Benjamin Harrison

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Benjamin Harrison
August 20, 1833 March 13, 1901 Republican In
office 1889-1893 VP Levi P. Morton Indiana
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I. Political Issues
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(1) Election of 1888
Candidates Grover Cleveland vs. Benjamin
Harrison (DEMOCRAT) (REPUBLICAN)
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B. The Main Issue of the Campaign Tariffs

• 1. Cleveland pledged a reduction on the tariff
  while making it clear that he opposed absolute
  free trade.
• 2. Harrison promised a strong protective tariff
  as a safeguard to American industry

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(1 cont) Outcome of the Election

• Cleveland won the popular vote by 100,000 votes,
  but failed to win his home state of New York,
  losing 36 electoral votes!
• Cleveland opposed Tammany Hall (remember them?)
  they undermined his campaign.
• Harrison Won! (His grandfather was 9th US
  President William Henry Harrison

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If New York would have voted for their candidate-
Grover Cleveland- he would have won the election
of 1888 by 2 electoral votes
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Labor Unions

• (11) Homestead Strike (1892)
• a. Homestead, PA (Carnegie Steel)
• b. Homestead was a company town, where factory
  workers were forced to live in run-down houses,
  with streets in terrible condition and
  everything covered in soot and dust.
• c. Working conditions were horrible, deaths in
  mills were not uncommon.

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Carnegie Steel Works, Homestead, PA
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• d. The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel
  Workers Union (the AA) fought against conditions
  at Carnegies plant. Carnegie first accepted the
  union but instructed his company president, Henry
  Clay Frick, to dismiss the union in 1892.

A. Carnegie
H. Frick
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• e. Frick announced cuts in wages of certain
  skilled workers and declared they would no longer
  deal with the union, which led to the workers
  mobilizing in self-defense.
• g. Frick closed down mills to lock out workers,
  hiring 300 Pinkerton detectives to enforce the
  lockout.
• h. Fighting broke out between the Pinkerton men
  and union members. 3 Pinkertons died and 7 union
  members were killed.

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• i. PA sent 8,000 National guardsmen to restore
  order.
• j. In the end, the union remained intact, but
  oppressive working conditions remained the same
  in the steel industry until WWI.

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E. Foreign Affairs

• The First International Conference of American
  States met in Washington, D.C., in 1889.
• Almost every independent nation in North and
  South America sent a delegate to the conference
  that purposed to improve trade relations amongst
  the Americas.

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(4)Native American Affairs

• Oklahoma Territory- set up Land
• for Native American reservation
• Allowing 160 acre Plots an
• addition to the Dawes Act
• The Sooners, a nickname given to
• individuals who participated in the
• land rushes which initially opened
• the Oklahoma Indian Territory to
• non-native settlement by entering
• early and hiding out until the legal
• time of entry in order to lay quick (and, by
  definition,
• illegal) claim to some of the most choice
  homesteads.

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(9)Wounded Knee-The Final Battle

• Ghost Dance- 1889, ritual dance performed by
  Native Americas through out the West- they
  believed this ritual would drive out the white
  men.
• The US Military believed this was a declaration
  of war the military wanted all natives on
  reservations now
• 1890- Battle of Wounded Knee, in South
• Dakota- was the last battle between
• Native Americans and US Military
• 190 unarmed Native Americans were
• killed (a massacre)

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(7) Fredrick Jackson Turners Thesis

• American exceptionalism and vitality have always
  been the American frontier, the region between
  urbanized, civilized society and the untamed
  wilderness. The thesis explained why
• America was different from
• Europe. Americans thrived on
• growth and change and adventure.
• The U.S. Census of 1890 said the
• West was full, leaving Americans
  
• to wonder what was next.

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(10) Populist Political Platform

• Political party and platform started
• because of the farmers problems
• 1. A graduated income tax- tax higher incomes at
  higher rates
• 2. direct election of US senators
• 3. Free and unlimited coinage of silver.
• 4. Effective government control of railroads and
  telegraphs

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II. Economicissues
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A. Changing Public Opinion

• Americans wanted the federal govt. to deal with
  growing social economic problems to curb the
  power of the trusts
• Interstate Commerce Act 1887
• Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
• McKinley Tariff 1890
• Rep. Party suffered big losses in 1890 (even
  McKinley lost his House seat!).

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(5)Sherman Anti-Trust Act

• President Harrison also signed the Sherman
  Anti-Trust Act "to protect trade and commerce
  against unlawful restraints and monopolies," the
  first Federal act attempting to regulate trusts-
  NO MORE MONOPOLIES

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(8) McKinley Tariff

• 1. Based on the theory that prosperity flowed
  directly from protectionism.
• 2. The final version of the tariff gave a small
  nod to reform by adding a few items to the free
  (not taxed) list, but it increased already high
  rates another 4!
• 3. The result was the highest protective tariff
  in American history to that point with an average
  rate of 48 percent.
• Ex you buy a 1 candy bar!!! It would cost 1.48
  ? instead of 1.07 like todays tax.

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(12)Billion Dollar Congress

• Substantial appropriation bills were signed by
  Harrison for internal improvements, naval
  expansion, and subsidies for steamship lines. For
  the first time except in war, Congress spent a
  billion dollars!! When critics attacked "the
  billion-dollar Congress," Speaker Thomas B. Reed
  replied, "This is a billion-dollar country."
  

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• Long before the end of the Harrison
  Administration, the Treasury surplus (that the
  high McKinley tariff had helped create) had
  evaporated, and prosperity seemed about to
  disappear as well.

Harrison wearing his grandfathers hat (which is
too big for him!)
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III. SocialIssues
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• (3) New States- Territory to come in from 1889
  and 1890Idaho and Wyoming
• Giving us 43 states
• Oklahoma is still Indian Territory
• Official flag
• For 5 years!

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(2) Jane Addams- The Hull House

• One of the first settlement houses in the United
  States- set up for IMMIGRANT WOMEN (AND CHILDREN)
  to have a safe place to learn a trade and live
  until a good life could start

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Ellis Island

• Formerly Oyster Island (Formerly Gull Island)
• First immigration station in New York City Harbor
  opened January 1, 1892.
• Located in NYC by the Statue of Liberty
• All newcomers were subject to physical exams.
• Those with criminal records, mental disorders,
  contagious diseases, or other serious health
  problems were deported.

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The Money Question

• (6) Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)- required
  the government to pay for silver purchases with
  Treasury notes redeemable for either gold or
  silver.
• 1. New discoveries decrease value of silver
• 2. Strain is put on gold reserves b/c people
  are trading silver in.