I. Settlement of the West (1840-1880)
A.
Homestead Act (1862) - With the intention of populating the West, the Homestead Act was passed in 1862. Settlers could gain Western land in two ways according to the Act. First, a settler could gain land by living on it for five years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee.
Second, a settler could own land by living on it for 6 months and then purchasing it for a set fee.
The South was opposed to the Homestead Act.
The Homestead Act was a new approach to Western settlement. It was different from previous policies because it gave land away, basically, for free, instead of selling it for revenue.
The Act was designed to encourage settling in the West by giving incentive. The law helped farmers who were too poor to buy large holdings.
Although the Act helped many families, some of the land in the West was barely useful.
Land of the Great Plains suffered severe droughts and a lot of families could not survive the five years required to own the homesteads. The Act also produced a lot of fraud. Land-grabbing promoters wound up with more land than actual farmers in need. The land was then used for timber, minerals, and oil, instead of farming. This fraud was only partially uncovered and fixed.
B. How did the following help “tame” the land?
1. “Sodbusters” and early farm techniques- Originally, the prairies in the West were assumed to be infertile and barren. These myths were created because the land had very few trees, very little rain, and soil that was solid from millions of buffalo. However, the assumptions were proven wrong when the hard sod was broken by iron plows pulled by oxen and turned out to be extremely fertile. People who began to settle in the prairies were known as
“sodbusters”. Due to the lack of trees, the “sodbusters” built their houses out of sod and used corncobs to burn for heat.
2. Glidden barbed wire (1874) - A lot of western land was desert. Farmers invested in drought-resistant grains such as sorghum. Also, tough wheat was imported from
Russia. However, these grains grew quickly and wildly. Farmers needed a way to separate the grains from each other. Because there were no trees on the prairies to use a barriers, Joseph F.
Glidden perfected barbed wire and it was used to build fences for the grains.
3. Desert Land Act of 1877- Most Americans thought that the country’s natural resources would never run out and used them excessively. Westerners were especially guilty of draining their resources, like the fertile soil. However, some people were able to see that the excessive use of resources would eventually completely drain them and steps were taken to help conserve the country’s resources.
The Desert Land Act of 1877 was the first attempt at conservation. Under this act, the federal government sold dry land for low prices as long as the buyer would irrigate the land in three years. While the Desert Land Act of 1877 did not have much success it broke the ground for more successful conservation acts in later years.
C. Indian Wars

1. Sand Creek Massacre (1864) - Indians and whites engaged in much warfare during the time of Western settlement. At Sand Creek, Colorado, hundreds of Indians were murdered in cold blood by Colonel J. M. Chivington's militia. The Indians thought they had been promised immunity, but this was not the case as many were shot, or tortured or mutilated to death. These types of shootings occurred to quiet Indians before they could make any trouble, or simply for "sport." After seeing many Indians suffer cruelty from white attacks, the Sioux Wars began in 1866, when Sioux tribes ambushed soldiers in Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains.
2. Apache Wars (1870s-1880s): key figures and major events*- During the Indian
Wars when the Whites were trying to civilize the Native Americans, the Apache Indians from
New Mexico and Arizona were one of the hardest tribes to suppress. The Apache Tribes had a deep hatred for whites and their wars were mainly led by members of the Chiricahua Apache band. Treaty after treaty was broken by the whites and the Apache’s resisted all efforts to relocate them. The most well-known Apache leader is Geronimo although there were others such as Cochise, Juh and Mangas Coloradas.
The major starting off point of the Apache Wars was the Bascom Affair. In the Bascom
Affair, the Apache Indians were blamed for raiding a man’s ranch. Cochise, his family, and other
Apache Indians were then tricked into captivity. Cochise escaped, but after unsuccessful negotiations, fighting began. Cochise’s brother and five other Indians ended up being hung and
Juh and Geronimo joined the fight to get white American’s off of Apache territory.
Another event was the Battle of Apache Pass when Apache warriors attacked American soldiers who were going to join other Union troops in Mexico. This broke the treaty between the
Native Americans and whites which gave the whites free passage into Mexico. This battle marked one of the first times that the whites used artillery against the Native Americans, which caused the Apache warriors to withdrawal.
In 1876, the Americans tried to get Apache Indians to move to a reservation and
Geronimo led many Indians into Mexico. He was captured by the U.S., but broke away leading even more Apache’s back to Mexico. Geronimo came back several times to bring Apache
Indians back to Mexico until he was persuaded to surrender. Geronimo and several Apaches were sent to Florida and the children were sent to the Carlisle School; in both locations several
Apaches died.
3. Sioux Wars (1870s): key figures and major events* - The Sioux Wars began in
1866 when Sioux Indians ambushed Captain William J. Fetterman's soldiers and civilians in
Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains in an attempt to halt the building of the Bozeman Trail. The
Indians murdered and mutilated all of Fetterman's troops in what was known as the Fetterman massacre. This led to an Indian triumph in the form of another Treaty of Fort Laramie where the government agreed to stop constructing the Bozeman Trail. The Treaty also gave Sioux tribes the
"Great Sioux reservation."
Another important event occurred in 1874 when Colonel George Custer and his troops entered the Sioux reservation and declared that they found gold. Many people rushed onto the
Sioux land to search for gold, which angered the Sioux Indians and put them on the warpath.
One of their most famous leaders here was Sitting Bull, a wise medicine man. The Sioux crushed
Custer and his men, but their reinforcements arrived later and avenged Custer in the following months.
The Nez Perce Indians, led by Chief Joseph, went to war in 1877 because gold was

discovered on their reservation, causing the federal government to take most of the land away from the Nez Perce. When the Nez Perce surrendered, they were sent to a reservation in Kansas, instead of their ancestral lands of Idaho. Many of these Indians died in this event.
4. “Battle” of Wounded Knee (1890) - As Americans became aware of what being done to the Indians debates arose. Some people felt that the Indians should be treated kindly when trying to convince them to follow the white man’s ways and others agreed with the current suppression and punishment; no one showing respect for the Native Americans’ culture.
Some Native Americans tired of being stripped of their culture and being brutally treated formed the “Ghost Dance” cult which promised revenge on the whites and restoration of their culture. The “Ghost Dance” cult first arose in the 1870s. The cult was introduced to the Dakota
Sioux and in 1890 was brutally ended by the army at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Several
Indians and soldiers were killed as a result of the battle.
D. Indian “Reform” Efforts
1. Helen Hunt Jackson: A Century of Dishonor (1881) and Ramona (1884) -
Helen Hunt Jackson was a children's author from Massachusetts. In 1881 she wrote A Century of
Dishonor which essentially explained the timeline of government ruthlessness and chicanery aimed at dealing with the Indians. This, along with her other novel, Ramona , a love story about the injustice that California Indians, specifically, suffered, provoked sympathy toward Indians.
The books also set off a round of debates. Humanitarians argued that Indians should be treated kindly, while hard-liners, disagreeing, insisted that strict confinement and punishment were good policies already in effect.
2. Dawes Act (1887) - The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, part of the movement to reform Indian policy, worked to force civilization and white ways on to the Native Americans.
Under this Act, several Indian tribes were no longer considered legal entities, tribes lost ownership of any land they had, and also gave new “individual Indian family heads” 160 acres of land. If the Native Americans were civilized and had good, “white” behavior, in 25 years they would gain ownership of their land and gain citizenship. For a time, the length of 25 years was lengthened, but Indians received citizenship.
Like most other Indian reform policies, the Dawes Act disregarded Native American culture and tradition. Tribal lands were extremely important to Indian culture and the Act took their land. Whatever land that the Dawes Act did not give to Indians was sold to white settlers and railroads. The federal government then used the profits to teach Native Americans white customs and civilization. The Dawes Act continued to be a major part in Indian policy for almost
50 years until the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. This Act reversed part of the Dawes Act in an attempt to bring some of the tribal basis back to Native American existence.
3. Wheeler-Howard Act (1934) - In an attempt to reverse forced-assimilation policies and the Dawes Act of 1887, Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier campaigned for the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, or the Wheeler-Howard Act. Inspired by Pueblo
Indians, Collier wanted to allow Indian tribes to establish self-governments and preserve their native customs and practices through a revival of interest in their identity and culture. The
Reorganization Act helped to put an end to the loss of Indian lands as well. The reaction to the
Act was mixed. Hundreds of tribes established tribal governments, but many tribes had a

negative view of the law, believing that it was only put in place to make a display of Native
Americans.
E. Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis- In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner published “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” in which he wrote his thesis on how the West changed and molded the country. Turner believed that westward movement shaped region, nation, as well as national character. He argued that the pioneers brought civilization to the West and the struggles that they faced while doing it, such as drought and Indians, had changed the pioneers. The frontier experience had created hard-working, resourceful, and independent Americans from European pioneers. Since the West was “plowed and tamed”,
Frederick Turner also posed the question of what else could continue to mold American character.
As the Western frontier era has gotten further and further away, many historians and scholars have challenged Turner’s theory. Many do not fully agree with his theory and say that
Turner made assumptions that were debatable. Scholars argue that the West was actually the place where civilized and savage cultures interacted, not where civilization triumphed, that civilization did not define the western experience, but things like the ethnic and cultural confrontation and the role of government. However, whether or not Turner’s theory is right or wrong, it remains one of the boldest accounts on the factors that aided the nation’s development.
II. Populist Protests: Conservative throwbacks or Progressive forerunners?
A. Railroads Effect on the West
1. Patrons of Husbandry (The Grange): important goals and actions (1867) - Led by Oliver H. Kelley, the Grange sought to unite isolated farmers through concerts, lectures, and other organized activities. The organization gained members very quickly as many farmers wanted to escape the loneliness of separated farmhouses. With growing numbers of members, the Grange turned its goals from the individual to the whole. They created cooperatively owned stores, grain elevators, and warehouses to avoid ties with the trusts. They also tried to manufacture harvesting machinery, but this effort failed and created a financial disaster.
Members of the Grange also entered politics in the hopes of regulating railway rates and storage fees for warehouses, grain elevators, and railroads. Their state legislation was successful in many grain-growing states. The Grange's involvement in public regulation of private business led to many court cases, such as the Wabash case . Although their influence eventually faded, the
Grange contributed largely toward farm interests and enhancing rural life.
2. Munn vs. Illinois (1877) - The Supreme Court case Munn vs. Illinois dealt with both agriculture and corporate rates. Chief Justice Waite decided to uphold laws suggested by the
National Grange to regulate grain elevator rates and said that businesses on private property that was used for public good would be regulated by the government. This decision included businesses like railroads. In Munn vs. Illinois, the Supreme Court ruled that it was not unconstitutional for Illinois to regulate the use of grain elevators. It also ruled that private companies in the public interest could also have their charges regulated. This Supreme Court cases is considered a landmark case in federal government regulation, however the decisions in
Munn vs. Illinois were later weakened by Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company vs.
Illinois.

3. Wabash vs. Illinois (1886) - This Supreme Court case came about when farmers protested unfair railroad rates. The farmers tried to get their state legislatures to regulate the railroad monopoly. In the Wabash case, the Supreme Court ruled that individual states could not regulate interstate commerce; that power was given exclusively to the federal government.
The ruling led to Congress' institution of the Interstate Commerce Act the next year, which required railways to publish their rates for the public among other things.
B. The Silver Debate
1. Panic of 1873: causes and damage – The Panic of 1873 occurred during Grant’s second term as president and was a period of extreme financial depression. After the war, business began to boom and prices began to rise which caused much overspeculation. Railroads had become a major business and the miles of railroads in the country had doubled since 1860.
While business flourished, the currency and paper money was depreciating. This caused the crash of major banking firms including the firm that financed the Northern Pacific Railroad which caused extreme financial failure for thousands of people and businesses.
The damage done by the Panic of 1873 was felt for many years after it happened. Credit was weak, there was a crackdown on paying dues, savings ran out, securities were lowered, and there was a general feeling of dread across the country. Labor got hit especially hard since several factories were shut down and workers were laid-off. It was several years before business recuperated and got back to its normal sizes.
2. Reactions: The Silver Debate (A 25 Year Fight) a. Resumption Act (1875) - Debtors campaigned for inflationary policies to lower their debts. During the Civil War, hundreds of millions of dollars of greenback, or folding money, was issued. The value of money decreased and the U.S. Treasury took some of the greenback money out of circulation under the Legal Tender Act. Hard money people wanted greenback money completely gone, but cheap money people wanted the greenback money back.
In 1875, hard money people were victorious with the passage of the Resumption Act. This legislation demanded the government to withdraw the rest of the greenback money from circulation. It also set the government up to redeem all paper currency in gold at face value in
1879. The Resumption Act led debtors to silver, but the Treasury would not equate its value with the value of gold. b. Greenback Party (1873) – The Greenback Party, formed in 1873, consisted mainly of farmers who had been hurt by the Panic of 1873. The Greenback Party supported paper money, hence their name, and believed that if the government was in control of the financial system, they would be able to keep more money in circulation which would increase business, raise prices, and make debts easier to pay. They were against going back to a coin-based monetary system because they believed private banks and businesses would then be able to decide the value of products and labor. The Greenback Party helped elect 21 independents to Congress and later included women’s rights and an income tax in their platform.
However, after 1884, the Party was no longer an influential force in U.S politics.
3. Bland-Allison Act (1878) - Created by Representative Richard P. Bland of
Missouri, the Act was a compromise between pro-silverites and sound-moneyites. The Act occurred because debtors and inflationists looked to silver for relief. This legislation made the

government buy and coin somewhere between 2 and 4 million dollars worth of silver bullion.
Although this gave inflationists hope, the government only bought the legal minimum. As a result of their disappointment, a Greenback Labor Party was formed, polling more than a million votes and electing members to Congress.
4. Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) - Many miners in the West were not pleased with the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 since it limited the purchasing of silver. Silverites, as well as western and southern debtors, pushed for unlimited silver buying. They thought that the large amounts of metal money would inflate the currency which would cause higher prices and make it easier to pay off debts. The East did not support such alterations in the supply of money but desired the proceeds they would get from a higher tariff schedule.
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 resulted from the Western silver supporters’ agreement to a protective tariff and the eastern protectionists’ agreement to a silver bill. The Act required the Treasury to buy almost all of the silver that was mined every month using notes that could be exchanged for either silver or gold. The minimum amount of silver that could be bought was doubled under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and the price for miners was boosted.
5. Populist Party (1890s) a. Major platform ideas - Known as the People's Party, the Populist platform had a strong basis from the Farmers' Alliance. They demanded free and unlimited silver coinage at a ratio of 16 to 1. They also wanted a graduated income tax and government ownership of railroads, the telephone, and the telegraph. The Populists advocated for direct election of U.S. Senators, putting a one-term limit on the presidency, and allowing citizens to propose and review legislation in order to keep democracy simple and pure. The Populists campaigned for a shorter workday and restrictions on immigration to gain the support of laborers.
6. Pollock vs. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co. (1895) - Following the conditions of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, New York’s Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company began having their shareholders pay a tax and provide names of people who were also responsible for paying the tax. Charles Pollock, a Massachusetts man who owned ten shares in the Farmers’ Loan and
Trust Co., sued the company for making him pay the tax. After losing in the lower courts,
Pollock appealed his case to the Supreme Court who decided to hear the case. The Supreme
Court and Chief Justice Fuller ruled in favor of Pollock. They declared that some of the taxes imposed by the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act were unconstitutional like a tax on income from property. According to the Constitution, such taxes were set in proportion to the states’ population.
D. Panic of 1893:
1. Detail causes and effects of the Panic - The Depression of 1893 had many causes which included splurges of overbuilding and over speculation. Labor disorders and the agricultural depression of the time also helped to create panic. American credit overseas was hurt

by the free silver debate and finances were worsened when European banking houses called in loans from the U.S.
The Panic caused the collapse of many business houses and railroads. Unemployment rose and while charities tried to help, the government sat back and "let nature take its course." A deficit occurred, the Treasury's gold reserve dropping below the safe minimum, because of the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act. This caused President Cleveland to call Congress into an extra session in 1893 to repeal the Act. Although the repeal helped to slow the gold drainage, it didn't completely stop it. President Cleveland was forced to sell government bonds for gold to save the economy, or else the U. S. would go off the gold standard, crippling national currency and international trade.
2. Reactions a. Sherman Silver Purchase Act repealed (1893) - Problems with the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act were becoming apparent with the draining of the gold reserve.
When people would exchange paper currency for gold, the paper money had to be reissued and new people would exchange it for gold. This endless circle greatly depleted the gold supply and
President Cleveland felt that the only way to stop this chain was to repeal the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act. In Senate, the debate to repeal the act was very heated and Congressman William
Bryan argued to keep the Act in a filibuster. Cleveland ended the filibuster, divided the
Democratic silver supporters and the rest of the party and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed. Unfortunately, the repeal of the Act only partly stopped the gold from being drained from the Treasury and the country continued towards extremely dangerous times for the gold standard, the currency, and even international trade. b. Jacob Coxey's March on Washington (1893) - The depression of 1893 left many citizens unemployed. Led by General Jacob S. Coxey, they marched to Washington,
D.C. for help. The platform of the Coxeyites included an inflationary public works program to lessen unemployment. They proposed that the government support it by making the Treasury issue hundreds of millions of dollars in legal tender notes. Although Coxey's supporters thought themselves an army, many were arrested while others armies caused disorder and pillage. c. J.P. Morgan Deal- In 1895, after Cleveland’s plan to sell bonds was unsuccessful, the country was still in deep need for help. President Cleveland turned to “the bankers’ banker”, J.P. Morgan and a Wall Street association. Negotiations were made at the
White House and $65 million in gold was leant to the government by the bankers. The bankers asked for $7 million in return, but also compromised to get half of the gold out of the country and make sure it would stay in the Treasury. The gold loan helped bring back some confidence to the country’s finances, however, the secret business that President Cleveland had with J.P.
Morgan was greatly criticized although Cleveland did not feel like he did anything wrong.
3. William Jennings Bryan: Cross of Gold Speech (1896) - William Jennings
Bryan, an orator from Nebraska, spoke at the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1896. His speech pled for silver. In response, the moved Democrats of the convention nominated him for president. The platform urged unlimited coinage of silver at the rate of 16 ounces to 1 ounce of

gold, double the market value.
Some members of the Democratic party were opposed to Bryan and silver. The
Democratic minority nominated their own ticket and claimed that Populist-silverites took over their party. Populists, left without Bryan as their nominee, fused with the Democratic majority for fear of the Democratic minority's victory (they nominated McKinley). However, many original Populists did not support Bryan.
4. Election of 1896- As the 1896 election approached, the Republicans were confident that they would win after their successful tariff and congressional elections in 1894.
On the other hand, debtors and populists were all turning to free silver.
The Republican Party’s nominee, William McKinley, was an ex-congressman as well as an ex Civil War major. McKinley received much help becoming a good presidential candidate from Marcus Alonzo Hanna. Hanna, known as a “president-maker”, thought that aiding business should be the government’s first priority and put himself, wholeheartedly behind McKinley, organizing his campaign and donating his own money. The Republican’s platform did not have a specific stance on the financial situation. They supported the gold standard despite McKinley’s previous pro-silver voting. Looking for support from the silverites, the Republican Party also supported a world-wide gold-silver standard, known as international bimetallism; however this idea was very unrealistic. The Republicans supported a protective tariff and criticized the
Democrats’ inability.
The divided Democratic Party, many of whom no longer supported Cleveland, nominated
William Jennings Bryan, known for his oratorical skills, after his famous The Cross of Gold speech. The party’s platform supported unlimited coinage of silver, which divided the party even more when democratic “gold bugs” left the party and nominated their own ticket. During this election, the majority of populists supported the Democratic Party since they had adopted some of their own platform.
Marcus Hanna attempted to make the tariff the main issue of the campaign, but Bryan was able to turn the focus to free silver and made it into almost a religious issue as well as financial. Bryan created much fear in eastern conservatives and Hanna took advantage of this fear and began raising money and setting up slush funds for education and propaganda. While he was accused of “buying” the election, Hanna was running a strong campaign against silver. The
Republican Party and McKinley were gaining support as Bryan’s campaign began to lose momentum. Rumors had even surfaced that employers were threatening to cut back their employees’ salary if Bryan won.
On Election Day, William McKinley came out on top, thanks to Hanna’s campaign methods. With this election came a new period in politics, it was a win for big cities, the middle class, big business, and conservative financial ways. In the future, presidential candidates did not attempt to get the votes of farmers and cities became the focus over farms. The election of 1896 also began sixteen years of Republican presidents which resulted in a lower voter population, weaker parties, and new issues like welfare and regulation of industry. This era became known as the period of the “fourth party system”.
5. The Silver Debate Ends a. Klondike Gold Rush (1897) - Gold was discovered in the Yukon territory in 1896. News of the gold reached the U.S., first in San Francisco, in the summer of
1897. Many people, left unemployed by the Panics of 1893 and 1896, fled to Canada to mine

gold in the hopes of making money. The Gold Rush helped to develop Alaska and the Pacific
Northwest region of the U.S. economically because of the inflation of entrepreneurs in Canada. b. Gold Standard Act (1900)- As prosperity returned to the country, in
1900 the Republicans passed the Gold Standard Act which had been greatly pushed for by hardmoneyites. The Act could not be passed until most of the silverites had left Congress and would not oppose the act. The Gold Standard Act stated that paper money had to be backed by gold and that it should be able to be exchanged for gold. Silverites and inflationists unsuccessfully fought the act which ended twenty years of attempts to cause inflation to help debtors came to an end.