Chapter 26 - The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution 1865-1896

 

Chapter Themes

• After the Civil War, whites overcame the Plains Indians’ resistance and settled the West, bringing to a close the long frontier phase of American history
• The farmers who populated the West often found themselves the victims of an economic revolution in agriculture and in the 1880s turned to political action to address their concerns

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Chapter Questions

• Was the federal government biased against workers and farmers in the late 19th century? Huizinga Yes, they were. The government was unsympathetic for the plight of the worker, and racial conflicts. With the big trusts above and restless immigrants working for cheap labor from below them, they "squeezed" middle-class citizens. There were also many corrupt deals between big businesses and the government.

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Outline

Bellowing Herds of Bison​

• Tens of millions of bison covered the western prairies when white Americans arrived
• These bison were the staff of life for Native Americans-->flesh provided food; dried dung provided fuel; hides provided clothing,lariats, and harnesses
• When Civil War ended 15 million were still grazing
• Railroad construction caused the massacre of the herds-->slain for hides, tongues or other meat, or just for amusement
• This wholesale butchery left fewer than a thousand buffalo alive by 1885-->in danger of complete extinction
• Shocking example of greed and waste

The End of the Trail​ 

• Humanitarians wanted to treat Indians kindly & persuade them to "walk the white man's road"
• Hard-liners insisted on current policy of forced containment and brutal punishment
• Neither side showed much respect-->Christian reformers sometimes withheld food to force Indians to give up their tribal religion and assimilate to white culture-->1884-Sun Dance outlawed
• "Ghost Dance" cult stamped out in 1890 by the army at Battle of Wounded Knee: 200 Indian men, women, and children killed; 29 soldiers

The Farmers' Frontier

• The Homestead Act seemed like a blessing to farmers, farmers could gain up to 160 acres in the West as long as the improved the land and payed a fee of 30 dollars.
• However, the Homstead Act soon got said to be a hoax. For 2 out of every 3 farmers had to leave their farms because of the inadequate land for farming.
• The farmers claimed that the land was useless because it was hard and dry because of the millions of buffalo that had trampled it down and the lack of forests and rain water.
• When the broke the ground with an iron plow they soon discovered that the land was in fact very rich.
• In the west, farmers imported resistant strands of wheat from Russia that could survive in the harsh Western conditions and began to grow more resistant crops.
• A method of shallow farming was developed that worked great in the West. This made the top of the soil very fine and light which contributed to the Dust Bowl.
• The government soon funded massive irrgation that practically moved rivers and made the West a bountiful land.

The Far West Comes of Age

• 1870's to 1890's the west experience a massive growth in population. a parade of new western states proudly joined the union. boomtown colorado, offspring of the pikes peak goldrush was greeted in 1876 as teh centennial state.
• 1889-1890 a republican congress eagerly seeking more republican electoral and congressional votes admited in a wholesale lot six new washington idaho and whyoming. 1890 the mormon church banned polygamy not sure what that is but i will look it up, polygamy: multiple marraige btw dont look it up bad things happen. so anway in 1890 it was banned by the mormon church however in the state of utah it was not deemed admission into the mormon church until 1896
• The federal government made vast open land of fertile soil available to settlers what a nice thing to do but the land was also inhabited by native americans and it was in oklahoma!! MANY greedy sooners jumped the gun as the book refers to it and charged into oklahoma to take a advantage of the land and do what you think they do since they are greedy. they had to be maintained by federal troops who would shoot these intruders horses.
• April 22, 1889, Oklahoma was opened for settlement and 50,000 boomers rushed into the territory. In the night a lonely spot in the prarie land showed the tent city of Guthrie, with some 10,000 people camping there. By the end of the year Oklohoma had 60,000 inhabitants and was declared a territory. It was admitted as a state in 1907 as the "Sooner State"

The Fading Frontier

• In 1890, the head main guy superintended of the census announced that the for first time in America's experience, a frontier line that divided the frontier was no longer evident; all unsettled areas were now broken up by isolated bodies of settlement. {Whoa!}
• The "closing" of the frontier inspired one the most influential essays written in American history! {How exciting!!} This essay was written by Fredrick Jackson turner and it was named "The Significance of the Frontier in American History". I would assume that it would be about why the frontier is important. 
• Many people were upset that their frontier free land was disappearing and the secretary of war had prophesied in 1827 that five hundred years would be needed to fill the West.
• This land was not limitless and seeds were planted to preserve the vanishing resource. Many parks were randomly created to preserve the vanishing resource too- the first Yellowstone in 1872, followed by Yosemite and Sequoia in 1890.
• The frontier was seen as a "safety valve" and a place of new opportunity and peace. The free land did lure immigrant farmers to the West.
• Western migration may have actually caused urban employers to maintain wage rates high enough to discourage workers from leaving to go farm the West.
• Cities of the West began to grow as failed farmers, failed miners, and unhappy easterners sought fortune in cities. After 1880, the area from the Rockies to the Pacific Coast was the most urbanized region in America, measured by the percentage of people living in cities.

The Farm Becomes a Factory

• The Homestead Act of 1862 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. Instead of public land being sold primarily for revenue, it was now being given away to encourage a rapid filling of empty spaces and to provide a stimulus to the family farm.

• One effect if the Homestead Act was high prices which caused farmers to change from being self-reliant, to growing one cash crop and use that money to buy their food instead of growing it.
• The Homestead Act also turned out to be a cruel hoax because the land given to the settlers usually had terrible soil and the weather included no precipitation. Many homesteaders were forced to give their homesteads back to the government.
• Along with bad land, the expensive machinery made farming quicker and easier but was risky due to costs.The new technology caused some farmers to leave farming and others to prosper into large farms.

• After the shocking 6-year drought in the West in the 1880s had destroyed farmers' crops, "dry farming" took root on the plains. Its methods of frequent shallow cultivation were adapted to the dry western environment, but over time it depleted and dried the soil.
• Once wheat was introduced to the West, it flourished. Eventually federally-financed irrigation projects caused the Great American Desert to bloom.

Deflation Dooms the Debtor

• Farmers turned to a one crop economy, either wheat or corn. This was a very competitive industry because the price of their product was determined in a world market by the world output. Due to deflation, the price of crops dropped. The new technology caused production to increase but due to the increase of crops farmers were digging themselves into a bigger hole where they caused their own prices to drop. This was bad for farmers, because thousands of farms had mortgages, and mortgage rates were rising higher and higher. 

 

The Farmers Take Their Stand

• Prices sagged in 1868, host of farmers sought relief from low prices and high indebtedness by demanding an inflation of the currency with paper money
• The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, organized in 1867, led by Oliver H. Kelley​--> 1st objective was to enhance lives of isolated farmers through social, educational, and fraternal activities.
• Farm men and women found all the Grange's activities a godsend, farmers receptive to mumbo-jumbo and hierarchy(men:Laborer to Husbandman, women:Maid to Matron)
• 1875:claimed 800,000 members-->chiefly in midwest and south, met in red schoolhouses
• Grangers raised goals from individual self-improvement to improvement of the farmers' collective plight-->established cooperatively owned stores for consumers and cooperatively owned grain elevators and warehouses for producers-->most ambitious experiment was an attempt to manufacture harvesting machinery(financial disaster)
• Grangers moved into politics-->through state legislation strove to regulate railway rates and storage fees charged by railroads and operators of warehouses and grain elevators
• Many state courts were disposed to recognize the principle of public control of private business for the general welfare
• Grangers' influence fades-->organization lives on
• Farmers' grievances found vent in Greenback Labor party(combined inflationary appeal with program for improving labor)
• 1878- Greenback Laborites polled over a million votes and elected 14 members of Congress-->1880- presidential election: Greenbackers ran General James B. Weaver(an old Granger and was a favorite but only polled 3% of total popular vote)

Prelude to Populism

• Rural discontent came through the Farmers' Alliance--> farmers came together to socialize and break grip of railroads and manufacturers through cooperative buying and selling
• Alliance weakened by plight of landless tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and farmworkers & exclusion of blacks
• 1880s: Colored Farmers' National Alliance emerged for black farmers
• Out of Farmers' Alliances emerged new political party: the People's party, known as the Populists-->called for nationalizing railroads, telephones, telegraph; instituting a graduated income tax; creating a new federal "subtreasury"; free and unlimited coinage of silver

Class Conflict: Plowholders Versus Bondholders

• In the election of 1896, Bryan went around campaigning for silver. He hoped to gain the votes of the farmers and masses to win the election.

• The big business owners however back McKinley and thus payed off their workers to vote for McKinley, with rewards and sometimes threats.
• Bryan campaigned vigorously, giving more than 600 speeches and going through 27 states. He once have 36 speeches in one day.
• The McKinley campaign treasure broke a record with 16 million dollars stored within its vaults compared tot he 1 million in the hands of the Democratic party.
• In the end it came to who had the most money. McKinley had the backing of the big business owners and the money to pay them off. And Bryan and the few farmers who supported inflation.
• This was the last campaign where one of the candidates ran purely fromt he support of the farmers, from now on candidates had to depend on the blooming cities with their influx of immigrants in order to have any chance of getting into office.

Republican Stand-pattism Enthroned

• 1897 MCKINLEY TOOK THE INAUGURAL OATH AND HE WAS SEEN as a conservative man who usually went with the majority. CONSERVATIVE NATURE CAUSED HIM TO SHY AWAY FROM THE FLAMING BANNER OF REFORM. BUSINESS WAS GIVEN A FREE REIN AND HE TRUSTS WHICH HAD TRUSTED THEM IN 1896 WERE ALLOWED TO DEVELOP MORE MIGHTY MUSCLES WITHOUT SERIOUS RESTRAINTS

• ALMOST AS SOON A MCKINLEY TOOK OFFICE THE TARIFF ISSUE WHICH HAD PLAYED SECOND FIDDLE TO SILVER IN THE BATTLE OF 96 QUICKLY FORCED ITSELF TO THE FORE. THE CURRENT WILSON GORMAN LAW WAS NOT RAISING ENOUGH REVENUE TO COVER THE ANNUAL TREASURY DEFICITS AND THE REPUBLICANS TRUSTS THOUGHT THAT THEY HAD PURCHASED THE RIGHT TO ADDITIONAL TARIFF PROTECTION BY THEIR LUSH CONTRIBUTIONS TO HANNA'S WAR CHEST IN DUE COURSE THE DINGLE Y TARIFF BILL WAS JAMMED THROUGH THE HOUSE IN 1897.
• THE PROPOSED NEW RATES WERE HIGH BUT NOT HIGH ENOUGH TO SATISFY THE PATCHY LOBBYISTS WHO ONCE AGAIN DESCENDED UPON THE SENATE. OVER 850 AMENDMENTS WERE TACKED ONTO THE OVERTURNED BILL. THE RESULTING PIECE OF PATCHWORK FINALLY ESTABLISHED THE AVERAGE RATES A T 46.5 PERCENT SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER THAN THE DEMOCRATIC WILSON GORMAN ACT OF 1994 AND IN SOME CATEGORIES EVEN HIGHER THAT THE MCKINLEY ACT OF 1989
• Prosperity flooded throughout America with the end of the Depression. And Republicans politicians liked to take credit for bringing the prosperity about whether it was true or not.

 

Varying Viewpoints: Was the West Really Won?

After reading the article I completely agree with Tyler’s statement that the west was more conquered by suppressing the Native American people rather than the American and European settler actually winning it. When the American settlers moved west, off the back they were bad news spreading disease, taking over their land too by signing treaties with the “chiefs” of various “tribes”, and ruin their culture (like the buffalo). Those examples along with others are reasons why the West was definitely not won but taken over by force =o


In a way, the west was shaping the settlers liking based on how they lived. So in a way it was sort of "tamed" but not really more changed. As an example of the very strange thing i just said it would be like picturing the life style of Native American peoples. They live off of nature and respect it, usually they try to conserve so there is no need to build massive cities. the American settlers on the other hand, do live by building and changing as much as possible in order to for-fill their needs of imperialism and in order to do this they need natural resources and they would sort of suck the land dry of what is has to offer. The frontier is seen as an American icon because of the fact that it helped settlers advance and explore for their lives and merely for entertainment from discovery.
*??? I don’t agree with this statement because when they used “tamed” they meant they controlled and restrained the Native Americans not in the sense of way of living.

In conclusion and to make sense of all this, the west wasnt really won