Difference between revisions of "American History Lecture Nine"

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In the late 1800s the United States still admitting new states as fast as they could form. In 1896, the year this lecture starts from, Utah was admitted as a new state. That was the territory settled by Mormons after they migrated from Illinois. As a condition of admission to the United States, Utah agreed to accept traditional marriage and to ban the practice of polygamy (multiple wives for one husband).

Also in 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court held that racial segregation in public facilities, schools, railroads, restaurants and elsewhere were fully constitutional, under the "separate but equal" doctrine. This was the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, it remained the law until it was overturned in 1954 by another Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education. Today Plessy v. Ferguson is considered one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever.

Election of 1896

Recall from our prior lecture that William Jennings Bryan won the Democratic nomination in 1896 with a stirring, but perhaps misguided, speech entitled the "Cross of Gold" (which advocated use of silver). He united the Populist Party with the Democratic Party by opposing high tariffs, and he ran and lost for president in 1896, 1900 and 1908. But he was the single most influential person in the Democratic Party for two decades, and helped secure the Democratic nomination (and election) for Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Bryan then served as the Secretary of State under Wilson, until Bryan resigned based on principle: his moral opposition to World War I.

Bryan is someone who might be called a "fundamentalist" today. He adhered to the teachings of the Bible, he supported Prohibition (the banning of alcohol), and he opposed teaching in public schools that man had evolved. Bryan also opposed U.S. imperialism. He had many opponents in the more liberal newspapers, particularly later in life, but no one doubted that he was a man of strong principles.

The Populist Party no longer exists today but it had an enormous influence on the development of the United States. Its platform included demands for the secret ballot, the direct election of senators, the right of citizens to have referenda or initiatives to change their state laws directly, reforms of bank, and a "graduated" income tax that charges a higher percentage of wealthy people than poor people. All of those ideas eventually became law. The Populist Party was also pro-silver and argued for a government takeover of the railroads. Many farmers supported the Populist Party, which reached its zenith in the 1890s. It disappeared because economic conditions improved and it took an unpopular position against the Spanish-American War (note how wars often end the life of political parties!).

The Republican Party recaptured the White House in 1896, as a Republican from Ohio named William McKinley was elected. His Irish name helped attract support of large numbers of Scotch-Irish immigrants. McKinley favored the gold standard. He was assassinated in 1901 by an unemployed anarchist.

Imperialism

As the United States became more powerful in the late 1800s, and particularly in the 1890s, we began to "flex our muscle" and exert influence over small foreign countries. Imperialism. We were getting bigger and more powerful. Thanks to Manifest Destiny, we had expanded to the Pacific Ocean. Why stop there? We took Hawaii in the 1890s.

Americans then started wanting to free Cuba from Spanish control. "Yellow journalism" consisted of newspapers increasing their sales by stirring up a desire to go to war. The term is named after a popular comic strip called the "Yellow Kid."

In the 1890s the two leading publishers were Joseph Pulitzer, who published the New York World, and William Randolph Hearst, who published the New York Journal. They were in a "circulation war," which each running more and more sensationalistic headlines to try to sell more papers. The result of their greed for power and influence was the Spanish-American War.

In 1895, some Cubans wanted to become independent from Spain. Americans seemed to like the idea. It would push Spain back. It sparked idealism. It reminded people of our American Revolution. Big business could profit from the island. Newspapers stirred up sentiment to go to war.

Spanish-American War

Two specific events triggered this war: the Spanish minister to the U.S., Enrique Dubuy de Lome, wrote a letter insulting our president, William McKinley, by calling him a "low politician." Cuban rebels intercepted it and leaked it to the press. The bigger cause, however, was an explosion on the battleship "Maine" in the Havana, Cuba harbor. The ship sunk, and immediately the press blamed Spain. In fact, the explosion was probably just an accident.

So the United States declared war on Spain in 1898, and began fighting them in the Spanish colony of the Philippines and Cuba. The Teller Amendment added to the war declaration a promise of self-determination ("freedom") for Cuba.

Victory for America was swift in Cuba, and it produced a future president: Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders." They merely conquered a hill during brief fighting in Cuba, but the media played it up as much as possible.

The fighting in the Philippines was much fiercer, and cost far more lives and money. In 1898, Commander George Dewey snuck into Manila Bay in Phillipines and destroyed entire Spanish Pacific Fleet. The United States defeated Spain quickly there but some Muslim natives of the Philippines intensely rebelled against the United States for three years, using "guerrilla" or terrorist tactics that became more familiar to the world a century later.

This type of intense resistance was a precursor to the difficult Vietnam War, and fighting terrorists in the 21st century. Finally the United States Army simply killed all the insurgents. But Muslim fighting against Christian rule in the Philippines and neighboring territory continues to this day.^[1]

After the fighting stopped in the Philippines, newspapers opposed an American return of the Philippines to Spain. The United States kept the Philippines as American territory until 1946, when we granted it independence.

After the War, the United States granted Cuba independence on the condition that it inserted the "Platt Amendment" into its constitution. This Amendment gave the U.S. the right to intercede in Cuba whenever we want, and allowed us to keep a naval base (called Guantanamo Bay) on the island. The Bush Administration has imprisoned terrorists there since the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, and liberals complain about continued use of that facility for this purpose.

The Treaty of Paris in 1898 ended the War based on Spain leaving Cuba, the United States buying the Philippines for $20 million dollars, and the United States also acquiring Guam and Puerto Rico.

Debate: Was our imperialism driven by business interests, such as sugar in Cuba and Philippines? Many critics said so, calling our foreign policy "dollar diplomacy."

Progressive Movement

A fascinating and influential political movement began to develop around 1900: the progressive movement. It started with a Republican governor of Wisconsin named Robert LaFollette. It was not so much a political party as a movement that can be summarized in two words: "better government." Not "less government" that a conservative like President James Monroe wanted, and not "more government" that a liberal like Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted, but "better government."

Then, as now, progressives tended to work within other political parties. We have progressives today in both parties. Today the former New Jersey Republican candidate for governor (and former mayor of Jersey City, who is running again for that office) Bret Schundler is like a progressive. His view is this: let's run government in a smarter manner. We have had two progressive presidents: Republican Teddy Roosevelt and Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Some might say that President-Elect Barack Obama is like a progressive, and we will soon find out! The high point of the movement, the "progressive era," was 1900-1920.

Here were the goals of the progressive movement:

• Political "reform"
• Suffrage for all women (Constitutional Amendment)
• Direct elections of senators (Constitutional Amendment)
• Civil service system
• More "equitable" tax laws (Constitutional Amendment)
• Breaking up monopolies
• Food and drug acts
• Child labor laws
• Laws against "sweatshops"
• Creation of federal reserve system and federal trade commission
• Aid to farmers
• Protection of labor "rights" (pro-union)
• Government commission to regulate railroad rates
• Safety improvements in the workplace
• Direct democracy in passing referenda or initiatives to make state laws directly
• More, but smarter, regulation
• Anti-war
• Slightly pro-business
• Try to elect smarter and more capable people
• Oppose the spoils system

A specific example of what the progressive movement addressed was the "Triangle Fire" that took place in New York City on March 25, 1911. This was the worst workplace disaster in New York City until the terrorist attack on 9/11 (note the odd similarity in dates!). In the Triangle Fire, 140 people burned to death, many of them young girls, due to a 10-minute fire that swept through a "sweatshop" shirt factory in Manhattan. The doors had been locked to keep workers from taking breaks or stealing goods, and the girls could not quickly escape. Public outrage followed, and the progressive movement passed building code laws to help protect against this happening again. To this day it is not know what started the Triangle Fire. The owners were charged with crimes, but acquitted.^[2]

References

1. ↑ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/fighting_the_moros.html
2. ↑ http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/