The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution, 18651896

1
Chapter 26

• The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution,
  1865-1896

2
Indians and Westward Expansion

• In 1860, there were 360,000 Native Americans
  roaming the western plains hunting buffalo and
  riding horses introduced by the Spaniards
• By 1887, that number had been reduced to 243,000
  by wars and diseases
• With the exceptions of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico,
  and Oklahoma, the west had been granted statehood
  and quickly filled with a white population

Thomas Jefferson had said it would take Americans
500 years to settle his Louisiana Purchase. In
1890, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that no
frontiers remained in the United States. The
pioneers had conquered the West.
3
An American Tragedy

• As white settlers edged onto the plains before
  the Civil War they unwittingly spread cholera,
  typhoid, and smallpox
• By hunting and grazing livestock on the prairie
  grasses whites steadily shrank the Great Plains
  bison population from 15 million in 1865 to, it
  is believed, 750 total by 1890 before the hunt
  was finally ended. Once an endangered species,
  the buffalo are now considered safe in numbers
• As herds dwindled, the tribes warred among
  themselves over scarce hunting grounds.

The government encouraged the killing of buffalo
herds as a way to deal with the Indian problem.
Americans road the train and shot bison as it
moved along simply leaving the animals for dead.
RIGHT One man stands atop a pile of skulls
4
Story of the Nez Percé

• From 1868 to 1890 there was almost constant
  warfare between whites and Indians
• Both sides committed atrocities
• Among the worst was the story of the Nez Percé
  who were goaded into war in 1877, when gold
  discovered on their reservation prompted the
  federal government to shrink its size by 90
• Chief Joseph led his 800 person tribe on a 1,700
  mile journey through the PNW fighting and
  outmaneuvering the 2,000 federal troop who were
  chasing them for 3 months.

5
Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

• It was the reform attempt at solving the "Indian
  problem" through forced civilization
• It wiped out tribal land and gave family heads
  160 acres and the promise of citizenship in 25
  years if the Indians behaved themselves
• Schools were built to "civilize" the children
• By 1900, 50 of the land that had been given to
  the Indians was no longer theirs and tribal
  culture was nearly extinct by law
• The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 finally
  granted all natives American citizenship but fell
  short of allowing them to vote.

The Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania 1903.
Here Native American children are being taught
mathematics but it was illegal for them to learn
anything about their native culture.
6
Mining

• The conquering of the Indians and building of the
  railroads gave life to the booming mining
  industry
• Gold continued to come out of California as well
  as other parts of the west
• The Comstock Lode of Nevada netted more than 340
  million in mostly silver. Smaller strikes were
  made in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado
• The amassing of precious metals helped finance
  the Civil War, facilitated the building of
  railroads, and intensified the battles between
  whites and Indians.

The Comstock silver find is said to have
eventually reached 20 feet in width and for a
long while produced 8 million worth of silver
every month.
7
A new way of life in agriculture

• Beef - The new railroads and later the
  refrigerated car turned meat-packing and cattle
  ranching into profitable businesses. Cowboys
  would move the herds on "long drives" to
  slaughterhouses
• The Homestead Act of 1862 - The law provided that
  a settler could acquire 160 acres by living on a
  piece of land five years, improving it, and
  paying a 30 fee

• It was being given away to encourage rapid
  filling of the west and promote the family farm
• However, the land was difficult to farm and there
  was a great deal of corruption by the railroads.

8
Problems of farmers in the 1890s

• Single money-crop - Favorable grain prices,
  mechanized reaper-threshers, and the railroads
  led farmers to specialize in a single grain crop.
  Now, like southerners before them, many American
  farmers were at the mercy of the world market for
  their prosperity
• Low prices
• Deflated currency
• Farm tenancy and sharecropping
• Grasshoppers and the cotton-boll weevil
• Droughts and floods left farmers ruined
• As a result farmers became involved in politics.
  One of the better known, the Grange, at first was
  organized to stimulate the minds of farmers
  through educational and social activities (Square
  Dancing). The Grange would soon turn into the
  Populist Party that we saw in Chapter 23.

9
Not in your book for some reason

• The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 - Western
  silver agitators agreed to support a new tariff
  if Eastern protectionists supported a new silver
  bill. The result was that the Treasury was
  required to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver
  a month and pay for it in notes redeemable in
  either silver or gold
• The McKinley Tariff of 1890 - Sponsored by the
  future president, it boosted the tariff to 48.4.
  The tariff ended up hurting farmers and others
  as prices for domestic products rose. Republican
  Party membership in the House dropped from 166 to
  88, as compared to the Democrats 235 after the
  1890 election.

Sponsoring the high tariff cost William McKinley
and other Republicans their Congressional seats
in the 1892 election as well as getting Democrat
Grover Cleveland elected President.
10
More Labor Problems

• A march on Washington was led by Jacob S. Coxey
  demanding relief for the unemployed
• Some protests were violent, like the Pullman
  strike of 1894. The labor leader Eugene V. Debs
  organized a strike against the Pullman Palace Car
  Company based in Chicago

• Because so much of the nations rail traffic
  flowed through the city it paralyzed the country
• President Cleveland sent troops to crush the
  strike on the basis that it was disrupting mail
  service.

This drawing appeared in Harpers Weekly.
Thirteen workers were killed by troops and more
than 1,000 railcars were destroyed.
11
Election of 1896

• The Republicans turned to the former congressman
  William McKinley of Ohio
• Cleveland no longer led the Democrats. Instead
  they turned to a Nebraskan orator named William
  Jennings Bryan
• At the convention in Chicago, Bryan dazzled the
  crowd with his famous Cross of Gold Speech - "We
  will answer their demands for a gold standard by
  saying to them 'You shall not press down upon
  the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall
  not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.'"

Democratic Convention Ballot Results It took 5
ballots to get Bryan on
Presidential Ballot 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
William Jennings Bryan 137 197 219 280 652
Richard P. Bland 235 281 291 241 11 Robert
E. Pattison 97 100 97 97 95 Joseph C. S.
Blackburn 82 41 27 27 0 Horace Boies 67
37 36 33 0 John R. McLean 54 53 54 46
0 Claude Matthews 37 34 34 36 0
12
One of the most important elections

• Marcus Alonzo Hanna was the mastermind behind
  McKinley. While he stayed at his home in Ohio
  giving speeches from his porch, Hanna traveled
  the country and sent his "spellbinders" out to
  remind the public of the "Democratic Depression
  of 1893". It worked
• McKinley (Republican) 271 - 7,102,246
• Bryan (Dem Populists) 176 - 6,492,559
• The free-silver election may have been the most
  significant since Lincoln. It was a victory for
  big business, the big cities, middle-class
  values, and financial conservatism. It was also
  the last time a serious effort would be made to
  win by acquiring the agrarian vote.

LEFT McKinley and RIGHT Bryan give speeches
during the 1896 presidential campaign. Actually
McKinley rarely left his home in Ohio whereas
Bryan was the first candidate to travel around
the U.S. trying to get support. McKinley left it
all to his spin doctor Hanna who had 3.5 million
to spend, about 5 times more than Bryan.