America: Past and Present

1
POLITICAL REALIGNMENTS IN THE 1890s

• America Past and Present
• Chapter 20

2
Politics of Stalemate

• Politics a major fascination of late nineteenth
  century
• White males make up bulk of electorate
• women may vote in national elections only in
  Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Colorado
• Minor v. Happersett upheld the power of states
  to deny right to vote to women.
• black men denied vote by poll tax, literacy tests
• Grandfather clause could voted if fathers and
  grandfathers had voted before 1867

3
The Party Deadlock

• Post-Civil War Democratic party (keep govt local
  and small) divides electorate almost evenly with
  Republicans (nation as a whole)
• Federal influence wanes, state control rises

4
Experiments in the States

• State government commissions investigate,
  regulate railroads, factories
• Munn v. Illinois (1877) private property
  affected with public interest must submit to
  being controlled by public
• Wabash case (1886) states could not regulate
  beyond their bordersprompts establishment of
  Interstate Commerce Commission

5
Reestablishing Presidential Power

• Presidency hits low under Johnson and Grant
• Later presidents reassert executive power
• Hayes ends military Reconstruction
• Garfield asserts leadership of his party killed
• Arthur strengthens navy, civil service reform
• Cleveland uses veto to curtail federal activities
  2/3 of bills presented to him

6
Republicans in Power the Billion-Dollar Congress

• 1888--Republicans control both White House and
  Capitol Hill
• Democrats attempt to block Republicans by using
  disappearing quorum
• 1890--Adoption of Reed rules permits enactment of
  billion dollar program

7
Tariffs, Trusts and Silver

• 1890--McKinley Tariff raises duties to historic
  high
• By 1893--1 million Union pensions granted
• 1890--Sherman Anti-Trust Act regulates big
  business combinations
• United States v. E.C. Knight Co. manufacturing
  not subject to law
• 1890--Sherman Silver Purchase Act backs paper
  money with silver

8
The 1890 Elections

• Republicans also assert activist government
  policies on state level
• Sunday closing laws
• prohibition
• mandatory English in public schools
• 1890--alienated voting blocks turn out Republican
  legislators

9
The Rise of the Populist Movement

• Discontented farmers of West and South provide
  base of support
• The National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial
  Union the result

10
The Farm Problem

• Worldwide agricultural economy causes great
  fluctuations in supply and demand
• Farmers complaints
• lower prices for crops (actual prosperity rising)
  
• rising railroad rates (rates actually declining)
• burdensome mortgages (loans permit improvement)
• Conditions of farmers vary by region
• General feeling of depression, resentment

11
The Fast-Growing Farmers' Alliance

• 1875Southern Alliance begins
• Fed up with sharecropping, depleted lands and
  crop liens
• 1889Southern Alliance absorbs Northwestern
  Alliance
• Alliance Captures local Democratic parties in
  South
• After 1890 Runs its own candidates in North and
  West

12
The Fast-Growing Farmers' Alliance Ocala Demands

• System of government warehouses to hold crops for
  higher prices
• Free coinage of silver
• Low tariffs
• Federal income tax
• Direct election of Senators
• Regulation of railroads

13
The People's Party

• Southern Alliance splits from Democrats to form
  Populist party
• Southern Populists recruit African-Americans,
  give them influential positions
• 1892--Populist presidential candidate James
  Weaver draws over one million votes
• Alliance wanes after 1892 elections

14
The Crisis of the Depression

• Economic crisis dominated the 1890s due to
  expanding too rapidly
• Railroads overbuilt, companies grew beyond their
  markets, farms and businesses went deeply in debt

15
The Panic of 1893

• February 1893--failure of major railroad sparks
  panic on New York Stock Exchange
• Investors sell stock to purchase gold
• Depleted Treasury shakes confidence
• May, 1893-1894--market hits record low, business
  failures displace 3 million workers1 in 5
  unemployed
• 1894--corn crop failscotton price falls

16
Coxey's Army and the Pullman Strike

• 1894--Jacob Coxey leads Coxeys Army to
  Washington to demand relief-jobless to work
  building roads
• Pullman strikes by Eugene Debs American Railway
  Union close Western railroads
• President Cleveland suppresses strikes with
  federal troops

17
The Miners of the Midwest

• United Mine Workers strike 1894
• Old miners--English and Irish workers, owners
  of small family mines (Populist called for
  restrictions on immigration)
• New miners--1880s immigrants from southern and
  eastern Europe (much more violent)
• Strike pits new miners against old

18
A Beleaguered President

• Cleveland repeals Sherman Silver Purchase Act to
  remedy Panic of 1893
• Repeal fails to stop depression
• Repeal makes silver a political issue
• Democrats renege on promise of lower tariff

19
Breaking the Party Deadlock

• Election of 1894 reduces Democrats to a sectional
  southern organization
• Republicans sweep congressional elections
• Republicans become majority elsewhere

20
Changing Attitudes

• Depression of 1893 forces recognition of
  structural causes of unemployment
• Americans accept the need for government
  intervention to help the poor and jobless

21
Everybody Works but Father

• Women and children paid lower wages, displace men
  during depression
• Employers retain women and children after
  depression to hold down costs

22
Changing Themes in Literature

• Depression encourages realist school
• Mark Twains characters speak in dialect
• William Dean Howells, Stephen Crane portray grim
  life of the poor
• Naturalists wrote of a cruel and merciless
  environment that determined human fate
• Frank Norris attacks power of big business
• Theodore Dreiser presents humans as helpless
  before vast social, economic forces

23
The Presidential Election of 1896

• Free coinage of silver the main issue
• boost the money supply
• seen as solution to depression
• New voting patterns emerged and national policy
  shifted

24
The Mystique of Silver

• Free and independent coinage of silver
• set ratio of silver to gold at 161
• U.S. mints coin all silver offered to them
• U.S. coins silver regardless of other nations
  policies
• Silverites believe amount in circulation
  determines level of economic activity
• A moral crusade for the common people

25
Republicans and Gold

• Candidate William McKinley
• Silverite Republicans defeated on convention
  floor
• Promises gold standard to restore prosperity

26
The Democrats and Silver

• Candidate William Jennings Bryan
• Free silver promised in "Cross of Gold" speech
• Democrats enthusiastic

27
Campaign and Election

• Populist party endorses Bryan
• Bryan offers return to rural, religious U.S.
• McKinley defends urban, industrial society
• Election is a clear victory for McKinley, utter
  rout of Populist party

28
The McKinley Administration

• McKinley takes office at depressions end
• An activist president- modern president when
  dealing with Congress and Press
• Dingley Tariff raises rates to record highs
• Encouraged government to regulate the effects of
  industrialism vs. promoting economic growth.
• 1900--U.S. placed on gold standard
• 1900--McKinley wins landslide reelection against
  William Jennings Bryan

29
A Decades Dramatic Changes

• September, 1901--McKinley assassinated
• Theodore Roosevelt, that damned cowboy,
  becomes president