Transcript The USA - alexandriaesl

www.ushistory.org

Reconstruction refers to the period following the
Civil War of rebuilding the United States. It was a
time of great pain and endless questions. On what
terms would the Confederacy be allowed back into
the Union? Who would establish the terms, Congress
or the President? What was to be the place of freed
blacks in the South? Did Abolition mean that black
men would now enjoy the same status as white men?
What was to be done with the Confederate leaders,
who were seen as traitors by many in the North?

Slavery, in practical terms, died with the end of the
Civil War. Three Constitutional amendments altered
the nature of African-American rights. The
Thirteenth Amendment formally abolished slavery in
all states and territories. The Fourteenth Amendment
prohibited states from depriving any male citizen of
equal protection under the law, regardless of race.
The Fifteenth Amendment granted the right to vote
to African-American males. Ratification of these
amendments became a requirement for Southern
states to be readmitted into the Union. Although
these measures were positive steps toward racial
equality, their enforcement proved extremely
difficult.

In 1864, Republican Abraham
Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson, a
Democratic senator from
Tennessee, as his Vice Presidential
candidate. Lincoln was looking for
Southern support. He hoped that
by selecting Johnson he would
appeal to Southerners who never
wanted to leave the Union.

Johnson believed the Southern states should decide
the course that was best for them. He also felt that
African-Americans were unable to manage their own
lives. He certainly did not think that AfricanAmericans deserved to vote. At one point in 1866 he
told a group of blacks visiting the White House that
they should emigrate to another country.

He also gave amnesty and pardon. He returned all
property, except, of course, their slaves, to former
Confederates who pledged loyalty to the Union and
agreed to support the 13th Amendment. Confederate
officials and owners of large taxable estates were
required to apply individually for a Presidential
pardon. Many former Confederate leaders were soon
returned to power. And some even sought to regain
their Congressional seniority.

Johnson's vision of Reconstruction had proved
remarkably lenient. Very few Confederate leaders
were persecuted. By 1866, 7,000 Presidential pardons
had been granted. Brutal beatings of AfricanAmericans were frequent. Still-powerful whites
sought to subjugate freed slaves via harsh laws that
came to be known as the Black Codes. Some states
required written evidence of employment for the
coming year or else the freed slaves would be
required to work on plantations.


The Freedman's Bureau, a federal agency created to
help the transition from slavery to emancipation, was
thwarted in its attempts to provide for the welfare of
the newly emancipated. All of these rules resulted in
the majority of freed slaves remaining dependent on
the plantation for work.

Andrew Johnson's policies were initially supported
by most Northerners, even Republicans. But, there
was no consensus as to what rights AfricanAmericans received along with Emancipation. Yet a
group of Radical Republicans wanted the rights
promised in the Declaration of Independence
extended to include all free men, including those
who were formerly slaves. A political power struggle
was in the offing.

The Radical Republicans believed blacks were
entitled to the same political rights and opportunities
as whites. They also believed that the Confederate
leaders should be punished for their roles in the Civil
War. Leaders like Pennsylvania Representative
Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator
Charles Sumner vigorously opposed Andrew
Johnson's lenient policies. A great political battle was
about to unfold.

Americans had long been suspicious of the federal
government playing too large a role in the affairs of
state. But the Radicals felt that extraordinary times
called for direct intervention in state affairs and laws
designed to protect the emancipated blacks. At the
heart of their beliefs was the notion that blacks must
be given a chance to compete in a free-labor
economy. In 1866, this activist Congress also
introduced a bill to extend the life of the Freedmen's
Bureau and began work on a Civil Rights Bill.

President Johnson stood in opposition.
He vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau Bill,
claiming that it would bloat the size of
government. He vetoed the Civil Rights
Bill rejecting that blacks have the "same
rights of property and person" as whites.

Moderate Republicans were appalled at Johnson's
racism. They joined with the Radicals to overturn
Johnson's Civil Rights Act veto. This marked the first
time in history that a major piece of legislation was
overturned. The Radicals hoped that the Civil Rights
Act would lead to an active federal judiciary with
courts enforcing rights.

Congress then turned its attention to amending the
Constitution. In 1867 they approved the far-reaching
Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibited "states
from abridging equality before the law." The second
part of the Amendment provided for a reduction of a
state's representatives if suffrage was denied.
Republicans, in essence, offered the South a choice —
accept black enfranchisement or lose congressional
representation. A third clause barred exConfederates from holding state or national office.

Now the Southern Unionists — Southerners who
supported the Union during the War — became the
new Southern leadership. The Reconstruction Act
also divided the South into five military districts
under commanders empowered to employ the army
to protect black property and citizens.

In the spring of 1868, Andrew Johnson became the
first President to be impeached. The heavily
Republican House of Representatives brought 11
articles of impeachment against Johnson. Many
insiders knew that the Congress was looking for any
excuse to rid themselves of an uncooperative
President.

Impeachment refers to the process specified in the
Constitution for trial and removal from office of any
federal official accused of misconduct. It has two
stages. The House of Representatives charges the
official with articles of impeachment. "Treason,
Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors"
are defined as impeachable offenses. Once charged
by the House, the case goes before the Senate for a
trial.


In 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act,
which Edwin Stanton, as Secretary of War, was
charged with enforcing. Johnson opposed the Act
and tried to remove Stanton — in direct violation of
the Tenure of Office Act. Nine of the articles of
impeachment related to Johnson's removal of
Stanton. Another two charged Johnson with
disgracing Congress.
Johnson's defense was simple: only a clear violation
of the law warranted his removal.

But as with politics, things are rarely simple. Other
factors came into play. Since there was no Vice
President at the time, the next in line for the
Presidency was Benjamin Wade, a Radical unpopular
with businessmen and moderates. And along with
legal wrangling, assurance was given from Johnson's
backers that the Radicals' Southern policies would be
accepted.


In May of 1868, 35 Senators voted to convict, one
vote short of the required 2/3 majority. Seven
Republican Senators had jumped party lines and
found Johnson not guilty. Johnson dodged a bullet
and was able to serve out his term.
It would be 130 years before another President —
Bill Clinton — would be impeached.

Many Southerners, whether white or black, rich or
poor, barely recognized the world in which they now
lived. Wealthy whites, long-accustomed to plush
plantation life and the perks of political power, now
found themselves barred from voting and holding
office. Their estates were in shambles. AfricanAmericans were loathe to return to work for them.
Poor white farmers now found blacks competing
with them for jobs and land.

For the freed slave, Reconstruction offered a
miraculous window of hope. Those born into slavery
could now vote and own land. In parts of the South,
blacks could ride with whites on trains and eat with
them in restaurants. Schools, orphanages, and public
relief projects aimed at improving the lives of blacks
were emerging all over the South. Perhaps most
stunning of all, African-Americans were holding
political office. Blacks were becoming sheriffs and
judges. They were elected to school boards and city
councils.

Sixteen blacks sat in Congress from 1867-77. Hiram
Revels of Mississippi became the first AfricanAmerican Senator in 1870. In December 1872 P.B.S.
Pinchback of Louisiana became the first AfricanAmerican Governor. All in all, about 600 blacks
served as legislators on the local level. But as the
saying goes, the more things change, the more they
remain the same.

Economically, African-Americans were
disadvantaged. Most had skills best suited to the
plantation. By the early 1870s sharecropping became
the dominant way for the poor to earn a living.
Wealthy whites allowed poor whites and blacks to
work land in exchange for a share of the harvest. The
landlord would sometimes provide food, seed, tools,
and shelter. Sharecroppers often found themselves in
debt, for they had to borrow on bad terms and had to
pay excessively for basic supplies. When the harvest
came, if the debt exceeded harvest revenues, the
sharecropper remained bound to the owner. In many
ways, this system resembled slavery.

Many whites resented and rejected the changes
taking place all about them. Taxes were high. The
economy was stagnant. Corruption ran rampant.
Carpetbaggers and scalawags made matters worse.
Carpetbaggers were Northerners who saw the
shattered South as a chance to get rich quickly by
seizing political office now barred from the old
order. After the war these Yankees hastily packed
old-fashioned traveling bags, called carpetbags, and
rushed south. "Scalawags" were southern whites,
who allied themselves with the Carpetbaggers, and
also took advantage of the political openings.

Out of a marriage of hatred and fear,the Ku Klux
Klan, the Knights of the White Camelia, and the
White Brotherhood were born. They are all
supremacy groups who aimed at controlling AfricanAmericans through violence and intimidation.
Massacres, lynching, rape, pillaging and terror were
common. In essence, these groups were paramilitary
forces serving all those who wanted white
supremacy. And it was not only ex-Confederate
soldiers and poor whites. Ministers, merchants,
military officers and other professionals donned
hoods, burned crosses, and murdered those who
interfered with their vision.


Emancipated blacks began finding the new world
looking much like the old world. Pressure to return
to plantations increased. Poll taxes, violence at the
ballot box, and literacy tests kept African-Americans
from voting — sidestepping the 15th Amendment.
Slavery was over. The struggle for equality had just
begun.


From the ashes of the American Civil War sprung an
economic powerhouse.
The factories built by the Union to defeat the
Confederacy were not shut down at the war's end.
Now that the fighting was done, these factories were
converted to peacetime purposes. Although industry
had existed prior to the war, agriculture had
represented the most significant portion of the
American economy.

After the war, beginning with the
railroads, small businesses grew
larger and larger. By the century's
end, the nation's economy was
dominated by a few, very powerful
individuals. In 1850, most Americans
worked for themselves. By 1900,
most Americans worked for an
employer.

The growth was astounding. From the end of
Reconstruction in 1877 to the disastrous Panic of
1893, the American economy nearly doubled in size.
New technologies and new ways of organizing
business led a few individuals to the top. The
competition was ruthless. Those who could not
provide the best product at the cheapest price were
simply driven into bankruptcy or were bought up by
hungry, successful industrialists.

The so-called captains of industry became household
names: John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, Andrew
Carnegie of Carnegie Steel, and J. Pierpont Morgan,
the powerful banker who controlled a great many
industries. Their tactics were not always fair, but
there were few laws regulating business conduct at
that time.



He was America's first billionaire.
In a pure sense, the goal of any capitalist is to
make money. And John D. Rockefeller could
serve as the poster child for capitalism.
Overcoming humble beginnings, Rockefeller
had the vision and the drive to become the
richest person in America.
At the turn of the century, when the average
worker earned $8 to $10 per week, Rockefeller
was worth millions.

What was his secret? Is he to be
placed on a pedestal for others
as a "captain of industry?" Or
should he be demonized as a
"robber baron." A robber baron,
by definition, was an American
capitalist at the turn of the 19th
century who enriched himself
upon the sweat of others,
exploited natural resources, or
possessed unfair government
influence.

Rockefeller introduced techniques that totally
reshaped the oil industry. In the mid-19th
century, the chief demand was for kerosene. In
the refining process, there are many byproducts when crude oil is converted to
kerosene. What others saw as waste,
Rockefeller saw as gold.

Rockefeller introduced techniques that totally
reshaped the oil industry. In the mid-19th
century, the chief demand was for kerosene. In
the refining process, there are many byproducts when crude oil is converted to
kerosene. What others saw as waste,
Rockefeller saw as gold.

Rockefeller demanded rebates, or discounted
rates, from the railroads. He used all these
methods to reduce the price of oil to his
consumers. His profits soared and his
competitors were crushed one by one.
Rockefeller forced smaller companies to
surrender their stock to his control.

This sort of arrangement is called a trust. A
trust is a combination of firms formed by legal
agreement. Trusts often reduce fair business
competition. As a result of Rockefeller's shrewd
business practices, his large corporation, the
Standard Oil Company, became the largest
business in the land.

As the new century dawned, Rockefeller's
investments mushroomed. With the advent of
the automobile, gasoline replaced kerosene as
the number one petroleum product. Rockefeller
was a bona fide billionaire. Critics charged that
his labor practices were unfair. Employees
pointed out that he could have paid his
workers a fairer wage and settled for being a
half-billionaire.

Before his death in 1937, Rockefeller gave away
nearly half of his fortune. Churches, medical
foundations, universities, and centers for the
arts received hefty sums of oil money. Whether
he was driven by good will, conscience, or his
devout faith in God is unknown. Regardless, he
became a hero to many enterprising
Americans.


Oil was not the only commodity in great
demand during the Gilded Age. The nation
also needed steel.
The railroads needed steel for their rails and
cars, the navy needed steel for its new naval
fleet, and cities needed steel to build
skyscrapers. Every factory in America needed
steel for their physical plant and machinery.
Andrew Carnegie saw this demand and seized
the moment.

Carnegie became a tycoon because of shrewd
business tactics. Rockefeller often bought other
oil companies to eliminate competition. This is
a process known as horizontal integration.
Carnegie also created a vertical combination,
an idea first implemented by Gustavus Swift.
He bought railroad companies and iron mines.
If he owned the rails and the mines, he could
reduce his costs and produce cheaper steel.


Carnegie was a good judge of talent. His assistant,
Henry Clay Frick, helped manage the Carnegie Steel
Company on its way to success. Carnegie also
wanted productive workers. He wanted them to feel
that they had a vested interest in company prosperity
so he initiated a profit-sharing plan.
All these tactics made the Carnegie Steel Company a
multi-million dollar corporation. In 1901, he sold his
interests to J.P. Morgan, who paid him 500 million
dollars to create U.S. Steel.

Retirement did not take him out
of the public sphere. Before his
death he donated more than $350
million dollars to public
foundations. Remembering the
difficulty of finding suitable
books as a youth, he helped build
three thousand libraries. He built
schools such as Carnegie-Mellon
University and gave his money
for artistic pursuits such as
Carnegie Hall in New York.

Andrew Carnegie was also dedicated to peace
initiatives throughout the world because of his
passionate hatred for war. Like Rockefeller,
critics labeled him a robber baron who could
have used his vast fortunes to increase the
wages of his employees. Carnegie believed that
such spending was wasteful and temporary,
but foundations would last forever. Regardless,
he helped build an empire that led the United
States to world power status.


Morgan's first business ventures were in banking. By
1860, he had already established his own foreign
exchange office. He knew the power of investment.
Not content to control just the banking industry, he
bought many smaller ventures to make money.
During the Civil War, he paid the legally allowed fee
to purchase a substitute soldier and evaded military
service. Morgan made handsome profits by
providing war materials. One of his enterprises sold
defective rifles to the Union army. Upon later
investigations, he was declared ignorant of the poor
quality of his guns and was cleared of all charges.


After the war, he set out to corner the nation's
financial markets. When the Panic of 1873 rocked the
nation's economy, Morgan protected himself wisely
and emerged in the aftermath as the king of
American finance.
Despite his label as a robber baron, Morgan felt his
investments benefited America. His railroad dealings
helped consolidate many smaller, mismanaged firms,
resulting in shorter trips and more dependable
service. Two times during financial panics he
allowed the federal government to purchase his vast
gold supplies to stop the spiral of deflation.

He owned a bridge company
and a tubing company. His
most renowned purchase was
in 1901, when he bought the
Carnegie Steel Company for
$500 million to create U.S. Steel.
Within ten years U.S. Steel was
worth over a billion dollars.

Morgan's actions marked a shift in thinking among
American industrialists. He proved that it was not
necessary to be a builder to be successful. Smart
investment and efficient consolidation could yield
massive profits. Young entrepreneurs shifted their
goals to banking in the hopes of mirroring Morgan's
success.

For all his accomplishments, he was harshly
criticized. The first decade of the twentieth century
brought challenges to Morgan from the government.
His Northern Securities railroad company was
deemed illegal under federal antitrust law, the first
such action by the national government. He was
investigated by Congress for his control of the
financial markets. Even U.S. Steel was forced to
relinquish its monopoly.

Jaded by the criticism, Morgan moved to Europe,
where he lived his final days. He was a favorite
target of intellectuals who claimed that such tycoons
robbed the poor of their deserved wealth. He was a
hero to enterprising financiers across the land who
dreamed of following his example. That is, of course,
unless they were destroyed by his shrewd, fierce
tactics.

The growth was astounding. From the end of
Reconstruction in 1877 to the disastrous Panic of
1893, the American economy nearly doubled in size.
New technologies and new ways of organizing
business led a few individuals to the top. The
competition was ruthless. Those who could not
provide the best product at the cheapest price were
simply driven into bankruptcy or were bought up by
hungry, successful industrialists.

Nevertheless, the American economy grew and
grew. By 1914, the small nation once seen as a
playground for European empires had now
surpassed them all. The United States had become
the largest industrial nation in the world.

However, the prosperity of America did not reach
everyone. Amid the fabulous wealth of the new
economic elite was tremendous poverty. How did
some manage to be so successful while others
struggled to put food on the table? Americans
wrestled with this great question as new attitudes
toward wealth began to emerge.

What role did the government play in this trend?
Basically, it was pro-business. Congress, the
Presidents, and the Courts looked favorably on this
new growth. But leadership was generally lacking on
the political level. Corruption spread like a plague
through the city, state, and national governments.
Greedy legislators and "forgettable" Presidents
dominated the political scene.


The locomotive was not an invention of the Gilded
Age. Indeed Americans had traveled by rail in the
decades that preceded the Civil War. But such travel
was risky.
Passengers often sat in the same room as a wood
burner and had to be watchful of wayward sparks
landing on their clothing. Braking systems were not
always trustworthy. Several engines even exploded
while trying to reach a destination.

Traveling also represented a tremendous investment
in time. Rail passengers often had to change trains
frequently because the width between tracks varied
from company to company. Such a journey could be
uncomfortable, boring, and dangerous.

After the Civil War many rail problems
were solved. George Westinghouse
invented the air brake and trains could
stop more reliably as a result. Railroad
firms agreed on a standard width
between tracks to reduce transfers. The
Pullman Car Company produced sleeper
cars and dining cars to make travel more
comfortable.

Soon after the railroad made its appearance in the
U.S. in the 1830s, Americans dreamed of linking the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by rail. A
transcontinental railroad would allow for settlement
of the west, open new markets for eastern
manufacturers, and bring relief to overcrowded
eastern cities.

Some even believed that it was divinely intended
that Americans should control the whole of the
continental U.S. In 1845, a Democratic journalist
named John L. O'Sullivan coined the phrase
"manifest destiny.“ - "... the right of our manifest
destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of
the continent which Providence has given us for the
development of the great experiment of liberty and
federaltive development of self government
entrusted to us....”

Steaming locomotives would hasten western
settlement, spread democratic values, and increase
the size of the United States (Arizona, Oklahoma,
New Mexico etc., were not yet states, only
territories). Western settlement was a paramount
national interest. As such, the federal government
awarded the contract to link the coasts by rail to two
companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific.

Union Pacific workers, many of whom
were Irish immigrants, started at Omaha,
Nebraska, and hammered their way
westward. From Sacramento, California,
the Central Pacific made its way
eastward with the assistance of
thousands of Chinese immigrants.

Those working on the railroad gave their
sweat and sometimes their lives blasting
through the often unforgiving terrain.
Other dangers that workers faced were
disease, searing summer heat, freezing
temperatures in the mountains, Native
American raids and the lawlessness and
violence of pioneer towns.


The government declared that the two lines would
merge at Promontory Point near Ogden, Utah. On
May 10, 1869, Leland Stanford, representing the
Central Pacific Railroad, hammered a golden spike
into the ground that marked the completion of the
coast-to-coast line. Celebrations erupted across the
land. Even the Liberty Bell tolled once again to
commemorate the occasion.
Soon, other transcontinental lines were constructed
and travel across the continent became worlds
simpler, less expensive, and much faster, than by the
old Conestoga wagon.
 The
engineering achievement
was monumental. The costs of
the operation to railroads were
enormous. Tens of thousands
of workers had to be paid,
sheltered, and fed. Tons of
steel and wood were required.
However, the economic incentives to railroads
were enormus. The government offered
generous loans to companies who were
willing to assume the risk. The greatest
reward was land. For each mile of track laid
by the Central and Union Pacific Railroads,
the companies received 640 acres of public
land. In other rail projects, state governments
often kicked in additional acres for a growing
number of rail companies.


All in all, the railroads received nearly 200
million acres of land from the U.S.
government for fulfilling contracts. Directors
or some railroads made fortunes. Foremost
among the railroad tycoons were Cornelius
Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, and Jay Gould.
But freight railroad abuses grew rampant.
Money lined the pockets of greedy public
officials who awarded generous terms to the
railroads. Railroad companies set their own
shipping rates.

To reduce competition, railroad companies
established pools. These were informal arrangements
between companies to keep rates above a certain
level. Consequently, the public suffered. Finally, in
1887, Congress responded to public outcry by
creating the Interstate Commerce Commission to
watch over the rail industry. This was the nation's
first regulatory agency. Due to inconcise wording in
its enabling legislation, the ICC was largely ignored
until the early 20th century.

But the public also reaped great
benefits. Eastern businessmen could
now sell their goods to California
citizens. As a result of improved
transportation all Americans had
access to more goods at a cheaper
price. The westward movement was
greatly accelerated. Those seeking a
new start in life could much more
easily "go west.".


Not everybody was getting rich. The new
wealthy class, although more prominent,
larger, and richer than any class in American
history, was still rather small.
People soon began to ask fundamental
questions. How did one get rich in America?
Was it because of a combination of hard work
and intelligence? Was it because of
inheritance? Did education and skill play a
role? Or was it simply luck?
 Old
attitudes about the
importance of inheritance
were still prevalent, but new
ideas also emerged. Among
the most popular were Social
Darwinism, the Gospel of
Wealth, and Algerism.

When a popular conception of "survival
of the fittest" grew from Charles
Darwin's idea of the process of natural
selection in the wild, the world was
forever changed. Church leaders
condemned him as a heretic, and
ordinary people everywhere cringed at
the idea that humans may have evolved
from apes. It was inevitable that
intellectuals would soon point Darwin's
concepts at human society.

These Social Darwinists, led by Herbert
Spencer and William Graham Sumner,
believed that the humans who were the most
fit became the most successful. Whatever
people had the necessary skills to prosper —
perhaps talent, brains, or hard work — would
be the ones who would rise to the top. Why
were some people poor? To the Social
Darwinist, the answer was obvious. They
simply did not have the required skills.

Social Darwinists went further in their
application of Darwin. Darwin stated that the
weaker members of a species in nature would
die and that over time only the stronger genes
would be passed on. Social Darwinists
believed the same should happen with
humans. They opposed government handouts,
or safety regulations, or laws restricting child
labor. Such actions would coddle the weak,
and the unfit would be allowed to survive.



Gospel of Wealth
Some Americans tried to reconcile their Christian
beliefs with Social Darwinism. Because the Church
had been such an opponent of Darwin's ideas, it was
difficult for religious folks to accept Social
Darwinism.
Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller both agreed
that the most successful people were the ones with
the necessary skills. But they each believed that God
played a role in deciding who got the skills.

Because God granted a select few with the
talent to be successful, Christian virtue
demanded that some of that money be shared.
This is where the difference lies between the
hardcore Social Darwinist and the proponent
of the Gospel of Wealth. Carnegie and
Rockefeller became philanthropists — wealthy
citizens who donated large sums of money for
the public good.

A third influence American thinking was
Horatio Alger. Alger was not an intellectual;
rather, he wrote dime novels for the hordes of
immigrant masses rushing to America's
shores. Although he penned many stories,
each book answered the question of how to
get rich in America. Alger believed that a
combination of hard work and good fortune
— pluck and luck, in his words — was the
key.

A typical Alger story would revolve around a
hardworking immigrant who served on the bottom
rung of the corporate ladder, perhaps as a stock boy.
One day he would be walking down the street and
see a safe falling from a tall building. Our hero
would bravely push aside the hapless young woman
walking below and save her life. Of course, she was
the boss's daughter. The two would get married, and
he would become vice-president of the corporation.


This is what the masses wished to believe. Success
would not come to a select few based on nature or
divine intervention. Anyone who worked hard could
make it in America if they caught a lucky break. This
idea is the basis for the "American Dream."
Is Alger's dream a reality or just folklore? There
simply is no answer. Thousands of Americans have
found this idyllic path, but as many or more have
not.

The Gilded Age will be remembered for the
accomplishments of thousands of American thinkers,
inventors, entrepreneurs, writers, and promoters of
social justice. Few politicians had an impact on the
tremendous change transforming America. The
Presidency was at an all-time low in power and
influence, and the Congress was rife with corruption.
State and city leaders shared in the graft, and the
public was kept largely unaware. Much like in the
colonial days, Americans were not taking their
orders from the top; rather, they were building a new
society from its foundation.

The American Presidents who
resided in the White House from the
end of the Civil War until the 1890s
are sometimes called "the forgettable
Presidents." A case-by-case study
helps illustrates this point.


Ulysses S. Grant was a war hero but was unprepared for
public office. He had not held a single elected office prior
to the Presidency and was totally naive to the workings
of Washington. He relied heavily on the advice of
insiders who were stealing public money. His secretary
of war sold Indian land to investors and pocketed public
money. His private secretary worked with officials in the
Treasury Department to steal money raised from the tax
on whiskey.
Many members of his Administration were implicated in
the Crédit Mobilier scandal, which defrauded the
American public of common land. Grant himself seemed
above these scandals, but lacked the political skill to
control his staff or replace them with officers of integrity.


His successor was Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes himself
had tremendous integrity, but his Presidency was
weakened by the means of his election. After the
electoral votes were counted, his opponent, Samuel
Tilden, already claimed a majority of the popular vote
and needed just one electoral vote to win. Hayes needed
twenty. Precisely twenty electoral votes were in dispute
because the states submitted double returns — one
proclaiming Hayes the victor, the other Tilden. A
Republican-biased electoral commission awarded all 20
electoral votes to the Republican Hayes, and he won by
just one electoral vote.
While he was able to claim the White House, many
considered his election a fraud, and his power to rule
was diminished.
Ulysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes

James Garfield succeeded
Hayes to the Presidency. After
only four months, his life was
cut short by an assassin's bullet.
Charles Guiteau, the killer, was
so upset with Garfield for
overlooking him for a political
job that he shot the President in
cold blood on the platform of
the Baltimore and Potomac
train station.

Vice-President Chester Arthur became the next
leader. Although his political history was largely
composed of appointments of friends, the tragedy
that befell his predecessor led him to believe that the
system had gone bad. He signed into law the
Pendleton Civil Service Act, which
opened many jobs to competitive
exam rather than political connections.
The Republican Party rewarded him
by refusing his nomination for the
Presidency in 1884.

One President impeached, one
President drowning in corruption,
one President elected by possible
fraud, one President assassinated,
and one disgraced by his own party
for doing what he thought was right.
Clearly this was not a good time in
Presidential history.
 This
was an era of
Congressional supremacy. The
Republican party dominated
the Presidency and the
Congress for most of these
years. Both houses of Congress
were full of representatives
owned by big business.
Laws regulating campaigns were minimal and
big money bought a government that would
not interfere. Similar conditions existed in the
states. City governments were dominated by
political machines. Members of a small
network gained power and used the public
treasury to stay in power — and grow
fabulously rich in the process.

Not until the dawn of the 20th century would
serious attempts be made to correct the abuses
of Gilded Age government.


In the mid-19th century, the vast majority of
American work was still done on the farm. By the
turn of the 20th century, the United States economy
revolved around the factory.
Most Americans living in the Gilded Age knew
nothing of the millions of Rockefeller, Carnegie and
Morgan. They worked 10 hour shifts, 6 days a week,
for wages barely enough to survive. Children as
young as eight years old worked hours that kept
them out of school. Men and women worked until
their bodies could stand no more, only to be released
from employment without retirement benefits.
Medical coverage did not exist. Women who became
pregnant were often fired. Compensation for being
hurt while on the job was zero.


Soon laborers realized that they must unite to
demand change. Even though they lacked money,
education, or political power, they knew one critical
thing. There were simply more workers than there
were owners.
Unions did not emerge overnight. Despite their legal
rights to exist, bosses often took extreme measures,
including intimidation and violence, to prevent a
union from taking hold. Workers, too, often chose
the sword when peaceful measures failed.


Many Americans believed that a violent revolution
would take place in America. How long would so
many stand to be poor? Industrial titans including
John Rockefeller arranged for mighty castles to be
built as fortresses to stand against the upheaval they
were sure was coming.
Slowly but surely unions did grow. Efforts to form
nationwide organizations faced even greater
difficulties. Federal troops were sometimes called to
block their efforts. Judges almost always ruled in
favor of the bosses.

The workers often could not agree on common goals.
Some flirted with extreme ideas like Marxism. Others
simply wanted a nickel more per hour. Fights
erupted over whether or not to admit women or
African Americans. Immigrants were often viewed
with hostile eyes. Most did agree on one major issue
— the eight-hour day. But even that agreement was
often not strong enough glue to hold the group
together.

Organized labor has brought tremendous positive
change to working Americans. Today, many workers
enjoy higher wages, better hours, and safer working
conditions. Employers often pay for medical
coverage and several weeks vacation. Jobs and lives
were lost in the epic struggle for a fair share. The
fight sprouted during the Gilded Age, when labor
took its first steps toward unity. It began with the
Great Upheaval.

It started with a 10% pay cut. When leaders of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company ordered this
second reduction in less than eight months, railroad
workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia decided they
had had enough. On July 16, 1877, workers in that
town drove all the engines into the roundhouse and
boldly declared that no train would leave until the
owners restored their pay. The local townspeople
gathered at the railyard to show their support for the
strikers. A great showdown was on.

Strikes or other actions seen as disturbances are usually
handled at the local level. The mayor of Martinsburg
tried in vain to threaten the striking workers, but the
crowd merely laughed and booed. The local police were
far too insubstantial to match the numbers of the rabble.
In desperation, the mayor turned to the governor of West
Virginia for support. The governor sent units of the
National Guard to Martinsburg to accompany the trains
out of town by force of arms. There was little support for
the effort among the Guardsmen, however, because a
majority of them were railroad workers themselves.
After two people were killed in the standoff, the Guard
simply lay down their weapons and began chatting with
members of the crowd.

Only when federal troops sent by President Hayes
arrived did the trains leave the station. Even then
they were sabotaged and harassed along their routes.
Only one train reached its destination.

The Martinsburg strike might have gone down in
history as one of many small local strikes put down
by force, but this time the strike spread. Soon other B
& O units joined the Martinsburg strike. The
movement spread into Pennsylvania, when workers
on the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads joined
their compatriots. Pittsburgh is the gateway to the
Midwest, and so the strike widened to that region.


The police, the National Guard, and the United States
Army clashed with angry mobs throughout America.
Throughout the land, wealthy individuals feared that the
worst had finally come. A violent revolution seemed to
be sweeping the nation.
But then it stopped. In some cases the strikes were ended
by force. In others, the strikers simply gave up. After all,
most workers were not trying to overthrow the
government or the social order. They simply wanted
higher wages and more time to spend with their families.
The Great Upheaval was not the first strike in American
History; it was the first mass strike to involve so many
different workers separated by so much space.

When the strike ended in the first
week in August, over 100 people
were killed and a thousand more
were imprisoned. Untold millions of
dollars of damage was caused to rail
lines, cars, and roundhouses. The
fight was over, but America had not
seen the last of the mass strike.


The battle lines were clearly drawn. People were either
workers or bosses, and with that strong identity often
came an equally strong dislike for those who were on the
other side. As the number of self-employed Americans
dwindled in the Gilded Age, workers began to feel
strength in their numbers and ask greater and greater
demands of their bosses. When those demands were
rejected, they plotted schemes to win their cases.
Those who managed factories developed strategies to
counteract those of labor. At times the relationship
between the camps was as intellectual and tense as a
tough chess match. Other times it was as ugly as a
schoolyard fight.

The most frequently employed technique
of workers was the strike. Withholding
labor from management would, in
theory, force the company to suffer great
enough financial losses that they would
agree to worker terms. Strikes have been
known in America since the colonial age,
but their numbers grew larger in the
Gilded Age.


Most 19th century strikes were not successful, so unions
thought of other means. If the workers at a shoe factory
could garner enough sympathy from the local
townspeople, a boycott could achieve desirable results.
The union would make its case to the town in the hope
that no one would buy any shoes from the factory until
the owners agreed to a pay raise. Boycotts could be
successful in a small community where the factory was
dependent upon the business of a group of people in
close proximity
In desperate times, workers would also resort to illegal
means if necessary. For example, sabotage of factory
equipment was not unknown. Occasionally, the foreman
or the owner might even be the victims of workersponsored violence.

Owners had strategies of their own. If a company
found itself with a high inventory, the boss might
afford to enact a lockout, which is a reverse strike. In
this case, the owner tells the employees not to bother
showing up until they agree to a pay cut. Sometimes
when a new worker was hired the employee was
forced to sign a yellow-dog contract, or an ironclad
oath swearing that the employee would never join a
union.

Strikes could be countered in a variety of ways. The
first measure was usually to hire strikebreakers, or
scabs, to take the place of the regular labor force.
Here things often turned violent. The crowded cities
always seemed to have someone hopeless enough to
"cross the picket line" during a strike. The striking
workers often responded with fists, occasionally
even leading to death.

Prior to the 20th century the government never sided
with the union in a labor dispute. Bosses persuaded
the courts to issue injunctions to declare a strike
illegal. If the strike continued, the participants would
be thrown into prison. When all these efforts failed to
break a strike, the government at all levels would be
willing to send a militia to regulate as in the case of
the Great Upheaval.

Owners were smart enough to circulate blacklists.
These lists contained the names of any workers
active in the union. If anyone on the list would show
up in another town trying to get hired (or to start
another union), the employers would be wise. Still,
the ratio of labor to management was so large that
national organization was inevitable. The first group
to clear the hurdles was the National Labor Union.

By 1866, there were about 200,000 workers in local
unions across the United States. William Sylvis
seized the opportunity presented by these numbers
and established the first nationwide labor
organization, named the National Labor Union.
Sylvis had very ambitious goals. Not only did the
NLU fight for higher wages and shorter hours, Sylvis
took labor activity into the political arena. The NLU
supported legislation banning prison labor, land
reform laws to keep public holdings out of the hands
of speculators, and national currency reform to raise
farm prices.
It brought together skilled and unskilled workers, as
well as farmers. The National Labor Union stopped
short of admitting African Americans. Racist
tendencies of the times prevailed, despite the
wisdom of bringing as many workers as possible into
the fold. Unfortunately for the NLU, it tried to
represent too many different groups. Farmers had
their own agenda, and skilled workers often had
different realities than the unskilled. When the Panic
of 1873 hit America, the union was severely disabled.
Soon after, the National Labor Union withered away.


The Knights of Labor soon inherited the mantle of
organized labor. Begun by Uriah Stephens as a secret
society in 1869, the Knights admitted all wage earners
into their ranks, including women and African
Americans. The philosophy was simple: class was more
important than race or gender. For such a group to
influence the federal government, complete solidarity
would be required.
The Knights supported the entire political agenda of the
NLU and more. They advocated limits on immigration,
restrictions on child labor, and government ownership of
railroads, telegraphs, and telephones. At the height of its
membership in 1886, the Knights boasted 750,000
workers. But then disaster struck.

On May 1, 1886, International Workers Day, local
chapters of the Knights went on strike demanding an
eight-hour day for all laborers. At a rally in
Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 4, someone
threw a bomb into the crowd. One police officer died
and several crowd members sustained injuries.

Who was responsible? No one was really sure, but
the American press, government, and general public
blamed the Knights of Labor. Leader Terence
Powderly condemned the bombing to no avail.
Americans associated labor activity with anarchists
and mob violence. Membership began to fall. Soon
the Knights were merely a shadow of their former
size. But labor leaders had learned some valuable
lessons. The next national organization of workers
would endure.

Keep it simple. That was the mantra of labor leader
Samuel Gompers. He was a diehard capitalist and
saw no need for a radical restructuring of America.
Gompers quickly learned that the issues that workers
cared about most deeply were personal. They
wanted higher wages and better working conditions.
These "bread and butter" issues would always unite
the labor class. By keeping it simple, unions could
avoid the pitfalls that had drawn the life from the
National Labor Union and the Knights of Labor.

In December of 1886, the same year the Knights of
Labor was dealt its fatal blow at Haymarket Square,
Gompers met with the leaders of other craft unions
to form the American Federation of Labor. The A.F.
of L. was a loose grouping of smaller craft unions,
such as the masons' union, the hatmakers' union or
Gompers's own cigarmakers' union. Every member
of the A.F. of L. was therefore a skilled worker.

Although conservative in nature, Gompers was not
afraid to call for a strike or a boycott. The larger A.F.
of L. could be used to support these actions, as well
as provide relief for members engaged in a work
stoppage. By refusing to pursue a radical program
for political change, Gompers maintained the
support of the American government and public. By
1900, the ranks of the A.F. of L. swelled to over
500,000 tradespeople. Gompers was seen as the
unofficial leader of the labor world in America.

Simplicity worked. Although the bosses still had the
upper hand with the government, unions were
growing in size and status. There were over 20,000
strikes in America in the last two decades of the 19th
century. Workers lost about half, but in many cases
their demands were completely or partially met. The
A.F. of L. served as the preeminent national labor
organization until the Great Depression when
unskilled workers finally came together. Smart
leadership, patience, and realistic goals made life
better for the hundreds of thousands of working
Americans it served.

The Age of Industry brought tremendous change to
America. Perhaps the single greatest impact of
industrialization on the growing nation was
urbanization. Thomas Jefferson had once idealized
America as a land of small, independent farmers
who became educated enough to participate in a
republic. That notion was forever a part of history.

As large farms and improved technology displaced
the small farmer, a new demand grew for labor in the
American economy. Factories spread rapidly across
the nation, but they did not spread evenly. Most
were concentrated in urban areas, particularly in the
Northeast, around the Great Lakes, and on the West
Coast. And so the American workforce began to
migrate from the countryside to the city.

The speed with which American cities expanded was
shocking. About 1/6 of the American population
lived in urban areas in 1860. Urban was defined as
population centers consisting of at least 8000 people,
only a modest-sized town by modern standards. By
1900 that ratio grew to a third. In just 40 years the
urban population increased four times, while the
rural population doubled. In 1900, an American was
twenty times more likely to move from the farm to
the city than vice-versa. The 1920 census declared
that for the first time, a majority of Americans lived
in the city.

As surely as the city spread outward across the land,
it also spread upward toward the sky. Because urban
property was in great demand, industrialists needed
to maximize small holdings. If additional land was
too expensive, why not increase space by building
upward? The critical invention leading to this
development was of course the fast elevator,
developed by Elisha Otis in 1861.

Steel provided a plentiful, durable substance that
could sustain tremendous weight. Chicago architect
Louis Sullivan was the foremost designer of the
modern skyscraper. His designing motto was "form
follows function." In other words, the purpose of a
structure was to be highlighted over its elegance.
Beginning with the Wainwright Building of St. Louis
in 1892, Sullivan's steel-framed colossus became the
standard for the American skyscraper for the next
twenty years. Chicago was the perfect site for this
new development, because much of the city had been
destroyed by a great fire in 1871.

Few inventions allowed humans to challenge nature
more than the light bulb. No longer dependent on
the rising and setting of the sun, city dwellers, with
their ample supply of electricity, could now enjoy a
night life that candles simply could not provide.
Developed by Thomas Edison in 1879, urban areas
consumed them at a staggering rate.

Alexander Graham Bell added a new dimension to
communications with his telephone in 1876. The
implications for the business world were staggering,
as the volume of trade skyrocketed with faster
communications. In addition to the telephone, many
urban denizens enjoyed electric fans, electric sewing
machines, and electric irons by 1900.

Department stores such as Woolworth's, John
Wanamker's, and Marshall Field's provided a large
variety of new merchandise of better quality and
cheaper than ever before.

People could reach their destinations faster and
faster because of new methods of mass transit. Cable
cars were operational in cities such as San Francisco
and Chicago by the mid-1880s. Boston completed the
nation's first underground subway system in 1897.
Middle-class Americans could now afford to live
farther from a city's core. Bridges such as the
Brooklyn Bridge and improved regional transit lines
fueled this trend.

Much of the urban poor, including a majority of
incoming immigrants, lived in tenement housing. If
the skyscraper was the jewel of the American city,
the tenement was its boil. In 1878, a publication
offered $500 to the architect who could provide the
best design for mass-housing. James E. Ware won the
contest with his plan for a dumbbell tenement. This
structure was thinner in the center than on its
extremes to allow light to enter the building, no
matter how tightly packed the tenements may be.
Unfortunately, these "vents" were often filled with
garbage. The air that managed to penetrate also
allowed a fire to spread from one tenement to the
next more easily.

Because of the massive overcrowding, disease was
widespread. Cholera and yellow-fever epidemics
swept through the slums on a regular basis.
Tuberculosis was a huge killer. Infants suffered the
most. Almost 25% of babies born in late-19th century
cities died before reaching the age of one.


The cities stank. The air stank, the rivers stank, the
people stank. Although public sewers were improving,
disposing of human waste was increasingly a problem.
People used private cesspools, which overflowed with a
long, hard rain. Old sewage pipes dumped the waste
directly into the rivers or bays. These rivers were often
the very same used as water sources.
Trash collection had not yet been systemized. Trash was
dumped in the streets or in the waterways. Better sewers,
water purification, and trash removal were some of the
most pressing problems for city leadership. As the 20th
century dawned, many improvements were made, but
the cities were far from sanitary.

Poverty often breeds crime. Desperate people will
often resort to theft or violence to put food on the
family table when the factory wages would not
suffice. Youths who dreaded a life of monotonous
factory work and pauperism sometimes roamed the
streets in gangs. Vices such as gambling, prostitution,
and alcoholism were widespread. Gambling
rendered the hope of getting rich quick. Prostitution
provided additional income. Alcoholism furnished a
false means of escape. City police forces were often
understaffed and underpaid, so those with wealth
could buy a better slice of justice.

The new immigrant groups arriving by the boatload
in the Gilded Age were characterized by few of these
traits. Their nationalities included Greek, Italian,
Polish, Slovak, Serb, Russian, Croat, and others. Until
cut off by federal decree, Japanese and Chinese
settlers relocated to the American West Coast. None
of these groups were predominantly Protestant.
The vast majority were Roman Catholic or Eastern
Orthodox. However, due to increased persecution of
Jews in Eastern Europe, many Jewish immigrants
sought freedom from torment. Very few newcomers
spoke any English, and large numbers were illiterate
in their native tongues. None of these groups hailed
from democratic regimes. The American form of
government was as foreign as its culture.

The new American cities became the destination of
many of the most destitute. Once the trend was
established, letters from America from friends and
family beckoned new immigrants to ethnic enclaves
such as Chinatown, Greektown, or Little Italy. This
led to an urban ethnic patchwork, with little
integration. The dumbbell tenement and all of its
woes became the reality for most newcomers until
enough could be saved for an upward move.

Despite the horrors of tenement housing and factory
work, many agreed that the wages they could earn
and the food they could eat surpassed their former
realities. Still, as many as 25% of the European
immigrants of this time never intended to become
American citizens. These so-called "birds of passage"
simply earned enough income to send to their
families and returned to their former lives.

Not all Americans welcomed the new immigrants
with open arms. While factory owners greeted the
rush of cheap labor with zeal, laborers often treated
their new competition with hostility. Many religious
leaders were awestruck at the increase of nonProtestant believers. Racial purists feared the genetic
outcome of the eventual pooling of these new bloods.

Gradually, these "nativists" lobbied successfully to
restrict the flow of immigration. In 1882, Congress
passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring this ethnic
group in its entirety. Twenty-five years later,
Japanese immigration was restricted by executive
agreement. These two Asian groups were the only
ethnicities to be completely excluded from America.

Criminals, contract workers, the mentally ill,
anarchists, and alcoholics were among groups to be
gradually barred from entry by Congress. In 1917,
Congress required the passing of a literacy test to
gain admission. Finally, in 1924, the door was shut to
millions by placing an absolute cap on new
immigrants based on ethnicity. That cap was based
on the United States population of 1890 and was
therefore designed to favor the previous immigrant
groups.

But millions had already come. During the age when
the Statue of Liberty beckoned the world's "huddled
masses yearning to breathe free," American diversity
mushroomed. Each brought pieces of an old culture
and made contributions to a new one. Although
many former Europeans swore to their deaths to
maintain their old ways of life, their children did not
agree. Most enjoyed a higher standard of living than
their parents, learned English easily, and sought
American lifestyles. At least to that extent, America
was a melting pot.

To cope with the city's problems, government
officials had a limited resources and personnel.
Democracy did not flourish in this environment. To
bring order out of the chaos of the nation's cities,
many political bosses emerged who did not shrink
from corrupt deals if they could increase their power
bases. The people and institutions the bosses
controlled were called the political machine.

Personal politics can at once seem simple and
complex. To maintain power, a boss had to keep his
constituents happy. Most political bosses appealed to
the newest, most desperate part of the growing
populace — the immigrants. Occasionally bosses
would provide relief kitchens to receive votes.
Individuals who were leaders in local neighborhoods
were sometimes rewarded city jobs in return for the
loyalty of their constituents.

Bosses knew they also had to placate big business,
and did so by rewarding them with lucrative
contracts for construction of factories or public
works. These industries would then pump large
sums into keeping the political machine in office. It
seemed simple: "You scratch my back and I'll scratch
yours." However, bringing diverse interests together
in a city as large as New York, Philadelphia, or
Chicago required hours of legwork and great
political skill.

Voter fraud was widespread. Political bosses
arranged to have voter lists expanded to include
many phony names. In one district a four-year-old
child was registered to vote. In another, a dog's name
appeared on the polling lists. Members of the
machine would "vote early and often," traveling from
polling place to polling place to place illegal votes.
One district in New York one time reported more
votes than it had residents.

Voter fraud was widespread. Political bosses
arranged to have voter lists expanded to include
many phony names. In one district a four-year-old
child was registered to vote. In another, a dog's name
appeared on the polling lists. Members of the
machine would "vote early and often," traveling from
polling place to polling place to place illegal votes.
One district in New York one time reported more
votes than it had residents.

The most notorious political boss of the age was
William "Boss" Tweed of New York's Tammany Hall.
For twelve years, Tweed ruled New York. He gave
generously to the poor and authorized the handouts
of Christmas turkeys and winter coal to prospective
supporters. In the process he fleeced the public out of
millions of taxpayer money, which went into the
coffers of Tweed and his associates.

Attention was brought to Tweed's corruption by
political cartoonist Thomas Nast. Nast's pictures
were worth more than words as many illiterate and
semi-literate New Yorkers were exposed to Tweed's
graft. A zealous attorney named Samuel Tilden
convicted Tweed and his rule came to an end in 1876.
Mysteriously, Tweed escaped from prison and
traveled to Spain, where he was spotted by someone
who recognized his face from Nast's cartoons. He
died in prison in 1878.

Urbanization brought greater change to postwar
America than any other single factor. As America
modernized, pressures to reform education from
early childhood through adulthood brought marked
improvements. Increased worker productivity and
labor demands for a shorter work day enabled many
urban residents to engage in newly popular sports
and leisure activities unknown in the countryside.

City life also redefined gender roles. The average size
of the American family dropped from seven children
in 1800 to approximately four a century later. Crude
birth control methods contributed somewhat to this
decline, but large families simply were not as
desirable in the city as on the farm. A farm child
promised additional agricultural labor, but an urban
child was simply an extra mouth to feed.

As women slowly became more educated and
independent, traditional Victorian values were
challenged. New jobs were available in the city,
especially for single women. Demands for national
reform such as prohibition of alcohol, regulation of
child labor, and the right to vote were brought into
public discourse by educated women.

In 1870, about half of the nation's children received
no formal education whatsoever. Although many
states provided for a free public education for
children between the ages of 5 and 21, economic
realities kept many children working in mines,
factories, or on the farm. Only six states had
compulsory education laws at this point, and most
were for only several weeks per year.

Massachusetts was the leader in tightening laws. By
1890, all children in Massachusetts between the ages
of 6 and 10 were required to attend school at least
twenty weeks per year. These laws were much
simpler to enact than to enforce. Truant officers
would be necessary to chase down offenders. Private
and religious schools would have to be monitored to
ensure quality standards similar to public schools.
Despite resistance, acceptance of mandatory
elementary education began to spread. By the turn of
the century such laws were universal throughout the
North and West, with the South lagging behind.

Other reforms began to sweep the nation. Influenced
by German immigrants, kindergartens sprouted in
urban areas, beginning with St. Louis in 1873.
Demands for better trained teachers led to an
increase in "normal" schools, colleges that specialized
in preparation to teach. By 1900, one in five public
school teachers had a degree.

More and more high schools were built in the last
three decades of the 19th century. During that period
the number of public high schools increased from 160
to 6,000, and the nation's illiteracy rate was cut nearly
in half. However, only 4% of American children
between the ages of 14 and 17 were actually enrolled.

Higher education was changing as well. In general,
the number of colleges increased owing to the
creation of public land-grant colleges by the states
and private universities sponsored by
philanthropists, such as Stanford and Vanderbilt.

Opportunities for women to attend college were also
on the rise. Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Vassar, Wellesley,
and Bryn Mawr Colleges provided a liberal arts
education equivalent to their males-only
counterparts. By 1910, 40% of the nation's college
students were female, despite the fact that many
professions were still closed to women.

Although nearly 47% of the nation's colleges
accepted women, African American attendance at
white schools was virtually nonexistent. Black
colleges such as Howard, Fisk, and Atlanta
University rose to meet this need.

On an individual level, the
turn of the century was also
the age of the bicycle. In 1885,
the velocipede, a "bicycle"
with one huge wheel followed
by a smaller one, became
instantly obsolete when the
safer, modern bicycle with
two wheels of equal size made
its debut.


Many became addicted to this new form of exercise.
Men and women took romantic rides through parks,
and courtship took a step closer to independence
from parental involvement.
The bicycle even had an impact on women's fashion.
No one could ride around on a bicycle with a big
Victorian hoop dress, so designers accommodated
the new trend by producing a freer, less constrictive
style.

The modern American newspaper took its familiar
form during the Gilded Age. To capitalize on those
who valued Sunday leisure time, the Sunday
newspaper was expanded and divided into
supplements. The subscription of women was
courted for the first time by including fashion and
beauty tips. For Americans who followed the
emerging professional sports scene, a sports page
was added.

The competition was fierce, especially in New York.
The two titans of American publishing were Joseph
Pulitzer of the New York World and William
Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal. These
men stopped at nothing to increase their readership.
If a news story was too boring, why not twist the
facts to make it more interesting? If the truth was too
bland, why not spice it up with some innocent
fiction? If all else failed, the printer could always
increase the size of the headlines to make a story
seem more important.

This kind of sensationalism was denounced by
veteran members of the press corps. Labeled yellow
journalism by its critics, this practice was prevalent
in late-19th century news. At its most harmless, it
bent reality to add a little extra excitement to
everyday life. At its most dangerous, it fired up
public opinion to start a war with Spain.

Baseball was quickly becoming the national
pastime. It had graduated from a gentleman's
game to a form of mass entertainment. As cities
and towns dedicated more and more public
land for recreational purposes, baseball became
more and more popular. Those who did not
enjoy playing were given the opportunity to
watch.

The National League was formed in 1876 and
Americans were able to watch touring
professionals play the game. As a color barrier
had been quickly established, not all athletes
were given an opportunity. The National
League and its rival, the American League,
played for the first World Series Championship
in 1903. The baseball craze led to the financing
of large grandstand arenas such as Fenway
Park in Boston, Shibe Park in Philadelphia, and
Wrigley Field in Chicago.

The longest continually operating professional
baseball team is

Conflict between whites and Native Americans was
as old as the earliest settlements, but there were clear
patterns of waxing and waning intensity. The
transcontinental railroad became the catalyst for
much of the new conflict. Before its completion, the
only Americans to venture westward had done so on
horseback or Conestoga wagon. Now thousands
more could migrate much more quickly, cheaply,
and comfortably. As the numbers of white settlers
from the East increased dramatically, conflicts with
the native tribes did so as well.

Although battles were won and lost by both
sides, many factors favored the United States
Army. One deciding determinant was
technology. Repeating rifles were a new means
of mass destruction. The railroad system and
industry of the East kept the federal troops
better supplied than the Native Americans.

The blossoming population of the East was
dwarfing the numbers of Indian folk. The
buffalo, once seemingly as plentiful as the
trees, were now disappearing. Perhaps the
greatest killer of all was disease. For every
Native American killed by a bullet, a thousand
died from European plagues.

The struggle would be violent. Despite
numerous treaties, the demand for native lands
simply grew and grew to the point at which
rational compromise collapsed. Local volunteer
militias formed in the West to ensure its safe
settlement and development. The Native
Americans were growing increasingly
intolerant of being pushed on to less desirable
territory.

Sand Creek was a village of
approximately 800 Cheyenne Indians in
southeast Colorado. Black Kettle, the
local chief, had approached a United
States Army fort seeking protection for
his people. On November 28, 1864, he
was assured that his people would not
be disturbed at Sand Creek, for the
territory had been promised to the
Cheyennes by an 1851 treaty. The next
day would reveal that promise as a
baldfaced lie.

On the morning of November 29, a
group called the Colorado Volunteers
surrounded Sand Creek. In hope of
defusing the situation, Black Kettle
raised an American flag as a sign of
friendship. The Volunteers'
commander, Colonel John Chivington,
ignored the gesture. "Kill and scalp all,
big and little," he told his troops. With
that, the regiment descended upon the
village, killing about 400 people, most
of whom were women and children.

The brutality was extreme. Chivington's troops
committed mass scalpings and disembowelments.
Some Cheyennes were shot while trying to escape,
while others were shot pleading for mercy. Reports
indicated that the troops even emptied their rifles on
distant infants for sport. Later, Chivington displayed
his scalp collection to the public as a badge of pride.

When word spread to other Indian
communities, it was agreed that the whites
must be met by force. Most instrumental in the
retaliation were Sioux troops under the
leadership of Red Cloud. In 1866, Sioux
warriors ambushed the command of William J.
Fetterman, whose troops were trying to
complete the construction of the Bozeman Trail
in Montana. Of Fetterman's 81 soldiers and
settlers, there was not a single survivor. The
bodies were grotesquely mutilated.

Faced with a stalemate, Red Cloud and the
United States agreed to the 1868 Treaty of Fort
Laramie, which brought a temporary end to the
hostilities. Large tracts of land were reaffirmed
as Sioux and Cheyenne Territory by the United
States Government. Unfortunately, the peace
was short-lived.

Gold broke the delicate peace with the Sioux. In 1874,
a scientific exploration group led by General George
Armstrong Custer discovered the precious metal in
the heart of the Black Hills of South Dakota.

When word of the discovery leaked, nothing could
stop the masses of prospectors looking to get rich
quick, despite the treaty protections that awarded
that land to the Sioux. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse,
the local Indian leaders, decided to take up arms to
defend their dwindling land supply.

Custer was perhaps the most flamboyant and
brash officer in the United States Army. He
was confident that his technologically superior
troops could contain the Native American
fighters. Armed with new weapons of
destruction such as the rapid-firing Gatling
gun, Custer and his soldiers felt that it was
only a matter of time before the Indians would
surrender and submit to life on a smaller
reservation. Custer hoped to make that happen
sooner rather than later.

His orders were to locate the Sioux
encampment in the Big Horn Mountains of
Montana and trap them until reinforcements
arrived. But the prideful Custer sought to
engage the Sioux on his own.

On June 25, 1876, he discovered a small Indian
village on the banks of the Little Big Horn
River. Custer confidently ordered his troops to
attack, not realizing that he was confronting
the main Sioux and Cheyenne encampment.
About three thousand Sioux warriors led by
Crazy Horse descended upon Custer's
regiment, and within hours the entire Seventh
Cavalry and General Custer were massacred.

The victory was brief for the warring Sioux.
The rest of the United States regulars arrived
and chased the Sioux for the next several
months. By October, much of the resistance had
ended. Crazy Horse had surrendered, but
Sitting Bull and a small band of warriors
escaped to Canada. Eventually they returned to
the United States and surrendered because of
hunger.

Custer's Last Stand caused massive debate in
the East. War hawks demanded an immediate
increase in federal military spending and swift
judgment for the noncompliant Sioux.

Critics of United States policy also made their
opinions known. The most vocal detractor,
Helen Hunt Jackson, published A Century of
Dishonor in 1881. This blistering assault on
United States Indian policy chronicled
injustices toward Native Americans over the
past hundred years.

The American masses, however, were
unsympathetic or indifferent. A systematic
plan to end all native resistance was approved,
and the Indians of the West would not see
another victory like the Little Big Horn.

Travelers west were encouraged to kill any
buffalo they encountered. Buffalo robes became
fashionable in the East, so profit-seekers
slaughtered thousands of bison simply for their
hides. Others shot them for sport, leaving their
remains for the local vultures.

The army was even known to use Gatling guns
on the herds to reduce their numbers. The plan
was effective. At the end of the Civil War, an
estimated 15 million buffalo roamed the Great
Plains. By 1900, there were only several
hundred, as the species was nearly extinct. The
Sioux lost their chief means of subsistence and
mourned the loss of the animal, which was
revered as sacred

The year after Custer's infamous defeat, the
Nez Percé Indians of Idaho fell victim to
western expansion. When gold was discovered
on their lands in 1877, demands were made for
over 90 percent of their land. After a stand-off
between tribal warriors and the United States
Army, their leader Chief Joseph directed his
followers toward Canada to avoid capture. He
hoped to join forces with Sitting Bull and plan
the next move from there.

Army officials chased the Nez
Percé 1700 miles across Idaho and
Western Montana. As they
neared the border, the army
closed in and Chief Joseph was
forced to surrender. The entire
tribe was relocated to Oklahoma
where nearly half of them
perished from disease and
despair.

Warfare also raged across the American
Southwest. The Apache tribe led one of the
longest and fiercest campaigns of all. Under the
leadership of Geronimo, Apache attackers
assaulted settlers in Texas, Arizona, and New
Mexico. The army responded slowly but
surely. Geronimo was relentlessly hunted, even
across the Mexican border.

Finally, after the army seized female Apaches
and deported them to Florida and deprived the
warring tribesmen of a food supply, Geronimo
was captured. His 1886 defeat marked the end
of open resistance by Native Americans in the
West.

The last land to be claimed by homesteaders
was in Oklahoma. Previously dubbed "Indian
Territory" by the federal government,
Oklahoma had been used as a state-sized
reservation of many tribes ranging from the
Nez Percé in Idaho to the Cherokee of Georgia.

In 1889, the United States Government decided
to open two million acres of land unassigned to
any particular tribe for homesteaders. At noon
on April 22, 1889, the land was legally opened
to claim under the provisions of the Homestead
Act. Thousands rushed across Oklahoma to
grab a piece. Highlighted by a few gunshots,
former Indian land was gobbled up in a matter
of hours.

By nightfall, Oklahoma City qualified as a city
of 10,000 tent inhabitants. Those who dared to
stake a claim before it was legal were called
Sooners, and the state acquired its future
nickname. Successful homesteaders rested that
night in triumph, leaving the Indians of the
area to despair over yet another grand theft.

Called the "Ghost Dance" by the white soldiers
who observed the new practice, it spread
rapidly across the continent. Instead of
bringing the answer to their prayers, however,
the "Ghost Dance" movement resulted in yet
another human travesty.

It all began in 1888 with a Paiute holy man
called Wovoka. During a total eclipse of the
sun, Wovoka received a message from the
Creator. Soon an Indian messiah would come
and the world would be free of the white man.
The Indians could return to their lands and the
buffalo would once again roam the Great
Plains.

Wovoka even knew that all this would happen
in the spring of 1891. He and his followers
meditated, had visions, chanted, and
performed what became known as the Ghost
Dance. Soon the movement began to spread.
Before long, the Ghost Dance had adherents in
tribes throughout the South and West.

Although Wovoka preached nonviolence,
whites feared that the movement would spark
a great Indian rebellion. Ghost Dance followers
seemed more defiant than other Native
Americans, and the rituals seemed to work its
participants into a frenzy. All this was
disconcerting to the soldiers and settlers
throughout the South and West. Tragedy
struck when the Ghost Dance movement
reached the Lakota Sioux.

Local residents of South Dakota demanded that
the Sioux end the ritual of the Ghost Dance.
When they were ignored, the United States
Army was called for assistance. Fearing
aggression, a group of 300 Sioux did leave the
reservation. Army regulars believed them to be
a hostile force preparing for attack. When the
two sides came into contact, the Sioux
reluctantly agreed to be tranported to
Wounded Knee Creek on Pine Ridge
Reservation.

On the morning of December 29, 1890, the army
demanded the surrender of all Sioux weapons. Amid
the tension, a shot rang out, possibly from a deaf
brave who misunderstood his chief's orders to
surrender.

The Seventh Cavalry — the reconstructed
regiment lost by George Armstrong Custer —
opened fire on the Sioux. The local chief, Big
Foot, was shot in cold blood as he recuperated
from pneumonia in his tent. Others were cut
down as they tried to run away. When the
smoke cleared almost all of the 300 men,
women, and children were dead. Some died
instantly, others froze to death in the snow.

This massacre marked the last showdown
between Native Americans and the United
States Army. It was nearly 400 years after
Christopher Columbus first contacted the first
Americans. The 1890 United States census
declared the frontier officially closed.
1898
Today


In 1867, Joseph McCoy tracked a path known as the
Chisholm Trail from Texas to Abilene, Kansas. The Texas
cowboys drove the cattle the entire distance — 1500
miles. Along the way, the cattle enjoyed all the grass they
wanted, at no cost to the ranchers. At Abilene and other
railhead towns such as Dodge City and Ellsworth, the
cattle would be sold and the cowboys would return to
Texas.
No vision of the American West is complete without the
cowboy. The imagery is quintessentially American, but
many myths cloud the truth about what life was like on
the long drive.

The typical cowboy wore a hat with a wide
brim to provide protection from the
unforgiving sunlight. Cattle kicked up clouds
of dust on the drive, so the cowboy donned a
bandanna over the lower half of his face.
Chaps, or leggings, and high boots were worn
as protection from briars and cactus needles.

Contrary to legend, the typical cowboy was not
a skilled marksman. The lariat, not the gun,
was how the cattle drover showed his mastery.
About a quarter of all cowboys were African
Americans, and even more were at least
partially Mexican. To avoid additional strain
on the horses, cowboys were usually smaller
than according to legend.

The heyday of the long drive was short. By the
early 1870s, rail lines reached Texas so the
cattle could be shipped directly to the
slaughterhouses. Ranchers then began to allow
cattle to graze on the open range near rail
heads. But even this did not last. The invention
of barbed wire by Joseph Glidden ruined the
open range. Now farmers could cheaply mark
their territory to keep the unwanted steers off
their lands. Overproduction caused prices to
fall, leading many ranchers out of business.

Finally, the winter of 1886-87 was one of the
worst in American history. Cattle died by the
thousands as temperatures reached fifty below
zero in some parts of the West. The era of the
open range was over.

Interest in Hawaii began in America as early as the
1820s, when New England missionaries tried in
earnest to spread their faith. Since the 1840s, keeping
European powers out of Hawaii became a principal
foreign policy goal. Americans acquired a true
foothold in Hawaii as a result of the sugar trade. The
United States government provided generous terms
to Hawaiian sugar growers, and after the Civil War,
profits began to swell. A turning point in U.S.Hawaiian relations occurred in 1890, when Congress
approved the McKinley Tariff, which raised import
rates on foreign sugar..

Hawaiian sugar planters were now being undersold
in the American market, and as a result, a depression
swept the islands. The sugar growers, mostly white
Americans, knew that if Hawaii were to be annexed
by the United States, the tariff problem would
naturally disappear. At the same time, the Hawaiian
throne was passed to Queen Liliuokalani, who
determined that the root of Hawaii's problems was
foreign interference. A great showdown was about to
unfold.

In January 1893, the planters staged an uprising to
overthrow the Queen. At the same time, they
appealed to the United States armed forces for
protection. Without Presidential approval, marines
stormed the islands, and the American minister to
the islands raised the stars and stripes in Honolulu.
The Queen was forced to abdicate, and the matter
was left for Washington politicians to settle

.By this time, Grover Cleveland had been
inaugurated President. Cleveland was an outspoken
anti-imperialist and thought Americans had acted
shamefully in Hawaii. He withdrew the annexation
treaty from the Senate and ordered an investigation
into potential wrongdoings. Cleveland aimed to
restore Liliuokalani to her throne, but American
public sentiment strongly favored annexation.

The matter was prolonged until after Cleveland left
office. When war broke out with Spain in 1898, the
military significance of Hawaiian naval bases as a
way station to the Spanish Philippines outweighed
all other considerations. President William McKinley
signed a joint resolution annexing the islands, much
like the manner in which Texas joined the Union in
1845. Hawaii remained a territory until granted
statehood as the fiftieth state in 1959.


In addition to demanding the free coinage of silver,
the Populists called for a host of other reforms. They
demanded a graduated income tax, whereby
individuals earning a higher income paid a higher
percentage in taxes.
They wanted political reforms as well. At this point,
United States Senators were still not elected by the
people directly; they were instead chosen by state
legislatures. The Populists demanded a constitutional
amendment allowing for the direct election of
Senators.

Ironically, the person who defended the
Populist platform that year came from the
Democratic Party. William Jennings Bryan was
the unlikely candidate. An attorney from
Lincoln, Nebraska, Bryan's speaking skills were
among the best of his generation. Known as the
"Great Commoner," Bryan quickly developed a
reputation as defender of the farmer.

When Populist ideas began to spread,
Democratic voters of the South and West gave
enthusiastic endorsement. At the Chicago
Democratic convention in 1896, Bryan
delivered a speech that made his career.
Demanding the free coinage of silver, Bryan
shouted, "You shall not crucify mankind upon
a cross of gold!" Thousands of delegates roared
their approval, and at the age of thirty-six, the
"Boy Orator" received the Democratic
nomination.

Faced with a difficult
choice between
surrendering their
identity and hurting their
own cause, the Populist
Party also nominated
Bryan as their candidate.

The Republican competitor was
William McKinley, the governor of
Ohio. He had the support of the
moneyed eastern establishment.
Behind the scenes, a wealthy
Cleveland industrialist named
Marc Hanna was determined to
see McKinley elected. He, like
many of his class, believed that the
free coinage of silver would bring
financial ruin to America.


Using his vast wealth and power, Hanna
directed a campaign based on fear of a Bryan
victory. McKinley campaigned from his home,
leaving the politicking for the party hacks.
Bryan revolutionized campaign politics by
launching a nationwide whistle-stop effort,
making twenty to thirty speeches per day.
When the results were finally tallied, McKinley
had beaten Bryan by an electoral vote margin
of 271 to 176.

Many factors led to Bryan's defeat. He was
unable to win a single state in the populous
Northeast. Laborers feared the free silver idea
as much as their bosses. While inflation would
help the debt-ridden, mortgage-paying
farmers, it could hurt the wage-earning, rentpaying factory workers. In a sense, the election
came down to city versus country. By 1896, the
urban forces won. Bryan's campaign marked
the last time a major party attempted to win the
White House by exclusively courting the rural
vote.

The single event that came to define McKinley's
presidency was the Spanish-American War. The conflict
between the two countries grew from yellow journalist
stories of Spanish atrocities in Cuba, namely Spain's use
of concentration camps and brutal force to quash the
Cubans' rebellion. The Spanish repeatedly promised new
reforms, then postponed them. Democrats and the
sensationalist yellow journalism of William Randolph
Hearst's newspapers pushed American public opinion
against Spain through a 19th century media blitz for war.
McKinley and the business community, aided by House
Speaker Reed, opposed the growing public demand for
war. The McKinley Administration, however, was
having trouble containing growing US sentiment.

To demonstrate growing American concern, a
warship, the U.S.S. Maine, was dispatched to Havana
harbor. On February 15, 1898, it mysteriously
exploded and sank, causing the deaths of 260 men.
No one was officially blamed but the episode riveted
the nation. The uncertainty factor weakened
McKinley and after more delays from Madrid he
turned the matter over to Congress, which voted for
war. Although the U.S. Army was poorly prepared,
the Navy was ready and militia and national guard
units rushed to the colors, most notably Theodore
Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders".

The naval war in Cuba and the Philippines was a
success, the easiest war in U.S. history, and after 118
days Spain agreed to peace terms at the Treaty of
Paris in July. Secretary of State John Hay called it a
"splendid little war." The United States gained
ownership of Guam and Puerto Rico from Spain as
well as purchasing the Philippines for $20 Million,
and political and economic control over Cuba
through the Platt Amendment. The United States had
become an imperialistic nation. Hawaii, which for
years had tried to join the U.S., was annexed.

At the Peace Conference Spain sold its rights to the
Philippines to the U.S., which took control of the
islands and suppressed local rebellions, over the
objection of the Democrats and the newly formed
Anti-Imperialist League. McKinley sent William
Howard Taft to the Philippines and then to Rome to
settle the long-standing dispute over lands owned by
the Catholic Church. By 1901 the Philippines were
peaceful again after a decade of turmoil.

The President and Mrs. McKinley attended the
Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New
York. He delivered a speech about his positions
on tariffs and foreign trade on September 5,
1901. The following morning, McKinley visited
Niagara Falls before returning to the
Exposition. That afternoon McKinley had an
engagement to greet the public at the Temple
of Music. Standing in line, Leon Frank
Czolgosz waited with a pistol in his right hand
concealed by a handkerchief.

At 4:07 pm Czolgosz fired twice at the president. The
first bullet grazed his shoulder, but the second went
through his stomach, pancreas, and kidney, and
finally lodged in the muscles of his back. McKinley
whispered to his secretary, George Cortelyou, “My
wife, Cortelyou, be careful how you tell her, oh be
careful.” Czolgosz would have fired again, but he
was struck by a bystander and then subdued by an
enraged crowd. The wounded McKinley reportedly
called out "Boys! Don't let them hurt him!" because
the angry crowd beat Czolgosz so severely it looked
as if they might kill him on the spot.

McKinley's doctors believed he would recover, and
he convalesced for more than a week in Buffalo at the
home of the exposition's director. On the morning of
September 12, he felt strong enough to receive his
first food orally since the shooting – toast and a small
cup of coffee. However, by afternoon he began to
experience discomfort and his condition rapidly
worsened. McKinley began to go into shock. At 2:15
am on September 14, 1901, eight days after he was
shot, he died at age 58 from gangrene surrounding
his wounds. His last words were "It is God's way;
His will be done, not ours."