US HISTORY
US HISTORY UNIT 4 THE WEST & THE GILDED AGE
PART I
Moving West
The 2nd Westward Movement
* Settled the Middle portions of the country.
* Frontier slowly diminishing
Free Land
* Oklahoma Land Rush
* 50,000 people race on AK & TX border
* Sooners
Squatters
* People who move onto other people’s land.
* Squatter’s Rights
Homestead Act, 1862
* 1 Register for 160 acre plot
* 2 Build (improve)
* 3 Live for 5 years
* 4 Own the land
Soddy
* Home on the frontier made of grass and mud.
Morrill Land Grant
* Free Land to states for Colleges
* Teach Agricultural and Mechanical Skills
Barb Wire
* Joseph Glidden
* End of the open range
* Hurt poor ranchers
Cattle Drives took beef to market.
* Beef Prices
* $4 in TX
* $40 in Chicago
Transcontinental Railroad (from coast to coast)
* The biggest factor in the development of the west
* Completed at Promontory Point, UT – “golden spike” (1869)
* Union and Central Pacific met
THE “INDIAN WARS”
Causes
* Desire to take their land for
* 1Mining (Gold) Find in the Dakotas
* Black Hills
* Comstock Lode (Silver)
* 2. Ranching
* Failure by Natives to comply to the 2nd Indian Removal.
Sand Creek Massacre
* 200 Indians killed
Little Bighorn (1876)
* Gen. George Armstrong Custer
* 260 US soldiers were killed by the Sioux
* (Chief Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse.)
* Sioux forces number up to 4,000
* Custer becomes a legend
The Ghost Dance
* Ceremony performed by natives that terrified white settlers.
* Goals included the return of the land and ideas about the rise of dead ancestors.
* Return of the buffalo
* Invulnerable to bullets
* The Government went after Sitting Bull, thinking he would lead a rebellion.
* During his arrest a shot was fired.
THE MASSACRE AT WOUNDED KNEE
(1890)
US soldiers killed up to 370 unarmed Sioux.
7th Calvary (Custer’s unit #)
Nez Perce Resistance
* Chief Joseph led his people for thousands of miles.
* Outrunning the US Calvary
* Ordered out of Oregon (Wallowa Valley)
* Attempted to flee to Canada
3 ATTEMPTS TO SOLVE THE “INDIAN PROBLEM”
* 1ST. RESERVATION SYSTEM
* Led to alcoholism and high suicide rates
* 2ND. DAWES SEVERALTY ACT
* GAVE EACH INDIAN HIS OWN LAND
* 160 acres
* 3rd – Assimilation
Helen Hunt Jackson
* Century of Dishonor (Book)
* Summed up mistreatment of Natives
* Led to Dawes Act
* Natives actually ended up with less land after the act.
PART II
Gilded Age Politics – 1877-1900
Gilded Age – looks good on outside, but corrupt inside. (Mark Twain’s term)
POLITICS
MAINLY REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS
Corruption
* “Era of Good Stealings”
* Credit Moblier Scandal
* 1872
* Congressman made money off the railroad.
Political Machines
* (Powerful political party)
* Run by a Boss, bought votes.
* Tammany Hall (most known machine) in NY (powerful from 1790s to 1960s)
* Gave services to the poor, got votes in return.
* Run by Boss Tweed
* Kickbacks (Bribes)
* NY courthouse cost 3 million to build , 1 million went to the machine.
* Graft --- Political use for personal gain
Thomas Nast
(father of political cartoons)
* Cartoonist
* Criticized Tweed
Presidents
* 1876 – Rutherford B. Hayes (Rep)
* 1880 – James Garfield (Rep)
* Assassinated in 1881 by Charles Guiteau who thought he was left out of the spoils system.
* 1881 – Chestur A. Arthur (Rep)
* Pendleton Act
* Eliminated the spoils system
* created the Civil Service system based on examinations.
* 1884 Grover Cleveland (Dem)
* Elected by support from Mugwumps
* Republicans who switched due to corruption.
* 1888 Benjamin Harrison (Rep)
* Cleveland won the popular vote by 100,000 but not the Electoral College.
* 1892 Grover Cleveland (Dem) returned to office.
* 1896 – William McKinley (Rep)
* “The Full Dinner Pail”
* Assassinated by Leon Czolgosz. Many negative stereotypes were now associated with foreign names.
* The assassin wrapped a gun in a bandage. Shot McKinley while shaking hands.
Political groups
* 1. The Grange
* a group of farmers that united
* they wanted legislation to regulate businesses that farmers depended on. (like the RR)
Farm Alliances
* National Farm – Western whites
* Southern Farm – Southern Whites
* Colored – Blacks
Farmers Co-ops
* Buy supplies as a group
* Allows private farmers to compete with monopolies.
Populists (The People’s Party)
* Political Party largely supported by farmers.
* Omaha Platform (BELIEFS)
* PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF THE RAILROAD
* Eliminate Rebates (discounts for customers)
* ELECTORAL & TAX REFORM
* Bimetalism
* Secret (Australian) Ballot
* RAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT
* RECEIVED 1 MILLION VOTES.
2 Supreme Court Cases
Munn v. Ill 1877 – private business can be regulated for the public good.
* states can regulate RR rates
Wabash v. Ill 1886 – federal government not states can regulate interstate commerce
* Led to Interstate Commerce Act.
Interstate Commerce Act, 1887
* Created Interstate Commerce Commission to ensure fair rates by railroad (and later trucking)
* Abolished 1995
* Excessive Rates outlawed
* Victory for farmers
* “Bribes” (by giving free rides to politicians) abolished
Elkins Act - Rates must be published & followed.
* (1903 by TR & strengthened the ICA)
What should be the basis of our currency?
Gold Standard (goldbugs)
* Gold should be the only basis for the money supply
* Favored by Reps, Industrialists, Merchants
* Grover Cleveland blamed Depression of 1893 on government’s backing of silver.
Bimetallism (silver & gold should be the basis for the money supply) (silverites)
* William Jennings Bryan
* Cross of Gold Speech
* Farmers are being crucified
* Led to Dem. Nomination in 1896.
* Silver was more plentiful
* More money with less value
* May lead to inflation ?, May stimulate economy?
PART III
Gilded Age Economy
Industrialization sped up after the Civil War.
THE NEW SOUTH
* FACTORIES BEGAN TO REPLACE THE COTTON FIELDS IN THE 1880S.
* TEXTILE MILLS
Electricity
* Thomas Edison
* Light bulb
* REVOLUTIONIZED daily life.
* Refrigeration
* New Jobs
Inventions
* Telegraph
* Samuel Morse
* (Western Union)
* Telephone
* Alexander G. Bell
* Air Brakes
* George Westinghouse
* Electric Trolley
* Typewriter
* Bessemer Converter
* Steel
* Skyscrapers
* Elevator
* Elisha Graves Otis
Laissez-faire – the government did not try to control the economy.
* Monopolies were the result.
Monopoly – one business that controls a product.
2 Views of Entrepreneurs
* Captains of Industry
* Skilled who earned $
* Gospel of Wealth – give to poor
* Robber Barron
* Unethical practices led to fortune.
Ways to form monopolies
* Vertical Integration– buy supplies (going down the supply chart)
* Steel Mill buys trains that bring the coal & the coal mine.
* Horizontal Integration– buy competitors
* A business gets rid of everyone doing the same thing they do.
Andrew Carnegie
* Pittsburgh
* Steel Tycoon
* “put all of your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket.”
John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil Trust – controlled 95% of the oil business in America.
* Crushed competitors
* Rockefeller’s oil success was made possible by Edwin Drake
* 1st to drill for oil
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) outlawed trusts/ monopolies.
MANY OF THE HUGE PROFITS WERE MADE BY EXPLOITING LABOR
Child Labor
Sweatshops
UNIONS WERE FORMED TO PROTECT WORKERS
Early Unions
Knights of Labor
American Federation of Labor
* Samuel Gompers
* Believed workers needed protection from greedy employers.
* Used strikes & collective bargaining to free workers.
Goals
* Pay
* Hours (12 hour day to 8 hour day)
* Safety
* Forbid yellow dog contracts (forced workers to not join unions)
Craft union – people who do the same exact job (painters, plumbers)
Trade union – aka labor union. (auto workers, textile workers)
Arbitration – legally binding decision from 3rd party (outside the courts)
Mediation – attempt to resolve without any binding decision.
Important Strikes
• 1. Haymarket Square – labor rally that turned violent
• 2. Homestead Strike– war at Carnegie’s mill.
• 3. Pullman (RR)
Pres. Cleveland ended due to interference with the mail.
4. Great Strike of 1877 (RR)
New Ideas
10% of the people had 90% of the wealth.
1. Socialism (Karl Marx)
* People share resources & are equal.
Eugene Debs
* Leading American Socialist
* Presidential Candidate
* Arrested for involvement in Pullman strike
SOCIAL DARWINISM
* HERBERT SPENCER
* Evolution applied to society.
* “SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.”
* Some are destined to be poor.
* Opposite of Socialism (Some people are better than others and deserve the rewards.
* Also used to justify taking over “backward” countries.
Horatio Alger
* Wrote stories of poor boys becoming successful.
* “Rags to Riches”
* Social Darwinist messages = work hard to get the American dream or be left behind.
* His stories were very popular.
PART 4
Moving People
Immigration
People moved from Europe to the US.
1860-1920 = Golden Age of Immigration
Ellis Island in New York was built to process the new immigrants on the East Coast. 70% of immigrants came through New York.
* Immigrants had to be healthy enough to work.
* Cheap Labor
* THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
* (THE SYMBOL OF HOPE FOR IMMIGRANTS)
* Angel Island (CA)
* The Ellis Island of the West Coast
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1862 banned Chinese immigration.
3. Education promoted assimilation to the American way of life.
SETTLEMENT HOUSES
* ESTABLISHED TO HELP IMMIGRANTS ADJUST & ELIMINATE POVERTY.
* SOCIAL GOSPEL MOVEMENT
* JANE ADDAMS
* HULL HOUSE
Tenement Houses
* Dumbbell (famous blueprint)
* Tried to fit as many immigrants in one area as possible.
* Often no water or bathroom
* Led to Disease
Jacob Riis
* “How the Other Half Lives”
* Photographer exposed problems of poor immigrants.
Recreation
* Spectator Sports
* Amusement Parks
Fredrick Law Olmsted (landscape architect)
* Central Park
* Biltmore grounds
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