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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