CH 11

1880- James A. Garfield elected President Was assassinated on July 2, 1881 by

Charles Guiteau( I will explain) Vice- President Chester Arthur became

President

Pendleton Act 1883- Jobs given out by the President based on qualifications set forth by the Civil Service Commission.

Republicans- reform party. Against slavery, for the temperance movement, and other reforms

Democrats- party of liberty. Dominated the south. Made up of southerners and Catholics in larger cities

Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland is elected President in the election of 1884. He is the first Democratic President since 1856. Elected by only 1000 votes. Presidency was somewhat unsuccessful.

ICC

Interstate Commerce Commission- Designed to control trade between states Standard Oil Wabash V. Illinois 1886- Ruled that states

could not regulate trade. Only the Federal Government could do that.

President Cleveland pressured to sign a bill creating the Interstate Commerce Commission.

McKinley Tariff

1888 (Republican)Benjamin Harrison Wins Presidency

William McKinley pushed thru tariffs and cut taxes on tobacco, raw sugar, but increased the taxes on textiles, and other raw goods. This caused problem with financial surplus and brought on a deficit.

Sherman Anti Trust Act

Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890 Made it illegal to “combine any form of

trust.” I will explain

Populism

Movement after the Civil War (1861-1865) to increase farmers political power. -Demand for farm goods low due to overproduction because of new machinery. High tariffs on the goods farmers needed to

produce their goods were high cutting their profit.

Farmers also felt very disconnected with those that controlled their money/profits such as banks and foreign suppliers along with the Railroads that set the shipping rates

Money supply also hurt the economy following the Civil War. U.S. treasury had mass produced

Greenbacks- paper money. This money could not be exchanged with gold or silver. There was no solid value backing the Greenbacks causing inflation.

Inflation- the lowering of the value of the dollar. Result- costs of products soared because there

was no set value on the dollar.

Solution- to get inflation under control Congress quit printing Greenbacks. In addition, Congress also stopped using silver as moneyed coin and began using only gold as money(temporarily) to stop the rise of inflation. This meant there was not enough money in circulation. By 1895 (30 years after Civil War ended) there was about 7 dollars less per person in circulation.

Deflation

The decrease in money supply caused Deflation- the increase in the value of money. Thus, causing the general costs of products to level out.

Problems with Deflation

Deflation was great for the economy but bad for farmers. When money supply was lessened farmers had

to borrow money for their supplies and pay interests on that money. Then when deflation caused prices to level out they were making less on their products but still had the banks to pay back with their sometimes high interests rates. Therefore, the farmers began to think that Congress’ decision to stop printing Greenbacks was due to pressure from banks so that the banks could loan money.

Grange

The Grange (also known as the Patrons of Husbandry)- was a farm organization formed in 1866 to organize and education often times rural farmers. By 1874 the Grange had between 800,000 and 1.5 million members From this organization one of the most

influential organizational structures emerged called Cooperatives

Cooperatives

Cooperatives – are marketing organizations that work to benefit their members. There are Electric Company CO Ops, Feed store CO Ops, etc. today

Specifically in the case of the farmers in the late 1800’s the Cooperative began to negotiate lower shipping prices from the railroads and organized the crops grown so that there was not an over supply of one specific product

The Grange would ultimately fail in having much long term beneficial impact for farmers. States began to pass anti-Grange laws and began to put pressure on railroads to not cut deals with Farmers.( Even though Wabash v. Illinois would ultimately tell states they could not regulates trade across state lines).

Farmers’ Alliance

The Farmers’ Alliance began to form and the Grange was failing. It had a similar philosophy in attempting to assist farmers. But would also ultimately be unsuccessful.

The Populists Party( another political party) also known as “the peoples” party began to form after the failure of the Grange and the Farmers’ Alliance.

Democrats that controlled the south did not want a 3rd party to compete for its control of the south. Democrats ( led by Charles Macune) told the Populists to write out a list of demands( instead of forming a political party) and the Democrats would try to honor their demands.

Macune came up with the idea of govt building warehouse to store farmers crops so that supply and demand could be regulated thus regulating prices for farmers. And that government would provide low interests loans to farmers to produce their goods (not high interest banks).

Midterm elections of 1890 Populist did well. Populist controlled Kansas and Nebraska legislatures, they gained 8 seats in the House and 2 in the Senate. Total 40 Democrats that supported the Alliance programs were elected to state Congress’.

Presidential election 1892

Grover Cleveland was our 22nd and (1885-1889) our 24th ( 1893-1897)President. He was a democrat. After his first term he was followed by Benjamin Harrison (r), Grover Cleveland (d), William McKinley (r).

After Cleveland’s re-election the panic of 1893 hit. In 1893 the Philadelphia and Reading Railroads both declared bankruptcy because they had expanded to fast. The caused the stock market to crash and by 1894 America was in a deep depression with 4.6 million Americans unemployed. (18% of the workforce)

Panic of 1893 cont

This created a crisis for the U.S. treasury. The owners of government bond began to cashing in their bonds for gold. Thus, leaving the Federal reserve dangerously low. President Cleveland believed Gold( not silver and paper money) should be the basis for the U.S economy. Therefore, he urged congress the repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 that had allowed the U.S treasure to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month

Goldbugs-believed currency should be base on gold

Silverites- believed currecy should be based on silver

Election of 1896

Republican William McKinley would win. Grover Cleveland’s second term as President was scarred by the Panic of 1893. The Populist party would die out as well by the early 1900’s

While white farmers were embattled over their incomes and lives during the mid to late 1800’s so were black Americans. Segregation was in full force

15th Amendment- Black men citizenship.But, states found ways around that by

stating that to vote one must own property and be literate (able to read). Also, some states started enacting a Poll Tax- paying to vote. In many states it was $2 which was a lot of money in that era.

Segregation- the separation of races Jim Crow Laws- enforced segregation.

1875 The Civil Rights Act was passed making it illegal to keep people (black Americans) out of certain public places. However, in 1883 The Supreme Court overturned the Act. Thus, making it legal for hotels, theatres, restaurants, railroads, etc did not have to allow black Americans in.

Loophole( the 14th amendment said no “state” shall deny slaves/black Americans equal protection under the law-it said nothing about business. Therefore, the Supreme Court felt their decision was valid.

Plessy v. Ferguson

In 1892 Homer Plessy challenged the state law in Louisiana on rode an “all white” railroad car. He was arrested and the Judge John H. Ferguson rejected Plessy’s argument that the law was unconstitutional the case went to the Supreme court. Plessy v. Ferguson est. the famous clause “Separate but Equal”. This ruling would est. precedent for racial discrimination for over 50 years

Ida B. Wells Memphis Free Speech advocate against lynching.

Booker T. Washington-an educator who focused on black Americans becoming educated

W.E.B. Dubois- became the next generations civil rights activists that advocated black Americans to demand their rights