CH 16 POLITICS AND REFORM

WIZARD OF OZ CHARACTERS

Dorothy Munchkins Wizard Yellow Brick Road Silver Slippers Toto Tin Man Scarecrow Lion Oz Emerald City Wicked Witch of the West

SEC 1 STALEMATE IN WASHINGTON

From 1877 to 1896 Republicans and Democrats were so evenly matched that few reforms were possible in government

President Rutherford B. Hayes began to attempt to reform patronage – giving government jobs to supporters

Republicans known as Stalwarts opposed civil service reform and accused Hayes of wanting to open government spots for his own people

Civil Service reformers became known as Halfbreeds

The main candidate for president in 1880 was a “halfbreed”, James Garfield, and his VP was a “stalwart”, Chester Allen Arthur

They won the election

President Garfield was assassinated a few months into his presidency

He was killed by a Stalwart, Charles Guiteau who wanted a civil service job

Congress then passed the Pendleton Act

This allowed the president to fill positions based on rules set up by a bipartisan Civil Service Commission

Candidates for positions competed through examinations

2 PARTIES, NECK AND NECK

During the 1870’s and 1880’s the Democrats had control of the House and the Republicans had control of the Senate

The presidential elections were all very close from 1876 to 1896

In 1876 and 1888, the candidate who won the election, lost the popular vote

In 1884 the Republicans were divided over reform and so Democrat Grover Cleveland, a reformer opposed to Tammany Hall won the election

Cleveland's administration was marred by strikes and disagreements in government

A bomb exploded at a labor demonstration in Haymarket Square

One major legislation Cleveland passed was the Interstate Commerce Act to regulate trade between the states

In 1888 Republicans regained the presidency with Benjamin Harrison

They also gained control of both houses of Congress

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was passed and made trusts illegal

Courts however did little to enforce it

The McKinley Tariff raised taxes on imports in the country

SEC 2 POPULISM

Populism was a political movement in the 1890’s that emerged to increase the political power of farmers and to push for the silver coinage of money

To help finance the Civil War the government had issued millions of dollars in greenbacks, paper money.

This first led to inflation. Then when the government stopped printing money and stopped making silver coins it caused deflation.

Deflation caused most farmers to borrow money to plant their crops

Farmers wanted more money printed that was backed by silver to bring down interest rates on their loans.

Grange members formed cooperatives to help regulate crop prices

The cooperatives held crops off the market to force the prices to rise

THE RISE OF POPULISM

In 1890 the Farmer’s Alliance issued the Ocala Demands to help farmers choose candidates for the 1890 elections

Many pro-Alliance Democrats were elected in the South

By 1894 the Panic of 1893 had turn into a depression

In 1896 the Democrats and Progressives nominated William Jennings Bryan for president after his famous speech “A Cross of Gold”

The Republicans went with William McKinley

New gold strikes the 1900s in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory increased the money supply and the need for silver died out

The Populist Party died with it

SEC 3 RESISTANCE AND REPRESSION

Many African Americans migrated to the West and North during reconstruction

This became known as the Great Migration

VOTING RIGHTS

Mississippi was the first to require a poll tax

Other states also required a literacy test

This practice of taking away someone’s right to vote is called disfranchising

Alabama rewrote their state constitution in 1901 mainly to disfranchise blacks

LEGALIZING SEGREGATION

In the South, segregation was enforced by Jim Crow Laws

The Supreme Court ruling in Plessey v. Ferguson endorsed “separate but equal” facilities

AFRICAN AMERICAN RESPONSE

In 1892, Ida B. Wells, began a crusade against lynching

Booker T. Washington delivered his most famous speech, the Atlanta Compromise

W.E.B. Du Bois believed that African Americans had to demand their rights

He would go on to be one of the early influential leaders of the NAACP

2 QUESTIONS

1) Of the two leaders during the time, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, which do you think would have been more effective if left unchallenged?

2) How does Martin Luther King compare to both?