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Chapter 26: The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution

As the Civil War ended, the west remained unsettled and it was the land and habitat
for the Native Americans. By 1890, it was roughly carved into states and four
territories

I) The Clash of Cultures on the Plains

• Centuries before the Civil War, Indians were no strangers to cultural change
⇒ As the Spanish people drove them north from the Mississippi River and the
Rio Grande, they learned to ride horses and hunt for buffalos
⇒ When the white intruders came, they brought diseases that were unfamiliar
to the Indians
⇒ Whites also hunter their own prairie stock, the buffalos
• The federal government kept signing treaties and tried to establish boundaries
with the Indian chiefs in the mid-1800s
⇒ Treaties at Fort Laramie and Fort Atkinson was signed in 1851 and 1853,
respectively
⇒ In the 1960s Indian policies intensified, and Indians were forced west. They
wre promised food, clothing, and shelter but the corrupt Indian agents
palmed off supplies for the Indians
• For more than a decade after the Civil War, fierce clashes continuously existed
between the Indians and the U.S Army
II) Receding Native Population
• Aggressive Whites shot Indians for no reason, just to make sure they would give
no trouble
⇒ At Sand Creek, Colorado, in 1864, Colonel J.M. Chivington’s militia massacred
400 peaceful Indians
• In return, a Sioux War party in 1866 which attempted to block construction of
the Bozeman Trail to Montana ambushed Captain William J. Fetterman’s 81
soldiers and civilians. The Indians showed no mercy as they split a trooper’s
face with 105 arrows
⇒ George Armstrong Custer is now demoted to a colonel and turned into an
Indian fighter
• When gold seekers went to South Dakota to seek gold, the Sioux tribe took out
the intruders
⇒ Colonel Custer and his Seventh Cavalry, which were half filled with
immigrants, set out to suppress the Indians
⇒ They were wiped out with a superior force of 2,500 well-armed Indian
warriors
⇒ The U.S Army relentlessly hunted down those who humiliated Custor in later
years
• Most Indian tribes were convinced to be moved to the reservation
⇒ One band of Nez Percé Indians in northeast Oregon finally surrendered under
Chief Joseph

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⇒ Apache tribes of Arizona and New Mexico were the toughest to subdue. They
were led by Geronimo, and hatred of the whites blazed from their eyes.
Scattered remnants of the warriors were finally persuaded to surrender
⇒ The relentless U.S Army finally shattered the hope and spirit of the Native
Americans as they moved to the reservations
• White people at last discovered that the Native Americans were much cheaper
to feed than to fight
• As settlement of the European newcomers continue, Indians’ way of life would
be ruined

III) Bellowing Herds of Bison

• Buffalo provided everything for the Native Americans, and even some railroad
constructors in the west, from food to shelter, from clothing to fuel
• Large consumption of the herds of buffalo caused it to be near the verge of
extinction by 1885
IV) The End of the Trail
• By the 1880s hunting down the Indians became a controversial issue between
humanitarians and the hart-liners, although neither side cared to preserve Indian
culture
⇒ Helen Hunt Jackson from Massachusetts wrote about the ruthless and
merciless hunt-down of Native Americans which inspired readers to have
sympathy and compassion for them
(a) A Century of Dishonor was published in 1881
(b) Ramona (1884)
⇒ Christian reformers sometimes withheld food to force the Indians to give up
their tribal culture
⇒ Anti-Native American whites joined up with the military force to persuade the
federal government to outlaw the “Sun Dance”. And when the “Ghost
Dance” later spread to the Sioux in the Dakotas, the army took the Indians
down
• The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 dissolved many tribes, wiped out tribal
ownership of land, and persuaded the Indians to have a life style of the whites.
If they did what they were told, they would get ownership of their holdings plus
the American citizenship in the future
⇒ All Indians were granted American citizenship in 1924
⇒ The government funded the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania in 1879.
Native American Children were separated from their tribes and were taught
English and brainwashed with white custom and cultures
⇒ Purposely targeted the Indian tribal organization
⇒ Remained the official government Indian policy until the Indian
Reorganization Act of 1934 where the government tried to restore the tribal
organizations. Until then did the Indian population mount slowly

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V) Mining: From Dishpan to Ore Breaker

• Mining for gold became popular when gold was first discovered in California
⇒ There were more miners than minerals
⇒ The miners who rushed to the west in 1859 were called “fifty-nines”
⇒ Gold and Silver were also discovered in Nevada
⇒ Gold Rush increased western population and turned desert sands into cities
⇒ When the gold is all dug out, all the people just happened to leave, leaving
“ghost towns” like Virginia City and Nevada all empty
• Once the loose surface of gold is dug up, gold mining just became another
ordinary business for the bourgeoisies
• The mining frontier attracted population and wealth, and women found their
rights of the west s western states were open-minded for women suffrage. They
were the earliest states to let women vote
• Dug-up metals helped the nation to finance the Civil War, pay off debts, and
facilitate the building of railroads
• Gold rush intensified the conflict between whites and Native Americans
• Mining also gave intelligent writers like Bret Harte and Mark Twain something to
write about
VI) Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive
• The grassy plains of the west spawned millions of long horned cattle
• Before the days of the Transcontinental Railroad, cattle were not profitable
because there isn’t a way to get the meat to the market. The transcontinental
railroads saved the day
⇒ Meat Packaging also became a big business
• Texas cowboys drove herds of cattle to the north until they reach a railroad
terminal while the grass-filled prairies provided food for the herds
⇒ The favorite terminal points was Dodge city, Abilene, Ogallala, and Cheyenne
⇒ The order at Abilene terminal was maintained by Marshal James B. Hickock, a
fabulous gunman who was shot in 1876 when playing poker
⇒ The “Long Drive” were profitable to the cattlemen as long as they avoided
Indians, stampedes, cattle fever, and hazards
• The Transcontinental Railroad also brought new settlers, who made the Long
Drive less possible by building fences and ruining the prairie grass. With the
addition of the deadly cold winter of 1886-1887, cowboys returned to the old
agricultural way of life instead of cattle running
⇒ Eventually, cattle became farm-raised
• Spurs became a useful function on horses
• Blacks were as free as the whites on the open fields of the west
VII)The Farmers’ Frontier
• The Homestead Act of 1862 gave farmers the opportunity to own 160 acres of
land in the west as long as they live and farm on it for at least 5 years
⇒ Many people took advantage

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⇒ Although farming went smooth along the Mississippi River, it was rough along
the Great Plains; as much as 2 out of 3 farming families suffered from
drought in less than 5 years
⇒ Corporations often bribed homesteaders with cash or beer for certain pieces
of land with rich timber, minerals, and oil
• The Transcontinental Railroads promoted farming in the west by delivering their
crops to the east coast markets
⇒ Agents of corporations also worked on Europe to buy American crop or crop-
based products
• Corporations stopped the myth of rich soil in the western prairies by plowing
through them for minerals
• International crop failures drove up the wheat prices, which encouraged even
more farmers to the west
⇒ Geologist John Wesley Powell warned that in 1874 land west of the 100th
meridian was not great for farming. That little rainfall made farming nearly
impossible without large amounts of irritation
⇒ Farmers ignored his advice for the most part and went on to be broke when
the drought came
⇒ New techniques of “dry farming” completely dried the western plains which
caused the Dust Bowl several decades later
• Adaptations were made in the western environment in the later years
⇒ Drought and cold resistant wheat imported from Russia blossomed in the
great plains
⇒ Farmer abandoned common crops for drought resistant crops
⇒ Barbed wires made fence building possible in the west. It was perfected by
Joseph F. Glidden
⇒ The federal government financed irritation in the west
VIII)The Far West Comes of Age
• New western states were admitted into the union and the nation experienced a
great growth in population from the 1870s to 1890s
⇒ In 1889—1890 the Republican-dominated congress admitted 6 new states:
ND, SD, MO, WA, IO, WY
⇒ Utah was admitted to the union in 1896
• The federal government opened up Oklahoma for the farmers. Oklahoma was
formerly Indian land with rich and fertile soil
⇒ On April 22, 1889, people waited at the boarder for the legal opening date
⇒ By the end of the year Oklahoma boasted with 60,000 inhabitants; By 1907 it
became the “Sooner State”
IX) The Fading Frontier
• In 1890, America no longer needed a western frontier and achieved its manifest
destiny
• Although the secretary of war in 1827 prophesied that it will take 500 years to fill
up the west, Americans found their way to filling the west in land grants and gold
rushes

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⇒ To preserve the vanishing natural resources, the government set aside lands
for national parks: Yellowstone in 1872 followed by Yosemite and Sequoia in
1890
• The frontier meant more than a physical boundary or piece of land
⇒ America has been notorious for their mobility: farmers often profited more on
land than on their actual farming
⇒ Americans also thought of the frontier as a safety valve; In the safety valve
theory, whenever people don’t prosper, they always could just pack up and
move to the west to start over a as farmer
⇒ In truth, most city dwellers did not follow that theory. It is hard for them to
start over and pay farming stock
⇒ The safety valve theory does have some validity and the land grants did lure
people to the west; the mere thought of migrating west kept wages high in
the east to keep the workers. The real safety valve was the gold in the west
• After about 1880 the areas from the Rocky Mountains westward are the most
urbanized area of America by percentage of people living in the cities
• Westward expansion is a major part of U.S history
⇒ Frederick Jackson Turner wrote that “American history has been in a large
degree the history of the colonization of the Great West”
⇒ The western frontier had a lot of significance
(a) In the west the “Anglo” culture collided most directly with Hispanic culture
in the Southwest, which is reflected the historic rival between the Anglo-
Americans and the Spanish for dominance in the New World
(b) In the west America faced across the Pacific to Asia, and in the Pacific
coast most Asians dwell today
(c) The western environment posed largest challenges to human ambitions.
The emptiness of the western frontier molded American social and
political life and imagination
(d) No other region did the federal government play such a conspicuous role
in economic and social development
⇒ The west has been immortalized by writers like Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Helen
Hunt Jackson, and Francis Parkman. The life we lived, they dreamed of; they
life they lived, we can only dream
X) The Farm Becomes a Factory
• American farmers turned to growing a single cash crop, driven by the growing
wheat prices, and used their profit for daily supplies from the market or from
mail orders
• When American agriculture revolutionized, farmers who cannot afford expensive
machinery had to be outcompeted by the others
⇒ Farming became a form of mass production; it also became an industry
⇒ As farming tools and machinery gets better and more expensive, it naturally
supported the agricultural revolution and businessman farmers
⇒ However, farmers are bad businessman due to the lack of experience and
often blame their losses on unconcerned factors

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• The decrease of rural population gave power to industry in the cities. Those who
remained at farming became very productive and became the breadbasket for
America and the world
⇒ It foreshadowed the business of agriculture over the next century
⇒ Central Valley was a farm out of land grants. When the refrigerator car was
invented and used in the 1880s, farms like Central Valley near California
made a significant profit using cheap Mexican and Chinese immigrant labor
XI) Deflation Dooms the Debtor
• As the wheat and corn prices go down in the 1880s and 1890s, debtors were
doomed to destruction
⇒ Wheat and corn were America’s current “cotton”, the major cash crop
⇒ Global wheat and corn prices were controlled by global harvest, majorly
harvests in Russia and Argentina
⇒ The wheat and corn prices in turn depended on the harvest of Russia and
Argentina, and in the 1990s and 1890s, foreign harvest had a significant
amount
• With a growing amount of farm tenancy and sharecropping, farmers could not
afford margages, and that signifies the beginning stage of a depression
XII)Unhappy Farmers
• Natural disasters spawned rampantly across the field of farms
⇒ Clouds of grass hoppers devoured crops, leaving “nothing but mortgage”
⇒ Fertile soil was used up
⇒ Floods and erosions carried away the fertile topsoil
⇒ Farms suffered from drought in the west
⇒ Many farmers returned to their eastern homes
• Local, state, and national government taxes were high
• Corporations and trusts manipulates the prices that was unprofitable to the
farmers
• The railroad industry also implemented more growing price
• Farmers remained independent, and were unable to fight off the power of
monopolies until the FDR age of 1920s
XIII)The Farmers Take Their Stand
• The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was organized in 1867, led by
Oliver H. Kelley, a Minnesota farmer who was working as a clerk by then in
Washington
⇒ It was a organization for farmer’s rights
⇒ Kelley first concentrated on engaging isolated farmers in activities, and
socials so that farmers could take the 1st step towards unification
⇒ Kelley organized picnics, concerts, and lectures which most farmers
appreciated. He also organized secretive passwords and a hierarchy system
which the farmers also found receptive
⇒ This organization was so famous that it got 100,000 members by 1875; most
members were from the south or the Midwest

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• Under the Grange, farmers tried to cooperatively own and establish grain
elevators and warehouses and stores for consumer’s goods
⇒ The only failure was an attempt to manufacture harvesting machinery, which
ended with a financial disaster
• The Grangers also made their success in politics in the grain-growing regions of
the upper Mississippi Valley, majorly in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota.
They tried to control and regulate railroad and warehouse rates
⇒ However, in the dreaded Wabash decision the Supreme Court ruled that state
legislation could not control interstate commerce, such as the railroad
industry
⇒ Although the political future of the Grangers is over, it still influenced farmers
to social and unify, and speak out their interests
• Farmers later on went to support the Greenback Labor Party; although they
succeeded in electing 14 members of Congress, they failed to win a presidency
XIV)Prelude to Populism
• The Farmers’ Alliance was formed in the late 1870s and by the 1890s it reached
over a million members
⇒ As usual, women and blacks are ignored
⇒ In the 1880s the Colored Farmer’s National Alliance emerged for black
farmers and by 1890 membership reached more than 250,000
• A new political party called the People’s party, aka the Populists
⇒ They have great expectations and demands
(a) Public ownership of railroads
(b) Telephone and telegraph
(c) Instituting a graduated income tax
(d) Create a new federal “sub-treasury”—a scheme to provide farmers with
loans for crop stored in government-owned warehouses
(e) Unlimited coinage of silver
⇒ A popular pro-silver pamphlet named Coin’s Financial School written by
William Hope Harvey in 1894 was circulating among the lower class
⇒ They made a threat to the Republicans as they won several congressional
seats and pulled over a million votes in their presidential election
XV)Coxey’s Army and the Pullman Strike
• The Populists saw striking workers as potential allies
• Jacob S. Coxey was the most famous strike leader
⇒ Set out for Washington in 1894 to “right the nation’s wrong”, but his whole
army got arrested for stepping on the grass
• Labor leader Eugene V. Debs organized the dramatic Chicago Pullman strike of
1894 with over 150,000 members of the American Railway Union
⇒ Angry workers turned over Pullman cars and paralyzed railway traffic from
Chicago to the west coast
⇒ Was not supported by the American Federation of Labor
⇒ The turmoil was put down by the Illinois National Guardsmen, Police clubs,
and U.S army rifles. Although Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld thought that

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this strike was not completely out of hand, U.S attorney general Richard
Olney urged the dispatch of federal troops because the workers and strikers
were interfering with the U.S mail transit, and President Cleveland agreed
with him
⇒ Debs was sentenced to 6 month imprisonment for defiance of the court order
to cease striking. This was the 1st time the government has used such a legal
weapon for imprisoning a striker
⇒ Proved the unholy alliance between the business and the courts
XVI)Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan
• The Election of 1896 was over the issue of gold or silver coinage; whether to
keep gold, or to make inflation
• Republican candidate William McKinley of Ohio, supported financially by Marcus
Alonzo Hanna, who made himself rich in the iron industry and believed that the
sole purpose of government was to support the business, supported the gold
standard, although ironically in his history of being a congressman he always
supported the silverites
• Former Democratic president Grover Cleveland with a few others became the
conservative minority of their party and Cleveland was the most hated political
figure of the time, outvoted to not ran again for president by a stunning 564 to
357
⇒ Democrats chose the silverite from Nebraska William Jennings Bryan
⇒ He made a famous “Cross of Gold” speech in the conventional hall, saying
“We will answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them: ‘You
shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall
not crucify mankind by the cross of gold’”
⇒ Grover Cleveland and his conservative Democrats silently hoped for McKinley
to win the election
• The Populists now didn’t know what to do, since Bryan supported their clause of
coinage of silver. Some of them began to form the Demo-Pop party and others
refused to support Bryan as president

XVII)Class Conflict: Plowholders vs. Bondholders

• Hanna thought that he could easily change the focus of the election to tariffs,
but the energetic Bryan swept through 27 states concentrating on the gold-silver
issue
• Hanna and McKinley turned this around by threatening factory workers in the
east that if Bryan wins their wages would only be worth half of what it is. Buying
off factories for votes, Hanna’s 16 million dollar campaign paid off as McKinley
won the presidency
• The free-silver election of 1896 marked the new political era of the fourth party
system as it was a Republican turning point when the Republicans is going to

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take office for the next 16 consecutive years. Elections from this one on were
also focused on mushrooming cities as farming population decreased
XVIII)Republican Stand-pattism Enthroned
• McKinley took the presidential oath in 1897, and throughout his presidency, he
seemed to perspire with his calm conservativeness, as if the world was to remain
in peach and order and the status quo with him sitting in the white house
• McKinley’s tax rates were higher than the past years, and as prosperity came
down on the industry, every piece of controversy vanished to be gone with the
wind when wheat prices grow and gold discoveries ran rampantly nationwide,
making natural inflation of gold, simultaneously as the Republicans took credit
for all these prosperity when the Populists disappeared under the growing urban
cities

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