Womens’ Suffrage Meeting in St. Louis in 1872

This was in the Post-Dispatch a couple of weeks ago. It gives a great overview of the argument in the women’s movement over the 15th Amendment:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/a-look-back-suffragists-meet-in-st-louis-in/article_dbe164d4-1982-5e5e-9f20-88fbd9408ca6.html

Review of Reconstruction period

Mr. Wallace explains it all about the period of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age!

Chapter 24 questions

Be sure you answer these thoroughly and thoughtfully for your own benefit. Due Monday, December 13.

Questions Chapter 24

1. Let’s do a little math, in the spirit of NCLB: By what percentge did the amount of railroad track in the US increase between 1865 and 1900? What was the ratio of acres granted by the federal government to the miles of track laid? What conclusions can you draw from these two figures?
2. How did the railroads manage to hog more land than that to which they were actually entitled? What did the government get in return for this? Outline the debate over whether this was justified.
3. How did the Civil War influence railroad construction? What was the difference between the way that the transcontinental railroad was financed versus the previous explanation on pp. 530-531?
4. Read carefully and think: Why was the Union Pacific Railroad generally paid less per mile of construction than the Central Pacific? Who laid the most miles of track, and why? What was the difference in the laborers primarily used by the 2 companies?
5. By 1895, how many transcontinental railroads were there? Ordering them from north to south, name them and their date of completion. Why was investing in railroad construction a risky proposition?
6. What technological advances were derived from the railroads? What other industries benefitted from the growth of the railroads?
7. How did railroads both encourage urban growth and the settling of the Great Plains?
8. What corrupt practices did railroads engage in, and why couldn’t they be stopped?
9. Was the Gilded Age TRULY a time of “laissez-faire?” Explain.
10. Page 538 labels this period “the second American industrial revolution.” When was the first? What advances revolutionized American industry during this second phase?
11. Describe and contrast the two methods developed by Carnegie and Rockefeller to maximize profits and control.
12. What factors led to America becoming the dominant steel producer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? What city was the center of steel production(and how did that eventually influence professional football)?
13. How was the United States Steel Corporation created?
14. How did trusts work? What industries were dominated by trusts?
15. How did some religious and business leaders justify the amassing of so much wealth by tycoons? What then was the logical implication for those who were poor?
16. How did the 14th Amendment help corporations based on the late 19th century interpretation of it?
17. What was the difference between “good” and “bad” trusts? What two laws attempted to weaken trusts, and why weren’t they effective?
18. Why didn’t the South benefit as much as the North from the industrial development of the late 19th century?
19. What factors worked against the growth of unions in the late 19th century? Be thorough in your answer.
20. How did Samuel Gompers design the AF of L to succeed in ways that previous unions had not?
21. In what ways was the economic and business situation described in this chapter similar to today’s economic climate?
22. Thomas Jefferson and others of our founders warned that those who worked for wages would be nothing but “wage slaves.” Evaluate the accuracy of this belief based on conditions in the late 19th century.

Chapter 23 Outlines

Outline Notes Chapter 23

This will be due Tuesday, December 7!!!!!

I. How is Grant assessed as a president?
—–A. Why did he receive so much support for so long?
———-Gratitude toward him for CW, GAR, straight party tickets
—–B. “Grantism” means corruption in the Era of Good Stealings—explain each one of these:
———-Credit Mobilier, Whiskey Ring, Belknap
—–C. Why was the country giving up on Reconstruction?

II. “All politics is local…” Reformers battle political machines
—–A. Era of Good Stealings- what did that mean?
—–B. Boss Tweed
———-His crimes, the price voters paid, Thomas Nast, and Samuel “Whispering Sammy” Tilden
—–C. George Washington Plunkitt’s philosophy of ethics
—–D. The Liberal Republicans arise to clean up the mess
———-What did they want? What was the “conclave of cranks?”
—–E. Horace Greeley
———-Who was he? Whose nominee was he? Why did he get vilified?
—–F. What does “The Gilded Age” mean?
———-Mark Twain
—–G. “Stalwarts” versus “Half-Breeds”
———-Conkling, Blaine, and what each stood for
———-How is this struggle related to political machines and corruption?
———-How does this struggle eventually cause the death of a president?
—–H. Hayes-Tilden clash for the presidency
———-Importance of Ohio, popular vote
———-Electoral vote misdeeds (Florida, LA and SC all have what in common?)
—–I. The Compromise of 1877
———-Electoral Count Act, Justice Davis
———-Democrat- Republican dealmaking

III. Financial Collapses
—–A. Fisk, Gould and gold
—–B. Jay Cooke
—–C. Freedmen’s Saving and Trust Company
—–D. Inflationary policies—you’ll need to explain these
———-Inflation during the war and after the war
———-Cheap money, hard money, gold versus silver
———-Crime of ’73
———-Resumption Act of 1875
———-Bland –Allison Act
—–E. How does this monetary unrest lead to the founding of the Greenback Labor Party?

IV. The Reign of “The Forgettable Presidents”
—–A. End of Reconstruction and Hayes
———-Civil Rights Act of 1875, Civil Rights Cases (1883) and its effects
———-tactics used to disenfranchise black voters
———-Jim Crow laws
———-lynching (see chart p. 522)
———-Plessy v. Ferguson
———-When was the “second Reconstruction,” and why was it necessary?
—–B. Population changes cause unrest
———-Great RR strike 1877
———-Chinese workers
———-nativist Kearneyites
—–C. “The Canal Boy” and the “Prince:” Garfield and Arthur
———-Why is Ohio still important?
———-Garfield’s choice of Arthur as a running mate
———-Civil Service reform
———-Guiteau
—–D. The Pendleton Act and its significance
———-Republican party and reform—oxymorons?
—–E. “Grover the Good”- Dems take over
———-Why do the Dems take over?
———-How does the Democratic party start becoming a national party again? The 3 Rs…
———-Struggling with the Pension Bureau: the power of the GAR
———-Ending the Treasury surplus—tariffs
———-Dawes Act aims to tie down the Indians
———-Interstate Commerce Act—why is it important?
———-Fraud in the election of 1888

An apologia for the “Gospel of Wealth”

(You can also access this YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_kMkQCZV8o)

What do you think?

The Populists and what they stood for

The Populists (or People’s Party) burst onto the political stage in the election of 1892. They supported increasing the power of the working class and the farmers against the interests of the wealthy, who were more politically powerful– even before 19892, money was the lifeblood of politics.

Their first statement of goals was the Omaha Platform of 1892. Make sure you are familiar with the contents of this document.

Why were each of these items important to the Populists?

Public ownership of the railroads, steamship lines and telephone and telegraph systems: this would stop the practice of unfair rates for small farmers versus the volume discounts secured by large landholders and other sorts of political corruption that the railroads had certainly practiced. Rightly or wrongly, the farmers blamed the railroads for much of their problems. The costs of shipping in general cut into the farmers’ livelihoods. In general, the monopolies of the telephone and telegraph companies also was seen as a threat to their economic wellbeing.

Free and unlimited coinage of silver: From this website: “Before 1873 anyone who brought 3.7125 grains of silver to the mint could receive a legal-tender silver dollar, and the campaign for free silver fought for a return of these conditions.

“Between the mid-1830s and 1873 the market price of silver exceeded the mint price of $1.29 cents per ounce; therefore, very little silver found its way to the mint. Silver dollars had largely disappeared from circulation when Congress enacted the Coinage Act of 1873, an act that made no provision for the coinage of silver, and put the United States on an unofficial gold standard. Proponents of free silver later condemned the act as the “Crime of ’73.”

“The deletion of the silver dollar drew little attention at the time, but the United States was already in the clutches of a deflationary downswing that would last three decades. From 1870 until 1896 prices plunged 50 percent, a deflationary wave that hit hard at farmers in the West and South, where debt incidence stood at high levels.

“These groups quite rightly saw that a return to free and unlimited coinage of silver would raise the domestic money stock, raise prices, and reduce their debt burden. Much of the populist flavor of the free silver movement came from the hopes it lifted among large numbers of low-income farmers.

“Silver prices felt an added deflationary force because the world was rushing toward a gold standard that left little role for silver as a monetary metal. Major silver discoveries in the American West further depressed the market for silver. From 1850 until 1872 the market price of an ounce of silver stood above $1.32, clearly above the mint price, but the price had slipped to $1.24 by 1874, and from there it tumbled to $0.65 by 1895. Silver-mining interests in the United States saw free silver as a way of increasing the demand for silver, and putting a floor under silver prices. They would have been delighted to sell silver to the Treasury for $1.29.”

Abolition of national banks: The populists say the national banks as the bastion of the wealthy. They wanted to see the federal government directly take over the control of the money supply (and of course, adopt inflationary policies). This was eventually accomplished during the Progressive era with the creation of the Federal Reserve System in the early 20th century.

Graduated income tax: From the founding of the US, the main source of revenue for the government were tariffs and excise taxes. These kind of taxes are often referred to by economists as “regressive” because they take up a larger proportion of poor people’s incomes than of wealthy people’s. Tariffs and excise taxes caused the prices of goods to increase, hurting the poor more than the rich. Therefore, the Populists proposed a graduated (meaning increasing in steps or increments”) income tax to take the place of tariffs. An income tax had been levied to attempt to pay for the Civil War (by both the Union and the Confederacy), but the Supreme Court in 1895 had declared an income tax unconstitutional. Therefore this would require a constitutional amendment to achieve.

Direct election of Senators: Since the founding of the US, Senators had been elected by the state legislatures. Remember, too, that Senators served the longest term of any federal elected officials– 6 years. The Populists argued that Senators were therefore interested less in the interests of the people of the states than with remaining in the good graces of the major corporations in their states, who often exercised undue influence over state legislatures– think of the power of McDonnell Douglas and Anheuser Busch back when they both had their headquarters in this state.

Although the Populists did not achieve many of their aims, they did lay the groundwork for the passage of the income tax in the 16th Amendment and the direct election of senators in the 17th Amendment, both in 1913 during the Progressive era.

Read the following websites:

http://www.columbia.edu/~rr91/1052_2002/lectures_2002/populist_movement.htm

http://lhs.lexingtonma.org/Teachers/David/LI%20US%20history/liusreview_gildedage.html

And for those of you conspiracy theorists, this makes me laugh– a claim that the 16th Amendment was never really ratified.

The Greenback Labor Party- Forerunner of the Populists

Greenback Labor Party

The Greenback Party was established in 1875. It got its name for the slang term for paper money– greenbacks– which of course were inflationary. Its main support came from farmers who were suffering from declining farm prices, high railroad rates and the government’s deflationary currency policies. Peter Cooper was the party’s presidential candidate in 1876 but he won only 81,737 votes and was easily beaten by Rutherford Hayes (4,036,298) and Samuel Tilden (4,300,590). However, the party did send 15 representatives to Congress.

In 1878 members of the Greenback Party joined with urban trade union groups to establish the Greenback Labor Party. This indicates that party leaders were trying to unite farmers with urban workers in order to build a broader base of support and increase the chance of success at the polls. James Weaver emerged as leader of the party and was its presidential candidate in 1880. During the campaign Weaver argued that the two major political parties had lost sight of their original democratic ideals of equal opportunity. He also claimed that the maintenance of the gold standard benefited banking interests but was driving farmers out of business. Weaver called for policies where all classes could share in the economic wealth of America.

The Greenback Labor Party program included the coinage of silver on a par with gold, an adequate supply of money, the taxing of government bonds, a maximum eight-hour day, the introduction of graduated income tax and opposition to railroad land grants.

Weaver obtained 308,578 votes but was beaten by James Garfield (4,454,416) and Winfield S. Hancock (4,444,952). Most of Weaver’s support came from the rural West but he was now one of the most important political figures in the United States.

After the election of 1880, the Greenback-Labor Party merged with the Democratic Party in most states. Weaver was against this policy and in 1891 helped establish the Populist Party. The party advocated the public ownership of the railroads, steamship lines and telephone and telegraph systems. It also supported the free and unlimited coinage of silver, the abolition of national banks, a system of graduated income tax and the direct election of United States Senators.

Who were the Big Four?

The men responsible for helping to construct the first transcontinental railroad.

Go here for a good informative paragraph. (http://www.csrmf.org/doc.asp?id=279)

Chapter 23 terms and comprehension questions

These are due on Monday, December 8!

CHAPTER 23 TERMS and QUESTIONS

Ulysses S. Grant ___________greenbacks____________ “Ohio Idea”
“waving the bloody shirt”_____repudiation_____________speculation
Jay Cooke________________“Black Friday”___________Chester Arthur
William Belknap___________general amnesty act_______Panic of 1873
contraction_______________Half-Breeds___________Civil Rights Act/Cases
tenant farming____________crop lien system _______“equal protection clause”
Roscoe Conkling__________Jim Fisk______________Grover Cleveland
Jay Gould _______________Rutherford Hayes_______James Garfield
cheap money_____________hard/sound money______Gilded Age
spoils system____________Resumption Act_________Stalwart
Tweed Ring_______________Whiskey Ring________Greenback Labor Party
Compromise of 1877_________Pendleton Act________Liberal Republicans
Blank- Allison Act__________Credit Mobilier___________Tammany Hall
great railroad strike _______Chinese Exclusion Act _______Mugwumps
Be able to explain the following fully:
— Analyze the corruption of the Gilded Age in relation to the increasingly low moral and political standards of the time. Contrast the quality of politicians with those of the previous age.
— Examine the presidential elections of the period in relation to the fierce competition of the third party system.
— Trace the history of the Fourteenth Amendment. Why is it one of the most significant parts of the Constitution?

Thomas Nast on Tammany Hall

Examine these cartoons, and analyze the use of symbolism employed by Nast.

Links for more information:
Thomas Nast biography