Chapter 26 The Great West and Agricultural Revolution Notes

Chapter 26 The Great West and Agricultural Revolution

The Clash of Cultures on the Plains

· 360,000 Native Americans in 1860

o Driving people off lands was common previously

o Cheyenne and Sioux on Spanish-introduced horses were close to crop-growing villagers and efficient nomadic hunters.

· Whites introduced cholera, typhoid and smallpox.

o Put pressure on steadily shrinking bison population by hunting and grazing own livestock on prarie grasses.

o I am traveling all over this country, and am cutting the trees of my brothers”

§ Killing their buffalo before they can arrive.

· Attempts to pacify the Indians.

o Fed gov signed w/ “chiefs” of “tribes” at Fort Laramie and Forrt Atkinson

§ Beginning of reservation system in West.

§ Est. boundaries for territories of tribe.

· Attempted to separate Indians to North and South and have corridor of whites.

o Did not work b/c whites didn’t understand Indians recognized no authority outside immediate family.

· Gov cont to herd Indians into smaller confines i.e. Great Sioux reservation

· Indians surrendered lands only when promised be left alone and provided w/ foodstuffs.

o However Federal Indian agents corrupt.

· Would fight w/ Indians w/ U.S. army.

o 1/5 of US army African American “Buffalo Soldiers

Receding Native Population

· Savage conflicts in Indian Wars.

o Colonel J.M. Chivington militia massacred Indians who thought promised immunity.

§ In return Sioux blocked construction of Bozeman Trail to Montana goldfields

· Ambushed William J. Fetterman in Bighorn Mountains.

§ Was the Fetterman Massacre

§ Led to the Treaty of Fort Laramie, a short-lived Indian victory that abandoned Bozeman Trail construction and “Great Sioux reservation” to be given to Sioux.

· More violence: Custer led expedition to “explore gold” in Black Hills.

o Attacked superior force at Bighorn River and the “White Chief with Yellow Hair” and no man left alive.

§ Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

· Nez Perce Indians and Chief Joseph fails in their attempt to reach Canada

o Betrayed into believing they’d return to Idaho, instead sent to Kansas, many died.

· Apache tribes most difficult to subdue.

o Led by Geronimo w/ hatred of whites.

o Chased into Mexico, eventually persuaded to surrender, would eventually become successful farmers in Oklahoma.

· Fire and sword policy killed Indian spirit.

· Eventually discovered cheaper to feed than fight.

o “Taming” of Indians due to railroad which enabled people to move into West, and how they had little resistance to white people’s diseases. Virtual extermination of buffalo also a factor.

Bellowing Herds of Bison

· Buffalo “hunchback crows” way of life for Indians.

o After Civil War 15 million

§ But William “Buffalo Bill” Cody killed over 4000 buffalos while over Kansas Pacific.

o Building of railroad began killing of buffalos.

o 1885 less than 1000 buffallo.

The End of the Trail

· National conscience stirs through Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor.

o Record of government ruthlessness w/ Indians.

o Ramona love story of injustice to Indians more sympathy for Indians.

· Debate between humanitarians “make them walk the ‘white man’s road’” and hard-liners who wanted punishment.

o Christian reformers sometimes withheld food to force Indians to give up religion.

o Successfully made fed gov outlaw Sun Dance.

§ Later Ghost Dance led to Battle of Wounded Knee where Indians slaughtered.

· Reformation of Indian policy begins w/ Dawes Severalty Act

o Dissolved many tribes, elim. Tribal ownership of land.

§ Individual family heads w/ 160 acres.

§ If behaved, would get full title and citizenship.

o Citizenship not granted until 1924.

· Remaining reservation land given to railroads, white settlers, money used for fed gov to “civilize”.

o Funded the Carlisle Indian School

§ “Kill the Indian and save the man”

· Dawes Act attempted to make individualists out of Indians.

o However Indian culture held on land.

o 1900 Indians lost 50% of 156 mil acres.

· Remained gov Indian policy until Indian Reorganization Act under the Indian New Deal which reversed individualist approach and attempted to restore tribal basis of Indian life.

o Indian population slowly goes up.

Mining: From Dishpan to Orebreaker

· 1858 gold discovery in Colorado had the fifty-niners or Pike’s Peakers go to Rockies.

o More miners than minerals, so many mined silver.

o Also went into Nevada after Comstock Lode uncovered gold.

§ $340 million mined by “Kings of Comstock”

· “Lucky strikes” in Montana, Idaho, other western states.

o Boomtowns aka Helldorados gave life to towns, but then made them ghost towns.

· After mining gold required machinery

o Big businesses eventually came to mining industry, replaced by impersonal corporations w/ expensive machinery, engineers.

o Soon gold washer another laborer.

· Mining frontier attracted women, men.

o Women had kind of equality that earned suffrage in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho in that order.

o Financed the Civil War, facilitated building of railroads.

· Silver, gold = Treasurey to resume specie payments.

o “Silver Senators” used disproportionate influence to rep interests of silver miners.

· Added to American literature w/ Bret Harte and Mark Twain novels

Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive

· A lot of cattle but previously no way to efficiently get to market.

o After railroads, beef barrons incl. Swifts and Armours made industrialized meatpacking business.

§ Stocks in Kansas City and Chicago, could ship fresh to East in refrige cars.

· Long Drive stimulated slaughterhouses.

o Texas cowboys drove herds over plains until they reached railroad terminal.

o Buffalo grazed on free gov grass.

o Where there was lush grass, there were profitable Long Houses.

§ If survived other factors

§ Over 4 mil steers driven from Texas.

· Railroads brought homesteaders and sheepherders = barbed wire

· Escape to make cattle-raising big business.

o Learned to fence ranches.

o Organized – The Wyoming Stock-Grower’s Association.

o This was heyday of cowboy.

The Farmer’s Frontier

· Homestead Act allowed settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land if he “improved” on it for 5 years.

· Previously public land sold for revenue.

· Now to encourage rapid filling.

o But more than 5 times amount who profited from Homestead Act purchased land from other companies.

· Many homesteaders forced to give up struggle against drought.

· Also used “dummy homesteaders”.

o A lot of corruption.

§ Railways = profitable marketing of crops.

· Made Amer, Euro immigrants buy cheap lands earlier granted by government.

o Due to crop failures elsewhere in world, settlers in 1870s went farther west to poor lands farther west.

· John Wesley Powell explorer of Colorado River’s Grand Canyon warned that very little rain fell west of 100th meridian that agricultural impossible w/o massive immigration.

o Because of drought, new technique of “dry farming”

§ Shallow cultivation to adapt to arid environment.

· Resulted in surface soil and Dust Bowl several decades later.

§ Other adaptations including tough strains of wheat resistant to cold and drought were more effective.

§ Barbed wire perfected by Joseph Glidden solved problem of how to build fences on praries.

The Far West Comes of Age

· Rapid expansion of West

· Colorado as the “Centennial State”.

o Republicans seeking more votes added North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming.

§ Utah admitted after Mormon church banned polygamyu.

§ Made settlement of Oklahoma available and “sooners” illegally went in.

· Evicted repeatedly by federal troops – after official opening, “boomers” went in.

The Feading Frontier

· 1890 census announted that frontier was closed.

· Written by Frederick Jackson Turner and the Significance of the Frontier in American History.

· Secretary of War had prophesized nation’s land to run out soon.

o Set aside land for first national parks = Yellowstone National park 1872 followed by Yosemite and Sequoia.

· Frontier was “safety valve”

o Free acreage = immigrant farmers.

o Possibility of westward migration = urban employers to maintain high wages to discourage migration west.

· Captured by writers incl Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Helen Hunt Jackson and Francis Parkman and painters including George Catlin, Frederick Remington and Albert Bierstadt.

The Farm Becomes a Factory

· Growing importance of “cash” crops.

· Aaron Montgomery firm sends out the first catalogue.

§ Speed of harvesting wheat dramatically increased through twine binder invention and the “combine”.

· Mechanized farming.

· Farm had status of factory.

§ By 1890 half dozen of farms larger than 15000 acres.

Deflation Dooms the Debtor

· When wheat fields of other countries flourished, farmer’s grain would fall and America’s farmers would face ruin.

o Circulation in 1870 to 1890 decreased, deflated, so prices were forced down, not good for farmers.

§ Farm machinery increased output of grain which lowered price and drove them deeper into debt.

§ Mortgages took homesteads.

· Continuous bankruptcy of farmers.

§ Tenancyu spreading and 1880 ¼ of American farmers operated by tenants.

Unhappy Farmers

· Earth was going sour.

o Drought throughout trans-Mississippi, beginning in 1887.

§ Land over assessed, paid local taxes where wealthy people had special deals.

· Had to sell in very competitive market.

§ At mercy of harvester, barbed-wire, fertilizer trust all of which raised prices a lot.

· Middlemen took from profits.

o Farmers still ½ of population in 1890

§ Helpless against consolidation of the industrialists.

The Farmers Take a Stand

· Greenback movement shortly after Civil War where farmers demanded inflation from decreasing prices.

· Grange Movement led by Oliver H. Kelley enhanced work of isolated farmers through activities.

· Economic cooperatives and cooperatively owned stores.

· Went into politics and attempted to regulate railway rates and storage fees.

o State laws to recognize principle of public control of private business.

§ Granger Laws badly drawn and fought by lawyers well.

· Wabash decision made Graners’ influence fade.

o States had no power to regulate interstate commerce.

o Farmer’s grievances through Greenback Labor Party

§ Combined inflationary appeal of Greenbackers w/ program for improving labor

· Managed to get some votes and 14 members to Congress.

§ James B. Weaver an old Granger candidate, lot’s of speeches but little of popular vote.

The Prelude to Populism

· Farmer’s Alliance found to socialize and break grip of railroads and manufacturers.

· Weakened due to ignoring landless tenant farmers, share-croppers, farmworkers.

· Excluded blacks.

§ Separate Colored Farmers’ National Alliance to attract black farmers.

o Out of Farmer’s alliance rose the Populists.

§ Called for nationalizing railroads, telephones, telegraph and instituting a graduated income tax.

· Free coinage of silver.

· Famous pamphlet Coin’s Financial School.

o Written by William Hope Harvey argued for free silver.

o Queen of Populist was Mary Elizabeth Lease loud and demanded that Kansans should raise “less corn and more hell”.

o Populists left mark in politics.

§ Racial divisions weaken Populists in South, but in West ranks very powerful.

Coxey’s Army and the Pullman Strike

· Jacob S. Coxey marched for Washington and demanded that gov relieve unemployment through inflation and support through greenblacks.

o Pullman Strike.

§ Organized by Eugene V. Debs who organized American Railway Union.

§ Cut wages about 1/3 so workers struck, paralyzed railway traffic.

· American Federation of Labor declined to support Pullman strikers and weakened labor’s cause.

§ U.S. Attorney General General Richard Olney dispatched federal troops.

· Stop the mail by President Cleveland.

§ “Government by injunction”.

· Saw unholy alliance b/w business and courts

Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan

· Election of 1896

o Republican nomination of William McKinley for GOLD

§ Aided by Marcus Hanna who believed that primary function of government to aid business.

o REPUBLICAN = HARD MONEY POLICIES, higher tariff.

o For Democratic nomination, Cleveland out.

§ Labor groups remember his intervention in Pullman strike.

§ Silverites voted for William Jennings Bryan was a great orator.

· Cross of Gold speech

o “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not

§ Populists now had Democrats taking their “16 to 1” ratio plank.

· Fearing hard-money and McKinley victory, endorsed “fusion” w/ Democrats and Bryan for president.

Class Conflict: Plowholders v. Bondholders

· William Jennings Bryan lost steam when uRepublican factory workers paid workers and told them not to come to work if Bryan won.

· McKinley ran strong in East, Bryanss states in debt-burdened South and trans-Mississsippi West.

o Demonstrated lack of appeal to unmortgaged farmer and to eastern worker.

· = new era in politics b/c when Bryan made evangelical appeal to supposed foes of existing social order, not enough of them banded together.

o Victory for big business, big cities, middle-class values, financial conservatism.

§ Last effort to win White House w/ mostly agrarian votes.

o Would lead to long Republican domination.

§ Led to diminishing voter participation, weakening of party organizations, fading away of money question and civil service reform.

§ Instead had concern for industrial regulation, welfare of labor.

Republican Stand-pattism Enthroned

· Current Wilson-Gorman law not raising enough revenue to cover annual Treasurey deficits, believed in higher tariffs.

o Therefore had the dingley Tariff Bill which had new rates that were high.

o Prosperity: Depression of 1893 finished and farm prices rose.

o Gold Standard Act passed as last opposition to silverite opposition and made paper currency redeemed freely in gold.

§ Provided for an inflation that gold-favoring east wanted to prevent.

o New gold discoveries = inflation.

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