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)