UNIT 5A -- THE GILDED AGE -- THE AMERICAN WEST

I. American West
A. Introduction

1. Congress had from the beginning power to divide Western territories into new states.
2. By 1853, the US possessed all the territory in present day continental US.
B. Myths About the West
1. It was a great equalizer - Americans took their prejudices with them to the West.
   a. If a minority group gained economically, legal attempts were made to restrict them.
   b. Hence, Blacks, Indians, Chinese, Mexicans and others discovered restrictions placed on them because they were non-white.
2. Persons who were poor migrated West
   a. It took money to go West.
   b. Many who raised money for the Black exodus in the 1870s did not go themselves, but provided the means for other families to do so.
3. Everyone rode horses, carried guns and was a cowboy in the West - These Hollywood images hide the truth that the predominant figure in the West was a farmer, most of whom never saw an Indian.
C. Facts About the West
1. Settlement of the West was aided by the discovery of gold, by the development of the cattle industry, and by the railroads.
   a. Gold in California in 1849, in the Rocky Mountains and the Black Hills of the Dakotas after the Civil War brought an influx of settlers into those areas and civilization was not far behind.
   b. After the Civil War, the cattle drives from Texas to Kansas brought economic development, the growth of towns, and the further break-up of the Plains Indians.
   (1) Open range ranching in raising cattle on public domain declined in the late l880s.
   (2) Joseph Glidden (1813-l906), an Illinois farmer, invented barbed wire in 1874, bringing cheap fencing and an end of the open range.
   c. In an effort to gain capital, railroad companies, which earlier had been given large tracts of government land, began the promotion and development of towns by offering prime railroad land for sale cheaply to interested settlers.
2. Frontier religion, especially the Baptists and Methodists, aided greatly in taming the more violent elements of the West.
3. Plains Indians were finally broken up with the demise of their traditional food sources, such as the buffalo, with technological advances such as barbed wire, the colt revolver (invented in l836), the railroad and the telegraph and with massacres of some Indian villages by the military.
4. Blacks and other minorities were found throughout the West
   a. in the mining camps
   b. on the cattle drives (25% of cowhands were Black and Mexican, although few were trail bosses)
   c. in the military (Black troops aided in defeated Indian tribes in west Texas - 24th, 25th Infantry division 9th and 10th Cavalry units).
D. Frontier Thesis - Frederick Jackson Turner 1895 - American Historical Association
1. According to the Census of 1890, the Frontier in America was closed
2. Turner proposed the thesis that the American character had been greatly enhanced and shaped by the presence of a vast frontier
3. With its closing, America's character would change by its gradual urbanization.
4. Characteristics of Americans caused by the frontier:
   a. Mobility of its population
   b. Inventiveness (Yankee Ingenuity)
   c. Wastefulness
   d. Democratic spirit fostered by the West.
E. Increased Statehood
1. Republicans abandoned the South after 1877 -- their future was in the West.
2. Many states were added before 1900 which voted Republican:
   a. Pre-Civil War - Minnesota 1858 - 32d; Oregon 1859 - 33d; KS 1861 - 34th
   b. Civil War Period
   (1) West Virginia 1863 - 35th - 50 Pro-Union Counties were reorganized by Congress.
   (2) Nevada 1864 - 36th (rushed to give Lincoln 3 electoral votes)
   c. Post-Civil War Period - Nebraska 1867 - 37th; Colorado 1876 - 38th; ND, SD 1889 - 39th, 40th; Montana 1889 - 41st; Washington 1889 - 42d; Idaho 1890 - 43d; Wyoming 1890 - 44th; Indian Territory was opened to white settlement in l890; Utah 1896 - 45th
   d. New states after 1900: Oklahoma, NM, Arizona, Hawaii, Alaska
F. American Relations with Other Ethnic Groups in the West
1. Native Americans
   a. Anglo Attitudes Toward Indians
   (1) The basic attitude of Whites toward Indians can be summed up by a statement allegedly by Gen Wm. Sherman assigned to the West: The only good Indian is a dead Indian .
   (2) During the Civil War, Indians were treated poorly by the military. (For example, Sand Creek (or Chivington) Massacre in Colorado in 1864, led by Col J.M. Chivington, resulted in the deaths of 400 Indians, mostly women and children.
   (3) The US Government in 1867 adopted the small reservation policy and by the 1870s, most of the remaining tribes were placed on reservations in "Indian Territory" (Oklahoma), Black Hills of the Dakotas or in the Southwest.
   (4) For giving up land claims, Indians were to be left alone, except for occasional provisions of food, clothing and other supplies.
   b. Indian Uprisings
   (1) Corrupt Indian agents and greedy whites, who encroached on Indian reservation land, resulted in a number of Indian uprisings between 1868-90.
   (a) Sioux War 1876-77 - Black Hills of Dakota - Chiefs Crazy Horse , Sitting Bull
   (b) Little Big Horn River - Montana Territory - 1876 - Gen. George Custer + 264 men were killed by 2500 Sioux led by Crazy Horse
   (c) Nez Perce Indians - Idaho - 1877 - led by Chief Joseph were overtaken by U.S. troops, thirty miles from Canada.
   (d) Apaches - AZ and NM - led by Geronimo , were pursued into Mexico and subdued by 1886, eventually moving to OK where many learned farming
   (2) With the outlawing of the Sun Dance and the "Ghost Dance " in 1884, the Dakotas (Sioux) revolted again which ended in the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 at which 200 Indians were killed included women and children.
   c. Attempts to Assimilate the Native Americans into Mainstream America.
   (1) Beginnings of Sympathy for the Plight of the Indian
   (a) Helen Hunt in 1881 published A Century of Dishonor which cataloged the US Government's broken promises to Native American groups.
   (b) The work evoked some public sympathy for Indians.
   (2) Dawes Severalty Act 1887 (small reservation to assimilation)
   (a) Tribal ownership of land was replaced with individual ownership - 160 acres per head of household for farming.
   (b) The land was held in trust by the US Government for twenty-five years after which the Indian received US citizenship and full title to his land.
   (c) US citizenship was granted to all Indians in 1924.
   (d) It was replaced by the Indian Reorganization Act 1934, restoring tribal ownership.
2. Relations with Chinese Workers
   a. Burlingame Treaty 1868 between U.S. and China stimulated Chinese immigration to the US as cheap labor for the Central Pacific Railroad, causing Chinese immigration to double each year.
   b. Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 forbade Chinese immigration 10 years
   (1) The first such act to close officially the door to the US to a particular ethnic group.
   (2) It was extended until its repeal in 1943.

II. Rutherford B. Hayes (19th President) Administration
A. Compromise of 1877 - As promised by Hayes, David M. Key (TN) was appointed Postmaster General on 5 March and in April the last Federal troops were withdrawn from the South, (last from LA).
B. End of "Black Reconstruction"

1. The removal of Federal troops marked the end of post-war Reconstruction, the period of control of ex-Confederate states under the Military Reconstruction acts.
2. Reconstruction governments had been under attack for corruption, incompetence and extravagance.
   a. Public debt rose dramatically
   (1) SC's debt rose from $7 million in 1865 to $29 million in 1873
   (2) Arkansas, from $3.5 million 1868 to $15.7 million in 1875
   (3) Louisiana, from $11 million to $50 million in 1875.
   b. Tax burdens were sharply increased
   c. Property values declined significantly
3. On the positive side, it should be remembered that large expenditures were needed to rebuild the devastated South, to cover newly freed slaves with adequate social services, previously available to few blacks, and to expand hospitals, asylums and facilities for public education.
4. By 1876, nearly every Southern state constitution contained provisions for tax-supported free public schools, which were mandatory for both blacks and whites.
5. Maladministration and corruption was not confined to the South
C. Black America and the Collapse of Reconstruction
1. Exoduster Movement 1877-80
   a. Benjamin "Pap" Singleton preached about a great future in the West.
   b. As a result, benevolent committees of Blacks raised funds so that many Blacks could leave the South to migrate West if they desired.
   c. After the last federal troops were withdrawn, the migration accelerated with as many as 30,000 Blacks leaving the South to migrate to KS.
   (1) Several all-Black communities were established.
   (2) KS economy could not absorb the sudden influx of immigrants ending exodus by 1880
   (3) Some prospered, went to OK when opened in l890 or returned to the South.
   d. The 1900 Census revealed that 90% of Blacks still lived in the South.
2. Loss of Civil Rights - For Blacks who remained trapped in the South, steps were taken to systematically deprive them of their civil rights by "legal" means.
   a. violence - kill, lynch, intimidate Blacks through fear (groups like KKK)
   b. subtle economic pressures - Because most Blacks became tenant farmers or sharecroppers, dependent on credit and the good wishes of landlords, Blacks resisting segregation and insisting on their rights soon found themselves denied credit for seeds and other supplies.
   c. Legislation - Segregation de jure - - Southern states instituted such requirements as the poll tax, property qualifications for holding office, and literacy and understanding tests for voting and to protect any whites, who could not read or understand what they read, grandfather laws permitted an exception -- If your grandfather voted before 1867, you were eligible to vote without passing the literacy and understanding tests.
3. Congressional Attempts to Protect Blacks -- 3 Enforcement Acts 1870-71
   a. Passed to protect Blacks from the violence of groups like the KKK.
   b. Elections were placed under the jurisdiction of the Federal government.
   c. Fines and jail terms could be imposed for those interfering with citizen's right to vote.
4. Jim Crow - name applied to systematic racial segregation in the South after Reconstruction
   a. Once Radical Republicans retreated from a determination to ensure that Blacks received civil rights, racial segregation became the order of the day
   b. Supreme Court decisions which aided the growth of segregation
   (1) Civil Rights Cases 1883
   (a) By a vote of 8 - 1, the Court declared unconstitutional parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that prohibited racial discrimination in inns, public conveyances and places of public amusement
   (b) 14th amendment only prohibited state abridgement of individual rights, but did not regulate individual private conduct in the area of racial discrimination, including private interference with rights as voting, jury service or appearing as witnesses in state courts.
   (c) Persons faced with private interference of their civil rights must seek relief from the state government, not the national Congress.
   (2) Plessy vs Ferguson 1896
   (a) By a vote of 7 - 1 (one not participating), the Court ruled as constitutional a Louisiana law, which required railroads to provide "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races."
   (b) Laws requiring the separation of the races did not suggest that one race was inferior.
   (c) Inferiority arose only because one race chose to perceive the laws that way.
D. Black Spokesmen in the Gilded Age - Two views emerged among Blacks as approaches to civil rights in the 20th century -- submission (accommodation) versus militant confrontation of racial discrimination
1. Booker T. Washington (1863-1915) - Educator, founder of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
   a. In a speech in 1895, known as the Atlanta Compromise , he mentioned a possible practical policy for Negro advancement.
   (1) Blacks could not agitate for practical and social equality until acquiring sufficient skills through vocational training, which would provide economic security.
   (2) "Better your position not by fighting segregation, but by learning useful skills and demonstra-ting your abilities."
   b. His view was known as gradualism or accommodationism
2. W (illiam) E (dward) B (urghardt) Du Bois (1868-1963) - Massachusetts born, PhD Harvard graduate l895, economics and sociology professor at Atlanta Univ
   a. While agreeing that Blacks needed education as did whites, he opposed Washington's attitude as one of submission to the notion of black inferiority
   b. His view was called confrontationalism , or interracialism .
   c. In Souls of Black Folks 1903, he argued that Negroes must constantly insist on voting rights as necessary and point out when confronted by it, that discrimination was barbarism.
3. Frederick Douglass (1817?-95) - president of the National Convention of Colored Men formed in Jan 1869 to press for the rights of Black citizens.
E. Other Domestic Issues Under Hayes
1. Bland-Allison Act Feb 1878
   a. Inflation-minded agrarian and labor groups desired more money in circulation in order to raise farm prices and industrial wages
   b. Silver demonetization had occurred in 1873, but the discovery of new silver deposits in Utah, Nevada and Colorado forced bullion prices down, and led to a call by Western silver interests for a return to bi-metallism, allied with the farmer and labor interests.
   c. A measure finally passed both houses of Congress, over Hayes' veto, which called for the coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, less than the free and unlimited coinage desired by inflationists.
   (1) The measure required the US government to purchase not less than $2 million and not more than $4 million worth of silver at the market price.
   (2) The purchases were to be converted into standard dollars.
   a. But the Secretary of the Treasury had discretionary powers, and used them conservatively, which lessened the inflationary effects of this act
   b. An international monetary conference achieved no conclusive results.
2. Resumption of Specie Payments
   a. An act in 1875 authorized the resumption of specie payments, but no attempt was made to reclaim the outstanding greenbacks in circulation
   b. Congress in 1878 decided to allow the $346,681,000 in greenbacks to remain a permanent part of the currency.
   c. A treasury surplus of $200 million in gold caused greenbacks to reach face value in gold by December 1878.
3. Greenback Labo r Movement
   a. The labor unrest of 1877 created labor support for a new political movement which organized at a convention in Toledo Ohio in February.
   (1) 800 delegates from 28 states attended
   (2) A platform was written which reflected inflationary and labor views.
   b. The party denounced the resumption of specie payments and called for the free coinage of silver on par with gold, the suppression of national bank notes, restrictions on the hours of industrial labor and limitations on Chinese immigration.
4. Hayes and the Spoilsmen
   a. Hayes attempted to break the domination of civil service by Radical Republicans, especially over the New York Customs house, controlled by the Stalwart faction, led by Roscoe Conkling
   b. Tenure of Office Act kept Hayes from removing customs collectors.
   c. Only by aligning with Democrats did Hayes secure the appointment of others to those positions, which left the Republicans badly split
5. Bi-Elections of 1878
   a. Greenback Labor Party peaked with a strength of over 1 million votes.
   (1) Fourteen congressional seats were captured by greenbackers.
   (2) James B. Weaver (IO) emerged as their leader in Congress.
   b. Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress.
   (1) Attempts to attach a rider to nullify the Force Acts of 1865 and 1874 were vetoed by Hayes.
   (2) Four additional attempts by Democrats to void these acts were vetoed by Hayes.
F. Presidential Election of 1880
1. Candidates
   a. Republicans in Chicago
   (1) Hayes' promise not to seek a 2d term threw the field wide open.
   (2) Two factions vied for the nomination: Stalwarts , led by Roscoe Conkling who nominated US Grant and the Halfbreeds , led by James G. Blaine
   (3) On the 36th ballot, James A. Garfield (OH) emerged as the "darkhorse" but the Stalwarts were appeased by the addition of Chester A. Arthur (NY), former customs official at New York harbor, for vice-president.
   b. Democrats in Cincinnati
   (1) Ex-Civil War General Winfield S. Hancock (PA), wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, was nominated for president.
   (2) William H. English (IN) was nominated for vice-president.
   c. Greenback Labor Party nominated James Weaver (IO) for president and B.J. Chambers vice-president.
2. Issues
   a. Republicans advocated mild civil service reform, a protective tariff, veterans' legislation and restrictions of Chinese immigration.
   b. Democrats mirrored the Republican platform, except for a call for a tariff for revenue purposes only.
   c. Greenbacks expanded their program by endorsing women's suffrage, Federal regulation of interstate commerce, and a graduated income tax.
3. Campaign
   a. Republican "bloody shirt" tactic was not as effective.
   b. The revival of economic prosperity aided the Republicans.
   c. First black presiding officer of a national convention (Republican) Blanche K Bruce
4. Results
   a. Garfield won 4,453,295 (215 electoral votes) to Hancock's 4,414,082 (155 electoral votes) to Weaver's 308,578.
   b. The close vote in NY and INmade this an extremely close election in reality with a plurality of less than 10,000 for Grant over Hancock.
   c. Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives