HIST 2057 Chapter : Feb 1 Outline
TENSIONS AND RESPONSE (1880S -1890S)
III. RESPONSE BY POLITICAL PARTIES AND GOVERNMENT
Sunday laws gets government closer to God (doesn’t pass)
A. SHAPE OF POLITICS— Democrats and republicans. Republicans are increasingly dominated
by big business and committed to using government power to protect business and industry.
Democrats wanted to put much more emphasis on individual liberty and a lot more suspicious of
government power.
1. ROUGH BALANCE BETWEEN DEM0CRATS AND REPUBLICANS
2. BUT DIFFERENT BELIEFS
B. PUSHED BY PEOPLE, GOVERNMENT’S EARLY RESPONSE
1. ICC—INTERSTATE COMMERCE ACT: Create a group of appointed experts to try and
regulate the railroad.
2. SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT: broad attempt to try and stop companies from
colluding with each other to build big corporations. It was so broad that it was easy to go against it.
It’s rarely used against business but more against labor unions.
2. SILVER PURCHASE ACT: Money supply? How much money is available. People who
need credit want a lot of money in circulation so it is cheaper. People believe that money should still
be tied to precious metals such as gold and silver.
IV. A THIRD PARTY CHALLENGE—THE POPULISTS
A. ORIGINS: neither the Democrats or republicans represent them. This is the People’s Party.
Organized to challenge the other two parties and the emerging urban nation. It emerges out of the
farmer’s alliance. They want to bring together all the reformers they can. A lot of middle class
reformers want to build this party. They get a lot of the Knights of Labor members to join. This party
brings together farmers and workers.
B. CENTRAL VALUES: they want to bring white and blacks together to fight for their rights but
race gets in the way. The party has a lot of women participation. The Populist believe that the people
need to take control of the government. They believe in producer values and that the people who
should be rewarded are those who make all these things. They are deeply afraid of monopoly powers.
They believe in the private ownership of property. They believe in the market economy. They are
conservative on the local level but on the national level they are willing to have alternative ownership
and cooperation.
C. MAJOR POLICIES: government ownership of railroad, telegraph, and telephone because
they are government unities and that everyone uses them. Free silver?
V, CRISES OF THE 1890S
A. DEPRESSION OF 1893: the worst depression America had seen so far.
B. INCREASED UNREST: Pullman Strike: Pullman lowers wages but doesn’t change the work so
workers riot against this. Eugene Dibs: pulls his workers out on strike so there is a railroad strike that
