Chapter 20 - West Davidson High School

OUT OF MANY A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Chapter 20 Democracy and Empire 1870-1900

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Part One: Introduction

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Chapter Focus Questions How did the growth of federal and state governments and the consolidation of the modern two-party system reshape the meaning of citizenship in the Gilded Age? How and why did workers and farmers organize to participate in politics during this era? In what ways did the election of 1896 represent a turning point in U.S. political history? What explains the turn of the United States toward imperialist ventures in the late nineteenth century? Why did the United States go to war with Spain in 1898 an with what results? © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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Part Two: American Communities

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American Communities On January 17, 1893, the queen of Hawaii was deposed by an American diplomat. Lili’uokalani protested to President Grover Cleveland and he reinstated her as queen and declared the independent republic of Hawaii. When McKinley became president he immediately annexed Hawaii. Hawaii was a steppingstone to Asian markets. The path to empire made major changes in government and the party system.

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Part Three: Toward A National Governing Class

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The Growth of Government The size and scope of government at all levels grew rapidly during the gilded age. New employees, agencies, and responsibilities changed the character of government. Taxes increased as local governments assumed responsibility for providing such vital services as police, fire protection, water, schools, and parks. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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The Machinery of Politics The federal government developed its departmental bureaucracy. Power resided in Congress and the state legislatures. The two political parties only gradually adapted to the demands of the new era. Offices were filled by the spoils system that rewarded friends of the winning party. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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In 1888, Grover Cleveland, with his running mate, Allen G. Thurman, led a spirited campaign for reelection to the presidency. Although he played up his strong record on civil service reform and tariff reduction, Cleveland, an incumbent, lost the election to his Republican challenger, Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland tallied the greatest number of popular votes, but Harrison easily won in the Electoral College by a margin of 233 to 168. In this lithograph campaign poster, the Democratic ticket invokes the legacy of Thomas Jefferson and the patriotism of Uncle Sam. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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The Spoils System and Civil Service Reform In 1885, Congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act that created the civil service system and a professional bureaucracy. A system of standards was developed for certain federal jobs. This effort paralleled similar efforts at professionalism in other fields.

The legislative branch was also given a more active role in government under the Circuit Court of Appeals Act of 1891.

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Part Four: Farmers and Workers Organize Their Communities

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The Grange The Grange formed in the 1870s by farmers in the Great Plains and South who suffered boom and bust conditions and natural disasters. Grangers blamed hard times on a band of “thieves in the night,” especially railroads, and pushed through laws regulating shipping rates and other farm costs. Grangers created their own grain elevators and set up retail stores for farm machinery. The depression of the late 1870s wiped out most of these programs.

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The symbols chosen by Grange artists represented their faith that all social value could be traced to honest labor and most of all to the work of the entire farm family. The hardworking American required only the enlightenment offered by the Grange to build a better community.

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The Farmers’ Alliance In the late 1880s, Texas farmers formed the National Farmers Alliance and Industrial Union, in cooperation with the Colored Alliance. The Alliance sought to: Northern Plains farmer organizations soon joined the Alliance. By 1890, the Alliance was a major power in several states demanding a series of economic reforms. Chart: Falling Price of Wheat Flour, 1865-1900 © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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Figure 20.1 Falling Price of Wheat Flour, 1865-1900 The falling price of wheat was often offset by increased productivity, giving farmers a steady, if not higher, income. Nevertheless, in the short term farmers often carried more debt and faced greater risk, both factors in sparking the populists protest by the end of the century.

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Workers Search for Power Workers organized stronger unions that increasingly resorted to strikes and created labor parties. Henry George ran for mayor of New York on the United Labor Party ticket and finished a respectable second. In the late 1880s, labor parties won seats on numerous city councils and in state legislatures in industrial areas where workers outnumbered other classes. Map: Strikes by State, 1880 © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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MAP 20.1 Strikes by State, 1880 Most strikes after the Uprising of 1877 could be traced to organized trades, concentrated in the manufacturing districts of the Northeast and Midwest. SOURCE: Carville Earle, Geographical Inquiry and American Historical Problems (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,1992). © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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The Great Uprising of 1877, which began as a strike of railroad workers, spread rapidly to communities along the railroad routes. Angry crowds defied the armed militia and the vigilantes hired to disperse them. In Philadelphia, for example, strikers set fire to the downtown, destroying many buildings before federal troops were brought in to stop them. More than a hundred people died before the strike ended, and the railroad corporations suffered a $10 million loss in property. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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Women Build Alliances Women actively shaped labor and agrarian protest. Women were active members in the Knights of Labor, Grange and Alliances. The greatest female leader was Frances E. Willard, who: was president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union By 1890 she had mobilized 200,000 paid members in the largest organization of women in the world.

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Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) became a full-time activist for the national Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1874. From 1879 until her death, she served as president, pushing the organization to expand its interests beyond temperance under the rubric of her “doeverything” policy. Under her leadership, the WCTU established 39 departments promoting a wide array of reform causes ranging from the establishment of free kindergartens to the prohibition of the manufacture of cigarettes.

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Populism and the People’s Party Between 1890 and 1892, the Farmers’ Alliance, the Knights of Labor, the National Colored Farmers’ Alliance and other organizations formed the People’s Party. The People’s Party platform called for: government ownership of railroads, banks, and the telegraph the eight-hour day the graduated income tax, and other reforms

Though the party lost the 1892 presidential race, Populists elected three governors, ten congressional representatives, and five senators. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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Part Five: The Crisis of the 1890s

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Financial Collapse and Depression In 1893, the collapse of the nation’s major rail lines precipitated a major depression. Full recovery was not achieved until the early 1900s. Unemployment soared and many suffered great hardships. Tens of thousands took to the road in search of work or food.

Jacob Coxey called for a march on Washington to demand relief through public works programs. “Coxey’s Army” was greeted warmly by most communities on the way to Washington. The attorney general, who was a former lawyer for a railroad company, conspired to stop the march. Police clubbed and arrested the marchers for trespassing on the grass in Washington. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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After five weeks the main body of Coxey’s Army reached Washington, DC, where on May 1, 1894, the leaders were immediately arrested for trespassing on government property. Fifty years later, on May 1, 1944, the ninety-year-old Coxey finally gave his speech advocating public works programs on the steps of the nation’s capitol. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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Strikes: Coeur d’Alene, Homestead, and Pullman Strikes were sparked by wage cuts. In Idaho, a violence-plagued strike was broken by federal and state troops. The hard times precipitated a bloody confrontation at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead steel plant. A major strike in Pullman, Illinois: spread throughout the nation’s railroad system ended with the arrest of Eugene Debs resulted in bitter confrontations between federal troops and workers in Chicago and other cities.

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The popular magazine Harper’s Weekly published this illustration of workers and their families protesting the use of a private security force at the Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, Pennsylvania, in July 1892. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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The Social Gospel A “social gospel” movement led by ministers such as Washington Gladden, called for churches to fight against social injustice. Charles M. Sheldon urged readers to rethink their actions by asking: “What would Jesus do?” The Catholic Church endorsed the right of workers to form trade unions. Immigrant Catholic groups urged priests to ally with the labor movement. Women’s religious groups such as the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) strove to provide services for poor women. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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Part Six: Politics of Reform, Politics of Order © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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The Free Silver Issue Grover Cleveland won the 1892 election by capturing the traditional Democratic Solid South and German voters alienated by Republican nativist appeals. When the economy collapsed in 1893, government figures concentrated on longstanding currency issues to provide a solution. The debate was over hard money backed by gold or soft money backed by silver. Cleveland favored a return to the gold standard, losing much popular support.

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Populism’s Last Campaign The hard times strengthened the Populists, who were silver advocates. They recorded strong gains in 1894. But in 1896, when the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan as a champion of free silver, Populists decided to run a fusion ticket of Bryan and Tom Watson.

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The Election of 1896 Republicans ran William McKinley as a safe alternative to Bryan. Map: Election of 1896 Bryan won 46% of the vote but failed to carry the Midwest, West Coast, and Upper South. Traditional Democratic groups like Catholics were uncomfortable with Bryan and voted Republican.

The Populists disappeared. McKinley promoted a mixture of pro-business and expansionist foreign policies. The return to prosperity after 1898 insured continued Republican control.

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MAP 20.2 Election of 1896 Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan carried most of rural America but could not over-come Republican William McKinley’s stronghold in the populous industrial states.

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This Republican campaign poster of 1896 depicts William McKinley standing on sound money and promising a revival of prosperity. The depression of the 1890s shifted the electorate into the Republican column.

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Nativism and Jim Crow Chart: African American Representation in Congress, 1867-1900 Neither McKinley nor Bryan addressed the increased racism and nativism throughout the nation. Nativists blamed foreign workers for hard times and considered them unfit for democracy. White supremacy was established as the political force in the South. Southern whites enacted a system of legal segregation and disenfranchised blacks, approved by the Supreme Court.

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FIGURE 20.2 African American Representation in Congress, 1867– 1900 Black men served in the U.S. Congress from 1870 until 1900. All were Republicans. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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Seeing History The White Man’s Burden.

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Nativism and Jim Crow Racial violence escalated. Between 1882 and 1900 lynchings usually exceeded a hundred each year. They were announced in newspapers and became public spectacles. Railroads offered special excursion prices to people traveling to attend lynchings.

Ida B. Wells launched a one-woman anti-lynching crusade. Reformers abandoned their traditional support for black rights and accepted segregation and disenfranchisement.

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Part Seven: The Path to Imperialism

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“All the World’s a Fair” The Chicago World’s Fair: showed how American products might be marketed throughout the world reinforced a sense of stark contrast between civilized Anglo-Saxons and savage people of color. It attracted 27 million visitors.

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“The Imperialism of Righteousness” Clergymen like Josiah Strong urged Americans to help Christianize and civilize the world. After the Civil War, missionary activity increased throughout the non-western world. College campuses blazed with missionary excitement. The YMCA and YWCA embarked on a worldwide crusade to reach non-Christians.

Missionaries helped generate public interest in foreign lands and laid the groundwork for economic expansion.

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By the end of the nineteenth century, women represented 60 percent of the American missionary force in foreign lands. This photograph shows two Methodist women using “back chairs,” a traditional form of transportation, at Mount Omei in Szechwan, China. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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The Quest for Empire Map: The American Domain, ca. 1900 Beginning in the late 1860s, the United States began expanding overseas. Secretary of State William Henry Seward launched the nation’s Pacific empire by buying Alaska. The U.S. policy emphasized economic control, particularly in Latin America. During the 1880s and 1890s, the United States strengthened its navy and began playing an increased role throughout the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific.

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MAP 20.3 The American Domain, ca. 1900 The United States claimed numerous islands in the South Pacific and intervened repeatedly in Latin America to secure its own economic interests. © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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Brought to power with the assistance of American businessmen, Queen Lili’uokalani sought to limit outsider influence. American Marines, Christian missionaries, and sugar planters joined in 1893 to drive her from her throne. A century later, the U.S. government apologized to native Hawaiians for this illegal act.

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Part Eight: Onto a Global Stage

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A “Splendid Little War” in Cuba A movement to gain independence from Spain began in the 1860s. Americans sympathized with Cuban revolutionaries. The Spanish were imposing harsh taxes. By 1895, public interest in Cuban affairs grew, spurred on by grisly horror stories of Spanish treatment of revolutionaries.

McKinley had held off intervention, but public clamor grew following an explosion on the USS Maine.

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A “Splendid Little War” in Cuba Map: The Spanish-American War The United States smashed Spanish power in what John Hay called “a splendid little war.” The Platt Amendment protected U. S. interests and acknowledged its unilateral right to intervene in Cuban affairs. This amendment paved the way for U.S. domination of Cuba’s sugar industry and provoked anti-American sentiments among Cuban nationals.

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MAP 20.4 The Spanish-American War In two theaters of action, the United States used its naval power adeptly against a weak foe.

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War in the Philippines Initially, Filipino rebels welcomed American troops in their fight against Spain. After the United States intended to annex their country, they turned against their former allies. Between 1899 and 1902, Americans fought a war that led to the death of one in every five Filipinos. Supporters defended the war as bringing freedom and government to the Filipinos. Critics wondered if the U.S. could build an empire without sacrificing its democratic spirit.

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“Uncle Sam Teaches the Art of Self-Government,” editorial cartoon, 1898. Expressing a popular sentiment of the time, a newspaper cartoonist shows the rebels as raucous children who constantly fight among themselves and need to be brought into line by Uncle Sam. The Filipino leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, appears as a dunce for failing to learn properly from the teacher. The two major islands where no uprising took place, Puerto Rico and Hawai’i, appear as passive but exotically dressed women, ready to learn their lessons.

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Critics of Empire The Filipino war stimulated the founding of an Anti-Imperialist League that denounced the war and territorial annexation in no uncertain terms. Critics cited democratic and racists reasons for anti-imperialism. Most Americans put aside their doubts and welcomed the new era of aggressive nationalism.

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Part Nine: Conclusion

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