Resource Center OLLibrary
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[1870-1871 |
from 5000 to 40,000 acres each, and have 50,000 head of cattle
or sheep. There are single wheat fields of 13,000 acres, and
single farms which extend for many miles, -- covered as far as the
eye can see, with one mass of grain rolling in golden waves. These
are the kind of farms on which thirty-three horse harvesters,
steam plows, and steam harvesters are in use (§ 303).
372. Completion of Reconstruction; the
Weather Bureau; Great Fires; the "Boss" Tweed "Ring." The
reconstruction of the southern states was completed in 1870; and
in January of the
Copyright, Underwood & Underwood
A THIRTY-THREE HORSE HARVESTER
following year (1871) all the states "were represented in
Congress for the first time since December, 1860." The disastrous
effects of negro voting in South Carolina and some other states
where the "freedmen" were in the majority (§ 365) caused
violent resistance on the part of the white inhabitants. A secret
society known as the Ku Klux Klan was organized in various parts
of the South to prevent the negroes from voting. Congress passed
the "Force Bill" (1871) to give military protection to the
black
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1871-1873] |
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man1 (repealed, 1894). Experience has since proved
that the negro can protect himself best by advancing in education
and in habits of industry. It has already been mentioned (§
366) that a number of southern states have practically abolished
the African American's right to vote, but the fact remains that
the negro, like the white man, still has the liberty to make
himself what he chooses. That noted colored educator, Booker T.
Washington, once said that he would rather be an "American negro"
than a white man.2
Another important work accomplished by Congress
(1870) was the establishment of the Weather Bureau. This
department has its headquarters at Washington, with branches in
all the principal cities.
Its object is to give information of approaching
storms and changes of weather. It has been the means of saving the
country from heavy losses both by land and sea.
The next autumn (1871) a great fire broke out in
Chicago, which destroyed about 18,000 buildings valued at
$200,000,000. During the same season terrible forest fires caused
great destruction in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The year
following (1872) a conflagration consumed business property in
Boston worth about $80,000,000. These losses greatly aggravated
the panic which followed soon afterward (1873) (§ 373). Our
losses by fire now average more than $600,000 a day for every day
in the year.
In New York City it was discovered that "Boss"
Tweed, one of the commissioners of public works, had been guilty,
in connection with other city officers, of a series of stupendous
frauds. In the course of years this "ring," as it was called,
robbed the city of many millions, -- so many, in fact, that it
would have been cheaper to have had a great fire like that of
Chicago or Boston than to have kept these men in power. Eventually
the "ring" was broken up, and Tweed died in Ludlow Street
Jail.
373. New Coinage Act;
Business Panic, 1873; Centennial Exhibition; the Telephone;
Remarkable Electrical Progress. During the Civil War, and for
many years afterward, paper money
1 See W. Macdonald's
"Select Statutes" (1861-1898), p. 249.
2 See Booker T. Washington's "The
American Negro of To-day," in Putnam's Monthly, October,
1907, p. 70.
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[1873-1876 |
was the only kind generally in use throughout the country
(§ 324). Silver dollars had practically disappeared largely
because people found dollar bills more convenient to carry than
the heavier money, and although smaller silver coins were common,
they, of course, could only be used for making trifling purchases
and for "change."
For these reasons Congress passed a new Coinage
Act (1873) which dropped "the silver dollar of our fathers"
(§ 202) and ordered the United States mints not to issue any
money for use at home1 but gold pieces, small silver,
and coppers.
The Coinage Act attracted hardly any attention
at the time, but a few years later a great outcry was raised
against the measure and Congress was forced to restore the silver
dollar (§ 379).
The year 1873 was also memorable as the date of
the beginning of a great business panic which ruined a multitude
of people. One reason for the outbreak of the trouble was that the
success of the first Pacific Railway (§ 371) led to the
building of more western railways than the country then
needed.
Thousands of men believed that by speculation
they could get rich at locomotive speed, but their plans ended (as
in 1837 and 1857) (§§ 275, 312) in a terrible crash.
Even the United States government felt so pinched for money that
it stopped making payments on the war debt for a time, and all
work on public buildings came to a standstill. The country did not
fully recover from the "hard times" for five or six years.
A leading feature of the celebration of the
anniversary of the One Hundredth Year of the Independence of the
United States was the opening of the Centennial Exhibition in
Fairmount Park, Philadelphia (1876). The principal buildings
covered a total space of about seventy-five acres. All the nations
of the world sent products of their industry or their art to be
exhibited; but, as in the World's Fair of 1853 (§ 303), our
own country again took the lead in the display of useful
inventions. The Exhibition showed what a great change had taken
place in the mode of doing most kinds of work. In Washington's
day, and for many
1 The new Coinage
Act provided, however, for the coinage of "trade dollars" to be
employed in our commerce with China where silver was the only
currency generally in use.
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years
later, nearly everything was done by hand; but by the
time we had reached our hundredth birthday an industrial
revolution had taken place. Arms of iron and fingers of
steel now performed the labor. The duty of the workman
since that period has, been mainly to guide and
superintend a machine which is his willing, tireless
servant. One such machine, for instance, an electric
printing press (§ 303), can often do more in a
single hour than a man, working with his hands alone,
could do in a week or in a number of weeks.|
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[1876 |
it drives some of our largest battleships. Because of these
things we have named the twentieth century the "Electric Age."
1
But, not satisfied with speeding over the
astonished earth in automobiles or rushing through the water in
motor-boats, we shoot through the sky in
aëroplanes,2 first invented by the Wright brothers
of Ohio, in 1903. On May 27, 1919, Commander A. C. Read, an
officer in our navy,, did what no man had ever done before. He,
with four other Americans, finished his flight across the Atlantic
from Long Island to Lisbon, in an airship built to swim as well as
fly.3
374. International Progress; Indian Wars;
Colorado. Meanwhile we made very important political progress.
A number of persons chosen by us and by Great Britain4
met in Switzerland (1871) to decide an old dispute. They decreed
that England should pay the United States $15,500,000 for damages
done by the Alabama and other Confederate warships built in
England (§ 329). That peaceable settlement was an honor to
both England and America.
At home we had disputes with bands of Western
Indians, which were not settled so easily. Our government wanted
to buy the hunting grounds held by the Modocs in Oregon and by the
Sioux in Dakota, and to give them land in the Indian Territory.
But these tribes had little faith in the promises of white men.
They resolved to fight rather than move. General Custer, one of
the bravest of our officers, was sent to deal with the Sioux
warriors. The Indians had about ten men to his one. Custer fought
desperately, but he and every one of his force were killed on the
spot (1876). Later, the government made peace with the
Indians.
In the same year (1876) Colorado entered the
Union as the "Centennial State."
1 In 1879 Edison
invented his electric lamp and in 1895 his moving-picture machine,
lighted and operated by electricity.
2 The electric-gasoline engine (in
which an electric spark explodes gasoline vapor) has given the
automobile, the motor-boat, and the aëroplane their
world-wide success.
3 Commander Read flew from Rockaway
Beach, near Brooklyn, New York, to Halifax, then to Newfoundland,
then to the Azores, and then to Lisbon. The total distance was
3470 miles. His flying time was 49 hours. (See cut, p. 411
4 They formed a Court of
Arbitration.
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1877] |
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375. The Disputed Presidential Election
(1876). In the Presidential election (1876) Mr. Hayes, the
Republican candidate, received a majority of one of the electoral
votes1 over his opponent, Samuel J. Tilden, the
Democratic candidate. The Democrats maintained that the election
had not been fairly conducted and that Mr. Tilden had really
received a majority of the votes for President. No such dispute
had ever arisen before, and it filled the whole country with
alarm. In order to settle this dangerous controversy Congress
appointed an Electoral Commission to decide the matter. It was
composed of ten members of Congress and five justices of the
United States Supreme Court. The Commission finally decided in
favor of Mr. Hayes by a vote of 8 to 7.
376. Summary. President Grant's
administration was marked (1) by the completion of the first
railway across the continent; (2) by the admission to Congress of
representatives of all the seceded states; (3) by a very important
treaty with England; (4) by terrible fires West and East, which
destroyed property worth many millions of dollars; (5) by a new
coinage act which dropped the silver dollar from our coins; (6) by
a severe business panic; (7) by the Centennial Exhibition at
Philadelphia, and by the disputed presidential election of
1876.
377. Hayes' Administration (Nineteenth
President, One Term, 1877-1881); Withdrawal of Troops from the
South; the First Great Labor Strike. President
Hayes2 believed that there would never be permanent
peace at the South until the people of that section were allowed
to manage their own affairs without the interference of the
national government. He therefore withdrew the
1 See the
Constitution, Article II, Section I, Paragraphs 1-4.
2 Rutherford B. Hayes was born in
Ohio in 1822. He studied law, and settled in Cincinnati. During
the Civil War he became a brigadier general in the Union army.
After the war he was twice elected governor of Ohio. In 1876 he
was elected President by the Republicans (William A. Wheeler of
New York, Vice President) over Samuel J. Tilden of New York and
Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana, the Democratic candidates. Mr.
Hayes had but one more of the electoral votes than his opponent.
On the dispute which followed see § 375.
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[1877 |
United States troops from that part of the country, trusting
that the whites and the blacks would come to an understanding
between themselves. From that time forward the "solid South" --
that is, the solid white vote of the South -- got the control, and
the negro ceased to govern (§ 365). The whole country was
glad that the strife was over, and although many Republicans
condemned the President's action, the majority of the people
heartily approved it.
In the summer (1877), the first great historic
labor strike in America occurred. The employees of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railway refused to work on account of a threatened
reduction of wages. The strike spread to several states and more
than 100,000 railway men went out. At Pittsburg serious riots
occurred. A mob set fire to railway freight houses, machine shops,
and other buildings, thereby destroying property worth many
millions. Order was not finally restored until the President sent
troops to Pittsburg to prevent further
destruction.1
378. Deepening the Chief Mouth of the
Mississippi. During President Hayes' administration the
attention of Congress was particularly called to the condition of
the Mississippi below New Orleans. That great river is constantly
bringing down vast quantities of sand and mud, which gradually
fill up the mouths of the stream.
These sand bars finally blocked the passage to
such an extent that large and heavily loaded ships could pass over
them only with the greatest difficulty. On one occasion more than
fifty vessels were seen waiting for an opportunity to get to sea.
Sometimes they were delayed there for days, or weeks, even, and
had at last to hire tugboats, at great expense, to tow them
through.
Finally (1875), Captain Eads of St. Louis, the
builder of the great steel arch bridge across the Mississippi at
that point, undertook to open the "South Pass," which is one of
the five mouths of the great river. His plan, though not new, was
most ingenious. He had noticed that where the river was narrow the
current was strong, and so deposited but little mud to fill up the
channel. He said to himself, By building new banks on each side,
near the
1 See Carroll D.
Wright on Historic Strikes, in the North American Review,
June, 1902. and E. 13. Andrews' "The United States in Our
Time."
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1878-1879] |
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mouth of the river, I can narrow the channel and increase the
force of the current to such a degree that it will carry all the
sand and mud out to sea. Then when the bar is dredged through it
will never form again.
Congress gave him-permission to try the
experiment. He set to work, and in four years proved the truth of
his idea (1879). Since then, the Mississippi, like a well-behaved
river, has swept out its own channel, and large ocean steamers can
pass up to New Orleans, or out to sea, without difficulty or
expense. Captain Eads' great work has been of immense benefit, for
the export commerce of New Orleans is the largest of any city in
America except New York.1
379. The Government restores the "Dollar of
our Fathers"; "Greenbacks" become as Good as Gold. We have
seen (§ 373) that Congress dropped the silver dollar from our
coins (1873). Many people, especially Western and Southern farmers
who were pressed for money, demanded that the government should
restore "the dollar of our fathers." The Western silver-mine
owners joined in the cry for "the free and unlimited coinage of
silver." Congress would not grant that, but passed a bill
restoring the silver dollar (1878).2 President Hayes
promptly vetoed it. He said that the market value, by weight, of a
standard silver dollar was then only about ninety-two cents. On
this account he held that it would be a dishonest act for the
government to issue such a coin. But a majority in Congress
believed that silver would rise in value and they passed the bill
over his veto.3 The Treasury Department then began
buying silver by the car load, and the mint began turning out
silver dollars by the ton.
The paper money called "greenbacks,"4
which the government first issued during the Civil War, and with
which it paid part
1 For an interesting
account of Captain Eads' work, see Scribner's Magazine,
Vol. XIX, "The Mississippi Jetties" (illustrated). In 1908 the
Southwest Pass was deepened.
2 This was the BIand-Allison Silver
Purchase and Coinage Act. It required the Secretary of the
Treasury to purchase from $2,000,000 to $4,000,000 worth of silver
every month and coin it into standard dollars. This act continued
in force for twelve years, during which time nearly $400,000,000
in silver dollars were coined and stored in the Treasury vaults at
Washington.
3 See the Constitution, Article 1,
Section 7, Paragraph 2.
4 A name derived from the color of
the backs of the bills (§ 324).
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[1879-1881 |
of its enormous expenses, was worth less than gold. At one time
(summer of 1864) it took nearly three dollars in "greenbacks" to
purchase as much as a single dollar in gold would buy. That meant
that the people then had so little confidence in the power of the
government to do as it agreed that its paper promise of payment
stamped "one dollar" was worth only about thirty-five cents.
But after the war, when the government began to
pay off its debt, the feeling changed. Then this paper money rose
in value, until at last a "greenback" dollar would buy quite as
much as a gold dollar.
Finally, on New Year's Day (1879), the Treasurer
of the United States stood ready to give gold coin in exchange for
"greenbacks." This strengthened the credit of the government and
enabled it to borrow all the money it wanted (to meet the debt as
it fell due) at very low rates of interest.
380. Summary. The four most important events of
Mr. Hayes' presidency were (1) his withdrawal of troops from the
South; (2) the great railway and coal strikes; (3) the deepening
of the mouth of the Mississippi; (4) the purchase of large
quantities of silver which was coined into dollars; (5) the
redemption of "greenbacks" in gold and the reduction of the
expenses of the governmerit in paying interest on its debt.
381. Garfield's and Arthur's
Administrations (Twentieth and Twenty-first Presidents, One Term,
1881-1885); Assassination of the President; Civil Service Reform.
In the summer following his inauguration President
Garfield1 was shot by a disappointed office seeker
named Guiteau.2 He died in the autumn
1 James A. Garfield
was born in Ohio, 1831; died, 1881. His early life was passed in
hardship and poverty. By dint of hard work he fitted himself for
college, and graduated at Williams College, Massachusetts. He
entered the Union army, and was promoted to the rank of major
general. In 1863 he was elected to Congress, and later was chosen
United States senator. In 1880 he was elected President (Chester
A. Arthur of New York, Vice President) over General W. S. Hancock
of Pennsylvania and William H. English of Indiana, the Democratic
candidates.
2 Guiteau was convicted of the murder
and hanged.
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1881-1883] |
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from the effects of the wound, and Vice President Arthur became
President.1
The murder of Garfield led to an attempt on the
part of Congress to relieve the President from the necessity of
appointing thousands2 of persons to government offices
merely as a reward for their having worked, or spent money, to get
him elected.
A law called the Civil Service Reform Act was
passed in 1883. It gave the President power to appoint
commissioners to examine persons applying for certain grades of
government offices known as the civil service, that is, all
outside of the military or naval service. These commissioners
recommend those who show themselves best fitted to do the work.
Out of the list they furnish, the President can then make his
selection.
This method takes off the President's hands a
vast amount of very laborious work. It also saves his time, and
spares him the vexation of having to listen to that class -- found
even among office seekers -- who cry night and day, like
professional beggars, "Give!" "Give!"
Since then the operation of this act has been
greatly extended. To-day about two thirds of the whole number of
civil offices and positions under the government are subject to
its rules.
Once the applicants for such places sought them
as a personal favor, but now under the "merit system" all have an
equal opportunity to attain government employment. Those who get
places have the right to keep them so long as they show themselves
faithful and capable.
382. The East River Suspension Bridge; Cheap
Postage; the Alien Contract Labor Act. An illustration of our
steadily growing prosperity and enterprise was given in the
completion of the great East River Suspension Bridge3
connecting New York City with
1 See the
Constitution, Article II, section I, Paragraph 6.
2 At present there are more than
420,000 persons employed in the civil service of the government.
This number includes all who are employed in the post-office
service, but not those in the diplomatic and consular departments.
The total number of clerks and others employed by the government
in the District of Columbia is over 25,000.
3 The bridge was begun by John A.
Roebling of Trenton, New Jersey, the inventor of wire suspension
bridges. Mr. Roebling only lived to complete the plan of the great
structure. He was succeeded by his son, W. A, Roebling, who
finished the work.
