The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution

I. The Native Americans On the Plains

a. Indian Conflict In the West

i. 1860 – Native Americans numbered 360,000 – they stood in the way of advancing whites

ii. They were no strangers to conflict:

1. Comanches – driven the Apaches off the central plains

2. Mandans and Chippewas – drove the Cheyenne off their villages

3. Sioux – preyed upon the Crows, Kiowas, and Pawnees

iii. The Cheyenne and Sioux transformed themselves from crop-growing villagers to nomadic traders and hunters

b. Problems That the Whites Caused

i. Disease – cholera, typhoid, and smallpox

ii. Killed bison, the main food of the Indians

iii. Grazed their livestock on prairie grass, which further shrank the bison population

c. Fort Laramie (1851) and Fort Atkinson (1853)

i. Government signed treaties with “chiefs” of various “tribes” at these two places to pacify the Indians. The treaties marked the beginning of the reservation system in the West. They established boundaries for the territory of each tribe and attempted to separate the Indians into two great “colonies” – one to the north (“Great Sioux Reservation” in Dakota Territory) and one to the south (Oklahoma Territory) - inbetween a corridor of white settlement

ii. Misconceptions of Indians:

1. Indians usually lived in scattered bands, not large tribes

2. They usually recognized no authority outside their immediate family (not a chief)

3. Were alien to the concept of living out one’s life in the confinement of a defined territory

d. Government Corruption

i. Indians surrendered their ancestral lands only when they had received promises from Washington that they would be left alone and provided with food, clothing, and other supplies

ii. Most federal Indian agents were corrupt and bought defective clothing, food, and supplies – while pocketing the rest of the money for themselves

e. Indian Warfare In the West

i. After the Civil War, fighting between the Indians and the Army ensued

ii. Many of the Army’s troops were:

1. New Immigrants, who fled Europe to avoid military service

2. 1/5 of the Army on the frontier were African Americans (called “Buffalo Soldiers” by the Indians because of their resemblance of their hair to the bison’s furry coat)

II. Receding Native Population

a. Indian and American Brutality

i. Americans would sometimes shoot Indians on site just to make sure they didn’t cause a disturbance

ii. Colonel J. M. Chivington – Militia massacred 400 Indians who thought they were promised immunity, including women and children. Some were tortured and mutilated

iii. Fetterman Massacre – Sioux attempted to block construction of Bozeman Trail to the Montana goldfields. Captain William J. Fetterman and 81 soldiers were killed and mutilated (one had 105 arrows in their face)

iv. George Armstrong Custer – Custer led a “scientific” expedition into the “Great Sioux Reservation” in South Dakota and announced he discovered gold. People swarmed to the area, but the Sioux (led by Sitting Bull) led an attack against them. 2,500 Indians killed 264 officers, who were waiting for reinforcements. The Indians were later hunted down by the Army

v. Nez Pierce Indians – Indians from Oregon who fled when the government tried to herd them on a reservation in 1877. Chief Joseph finally surrendered after a 1,700 mile, 3 month trek to Canada to rendezvous with Sitting Bull (I will fight forever, no more). They were betrayed into believing that they would be returned to their ancestral lands in Idaho, but instead were put in a reservation in Kansas, where 40% of them died. The survivors were eventually allowed to return to Idaho

vi. Apache Tribes – Of Arizona and New Mexico were the most difficult to subdue. Led by Geronimo, they were pursued by federal troops into Mexico. They were persuaded to surrender when the Apache women had been exiled to FL. The Apaches ultimately became successful farmers in OK

b. Reservations

i. Intended to preserve their cultural autonomy (although they weren’t on their traditional lands)

ii. Government believed they were easier to provide food for than fight

iii. Indian way of life was destroyed by:

1. Railroads brought settlers out west

2. Disease

3. Near extinction of buffalo

III. Bellowing Herds of Bison

a. Why Were Buffalo Important To the Indians?

i. Food

ii. Dung was fertilizer

iii. Hides for clothing

iv. Made lariats (lassos)

v. Harnesses

b. How Did There Become Less Buffalos?

i. 1865 – 15 million buffalo

ii. 1885 – Less than 1,000

iii. Most of the food supply of railroad construction workers came from buffalo

1. William “Buffalo Bill” Cody killed over 4,000 animals in 18 months while employed by the Kansas Pacific

iv. Once railroads were built, many buffalo were killed for amusement by people who would shoot them out of railroad trains

v. Some were slain because of their hides, tongues, or a few other choice cuts

IV. The End of the Trail

a. Helen Hunt Jackson

i. A Century of Dishonor (1881) – Talked about the government’s poor record of dealing with Indians

ii. Ramona (1884) – A love story of injustice to the California Indians (sold 600,000 copies)

iii. Both inspired sympathy for the Indians

b. Humanitarian Help?

i. Some wanted persuasion to assimilate while others wanted forced containment/brutal punishment

ii. No one showed much respect for Indian culture:

1. Christian reformers withheld food to force Indians to give up their tribal religion

2. Federal government outlawed the Sun Dance and other dances

3. Battle of Wounded Knee –

a. Sioux natives wished to practice a dance that they believed would:

i. Free their lands

ii. Rid them of whites

iii. Led to prosperity

b. The federal army believed Chief Sitting Bull was planning a rebellion; acting on the settlers’ fear and their suspicions, the army captured the chief

c. In a sudden exchange of gunfire between the tribe and the army, Chief Sitting Bull and others were killed; the remainder of the tribe fled to a camp near Wounded Knee Creek

d. When the army reached this camp, a shot was fired, and in reaction, the army killed 200 men, women, and children died (and 29 soldiers) in what is considered the last battle of the Indian Wars

4. Carlisle Indian School (PA) – Indian children were separated from their tribes and taught white values and customs

5. Field matrons – Women sent to reservations to teach women the art of sewing, while preaching white virtues

c. Dawes Severalty (ownership of real estate by one person) Act

i. Dissolved many tribes as legal entities

ii. Wiped out tribal ownership of land

iii. Set up individual Indian family heads with 160 free acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land

1. Land not given to Indians was to be sold to railroads

2. The proceeds were to be used by the government to educate and “civilize” the native peoples

iv. If the Indians behaved, they could earn full citizenship in 25 years (it wasn’t given to the Indians until the Indian U.S. Citizenship Act or Snyder Act in 1924)

d. Results of the Dawes Act

i. Intended to make individualists out of the Indians

ii. It distributed Native American reservation lands among individual members of the tribe to form a system of agriculture more similar to the white man’s

iii. The law:

1. Ignored culture on tribal held land

2. By 1900, Indians lost 50% of the 156 million acres they held in 1880

iv. Forced-assimilation remained the cornerstone of the government’s Indian policy for nearly 50 years

v. Indian population would increase:

1. 1887 – 243,000

2. 2000 – 1.5 million

V. Mining

a. Mining Increases

i. Because of:

1. Conquest of Indians

2. Railroad

b. Gold In CA and CO

i. Gold was still attracting people to CA

ii. Discovery of gold in 1858 attracted “59ers” or “Pikes Peakers”

iii. Over time, there were more people than gold, causing some to go broke

c. Comstock Lode

i. Found $340 million in gold and silver in NV in 1859

ii. NV would prematurely be added to the Union in 1864 to give Lincoln 3 more electoral votes

d. Other States and Gold

i. Montana, Idaho, and other western States

ii. Helldorados – towns that discover gold (usually have high crime, vigilante justice, and many saloons)

iii. Many became ghost towns when the gold ran out

e. Ore Breaking Machinery

i. Was very costly and had to be undertaken by corporations who pooled their stockholder’s money

ii. Mining became big business. Miners with dishpans were replaced by corporations, machinery, and engineers

f. Results of Mining

i. Attracted population and wealth

ii. Women found opportunity (which led to give them the vote in the West earlier than anywhere else in America – Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870), Colorado (1893), and Idaho (1896)

1. Worked in boardinghouses

2. Worked as prostitutes

iii. Gold and silver helped finance:

1. Civil War

2. Railroad

iv. Intensified the conflict between whites and Indians

v. Enabled the Treasury to return to specie payments

vi. Politicians advocated policies and programs to fund silver mining

vii. Folklore and literature (Mark Twain)

VI. Cattle Herding

a. How Were Cattle Profitably Gotten To Market?

i. Millions of them were in Texas

ii. Killed for their meat

iii. Railroads and refrigerator cars allowed for the existence of the meatpacking industry

iv. Long drive:

1. Cowboys drove herds (1,000 to 10,000) over unfenced and unpopulated plains to the railroad terminal

2. Popular terminals:

a. Dodge City

b. Abilene (Kansas)

i. Wild Bill Hickok (he was a marshal) maintained order. He was a gunman who reputedly killed only in self-defense or in the line of duty and who fatally shot in the back in 1876 while playing poker

c. Ogallala (Nebraska)

d. Cheyenne (Wyoming)

3. Was profitable, but had problems:

a. Indians

b. Stampedes

c. Cattle fever

4. Over 4 million were driven northward from 1866-1888

b. End of the Long Drive

i. Railroad brought homesteaders (home and land, usually a farm) and sheepherders, who built wire fences that were too numerous to be cut down

ii. Winter reached 68 degrees below zero (leaving cattle starving and freezing)

iii. Overexpansion and overgrazing

c. Cattle-Raising Becomes Big Business

i. Breeders learned to:

1. Fence their ranches

2. Lay winter feed

3. Produce fewer, but meatier cattle

ii. Also learned to organize:

1. Wyoming Stock-Growers’ Association

a. 1880s

b. Controlled the State and its legislature

d. Cowboys and Folklore

i. Clothing and conditions led to folklore

ii. 5,000 blacks worked as cowboys

VII. The Farmers’ Frontier

a. Homestead Act of 1862

i. Allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30

ii. Results:

1. Before the act, public land had been sold for revenue; after the act, it was given away to encourage the rapid filling of empty spaces and encourage farming

2. It helped farmers who could not afford to buy a lot of land

3. 40 years later, ½ million families took advantage of the Homestead Act

b. Homestead Act a Hoax???

i. 160 acres in the plains was different than 160 on the Mississippi basin

ii. 2/3 were forced to give up their land because of drought

iii. Some land would wind up in the hands of promoters (who would grab the best properties containing timber, minerals, and oil) rather than farmers

iv. Some would claim that they improved the land by making a home on it, while the home would be really small or nonexistent at all

c. How Did the West Develop?

i. Railroads – crops could be taken to the coast

ii. They induced thousands of Americans and European immigrants to buy cheap land earlier granted to railroads

iii. The soil was thought to be sterile because there wasn’t much rain and buffalo trampled it down solid. However, once the hard land was broken, the earth was fertile

d. 100^th Meridian

i. East of this line = well watered

ii. West of this line = semiarid desert

1. John Wesley Powell, who explored the Grand Canyon and directed the U.S. Geological Survey said that without irrigation, agriculture was impossible

2. However, people spread into these areas

a. Western Kansas lost half its population between 1888-1892 from drought

e. Adaptations To the Western Environment

i. Dry farming – used a method of shallow cultivation

1. However, over time it created a finely pulverized surface soil that contributed to the “Dust Bowl”

ii. Tough strains of wheat – were resistant to cold and drought

1. They abandoned corn – farmers favored sorghum, a drought resistant wheat

iii. Barbed wire – perfected by Joseph Glidden in 1874, solved the problem of how to build fences on treeless prairies

iv. Irrigation –

1. Were federally financed on a very large scale

2. Dams tamed the Missouri and Columbia Rivers

3. More than 45 million acres were irrigated in 17 western States

4. Engineers had more to do with the shaping of the modern West than all the trappers, miners, and cowboys

VIII. The Far West Comes of Age

a. New Western States Join the Union

i. Colorado – Added because of “Pikes Peak” gold rush

ii. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming – All added because the Republicans were seeking more electoral and congressional votes

iii. Utah – Admitted soon after the Mormons banned polygamy

iv. Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona – Only future States remaining in the contiguous U.S.

b. Oklahoma

i. Many people overeager to get land in Oklahoma Territory illegally went there before the federal government made the land available to settlers (that’s why they’re the OK sooners)

ii. They had to be evicted repeatedly by federal troops

iii. April 1889 – Many people had crowded the State line to settle land in OK when it opened. By the year’s end, there were 60,000 inhabitants

iv. 1907 – OK was admitted as a State

IX. The Fading Frontier

a. End of the Western Frontier

i. As the 19^th century was coming to a close, the land out West was less and less

ii. The government even recognized that its land was not inexhaustible, so they set aside land for national parks:

1. Yellowstone (1872)

2. Yosemite (1890)

3. Sequoia (1890)

b. Why Did People Move West?

i. Americans have been more mobile than their counterparts in Europe

ii. The land could be sold for a profit once settled

iii. Some couldn’t find a job in the city, so they took up farming

c. The West and Jobs

i. The very possibility of westward migration may have led urban employers to maintain wage rates high enough to discourage workers from leaving

ii. Many failed farmers, busted miners, and displaced easterners found ways to seek their fortunes in western cities like Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco

iii. By 1880, the area from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast was the most urbanized region in America

d. Legacy of the West

i. Native Americans made their last struggle against colonization

ii. The Anglo culture collided with Hispanic culture (most Hispanics still live there today)

iii. Settlers migrated to the West coast, where many Asians immigrated and still live today

iv. In no other region has the federal government, with its vast landholdings, its subsidies to the railroads, and its massive irrigation projects, played so large a role in economic and social development

v. West was immortalized by writers such as Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Helen Hunt Jackson, and by painters such as Frederic Remington and Albert Bierstadt

X. The Farm Becomes a Factory

a. Single “Cash” Crop (crop grown for direct sale, rather than to feed livestock)

i. Farmers used to:

1. Raise their own food

2. Make their own clothing

3. Trade for necessities with neighbors

ii. Now high prices persuaded farmers to concentrate on growing one crop, such as wheat or corn, and use their profits to buy foodstuffs (a substance that can be prepared as food) at the general store and manufactured goods in town or by mail order (Aaron Montgomery Ward sent out the first mail order catalogue in 1872)

b. Mechanization of Agriculture

i. Drove many marginal farmers off the land and into the industrial work force. Rural population steadily decreased

ii. Farms were increasing in size – some were larger than 15,000 acres, with communication by telephone from one part to another (called bonanza farms)

iii. This foreshadowed agriculture becoming big business

c. Agriculture In CA

i. Were carved out of Mexican land grants and railroad holdings (causing them to be 3 times larger than the national average)

ii. With the advent of the railroad refrigerator car in the 1880s, CA fruit and vegetable crops, raised on sprawling tracts of by poorly paid migrant Mexican and Chinese farmhands, sold at handsome profits in the eastern markets

XI. Deflation Dooms the Debtor

a. Results of a One-Crop Economy

i. As long as prices stayed high, all went well. But if they went down, since they were growing only one crop, it really hurt their livelihood

ii. Grain farmers competed in a world market against Argentina, Russia, and other foreign countries. If their grain flourished, the price of the farmers’ grain in America would fall and they’d face ruin, as they did in the 1880s and 1890s

iii. 1855 – Family borrows $1,000 (when wheat was worth $1 per bushel = 1,000 bushels)

iv. 1890 – If they didn’t pay their debt back by this date (when wheat was worth $.50 per bushel = 2,000 bushels, plus interest)

b. Currency In Circulation

i. Deflation was also caused by the lack of money in circulation, so prices were forced down. The currency in circulation for each person was:

1. 1870 = $19.42

2. 1890 = $22.67

ii. During this period of time, business and industry increased many times, causing a scramble for available currency

c. Debts Increase

i. Farmers operated at a loss each year

ii. Their farm machinery increased their output of grain, lowered the price, and drove them even deeper into debt

iii. Many had to mortgage their homes (by 1890, Nebraska reported 100,000 of them)

1. Interest rates were very high – 8-40%

d. Farmers Turn To Tenancy

i. Many turned to farm tenancy (one who farms land owned by another and pays rent) rather than farm ownership

ii. This occurred more in the South, where cotton prices also sank

iii. 1880 – ¼ of all American farms were operated by tenants

XII. Unhappy Farmers

a. Problems With Mother Nature

i. Grasshoppers – eat crops

ii. Boll weevil – eat crops

iii. Earth – nutrients used up

iv. Floods – Eroded the topsoil (expensive fertilizer was needed)

v. Droughts – long ones started in 1887

b. Problems With Government

i. Gouged (prices made higher than they actually are when they have no choice to deal with the seller) by their government – local, State, and national

1. Land was overassessed

2. Paid high taxes (wealthy in east could conceal it through stocks and bonds)

ii. High protective tariffs favored manufacturers. Farmers had no choice but to sell their low-priced products in competitive, unprotected world markets, while buying manufactured goods in a protected home market

c. Problems With Corporations

i. Farmers were at the mercy of the:

1. Harvester trust

2. Barbed-wire trust

3. Fertilizer trust

ii. All the trusts (combined corporations from an industry) could control output and raise prices to high levels

iii. Stores (or middlemen) could increase the selling price of goods that the farmers bought

iv. Operators pushed storage rates to the ceiling at grain warehouses and elevators

d. Problems With Railroads

i. Freight rates could be so high that the farmers sometimes lost less if they burned their corn for fuel than if they shipped it

ii. If they raised their voices in protest, the ruthless railroad operators might let their grain spoil in damp places or refuse to provide them with cars when needed

e. Problems With Organization

i. 1890 – Farmers were ½ of the population

ii. Manufacturers and railroad promoters knew how to combine to promote their interests, but the farmers were independent by nature

iii. No effective leaders arose to united them

iv. They never did organize successfully until the 1930s

XIII. The Farmers Take Their Stand

a. National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (practice of cultivating crops and breeding and raising livestock; agriculture)

i. Organized in 1867 by Oliver Kelley

ii. He was a Minnesota farmer who was then working as a clerk in Washington

iii. His first objective was to enhance the lives of isolated farmers through social, educational, and fraternal activities:

1. Picnics

2. Concerts

3. Lectures

iv. The Grange spread and by 1875 had 800,000 members, mostly in the Midwest and South

b. Grangers Goals Change

i. Went from improvement of the individual to improvement of the farmers’ collective rights

1. They established cooperatively owned stores for consumers and cooperatively owned grain elevators and warehouses for producers

2. They also attempted to manufacture harvesting machinery, but this adventure ended in financial disaster because of mismanagement

c. Grangers Enter Politics

i. Were mostly successful in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota

1. Regulated railway rates

2. Regulated storage fees charged by:

a. Railroads

b. Warehouses

c. Grain elevators (A building equipped with mechanical lifting devices and used for storing grain)

ii. Most State courts recognized the principle of public control of private business for the general welfare, but many laws were poorly drawn and struck down in the Supreme Court – like the Wabash case in 1886

iii. After these cases, the Grangers faded, but their organization has lived on as a vocal champion of farm interests, while brightening rural life with social activities

d. Greenback Labor Party

i. Was revived

ii. Called for:

1. Inflationary policies

2. Improving the lot of farmers and laborers

iii. 1878 - they polled over 1 million votes and elected 14 members of Congress

iv. 1890 – ran General James B. Weaver (an old Granger) who was a Civil War veteran who spoke well. He only polled 3% of the popular vote

XIV. Beginning of Populism

a. Farmers’ Alliance

i. Founded in Texas in the late 1870s

ii. They came together to strangle the grip of the railroads and manufacturers through cooperative buying and selling

iii. Local chapters spread and eventually attracted more than a million members

iv. However, it weakened itself by:

1. Ignoring the landless tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and farmworkers

2. Excluding blacks, who counted for ½ the agricultural population in the South

v. Colored Farmers’ National Alliance

1. Formed in the 1880s

2. Attracted black farmers

3. 1890 – More than 250,000 members

4. Long history of racial division in the South, however, made it difficult for white and black farmers to work together in the same organization

b. People’s Party or Populist Party

i. Created in the 1890s

ii. Were farmers who attacked Wall Street and trusts

iii. Called for:

1. Nationalizing railroads, telephone, and telegraph

2. Creating a graduated income tax (one that would increase the more money you make)

3. Provide farmers with loans for crops stored in government-owned warehouses, where they could be held until market prices rose

4. Free and unlimited coinage of silver to inflate money

c. William Hope Harvey

i. Wrote a popular pamphlet called Coin’s Financial School (1894)

ii. It had a picture that showed a gold ogre beheading a beautiful silver maiden

d. Populist Party Wins Votes

i. Lead a deadly earnest and impassioned campaign to relieve the farmers’ many miseries

ii. 1892 – They had polled more than 1 million votes for their presidential candidate, James B. Weaver

iii. Racial divisions continued to hobble the Populists in the South, but in the West their ranks were swelling

XV. Coxey’s Army and the Pullman Strike

a. Panic of 1893

i. Strengthened the Populists’ argument that farmers and laborers alike were being criticized by an oppressive economic and political system. The Populists also gained strength from unemployed industrial workers

ii. Unemployed began marching to protest their plight

b. “General” Jacob S. Coxey

i. One of the most famous marchers

ii. He was a wealthy Ohio quarry owner

iii. Set out for Washington in 1894 with supporters and newspaper reporters

iv. His platform included a demand that the government relieve unemployment by an inflationary public works program, supported by $500 million in legal tender notes to be issued by the Treasury

v. He and his supporters were arrested for walking on the grass

c. Pullman Strike

i. Eugene V. Debs, a labor leader, helped to organize the American Railway Union of about 150,000 members

ii. In Chicago, the Pullman Palace Car Company had a town that was hit hard by depression in 1894. Wages were cut 1/3, but rent for company houses was not reduced

iii. The workers struck and overturned Pullman cars

iv. The AFL refused to support the strikers because they didn’t believe they would be respected if they supported violence

v. While Governor Altgeld (who had pardoned the Haymarket Square anarchists the previous year) didn’t think there was an overwhelming problem, Attorney General Richard Olney urged the dispatch of federal troops. His legal grounds were that the strikers were interfering with the transit of the U.S. mail. President Cleveland supported Olney

vi. Federal troops put down the strike and Debs was sentenced to 6 months in jail (he read radical literature in jail, which led to his leading the socialist movement (and founding the Social Democratic Party) later on in the U.S. – he ran for president as a Socialist candidate 5 times between 1900-1920)

d. Results of the Pullman Strike

i. Debs was put into jail because he defied an injunction (a court order to end the strike)

ii. This was the first time this method was used to end a strike and it set a dangerous precedent, because strikers put into jail because of the injunction could be held there without a jury trial

iii. People began to believe that employers were striving to smash labor unions by court action

iv. As a result, Populists and debtors were outraged

XVI. McKinley and Bryan

a. Election of 1896

i. The main issue was the problems of the farmers and laborers

ii. In addition, monetary policy – whether to maintain the gold standard or inflate the currency by monetizing silver – loomed as the issue on which the election would turn

b. Republican Nomination – William McKinley

i. Former congressman from Ohio

ii. He had established a credible Civil War record, having risen to the rank of major

iii. He was from Ohio (which had a lot of electoral votes and was a key State in many elections)

iv. He had made many friends in Congress with his kind personality

v. Platform:

1. Straddled the money question, but leaned toward hard-money policies (favoring money backed by gold, although his voting in Congress had also favored silver)

2. Condemned hard times

3. Condemned Democratic in competency – Cleveland (D) was in office at the time

4. Praised the protective tariff

c. Marcus Alonzo Hanna

i. Influenced McKinley (helped him win governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, as well as president in 1896)

ii. Made his fortune in the iron business, but also dealt in coal, shipping, shipbuilding, banking, and newspapers

iii. Believed that:

1. A prime function of government was to aid business (like Hamilton)

2. Prosperity “trickled down” to the laborer, who would be best off when businesses flourished

iv. He also offered his monetary and political support (he became chairman of the republican National Committee) to McKinley

d. Democratic Nomination – William Jennings Bryan

i. Labor and debtor groups disliked Cleveland for:

1. Interference in the Pullman Strike

2. The Morgan bond deal

3. Stubborn hard-money policies

ii. William Jennings Bryan from Nebraska, who the best orator of his day. He delivered a speech that favored silver in his “Cross of Gold” speech. In it, he said:

1. We will answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them…You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold

2. It criticized the gold standard and supported the coinage of silver

3. After the speech, Bryan was nominated

iii. Platform:

1. Inflation through the unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 ounces of silver to 1 of gold (market ratio was 32 to 1 – which meant that the silver in a dollar would be worth about 50 cents)

iv. Democrats who favored gold split from the party (Gold Bugs)

v. Populists also favored 16 to 1, so most threw their support to Bryan, fearing that McKinley and his hard-money policies would gain office

XVII. Class Conflict

a. Free Silver Becomes the Main Campaign Issue

i. Bryan campaigned on behalf of free silver in:

1. 27 States

2. Traveled 18,000 miles

3. Made 600 speeches (36 in one day)

b. Campaign Efforts

i. Bryan –

1. Free silver people (debt-ridden farmers) loved Bryan

2. Amassed $1 million for the campaign

ii. McKinley –

1. Bryan created panic among eastern conservatives (wealthy merchants) who believed that their holdings would be converted into 50 cent dollars

2. Said that Bryan was a fanatic, madman, traitor, and murderer

3. Reminded voters of the panic that the Democrats created in 1893

4. McKinley (helped by Hanna) amassed the highest campaign chest so far in American history - $16 million

c. The Downfall of Bryan

i. Most business people were afraid of what would happen if Bryan became president

ii. Worker’s jobs were threatened if Bryan won

iii. Reports also circulated that employers were threatening to pay their employees in 50 cent pieces, instead of in dollars if Bryan triumphed

d. Results of the Election of 1896

i. McKinley won:

1. 271-176

2. 7.1 million-6.5 million

3. Driven by fear and excitement, an unprecedented number of voters went to the polls

4. McKinley won most votes:

a. New England

b. Upper Mississippi Valley

5. Bryn won most votes in the debt-burdened (but less populated):

a. West

b. South

e. Results of the Results of the Election of 1896

i. The outcome was a victory for:

1. Big business

2. Big cities

3. Middle-class values

4. Financial conservatism

ii. Bryan’s defeat marked the last serious effort to win the White House with mostly agrarian votes. The future of presidential politics lay not on the farms (with diminishing populations), but in expanding cities

iii. McKinley’s election over Bryan influenced future political races by setting up interest groups and alliances that lasted for over a decade

iv. Started a long reign of wins for the Republicans

v. Issues such as the money question and civil-service reform faded away and was replaced by concern for industrial regulation and the welfare of labor

vi. Voter participation diminished and party organization weakened

XVIII. William McKinley In Office

a. Characteristics

i. Never got very far out of line with the majority opinion

ii. He was cautious and conservative (causing him to shy away from reform)

iii. Businesses and trusts were given free reign

b. Tariff

i. Became an issue right away

ii. Current Wilson-Gorman law was not raising enough revenue to cover the annual deficits

iii. As a result, the Dingley Tariff Bill was passed, which substantially raised the tariff to 46.5%, rates that were as high as or higher than the McKinley Act of 1890

c. End of the Depression

i. Depression had run its course, but the Republicans assumed credit for getting the country out of it

ii. Money issues that had dominated politics since after the Civil War, gradually went away

d. Gold Issue

i. The Gold Standard Act of 1900 was passed

1. It provided that the paper currency be redeemed freely in gold

ii. Eventually, money was inflated because:

1. Gold was discovered in Alaska, South Africa, and Australia, which brought huge quantities of gold onto world markets

2. A cheaper method of extracting gold from ore was invented

iii. As a result, the Popularist movement and advocates of silver receded