Chapter 20
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Four presidents “squeezed” into office
Control of the House of Representatives changed five
times
7 western states admitted to Union
Incredible voter turnout
Two major issues
Economic Reform
 Civil Service Reform


Political statement
Prevailing political ideologies
 Campaign tactics
 Party patronage
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REPUBLICANS
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
“bloody shirt”
Rural and small town
NE, PA, and mid-west
Platform
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
High tariff
Commitment to Union
widow’s pensions
No right of government to
regulate corporations
DEMOCRATS
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Leaders
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Rutherford B. Hayes
James Garfield
Chester Arthur
William McKinley

Revival
South, Urban areas,
Immigrants
Against tariff
Opposed prohibition
Defended immigrants
Republican programs
excessive use of
government
Leaders

Grover Cleveland

Return of Virtue
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
Not connected with
Grant, corruption
Lemonade Lucy
Hayes “Achievements”
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
End of Reconstruction
Civil Service reform
 NY Custom house
 Stalwarts
 success

1870s question

How to create money
supply without inflation
 Only “trustworthy”
money silver and gold
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Groups


Expansion of supply
 Debtors, farmers
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Limiting supply
 Bankers, creditors,
businessmen, politicians
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Questions
Should greenbacks be
retained, even expanded?
 Panic of 1873

Greenback Party 1877

Wanted expanded money
supply
Benefits for farmers and
workers
Health and safety
regulations in the
workplace
Supported by labor
Return of prosperity =
decline of the party
Silver Debate continued



Demonetized in 1873
Bland-Allison Act 1878
Sherman Silver Purchase
Act of 1890


Republican
Civil service reform
Rival of Roscoe
Conkling
 Ended spoils system in
NY
 Martyr for reform
movement


Shot in first year of
term

Continued civil service
reform




1883 Civil Service Law
(Pendleton Act)
Approves development
of modern navy
Begins to question tariff
Not re-nominated by
Republican party

Republican
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Democrat
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
James Blaine
Gilded Age controversy
Grover Cleveland
Fought bosses and spoils
system
Illegitimate child
Mugwamps and
Tammany Hall
Cleveland Wins!
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Tariff
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
Pensions


Believed in limited
government
Wants lower tariff
Government surplus
encouraged pork-barrel
spending and corruption
Vetoed bill for disabled
Civil War vets
Business

Interstate Commerce Act
1887
 First attempt to regulate
business


Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
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
Results
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
Argued lower tariff
would hurt business
prosperity
Harrison’s big
business support too
much to overcome
“Take care of the
place, we’ll be back”

Passed McKinley Protective
Tariff 1890

No foreign competition
 Highest rates ever

US Business happy
 People were not

Passed pension for Civil
War vets in 1890
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Almost bankruptcy
treasury
1st Billion dollar Congress
Sherman Anti-trust
Sherman Silver Purchase
Act

Grange
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Farming a bust in midwest
“patrons of husbandry”
1.5 Million members
Emotional support,
information, biweekly
gatherings
Concern
 Believed plight was due to
freight rates, excessive
interest rates, and federal
policies

Attacked railroads
 Munn v. Illinois 1877
 Wasbash v. Illinois 1886

Failure
Rails too popular
 Cash-only issue
 Goal unrealistic


Complaints


Farmers have no control
over prices of their crops
Railroads controlled
where crop transported

Alliance Movement

Began in Texas, 1870s
 Poor farmers
 Spread throughout South

Initially advocated Coops
 Exchanges loan $ to farmers
and sell their produced
 1890: 3 million members

Became political
 Stressed economic reform

Macune’s Ideas
 Store non-perishables in
government warehouses
and low-interest loans

Grew from Alliance
movement
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
Economic upheavals at
mercy of eastern banks,
manufacturing monopolies,
eastern railroad trusts, and
depression
Beliefs
National ownership of
railroads and telegraphs
 System for keeping nonperishable crops
 Graduated income tax
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Platform Speech
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
Omaha Speech
Direct popular election
State laws initiated through
referendums

Collapse of railroad
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over speculation
Government resources
drained

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Vet’s benefits/porkbarrel spending
Sherman Silver Purchase
Act
Panic will last 4 years

Campaign



Reduce tariff
Laissez-faire government
Panic


Worst depression
Money debate again
 Cleveland supported gold
standard
 Repealed Silver purchase act

Downfall

Pullman Strike
 Reaction

Pawn of Industrialists
 To save gold reserve, went to J.P
Morgan
 Borrowed $62 million
 Wilson-Gorman Tariff 1894
 Income tax of 2%
 Pollack v. Farmers Loan and Trust

Protests 1884
Mid-term reelection of
Democrats a disaster
 Issue: Money


Democratic Split
Silver
 William J. Bryan
 Populist support


Republicans Triumph
William McKinley
 Mark Hanna “king maker”

 Front-porch campaign
 1st modern campaign
 Mass media blitz

Consequences of Election
Populist demise
 Urban domination of
politics
 Beginning of modern
politics

Cuba
 Philippines
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
Tariff

Dingley Tariff 1897
 New all-time high rates
 Ok b/c of economic
recovery
 Gold in Alaska

Currency Act 1900
 Committed US to gold
standard
Expansionism


Death
Murdered at World’s
Fair
 Severe consequences


Roots
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1840s Manifest Destiny
 1880s US “Global Destiny”
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
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Europe takes the lead

1884 dividing of Africa
 Asia
Navy
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Alfred T. Mahan 1890
Religion
Spread Christianity
 Racist tinge
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Supporters of Expansion
1890’s patriots “jingoism”
 Henry Cabot Lodge
 Teddy Roosevelt

US v. Great Britain
 Bering Sea
 Canada 1898
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Skirmishes
Latin America
 Chile 1891
 Venezuela 1895

Pacific Expansion
Samoan Islands 1889
 Hawaii

 Sugar plantations control


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1887
Queen Liliuokalani
Annexation “requested” 1893
Cleveland balks
McKinley annexes 1898
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Crisis
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Rebellion 1895
Concentration camps
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Spanish-American War
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 Dewey: Philippines
 Black soldiers segregated
Yellow Journalism

William Randolph-Hearst
 Fought with distinction
 Frederic Remington
 “You furnish me the pictures, I’ll
furnish the war”


Joseph Pulitzer
 Cuba: Santiago de Cuba
 Rough Riders
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Attempt 1897
De Lome Letter 1898
USS Maine 1898
 270 died
 War message
 Teller Amendment
Deaths
 379 deaths
 5,000 to disease, food poisoning
Resolution? I think not.

“splendid little war”
Battle: short


Armistice July 17
Results
 20 Million
 Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico
 Platt Amendment 1901

Critics
 Anti-Imperialists
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Stepping stones to the
Pacific
Guerilla War

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
Difficult
Long, costly war
Civilians suffered
Expansion and
Progression


US expansionism
buoyed
Economic
modernization of the
Philippines

Return of Democrat Rule

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
Loss of voting rights
Return of segregation
lynching
No help

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
Alliance movement
AFL
Supreme Court
 Civil Rights Act 1875
nullified
 Civil Rights Cases 1883
 Plessey V. Ferguson 1896

Response

Kansas Exodus
 1879-1880
 40-60,000
 Benjamin “Pap” Singleton

Booker T. Washington
 Blacks must acquire
useful skills like farming
and carpentry to prove
economic value
 Don’t join Unions
 Racism would fade