[ ESSENTIAL QUESTION ] What are the challenges of diversity?

10 Challenges in the Late

1800s
World War II 1 14.3  America Enters World War II

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 Topic 10 Challenges in the Late 1800s

Enduring Understandings
• As Americans continued to migrate, Native
Americans and Mexican Americans already
living in the West were pressured and pushed
aside.
• Mining, ranching, and farming drew people to
settle in the Great Plains and other parts of the
West, helped by the growth of the railroad.
• Different groups of people in the West used land
and resources differently, leading to conflict in
some places.
• Corruption and difficult conditions for farmers led
to a push to reform.

>> A crowd watches the

completion of the transcontinental
railroad.
Watch the My Story Video to learn about the Lakota Sioux in the
late 1800s.

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 10.1
In 1787, the Constitution granted sole
power for regulating trade with the Native
Americans to the federal government.
This began the long, strained relationship
between the federal government and Native
Americans. During the 1830s, the federal
government forced Native Americans from
the east to resettle west of the Mississippi
River and promised them the land there
forever. In the 1840s through the 1860s,
pressure from white settlers weakened this
promise. The conflicts between settlers and
Native Americans continued during and after
>> Two Ogala chiefs, American Horse (left) the Civil War. The interaction changed both
and Red Cloud (right) led the resistance
against the government’s plans to build a
cultures, but irrevocably damaged Native
road through Sioux hunting grounds. American cultures.

Flipped Video

>> Objectives
Compare the ways Native Americans and
white settlers viewed and used the land.
American Indians
Describe the conflicts between white settlers
and Indians. Under Pressure
Analyze the impact of the Indian Wars.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the
government’s Americanization and
reservation policies towards American
Cultures Forced to Adapt
Indians. By the end of the Civil War, most Native Americans—about 250,000
of them—lived in the region west of the Mississippi River referred to
as “The Great American Desert.” Although they were lumped together
>> Key Terms
in the minds of most Americans as “Indians,” Native Americans
reservations
Sand Creek embraced many different belief systems, languages, and ways of life.
Massacre
Sitting Bull Cultural Similarities and Differences Geography influenced the
Battle of the Little cultural diversity of Native Americans. In the Pacific Northwest, the
Big Horn
Chief Joseph Klamaths, Chinooks, and Shastas benefited from abundant supplies
Wounded Knee of fish and forest animals. Farther south, smaller bands of hunter-
assimilated gatherers struggled to exist on diets of small game, insects, berries,
Dawes General acorns, and roots. In the arid lands of New Mexico and Arizona, the
Allotment Act
Pueblos irrigated the land to grow corn, beans, and squash. They built
adobe homes high in the cliffs to protect themselves from aggressive
neighbors. The more mobile Navajos lived in homes made of mud or in
hogans that could be moved easily.
The most numerous and nomadic Native Americans were the
Plains Indians, including the Sioux, Blackfeet, Crows, Cheyenne, and
Comanches. Some of these groups included Indians from east of the

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 Appalachians, who had blended into the Plains Indian been discovered in Indian Territory as well as settled
groups. The Plains Indians were expert horsemen and regions farther west. Americans also wanted a railroad
hunters. The millions of buffalo that roamed the Plains that crossed the continent. In 1851, therefore, the
provided a rich source for lodging, clothing, food, and federal government began to restrict Indians to smaller
tools. areas. By the late 1860s, many Indian peoples had been
Indian cultures shared a common thread—they saw placed on reservations, specific areas set aside by the
themselves as part of nature and respected the natural government for the Indians’ use. This change in their
world. Many white people valued and respected nature, demographic patterns, a direct result of being forced
too. However, many also viewed the land as a resource to migrate to reservations, made their previous ways of
that could be used to produce wealth. These differing life difficult if not impossible to sustain. Indians often
views sowed the seeds of conflict. faced poverty and the loss of their traditional ways of
life on reservations.
American Settlers Move West In the early 1800s, Two more developments also threatened Native
the government carried out a policy of moving Native American civilizations: White settlers introduced
Americans out of the way of white settlers. diseases to which Indians had no immunity, and the
President Jackson moved the Cherokees off their vitally important buffalo herds were destroyed. In the
land in Georgia and onto the Great Plains. To white 1870s, hunters would kill hundreds of buffaloes in a
settlers, Native Americans were welcome to what they single day for their hides. They skinned the animals and
called the Great American Desert as they thought it was left the meat to rot. In addition, trainloads of tourists
uninhabitable. To limit conflict, an 1834 law regulated arrived to kill buffaloes purely for sport. They left both
trade relations with Indians and strictly limited the the meat and the valuable hides behind.
access of white people to this Indian Territory. New
European-American settlement generally paused at IDENTIFY SUPPORTING DETAILS How were
the eastern rim of the territory and resumed in the Far Native American cultures threatened in the 1800s?
West.
By the 1850s, however, federal policy toward Native
Americans was again challenged: gold and silver had

Native American Land Loss, 1850–1890

Spokane
N Blackfeet
ssouri R. Sioux Chippewa
W Washington Mi Sioux
Nez North
E Yakima Percé Montana Dakota
Minnesota
S Walla Crow Chippewa
Walla Sioux Mi
Sioux ssi
ssip Wisconsin
Oregon South Dakota pi
R.
Shoshone Idaho Arapaho Sioux
Snak
eR
.
Shoshone
Wyoming Iowa
PACIFIC Nebraska
OCEAN
Paiute Ute
Utah
Nevada Territory Colorado Missouri
.
oR

Kansas
ad

KEY
lor

California
Co

Land lost
Navajo e Cherokee
Before 1850 Hopi Indian Creek
d

Pueblo Arkansas
ran

1850–1869 Arizona Territory

Rio G

1870–1890 Territory New Choctaw

0 200 mi Mexico
Native American Territory
Apache Comanche
reservations, 1890 0 200 km
Albers Conic Equal-Area Apache Chickasaw
Hopi Group name
Projection Texas

>> The U.S. government relocated many Native American groups following the Civil
War. Analyze Maps Describe the process of how Native Americans lost their land.

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 Settlers and Native Conflict Throughout the Plains In 1862, while the
Civil War raged in the East, a group of Sioux Indians
Americans Collide resisted threats to their land rights by attacking
The rapid industrial development and economic European-American settlements in eastern Minnesota.
expansion that followed the Civil War set Native In several attacks, the Sioux killed more than 400
Americans and white settlers on a path to conflict. settlers, including many women and children. In
Advances in communication and transportation that response, the government waged a full-scale war
supported industrial growth also reinforced white against the Sioux, who then were pushed west into the
Americans’ faith in manifest destiny. Horace Greeley, Dakotas.
editor of the New York Tribune, encouraged the poor The Sioux rebellion sparked a series of attacks
to move west. on settlements and stagecoach lines as other Plains
Indians also saw their way of life slipping away. Each
If you strike off into the broad, free battle took its toll, raising the level of distrust on all
West, and make yourself a farm from sides. In the fall of 1864, a band of Colorado militia
under commanding officer John Chivington came
Uncle Sam’s generous domain, you
upon a camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians near
will crowd nobody, starve nobody, and Fort Lyons at Sand Creek. The fort’s commander had
neither you nor your children need given the Cheyenne leader permission to stay there
evermore beg. . . . temporarily. Chivington’s troops opened fire, killing
between 150 to 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho men,
—New York Tribune, February 5, 1867
women, and children.
Greeley, and many others, ignored the fact that The incident became known as the Sand Creek
Native Americans inhabited half of the area of the Massacre. It spawned another round of warfare as
United States. Indians often fought to retain or regain Plains Indians joined forces to repel white settlement.
whatever they could. Once the Civil War ended, regiments of Union
troops—both white and African American—were sent
to the West to bring peace to the plains. Recruitment
posters for volunteer cavalry promised that soldiers
could claim any “horses or other plunder” taken from
the Indians. The federal government asserted that the
troops were needed to maintain order.

Efforts to Promote Peace Fail As the Plains Indians

renewed their efforts to hold onto what they had,
the federal government announced plans to build a
road through Sioux hunting grounds to connect gold-
mining towns in Montana. Hostilities intensified.
In 1866, the legendary warrior Red Cloud and his
followers led Captain William Fetterman and his troops
into an ambush, killing them all. The human costs
of the struggle drew a public outcry and called the
government’s Indian policy into question.
As reformers and humanitarians promoted
education for Indians, European-American settlers
sought strict controls over them. The government-
appointed United States Indian Peace Commission
concluded that lasting peace would come only if Native
Americans settled on farms and reservations and
adapted to the white way of life.
In an effort to pacify the Sioux, the government
offered the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. The government
>> The Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians gathered at Sand agreed not to build the road through Sioux territory and
Creek on November 29, 1864. Many women and children to abandon three forts. The treaty included the Black
died in the massacre. Hills in the Sioux reservation, and it also promised a

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 Native American Wars, 1860-1890

Spokane
Blackfeet
Washington Sioux
Nez Chippewa
Yakima Percé Sioux North
Montana
Walla Battle of Dakota
Walla Crow Little Bighorn Minnesota
1876 Chippewa
Oregon Sioux Sioux
Shoshone Idaho South Dakota Wisconsin
Arapaho Fetterman Sioux Michigan
PACIFIC Massacre
1866
Shoshone
O CEAN
Wyoming Iowa
Nebraska Ohio
Paiute Ute Indiana
Illinois
0 400 mi Nevada Utah
Territory Colorado
0 400 km Sand Creek Missouri
California Massacre Kansas Kentucky
Lambert Conformal Conic 1864
Projection
Navajo Cherokee
Hopi Tennessee
Pueblo Indian Creek
KEY Arizona
Territory Territory Arkansas
New Mexico
Native American N Territory Choctaw AR Georgia
Apache Red River War
reservation, 1890 1874–1875 Alabama
W Comanche
Major battle E
Apache and Apache Chickasaw Mississippi
Navajo Wars
Hopi Tribe name 1861–1866 Texas
S
Louisiana

>> Analyze Maps What do the locations of the clashes between Native Americans
and the U.S. government suggest about westward expansion? Map

school and other communal buildings. The Sioux and make us long promises, as long as my
other Indians who signed the treaty agreed to live on arm; but the next year the promises
a reservation under federal supervision with support
from the federal government. were shorter and got shorter every
This type of promise of government support to year until now they are the length of
Native Americans was part of many agreements my finger, and they keep only half of
between the government and Native American groups that.
who were going onto reservations in various parts of
the West. —Chief Piapot, 1895

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, established in 1824, Unfortunately, in the United States, many Indian
handled affairs between Native Americans and the agents were unscrupulous and stole funds and
government. The agency appointed an agent who was resources that were supposed to be distributed to the
responsible for distributing land and adequate supplies Indians. Even the most well-meaning agents often
to anyone willing to farm as well as for maintaining lacked support from the federal government or the
peaceful relations between a reservation and its military to enforce the terms of the treaties that were
neighbors. beneficial to Native Americans. Not unexpectedly,
The government’s plans and policies for peace did some Indians refused to live under such conditions.
not always work out, however. Most Native Americans
were disappointed with the reservations on which they CHECK UNDERSTANDING Why did tensions exist
were living and had little trust that the government between settlers and Native Americans?
would keep its promises. Chief Piapot, an Indian
leader in Canada facing a similar situation with the
government there, offered his viewpoint:
The Indian Wars Conclude
In order to become sole masters of The conditions facing Native Americans had all
the ingredients for tragedy. Indians were confined
our land they relegated us to small
to isolated areas, which were regularly ravaged by
reservations as big as my hand and poverty and disease. The government, intentionally

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 or not, failed to live up to many of the promises made
to various groups of Native Americans. Frustration,
particularly among young warriors, turned to violence.
Guns replaced treaties as the government defeated
Native Americans who were openly rebelling.

The Long Walk of the Navajos In 1863 the

government sent the famous frontiersman Kit Carson
to subdue the Navajos, who were fighting to protect
their southwestern homeland. After Carson’s forces
destroyed their homes, crops, and livestock, about
two thirds of the 12,000 Navajos surrendered in 1864.
Carson then sent them on a 300-mile forced march,
known as the Long Walk, to a reservation in what is
now eastern New Mexico.
The poor soil on the small reservation was not
suited to the kinds of agriculture the Navajos practiced.
In addition, they were forced to live alongside their
Apache enemies. Finally, after four years of death,
disease, and starvation, the government relented. The
surviving Navajos were allowed to return to a new
reservation in their homeland.
>> These Navajo Indians were forced to relocate from
the lands they knew and relegated to the Bosque The Southern Plains Indians Surrender The Red
Redondo reservation in present-day Arizona and eastern
New Mexico.
River War, a series of major and minor incidents, led to
the final defeat of the powerful southern Plains Indians,
including the Kiowas and Comanches. It marked the
end of the southern buffalo herds and the opening of
the western panhandle of Texas to white settlement.
At the heart of the matter was the failure of the United
States government to abide by and enforce the terms
of the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge. White buffalo
hunters were not kept off Indian hunting grounds, food
and supplies from the government were not delivered,
and white lawlessness was not punished. Hostilities
began with an attack by Indians on a group of Texans
near the Red River in June 1874. Hostilities ended a year
later, after the last Comanche holdouts surrendered to
U.S. troops.

Battle of the Little Big Horn It was the lure of gold that
led to the defeat of the Indians on the northern Plains.
The Black Hills Gold Rush of 1875 drew prospectors
onto Sioux hunting grounds in the Dakotas and
neighboring Montana. Some of this area was supposed
to be protected by the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.
When the Sioux, led by chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting
Bull, assembled to drive them out, the U.S. Army sent
its own troops against the Native Americans.
In June 1876, a colonel named George Custer
>> The Plains Indians fought the Red River War to
protect their tradition of buffalo hunting. Here, braves
rushed ahead of the other columns of the U.S. cavalry
leave camp to hunt buffalo. and arrived a day ahead of the main force. Near the
Little Bighorn River, in present-day Montana, Custer
and his force of about 250 men unexpectedly came

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 upon a group of at least 2,000 Indians. Crazy Horse led
the charge at what became known as the Battle of
the Little Big Horn, killing Custer and all of his men.
Cries for revenge motivated army forces to track
down the Indians. Sitting Bull and a small group
of followers escaped to Canada. Crazy Horse and
his followers surrendered, beaten by weather and
starvation. By then, their will and the means to wage
major resistance had been crushed.

The Fighting Concludes Further West Farther

west, in Idaho, another powerful drama played out. In
1877, the federal government decided to move the Nez
Percés to a smaller reservation to make room for white
settlers. Many of the Nez Percés were Christians and
had settled down and become successful horse and
cattle breeders. They had a great deal to lose.
Trying to evade U.S. troops who had come to
enforce their relocation, the Nez Percés’s leader Chief
Joseph led a group of refugees on a trek of more than
1,300 miles to Canada. Stopped just short of the border,
Chief Joseph surrendered with deeply felt words: “I will
fight no more forever.” Banished with his group to a >> Sitting Bull was a famed fighter and Hunkpapa war
chief. By the late 1860s, his reputation was so great that
barren reservation in Oklahoma, he later traveled twice the Lakota Sioux chose him as the first-ever chief of all
to Washington, D.C., to unsuccessfully appeal for his seven Lakota tribes.
people’s return to their homeland.

Indian Resistance Comes to an End With the loss

of many leaders and the destruction of their economy,
Native Americans’ ability to resist diminished.
In response, many Indians welcomed a religious
revival based on the Ghost Dance. Practitioners
preached that the ritual would banish white settlers
and restore the buffalo to the Plains. As the popularity
of the movement spread, government officials became
concerned about where it might lead.
In 1890, in an effort to curtail these activities,
the government ordered the arrest of Sitting Bull. In
the confrontation, he and several others were killed.
In response, a group of Sioux left their reservation,
hoping to hide out in the Badlands region. Troops
then set out after the group of Indians as they fled.
The cavalry finally caught up with them at Wounded
Knee, in present-day South Dakota. Having been
partially disarmed by U.S. troops, the Sioux were badly
outgunned in the fight that followed. In the end, more
than 100 men, women, and children died. The end of
the Ghost Dance War at Wounded Knee also marked
the end of major Indian resistance to white expansion
and large-scale resistance to the Indian policies of the >> A group portrait of a Sioux group by the Cheyenne
United States government. River. Nearly all these men were killed in the battle at
Wounded Knee.

LIST What conflicts ended major Indian resistance?

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 The Government
Encourages
There is not among these three Assimilation
hundred bands of Indians one which The reservation policy was a failure.
Making Indians live in confined areas
has not suffered cruelly at the hands
as wards of the government was costly
either of the Government or of in human and economic terms. Policy
makers hoped that as the buffalo became
white settlers. The poorer, the more extinct, Indians would become farmers
insignificant, the more helpless the and be assimilated into national life by
adopting the culture and civilization of
band, the more certain the cruelty whites.
and outrage to which they have
Critics Disagree with Indian Policies
been subjected . . . . It makes little A few outspoken critics defended the
difference where one opens the Indians’ way of life. In A Century of
Dishonor, Helen Hunt Jackson decried
record of the history of the Indians; the government’s treatment of Native
every page and every year has its Americans. Susette La Flesche, the
granddaughter of a French trader and
dark stain . . . . an Omaha Indian woman, also used her
—Helen Hunt Jackson, 1881 writing and lecturing talents to fight for
recognition of the Indians and Indian
rights in the courts. Born on the Omaha
reservation in Nebraska, she studied in
the East and returned to the reservation
to teach.

The Americanization Movement In

1871, Congress had passed a law stating
that “no Indian nation or tribe within the
United States would be recognized as an
independent nation, tribe, or power with
whom the United States may contract by
treaty.” Indians were now to be dealt with
as individuals. One reason for this change
was to weaken Native Americans’ tribal
cultures.
Reformers believed that Indians had
to give up tribal loyalties and behaviors
before they could adopt mainstream
American values and assimilate into
American society. The Americanization
movement aimed at Native Americans
was also aimed at new immigrants from
other countries.
One way reformers thought
assimilation and Americanization could
>> A Native American family poses unhappily at the Warm Springs
Reservation in Oregon, visual evidence of the discontent created by the be accomplished was with the passage
policy of relocating Indians to reservations. of the Dawes General Allotment
Act (sometimes known as the Dawes
Severalty Act) by Congress in 1887, which
encouraged Indians to become private

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 property owners and farmers. The Dawes Act ended the
reservations’ tribal landholding system. Each Indian
family was allotted, or assigned, 160-acres of the tribe’s
reservation to own as a farmstead. The size of these
allotments was based on the eastern experience of how
much land was needed to support a family. In the arid
West, however, the allotment was often not big enough.
To protect Indian landowners from unscrupulous
land speculators, the Dawes Act specified that the land
could not be sold or transferred from its original family
for 25 years. Congress hoped that by the end of that
time, younger Indians would embrace the values of
farming and individual land ownership.
Traditional tribal feasts, dances, and even funeral
practices were outlawed, and Native American religions
were discouraged. To further speed assimilation,
missionaries and other reformers established boarding
schools, to which Indian parents were pressured to
send their children. There Indian children were to
learn and live by the rules, dress, customs, and culture
of white America. Ultimately, the struggle to retain
their homelands, freedom, and culture proved tragic.
Although many Indian peoples faced these challenges >> As their old way of life was taken from them, many
Native Americans were forced to assimilate into
with courage and determination, tens of thousands
contemporary American life.
died in war or on poverty-stricken reservations. Only a
small number were left to carry on their legacy. Timeline

IDENTIFY MAIN IDEAS What was the main idea

3. Support a Point of View with Evidence
of the Americanization movement, and how did the
Determine why Chief Piapot asserted that the
Dawes Act promote that idea?
European-led government “keep[s] only half” of
the promises made to Native Americans.
ASSESSMENT 4. Compare and Contrast the relocations and
outcomes for the Navajo and Nez Percés.
1. Summarize the reasons Native American culture
was irrevocably changed by the end of the 1800s. 5. Hypothesize What lasting effects did the removal
to reservations have on the various Native
2. Compare and Contrast how white settlers and
American tribes, including the efforts of the U.S.
Native Americans viewed nature.
government to abolish their practices and beliefs?

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 10.2
The West was swept by
enormous change after the Civil War.
As railroads increased access, settlers,
ranchers, and miners permanently
transformed millions of acres of
western land. Mining was the first
great boom in the West. Gold and
silver were the magnets that attracted
a vast number of people. Prospectors
from the East were just a part of a
>> A large gathering celebrates the 1869 flood that included people from all
completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Analyze Information Why was the around the world.
completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
seen as a turning point in the history of the
United States?

Flipped Video

>> Objectives
Analyze the impact of mining and railroads
on the settlement of the West.
The West Is
Explain the impact of physical and human
geographic factors on the settlement of the
Great Plains.
Transformed
Analyze treatment of Chinese immigrants
and Mexican Americans in the West.
Discuss the ways various groups used land
Mining and the Growth of
in the West and conflicts among them.
Railroads
>> Key Terms Mining Towns Expand Across the West From the Sierra Nevada
vigilantes to the Black Hills, there was a similar pattern and tempo to the
Transcontinental development of mining regions. First came the discovery of gold or
Railroad
land grants silver.
open-range system Then, as word spread, people began to pour into areas such as Pikes
Homestead Act Peak in Colorado and the Yukon river near what is now Alaska. During
Exodusters
Las Gorras Blancas
the Klondike Gold Rush, mining camps sprang up quickly to house the
thousands of people who flooded the region near the Yukon river. They
were followed by more substantial communities. Miners dreamed of
finding riches quickly and easily. Others saw an opportunity to make
their fortune by supplying the needs of miners for food, clothing, and
supplies.
The rough-and-tumble environment of these communities called
out for order. To limit violence and administer justice in areas without
judges or jails, miners set up rules of conduct and procedures for
settling disputes. In extreme situations, self-appointed law enforcers
known as vigilantes punished lawbreakers. As towns developed,

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 they hired marshals and sheriffs, like Wyatt Earp and mountains, it fouled water being used by farmers and
Bat Masterson, to keep the peace. Churches set up their livestock.
committees to address social problems. Despite these concerns, the federal government
Some mining towns—like Leadville, Colorado, and continued to support large mining companies by
Nevada City, Montana—were “boomtowns.” They providing inexpensive land and approving patents for
thrived only as long as the gold and silver held out. new inventions. Mining wealth helped fuel the nation’s
Even if a town had developed churches and schools, industrial development.
it might become a ghost town, abandoned when the
precious metal disappeared. In contrast, Denver, The Transcontinental Railroad Impacts the
Colorado; Boise, Idaho; and Helena, Montana, were Frontier As industry in the West grew, the need for a
among the cities that diversified and grew. railroad to transport goods increased as well. The idea
of a transcontinental railroad, a rail link between
Mining Becomes Big Business The first western the East and the West, was not new. Arguments
mining was done by individuals, who extracted the over the route it should take, however, had delayed
minerals from the surface soil or a stream bed. By implementation. While the Civil War kept the South out
the 1870s, the remaining mineral wealth was located of the running, Congress finally took action.
deep underground. Big companies with the capital Unlike Europe, where railroads were built and owned
to buy mining equipment took over the industry. by governments, in the United States, not all railroads
Machines drilled deep mine shafts. Tracks lined miles were built with government support; they were built
of underground tunnels. Crews—often recruited from by private enterprise. However, Congress encouraged
Mexico and China—worked in dangerous conditions construction of the transcontinental railroad in two
underground. ways: It provided money in the form of loans and made
The arrival of the big mining companies highlighted land grants, giving builders wide stretches of land,
an issue that would relentlessly plague the West: water alternating on each side of the track route.
and its uses. Large-scale mining required lots of water Simultaneously in 1863, the Central Pacific started
pumped under high pressure to help separate the laying track eastward from Sacramento, California,
precious metals from silt. As the silt washed down the while the Union Pacific headed westward from Omaha,

Mining Towns, 1850–1890

N
W Washington Coeur d’Alene, 1883 Minnesota
E Montana North Dakota
S Silverton, 1872
Virginia City, 1863
Idaho South Dakota
Oregon Deadwood, 1874
Boise City, 1862
Silver City, 1864 Wyoming Custer City, 1874

Weaverville, 1848 South Pass Iowa

PACIFIC Nebraska
OCEAN Coloma, 1848 Virginia City, 1859 Central City, 1859
Sacramento Denver, 1858
Utah
San Francisco Aurora, 1860 Pike’s Peak, 1859
Leadville, 1877 Kansas
Mariposa, 1849 Nevada Cripple Creek, 1890
Creede, 1869 Colorado
California
Oklahoma
KEY Territory
Arizona New Mexico
Gold mining town 0 200 mi
Territory Territory
(date of ore strike)
0 200 km
Silver mining town Albers Conic Equal-Area Tubac,
(date of ore strike) Projection 1860 Tombstone, 1877 Texas

>> The hope of wealth from gold and silver drew many Americans west. Analyze
Maps Where were the biggest gold mining regions? How do you think gold Chart
discoveries affected migration?

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 Nebraska. Construction proved to be both difficult and of settlers on the frontier. Once again, the application of
expensive. technological innovation by the free enterprise system
The human cost of building the railroad was also was clearly raising the standard of living in the United
high. Starved for labor, the Central Pacific Company States.
brought recruits from China and set them to work The growth of railroads also stimulated the growth
under harsh contracts and with little regard for their of towns and cities. Speculators vied for land in places
safety. Inch by inch, they chipped and blasted their way where a new railroad might be built, and towns already
through the granite-hard Sierra Nevada and Rockies. in existence petitioned to become a stop on the western
Meanwhile, working for the Union Pacific, crews of rail route. Railroads intensified the demand for Indians’
Irish immigrants crossed the level plains from the East. land and brought white settlers who overwhelmed
The two tracks eventually met at Promontory, Utah, in Mexican American communities in the Southwest.
1869, the same year that the Suez Canal was completed The economic impact of the transcontinental railroads
in Egypt. The continent and the world seemed to be helped lead to the closing of the frontier in the late
shrinking in size. nineteeth century. There was no turning back the tide
as waves of pioneers moved west. The arrival of masses
Railroads Spur Settlement and Growth The of new residents led to changes in political boundaries,
completion of the Transcontinental Railroad inspired a as territories became states.
flurry of similar railroad building. By 1883, the Northen The addition of states to the Union exemplifies the
Pacific Railroad had connected St. Paul, Minnesota, West’s growth. Requirements for statehood included a
with Seattle in Washington Territory. population of at least 60,000 inhabitants. Between 1864
Ten years later, James J. Hill completed a competing and 1896, ten territories met those requirements and
railroad line between St. Paul and Everett, Washington. became states.
Hill and his business partners built the Great Northern
Railway without any government support. His low fares IDENTIFY SUPPORTING DETAILS How did the
drew thousands of immigrants and other Americans to railroads encourage economic growth in the West?
migrate west and settle along his tracks. His success
allowed him to eventually gain control of the Northern
Pacific, too.
The effects of the railroads were far reaching. They
The Cattle Industry Boom
Cattle ranching fueled another western boom. This was
tied the nation together, moved products and people,
sparked by the vast acres of grass suitable for feeding
and spurred industrial development. They brought
herds of cattle. Once the railroad provided the means to
western meat and farm products to the tables of eastern
move livestock to eastern markets, the race was on for
consumers. In turn, goods manufactured in eastern
land and water.
factories moved west by train and improved the lives

Statehood Achieved, 1864-1896

1889
North Dakota

1864 1876 1889 1890

Nevada Colorado South Dakota Idaho

1860 1870 1880 1890 1900

1867 1889 1896

Nebraska Washington Utah

1889 1890
Montana Wyoming

>> Analyze Data Based on the dates of admission in this timeline, during which
decade did the most population growth in the West probably take place?

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 Land Use in the West
Seattle CANADA
Tacoma
N WA GREA
T NORTHERN R.R.
Portland MT ND
W PA
CIFIC R
.R
Butte Helena RTHERN .
E NO Bismarck
Bozeman
MN
OR St. Paul WI
S ID
SD
WY
AL
TR PACIFIC R.R. UN
ION PACIFIC Sioux City IA Chicago

CE N
PACIFIC Promontory Cheyenne

R.R
Great NE Omaha

.
O CEAN Salt Lake
Boulder KA
IL
NV N
Utah Denver A S PACIFIC R.R. Abilene Kansas City
CA

S
San Francisco
Territory E .R
.
CO PEKA, & S A N TA F St. Louis
KS MO

R
TO

,
Wichita

I S ON
PAC
KEY ATLANTIC AND Oklahoma

CH
Santa Fe A T

GOOD NIGHT-L O V I N G
IFIC
R.R. Territory
Predominant land use Los Angeles Arizona AR
New Indian
Territory Terr.
Cropland Mexico

CHISHOLM TRAIL
WESTERN TRAIL
Forest and cropland Territory MS

AIL
Tucson TX

R
SHAWNEE T
and pasture SO Abilene
UT LA
Grazing land 0 400 mi RA

T
HE IL
RN
PA
Sparsely populated or 0 400 km
CI R
FIC .R.
unusable land Houston
Lambert Conformal Conic MEXICO San Antonio
Railroad Projection
Cattle trail Gulf of Mexico

>> Ranching was an important economic activity throughout much of the West.
Analyze Maps How might the physical geography of the West have affected where
ranching most flourished?

Longhorns and Vaqueros Long before the arrival of often included a mix of white, Mexican, and African
eastern settlers in the West, Mexicans in Texas had American men.
developed an efficient system for raising livestock.
The Texas longhorn, which originated in Mexico, Cow Towns Cattle drives concluded in such railroad
roamed freely and foraged for its own feed. Each owner towns as Dodge City, Kansas, where the cattle were
marked—or “branded”—the cattle so they could be sold and the cowboys were paid. These “cow towns”
identified. Under this open-range system, property gave rise to stories about colorful characters, often
was not fenced in. Though ranchers claimed ownership outlaws, such as Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday, Wyatt
and knew the boundaries of their property, cattle from Earp, and Jesse James. They were also the site of
any ranch grazed freely across those boundaries. When rodeos, competitions based on the cowboys’ skills of
spring came, the ranchers would hire cowboys to comb riding, roping, and wrestling cattle. Bill Pickett, an
thousands of acres of open range, “rounding up” cattle African American cowboy, is credited with inventing
that had roamed all winter. bulldogging, in which a cowboy leaps from his horse
The culture of the cowboy owed its very existence to onto a steer’s horns and wrestles the steer to the
the Mexican vaqueros who had learned to train horses ground.
to work with cattle and had developed the roping skills,
saddle, lariat, and chaps needed to do the job. The Open Range Comes to a Close Open-range
ranching flourished for more than a decade after the
Cowboys and Cattle Drives Once the cattle were Civil War. During that time, several million cattle were
rounded up, cowboys began the long cattle drive to driven from Texas north to railroad stops in Wyoming,
take the animals to a railroad that would transport them Nebraska, and Kansas. However, by the mid-1880s, the
to eastern markets. The trek from Texas, Colorado, or heyday of open-range ranching came to an end.
Montana to the nearest junction on the transcontinental Several factors contributed to the demise of the
railroad could take weeks or even months. open range. The invention of barbed wire made it
The cowboys’ work was hard, dangerous, low- possible to fence in huge tracts of land on the treeless
paying, and lonely—often involving months of chasing plains. The supply of beef exceeded demand, and the
cattle over the countryside. A band of cowboys price of beef dropped sharply. Added to these factors

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 was a period of extreme weather in the 1880s—brutally
freezing winters followed by summer droughts. As
springs dried up, herds of cattle starved. The nature
of cattle ranching changed as ranchers began to raise
hay to feed their stock, and farmers and sheepherders
settled on what had been open range.

CHECK UNDERSTANDING How did the railroad

affect the cattle industry?

Farmers Settle the Plains

The Great Plains were the last part of the country to
be heavily settled by white people. The region was
originally set aside for Indians because it was viewed
as too dry for agriculture. Yet, with the coming of the
transcontinental railroad, millions of farmers moved
into the West in the last huge westward migration of
European Americans in the mid to late 1800s.
The push-and-pull factors that encouraged
settlement were varied. Like the miners and cattle
>> Settlers on the relatively dry, treeless Great Plains
ranchers, farmers were looking for a better life.
used the available sod to build homes for their families. Railroads advertised land for sale, even sending
agents to Europe to lure new immigrants, especially
3-D Model
from Scandinavia. Other immigrants fled political
upheavals in their native lands.

Westward Migration and Settlement Throughout

its history, the nation’s westward expansion had been
marked by migrants settling on public land they did
not own. These settlers, called “squatters,” pressured
the government to allow them to gain ownership of
this land. In 1841, Congress passed the Preemption
Act, giving squatters the right to buy up to 160 acres
for $1.25 per acre before the land was offered for sale to
other buyers. This law set the stage for the Homestead
Act, passed in 1862. Under the Homestead Act, the
government offered farm plots of 160 acres to anyone
willing to live on the land for five years, dig a well,
and build a road. These two laws encouraged further
settlement and farming in the West, eventually leading
to the close of the frontier.
Opportunities in the West such as mining and
cattle herding were generally male occupations, so
much of the western migration was led by men. But as
farming expanded, more women arrived, too. They all
had a job to do, such as tending the family and farm or
>> African Americans welcome new migrants from working as an entrepreneur running a boardinghouse,
the South to St. Louis. Hypothesize Why might the laundry, or bakery.
lands and opportunities of the Great Plains have been Some of the new settlers were former slaves who fled
especially appealing to African Americans following the
Civil War?
the South after the end of Reconstruction. Benjamin
Singleton, a black businessman from Tennessee,
helped organize a group of African Americans called
the “Exodusters.” They took their name from the

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 EARLY FARMING TECHNOLOGY ON THE PLAINS

THE STEEL PLOW THE MCCORMICK BARBED WIRE

REAPER

• Lower cost than traditional

wood fencing $
TO TILL ONE ACRE TO HARVEST ONE ACRE
• Easy to install and maintain
SPADE SICKLE
• Kept animals out of cropland
96 HOURS 24 HOURS
OXEN AND A WOODEN PLOW SCYTHE • Kept animals off of
railroad tracks
24 HOURS 8 HOURS
STEEL PLOW REAPER • Limited open grazing space,
thereby changing the cattle business
8 HOURS 1.6 HOURS

>> Analyze Data How did the growth of innovative technology allow the Great
Plains to support a larger population and more profitable economic activities?

biblical story of Moses leading the exodus of the Jews Nothing, however, prepared farmers for a series
out of bondage and into a new life in the “Promised of blizzards and droughts in the 1880s and 1890s
Land.” The Exodusters’ “promised land” was in Kansas that killed animals and ruined harvests. Some of the
and Oklahoma, where they planted crops and founded discouraged and ill-prepared settlers headed back east.
several enduring all-black towns. The farmers who remained became more commercial
and depended more on scientific farming methods.
Homesteading the Plains Physical and human
geographic factors made the lives of homesteaders on IDENTIFY MAIN IDEAS Why did farmers move to
the Plains difficult. Windstorms, blizzards, droughts, the Plains?
plagues of locusts, and heart-rending loneliness tested
their endurance. On the treeless plains, few new arrivals
could afford to buy lumber to build a home. Instead,
they cut 3-foot sections of sod and stacked them like
Minorities Encounter
bricks, leaving space for a door and one window. The Difficulties
resulting home was dark, dirty, and dingy. From the 1850s onward, the West had the widest
Necessity is the mother of invention, and farmers diversity of people in the nation. With fewer than 20
on the Plains had many needs beyond housing. The percent of the nation’s total population, it was home to
development of barbed wire, a length of wire with more than 80 percent of the nation’s Asian, Mexican and
twisted barbs, enabled a farmer to fence land cheaply Mexican American, and Native American residents.
to keep out wandering livestock. The development Almost all of the nation’s 100,000 Chinese immigrants
of a plow that could tackle the sod-covered land, the lived in the West.
grain drill that opened furrows and planted seed, the
windmill that tapped underground water, and dry- Economic Issues Challenge Chinese Immigrants
farming techniques were some of the innovations that During the same time that Jim Crow arose in the
enabled farmers to succeed. To spur development of South, Chinese immigrants faced racial prejudice
better ways to farm, Congress passed the Morrill Act in on the West Coast. In 1879, California barred cities
1862, which made land grants to states for the purpose from employing people of Chinese ancestry. Several
of establishing agricultural colleges. years later, San Francisco established a segregated

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 “Oriental” school. Elsewhere, mobs of whites attacked Land Ownership Proves Difficult for Mexican
Chinese workers, saying they had taken “white” jobs. Americans Like African Americans and Asian
Congress responded to these attacks by passing the Americans, Mexican Americans struggled against
Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which prohibited discrimination in the latter decades of the 1800s.
Chinese laborers from entering the country. One historian has described Mexican Americans as
Brave Chinese immigrants challenged “foreigners in their own land.” At the center of their
discrimination. Saum Song Bo questioned why he struggle stood land. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
should support a fund-raising drive to build the Statue signed at the end of the Mexican-American War,
of Liberty. “That statue represents Liberty holding a guaranteed the property rights of Mexicans who lived
torch which lights the passage of those of all nations in the Southwest prior to the war. Still, four out of five
who come into this country,” Bo wrote in a letter Mexican Americans who lived in New Mexico lost their
published in American Missionary in 1898. “But are land, as did Mexican Americans in other southwestern
the Chinese allowed to come? As for the Chinese who states.
are here, are they allowed to enjoy liberty as men of all This land loss resulted from several factors. When
other nationalities enjoy it?” Anglo Americans and Mexican Americans laid claim
Chinese immigrants also turned to the federal to the same land, U.S. courts put the burden of proof
courts to protect their rights but with mixed results. on Mexican Americans to show that they really owned
In 1886, in the case of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, the U.S. the land. Differences in legal customs, and the fact that
Supreme Court sided with a Chinese immigrant who much of the land was held communally, not individually,
challenged a California law that banned him and other made it difficult for many Mexican Americans to do so.
Chinese from operating a laundry. In 1898, the Court In addition, Anglo Americans used political
ruled that individuals of Chinese descent, born in the connections to take land away from Mexican Americans.
United States, could not be stripped of their citizenship. The “Sante Fe Ring,” an association of prominent white
Yet the Court upheld the Chinese Exclusion Act and businessmen and government officials, got the federal
several other discriminatory measures. government to grant the group control of millions of
acres of land in New Mexico. Thousands of Mexican
Americans had lived on and farmed this land for many
years. Since New Mexico was a territory, not a state,
however, Mexican Americans, who comprised the
majority of the population, had no representatives in
Washington, D.C., to challenge this deal.

Mexican Americans Defend Property Rights

Throughout the Southwest—in Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona, and California—Mexican Americans fought
to maintain their rights. Many especially resented the
loss of their land. One group, Las Gorras Blancas,
targeted the property of large ranch owners by cutting
holes in barbed-wire fences and burning houses. The
group declared: “Our purpose is to protect the rights
and interests of the people in general; especially those
of the helpless classes.” Supported by a national labor
organization, the Knights of Labor, the group also had a
newspaper to voice their grievances.
As anti-Mexican feelings increased, a group of
Hispanic citizens in Tucson, Arizona, formed the
Alianza Hispano-Americana in 1894 to protect
the culture, interests, and legal rights of Mexican
Americans. Within two years, new branches of the
organization opened in other cities.

IDENTIFY SUPPORTING DETAILS During this

>> Surviving harsh conditions, these Mexican-American
women in San Antonio, Texas, prepare a meal outside period, what impact did the Supreme Court have on
their dwelling. people of Chinese descent?
Gallery

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 Struggles and Change
Across the West
There is a sharp contrast between the picture of the
West depicted in novels and movies and the reality
of life on the Plains. The West was a place of rugged
beauty, but it was also a place of diversity and conflict.

Tension Over Economic Resources The various

ways that settlers sought to use western land were
sometimes at odds with one another. Conflicts between
miners, ranchers, sheepherders, and farmers led to
violence and acts of sabotage. Grazing cattle ruined
farmers’ crops, and sheep gnawed grass so close to
the ground that cattle could not graze the same land.
Although miners did not compete for vast stretches
of grassland, runoff from large-scale mining polluted
water that ran onto the Plains—and everyone needed
water. And no matter who won, Native Americans lost.
Early on, geologist John Wesley Powell recognized
water as an important but limited resource. He
promoted community control and distribution of water
for the common good. Despite his efforts, water usage >> Miners used a great deal of water in their mining
operations, often with negative consequences for
remained largely unregulated, a system that benefited
farmers and ranchers.
some but disadvantaged others.

Prejudices and Discrimination Conflict came in

many guises. For example, ranchers often belittled
Population Growth Ends the Frontier The last
homesteaders, labeling them “sodbusters” to mock
major land rush took place in 1889 when the federal
their work in the soil and their modest houses. Conflict
government opened the Oklahoma Territory to
also arose because the view of the ownership of natural
homesteaders. On April 22, thousands of “boomers”
resources varied. For many generations, Mexicans had
gathered along the border. When the signal was given,
mined salt from the salt beds of the El Paso valley.
they charged in to stake their claims. However, they
Mexicans viewed these areas as public property, open
found that much of the best land had already been
to all. However, when Americans arrived in the 1870s,
taken by “sooners,” who had sneaked into the territory
they laid claim to the salt beds and aimed to sell the
and staked their claims before the official opening.
salt for profit. In 1877, in what became known as the El
The following year, the 1890 national census
Paso Salt War, Americans and Mexicans clashed over
revealed the extent of population growth in the West
access to this crucial commodity. When the battles
when it concluded that there was no longer a square
ended, the salt beds were no longer communal property.
mile of the United States that did not have at least
Now, users would have to buy this natural product.
a few white residents. The great American frontier
Ethnic tensions often lurked beneath the surface.
was closed. This was in part due to completion of
Many foreign-born white people sought their fortunes
transcontinental railroads, which made it easier for
on the American frontier, especially in the years
people to migrate across the country. The country, the
following the mid-century revolutions in Europe. Their
report said, no longer had a “frontier,” which at the time
multiple languages joined the mix of several dozen
was considered an uninhabited wilderness where no
Native American language groups. Differences in food,
white person lived. The era of free western land had
religion, and cultural practices reinforced each group’s
come to an end.
fear and distrust of the others. But mostly it was in
However, the challenges and tensions were far from
the larger cities or towns that discrimination was
over. Controversies over Indians’ land rights were still
openly displayed. Chinese immigrants, Mexicans, and
to come. So, too, were more battles over water and
Mexican Americans were most often its targets.
over the mistreatment of minority citizens—especially
Chinese and Mexican Americans. As African
Americans migrated west and claimed places among

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 the farmers, miners, railroad workers, entrepreneurs, 2. Identify Cause and Effect Describe the effects of
inventors, and public servants, they indeed found new large companies mining for minerals in the West.
opportunities, but often these new opportunities were
intertwined with discrimination. 3. Summarize the effects of the Transcontinental
Railroad on the United States.
IDENTIFY What reasons can you identify to help 4. Identify Patterns in the effects of white settlers’
explain prejudice and discrimination in the West? westward expansion on other cultures.

5. Hypothesize Why did settlers expand westward

ASSESSMENT despite the challenges of the physical environment
there?
1. Support Ideas with Examples Explain the ways
mining shaped the West.

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 10.3
While Congress enacted many
major reforms during Reconstruction,
it passed very few measures between
1877 and 1900. Instead, inaction and
corruption were serious political
issues during the Gilded Age. This
raised questions of whether or not
democracy could succeed in a time
dominated by large and powerful
industrial corporations and men of
great wealth. >> Former Civil War general Ulysses S.
Grant proved unable to keep corruption
and scandal from troubling his presidential
administration.

Flipped Video

Corruption Plagues >> Objectives

Analyze the issues of weak leadership and
corruption in national politics in the 1870s

the Nation through 1890s.

Discuss civil service reform in the late 1800s.
Assess the importance of economic issues in
the late 1800s.

Political Power Proves Difficult to

>> Key Terms
Keep spoils system
Party loyalties were so evenly divided that no faction or group gained civil service
control for any period of time. After Grant left office, only twice between Pendleton Civil
Service Act
1877 and 1897 did either the Republicans or Democrats gain control
gold standard
of the White House and both houses of Congress at the same time. political machines
Furthermore, neither held control for more than two years in a row. fiat money
This made it very difficult to pass new laws. Most of the elections were
very close as well, allowing those who lost to block new legislation
until they got back in power.

Political Corruption Under President Grant Ulysses S. Grant

was a popular war hero but a disappointing President. Allied with
the Radical Republicans, he promised to take a strong stand against
southern resistance to Reconstruction. But Grant’s ability to lead was
marred by scandal. He gave high-level advisory posts to untrustworthy
friends and acquaintances who used their positions to line their own
pockets. His own Vice President, Schuyler Colfax, was investigated
and implicated in a scheme to steal profits from the Union Pacific
Railroad. In addition, a plan by railroad developer and financier Jay

www.PearsonRealize.com
375 Access your Digital Lesson.

HSUS16_SE10_NA_Topic10.indd 20 4/1/2015 2:35:34 PM

 Gould to corner the gold market actually included Ring,” as it came to be known, plundered millions of
President Grant’s brother-in-law. dollars from the city’s treasury. By 1873, when Tweed
When Grant ran for reelection in 1872, some reform- was convicted and sentenced to prison, the public’s
minded Republicans withdrew their support and confidence in its leaders was at a low ebb.
teamed up with some Democrats to create the Liberal
Republican Party. The Liberal Republicans advocated Corruption Continues in Subsequent
civil service reform, removal of the army from the South, Administrations In comparison to Lincoln, Grant and
and an end to corruption in southern and national the other Presidents of the Gilded Age that followed
governments. Grant easily defeated their presidential him appeared particularly weak. Although they,
candidate, the New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley. like Lincoln, won by slim margins that reflected the
Not long after the election, however, Americans nation’s diversity of opinion on important issues, these
sensed the aura of greed surrounding American presidents differed from Lincoln in that, once in office,
politics. When scandal swirled around the members they lacked integrity. Rutherford B. Hayes owed his
of his administration including his private secretary, election in 1876 to a secret deal to end Reconstruction.
the Secretary of War, and members of Congress, Grant Benjamin Harrison became only the second President
seemed to look the other way. Even though he had in history to lose the popular vote but win the electoral
stated, “Let no guilty man escape,” he seemed to lack college vote. Chester Arthur, who took the helm
the will to root out this corruption. Confidence in public following James Garfield’s assassination, upset so
officials plummeted. many of his fellow Republicans that he failed to win his
Across the nation, local scandals came to light. own party’s presidential nomination in 1884.
Many city officials sold lucrative public construction The most noteworthy President of the era was
contracts to their friends or diverted money from Grover Cleveland. In an era known for its corruption,
city accounts. The most notorious of these scandals Cleveland maintained a reputation for integrity. He
involved a band of New York City Democratic politicians once observed, “A Democratic thief is as bad as a
led by state senator William “Boss” Tweed. The “Tweed Republican thief.” Cleveland enjoyed an extremely
rapid rise to political prominence. In 1881, running as
a reformer, he won the race for mayor in Buffalo, New
York. A year later, he became the governor of New York,
and in 1884, he became the first Democrat to win the
White House in 24 years.
In 1888, even though he won the popular vote,
Cleveland lost to Benjamin Harrison. But Cleveland
came back to rewin the presidency in 1892.

IDENTIFY MAIN IDEAS Why did the public lose

trust in the federal government?

Growth of Political
Machines and Corruption
Grover Cleveland’s reputation for honesty was the
exception. Many government officials routinely
accepted bribes. As Henry Adams, the great-grandson
of John Adams, observed, “One might search the whole
list of Congress, Judiciary, and Executive . . . [from]
1870 to 1895, and find little but damaged reputation.”

Political Supporters Are Given Jobs Political

parties and the spoils system were central components
>> Scandals such as the secret deal that gave of politics during the Gilded Age.
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes (on left) the
presidency troubled Gilded Age politics. A number of Under the spoils system, which was first used by
administrations from this era suffered under weak or President Andrew Jackson as far back as the 1820s,
corrupt leadership. politicians awarded government jobs to loyal party
Gallery

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 Voter Turnout in Selected Presidential Elections, 1872-1916
VOTER TURNOUT
YEAR TOTAL TURNOUT REPUBLICANS DEMOCRATS RESULT
PERCENTAGE
Ulysses S. Grant,
1872 6,460,000 3,597,000 2,843,000 71.3 Republican
Rutherford B. Hayes,
1876 8,422,000 4,037,000 4,284,000 81.8 Republican
James A. Garfield,
1880 9,217,000 4,453,000 4,414,000 79.4 Republican
Grover Cleveland,
1884 10,053,000 4,850,000 4,880,000 77.5 Democrat
Grover Cleveland,
1892 12,061,000 5,183,000 5,555,000 74.7 Democrat
Theodore Roosevelt,
1900 13,968,000 7,218,000 6,357,000 73.2 Republican
William Howard Taft,
1908 14,884,000 7,675,000 6,412,000 65.4 Republican
Woodrow Wilson,
1916 18,531,000 8,534,000 9,128,000 61.6 Democrat

SOURCE: Historical Statistics of the United States, U.S. Census Bureau

>> Analyze Data Is it probable that the presidents of the Gilded Age enjoyed strong
popular support for their ideas? Why or why not? Chart

workers, with little regard for their qualifications. About 75 to 80 percent of all those who could vote did
Parties held elaborate rallies and parades to get out vote in presidential elections during the Gilded Age.
the vote. However, candidates for the presidency did
not take part in the campaign. They felt it lowered the Political Cartoons Alert the Public Though many
reputation of the presidency. Americans saw nothing wrong with politicians
Parties developed sophisticated political rewarding their friends, writers such as Mark Twain,
machines that reached virtually into every ward, in political cartoonists, and others who thought about
every precinct, in many cities in the nation. In large American politics expressed their concern about the
cities, political machines were often run by “bosses” or damaging effects of corruption.
a small group of people. These groups, like Tammany “The Bosses of the Senate,” one of the most famous
Hall in New York City or the Pendergast machine in political cartoons of the time, drawn by Joseph Keppler,
Kansas City, controlled cities for decades. The political showed a cluster of businessmen representing various
machines worked by winning the loyalty of large trusts, glaring down on the chambers of the Senate.
immigrant groups by promising, and in some cases, Thomas Nast created a series of cartoons which
delivering, solutions to problems like poor sanitation exposed the illegal activities of Boss Tweed and the
or transportation. The spoils system also played a role, Tammany Hall political machine in New York City.
with political machines rewarding loyal organizers Eventually, Tweed was arrested. He escaped and fled
with city jobs. With voter loyalty secured, the political to Spain. While there, Tweed was identified through
machine was assured of its political power and often one of Nast’s cartoons. The Tammany Hall machine,
became very corrupt. however, lived on.
The spoils system served as the glue that helped
make the parties so powerful. The Postmaster General, Civil Service Reform Efforts The feeling that
who headed the U.S. Postal Service, for example, could the spoils system corrupted government, or at least
reward thousands of supporters with jobs. Likewise, made it terribly inefficient, prompted a number of
other officials could and did use federal contracts to prominent figures to promote civil service reform. The
convince people to vote for their candidates. Ironically, civil service is a system that includes federal jobs
political participation probably got a boost from the in the executive branch. In a reformed system, most
spoils system and the fierce partisanship of the era. government workers would get their jobs due to their

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HSUS16_SE10_NA_Topic10.indd 22 4/1/2015 2:35:35 PM

 expertise and maintain them regardless of which well on the exam, not on manipulating one’s political
political party won the election. connections. Initially, the act covered only a small
Reforming the spoils system did cause controversy. percentage of federal employees, but its reach grew
Without the spoils system, politicians felt they would over time, reducing the power of the spoils system.
not attract the people needed to run their parties.
Independent attempts by politicians to change the CHECK UNDERSTANDING How did the spoils
system failed. For example, when Rutherford B. Hayes system encourage government corruption and,
became President in 1877, he worked for civil service eventually, government reform?
reform. He even placed well-known reformers in high
offices. However, the Republican Party did not support
his reform efforts. It took the 1881 assassination of
President James Garfield by Charles J. Guiteau to make
Economic Policy
civil service reform a reality. Guiteau shot Garfield Challenges Continue
because he believed that the Republican Party had not The public’s discontent was worsened by economic
fulfilled its promise to give him a government job. turmoil and uncertainty. In the fall of 1873, one of the
nation’s most influential banks failed, apparently as a
The Pendleton Civil Service Act Chester A. Arthur result of overextended loans to the expanding railroad
became President after the assassination of Garfield. industry. A wave of fear known as the Panic of 1873
While Arthur defended the spoils system, he supported spread through the financial industry and across the
the movement for civil service reform, which had nation. Bank failures, job losses, and the uncertain
been strengthened because of public indignation over economy added to the array of the nation’s concerns.
Garfield’s assassination. Arthur signed the Pendleton Events such as this prompted political leaders to debate
Civil Service Act in 1883. This act established a Civil the best ways to keep the economy moving forward.
Service Commission, which wrote a civil service exam. The tariff and monetary policy were critical
Individuals who wanted to work for the government had economic issues during this time. Leaders looked to
to take the exam, and getting a job depended on doing these two areas for ways to stabilize the economy, but
both issues were divisive. The tariff issue sharply split
the Democrats and Republicans.
Monetary policy gave rise to independent political
parties or movements that disagreed with the major
parties’ commitment to the gold standard. Using the
gold standard meant that the government would use
gold as the basis of the nation’s currency. Paper money
was backed by the government’s gold reserves, and
could, in theory, be redeemed for actual gold

Americans Continue to Discuss Tariffs The debate

over the tariff had deep roots in American history. The
tariff, or the tax on imports of manufactured goods
and some agricultural products, was created as early
as 1810 to protect newly developed industries. Since
then, the debate to lower or increase tariffs continued.
Differences over the tariff had divided the Federalists
and Jeffersonians and the Democrats and Whigs.
During the Gilded Age, it divided the Republicans
and Democrats. The tariff question became a major
issue during the presidential election of 1888. The
Republicans favored a high tariff, arguing that it would
allow American industries to grow and promote jobs in
manufacturing. Democrats countered that high tariffs
increased the costs of goods to consumers and made it
>> Charles J. Guiteau, an unstable individual who felt
he was owed a government position, assassinated
harder for American farmers to sell their goods abroad.
President Garfield in 1881. Infer What effect did
Garfield’s assassination have on civil service reform?

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 Different Ideas About Monetary Policy Two a certain amount of silver-backed dollars each month,
related factors turned monetary policy into a bitter but not as many as the Free Silver advocates would
issue during the Gilded Age. During the Civil War, have liked. The debate over whether to consider silver
the federal government issued paper money, known as money alongside gold continued until the passage
as greenbacks. The greenbacks were fiat money , or of the Gold Standard Act in 1900, which set gold as the
currency not backed by gold or silver. After the war, only metal backing paper dollars.
because the fiat money had contributed to wartime
inflation (a rise in prices), the government retired, or CHECK UNDERSTANDING Why did Republicans
got rid of, the greenbacks. Over the next century, the and Democrats differ in their view of the tariff issue?
United States and other major world economies would
edge towards going off a metallic standard and onto fiat
money gradually, making the final move in the 1970s. ASSESSMENT
However, in the 1870s, the debate centered on whether
to use gold or gold and silver to back the paper money. 1. Summarize the reasons why President
In 1873, Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1873. Cleveland’s reputation was considered the
exception to the rule for presidents from the 1870s
This law reversed the government policy of backing
money with both gold and silver. Using only gold meant through the 1890s.
that the money supply was smaller and each dollar 2. Interpret Why do you think that party loyalties
would be worth more. Bankers and others involved in were so evenly divided after the end of the Civil
international trade favored the gold standard because War?
it discouraged inflation and made dollars worth more
overseas. In contrast, most farmers favored keeping 3. Cite Evidence of the corruption of the spoils
silver to create inflation. Already struggling, they system.
hoped the rise in prices would increase their income.
4. Compare Points of View Describe the debate
Those who favored the minting of silver—in other
pertaining to tariffs during the Gilded Age.
words, considering silver as money—protested against
what they termed the “Crime of 1873” and prompted 5. Draw Conclusions Why were political cartoons
Congress to mint silver dollars. The Bland-Allison Act, such an effective weapon against corruption?
passed in 1878, specified that the U.S. Treasury make

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 10.4
Following the Civil War, millions
of men and women migrated west
in search of the American dream.
However, in the late 1880s and early
1890s, their dream began to turn into
a nightmare, which, in turn, sparked a
social and political movement known as
populism. This movement displayed the
dissatisfaction of millions of ordinary
Americans—poor farmers, small
>> Life was difficult for prairie farmers, landholders, and urban workers—and
who faced the difficulties of nature as well
as unpredictable prices and rising debts. produced one of the largest third-party
Hypothesize Why were farmers willing to
put up with the hardships that came with
their way of living?
movements in American history.
Flipped Video

>> Objectives
Analyze the economic issues farmers faced
in the late 1800s.
Farm Issues and
Describe the groups farmers formed to
address their problems and what they
accomplished.
Populism
Evaluate the impact of the Populist Party,
and explain why the party did not last.
Farmers Face Economic Difficulty
The farmers of the West and the South were willing to accept the
>> Key Terms difficulties of farm life. Yet farmers discovered that other enormous
Oliver H. Kelley
obstacles stood in the way of realizing their dreams.
Grange
Populist Party They received low prices for their crops, but they had to pay high
William Jennings costs for transportation. Debts mounted while their influence on the
Bryan political system declined.
William McKinley
Farmers’ Alliance
Farm Issues Result in Rising Debt Between 1870 and 1895, farm
prices plummeted. Cotton, which sold for about 15 cents a pound in
the early 1870s, sold for only about 6 cents a pound in the mid-1890s.
Corn and wheat prices declined nearly as rapidly. One study estimated
that by the early 1890s, it was costing farmers more to produce corn
than they could get by selling it, so they burned it to use as fuel.
Planting more crops did not help. On the contrary, the more crops
farmers produced, the more prices declined.
During the same time period, the cost of doing business rose. To
pay for new machinery, seed, livestock, and other needs, farmers went
into debt. An increasing number of farmers mortgaged their farms to

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 raise funds to survive and became tenant farmers— The other two are produced by men
meaning they no longer owned the farm where they who sit in their offices and behind their
worked.
bank counters and farm the farmers.
Big Business Practices Affect Farmers Farmers —Farmers’ Alliance, 1890
blamed big business, especially the railroads and
Farmers, however, refused to accept these
the banks, for their difficulties. They protested that
circumstances. They took action.
railroads, as monopolies, charged whatever rates they
wanted. Likewise, they complained that banks set
DESCRIBE What concerns did many farmers share
interest rates at unfairly high levels. Southern farmers,
about their businesses?
especially black sharecroppers, faced the added
problem of having to deal with dishonest merchants
and landlords who paid less for crops and charged more
for supplies than promised. Farmers Seek Change
In addition, farmers grew angry because they felt the
nation had turned its back on them. The United States
Through Alliances
had a long tradition of electing leaders from farm states Farmers created a network of organizations, first in the
with agricultural backgrounds, like Thomas Jefferson. Midwest and then in the South and West, to address
Yet it now appeared that most of the nation’s leaders their problems. The Granger movement, also known as
came from urban industrial states. Moreover, farmers the “Patrons of Husbandry,” was the first.
felt that they performed honest labor and produced
necessary goods, while bankers and businessmen The Courts Have Their Say Organized in 1867 by
were the ones who got rich. One editor for a farmers’ Oliver H. Kelley—a Minnesota farmer, businessman,
newspaper explained: journalist, and government clerk—the organization
popularly known as the Grange attracted about a
There are three great crops raised in million members. The goals of the Grange included
providing education on new farming techniques and
Nebraska. One is the crop of corn, one calling for the regulation of railroad and grain elevator
a crop of freight rates, and one a crop rates.
of interest. One is produced by farmers In the mid-1870s, the states of Illinois, Wisconsin,
who sweat and toil to farm the land. and Minnesota enacted laws that set maximum rates

Falling Prices of Farm Crops

2.25
2.00 Wheat
Price per bushel (in dollars)

Corn
1.75 Oats
1.50 Barley
1.25
1.00
0.75
0.50
0.25
0
1866 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1896
SOURCE: Historical Statistics of the United States; U.S. Census Bureau

>> Over this 30-year period, falling commodity prices hit American farmers hard.
Analyze Charts What trend does the graph show? What might explain that trend?

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 for shipping freight and for grain storage. The railroad
companies challenged these “Grange Laws” in the
courts. The Supreme Court upheld some decisions
and overturned others, depending on the context of
individual cases. In one of the significant “Granger
Cases,” Munn v. Illinois, the Court ruled against
a Chicago grain-storage facility that challenged
the constitutionality of an 1871 Illinois law setting
maximum rates for shipping freight. This decision
upheld the right of states to regulate private industries
in some circumstances. However, in Wabash v. Illinois
(1886) the Court ruled against state regulation. In
this decision, the Court overturned an Illinois law
by declaring that individual states did not have the
power to regulate interstate commerce. Eventually, the
Grangers helped to prompt the federal government to
establish the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
to oversee interstate transportation.

Farmers and the Railroads Disagree Although

the Grange declined in the late 1870s, farm protest
remained strong. Faced with serious difficulties, Texas
>> The Granger movement, which promoted the rights farmers in the 1870s began to organize and to negotiate
and interests of farmers, inspired this illustration. as a group for lower prices for supplies.
Determine Point of View How does the illustrator The idea spread. Local organizations linked together
view the importance of American farmers?
in what became known as the Farmers’ Alliance.
These organizations soon connected farmers not
only in the South but also in the West, and for a brief
period farmers of all races and ethnicities banded
together for their common cause. Because of regularly
rising rates, the Alliances wanted the government to
regulate the interest that banks could charge for loans.
Farmers’ Alliance members also tried to convince the
government to force railroads to lower freight prices so
members could get their crops to markets outside the
South at reduced rates.
The railroads, however, argued that their prices
were justified by the expense of building the railroads
to begin with and by intense competition between rail
companies. They had to charge high prices to earn
profits and create more jobs. Often railroads would offer
rebates or other incentives to larger shippers who used
their rails. In addition, they would charge more to ship
freight short distances than they would for long trips
because they had competitors for long hauls, but not
for short hauls. This was known as the “short haul and
>> Farmers plowed through difficult soil, often with no long haul” practice.
family members or hired workers to help them, just one The Interstate Commerce Act, passed in 1887,
of the many hardships they faced.
prohibited several of these practices, although it proved
hard to enforce.

Alliances Encourage Reform Farmers’ Alliances,

such as the Southern Farmers’ Alliance, became
important reform organizations. They formed

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 cooperatives to collectively sell their crops, and they
called on the federal government to establish “sub-
treasuries,” or postal banks, to provide farmers with
low-interest loans. They hoped the cooperatives
would push the costs of doing business down and the
prices for crops up. Some of the cooperative efforts
succeeded. The Georgia Alliance led a boycott against
manufacturers who raised the price of the special cord
that farmers used to wrap bundles of cotton.
Farmers’ alliances organized across racial lines
were short-lived. Soon, the Southern Farmers’ Alliance
organized only white farmers.
There was also an Alliance network for African
American farmers. R. M. Humphrey, a white Baptist
minister, headed the Colored Farmers’ Alliance, which
had been organized by African American and white
farmers.
Nearly one million African American farmers joined
the group by 1891. The Colored Farmers’ Alliance
recognized that both white and African American
farmers shared the same difficulties, but racial
tensions prevented any effective cooperation between
the groups. >> Many African American farmers joined the Colored
Farmers’ Alliance.

IDENTIFY SUPPORTING DETAILS What reforms

did the farmers’ organizations introduce?

The Beginnings of
Populism
The spread of the Farmers’ Alliances culminated with
the formation of the Populist Party, or People’s Party,
in 1892. These Populists sought to build a new political
party from the grass roots up. They ran entire slates of
candidates for local, state, and national positions. Like
a prairie fire, the Populist Party spread rapidly, putting
pressure on the two major political parties to consider
their demands.

Populist Goals The Populist Party spelled out their

views in their platform, which they adopted in Omaha,
Nebraska, in July 1892. The platform warned about
the dangers of political corruption, an inadequate
monetary supply, and an unresponsive government.
The Populist Party proposed specific remedies to these
political issues. To fight low prices, they called for
the coinage of silver, or “free silver.” To combat high
costs, they demanded government ownership of the >> The Populists, or People’s Party, fielded candidates
for office in local, state, and national elections in 1892.
railroads. Mary Elizabeth Lease, a fiery Populist Party
Interpret What Populist political goals does the slogan
spokesperson, also advanced the cause of women’s shown here suggest?
suffrage.
The Populist Party nominated James B. Weaver of
Iowa as their presidential candidate and James Field of

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 Virginia as his running mate. Both had risen to the rank to “Negro supremacy,” to diminish the appeal of the
of general in the United States and Confederate armies, Populist Party.
respectively, and their nominations represented the
party’s attempt to overcome the regional divisions that IDENTIFY What did the Populist Party hope to
had kept farmers apart since the end of the Civil War. accomplish?
(Southern white voters had supported the Democrats;
northerners, the Republicans.) The Populist Party also
sought to reach out to urban workers, to convince them
that they faced the same enemy: the industrial elite. Populism’s Declining
Influence
Early Impacts of the Populist Party For a new In 1893, a four-year-long depression began that
political party, the Populists did quite well in 1892. worsened conditions not only for already-suffering
Weaver won more than one million votes for the farmers but for other Americans as well. Labor unrest
presidency, and the Populists elected three governors, and violence engulfed the nation. The major parties
five senators, and ten congressmen. In 1894, the failed to satisfactorily respond to the nation’s distress.
Populist Party continued to expand its base, gaining In the midst of national discontent, the Populist
seats in the state legislatures and prompting the major Party’s dream of forging a broad coalition with urban
political parties to consider endorsing its ideas. workers grew. The Populists’ relative success at the
In the South, the Populist Party had to unite black polls in 1892 and 1894 raised their hopes further. The
and white voters if it hoped to succeed politically. Tom decision of the Democratic Party to nominate William
Watson, Georgia’s most famous Populist Party leader, Jennings Bryan as their presidential candidate put
made a strong case for casting aside racial prejudice in the election for the Populists on an entirely different
favor of a political alliance between the races. However, plane, leading some to believe they could win the
the Democratic Party successfully used racist tactics, White House that year.
such as warning that a Populist victory would lead
The Impact of William Jennings Bryan Born in
Salem, Illinois, William Jennings Bryan moved to

The Populist Party, 1890–1900

N

Washington E Maine
North W Vermont
Minnesota
Montana Dakota
S New Hampshire
Oregon New Massachusetts
Idaho South Wisconsin York
Michigan
Dakota Rhode Island
Wyoming Connecticut
Pennsylvania
Iowa New Jersey
Nebraska Ohio Delaware
ATL ANTIC
Nevada Indiana O CEAN
Illinois West Maryland
Utah Virginia
Territory Colorado Virginia
Kansas Missouri
California Kentucky
North
Carolina
Oklahoma Tennessee
Territory South
Arizona Arkansas
New Mexico Indian Carolina
Territory
Territory Terr. Alabama
KEY
Georgia Populist representatives
PACI FIC Mississippi in the U.S. Congress
O CEA N
Texas Populist governor and
Louisiana congressional
0 400 mi Florida representatives
All or some electoral
0 400 km
Gulf of Me xico vote(s) to Populist
Albers Conic Equal-Area
Projection presidential candidate

>> Around the turn of the century, the Populist Party became a viable alternative to
the two established political parties. Analyze Maps What does the map show about Chart
the popularity of the Populist Party?

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 Lincoln, Nebraska, where he set up a law practice in
1887. He earned the nickname the “boy orator,” in part
by displaying his strong debating skills during his
successful run for the United States Congress in 1890.
In 1896, Bryan addressed the national Democratic
convention on the subject of the gold standard,
attacking Grover Cleveland and others in the party
who opposed coining silver. The audience listened
and cheered as Bryan spoke for “the plain people of
this country,” for “our farms,” and declared “we beg no
longer.” The speech became known as the “Cross of
Gold” speech because it ended with the following line:
“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this
crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a
cross of gold.”
The speech so moved the Democratic delegates
that they nominated Bryan as their party’s presidential
candidate. He was just 36 years old and had not been
a contender for the nomination until then. Bryan’s
advocacy of “free silver,” or the coinage of silver as well
as gold, and his support of a number of other Populist
Party proposals, placed the Populists in a difficult
situation. >> William Jennings Bryan, a gifted orator and Populist
Party stalwart, gives a speech to his supporters.
Holding their convention after the Democrats, the
Populists had to decide whether to nominate their Gallery
own presidential candidate and continue to focus on
building a broad-based movement from the bottom
up or to endorse Bryan with the hope that they could
capture the White House in 1896. They chose the latter
course.
Bryan’s campaign was like none other before. For
the first time, a presidential candidate toured the
nation, speaking directly to the people. In contrast,
William McKinley, the Republican candidate,
accumulated approximately $15 million, 30 times the
amount Bryan had, and allowed party regulars to do
the campaigning for him. Marcus Hanna, the political
powerhouse who orchestrated McKinley’s run, cast
Bryan and his Populist Party supporters as a potential
dictator and a threat to the Republic. For instance, one
cartoon published in the pro-Republican Los Angeles
Times depicted the Democratic-Populist coalition
as a collection of evil witches, who fed the fires of
sectionalism, discontent, and prejudice in order to win
the election.

Populism’s Long-Term Impact McKinley won the

election of 1896 and went on to win reelection, again
over Bryan, in 1900. Bryan’s emphasis on monetary >> This cartoon depicts William Jennings Bryan as
a large snake swallowing the Democratic donkey.
reform, especially free silver, did not appeal to urban Analyze Cartoons Was this cartoon’s creator a Populist
workers, and the Populist Party failed to win a state supporter? How can you tell?
outside of the South and West. Moreover, the decision
to endorse Bryan weakened the Populists at the local
and state levels, and the party never recovered from its

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 The Presidential Election of 1896

WA
4 VT 4 ME
MT ND 6
3 3
OR MN NH 4
4 9 NY MA 15
ID SD WI
3 MI 36
4 12
WY 14 RI 4
3 IA PA CT 6
NE 13 32 NJ 10
OH
NV 8 IL IN 23 DE 3
3 UT 24 15 WV
CA 3 CO VA MD 8
8(R) 4 KS 10 MO KY 6
12
1(D) 17 12(R) 1(D)
Oklahoma Territory NC
TN 12 11
Arizona New AR SC
Territory Mexico 8 9
Territory AL GA
MS 13
Indian 9 11
Territory
LA
TX 8
15 FL
4

Candidate (Party) Electoral Vote Popular Vote % Electoral Vote % Popular Vote
William McKinley (Republican) 271 7,104,779 60.6 51.0
William Jennings Bryan (Democrat) 176 6,502,925 39.4 46.7
Other ––– 314,226 —— 2.3

>> In the presidential election of 1896, William Jennings Bryan won more states but
fewer electoral votes than the victorious William McKinley. Analyze Maps In which
regions was Bryan the most popular?

defeat in 1896. The Populist Party lingered for nearly ASSESSMENT

a decade. By the early 1900s, it had disappeared as a
feasible alternative to the two major political parties. 1. Generate Explanations Why did farmers blame
Most of the voters who supported the Populist Party big business for their hardships?
returned to the Democratic Party in 1896.
2. Summarize the strategies by which farmers
Even though the Populist Party fell apart, its impact
sought economic change at the end of the
as a third party inspired other third parties, notably
nineteenth century.
the Progressive Party in the early 1900s. Many of the
specific reforms that it advocated became a reality 3. Draw Conclusions Determine the reasoning
in the early decades of the 1900s. The Progressives behind the Democratic Party’s decision to
supported a graduated income tax, regulation of nominate William Jennings Bryan as their
the railroads, and a more flexible monetary system. presidential candidate.
Moreover, populism had a lasting effect on the style of
politics in the United States. For a brief time, there was 4. Compare and Contrast the positions of the
even a coalition of whites and blacks in Texas. They Democratic Party and the Populist Party with
were able to find a common political ground. regard to racial equality.
Increasingly, candidates campaigned directly to 5. Identify Patterns Explain how the Populist Party
the people, and, like Bryan, they emphasized their
influenced twentieth-century politics, even after its
association with ordinary Americans.
decline.

RECALL How did some of the ideas of the Populist

Party influence twentieth century politics?

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 TOPIC 10 ASSESSMENT

1889
North Dakota

1864 1876 1889 1890

Nevada Colorado South Dakota Idaho

1860 1870 1880 1890 1900

1867 1889 1896

Nebraska Washington Utah

1889 1890
Montana Wyoming

1. Identify and Explain Reasons for Changes in 4. Analyze Growth of Railroads Write a paragraph
Political Boundaries Use the timeline above to write a analyzing the economic issues involved in building
paragraph that identifies what territories became states railroads, including the transcontinental railroad.
between 1864 and 1896 and explains why so many Consider the economic roles played by the government
territories became states during this time span. Be sure and business in building the transcontinental railroad,
to consider the rapid rate of westward expansion during the human cost of building the transcontinental railroad,
this time and the requirements for statehood. and the effect of the transcontinental railroad on the
2. Analyze Issues Affecting Native Americans Write growth of other railroads.
a paragraph analyzing how westward expansion led 5. Explain Actions to Expand Economic
to conflict between white settlers and the Sioux over Opportunities and Political Rights Explain actions
land. Consider the effect of manifest destiny, how some taken by people to expand economic opportunities and
Sioux responded to threats to their land rights, how the political rights for Chinese Americans. Write a paragraph
government responded to the Sioux, and role the United analyzing the steps taken by Chinese immigrants
States Indian Peace Commission. to challenge the discrimination they faced. Be sure
3. Discuss Americanization Movement Write a to consider the Supreme Court case of Yick Wo v.
paragraph discussing the Americanization movement Hopkins; the Supreme Court’s 1898 ruling, and the letter
and its effect on Native Americans. Indicate the goal of below, in which Saum Song Bo, a Chinese immigrant,
the Americanization movement. Then discuss the role questioned why he should support a fund-raising drive
of the Dawes General Allotment Act, other measures to build the Statue of Liberty.
used to speed assimilation, and the effects on Native
That statue represents Liberty holding a torch
Americans.
which lights the passage of those of all nations
who come into this country. But are the
Chinese allowed to come? As for the Chinese
who are here, are they allowed to enjoy liberty
as men of all other nationalities enjoy it?
—Saum Song Bo, American Missionary, 1898

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 TOPIC 10 ASSESSMENT

6. Analyze Effect of Innovations in Transportation 11. Analyze Political Machines Write a paragraph
on Standard of Living Write a paragraph analyzing analyzing the growth of political machines. Explain what
how railroads raised the standard of living in the United a political machine was, analyze the role of the spoils
States in the late 1800s. Consider how railroads system, and analyze the benefits and costs of political
benefited both eastern and western consumers and machines and the spoils system.
producers. 12. Describe Emergence of Monetary Policy Write
7. Describe Economic Impact of Homestead a paragraph describing the emergence of monetary
Act Describe how the economic impact of the policy in the late 1800s and debates about whether
Homestead Act contributed to the close of the frontier in to use a gold standard or a gold and silver standard.
the late nineteenth century. Write a paragraph describing Describe what the gold standard, fiat money, and
the economic impact of the Homestead Act of 1862 a bimetallic, or gold and silver, standard are. Then
and the earlier Preemption Act of 1841. Describe what describe what turned monetary policy into a bitter
the Preemption Act provided, what the Homestead Act issue during the Gilded Age.
provided, and how these acts helped lead to the close 13. Analyze and Interpret Political Cartoons Write a
of the frontier. paragraph analyzing the political cartoon below. Analyze
8. Identify Effects of Population on Physical what the political cartoon shows and what the money
Environment Write a paragraph identifying how bag represents, interpret the message of the political
the growth and distribution of population in the West cartoon, and identify cartoonist Thomas Nast’s bias.
affected the physical environment. Consider the effects
of population growth and distribution on grazing land,
the water supply, water rights, and ownership of natural
resources, such as salt.
9. Use Historical Inquiry Use the process of historical
inquiry to research and interpret multiple sources of
evidence to analyze the growth of political machines.
Use the “Corruption and Reform” Flipped Video, the
political cartoons and text information from the topic,
one outside secondary source, and one outside primary
source to research the Tammany Hall and Pendergast
political machines. After interpreting the information,
write a paragraph analyzing the benefits and costs of
the machines. Consider how the machines addressed 14. Evaluate Impact of Populist Party Write a paragraph
the needs of the voters they represented and how the evaluating the long-term impact of Populism and
machines’ corruption damaged their cities and the generalizing about the impact of third parties. Consider
political process. the effect on the Populist Party after supporting Bryan
10. Analyze by Comparing and Contrasting in the 1896 election; the Populist Party’s impact on the
Leadership Write a paragraph comparing and Progressive Party; and the success of later third-party
contrasting President Lincoln’s administration with candidates such as Ross Perot and Ralph Nader.
subsequent administrations. Describe how the Gilded 15. Write about the Essential Question Write an essay
Age Presidents were similar to Lincoln and how they on the Essential Question: What are the challenges
were different in terms of effective leadership. of diversity? Use evidence from your study of this
Topic to support your answer.

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and assignment status.

Challenges in the Late 1800s (1865–1914) 389

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