begins with “waving the bloody shirt,” credit mobilier and the compromise of 1877 what does it...
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Begins with “Waving the Bloody Begins with “Waving the Bloody Shirt,” Credit Mobilier and the Shirt,” Credit Mobilier and the
Compromise of 1877Compromise of 1877
What does it mean to “wave the bloody shirt?”
Reviving the images and gory memories of the Civil War to get elected
Credit Mobilier
Politicians receive RR kickbacks when a fake construction company is exposed
Election of 1876Election of 1876When irregular election returns are
tabulated, the Dems and Reps make a deal
Begins with “Waving the Bloody Begins with “Waving the Bloody Shirt,” Credit Mobilier and the Shirt,” Credit Mobilier and the
Compromise of 1877Compromise of 1877Hayes (Northern Republican) wins and
the last remaining Union troops are pulled out of the South (ending Reconstruction)
Blacks are left to fend for themselves
Remember the “redeemers” from the last chapter? Is the New South going to be any different from the Old South? (there have only been 6 black US Senators in our history)
Racial and Ethnic ClashesRacial and Ethnic ClashesBlack codes become Jim Crow laws legalizing
segregation, literacy tests, poll taxes & grandfather clauses
Former slaves become sharecroppers and find their conditions unchanged
Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) upholds segregation with its “separate but equal” doctrine
Chinese resentment leads to the Exclusion Act barring further immigration from China
Remember that streak of “nativism” we’ve talked about?
1. A Two-1. A Two-Party Party
Stalemate Stalemate with Well-with Well-Defined Defined Voting Voting BlocsBlocs
Characteristics of Gilded Characteristics of Gilded Age PoliticsAge Politics
Who was a Democrat? Who was a Republican
White southerners(preservation ofwhite supremacy)
Catholics
Recent immigrants(esp. Jews)
Urban working poor (pro-labor)
Most farmers
Northern whites(pro-business)
African Americans
Northern Protestants
Most of the middleclass
Rural, small-town
2. Intense 2. Intense Voter Loyalty Voter Loyalty
to theto theTwo MajorTwo Major
Political PartiesPolitical Parties
3. A Laissez Faire (“hands 3. A Laissez Faire (“hands off”) Federal Governmentoff”) Federal Government
From 1870-1900 Government did very little domestically.
Main duties of the federal government:
Deliver the mail.
Maintain a national military.
Collect taxes & tariffs.
Conduct a foreign policy.
Exception administer the annual Civil War veterans’ pension.
“I don't care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating.” - Boss Tweed
4. The Presidency as a 4. The Presidency as a Symbolic OfficeSymbolic Office
Party bosses ruled like “Boss” Tweed in NYC.
Presidents should avoid offending anyfactions within their own party.
The President just doled out federal jobs.
1865 53,000 people
1890 166,000 people
5. 5. Rule by Party Bosses at the Rule by Party Bosses at the State and Local Level State and Local Level (“all politics is local”)(“all politics is local”)
Cities were growing fast!
City government wasdisorganized with fewreliable services (police, fire, welfare)
Immigrants wanted protection and help
Trade favors/jobs for votes = patronage (Bribes, kickbacks, graft)
1881: Garfield Assassinated!1881: Garfield Assassinated!1881: Garfield Assassinated!1881: Garfield Assassinated!
Charles Guiteau
Pendleton Act (1883)Pendleton Act (1883)Civil Service Act
The “Magna Carta” of civil service reform.
1883 14,000 out of 117,000 federal govt. jobs became civil service exam positions.
1900 100,000 out of 200,000 civil service federal govt. jobs
1884 Presidential Election1884 Presidential Election1884 Presidential Election1884 Presidential Election
Cleveland’s First TermCleveland’s First Term1st Dem. elected president since 1856.
A public office is a public trust!
His laissez faire presidency:
Opposed bills to assist the poor aswell as the rich.
Vetoed over 200 special pension billsfor Civil War veterans!
Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people
The Tariff IssueThe Tariff Issue During the Civil War, there were no
Democrats (Southerners) to block higher tariffs
After the Civil War, Congress raisedtariffs to protect new US industries.
Big business wanted to continue this;consumers did not.
1885 tariffs earned the US $100,000,000 in surplus!
Tariffs became a major issue in the 1888presidential election.
1888 Presidential Election1888 Presidential Election1888 Presidential Election1888 Presidential Election
• What characteristics, previously discussed, does this map illustrate?
Changing Public OpinionChanging Public Opinion Americans wanted the federal government to deal
with growing social and economic problems and to curb the power of the trusts:
Interstate Commerce Act – 1887
Created the first true regulatory agency
Shipping rates had to be reasonable, just and published
Secret rebates and price discrimination were outlawed
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act The Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)(1890)
The first federal antitrust law
Authorized federal action against any "combination in the form of trusts or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade."
PopulismPopulism Political movement that tried to help out the nation’s
struggling farmers
“What you farmers need to do is raise less corn and more Hell!” – Populist organizer Mary Lease
Why Were the Farmers in Why Were the Farmers in Trouble?Trouble?
Mechanizationmore machines = more debtmore production = lower prices
New farm landmore land (on credit) = more debt
Crop specializationreliance on cash crops
Natural disasters flood, insects, drought
Corporate greed (especially the RR)
Demands of the Farmers Demands of the Farmers Regulate the railroad companies
Make cash more available (back the dollar with silver and gold, so dollar will be worth less) = bimetallism
Low tariffs because high protective tariffs did not “protect” the farmers
Politically, a single term for President and Vice-President and the popular election of Senators
To get industrial workers to support them: 8-hour workday; restrict immigration
Representing the Representing the
Farmers Farmers 1867: The Patrons
of Husbandry (The Grange) tried toform cooperatives
A farmers’ “union” founded by Oliver Kelley
1892: Birth of the Populist, or People’s Party tapping into discontent with the “powers that be” among the folks
The Omaha PlatformThe Omaha Platform1. We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and
gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1.
2. We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased…
3. We demand a graduated income tax.
4. We demand that all State and national revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the government, economically and honestly administered.
5. Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people.
6. The telegraph and telephone should be owned and operated by the government in the interest of the people.
The Omaha PlatformThe Omaha Platform7. The land should not be monopolized for speculative
purposes. All land now held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers only
8. We demand a free ballot and a fair count in all elections, and the adoption by the States of the unperverted Australian or secret ballot system
9. The initiative and referendum…
10.A one-term limit for the President and Vice-President
11.The election of Senators of the United States by a direct vote of the people
12.We oppose any subsidy or national aid to any private corporation for any purpose
The Drumbeat of Discontent The Drumbeat of Discontent An epidemic of strikes in 1892 raised the
prospects of an industrial workers and farmer alliance with the Populists
Homestead Strike
At A. Carnegie’s Pittsburghsteel mill angry workers attacked Pinkerton guards
10 people were killed, 60 wounded
Industrial workers/unions were seen as violent revolutionaries and Populists were unable to unite Southern farmers (blacks and whites, together?)
1896: The Democrats take their issues
1892 Presidential Election1892 Presidential Election1892 Presidential Election1892 Presidential Election
CHAPTER 24: Industry Comes of Age
1. __Politically, economically and socially, there have been few “projects” as all encompassing and integral to the development of the United States than the expansion of the railroads.
2. __Like all get-rich-quick schemes, the building of railroads had its drawbacks.
3. __Alexander Hamilton would have been pleased to see what railroads did to the United States.
4. __Technological inventions ruined the agrarian village lifestyle of the pre-industrial era.
5. __Life improved for most people between 1800 - 1900.
6. __The role of the federal government began to change during this time period and (since we’ve already mentioned Alexander Hamilton) Thomas Jefferson would not have been pleased about legislation coming out of Washington, D.C.
7. __Instead of competing, the railroad tycoons found strength in numbers by cooperating.
The Railroad The Railroad Built with government subsidies and land
grants
Frontier villages could become flourishing cities
1869: the first Transcontinental Railroad is completed (by 1893 there were 5)
Steel was vital providing standard rails and the airbrake made travel safer
Trains were no longer considered “wheeled torture chambers”
Railroads were Revolutionary Railroads were Revolutionary Physical unification of the country
The nation’s first “big business”
20% of American investment dollars
More employees than any other business
Raw materials to factories / Products to consumers
Agricultural products from the West to population centers in the East
Railroad operators had to keep a common schedule so time zones were introduced
The maker of millionaires
Railroad Abuses were Common Railroad Abuses were Common Stock watering to inflate the RR’s value
Bribes to judges and politicians
They had more control over the lives of the people than most political leaders
Pooling to share profits
Small farmers usually paid higher rates than the large, industrial customers
Wabash v. Illinois ruled it was the federal government’s job to regulate interstate commerce (1886)
The I.C.C. set the precedent that the government was bound to protect the public interest (1887)
Mechanization and Innovation Mechanization and Innovation Investment + abundant natural resources (along
with the means to transport them) + the sheer size of the American market + cheap, plentiful, unskilled labor + innovators and inventors (like Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell) = success
By 1894 the United States was the world leader in manufacturing
Trusts (business combinations) make millions while reducing competition
Vertical integration (not a monopoly) Carnegie Steel
Horizontal integration (monopoly) Standard Oil
Interlocking directorates
The Two Rockefellers:…or A “Captain of Industry”?
John D. Rockefeller:
"The American Beauty rose can be produced in all its splendor only by sacrificing the early
buds that grow up around it."
The Gospel of WealthThe Gospel of Wealth Herbert Spencer and other philosophers
were often labeled Social Darwinists
Individuals “won” their station in life on the basis of competition and their natural talents
This could also be applied to entire nations (like the U.S. later) dominating “lesser peoples”
Self-justification of the wealthy = contempt for the poor
Some Gilded Age capitalists did believe they had a duty to give back to the society that gave them their $
“He who dies rich, dies disgraced” – A. Carnegie
……And in the South?And in the South?James B. Duke revitalizes the tobacco
industry with machine-rolled cigarettes
Resistance to Southern industrialization
Northern manufactured goods were given preferential treatment by the railroads
The RR favored Southern raw materials
“Pittsburgh Pricing” to keep southern steel from heading north
Keeping labor cheap kept southerners in poverty
The Impact of the Industrial The Impact of the Industrial RevolutionRevolution
“Jeffersonian ideals were withering…”
Rural American migrants and European immigrants headed to factories
Clerical work and a new “ideal” woman (“Gibson Girl”)
Growing gap between rich and poor
Dependent workers
Clamor for international trade
The Worsening Condition of Labor The Worsening Condition of Labor Low cost workers were easily replaced
Frederick Taylor published the Principles of Scientific Management in 1909 encouraging managers to view workers as interchangeable parts
Machines and unskilled workers replaced skilled craftspeople
Working conditions were less than ideal
Small, crowded rooms
Specialization made workers tired, bored, and more likely to be injured.
Stale air and unsafe workplaces
Long hours and low wages with no job security
Labor UnionsLabor UnionsKnights of Labor
• 1st national labor union (1870s)
• Included both skilled and unskilled workers
• Terence V. Powderly became leader in 1879 and ended secrecy of organization.
American Federation of Labor
• Organized individual unions under one
• Skilled workers only
• Used collective bargaining (all workers acted collectively to negotiate with management
• Samuel Gompers was their most signficant leader