User:Atcovi/VA and US History/The Guilded Age

Republican vs. Democrats

 * Rep. promoted high tariffs, construction of RRs, subsidizing of land for farmers.
 * Rep. wanted to use the government to protect "family life".
 * Dem. wanted states' rights and limited gov't.
 * Similarities
 * Both parties felt the government should NOT intervene with the business but they could promote corporate growth.
 * Both were Laissez Faire
 * Both felt that people needed to look to state/local gov't to address social problems.

Support

 * Democratic support came from the "Solid South", border states, new immigrants in cities, and most Catholics.
 * Republicans dominated rural New England, Pennsylvania, the upper Midwest, African Americans, and native-born Protestants.
 * Bloody Shirt

Hayes' Presidency

 * Compromise of 1877
 * "He who serves his party best serves his country best."
 * Roscoe Conkling
 * Railroad Strike of 1877
 * "Lemonade Lucy"
 * Tried to form the "New Republican Party" in the South

Factions of the Republican Party

 * The party was divided after the corruption of Grant's administration
 * Stalwarts - Like the patronage system [giving jobs to whoever you like] (led by Conkling).
 * Half-breeds - Believe in reforms. The patronage system needs to change.

Election of 1880

 * Republicans
 * James A. Garfield (Halfbreed)
 * Chester Arthur (Stalwart)
 * Democrats
 * Winfield S. Hancock


 * Republicans defeated and Garfield becomes the 20th President (narrow victory).

James Garfield

 * Attempted to balance all Rep. factions in the Cabinet.
 * James Blaine (Halfbreed): Sec'y of State
 * Challenged Conkling and the Stalwarts
 * Garfield's White House was swamped by people seeking some 100,000 federal jobs.
 * Charles Guiteau

Chester Arthur

 * Distanced himself from the Stalwarts.
 * Supports the Pendleton Civil Service Act.
 * Created the bipartisan Civil Service Commission.
 * New system of federal job appointments being made through a merit system based on the candidate's performance on civil service exam.
 * Approved the development of a modern navy.
 * Questioned the benefit of the high protective tariff.
 * Denied the Republican nomination in 1884.

Election of 1884

 * Republicans
 * James Blaine
 * Democrats
 * Grover Cleveland


 * Cleveland wins and is the first Democrat elected since 1856. He carries the state of New York, which gives him the win.

Agriculture's Struggle

 * Commercialization and Specialization
 * Farmers became technologically dependent
 * As expenses increased, the price of their crops decreased
 * Wheat Costs: 1867: $2/bushel; 1889: $.78/bushel.
 * Corn Costs: 1867: $.70/bushel; 1889: $.23/bushel.

The Grange

 * "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."


 * The Grange first go after the railroad company.
 * Cooperatives - Small group of farmers pools up their harvests. Ship the bushels as a group in order to get their bulk-rate discount.
 * State Legislation - States impose a flat-rate on railroads. The SC rules later that a state can fix prices that can do similar things like that in terms of the public's interest.


 * Munn v. Illinois 1877
 * Supreme Court rules that a state can regulate businesses of a public nature such as RRs if it's in the public's interest.

The Supreme Court Reconsiders...

 * Wabash, St. Louis, Pacific RR v. Illinois (1886)
 * Ruling?
 * Direct v. Indirect Burdens?
 * Cleveland reacts to this during his first term with the ICC.

Cleveland's First Term

 * Enforced the newly created Pendleton Act.
 * Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
 * Dawes Act of 1887
 * Investigated fraudulent claims for veterans' pensions.

Currency and Tariff Issues

 * Expand the money supply
 * Debtors say yes because they can get their hands on money to pay back the debt.
 * Bankers, Industrialists and Creditors say no.

Money Goes Political

 * Specie Resumption Act - 1875
 * Congress collected greenbacks that were issued during the Civil War with no gold backing.
 * Greenback Party
 * Peaks in 1878

Silverites

 * Congress stopped the minting of silver in the 1870s.
 * Then silver was discovered in NV.
 * Bland-Allison Act (1878)
 * Passed over Hayes' veto
 * Allowed $2mil-$4mil in silver to be coined each month.
 * Upheld silver:gold ratio (16:1)
 * People still pushed for the UNLIMITED coinage of silver.

Tariff

 * Promote industry

Election of 1888

 * Democrats
 * Grover Cleveland (Lower Tariff)
 * Republicans
 * Benjamin Harrison
 * High Tariff


 * Harrison wins as he wins the New York state because of the purchased presidency.
 * Harrison appoints Roosevelt as a Civil Service Commission.
 * Harrison sets up the dependent and disability pension Act.

Congress Acts (1888-90)

 * Dominated by Republicans.
 * McKinley Tariff (1890)
 * Raised tax/foreign products to 48%.
 * Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

The Billion Dollar Congress

 * Through infrastructure projects, welfare programs, eliminating some corporate taxes, etc. Harrison and the "Billion Dollar Congress" spent much of what had been a gov't surplus.

Harrison and Hawaii

 * 1887 - Bayonet Constitution
 * Harrison and Cleveland will attempt to annex the islands' new provisional government.
 * Republic of Hawaii
 * Failed to get the Senate to ratify.
 * Harrison said it wasn't "selfish" to annex Hawaii because they have to "civilize" non-white society.
 * Annexed by McKinley in 1893.

The Ocala Platform

 * The Grange --> National Alliance (1890)
 * The Ocala Platform called for:
 * Direct election fo US Senators.
 * Lower tariff rates
 * Graduated income tax
 * New banking system regulated by the federal gov't
 * Demanded more money be put into circulation (greenback and silver).

Rise of the Populists

 * The People's, or Populist, Party.
 * Platform was drafted in 1892.

Election of 1892

 * Populist
 * James Weaver
 * Democrats
 * GC
 * Republicans
 * Benjamin Harrison
 * Key Issues
 * Theft: Free trade v. Protectionist
 * Coinage of Silver

Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893 - caused by industrial and railroad speculation (risky loans being given around). As the value of silver begins to drop, people start demanding currency to be in gold. The government does not have enough gold in order to swap every dollar out for gold.
 * Unemployment: 20% for 3-4 years.
 * Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894
 * Moderately reduced Tariff rates
 * 2% income tax on incomes of 2,000 dollars
 * Average Americans earn under 1,000 dollars
 * Pollock vs. Farmer's Lean and Trust Co.
 * Supreme Court ruled in 1895 that the federal gov't could only impose a tax on personal property if it was cloned by the state population.

Coxey's Army

 * As the depression increased, class tensions increased.
 * Populist Jacob Coxey led a march to Washington of thousands of unemployed men of Ohio.
 * This army demanded the federal gov't to spend 500 million dollars on public works to create jobs.
 * The leaders were arrested and the men went home.

African Americans

 * Disenfranchised (they cannot vote)
 * Segregation was manded by Jim Crow laws.
 * "Convict-Lasse" System
 * If convicted of any crime, prison gangs could be leased to planters, RR builders, miners, etc.

Populists and African-Americans

 * Tom Watson tried to build an interracial Populist Party in GA.
 * Watson denounced "Lynch Law" and the convict-lease system.
 * Poor whites were encouraged to abandon Watson using racist hatred.

Supreme Court Rulings

 * Civil Rights Cases - 1883
 * Challenged the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
 * What had the CRA done?
 * Outlawed discrimination in public areas.
 * Ruling
 * Declared the CRA 1873 unconstitutional
 * Rationale
 * Congress lacked the power to mandate the integration of private business.
 * The 14th Amendment could only be enforced as far as gov't was concerned.

Plessy vs. Ferguson - 1896

 * 1890: LA passes Act 111
 * Mandates segregated "equal" RR cars for blacks and whites.
 * Homer Plessy is hired by the Citizen Committee to Test Separate Car Act.
 * Constitutionality of Act 111 is challenged.
 * Supreme Court rules.
 * Separate but Equal is LEGA.

African American Leaders

 * Booker T. Washington
 * W.E.B. DuBois
 * Niagra Movement

The Election of 1896 and consequences

 * Democrats
 * Many Democrats at the 1896 Convention were pro-silver.
 * William Jennings Bryan was a speaker at the Convention
 * Favored the unlimited coinage of silver (16:1 ounce).
 * Won much support from the Populist camp.
 * Republican
 * William McKinley
 * Supported the tariff and was a friend to labor.
 * Republicans offered America a strong and prosperous industrial nation.
 * Wanted a higher tariff
 * Upheld the gold standard against unlimited coinage of silver.

The Campaign

 * William J. Bryan
 * Nationwide train tour to rally Dem and Pop support.
 * Gave over 600 speeches.
 * His speeches convinced many that silver was the savior.
 * William McKinley
 * "Front-porch Campaign"
 * Used the media to sell McKinley to the people

Consequences of the Election of 1896

 * Populist Party declines after 1896 and ceases to be a national party.
 * Urban Dominance is clear. Urban centers and big business dominated the election. Marks the triumph of industrial and urban values over rural ideas.
 * Modern Politics begins. The US will emerge as a global power under McKinley. Campaigning will change as well.

Outcome

 * Bryan was hurt in the last weeks of the campaign by
 * Increase in wheat prices.
 * Employers threatening to fire people if Bryan was elected.
 * McKinley becomes the 25th president.

McKinley's Presidency

 * As he took office, the economy improved.
 * Gold discoveries in Alaska increased the money supply.
 * Farm prices rose.
 * Factory production increased.
 * He signed the Tariff of 1897 which increased rates.
 * He also reinforced gold as the official standard of the US dollar in 1900.

Election of 1900: McKinley vs. Bryan

 * Republican
 * William McKinley and VP, Theodore Roosevelt.
 * Democratic
 * William J. Bryan
 * Issues
 * Coinage of Silver
 * Imperialism

McKinley's Assassination

 * When? - September 6, 1901
 * Where? - Pan American Exposition (Buffalo, NY)
 * Who? - Leon Czolgosz
 * How? - Shot McKinley twice - once in the chest and in the abdomen.
 * Why? - Czolgosz was a self-proclaimed anarchist.
 * Outcome? - McKinley lingered until September 14th at 2:15am.

"New Imperialism"

 * What factors determined US foreign policy?
 * Industrialization (worldwide markets and raw materials for manufacturing)
 * International Darwinism ("survival of the fittest" in politics; the US had to demonstrate its strength by acquiring territories overseas; this was justified by extending the idea of manifest destiny overseas).
 * Who supported American Expansion?
 * Missionaries
 * Josiah Strong.
 * Politicians
 * Many Republicans were closely allied with business leaders. Thus they supported the use of foreign affairs to search for new markets.
 * Naval Strategists
 * Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan. Argued that to be respected by the world, the US needed to show their naval ability
 * Journalists
 * Articles about distant and exotic places increased circulation and this increased public interest stimulated a demand for a larger US role in world affairs.

Cuban Revolution

 * Timeline
 * 1868 - Cuban revolt against SPain.
 * 1878 - Revolt is pacified. Spain promises reforms.
 * 1890s - Economic Depression (Tariff Act of 1894: Increased tariff rate on sugar by 40%. Cutting off Cuban growers from the American market)
 * 1896 - Election of President McKinley in the US (February: General Weyler arrives in Havana to be the governor of Cuba. Guerilla Warfare ensues).
 * 1898 - January: USS Maine is stationed in Havana harbor.
 * April 20, 1898 - Congress recognizes the independence of Cuba and authorizes the use of armed forces to drive out the Spanish.
 * In reality, the US is not interested in controlling Cuba. Once peace is brought back, the Cubans would leave.

The "Splendid Little" Spanish-American War
The Phillippines:
 * Fighting the War
 * Manila Bay - May 1, 1898
 * Commodore George Dewey
 * The Spanish navy was quickly defeated.
 * Allied with Filipino rebels (led by Emilio Aguinaldo), US troops captured the city of Manila in August 13, 1898.


 * Battle of San Juan Hill (July 1, 1898)
 * T. Roosevelt led the cavalry charge with his Rough Riders, a regiment of volunteers.
 * Battle of Santiago Bay (July 3, 1898)
 * Spanish Admiral Cervera had to run the American blockade. In 4 hours, the Spanish were destroyed.
 * Surrender of Santiago Bay (July 17, 1898)
 * Spanish Surrender (August 12, 1898)

Victory
Newspapers such as Joseph Pulitzer's World capitalized on Dewey's victory at Manila Bay with sensational headlines and dramatic stories.

Yellow Journalism

 * Inflammatory tactics used by newspaperman
 * William R. Hearst
 * "You provide the pictures, I'll provide the story". Yellow Journalism is named after Hearst comic called "The Yellow Kid"
 * Joseph Pulitzer

Third Treaty of Paris
Signed: December 10, 1898 Ratified: February 6, 1899
 * Recognition of Cuban independence
 * U.S. acquisition of PR in the Caribbean and Guam in the Pacific.
 * U.S. acquisition of the Philippines in return for payment to Spain of 20 million dollars.


 * De Lome letter is published - McKinley is insulted by the Spanish diplomat. Worsens tensions between Spain and the US.
 * USS Maine - Explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor (about 260 sailors die). The Naval court rules that the explosion was caused by an internal, structural issue.

America is revealed as a world power.

The Philippine Insurrection
Aguinaldo led rebellions against the American colonies and is led up to Roosevelt's presidency.

US and new territories

 * Puerto Rico
 * Foraker Act - 1900: PR do not have citizenship nor self-government. Placed a tariff on PR imports to the US.
 * Insular Cases: Did the Constitution Follow the Flag?

Cuba Gains Independence

 * Late 1898: McKinley established a military gov't. Troops remain until 1901.
 * November 1900 - Cuban Constitutional Convention convenes in Havana.
 * Platt Amendment (1901): Required Cuba to - Never sign a treaty with a foreign power that impaired its independence; never to build up an excessive public debt; permit the US to intervene in Cuba's affairs to preserve its independence and maintain law and order; allow the US to maintain naval bases in Cuba, including one at Guantanamo Bay.
 * May 1902 - US withdraws from Cuban gov't.

The Open Door Policy - Key Points

 * By the 1890s, Russia, Japan, GB, France, and DE had all established spheres of influence in China.
 * Sphehre of Influence
 * Hay attempts to inject the US into these spheres of influence with the Open Door Notes.


 * Open Door Notes - 1899
 * Secretary of State, John Hay, dispatched a diplomatic note to all imperial nations asking them to accept an Open Door by which all nations would have equal trading privileges in China.
 * Open Door Notes - 1900
 * Hay wrote a note to the imperialistic powers stating U.S. commitment to preserve China's territorial integrity and to safeguard "equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese empire".

The Boxer Rebellion

 * The Boxer Rebellion

Roosevelt Corollary - December 1904

 * Extension of Monroe Doctrine, 1823, in which Monroe asserted that European powers can no longer involve themselves in affairs in the Western Hemisphere.
 * The Corollary asserted that in the case of "chronic wrongdoing," outside intervention in the Caribbean nations that might be necessary. Under the Monroe Doctrine, no other nation could step in, the US must "exercise an international police power".

T. Roosevelt's Big Stick Policy

 * TR meant by "big stick" = military.

The Isthmian Canal

 * TR uses these areas to use these policies
 * Panama Canal - Nicaragua
 * Support Panamanian Independence
 * PANAMA VS. COLOMBIO [Independence]
 * Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty - 1903
 * First act of the new government of independent Panama granting the US long-term control of the canal zone.

Dollar Diplomacy

 * Adopted by William H. Taft who succeeded TR as president.
 * "Dollar Diplomacy" depended on investors' dollars more than on the navy's battleships to encourage economic, social and political stability.

Woodrow Wilson's Moral Diplomacy

 * If a country doesn't have a democratic system/is acting "unethical", then US will not recognize it.