Chapter 26 - The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution

1. The Clash of Cultures on the Plains

a. The Indians of the plains and the frontiersmen’s interests were contradictory – industrial vs. rural.
b. Whites weren’t the only displacers – Indians had been fighting among themselves for centuries. With horses, the
Indians became nomadic hunters and even endangered the bison population of the plains.
c. When white arrived, they exacerbated the situation. Indians were hostile to each other and whites spread cholera,
typhoid and smallpox. Whites also hunted the endangered bison and grazed their livestock on the prairie.
d. The federal government tried to pacify the Indians by signing two treaties: Fort Laramie in 1851 and Fort Atkinson
in 1853. This was the beginning of the reservation system where the boundaries of Indian settlement are set.
e. White society didn’t understand that the Indians rarely recognized an authority outside of their immediate family.
The nomadic Indians weren’t accustomed to living out their life on a definite piece of land.
f. In the 1860s, the government forced Indians into still smaller reservations including the “Great Sioux reservation” in
Dakota and Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
g. Indians only surrendered their land after they received promises of provisions, etc. from Washington. However, the
Indian agents were often corrupt and gave the Indians substandard goods.
h. After the Civil War, warfare with the Indians and the US troops was constant. The West army included European
immigrants that had ironically fled Europe to avoid enlistment and black troops nicknamed “Buffalo Soldiers.”
2. Receding Native Population
a. The wars were aggressive and largely savage. No one was safe, even women and children. In retaliation, an 1866
Sioux war party attempted to black construction of the Bozeman trail to the Montana goldfields. The ambushed
William J. Fetterman’s command and left no survivors.
b. This won the Sioux a temporary victory and the government swore in the second Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 to
leave their reservation alone. In 1874, George Armstrong Custer led an expedition into their territory and declared
that gold was there. Gold-seekers spilled in and the Sioux took to the warpath with Sitting Bull.
c. Custer’s cavalry set out to suppress the Indians. They ended up attacking a superior force along the Little Bighorn
River. The Indian force massacred the white forces when two columns failed to support them.
d. In 1877, a band of Nez Percé Indians were being herded onto a reservation. Chief Joseph eventually surrended after
trekking to find Sitting Bull and failing. They were sent to Kansas where many died and they were returned to Idaho
e. The Apache tribes of Arizona and New Mexico were led by Geronimo. They were difficult to subdue and only
surrendered when all their women were sent to Florida.
f. The government finally realized that it was cheaper to feed than fight the Indians. They lived as subservient wards of
the state and were almost ignored to death.
g. The railroad, the white diseases, alcohol and the death of the buffalo led to the Indian’s decline.
3. Bellowing Herds of Bison
a. The prosperity of the Indians was based on buffalo. They provided food, fuel, clothing, lariats and harnesses. Much
of the food supply for the railroad building came from buffalo. Once railroads became popular, buffalos were killed
wholesale fashion for their food and amusement.
4. The End of the Trail
a. Helen Hunt Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor and Ramona to awaken people to the Indian cause.
b. Humanitarians wanted to treat them kindly and help them assimilate. Hard-liners insisted the current policy was
necessary. Christian reformers sometimes withheld food until the Indians converted. In 1884, the reformers and
federal troops outlawed the Sun Dance and, in 1890, bloodily stamped out the “Ghost Dance” in the Battle of
Wounded Knee.
c. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 dissolved all tribes as legal entities. They set up Indian family heads with 160 free
acres. If they behaved themselves, in 25 years the land would be theirs and they would be citizens.
d. The reservation land not allotted to the Indians was to be sold to railroads and white settlers. The proceeds were to
pay for the civilization of the Indians. In 1979, the government had established the Carlisle Indian School in
Pennsylvania where Indian youth were raised the “right” way. In the 1890s, the government sent “field matrons” to
the tribes to teach them white society.
e. The Dawes Act struck particularly at the individualism of the tribes. The Indians lost most of their land and their
numbers declined. This stayed that way until the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
5. Mining: From Dishpan to Ore Breaker
a. The mining industry was enhanced by the subduing of the Indians and the railroad. In 1858, gold was discovered in
the Rockies. The “fifty-niners” or “Pike’s Peakers” were largely disappointed with the lack of gold.
b. The “fifty-niners” also poured into Nevada after the Comstock Lode had been discovered. The “Kings of Comstock”
hastily shoved Nevada as a state into the union.
c. Smaller lucky strikes littered the western states. Boomtowns or “Helldorados” followed the strikes; vigilante justice
preserved order and liquor was drunk heavily. When the gold ran out, the towns died, leaving ghost towns.
d. Once the surface gold was taken, the corporations bought expensive machinery to break up the quartz.
 e. The west and the mining industry attracted settlers west and women achieved a greater equality that won them the
vote.
f. The precious metals helped pay for the Civil War, helped the building of railroads, intensified conflict with Indians,
helped the Treasury resume specie payments and injected the silver issue into America politics.
6. Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive
a. The cattle of Texas were previously only used for hides. With the railroad, the meatpacking industry arose in the
west, spurred by the refrigerator cars.
b. The “Long Drive” was Texas cowboys driving herds slowly across the plains until they reached a railway station.
This gave birth to cities like Dodge City, Abilene, Ogallala, and Cheyenne. This was profitable as long as there was
grass for the cattle to feed on.
c. The railroad eventually hurt the Long Drive. It brought homesteaders and sheepherders to the west.
d. Stockmen eventually had no recourse but to make it a big business and organized. The Wyoming Stock-Growers’
Association helped the breeders to produce fewer animals and fence in the ranches.
e. The equipment of a cowhand served a real purpose in this time. They became part of folklore.
7. The Farmers’ Frontier
a. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for five years,
“improving it,” and paying a nominal fee. This change began a federal policy of stimulating the family farm instead
of selling public lands for profit. Many settlers took advantage and still more bought their land.
b. Weirdly, the 160 wasn’t much in the drought-covered Great Plains. Some felt that they government was playing a
joke on the settlers.
c. This act also spawned fraud. Companies would con or hire people to grab the best properties and swear later that
they improved it.
d. Railways stimulated settlement by marketing crops and selling land to immigrants from Europe.
e. Easterners generally assumed that because nothing grew in the deserts, it was infertile. Settlers soon realized that the
sod beneath their feet could be used to build houses and plant.
f. Wheat failures around the world led profit-hungry settlers to push past the 100th meridian, which John Wesley
Powell, an explorer of the Grand Canyon and director of the US Geological Survey, warned was impossible to
cultivate without massive irrigation. The six-year drought of the 1880s quickly sent settlers into debt.
g. “Dry farming,” frequent shallow cultivation, became an alternative, but contributed to the Dust Bowl.
h. Tough strains of wheat had to be imported from Russia were successful. Farmers abandoned corn and turned to
sorghum and drought-resistant grains. In 1874, Joseph F. Glidden perfected barbed wire, the western fence.
i. Federally financed irrigation projects eventually pushed the Missouri and Columbia rivers to irrigate the Great
American Desert.
8. The Far West Comes of Age
a. In the 1870s and 1890s, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming were
admitted because the Republican Congress was seeking more votes. Utah belatedly banned polygamy and was
eventually admitted to the Union.
b. The government made the formerly Indian district of Oklahoma available for settlement. However, well-armed
“sooners” jumped the time gun and had to be removed by federal troops. In 1889, legal “boomers” waited at the line
then erected the tent city of Guthrie. In 1907, it became the “Sooner State.”
9. The Fading Frontier
a. In 1890, the superintendent of the census announced that for the first time, the American frontier was no longer
discernable. In response, Frederick Jackson Turner wrote “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.”
b. America soon realized that its land was not inexhaustible. They sought to preserve it with the Yellowstone national
park in 1872 and the Yosemite and Sequoia in 1890.
c. Americans were notorious for their mobility – unlike Europeans, they weren’t tied to the land they farmed.
d. The frontier was called a “safety valve.” Whenever hard times arose, they supposedly moved west and farmed.
However, few city dwellers actually moved during hard times. Immigrants probably were the ones to move west,
rather than pushing into the cities. Urban employers also might have kept wages high to discourage western
movement. The real safety valve was the western cities where displaced people could seek wages.
e. The setting of the trans-Mississippi region was the final chapter of westward expansion. Anglo culture collided with
Indian, Hispanic, and Asian culture.
10. The Farm Becomes a Factory
a. High prices persuaded farmers to specialize and buy goods from a general store. Farmers were forced to buy
expensive machinery to participate in the market. The steam engine could pull immense machines. In 1870s, the
twine binder was invented and in the 1880s, the “combine” of a reaper-thresher was made. The farmers weren’t
businessmen however and were unskilled.
b. The agricultural modernization forced marginal farmers off their land and into factories. Those who survived
achieved miracles in production, making America the breadbasket of the world. Bonanza wheat farms were over
fifteen thousand acres and produced a large amount of product.
 c. In California, farms were way bigger than the national average. With the railroad refrigerator car, the farms raised
by Mexican and Chinese sold at a profit in the East.
11. Deflation Dooms the Debtor
a. With specialization, the farmers became dependent on the price of a single crop in the world market. Low prices and
deflated currency forced farmers to pay their debts with the value of more crops.
b. Prices were forced down because there wasn’t enough currency in the system. Despite their toil, they remained
indebted because their machines increase output, which decreases demand.
c. Runaway mortgages forced farmers into tenants, especially in the sharecropping South.
12. Unhappy Farmers
a. Floods out the time added to erosion and washed the topsoil off land. Droughts periodically hit the region. Local
farmers paid taxes to local, state, and federal authorities while bankers hit their earnings. They were forced to sell
their goods in a competitive market and buy manufactured goods in the protected market.
b. Farmers were also taken advantage of by various trusts that supplied needed goods.
c. The railroad charged high rates to transport goods to market. If the farmers complained, the railroad would let their
grain spoil or refuse to transport the goods all together.
d. In 1890, farmers made up half the population of the nation. However, they were independent-minded and failed to
organize themselves economically.
13. The Farmers Take Their Stand
a. The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (the Grange) was organized by Oliver H. Kelley. It aimed to help
the lives of farmers through social, educational and fraternal activities. They succeeded.
b. Eventually they included improvement of the farmers’ plight to their goals. They tried to create special housing for
the grain and stores for consumers.
c. They tried through the states to regulate railway rates and storage fees, winning battles mostly in the west. The states
created Granger Laws that were mostly appealed and reversed by judicial courts.
d. The Greenback Labor party combined pro-inflation with improving the lot of labor. They achieved some seats in the
Senate but James B. Weaver, their candidate for presidency, lost heavily.
14. Prelude to Populism
a. The Farmers’ Alliance tried to break free of railroads and manufacturers. However, it didn’t allow landless tenants,
sharecroppers, farmworkers, or blacks. Colored Farmers’ National Alliance was created to compensate.
b. In the 1890s, the Populists emerged, calling for nationalization of the railroads, telephones and telegraphs; a
graduated income tax; a federal “subtreasury”; and coinage of silver.
c. William Hope Harvey published Coin’s Financial School which extolled the free coinage of silver.
d. Ignatius Donnelly was elected to Congress three times.
e. Mary Lease (“Kansas Pythoness”) was a famous rabble-rouser.
f. The Populists began to grow, earning Congressional seats and polling votes in the presidential election. Racial
differences hobbled the southern Populists but the western numbers were growing.
15. Coxey’s Army and the Pullman Strike
a. The panic of 1893 made the unemployed march the streets in protest. A famous marcher Jacob S. Coxey demanded
the government provide payment for the unemployed. The “Commonweal Army” finally reached the capital but was
arrested for walking on the grass.
b. The Pullman strike of 1894 was led by the American Railway Union run by Eugene V. Debs. The Pullman Palace
Car Company maintained a company town. They decreased wages while maintaining the rent. Protesters overturned
cars and the AF of L denied involvement, enhancing their reputation for respectability.
c. The Chicago turmoil was heightened when US Attorney General Richard Olney requested federal troops on the
grounds that the protesters were halting the mail. Cleveland agreed and sent troops.
d. Federal troops crushed the Pullman strike and Debs was sentenced to prison time for disobeying an injunction to
stop striking. This was the first time the injunction was used conspicuously, causing many to see the connection
between big business and the government.
16. Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan
a. The election of 1896 hinged on the issue of gold standard vs. silver. The prominent Republican candidate was
William McKinley, of the tariff bill of 1890. McKinley was the creation of Marcus Alonzo Hanna, a fierce
Hamiltonian who believed that it was government’s job to protect business.
b. Hanna campaigned before the nomination with savvy and his own funds. The Republican platform straddled the
money question but leaned towards hard-money policies. It called for the gold standard, even though McKinley was
pro-silver in his Congressional term.
c. The Democrats saw Cleveland for his intervention in the Pullman strike, the bargain with Morgan and his hard-
money policies. He seemed to be more of a Republican than a Democrat.
d. The Democrats lacked a leader, but gained one in William Jennings Bryan. He harshly advocated for silver in his
Cross of Gold speech. The Democrat platform advocated the unlimited coinage of silver.
e. Pro-gold Democrats bolted the party, nominated a lost-cause candidate and hope for a McKinley victory. The
Populists now supported the Democrats, sacrificing themselves in the process.
17. Class Conflict: Plowholders Versus Bondholders
a. Hanna assumed he could make tariffs the main issue, but Bryan quickly made the free silver issue prominent. Bryan
created a panic among the easterners whose holdings could diminish overnight. This helped Hanna gather money for
a propaganda campaign. They amassed a large amount of money and drew accusations of buying the election.
b. Big businesses backed Hanna’s campaign and threatened their workers with lost jobs and wages.
c. McKinley won the election as voters were scared into voting. Bryan won the South and the west while McKinley
won the eastern states. The factory workers of the east were threatened by inflation.
d. Bryan’s was the last campaign to center around agrarian votes.
e. McKinley’s election started a reign of Republican dominance and ended the age of high voter turnouts, party
organizations, the money question and civil-service reform. A new age of industrial regulation and welfare began.
18. Republican Stand-pattism Enthroned
a. The tariff issue soon came to the fore. The Dingley Tariff Bill was passed in the House in 1897, but failed in the
Senate because it wasn’t high enough for lobbyists. The average eventually became 46.5%.
b. Prosperity began to return in 1897 and the republicans took credit. The money issue gradually faded away. The Gold
Standard Act of 1900 provided that currency would be redeemed for gold. Gold discoveries throughout the world
provided for the gold standard.