CH 23 NOTES
PART 2 PP. 514 TO 529 VV…..START HERE
Class Conflict and Ethnic Clashes
1877 – a year that marked the beginning of protest from the underclasses/CLASS WARFARE.
*******One simple message was sent to the workers…The US and State Governments would ALWAYS SUPPORT THE RICH BUSINESS OWNERS…EVEN TO THE EXTENT OF USING STATE AND US TROOPS….TO KILL YOU> IT HAPPENS TO MINEWORKERS, STEELWORKERS, AND EVEN POLICEMEN….IT DID NOT MATTER WHO YOU WERE YOU COULD NOT CHALLENGE THE WEALTHY BUSINESSMEN…WITH OUT THE GOVT…BEING USED AGAINST YOU!!!! But….they challenge anyway and later many benefit from their sacrifice.****
THE GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1877****The largest strike in the Nations History***
The owners of the 4 largest railroads collectively decided to cut employees wages by 10%.
The workers struck back…
President Hayes called in US Troops to stop the workers.
In response workers around the country stopped working.
More troops were called in by State Governors.
In the end the strikes did not benefit the workers….and 100’s of workers die.
*****The Labor movement had some weaknesses…racial and ethnic differences complicated unity, more and more immigrants were coming in and used to break strikes, and as the factory system developed there was less of a need for a “skilled worker”…so they could be replaced, easily.
Irish v. Chinese
The Chinese immigration began years before with the California Gold Rush and by 1880 there were 75000 Asian newcomers in California, about 9%.
Many struggle after the gold rush dies down, but as the construction of the Central Pacific RR begins in the 1860’s, the western portion of the 1st TCRR, many Chinese work in this dangerous work through the mountains …The phrase “not a Chinaman’s chance,” was commonly stated and illustrated their difficult life in America. In San Francisco, competition between the Irish and Chinese for work cause ethnic clashes…Denis Kearney, leader of the Irish in SF, incited violence upon the Chinese, Murdering many.
****Congress, in its 1st attempt to limit immigration, do so in 1882 with the CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT. This act prohibited all further immigration from China…and stayed this way until 1943 (the Chinese are our allies during WWII against the Japanese) *********
*****This also led to an attempt by Congress to take away the CITIZENSHIP of NATIVE BORN CHINESE-AMERICANS …Surprisingly, amidst the prejudice of the day, THE SUPREME COURT IN 1898 (just two years after plessy) In the Case********U.S. v. Won Kim Ark, 1898 *********- ruled that the 14th amendment guaranteed citizenship to ALL PERSONS BORN IN THE UNITED STATES…This doctrine, jus soli, Birthright Citizenship, provided much needed protections to Chinese-Americans and ALL IMMIGRANT COMMUNTIES AS WELL AS FORMER SLAVES….
If Congress would have gotten their way….and had the PARENT’S NATIONALITY, jus sanguinis, right of the blood, AND CHANGED THIS ….then even the former slaves and their children (dredscott) would have been liable for deportation…as well as all immigrants…..
*****NOTE: MOST OF US TODAY HAVE RELATIVES WHO CAME FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE….IMAGINE IF THIS WOULD HAVE PASSED…HOW MANY OF US WOULD BE HERE TODAY??? Interestingly, today, some have even suggested we change the law…still….interesting, hmmmm.
Garfield and Arthur
James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur received the Republican parties nomination for President in 1880 after “RutherFraud Hayes” left office…”Waving the Bloody Shirt,” Garfield, a Union veteran of the CW defeated Winfield Scott Hancock, the Democrat, also a Union vet… in a close popular but rather large electoral vote win….
Garfield is assassinated by Charles Guiteau, in a DC railroad station and died in September of 1881 only serving a few months in office…Chester A. Arthur, VP, becomes President. As explained earlier in the notes, Garfield was killed due to the killer not receiving a govt job…in return for his work on behalf of the Republican Party… he was a Stalwart, like Arthur… The killer is found guilty and hanged…but uses “insanity” as a defense…one of the earliest uses of this defense in our legal history…it failed.
Garfield’s death shocked politicians into reforming the SPOILS SYSTEM.
In 1883, Congress passes the LANDMARK…. PENDLETON ACT*******- The “magna carta” of Civil Service Reform…it made compulsory campaign contributions from federal employees (kickbacks) illegal and established the Civil Service Commission to make appointments to Federal jobs on the basis of examinations rather than influence. This Reform initially only covered about 10% of Fed. Govt. Jobs [see chart in the text for the growth of jobs now tested]…but eventually helped solve one aspect of this problem that had led to the death of a President and much conflict within the parties…HOWEVER…where would politicians now go for their $$$ for campaigns??? BIG CORPORATIONSLaw of Unintended Consequences…uh ohh…sadly Arthur’s surprising display of integrity was too much for his fellow Republicans and his is not re-nominated in 1884…
The Blaine-Cleveland Mudslingers of 1884 {election of 1884}
In 1884, the leader of the Half-Breed’s, James G. Blaine, received the Republican nomination.
However, his reputation was not as an honest politician. Many Republican Reformers leave the party and support Grover Cleveland, the Democrat, known as “Grover the Good,” former Mayor of Buffalo and Gov. of NY. These Reformed Republicans were nicknamed, MUGWUMPS, {meaning that they were hypocrites). The Reformers were appalled by the complete dishonesty of Blaine…illustrated in the Mulligan Letters, (he tells the receiver of the letters to Burn them….but instead they were found and published…these letters concerned kickbacks $$$ Blaine received for supporting a bill in congress).
Grover Cleveland was a burly bachelor…and colorful and successful politician. However, as in most cases he too, had his issues…his libido…he had earlier had a child out of wedlock with a widower…. This was used often in this campaign…”ma, ma wheres’s my pa?”
Blaine probably could have easily won the election, however, in the closing days in NYC while campaigning, one of the speakers at his rally began to denounce the IRISH, not a smart thing to do in NYC…this speaker stated that the Democrats were the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion”….
This cost Blaine NY by about 1000 votes…and thus the Presidency….
“Old Grover” Takes Over
Grover Cleveland becomes the first Democratic President since James Buchanan in 1856, 28 years.
*******huge*****Cleveland makes one of the most famous statements in our political history…when he vetoed a bill to provide seeds to help farmers in Texas whose crops had died due to one of the worst droughts in our history, “ Though the people should support the government, the government should not support the people.” This statement reflects the opinion that will be A main question through the end of the 19th century, through the 20th, and even today ….WHATROLE SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT TAKE WHEN DISASTER STRIKES THE PEOPLE OF OUR NATION.(YOU NEED TO REMEMBER THIS STATEMENT)********* This is the philosophy that supports the “Bourbon Democrats”—those that are extremely conservative…This group DOMINATES THE SOUTH… REDEEMERS… FOR OVER 100 YEARS, CALLED THE “SOLID SOUTH.”********
Cleveland believed in the idea of NO GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE WITH BUSINESS, “laissez-faire,” [hands off]. Businesspeople, Monopolists, Bankers were overjoyed
Cleveland attempts to begin to reconcile the North-South divide lingering since the CW….by naming to his cabinet two former Confederates…and he also gave in to the Spoils by firing 2/3rd of the Federal Employees and hiring Democrats to take their place…he also vetoes hundreds of pension bills that would have benefitted former Union Soldiers.
Interestingly…Cleveland has to deal with Hawaii, when the white planters overthrow Queen Liliuokalani they request US annexation…like Texas in the 1830’s…but Grover refuses due to his belief that the Hawaiians did not want to be annexed…interesting.
Cleveland battles for a Lower Tariff
The Tariff was a big issue for GC… embarrassingly??? the Tariff had produced a surplus of $$$ annually about 145 million $$$...The higher Tariff initially during the CW was used to help fund the war…but after The Republican Industrialists continued the high tariff to their benefit… GC wanted to lower the Tariff ******[remember that the tariff was the chief way our Fed. Govt was funded until the income tax 16th amendment is adopted in 1913}This is one key piece of evidence in the Myth, that conservatives wanted a “Laissez-Faire,” or “hands-off” approach from Government when it came to business “Regulation,” others could be Federal Subsidies for RRs or The Supreme Courts ruling that a Corporation is a “person” thus entitled to the protections of the 5th and 14th amendments---or that States could not pass legislation regulating business due to the Constitution giving only the Federal Government the power to control “interstate commerce.”
Big Industrialists opposed GC’s plan to lower the tariff…..Lower tariff’s would mean lower prices for consumers and less protections for Monopolistic Corporations…In late 1887 GC asks Congress to lower the Tariff…IT WAS NOT POPULAR…and IN A RARE CIRCUMSTANCE DURING THIS PERIOD WAS A REAL ISSUE THAT DIVIDED THE TWO PARTIES…
****The Election of 1888 – Cleveland ran against Benjamin Harrison, Republican. The Tariff was the prime issue….The Republicans, the party of Big Business, raised 3 million$ in campaign contributions from businessmen(a practice that will continue even today)…and was used to pay for votes…[remember this was before the use of the “Australian Ballot-Secret Ballot”] … Harrison wins the Electoral Vote very closely but LOSES THE POPULAR VOTE BY ABOUT 100, 000 VOTES***A RARITY BUT it had happened before in 1824 (corrupt bargain election JQA v. Jackson) and in 1876.
The Billion-Dollar Congress
The Rep. leader in the House of Representatives was Thomas B. Reed of Maine, speaker, and he bent the House to his will….the “CZAR”…utterly dominated Congress…the 1st Congress in History to spend a BILLION DOLLARS…They also pass the MCKINLEY TARIFF IN 1890…which was the highest ever in peacetime…This TARIFF….sponsored by future Pres. William McKinley…HURT FARMERS DRASTICALLY..andTHEY RESPOND…in 1890 by crushing the Republican Majority in the House reducing them to only 88 seats…even McKinley was defeated for re-election…and 9 members of a new party, THE People’s Party or POPULISTS, are ELECTED TO CONGRESS (This new party eventually becomes very powerful in many states and even nationally)
The Drumbeat of Discontent [Presidential Election of 1892]************
In 1890, the Farmer’s Alliance evolves intothe PEOPLES PARTY, OR POPULISTS.
***********NOTE: This new party, The Populists, represented a huge number of people in the West and South. In some states in the South, in Virginia in the 1880s called READJUSTERS, AND BY 1890 IN TEXAS, ALABAMA, TENNESSEE, AND IN NORTH CAROLINA**** (LEADS TO THE WILMINGTON RIOTS OF 1898) it openly challenged the previously untouchable Democrats and was successful due to a FUSION with the Republicans to challenge the Democrats superiority… in these Southern States they were called the Fusion Party…and in North Carolina…they won CONTROL of the Governor, legislature, and all local governments –over 1,000 African-Americans were elected or appointed to office, including the last African-American Congressman until the 1940s. ---which later led to the Wilmington Massacre in 1898 the only Coup de tat (military forced takeover of a government) in American History We will cover this in more detail for sure…Many of the early FUSION PARTIES in the South combined Whites and Blacks…although eventually after the 1898 Wilmington, NC Riots and subsequent take over by force….This FUSION ends and even the populists shun blacks and become violent racists as well.
**************However, in 1892, this was just beginning… and in Omaha, Nebraska a Landmark Political Document was produced…THE OMAHA PLATFORM OF THE POPULIST PARTY*********HUGE***********(you need to know the details page 523 in our text)most of the Reforms that come during the Progressive Era (1900 -1920) are derived from this document***********and many are what we consider today to be some of the most important protections for all citizens against corrupt government.
The Omaha Platform of the Populist Party in 1892 combined the ideas of the Farmer’s Alliance, Greenback Labor Party, and the Knights of Labor (huge national union). Here are a few POWERFUL QUOTES FROM THIS DOCUMENT:
“We seek to restore the government of the Republic to the hands of the plain people…where it originated.”
“Wealth belongs to him who creates it…if any will not work neither shall he eat.”
“We charge that the controlling interests of the two main parties have existed for power and plunder and have allowed grievous wrongs to be inflicted upon the suffering people…they propose to drown the outcries of a plundered people to benefit the capitalists, corporations, national banks, and trusts…They propose to sacrifice our homes, lives, and children on the alter of GREED.”
“We declare that this government can only endure as a free government…built upon the love of the whole people…we believe that the power of government- the people- should expand… to the end that oppression, injustice, and poverty shall eventually cease in the land…the forces of reform this day will never cease to move forward until every wrong is remedied and equal rights and equal privileges are securely established for all of the men and women of this country.”
WE PROPOSE:
1 – GOV’T OWNERSHIP OF THE RAILROADS, TELEGRAPH, TELGRAPH.
2 - FREE AND UNLIMITED COINAGE OF SILVER
3 – A GRADUATED [PROGRESSIVE] INCOME TAX
4 - A SECRET BALLOT [AUSTRALIAN} SYSTEM
5 – AN 8-HOUR WORKDAY
6 - DIRECT ELECTION OF US SENATORS
7 – ADOPTION OF INIATIVE AND REFERENDUM TO ALLOW CITIZENS TO SHAPE LEGISLATION DIRECTLY
8 – ALL LAND HELD BY CORPORATIONS, IN EXCESS OF THEIR ACTUAL NEEDS, BE RECLAIMED BY THE GOVERNMENT AND HELD FOR ACTUAL SETTLERS ONLY
9 – RESTRICTION ON FURTHER IMMIGRATION
10 – A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT LIMITING THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT AND VP TO ONE-TERM
11 – THE ABOLISHMENT OF PRIVATE ARMIES OF MERCENARIES, THE PINKERTONS, AS THEY ARE A THREAT TO PEOPLES LIBERTIES.
General James B. Weaver, Populist Party candidate for President, won over a million popular votes in the 1892 Presidential Election and 22 electoral votes [six states] in the election of 1892, The party captured 11 seats in the HOR, and several Senate seats, Several Governors, and controlled the State legislatures in Kansas, Nebraska, and North Carolina…These successes, ON BOTH THE STATE AND NATIONAL LEVEL are seen as the GREATEST PERFORMANCE OF ANY THIRD PARTY IN THE HISTORY OF THE US. [TRoosevelt surpasses Weaver’s Electoral vote and Popular vote count in 1912 running for the Bull Moose or Progressive Party- which is the greatest performance by a 3rd party candidate in a presidential election…however…the Bull Moose Party did not elect any members to Congress Governorships or control any state legislatures ]
The response to the People’s Party – The Election of 1892
Nationwide strikes in 1892…raised the prospect that the Populists could join together industrial workers and farmers in a combined effort to defeat the Big Business Capitalists…key idea… this will hold true…this hope especially in 1896…There is a claim that the famed novel-movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” written by Frank Baum, is based on this conflict---Dorothy’s magic shoes in the novel were made of SILVER (MONETARY POLICY DEBATE)… THE YELLOW BRICK (GOLD) ROAD, THE SCARECROW –FARMER, THE TIN-MAN-INDUSTRIAL WORKER… “OZ” IS an abbreviation of ounce… The Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys (Native Americans)
However, it was not to be… and Grover Cleveland, the newly married former President defeats Harrison again in the popular vote…but this time also in the Electoral Vote as well to gain the Presidency, uniquely GC became the only President in American History to be elected twice non-consecutively, in 1884 and in 1892 GC is unique though to be the only President married in the white house and to the youngest first lady ever, 21, Miss Francis Folsom knew Grover Cleveland from birth, he was a close friend of her father who was also an attorney in Buffalo… and who was 27 when she was born….and when her Father died at age 11 Grover Cleveland became her Legal Guardian…and when she went to College they began to date and he proposed to her in 1885 while President…she was 21 and he was 49…they had five children
Cleveland and Depression
The Depression of 1893 was easily the worst that occurred in the 19th century…and GC had the pleasure of being in office a very short time before the economy crashed completely and lasted close to all four years of his last term as President…(remember no President has ever been elected after a depression arose while he was in office (except Monroe in 1819)