259 - Moultrie Middle School

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:53 PM

Page 254

chaptertwenty-one

THE CONSERVATIVE ERA How did the Conservative Era affect South Carolina?

OVERVIEW After the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution began in earnest in the United States. Transcontinental railroads and Standard Oil led the way. A new wave of immigration brought ample labor for large industries. The Far West was being settled at the same time. In Washington the Republican Party remained in power, though the Democrats began to rebuild their strength after the Civil War. In South Carolina white Conservatives were in power from 1877 to 1890. At first, they followed Hampton’s moderate racism, but later they sought ways to keep African Americans out of politics. The Conservatives kept the memory of the “Lost Cause” alive while they welcomed the industrial age they called the New South.

SELECTED VOCABULARY Industrial Revolution Trust Capital Labor Union Strike Reservation Homestead Act Pendleton Act Conservatives (Bourbons) Eight-Box Law Lost Cause New South

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:53 PM

Page 255

TIMELINE I. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION How did the Industrial Revolution change the United States? In 1865 the United States was on the verge of major changes. These changes began with the coming of the Industrial Revolution. By 1900 the nation was one of the world’s great industrial powers. The value of American manufactured goods rose from $3 billion in 1869 to more than $13 billion in 1900. The first big business in America was the transcontinental railroad, begun in the 1850s. New inventions, such as the air brake and the safety coupler, made powerful trains that traveled at high speeds possible. In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, which gave public lands and loans to railroad companies that built across the West. In all, the federal government loaned $175 million and granted 270 million acres to the railroads. Once the railroad linked America together, nationwide business began to grow. The largest big business was Standard Oil, which was formed by John D. Rockefeller of New York. After oil was found in Pennsylvania in 1858, hundreds of oil refineries were built. Rockefeller not only bought many of these refineries but also the companies that made the barrels in which the oil was shipped. In 1872 he set up a trust, which combined all the companies he owned. Soon, Standard Oil controlled the making and selling of oil in the United States and in much of the world. In the 1890s, 300 trusts controlled all the major businesses in the nation.

UNITED STATES

SOUTH CAROLINA

1862 Homestead Act Pacific Railway Act 1866 Confederate Memorial Day began 1869 Knights of Labor formed 1872 Standard Oil Trust 1876 Invention of the telephone 1877 Republicans split into Stalwarts and Half-Breeds 1879 Invention of long-lasting electric light

1877 Wade Hampton became governor

1881 Eight Box Law Bureau of Immigration formed 1882 Dibble Plan

1883 Pendleton Act 1886 AFL formed 1887 Dawes Severalty Act

On May 10, 1869, the first transcontinental railroad was completed. At Promontory, Utah, a golden spike was driven to celebrate the new railroad. Library of Congress

Conservative Era | 255

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:53 PM

Page 256

New inventions changed the way Americans did business. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The Bell telephone changed the way people communicated with one another. In 1885 the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT and T) became a national corporation. Thomas A. Edison established a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. He invented the phonograph in 1877 and the first long-lasting incandescent electric light bulb in 1879. Edison and his associates developed hundreds of new inventions, including the storage battery and motion pictures. Big business needed large amounts of capital, or money for growth and investment. Investment bankers created many of the trusts. J. Pierpont Morgan, head of the House of Morgan in New York, was the major financial power in the United States. He set up large railroad and life insurance companies. He created many trusts, including United States Steel and General Electric. Thomas A. Edison was one of the great inventors in American history. His inventions formed the basis for many new businesses. Library of Congress

What were some of Edison’s inventions?

Edison’s first major laboratory was in Menlo Park, New Jersey. He was sometimes called “the Wizard of Menlo Park.” Henry Ford moved the laboratory buildings to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

II. IMMIGRATION AND LABOR From where did the new wave of immigrants come? Large industry needed labor. After 1865 a new wave of immigrants came into the United States. Between 1800 and 1860, 6 million people came to live in America. In the fifty years between 1865 and 1915, 25 million arrived. Many came from Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Asia. Soon the large cities of America had ethnic neighborhoods of Italians, Poles, Greeks, Russians, and Chinese. In 1882, Congress voted to restrict immigration. At first, Asians were excluded, then the very poor from every nation. After 1917 no immigrant over sixteen who could not read was admitted. After 1865 there were efforts to organize workers in the new industries into labor unions. At first, unions had both skilled and unskilled workers. The most successful labor union was the Knights of Labor, formed in 1869. It set out to improve conditions for workers, but it had few specific aims. It used the strike as a weapon. But it grew too large to manage. Soon there were many small craft unions of skilled workers. In 1886 Samuel Gompers formed the craft unions into the American Federation of Labor (AFL). It adopted a number of practical goals, such as higher wages and shorter working hours. Gompers was not afraid to use the strike.

III. THE FAR WEST How was the far West settled? In 1865 one-fifth of the United States was still unsettled western land. But within 25 years the land was carved into states or territories. The victims of settlement were the 225,000 Native Americans who lived in the western United States. The Native Americans had been promised long before that they would be left alone and given supplies by the government. But white settlers took their land and killed their game. The only hope the Native Americans had was armed warfare. Until 1890 there was constant fighting on the frontier between the army and the Native Americans. Combined with the destruction of the buffalo herds, Native Americans were

256 | Chapter 21

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:53 PM

Page 257

forced on to reservations. At last some Americans spoke out about the unfair treatment of the Indians. Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which gave the president the power to divide the land given to Native American nations and grant it to individuals. All Native Americans finally got United States citizenship in 1924. But much of their land was lost by fraud and sale by the government before the reforms. Native American landholdings decreased from 138 million to 48 million acres. At the same time, western settlement was spurred by the discovery of gold and silver in the Rocky Mountains and in Nevada in 1859. The last gold rush came in 1896 in Alaska, which the United States had bought from Russia in 1869. From the mining towns came many legendary figures, such as Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and Billy the Kid. Cattle farming became big business. Cowboys rounded up longhorn cattle on the grassy plains. They drove them over long trails to market in places such as Abilene and Topeka, Kansas. Farming spread quickly after Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862. Under the act, settlers could get as much as 160 acres of public land at no cost after living on it and improving it for five years. Or they could buy land for $1.25 an acre after six months. Life on the plains was hard. Farmers faced droughts, prairie fires, and blizzards. Men and women gained a new sense of equality as they fought the elements together. In 1890 the superintendent of the census reported that for the first time in American history there was no frontier. The area that became the fortyeight adjoining states was settled from coast to coast.

IV. THE POLITICS OF BUSINESS Which political party dominated national politics and supported big business? After the Civil War the federal government was controlled by the Republican Party. It was the party that saved the Union, and in one campaign after another Republicans named a military figure for president and “waved the bloody shirt.” They called the Democratic Party the party of disunion. Republicans were strong in New England, in northern New York, and in the West. They had the support of the black voters. By 1874 the Democrats regained political power. After Reconstruction they had “the solid South,” but they were strong in the border states and the cities of the North, as well. The “swing” states that might vote for either party in a national election were New York, Indiana, and Ohio. Candidates for president and vice president almost always came from New York and the Midwest. Reformers who wanted to stop corruption in government were often independents. They belonged to no party and were called mugwumps, or fence straddlers. After Grant left the White House in 1877, the Republicans split into two factions. The Stalwarts supported big business and the trusts. The Half Breeds supported government reform. Winning Republicans had to appeal to both groups. Stalwart Chester Arthur became president in 1881, after James A. Garfield’s assassination. But Arthur supported the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883. It set up a civil service that hired government workers on the basis of merit, not political connections. The only Democratic president from 1860 to 1912 was Grover Cleveland, the reform governor of New York. Cleveland was the only president to serve non-consecutive terms. He was the twenty-second and twenty-fourth president.

John D. Rockerfeller formed the Standard Oil Company. It was the first great trust in American business. Library of Congress

What is a trust?

Conservative Era | 257

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:53 PM

Page 258

V. CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP IN SOUTH CAROLINA How did the Conservatives limit state government?

Elected governor in 1876, Wade Hampton III later became a United States senator. Woodlands Plantation

What role did Hampton play in the Civil War?

When Federal troops at the State House in Columbia marched away at noon on April 10, 1877, the man in the governor’s office was Wade Hampton III, the symbol of the new era. Born in 1818 in Charleston, he grew up in Columbia and was educated at South Carolina College. He was the third Wade Hampton in South Carolina and was perhaps the richest man in the South on the eve of the Civil War. He owned over 3,000 slaves on plantations in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana. During the Civil War he rose to the rank of lieutenant general and commanded the cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia after the death of General J. E. B. Stuart. At the end of the war, Hampton’s slaves were gone, and his house near Columbia was burned by Sherman’s soldiers. His debts were more than $1 million. His furniture and personal belongings were sold at auction. Yet, at over six feet tall, he was a commanding presence and a visible reminder of the Old South. Hampton’s chief supporters were former Confederates of high rank. The lieutenant governor was William D. Simpson of Laurens, a lieutenant colonel and a member of the Confederate Congress. The speaker of the House of Representatives was William D. Wallace of Union, brevet (that is, temporary) brigadier general. Elected to the United States Senate was Major General Matthew C. Butler of Edgefield. Hampton himself won a Senate seat in 1878. Together they had fought for the old way of life in 1876. Once in office, they worked to restore Jefferson’s ideal of a limited government ruled by an elite. Before the Civil War these men had both Democratic and Whig leanings, so they usually called themselves Conservatives. On the national level, the Conservatives became Democrats. Later their political opponents called them Bourbons (BOORbuns). Bourbon was the family name of the French kings who went back to the throne after the French Revolution. Napoleon once said of them: “They forgot nothing, and they learned nothing.” Once in office the Conservatives made deep cuts in the state budget. They elected a very capable state superintendent of education, Hugh Smith Thompson. But they gave him little money to operate the public schools. Very little was spent to treat the mentally ill at the state hospital. To reduce the expenses of the state penitentiary, the Conservatives set up the convict lease system. Prisoners were hired out to businesses, such as railroads and phosphate companies. They worked under horrible conditions, and many of them died while at work. The University of South Carolina closed for three years, and The Citadel did not reopen until 1882.

VI. HAMPTON’S VIEWS ON RACE What was Wade Hampton’s view on race? Hampton did not believe in social equality between blacks and whites, but he did believe in political equality. In his campaign for governor, he had promised fair treatment for all. He named eighty-six African Americans to minor offices. When he visited Claflin College, he was asked to dinner with the president, who was white. When he arrived, two African Americans were present. Hampton was later attacked as pro-black for eating with African Americans. In his campaign for reelection in 1878, Hampton said to his hearers in Beaufort,

258 | Chapter 21

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:53 PM

Page 259

mostly African Americans: “Put [your] finger upon one pledge I have violated.” Said a former Republican judge: “There is not one decent Negro in the state who will vote against him.”

VII. MARTIN GARY AND CONSERVATIVE UNITY Why did Martin Gary attack Hampton? When they took office, the Conservatives did not control all of state government. The Republicans controlled the Senate and the courts. The Conservatives had to remain united to stay in power. They voted as a bloc in both houses of the legislature. Party unity was their most important rule. But that unity was challenged by one of the chief Conservatives. Martin Gary of Edgefield had planned the violence during the campaign of 1876. He attacked Hampton’s moderate policy on race. Politics was a matter of “race against race,” Gary said. He also attacked Hampton’s plan to pay the valid Reconstruction debt. Hampton wanted to restore the credit of the state by paying what was owed. Gary said the entire debt came from the corruption of the radicals. It should not be paid. Gary had another reason to oppose Hampton. He wanted a seat in United States Senate as his reward for his part in the 1876 election. But one seat went to Matthew C. Butler, and later the other went to Hampton. Hampton said that he himself had won the election by getting a large number of black votes. No man who broke the unity of the Democratic Party would get a reward. Gary died a bitter man in 1881.

Martin Witherspoon Gary was Hampton’s chief rival in state politics after 1876. South Caroliniana Library

What part did Gary play in the election of 1876?

VIII. THE EIGHT-BOX LAW What impact did the Eight-Box Law have on African American voters? After Hampton left the governor’s office, the Conservatives no longer followed his moderate racism. In its place, they tried to reduce black political power wherever it was possible. In 1880 a joint legislative committee began to study legal ways to keep blacks from voting. Edward McCrady, Jr., of Charleston was chairman. The McCrady committee proposed the Eight-Box Bill, In order to register to vote, each person would have to prove that he could read and write. He also had to pay a poll tax. Every precinct had to have eight ballot boxes. A vote would be counted only if the correct ballot were placed in the correct box. Every one of these proposals discriminated against African American voters. Some Conservatives opposed the bill since it would also keep many poor whites from voting. But reducing the African American vote seemed worth any price. The Eight-Box Law was passed in 1881. It worked. The number of Republican votes cast in South Carolina dropped from 91,870 in 1876 to 13,740 in 1888. Next the Conservatives went to work on representation in Congress. They wanted to reduce the number of African Americans in Congress from the state. The Dibble Plan, proposed by Samuel Dibble of Orangeburg, was adopted in 1882. It created one large district that stretched from Columbia to Georgetown to Beaufort. It did not include Charleston. The new district had the counties with the largest black population. One black member of Congress was insured, but no more. The Conservatives agreed to run no white person in the “Black District,” as they called it. No other district in the state would have enough Republican voters to elect a black representative. Defeated in 1896, George Washington Murray was the last black Congressman elected until the twentieth century in South Carolina.

Conservative Era | 259

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:53 PM

Page 260

IX. KEEPING THE LOST CAUSE ALIVE How was the Lost Cause remembered in South Carolina?

The mining of phosphate became an important industry in South Carolina during the Conservative Era. MCS Oliphant Collection

Why was phosphate important?

Many Confederate soldiers killed at Gettysburg are buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.

The Conservatives insured party unity by keeping the memory of the Civil War alive. Just as the Republicans in the North “waved the bloody shirt” in memory of the Union victory, Southern Democrats kept whites united by constant reminders of what they called the Lost Cause. There were frequent reunions of Confederate veterans. But just as important was the work of Southern white women. One of the leaders in the movement was Mary Amarintha Snowden (SNAU-don). Born in Charleston and educated at the Barhamville Institute, she formed a women’s group before the Civil War to erect the monument to Calhoun that stands in Marion Square. During the war Snowden transformed the group into the Soldiers’ Relief Association. Then, in 1866, the women formed the Ladies’ Memorial Association “to perpetuate the martyrdom of the Confederate dead.” They held the first Confederate Memorial Day services in South Carolina in Charleston’s Magnolia Cemetery, where hundreds of Confederate soldiers were buried. The women chose May 10, the day Stonewall Jackson died, as Confederate Memorial Day. Later it became a state holiday. From 1867 to 1914, forty-nine monuments were erected in South Carolina to honor the Confederate dead. Many were placed in front of county courthouses. The largest was erected in 1879 in Columbia in front of the State House. Over 15,000 people came in special trains for the dedication. Many of the monuments were statues of common soldiers, not of the generals. The choice to honor the soldiers in the ranks united the ordinary white citizens more closely to the Conservative leaders.

Library of Congress

Why is Magnolia Cemetery important in the “Lost Cause” cult in South Carolina?

260 | Chapter 21

X. THE NEW SOUTH SPIRIT How was the New South different from the Old South? South Carolina shared in the Industrial Revolution after the Civil War. The miles of railroad track more than doubled from 1865 to 1890. The most important new railroad was the Charlotte to Atlanta line across the Piedmont. The fertilizer industry was important in the Low Country, and textile mills were built in the Up Country. The legislature exempted, or excluded, industry from paying state and local taxes until 1885. The next year the state passed a general incorporation law. The law allowed a business to get a charter without a special act of the legislature. A charter could be issued by the secretary of state. The legislature also passed laws favoring certain industries. The state gave fertilizer companies the sole right to mine minerals in certain areas. It also gave towns and counties the power to make grants for the building of railroads. The state Agriculture Bureau published a handbook in 1883 that urged industries to locate in South Carolina. Edited by Harry

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:53 PM

Page 261

Hammond, it was entitled South Carolina, Resources and Population, Institutions and Industries. Meanwhile Southern spokesmen were proclaiming the rise of the New South. The Old South of plantations and slavery was gone, they said. In its place was a New South of small farms, growing cities, and new industries. The leading spirit in the New South movement in South Carolina was Francis W. Dawson, editor of the Charleston News and Courier. He was an Englishman who came to the South to fight in the Confederate army. He moved to Charleston after the war and became owner and editor of the News and Courier, which he made a statewide newspaper. A Conservative at heart, he did not want to forget the Old South. But he told his readers that “Charleston cannot live by cotton and rice alone.” He wrote of a new day when Charleston would be a great center of world trade. There will be enough business, he said, “for Savannah and Charleston—and for Port Royal to boot!”

XI. EFFORTS AT IMMIGRATION Why did the state have difficulty attracting immigrants? The Conservatives were also in favor of immigration into the state. They said that European immigrants might replace the slave labor lost by emancipation. The leader in this movement was John A. Wagener, a native of Germany who came to Charleston in 1833. He owned a newspaper printed in German. He also formed St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, which held services in German. In 1849 he set up a German colony at Walhalla, now in Oconee County. In 1866, Governor Orr named him commissioner of immigration. He sent out pamphlets in English, German, and the Scandinavian languages to urge people to immigrate. Several hundred came, but many soon left. They did not like the climate or the people. In 1881, after Wagener’s death, the Conservatives set up the Bureau of Immigration. In two years, 860 immigrants arrived. But the number of immigrants who came to the state was quite small. The great flood of immigrants went instead to the North and Midwest. There were more opportunities in other sections of the nation. There the newcomers did not have to compete with blacks, who worked for very low wages.

Francis Warrington Dawson was a leading spokesman for the New South in South Carolina. Duke University Special Collections

What was Dawson’s position?

In 1882 the legislature used the Dibble Plan to redraw the Congressional Districts. Which is the “Black District”?

Conservative Era | 261

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:54 PM

Page 262

EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY: Remembering the Civil War Despite the efforts of Conservatives to memorialize the “Lost Cause,” not all South Carolinians were loyal Confederates. Here are inscriptions from three monuments erected in the state after the Civil War by different groups. Read them carefully. Can you tell which groups or individuals they remember? (1) These were men Whom Power could not corrupt, Whom Death could not terrify, Whom defeat could not dishonor; And let their virtues plead for just judgment Of the cause in which they perished.

(2) Unawed by Opinion, Unseduced by Flattery: He confronted Life with antique Courage: And death With Christian Hope: In the great Civil War He withstood his People for his Country: But his People did Homage to the Man Who held his Conscience higher than their Praise.

(3) Immortality to Hundreds of the Defenders of American Liberty Against the Great Rebellion.

The three monuments are (1) the United States Memorial at the Beaufort National Cemetery, (2) the Confederate Monument in front of the State House in Columbia, and (3) the tombstone of the Unionist, James Louis Petigru, in St. Michael’s churchyard in Charleston. Read the inscriptions carefully. What words or phrases tell you what parts the individuals took in the Civil War? Select the monument most likely to have the inscription. Be ready to explain your answer.

262 | Chapter 21

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:54 PM

Page 263

Recalling wha t you read I. Industrial Revolution 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What was the first big business in America? What new inventions contributed to this big business? What was the Pacific Railway Act and how did it contribute to the growth of America’s first big business and to other nationwide businesses? What inventors changed the way Americans lived? What did they invent? What was the importance of the trust created by John D. Rockefeller when he combined all of the businesses he owned? Who was J. Pierpont Morgan? What trusts did he create?

II. Immigration and Labor 1. 2.

Why did the rise of industry create a need for a new labor market? What was the result? What did Samuel Gompers do?

III. The Far West

FOR THOUGHT 1. Why did the creation of a national railroad network help business? 2. Why did the Lost Cause help keep the Conservatives in power in South Carolina?

1. Who were the victims of the settlement of the West? 2. What was the importance of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887? Why was it not completely successful from the Indians point of view? 3. When did all Indians receive American citizenship? 4. How did the Homestead Act encourage widespread farming? 5. What was the significance of the report in 1890 that for the first time in American history there was no longer a frontier?

IV. The Politics of Business 1. Which of the political parties controlled the federal government after the Civil War? 2. Who were the mugwumps? 3. Who were the Stalwarts? the Half Breeds?

V. Conservative Leadership in South Carolina 1. Who was Wade Hampton III? 2. On the national level, who were the Conservatives?

VI. Hampton’s Views on Race 1. Even though Hampton did not believe in equality between blacks and whites, he treated both races fairly. Explain.

VII. Martin Gary and Conservative Unity 1. Who was Martin Gary? Why did he attack Hampton’s moderate policy of race relations? What was Gary’s hidden reason for opposing Hampton? continued on page 264

Conservative Era | 263

chapter twenty one

2/27/06

5:54 PM

Page 264

Recalling wha t you read VIII. The Eight-Box Law 1. 2.

What was the Eight-Box Law? Why did it discriminate against African American voters? Why was the bill opposed by some Conservatives? What was the Dibble Plan? How did it discriminate against blacks?

IX. Keeping the Lost Cause Alive 1. 2.

What was the Lost Cause that Southern Democrats used to unite whites? What part did women play in keeping “the cause” alive?

X. The New South Spirit 1. What were some special arrangements made to benefit business and industry in South Carolina that showed the New South spirit had caught fire in South Carolina? 2. What were the characteristics of the New South that Southern spokesmen began proclaiming following the Civil War? 3. Who was Francis W. Dawson? Why was he “a leading spirit” in the New South movement in South Carolina?

XI. Efforts at Immigration 1. Why did Conservatives begin promoting immigration into the state? How successful were their efforts?

264 | Chapter 21