AP United States History
Mr. M. Pecot
Bailey, Chapter 26: The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution, 1865-1890
I.
Indians in the West
a) White population in the West
1.
In the 1865, almost no whites lived between the frontier line & California
2.
Exceptions are the Mormons in Utah, a few mining camps, occasional trading posts, and a few SpanishMexican settlements in the SW
3.
Huge land area -- a giant square measuring 1000 sq. miles on each side
4.
By 1890 -- the area will be converted into states and four territories: Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and
Oklahoma as pioneers flood in.
b) Indians Population in the West
1.
Native American pop = 360,000 in 1860, most in the vacant territory west of the Mississippi
2.
1860-1890, white settlers pressing from both directions
3.
"an inevitable clash…between an acquisitive civilization and a traditional culture" looms.
c) Plains Indians
1.
Numerous tribes of buffalo-hunting Indians on the Great Plains
2.
Introduction of the horse by the Spaniards in the 16th century had transformed these cultures: more nomadic
and more inter-tribal warfare
3.
Skilled riders and fighters
II. Relations with the Indians
a) Environmental factors undermine Indian culture
1.
White settlers spread cholera, typhoid, smallpox
2.
Reduction of the buffalo herds through hunting and grazing of livestock on the plains
3.
Reduction of herds leads tribes to compete for an ever-diminishing supply, leads to increased warfare
e.g., Sioux Indians -- pushed from Minnesota to the Dakotas by displaced Chippewas;
expand and conflict with Crow, Kiowas, and Pawnees.
Pawnee seek refuge from the Sioux by moving to a reservation in 1873
b) Relations with the US Gov't
1.
1850s: Treaties of Ft. Laramie (1851) and Ft. Atkinson (1853)
these mark the beginning of the reservation system in the West
separate each tribe into boundaries, create large "colonies" of Indian tribes in the Northern
and Southern Plains
concepts of confinement into an established area entirely foreign to Indian nations.
2.
1860s: intensification of the this process
Indians herded into ever smaller reservations: the Great Sioux Reservation in the Dakotas
and the Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
3.
In exchange for removal to reservations, US Gov't promises food, supplies, and that Indians will be left alone
corrupt Indian Agents often abuse their authority and supply tribes with defective provisions
settlers continue to flood into Indian lands - leads to conflict
III. The Indian Wars
a) Non-stop warfare between mid-1860s to 1890
1.
fighting is fierce, occurs in various places throughout the west
2.
atrocities committed by both sides
Indians mutilate victims, attack migrants passing through
Whites often kill innocent Indians in revenge, for sport, or to make sure they don't cause
trouble
b) The Indian Fighters
1.
mostly Civil War veterans
immigrants
blacks = 1/5th of the soldiers on the frontier
Generals include William T. Sherman, Phillip H. Sheridan, and George Armstrong Custer
(demoted to colonel after the Civil War)
2.
face a tougher "enemy" than the colonists did
Plains Indians are highly mobile, better riders, and are often better-equipped than US soldiers
(use repeating rifles, not muzzle loaders)
c) Significant events in the Indian Wars
1.
1864 - Sand Creek Massacre
Colonel J.M. Chivington
killed 400 Indians while under a flag of truce at Sand Creek, Colorado
men, women, children killed and mutilated
2.
1866 - Fetterman Massacre
Sioux Indians attempt to block construction of the Bozeman Trail to Montana's goldfields
ambush Capt. William J. Fetterman's command; kill 81 soldiers and civilians
leave no survivors, grossly mutilate the corpses
3.
1868 - 2nd Treaty of Ft. Laramie
Gov't abandons construction of the Bozeman Trail, promise to not impede on the Great Sioux
Reservation
4.
1874 - Gold discovered in the Black Hills
expedition led by Col. George A. Custer
leads to swarms of settlers and prospectors streaming in the Black Hills (Sioux territory)
Sioux determined to fight; Sitting Bull among their leaders
5.
1876 - Battle of Little Bighorn
Custer and 7th Calvary given task of suppressing the Sioux and returning them to their
reservation
all 264 of his officers and men (including Custer) were wiped out when they attacked 2500
Sioux at the Little Big Horn River
d) Subduing the Tribes in the Far West & the Southwest
1.
Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
Gold discovered on the Nez Perce reservation in 1877
prompts US Gov't to reduce the Nez Perces territory by 90%
700 Nez Perce led by Chief Joseph attempt to evade US authorities -- flee to the Canadian
border where they hoped to join with Sitting Bull
surrender after a 3-month, 1700-mile trek, only 30 miles from the Canadian border
told they would be returned to Idaho, but are instead sent to Oklahoma - 40 % die of disease
2.
The Apache in the Southwest
the most difficult tribes to subdue
under Geronimo, they leave the reservation and are pursued by federal agents for 5 years
finally suppressed in 1886
IV. The Destruction of Indian Civilization
a) Factors contributing to the demise of the Indian way of life
1.
Railroads
cut through Indian territory
bring unlimited #'s of settlers, supplies, troops, farmers, cattlemen, shepherds, miners
2.
Disease
3.
Extermination of the buffalo
15 million in western plains in 1865
demand for buffalo hides and meat (especially tongues) leads to mass hunting of herds
(railroads allow for these to be shipped back east)
some killed simply for sport; shot from passenger trains
By 1885, only a few thousand were left
4.
White efforts to "civilize the Indians" -- Forced Assimilation
Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor (1881) helps create sympathy for Indians
misguided do-gooders try to help the Indians by getting them to "walk the white man's road"
Christian (especially Catholic) reformers run education operations on the reservations with
little regard to Native American culture or religion
e.g. = The Carlisle Indian School in PA.: children sent away to learn English, white customs,
etc.: Motto: "Kill the Indian and save the man"
5.
Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
an attempt to civilize the Indians "for their own good"
dissolves many tribes as legal entities & wipes out tribal ownership of land
sets up individual land ownership by granting 160 acres to family heads
promises full citizenship and full possessing of the land grant, if the Indians behave like
"good white settlers" for 25 years.
land not sold used to fund efforts to educate and civilize the tribes -- boarding schools and
field matrons
A failure…by 1900 Indians had lost 50% of the 156 million acres allotted.
V. The Mining Frontier
a) New discoveries in the west encourage migration
1.
1858 discoveries of gold and silver in Colorado: "Pikes Peak or Bust"
2.
Nevada - Comstock Lode - $340 million dollars of gold and silver; mined extensively from 1860-1890
3.
smaller "lucky strikes" happen in Montana, Idaho, and other western states
b) Boom and bust
1.
"Helldorados" -- boom towns emerge to mine the miners
1 of 3 cabins is a saloon, full of rot-gut liquor and accommodating women
Lynch law and vigilante justice prevail
when supply of gold is cashed; boom towns become ghost towns
c) Mechanization of the Industry
1.
Panning methods and pick-axes gobble up surface gold -- machines are needed to smash gold-bearing quartz
2.
Requires large amounts of capital, turns mining into big business
d) Role of Mining in subduing the frontier
1.
Attracted population and wealth
2.
3.
4.
the amassing of gold and other precious metals funded the Civil War, facilitated the building of railroads, and
intensified the conflict between whites and Indians
new discoveries of gold and silver into the treasury allowed to gov't to resume specie payments (the Specie
Resumption Act of 1879) and created the "silver issue"
"Silver Senators" from the west yield disproportionate influence
VI. The Cattle Frontier
a) Long-Horns in Texas
1.
In 1865, several million long-horned cattle roamed free on the southern plains of Texas
wild ancestors of cattle imported to Mexico by the Spaniards in the 16th century
2.
Prior to the Railroad, killed primarily for their hides…there was no way to transport meat to markets in the
east
3.
Railroad construction solves problem of transporting the cattle for meat
cattle could be "driven" to rail-lines, and then shipped to stockyards
"beef barons" such as Armour and Swift (both in Chicago) turn meat-packing into a highly
industrialized business
processed meat then shipped via refrigerator cars to East Coast
b) The Long Drive
1.
"Cowboys" drive cattle herds from 1000 to 10,000 head large over the unfenced, unpeopled plains
follow established routes, such as the Goodnight-Loving Trail, Western Trail, and the
Chisholm Trail, allowing cattle to graze on the grass as they go
From 1866-1888 4 million steers driven northward
Approximately 1 of 4 cowboys is black; another 10% are Mexican
2.
Favored terminuses
Dodge City, Abilene (KS), Ogallala (NE), and Cheyenne (WY)
c) Demise of the Cattle Drive
1.
Railroad makes and breaks the cattle industry
carries cattle to meat-packing plants, but also carries farmers and sheepherders to the west
2.
Barbed Wire
Joseph Glidden invents an alternative and effective form of fencing for the treeless plains
Homesteaders and sheepherders fence in their land.
3.
Environmental calamities
Winter of 1886-1887: blizzards and extreme temperatures (-68 F) wipe out the herds
overgrazing of the land and drought in the 1880s take toll
4.
Cattle Ranching replaces Cattle herding
breeding allows for meatier cattle, therefore less to transport
VII. The Farming Frontier
d) The Homestead Act (1862) encourages settlement of the Plains
1.
Law authorizes giving settlers 160 acres of land for either:
FREE -- if settler consistently improves on the land for 5 years, and pays a nominal fee of
approx. $30
or $1.25/acre -- after the settler has been on the land 6 months
all land acquired is free from attachment for debt
2.
A drastic shift in federal land policy
Prior to the HA, land had primarily been sold to raise revenue
Under the HA, land is virtually being given away to encourage population growth in the west
3.
500,000 families take advantage of this act between 1862-1900
A large #, but 5X as many purchase their land from RR companies, land companies, and from
the states
e) Difficulties with the Homestead Act
1.
Perhaps 2/3 of the homesteaders fail to remain on land
160 acres in the arid plains was inadequate
drought, insects, take toll on farmers
2.
Fraud
Much of the land falls into the hands of land-speculators, not farmers
"Dummy Homesteaders" used to claim valuable properties
f) Promoting Western agriculture
1.
Railroads encourage commercial agriculture in the west
RR's enable farming to be profitable, carry crops to eastern (and western) markets
"induced colonization" -- actively recruit immigrants
Northern Pacific RR, has 1000 paid agents in Europe distributing leaflets
2.
"Sodbusters" bust the myth of the "Great American Desert"
treeless plains previously thought to be sterile because they did not support large forests
"the plow that broke the plains" -- iron and steel plows break through heavy sod, find
remarkably fertile soil
3.
Rising wheat prices encourage settlement
Crop failures in Europe push prices up
g) Taming the western desert
1.
2.
3.
"Dry farming" techniques push settlement farther west
west of 100th meridian, average rainfall drops from 20-30 in. per year to 10-20 in. per year
early settlements west of the 100th (W. Kansas; E. Colorado) meridian fail as drought
conditions prevail in the 1880s -- 50% of western Kansas' population leaves b/w 1888-1892
dry farming techniques (shallow cultivation) allow agriculture to flourish, but will have
disastrous effects on the environment & lead the Dust Bowl in the 1930s
New crops, resistant to cold and drought cultivated
Russian wheat, sorghum, and other grains replace corn
Barbed wire solves problem of fencing in plains
Joseph Glidden, 1874
VIII. The Vanishing Frontier
a) Population Growth in the West
1.
Constant growth 1870-1890
2.
New States enter the Union
Colorado (1876) - The Centennial State
N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming all admitted 1889-90
Utah (1896) - Mormons abolish polygamy in 1890, open door for statehood
3.
The Oklahoma Land Rush - 1889
last great land giveaway by the Federal gov't
"sooners" - settlers illegally squatting on land in the Ok. Territory
April, 1889 - territory officially opened to settlement, 50,000 boomers rush to stake claims
population of Oklahoma mushrooms to 60,000 by 1890 -- becomes a state in 1907
b) The Closing of the Frontier
1.
1890 - US census declares that US no longer has a discernable frontier
leads to Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis" in The Significance of the Frontier in
American History (1893)
c) The "idea" of the frontier significant
1.
A national symbol of opportunity
2.
Marks an end of American mobility
3.
The frontier as a "safety valve"
ability for population to move westward in times of depression (the actual statistics behind
this suggest that this is overstated, but the psychological impact & the lure that cheap land on
the frontier had on immigrants are important aspects of this)
Ironically, the western cities that emerge (e.g., Chicago - America's "second city") are more
safety valves for busted farmers and miners than the frontier is a safety valve for unemployed
workers.
4.
Turner - "American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West."
d) The Mechanization of Agriculture
1.
High crop prices for wheat and corn encourage large scale, single crop production in the west
foodstuffs and supplies purchased
manufactured items purchased in towns or via mail order catalogs such as Montgomery
Ward (1872)
2.
Large-scale farming becomes a "business"
need capital to purchase expensive machinery
the "combine" - a combined reaper-thresher, pulled by 40 horses, speeds harvesting
immensely in the 1880s
new techniques and high costs require strong management skills
3.
Emergence of "bonanza" farms
mechanization pushes smaller farmers off the land -- move to the cities to work in industries
large business operations (some wheat farms in the Dakotas were over 15,000 acres) worked
by hired hands. In California, the large fruit and vegetable plantations are raised by bands of
poorly paid Chinese and Mexican labor
"grain factories"
IX. Agrarian Unrest
a) Difficulties facing western farmers
1.
One-crop economy makes farmers dependent on high prices
competition from foreign competitors (Argentina, Russia, etc.) effects price
in 1860s-70s, failures in Europe keep price high; 1880s-90s rebound of foreign grain drives
prices down
Wheat = $1/ bushel in 1855; 50¢ in 1890.
2.
Deflation
1870: $19.42 in circulation for every person in US; 1890: $22.67
business activity and industrialization intensify scramble for available currency
deflationary effect, drives prices downward -- means farmers have to produce more in order
to pay back fixed debts
3.
Mortgages and foreclosures
Farmers caught in debt cycle -- produce more to pay off loans, but increased production
continues to drive prices downward
1890: 100,000 farms mortgaged in Nebraska; with rates of 8-40%
Farm tenancy replaces farm ownership; by 1880: ¼ of all Am. farms are operated by tenants
4.
Environmental disasters
Grasshoppers in the West, and the "boll-weevil" in the south decimate crops in the 1890s
Soil depletion in the South -- leads to erosion of good topsoil , requiring expensive fertilizers
to keep agriculture going
A long succession of droughts in the West begin in 1887
5.
Gov't Policies favor urban/industrial classes and hurt farmers
local property taxes (land can't be concealed -- easterners hide their stocks and bonds)
Protective tariff on manufactures, none on agriculture -- farmers must sell in a competitive
market, but buy goods in a protected one.
6.
Farmers at the mercy of corporations, trusts, and agents
machinery, fertilizer, barbed-wire -- all controlled by trusts
middlemen that supply the farmers take a cut of sales - keep prices high
storage rates for grain in warehouses and grain elevators pushed up by operators
RR's - freight rates going up
b) The Emergence of the Farmers Movement
Documents:
1.
Early organization -- the Greenback mov't
"The Alliance Yardstick"
in 1868, a decline in prices leads farmers to join movement for inflation
"1892 Populist Party
2.
The Grange (aka: National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry) - 1867
Platform"
Oliver H. Kelley founds in 1867
objective is to stimulate farm life through social, educational, and fraternal activities
by 1875: 800,000 members -- meet in schoolhouses; hear lectures on latest farming techniques,
have picnics and socials, etc.
Gradually shift from "individual" improvement to collective improvement of farmers' lives:
attempt to form cooperatives for consumers and producers (buy and sell in bulk, negotiate
collectively with RR's, warehouses, etc.)
3.
The Grange in Politics
encourage states to enact legislation to regulate railway rates and storage fees
successful in upper midwest, especially Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota
"Granger Laws" - fought by corporate interests
Wabash v. Illinois (1886) - Supreme Court decision brings about demise of Grange's political
effectiveness
4.
The Farmers' Alliances (1880s)
like the Grange, organize farmers socially, economically, and politically
Alliances appear in the North and South, include blacks and whites
approx. 1 million members by 1890
5.
The Populist Party
emerges in the 1890s to represent the interests of farmers
founded by Ignatius Donnelly, a fiery speaker from Minnesota, elected to US Congress three
times
Mary Elizabeth Lease - "The Kansas pythoness" -- Populist stump speaker -- "raise less corn
and more hell" -- denounces eastern interests
sugar by giving a bounty of 2¢/lbs.
h) Growing Discontent with Congress
1.
Increase in tariff leads to increased prices; hurts Midwest and Southern farmers most
2.
Election of 1890
Republican membership in Congress drops from 166 to 88 members; Democrats increase to
235.
9 members of the Farmers' Alliance elected to the 52nd Congress
X. Pitchfork People at the Door: The Populist Challenge of 1892
a.)
b.)
The Election of 1892
1. Democrats
•
hope to seize on anti-tariff sentiment to take back White House
•
nominate Grover Cleveland
2. Republicans
•
stick with Harrison and the high-tariff platform (are they daft, man?)
3. People's Party (Populists)
•
new political coalition of farmers from west and south
•
nominate General James B. Weaver
The Populist Party
1. Platform
c.)
•
free silver @ 16:1; graduated income tax; gov't ownership of telephone, telegraph, and railroad
companies; subtreasury system; popular election of senators; term limit for president; restrict
immigration; 8-hour day; secret ballot
•
Labor unrest in 1892 raises possibility of an farmer-worker alliance against the capitalist order
•
Homestead Strike, July 1892 - Andrew Carnegie's Homestead Steel plant in Pittsburgh; 300
Pinkerton agents sent in to crush strike by steelworkers angry over pay cuts; armed clash results in 10
killed and 60 wounded; troops called in.
2. First Third Party to seriously contend in Presidential politics
•
1,029,847 popular votes and 22 electoral votes (all electoral votes from 6 midwest/western states:
3. Failures
•
fail to draw urban, eastern votes
•
Southern blacks disfranchised by Democratic "Bourbons" afraid of a poor black & poor white
alliance in the south
•
over one million black farmers are members of the Colored Farmers' National Alliance, threaten to
unite with whites at the polls
•
conservative white elite plays on racial antagonisms to prevent this bloc from forming
•
fear of the black vote leads to annihilation of black suffrage in the south -- literacy tests; poll taxes;
grandfather clauses; Jim Crow laws and renewed intimidation.
Results of the 1892 election
1. Grover Cleveland elected -- only president to every serve two nonconsecutive terms
2. same old Cleveland but a very different nation: debtors up in arms and the shadows of panic on the horizon
XI: Cleveland and the Panic of 1893
a.) The Panic of 1893
1. The most devastating economic downturn of the century
2. The first large-scale depression in the new industrial economy
•
8,000 business collapse in six months
•
devastates urban classes; gangs of unemployed aided by local charities, but efforts are feeble
3. Causes
•
overbuilding and overspeculation
•
ongoing agricultural depression
•
questions about American credit brought on by free silver agitation
•
European banks begin to call in loans from the United States
b.) Threats to the Gold Standard
1.
Depletion of gold in treasury brings about repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act by Cleveland in 1893
•
Under SSPA, Treasury must buy silver in exchange for notes redeemable in either silver or gold
•
owners of currency cash it in for gold, the notes are reissued, and keep getting cashed in for
gold…drains reserves of gold.
•
by 1893, gold reserves had dropped to $100 million, below the "safe" minimum
•
during debates, William Jennings Bryan, a 33-year old Democratic congressman from NE makes a
name for himself through his eloquent, but ineffective defense of "free silver"
2. Depletion of gold reserves continues
•
as more and more outstanding currency is cashed in for gold, reserves drop to $41 million
•
Cleveland floats bonds to correct the problem by infusing the treasury with gold, but depletion
continues to threaten the gold standard.
•
1895 - Government eventually bailed out by a loan of $65 million dollars in gold financed by JP
Morgan…raises suspicions of Wall Street control of the government.
c.) Labor unrest during the Panic of 1893
1. Coxey's Army – 1894
•
"General" Jacob S. Coxey - Ohio businessman leads a march to Washington
•
starts with 100 men in Massillon, Ohio; hopes to amass an "army" of 100,000 by the time he arrives
in Washington. Winds up with 500.
•
demands government relief of unemployment through a public works programs, funded by the
release of $500 million dollars in paper money.
•
the marchers are disbanded by police in Washington, but other "armies" form throughout 1894, the
largest on the West Coast.
2. Pullman Strike – 1894
•
Eugene V. Debs - president of the American Railway Union (ARU)
•
organizes ARU (150,000 members) in a strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company, which had
fired 1/3 of its workers, cut wages by nearly ⅓ , but retained the same rent on company houses and
prices on food in its company town of Pullman, IL, just outside of Chicago
•
ARU workers refuse to service any line carrying Pullman Cars.
•
Attorney General Olney pleads to Grover Cleveland for assistance. Cleveland sides with Olney
and the Pullman Company, orders a federal injunction against the strike on the grounds that it is
interrupting US mail service
•
Debs refuses to stop the strike, and is arrested. Six-months later he is released from jail a socialist,
and will later go on to lead the Socialist Party in America, running for president several times in the
1920s.
XII. Tariff and Tax Policy under Cleveland (more excitement to come…)
i) Wilson-Gorman Bill
1.
McKinley Tariff (a high protection, low surplus bill) had left the nations with a $61 million dollar deficit in 1894
2.
Democrats sought to make good on campaign promises by enacting a "moderate protection, adequate revenue"
tariff
3.
Wilson-Gorman Bill is drafted
contains a 2% income tax on incomes over $4000 - decried by many as socialistic and
communistic
the bill is amended in the Senate at the behest of numerous industrial lobbyists -- 630
amendments added
Cleveland reluctantly signs the bill, although it hardly achieves a "low tariff"
4.
Found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1895 -- income tax violates the prohibition of direct taxation
by the federal government on citizens (16th Amendment in 1913 will open door to a federal income tax)
XII. Money Issues Dominate National Politics
a.)
Free Silver
1. Debtors turning to free-silver as a panacea throughout the 1890s
2. Coin's Financial School (1894) -- William Hope Harvey
illustrated pamphlet extolling the economic virtues of bimetallism. Capitalizing on rural distrust of
the urban East and of British monetary power, Harvey denounced attempts to restrict bimetallism as a
conspiracy against farmers and debtors.
•
The appeal of the book lay in its simple, accessible style and its graphic cartoons. The eponymous
hero, youthful and uncorrupted, lectured financiers and politicians, many of them real-life figures, on
the errors of their ways. The depression, he argued, was caused by reliance on gold monometallism,
which restricted the money supply and lowered prices. Free and unlimited coinage of silver was the
only solution
•
Sold over a million copies.
William McKinely and the Republicans
1. W. McKinley - leading candidate for GOP nomination in 1896
•
military record
•
years of service in Congress
•
a resident of Ohio = key electoral votes
•
"Advance Agent of Prosperity"; the "Napoleon of Protection"
2. Marcus Alonzo Hanna -- the man behind McKinley
•
Cleveland businessman and a dedicated Hamiltonian (function of government to aid business)
•
funds McKinley's campaign
3. Campaign platform endorses the Gold Standard
William Jennings Bryan and the Democrats
1. Democratic Party drops Grover Cleveland like a bad habit.
•
Nominating convention refuses to endorse the current administration
•
become a party without a leader
•
WJB takes the stage, delivers a stunning oratory -- "The Cross of Gold" speech -- against the gold
standard
•
"Boy Orator of the Platte" -- honest, sincere: a "great voice rather than a great brain"
•
Nominated on 5th ballot
2. Democratic Platform endorses "free coinage of silver at 16:1"
•
the market value of silver in 1896 was about 32:1, thereby making the silver in a dollar worth about
50¢
3. The Populists
•
Democrats steal their major issue, therefore Populist Convention nominates WJB as well
•
b.)
c.)
XIV. The Election of 1896
a.)
Bryan on the campaign trail -- a crusade for free silver
1. WJB's stump tour
•
18,000 miles; 27 states; 500-600 speeches
•
Strikes fear into eastern conservatives
•
threatens to convert their holdings into 50¢ dollars overnight
2. Hanna leads the "Gold Bugs" against "silver lunacy"
•
Fear of WJB pushes business, banking, and campaign contributions into McKinley's camp
•
GOP raises $16 million v. Dems $1 mill (16:1!)
3. The McKinley Campaign
•
McKinley runs a "front porch campaign" from his home in Canton, Ohio.
b.)
•
Employs "spellbinders" to deliver passionate speeches decrying free silver schemes
•
Tens of million pamphlets, leaflets, and posters disseminated -- often in native languages of
immigrant groups
•
Focus on Cleveland's "Democratic Panic" and promised "McKinley and the Full Dinner Pail"
•
Business & industry rallies behind McK
•
Some employers told workers not to come in if WJB won, or threatened to pay workers in 50¢
pieces instead of dollars if WJB won.
Results of the Election
1. A McKinley victory
•
Electoral vote: 271-176
•
Popular vote: 7,102,246 to 6, 492,559
2. Dissecting the victory
•
McKinley sweeps the industrial east, the industrial midwest, and the upper Mississippi Valley
•
Bryan runs strong in the less populous south and trans-Mississippi west
•
Results indicate Bryan's lack of appeal to the unmortaged farmer and eastern laborer
•
A watershed of American politics: appeals to agrarian votes no longer enough to carry the White
House -- the future of politics lay in cities
XV. The McKinley Era and Republican Ascendancy
a.)
b.)
Victory in 1896 begins a 16-year GOP occupation of the White House
1. "The Fourth Party System"
•
"systems" are 40 year spans marked by an overall characteristic. The Election of 1896 marked the
end of the Democratic-Republican equilibrium of the Gilded Age and began a period of Republican
ascendancy, not to be undone until FDR.
2.
McKinley at the helm
•
Conservative, safe, "ear-to-the-ground" politician
•
Skilled at reconciling competing interests, a consumate politician
Tariff and Monetary Policies under McKinley
1. Dingley Tariff Bill – 1897
•
sets rates at 46.5% -- higher than the Wilson-Gorman Bill (41%) but lower than the McKinley Tarriff
of 1890 (48.6%)
2. End of the Depression
•
Panic of 1893 runs its course, prosperity begins to resume
•
Republicans take credit
3. Return of the Gold Standard -- Gold Standard Act (1900)
•
paper currency can be redeemed freely in gold
•
need for inflation met by discoveries of gold deposits in Canada, Alaska, South Africa, and
Australia, as well as by the perfection of the inexpensive cyanide method for extracting gold from low
grade ore.
•
marks the end of the free silver movement.