MR. LIPMAN’S APUS POWERPOINT CHAPTER 26

Changes to the Great West1860-1896

Key Issues in the Chapter

• Indians and what will become of them• Expansion of RR’s and Mining Operations• Population Growth out West and

Expansion of Farming as a big business• Farmers and the 4 D’s – (Debt, Drought, Deflation, Depression)

• Grange Movement• Populist Movement• Gold vs. Silver Movement

• Indians and the reservation system– 1851 treaty at Fort Laramie– 1853 – treaty at Fort Atkinson• establishing boundaries for each tribe; attempted to

put tribes in 2 great colonies (to north and south of a corridor of planned settlements for whites)

– Problem is that “tribes” and “chiefs” making treaties with whites didn’t represent most Indians

– Indians’ nomadic life could not be changed to reservation living

• Warfare with Indians – Many Army troops were recent immigrants

– 1/5 (20%) of US personnel were blacks• Called “Buffalo Soldiers” by Indians • Massacres and brutal attacks occurred between

whites and Indians throughout the Indian wars by both sides but whites clearly killed more.

The Massacres• Sand Creek Massacre : Colorado in 1864 – 400 Indians, who believed they had immunity,

massacred by a militia led by Col. Chivington

• 1866 massacre at Bozeman Trail in Wyoming – Indians attacked and killed 81 soldiers and

civilians, mutilating the corpses – 1874 – Custer attacked 2,500 entrenched Indians

at Little Bighorn River (in Montana) who were led by Sitting Bull and all 264 soldiers killed• Sitting Bull escapes to Canada

• 1877 – the Nez Percé rebelled – Led by Chief Joseph on 3-month, 1,700 mile march,

attempting to reach Canada and join with Sitting Bull – Chief Joseph surrendered when he was told the Nez Percé

would be able to return to ancestral lands in Idaho – Nez Percé then forced onto reservation in Kansas where

40% of them die from disease

• Apache tribes in Arizona and New Mexico most difficult to conquer – Apaches led by Geronimo eventually pursued into

Mexico to force a surrender

– Battle (Massacre) of Wounded Knee (1890)• Over 200 Indians massacred by US soldiers • Last battle in effort to subdue the Indians

• The debate over how to treat the Indians:– Reformers tried to persuade Indians to become

like whites (assimilation) – Hard-liners insisted on forced containment and

brutal punishment • Neither side was respectful of Indian culture

• Late 1800s, Indians ghettoized on reservations – Possible to maintain their cultural independence

but In reality, they lived off gov’t charity

• Important factors leading to Indian defeat: – Railroad brings more settlers and soldiers

– Indians destroyed by white diseases and alcohol

– Extinction of buffalo (on which Indians depended)

The Buffalo Population, 1800 – 2000

• 1887 – The Dawes Act {forced assimilation}– Severalty – ownership of land by individual only– Goal was to destroy tribes and Indian culture– Dissolved tribes as legal entities, ended tribal

ownership of land, individual ownership only• All Indians finally gained citizenship in 1924

DAWES ACT ESSENTIALLY A FAILURE AND IN 1924 MOVE TO RESTORE TRIBAL BASIS TO THE INDIANS (INDIAN REORGANIZATION ACT)

Indian Land Losses, 1850 – 2000Perhaps no race suffered more in America

• Mining in West: – Gold found in California in 1848– 1858 – gold and silver found in Colorado Rockies– 1859 – Comstock Lode (Nevada): gold and silver

– Boom towns would set up and then disappear and become ghost towns

– Corp’s would replace individual prospectors and machines would replace human speculators

• Impact of mining–Mining frontier attracted population –Women ran boardinghouses • and worked as prostitutes

–Women vote much earlier in West –Gold & silver finance the Civil War & build

railroads– Silver discoveries made silver issue in US

politics a powerful issue

R.R.’s led to cowboys making the “Long Drive” – Cattle driven north to railroads, & shipped East

from giant cattle yards in Kansas City and Chicago – Journey was about 1,000 miles and Cattle grazed

on open grass on the way north

• The end of the independent cattle drives – Fenced off land with barbed wire (1874)–1886 – 1887 – terrible cold winter left

thousands of cattle frozen to death – Long Drives led to the myth of the Cowboy

• Farmers settled the West in great numbers • 1862 – Homestead Act (Morrill Act)– Gave settlers 160 acres of land if they

improved and worked the land for 5 years – Before C.W. land sold for money for by gov’t;

now land given away to encourage settlement – Problem-land not productive enough and not

enough water so most land ends up in Corp. hands after farmers abandon it.

–Most settlers actually got land from RRs or real estate agents

• Railroads helped bring people to West – Farmers ship crops east, opening up new markets– Advertised to immigrants in Europe to get them to

buy land

• Adapting to the dry climate and lack of rain water

– “dry farming” technique (frequent shallow cultivation) used to adapt to dry environment; leads to Dust Bowl in 1930s because ground lost all its nutrients

• Land rush in Oklahoma (1889)– Federal government opens land for settlement – Some “sooners” go before being authorized to, and

forcibly evicted by the government – 50,000 settlers dashed for a claim in Oklahoma Territory

and in 1907 Oklahoma made a state 1890 US census official determined the frontier was closed

• Impact of the closing of the frontier – Americans recognized that land was not inexhaustible and

Government began setting aside land for national parks

• 1893 – Frederick Jackson Turner’s essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” – Frontier acted as a “safety valve”, allowing

immigrants and poor in cities to move west and prosper, instead of staying in cities and spreading discontent (strikes, socialism, rebellion, etc.) as the poor did in Europe .• Not all historians accept this “safety value”

theory

The Farm Becomes a Factory

• Post Civil War through 1870s – high prices for farm commodities led farmers to expand into “cash” crops and production farming rather than subsistence farming

– Money made from selling crops would be spent on goods at general store in town or through mail order

• Large-scale farms become big business:

–Worked with banks, railroads, manufacturers so incurred large debts–Had to buy expensive machinery to farm

(that also greatly increased speed of harvesting)

– Small farmers, driven off land • Frequently blamed railroads, banks,

global markets and Gov’t instead of their lack of management skills

• Many farmers became 1-crop farmers (like wheat and corn) and heavily in debt–No longer independent; if prices declined

on competitive world market, farmers would be hurt

• 1880s – 1890s – farming prices fell because of foreign competition and over production

• Deflation becomes a major problem as money supply gets tight but interest rates continue to rise and many farmers lose their land and become merely tenant farmers

• Farmers faced Environmental problems – Grasshoppers (in West) and boll weevils (in South)

– Flooding and erosion took away fertile topsoil – Droughts in West in mid 1880s

• Farmers also faced Governmental problems – High taxes – Protective tariffs helped Eastern manufacturers

but forced farmers to pay higher prices – Farmers had to sell goods on competitive,

unprotected world market

• Farmers faced Corporate problems – Large trusts that made things could raise prices to

very high levels – Middlemen took large cut on needed goods – Grain operators who stored farm products before

sale raised rates whenever they wanted– Railroad charged high rates to ship goods

• Grange movement started to solve problems– Organized in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley – Gave farmers sense of belonging & quickly

became economic tool to combat monetary problems

• Grangers get states to help them – State laws passed to regulate R.R. rates and

fees from grain elevators and warehouses

– State laws overturned by Supreme Court •Wabash v. Illinois (1886) – states had no

power to regulate interstate commerce; only Congress could do that

–Grange movement faded as laws stricken

• Farmers’ Alliance–Organized late 1870s to socialize and work

together to fight R.R. and manufacturers

– Failed when landless tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and farm workers; excluded blacks in South because of white racism

– Failure leads to the Populist Movement

• Populist (People’s) Party Platform:• Nationalize railroads, telephone, telegraph • Graduated Federal income tax • Government loan’s to farmers using crops

stored in government-owned warehouses; crops held until prices rose • Free, unlimited coinage of silver • Weak in South (because of racial divide), but

very strong in West • 1893 – panic and depression hurt farmers and

workers, making their arguments even stronger

• Crusaders for Populism – William Hope Harvey • advocating free silver

– Ignatius Donnelly • Elected congressman from Minnesota

– Mary Elizabeth (“Mary Yellin’”) Lease • Kansans should raise “less corn and more hell”

1894 – Jacob S. Coxey and his “army” marched from Ohio to Washington, DC demanding gov’t work programs

• 1894 – Pullman Strike – Pullman Company (built luxury RR cars) cut wages

by 1/3 but did not cut rent prices – R.R. workers, led by Eugene V. Debs, go on strike– Pres. Cleveland orders troops to break up strike

because “interferes with delivery of U. S. mail”.– Debs does 6 months in jail and becomes socialist– Populists argue big business using courts to their

advantage at expense of the “little guy”

McKinley (gold) vs. Bryan (silver)

• Election of 1896 centered on whether to maintain gold or silver as currency standard

• Mark Hanna leads push to get McKinley the Republican nomination– Believes in “trickle down” theory and protective

tariffs as well as gold standard

Democrats refuse to nominate Cleveland at their convention – blame him for Panic of 1893

• William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold speech (fighting for silver to bring inflation)– Bryan nominated on platform of unlimited

coinage of silver (16 to 1 ratio, instead of market 32 to 1)

• Populists – Endorsed Bryan (because of his support for

coinage of silver) so lose identity as 3rd party

“You shall not press down

upon the brow of labor this

crown of thorns, you shall not

crucify mankind upon a cross of

gold.”

• Widespread fear of Bryan unites Republicans (savings would be devalued if silver coined) –Rich donate huge amounts to McKinley

($16 million total, to Bryan’s $1 million)– Fear and dirty tricks used: industrial

workers told that orders, jobs, pay might be taken away if Bryan won –McKinley wins close popular vote with

heavy majority in large East Coast cities

• Importance of the 1896 election– Eastern workers did not unite with debtor

farmers against big business –Big business, fiscal conservatives, middle-

class values won–Political power shifted from rural

areas to cities • Republicans dominated politics for next 36

years (except for 1912 – 1920) • Parties weakened, less voter participation in

elections, regulation of industry and worker welfare became important issues

• McKinley and the tariff issue– Business wants higher tariff because tariffs not

high enough to cover gov’t expenses (want budget balanced)

• Dingley Tariff Bill (1897) passed making average tariff rate over 40%

• Prosperity returned to US erasing gold and silver issue– 1900 – Gold Standard Act passed• All paper money redeemable in gold

– New gold discoveries and new processes put enough money into economy to introduce inflation and help debtors