CHAPTER 18: TERMS FROM SELECTED SECTIONS.
urbanization
infrastructure
political machine
Tammany Hall
patronage
nativism
CHAPTER 19: FROM STALEMATE to CRISIS
PIB AMERICAN HISTORY
I. INTRODUCTION Close elections and shifting control of the White House and Congress characterized American
politics from 1876 to 1900. Regional, ethno-cultural, and economic factors helped determine party affiliation, and
elections often turned on considerations of a candidate’s personality. However, there were real issues too. Tariff,
currency, and civil-service questions were argued in almost every national campaign, and dominated key elections.
Discontented farmers in the People's Party briefly challenged the Republicans and Democrats, nevertheless, the two-party
system remained intact. The election of 1896, the great battle between the gold standard and the silver standard, firmly
established the Republican Party as the majority party in the United States. Agrarian and mining interests were unable to
convince voters that currency inflation, through the free coinage of silver, would lead the nation out of the depression of
the 1890s. By melding into the Democrats, the Populists ended any chance they might have had to become a major force
in American politics. By the end of the nineteenth century, the business forces of American industry had triumphed.
These forces had secured both a gold-based currency and a rigorously protective tariff. Efforts to regulate railroads and
trusts had been entertained by Congress in a half-hearted manner and their feeble efforts were further weakened by court
decisions.
II. CHAPTER OUTLINE: THE EVIDENCE of HISTORY (terms, people & groups, issues & events)
A. THE POLITICS OF EQUILIBRIUM (p522--527)
electorate
Roscoe Conkling (NY)
partisanship
James G. Blaine(ME)
spoils and patronage
Rutherford B. Hayes
factions
James A. Garfield
civil service
Chester A. Arthur
mugwumps
Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock
"rum, Romanism, and rebellion."
Carl Schurz
protective tariffs
George William Curtis &
Grangers
Thomas Nast-"commerce clause"
Harper's Weekly. E. L
Half-Breeds
Godkin--The Nation
Stalwarts
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
.
B
Civil War Pension System
Election of 1880 (P)
Garfield's Assassination 1881
Pendleton Act 1883
Election of 1884 (P)
Election of 1888 (P)
Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
Dependent Pension Act 1890
United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895)
McKinley Tariff 1890
Election of 1892 (P)
Panic of 1893
Wilson-Gorman Tariff 1894
Wabash Case (1886)
Interstate Commerce Act 1887-Interstate Commerce Commission
THE AGRARIAN REVOLT (PP 527-533)
Populism
cooperatives
temperance
constituency
marginalize
“free silver”
“southern demagogue”
Mary E. Lease
Leonidas L. Polk
James B.Weaver
“Greenbacks” and Legal Tender Cases (1871)
Panic of 1893
Munn v Illinois (1896)
Bland-Allison Act 1878
Farmers’ Alliances and “Colored Alliances”
Ocala Demands 1890
Populist (People’s) Party 1892
Election of 1892
Omaha Platform of 1892
PATTERNS OF POPULAR CULTURE: THE CHAUTAUQUAS (pp 530--531)
C. THE CRISIS OF THE 1890s (pp542-547)
Contraction of credit
Jacob Coxey
Bankruptcy
William H. Harvey
Inflation
Coin’s Financial School 1894
Specie
Bimetallism
Panic of 1893
Coxey’s Army (1894)
“Crime of 73”—Coinage Act of 1873
Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
Repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1893
POPULISM (PP 534-535)
D. "A CROSS OF GOLD" (pp547-549)
"...you shall not crucify mankind
upon a cross of gold."
"whistlestop campaign"
"front-porch" campaign"
"battle of the standards"
Marcus Hanna
William McKinley
William Jennings Bryan
"Cross of Gold" speech 1896
The Great Commoner"
Election of 1896 (P)
Dingley Tariff 1897
Gold Standard (Currency) Act 1900
E. CONCLUSION (p550)
III. ADDITIONAL READINGS: Shi, David E. and Holly A. Mayer. For The Record. A Documentary History of
America. Volume Two. W. W. Norton, Inc., 1999.
Harper:
Cleveland:
Omaha Morning World-Herald:
Lease:
McDonald-Valesh:
A Black Woman's Appeal for Civil Rights (1891)
p93/95
Veto of Pension Legislation (1886)
p96/97
Populist Party Platform (1892)
p98
The Money Question (1892)
p101
The Strength and Weakness of the People's Movement (1892) p102
Morion:
U of Illinois:
Bryan:
What Farm Problem? (1896)
Republican Party Platform of 1896
from The "Cross of Gold" Speech (1896)
p104
p105
p106
Constructed Response Questions
1)
Compare and contrast the three different stages of the agrarian revolt that developed between the 1860s and
1890s. Describe how the movement became more and more political.
2)
Discuss the causes and the effects of the Panic of 1893.
3)
Compare and contrast the political philosophies and the campaign styles of the two major candidates for
president in 1896.
4)
Describe and analyze the rapid rise and fall of the Populist Party. Discuss the Party’s platform in the context of
the 1890s.