The Gilded AgeThe Progressive Era
Christopher Dorf, Jay Speights,
Greyson Blaies, Farhad Merchant
What is the Gilded Age?
Gilded Age
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Political corruption
Widening gap between rich and poor
Greed
Business Titans
Forgettable Presidents
Social Darwinism
Foreign conflict
Titans
Note: These are not in the notes sheet so we
recommend writing them on the white space on
front side.
Andrew Carnegie
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Owner of Carnegie Steel
Rose from poverty to fortune
Inspired belief in the “American
Dream”
Company was bought out by J.P.
Morgan
Devoted to philanthropy, donated
$350 million to help poor
John D. Rockefeller
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Started from humble
beginnings and eventually
created an oil empire
Started his company, Standard
Oil in 1870
As part of his “horizontal
integration”, by 1877 he
controlled 95% of oil refineries
in the US.
Vertical vs. Horizontal Integration
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Vertical integration
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A company seeks to own all aspects of production
and manufacturing
Started by Andrew Carnegie in steel production
Horizontal integration
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A company buys out or forces out all competition in
specific industry
Used by John Rockefeller- Standard oil
Other Titans
Vanderbilt
JP Morgan
U.S.
Presidents
Presidents
Forgettable Presidents
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(Gilded Age)
Hayes
Garfield
Arthur
Cleveland (Two stints)
Harrison
Mckinley
Progressive Presidents
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T. Roosevelt
Taft
Wilson
Rutherford B. Hayes
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He was the 19th president of the U.S.
He led the country through the end of Reconstruction.
The Compromise of 1877 withdrew federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina which
helped formally end reconstruction.
The Railroad Strike of 1877 also marked his time in office. Hayes deployed troops to end the
strike.
Hayes awarded political loyalty in his appointments instead of merit.
He spent a good deal of effort fighting for black civil rights, but the House was dominated by
Democrats so they blocked many of his efforts.
James A. Garfield
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He was the 20th president of the United States.
Many office seekers harassed him following his election which convince him of the importance
of civil service reform.
Garfield appointed many former slaves into office including Frederick Douglas.
He managed to initiate reform of the Post office Department.
Unfortunately he was unable to carry out his duties because he was assassinated only after a
few months in office.
Chester Arthur
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He was the 21st president.
During his time in office he advocated for lowering tariff rates to help relieve indebted
farmers and middle class consumers.
He was a “champion” of social service reform.
Arthur signed into law the Pendleton Act which established a bipartisan Civil Service
Commission.
Grover Cleveland
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He was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States.
He is best known for dealing with the Pullman Strike.
Cleveland was not in favor of imperialistic moves.
He was also not in favor of overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy.
Cleveland presided over the dedication of the Statue of Liberty.
Benjamin Harrison
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He was the 23th president of the United States of America.
The Battle of Wounded Knee occurred during his time in office.
The congress as the time was known as the “Billion Dollar Congress.” This congress helped
shape later policies and asserted authority of the federal government.
He was much into currency reform.
Harrison signed into effect the Sherman Anti-trust Act which attempted to curb monopolies.
Similar to the other presidents he failed to extend civil rights to blacks.
William McKinley
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He was the 25th president and the last of the forgettable presidents.
McKinley is best known for acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
He encouraged domestic industry which led him to pass the Dingley Tariff Act. This was the
highest tariff in U.S. history.
Trusts rose during his time in office.
McKinley was a supporter of the Gold Standard like many other Republicans of the time. He
defeated William Jennings Bryan who was a supporter of “Free Silver.”
The Spanish-American War happened while he was in office.
He was killed in 1901.
Teddy Roosevelt
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He was the 26th president of the United States and the first of the progressive era presidents.
He became the youngest president in U.S. history.
Roosevelt felt that the government should be an arbiter between capital and labor.
He was the “Trust Buster.”
“Speak softly and carry a big stick”
Ushered the construction of the Panama Canal
Teddy used his Roosevelt Corollary to back up his intervention within Latin America.
Conservation of resources was key to his ideals.
In 1912 he later ran for a third term under the Bull Moose Party.
The Square Deal highlights his presidency.
William Taft
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He was the 27th president of the United States of America.
Taft is the only person to serve as both the Chief Justice and the president.
Payne- Aldrich Act… It lowered certain tariffs and was the first time a since The Dingley Tariff
that a tariff was changed.
“Dollar Diplomacy” was also coined in effort to help Latin America with its financial issues.
Woodrow Wilson
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He was the 28th president of the United States of America
Wilson continued the progressive movement.
Under his presidency the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, and Clayton
Anti-trust Act were created.
Child labor was also curbed under his leadership.
He led the United States through the Great War.
War
Spanish- American War
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1898-1901
Background
Cuba was under Spanish control, despite American
efforts
o Cuban farmers began to rebel when sugar prices
plummeted
o Spanish forces fought the insurrection back in a
bloody war
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Causes for US Involvement
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Yellow Journalism
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Americans became aware of the Cuban crisis
through sensationalized stories
Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst
competed with each other to bring the news.
“You furnish the pictures, I furnish the war!” Hearst
Causes for US Involvement
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USS Maine Explosion- 1898
American ship explodes in a Havana harbor
o Killed 250 servicemen
o U.S.-a Spanish mine that exploded the ship
o Spain- it was an accident in the ship’s boiler room.
 History proved Spain correct.
o Americans rallied under the cry “Remember the
Maine”
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Causes for US Involvement
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Dupuy de Lome letter
o Spanish ambassador to the US derided President
McKinley in letter to the foreign minister of Spain.
o Was intercepted and published in New York Journal.
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Fueled an aggressive, war-like foreign policy.
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"McKinley is weak and catering to the rabble and, besides, a low
politician who desires to leave a door open to himself and to
stand well with the jingos of his party."
US Involvement
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McKinley did not want to go to war, but feared if he
went against public outcry for war, William Jennings
Bryan would win next election of 1900.
Congress declared war under the motive that the
Cubans needed to be liberated from Spanish
government.
Passed the Teller Amendment, which promised Cuban
independence if Spanish were successfully driven out.
Rough Riders
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20,000 regular and volunteer troops prepared to
invade Cuba
The Rough Riders were a mixed group of ex-convicts
and cowboys led by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt
o Helped take charge of Sam Juan Hill
Cuba eventually fell and Spain retreated
Treaty of Paris
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Terms:
Spain gave the US Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
o McKinley agreed to buy the Philippines for $20
million.
US honored the Teller Amendment, after introducing
the Platt Amendment, which established a permanent
military base at Guantanamo Bay.
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The Philippines
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After the conflict in Cuba the U.S. received ownership of the Philippines.
The Spanish, however, didn’t give it up easily.
Both empires wanted the area for a strategic military position.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt acted against orders
and commanded George Dewey to take over the Spanish-controlled
Philippines.
He quickly defeated the Spanish navy in a surprise attack.
Emilo Aguinaldo was a Filipino who led a revolt against the Spanish on
land, working with the US.
The U.S. took full control of the Philippines.
The Philippine-American War
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The U.S. was just given ownership was the Philippines after the U.S. defeated
Spain.
The war was spurred by our belief that our “Little Brown Brothers” were inferior
to us.
The Filipino people did not want our help to help rebuild, they only wanted their
independence.
The U.S. government denied and the local population revolted against the U.S.
forces.
The Filipinos later down the line would be granted their independence.
Ideologies
Gilded Age Ideology
The Gilded Age is ‘gilded’ because it’s shiny outer appearance
is isn’t skin deep (look up ‘gilded metal’). The american
dream shifted towards becoming rich. This age was filled
with corruption in both politics and in big business. Social
Darwinism was a major beliefs. People applied Charles
Darwin’s ‘natural selection’ to business; the strong survive
and the weak fail. Laborers/Factory workers dispensable
because of a huge amount of immigrants and unemployed.
This drove wages down to record lows. The supreme court
supported big business by going against labor unions. This
era was very conservative.
Gilded Age Supreme Court Decisions
In re Debs (Pullman Strike) - his case originated from the 1894 Pullman
Strike. Workers at the Pullman Palace Car company went on strike after
owner George Pullman cut wages, but kept rent and other cost of living
expenses high in his factory town that surrounded the factory. The strike
stopped railway traffic through the state of Illinois, crippling interstate trade
as well as the government’s ability to deliver mail. President Grover
Cleveland issued a court injunction to put a stop to the strike. Eugene Debs,
the leader of the American Railway Union, refused defied the injunction and
refused to bring an end to the strike. President Cleveland had to use the U.S.
Army to break the strike. Debs was arrested for refusing the injunction.
In re Debs Continued
In the supreme court case, the Supreme Court ruled that
the federal government has the power to break a strike
when the strike interferes with official government
business (i.e. mail delivery) or the ability of other
private business to operate effectively. This decision
reinforces the government’s support for management
over the labor movement, further weakening the ability
of workers and unions to organize and go on strike.
Gilded Age Supreme Court Decisions
Plessy v. Ferguson - The state of Louisiana passed a law
requiring the segregation of all railway cars. Homer Plessy, who
was one 1/8 Black, was arrested for sitting in a white only rail car
and refusing to move. Plessy brought suit on the grounds that the
state law violated his 14th Amendment to “equal protection under
the law”. In this case, the Supreme court ruled that the Louisiana
state law did not violate the 14th Amendment. Through this ruling,
the Court established the “separate but equal” doctrine.
Segregation was constitutional as long as it affirmed the idea of
“separate but equal.” This decision upheld Jim Crow segregation
throughout the South.
Progressive Ideology
Who were the Progressives? They were reformers; they were
middle-class citizens intent on bettering society and saving
capitalism in America by curbing the worst abuses of the
capitalist system; they were bourgeois whites terrified of a
workers' revolution and determined to thwart it by pushing
through some nominal reforms; they were businessmen seeking
to avoid more stringent reforms by supporting watered-down
federal laws; they were women fighting for the right to vote;
they were religious women struggling to stamp out alcohol as
one of society's greatest vices; they were privileged idealists
hoping and trying to uplift the poor.
Progressive Ideology Continued
14th Amendment: "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."
The supreme court interpreted “Person” as not only
people, but corporations, too. This helped them rule a
bunch of cases in favor of businesses rather than
citizens. This greatly contrasted the developing public
mindset.
Progressive Era Supreme Court Decisions
Northern Securities Co. v. United States - Two competing railroad
companies set up a holding company to buy the controlling interest of the
two railroads. The constitutionality of the holding company was
questioned when President Theodore Roosevelt pursued his “trust
busting” campaign under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.
The Supreme Court ruled that a holding company formed solely to eliminate
competition between the 2 railroads was in violation of the anti-trust laws
because it unreasonably restrained commerce. The federal government
now had the authority to regulate any conspiracy which sought to
eliminate competition between otherwise competitive railroads. Led to
Teddy’s “Trust Busting”.
Progressive Era Supreme Court Decisions
Lochner v. New York - The Court upheld the Oregon law that barred women
from certain factory and laundry work. The Court took into account the
physical differences between men and women, based on the brief
submitted by Louis D. Brandeis, stating that “women’s physical structure
and the functions it performs…justify special legislation restricting the
conditions under which she should be permitted to toil.”
So-called “protective legislation” regulated the hours, locations, and type
of work that women could do. This protective legislation also prevented
women from entering certain occupations, many of the occupations that
paid higher salaries.
Started out as beneficial to women but later became negative when it was
used to discriminate against women in the workplace.
Progressive Era Supreme Court Decisions
Hammer v. Dagenhart - Unable to regulate hours and working conditions for
child labor within individual states, Congress sought to regulate child labor
by banning the product of that labor from interstate commerce.
The Keating-Owen Act of 1916 prohibited interstate commerce of any
merchandise that had been made by children under the age of fourteen,
or merchandise that had been made in factories where children between
the ages of 14 and 16 worked for more than eight hours a day, worked
overnight, or worked more than six days a week.
The Supreme Court ruled that Congress had no authority under the
Commerce Clause to restrict manufacturing activities involving children.
This was a huge blow for progressivism.
Amendments
Note that on the next slide the 14th and the 15th
amendment were made prior to the Gilded Age but
had a major influence on politics during the period
Amendments
❏ 14th Amendment (1868) - Granted citizenship to anyone born in the
United States and guaranteed due process and equal protection of the
laws
❏ 15th Amendment (1870) - Guaranteed the right to vote regardless “of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
❏ Teller Amendment (1898) - Stated that the United State would not
establish permanent control of Cuba
❏ Platt Amendment (1903) - Treaty between America and Cuba that
attempted to protect Cuba’s independence from foreign intervention
❏ 16th Amendment (1913) - Established a federal income tax, Progressive
victory
❏ 18th Amendment (1919) - Established Prohibition, another Progressive
victory
Platforms
1892 Election
Populists Party - formed by frustrated farmers in agricultural belts of West and
South, reached out to black community
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Grover Cleveland (Democrat) - denounced McKinley tariff, demanded rigid
enforcement laws on trusts
Benjamin Harrison (Republican) - favored extension of foreign commerce;
build up the navy; opposed trusts; and supported construction of Nicaragua
Canal
James B. Weaver (Populists) - demanded graduated income tax; government
ownership of railroads, telegraphs and telephones; called for inflation
through unlimited and free coinage of silver; direct election of senators; oneterm limit for Presidency; shorter workday; limited immigration; adoption of
initiative and referendum to allow citizens to shape legislation more directly
Platforms
1896 & 1900 Election
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William McKinley (Republican) - aid business,
supported gold standard
William Jennings Bryan (Democrat/Populist) demanded inflation through the unlimited coinage of
silver at the ratio of sixteen ounces to one ounce of
gold (silver in a dollar would be worth about fifty
cents)
Platforms
1912 Election
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Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) - “New Freedom”,
favored small enterprise, entrepreneurship, and the
free functioning of unregulated and non-monopolized
markets,
Theodore Roosevelt (Bull Moose) - “New Nationalism”,
stronger control of trusts, womens suffrage, and social
welfare programs
Foreign Policies
Imperialism
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The U.S. wanted to expand economically and needed worldwide markets to do so.
The need for raw materials was increasing.
Many people wanted to spread Christianity and American Values.
Supporters:
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White Anglo-Saxons
Expansionists
Albert Beveridge
Missionaries…
Opponents:
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Mark Twain
William Jennings Bryan
Anti-expansionists
Foreign Policy by each Forgettable President
Hayes:
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He wanted to continue to expand toward the Pacific Ocean
Since the Chinese immigrant population was growing he negotiated a trade agreement with
China to regulate immigration.
Garfield:
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He had limited foreign policies due to his death.
Arthur:
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Started to create the first crucial steps in building a modern navy- “Father of the Steel Navy”
He negotiated many treaties with Mexico, Santo Domingo, Spain, Cuba, and Puerto Rico which
all lacked Senate support.
Continued
Cleveland:
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He opposed territorial expansion and entangling alliances.
Cleveland withdrew the treaty which gave the U.S. the right to construct a canal in
Nicaragua.(Frelinghuysen-Zavala Treaty)
Dealt with complex issues of U.S. fishing rights in the North Atlantic off Canada.
He threatened Britain with war over the Venezuelan boundary dispute.
Brought the Monroe Doctrine back to life.
Harrison:
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Convened the first modern Pan-American Conference in Oct. 1889.
Appointed Frederick Douglas as minister to Haiti.
Supported expansion of the navy
Inspired Roosevelts “Big Stick” policy
Vigorous trade agenda
Mckinley’s Foreign Policy
The Incident in Cuba
The United States wanted to “free” Cuba from Spain mainly for ECONOMIC
purposes. We wanted to protect our investments in Cuba.
Decision for War:
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Loss of Markets
Cuban threats to Americans in Cuba
Inability of both Spain and Cuba to resolve the Cuban revolution
the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine
Led McKinley to ask congress to declare war on Spain
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On April 21, Congress declared war on Spain with the objective of
establishing Cuban Independence with the Teller Amendment.
Philippines
The U.S. sent troops here after recognizing
both its economic value and its strategic
value to Spain. The Paris Peace Treaty gave
the U.S. acquisition of the Philippines for
$20 million. The Philippine-American War
lasted from 1899-1902.
Open Door Policy
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The Boxer Rebellion occurred in China which weakened the nation.
When the rebellion ended Imperialistic countries exploited China for their own benefit.
China is a world economic market.
McKinley’s Secretary of State, John Hay, created the Open Door Policy so that all nations
could use China for its benefit.
The U.S. wanted to be involved in China so that they could gain economically.
Hawaii
After the previous presidents failed to annex Hawaii,
McKinley finally annexed Hawaii in 1898 after the
government was overthrown. It became a U.S. territory
in 1900.
Progressive Foreign Policy
Roosevelt:
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He intervened in Latin American economic affairs with the Roosevelt corollary.
He ushered the construction of the Panama Canal to create a better trade route.
“Big Stick”
Large Navy that sailed the world
Taft:
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“Dollar Diplomacy’
Wilson:
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WW1
Publications
Major Pieces of Literature
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The Jungle by Upton Sinclair- It pointed out the abuses of the meat packing industry and led
to the Meat Inspection Act
The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie- It states that the rich have an obligation to give
back to the poor.
Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy- It was a about a man who woke up in 2000 to see that
there was no classes. (Social Change)
The Gilded Age by Mark Twain-It was about the political corruption and greed of the time.
The Significance of the Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner- The novel
states that the frontier was critical in the development of American Democracy.
A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson-It exposes the atrocities of our dealings with
Native Americans.
How the Other Half Lives
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Jacob Riis
It was used to highlight the horrible conditions in the
Slums of New York.
Influenced Teddy Roosevelt
Technology
First Transcontinental Railroad
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Opened up the far West
New York to San Fransisco now took 6 days instead of 6
months.
Railroad track mileage tripled between 1860 and 1880.
The Telephone
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Invented by Alexander Graham
Bell in 1878
By 1884, long distance
connections were being made
from New York City to Boston.
The Typewriter
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Invented by Christopher Sholes
in 1871
Opened up job opportunities
for women to become typers
Increased literary production