Gilded Age & Progressive Reforms DBQ

CHART - What was the nature of each reform (pol, soc, or econ)? Explain.

Unit 5 Test (you will be responsible for addressing the following: Do you think this

statement from Mark Twain about the Gilded Age is an appropriate/accurate description of

this time period?

Document AColumbia, the feminine symbol ofthe United States, protecting a Chinese man against a gang of Irish andGerman thugs.

"Hands off-Gentlemen! Americameans fair play for all men."

Document BChinese Exclusion Act

“WHEREAS, in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof: Therefore,Be it enacted… the coming of Chinese laborers to the Untied States be, . . . suspended; and during such suspension it shall not be lawful for any Chinese laborer to come, or, having so come after the expiration of said ninety days, to remain within the United States.”

Excerpt from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act

Document C

Document D“The treatment of the Chinese in this country is all wrong and mean. . .

There is no reason for the prejudice against the Chinese. The cheaplabor cry was always a falsehood. Their labor was never cheap, andis not cheap now. It has always commanded the highest market price.But the trouble is that the Chinese are such excellent and faithfulworkers that bosses will have no others when they can get them. Ifyou look at men working on the street you will find a supervisor forevery four or five of them. That watching is not necessary forChinese. They work as well when left to themselves as they do whensome one is looking at them.

It was the jealousy of laboring men of other nationalities — especiallythe Irish—that raised the outcry against the Chinese. No one wouldhire an Irishman, German, Englishman or Italian when he could get aChinese, because our countrymen are so much more honest,industrious, steady, sober and painstaking. Chinese were persecuted,not for their vices [sins], but for their virtues [good qualities].”

The passage above is from Lee Chew, “The Biography of aChinaman,” Independent, 15 (19 February 1903), 417–423.

Document ECameron Report (Modified)

To the PRESIDENT: Washington, July 8, 1876

“There have been certain wild and hostile bands of Sioux Indians in Dakota andMontana. I refer to Sitting Bull's band and other bands of the Sioux Nation. TheseIndians continue to rove at pleasure, attacking scattered settlements, stealing horsesand cattle, and murdering peaceful settlers and travelers.The present military operations are not against the Sioux Nation at all, but againstcertain hostile parts of it that defy the Government. No part of these operations are onor near the Sioux reservation. The accidental discovery of gold on the western border ofthe Sioux reservation, and the settlement of our people there, have not caused this war.The young Indian warriors love war, and frequently leave the reservation to go on thehunt, or warpath. The object of these military operations was in the interest of thepeaceful people of the Sioux Nation, and not one of these peaceful Indians have beenbothered by the military authorities.”

Very respectfully,J. D. CAMERON, Secretary of War

Source: The President of the United States asked the Secretary of War, J.D. Cameron, for a report of the military actions leading up to the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Document FThe Italian in New York

The Italian comes in at the bottom. In the slums he is welcomed as atenant who "makes less trouble" than the Irishman: is content to live in apig-sty and lets the rent collector rob him.

Ordinarily he is easily enough governed by authority—except for Sunday,when he settles down to a game of cards and lets loose all his badpassions. Like the Chinese, the Italian is a born gambler. His soul is in thegame from the moment the cards are on the table, and very frequently hisknife is in it too before the game is ended.

“When I came, I heard the streets were paved with gold, but upon arrival, they were not and I was expected to pave them”

Observation from a ‘random’ Italian immigrant

Document G

Document H

“Several days before Christmas 1896 one of my Irish playmatessuggested that I go with her to a Christmas party at Hull-House. Iasked her if there would be any Jewish children at the party. Shesaid that there were Jewish children at the parties every year.I then began to understand that things might be different in America.In Poland it had not been safe for Jewish children to be on the streetson Christmas.

At the party, the children of the Hull-House Music School sang somesongs, that I later found out were called “Christmas carols.” I shallnever forget the sweetness of those voices. I could not connect thisbeautiful party with any hatred or superstition that existed among thepeople of Poland.

As I look back, I know that I became an American at this party. I waswith children who had been brought here from all over the world, with their fathers and mothers, in search of a free and happy life. And we were all having a good time at a party, as the guests of an American, Jane Addams.”

Source: The document below was written by Hilda Satt Polacheck in the 1950s, in her book I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl. She tells about her memories of Hull House from 1896.

Document I

Document JExcerpt from “The Jungle”

“There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for the sausage. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption [tuburculosis] germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.”

Document K