APUSH UNIT SEVEN

1. APUSH UNIT SEVEN Chapter 19: From Crisis to Empire

2. The Politics of Equilibrium • Remarkable stability of the party system • The two-party system was strong • Republicans and Democrats → evenly matched →vigorous contest for power • Party identification → centered on regional, ethnic and religious sentiments → not political and policy issues • Party loyalty was strong on both sides • High voter turnout in elections

3. High voter turnout in this period

4. The National Government • At this point, the federal government did comparatively little • The only Cabinet departments were the original line-up in 1789 → Department of State, Department of War (later the Department of Defense), Department of the Treasury, and the Post Office, and . . .Department of the Interior (added in 1849), Department of Agriculture (1862) • Mostly, the federal government just → delivered the mail, maintained the national military, conducted foreign policy, and collected tariffs and taxes

5. Fed govt → involved in economic development for some time • Subsidies to railroads, land grants • Intervention on the side of “capitalism” (management) • Pensions for Civil War veterans and widows • The most powerful organizations were the political parties (Party Bosses), not the national government

6. Presidents and Patronage • Presidents had to try to avoid offending powerful party factions • Competition between Half-Breeds (reform) and Stalwarts (machine politics) for control of the Republican Party • Patronage • Rutherford B. Hayes (served 1877-1881) → other than the Compromise of 1877 → completely forgettable • “Lemonade Lucy”

7. “Stalwarts” vs. “Half-Breeds” in the GOP

8. Election of 1880 • 1880 Election: • Republicans nominated James A. Garfield (Half-Breed) for President • Chester A. Arthur (Stalwart) nominated for Vice-President • Democrats nominated an unknown (Winfield Hancock) • Garfield-Arthur won easily → Garfield becomes the 20th president

9. Four months into his term, Garfield was assassinated • Shot by Charles Guiteau, a lawyer and disgruntled office seeker • Probably mentally unbalanced

10. Guiteau proclaimed, • “I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts! I did it and I want to be arrested! Arthur is President now!” • Guiteau got his wish, and was arrested • He was hanged a year later. The dirty, painful death of President Garfield → see handout

11. Chester A. Arthur – 21st President “Chet Arthur? President of the United States? Good God!” The Gentleman Boss “But, he’s not ‘Chet Arthur’ anymore…he’s the president.”

12. Chester A. Arthur and the Pendleton Act • Garfield had advocated civil service reform • Arthur had been a believer in the “Spoils System” • But Arthur supported Garfield’s civil service reforms after Garfield’s death • 1883 Pendleton Act required civil service exams for some federal jobs → expanded over the years President Chester A. Arthur attempts to reform the spoils system

13. The Chinese Exclusion Act 1882

14. Cleveland and the Election of 1884 • James G. Blaine → the “Plumed Knight” • Liberal Republicans → “mugwumps” • Grover Cleveland → Democrat candidate → reform governor of New York • “rum, Romanism, and rebellion” • Heavy catholic turnout • Cleveland wins

15. Cleveland accused of fathering an illegitimate child Republican slogan - “Ma! Ma! Where’s my Pa? Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!” Election of 1884

16. Grover Cleveland – 22nd and 24th President • As president, Cleveland worked to lower protective tariffs • He felt that protective tariffs were unfair to ordinary people and helped industrialists too much. • Cleveland’s re-election campaign in 1888 was fought over the tariff • He lost a close (and probably dishonest) election in ’88 to Benjamin Harrison

17. New Public Issues • Benjamin Harrison was a completely unremarkable leader • During his term many new sources of anger among ordinary Americans appeared • Grandson of President William Henry Harrison (who had served for four weeks in 1841) • Benjamin Harrison was the last President with a beard Benjamin Harrison – 23rd President

18. Sherman Antitrust Act • Congress passed the first anti-monopoly law → Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 • It was not intended to do much other than quiet the criticism of big businessmen and their monopolies • It was little-used for about ten years, and was never very successful

19. The Sherman Antitrust Act • Passed in 1890 to restore competition • Court used the act to stop trade unions • Vaguely defined • Symbolic measure → wasn’t enforced 1889 political cartoon from Puck shows corporate monopoly bosses looming over the Senate as it debates the Sherman Antitrust Act

20. McKinley Tariff • Republicans under Harrison acted quickly to re-instate the protective tariffs that Cleveland had fought against • The McKinley Tariff of 1890 benefited the industrial tycoons greatly • It was introduced by then-Representative (later President) William McKinley • The McKinley tariff was the highest tariff ever • It raised the average duty (tariff) to an average of almost fifty percent (50%) • It was very unpopular among ordinary people • It helped the Republicans lose their Congressional majority in 1892 • It also helped McKinley lose his Congressional seat

22. Interstate Commerce Act • Establishes the right of the federal government to regulate the RR’s • Five-member Interstate Commerce Commission was to administer the act • Haphazardly enforced and narrowly interpreted by the courts

23. The Agrarian Revolt • Farmers in the 1880’s → long economic decline, sense of obsolescence • Problems w/the modern economy • Eager for govt assistance • Emergence of one of the most powerful movements of political protest in American history → Populism

24. The Grangers • Farmers were often victimized by industrialists as well • The Grange was the first major farmers organization → 1860’s-1870’s • The Grange began as a fraternal organization, complete with its own secret rituals. • Local affiliates were known as "granges" and the members as "grangers.“ • In its early years, the Grange was devoted to educational events and social gatherings ‘The Grange Awakening the Sleepers.' American cartoon, 1873, inspired by the Vanderbilt system of secret rebates, showing a farmer trying to rouse...

25. The Farmer’s Alliance • In the late 1870’s the power of the Grange declined • The Farmer’s Alliance was the successor as the vehicle of agrarian protest • Mary Elizabeth Lease of Kansas → fiery Populist orator → key figure on the Alliance lecture circuit • She urged the farmers to "raise less corn and more hell.”

26. Birth of the People’s Party • Out of the demands of farmers, workers, and other ordinary folk came a new political movement • The People’s Party → commonly called the Populists

27. The Populist Constituency • Appealed to farmers → mainly small farmers • Economically and culturally marginal people → gave them a sense of belonging • Populism never attracts labor support

28. Populist Ideas • “subtreasuries” → govt lending at low rates • Abolition of national banks • Direct election of senators • Regulation and ownership of RR’s, telephones, and telegraphs • Graduated income tax • Inflation of the currency → “free silver” • Rejected laissez faire

29. The Crisis of the 1890’s • Agrarian protest • Severe economic depression • Labor unrest and violence • Failure of either party to respond to the crisis • Grover Cleveland elected in 1892 → rigid conservative

30. The Panic of1893 • Bank failures, contraction of credit, depression in farm prices, over expansion of the RR’s

31. Coxey’s Army • Unemployment was over 20%. • An Ohio Populist named Jacob Coxey led a march of farmers and the unemployed on Washington DC, to force Congress to come to their aid • “Coxey’s Army” • Congress ignored them

32. The Silver Question • What would form the basis of the dollar • Specie (precious metal) currency • “Bimetallism” → gold and silver • 1873 Congress discontinues silver coinage • The “Crime of ’73” → silver miners and small farmers wanted → “ free silver” Free silver = free and unlimited coinage of silver → inflation of the currency

33. Republicans nominate Ohio Governor McKinley → gold standard Democrats nominate Nebraska congressman Bryan → “Cross of Gold” speech → Dems become pro-silver → fusion w/Populists William Jennings Bryan (D) Election of 1896 → William McKinley (R)

34. Cross of Gold Speech

36. Marc Hanna → Ohio party boss • The “front-porch” campaign • Bryan → birth of modern campaigning → traveled and gave speeches across the country • McKinley wins • People’s Party/Populists disappears

37. McKinley and Recovery • Return to calm under McKinley • Labor unrest subsides • Decline of Populism • Gold Standard 1900 • Failure of the free-silver movement • Business expansion and prosperity

38. Stirrings of Imperialism • In the two decades after the Civil War → little to no territorial expansion • By the 1890’s → some were ready and eager to resume Manifest Destiny

39. The New Manifest Destiny Primary Causes: • Need for overseas markets • Manifest Destiny • Anglo Saxonism • Social Darwinism • Jingoism Influences: • Alfred Thayer Mahan – The Influence of Sea Power Upon History→ naval power and colonies • Josiah Strong - Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis→ civilize and Christianize the world

40. Hawaii and Samoa • Traders • Missionaries • Sugar plantations • 1887 Naval Base at Pearl Harbor • 1891 Queen Liliuokalani → nationalist → challenge growing American control • 1893 Planters staged a revolution and called on the U.S. for protection • 1898 treaty of annexation • 1899 acquisition of Samoa

41. War with Spain The Spanish-American War 1898 → transforms foreign policy and leaves America with an overseas empire

43. Controversy Over Cuba • Cubans rebel against Spanish control in 1895 • Concentration camps • “Butcher Wyler” • The de Lome letter → insults McKinley • American battleship Maine blows up in Havana Harbor w/260 killed → Spain is blamed → war hysteria → “Remember the Maine!” • March 1898 America declares war on Spain

44. Yellow Journalism • Joseph Pulitzer → The New York World • William Randolph Hearst → The New York Journal • Competing newspaper chains send writers and artists to cover the Cuban revolt → yellow journalism → sensationalism → whips up war fever

45. Remember the Maine!

46. “A Splendid Little War” • Secretary of State John Hay → calls Spanish-American conflict “a splendid little war” • Starts in April and ends in August → successful but reveals supply and mobilization problems

47. Seizing the Philippines • Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt orders the navy’s Pacific Fleet to Philippines w/orders to attack as soon as war starts • Commodore George Dewey wins the Battle of Manila Bay • America seizes the Philippines

48. Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders • Theodore Roosevelt → organizes the First U.S. Voluntary Cavalry → “the Rough Riders” → polo players, ivy league football stars and cowboys • The charge up San Juan Hill → led to his election as governor of NY → then picked as McKinley’s VP → becomes president when McKinley is assassinated

49. Puerto Rico and the United States • American military occupation during war • Foraker Act 1900 → establishes a colonial govt • 1917 Puerto Rico becomes a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans become American citizens

50. The Debate Over the Philippines • Philippines was ceded to the U.S. after the war • The Anti-Imperialist League → opposed annexation → Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Samuel Gompers → immoral, racism, labor, costs • In favor → imperialists, trade interests, pro-McKinley forces • Treaty is passed making Philippines a colony • McKinley is re-elected in 1900 → nation decides in favor of imperialism