Looking to the West, 1860-1900

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Looking to the West, 1860-1900
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Great Plains, Pacific Northwest, and the
Southwest develop
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Pacific Railways Acts of 1862 and 1864

• Passed during the Civil War when the Northern
  Republics dominated the Congress (no Southern
  opposition)
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads
• Received huge land grants from the federal
  government
• 10 square miles of public land on each side of
  track
• Railroads profited from selling land near tracks
• Farmers needed railroads to transport goods to
  city

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Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862
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Homestead Act 1862 160 acres of public land to
anyone who met these requirements
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By 1900 600,000 claims of 80 million
acresPROBLEMS
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Life in the West
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African Americans in the West
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Frontier Women
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Womens Suffrage in the West
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Native Americans 1830s Jackson removed to the
Great Plains
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Indian Territory

• Located in todays Oklahoma
• Page 181 Look at Map

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Railroads and Settlers

• Settlers felt they had a right to the land
• Some settlers signed treaties with natives, but
  both sides had different intentions of what the
  treaties meant
• The Federal Government wanted to place natives on
  Reservations (federal land set aside for natives)

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Sioux fought westward expansion!
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Nez Perce - Northwest
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Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
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• September 30, 1877
• Nez Perce headed to Canada, but was blocked by
  the military
• Many died while being held in the Indian
  territory, including all of Josephs children
• Eventually Nez Perce were moved to a reservation
  in Washington state

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Change in Culture of the West
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Dawes Act of 1887
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Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
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Farming on the Plains
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Farming

• Dry farming crops that do not require a great
  deal of water
• 1870s improvements plow, harrows to break
  ground, seed drills
• 1875 steam powered threshers
• 1890s corn huskers and corn binders

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• 1862 Department of Agriculture added under
  the Morrill Act
• 1880s and 1890s formulated statistics on
  markets, studied crop and plant diseases
• Distributed publications on crop rotation,
  hybridization, topsoil

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• Bonanza farms farms controlled by large
  businesses and managed by professionals
• Single cash crops
• Surplus prices fell

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Debt

• Farmers bought to much land and had to mortgage
• 1849 California Gold Rush (Sutters Mill,
  California 1848)
• 1859 rumors of gold strikes in the area of
  Pikes Peak, Colorado
• Pikes Peak or Bust!
• Nevada Comstock Lode
• Mining towns led to gambling and drunkeness

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Mining Techniques

• placer mining shoveled loose dirt into boxes
  and ran through water
• 1850s and 1860s deeply buried gold which was
  harder to get
• Larger companies had to do the mining

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Cattle Industry

• Texas early 1800s
• Longhorn cattle
• 1860s and 1870s booming period
• Plains areas to pasture
• Demand for beef in large cities
• Railroad aided in cattle industry
• Long drive cowboys would move cattle from place
  to place (18 hours in the saddle)

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Changes in the cattle industry by the 1880s

• 1874 Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire
• Overstocking of cattle
• 1885 beef prices began to fall
• 1885 1886 hard winter (loss of 85 of cattle)

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Problems
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Tariffs

• Tariffs encourage the sale of goods produced at
  home by taxing imports
• Hurt farmers
• Raised price of manufactured goods
• Foreigners had no to buy American crops
• Helped farmers
• Protecting them from farm imports from other
  countries

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Money Issue

• Value of money is linked to amount in circulation
• If money supply goes up value of money goes down
• CAUSES INFLATION
• Reduce the supply of money and the value of money
  goes up
• CAUSES DEFLATION
• After Civil War period of deflation

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• Monetary policy printing/producing money or not

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Disagreement over which is best
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• Farmers want more money in circulation
• Manufacturers and other businesses want less
  money in circulation

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• 1873 nation went on the Gold Standard
• Silverites were mad! Silver miners and western
  farmers are furious.
• Want free silver unlimited coining of silver to
  increase the supply of money

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• 1878 Bland Allison Act required government to
  purchase and coin more silver, increase supply,
  and cause inflation
• Vetoed by President Hayes
• Congress Overrode his veto
• However, the treasure refused to buy more than
  the minimum under the law and refused to
  circulate silver dollars

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1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act

• Government was required to purchase an amount of
  silver each month
• Repealed in 1893

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• 1867 The Grange (Patrons of Husbandry)
• Farms form cooperatives
• Save money by buying in large quantities

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• Greenback Party wanted to circulate more paper
  money to cause inflation
• Elected 14 members to Congress in 1878
• Power faded because of the focus on silver

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Farmers Alliances
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Natural Disasters with no Federal Help

• 1882 Mississippi flooded
• 1886 1887 drought
• 1887 - blizzard

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• 1876-1892 no president won a majority of the
  popular vote
• Not powerful presidents usually protected
  American industry

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• 1887 Texas Seed Bill seed grain to aid
  drought victims
• Grover Cleveland vetoed it
• though the people support the government, the
  government shouldnt support the people

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• 1887 Interstate Commerce Act
• Regulated railroad prices
• Illegal to give special rates
• Developed the Interstate Commerce Commission

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• 1890 Sherman Anti-trust Act
• Curb power of trusts and monopolies
• Lax enforcement

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Populists

• 1890s success in the South
• Peoples Party Populists
• 1. increased circulation of
• 2. unlimited minting of silver
• 3. progressive income tax percentage increases
• 4. government ownership of communication and
  transportation
• 5. 8 hour workday opposed use of Pinkertons
  (private police forces)

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Populists

• Focused on poor whites and blacks
• 1892 James Weaver won barely a million votes
• Grover Cleveland won
• Angered laborers when he ended the Pullman strike
• Angered farmers by supporting gold
• Angered manufacturers by supporting tariff
• 1893 depression millions out of work

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• 1896 William McKinley vs. William Jennings
  Bryan
• McKinley for the gold standard
• Bryan for silver LOST
• Bryan most known for his Cross of Gold speech

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• Silver movement died
• Returned to gold standard (more gold found
  worldwide)
• Farm prices rose
• Populism died
• Progressivism developed

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Frontier - disappearing

• 1900 West
• U.S. territories, state constitutions, statehood
• Frontier fading
• Tenant farming on the rise
• 1872 Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming,
  Montana, Idaho) 1st National Park
• 1890 Superintendent of the census declared the
  end of the frontier

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Turner Frontier Thesis 1893

• Frederick Jackson Turner
• Speech detailing the importance of the frontier
  and the end of the frontier
• Frontier individualistic, restless, socially
  mobile America
• Didnt take into account women, minorities,
  government

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Frontier Realities

• Men and women
• Whites, African Americans, Chinese, and Japanese
• Chinese railway workers
• 9,000 African American cowhands
• buffalo soldiers all black regiments
• 1883 Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Shows
• 1912 Juliet Low Girl Scouts girls have been
  made too soft