Transcript C. Military/Physical Control.

THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION IN THE WEST
I. Lincoln and the West.
II. Wartime Policies in the American West.
A. Political Control.
B. Social Control.
C. Military/Physical Control.
III. Reconstruction and the American West.
A Dispossessing Native Nations.
B. Federal Control and Private Ownership.
I. Lincoln and the West.
Romantic Vision of Lincoln the “Rail Splitter”
Lincoln in 1846
The year he was elected to his single term in Congress.
1861
1865
II. Wartime Policies in
the American West.
A. Political Control.
Western Territories on the Eve of the Civil War
Brigham Young
1856 Republican Platform
Resolved: That the
Constitution confers upon
Congress sovereign powers
over the Territories of the
United States for their
government; and that in the
exercise of this power, it is
both the right and the
imperative duty of Congress
to prohibit in the Territories
those twin relics of
barbarism — Polygamy, and
Slavery.
The “Utah War”
Pres. James Buchanan
Col. Albert Sidney Johnson
Site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, September 11, 1857
The Organized West at the End of the Civil War.
B. Social Control.
The Homestead Act
 Based in the Jeffersonian vision of Agrarian Capitalism.
 Blocked by Southern Congressmen before the Civil War.
 Allowed a citizen or someone who declared their intent to become
a citizen to claim 160 acres of the public domain. After five years,
improvements, and paying a filing fee the land was theirs.
 Aridity and the failure of Congress to reserve adequate acreage
posed severe problems.
 The Preemption Act and the Timber Culture Act provided a
means for homesteaders to more land in arid West.
 By 1900, 1.6 million homestead patents led to the distribution of
80 million acres of land.
1868 Homestead Certificate from Nebraska
Morrill Act or Land Grant College
Act of 1862
 University Land grants had been
common since the Northwest
Ordinance.
 Morrill Act was intended to
further agricultural and
mechanical arts and be open to
the “industrial” classes - i.e. the
average American.
 Provided 30,000 acres for each
senator and representative – more
advantageous for Eastern states!
 Because of poor management in
some states Congress passed a
second Morrill Act in 1890 that
provided annual cash allotments.
Justin Smith Morrill, Vermont
Rep. 1852-1866, Sen. 1866-1898
C. Military/Physical
Control.
The Bear River Massacre
Col. Patrick E. Connor
Sagwitch
Sand Creek Massacre
November 29, 1864
Black Kettle
Chivington
The Pony Express – April 1860 to October 1861
The Telegraph
Made the Pony Express Obsolete – October 18, 1861
The Overland Mail
Pacific Railway Act of 1862
III. Reconstruction and the
American West.
A Dispossessing Native
Nations.
B. Federal Control and Private
Ownership.
General Mining Law of
1872
 Essentially uses the same philosophy behind the Homestead Act.
 “That all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United
States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and
open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are
found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the United States and
those who have declared their intention to become such, under
regulations prescribed by law, and according to the local customs or
rules of miners, in the several mining-districts, so far as the same are
applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States.”
 Miners could patent a claim of up to 160 acres of the public domain by
paying $2.50 an acre for pit mined minerals and $5.00 for vein and then
performing $100 of work a year on the land.
 The claim was then in perpetuity and the US reserved no portion of the
public resource for pubic use - no royalties!
 Hard rock mining has produced about $250 billion in minerals since 1872.
One Legacy of the General Mining Law of 1872
Every black “x” represents an abandoned mine.