1. 1870 – 1900

2.  During the Gilded Age, the size and scope of government grew rapidly at all levels  Taxes increased as local governments assumed responsibility for providing police, fire protection, water, schools, and parks— gaining votes became a spectacle at election time, and those who sought the power, by any means necessary became powerful machine and party leaders  Federal government developed its departmental bureaucracy as power resided in Congress and state legislatures, and offices were filled by the spoils system that rewarded friends of the winning party

3.  Hayes promised civil service reform, but was hampered by the Republican divide between the STALWARTS (the traditional, machine politicians) and the HALF-BREEDS (reformers)—in reality, both sides wanted a piece of the political pie  In the election of 1880, the Republicans nominated James A. Garfield (Half-breed) with Chester A. Arthur (Stalwart) as a compromise. Garfield won the election  Garfield upset the Stalwarts by promising civil service reform  Garfield was assassinated by a disgruntled office seeker Charles Guiteau, and Arthur became president  Arthur defied his stalwart buddies and helped pass the Pendleton Reform Act (1883) that developed a civil service commission that oversaw the hiring of civil servants based on merit, not spoilage

7.  Rutherford B. Hayes, Rep. (1877 – 1881)  James A. Garfield, Rep. (1881)  Chester A. Arthur, Rep. (1881 – 1885)  Grover Cleveland, Dem. (1885 – 1889)  Benjamin Harrison, Rep. (1889 – 1893)  Grover Cleveland, Dem. (1893 – 1897)  William McKinley, Rep. (1897 – 1901)

8.  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 the railroads and banks, who charged ridiculous fees for their services  The Granger laws helped to regulate shipping rates and other farm costs  Grangers created their own grain elevators and set up retail stores for farm machinery (cooperatives)  Though the depression at the end of the decade wiped out most of these reforms, collective action and cooperation remained the core of agrarian protest

9.  In the rural South and West, and eventually the North, farmers formed organizations that demanded economic and political reforms:  State ownership of the railroads  Graduated income tax  Lower tariffs  Free and unlimited coinage of silver

10.  Workers organized stronger unions that increasingly resorted to strikes and created labor parties; by the late 1880s, labor parties won seats on numbers city councils and in state legislatures in industrial areas where workers outnumbered other classes  The Great Railroad Strike of 1877: the first nationwide strike, spurred by a 10% wage cut, strikers stopped service from Baltimore to St. Louis by destroying equipment and rioting in the streets. Hayes called in federal troops to suppress the disorder. Over 100 people died before the strike was over.  The strike empowered workers, but also made most Americans and politicians wary of the worker’s strife—fear of anarchist sentiment spreading among the masses

12.  Women actively shaped labor and agrarian protest; women were members of the KOL, Grange, and Farmers’ Alliances  Frances E. Willard who was president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union taught abstinence from alcohol (over a million members by 1900)  The National American Woman Suffrage Association united the factions of the women’s suffrage movement

13.  Between 1890-92, the Farmers’ Alliance, KOL, the National Colored Farmers’ Alliance and other organizations formed the People’s Party  Though they lost the 1892 presidential race, the Populists won many local elections  The Populist platform:  Government ownership of railroads, banks, and the telegraph  8-hour work day  The graduated income tax  Immigration restrictions

14.  The bankruptcy of the railroad industry led to a stock market collapse in 1893, that triggered bank failures, contraction of credit, and loan-dependent businesses to declare bankruptcy  Unemployment soared into the millions as many became vagrants  Populist Jacob Coxey called for a march on Washington to demand relief through public works programs, but marchers were clubbed and arrested upon entering Washington  This instability frightened the middle class, who feared a revolution of radical laborism (the major strikes of the 1890s did not ease any feelings)

15.  Coeur D’Alene (1892): silver mine strike after miners rejected a wage cut; troops, strike breakers and scabs were brought in to keep the mine running after rounding up the strikers  Homestead (1892): Carnegie’s steel workers went on strike after a series of wage cuts headed by plant leader Henry Frick; Frick shuts down plant and called in private detectives to attack the strikers; National Guard escorted strike breakers into the plant and production resumed; membership in Amalgamated Association (steel union) dwindled to almost 1/3 of numbers  Pullman (1984): slashed wages 25%, but kept rent and other town duties intact angered the railway workers; led by ARU president Eugene V. Debs, railroad transportation from Chicago to the West Coast halted; railroad companies went AROUND the governor and President Cleveland sent troops into Chicago; strike broken up and Debs arrested—he would run for president in 1900, 04, 08, and 12 as a socialist

16.  Led mostly by Protestant ministers and church leaders to fight social injustice utilizing Christian ideals (What would Jesus do?)  The Catholic Church endorsed the right of workers to form and join trade unions  Women’s religious groups such as the YWCA strove to provide services for poor women

17.  Grover Cleveland won the 1892 election capturing the traditional Democratic Solid South and alienated Republicans (the “Mugwumps”)  The Panic of 1893, many believed (including Cleveland) was the currency issue: gold or silver  The US had a bimetal system (gold and silver) on which the currency was based, but the value of gold was 16:1 (16 ounces of silver = 1 ounce of gold)  In 1873, Congress stopped coining silver, and the price fell; suddenly there was a surplus of silver (inflation)  Farmers wanted this inflation as a way to pay their debt (more sliver…”free silver”)  The Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) required the payment of silver with gold, which caused a drain on the gold supply  Congress repealed the Act in 1894, but it caused a split in the Democratic Party: hard money (gold) v. soft money (silver)

18.  Populist nominee William Jennings Bryan, champion of free silver, is nominated by the Democrats  The Republicans nominated on safe, pro-business, pro-expansionist William McKinley  Traditional Democrats (Catholics and urban voters) voted Republican  Prosperity began to return in 1898, and the fusion experiment of the Democrats and Populists destroyed the Populist movement

20.  McKinley and Bryan ignored racism and nativism in the 1896 campaign  Nativists blamed foreign workers for hard times, considered them unfit for democracy, and the bringers of anti-American ideas (socialism, anarchism)  White supremacy was established as the political force in the South as legal segregation, “separate but equal,” and the disenfranchisement of blacks was approved by the Supreme Court (Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896)  Racial violence escalated as over 100 lynchings were recorded each year between 1882-1900 (many were advertised in newspapers and were public spectacles)  Ida B. Wells launched a one-woman anti-lynching crusade that won international acclaim (despite being wanted in the South)

22.  The Columbian Exposition (World’s Fair) in Chicago showed how American products might be marketed throughout the world  It attracted 27 million visitors  Some critics argued that it promoted the Anglo- Saxon race as one of ingenuity and progress, but it promoted the savagery and backwardness of people of color

23.  The idea behind imperialism was to help Christianize and civilize the world  Missionary work increased after the Civil War as college campuses and the YMCA and YWCA embarked on a world-wide crusade to reach non-Christians  Missionaries helped generate public interest in foreign lands and laid the groundwork for economic expansion

24.  Beginning in the 1860s, the US began expanding overseas (see next slide)  The Good Neighbor Policy: created by Sec. of State James Blaine, allowed the US to dominate the local economies of Latin America and the Caribbean  Since political stability was vital to the policy, the US strengthened its navy and began to play an increased role in the Western Hemisphere and Pacific  Mahan’s Influence of Sea Power urged the creation of a strong navy and the necessity for the establishment of bases and ports to ensure the survival and strength of the navy  The annexation of Hawaii in 1898 was testament to this belief  Sec. of State John Hay’s Open Door Policy of 1899-1900, after the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China helped usher America onto the global stage of international politics as he helped secure trading rights for the US in China, as well as the rights of most European nations

26.  Cuba began its independence movement from Spain in the 1860s; most Americans sympathized with Cuba  The Spanish were imposing harsh taxes on the Cuban people  American journalists were publishing horror stories of Cuban rebels being tortured in concentration camps (yellow journalism) to sway public opinion  The USS Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana Harbor  The De Lome Letter: letter written by the Spanish minister in Washington accusing McKinley of being weak and a panderer—only Americans can insult the President!  “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!”  US declared war on Spain in 1898

27.  The US won an easy fight against a weak enemy  The war produced a hero out of ex-Naval Secretary Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders  The US gained Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines; Cuba won its freedom  The Platt Amendment protected US interests and acknowledged its right to intervene in Cuban affairs

28.  Initially, Filipino rebels welcomed US troops in their fight for independence from Spain  After the US annexed the Philippines, a bitter war was fought until 1902 that killed 4,300 US troops and 50,000 Filipinos  Supporters defended the war as the only way to civilize and bring democracy to a backward people  How could the US build an empire without sacrificing the spirit of democracy?

30.  The Anti-Imperialist League was founded after the Spanish-American War, and its members ranged from Carl Schurz to Mark Twain  Most cited democratic principles and racism as the reasoning behind anti-imperialism  Most Americans welcomed the new era of aggressive nationalism—an extension of manifest destiny, perhaps?