CH 11

1880- James A. Garfield elected President
 Was
assassinated on July 2, 1881 by Charles Guiteau(
I will explain)
 Vice- President Chester Arthur became President
Pendleton Act 1883- Jobs given out by the President
based on qualifications set forth by the Civil Service
Commission.


Republicans- reform party. Against slavery, for the
temperance movement, and other reforms
Democrats- party of liberty. Dominated the south.
Made up of southerners and Catholics in larger
cities
Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland is elected President in the
election of 1884. He is the first Democratic
President since 1856. Elected by only 1000 votes.
 Presidency
was somewhat unsuccessful.
ICC

Interstate Commerce Commission Designed
to control trade between states
 Standard Oil
 Wabash V. Illinois 1886- Ruled that states could not
regulate trade. Only the Federal Government could do
that.
 President Cleveland pressured to sign a bill creating
the Interstate Commerce Commission.
McKinley Tariff


1888 (Republican)Benjamin Harrison Wins
Presidency
William McKinley pushed thru tariffs and cut taxes
on tobacco, raw sugar, but increased the taxes on
textiles, and other raw goods. This caused problem
with financial surplus and brought on a deficit.
Sherman Anti Trust Act

Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890
 Made
I
it illegal to “combine any form of trust.”
will explain
Populism

Movement after the Civil War (1861-1865) to
increase farmers political power. -Demand for
farm goods low due to overproduction because of
new machinery.
 High
tariffs on the goods farmers needed to produce
their goods were high cutting their profit.
 Farmers also felt very disconnected with those that
controlled their money/profits such as banks and
foreign suppliers along with the Railroads that set the
shipping rates

Money supply also hurt the economy following the
Civil War.
 U.S.
treasury had mass produced Greenbacks- paper
money. This money could not be exchanged with gold or
silver. There was no solid value backing the Greenbacks
causing inflation.
 Inflation- the lowering of the value of the dollar.
 Result-
costs of products soared because there was no set
value on the dollar.

Solution- to get inflation under control Congress quit
printing Greenbacks. In addition, Congress also
stopped using silver as moneyed coin and began
using only gold as money(temporarily) to stop the
rise of inflation. This meant there was not enough
money in circulation. By 1895 (30 years after Civil
War ended) there was about 7 dollars less per
person in circulation.
Deflation

The decrease in money supply caused Deflation- the
increase in the value of money. Thus, causing the
general costs of products to level out.
Problems with Deflation

Deflation was great for the economy but bad for
farmers.
 When
money supply was lessened farmers had to
borrow money for their supplies and pay interests on
that money. Then when deflation caused prices to level
out they were making less on their products but still had
the banks to pay back with their sometimes high
interests rates. Therefore, the farmers began to think
that Congress’ decision to stop printing Greenbacks was
due to pressure from banks so that the banks could loan
money.
Grange

The Grange (also known as the Patrons of
Husbandry)- was a farm organization formed in
1866 to organize and education often times rural
farmers. By 1874 the Grange had between
800,000 and 1.5 million members
 From
this organization one of the most influential
organizational structures emerged called Cooperatives
Cooperatives
Cooperatives – are marketing organizations that
work to benefit their members. There are Electric
Company CO Ops, Feed store CO Ops, etc. today
Specifically in the case of the farmers in the late
1800’s the Cooperative began to negotiate lower
shipping prices from the railroads and organized
the crops grown so that there was not an over
supply of one specific product

The Grange would ultimately fail in having much
long term beneficial impact for farmers. States
began to pass anti-Grange laws and began to put
pressure on railroads to not cut deals with Farmers.(
Even though Wabash v. Illinois would ultimately tell
states they could not regulates trade across state
lines).
Farmers’ Alliance


The Farmers’ Alliance began to form and the
Grange was failing. It had a similar philosophy in
attempting to assist farmers. But would also
ultimately be unsuccessful.
The Populists Party( another political party) also
known as “the peoples” party began to form after
the failure of the Grange and the Farmers’ Alliance.

Democrats that controlled the south did not want a
3rd party to compete for its control of the south.
Democrats ( led by Charles Macune) told the
Populists to write out a list of demands( instead of
forming a political party) and the Democrats would
try to honor their demands.

Macune came up with the idea of govt building
warehouse to store farmers crops so that supply
and demand could be regulated thus regulating
prices for farmers. And that government would
provide low interests loans to farmers to produce
their goods (not high interest banks).

Midterm elections of 1890 Populist did well.
Populist controlled Kansas and Nebraska
legislatures, they gained 8 seats in the House and 2
in the Senate. Total 40 Democrats that supported
the Alliance programs were elected to state
Congress’.
Presidential election 1892

Grover Cleveland was our 22nd and (1885-1889)
our 24th ( 1893-1897)President. He was a
democrat. After his first term he was followed by
Benjamin Harrison (r), Grover Cleveland (d),
William McKinley (r).

After Cleveland’s re-election the panic of 1893 hit.
In 1893 the Philadelphia and Reading Railroads
both declared bankruptcy because they had
expanded to fast. The caused the stock market to
crash and by 1894 America was in a deep
depression with 4.6 million Americans unemployed.
(18% of the workforce)
Panic of 1893 cont

This created a crisis for the U.S. treasury. The
owners of government bond began to cashing in
their bonds for gold. Thus, leaving the Federal
reserve dangerously low. President Cleveland
believed Gold( not silver and paper money) should
be the basis for the U.S economy. Therefore, he
urged congress the repeal the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act of 1890 that had allowed the U.S
treasure to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per
month


Goldbugs-believed currency should be base on
gold
Silverites- believed currecy should be based on
silver
Election of 1896

Republican William McKinley would win. Grover
Cleveland’s second term as President was scarred
by the Panic of 1893. The Populist party would die
out as well by the early 1900’s


While white farmers were embattled over their
incomes and lives during the mid to late 1800’s so
were black Americans. Segregation was in full force
15th Amendment- Black men citizenship.
But, states found ways around that by stating
that to vote one must own property and be literate
(able to read). Also, some states started enacting a
Poll Tax- paying to vote. In many states it was $2
which was a lot of money in that era.


Segregation- the separation of races
Jim Crow Laws- enforced segregation.
1875 The Civil Rights Act was passed making it illegal to
keep people (black Americans) out of certain public places.
However, in 1883 The Supreme Court overturned the Act.
Thus, making it legal for hotels, theatres, restaurants,
railroads, etc did not have to allow black Americans in.
 Loophole( the 14th amendment said no “state” shall deny
slaves/black Americans equal protection under the law-it
said nothing about business. Therefore, the Supreme Court
felt their decision was valid.

Plessy v. Ferguson

In 1892 Homer Plessy challenged the state law in
Louisiana on rode an “all white” railroad car. He
was arrested and the Judge John H. Ferguson
rejected Plessy’s argument that the law was
unconstitutional the case went to the Supreme court.
Plessy v. Ferguson est. the famous clause “Separate
but Equal”. This ruling would est. precedent for
racial discrimination for over 50 years



Ida B. Wells Memphis Free Speech advocate against
lynching.
Booker T. Washington-an educator who focused on
black Americans becoming educated
W.E.B. Dubois- became the next generations civil
rights activists that advocated black Americans to
demand their rights