Politics and Expansion in an Industrializing Age

1
Chapter 20

• Politics and Expansion in an Industrializing Age
• 1877-1900

2
Introduction

• This chapter covers
• national politics between 1877 and 1900
• U.S. participation in the Spanish-American War
• the race for empire

3
Introduction (cont.)

• 1.) What were the issues and the political spoils
  that the Democrats and Republicans fought over?
• 2.) What caused the rise of the Grange, Farmers
  Alliances, and the Populist Party?
• 3.) What was at stake in the election of 1896,
  and what was its outcome?

4
Introduction (cont.)

• 4.) Why did the United States go to war with
  Spain in 1898 and what resulted from the American
  victory?

5
Party Politics in an Era of Upheaval, 1877-1884

• Contested Political Visions
• The Republicans and Democrats differed on tariffs
  and money supply
• The majority of politicians of both parties held
  that the federal govt. had no right to regulate
  business or protect workers welfare
• They were willing to subsidize and in other ways
  encourage corporate growth
• People looked to state and local govts. to
  address their economic and social problems

6
Patterns of Party Strength

• Male voter turnouts were high
• Democratic and Republican parties were closely
  matched in strength
• Democratic support was
• Solid South
• States that bordered the South
• Recent immigrants in the big cities
• Most Catholics

7
Patterns of Party Strength (cont.)

• Republican support was
• Rural areas
• Small-town New England
• PA
• Upper Midwest
• Native-born Protestants

8
Regulating the Money Supply

• The nation split on the questions of how much
  money the govt. should issue and what should back
  it
• Those that supported limiting the money supply to
  what the govt. could back with its holding of
  gold
• Bankers
• Creditors
• Most businessmen
• Economists
• politicians

9
Regulating the Money Supply (cont.)

• Debt-ridden southern and western farmers wanted
• Larger money supply
• Retention of the unbacked Civil War currency
  (greenbacks)
• The issuing of notes backed by silver and gold
• The minting of silver coins
• They believed this larger money supply would
  raise falling farm prices and make it easier to
  pay off debts

10
Regulating the Money Supply (cont.)

• In the 1870s, the Greenback Party tried to
  further the increased money supply idea
• Even after the Partys demise, debtor groups
  continued to demand a larger money supply
• 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act
• Called for the U.S. Govt. to purchase silver and
  issue noted redeemable in gold or silver

11
Civil-Service Reform

• The spoils system had operated since the days of
  Andrew Jackson
• A group of reformers saw its defects and demanded
  a professional civil service based on merit
• After a crazed job seeker assassinated President
  James A. Garfield in 1881, Congress acted

12
Civil-Service Reform (cont.)

• Pendleton Act
• 1883
• Created a civil-service commission to prepare
  competitive examinations for federal jobs
• It prohibited politicians form asking govt.
  employees for campaign contributions
• Gradually it began to raise the honesty and
  competence of the federal bureaucracy

13
Politics of Privilege, Politics of Exclusion,
1884-1892

• A Democrat in the White House Grover Cleveland,
  1885-1889
• Republicans nominated James G. Blaine
• Tainted by corruption of the Grant era
• Identified with the spoils system
• Democrats nominated Cleveland
• Reputation for fighting the spoilsmen
• A number of Republican civil-service reformers
  bolted their party to support him
• The Mugwump switch helped Cleveland win
• 1st Democrat elected after the Civil War

14
1884 Election
15
A Democrat in the White House Grover Cleveland

• Cleveland believed in laissez-faire govt.
• Had little understanding of the social problems
  caused by industrialization

16
A Democrat in the White House Grover Cleveland

• He attempted to lower the tariff
• He argued that reduced rates would remove a
  potentially corrupting govt. surplus of
  funds---reduce prices for consumers---slow the
  growth of trusts
• Lower tariffs appealed to
• farmers and many Democrats from the West and
  South
• Lower tariffs alarmed
• Manufacturers
• Those Republicans who looked out for their own
  interests

17
A Democrat in the White House Grover Cleveland

• Cleveland also angered Civil War veterans when he
  halted wholesale granting of disability pensions
  to them

18
Big Business Strikes Back, Benjamin Harrison,
1889-1893

• The tariff became a major issue in the election
  of 1888
• Democrats renominated Cleveland
• Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison
• High protective tariffs
• Industrialists contributed heavily to the
  Republicans
• Cleveland received more popular votes than
  Harrison (48.6 to 47.8)
• Harrison won the Electoral College (233 to 168)

19
1888 Election
20
Big Business Strikes Back, Benjamin Harrison,
1889-1893

• McKinley Tariff
• 1890
• Passed by Republicans
• Raised the tariff rates to an all-time high
• They also rewarded Civil War veterans with
  generous pensions

21
Agrarian Protest and the Rise of the Peoples
Party

• When prices of wheat and other agricultural
  products dropped in the 1870s, debt-burdened
  farmers fell on hard times
• They responded by forming the first nationwide
  agricultural organization
• The Patrons of Husbandry
• A.k.a. Grange
• Led by Oliver H. Kelley

22
Agrarian Protest and the Rise of the Peoples
Party (cont.)

• The Grange tried to help farmers economically by
  organizing cooperatives to market their crops and
  buy supplies
• It also lobbied state legislatures to regulate
  the railroads
• Stop the overcharging of farmers, giving of
  discounts to large shippers, and bribing state
  officials
• A number of states did pass Granger Laws
• They were bitterly attacked by the railroads as
  unconstitutional

23
Agrarian Protest and the Rise of the Peoples
Party (cont.)

• At first federal courts upheld state regulations
• 1886 Wabash case
• The Supreme Court ruled that states could not
  regulate interstate railroads
• Congress stepped into the void by passing the
  Interstate Commerce Act (ICA) in 1887
• ICA created the Interstate Commerce Commission
  (ICC) to investigate and oversee railroad
  practices

24
Agrarian Protest and the Rise of the Peoples
Party (cont.)

• The ICA did little to curb railroad abuses
• The law and the ICC set a precedent for future
  federal regulation of interstate commerce
• The failure of the Granger Laws and the Granges
  other efforts to help farmers economically led to
  the organizations decline after 1878

25
Agrarian Protest and the Rise of the Peoples
Party (cont.)

• Farmers believed that the federal govt. was
  unresponsive to their needs
• Western and southern farmers suffered from
• falling agricultural prices
• A tight money supply
• High interest rates
• Heavy in debt
• Being overcharged by industrial trusts, grain
  elevator operators, and railroads

26
Agrarian Protest and the Rise of the Peoples
Party (cont.)

• Earlier, farmers had turned to the Grange and the
  Greenback Party to redress their grievances
• When these failed, farmers joined the Southern
  Alliance, National Colored Farmers, or the
  Northwestern Alliances
• The alliances called for
• Tariff reduction
• A graduated income tax
• Public ownership of railroads
• free silver

27
Agrarian Protest and the Rise of the Peoples
Party (cont.)

• In 1892, the alliances founded the Peoples Party
  (or the Populist Party)
• Developed a platform on their program
• They also endorsed the direct election of
  senators and other electoral reforms
• Nominated James B. Weaver for president

28
African-Americans After Reconstruction

• After Reconstruction, white Democrats in the
  South increasingly deprived black southerners of
  the right to vote
• At first the whites used intimidation and terror
• After 1890 they used more effective means
• Poll taxes
• Literacy tests
• Grandfather clauses

29
African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.)

• Southern blacks also were victimized by
• segregation laws
• the convict-lease system
• Lynching
• Some southern Populists attempted to combat
  prejudice
• Encouraged white and black farmers to unite
  against their exploiters
• The Southern Democratic elite purposely inflamed
  racial antagonism to keep poor farmers divided

30
African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.)

• The federal govt. did nothing to protect black
  rights
• The Supreme Court gave it stamp of approval to
  segregated but equal facilities in Plessy v.
  Ferguson (1896)
• Plessy summary
• It also upheld poll taxes and literacy tests in
  1898

31
African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.)

• Blacks responded to these abuses in several ways
• Some fled the South only to find de facto
  segregation in the North
• Booker T. Washington advised fellow blacks to
  accept their second-class status for a time and
  concentrate on getting ahead economically and
  educationally

32
African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.)

• Abolitionist Frederick Douglass still called on
  blacks to demand full equality
• The South became a one-party region always
  controlled by the Democrats
• With the disenfranchisement of blacks
• The defeat of southern populism

33
African-Americans After Reconstruction (cont.)

• The South became a one-party region always
  controlled by the Democrats
• With the disenfranchisement of blacks
• The defeat of southern populism

34
The 1890s Politics in a Depression Decade

• 1892 Populists Challenge the Status Quo
• Democrats nominated Cleveland
• Republicans nominated Harrison
• Populist nominated Weaver
• Won about million votes
• Few came from the urban Northeast
• Gained less than 1/4 of the votes of the
  agricultural South
• Largely because of the race issue
• Cleveland won

35
1892 Election
36
Capitalism in Crisis The Depression of 1893-1897

• Soon after Cleveland was inaugurated, the nation
  suffered a financial panic that ushered in a
  severe depression
• During the depression
• Thousands of banks and businesses failed
• 20-25 of the labor force was unemployed
• Agricultural prices fell more than 20
• Completing the ruin of many farmers already in
  economic difficulty

37
Capitalism in Crisis The Depression of
1893-1897

• Hard times increased the appeal of the Populists
  and spawned strikes and protests
• In 1894, Jacob Coxey led a march of the
  unemployed on Washington to demand a public-works
  program to create jobs
• He was arrested and the demonstration was broken
  up
• The heightened unrest frightened the middle class

38
Business Leaders Respond

• Cleveland opposed govt. help for victims of the
  depression
• His use of force against the Pullman strikers and
  Coxeys marchers appeared heartless
• He angered farmers when he induced Congress to
  repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
• In defense of the gold standard

39
Business Leaders Respond (cont.)

• Clevelands actions split the party
• Democrats from agricultural states began to favor
  free silver
• Hard times also led many Americans to question
  the laissez-faire doctrine

40
1894 Protest Grows Louder

• The voters repudiated Cleveland in the 1894
  midterm elections
• Congress went Republican
• The vote for Populist candidates climbed more
  than 40 above their 1892 tallies

41
1894 Protest Grows Louder (cont.)

• The issue of free silver came to symbolize the
  deep split between economic classes
• Creditors feared that abandonment of a strictly
  gold standard would cause runaway inflation and
  ruin
• Debt-ridden farmers saw silver as the cure that
  would rise farm prices and return prosperity

42
Silver Advocates Capture the Democratic Party

• At the 1896 Democratic convention, western and
  southern delegates gained control
• They wrote a platform calling for free silver
• Nominated William Jennings Bryan
• The Republicans nominated William McKinley
• Promised to maintain the gold standard
• Raise the protective tariff
• The Populists endorsed Bryan
• Feared that if they ran their own candidate, they
  would split the farm vote
• Nominated one of their own, Tom Watson, for VP

43
1896 Republicans Triumphant

• McKinley received huge campaign contributions
  from businessmen who feared Bryan
• Bryan was also handicapped by the lack of appeal
  of free silver to factory workers and the urban
  middle class
• They realized that it would probably bring about
  higher food prices
• McKinley won the election
• Carried the Northeast, Midwest,and most cities
• The Republicans also kept its majority in Congress

44
1896 Republicans Triumphant (cont.)

• As promised, McKinley and the Republicans
  maintained the gold standard and raised the
  tariff to an all-time high
• These policies aroused little opposition because
  prosperity returned
• More gold became available with new discoveries
• farm prices began to rise
• McKinley easily beat Bryan for a 2nd term in the
  1900 election

45
1896 Republicans Triumphant (cont.)

• The elections of 1894 and 1896 ushered in a long
  period of Republican dominance in U.S. politics
  that lasted almost unbroken until the 1930s
• The Populist Party disintegrated after 1896
• Many of the reforms it had advocated were enacted
  by Progressives after 1900

46
Expansionist Stirrings and War with Spain,
1878-1901

• Roots of Expansionist Sentiment
• In the late 19th century the U.S.A. showed
  heightened interest in overseas empire
• The example of European nations and Japan, which
  were seizing colonies in Asia and Africa,
  stimulated U.S. expansionism
• During the depression of 1893-1897, American
  businessmen and politicians argued that the
  U.S.A. must capture overseas markets to maintain
  prosperity

47
Roots of Expansionist Sentiment (cont.)

• Republican politicians claimed that to be a great
  power the U.S. must
• build up its navy
• obtain far-flung colonies
• to establish fueling stations and bases
• Show its influence in the world as a superior
  county
• Inspired by
• Alfred T. Mahans The Influence of Sea Power upon
  History
• Social Darwinist ideas

48
Roots of Expansionist Sentiment (cont.)

• Leading Republicans were
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Henry Cabot Lodge
• John Hay

49
Roots of Expansionist Sentiment (cont.)

• Our Country
• 1885
• Josiah Strong
• Combined religion and Social Darwinism racism
• Told Americans that, as members of the superior
  Anglo-Saxon race, they were destined to spread
  Christianity and civilization to inferior people

50
Pacific Expansion

• Expansionist enthusiasm led the United States to
  overtake some Pacific Islands
• Samoan Island
• U.S. established a joint protectorate with
  Germany and Great Britain
• Hawaii
• American sugar plantation owners overthrew the
  govt. of Queen Liliuokalani
• Asked U.S. to take over the island
• President Cleveland, who was not an expansionist,
  declined to do so
• President McKinley requested Congress to annex
  Hawaii
• 1898

51
Crisis over Cuba

• The Cubans revolted against Spanish rule in 1895
• The Spanish authorities brutally attempted to
  suppress the rebellion
• Public opinion in the U.S. turned against the
  Spanish because of yellow-journalism
• William Randolph HearstJournal
• Joseph PulitzerWorld
• Both featured daily accounts of Spanish atrocities

52
Crisis over Cuba (cont.)

• President McKinley did not want to intervene in
  Cuba
• He did send the battleship Maine to Havana to
  protect the lives and property of Americans on
  Cuba
• On Feb. 15, 1898, an explosion the Maine killed
  266 of its crewmen

53
USS Maine
54
USS Maine
55
Crisis over Cuba (cont.)

• The yellow press immediately accused the Spanish
  of blowing up the ship
• The public demanded revenge
• Giving in to popular pressure, McKinley asked
  Congress to declare war on Spain
• Congress declared war on April 1898

56
Crisis over Cuba (cont.)

• Congress also passed the Teller Amendment
• Proclaimed that the U.S. had no desire to
  overtake Cuba and would leave the island as soon
  as its independence was ensured
• Teller Amendment

57
The Spanish-American War, 1898

• The fighting against Spain lasted less than 4
  months
• Admiral George Dewey attacked the Spanish fleet
  in the Philippines
• American troops took Manila Bay in August
• By July, the Spanish were driven from Cuba
• The defeated Spanish
• Recognized Cubas independence
• Ceded to the United States
• Philippines
• Puerto Rico
• Guam

58
The Spanish-American War, 1898 (cont.)

• Contrary to the Teller Amendment, the U.S.
  occupied Cuba from 1898 to 1902
• The U.S. withdrew its forces only after Cuba
  agreed to the conditions set forth in the 1901
  Platt Amendment
• Platt Amendment
• It limited Cubas sovereignty by
• Reserving to the U.S. the right to intervene in
  Cuba
• The U.S. could maintain a naval base on Cuba

59
The Spanish-American War, 1898 (cont.)

• Although the Platt Amendment was abrogated in
  1934, the United States still retains the base at
  Guantanamo Bay in Cuba

60
Critics of Empire

• Some Americans were horrified by their nations
  actions in the Spanish-American War
• They founded the Anti-Imperialist League
• Pointed out that imposing U.S. rule on other
  peoples by military force violated the principles
  of human equality and liberty championed in our
  own Declaration of Independence

61
Critics of Empire (cont.)

• Some members of the Anti-Imperialist League
• Carl Schurz (civil-service reformer)
• E.L. Godkin (civil-service reformer)
• William Jennings Bryan (ag. spokesman)
• Jane Addams (settlement house founder)
• Mark Twain (writer)
• William James (writer)

62
Critics of Empire (cont.)

• Despite the Leagues efforts, the Senate ratified
  the treaty annexing the Philippines
• In 1900 pro-expansionist McKinley again defeated
  anti-imperialist Bryan for the presidency

63
Guerrilla War in the Philippines, 1898-1902

• Pres. McKinley was persuaded that the U.S. should
  keep the Philippines by the arguments of
• the expansionists
• businessmen to use the islands as a way of
  penetrating nearby Chinese markets
• This U.S. decision led to a war against Filipino
  independence fighters

64
Guerrilla War in the Philippines, 1898-1902
(cont.)

• To crush the guerrilla resistance of the
  Filipinos, the U.S. used brutal tactics
• The U.S. lost many more soldiers than it had in
  the Spanish-American War
• In 1946, the U.S. granted the Philippines their
  independence

65
Conclusion

• Between 1877 and 1896, the 2 major political
  parties (Democrats and Republicans) were closely
  matched in strength
• Each party had loyal followers
• Democrats
• The South and new immigrants in cities
• Republicans
• Rural and small town native-born Americans in the
  Northeast and Midwest

66
Conclusion (cont.)

• Both parties ignored the pressing economic
  problems of the countrys farmers
• The farmers turned successively to the Grange,
  the Farmers Alliance, and the Populist Party
• In 1896, when the Populist joined the Democrats
  in backing William Jennings Bryan, big business
  used its financial might to turn back the
  Populist challenge and elect McKinley president

67
Conclusion (cont.)

• McKinleys victory marked the start of a long
  period of Republican dominance in national
  politics
• The McKinley administration soon led the U.S.
  into the Spanish-American War and an imperialist
  foreign policy

68
Conclusion (cont.)

• However, this burst of expansionism in the late
  19th century and early 20th century never fully
  diverted U.S. attention from domestic issues
• The Populist Party, thought it was defeated in
  1896, left behind the feeling that
• govt. must free itself from business domination
• govt. must play a more active role in solving the
  economic and social problems arising form
  industrialization
• After the turn of the century, the Progressive
  movement would build on that new attitude