laws" in order to strengthen the use of the habeas corpus writs and prohibit state officials from accepting jurisdiction under federal law. The laws included the prohibition of the use of state jails to confine alleged fugitives. Southern states objected to the laws because they violated sectional equity and reciprocal trust. Northern resistance demonstrated that the slavery issue could not be ignored.
Gadsden Purchase: The Gadsden Purchase was the 1853 treaty in which the United States bought from Mexico parts of what is now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico. Southerners wanted this land in order to build southern transcontinental railroad. The heated debate over this issue in the Senate demonstrates the prevalence of sectional disagreement.
Perry and Japan: Commodore Perry opened relations with Japan, a country closed to the rest of the world for 2 centuries, in 1853. The treaty he forged protected the rights of sailors shipwrecked in Japanese territory from inhumane treatment, permitted American ships to buy coal in Japan, opened Japanese ports of to U.S. commerce, and ended Japan’s isolation.
Anthony Burns: Burns was an American slave who escaped in 1834. He was arrested on charges of theft and violation of the Fugitive Slave Law. During the trial, a mob of Boston abolitionists stormed into the courthouse to attempt, unsuccessfully, to rescue Burns. President Pierce sent him back to his master, but Burns was resold to friends who freed him.
Ableman v. Booth: Booth was arrested for aiding the escape of a fugitive slave in 1859. The Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a writ of habeas corpus to release him, but habeas corpus was not valid as a result of Chief Justice Taney’s decision that a court or judge has certain limits of power. In turn, the battle for federal supremacy commenced.
Prigg v. Pa., 1842: This case resulted when Pennsylvania attempted to ban the capture and return of runaway slaves within its territory, a challenge to the fugitive slave law of 1793. Because article IV, section 2 of the Constitution deems the return of fugitive slaves a federal power, the state law was declared unconstitutional.
Ostend Manifesto: American ambassadors to Great Britain, France, and Spain met in Ostend, Belgium in 1854 to issue an unofficial document that gave the United States permission to attain Cuba by any necessary means, even force, and include the island in the Union. President Pierce, however, rejected the manifesto.
Stephen A. Douglas: American politician known for his debates with Abraham Lincoln prior to the election of 1860. Douglas was an advocate of the annexation of Mexico, who aroused the question of slavery in territories with the development of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. He was also a strong supporter of the Compromise of 1850.
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854: The Kansas-Nebraska Act ended the peace established between the North and South by the Compromise of 1850. It was proposed by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and repealed the Missouri Compromise. The act enforced popular sovereignty upon the new territories but was opposed by Northern Democrats and Whigs. It was passed, however, because President Pierce supported it. The purpose of the bill was to facilitate the building of the transcontinental railroad on a central route.
popular sovereignty: this compromise solution was first proposed during the time of the Wilmot Proviso: the residents of each territory had the option of determining whether it would be a free or slave state; a part of the Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.Stephen Douglas a strong advocator.
36° 30’ line: The 36° 30’ line was established by the Missouri Compromise and drew on parts of California and New Mexico. The Wilmot Proviso sought to extend the boundary line westward, blocking slavery and territory north of that line. Polk supported the idea of expansion to end the discussion of whether the new territory acquired was slave or free.
"Bleeding Kansas" and Lawrence: Topeka and Lecompton were the two rival governments of Kansas. Each claimed to be the lawful one, thus armed themselves and commenced guerilla warfare. In 1856, Missouri "border ruffians," those who supported slavery, sacked the town of Lawrence. John Brown, an abolitionist, also led a retaliation two days later .
"Beecher’s Bibles": Because the abolitionist government in Kansas was organized in 1856, a pro-slavery posse armed with guns mobbed through the town. Ridiculing the free staters, they dubbed their guns "Beecher’s Bibles," following the advice of an antislavery minister that rifles would do no more than Bibles to enforce morality in Kansas.
Pottawatomie Massacre: John Brown led a small group of abolitionists into a pro-slavery settlement in 1856 to kill unarmed men and boys at Pottawatomie Creek in retaliation to the border ruffians’ invasion and sacking of the abolitionists’ town of Lawrence. The retaliation was preceded by a pro-slavery posse’s armed raid through Kansas.
Lecompton Constitution: This constitution was devised by the anti-slavery delegates of Congress in 1857 to protect the rights of the slaveholders in Kansas and advocate popular sovereignty. Buchanan disapproved of it, but supported it so that Kansas could be admitted as a state.
New England Emigrant Aid Company: Aiming to prevent the expansion of slavery into Kansas, Northerners sent antislavery settlers into this area in 1854, but their attempt was unsuccessful. Settlers from New England arrived slowly, though the majority of settlers originated from Missouri and the Midwest. Settlers were mixed in their views on slavery.
Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 during Illinois senatorial campaign: The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of seven, where Douglas argued on the basis of his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution and depicted Lincoln as a radical abolitionist. Lincoln condemned Douglas for not taking a moral stand against slavery.
Lincoln’s "house divided" speech: The "house divided" speech was a speech presented before the Republican party’s state convention in 1858 in Springfield, Illinois. It warned the people that a "house divided against itself cannot stand," referring to the slavery issue. Lincoln predicted in his speech that there would mean eventual freedom for the slaves.
Freeport Doctrine: Stephen A. Douglas’ "Freeport Doctrine" stated that exclusion of slavery in a territory could be determined by the refusal of the voters to enact any laws that would protect slave property. In 1858, southerners rejected the doctrine because it did not insure the rights of slaves, a reaction that hurt him in the election.
Grantism and Postwar Politics
Ulysses S. Grant was elected president of the United States in 1868 because he was a war hero, but his cabinet was riddled with corruption. Grant did manage to make some important accomplishments in the area of foreign policy, but his ability to cope with domestic controversy, especially the economic issues which began to arise, created chaos in national politics.
Ulysses S. Grant: Grant was an American general and the 18th president of the United States. A war hero, Grant was admired throughout the North and was endorsed by Union veterans. Although he was a strong military leader, Grant proved to be a passive president with little skill at politics.
purchase of Alaska: Alaska was ceded to the United States by the Russian Czar Alexander II in a treaty signed on March 30, 1867. Secretary of State William Henry Seward arranged the $7.2 million purchase at 1.9¢ per acre. Critics ridiculed this purchase as "Seward’s icebox," but it expanded American territory at a reasonable price.
Secretary of State William Seward: Seward was the American Secretary of State who handled diplomatic issues during and after the Civil War. He was involved in the Trent Affair and his most notable act was the purchase of Alaska. This purchase was denounced at the time as "Seward’s folly, but it added a significant amount of territory to the United States.
Napoleon III: After his election in 1848, Napoleon III proclaimed himself the Emperor of France, instituted reforms, and rebuilt Paris. His successful imperialist ventures were overshadowed by a failed campaign in Mexico to create a French-Mexican Empire and the Franco-Prussian War, which resulted in his deposition.
Maximilian in Mexico: Maximilian was instructed by Napoleon III in 1864 to establish a French empire in Mexico, but the Mexicans were hostile to Maximilian and loyal to President Juárez. The United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine as justification for their demand for French nonintervention. Although the French drove Juárez’s army from the capital, Maximilian’s empire disintegrated when French troops withdrew.
Treaty of Washington, 1871: The Treaty of Washington was a treaty arranged by Hamilton Fish. In it, the U.S. and Great Britain settled many minor disputes such as the Alabama claims, which had arisen during the U.S. Civil War. The treaty also provided for arbitration of disagreements over the Canadian-American boundary and fishing rights.
Secretary of State Hamilton Fish: Fish served as Grant’s secretary of state. He arranged the Treaty of Washington, which settled disputes with Britain over the Alabama claims the and Canadian-American boundary. Also, he prevented American filibustering expeditions against Cuba from escalating into war with Spain.
"Whiskey Ring": Grant’s private secretary, Orville Babcock, was unmasked in 1875 after taking money from the "whiskey ring," a group of distillers who bribed federal agents to avoid paying millions in whiskey taxes. On May 10, 1875, 16 distillers in areas of Saint Louis, Milwaukee, and Chicago were captured.
Black Friday: Scandal caused a short-lived financial crisis in the United States that occurred on Friday, September 24, 1869. The panic was precipitated when two financial speculators, James Fisk and Jay Gould, attempted to corner the U.S. gold market. Fisk and Gould probably made a profit of about $11 million through their manipulations.
"Salary Grab Act": In the Salary Grab Act of 1873, Congress voted a 100% pay raise and a 50% increase for itself. Both raises were made retroactive two years back. The public was shocked, leading to a Democratic victory in the next congressional election. The act was later repealed, but it was another example of the corruption of the postwar government.
Credit Mobilier: Officials of the Union Pacific Railroad created a fake construction company, called the Credit Mobilier, in order to cheat the government out of money allotted to the construction of the Union Pacific Railroads. Grant’s vice-president, Colfax, was linked to this scandal.
Sanborn Grab Fraud: In the Sanborn Grab Fraud, a politician named Sanborn was given a contract collect $427,000 in unpaid taxes, receiving a 50% commission for all money collected. He then used this commission as Republican campaign funds, allowing the candidate to focus on his campaign rather than fundraising.
Bribing of Belknap: William E. Belknap was Grant’s secretary of war. He took a bribe to sell lucrative Indian trading posts in Oklahoma. Belknap resigned in 1876 when voters learned of his corruption. Although Grant was not personally involved, he loyally defended his subordinates.
Liberal Republicans: The Liberals Republicans’ revolt marked a turning point in Reconstruction history. They split the Republican party, supporting the Republican southern policy while attacking regular republicans on several key issues and denouncing Grantism and the spoils system.
election of 1872: In 1872, Republicans unhappy with the reelection of President Ulysses S. Grant formed the Liberal Republican party and nominated as their candidate the journalist Horace Greeley. Although he was also endorsed by the Democrats, Greeley was defeated, and the new party collapsed.
Panic of 1873, depression: Transforming the northern economy, the Panic of 1873 triggered a five-year depression. Banks closed, farm prices plummeted, steel furnaces stood idle, and one out of four railroads failed. However, once the depression began, demand rose. This issue divided both major parties and was compounded by the repayment of federal debt.
"Waving the bloody shirt": During the election of 1876, the Republicans backed Rutherford Hayes against the Democratic candidate, Samuel Tilden. They resorted to a tactic known as "waving the bloody shirt," which was used in the last two elections. The tactic emphasized wartime animosities by urging northern voters to vote the way they shot.
Greenbacks, Ohio Ideas: During the Civil War the Union had borrowed money through the sale of war bonds, known as Greenbacks, to private citizens. Senator John Sherman of Ohio and other Republican leaders obtained passage of the Public Credit Act of 1869, which promised to pay the war debt in "coin." Debtors favored the Greenbacks because they could repay debts easier with this inflated currency.
Specie Resumption Act: The Sherman Specie Resumption Act promised to put the nation effectively on the gold standard in 1879. With some convincing, it changed the minds of the Republican voters who also wanted to continue Greenbacks for the sake of "easy money." Grant signed this act. Unfortunately, robber barrons schemed to corner the gold market.
Greenback-Labor Party: The Greenback party was formed in 1876 with James Weaver as its presidential candidate. The party adopted the debtors’ cause, fought to keep greenbacks in circulation, and promoted the inflation of farm prices. The party elected 14 members to Congress . As prosperity returned, the Greenbacks faded.
election of 1876: The presidential election of 1876 resulted in neither Democrat Samuel Tilden nor Republican Rutherford Hayes receiving the 185 electoral votes necessary to become president. There were 20 disputed votes, and a Congressional committee gave all of these to Hays, making him president. In exchange, he ended military rule of the South.
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny is the belief that Americans had the right, or even the duty, to expand westward across the North American continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This would spread the glorious institutions of civilization and democracy to the barbaric Native Americans. In order to accomplish this destiny, Americans did not flinch at atrocities such as provoking war with Mexico or slaughtering Indians.
Great American Desert: The "Great American Desert" was a nickname for the Great Plains. This area, the present -day Midwest, was characterized by its arid climate, a flat topography, and lack of trees. Because of these features, it was considered inhospitable and early settlers chose to cross it on the way to the Willamette Valley of Oregon rather than settling there.
"Manifest Destiny": "Manifest Destiny" was the term used, throughout the 1840s, to describe Americans’ belief that they were destined by God to spread their beliefs across the continent. This sense of duty created a sense of unity among the nation and stimulated westward expansion. The term itself was coined by John O’Sullivan in an 1845 magazine article. The concept justified westward expansion in all its forms and ramifications, including the Mexican War, the persecution of the Indians, and other such ethnocentric acts.
Was it Imperialism?: American annexation of territories such as Oregon are generally not considered imperialistic because these lands were obtained by negotiation between two equal powers and the people there were not opposed to joining the Union. However, lands gained by force, such as the Mexican cession, are considered imperialistic conquests.
Horace Greeley: Greeley was a journalist and political leader. He opposed slavery, but he was not an abolitionist. He was editor of the New Yorker and a Whig associated with Governor Seward of New York. In 1841, he founded the New York Tribune. In 1872, he was the Liberal Republican nominee for president.
Annexation of Texas, Joint Resolution under President Tyler: In 1843, Tyler started a campaign to annex Texas, and in 1844 he succeeded in sending a treaty to Congress for the annexation. This treaty was defeated in the Senate, but later, in early 1845, Congress passed a joint resolution to annex Texas because of the growing popularity of annexation.
Reoccupation of Texas: After Congress voted to annex Texas, the Mexican governmen began war preparations when Texans accepted annexation. In response, Polk sent troops to occupy Texas and the disputed territory south of the Nueces River. Polk believed that the land was part of the Louisiana Purchase, and therefore it belonged to the United States.
Reannexation of Oregon: Prior to 1846, America and Great Britain had jointly occupied the Oregon Country. However, in 1844, Polk began to demand that America obtain the entire territory. In compromise, a treaty was signed in 1846 giving the United States all of Oregon south of the 49th parallel.
Election of 1844: In the election of 1844, the Whigs nominated Henry Clay. The Democrats, however, were divided between Martin Van Buren and Lewis Cass. A deadlock at the Democratic national convention resulted in the nomination of dark-horse candidate James K. Polk. The Liberty party, consisting of a small group of northern antislavery Whigs who were alienated by Clay’s indecisiveness, nominated James G. Birney. Also, large numbers of Irish immigrants turned out to vote for Polk, and he won by a small margin.
JAMES K. POLK: Polk was a slaveowning southerner dedicated to Democratic party. In 1844, he was a "dark horse" candidate for president, and he won the election. Polk favored American expansion, especially advocating the annexation of Texas, California, and Oregon. He was a friend and follower of Andrew Jackson. He opposed Clay’s American System, instead advocating lower tariff, separation the treasury and the federal government from the banking system. He was a nationalist who believed in Manifest Destiny.
54° 40’ or Fight!: In the election of 1844, Polk used "54° 40’ or Fight!" as a campaign slogan, implying that the he would declare war if Britain did not give the United States all the Oregon territory up to its northern boundary, the line 54° 40’ N. latitude. However, in 1846 Polk agreed to negotiate, and the two countries divided Oregon at the 49th parallel.
Slidell Mission to Mexico: Slidell was a negotiator sent to Mexico by James Polk with orders to gain Mexico’s recognition of the independence of Texas and to purchase California and New Mexico. However, he was not received by the Mexican government because the threat of military revolt left the Mexican president to weak to negotiate.
Rio Grande, Nueces River, Disputed Territory: A dispute over the southern boundary of Texas contributed to the Mexican War. Mexico claimed that the Nueces River was boundary of Texas, but Polk insisted that the Rio Grande River was the boundary line. The land between these two rivers was uninhabited, but it was a significant slice of Mexican territory.
Mexican War: The Mexican war lasted from 1846 to 1848. The main cause of the war was American desire for territory, especially Texas and California. The war took place mainly on Mexican soil. Partially because of disorganization and instability in the Mexican government, the war resulted in and American victory. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the war, made the southern boundary of Texas the Rio Grande, gave California and New Mexico to the United States, and gave $15 million to Mexico in compensation.
General Zachary Taylor: Taylor was an American major general who became a war hero during the Mexican War. His troops won important victories in northern Mexico at Matamoros, Monterrey, and Buena Vista, and his resulting popularity helped him win the presidential election in 1848.
Battle of Buena Vista: The battle of Buena Vista was a battle during Mexican War. Five thousand American troops commanded by General Taylor defeated three times as many Mexican troops under Santa Anna. As a result of this battle, Taylor was put in control of all of northern Mexico. This American victory also hastened end of the War.
Stephen Kearney: Kearney was an American colonel in the Mexican War. In 1846, he led an army to Santa Fe and took the New Mexico territory without firing a shot. Kearny then suppressed a rebellion of both Indians and Mexicans, and managed to send a detachment of his army south into Mexico in time to join Taylor in the Battle of Buena Vista.
John C. Fremont: Fremont was an explorer, soldier, and politician known as "the Great Pathfinder." In 1846, he assisted in the annexation of California by capturing insurgents, seizing the city of Sonoma, and declaring the independence of the "Bear Flag Republic." In 1856, Fremont became the first presidential candidate for the Republican party.
Senator Thomas Hart Benton: Senator Benton was an American statesman. He represented Missouri in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. His daughter, Jessie Benton, married adventurer John C. Fremont, and Benton used his influence to have records of Fremont’s explorations published as government documents.
General Winfield Scott: General Scott commanded American troops during the Mexican War, and led those troops victory at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, and Chapultepec. He also led the final defeat of Santa Anna when he captured Mexico City in 1847. He ran for president of United States in 1852.
Nicholas Trist: Trist was the chief clerk of state department and a peace officer. He was sent to Mexico by Polk to negotiate with Mexican president Herrera. They wanted Trist to convince Herrera to lower the price he was asking for California and to give Americans the right of movement over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In 1846, Herrera rejected the offer.
All Mexico Movement: Many Senators in Congress wanted the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to include all of Mexico, because they believed that to have control of all of Mexico would give the United States more power. However, this movement failed because the acquisition of California and her ports satisfied Polk.
Mexican Cession: The Mexican Cession was the land that Mexico ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo in 1848. This territory included California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The addition of so much land to the United States exacerbated conflict over the expansion of slavery because some Northerners feared that the extension of slavery into California and New Mexico would deter free laborers from settling there.
Webster-Ashburton Treaty: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty was a treaty negotiated by Lord Ashburton of Great Britain and Daniel Webster of the United States in 1842. It settled a dispute over the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. The treaty was very popular in the North because the United States got more than half of the disputed territory.
Caroline Affair: The American steamboat, the Caroline, was being used by Canadian rebels when it was attacked by the government of Canada in late 1837 in American waters. In 1842 Daniel Webster asked for an apology from British government. The event heightened tensions between the United States and Britain, but this tension was soon eased.
Aroostook War: The Aroostook War was a boundary dispute between settlers in Maine and New Brunswick from 1838 to 1839. Full-scale war was avoided through an agreement in 1839, and the issue was settled by Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842.
Oregon Fever: During the 1830s and 1840s, many Americans traveled to the Oregon Territory in order to start a new life. The fertile farmland available in the Willamette Valley attracted many farmers. People in the East heard exaggerated, enthusiastic reports from missionaries and pioneers, convincing them that Oregon was a "pioneer’s paradise." Many settlers traveled to Oregon overland by way of the Oregon Trail or around Cape Horn in the newly invented clipper ships. This was an important part of westward expansion.
John Jacob Astor: Astor was a wealthy New York merchant who invested in real estate. He became involved in the fur business and organized a fur trading empire from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean and to China and Japan. He created the American Fur Company and established Astoria, the first major fur trading post in Oregon.
Oregon Trail: The Oregon Trail was an overland route to the Oregon territory, stretching almost 2,000 miles from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette Valley. The pioneers who traveled this trail in wagon trains faced many dangers. It is estimated that about 11,500 emigrants used overland trails like the Oregon Trail to reach Oregon between 1840 and1848.
Willamette Valley: The Willamette Valley was an area of fertile farmland in the Oregon Territory which attracted large numbers of farmers in the 1830s and 1840s, especially those from the Mississippi River Valley. Reports of the abundance of this land sparked the movement of many pioneers to the West Coast.
Oregon Territory: Congress made the Oregon Territory an official territory of the United States in 1848. Prior to 1846, the Oregon Territory had been jointly occupied by Great Britain and the United States with its northern boundary the line 54°40’. In a 1846 treaty, the two countries split the territory, dividing it at the 49th parallel.
49th Parallel: The 49th parallel was the line of latitude dividing the United States’ and Great Britain’s portions of the Oregon Territory after 1846. Originally they had jointly occupied the entire territory, but a compromise was forged in 1846 because president Polk demanded title to this territory and neither side wanted to go to war over it.
Election of 1848: Cass, Taylor: Zachary Taylor was the Whig candidate in the election of 1848, and his platform was based solely on personal popularity because he was a war hero.; Lewis Cass was the Democratic candidate. Both parties avoided making the issue of slavery a campaign issue. Taylor won election on his popularity.
Joseph Smith: Joseph Smith was the founder of the Mormon church. He translated the Book of Mormon in 1827, after which, he and his followers set up a model city and temple in Nauvoo, Illinois. Smith saw himself as a prophet, increasing the negative sentiment towards Mormonism. After being charged with treason and jailed, he was killed by a mob in 1844.
Brigham Young: Brigham Young was the patriarch of the Mormon church who took control of the church after Joseph Smith was killed. After the Mormons were forced out of Illinois, Young led them to Utah in 1846, where they prospered. Young has been criticized for both his support of polygamy and his intolerance towards opposition.
Mormons: The Mormon religion was founded in 1827 by Joseph Smith. Their church is based in Utah and they believe that the Book of Mormon is the supplement for the Bible. The Mormons are characterized by their preference to be set apart from the rest of the community, apparent in their views, which were antebellum in the time the religion was born.
John Sutter: John Sutter was granted 49,000 acres of land by the Mexican government in 1834 and established a sawmill on the land in 1846. In 1848, he discovered gold. This discovery led to the onset of the California Gold Rush. Land squatters disputed over Sutter’s land claims and, subsequently, Sutter’s holdings were found invalid by the Supreme Court.
forty-niners: In 1849, 100,000 Americans, along with immigrants from Europe, Asia and South America rushed to California in search of easy riches. Competition led to violence and greed. As a result of inadequate shelter and food and the lack of medical supplies, 10,000 died the first year and few even benefited from the expedition.
Walker Tariff, 1846: The Walker tariff was created by Robert J. Walker, Polk’s secretary of the treasury, in 1846. The bill slashed all duties to the minimum necessary for revenue. It also reversed the trend of replacing certain specifics for ad value duties and dropped the minimum valuation principle. The tariff was signed July 30, 1846.
Independent Treasury System, Van Buren: The system was introduced by Martin Van Buren in 1837 and it passed through Congress in 1840. The bill had the federal government keep their revenue, and by doing this, kept public money from private business corporations. This also kept the government’s money out of state banks.
Independent Treasury System, Polk: After Van Buren was defeated in the election of 1840 by William Henry Harrison, the Independent Treasury System was repealed. However, when Polk was elected in 1844, he brought back the Independent Treasury System. This intensified the divisions between the Whigs and Democrats.
Reconstruction
Reconstruction was the process of bringing the southern states that had seceded during the Civil War back into the Union. There were many disagreements about the best way to accomplish this and many important pieces of legislation emerged as a result. Reconstruction lasted from the end of the Civil War in 1865 until the Tilden-Hays Compromise in 1877 restored the Democrats to power in the South.
Lincoln’s ten percent plan: In it all southerners, except high-ranking Confederate officials, could get a full pardon and restoration of rights after taking an oath, pledging loyalty to the Union and accepting the end of slavery. When ten percent of the 1860 voting population had taken this oath, citizens could vote in elections that would create new state governments and new state constitutions. After that the state would once again be eligible for representation in Congress and readmitted to the Union.
assassination of April 14, 1865: President Lincoln wass assassinated while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, escaped with a broken leg, but he was shot later. Lincoln was succeeded by his vice president, Andrew Johnson.
John Wilkes Booth: Booth was a Southern sympathizer during the Civil War, who plotted with six fellow-conspirators to assassinate Union leaders. On Apr. 14, 1865, he shot President Lincoln during a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. He escaped, but was later shot and killed.
Ex parte Milligan: Ex parte Milligan was an 1866 Supreme Court limiting the authority of martial law and the suspension of habeas corpus in times of war. In this case, the court declared that "martial law can never exist where the courts are open in the proper and unobstructed exercise of their jurisdiction."
Radical Republicans: The Radical Republicans were a group of Republicans unhappy with the corruption and policies of Grant’s administration. Among their leaders were Carl Schurz, Horace Greely, and Charles Sumner. The party nominated Greeley for president. Greely was a choice acceptable to the Democrats, but unpopular with many of the leaders of his party, so Grant won reelection despite the corruption within his administration and his poor leadership.
Wade-Davis bill, veto, Wade Davis Manifesto: Congress, in July 1864, passed the Wade-Davis Bill, calling for a stricter form of Reconstruction than that proposed by Lincoln. After Lincoln pocket vetoed this bill, radicals sought to displace him. They issued Wade-Davis Manifest, which declared the primacy of Congress in matters of the Reconstruction.
Joint Committee on Reconstruction: The Joint Committee on Reconstruction was the Congressional committee consisting of leaders of both houses of Congress which led Congressional Reconstruction after the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 were passed. This committee would exist until after Hayes was elected president.
Reconstruction acts, 1867: The Reconstruction Acts divided the Confederate states except Tennessee into five military districts. Military commanders in the districts were appointed to oversee constitutional conventions in the districts and the creation of state constitutions. This military occupation would last until the states created new constitutions that included black suffrage, the permanent disfranchisement of Confederate leaders, and ratification of the 14th Amendment.
conquered territory theory: The conquered territory theory was a popular theory held by many Reconstruction policy makers after the Civil War that the southern states which seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America should be treated as if they were territories conquered from a foreign nation.
Texas v. White, 1869: The trial of Texas v. White in 1868, was a case which involved the disposition of Civil War bonds used by Texas, which had left the Union. It was held that states in rebellion did not lose their existence or identity. The decision also declared secession unconstitutional.
the unreconstructed South: This term refers to failure of Reconstruction to permanently reform the South. Even after Republicans withdrew, there was corruption in the states, and exploitation of African-Americans was common. When the states were readmitted into the Union, civil rights legislation was practically overturned with open discrimination.
scalawags: A scalawag was a white Southerner who joined the Republican party during the Reconstruction period. Scalawags were considered traitors to the Southern cause and were condemned by Southern Democrats. The term scalawag was applied both to entrepreneurs who supported Republican economic policies and Whig planters who had opposed secession.
carpetbaggers: Carpetbaggers were Northerners who went to the South during Reconstruction. They carried their belongings in carpetbags, and most intended to settle in the South and make money there. The African-American vote won them important posts in Republican state governments.
"forty acres and a mule": "Forty acres and a mule" refers to the desire of Radical Republicans such as Thaddeus Stevens to carry out land redistribution in the South. He wanted to subdivide confiscated land and distribute it among the freedmen. Proposals such as these failed in Congress and state legislatures.
black codes: The black codes were local laws intended to force African-Americans to continue working as plantation laborers. They imposed prohibitive taxes, harsh vagrancy laws meant to intimidate the freedmen, restrictions on blacks’ ability to own property. Essentially, they condemned the newly-freed slaves to conditions not unlike slavery.
Ku Klux Klan: The KKK was an organization formed by ex-Confederates and led by Nathan B. Forrest. It was founded in the South in 1866 in opposition to Reconstruction. Members used disguises, rituals, whippings and lynchings, to terrorize African-Americans and their supporters. Forrest disbanded the Klan in 1869.
Thaddeus Stevens: As a leader of the radical Republicans’ Reconstruction program after the Civil War, Stevens saw the Southern states as "conquered provinces." He sincerely desired the betterment of the lives African-Americans. He proposed the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing civil rights and was a leader in the impeachment of President Johnson.
Charles Sumner: Sumner was the aggressive abolitionist who was physically assaulted by Preston Brooks after making a strong antislavery speech. He was one of the leaders of the radical Republicans’ Reconstruction program and was also an active participant in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
Andrew Johnson: As president he was denounced by the radical Republicans for his Reconstruction program. When Johnson tried to force Stanton out of office, the radical Republicans passed a resolution of impeachment against him for violation of the Tenure of Office Act, but the Senate failed to convict him by one vote.
Freedmen’s Bureau: The Freedmen’s Bureau furnished food and medical supplies to blacks, and to needy whites as well. It was also concerned with the regulation of wages and working conditions, the maintenance of schools for illiterate former slaves, and the distribution of lands abandoned by or confiscated from Southern proprietors.
General Oliver O. Howard: Howard was a Civil War general who took part in the Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Chattanooga campaigns. As commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau after the war, he was unable to prevent many abuses to freedmen, but managed to provided needed food and medical and employment aid to many people.
Civil Rights Act: This act was passed in Congress with nearly unanimous Republican support in March 1866, and it attempted to redress the issue of slavery by defining all persons born in the nation as citizens. It also specified the rights of citizens, the right to sue, make contracts, give evidence in court, hold, convey, and inherit property.
Thirteenth Amendment: The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1865. It prohibited "slavery or involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This amendment guaranteed freedom for African Americans.
Fourteenth Amendment: The Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1868. It said that no state can make or enforce any law which "deprives any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Also, states could not "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Fifteenth Amendment: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish ratified the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of United States on March 30, 1870. This amendment explicitly forbid denial of the right to vote for citizens "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Tenure of Office Act: The Tenure of Office Act was a measure passed by Congress in 1867. It prohibited the president from dismissing any cabinet member or other federal officeholder whose appointment had required the consent of the Senate unless the Senate agreed to the dismissal. Johnson’s violation of this act caused the impeachment crisis.
Impeachment: Impeachment is the formal accusation by a legislature against a public official, to remove him from office. The term includes both the bringing of charges, or articles, and the trial that may follow. President Andrew Johnson, after violating the Tenure of Office Act, by removing Secretary of War Stanton faced impeachment. The formal accusation of Johnson went through the House on Feb. 24, 1868, but the Senate failed to convict him. This is the only instance of impeachment of an American president.
Chief Justice Chase: Salmon Chase was the sixth chief justice of the Supreme Court and an abolitionist. As chief justice, he presided over the impeachment trial of President Johnson. His greatest achievement, however, was as secretary of the treasury, when he created a national bank system.
Secretary of War Stanton: Edwin Stanton served as the secretary of war under Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, but his dismissal by President Andrew Johnson and his subsequent refusal to leave office act precipitated the impeachment of President Johnson in 1868.
Hiram R. Revels, Blanche K. Bruce: Revels and Bruce were the first two African-American politicians to serve a full term in the United States Senate. They were both representatives from Mississippi, and were the only two African-American Senators during Reconstruction.
Compromise of 1877: As a result of the electoral vote from the election of 1876, Congress created a 15-member bipartisan commission, on January 29, 1877, to resolve the dispute concerning the electoral votes between Tilden and Hayes. The committee consisted of five Democrats, five Republicans, and five Supreme Court justices. Hayes was unanimously awarded the electoral votes from Oregon and South Carolina and the ones from Louisiana by a commission vote of 8 to 7.
The 1850s: The Road to Secession
During the 1850s, sectional issues such as slavery became very divisive. The issue of slaver polarized people, and Southern slaveowners felt that their rights and interests were no longer being fairly represented. Northerners began to increasingly support free soil and even abolition, so tensions between the two-sided mounted until Southerners became convinced that nothing short of secession could protect them Northern persecution.
Nashville Convention: Delegates of the northern and southern states assembled in the summer of 1850 to decide on the issue of the Compromise of 1850. Fire-eaters discussed southern rights, while suspicion of their secession rose amongst the northerners. The meeting itself led to the ultimate decision on the compromise.
fire-eaters: The fire-eaters were extreme advocates of southern rights. They walked out on the Nashville convention in 1850, raided a mass of Irish canal workers, and whipped and lynched slaves in the 1860s. They were labeled "fire-eaters" due to their recklessness and by making their presence strongly felt by all those around.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Harriet Stowe, a Northern abolitionist outraged by the Fugitive Slave Law, wrote this novel to illustrate the evils of slavery. Though the South denounced the novel, 500,000 copies were sold in the U.S. and others were translated into 20 languages. The novel stimulated Northern action against slavery, contributing to the Civil War.
Harriet Beecher Stowe: Stowe was an abolitionist writer who wrote powerful novels attacking slavery both before and after the Civil War in such novels as Dred, A Tale of Great Dismal Swamp (1856) and The Minister’s Wooing (1859). The novels are rambled in structure, yet rich in pathos and dramatic incident. She also wrote short stories and poetry.
election of 1852: The election of 1852 was the end of the Whig Party. Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act split the Whig Party, and the nomination of General Winfield Scott exacerbated the sectional split. The loss of votes from the South was the result of Scott’s campaign. Franklin Pierce of the Democratic party won the election with 27 of 31 states.
birth of the Republican Party: The party was formed in 1854 by northern Democrats who left the party because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Former Whigs and Know-Nothings were party members, also. All opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and believed that slavery should be banned from all territories of the nation, except those states where slavery already existed.
election of 1856: Republican Party, Know-Nothing Party: This election was between John C. Fremont of the Republican Party, Millard Fillmore of the Know-Nothing Party, and James Buchanan of Democratic Party. Fillmore’s inexperience weakened his party, increasing the popularity of the Republicans. Buchanan won the election.
John Brown’s raid: The raid took place at Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and was conducted by an abolitionist to raid the federal arsenal and start a slave uprising. It failed and Brown was convicted of treason and hanged because he had ties with the northern abolitionists. At his death, southern fear of future slave uprisings increased, leading to the cruel treatment slaves.
Sumner-Brooks affair: Charles Sumner, a senator from Massachusetts, made a speech titled, "The Crime Against Kansas," denouncing slavery, and, at the same time, ridiculing the South Carolina senator, Charles Butler, in 1856. Preston Brooks, Butler’s nephew came into the Senate chamber and hit him on the head, making Brooks a hero in the South.
Dred Scott Decision: Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that Scott was not a citizen because he was a slave in 1856, therefore, he did not have the right to sue in federal court. It was determined that temporary residence in an area did not make one free, and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it violated the fifth amendment, which did not allow Congress or territorial governments to exclude slavery from any area. Republicans became more suspicious of Slave Power in Congress.
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney: Taney was a Southerner appointed by Jackson as the 5th justice of the Supreme Court. He is well-known for handing down the Dred Scott decision. Under his leadership, the federal government had increased power over foreign relations. Taney ruled in 1861 that Lincoln exceeded his authority in suspending habeas corpus.
John Brown: John Brown was an American abolitionist who attempted to end slavery through the use of violence. This increased the tension between the North and South. He was the leader of John Brown’s raid and the Pottawatomie massacre. His life ended when he was hanged for murder and treason. He is regarded a martyr to the cause of human freedom.
Compact Theory of Government: This theory involves the idea that the United States of America was founded by the union of thirteen individual states creating a federation of states. This plays a major role in justifying the secession of the Southern states by stating that a state had the right to withdraw from the political entity it created.
Election of 1860: candidates, parties, issues: A united republican party attempted to appeal more to the North in order to win the campaign and developed an economic program to amend the damages of the 1857 depression. They nominated Abraham Lincoln, who held a moderate view on slavery. The democrats nominated two candidates, Douglas and Breckenridge, each with opposing viewpoints on the slavery issue. The constitutional party, created by Whigs, nominated John Bell, who had the desire to preserve the Union.
Democratic Party conventions: The first assembly of delegates in Charleston in 1860 resulted in the split of the Democratic party as the Southern "fire-eaters" left the convention. They were unable to agree on a platform based on the protection of slavery. An unsuccessful second attempt to reach a consensus in Baltimore led them to nominate two candidates.
John Bell: Opposed to both Lincoln and Douglas, Whigs nominated Bell in 1860, an opposer of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Lecompton constitution. Bell created the new Constitutional Union party, which had a platform based on the preservation of the Union, and not on the controversial slavery issue.
John Breckenridge: A division in the Democratic Party led to the nomination of two candidates for the 1860 election. Breckenridge, Buchanan’s vice president, was nominated by secessionists on a platform based on protection of slavery in territories. His nomination completed the split of the Democratic party.
Republican Party of 1860: In order to lure votes from Northern states to their party, an economic system based on protective tariffs, federal aid for internal improvements and the distributing of 160-acre homesteads to settlers in order, was organized in favor of the Northerners. Lincoln’s nonchalant views towards slavery led them to victory.
Buchanan and the secession crisis: Buchanan declared secession of states illegal, yet he had no power to prevent it. He refused Southern demands to remove troops from Fort Sumter. Because his efforts to supply the fort failed and due to failure of a constitutional plan, he left the office disappointed and discredited.
Crittenden Compromise proposal: The compromise was proposed by John Crittenden in an attempt to preserve the Union. The amendments were to bar the federal government from intervening in southern states’ decision of slavery, to restore the Missouri Compromise, and to guarantee protection of slavery below this line. It also repealed personal liberty laws.
The Civil War
The Civil War was a terrible, bloody war fought mainly over the issue of slavery. It divided the nation and resulted in the death of more Americans than all other wars combined. The Union, with advantages such as greater organization and prosperity, eventually won, but not before 620,000 Americans died and thousands of fields, homes, and entire towns were destroyed.
secession: Slavery fueling the states’ rights issue along with the loss of Congress and Northern opposition to the new Fugitive Slave Law made the election of 1860 the straw that broke up the union. By March 1861, Lincoln’s innauguration South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had seceded.
South’s advantages in the Civil War: The Confederate States of America had a strong advantage in the fact that they were fighting a defensive war in familiar territory, but it also had advantages buried deep within its much stronger military tradition. Southerners came from a rural rather than urban environments and therefore had more men experienced in the use of firearms and horses. This allowed the Confederacy to produce a more able corps of officers, such as Robert E. Lee.
Tredegar Iron Works: guided by Joseph Reid to success during a time when the economy in the North and South began to plunge because of their increased divergence. It became the nation’s fourth largest producer of iron products. During the Civil War the company contributed to the Confederacy cause.
North’s advantages in the Civil War: The Union clearly had more military potential with its larger population of 22 million. In addition to that, the Union had more advantages in terms of material goods such as money and credit, factories for manufacturing war goods, food production, mineral resources, and an established railroad system to transport these material resources. The North in comparison with the South in these areas makes the North seem more advantageous.
Fort Sumter: Fort Sumter is a fort in Charleston harbor, South Carolina and it was the site of the first conflict of the Civil War on Apr. 12, 1861. The Confederates under Beauregard bombarded the fort and were eventually victorious, but the fort was eventually retaken by Union forces in 1865.
Bull Run: On July 16, General McDowell began to move on Confederate General Beauregard at Manassas Junction. McDowell attacked Beauregard’s soldiers, with aid from the forces of Johnston, near the bridge over Bull Run River and drove them to the Henry House Hill, but Jackson checked the advance and routed the raw Union troops.
Monitor and the Merrimac: March 8, 1862 was the date of first naval battle between ironclad ships. The Confederate ironclad frigate Merrimac had sunk the Cumberland and defeated the Congress in Hampton Roads but was forced to withdraw March 9 after an engagement with the Union’s ironclad Monitor, built by John Ericsson.
Lee: Commanding the Army of N. Virginia, he took the offensive in the 7 Days Battle and beat the Union army at the 2nd battle of Bull Run. Lee repulsed Union advances at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville and Grant’s assaults in the Wilderness Campaign. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomatox Courthouse.
Jackson: At the 1st battle of Bull Run Jackson earned his nick name when he and his brigade stood "like a stone wall." Serving under Lee, Jackson flanked the Union army to set up the Confederate victory at the second battle of Bull Run. At Chancellorsville Jackson again flanked the Union army but was mortally wounded by his own troops.
Grant: In 1862 he captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, barely escaped defeat at the Battle of Shiloh and ended Confederate control of the Mississippi in Vicksburg. Commanding in the West, he thoroughly defeated Bragg at Chattanooga. He directed the Union army in the Wilderness Campaign and he received Lee’s surrender.
McClellan: He was criticized for overcaution in the unsuccessful Peninsular Campaign and removed from command. Called on again in 1862, he checked Lee in the Antietam Campaign, but he allowed the Confederates to withdraw across the Potomac and was again removed. He would run for president in 1864.
Sherman: He fought in the Vicksburg and Chatanooga campaigns and ge undertook the Atlanta Campaign. He burned Atlanta and set off, with a force of 60,000, on his famous march to the sea, devastating the country. After capturing Savannah, he turned north through S. Carolina, and received the surrender of General Johnston.
Meade: He made himself known in 1862 at Seven Days Battle and the battles of Bull Run, Antietam, and later at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. He commanded of the Army of the Potomac from 1863, and won the battle of Gettysburg, but he was criticized for not following up his victory.
Vicksburg: It was a battle fought for control of the Mississippi River. By late 1862, the Union controlled all of the river except for the 200 miles south of Vicksburg. In May of 1863 U.S. Grant opened siege, and after 6 weeks the Confederates surrendered. Vicksburg’s fall completed the encirclement of the Confederacy.
Gettysburg: It was Lee’s second invasion of the North. Meade and Lee met just west of Gettysburg. First, the Union was pushed to Cemetery Hill. Then the South took the Peach Orchard but were repulsed. On July 3 Lee ordered George E. Pickett’s division forward in its infamous disastrous charge against the Union center.
Antietam: In September 1862, trying to invade Maryland and Pennsylvania, Lee sent Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry, but Lee’s own advance was halted by McClellan, who attacked him at Antietam Creek, Maryland., on September 17, the so-called bloodiest day of the war. It was a Union victory only in that Lee’s advance was stopped.
Appomattox: Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. U.S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The surrender at Appomattox virtually ended the Civil War, but the rest of the Confederate forces did not surrender until May 26 at Shreveport, Louisiana.
Jefferson Davis: He left Washington after the secession of Mississippi. As president of the Confederacy, he assumed strong centralized power, and weakened the states’ rights policy for which the South had seceded. He had many disputes with Confederate generals, and Lee surrendered without his approval.
Alexander Stephens: He was a U.S. congressman from Georgia and was opposed to secession but he remained loyal to Georgia when the state seceded. He was elected vice president of the Confederacy, and he was against many of the policies of President Davis. After the war he was interned for several months.
cotton versus wheat: Efforts by the Confederate government during the Civil War to convince planters to grow to wheat instead of cotton received little success. While some planters heeded the government’s pleas, many clung to the belief that cotton would never fail them. As a result, food shortages plagued the Confederacy.
Copperheads: Copperheads were Northerners who sympathized with the South during the Civil War. The term Copperheads was also used to label all Democratic opponents of Lincoln. The group was led by Clement L. Vallandigham and was especially strong in the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham: Vallandigham was the leader of the Copperheads during the Civil War. He was briefly imprisoned in 1863 for maintaining in a speech that the war was being fought to free African-American and enslave whites. The 1864 Democratic platform reflected his pro-Southern views.
suspension of habeas corpus: Writs of habeas corpus are court orders requiring that the a cause of imprisonment be demonstrated before a person is jailed. This basic civil liberty was suspended by both Lincoln and Davis during the war to deal with dissent. Lincoln used it to intimidate border states into rejecting secession.
Republican legislation passed in Congress after Southerners left: banking, tariff, homestead, railroad: After the South seceded, northerners in Congress enacted legislation such as the Pacific Railroad Act authorizing a transcontinental railroad and the Homestead Act granting free land in the west. Acts such as these had been blocked by southerners.
Homestead Laws: The Homestead laws were laws passed in Congress in 1862. They permitted almost any American citizen to acquire a homestead of up to 160 acres of land in the West, on the condition that the homesteader cultivate the land for 5 years. This allowed poor farmers to obtain land in the west and increased westward expansion.
Northern blockade: During the Civil War, the north attempted to establish a blockade of all Southern ports in order to stop the flow of essential supplies to the Confederacy. The Union navy was fairly weak, so at first the blockade was not as effective as northerners had hoped it would be and blockade-running was a common way for Southerners to obtain supplies
Anaconda Plan: The Anaconda Plan was a Union strategy in the Civil War calling for the establishment of a naval blockade around the Confederacy to prevent the importation of supplies from Europe. It was slowly implemented and only partially successful, but the blockade did contribute to the Northern victory.
Submarine: Four submersible vessels were built during the American Civil War by the Confederates for use against the federal fleet. One of these submarines successfully dragged a mine through the water to sink a northern ship, but sunk itself as well. Submarines were used only to a limited degree in the Civil War, and they were far from perfected.
Black Soldiers: It was not until late in the Civil War that African American soldiers were allowed to participate in combat, and when they were, they suffered a far higher mortality rate than white troops. Despite the many hardships that it entailed, military service was a source of pride for blacks because it symbolized their freedom.
Gatling Gun: The Gatling gun was one of the earliest machine guns, but it was the most effective of early models. The Gatling gun was created created a man by the name Gatling, who intended to make war so horrible that it would make peace. This weapon contributed to the high number of casualties in the Civil War.
Rifle: An improved rifle was one of the important technological advancements that transformed the Civil War. They were able to hit targets more accurately at large distances than previous guns, making open fields a hazard, so that trench warfare became a necessity. This also contributed to the high number of casualties during the war.
conscription, draft riots: The Federal Militia Act of 1862 and the Confederate Conscription Act of 1862 allowed for conscription, but contained many loopholes. Riots in 1863 by anti-conscription protesters and impeded the process of drafting soldiers, but the establishment of a draft prompted volunteering.
Emancipation Proclamation: The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order ending slavery in the Confederacy. It was issued by President Lincoln after the battle of Antietam. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves residing in the territories in rebellion against the government of the United States. This proclamation had the dual purpose of injuring the Confederacy and preventing Great Britain from entering the war in support of the Confederacy. It also pushed the border states toward abolishing slavery.
Charles Francis Adams: Adams was an American diplomat who, as ambassador during the Civil War, helped to keep the British from recognizing the Confederacy. In the Trent affair, he was instrumental in averting hostilities between the two nations, although he failed to stop the sailing of the Alabama, a raider built in Great Britain for the Confederacy.
Alabama claims: There were a series of claims for indemnity made by the United States upon Great Britain in 1862. The claims were for compensation for damages inflicted on Union property by a Confederate steamship built by the British, the Alabama. The claims were not resolved until the Treaty of Washington in 1871.
Trent Affair: In Nov., 1861, A Union captain stopped and boarded a British vessel, the Trent, and removed Mason and Slidell, two Confederate emissaries who were on board and he interned them in Boston. President Lincoln released Mason and Slidell, but the issue increased tension between the Union and Britain.
Laird rams: The Laird rams were two double-turreted, ironclad steamers, built by a company in England for the Confederate navy. The United States threatened war if these ships were released to the South, so the British purchased them for the royal navy. This was another source of diplomatic tension during the Civil War.
"continuous voyage": The concept of "continuous voyage" involves the idea that a voyage intended for an enemy port, regardless of the number of stops made before arrival in the port, contains contraband. During the Civil War the Union embraced this idea, seizing ships traveling from England to the West Indies with the final destination of Confederate ports.
election of 1864: In 1864, a number of Republicans sought to prevent Lincoln’s renomination. In order to balance Abraham Lincoln’s Union ticket with a Southern Democrat, the Republicans nominated Andrew Jackson for vice president. Lincoln was able to overcome Democratic candidate George McClellan and win a second term in office.
financing of the war effort by the North and the South: In order to pay for the Civil War, both the Confederate and Union governments were forced to sell public lands and tax. The fear that heavy taxation would cause unrest and corrode support of their cause, the governments issued bonds and, in the North, greenbacks. This led to high inflation.,
Clara Barton: Clara Barton, a Union nurse during the Civil War, was known as "the Angel of the Battlefield." She not only helped the war effort by nursing; she also helped the Union obtain medical supplies. After the War, Barton worked for the International Red Cross in the Franco-Prussian War, and organized the American Red Cross, which she headed until 1904.
The Legacy of Reconstruction
Reconstruction changed the lives of southerners, especially those of the many slaves who first tasted freedom during this period. Southern society changed in order to adjust to emancipation, but former slaves were still relegated to inferior and submissive positions through economic, political, and social restrictions of their rights. The social and political atmosphere of the postwar South would endure long into the 20th century.
Reconstruction Myth: The Reconstruction Myth is the false belief that during Reconstruction, Radical Republicans intended to exploit the South by forcing it into economic and political submission. Such beliefs were promoted by movies such as Birth of a Nation, and Gone With the Wind.
Solid South: After Reconstruction, the South became solidly Democratic. Once they gained control, the Democrats cut back expenses, wiped out social programs, lowered taxes, and limited the rights of tenants and sharecroppers. These white southerners remained a major force in national politics well into the 20th century.
sharecropping: It was the farm tenancy system that arose from the cotton plantation system after the Civil War. Landlords provided land, seed, and credit. The croppers contributed labor and received a share of the crop’s value, minus their debt to the landlord. This along with the crop lien system held back African Americans economically.
crop lien system: Through this system, the white southern landowners possessed a tight hold over African American farm production during much of the Reconstruction periond. Black economic rights were eroded away with this crop lien system and along with sharecropping. A cycle of dependency and debt would be the result of these systems.
segregation: Segregation was the practice held in the South after legislation made explicit discrimination in law illegal. In response to that legislation the concept of "separate but equal" dominated the policies Southern policy makers. This practice of keeping the races separate would not officially broken up until the mid-twentieth century.
Below are the US History topics that are covered in this unit:
From Melting Pot To Salad Bowl
The earlier immigrants to American consisted mainly of Northern Europeans. However, during the 1870s, a flood of immigrants, arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe, gushed into the already overcrowded metropolises. Many immigrants faced the dual problems of changing cultures and migrating from a rural life to an urban one. In addition to these difficulties, the new immigrants often faced prejudice from nativist Americans.
"New Immigration": They were a new group of immigrants coming into the United States that consisted of Italians, Slavs, Greeks, Jews, and Armenians. They came from both Southern and Eastern Europe, and also from the Middle East. In the 1890s, their numbers first began to increase, and the numbers continued to increase for the next three decades. Most of the immigrants came from peasant and poor backgrounds and boosted America’s foreign-born population by 18 million. They were often discriminated against.
"Old Immigration": This Term applies to those migrating from Western and Eastern Europe. They were the largest group of immigrants that migrated to the United States. The largest group of approximately three million, came from Germany in the 1840s and 1850s. Next came the British, Scottish, and Welsh immigrants, which totaled 2 million. In addition, one and a half million traveled over from Ireland. All of these immigrants came over in search of jobs and of new economic opportunities.
Literacy tests: Passed by Congress in 1917in order to restrict immigration, the law enlarged the group of immigrants that could be excluded from the United States. Literacy tests were imposed on all immigrants, and any immigrant who could not pass the tests was not allowed entry into the U.S.
Chinese Exclusion Law, 1882: Passed by Congress, it was one of three laws that attempted to solve the increasing immigration problem. There had also been increasing labor violence against the Chinese. By this law, immigrants had to be examined, and all convicts, polygamists, prostitutes, anarchists, persons suffering from loathsome or contagious diseases, and persons liable to become public disturbances and problems were all excluded form the U.S.
American Protective Association: Founded by Henry F. Bowers, this was a secret anti-Catholic society founded in 1887, in Clinton Iowa. The panic of 1893 greatly increased its membership, and it supported the Republican Party until it split over the question of whether or not to support William McKinley. It died in 1911.
Gilded Age Politics
As America modernized, politics played an increasingly important role in the lives of the common men. Diverse groups participated in the political arena as they attempted to reform the social, political and economical problems of the newly industrial nation. Taking its name from the novel, The Gilded Age, the era referred to the decades from the 1870s to the 1890s where Americans struggled to battle corruption in a morally deteriorating society.
Pendleton Civil Service Act: Because of the Pendleton Civil Service Act, political candidates were forbidden from soliciting contributions from government workers. This act also set up a civil service commission to prepare competitive exams and establish standards of merit for a variety of federal jobs. In 1883, Congress enacted a civil service law introduced by Senator George Pendleton of Ohio. Although President Arthur was a Stalwart, he had the courage to endorse the act which reformed the spoils system.
Chester A. Arthur: He became president after the assassination of Garfield. This 21st president, who served from 1881 to 1885, rose above the political corruption prevalent during the times and headed a reform-oriented administration that enacted the first comprehensive U.S. civil service legislation. He supported the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883.
Election of 1884: James G Blaine was nominated by the Republicans, while Grover Cleveland was the Democratic nominee. The Independent Republicans, known as "Mugwumps," supported Cleveland, which cost Blaine the election. The Democrats controlled the House, while the Republicans dominated the Senate.
Stalwarts, Roscoe Conkling: The Stalwarts, who favored the spoils system of political patronage, were lead by New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. The battle over patronage split the Republican party into two factions: the Half-breeds and the Stalwarts. The two differed mainly over who would control the party machinery.
Half-breeds: They argued with the Stalwarts on the issues of who would control the party of machine and would distribute patronage jobs. The Half-breeds supported civil service reform and merit appointments to government posts. They were joined together as the Republican party, but disputes over patronage split it into two: Stalwarts and Half-breeds.
James G. Blaine: Blaine was a Republican Congressman, senator, secretary of state under Garfield, and a presidential candidate under the Republican Half-Breeds, who ran against Conkling. Blaine was considered one of the most popular Republicans of his time, and was elemental in his party’s success in elections.
Mugwumps: This term designated dissident members of the Republican party, who, in the presidential election of 1884, refused to support the nominee of their party, James G. Blaine. Instead, they supported the Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland, who was later elected. The term was first used derisively in a New York City newspaper, the Sun.
"Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion": At a rally on election eve, a clergyman denounced the Democrats as the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." Blaine failed to repudiate the remark and the Democrats widely publicized this insult to Catholics, drinkers and patriotic Democrats. Blaine’s mistake allowed Cleveland to obtain New York’s electoral votes.
High Tariffs: Republicans preferred high tariffs, while Democrats preferred low ones. Cleveland supported low tariffs. The Dingley tariff of 1879 increased rates to an all-time high levels while the Currency Act of 1900 officially changed the U.S. gold standard. The Wilson-Gorman Protective Tariff also unsuccessfully attempted to create an income tax.
Treasury surplus: The high tariffs were feeding a large and growing budget surplus. This surplus stood as a continual temptation to distribute it in the form of veterans pension or expensive public-work programs, known as pork barrel projects. Cleveland was convinced that surplus constituted a corrupting influence.
Pension GAR: After the Civil War, veterans formed the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) to lobby for pensions. Veterans disability pensions cost the government millions dollars a year, but in 1879, bowing to GAR pressure, Congress had eased the rules for securing them. The GAR actively encouraged veterans to file claims.
Secret ballot: Between 1888 and 1896, 90% of all the states were convinced to adopt a new ballot like the one in Australia, which was a method of voting that listed voter options. This was a Populist goal articulated in the Omaha Platform. The paper ballot emerged as a dominant voting method. The secret ballot is also known as the Australian ballot.
"Murchinson letter": Charles Murchinson wrote a letter to the British Ambassador to ask how he should vote during the election of 1888. The ambassador fell into the trap and advised Murchinson to vote for Cleveland, rather than Harrison. The Republicans gracefully publicized the "Murchinson Letter" as a foreign attempt to meddle in an American election.
Cleveland’s 1887 annual address: Cleveland focused his entire annual address message to Congress on the tariff issue. He argued that lower tariffs would not only cut the federal surplus but also reduce prices and slow the development of trusts. His tariff message upset many corporate boardrooms who thought that lowering the tariff would hurt their prosperity.
Presidential Succession Act of 1886: This act determined that if both the President of the United States and the Vice President both died or if they were both disqualified, there would be a line of succession. The line started with first the president pro tempore, secretary of state, secretary of treasury, secretary of defense, and continued.
Election of 1888, candidates, issues: Because Blaine decided not to run, the Republicans turned to Benjamin Harrison. Republican focused on the tariff issue. The Republicans falsely portrayed the Democrats as advocates of "free trade," which many felt would have horrible consequences. Harrison won in the electoral college by defeating Grover Cleveland.
Benjamin Harrison, Billion dollar congress, Czar Reed: Harrison quickly rewarded his supporters. He appointed a past GAR commander as commissioner of pension. In 1890, Harrison signed the pension bill that Cleveland had earlier vetoed. The Republican Congress of 1890 became known as the Billion-dollar Congress.
McKinley Tariff: His administration enacted a higher tariff in 1897 and committed the country to the gold standard in 1900. It generally promoted business confidence. Probably in part because of these policies, the economy recovered from a severe depression, and the Republicans became identified with economic prosperity.
Election of 1892: The Republicans re-nominated Harrison, while the Democrats turned to Grover Cleveland who was a Conservative. The Populists nominated James B Weaver who did not did better than expected. Voters generally reacted against the high McKinley Tariff. Cleveland’s conservative economic policies brought him support, and he won the election.
Morgan bond transaction: During the depression of 1893 to 1897, the gold reserve dwindled to $41 million. Cleveland turned to Wall Street bankers J.P. Morgan and August Belmont agreed to lend the government $62 million in exchange for U.S. bonds at a special discount. The government then bought gold, which restored confidence in the government.
Wilson-Gorman Tariff: In order to increase the sight of the governments role in an age of towering fortunes, this tariff became a law without the signature of approval from Cleveland. It did have a modest income tax of 12% on all income over $4000, but the supreme court declared it unconstitutional in 1895.
Dingley tariff: The McKinley administration furthered its conservative platform through the Dingley Tariff of 1897, which increased rates to all-time high levels. The Currency Act of 1900 officially changed the U.S. to the gold standard. Due to the discovery of gold in Alaska and the prosperity of farms prices, there was little protest against the Dingley tariff.
Gold Standard Act, 1900: This act officially put the United States on the gold standard. It was passed by William McKinley’s administration during a time when both the House of Representatives and the Senate were dominated by Republicans. Subsequent to this act, the U.S. went on and off the gold standard several times and abandoned it in 1971.
Industrial America
During the late 19th century, the industrial sectors of society rapidly expanded. Corporations emerged, and the captains of industry created ,major industrial empires that drastically changed the face of American business. Although many opposed the large businesses when they hurt individuals, Americans generally favored industrialization. Even the common man shared in the American desire to gain wealth through the new industrial economy.
Laissez-faire: It meant non-governmental interference in business. The doctrine favors capitalist self-interest, competition, and natural consumer preferences as forces leading to optimal prosperity and freedom. It began in the late 18th century as a strong liberal reaction to trade taxation and nationalist governmental control known as mercantilism.
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations: In The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, Adam Smith believed that self-interest was an "invisible hand in the marketplace, automatically regulating the supply of and demand for goods and services." He endorsed a laissez-faire approach to economics and was the first to define the system of capitalism.
Andrew Carnegie: Carnegie decided to build his own steel mill in 1870. His philosophy was simple: "watch the costs and the profit will take care of themselves." At the age of 33, when he had an annual income of $50,000, he said, "beyond this never earn, make no effort to increase fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes."
Union Pacific Railroad, Central Pacific Railroad: The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 had authorized the construction of the transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads were joined together to form the first transcontinental railroad in May 1869 when railroad executives drove a golden spike into the ground at Promontory Point, Utah in order to connect the two. It allowed Americans to travel from coast to coast in a week; it had previously taken several months to do so.
"Robber Barrons": Known as the great captains of industy and as robber barons who lined their pockets, these captains, or villains, of industry made their money by manipulating the stock markets and company policies. Some of these Robber Barrons were Jay Gould, Hill, and John D. Rockefeller.
John D. Rockefeller: He is famous for his Standard Oil Company. He had a desire for cost cutting and efficiency. Rockefeller helped form the South Improvement Company in early 1872, which was an association of the largest oil refiners in Cleveland, and he arranged with the railroads to obtain substantial rebates on shipments by members of the association.
Standard Oil Company: The Standard Oil Company was organized in 1870 by Rockefeller, his brother William, and several associates. In 1882 Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Trust. This, the first corporate trust, was declared an illegal monopoly and ordered dissolved by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1892.
Horizontal consolidation: Within three years, the Standard Oil Trust had consolidated crude oil by buying throughout its member firms. It had slashed the number of refineries in half. Rockefeller integrated the petroleum industry horizontally by merging the competing oil companies into one giant system.
Vertical consolidation: The Standard Oil Trust had consolidated crude-oil buying throughout it members firms and slashed the number of refineries in half. Rockefeller integrated the petroleum industry vertically by controlling every function from production to local retailing. He controlled all aspects of manufacturing from mining to selling.
Henry Clay Frick: Frick’s job was to manage the daily operations of Carnegie’s company. With Frick’s great leadership, Carnegie’s steel mill profits rose every year despite labor troubles and a national depression. With Henry’s help, Carnegie was free to pursue philanthropic activities.
Charles Schwab: He became president of Carnegie Steel when he bought half of the company for half a billion dollars. Therefore, he combined Carnegie’s company with Federal Steel. After the agreement, Morgan set up the U.S. Steel corporation. This became the first business to capitalize at more than $1 billion dollars.
Thomas A. Edison: He epitomized the inventive impulse. An American inventor, his development of a practical electric light bulb, electric generating system, sound-recording device, and motion picture projector had advanced the life of modern society. He shared the same dream as Carnegie to interconnect industry system with technology.
Alexander Graham Bell: An American inventor and teacher of the deaf, he was most famous for his invention of the telephone. Since the age of 18, Bell had been working on the idea of transmitting speech. He was one of the cofounders of the National Geographic Society, and he served as its president from 1896 to 1904. He also founded the journal Science in 1883. His other inventions includes the induction balance, audiometer, and the first was recording cylinder introduced in 1885.
Leland Stanford: An American Railroad magnate and a politician, he served as the Republican governor of California and the U.S. senator from California. With Hill, he started the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and in 1870, he founded the Southern Pacific Railroad Company.
James G. Hill, Great Northern Railroad: He reorganized and expanded the railroad industry in the 1870s and 1880s. He was exemplified as a robber baron who manipulated stock markets and company policies. He and three other partners bought the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.
Cornelius Vanderbilt: An American industrialist and philanthropist, he became associated with the New York and Harlem Railroad in 1867, and became president in 1886. At the same time he began to act as head of the Vanderbilt family. He founded the Vanderbilt University.
Bessemer process: The process consisted of a shot of air blasted through an enormous crucible of molten iron to burn off carbon and impurities. This new technology, combined with cost analysis, provided a learning railroad experience for Carnegie. The bessemer invention offered a means of driving up profits, lowering cost, and improving efficiency.
United States Steel Corporation, Elbert H. Gary: Gary was a lawyer who later became president of the Federal Steel Company in 1898. Gary was a strong foe of unions, but he introduced profit sharing and encouraged higher wages and better working conditions. The city of Gary, Indiana., originally a steel company town, is named after him.
Mesabi Range: Andrew Carnegie bought an ore company in the newly opened Mesabi Range in Minnesota in 1892. The hills contained large deposits of iron ore. The Mesabi Range is one of the chief iron-producing regions in the world. Iron production began there in the late 19th century.
J. Pierpont Morgan: When national depression struck a number of railroads in 1893, Morgan refinanced their debts and built an intersystem alliance by purchasing blocks of stock in the world of competing railroads. He also marketed U.S. government securities on a massive scale.
Gustavus Swift, Phillip Armour: Swift, a Chicago meatpacker, and Philip Armour turned pigs and cattle into bacon, pork chops, and steaks. They also developed the technique of refrigerating food in order to ship food across seas. They both won a large share of the eastern urban market for meat.
James B. Duke: An American tobacco industrialist and philanthropist whose career originated with a small family business, James, along with four partners, merged to form the American Tobacco Company in 1890. The family concentrated on cigarette production in 1881. Within few years, James lead and dominated the national market.
Andrew Mellon: An American financier, industrialist, and statesman, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, he started his career in the banking firm of Thomas Mellon and Sons of Pittsburgh. He later became a partner and the president, in 1902, of the firm that developed into the Mellon National Bank.
"Stock watering": This term referred to the act of issuing stock certificates far in excess of the actual value of the assets. Some who "stock watered" persuaded the populace to buy up stock, but then sold the stock when prices rose, and made a profit while ruining the business of other investors. This was during 1890 when the stock market was at an all time high.
Jay Cook Co.: He was a Philadelphia banker who had taken over the new transcontinental line, the Northern Pacific, in 1869. In September of that year, his vault was full of bonds that he could no longer sell. Cook fail to meet obligation and his bank, which was the largest in the nation, was shut down.
Jay Gould and Jim Fiske: They attempted to corner the gold market in 1869 with the help of Grant’s brother-in-law. When gold prices tumbled, Gould and Fiske salvaged their own fortunes. Unfortunately, investors were ruined. Grant’s reputation was tarnished and could not be restored.
Pool, Trust: Competition became so vicious that railroads tried to end it by establishing pools in order to divide the traffic equally and to charge similar rates. The pool lacked legal status, while the trust was a legal device that centralized control over a number of different companies by setting up a board of trustees to run all of them.
Rebates: A rebate is a partial monetary return of an amount paid. The Interstate Commerce Act prohibited rebates for railway rates because they discriminated between different groups. Small farmers were angered that they were required to pay more than other interests were. This Act was passed in 1887 with the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Depression of 1873: Early in Grant’s second term, the country was hit by an economic depression known as the panic of 1873. Brought on by over expansive tendencies of railroad builders and businessmen during the immediate postwar boom, the Panic was triggered by economic downturns in Europe and by the failure of Jay Cooke’s bank.
Holding Companies: A holding company is a corporation that owns a controlling share of the stock of one or more other firms. When Standard Oil faced the problem of antitrust suits in 1892, lawyers invoked New Jersey law that allowed permitted corporations to own property in other states by simply reorganizing the trust as an enormous holding company.
Fourteenth Amendment’s "due process clause": The fourteenth amendment declared in its first clause that all person born or naturalized in the United States were recognized as citizens of the nation and as citizens of their states and that no state could abridge their rights without due process of law or deny them equal protection of the law.
Interstate Commerce Act, Interstate Commerce Commission: The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 was passed to provide that a commission be established to oversee fair and just railway rates, prohibit rebates, end discriminatory practices, and require annual reports and financial statements. The act established a new agncy, the Interstate Commerce Commission, which allowed the government to investigate and oversee railroad activities.
Long haul, short haul: It was cheaper to ship a long haul on the railroads than it was to ship a short haul. Small farmers were angered that they, who made many short hauls, were discriminated against. In the 1870s, many state legislatures, outlawed rate discrimination as a result of protests led by the Grangers.
Sherman Antitrust Act, 1890: Fearing that the trusts would stamp out all competition, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890, which outlawed trusts and other restraints of trade. Violators were fined up to five thousand dollars and one year in prison. The Sherman Antitrust act failed to define either trust or restraint of trade clearly. As a result, between 1890 and 1904, the government prosecuted only eighteen antitrust suits, and it was instead used to hinder the efforts of labor unions who acted "in restraint of trade."
Frank Norris, The Octopus:The U.S. novelist Frank Norris, was a noted pioneer of naturalism in literature. His novels portray the demoralizing effects of modern technology on the human fate. His best-known works, The Octopus, published in 1901, and The Pit , published in 1903, attack the railroad and wheat industries in the United States.
New South, Henry Grady: Henry Grady was a U.S. journalist and orator born in Athens, Georgia. He bought share in Atlantic Constitution in 1879. As editor, he did much to restore friendly relations between the North and South during a period of bitter hatred and conflict. He often lectured on the concept of "The New South," which referred to a rejuvenated south.
"New Imperialism"
Growing into a leading nation, the United States hoped to further its international standing by emulating European nations that were expanding their influence throughout the world. During the 1870s, the U.S. "new imperialism" was directed towards finding access to resources, markets for surplus production, and opportunities for overseas investments. Although the U.S. did expand its influence in other countries, it preferred market expansion to the traditional European territorial colonialsim.
Alaska: Secretary of state William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska in 1867. $7.2 million was paid to Russia for Alaska, and it was highly contested by Congress. Also known as "Seward’s Icebox" or "Seward’s folly," it was generally thought to be useless, but later proved to be an excellent addition.
Pan Americanism, James Blaine: In 1881 Secretary of State James G. Blaine advocated the creation of an International Bureau of American Republics to promote a customs union of trade and political stability for the Western Hemisphere. The assassination of Garfield kept Blaine from his organization until 1889.
US mediation of border disputes: The United States offered its aid to promote the peaceful resolution of border conflict between a number of states. The United States also worked to bring an end to the War of the Pacific which was fought between Chile and the alliance of Peru and Bolivia.
Port of Pago Pago: Restless stirrings in America were felt in the far-off Samoan Island in the South Pacific. The U.S. navy sought access to the Port of Pago Pago as a refueling station. The U.S. ratified a treaty with Samoa in 1878 which gave America trading rights and a naval base at Pago Pago.
Tariff autonomy to Japan: During the Meiji period following the collapse of the shogunate, Japan transformed, from its traditionally isolationist feudal society into a world power, taking on imperialistic quailites. Emperor Meiji took it upon himself to enact tariffs, and thus, Japan controlled its own tariffs.
Hawaiian Revolution: Hawaii’s wholesale sugar prices plummeted as a result of the elimination of the duty-free status enjoyed by Hawaiian sugar. Facing ruin, the planters deposed Queen Liliuokalani in Jan 1893, proclaimed the independent Republic of Hawaii, and requested U.S. annexation. Hawaii was claimed as an American territory in 1898.
Sino-Japanese War: A Chinese patrol clashed with Japanese troops on the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing on July 7, 1937. Using the incident as a pretext to begin hostilities, the Japanese army in Manchuria moved troops into the area, precipitating another Sino-Japanese war. Although the war was never actually declared.
Captain Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power: A Union naval officer during the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, Mahan served in the navy for nearly 40 years. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1885. The title of The Influence of Sea Power upon History, received international recognition as a comprehensive of naval strategy.
Reform Populism In The 1890s
Populism emerged in the 19th century in order to reform the system from within. Creating the Populist Party with James Weaver as their presidential candidate, the Populists strove to bring their reforms into the political limelight. Although they did not succeed in electing their candidate to the presidency, many of their reforms were later enacted.
Granger Movement: During the decade of the 1870s, U.S. farmers were beset with problems of high costs, debts, and small profits. the farmers made their grievances known through the Granger Movement. Membership peaked in the mid-1870s. There was little the farmers could do concerning prices. Only in 1877 did the Supreme Court rule that states could regulate businesses of a public nature. To counteract unjust business practices, the farmers were urged to start cooperatives such as grain elevators, creameries, and stores.
Granger Laws: The Grangers in various states lobbied state legislatures in 1874 to pass maximum rate laws for freight shipment. The railroads appealed to the Supreme Court to declare the "Granger laws" unconstitutional. Instead, the Court ruled against the railroad’s objections in Munn v. Illinois.
Farmers’ Alliance: This alliance was a political organization created to help fight railroad abuses and to lower interest rates. It called for government regulation of the economy in order to redress their greivanes. It was founded in New York in 1873, and consisted of the Northwest Farmers' Alliance in the north and the National Farmers' Alliance and Independent Union in the south. They failed to unite, however, and in 1892 gave way to the Populist party.
Populist Party Platform, Omaha Platform, 1892: The Populist party, or people's party, was a party that represented the "common man." It was created towards the end of the nineteenth century. Some of their goals included creating postal savings banks, enacting immigration restriction, setting a graduated income tax and limiting the presidency to a single six-year term. The Populist platform represented views of farmers in the West. The Omaha platform of 1892 nominated James Weaver of Iowa for president.
"Crime of 1873": This is the term given to a federal law of 1873, which adopted the gold standard over the silver standard. This dropped silver coinage in favor of gold coinage, by advocating free silver. This "Crime of 1873" was one of the motivating forces behind the beginning of the Free Silver movement.
Bland-Allison Act: This act was passed over the presidential veto in 1878 and required the secretary of the treasury to buy at least 2 million dollars of silver each month and coin it into dollars. Because of its weight and bulk and the fact that it had not been coined since 1806, most of the silver did not circulate; rather, remained in the treasury.
Sherman Silver Purchase Act: This act forced the treasury to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver each month.. However, the price of silver did not rise and precious gold was being drained away from the treasury while cheap silver piled up. This act, therefore, helped to precipitate the panic of 1893, and it caused a decrease in foreign investments in the U.S. economy.
Bimetallism: Bimetallism is the use of both silver and gold as the basis of an economy as opposed to the use of one or the other or none. During the gold and free silver campaigns of the early 1900s, the Republicans believed in a money system based on the single gold standard, while the democrats believed in bimetallism.
"Coin" Harvey: The silverites’ most influential piece of propaganda was William H. Harvey's Coin’s Financial School, published in 1894. It explained the monetary issue in simplified partisan terms, denounced "the conspiracy of the Goldbugs," and insisted that the free coinage of silver would eliminate the debt.
Free silver: This was a chiefly unsuccessful campaign in the late 19th-century U.S. for the unlimited coinage of silver. Major supporters of this movement were owners of silver mines, farmers, and debtors, for whom silver production would be economically favorable. William Jennings Bryan led the democratic party to support free silver during the 1890s.
16 to 1: During the Panic of 1873 the world market ratio of silver to gold fell below the ratio of 16:1 for the first time in world history. This coincided with the opening of rich silver mines in the Western united States and also with post-Civil War deflation. It resulted in the movement in favor of free silver and bimetallism of the populists
Depression of 1893: This panic swept the country two months after the second inauguration of President Grover Cleveland. Banks closed their doors, railroads went bankrupt, and farm mortgages were foreclosed. People hoarded gold, and the treasury’s gold reserve was depleting. A notable cause was the struggle between the free silver and gold advocates.
Coxey's Army, 1894: This was actually a band of unemployed people who marched to Washington DC during the depression of 1894 under the leadership of Jacob S. Coxey, a quarry operator. They urged the enactment of laws which would provide money without interest for public improvements, which would create work for the unemployed.
Repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 1893: In 1893 President Grover Cleveland, who stood for the gold standard, succeeded in having the Sherman Silver Purchase Act repealed over the strong objections of William Jennings Bryan. However, little gold was in the treasury; thus, the panic of 1893 could not be avoided and the crisis remained until 1896.
Ocala Demands, 1890: These demands were essentially a platform of the Democratic/ Populist party for the 1892 election created at a gathering in Ocala, Florida in 1890. Northern leaders generally favored a third party candidate, while Southerners feared that it would weaken the southern Democratic Party.
Tom Watson: An U.S. journalist, legislator, and a southern alliance leader from Georgia, he urged southern farmers to recognize their common plight and act together. He was also the Populist party’s presidential candidate in 1904 and 1908, served as a senator from 1921 to 1922, and edited The Weekly Jeffersonian, a populist magazine.
James B. Weaver: An United States legislator and prominent figure during the Populist movement, he served as a congressman from 1879 to 1781 and 1885 to 1889. He was the presidential candidate of the Greenback and People’s parties in 1892. Weaver was also a former civil war general.
"Pitchfork" Ben Tillman: An U.S. Populist party leader born in South Carolina, he was elected governor of South Carolina in 1890 and 1892, and he served on the U.S. Senate from 1894 to 1912. Very progressively minded, Tillman promoted many reform programs in South Carolina, including better public education.
Mary Ellen Lease: She was a fiery lawyer from Wichita, Kansas who was very active in the movements for agrarian and labor reform. She burst out on to the scene in the 1890's as a spellbinding Southern alliance orator vehemently crying that the farmers needed to "raise less corn and more hell."
"Sockless" Jerry Simpson: He was an intelligent rancher from Kansas who lost his stock in the hard winter of 1886 to 1887, and he became a major Southern Alliance leader. When he mentioned the expensive silk stockings of a conservative politician and remarked that he could afford no such fineries a hostile newspaper editor named him "Sockless Jerry."
Ignatius Donnelly: A noted United States writer and a champion of the Populist Party, Donnelly served as an U.S. Congressman from Minnesota from 1863 to 1869. He also wrote Great Cryptogram in an attempt to prove that Francis Bacon wrote William Shakespeare's works.
William Jennings Bryan: Despite the fact that he was defeated three times for the presidency of the United States, William Jennings Bryan, the principal figure of the Populist party, molded public opinion as few leaders have done. A surprise to the public, he polled many votes during the 1896 election, which may have been a direct result of his "Cross of Gold Speech." For many years he was the leader of the Democratic party, and it was his influence that won the Democratic presidential nomination for Wilson in 1912.
"Cross of Gold Speech": William Jennings Bryan won the national Democratic convention's nomination for the presidency in 1896 through a vigorous appeal for free coinage of silver known as the "Cross of Gold" speech. Turning to those who wanted only gold as the monetary standard, he exclaimed: "You shall not crucify mankind upon this cross of gold." As a Populist, he did not support the gold standard since it would deflate the currency, which would make it more difficult for citizens to repay debts.
Election of 1896, Candidates, Issues: The presidential candidates were the Republican William McKinley from Pennsylvania, and the Democrat William J. Bryan. The Populists also supported Bryan for the presidency, but chose Tom Watson for the vice presidency. The Republicans believed in the gold standard, while the Democrats believed in bimetallism and the unlimited coinage of silver. McKinley won the election. The Populism collapsed after 1896, but Progressivism emerged in its wake.
Marcus Hanna: He was an industrialist who became convinced that the welfare of industry, and therefore the nation, was bound by the fortunes of the Republican party. To further his goals he waged the most expensive political campaign the nation had ever seen to get William McKinley elected president in 1896. He also served in the Senate.
The Emergence Of Modern Woman
The new urban environment fostered the growth of feminism. As millions of women began to work outside the home, they saw themselves in a new light, and began to demand certain rights. Many women asserted their independence by participating in social reform movements. Along with their male counterparts, they crusaded for pressing reforms, such abolition and prohibition.
Susan B. Anthony: For more than half a century Susan B. Anthony fought for women's suffrage. She traveled from county to county in New York and other states making speeches and organizing clubs for women's rights. She pleaded her cause with every president from Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A pioneer in the modern quest for women's rights, Stanton helped to organize a political movement that demanded voting rights for women. She was a prominent leader in the campaign for what became the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution which guaranteed female suffrage.
Carrie Chapman Catt: When Susan B. Anthony retired in 1900 from the NAWSA, she chose Carrie Chapman Catt to take her place. Though Catt was forced to resign in 1904 due to her husbands illness, she remained active in NAWSA and in 1915 became its president. After this, Catt continued to play a large role in the fight for Women's rights.
Alice Paul: Alice Paul was a U.S. woman suffragist who was born in Moorestown, N.J. She was imprisoned three times in England and three times in the U.S. for activities in woman suffrage movement. She led the Congressional Union for Women's Suffrage, later called the National Woman's party, in lobbying for the right to vote during World War I.
Women’s Christian Temperance Union: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in 1874. Partly through their efforts, six states adopted Prohibition by 1890. It became the nation’s first mass organization of women. Its activities included welfare work, prison reform, labor arbitration and public health.
Francis Willard: In 1874 a temperance crusade swept the United States. A young lecturer and educator, Frances Willard, joined the movement, became famous for building the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She soon became the president of the newly formed union. Willard stressed religion and morality in her work.
Carry A. Nation: A vehement foe of alcoholic beverages, Carry A. Nation would appear at a saloon, berate the customers, and proceed to damage as much of the place as she could with her hatchet. She was the scourge of tavern owners and drinkers alike in Kansas, as well as in many other states.
Clara Barton: Single-handedly, she organized supply depots to serve Civil War soldiers. For four years after the war, she headed the search for missing soldiers. In 1872 she campaigned to organize a branch of the Red Cross in the United States. She succeeded in 1881. For 23 years she directed Red Cross work in every great disaster.
Colleges admitting women: By the end of the 19th century the number of women students had increased greatly. Higher education was broadened by the rise of women's colleges and the admission of women to regular colleges and universities. In 1870 an estimated one fifth of resident college students were women. By 1900 this had increased to more than one third.
Bicycling emerges as a hobby for women: Constraints on women were loosened toward the end of the nineteenth century when bicycling swept the U.S. Fearful of waning vitality, middle and upper-class women turned to bicycle riding as a source of exercise, recreation, and a way to escape the restrictive Victorian attitudes towards female physical activity.
Divorce rate: By the turn of the twentieth century divorce rate in the United States had started to steadily grow. This was due to more opportunities for women which made them less economically dependent on their husbands. An increased number of people living in the cities also contributed to the fact that cities had higher divorce rates than rural areas.
The Flowering Of American Culture
Along with the new social currents of the day caused by rapid urbanization, immigration, and the growth of business, came a fervor of cultural display. American culture diversified as Americans saw the society around them drastically changing, causing them to strive to express their views through various forms.
Henry James: James was a writer and brother of philosopher William James. He wrote about the impact of European culture on Americans who traveled or lived abroad. Some of his famous writings include The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl.
Charles Darwin: Darwin was a British Scientist who created the theory of modern evolution. In his theory, the development of organisms came through a process called natural selection, which is often called "survival of the fittest." His theories were presented in his novel The Origin of Species.
Rev. Russell Conwell, "Acres of Diamonds": Conwell was a Baptist minister who preached about ordinary man's and capitalist's materialistic longings. He used religious virtue to justify the quest for wealth as a Christian endeavor. This was the message in his "Acres of Diamonds" lecture, which he gave over 6000 times.
Dwight L. Moody: Moody was the creator of the Illinois Street Church which was later renamed the Moody Memorial Church. Together with Ira Sankey, he began a series of revival meetings and opened the Northfield Seminary for Young Women and the Mount Hermon School for Boys. He also founded the Bible Institute in Chicago in 1889.
Rerum Novarum, 1891: Formulated by Pope Leo XIII, it was the Catholic social doctrine. It held private property as a natural right, and it found fault with capitalism for the poverty and insecurity that it left the working class in. Many Catholic socialism movements are derived from this.
Charles Sheldon, In His Steps: He was a Congregational clergyman and a social reformer. He was also the author of the book In His Steps , which is the story of people who tried to pattern their lives after the life of Jesus. It emphasized social problems which tied it into the Social Gospel Movement.
Mary Baker Eddy: She was the founder of the Christian Science Association and the Church of Christ, Scientist. After a remarkable recovery from sickness, she published Science and Health, about the fundamentals of her metaphysical system of healing. In addition, she founded the international daily newspaper Christian Science Monitor.
Chautauqua Movement: Methodists John Heyl Vincent and Lewis Miller founded this movement, which combined daily Bible studies with healthful recreation. It later expanded to include concerts, lectures, and courses in science and humanities. The movement was imitated numerous times in the United States.
Johns Hopkins University: Financed by John Hopkins, it is an institution of higher learning in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1876. It is world renowned for its medical school and its applied physics laboratory. Former President Woodrow Wilson received his Ph.D. in political science here.
Charles W. Eliot, Harvard: Educated at Harvard University, he was an assistant professor of mathematics and chemistry there for five years. In 1869, he became the president of Harvard, who remodeled the curriculum on a liberal basis. He created a set of books containing 50 volumes known as Harvard Classics.
Josiah Willard Gibbs: At Yale, he was a professor of mathematical physics for 34 years. He laid the foundations of the modern understanding of electromagnetic phenomenon and thermodynamics. The real importance of his studies and theoretical descriptions of the behavior of subatomic particles have only been recently recognized.
Morrill Land Act, 1862: Introduced to Congress by Republican Justin Morrill, the act introduced a bill to establish state colleges of agriculture and to bring higher education within the reach of the common people. Proceeds from the sale of public lands were given to states to fund the establishment of these universities of agriculture and mechanics. They were called land grant colleges and were located in the Midwest and West. Many universities such as Michigan, Iowa State, and Purdue profited from its provisions.
Hatch Act, 1887: It was an act written by Representative William Henry Hatch of Missouri. This act gave each state $15,000 a year to help establish and maintain agricultural experiment stations. It was a supplement to the land grant colleges, which the government in order to promte the teaching of agriculture.
"gilded age": Given its name by the novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley, it is a time period which criticized the lobbyists, swindlers, politicians who took bribes, and those who got rich in the postwar boom. The period was characterized by industrial production, westward expansion, immigration, and urban growth, as well as strikes, depressions, despair and bitterness, buoyancy and free-spending. The span of this era ranges from the end of the Civil War, 1869, to the turn of the century.
Nouveau riche: It was the new class of people which was created by the wealth and prosperity generated from the industrial capitalism and the big businesses. This class grew during the Gilded Age. Most of these people were self-made and showed their importance through ostentatious displays. Robber barons were included in this class.
William James: James was a philosopher and psychologist, who came up with the philosophy of pragmatism, which is summed up in his lectures entitled Pragmatism: A New Name for Old Ways of Thinking. As a psychologist, he wrote his famous Principles of Psychology which established him as one of the most influential thinkers of the time.
Pragmatism: Developed by William James and Charles Sanders Pierce, it is a philosophical doctrine stating that the test of the truth of a proposition is its practical utility, the effect of an idea is more important than its origin, and the purpose of thought is to guide action.
E.L. Godkin, editor of The Nation: Godkin was an editor, whose criticism in his book The Nation and New York's Evening Post, which he edited, was influential in the reform movement. He and others codified the standards in the Victorian era in both literature and the fine arts. He was also a former mugwump and anti-imperialist.
William Dean Howells: Howells was a novelist, critic, and editor of the Atlantic, who championed authors such as Stephen Crane, Mark Twain, Frank Norris, and Henry James. He was also president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In his life he wrote many works, including A Fearful Responsibility, and The Rise of Silas Lapham.
Stephen Crane: Cranes was a writer and poet who began the use of the naturalistic style of writing. His most famous novels include The Red Badge of Courage, Maggie, a Girl of the Streets, and The Open Boats and Other Stories. The Black Riders and Other Lines, and War is Kind and Other Poems are two volumes of his poems.
Hamlin Garland: Garland was a short story writer who used his experiences working on farms in Iowa and South Dakota as central themes for his countless short stories that denounced American farm life. He published these stories under the titles Main-Travelled Roads and Other Main-Travelled Roads.
Bret Harte: Harte was a writer who was also the editor of the Overland Monthly, which published many of his famous works. These stories included "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." He published a collection of his works called The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Short Stories. He also wrote for Atlantic Monthly.
Mark Twain: Twain was a writer named Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who used Mark Twain as his pseudonym. He is characterized by his humor and sharp social satire. His many famous novels include The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
The Gilded Age, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley: It is a novel written in a time when materialism and corruption controlled the lives of Americans. It was written by Twain, and Dudley was the coauthor. Many of the characters in the novel were recognized by readers of the book as figures in society.
Horatio Alger's Books for Youth: Alger was a writer of juvenile fiction. His novels held a theme of rags to riches, where poor youth would win fame and money by having virtues of honesty, diligence, and perseverance. Among his collection are Luck and Pluck, Tattered Tom, and his most famous Ragged Dick. By emphasizing merit rather than focusing on social status as the way to determine success, his more than 100 novels had a major impact on the youth of that time.
James McNeill Whistler: Whistler was an etcher and painter who was a champion of modern art. He also incorporated Japanese styles of art and made many technical innovations in art. He is also well known for his portraits. The White Girl and Twelve Etchings from Nature are his most famous etchings.
Winslow Homer: One of the greatest American painters, Winslow Homer is best known for his watercolors and oil paintings of the sea. These paintings often have great dramatic effect because of the way they show man's powerlessness in the face of the unfeeling and mysterious forces of nature.
Joseph Pulitzer: Joseph Pulitzer was a large newspaper publisher. In the newspaper circulation wars of the 1890s, publisher Joseph Pulitzer was one of the leading combatants. His chief opponent was William Randolph Hearst. The two used every tactic, including sensational yellow journalism, to encourage people to buy their papers.
William Randolph Hearst: Through dishonest and exaggerated reporting, William Randolph Hearst's newspapers whipped up public sentiment against Spain, actually helping to cause the Spanish-American War. Hearst was quite willing to take credit for this, as his New York City newspaper testified in an 1898 headline: "How Do You Like the Journal’s War?"
The Frontier West
As America expanded, many Americans desired to move westward and cultivate new lands. Federal government policies intended to facilitate the move westward, but it was often at the expense of the Native Americans who already occupied the land. As Americans continued to move the frontier farther and farther west, America expanded across the continent.
Great American Desert: For years, the geography of the U.S. was unknown to most Americans. Their perceptions of western regions were drawn from descriptions left by early travelers. Maps published prior to the Civil War often called the Great Plains area the "Great American Desert." It was a region deemed unfit for settlement.
Homestead Act, 1862: This act cut up Western public lands into many small holdings for the free farmers. It was originally started by Andrew Johnson as the first homestead bill but met strong opposition by Southern Representatives and therefore could not be passed until the secession of the Southern States during the Civil War.
Barbed wire, Joseph Glidden: Barbed wire was invented and patented by Joseph Glidden in 1874 and had a major impact on the cattle industry of the Western U.S. Accustomed to allowing their cattle to roam the open range, many farmers objected to barbed wire. Others used it to fence in land or cattle that did not belong to them.
Indian Appropriations Act, 1871: By this act Congress decided that Indian tribes were no longer recognized as sovereign powers with whom treaties must be made. Existing treaties, though, were still to be considered valid, but violations continued to occur. This lead to many conflicts, including that between the Sioux and the U.S. at Little Big Horn.
Plains Indians: Great Plains tribes began attacking wagon trains carrying settlers during the 1850s. They had been angered by settlers who drove away the buffalo herds they depended on for food, clothing, and shelter. When war would break out, the Indians would either be defeated and transported, or a treaty would be made in which they lost part of their lands.
Chivington Massacre: The United States Army, led by Colonel John M. Chivington, attacked and massacred the Cheyenne Indians that were settled along Sand Creek, Colorado in 1864. At the time, the Cheyenne were being led by Chief Black Kettle, and were attacked despite a previous agreement made with the governor.
Battle of Little Big Horn: The Sioux refused to sell the land to the government in 1875, and refused to leave the area to inhabit reservations. When the Sioux refused, the army under Lieut. Col. Custer, was sent to enforce the order.In this battle the main body of Indians, under Sioux leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, wiped out General Custer's men in 1876.
Chief Joseph: When he became chief of the Nez Perce Indian tribe in the American Northwest in 1871, Joseph led his people in an unsuccessful resistance to white settlers who were confiscating land. The tribe was ordered to move. Joseph agreed, but when three of his tribe killed a group of settlers, he attempted to escape to Canada with his followers.
Ghost Dance Movement: As the Sioux population dwindled as a result of the federal government policies, they turned to the Ghost Dance to restore their original dominance on the Plains. Wearing the Ghost Shirts, they engaged in ritual dances that they believed would protect them from harm. The ritual allowed them to reaffirm their culture amidst the chaos.
Battle of Wounded Knee: Convinced that Sitting Bull was going to lead an uprising, the United States Army massacred more than 200 Indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on Dec. 29, 1890. After the incident, the Ghost Dance movement which had been recently revived by Indians rapidly died out. This event ended the conquest of the American Indian.
Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor: This book, by Jackson, was a discourse concerning the plight of American Indians published in 1881. She gathered information regarding American Indians and their lives while serving on a federal commission investigating the treatment of Indians. Jackson also wrote Ramona concerning the same topic.
Dawes Severalty Act, 1887: It was proposed by Henry L. Dawes, and was passed in 1887. It was designed to reform what well-meaning but ignorant whites perceived to be the weaknesses of Indian life-- the lack of private property, the absence of a Christian based religion, the nomadic traditions of the Indians, and the general instability in their way of life -- by turning Indians into farmers. The main point of the law was to emphasize treating Indians as individuals as opposed to members in a tribe, or severalty.
Frederick Jackson Turner, Frontier Thesis: In his analysis of how the frontier, moving from east to west, shaped the American character and institutions, Turner decisively rejected the then common belief that the European background had been primarily responsible for the characteristics of the United States. He also justified overseas economic expansion as a means to secure political power at a time when America began focusing on expanding its influence throughout the world.
Safety Valve Thesis: This assertion stated that as immigrants came to the eastern United States during the late nineteenth century and "polluted" American culture, citizens of the U.S. would have the West as a "safety valve" to which they could go in order to revitalize their pure Americanism.
Comstock Lode: One of the richest silver mines in the United States was discovered in 1859 at the Comstock Lode in Nevada. This discovery contributed to the speed by which Virginia City, Nevada was built. An influx of settlers came to Nevada, and Nevada granted statehood in 1864.
The Growth Of Labor
Reacting to the emergence of big business, workers organized themselves to protect their welfare. Feeling that they were helpless against the practices of the large corporations, workers collectivized to gain power through their numbers. Labor Unions, such as the National Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, were created in order to establish forums for workers to express discontent.
National Labor Union, William Sylvis: In 1866, acting on his dream of a nationwide association to represent all workers. Sylvis called a convention in Baltimore that formed the National Labor Union (NLU). The organization supported the eight-hour day movement, but also embraced banking reform and an end to conviction labor.
Knights of Labor, Uriah Stephens, Terrence Powderly: The Knights of labor dreamed of a national labor movement. This organization was founded in Philadelphia in 1869, and was led by Uriah Stephens, who was also the head of the Garment Cutters of Philadelphia. They welcomed all wage earners, and demanded equal pay for women, an end to child and convict labor, and cooperative employer-employee ownership. In their organization, they excluded bankers, lawyers, professional gambler, and liquor dealers.
American Federation of Labor (AFL): Confronted by big business, Samuel Gompers and Adolph Strasser put together a combination of national crafts unions to represent the material interests of labor in the matter of wages, hours, and safety precautions. They demanded bargaining in labor contracts with large corporations such as railroads, mining, and manufacturing. They did not intend to have a violent revolution nor political radicalism.
Samuel Gompers: An American labor leader, he, as president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), stressed cooperation between management and labor instead of strike actions, as a means of obtaining labor demands. He led the AFL for forty years, until his death in 1924.
Collective bargaining: The major function of unions is collective bargaining, a process by which unions and employers negotiate terms of employment. The terms are set forth in a written agreement that the union and the employer promise to enforce. The AFL demanded collective bargaining in labor contracts with large corporations.
Injunction: An injuntion is a court order. It was generally used against strikers. It is an order or decree in the law of equity, requiring a defendant to refrain from committing a specific act, either in process or threatened, injurious to the plaintiff. Injunctions are generally preventive, restraining, or prohibitory in nature.
Pinkertons: They were a group in Allan Pinkerton’s organization, the National Detective Agency. They often spied on the unions for the companies. In 1877, when a railroad strike broke out, they were called in as strikebreakers. In the Homestead Strike, the Pinkertons fired on the strikers, killing many of them.
Closed Shop: The closed shop is an agreement between a trade union and an employer which is a collective bargain. It provides that employees in the bargaining unit shall be union members and remain in good standing in the union as a condition of employment. Many of these shops were banned by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.
Blacklist, Yellow Dog Contracts: With the formation of labor unions, workers began to strike to obtain better conditions. However, employers blacklisted employees that went on strike, which which made getting another job later much harder. They also made employees sign yellow dog contracts, which forced the employee to agree not to strike or join a union.
Company Union: First adapted by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in 1915, it was a company-sponsored labor union that was dominated by the management. The workers wanted unions, and they got them, but they were controlled by the management, so the company had the final word on the labor policy.
Great Railroad Strike, 1877: A group of railroad workers on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad rose up and began to strike due to wage cuts. This spread up and down the railroad line across the nation. Railroad roadhouse were torched. President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in troops to stop the strike. 100 people died in the strike.
haymarket square riot: Strikers and police had a confrontation while a strike was in progress on May 4, 1886, at the McCormick reaper works in Chicago. Several protesters were shot by police the day before, and a protest against police violence was called. The police were attempting to break up the meeting when a bomb was thrown by a protester. A violent gun battle ensuedin which seven police were killed. Many police and civilians were injured as well.
John Peter Altgeld: He served as the liberal governor of Illinois from 1893 to 1897. He was criticized for pardoning the anarchists who threw the bomb in the Haymarket Square Riot and for objecting to the use of federal troops in the Pullman strike. His action was considered dangerously radical by the American public.
Homestead Strike: Called in 1892 by the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers, it was one of the most violent strikes in U.S. history. It was against the Homestead Steel Works, which was part of the Carnegie Steel Company, in Pennsylvania in retaliation against wage cuts. On July 6, company guards and Pinkertons opened fire on the strikers after four months of striking, killing and wounding many strikers. The state militia dispersed the strikers.
American Railway Union: Created by Eugene V. Debs, it was a union created in a short-lived attempt to bring all of the railroad workers into one organization. This union was a precursor of the union movement that followed in the 1930s. The union was involved in the 1894 Pullman Strike.
Pullman Strike: The American Railway Union and Eugene V. Debs led a nonviolent strike which brought about a shut down of western railroads, which took place against the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago in 1894, because of the poor wages of the Pullman workers. President Grover Cleveland interfered and stopped the strike by saying that they had interfered with the right of the government to maintain the uninterrupted transport of mail. Debs was arrested and the strike was broken up.
Eugene V. Debs: As the president and the organizer of the American Railway Union, he helped bring about the shut down of western railroads with the 1894 Pullman Strike. He was arrested for these actions. He also helped organize the Social Democrat party in 1897, after meeting socialist Victor Berger. He was the party’s presidential candidate five times: in 1900, 1904, 1908, and 1912. He later became a lecturer and organizer for the Socialist movement.
Richard Olney: He was the United States Attorney General from 1893 to 1897. He also sat on the board of directors of three major networks of railroads. The General Manager’s Association attempted to get an federal injunction from Olney against the strikers for refusing to move cars carrying U.S. mail.
Danbury Hatters Strike: The Supreme Court declared in 1908, after a strike by workers in Danbury, Connecticut, which was known for its hat industry, that unions were prohibited from setting up boycotts in support of strikes. It was said that a boycott was a "conspiracy in restraint of trade."
The Middle Class Reform Impulse
As Americans viewed the poverty throughout their cities, middle class Americans strove to enact reform measures that would aid their society. Groups were formed to aid the less fortunate Americans who inhabited the slums of the cities. Although these citizens strove to aid their fellow man, in many cases, there was a prevalent feeling of condecension towards the poorer classes.
Jane Addams, Hull House: She was a social worker and a Nobel laureate. With the help of Ellen Star, she created the Hull House in 1889 in Chicago, which was the first settlement house in the U.S. It was a welfare agency for needy families, and it also served to combat juvenile delinquency and to assist the recent immigrants in learning the English language and in becoming citizens. In addition, in 1912, Addams played a large role in the formation of the National Progressive Party and the Women’s Peace Party.
Lester Frank Ward: Ward worked with the U.S. Geological Survey. He argued against William Graham Sumner in his Dynamic Sociology and stated that the laws of nature could be changed by mankind through government experts regulating big business, protecting society’s weaker classes, and preventing the destruction of natural resources.
Social Gospel: It was a Protestant liberal movement led by Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch that applied Christian principles to the numerous social problems that affected the late 19th century United States as a result of industrialization. The movement preached and taught religion and human dignity to the working class in order to correct the effects of capitalism. In 1908 the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America adopted a social creed that called for many improvements in society.
Walter Rauschenbusch: He was a clergyman who was one of the leaders of the Social Gospel movement. He sought to solve social problems caused by the industrialized society by applying Christian principles. He also helped found the Society of Jesus to publish periodicals for the working class.
Washington Gladden: He was a Congregationalist minister who became known for his pragmatic social theology. He linked theological liberalism with strong social concern. He worked with Walter Rauschenbusch as a leader of the Social Gospel movement. In addition, he wrote 38 books, which include Working People and their Employers.
Anti-Saloon League: During and after the American Civil War, the laws regulating many aspects of saloons were either reduced or eliminated. As a result, many people united in this league in the fight against saloons. By 1916 they enacted anti-saloon laws in 23 states and in 1917 they passed the 18th amendment beginning prohibition.
Salvation Army: Founded by Methodist William Booth, it is a religious and charitable organization dedicated to spreading the Christian faith and giving assistance to those in need of both spiritual and material aid. It was founded in 1865 in England as the Christian Mission, whose goal was to give aid to the London slums.
YMCA: British Sir George Williams founded this organization in response to unsanitary social conditions in large cities at the end of the Industrial Revolution, and to stop the young workers from gambling and engaging in other disreputable. In the U.S., it began constructing gyms, libraries, and summer camps.
Rev. Josiah Strong: Strong was the secretary of the American Home Missionary Society and the minister of Cincinnati's Central Congregational Church. Afraid that poverty was escalating, he wrote his book Our Country; Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis in 1885, where he stated that cities were centers of anarchy and destruction.
Social Darwinism: It is a theory developed in the late 19th century by which individuals and societies believed that people, like all other organisms compete for survival and success in life. It was believed that human progress depended highly on competition. Those who were best fit for survival would become rich and powerful, and the less fit in society would be poor and the lower classes. Many felt that this theory was expounded by Charles Darwin, but in reality, they misinterpreted his words.
Herbert Spencer: Spencer was a British philosopher, who was regarded as one of the first sociologists. His works include Social Statics, Principles of Psychology, and A System of Synthetic Philosophy. He created a system of philosophy that included his own theory of evolution, but also incorporated all existing fields of knowledge.
William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe Each Other: Sumner was a sociologist and author of What Social Classes Owe Each Other. In this book, he stated that unchangeable laws of nature, such as survival of the fittest, control all social order and they can not be changed by man.
Henry Ward Beecher: Beecher was the pastor of the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn, New York, who was also one of the earliest and best known abolitionists. Also, he was an effective champion of women's rights and suffrage. He was also editor in chief of the religious and political periodicals Independent and The Christian Union.
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, 2000-1887: He was an essayist and journalist who founded the Springfield Daily News, and then turned toward literature. He published his most famous work in 1888, which was entitled Looking Backward, 2000-1887. This novel was a depiction of an ideal society in the year 2000. This novel led to the formation of many socialistic clubs. To further publicize his views, Bellamy created the journal, New Nation, in 1891.
Henry George, Progress and Poverty: George was an economist and social philosopher. In his book Progress and Poverty, he stated that land ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few, and these people reap the benefits of the rise in value of the land. He recommended a shift to what he called a single tax.
The Single Tax: Developed by social philosopher and economist Henry George, it was a doctrine of social reform where all taxation should be reduced to a single tax on land. The doctrine was described in his book Progress and Poverty, and it was influenced by 17th century philosopher John Locke and British economist David Ricardo.
Urbanization
Rapid urbanization began in the 1870s as people flocked to the cities. These urban centers quickly crowded, and many cities became impersonal metropolises that were divided into business, residential, social and ethnic centers. Amidst this chaos, corruption thrived as political bosses ran the city for their own personal gain. It appeared as if the nation was modernizing quicker than it could deal with problems of urbanization.
George Washington Plunkitt: A minor boss in Tammany Hall and a member of the New York State Assembly, he was skilled in winning numerous votes for party candidates by associating with and being kind to the people in New York. He was paid by these candidates, and he received generous rewards.
"Honest Graft": This term, created by George Washington Plunkitt, referred to the police corruption that took place in the Tammany Hall political machine. The practices included paying bribes to make an individual a police officer, to get him a promotion, or to get him to the position of a sergeant.
Boss Tweed: He was an important figure in New York’s political machine, the Tammany Society. He held New York City and state political posts where he increased his power. Forming the Tweed Ring, which bought votes, he controlled New York politics, and encouraged judicial corruption.
Boss George B. Cox: Cox, the boss of Cincinnati’s Republican political machine, had a reputation for being one of the most honest bosses. He worked his way up the ladder from being a newspaper boy to being the head of the political machine. In addition, he helped with many public works in the city.
Tammany Hall: Founded by anti-federalist William Mooney, it is the name for the New York Democratic party machine, also known as the Tammany Society, whose supposed goal was to preserve democratic institutions. However, Tammany Hall gained a great reputation for its corrupt practices, and was opposed by reform groups. It began to gain power with the rise of Boss Tweed in 1868. Its leader, Alfred E. Smith, ran for president of the United States.
Thomas Nast: A political cartoonist and caricaturist, he became an illustrator for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in 1855. He later worked for Harper’s Weekly. He was best known for his cartoons slandering the corrupt Tammany ring of New York during the period from 1869 to 1872.
Streetcar Suburbs: The creation of electric streetcar systems allowed families to move farther from the city’s center. Streetcar companies purchased land on the city’s periphery and made tremendous profits on the sale of the real estate. The streetcar system allowed people to live farther away from their work. This facilitated the move away from the city’s center.
Tenements: Built by a landlord, tenements were small housing units that were extremely overcrowded, poorly built, and that contained filth. There was a lack of fresh air and light in these housing units, and in addition, they were inhabited mainly by new immigrants. The worst tenements became known as slums.
Denis Kearney: He was a labor leader who protested the increasing numbers of Chinese laborers when California had an economic depression in 1877. With his support, he formed the Workingman’s Party of California, which later became associated with the Grange movement.
James Bryce: He was a British historian and statesman who became the leader of the Liberal Party. He served as the ambassador to the United States from 1907 to 1913. He was also the author of The American Commonwealth (1888), which is one of the most discerning studies ever written on U.S. political institutions.
John A. Roebling: Roebling was one of the creators of the suspension bridges. He also created and manufactured steel-wire ropes which he used, along with steel cables, in his construction. One of his most famous works was the Brooklyn Bridge which he completed shortly before his death.
Louis Sullivan: Sullivan was an American architect who used steel frames to design skyscrappers. He was also the founder of what is now the Chicago School of Architects. His most famous pupil was Frank Lloyd Wright, who later became a famous architect. Together with his partner Dankmar Adler, he produced over 100 buildings.
Frank Lloyd Wright: Wright was one of the greatest twentieth-century architect and is cosidered a pioneer of the modern style. He began as a designer for the Adler Sullivan firm, and he introduced many innovations, including double-glass windows, metal furniture, and air conditioning. He created the philosophy of "Organic Architecture."
Ashcan School: This school contained a group of painters, known as The Eight, who exhibited their style together as a group in 1908. Led by Robert Henri, the Ashcan School focused on more contemporary subjects, rather than on the academic and impressionist styles of the 19th century.
Armory Show: It was an art exhibition that took place in New York between February 17 and March 15, 1913 at the 69th Regiment Armory. It was an international exhibition in which modern art was first shown in the United States. A quarter of a million paid to see the show.
Anthony Comstock: Comstock was a reformer, who helped organize the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1873, of which he became secretary. He was also influential in the passage by Congress of the 1873 law concerned with obscenity in the U.S. mails. It became known as the Comstock Law.
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives: Riis was a social reformer and writer who wrote one of the most influential, popular, and early social documentaries in American history. He wanted to reform tenement housing and schools. In addition, he was influential in bringing about parks and playgrounds in overcrowded neighborhoods.
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class: Thorstein Bunde Veblen was best known for his book, The Theory of The Leisure Class, which was published in 1899. Introducing the concept of "conspicuous consumption," his writing was an assault on the values and lifestyles of the Gilded Age businessmen.
Below are the US History topics covered in this unit:
First World War
When war burst upon Europe in August 1914, most Americans wanted no part. Wilson immediately proclaimed American neutrality and called on the nation to be neutral "in thought and in action." Yet the United States and Britain were linked by extensive economic ties and many Americans felt close emotionally with the British. Fearing a world dominated by imperial Germany, and seething over violation of neutral rights on the seas, Wilson declared war in 1917.
"Sick man of Europe," Ottoman Empire, Balkan Wars: The ancient Ottoman empire had lost its grip throughout the late 1800’s. In the Balkan Wars, Balkan States gained their independence from the Ottoman Empire, called the "sick man of Europe." From it, the newly independent nations of Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia were created.
Triple Entente: Allies: Beginning in the early 1900’s, Britain, France and Russia had signed treaties with each other. After Austria declared war on Serbia, Germany declared war on the allies (Russia and France), in turn drawing Great Britain into the war. This system of alliances had escalated what was once a localized incident.
Triple Alliance: Central Powers: The Triple Alliance consisted of Germany, Austria- Hungary, as well as Italy. Germany, with its blank check provision to Austria- Hungary, had in encouraged the war declaration on Serbia. Afterwards, Germany declared war on Russia and France, Serbia’s allies by treaties.
loans to the Allies: In total, the United States lent the Allies over $10 billion. Great Britain owed the United States over $4.2 billion by the end of the war. This great indebtedness led to conflict later when the United States attempted to collect. Also, it led to increased reparations for Germany because of allied indebtedness.
British blockade: In an attempt to win the war of attrition that was World War I, Great Britain utilized its sizable navy to blockade all trade going in and out of Germany. Germany responded with its U-boats, eventually going on the offensive in 1917 by itself blockading Britain at the cost of American involvement.
Lusitania, Arabic pledge, Sussex pledge: In 1915, the British Lusitania was sunk bringing protests from Wilson. The Arabic was sunk in the same year and Germans followed with the Arabic pledge promising to stop attacks on passenger vessels. In 1916, Germans sunk the Sussex and made the Sussex pledge to promise a stoppage of attacks.
election of 1916: Hughes, Wilson, issues: Wilson ran for reelection for the Democrats on the call that he had kept the United States out of the war. Charles Evans Hughes was the Republican candidate who attacked the inefficiency of the Democratic Party. Wilson won the election, so was able to continue his idealistic policies.
unrestricted submarine warfare: On January 31, 1917, Germany announced it would resume unrestricted submarine warfare, a repudiation of the Sussex pledge, and sink all ships without warning whatsoever. This action was backed by the German belief that this would lead it to victory before the Americans could become involved in the war.
Zimmerman Note: Also known as the Zimmerman Telegram, the Zimmerman note was a message intercepted by British intelligence from Germany to Mexico in 1917 proposing that in the event of a German war with the United states, Mexico should attack the US. It would be a Mexican opportunity to retake the Mexican Cession. This was one of a few events which led to widespread public support for the Allies and eventual United States involvement in the World War.
Russian Revolutions, 1917, March and Bolshevik: In March 1917 a revolution overthrew Russia’s tsarist regime. The second Revolution, commonly called the October Revolution, was an armed coup organized by the Bolshevik party. These revolutions were caused by and led to Russia pulling out of World War I.
war declared, April 1917: On March 2, 1917, President Wilson called a special Congressional session for April 2, in which he proposed the declaration of war against Germany. The declaration was passed by the Senate by a vote of 82 to 6 and in the House by a vote of 373 to 50 before it was then signed by Wilson.
Wilson’s "Peace without victory": In 1916 President Wilson called for a "peace without victory." His words were a call to the European nations to stop the conflict based on a balance of power and to form a peace in which nations together would keep the peace. Wilson foresaw the vengeful atmosphere that would follow a prolonged war.
"Make the world safe for democracy": "Make the world safe for democracy" was Wilson’s famous line justifying United States involvement in the World War. It was based on the belief that from this international power struggle, a democratic revolution could arise. In other words, a new democratic world order led by the United States would follow.
Creel Committee: The Committee on Public Information, formed in 1917, was headed by journalist George Creel. At the beginning of the first World War, Americans sided with neutrality. The CPI was a propaganda committee that built support for the war effort in Europe among Americans. It depicted Germans and other enemies on bad terms, and served to censor the press. Anything German was frowned upon. The Creel Committee, or CPI, was successful in raising widespread American support for the war effort.
bond drives: Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo organized the raising of funds, or Liberty Loans, necessary for the war with five campaigns between 1917 and 1919 with much excitement. People felt obliged to buy bonds because they were afraid of being seen as unpatriotic. Eventually, they raised over $21 billion for the war.
War Industries Board: Created in July 1917, the War Industries Board controlled raw materials, production, prices, and labor relations. It also encouraged production by allocating raw materials, standardizing manufactured products, instituting strict production and purchasing controls, and paying high prices to businesses.
Bernard Baruch: Bernard Baruch was a Wall Street broker before being chosen by President Wilson in 1918 to head the War Industries Board. He was aided by a coalition of 100 businessman who advised him on fiscal policy. This was part of Wilson’s effort to take stronger action in the war effort.
Herbert Hoover, Food Administration: The Food Administration was created in 1917 as part of the war effort, and a response to the poor harvests of 1916 and 1917. Headed by Herbert Hoover, it set prices for agricultural goods high to encourage the production of agricultural products. It encouraged conservation with such days as "meatless Tuesdays."
Espionage Act, 1917; Sedition Act, 1918: The Espionage Act of 1917 enacted fines and imprisonment for false statements, inciting rebellion, or obstructing recruitment or the draft. Also papers which opposed the government could be banned from the U.S. postal service. The Sedition Act of 1918 made illegal any criticism of the government. It was poorly applied and used to trample civil liberties during the war hysteria as in the example of the imprisonment of Eugene Debs.
Eugene V. Debs imprisoned: Eugene Debs was questionably imprisoned and was given a 10 year prison term for giving a speech at a Socialist’s convention. The speech criticized American policy, involvement in the war and for warning of the dangers of war and militarism. His imprisonment was an example of the reactionism and hysteria of the period.
AEF: From 1917-1918, the AEF, or American Expeditionary Force, sent 2 million men to France under General John J. Pershing. Most enlisted in search of action and adventure. The United States insisted the AEF be independent of French and English armies because it was believed the U.S. would have a stronger bargaining voice with a separate army.
selective service: As part of US mobilization for war, on May 18, 1917, the Selective Service Act was passed. Men from 21-30 were to register for the military. At the time, the United States military was in poor disarray and men were desperately needed. Made into a party-like atmosphere, 24 million registered, and 3 million were actually drafted.
Eddie Rickenbacker: Rickenbacker was an American Aviator during World War I. During the war, he served in the US Air Service as commander of the 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron. Shooting down 22 planes, he was America’s leading pilot. He received the Distinguished Service Cross as well as the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Impact of the War
The war affected the lives of millions of industrial workers, farmers, women, and blacks in important ways. For all its horrors, World War I brought prosperity to the American economy. The wartime mood also gave a boost to moral-reform movements. Still, the wartime spirit saw new racial violence and fresh antiradical hysteria. The antiradical panic crested in the Red Scare of 1919-1920. Americans, tired of idealism, revealed their feelings in the election of 1920 leaving Republican Warren Harding in the office.
Women’s Roles in World War I: Prominent women’s leaders like Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw saw war as an opportunity for women’s rights. Thousands of American Women took vacated jobs and became involved in industrial production as well as volunteer agencies at home and abroad. Supplied America’s labor needs.
Harriet Stanton Blatch: A prominent women’s leader who during the war offered a view on why women should play a role in the wartime effort. In a variant of Wilson’s theme of determining the postwar peace, women should play a role so that after the war, they will have an opportunity to gain power and rights.
black migration to Northern cities: During the war, blacks left their traditional homes in the South and migrated North for job opportunities in the war industries. About 500,000 blacks migrated North during the war. Led to racial tension and violence in the North. This growing concentration of blacks led to the Harlem Renaissance.
wartime manpower losses: During World War I, military casualties alone accounted for just over 8.5 million deaths on both sides. Russia and Germany by far lost the most men at 1.7 million killed each. In comparison, the United States lost only 126,000 men. In all, over 21 million men were injured during the war.
Congressional elections of 1918: In 1918, the Republicans gained an advantage in both the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. Republicans no who had traditionally supported Wilson’s plans in Europe no longer supported him because of his cry to voters for a Democratic Congress.
Red Scare, Palmer raids: In 1919, there was a string of bombings. Among the victims was Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. In November 1919, Palmer led raids and arrested around 700 suspected communists and anarchists. Some were deported under the Alien Act. The Red Scare in the United States followed Communist revolutions in Russia.
strikes: 1919, coal, steel, police: Post-war strikes occurred because of an increase in prices. The most famous strike was in a Seattle shipyard. The government responded with troops to break up the strike. Chicago police struck and were all fired. The United Mine Workers of America under John L. Lewis struck as well, fueling the Red Scare.
inflation during the First World War: As Americans were sent to Europe to fight in World War I, a labor shortage was created. With the shortage came higher wages which led to more purchases and in turn, inflation. The rise in prices was regulated by the WIB which set prices.
election of 1920: candidates, issues: Senator Warren G. Harding was the Republican dark horse with running mate Calvin Coolidge. They advocated a "return to normalcy" from the war environment. James Cox, and Franklin D. Roosevelt were the Democratic nominees. They ran on a platform endorsing the League with reservations.
brief depression, 1920-1921: A brief depression occurred from mid-1920 to the end of 1921. It was due to decreased European purchases from American industries after the war. Prices fell and unemployment was over 12% at its height. It was followed by the improved economy of the 1920’s until the Great Depression struck.
Imperialism
As the 19th century came to a close, many voices cried for American expansionism to match the imperialistic ambitions of Europe and Japan. The dream for global destiny was justified by such logic as the expansion of overseas markets, desire for a stronger navy, and the spreading of Christianity to uncivilized peoples around the globe. Eventually, this expansionism translated into conflict, climaxing in 1898 with the Spanish-American War.
James G. Blaine, Pan-Americanism: As Secretary of State, Blaine fostered closer U.S.-Latin American relations and brought about the first Pan-American Congress in order to forge commercial, social, economic, military, and political cooperation among the 21 republics of North, Central, and South America.
Venezuelan boundary dispute: Venezuela had a dispute over its boundary with the British Colony of Guiana. In 1895, while the British refused to resolve the issue, United States Secretary of State Richard Olney sent a message to London declaring that the US would be "practically sovereign on this content."
Bering Sea seal controversy: When the US purchased Alaska in 1867, it included some small Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. Congress leased the island to a US company which killed seals with the understanding that they would not kill more than 10,000 male seals per year. This led to the regulation of pelagic sealing in 1893.
"Yellow journalism": Two rival newspapers in New York City, William Randolph Hearst’s Journal, and Joseph Pulitzer’s World, sensationalized editorializing on the issues to increase circulation. One of Hearst’s gimmicks was "The Yellow Kid," which gave the name of Yellow Journalism to this tactic.
Josiah Strong, Our Country: Reverend Josiah Strong wrote the book Our Country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis expressing his fears of the inability of relief organizations to cope with the explosive growth of the urban poor in the 1870’s and 1880’s.
Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890) helped create and develop the expansionist movement. Mahan, former head of the Navy War College at Newport, Rhode Island wanted to expand United States Navy to build an isthmusian canal, and to establish strategic colonies as cooling stations, and to protect US political and economic interests.
Samoa, Pago Pago: America’s Navy wanted to establish a port in the Samoan Islands, so their ships could refuel in the island of Pago Pago. This was an example of the United States Navy’s expansion efforts in the pacific. Their goal was to obtain more ports so they could have more ships out on the ocean to control the seas.
Virginius: In 1873 a Spanish gunboat captured the Virginius, a ship fraudulently flying the American flag, in Cuba. Secretary of State Fish and the Spanish minister came together in Washington and signed a protocol bringing the end to the Virginius affairs. Spain paid the US $80,000.
de Lôme letter: On February 8, 1898, Hearst’s Journal published a private letter written by Spanish minister to the United States Depuy de Lôme regarding his reservations for Cuban independence and disparaging President McKinley. Many Americans would have agreed, but they resented hearing it from a Spanish diplomat.
Maine explodes: When an explosion rocked the Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, killing 266 American crewmen, irritation turned to outrage. A review of the evidence later concluded that a ship-board ammunition explosion caused the blast. Still, a navy inquiry blamed the blast on a "Spanish mine."
Teller Amendment: The U.S. had been motivated o war in part by the desire to aid the Cubans in their attempt to liberate themselves from the colonial rule of Spain. To this end the Teller Ammendment was added to the Declaration of War. It speciffically prohibited the annexation of Cuba, as a cause of the war.
Spanish-American War: The Spanish-American War lasted just three months with only a few days of actual combat. Action started on May 1, 1898, when George Dewey’s fleet steamed into Manila Bay in the Philippines and seized or destroyed all ten Spanish ships anchored there. The war ended after Spanish Admiral Pascual Cervera attempted to break through American forces losing 474 men. The Filipinos celebrated their freedom from four hundred years of Spanish rule on July 4,1898.
Assistant Secretary of Navy Theodore Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt was appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President William McKinley in 1897. Roosevelt was an impatient disciple in the Spanish-American War, acting largely on his own. In 1898, Roosevelt resigned to become second in command of the Rough Riders.
Commodore Dewey, Manila Bay: The first action of the Spanish-American War came in 1898 when Commodore George Dewey’s fleet steamed into Manila Bay in the Philippines. This fleet destroyed and captured all ten Spanish ships that were assigned in Manila Bay. One American and 381 Spanish men died in the attempt.
Cleveland and Hawaii: In 1887 the United States gained the right to establish a naval port in Pearl Harbor. President Grover Cleveland was troubled with the crisis in Hawaii since Hawaiians claimed to want annexation. However, once their queen was overthrown, Hawaiians were uncertain if they wanted annexation at all.
Queen Liluokalani: Liluokalani was the Queen of Hawaii who did not like Americans since they built their port in Pearl Harbor. Queen Liluokalani was overthrown when Hawaii’s sugar prices dropped 40% and planters wanted the independent Republic of Hawaii.
Annexation of Hawaii: In 1890 under the McKinley Tariff, domestic sugar growers ended the duty-free status of Hawaiian sugar. After Hawaii’s sugar prices dropped 40% and Queen Liluokalani was overthrown, the Hawaiians decided to request United States annexation.
Rough Riders, San Juan Hill: The battle of San Juan Hill was fought on July 1, 1898 during the American advance on Santiago during the Spanish-American War. A division including the Rough Riders, under the command of General Kent, captured the hill, placing the American army on high ground overlooking Santiago.
Treaty of Paris, 1898: The Treaty of Paris ended the Spanish-American War and developed an American empire overseas. In the treaty, Spain agreed to abandon Cuba and exchange Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to America for $20 million. The treaty gave the United States a new imperialistic reputation.
American Anti-Imperialist League: The critics of imperialism were many and influential. Forming the Anti-Imperialist League, they believed that every country captured by the U.S. had the same rights under the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico: By the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1898, Spain recognized Cuba’s independence and ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the Pacific Island of Guam to the United States in exchange for $20 million. As 1899 dawned Americans possessed an island empire from the Caribbean to the Pacific.
Walter Reed: In 1900 Walter Reed was appointed to the Yellow Fever Commission as a result of his investigation of the disease. After being sent to Cuba to find out more about Yellow Fever, he discovered that the disease was carried by a mosquito. He later became a curator at Army Medical Museum and a professor at Army Medical College.
Insular Cases: The decisions regarding whether the Constitution applies to Puerto Rico and the Philippines are known as the Insular Cases. They ruled that the residents are inhabitants but not citizens of the United States. Because of this ruling, these countries were not honored by the Constitution and were treated as colonies.
Platt Amendment: Senator Orville Platt, at the request of the War department, made a revised bill to remove some of the restrictions stated in the Teller Amendment. The Platt Amendment stated that the United States would withdraw from Cuba if they did not sign a treaty with any other foreign power. It also gave the United States the right to interfere with Cuba if they believed that it was not a fit enough country to take care of itself. Also, they established the right to hold a naval base in Cuba.
Protectorate: When a more powerful state controls the economy, foreign affairs, or police power of another state, it is considered a protectorate. In the case of the United States, Cuba was a protectorate as a result of the Platt Amendment. Other examples might include Nicuaragua, the Dominican Republic, Hawaii, and other Pacific islands.
Aguinaldo, Philippine insurrection: In 1896 Emilio Aguinaldo started a Filipino movement for independence to get out of Spain’s control. When Spain surrendered, Aguinaldo drew up a constitution and proclaimed the Philippines’s independence. When the Treaty of Paris gave the United States power over the Philippines, Aguinaldo became angry and tried to fight. He soon realized that he would lose and gave up.
Secretary of State John Hay, Open Door Notes: John Hay’s Open Door Notes was a policy that explained the importance of American commercial influence on foreign policies. The Open Door Notes stated that the pre-thought "informal empire" was correct as opposed to overseas colonies being favored by imperial power.
Boxer Rebellion: The Boxers, a secret group of Chinese men known as I Ho Ch’uan, opposed Christianity in their country. Numbering 140,000, the Boxers killed thousands of foreigners as well as Chinese suspected of being Christian. British, American, Russian, Japanese and French soldiers were sent to China to end the "Boxer Rebellion."
Extraterritoriality: Extraterritoriality is a principle in international law that allows certain visiting foreign citizens or their property to be exempt from the laws of a host nation. Foreign heads of states traveling abroad and diplomats representing their home countries are examples of people benefiting from extraterritoriality.
Most favored nation clause: The most favored nation clause is a commercial treaty that regulates special low tariffs on goods imported to the United States. All countries awarded the Special Nation Status must be treated equally. Duties for the same group of goods should be the same low regardless from which country signatory of the status they are imported.
Postwar Aims
During the war, Wilson believed that United States involvement would translate into a new democratic world order. In a fourteen-point speech to Congress, Wilson summed up United States war aims and its noble objectives. November 1918 saw the war grind to a halt. The peace conference, held at Versailles in 1919, was dominated by conflict among the "Big Four," and the resulting treaty proved a disaster. Ultimately, Wilson failed in his most cherished objective, American membership in the League of Nations.
aims of Allies and US at peace conference: The main goal of Wilson and the American delegation was to secure an international peacekeeping organization; a peace based on Wilson’s Fourteen Points. The aims of the other allies were not as liberal as that of the US. The enormous reparations settled on was representative of this atmosphere.
Fourteen Points: The Fourteen Points were Wilson’s proposals and beliefs for a post-war world order. They dealt with the things that led to the first World War. For example, the first points called for open treaties, freedom of the seas, arms reduction and free trade. The other points dealt with self determination and finally a general association of nations, the League of Nations. During the conference of Versailles, Wilson pushed the Fourteen points and was partly successful.
Versailles Conference and Treaty: The Big Four dominated the conference in 1919 that determined the postwar world order. Wilson promoted his Fourteen Points while other Allies sought vengeance. The treaty found Germany liable for the war and established new nations based on self determination. It also made German colonies mandates under the League of Nations and included the controversial article X that kept the US out of the League. These provisions set the stage for World War II.
US Versailles delegation: The delegation was headed by President Wilson himself, and included Secretary of State Robert Lansing, General Tasker Bliss, Colonel Edward M. House, and attorney Henry White. Blatantly missing from the delegation were any Republican leaders, so the conference became not an American but a Democratic affair.
Big Four: Wilson, George, Clemenceau, Orlando: The Big Four were the dominating four at the Versailles conference after World War I. President Woodrow Wilson represented the United States, Lloyd George for Britain, Clemenceau for France, and Vittorio Orlando represented Italy. Each had a different prerogative and differing interests.
League of Nations: The organization promoted by Wilson in his Fourteen Points was the League of Nations. The US never joined because of controversy over Article X of the League Covenant that took away the United States’s freedom of determination in world affairs. Implemented at the Versailles conference, it existed from 1920 to 1946, meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, until it was taken over by the United Nations. After WWI, it divided German colonies into mandates of various League members.
collective security: Collective security was the dogma behind Article X of the League of Nations covenant of the Versailles Treaty. It stated that every nation would serve to protect the territorial integrity and existing governments of all other League nations. Hence, it was felt that this would ensure peace in the postwar world order. The belief manifested inself in the international world court that was established and later in the establishment of the United Nations after the demise of the League.
new nations, self determination: The idea of new nations and self determination was behind some of the aspects of the Treaty of Versailles. Self determination meant every nationality getting their own country, so new nations were created to allow this. Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland were new nations which filled this definition. Even with the doctrine of self determination, boundaries for new countries still left many misrepresented and under others’ control.
reparations: Reparations were implemented by European powers wanting vengeance against Germany. Germany was forced to pay a huge sum, some $33 billion to the Allies for civilian and veterans costs. This huge amount led to Germany’s economic downfall, allowing for the rise of Hitler and World War II
mandate system: As a provision of the Versailles Treaty, Germany’s colonies became mandates of the League of Nations and delegated to France, Japan and Britain. The colonies became in actuality, those of the respective countries, which was one of their purposes in fighting the war.
Article 10 of the Versailles Treaty: The most controversial of the League of Nations covenants, Article 10 said that all nations must protect the territorial and political integrity of other League members. The article meant that if one nation was engaged in war, all others must become involved. This article was a large part of why the US rejected the League.
Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty: By Article 231, Germany accepted total responsibility for her and her allies for starting the First World War. Reparations payments were based on this claim. It led to hatred among Germans and inadvertently contributed to conditions precipitating World War II.
Senate rejection, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, reservations: Senate reservationists did not fully oppose the League except for mainly one Article. They did not want the United States going to war defending another League member without Congress’s permission, as was stipulated by Article X. They wanted that article removed before ratification.
"irreconcileables": Borah, Johnson, La Follette: The irreconcileables were those in Congress who felt the United States should not be a member of the League under any circumstances. They opposed nearly all of the provisions of the League of Nations and felt that the League obstructed the United State’s freedom of self determination. Wilson attempted to overcome them and get ratification for the League but was unsuccessful in his campaign. The United States never joined the League of Nations.
Progressivism to Wilson
In 1912, the divided Republicans were no match for the united Democrats. Woodrow Wilson easily glided to victory as the Democrats also took both houses of Congress. Except on the issue of race, the election identified the party firmly with reform for the rest of the century. Wilson’s agenda included tariff reform, banking and currency reform, corporate regulation, and labor legislation. Four amendments to the Constitution within the span of eight years demonstrated the efficiency of the progressive impulse.
Woodrow Wilson, New Freedom: The Democratic Party, to which Wilson belonged, had a past history of 45 ballots without a nomination. To overcome this stumbling block the Democrats united with the Progressives, running under a compromise platform. Wilson’s "New Freedom" campaign was concerned with progressive programs similar to both parties. He did not, however, support trustbusting in the same way that Roosevelt did. To him, all big business was morally evil and should be broken up.
Theodore Roosevelt, New Nationalism: In the election of 1912 Roosevelt was nominated under a platform nicknamed "The New Nationalism." This platform followed the previous trustbusting and regulation trend as well as alleviating many common progressive concerns such as child labor, woman’s suffrage, and minimum wages. A Federal Trade Commission was also planned to regulate the economy. This platform was essentially identical with many of the progressive reforms later passed under Wilson.
Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life: Croly best captured the nature of progressivism in this book. He dreamed of an activist government which would serve all citizens. Specifically, he suggested a redefinition of government, democracy, and individualism. Roosevelt copied many of his ideas for his New Nationalism platform.
Election of 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, Debs - issues: The election of 1912 was very interesting for most Americans since there were 4 active political parties. Roosevelt tried to run with the Republican Party, but Taft was chosen. He left and created the Progressive Party. Wilson ran with the Democratic Party. Debs continued to run on the Socialist platform. All of the platforms dealt primarily with economic reform, indicating the change that Americans wanted. Debs even received 900,000 votes.
Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party: Eugene V. Debs was an American Socialist leader and five time presidential candidate. In 1897 he created the Social Democratic Party of America. He received nearly one million votes for president while he was imprisoned in jail. His Socialist party was quite popular until it splintered apart along internal divisions.
Daniel DeLeon, IWW, Wobblies, "Big Bill" Haywood: The Industrial Workers of the World, nicknamed the "Wobblies," was a radical labor group formed by "Big Bill" Haywood. They were never large, but they captured many people’s imaginations as they preached revolution. Though they won several strikes, they were more rhetoric than action.
National Monetary Commission: The National Monetary Commission examined monetary data collected by the Pujo Committee and recommended a new form of banking. This advice, suggesting a secure Treasury reserve and branch banks, later became the Federal Reserve System, used to adjust the value of money to keep the economy stable.
Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology: Edgar Lee Master’s poems are unique in that they are presented as the voices of a town’s graveyard talking about their lives. His work’s realism and irony contrast with the romantic and sentimental trends in progressive literature, demonstrating the revolt against conventional social standards that was beginning.
D. W. Griffith, The Birth of a Nation: D. W. Griffith revolutionized the field of motion pictures after his production of The Birth of a Nation in 1915. This story demonstrated the power of film propaganda and the racist effects it had on people. It also began a trend towards hour-long, dramatic, well-acted films.
Edwin Porter, The Great Train Robbery: The Great Train Robbery, produced by Edwin Porter in 1903, was the first major American film. It used new innovations such as the intercutting of scenes shot in different settings. These scenes were later unified to form a coherent narrative ending in a scene of suspense.
Nickelodeons: Nickelodeons, movies costing a nickel each, became extremely popular in the Progressive Era due to the freedom they offered children from parents. Immigrant children could easily imagine away their restrictive home conditions. Noticing the lack of moral oversight, many progressives moved to create censorship boards for these films.
Scott Joplin, Ragtime: Scott Joplin was a pianist and one of the most important developers of ragtime music. He believed that ragtime should evolve into an indigenous black American opera style. His 1899 release of "Maple Leaf Rag" was the beginning of popular ragtime music.
Eugenics movement: The Eugenics movement is one of the best examples of progressive ideas contradicting science. Some Americans believed that the society could be improved by controlled breeding. They accomplished this by sterilizing many criminals and sex offenders. The right to do so was upheld in the court case Buck v. Bell.
Mary Ritter Beard, Charles A. Beard, Historical revisionism: Mary and Charles were two historians that pioneered a new perspective on history. They each believed that history must be reexamined from a modern perspective and that the economic, political, and social threads of present time must be followed back to generate a clearer picture.
Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race: This book, published in 1916, is a preview to the ideas later espoused by Adolf Hitler. Written in the Progressive Era, this book calls for absolute racial segregation, immigrant restriction, and a forced eugenics movement by crime and by race type.
Billy Sunday: Billy Sunday was an American Fundamentalist preacher and professional baseball player. He conducted regular ‘revivals’ throughout the nation, in which he used broadcasting to strengthen people’s bond with Christianity. The broadcasts of his revivals are considered among the most effective ever.
Margaret Sanger: Sanger was a leader among birth-control advocates. She attacked the Comstock Law, a law which prevented the distribution of birth control. In 1916 she opened the first American birth-control facility. She was convicted for this "public nuisance," won an appeal, and eventually gained the right for birth-control.
Sixteenth Amendment: The Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, is an obvious indicator to the Progressive era in which it was passed. It authorized the income tax thereby allowing the Underwood-Simmons Tariff of 1913 to lower many tariffs. This amendment invalidated an earlier Supreme Court decision calling the income tax was unconstitutional.
Seventeenth Amendment: The Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, moved the election of senators from the state legislatures to the general populace. It followed the ideas already laid down by the Australian secret ballot and the direct primary. This law was intended to create a more democratic, fair society in the eyes of progressives.
Eighteenth Amendment: The Eighteenth Amendment, ratified in 1919, prohibited the non-medical sale of alcohol. This amendment resulted from intense efforts among various women’s movements, proving to the nation that women could effect political changes. This amendment is the midpoint of a growing drive towards women’s rights.
Nineteenth Amendment: The Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the vote in 1920, is a logical progression from the prohibition movement. As women felt their power in politics increasing, they began to demand the ability to vote from their male peers. In the spirit of progressivism they were granted the vote in 1920.
Charles Evans Hughes: Charles Evans Hughes was an American jurist and statesmen. As governor of New York he eliminated much of the corruption in government, passing many progressive reform measures. He served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court in the depression years of the 1930s and supported many aspects of Roosevelt’s liberal New Deal.
Pujo Committee: The Pujo Committee researched and later reported on the concentration of money and credit over the general populace. They found that the money and credit of the US is localized inside a small group of rich capitalists. This committee’s findings later led to the creation of the Federal Reserve Banking system.
Federal Reserve Act: The Federal Reserve Act was a compromise designed to stabilize the currency in the US. It split the US into 12 regions with one Federal bank in each region. Commercial banks bought stock from this bank. The discount rate at which the federal bank lent the money determined the interest rate.
Underwood-Simmons Tariff: The Underwood-Simmons Tariff reduced the tariffs from the Payne-Aldrich Tariff to about 29%. It included a graduated income tax, made legal by the sixteenth amendment to the Constitution, to correct for this monetary loss. Wilson, noticing that it followed his principle of "New Freedom," heavily advocated it.
Income tax: The income tax, originally declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, was later ratified as the Sixteenth Amendment. This new power was first used in the Tariff Act of 1913 which set the tax of corporate income at 1%. It also levied a 1% tax on all rich families. Income tax has been greatly increased as tariffs have been lowered.
Federal Trade Commission, cease and desist orders: The Federal Trade Commission, created by the Federal Trade Commission Act, promoted free and fair trade competition. It investigated economically unfair business practices and regulated these. The commission also regularly generated statistics of economic and business conditions to the public.
Clayton Antitrust Act, labor’s Magna Carta (?): The Clayton Act was designed to clarify the Sherman Antitrust Act in terms of new economic issues that had arisen. Practices such as local price-cutting and price discrimination were made illegal. The right of unions to strike, boycott, and picket was also confirmed. This act would have been labor’s Magna Carta had it been followed, but unfavorable court interpretations rendered many of its pro-labor sections powerless without further legislation.
Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan: From 1913-1915, Bryan served as Secretary of State to Wilson. The US’s stubbornness on the issue of neutrality rights led Bryan to resign his position in 1915. He felt that instead of insisting on passenger’s rights, the United States should keep Americans off belligerent ships, a differing view on neutrality.
arbitration treaties: The arbitration treaties were negotiated by Secretary of State Root with 25 other nations. International disputes could be deferred to the Hague Tribunal as stipulated by the arbitration treaties. An example of such a treaty is the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The treaties were undermined by disputes of individual national interests.
Panama Tolls dispute: In 1912, the United States passed a bill that would exempt the United States from payment in the use of the Panama Canal. Great Britain opposed the move saying it violated the 1901 Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. After some dispute the United States eliminated the exemption clause and the president signed the bill in 1914.
Colonel House: Colonel Edward M House was part of the Wilson administration and served as an advisor to the president. He later was part of the Roosevelt administration and was involved in New Deal legislation taking his traditional Wilsonian democracy to the New Deal era and its actions.
Louis Brandeis, "Brandeis brief": In 1916, Woodrow Wilson appointed Louis Brandeis, a Jew, to the Supreme Court, which was briefly opposed because of anti-Semitism. In 1908 in Muller v. Oregon, his Brandeis brief provided evidence as to why women need limited work hours. This represented the Court’s adapting to the new, changing industrial society.
La Follette Seaman’s Act: Passed in 1915, the La Follette Seaman’s Act improved working and living conditions as well as making ships safer. It applied to US ships as well as any ship docked in a US port. Included provisions regulating work hours, as well as pay and food quality. The act was designed to attract Americans to ocean occupations.
Keating-Owen Act: The Keating-Owen Act, passed in 1915, attempted to prevent the problem of child labor. It forbade interstate shipment of products whose production was due to the labor of children under fourteen or sixteen. This law was particularly important because it was the first attempt by Congress to regulate interstate commerce.
Workmen’s Compensation Act: The Workmen’s Compensation Act heightened the rights of employees to bring legal action against their employers for injuries. Prior to this act, the employee had to prove they were not at fault and that it was not a normal risk. This act created scales of compensation for any injury, regardless to the party responsible.
Federal Warehouse Act: Wilson heavily supported the Federal Warehouse Act, which allowed farmers to more easily secure long-term, low-interest credit, using land or crops as the loan security, from regional Farm Loan Banks. Prior to the passage of this act, farmers had to use actual money or property as security, making loans harder to obtain.
Federal Highways Act, 1916: The Federal Highways Act of 1916 was pushed by Wilson and supported by the Democratic congress. It stated that federal funds would match appropriations made by states funds for highway construction. This aided the automobile industry and allowed for the existence of more cars.
Adamson Act, 1916: The Adamson Act of 1916 was a compromise that avoided a railroad strike. It set an eight hour day for interstate railroad workers with a salary of one and a half for overtime work. The act signaled a major victory for railroad workers. An example of Wilson’s sympathy to labor and was one of his important worker protection laws.
Smith-Lever Act: The Smith-Lever Act, enacted in 1914, created a system of agricultural extension work funded by federal grants. Students not in college benefited because they were taught agricultural skills by county agents. It was part of the governments plan to encourage a growth in American agriculture.
Smith- Hughes Act: The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 created the Federal Board for Vocational Education to encourage agricultural growth. Furthermore, it gave the federal government greater control over education because it required that states submit proposals for education to a federal board.
Roosevelt & Progressivism
Many intellectuals increasingly challenged the foundations of the social order. Voices of reform thundered over the nation calling for democratic government, better cities, and the curbing of corporate power. This movement, labeled progressivism, found its first national leader in Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt actively pursued many of his goals: labor mediation, consumer protection, conservation, business virtue, and activism abroad. His successor, Taft, continued in Roosevelt’s aims but lacked his political genius.
Election of 1900: candidates and issues: William McKinley, the Republican candidate, beat William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate, for President. The Republican campaign theme of prosperity, summed up in the slogan "A Full Dinner Pail," easily won him a second term. McKinley had 284 electoral votes where as Bryan had 115.
Roosevelt’s Big Stick diplomacy: One of Roosevelt’s most famous statements was "speak softly and carry a big stick." An example of his meaning in this statement was when Canada wanted the Alaskan land that America owned. They were fighting over the boundaries because of gold found in the area. Roosevelt simply stated that if the boundaries would change, there would be serious consequences. Because of his problem solving method, Roosevelt was known to use "Big Stick" diplomacy.
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty: The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 stated that both the United States and Britain promised not to claim control over any canal built between the oceans that separated their countries. This included the Panama Canal which America later took over anyway.
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty: In 1901, the United States planned to construct the Panama Canal. This meant they would be in need of a new treaty. Secretary of State John Hay and British Ambassador Sir Julian Pauncefote agreed on a new treaty that would drop England’s claim on the canal.
Panama Revolution: Financed by Philippe Bunau-Varilla, chief agent of the New Panama Canal Company, the Panama Revolution was a planned revolt by Panamanians against Colombian occupation of the Isthmus of Panama. The United States did not encourage the revolution, but it did make clear that it would not allow it to fail.
The Panama Canal: When a French company supposed to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama went bankrupt, it offered to sell its assets to the United States. The Hay-Herrán agreement, which would have granted the US a ninety-nine-year lease on a strip of land for canal construction, was rejected by the Colombian senate. Determined to have a canal, Roosevelt found a collaborator in Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who organized a "revolution." After Panama was recognized, the canal building commenced.
Virgin Islands purchased: Denmark, in 1917, sold to the United States its West Indian territories for $25 million, including the Virgin Islands. These islands, located at the perimeters of the Caribbean, were of great military importance during the Second World War. They mainly served to protect the US mainland as well as the Panama Canal.
Goethals and Gorgas: George Goethel was a civil engineer who directed a completion of the Panama Canal. William Gorgas helped to make it possible to construct Panama Canal by killing mosquitoes carrying yellow fever and malaria. Theodore Roosevelt later appointed these men important positions in The Panama Canal Zone.
Venezuela Crisis, 1902: In 1902 the country's debts became so large that European creditor nations blockaded Venezuela; the United States intervened to obtain arbitration of the dispute. Castro's departure for Europe in 1908 opened the way for his deputy, Juan Vicente Gomez, to seize power.
Drago Doctrine: Luis Maria Drago was an Argentine diplomat who formulated a supplement to the Monroe Doctrine known as the Drago Doctrine. In 1902, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy imposed a joint naval blockade on Venezuela in order to coerce that country into paying its debts.
Roosevelt Corollary: In 1904, Roosevelt created the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. This doctrine justified U.S. intervention in the affairs of Latin American nations if their weakness or wrongdoing warranted such action. An example of this interference was the American intervention in Haiti when it was not wanted. The document was primarily a pass for the US to interfere with other countries’ business when it was not wanted nor needed.
U.S. intervention in Haiti: In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson sent the United States Marines into Haiti. The purpose was to calm the anarchy that the US claimed existed in the country. In 1916, Congress ratified a treaty that would allow the US ten years of control over Haiti to maintain order and give political and economic assistance.
Dominican Republic: In 1915, after bloody upheavals in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Wilson ordered the marines. A Haitian constitution favorable to U.S. commercial interests was ratified in 1918. The marines remained in the Dominican Republic until 1924, and in Haiti until 1934.
Revolution in Nicaragua: In 1911 a US-supported revolution in Nicaragua brought to power Adolfo Díaz, an officer of the American-owned Nicaraguan mining property. American bankers loaned the Díaz government $15 million in exchange for control of most of Nicaragua. When a revolt broke out, Roosevelt ordered in the marines.
Russo-Japanese War, Treaty of Portsmouth: The Russo-Japanese war (1904-05) was the first conflict in which an Asian power defeated a European country. Fighting began when the Japanese attacked the Russian fleet at Port Arthur after Russia, which had occupied Manchuria during the Boxer Uprising in China, refused to withdraw its troops.
San Francisco School Board Incident: American relations with Japan suffered when the San Francisco school board, in 1906, ordered all Asian children to attend segregated schools. Summoning the school-board members to Washington, Roosevelt persuaded them to reverse this discriminatory policy.
Elihu Root: As secretary of war in the cabinets of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, Root reorganized the army and established the Army War College. As Roosevelt's secretary of state from 1905 to 1909, he reformed the consular service, improving US relations with Latin America, and sponsoring a series of arbitration treaties.
Taft-Katsura Memo: By the Taft-Katsura Memo of 1905, the United States and Japan pledged to maintain the Open Door principles in China. Japan recognized American control over the Philippines and the United States granted a Japanese protectorate over Korea.
Gentleman’s Agreement: In the 1890’s, workers feared their jobs would be taken by the Japanese immigrants and they wanted a law preventing any more immigrants to move to the United States. In 1907 Japan proposed the Gentlemen’s Agreement which promised that they would halt the unrestricted immigration if President Roosevelt promised to discourage any laws being made that would restrict Japanese immigration to the US.
Great White Fleet: This was a naval fleet that went on a voyage around the world. After 15 months, when the fleet returned, President Roosevelt met all the crew members personally. The two objects of this voyage were being friendly with the nation’s allies but also to show other nations the naval power of the United States.
Lodge Corollary: When a Japanese syndicate moved to purchase a large tract of land in Mexico’s Lower California, Senator Lodge introduced a resolution to block the Japanese investment. The Corollary went further to exclude non-European powers from the Western Hemisphere under the Monroe Doctrine.
Root-Takahira Agreement: In 1908, Japan and the United States signed the Root-Takahira Agreement. Through this document the two nations promised not to seek territorial gain in the Pacific. These two nations also promised to honor an open door policy in China.
Lansing-Ishii Agreement, 1917: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State under President Wilson, negotiated the Lansing-Ishii agreement on November 2, 1917 with Japan, whereby the United States recognized Japan's special interests in China. However, the US still felt they had a right to China.
Jones Act, 1916 (Philippines): In 1916, Congress passed the Jones Act which provided for a government for the Philippines and committed the United States to granting Filipino independence. The government created was based on the Constitutional model. In 1934, a bill was finally passed to actually grant the Filipinos their independence.
Jones Act, 1917 (Puerto Rico): The Jones Act of 1917 was passed by the United States to regulate trade in Puerto Rico. It established the Sea Land service to prevent carriers and shippers from using unfair pricing practices. Its establishment encouraged parallel pricing for all carriers.
Mexican Revolution, Díaz, Huerta, Carranza: Rebels, led by Francisco Madero in 1911, overthrew Porfirio Díaz. In 1913, Madero was overthrown by a military regime led by Victoriano Huerta. The US refused to recognize Huerta’s government because it had come to power violently. Eventually, this led to Mexican-American hostilities.
Mexican migration to the U.S.: In the period from 1877 to 1910 economic conditions were worsening in Mexico. By 1914 more than 100,000 Mexicans had migrated to the United States. These new immigrants found mainly in railroad industries and agriculture where jobs were vacated by the war. They filled partly the US need for labor during war.
"watchful waiting": "Watchful waiting" refers to Wilson’s policy towards the events unfolding in Europe. In effect, it was America’s policy of neutrality throughout most of the First World War. This policy was taken although it was clear that the United States had obvious ties to Britain and would likely favor it.
ABC Powers: The ABC powers consisted of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. In 1914, the ABC powers called a conference to prevent a war between the United States and Mexico caused by the Veracruz Incident. When president Carranza rejected the proposal for a new Mexican government, the conference came to an end.
Pancho Villa, General Pershing: During the political turmoil of Mexico in 1916, bandit Pancho Villa murdered 16 Americans, then burned down Columbus in New Mexico. With the U.S. outraged, General John J. Pershing was sent with 12,000 troops to catch Villa with no avail. Massive US response angered some Mexicans and led to hostilities.
Archangel expedition: In 1918, Allied forces landed in the port of Archangel, Russia to defend Allied military stockpiles from German attack. Allied forces later became anti-Bolshevik and seized the port. Allies favored the Whites during the period of Russia’s civil war. United States involvement in this campaign compromised American neutrality.
Democracy, efficiency, pragmatism: Democracy is a form of government in which a substantial proportion of the citizenry directly or indirectly participates in ruling the state. Pragmatism is a philosophical movement, developed in the United States, which holds that both the meaning and the truth of any idea is a function of its practical outcome.
Wright Brothers, Kitty Hawk: Wilbur and Orville Wright created the modern field of aeronautics. After over 200 calculations and tests at Kitty Hawk they built the first practical airplane, marking the beginning of the individual progressive spirit. They were highly honored internationally and a monument to them was built at Kitty Hawk.
"Muckrakers": Those American writers who early in the 20th century wrote both fiction and nonfiction to expose corruption in business and politics were called the muckrakers. Muckraker was a term first used by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. They were given this name because of their tendency to "spread the muck around."
Henry Demarest Lloyd, Wealth Against Commonwealth: A leading opponent of business monopolies, Henry Demarest Lloyd was one of the pioneer muckrakers of the late 19th century. He developed his antimonopoly theme as financial writer and editor at the Chicago Tribune.
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class: Thorstein Veblen is best known for his book The Theory of The Leisure Class (1899). Veblen’s book is a classic of social theory that introduced the concept of "conspicuous consumption." Veblen continued to write other books dealing with the same general theories.
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives: A journalist, photographer, and reformer, Jacob August Riis publicized the plight of immigrants in New York City slum tenements. His photographs, articles, and books focused on the squalid living conditions of the city's poor and spurred legislation to improve those conditions.
Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities: An eminent American reformer and journalist, Joseph Lincoln Steffens, was a leader of the muckrakers. He wrote a series of articles that documented corruption in American cities, asserting that some cities were run by political bosses who remained in power with the help of powerful businessmen.
Frank Norris, The Octopus: The U.S. novelist Frank Norris was a noted pioneer of naturalism in literature. His novels portray the demoralizing effects of modern technology on human fate. His best-known works, The Octopus (1901) and The Pit (1903), attacked the railroad and wheat industries in the United States.
Ida Tarbell, History of the Standard Oil Company: As a Pennsylvania journalist, editor, and biographer, Tarbell became famous as a muckraker through her well-documented articles on political and corporate corruption in McClure's Magazine and American Magazine.
David Graham Phillips, The Treason of the Senate: Author of many popular problem novels of the early 20th century, Phillips was also a prominent journalist. His "Treason of the Senate" series of articles (1906) in Cosmopolitan magazine were an important contribution to the muckraking movement in American journalism.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Woman and Economics: Gilman was a leading American feminist writer known for Woman and Economics (1898), a feminist classic she wrote. It attacked the commonly accepted idea that women should be economically dependent on men while suggesting alternatives such as cooperative kitchens and day-care programs.
John Dewey, The School and Society, "progressive education," "learn by doing": Dewey’s ideas of progressive education, described in The School and Society, greatly affected educational techniques. He founded the Laboratory School, a school in which students learned of life by actively doing things rather than following a strict curriculum.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Supreme Court: Holmes was a professor of law at Harvard who resigned to become a member of the Supreme Court. As a jurist he interpreted the Constitution in a very liberal manner, earning him the name "the Great Dissenter" among his colleagues.
Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts: The Boy and Girl Scouts, formed to educate the youth of America, heavily embody Dewey’s concept of "learn by doing." They focused on teaching children of their proper patriotic role in society and working to broaden the horizons of their members though a number of varied activities.
Edward Ross: Ross wrote one of the first books dealing with social psychology. He analyzed the transmission of social behavior through society by its transmission from one person to another. His ideas conflicted with McDougall’s, another psychologist who believed that the process of evolution created instinctive sociological behavior.
Richard Ely: Ely, a progressive economist, was an economics research professor at Northwestern University. He founded the American Economic Association in 1899 and was the first economist to suggest that government interference in regulation of the national economic was not harmful but even sometimes helpful.
Initiative, referendum, recall: These were three types of progressive electoral reforms passed by some western states. Initiative allowed voters to enact laws directly. The referendum allowed voters to express their opinions of specific issues. Through recall voters were able to directly remove public officials from office.
Direct primary: The direct primary was another progressive municipal reform. It originated in Wisconsin (1903) and rapidly spread throughout the rest of the United States. It provided that the members, not the leadership, of each party nominate the party’s nominees for public office.
Australian ballot (secret ballot): Many electoral reforms gave voters greater control over the government, especially at the ballot boxes where voters could be easily swayed. By 1910 all states had replaced the corrupt system of preprinted ballots with a new secret ballot, begun in Australia, which was much more difficult to rig.
Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire: An accidental fire at the Traingle Shirtwaist Company killed 141 workers. It prodded the concerns of many progressive reformers since the workers, locked in the factory and unable to escape, were killed by brutal working conditions. These concerns raised new questions of human and immigrant rights and of existing labor laws.
International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU): This union of American needle-trade workers launched drives to improve working conditions, end the practice of workers paying for their own equipment, and raise working rates. It is remembered for the militancy of its early organizational drives and its fight against sweatshops.
Anti-Saloon League: During and after the American Civil War the laws regulating many aspects of saloons were either reduced or eliminated. As a result, many people united in this league in their fight against saloons. By 1916 they enacted anti-saloon laws in 23 states and in 1917 they passed the 18th amendment beginning prohibition.
Square Deal: Roosevelt, on a speaking tour against the Northern Securities Company, called for a "square deal." This progressive concept denounced special treatment for the large capitalists and is the essential element to his trustbusting attitude. This deal embodied the belief that all corporations must serve the general public good.
Forest Reserve Act, 1891: The Forest Reserve Act, strongly supported by Roosevelt and Pinchot, created a system of national forests, consisting of approximately 200 million acres, which were protected from the short-sighted greed Roosevelt saw in many large companies. Through this act Roosevelt also enlarged Pinchot’s forest staff from 123 to 1,500 people.
Newlands Reclamation Act, 1902: Roosevelt drafted the Newlands Reclamation Act when he noticed that decades of rapid industrial growth had destroyed much of the limited natural resources of the land. It insured that all natural resources would be managed by experts. Funding came from public-land sales and was used to build irrigation projects.
Conservation conference, 1908: As Roosevelt’s conservative trend began to permeate through the public mind, he began to create several groups to raise public awareness of nature and the necessity of conservation. The first meeting was of the White House Conservation Conference, followed by the National Conservation Commission.
Anthracite coal strike, 1902, George F. Baer: The Anthracite coal strike was the first strike in which the government became involved but did not side with the management. Roosevelt instead mediated a series of negotiations between the strikers and the owners over issues of wages, safety conditions, and union recognition.
Elkins Act, 1903, rebates: The Interstate Commerce Commission was initially created to regulate the economy for the federal government. It was not originally given enough power to regulate the monopolized railroad system. The Elkins Act strengthened the ICC by stiffening penalties against secret railroad rebates to favored shippers.
Hepburn Act, 1906: The Hepburn Act, in conjunction with the Elkins Act, granted the Interstate Commerce Commission enough power to regulate the economy. It allowed the ICC to set freight rates and, in an attempt to reduce the corruption in the railroad industry, to require a uniform system of accounting by regulated transportation companies.
Mann-Elkins Act, 1910: The Mann-Elkins Act further extended the regulatory ability of the ICC. It allowed them to regulate cable and wireless companies dealing with telephone and telegraph lines. The ICC was also given greater rate-setting power as well as the ability to begin court proceedings against companies disputing the new rates.
"trustbuster": Teddy Roosevelt, deeply conservative at heart, did not want to destroy the big corporations that he saw necessary to American life. He did, however, believe that they must be held to strict moral standards. He earned the "trustbuster" name when he filed suit against the Northern Securities Company, followed by 43 other cases. He left many of the larger companies serving the public good alone, but he broke up many other large, monopolistic companies in the interests of American welfare and economy.
Northern Securities Co. case: This was the first company Roosevelt filed suit against in his trustbusting stage. It was a large holding company formed by railroad and banking interests. In 1902 Roosevelt "trustbusted" them by claiming they violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in holding money against the public good. The company was dissolved.
Meat Inspection Act: The Meat Inspection Act was passed by Roosevelt as a strong response to Sinclair's book describing the conditions of food as well as wartime scandals in 1898 concerning spoiled canned meats. It created strict sanitary requirements for meat, began a quality rating system, and provisioned for a federal department to inspect meat.
Immunity of Witness Act: The Immunity of Witness Act, passed in 1906, prevented corporate officials from pleading immunity in cases concerning their own corporation’s illegal activities. Previously, many officials used this immunity plea to avoid testifying in any way concerning their actions.
W.E.B. DuBois: For more than 50 years W.E.B. DuBois, a black editor, historian, and sociologist, was a leader of the civil rights movement in the United States. He helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was its outstanding spokesman in the first decades of its existence.
Niagara movement: At a meeting in Niagara Falls, Ont., in 1905, W.E.B. DuBois and other black leaders who shared his views founded the Niagara Movement. Members of the Niagara group joined with concerned liberal and radical whites to organize the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
Springfield Ill riot, 1908: The period of Booker T. Washington represented a period of increasing anti-black violence. The large anti-black riot in Springfield in 1908 was representative of the peak of a period of harsh discrimination, white resentment of black advances, and mass public segregation.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): The NAACP was an organization founded in 1909 by blacks and whites under such leaders as W.E.B. DuBois to safeguard civil, legal, economic, human, and political rights of black Americans. It lobbied for legislation, sponsored educational programs, and engaged in protest actions.
The Crisis: The Crisis was the magazine of the NAACP. It generally reflected the views of the blacks and whites who headed the NAACP. W.E.B. DuBois was editor of The Crisis from 1910 to 1934. He often wrote that Blacks should develop industry and business separate from the white economy in order prove their non-dependence on white society
Brownsville Incident: Roosevelt, though not as racist a president as those before him, did not have a perfect record. In 1906 he discharged an entire regiment of blacks accused of rioting in Brownsville. This unfair and illegal action was later reversed by Congress once all involved parties had died.
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle: Sinclair was an American writer and reformer who wrote The Jungle. This book exposed the unsanitary working conditions in the stockyards of Chicago, eventually leading to an investigation of both working conditions and the conditions of food. It eventually led to the enactment of the Pure Food Act.
Pure Food and Drug Act: The Pure Food and Drug Act, enacted through the efforts of Harvey Wiley and Sinclair in 1906, gave consumers protection from dangerous and impure foods. All products must be clearly labeled and must explain a product which cannot be seen or judged by a consumer. This act solved problems concerning fraudulently labeled items.
Panic of 1907: Roosevelt’s constant trustbusting of large corporations caused questionable bank speculations, a conservative gold standard, and strict credit policies, eventually leading to the Panic of 1907. This panic brought the need for banking reform to the forefront of political activity, finally culminating in the Federal Reserve Act.
Election of 1908: candidates, issues: The Republican platform consisted of Taft and Sherman. They ran for continued anti-trust enforcement, conservation, and increased international trade. William Jennings Bryan ran for the Democratic Party on a similar anti-trust platform. The Socialist Party was represented by Eugene Debs. Taft easily won.
Mark Hanna: Hanna was a successful American politician and businessman. He helped manage several campaigns including the Republican presidential nomination of McKinley. Hanna was later selected chairman of the Republican National Committee, an organization he used to collect a large war chest to assist in McKinley’s election.
Scientific management, Frederick W. Taylor: Taylor was an engineer who first integrated scientific management with business. He became foreman of the Midvale Steel Company in 1878 and used mathematics to determine maximum industrial productivity, using time and motion studies to find what each worker should for the highest efficiency.
Wisconsin, "laboratory of democracy": La Follette enacted sweeping changes during his governorship of Wisconsin in 1900. He adopted a direct primary system, began to regulate the railroads in his state, increased corporate taxes, and passed other progressive reform legislation. He also created a legislative reference library for lawyers.
Robert M. La Follette: La Follette, initially a Republican in Congress, broke from this party in 1924 when he realized big business was dangerously out of control. The populace agreed with this opinion by electing him governor as an independent. He took the reform movement, previously only found at the municipal level, to new heights, the state. The new state level of regulation had some inherit problems, but as the progressive movement entered the national government, these problems were solved.
Regulatory commissions: As the Progressive Era advanced, regulatory commissions became more prevalent and numerable. The excesses of the monopolistic railroad companies became known to all. In an effort to end the abuses of the rich capitalists regulatory commissions were created to divide the concentrated wealth.
Jane Addams, Hull House: Addams was a prominent social reformer in the US and Europe. In 1889 she created Hull House in Chicago, a settlement home designed as a welfare agency for needy families. It also tried to teach immigrants English customs. Addams also played an important role in the National Progressive party.
Florence Kelley, consumerism: Kelley was largely responsible for the regulation of child labor. She saw its evils as a resident in Hull House for several years. In 1899 she was selected general secretary of the National Consumers’ League, which used organized consumer boycotts and strikes to force improved factory conditions.
home rule for cities: Home rule was a new form of city government other than the mayor-council form that emerged in the Progressive Era. Under this form of government the city was run by a committee of three elected commissioners. They locally ran the county rather than allowing the state to handle affairs.
Municipal Reform: The beginning of the Progressive Era is marked by a great increase in municipal reform. Nearly all elements of the urban population participated in these reform efforts. The middle class began the movement and was the core of urban beautification. Businessmen pushed for citywide elections and for the city-manager system of government. In reforms concerning the commoners, even the political bosses assisted. This municipal level reform soon moved to the state level.
Tom Johnson, Sam (Golden Rule) Jones, Brand Whitlock, Hazen Pingree: These were all progressives who reformed the political process. Johnson reformed public ownership of utilities in Chicago. San Jones reformed profit sharing and education in Toledo, Ohio. Pingree reformed taxes, the honesty in government, and beautified his city.
City manager plan, commission plan: This form of government replaced the traditional mayor/council version in several cities. It began in Texas when progressives removed the corrupt mayor and council, replacing them with five elected commissioners. They were experts in rebuilding the ruined city, which is what they were elected to do.
Daniel Hudson Burnham, 1909 Chicago Plan: Burnham, in conjunction with John Root, built the first steel-frame buildings that later developed into modern skyscrapers. Burnham was the designer of the famous Chicago Plan, a plan in which many beautiful pre-skyscraper buildings were designed in Chicago.
William Howard Taft: As president, Taft focused primarily on a continuation of trust-busting and reuniting the old conservatives and young progressives of the Republican Party. Taft also strongly supported a national budgetary system. He was unable to reunite the two parties and, as a result, the Democratic party swept the 1912 elections.
Department of Labor (from 1903 Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Corporations also in 1903): This department was created in 1913 with the intention of assisting the welfare and working conditions of the general worker. It was empowered to investigate and report illegal corporative activities.
Payne-Aldrich Tariff, 1909: This tariff was initially intended to lower several other tariffs, but after numerous compromises in the Senate it became a protective measure. Many Progressive reformers considered this a sign that the companies and various special interests were preventing consumer prices from reaching reasonable levels.
Ballinger-Pinchot controversy: Pinchot charged that Ballinger was giving the nation's natural resources to private corporate interests. Under investigation it was found that Ballinger did nothing illegal though he did bend the government's environmental policies. Since Taft have given him support, Taft lost standing with the progressive Republicans.
Insurgents: Insurgents was a nickname for a small group of reformist Republicans. This group, including La Follette and Norris, turned against Taft after his passage of the 1909 tariff and completely separated after he supported the Payne-Aldrich Tariff. The separation between progressive and conservative republicans was caused by this group.
Uncle Joe Cannon (Old Guard): Cannon was a Republican who served as Speaker of the House from 1903 to 1911. He strongly opposed many progressive reforms and was thus not very popular in the house. Progressives and Democrats joined to remove much of his power in 1910, allowing the Republican-Democratic coalition to run the Senate.
Senator George Norris: Norris was a reformist senator who favored federal regulation of public utilities. Through a change in House rules he ended the rule of the Speaker of the House Joseph Cannon. He also created the Tennessee Valley Authority, a dam building company. As he ignored the limitations of party politics he slowly lost support.
Rule of reason: Standard Oil case, American Tobacco case: In 1911 a progressive interpretation of the Sherman Act was enacted by the Supreme Court. According to this "rule of reason" principle, only "unreasonable" combinations restraining trade were illegal. This interpretation emerged when the court broke these two companies into smaller firms.
"dollar diplomacy": In an effort to avoid Roosevelt’s "big stick" economic policy, President Taft sought to avoid military confrontation by using money to increase foreign interest in the US. He planned to donate large sums of money to generate economic, social, and political stability in Latin America rather than sending the military to force stability. His efforts were largely a failure as most of the money never reached the actual people of Latin America. Most of the money was stolen by corrupt government officials.
Secretary of State Knox: Knox was responsible for the creation of the Latin American Division of the State Department. He planned to promote better relation, but the US kept a portion of the military in the Dominican Republic. This was planned to quiet revolutionary thoughts and to prevent foreign financial problems.
Manchurian railroad scheme: In an attempt to force Japan and Russia to sell their land in Manchuria for railroad investment, President Taft moved to construct his own competing rail system. China refused to approve Taft’s plan and Japan and Russia began to grow suspicious of the US’s motives.
Roosevelt’s Osawatomie, Kansas speech: The differences between Taft and Roosevelt were revealed in Roosevelt’s 1910 Osawatomie "New Nationalism" speech. Roosevelt unveiled a plan in which he called for a protection of welfare over property, opposing Taft’s support of numerous tariffs as well as the Old Guard in Congress.
Taft-Roosevelt split: In 1912 the Democrats finally regained control of the presidency due to the Taft-Roosevelt split. Taft’s inability to associate with the progressive elements of his party convinced Roosevelt to return. Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party and thus siphoned enough votes to cause the Republicans to lose the election.
Bull Moose Party: This party, formally known as the Progressive Party, was created by Theodore Roosevelt after his split with Taft. It was created in his anger of Taft being nominated in the Republican Party. They advocated primary elections, woman suffrage, and prohibition of child labor. They outpolled the Republicans but lost to the Democrats.
Below are the US History topics covered in this unit:
Foreign Policy in the 1920s
In relation to the rest of the world, the United States drew into isolation, as reflected through its foreign policy during the twenties. New restrictions on immigration and a lack of membership in international organizations, such as the League of Nations and the World Court, contributed to this isolationist period of America. Focus during this era was upon domestic affairs more so than foreign affairs.
Collective Security: The term "collective security" was first mentioned in the inaugural speech made by president Franklin D. Roosevelt on Oct 5, 1937. In that speech Roosevelt refereed to the need to quarantine aggressor nations by acting upon them in a collective measure, thus saying that nations need to stick together in order to combat evil. The isolationist disposition of the U.S. called for collective security, for Americans sought to secure their nation after the effects of World War I and maintain prosperity.
World Court: Also named the International Court of Justice, the World Court was established in 1946 exceeding from a charter that was established by the UN. The principle is to hear cases that extended from the different participants in the court; not all cases submitted would be tried; the World Court has the option of choosing cases.
reparations: Reparations is a term applied to the issuing of money from one nation to another. The money is usually given to a nation that has been damaged by the destructiveness of war due to the acts from the other county. During the First and Second World Wars, reparations were a major concern.
Twenty-One Demands: Japan in 1915, at the end of WWI, invaded the city of Shandong and forced China to hand over the right of Japanese imperialism in the former German regions plus the city of Shandong. This act prompted the formulating of the Twenty-One demands written by China. These demands recognized Japan’s rights in Shandong.
Lansing-Ishii Treaty: Signed on Nov 2, 1917, this treaty was a series of notes between U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing and the Japanese military informer Kikujiro Ishii. Pertaining to this treaty was the reconciliation of the two countries on the issue of foreign policy in the Far East. It also helped to reinstate the Open Door Policy.
Washington Disarmament Conference: Also called the Washington Naval Conference it convened during 1921-1922. At the conference which was called by the United States the issue of the arms race and the idea of keeping peace on the Pacific ocean were discussed. From this conference came the ideal of setting a standard on the desired tonnage that each nation should have, and the desired amount of battleships that each nation should have.
Five Power Treaty, Four Power Treaty, Nine Power Treaty: The 4 Power treaty (US, GB, Fr., and Japan) discussed respect towards Pacific nations. The 5 power treaty (US, GB, Fr., USSR, and Italy) halted battleship construction for 10 years and developed the ideal tonnage ratio. The 9 Power Treaty restated the Open Door Policy.
5-5-3-1.75-1.75 ratio: These ratios were conceived on Dec 14, 1920 at the Washington Arms Conference. The numbers are the allowed amount of tonnage for each nations’ supply of battleships. The ideal tonnage ratio for the countries were 5-US, 5-GB, 3-Japan, 1.75-France, 1.75 Italy.
Dawes Plan, Young Plan: The Dawes Plan, Aug 1924, regarded reparations payments and consisted of an annual allotment of 2.5 billion gold pieces to the US from Germany. The Young Plan signed on Jun 7, 1929 was for the final installment of the reparation payments and reduced the amount due by Germany significantly.
Kellogg-Briand Treaty: This treaty of 1928 denounced war between countries when it was used for the purpose of handling relations between countries. Signed by Frank Kellogg of the US and Aristicie Briand from France on Aug 27, 1928, it sought to bring about a change in the way countries dealt with foreign policy.
Sending troops into Nicaragua, relations, 1927-1928: The United States refused to recognize the government established in Nicaragua under the regime of Emiliano Chamorro. Calvin Coolidge, the president at the time felt it necessary to send troops to Nicaragua. However, by 1933 Hoover expelled the troops for they were no longer needed.
Gathering Storm
The two decades prior to the outbreak of hostilities in World War II were a period of increasing unrest both politically and socially in many areas of the world. Some of the issues were related to unresolved conflicts left over from World War I. Depression and out of control inflation totally destabilized Germany’s government and allowed the rise to power of the Nazis, who were able to capitalize on a German sense of injustice and nationalistic frustration.
Montevideo Conference: This conference was held in 1933. A U.S. delegation to the conference endorsed a document that declared "no state has the right to intervene in the internal affairs of another. Secretary of State furthered the interests of Latin American States when he asked for a reduction of trade barriers.
Rio de Janeiro Conference, 1933: Meeting of 19 American republics, in which the American treaty of reciprocal Assistance was signed, committing each republic to assist another in times of any attack or if an American republic were threatened by a situation not involving an armed attack, members would meet and decide necessary actions to be taken
Buenos Aires Conference, 1936: It was opened by Roosevelt when he stated in a speech that any non-American state seeking "to commit acts of aggression against us will face a Hemisphere wholly prepared to consult together for our mutual safety and our mutual good." Also a pact was adopted promising consultation if war was imminent
Lima Conference, 1938: Another conference before WWII, the Lima Conference adopted the Declaration of Lima, and also restated the sovereignty of the American states; Additionally, it expressed the U.S. determination to resist "all foreign intervention or activities that may threaten them."
Declaration of Panama, 1939: Adopted at Panama city by the foreign ministers of the American Republics, sixteen resolutions were passed to deal with the outbreak of war in Europe. Resolution no. XIV entitled "Declaration of Panama," stated that American waters should be free of hostilities from non-belligerent nations.
Act of Havana, 1940: The act was created to prevent the transfer to European colonies to Germany in the western hemisphere. It stated that the American Republics would take over and administer any European possession in the New World endangered by aggression. It was unanimously approved by the Pan American Nations.
Jones Act, 1916: This act provided for the government of the Philippines and committed the U.S. to the future independence of the Philippines. Descendants of Spanish subjects in 1899 were designated citizens. Voting rights were given to all literate male citizens over 21, the Philippine Congress was made elective, and Supreme Court justices were to be appointed by the president.
Tydings-McDuffie Act, 1934, Philippines: The act eliminated certain objectionable provisions of a previous act known as the Hawes-Cutting Act, which provided for the independence of the Philippine Islands after 12 years; It also provided for trade relations with the U.S. effective 10 years after the inauguration of an authorized government.
Nye Committee: Instituted due to public concern over the issue that the U.S. was dragged into WW I, this committee was headed by Senator Gerald Nye. The Committee held hearings between 1934 and 1936 and compiled evidence of involvement of U.S. banks and corporations financing WWI and supplying arms and loans to the Allied nations.
"merchants of death": This term refers to the business corporations and banks who were blamed for dragging the U.S. into the war because they were desperate to protect the millions of dollars invested in loans and weapon sales to Britain and France. All these allegations were investigated by the Nye committee.
neutrality legislation: A series of Neutrality Acts were passed in 1935, 1936, and 1937, these laws placed an embargo on exports of war materials to belligerents. It also warned U.S. citizens not to travel on belligerent vessels, prohibited loans to belligerent nations, and instituted the cash and carry policy which meant that nations that were seeking to trade with the U.S. had to purchase the goods they wanted as well as provide their own vessels in which they could be shipped out to their country.
Popular Front: In order to gain the support of the Allies, Russia’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs MaksimM. Litvinov asked for action against fascist governments. Russia sought a formation of united-front governments in foreign countries. This united or popular front formed in 1938, called for a collaboration of Communist Socialist to fight fascism.
Spanish Civil War, Franco: This war lasted from 1936-1939. In July of 1936, fascist Franco led the Spanish army units to overthrow the elected government in Spain. The revolution was supported by Spanish conservatives, monarchists, landowners, industrialists, and Roman Catholic hierarchy.
Ethiopia: Mussolini was intent on building an African empire comparable to those of the European nations. In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia which did not have a way of stopping him from invading because Ethiopia was such a weak nation without a strong army and a supply of ammunition.
Mussolini: Mussolini founded the Fasci de Combitimmento after being kicked out of the Socialist party in 1919. He came into power in the 1920s, and by 1926, Mussolini had transformed Italy into a single-party totalitarian regime. He also pursued an aggressive policy which won him support in every sector of the population.
Japan Attacks China, Chiang Kai-shek: Japan was taken over by a militaristic government that had expansionist dreams. In 1931, Japan attacked the Chinese province of Manchuria and installed a puppet government. In 1937, Japan declared war against China; China’s leader, Chiang Kai-shek, was powerless to stop it.
Panay Incident, 1937: Japanese bombers engaged in war with China bombed and sank the marked U.S. gunboat Panay and three Standard Oil ships, which were evacuating American officials from China. Japan accepted responsibilities of bombing the ships, made a formal apology and promised indemnities later set at $2 million.
"Quarantine speech," 1937: Roosevelt recognized the power of the antiwar feelings demonstrated at home; not one to push ahead of public opinion, he assured a visiting Australian leader in 1935 that America would never enter a war. In a 1937 speech, he suggested the possibility of a "quarantine" of aggressor nations.
Hitler, Nazism: Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party came into power in 1933 and clamped a dictatorship on Germany. His racist views targeted all non-white Christians who expressed anti-German ideas. He pursued a militaristic and expansionist foreign policy, evident in his plan to raise a half million man army and expand German borders to Russia.
Kristallnacht: Meaning "The Night of Broken Glass," this rampage was carried out by Nazis all over Germany and Austria to destroy Jewish homes and structures. Thousands of homes were vandalized and synagogues were burned to the ground. Jewish businesses and schools were wrecked and looted. Nothing was spared.
Munich Conference, appeasement, Neville Chamberlain: This conference was held in 1938 between England and Germany. Chamberlain, representing England, gave in to Hitler’s demands on territory that Germany had lost after the end of WWI. Chamberlain was very much blamed for the oncoming of WWII due to his actions toward Hitler. Many people in Britain were very disappointed in Chamberlain and how easily he had appeased to the demands of Hitler. He was replaced soon after by Winston Churchill.
Austria Annexed: Hitler annexed Austria in 1938 and expanded the German borders. Nazi sympathizers in Austria welcomed Hitler’s annexation of Austria. He proclaimed an Anschluss between Austria and Germany and German troops rolled into the capital city Vienna. Hitler’s actions here furthered his plans to expand German borders and his rule.
nonaggression pact between Germany and USSR: Stalin, who advocated a popular front against fascism, signed a pact with Nazi Germany on August 24, 1939 agreeing not to make war on each other and divided up Poland between the two nations: the USSR and Germany. This was a severe blow to the Popular Front.
Hoover Administration
When Herbert Hoover was elected to the presidency in 1928, Americans viewed him as a man who would further boost the nation’s growing prosperity. During his term of office, however, came the onset of the Great Depression, and the ensuing struggle of the government to relieve Americans and recover the economy. Unfortunately for Hoover, his ideologies and legislation were not as effective in restoring prosperity to the nation.
The Fordney-McCumber Tariff, 1922: This tariff rose the rates on imported goods in the hopes that domestic manufacturing would prosper. The goal of this tariff was to push foreign competition out of the way of American markets and after an isolationist principle was introduced, the U.S. would become self sufficient.
"Rugged Individualism": American Individualism, 1922: The ideal quality which every American should possess, "rugged individualism" meant people who were self made individuals, who could handle the pressures given by a damaged society, and who would rise above them in order to succeed. These ideas were encompassed in Hoover’s book.
Welfare capitalism: Hoover welcomed this idea and urged further movement in this direction. Hoover also believed that cutthroat capitalism was unnecessary. He believed that economic development demanded corporate cooperation in the areas of workers wages and production regulations.
Voluntarism: Hoover believed that a socially responsible economic order could only be brought about by the voluntary action of capitalist leaders and not through governmental persuasion. Hoover saw this as a way to accelerate the decade’s trend towards corporate consolidation and cooperation.
Federal Reserve Board: The Federal Reserve Board tried to establish an easy credit policy. To accomplish this they increased the rate on federal reserve notes to decrease speculation; it also warned member banks not to loan money for the purpose of buying stocks. Their message went unheard, and the stock market crash of 1929 resulted.
Black Thursday: Black Thursday refers to Oct 29, 1929 when the great stock market crash occurred. The crash was caused by a number of ailments: the decline of agriculture, the unregulated trade within the process of buying stocks, and the panic which led to bank foreclosures all over the United States.
Causes of the Great Depression: The Great Depression was not solely caused by the stock market crash in Oct of 1929. On the contrary there were many other factors involved. The inflation in agriculture, the uncontrolled policies of the stock market, the overproduction of goods by industries, the loss of enthusiasm directed at the consumer products that were being produced and a loss of mirth in the economy created a no buying situation.
Depression as an International Event: Due to the devastating effects that the Depression had on the American way of life a spiral of depressions sprung up all over Europe. America could not keep up with international trading thus further deepening the problem. The areas hardest hit was England for it depended greatly on U.S. exports.
Trickle Down Theory: Applied by Herbert Hoover, the Trickle Down theory was an economic ideal which held the belief that the government should get involved in the economy by pumping money into it, and thus creating a surplus supply of money that would "trickle" down onto the rest of society.
Reconstruction Finance Corp., (RFC): Created under the presidency of Herbert Hoover, the RFC was designed to give out loans to banks, railroads, and monopolistic companies in order to pump money back into the economy during the years of the Depression.
Federal Home Loan Act: Under the presidential term of Hoover in 1931 the Federal Home Loan Act was created. Within the act a five man Home Loan Board was created and the creation of banks to handle home mortgages provided money to homeowners that needed loans.
National Credit Corporation: Created in 1931, the National Credit Corporation under the persuasion of Herbert Hoover got the largest banks in the country, at that time, to provide lending agencies that would be able to give banks, on the brink of foreclosure, money that could be used for loans.
Hoover Dam: Originally called Boulder Dam, it stands 726 feet high and 1244 feet wide. Located on the Colorado River in Arizona, Hoover Dam provides flood control, electricity, and irrigation for farms. As part of the New Deal it was constructed between 1931 to 1935 and began operations in 1936.
the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, 1930: Like the Fordney-McCumber Tariff, the Hawley-Smoot Tariff also rose protective tariffs on the United States. It pushed rates on imported goods to the highest point they’ve ever been. The isolationist principle also reflect the isolationist move the US was moving towards in the 1920s..
Emergency Committee for Employment: The Emergency Committee for Employment was created in 1930 under the presidency of Herbert Hoover. The goal for the committee was to coordinate efforts between other agencies in order to provide relief for the massive unemployed during the years of the Great Depression.
Farmers’ Holiday Association: In 1931 farmers from the Midwest got together to discuss the methods they would use in order to stop the policies that devastated the agricultural economy. Out of the meeting came the decision to withhold grain and livestock from the economy.
Hoover Moratorium: The Hoover Moratorium was held in 1931 to discuss the payment of the allied war debts sustained during WWI. Though the issue was never reconciled due to the fact that Britain and other European Countries went off the gold standard before the plan could be implemented.
Bonus Army: The Bonus Army was a group of WWI veterans who were supposed to be given economic relief from the government due to their involvement in the war. However, in 1932 the deadline for the veterans was pushed back by the government to a latter date thus causing the group to march onto Washington to demand their money. Excessive force was used to disband these protesters, and because they were veterans and heroes of this country, Hoover’s popularity plummeted because of it.
"Hooverville": "Hooverville" was a name given to any shanty town that manifested itself during the period when Herbert Hoover was president. The name was termed due to the cold, unfriendly disposition that Hoover took on the policy of helping out the poor. Hoover believed that giving economic aid to the poor would stifle the economy.
Clark Memorandum: The memorandum was called by the U.S. Representative J.Reuben Clark in Dec of 1928. The purpose of the meeting was to reinstate the principles of the Monroe Doctrine to the events that were happening in Latin America; it was contradictory to the ideals of the Roosevelt Corollary.
London Naval Conference: US, GB, Japan, France, and Italy convened in 1930 to come to a mutual agreement pertaining to the number of battleships that were in existence. The number of battleships was a great concern to these nations for they wanted to live in peace with one another, not in a war like situation.
Stimson Doctrine: Based on the principles of the Kellogg-Briand pact, the Hoover-Stimson doctrine was a collection of letters from the U.S. to China and Japan. These letters written on Jan 7, 1932, concluded that the U.S. did not formally recognize any change in territory if it was brought about by armed forces.
Mexico’s naturalization of oil: The president of Mexico in 1938 was a man named Lazaro Cardenas. Cardenas nationalized many oil companies, from England and the United States, valued then at 450 million dollars. The conditions were that Mexico had to give fair compensation to the countries.
Ambassador Morrow: Turned into an ambassador for Mexico, Dwight D. Morrow also named Ambassador Morrow was a worker for J.P.Morgan and Company. The main issue that he focused on was the methods he could use to reconcile differences between the Mexican government and the Church.
Norris-La Guardia (anti-junction) Act, 1932: The Norris-La Guardia Act forbade the issuing of injunctions to maintain anti-union contracts of employment, the prevention to perform work, and the restraining of an act committed by either a group or of an individual striker.
Election of 1932: candidates, issues: The Republican candidate was Hoover and the Democratic one was Franklin D. Roosevelt. The issue was ending the Great Depression. Hoover’s platform was to increase the government’s role in the economy; Roosevelt’s message was "Pay attention to the forgotten man at the bottom of the economy period." Roosevelt won.
Roaring Twenties
American culture and society in the 1920s were marked by a wave of new lifestyles and ideas. While the movie industry produced new celebrities and jazz music became popular, literature flourished and flappers defined a social trend. Amidst the speakeasies, jazz, and jitterbugs, Americans began to stray from traditional values as the culture changed.
Prosperity: This is a term that refers to the economic stability and opportunity experienced during the 1920s. The inventions of new consumer goods and home electrical products contributed to this prosperity. The economy during this time was stimulated by the new and booming electrical industry. A growth oriented business climate of the time was expansionist regarding American capitalism. This boom also was started with the invention of the affordable automobile.
KDKA, Pittsburgh: This was the first successful radio station in the U.S. to start broadcasting on Nov 2, 1920. It began the radio era when KDKA, based in Pittsburgh, broadcast the news of President Harding’s election. This radio station also influenced the establishment of the Federal Radio Commission.
Federal Radio Commission, 1927: The FRC was created by Congress and extended the principle of governmental regulation of business activity to the new radio industry. This can be seen as an example of the progressive spirit that still survived in the legislative branch and its effect on society.
Women’s Christian Temperance Movement: Formed in 1874, the Women’s Christian Temperance movement grew in momentum during the progressive era. This occurred because the war with Germany fermented wider support for the movement. By 1917 it successfully established prohibition in 19 states.
Anti-Saloon League: Another organization formed during the progressive era, the Anti-Saloon league was spurred by the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement in 1893. Progressives encouraged the legal abolition of alcohol. The result of the efforts of the ASL was the 18th amendment passed in 1918.
National Women’s Party, Alice Paul: During the twenties, feminist Alice Paul’s National Women’s Party lobbied for an equal-rights amendment to the Constitution. Other feminists, radicals, and labor activists condemned Paul’s stance on this issue. Unfortunately, the proposed amendment never succeeded through the party.
Garvey, Marcus, Universal Negro Improvement Association: Garvey was a black nationalist leader who created the "Back to Africa" movement in the U.S. In 1907, he led a printers’ strike for higher wages at a printing company in Kingston. In 1914 he founded the UNIA and in 1916, he started a weekly newspaper called the Negro World.
Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes: Hughes was an American writer known for the use of jazz and black folk rhythms in his poetry. He used musical rhythms and the traditions of African American culture in his poetry. In the 1920s he was a prominent figure during the Harlem Renaissance and was the Poet Laureate of Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance refers to the black cultural development during the 1920s. However, the movement depended on the patronage of white people.
de Mille, Cecil B.: He was an American motion picture director and producer who in 1913 joined with Jesse Lasky and Samuel Goldwyn to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. De Mille produced and directed the first feature film made in Hollywood called The Squaw Man in 1914.
Valentino, Rudolph, Chaplin, Charlie: Valentino was an actor who was idolized by female fans of the 1920s. His first silent film was The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) but his peak was with The Sheik (1921). Charlie Chaplin was a silent film actor who appeared in 1914 with the Keystone Film Company.
Ford, Henry, the Model T, Sloan, Alfred P.: In 1893, Ford completed the construction of his first automobile and in 1903 he founded the Ford Motor Company. In 1908 he started production of the Model-T. In 1913 Ford began using standardized interchangeable parts and assembly-lines in his plants.
Johnson, James Weldon: American author, lawyer, and diplomat who reflected his deep consideration of black life in the United States, James Weldon Johnson served as field secretary of the NAACP from 1916-1920. In 1920 he became the NAACP’s first black executive secretary.
Ruth, Babe, Dempsey, Jack: Babe Ruth was the most popular player in the history of baseball. He began in 1914 on the Baltimore team of the International League. Jack Dempsey was an American professional boxer who became world heavyweight champion in 1919 but lost the title in 1926.
Lindbergh, Charles, Spirit of St. Louis: Lindbergh was an American aviator, engineer , and Pulitzer Prize winner. On May 20, 1927, he was the first person to make a nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic. Flying in his single engine plane, Spirit of St. Louis, he flew from New York City to Paris.
The Jazz Singer: The Jazz Singer was a movie, made in 1927, that started a demand for dancers who could fulfill the expectations of the 1920s. Fred Astaire was involved with the choreography in the movie along with other famous dancers such as Berkeley, Balanchine, and De Mille.
the Jazz Age: The Jazz Age is the general label of what the twenties represented. Such a title reflects the revolution in music during the time, when jazz music became popular and in style. This name also refers to the general prosperity and liberation of the people during the time; those were the "good times."
Freud’s, Sigmund theories: Freud was a Viennese physician whose studies of human sexuality and human psychology first appeared in the 1890s. However, his ideas became popular during the 1920s. His lectures in 1909 at Clark University advanced psychoanalysis in the United States.
Barton, Bruce, The Man Nobody Knows 1925: Barton was an advertising executive that described Jesus Christ as a managerial genius who "picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world." By this he referred to the public’s admiration of leaders like President Harding.
"the Lost Generation": This term refers to a group of American writers who lived primarily in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. Bitter about their World War I experiences and disillusioned with different aspects of American society, these writers were seen to be ex-patriots. The writers include: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Carlos Williams. They never formed a formal literary movement, but individually they were all influential writers.
Lewis, Sinclair, Main Street, Babbitt: Main Street was written in 1920 and is where Lewis first developed the theme of the monotony, emotional frustration, and lack of values in American middle-class life. Babbitt, written in 1922, comments on how people conform blindly to the standards of their environment.
Mencken, H.L., editor of the magazine, The American Mercury: Mencken founded the magazine The American Mercury in 1924. Mencken remained the editor until 1933. He targeted his work at the shortcomings of democracy and the middle-class American culture.
Eliot, T.S., The Waste Land: Eliot won the Nobel Prize for literature for his poem The Waste Land. This poem that is one of the most widely discussed literary works. Written in 1922, The Waste Land expresses Eliot’s conception of the contrast between modern society and societies of the past.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby: Fitzgerald wrote this book in five months and completed it in 1925. The plot was a sensitive and satiric story of the pursuit of success and the collapse of the American dream. Being one of the writers of the Lost Generation, Fitzgerald was bitter because of the effects of the war.
Dreiser, Theodore, An American Tragedy: In 1925, An American Tragedy had great success. Dreiser believed in representing life honestly in his fiction and accomplished this through accurate detail and descriptions of the urban settings of his stories. He also portrays his characters as victims of social and economic forces.
Hemingway, Ernest, A Farewell to Arms: In Hemingway’s novels, he usually depicted the lives of two types of people: men and women deprived of faith in their values by World War I, and men of simple character and primitive emotions. This was Hemingway’s second most important novel next to The Sun Also Rises (1926).
New woman: During the 1920s changes in postwar behavior had a liberating effect on women. Women of the twenties were noticed more for their sex appeal and presented as thus in the advertising industry. The burden of domestic chores were alleviated with new technology, while women themselves turned to a more liberated attitude.
Flappers: Called a flapper because they would leave their boot flaps open, the flapper was the stereotype of a woman in the 1920s. Independent and representing the rebellious youth of the age, the flapper was usually characterized by her "bobbed" hair, dangling cigarette, heavy make-up, and her ever shortening skirt length.
Roosevelt and the New Deal
Declining appeal of Hoover to the public led to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. Roosevelt’s extensive program to restore the economy made up the New Deal. Overall, these legislative measures dealt with assisting people financially, reform other systems and institutions, and recover the prosperity before the Depression. While not all were entirely successful, the various programs all contributed to the eventual, though gradual, recovery of the economy.
Age of the Radio: Radio reached its climax in the 1930s when millions of Americans listened to network news commentators, musical programs, and comedy shows. Also, the president and business companies utilized this resource to attract people, sell products, or to promote a political issue.
Fireside Chats: During the first hundred days of Franklin Roosevelt’s first term in office Roosevelt held informal radio conversations every so often that were dubbed "fireside chats." The topic discussed was the economy that had been plagued by the depression, and the means that were going to be taken in order to revive it.
Roosevelt, Eleanor: Eleanor Roosevelt is portrayed as a U.S. humanitarian and displayed her politics and social issues as a wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She mostly fought for women and minority groups. Many of her books include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and This Is My Story and On My Own.
Perkins, Frances, Secretary of Labor: Being the first woman to be appointed to a Cabinet position (1933-1945), Perkins was also a social reformer. During her term, Perkins strengthened the Department of Labor, pushed for a limit on employment age, and developed the CCC, the Social Security Act, and Fair Labor Standards Act (1938).
Brain Trust: The term brain trust refers to the individual people outside the Franklin Roosevelt appointed presidential cabinet that helped in the decision making process of the president. The men most known are: Raymond Moley, Rexford Tugwell, and Adolph A. Berle. Moley was conservative while Tugwell and Berle were interested in reform.
Keynesian economics: Keynes looked at the economy in a wider sense: macroeconomics. He theorized that the relationship between supply and demand was critical: when the demand doesn’t meet expectations there is unemployment and depression while if demand surpasses production inflation occurs. The solution is to have the government spend while maintaining low taxes and when there is demand that a tight budget should be created.
Pump-priming: Supported by Roosevelt, this theory pumped governmental money to the poor so they could buy products. This would increase sales and cause a demand for that product. This demand in turn will produce jobs for the poor. Now that the poor have jobs they have the necessary income to buy products and this cycle occurs again.
Deficit spending: The manner in which the government spends more than it receives is refereed to as deficit spending. This is done to stimulate the economy through the rise in government costs or due to the decrease of taxation. On the other hand, deficit spending is also seen as inefficiency of government spending.
Monetary policy, fiscal policy: The policy gave government control of the money supply and created a high economic rate to stabilized prices and wages. Fiscal policy is regulation of trade between domestic or foreign goods. Import duties are still possible, but fiscal policy makes an exception because its purpose is to raise revenue.
New Deal: In light of the Great Depression, FDR proposed a series of relief and emergency measures known collectively as the New Deal. Through these measures, FDR intended to revive the lost prosperity of the economy by reforming other institutions and programs, by relieving the plight of the people, and thus recover the nation’s wealth.
Hundred Days: Measures taken during Roosevelt’s first days in office, from Mar 9 to Jun 16, enabled FDR to pass acts critical to stabilizing the economy. The Hundred Days symbolized the beginning stages of the New Deal because the measures taken focused on relief, recovery and reform: key phrases from the New Deal itself.
Relief, Recovery, and Reform: These three areas, relief, recovery, and reform, are the categories into which the New Deal was split. The Relief category was defined by the acts implemented in the area of aid to the unemployment. The Recovery category put forth measures that would help aid in the speedy recovery of areas hit hardest by the depression (i.e. agriculture and industry). Reform was a category in which the government tried to recreate areas that seemed faulty (i.e. banking system).
"Bank Holiday": Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 called for a "bank holiday" which permitted banks that were hurt from the depression to close down for a few days in order to regain stability. Further help to relieve the problem of the foreclosing of banks was the Emergency Banking Act which was passed during the holiday to help open more banks.
Emergency Banking Relief Act, 1933: Implemented during the first hundred days of Franklin Roosevelt’s first term the Emergency Banking Relief Act allowed the reopening of healthy banks. The act provided healthy banks with a Treasury Department license and handled the affairs of the failed banks.
Glass-Steagall Act, 1933: In February of 1933 the Glass-Steagal Act was signed. The act itself made 750 million dollars that had once been kept in the governments gold reserves now able to be used in the creation of loans to private businesses and other major corporations.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC): This measure as the second of the banking acts enacted during Franklin Roosevelt’s first term in office, passed in Jun of 1933. The Federal Deposit Insurance Committee allowed all bank deposits up to 5,000 dollars; it separated deposit banking from investment banking.
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA): Placed under the PWA, Jun 1933, the NIRA focused on the employment of the unemployed and the regulation of unfair business ethics. The NIRA pumped money into the economy to stimulate the job market and created codes that businesses were to follow to maintain the ideal of fair competition.
National Industrial Recovery Administration (NRA): Promoting recovery, the National Industrial recovery Administration was designed to administer the codes of "fair competition" brought forth by the NIRA. Such codes established production limits, set wages and working conditions, and disallowed price cutting and unfair competitive practices. The main focus of the NRA was to break wage cuts and strikes, both which stifled the economy.
Section 7a of the NRA: Developed by Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York, section 7a allowed the workers to organize and enabled them to bargain collectively. In addition, Wagner helped organized labor by not allowing employers from discriminating against union members.
"The Blue Eagle," Johnson, Hugh: Hugh Johnson was the head of the National Recovery Administration who quickly created the organization and rallied support for the NRA by throwing parades in all of the main cities across the United States. "The Blue Eagle" was the symbol of the NRA.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), second AAA 1938: The first AAA was rendered unconstitutional years after the Act of 1938. It tried to help mend the ailing problems that had plagued agriculture since the ending of the First World War. In order to stop the problem of "dust bowls" created by the overuse of soil, the government, under the AAA, granted subsidies to farms who did not continually use the same plot of soil. The government also tried to restrict the production of certain commodities.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): Created under Franklin Roosevelt, the CCC aimed at men particularly in the age group from 18-25. This program created jobs that would try to conserve the nation’s natural resources. The CCC would take these men out of the workforce and place them on jobs that would reforest certain areas, teach fire prevention and soil conservation, and help to stop soil erosion. Between 1933-1942
3 million men were put to work under the CCC; each man would work for one year.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA): One of the most powerful social workers, Harry Hopkins, administered this program directed at local causes. Franklin D. Roosevelt created the FERA in May 1933 and as a part of the New Deal, this measure allocated $500 million to relieve cities and states.
Civil Works Administration (CWA): In Nov 1933 relief administrator Harry Hopkins convinced Franklin D. Roosevelt to create the CWA. The CWA provided temporary public works that allocated a billion dollars for short-term projects for the jobless during the winter but was demolished when the spring arrived.
Public Works Administration (PWA): Harold Ickes: Headed by Harold Ickes, the Secretary of Interior, who was cautious and suspicious, the PWA was a governmental agency which spent $4 billion on 34,000 public works project which constructed dams, bridges, and public buildings.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): Senator Norris: Pushed for by Senator George Norris, the TVA was a governmental agency which ruled several federal programs of building dams, the construction of hydroelectric dams, and controlling floods. Created in 1933, the TVA was eventually curtailed in 1980 when nuclear plants were introduced.
National Youth Administration (NYA): As part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal plan, he set up the National Youth Administration to provide part time work for high school and college students. This agency served more than two million people and was set up because students were the most rebellious due to their exposure to new ideas.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): The SEC, established in 1934, protected investors, listened to complaints, issued licenses and penalized fraud. The SEC required the registration of all companies and securities and required disclosure of company information and registration of all company securities exchanged.
Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC): As part of the Hundred Days that understood the nation’s tragedy of foreclosed mortgages, the HOLC refinanced American home mortgages. This valiant effort allowed one-fifth of all U.S. mortgages to become refinanced which would prevent another Great Depression
Farm Credit Administration: During Franklin Roosevelt’s first term in office, an important federal agency was established; it was named the Farm Credit Administration. It was designed to help rural Americans refinance their farmland; it also helped to restore the livelihood that was missing in agriculture.
Federal Housing Authority (FHA): This agency forced small down payments and low-interest loans on home sales and thus stimulated the economy. This stimulation allowed a new market for private homes that accelerated the construction-industry through the utilization of technology to mass-produce homes.
Gold Clause Act, 1935: The Gold Clause Act stated that private contracts dealing with certain railroad bonds were unable to interfere in the coining of money. The regulation in the value of money for those areas defined were specifically the areas given to Congress when the Constitution was written.
Works Progress Administration (WPA), Hopkins, Harry, Federal Arts Project: Directed by Harry Hopkins in 1935, the eight year program employed 8 million people and provided $11 billion dollars to the economy in which 650,000 miles of roads, 124,000 bridges, and 125,000 schools, hospitals, arts, and post offices were built. The Federal Arts Project created positions for artists by making positions for art teachers and decorated posts for offices and courthouses with murals.
Rural Electrification Administration (REA): The REA was an agency that provided low-interest loans to utility companies and farmers’ cooperatives to reach the 90% of rural farmers who lacked electrical power. This program was so successful that by 1941 40% of these farms had received electrical power.
Wagner Act, 1935: Supported by R. F. Wagner, the Wagner Act of 1935 established defined unjust labor practices, secured workers the right to bargain collectively, and established the National Labor Relations Board. As an integral part of the New Deal, it catalyzed the force of unionization. (Also known as the National Labor Relation Act)
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): This agency was assembled by Congress in 1935 and oversaw the National Labor Relation Act (1935). As an independent agency, the NLRB controlled the secret ballot elections during collective bargaining and managed the complaints of unfairness by the employers or unions.
Revenue Act, 1935: This act allowed the government to raise a spectrum of tariffs ranging from personal taxes at higher income levels to rises in corporate taxes to having heavier levies on gifts and estates. As an expression of the class spirit of the Second New Deal, there were many loopholes.
Social Security Act: Created by the U.S. Congress on August 14,1935, this act supported old-age advantages by utilizing a pay roll tax on employers and employees. This originated from the Townsend clubs which pushed for a $200 pension. Soon the program was expanded to include dependents, the disabled, and adjusted with the inflation.
Resettlement Administration: As part of the New Deal and led by Rexford Tugwell, this agency created loans for small farmers and sharecroppers to buy their own farms. Even though the Resettlement Administration lasted two years, it satisfied the requirements of the governmental concern of sharecroppers.
Emergency Relief Appropriation Act: As part of the Second New Deal in relation to the high unemployment rate in April 1935, Congress was forced into passing the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act in which Roosevelt was granted five billion dollars, part of which he used to set up the Works Progress Administration.
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, 1936: The Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act was formulated to replace the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The act, by providing benefit payments to farmers who practiced soil conservation methods, helped to stem the overproduction in agriculture thus stabilizing farm prices.
Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenancy Act: The act created the Farm Security Administration and replaced the Resettlement Administration. This agency created low-interest loans allowing farmers and sharecroppers to buy their own land. By 1941, they had loaned 1 billion dollars assisting thousands of farmers.
Fair Labors Standards Act: maximum hours and minimum wage: This act was created by the Roosevelt administration of northerners to undermine the South’s competitive edge. It established a minimum wage for most workers while it concurrently created a forty-four hour work week and banned child labor.
Results of the New Deal: Several accomplishments of the New Deal contributed to the nation’s economy. For the first time, the federal government assumed responsibility in reviving economic prosperity, vastly increasing the power of the president. The legislative measures brought reform and reinstated confidence in the people.
Twentieth Amendment: Also known as the Lame-Duck Amendment the Twentieth Amendment in 1933 called for the ending of the "lame-duck" sessions of Congress from Dec of the even numbered years until the following Mar. The amendment also set the date of the President’s inauguration back to Jan 20.
Wikersham Convention: Officially named the National Committee on Law Observation and Enforcement, the Wikersham Convention in May of 1929 discussed the probing problems of prohibition, the treatment of juvenile delinquents, the cost of law enforcement, and other similar problems that faced society during that era.
Twenty-First Amendment: Ratified within the span of 10 months, the Twenty-First Amendment on Dec 5, 1933 repealed the eighteenth amendment which dealt with the passing of prohibition. The amendment also permitted states to levy a tax on alcoholic substances.
Good Neighbor Policy: Stated in 1933 by Roosevelt in his inaugural address, the ideology was that the U.S. would respect the rights of other nations. This policy was used on various occasions of armed troops being sent to Latin America to maintain political stability. Ultimately this resulted in support from Latin America during World War II.
Recognition of the USSR, 1933: The United States didn’t recognize Russia because of the betrayal when Russia withdrew from WWI due to the Russian Revolution in March of 1917. Also, at the treaty of Versailles, Wilson and the other Allies agreed to weaken Russia. Only until Roosevelt’s presidency did the U.S. recognize Russia.
Indian Reorganization Act, 1934: Authorized by the U.S. Congress, it allowed the Indians a form of self-government and thus willingly shrank the authority of the U.S. government. Enacted on Jun 18, 1934, it provided the Indians direct ownership of their land, credit, a constitution, and a charter in which Indians could manage their own affairs.
Coalition of the Democratic Party: blacks, unions, intellectuals, big cities machines,
South: Franklin D. Roosevelt relied on state and local Democratic leaders who pushed beyond the traditional Democratic base. Because blacks, intellectuals, big city machines, and Southerners favored these relief programs, they merged with the Democratic Party.
"conservative coalition" in Congress: Because of the combination of a majority in Congress and the agreeableness of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Congress was viewed as conservative. An example of this is that the Emergency Banking Act passed through Congress in one day.
American Federation of Labor, AFL: The AFL was led by Samuel Gompers and was composed of craft unions that excluded unskilled and semiskilled workers. The size of the union grew as production in the 1900’s grew. By 1935, the dissidents formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.
United Mine Workers, UMW: This union was created by militant leader John L. Lewis in 1890; its methods, based on his stands on increases in pay, safer working conditions, and political stands, reflect Lewis’ military style. In 1935 it had about 250,000 members out of which Lewis co-founded the CIO.
Steel Workers Organization Committee, SWOC: Led by Philip Murray, SWOC gained recognition by striking against U.S. Steel. By March 1937, U.S. Steel recognized the union, gave the workers a wage increase, and accepted a 40-hour week. Because of this action, many other companies began to do the same.
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), Lewis, John L.: John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers and Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers established the CIO in the November of 1935. This 2 million-member group welcomed all autoworkers, steelworkers, and electrical workers.
sit down strikes: These strikes were characterized by employees occupying the work place yet doing nothing. This type of passive resistance allowed the employees to halt production, thus paralyzing the business. This tactic was utilized in the strike by the United Automobile Workers against General Motors in 1937.
Liberty League: This group was made of conservative Democrats who were against the economic and fiscal policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. It lasted for four years and was composed of famous members like Alfred E. Smith and John W. Davis. Ending in 1940, they supported the Republican candidate, Alf Landon.
Long, Huey, Share the Wealth, Smith, Gerald L.K.: Both radical agitators, Long was known for his Share the Wealth program that painted a picture in which "every man [was] a king." Smith decried blacks, Catholics, Communists, and labor unions in the Union Party (1936), America First Party (1944), and the Christian National Crusade (1947).
Coughlin, Father Charles: Coughlin used his status as a U.S. Roman Catholic "radio priest" to announce his political and economic views. He asserted reactionary views and revolved around anti-New Deal and ant-Semitic views. In addition, he created the magazine Social Justice which attacked Communism, Wall Street, and Jews.
Townsend, Dr. Francis: Townsend developed the Townsend Plan in 1933 which embraced 5 million supporters. It called for a pension for citizens over 60 years of age to receive $200 provided by the federal government. Although Congress rejected it, Townsend’s ideals were an early foundation of the Social Security Act.
Hughes, Chief Justice Charles Evans: Hughes guided the Supreme Court in the attack against President Roosevelt in his plan to "pack" the Supreme Court in 1937. Also, he upheld the Wagner Act in which workers had the right of collective bargaining in the National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel.
Schechter v. United States: This case took place in May 1935 when a New York company was charged with a violation of an NRA poultry code; these charges resulted in the Supreme Court declaring the NRA unconstitutional by stating that the NRA was regulating interstate commerce a violation of federal regulation.
"court packing" proposal: This proposal was announced by Franklin D. Roosevelt allowing the president to appoint new Supreme Court members for each one over 70 years of age, totaling six in all. After Chief Justice Evan Hughes’ leadership in expressing their disapproval in this plan, Congress and the American people disapproved of the action as well. This resulted in some New Dealers leaving the president’s side and humiliated President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
New Members of the Supreme Court: Black, Hugo, Reed, Stanley F., Frankfurter, Felix, Douglass, William O.: These four men were appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1937 to 1939 to guarantee a foundation for a liberal majority and thus extending Roosevelt’s New Deal policies after leaving office.
Election of 1936: candidates, issues: The candidates included Franklin D. Roosevelt from the Democratic Party, Alfred M. Landon from the Republican party, and William Lemke from the Union Party. The principal issue was how to exploit the New Deal’s popularity. In the end, FDR won in a landslide victory.
Literacy Digest Poll: The poll was initiated by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency and involved in a court case: Literacy Digest poll v. Gallop Poll. There, they debated on the validity of each poll in relation to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies.
Second New Deal: Created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and expressed in his State of the Union Address in January 1935, the Second New Deal focused on and enlarged the federal program to incorporate the jobless, to help the unemployed receive jobs, to give assistance to the rural poor, organized labor, and social welfare. Roosevelt wanted to levy heavier taxes on the rich, create harder regulations on businesses, and to incorporate social-welfare benefits.
Robinson-Patman Act, 1936: Originated from a Federal Trade Commission chain store investigation, this act was an amendment to the Clayton Act; it eliminated unfair business practices and destroyed monopolies. On Jun 19, 1936, this act was passed and applied to all buyers or sellers, and merchants large or small.
Miller-Tydings Act, 1937: The purpose of this act was to amend the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by exempting any contract or agreement ("horizontal agreements") in which a product would be set at a significantly lower price. A violation of this would be an unfair method as stated in the Federal Trade Commission Act.
"Roosevelt recession": Although the economy improved in 1936 and early 1937, it once again fell back in mid 1937, when industrial production and steel output declined, and unemployment statistics increased. Some of the major factors of this recession were federal policies that greatly reduced consumer income.
Hatch Act, 1939: Supported by Senator Carl Hatch of New Mexico and passed by Congress on Aug 2, 1939, the Hatch Act tried to exterminate corruption during elections. It disallowed bribery of votes, restricted federal employees from political campaigning, and limited donations from individuals which were to be given to political campaigns.
dust bowl, Okies, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath: "Okies" were poor farmers who moved west to California and Arizona during the 1930s or moved to the crowded cities. This occurred because after two generations of a melange of drought and poor farming techniques these areas, also known as "dust bowls," once fertile land, became waste areas and unusable. The Grapes of Wrath written by Steinbeck in 1939 illustrates the plight of a dust bowl family.
Twenties Domestic Affairs
America of the 1920s was a period of prosperity as well as industrial and technological growth. With the recent end of World War I, Americans yearned for a return to "normalcy" and political leaders that could provide it, thus turning to the leadership of Warren G. Harding.
Election of 1920: candidates, issues, vice-presidential candidates: The democrats nominated James M. Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt for his running mate. Republicans chose Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio and Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts. Harding sensed popular longing for calm and won in a landslide victory.
Normalcy: Coined by Warren G. Harding in an address before the Home Market Club on May 14,1920 in Boston, this term came to symbolize, to powerful businessmen, the immediate abandonment of the foreign and domestic policies of Wilson. This meant a return to high protective tariffs and a reduction in taxes.
Sheppard-Towner Act: Lobbying for child-labor laws as well as worker protection for women and support for education by the Women’s Joint Congressional Committee resulted in the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921. This act provided $1.2 million for prenatal and baby-care centers in rural areas.
Esch-Cummins Transportation Act: Also known as the Transportation Act of 1920, this act allowed the government to take over the railroads from Dec 26, 1917 until Mar 1, 1920. They were forced to carry heavy traffic while ignoring maintenance. The result was the Act of Feb 28, 1920 and attempted to insure the operation of the railroads.
Immigration Acts 1921, 1924, quota system: In 1921 Congress limited annual immigration to about 350,000 people annually. In 1924, they limited the number to 164,000 people annually. This also restricted immigration to 2% of the total number of people who lived in the U.S. from their respective country since 1890 and completely rejected the immigration of Asians. The intent of these provisions was to reduce the immigration of foreign people in the United States.
KKK revival: A KKK was an organization founded in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866. Nathan Bedford Forrest served as the first Grand Wizard for this organization. They aimed to destroy radical political power and establish white supremacy in the U.S. They were formally disbanded in 1869, but then it was revived in 1915, led by William J. Simmons.
Harding scandals: Charles Forbes, Harry Daugherty, Sceretary of Interior Fall, Teapot Dome, Harry Sinclair: Forbes, director of the Veteran’s Bureau, in 1924, was exposed and convicted of stealing funds from it for personal economic growth. Daugherty, appointed attorney general, was forced from office in 1924 after receiving payments from violators of prohibition. Fall leased government oil reserves in 1921 to Sinclair, president of the Mammoth Oil Company. All suspects evaded prosecution.
Harding, Warren G.: Although Harding lacked the qualifications for presidency, his ordinary, friendly manner and advocacy of a return to "normalcy" resulted in a landslide vicotry in the election of 1920. Unfortunately, his administration was full of scandals and on Aug 2, 1923, Harding died in San Francisco of a heart attack.
Coolidge, Calvin: Harding’s death brought vice president Coolidge to the presidency, where his silences became legendary. As president, he held an antipathy to progressivism, believed the government had no obligation in protecting citizens against natural disasters, and warned of "the tyranny of bureaucratic regulation and control."
Taft, Chief Justice William Howard: Taft was appointed by President Harding in 1921. Under his jurisdiction, the Supreme Court overturned many progressive reform measures that were opposed by popular business interests. An example of this was the 1919 federal law imposing taxes on the products of child labor that he overturned.
Conference for Progressive Political Action, 1922 (CPPA): A committee designed to revive the practices of the progressive era, the CPPA adopted policies of pro-labor, pro-farmer, and government ownership of railroads and utilities such as telephones and electricity. It helped defeat the conservative Republican candidates in 1924.
Bureau of the Budget: Created by the Budget and Accounting Act on June 10, 1921, this act provided for the Bureau to be located in the treasury department with the director appointed by the president. The Bureau provided for a more efficient management of the budget within the treasury department.
Mellon, Secretary of Treasury tax cuts: Mellon was the secretary of the treasury under Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. Under his administration, Congress lowered the income tax rates for the wealthy. Mellon also succeeded in balancing the budget every year from 1921 to 1928.
Norris, Senator George, Muscle Shoals: Norris successfully prevented President Coolidge from selling a federal hydroelectric facility at Muscle Shoals, Alabama to auto-maker Henry Ford for only a portion of the value of the land. He also helped reject further tax cuts for the rich.
election of 1924: candidates, Robert La Follette, Progressive Party: CPPA delegates revived the Progressive Party at the meeting in Cleveland in July of 1924 and nominated Robert La Follette for president; the Socialist party and AFL supported this nomination, also. The Democratic Party nominated John W. Davis, a compromise candidate. The Republicans nominated Coolidge, who won with 54% of the vote.
McNary-Haugen Bill, vetoes: The veto of the McNary-Haugen Bill by Coolidge reflected a fear of "the tyranny of bureaucratic regulation." He denounced the bill as an unconstitutional scheme because it would benefit American agriculture at the expense of the general public’s welfare.
Federal Farm Board: This action was a result of Hoover’s response towards the problems faced by agriculture. He secured the passage of legislation that established the Board to Promote Cooperative Commodity Marketing. By doing so he was permitted to raise farm prices while still preserving the voluntarist principle.
Election of 1928: candidates, personalities, backgrounds: Candidates Al Smith and Herbert Hoover represented the social and cultural differences of the 1920s. Smith was the Democratic candidate with the experience of being the governor of NY. Hoover was an inexperienced candidate that had never sought a public office before, yet he won.
Prohibition: Prohibition was first an issue before World War I. Progressives saw it as a way to deal with the social problems associated with alcoholism. Congress submitted the 18th amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic liquors in 1917. However, closet manufacturing of alcoholic beverages and a rise in criminal activities within the cities due to illegal importation of alcohol led to its repeal with the 21st amendment in 1933.
Volstead Act, Al Capone: The Volstead Act of 1919 established the Prohibition Bureau within the Treasury Department, but it lacked financial stability and was ineffective. Capone was a mob king in Chicago who controlled a large network of speakeasies with enormous profits; his illegal activities convey the failure of prohibition in the twenties.
Sacco and Vanzetti Case: On Apr 15, 1920 two robbers killed a clerk and stole money from a shoe factory in South Briantree, Massachusetts. Nicola Sacco and Bartholomeo Vanzetti were arrested and both were charged with the robbery and the murder. The jury found them both guilty. Both men died in the electric chair on Aug 23, 1927.
Leopold and Loeb Case: The case in 1924 involved the murder of a young boy by two rich and intelligent college students. This case has been referred to for its moral lesson on human nature. It also shows that not only famous cases have been products of social developments; Americans responded to criminal cases also.
fundamentalists, Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson: During the twenties, Protestants who insisted on the divinity of the Bible, were angered by the theory of evolution. Fundamentalist legislatures even introduced bills to prohibit the teaching of evolution in schools. An evangelist, Billy Sunday’s most famous quote reads, "If you turn hell upside down you will find ‘Made in Germany’ stamped on the bottom." Evangelist McPherson used drama and theatrical talent in her sermons, winning many followers.
Scopes Trial, Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan: In 1925, the Tennessee legislature outlawed the teaching of evolution in public schools. The American Civil Liberties Union volunteered to defend any teacher willing to challenge this law. William Jennings Bryan agreed to assist prosecution. Darrow was the head of ACLU’s lawyers.
Below are the US History topics covered in this unit:
Civil Rights to 1960
After the army became desegregated in 1948, the position of African-Americans in civilian society came under increasing scrutiny. There was widespread recognition that the integration of society had not progressed as it was supposed to and that it was time for the African-American citizens to take a stand. Landmark decisions in the Supreme Court as well as civil rights laws foreshadowed the changes and upheaval that would come in this and following decades.
Randolph, A. Philip: President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters who worked to build his March-on-Washington Committee into an all-black protest movement. The Committee also engaged in civil disobedience to protest racial discrimination in all aspects of American life.
Fair Employment Practices Committee: Roosevelt issued this committee in 1941 to enforce the policy of prohibiting employment-related discrimination practices by federal agencies, unions, and companies involved in war-related work for the purpose of enforcing an Executive Order and made possible the employment of 2 million blacks.
Detroit race riots, 1966: Erupted because of constant conflict between black citizens and white cops, resulting in the bloodiest riot in this half-century. Forty-three were found dead, thousands were wounded, and over $50 million in property was destroyed.
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE): The Congress of Racial Equality was formed in 1942 to help combat discrimination through nonviolent, direct action. Led by James Farmer, it organized Freedom Rides that rode throughout the south to try to force desegregation of public facilities.
Drew, Dr. Charles: As an African-American physician, he developed techniques for the storing and processing of blood for transfusion in 1944. He also conducted research on the preservation of blood and during WWII, he developed blood-transfusion programs for the British and French.
Myrdal, Gunnar, An American Dilemma: A Swedish economist, Gunnar wrote about anticipated changes in race relations, as well as the problems between the races in 1944. He specifically noted that Black veterans returned with very high expectations from civilian life due to war.
rural and Southern to urban and Northern: Eisenhower sought to give low income farmers increased training and trade as well as to improve industry and the health of citizens of the rural South . In the urban North, a great emphasis was put upon renovation and the rehabilitation of the cities opposed to clearance and reconstruction.
To Secure These Rights: The 1946 Committee on Civil Rights dramatized the inequities of life in the South and under the Jim Crow laws. It called for an end to racial discrimination and segregation, and was called "an American charter of human freedom," by President Truman.
desegregation of the armed forces, 1948: Truman ended segregation in the army to provide support during World War II to ensure victory. He was the first president to deal with the legislative civil rights since the implementation of Reconstruction and fought for many other civil rights acts but was denied.
Korean War: Seen as a Soviet-directed aggression to test American containment policy. On June 27, 1950, Truman ordered American troops to invade South Korea. General Douglas MacArthur sought total victory, and in 1953 a cease fire was issued after a truce agreement was signed by the U.N. and Communists.
"separate but equal": Enacted because of the inferiority complex given to blacks, it set forth an attempt to liberalize without losing control. The Supreme Court said that it had no place in schools, so it ordered the desegregation of schools, navy yards and veteran hospitals.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: The Supreme Court reversed Plessy v. Ferguson in 1954 by ruling in favor of the desegregation of schools. The court held that "separate but equal" violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and was unconstitutional. Refusing to force the white south to accept the ruling, defiance toward the law sprang up. Many southerners saw it as "an abuse of judiciary power."
Marshall, Thurgood: 1st African American justice of the Supreme Court, famous for his fight against discrimination, the death penalty, and his support of civil liberties and free speech. Previously a lawyer with such key victories as in Brown v. Board of Education, founder of the NAACP Legal Defense.
Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks: In December of 1955, Parks refused to get up from her seat on the bus to give it to a white man, and was therefore arrested. This led to massive bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama. Because of her actions she is known as the "mother" of civil rights. Resistance to desegregation of buses was finally overcome by the Supreme Court ruling that it was unconstitutional to segregate public transportation in November, 1956.
King Jr., Rev. Martin Luther: An African-American leader who was the voice of his people. His philosophy emphasized need for direct action by getting every African-American involved in the pursuit of equality and to build a community of brotherhood in his "I have a dream" speech. On April 4,1968 he was assassinated.
Little Rock, Arkansas Crisis: Governor Orval E. Faubus sent the National Guard to bar nine black students from entering Central High School in Arkansas in 1957. Eisenhower then enforced a new court order that forced the men to withdraw, and a mob of whites reacted by preventing the students from entering the school. Then The National Guard was sent to protect the students from the violence for the rest of the school year. The school was then shut down in 1958-59.
Civil Rights Act,1957: Eisenhower passed this bill to establish a permanent commission on civil rights with investigative powers but it did not guarantee a ballot for blacks. It was the first civil-rights bill to be enacted after Reconstruction which was supported by most non-southern whites.
Civil Rights Act, 1960: Eisenhower passed this bill to appease strong southern resistance and only slightly strengthened the first measures provisions. Neither act was able to empower federal officials to register the right to vote for African-Americans and was not effective.
literacy tests, poll tax: Literacy tests were given to blacks with the idea that they would be denied the right to vote since most could not read. The poll tax prevented African-Americans from voting by requiring all voters to pay a tax, which blacks could not afford. In 1966, the poll tax was outlawed in all elections.
grandfather clause, white primaries: The grandfather clause was a provision used to exclude people who served in the war and their descendants from taking suffrage tests. It was declared unconstitutional in 1915. White primaries were used to control everything even with disenfranchisement and was declared unconstitutional in 1944.
Jackie Robinson: He was the first African-American baseball player to play professionally in 1947. He was able to break the color barrier and seemed to successfully overcome the racism so prevalent in his sport. Robinson was also was able to contribute to the winning of the pennant and Rookie of the Year in his first year of playing.
Eisenhower and the 1950s
Hailing Eisenhower as someone whom one might have as a regular neighbor, the country overwhelmingly elected the former and celebrated World War Two Allied forces commander. Although a former military leader, Eisenhower strongly believed in the ascendancy of civilian control over the military and condemned what he termed the "military-industrial complex." During Eisenhower’s administration, the USSR made several advances in the space race pushing the United States to catch up.
1952 election: candidates, issues: Truman would not seek reelection. The Democrats drafted Adlai Stevenson, who was unsuccessful. The Republicans decided to back the war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower who chose Nixon as his running mate. The GOP controlled both houses.
Ike and Modern Republicanism: He provided Americans with the stability they craved, and labeled his credo "Modern Republicanism." In general, he was conservative on monetary issues and liberal "when it came to human beings." During his term as president, he backed the most extensive public-works program in U.S. history: the Interstate Highway Act and also extended social security benefits and raised the minimum wage.
"fiscal management": Large scale labor organizations and social welfare were used to deal with powerful pressure groups. It rejected an extreme step to the right side of politics and a return to the pre-New Deal policies. Also, it abandoned the goal of a balanced budget in favor of increased spending to restore prosperity.
Niebuhr, Reinhold, Rand, Ayn, The Fountainhead: Niebuhr was a theologian who expressed neo-Orthodox Protestant views and liberal social thoughts. Ayn Rand was a U.S. novelist who became a citizen in 1931 and wrote about the struggles of poverty. Her work was important in expressing life’s hardships and was published in 1928.
McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, 1952: Passed over the presidents’ veto, it validated the quota system firmly based on the idea that national origin restrained immigration from southern and Eastern Europe. This act also empowered the attorney general to exclude and deport aliens suspected of being communists.
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW): Eisenhower transformed the Federal Securities Agency into the H.E.W. and gave it cabinet rank in 1953. This agency allowed for the reorganization of government in order to achieve greater efficiency and a better economy.
Interstate Highway Act: Passed by Eisenhower, this was the largest and most expensive public-works system in American history that allowed for the building of 41,000 miles of expressways in 1956. Allowed for suburban growth, the decay of central cities, and increased America’s reliance on cars.
St. Lawrence Seaway: Approved by Eisenhower, this seaway linked the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean in 1954. It was built to accelerate suburban growth, expand trade to promote economic prosperity, and allowed boats greater access to transport goods. It connected Montreal and Lake Ontario promoting good relations with Canada.
Landrum-Griffin Act: Passed in 1959 to regulate the government of unions, guarantee members’ rights, provisions for anti-corruption, and fair elections. Enacted due to the concern of financial misconduct on the part of union officials and connected to gangsters and organized crime.
Hoffa, Jimmy: He became president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 1957. Jury tampering was found after he was sentenced to thirteen years in prison for the fraudulent use of the union pension fund. After losing his appeals, he was sentenced in 1967 but only served about four years and nine months in prison.
AFL-CIO merger: In 1955, this brought 85% of all union members into a single administrative unit, which promised aggressive unionism under the leadership of AFL’s George Meany as president and CIO’s Walter Reuther as vice-president. However, the movement was unable to achieve its old level of success.
Alaska, Hawaii: Congress approved Alaska as the forty-ninth state of the Union in June and Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill on July 7, 1958 . Congress approved of giving Hawaii statehood in March of 1959 and it was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959.
First Indochina War: After WWII, Ho Chi Minh of the Vietminh declared himself leader of the Republic of Vietnam and began a war to drive the France imperialists out of Vietnam in Dec of 1946. After a 55 day siege, the French surrendered at the fortress of Diem Bien Phu and July 21, 1954 a truce agreement was signed with France surrendering North Vietnam and granting independence to Cambodia, Laos, and South Vietnam.
Bricker Amendment: On January 7, 1954, Senator John W. Bricker proposed a constitutional amendment to limit the executive power of the president. His proposal called for a limit on the power of the president to negotiate treaties and executive agreements. Rejected February 26, 1954.
Dulles, John Foster: Became Secretary of State under Eisenhower in 1953. Cold Warrior who supported "massive retaliation," brinksmanship, and preemptive strike. In 1951 he was author of Japanese peace treaty. Politically influential during WWII, from 1949-1959.
"massive retaliation": January, 1940s. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles signed the Strategic Air Command as the primary deterrent for Soviet attack. Great Britain, Turkey, and Italy stationed intermediate-range nuclear weapons in their countries to provide for a capacity for "massive retaliation."
brinksmanship: This is another of the policies of John Foster Dulles that caused considerable controversy during the Cold War. Dulles declared that the United States must be prepared to "go to the brink" of war in order to attain its objectives. This stance was labeled brinksmanship.
preemptive strike: A plan of acting first with nuclear or conventional weapons as a defensive action. A preemptive strike would solve the problem before it became an issue by acting first and swiftly. A preemptive strike is another Cold War term that generated fear for the beginning of a nuclear war.
Khrushchev, 1955 Geneva Summit: The meeting of "Four Powers," US, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Also present was Khrushchev, the 1st Secretary of the Communist Party. Decided to reunify Germany, and on disarmament, and how to improve relations between east and west.
Hungarian revolt, 1956: Antigovernment demonstrations in Budapest on Oct. 23, 1956 as revolutionaries demanded the denunciation of the Warsaw Pact and liberation from Soviet troops. On Oct. 21, U.S. announced it wouldn’t give military aid to the revolutionaries. On Nov. 4, Soviets attacked Hungary.
Nasser Suez Canal crisis: Dec 17, 1955, the U.S. offered Egypt a loan to build the Aswan High Dam, withdrawing its offer after Egypt accepted Soviet Union aid and Pres. Nasser nationalized the Suez canal to use tolls to build the dam. On Oct 31, Israel invaded Egypt with French and British aircraft.
Peaceful Coexistence: A term applied to the actions of the US under Eisenhower and USSR under Khrushchev for maintaining peace and reducing the possibility of war between the two nations. The implementation of the phrase is seen in the Geneva Summit where the "spirit of Geneva" was one of peace and collaboration to create a secure and peaceful world. March 1959 the USSR and the U.S agreed to suspend atomic testing.
Eisenhower Doctrine: January 5, 1957, Eisenhower made a speech to the joint House of Congress to limit communist expansion. Authorized March 7, the Eisenhower Doctrine allowed the president to extend economic and military aid to certain nations as well as use of $200 million mutual security funds.
Common Market: Established 1958 by the Treaty of Rome to set up a wide customs union in 1968 and was joined by Great Britain in 1972. The EEC developed world wide trading relations between European nations providing for a more solidified Europe, another symbol of rearrangement of power after WWII.
Organization of American States (OAS): From the Charter of Bogotá regional association was established with US and Latin America states and formed a Inter-American conference, a Consultative Conference of Foreign Ministers, a Council with a delegate from each state, and a Secretariat and Commissions.
U-2 incident: May 3, 1960, the USSR announced an American U-2 plane was shot down in Soviet territory. May 5, NASA released a cover story of a lost weather research plane. May 7, pilot Francis Gary Powers confessed to being a CIA spy. May 11 Eisenhower admitted to authorization of U-2 flights.
ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic missiles were developed in the 1950's in America. The ICBM's with one or two nuclear warheads had the potential to destroy the USSR and the US. ICBM's were one of the many factors that gave the American people the sense that war was imminent.
Sputnik: The Soviet Union launched this first satellite into orbit on October 4, 1957. Humiliated at being upstaged by the Russians, the U.S. reshaped the educational system in efforts to produce the large numbers of scientists and engineers that Russia had. In addition, to better make scientific advancements, NASA was created in 1958. Created by Congress, it brought a national aeronautics agency to administer nonmilitary space research and exploration.
National Defense Education Act (NDEA Act): Passed in 1958 to provide $300 million in loans to students of undergraduate and graduate status, funds for training teachers, and for the development of new instructional material to ensure a higher level of national security.
"military-industrial complex": The demands of national security had produced the symbiotic relationship of immense military establishment and industry. These intertwined interests helped lead to leverage in government and threatened subordination of the military.
Gathering Storm 1940-1941
As World War Two began in Europe, the United States attempted to maintain a distance. However, as hostilities escalated in both the East and West, the United States was fenced in and forced to choose a side. Supporting the Allied forces, the United States, though not officially in the war, was considered a legitimate target by the Axis. After France fell to Germany, pressure increased on the United States. Finally, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the United States into the global conflict.
Invasion of Poland, Blitzkrieg: When Poland refused to restore the German city of Danzig lost after WWI, Hitler’s troops attacked Poland on Sept.1, 1939. April 1940, Hitler unleashed his Blitzkrieg, or "lightening war," and quickly occupied many western European nations.
Axis Powers: Group of countries opposed to the Allied powers. Originated in the Rome-Berlin Axis with the 1936 Hitler-Mussolini Accord and their alliance in 1939. In Sept. 1940, it was extended when Japan was incorporated into the Axis by the signing of the Tripartite pact. The Axis powers were Japan, Italy and Germany.
"cash and carry": A precautionary move by the U.S. to make sure they stayed isolationist. Nations who wanted to trade had to purchase the materials from the U.S. and carry them on their own vessels. This meant that the allied countries had to only pay for the goods and the United States would ship them.
fall of France: Hitler’s launched his blitzkrieg on France in 1938. The British were already being driven back when Hitler attacked Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. England evacuated 338,000 men from the English channel. Mussolini attacked from the South at the same time, and on Jun. 22 France capitulated.
America First Committee: When FDR expressed a desire for American intervention in WWII, he was faced with stiff resistance by the America First Committee in 1940. The committee was compromised of many pro-isolationist who thought that the allied powers could do nothing to stop the war.
Isolationism, Lindbergh, Charles: Isolationism was the foreign policy practiced by America after WWI, as most citizens did not want to be involved in many international affairs. Charles Lindbergh was a big supporter of this policy, and even joined the America First Committee to demonstrate his antiwar sentiment.
Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies: Instituted by Roosevelt to oversee loans and other such financial activities occurring while Germany attacked Britain. The Committee, oversaw lend lease policy implemented by Roosevelt for purposes of protecting America and also to help stop Germany in Europe.
Smith Act: The Smith Act was created in 1940 and outlawed any conspiracy to overthrow the government. It was largely used in the later years of communist hysteria, and imprisoned individuals not because of any acts of violence or espionage, but rather for their rhetoric and their views on the American government..
Tojo: Japanese leader during WWII. An extreme militarist, advocated total war. Became Army Chief of Staff in 1937. Led the Japanese army against Manchuria, and in 1940 made Minister of War. In 1941, appointed Prime Minister, and controlled government and military operations during WWII. Resigned 1944.
destroyers-for-bases deal: In exchange for fifty old WWI American destroyers which had in been recommissioned in 1939 and 1940 and were serving on neutrality patrol, Britain gave the United States 99 year leases to establish military bases on British possessions in the Western hemisphere.
election of 1940: candidates, issues: Roosevelt was nominated by the Democrats for a third term, and the Republicans nominated Wendell L. Willkie. The major issues were WWII and military spending. Roosevelt endorsed the nation’s 1st peacetime draft and advocated a military spending increase.
"Lend Lease," March 1941: Program set up to loan the Allied nations arms and other materials to wage war against the Axis powers. The Lend-lease bill was approved by Congress in 1941, which originally authorized $7 billion. Thirty-five other nations besides Great Britain, USSR, France, and China received loans from the lend lease. By August 1945, the amount totaled $48 billion, of which the United States received $6 billion in repayment by these nations.
Tripartite Pact: The Tripartite Pact was a 10 year military and economic alliance also known as the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis. Japan signed this alliance in September, 1940, with the previously allied Italy and Germany. Each of the signatories pledged to help the others in the event of an attack by the U. S.
Atlantic Charter, August 1941: FDR met Churchill to discuss joint military strategy. Their public statement expressed their ideas of a postwar world, and frowned upon aggression, affirmed national self-determination, and endorsed the principles of collective security and disarmament.
Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941: On the morning of December 7, scores of Japanese dive-bombers and torpedo planes flew across Oahu to bomb the ships that were anchored in Peal Harbor, and to strafe the planes parked side by side at nearby air bases. In less that 3 hours, over 300 aircraft were destroyed or damaged, and 8 battleships, 3 light cruisers, and 3 destroyers were sunk or crippled. Worst loss of U.S. arms in history.
Homefront
Though World War Two was not fought on U.S. soil, the entire country pitched in to help the war effort. Housewives grew Liberty Gardens and went to work in place of the drafted men. The United States government established many wartime organizations to monitor supplies and food as well control propaganda. Families were encouraged to help fathers and brothers by not buying tin or rationing sugar or buying war bonds. Everyone on the homefront was expected to do his or her part in the war as well.
Japanese Relocation: Japanese-born Americans and immigrants from Japan were sent to concentration camps in the early 1940’s because of a fear that they would leak out information about the U.S. to Japan. Most of these people were suspected of being spies for the Japanese, though there was no solid evidence to support such accusations. The captured Japanese were released in 1942, and FDR apologized to them.
Revenue Act of 1942: Because of the expenditure on the war, Roosevelt wanted to pay for as much as possible through taxes. Although Congress refused to grant him a progressive tax, in 1942, the Revenue Act raised the top income-tax rate from 60% to 90% and added middle class and lower income groups to the tax bracket as well.
bond drives: In order to finance the war and give people a sense of involvement in the war effort, bond drives were held. The treasury department sold about $40 billion "E" bonds to investors, and nearly twice the amount in higher denomination. The bonds raised half the money for WWII.
War Production Board: In 1942, FDR announced a plan for massive war production. In order to get the necessary amount of raw materials, FDR established the War Production Board. It allocated scarce materials, limited or stopped the production of civil goods, and distributed contracts among competing manufacturers.
Office of Price Administration (OPA): Instituted in 1942, this agency was in charge of stabilizing prices and rents and preventing speculation, profiteering, hoarding and price administration. The OPA froze wages and prices and initiated a rationing program for items such as gas, oil, butter, meat, sugar, coffee and shoes.
War Labor Board: Established in 1942, the War Labor Board was instituted to mediate disputes between management and labor, and sought to prevent strikes and out of control wage increases. The War Labor Board acted as the mediator to prevent massive strikes and wage increases that occurred with the demand for workers.
War Refugee Board (WRB): FDR established the War Refugee Board in 1943 to help rescue and assist the many people who were condemned to death camps. It relocated many refugees in need, although it was late in inception. Although it saved 200,000 Jews and 20,000 non-Jews, 1 million still died.
War Manpower Commission (WMC): FDR established the War Manpower Commission in 1942 to help supervise the mobilization of males and females in the military, and the war industry, and also to study how profit can be gained through the production of weapons and supplies.
Office of Censorship, Office of War Information: Roosevelt wanted public opinion to be positive during the war, and in 1941, he established the Office of Censorship. It examined all written documents, including works of publishers and broadcasters, as well as all letters going overseas, in order to maintain the positive public opinion in America.
Office of Strategic Services: FDR and the Joint Chief of Staffs formed the Office of Strategic Services which served as an intelligence agency during WWII and was a predecessor of the CIA. It began on June 13,1942 to conduct espionage, gather intelligence information required for planning, and to analyze the enemy. Discontinued by Truman in 1945.
Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD): Formed in 1941 to contract out the development of new medicines and ordinances. It spent $1 billion dollars to produce sonar, radar devices, rockets, tanks, advanced jets, and the development of DDT and other pesticides.
African-Americans in World War II: Many civil rights groups used the need of the government for the cooperation of all its citizens in the war effort to push a new militancy in redressing discrimination. Blacks moved into service in all areas of the military, although most in segregated units until 1948. A large migration of blacks from the South to Northern industrial areas made civil rights a national rather than regional concern and broadened the political effects of black votes.
Women in World War II: Women served in significant numbers during World War II, both as civilian support personnel and in the uniformed services in the Woman’s Army Corps (WAC) and Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service in the Navy (WAVES). Women pilots ferried planes from station to station, freeing men for combat pilot positions. Women moved into the civilian workforce, including heavy industry, replacing those men who had entered the military.
McCarthyism
As a result of the recent escalation of the Cold War and the spread of communism throughout the world, domestic paranoia concerning communist infiltration increased. This laid the foundation for the investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Taking advantage of this "Red Scare" was Senator Joseph McCarthy who utilized the fear and panic of United States citizens to advance his own interests. Though many Americans believed the investigations were wrong, few said anything.
National Securities Act of 1947, 1949: The CIA was enacted to pursue and conduct espionage and analyze information and facts concerning the actions of foreign countries. It also became involved in undercover operations to destroy operations made to be hostile toward the U.S.
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC): FDR established this organization to serve as a platform to the denunciation of the New Deal and communism growth in the U.S. Used to investigate and expose communist influence in America and blurred the line between dissent and disloyalty. It also brought about hysteria and caused blacklisting to occur so that people considered to be "communists" never found work.
McCarthyism, McCarthy, Senator Joseph: He started the hysteria that occurred after the second Red Scare and accused U.S. citizens of being communists. These accusations appealed to Midwestern Americans who found that anti-communism was to fight against liberals and internationalists. It took over the U.S. as a means of fighting communism without realizing that the U.S. was in danger of losing what it was fighting for, Freedom and the Constitution.
McCarthy, Senator Joseph: Republicans support and political power was given to senator McCarthy to instill fear within the Democratic Party. He was supported by the GOP party and many resented that he accused many people of being Communists without having proof of their disloyalty. By accusing many of communism, McCarthyism arose.
Hiss, Alger: Identified as a member of the communist party by and initially denied claims. Proof was given that Hiss was involved in espionage in the 1930s with the transmitting of information to the Soviet Union through microfilm. Indicted for perjury and sentenced to five years in prison, 1950
McCarran Internal Security Act, 1950: Required all organizations that were believed to be communist by the attorney general to submit a roster of the members and financial statements to the Department of Justice. It also excluded communists from working in defense plants, passports to communists and deported aliens suspected of subversion.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg: In March of 1951, based primarily on the testimony of their alleged accomplices, Henry Greengrass and Harry Gold, the Rosenbergs were found guilty of conspiring to commit espionage. Their electrocution in 1953 represented the anti-Communist fever that gripped the U.S.
Hollywood 10: The 10 people from the entertainment industry called before the House Un-American Activities Committee as "unfriendly" witnesses in October 1947 became known as the Hollywood Ten. All refused to state whether they were communists, served prison sentences, and were blacklisted in the film industry.
Fuchs, Klaus: He was a German physicist who was a British citizen from 1942-1950 and an atomic scientist in the United Kingdom and the United States from 1942 on. He was sentenced to prison in England in 1950 for having given atomic secrets to the USSR. After he was freed in 1959, he went to East Germany.
"Pink Lady": Douglas, Helen Gahagan: When Richard Nixon ran against the liberal Democratic Jerry Voorhis for a California congressional seat in 1946, he won easily by suggesting that Voorhis had left-wing tendencies. When Nixon ran for the Senate in 1950, he used similar charges to defeat the Democratic candidate, Congresswoman Douglas.
Anti-Communist Vocabulary: Red, pink or pinko, left-wing, and commie were some of the slurs thrown around during the McCarthy years to brand people with a communist "taint." These campaigns were known as witch-hunts by those who opposed HUAC tactics, and like the Salem witch-hunts, accusations alone, without any proof of wrong-doing, could be enough to ruin someone and get them "blacklisted" and unable to find employment.
Origins of the Cold War
Although relations with the Soviet Union were already strained, Roosevelt’s death and the beginning of Truman’s presidency brought new tensions to the relationship. Russia’s traditional paranoia led to the establishment of a communist satellite buffer zone around the USSR. The spread of communism into Asian and South American countries exacerbated anticommunist feelings in the United States and contributed to the pressure for increased buildup of defensive forces.
Yalta Conference: Conference of Russia, Great Britain and US in Feb.1945 with leaders FDR, Stalin and Churchill in Crimea. The result was statement of Soviet intent on entering the Pacific War two to three months after the end of the European war, Churchill and FDR promise for Soviet concessions in Manchurian and return of lost territories. Stalin recognized Chiang as China's ruler, agreed to drop demands for reparations from Germany, approved plans for a UN Conference and promised free elections in Poland.
Potsdam Conference: Truman, Stalin and Churchill met in Potsdam Germany from July 16-Aug. 2 to decide on postwar arrangements begun at Yalta. A Council of Foreign Ministers was established to draft treaties concerning conquered European nations, and to make provisions for the trials of war criminals. The Soviet Union agreed to drop demands for reparations and Germany was decentralized into British, Russian, French and US zones.
partitioning of Korea, Vietnam, Germany: As decided by the Potsdam by the Council of Foreign minister, Germany, Vietnam and Korea were divided into zones to be held by US, France, Britain and the Soviet Union and then reorganized through self-determination.
de Gaulle, Charles: The French President during WWII, he was also active in several treaty conferences.
Churchill, Winston, "Iron Curtain" speech: Asked for Anglo-American cooperation to combat an "Iron Curtain" that cut across Europe from the Baltic to Adriatic. The iron curtain was the satellites and territories held by the communist Soviet Union. An early theory for Soviet containment.
Stalin: Ruler of Russia from 1929-1953. In 1935 Stalin endorsed a "Popular Front" to oppose fascism. Stalin also had considerable influence in the Yalta agreement as well as being a leader of one of the world's superpowers. After WWII, the primary focus of Amer. was to curb Stalin's and communist influence.
Bretton Woods Conference: Meeting of Allied governments in 1944. From the Bretton Woods Agreement, foreign currencies would be valued in relation to the dollar and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Bank were created.
Dumbarton Oaks Conference: An international conference held August-October 1944 at Dumbarton Oaks Washington D.C. to discuss plans for an international organization to be named the United Nations. 39 delegates from US, Great Britain and Russia gathered.
San Francisco Conference, 1945, and UN Charter: A meeting of world nations to establish a international organization for collective security. The conference established committees; General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, Trusteeship Council, and the Secretariat.
UN: Security Council, General Assembly, Secretary-General: January 10, 1946 was the first UN General Assembly, electing Trygve H. Lie of Norway as Secretary General. The UN represented a worldwide attempt for a peaceful world after the hidden treaties and chaos caused by WWII.
Atomic Energy Commission: To oversee the control and development of nuclear weapons. The "Barouch Plan" set up the International Atomic Development whose goal was for use of peaceful potentials for atomic energy and to provide nations with security against surprise attacks.
superpowers: The world powers after WWII created a new balance of power. These superpowers consisting of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain began proceedings such as the Yalta and Potsdam. Conferences represented the superpowers and their importance in postwar reconstruction.
socialism, communism: Two forms of governing, socialism and communism became fearful subjects after WWII as fears of war led to hatred against socialist and communist American troops. Fear and hatred against communism and Socialism continued throughout the Cold War.
satellites: The countries surrounding the Soviet Union created a buffer zone between Russia and the rest of Europe. These "satellites" were nations conquered by the Soviet Union during the counteroffensive attack of the Russians against the Germans during WWII.
Nuremberg trials: Thirteen trials held accusing leaders of Nazi Germany of crimes against international law from 1945-1949. Accusations included murder, enslavement, looting and atrocities against soldiers and citizens of occupied countries.
Department of Defense created: The Department of Defense was created in 1947 by the National Security Act. Reforming the Departments of War and Navy they became the Departments of Army, Navy and the new Department of the Air Force. Result of need for a consolidated department.
Voice of America, CARE: A part of the US Information Agency, Voice of America was a US government radio station sent to Eastern Europe nations.
Yugoslavia, Tito, Marshall: Marshall Tito is the name used by Josip Bronz since 1934. Tito was the communist dictator of Yugoslavia until proclaiming himself president in January 1953. Through his rule he kept Yugoslavia independent of Soviet control and was recognized as the only lawful authority in Yugoslavia.
Czechoslovakian coup: On February 25, 1948, a communist coup led by Klement Gottwald took control of the Czechoslovakian government after the October 5 announcement of Moscow's plan to block the Marshall Plan in Europe. Czechoslovakia became a communist satellite of the Soviet Union.
Containment, Kennan, George F.: An advocate for tough foreign policy against the Soviets, Kennan was the American charge d'affaires in Moscow through WWII. He was also the anonymous Mr. X who wrote "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" in the magazine Foreign Affairs advising a policy of restricting Soviet expansion to protect western institutions. The theory of containment was accepted by the U.S. government and seen through the domino theory and US actions in Vietnam and Korea.
Truman Doctrine: From Truman’s address to Congress on March 12, 1947, the president announced that the United States would assist free people resisting "armed minorities or...outside pressure." Meant as a offer for aid against communism the Truman Doctrine established the United States as a global policeman, a title proved by US actions in the UN, Vietnam, Korea and Egypt. The Truman Doctrine became a major portion of Cold War ideology, a feeling of personal responsibility for the containment of communism.
Marshall Plan: Truman's secretary of state George C. Marshall proposed massive economic aid to Greece and Turkey on Feb. 27, 1947 after the British told the US they could not afford to continue assistance to the governments of Greece and Turkey against Soviet pressure for access to the Mediterranean. The Marshall Plan was expanded to mass economic aid to the nations of Europe for recovery from WWII. Aid was rejected by communist nations. The Marshall Plan also hope to minimize suffering to be exploited by communist nations.
Point Four: A post-WWII foreign aid treaty devised from the fourth point of President Truman's inaugural address in 1950. Plan would make provisions to supply US investment capital and personnel to agricultural and industrial development as well as development in other national interests.
Gandhi: Spiritual and political leader of India. 1920 led nonviolent disobedience movement for independence for India. During 1924 led another civil disobedience movement for India's freedom in exchange for India's help against Japan Assassinated.
Israel created, 1948: From the UN General Assembly on April 28, 1947, the Palestine partition of Arab and Jewish states. On May 14, 1948 Israel proclaimed independence and US recognized the new state but the Arabs rejected the proclamation and declared war against Israel. Admitted in U.N in 1949.
Berlin Blockade: On March 20, 1948 the Soviet withdrew representation from the Allied Control Council and refused to allow US, British, and France to gain access to Berlin. June 24, the Western Powers began Berlin Airlift to supply residents of Berlin. After 321 days in 1949 Russia agreed to end blockade if the Council of Foreign Ministers would agree to discuss Berlin. The airlift provided food and supplies to the blockaded people and intensified antagonism against Stalin.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): Following the Vanderberg Resolutions on April 4, on October 1948, Denmark, Italy, Norway, and Portland joined the Canadian-US negotiations for mutual defense and mutual aid. The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington on April 4, 1949 creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The organization considered an attack against one member of the alliance, an attack on all.
Warsaw Pact: Treaty unifying communist nations of Europe signed May 1955 by: Russia, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia. East Germany. Hungary, Poland, and Romania after the signing of the NATO treaty in 1949. Communist China dedicated support but did not sign the treaty.
Southeast Asia Treaty organization (SEATO), Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) and the Australia, New Zealand US (ANZUS): All these treaties were formed post WWII as mutual defense pledges in an attempt to halt the spread of communism through Europe and Asia.
NSC-68: In the 1950's President Truman called for a top secret investigation from the CIA to review national defense policy. The NSA-68 called for a massive military buildup and increase in defense spending through raising of taxes in fear of Soviet aggressive intentions and military strength. The NSC-68 became of major importance throughout the Cold War as it spoke of the need to remain a step ahead of the Soviet Union to protect its own security.
fall of China, Tse-tung, Mao, "lost China": Mao Tse-tung, head of the Chinese Communists demanded US halt military aid and for US forces to leave China in January 1945. In 1949, the communists controlled major cities and to avoid a full scale war with China, and the U.S. complied with Communist demands.
State Department "White Paper," 1949: The United States Relations With China; With Special Reference to the Period 1944-1946 warned that the Nationalists were on the verge of collapse because of political, military, and economic deficiencies, and US interference would lead to outbreak of war.
Chiang Kai-shek, Formosa: Chiang Kai-shek was the Nationalist leader in China whom the United States supported during the Chinese civil wars. After losing major cities, the Nationalist government moved their headquarters to the city of Formosa. Chiang Kai-shek was opposed by the communist leader Mao Tse-tung who opposed US involvement in the war.
Quemoy, Matsu: On September 3, the Communist army attacked the Nationalist held islands of Quemoy and Matsu. These attacks led to the Formosa Revolution which Eisenhower issued, giving the president power to defend Formosa without committing to defense of islands.
Korean War, limited war: After Japan's defeat in 1945, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel between Soviet troops to the north and the People's Democratic Republic and US troops to the south. June 24, 1950 North Korean troops attacked the Republic of Korea, provoking war. US gained UN approval to stop the considered communist domino. The "limited" war was to hold the 38th parallel without beginning WWIII. A cease fire was installed on July 26, 1953.
Truman-MacArthur controversy: During WWII, MacArthur was general in the Pacific Wars. At the beginning of the Korean War, he became the United Nations Commander in Korea. He was recalled from duty after expressing unpopular opinions about the US policy in Korea.
The U.S. and the Second World War
The United States was involved in two major areas of conflict, the struggle in Europe and the battle in the Pacific Theater. Opting to first prevent the complete takeover of Europe, the United States hoped that after Germany was defeated, the Allies would concentrate on the Japanese threat. From bases in England and Africa, the Allied forces hammered at the Italian and German lines. Island hopping proved to be the only way the United States could retake the Pacific from the Japanese.
Eisenhower, General; MacArthur, General: Eisenhower led the D-Day invasion with great success, and was highly respected by his peers in the armed forces. General MacArthur was credited for the great successes that the Americans had in the Pacific wars. He was the strategist behind the Pacific Wars.
Marshall, George Catlett: An American military commander who was Army Chief of Staff during World War II. He became Secretary of State for President Truman, and as such played an important role in aiding the postwar economic recovery of Europe with the Marshall Plan, which provided assistance to war-torn Western Europe.
Operation Torch: Undertaken in November 1942, it employed an allied army of more than 100,000 troops. Led by General Eisenhower, the troops landed in Morocco and Algeria and pressed eastward to entrap the German forces being pushed by British forces in Libya. Surrounded, the Germans surrendered in May 1943.
Invasion of Sicily: Stalin pleaded for a second front in Russia, but Churchill objected and Roosevelt agreed for a plan to invade Sicily in the summer on 1943. In roughly a month, allied forces seized control of Sicily. Italian military leaders surrendered to the allied forces on September 8 1943.
Battle of Midway: In 1942, the Japanese were determined to wipe out any remaining ships of the decimated American fleet when they sailed toward Midway. But, Japanese codes were decoded and Admiral Nimitz knew the exact plans and location of the Japanese ships. In a clever move, he ordered dive-bombers to destroy the ships.
Genocide, "Final solution": Hitler persecuted Jews in Germany and sought to rid Germany of them. During WWII, he set up many concentration camps, where Jews were methodically executed by means of poisonous gas or other forms. By the end, 6 million perished.
second front: The plan that was going to be used to aid the Soviet Union in fighting the Germans. Roosevelt was convinced by Churchill to delay the second front from 1942 to a later date, when the allies were better equipped to fight, and have forces in Africa to protect English colonies since Germany was attacking Africa.
D-Day, June 6, 1944: In the first 24 hours, 150,000 allied troops landed on the beach of Normandy. An additional million waded ashore in the following weeks, and allies reached inland in July, arriving in Paris by August. By summer’s end British secured Belgium and the Americans recovered France and Luxembourg.
Stalingrad: The site of one of the bloodiest battles during WWII. Thousands of soldiers died at the hands of German and Russian armies during the battle of Stalingrad.. The Russians were victorious at the battle, and thus were able to launch a counter-offensive against Germany and drive the Nazis from Russia.
Churchill, Winston: British Prime Minister during WWII, member of the Big Three. The Big Three was compromised of Stalin, FDR and him and were the major parties involved in allied conferences. When Germany first began attacking Britain, he asked for assistance from the U.S. in the form of equipment and arms.
Casablanca Conference, 1943: In the middle of the North African campaign, Roosevelt and Churchill met at Casablanca and resolved to attack Italy before invading France. They also vowed to pursue the war until the unconditional surrender of the Axis power, and tried to reduce Soviet mistrust of the west.
Cairo Conference, 1943: FDR met with Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek, the head of the Chinese government. FDR promised Chiang that Manchuria and Taiwan would be returned to China and that Korea would be free with the hope that Chiang would fight until Japan surrendered unconditionally.
Teheran Conference, 1943: FDR met with Stalin and Churchill and set the date for the invasion of France for May or June 1944, to coincide with the Russian offensive from the east. They agreed to divide Germany into occupation zones, to impose reparations on the Reich, and Stalin promised to fight Japan after Hitler’s defeat.
"unconditional surrender": Term used by the allied powers to describe what kind of surrender they wanted from Japan-one without negotiations. After the A-bomb fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan surrendered, but with the explosion of the A-bomb, the Cold War Era had just begun.
Okinawa: The island of Okinawa was secured by the Americans after the battle of Iwo Jima. Okinawa was 350 miles from Japan and a key area for staging the invasion of Japan by the American troops. The assault forces suffered nearly fifty thousand casualties in the battle before being able to subdue Japanese resistance.
Battle of the Bulge: As the allies prepared for an attack on Germany after penetrating up to Germany’s border, Hitler threw the last of his reserves to fight against the allied troops in December of 1944. On Dec. 25, the allies stopped the last German counter-attack and within a month, drove the Nazis back to Rhine.
V-E day: As Russia pushed the Germans back into Germany and reached the suburbs of Berlin, the new German government surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1943, Americans celebrated this Victory in Europe day with ticker tape parades and dancing in the streets. Afterward, U.S. turned its full attention to the War in the Pacific
Manhattan Project: Because Nazi scientists were seeking to use atomic physics in a harmful manner, in 1941 FDR launched a secret program to produce an A-bomb before the Germans. In 1943 and 1944, the Manhattan Engineering district worked to stockpile U-235 and in 1945 attempted to use it in a bomb.
Oppenheimer, J. Robert: The scientific director of the Manhattan project, which the U.S. had undertaken to build the atomic bomb before Germany, and did was by relying on Nazi scientists. Oppenheimer was later employed by Harry Truman to work on building a more destructive weapon known as the Hydrogen bomb.
Atomic bomb: The atomic bomb was successfully built in 1944 and was employed in bombing the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bomb unleashed terrible fury on the two cities, killing hundreds of thousands of people through the incinerating heat and radiation poisoning. There was also debate on whether such a potent and powerful weapon should have been unleashed before proper tests were conducted on the long-term effects.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki: The 1st A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. in 1945 after Japan refused unconditional surrender. Some 80,000 people died immediately and 1000s more died of radiation poisoning in later years. The next day a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing, which obliterated the city.
Truman and Domestic Issues
With the return of large amounts of soldiers from the Second World War, the population in the United States increased rapidly with the baby boom. Also, women were forced to return to their homes as former soldiers reclaimed the workplace. This exodus of working women promoted the idea that the proper place for the women was in the home, but laid the seeds for the later women’s movement. At this point in time, all the citizens in the United States wanted was a return to normalcy.
G.I. Bill of Rights, 1944: Congress enacted the bill to provide living allowances, tuition fees, supplies, medical treatment, and loans for homes and businesses. It was accepted June, 1944 and helped to stimulate economic growth and the accumulation of wartime profits, new factories and equipment.
Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion: A 1943 organization that controlled all aspects of the economy. Needed to facilitate cooperation in the war effort between the government and representatives of industry and the military, the O.W.M. increased war production 33% in May 1943.
extension of the OPA vetoed: Congress instituted a ration program to conserve materials and battle inflation. Because of opposition from food producers, manufacturers, and retailers, Truman vetoed Congress’ 1946 bill that would have extended O.P.A.’s life, and thus ended price controls.
postwar inflation: Two years after the war, consumer prices rose only 8% while the total cost of living rose 28% between 1940-1945. The National War Labor Board tried to contain restriction by limiting wage increases and Congress gave the president the power in 1942 to freeze wages to help combat inflation.
baby boom: The number of babies being born between 1950-1963 rose substantially and the mortality rate dramatically dropped allowing for a 19% increase in the population. This generation was able to fuel the economy and widen the realm of education.
Employment Act of 1946: Truman promised economic growth and established the Council of Economic Advisors to assist the president in maximizing employment, production, and purchasing power. Wary of federal deficit spending and increased presidential powers, Congress cut the goal of full employment.
Taft-Hartley Act: Congress modified the Wagner Act in 1947 to outlaw the practices of delaying a strike, closed shop, and permitting the president to call an eighty-day cooling period. Because it proved detrimental to certain unions, Truman vetoed the measure, although Congress overrode it.
Taft, Sen. Robert A.: Representing a small group of Republican senators, he warned that entering into NATO would provoke an arms race with Russia and force the United States to provide military aid to Europe. He supported that tax measures favorable to the wealthy and no minimum wage increase.
"right to work" laws: An area across TX and southern CA called the Sunbelt outlawed unionized shops which were to prevent non-unionized workers to benefit, low taxes and energy costs, plants moving their corporate headquarters here, transformed through technology, and brought green lawn and suburbs.
1948 election; candidates, issues: Truman ran against Dewey, a republican devoted to National unity and Strom Thurmond, who represented the Dixiecrats. representing states rights. Truman wins with 24 million votes and the platform of the some of the New Deal and bipartisan foreign policy.
Dixiecrats, J. Strom Thurmond: They helped Truman win by showing how the communists in the Wallace campaign forced liberals back into the mainstream Democratic Party. Strom Thurmond was able to collect 1.2 million votes and ran under the Democratic party symbol.
Progressive Party, Henry Wallace: He was nominated for President after being fired by Truman for questioning action taken towards Russia. Considered the true New Deal liberal, supported social-welfare programs and justice and equality for minorities. Wallace’s’ campaign forced liberals back into the Democratic party.
Fair Deal: Truman proposed a social and economic program during his State of the Union message in 1949. It enlarged the New Deal by adding housing, conservation, economic security, health insurance, federal aid to education, agricultural subsidies, increased the minimum wage, expanded social securities, flood control, slum clearance, expanded public power, reclamation, soil conservation, building of low income housing units.
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA): Founded in 1947 to initiate the development and promotion of a national liberal agenda of public policy. Citizen participation was essential through direct democracy which was equal in only one way : all can exercise the right to vote.
Twenty-second Amendment: adopted in 1951, this bill proclaims that "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice." It resulted from the agitation following FDR’s running for and being elected to a third or fourth term of office of president.
Below are the US History topics that are covered in this unit:
Bush and the Post Cold War Era
With the disintegration of the Soviet empire, the Cold War which shaped U.S. policy for nearly a half-century finally died. The threat of nuclear annihilation subsided and the American public breathed a sigh of relief.
Black Monday, 1987, Stock Market crashes: The market had enjoyed incredible success for the past five years and had tripled in size. On October 19, 1987, it fell 508 points in the largest single day drop in history. Though it soon regained the loss and surged to new heights, the volatility and uncertainty remained.
Jackson, Rev. Jesse, Rainbow Coalition: Jackson, once an associate of King, tried to build a "rainbow coalition" of blacks, Hispanics, displaced workers, and other political outsiders to try to gain nomination and election in 1984. Jackson ran several times for the presidency, but was not moderate enough to gain popular approval.
Election of 1988--candidates, issues: Bush got the Republican nomination while Michael Dukakis won the Democratic nomination over Jesse Jackson. Bush chose Quayle as his running mate for his good looks. Taxes, crime, and personal appearance were the main issues in 1988. Bush won fairly decisively on a negative campaign.
George Bush: Bush was Vice President under Reagan, and was president from 1989 to 1993. As president, Bush was successful in areas of foreign relations. He eased relations with Russia, resisted the Russian military’s attempted coup in 1991, and fought Saddam Hussein in the Persian gulf. He was not as successful in domestic affairs as the economy dwindled and the deficit rose; the effects of the era of Reaganomics. Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the 1992 election.
holes in the "Iron Curtain": Due to Gorbachev’s more liberalized policies, Moscow began losing direct control over Eastern Europe. The USSR reduced its military force in its eastern satellites and allowed more freedom of expression. Non-Communist political movements soon developed in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia.
Berlin Wall falls, Germany reunited: The dismantling of the Berlin Wall began in 1989. Germany, having been divided into East and West Germany since World War II, unified in October 1990. The wall which separated the two countries fell, and citizens were once again permitted to travel between East and West Germany.
Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act: Passed in 1986, the bill required the automatic unilateral slashing of many budget items. These included many domestic and defense programs. The goal of the bill was to reduce the enormous debt of the Reagan years and to have a balanced budget by the year 1991.
national debt triples from 1980 to 1989, 908 billion to 2.9 trillion: In an effort to re-stimulate the economy, Reagan’s administration increased defense spending drastically while lowering taxes. The debt skyrocketed during his term. His philosophy of supply-side economics, or heavy spending in the corporate sector, was a contributing factor.
Clean Air Act, 1990 (also one in 1970): President Bush sponsored the bill, which set stricter regulations on many airborne pollutants. The act was aimed at reducing the chemicals which cause acid rain, smog, ozone damage and many airborne carcinogens. The act was a cornerstone in pollution regulation legislation.
Bennett, William J., "drug czar"--Office of National Drug Control Policy: Bennett was chosen as "drug czar" by Bush in response to national concerns about drugs. His job was to coordinate federal programs against drugs, and his first target was the violent drug lords of Washington, D.C.
Tiananmen Square, Beijing: 400-800 students were massacred by government troops during a pro-democracy demonstration in Beijing’s central square. A wave of repression and executions followed. The U.S. responded with outrage and cut everything but diplomatic relations.
Nicaragua, Pres. Ortega defeated in free election: President Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinista regime, was defeated in 1990 by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in national elections. Chamorro’s election signaled a more moderate turn for the Nicaraguans, though the transition has met resistance. The U.S. supports Chamorro.
August 1991, attempted coup in Moscow, Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin: In 1991, hard-line communists seized power from Gorbachev, who wished to give more power to the states. The coup failed, but the political turmoil led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union into independent states. Yeltsin, the president-elect, called for Russians to resist the coup.
End of the Cold War, Commonwealth of Independent States, 1991: After the failed coup in August of 1991, the 15 Russian states declared independence. Fearful of centralized power but mindful of the economic pitfalls of independence, 12 of the states formed the Commonwealth of Independent States and severed all ties to the old Soviet regime. The Commonwealth was a loose economic union, though it is still considered a single country.
difficulties between Russia and the new republics: The new republics were wary of losing power to Russia, by far the largest and most endowed state, which hampered political unity. Violence erupted in some states. The economy was in shambles after the lifting of economic restraints and a severe drought. The commonwealth was very weak.
Hussein, Saddam, Iraq invades Kuwait: On August 2, 1990, Iraqi president Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait after oil negotiations between the two broke down. Iraq had complained that Kuwait was exceeding its oil production quota and flooding the world market, driving prices down. This was the direct cause of the Persian Gulf War.
UN Security Council Resolution 661 (trade embargo on Iraq): On Aug. 6, 1990, the resolution imposed an embargo on Iraqi trade effectively halting oil shipments from Iraq and Kuwait. Hussein responded by increasing his forces in Kuwait. The embargo had severe economic effects on surrounding countries who depended on Iraqi trade and oil.
Desert Shield, Gen. Collin Powell: In August 1990, President Bush ordered a buildup of troops into Saudi Arabia called Desert Shield. It was led by General Collin Powell, who became so popular as to later contemplate a 1996 presidential run. Desert Shield became Desert Storm on January 17 with the beginning of the allied air assault.
UN Security Council Resolution 678: The allied operation shifted to a potentially offensive nature with this resolution, issued November 29, 1990. It authorized the use of force by the allies if Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait by January 15. The resolution was evoked early on January 17 when Allied planes began the air offensive.
Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, Gen. Schwarzkopf: Beginning with a bombing raid on January 17, 1991, Desert Storm was directed by Gen. Schwarzkopf. The air raid utilized the most advanced missile technology such as smart bombs and cruise missiles to weaken the Iraqi defenses. Iraqi forces, though more numerous than the Allied force, were far behind technologically. The short ground war began on February 24 and ended two days later. An estimated 110,000 Iraqi soldiers died with about 300 U.S. deaths.
SCUD missiles, Patriot Missiles: SCUD’s were Soviet-made surface to surface missiles used by Iraq to bomb Israel during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. They were aimed at provoking Israelite retaliation to fracture the Allied-Arab alliance but were countered effectively by the U.S. Patriots launched to destroy SCUD’s while still airborne.
revolts in Iraq--Shi’ites in South, Kurds in North: Postwar uprisings by Shi’ite Muslims in southern Iraq and Kurds in the North were crushed by Hussein’s army. The fighting claimed nearly 25,000 lives and created massive refuge problems for bordering nations. The U.S. used force to protect the Kurds. The UN created a safe zone for them.
Family Support Act, 1988, "work fare": This Act tried to reform the welfare system. It contained strict work and child support guidelines. Some of its provisions required women on welfare to work if they have no children under 3 years old, and parents without custody could have child support payments withheld from their paychecks.
MTV: MTV was part of the "cable revolution." Cable TV became a fixture in many U.S. households, leading to the rise of smaller networks. Once was dominated by ABC, NBC, and CBS, now stations like CNN, FOX, and MTV were legitimate contenders. MTV specifically became an important marketing tool for music and politics.
1991 Civil Rights Act: The act allowed women, people with handicaps, and religious minorities to collect punitive damages for intentional on-the-job discrimination. Previously, only racial minorities could claim damages. It widened the definition of discrimination and forced businesses to respect citizens rights of equality.
Thomas, Clarence, Supreme Court, Anita Hill: Thomas, the second black justice on the Court, was nominated and seated in 1991. His nomination was plagued with controversy due to sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, a former associate. The charges were dismissed in a series of highly public congressional hearings.
baby-boom generation hits middle age: Once called the "Me Generation," people of the 1980s were interested with personal over public concerns. The "yuppie" was a person preoccupied with physical fitness, money, and materialism. TV’s, VCRs, and personal computers were common.
gentrification: Reversing the trend of the middle-class exodus from urban centers, yuppies bought run-down apartments and town houses in poorer districts and fixed them up. The process often came at the expense of poorer and older residents, including a great number of elderly citizens.
increased Asian, Hispanic immigration: 45% of immigrants since 1960 have been from the Western Hemisphere, and 30% have come from Asia, signaling a new pattern of immigration. The issue of illegal immigration became a hot topic politically, especially in the south west and west. Many bills were passed in an attempt to limit immigration.
"gridlock," Congress vs. the President: Because a Democratic President and a Republican Congress were elected in 1992, both had the power to obstruct the other. This "gridlock" occurred midway through Clinton’s term. Unable to resolve a dispute, many government projects and parks were closed down for several weeks.
Election of 1992—candidates, issues, Ross Perot: The election of 1992 was primarily between the Democrat Bill Clinton and the Republican incumbent George Bush. Ross Perot, of the Independent party, did well in early polls, dropped out of the running, then returned near November with much less support. The major issues were the state of the economy, which had taken a turn for the worse at the end of the Bush administration, the state of medical insurance, and Bush’s record of foreign diplomacy.
bombing of World Trade Center: In 1993, a bomb in a parking structure of the World Trade Center Building in New York killed six and injured nearly 1000 people. Officials later arrested militant Muslim extremists who condemned American actions towards Israel and the U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf War.
European Economic Area, Jan. 1, 1993: The 7 nations of the European Free Trade Association (except Switzerland) and the 12 European Community nations signed an accord to create an enlarged free-trade zone, the EEA. Some nations have loosened border and currency restrictions to make political unity easier.
GATT, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade: An international plan to reduce tariffs and establish laws governing trade of services, investments, and other economic issues, was approved by the 117 members of GATT. The plan also established an agency to deal with international trade disputes, called the World Trade Organization.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): After a fierce political struggle, NAFTA was approved by Congress in 1993. It eliminated trade barriers between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, making the flow of commerce more efficient. The NAFTA victory for free trade set the stage for the GATT treaty.
disintegration of Yugoslavia: In 1991-1992, Yugoslavia split into Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. Violence erupted in Bosnia as Serbs and Croatians fought, killing tens of thousands. Many of Bosnia’s Muslims were victims of "ethnic cleansing," mass expulsions to promote a Serbian ethnic partition of Bosnia.
PLO-Israel Peace Treaty (1993), Arafat, Rabin: A historic treaty was signed between Yasir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin which would allow Palestinian self-rule in parts of Israel, protect Israelis in Palestinian areas, and a recognition of Israel and the PLO as legitimate entities. Radical Israelis and Palestinians denounced the treaty and violence ensued.
Somalia: A massive famine caused by warring factions of the government prompted George Bush to send troops (along with the UN) to protect relief efforts in December 1992. The effort succeeded in ending the famine, but not the violence. Soon, the U.S. was sustaining casualties, and by 1994 the U.S. left leaving the UN in charge.
Whitewater: A scandal which has plagued Bill and Hillary Clinton while in the White House, the Whitewater affair revolves around the question if the Clinton’s benefitted improperly from their involvement in a real estate venture, the Whitewater Development Corp. Investigators began searching for incriminating evidence.
Clinton’s health plan: Clinton’s dream of universal health care package died as the bill could not get approval by resistant Republicans. The bill would have required employers to pay 80% of their employees’ medical costs, among other major changes. Several compromises were attempted by Clinton, but the issue was dead by September 1994.
"greenhouse effect": The large amount of fossil fuels burned by cars, homes, and factories has led to a rise in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide traps heat near the surface of the planet, raising its temperature. The problem is made worse by tropical deforestation, and has become a major environmental concern.
1994 Congressional election: The Republican Party, capitalizing on Clinton’s perceived inactivity, gained a majority in Congress. More than 300 GOP candidates signed a "Contract with America" pledging support of several popular initiates. Gingrich authored the contract and became Speaker of the House. Dole became the Senate majority leader.
intervention in Haiti: The term referred to Operation Restore Democracy. Supported by the Clinton administration, the plan was designed to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. The mission was successful, but Aristide did little towards turning Haiti into a democracy. Clinton later withdrew his support.
Oklahoma City bombing, 1995: On April 19, 1995 a 2½ ton bomb exploded in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast destroyed the front section of the building, killing 68; of whom 19 were children. Officials Terry Nicoles and Timothy McVeigh were right wing militant extremists angry at the government.
Million Man March, 1995, Farrakhan: Led by the radical Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a major rally for African-Americans was held in Washington DC. Farrakhan preached the need for blacks to become active family and community members. Officials estimated 400,000-837,000 black men came. Women were discouraged from attending.
Rabin assassinated, 1995: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin was shot and killed by a Jewish settler just after speaking at a mass peace rally. The man who shot him was arrested on the scene. He acted in protest to the signing of the PLO-Israeli Peace Accord of 1993. The future is uncertain under newly elected P. Minister Netehayu.
budget showdown between Congress and the President: Negotiations between President Clinton and Congress regarding balancing the budget wrapped up in May 1997. Republicans had originally wanted a constitutional amendment specifying a balanced budget, but Clinton resisted. The agreed upon plan is a moderate compromise.
Civil Rights to 1965
Frustrated by black disenfranchisement in the south and the blatant racism epitomized by segregated schools, black militancy grew. Sit-ins, freedom rides, and other signs of the explosive discontent ravaged the nation, especially in the south where such actions were met by fierce resistance. Destroying the public’s complacency, nonviolent protest met by vicious dogs, blasting water hoses, and sneering racists shocked the nation. Black Power and the cry that "Black is Beautiful" resounded in the hearts of many African Americans.
Implementation of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: The Warren court decided in 1954 that the separate but equal concept that legalized segregation was unconstitutional. Angered by the court decision, white southerners refused to comply; the president refused to enforce it and blacks continued to attend segregated schools.
Montgomery bus boycott: After refusing to give up her seat for a white man in the front of a Montgomery bus in Dec. 1955, Rosa Park was arrested. Black leaders, including King, organized a massive boycott of the buses and took the case to a lower court where it was decided that bus seating would be based on a first-come-first-serve basis.
King Jr. Rev. Martin Luther.: One of the most prominent black civil rights leaders, King called for black assertiveness and nonviolent resistance to oppression. He is famous for his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" which promotes the doctrine of civil disobedience, a method of protests that urges blacks to ignore all laws that they believe are unjust.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference: In protest to Jim Crow, King organized the SCLC in 1957. It was made up of a group of ministers that supported the Montgomery bus boycott. This organization coordinated future protests and preached the need for civil rights activists.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): The NAACP was created in 1909 in New York to raise the quality of living for inner city blacks. It became a powerful legal force and argued cases in the Supreme Court which led to the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Urban League: Some southern blacks were not satisfied by the Brown v. Board of Education and formed the Urban League. Rejecting the courtroom strategy utilized by the NAACP, the League advocated more militant tactics. They sought direct confrontation and violence with local governments.
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE): CORE was a group of black rights protesters created in 1942. It organized freedom rides through the south to expose the violations of the 1960 Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on interstate buses and trains. CORE also registered blacks to vote throughout the South.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Stokely Carmicheal, H. Rap Brown: SNCC was a organization of college students that utilized nonviolent forms of protest until Carmicheal and Brown rallied the members in favor of Black Power. The group became more militant, pushing for direct armed confrontation with the police.
Sit-ins, Freedom Rides: Utilized in the spring of 1961, sit-ins and freedom rides were forms of protest organized by CORE and utilized in the spring of 1961. Protestors sat in a segregated section on a bus or restaurant until they were forced to move by racists. When this happened another protestor took the place that had just been vacated. This type of action was used to expose the violations of the court decision to outlaw segregation in public areas and transit.
"I have a dream" speech: King gave this speech during the historic civil rights March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The speech was said to be inspiring and reaffirmed the need for civil rights legislation and nonviolent protesting. The speech reiterated the American ideals of democracy and equality.
March on Washington: King organized this massive civil protest march in Washington in August of 1963 as a result of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The march reaffirmed the need for civil rights legislation and nonviolent protest. It was also the site where King made the "I have a dream" speech.
Evers, Medgar: Evers was an American civil rights leader who conducted campaigns to register black voters and organized boycotts of firms that practiced racial discrimination. He also was one of the early recruiters for the NAACP and was the first field secretary for the state of Mississippi.
Powell, Adam Clayton: Powell was a Black civil rights leader serving as a Democratic Congressman of New York and the Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor in 1960-1967. Under his direction the House Committee on Education and Labor passed the Minimum Wage Bill and Anti-Poverty Bill.
Weaver, Robert: Weaver was the first black cabinet member appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966. He served as the Secretary of Housing and Department of Urban Development, a new office created to address the needs of those living in the inner city areas.
Marshall, Thurgood: Marshall was the first black residing under the Warren Court during the 1960s. Marshall was famous for pursuing cases that dealt with controversial issues of civil rights and the status of racism in America. His presence in Supreme Court drew more attention to the area of civil and individual rights.
Malcolm X: Malcolm X was an influential black leader who called for unity between blacks to combat oppressive forces in the United States. He was a part of the Nation of Islam, but broke with them to form a black nationalist group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). He advocated Black Power.
Black Panthers: The Black Panthers was a black rights political organization created in Oakland, California in 1966 by Bobby G. Seale and Huey P. Newton. It was originally a small community action group for defense against racism but later it began to urge black armament and direct confrontation with the police.
Black Muslims: Formally called the Nation of Islam, the Black Muslims was a religious organization of the Islamic faith that was also called the American Muslim Mission, World Community of Al-Islam in the West. The group was known for its strict adherence to Islam, and was a root for black militancy in America.
Davis, Angela: Angela Davis was an influential black leader and activist. In 1970, she went into hiding after being accused of aiding an attempted courtroom escape that killed four persons. Tried in 1972 and acquitted, she became the vice-presidential candidate of the Communist party in 1980.
Black Power: Black power was a slogan created by Malcolm X and widely used by Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Congress of Racial Equality. The slogan called for all blacks to organize together and overthrow the oppressive forces of racism in America. Black power became the basis for black militancy in the civil rights movement. The slogan was used by a number of new civil rights activist groups such as the Black Panthers.
Twenty-fourth Amendment: The 24th Amendment, adopted in 1964, gave voting rights to every American citizen, regardless of their race or religion. It also prohibited the use of the poll tax or any tax that denied the vote. The amendment gave Congress the power to enforce it with legislation.
Watts, Detroit race riots: A confrontation between police and blacks in Watts and Detroit took place after the voting rights bill was passed in 1965. It sparked a huge riot that lasted six days. The National Guard was called to put down both riots. This violent growth of civil discontent was given the name "The Long Hot Summers."
Kerner Commission on Civil Disorders: Created to investigate reasons for the massive outbreaks of riots in 1965, the commission concluded that white racism caused mounting violence, poverty, poor education and police brutality and recommended creating 2 million jobs and 6 million housing units to lower tensions. The suggestion was ignored.
de facto, de jure segregation: De facto referred to the use of power and authority in the absence of an actual government or legal authority. In the 1960s, this meant that segregation was accepted as long as it was not outlawed. De jure segregation referred to the system of segregation that was legal in the North such as New York and Chicago.
White Backlash: White backlash referred to white reaction against the massive ghetto riots of thousands of young blacks across the nation. The reaction slowed the civil rights movement because whites in power feared passing legislation and creating civil discontent and riots.
Civil Rights Act of 1964, public accommodations section of the act: Passed under the Johnson administration, this act outlawed segregation in public areas and granted the federal government power to fight black disfranchisement. The act also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to prevent discrimination in the work place. This act was the strongest civil rights legislation since Reconstruction and invalidated the Southern Caste System.
Voting Rights Act, 1965: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed as a Great Society program under the Johnson administration. It prohibited the use of literacy tests as a part of the voter registration process which were initially used as a method to control immigration to the United States during the 1920s. The act enabled federal examiners to register anyone who qualified in the South, giving the power of the vote to underrepresented minorities.
Civil Rights Act, 1968: The Civil Rights Act of 1968 barred discrimination in housing sales or rentals. This act was a part of a series of new legislation that encouraged desegregation of blacks in America. The act was a key piece of legislation which ensured blacks more equal rights.
Great Society
An idealistic call for improved environmental, conservation, racial, educational, and health programs, the Great Society was inspired by JFK and prompted by LBJ’s insecure need to win over the American people. Largely successful in the first two years of the Johnson administration, the idealism would later give way to virulent conservatism and a return to traditional values.
Election of 1964: LBJ, Goldwater: In the election of 1964 Lyndon Johnson, the elected Democratic party majority leader, defeated Barry Goldwater, the elected Republican majority leader. Main issues of the election of 1964 included serious debates over the continuation of Johnson’s Great Society plan, future civil rights legislation and the status of the war in Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson attempted to continue his Great Society program after the election with small social legislation.
Office of Economic Opportunity: The Office of Economic Opportunity was created as a part of President Johnson’s Great Society. Established by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the office funded the Job Corps to train young people to work, VISTA, and Project Headstart.
War on Poverty: The term, War on Poverty, referred to Lyndon Johnson’s statement describing his goal to create a better America. It was used to describe Johnson’s Great Society package that created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Economic Opportunity Office, which began the first funding for education.
Elementary and Secondary Act: As a part of his Great Society vision, President Lyndon Johnson rallied for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 which gave federal aid to education. The law gave over one billion dollars to public and parochial schools for books and special education programs.
Medicare: A program of national health insurance created by the Social Security Amendments of 1965, this program gave health insurance for persons who were over the age of 65 or seriously disabled. Although some states refused to administer the insurance the Kerr-Mills Act of 1960 provided federal support for state medical programs.
Abolition of immigration quotas: President Lyndon Johnson’s program of liberalism, which included social legislation in 1965, led to the liberalization of immigration laws. These laws abolished the restrictions and the quota based system previously used by the U.S. to determine the amount of immigration from a certain area.
Department of Housing and Urban Development: Created in 1966 to give aid to needy families located in poor inner city areas, the Department of Housing and Urban Development passed bills allocating funds to housing development projects under the leadership of Robert Weaver.
New Left: The New Left encompassed the liberalism of college students during the 1960s. They held idealistic views of civil rights movements, supported the election of John F. Kennedy, and heralded the campaign against nuclear testing that created the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963. It was also the root of protest over Vietnam.
Kennedy, Robert: Kennedy was the attorney general of the U.S. in 1968 and senator from New York. He stressed that voting was the key to racial equality and pushed for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Kennedy gained the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968, but was assassinated in California during a campaign.
Election of the 1968: Lyndon Johnson did not run for reelection in 1968 due to his dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War and public discontent. Richard Nixon captured the presidency for the Republican party after he defeated George C. Wallace, the American Independent and Hubert H. Humphrey, the Democratic candidate.
Czechoslovakia invaded: In Aug. of 1968, with the installation of reformers Alexander Dubcek as party leader and Ludvik Svoboda as president, the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia, forcing the repeal of most of the reforms. The Soviet Union replaced Dubcek with the staunchly pro-Soviet Communist regime.
Chicago, Democratic Party Convention riot: In August 1968, the Chicago convention was disrupted by violence due to the party split over the nomination of the majority leader. Tensions rose as young SDS protestors against the Vietnam war arrived to voice their discontent. The riot destroyed Democratic unity and resulted in a loss of support.
Nixon, Richard’s Southern strategy: In 1965, Nixon began his attack on radicalism in America, focusing on the failure of southern white efforts to destroy racial equality. Nixon went on television to condemn the court that enforced bus desegregation. He also appointed W. Burger to counter liberalism in the Warren Court.
Wallace, Governor: George Wallace was an American politician and three-time governor of Alabama. He first came to national attention as an outspoken segregationist. Wallace ran for the presidency in 1968 and 1972 and was shot and killed during a 1972 election campaign stop in Maryland.
Moon Race, Armstrong, Neil: Frightened out of complacency by the Soviet launching of Sputnik, a satellite, Kennedy promised the American people to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Pouring vast amounts of money into the space program, Kennedy was determined not to allow Russia to win. On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon’s surface. Americans put fears of Soviet technological superiority to rest for the United States had been the first to launch a human out into space.
Sunbelt verses Rustbelt: The leading work industries, the Rustbelt and Sunbelt, reeled under the triple blow of slumping exports, aggressive foreign competition, and technological obsolescence. About 11.5 million American workers lost jobs as a result of plant closings or lack of work.
Friedan, Betty, The Feminine Mystique: The Feminine Mystique elucidated to readers that they were not alone in their unhappiness. Friedan’s personal demand for "something more than my husband, my children, and my home" rang true to a growing number of middle class American women who found joys in motherhood.
National Organization for Women (NOW): The National Organization for Women was formed in 1966. Defining themselves as a civil-rights group for women, NOW lobbied for equal opportunity; they filed lawsuits against gender discrimination and rallied public opinion "to bring American women to full participation."
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA): By 1972 Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution. This amendment stated that "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on the basis of sex."
National Women’s Political Caucus: The National Women’s Political Caucus (1971) endorsed candidates that promoted a feminist agenda in Washington and many other State capitals. By 1972, many states had liberalized their abortion laws and banned sex discrimination in job hiring.
Nader, Ralph, Unsafe at Any Speed: Ralph Nader, a graduate of Harvard Law School, exposed the danger of automobiles that were "unsafe at any speed"; he brought forth the movement of environmental concerns which would later launch major campaigns for federal regulations.
Heating and Cooling of the Cold War
Ambiguous in his position towards the Soviet Union, Reagan verbally attacked the USSR as an "evil empire" yet his actions were friendly. Anti-Soviet rhetoric proved to be only rhetoric and the two nations resolved many of their differences. By the end of Reagan’s administration, the Cold War was unofficially over.
Afghanistan, 1979-1989: The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in an effort to acquire more land for Russia’s use. In Moscow’s attempt to take over Afghanistan, Russia wanted to setup some sort of pro-Soviet Afghan regime. Not only did Russia try to take over Afghanistan, but they wanted them to change religiously.
Olympic boycott, 1980: When Carter and Brezhnev could not agree on the rules and regulations of the SALT II agreement, the United States picked up an anti-Soviet relationship towards everything that had to do with Russia, which unfortunately included the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
Walesa, Lech, Solidarity: He became the leader of Poland’s government in 1980. Walesa’s negotiations with Poland’s government that year led to the government’s recognition of Solidarity. Solidarity was a organization composed of about 50 Polish trade unions.
Falkland Island War: In April 1982, Argentine troops invaded and occupied the islands. Britain also responded by sending troops, ships, and planes. Air, sea and land battles broke out between Argentina and Britain. Due to severe losses the Argentine forces surrendered in June 1982.
Civil war in Lebanon, Israel moves into Southern Lebanon: President Reagan sent 2,000 Marines to Lebanon in 1982 in order to gain control over the crippled PLO, insure that they got out of Tunisia, and help restore order to the war damaged country. It proved difficult as fire broke out upon the U.S. Marine soldiers.
Grenada, 1983: On October 23, 1983, 2,000 U.S. Marine soldiers invaded the island of Grenada, and overthrew the disruptive radical government, and put in a U.S.-friendly regime. The new government that the United States had just installed was collaborating well with the local Grenadians.
El Salvador, Duarte: Fear of Soviet expansion helped shape policy towards third world revolutions. In El Salvador, the U.S. backed the military rulers in suppressing insurgents (leftists backed by Cuba). The moderate Jose Napoleon Duarte was elected in 1984 with U.S. support, but his ineffective government was voted out in 1989.
Nicaragua - Somoza Family, Sandinistas, Contras, Ortega: First, Carter backed the Sandinista revolutionaries in overthrowing dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, who was replaced by Daniel Ortega. Reagan later reversed the policy thinking that the Sandinistas were procommunist. The CIA organized an army of "contras" to oppose the Sandinistas. Fear of another Vietnam-like war prompted Congress in 1982 to halt aid to the contras. Reagan secretly began sending illegal aid to the contras, but was never held accountable.
Arias Peace Plan in Central America: Oscar Arias Sánchez, the president of Costa Rica, was very influential in pushing for peace in Central America which was stalled because of civil wars in the region and the tensions between Nicaragua’s Sandinista government and the U.S. In 1986, the warring nations signed a peace agreement.
SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative), "Star Wars": SDI was a proposed system of space based lasers and other high-tech defenses against nuclear attack, popularly dubbed "Star Wars." It was proposed by Reagan in 1983 in an effort to ward off the perceived threat of a Soviet strike as U.S.-Soviet relations worsened. Many argued it would escalate the conflict. The system carried a huge price tag, and was fiercely debated until the end of the Reagan administration. The system was never used.
nuclear freeze movement: The movement was a popular reaction to the military and nuclear buildup under Reagan. Protests, rallies, and resolutions against nukes were passed. It was the first popular challenge to Reaganism. Responding to pressure, the U.S. began talks on strategic-arms reductions with the Soviets.
Iranian crisis, the Shah, Ayatollah Khomeini: The Iranian crisis started when a Beirut newspaper reported that in 1985 the United States shipped 508 antitank missiles to the government of Iran. This exposure of U.S. intervention led to the American hostage situation held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian radical groups.
Iran-Iraq War: The war began in 1980 over territorial disputes. Fighting spread throughout the gulf region and the U.S. was dragged into the conflict several times, either being attacked or attacking hostile targets. The war ended in 1988, as Iraq began preparing to invade Kuwait. The area remained a volatile region.
Iran-Contra Affair (Irangate): Caught selling arms to the anti-American government of Iran, Reagan admitted it and stated his aim had been to encourage "moderate elements" in Tehran and gain the release of American hostages. Key players included Oliver North, who sent millions of dollars from these sales to contras in Nicaragua when Congress had forbidden such aid, and John Poindexter, who hid the affair from the president. Criminal charges were filed against only North.
Panama, Gen. Noriega, drug-trafficking indictment, conviction: In 1987 the U.S. realized that the U.S.-supported ruler of Panama, Manuel Noriega, was profiting on the flow of drugs through his country. A U.S. grand jury indicted Noriega on various drug charges. He ignored the actions. Marines were sent in and he was caught and convicted.
South Africa, apartheid, Nelson Mandela, F.W. De Klerk: When opposition to South Africa’s racist government grew in the U.S., Congress voted to boycott South Africa in 1986. President De Klerk worked with Mandela, who had been jailed for 27 years, to end apartheid. Free elections were held in 1994 and Mandela became president.
Marcos, Philippines, Corazon Aquino: Resistance to the corrupt government of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos intensified after the 1983 assassination of opposition leader Benito Aquino. His wife, Corazon led the surge after Marco’s fraudulent 1986 reelection and took control. She was backed by the U.S. and the country was to face turbulent times.
Duvalier, Haiti: Jean-Claude Duvalier, dictator of Haiti from 1971-1986, used oppressive measures and a violent secret police force to control Haitian citizens. Many sought refuge in the United States. In 1986, Haitians staged a revolt against Duvalier and he fled the country. This was followed by years of violent political turmoil in Haiti.
Gorbachev, glasnost, perestroika: Mikhail Gorbachev welded influence in transforming the Soviet Union into a less rigidly communist regime. His program of economic and political reform was called perestroika or restructuring. Gorbachev’s call for more openness in government was given the name glasnost. Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union continued to improve which furthered the thaw in the Cold War.
Col. Qaddafi, Libya: Colonel Muammar Qaddafi was a pro-terrorist and anti-American leader of Libya. In 1986, Libya fired missiles at U.S. military planes and after an explosion at a German nightclub popular with American GI’s, U.S. planes bombed five Libyan sites. Hostilities continue in the region.
INF Treaty, 1987 (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty): The treaty was a 1987 agreement between Reagan and Gorbachev which banned INF’s but did little to end the nuclear threat as 95% of the world’s nuclear arsenal remained. It is an example of the warming Soviet-American relations and renewed the arms control process.
New Frontier
Innovative, charming, self-confident, and energetic, JFK vigorously called on the American people to support his programs of domestic reform and foreign policy. He hoped for "more sacrifice instead of more security" in a nation on "the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils."
election of 1960: candidates, "missile gap": The election of 1960 was a race between Kennedy, who promised a new and better future for the nation, and the "middle way" Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. The issues included which path of action to take against Russia to ensure an advantage of arms, thus closing the missile gap.
"Impeach Earl Warren": The ultra-reactionary John Birch Society created the phrase, "impeach Earl Warren" in 1954 as a result of Chief Justice Earl Warren’s rulings which affirmed the rights of alleged communists and the desegregation of schools and public areas. Warren was branded a communist sympathizer by his enemies. As a result, he lost the respect and admiration of the American public, his political friends in congress, and the government.
Miranda Decision, Escobedo decision: The Miranda Decision referred to the 1966 case of Miranda v. Arizona which required police to read a suspect their constitutional right which included remaining silent and having legal council present during police questioning. The Escobedo decision labeled the Warren Court as an intrusive presence.
Gideon v. Wainwright: The Warren Court ruled in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright that the state was required to provide attorneys for defendants in felony cases at the public’s expense. This ruling was a part of the effort to reform the criminal justice system and enable poor people legal council.
Baker v. Carr: In 1962, the Warren court ruled that the principle of "one man, one vote" needed to be maintained in all elections. The ruling reaffirmed the requirement that representation in legislative bodies would be based on the people’s vote. Also, this decision would prevent later voting frauds.
Kennedy and the steel price rollback: In his attempt to lower business taxes and solve wage problems, JFK was faced with a crisis when U.S. Steel raised their prices to $6 after JFK worked with the steel union for noninflationary contracts and minimal wage increases for workers. He threatened to file antitrust suits and the prices fell.
Peacecorps, VISTA: The Peacecorps and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) were created by the Office of Economic Opportunity to work in poverty areas. This was a part of President Johnson’s training programs and support services created during the 1960s.
Berlin Wall: The Berlin Wall was a concrete wire wall which divided East and West Germany after World War II. It was erected by the government of East Germany in order to prevent a brain drain, in which the skilled artisans of the population immigrated to West Germany. The wall was dismantled in August of 1989.
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963: The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 was negotiated by Harriman Averell, a diplomat to the Soviet Union after World War II. The treaty was the first treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union that called for a ban on atmospheric testing of nuclear devices.
Castro Revolution: Fidel Castro led a nationalist uprising against the former despotic Cuban government. He initially asked for U.S. assistance, but American businesses feared the nationalization of their industries. When the U.S. refused to help, he turned to Soviet communism.
"flexible response": JFK’s policy of "flexible response" called for the preparation of more conventional weapons versus atomic weapons. Kennedy felt that U.S, needed both a strong military program and atomic weapons to combat the forces of communism. He reasoned conventional weapons were essential, for atomic weapons were never used.
Bay of Pigs: On Apr. 17, 1961, a group of Cuban exiles invaded the Bay of Pigs, in an attempt to overthrow the Communist government and capture Fidel Castro. The Cuban soldiers were secretly trained by the CIA and supplied by the U.S. government. The Cuban exiles were captured and traded back to the U.S. for food. Their return embarrassed the United States and the nation acquired a reputation as a belligerent imperial country.
UN in the Congo: During the 1950s the United Nations was called upon to act as a peace keeping force throughout the world such as in Kuwait and the Middle East. In the 1950s the United Nations sent a peace keeping force to the Congo, which is located in Africa.
Cuban missile crisis: The Cuban Missile Crisis was a major confrontation between the U.S and Russia in 1962 following the discovery of nuclear missile sites in Cuba. Kennedy placed a blockade on the island and Russia agreed to remove the missiles rather than provoke a nuclear war. It was the most imminent threat of nuclear annihilation and thereafter, a hot line was established between the White House and the Kremlin to prevent accidental missile launches. The U.S. removed nuclear weapons from Turkey.
Alliance for Progress: This was an economic assistance program proposed by President Kennedy in 1961. It was to settle disputes between member nations and discourage foreign intervention in their internal affairs. The program to give Latin America $20 million in aid was protested after the fall of the democratic government in Haiti.
Dominican Republic, 1965: A civil war broke out in the Dominican Republic between the Bosch forces, the current government regime, and the people. The United States intervened with military forces and the Organization of American States restored peace by conducting elections where Joaquín Balaguer defeated Bosch.
Allende, Salvador: In 1933, Allende founded the Chilean Socialist party and was elected president of Chile in 1970. He became the first elected Marxist leader in the Americas. His socialist program led to inflation and strikes which resulted a military coup that overthrew his regime in 1973.
Panama Canal treaties: After gaining its independence in 1903, Panama gave the rights to use the Panama Canal to the United States. Another treaty was signed between the United States and Panama stating that control over the canal was to be returned to the Panamanian government on December 31, 1999.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS): As frustrations concerning government policies grew, this organization was created in 1962. The SDS became a focal point for activist students. The SDS organized massive Vietnam Protests. They issued the Port Huron Statement which called for support of liberalism.
Flower children: Flower children referred to the counterculture of the 1960s. This social category consisted mainly of student protestors who envisioned a life of freedom and harmony. They led pilgrimages to San Francisco and New York, but the counterculture rise was stemmed as the idealism turned into thievery, rape, and drugs.
Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring: Rachel Carson was a marine biologist that wrote and published Silent Spring. It addressed her concerns on the environmental hazards of pesticides. Her writings coincided with many other novels which brought social issues to the surface such as Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique.
Reich, Charles, The Greening of America: In his critical novel of the New Deal, Reich expressed his desire for courts to expand individual rights to protect nonconformists from social standards in 1971. He stated that it was impossible to mix individual interests in large general tax bills.
Oswald, Lee Harvey, Warren Commission: On Nov. 22, 1963 in Texas, John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Havery Oswald. As a result, the Warren Commission was created to investigate the controversial issues concerning a possible conspiracy. Oswald was later killed by Jack Ruby on his way to a court hearing.
Nixon to Watergate
Basing his support on the conservative New Right coalition, Nixon actually broke from Republican tradition in environmental protection, welfare reform, and finding solutions to economic problems such as the severe inflation. Yet Nixon’s insecurity as president and his abuse of executive power led to his downfall.
Nixon, "New Federalism," The Imperial Presidency: Nixon’s "New Federalism" promised to bring back law and order to the United States by promoting conservatism and executive authority. The term Imperial Presidency referred to Nixon’s efforts to acquire absolute control over his Presidency.
Agnew, Spiro T., his resignation: Vice President Agnew was charged with income-tax evasion and accepting bribes. He pleaded no contest which was "the full equivalent to a plea of guilty," according to the trial judge. Dishonored and distrusted, Agnew left the government service with a three-year suspended sentence.
"revenue sharing": As part of Nixon’s "New Federalism," "revenue sharing" was a five year plan to distribute $30 billion of federal revenues to the states. Congress passed it in 1972 in response to the failing economy caused by the inflation, trade deficit, and massive spending during the 1960s.
wage and price controls: In response to the troubled American economy, Nixon declared a ninety-day freeze on wages, prices, and rents which would be followed by federally imposed controls setting maximum annual increases of 5.5% for wages and 2.5% for prices and rents.
Nixon verses Congress: On July 27th, the House Judiciary Committee took in the first article of impeachment. 6 out of 17 Republicans voted with the 21 Democrats to charge Nixon with interruption of justice for controlling the Watergate investigation. The president had abused his power.
Committee for the Reelection of the President (CREEP): Nixon created CREEP to ensure every vote for the election of 1972. Appointing attorney general John Mitchell as the head, CREEP financed many "dirty tricks" to spread dissension within Democratic ranks and paid for a special internal espionage unit to spy on the opposition.
Watergate: The scandal exposed the connection between the White House and the accused Watergate burglars who had raided the Democrats’ headquarters during the 1972 campaign. The election federal judge, Sirica, refused to accept the claim of those on trial that they had behaved on their own terms.
election of 1972: Nixon’s reelection was assured. He relied on his diplomatic successes with China and Russia and his strategy towards the winding down of the war in Vietnam to attract moderate voters. He expected his southern strategy and law-and-order posture to attract the conservative Democrats.
White House "plumbers": Led by Liddy and Hunt, this Republican undercover team obtained approval by Mitchell to wire telephones at the Democractic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate apartment/office complex. The operation was thwarted on June 17, 1992 by a security guard; it would bring about the downfall of Nixon.
Watergate Tapes: Another Presidential rumor shocked the committee and the nation by revealing that Nixon had put in a secret taping system in the White House that recorded all the conversations between his enemies in the Oval Office. Both the Ervin committee and prosecutor Cox insisted to hear the tapes, but Nixon refused.
McGovern, Sen. George: George McGovern of South Dakota rose to fame on the energetic support of antiwar activists rushing to the Democratic primaries. He was seen as inept and radical, but Nixon was insecure about McGovern’s popularity; the senator contributed to Nixon’s downfall.
Muskie, Sen. Edmund: The campaign of Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine collapsed when he started to cry in public while trying to respond to an accusation of prejudice against Canadian-Americans. Muskie’s campaign was never a threat to Nixon’s reelection, but Nixon still feared him.
Haldeman, H.R., Ehrlichman, John, John Dean, John Mitchell: All were involved in the Watergate scandal. Dean refused to cover up Nixon’s involvement in Watergate. Nixon fired Dean and Haldeman and Erlichman who headed the White House Staff resigned. All three and former Attorney General Mitchell were indicted on March 1974.
Impeachment proceeding: The most damaging to the President was when the hearings exposed the White House’s active involvement in the Watergate cover-up. But the Senate still lacked concrete evidence on the president’s criminality. Thus they could not impeach Nixon.
Twenty-fifth Amendment: Ratified in 1967, this amendment detailed the procedure by which the vice president was to take over the presidency if the current president could not uphold his status in office. It also limited the power given to the vice president from the incapacitated president.
Twenty-sixth Amendment: This amendment guaranteed the rights of those who were 18 years of age or older to vote as citizens of the United States. It gave the power to Congress to enforce and protect by appropriate legislation. The amendment allowed the politicians to listen to the voices of younger people as voters.
Chicanos: Chicanos were segregated Mexican-Americans and also included Puerto Ricans. Assumed as inferiors, they lacked all the civil liberties of citizenship. They typically worked in the agricultural field as menial laborers and were unpaid and overcharged.
Cesar Chavez: As a Roman Catholic and a follower of King, Chavez worked to win rights for migrant farmers. He is famous for a strike he organized with the help of grape pickers in California in 1965. Chavez’s leadership brought guarantees of rights for the farmers. He was an important figure in the Brown Power movement.
Burger, William appointed, 1969: Appointed in 1969, Warren Burger was to replace the old and retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren. He was young and a new addition to the Nixon court; Nixon appointed him to moderate the liberalism of the Warren court and its controversial decisions.
American Indian Movement (AIM), Wounded Knee: Native-Americans occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay in 1969, and Wounded Knee was their trading post site. The reason they defiantly occupied Alcatraz Island was to protest their low status in America. They advocated Red Power and demanded justice for past wrongs.
Reagan Revolution
Reagan promulgated a program to restore U.S. prominence and honor globally, and fight economic problems. He advocated a more laissez faire policy through a lessening of government activism, taxes, spending, and restrictions on business.
Election of 1980: The election of 1980 included candidates such as Republican Ronald Reagan, Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter, and John B. Anderson as the Independent candidate. The biggest issue at the time was American foreign policy, and Ronald Reagan had a greater hand in that issue. Ronald Reagan became the President of the United States in 1980 with the promise of ameliorating the American economy against the forces of "stagflation."
Anderson, John: He was a Republican congressman from Illinois, and his running mate was Patrick J. Lucey from Wisconsin. When he announced his candidacy, he was serving his 10th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was known for his strong liberal statements and spoke well on complex issues.
Economy Recovery Tax Act, 1981: Following his promise of bettering the U.S. economy, Reagan proposed a 30% tax cut allowing the money supply to circulate. He liberalized business taxes and decreased capital gains, gifts, inheritance taxes to encourage investments in a plunging economy.
Reaganomics: Also known as voodoo economics, George Bush named this new economic strategy Reaganomics in the 1980 primary campaign. President Reagan believed that the government should leave the economy alone. He hoped that it would run by itself. It was a return to the laissez faire theory of Adam Smith, yet Reagan expanded his theory by advocating supply-side economics as a method to solve the economic hardships.
Supply side economics: In contrast to Adam Smith’s belief in supply-and-demand, Reagan assumed that if the economy provided the products and services, the public would purchase them. Consequently, Reagan lowered income taxes to stimulate the economy by expanding the money supply.
O’Connor, Sandra Day: She was a feminist who generally deplored Reagan’s programs. However, she was delighted when he nominated her as the first woman justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Many people supported Reagan’s decisions in favor of women’s rights.
Three Mile Island: In 1979, a near catastrophe occurred at Three Mile Island when there was an accident involving a nuclear power plant. Safety measures were taken so that a future incident would not occur. The plants were placed far away to reduce the hazards of near fatal accidents.
Watt, James Secretary of Interior: James Watt received more than $400,000 for making several calls to the Department of Housing and Urban Development officials. The people who had interceded with the Department of Housing and Urban Development were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for federal subsides.
Love Canal, Niagara Falls, NY: In the 1970s and early 1980s, chemical wastes that had leaked from a former disposal site threatened the health of residents in that area. Both the New York state government and the federal government provided financial aid to help move families from the Love Canal to other areas.
EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, OHSA: It was created in 1969 by President Nixon to enforce government standards for water and the air quality for work safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was also created to enforce the hygiene.
"New Federalism" proposals, 1982: New Federalism proposed to reverse the flow of power and resources from the states and communities to the state capital. The president proposed a revenue sharing bill that transferred some federal revenues to the states and prominent cities.
Deregulation-AT&T, airlines, trucking: To reverse the flow of federal power, Reagan began to deregulate governmental controls over such companies as AT&T, airlines, and trucking companies. He reasoned government must take its "hands off" from the economy to encourage investments and free enterprise.
NEH, National Endowment for Humanities: The National Endowment for Humanities was created to further promote artistic and cultural development in the United States. This was targeted to foreigners. The project revealed the full cultural spectrum of America.
Friedan, Betty The Second Stage, 1981: In her novel The Second Stage, Friedan stresses the need to add family matters to the cause of women’s rights. She reasons no person should ignore such a significant issue while focusing on female independence and advancement in society.
Defeat of the ERA: As the argument over the ERA and abortion went on more women got jobs in the working industry. In the 1960s, 35% of women held jobs, but in 1988, 60% of women worked. Even though women had children, 51% of them were working from day to day.
Election of 1984: Former Vice President Walter Mondale got the Democratic nomination over Jesse Jackson, backed by minority groups, and Gary Hart, who appealed to the young. Reagan’s campaign revolved around the optimistic slogan "It’s Morning in America" and he rode the tide of prosperity to a decisive victory.
Ferraro, Geraldine: The first woman ever to be on the ticket of a major party, Ferraro was chosen by Walter Mondale to be his Vice-Presidential candidate in 1984. However, her presence failed to win Mondale the election, as a higher percentage of women voted republican in 1984 than in 1980.
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome): First diagnosed in 1981, 97,000 cases were reported in 1989. Originally concentrated among homosexual men, needle-sharing drug users, and sex partners of high risk groups, the disease soon spread. AIDS prompted a change from the "free love" attitude of the 1970s, to a "safe sex" attitude of the 1990s.
"Moral Majority": The Moral Majority was Jerry Falwell’s pro-Reagan followers who embraced the new evangelical revival of the late seventies. The Moral Majority was politically active in targeting such issues as abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and school prayer. They was strongly conservative, anticommunist, and influential. The Moral Majority was started in 1979 as a secular political group, and were finished as a political force by the late 1980s.
Vietnam Veterans’s Memorial, 1982: Constructed in 1982, the memorial is a black marble wall sunken below ground level in Washington D.C.’s National Mall. On it are inscribed the names of all Americans who died or were missing in action. It also includes a statue of three soldiers, located nearby.
Agent Orange: Agent Orange was a chemical sprayed by U.S. planes on the jungles of Vietnam during the war which caused the defoliation of trees and shrubs and made enemy positions more visible. In the 1970s it was found that Agent Orange was harmful to humans. In 1984, manufacturers agreed to pay veterans injured by the chemical.
The Challenger Disaster, 1986: The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into flight, killing all aboard. The explosion was caused by a faulty seal in the fuel tank. The shuttle program was halted while investigators and officials drew up new safety regulations, but was resumed in 1988 with the flight of the Discovery.
Tax Reform Act, 1986: In 1986, with the federal deficit exceeding $200 billion, Reagan proposed a new, simplified tax system that lowered the taxes of individuals and corporate incomes. The tax reform helped reduce the deficit by 1987, but the stock market crash in October 1987 made higher taxes a necessity.
The "Teflon Presidency": Ronald Reagan’s popularity never seemed to change much despite the scandals and failures of his presidency. He was called the Teflon president by some because nothing would stick to him. Even with all the criticism, Reagan remained very popular and charismatic.
HUD scandals: In 1989, revelations surfaced that during Reagan’s administration, prominent Republicans had been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for interceding with the Department of Housing and Development on behalf of developers seeking federal subsidies. Once again, Reagan’s popularity was unaffected.
The Energy Crisis and Carter
Trying desperately to cope with the economic predicament spawned by OPEC, both Ford and Carter dismally failed. In foreign affairs, Cold War tensions mounted as the Soviet Union became increasingly annoyed with Carter’s rigorous standard of human rights.
Balance of trade, trade deficits: A U.S. economic report during the 1970s revealed that the nation imported more than it exported; the balance of trade was thrown off and the economic experts worried that the U.S. economy would not survive. As a result, Nixon began such programs as "revenue sharing" and wage and price controls for regulation.
Ford, Gerald, Nixon Pardon: On Aug. 9, 1974, Ford became the first vice president to inherit leadership of the nation after the president resigned. To put the nation forward, General Ford granted pardon for ex-President Nixon. As a result, many people were angry that the government could easily forgive corruption and dishonesty.
"Stagflation": As a combination of business stagnation and inflation, "stagflation" severely worsened the American economy. When the government borrowed money to offset the drastic loss of tax revenue, interest rates still increased. The federal government could not repay the loan, and it was forced to find other methods to collect revenue. There was no simple solution to "stagflation;" to lower interest rates to prevent stagnation would worsen the ongoing inflation.
SALT II: In June 1979, Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev agreed and signed the SALT II treaty. Carter presented it to the Senate and they ratified it. Due to the invasion of Afghanistan by Russia, the Cold War thaw slowed. The U.S.-Soviet relationship grew sour, and the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
Election of 1976: Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States in 1976. Climaxing a remarkable rise to national fame, Carter had been governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and was little known elsewhere at the beginning of 1976. Carter defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.
Carter, Jimmy, Amnesty: Elected to the Presidency in 1976, Carter was an advocate of human rights. He granted amnesty to countries who followed his foreign policy. They excluded nations which violated Carter’s humane standards through cruel business practices.
Panama Canal Treaty: The Carter administration put together bargains on a number of treaties to transfer the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone to the Panamanians by 1999. This treaty was met with staunch opposition by Republicans who felt that they "stole it fair and square."
Camp David Accords: Camp David was a place where the Egyptian leader Anwar el-Sadat and the Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin came together with Jimmy Carter. They discussed certain negotiations and tried to hammer out a framework for a peace treaty for the Middle East. It represented peace and harmony in the modern world.
WIN: To compensate for the economic predicament caused by OPEC and the crisis of energy conservation, Jimmy Carter proposed a innovative economic program. WIN was to provide methods for conserving energy by creating the Department of Energy and regulating consumption of gas by automobiles.
Department of Energy: Carter created the Department of Energy and created an energy bill including taxation on oil and gasoline, tax credits for those who found methods on saving money and alternative-energy resources. It went well and the bill for energy consumption came down in 1978.
The Middle East Crisis
With a virtual monopoly on petroleum, OPEC drove up oil prices which caused severe economic problems for the United States. Yet more turbulent conflicts existed in the Middle East: religious issues and territorial disputes inflamed tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
Multinational Corporations: In the modern era, where transportation allows rapid communication and exportation of products, corporations could span several nations. Many took advantage of inexpensive labor in one country and depreciated taxes in another.
Arab oil embargo: Furious at American intervention in the Middle Eastern conflicts, the Arab nations began to downsize the exportation of petroleum products to western nations. Consequently, the western world which relied heavily on petroleum was forced to seek other resources of fuel and energy.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC): In the 1970s, Middle Eastern petroleum exporting countries formed a monopoly and agreed to raise the price of oil. As a result, the economy in the western world fell into inflation and unemployment; a nation-wide recession resulted which forced Jimmy Carter to seek new economic programs at the end of his term in office. However, he could only do little to dispel the effects of the rising prices of oil.
Palestinian Liberation Front, (PLO), Yasser Arafat: In June 1982, there was great violence in the Middle East when Israel invaded Lebanon to extinguish the Palestinian Liberation Front from its headquarters. The chaos and confusion escalated in Lebanon which was already plagued by its own Civil War.
Vietnam to 1968
As the French pulled out of an increasingly helpless situation, the United States became more involved to fill the power vacuum. Though many liberal college students mounted large protests against the conflict, the majority of the nation supported the war. Not until the Têt offensive did massive opposition arise.
Gulf of Tonkin: The Gulf of Tonkin is the northwestern arm of the South China Sea. China and the island of Hainan border it on the west by Vietnam. It is the site for the famous battle that led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which committed the U.S. in Vietnam.
North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia: The French empire condensed North and South Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia into one colony called Indochina. The separate regions resented this and nationalist stirrings caused widespread discontent among the people of each nation.
Ho Chi Minh: Ho was the Vietnamese Communist leader and the principal force behind the Vietnamese struggle against French colonial rule. Hoping for U.S. assistance in Vietnam’s struggle for independence, Ho later turned to the Soviet Union when the U.S. aided the French. He was a nationalist at heart and wanted Vietnamese independence far more than a communist government. He led the Vietminh, a group of guerrillas. In 1954, they defeated the French garrison at the battle of Dien Bien Phu.
First Indochina War: The French wanted Indochina back after losing control over the colony during the Vichy era of the Second World War. Ho Chi Minh refused to give up sovereignty which resulted in the First Indochina War; it drew the U.S. into the fight against communism, but Vietnam became more staunchly communist after the war.
Domino theory: Eisenhower’s domino theory claimed that once one nation fell to communism, bordering countries would follow like falling dominoes. The theory was used in context of the monolithic view of communism, which claimed that all communist countries were in a conspiracy to destroy democracy in the world. Applied to Asia, the U.S. could not let Vietnam fall after "losing" China to communism. Fearful of Soviet expansion, Eisenhower increased American involvement in Vietnam.
Dien Bien Phu: On May 7, 1954, the Vietminh surrounded and laid siege to the French garrison, forcing them to surrender. The U.S. refused to give aid to the French for fear of condoning imperialism. Facing this humiliating defeat, the French decided to give up their futile attempt to fight nationalist stirrings in Vietnam.
Geneva Conference, 1954: After the fall of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu, an international conference was called in Geneva in 1954 to discuss the status of the war in Vietnam. The delegates of the conference decided that Vietnam should be divided into North and South at the seventeenth parallel until national elections took place in 1954. The elections were never held. The conference also created an area known as the demilitarized zone.
Viet Cong, National Liberation Front: The Viet Cong was the name given to the Vietnamese communist army; the National Liberation Front was a part of this group. In support of Ho Chi Minh, the group pushed to overthrow the South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. The National Liberation Front was partly responsible for the fall of Dinh Bien Phu and organization of the Têt Offensive. The National Liberation Front consisted mainly of guerilla fighters.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964: After North Vietnamese gun boats assaulted American ships that were organizing air strikes and military moves, Johnson and his advisers drafted the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that committed the United States in Vietnam. It was passed by Congress and gave Johnson a "blank check," granting him full authority against North Vietnamese forces. This led to the increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Demilitarized zone: A demilitarized zone (DMZ) refers to areas in which military weapons and other installations are prohibited. The demilitarized zone during the Vietnam War was surrounded the seventeenth parallel. The parallel and the DMZ were created as a result of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions.
Têt Offensive: The NLF and the North Vietnamese arm mounted a massive offensive against the South Vietnamese and American armies on January 31, 1968, which was also the first day of the Vietnamese New Year known as Têt. The nationalists successfully penetrated Saigon and took the United States embassy. After being told that the enemy was virtually defeated, the offensive showed that the nationalists were still capable of fighting and that the government had lied. Popularity for the war vastly declined.
Vietnamization and Détente
Skilled in foreign politics, Nixon gracefully pulled the United States out of Vietnam by turning over the conflict to the South Vietnamese. With a major Cold War conflict over, the president proceeded to lessen American-Soviet tensions through a call for "peaceful coexistence."
Bombing of Laos and Cambodia: As Nixon began to withdraw American forces in Vietnam in 1972, he sent Henry Kissinger to negotiate with the communists’ foreign minister, Le Duc Tho. In order to force a compromise, the president ordered massive bombings of Cambodia and Laos, the locations of communist supply lines.
Kent State and Jackson State incidents: In 1972, the invasion of Cambodia spread the war throughout Indochina which sparked massive American protests on college campuses. The Kent and Jackson State universities were sites of protest in which student protesters were killed.
Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers: Daniel Ellsberg was a analyst for the Department of Defense, who in 1971 released to the press the Pentagon Papers, an account of American involvement in Vietnam created by the department during the Johnson administration. The papers revealed government lies to Congress and the American people.
My Lai, Lt. Calley: Lt. Calley was an inexperienced commander of an American army unit massacred 347 defenseless women, children, and old men in 1968. The horrors of the massacre were revealed to the public and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, an organization of returning soldiers that renounced their war medals as a result.
Hanoi, Haipong: Hanoi was the capital of Vietnam before the war. It was located in the northern part of the country. During the war it was heavily bombed in an attempt to force the North Vietnamese to negotiate a peace treaty. Haiphong was located 10 miles from the Gulf of Tonkin. It was the largest port in Southeast Asia and site of the Indochina naval base.
Fulbright, Senator: Senator Fulbright was an American senator of Arkansas, who proposed the Fulbright Act of 1964. This act established the exchange program for American and foreign educators and students. Senator Fulbright also served as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He opposed the war.
Vietnamization: Popular discontent forced Nixon to pull out of the Vietnam war, but he could not allow the United States to lose face. Leaving Vietnam without honor would endanger U.S. global dominance and give a considerable advantage the Soviet Union. Vietnamization, the process of replacing the American armed forces with South Vietnamese troops trained by American advisors, allowed the U.S. to save its reputation and satisfy an American public weary with a futile struggle.
Paris Accords, 1973: In 1973, after Lyndon Johnson died of a heart attack, Nixon declared that a peace had been reached in Vietnam. The Paris Accords ended the war between the North Vietnamese government and Thieu government of South Vietnam. It was also agreed that the future of North Vietnam would not be determined by war.
SALT I Agreement: At a meeting in Vladivostok, Siberia, in 1974, the SALT I agreement allowed Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to make enormous progress towards the new arms-control treaty. This agreement was to limit each side to 2,400 nuclear missiles which would reduce the rate of war to a mere fraction.
Détente: The evacuation of American troops from Vietnam helped Nixon and Kissinger reduce Chinese-American tensions and achieve détente with the communist superpowers. This dramatic development marked a significant change in American foreign policy by developing a cordial attitude towards the communists.
China visit, 1972; recognition of China: On February 22, 1972, the President’s plane landed in China. Part of his policy of détente, Nixon took advantage of the Sino-Soviet split to pit the former allies against each other by recognizing China. The China visit sealed the new Chinese-American friendship, leaving Russia more isolated.
War Powers Act, 1973: As an act passed by Congress, the president was given unprecedented authority. Thousands of special wartime agencies suddenly regulated almost every of American life. After the war, 15 million men had been trained and equipped with armed forces ready for battle.
Six Day War, 1967: Israel’s decisive triumph in the Six Day War had left the Arabs humiliated and eager to reclaim the militarily strategic Golan Heights which was taken from Syria. Aided by massive U.S. shipments of highly sophisticated weaponry, the Israelis stopped the assault and counterattacked.
Yom Kippur War: Syria and Egypt, backed by Russia, led an all out attack on Israel in 1973 on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. This war between the Israelis and their neighboring countries spanned several years. There were frequent bombings and raids amongst the countries for oil.
Kissinger, Henry, "shuttle diplomacy": Henry Kissinger flew from capital to capital and bargained with the Israelis and the Egyptian people. He organized a cease-fire in November of 1973. Kissinger negotiated the peace agreement with the aid of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to end the Yom Kippur war. His "shuttle diplomacy" ameliorated the hostility between the Middle Eastern countries and the United States.
A timeline of the Unites States' political history. These political timelines, along with the US History outlines, unit notes, practice quizzes, vocabulary terms, topic outlines, court cases, political parties, and case briefs will help you prepare for the AP US History exam.
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1800 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteThomas Jefferson (D-Republican) 73 |
January 1, 1800 |
Adams negotiated peace treaty,splitting Federalists |
November 21, 1800 |
Senate moved to location in Washington |
October 1, 1801 |
Democrat-Republican majority of 71-34 in House |
November 21, 1801 |
Senate moved to new location in Washington |
January 1, 1802 |
Vice President Arron Burr voted with Federalists,ending Republican alleigance |
January 1, 1802 |
Repub. editor Samuel Harrison Smith petitioned to permit reporters access to floor |
January 1, 1803 |
Treaty drawn to purchase Louisiana Territory |
January 1, 1804 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteThomas Jefferson (D-Republican) 162 |
January 1, 1804 |
House impeaches Samuel Chase |
March 12, 1804 |
US Dist. Court Judge John Pickering guilty of decisions contrary to law and insanity |
February 5, 1805 |
trial began for impeachment of Samuel Chase |
March 1, 1805 |
failure to convict Chase in impeachment |
January 1, 1806 |
Henry Clay enters Senate |
January 1, 1806 |
seizure of Burr's boats in the Ohio and apprehension in Mississipi |
January 1, 1807 |
Jefferson sends Senate message of Burr's conspiracy |
January 1, 1807 |
Embargo Act pushed by Thomas Jefferson |
January 1, 1807 |
Macon defeated as Speaker |
January 1, 1808 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJames Madison (D-Republican) 122 |
January 1, 1809 |
Senate approved legality of taking West Florida from spain |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1810 |
Henry Clay enters House of Representatives |
January 1, 1811 |
Bill drafted to raise army of 25,000 men |
January 1, 1811 |
Henry Clay becomes Speaker of the House on first day |
January 1, 1812 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJames Madison (D-Republican) 128 |
June 17, 1812 |
Senate approves Madison's declaration of war against Britain |
January 1, 1813 |
Madison gains nearly fatal illness,as victories prevail overseas |
January 1, 1814 |
Delegation of commissioners dispatched to Britain for negotiations |
January 1, 1815 |
Committees created in Senate to examine sections of presidents message |
January 1, 1815 |
President Madison proposes domestic program,including tariffs and a bank recharter |
January 8, 1815 |
Treaty of Ghent approved after Jackson's victory |
January 1, 1816 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJames Madison (D-Republican) 183 |
January 1, 1816 |
""standing committees" approved in Senate " |
December 2, 1816 |
Rep. Calhoun (SC) introduced bill for canals and roads on Clay's "American System" |
January 1, 1817 |
Benjamin Crowninshield of Massachusetts becomes head of Navy |
January 1, 1818 |
Smith Thompson of New York becomes head of Navy |
January 1, 1819 |
Treaty ceding Florida to United States |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1820 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJames Monroe (D-Republican) 231 |
January 1, 1820 |
Missouri Compromise of 1820 |
February 22, 1821 |
Treaty ceding Florida to United States ratified |
January 1, 1822 |
Monroe recognizes South American colonies as independent states |
January 1, 1822 |
Daniel Webster enters Senate |
December 2, 1823 |
Monroe Doctrine declared |
January 1, 1824 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJohn Q. Adams (Ind. Republican) 30.5 84 |
February 1, 1825 |
Clay becomes Secretary of State through "corrupt bargain",giving Adams support |
January 1, 1828 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJohn Q. Adams (Nat. Republican) 56 178 |
November 21, 1828 |
Senate moved to location in Washington |
January 1, 1829 |
Senate rejects Andrew Jackson's appointees |
December 1, 1829 |
Senate rejects Andrew Jackson's appointees |
December 20, 1829 |
Foot resolution to limit lands acquired |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1840 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteWilliam H. Harrison (Whig) 53.1 234 |
January 1, 1840 |
Liberty party founded,runs James G. Birney |
January 1, 1840 |
American Republican Party endorses Clay and Frelignhysen |
May 1, 1840 |
Democratic National convention |
October 1, 1840 |
Birney accepted democratic nom. For Michigan legislature |
January 1, 1841 |
bank bill passed in Senate |
June 21, 1841 |
extended fillibuster over bank recharter bill |
January 1, 1842 |
Webster-Ashburton Treaty signed |
March 1, 1843 |
Cushing becomes Secretary of State |
January 1, 1844 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJames K. Polk (Democratic) 49.6 170 |
April 1, 1844 |
treaty of Texas annexation considered |
December 1, 1844 |
Adams launches effort to eliminate gag rule on slavery |
January 1, 1845 |
admission of Republic of Texas |
December 4, 1845 |
defeated motion of Vice Presidential appointments |
August 1, 1846 |
Wilmot Proviso fillibustered in Senate |
January 1, 1848 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteZachary Taylor (Whig) 47.4 163 |
January 1, 1848 |
Wilmot Proviso attatched to Oregon treaty |
January 1, 1848 |
Free Soil party founded |
March 10, 1848 |
ratification of treaty with Mexico |
May 22, 1848 |
Convention/Democrats split into Barnburners and Hunkers |
June 7, 1848 |
Whig Convention in Philidelphia |
January 1, 1849 |
Free soilers refuse to support caucuses in House |
January 1, 1849 |
Plurality used to elect speaker |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1850 |
Compromise of 1850 |
March 1, 1850 |
Calhoun addresses Senate on Clay's proposals |
March 7, 1850 |
Webster reply to Calhoun |
March 31, 1850 |
Benton-Foote confrontation in Senate |
April 18, 1850 |
Committee of thirteen selected |
January 1, 1852 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteFranklin Pierce (Democratic) 50.9 254 |
June 1, 1852 |
Baltimore Democratic Party convention |
June 16, 1852 |
Whig convention in Baltimore,put in Compromise measures |
January 1, 1853 |
civil service reform requiring clerks to pass an examination |
January 1, 1854 |
Illinois elects Republican Lyman Trumbull |
January 1, 1854 |
Steven Douglas introduces Kansas-Nebraska act |
January 1, 1854 |
Douglas moves to exempt Nebraska |
March 1, 1854 |
Alvan E. Bovay founds Republican party |
January 1, 1855 |
Republicans outdistance Know-Nothings,absorbing voters |
January 1, 1856 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJames Buchanan (Democratic) 45.3 174 |
January 1, 1856 |
rule of debate considered after philibuster |
February 1, 1856 |
Know-Nothings (American Party) holds national council meeting |
February 22, 1856 |
Republicans national organizing convention in Pittsburg |
May 14, 1856 |
Sumner denunciates Douglas' views |
May 22, 1856 |
Brooks beats Sumner with cane on Senate floor |
June 2, 1856 |
Democratic National convention in Cincinnati |
January 1, 1857 |
U.S. Supreme Court beings Dred Scott v. Sanford case |
January 1, 1858 |
approval of a proslavery Constitution |
January 1, 1858 |
Lincoln-Douglas debates |
January 1, 1858 |
success of People's Party in Pennsylvania |
December 1, 1858 |
Douglas removed from Committee on Territories |
January 1, 1859 |
Vice President Arron Burr voted with Federalists,ending Republican alleigance |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1860 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteAbraham Lincoln (Republican) 39.8 180 |
April 23, 1860 |
Democratic national convention in Charleston,SC |
May 16, 1860 |
Republican national convention in Chicago,surrounded by "Wigwams" |
June 18, 1860 |
Democrats re-assemble in Baltimore |
December 4, 1860 |
South Carolina leaves the Union |
January 9, 1861 |
Mississippi leaves the union |
July 21, 1861 |
Select Committee on the Loyalty of Government Employees started |
December 4, 1861 |
Breckinridge expelled from Senate as a traitor |
December 10, 1861 |
Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War in House,investigations into General Stone |
February 1, 1862 |
Indiana's Jesse Bright expelled from Senate |
September 22, 1862 |
Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln |
January 1, 1863 |
Lincoln offers extension of recognition to South with 10% taking oath |
May 1, 1863 |
Vallandigham peace campaign ends,tried in court for resisting draft |
January 1, 1864 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteAbraham Lincoln (Republican) 55 212 |
April 8, 1864 |
abolishing of slavery in House |
June 7, 1864 |
Union Party first convention in Baltimore |
July 5, 1864 |
Wade-Davis bill vetoed |
September 1, 1864 |
Sherman captures Atlanta,Lincoln gains popularity |
January 1, 1865 |
Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction established |
April 14, 1865 |
Lincoln assassinated |
January 1, 1866 |
ranks of Republicans in congress expanded after war |
January 1, 1866 |
Johnson vetoes Civil Rights Bill and extension of Freedmen's Bureau |
June 13, 1866 |
Fourteenth Amendment passes |
January 7, 1867 |
James M. Ashley introduced legislation to impeach president |
January 13, 1867 |
First reconstruction Act introduced by Stevens |
January 22, 1867 |
House voted to have 40th Congress begin the day after 39th Congress and authority to call special sessions |
March 1, 1867 |
Tenure of Office Act passed |
March 2, 1867 |
Reconstruction Act vetoed and overridden |
March 23, 1867 |
Supplementary Reconstruction Act |
July 19, 1867 |
Third Reconstruction Act |
August 2, 1867 |
Johnson fires Secretary of War Stanton,impeachment given |
January 1, 1868 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteUlysses S. Grant (Republican) 52.7 286 |
March 4, 1868 |
Johnson impeachment trial begins |
March 11, 1868 |
Third Reconstruction Act |
May 16, 1868 |
vote on removal of Johnson fails |
May 20, 1868 |
National Union Republican" party convention at Chicago |
July 4, 1868 |
Democrats hold convention in new Tammany Hall |
September 24, 1868 |
Black Friday caused by corrective action by Secretary of Treasury Boutwell |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1870 |
Presedential Elections:Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) |
January 1, 1870 |
Hiram Revels elected as first black senator |
January 1, 1870 |
Presedential Elections:Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) |
January 1, 1870 |
Republican party convention in Philadelphia |
February 21, 1870 |
Labor Reform Party founded and holds convention in Columbus,Ohio |
July 9, 1870 |
Democratic convention in Baltimore |
January 1, 1874 |
Samuel Tilden elected to governor of New York |
January 1, 1875 |
Ohio Democrats take inflationist stand as Governor Allen embraces greenbackism |
June 14, 1875 |
Republican convention in Cincinnati |
January 1, 1876 |
""Greenback" Independent Party launched " |
June 22, 1876 |
Hayes executive order that government officials take no part in politics |
January 1, 1878 |
Bland-Allison Act allows limited coinage of silver dollars |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1880 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJames A. Garfield (Republican) 48.5 214 |
January 1, 1880 |
Rules made a standing committee by Speaker Randall |
May 1, 1880 |
""no third term" opposition holds convention in St. Louis " |
June 2, 1880 |
Republican convention in Chicago,split into "Stalwarts" and "Halfbreeds" |
June 7, 1880 |
Mugwumps at Massachusetts Reform Club appeal to aiding of a Democratic nomination |
June 9, 1880 |
Greenback convention torn between radicals and fusionists |
June 22, 1880 |
Democratic convention in Cincinnati |
October 20, 1880 |
Garfield learns of forged Morey letter |
March 1, 1881 |
Senate convenes for |
May 16, 1881 |
Conkling and Platt resign from Senate |
June 22, 1881 |
Garfield shot by crazed office seeker |
September 9, 1881 |
President Garfield dies in bed |
January 1, 1882 |
Republicans regain Senate control |
January 1, 1883 |
tariff measure to bring in extra revenue passes |
January 1, 1883 |
Pendleton Act to reform civil service passes |
January 1, 1884 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteClover Winfield (Democratic) 48.5 219 |
January 1, 1884 |
debates on how to eliminate $150 million surplus go on in Senate |
January 1, 1884 |
information Blaine's renewal of land grant scandal goes in print |
May 12, 1884 |
Anti-Monopoly Party holds national convention |
May 28, 1884 |
Greenback convention in Indianapolis nominated General Butler |
June 4, 1884 |
Republican convention held in Chicago,Mugwumps leave party |
June 28, 1884 |
meeting of Blaine Irish-Americans convenes as Irish newspapers endorse Blaine |
July 18, 1884 |
Democratic convention held in Chicago |
October 29, 1884 |
Blaine's "rum,Romanism,and rebellion" speech made |
January 1, 1885 |
Woodrow Wilson completes his dissertation,"Congressional Government" |
January 1, 1886 |
bill defeated in House for tariff reductions |
January 1, 1886 |
Cleveland marries,stories circulate about him beating his wife |
January 1, 1887 |
Dawes Act and Interstate Commerce Act pass |
January 1, 1887 |
Electoral Count act passes |
January 1, 1888 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteBenjamin Harrison (Republican) 47.9 233 |
May 15, 1888 |
Union Labor Party convention at Cincinnati |
June 1, 1888 |
Democratic convention in St. Louis |
June 19, 1888 |
Republican convention held in Chicago |
August 10, 1888 |
Blaire parades in New York streets for Harrison's campaign |
January 1, 1889 |
Thomas B. Reed (ME) elected as speaker |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1890 |
McKinley Tariff passes in Congress |
June 7, 1890 |
Republican convention in Minneapolis reaffirmed tariff position |
January 1, 1891 |
New York Governor Hill elected to Senate,sets hopes for Presidency |
January 1, 1891 |
McKinley elected as Ohio governor |
February 22, 1891 |
""snap" Republican convention called to secure a Hill delegation " |
May 1, 1891 |
People's Party formed |
January 1, 1892 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteGlover Cleveland (Democratic) 46.1 277 |
January 1, 1892 |
law that president pro tempore succeed the presidency passes |
February 22, 1892 |
St. Louis Populist conference adopting platform |
June 7, 1892 |
Republicans hold convention in Minneapolis |
July 2, 1892 |
Omaha Populist conference meets |
January 1, 1893 |
McKinley faced with bankruptcy,reimbursed by Hanna |
January 1, 1894 |
Republicans gain House control,Populists hold balance of power in Senate |
January 1, 1894 |
Supreme Court declares Wilson-Gorman Act unconstitutional |
January 1, 1894 |
Coin's Financial School published |
August 1, 1894 |
silver Democrats set up national committee |
January 1, 1895 |
Hanna begins campaign to get McKinley the presidential nomination |
January 1, 1896 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteWilliam M. McKinley (Republican) 51.1 271 |
January 1, 1896 |
conference of Platt,Quay,Clarkson,Manley,and Filley encourage "favorite son" candidacies |
June 16, 1896 |
Republican convention in St. Louis |
July 7, 1896 |
Democratic national convention in Chicago opposes silver men |
July 22, 1896 |
Populist convention at St. Louis endorses W. J. Bryan |
January 1, 1897 |
William Allison becomes chairman of the Republican caucus |
January 1, 1898 |
Theodore Roosevelt elected as governor of New York |
April 1, 1898 |
Sherman resigns from state department |
January 1, 1899 |
Secretary Hay secures open-door policy in China |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1900 |
Bryan declares government ownership a non-issue |
January 1, 1900 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteWilliam M. McKinley (Republican) 51.7 292 |
June 19, 1900 |
Republican national convention at Philadelphia |
July 4, 1900 |
Admiral George Dewey announces candidacy for President |
July 4, 1900 |
Democratic convention in Kansas City nominates Bryan and Silver Republican |
September 6, 1901 |
McKinley shot by anarchist at Pan-American Exposition |
January 1, 1902 |
Roosevelt intervenes in the anthracite coal strike |
January 1, 1903 |
""Uncle Joe" Cannon elected as Speaker of the House " |
January 1, 1904 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteTheodore Roosevelt (Republican) 57.4 336 |
June 21, 1904 |
Republican national convention in Chicago |
July 6, 1904 |
Democratic convention in St. Louis |
January 1, 1906 |
W. J. Bryan makes speech in Madison Square Garden advocating government ownership of railroads |
January 1, 1906 |
two senators convicted on fraud and corruption charges,campaign for direct election begins |
January 1, 1906 |
Hepburn Act drawn up by William Peters |
March 1, 1906 |
""Treason of the Senate" articles appear through print " |
January 1, 1907 |
Panic 1907 asserts fundamental conservatism of Republican majority |
January 1, 1907 |
Harriman letter appears in New York World |
January 1, 1908 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteWilliam H. Taft (Republican) 51.6 321 |
June 16, 1908 |
Republican national convention in Chicago |
July 1, 1908 |
Democratic convention in Denver re-nominates Bryan |
March 1, 1909 |
progressive Republicans break ranks and vote for James Beauchamp Clark for Speaker |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1910 |
Ballinger-Pinchot controversy; Pinchot writes letter to Senator Dolliver |
March 1, 1910 |
bipartisan uprising against "Uncle Joe" Cannon |
March 17, 1910 |
Norris proposes Rules Committee in which the Speaker is excluded |
January 1, 1911 |
House passes direct election amendment by 296-11 margin |
January 1, 1911 |
National Progressive Republican League founded |
February 2, 1911 |
La Follette speaks at Publishers Association and is reported to have a breakdown; support switches to Roosevelt |
January 1, 1912 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteTheodore Roosevelt (Progressive) 41.9 435 |
May 1, 1912 |
William Borah (ID) guides direct election measure to enactment |
August 5, 1912 |
Progressive Party convention n Chicago |
October 1, 1912 |
Roosevelt criticizes treaties by Taft as suit brought against dissolution of U.S. Steel |
October 14, 1912 |
insane man attempts to assassinate Roosevelt in Milwaukee |
January 1, 1913 |
Underwood tariff passes in House |
April 3, 1913 |
Wilson appears before special session of congress calling for elimnation of tariffs |
January 1, 1914 |
Federal Trade Commission Act and Clayton Antitrust Act approved by Senate |
January 29, 1914 |
Maryland's Blair Lee becomes first directly elected senator |
April 1, 1914 |
onset of the world war,Senate's attention shifted to foreign policy |
January 1, 1915 | |
January 1, 1916 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteWoodrow Wilson (Democratic) 49.4 277 |
March 2, 1917 |
Progressives hold filibuster of arming ships on noninterventionist policies |
March 5, 1917 |
cloture' measure (Rule 22) passes at Wilson's demand |
January 1, 1918 |
Wilson calls for establishment of Democratic congress to see the victory |
January 1, 1918 |
Truman Newberry defeats Henry Ford in Michigan Senate race |
January 1, 1918 |
Wilson sets forth "Fourteen Points" to Congress |
May 16, 1918 |
Sedition Act proposed to punish anyone who spoke out against the government |
August 1, 1918 |
H. Cabot Lodge becomes Senate's floor leader and senior member |
March 1, 1919 |
Lodge presents resolution signed by 29 senators urging the separation of the treaty from the League of Nations covenant |
July 10, 1919 |
peace treaty sent to Senate; voted down amendments |
October 22, 1919 |
Wilson suffers a stroke,and returns to capital from peace campaign |
November 29, 1919 |
Newberry indicted on charges of conspiracy |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1920 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteWarren G. Harding (Republican) 60.4 404 |
January 1, 1920 |
due to census anomalies,House Census Committee recommends extending membership to 483 |
January 1, 1920 |
Alfred Smith defeated for reelection in New York |
January 1, 1920 |
Senate agrees to abolish forty-one standing committees |
March 20, 1920 |
Peace treaty struck down again as it fails the vote |
May 1, 1920 |
Socialist convention at New York,Debs nominated from prison |
June 8, 1920 |
Republicans hold gathering in Chicago |
June 28, 1920 |
Democrats hold convention in Chicago,pass Wilsonian platform |
November 19, 1920 |
Senate rejects peace treaty after Wilson refuses modifications |
January 1, 1921 |
Budget and Accounting Act passed |
May 1, 1921 |
Supreme Court overturns Newberry's conviction |
January 1, 1922 |
House elections reduce Republican margin to fifteen |
January 1, 1922 |
House Rules Committee Chairman Campbell defeated |
January 1, 1922 |
Newberry resigns from Senate |
January 1, 1922 |
bonus bill passes in Congress and is vetoed |
January 1, 1922 |
Conference for Progressive Political Action founded |
November 21, 1922 |
Rebecca Latimer Felton elected governor of Georgia |
January 1, 1923 |
magazine article states that Harding never had intentions of joining League of Nations |
June 1, 1923 |
President Harding sets out on transcontinental trip |
August 2, 1923 |
President Harding dies |
November 21, 1923 |
Rebecca Latimer Felton elected governor of Georgia |
January 1, 1924 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteCalvin Coolidge (Republican) 54 382 |
January 1, 1924 |
Longworth pushes through a change in rules governing petitions |
January 1, 1924 |
Rep. Haugen and Sen. McNary promote purchasing and selling of agricultural products |
June 24, 1924 |
Democratic national convention at Madison Square Gardens |
July 4, 1924 |
La Follette named for nomination by gathering of progressive groups |
January 1, 1925 |
Senate agrees to revise the Federal Corrupt Practices Act |
June 1, 1925 |
Robert La Follette dies |
January 1, 1926 |
Smith and Vare campaigns spurs Senate investigations |
January 1, 1927 |
McNary-Haugen bill passes,and is vetoed |
January 1, 1927 |
Supreme Court strengthens investigations with McGrain v. Daugherty |
August 3, 1927 |
Coolidge announces he will not run again |
January 1, 1928 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteHerbert C. Hoover (Republican) 58.2 444 |
June 12, 1928 |
Republican convention held in Kansas City |
June 26, 1928 |
Democratic convention held in Houston |
January 1, 1929 |
Agricultural Marketing Act fails |
January 1, 1929 |
Senate launches investigation related to maintenance of prerogatives |
January 1, 1929 |
Congress passes bill to establish an automatic reapportionment |
January 1, 1929 |
Senate censures Connecticut's Hiram Bingham for placing a lobbyist on payroll |
October 1, 1929 |
Stock market crash |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1930 |
Republican majority in House reduced to one seat |
June 1, 1930 |
Smoot-Hawley Tariff carries by two votes |
January 1, 1931 |
Congress passes servicemen loan bill over Hoover's veto |
January 1, 1931 |
Democrats lowers amount of signatures required for discharge petition |
December 1, 1931 |
Hoover waits to address the economic crisis |
January 1, 1932 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteFranklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) 57.4 472 |
January 1, 1932 |
Hattie Caraway becomes first woman in Senate |
January 1, 1932 |
Bonus March on Washington |
February 16, 1932 |
Lame Duck' amendment passes |
June 14, 1932 |
Republican convention in Chicago |
June 27, 1932 |
Barkley speaks at Democratic convention in Chicago |
January 1, 1933 |
73rd Congress convenes its first 100 days |
March 9, 1933 |
Roosevelt calls Congress into special session |
May 1, 1933 |
National Labor Relations Act passes in Senate under Wagner |
January 1, 1934 |
Democratic majority in Congress increases |
January 1, 1934 |
Borah leads efforts to investigate munitions industry |
January 1, 1934 |
Liberty League appears,backed by wealthy |
January 1, 1934 |
Rules Committee proposed that there would be no appropriation bill amendments,sparks furor |
January 1, 1935 |
Harry S. Truman begins Senate service |
January 1, 1935 |
Congress passes Neutrality Act t |
January 1, 1936 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteFranklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) 60.8 523 |
January 8, 1936 |
Democrats begin practice of Jackson Day dinners |
June 9, 1936 |
Republican national convention in Cleveland |
June 19, 1936 |
Lemke and O'Brien announce candidacy for "Union Party" |
June 23, 1936 |
Democratic convention gathers in Philadelphia |
September 11, 1936 |
national conference of liberals endorse Roosevelt |
July 6, 1937 |
Senate debates begin over court-packing scheme |
July 14, 1937 |
Majority Leader Robinson found dead,Barkley succeeds |
November 1, 1937 |
Roosevelt calls special session |
January 1, 1938 |
Roosevelt attempts to "purge" party of conservative leaders |
January 1, 1938 |
Republican revival in Congress |
January 1, 1939 |
Hatch Act passed prohibiting officials from politics |
January 1, 1939 |
Felix Frankfurter elevated to Supreme Court |
January 1, 1939 |
Roosevelt asks for large defense appropriation |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1940 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteFranklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) 54.8 499 |
January 1, 1940 |
stringent campaign finance act passed |
March 8, 1940 |
Senate approves president's "Lend-Lease" plan |
July 15, 1940 |
Democratic convention at Chicago |
August 17, 1940 |
Wilkie accepts Republican nomination |
September 16, 1940 |
Congress enacts first peacetime draft |
October 25, 1940 |
John Lewis urges labor to vote for Willkie |
January 1, 1941 |
Senator Chandler proposes hiring 'research experts' |
March 1, 1941 |
Senate creates Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program |
August 1, 1941 |
opposition arises in renewal of the draft |
December 8, 1941 |
Sen. Arthur Vandeer reverses isolationist position,nation goes to war |
January 1, 1942 |
Republicans gain seats in Congress as there is a swing to the right |
September 1, 1942 |
Roosevelt threats Congress with action |
January 1, 1943 |
conservative coalition repeals many New Deal agencies |
July 1, 1943 |
C.I.O. forms first Political Action Committee |
January 1, 1944 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteFranklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) 53.5 432 |
January 1, 1944 |
Henry Wallace replaced by Truman as vice presidential nominee |
February 23, 1944 |
Roosevelt vetoes Barkley's tax bill |
May 1, 1944 |
Communist Party dissolves,forms Communist Political Association |
July 19, 1944 |
Democratic convention in Chicago |
August 4, 1944 |
soldier voting act amended |
August 30, 1944 |
America First party holds convention in Detriot,nominates Smith |
January 1, 1945 |
Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress established |
January 1, 1945 |
Senate agrees to the United Nations Charter |
April 12, 1945 |
President Roosevelt dies,replaced by Truman |
January 1, 1946 |
number of Republicans increase in Senate to majority,pass Taft-Hartley Act |
January 1, 1946 |
Henry Wallace resigns |
May 1, 1946 |
Truman proposes law to draft strikers,labor relations hurt |
January 1, 1947 |
""Vandenburg Resolution" adopted " |
January 1, 1947 |
Senate approves "Truman Doctrine" |
January 1, 1948 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteHarry S. Truman (Democratic) 54.8 499 |
January 1, 1948 |
Lyndon Johnson,Hubert Humphrey elected to Senate |
January 1, 1948 |
Democrats return to majority status in house |
January 1, 1948 |
Eisenhower refuses to run |
March 1, 1948 |
General MacArthur announces possible candidacy |
July 12, 1948 |
Democratic convention held in Philadelphia |
July 17, 1948 |
Dixiecrats hold convention,nominate Strom Thurmond |
July 22, 1948 |
Progressive Party convention in Philadelphia nominates Wallace |
August 1, 1948 |
Communist Party endorses Wallace |
January 1, 1949 |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1950 |
Internal Security Act enacted over Truman's veto |
February 9, 1950 |
Sen. McCarthy begins anti-Comunist accusations |
February 20, 1950 |
McCarthy details '81 loyalty risks' |
January 1, 1951 |
Bricker on campaign for amendment allowing Congressional treaty regulation |
July 14, 1951 |
McCarthy accuses Gen. Marshall of 'whimpering appeasement' |
September 1, 1951 |
Senator Taft announces intentions to run for President |
January 1, 1952 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteDwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) 55.1 442 |
July 2, 1952 |
Republican convention at Chicago |
January 1, 1953 |
Bricker obtains sixty-two Senate cosponsors |
July 31, 1953 |
Taft dies; Knowland becomes majority leader |
January 1, 1954 |
Averell Harriman elected governor of New York |
February 1, 1954 |
Johnson substitute for Bricker amendment fails by one vote |
March 1, 1954 |
Puerto Rican Nationalists open fire on the House of Representatives |
April 1, 1954 |
televised hearings of McCarthy trials air |
December 2, 1954 |
Senate censures McCarthy |
January 1, 1955 |
Howard Smith becomes the House Rules Committee chair |
January 1, 1955 |
House resolution to aid Formosa |
July 1, 1955 |
President goes to Big Four summit,popularity booms |
January 1, 1956 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteDwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) 57.6 457 |
January 1, 1956 |
Senate kills Eisenhower's Dixon-Yates contract |
August 13, 1956 |
Democratic convention held in Chicago |
August 20, 1956 |
Republican national convention at San Fransisco's Cow Palace |
January 1, 1957 |
passage of civil rights act forwarded by Johnson |
January 1, 1957 |
Kennedy writes Profiles in Courage |
January 1, 1957 |
Eisenhower uses troops to enforce segregation by Governor Faubus |
January 1, 1958 |
Democrats gain majority in House of Representatives |
January 1, 1959 |
Senate rejects Lewis Strauss as Secretary of Commerce |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1960 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJohn F. Kennedy (Democratic) 49.7 303 |
July 25, 1960 |
Democratic national convention held in Chicago |
September 26, 1960 |
first televised debate held |
October 7, 1960 |
further televised debates held |
January 1, 1961 |
Democrats caucus and elect Mike Mansfield as floor leader |
April 1, 1961 |
Kennedy attempts invasion of Cuba,lacks support |
January 1, 1962 |
Military Assistance Command-Vietnam formed |
January 1, 1962 |
Republicans loose four Senate seats |
January 1, 1962 |
segregationist Democrats attempt amendments to limit federal powers |
April 1, 1962 |
business leaders denunciate Kennedy's economic policies,stop proposed increase in steel prices |
January 1, 1963 |
Sen. Jacob Javits declares the need for a binding code of conduct |
January 1, 1963 |
South asked to achieve "first step compliance" in desegregation |
September 25, 1963 |
Kennedy and Mansfield push through Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty |
November 22, 1963 |
John F. Kennedy shot,Mansfield does not deliver speech |
January 1, 1964 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteLyndon B. Johnson (Democratic) 61.1 486 |
January 1, 1964 |
Senate cooperates with Johnson to start "Great Society" |
January 1, 1964 |
National Election Service set up to provide quick election returns |
June 10, 1964 |
Senate invokes cloture for the first time on civil rights |
June 19, 1964 |
Senate passes strong Civil Rights Act and tax deduction measure |
July 1, 1964 |
bipartisan Select Committee on Standards and Conduct formed |
August 7, 1964 |
Senate passes "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" by 88-2 |
August 24, 1964 |
Democratic national convention held in Atlantic City |
January 1, 1965 |
twenty five House liberals plea for hearings on Vietnam policy |
January 1, 1966 |
Democratic majorities reduced in Congress |
January 1, 1967 |
Sen. Thomas Dodd censured for using campaign funds |
October 1, 1967 |
left-wing anti-war groups require military to protect Pentagon |
November 18, 1967 |
Governor Romney announces Republican candidacy for President |
January 1, 1968 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteRichard M. Nixon (Republican) 43.3 301 |
February 1, 1968 |
Nixon declares candidacy |
March 2, 1968 |
Johnson appoints advisory commission on civil disorders |
March 16, 1968 |
Robert Kennedy announces candidacy in Senate Caucus Room |
March 31, 1968 |
Johnson ends bombing raids,silences political opposition |
April 27, 1968 |
Hubert Humphrey declares candidacy |
April 30, 1968 |
Nelson Rockefeller announces Republican liberal candidacy |
August 5, 1968 |
Republican national convention at Miami |
August 26, 1968 |
Democratic National Convention,plagued by demonstrations |
September 30, 1968 |
Humphrey promised to end bombing if demilitarized zone restored |
January 1, 1969 |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1970 |
Cooper and Church reassert prerogatives by restricting ground forces in Cambodia |
December 31, 1970 |
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution repealed |
January 1, 1971 |
Speaker McCormack retires,succeeded by Carl Albert |
January 1, 1971 |
McGovern announces candidacy and outlines twin campaign themes |
January 1, 1971 |
Edward Kennedy quiets scandalmongers and announces he would not run |
January 1, 1972 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteRichard M. Nixon (Republican) 60.7 520 |
May 15, 1972 |
Bremer wounds Governor George Wallace |
June 6, 1972 |
Humphrey attacks McGovern at California primary |
July 10, 1972 |
Democrats hold national convention in Chicago |
July 11, 1972 |
Governor Askew calls for "coalition of protest" |
August 21, 1972 |
Republicans hold national convention |
November 4, 1972 |
Virginian elector votes for Libertarian candidate |
January 1, 1973 |
Senate begins examinations of ethical misconduct in 1972 campaign |
July 23, 1973 |
committee learns of existence of Nixon tape recordings |
October 4, 1973 |
conferees agree on bill setting restrictions on presidential military powers |
October 7, 1973 |
Nixon ordered firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox |
October 24, 1973 |
President vetoes War Powers Act |
November 7, 1973 |
Congress passes War Powers Resolution |
January 1, 1974 |
Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act curtails presidents ability in the matter |
January 1, 1974 |
Federal Elections Act established public financing for campaigns |
February 6, 1974 |
House authorizes Judiciary Committee to begin Nixon investigation |
July 27, 1974 |
bipartisan majority voted in favor of Nixon impeachment |
August 28, 1974 |
President Richard Nixon resigns |
December 1, 1974 |
Carter declares presidential candidacy |
January 1, 1975 |
Senate adopts reform requiring open hearings and business meetings |
January 1, 1975 |
Senate adopts rules change reducing cloture vote |
November 1, 1975 |
Ronald Reagan announces candidacy for presidency |
January 1, 1976 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteJimmy Carter (Democratic) 50.1 297 |
January 1, 1976 |
Legislative Reorganization Act passed |
January 1, 1976 |
Rep. Wayne Hays found to have abused authority on committee |
January 1, 1976 |
Supreme Court strikes down public financing statute |
July 12, 1976 |
Democratic National Convention in Madison Square Garden |
August 16, 1976 |
Republican convention in Kemper Arena |
September 23, 1976 |
presidential debates in Philadelphia |
October 15, 1976 |
vice-presidential and presidential debates |
January 1, 1977 |
Senate acknowledges right of the minority to hire one third of the committee staff |
January 1, 1977 |
Speaker Albert retires,succeeded by Top O'Neill |
January 1, 1977 |
Robert C. Byrd elected as Democrat majority leader |
January 1, 1977 |
Congress toughens codes of conduct |
January 1, 1979 |
Senate "denounces" Sen. Talmadge for financial misconduct |
January 1, 1979 |
Byrd limits "post-cloture" fillibuster |
January 1, 1979 |
House votes to allow television coverage by C-SPAN |
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 1980 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteRonald W. Reagan (Republican) 50.7 489 |
July 5, 1980 |
Republicans hold their convention in Detroit,MI |
August 11, 1980 |
Democrats hold their convention in New York,NY |
January 1, 1981 |
Republicans win control of the Senate |
March 10, 1981 |
assasination attempt of Ronald Reagan |
January 1, 1982 |
Richard Kelley's corruption conviction overturned by court |
January 1, 1982 |
Democrats gain strength in Congressional elections |
January 1, 1982 |
Senate moves to expel Sen. Wiliams for corrupt bargain |
January 1, 1982 |
budget passes that cut $35 billion from social programs and added $18 billion to defense |
January 1, 1983 |
Supreme Court reaffirms Roe vs. Wade abortion decision |
March 1, 1983 |
Reagan announces his Strategic Defense Initiative |
January 1, 1984 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteRonald W. Reagan (Republican) 58.4 525 |
January 1, 1984 |
House insists on $24 million limit on covert war in Nicaragua |
January 1, 1984 |
Sen. Jesse Helms spends record $15 million on reelection campaign |
July 16, 1984 |
Democrats hold their convention in San Francisco,CA |
August 20, 1984 |
Republicans hold their convention in Dallas,TX |
January 1, 1985 |
Howard Baker retires |
March 1, 1985 |
House accepts provision to cut off all aid to contras |
July 13, 1985 |
Reagan undergoes intestinal surgery,hands temporary power to Bush |
January 1, 1986 |
after extended debate,the Senate's proceedings become televised |
January 1, 1986 |
Senate returns to Democratic hands |
October 9, 1986 |
Senate removes Federal District Judge Harry Clairborne from office |
November 1, 1986 |
Middle Eastern newspaper reveals secret armaments shipped to Iran |
November 25, 1986 |
Attorney General Meese announces that NSC had diverted profits to support contras |
January 1, 1987 |
Democrats return to power in Congress,Byrd reassumes role |
January 1, 1987 |
Senate hearings on Iran-contra scandal begin |
January 7, 1987 |
House establishes committee to investigate arms deal and diversion |
January 1, 1988 |
Presedential Elections: Popular Vote Electoral VoteGeorge W. Bush (Republican) 53.4 426 |
July 18, 1988 |
Republicans hold their convention in New Orleans,LA |
August 15, 1988 |
Republicans hold their convention in New Orleans,LA |
January 1, 1989 |
Supreme Court upholds public flag burning as expression of free speech |
January 1, 1989 |
Oliver North indicted on Iran-contra charges |
Throughout the history of the United States, there have been a lot of different political parties that have formed. These political party notes, along with the US History outlines, unit notes, practice quizzes, vocabulary terms, topic outlines, court cases, important documents, political timelines, and case briefs will help you prepare for the AP US History exam.
George Wallace announced on February 8, 1968 that he would run for president as the candidate of the American Independent Party; shortly afterward, he found a running mate, General Curtis E. LeMay, former Air Force chief of staff. His appeal was to racist Democrats in the South where many democratic candidates supported him. Outside the South various rightist groups helps, but it was his appeal to the dissatisfied that threatened to make serious inroads to the old party strength.
He offered an antifederal government, pro-state rights and a law-and-order platform with racism inside the wrapper. He derided intellectuals who he called "pointed heads," beatniks, the Supreme Court, bureaucrats, school busing, "national lbieral parties," pollsters, and the national news media. The party polled 10 million votes, or 13.5% of the total national vote, the highest percentage for a third party since 1924.
In 1972, with Rep. John Schmitz (R-Calif.) heading the ticket, the party received 1,080,670 votes. The remnants of the Wallace movement split in 1976; Lester Maddox (American Independent) and Thomas Anderson (American) polled 170,000 and 160,000 votes. At the present, the American Independent party still exists in some states, as California, where it is under the coalition of the U. S. Taxpayers Party at the present day.
The Free soil party, a political party organized in 1848 on a platform opposing the extension of slavery, was rooted in the growing conflict between proslavery and antislavery forces in the United States. The conflict was intensified by the acquisition of new territories from Mexico and the ensuing argument whether or not slavery would be permitted into those territories. The party evolved from antislavery and otherwise discontented elements in the Democratic and Whig parties. It was eclipsed in the early 1850's by the new Republican Party, which incorporated free soil goals.
American Party is the name of several political in United States history. The first established American party—also called the Know-Nothing party was founded in New York City in 1849 as a secret patriotic organization under the name of the Order of the Star Spangled Banner.
Know-Nothing Movement, a nativist political movement in the United States in the 1850's. It was organized to oppose the great wave of immigrants who entered the United States after 1846. Know-Nothings claimed that the immigrants—who were principally Irish and Roman Catholic threatened to destroy the American experiment. The Roman Catholic church, they charged, was subservient to a foreign prince (the pope), it was growing in power, and it potentially could exert political control over a large group of people. Such nativist sentiments had long existed among many Americans, but they had never before been expressed in such powerful form.
In several Northern states as early as the 1840's there were local nativist parties that drew support from the Democratic and Whig parties. By the early 1850's there was a trend to organize nationally against the presumed immigrant threat. The old parties, the nativists said, had not confronted the danger. The Democrats, it was charged, were supported by the aliens; the party needed their votes and catered to their whims. The Whigs appeared helpless before them.
Originally, nativist party members had worked through a number of secret societies, clandestinely throwing their support on election day with powerful effect to sympathetic candidates. Saying that they knew nothing about such activities, the nativists wreaked havoc with their votes in 1854 in the existing party system. They won sweeping victories at the state and congressional levels. They attracted many Northern Whigs to their point of view along with an important number of Democrats. Southern Whigs also joined because of growing sectional tensions caused by the reintroduction of the slavery issue into national politics in 1854. For a time it seemed as if the Know-Nothings would be the main opposition party in the United States. Publicly backing Millard Fillmore as a presidential candidate in 1856, they won more than 21% of the popular vote and eight electoral votes.
Their platform was inspired by the fear and resentment of native Protestants at the flood of the Roman Catholic immigrants from Europe, and chiefly Ireland, who, on obtaining naturalization, voted themselves into political office in large cities. Their state and national platforms demanded that immigration be limited, that politics be "purified" by limiting officeholding to native-born Americans, and that a 21-year wait be imposed before an immigrant could become a citizen and vote. They also sought to limit the sale of liquor, to restrict public-school teaching to Protestants, and to have the Protestant version of the Bible read daily in classrooms.
Despite their strength and appeal, the Know-Nothings were already in decline as a national party by 1856. Beset by differences over the slavery issue, many members joined the Republican Party, which seemed sympathetic to much of their nativism and offered additional appeals on other important issues. Know-Nothing parties remained strong in a number of Northern states in the late 1850's, but the party was spent as a national force before the election of 1860.
Essentially, the party’s tenets were those of the American Republican Party founded a few years earlier which had subsequently changed its name to the Native American Party. Among other parties so named was one organized in Philadelphia in 1887. At the convention held in Washington, D.C., on August 14, 1888 it nominated presidential candidates. The party platform advocated 14-year residence for naturalization, exclusion of socialists, anarchists and other supposedly dangerous persons, free schools, a strong navy and coastal defense, continued separation of church and state, and enforcement of the Monroe doctrine. Its candidate, James L. Curtis of New York, recieved only 1,591 votes at the November election. In the 1924 elections a similarly named party sought Ku Klux Klan support for its candidates, Gilbert O. Nations for president and C.H. Randall for vice president, nominated at Columbus, Ohio on June 3. This party also gained a negligible fraction of the vote.
The Anti-Masonic party was founded in 1827-28, chiefly as a result of the mysterious disappearance of Willam Morgan of Batavia, New York, a Freemason, who was planning to publish a book which revealed the secrets of the order. Morgan, an iternant worker, was arrested in 1826 and charged with stealing and indebtedness, apparently as pretext for seizing him. He was convicted and jailed, reportedly kidnapped shortly afterward. This incident touched off an Anti-masonic movement.
Although secret societies in general were frowned upon by early 19th century Americans, the Freemasons long continued exempt from criticism, perhaps because George Washington and other statesmen and soldiers of the Revolutionary period had been Masons. Indeed, in the first quarter of the 19th century membership is a Masonic lodge was almost a necessity for political preferment. In 1826, general approval of Masonry suffered a sudden, dramatic reversal as the Morgan incidend came to an end.
It was popularly believed, although never proved, that fellow Masons had murdered Morgan. Masonry in New York received a nearly mortal blow, membership dwindling in the decade 1826-1836 from 20,000 to 3,000.
Opponents of Freemasonry, including sections of the press, churches, and antislavery elements, joined together in the condemnation of the order. Thurlow Weed, publisher of the Rochester Telegraph and the Anti-Masonic Inquirer, led the press attack on Free-masonry and endorsed anti-Masonic candidates for New York State offices in the election of 1827. When fifteen of these candidates were elected to the state Assembly, an anti-Masonic party formed in 1828 and held its first convention.
The Anti-Masonic Party, formed in New York in 1828, reflected the widespread hostility toward Masons holding public office. Thurlow Weed in 1828 established in Rochester, N.Y., his Anti-Masonic Enquirer and two years later obtained financial backing for his Albany Evening Journal, which became the chief party organ. There was a rapid proliferation of anti-Masonic papers, especially in the Eastern states. By 1832 there were 46 in New York and 55 in Pennsylvania.
The Anti-Masonic Party was the first party to hold a nominating convention and the first to announce a platform. On Sept. 26, 1831, convening in Baltimore, it nominated William Wirt of Maryland for the presidency and Amos Ellmaker of Pennsylvania for the vice presidency. The political effect of the entrance, for the first time, of a third party into a United States presidential election was to draw support from Henry Clay and to help President Andrew Jackson (who was a Mason) win reelection by a wide margin. Vermont gave the party seven electoral votes and elected an Anti-Masonic governor, William A. Palmer. The party also gained members in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Ohio.
After the elections of 1836, however, the Anti-Masonic party declined. Together with the National Republican Party, it eventually was absorbed into the new Whig Party. It did win a considerable amount of seats in the 23rd congress and survived until 1834 when several prominent leaders founded the Whig Party or switched to the Democratic Party.
The Free soil party, a political party organized in 1848 on a platform opposing the extension of slavery, was rooted in the growing conflict between proslavery and antislavery forces in the United States. The conflict was intensified by the acquisition of new territories from Mexico and the ensuing argument whether or not slavery would be permitted into those territories. The party evolved from antislavery and otherwise discontented elements in the Democratic and Whig parties. It was eclipsed in the early 1850's by the new Republican Party, which incorporated free soil goals.
The Constitutional Union Party was a short lived political party formed chiefly of the remnants of the American Party and the old-line southern wing of the Whig Party, organized for the election of 1860. Persuaded that the agitation over the slavery question could lead only to the disruption of the Union, its founders presented no platform other than a vague appeal for adherence to the Constitution, the Union, and the laws of the United States.
Meeting in Baltimore in May 1860, the party had its founding convention, and nominated John Bell of Tennessee for president and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for vice president. The formation of the party was prompted by the desire to muster popular sentiment in favor of the Union and against southern secession. The platform adopted by the party advocated support for "the Constitution of the country, the union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws," but took no stand on the slavery issue.
At the convention, where it was called "National Union" in the invitations, John Bell was selected over Sam Houston of Texas, who was the favorite of the American contingent, and Edward Everett was selected for the vice presidential nomination, which he did not want
In the North the Bell movement attracted remnants of the "Americans" and old Whigs. The failure of Fillmore in 1856 and the new-found conservatism of the Republicans caused many former Whigs such as Thomas Ewing of Ohio to support "Lincoln, the Whig" and the Whig policies in the Republican platform.
In the November election the Constitutional Union party found its greatest strength among conservatives in the border states, where the effects of civil conflict were especially feared, although the ticket was supported throughout the nation. The party carried Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Bell trailed the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, and the two Democratic nominees, Stephen A. Douglas and John C. Breckinridge, receiving 591,658 popular votes (only 12.6% of the total). He carried the states of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee with 39 electoral votes. Leaders of the party, in the ensuing months, called for reconciliation of the sections through a compromise of the slavery issue, but without success.
With the coming of the Civil War the Constitutional Union Party disappeared from the political scene, as the party was dissolved.
In the 1830s, under the starkly new leadership of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, the Democratic party developed the characteristics it retained until the end of the century. It was willing to use national power in foreign affairs when American interests were threatened, but in economic and social policy it stressed the responsibility to act cautiously. Democrats argued that the federal government should do nothing the states could do for themselves, leaving everything in control to the smallest denominator. Jackson, when president, acted to reinforce a coalition, and built the foundations of the party.
In the presidential elections of 1824, the former war hero Andrew Jackson, despite receiving the largest number of popular votes, had lost the election to the House of Representatives. Rejecting "King Caucus" the Jacksonians were soon joined by Senator Martin Van Buren leader of New York’s political machine. Thus the Jacksonians built an alliance between those on the West and Eastern city organizations.
Thus the major source of the party’s cohesion was its strong organization, which enabled it to fight in elections effectively and shape government decisions. The Democratic organization, with its local, district, and statewide committees, conventions, and rallies, spread everywhere to promote the party and principles, drawing up lists of voters. Jackson had to stradle Western demands for internal improvements and Northeastern objections to large federal expenditures, Northeastern demands for the protective tariff and Southern demands for tariff reduction, and Calhoun’s view that any state could nullify a national law.
Calhouns followers, not intent to drop the issue, called a special state nullification convention to proclaim the federal tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void within the jurisdiction of South Carolina. However, Jackson responded with a proclamation declaring the federal government sovereign and indivisible, thus denying that a state could refuse to obey the law. He received from Congress a force bill that empowered him to use armed forces. Southern Democrats began to split between pro-Calhoun nullifiers and pro-Jackson unionists. Problems erupted with the slavery issue when it came to the annexation of Texas.
Van Buren’s administration hedged on Jackson’s unionist view by agreeing in part to a Calhoun sponsored resolution which said that a state had jurisdiction over slavery within its borders. However, slavery still remained an issue. Democrats spillet into two camps, the "barnburners" and the "hunkers." The issue divided local as well as national Democrats; party leaders as Lewis Cass and Stephen A. Douglas supported "squatter sovereignty". However, this did not please Southern Democrats. The result was electoral disaster, as many northern Democrats, seeking to punish their leaders, joined the emerging Republicans. These defections cost the party northern support.
After the Southern Democrats seceded from the party and the nation, new factional groupings emerged along East-West, war-peace, and mercantile-agrarian lines. National chairman August Belmont of New York led the "War Democrats" in support of Lincoln’s conduct of the war and "sound money programs." Representative Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio became the spokesman for the "Peace Democrats" who criticized Lincoln’s conduct of the war. The Democrats, in 1864 succeeded to nominating George B. McClellan, a Civil War general, for president and giving him a peace platform to run on. President Lincoln in the mean time recruited Governor Andrew Johnson of Tenesee, a war Democrat, for his vice-presidential nominee.
The Republicans charged the Democrats for disloyalty, as they opposed the draft, social changes and government encroachment, and made it an effective campaign slogan for the rest of the century. The tactic, known as "waving the bloody shirt" always hurt the Democrats in close elections until powerful emotional memories faded. They did not regain control of either house of Congress until 1874, and the Presidency until 1884. As the minority party, Democrats became absorbed in the problems of postwar inflation and agricultural depression. Factional interests debated "hard" versus "soft" currency and credit policies. After a stalemate, Horatio Symour agreed to a "soft money" platform while he was a "hard money" leader. From this election emerged Samuel J. Tilden.
Without a leader, the Democrats turned to endorse the 1872 Liberal Republican nominee, who had defected from Grant’s administration. The nominee turned out to be Horace Greeley. Within two years, Tilden became the governor, and in the next election ran as the Democratic nominee. Though he lost, Tilden was an instrumental factor in the winning candidacy of Grover Cleveland.
Cleveland returned the Democrats to control of the White House after twenty-four years of Republican rules. He oversized federal patronage to distribute. Around this time, party fationalism got out of hand, as three groups fought for control in an increasingly harsh atmosphere. One bloc comprised the traditional Democrats behind New York’s Grover Cleveland; they still espoused the conventional policies of limited government activities. A second group consisted of the urban political machines, which won the support of immigrants by helping them adjust to conditions in the country. The third faction was made up of the groups in the South and the West reacting against the industrial economy. Currency and tariff policies became the major issues of the Cleveland era, complicated by a rising output of silver mines, and the need to establish a balance between silver and gold currencies.
Cleveland struck hard for tariff reduction, but was opposed by Democratic protectionists. Angry farmers wanted a shift of government intervention towards there behalf, but were strongly resisted by traditionalists. They provoked a revolt and found William Jennings Bryan a presidential candidate who overthrew Cleveland. William Jennings Bryan led the free silver cause and was supported as well by the Peoples’ Party. The silverites dominated the national convention, and the gold delegates refrained from voting. Bryan endeavored to forge an alliance out of agrarian discontent in the South and Midwest.
At the beginning of the 20th century the Democrats’ minority among voters remained central to their interest. However, a Progressive split in the Republican party helped elect Woodrow Wilson twice. Wilson conceived his party leadership as a parliamentary role, shaping his approach to his legislative program, which he promoted vigorously and successfully, and his patronage and other organizational needs of his party. The Great War, popular at first, backfired against the Wilson administration when large numbers of German-Americans and Irish-Americans protested with their votes against involvement on the English side. The national convention in 1924 was stalemated between the urban-ethnic wing and the older Bryanite-southern groups.
Problems generated in the 18th Amendment set the "wets" against "drys." The South closed ranks to deatlock the national convention of 1920. By 1924, "dry" Wilson, and "wet" Al Smith were the leaders of two factions in the party. In 1928, the nomination of Irish Catholic Al Smith broke the solid South, part of which went Republican for the first time ever in reaction to the social and cultural values represented by Smith. Nevertheless, the first Catholic to be nominated, he raised the Democratic turnout by a substantial percentage, particularly in large cities.
In the mid-20th century, the basic character of the Democratic appeal began to change in a gradual and then rapid manner. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Democrats became a party of vigorous government intervention in the economy and on social issues, willing to regulate and redistribute wealth to protect those least able to help themselves. Urban political machines brought to the party a commitment to social welfare legislation to help immigrant constituents.
The election came at a time of a grave national economic crisis; a disenfranchised public looked to the Republicans as abandoning their interests while the Hoover presidency spent money on private interests. Franklin D. Roosevelt brought the Democratic message to the White House and solidified and expanded the new Democratic commitment to the poor ethnic constituencies in city districts. Increasingly, under Democratic leadership, the government expanded its role in social welfare and economic regulation. Traditional Democrats surged at the polls and the party won over new groups, such as the blacks who had previously gone Republican. The Result was a New Deal coalition which lasted in a dominant role for more than 30 years.
World War II witnessed a new factionalism, as the South prepared to reassert itself. Labor unions now had potent vote getting capacity and urban Democratic machines were attempting to modernize themselves. Roosevelt acquiesced to Southern pressures by withholding support for Vice President Wallace, and instead giving the nomination to Harry S. Truman, who had gained credibility and prominence through investigations of defense spending.
Truman had become president within a year, upon Roosevelt’s death. The reawakening of memories of the New Deal and the depression President Truman’s campaign helped bring him back for a second term. The Republican Congress, seeking to limit union activity, passed the Taft-Hartley Act over Truman’s veto, gaining Truman support of union members. Truman also appointed the Committee on Civil Rights to develop race-relations, but it so inflamed the South that Democratic regulars in Southern states supported a Dixiecrat ticked led by Wallace.
At the next national convention, ideological New Dealers fought to establish a loyalty pledge that would bind delegates to the convention’s choices. Despite efforts to avoid a candidacy, Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois was the compromise choice over the sectional candidacy of Richard B. Russel of Georgia and Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. The Republicans were victorious with their election of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Stevenson however made efforts to improve party organization and serve as an active spokesman. At the grassroots level, urban machines were working to incorporate new constituents into the party.
The Democrats regained power with the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and were able to pass much vigorous legislation. Kennedy’s victory demonstrated that Catholicism need not be the handicap that it was for Al Smith. The Kennedy-Johnson campaign conducted a thoroughly united campaign that brought a narrow victory.
The 1960 election also brought a further breakup of the one-party solid South, as Kennedy’s New Frontier program included new protections for civil rights in the South and for bringing blacks into the ranks of the Democratic party. Robert F. Kennedy had a major responsibility for the implementation of civil rights legislation and registration. Overseas, the Castro regime of Cuba defeated an American-sponsored invasion by anti-Castro exiles at the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy also increased Communist pressure on South Vietnam by sending military aid.
The Vietnam War provoked many to challenge it on its anti-Communist foreign policy. At the same time, the revolt of the youth against the draft and on matters of personal behavior and discipline contributed a strong challenge; at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, the police culminated in street battles with groups of protesters.
Many anti-war Democrats turned to the candidacy of Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy, as Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek renomination. New nominating rules, inspired by the restlessness in the party, led to the nomination of George McGovern. His campaign ended in overwhelming defeat, but the party bounced back after the excesses of Watergate and the tapering off of the war induced fervor.
Former governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia swept the primaries and succeeded in unseating President Gerald Ford in a close contest in which labor, blacks, and the South joined to bring a Southerner to the presidency. The clash of social values, and changing economic issues shifted the center of gravity within the party and continued to drive many away. Issues such as inflation gravely hurt the party. Political parties at this time were in general decline, as fewer voters remained loyal to them.
The Democrats, with a ticket of the former vice president Walter Mondale were defeated in the 1984 elections by a greater margin than in 1980, where Carter ran for reelection. The Democrats lost more than a dozen seats in the House, and the Republicans maintained control of the Senate. In the midterm elections of 1986, the Democrats won control of the Senate and gained modestly in the House.
Although in 1988, the Democratic nominee for president, Governor Dukakis of Massachusetts had chosen Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as his running mate, the South and West carried the Republicans to victory. However, the Democrats strengthened their hold in the House and Senate.
In 1992, after twelve years of Presidential rule by the Republican parties, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas was able to regain the Presidency for the party after winning over President George Bush, blamed for an economic downturn, and Ross Perot. With the country in a recession, the Democrats succeeded in rallying the public around a call for change and a commitment to domestic jobs programs. Bill Clinton was able to pull off a reelection in 1996, though his presidency was plagued with scandals and campaign finance problems. Apathetic voters failed to pay attention to campaign, and missing the major issues, they handed the President reelection. However, the 1994 midterm elections brought a stunning defeat to the Democrats as the Republicans gained control over both hoses of Congress. Democratic support in the South had eroded, but it showed dissatisfaction with Democratic rule nationwide.
During the 1780s, sharp conflicts marked American politics. Since the establishment of the Constitution in 1789, the unanimous election of George Washington, and recommendation for a Bill of Rights, there was a shaper national consensus and conflicts soon developed over the new policies to be developed in the government. In 1790 through 1791, Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury proposed a sweeping fiscal program which included funding and "assumption" by the Federal government of the Revolutionary War debts of the old Confederation and of the states, incorporation of a central national bank, tariffs to promote manufactures, and internal excise taxes. The purpose was to establish the new government, allying itself with powerful mercantile and financial interests.
Adherents to these policies became known as federalists. An opposition to Federalist policies began to emerge by 1791 and became the Republican Party. It found a power base among small farmers, producers, and traders, many Southern plantation owners and some urban artisans. Weak in New England, the party showed some strength in the Middle Atlantic States and in the South. The chief leaders, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, were supported by the poet-journalist Philip Freneau in his National Gazette. It was a propaganda instrument which served as an important organizing agency. Other leaders included Albert Gallatin and James Monroe. Though the Jeffersonian party sought mass support it developed as a "cadre" party.
Initial policy orientations reflected the perspectives of the party’s followers, including opposition to Hamilton’s economic proposals, demands for the government responsible to popular majorities, demands for the federal government to operate with a narrow construction of the Constitution, and the denial of the national bank, emphasis on states rights as opposed to centralized government, and emphasis on personal and political liberties, shown in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions which condemned the Alien and Sedition Acts.
The party held the support of the agrarian freeholding rural America with industry and merchandising as partners. However, there was no consensus on republican constitutional government and property rights. In foreign policy, they favored France over Britain and sharply criticized Jay’s Treaty.
When Aaron Burr and Jefferson led in electoral votes, the Democratic-Republicans came into power, leading what is called the Revolution of 1800. The electoral system made no provision for separate votes for president and vice president and a contest in the House resulted in Jefferson’s eventual succession to presidency. The Democratic-Republicans won a clear Senate majority and a two-to-one majority in the House.
The increasing acceptance of the principles of the party over Federalist principles brought into tradition the notion of a democratic republic where the elimination of property and taxpaying limits of voting led to universal suffrage. The Jefferson coalition was soon enlarged leading to easy victories for the Virginian presidents Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. The party always had a congressional majority, sometimes overwhelming, and there were more Democratic-republican judges. In 1820, Monroe came within one vote of unanimous election in the electoral college, and thus the nation entered into what was called "The Era of Good Feelings."
Important leaders during this period were Albert Gallatin, John Quincy Adams, and John Taylor, who distributed treatises for the party. The party was also growing with prominent figures like Henry Clay. The policies of the party began in a Jeffersonian direction, but in the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson was forced to diverge from strict constitutional construction, and was faced by John Marshall in the Supreme Court.
The Democratic-Republican party, during the Era of Good Feelings, became a mere label, as partisanship died down. When it reemerged, Andrew Jackson led the Democratic party which split off, leaving the rest in the National Republican Party.
The Federalist Party was born out of the controversy over adoption of the proposed Federal Constitution in 1787-1788, before the American party system itself had been conceived. A well-defined Federalist party did not exist before 1794. After Washington's inauguration in 1789, debate arose in Congress and the cabinet over the proposals of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, subsequently enacted into law, that the national government assume state debts, fund the national debt at par value, and charter a national bank. The opposition to Hamilton rallied around Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Congressman James Madison.
Hamilton pushed through schemes for paying the foreign debt, restoring national credit, and assuming state debts. A United States bank and postal system soon followed, as well as a protective tariff and bounty system to develop manufactures and agriculture. The effortless crushing of the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 gave ample evidence of the new national strength.
In the meantime, the refusal of the Federalists to form an alliance with France had fused the Democrats and the Republicans, the two opposition groups to which most of the Anti-federalists belonged. Thomas Jefferson organized and James Madison joined the new Democratic-Republican Party. Not until these congressional debates over Jay's Treaty of 1794 did two parties emerge clearly: the Federalist party led by Hamilton and the Democratic-Republican party of Madison and Jefferson From then on, the Federalists championed commercial and diplomatic harmony with Britain, domestic stability and order, and strong national government under powerful executive and judicial branches.
The most influential of the Federalists besides Hamilton were John Adams and John Jay, and Fisher Ames, Roger Sherman, Jonathan Trumbull, Rufus King, John Marshall, and the members of the "Essex Junto".
By the end of his second term Washington had become closely identified with the Federalists. Washington's Farewell Address of 1796, prepared in association with Hamilton, may be read as a basic text of Federalism. Washington's vice president, John Adams, was elected president as a Federalist in 1796. Adams retained Washington's cabinet officers and sought to continue his predecessor's policies. He prosecuted an undeclared naval war with France, and after the Federalists had gained control of Congress, he supported the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. But Adams met increasing opposition within his own party from the Hamilton faction, especially over his military priorities.
When, as much to undercut mounting Democratic-Republican opposition as to end the war, Adams opened negotiations with France in 1799 and reorganized the cabinet under his own control, the Hamiltonians broke with him. His actions probably enhanced the Federalist party's position in the presidential election of 1800 but not enough to defeat Jefferson.
The party was irreparably split. In the waning days of his presidency Adams was able to conclude a peace with France and to appoint moderate Federalist John Marshall as chief justice. Long after the party was dead, Marshall preserved its principles from the bench.
Finding themselves in the opposition, the Federalists at last created a well-disciplined system of state party organizations and adopted the trappings of democracy in order to lure the voters. Concentrated primarily in the Northeast, they also assumed more of the aspect of a sectional minority. Neglecting ideological consistency and turning against their previous commitment to strong national power, they opposed Jefferson's popular Louisiana Purchase of 1803 as too costly and destructive of Northern influence. As a result, they continued to lose power at the national level, carrying only Connecticut, Delaware, and part of Maryland against Jefferson in 1804.
Strong opposition of Jefferson’s Embargo Act, however, reinforced the Federalists. In 1808 they carried every New England state except Vermont, and also won in Delaware, in parts of Maryland, and in North Carolina. Moreover, the War of 1812 proved so unpopular in the North that in the elections that year, New York and New Jersey also voted Federalist, along with the remainder of Maryland. This resurgence was only temporary, however, for when the war ended, the northern commercial sections withdrew their support.
Meanwhile, many of the party’s old leaders were gone, leaving Rufus King and Charles C. Pinckney leading the party. Other Federalist leaders, as a result of the Hartford Convention of 1814 had been driven from public life.
In 1816, the Federalists carried only Massachusetts, Connecticut and Delaware, and by 1820 when they failed to have a national candidate, they ceased as a national party. Locally, Federalists managed to retain control in Connecticut and Delaware until after 1820 and in Massachusetts until 1823. The party also lingered for some time in Maryland and North Carolina.
The Free soil party, a political party organized in 1848 on a platform opposing the extension of slavery, was rooted in the growing conflict between proslavery and antislavery forces in the United States. The conflict was intensified by the acquisition of new territories from Mexico and the ensuing argument whether or not slavery would be permitted into those territories. The party evolved from antislavery and otherwise discontented elements in the Democratic and Whig parties. It was eclipsed in the early 1850's by the new Republican Party, which incorporated free soil goals.
Free soil became a political movement and slogan in the 1840's. Abolitionists in the North had already stirred antislavery sentiment, and government plans for annexing Texas created fears that this territory might enter the Union cut up into as many as six slave states. These fears were reflected in the Wilmot Proviso of 1846. The achievement of the small abolitionist Liberty party in defeating Henry Clay's presidential aspirations in 1844 demonstrated that political abolitionism could be effective.
The refusal of the two parties, Whig and Democrat, to endorse principles of the provio convinced the opposition groups of the need for a new party. The major groups involved in the organization of the Free Soil party at a convention in Buffalo, New York, were the abolitionist Liberty Party, the antislavery Whigs, and a radical faction of the New York Democrats, the Barnburners, who had broken with the state party when it came under control of the conservative Hunkers.
Led by Salmon P. Chase and John P. Hale, free-soilers, abolitionists, and others convened in Buffalo, N.Y., in August 1848 to set up a broadly based party. Among those present were discontented New York Democrats known as Barnburners," headed by former President Martin van Buren, who became the convention's presidential nominee.
The Free soil convention nominated Martin van Buren and Charles Francis Adams as candidates for president and vice-president, respectively, adopting a platform opposed to the extension of slavery and calling for a homestead law and a tariff for revenue only. The slogan of the party ws "free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men." Van Buren polled 291,616 votes in November; more important, the Free Soil party elected fourteen congressmen and two senators. The Compromise of 1850 created more ardent free-soilers, who were outraged by its fugitive slave provision and were generally fearful of the expansion of slavery westward. Such increasing partisanship, however, did not help the Free Soil party itself. Hale, its presidential candidate in 1852, polled only 156,297 votes.
By 1854 the crisis over slavery in the territories had reached proportions beyond the resources of the party, and free-soilers flocked to the Republican party. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the duel over whether Kansas was to be a free or a slave state turned the North irrevocably toward free soil. Finally, the Dred Scott Case of 1857, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in effect, that slavery could not be constitutionally restricted to the Southern states, made abolitionists out of most free-soilers and laid the ground for a final confrontation with the slaveholders. Louis Filler Antioch College
The greenback idea came up again in March, 1875, when a national convention met at Cleveland to organize a new party. This was soon followed by a nominating convention at Indianapolis in May, 1876, which named Peter Cooper President. Its platform included the repeal of the Resumption Act of 1875 and issuance of legal tender notes convertible into government bonds with an interest rate not to exceed one cent a day per hundred dollars. Peter Cooper was a well known philanthropist and did not lead much of a campaign.
In the next two years, the party grew rapidly and Labor Reformers had greatly aided the cause and a conference at Toledo in February, 1878, arranged a farmer-labor partnership under the name "National" party, but it became better known as the Greenback Labor Party. In fall elections the third party won a million votes and fifteen members of Congress. The Greenbacks sought labor support which called for an issuance of the greenback and a bimetallistic money policy. The labor groups desired Greenback support for a reduction of working hours, establishment of a labor bureau and a curtailment of Chinese immigration.
In the following year, economic conditions in the nation improved and interest in politics among farmers and workers decreased. At the national convention in Chicago on June 9, 1889 agrarian and labor delegates, including members of a Socialist Labor party composed their differences and adopted a platform.
The convention named for President General James B. Weaver of Iowa, who was a Civil War veteran and a former Republican, elected to Congress in the Greenback wave of 1878. B.J. Chambers of Texas was named for Vice President. Weaver made an active campaign, speaking in all parts of the country and giving a leadership that it needed to dispel the impression it was a refuge for radicals. The return of prosperity and the success of the Resumption Act however removed agrarian and labor discontent. In the election they received only 308,578 votes, but eight Greenback Labor candidates were elected to Congress. In the ensuing years the party continued to decline. Its last national campaign was for the 1884 elections where it ran Civil War general Benjamin Butler, winning 175,370 votes.
The Libertarian Party was founded in 1971, on December 11th, in the home of David Nolan. Dissillusioned Republicans, Democrats, and political newcomers hoped to create an alternative to the old parties, standing on firm principles of individual freedoms and a commitment to government non-intervention. The first national convention was later held in Denver, Colorado. John Hospers, a philosophy professor at the University of Southern California, was nominated as the presidential candidate, and the vice presidential candidate was Tonie Nathan. She became the first woman in United States history to recieve an electoral vote.
The next national convention, in New York city, nominated Roger MacBride and David Bergland on the presidential ticket; they were able to recieve ballot status in 32 states but still only recieved a little amount of popular vote--common for third parties facing the system set up in laws by the two established political parties. Two years later, Ed Clark, a Libertarian candidate for Governor of California, recieved 5% of the vote, and Randolph of Alaska became the first Libertarian legislator.
By 1980, the Libertarian party had recieved ballot status in all 50 states, and the party made their most impressive showing, and were at this time first considered as a political force, albeit one through ideology rather than political presence. The campaign by Ed Clark ran extensive television advertisements, offering the public a look at what the libertarian party had to offer. The next election, the Libertarian party made significant headway; the Louisiana congressional candidate James Agnew recieved 23% of the vote, and the Alaskan gubernatorial candidate Randolph recieved 13% of the vote. The Libertarian party continued to grow in a slow, painful process. Former Congressman Ron Paul of the Republican Party left to join the Libertarian party.
A decade later, in 1990, Libertarian congressional candidates were able to recieve up to about twenty percent of the vote, but would still not be able to win. Yet, the Libertarian party was proud that the Libertarian candidates for Senate recieved over one million votes, the highest total for a nationally organized party since 1914. However, this was greatly dwarfed in 1996, when in every race, candidates of the newly formed Reform Party came in third place, ahead of every Libertarian candidate in the race.
In 1996, the Libertarian party ran Harry Browne as their presidential candidate, with running mate Jo Jorgeson. This year, the Libertarian party recieved the most press coverage, as did all third political parties, who gained significantly higher visibility since the founding of the Reform Party by Ross Perot. The Libertarian candidate, along with other third party candidates were allowed to speak on Larry King Live and in third party debates, being shut out from the televised presidential debates. Yet, this increased visibility was not enough, and the Libertarians still recieved less than one percent of the presidential vote nationwide. Libertarians at this time were dissilusioned by the fact that they were overshadowed by the new Reform Party, and many people with Libertarianistic positions joined the Reform Party instead of them, who were increasingly called by the media, a "fringe group."
The Liberty Party was the first antislavery party, grown out of a split in the ranks of the American Anti-Slavery Society between followers of William Lloyd Garrison’s radical program and a conservative group which held that abolitionist aims could be best obtained by orthodox political means.
The leading initiators of the anti-Garrison movement and the new party were the New York philanthropists Gerrit Smith, Arthur Tappan, and Judge William Jay, and the Ohio antislavery stalwart, Salmon P. Chase. At a state convention in Warsaw, New York on November 13, 1839, James G. Birney, an abolitionist crusader and one-time Alabama slave-holder, was tentatively nominated the Liberty Party’s candidacy for president, with Francis J. Lemoyne for vice president.
At a national convention in Albany, New York, on April 1, 1840, delegates from six states confirmed the nominations, officially adopted the party name, and declared abolition of slavery to be the single plank in its platform.
In the ensuing 1840 national elections, the Liberty party candidates polled only around seven thousand votes, but thereafter the party nominated candidates for local elections and gained strength. Since 1840 the Liberty party had gained recruits and newspaper support and was becoming a threat to the two major parties in close northern states, where it aimed to swing the balance of power. Birney was nominated again in November 1844 and ran with Thomas Morris, this time polling 62,300 votes, which could have secured the election of Henry Clay, but tipped it in favor of James K. Polk. When Texas became a major issue, the Liberty party was in a difficult position; a heavy third party vote might reduce the Whig vote and elect Polk over Clay, committed against Texas. Birney had accepted a Democratic nomination for the Michigan legislature, making it seem as if there was a Liberty-Democratic bargain to defeat Clay. Birney attempted to explain it in terms of local issues, but that hurt his candidacy. The party was also hurt by a forged letter, appearing in Whig newspapers, where Birney promised not to agitate the slavery issue.
In 1848, although the Liberty party had nominated John P. Hale and Leicester King, the party leaders urged the members to vote for candidates of the newly organized Free Soil party instead. Chase presided over Buffalo, New York for the convention of the Free Soil Party on August 9, 1848, which led to the demise of the short lived Liberty party. As such, Hale withdrew his candidacy.
While Jackson was establishing control over the Democratic Party, the opposition, assuming the name National Republican began to form. In the campaign of 1828, these opposing groups had no official names. Both were Democratic-Republicans and were distinguished by such designations as "administration" and "opposition" or Adams men and Jackson men. About 1830 the term "National Republican" began to be used by the Clay following thus combining the old party name with the adjective which suggested its policies.
The new National Republican group was having its troubles; the Adams-Clay group had never been effectively organized into a party, and after the defeat in 1828 it lapsed into the status of a discredited minority with little strength outside of New England, and only portions of the mid Atlantic states and the Ohio valley could be regarded as fighting ground. National leadership was supplied by the Senate, where Clay joined Webster in 1831. The National Intelligencer was at the center of the opposition, edited by Joseph Gales and William W. Seaton. Soon after Henry Clay had seized upon the Maysville veto, his presidential campaign was underway.
Public meeting halls were filled with his speeches where he reiterated his devotion to the "American System" and criticized the administration and was ready to go before the country with the same policies Adams had favored and the same economic appeal.
The National Republicans took issue with the leading policies and acts of Jackson, as they remained committed to the protective tariff, federal support for internal improvements, the recognition of the Supreme Court on Constitutional questions and the importance of the balance of power given by the Senate. They vigorously attacked Jackson for his spoils system and for his handling of relations with Great Britain with regard to the Maine boundary and West India trade. But the campaign did not turn on these points as other movements such as the Antimasons sprung up. Wirt, the Antimason nominee, probably would have withdrawn had the National Republicans and Antimasons been able to unite later on one man.
The leaders of the National Republican party, such as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, would later united in the next elections of 1836 to form an opposition Whig party to attack Jackson’s presidency.
A product of the Populist movement, which had ignited the Agrarian west for decades previously, the People’s Party was the successor of the Greenback-Labor party which was formed in the 1880s. One of its chief organizers was the journalist Ignatius Donnelly who was the leader of the Farmer’s Alliance. Aggrieved farmers furnished the driving force and most of the votes; labor’s role was significant but only secondary.
A small group in the Southern Alliance called a convention, which met at Cincinnati on May 19, 1891, with fourteen hundred delegates present including labor representatives. Few Southerners came, for sentiment that the South was against a third party because of successes with the Democratic party. The convention formed the People’s party, but called a conference at St. Louis to secure the cooperation of farmer, labor, and other liberal groups. The conference in St. Louis adopted a platform, the nominating convention set for Omaha in July.
The platform that was adopted called for the free coinage of silver and the issuance of large amounts of paper currency as inflationary measures that it hoped would ease the financial burdens of the nation’s debt-ridden farmers. Its other demands included abolishing the national banking system, nationalizing the railroads, instituting a graduated income tax, electing senators by popular vote, and people participating in the government by means of a referendum. Two thirds of the platform was a bitter indictment of the American economic system and a condemnation of the two parties. Supplementary resolutions, not regarded as part of the platform, declared for the Australian ballot, further restriction of undesirable immigration and contract labor, rigid enforcement of the eight-hour law, abolition of the Pinkerton detective system, adoption of initiative, referendum, and recall, limitation of the Presidency to one term, and an end to subsidies.
In 1892, the party nominated James Baird Weaver for the presidency, over a choice of Colonel Polk, Walter Gresham, and Senator James Kyle. The spirit of the convention carried into the West, but not so much in the South, as Southern Alliance men refused to leave the Democratic party. With the Democrats taking a lot of their issues, Weaver lost but received more than a million votes and 22 electoral ones, and several Populist candidates made it to Congress. In the West, a coalition with the Democrats on electoral tickets resulted in a victory of five and a number of state and Congressional successes.
However, the next election gave the Populists a hard choice, as the Democrats under William Jennings Bryan stole much of their thunder. They managed to win control of the Democratic convention in St. Louis and secured Bryan’s nomination, who they supported and endorsed for the presidency, becoming "Popocrats." After Bryan was defeated, the People’s party split over the issue of continued alliance with the Democrats. In 1900 the Democrats renominated Bryan and the anti-Democrats nominated Wharton Barker. They reunited in 1904, but then its influence was declining and ceased to exist by 1908.
The Progressive Party was the name used to designate several political organizations in the United States, associating with the presidential campaigns of Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, and Henry Wallace.
The Progressive Party, first known colloquially as the Bull Moose party, was founded after a bitter fight for the Republican presidential nomination between William H. Taft, Robert La Follette and Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt, a dynamic leader of the Progressive Movement, soon grew impatient with Taft’s relatively cautious approaches to reform. Taft’s dismissal of Gifford Pinchot as chief forester angered Roosevelt, who was an ardent conservationist. At the Republican convention in June 1912, most La Follette supporters switched to Roosevelt, but the nomination went to Taft because Taft controlled the party machinery.
Roosevelt, incensed at Taft’s conservative bent, formed the Progressive party, saying he was as fit as a bull moose. His platform called for tariff reform, stricter regulation of industrial combinations, women’s suffrage, prohibition of child labor, and other reforms. Many liberal Republicans went to the new party which nominated Roosevelt for president and Hiram W. Johnson for vice president. Although the Progressives greatly outpolled Republicans in the election the net result was a victory for the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson. Progressive candidates for state and local offices did poorly, and the party dissapeared in 1916 when Roosevelt returned to the Republican Party.
In 1924, a liberal coalition, frustrated by conservative domination of both parties, formed the League of Progressive Political Action, popularly called the Progressive party. Robert La Follette, nominally a Republican, decided to run for president on his own. Fearing that a formal party organization would be infiltrated by Communists, he ran as an independent, but later accepted the nomination of the Progressive party. Senator Burton K. Wheeler was nominated for vice-president. The party advocated government ownership of public utilities and labor reforms such as collective bargaining. It also supported farm-relief measures, lower taxes for persons with moderate incomes, and other such laws. His candidacy was thus supported by the Socialist Party.
LaFollette received 17% of the popular vote but only carried Wisconsin. In 1934, LaFollette’s sons organized a Progressive Party in Wisconsin, after being defeated for nomination as a Republican. Under the Progressive ticket, the LaFollettes scored many victories, but disappeared in 1946.
A third Progressive party was formed in 1948 by dissident Democrats, most of whom had been prominent in developing the New Deal program. With former vice-president Henry Wallace and Tugwell among their leaders, Wallace was nominated for the party’s presidential nominee. Charging that both major parties advocated policies that would lead to economic crisis and a war with the Soviet Union, they favored high-level international conferences. They advocated rights for all minority and political groups, curbs on the power of monopolies, and anti-inflation measures such as price and rent controls, and the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Law.
He expected support from blacks, intellectuals and other groups that admired his militant liberalism. However, the support of the Communist Party damaged the Progressives, as the Democrats and Republicans attacked them as Communist-dominated. The progressives maintained their right to accept support from any group backing their program. Wallace only received 2.4% of the vote. In 1950 the party was further weakened when it denounced U.S. entry into the Korean War, and Wallace left the party. They disappeared after the 1952 election.
The previous election year, in 1992, Ross Perot ran on an independent ticket, where he discovered overwhelming pockets of potential support from those disenchanted by the two established political parties. On September 25, 1995 Ross Perot announced on Larry King Live that he was determined to help form a new political party, in order to give those who supported him in 1992 a voice in future elections. Polls showed that nearly two out of every three voters wanted a new political party, including half of all Republicans and Democrats.
Soon thousands of concerned Americans began petitioning their state governments. Depending on state laws, the goal was to either form a new political party in each state or to place candidates on the November 5th ballot. The response from the public was unexpectedly in favor of starting the Reform Party. For example, in California, which had the earliest deadline in the nation, the requirement to put the Reform Party on the ballot was to get 89,007 voters to switch their party affiliation and join the Reform Party. It was not believed that the Reform Party could accomplish this goal, as it had never been done before. In only twenty days, more than 124,000 California voters joined the Reform Party. In North Carolina, more than 166,000 voters signed petitions. This was 100,000 signatures more than the 51,904 signatures the state required. In Texas, where 61,540 signatures were required, more than 161,000 voters signed on. In Florida, more than 110,000 voters signed Reform Party petitions even though only 65,596 signatures were required.
However, in trying to get ballot status in many states, the Reform Party had found need to challenge state laws to ensure the process is open and fair to all Reform Party candidates. For example, in Arkansas the Reform Party won an historic legal battle, becoming the first new party to be recognized by the state in more than twenty years. After the Arkansas Supreme Court denied the Reform Party ballot access for the election of officials at all levels of government, U.S. Federal District Court Judge George Howard ruled from the bench that Arkansas’ conflicting state laws were unconstitutional. Judge Howard granted the Arkansas Reform Party full ballot access and ordered the state to pay all costs for blocking the voters’ right of freedom of association.
Following the 1992 elections, candidates from both established political parties looked for ways to attract the "Perot voters"—now the "Reform Party voters." In the coming elections, there was much speculation about whom would make a try for the Reform Party presidential ticket in 1996. Richard Lamm, a former governor of Colorado, and party of a group of independents dubbed by the media as the "secret seven" who intended to try to make runs for independent candidacies, was first to declare his intent of running with his running mate, Ed Zschau. Richard Lamm had first shown interest in the party when he made a keynote speech at the party’s California convention earlier.
Ross Perot soon after entered the race as well, while Richard Lamm appealed to Reform Party voters to "pass the torch." Ross Perot easily won in a landslide, but Richard Lamm continued to press claims of unfair treatment in the primary process. Ross Perot chose Pat Choate, a prominent economist and protectionist, as his running mate. This time around, many more liberal voters stayed away from the Reform Party, calling its anti-NAFTA stance "right-wing." In all, Ross Perot lost support, as voters figured that he would not win the election. During this time, Pat Buchanan, a prominent Republican candidate, called Ross Perot and the Reform Party a "mortal threat the Republican Party."
During the election and in the aftermath, leaders of the Reform Party fought against an internal splinter group, called the "Shaumberg Group," after the city where they had a convention, who tried to wrest control of the party away by petitioning the FEC. However, the FEC decided that the Shaumberg group was only a small minority in the Reform Party, and refused. The Shaumberg group did succeed in alienating more voters from the Reform Party, who did not know what to make of the internal brawls in the party.
Reform Party grassroots efforts continued to mount in the fifty states in which the party established itself. However, attempts to reach voters by the media were quickly blocked by others. When Ross Perot, in 1997, attempted to buy air time for an infocommercial regarding campaign finance reform, the networks rejected him. During the previous campaign, Ross Perot was also shut out from the presidential debates, unlike the election before that when he did not have a party ticket.
The same year, many prominent members of the established political parties, fed up with the corruption and irresponsibility already imbued in the political system, stated potential support for the Reform Party. Representative James Traficant, a Democrat, stated on Washington Journal on the C-SPAN network that Ross Perot was right all along, and that since the two parties were alike, a third political party was needed. Traficant later released a press release that he would be the keynote speaker at the Reform Party of California convention. Others, such as former congressman David Boren, who had refused the offer of being Ross Perot’s running mate during the election to preserve his position at the university at which he worked, showed interest in the Reform Party.
The Republican Party had been created, seizing the opening given to them by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which invalidated the Missouri Compromise by splitting the Missouri territory into free-soil and slave states. Many northern Whigs, who had no power or national party began to cooperate with the "Anti-Nebraska" Democrats to form the Free-Soil Party. They began to organize a new party in 1854, building on the name Republican, reviving the old term employed by the Jeffersionians. They emphasized absolute opposition to the expansion of slavery into any new territory. In the coming elections, they cooperated with the northern Know-Nothings, most of whom were former Whigs, as the anti-Catholic nativism would add to an appealing platform of the new party.
Together, the Republicans and Know-Nothings won a majority of seats in the House of Representatives in 1854, and became a threat to the ideas put out by the Democrats. In 1856, they nominated John C. Freemont for the Presidency, with the slogan "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Frémont." He won about a third of the popular vote, and the Republican party began to grow, although alienating potential supporters by his failure to oppose immigration.
As tensions mounted over the slavery issue, more anti-slavery Republicans began to run for office and be elected, even with the risks involved with taking this stance. Republican Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts experienced this danger firsthand. In May 1856, he delivered a passionate anti-slavery speech in which he made critical remarks about several pro-slavery senators, including Andrew F. Butler of South Carolina. Sumner infuriated Rep. Preston S. Brooks, the son of one of Butler's cousins, who felt his family honor had been insulted. Two days later, Brooks walked into the Senate and beat Sumner unconscious with a cane. This incident electrified the nation and helped to galvanize Northern opinion against the South; Southern opinion hailed Brooks as a hero. But Sumner stood by his principles, and after a three-year, painful convalescence, he returned to the Senate to continue his struggle against slavery.
In 1860, their candidate, Lincoln, was elected to the presidency; the southern states reacting by seceding from the Union, and the country was plunged into a civil war. The Civil War and the Reconstruction period following the war gave the Republican Party a solid core of strength and permanence. Because of connections of the Democrats to the south, fully exploited and created by the Republican Party’s propaganda, Republicans controlled most elective offices in the northern states during the war, and for a generation afterward the used this patriotic fervor to denounce Democrats as traitors. This was an effective campaign tactic; in "waving the bloody shirt" against the South and the Democrats, Republicans were united being the crusade of the Civil War.
Although this was true, the Republican party was also troubled by internal dissension. In the 1860s, moderate and radical Republicans debated bitterly over war aims, and the aims of the Reconstruction period. The moderates agreed with the radicals on the abolition of slavery, but rejected the attempt to reshape the South’s social and economic structure and imposing racial equality. President Lincoln was able to play one faction against another, and after his death the party continued until the radicals’ failure to oust President Johnson from office. Then, the party began to nominate increasingly moderate candidates.
Republicans tried to appeal to the South by appealing to Whig groups there to join with newly enfranchised blacks; arguing that they had a common belief in the need for a strong government action in society. Their efforts were ineffective due to massive racist campaigns by the southern Democrats, intimidating all voters in the South. The Republican support for black rights waned when those in the party percieved that this issue was costing the party the needed votes, but this did not help gain support in the South.
Meanwhile, Republicans continued being elected to the White House. In 1868, Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency easily and was re-elected in 1872. Although he seemed a bit bewildered by the transition from the military life of a general to being president, under Grant the Republican commitment to sound money policies continued, and the Department of Justice and the Weather Bureau were established.
But, embracing a tradition established by George Washington, which had gone on record opposing a third term for any president, and being plagued by scandals in his administration, President Grant did not run for re-election in 1876. Factionalism continued to divide the party. Prohibitionists and those who wished to exclude foreigners, demanded heavy emphasis on their concerns and were not enthusiastic about the party’s other commitments. At the same time, another group, the Liberal Republicans, disgusted by corruption in the Grant administration, fought against the party’s unwillingness to do anything about it. The party bosses, needing money to run the campaigns, resisted the reformers.
Instead, in one of the most bitterly disputed elections in American history, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the presidency by the margin of one electoral vote. After the election, cooperation between the White House and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives was nearly impossible. Nevertheless, Hayes managed to keep his campaign promises. He cautiously withdrew federal troops from the South to allow them to shake off the psychological yoke of being a conquered land, took measures to reverse the myriad inequalities suffered by women in that period and adopted the merit system within the civil service.
The Republicans won five of seven elections between 1868 and 1892, but had popular majorities in only three of them. The Republicans’ ability to draw on rural, small-town, and western voters was counterbalanced by the Democrats’ solid core in the South and among urban immigrants. The defection of the mugwumps, a reform faction that refused to back James G. Blaine, the presidential candidate in 1884, helped the Democrats win the presidency for the first time in thirty years. At the 1880 convention, an intense political battle split Republicans into three hostile camps, which included administration supporters, Conkling's "Stalwarts" and the "Half-breeds" which stood between them.
The party’s platform, despite resistance from some Republican leaders, increasingly emphasized the promotion of industrial values, and Republican policy aided the emerging, highly sophisticated economy. At the same time, Republicans were often openly hostile to the new waves of eastern European and Irish immigrants that were transforming the nation’s cities. Republican state platforms advocated government intervention to prohibit or limit liquor consumption and to shape school curricula in order to promote certain Protestant and American values posed by the immigrants who were tied to the Democratic party.
During the 1890s, both major parties were hurt by the rise of agrarian protest, but infighting proved most divisive among the Democrats, their collapse at the polls following in 1896. Increased voter strength made the Republicans a majority party in the country for a generation. However, party factionalism continued, and beginning in the 1890s, a group of Republicans known as the progressives sought to balance the party’s commitment to the industrial elite with the use of federal power to correct some of the worst excesses of the monopolies and rusts that dominated the Republican Party.
Theodore Roosevelt, who had promoted progressive measures when in office, later became the presidential candidate of the Progressive Party. Roosevelt selected Taft as his successor, who, once elected, angered both liberals and conservatives within his party.
The entry into World War I raised some new issues that once again led to divide the Republican Party. Though most Republicans in Congress supported the ongoing war measures, they eventually split over plans for signing the charter of the League of Nations, incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles. Many Republicans were also upset because President Wilson excluded Republicans from negotiating the treaty and said that only Democrats in the Congress would allow victory in war. As progressivism and war waned, Republicans were able to reunite and thus once again become a majority party. The 1920 platform pledged the party to serve as the guardian of prosperity by such measures as raising tariffs, restricting immigration, and aiding farmers. The presidential nomination went to Warren G. Harding, and he swept every region outside the South. The Harding administration was swept by corruption, and his successor was Calvin Coolidge, pledged to Puritanical ideals.
The Great Depression, which began during the administration of Herbert Hoover, led to destroy America’s belief in the dream of unlimited prosperity, and thus lost its faith in the Republican Party, who had led them into the depression. The disastrous economic collapse and extraordinary high employment following the crash made a mockery of Republican claims. The Hoover administration had a slow and limited response to the problems, making it ineffective and seemed to be indifferent to the people.
At the loss of the Republicans next election, one faction of the Republican party was behind Hoover, who issued blanket indictments of the New Deal, supported by Eastern businessmen, Recognizing the New Deal’s popularity, Republicans in Congress sought new leaders and principles, nominating Landon for President. The new Republican platform endorsed New Deal objectives but condemned some of its methods, including deficit spending. At the next election, they nominated Wendell Willkie, an internationalist who was even closer to the values expressed by the New Deal; in fact, the C.I.O supported him and Lewis said that if Willkie did not win, he would resign as head.
In response to their losses, the Republicans sought a way to build their national following, first turning to condemning deficit spending techniques and New Deal policy. Republicans, isolationist, now began to take a stricter anti-Communist line in their rhetoric. Party leaders argued that they represented a family oriented America, and this played a part in the popularity of Republican senator Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against Communist subversion in the 1850s. In 1950, Senator McCarthy charged that the State department was infested with Communists, and this gave the Republicans their best issue since the Depression. However, when he attacked the Army, this issue died down and be became disgraced.
A split still remained between conservative and moderate republicans; the former led by Taft continued to oppose the New Deal, while the others did not play on the issue. The moderates looked towards General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had helped win the passing war, to carry their standard in the 1952 elections. Eisenhower won twice with smashing victories; his popularity intensified when he attended a conference in Geneva. Disliking political management, Eisenhower did little to build the party, and continued Democratic policies.
Yet another split between conservatives and liberals weakened the Republican party during the course of the next decade. Nelson A. Rockefeller, governor of New York, emerged as a spokesman for the party liberals. Senator Barry Goldwater, on the other hand, was a representative of the conservatives. The conservatives thereafter controlled the party machinery and increasingly impressed their stamp on the party’s principles and actions, working hard to recruit influence in the South and among urban, ethnic groups.
When new leaders failed to bridge the gulf between conservatives and liberals in the GOP, Richard Nixon helped lead a unified party to a narrow victory in the 1968 race against Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace. Nixon was the first President since 1848 to take office with both houses of Congress controlled by the opposition; he later won re-election. His administration, which started out as a strong reaction against radicalism, became identified after 1972 with the Watergate scandal, which eventually led Nixon to his resignation under the threat of impeachment, leaving Gerald Ford in power.
A temporary Democratic resurgence followed with the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976, but the conservative tide returned when the Republican candidate Ronald Reagan won an overwhelming victory in the next elections. The Republicans regained control of the Senate but did not achieve to gain a majority in the House. In the midterm elections of 1986, Republicans lost control of the Senate and more ground in the House as well; this pattern repeated in 1986. As president, Reagan wasa backed by a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress, and embarked on a program which sought to increase the nation’s military strength and curtail many of the social welfare programs in the previous administration.
Although Vice president Bush won the presidential election for the Republicans, the party lost ground in both houses of Congress. President Bush laid a solid groundwork for U.S. policy in such critical areas as nuclear disarmament, free trade, the Middle East peace process and the future of NATO. Relying on his illustrious military experience, he brought together an unprecedented coalition to maintain the forces of law in the Persian Gulf region. In the wake of Operation Desert Storm, President Bush's popularity soared to record levels. As a result of his leadership after the war, a delegation from Israel sat face to face with Palestinians for the first time in thousands of years.
The gradual erosion in Republican party strength in Congress was matched by a loss at the head of the ticket, and for the first time in 12 years, Democrats controlled both branches of government. The Republicans retained the same number of seats in the Senate and gained nine seats in the House. However, the 1994 election brought a dramatic reversal as the Republican Party gained control over both houses of Congress for the first time since 1954. The Republicans stormed in, in what was termed as the "Republican Revolution," as Representative Newt Gingrich laid forth their new "Contract with America", a list of conservative proposals which helped shape the agenda.
However, 1996 marked defeat again as Senator Bob Dole embarked on a failed Presidential campaign. The Democrats painted the Republican party as maligned, trying to destroy social security and other entitlement programs, often referring to the enemy as "Dole-Gingrich." After the election, Republicans in the party began to split, disappointed at a turn in Gingrich’s leadership to one which held more appeasement to Democratic proposals.
The industrial conditions in the United States, the constantly changing frontier, and the lack of class stratification had prevented the development of a strong socialist movement in the United States. However, in the late 1860’s and early 1790s, a number of branches of the First International were formed in the East, and on July 4, 1874, a Social Democratic Workingmen’s Party of North America was organized with a rather indefinite Socialist platform, becoming in 1877 the Socialist Labor Party.
The Socialist Labor Party showed much activity during the next two decades, but the attempt of its leader, Daniel De Leon, to impose too rigid a discipline upon its membership and his bitter opposition to leaders of organized labor led to a split in the party. The dissident group, under Morris Hillquit and others, joined in 1900 with the midwestern Socialists in nominating Eugene Victor Debs for president.
This was followed by a Unity Conference in 1901 at a convention in Indianapolis in 1901. The two merging groups were the Social Democratic Party of Eugene Victor Debs and the "Kangaroo" wing of the older Socialist Labor Party. The Socialist Democratic had been organized in 1898 by veterans of the Pullman strike of the American Railway Union, led by Debs, and was largely composed of American-born workers.
From the beginning the Socialist Party was the ecumenical organization for American radicals, including Marxists of various kinds, Christian socialists, Zionist and anti-Zionist Jewish socialists, foreign-language speaking sections, single-taxers and virtually every variety of American radical. On the divisive issue of "reform vs. revolution" the Socialist Party from the beginning adopted a compromise formula, producing platforms calling for revolutionary change but also making "immediate demands" of a reformist nature. A perennially unresolved issue was whether revolutionary change could come about without violence; there were always pacifists and evolutionists in the Party as well as those opposed to both those views. The Socialist Party historically stressed cooperatives as much as labor unions, and included the concepts of revolution by education and of "building the new society within the shell of the old."
The Socialist Party aimed to become a major party; in the years prior to World War I it elected two Members of Congress, over 70 mayors, innumerable state legislators and city councilors. Its membership topped 100,000, and its Presidential candidate, Eugene Debs, received close to a million votes in 1912 and again in 1920. But as with any ideologically mixed organization, it was forever in internal disputes.
An early disagreement was over the Industrial Workers of the World, which Debs and De Leon had helped create as a competitor to the American Federation of Labor. Some Socialists supported the IWW, while others considered "dual unionism" to be fatal to the solidarity of the labor movement and supported the Socialist faction in the AFL led by Max Hayes. In 1916, Eugene Debs refused to run again for a candidacy, so by referendum, Allan L. Benson was chosen as the Socialist nominee for presidency.
During the First World War the American Socialist Party was one of the very few parties in the international socialist movement to maintain its opposition to the war, and many Socialists were imprisoned, including Debs himself. In 1919 there was a major split in the Party, when those who accepted Lenin's demand for unconditional allegiance to the Third International left, to form the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party. However, the two parties later merged.
The Socialist Party did not run a Presidential candidate in 1924, but joined the American Federation of Labor in support of the independent campaign of the progressive Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, hoping to build a permanent Farmer-Labor Party. In 1928 the Socialist Party revived as an independent electoral entity under the leadership of Norman Thomas, an opponent of World War I and a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.
In 1932 the impact of the Great Depression resulted in revived support for the Socialist Party, and 896,000 votes were cast for the Party's Presidential candidate, Norman Thomas. But by 1936 the left-liberal policies of the New Deal took a severe toll. In that year David Dubinsky and other socialist union leaders in New York called on their membership to vote for Roosevelt, and formed the Social Democratic Federation to promote socialism within the ranks of the liberal/labor wing of the Democratic Party. The Socialist Party's vote in 1936 dropped to 185,000, little more than 20% of that of 1932. The outbreak of the war against Fascism and the wartime prosperity further weakened all parties on the left.
The Socialist Party was down to about 2,000 members after the war, and had more or less withdrawn from electoral action in the face of the increasingly restrictive ballot-access laws passed by state legislatures around the country. In 1956 the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Federation reunited, under pressure from the Socialist International. A right-wing group in the SDF opposed the merger, and established the Democratic Socialist Federation.
As of 1957 the SP-SDF was pervaded by a strong sense that the time had arrived to start over and rebuild a major radical party in America. The Independent Socialist League was a Trotskyite splinter group founded and led by Max Shachtman, with about 400 members. In 1958 the ISL dissolved, and its members joined the SP-SDF. This ended any hope of further mergers, since Shachtman's intention was to attain control of the Socialist Party. Almost at once a faction fight erupted over the concept of "realignment." Shachtman and his lieutenant, Michael Harrington, argued that what America needed wasn't a third party, but a meaningful second party.
The realignment supporters said that in sixty years the Socialist Party had failed to bring labor into the Party, and in fact kept losing their labor sympathizers (such as the Reuther brothers) because they saw they could do more within the Democratic Party. It was also argued that in view of restricted ballot access the Democratic primaries were a better forum for electoral activity than Socialist candidacies. But the basic argument was an appeal to traditional Marxism: Labor is the motor for social change, labor will not come to the Socialist Party, therefore the Socialist Party must go to labor - which means going into the Democratic Party.
There is no doubt that the realignment strategy was successful within its own terms. Former SP labor people like A. Philip Randolph rejoined the Party, and many new people of this type were recruited during this period. But to many Socialists, realignment in practice turned out to be something they could not stomach. The realignment strategy focused on getting hold of power, and Socialist politics is concerned not only with winning power within the status quo but also with redistributing it to build a new society. Furthermore, the result of the strategy was often to tone down everything that distinguished Socialists from liberals, and "where labor is" turned out to be not at the left of the Democratic Party but at the center, in alliance with the big city machines.
At the 1968 Socialist Party Convention the Shachtman-Harrington Caucus held a clear majority, though a slim one, and voted down resolutions demanding American withdrawal from Vietnam and urging independent political action. They passed a resolution endorsing Hubert Humphrey - a resolution which Norman Thomas, who had less than six months to live, opposed as best he could from his hospital bed, pleading in vain with the membership to reject it. They elected a clear majority of the Party's National Committee, and installed their own supporters as National Secretary and Editor of the Party paper.
At the riotous Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in 1968, Realignment Socialists were present as delegates, and Bayard Rustin, having lost his old pacifist and radical orientation, served in effect as a black floor manager for Humphrey. At the same time, many Debs Caucus members were in the streets with the demonstrators.
By 1970, with Michael Harrington as National Chairman under Max Shachtman's leadership, the Socialist Party was showing a growing tendency toward democratic centralism in practice. Nevertheless, Harrington maintained contacts with the liberal wing of the peace movement and he and his personal followers formed yet a third caucus, the Coalition Caucus, to pursue the realignment strategy within the more liberal sectors of the Democratic Party and the labor leadership.
In March of 1972 a Unity Convention was held, to finalize the merger of the Socialist Party with the Democratic Socialist Federation. The tightly disciplined Unity Caucus, as the Shachtmanite wing now styled themselves, were by now suspicious of Harrington, and succeeded in pushing through the Convention a constitutional amendment providing for a "troika" in the Chairmanship. The "troika" was made up of Harrington, Charles Zimmerman of the DSF, and the aging former civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. A resolution opposing the Vietnam war, which was supported by six Party Locals and by both the Debs Caucus and the Coalition Caucus, failed.
At the end of 1972 the Socialist Party, now completely under control of the right wing, changed its name to Social Democrats USA. This lit the fuse for the disaffiliation of many of the states and locals within the Debs Caucus, and for many resignations. Early in 1973 the Socialist Party of Wisconsin, with the support of the California and Illinois Parties, called a "National Convention of the Socialist Party," to be held Memorial Day weekend in Milwaukee The Debs Caucus had recently organized a Union for Democratic Socialism, as an "umbrella" organization of both members and non-members of the Socialist Party, and the UDS now made plans for a major conference on "The Future of Democratic Socialism in America" to be held at the same time. The resulting body voted to reconstitute the Socialist
The Whig Party formed in the opposition of President Andrew Jackson and constituencies in the Democratic Party, united only by this opposition. The anti-Jackson groups drew upon the political history of two revolutions, the American and 17th century English, for their name. In both cases, the opposition had called themselves Whigs; this time they united against "King Andrew."
The National Republican party was the precursor to the Whigs, and Jackson’s inauguration in 1829 began the period of opposition and prepared the ground for a coalition of political forces which formed the Whig Party. Henry Clay of Kentucky, and Daniel Webster of Massachusetts because the party’s leading figures. The different leaders of the party clashed in their views; Webster was more of a nationalist than Clay. However, both men encouraged a program of tariff protection, federally sponsored communication projects and other internal improvements, continuation of the national bank, and a conservative public land sales policy. This was fully described in Clay’s "American System." The program had strong appeal to merchants and manufacturers practicing interstate commerce. Clay made the President’s veto of a bank recharter a key issue, but Jackson handily won reelection.
John C. Calhoun broke his alliance with Jackson and joined the Whigs when he realized that he would not be the next Democratic president. Calhoun’s supporters, widened with the nullification crisis, were lead to the Whig party. Another source of recruits was the Anti-Masonic party, strong in New York and Pennsylvania, leading many influencing politicians as William Seward and Thaddeus Stevens into the party.
In 1840, The Whig ticket consisted of William H. Harrison for president and John Tyler for vice-president. They ran a "Log Cabin" campaign which was the first to use major political propaganda and electioneering. The Whigs won, but Harrison died one month in office, and with him the future of the Whig cohesion. John Tyler, who had been a Jacksonian Democrat, acceded to the presidency, and embittered the Whigs by vetoing the bills which they had meant to restore the rechartering of the Bank of the United States. Most of Tyler’s cabinet resigned in protest, and his membership in the party was withdrawn.
In 1844, the Whig Party nominated Clay for president. Clay refused to take a definite stand on the Texas annexation issue, provoking northern abolitionists, who opposed its admission as a slave state, to support the Liberty party candidate. The Whig split ensured a victory for the Democrat Polk. Once the Mexican War had been declared, controversy over admitting or excluding slavery from territory gained in the war further splintered the party. Antislavery Whigs, known as Conscience Whigs opposed the Cotton Whigs in the pro-slavery states.
Despite this dissension, the Whigs won the presidency in 1848 under Zachary Taylor. With disunion threatening, Clay and Webster tried to compromise the main points of sectional friciton. President Taylor blocked their moves, and his death on July 9 made Millard Fillmore the president. Webster, now Fillmore’s secretary of state, wanted to capture the presidency in 1852 on the Union movement. However, both major paries accepted the Compromise of 1850 and the Whigs reverted to nominate Winfield Scott. Later that year, Clay and Webster died. The Whig Party never recovered from the death of their two great figures.
Its call for moderation and Union became more ineffective as the Civil war neared. Southern Whigs thought the Democrats more receptive to their interests, concerned with slaveholding rights. Northern Whigs had already moved to the Free Soil Party, which had been formed earlier. The rise of the Republican and the American parties furthered the Whig downfall, as they defected to those parties. The former Whig president, Fillmore, accepted the American nomination, and the Whigs endorsed him.
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And further, That the said Governour and Companye, and their Successors, maie have forever one comon Seale, to be used in all Causes and Occasions of the said Company, and the same Seale may alter, chaunge, breake, and newe make, from tyme to tyme, at their pleasures. And our Will and Pleasure is, and Wee doe hereby for Us, our Heires and Successors, ordeyne and graunte, That from henceforth for ever, there shalbe one Governor, one Deputy Governor, and eighteene Assistants of the same Company, to be from tyme to tyme constituted, elected and chosen out of the Freemen of the saide Company, for the twyme being, in such Manner and Forme as hereafter in theis Presents is expressed, which said Officers shall applie themselves to take Care for the best disposeing and ordering of the generall buysines and Affaires of, for, and concerning the said Landes and Premisses hereby mentioned, to be graunted, and the Plantation thereof, and the Government of the People there. And for the better Execution of our Royall Pleasure and Graunte in this Behalf, Wee doe, by theis presents, for Us, our Heires and Successors, nominate, ordeyne, make, and constitute; our welbeloved the saide Mathewe Cradocke, to be the first and present Governor of the said Company, and the saide Thomas Goffe, to be Deputy Governor of the saide Company, and the saide Sir Richard Saltonstall, Isaack Johnson, Samuell Aldersey, John Ven, John Humfrey, John Endecott, Simon Whetcombe, Increase Noell, Richard Pery, Nathaniell Wright, Samuell Vassall, Theophilus Eaton, Thomas Adams, Thomas Hutchins, John Browne, George Foxcrofte, William Vassall, and William Pinchion, to be the present Assistants of the saide Company, to continue in the saide several Offices respectivelie for such tyme, and in such manner, as in and by theis Presents is hereafter declared and appointed.
And further, Wee will, and by theis Presents, for Us, our Heires and Successors, doe ordeyne and graunte, That the Governor of the saide Company for the tyme being, or in his Absence by Occasion of Sicknes or otherwise, the Deputie Governor for the tyme being, shall have Authoritie from tyme to tyme upon all Occasions, to give order for the assembling of the saide Company, and calling them together to consult and advise of the Bussinesses and Affaires of the saide Company, and that the said Governor, Deputie Governor, and Assistants of the saide Company, for the tyme being, shall or maie once every Moneth, or oftener at their Pleasures, assemble and houlde and keepe a Courte or Assemblie of themselves, for the better ordering and directing of their Affaires, and that any seaven or more persons of the Assistants, togither with the Governor, or Deputie Governor soe assembled, shalbe saide, taken, held, and reputed to be, and shalbe a full and sufficient Courte or Assemblie of the said Company, for the handling, ordering, and dispatching of all such Buysinesses and Occurrents as shall from tyme to tyme happen, touching or concerning the. said Company or Plantation; and that there shall or maie be held and kept by the Governor, or Deputie Governor of the said Company, and seaven or more of the said Assistants for the tyme being, upon every last Wednesday in Hillary, Easter, Trinity, and Michas Termes respectivelie forever, one greate generall and solemne assemblie, which foure generall assemblies shalbe stiled and called the foure greate and generall Courts of the saide Company.
In all and every, or any of which saide greate and generall Courts soe assembled, Wee doe for Us, our Heires and Successors, give and graunte to the said Governor and Company, and their Successors, That the Governor, or in his absence, the Deputie Governor of the saide Company for the tyme being, and such of the Assistants and Freeman of the saide Company as shalbe present, or the greater nomber of them so assembled, whereof the Governor or Deputie Governor and six of the Assistants at the least to be seaven, shall have full Power and authoritie to choose, nominate, and appointe, such and soe many others as they shall thinke fitt, and that shall be willing to accept the same, to be free of the said Company and Body, and them into the same to admitt; and to elect and constitute such officers as they shall thinke fill and requisite, for the ordering, mannaging, and dispatching of the Affaires of the saide Governor and Company, and their Successors; And to make Lawes and Ordinances for the Good and Welfare of the saide Company, and for the Government and ordering of the saide Landes and Plantation, and the People inhabiting and to inhabite the same, as to them from tyme to tyme shalbe thought meete, soe as such Lawes and Ordinances be not contrarie or repugnant to the Lawes and Statuts of this our Realme of England.
And, our Will and Pleasure is, and Wee doe hereby for Us, our Heires and Successors, establish and ordeyne, That yearely once in the yeare, for ever hereafter, namely, the last Wednesday in Easter Tearme, yearely, the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Assistants of the saide Company and all other officers of the saide Company shalbe in the Generall Court or Assembly to be held for that Day or Tyme, newly chosen for the Yeare ensueing by such greater parte of the said Company, for the Tyme being, then and there present, as is aforesaide. And, if it shall happen the present governor, Deputy Governor, and assistants, by theis presents appointed, or such as shall hereafter be newly chosen into their Roomes, or any of them, or any other of the officers to be appointed for the said Company, to dye, or to be removed from his or their severall Offices or Places before the saide generall Day of Election (whome Wee doe hereby declare for any Misdemeanor or Defect to be removeable by the Governor, Deputie Governor, Assistants, and Company, or such greater Parte of them in any of the publique Courts to be assembled as is aforesaid) That then, and in every such Case, it shall and maie be lawfull, to and for the Governor, Deputie Governor, Assistants, and Company aforesaide, or such greater Parte of them soe to be assembled as is aforesaide, in any of their Assemblies, to proceade to a new Election of one or more others of their Company in the Roome or Place, Roomes or Places of such Officer or Officers soe dyeing or removed according to their Discretions, And, immediately upon and after such Election and Elections made of such Governor, Deputie Governor, Assistant or Assistants, or any other officer of the saide Company, in Manner and Forme aforesaid, the Authoritie, Office, and Power, before given to the former Governor, Deputie Governor, or other Officer and Officers soe removed, in whose Steade and Place newe shalbe soe chosen, shall as to him and them, and everie of them, cease and determine
Provided alsoe, and our Will and Pleasure is, That aswell such as are by theis Presents appointed to be the present Governor, Deputie Governor, and Assistants of the said Company, as those that shall succeed them, and all other Officers to be appointed and chosen as aforesaid, shall, before they undertake the Execution of their saide Offices and Places respectivelie, take their Corporal Oathes for the due and faithfull Performance of their Duties in their severall Offices and Places, before such Person or Persons as are by theis Presents hereunder appointed to take and receive the same. . . .
And, further our Will and Pleasure is, and Wee doe hereby for Us, our Heires and Successors, ordeyne and declare, and graunte to the saide Governor and Company and their Successors, That all and every the Subjects of Us, our Heires or Successors, which shall goe to and inhabite within the saide Landes and Premisses hereby mentioned to be graunted, and every of their Children which shall happen to be borne there, or on the Seas in goeing thither, or retorning from thence, shall have and enjoy all liberties and Immunities of free and naturall Subjects within any of the Domynions of Us, our Heires or Successors, to all Intents, Constructions, and Purposes whatsoever, as if they and everie of them were borne within the Realme of England. And that the Governor and Deputie Governor of the said Company for the Tyme being, or either of them, and any two or more of such of the saide Assistants as shalbe thereunto appointed by the saide Governor and Company at any of their Courts or Assemblies to be held as aforesaide, shall and maie at all Tymes, and from tyme to tyme hereafter, have full Power and Authoritie to minister and give the Oathe and Oathes of Supremacie and Allegiance, or either of them, to all and everie Person and Persons, which shall at any Tyme or Tymes hereafter goe or passe to the Landes and Premisses hereby mentioned to be graunted to inhabite in the same.
And, Wee doe of our further Grace, certen Knowledg and meere Motion, give and graunte to the saide Governor and Company, and their Successors, That it shall and maie be lawfull, to and for the Governor or Deputie Governor, and such of the Assistants and Freemen of the said Company for the Tyme being as shalbe assembled in any of their generall Courts aforesaide, or in any other Courtes to be specially sumoned and assembled for that Purpose, or the greater Parte of them (whereof the Governor or Deputie Governor, and six of the Assistants to be alwaies seaven) from tyme to tyme, to make, ordeine, and establishe all Manner of wholesome and reasonable Orders, Lawes, Statutes, and Ordinances, Directions, and Instructions, not contrairie to the Lawes of this our Realme of England, aswell for setling of the Formes and Ceremonies of Government and Magistracy, fitt and necessary for the said Plantation, and the Inhabitants there, and for nameing and setting of all sorts of Officers, both superior and inferior, which they shall finde needefull for that Governement and Plantation, and the distinguishing and setting forth of the severall duties, Powers, and Lymytts of every such Office and Place, and the Formes of such Oathes warrantable by the Lawes and Statutes of this our Realme of England, as shalbe respectivelie ministred unto them for the Execution of the said severall Offices and Places; as also, for the disposing and ordering of the Elections of such of the said Officers as shalbe annuall, and of such others as shalbe to succeede in Case of Death or Removeall, and ministring the said Oathes to the newe elected Officers, and for Impositions of lawfull Fynes, Mulcts, Imprisonment, or other lawfull Correction, according to the Course of other Corporations in this our Realme of England, and for the directing, ruling, and disposeing of all other Matters and Thinges, whereby our said People, Inhabitants there, may be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as their good Life and orderlie Conversation, maie wynn and incite the Natives of Country, to the Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and Savior of Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth, which in our Royall Intention, and the Adventurers free Profession, is the principall Ende of this Plantation.
Willing, commaunding, and requiring, and by theis Presents for Us, our Heires, and Successors, ordeyning and appointing, that all such Orders, Lawes, Statuts and Ordinances, Instructions and Directions, as shalbe soe made by the Governor, or Deputie Governor of the said Company, and such of the Assistants and Freemen as aforesaide, and published in Writing, under their common Seale, shalbe carefullie and dulie observed, kept, performed, and putt in Execution, according to the true Intent and Meaning of the same; and theis our Letters- patents, or the Duplicate or exemplification thereof, shalbe to all and everie such Officers, superior and inferior, from Tyme to Tyme, for the putting of the same Orders, Lawes, Statutes, and Ordinances, Instructions, and Directions, in due Execution against Us, our Heires and Successors, a sufficient Warrant and Discharge.
And Wee doe further, for Us, our Heires and Successors, give and graunt to the said Governor and Company, and their Successors by theis Presents, that all and everie such Chiefe Comaunders, Captaines, Governors, and other Officers and Ministers, as by the said Orders, Lawes, Statuts, Ordinances, Instructions, or Directions of the said Governor and Company for the Tyme being, shalbe from Tyme to Tyme hereafter imploied either in the Government of the saide Inhabitants and Plantation, or in the Waye by Sea thither, or from thence, according to the Natures and Lymitts of their Offices and Places respectively, shall from Tyme to Tyme hereafter for ever, within the Precincts and Partes of Newe England hereby mentioned to be graunted and confirmed, or in the Waie by Sea thither, or from thence, have full and Absolute Power and Authoritie to correct, punishe, pardon, governe, and rule all such the Subjects of Us, our Heires and Successors, as shall from Tyme to Tyme adventure themselves in any Voyadge thither or from thence, or that shall at any Tyme hereafter, inhabite within the Precincts and Partes of Newe England aforasaid, according to the Orders, Lawes, Ordinances, Instructions, and Directions aforesaid, not being repugnant to the Lawes and Statutes of our Realme of England as aforesaid. . . .
It is proposed that humble application be made for an act of Parliament of Great Britain, by virtue of which one general government may be formed in America, including all the said colonies, within and under which government each colony may retain its present constitution, except in the particulars wherein a change may be directed by the said act, as hereafter follows.
That the said general government be administered by a President-General, to be appointed and supported by the crown; and a Grand Council, to be chosen by the representatives of the people of the several Colonies met in their respective assemblies.
That within ___ months after the passing such act, the House of Representatives that happen to be sitting within that time, or that shall be especially for that purpose convened, may and shall choose members for the Grand Council, in the following proportion, that is to say,
-----who shall meet for the first time at the city of Philadelphia, being called by the President-General as soon as conveniently may be after his appointment.
That there shall be a new election of the members of the Grand Council every three years; and, on the death or resignation of any member, his place should be supplied by a new choice at the next sitting of the Assembly of the Colony he represented.
That after the first three years, when the proportion of money arising out of each Colony to the general treasury can be known, the number of members to be chosen for each Colony shall, from time to time, in all ensuing elections, be regulated by that proportion, yet so as that the number to be chosen by any one Province be not more than seven, nor less than two.
That the Grand Council shall meet once in every year, and oftener if occasion require, at such time and place as they shall adjourn to at the last preceding meeting, or as they shall be called to meet at by the President-General on any emergency; he having first obtained in writing the consent of seven of the members to such call, and sent duly and timely notice to the whole.
That the Grand Council have power to choose their speaker; and shall neither be dissolved, prorogued, nor continued sitting longer than six weeks at one time, without their own consent or the special command of the crown.
That the members of the Grand Council shall be allowed for their service ten shillings sterling per diem, during their session and journey to and from the place of meeting; twenty miles to be reckoned a day's journey.
That the assent of the President-General be requisite to all acts of the Grand Council, and that it be his office and duty to cause them to be carried into execution.
That the President-General, with the advice of the Grand Council, hold or direct all Indian treaties, in which the general interest of the Colonies may be concerned; and make peace or declare war with Indian nations.
That they make all purchases from Indians, for the crown, of lands not now within the bounds of particular Colonies, or that shall not be within their bounds when some of them are reduced to more convenient dimensions.
That they make new settlements on such purchases, by granting lands in the King's name, reserving a quitrent to the crown for the use of the general treasury.
That they make laws for regulating and governing such new settlements, till the crown shall think fit to form them into particular governments.
That they raise and pay soldiers and build forts for the defence of any of the Colonies, and equip vessels of force to guard the coasts and protect the trade on the ocean, lakes, or great rivers; but they shall not impress men in any Colony, without the consent of the Legislature.
That for these purposes they have power to make laws, and lay and levy such general duties, imposts, or taxes, as to them shall appear most equal and just (considering the ability and other circumstances of the inhabitants in the several Colonies), and such as may be collected with the least inconvenience to the people; rather discouraging luxury, than loading industry with unnecessary burdens.
That they may appoint a General Treasurer and Particular Treasurer in each government when necessary; and, from time to time, may order the sums in the treasuries of each government into the general treasury; or draw on them for special payments, as they find most convenient.
Yet no money to issue but by joint orders of the President-General and Grand Council; except where sums have been appropriated to particular purposes, and the President-General is previously empowered by an act to draw such sums.
That the general accounts shall be yearly settled and reported to the several Assemblies.
That a quorum of the Grand Council, empowered to act with the President-General, do consist of twenty-five members; among whom there shall be one or more from a majority of the Colonies.
That the laws made by them for the purposes aforesaid shall not be repugnant, but, as near as may be, agreeable to the laws of England, and shall be transmitted to the King in Council for approbation, as soon as may be after their passing; and if not disapproved within three years after presentation, to remain in force.
That, in case of the death of the President-General, the Speaker of the Grand Council for the time being shall succeed, and be vested with the same powers and authorities, to continue till the King's pleasure be known.
That all military commission officers, whether for land or sea service, to act under this general constitution, shall be nominated by the President-General; but the approbation of the Grand Council is to be obtained, before they receive their commissions. And all civil officers are to be nominated by the Grand Council, and to receive the President-General's approbation before they officiate.
But, in case of vacancy by death or removal of any officer, civil or military, under this constitution, the Governor of the Province in which such vacancy happens may appoint, till the pleasure of the President-General and Grand Council can be known.
That the particular military as well as civil establishments in each Colony remain in their present state, the general constitution notwithstanding; and that on sudden emergencies any Colony may defend itself, and lay the accounts of expense thence arising before the President-General and General Council, who may allow and order payment of the same, as far as they judge such accounts just and reasonable.
Address of President Bush to Nation (11 September, 2001)
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8:30 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.
The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong.
A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.
America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.
Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. And we responded with the best of America -- with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.
Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response plans. Our military is powerful, and it's prepared. Our emergency teams are working in New York City and Washington, D.C. to help with local rescue efforts.
Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured, and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.
The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight, and will be open for business tomorrow. Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business, as well.
The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I've directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.
I appreciate so very much the members of Congress who have joined me in strongly condemning these attacks. And on behalf of the American people, I thank the many world leaders who have called to offer their condolences and assistance.
America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world, and we stand together to win the war against terrorism. Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."
This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.
Thank you. Good night, and God bless America.
United States Capitol
Washington, D.C.
9:00 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, members of Congress, and fellow Americans:
In the normal course of events, Presidents come to this chamber to report on the state of the Union. Tonight, no such report is needed. It has already been delivered by the American people.
We have seen it in the courage of passengers, who rushed terrorists to save others on the ground -- passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer. And would you please help me to welcome his wife, Lisa Beamer, here tonight. (Applause.)
We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We have seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of strangers their own.
My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of our Union -- and it is strong. (Applause.)
Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. (Applause.)
I thank the Congress for its leadership at such an important time. All of America was touched on the evening of the tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats joined together on the steps of this Capitol, singing "God Bless America." And you did more than sing; you acted, by delivering $40 billion to rebuild our communities and meet the needs of our military.
Speaker Hastert, Minority Leader Gephardt, Majority Leader Daschle and Senator Lott, I thank you for your friendship, for your leadership and for your service to our country. (Applause.)
And on behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support. America will never forget the sounds of our National Anthem playing at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of Paris, and at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul, or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo. We will not forget moments of silence and days of mourning in Australia and Africa and Latin America.
Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own: dozens of Pakistanis; more than 130 Israelis; more than 250 citizens of India; men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan; and hundreds of British citizens. America has no truer friend than Great Britain. (Applause.) Once again, we are joined together in a great cause -- so honored the British Prime Minister has crossed an ocean to show his unity of purpose with America. Thank you for coming, friend. (Applause.)
On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars -- but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war -- but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks -- but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day -- and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.
Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking: Who attacked our country? The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are the same murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for bombing the USS Cole.
Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world -- and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.
The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics -- a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children.
This group and its leader -- a person named Osama bin Laden -- are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.
The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan, we see al Qaeda's vision for the world.
Afghanistan's people have been brutalized -- many are starving and many have fled. Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough.
The United States respects the people of Afghanistan -- after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid -- but we condemn the Taliban regime. (Applause.) It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder.
And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. (Applause.) Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens, you have unjustly imprisoned. Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities. (Applause.) Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating.
These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. (Applause.) The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.
I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. (Applause.) The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them. (Applause.)
Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. (Applause.)
Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.
They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.
These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us, because we stand in their way.
We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions -- by abandoning every value except the will to power -- they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies. (Applause.)
Americans are asking: How will we fight and win this war? We will direct every resource at our command -- every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war -- to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network.
This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.
Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.) From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.
Our nation has been put on notice: We are not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism to protect Americans. Today, dozens of federal departments and agencies, as well as state and local governments, have responsibilities affecting homeland security. These efforts must be coordinated at the highest level. So tonight I announce the creation of a Cabinet-level position reporting directly to me -- the Office of Homeland Security.
And tonight I also announce a distinguished American to lead this effort, to strengthen American security: a military veteran, an effective governor, a true patriot, a trusted friend -- Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge. (Applause.) He will lead, oversee and coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to safeguard our country against terrorism, and respond to any attacks that may come.
These measures are essential. But the only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows. (Applause.)
Many will be involved in this effort, from FBI agents to intelligence operatives to the reservists we have called to active duty. All deserve our thanks, and all have our prayers. And tonight, a few miles from the damaged Pentagon, I have a message for our military: Be ready. I've called the Armed Forces to alert, and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act, and you will make us proud. (Applause.)
This is not, however, just America's fight. And what is at stake is not just America's freedom. This is the world's fight. This is civilization's fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.
We ask every nation to join us. We will ask, and we will need, the help of police forces, intelligence services, and banking systems around the world. The United States is grateful that many nations and many international organizations have already responded -- with sympathy and with support. Nations from Latin America, to Asia, to Africa, to Europe, to the Islamic world. Perhaps the NATO Charter reflects best the attitude of the world: An attack on one is an attack on all.
The civilized world is rallying to America's side. They understand that if this terror goes unpunished, their own cities, their own citizens may be next. Terror, unanswered, can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability of legitimate governments. And you know what -- we're not going to allow it. (Applause.)
Americans are asking: What is expected of us? I ask you to live your lives, and hug your children. I know many citizens have fears tonight, and I ask you to be calm and resolute, even in the face of a continuing threat.
I ask you to uphold the values of America, and remember why so many have come here. We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them. No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith. (Applause.)
I ask you to continue to support the victims of this tragedy with your contributions. Those who want to give can go to a central source of information, libertyunites.org, to find the names of groups providing direct help in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
The thousands of FBI agents who are now at work in this investigation may need your cooperation, and I ask you to give it.
I ask for your patience, with the delays and inconveniences that may accompany tighter security; and for your patience in what will be a long struggle.
I ask your continued participation and confidence in the American economy. Terrorists attacked a symbol of American prosperity. They did not touch its source. America is successful because of the hard work, and creativity, and enterprise of our people. These were the true strengths of our economy before September 11th, and they are our strengths today. (Applause.)
And, finally, please continue praying for the victims of terror and their families, for those in uniform, and for our great country. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow, and will help strengthen us for the journey ahead.
Tonight I thank my fellow Americans for what you have already done and for what you will do. And ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, I thank you, their representatives, for what you have already done and for what we will do together.
Tonight, we face new and sudden national challenges. We will come together to improve air safety, to dramatically expand the number of air marshals on domestic flights, and take new measures to prevent hijacking. We will come together to promote stability and keep our airlines flying, with direct assistance during this emergency. (Applause.)
We will come together to give law enforcement the additional tools it needs to track down terror here at home. (Applause.) We will come together to strengthen our intelligence capabilities to know the plans of terrorists before they act, and find them before they strike. (Applause.)
We will come together to take active steps that strengthen America's economy, and put our people back to work.
Tonight we welcome two leaders who embody the extraordinary spirit of all New Yorkers: Governor George Pataki, and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. (Applause.) As a symbol of America's resolve, my administration will work with Congress, and these two leaders, to show the world that we will rebuild New York City. (Applause.)
After all that has just passed -- all the lives taken, and all the possibilities and hopes that died with them -- it is natural to wonder if America's future is one of fear. Some speak of an age of terror. I know there are struggles ahead, and dangers to face. But this country will define our times, not be defined by them. As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror; this will be an age of liberty, here and across the world. (Applause.)
Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom -- the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time -- now depends on us. Our nation -- this generation -- will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. (Applause.)
It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal. We'll go back to our lives and routines, and that is good. Even grief recedes with time and grace. But our resolve must not pass. Each of us will remember what happened that day, and to whom it happened. We'll remember the moment the news came -- where we were and what we were doing. Some will remember an image of a fire, or a story of rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever.
And I will carry this: It is the police shield of a man named George Howard, who died at the World Trade Center trying to save others. It was given to me by his mom, Arlene, as a proud memorial to her son. This is my reminder of lives that ended, and a task that does not end. (Applause.)
I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.
The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. (Applause.)
Fellow citizens, we'll meet violence with patient justice -- assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America.
Thank you.
Sept. 14, 1786
Proceedings of the Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the Federal Government, Annapolis in the State of Maryland. September 14, 1786.
To the Honorable, The Legislatures of Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York - assembled at Annapolis, humbly beg leave to report.
That, pursuant to their several appointments, they met, at Annapolis in the State of Maryland on the eleventh day of September Instant, and having proceeded to a Communication of their Powers; they found that the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, had, in substance, and nearly in the same terms, authorized their respective Commissions "to meet such other Commissioners as were, or might be, appointed by the other States in the Union, at such time and place as should be agreed upon by the said Commissions to take into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States, to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial intercourse and regulations might be necessary to their common interest and permanent harmony, and to report to the several States such an Act, relative to this great object, as when unanimously by them would enable the United States in Congress assembled effectually to proved for the same."...
That the State of New Jersey had enlarged the object of their appointment, empowering their Commissioners, "to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations and other important matters, mighty be necessary to the common interest and permanent harmony of the several States," and to report such an Act on the subject, as when ratified by them, "would enable the United States in Congress assembled, effectually to provide for the exigencies of the Union."
That appointments of Commissioners have also been made by the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North Carolina, none of whom, however, have attended; but that no information has been received by your Commissioners, of any appointment having been made by the States of Connecticut, Maryland, South Carolina or Georgia.
That the express terms of the powers of your Commissioners supposing a deputation from all the States, and having for object the Trade and Commerce of the United States, Your Commissioners did not conceive it advisable to proceed on the business of their mission, under the Circumstances of so partial and defective a representation.
Deeply impressed, however, with the magnitude and importance of the object confided to them on this occasion, your Commissioners cannot forbear to indulge an expression of their earnest and unanimous wish, that speedy measures be taken, to effect a general meeting, of the States, in a future Convention, for the same, and such other purposes, as the situation of public affairs may be found to require.
If in expressing this wish, or in intimating any other sentiment, your Commissioners should seem to exceed the strict bounds of their appointment, they entertain a full confidence, that a conduct, dictated by an anxiety for the welfare of the United States, will not fail to receive an indulgent construction.
In this persuasion, your Commissioners submit an opinion, that the Idea of extending the powers of their Deputies, to other objects, than those of Commerce, which has been adopted by the State of New Jersey, was an improvement on the original plan, and will deserve to be incorporated into that of a future Convention; they are the more naturally led to this conclusion, as in the course of their reflections on the subject, they have been induced to think, that the power of regulating trade is of such comprehensive extent, and will enter so far into the general System of the federal government, that to give it efficacy, and to obviate questions and doubts concerning its precise nature and limits, may require a correspondent adjustment of other parts of the Federal System.
That there are important defects in the system of the Federal Government is acknowledged by the Acts of all those States, which have concurred in the present Meeting; That the defects, upon a closer examination, may be found greater and more numerous, than even these acts imply, is at least so far probably, from the embarrassments which characterize the present State of our national affairs, foreign and domestic, as may reasonably be supposed to merit a deliberate and candid discussion, in some mode, which will unite the Sentiments and Councils of all the States. In the choice of the mode, your Commissioners are of opinion, that a Convention of Deputies from the different States, for the special and sole purpose of entering into this investigation, and digesting a plan for supplying such defects as may be discovered to exist, will be entitled to a preference from considerations, which will occur without being particularized.
Your Commissioners decline an enumeration of those national circumstances on which their opinion respecting the propriety of a future Convention, with more enlarged powers, is founded; as it would be a useless intrusion of facts and observations, most of which have been frequently the subject of public discussion, and none of which can have escaped the penetration of those to whom they would in this instance be addressed. They are, however, of a nature so serious, as, in the view of your Commissioners, to render the situation of the United States delicate and critical, calling for an exertion of the untied virtue and wisdom of all the members of the Confederacy.
Under this impression, Your Commissioners, with the most respectful deference, beg leave to suggest their unanimous conviction that it may essentially tend to advance the interests of the union if the States, by whom they have been respectively delegated, would themselves concur, and use their endeavors to procure the concurrence of the other States, in the appointment of Commissioners, to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May next, to take into consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such an Act for that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as when agreed to, by them, and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State, will effectually provide for the same.
Though your Commissioners could not with propriety address these observations and sentiments to any but the States they have the honor to represent, they have nevertheless concluded from motives of respect, to transmit copies of the Report to the United States in Congress assembled, and to the executives of the other States.
To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting.
Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
I. The Stile of this Confederacy shall be "The United States of America".
II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
III. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.
IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of each State shall free ingress and regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any State, to any other State, of which the owner is an inhabitant; provided also that no imposition, duties or restriction shall be laid by any State, on the property of the United States, or either of them.
If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor in any State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of the Governor or executive power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having jurisdiction of his offense.
Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State.
V. For the most convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislatures of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a powerreserved to each State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead for the remainder of the year.
No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees or emolument of any kind.
Each State shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the States, and while they act as members of the committee of the States.
In determining questions in the United States in Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote.
Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Congress, and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests or imprisonments, during the time of their going to and from, and attendence on Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace.
VI. No State, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance or treaty with any King, Prince or State; nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, accept any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any King, Prince or foreign State; nor shall the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility.
No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue.
No State shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties, entered into by the United States in Congress assembled, with any King, Prince or State, in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress, to the courts of France and Spain.
No vessel of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any State, except such number only, as shall be deemed necessary by the United States in Congress assembled, for the defense of such State, or its trade; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any State in time of peace, except such number only, as in the judgement of the United States in Congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defense of such State; but every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutered, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of filed pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equipage.
No State shall engage in any war without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such State, and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of a delay till the United States in Congress assembled can be consulted; nor shall any State grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the United States in Congress assembled, and then only against the Kingdom or State and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as shall be established by the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the United States in Congress assembled shall determine otherwise.
VII. When land forces are raised by any State for the common defense, all officers of or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the legislature of each State respectively, by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such State shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the State which first made the appointment.
VIII. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all land within each State, granted or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated according to such mode as the United States in Congress assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint.
The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several States within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled.
IX. The United States in Congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article -- of sending and receiving ambassadors -- entering into treaties and alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners, as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of goods or commodities whatsoever -- of establishing rules for deciding in all cases, what captures on land or water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United States shall be divided or appropriated -- of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace -- appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies commited on the high seas and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of captures, provided that no member of Congress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts.
The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the last resort on appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting or that hereafter may arise between two or more States concerning boundary, jurisdiction or any other causes whatever; which authority shall always be exercised in the manner following. Whenever the legislative or executive authority or lawful agent of any State in controversy with another shall present a petition to Congress stating the matter in question and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of Congress to the legislative or executive authority of the other State in controversy, and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint by joint consent, commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter in question: but if they cannot agree, Congress shall name three persons out of each of the United States, and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number shall be reduced to thirteen; and from that number not less than seven, nor more than nine names as Congress shall direct, shall in the presence of Congress be drawn out by lot, and the persons whose names shall be so drawn or any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges who shall hear the cause shall agree in the determination: and if either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons, which Congress shall judge sufficient, or being present shall refuse to strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each State, and the secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or refusing; and the judgement and sentence of the court to be appointed, in the manner before prescribed, shall be final and conclusive; and if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence, or judgement, which shall in like manner be final and decisive, the judgement or sentence and other proceedings being in either case transmitted to Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress for the security of the parties concerned: provided that every commissioner, before he sits in judgement, shall take an oath to be administered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court of the State, where the cause shall be tried, 'well and truly to hear and determine the matter in question, according to the best of his judgement, without favor, affection or hope of reward': provided also, that no State shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States.
All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed under different grants of two or more States, whose jurisdictions as they may respect such lands, and the States which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall on the petition of either party to the Congress of the United States, be finally determined as near as may be in the same manner as is before presecribed for deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different States.
The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective States -- fixing the standards of weights and measures throughout the United States -- regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States, provided that the legislative right of any State within its own limits be not infringed or violated -- establishing or regulating post offices from one State to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office -- appointing all officers of the land forces, in the service of the United States, excepting regimental officers -- appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States -- making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations.
The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated 'A Committee of the States', and to consist of one delegate from each State; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction
-- to appoint one of their members to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses -- to borrow money, or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half-year to the respective States an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted
-- to build and equip a navy -- to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such State; which requisition shall be binding, and thereupon the legislature of each State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men and cloath, arm and equip them in a solid-like manner, at the expense of the United States; and the officers and men so cloathed, armed and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled. But if the United States in Congress assembled shall, on consideration of circumstances judge proper that any State should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, cloathed, armed and equipped in the same manner as the quota of each State, unless the legislature of such State shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spread out in the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, cloath, arm and equip as many of such extra number as they judeg can be safely spared. And the officers and men so cloathed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled.
The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque or reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defense and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war, to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander in chief of the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same: nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day be determined, unless by the votes of the majority of the United States in Congress assembled.
The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances or military operations, as in their judgement require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State on any question shall be entered on the journal, when it is desired by any delegates of a State, or any of them, at his or their request shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several States.
X. The Committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States in Congress assembled, by the consent of the nine States, shall from time to time think expedient to vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said Committee, for the exercise of which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine States in the Congress of the United States assembled be requisite.
XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and adjoining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this Union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States.
XII. All bills of credit emitted, monies borrowed, and debts contracted by, or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States, and the public faith are hereby solemnly pleged.
XIII. Every State shall abide by the determination of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State.
And Whereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union. Know Ye that we the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained: And we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions, which by the said Confederation are submitted to them. And that the Articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the States we respectively represent, and that the Union shall be perpetual.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Eight, and in the Third Year of the independence of America.
Agreed to by Congress 15 November 1777
In force after ratification by Maryland, 1 March 1781
JOINT RESOLUTION Declaring that a state of war exists between the Imperial Government of Japan and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.
Whereas the Imperial Government of Japan has committed unprovoked acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial Government of Japan which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.
Approved, December 8, 1941, 4:10 p.m. E.S.T.
CHARLES THE SECOND, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, defender of the Faith, &c.; To all to whome theis presents shall come Greetinge:
WHEREAS, by the severall Navigacons, discoveryes and susccessfull Plantacons of diverse of our loving Subjects of this our Realme of England, Severall Lands, Islands,Places, Colonies and Plantacons have byn obtayned and setled in that parte of the Continent of America called New England, and thereby the Trade and Comerce there hath byn of late yeares much increased,
AND WHEREAS, wee have byn informed by the humble Peticon of our Trusty and welbeloved John Winthrop, John Mason, Samuell Willis, Henry Clerke, Mathew Allen, John Tappen, Nathan Gold, Richard Treate, Richard Lord, Henry Woolicott, John Talcott, Daniell Clerke, John Ogden, Thomas Wells, Obedias Brewen, John Clerke, Anthony Haukins, John Deming and Mathew Camfeild, being Persons Principally interested in our Colony or Plantacon of Connecticut in New England, that the same Colony or the greatest parte thereof was purchased and obteyned for greate and valuable Consideracons, And some other part thereof gained by Conquest and with much difficulty, and att the onely endeavours, expence and Charge of them and their Associates, and those vnder whome they Clayme, Subdued and improved, and thereby become a considerable enlargement and addicon of our Dominions and interest there.
--NOW KNOW YEA, that in consideracion thereof, and in regard the said Colony is remote from other the English Plantacons in the Places aforesaid, And to the end the Affaires and Business which shall from tyme to tyme happen or arise concerning the same may be duely Ordered and managed.
WEE HAVE thought fitt, and att the humble Peticon of the Persons aforesaid, and are graciously pleased to Create and Make them a Body Pollitique and Corporate, with the powers and Priviliges herein after menconed; And Accordingly Our will and pleasure is, and of our especiall grace, certeine knowledge and meere mocon wee have Ordeyned, Constituted and Declared, And by theis presents, for vs, our heires and Successors, Doe Ordeine, Constitute and Declare That they, the said John Winthrop, John Mason, Samuell Willis, Henry Clerke, Mathew Allen, John Tappen, Nathan Gold, Richard Treate, Richard Lord, Henry Woollcot, John Talcot, Daniell Clerke, John Ogden, Thomas Wells, Obadiah Brewen, John Clerke, Anthony Hawkins, John Deming and Mathew Camfeild, and all such others as now are or hereafter shall bee Admitted and made free of the Company and Society of our Collony of Connecticut in America, shall from tyme to tyme and forever hereafter, bee one Body Corporate and Pollitique in fact and name, by the Name of Governour and Company of the English Collony of Connecticut in New England in America; And that by the same name they and their Successors shall and may have perpetuall Succession, and shall and mey bee Persons able and Capable in the law to Plead and bee Impleaded, to Answere and to be Answered vnto, to Defend and bee Defended in all and Singular, Suits, Causes, quarrelles, Matters, Accons and things of what kind or nature soever, And alsoe to have, take, possesse, acquire and purchase lands Tenements or hereditaments, or any goods or Chattells, and the same to, Lease, Graunt, Demise, Alien, bargaine, Sell and dispose of, as other our leige People of this our Realme of England, or any other Corporacon or Body Politique within the same may lawfully doe.
AND FURTHER, that the said Governour and Company, and their Successors shall and may for ever hereafter have a Comon Seale to serve and vse for all Causes, matters, things and affaires, whatsoever of them and their Successors, and the same Seale to alter, change, breake and make new from tyme to tyme att their wills and pleasures, as they shall thinke fitt. And further, wee will and Ordeine, and by theis presents for vs, our heires and Successors Doe Declare and appoint, that for the better ordering and manageing of the affaires and businesse of the said Company and their Successors, there shall be one Governour, one Deputy Governour and Twelve Assistants to bee from tyme to tyme Constituted, Elected and Chosen out of the Freemen of the said Company for the tyme being, in such manner and forme as hereafter in these presents is expressed; which said Officers shall apply themselves to take care for the best disposeing and Ordering of the Generall business and affaires of and concerning the lands and hereditaments herein after menconed to bee graunted, and the Plantacon thereof and the Government of the People thereof. And for the better execucon of our Royall Pleasure herein, WEE DOE for vs, our heires and Successors, Assigne, name, Constitute and appoint the aforesaid John Winthrop to bee the first and present Governour of the said Company; And the said John Mason to bee the Deputy Governour; And the said Samuell Willis, Mathew Allen, Nathan Gold, Henry Clerke, Richard Treat, John Ogden, Thomas Tappen, John Talcott, Thomas Wells, Henry Woolcot, Richard Lord and Daniell Clerke to bee the Twelve present Assistants of the said Company; to contynue in the said severall Offices respectively, vntill the second Thursday which shall bee in the moneth of October now next comeing.
AND FURTHER, wee will, and by theis presents for vs, our heires and Successors DOE Ordaine and Graunt that the Governour of the said Company for the tyme being, or, in his absence by occasion of sicknes, or otherwise by his leave or permission, the Deputy Governour for the tyme being, shall and may from tyme to tyme vpon all occasions give Order for the assembling of the said Company and calling them together to Consult and advise of the businesse and Affairs of the said Company, And that for ever hereafter Twice in every yeare, (That is to say,) on every Second Thursday in October and on every Second Thursday in May, or oftener, in Case it shall bee requisite, The Assistants and freemen of the said Company, or such of them, (not exceeding twoe Persons from each Place, Towne or Citty) whoe, shall bee from tyme to tyme therevnto Elected or deputed by the major parte of the freemen of the respective Townes, Cittyes and Places for which they shall bee soe elected or Deputed, shall have a generall meeting or Assembly, then and their to Consult and advise in and about the Affaires And businesse of the said Company; And that the Governour, or in his absence the Deputy Governour of the said Company for the tyme being, and such of the Assistants and freemen of the said Company as shall be soe Elected or Deputed and bee present att such meeting or Assembly, or the greatest number of them, whereof the Governour or Deputy Governour and Six of the Assistants, at least, to bee Seaven, shall be called the Generall Assembly, and shall have full power and authority to alter and change their dayes and tymes of meeting or Generall Assemblies for Electing the Governour, Deputy Governour and Assistants or other Officers or any other Courts, Assemblies or meetings, and to Choose, Nominate and appoint such and soe many other Persons as they shall thinke fitt and shall bee willing to accept the same, to bee free of the said Company and Body Politique, and them into the same to Admitt and to Elect, and Constitute such Officers as they shall thinke fitt and requisite for the Ordering, Manageing and disposeing of the Affaires of the said Governour and Company and their Successors. AND WEE DOE hereby for vs, our heires and Successors, Establish and Ordeine, that once in the yeare for ever hereafter, namely, the said Second Thursday in May, the Governour, Deputy Governour, and Assistants of the said Company and other Officers of the said Company, or such of them as the said Generall Assembly shall thinke fitt, shall bee in the said Generall Court and Assembly to be held from that day or tyme, newly Chosen for the yeare ensuing, by such greater parte of the said Company for the tyme being then and there present. And if the Governour, Deputy Governour and Assistants by these presents appointed, or such as hereafter bee newly Chosen into their Roomes, or any of them, or any other the Officers to bee appointed for the said Company shall dye or bee removed from his or their severall Offices or Places before the said Generall day of Eleccon, whome wee doe hereby Declare for any misdemeanour or default to bee removeable by the Governour, Assistants and Company, or such greater part of them in any of the said publique Courts to be Assembled as is aforesaid, That then and in every such Case itt shall and may bee lawfull to and for the Governour, Deputy Governour and Assistants and Company aforesaid, or such greater parte of them soe to bee Assembled as is aforesaid in any of their Assemblies, to proceede to a New Eleccon of one or more of their Company in the Roome or place, Roomes or Places of such Governour, Deputy Governour, Assistant or other Officer or Officers soe dyeing or removed, according to their discretions; and immediately vpon and after such Eleccon or Eleccons made of such Governour, Deputy Governour, Assistant or Assistants, or any other Officer of the said Company in manner and forme, Aforesaid, The Authority Office and Power before given to the former Governour, Deputy Governour or other Officer and Officers soe removed, in whose stead and Place new shall be chosen, shall as to him and them and every of them respectively cease and determine.
PULMVIDED, alsoe, and our will and pleasure is, That as well such as are by theis presents appointed to bee the present Governour, Deputy Governour and Assistants of the said Company as those that shall succeed them, and all other Officers to bee appointed and Chosen as aforesaid, shall, before they vndertake the Execucon of their said Offices and places respectively, take their severall and respective Corporall Oathes for the due and faithfull performance of their dutyes in their severall Offices and Places, before such Person or Persons as are by these Presents hereafter appoynted to take and receive the same; That is to say, the said John Winthrop, whoe is herein before nominated and appointed the present Governour of the said Company, shall take the said Oath before one or more of the Masters of our Court of Chancery for the tyme being, vnto which Master of Chancery WEE DOE, by theis presents, give full power and authority to administer the said Oath to the said John Winthrop accordingly. And the said John Mason, whoe is herein before nominated and appointed the present Deputy Governour of the said Company, shall take the said Oath before the said John Winthrop, or any twoe of the Assistants of the said Company, vnto whome WEE DOE by these presents, give full power and authority to Administer the said Oath to the said John Mason accordingly. And the said Samuell Willis, Henry Clerke, Mathew Allen, John Tappen, Nathan Gold, Richard Treate, Richard Lord, Henry Woolcott, John Talcott, Daniell Clerke, John Ogden and Thomas Welles, whoe are herein before Nominated and appointed the present Assistants of the said Company, shall take the Oath before the said John Winthrop and John Mason, or one of them, to whome WEE DOE hereby give full power and authority to Administer the same accordingly. And our further will and pleasure, is that all and every Governour or Deputy Governour to bee Elected and Chosen by vertue of theis presents, shall take the said Oath before two or more of the Assistants of the said Company for the tyme being, vnto whom wee doe, by theis presents, give full power and authority to give and Administer the said Oath accordingly. And the said Assistants and every of them, and all and every other Officer or Officers to bee hereafter Chosen from tyme to tyme, to take the said Oath before the Governour or Deputy Governour for the tyme being, vnto which said Governour or Deputy Governour wee doe, by theis presents, give full power and authority to Administer the same accordingly.
AND FURTHER, of our more ample grace, certeine knowledge and meere mocon WEE HAVE given and Graunted, and by theis presents, for vs, our heires and Successors, ULME give and Graunt vnto the said Governour and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut in New England in America, and to every Inhabitant there, and to every Person and Persons Trading thither, And to every such Person and Persons as are or shall bee free of the said Collony, full power and authority from tyme to tyme and att all tymes hereafter, to take, Ship, Transport and Carry away, for and towards the Plantacon and defence of the said Collony such of our loveing Subjects and Strangers as shall or will willingly accompany them in and to their said Collony and Plantacon: (Except such Person and Persons as are or shall bee therein restrayned by vs, our heires and Successors:) And alsoe to Ship and Transport all and all manner of goods, Chattells, Merchandizes and other things whatsoever that are or shall be vsefull or necessary for the Inhabitants of the said Collony and may lawfully bee Transported thither; Neverthe lesse, not to bee discharged of payment to vs, our heires and Successors, of the Dutyes, Customes and Subsidies which are or ought to bee paid or payable for the same.
AND FURTHER, Our will and pleasure is, and WEE DOE for vs, our heires and Successors, Ordeyne, Declare and Graunt vnto the said Governour and Company and their Successors, That all and every the Subjects of vs, our heires or Successors which shall goe to Inhabite within the said Colony, and every of their Children which shall happen to bee borne there or on the Sea in goeing thither or returneing from thence, shall have and enjoye all liberties and immunities of free and naturall Subjects within any the Dominions of vs, our heires or Successors, to all intents, Construccons and purposes whatsoever, as if they and every of them were borne within the Realme of England,
AND WEE DOE authorize and impower the Governour, or in his absence the Deputy Governour for the tyme being, to appointe two or more of the said assistants att any of their Courts or Assemblyes to bee held as aforesaid, to have power and authority to Administer the Oath of Supremacy and obedience to all and every Person and Persons which shall att any tyme or tymes hereafter goe or passe into the said Colony of Connecticutt, vnto which said Assistants soe to bee appointed as aforesaid, WEE DOE, by these presents, give full power and authority to Administer the said Oath accordingly.
AND WEE DOE FURTHER, of our especiall grace, certeine knowledge and meere mocon, give and Graunt vnto the said Governour and Company of the English Colony of Connecticutt in New England in America, and their Successors, that itt shall and may bee lawful to and for the Governour or Deputy Governour and such of the Assistants of the said Company for the tyme being as shall bee Assembled in any of the Generall Courts aforesaid, or in any Courts to be especially Sumoned or Assembled for that purpose, or the greater parte of them, whereof the Governour or Deputy Governour and Six of the Assistants, to be all wayes Seaven, to Erect and make such Judicatories for the heareing and Determining of all Accons, Causes, matters and things happening within the said Colony or Plantacon and which shall bee in dispute and depending there, as they shall thinke fitt and convenient; And alsoe from tyme to tyme to Make, Ordaine and Establish All manner of wholesome and reasonable Lawes, Statutes, Ordinances, Direccons and Instruccons, not contrary to the laws of this Realme of England, as well for setling the formes and Ceremonies of Government and Magestracy fitt and necessary for the said Plantacon and the Inhabitants there as for naming and Stileing all sorts of Officers, both superior and inferior, which they shall find needfull for the Government and Plantacon of the said Colony, and the distinguishing and setting forth of the severall Dutyes, Powers and Lymitts of every such Office and Place, and the formes of such Oaths, not being contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this our Realme of England, to bee administered for the Execucon of the said severall Offices and Places; As alsoe for the disposeing and Ordering of the Eleccon of such of the said Officers as are to bee Annually Chosen, and of such others as shall succeed in case of death or removall, and Administering the said Oath to the new Elected Officers, and Graunting necessary Comissions, and for imposicon of lawfull Fines, Mulcts, Imprisonment or other Punishment vpon Offenders and Delinquents, according to the Course of other Corporacons within this our Kingdome of England, and the same Lawes, fines, Mulcts and Execucons to alter, change, revoke, adnull, release or Pardon, vnder their Comon Seale, As by the said Generall Assembly or the major part of them shall be thought fitt; And for the directing, ruleing and disposing of all other matters and things whereby our said people, Inhabitants there, may bee soe religiously, peaceably and civilly Governed as their good life and orderly Conversacon may wynn and invite the Natives of the Country to the knowledge and obedience of the onely true God and Saviour of mankind, and the Christian faith, which in our Royall intencons and the Adventurers free profession is the onely and principall end of this Plantacon; WILLING, Commanding and requireing, and by these presents, for vs, our heires and Successors, Ordaineing and appointeing. That all such Lawes, Statutes and Ordinances, Instruccons, Imposicons, and Direccons as shall bee soe made by the Governour, Deputy Governour, and Assistants, as aforesaid, and published in writeing vnder their Comon Seale, shall carefully and duely bee observed, kept, performed and putt in execucion, according to the true intent and meaning of the same.
AND these our letters Patents, or the Duplicate or Exemplification thereof, shall bee to all and every such Officers, Superiors and inferiors, from tyme to tyme, for the Putting of the same Orders, Lawes, Statutes, Ordinances, Instruccons and Direccons in due Execucon, against vs, our heires and Successors, a sufficient warrant and discharge.
AND WEE DOE FURTHER, for vs, our heires and Successors, give and Graunt vnto the said Governor and Company and their Successors, by these presents, That itt shall and may bee lawfull to and for the chiefe Commanders, Governours and Officers of the said Company for the tyme being whoe shall bee resident in the parts of New England hereafter menconed, and others inhabitating there by their leave, admittance, appointment or direccon, from tyme to tyme and att all tymes hereafter, for their speciall defence and safety, to Assemble, Martiall, Array, and putt in Warlike posture the Inhabitants of the said Colony, and to; Commissionate, Impower and authorize such Person or Persons as they shall thinke fitt to lead and Conduct the said Inhabitants, and to encounter, expulse, repell and resist by force of Armes, as well by Sea as by land, And alsoe to kill, Slay and destroy, by all fitting wayes, enterprizes and meanes whatsoever, all and every such Person or Persons as shall at any tyme hereafter Attempt or enterprize the destruccon, Invasion, detriment or annoyance of the said Inhabitants or Plantacon, And to vse and exercise the law Martiall, in such Cases onely as occasion shall require, And to take or surprize by all wayes and meanes whatsoever, all and every such Person and Persons, with their Shipps, Armour, Ammunicon, and other goods of such as shall in such hostile manner invade or attempt the defeating of the said Plantacon or the hurt of the said Company and Inhabitants; and vpon just Causes to invade and destroy the Natives or other Enemyes of the said Colony.
NEVERTHELESSE, Our Will and pleasure is, AND WEE DOE hereby Declare vnto all Christian Kings, Princes and States, That if any Persons which shall hereafter Bee of the said Company or Plantacon, or any other, by appointment of the said Governor and Company for the tyme being, shall at any tyme or tymes hereafter Robb or Spoile by Sea or by land, and doe any hurt, violence or unlawful hostility to any of the Subjects of vs, our heires or Successors, or any of the Subjects of any Prince or State beinge then in league with vs, our heires or Successors, vpon Complaint of such injury done to any such Prince or State, or their Subjects WEE, our heires and Successors, will make open Proclamacon within any parts of our Realme of England fitt for that purpose, That the Person or Persons committinge any such Robbery or Spoile, shall within the tyme lymitted by such Proclamacon, make full restitucon or satisfaccon of all such injuries done or committed, Soe as the said Prince or others soe complayneing may bee fully satisfied and contented. And if the said Person or Persons whoe shall committ any such Robbery or Spoile shall not make satisfaccon accordingly, within such tyme soe to bee limited, That then itt shall and may bee lawful for vs, our heires and Successors, to put such Person or Persons out of our Allegiance and Proteccon: And that it shall and may bee lawfull and free for all Princes or others to Prosecute with hostility such Offenders and every of them, their and every of their Procurers, ayders, Abettors and Councellors in that behalfe. PULMVIDED, alsoe, and our expresse will and pleasure is, AND WEE DOE by these presents for vs, our heires and Successors, Ordeyne and appointe that these presents shall not in any manner hinder any of our loveing Subjects whatsoever to vse and exercise the Trade of Fishinge vpon the coast of New England in America, but they and every or any of them shall have full and free power and liberty to contynue and vse the said Trade of Fishing upon the said Coast, in any of the Seas therevnto adioyning, or any Armes of the Seas or Salt Water Rivers where they have byn accustomed to Fish, and to build and sett vpon the wast land belonging to the said Colony of Connecticutt, such Wharfes, Stages and workehouses as shall bee necessary for the Salting, dryeing and keeping of their Fish to bee taken or gotten vpon that Coast, any thinge in these presents conteyened to the contrary notwithstanding.
AND KNOWE YEE FURTHER, That Wee, of our more abundant grace, certaine knowledge and meere mocon HAVE given, Graunted and Confirmed, And by theis presents for vs, our heires and Successors, DOE give, Graunt and Confirme vnto the said Governor and Company and their Successors, AULM that parte of our Dominions in Newe England in America bounded on the East by Norrogancett River, commonly called Norrogancett Bay, where the said River falleth into the Sea, and on the North by the lyne of the Massachusetts Plantacon, and on the South by the Sea, and in longitude as the lyne of the Massachusetts Colony, runinge from East to West, (that is to say,) from the Said Norrogancett Bay on the East to the South Sea on the West parte, with the Islands thervnto adioyneinge, Together with all firme lands, Soyles, Grounds, Havens, Ports, Rivers, Waters, Fishings, Mynes, Mynerals, Precious Stones, Quarries, and all and singular other Comodities, Iurisdiccons, Royalties, Priviledges, Francheses, Preheminences, and hereditaments whatsoever within the said Tract, Bounds, lands and Islands aforesaid, or to them or any of them belonging.
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the same vnto the said Governor and Company, their Successors and Assignes, for ever vpon Trust and for the vse and benefitt of themselves and their Associates, freemen of the said Colony, their heires and Assignes, TO BEE HOLDEN of vs, our heires and Successors, as of our Mannor of East Greenewich, in Free and Common Soccage, and not in Capite nor by Knights Service, YULMLDING AND PAYINGE therefore to vs, our heires and Successors, onely the Fifth parte of all the Oare of Gold and Silver which from tyme to tyme and at all tymes hereafter shall bee there gotten, had or obteyned, in liew of all Services, Dutyes and Demaunds whatsoever, to bee to vs, our heires or Successors, therefore or thereout rendered, made or paid.
AND LASTLY, Wee doe for vs, our heires, and Successors, Graunt to the said Governor and Company and their Successors, by these presents, that these our Letters Patent shall bee firme, good and effectuall in the lawe to all intents, Construccons and purposes whatsoever, accordinge to our true intent and meaneing herein before Declared, as shall be Construed, reputed and adiudged most favourable on the behalfe and for the best benefitt and behoofe of the said Governor and Company and their Successors, ALTHOUGH EXPRESSE MENCON of the true yearely value or certeinty of the premises, or of any of them, or of any other Guifts or Graunts by vs or by any of our Progenitors or Predecessors heretofore made to the said Governor and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut in New England in America aforesaid in theis presents is not made, or any Statute, Act, Ordinance, Provision, Proclamacon or Restriccon heretofore had, made. Enacted, Ordeyned or Provided, or any other matter, Cause or thinge whatsoever to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.
IN WITNES whereof, we have caused these our Letters to be made Patent; WITNES our Selfe, att Westminister, the three and Twentieth day of Aprill, in the Fowerteenth yeare of our Reigne.
By writt of Privy Seale
HOWARD
[Article XI.]
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
Proposal and Ratification
The eleventh amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Third Congress, on the 4th of March 1794; and was declared in a message from the President to Congress, dated the 8th of January, 1798, to have been ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States. The dates of ratification were: New York, March 27, 1794; Rhode Island, March 31, 1794; Connecticut, May 8, 1794; New Hampshire, June 16, 1794; Massachusetts, June 26, 1794; Vermont, between October 9, 1794 and November 9, 1794; Virginia, November 18, 1794; Georgia, November 29, 1794; Kentucky, December 7, 1794; Maryland, December 26, 1794; Delaware, January 23, 1795; North Carolina, February 7, 1795.
Ratification was completed on February 7, 1795.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by South Carolina on December 4, 1797. New Jersey and Pennsylvania did not take action on the amendment.
[Article XII.]
The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. (See Note 14)--The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
Proposal and Ratification The twelfth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Eighth Congress, on the 9th of December, 1803, in lieu of the original third paragraph of the first section of the second article; and was declared in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the 25th of September, 1804, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 13 of the 17 States. The dates of ratification were: North Carolina, December 21, 1803; Maryland, December 24, 1803; Kentucky, December 27, 1803; Ohio, December 30, 1803; Pennsylvania, January 5, 1804; Vermont, January 30, 1804; Virginia, February 3, 1804; New York, February 10, 1804; New Jersey, February 22, 1804; Rhode Island, March 12, 1804; South Carolina, May 15, 1804; Georgia, May 19, 1804; New Hampshire, June 15, 1804.
Ratification was completed on June 15, 1804.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Tennessee, July 27, 1804.
The amendment was rejected by Delaware, January 18, 1804; Massachusetts, February 3, 1804; Connecticut, at its session begun May 10, 1804.
Article XIII.
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Proposal and Ratification
The thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Thirty-eighth Congress, on the 31st day of January, 1865, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the 18th of December, 1865, to have been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-seven of the thirty-six States. The dates of ratification were: Illinois, February 1, 1865; Rhode Island, February 2, 1865; Michigan, February 2, 1865; Maryland, February 3, 1865; New York, February 3, 1865; Pennsylvania, February 3, 1865; West Virginia, February 3, 1865; Missouri, February 6, 1865; Maine, February 7, 1865; Kansas, February 7, 1865; Massachusetts, February 7, 1865; Virginia, February 9, 1865; Ohio, February 10, 1865; Indiana, February 13, 1865; Nevada, February 16, 1865; Louisiana, February 17, 1865; Minnesota, February 23, 1865; Wisconsin, February 24, 1865; Vermont, March 9, 1865; Tennessee, April 7, 1865; Arkansas, April 14, 1865; Connecticut, May 4, 1865; New Hampshire, July 1, 1865; South Carolina, November 13, 1865; Alabama, December 2, 1865; North Carolina, December 4, 1865; Georgia, December 6, 1865.
Ratification was completed on December 6, 1865.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Oregon, December 8, 1865; California, December 19, 1865; Florida, December 28, 1865 (Florida again ratified on June 9, 1868, upon its adoption of a new constitution); Iowa, January 15, 1866; New Jersey, January 23, 1866 (after having rejected the amendment on March 16, 1865); Texas, February 18, 1870; Delaware, February 12, 1901 (after having rejected the amendment on February 8, 1865); Kentucky, March 18, 1976 (after having rejected it on February 24, 1865).
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by Mississippi, December 4, 1865.
Article XIV.
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,(See Note 15) and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Proposal and Ratification
The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Thirty-ninth Congress, on the 13th of June, 1866. It was declared, in a certificate of the Secretary of State dated July 28, 1868 to have been ratified by the legislatures of 28 of the 37 States. The dates of ratification were: Connecticut, June 25, 1866; New Hampshire, July 6, 1866; Tennessee, July 19, 1866; New Jersey, September 11, 1866 (subsequently the legislature rescinded its ratification, and on March 24, 1868, readopted its resolution of rescission over the Governor's veto, and on Nov. 12, 1980, expressed support for the amendment); Oregon, September 19, 1866 (and rescinded its ratification on October 15, 1868); Vermont, October 30, 1866; Ohio, January 4, 1867 (and rescinded its ratification on January 15, 1868); New York, January 10, 1867; Kansas, January 11, 1867; Illinois, January 15, 1867; West Virginia, January 16, 1867; Michigan, January 16, 1867; Minnesota, January 16, 1867; Maine, January 19, 1867; Nevada, January 22, 1867; Indiana, January 23, 1867; Missouri, January 25, 1867; Rhode Island, February 7, 1867; Wisconsin, February 7, 1867; Pennsylvania, February 12, 1867; Massachusetts, March 20, 1867; Nebraska, June 15, 1867; Iowa, March 16, 1868; Arkansas, April 6, 1868; Florida, June 9, 1868; North Carolina, July 4, 1868 (after having rejected it on December 14, 1866); Louisiana, July 9, 1868 (after having rejected it on February 6, 1867); South Carolina, July 9, 1868 (after having rejected it on December 20, 1866).
Ratification was completed on July 9, 1868.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Alabama, July 13, 1868; Georgia, July 21, 1868 (after having rejected it on November 9, 1866); Virginia, October 8, 1869 (after having rejected it on January 9, 1867); Mississippi, January 17, 1870; Texas, February 18, 1870 (after having rejected it on October 27, 1866); Delaware, February 12, 1901 (after having rejected it on February 8, 1867); Maryland, April 4, 1959 (after having rejected it on March 23, 1867); California, May 6, 1959; Kentucky, March 18, 1976 (after having rejected it on January 8, 1867).
Article XV.
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Proposal and Ratification
The fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Fortieth Congress, on the 26th of February, 1869, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated March 30, 1870, to have been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-nine of the thirty-seven States. The dates of ratification were: Nevada, March 1, 1869; West Virginia, March 3, 1869; Illinois, March 5, 1869; Louisiana, March 5, 1869; North Carolina, March 5, 1869; Michigan, March 8, 1869; Wisconsin, March 9, 1869; Maine, March 11, 1869; Massachusetts, March 12, 1869; Arkansas, March 15, 1869; South Carolina, March 15, 1869; Pennsylvania, March 25, 1869; New York, April 14, 1869 (and the legislature of the same State passed a resolution January 5, 1870, to withdraw its consent to it, which action it rescinded on March 30, 1970); Indiana, May 14, 1869; Connecticut, May 19, 1869; Florida, June 14, 1869; New Hampshire, July 1, 1869; Virginia, October 8, 1869; Vermont, October 20, 1869; Missouri, January 7, 1870; Minnesota, January 13, 1870; Mississippi, January 17, 1870; Rhode Island, January 18, 1870; Kansas, January 19, 1870; Ohio, January 27, 1870 (after having rejected it on April 30, 1869); Georgia, February 2, 1870; Iowa, February 3, 1870.
Ratification was completed on February 3, 1870, unless the withdrawal of ratification by New York was effective; in which event ratification was completed on February 17, 1870, when Nebraska ratified.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Texas, February 18, 1870; New Jersey, February 15, 1871 (after having rejected it on February 7, 1870); Delaware, February 12, 1901 (after having rejected it on March 18, 1869); Oregon, February 24, 1959; California, April 3, 1962 (after having rejected it on January 28, 1870); Kentucky, March 18, 1976 (after having rejected it on March 12, 1869).
The amendment was approved by the Governor of Maryland, May 7, 1973; Maryland having previously rejected it on February 26, 1870.
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by Tennessee, November 16, 1869.
Article XVI.
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Proposal and Ratification
The sixteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Sixty-first Congress on the 12th of July, 1909, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the 25th of February, 1913, to have been ratified by 36 of the 48 States. The dates of ratification were: Alabama, August 10, 1909; Kentucky, February 8, 1910; South Carolina, February 19, 1910; Illinois, March 1, 1910; Mississippi, March 7, 1910; Oklahoma, March 10, 1910; Maryland, April 8, 1910; Georgia, August 3, 1910; Texas, August 16, 1910; Ohio, January 19, 1911; Idaho, January 20, 1911; Oregon, January 23, 1911; Washington, January 26, 1911; Montana, January 30, 1911; Indiana, January 30, 1911; California, January 31, 1911; Nevada, January 31, 1911; South Dakota, February 3, 1911; Nebraska, February 9, 1911; North Carolina, February 11, 1911; Colorado, February 15, 1911; North Dakota, February 17, 1911; Kansas, February 18, 1911; Michigan, February 23, 1911; Iowa, February 24, 1911; Missouri, March 16, 1911; Maine, March 31, 1911; Tennessee, April 7, 1911; Arkansas, April 22, 1911 (after having rejected it earlier); Wisconsin, May 26, 1911; New York, July 12, 1911; Arizona, April 6, 1912; Minnesota, June 11, 1912; Louisiana, June 28, 1912; West Virginia, January 31, 1913; New Mexico, February 3, 1913.
Ratification was completed on February 3, 1913.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Massachusetts, March 4, 1913; New Hampshire, March 7, 1913 (after having rejected it on March 2, 1911).
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Utah.
[Article XVII.]
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
Proposal and Ratification
The seventeenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Sixty-second Congress on the 13th of May, 1912, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the 31st of May, 1913, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 States. The dates of ratification were: Massachusetts, May 22, 1912; Arizona, June 3, 1912; Minnesota, June 10, 1912; New York, January 15, 1913; Kansas, January 17, 1913; Oregon, January 23, 1913; North Carolina, January 25, 1913; California, January 28, 1913; Michigan, January 28, 1913; Iowa, January 30, 1913; Montana, January 30, 1913; Idaho, January 31, 1913; West Virginia, February 4, 1913; Colorado, February 5, 1913; Nevada, February 6, 1913; Texas, February 7, 1913; Washington, February 7, 1913; Wyoming, February 8, 1913; Arkansas, February 11, 1913; Maine, February 11, 1913; Illinois, February 13, 1913; North Dakota, February 14, 1913; Wisconsin, February 18, 1913; Indiana, February 19, 1913; New Hampshire, February 19, 1913; Vermont, February 19, 1913; South Dakota, February 19, 1913; Oklahoma, February 24, 1913; Ohio, February 25, 1913; Missouri, March 7, 1913; New Mexico, March 13, 1913; Nebraska, March 14, 1913; New Jersey, March 17, 1913; Tennessee, April 1, 1913; Pennsylvania, April 2, 1913; Connecticut, April 8, 1913.
Ratification was completed on April 8, 1913.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Louisiana, June 11, 1914.
The amendment was rejected by Utah (and not subsequently ratified) on February 26, 1913.
Article [XVIII].
(See Note 16)
Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Section. 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Section. 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
Proposal and Ratification
The eighteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Sixty-fifth Congress, on the 18th of December, 1917, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the 29th of January, 1919, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 States. The dates of ratification were: Mississippi, January 8, 1918; Virginia, January 11, 1918; Kentucky, January 14, 1918; North Dakota, January 25, 1918; South Carolina, January 29, 1918; Maryland, February 13, 1918; Montana, February 19, 1918; Texas, March 4, 1918; Delaware, March 18, 1918; South Dakota, March 20, 1918; Massachusetts, April 2, 1918; Arizona, May 24, 1918; Georgia, June 26, 1918; Louisiana, August 3, 1918; Florida, December 3, 1918; Michigan, January 2, 1919; Ohio, January 7, 1919; Oklahoma, January 7, 1919; Idaho, January 8, 1919; Maine, January 8, 1919; West Virginia, January 9, 1919; California, January 13, 1919; Tennessee, January 13, 1919; Washington, January 13, 1919; Arkansas, January 14, 1919; Kansas, January 14, 1919; Alabama, January 15, 1919; Colorado, January 15, 1919; Iowa, January 15, 1919; New Hampshire, January 15, 1919; Oregon, January 15, 1919; Nebraska, January 16, 1919; North Carolina, January 16, 1919; Utah, January 16, 1919; Missouri, January 16, 1919; Wyoming, January 16, 1919.
Ratification was completed on January 16, 1919. See Dillon v. Gloss, 256 U.S. 368, 376 (1921).
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Minnesota on January 17, 1919; Wisconsin, January 17, 1919; New Mexico, January 20, 1919; Nevada, January 21, 1919; New York, January 29, 1919; Vermont, January 29, 1919; Pennsylvania, February 25, 1919; Connecticut, May 6, 1919; and New Jersey, March 9, 1922.
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by Rhode Island.
Article [XIX].
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Proposal and Ratification
The nineteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Sixty-sixth Congress, on the 4th of June, 1919, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the 26th of August, 1920, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 States. The dates of ratification were: Illinois, June 10, 1919 (and that State readopted its resolution of ratification June 17, 1919); Michigan, June 10, 1919; Wisconsin, June 10, 1919; Kansas, June 16, 1919; New York, June 16, 1919; Ohio, June 16, 1919; Pennsylvania, June 24, 1919; Massachusetts, June 25, 1919; Texas, June 28, 1919; Iowa, July 2, 1919; Missouri, July 3, 1919; Arkansas, July 28, 1919; Montana, August 2, 1919; Nebraska, August 2, 1919; Minnesota, September 8, 1919; New Hampshire, September 10, 1919; Utah, October 2, 1919; California, November 1, 1919; Maine, November 5, 1919; North Dakota, December 1, 1919; South Dakota, December 4, 1919; Colorado, December 15, 1919; Kentucky, January 6, 1920; Rhode Island, January 6, 1920; Oregon, January 13, 1920; Indiana, January 16, 1920; Wyoming, January 27, 1920; Nevada, February 7, 1920; New Jersey, February 9, 1920; Idaho, February 11, 1920; Arizona, February 12, 1920; New Mexico, February 21, 1920; Oklahoma, February 28, 1920; West Virginia, March 10, 1920; Washington, March 22, 1920; Tennessee, August 18, 1920.
Ratification was completed on August 18, 1920.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Connecticut on September 14, 1920 (and that State reaffirmed on September 21, 1920); Vermont, February 8, 1921; Delaware, March 6, 1923 (after having rejected it on June 2, 1920); Maryland, March 29, 1941 (after having rejected it on February 24, 1920, ratification certified on February 25, 1958); Virginia, February 21, 1952 (after having rejected it on February 12, 1920); Alabama, September 8, 1953 (after having rejected it on September 22, 1919); Florida, May 13, 1969; South Carolina, July 1, 1969 (after having rejected it on January 28, 1920, ratification certified on August 22, 1973); Georgia, February 20, 1970 (after having rejected it on July 24, 1919); Louisiana, June 11, 1970 (after having rejected it on July 1, 1920); North Carolina, May 6, 1971; Mississippi, March 22, 1984 (after having rejected it on March 29, 1920).
Article [XX.]
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
Section. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.
Section. 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.
Section. 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.
Section. 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.
Section. 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.
Proposal and Ratification
The twentieth amendment to the Constitution was proposed to the legislatures of the several states by the Seventy-Second Congress, on the 2d day of March, 1932, and was declared, in a proclamation by the Secretary of State, dated on the 6th day of February, 1933, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 States. The dates of ratification were: Virginia, March 4, 1932; New York, March 11, 1932; Mississippi, March 16, 1932; Arkansas, March 17, 1932; Kentucky, March 17, 1932; New Jersey, March 21, 1932; South Carolina, March 25, 1932; Michigan, March 31, 1932; Maine, April 1, 1932; Rhode Island, April 14, 1932; Illinois, April 21, 1932; Louisiana, June 22, 1932; West Virginia, July 30, 1932; Pennsylvania, August 11, 1932; Indiana, August 15, 1932; Texas, September 7, 1932; Alabama, September 13, 1932; California, January 4, 1933; North Carolina, January 5, 1933; North Dakota, January 9, 1933; Minnesota, January 12, 1933; Arizona, January 13, 1933; Montana, January 13, 1933; Nebraska, January 13, 1933; Oklahoma, January 13, 1933; Kansas, January 16, 1933; Oregon, January 16, 1933; Delaware, January 19, 1933; Washington, January 19, 1933; Wyoming, January 19, 1933; Iowa, January 20, 1933; South Dakota, January 20, 1933; Tennessee, January 20, 1933; Idaho, January 21, 1933; New Mexico, January 21, 1933; Georgia, January 23, 1933; Missouri, January 23, 1933; Ohio, January 23, 1933; Utah, January 23, 1933.
Ratification was completed on January 23, 1933.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Massachusetts on January 24, 1933; Wisconsin, January 24, 1933; Colorado, January 24, 1933; Nevada, January 26, 1933; Connecticut, January 27, 1933; New Hampshire, January 31, 1933; Vermont, February 2, 1933; Maryland, March 24, 1933; Florida, April 26, 1933.
Article [XXI.]
Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
Proposal and Ratification
The twenty-first amendment to the Constitution was proposed to the several states by the Seventy-Second Congress, on the 20th day of February, 1933, and was declared, in a proclamation by the Secretary of State, dated on the 5th day of December, 1933, to have been ratified by 36 of the 48 States. The dates of ratification were: Michigan, April 10, 1933; Wisconsin, April 25, 1933; Rhode Island, May 8, 1933; Wyoming, May 25, 1933; New Jersey, June 1, 1933; Delaware, June 24, 1933; Indiana, June 26, 1933; Massachusetts, June 26, 1933; New York, June 27, 1933; Illinois, July 10, 1933; Iowa, July 10, 1933; Connecticut, July 11, 1933; New Hampshire, July 11, 1933; California, July 24, 1933; West Virginia, July 25, 1933; Arkansas, August 1, 1933; Oregon, August 7, 1933; Alabama, August 8, 1933; Tennessee, August 11, 1933; Missouri, August 29, 1933; Arizona, September 5, 1933; Nevada, September 5, 1933; Vermont, September 23, 1933; Colorado, September 26, 1933; Washington, October 3, 1933; Minnesota, October 10, 1933; Idaho, October 17, 1933; Maryland, October 18, 1933; Virginia, October 25, 1933; New Mexico, November 2, 1933; Florida, November 14, 1933; Texas, November 24, 1933; Kentucky, November 27, 1933; Ohio, December 5, 1933; Pennsylvania, December 5, 1933; Utah, December 5, 1933.
Ratification was completed on December 5, 1933.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Maine, on December 6, 1933, and by Montana, on August 6, 1934.
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by South Carolina, on December 4, 1933.
Article [XXII.]
Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
Section. 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.
Proposal and Ratification
This amendment was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Eightieth Congress on Mar. 21, 1947 by House Joint Res. No. 27, and was declared by the Administrator of General Services, on Mar. 1, 1951, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 States. The dates of ratification were: Maine, March 31, 1947; Michigan, March 31, 1947; Iowa, April 1, 1947; Kansas, April 1, 1947; New Hampshire, April 1, 1947; Delaware, April 2, 1947; Illinois, April 3, 1947; Oregon, April 3, 1947; Colorado, April 12, 1947; California, April 15, 1947; New Jersey, April 15, 1947; Vermont, April 15, 1947; Ohio, April 16, 1947; Wisconsin, April 16, 1947; Pennsylvania, April 29, 1947; Connecticut, May 21, 1947; Missouri, May 22, 1947; Nebraska, May 23, 1947; Virginia, January 28, 1948; Mississippi, February 12, 1948; New York, March 9, 1948; South Dakota, January 21, 1949; North Dakota, February 25, 1949; Louisiana, May 17, 1950; Montana, January 25, 1951; Indiana, January 29, 1951; Idaho, January 30, 1951; New Mexico, February 12, 1951; Wyoming, February 12, 1951; Arkansas, February 15, 1951; Georgia, February 17, 1951; Tennessee, February 20, 1951; Texas, February 22, 1951; Nevada, February 26, 1951; Utah, February 26, 1951; Minnesota, February 27, 1951.
Ratification was completed on February 27, 1951.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by North Carolina on February 28, 1951; South Carolina, March 13, 1951; Maryland, March 14, 1951; Florida, April 16, 1951; Alabama, May 4, 1951.
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by Oklahoma in June 1947, and Massachusetts on June 9, 1949.
Certification of Validity
Publication of the certifying statement of the Administrator of General Services that the amendment had become valid was made on Mar. 1, 1951, F.R. Doc. 51 092940, 16 F.R. 2019.
Article [XXIII.]
Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
Section. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Proposal and Ratification
This amendment was proposed by the Eighty-sixth Congress on June 17, 1960 and was declared by the Administrator of General Services on Apr. 3, 1961, to have been ratified by 38 of the 50 States. The dates of ratification were: Hawaii, June 23, 1960 (and that State made a technical correction to its resolution on June 30, 1960); Massachusetts, August 22, 1960; New Jersey, December 19, 1960; New York, January 17, 1961; California, January 19, 1961; Oregon, January 27, 1961; Maryland, January 30, 1961; Idaho, January 31, 1961; Maine, January 31, 1961; Minnesota, January 31, 1961; New Mexico, February 1, 1961; Nevada, February 2, 1961; Montana, February 6, 1961; South Dakota, February 6, 1961; Colorado, February 8, 1961; Washington, February 9, 1961; West Virginia, February 9, 1961; Alaska, February 10, 1961; Wyoming, February 13, 1961; Delaware, February 20, 1961; Utah, February 21, 1961; Wisconsin, February 21, 1961; Pennsylvania, February 28, 1961; Indiana, March 3, 1961; North Dakota, March 3, 1961; Tennessee, March 6, 1961; Michigan, March 8, 1961; Connecticut, March 9, 1961; Arizona, March 10, 1961; Illinois, March 14, 1961; Nebraska, March 15, 1961; Vermont, March 15, 1961; Iowa, March 16, 1961; Missouri, March 20, 1961; Oklahoma, March 21, 1961; Rhode Island, March 22, 1961; Kansas, March 29, 1961; Ohio, March 29, 1961.
Ratification was completed on March 29, 1961.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by New Hampshire on March 30, 1961 (when that State annulled and then repeated its ratification of March 29, 1961).
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by Arkansas on January 24, 1961.
Certification of Validity
Publication of the certifying statement of the Administrator of General Services that the amendment had become valid was made on Apr. 3, 1961, F.R. Doc. 61 093017, 26 F.R. 2808.
Article [XXIV.]
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Section. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Proposal and Ratification
This amendment was proposed by the Eighty-seventh Congress by Senate Joint Resolution No. 29, which was approved by the Senate on Mar. 27, 1962, and by the House of Representatives on Aug. 27, 1962. It was declared by the Administrator of General Services on Feb. 4, 1964, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 38 of the 50 States.
This amendment was ratified by the following States:
Illinois, November 14, 1962; New Jersey, December 3, 1962; Oregon, January 25, 1963; Montana, January 28, 1963; West Virginia, February 1, 1963; New York, February 4, 1963; Maryland, February 6, 1963; California, February 7, 1963; Alaska, February 11, 1963; Rhode Island, February 14, 1963; Indiana, February 19, 1963; Utah, February 20, 1963; Michigan, February 20, 1963; Colorado, February 21, 1963; Ohio, February 27, 1963; Minnesota, February 27, 1963; New Mexico, March 5, 1963; Hawaii, March 6, 1963; North Dakota, March 7, 1963; Idaho, March 8, 1963; Washington, March 14, 1963; Vermont, March 15, 1963; Nevada, March 19, 1963; Connecticut, March 20, 1963; Tennessee, March 21, 1963; Pennsylvania, March 25, 1963; Wisconsin, March 26, 1963; Kansas, March 28, 1963; Massachusetts, March 28, 1963; Nebraska, April 4, 1963; Florida, April 18, 1963; Iowa, April 24, 1963; Delaware, May 1, 1963; Missouri, May 13, 1963; New Hampshire, June 12, 1963; Kentucky, June 27, 1963; Maine, January 16, 1964; South Dakota, January 23, 1964; Virginia, February 25, 1977.
Ratification was completed on January 23, 1964.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by North Carolina on May 3, 1989.
The amendment was rejected by Mississippi (and not subsequently ratified) on December 20, 1962.
Certification of Validity
Publication of the certifying statement of the Administrator of General Services that the amendment had become valid was made on Feb. 5, 1964, F.R. Doc. 64 091229, 29 F.R. 1715.
Article [XXV.]
Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Section. 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Section. 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Section. 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department (See Note 17) or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Proposal and Ratification
This amendment was proposed by the Eighty-ninth Congress by Senate Joint Resolution No. 1, which was approved by the Senate on Feb. 19, 1965, and by the House of Representatives, in amended form, on Apr. 13, 1965. The House of Representatives agreed to a Conference Report on June 30, 1965, and the Senate agreed to the Conference Report on July 6, 1965. It was declared by the Administrator of General Services, on Feb. 23, 1967, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 39 of the 50 States.
This amendment was ratified by the following States:
Nebraska, July 12, 1965; Wisconsin, July 13, 1965; Oklahoma, July 16, 1965; Massachusetts, August 9, 1965; Pennsylvania, August 18, 1965; Kentucky, September 15, 1965; Arizona, September 22, 1965; Michigan, October 5, 1965; Indiana, October 20, 1965; California, October 21, 1965; Arkansas, November 4, 1965; New Jersey, November 29, 1965; Delaware, December 7, 1965; Utah, January 17, 1966; West Virginia, January 20, 1966; Maine, January 24, 1966; Rhode Island, January 28, 1966; Colorado, February 3, 1966; New Mexico, February 3, 1966; Kansas, February 8, 1966; Vermont, February 10, 1966; Alaska, February 18, 1966; Idaho, March 2, 1966; Hawaii, March 3, 1966; Virginia, March 8, 1966; Mississippi, March 10, 1966; New York, March 14, 1966; Maryland, March 23, 1966; Missouri, March 30, 1966; New Hampshire, June 13, 1966; Louisiana, July 5, 1966; Tennessee, January 12, 1967; Wyoming, January 25, 1967; Washington, January 26, 1967; Iowa, January 26, 1967; Oregon, February 2, 1967; Minnesota, February 10, 1967; Nevada, February 10, 1967.
Ratification was completed on February 10, 1967.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Connecticut, February 14, 1967; Montana, February 15, 1967; South Dakota, March 6, 1967; Ohio, March 7, 1967; Alabama, March 14, 1967; North Carolina, March 22, 1967; Illinois, March 22, 1967; Texas, April 25, 1967; Florida, May 25, 1967.
Certification of Validity
Publication of the certifying statement of the Administrator of General Services that the amendment had become valid was made on Feb. 25, 1967, F.R. Doc. 67 092208, 32 F.R. 3287.
Article [XXVI.]
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
Section. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Proposal and Ratification
This amendment was proposed by the Ninety-second Congress by Senate Joint Resolution No. 7, which was approved by the Senate on Mar. 10, 1971, and by the House of Representatives on Mar. 23, 1971. It was declared by the Administrator of General Services on July 5, 1971, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 39 of the 50 States.
This amendment was ratified by the following States: Connecticut, March 23, 1971; Delaware, March 23, 1971; Minnesota, March 23, 1971; Tennessee, March 23, 1971; Washington, March 23, 1971; Hawaii, March 24, 1971; Massachusetts, March 24, 1971; Montana, March 29, 1971; Arkansas, March 30, 1971; Idaho, March 30, 1971; Iowa, March 30, 1971; Nebraska, April 2, 1971; New Jersey, April 3, 1971; Kansas, April 7, 1971; Michigan, April 7, 1971; Alaska, April 8, 1971; Maryland, April 8, 1971; Indiana, April 8, 1971; Maine, April 9, 1971; Vermont, April 16, 1971; Louisiana, April 17, 1971; California, April 19, 1971; Colorado, April 27, 1971; Pennsylvania, April 27, 1971; Texas, April 27, 1971; South Carolina, April 28, 1971; West Virginia, April 28, 1971; New Hampshire, May 13, 1971; Arizona, May 14, 1971; Rhode Island, May 27, 1971; New York, June 2, 1971; Oregon, June 4, 1971; Missouri, June 14, 1971; Wisconsin, June 22, 1971; Illinois, June 29, 1971; Alabama, June 30, 1971; Ohio, June 30, 1971; North Carolina, July 1, 1971; Oklahoma, July 1, 1971.
Ratification was completed on July 1, 1971.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Virginia, July 8, 1971; Wyoming, July 8, 1971; Georgia, October 4, 1971.
Certification of Validity
Publication of the certifying statement of the Administrator of General Services that the amendment had become valid was made on July 7, 1971, F.R. Doc. 71 099691, 36 F.R. 12725.
Article [XXVII.]
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
Proposal and Ratification
This amendment, being the second of twelve articles proposed by the First Congress on Sept. 25, 1789, was declared by the Archivist of the United States on May 18, 1992, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 40 of the 50 States.
This amendment was ratified by the following States: Maryland, December 19, 1789; North Carolina, December 22, 1789; South Carolina, January 19, 1790; Delaware, January 28, 1790; Vermont, November 3, 1791; Virginia, December 15, 1791; Ohio, May 6, 1873; Wyoming, March 6, 1978; Maine, April 27, 1983; Colorado, April 22, 1984; South Dakota, February 21, 1985; New Hampshire, March 7, 1985; Arizona, April 3, 1985; Tennessee, May 23, 1985; Oklahoma, July 10, 1985; New Mexico, February 14, 1986; Indiana, February 24, 1986; Utah, February 25, 1986; Arkansas, March 6, 1987; Montana, March 17, 1987; Connecticut, May 13, 1987; Wisconsin, July 15, 1987; Georgia, February 2, 1988; West Virginia, March 10, 1988; Louisiana, July 7, 1988; Iowa, February 9, 1989; Idaho, March 23, 1989; Nevada, April 26, 1989; Alaska, May 6, 1989; Oregon, May 19, 1989; Minnesota, May 22, 1989; Texas, May 25, 1989; Kansas, April 5, 1990; Florida, May 31, 1990; North Dakota, March 25, 1991; Alabama, May 5, 1992; Missouri, May 5, 1992; Michigan, May 7, 1992; New Jersey, May 7, 1992.
Ratification was completed on May 7, 1992.
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Illinois on May 12, 1992.
Certification of Validity
Publication of the certifying statement of the Archivist of the United States that the amendment had become valid was made on May 18, 1992, F.R. Doc. 92 0911951, 57 F.R. 21187.
Section 1.
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section 2.
Clause 1: The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
Clause 2: No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Clause 3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. (See Note 2) The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
Clause 4: When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.
Clause 5: The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
Section 3.
Clause 1: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, (See Note 3) for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.
Clause 2: Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. (See Note 4)
Clause 3: No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.
Clause 4: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.
Clause 5: The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.
Clause 6: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.
Clause 7: Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.
Section 4.
Clause 1: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.
Clause 2: The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, (See Note 5) unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.
Section 5.
Clause 1: Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.
Clause 2: Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.
Clause 3: Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.
Clause 4: Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.
Section 6.
Clause 1: The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. (See Note 6) They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, beprivileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.
Clause 2: No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.
Section 7.
Clause 1: All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.
Clause 2: Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.
Clause 3: Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.
Section 8.
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;
Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And
Clause 18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Section 9.
Clause 1: The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.
Clause 2: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.
Clause 3: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
Clause 4: No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. (See Note 7)
Clause 5: No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.
Clause 6: No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.
Clause 7: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
Clause 8: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
Section 10.
Clause 1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
Clause 2: No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.
Clause 3: No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.
Section 1.
Clause 1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows
Clause 2: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
Clause 3: The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President. (See Note 8)
Clause 4: The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
Clause 5: No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Clause 6: In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, (See Note 9) the Same shall devolve on the VicePresident, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
Clause 7: The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
Clause 8: Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Section 2.
Clause 1: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
Clause 2: He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
Clause 3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
Section 3.
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
Section 4.
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Section 1.
The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
Section 2.
Clause 1: The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;--between a State and Citizens of another State; --between Citizens of different States, --between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.
Clause 2: In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
Clause 3: The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.
Section 3.
Clause 1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
Clause 2: The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
Section 1.
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.
Section 2.
Clause 1: The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
Clause 2: A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.
Clause 3: No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
Section 3.
Clause 1: New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
Clause 2: The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.
Section 4.
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
Clause 1: All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
Clause 2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
Clause 3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.
done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,
GO WASHINGTON--Presidt. and deputy from Virginia
[Signed also by the deputies of twelve States.]
Delaware
Geo: Read
Gunning Bedford jun
John Dickinson
Richard Bassett
Jaco: Broom
Maryland
James MCHenry
Dan of ST ThoS. Jenifer
DanL Carroll.
Virginia
John Blair--
James Madison Jr.
North Carolina
WM Blount
RichD. Dobbs Spaight.
Hu Williamson
South Carolina
J. Rutledge
Charles 1ACotesworth Pinckney
Charles Pinckney
Pierce Butler.
Georgia
William Few
Abr Baldwin
New Hampshire
John Langdon
Nicholas Gilman
Massachusetts
Nathaniel Gorham
Rufus King
Connecticut
WM. SamL. Johnson
Roger Sherman
New York
Alexander Hamilton
New Jersey
Wil: Livingston
David Brearley.
WM. Paterson.
Jona: Dayton
Pennsylvania
B Franklin
Thomas Mifflin
RobT Morris
Geo. Clymer
ThoS. FitzSimons
Jared Ingersoll
James Wilson.
Gouv Morris
Attest William Jackson Secretary
ARTICLES IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENTS OF, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PROPOSED BY CONGRESS, AND RATIFIED BY THE LEGISLATURES OF THE SEVERAL STATES, PURSUANT TO THE FIFTH ARTICLE OF THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION
Article [I.]
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Article [II.]
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Article [III.]
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Article [IV.]
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Article [V.]
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Article [VI.]
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Article [VII.]
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Article [VIII.]
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Article [IX.]
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Article [X.]
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity--invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God--do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America.
ARTICLE I.
Section I.
All legislative powers herein delegated shall be vested in a Congress of the Confederate States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section II.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State shall be citizens of the Confederate States, and have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature; but no person of foreign birth, not a citizen of the Confederate States, shall be allowed to vote for any officer, civil or political, State or Federal.
No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and be a citizen of the Confederate States, and who shall not when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, which may be included within this Confederacy, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all slaves. ,The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the Confederate States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every fifty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of South Carolina shall be entitled to choose six; the State of Georgia ten; the State of Alabama nine; the State of Florida two; the State of Mississippi seven; the State of Louisiana six; and the State of Texas six.
When vacancies happen in the representation from any State the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.
The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment; except that any judicial or other Federal officer, resident and acting solely within the limits of any State, may be impeached by a vote of two-thirds of both branches of the Legislature thereof.
Section III.
The Senate of the Confederate States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen for six years by the Legislature thereof, at the regular session next immediately preceding the commencement of the term of service; and each Senator shall have one vote.
Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year; of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year; and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year; so that one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or other wise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.
No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and be a citizen of the Confederate States; and who shall not, then elected, be an inhabitant of the State for which he shall be chosen.
The Vice President of the Confederate States shall be president of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided.
The Senate shall choose their other officers; and also a president pro tempore in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the Confederate states.
The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the Confederate States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.
Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the Confederate States; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.
Section IV.
The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof, subject to the provisions of this Constitution; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the times and places of choosing Senators.
The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year; and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall, by law, appoint a different day.
Section V.
Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide.
Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of the whole number, expel a member.
Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.
Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.
Section VI.
The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the Confederate States. They shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 'o Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the Confederate States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person holding any office under the Confederate States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office. But Congress may, by law, grant to the principal officer in each of the Executive Departments a seat upon the floor of either House, with the privilege of discussing any measures appertaining to his department.
Section VII.
All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills.
Every bill which shall have passed both Houses, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the Confederate States; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respective}y. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a E law. The President may approve any appropriation and disapprove any other appropriation in the same bill. In such case he shall, in signing the bill, designate the appropriations disapproved; and shall return a copy of such appropriations, with his objections, to the House in which the bill shall have originated; and the same proceedings shall then be had as in case of other bills disapproved by the President.
Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of both Houses may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the Confederate States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him; or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of both Houses, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in case of a bill.
Section VIII.
The Congress shall have power-
To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises for revenue, necessary to pay the debts, provide for the common defense, and carry on the Government of the Confederate States; but no bounties shall be granted from the Treasury; nor shall any duties or taxes on importations from foreign nations be laid to promote or foster any branch of industry; and all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the Confederate States.
To borrow money on the credit of the Confederate States.
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; but neither this, nor any other clause contained in the Constitution, shall ever be construed to delegate the power to Congress to appropriate money for any internal improvement intended to facilitate commerce; except for the purpose of furnishing lights, beacons, and buoys, and other aids to navigation upon the coasts, and the improvement of harbors and the removing of obstructions in river navigation; in all which cases such duties shall be laid on the navigation facilitated thereby as may be necessary to pay the costs and expenses thereof.
To establish uniform laws of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the Confederate States; but no law of Congress shall discharge any debt contracted before the passage of the same.
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the Confederate States.
To establish post offices and post routes; but the expenses of the Post Office Department, after the Ist day of March in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be paid out of its own revenues.
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court.
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations.
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.
To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years.
To provide and maintain a navy.
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Confederate States, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Confederate States; reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.
To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of one or more States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the Confederate States; and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the . erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings; and
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the Confederate States, or in any department or officer thereof.
Section IX.
The importation of negroes of the African race from any foreign country other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United States of America, is hereby forbidden; and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same.
Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not belonging to, this Confederacy.
The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.
No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.
No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken.
No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State, except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses.
No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another.
No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.
Congress shall appropriate no money from the Treasury except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses, taken by yeas and nays, unless it be asked and estimated for by some one of the heads of departments and submitted to Congress by the President; or for the purpose of paying its own expenses and contingencies; or for the payment of claims against the Confederate States, the justice of which shall have been judicially declared by a tribunal for the investigation of claims against the Government, which it is hereby made the duty of Congress to establish.
All bills appropriating money shall specify in Federal currency the exact amount of each appropriation and the purposes for which it is made; and Congress shall grant no extra compensation to any public contractor, officer, agent, or servant, after such contract shall have been made or such service rendered.
No title of nobility shall be granted by the Confederate States; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact so tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the Confederacy, than according to the rules of common law.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Every law, or resolution having the force of law, shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.
Section X.
No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.
No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on imports, or exports, shall be for the use of the Treasury of the Confederate States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of Congress.
No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty on tonnage, except on seagoing vessels, for the improvement of its rivers and harbors navigated by the said vessels; but such duties shall not conflict with any treaties of the Confederate States with foreign nations; and any surplus revenue thus derived shall, after making such improvement, be paid into the common treasury. Nor shall any State keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. But when any river divides or flows through two or more States they may enter into compacts with each other to improve the navigation thereof.
ARTICLE II.
Section I.
The executive power shall be vested in a President of the Confederate States of America. He and the Vice President shall hold their offices for the term of six years; but the President shall not be reeligible. The President and Vice President shall be elected as follows:
Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no Senator or Representative or person holding an office of trust or profit under the Confederate States shall be appointed an elector.
The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the Government of. the Confederate States, directed to the President of the Senate; the President of the Senate shall,in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President the votes shall be taken by States~the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 4th day of March next following, then the Vice President shall act as President, as in case of the death, or other constitutional disability of the President.
The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then, from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.
But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the Confederate States.
The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the Confederate States.
No person except a natural-born citizen of the Confederate; States, or a citizen thereof at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, or a citizen thereof born in the United States prior to the 20th of December, 1860, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the limits of the Confederate States, as they may exist at the time of his election.
In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President; and the Congress may, by law, provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President; and such officer shall act accordingly until the disability be removed or a President shall be elected.
The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected; and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the Confederate States, or any of them.
Before he enters on the execution of his office he shall take the following oath or affirmation:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the Confederate States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution thereof."
Section II.
The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the Confederate States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the Executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the Confederate States, except in cases of impeachment.
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties; provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the Confederate States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may, by law, vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
The principal officer in each of the Executive Departments, and all persons connected with the diplomatic service, may be removed from office at the pleasure of the President. All other civil officers of the Executive Departments may be removed at any time by the President, or other appointing power, when their services are unnecessary, or for dishonesty, incapacity. inefficiency, misconduct, or neglect of duty; and when so removed, the removal shall be reported to the Senate, together with the reasons therefor.
The President shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session; but no person rejected by the Senate shall be reappointed to the same office during their ensuing recess.
Section III.
The President shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of the state of the Confederacy, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them; and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the Confederate States.
Section IV.
The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the Confederate States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
ARTICLE III.
Section I.
The judicial power of the Confederate States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.
Section II.
The judicial power shall extend to all cases arising under this Constitution, the laws of the Confederate States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the Confederate States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more States; between a State and citizens of another State, where the State is plaintiff; between citizens claiming lands under grants of different States; and between a State or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects; but no State shall be sued by a citizen or subject of any foreign state.
In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.
The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed.
Section III.
Treason against the Confederate States shall consist only in levying war against.them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.
ARTICLE IV.
Section I.
Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State; and the Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
Section II.
The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.
A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime against the laws of such State, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.
No slave or other person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the Confederate States, under the laws thereof, escaping or lawfully carried into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such slave belongs; or to whom such service or labor may be due.
Section III.
Other States may be admitted into this Confederacy by a vote of two-thirds of the whole House of Representatives and two-thirds of the Senate, the Senate voting by States; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State, nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress.
The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations concerning the property of the Confederate States, including the lands thereof.
The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.
The Confederate States shall guarantee to every State that now is, or hereafter may become, a member of this Confederacy, a republican form of government; and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the Legislature or of the Executive when the Legislature is not in session) against domestic violence.
ARTICLE V.
Section I.
Upon the demand of any three States, legally assembled in their several conventions, the Congress shall summon a convention of all the States, to take into consideration such amendments to the Constitution as the said States shall concur in suggesting at the time when the said demand is made; and should any of the proposed amendments to the Constitution be agreed on by the said convention~voting by States~and the same be ratified by the Legislatures of two- thirds of the several States, or by conventions in two-thirds thereof~as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the general convention~they shall thenceforward form a part of this Constitution. But no State shall, without its consent, be deprived of its equal representation in the Senate.
ARTICLE VI.
Section I.
The Government established by this Constitution is the successor of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, and all the laws passed by the latter shall continue in force until the same shall be repealed or modified; and all the officers appointed by the same shall remain in office until their successors are appointed and qualified, or the offices abolished.
All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the Confederate States under this Constitution, as under the Provisional Government.
This Constitution, and the laws of the Confederate States made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the Confederate States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the Confederate States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the Confederate States.
The enumeration, in the Constitution, of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people of the several States.
The powers not delegated to the Confederate States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people thereof.
Section VI.
Section V.
Section IV.
Section III.
Section II.
ARTICLE VII.
The ratification of the conventions of five States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.
When five States shall have ratified this Constitution, in the manner before specified, the Congress under the Provisional Constitution shall prescribe the time for holding the election of President and Vice President; and for the meeting of the Electoral College; and for counting the votes, and inaugurating the President. They shall, also, prescribe the time for holding the first election of members of Congress under this Constitution, and the time for assembling the same. Until the assembling of such Congress, the Congress under the Provisional Constitution shall continue to exercise the legislative powers granted them; not extending beyond the time limited by the Constitution of the Provisional Government.
Adopted unanimously by the Congress of the Confederate States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, sitting in convention at the capitol, in the city of Montgomery, Ala., on the eleventh day of March, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-one.
HOWELL COBB,
President of the Congress.
South Carolina: R. Barnwell Rhett, C. G. Memminger, Wm. Porcher Miles, James Chesnut, Jr., R. W. Barnwell, William W. Boyce, Lawrence M. Keitt, T. J. Withers.
Georgia: Francis S. Bartow, Martin J. Crawford, Benjamin H. Hill, Thos. R. R. Cobb.
Florida: Jackson Morton, J. Patton Anderson, Jas. B. Owens.
Alabama: Richard W. Walker, Robt. H. Smith, Colin J. McRae, William P. Chilton, Stephen F. Hale, David P. L,ewis, Tho. Fearn, Jno. Gill Shorter, J. L. M. Curry. Mississippi: Alex. M. Clayton, James T. Harrison, William S. Barry, W. S. Wilson, Walker Brooke, W. P. Harris, J. A. P. Campbell.
Louisiana: Alex. de Clouet, C. M. Conrad, Duncan F. Kenner, Henry Marshall.
Texas: John Hemphill, Thomas N. Waul, John H. Reagan, Williamson S. Oldham, Louis T. Wigfall, John Gregg, William Beck Ochiltree
July 4, 1776
The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shown that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great- Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them and formidable to Tyrants only.
HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and the Convulsions within.
HE has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migration hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.
HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislature.
HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to Civil Power.
HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
FOR protecting them, by mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
FOR depriving us in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:
FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burned our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the Inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is undistinguished Destruction of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.
IN every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.
WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton.
July 6, 1775
A declaration by the representatives of the united colonies of North America, now met in Congress at Philadelphia, setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms.
If it was possible for men, who exercise their reason to believe, that the divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human race to hold an absolute property in, and an unbounded power over others, marked out by his infinite goodness and wisdom, as the objects of a legal domination never rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive, the inhabitants of these colonies might at least require from the parliament of Great-Britain some evidence, that this dreadful authority over them, has been granted to that body. But a reverance for our Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense, must convince all those who reflect upon the subject, that government was instituted to promote the welfare of mankind, and ought to be administered for the attainment of that end. The legislature of Great-Britain, however, stimulated by an inordinate passion for a power not only unjustifiable, but which they know to be peculiarly reprobated by the very constitution of that kingdom, and desparate of success in any mode of contest, where regard should be had to truth, law, or right, have at length, deserting those, attempted to effect their cruel and impolitic purpose of enslaving these colonies by violence, and have thereby rendered it necessary for us to close with their last appeal from reason to arms. Yet, however blinded that assembly may be, by their intemperate rage for unlimited domination, so to sight justice and the opinion of mankind, we esteem ourselves bound by obligations of respect to the rest of the world, to make known the justice of our cause. Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great-Britain, left their native land, to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom. At the expense of their blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least charge to the country from which they removed, by unceasing labour, and an unconquerable spirit, they effected settlements in the distant and unhospitable wilds of America, then filled with numerous and warlike barbarians. -- Societies or governments, vested with perfect legislatures, were formed under charters from the crown, and an harmonious intercourse was established between the colonies and the kingdom from which they derived their origin. The mutual benefits of this union became in a short time so extraordinary, as to excite astonishment. It is universally confessed, that the amazing increase of the wealth, strength, and navigation of the realm, arose from this source; and the minister, who so wisely and successfully directed the measures of Great-Britain in the late war, publicly declared, that these colonies enabled her to triumph over her enemies. --Towards the conclusion of that war, it pleased our sovereign to make a change in his counsels. -- From that fatal movement, the affairs of the British empire began to fall into confusion, and gradually sliding from the summit of glorious prosperity, to which they had been advanced by the virtues and abilities of one man, are at length distracted by the convulsions, that now shake it to its deepest foundations. -- The new ministry finding the brave foes of Britain, though frequently defeated, yet still contending, took up the unfortunate idea of granting them a hasty peace, and then subduing her faithful friends.
These colonies were judged to be in such a state, as to present victories without bloodshed, and all the easy emoluments of statuteable plunder. -- The uninterrupted tenor of their peaceable and respectful behaviour from the beginning of colonization, their dutiful, zealous, and useful services during the war, though so recently and amply acknowledged in the most honourable manner by his majesty, by the late king, and by parliament, could not save them from the meditated innovations. -- Parliament was influenced to adopt the pernicious project, and assuming a new power over them, have in the course of eleven years, given such decisive specimens of the spirit and consequences attending this power, as to leave no doubt concerning the effects of acquiescence under it. They have undertaken to give and grant our money without our consent, though we have ever exercised an exclusive right to dispose of our own property; statutes have been passed for extending the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty beyond their ancient limits; for depriving us of the accustomed and inestimable privilege of trial by jury, in cases affecting both life and property; for suspending the legislature of one of the colonies; for interdicting all commerce to the capital of another; and for altering fundamentally the form of government established by charter, and secured by acts of its own legislature solemnly confirmed by the crown; for exempting the "murderers" of colonists from legal trial, and in effect, from punishment; for erecting in a neighbouring province, acquired by the joint arms of Great-Britain and America, a despotism dangerous to our very existence; and for quartering soldiers upon the colonists in time of profound peace. It has also been resolved in parliament, that colonists charged with committing certain offences, shall be transported to England to be tried. But why should we enumerate our injuries in detail? By one statute it is declared, that parliament can "of right make laws to bind us in all cases whatsoever." What is to defend us against so enormous, so unlimited a power? Not a single man of those who assume it, is chosen by us; or is subject to our control or influence; but, on the contrary, they are all of them exempt from the operation of such laws, and an American revenue, if not diverted from the ostensible purposes for which it is raised, would actually lighten their own burdens in proportion, as they increase ours. We saw the misery to which such despotism would reduce us. We for ten years incessantly and ineffectually besieged the throne as supplicants; we reasoned, we remonstrated with parliament, in the most mild and decent language.
Administration sensible that we should regard these oppressive measures as freemen ought to do, sent over fleets and armies to enforce them. The indignation of the Americans was roused, it is true; but it was the indignation of a virtuous, loyal, and affectionate people. A Congress of delegates from the United Colonies was assembled at Philadelphia, on the fifth day of last September. We resolved again to offer an humble and dutiful petition to the King, and also addressed our fellow-subjects of Great-Britain. We have pursued every temperate, every respectful measure; we have even proceeded to break off our commercial intercourse with our fellow-subjects, as the last peaceable admonition, that our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant our attachment to liberty. -- This, we flattered ourselves, was the ultimate step of the controversy: but subsequent events have shewn, how vain was this hope of finding moderation in our enemies.
Several threatening expressions against the colonies were inserted in his majesty's speech; our petition, tho' we were told it was a decent one, and that his majesty had been pleased to receive it graciously, and to promise laying it before his parliament, was huddled into both houses among a bundle of American papers, and there neglected. The lords and commons in their address, in the month of February, said, that "a rebellion at that time actually existed within the province of Massachusetts- Bay; and that those concerned with it, had been countenanced and encouraged by unlawful combinations and engagements, entered into by his majesty's subjects in several of the other colonies; and therefore they besought his majesty, that he would take the most effectual measures to inforce due obediance to the laws and authority of the supreme legislature." -- Soon after, the commercial intercourse of whole colonies, with foreign countries, and with each other, was cut off by an act of parliament; by another several of them were intirely prohibited from the fisheries in the seas near their coasts, on which they always depended for their sustenance; and large reinforcements of ships and troops were immediately sent over to general Gage.
Fruitless were all the entreaties, arguments, and eloquence of an illustrious band of the most distinguished peers, and commoners, who nobly and strenuously asserted the justice of our cause, to stay, or even to mitigate the heedless fury with which these accumulated and unexampled outrages were hurried on. -- equally fruitless was the interference of the city of London, of Bristol, and many other respectable towns in our favor. Parliament adopted an insidious manoeuvre calculated to divide us, to establish a perpetual auction of taxations where colony should bid against colony, all of them uninformed what ransom would redeem their lives; and thus to extort from us, at the point of the bayonet, the unknown sums that should be sufficient to gratify, if possible to gratify, ministerial rapacity, with the miserable indulgence left to us of raising, in our own mode, the prescribed tribute. What terms more rigid and humiliating could have been dictated by remorseless victors to conquered enemies? in our circumstances to accept them, would be to deserve them.
Soon after the intelligence of these proceedings arrived on this continent, general Gage, who in the course of the last year had taken possession of the town of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, and still occupied it a garrison, on the 19th day of April, sent out from that place a large detachment of his army, who made an unprovoked assault on the inhabitants of the said province, at the town of Lexington, as appears by the affidavits of a great number of persons, some of whom were officers and soldiers of that detachment, murdered eight of the inhabitants, and wounded many others. From thence the troops proceeded in warlike array to the town of Concord, where they set upon another party of the inhabitants of the same province, killing several and wounding more, until compelled to retreat by the country people suddenly assembled to repel this cruel aggression. Hostilities, thus commenced by the British troops, have been since prosecuted by them without regard to faith or reputation. -- The inhabitants of Boston being confined within that town by the general their governor, and having, in order to procure their dismission, entered into a treaty with him, it was stipulated that the said inhabitants having deposited their arms with their own magistrate, should have liberty to depart, taking with them their other effects. They accordingly delivered up their arms, but in open violation of honour, in defiance of the obligation of treaties, which even savage nations esteemed sacred, the governor ordered the arms deposited as aforesaid, that they might be preserved for their owners, to be seized by a body of soldiers; detained the greatest part of the inhabitants in the town, and compelled the few who were permitted to retire, to leave their most valuable effects behind.
By this perfidy wives are separated from their husbands, children from their parents, the aged and the sick from their relations and friends, who wish to attend and comfort them; and those who have been used to live in plenty and even elegance, are reduced to deplorable distress.
The general, further emulating his ministerial masters, by a proclamation bearing date on the 12th day of June, after venting the grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of these colonies, proceeds to "declare them all, either by name or description, to be rebels and traitors, to supercede the course of the common law, and instead thereof to publish and order the use and exercise of the law martial." -- His troops have butchered our countrymen, have wantonly burnt Charlestown, besides a considerable number of houses in other places; our ships and vessels are seized; the necessary supplies of provisions are intercepted, and he is exerting his utmost power to spread destruction and devastation around him.
We have rceived certain intelligence, that general Carleton, the governor of Canada, is instigating the people of that province and the Indians to fall upon us; and we have but too much reason to apprehend, that schemes have been formed to excite domestic enemies against us. In brief, a part of these colonies now feel, and all of them are sure of feeling, as far as the vengeance of administration can inflict them, the complicated calamities of fire, sword and famine. [1] We are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. -- The latter is our choice. -- We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. -- Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.
Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable. -- We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.
Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored. -- Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate measure, or induced us to excite any other nation to war against them. -- We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great-Britain, and establishing independent states. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.
In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it -- for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.
With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.
1864
By the President of the United States of America:
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-In-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for supressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Palquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebone, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Morthhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all case when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
Be it enacted, That section three of the Act . . . approved June I5, 1917, be . . amended so as to read as follows:
SEC. 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall wilfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall wilfully make or convey false reports, or false statements, or say or do anything except by way of bona fide and not disloyal advice to an investor . . . with intent to obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds . . . or the making of loans by or to the United States, or whoever, when the United States is at war, shall wilfully cause . . . or incite . . . insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall wilfully obstruct . . . the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall wilfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag . . . or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States, or any language intended to bring the form of government . . . or the Constitution . . . or the military or naval forces . . . or the flag . . . of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute . . . or shall wilfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall wilfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this country of any thing or things . . . necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war . . . and whoever shall wilfully advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any coun try with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both....
April 30, 1789
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years -- a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by t ime. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent pr oof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judg ed by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by t hemselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure my self that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United Stat es. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tran quil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anti cipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under t he influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.
By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I now meet you will a cquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than th at there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; sin ce we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present junctu re by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective go vernment, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnab ly fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.
To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the servi ce of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estima tes for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplica tion that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advanc ement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.
President George Washington
Friday, January 8, 1790
FELLOW CITIZENS Of the SENATE, and HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES,
I EMBRACE with great satisfaction the opportunity, which now presents itself, of congratulating you on the present favourable prospects of our public affairs. The recent accession of the important state of Northcarolina to the Constitution of the United States (of which official information has been received)--- the ruling credit and respectability of our country--- the general and increasing good will towards the government of the union, and the concord, peace and plenty, with which we are blessed, are circumstances auspicious, in an excellent degree, to our national prosperity.
n reforming your consultations for the general good, you cannot but derive encouragement from the reflection, the measures of the last session have been as satisfactory to your constituents as the novelty and difficulty of the work allowed you to hope.-- Still further to realize their expectations, and to secure the blessings which a gracious Providence has placed within our reach, will in the course of the present important session, call for the cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism, firmness and wisdom.
Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention, that of providing for the common defence will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies.
The proper establishment of the troops which may be deemed indispensable, will be entitled to mature consideration. In the arrangement which will be made respecting it, it will be of importance to conciliate the comfortable support of the officers and soldiers with a due regard to economy.
There was reason to hope, the pacifick measures adopted with regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians, would have relieved the inhabitants of our southern and western frontiers from their depredations. But you will perceive, from the information contained in the papers, which I shall direct to be laid before you, (comprehending a communication from the Commonwealth of Virginia) that we ought to be prepared to afford protection to those parts of the Union; and, if necessary, to punish aggressors.
The interests of the United States require, that our intercourse with other nations should be facilitated by such provisions as will enable me to fulfill my duty, in that respect, in the manner which circumstances may render most conducive to the publick good: And to this end, that the compensations to be made to the persons who may be employed, should, according to the nature of their appointments, be defined by law; and a competent fund designated for defraying the expenses incident to the conduct of our foreign affairs.
Various considerations also render it expedient, that the terms on which foreigners may be admitted to the rights of Citizens, should be speedily ascertained by a uniform rule of naturalization.
Uniformity in the currency, weights and measures of the United States, is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to.
The advancement of agriculture, commerce and manufactures, by all proper means, will not, I trust, need recommendation. But I cannot forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad, as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home; and of facilitating the intercourse between the distant parts of our country by a due attention to the Post Office and Post Roads.
Nor am I less persuaded, that you will agree with me in opinion, that there is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of Science and Literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of publick happiness. In one, in which the measures of government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the community, as in our's, it is proportionately essential. To the security of a free Constitution it contributes in various ways: By convincing those who are entrusted with the publick administration, that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people: And by teaching the people themselves to know, and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience, and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy, but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.
Whether this desirable object will be best promoted by affording aids to seminaries of learning already established, by the institution of a national university, or by any other expedients, will be well worthy of a place in the deliberations of the Legislature.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
I SAW with peculiar pleasure, at the close of the last session, the resolution entered into by you, expressive of your opinion, that an adequate provision for the support of the publick credit, is a matter of high importance to the national honour and prosperity.-- In this sentiment, I entirely concur.-- And to a perfect confidence in your best endeavors to devise such a provision as will be truly consistent with the end, I add an equal reliance on the cheerful cooperation of the other branch of the Legislature.-- It would be superfluous to specify inducements to a measure in which the character and permanent interests of the United States so obviously and so deeply concerned; and which has received so explicit a sanction from your declaration.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and House of Representatives,
I HAVE directed the proper officers to lay before you respectively such papers and estimates as regards the affairs particularly recommended to your consideration, and necessary to convey to you that information of the state of the union, which it is my duty to afford.
The welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed.-- And I shall derive great satisfaction from a cooperation with you, in the pleasing though arduous task of ensuring to our fellow citizens the blessings which they have a right to expect, from a free and equal government.
George Washington, January 8, 1790
President George Washington
Friday, January 8, 1790
FELLOW CITIZENS Of the SENATE, and HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES,
I EMBRACE with great satisfaction the opportunity, which now presents itself, of congratulating you on the present favourable prospects of our public affairs. The recent accession of the important state of Northcarolina to the Constitution of the United States (of which official information has been received)--- the ruling credit and respectability of our country--- the general and increasing good will towards the government of the union, and the concord, peace and plenty, with which we are blessed, are circumstances auspicious, in an excellent degree, to our national prosperity.
n reforming your consultations for the general good, you cannot but derive encouragement from the reflection, the measures of the last session have been as satisfactory to your constituents as the novelty and difficulty of the work allowed you to hope.-- Still further to realize their expectations, and to secure the blessings which a gracious Providence has placed within our reach, will in the course of the present important session, call for the cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism, firmness and wisdom.
Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention, that of providing for the common defence will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies.
The proper establishment of the troops which may be deemed indispensable, will be entitled to mature consideration. In the arrangement which will be made respecting it, it will be of importance to conciliate the comfortable support of the officers and soldiers with a due regard to economy.
There was reason to hope, the pacifick measures adopted with regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians, would have relieved the inhabitants of our southern and western frontiers from their depredations. But you will perceive, from the information contained in the papers, which I shall direct to be laid before you, (comprehending a communication from the Commonwealth of Virginia) that we ought to be prepared to afford protection to those parts of the Union; and, if necessary, to punish aggressors.
The interests of the United States require, that our intercourse with other nations should be facilitated by such provisions as will enable me to fulfill my duty, in that respect, in the manner which circumstances may render most conducive to the publick good: And to this end, that the compensations to be made to the persons who may be employed, should, according to the nature of their appointments, be defined by law; and a competent fund designated for defraying the expenses incident to the conduct of our foreign affairs.
Various considerations also render it expedient, that the terms on which foreigners may be admitted to the rights of Citizens, should be speedily ascertained by a uniform rule of naturalization.
Uniformity in the currency, weights and measures of the United States, is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to.
The advancement of agriculture, commerce and manufactures, by all proper means, will not, I trust, need recommendation. But I cannot forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad, as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home; and of facilitating the intercourse between the distant parts of our country by a due attention to the Post Office and Post Roads.
Nor am I less persuaded, that you will agree with me in opinion, that there is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of Science and Literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of publick happiness. In one, in which the measures of government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the community, as in our's, it is proportionately essential. To the security of a free Constitution it contributes in various ways: By convincing those who are entrusted with the publick administration, that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people: And by teaching the people themselves to know, and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience, and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy, but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.
Whether this desirable object will be best promoted by affording aids to seminaries of learning already established, by the institution of a national university, or by any other expedients, will be well worthy of a place in the deliberations of the Legislature.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
I SAW with peculiar pleasure, at the close of the last session, the resolution entered into by you, expressive of your opinion, that an adequate provision for the support of the publick credit, is a matter of high importance to the national honour and prosperity.-- In this sentiment, I entirely concur.-- And to a perfect confidence in your best endeavors to devise such a provision as will be truly consistent with the end, I add an equal reliance on the cheerful cooperation of the other branch of the Legislature.-- It would be superfluous to specify inducements to a measure in which the character and permanent interests of the United States so obviously and so deeply concerned; and which has received so explicit a sanction from your declaration.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and House of Representatives,
I HAVE directed the proper officers to lay before you respectively such papers and estimates as regards the affairs particularly recommended to your consideration, and necessary to convey to you that information of the state of the union, which it is my duty to afford.
The welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed.-- And I shall derive great satisfaction from a cooperation with you, in the pleasing though arduous task of ensuring to our fellow citizens the blessings which they have a right to expect, from a free and equal government.
George Washington, January 8, 1790
June 20, 1676
"The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard; reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with many of our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to ourselves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before Him with Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of pressing Afflictions:
The Council has thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour, many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of God's Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being perswaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and soulds as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ."
James, by the grace of God [King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith], etc. Whereas our loving and weldisposed subjects, Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, Knightes; Richarde Hackluit, Clarke, Prebendarie of Westminster; and Edwarde Maria Winghfeilde, Thomas Hannam and Raleighe Gilberde, Esquiers; William Parker and George Popham, Gentlemen; and divers others of our loving subjects, have been humble sutors unto us that wee woulde vouchsafe unto them our licence to make habitacion, plantacion and to deduce a colonie of sondrie of our people into that parte of America commonly called Virginia, and other parts and territories in America either appartaining unto us or which are not nowe actuallie possessed by anie Christian prince or people, scituate, lying and being all along the sea coastes between fower and thirtie degrees of northerly latitude from the equinoctiall line and five and fortie degrees of the same latitude and in the maine lande betweene the same fower and thirtie and five and fourtie degrees, and the ilandes thereunto adjacente or within one hundred miles of the coaste thereof;
And to that ende, and for the more speedy accomplishemente of theire saide intended plantacion and habitacion there, are desirous to devide themselves into two severall colonies and companies, the one consisting of certaine Knightes, gentlemen, marchanntes and other adventurers of our cittie of London, and elsewhere, which are and from time to time shalbe joined unto them which doe desire to begin theire plantacions and habitacions in some fitt and conveniente place between fower and thirtie and one and fortie degrees of the said latitude all alongest the coaste of Virginia and coastes of America aforesaid and the other consisting of sondrie Knightes, gentlemen, merchanntes, and other adventurers of our citties of Bristoll and Exeter, and of our towne of Plymouthe, and of other places which doe joine themselves unto that colonie which doe desire to beginn theire plantacions and habitacions in some fitt and convenient place betweene eighte and thirtie degrees and five and fortie degrees of the saide latitude all alongst the saide coaste of Virginia and America as that coaste lieth;
Wee, greately commending and graciously accepting of theire desires to the furtherance of soe noble a worke which may, by the providence of Almightie God, hereafter tende to the glorie of His Divine Majestie in propagating of Christian religion to suche people as yet live in darkenesse and miserable ignorance of the true knoweledge and worshippe of God and may in tyme bring the infidels and salvages living in those parts to humane civilitie and to a setled and quiet govermente, doe by theise our lettres patents graciously accepte of and agree to theire humble and well intended desires;
And doe, therefore, for us, our heires and successors, grannte and agree that the saide Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Sumers, Richarde Hackluit and Edwarde Maria Winghfeilde, adventurers of and for our cittie of London, and all suche others as are or shalbe joined unto them of that Colonie, shalbe called the Firste Colonie, and they shall and may beginne theire saide firste plantacion and seate of theire firste aboade and habitacion at anie place upon the saide coaste of Virginia or America where they shall thincke fitt and conveniente betweene the saide fower and thirtie and one and fortie degrees of the saide latitude; and that they shall have all the landes, woods, soile, groundes, havens, ports, rivers, mines, mineralls, marshes, waters, fishinges, commodities and hereditamentes whatsoever, from the said first seate of theire plantacion and habitacion by the space of fiftie miles of Englishe statute measure all alongest the saide coaste of Virginia and America towardes the weste and southe weste as the coaste lieth, with all the islandes within one hundred miles directlie over againste the same sea coaste; and alsoe all the landes, soile, groundes havens, ports, rivers, mines, mineralls, woods, marrishes [marshes], waters, fishinges, commodities and hereditamentes whatsoever, from the saide place of theire firste plantacion and habitacion for the space of fiftie like Englishe miles, all alongest the saide coaste of Virginia and America towardes the easte and northeaste [or toward the north] as the coaste lieth, together with all the islandes within one hundred miles directlie over againste the same sea coaste; and alsoe all the landes, woodes, soile, groundes, havens, portes, rivers, mines, mineralls, marrishes, waters, fishinges, commodities and hereditamentes whatsoever, from the same fiftie miles everie waie on the sea coaste directly into the maine lande by the space of one hundred like Englishe miles; and shall and may inhabit and remaine there; and shall and may alsoe builde and fortifie within anie the same for theire better safegarde and defence, according to theire best discrecions and the direction of the Counsell of that Colonie; and that noe other of our subjectes shalbe permitted or suffered to plante or inhabit behinde or on the backside of them towardes the maine lande, without the expresse licence or consente of the Counsell of that Colonie thereunto in writing firste had or obtained.
And wee doe likewise for us, our heires and successors, by theise presentes grannte and agree that the saide Thomas Hannam and Raleighe Gilberde, William Parker and George Popham, and all others of the towne of Plymouthe in the countie of Devon, or elsewhere, which are or shalbe joined unto them of that Colonie, shalbe called the Seconde Colonie; and that they shall and may beginne theire saide firste plantacion and seate of theire first aboade and habitacion at anie place upon the saide coaste of Virginia and America, where they shall thincke fitt and conveniente, betweene eighte and thirtie degrees of the saide latitude and five and fortie degrees of the same latitude; and that they shall have all the landes, soile, groundes, havens, ports, rivers, mines, mineralls, woods, marishes, waters, fishinges, commodities and hereditaments whatsoever, from the firste seate of theire plantacion and habitacion by the space of fiftie like Englishe miles, as is aforesaide, all alongeste the saide coaste of Virginia and America towardes the weste and southwest, or towardes the southe, as the coaste lieth, and all the islandes within one hundred miles directlie over againste the saide sea coaste; and alsoe all the landes, soile, groundes, havens, portes, rivers, mines, mineralls, woods, marishes, waters, fishinges, commodities and hereditamentes whatsoever, from the saide place of theire firste plantacion and habitacion for the space of fiftie like miles all alongest the saide coaste of Virginia and America towardes the easte and northeaste or towardes the northe, as the coaste liethe, and all the islandes alsoe within one hundred miles directly over againste the same sea coaste; and alsoe all the landes, soile, groundes, havens, ports, rivers, woodes, mines, mineralls, marishes, waters, fishings, commodities and hereditaments whatsoever, from the same fiftie miles everie waie on the sea coaste, directlie into the maine lande by the space of one hundred like Englishe miles; and shall and may inhabit and remaine there; and shall and may alsoe builde and fortifie within anie the same for theire better saufegarde according to theire beste discrecions and the direction of the Counsell of that Colonie; and that none of our subjectes shalbe permitted or suffered to plante or inhabit behinde or on the backe of them towardes the maine lande without the expresse licence or consente of the Counsell of that Colonie, in writing thereunto, firste had and obtained.
Provided alwaies, and our will and pleasure herein is, that the plantacion and habitacion of suche of the saide Colonies as shall laste plante themselves, as aforesaid, shall not be made within one hundred like Englishe miles of the other of them that firste beganne to make theire plantacion, as aforesaide.
And wee doe alsoe ordaine, establishe and agree for [us], our heires and successors, that eache of the saide Colonies shall have a Counsell which shall governe and order all matters and causes which shall arise, growe, or happen to or within the same severall Colonies, according to such lawes, ordinannces and instructions as shalbe in that behalfe, given and signed with our hande or signe manuell and passe under the Privie Seale of our realme of Englande; eache of which Counsells shall consist of thirteene parsons and to be ordained, made and removed from time to time according as shalbe directed and comprised in the same instructions; and shall have a severall seale for all matters that shall passe or concerne the same severall Counsells, eache of which seales shall have the Kinges armes engraven on the one side there of and his pourtraiture on the other; and that the seale for the Counsell of the saide Firste Colonie shall have engraven rounde about on the one side theise wordes: Sigillum Regis Magne Britanie, Francie [et] Hibernie; on the other side this inscripture rounde about: Pro Consillio Prime Colonie Virginie. And the seale for the Counsell of the saide Seconde Colonie shall alsoe have engraven rounde about the one side thereof the foresaide wordes: Sigillum Regis Magne Britanie, Francie [et] Hibernie; and on the other side: Pro Consilio Secunde Colonie Virginie.
And that alsoe ther shalbe a Counsell established here in Englande which shall in like manner consist of thirteen parsons to be, for that purpose, appointed by us, our heires and successors, which shalbe called our Counsell of Virginia; and shall from time to time have the superior managing and direction onelie of and for all matters that shall or may concerne the govermente, as well of the said severall Colonies as of and for anie other parte or place within the aforesaide precinctes of fower and thirtie and five and fortie degrees abovementioned; which Counsell shal in like manner have a seale for matters concerning the Counsell [or Colonies] with the like armes and purtraiture as aforesaide, with this inscription engraven rounde about the one side: Sigillum Regis Magne Britanie, Francie [et] Hibernie; and rounde about the other side: Pro Consilio Suo Virginie.
And more over wee doe grannte and agree for us, our heires and successors, that the saide severall Counsells of and for the saide severall Colonies shall and lawfully may by vertue hereof, from time to time, without interuption of us, our heires or successors, give and take order to digg, mine and searche for all manner of mines of goulde, silver and copper, as well within anie parte of theire saide severall Colonies as of the saide maine landes on the backside of the same Colonies; and to have and enjoy the goulde, silver and copper to be gotten there of to the use and behoofe of the same Colonies and the plantacions thereof; yeilding therefore yerelie to us, our heires and successors, the fifte parte onelie of all the same goulde and silver and the fifteenth parte of all the same copper soe to be gotten or had, as is aforesaid, and without anie other manner of profitt or accompte to be given or yeilded to us, our heires or successors, for or in respecte of the same.
And that they shall or lawfullie may establishe and cawse to be made a coine, to passe currant there betwene the people of those severall Colonies for the more ease of trafiique and bargaining betweene and amongest them and the natives there, of such mettall and in such manner and forme as the same severall Counsells there shall limitt and appointe. And wee doe likewise for us, our heires and successors, by theise presents give full power and auctoritie to the said Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Sumers, Richarde Hackluit, Edwarde Maria Winghfeilde, Thomas Hannam, Raleighe Gilberde, William Parker and George Popham, and to everie of them, and to the saide severall Companies, plantacions and Colonies, that they and everie of them shall and may at all and everie time and times hereafter have, take and leade in the saide voyage, and for and towardes the saide severall plantacions and Colonies, and to travell thitherwarde and to abide and inhabit there in everie of the saide Colonies and plantacions, such and somanie of our subjectes as shall willinglie accompanie them, or anie of them, in the saide voyages and plantacions, with sufficiente shipping and furniture of armour, weapon, ordonnance, powder, victall, and all other thinges necessarie for the saide plantacions and for theire use and defence there: provided alwaies that none of the said parsons be such as hereafter shalbe speciallie restrained by us, our heires or successors.
Moreover, wee doe by theise presents, for us, our heires and successors, give and grannte licence unto the said Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Sumers, Richarde Hackluite, Edwarde Maria Winghfeilde, Thomas Hannam, Raleighe Gilberde, William Parker and George Popham, and to everie of the said Colinies, that they and everie of them shall and may, from time to time and at all times for ever hereafter, for theire severall defences, incounter or expulse, repell and resist, aswell by sea as by lande, by all waies and meanes whatsoever, all and everie suche parson and parsons as without espiciall licence of the said severall Colonies and plantacions shall attempte to inhabit within the saide severall precincts and limitts of the saide severall Colonies and plantacions, or anie of them, or that shall enterprise or attempt at anie time hereafter the hurte, detrimente or annoyance of the saide severall Colonies or plantacions.
Giving and grannting by theise presents unto the saide Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richarde Hackluite, and Edwarde Maria Winghfeilde, and theire associates of the said Firste Colonie, and unto the said Thomas Hannam, Raleighe Gilberde, William Parker and George Popham, and theire associates of the saide Second Colonie, and to everie of them from time to time and at all times for ever hereafter, power and auctoritie to take and surprize by all waies and meanes whatsoever all and everie parson and parsons with theire shipps, vessels, goods and other furniture, which shalbe founde traffiqueing into anie harbor or harbors, creeke, creekes or place within the limitts or precincts of the saide severall Colonies and plantacions, not being of the same Colonie, untill such time as they, being of anie realmes or dominions under our obedience, shall paie or agree to paie to the handes of the Tresorer of the Colonie, within whose limitts and precincts theie shall soe traffique, twoe and a halfe upon anie hundred of anie thing soe by them traffiqued, boughte or soulde; and being stranngers and not subjects under our obeysannce, untill they shall paie five upon everie hundred of suche wares and commoditie as theie shall traffique, buy or sell within the precincts of the saide severall Colonies wherein theie shall soe traffique, buy or sell, as aforesaide; which sommes of money or benefitt, as aforesaide, for and during the space of one and twentie yeres nexte ensuing the date hereof shalbe whollie imploied to the use, benefitt and behoofe of the saide severall plantacions where such trafficque shalbe made; and after the saide one and twentie yeres ended the same shalbe taken to the use of us, our heires and successors by such officer and minister as by us, our heires and successors shalbe thereunto assigned or appointed.
And wee doe further, by theise presentes, for us, our heires and successors, give and grannte unto the saide Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Sumers, Richarde Hackluit, and Edwarde Maria Winghfeilde, and to theire associates of the saide Firste Colonie and plantacion, and to the saide Thomas Hannam, Raleighe Gilberde, William Parker and George Popham, and theire associates of the saide Seconde Colonie and plantacion, that theie and everie of them by theire deputies, ministers and factors may transport the goods, chattells, armor, munition and furniture, needfull to be used by them for theire saide apparrell, defence or otherwise in respecte of the saide plantacions, out of our realmes of Englande and Irelande and all other our dominions from time to time, for and during the time of seaven yeres nexte ensuing the date hereof for the better releife of the said severall Colonies and plantacions, without anie custome, subsidie or other dutie unto us, our heires or successors to be yeilded or paide for the same.
Alsoe wee doe, for us, our heires and successors, declare by theise presentes that all and everie the parsons being our subjects which shall dwell and inhabit within everie or anie of the saide severall Colonies and plantacions and everie of theire children which shall happen to be borne within the limitts and precincts of the said severall Colonies and plantacions shall have and enjoy all liberties, franchises and immunites within anie of our other dominions to all intents and purposes as if they had been abiding and borne within this our realme of Englande or anie other of our saide dominions.
Moreover our gracious will and pleasure is, and wee doe by theise presents, for us, our heires and successors, declare and sett forthe, that if anie parson or parsons which shalbe of anie of the said Colonies and plantacions or anie other, which shall trafficque to the saide Colonies and plantacions or anie of them, shall at anie time or times hereafter transporte anie wares, marchandize or commodities out of [any] our dominions with a pretence and purpose to lande, sell or otherwise dispose the same within anie the limitts and precincts of anie of the saide Colonies and plantacions, and yet nevertheles being at the sea or after he hath landed the same within anie of the said Colonies and plantacions, shall carrie the same into any other forraine countrie with a purpose there to sell or dispose of the same without the licence of us, our heires or successors in that behalfe first had or obtained, that then all the goods and chattels of the saide parson or parsons soe offending and transporting, together with the said shippe or vessell wherein suche transportacion was made, shall be forfeited to us, our heires and successors.
Provided alwaies, and our will and pleasure is and wee doe hereby declare to all Christian kinges, princes and estates, that if anie parson or parsons which shall hereafter be of anie of the said severall Colonies and plantacions, or anie other, by his, theire, or anie of theire licence or appointment, shall at anie time or times hereafter robb or spoile by sea or by lande or doe anie acte of unjust and unlawfull hostilitie to anie the subjects of us, our heires or successors, or anie of the subjects of anie king, prince, ruler, governor or state being then in league or amitie with us, our heires or successors, and that upon suche injurie or upon juste complainte of such prince, ruler, governor or state or their subjects, wee, our heires or successors, shall make open proclamation within anie the ports of our realme of Englande, commodious for that purpose, that the saide parson or parsons having committed anie such robberie or spoile shall, within the terme to be limitted by suche proclamations, make full restitucion or satisfaction of all suche injuries done, soe as the saide princes or others soe complained may houlde themselves fully satisfied and contented; and that if the saide parson or parsons having committed such robberie or spoile shall not make or cause to be made satisfaction accordingly with[in] such time soe to be limitted, that then it shalbe lawfull to us, our heires and successors to put the saide parson or parsons having committed such robberie or spoile and theire procurers, abbettors or comfortors out of our allegeannce and protection; and that it shalbe lawefull and free for all princes and others to pursue with hostilitie the saide offenders and everie of them and theire and everie of theire procurors, aiders, abbettors and comforters in that behalfe.
And finallie wee doe, for us, our heires and successors, grannte and agree, to and with the saide Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Sumers, Richarde Hackluit and Edwarde Maria Winghfeilde, and all other of the saide Firste Colonie, that wee, our heires or successors, upon peticion in that behalfe to be made, shall, by lettres patents under the Greate [Seale] of Englande, give and grannte unto such parsons, theire heires and assignees, as the Counsell of that Colonie or the most part of them shall for that purpose nomminate and assigne, all the landes, tenements and hereditaments which shalbe within the precincts limitted for that Colonie, as is aforesaid, to be houlden of us, our heires and successors as of our mannor of Eastgreenwiche in the countie of Kente, in free and common soccage onelie and not in capite.
And doe, in like manner, grannte and agree, for us, our heires and successors, to and with the saide Thomas Hannam, Raleighe Gilberd, William Parker and George Popham, and all others of the saide Seconde Colonie, that wee, our heires [and] successors, upon petition in that behalfe to be made, shall, by lettres patentes under the Great Seale of Englande, give and grannte unto such parsons, theire heires and assignees, as the Counsell of that Colonie or the most parte of them shall for that purpose nomminate and assigne, all the landes, tenementes and hereditaments which shalbe within the precinctes limited for that Colonie as is afore said, to be houlden of us, our heires and successors as of our mannor of Eastgreenwich in the countie of Kente, in free and common soccage onelie and not in capite.
All which landes, tenements and hereditaments soe to be passed by the saide severall lettres patents, shalbe, by sufficient assurances from the same patentees, soe distributed and devided amongest the undertakers for the plantacion of the said severall Colonies, and such as shall make theire plantacion in either of the said severall Colonies, in such manner and forme and for such estates as shall [be] ordered and sett [downe] by the Counsell of the same Colonie, or the most part of them, respectively, within which the same lands, tenements and hereditaments shall ly or be. Althoughe expresse mencion [of the true yearly value or certainty of the premises, or any of them, or of any other gifts or grants, by us or any our progenitors or predecessors, to the aforesaid Sir Thomas Gates, Knt. Sir George Somers, Knt. Richard Hackluit, Edward-Maria Wingfield, Thomas Hanham, Ralegh Gilbert, William Parker, and George Popham, or any of them, heretofore made, in these presents, is not made; or any statute, act, ordnance, or provision, proclamation, or restraint, to the contrary hereof had, made, ordained, or any other thing, cause, or matter whatsoever, in any wise notwithstanding.] In witnesse wherof [we have caused these our letters to be made patents;] witnesse our selfe at Westminister the xth day of Aprill [1606, in the fourth year of our reign of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the nine and thirtieth.]
[Lukin]
Exactum per breve de private sigillo [etc.]
December 8, 1941
Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.
It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.
The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost. In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.
Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. This morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.
As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.
Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.
Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.
With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."
ART. 4. For the better security of the peace and friendship now entered into by the contracting parties, against all infractions of the same, by the citizens of either party, to the prejudice of the other, neither party shall proceed to the infliction of punishments on the citizens of the other, otherwise than by securing the offender, or offenders, by imprisonment, or any other competent means, till a fair and impartial trial can be had by judges or juries of both parties, as near as can be, to the laws, customs, and usage's of the contracting parties, and natural justice: the mode of such trials to be hereafter fixed by the wise men of the United States, in congress assembled, with the assistance of such deputies of the Delaware nation, as may be appointed to act in concert with them in adjusting this matter to their mutual liking. And it is further agreed between the parties aforesaid, that neither shall entertain, or give countenance to, the enemies of the other, or protect, in their respective states, criminal fugitives, servants, or slaves, but the same to apprehend and secure, and deliver to the state or states, to which such enemies, criminals, servants, or slaves, respectively below.
January 14, 1639
For as much as it hath pleased Almighty God by the wise disposition of his divine providence so to order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon the River of Connectecotte and the lands thereunto adjoining; and well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require; do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one Public State or Commonwealth; and do for ourselves and our successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation together, to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess, as also, the discipline of the Churches, which according to the truth of the said Gospel is now practiced amongst us; as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed accordinbg to such Laws, Rules, Orders and Decrees as shall be made, ordered, and decreed as followeth:
1. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that there shall be yearly two General Assemblies or Courts, the one the second Thursday in April, the other the second Thursday in September following; the first shall be called the Court of Election, wherein shall be yearly chosen from time to time, so many Magistrates and other public Officers as shall be found requisite: Whereof one to be chosen Governor for the year ensuing and until another be chosen, and no other Magistrate to be chosen for more than one year: provided always there be six chosen besides the Governor, which being chosen and sworn according to an Oath recorded for that purpose, shall have the power to administer justice according to the Laws here established, and for want thereof, according to the Rule of the Word of God; which choice shall be made by all that are admitted freemen and have taken the Oath of Fidelity, and do cohabit within this Jurisdiction having been admitted Inhabitants by the major part of the Town wherein they live or the major part of such as shall be then present.
2. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the election of the aforesaid Magistrates shall be in this manner: every person present and qualified for choice shall bring in (to the person deputed to receive them) one single paper with the name of him written in it whom he desires to have Governor, and that he that hath the greatest number of papers shall be Governor for that year. And the rest of the Magistrates or public officers to be chosen in this manner: the Secretary for the time being shall first read the names of all that are to be put to choice and then shall severally nominate them distinctly, and every one that would have the person nominated to be chosen shall bring in one single paper written upon, and he that would not have him chosen shall bring in a blank; and every one that hath more written papers than blanks shall be a Magistrate for that year; which papers shall be received and told by one or more that shall be then chosen by the court and sworn to be faithful therein; but in case there should not be six chosen as aforesaid, besides the Governor, out of those which are nominated, than he or they which have the most writen papers shall be a Magistrate or Magistrates for the ensuing year, to make up the aforesaid number.
3. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the Secretary shall not nominate any person, nor shall any person be chosen newly into the Magistracy which was not propounded in some General Court before, to be nominated the next election; and to that end it shall be lawful for each of the Towns aforesaid by their deputies to nominate any two whom they conceive fit to be put to election; and the Court may add so many more as they judge requisite.
4. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that no person be chosen Governor above once in two years, and that the Governor be always a member of some approved Congregation, and formerly of the Magistracy within this Jurisdiction; and that all the Magistrates, Freemen of this Commonwealth; and that no Magistrate or other public officer shall execute any part of his or their office before they are severally sworn, which shall be done in the face of the court if they be present, and in case of absence by some deputed for that purpose.
5. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that to the aforesaid Court of Election the several Towns shall send their deputies, and when the Elections are ended they may proceed in any public service as at other Courts. Also the other General Court in September shall be for making of laws, and any other public occasion, which concerns the good of the Commonwealth.
6. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the Governor shall, either by himself or by the Secretary, send out summons to the Constables of every Town for the calling of these two standing Courts one month at least before their several times: And also if the Governor and the greatest part of the Magistrates see cause upon any special occasion to call a General Court, they may give order to the Secretary so to do within fourteen days' warning: And if urgent necessity so required, upon a shorter notice, giving sufficient grounds for it to the deputies when they meet, or else be questioned for the same; And if the Governor and major part of Magistrates shall either neglect or refuse to call the two General standing Courts or either of them, as also at other times when the occasions of the Commonwealth require, the Freemen thereof, or the major part of them, shall petition to them so to do; if then it be either denied or neglected, the said Freemen, or the major part of them, shall have the power to give order to the Constables of the several Towns to do the same, and so may meet together, and choose to themselves a Moderator, and may proceed to do any act of power which any other General Courts may.
7. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that after there are warrants given out for any of the said General Courts, the Constable or Constables of each Town, shall forthwith give notice distinctly to the inhabitants of the same, in some public assembly or by going or sending from house to house, that at a place and time by him or them limited and set, they meet and assemble themselves together to elect and choose certain deputies to be at the General Court then following to agitate the affairs of the Commonwealth; which said deputies shall be chosen by all that are admitted Inhabitants in the several Towns and have taken the oath of fidelity; provided that none be chosen a Deputy for any General Court which is not a Freeman of this Commonwealth.
The aforesaid deputies shall be chosen in manner following: every person that is present and qualified as before expressed, shall bring the names of such, written in several papers, as they desire to have chosen for that employment, and these three or four, more or less, being the number agreed on to be chosen for that time, that have the greatest number of papers written for them shall be deputies for that Court; whose names shall be endorsed on the back side of the warrant and returned into the Court, with the Constable or Constables' hand unto the same.
8. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield shall have power, each Town, to send four of their Freemen as their deputies to every General Court; and Whatsoever other Town shall be hereafter added to this Jurisdiction, they shall send so many deputies as the Court shall judge meet, a reasonable proportion to the number of Freemen that are in the said Towns being to be attended therein; which deputies shall have the power of the whole Town to give their votes and allowance to all such laws and orders as may be for the public good, and unto which the said Towns are to be bound.
9. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the deputies thus chosen shall have power and liberty to appoint a time and a place of meeting together before any General Court, to advise and consult of all such things as may concern the good of the public, as also to examine their own Elections, whether according to the order, and if they or the greatest part of them find any election to be illegal they may seclude such for present from their meeting, and return the same and their reasons to the Court; and if it be proved true, the Court may fine the party or parties so intruding, and the Town, if they see cause, and give out a warrant to go to a new election in a legal way, either in part or in whole. Also the said deputies shall have power to fine any that shall be disorderly at their meetings, or for not coming in due time or place according to appointment; and they may return the said fines into the Court if it be refused to be paid, and the Treasurer to take notice of it, and to escheat or levy the same as he does other fines.
10. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that every General Court, except such as through neglect of the Governor and the greatest part of the Magistrates the Freemen themselves do call, shall consist of the Governor, or some one chosen to moderate the Court, and four other Magistrates at least, with the major part of the deputies of the several Towns legally chosen; and in case the Freemen, or major part of them, through neglect or refusal of the Governor and major part of the Magistrates, shall call a Court, it shall consist of the major part of Freemen that are present or their deputiues, with a Moderator chosen by them: In which said General Courts shall consist the supreme power of the Commonwealth, and they only shall have power to make laws or repeal them, to grant levies, to admit of Freemen, dispose of lands undisposed of, to several Towns or persons, and also shall have power to call either Court or Magistrate or any other person whatsoever into question for any misdemeanor, and may for just causes displace or deal otherwise according to the nature of the offense; and also may deal in any other matter that concerns the good of this Commonwealth, except election of Magistrates, which shall be done by the whole body of Freemen.
In which Court the Governor or Moderator shall have power to order the Court, to give liberty of speech, and silence unseasonable and disorderly speakings, to put all things to vote, and in case the vote be equal to have the casting voice. But none of these Courts shall be adjourned or dissolved without the consent of the major part of the Court.
11. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that when any General Court upon the occasions of the Commonwealth have agreed upon any sum, or sums of money to be levied upon the several Towns within this Jurisdiction, that a committee be chosen to set out and appoint what shall be the proportion of every Town to pay of the said levy, provided the committee be made up of an equal number out of each Town.
14th January 1639 the 11 Orders above said are voted.
May 8, 1945
Instrument of Surrender of All German armed forces in HOLLAND, in northwest Germany including all islands, and in DENMARK.
1. The German Command agrees to the surrender of all armed forces in HOLLAND, in northwest GERMANY including the FRISLIAN ISLANDS and HELIGOLAND and all islands, in SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, and in DENMARK, to the C.-in-C. 21 Army Group. =This to include all naval ships in these areas= These forces to lay down their arms and to surrender unconditionally.
2. All hostilities on land, on sea, or in the air by German forces in the above areas to cease at 0800 hrs. British Double Summer Time on Saturday 5 May 1945.
3. The German command to carry out at once, and without argument or comment, all further orders that will be issued by the Allied Powers on any subject.
4. Disobedience of orders, or failure to comply with them, will be regarded as a breach of these surrender terms and will be dealt with by the Allied Powers in accordance with the laws and usages of war.
5. This insturment of surrender is independent of, without pre- judice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by or on behalf of the Allied Powers and applicable to Germany and the German armed forces as a whole.
6. This instument of surrender is written in English and in German. The English version is the authentic text.
7. The decision of the Allied Powers will be final if any doubt or dispute arise as to the meaning or intrepretation of the surrender terms.
HANS GEORG von FRIEDBERG
KINZEL
G. WAGNER
B. L. MONTGOMERY
Field - Marshal
POLECK
FRIEDEL
4 May 1945
1830 hrs.
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{Reichspresident Donitz's authorization to Colonel General Jodl} {to conclude a general surrender:}
Hauptquartier, den 6. Mai 1945.
Ich bevollmachtige Generaloberst J o d l , Chef des Wehrmachtfuhrungsstabes in Oberkommando der Wehrmact, zum Abschluss eines Waffenstill- standsbkommens mit dem Hauptquartier des Generals Eisenhower .
[ SEAL ]
DONITZ
GroBadmiral.
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Only this text in English is authoritative.
ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER
1. We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command all forces on land, sea and in the air who are at this date under German control.
2. The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air authorties and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at =2301= hours Central European time on = 8 May = and to remain in the positions occupied at that time. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment.
3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commander, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Soviet High Command.
4. This act of military surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole.
5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Soviet High Command will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.
Signed at RHEIMS at 0241 on the 7th day of May, 1945.
France
On behalf of the German High Command.
JODL
IN THE PRESENCE OF
On behalf of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, W. B. SMITH
On behalf of the Soviet High Command, SOUSLOPAROV
F SEVEZ, Major General, French Army
(Witness) ---------------------------------------
SUPREME HEADQUARTERS,
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
SERIAL 1
ORDERS BY THE SUPREME COMMANDER,
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE RELATING TO
ARMY AND AIR FORCES UNDER GERMAN CONTROL
1. Local commanders of the Army and Air Force under German control on the Western Front, in NORWAY and in the CHANNEL ISLANDS will hold themselves in readiness to receive detailed orders for the surrender of their forces from the Supreme Commander's subordinate commanders opposite their front.
2. In the case of NORWAY the Supreme Commander's representatives will be the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Scottish Command and Air Officer Commanding 13 Group RAF.
3. In the case of the CHANNEL ISLANDS the Supreme Commander's representatives will be the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Command and Air Officer Commanding 10 Group RAF.
WALTER B SMITH Signed.................... For the Supreme Commander, RAF.
Dated 0241 7th May, 1945
Rheims France
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SPECIAL ORDERS BY THE SUPREME COMMANDER, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND RELATING TO NAVAL FORCES
For the purpose of these orders the term "Allied Representatives" shall be deemed to include the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, and any subordinate commander, staff officer or agent acting pursuant to his orders.
SPECIAL ORDERS BY THE SUPREME COMMANDER, ALLIED
EXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND
RELATING TO NAVAL FORCES
PART I GENERAL
Definition of Naval Forces
1. For the purpose of these orders all formations, units, and personnel of the German Navy together with the Marine Kusten Polizie shall be refered to as the German Naval Forces.
2. Members of the Marine Kusten Polizie will immediately be placed under the command of the appropriate German Naval Commanders who will be responsible for their maintenance and supply where applicable, to the same extent and degree as for units of the German Navy. German Naval Representatives and information required immediately
3. The German High Command will dispatch within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective, a res- ponsible Flag Officer to the Allied Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force at his headquarters. This Flag Officer will furnish the Allied Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force, with:-
a. Corrected copies of charts showing all minefields in Western Europe waters, including the BALTIC as far as LUBECK (inclusive) which have been laid by German and German-controlled vessels or aircraft, positions of all wrecks, booms and other underwater obstructions in this area, details of the German convoy routes and searched channels and of all bouys, lights and other navigational aids in this area. The appropriate navigational publications are also required.
b. Details of the exact location of all departments and branches of the German Admiralty (OKM).
c. All available information concerning the numbers and types of German minesweepers and sperr- brechers in German controlled Dutch ports and German NORTH SEA ports that can be obtained without delaying his departure. This German Flag Officer is to be accompanied by a Communications Officer who is familiar with the German Naval W/T organization and who is to bring with him the current naval communications Orders, including allocation of frequencies, list of W/T and R/T call signs in force, and a list of all codes and cyphers in use, and intended to be brought into use.
d. Location of all surface warships down to and including "Elbing" class Torpedo Boats, and of all submarines and "E" Boats.
4. The German High Command will also dispatch within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective a responsibile officer, not below the rank of Captain, by coastal craft to report to the Admiral Commanding at DOVER for onward routing to Commander-in-Chief, THE NORE, with:-
a. Corrected copies of charts showing all minefields in the NORTH SEA SOUTH of 54 30' NORTH and EAST of 1 30' EAST laid by German and German-controlled vessels or aircraft, positions of all wrecks, booms and all other underwater obstructions; details of all German Convoy routes and searched channels in this area, and of all bouys, lights and other navigational aids which are under German control. Appropriate naviga- tional publications are also required.
b. All available information concerning the numbers and types of German minesweepers and sperrbrechers in German contolled Dutch ports and German NORTH SEA ports that can be obtained without delaying his departure.
5. Another responsible German Naval Officer, with similar information is to be dispatched by un- escorted aircraft painted white to MANSTON Areodrome position 51 20' NORTH, 1 20' EAST for onward routing to Commander-in-Chief, THE NORE.
6. The German High Command will issue instruc- tions to certain German naval commands as indicated below:-
a. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORTH SEA will dispatch by coastal craft within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective a responsible officer, not below the rank of Captain, to the Admiral Commanding at DOVER for onward routing to Commander-in-Chief, THE NORE, with:-
(1) details of minesweeping operations carried out in the German convoy route between the HOOK OF HOLLAND and HAMBURG and in approaches to harbours between these two ports during the previous 60 days;
(2) numbers and postions of all British mines swept during these operations;
(3) details of all controlled mine- fields in this area and information whether they have been rendered ineffective;
(4) details of all other mining and types of mines employed in the harbours and harbour approaches of CUXHAVEN, EMDEN, TERSCHELLING, TEXEL, IJMUIDEN, AMSTERDAM, SCHEVENINGEN, HOOK OF HOLLAND and ROTTERDAM;
(5) berthing facilities in the harbours enumerated in paragraph (6a). (4) above and the numbers of auxiliary minesweepers which can be accomodated;
(6) a list of all W/T and R/T call signs in use by the German Navy.
Any of the above information which cannot be obtained without delaying the departure of this officer will be forwarded subsequently as soon as it is available.
b. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORTH SEA, will also dispatch as soon as possible by coastal craft to DOVER thirteen German Naval Officers who must be familiar with the German swept channels between the HOOK OF HOLLAND and CUXHAVEN. These officers will bring with them all the charts and books required for naviagation in this area and will be accompanied by pilots (and interpreters if necessary).
c. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORWAY, will dispatch by sea within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective, a responsible officer, not below the rank of Captain to the Commander-in-Chief, ROSYTH, with corrected copies of charts showing all German minefields in the NORTH SEA, NORTH of 56 NORTH, all wrecks, booms and other underwater obstructions, details of German convoy routes and searched channels in this area, of the approach channels to the principal Norwegian ports and of all bouys, lights and other navigational aids in this area. This officer will also bring with him the disposition of all "U" Boats and details of all orders affecting their future movements. He will be accompanied by six German Naval Officers with pilots (and interpreters if necessary) who are familiar with the coastal swept channels between OSLO and TROMSO. These officers will bring with them all the charts and books required for navigation in Norwegian waters, and a list of all W/T and R/T call signs in use by the German Navy.
d. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORWAY, will dispatch a duplicate party to the above with similar informa- tion by an unescorted aircraft painted white to DREM Airfield 56 02' NORTH 02 48' WEST.
e. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORWAY, will report by W/T to the Commander-in-Chief, ROSYTH, within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective, the following information:-
(1) Berthing facilities at OSLO, CHRISTIANSAND, STAVANGER, BERGEN, TRONDHEIM, NARVIK, and TROMSO.
(2) The appropriate quantities of furnace oil fuel, diesel oil fuel, and coal at all the principal Norwegian ports between OSLO and TROMSO.
7. The German Admiral SKGGERAK will dispatch by sea within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective, a responsible officer not below the rank of Captain, to the Commander-in-Chief, ROSYTH, with corrected copies of charts showing all German minefields, wrecks, booms, and other underwater obstructions, details of German convoy routes and searched channels, bouys, lights and other navigational aids in the SKAGGERAK, KATTEGAT, THE BEITS AND SOUND, KIEL BAY and BALTIC WATERS WEST of 14 EAST. This officer will also bring with him the disposition of all "U" boats in the above area and details of all orders affecting their future move- ments. He will be accompanied by three German Naval officers with pilots (and interpreters if necessary) who are familiar with the coastal swept channels, and channels in the Swedish territorial waters, in the waters referred to above. These officers will bring with them all the charts and books required for navigation in these waters, and a list of all W/T and R/T call signs in use by the German Navy.
The German Admiral SKAGGERAK will dispatch a duplicate party to that specified above, with similar information, by air in unescorted aircraft painted white to DREM Airfield 56 02' NORTH 02 48' WEST.
8. The German Naval Officers who will be dis- patched to DOVER and ROSYTH by sea will proceed to positions in latitude 51 19' NORTH longitude 1 43' EAST and latitude 56 47' NORTH longitude 1 13' WEST respectively, where they will be met by British warships and escorted to their destination. The ships or craft in which they travel are to fly a large white flag at the masthead by day and are to illuminate these white flags by night. These ships are to broadcast their positions hourly by W/T on 500 ks. (600 meters) whilst on passage. Information required within fourteen days
9. The German High Command will furnish the following information to the Allied Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force, at by within fourteen days of cessation of hostilities.
a. Locations of all warships, auxiliaries and armed coastal craft operating under the orders of the German Naval Command stating particulars of the operational unit to which they are attached, giving approximate totals of all naval personal embarked in each vessel, (including naval flak and merchant ship flak).
b. A statement of the organizations of all naval shore Commands, giving location of all naval establishments, including establishments for experiment and research, names of all Commanding Officers and Principal Staff Officers of the rank of Commander in each establishment.
c. A statement of the strength and location of all naval land forces including naval infrantry, naval flak, merchant ship flak and naval personnel manning naval coast artillery and full particulars of all Coastal and port defenses giving nature and locations.
d. Lists of stocks of furnace oil fuels, diesel oil fuel, petrol, and coal of 500 tons or more at, or in the vicinity of, all ports between IJMUIDEN and HAMBURG inclusive.
e. A statement of location of the principal naval armament depots with approximate overall stocks of each major item held.
f. The following communications information:-
(1) location and details concerning all V/S, W/T (including D/F) and radar stations in use by, and under constuc- tion for the German Navy, these details to include types and capabilities of all equipment fitted.
(2) details of the current naval W/T organization, lists of W/T and R/T call signs in force, and allocation of all frequencies for communication and radar purposes. (3) location and details of all naval communications (including Infra-Red) and naval radar training and research establishments.
g. Full details of all German minefields in the NORTH SEA, SKAGGERAK, KATTEGAT, BEITS, and SOUND.
h. Full details of the German naval minesweeping organization including the communications organization.
j. Full details of the communications (including Infra-Red) and radar equipment fitted in all German minesweepers and sperrbrechers.
k. Technical details of all types of minesweeping gear used by the German Navy.
l. Details of all mining and types of mines employed and of berthing facilities available for ships of 150 feet in length and 16 feet draught at:-
BREMERHAVEN
WILHELMSHAVEN
SCHIERMONNIKOOG
DELFZIJL
10. The German High Command will also furnish the Allied Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force, with two copies of all coding and cyphering systems which have been, are being, or were to be used by the German Navy with the necessary instructions for their use and the dates between which they have been, or were to have been used.
PART II - CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT
Orders to warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships and other craft
11. The German High Command will forthwith direct all German and German-controlled warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships and other craft to comply with the following instructions:-
a. All warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships and other craft in harbours are to remain in harbour pending further directions from the Allied Representatives.
b. All warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships and other craft at sea are to report their positions in plain language immediately to the nearest British, US or Soviet Coast Wireless Telegraphy station on 500 kc/s (600 metres), and are to proceed to the nearest German or Allied port or such ports as the Allied Representatives may direct, and remain there pending further directions from the Allied Representatives. At night they are to show lights and to display searchlights with beams held vertically.
c. All warships and merchant ships whether in port or at sea will immediately train all weapons fore and aft. All torpedo tubes will be unloaded and breech blocks will be removed from all guns.
d. All warships and merchant ships in German or German-controlled harbours will immediately land and store in safety all ammunition, warheads and other explosives. They will land all portable weapons but, pending further instuctions, warships will retain onboard the fixed armament. Fire control and all other equipment will be maintained on board intact and fully efficient.
e. All minesweeping vessels are to carry out the means of disarmament prescribed in c. and d. above, (except that they will however, retain on board such portable weapons and explosives as are required for minesweeping purposes) and are to be prepared immediately for minesweeping service under the direction of the Allied Representatives. They will complete with fuel where necessary.
f. All German salvage vessels are to carry out the measures of disarmament prescribed in c. and d. above (except that they will retain on board such explosives as are required for salvage purposes.) These vessels, together with all salvage equipment and personnel, are to be prepared for immediate salvage operations under the direction of the Allied Representatives, completing with fuel where necessary for this purpose.
g. The movement of transport on the inland waterways of GERMANY may continue, subject to orders from the Allied Representatives. No vessels moving on inland waterways will proceed to neutral waters. Submarines
12. The German High Command will tranmit by W/T on appropriate frequencies the two messages in Annexures 'A' and 'B' which contain instructions to submarines at sea. Naval Aircraft
13. The German High Command will forthwith direct that:-
a. German naval aircraft are not to leave the ground or water or ship pending directions from the Allied Representatives;
b. naval aircraft in the air are to return immediately to their bases. Neutral shipping
14. The German High Command will forthwith direct that all neutral merchant ships in German and German- controlled ports are to be detained pending further directions from the Allied Representatives. Orders relating to sabotage, scuttling, safety measures, pilotage and personnel
15. The German High Command will forthwith issue categorical directions that:-
a. No ship, vessel or aircraft of any description is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment.
b. all harbour works and port facilities of whatever nature, including telecommunications and radar stations, are to be preserved and kept free from destruction or damage pending further directions from the Allied Representatives, and all necessary steps taken and all necessary orders issued to prohibit any act of scuttling, sabotage, or other willful damage.
c. all boom defenses at all ports and harbours are to be opened and kept open at all times; where possible, they are to be removed.
d. all controlled minefields at all ports and harbours are to be disconnected and rendered ineffective.
e. all demolition charges in all ports and harbour works are to be removed or rendered ineffective and their presence indicated.
f. the existing wartime sustem of navigational lighting is to be maintained, except that all dimmed lights are to be shown at full brilliancy, and lights only shown by special arrangement are to be exhibited continously. In particular:-
(1) HELIGOLAND Light is to be burnt at full brilliancy.
(2) The bouyage of the coastal convoy route from the HOOK OF HOLLAND to HAMBURG is to be commenced, mid-channel light bouys being laid six miles apart.
(3) Two ships are to be anchored as mark vessels in the following positions:
54 20' N, 5 00' E.
54 20' N, 6 30' E.
These ships are to fly a large black flag at the mast- head by day and by night are to flash a searchlight vertically every 30 seconds.
g. All pilotage services are to continue to operate and all pilots are to be held at their normal stations ready for service and equipped with their charts.
h. German Naval and other personnel concerned in the operation of ports and administrative services in ports are to remain at their stations and to continue to carry out their normal duties. Personnel
16. The German High Command will forthwith direct that except as may be required for the purpose of giving effect to the above special orders:-
a. all personnel in German warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships and other craft, are to remain on board their ships pending further directions from the Allied Representatives.
b. all Naval personnel ashore are to remain in their establishments.
17. The German High Command will be responsible for the immediate and total disarmament of all naval personnel on shore. The orders issued to the German High Command in respect of the disarmament and war material of land forces will apply also to naval personnel on shore.
H. M. BURROUGH, Signed....................... For the Supreme Commander, AEF.
Dated 0241 7th May 1945
Rheims, France
ANNEXURE 'A'
SURRENDER OF GERMAN "U" BOAT FLEET
To all "U" Boats at sea:
Carry out the following instuctions forthwith which have been given by the Allied Representatives
(A) Surface immediately and remain surfaced.
(B) Report immediately in P/L your position in latitude and longitude and number of your "U" Boat to nearest British, US, Canadian or Soviet coast W/T station on 500 kc/s (600 metres) and to call sign GZZ 10 on one of the following high frequencies: 16845 - 12685 or 5970 kc/s.
(C) Fly a large black or blue flag by day.
(D) Burn navigation lights by night.
(E) Jettison all ammunition, remove breachblocks from guns and render torpedos safe by removing pistols. All mines are to be rendered safe.
(F) Make all signals in P/L.
(G) Follow strictly the instructions for proceeding to Allied ports from your present area given in immediately following message.
(H) Observe strictly the orders of Allied Representatives to refrain from scuttling or in any way damaging your "U" Boat.
2. These instructions will be repeated at two-hour intervals until further notice.
ANNEXURE 'B'
To all "U" Boats at sea. Observe strictly the instructions already given to remain fully surfaced. Report your position course and speed every 8 hours. Obey any instructions that may be given to you by any Allied authority.
The following are the areas and routes for "U" Boats surrendering-
(1) Area 'A'.
a. Bound on West by meridian 026 degs West and South by parallel 043 degs North in Barents Sea by meridian 020 degs East in Baltic Approaches by line joining the Naze and Hantsholm but excludes Irish Sea between 051 degs thirty mins and 055 degs 00 mins North and English Channel between line of Lands End Scilly Islands Ushant and line of Dover-Calais.
b. Join one of following routes at nearest point and procceed along it to Loch Eriboll (058 degs 33 minutes North 004 degs 37 mins West)
Blue route: All positions North and West unless otherwise indicated
049 degs 00 mins
009 degs 00 mins
053 degs 00 mins
012 degs 00 mins
058 degs 00 mins
011 degs 00 mins
059 degs 00 mins
005 degs 30 mins
thence to Loch Eriboll.
Red route:
053 degs 45 mins North
003 degs 00 mins East
059 degs 45 mins
001 degs 00 mins
059 degs 45 mins
003 degs 00 mins
thence to Loch Eriboll.
c. Arrive at Loch Eriboll between sunrise and 3 hours before sunset.
(2) Area 'B'
a. The Irish Sea between parallel of 051 degs 30 mins and 055 degs 00 mins North.
b. Proceed Beaumaris Bay (053 degs 19 mins North 003 degs 58 mins West) to arrive between sunrise and 3 hours before sunset.
(3) Area 'C'
a. The English Channel between line of Lands End - Scilly Isles - Ushant and line of Dover - Calais.
b. 'U' Boats in area 'C' are to join one of following routes at nearest point: Green route: position 'A' 049 degs 10 mins North 005 degs 40 mins West position 'B' 050 degs 00 mins North 003 degs 00 mins West thence escorted to Weymouth. Orange route: position 'X' 050 degs 30 mins North 000 degs 50 mins East position 'Y' 050 degs 10 mins North 001 degs 50 mins West thence escorted to Weymouth.
c. Arrive at either 'B' or 'Y' between sunrise and 3 hours before sunset.
(4) Area 'D'
a. Bound on West by lines joining The Naze and Hantsholm and on East by lines joining Lubeck and Trelleborg.
b. Proceed to Kiel.
(5) Area 'E'
a. Mediterranean Approaches bound on North by 043 degs North on South by 026 degs North and on West by 026 degs West.
b. Proceed to a rendezvous in position 'A' 036 degs 00 mins North 011 degs 00 mins West and await escort reporting expected time of arrival in plain language to Admiral Gibraltar on 500 kc/s.
c. Arrive in position 'A' between sunrise and noon G.M.T.
(6) Area 'F'
a. The North and South Atlantic West of 026 degs West.
b. Proceed to nearest of one of following points arriving between sunrise and 3 hours before sunset: W 043 degs 30 mins North 070 degs 00 mins West approach from a point 15 miles due East X 038 degs 20 mins North 074 degs 25 mins West approach from a point 047 degs 18 mins North 051 30 mins West on a course 270 degs Z 043 31 mins North 065 degs 05 mins West approach from point 042 degs 59 mins North 054 degs 28 mins West on a course 320 degs.
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UNDERTAKING GIVEN BY CERTAIN GERMAN EMISSARIES TO THE ALLIED HIGH COMMANDS
It is agreeed by the German emissaries undersigned that the following German officers will arrive at a place and time designated by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, and the Soviet High Command prepared, with planary powers, to execute a formal ratification on behalf of the German High Command of this act of Unconditional Surrender of the German armed forces.
Chief of the High Command
Commander-in-Chief of the Army
Commander-in-Chief of the Navy
Commander-in-Chief of the Air Forces.
SIGNED
JODL
Representing the German High Command.
DATED 0241 7th May 1945
Rheims, France
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{Reichspresident Donitz's authorization to German representatives to execute ratification}.
Abschrift.
Der Oberste Befehlshaber
Hauptquartier, den 7.5.45.
der Wehrmact
/Bitte in der Antwort vorstehendes
Geschaftszeichen, das Datum und
kurzen Inhalt anzugegen./
ICH BEVOLLMACHTIGE GENERALFELDMARSCHALL KEITEL ALS CHEF DES OBERKOMMANDOS DER WEHRMACHT UND ZUGLEICH ALS OBER- BEFEHLSHABER DES HEERES, GENERALADMIRAL VON FRIEDBERG ALS OBERBEFEHLSHABER DER KRIEGSMARINE, GENERALOBERST S T U M P F ALS VERTRETER DES OBERBEFEHLSHABERS DER LUFTWAFFE
ZUR RATIFIZIERUNG DER BEDINGUNGSLKSEN KAPITULATION DER DEUTSCHEN STREITKRAFTE GEGEN- UBER DEM OBERBEFEHLSHABER DER ALLIIERTEN EXPEDITIONSSTREITKRAFTE UND DEM SOWYET-OBER- KOMMANDO.
DONITZ
GROBADMIRAL.
Siegel.
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ACT OF MULITARY SURRENDER
1. We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Supreme High Command of the Red Army all forces on land, at sea, and in the air who are at this date under German control.
2. The German High Command will at once issue order to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on 8th May 1945, to remain in all positions occupied at that time and to disarm completely, handing over their weapons and equipment to the local allied commanders or officers designated by Representatives of the Allied Supreme Commands. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment, and also to machines of all kinds, armament, apparatus, and all the technical means of prosecution of war in general.
3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commanders, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Supreme Command of the Red Army.
4. This act of military surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole.
5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Supreme High Command of the Red Army will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.
6. This Act is drawn up in the English, Russian and German languages. The English and Russian are the only authentic texts.
Signed at Berlin on the 8 day of May, 1945
Von Friedeburg
Keitel
Stumpff
On behalf of the German High Command
IN THE PRESENCE OF:
A.W.Tedder
On behalf of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force
Georgi Zhukov
On behalf of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army
At the signing also were present as witnesses:
F. de Lattre-Tassigny
General Commanding in Chief
First French Army
Carl Spaatz
General, Commanding
United States Strategic Air Force
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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
The Allied armies, through sacrifice and devotion and with God's help, have wrung from Germany a final and unconditional surrender. The western world has been freed of the evil forces which for five years and longer have imprisoned the bodies and broken the lives of millions upon millions of free-born men. They have violated their churches, destroyed their homes, cor- rupted their children, and murdered their loved ones. Our Armies of Liberation have restored freedom to these suffering peoples, whose spirit and will the oppressors could never enslave.
Much remains to be done. The victory won in the West must now be won in the East. The whole world must be cleansed of the evil from which half the world has been freed. United, the peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the West that their arms are stronger by far than the might of dictators or the tyranny of military cliques that once called us soft and weak. The power of our peoples to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the Pacific was as it has been proved in Europe.
For the trimuph of spirit and of arms which we have won, and of its promise to peoples everywhere who join us in the love of freedom, it is fitting that we, as a nation, give thanks to Almighty God, who has strengthened us and given us the victory.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, HARRY S. TRUMAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby appoint Sunday, May 13, 1945 to be a day of prayer.
I call upon the people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory we have won and to pray that He will support us to the end of our present struggle and guide us into the way of peace.
I also call upon my countrymen to dedicate this day of prayer to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible our victory.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this eighth day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-five and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-ninth.
| THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA |
By the President:
Harry S. Truman
Nov. 19, 1863
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
Nov. 19, 1863
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the numbers of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received?
Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlement assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation.
There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free--if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength but irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extentuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
September 12, 1945
TRANSLATION of Foreign Minister Shiegemitsu's credentials
TRANSLATION
H I R O H I T O,
By the Grace of Heaven, Emperor of Japan, seated on the Throne occupied by the same Dynasty changeless through ages eternal,
To all who these Presents shall come, Greeting!
We do hereby authorise Mamoru Shigemitsu, Zyosanmi, First Class of the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun to attach his signature by command and in behalf of Ourselves and Our Government unto the Instrument of Surrender which is required by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to be signed.
In witness whereof, We have hereunto set Our signature and caused the Great Seal of the Empire to be affixed.
Given at Our Palace in Tokyo, this first day of the ninth month of the twentieth year of Syowa, being the two thousand six hundred and fifth year from the Accession of the Emperor Zinmu.
Seal of the Empire
Signed: H I R O H I T O
Countersigned: Naruhiko-o
Prime Minister
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TRANSLATION of General Umezu's credentials
TRANSLATION
H I R O H I T O ,
By the Grace of Heaven, Emperor of Japan, seated on the Throne occupied by the same Dynasty changeless through ages eternal,
To all who these Presents shall come, Greeting!
We do hereby authorise Yoshijiro Umezu, Zyosanmi, First Class of the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun to attach his signature by command and in behalf of Ourselves and Our Government unto the Instrument of Surrender which is required by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to be signed.
In witness whereof, We have hereunto set Our signature and caused the Great Seal of the Empire to be affixed.
Given at Our Palace in Tokyo, this first day of the ninth month of the twentieth year of Syowa, being the two thousand six hundred and fifth year from the Accession of the Emperor Zinmu.
Seal of the Empire
Signed: H I R O H I T O
Countersigned:
Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army
Soemu Toyoda, Chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army
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INSTRUMENT OF SURRENDER
We, acting by command of and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, hereby accept the provisions set forth in the declaration issued by the heads of the Governments of the United States, China, and Great Britain on 26 July 1945 at Potsdam, and subsequently adhered to by the Union of Soviet Socialist Repub- lics, which four powers are hereafter referred to as the Allied Powers.
We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under the Japanese control wherever situated.
We hereby command all Japanese forces wherever situated and the Japanese people to cease hostilites forthwith, to preserve and save from damage all ships, aircraft, and military and civil property and to comply with all requirements which my be imposed by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers or by agencies of the Japanese Government at his direction.
We hereby command the Japanese Imperial Headquarters to issue at once orders to the Commanders of all Japanese forces and all forces under Japanese control wherever situated to surrender un- conditionally themselves and all forces under their control.
We hereby command all civil, military and naval officials to obey and enforce all proclamations, and orders and directives deemed by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to be proper to ef- fectuate this surrender and issued by him or under his authority and we direct all such officials to remain at their posts and to continue to perform their non-combatant duties unless specifically relieved by him or under his authority.
We hereby undertake for the Emperor, the Japanese Government and their successors to carry out the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration in good faith, and to issue whatever orders and take whatever actions may be required by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Poers or by any other designated representative of the Allied Powers for the purpose of giving effect to that Declaration.
We hereby command the Japanese Imperial Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters at once to liberate all allied prisoners of war and civilian internees now under Japanese control and to provide for their protection, care, maintenance and immediate transportation to places as directed.
The authority of the Emperor and the Japanese Government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers who will take such steps as he deems proper to ef- fectuate these terms of surrender.
Signed at TOKYO BAY, JAPAN at 0904 I on the SECOND day of SEPTEMBER, 1945.
MAMORU SHIGMITSU
By Command and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Government
YOSHIJIRO UMEZU
By Command and in behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters
Accepted at TOKYO BAY, JAPAN at 0903 I on the SECOND day of SEPTEMBER, 1945, for the United States, Republic of China, United Kingdom and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and in the interests of the other United Nations at war with Japan.
DOUGLAS MAC ARTHUR,
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers
C.W. NIMITZ,
United States Representative
HSU YUNG-CH'ANG,
Republic of China Representative
BRUCE FRASER,
United Kingdom Representative
KUZMA DEREVYANKO,
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Representative
THOMAS BLAMEY<
Commonwealth of Australia Representative
L. MOORE COSGRAVE,
Dominion of Canada Representative
JACQUES LE CLERC,
Provisional Government of the French Republic Representative
C.E.L. HELFRICH,
Kingdom of the Netherlands Representative
LEONARD M. ISITT,
Dominion of New Zealand Representative
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Translation of Emperor Hirohito's Receipt of the Surrender documents
PROCLAMATION
Accepting the terms set forth in the Declaration issued by the heads of the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, and China on July 26th, 1945 at Potsdam and subse- quently adhered to by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, We have commanded the Japanese Imperial Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters to sign on Our behalf the Instrument of Surrender presented by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers and to issue General Orders to the Military and Naval Forces in accordance with the direction of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. We command all Our people forthwith to cease hostilities, to lay down their arms and faithfully to carry out all the provisions of Instrument of Surrender and the General Orders issued by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters hereunder.
This second day of the ninth month of the twentieth year of Syowa. Seal of the Empire
Signed: H I R O H I T O
Countersigned:
Naruhiko-o, Prime Minister
Mamoru Shigemitsu, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Iwao Yamazaki, Minister of Home Affairs
Juichi Tsushima, Minister of Finance
Sadamu Shimomura, Minister of War
Mitsumasa Yonai, Minister of Navy
Chuzo Iwata, Minister of Justice
Tamon Maeda, Minister of Education
Kenzo Matsumura, Minister of Welfare
Kotaro Sengoku, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry
Chikuhei Nakajima, Minister of Commerce and Industry
Naoto Kobiyama, Minister of Transportation
Fumimaro Konoe, Minister without Portfolio
Taketora Ogata, Minister without Portfolio
Binshiro Obata, Minister without Portfolio
---------------------------------------
INSTRUMENT OF SURRENDER
of the Japanese and Japanese-Controlled Armed Forces in the Philippine Islands to the Commanding General United States Army Forces, Western Pacific
Camp John Hay
Baguio, Mountain Province,
Luzon, Philippine, Islands
3 September, 1945
Pursuant to and in accordance with the proclamation of the Emperor of Japan accepting the terms set forth in the declaration issued by the heads of the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, and China on 26 July 1945; at Potsdam and sub- sequently adhered to by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; and to the formal instrument of surrender of the Japanese Imperial Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters signed at Toyko Bay at 0908 on 2 September 1945:
1. Acting by command of and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Imperial Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, We hereby surrender unconditionally to the Commanding General, United States Army Forces, Western Pacific, all Japanese and Japanese-controlled armed forces, air, sea, ground and auxiliary, in the Philippine Islands.
2. We hereby command all Japanese forces wherever situated in the Philippine Islands to cease hostilities forthwith, to preserve and save from damage all ships, aircraft, and military and civil property, and to comply with all requirements which may be imposed by the Commanding General, United States Army Forces, Western Pacific, or his authorized representatives.
3. We hereby direct the commanders of all Japanese forces in the Philippine Islands to issue at once to all forces under their command to surrender unconditionally themselves and all forces under their control, as prisoners of war, to the nearest United States Force Commander.
4. We hereby direct the commanders of all Japanese forces in the Philippine Islands to surrender intact and in good order to the nearest United States Army Force Commander, at times and at places directed by him, all equipment and supplies of whatever nature under their control.
5. We hereby direct the commanders of all Japanese forces in the Philippine Islands at once to liberate all Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees under their control, and to provide for their protection, care, maintenance and immediate transportation to places as directed by the nearest United States Army Force Commander.
6. We hereby undertake to transmit the directives given in Paragraphs 1 through 5, above, to all Japanese forces in the Philip- pine Islands immediatlely by all means within our power, and further to furnish to the Commanding General, United States Army Forces, Western Pacific, all necessary Japanese emissaries fully empowered to bring about the surrender of Japanese forces in the Philippine Islands with whom we are not in contact.
7. We hereby undertake to furnish immediatly to the Commanding General, United States Army Forces, Western Pacific, a statement of the designation, numbers, loacations, and commanders of all Japanese armed forces, ground, sea, or air, in the Philippine Islands.
8. We hereby undertake faithfully to obey all further pro- clamation, orders and directives deemed by the Commanding General, United States Armed Forces, Western Pacific, to be proper to ef- fecuate this surrender.
Signed at Camp John Hay, Baguio, Mountain Province, Luzon, Philippine Islands, at 1210 hours 3 September 1945:
TOMOYUKI YAMASHITA, General, Imperial Japanese Army Highest Commander, Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines.
DENHICI OKOCHI, Vice Admiral, Imperial Japanese Navy Highest Commander, Imperial Japanese Navy in the Philippines.
By command and in behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters
Accepted at Camp John Hay, Baguio, Mountain Province Luzon Philippine Islands, at 1210 hours 3 September 1945: For the Commander-in-Chief, United States Army Forces, Pacific:
EDMOND H. LEAVY, Major General, USA Deputy Commander, United States Army Forces, Western Pacific.
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UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES IN KOREA
HEADQUARTERS XXIV CORPS
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL
APO 235 c/o POSTMASTER
SAN FRANSICO, CALIFORNIA
FORMAL SURRENDER BY THE SENIOR JAPANESE GROUND, SEA, AIR AND AUXILIARY FORCES COMMANDS WITHIN KOREA SOUTH OF 38 NORTH LATITUDE TO THE COM- MANDING GENERAL, UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES IN KOREA, FOR AND IN BEHALF OF THE COMMANDER-IN- CHIEF UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES, PAFIFIC
WHEREAS an Instrument of Surrender was on the 2d day of September 1945 by command of and behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial Head- quarters signed by Foreign Minister Mamouru Shigemitsu by com- mand and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government and by Yoshijiro Umezu by command of and in behalf of the Japanese Imperial Headquaters and
WHEREAS the terms of the Instrument of Surrender were subsequently as follows:
"1. We, acting by command of an in behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, hereby accept the provisions set forth in the declaration issued by the heads of the Governments of the United States, China, and Great Britian on 26 July 1945 at Potsdam, and subsequently adhered to by the Union of Soviet Socialist Repub- lics, which four powers are hereafter referred to as the Allied Powers.
"2. We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under the Japanese control wherever situated.
"3. We hereby command all Japanese forces wherever situated and the Japanese people to cease hostilites forthwith, to preserve and save from damage all ships, aircraft, and military and civil property and to comply with all requirements which my be imposed by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers or by agencies of the Japanese Government at his direction.
"4. We hereby command the Japanese Imperial Headquarters to issue at once orders to the Commanders of all Japanese forces and all forces under Japanese control wherever situated to surrender unconditionally themselves and all forces under their control.
"5. We hereby command all civil, military and naval officials to obey and enforce all proclamations, and orders and directives deemed by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to be proper to ef- fectuate this surrender and issued by him or under his authority and we direct all such officials to remain at their posts and to continue to perform their non-combatant duties unless specifically relieved by him or under his authority.
"6. We hereby undertake for the Emperor, the Japanese Government and their successors to carry out the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration in good faith, and to issue whatever orders and take whatever actions may be required by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers or by any other designated representative of the Allied Powers for the purpose of giving effect to that Declaration.
"7. We hereby command the Japanese Imperial Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters at once to liberate all allied prisoners of war and civilian internees now under Japanese control and to provide for their protection, care, maintenance and immediate transportation to places as directed.
"8. The authority of the Emperor and the Japanese Government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers who will take such steps as he deems proper to ef- fectuate these terms of surrender.
WHEREAS the terms of surrender were, on the 2d day of September 1945 as given by the United States, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics and other allied powers, accepted by the Imperial Japanese Government, and
WHEREAS on the 2d day of September 1945 the Imperial General Headquarters by direction of the Emperor has ordered all its commanders in Japan and abroad to cause the Japanese Armed Forces and Japanese controlled forces under their command to cease hostilities at once, to lay down their arms and remain in their present locations and to surrender unconditionally to commanders acting in behalf of the United States, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the British Empire and the Union of Socialist Rep- ublics, and
WHEREAS the Imperial General Headquarters, its senior commanders and all ground, sea, air and auxiliary forces in the main islands of Japan, minor islands adjacent thereto, Korea south of 38 north latitude and the Philippines were directed to surrender to the Commmander-in-Chief of the United States Army Forces, Pacific and
WHEREAS the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army Forces, Pacific has appointed the Commanding General, XXIV Corps as the Command General, United States Army Forces in Korea, and has directed him as such to act for the Commander- in-Chief United States Army Forces, Pacific in the reception of the surrender of the senior Japanese commanders of all Japanese ground, sea, air and auxiliary forces in Korea south of 38 north latitude and all islands adjacent thereto. Now therefor
We, the undersigned, senior Japanese commanders of all Japanese ground, sea, air and auxiliary forces in Korea south of 38 north latitude, do hereby acknowledge:
a. That we have been duly advised and fully informed of the contents of the Proclamation by the Emperor of Japan, the Instrument of Surrender and the orders herein above referred to.
b. That we accept our duties and obligations under said instruments and orders and recognize the necessity for our strict compliance therewith and adherence thereto.
c. The the Commanding General, United States Army Forces in Korea, is the duly authorized representative of the Com- mander-in-Chief United States Army Forces, Pacific and that we will completely and immediately carry out and put into ef- fect his instructions.
Finally, we do hereby formally and unconditionally sur- render to the Commanding General, United States Army Forces in Korea, all persons in Korea south of 38 degrees North Latitude who are in the Armed Forces of Japan, and all military installations, ordnance, ships, aircraft, and other military equipment or property of every kind or description in Korea, including all islands adjacent thereto, south of 38 degrees North Latitude over which we exercise jurisdiction or control.
In case of conflict or ambiguity between the English text of this document and any translation thereof, the English shall prevail.
Signed at SEOUL, KOREA at 1630 hours on the 9th day of September 1945.
YOSHIO SOZUKI, Senior Japanese commander of all Japanese ground and air forces in Korea south of 38 north latitude.
GISABURO YAMAGUCHI, Senior Japanese commander of all Japanese naval forces in Korea south of 38 north latitude.
I, Nobuyuki Abe, the duly appointed, qualified and acting Governor General of KOREA do hereby certify that I have read and fully understand the contents of the foregoing Instrument of Surrender, and of all documents referred to therein.
I hereby acknowledge the duties and obligations imposed upon me by said documents, insofar as they apply to all matters within my jurisdiction or control as Governor General of Korea, and recognize the necessity of my strict compliance therewith and adherence thereto.
In particular do I reconize that the Commanding General, UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES IN KOREA, is the duly authorized representative of the Commander-in-Chief, UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES, PACIFIC, and that I am completely and immediately to carry out and put into effect his instructions.
Signed at SEOUL, KOREA, at 1630 hours on the 9th day of September 1945.
NOBUYUKI ABE (Governor General of KOREA)
Accepted at SEOUL, KOREA, at 1630 hours on the 9th day of September 1945 for and in behalf of the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army Forces, Pacific.
JOHN R. HODGE
JOHN R. HODGE, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army
Commanding General, United States Army Forces in Korea
THOMAS C. KINCAID
T. C. KINCAID, Admiral, U. S. Navy
Representative of the United States Navy
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SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, SOUTH EAST ASIA
THE INSTRUMENT OF SURRENDER OF JAPANESE FORCES UNDER THE COMMAND OR CONTROL OF THE SUPREME COMMANDER, JAPANESE EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, SOUTHERN REGIONS, WITHIN THE OPERATIONAL THEATRE OF THE SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, SOUTH EAST ASIA
1. In pursuance of and in compliance with:
(a) the Instrument of Surrender signed by the Japanese plenipotentiaries by command and on behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters at Toyko on 2 September, 1945;
(b) General Order No. 1, promulgated at the same place and on the same date;
(c) the Local Agreement made by the Supreme Commander, Japanese Expeditionary Forces, Southern Regions, with the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia at Rangoon on 27 August, 1945;
to all of which Instrument of Surrender, General Order and Local Agreement this present Instrument is complementary and which it in no way supersedes, the Supreme Commander, Japanese Expeditionary Forces, Southern Regions (Field Marshall Count Terauchi) does hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia (Admiral The Lord Louis Mountbatten) himself and all Japanese sea, ground, air and auxiliary forces under his command or control and within the operational theatre of the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia.
2. The Supreme Commander, Japanese Expeditionary Forces, Southern Regions, undertakes to ensure that all orders and instructions that may be issued from time to time by the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, or by any of his subordinate Naval, Military, or Air-Force Commanders of whatever rank acting in his name, are scrupulously and promptly obeyed by all Japanese sea, ground, air and auxiliary forces under the command or control of the Supreme Commander, Japanese Expeditionary Forces, Southern Regions, and within the operational theatre of the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia.
3. Any disobediance of, or delay or failure to comply with, orders or instructions issued by the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, or issued on his behalf by any of his subordinate Naval, Military, or Air Force Commanders of whatever rank, and any action which the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, or his subordinate Commanders action on his behalf, may determine to be detrimental to the Allied Powers, will be dealt with as the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia may decide.
4. This Instrument takes effect from the time and date of signing.
5. This Instrument is drawn up in the English Language, which is the only authentic version. In any case of doubt to intention or meaning, the decision of the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia is final. It is the responsibility of the Supreme Commander, Japanese Expeditionary Forces, Southern Regions, to make such translations into Japanese as he may require.
Signed at Singapore at 0341 hours (G.M.T.) on 12 September, 1945.
SEISHIRO ITAGAKI
(for) SUPREME COMMANDER
JAPANESE EXPEDITIONARY FORCES,
SOUTHERN REGIONS
LOUIS MOUNTBATTAN
SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER
SOUTH EAST ASIA
1215
JOHN, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justices, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his officials and loyal subjects, Greeting.
KNOW THAT BEFORE GOD, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the honour of God, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the better ordering of our kingdom, at the advice of our reverend fathers Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, and cardinal of the holy Roman Church, Henry archbishop of Dublin, William bishop of London, Peter bishop of Winchester, Jocelin bishop of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh bishop of Lincoln, Walter Bishop of Worcester, William bishop of Coventry, Benedict bishop of Rochester, Master Pandulf subdeacon and member of the papal household, Brother Aymeric master of the knighthood of the Temple in England, William Marshal earl of Pembroke, William earl of Salisbury, William earl of Warren, William earl of Arundel, Alan de Galloway constable of Scotland, Warin Fitz Gerald, Peter Fitz Herbert, Hubert de Burgh seneschal of Poitou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip Daubeny, Robert de Roppeley, John Marshal, John Fitz Hugh, and other loyal subjects:
(1) FIRST, THAT WE HAVE GRANTED TO GOD, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired. That we wish this so to be observed, appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and our barons, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church's elections - a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to it - and caused this to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity.
TO ALL FREE MEN OF OUR KINGDOM we have also granted, for us and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs:
(2) If any earl, baron, or other person that holds lands directly of the Crown, for military service, shall die, and at his death his heir shall be of full age and owe a `relief', the heir shall have his inheritance on payment of the ancient scale of `relief'. That is to say, the heir or heirs of an earl shall pay �100 for the entire earl's barony, the heir or heirs of a knight l00s. at most for the entire knight's `fee', and any man that owes less shall pay less, in accordance with the ancient usage of `fees'
(3) But if the heir of such a person is under age and a ward, when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance without `relief' or fine.
(4) The guardian of the land of an heir who is under age shall take from it only reasonable revenues, customary dues, and feudal services. He shall do this without destruction or damage to men or property. If we have given the guardianship of the land to a sheriff, or to any person answerable to us for the revenues, and he commits destruction or damage, we will exact compensation from him, and the land shall be entrusted to two worthy and prudent men of the same `fee', who shall be answerable to us for the revenues, or to the person to whom we have assigned them. If we have given or sold to anyone the guardianship of such land, and he causes destruction or damage, he shall lose the guardianship of it, and it shall be handed over to two worthy and prudent men of the same `fee', who shall be similarly answerable to us.
(5) For so long as a guardian has guardianship of such land, he shall maintain the houses, parks, fish preserves, ponds, mills, and everything else pertaining to it, from the revenues of the land itself. When the heir comes of age, he shall restore the whole land to him, stocked with plough teams and such implements of husbandry as the season demands and the revenues from the land can reasonably bear.
(6) Heirs may be given in marriage, but not to someone of lower social standing. Before a marriage takes place, it shall be' made known to the heir's next-of-kin.
(7) At her husband's death, a widow may have her marriage portion and inheritance at once and without trouble. She shall pay nothing for her dower, marriage portion, or any inheritance that she and her husband held jointly on the day of his death. She may remain in her husband's house for forty days after his death, and within this period her dower shall be assigned to her.
(8) No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she wishes to remain without a husband. But she must give security that she will not marry without royal consent, if she holds her lands of the Crown, or without the consent of whatever other lord she may hold them of.
(9) Neither we nor our officials will seize any land or rent in payment of a debt, so long as the debtor has movable goods sufficient to discharge the debt. A debtor's sureties shall not be distrained upon so long as the debtor himself can discharge his debt. If, for lack of means, the debtor is unable to discharge his debt, his sureties shall be answerable for it. If they so desire, they may have the debtor's lands and rents until they have received satisfaction for the debt that they paid for him, unless the debtor can show that he has settled his obligations to them.
(10) If anyone who has borrowed a sum of money from Jews dies before the debt has been repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt for so long as he remains under age, irrespective of whom he holds his lands. If such a debt falls into the hands of the Crown, it will take nothing except the principal sum specified in the bond.
(11) If a man dies owing money to Jews, his wife may have her dower and pay nothing towards the debt from it. If he leaves children that are under age, their needs may also be provided for on a scale appropriate to the size of his holding of lands. The debt is to be paid out of the residue, reserving the service due to his feudal lords. Debts owed to persons other than Jews are to be dealt with similarly.
(12) No `scutage' or `aid' may be levied in our kingdom without its general consent, unless it is for the ransom of our person, to make our eldest son a knight, and (once) to marry our eldest daughter. For these purposes ouly a reasonable `aid' may be levied. `Aids' from the city of London are to be treated similarly.
(13) The city of London shall enjoy all its ancient liberties and free customs, both by land and by water. We also will and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall enjoy all their liberties and free customs.
(14) To obtain the general consent of the realm for the assessment of an `aid' - except in the three cases specified above - or a `scutage', we will cause the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons to be summoned individually by letter. To those who hold lands directly of us we will cause a general summons to be issued, through the sheriffs and other officials, to come together on a fixed day (of which at least forty days notice shall be given) and at a fixed place. In all letters of summons, the cause of the summons will be stated. When a summons has been issued, the business appointed for the day shall go forward in accordance with the resolution of those present, even if not all those who were summoned have appeared.
(15) In future we will allow no one to levy an `aid' from his free men, except to ransom his person, to make his eldest son a knight, and (once) to marry his eldest daughter. For these purposes only a reasonable `aid' may be levied.
(16) No man shall be forced to perform more service for a knight's `fee', or other free holding of land, than is due from it.
(17) Ordinary lawsuits shall not follow the royal court around, but shall be held in a fixed place.
(18) Inquests of novel disseisin, mort d'ancestor, and darrein presentment shall be taken only in their proper county court. We ourselves, or in our absence abroad our chief justice, will send two justices to each county four times a year, and these justices, with four knights of the county elected by the county itself, shall hold the assizes in the county court, on the day and in the place where the court meets.
(19) If any assizes cannot be taken on the day of the county court, as many knights and freeholders shall afterwards remain behind, of those who have attended the court, as will suffice for the administration of justice, having regard to the volume of business to be done.
(20) For a trivial offence, a free man shall be fined only in proportion to the degree of his offence, and for a serious offence correspondingly, but not so heavily as to deprive him of his livelihood. In the same way, a merchant shall be spared his merchandise, and a husbandman the implements of his husbandry, if they fall upon the mercy of a royal court. None of these fines shall be imposed except by the assessment on oath of reputable men of the neighbourhood.
(21) Earls and barons shall be fined only by their equals, and in proportion to the gravity of their offence.
(22) A fine imposed upon the lay property of a clerk in holy orders shall be assessed upon the same principles, without reference to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice.
(23) No town or person shall be forced to build bridges over rivers except those with an ancient obligation to do so.
(24) No sheriff, constable, coroners, or other royal officials are to hold lawsuits that should be held by the royal justices.
(25) Every county, hundred, wapentake, and tithing shall remain at its ancient rent, without increase, except the royal demesne manors.
(26) If at the death of a man who holds a lay `fee' of the Crown, a sheriff or royal official produces royal letters patent of summons for a debt due to the Crown, it shall be lawful for them to seize and list movable goods found in the lay `fee' of the dead man to the value of the debt, as assessed by worthy men. Nothing shall be removed until the whole debt is paid, when the residue shall be given over to the executors to carry out the dead man s will. If no debt is due to the Crown, all the movable goods shall be regarded as the property of the dead man, except the reasonable shares of his wife and children.
(27) If a free man dies intestate, his movable goods are to be distributed by his next-of-kin and friends, under the supervision of the Church. The rights of his debtors are to be preserved.
(28) No constable or other royal official shall take corn or other movable goods from any man without immediate payment, unless the seller voluntarily offers postponement of this.
(29) No constable may compel a knight to pay money for castle-guard if the knight is willing to undertake the guard in person, or with reasonable excuse to supply some other fit man to do it. A knight taken or sent on military service shall be excused from castle-guard for the period of this servlce.
(30) No sheriff, royal official, or other person shall take horses or carts for transport from any free man, without his consent.
(31) Neither we nor any royal official will take wood for our castle, or for any other purpose, without the consent of the owner.
(32) We will not keep the lands of people convicted of felony in our hand for longer than a year and a day, after which they shall be returned to the lords of the `fees' concerned.
(33) All fish-weirs shall be removed from the Thames, the Medway, and throughout the whole of England, except on the sea coast.
(34) The writ called precipe shall not in future be issued to anyone in respect of any holding of land, if a free man could thereby be deprived of the right of trial in his own lord's court.
(35) There shall be standard measures of wine, ale, and corn (the London quarter), throughout the kingdom. There shall also be a standard width of dyed cloth, russett, and haberject, namely two ells within the selvedges. Weights are to be standardised similarly.
(36) In future nothing shall be paid or accepted for the issue of a writ of inquisition of life or limbs. It shall be given gratis, and not refused.
(37) If a man holds land of the Crown by `fee-farm', `socage', or `burgage', and also holds land of someone else for knight's service, we will not have guardianship of his heir, nor of the land that belongs to the other person's `fee', by virtue of the `fee-farm', `socage', or `burgage', unless the `fee-farm' owes knight's service. We will not have the guardianship of a man's heir, or of land that he holds of someone else, by reason of any small property that he may hold of the Crown for a service of knives, arrows, or the like.
(38) In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.
(39) No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.
(40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
(41) All merchants may enter or leave England unharmed and without fear, and may stay or travel within it, by land or water, for purposes of trade, free from all illegal exactions, in accordance with ancient and lawful customs. This, however, does not apply in time of war to merchants from a country that is at war with us. Any such merchants found in our country at the outbreak of war shall be detained without injury to their persons or property, until we or our chief justice have discovered how our own merchants are being treated in the country at war with us. If our own merchants are safe they shall be safe too.
(42) In future it shall be lawful for any man to leave and return to our kingdom unharmed and without fear, by land or water, preserving his allegiance to us, except in time of war, for some short period, for the common benefit of the realm. People that have been imprisoned or outlawed in accordance with the law of the land, people from a country that is at war with us, and merchants - who shall be dealt with as stated above - are excepted from this provision.
(43) If a man holds lands of any `escheat' such as the `honour' of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other `escheats' in our hand that are baronies, at his death his heir shall give us only the `relief' and service that he would have made to the baron, had the barony been in the baron's hand. We will hold the `escheat' in the same manner as the baron held it.
(44) People who live outside the forest need not in future appear before the royal justices of the forest in answer to general summonses, unless they are actually involved in proceedings or are sureties for someone who has been seized for a forest offence.
(45) We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or other officials, only men that know the law of the realm and are minded to keep it well.
(46) All barons who have founded abbeys, and have charters of English kings or ancient tenure as evidence of this, may have guardianship of them when there is no abbot, as is their due.
(47) All forests that have been created in our reign shall at once be disafforested. River-banks that have been enclosed in our reign shall be treated similarly.
(48) All evil customs relating to forests and warrens, foresters, warreners, sheriffs and their servants, or river-banks and their wardens, are at once to be investigated in every county by twelve sworn knights of the county, and within forty days of their enquiry the evil customs are to be abolished completely and irrevocably. But we, or our chief justice if we are not in England, are first to be informed.
(49) We will at once return all hostages and charters delivered up to us by Englishmen as security for peace or for loyal service.
(50) We will remove completely from their offices the kinsmen of Gerard de Ath�e, and in future they shall hold no offices in England. The people in question are Engelard de Cigogn�', Peter, Guy, and Andrew de Chanceaux, Guy de Cigogn�, Geoffrey de Martigny and his brothers, Philip Marc and his brothers, with Geoffrey his nephew, and all their followers.
(51) As soon as peace is restored, we will remove from the kingdom all the foreign knights, bowmen, their attendants, and the mercenaries that have come to it, to its harm, with horses and arms.
(52) To any man whom we have deprived or dispossessed of lands, castles, liberties, or rights, without the lawful judgement of his equals, we will at once restore these. In cases of dispute the matter shall be resolved by the judgement of the twenty-five barons referred to below in the clause for securing the peace (� 61). In cases, however, where a man was deprived or dispossessed of something without the lawful judgement of his equals by our father King Henry or our brother King Richard, and it remains in our hands or is held by others under our warranty, we shall have respite for the period commonly allowed to Crusaders, unless a lawsuit had been begun, or an enquiry had been made at our order, before we took the Cross as a Crusader. On our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once render justice in full.
(53) We shall have similar respite in rendering justice in connexion with forests that are to be disafforested, or to remain forests, when these were first a-orested by our father Henry or our brother Richard; with the guardianship of lands in another person's `fee', when we have hitherto had this by virtue of a `fee' held of us for knight's service by a third party; and with abbeys founded in another person's `fee', in which the lord of the `fee' claims to own a right. On our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once do full justice to complaints about these matters.
(54) No one shall be arrested or imprisoned on the appeal of a woman for the death of any person except her husband.
(55) All fines that have been given to us unjustiy and against the law of the land, and all fines that we have exacted unjustly, shall be entirely remitted or the matter decided by a majority judgement of the twenty-five barons referred to below in the clause for securing the peace (� 61) together with Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and such others as he wishes to bring with him. If the archbishop cannot be present, proceedings shall continue without him, provided that if any of the twenty-five barons has been involved in a similar suit himself, his judgement shall be set aside, and someone else chosen and sworn in his place, as a substitute for the single occasion, by the rest of the twenty-five.
(56) If we have deprived or dispossessed any Welshmen of lands, liberties, or anything else in England or in Wales, without the lawful judgement of their equals, these are at once to be returned to them. A dispute on this point shall be determined in the Marches by the judgement of equals. English law shall apply to holdings of land in England, Welsh law to those in Wales, and the law of the Marches to those in the Marches. The Welsh shall treat us and ours in the same way.
(57) In cases where a Welshman was deprived or dispossessed of anything, without the lawful judgement of his equals, by our father King Henry or our brother King Richard, and it remains in our hands or is held by others under our warranty, we shall have respite for the period commonly allowed to Crusaders, unless a lawsuit had been begun, or an enquiry had been made at our order, before we took the Cross as a Crusader. But on our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once do full justice according to the laws of Wales and the said regions.
(58) We will at once return the son of Llywelyn, all Welsh hostages, and the charters delivered to us as security for the peace.
(59) With regard to the return of the sisters and hostages of Alexander, king of Scotland, his liberties and his rights, we will treat him in the same way as our other barons of England, unless it appears from the charters that we hold from his father William, formerly king of Scotland, that he should be treated otherwise. This matter shall be resolved by the judgement of his equals in our court.
(60) All these customs and liberties that we have granted shall be observed in our kingdom in so far as concerns our own relations with our subjects. Let all men of our kingdom, whether clergy or laymen, observe them similarly in their relations with their own men.
(61) SINCE WE HAVE GRANTED ALL THESE THINGS for God, for the better ordering of our kingdom, and to allay the discord that has arisen between us and our barons, and since we desire that they shall be enjoyed in their entirety, with lasting strength, for ever, we give and grant to the barons the following security:
The barons shall elect twenty-five of their number to keep, and cause to be observed with all their might, the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter.
If we, our chief justice, our officials, or any of our servants offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is made known to four of the said twenty-five barons, they shall come to us - or in our absence from the kingdom to the chief justice - to declare it and claim immediate redress. If we, or in our absence abroad the chiefjustice, make no redress within forty days, reckoning from the day on which the offence was declared to us or to him, the four barons shall refer the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who may distrain upon and assail us in every way possible, with the support of the whole community of the land, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children, until they have secured such redress as they have determined upon. Having secured the redress, they may then resume their normal obedience to us.
Any man who so desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty-five barons for the achievement of these ends, and to join with them in assailing us to the utmost of his power. We give public and free permission to take this oath to any man who so desires, and at no time will we prohibit any man from taking it. Indeed, we will compel any of our subjects who are unwilling to take it to swear it at our command.
If-one of the twenty-five barons dies or leaves the country, or is prevented in any other way from discharging his duties, the rest of them shall choose another baron in his place, at their discretion, who shall be duly sworn in as they were.
In the event of disagreement among the twenty-five barons on any matter referred to them for decision, the verdict of the majority present shall have the same validity as a unanimous verdict of the whole twenty-five, whether these were all present or some of those summoned were unwilling or unable to appear.
The twenty-five barons shall swear to obey all the above articles faithfully, and shall cause them to be obeyed by others to the best of their power.
We will not seek to procure from anyone, either by our own efforts or those of a third party, anything by which any part of these concessions or liberties might be revoked or diminished. Should such a thing be procured, it shall be null and void and we will at no time make use of it, either ourselves or through a third party.
(62) We have remitted and pardoned fully to all men any ill-will, hurt, or grudges that have arisen between us and our subjects, whether clergy or laymen, since the beginning of the dispute. We have in addition remitted fully, and for our own part have also pardoned, to all clergy and laymen any offences committed as a result of the said dispute between Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign (i.e. 1215) and the restoration of peace.
In addition we have caused letters patent to be made for the barons, bearing witness to this security and to the concessions set out above, over the seals of Stephen archbishop of Canterbury, Henry archbishop of Dublin, the other bishops named above, and Master Pandulf.
(63) IT IS ACCORDINGLY OUR WISH AND COMMAND that the English Church shall be free, and that men in our kingdom shall have and keep all these liberties, rights, and concessions, well and peaceably in their fulness and entirety for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and all places for ever.
Both we and the barons have sworn that all this shall be observed in good faith and without deceit. Witness the abovementioned people and many others.
Given by our hand in the meadow that is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our reign (i.e. 1215: the new regnal year began on 28 May).
1620
"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&.
Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620."
December 2, 1823
The Monroe Doctrine was expressed during President Monroe's seventh annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823:
. . . At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made through the minister of the Emperor residing here, a full power and instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St. Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent. A similar proposal has been made by His Imperial Majesty to the Government of Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded to. The Government of the United States has been desirous by this friendly proceeding of manifesting the great value which they have invariably attached to the friendship of the Emperor and their solicitude to cultivate the best understanding with his Government. In the discussions to which this interest has given rise and in the arrangements by which they may terminate the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. . .
It was stated at the commencement of the last session that a great effort was then making in Spain and Portugal to improve the condition of the people of those countries, and that it appeared to be conducted with extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be remarked that the results have been so far very different from what was then anticipated. Of events in that quarter of the globe, with which we have so much intercourse and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy to do so. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments; and to the defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. In the war between those new Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, in the judgement of the competent authorities of this Government, shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United States indispensable to their security.
The late events in Spain and Portugal shew that Europe is still unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be adduced than that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any principle satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed by force in the internal concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposition may be carried, on the same principle, is a question in which all independent powers whose governments differ from theirs are interested, even those most remote, and surely none of them more so than the United States. Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the government de facto as the legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting in all instances the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. But in regard to those continents circumstances are eminently and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition in any form with indifference. If we look to the comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new Governments, and their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in hope that other powers will pursue the same course. . . .
July 13, 1787
An Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio.
Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, That the said territory, for the purposes of temporary government, be one district, subject, however, to be divided into two districts, as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, make it expedient.
Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the estates, both of resident and nonresident proprietors in the said territory, dying intestate, shall descent to, and be distributed among their children, and the descendants of a deceased child, in equal parts; the descendants of a deceased child or grandchild to take the share of their deceased parent in equal parts among them: And where there shall be no children or descendants, then in equal parts to the next of kin in equal degree; and among collaterals, the children of a deceased brother or sister of the intestate shall have, in equal parts among them, their deceased parents' share; and there shall in no case be a distinction between kindred of the whole and half blood; saving, in all cases, to the widow of the intestate her third part of the real estate for life, and one third part of the personal estate; and this law relative to descents and dower, shall remain in full force until altered by the legislature of the district. And until the governor and judges shall adopt laws as hereinafter mentioned, estates in the said territory may be devised or bequeathed by wills in writing, signed and sealed by him or her in whom the estate may be (being of full age), and attested by three witnesses; and real estates may be conveyed by lease and release, or bargain and sale, signed, sealed and delivered by the person being of full age, in whom the estate may be, and attested by two witnesses, provided such wills be duly proved, and such conveyances be acknowledged, or the execution thereof duly proved, and be recorded within one year after proper magistrates, courts, and registers shall be appointed for that purpose; and personal property may be transferred by delivery; saving, however to the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskies, St. Vincents and the neighboring villages who have heretofore professed themselves citizens of Virginia, their laws and customs now in force among them, relative to the descent and conveyance, of property.
Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That there shall be appointed from time to time by Congress, a governor, whose commission shall continue in force for the term of three years, unless sooner revoked by Congress; he shall reside in the district, and have a freehold estate therein in 1,000 acres of land, while in the exercise of his office.
There shall be appointed from time to time by Congress, a secretary, whose commission shall continue in force for four years unless sooner revoked; he shall reside in the district, and have a freehold estate therein in 500 acres of land, while in the exercise of his office. It shall be his duty to keep and preserve the acts and laws passed by the legislature, and the public records of the district, and the proceedings of the governor in his executive department, and transmit authentic copies of such acts and proceedings, every six months, to the Secretary of Congress: There shall also be appointed a court to consist of three judges, any two of whom to form a court, who shall have a common law jurisdiction, and reside in the district, and have each therein a freehold estate in 500 acres of land while in the exercise of their offices; and their commissions shall continue in force during good behavior.
The governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original States, criminal and civil, as may be necessary and best suited to the circumstances of the district, and report them to Congress from time to time: which laws shall be in force in the district until the organization of the General Assembly therein, unless disapproved of by Congress; but afterwards the Legislature shall have authority to alter them as they shall think fit.
The governor, for the time being, shall be commander in chief of the militia, appoint and commission all officers in the same below the rank of general officers; all general officers shall be appointed and commissioned by Congress.
Previous to the organization of the general assembly, the governor shall appoint such magistrates and other civil officers in each county or township, as he shall find necessary for the preservation of the peace and good order in the same: After the general assembly shall be organized, the powers and duties of the magistrates and other civil officers shall be regulated and defined by the said assembly; but all magistrates and other civil officers not herein otherwise directed, shall during the continuance of this temporary government, be appointed by the governor.
For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws to be adopted or made shall have force in all parts of the district, and for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the governor shall make proper divisions thereof; and he shall proceed from time to time as circumstances may require, to lay out the parts of the district in which the Indian titles shall have been extinguished, into counties and townships, subject, however, to such alterations as may thereafter be made by the legislature.
So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants of full age in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the governor, they shall receive authority, with time and place, to elect a representative from their counties or townships to represent them in the general assembly: Provided, That, for every five hundred free male inhabitants, there shall be one representative, and so on progressively with the number of free male inhabitants shall the right of representation increase, until the number of representatives shall amount to twenty five; after which, the number and proportion of representatives shall be regulated by the legislature: Provided, That no person be eligible or qualified to act as a representative unless he shall have been a citizen of one of the United States three years, and be a resident in the district, or unless he shall have resided in the district three years; and, in either case, shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee simple, two hundred acres of land within the same; Provided, also, That a freehold in fifty acres of land in the district, having been a citizen of one of the states, and being resident in the district, or the like freehold and two years residence in the district, shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a representative.
The representatives thus elected, shall serve for the term of two years; and, in case of the death of a representative, or removal from office, the governor shall issue a writ to the county or township for which he was a member, to elect another in his stead, to serve for the residue of the term.
The general assembly or legislature shall consist of the governor, legislative council, and a house of representatives. The Legislative Council shall consist of five members, to continue in office five years, unless sooner removed by Congress; any three of whom to be a quorum: and the members of the Council shall be nominated and appointed in the following manner, to wit: As soon as representatives shall be elected, the Governor shall appoint a time and place for them to meet together; and, when met, they shall nominate ten persons, residents in the district, and each possessed of a freehold in five hundred acres of land, and return their names to Congress; five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as aforesaid; and, whenever a vacancy shall happen in the council, by death or removal from office, the house of representatives shall nominate two persons, qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names to Congress; one of whom congress shall appoint and commission for the residue of the term. And every five years, four months at least before the expiration of the time of service of the members of council, the said house shall nominate ten persons, qualified as aforesaid, and return their names to Congress; five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as members of the council five years, unless sooner removed. And the governor, legislative council, and house of representatives, shall have authority to make laws in all cases, for the good government of the district, not repugnant to the principles and articles in this ordinance established and declared. And all bills, having passed by a majority in the house, and by a majority in the council, shall be referred to the governor for his assent; but no bill, or legislative act whatever, shall be of any force without his assent. The governor shall have power to convene, prorogue, and dissolve the general assembly, when, in his opinion, it shall be expedient.
The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary, and such other officers as Congress shall appoint in the district, shall take an oath or affirmation of fidelity and of office; the governor before the president of congress, and all other officers before the Governor. As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, the council and house assembled in one room, shall have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to Congress, who shall have a seat in Congress, with a right of debating but not voting during this temporary government.
And, for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory: to provide also for the establishment of States, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original States, at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest:
It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority aforesaid, That the following articles shall be considered as articles of compact between the original States and the people and States in the said territory and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, to wit:
Article I.
No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments, in the said territory.
Article II.
The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the trial by jury; of a proportionate representation of the people in the legislature; and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offenses, where the proof shall be evident or the presumption great. All fines shall be moderate; and no cruel or unusual punishments shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land; and, should the public exigencies make it necessary, for the common preservation, to take any person's property, or to demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the same. And, in the just preservation of rights and property, it is understood and declared, that no law ought ever to be made, or have force in the said territory, that shall, in any manner whatever, interfere with or affect private contracts or engagements, bona fide, and without fraud, previously formed.
Article III.
Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.
Article IV.
The said territory, and the States which may be formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this Confederacy of the United States of America, subject to the Articles of Confederation, and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made; and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in Congress assembled, conformable thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts contracted or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them by Congress according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other States; and the taxes for paying their proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the district or districts, or new States, as in the original States, within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts or new States, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and, in no case, shall nonresident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other States that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor.
Article V.
There shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three nor more than five States; and the boundaries of the States, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit: The western State in the said territory, shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash Rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post Vincents, due North, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada; and, by the said territorial line, to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle State shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line, drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern State shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line: Provided, however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two States in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. And, whenever any of the said States shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State government: Provided, the constitution and government so to be formed, shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; and, so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the State than sixty thousand.
Article VI.
There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.
Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the resolutions of the 23rd of April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same are hereby repealed and declared null and void.
In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity.
It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the hearts of the most serene and most potent Prince George the Third, by the grace of God, king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, duke of Brunswick and Lunebourg, arch- treasurer and prince elector of the Holy Roman Empire etc., and of the United States of America, to forget all past misunderstandings and differences that have unhappily interrupted the good correspondence and friendship which they mutually wish to restore, and to establish such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse , between the two countries upon the ground of reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience as may promote and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony; and having for this desirable end already laid the foundation of peace and reconciliation by the Provisional Articles signed at Paris on the 30th of November 1782, by the commissioners empowered on each part, which articles were agreed to be inserted in and constitute the Treaty of Peace proposed to be concluded between the Crown of Great Britain and the said United States, but which treaty was not to be concluded until terms of peace should be agreed upon between Great Britain and France and his Britannic Majesty should be ready to conclude such treaty accordingly; and the treaty between Great Britain and France having since been concluded, his Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, in order to carry into full effect the Provisional Articles above mentioned, according to the tenor thereof, have constituted and appointed, that is to say his Britannic Majesty on his part, David Hartley, Esqr., member of the Parliament of Great Britain, and the said United States on their part, John Adams, Esqr., late a commissioner of the United States of America at the court of Versailles, late delegate in Congress from the state of Massachusetts, and chief justice of the said state, and minister plenipotentiary of the said United States to their high mightinesses the States General of the United Netherlands; Benjamin Franklin, Esqr., late delegate in Congress from the state of Pennsylvania, president of the convention of the said state, and minister plenipotentiary from the United States of America at the court of Versailles; John Jay, Esqr., late president of Congress and chief justice of the state of New York, and minister plenipotentiary from the said United States at the court of Madrid; to be plenipotentiaries for the concluding and signing the present definitive treaty; who after having reciprocally communicated their respective full powers have agreed upon and confirmed the following articles.
His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and independent states, that he treats with them as such, and for himself, his heirs, and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof.
And that all disputes which might arise in future on the subject of the boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the following are and shall be their boundaries, viz.; from the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz., that nagle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of St. Croix River to the highlands; along the said highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River; thence down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; from thence by a line due west on said latitude until it strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraquy; thence along the middle of said river into Lake Ontario; through the middle of said lake until it strikes the communication by water between that lake and Lake Erie; thence along the middle of said communication into Lake Erie, through the middle of said lake until it arrives at the water communication between that lake and Lake Huron; thence along the middle of said water communication into Lake Huron, thence through the middle of said lake to the water communication between that lake and Lake Superior; thence through Lake Superior northward of the Isles Royal and Phelipeaux to the Long Lake; thence through the middle of said Long Lake and the water communication between it and the Lake of the Woods, to the said Lake of the Woods; thence through the said lake to the most northwesternmost point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi; thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river Mississippi until it shall intersect the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, South, by a line to be drawn due east from the determination of the line last mentioned in the latitude of thirty-one degrees of the equator, to the middle of the river Apalachicola or Catahouche; thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint River, thence straight to the head of Saint Mary's River; and thence down along the middle of Saint Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean; east, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river Saint Croix, from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and from its source directly north to the aforesaid highlands which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall into the river Saint Lawrence; comprehending all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on the one part and East Florida on the other shall, respectively, touch the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean, excepting such islands as now are or heretofore have been within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia.
It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank and on all the other banks of Newfoundland, also in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and at all other places in the sea, where the inhabitants of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish. And also that the inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to take fish of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen shall use, (but not to dry or cure the same on that island) and also on the coasts, bays and creeks of all other of his Brittanic Majesty's dominions in America; and that the American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled, but so soon as the same or either of them shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlement without a previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground.
It is agreed that creditors on either side shall meet with no lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value in sterling money of all bona fide debts heretofore contracted.
It is agreed that Congress shall earnestly recommend it to the legislatures of the respective states to provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to real British subjects; and also of the estates, rights, and properties of persons resident in districts in the possession on his Majesty's arms and who have not borne arms against the said United States. And that persons of any other decription shall have free liberty to go to any part or parts of any of the thirteen United States and therein to remain twelve months unmolested in their endeavors to obtain the restitution of such of their estates, rights, and properties as may have been confiscated; and that Congress shall also earnestly recommend to the several states a reconsideration and revision of all acts or laws regarding the premises, so as to render the said laws or acts perfectly consistent not only with justice and equity but with that spirit of conciliation which on the return of the blessings of peace should universally prevail. And that Congress shall also earnestly recommend to the several states that the estates, rights, and properties, of such last mentioned persons shall be restored to them, they refunding to any persons who may be now in possession the bona fide price (where any has been given) which such persons may have paid on purchasing any of the said lands, rights, or properties since the confiscation.
And it is agreed that all persons who have any interest in confiscated lands, either by debts, marriage settlements, or otherwise, shall meet with no lawful impediment in the prosecution of their just rights.
That there shall be no future confiscations made nor any prosecutions commenced against any person or persons for, or by reason of, the part which he or they may have taken in the present war, and that no person shall on that account suffer any future loss or damage, either in his person, liberty, or property; and that those who may be in confinement on such charges at the time of the ratification of the treaty in America shall be immediately set at liberty, and the prosecutions so commenced be discontinued.
There shall be a firm and perpetual peace between his Brittanic Majesty and the said states, and between the subjects of the one and the citizens of the other, wherefore all hostilities both by sea and land shall from henceforth cease. All prisoners on both sides shall be set at liberty, and his Brittanic Majesty shall with all convenient speed, and without causing any destruction, or carrying away any Negroes or other property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his armies, garrisons, and fleets from the said United States, and from every post, place, and harbor within the same; leaving in all fortifications, the American artilery that may be therein; and shall also order and cause all archives, records, deeds, and papers belonging to any of the said states, or their citizens, which in the course of the war may have fallen into the hands of his officers, to be forthwith restored and delivered to the proper states and persons to whom they belong.
The navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, shall forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States.
In case it should so happen that any place or territory belonging to Great Britain or to the United States should have been conquered by the arms of either from the other before the arrival of the said Provisional Articles in America, it is agreed that the same shall be restored without difficulty and without requiring any compensation.
The solemn ratifications of the present treaty expedited in good and due form shall be exchanged between the contracting parties in the space of six months or sooner, if possible, to be computed from the day of the signatures of the present treaty. In witness whereof we the undersigned, their ministers plenipotentiary, have in their name and in virtue of our full powers, signed with our hands the present definitive treaty and caused the seals of our arms to be affixed thereto.
Done at Paris, this third day of September in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.
D. HARTLEY (SEAL)
JOHN ADAMS (SEAL)
B. FRANKLIN (SEAL)
JOHN JAY (SEAL)
Article 10:
Article 9:
Article 8:
Article 7:
Article 6:
Article 5:
Article 4:
Article 3:
Article 2:
Article 1:
The National Cathedral
President Proclaims National Day of Prayer and Remembrance
Washington, D.C.
1:00 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: We are here in the middle hour of our grief. So many have suffered so great a loss, and today we express our nation's sorrow. We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who love them.
On Tuesday, our country was attacked with deliberate and massive cruelty. We have seen the images of fire and ashes, and bent steel.
Now come the names, the list of casualties we are only beginning to read. They are the names of men and women who began their day at a desk or in an airport, busy with life. They are the names of people who faced death, and in their last moments called home to say, be brave, and I love you.
They are the names of passengers who defied their murderers, and prevented the murder of others on the ground. They are the names of men and women who wore the uniform of the United States, and died at their posts.
They are the names of rescuers, the ones whom death found running up the stairs and into the fires to help others. We will read all these names. We will linger over them, and learn their stories, and many Americans will weep.
To the children and parents and spouses and families and friends of the lost, we offer the deepest sympathy of the nation. And I assure you, you are not alone.
Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history. But our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.
War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.
Our purpose as a nation is firm. Yet our wounds as a people are recent and unhealed, and lead us to pray. In many of our prayers this week, there is a searching, and an honesty. At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Tuesday, a woman said, "I prayed to God to give us a sign that He is still here." Others have prayed for the same, searching hospital to hospital, carrying pictures of those still missing.
God's signs are not always the ones we look for. We learn in tragedy that his purposes are not always our own. Yet the prayers of private suffering, whether in our homes or in this great cathedral, are known and heard, and understood.
There are prayers that help us last through the day, or endure the night. There are prayers of friends and strangers, that give us strength for the journey. And there are prayers that yield our will to a will greater than our own.
This world He created is of moral design. Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance, and love have no end. And the Lord of life holds all who die, and all who mourn.
It is said that adversity introduces us to ourselves. This is true of a nation as well. In this trial, we have been reminded, and the world has seen, that our fellow Americans are generous and kind, resourceful and brave. We see our national character in rescuers working past exhaustion; in long lines of blood donors; in thousands of citizens who have asked to work and serve in any way possible.
And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. Inside the World Trade Center, one man who could have saved himself stayed until the end at the side of his quadriplegic friend. A beloved priest died giving the last rites to a firefighter. Two office workers, finding a disabled stranger, carried her down sixty-eight floors to safety. A group of men drove through the night from Dallas to Washington to bring skin grafts for burn victims.
In these acts, and in many others, Americans showed a deep commitment to one another, and an abiding love for our country. Today, we feel what Franklin Roosevelt called the warm courage of national unity. This is a unity of every faith, and every background.
It has joined together political parties in both houses of Congress. It is evident in services of prayer and candlelight vigils, and American flags, which are displayed in pride, and wave in defiance.
Our unity is a kinship of grief, and a steadfast resolve to prevail against our enemies. And this unity against terror is now extending across the world.
America is a nation full of good fortune, with so much to be grateful for. But we are not spared from suffering. In every generation, the world has produced enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America, because we are freedom's home and defender. And the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time.
On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask almighty God to watch over our nation, and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn, and the promise of a life to come.
As we have been assured, neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, can separate us from God's love. May He bless the souls of the departed. May He comfort our own. And may He always guide our country.
God bless America.
April 22, 1793
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas it appears that a state of war exists between Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Netherlands, of the one part, and France on the other; and the duty and interest of the United States require, that they should with sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerant Powers;
I have therefore thought fit by these presents to declare the disposition of the United States to observe the conduct aforesaid towards those Powers respectfully; and to exhort and warn the citizens of the United States carefully to avoid all acts and proceedings whatsoever, which may in any manner tend to contravene such disposition.
And I do hereby also make known, that whatsoever of the citizens of the United States shall render himself liable to punishment or forfeiture under the law of nations, by committing, aiding, or abetting hostilities against any of the said Powers, or by carrying to any of them those articles which are deemed contraband by the modern usage of nations, will not receive the protection of the United States, against such punishment or forfeiture; and further, that I have given instructions to those officers, to whom it belongs, to cause prosecutions to be instituted against all persons, who shall, within the cognizance of the courts of the United States, violate the law of nations, with respect to the Powers at war, or any of them.
In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the twenty-second day of April, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the seventeenth.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
April 22, 1793
The members of this Congress, sincerely devoted, with the warmest sentiments of affection and duty to His Majesty's Person and Government, inviolably attached to the present happy establishment of the Protestant succession, and with minds deeply impressed by a sense of the present and impending misfortunes of the British colonies on this continent; having considered as maturely as time will permit the circumstances of the said colonies, esteem it our indispensable duty to make the following declarations of our humble opinion, respecting the most essential rights and liberties Of the colonists, and of the grievances under which they labour, by reason of several late Acts of Parliament.
That His Majesty's subjects in these colonies, owe the same allegiance to the Crown of Great-Britain, that is owing from his subjects born within the realm, and all due subordination to that august body the Parliament of Great Britain.
That His Majesty's liege subjects in these colonies, are entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great-Britain.
That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives.
That the people of these colonies are not, and from their local circumstances cannot be, represented in the House of Commons in Great-Britain.
That the only representatives of the people of these colonies, are persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures.
That all supplies to the Crown, being free gifts of the people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of the British Constitution, for the people of Great-Britain to grant to His Majesty the property of the colonists.
That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject in these colonies.
That the late Act of Parliament, entitled, An Act for granting and applying certain Stamp Duties, and other Duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, etc., by imposing taxes on the inhabitants of these colonies, and the said Act, and several other Acts, by extending the jurisdiction of the courts of Admiralty beyond its ancient limits, have a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonists.
That the duties imposed by several late Acts of Parliament, from the peculiar circumstances of these colonies, will be extremely burthensome and grievous; and from the scarcity of specie, the payment of them absolutely impracticable.
That as the profits of the trade of these colonies ultimately center in Great-Britain, to pay for the manufactures which they are obliged to take from thence, they eventually contribute very largely to all supplies granted there to the Crown.
That the restrictions imposed by several late Acts of Parliament, on the trade of these colonies, will render them unable to purchase the manufactures of Great-Britain.
That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these colonies, depend on the full and free enjoyment of their rights and liberties, and an intercourse with Great-Britain mutually affectionate and advantageous.
That it is the right of the British subjects in these colonies, to petition the King, Or either House of Parliament.
Lastly, That it is the indispensable duty of these colonies, to the best of sovereigns, to the mother country, and to themselves, to endeavour by a loyal and dutiful address to his Majesty, and humble applications to both Houses of Parliament, to procure the repeal of the Act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, of all clauses of any other Acts of Parliament, whereby the jurisdiction of the Admiralty is extended as aforesaid, and of the other late Acts for the restriction of American commerce.
Philadelphia, Mar. 4, 1793
Fellow Citizens:
I am again called upon by the voice of my country to execute the functions of its Chief Magistrate. When the occasion proper for it shall arrive, I shall endeavor to express the high sense I entertain of this distingu ished honor, and of the confidence which has been reposed in me by the people of united America.
Previous to the execution of any official act of the President the Constitution requires an oath of office. This oath I am now about to take, and in your presence: That if it shall be found during my administration of the Government I have in any instance violated willingly or knowingly the injunctions thereof, I may (besides incurring constitutional punishment) be subject to the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.
James, by the grace of God [King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, etc.] To all [to whom these presents shall come, greeting.]
Whereas, at the humble suite and request of sondrie oure lovinge and well disposed subjects intendinge to deduce a colonie and to make habitacion and plantacion of sondrie of oure people in that parte of America comonlie called Virginia, and other part and territories in America either apperteyninge unto us or which are not actually possessed of anie Christian prince or people within certaine bound and regions, wee have formerly, by oure lettres patents bearinge date the tenth of Aprill in the fourth yeare of oure raigne of England, Fraunce, and Ireland, and the nine and thirtieth of Scotland, graunted to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers and others, for the more speedie accomplishment of the said plantacion and habitacion, that they shoulde devide themselves into twoe colloniesthe one consistinge of divers Knights, gentlemen, merchaunts and others of our cittie of London, called the First Collonie; and the other of sondrie Knights, gentlemen and others of the citties of Bristoll, Exeter, the towne of Plymouth, and other places, called the Seccond Collonieand have yielded and graunted maine and sondrie priviledges and liberties to each Collonie for their quiet setlinge and good government therein, as by the said lettres patents more at large appeareth.
Nowe, forasmuch as divers and sondrie of oure lovinge subjects, as well adventurers as planters, of the said First Collonie (which have alreadie engaged them selves in furtheringe the businesse of the said plantacion and doe further intende by the assistance of Almightie God to prosecute the same to a happie ende) have of late ben humble suiters unto us that, in respect of their great chardeges and the adventure of manie of their lives which they have hazarded in the said discoverie and plantacion of the said countrie, wee woulde be pleased to graunt them a further enlargement and explanacion of the said graunte, priviledge and liberties, and that suche counsellors and other officers maie be appointed amonngest them to manage and direct their affaires [as] are willinge and readie to adventure with them; as also whose dwellings are not so farr remote from the cittye of London but that they maie at convenient tymes be readie at hande to give advice and assistance upon all occacions requisite.
We, greatlie affectinge the effectual prosecucion and happie successe of the said plantacion and comendinge their good desires theirin, for their further encouragement in accomplishinge so excellent a worke, much pleasinge to God and profitable to oure Kingdomes, doe, of oure speciall grace and certeine knowledge and meere motion, for us, oure heires and successors, give, graunt and confirme to oure trustie and welbeloved subjects,
Robert, Earle of Salisburie [Salisbury]
Thomas, Earle of Suffolke [Suffolk]
Henrie, Earle of Southampton
William. Earle of Pembroke [Henrie]
[Henrie] Earle of Lincolne [Lincoln]
Henrie, Earle of Dorsett [Dorset]
Thomas, Earle of Exeter
Phillipp, Earle of Mountgommery
Robert, Lord Vicount Lisle
Theophilus, Lord Howard of Walden
James Mountague, Lord Bishopp of Bathe and Wells
Edward, Lord Zouche
Thomas, Lord Lawarr
Wiliam, Lord Mounteagle
Raphe, Lord Ewre
Edmond, Lord Sheffeild [Sheffield]
Grey, Lord Shandis [Chandois]
[Grey], Lord Compton
John, Lord Petre
John, Lord Stanhope
George, Lord Carew
Sir Humfrey Welde, Lord Mayor of London [Weld]
George Pertie, Esquire [Percie]
Sir Edward Cecill, Knight [Cecil]
Sir George Wharton, Knight
Frauncis West, Esquire
Sir William Waade, Knight [Wade]
Sir Henrie Nevill, Knight [Nevil]
Sir Thomas Smithe, Knight [Smith]
Sir Oliver Cromwell, Knight
Sir Peter Manwood, Knight
Sir Dru Drurie, Knight [Drury]
Sir John Scott, Knight [Scot]
Sir Thomas Challouer, Knight [Challoner]
Sir Robert Drurie, Knight [Drury]
Sir Anthonye Cope, Knight
Sir Horatio Veere, Knight [Vere]
Sir Edward Conwaie, Knight [Conway]
Sir William Browne [Brown]
Sir Maurice Barkeley, Knight [Berkeley]
Sir Roberte Maunsell, Knight [Mansel]
Sir Amias Presou, Knight [Preston]
Sir Thomas Gates, Knight
Sir Anthonie Ashley, Knight [Ashly]
Sir Michaell Sandes, Knight [Sandys]
Sir Henrie Carew, Knight [Carey]
Sir Stephen Soame, Knight
Sir Calisthenes Brooke, Knight
Sir Edward Michelborne, Knight [Michelborn]
Sir John Racliffe, Knight [Ratcliffe]
Sir Charles Willmott, Knight [Wilmot]
Sir George Moore, Knight [Moor]
Sir Hugh Wirrall, Knight [Wirral]
Sir Thomas Dennys, Knight [Dennis]
Sir John Hollis, Knight [Holles]
Sir William Godolphin, Knight
Sir Thomas Monnson, Knight [Monson]
Sir Thomas Ridgwaie, Knight [Ridgwine]
Sir John Brooke, Knight
Sir Roberte Killigrew, Knight
Sir Henrie Peyton, Knight
Sir Richard Williamson, Knight
Sir Ferdinando Weynman, Knight
Sir William St. John, Knight
Sir Thomas Holcrofte, Knight [Holcroft]
Sir John Mallory, Knight
Sir Roger Ashton, Knight
Sir Walter Cope, Knight
Sir Richard Wigmore, Knight
Sir William Cooke, Knight [Coke]
Sir Herberte Crofte, Knight
Sir Henrie Faushawe, Knight [Fanshaw]
Sir John Smith, Knight
Sir Francis Wolley, Knight
Sir Edward Waterhouse, Knight
Sir Henrie Sekeford, Knight [Seekford]
Sir Edward Saudes, Knights [Edwin Sandys]
Sir Thomas Wayneman, Knight [Waynam]
Sir John Trevor, Knight
Sir Warrwick Heale, Knight [Heele]
Sir Robert Wroth, Knight
Sir John Townnesende, Knight [Townsend]
Sir Christopher Perkins, Knight
Sir Daniell Dun, Knight
Sir Henrie Hobarte, Knight [Hobart]
Sir Franncis Bacon, Knight
Sir Henrie Mountague, Knight [Montague]
Sir Georg Coppin, Knight
Sir Samuell Sandes, Knight [Sandys]
Sir Thomas Roe, Knight
Sir George Somers, Knight
Sir Thomas Freake, Knight
Sir Thomas Horwell, Knight [Harwell]
Sir Charles Kelke, Knight
Sir Baptist Hucks, Knight [Hicks]
Sir John Watts, Knight
Sir Roberte Carey, Knight
Sir William Romney, Knight
Sir Thomas Middleton, Knight
Sir Hatton Cheeke, Knight
Sir John Ogle, Knighte
Sir Cavallero Meycot, Knight
Sir Stephen Riddlesden, Knight [Riddleson]
Sir Thomas Bludder, Knight
Sir Anthonie Aucher, Knight
Sir Robert Johnson, Knight
Sir Thomas Panton, Knight
Sir Charles Morgan, Knight
Sir Stephen Powle, Knight [Pole]
Sir John Burlacie, Knight
Sir Christofer Cleane, Knight [Cleave]
Sir George Hayward, Knight
Sir Thomas Dane, Knight [Davis]
Sir Thomas Dutton, Knight [Sutton]
Sir Anthonie Forrest, Knight [Forest]
Sir Robert Payne, Knight
Sir John Digby, Knight
Sir Dudley Diggs, Knight [Digges]
Sir Rowland Cotton, Knight
Doctour Mathewe Rutcliffe [Sutcliffel
Doctor Meddowes [Meadows]
Doctor Tumer
Doctor Poe
Captaine Pagnam
Captaine Jeffrey Holcrofte
Captaine Raunne [Romney]
Captaine Henrie Spry
Captaine Shelpton [Shelton]
Captaine Spark [Sparks]
[Captain] Thomas Wyatt [Wyat]
Captaine Brinsley
Captaine William Courtney
Captaine Herbert
Captaine Clarke
Captaine Dewhurst
Captaine John Blundell
Captaine Frier [Fryer]
Captaine Lewis Orwell
Captaine Edward Lloyd [Loyd]
Captaine Slingesby
Captaine Huntley [Hawley]
Captaine Orme
Captaine Woodhouse
Captaine Mason
Captaine Thomas Holcroft
Captaine John Cooke [Coke]
Captaine Hollis [Holles]
Captaine William Proude
Captaine Henrie Woodhouse
Captaine Richard Lindeley [Lindesey]
Captaine Dexter
Captaine William Winter
Captaine Herle [Pearsel
Captain John Bingham
Captaine Burray
Captaine Thomas Conwey [Conway]
Captaine Rookwood
Captaine William Lovelace
Captaine John Ashley
Captaine Thomas Wynne
Captaine Thomas Mewtis
Captaine Edward Harwood
Captaine Michaell Evered [Everard]
Captaine Connoth [Comock]
Captaine Miles [Mills]
Captaine Pigott [Pigot]
Captaine Edward Maria Wingfeild [Wingfield]
Captaine ChristopherNewporte [Newport]
Captaine John Siclemore, alias Ratcliffe [Sicklemore]
Captaine John Smith
Captyn John Martyn [Martin]
Captaine Peter Wynne
Captaine Waldoe [Waldo]
Captyn Thomas Wood
Captaine Thomas Button
George Bolls, Esquire, Sheriffe of London
William Crashawe, [Clerk], Bachelor of Divinite
William Seabright, Esquire
Christopher Brook, Esquire
John Bingley, Esquire
Thomas Watson, Esquire
Richard Percivall, Esquire [Percival]
John Moore, Esquire
Hugh Brooker, Esquire
David Waterhouse, Esquire [Woodhouse]
Anthonie Auther, Esquier [Aucher]
Roberte Bowyer, Esquire [Boyer]
Raphe Ewens, Esquire
Zacharie Jones, Esquire
George Calvert, Esquire
William Dobson, Esquire
Henry Reynold, Esquire [Reynolds]
Thomas Walker, Esquire
Anthonie Barnars, Esquire
Thomas Sandes, Esquire [Sandys]
Henrie Sand, Esquire [Sandys]
Richard Sand [Sandys], Sonne of Sir Edwin Sandes [Sandys]
William Oxenbridge, Esquire
John Moore, Esquire
Thomas Wilson, Esquire
John Bullocke, Esquire [Bullock]
John Waller, [Esquire]
Thomas Webb
Jehughe Robinson
William Brewster
Robert Evelyn
Henrie Dabenie [Danby]
Richard Hacklewte, minister [Hackluit]
John Eldred, marchaunt [Eldrid]
William Russell, marchaunt
John Merrick, marchaunt
Richard Bannester, merchant [Banister]
Charles Anthonie, goldsmithe [Anthony]
John Banck [Banks]
William Evans
Richard Humble
Robert Chamberleyne, marchaunt [Richard Chamberlayne]
Thomas Barber, marchaunt
Richard Pevyrell, merchaunt [Pomet]
John Fletcher, merchant
Thomas Nicholls, merchant
John Stoak, merchaunt [Stoke]
Gabriell Archer
Franncis Covell [Covel]
William Bouham [Bonham]
Edward Harrison
John Wolstenholme
Nicholas Salter
Hugh Evans
William Barners [Barnes]
Otho Mawdett [Mawdet]
Richard Staper, marchant
John Elkin, marchaunt
William Cayse [Coyse]
Thomas Perkin, cooper
Humfrey Ramell, cooper [Humphrey James]
Henry Jackson
Roberte Shingleton [Singleton]
Christopher Nicholls
John Harper
Abraham Chamberlaine [Chamberlayne]
Thomas Shipton
Thomas Carpenter
Anthoine Crewe [Crew]
George Holman
Robert Hill
Cleophas Smithe [Smith]
Raphe Harrison
John Farmer
James Brearley
William Crosley [Crosby]
Richard Cocks [Cox]
John Gearinge [Gearing]
Richard Strough, iremonnger [Strongarm]
Thomas Langton
Griffith Hinton
Richard Ironside
Richard Deane [Dean]
Richard Turner
William Leveson, mercer [Lawson]
James Chatfeilde [Chatfield]
Edward Allen [Edward Allen Tedder]
Tedder Roberts
Heldebrand Sprinson [Robert Hildebrand Sprinson]
Arthur Mouse
John Gardener [Gardiner]
James Russell [Russel]
Richard Casewell [Caswell]
Richard Evanns [Evans]
John Hawkins
Richard Kerrill [Kerril]
Richard Brooke
Mathewe Scrivener, gentleman [Screvener]
William Stallendge, gentleman [Stallenge]
Arthure Venn, gentleman
Saund Webb, gentleman [Sandys Webbe]
Michaell Phettiplace, gentleman
William Phetiplace, gentleman [Phettiplace]
Ambrose Brusey, gentleman [Prusey]
John Taverner, gentleman
George Pretty, gentleman
Peter Latham, gentleman
Thomas Monnford, gentleman [Montford]
William Cautrell, gentleman [Cantrel]
Richard Wiffine, gentleman [Wilfin]
Raphe Mooreton, gentleman [Moreton]
John Cornellis [Comelius]
Martyn Freeman
Raphe Freeman
Andreau Moore
Thomas White
Edward Perkin
Robert Osey
Thomas Whitley
George Pitt [Pit]
Roberte Parkehurste [Parkhurst]
Thomas Morris
Peter Vaulore [Harloe]
Jeffrey Duppa
John Gilbert
William Hancock
Mathew Bromrigg [Brown]
Francis Tirrell [Tyrrel]
Randall Carter
Othowell Smithe [Smith]
Thomas Honnyman [Hamond]
Marten Bonde, haberdasher [Bond]
Joan Mousloe [John Moulsoe]
Roberte Johnson
William Younge [Young]
John Woddall [Woodal]
William Felgate
Humfrey Westwood
Richard Champion
Henrie Robinson
Franncis Mapes
William Sambatch [Sambach]
Rauley Crashawe [Ralegh Crashaw]
DaruelLliacker
Thomas Grave
Hugh Willestone
Thomas Culpepper, of Wigsell, Esquire
John Culpepper, gentleman
Henrie Lee
Josias Kirton, gentleman [Kerton]
John Porie, gentleman [Pory]
Henrie Collins
George Burton
William Atkinson
Thomas Forrest [Forest]
John Russell [Russel]
John Houlte [Holt]
Harman Harrison
Gabriell Beedell [Beedel]
John Beedell [Beedel]
Henrie Dankes [Dawkes]
George Scott [Scot]
Edward Fleetewood, gentleman [Fleetwood]
Richard Rogers, gentleman
Arthure Robinson
Robert Robinson
John Huntley
John Grey [Gray]
William Payne
William Feilde [Field]
William Wattey
William Webster
John Dingley
Thomas Draper
Richard Glanvile [Glanvil]
Arnolde Lulls [Hulls]
Henrie Rowe [Roe]
William Moore [More]
Nicholas Grice [Gryce]
James Monnger [Monger]
Nicholas Andrewes [Andrews]
Jerome Haydon, iremonnger [Jeremy Haydon]
Phillipp Durrant [Philip Durette]
John Quales [Quarles]
John West
Madlew Springeham [Springham]
John Johnson
Christopher Hore
George Barkeley
Thomas Sued [Snead]
George Barkeley [Berkeley]
Ardhure Pett [Pet]
Thomas Careles
William Barkley [Berkley]
Thomas Johnson
Alexander Bent [Bents]
Captaine William Kinge [King]
George Sandes, gentleman [Sandys]
James White, gentleman
Edmond Wynn [Wynne]
Charles Towler
Richard Reynold
Edward Webb
Richard Maplesden
Thomas Levers [Lever]
David Bourne
Thomas Wood
Raphe Hamer
Edward Barnes, mercer
John Wright, mercer
Robert Middleton
Edward Litsfeild [Littlefield]
Katherine West
Thomas Webb [Web]
Raphe Kinge [King]
Roberte Coppine [Coppin]
James Askewe
Christopher Nicholls [Christopher Holt]
William Bardwell
Alexander Childe [Chiles]
Lewes Tate
Edward Ditchfeilde [Ditchfield]
James Swifte
Richard Widdowes, goldesmith
Edmonde Brundells [Brudenell]
John Hanford [Hansford]
Edward Wooller
William Palmer, haberdasher
John Badger
John Hodgson
Peter Monnsill [Mounsel]
Jahn Carrill [Carril]
John Busbridge [Bushridge]
William Dunn [Dun]
Thomas Johnson
Nicholas Benson
Thomas Shipton
Nathaniell Wade
Randoll Wettwood [Wetwood]
Mathew Dequester
Charles Hawkins
Hugh Hamersley
Abraham Cartwright
George Bennett [Bennet]
William Cattor [Cater]
Richard Goddart
Henrie Cromwell
Phinees Pett [Pet]
Roberte Cooper
Henrie Neite [Newce]
Edward Wilks [Wilkes]
Roberte Bateman
Nicholas Farrar
John Newhouse
John Cason
Thomas Harris, gentleman
George Etheridge, gentleman
Thomas Mayle, gentleman
Richard Stratford [Stafford]
Thomas
Richard Cooper
John Westrowe [Westrow]
Edward Welshe [Welch]
Thomas Brittanie [Britain]
Thomas Knowls [Knowles]
Octavian Thome
Edmonde Smyth [Smith]
John March
Edward Carew
Thomas Pleydall
Richard Lea [Let]
Miles Palmer
Henrie Price
John Josua, gentleman [Joshua]
William Clawday [Clauday]
Jerome Pearsye
John Bree, gentleman
William Hampson
Christopher Pickford
Thomas Hunt
Thomas Truston
Christopher Lanman [Salmon]
John Haward, clerke [Howard]
Richarde Partridge
Allen Cotton [Cassen]
Felix Wilson
Thomas Colethurst [Bathurst]
George Wilmer
Andrew Wilmer
Morrice Lewellin
Thomas Jedwin [Godwin]
Peter Burgoyne
Thomas Burgoyne
Roberte Burgoyne
Roberte Smithe, merchauntaylor [Smith]
Edward Cage, grocer
Thomas Canon, gentleman [Cannon]
William Welby, stacioner
Clement Wilmer, gentleman
John Clapham, gentleman
Giles Fraunces, gentleman [Francis]
George Walker, sadler
John Swinehowe, stacioner [Swinhow]
Edward Bushoppe, stacioner [Bishop]
Leonard White, gentleman
Christopher Barron [Baron]
Peter Benson
Richard Smyth [Smith]
George Prockter, minister [Proctor]
Millicent Ramesden, widowe [Ramsdent]
Joseph Soane
Thomas Hinshawe [Hinshaw]
John Baker
Robert Thorneton [Thomton]
John Davies [Davis]
Edward Facett [Facetl
George Nuce, gentleman [Newce]
John Robinson
Captaine Thomas Wood
William Browne, shoemaker [Brown]
Roberte Barker, shoemaker
Roberte Penington [Pennington]
Francis Burley, minister
William Quick, grocer
Edward Lewes, grocer [Lewis]
Laurence Campe, draper
Aden Perkins, grocer
Richard Shepparde, preacher [Shepherd]
William Sheckley, haberdasher [Sherley]
William Tayler, haberdasher [Taylor]
Edward Lukyn, gentleman [Edwin Lukin]
John Francklyn, haberdasher [Franklyn]
John Southicke [Southwick]
Peter Peate
George Johan, iremonnger
George Yardley, gentleman [Yeardley]
Henrie Shelly [Shelley]
John Pratt [Prat]
Thomas Church, draper
William Powell, gentleman [Powel]
Richard Frithe, gentleman [Frith]
Thomas Wheeler, draper
Franncis Hasilerigg, gentleman [Haselrig]
Hughe Shippley, gentleman [Shipley]
John Andrewes, thelder, [doctor], of Cambridge [Andrews]
Franncis Whistley, gentleman [Whistler]
John Vassall, gentleman
Richard Howle
Edward Barkeley, gentleman [Berkeley]
Richard Knerisborough, gentleman [Keneridgburg]
Nicholas Exton, draper
William Bennett, fishmonger [Bennet]
James Hawood, marchaunt [Haywood]
Nicholas Isaak, merchaunt [Isaac]
William Gibbs, merchannt
[William] Bushopp [Bishop]
Barnard Michell [Mitchel]
Isaake Michell [Isaac Mitchel]
John Streat [Streate]
Edward Gall
John Marten, gentleman [Martin]
Thomas Fox
Luke Lodge
John Woodleefe, gentleman [Woodliffel
Rice Webb [Piichard]
Vincent Lowe [Low]
Samuell Burnam [Burnham]
Edmonde Pears, haberdasher
Josua Goudge [John Googe]
John St. John
Edwarde Vaughan
William Dunn
Thomas Alcock [Alcocke]
John Andrewes, the younger, of Cambridge [Andrews]
Samuell Smithe [Smith]
Thomas Jerrard [Gerrard]
Thomas Whittingham
William Cannynge [Canning]
Paule Caminge [Canning]
George Chaudler [Chandler]
Henrye Vincent
Thomas Ketley
James Skelton
James Montain [Mountaine]
George Webb, gentleman
Josephe Newbroughesmith [Joseph Newbridge, smith]
Josias Mande [Mand]
Raphe Haman, the younger [Hamer]
Edward Brewster, the sonne of William Brewster
Leonard Harwood, mercer
Phillipp Druerdent
William Carpenter
Tristram Hill
Roberte Cock, grocer
Laurence Grene, grocer [Greene]
Daniell Winche, grocer [Samuel Winch]
Humfrey Stile, grocer
Averie Dransfeild, grocer [Dransfield]
Edwarde Hodges, grocer
Edward Beale, grocer
Raphe Busby, grocer
John Whittingham, grocer
John Hide, grocer
Mathew Shipperd, grocer [Shepherd]
Thomas Allen, grocer
Richard Hooker, grocer
Laurence Munckas, grocer [Munks]
John Tanner, grocer
Peter Gate, grocer
John Blunt, grocer
Roberte Berrisford, grocer
Thomas Wells, gentleman
John Ellis, grocer
Henrie Colthurst, grocer
John Cranage, grocer [Cavady]
Thomas Jenings, grocer [Jennings]
Edmond Peshall, grocer [Pashall]
Timothie Bathurst, grocer
Gyles Parslowe, grocer [Parslow]
Roberte Johnson, grocer [Richard]
William Janson, vintener [Johnson]
Ezechiell Smith
Richard Murrettone [Martin]
William Sharpe
Roberte Ritche [Rich]
William Stannerd, inholder [Stannard]
John Stocken
William Strachey, gentleman
George Farmer, gentleman
Thomas Gypes, clothworker
Abraham Dawes, gentleman [Davies]
Thomas Brockett, gentleman [Brocket]
George Bathe, fishmonger [Bache]
John Dike, fishmonger
Henrie Spranger
Richard Farringdon [Farrington]
Chistopher Vertue, vintener
Thomas Baley, vintener [Bayley]
George Robins, vintener
Tobias Hinson, grocer
Urian Spencer [Vrian]
Clement Chachelley [Chicheley]
John Searpe, gentleman [Scarpe]
James Cambell, iremonnger [Campbell]
Christopher Clitherowe, iremonnger [Clitheroe]
Phillipp Jacobson
Peter Jacobson, of Andwarpe
William Barckley [Berkeley]
Miles Banck, cutler [Banks]
Peter Highley, grocer [Higgons]
Henrie John, gentleman
John Stoakley, merchauntailor [Stokeley]
The companie of mercers
The companie of grocers
The companie of drapers
The company of fishmongers
The companie of gouldsmithes
The companie of skynners
The companie merchauntailors
The companie of haberdashers
The companie of salters
The companie of iremongers
The companie of vintners
The companie of clothworkers
The companie of dyers
The companie of bruers
The companie of lethersellers
The companie of pewterers
The companie of cutlers
The companie of whitebakers
The companie of waxchaundlers
The companie of tallowe chaundlers
The companie of armorers
The companie of girdlers
The companie of butchers
The companie of sadlers
The companie of carpenters
The companie of cordwayners
The companie of barbor chirurgions
The companie of painter stayners
The companie of curriers
The companie of masons
The companie of plumbers
The companie of inholders
The companie of founders
The companie of poulterers
The companie of cookes
The companie of coopers
The companie of tylers and bncklayers
The companie of bowyers
The companie of Retchers
The companie of blacksmithes
The companie of joyners
The companie of weavers
The companie of wollmen
The companie of wood monnvers
The companie of scrivenors
The companie of fruterers
The companie of plasterers
The companie of brownebakers
The companie of stacioners
The companie of imbroderers
The companie of upholsters
The companie of musicions
The companie of turners
The companie of baskettmakers
The companie of glasiers
John Levett, merchaunt [Levet]
Thomas Nomicott, clothworker [Nomicot]
Richard Venn, haberdasher
Thomas Scott, gentleman [Scot]
Thomas Juxson, merchauntaylor [Juxon]
George Hankinson
Thomas Leeyer, gentleman [Seyer]
Mathew Cooper
Gorge Butler, gentleman
Thomas Lawson, gentleman
Edward Smith, haberdasher
Stephen Sparrowe
John Jones, merchaunt
[John] Reynold, brewer [Reynolds]
Thomas Plummer, merchaunt
James Duppa, bruer
Rowland Coytemore [Coitmore]
William Sotherne [Southerne]
Gorge Whittmoore, haberdasher [Whitmore]
Anthonie Gosoulde, the younger [Gosnold]
John Allen, fishemonger
John Kettlebye, gentleman [Kettleby]
Symonde Yeomans, fishmonger [Simon]
Richard Chene, gouldsmithe
Launcelot Davis, gentleman [Clene]
John Hopkins, an alderman of Bristoll
George Hooker, gentlernan
Roberte Shevinge, yeoman [Chening]
And to such and so manie as they doe or shall hereafter admitt to be joyned with them, in forme hereafter in theis presentes expressed, whether they goe in their persons to be planters there in the said plantacion, or whether they goe not, but doe adventure their monyes, goods or chattels, that they shalbe one bodie or communaltie perpetuall and shall have perpetual succession and one common seale to serve for the saide bodie or communaltie; and that they and their successors shalbe knowne, called and incorporated by the name of The Tresorer and Companie of Adventurers and Planters of the Citty of London for the Firste Collonie in Virginia.
And that they and their successors shalbe from hensforth, forever enabled to take, acquire and purchase, by the name aforesaid (licens for the same from us, oure heires or successors first had and obtained) anie manner of lands, tenements and hereditaments, goods and chattels, within oure realme of England and dominion of Wales; and that they and their successors shalbe likewise enabled, by the name aforesaid, to pleade and to be impleaded before anie of oure judges or justices, in anie oure courts, and in anie accions or suits whatsoever.
And wee doe also, of oure said speciall grace, certaine knowl- edge and mere mocion, give, grannte and confirme unto the said Tresorer and Companie, and their successors, under the reservacions, limittacions and declaracions hereafter expressed, all those lands, countries and territories scituat, lieinge and beinge in that place of America called Virginia, from the pointe of lande called Cape or Pointe Comfort all alonge the seacoste to the northward twoe hundred miles and from the said pointe of Cape Comfort all alonge the sea coast to the southward twoe hundred miles; and all that space and circuit of lande lieinge from the sea coaste of the precinct aforesaid upp unto the lande, throughoute, from sea to sea, west and northwest; and also all the island beinge within one hundred miles alonge the coaste of bothe seas of the precincte aforesaid; togeather with all the soiles, groundes, havens and portes, mynes, aswell royall mynes of golde and silver as other mineralls, pearles and precious stones, quarries, woods, rivers, waters, fishings, comodities, jurisdictions, royalties, priviledges, franchisies and preheminences within the said territorie and the precincts there of whatsoever; and thereto or there abouts, both by sea and lande, beinge or in anie sorte belonginge or appertayninge, and which wee by oure lettres patents maie or cann graunte; and in as ample manner and sorte as wee or anie oure noble progenitors have heretofore graunted to anie companie, bodie pollitique or corporate, or to anie adventurer or adventurers, undertaker or undertakers, of anie discoveries, plantacions or traffique of, in, or into anie forraine parts whatsoever; and in as large and ample manner as if the same were herin particulerly mentioned and expressed: to have, houlde, possesse and enjoye all and singuler the said landes, countries and territories with all and singuler other the premisses heretofore by theis [presents] graunted or mencioned to be grannted, to them, the said Tresorer and Companie, their successors and assignes, forever; to the sole and proper use of them, the said Tresorer and Companie, their successors and assignes [forever], to be holden of us, oure heires and successors, as of oure mannour of Estgreenewich, in free and common socage and not in capite; yeldinge and payinge, therefore, to us, oure heires and successors, the fifte parte onlie of all oare of gould and silver that from tvme to time, and at all times hereafter, shalbe there gotton, had and obtained, for all manner of service.
And, nevertheles, oure will and pleasure is, and wee doe by theis presentes chardge, commannde, warrant and auctorize, that the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors, or the major parte of them which shall be present and assembled for that purpose, shall from time to time under their common seale distribute, convey, assigne and set over such particuler porcions of lands, tenements and hereditaments, by theise presents formerly grannted, unto such oure lovinge subjects naturallie borne of denizens, or others, aswell adventurers as planters, as by the said Companie, upon a commission of survey and distribucion executed and retourned for that purpose, shalbe named, appointed and allowed, wherein oure will and pleasure is, that respect be had as well of the proporcion of the adventure[r] as to the speciall service, hazarde, exploite or meritt of anie person so as to be recompenced, advannced or rewarded.
And for as muche as the good and prosperous successe of the said plantacion cannot but cheiflie depende, next under the blessinge of God and the supporte of oure royall aucthoritie, upon the provident and good direccion of the whole enterprise by a carefull and understandinge Counsell, and that it is not convenient that all the adventurers shalbe so often drawne to meete and assemble as shalbe requisite for them to have metings and conference aboute theire affaires, therefore we doe ordaine, establishe and confirme that there shalbe perpetually one Counsell here resident, accordinge to the tenor of oure former lettres patents, which Counsell shall have a seale for the better governement and administracion of the said plantacion besides the legall seale of the Companie or Corporacion, as in oure former lettres patents is also expressed.
And further wee establishe and ordaine that
Henrie, Earl of Southampton
William, Earl of Pembrooke
Henrie, Earl of Lincoln
Thomas, Earl of Exeter
Roberte, Lord Viscounte Lisle
Lord Theophilus Howard
James, Lord Bishopp of Bathe and Wells
Edward, Lord Zouche
Thomas, Lord Laware
William, Lord Mounteagle
Edmunde, Lord Sheffeilde
Grey, Lord Shanndoys [Chandois]
John, Lord Stanhope
George, Lord Carew
Sir Humfrey Welde, Lord Mayor of London
Sir Edward Cecil
Sir William Waad [Wade]
Sir Henrie Nevill
Sir Thomas Smith
Sir Oliver Cromwell
Sir Peter Manwood
Sir Thomas Challoner
Sir Henrie Hovarte [Hobart]
Sir Franncis Bacon
Sir George Coppin
Sir John Scott
Sir Henrie Carey
Sir Roberte Drurie [Drury]
Sir Horatio Vere
Sir Eward Conwaye [Conway]
Sir Maurice Berkeley [Barkeley]
Sir Thomas Gates
Sir Michaele Sands [Sandys]
Sir Roberte Mansfeild [Mansel]
Sir John Trevor
Sir Amyas Preston
Sir William Godolphin
Sir Walter Cope
Sir Robert Killigrewe
Sir Henrie Faushawe [Fanshaw]
Sir Edwyn Sandes [Sandys]
Sir John Watts
Sir Henrie Montague
Sir William Romney
Sir Thomas Roe
Sir Baptiste Hicks
Sir Richard Williamson
Sir Stephen Powle [Poole]
Sir Dudley Diggs
Christopher Brooke, [Esq.]
John Eldred, and
John Wolstenholme
shalbe oure Counsell for the said Companie of Adventurers and Planters in Virginia.
And the said Sir Thomas Smith wee ordaine to be Tresorer of the said Companie, which Tresorer shall have aucthoritie to give order for the warninge of the Counsell and sommoninge the Companie to their courts and meetings.
And the said Counsell and Tresorer or anie of them shalbe from henceforth nominated, chosen, contynued, displaced, chaunged, altered and supplied, as death or other severall occasions shall require, out of the Companie of the said adventurers by the voice of the greater parte of the said Counsell and adventurers in their assemblie for that purpose; provided alwaies that everie Councellor so newlie elected shalbe presented to the Lord Channcellor of England, or to the Lord Highe Treasurer of England, or the Lord Chambleyne of the housholde of us, oure heires and successors, for the tyme beinge to take his oathe of a Counsellor to us, oure heires and successors, for the said Companie and Collonie in Virginia.
And wee doe by theis presents, of oure especiall grace, certaine knowledge and meere motion, for us, oure heires and successors, grannte unto the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors, that if it happen at anie time or times the Tresorer for the tyme beinge to be sick, or to have anie such cause of absente from the cittie of London as shalbe allowed by the said Counsell or the greater parte of them assembled, so as he cannot attende the affaires of that Companie, in everie such case it shall and maie be lawfull for such Tresorer for the tyme beinge to assigne, constitute and appointe one of the Counsell for Companie to be likewise allowed by the Counsell or the greater parte of them assembled to be the deputie Tresorer for the said Companie; which Deputie shall have power to doe and execute all things which belonge to the said Tresorer duringe such tyme as such Tresorer shalbe sick or otherwise absent, upon cause allowed of by the said Counsell or the major parte of them as aforesaid, so fullie and wholie and in as large and ample manner and forme and to all intents and purposes as the said Tresorer if he were present himselfe maie or might doe and execute the same.
And further of oure especiall grace, certaine knowledge and meere mocion, for us, oure heires and successors, wee doe by theis presents give and grannt full power and aucthoritie to oure said Counsell here resident aswell at this present tyme as hereafter, from time to time, to nominate, make, constitute, ordaine and confirme by such name or names, stile or stiles as to them shall seeme good, and likewise to revoke, dischardge, channge and alter aswell all and singuler governors, oficers and ministers which alreadie hath ben made, as also which hereafter shalbe by them thought fitt and meedefull to be made or used for the government of the said Colonie and plantacion.
And also to make, ordaine and establishe all manner of orders, lawes, directions, instructions, formes and ceremonies of government and magistracie, fitt and necessarie, for and concerninge the government of the said Colonie and plantacion; and the same att all tymes hereafter to abrogate, revoke or chaunge, not onely within the precincts of the said Colonie but also upon the seas in goeing and cominge to and from the said Collonie, as they in their good discrecions shall thinke to be fittest for [the] good of the adventurers and inhabiters there.
And we doe also declare that for divers reasons and consideracions us thereunto especiallie moving, oure will and pleasure is and wee doe hereby ordaine that imediatlie from and after such time as anie such governour or principall officer so to be nominated and appointed by oure said Counsell for the governement of the said Colonie, as aforesaid, shall arive in Virginia and give notice unto the Collonie there resident of oure pleasure in this behalfe, the government, power and aucthority of the President and Counsell, heretofore by oure former lettres patents there established, and all lawes and constitucions by them formerlie made, shall utterly cease and be determined; and all officers, governours and ministers formerly constituted or appointed shalbe dischardged, anie thinge in oure said former lettres patents conserninge the said plantacion contayned in aniewise to the contrarie notwithstandinge; streightlie chardginge and commaundinge the President and Counsell nowe resident in the said Collonie upon their alleadgiance after knowledge given unto them of oure will and pleasure by theis presentes signified and declared, that they forth with be obedient to such governor or governers as by oure said Counsell here resident shalbe named and appointed as aforesaid; and to all direccions, orders and commandements which they shall receive from them, aswell in the present resigninge and giveinge upp of their aucthoritie, offices, chardg and places, as in all other attendannce as shalbe by them from time to time required.
And wee doe further by theis presentes ordaine and establishe that the said Tresorer and Counsell here resident, and their successors or anie fower of them assembled (the Tresorer beinge one), shall from time to time have full power and aucthoritie to admitt and receive anie other person into their companie, corporacion and freedome; and further, in a generall assemblie of the adventurers, with the consent of the greater parte upon good cause, to disfranchise and putt oute anie person or persons oute of the said fredome and Companie.
And wee doe also grannt and confirme for us, oure heires and successors that it shalbe lawfull for the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors, by direccion of the Governors there, to digg and to serche for all manner of mynes of goulde, silver, copper, iron, leade, tinne and other mineralls aswell within the precincts aforesaid as within anie parte of the maine lande not formerly graunted to anie other; and to have and enjoye the gould, silver, copper, iron, leade, and tinn, and all other mineralls to be gotten thereby, to the use and behoofe of the said Companie of Planters and Adventurers, yeldinge therefore and payinge yerelie unto us, oure heires and successors, as aforesaid.
And wee doe further of oure speciall grace, certaine knowledge and meere motion, for us, oure heires and successors, grannt, by theis presents to and withe the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors, that it shalbe lawfull and free for them and their assignes at all and everie time and times here after, oute of oure realme of England and oute of all other [our] dominions, to take and leade into the said voyage, and for and towards the said plantacion, and to travell thitherwards and to abide and inhabite therein the said Colonie and plantacion, all such and so manie of oure lovinge subjects, or anie other straungers that wilbecomme oure lovinge subjects and live under oure allegiance, as shall willinglie accompanie them in the said voyadge and plantation with sufficient shippinge armour, weapons, ordinannce, municion, powder, shott, victualls, and such merchaundize or wares as are esteemed by the wilde people in those parts, clothinge, implements, furnitures, catle, horses and mares, and all other thinges necessarie for the said plantation and for their use and defence and trade with the people there, and in passinge and retourninge to and from without yeldinge or payinge subsedie, custome, imposicion, or anie other taxe or duties to us, oure heires or successors, for the space of seaven yeares from the date of theis presents; provided, that none of the said persons be such as shalbe hereafter by speciall name restrained by us, oure heires or successors.
And for their further encouragement, of oure speciall grace and favour, wee doe by theis present for us, oure heires and successors, yeild and graunte to and with the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors and everie of them, their factors and assignes, that they and every of them shalbe free and quiett of all subsedies and customes in Virginia for the space of one and twentie yeres, and from all taxes and imposicions for ever, upon anie goods or merchaundizes at anie time or times hereafter, either upon importation thither or exportation from thence into oure realme of England or into anie other of oure [realms or] dominions, by the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors, their deputies, factors [or] assignes or anie of them, except onlie the five pound per centum due for custome upon all such good and merchanndizes as shalbe brought or imported into oure realme of England or anie other of theis oure dominions accordinge to the auncient trade of merchannts, which five poundes per centum onely beinge paid, it shalbe thensforth lawfull and free for the said Adventurers the same goods [and] merchaundizes to export and carrie oute of oure said dominions into forraine partes without anie custome, taxe or other duty tO be paide to us oure heires or successors or to anie other oure officers or deputies; provided, that the saide goods and merchaundizes be shipped out within thirteene monethes after their first landinge within anie parte of those dominions.
And wee doe also confirme and grannt to the said Tresorer and Companie, and their successors, as also to all and everie such governer or other officers and ministers as by oure said Counsell shalbe appointed, to have power and aucthoritie of governement and commannd in or over the said Colonie or plantacion; that they and everie of them shall and lawfullie maie from tyme to tyme and at all tymes forever hereafter, for their severall defence and safetie, enconnter, expulse, repell and resist by force and armes, aswell by sea as by land, and all waies and meanes whatsoever, all and everie such person and persons whatsoever as without the speciall licens of the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors shall attempte to inhabite within the said severall precincts and lymitts of the said Colonie and plantacion; and also, all and everie such person and persons whatsoever as shall enterprise, or attempte at anie time hereafter, destruccion, invasion, hurte, detriment or annoyannce to the said Collonye and plantacion, as is likewise specified in the said former grannte.
And that it shalbe lawful for the said Tresorer and Companie, and their successors and everie of them, from time to time and at all times hereafter, and they shall have full power and aucthoritie, to take and surprise by all waies and meanes whatsoever all and everie person and persons whatsoever, with their shippes, goods and other furniture, traffiquinge in anie harbor, creeke or place within the limitts or precincts of the said Colonie and plantacion, [not] being allowed by the said Companie to be adventurers or planters of the said Colonie, untill such time as they beinge of anie realmes or dominions under oure obedience shall paie or agree to paie, to the hands of the Tresorer or [of] some other officer deputed by the said governors in Virginia (over and above such subsedie and custome as the said Companie is or here after shalbe to paie) five poundes per centum upon all goods and merchaundizes soe brought in thither, and also five per centum upon all goods by them shipped oute from thence; and being straungers and not under oure obedience untill they have payed (over and above such subsedie and custome as the same Tresorer and Companie and their successors is or hereafter shalbe to paie) tenn pounds per centum upon all such goods, likewise carried in and oute, any thinge in the former lettres patents to the contrarie not withstandinge; and the same sommes of monie and benefitt as aforesaid for and duringe the space of one and twentie yeares shalbe wholie imploied to the benefitt and behoof of the said Colonie and plantacion; and after the saide one and twentie yeares ended, the same shalbe taken to the use of us, oure heires or successors, by such officer and minister as by us, oure heires or successors, shalbe thereunto assigned and appointed, as is specified in the said former lettres patents.
Also wee doe, for us, oure heires and successors, declare by theis presents, that all and everie the persons beinge oure subjects which shall goe and inhabit within the said Colonye and plantacion, and everie of their children and posteritie which shall happen to be borne within [any] the lymitts thereof, shall have [and] enjoye all liberties, franchesies and immunities of free denizens and naturall subjects within anie of oure other dominions to all intents and purposes as if they had bine abidinge and borne within this oure kingdome of England or in anie other of oure dominions.
And forasmuch as it shalbe necessarie for all such our lovinge subjects as shall inhabitt within the said precincts of Virginia aforesaid to determine to live togither in the feare and true woorshipp of Almightie God, Christian peace and civill quietnes, each with other, whereby everie one maie with more safety, pleasure and profitt enjoye that where unto they shall attaine with great paine and perill, wee, for us, oure heires and successors, are likewise pleased and contented and by theis presents doe give and graunte unto the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors and to such governors, officers and ministers as shalbe, by oure said Councell, constituted and appointed, accordinge to the natures and lymitts of their offices and places respectively, that they shall and maie from time to time for ever hereafter, within the said precincts of Virginia or in the waie by the seas thither and from thence, have full and absolute power and aucthority to correct, punishe, pardon, governe and rule all such the subjects of us, oure heires and successors as shall from time to time adventure themselves in anie voiadge thither or that shall at anie tyme hereafter inhabitt in the precincts and territorie of the said Colonie as aforesaid, accordinge to such order, ordinaunces, constitution, directions and instruccions as by oure said Counsell, as aforesaid, shalbe established; and in defect thereof, in case of necessitie according to the good discretions of the said governours and officers respectively, aswell in cases capitall and criminall as civill, both marine and other, so alwaies as the said statuts, ordinannces and proceedinges as neere as convenientlie maie be, be agreable to the lawes, statutes, government and pollicie of this oure realme of England.
And we doe further of oure speciall grace, certeine knowledge and mere mocion, grant, declare and ordaine that such principall governour as from time to time shall dulie and lawfullie be aucthorised and appointed, in manner and forme in theis presents heretofore expressed, shall [have] full power and aucthoritie to use and exercise marshall lawe in cases of rebellion or mutiny in as large and ample manner as oure leiutenant in oure counties within oure realme of England have or ought to have by force of their comissions of lieutenancy. And furthermore, if anie person or persons, adventurers or planters, of the said Colonie, or anie other at anie time or times hereafter, shall transporte anie monyes, goods or marchaundizes oute of anie [of] oure kingdomes with a pretence or purpose to lande, sell or otherwise dispose the same within the lymitts and bounds of the said Collonie, and yet nevertheles beinge at sea or after he hath landed within anie part of the said Colonie shall carrie the same into anie other forraine Countrie, with a purpose there to sell and dispose there of that, then all the goods and chattels of the said person or persons so offendinge and transported, together with the shipp or vessell wherein such transportacion was made, shalbe forfeited to us, oure heires and successors.
And further, oure will and pleasure is, that in all questions and doubts that shall arrise upon anie difficultie of construccion or interpretacion of anie thinge contained either in this or in oure said former lettres patents, the same shalbe taken and interpreted in most ample and beneficiall manner for the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors and everie member there of.
And further, wee doe by theis presents ratifie and confirme unto the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors all privuleges, franchesies, liberties and immunties graunted in oure said former lettres patents and not in theis oure lettres patents revoked, altered, channged or abridged.
And finallie, oure will and pleasure is and wee doe further hereby for us, oure heires and successors grannte and agree, to and with the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors, that all and singuler person and persons which shall at anie time or times hereafter adventure anie somme or sommes of money in and towards the said plantacion of the said Colonie in Virginia and shalbe admitted by the said Counsell and Companie as adventurers of the said Colonie, in forme aforesaid, and shalbe enrolled in the booke or record of the adventurers of the said Companye, shall and maie be accompted, accepted, taken, helde and reputed Adventurers of the said Collonie and shall and maie enjoye all and singuler grannts, priviledges, liberties, benefitts, profitts, commodities [and immunities], advantages and emoluments whatsoever as fullie, largely, amplie and absolutely as if they and everie of them had ben precisely, plainely, singulerly and distinctly named and inserted in theis oure lettres patents.
And lastely, because the principall effect which wee cann desier or expect of this action is the conversion and reduccion of the people in those partes unto the true worshipp of God and Christian religion, in which respect wee would be lothe that anie person should be permitted to passe that wee suspected to affect the superstitions of the Churche of Rome, wee doe hereby declare that it is oure will and pleasure that none be permitted to passe in anie voiadge from time to time to be made into the saide countrie but such as firste shall have taken the oath of supremacie, for which purpose wee doe by theise presents give full power and aucthoritie to the Tresorer for the time beinge, and anie three of the Counsell, to tender and exhibite the said oath to all such persons as shall at anie time be sent and imploied in the said voiadge.
Although expresse mention [of the true yearly value or certainty of the premises, or any of them, or of any other gifts or grants, by us or any of our progenitors or predecessors, to the aforesaid Treasurer and Company heretofore made, in these presents is not made; or any act, statute, ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restraint, to the contrary hereof had, made, ordained, or provided, or any other thing, cause, or matter, whatsoever, in any wise notwithstanding.] In witnes whereof [we have caused these our letters to be made patent. Witness ourself at Westminster, the 23d day of May (1609) in the seventh year of our reign of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the ****]
Per ipsum Regem exactum.
An Act in addition to the act, entitled "An act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States. "
SEC. I Be it enacted . . ., That if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States, which are or shall be directed by proper authority, or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or prevent any person holding a place or office in or under the government of the United States, from undertaking, performing or executing his trust or duty; and if any person or persons, with intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, advise or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot. unlawful assembly, or combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, counsel, advice, or attempt shall have the proposed effect or not, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and on conviction, before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment during a term not less than six months nor exceeding five years; and further, at the discretion of the court may be holden to find sureties for his good behaviour in such sum, and for such time, as the said court may direct.
SEC. 2. That if any person shall write, print, utter. Or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them. or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against the United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.
SEC. 3. That if any person shall be prosecuted under this act, for the writing or publishing any libel aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the defendant, upon the trial of the cause, to give in evidence in his defence, the truth of the matter contained in the publication charged as a libel. And the jury who shall try the cause, shall have a right to determine the law and the fact, under the direction of the court, as in other cases.
SEC. 4. That this act shall continue to be in force until March 3, 1801, and no longer....
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
March 12, 1612
James, by the grace of God [King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith;] to all to whom [these pres-ents shall come,] greeting. Whereas at the humble suite of divers and sundry our lovinge subjects, aswell adventurers as planters of the First Colonie in Virginia, and for the propagacion of Christian religion and reclayminge of people barbarous to civilitie and humanitie, we have by our lettres patent bearing date at Westminster the three and twentieth daie of May in the seaventh yeare of our raigne of England, Frannce and Ireland, and the twoe and fortieth of Scotland, given and grannted unto them, that they and all suche and soe manie of our loving subjects as shold from time to time for ever after be joyned with them as planters or adventurers in the said plantacion, and their succes-sors for ever, shold be one body politique incorporated by the name of The Treasorer and Planters of the Cittie of London for the First Colonie in Virginia;
And whereas allsoe for the greater good and benefitt of the said Companie and for the better furnishing and establishing of the said plantacion we did further [give], grannte and con-firme by our said lettres patent unto the said Treasorer and Com-panie and their successors for ever, all those landes, contries and territories scituate, lyeing and being in that part of America called Virginia, from the point of land called Cape [or] Pointe Comfort all along the seacoste to the northward twoe hundred miles, and from the said point of Cape Comfort all along the seacoste to the sowthward twoe hundred miles, and all the space and circuit of land lying from the sea coste of the precinct afore-said up or into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest, and allso all the islandes lying within one hundred miles along the coast of both the seas of the precinct aforsaid, with diverse other grannts, liberties, franchises, preheminences, privileges, profiitts, benefitts, and commodities, grannted in and by our said lettres patent to the said Tresorer and Companie, and their successors, for ever:
Now for asmuchas we are given to undestande that in these seas adjoyning to the said coast of Virginia and without the com- passe of those twoe hundred miles by us soe grannted unto the said Treasurer and Companie as aforesaid, and yet not farr dis- tant from the said Colony in Virginia, there are or may be divers islandes lying desolate and uninhabited, some of which are al- ready made knowne and discovered by the industry, travell, and expences of the said Company, and others allsoe are sup-posed to be and remaine as yet unknowen and undiscovered, all and every of which itt maie importe the said Colony both in safety and pollecy of trade to populate and plant, in regard where of, aswell for the preventing of perill as for the better comodity and prosperity of the said Colony, they have bin hum-ble suitors unto us that we wold be pleased to grannt unto them an inlardgement of our said former lettres patent, aswell for a more ample extent of their limitts and territories into the seas adjoyning to and uppon the coast of Virginia as allsoe for some other matters and articles concerning the better government of the said Company and Collony, in which point our said former lettres patents doe not extende soe farre as time and experience hath found to be needfull and convenient:
We, therefore, tendring the good and happy successe of the said plantacion both in respect of the generall weale of humane society as in respect of the good of our owne estate and kinge- domes, and being willing to give furtherannt untoall good meanes that may advannce the benefitt of the said Company and which maie secure the safety of our loving subjects, planted in our said Colony under the favour and proteccion of God Almighty and of our royall power and authority, have therefore of our especiall grace, certein knowledge and mere mocion, given, grannted and confirmed, and for us, our heires and successors we doe by theis presents, give, grannt and confirme unto the said Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the said Citty of London for the First Colony in Virginia, and to their heires and successors for ever, all and singuler the said iselandes [whatsoever] scituat and being in anie part of the said ocean bordering upon the coast of our said First Colony in Vir-ginia and being within three hundred leagues of anie the partes hertofore grannted to the said Treasorer and Company in our said former lettres patents as aforesaid, and being within or be-tweene the one and fortie and thirty degrees of Northerly lati-tude, together with all and singuler [soils] landes, groundes, havens, ports, rivers, waters, fishinges, mines and mineralls, as-well royal mines of gold and silver as other mines and mineralls, perles, precious stones, quarries, and all and singuler other com- modities, jurisdiccions, royalties, priviledges, franchises and pre-heminences, both within the said tract of lande uppon the maine and allso within the said iselandes and seas adjoyning, whatso-ever, and thereunto or there abouts both by sea and land being or scituat; and which, by our lettres patents, we maie or cann grannt and in as ample manner and sort as we or anie our noble progenitors have heretofore grannted to anie person or persons or to anie Companie, bodie politique or corporate or to any ad-venturer or adventurers, undertaker or undertakers of anie dis-coveries, plantacions or traffique, of, in, or into anie foreigne parts whatsoever, and in as lardge and ample manner as if the same were herein particularly named, mencioned and expressed: pro-vided allwaies that the said iselandes or anie the premisses herein mencioned and by theis presents intended and meant to be grannted be not already actually possessed or inhabited by anie other Christian prince or estate, nor be within the bounds, limitts or territories of the Northerne Colonie, hertofore by us grannted to be planted by divers of our loving subjects in the northpartes of Virginia. To have and to hold, possesse and injoie all and singuler the said iselandes in the said ocean seas soe lying and bordering uppon the coast or coasts of the territories of the said First Colony in Virginia as aforesaid, with all and singuler the said soiles, landes and groundes and all and singular other the premisses heretofore by theis presents grannted, or mencioned to be grannted, to them, the said Treasurer and Companie of Adventurers and Planters of the Cittie of London for the First Colonie in Virginia, and to their heires, successors and assignes for ever, to the sole and proper use and behoofe of them, the said Treasurer and Companie and their heires, successores and as-signes for ever; to be holden of us, our heires and successors as of our mannor of Eastgreenwich, in free and common soccage and not in capite, yealding and paying therefore, to us, our heires and successors, the fifte part of the oare of all gold and silver which shalbe there gotten, had or obteined for all manner of services, whatsoever.
And further our will and pleasure is, and we doe by theis presents grannt and confirme for the good and welfare of the said plantacion, and that posterity maie hereafter knowe whoe have adventured and not bin sparing of their purses in such a noble and generous accion for the generall good of theire cuntrie, and at the request and with the consent of the Companie afore said, that our trusty and welbeloved subjects.
George, Lord Archbishopp of Canterbury
Gilbert, Earle of Shrewsberry
Mary, Countesse of Shrewes-
Elizabeth, Countesse of Derby
Margarett, Countesse of Com-berland
Henry, Earle of Huntingdon
Edward, Earle of Beddford
Lucy, Countesse of Bedford
Marie, Countesse of Pembroke
Richard, Earle of Clanrickard
Lady Elizabeth Graie
William, Lord Viscount Cram-bome
William, Lord Bishopp of Du-resme
Henry, Lord Bishopp of Wor-ceter
John, Lord Bishopp of Oxon-ford
William, Lord Pagett
Dudley, Lord North
Franncis, Lord Norries
William, Lord Knollis
John, Lord Harrington
Robert, Lord Spencer
Edward, Lord Denny
William, Lord Cavendishe
James, Lord Hay
Elianor, Lady Cave [Carre]
Maistres Elizabeth Scott, wid-dow
Edward Sackvill, Esquier
Sir Henry Nevill, of Aburga-venny, Knight
Sir Robert Riche, Knight
Sir John Harrington, Knight
Sir Raphe Wimwood, Knight
Sir John Graie, Knight
Sir Henry Riche, Knight
Sir Henry Wotton, Knight
Peregrine Berly, Esquier [Berty]
Sir Edward Phelipps, Knight, Maister of the Rolls
Sir Moile Finche, Knight
Sir Thomas Mansell, Knight
Sir John St. John, Knight
Sir Richard Spencer, Knight
Sir Franncis Barrington, Knight
Sir George Carie of Devonshire, Knight
Sir William Twisden, Knight
Sir John Leveson, Knight
Sir Thomas Walsingham, Knight
Sir Edward Care, Knight
Sir Arthure Manwaringe, Knight
Sir Thomas Jermyn, Knight
Sir Valentine Knightley, Knight
Sir John Dodderidge, Knight
Sir John Hungerford, Knight
Sir John Stradling, Knight
Sir John Bourchidd, Knight [Bourchier]
Sir John Bennett, Knight
Sir Samuel Leonard, Knight
Sir Franncis Goodwin, Knight
Sir Wareham St. Legier, Knight
Sir James Scudamore, Knight
Sir Thomas Mildmaie, Knight
Sir Percivall Harte, Knight
Sir Percivall Willoughby, Knight
Sir Franncis Leigh, Knight
Sir Henry Goodere, Knight
Sir John Cutt, Knight
Sir James Parrett, Knight
Sir William Craven, Knight
Sir John Sammes, Knight
Sir Carey Raleigh, Knight
Sir William Maynard, Knight
Sir Edmund Bowyer, Knight
Sir William Cornewallis, Knight
Sir Thomas Beomont, Knight
Sir Thomas Cunningsby, Knight
Sir Henry Beddingfeild, Knight
Sir David Murray, Knight
Sir William Poole, Knight
Sir William Throgmorton, Knight
Sir Thomas Grantham, Knight
Sir Thomas Stewkley, Knight
Sir Edward Heron, Knight
Sir Ralph Shelten, Knight
Sir Lewes Thesam, Knight
Sir Walter Aston, Knight
Sir Thomas Denton, Knight
Sir Ewstace Hart, Knight
Sir John Ogle, Knight
Sir Thomas Dale, Knight
Sir William Boulstrod, Knight
Sir William Fleetwood, Knight
Sir John Acland, Knight
Sir John Hanham, Knight
Sir Roberte Meller, Knight [Millor]
Sir Thomas Wilford, Knight
Sir William Lower, Knight
Sir Thomas Lerdes, Knight [Leedes]
Sir Franncis Barneham, Knight
Sir Walter Chate, Knight
Sir Thomas Tracy, Knight
Sir Marmaduke Darrell, Knight
Sir William Harrys, Knight
Sir Thomas Gerrand, Knight
Sir Peter Freetchvile, Knight
Sir Richard Trevor, Knight
Sir Amias Bamfeild
Sir William Smith of Essex, Knight
Sir Thomas Hewett, Knight
Sir Richard Smith, Knight
Sir John Heyward, Knight
Sir Christopher Harris, Knight
Sir John Pettus, Knight
Sir William Strode, Knight
Sir Thomas Harfleet, Knight
Sir Walter Vaughan, Knight
Sir William Herrick, Knight
Sir Samuell Saltonstall, Knight
Sir Richard Cooper, Knight
Sir Henry Fane, Knight
Sir Franncis Egiok, Knight
Sir Robert Edolph, Knight
Sir Arthure Harries, Knight
Sir George Huntley, Knight
Sir George Chute, Knight
Sir Robert Leigh, Knight
Sir Richard Lovelace, Knight
Sir William Lovelace, Knight
Sir Robert Yaxley, Knight
Sir Franncis Wortley, Knight
Sir Franncis Heiborne, Knight
Sir Guy Palme, Knight
Sir Richard Bingley, Knight
Sir Ambrose Turvill, Knight
Sir Nicholas Stoddard, Knight
Sir William Gree, Knight
Sir Walter Coverte, Knight
Sir Thomas Eversfeild, Knight
Sir Nicholas Parker, Knight
Sir Edward Culpeper, Knight
Sir William Ayliffe, Knight, and
Sir John Keile, Knight
Doctor George Mountaine, Dean of Westminster
Lawrence Bohan, Docktor in Phisick
Anthony Hinton, Doctor in Phisick
John Pawlett
Arthure Ingram
Anthony Irby
John Weld
John Walter
John Harris
Anthony Dyott
William Ravenscrofte
Thomas Warre
William Hackwill
Lawrence Hide
Nicholas Hide
Thomas Stevens
Franncis Tate
Thomas Coventry
John Hare
Robert Askwith
George Sanndys
Franncis Jones
Thomas Wentworth
Henry Cromewell
John Arundell
John Culpeper
John Hoskins
Walter Fitz Williams
Walter Kirkham
William Roscarrock
Richard Carmerdon
Edward Carne
Thomas Merry
Nicholas Lichfeild
John Middleton
John Smithe, and
Thomas Smith, the sonnes of Sir Thomas Smith
Peter Franke
George Gerrand
Gregory Sprynte
John Drake
Roger Puleston
Oliver Nicholas
Richard Nunnington [Monyngton]
John Vaughan
John Evelin
Lamorock Stradling
John Riddall
John Kettleby
Warren Townsend
Lionell Cranfeild
Edward Salter
William Litton
Humfrey May
George Thorpe
Henry Sandys, and
Edwin Sandys, the sonnes of Sir Edwin Sandys
Thomas Conway
Captaine Owen Gwinn
Captaine Giles Hawkridge
Edward Dyer
Richard Connock
Benjamin Brand
Richard Leigh, and
Thomas Pelham, Esquiers
Thomas Digges, and
John Digges, Esquiers, the sonnes of Sir Dudley Diggs,
Franncis Bradley
Richard Buckminster [Buck]
Franncis Burley
John Procter
Thomas Frake, thelder, and
Henry Freake, thelder, Minis-ters of God's word
The mayor and citizens of Chi-chester
The mayor and jurates of Dover
The bailiffs, burgesses and com-onalty of Ipswich
The mayor and comunalty of Lyme Regis
The mayor and comonalty of Sandwich
The wardens, assistants and companie of the Trinity House
Thomas Martin
Franncis Smaleman
Augustine Steward
Richard Tomlins
Humfrey Jobson
John Legate
Robert Backley [Barkley]
John Crowe
Edward Backley [Barkley]
William Flett [Fleet]
Henry Wolstenholme
Edmund Alleyn
George Tucker
Franncis Glanville
Thomas Gouge
John Evelin
William Hall
John Smithe
George Samms
John Robinson
William Tucker
John Wolstenholme, and Henry Wolstenholme, sonnes of
John Wolstenholme, Esquier
William Hodges
Jonathan Mattall [Nuttall]
Phinees Pett
Captaine John Kinge
Captaine William Beck
Giles Alington
Franncis Heiton, and
Samuell Holliland, gentleman
Richard Chamberlaine
George Chamberlaine
Hewett Staper
Humfrey Handford
Raph Freeman
George Twinhoe [Swinhoe]
Richard Pigott
Elias Roberts
Roger Harris
Devereux Wogan
Edward Baber
William Greenewell
Thomas Stilles
Nicholas Hooker
Robert Garsett
Thomas Cordell
William Bright
John Reynold
Peter Bartley
John Willett
Humfry Smithe
Roger Dye
Nicholas Leate
Thomas Wale
Lewes Tate
Humfrey Merrett
Roberte Peake
Powell Isaackson
Sebastian Viccars
Jarvis Mundes
Richard Wamer
Gresham Hogan Warner
Daniell Deruley
Andrew Troughton
William Barrett
Thomas Hodges
John Downes
Richard Harper
Thomas Foxall
William Haselden
James Harrison
William Burrell
John Hodsall
Richard Fisborne
John Miller
Edward Cooke
Richard Hall, marchaunt
Richard Hall, ankersmith
John Delbridge
Richard Francklin
Edmund Scott
John Britten
Robert Stratt
Edmund Pond
Edward James
Robert Bell
Richard Herne
William Ferrers
William Millett
Anthony Abdy
Roberte Gore
Benjamin Decrow
Henry Tunbedey [Timberly]
Humfrey Basse
Abraham Speckart
Richard Moorer
William Compton
Richard Poulsoune [Pontsonne]
William Wolaston
John Desmont, clothier [Beomont]
Alexannder Childe
William Fald, fishmonger
Franncis Baldwin
John Jones, marchant
Thomas Plomer
Edward Plomer, marchants
John Stoickden
Robert Tindall
Peter Erundell
Ruben Bourne
Thomas Hampton, and
Franncis Carter, citizens of Lon-don,
whoe since our said last lettres patent are become adventurers and have joined themselves with the former adventurers and planters of the said Companie and societie, shall from hence-forth be reputed, deemed and taken to be and shalbe brethren and free members of the Companie and shall and maie, respect-ively, and according to the proportion and value of their severall adventures, have, hold and enjoie all suche interest, right, title, priviledges, preheminences, liberties, franchises, immunities, profitts and commodities whatsoever in as lardge, ample and beneficiall manner to all intents, construccions and purposes as anie other adventures nominated and expressed in anie our former lettres patent, or anie of them have or maie have by force and vertue of theis presents, or anie our former lettres patent whatsoever.
And we are further pleased and we doe by theis presents grannt and confirm that
Phillipp, Earle of Montgomery
William, Lord Paget
Sir John Harrington, Knight
Sir William Cavendish, Knight
Sir John Sammes, Knight
Sir Samuell Sandys, Knight
Sir Thomas Freke, Knight
Sir William St. John, Knight
Sir Richard Grobham, Knight
Sir Thomas Dale, Knight
Sir Cavalliero Maycott, Knight
Richard Martin, Esquier
John Bingley, Esquier
Thomas Watson, Esquier, and
Arthure Ingram, Esquier,
whome the said Treasurer and Companie have, since the said [last] lettres patent, nominated and sett downe as worthy and discreete persons fitt to serve us as Counsellors, to be of our Counsell for the said plantacion, shalbe reputed, deemed and taken as persons of our said Councell for the said First Colonie in such manner and sort to all intents and purposes as those whoe have bin formerly ellected and nominated as our Coun-sellors for that Colonie and whose names have bin or are incerted and expressed in our said former lettres patent.
And we doe hereby ordaine and grannt by theis presents that the said Treasurer and Companie of Adventurers and Planters, aforesaid, shall and maie, once everie weeke or oftener at their pleasure, hold and keepe a court and assembly for the better ordening [ordering] and government of the said plantacion and such thinges as shall concerne the same; and that anie five per- sons of the said Counsell for the said First Collonie in Virginia, for the time being, of which Companie the Treasurer or his deputie allwaies to be one, and the nomber of fifteene others at the least of the generality of the said Companie assembled together in such court or assembly in such manner as is and hath bin heretofore used and accustomed, shalbe said, taken, held and reputed to be and shalbe a full and sufficient court of the said Companie for the handling, ordring and dispatching of all such casuall and particuler occurrences and accidentall mat-ters of lesse consequence and waight, as shall from time to time happen, touching and concerning the said plantacion.
And that, nevertheles, for the handling, ordring and disposing of matters and affaires of great waight and importance and such as shall or maie in anie sort concerne the weale publike and generall good of the said Companie and plantacion as namely, the manner of government from time to time to be used, the ordring and disposing of the said possessions and the setling and establish-ing of a trade there, or such like, there shalbe held and kept everie yeare uppon the last Wednesdaie save one of Hillary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas termes, for ever, one great, generall and solemne assembly, which fower severall assemblies shalbe stiled and called The Fower Great and Generall Courts of the Counsell and Companie of Adventurers for Virginia; in all and every of which said great and generall Courts soe assem-bled our will and pleasure is and we doe, for us, our heires and successors forever, give and grannt to the said Treasurer and Companie and their successors for ever by theis presents, that they, the said Treasurer and Companie or the greater nomber of them soe assembled, shall and maie have full power and authoritie from time to time and att all times hereafter to ellect and choose discreet persons to be of our [said] Counsell for the said First Colonie in Virginia and to nominate and appoint such officers as theie shall thinke fitt and requisit for the government, managing, ordring and dispatching of the affaires of the said Companie; and shall likewise have full power and authority to ordaine and make such lawes and ordinances for the good and wellfare of the said plantacion as to them from time to time shalbe thought requisite and meete: soe allwaies as the same be not contrary to the lawes and statutes of this our realme of England; and shall in like manner have power and authority to expulse, disfranchise and putt out of and from their said Companie and societie for ever all and everie such person and persons as having either promised or subscribed their names to become adventurers to the said plantacion of the said First Colonie in Virginia, or having bin nominated for adventurers in theis or anie our lettres patent or having bin otherwise admitted and nominated to be of the said Companie, have nevertheles either not putt in anie adventure [at] all for and towards the said plantacion or els have refused and neglected, or shall refuse and neglect, to bringe in his or their adventure by word or writing promised within sixe monthes after the same shalbe soe payable and due.
And wheras the failing and nonpaiment of such monies as have bin promised in adventure for the advanncement of the said plantacion hath bin often by experience found to be dann-gerous and prejudiciall to the same and much to have hindred the progresse and proceeding of the said plantacion; and for that itt seemeth to us a thing reasonable that such persons as by their handwriting have engaged themselves for the payment of their adventures, and afterwards neglecting their faith and promise, shold be compellable to make good and kepe the same; therefore our will and pleasure is that in anie suite or suites comenced or to be comenced in anie of our courts att Westminster, or els- where, by the said Treasurer and Companie or otherwise against anie such persons, that our judges for the time being both in our Court of Channcerie and at the common lawe doe favour and further the said suits soe farre forth as law and equitie will in anie wise suffer and permitt.
And we doe, for us, our heires and successors, further give and grannt to the said Tresorer and Companie, and their successors for ever, that theie, the said Tresorer and Companie or the greater part of them for the time being, so in a full and generall court assembled as aforesaid shall and maie, from time to time and att all times hereafter, for ever, ellect, choose and permitt into their Company and society anie person or persons, as well straungers and aliens borne in anie part beyond the seas where-soever, being in amity with us, as our naturall liedge subjects borne in anie our realmes and dominions; and that all such per-sons soe elected, chosen and admitted to be of the said Companie as aforesaid shall thereuppon be taken, reputed and held and shalbe free members of the said Companie and shall have, hold and enjoie all and singuler freedoms, liberties, franchises, privi-ledges, immunities, benefitts, profitts and commodities, whatso-ever, to the said Companie in anie sort belonging or apperteining as fully, freely [and] amplie as anie other adventurer or ad-venturers now being, or which hereafter att anie time shalbe, of the said Companie, hath, have, shall, maie, might or ought to have or enjoy the same to all intents and purposes whatsoever.
And we doe further of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge and mere mocion, for us, our heires and successors, give and grantt to the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors, for ever by theis present, that itt shalbe lawfull and free for them and their assignes att all and everie time and times here- after, out of anie our realmes and dominions whatsoever, to take, lead, carry and transport in and into the said voyage and for and towards the said plantacion of our said First Collonie in Virginia, all such and soe manie of our loving subjects or anie other straungers that will become our loving subjects and live under our allegiance as shall willingly accompanie them in the said voyage and plantacion; with shipping, armour, weapons, ordinannce, munition, powder, shott, victualls, and all manner of merchandizes and wares, and all manner of clothing, imple-ment, furniture, beasts, cattell, horses, mares, and all other thinges necessarie for the said plantacion and for their use and defence, and for trade with the people there and in passing and retourning to and froe, without paying or yealding anie subsedie, custome or imposicion, either inward or outward, or anie other dutie to us, our heires or successors, for the same, for the space of seven yeares from the date of theis present.
And we doe further, for us, our heires and successors, give and grannt to the said Treasurer and Companie and their suc-cessors for ever, by theis present, that the said Treasurer of the said Companie, or his deputie for the time being or anie twoe others of our said Counsell for the said First Colonie in Virginia for the time being, shall and maie attall times hereafter and from time to time, have full power and authoritie to minister and give the oath and oathes of supremacie and allegiannce, or either of them, to all and every person and persons which shall, at anie time and times hereafter, goe or passe to the said Colonie in Virginia:
And further, that itt shalbe likewise lawfull for the said Tresorer, or his deputy for the time, or anie twoe others of our said Counsell for the said First Colonie in Virginia, for the time being, from time to time and att all times hereafter, to minister such a formall oathe as by their discrescion shalbe reasonably devised, aswell unto anie person or persons imployed or to be imployed in, for, or touching the said plantacion for their honest, faithfull and just dischardge of their service in all such matters as shalbe committed unto them for the good and benefitt of the said Company, Colonie and plantacion; as alsoe unto such other person or persons as the said Treasurer or his deputie, with twoe others of the said Counsell, shall thinke meete for the examina-cion or clearing of the truith in anie cause whatsoever con-cerninge the said plantacion or anie business from thence proceeding or there unto proceeding or thereunto belonging.
And, furthermore, whereas we have ben certefied that diverse lewde and ill disposed persons, both sailors, souldiers, artificers, husbandmen, laborers, and others, having received wages, ap-parrell or other entertainment from the said Company or having contracted and agreed with the said Companie to goe, to serve, or to be imployed in the said plantacion of the said First Colonie in Virginia, have afterwards either withdrawen, hid or concealed themselves, or have refused to goe thither after they have bin soe entertained and agreed withall; and that divers and sundry persons allso which have bin sent and imployed in the said plantacion of the said First Colonie in Virginia at and upon the chardge of the said Companie, and having there misbehaved themselves by mutinies, sedition, and other notorious misdemeanors, or having bin employed or sent abroad by the governor of Virginia or his deputie with some ship or pinnace for provi-sions for the said Colonie, or for some discoverie or other buisines and affaires concerning the same, have from thence most trecherouslie either come back againe and retorned into our realme of England by stelth or without licence of our Gov-ernor of our said Colonie in Virginia for the time being, or have bin sent hither as misdoers and offenders; and that manie allsoe of those persons after their retourne from thence, having bin questioned by our said Counsell here for such their misbehaviors and offences, by their insolent and contemptuous carriage in the presence of our said Counsaile, have shewed little respect and reverence, either to the place or authoritie in which we have placed and appointed them; and others, for the colouring of their lewdnes and misdemeanors committed in Virginia, have endeavored them by most vile and slanndrous reports made and divulged, aswell of the cuntrie of Virginia as alsoe of the government and estate of the said plantacion and Colonie, as much as in them laie, to bring the said voyage and plantacion into disgrace and contempt; by meanes where of not only the adventures and planters alreadie ingaged in the said plantacion have bin exceedingly abused and hindred, and a greate nomber of other our loving and welldisposed subjects otherwise well affected and inclyning to joine and adventure insoe noble, Christian and worthie an action have bin discouraged from the same, but allsoe the utter overthrow and ruine of the said enterprise hath bin greatlie indanngered which cannott miscarrie without some dishonor to us and our kingdome;
Now, for asmuch as it appeareth unto us that theis insolences, misdemeanors and abuses, not to be tollerated in anie civill government, have for the most part growne and proceeded in-regard of our Counsaile have not anie direct power and authoritie by anie expresse wordes in our former lettres patent to correct and chastise such offenders, we therefore, for the more speedy reformacion of soe greate and enormous abuses and misdemeanors heretofore practised and committed, and for the preventing of the like hereafter, doe by theis present for us, our heires and successors, give and grannt to the said Treasurer and Companie, and their successors for ever, that itt shall and maie be lawfull for our said Councell for the said First Colonie in Virginia or anie twoe of them, whereof the said Tresorer or his deputie for the time being to be allwaies one by warrant under their handes to send for, or cause to be apprehended, all and every such person and persons who shalbe noted or accused or found, att anie time or times here after, to offend or misbehave themselves in anie the offences before mencioned and expressed; and uppon the examinacion of anie such offender or offendors and just proofe made by oath taken before the Counsaile of anie such notorious misdemeanors by them committed as aforesaid; and allsoe uppon anie insolent, contemptuous or unreverent carriage and misbehavior to or against our said Counsell shewed or used by anie such person or persons soe called, convented and apear-ing before them as aforesaid; that in all such cases theie, our said Counsell or anie twoe of them for the time being, shall and maie have full power and authoritie either here tO binde them over with good suerties for their good behaviour and further therein to proceed to all intents and purposes, as itt is used in other like cases within our realme of England; or ells att their discrescion to remannd and send back the said offenders or anie of them unto the said Colonie in Virginia, there to be proceeded against and punished as the Governor, deputie and Counsell there for the time being shall thinke meete; or other- wise, according to such lawes and ordinannces as are or shalbe in use there for the well ordring and good governement of the said Colonie.
And, for the more effectuall advanncing of the said plantacion, we doe further, for us, our heires and successors, of our especiall grace and favour, by vertue of our prorogative royall and by the assent and consent of the Lordes and others of our Privie Coun-salle, give and grannte unto the said Tresorer and Companie full power and authoritie, free leave, libertie and licence to sett forth, errect and publishe one or more lotterie or lotteries to have continuance and to [endure] and be held for the space of one whole yeare next after the opening of the same, and after the end and expiracion of the said terme the said lotterie or lotteries to continue and be further kept, during our will and pleasure onely and not otherwise. And yet, nevertheles, we are contented and pleased, for the good and wellfare of the said plantacion, that the said Tresorer and Companie shall, for the dispatch and finishing of the said lotterie or lotteries, have six months warn-inge after the said yeare ended before our will and pleasure shall, for and on that behalfe, be construed, deemed and adjudged to be in anie wise altered and determined.
And our further will and pleasure is that the said lottery or lottaries shall and maie be opened and held within our cittie of London or in anie other cittie or citties, or ellswheare within this our realme of England, with such prises, articles, condicions and limitacions as to them, the said Tresorer and Companie, in their discreascions shall seeme convenient.
And that itt shall and may be lawfull to and for the said Tresorer and Companie to ellect and choose receivors, auditors, surveyors, comissioners, or anie other officers whatsoever, att their will and pleasure for the better marshalling and guiding and governing of the said lottarie or lottaryes; and that itt shalbe likewise lawfull to and for the said Tresorer and anie twoe of the said Counsell to minister unto all and everie such persons soe ellected and chosen for officers as aforesaid one or more oathes for their good behaviour, just and true dealing in and about the lottarie or lottaries to the intent and purpose that none of our loving subjects, putting in their monies or otherwise adventuring in the said generall lotterie or lottaries, maie be in anie wise defrauded and deceived of their said monies or evill and in-directlie dealt withall in their said adventures.
And we further grannt in manner and forme aforesaid, that itt shall and maie be lawfull to and for the said Treasurer and Companie, under the seale of our Counsell for the plantacion, to publishe or to cause and procure to be published by proclama-cion or otherwise, the said proclamacion to be made in their name by vertue of theise present, the said lottarie or lotteries in all citties, townes, boroughts, throughfaires and other places within our said realme of England; and we will and commande all mayors, justices of peace, sheriffs, bayliffs, constables and other our officers and loving subjects whatsoever, that in noe wise theie hinder or delaie the progresse and proceeding of the said lottarie or lottaries but be therein and, touching the premisses, aiding and assisting by all honest, good and lawfull meanes and endevours.
And further our will and pleasure is that in all questions and dobts that shall arise uppon anie difficultie of construccion or interpretacion of anie thing conteined in theis or anie other our former lettres patent the same shalbe taken and interpreted in most ample and beneficiall manner for the said Tresorer and Companie and their successors and everie member there of.
And lastly we doe by theis present retifie and confirme unto the said Treasorer and Companie, and their successors for ever, all and all manner of priviledges, franchises, liberties, immuni- ties, preheminences, profitts and commodities whatsoever grannted unto them in anie our [former] lettres patent and not in theis present revoked, altered, channged or abridged. Although ex-presse mencion [of the true yearly value or certainty of the pre-mises, or any of them, or of any other gift or grant, by us or any of our progenitors or predecessors, to the aforesaid Tresurer and Company heretofore made, in these Presents is not made; or any statute, act, ordinance, provisions, proclamation, or restraint, to the contrary thereof heretofore made, ordained, or provided, or any other matter, cause, or thing, whatsoever, to the contrary, in any wise, notwithstanding.]
In witnes whereof [we have caused these our letters to be made patents.] Wittnes our selfe att Westminster, the twelveth daie of March [1612] [in the ninth year of our reign of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the five and fortieth.]
Per breve de privato sigillo, etc.
August 3, 1795
A treaty of peace between the United States of America, and the tribes of Indians called the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pattawatimas, Miamis, Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws, and Kaskaskias.
To put an end to a destructive war, to settle all controversies, and to restore harmony and friendly intercourse between the said United States and Indian tribes, Anthony Wayne, major general commanding the army of the United States, and sole commissioner for the good purposes above mentioned, and the said tribes of Indians, by their sachems, chiefs, and warriors, met together at Greenville, the head quarters of the said army, have agreed on the following articles, which, when ratified by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, shall be binding on them and the said Indian tribes.
Henceforth all hostilities shall cease; peace is hereby established, and shall be perpetual; and a friendly intercourse shall take place between the said United States and Indian tribes.
Article 2
All prisoners shall, on both sides, be restored. The Indians, prisoners to the United States, shall be immediately set at liberty. The people of the United States, still remaining prisoners among the Indians, shall be delivered up in ninety days from the date hereof, to the general or commanding officer at Greenville, fort Wayne, or fort Defiance; and ten chiefs of the said tribes shall remain at Greenville as hostages, until the delivery of the prisoners shall be effected.
Article 3
The general boundary line between the lands of the United States and the lands of the said Indian tribes, shall begin at the mouth of Cayahoga river, and run thence up the same to the portage, between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing place above fort Lawrence, thence westerly to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami river, running into the Ohio, at or near which fork stood Loromie's store, and where commences the portage between the Miami of the Ohio, and St. Mary's river, which is a branch of the Miami which runs into lake Erie; thence a westerly course to fort Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash; thence southwesterly in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of Kentucke or Cuttawa river. And in consideration of the peace now established; of the goods formerly received from the United States; of those now to be delivered; and of the yearly delivery of goods now stipulated to be made hereafter; and to indemnify the United States for the injuries and expenses they have sustained during the war, the said Indian tribes do hereby cede and relinquish forever, all their claims to the lands lying eastwardly and southwardly of the general boundary line now described: and these lands, or any part of them, shall never hereafter be made a cause or pretence, on the part of the said tribes, or any of them, of war or injury to the United States, or any of the people thereof.
And for the same considerations, and as an evidence of the returning friendship of the said Indian tribes, of their confidence in the United States, and desire to provide for their accommodations, and for that convenient intercourse which will be beneficial to both parties, the said Indian tribes do also cede to the United States the following pieces of land, to wit:
1) One piece of land six miles square, at or near Loromie's store, before mentioned.
2) One piece two miles square, at the head of the navigable water or landing, on the St. Mary's river, near Girty's town.
3) One piece six miles square, at the head of the navigable water of the Auglaize river.
4) One piece six miles square, at the confluence of the Auglaize and Miami rivers, where fort Defiance now stands.
5) One piece six miles square, at or near the confluence of the rivers St. Mary's and St. Joseph's, where fort Wayne now stands, or near it.
6) One piece two miles square, on the Wabash river, at the end of the portage from the Miami of the lake, and about eight miles westward from fort Wayne.
7) One piece six miles square, at the Ouatanon, or Old Wea towns, on the Wabash river.
8) One piece twelve miles square, at the British fort on the Miami of the lake, at the foot of the rapids.
9) One piece six miles square, at the mouth of the said river, where it empties into the lake.
10) One piece six miles square, upon Sandusky lake, where a fort formerly stood.
11) One piece two miles square, at the lower rapids of Sandusky river.
12) The post of Detroit, and all the land to the north, the west and the south of it, of which the Indian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the French or English governments: and so much more land to be annexed to the district of Detroit, as shall be comprehended between the river Rosine, on the south, lake St. Clair on the north, and a line, the general course whereof shall be six miles distant from the west end of lake Erie and Detroit river.
13) The post of Michilimackinac, and all the land on the island on which that post stands, and the main land adjacent, of which the Indian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the Frewnch or English governments; and a piece of land on the main to the north of the island, to measure six miles, on lake Huron, or the strait between lakes Huron and Michigan, and to extend three miles back from the water of the lake or strait; and also, the Island De Bois Blane, being an extra and voluntary gift of the Chippewa nation.
14) One piece of land six miles square, at the mouth of Chikago river, emptying into the southwest end of lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood.
15) One piece twelve miles square, at or near the mouth of the Illinois river, emptying into the Mississippi.
16) One piece six miles square, at the old Piorias fort and village near the south end of the Illinois lake, on said Illinois river. And whenever the United States shall think proper to survey and mark the boundaries of the lands hereby ceded to them, they shall give timely notice thereof to the said tribes of Indians, that they may appoint some of their wise chiefs to attend and see that the lines are run according to the terms of this treaty.
And the said Indian tribes will allow to the people of the United States a free passage by land and by water, as one and the other shall be found convenient, through their country, along the chain of posts hereinbefore mentioned; that is to say, from the commencement of the portage aforesaid, at or near Loromie's store, thence along said portage to the St. Mary's, and down the same to fort Wayne, and then down the Miami, to lake Erie; again, from the commencement of the portage at or near Loromie's store along the portage from thence to the river Auglaize, and down the same to its junction with the Miami at fort Defiance; again, from the commencement of the portage aforesaid, to Sandusky river, and down the same to Sandusky bay and lake Erie, and from Sandusky to the post which shall be taken at or near the foot of the Rapids of the Miami of the lake; and from thence to Detroit. Again, from the mouth of Chikago, to the commencement of the portage, between that river and the Illinois, and down the Illinois river to the Mississippi; also, from fort Wayne, along the portage aforesaid, which leads to the Wabash, and then down the Wabash to the Ohio. And the said Indian tribes will also allow to the people of the United States, the free use of the harbors and mouths of rivers along the lakes adjoining the Indian lands, for sheltering vessels and boats, and liberty to land their cargoes where necessary for their safety.
In consideration of the peace now established, and of the cessions and relinquishments of lands made in the preceding article by the said tribes of Indians, and to manifest the liberality of the United States, as the great means of rendering this peace strong and perpetual, the United States relinquish their claims to all other Indian lands northward of the river Ohio, eastward of the Mississippi, and westward and southward of the Great Lakes and the waters, uniting them, according to the boundary line agreed on by the United States and the King of Great Britain, in the treaty of peace made between them in the year 1783. But from this relinquishment by the United States, the following tracts of land are explicitly excepted:
1st. The tract on one hundred and fifty thousand acres near the rapids of the river Ohio, which has been assigned to General Clark, for the use of himself and his warriors.
2nd. The post of St. Vincennes, on the River Wabash, and the lands adjacent, of which the Indian title has been extinguished.
3rd. The lands at all other places in possession of the French people and other white settlers among them, of which the Indian title has been extinguished as mentioned in the 3d article; and
4th. The post of fort Massac towards the mouth of the Ohio. To which several parcels of land so excepted, the said tribes relinquish all the title and claim which they or any of them may have.
And for the same considerations and with the same views as above mentioned, the United States now deliver to the said Indian tribes a quantity of goods to the value of twenty thousand dollars, the receipt whereof they do hereby acknowledge; and henceforward every year, forever, the United States will deliver, at some convenient place northward of the river Ohio, like useful goods, suited to the circumstances of the Indians, of the value of nine thousand five hundred dollars; reckoning that value at the first cost of the goods in the city or place in the United States where they shall be procured. The tribes to which those goods are to be annually delivered, and the proportions in which they are to be delivered, are the following:
1st. To the Wyandots, the amount of one thousand dollars.
2nd. To the Delawares, the amount of one thousand dollars.
3rd. To the Shawanees, the amount of one thousand dollars.
4th. To the Miamis, the amount of one thousand dollars.
5th. To the Ottawas, the amount of one thousand dollars.
6th. To the Chippewas, the amount of one thousand dollars.
7th. To the Pattawatimas, the amount of one thousand dollars, and
8th. To the Kickapoo, Wea, Eel River, Piankeshaw, and Kaskaskia tribes, the amount of five hundred dollars each.
Provided, that if either of the said tribes shall hereafter, at an annual delivery of their share of the goods aforesaid, desire that a part of their annuity should be furnished in domestic animals, implements of husbandry, and other utensils convenient for them, and in compensation to useful artificers who may reside with or near them, and be employed for their benefit, the same shall, at the subsequent annual deliveries, be furnished accordingly.
To prevent any misunderstanding about the Indian lands relinquished by the United States in the fourth article, it is now explicitly declared, that the meaning of that relinquishment is this: the Indian tribes who have a right to those lands, are quietly to enjoy them, hunting, planting, and dwelling thereon, so long as they please, without any molestation from the United States; but when those tribes, or any of them, shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any part of them, they are to be sold only to the United States; and until such sale, the United States will protect all the said Indian tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens of the United States, and against all other white persons who intrude upon the same. And the said Indian tribes again acknowledge themselves to be under the protection of the said United States, and no other power whatever.
Article 6
If any citizen of the United States, or any other white person or persons, shall presume to settle upon the lands now relinquished by the United States, such citizen or other person shall be out of the protection of the United States; and the Indian tribe, on whose land the settlement shall be made, may drive off the settler, or punish him in such manner as they shall think fit; and because such settlements, made without the consent of the United States, will be injurious to them as well as to the Indians, the United States shall be at liberty to break them up, and remove and punish the settlers as they shall think proper, and so effect that protection of the Indian lands herein before stipulated.
Article 7
The said tribes of Indians, parties to this treaty, shall be at liberty to hunt within the territory and lands which they have now ceded to the United States, without hindrance or molestation, so long as they demean themselves peaceably, and offer no injury to the people of the United States.
Article 8
Trade shall be opened with the said Indian tribes; and they do hereby respectively engage to afford protection to such persons, with their property, as shall be duly licensed to reside among them for the purpose of trade; and to their agents and servants; but no person shall be permitted to reside among them for the purpose of trade; and to their agents and servants; but no person shall be permitted to reside at any of their towns or hunting camps, as a trader, who is not furnished with a license for that purpose, under the hand and seal of the superintendent of the department northwest of the Ohio, or such other person as the President of the United States shall authorize to grant such licenses; to the end, that the said Indians may not be imposed on in their trade.* And if any licensed trader shall abuse his privilege by unfair dealing, upon complaint and proof thereof, his license shall be taken from him, and he shall be further punished according to the laws of the United States. And if any person shall intrude himself as a trader, without such license, the said Indians shall take and bring him before the superintendent, or his deputy, to be dealt with according to law. And to prevent impositions by forged licenses, the said Indians shall, at lease once a year, give information to the superintendent, or his deputies, on the names of the traders residing among them.
Article 9
Lest the firm peace and friendship now established, should be interrupted by the misconduct of individuals, the United States, and the said Indian tribes agree, that for injuries done by individuals on either side, no private revenge or retaliation shall take place; but instead thereof, complaint shall be made by the party injured, to the other: by the said Indian tribes or any of them, to the President of the United States, or the superintendent by him appointed; and by the superintendent or other person appointed by the President, to the principal chiefs of the said Indian tribes, or of the tribe to which the offender belongs; and such prudent measures shall then be taken as shall be necessary to preserve the said peace and friendship unbroken, until the legislature (or great council) of the United States, shall make other equitable provision in the case, to the satisfaction of both parties. Should any Indian tribes meditate a war against the United States, or either of them, and the same shall come to the knowledge of the before mentioned tribes, or either of them, they do hereby engage to give immediate notice thereof to the general, or officer commanding the troops of the United States, at the nearest post.
*See, in relation to this licensed trade, the "first explanatory article" of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, between the United States and Great Britain, of the 19th of November, 1974.
And should any tribe, with hostile intentions against the United States, or either of them, attempt to pass through their country, they will endeavor to prevent the same, and in like manner give information of such attempt, to the general, or officer commanding, as soon as possible, that all causes of mistrust and suspicion may be avoided between them and the United States. In like manner, the United States shall give notice to the said Indian tribes of any harm that may be meditated against them, or either of them, that shall come to their knowledge; and do all in their power to hinder and prevent the same, that the friendship between them may be uninterrupted.
All other treaties heretofore made between the United States, and the said Indian tribes, or any of them, since the treaty of 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, that come within the purview of this treaty, shall henceforth cease and become void.
In testimony whereof, the said Anthony Wayne, and the sachems and war chiefs of the before mentioned nations and tribes of Indians, have hereunto set their hands and affixed their seals.
Done at Greenville, in the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, on the third day of August, one thousand seven hundred and ninety five.
Wyandots
Tarhe, or Crane, his x mark L.S.
J. Williams, jun. his x mark, L.S.
Teyyaghtaw, his x mark, L.S.
Haroenyou, or half king's son, his x mark, L.S.
Tehaawtorens, his x mark, L.S.
Awmeyeeray, his x mark, L.S.
Stayetah, his x mark L.S.
Shateyyaronyah, or Leather Lips, his x mark, L.S.
Daughshuttayah, his x mark L.S.
Shaawrunthe, his x mark L.S.
Delawares
Tetabokshke, or Grand Glaize King, his x mark, L.S.
Lemantanquis, or Black King, his x mark, L.S.
Wabatthoe, his x mark, L.S.
Maghpiway, or Red Feather, his x mark, L.S.
Kikthawenund, or Anderson, his x mark, L.S.
Bukongehelas, his x mark, L.S.
Peekeelund, his x mark, L.S.
Wellebawkeelund, his x mark, L.S.
Peekeetelemund, or Thomas Adams, his x mark, L.S.
Kishkopekund, or Captain Buffalo, his x mark, L.S.
Amenahehan, or Captain Crow, his x mark, L.S.
Queshawksey, or George Washington, his x mark, L.S.
Weywinquis, or Billy Siscomb, his x mark, L.S.
Moses, his x mark, L.S.
Shawanees
Misquacoonacaw, or Red Pole, his x mark, L.S.
Cutthewekasaw, or Black Hoof, his x mark, L.S.
Kaysewaesekah, his x mark, L.S.
Weythapamattha, his x mark, L.S.
Nianysmeka, his x mark, L.S.
Waytheah, or Long Shanks, his x mark, L.S.
Weyapiersenwaw, or Blue Jacket, his x mark, L.S.
Nequetaughaw, his x mark, L.S.
Hahgoosekaw, or Captain Reed, his x mark, L.S.
Ottawas
Augooshaway, his x mark, L.S.
Keenoshameek, his x mark, L.S.
La Malice, his x mark, L.S.
Machiwetah, his x mark, L.S.
Thowonawa, his x mark, L.S.
Secaw, his x mark, L.S.
Chippewas
Mashipinashiwish, or Bad Bird, his x mark, L.S.
Nahshogashe, (from Lake Superior), his x mark, L.S.
Kathawasung, his x mark, L.S.
Masass, his x mark, L.S.
Nemekass, or Little Thunder, his x mark, L.S.
Peshawkay, or Young Ox, his x mark, L.S.
Nanguey, his x mark, L.S.
Meenedohgeesogh, his x mark, L.S.
Peewanshemenogh, his x mark, L.S.
Weymegwas, his x mark, L.S.
Gobmaatick, his x mark, L.S.
Ottawa
Chegonickska, an Ottawa from Sandusky, his x mark, L.S.
Pattawatimas
Thupenebu, his x mark, L.S.
Nawac, for himself and brother Etsimethe, his x mark, L.S.
Nenanseka, his x mark, L.S.
Keesass, or Run, his x mark, L.S.
Kabamasaw, for himself and brother Chisaugan, his x mark, L.S.
Sugganunk, his x mark, L.S.
Wapmeme, or White Pigeon, his x mark, L.S.
Wacheness, for himself and brother Pedagoshok, his x mark, L.S.
Wabshicawnaw, his x mark, L.S.
La Chasse, his x mark, L.S.
Meshegethenogh, for himself and brother, Wawasek, his x mark, L.S.
Hingoswash, his x mark, L.S.
Anewasaw, his x mark, L.S.
Nawbudgh, his x mark, L.S.
Missenogomaw, his x mark, L.S.
Waweegshe, his x mark, L.S.
Thawme, or Le Blanc, his x mark, L.S.
Geeque, for himself and brother Shewinse, his x mark, L.S.
Pattawatimas of Huron
Okia, his x mark, L.S.
Chamung, his x mark, L.S.
Segagewan, his x mark, L.S.
Nanawme, for himself and brother A. Gin, his x mark, L.S.
Marchand, his x mark, L.S.
Wenameac, his x mark, L.S.
Miamis
Nagohquangogh, or Le Gris, his x mark, L.S.
Meshekunnoghquoh, or Little Turtle, his x mark, L.S.
Miamis and Eel Rivers
Peejeewa, or Richard Ville, his x mark, L.S.
Cochkepoghtogh, his x mark, L.S.
Eel River Tribe
Shamekunnesa, or Soldier, his x mark, L.S.
Miamis
Wapamangwa, or the White Loon, his x mark, L.S.
Weas, for themselves & the Piankeshaws
Amacunsa, or Little Beaver, his x mark, L.S.
Acoolatha, or Little Fox, his x mark, L.S.
Francis, his x mark, L.S.
Kickapoos and Kaskaskias
Keeawhah, his x mark, L.S.
Nemighka, or Josey Renard, his x mark, L.S.
Paikeekanogh, his x mark, L.S.
Delawares of Sandusky
Hawkinpumiska, his x mark, L.S.
Peyamawksey, his x mark, L.S.
Reyntueco, (of the Six Nations, living at Sandusky), his x mark, L.S.
H. De Butts, first A.D.C. and Sec'ry to Major Gen. Wayne,
Wm. H. Harrison, Aid de Camp to Major Gen. Wayne,
T. Lewis, Aid de Camp to Major Gen. Wayne,
James O'Hara, Quartermaster Gen'l.
John Mills, Major of Infantry, and Adj. Gen'l. Caleb Swan, P.M.T.U.S.
Gen. Demter, Lieut. Artillery,
Vigo,
P. Frs. La Fontaine,
Ast. Lasselle,
Sworn interpret
ers. H. Lasselle,
Wm. We
lls, Js. Beau Bien,
Jacques Lasse
lle, David Jones, Chaplain U.S.S.
M. Morins,
Lewis Beaufait,
Bt. Sans Crainte,
R. Lachambre,
Christopher Miller,
Jas. Pepen,
Robert Wilson,
Baties Coutien,
Abraham Williams, his x mark
P. Navarre.
Isaac Zane, his x mark
Article 10
Article 5
Article 4
Article 1
I That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
II That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.
III That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; of all the various modes and forms of government that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.
IV That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge be hereditary.
V That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judicative; and, that the members of the two first may be restrained from oppression by feeling and participating the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections in which all, or any part of the former members, to be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws shall direct.
VI That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people in assembly ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community have the right of suffrage and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses without their own consent or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the public good.
VII That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority without consent of the representatives of the people is injurious to their rights and ought not to be exercised.
VIII That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty, nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty except by the law of the land or the judgement of his peers.
IX That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
X That general warrants, whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offense is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive and ought not to be granted.
XI That in controversies respecting property and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other and ought to be held sacred.
XII That the freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.
XIII That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and be governed by, the civil power.
XIV That the people have a right to uniform government; and therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of, the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.
XV That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.
XVI That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.
(1803) Marbury v. Madison
(1810) Fletcher v. Peck
(1819) Dartmouth College v. Woodward
(1819) McCulloch v. Maryland
(1824) Gibbons v. Ogden
(1831) Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
(1832) Worcester v.Georgia
(1842) Prigg v. Pennsylvania
(1856) Dred Scott v. Sanford
(1877) Munn v. Illinois
(1886) Wabash Case (Wabash, St.Louis, and Pacific Railroad Co. v. Illinois)
(1895) United States v. E.C. Knight Co.
(1896) Plessy v. Ferguson
(1898) Williams v. Mississippi
(1944) Korematsu v. United States
(1944) Smith v. Allwright
(1950) Sweatt v. Painter
(1954) Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
(1957) Roth v. United States
(1962) Engel v. Vitale
(1962) Baker v. Carr
(1966) Miranda v. Arizona
(1971) Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
(1972) Furman v. Georgia
(1973) Roe v. Wade
(1989) Webster v. Reproductive Health Services
(1842) Commonwealth v. Hunt