|
|
|
"The Civil War and the period that followed it—so-called Reconstruction—were without question the most traumatic events of our history." Page
Smith
|
"The
desire to make as much money as possible by any means possible . . . appeared
to be a passion without limits. It was evident in retrospect that, prior
to the Civil War, the conservative, agrarian, slaveholding South in alliance
with Northern Democrats . . .had inhibited the entrepreneurial temper.
. . . Once the war was over and the Union restored, entrepreneurs
. . . took matters into their own hands. They strengthened their grip
on the Republican Party . . . and made it their instrument."
Page
Smith |
"In the debates at the Federal Convention in 1787, Gouverneur Morris had urged the delegates to build into the Constitution provisions that would . . . prevent classes from exploiting each other. 'The Rich,' he declared 'will strive to establish their dominion & enslave the rest. They always did. They always will. . . . Let the rich mix with the poor and . . . they will establish an oligarchy.' If the check of the commercial class was removed, 'the democracy will triumph.' He added: 'Thus it has been the world over. So will it be among us. . . .' Morris persisted in his theme. The mass of people never acted from reason alone. The rich would take advantage of their passions and 'make these the instruments for oppressing them.' The ordinary people could not 'communicate and act in concert'; they would thus be the 'dupes of those who have more knowledge & intercourse.'" Page
Smith |
"I very much regret that the organization in the interest of banks of which you spoke to me a year ago has not been quietly effected ready for action. The banks need to bestir themselves to avoid hostile legislation and yet any organization effected now would . . . perhaps do more harm than good. This universal suffrage country will never see the end of attempts of demagogues to excite the poor against the rich, labor against capital, and all who haven't money against the banks who have it." Asst. Secretary of the Treasury William E. Chandler to Jay Cooke, Republican financier, in 1867. |
"The system of corporate life and corporate power, as applied to industrial development, is yet in its infancy . . .It is a new power, for which our language contains no name. We know what aristocracy, autocracy, democracy are; but we have no word to express government by monied corporations . . . It remains to be seen what the next phase in this process of gradual development will be. History never quite repeats itself, and . . . the old familiar enemies may even now confront us, though arrayed in such a modern garb that no suspicion is excited." Charles F. and Henry Adams, in 1871 |
| Key | |||||||||||||
Major
Events
|
Lee surrenders at Appomatox, ending the Civil War. Lincoln assassinated. Era
of post-war Reconstruction begins.
|
Johnson's attempts at presidential reconstruction undermined by election of Radical Republicans. |
Radical Republicans launch impeachment proceedings against Johnson. Radical Republicans take steps to implement vindictive Congressional Reconstruction. Alaska purchased from Russia. US annexes the Midway Islands.
|
Impeachment proceedings against Johnson fail by one vote. Backed by selfish Northern business interests & Radical Republicans, Grant is elected to office. Cuba begins revolt against colonial power, Spain; US declares neutrality. 14th amendment is ratified to protect the rights of African Americans, but is soon exploited by corporations for their own purposes with disastrous consequences. |
Grant inaugurated as president, ushering in era of unprecendented political corruption. Spculators Fisk & Gould dupe Grant into stopping the sale of gold by the Treasury and corner the market. Businessmen needing gold are driven into bankruptcy on "Black Friday." |
Justice
department created under juristiction of the US attorney general.
It's given jurisdiction over the FBI.
|
The corruption of New York Democratic politican "Boss" Tweed is exposed. Pittsburgh, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia also experience political corruption. Huge fire in Chicago kills 250. |
Grant nominated and then elected for a second term. The New York Sun runs series on "Credit Mobilier" scandal implicating the US vice-president and members of congress, including Republican Oakes Ames in massive corruption. Upshot is that construction of the transcontinental railroad was accomplished with bribes. |
Republican financier Jay Cooke's brokerage house collapses, and 37 more banks and investment companies fail in its wake. The New York Stock Exchange closes for 10 days. "Panic of '73" ensues, and the nation is plunged into a major depression. Oakes Ames let off with mere censure. Tweed gets 12 years in jail. Congress passes "Salary Grab Act" retroactively raising public officals salaries enormously. |
In the face of public outrage, Congress repeals the Salary Grab Act. Congress adds $20 million to currency in circulation. |
Deflationary "Resumption of Specie Payment Act" passed. Grant's personal secretary, the chief clerk of the Treasury, and other Republican officials implicated in the "Whiskey Ring" scandal, involving shakedown payments, blackmail, and threats. |
Rutherford B. Hayes Republican nominee for president. Democratic nominee Samuel J. Tilden wins popular vote, but votes in four states (including Florida) are declared invalid. |
End of reconstruction In the fourth year of the depression, infuriated by the injustice of the railroad companies, a nationwide railroad rebellion begins. Hayes calls in federal troops and 100s are murdered and thousands injured. Union occupation troops withdrawn from the south. Joint Electoral Commission. Republican Hayes delcared president on basis of controversial electoral college count. |
Business
& Economics
|
Following massive gifts of public land to private companies, the Central Pacific Railroad is created from 1864 to 1869, with the cheap labor of 15,000 Chinese workers. John D. Rockefeller buys out Cleveland oil refining partner. From the early '60s through 1873 the stock market is characterized by overspeculation and inflated stock prices. Andrew Carnegie founds Keystone Bridge, an iron bridge business. |
Credit grows scarce, deflation increases. US Telegraph Company taken over by Western Union, forming nationwide company. |
The first boiler insurance company issues a policy in Hartford, Connecticut. US Plate Glass Insurance Company incorporates. J. P. Morgan, having trained at a bank, transfers to his father's banking company. The first telegraph ticker in the US is installed in a New York brokerage house. Flagler joins Rockefeller and is set the task of cornering the market for tankers to transport oil. |
Carnegie Steel Co. established Farmers and other debtors had benefitted from inflation created by "greenbacks". Business interests oppose redemption of federal bonds with greenbacks, favor deflationary money shortage. Burlingame Treaty permits unlimited Chinese immigration to US but without naturalization provisions. American Free Trade Association founded. |
Construction of Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads completed, creating the first transcontinental railroad. Chicago inventor awarded patent for first suction vacuum cleaner. Cornelius Vanderbilt consolidates Hudson River and New York Central railroads. |
Standard Oil Company established by John D. Rockefeller. US passes legislation to protect domestic industrial production by adding high tariffs on imported goods. President of the PA Railroad pushes a new form of business charter through business-dominated PA legislature, permitting "holding companies". The charter is so broad and vague as to permit company owners to conduct any business they want in any way they want. |
WIth
secret planning provided by John D. Rockefeller and partner Henry Flagler,
and utilizing a newly chartered "holding company", the railroads
combine with the largest oil refiners to control the flow of oil in
their own interests. Cartel members get "drawbacks" from the
higher shipping rates charged to those who don't join.
|
Andrew Carnegie establishes his first steel mill near Pittsburgh. Aaron Montgomery Ward founds mail order business. |
Vanderbilt
acquires Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroads.
|
By
means of political manipulation and connivance to monopolize, Rockefeller
controls almost all oil refining and distribution.
|
|||
Ethnic
|
13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, ratified. Freedman's Bureau bill passed. Ku
Klux Klan established in TN. |
Civil Rights Act passed, granting full citizenship to all races. |
Sponsored by Radical Republicans, 14th amendment is ratified. Intended to protect the rights of African-Americans, the amendment is soon exploited in the courts by corporations to claim the same rights for corporations as actual human beings, with consequences that proved disastrous for the common good. African-Americans expelled from GA state legislature. |
Colored
National Labor Convention meets in DC.
|
Also sponsored by the Radical Republicans, the 15th amendment ensures the vote to black males. First African-American seated in US Congress. Decades of black lynchings begin. |
Indian Appropriation Act passed by Congress, greatly weakening the indian negotiating position. Anti-Chinese race riots erupt in Los Angeles. |
Grant
appoints commission to negotiate Black
Hills purchase from Indians.
|
Vain,
ambitious General Custer's
troops killed to the last man.
|
|||||
Women's
|
Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Susan
B. Anthony establish the American
Equal Rights Association to champion women's suffrage
|
American Equal Rights Association meets in DC. National Woman Suffrage Assoc. founded, Elizabeth Cady Stanton president. Wyoming Territory gives women the vote. |
Women
in Utah Territory vote for the first time.
|
Susan
B. Anthony arrested for attempting to vote in the presidential election.
|
|||||||||
|
Labor |
The
National
Labor Congress meets for the first time.
|
The Grangers established to enhance social and educational opportunities for farm families. In search of wage stability, US shoemakers found the Order of the Knights of St. Crispin. |
First bureau of labor in the US established in MA. 108 coal miners suffocate when mine collapses in PA. Noble Order of the Knights of Labor founded in PA. |
US
telegraph operators go on strike.
|
Labor leader Uriah Stephens calls for more equitable work hours and wage conditions. "Mother Jones" loses all possessions in Chicago fire. |
Wage cuts for Ohio miners announced, leading to strikes. Social Democratic Workingmen's party established. |
Workers in Pennsylvania notified wages will be decreased, triggering a strike. In the face of 3-year wage decreases totaling 35%, Great Railroad Strike is called. Federal troops brought into break it up. In Maryland militia murders nine strikers, wound others. Strikers in PA attacked by state troops. Nineteen murdered in Chicago by police. |
||||||
Environment |
.
|
.
|
First
state forestry commission is founded in Wisconsin.
|
.
|
.
|
Secretary
of the Interior resigns in the face of pressure from industrial interests
seeking liberal access to natural resources.
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
Military
&
|
General
Sheridan dispatched to Texas border to demand withdrawal of Napoleon III
from Mexico.
(The Monroe Doctrine opposed European colonialism in the Americas.)
|
Plans
made for a survey of Panama.
|
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Cultural
&
|
Darwin's
"On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" was
published in 1859, causing an enormous intellectual upheaval.
|
Herbert
Spencer, coiner of the phrase "survival of the fittest", authored
first volume of the immensely influential "Synthetic Philosophy"
in 1864, furnishing a rationale for rugged individualism and robber barron
predations.
|
Horatio
Alger publishes "Ragged Dick" putting forward the view that
"your future position depends mainly upon yourself, and . . . it
will be high or low as you choose to make it."
|
Philosopher/Psychologist William James experiences near nervous breakdown. |
William
James contemplates suicide, but makes resolutions that later provide the
basis for pragmatism instead.
|
Mark
Twain publishes "The Gilded Age" scourging the greed and corruption
of the era.
|
Society
of American Artists founded.
|
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Progressivism |
Missouri
coalition of Democrats and dissident Republicans secures US Senate seat
for reformist Carl Schurz.
|
Wealthy,
patrician New York lawyer Samuel Tilden wades in against corruption of
Tweed.
|
Tilden,
Schurz organize a convention establishing "Liberal Republican"
party, in opposition to the Radical Republicans, but lose control to a
"realist" faction and nominate unpopular Horace Greeley.
|
Henry
George begins work on "Progress
and Poverty", an indictment of the corrupting effect of concentrated
wealth and power.
|
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|
1865
|
1866
|
1867
|
1868
|
1869
|
1870
|
1871
|
1872
|
1873
|
1874
|
1875
|
1876
|
1877
|
Sources: United States History Since 1865, Nelson Klose & Curt Lader; Social Darwinism in American Thought, Richard Hofstadter; Rendezvous With Destiny, Eric F. Goldman; America's Gilded Age, Judith Freeman Clark; The Gilded Age, Janette Thomas Greenwood; The Rockefellers, an American Dynasty, Peter Collier & David Horowitz; The Rise of Industrial America, Page Smith.