American pageant summary 13th edition

Railroads gave land their value; towns where railroads ran became sprawling cities while those skipped by railroads sank into ghost towns, so, obviously, towns wanted railroads in them. Spanning the Continent with Rails Deadlock over where to build a transcontinental railroad was broken after the South seceded, and in , Congress commissioned the Union Pacific Railroad to begin westward from Omaha, Nebraska, to gold-rich California. Many Irishmen, who might lay as much as 10 miles a day, laid the tracks.

When Indians attacked while trying to save their land, the Irish dropped their picks and seized their rifles, and scores of workers and Indians died during construction. Over in California, the Central Pacific Railroad was in charge of extending the railroad eastward, and it was backed by the Big Four: including Leland Stanford, the ex-governor of California who had useful political connections, and Collis P.

Huntington, an adept lobbyist. The Central Pacific used Chinese workers, and received the same incentives as the Union Pacific, but it had to drill through the hard rock of the Sierra Nevada. In , the transcontinental rail line was completed at Promontory Point near Ogden, Utah; in all, the Union Pacific built 1, mi. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe stretched through the Southwest deserts and was completed the following year, in Hill, probably the greatest railroad builder of all.

Railroad Consolidation and Mechanization Older eastern railroads, like the New York Central, headed by Cornelius Vanderbilt, often financed the successful western railroads. Advancements in railroads included the steel rail, which was stronger and more enduring than the iron rail, the Westinghouse air brake which increased safety, the Pullman Palace Cars which were luxurious passenger cars, and telegraphs, double-racking, and block signals.

Nevertheless, train accidents were common, as well as death. Revolution by Railways Railroads stitched the nation together, generated a huge market and lots of jobs, helped the rapid industrialization of America, and stimulated mining and agriculture in the West by bringing people and supplies to and from the areas where such work occurred. Railroads helped people settle in the previously harsh Great Plains. Due to railroads, the creation of four national time zones occurred on November 18, , instead of each city having its own time zone that was confusing to railroad operators.

Railroads were also the makers of millionaires and the millionaire class. Wrongdoing in Railroading Railroads were not without corruption, as shown by the Credit Mobilier scandal. Railroad owners abused the public, bribed judges and legislatures, employed arm-twisting lobbyists, elected their own to political office, gave rebates which helped the wealthy but not the poor , and used free passes to gain favor in the press.

Government Bridles the Iron Horse People were aware of such injustice, but were slow to combat it. The Grange was formed by farmers to combat such corruption, and many state efforts to stop the railroad monopoly occurred, but they were stopped when the Supreme Court issued its ruling in the Wabash case, in which it ruled that states could not regulate interstate commerce, such as trains.

The Interstate Commerce Act, passed in , banned rebates and pools and required the railroads to publish their rates openly so as not to cheat customers , and also forbade unfair discrimination against shippers and banned charging more for a short haul than for a long one. Miracles of Mechanization In , the U.

Now-abundant liquid capital. However, its programs only aimed at those who owned their own land, thereby ignoring the tenant farmers, and it purposely excluded Blacks. The Alliance members agreed on the 1 nationalization of railroads, 2 the abolition of national banks, 3 a graduated income tax, and 4 a new federal sub-treasury for farmers. Populists were led by Ignatius Donnelly from Minnesota and Mary Elizabeth Lease, both of whom spoke eloquently and attacked those that hurt farmers banks, railroads, etc.

Many disgruntled unemployed fled to D. They called for: relieving unemployment by an inflationary government public works program. The march fizzled out when they were arrested for walking on the grass. Debs helped organize the workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company.

Workers struck, sometimes violently. Attorney General Richard Olney called in federal troops to break up the strike. His rationale: the strike was interfering with the transit of U. Debs went to prison for 6 months and turned into the leading Socialist in America. McKinley was the making of another Ohioan, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, who financially and politically supported the candidate through his political years. McKinley was a conservative in business, preferring to leaves things alone, and his platform was for the gold standard, even though he personally was not.

His platform also called for a gold-silver bimetallism—provided that all the other nations in the world did the same, which was not bound to happen. At the Democratic Convention in Chicago, Bryan delivered a movingly passionate speech in favor of free silver.

The Democratic ticket called for unlimited coinage of silver with the ratio of 16 silver ounces worth as much as one ounce of gold. Democrats who would not stand for this left the party. This election was perhaps the most important since the elections involving Abraham Lincoln, for it was the first to seemingly pit the privileged against the underprivileged, and it resulted in a victory for big business and big cities.

And, put to the vote, it was clear then that Americans were going with gold. Also in the election, the Middle Class preserved their comfortable way of life while the Republicans seized control of the White House of 16 more years. Republican Standpattism Enthroned When McKinley took office in , he was calm and conservative, working well with his party and avoiding major confrontations. The Dingley Tariff Bill was passed to replace the Wilson-Gorman law and raise more revenue, raising the tariff level to whopping US History.

Subject X Printer-friendly version. Need Help? If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you! Skip to main content. Printer Friendly. The Popular Sovereignty Panacea The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War, but it started a whole new debate about the extension of slavery, with Northerners rallying around the Wilmot Proviso which proposed that the Mexican Cession lands be free soil ; however, the Southerners shot it down.

Before, the two national parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, had had strong support from all over the nation; now, that was in jeopardy. In , Polk, due to tremendous overworking and chronic diarrhea, did not seek a second term, and the Democrats nominated General Lewis Cass, a veteran of the War of , a senator and diplomat of wide experience and considerable ability, and the originator of popular sovereignty, the idea that issues should be decided upon by the people specifically, it applied to slavery, stating that the people in the territories should decide to legalize it or not.

It was good and liked by politicians because it was a compromise between the extremes of the North and the South, and it stuck with the idea of self-determination, but it could spread slavery.

Political Triumphs for General Taylor The Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor, the hero of Buena Vista in the Mexican War, a man with no political experience, but popular man, and they avoided all picky issues in his campaign.

Disgusted antislavery Northerners organized the Free Soil Party, a party committed against the extension of slavery in the territories and one that also advocated federal aid for internal improvements and urged free government homesteads for settlers.

Neither major party talked about the slavery issue, but Taylor won narrowly. As a result, California privately encouraged by the president drafted a constitution and then applied for free statehood, thus bypassing the usual territorial stage and avoiding becoming a slave state. Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad In , the South was very well off, with a Southerner as president Taylor , a majority in the cabinet and on the Supreme Court, and equality in the Senate meaning that its 15 states could block any proposed amendment that would outlaw slavery.

Still, the South was worried. The balance of 15 free states and 15 slave states was in danger with the admission of free California which would indeed destroy the equilibrium forever and other states might follow California as free states. Finally the Underground Railroad, a secret organization that took runaway states north to Canada, was taking more and more slaves from the South.

Harriet Tubman freed more than slaves during 19 trips to the South. Worst of all were the slums, which were crammed with people.

To escape, the wealthy of the city-dwellers fled to suburbs. The New Immigration Until the s, most of the immigrants had come from the British Isles and western Europe Germany and Scandinavia and were quite literate and accustomed to some type of representative government.

Southern Europe Uprooted Many Europeans came to America because there was no room in Europe, nor was there much employment, since industrialization had eliminated many jobs. America was also often praised to Europeans, as people boasted of eating everyday and having freedom and much opportunity. Profit-seeking Americans also perhaps exaggerated the benefits of America to Europeans, so that they could get cheap labor and more money. However, it should be noted that many immigrants to America stayed for a short period of time and then returned to Europe, and even those that remained including persecuted Jews, who propagated in New York tried very hard to retain their own culture and customs.

However, the children of the immigrants sometimes rejected this Old World culture and plunged completely into American life. Among the people who were deeply dedicated to uplifting the urban masses was Jane Addams, who founded Hull House in to teach children and adults the skills and knowledge that they would need to survive and succeed in America.

She eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize in , but her pacifism was looked down upon by groups such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, who revoked her membership. The new cities also gave women opportunities to earn money and support themselves better mostly single women, since being both a working mother and wife was frowned upon.

These new bigots had forgotten how they had been scorned when they had arrived in America a few decades before. Trade unionists hated them for their willingness to work for super-low wages and for bringing in dangerous doctrines like socialism and communism into the U. Anti-foreign organizations like the American Protective Association APA arose to go against new immigrants, and labor leaders were quick to try to stop new immigration, since immigrants were frequently used as strikebreakers.

Finally, in , Congress passed the first restrictive law against immigration, which banned paupers, criminals, and convicts from coming here. In , another law was passed banning the importation of foreign workers under usually substandard contracts. Literacy tests for immigrants were proposed, but were resisted until they were finally passed in , but the immigration law also barred the Chinese from coming the Chinese Exclusion Act. Ironically in this anti-immigratnt climate, the Statue of Liberty arrived from France—a gift from the French to America in Churches Confront the Urban Challenge Since churches had mostly failed to take any stands and rally against the urban poverty, plight, and suffering, many people began to question the ambition of the churches, and began to worry that Satan was winning the battle of good and evil.

The emphasis on material gains worried many. A new generation of urban revivalists stepped in, including people like Dwight Lyman Moody, a man who proclaimed the gospel of kindness and forgiveness and adapted the old-time religion to the facts of city life.

The Moody Bible Institute was founded in Chicago in and continued working well after his death. Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths were also gaining many followers with the new immigration.

By , Americans could choose from religions, including the new Salvation Army, which tried to help the poor and unfortunate. Darwin Disrupts the Churches In , Charles Darwin published his On the Origin of Species, which set forth the new doctrine of evolution and attracted the ire and fury of fundamentalists.

They contended that the Bible was merely a collection of moral stories or guidelines, but not sacred scripture inspired by God. Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll was one who denounced creationism, as he had been widely persuaded by the theory of evolution.