Chapter 26: The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution 1856-1896

Great West - Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, "Indian Territory" (Oklahoma)

The Clash of Cultures on the Plains:
  • Indian tribes had forced other Indian tribe sout -> much migration.
  • Whites brought disease, buffalo being killed
  • Treaties at Fort Laramie (1851) and Fort Atkinson (1853): Federal government established boundaries for the teritory of each tribe -> separated them for white settlement.
  • 1860s, intensified policy -> herded Indians to smaller confines "Great Sious Res" and OK.
  • Indians called African Americans in army "buffalo soldiers"

Receding Native Population:

  • Violent warfare: whites own'd Indians, Sioux own'd whites.
  • Colonel George Armstrong Custer "discovered" gold on Sioux lands -> Indians - war! -> Custer's army went for Indians, but they all got killed by Sioux.
  • Nez Perce Indians sent to res in Kansas
  • Reservation system (whites relized Indians were cheaper/easier to feed than fight)
  • Indians died: disease, no more buffalo.

Bellowing Herds of Bison:

  • During building of railroad, buffalo were killed to feed workers. Almost extinct by 1885.

The End of the Trail:

  • Helen Hunt Jackson - A Century of Dishonor - Ramona - sympathy for Indians
  • Humanitarians and Christain missionaries wanted Indians to become white/civilized - federal government displayed force against cults.
  • Dawes Severalty Act of 1887: wanted Indians to be civilized, gave Indians land to farm and act white - if they did, they'd get full property title and citizenship in 25 years.
  • Res land not allotted to Indians went to white railroads -> proceeds to educate and "civilize" Indians.

Mining: From Dishpan to Ore Breaker:

  • "59ers" to Colorade for gold, silver, grin (more miners than minerals), to Nevada "cornstock lode" (gold and silver) uncovered
  • "Lucky Strikes" in Montana, Idaho, (West) => ghost towns
  • Miners replaced w/ corporations (costly machinery and engineers)
  • Women (ran boardinghouses, prostitution) won equality on fronteir and got the vote earlier
  • Outpouring of sliver and gold -> Treausry resumed specie payments in 1879

Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive:

  • Meatpacking business sprang w/ transcontinental railroad
  • Cowboys from Texas drover herd to railroad terminals.

The Farmers' Frontier:

  • Homestead Act of 1862 - allowed a settler to acquire up to 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying $30.
  • Land on the Great Plains, through, was hard to live on.
  • Fraud - corporations got employees to get land w/ resources like timber, minerals, oil
  • West of 100th meridian was DRY! => "dry farmin" shallow cultivation => dust bowl
  • Irrigation -> dams.

The Far West Comes of Age:

  • 1876, Colorado became a state
  • 1889-1890, N Dakota, S Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming admitted
  • 1896, Utah admitted
  • Fed gov made Oklahoma settlement legal 1889 "Bloomers"/"89ers" rushed in ("Sooners" were the ones who came before it was legal)

The Fading Frontier:

  • 1890, frontier line no longer discernable - The Significance of the Fortier in American History - 1893 by Frederick Jackson Turner
  • National Parks - Yellowstone 1872
  • West=safety valve

The Farm Becomes a Factory:

  • Cash crop farming
  • Mechanization of agriculture -> bonanza farms (some 15,000 acres)
  • California: "country of plantations and estates," fruit and veg crops (refridgerated car)

Deflation Dooms the Debtor:

  • 1880s, prices went down, and one-crop farmers suffered.
  • 1890s - not enough money to go around
  • Farms under mortgages, people in debt

Unhappy Farmers:

  • Floods, erosion, droughts. People abandoned towns, esp in Kansas (1887)
  • High protective tariffs = good for manufacturers
  • 1890, half population farmers, but unorganized and scattered.

The Farmers Take Their Stand:

  • Farmers demanded inflation of currency w/ paper money
  • 1867 - "The Grange" organized - Oliver H. Kelley -> Farmer social activity
  • "Grangers" established cooperatively owned stores, grain elevators, and warehouses -> strove to regulate railway rates and storage fees through state legislatures
  • Greenback Labor Party: (1878) inflation and program for imporving lot of labor. 14 members in Congress. Ran James B. Weaver in presidential election of 1880 (didn't win)

Prelude to Populism:

  • Farmer's Alliance (TX late 1870s) (black one formed too) => 1890s became the People's Party (Populists): for nationalizing railroad, telephones, and telegraphs, a graduated income tax, "subtreasury", coinage of silver, Coins Financial school 1894 - William Hope Harrey
  • Mary Elizabeth Lease
  • Populists surprised Democrats and Republicans - ran Weaver for president and got many seats in Congress.

Coxey's Army and the Pullman Stirke:

  • Panic of 1893 fed Populists' fire.
  • Jacob S. Coxey -> 1894 set out for Washington w/ followers and demands: government relieve unemployment w/ public works program supported by $500 million in notes issued by Treasury -> arrested for "walking on grass"
  • Pullman Strike of 1894: Eugene V. Debs organized American Railway Union.
  • Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages by 1/3 => workers revolted, overturning cars, helf up railway.
  • US Attorney General Richard Olney (backed by Prez Cleveland) got federal troops to crush Pullman Strike (it was obstructing postal service)

Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan:

  • Election of 1896. Issue: monetary policy (gold standard or inflate currency w/ silver)
  • Republican: William McKinley (Ohio) - served in Civil aWar and Congress. Made by Marcus Alonzo Hanna (big industry in politics). -> Declared for gold standard, loved protective tariff.
  • Democrats: Cleveland unpopular because of depression. William Jennings Bryan nominated -> demanded inflation (silver): Democrats had taken Populist stance and many old Democrats secretly hoped for McKinley victory. "Demo-Pop" Party.

Class Conflict: Plowholders vs. Bondholders:

  • Bryan - amazing orator - made silver-promoting speeches everywhere.
  • Conservatives afraid. Hanna=Chairman of Republicans. $16 million campaign. Fear on their side. Employers threatened to pay workers in 50-cent pieces if Bryan won.
  • McKinley won (got populated East and New England votes) and the factory worker.
  • Byran's defeat=last serious effort to win the White House w/ mostly agrarian votes. FUTURE OF POLITICS LIED IN CITIES.

Republican Stand-pattism Enthroned:

  • 1897 Dingley Tariff Bill - high, but not high enough for some Lobbyists - 46.5%
  • Prosperity returned
  • Gold Standard Act of 1900 - paper currency be redeemed freely in gold
  • Inflation (more gold found)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

thank you so much! these notes are awesome :)

Anonymous said...

Seriously loving these notes, thank you!

Tyler said...

These are excellent notes. Thank you for providing them.

Will said...

It is easy to overlook some of the environmental damage done during that period. However, it shows how man relies on the environment- for food as with buffalo or even for oil, as we do now.