United States History Essay Research Paper Chief

United States History Essay, Research Paper

Chief Joseph: When he became chief of the Nez Perce Indian tribe in the American Northwest in 1871, Joseph led his people in an unsuccessful resistance to white settlers who were confiscating land. The tribe was ordered to move. Joseph agreed, but when three of his tribe killed a group of settlers, he attempted to escape to Canada with his followers.

Safety Valve Thesis: This assertion stated that as immigrants came to the eastern United States during the late nineteenth century and “polluted” American culture, citizens of the U.S. would have the West as a “safety valve” to which they could go in order to revitalize their pure Americanism.

Homestead Act, 1862: This act cut up Western public lands into many small holdings for the free farmers. It was originally started by Andrew Johnson as the first homestead bill but met strong opposition by Southern Representatives and therefore could not be passed until the secession of the Southern States during the Civil War.

Dawes Severality Act, 1887: It was proposed by Henry L. Dawes, and was passed in 1887. It was designed to reform what well-meaning but ignorant whites perceived to be the weaknesses of Indian life– the lack of private property, the absence of a Christian based religion, the nomadic traditions of the Indians, and the general instability in their way of life — by turning Indians into farmers. The main point of the law was to emphasize treating Indians as individuals as opposed to members in a tribe, or severalty.

Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor: This book, by Jackson, was a discourse concerning the plight of American Indians published in 1881. She gathered information regarding American Indians and their lives while serving on a federal commission investigating the treatment of Indians. Jackson also wrote Ramona concerning the same topic.

TheGrange: During the decade of the 1870s, U.S. farmers were beset with problems of high costs, debts, and small profits. the farmers made their grievances known through the Granger Movement. Membership peaked in the mid-1870s. There was little the farmers could do concerning prices. Only in 1877 did the Supreme Court rule that states could regulate businesses of a public nature. To counteract unjust business practices, the farmers were urged to start cooperatives such as grain elevators, creameries, and stores.

Farmers Alliance: This alliance was a political organization created to help fight railroad abuses and to lower interest rates. It called for government regulation of the economy in order to redress their greivanes. It was founded in New York in 1873, and consisted of the Northwest Farmers’ Alliance in the north and the National Farmers’ Alliance and Independent Union in the south. They failed to unite, however, and in 1892 gave way to the Populist party.

Billion-Dollar Congress: The first in peacetime to appropriate approximately this sum-gave birth to a bumper crop of expensive legislative babiews. When the Democrats won control of the House two years later, they paid Reed the compliment of adopting some of his reforms for speedier action.

Pension Act: Began by the Billion-Dollar Congress, it showered pensions on all Union Civil War veterans who had served for ninety days and who were now unable to do manual labor. Between 1891 and 1895 the host of pensioners was thus rasied from 676,000 to 970,000, and by the time Harrison left office in 1893, the annual bill had shot up from $81 million to $135 million. Thus was faintly foreshadowed the government-financed welfare state of the twentieth century. Populist Party, 1892: The Populist party, or people’s party, was a party that represented the “common man.” It was created towards the end of the nineteenth century. Some of their goals included creating postal savings banks, enacting immigration restriction, setting a graduated income tax and limiting the presidency to a single six-year term. The Populist platform represented views of farmers in the West. The Omaha platform of 1892 nominated James Weaver of Iowa for president.

James B. Weaver: An United States legislator and prominent figure during the Populist movement, he served as a congressman from 1879 to 1781 and 1885 to 1889. He was the presidential candidate of the Greenback and People s parties in 1892. Weaver was also a former civil war general.

William Jennings Bryan: Despite the fact that he was defeated three times for the presidency of the United States, William Jennings Bryan, the principal figure of the Populist party, molded public opinion as few leaders have done. A surprise to the public, he polled many votes during the 1896 election, which may have been a direct result of his “Cross of Gold Speech.” For many years he was the leader of the Democratic party, and it was his influence that won the Democratic presidential nomination for Wilson in 1912.

Marcus Hanna: He was an industrialist who became convinced that the welfare of industry, and therefore the nation, was bound by the fortunes of the Republican party. To further his goals he waged the most expensive political campaign the nation had ever seen to get William McKinley elected president in 1896. He also served in the Senate.

Muckrakers: Those American writers who early in the 20th century wrote both fiction and nonfiction to expose corruption