Chapter 21: The Political System under Strain

1. Chapter 21: The Political System under Strain Preview:“Struggling to come to terms with the inequalities of the new urban and industrial order, the political system ground to a near stalemate, broken only during the turbulent 1890s when a deep depression sparked labor protests and a revolt of farmers.” The Highlights: The Politics of Paralysis The Revolt of the Farmers The New Realignment Visions of Empire The Imperial Movement

2. 21-2 The Politics of Paralysis • Political Stalemate • Margins of victory in presidential elections were very close • Voter turnout: nearly 80 percent of eligible voters turned out • The Parties • Ethnic and religious factors • Third political parties rallied around a single cause McGraw-Hill

3. 21-3 McGraw-Hill

4. 21-4 • The Issues • “Bloody shirts”: each side blamed the other for the war • Pendleton Act (1883): civil service • McKinley Tariff • Crime of ’73: concern over money supply • Bland-Allison Act (1878): silver coinage • The White House from Hayes to Harrison • The dirty election of 1884 • First billion-dollar peacetime budget McGraw-Hill

5. 21-5 “Despite its growing expenditures and more legislation, most people expected little from the federal government. Experimental and often effective, state programs began to grapple with the problems of corporate power, discriminatory shipping rates, political corruption, and urban decay”(677). • Ferment in the States and Cities • State commissions • National Municipal League McGraw-Hill

6. 21-6 The Revolt of the Farmers • The Harvest of Discontent • Targets of farm anger • Credit lay at the root of their problem • The Origins of the Farmers’ Alliance • Patrons of Husbandry • “Granger laws” • Granger cases • Southern Alliance McGraw-Hill

7. 21-7 • The Alliance Peaks • People’s party formed (1890) • The Alliance movement: “Ocala Demands” • The Election of 1892 • Longer-term weaknesses of the Populists • Rhetoric of Populism was often violent McGraw-Hill

8. 21-8 • The Rise of Jim Crow Politics • Disfranchisement • Democratic party promoted black disfranchisement and white supremacy • The African American Response • Ida B. Wells • Booker T. Washington • W.E.B. Du Bois • NAACP “The ferment of the early 1890s, among black Populists and white, was replaced by a lily-white Democratic party that dominated the region but remained in the minority on the national level”(684). McGraw-Hill

9. 21-9 The New Realignment • The Depression of 1893 • Nearly one worker in five was out of a job • More women and children went to work • Burden fell on local charities not government to assist the unemployed • The Rumblings of Unrest • Coxey’s Army • Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 McGraw-Hill

10. 21-10 • The Battle of the Standards • Free silver • Bryan’s Cross of Gold speech (1896): “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” • Republican coalition • McKinley in the White House • Foreshadowed “modern” presidents who would act as party leaders • Dingley Tariff (1897) McGraw-Hill

11. 21-11 McGraw-Hill

12. 21-12 Visions of Empire • European Expansion Worldwide • Ecological factors • Forces encouraging American imperialism • The Shapers of American Imperialism • Mahan calls for a strong navy • Missionaries • Social Darwinism • Commercial factors McGraw-Hill

13. 21-13 • Dreams of a Commercial Empire • William Henry Seward • Acquisition of Midway and Alaska • Blaine’s Pan-American Union • The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute • Prelude in the Pacific • US vied for control of the islands of Samoa • 1893: American sugar planters overthrow Queen Liliuokalani, a Hawaiian nationalist McGraw-Hill

14. 21-14 McGraw-Hill

15. 21-15 The Imperial Moment • Mounting Tensions • The de Lome letter • Sinking of the Maine • Teller Amendment • The Imperial War • Dewey at Manila • Santiago harbor in Cuba McGraw-Hill

16. 21-16 • War in Cuba • Racial tensions • The Rough Riders • Peace and the Debate over Empire • Annexing Hawaii • Aquinaldo • Anti-imperialists • The role of racism McGraw-Hill

17. 21-17 • America’s First Asian War • Racial antagonism spurred brutal fighting in Manila • Puerto Rico • An Open Door in China • The open-door notes • Boxer Rebellion • Sense of mission McGraw-Hill