Reconstruction 1865-1877
Themes: How was the nation to be reunited?
How was slavery to be undone?
How was economic recovery in the South to be accomplished?
Would Congress become the dominant branch of government?
Issues of former slaves
1. Black Codes/Rise of Jim Crow
2. No land for freedmen
3. K.K.K.
4. Freedmen’s Bureau
Reunion
1. Lincoln Plan
2. Johnson Plan
3. Radical Plan – “ironclad oath”
4. 13th, 14th and 15th amendments
5. Radical Republican Governments
Congressional supremacy
1. Congressional (“Radical”)Reconstruction
2. Impeachment attempt – Tenure of Office Act, Command of the Military Act
Economy of South and North
1. Manufacturing Boom in North
2. Depressed cotton economy > tenant farmers, sharecroppers in south
Grant Administration (1868-1876)
Corruption – not Grant personally but his cabinet (Credit Mobilier, Indian Ring, Whiskey Ring)
City Corruption – Boss Tweed, machine politics, Tammany Hall
Compromise of 1877 – GOP Rutherford B. Hayes “defeats” Dem. Samuel Tilden in 1876 election
Hayes loses popular vote and trails electoral vote – 3 disputed states
Commission to decide the 3 states – rules Hayes the winner in all 3
To gain legitimacy, Hayes promises to pull federal troops out of south in return for their support. End of Reconstruction as white southerners return to mistreating newly freed former slaves
Gilded Age – late 1800s
(“Forgotten” presidents)
Themes:
Contrast between the rich (“gilded” life) and poor
Industrialization – workers leaving farms for cities/factories, immigrants pouring in, cities overcrowded/unsanitary/dangerous
Rise of “Robber Barons” – Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Vanderbilt – horizontal/vertical integration, Gospel of Wealth, social Darwinism
Tariff – GOP wants it high, Dems lower – McKinley tariff 1890
Money Issue – add silver to currency? William Jennings Bryan Cross of Gold speech (1896)
Angry Farmers – Grange Movement, Alliances, Mary E. Lease, Munn v Illinois, Wabash case, Coxey’s Army
Populist movement – silver and a graduated income tax; government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephone; the direct election of U.S. senators; a one-term limit on the presidency; the adoption of the initiative and referendum to allow citizens to shape legislation more directly; a shorter workday; and immigration restriction.
Union movement – Knights of Labor vs. AFL (Samuel Gompers), Railroad Strike (1877), Haymarket Affair (1886), Homestead Strike (1892), Pullman Strike (1894)
Attempts at reining in corporate power – Interstate Commerce Commission (1877) Sherman Anti-trust Act (1890)
Booker T. Washington vs W.E.B. DuBois – Atlanta Compromise, Talented Tenth
Civil Service Reform – Pendleton Act
Reform Writers – Edward Bellamy Looking Backwards, Henry George Progress and Poverty
Realism – William Dean Howell, Theodore Dreiser (“Sister Carrie”, “An American Tragedy”)
Imperialism
Why?
No more frontier in US, (Turner thesis), more markets for products, racial attitudes, nationalism
Major Writings:
1. Josiah Strong's Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis
2. Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History
Examples
1. Hawaii - Queen overthrown by business inetersts like Dole Fruit Co. (not US gov’t). Done after McKinley Tariff of 1890 made imports more expensive. Eventually annexed
2. 1898 Spanish-American war - McKinley (1896-1901): Americans sympathetic to Cuban rebels vs Spanish rulers, William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer - the new "yellow journalism", Dupuy de Lome letter, Teller Amendment ,USS Maine Explosion
Results: Freedom for Cuba (American protectorate), acquire Guam, Puerto Rico, Philippines
Insular Cases, Platt Amendment 1901, TR a hero
3. US – Philippines War 1899-1902
4. Open Door in China
5. Panama Canal (Teddy Roosevelt 1901-1908): “Big Stick” Policy, Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty (1903)
6. Roosevelt Corollary – interventions in Latin America
Great White Fleet
Gentlemen’s Agreement
Progressives – Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson
Four Progressive Amendments:
16th – Income Tax (1913)
17th – direct election of US Senators (1913)
18th – Prohibition (1919)
19th – Women’s Suffrage (1920)
Progressivism is a Reaction to Industrialization
crowded, unsanitary, unsafe cities
workers mistreated, exploited
believed government can be a positive force
mostly middle class, educated - important role for women
Muckrakers:
Ida Tarbell
Lincoln Steffens
Jacob Riis
Upton Sinclair
Women – Jane Addams, Lillian Wald (settlement houses), Florence Kelley-Nat’l Consumers’ League
Wisconsin – Robert Lafollette
Reforms: recall, lobbying/campaign contribution limits, initiative, referendum, progressive income tax, direct primary
Teddy Roosevelt (1901-1908)
TR's Square Deal for Labor
control of the corporations, consumer protection, and conservation of natural resources.
1902 coal miners strike
TR vs Corporations
Elkins Act – 1903 - fines to be placed on railroads that gave rebates and on the shippers that accepted them
Hepburn Act of 1906, restricting free passes and expanding the ICC
Northern Securities Case - 1902 – “trust buster” not against all trusts (but JP Morgan shocked TR – a fellow Republican – would sue his company under Sherman Antitrust Act)
Pro-Consumer
Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
Conservation
Forest Reserve Act of 1891 – by 1900, 125million acres
Carey Act of 1894 – private companies can irrigate western lands
Newlands Act of 1902 – irrigation of West
"multiple-use resource management"
(TR returns as 3rd Party – Progressive/Bull Moose – candidate in 1912 – New Nationalism)
William Howard Taft (1908-1912)
Payne Aldrich Tariff – disappoints Progressives and TR (which Taft continues to do)
Pinchot Ballinger Affair
Anti-Trust vs US Steel
Dollar Diplomacy
More anti-trust suits than TR
Woodrow Wilson (1912-1920)
Triple Wall of Privilege – Tariff (Underwood), Banks (Federal Reserve), Trusts (Clayton Act-no interlocking directorates, unions are not monopolies)
New Freedom
Federal Trade Commission
Workmen’s Compensation (fed’l workers), child labor restrictions (interstate commerce)
Moralistic foreign policy (yet intervenes in Latin America)
WWI – 14 points, League of Nations, fails with Treaty of Versailles (Borah, Lodge, “Irreconcilables”)
Home front in WWI – Liberty bonds, Suppression of civil liberties (Schenck and Abrams Sup Ct cases – similar theme in Koramatsu during WWII)
Roaring 20s
Themes:
GOP Presidents (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover)
Laissez Faire economics – cut taxes (Andrew Mellon), keep government out of economy
Higher Tariff – Fordney McCumber 1922 (tough for Allies to re-pay debts to U.S.), Dawes Plan
More freedom for women – new inventions free up time (freezer, washing machine), smoke, drink, birth control (Margaret Sanger), sex – Freud’s writings, divorce, work, flappers (short hair/dresses, one-piece bathing suits)
Prohibition (poorly enforced – leads to organized crime)
KKK revived – “Birth of a Nation”
Red Scare – Palmer Raids, Sacco and Venzetti
African Americans - Great Migration, Marcus Garvey, Harlem Renaissance - music (jazz), literature (Langston Hughes)
Cultural change – dance, advertising, sports (Babe Ruth), literature (Lost Generation – Hemingway, Fitzgerald), cynicism – H.L. Mencken, “talkies” – “The Jazz Singer” 1927
Isolationism (?) – Washington Naval Conference, Kellogg-Briand
Immigration reform – Emergency Quota 1921, National Origins Act 1924
Modernism vs Traditionalism – Scopes Trial
Transportation – planes, automobile age
Communication – radio, film
Farmers – bad decade – McNary Haughen (vetoed by Coolidge), overproduction
Great Depression/1930s
Themes:
Stock market crash – Oct, 1929 – Black Tuesday (overspeculation, buying on margin)
Smoot-Hawley 1929
Overproduction is problem (not enough buyers)
Hoover – rugged individualism - does allow Reconstruction Finance Corp and Hoover Dam but vetoes Muscle Shoals project – not enough
Bonus Army
Japanese aggression (Manchuria – 1931) – U.S. preoccupied, does nothing
Good Neighbor Policy – continued by FDR
FDR – Relief, Recovery, Reform
100 Days – Emergency Banking Act, Glass Steagall (FDIC), gov’t buys gold = inflation
FERA, WPA, CCC, TVA, AAA, CWA, SEC, FHA, Soc Security
Critics – Coughlin, Long, Townsend
Supreme Court – NRA, AAA – leads to “court packing”
Dust Bowl – farmers head West
Labor – much better decade than 1920s NLRA (Wagner Act) sets up NLRB, Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage established), John Lewis CIO, 1936 GM sit-down strike
“Keynesian” approach
WWII
Lead-up to War:
1935, 1936, 1937 – Neutrality Acts – no loans, no sailing, no arms sales to belligerent nation
1935-36 Hitler violates Versailles Treaty – occupies Rhineland
1936-1939 Spanish Civil War – with aid from Hitler, fascists take power
1938 (Sept) Munich Conference
1939 – Hitler takes Czechoslovakia
1939 (August) Hitler-Stalin Pact
1939 (Sept 1) Hitler invades Poland
Britain and France declare war on Germany
1939 Neutrality Act – allies need help – “cash and carry” policy
1940 (Sept) US gives 50 destroyers to Britain in exchange for bases on British soil – violation of Neutrality Acts. Opposed by America First Committee (Lindberg)
U.S. is “Arsenal of Democracy”
1941 Lend-Lease
1941 (August) Atlantic Charter – FDR and Churchill - goals for post-war world
1941 (Dec 7) Pearl Harbor
During War:
Two wars – Europe (1st priority) and Asia
Draft/War production ends Depression
Women play key roles in labor force – Rosie the Riveter
Japanese-Americans – Koramatsu vs. US
Labor – threat of strikes to vital industries – Smith Connally Act – gov’t can seize factories
Latinos – Zoot Suit Riots, bracero program
African Americans – 2nd Great Migration, segregated units
Native Americans – code talkers
Pacific – “island hopping”, “leapfrogging” – Midway, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal
Europe –
Northern Africa
Up through Italy
Western France – 2nd front to help USSR (D-Day June 1944)
Yalta Conference – Feb, 1945 - FDR gets promise of UN, free elections in Eastern Europe
FDR dies April 12, 1945
Potsdam Conference – Truman, Churchill, Stalin – June 1945 – threaten Japan with annihilation
August 6, 9, 1945 - Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Post-War:
US the only superpower (mainland untouched in war)
Only nation with nuclear bombs
20 million Soviets dead
Western Europe, Japan destroyed
Post-WWII/Cold War
Why a Cold War?
USSR unhappy US didn’t open western front sooner
US distrustful of ally with former ties to Hitler
No elections in Eastern Europe
No diplomatic recognition of USSR until 1933
USSR gloating during Depression
US Economy:
Initially, strikes, inflation, unemployment as troops return (Truman unpopular)
Long-term great economic growth through 1950s
Taft-Hartley (1947) passed over Truman’s veto – closed shop outlawed/”right to work” allowed
GI Bill
Sun Belt vs Rust Belt/Frost Belt – political power shifts
Suburbs – Levittown
Baby Boom
Interstate Highways (Eisenhower)
Foreign Affairs:
UN – Security Council
IMF/World Bank
Germany –split
“Iron Curtain” speech by Churchill
Berlin Airlift
NATO/Warsaw Pact
Containment (George Kennan)
Truman Doctrine (Greece, Turkey)
Marshall Plan
Japan – Douglas MacArthur
Anti-Communism/Red Scare
HUAC – Nixon, Hiss, Chambers
Hollywood 10
McCarran Internal Security Act
Mao takes over China
Korean War – 1950 – Truman fires MacArthur, Matthew Ridgeway replaces him
Joseph McCarthy (1950) Army – McCarthy hearings. “Senator, have you no decency?”
1948 Election:
Truman makes comeback, defeats Dewey/Strom Thurmond (“States’ Rights Party”)
Eisenhower (1952-1960) Foreign Policy
John Foster Dulles - Brinksmanship
Rollback
1957 - Sputnik/Space Race/NASA/Math and science education
U-2 Crisis (Kruschev)
Support Shah of Iran takeover, CIA topples left-leaning leader of Guatemala
The Sixties
Kennedy Foreign Policy (1960-1963) New Frontier
Bay of Pigs
Alliance for Progress
Cuban Missile Crisis
Berlin Wall
Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Vietnam
Promises man on the moon by end of decade (achieved)
Cultural Change
Rock (Elvis) to British Invasion to Woodstock
Counterculture
Beat Poets – Allan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac
Steinbeck, Hemingway, Faulkner
Early Feminism – Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique”
Environmentalism – Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”
Civil Rights Movement/Unrest in Cities, Malcolm X, Black Panthers
Sexual Revolution
Protest – Vietnam , Woodstock, SDS , The Weathermen, Cesar Chavez/Dolores Huerta – migrant workers’ rights
Gay Rights – Mattachine Society, Stonewall Riot
Immigration Reform 1965 – no more quotas – more from Latin America, Asia, less from Europe
Lyndon Johnson (1963-1968)
Great Society – HUD, NEA, VISTA, Head Start
War on Poverty
Civil Rights – 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act
Medicare, Medicaid
Vietnam – Gulf of Tonkin, protest, guns and butter= inflation, Tet Offensive, My Lai Massacre, “Hey, Hey LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?”, Robert MacNamara
1968 – MLK, Jr., Robert Kennedy, Democratic Convention, George Wallace, Richard Nixon
Impact of Warren Court – Baker v. Carr, Miranda v. Arizona, Gideon v. Wainwright
1970s
Themes:
Disillusionment with political parties/politics (Watergate, Pentagon Papers, Nixon resignation/Ford pardon, Carter the outsider, rise of Independents)
Campaign Finance Reform (1974)
End of unpopular Vietnam War – returning veterans struggle
War Powers Act
1973 oil embargo – inflation, shortages in US – end of post WWII economic boom - caused by U.S. support of Israel
Perception of America as weak – “malaise”, stagflation, misery index, Iran hostage crisis/failed rescue, Russia invades Afghanistan, US boycotts 1980 Olympics in Moscow
Return of American confidence in Ronald Reagan (1980-1988)
1980s
Themes:
GOP presidents (Reagan/Bush)
Tax-cutting
Wants to cut social programs (Dems in Congress oppose)
Defense build-up – S.D.I. (“Star Wars”)
Anti-communism (then attempts at better relations) – INF Treaty
Budget deficits
Conservatives appointed to Supreme Court (O’Connor - first woman- Scalia, Kennedy)
Supply-side economics, “trickle-down”, “Reaganomics”
Aid to anti-communists (Nicaragua) – Iran Contra Scandal
Missile strikes against Libya (1985)
1990s
Themes:
End of one-term Bush (Sr.) presidency – First Gulf War victory, Americans with Disabilities Act, Koramatsu case resolved, wants conservatives on Supreme Court (David Souter – no/Clarence Thomas -yes)
Doomed by recession in early 1990s
Bill and Hilary Clinton
Contract with America – GOP takeover of House/Gov’t shutdown
Monica Lewinsky scandal – impreachment but no conviction
Strong economy – internet boom
Clinton as New Democrat - “Era of big Gov’t is over”/”triangulation”
Deficit reduction
Welfare Reform
Attempt at universal health care
Terrorism – Oklahoma City/Timothy McVeigh – US embassies bombed Kenya/Tanzania
Trade agreements – NAFTA, China
Impeachment Attempt
Liberal Supreme Court justices (Ginsburg, Breyer)
George W. Bush – 2001-2009
Disputed election/Supreme Court role
Runs as “compassionate conservative”
No Child Left Behind
Social conservative – abortion/gay marriage/two conservative on Supreme Court
Response to Katrina
Major tax cuts/increasing deficits
Sept 11 – war with Afghanistan then Iraq (motive, evidence questioned)
Department of Homeland Security
Reelection over John Kerry 2004
Expands Medicare with prescription drug benefit
Bogged down in two wars – 2007 “surge” of additional troops
Leaves with low approval ratings
Barack Obama – 2009-present
Historic victory
“Obamacare”
Financial crisis (begins at end of Bush presidency)
Financial reforms – Dodd-Frank, Credit Cards, Consumer Protection Bureau
Large ($787 billion) stimulus program – 2009
Guantanamo Bay
Killing Osama Bin Laden
Battles with GOP – immigration, spending, threats of government shutdowns
U.S. Government Structure
1. Separation of powers – 3 branches
Congress – 2 Houses –
17 delegated powers + elastic clause
Senate – ratifies treaties (2/3), tries impeachment (2/3), approves appointments to courts
and executive branch
House – impeaches, starts finance bills, chooses Pres if no electoral majority
President – executes the laws with cabinet and departments
commander in chief
chief of state
sets foreign policy
wins by majority of electoral college
Courts – federal and state court system
9 on Supreme Court
can find laws unconstitutional – Marbury v. Madison
2. Federalism – Role for states – reserved powers
Roles for federal government – delegated powers, limited power
3. Checks and balances – impeachment
Judicial review
Appointments must be approved
2 Houses
Veto and Override
4. Unwritten constitution-
2 term-limit for President (“written” as of 1951)
Cabinet
Political parties
5. Adaptability of Constitution-
Amendments
Elastic clause
Judicial interpretation
6. Ambiguities-
War power
Foreign policy
Interpretation of federalism
Executive privilege
7. Amendments –
Bill of Rights
Expansion of voting – 18, poll tax forbidden, blacks, women, Washington DC, direct election of Senate.
President – electoral college votes for Pres and VP separately, 2 terms, disability,
shorten lame duck
Income tax
Blacks – 13, 14, 15
14th – equal treatment for all by federal and state government.
8. Parties - primaries, conventions (not mentioned in Constitution)
President: head of his party
Amendments to the Constitution
1-10: Bill of Rights, ratified 1791
1: freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion (includes separation of church and state); freedom to petition the government.
2: Right of militia to bear arms.
3: No quartering of soldiers in citizens’ homes without consent.
4: Protection from search and seizure of property without a warrant
5: Grand jury indictment required; no double jeopardy; Right to not incriminate oneself; can’t be deprived of life, liberty, or private property without due process.
6: Right to speedy trial by jury of peers; specific charges required; accused must be present during witness testimony; Right to a lawyer and to compel witnesses to testify on one’s behalf.
7: Right to a jury trial.
8: No cruel or unusual punishment; reasonable bail while awaiting trial.
9: This listing of rights doesn’t mean one doesn’t have other rights, or that those unmentioned rights are any less important.
10: Powers not given to federal or kept by state government belong to state governments and the people.
11: Citizens of another state or country can’t sue a state in federal court without its permission (1798)
12: Separated out electoral college vote for vice president to avoid a repeat of the election of 1800 deadlock (Jefferson and Burr tied)
Civil War Amendments: 13-15
13: abolished slavery, 1865
14: establish equality under the law for African-Americans, 1868
15: established suffrage for former slaves, and all African-Americans
16: established government’s power to collect income taxes from individuals, 1916
17: Switched U.S. senate selection to direct election by people (instead of by the state legislatures), 1916
18th: Established government’s right to enforce prohibition, 1919
19th: Established woman suffrage, 1920
20th: “lame duck” amendment moved up presidential inauguration and Congress meetings to January (from March)
21st: Repealed prohibition, 1933
22nd: Made the two-term limit on presidency part of the Constitution (as opposed to the “unwritten constitution,” 1951
23rd: representation and right to vote in Washington, D.C., 1961
24th: Abolished the poll tax, a charge for the right to vote, 1964
25th: Established Congressional power to legislate a process for presidential succession, in the event of the president’s incapacity to govern, 1967
26th: Lowered suffrage to age 18 from age 21, 1971
27th: Congress can’t vote itself a raise to take effect during the same term, 1992
Laws by Topic
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