OUTLINE OF

U.S.
History
Early Settlement
Colonial Period
Road to Independence
Forming a Government
Westward Expansion
Sectional Conflict
Civil War
Economic Growth
Discontent and Reform
War, Prosperity, and Depression
The New Deal and World War
II
Postwar Prosperity
Civil Rights and Social Change
A New World Order
Bridge to the 21st
Century 2008 Presidential
Election
 OUTLIN E O F

U.S. HISTORY

Bureau of International Information Programs

U.S. Department of State
2011
 OUTLIN E O F

U.S. HISTORY
C O N T E N T S
CHAPTER 1 Early America....................................................................4

CHAPTER 2 The Colonial Period..............................................................22

CHAPTER 3 The Road to Independence...................................................50

CHAPTER 4 The Formation of a National Government.........................66

CHAPTER 5 Westward Expansion and Regional Differences..............110

CHAPTER 6 Sectional Conflict................................................................128

CHAPTER 7 The Civil War and Reconstruction...................................140

CHAPTER 8 Growth and Transformation..............................................154

CHAPTER 9 Discontent and Reform.......................................................188

CHAPTER 10 War, Prosperity, and Depression.......................................202

CHAPTER 11 The New Deal and World War II......................................212

CHAPTER 12 Postwar America.................................................................256

CHAPTER 13 Decades of Change: 1960-1980..........................................274

CHAPTER 14 The New Conservatism and a New World Order............304

CHAPTER 15 Bridge to the 21st Century.................................................320

CHAPTER 16 Politics of Hope...................................................................340

PICTURE PROFILES

Becoming a Nation............................................................38
Transforming a Nation.........................................................89
Monuments and Memorials................................................161
Turmoil and Change...........................................................229
21st Century Nation............................................................293
Bibliography...........................................................................................346
Index........................................................................................................349
4
 1
CHAPTER

EARLY
AMERICA

Mesa Verde
settlement in
Colorado, 13th century.
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

“Heaven and Earth never

agreed better to frame a
place for man’s habitation.”
Jamestown founder John Smith, 1607

A
THE FIRST AMERICANS
ancestors had for thousands of
years, along the Siberian coast
and then
t the height of the Ice Age, be- have been following game, as their
tween 34,000 and 30,000 B.C., much
of the world’s water was locked up
in vast continental ice sheets. As a
result, the Bering Sea was hundreds
of meters below its current level,
and a land bridge, known as
Beringia, emerged between Asia
and North America. At its peak,
Beringia is thought to have been
some 1,500 ki- lometers wide. A
moist and treeless tundra, it was
covered with grasses and plant
life, attracting the large animals
that early humans hunted for their
survival.
The first people to reach North
America almost certainly did so
without knowing they had crossed
into a new continent. They would
6
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
across the land bridge. HISTORY

Once in Alaska, it would

take these first North
Americans thou- sands of
years more to work their
way through the openings
in great glaciers south to
what is now the United
States. Evidence of early
life in North America
continues to be found. Little
of it, however, can be
reliably dated before 12,000
B.C.; a recent discovery of
a hunting look- out in
northern Alaska, for exam-
ple, may date from almost
that time. So too may the
finely crafted spear points
and items found near
Clovis, New Mexico.
Similar artifacts have
been found at sites
throughout North and South
America, indicating that life
was probably already well
established in

7
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

much of the Western Hemisphere called the

by some time prior to 10,000 B.C. Adenans. They began construct-
Around that time the mammoth
began to die out and the bison took
its place as a principal source of
food and hides for these early
North Americans. Over time, as
more and more species of large
game van- ished — whether from
overhunting or natural causes —
plants, berries, and seeds became
an increasingly important part of
the early Ameri- can diet.
Gradually, foraging and the first
attempts at primitive agri- culture
appeared. Native Americans in
what is now central Mexico led the
way, cultivating corn, squash, and
beans, perhaps as early as 8,000
B.C. Slowly, this knowledge spread
northward.
By 3,000 B.C., a primitive type of
corn was being grown in the river
valleys of New Mexico and Arizo-
na. Then the first signs of irrigation
began to appear, and, by 300 B.C.,
signs of early village life.
By the first centuries A.D., the
Hohokam were living in
settlements near what is now
Phoenix, Arizo- na, where they
built ball courts and pyramid-like
mounds reminiscent of those found
in Mexico, as well as a canal and
irrigation system.

MOUND BUILDERS AND

PUEBLOS

The first Native-American

group to build mounds in what is
now the United States often are

8
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
ing earthen burial sites and forti- HISTORY

fications around 600 B.C. Some

mounds from that era are in the
shape of birds or serpents; they
probably served religious purposes
not yet fully understood.
The Adenans appear to have
been absorbed or displaced by
vari- ous groups collectively
known as Hopewellians. One of
the most im- portant centers of
their culture was found in southern
Ohio, where the remains of several
thousand of these mounds still can
be seen. Believed to be great
traders, the Hopewel- lians used
and exchanged tools and materials
across a wide region of hundreds
of kilometers.
By around 500 A.D., the
Hopewellians disappeared, too,
gradually giving way to a broad
group of tribes generally known
as the Mississippians or Temple
Mound culture. One city, Ca-
hokia, near Collinsville, Illinois, is
thought to have had a population
of about 20,000 at its peak in the
early 12th century. At the center of
the city stood a huge earthen
mound, flattened at the top, that
was 30 meters high and 37
hectares at the base. Eighty other
mounds have been found nearby.
Cities such as Cahokia depend-
ed on a combination of hunting,
foraging, trading, and agriculture
for their food and supplies. Influ-
enced by the thriving societies to
the south, they evolved into
complex hi- erarchical societies
that took slaves and practiced
human sacrifice.

9
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

In what is now the southwest lower figure. What is certain is the

United States, the Anasazi, devastating ef- fect that European disease
ancestors of the modern Hopi had on
Indians, began building stone and
adobe pueblos around the year 900.
These unique and amazing
apartment-like struc- tures were
often built along cliff faces; the
most famous, the “cliff palace” of
Mesa Verde, Colorado, had more
than 200 rooms. Another site, the
Pueblo Bonito ruins along New
Mexico’s Chaco River, once
contained more than 800 rooms.
Perhaps the most affluent of the
pre-Columbian Native Americans
lived in the Pacific Northwest,
where the natural abundance of fish
and raw materials made food
supplies plentiful and permanent
villages pos- sible as early as 1,000
B.C. The opu- lence of their
“potlatch” gatherings remains a
standard for extravagance and
festivity probably unmatched in
early American history.

NATIVE-AMERICAN
CULTURES

The America that greeted the

first Europeans was, thus, far from
an empty wilderness. It is now
thought
that as many people lived in the
Western Hemisphere as in West-
ern Europe at that time — about 40
million. Estimates of the number of
Native Americans living in what is
now the United States at the onset
of European colonization range
from two to 18 million, with most
histori- ans tending toward the

10
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
the indigenous population European custom ofHISTORY
the day.
practi- cally from the time Although some North Ameri-
of initial con- tact. can tribes developed a type of hi-
Smallpox, in particular, eroglyphics to preserve certain
ravaged whole communities texts, Native-American culture was
and is thought to have been primarily oral, with a high value
a much more direct cause of placed on the recounting of tales
the precipitous decline in and dreams. Clearly, there was a
the Indian population in the good deal of trade among various
1600s than the numerous
wars and skir- mishes with
European settlers.
Indian customs and
culture at the time were
extraordinarily diverse, as
could be expected, given
the ex- panse of the land
and the many dif- ferent
environments to which they
had adapted. Some
generalizations, however,
are possible. Most tribes,
particularly in the wooded
eastern region and the
Midwest, combined aspects
of hunting, gathering, and
the cultivation of maize and
other products for their
food supplies. In many
cases, the women were
responsible for farming and
the distribution of food,
while the men hunted and
participated in war.
By all accounts, Native-
American society in North
America was closely tied to
the land. Identification with
nature and the elements was
integral to religious beliefs.
Their life was essentially
clan-oriented and com-
munal, with children
allowed more freedom and
tolerance than was the
1
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

groups and strong evidence exists soon making reg- ular visits.
that neighboring tribes maintained
extensive and formal relations —
both friendly and hostile.

THE FIRST EUROPEANS

The first Europeans to arrive

in North America — at least the
first for whom there is solid
evidence
— were Norse, traveling west from
Greenland, where Erik the Red
had founded a settlement around
the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is
thought to have explored the north-
east coast of what is now Canada
and spent at least one winter there.
While Norse sagas suggest that
Viking sailors explored the Atlan-
tic coast of North America down
as far as the Bahamas, such claims
remain unproven. In 1963,
however, the ruins of some Norse
houses dat- ing from that era were
discovered at L’Anse-aux-
Meadows in northern
Newfoundland, thus supporting at
least some of the saga claims.
In 1497, just five years after
Christopher Columbus landed in
the Caribbean looking for a west-
ern route to Asia, a Venetian sail-
or named John Cabot arrived in
Newfoundland on a mission for
the British king. Although quickly
forgotten, Cabot’s journey was later
to provide the basis for British
claims to North America. It also
opened the way to the rich fishing
grounds off George’s Banks, to
which Eu- ropean fishermen,
particularly the Portuguese, were

12
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Columbus never saw the main- but HISTORY

land of the future United States,

but the first explorations of it were
launched from the Spanish posses-
sions that he helped establish. The
first of these took place in 1513
when a group of men under Juan
Ponce de León landed on the
Florida coast near the present city
of St. Augustine.
With the conquest of Mexico in
1522, the Spanish further solidi-
fied their position in the Western
Hemisphere. The ensuing discov-
eries added to Europe’s knowledge
of what was now named
America
— after the Italian Amerigo Ves-
pucci, who wrote a widely popular
account of his voyages to a “New
World.” By 1529 reliable maps of the
Atlantic coastline from Labrador
to Tierra del Fuego had been drawn
up, although it would take more
than another century before hope
of dis- covering a “Northwest
Passage” to Asia would be
completely abandoned. Among the
most significant ear-
ly Spanish explorations was that of
Hernando De Soto, a veteran con-
quistador who had accompanied
Francisco Pizarro in the conquest
of Peru. Leaving Havana in 1539,
De Soto’s expedition landed in
Florida and ranged through the
southeast- ern United States as far
as the Missis- sippi River in search
of riches.
Another Spaniard, Francis-
co Vázquez de Coronado, set out
from Mexico in 1540 in search of
the mythical Seven Cities of Cibo-
la. Coronado’s travels took him to
the Grand Canyon and Kansas,
1
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

failed to reveal the gold or treasure far away — St. Au- gustine. It was the
his men sought. However, his par- first permanent
ty did leave the peoples of the re-
gion a remarkable, if unintended,
gift: Enough of his horses escaped
to transform life on the Great
Plains. Within a few generations,
the Plains Indians had become
masters of horsemanship, greatly
expanding the range of their
activities.
While the Spanish were pushing
up from the south, the northern por-
tion of the present-day United
States was slowly being revealed
through the journeys of men such as
Giovan- ni da Verrazano. A
Florentine who sailed for the
French, Verrazano made landfall in
North Carolina in 1524, then sailed
north along the At- lantic Coast past
what is now New York harbor.
A decade later, the Frenchman
Jacques Cartier set sail with the
hope
— like the other Europeans before
him — of finding a sea passage to
Asia. Cartier’s expeditions along
the St. Lawrence River laid the
founda- tion for the French claims
to North America, which were to
last until 1763.
Following the collapse of their
first Quebec colony in the 1540s,
French Huguenots attempted to set-
tle the northern coast of Florida two
decades later. The Spanish, viewing
the French as a threat to their trade
route along the Gulf Stream, de-
stroyed the colony in 1565.
Ironical- ly, the leader of the
Spanish forces, Pedro Menéndez,
would soon estab- lish a town not

14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
European settlement in succeed, and North HISTORY
America would
what would become the enter a new era.
United States.
The great wealth that EARLY SETTLEMENTS

The
poured into Spain from the
colonies in Mexico, the early 1600s saw the
Caribbean, and Peru begin- ning of a great tide of
provoked great interest on emigration from Europe to
the part of the other North America.
European powers. Spanning more than three centuries,
Emerging mari- time this movement grew from a trickle
nations such as England,
drawn in part by Francis
Drake’s success- ful raids
on Spanish treasure ships,
began to take an interest in
the New World.
In 1578 Humphrey
Gilbert, the author of a
treatise on the search for
the Northwest Passage,
received a patent from
Queen Elizabeth to colonize
the “heathen and barba-
rous landes” in the New
World that other European
nations had not yet claimed.
It would be five years before
his efforts could begin.
When he was lost at sea, his
half-brother, Walter
Raleigh, took up the
mission.
In 1585 Raleigh
established the first British
colony in North Amer- ica,
on Roanoke Island off the
coast of North Carolina. It
was later aban- doned, and
a second effort two years
later also proved a failure.
It would be 20 years before
the British would try again.
This time — at Jamestown
in 1607 — the colony would
1
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

of a few hundred English colonists

woods. The settlers might not have
to a flood of millions of
survived had it not been for the
newcomers. Impelled by powerful
help of friendly Indians, who taught
and diverse motivations, they built
them how to grow native plants —
a new civi- lization on the northern
pumpkin, squash, beans, and corn.
part of the continent.
In addition, the vast, virgin forests,
The first English immigrants
extending nearly 2,100 kilometers
to what is now the United States
along the Eastern seaboard, proved
crossed the Atlantic long after
a rich source of game and firewood.
thriv- ing Spanish colonies had
They also provided abundant raw
been estab- lished in Mexico, the
materials used to build houses, fur-
West Indies, and South America.
niture, ships, and profitable items
Like all early travelers to the New
for export.
World, they came in small,
Although the new continent was
overcrowded ships. During their
remarkably endowed by nature,
six- to 12-week voy- ages, they
trade with Europe was vital for ar-
lived on meager rations. Many died
ticles the settlers could not produce.
of disease, ships were often
The coast served the immigrants
battered by storms, and some were
well. The whole length of shore
lost at sea.
pro- vided many inlets and harbors.
Most European emigrants left
Only two areas — North Carolina
their homelands to escape political
and southern New Jersey — lacked
oppression, to seek the freedom to
har- bors for ocean-going vessels.
practice their religion, or to find op-
Majestic rivers — the Kennebec,
portunities denied them at home.
Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna,
Between 1620 and 1635, economic
Potomac, and numerous others —
difficulties swept England. Many
linked lands between the coast and
people could not find work. Even
the Appalachian Mountains with
skilled artisans could earn little
the sea. Only one river, however,
more than a bare living. Poor crop
the St. Lawrence — dominated by
yields added to the distress. In ad-
the French in Canada — offered a
dition, the Commercial Revolution
water passage to the Great Lakes
had created a burgeoning textile
and the heart of the continent.
industry, which demanded an ever-
Dense forests, the resistance of
increasing supply of wool to keep
some Indian tribes, and the
the looms running. Landlords en-
formidable barrier of the
closed farmlands and evicted the
Appalachian Mountains discour-
peasants in favor of sheep cultiva-
aged settlement beyond the coastal
tion. Colonial expansion became
plain. Only trappers and traders
an outlet for this displaced peasant
ventured into the wilderness. For
population.
the first hundred years the colonists
The colonists’ first glimpse of built their settlements compactly
the new land was a vista of dense along the coast.
16
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Political considerations influ- for the Chesapeake Bay in 1607. Seeking to

enced many people to move to avoid conflict with the Spanish,
America. In the 1630s, arbitrary
rule by England’s Charles I gave
impetus to the migration. The
subsequent re- volt and triumph of
Charles’ oppo- nents under Oliver
Cromwell in the 1640s led many
cavaliers — “king’s men” — to cast
their lot in Virginia. In the German-
speaking regions of Europe, the
oppressive policies of various petty
princes — particularly with regard
to religion — and the devastation
caused by a long series of wars
helped swell the movement to
America in the late 17th and 18th
centuries.
The journey entailed careful
planning and management, as well
as considerable expense and risk.
Settlers had to be transported nearly
5,000 kilometers across the sea. They
needed utensils, clothing, seed,
tools, building materials, livestock,
arms, and ammunition. In contrast
to the colonization policies of other
coun- tries and other periods, the
emigra- tion from England was not
directly sponsored by the
government but by private groups
of individuals whose chief motive
was profit.

JAMESTOWN

The first of the British

colonies to take hold in North
America was Jamestown. On the
basis of a char-
ter which King James I granted to
the Virginia (or London) Company,
a group of about 100 men set out

1
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA
they chose a site about 60 The first shipment of this tobacco
kilometers up the James reached London in 1614. Within a
River from the bay. decade it had become Virginia’s
Made up of townsmen chief source of revenue.
and ad- venturers more Prosperity did not come quickly,
interested in finding gold however, and the death rate from
than farming, the group disease and Indian attacks remained
was unequipped by extraordinarily high. Between 1607
temperament or abil- ity to and 1624 approximately 14,000
embark upon a completely peo- ple migrated to the colony, yet
new life in the wilderness. only
Among them, Captain John
Smith emerged as the
dominant figure. Despite
quarrels, starvation, and
Native-American attacks,
his ability to enforce disci-
pline held the little colony
together through its first
year.
In 1609 Smith returned
to Eng- land, and in his
absence, the colony
descended into anarchy.
During the winter of 1609-
1610, the majority of the
colonists succumbed to
disease. Only 60 of the
original 300 settlers were
still alive by May 1610.
That same year, the town of
Henrico (now Richmond)
was established farther up
the James River.
It was not long,
however, before a
development occurred that
revo- lutionized Virginia’s
economy. In 1612 John
Rolfe began cross-breed-
ing imported tobacco seed
from the West Indies with
native plants and produced
a new variety that was
pleasing to European taste.
18
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

1,132 were living there in 1624. On themselves outside the jurisdiction

recommendation of a royal of any orga-
commis- sion, the king dissolved
the Virginia Company, and made it
a royal colony that year.

MASSACHUSETTS

During the religious

upheavals of the 16th century, a
body of men and women called
Puritans sought
to reform the Established Church of
England from within. Essentially,
they demanded that the rituals and
structures associated with Roman
Catholicism be replaced by simpler
Calvinist Protestant forms of faith
and worship. Their reformist ideas,
by destroying the unity of the state
church, threatened to divide the
people and to undermine royal
authority.
In 1607 a small group of Sepa-
ratists — a radical sect of Puritans
who did not believe the Established
Church could ever be reformed —
departed for Leyden, Holland,
where the Dutch granted them
asylum. However, the Calvinist
Dutch re- stricted them mainly to
low-paid la- boring jobs. Some
members of the congregation grew
dissatisfied with this discrimination
and resolved to emigrate to the
New World.
In 1620, a group of Leyden Puri-
tans secured a land patent from the
Virginia Company. Numbering
101, they set out for Virginia on the
May- flower. A storm sent them far
north and they landed in New
England on Cape Cod. Believing

1
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA
nized government, the men
drafted a formal agreement to abide
by “just and equal laws” drafted by
leaders of their own choosing. This
was the Mayflower Compact.
In December the Mayflower
reached Plymouth harbor; the Pil-
grims began to build their settle-
ment during the winter. Nearly half
the colonists died of exposure and
disease, but neighboring Wampa-
noag Indians provided the informa-
tion that would sustain them:
how to grow maize. By the next
fall, the Pilgrims had a plentiful
crop of corn, and a growing trade
based on furs and lumber.
A new wave of immigrants ar-
rived on the shores of
Massachusetts Bay in 1630 bearing
a grant from King Charles I to
establish a colony. Many of them
were Puritans whose religious
practices were increasingly
prohibited in England. Their leader,
John Winthrop, urged them to cre-
ate a “city upon a hill” in the New
World — a place where they would
live in strict accordance with their
religious beliefs and set an example
for all of Christendom.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony
was to play a significant role in the
development of the entire New
Eng- land region, in part because
Win- throp and his Puritan
colleagues were able to bring their
charter with them. Thus the
authority for the col- ony’s
government resided in Massa-
chusetts, not in England.
Under the charter’s provisions,
power rested with the General
Court, which was made up of
“free-
20
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

men” required to be members of the land. By the early 1630s, many were ready
Puritan, or Congregational, Church. to brave the danger of Indian attack to
This guaranteed that the Puritans obtain level ground and
would be the dominant political as
well as religious force in the
colony. The General Court elected
the gov- ernor, who for most of the
next gen- eration would be John
Winthrop.
The rigid orthodoxy of the Pu-
ritan rule was not to everyone’s lik-
ing. One of the first to challenge the
General Court openly was a young
clergyman named Roger Williams,
who objected to the colony’s
seizure of Indian lands and
advocated sepa- ration of church
and state. Another dissenter, Anne
Hutchinson, chal- lenged key
doctrines of Puritan the- ology.
Both they and their followers were
banished.
Williams purchased land from
the Narragansett Indians in what is
now Providence, Rhode Island, in
1636. In 1644, a sympathetic Puri-
tan-controlled English Parliament
gave him the charter that
established Rhode Island as a
distinct colony where complete
separation of church and state as
well as freedom of reli- gion was
practiced.
So-called heretics like Williams
were not the only ones who left
Mas- sachusetts. Orthodox Puritans,
seek- ing better lands and
opportunities, soon began leaving
Massachusetts Bay Colony. News
of the fertility of the Connecticut
River Valley, for in- stance,
attracted the interest of farm- ers
having a difficult time with poor

2
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA
deep, rich soil. These new where Al- bany now stands.
commu- nities often Settlement on the island of Man-
eliminated church mem- hattan began in the early 1620s. In
bership as a prerequisite for 1624, the island was purchased
voting, thereby extending from local Native Americans for
the franchise to ever larger the re- ported price of $24. It was
numbers of men. promptly renamed New
At the same time, other Amsterdam.
settle- ments began In order to attract settlers to the
cropping up along the New Hudson River region, the Dutch en-
Hampshire and Maine
coasts, as more and more
immigrants sought the land
and liberty the New World
seemed to offer.

NEW NETHERLAND
AND
MARYLAND

Hired by the Dutch

East India Company,
Henry Hudson in 1609
explored the area around
what is
now New York City and the
river that bears his name, to
a point prob- ably north of
present-day Albany, New
York. Subsequent Dutch
voy- ages laid the basis for
their claims and early
settlements in the area.
As with the French to
the north, the first interest
of the Dutch was the fur
trade. To this end, they
cultivated close relations
with the Five Nations of the
Iroquois, who were the key
to the heartland from which
the furs came. In 1617
Dutch settlers built a fort at
the junction of the Hudson
and the Mohawk Rivers,

22
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

couraged a type of feudal aristocra- end,

cy, known as the “patroon” system.
The first of these huge estates were
established in 1630 along the Hud-
son River. Under the patroon sys-
tem, any stockholder, or patroon,
who could bring 50 adults to his es-
tate over a four-year period was
giv- en a 25-kilometer river-front
plot, exclusive fishing and hunting
privi- leges, and civil and criminal
juris- diction over his lands. In turn,
he provided livestock, tools, and
build- ings. The tenants paid the
patroon rent and gave him first
option on surplus crops.
Further to the south, a Swedish
trading company with ties to the
Dutch attempted to set up its first
settlement along the Delaware Riv-
er three years later. Without the re-
sources to consolidate its position,
New Sweden was gradually absorbed
into New Netherland, and later,
Pennsylvania and Delaware.
In 1632 the Catholic Calvert
fam- ily obtained a charter for land
north of the Potomac River from
King Charles I in what became
known as Maryland. As the charter
did not ex- pressly prohibit the
establishment of non-Protestant
churches, the colony became a
haven for Catholics. Mary- land’s
first town, St. Mary’s, was
established in 1634 near where the
Potomac River flows into the
Chesa- peake Bay.
While establishing a refuge for
Catholics, who faced increasing
per- secution in Anglican England,
the Calverts were also interested in
cre- ating profitable estates. To this

2
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA
and to avoid trouble with the
British government, they also
encouraged Protestant immigration.
Maryland’s royal charter had
a mixture of feudal and modern
elements. On the one hand the
Calvert family had the power to
create manorial estates. On the oth-
er, they could only make laws with
the consent of freemen (property
holders). They found that in
order to attract settlers — and make
a profit from their holdings — they
had to offer people farms, not just
tenancy on manorial estates. The
number of independent farms grew
in consequence. Their owners de-
manded a voice in the affairs of the
colony. Maryland’s first legislature
met in 1635.

COLONIAL-INDIAN
RELATIONS

By 1640 the British had

solid colonies established along the
New England coast and the
Chesapeake
Bay. In between were the Dutch
and the tiny Swedish community.
To the west were the original
Americans, then called Indians.
Sometimes friendly, sometimes
hostile, the Eastern tribes were no
longer strangers to the Europeans.
Although Native Americans ben-
efited from access to new technol-
ogy and trade, the disease and thirst
for land that the early settlers also
brought posed a serious challenge
to their long-established way of
life.
At first, trade with the European
settlers brought advantages:
knives,

24
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

axes, weapons, cooking utensils,

The steady influx of settlers into
fishhooks, and a host of other
the backwoods regions of the
goods. Those Indians who traded
Eastern colonies disrupted Native-
initial- ly had significant advantage
American life. As more and more
over rivals who did not. In response
game was killed off, tribes were
to European demand, tribes such as
faced with the difficult choice of
the Iroquois began to devote more
going hungry, go- ing to war, or
at- tention to fur trapping during the
moving and coming into conflict
17th century. Furs and pelts pro-
with other tribes to the west.
vided tribes the means to purchase
The Iroquois, who inhabited the
colonial goods until late into the
area below lakes Ontario and Erie
18th century.
in northern New York and Pennsyl-
Early colonial-Native-American
vania, were more successful in re-
relations were an uneasy mix of co-
sisting European advances. In 1570
operation and conflict. On the one
five tribes joined to form the most
hand, there were the exemplary
complex Native-American nation
rela- tions that prevailed during the
of its time, the “Ho-De-No-Sau-
first half century of Pennsylvania’s
Nee,” or League of the Iroquois.
exis- tence. On the other were a
The league was run by a council
long series of setbacks, skirmishes,
made up of 50 representatives from
and wars, which almost invariably
each of the five member tribes. The
resulted in an Indian defeat and
council dealt with matters common
further loss of land.
to all the tribes, but it had no say in
The first of the important
how the free and equal tribes ran
Native- American uprisings
their day- to-day affairs. No tribe
occurred in Vir- ginia in 1622,
was allowed to make war by itself.
when some 347 whites were killed,
The council passed laws to deal
including a number of missionaries
with crimes such as murder.
who had just recently come to
The Iroquois League was a
Jamestown.
strong power in the 1600s and
White settlement of the Con-
1700s. It traded furs with the
necticut River region touched off
British and sided with them against
the Pequot War in 1637. In 1675
the French in the war for the
King Philip, the son of the native
dominance of America between
chief who had made the original
1754 and 1763. The British might
peace with the Pilgrims in 1621,
not have won that war otherwise.
attempted to unite the tribes of
The Iroquois League stayed
southern New England against
strong until the American Revolu-
further Europe- an encroachment
tion. Then, for the first time, the
of their lands. In the struggle,
council could not reach a unani-
however, Philip lost his life and
mous decision on whom to support.
many Indians were sold into
Member tribes made their own de-
servitude.

2
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

cisions, some fighting with the Brit-

established in the Carolinas and the
ish, some with the colonists, some
Dutch driven out of New Nether-
remaining neutral. As a result, ev-
land. New proprietary colonies
eryone fought against the Iroquois.
were established in New York, New
Their losses were great and the
Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.
league never recovered.
The Dutch settlements had been
ruled by autocratic governors ap-
SECOND GENERATION OF
pointed in Europe. Over the years,
BRITISH COLONIES the local population had become
The religious and civil conflict estranged from them. As a result,
when the British colonists began
in England in the mid-17th century en- croaching on Dutch claims in
limited immigration, as well as the Long Island and Manhattan, the
attention the mother country paid unpopu- lar governor was unable to
the fledgling American colonies. rally the population to their defense.
In part to provide for the defense New Netherland fell in 1664. The
measures England was neglect- terms of the capitulation, however,
ing, the Massachusetts Bay, Plym- were mild: The Dutch settlers were
outh, Connecticut, and New Haven able to retain their property and
colonies formed the New England worship as they pleased.
Confederation in 1643. It was the
As early as the 1650s, the Albe-
European colonists’ first attempt at
marle Sound region off the coast of
regional unity.
what is now northern North Caroli-
The early history of the British na was inhabited by settlers
settlers reveals a good deal of con- trickling down from Virginia. The
tention — religious and political — first pro- prietary governor arrived
as groups vied for power and posi- in 1664. The first town in
tion among themselves and their Albemarle, a re- mote area even
neighbors. Maryland, in particular, today, was not estab- lished until
suffered from the bitter religious ri- the arrival of a group of French
valries that afflicted England during Huguenots in 1704.
the era of Oliver Cromwell. One of
In 1670 the first settlers, drawn
the casualties was the state’s
from New England and the Carib-
Tolera- tion Act, which was
bean island of Barbados, arrived
revoked in the 1650s. It was soon
in what is now Charleston, South
reinstated, howev- er, along with the
Carolina. An elaborate system of
religious freedom it guaranteed.
government, to which the British
With the restoration of King philosopher John Locke contribut-
Charles II in 1660, the British once ed, was prepared for the new
again turned their attention to colony. One of its prominent
North America. Within a brief span, features was a failed attempt to
the first European settlements were create a hereditary nobility. One of
the colony’s least ap- pealing aspects
26
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
was the early trade in HISTORY

2
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

Indian slaves. With time, however,

refuge where the poor and former
timber, rice, and indigo gave the
prisoners would be given new
col- ony a worthier economic base.
opportunities.
In 1681 William Penn, a wealthy
Quaker and friend of Charles II, re-
SETTLERS, SLAVES,
ceived a large tract of land west of
AND SERVANTS
the Delaware River, which became
known as Pennsylvania. To help
populate it, Penn actively recruited
Men and women with little
a host of religious dissenters from active interest in a new life in
America were often induced to
England and the continent — Quak- make the move to
ers, Mennonites, Amish,
the New World by the skillful per-
Moravians, and Baptists.
suasion of promoters. William
When Penn arrived the follow- Penn, for example, publicized the
ing year, there were already Dutch, oppor- tunities awaiting newcomers
Swedish, and English settlers liv- to the Pennsylvania colony. Judges
ing along the Delaware River. It and prison authorities offered
was there he founded Philadelphia, convicts a chance to migrate to
the “City of Brotherly Love.” colonies like Georgia instead of
In keeping with his faith, Penn serving prison sentences.
was motivated by a sense of equal- But few colonists could finance
ity not often found in other Amer- the cost of passage for themselves
ican colonies at the time. Thus, and their families to make a start in
women in Pennsylvania had rights the new land. In some cases, ships’
long before they did in other parts cap- tains received large rewards
of America. Penn and his deputies from the sale of service contracts
also paid considerable attention to for poor mi- grants, called
the colony’s relations with the Del- indentured servants, and every
aware Indians, ensuring that they method from extravagant promises
were paid for land on which the Eu- to actual kidnapping was used to
ropeans settled. take on as many passengers as their
Georgia was settled in 1732, vessels could hold.
the last of the 13 colonies to be In other cases, the expenses of
established. Lying close to, if not transportation and maintenance
actually inside the boundaries of were paid by colonizing agencies like
Spanish Florida, the region was the Virginia or Massachusetts Bay
viewed as a buffer against Spanish Companies. In return, indentured
incursion. But it had another unique servants agreed to work for the
quality: The man charged with agen- cies as contract laborers,
Georgia’s fortifications, General usually for four to seven years. Free
James Oglethorpe, was a reformer at the end of this term, they would
who deliberately set out to create a be given “free- dom dues,”
sometimes including a small tract
28
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
of land. HISTORY

2
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

Perhaps half the settlers living in

There was one very important
the colonies south of New England
exception to this pattern: African
came to America under this system.
slaves. The first black Africans
Although most of them fulfilled
were brought to Virginia in 1619,
their obligations faithfully, some
just 12 years after the founding of
ran away from their employers.
James- town. Initially, many were
Never- theless, many of them were
regarded as indentured servants
eventu- ally able to secure land and
who could earn their freedom. By
set up homesteads, either in the
the 1660s, however, as the demand
colonies in which they had
for planta- tion labor in the
originally settled or in neighboring
Southern colonies grew, the
ones. No social stig- ma was
institution of slavery be- gan to
attached to a family that had its
harden around them, and Af- ricans
beginning in America under this
were brought to America in
semi-bondage. Every colony had its
shackles for a lifetime of
share of leaders who were former
involuntary servitude. 9
in- dentured servants.

30
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY
THE ENDURING MYSTERY OF THE ANASAZI

Time-worn pueblos and dramatic cliff towns, set amid the stark, rugged
me- sas and canyons of Colorado and New Mexico, mark the settlements of
some of
the earliest inhabitants of North America, the Anasazi (a Navajo word meaning
“ancient ones”).
By 500 A.D. the Anasazi had established some of the first villages in
the American Southwest, where they hunted and grew crops of corn, squash,
and beans. The Anasazi flourished over the centuries, developing
sophisticated dams and irrigation systems; creating a masterful, distinctive
pottery tradi-
tion; and carving multiroom dwellings into the sheer sides of cliffs that remain
among the most striking archaeological sites in the United States today.
Yet by the year 1300, they had abandoned their settlements, leaving their
pottery, implements, even clothing — as though they intended to return —
and seemingly vanished into history. Their homeland remained empty of
human beings for more than a century — until the arrival of new tribes, such
as the Navajo and the Ute, followed by the Spanish and other European
settlers.
The story of the Anasazi is tied inextricably to the beautiful but harsh
environment in which they chose to live. Early settlements, consisting of simple
pithouses scooped out of the ground, evolved into sunken kivas (underground
rooms) that served as meeting and religious sites. Later generations developed
the masonry techniques for building square, stone pueblos. But the most dra-
matic change in Anasazi living was the move to the cliff sides below the flat-
topped mesas, where the Anasazi carved their amazing, multilevel dwellings.
The Anasazi lived in a communal society. They traded with other peoples
in the region, but signs of warfare are few and isolated. And although the
Ana- sazi certainly had religious and other leaders, as well as skilled artisans,
social or class distinctions were virtually nonexistent.
Religious and social motives undoubtedly played a part in the building
of the cliff communities and their final abandonment. But the struggle to
raise food in an increasingly difficult environment was probably the
paramount fac- tor. As populations grew, farmers planted larger areas on the
mesas, causing some communities to farm marginal lands, while others left
the mesa tops for the cliffs. But the Anasazi couldn’t halt the steady loss of
the land’s fertility
from constant use, nor withstand the region’s cyclical droughts. Analysis of tree
rings, for example, shows that a drought lasting 23 years, from 1276 to 1299,
finally forced the last groups of Anasazi to leave permanently.
Although the Anasazi dispersed from their ancestral homeland, their
legacy remains in the remarkable archaeological
3 record that they left behind,
and in the Hopi, Zuni, and other Pueblo peoples who are their descendants. ◆
20
1
2

HISTORY
OUTLINE OF U.S.
Major Native American cultural groupings, A.D. 500-1300.
22
 2
CHAPTER

THE
COLONIAL
PERIOD

Pilgrims signing
the Mayflower
Compact aboard
ship, 1620.
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

“What then is the

American, this new
man?”
American author and agriculturist
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, 1782

NEW PEOPLES sionally moved from one colony to

Most
another, distinctions between indi- vidual
settlers who came to colonies were marked. They
Amer- ica in the 17th century were
English, but there were also Dutch,
Swedes,
and Germans in the middle region,
a few French Huguenots in South
Carolina and elsewhere, slaves
from Africa, primarily in the South,
and a scattering of Spaniards,
Italians, and Portuguese throughout
the colonies. After 1680 England
ceased to be the chief source of
immigration, sup- planted by Scots
and “Scots-Irish” (Protestants from
Northern Ire- land). In addition,
tens of thousands of refugees fled
northwestern Eu- rope to escape
war, oppression, and absentee-
landlordism. By 1690 the American
population had risen to a quarter
of a million. From then on, it
doubled every 25 years until, in
1775, it numbered more than 2.5
million. Although families occa-

24
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
were even more so among HISTORY

the three regional groupings

of colonies.

NEW ENGLAND

The northeastern New

England colonies had
generally thin, stony soil,
relatively little level land,
and
long winters, making it
difficult to make a living
from farming. Turn- ing to
other pursuits, the New Eng-
landers harnessed
waterpower and established
grain mills and saw- mills.
Good stands of timber en-
couraged shipbuilding.
Excellent harbors promoted
trade, and the sea became a
source of great wealth. In
Massachusetts, the cod
industry alone quickly
furnished a basis for
prosperity.
With the bulk of the early
settlers living in villages and
towns around the harbors,
many New England- ers
carried on some kind of
trade or business. Common
pastureland and woodlots
served the needs of towns-
people, who worked small
farms

25
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

nearby. Compactness made possible cosmopolitan, and tolerant than

the village school, the village church, in New England.
and the village or town hall, where
citizens met to discuss matters of
common interest.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony
continued to expand its commerce.
From the middle of the 17th century
onward it grew prosperous, so that
Boston became one of America’s
greatest ports.
Oak timber for ships’ hulls, tall
pines for spars and masts, and pitch
for the seams of ships came from
the Northeastern forests. Building
their own vessels and sailing them
to ports all over the world, the
shipmasters of Massachusetts Bay
laid the foun- dation for a trade that
was to grow steadily in importance.
By the end of the colonial period,
one-third of all vessels under the
British flag were built in New
England. Fish, ship’s stores, and
woodenware swelled the exports.
New England merchants and
shippers soon discovered that rum
and slaves were profitable com-
modities. One of their most enter-
prising — if unsavory — trading
practices of the time was the “trian-
gular trade.” Traders would
purchase slaves off the coast of
Africa for New England rum, then
sell the slaves in the West Indies
where they would buy molasses to
bring home for sale to the local rum
producers.

THE MIDDLE COLONIES

Society in the middle

colonies was far more varied,
26
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Under William Penn, Pennsylvania HISTORY

functioned smoothly and grew rap-

idly. By 1685, its population was al-
most 9,000. The heart of the colony
was Philadelphia, a city of broad, tree-
shaded streets, substantial brick and
stone houses, and busy docks. By the
end of the colonial period, nearly a
century later, 30,000 people lived
there, representing many lan- guages,
creeds, and trades. Their tal- ent for
successful business enterprise made
the city one of the thriving centers
of the British Empire.
Though the Quakers dominated in
Philadelphia, elsewhere in Penn-
sylvania others were well represent-
ed. Germans became the colony’s
most skillful farmers. Important, too,
were cottage industries such as
weaving, shoemaking, cabinetmak-
ing, and other crafts. Pennsylvania
was also the principal gateway into
the New World for the Scots-Irish,
who moved into the colony in the
early 18th century. “Bold and indi-
gent strangers,” as one Pennsylvania
official called them, they hated the
English and were suspicious of all
government. The Scots-Irish tended to
settle in the backcountry, where they
cleared land and lived by hunt- ing
and subsistence farming.
New York best illustrated the
polyglot nature of America. By 1646
the population along the Hudson River
included Dutch, French, Danes,
Norwegians, Swedes, English, Scots,
Irish, Germans, Poles, Bohemians,
Portuguese, and Italians. The Dutch
continued to exercise an important
social and economic influence on

27
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

the New York region long after the some of the best shipbuilding materials in
fall of New Netherland and their in-
tegration into the British colonial
system. Their sharp-stepped gable
roofs became a permanent part of
the city’s architecture, and their
merchants gave Manhattan much
of its original bustling, commercial
atmosphere.

THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

In contrast to New England

and the middle colonies, the
Southern colonies were
predominantly rural
settlements.
By the late 17th century, Virgin-
ia’s and Maryland’s economic and
social structure rested on the great
planters and the yeoman farmers.
The planters of the Tidewater re-
gion, supported by slave labor, held
most of the political power and the
best land. They built great houses,
adopted an aristocratic way of life,
and kept in touch as best they could
with the world of culture overseas.
The yeoman farmers, who
worked smaller tracts, sat in
popular assem- blies and found their
way into political office. Their
outspoken independence was a
constant warning to the oligar- chy
of planters not to encroach too far
upon the rights of free men.
The settlers of the Carolinas
quickly learned to combine agricul-
ture and commerce, and the mar-
ketplace became a major source of
prosperity. Dense forests brought
revenue: Lumber, tar, and resin
from the longleaf pine provided

28
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
the world. Not bound to a the women wore gar-HISTORY
ments of cloth
single crop as was Virginia, they spun at home. Their food
North and South Carolina consisted of venison, wild turkey,
also produced and exported and fish. They had their own
rice and indigo, a blue dye amusements: great barbecues,
obtained from native plants dances, housewarmings for newly
that was used in coloring married couples, shooting matches,
fabric. By 1750 more than and contests for making quilted
100,000 people lived in the
two colonies of North and
South Caroli- na. Charleston,
South Carolina, was the
region’s leading port and
trading center.
In the southernmost
colonies, as everywhere else,
population growth in the
backcountry had special sig-
nificance. German
immigrants and Scots-Irish,
unwilling to live in the
original Tidewater
settlements where English
influence was strong, pushed
inland. Those who could not
secure fertile land along the
coast, or who had exhausted
the lands they held, found the
hills farther west a bountiful
refuge. Although their
hardships were enormous,
restless settlers kept coming;
by the 1730s they were
pouring into the Shenan-
doah Valley of Virginia.
Soon the in- terior was dotted
with farms.
Living on the edge of
Native American country,
frontier families built cabins,
cleared the wilderness, and
cultivated maize and wheat.
The men wore leather made
from the skin of deer or
sheep, known as buckskin;
29
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

blankets. Quilt-making remains an thereafter, all the other New

American tradition today. Eng-

SOCIETY, SCHOOLS,
AND CULTURE

A significant factor deterring the

emergence of a powerful
aristocratic or gentry class in the
colonies was
the ability of anyone in an estab-
lished colony to find a new home
on the frontier. Time after time,
domi- nant Tidewater figures were
obliged to liberalize political
policies, land- grant requirements,
and religious practices by the threat
of a mass exo- dus to the frontier.
Of equal significance for the
future were the foundations of
American education and culture es-
tablished during the colonial period.
Harvard College was founded in
1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Near the end of the century, the
College of William and Mary was
established in Virginia. A few
years later, the Collegiate School of
Connecticut, later to become Yale
University, was chartered.
Even more noteworthy was the
growth of a school system main-
tained by governmental authority.
The Puritan emphasis on reading
directly from the Scriptures under-
scored the importance of literacy. In
1647 the Massachusetts Bay
Colony enacted the “ye olde
deluder Satan” Act, requiring every
town having more than 50
families to establish a grammar
school (a Latin school to prepare
students for college). Shortly

30
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
land colonies, except for Rhode Is- HISTORY

land, followed its example.

The Pilgrims and Puritans had
brought their own little librar- ies
and continued to import books from
London. And as early as the 1680s,
Boston booksellers were do- ing a
thriving business in works of classical
literature, history, politics,
philosophy, science, theology, and
belles-lettres. In 1638 the first print-
ing press in the English colonies and
the second in North America was in-
stalled at Harvard College.
The first school in Pennsylvania
was begun in 1683. It taught reading,
writing, and keeping of accounts.
Thereafter, in some fashion, every
Quaker community provided for the
elementary teaching of its children.
More advanced training — in classi-
cal languages, history, and literature
— was offered at the Friends Public
School, which still operates in Phila-
delphia as the William Penn Charter
School. The school was free to the
poor, but parents were required to pay
tuition if they were able.
In Philadelphia, numerous private
schools with no religious affiliation
taught languages, mathematics, and
natural science; there were also night
schools for adults. Women were not
entirely overlooked, but their edu-
cational opportunities were limited to
training in activities that could be
conducted in the home. Private
teachers instructed the daughters of
prosperous Philadelphians in French,
music, dancing, painting, singing,
grammar, and sometimes
bookkeeping.

31
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

In the 18th century, the intel- fron- tier, the Scots-Irish, though living in
lectual and cultural development
of Pennsylvania reflected, in large
measure, the vigorous personalities
of two men: James Logan and
Benja- min Franklin. Logan was
secretary of the colony, and it was
in his fine li- brary that young
Franklin found the latest scientific
works. In 1745 Logan erected a
building for his collection and
bequeathed both building and
books to the city.
Franklin contributed even more
to the intellectual activity of Phila-
delphia. He formed a debating club
that became the embryo of the
American Philosophical Society.
His endeavors also led to the
founding of a public academy that
later devel- oped into the University
of Penn- sylvania. He was a prime
mover in the establishment of a
subscription library, which he
called “the mother of all North
American subscription libraries.”
In the Southern colonies,
wealthy planters and merchants
imported pri- vate tutors from
Ireland or Scotland to teach their
children. Some sent their children
to school in England. Having these
other opportunities, the upper
classes in the Tidewater were not
interested in supporting pub- lic
education. In addition, the diffu-
sion of farms and plantations made
the formation of community
schools difficult. There were only a
few free schools in Virginia.
The desire for learning did not
stop at the borders of established
communities, however. On the

32
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
primitive cabins, were firm HISTORY
tirical barbs, and had him thrown
devotees of scholarship, and into prison on a charge of seditious
they made great efforts to libel. Zenger continued to edit his
attract learned ministers to paper from jail during his nine-
their settlements. month trial, which excited intense
Literary production in the interest throughout the colonies.
colo- nies was largely Andrew Hamilton, the prominent
confined to New England. lawyer who defended Zenger,
Here attention concen- trated argued
on religious subjects. Ser-
mons were the most common
products of the press. A
famous Pu- ritan minister,
the Reverend Cot- ton
Mather, wrote some 400
works. His masterpiece,
Magnalia Chris- ti
Americana, presented the
pag- eant of New England’s
history. The most popular
single work of the day was
the Reverend Michael
Wiggles- worth’s long poem,
“The Day of Doom,” which
described the Last Judgment
in terrifying terms.
In 1704 Cambridge,
Massachu- setts, launched
the colonies’ first successful
newspaper. By 1745 there
were 22 newspapers being
published in British North
America.
In New York, an
important step in establishing
the principle of free- dom of
the press took place with the
case of John Peter Zenger,
whose New York Weekly
Journal, begun in 1733,
represented the opposition to
the government. After two
years of publication, the
colonial governor could no
longer tolerate Zenger’s sa-
33
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

that the charges printed by Zenger The Great Awakening gave

were true and hence not libelous. rise to evangelical denominations
The jury returned a verdict of not (those
guilty, and Zenger went free.
The increasing prosperity of the
towns prompted fears that the dev-
il was luring society into pursuit of
worldly gain and may have contrib-
uted to the religious reaction of the
1730s, known as the Great
Awaken- ing. Its two immediate
sources were George Whitefield, a
Wesleyan re- vivalist who arrived
from England in 1739, and
Jonathan Edwards, who served the
Congregational Church in
Northampton, Massachusetts.
Whitefield began a religious re-
vival in Philadelphia and then
moved on to New England. He
enthralled audiences of up to
20,000 people at a time with
histrionic displays, ges- tures, and
emotional oratory. Reli- gious
turmoil swept throughout New
England and the middle colonies as
ministers left established churches
to preach the revival.
Edwards was the most
prominent of those influenced by
Whitefield and the Great
Awakening. His most memorable
contribution was his 1741 sermon,
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God.” Rejecting theat- rics, he
delivered his message in a quiet,
thoughtful manner, arguing that the
established churches sought to
deprive Christianity of its func- tion
of redemption from sin. His
magnum opus, Of Freedom of Will
(1754), attempted to reconcile Cal-
vinism with the Enlightenment.

34
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Christian churches that believe in HISTORY

personal conversion and the iner-

rancy of the Bible) and the spirit of
revivalism, which continue to play
significant roles in American reli-
gious and cultural life. It weakened
the status of the established clergy and
provoked believers to rely on their
own conscience. Perhaps most
important, it led to the proliferation of
sects and denominations, which in
turn encouraged general accep- tance
of the principle of religious toleration.

EMERGENCE OF COLONIAL
GOVERNMENT

In the early phases of colonial de-

velopment, a striking feature was the
lack of controlling influence by the
English government. All colonies ex-
cept Georgia emerged as companies
of shareholders, or as feudal propri-
etorships stemming from charters
granted by the Crown. The fact that
the king had transferred his immedi-
ate sovereignty over the New World
settlements to stock companies and
proprietors did not, of course, mean
that the colonists in America were
necessarily free of outside control.
Under the terms of the Virginia
Company charter, for example, full
governmental authority was vested in
the company itself. Nevertheless, the
crown expected that the com- pany
would be resident in England.
Inhabitants of Virginia, then, would
have no more voice in their govern-
ment than if the king himself had
retained absolute rule.

35
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

Still, the colonies considered voice in legislation affecting them. Thus,

themselves chiefly as common- charters awarded to the
wealths or states, much like
England itself, having only a loose
association with the authorities in
London. In one way or another,
exclusive rule from the outside
withered away. The colonists —
inheritors of the long English
tradition of the struggle for
political liberty — incorporated
concepts of freedom into Virginia’s
first charter. It provided that Eng-
lish colonists were to exercise all
liberties, franchises, and immuni-
ties “as if they had been abiding
and born within this our Realm of
Eng- land.” They were, then, to
enjoy the benefits of the Magna
Carta — the charter of English
political and civ- il liberties granted
by King John in 1215 — and the
common law — the English system
of law based on legal precedents or
tradition, not statutory law. In 1618
the Virginia Company issued
instructions to its appointed
governor providing that free inhab-
itants of the plantations should elect
representatives to join with the gov-
ernor and an appointive council in
passing ordinances for the welfare
of the colony.
These measures proved to be
some of the most far-reaching in the
entire colonial period. From then
on, it was generally accepted that
the colonists had a right to
participate in their own
government. In most in- stances,
the king, in making future grants,
provided in the charter that the free
men of the colony should have a

36
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Calverts in Maryland, rested in the handsHISTORY
of persons re-
William Penn in siding in the colony. At first, the
Pennsylvania, the proprietors dozen or so original members of the
in North and South Carolina, company who had come to America
and the proprietors in New attempted to rule autocratically. But
Jersey specified that the other colonists soon demanded
legislation should be enacted a voice in public affairs and indi-
with “the consent of the cated that refusal would lead to a
freemen.” mass migration.
In New England, for many The company members yield-
years, there was even more
complete self- government
than in the other col- onies.
Aboard the Mayflower, the
Pilgrims adopted an
instrument for government
called the “Mayflower
Compact,” to “combine
ourselves to- gether into a
civil body politic for our better
ordering and preservation ...
and by virtue hereof [to]
enact, con- stitute, and frame
such just and equal laws,
ordinances, acts,
constitutions, and offices ... as
shall be thought most meet
and convenient for the
general good of the colony ”
Although there was no
legal basis for the Pilgrims to
establish a system of self-
government, the action was
not contested, and, under the
com- pact, the Plymouth
settlers were able for many
years to conduct their own
affairs without outside
interference.
A similar situation
developed in the
Massachusetts Bay
Company, which had been
given the right to govern
itself. Thus, full authority
37
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

ed, and control of the government populous towns,

passed to elected representatives.
Subsequently, other New England
colonies — such as Connecticut
and Rhode Island — also succeeded
in becoming self-governing simply
by asserting that they were beyond
any governmental authority, and
then setting up their own political
sys- tem modeled after that of the
Pil- grims at Plymouth.
In only two cases was the self-
government provision omitted.
These were New York, which was
granted to Charles II’s brother, the
Duke of York (later to become
King James II), and Georgia, which
was granted to a group of
“trustees.” In both instances the
provisions for governance were
short-lived, for the colonists
demanded legislative rep-
resentation so insistently that the
au- thorities soon yielded.
In the mid-17th century, the
English were too distracted by
their Civil War (1642-49) and
Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan Com-
monwealth to pursue an effective
colonial policy. After the restora-
tion of Charles II and the Stuart
dynasty in 1660, England had more
opportunity to attend to colonial
administration. Even then, how-
ever, it was inefficient and lacked
a coherent plan. The colonies were
left largely to their own devices.
The remoteness afforded by a
vast ocean also made control of the
colo- nies difficult. Added to this
was the character of life itself in
early Amer- ica. From countries
limited in space and dotted with

38
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
the settlers had come to a land of HISTORY

seemingly unending reach. On such a

continent, natural conditions pro-
moted a tough individualism, as
people became used to making their
own decisions. Government pene-
trated the backcountry only slowly,
and conditions of anarchy often pre-
vailed on the frontier.
Yet the assumption of self-gov-
ernment in the colonies did not go
entirely unchallenged. In the 1670s,
the Lords of Trade and Plantations, a
royal committee established to en-
force the mercantile system in the
colonies, moved to annul the Massa-
chusetts Bay charter because the col-
ony was resisting the government’s
economic policy. James II in 1685
approved a proposal to create a Do-
minion of New England and place
colonies south through New Jersey
under its jurisdiction, thereby tight-
ening the Crown’s control over the
whole region. A royal governor, Sir
Edmund Andros, levied taxes by ex-
ecutive order, implemented a num-
ber of other harsh measures, and jailed
those who resisted.
When news of the Glorious Rev-
olution (1688-89), which deposed
James II in England, reached Boston,
the population rebelled and impris-
oned Andros. Under a new charter,
Massachusetts and Plymouth were
united for the first time in 1691 as the
royal colony of Massachusetts Bay.
The other New England colo- nies
quickly reinstalled their previ- ous
governments.
The English Bill of Rights and the
Toleration Act of 1689 affirmed

39
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

freedom of worship for Christians many cases, the royal authorities did not
in the colonies as well as in under-
England and enforced limits on the
Crown. Equally important, John
Locke’s Sec- ond Treatise on
Government (1690), the Glorious
Revolution’s major theoretical
justification, set forth a theory of
government based not on divine
right but on contract. It contended
that the people, endowed with
natural rights of life, liberty, and
property, had the right to reb- el
when governments violated their
rights.
By the early 18th century,
almost all the colonies had been
brought under the direct jurisdiction
of the British Crown, but under the
rules established by the Glorious
Revolu- tion. Colonial governors
sought to exercise powers that the
king had lost in England, but the
colonial as- semblies, aware of
events there, at- tempted to assert
their “rights” and “liberties.” Their
leverage rested on two significant
powers similar to those held by the
English Parlia- ment: the right to
vote on taxes and expenditures, and
the right to ini- tiate legislation
rather than merely react to
proposals of the governor.
The legislatures used these rights
to check the power of royal gover-
nors and to pass other measures to
expand their power and influence.
The recurring clashes between gov-
ernor and assembly made colonial
politics tumultuous and worked in-
creasingly to awaken the colonists
to the divergence between
American and English interests. In

40
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
stand the importance of what remained confined HISTORY
to the narrow
the colonial assemblies were belt east of the Appalachian Moun-
doing and simply neglected tains. Thus the French threatened
them. Nonetheless, the not only the British Empire but also
precedents and principles the American colonists themselves,
estab- lished in the conflicts for in holding the Mississippi Valley,
between as- semblies and France could limit their westward
governors eventually became expansion.
part of the unwritten “con- An armed clash took place in
stitution” of the colonies. In 1754 at Fort Duquesne, the site
this way, the colonial where
legislatures asserted the right
of self-government.

THE
FRENCH
AND
INDIAN
WAR

France and Britain

engaged in a succession of
wars in Europe and the
Caribbean throughout the
18th
century. Though Britain
secured certain advantages
— primarily in the sugar-rich
islands of the Carib- bean —
the struggles were generally
indecisive, and France
remained in a powerful
position in North Ameri- ca.
By 1754, France still had a
strong relationship with a
number of Na- tive American
tribes in Canada and along
the Great Lakes. It controlled
the Mississippi River and, by
estab- lishing a line of forts
and trading posts, had
marked out a great cres-
cent-shaped empire
stretching from Quebec to
New Orleans. The British

41
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is now lo- victory in the

cated, between a band of French
reg- ulars and Virginia militiamen
under the command of 22-year-old
George Washington, a Virginia
planter and surveyor. The British
government attempted to deal with
the conflict by calling a meeting of
representa- tives from New York,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the
New England colonies. From June
19 to July 10, 1754, the Albany
Congress, as it came to be known,
met with the Iro- quois in Albany,
New York, in order to improve
relations with them and secure their
loyalty to the British.
But the delegates also declared a
union of the American colonies
“ab- solutely necessary for their
preserva- tion” and adopted a
proposal drafted by Benjamin
Franklin. The Albany Plan of
Union provided for a pres- ident
appointed by the king and a grand
council of delegates chosen by the
assemblies, with each colony to be
represented in proportion to its
financial contributions to the gen-
eral treasury. This body would have
charge of defense, Native American
relations, and trade and settlement
of the west. Most importantly, it
would have independent authority
to levy taxes. But none of the
colonies accepted the plan, since
they were not prepared to surrender
either the power of taxation or
control over the development of the
western lands to a central authority.
England’s superior strategic
posi- tion and her competent
leadership ultimately brought

42
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
conflict with France, known as the HISTORY

French and Indian War in Ameri-

ca and the Seven Years’ War in Eu-
rope. Only a modest portion of it was
fought in the Western Hemisphere.
In the Peace of Paris (1763),
France relinquished all of Canada, the
Great Lakes, and the territory east
of the Mississippi to the Brit- ish. The
dream of a French empire in North
America was over.
Having triumphed over France,
Britain was now compelled to face a
problem that it had hitherto ne-
glected, the governance of its em-
pire. London thought it essential to
organize its now vast possessions to
facilitate defense, reconcile the diver-
gent interests of different areas and
peoples, and distribute more evenly
the cost of imperial administration.
In North America alone, British
territories had more than doubled. A
population that had been predom-
inantly Protestant and English now
included French-speaking Catholics
from Quebec, and large numbers of
partly Christianized Native Ameri-
cans. Defense and administration of
the new territories, as well as of the
old, would require huge sums of
money and increased personnel. The
old colonial system was obviously
inadequate to these tasks. Measures to
establish a new one, however, would
rouse the latent suspicions of
colonials who increasingly would see
Britain as no longer a protector of
their rights, but rather a danger to
them. 9

43
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

AN EXCEPTIONAL NATION?

The United States of America did not emerge as a nation until about 175
years after its establishment as a group of mostly British colonies. Yet from
the
beginning it was a different society in the eyes of many Europeans who
viewed it from afar, whether with hope or apprehension. Most of its settlers —
whether the younger sons of aristocrats, religious dissenters, or impoverished
inden- tured servants — came there lured by a promise of opportunity or
freedom not available in the Old World. The first Americans were reborn
free, establishing themselves in a wilderness unencumbered by any social
order other than that of the primitive aboriginal peoples they displaced.
Having left the baggage of a feudal order behind them, they faced few
obstacles to the development of a society built on the principles of political
and social liberalism that emerged with difficulty in 17th- and 18th-century
Europe. Based on the thinking of the philosopher John Locke, this sort of
liberalism emphasized the rights of the individual and constraints on
government power.
Most immigrants to America came from the British Isles, the most
liberal of the European polities along with The Netherlands. In religion, the
majority adhered to various forms of Calvinism with its emphasis on both
divine and secular contractual relationships. These greatly facilitated the
emergence of a social order built on individual rights and social mobility.
The development of a more complex and highly structured commercial
society in coastal cities by the mid-18th century did not stunt this trend; it
was in these cities that the American Revolution was made. The constant
reconstruction
of society along an ever-receding Western frontier equally contributed to a
liberal-democratic spirit.
In Europe, ideals of individual rights advanced slowly and unevenly; the
concept of democracy was even more alien. The attempt to establish both in
continental Europe’s oldest nation led to the French Revolution. The effort to
destroy a neofeudal society while establishing the rights of man and democrat-
ic fraternity generated terror, dictatorship, and Napoleonic despotism. In the
end, it led to reaction and gave legitimacy to a decadent old order. In
America, the European past was overwhelmed by ideals that sprang naturally
from the process of building a new society on virgin land. The principles of
liberalism and democracy were strong from the beginning. A society that had
thrown off the burdens of European history would naturally give birth to a
nation that saw itself as exceptional. ◆
34
OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

45
 OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

THE WITCHES OF SALEM

In 1692 a group of adolescent girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts,

became subject to strange fits after hearing tales told by a West Indian slave.
They
accused several women of being witches. The townspeople were appalled
but not surprised: Belief in witchcraft was widespread throughout 17th-
century America and Europe. Town officials convened a court to hear the
charges of witchcraft. Within a month, six women were convicted and
hanged.
The hysteria grew, in large measure because the court permitted wit-
nesses to testify that they had seen the accused as spirits or in visions. Such
“spectral evidence” could neither be verified nor made subject to objective
examination. By the fall of 1692, 20 victims, including several men, had been
executed, and more than 100 others were in jail (where another five victims
died) — among them some of the town’s most prominent citizens. When the
charges threatened to spread beyond Salem, ministers throughout the colony
called for an end to the trials. The governor of the colony agreed. Those still
in jail were later acquitted or given reprieves.
Although an isolated incident, the Salem episode has long fascinated
Americans. Most historians agree that Salem Village in 1692 experienced a
kind of public hysteria, fueled by a genuine belief in the existence of witch-
craft. While some of the girls may have been acting, many responsible adults
became caught up in the frenzy as well.
Even more revealing is a closer analysis of the identities of the ac-
cused and the accusers. Salem Village, as much of colonial New England,
was undergoing an economic and political transition from a largely
agrarian,
Puritan-dominated community to a more commercial, secular society. Many
of the accusers were representatives of a traditional way of life tied to farming
and the church, whereas a number of the accused witches were members of a
rising commercial class of small shopkeepers and tradesmen. Salem’s obscure
struggle for social and political power between older traditional groups and a
newer commercial class was one repeated in communities throughout Ameri-
can history. It took a bizarre and deadly detour when its citizens were swept
up by the conviction that the devil was loose in their homes.
The Salem witch trials also serve as a dramatic parable of the deadly
consequences of making sensational, but false, charges. Three hundred years
later, we still call false accusations against a large number of people a
“witch hunt.” ◆
35
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

Map depicting the English colonies and western territories, 1763-1775.

OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
John Smith, the stalwart
English
explorer and
settler whose
leadership
helped save
Jamestown from
collapse during its
critical early years.

B E CO M I N G A

NATIO A PICTURE PROFILE

N
The United States of America was transformed in the two centuries
from the first English settlement at Jamestown in 1607 to the
beginning of the 19th century. From a series of isolated colonial
settlements hugging the Atlantic Coast, the United States evolved
into a new nation, born in revolution, and guided by a Constitution
embodying the principles of democratic self-government.

38
Detail from a painting by American artist Benjamin
West (1738-1820), which depicts William Penn’s treaty
with the Native Americans living where he founded the
colony of Pennsylvania as a haven for Quakers and
others seeking religious freedom. Penn’s fair treatment
of the Delaware Indians led to long-term, friendly
relations, unlike the conflicts
between European settlers and Indian tribes in other colonies.

39
A devout Puritan elder (right) confronts patrons drinking ale
outside a tavern. Tensions between the strictly religious Puritans,
who first settled the region, and the more secular population were
characteristic of the colonial era in New England.

Cotton Mather was one

of the leading Puritan
figures of the late 17th
and early 18th centuries.
His massive
Ecclesiastical History of
New England (1702) is
an exhaustive chronicle
of the settlement of New
England and the Puritan
effort to establish a
kingdom of God in the
wilderness of the New
World.

40
 Statue of Roger Williams, early champion of religious freedom
and the separation of church and state. Williams founded the
colony of Rhode Island after leaving Massachusetts because of his
disapproval
of its religious ties to the Church of England.

41
Drawing of revolutionary firebrand Patrick Henry
(standing to the left) uttering perhaps the most
famous words of the American Revolution — “Give
me liberty or give me death!”
— in a debate before the Virginia Assembly in 1775.

42
 Benjamin Franklin: scientist, inventor, writer,
newspaper publisher, city father of
Philadelphia, diplomat, and signer of both
the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution. Franklin embodied the virtues
of shrewd practicality and the optimistic
belief in self-improvement often associated
with America itself.

James Madison, fourth

president of the United States,
is often regarded as the “Father
of the Constitution.” His essays
in the debate over ratification of
the Constitution were collected
with those of Alexander
Hamilton and John Jay as The
Federalist Papers. Today, they
are regarded as a classic
defense of republican
government, in which the
executive, legislative, and judicial
branches check and balance
each other to protect the rights
and freedoms of the people.

43
44
Thomas Jefferson, author of the
Declaration of Independence and third
president of
the United States. Jefferson also
founded the University of Virginia and
built one
of America’s most celebrated houses,
Monticello, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Above: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis and the British army to
American and French forces commanded by George
Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781. The
battle of Yorktown led to the end of the war and American
independence, secured in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

Left: U.S. postage stamp commemorating the bicentennial of the

Lewis and Clark expedition, one of Thomas Jefferson’s visionary
projects.
Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson’s secretary, and his friend, William
Clark, accompanied by a party of more than 30 persons, set out on
a journey into the uncharted West that lasted four years. They
traveled thousands of miles, from Camp Wood, Illinois, to Oregon,
through lands that eventually became 11 American states.
47
 Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury in the administration
of President George Washington. Hamilton advocated a strong federal
government
and the encouragement of industry. He was opposed by Thomas
Jefferson, a believer in decentralized government, states’ rights,
and the virtues of
the independent farmers and land owners.

48
John Marshall, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835, in
a portrait by Alonzo Chappel. In a series of landmark cases, Marshall
established the principle of judicial review — the right of the courts to
determine if any act of Congress or the executive branch is constitutional,
and therefore valid and legal.

49
50
 3
CHAPTER

THE ROAD
TO
INDEPENDENCE

The protest against

British taxes known as
the “Boston Tea Party,”
1773.
CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE

“The Revolution was effected

before the war commenced.
The Revolution was in
the hearts and minds of
the people.”
Former President John Adams, 1818

Throughout the 18th century, the

spread the costs of empire more eq-
maturing British North American
uitably, and speak to the interests of
colonies inevitably forged a distinct
both French Canadians and North
identity. They grew vastly in eco-
American Indians. The colonies, on
nomic strength and cultural attain-
the other hand, long accustomed to
ment; virtually all had long years
a large measure of independence,
of self-government behind them.
ex- pected more, not less, freedom.
In the 1760s their combined pop-
And, with the French menace
ulation exceeded 1,500,000 — a
eliminated, they felt far less need
six-fold increase since 1700. None-
for a strong British presence. A
theless, England and America did
scarcely compre- hending Crown
not begin an overt parting of ways
and Parliament on the other side of
until 1763, more than a century
the Atlantic found itself contending
and a half after the founding of the
with colonists trained in self-
first permanent settlement at James-
government and im- patient with
town, Virginia.
interference.
The organization of Canada
A NEW COLONIAL SYSTEM
and of the Ohio Valley necessitated
In the aftermath of the French policies that would not alienate the
French and Indian inhabitants. Here
and Indian War, London saw a London was in fundamental conflict
need for a new imperial design
with the interests of the colonies.
that would
Fast increasing in population, and
involve more centralized control,
needing more land for settlement,
52
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

they claimed the right to extend This act outlawed the importation
their boundaries as far west as the of foreign rum; it also put a
Mississippi River. modest duty on molas-
The British government, fear-
ing a series of Indian wars, believed
that the lands should be opened on
a more gradual basis. Restricting
movement was also a way of ensur-
ing royal control over existing
settle- ments before allowing the
formation of new ones. The Royal
Proclama- tion of 1763 reserved all
the west- ern territory between the
Allegheny Mountains, Florida, the
Mississippi River, and Quebec for
use by Na- tive Americans. Thus
the Crown at- tempted to sweep
away every western land claim of
the 13 colonies and to stop
westward expansion. Although
never effectively enforced, this
mea- sure, in the eyes of the
colonists, con- stituted a high-
handed disregard of their
fundamental right to occupy and
settle western lands.
More serious in its repercus-
sions was the new British revenue
policy. London needed more money
to support its growing empire and
faced growing taxpayer discontent
at home. It seemed reasonable
enough that the colonies should pay
for their own defense. That would
involve new taxes, levied by
Parliament — at the expense of
colonial self-government.
The first step was the
replacement of the Molasses Act of
1733, which placed a prohibitive
duty, or tax, on the import of rum
and molas- ses from non-English
areas, with the Sugar Act of 1764.

53
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
ses from all sources and levied taxes
on wines, silks, coffee, and a num- ber
of other luxury items. The hope was
that lowering the duty on mo- lasses
would reduce the temptation to
smuggle the commodity from the
Dutch and French West Indies for the
rum distilleries of New England. The
British government enforced the Sugar
Act energetically. Customs of- ficials
were ordered to show more
effectiveness. British warships in
American waters were instructed to
seize smugglers, and “writs of assis-
tance,” or warrants, authorized the
king’s officers to search suspected
premises.
Both the duty imposed by the Sug-
ar Act and the measures to enforce it
caused consternation among New
England merchants. They contended
that payment of even the small duty
imposed would be ruinous to their
businesses. Merchants, legislatures,
and town meetings protested the law.
Colonial lawyers protested “taxation
without representation,” a slogan that
was to persuade many Ameri- cans
they were being oppressed by the
mother country.
Later in 1764, Parliament enact- ed
a Currency Act “to prevent pa- per
bills of credit hereafter issued in any
of His Majesty’s colonies from being
made legal tender.” Since the colonies
were a deficit trade area and were
constantly short of hard cur- rency,
this measure added a serious burden to
the colonial economy. Equally
objectionable from the co- lonial
viewpoint was the Quartering Act,
passed in 1765, which required

54
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

colonies to provide royal troops a threat to colonial lib-

with provisions and barracks.

THE STAMP ACT

A general tax measure sparked

the greatest organized resistance.
Known as the “Stamp Act,” it re-
quired all newspapers, broadsides,
pamphlets, licenses, leases, and oth-
er legal documents to bear revenue
stamps. The proceeds, collected by
American customs agents, would be
used for “defending, protecting, and
securing” the colonies.
Bearing equally on people who
did any kind of business, the Stamp
Act aroused the hostility of the
most powerful and articulate groups
in the American population:
journal- ists, lawyers, clergymen,
merchants and businessmen, North
and South, East and West. Leading
merchants organized for resistance
and formed nonimportation
associations.
Trade with the mother country
fell off sharply in the summer of
1765, as prominent men organized
themselves into the “Sons of Liber-
ty” — secret organizations formed
to protest the Stamp Act — often
through violent means. From Mas-
sachusetts to South Carolina, mobs,
forcing luckless customs agents to
resign their offices, destroyed the
hated stamps. Militant resistance ef-
fectively nullified the Act.
Spurred by delegate Patrick
Hen- ry, the Virginia House of
Burgesses passed a set of
resolutions in May denouncing
taxation without repre- sentation as

55
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
erties. It asserted that electoral base consisted of only a tiny
Virginians, enjoying the minority of property owners from a
rights of Englishmen, could given district. This theory assumed
be taxed only by their own that all British subjects shared the
representatives. The same interests as the property own-
Massachusetts Assembly ers who elected members of Parlia-
invited all the colonies to ment.
appoint delegates to a
“Stamp Act Congress” in
New York, held in Oc- tober
1765, to consider appeals for
relief to the Crown and
Parliament. Twenty-seven
representatives from nine
colonies seized the
opportunity to mobilize
colonial opinion. After much
debate, the congress adopted
a set of resolutions asserting
that “no taxes ever have been
or can be con- stitutionally
imposed on them, but by
their respective legislatures,”
and that the Stamp Act had a
“manifest tendency to
subvert the rights and
liberties of the colonists.”

TAXATION WITHOUT
REPRESENTATION

The issue thus drawn

centered on the question of
representation. The colonists
believed they could not
be represented unless they
actually elected members to
the House of Commons. But
this idea conflicted with the
English principle of “virtual
representation,” according to
which each member of
Parliament rep- resented the
interests of the whole country
and the empire — even if his

56
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

The American leaders argued se- ries of measures that stirred

that their only legal relations were anew all the elements of discord.
with the Crown. It was the king Charles
who had agreed to establish
colonies be- yond the sea and the
king who pro- vided them with
governments. They asserted that he
was equally a king of England and
a king of the colo- nies, but they
insisted that the Eng- lish
Parliament had no more right to
pass laws for the colonies than any
colonial legislature had the right to
pass laws for England. In fact, how-
ever, their struggle was equally
with King George III and
Parliament. Factions aligned with
the Crown generally controlled
Parliament and reflected the king’s
determination to be a strong
monarch.
The British Parliament reject-
ed the colonial contentions. British
merchants, however, feeling the ef-
fects of the American boycott,
threw their weight behind a repeal
move- ment. In 1766 Parliament
yielded, repealing the Stamp Act
and modi- fying the Sugar Act.
However, to mollify the supporters
of central control over the colonies,
Parliament followed these actions
with passage of the Declaratory
Act, which as- serted the authority
of Parliament to make laws binding
the colonies “in all cases
whatsoever.” The colonists had
won only a temporary respite from
an impending crisis.

THE TOWNSHEND ACTS

The year 1767 brought another

57
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
Townshend, British chancellor of the
exchequer, attempted a new fis- cal
program in the face of continued
discontent over high taxes at home.
Intent upon reducing British taxes by
making more efficient the col- lection
of duties levied on American trade, he
tightened customs admin- istration
and enacted duties on colo- nial
imports of paper, glass, lead, and tea
from Britain. The “Townshend Acts”
were based on the premise that taxes
imposed on goods imported by the
colonies were legal while internal taxes
(like the Stamp Act) were not.
The Townshend Acts were de-
signed to raise revenue that would be
used in part to support colonial
officials and maintain the Brit- ish
army in America. In response,
Philadelphia lawyer John Dickinson,
in Letters of a Pennsylvania Farm- er,
argued that Parliament had the right to
control imperial commerce but did not
have the right to tax the colonies,
whether the duties were external or
internal.
The agitation following enact-
ment of the Townshend duties was
less violent than that stirred by the
Stamp Act, but it was nevertheless
strong, particularly in the cities of the
Eastern seaboard. Merchants once
again resorted to non-impor- tation
agreements, and people made do with
local products. Colonists, for example,
dressed in homespun clothing and
found substitutes for tea. They used
homemade paper and their houses
went unpaint- ed. In Boston,
enforcement of the new regulations
provoked violence.

58
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

When customs officials sought to of calm, a relatively small number of

collect duties, they were set upon radicals strove energetically to keep
by the populace and roughly
handled. For this infraction, two
British regi- ments were dispatched
to protect the customs
commissioners.
The presence of British troops in
Boston was a standing invitation to
disorder. On March 5, 1770, antag-
onism between citizens and British
soldiers again flared into violence.
What began as a harmless
snowball- ing of British soldiers
degenerated into a mob attack.
Someone gave the order to fire.
When the smoke had cleared, three
Bostonians lay dead in the snow.
Dubbed the “Boston Mas- sacre,”
the incident was dramatically
pictured as proof of British heart-
lessness and tyranny.
Faced with such opposition, Par-
liament in 1770 opted for a strategic
retreat and repealed all the Townsh-
end duties except that on tea, which
was a luxury item in the colonies,
imbibed only by a very small
minori- ty. To most, the action of
Parliament signified that the
colonists had won a major
concession, and the cam- paign
against England was largely
dropped. A colonial embargo on
“English tea” continued but was not
too scrupulously observed. Prosper-
ity was increasing and most
colonial leaders were willing to let
the future take care of itself.

SAMUEL ADAMS

During a three-year interval

59
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
the controversy alive. They Correspondence” to state the rights
contend- ed that payment of and grievances of the colo- nists.
the tax consti- tuted an The committee opposed a British
acceptance of the principle decision to pay the salaries of
that Parliament had the right judges from customs revenues; it
to rule over the colonies. feared that the judges would no lon-
They feared that at any time ger be dependent on the legislature
in the future, the principle of for their incomes and thus no longer
parliamentary rule might be
ap- plied with devastating
effect on all colonial
liberties.
The radicals’ most
effective leader was Samuel
Adams of Mas- sachusetts,
who toiled tirelessly for a
single end: independence.
From the time he graduated
from Harvard College in
1743, Adams was a public
servant in some capacity —
inspec- tor of chimneys, tax-
collector, and moderator of
town meetings. A consistent
failure in business, he was
shrewd and able in politics,
with the New England town
meeting his theater of action.
Adams wanted to free
people from their awe of
social and politi- cal
superiors, make them aware
of their own power and
importance, and thus arouse
them to action. To- ward
these objectives, he
published articles in
newspapers and made
speeches in town meetings,
instigat- ing resolutions that
appealed to the colonists’
democratic impulses.
In 1772 he induced the
Boston town meeting to
select a “Commit- tee of
60
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

accountable to it, thereby leading to New shipments of tea were either

the emergence of “a despotic form re- turned to England or
of government.” The committee warehoused.
communicated with other towns on
this matter and requested them to
draft replies. Committees were set
up in virtually all the colonies, and
out of them grew a base of effective
revolutionary organizations. Still,
Adams did not have enough fuel to
set a fire.

THE BOSTON “TEA PARTY”

In 1773, however, Britain

furnished Adams and his allies with
an incen- diary issue. The powerful
East India
Company, finding itself in critical
fi- nancial straits, appealed to the
Brit- ish government, which
granted it a monopoly on all tea
exported to the colonies. The
government also per- mitted the
East India Company to supply
retailers directly, bypassing
colonial wholesalers. By then, most
of the tea consumed in America
was imported illegally, duty-free. By
sell- ing its tea through its own
agents at a price well under the
customary one, the East India
Company made smuggling
unprofitable and threat- ened to
eliminate the independent colonial
merchants. Aroused not only by the
loss of the tea trade but also by the
monopolistic practice in- volved,
colonial traders joined the radicals
agitating for independence.
In ports up and down the At-
lantic coast, agents of the East In-
dia Company were forced to resign.

61
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
In Boston, however, the agents de-
fied the colonists; with the support of
the royal governor, they made
preparations to land incoming car-
goes regardless of opposition. On the
night of December 16, 1773, a band of
men disguised as Mohawk Indians
and led by Samuel Adams boarded
three British ships lying at anchor and
dumped their tea cargo into Boston
harbor. Doubting their countrymen’s
commitment to prin- ciple, they feared
that if the tea were landed, colonists
would actually purchase the tea and
pay the tax.
A crisis now confronted Britain.
The East India Company had car- ried
out a parliamentary statute. If the
destruction of the tea went un-
punished, Parliament would admit to
the world that it had no control over
the colonies. Official opinion in
Britain almost unanimously con-
demned the Boston Tea Party as an
act of vandalism and advocated le- gal
measures to bring the insurgent
colonists into line.

THE COERCIVE ACTS

Parliament responded with new

laws that the colonists called the
“Coercive” or “Intolerable Acts.” The
first, the Boston Port Bill, closed the
port of Boston until the tea was paid
for. The action threatened the very
life of the city, for to prevent Boston
from having access to the sea meant
economic disaster. Other enactments
restricted local author- ity and
banned most town meetings held
without the governor’s consent.

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 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

A Quartering Act required local au- division of opinion in the colonies

thorities to find suitable quarters for
British troops, in private homes if
necessary. Instead of subduing and
isolating Massachusetts, as Parlia-
ment intended, these acts rallied its
sister colonies to its aid. The Que-
bec Act, passed at nearly the same
time, extended the boundaries of
the province of Quebec south to the
Ohio River. In conformity with pre-
vious French practice, it provided
for trials without jury, did not
estab- lish a representative
assembly, and gave the Catholic
Church semi-es- tablished status.
By disregarding old charter claims
to western lands, it threatened to
block colonial expan- sion to the
North and Northwest; its
recognition of the Roman Catho- lic
Church outraged the Protestant
sects that dominated every colony.
Though the Quebec Act had not
been passed as a punitive measure,
Americans associated it with the
Co- ercive Acts, and all became
known as the “Five Intolerable
Acts.”
At the suggestion of the Vir-
ginia House of Burgesses, colonial
representatives met in Philadelphia
on September 5, 1774, “to consult
upon the present unhappy state
of the Colonies.” Delegates to this
meeting, known as the First Con-
tinental Congress, were chosen by
provincial congresses or popular
conventions. Only Georgia failed to
send a delegate; the total number of
55 was large enough for diversity of
opinion, but small enough for genu-
ine debate and effective action. The

63
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
posed a genuine dilemma for from the less well-to-do, but from
the delegates. They would many members of the professional
have to give an appearance class (especial- ly lawyers), most of
of firm unanimity to induce the planters of the Southern
the British government to colonies, and a num- ber of
make concessions. But they merchants. They intimidated the
also would have to avoid any hesitant into joining the popular
show of radicalism or spirit movement and punished the hostile;
of independence that would
alarm more moderate
Americans.
A cautious keynote
speech, fol- lowed by a
“resolve” that no obe- dience
was due the Coercive Acts,
ended with adoption of a set
of res- olutions affirming the
right of the colonists to “life,
liberty, and prop- erty,” and
the right of provincial
legislatures to set “all cases
of taxa- tion and internal
polity.” The most important
action taken by the Con-
gress, however, was the
formation of a “Continental
Association” to rees- tablish
the trade boycott. It set up
a system of committees to
inspect customs entries,
publish the names of
merchants who violated the
agree- ments, confiscate their
imports, and encourage
frugality, economy, and
industry.
The Continental
Association im- mediately
assumed the leadership in
the colonies, spurring new
local organizations to end
what remained of royal
authority. Led by the pro-
independence leaders, they
drew their support not only
64
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

began the collection of military nies had been to enforce the

sup- plies and the mobilization of Coer- cive Acts. When news
troops; and fanned public opinion reached him
into revo- lutionary ardor.
Many of those opposed to Brit-
ish encroachment on American
rights nonetheless favored discus-
sion and compromise as the prop-
er solution. This group included
Crown-appointed officers, Quakers,
and members of other religious
sects opposed to the use of
violence, nu- merous merchants
(especially in the middle colonies),
and some discon- tented farmers
and frontiersmen in the Southern
colonies.
The king might well have effect-
ed an alliance with these moder-
ates and, by timely concessions, so
strengthened their position that the
revolutionaries would have found it
difficult to proceed with hostilities.
But George III had no intention of
making concessions. In September
1774, scorning a petition by Phila-
delphia Quakers, he wrote, “The die
is now cast, the Colonies must ei-
ther submit or triumph.” This action
isolated Loyalists who were
appalled and frightened by the
course of events following the
Coercive Acts.

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS

General Thomas Gage, an

amiable English gentleman with an
Amer- ican-born wife,
commanded the
garrison at Boston, where political
activity had almost wholly replaced
trade. Gage’s main duty in the colo-

65
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
that the Massachusetts colonists were
collecting powder and military stores
at the town of Concord, 32
kilometers away, Gage sent a strong
detail to confiscate these munitions.
After a night of marching, the British
troops reached the village of
Lexington on April 19, 1775, and saw a
grim band of 77 Minutemen — so
named because they were said to be
ready to fight in a minute — through
the early morning mist. The Minute-
men intended only a silent protest,
but Marine Major John Pitcairn, the
leader of the British troops, yelled,
“Disperse, you damned rebels! You
dogs, run!” The leader of the Min-
utemen, Captain John Parker, told
his troops not to fire unless fired at
first. The Americans were with-
drawing when someone fired a shot,
which led the British troops to fire at
the Minutemen. The British then
charged with bayonets, leaving eight
dead and 10 wounded. In the often-
quoted phrase of 19th century poet
Ralph Waldo Emerson, this was “the
shot heard round the world.”
The British pushed on to Con-
cord. The Americans had taken away
most of the munitions, but they
destroyed whatever was left. In the
meantime, American forces in the
countryside had mobilized to harass
the British on their long return to
Boston. All along the road, behind
stone walls, hillocks, and houses,
militiamen from “every Middlesex
village and farm” made targets of the
bright red coats of the British soldiers.
By the time Gage’s weary detachment
stumbled into Boston,

66
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

it had suffered more than 250 killed that fear by offering freedom to all slaves
and wounded. The Americans lost who
93 men.
The Second Continental Con-
gress met in Philadelphia, Penn-
sylvania, on May 10. The Congress
voted to go to war, inducting the
co- lonial militias into continental
ser- vice. It appointed Colonel
George Washington of Virginia as
their commander-in-chief on June
15. Within two days, the Americans
had incurred high casualties at
Bunker Hill just outside Boston.
Congress also ordered American
expeditions to march northward
into Canada by fall. Capturing
Montreal, they failed in a winter
assault on Quebec, and eventually
retreated to New York.
Despite the outbreak of armed
conflict, the idea of complete sep-
aration from England was still
repugnant to many members of the
Continental Congress. In July, it
adopted the Olive Branch Petition,
begging the king to prevent fur-
ther hostile actions until some sort
of agreement could be worked out.
King George rejected it; instead, on
August 23, 1775, he issued a
procla- mation declaring the
colonies to be in a state of
rebellion.
Britain had expected the South-
ern colonies to remain loyal, in part
because of their reliance on slav-
ery. Many in the Southern colonies
feared that a rebellion against the
mother country would also trigger
a slave uprising. In November
1775, Lord Dunmore, the governor
of Vir- ginia, tried to capitalize on

67
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
would fight for the British. society than “all the crowned ruf-
Instead, his proclamation fians that ever lived.” He presented
drove to the rebel side many the alternatives — continued sub-
Virginians who would mission to a tyrannical king and
otherwise have remained an outworn government, or liberty
Loyalist. and happiness as a self-sufficient,
The governor of North independent republic. Circulated
Caroli- na, Josiah Martin, throughout the colonies, Common
also urged North Carolinians Sense helped to crystallize a decision
to remain loyal to the Crown. for separation.
When 1,500 men answered
Martin’s call, they were
defeated by revolutionary
armies before British troops
could arrive to help.
British warships
continued down the coast to
Charleston, South Car- olina,
and opened fire on the city
in early June 1776. But South
Car- olinians had time to
prepare, and repulsed the
British by the end of the
month. They would not
return South for more than
two years.

COMMON
SENSE AND
INDEPENDE
NCE

In January 1776, Thomas

Paine, a radical political
theorist and writer who had
come to America
from England in 1774,
published a 50-page
pamphlet, Common Sense.
Within three months, it sold
100,000 copies. Paine
attacked the idea of a
hereditary monarchy,
declaring that one honest
man was worth more to

68
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

There still remained the task, deriving their just powers from
however, of gaining each colony’s
approval of a formal declaration.
On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of
Vir- ginia introduced a resolution in
the Second Continental Congress,
de- claring, “That these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to
be, free and independent states ”
Immedi-
ately, a committee of five, headed
by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia,
was appointed to draft a
document for a vote.
Largely Jefferson’s work, the Dec-
laration of Independence, adopted
July 4, 1776, not only announced
the birth of a new nation, but also
set forth a philosophy of human
free- dom that would become a
dynamic force throughout the entire
world. The Declaration drew upon
French and English Enlightenment
political philosophy, but one
influence in par- ticular stands out:
John Locke’s Sec- ond Treatise on
Government. Locke took
conceptions of the traditional rights
of Englishmen and universal- ized
them into the natural rights of all
humankind. The Declaration’s
familiar opening passage echoes
Locke’s social-contract theory of
government:
We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness. — That to
secure these rights, Governments
are instituted among Men,

69
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
the consent of the governed, — That
whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the Right of the People to alter or
to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation
on such principles and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them
shall seem most likely to effect their
Safety and Happiness.
Jefferson linked Locke’s princi-
ples directly to the situation in the
colonies. To fight for American in-
dependence was to fight for a gov-
ernment based on popular consent in
place of a government by a king who
had “combined with others to subject
us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
constitution, and unacknowl- edged
by our laws ” Only a gov-
ernment based on popular consent
could secure natural rights to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thus, to fight for American inde-
pendence was to fight on behalf of
one’s own natural rights.

DEFEATS AND VICTORIES

Although the Americans suffered

severe setbacks for months after
independence was declared, their
tenacity and perseverance eventu- ally
paid off. During August 1776, in the
Battle of Long Island in New York,
Washington’s position be- came
untenable, and he executed a masterly
retreat in small boats from Brooklyn
to the Manhattan shore. British
General William Howe twice hesitated
and allowed the Americans

70
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

to escape. By November, however, Army, but elsewhere 1777 proved to be

Howe had captured Fort Washing-
ton on Manhattan Island. New York
City would remain under British
control until the end of the war.
That December, Washington’s
forces were near collapse, as sup-
plies and promised aid failed to
materialize. Howe again missed his
chance to crush the Americans by
deciding to wait until spring to re-
sume fighting. On Christmas Day,
December 25, 1776, Washington
crossed the Delaware River, north
of Trenton, New Jersey. In the
early- morning hours of December
26, his troops surprised the British
garrison there, taking more than
900 prison- ers. A week later, on
January 3, 1777, Washington
attacked the British at Princeton,
regaining most of the territory
formally occupied by the British.
The victories at Trenton and
Princeton revived flagging Ameri-
can spirits.
In September 1777, however,
Howe defeated the American army
at Brandywine in Pennsylvania and
occupied Philadelphia, forcing the
Continental Congress to flee.
Wash- ington had to endure the
bitterly cold winter of 1777-1778 at
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania,
lacking ade- quate food, clothing,
and supplies. Farmers and
merchants exchanged their goods
for British gold and silver rather
than for dubious paper money
issued by the Continental Congress
and the states.
Valley Forge was the lowest ebb
for Washington’s Continental

71
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
the turning point in the personnel.
war. Brit- ish General John
Burgoyne, moving south FRANCO-AMERICAN
from Canada, attempted to ALLIANCE

In
invade New York and New
England via Lake Champlain France, enthusiasm for
and the Hud- son River. He the American cause was high: The
had too much heavy French intellectual world was it-
equipment to negotiate the self stirring against feudalism and
wooded and marshy terrain.
On August 6, at Oriskany,
New York, a band of
Loyalists and Native
Americans un- der
Burgoyne’s command ran
into a mobile and seasoned
American force that managed
to halt their advance. A few
days later at Bennington,
Ver- mont, more of
Burgoyne’s forces, seeking
much-needed supplies, were
pushed back by American
troops.
Moving to the west side of
the Hudson River,
Burgoyne’s army ad- vanced
on Albany. The Americans
were waiting for him. Led by
Bene- dict Arnold — who
would later be- tray the
Americans at West Point,
New York — the colonials
twice re- pulsed the British.
Having by this time incurred
heavy losses, Bur- goyne fell
back to Saratoga, New York,
where a vastly superior Ameri-
can force under General
Horatio Gates surrounded the
British troops. On October
17, 1777, Burgoyne sur-
rendered his entire army —
six gen- erals, 300 other
officers, and 5,500 enlisted

72
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

privilege. However, the Crown lent 1949.

its support to the colonies for geo- The Franco-American
political rather than ideological alliance
reasons: The French government
had been eager for reprisal against
Britain ever since France’s defeat in
1763. To further the American
cause, Benjamin Franklin was sent
to Paris in 1776. His wit, guile, and
intellect soon made their presence
felt in the French capital, and
played a major role in winning
French assistance.
France began providing aid to
the colonies in May 1776, when it
sent 14 ships with war supplies to
America. In fact, most of the
gunpowder used by the American
armies came from France. After
Britain’s defeat at Sara- toga, France
saw an opportunity to seriously
weaken its ancient enemy and
restore the balance of power that
had been upset by the Seven Years’
War (called the French and Indian
War in the American colonies). On
February 6, 1778, the colonies and
France signed a Treaty of Amity
and Commerce, in which France
recog- nized the United States and
offered trade concessions. They
also signed a Treaty of Alliance,
which stipu- lated that if France
entered the war, neither country
would lay down its arms until the
colonies won their in- dependence,
that neither would con- clude peace
with Britain without the consent of
the other, and that each guaranteed
the other’s possessions in America.
This was the only bi- lateral
defense treaty signed by the United
States or its predecessors until

73
 CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
soon broadened the conflict. In June
1778 British ships fired on French
vessels, and the two countries went to
war. In 1779 Spain, hoping to re-
acquire territories taken by Britain in
the Seven Years’ War, entered the
conflict on the side of France, but not
as an ally of the Americans. In 1780
Britain declared war on the Dutch,
who had continued to trade with the
Americans. The combina- tion of
these European powers, with France
in the lead, was a far greater threat to
Britain than the American colonies
standing alone.

THE BRITISH MOVE SOUTH

With the French now involved,

the British, still believing that most
Southerners were Loyalists, stepped
up their efforts in the Southern
colonies. A campaign began in late
1778, with the capture of Savannah,
Georgia. Shortly thereafter, British
troops and naval forces converged on
Charleston, South Carolina, the
principal Southern port. They man-
aged to bottle up American forces on
the Charleston peninsula. On May 12,
1780, General Benjamin Lincoln
surrendered the city and its 5,000
troops, in the greatest American de-
feat of the war.
But the reversal in fortune only
emboldened the American rebels.
South Carolinians began roaming the
countryside, attacking British supply
lines. In July, American Gen- eral
Horatio Gates, who had assem- bled a
replacement force of untrained
militiamen, rushed to Camden,

74
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

South Carolina, to confront British

1781, after being trapped at York-
forces led by General Charles Corn-
town near the mouth of Chesapeake
wallis. But Gates’s makeshift army
Bay, Cornwallis surrendered his
panicked and ran when confronted
army of 8,000 British soldiers.
by the British regulars.
Although Cornwallis’s defeat
Cornwallis’s troops met the
did not immediately end the war —
Americans several more times, but
which would drag on
the most signifi- cant battle took
inconclusively for almost two more
place at Cowpens, South Carolina,
years — a new British government
in early 1781, where the Americans
decided to pur- sue peace
soundly defeated the British. After
negotiations in Paris in early 1782,
an exhausting but unproductive
with the American side represented
chase through North Carolina,
by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams,
Cornwallis set his sights on
and John Jay. On April 15, 1783,
Virginia.
Congress approved the fi- nal
treaty. Signed on September 3, the
VICTORY AND Treaty of Paris acknowledged the
INDEPENDENCE independence, freedom, and sover-
I n July 1780 France’s King
eignty of the 13 former colonies,
now states. The new United States
Louis XVI had sent to America an stretched west to the Mississippi
expe- ditionary force of 6,000 men River, north to Canada, and south
under
to Florida, which was returned to
the Comte Jean de Rochambeau. In
Spain. The fledgling colonies that
addition, the French fleet harassed
Richard Henry Lee had spoken of
British shipping and blocked re-
more than seven years before had
inforcement and resupply of Brit-
fi- nally become “free and
ish forces in Virginia. French and
independent states.”
American armies and navies, total-
The task of knitting together a
ing 18,000 men, parried with Corn-
wallis all through the summer and nation remained. 9
into the fall. Finally, on October 19,

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CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

T he American Revolution had a significance far beyond the North American

continent. It attracted the attention of a political intelligentsia throughout the
European continent. Idealistic notables such as Thaddeus Kosciusko, Friedrich
von Steuben, and the Marquis de Lafayette joined its ranks to affirm liberal
ideas they hoped to transfer to their own nations. Its success strengthened the
concept of natural rights throughout the Western world and furthered the En-
lightenment rationalist critique of an old order built around hereditary monar-
chy and an established church. In a very real sense, it was a precursor to the
French Revolution, but it lacked the French Revolution’s violence and chaos
because it had occurred in a society that was already fundamentally liberal.
The ideas of the Revolution have been most often depicted as a triumph
of the social contract/natural rights theories of John Locke. Correct so far as it
goes, this characterization passes too quickly over the continuing importance
of Calvinist-dissenting Protestantism, which from the Pilgrims and Puritans on
had also stood for the ideals of the social contract and the self-governing com-
munity. Lockean intellectuals and the Protestant clergy were both important
advocates of compatible strains of liberalism that had flourished in the British
North American colonies.
Scholars have also argued that another persuasion contributed to the
Revolution: “republicanism.” Republicanism, they assert, did not deny the
existence of natural rights but subordinated them to the belief that the main-
tenance of a free republic required a strong sense of communal responsibility
and the cultivation of self-denying virtue among its leaders. The assertion of
individual rights, even the pursuit of individual happiness, seemed egoistic by
contrast. For a time republicanism threatened to displace natural rights as
the major theme of the Revolution. Most historians today, however, concede
that the distinction was much overdrawn. Most individuals who thought about
such things in the 18th century envisioned the two ideas more as different
sides of the same intellectual coin.
Revolution usually entails social upheaval and violence on a wide scale.
By these criteria, the American Revolution was relatively mild. About
100,000 Loyalists left the new United States. Some thousands were members
of old elites who had suffered expropriation of their property and been
expelled; others were simply common people faithful to their King. The
majority of those who went into exile did so voluntarily. The Revolution did
open up and further liberalize an already liberal society. In New York and the
Carolinas, large Loyalist estates were divided among small farmers. Liberal
assumptions became the official norm of American political culture —
whether in the dis- establishment of the Anglican Church, the principle of
elected national and state executives, or the wide dissemination of the idea of
individual freedom. Yet the structure of society changed little. Revolution or
not, most people re-
mained secure in their life, liberty, and property. ◆
76 65
66
 4
CHAPTER

THE
FORMATION
OF A
NATIONAL
GOVERNMENT

George Washington
addressing the
Constitutional
Convention in
Philadelphia, 1787.
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

“Every man, and

every body of men on Earth,
possesses the right
of self-
government.”
Drafter of the Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson, 1790

T
STATE CONSTITUTIONS
solid foundation of colonial experi-
ence and English practice. But each
he success of the Revolution gave None made any drastic break with the
Americans the opportunity to give past, since all were built on the
legal form to their ideals as
expressed in the Declaration of
Independence, and to remedy some
of their griev- ances through state
constitutions. As early as May 10,
1776, Congress had passed a
resolution advising the colonies to
form new govern- ments “such as
shall best conduce to the happiness
and safety of their constituents.”
Some of them had al- ready done
so, and within a year af- ter the
Declaration of Independence, all
but three had drawn up constitu-
tions.
The new constitutions showed
the impact of democratic ideas.
68
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
was also animated by the HISTORY

spirit of re- publicanism, an

ideal that had long been
praised by Enlightenment
phi- losophers.
Naturally, the first
objective of the framers of
the state constitu- tions was
to secure those “unalien- able
rights” whose violation had
caused the former colonies to
repu- diate their connection
with Britain. Thus, each
constitution began with a
declaration or bill of rights.
Virgin- ia’s, which served as
a model for all the others,
included a declaration of
principles: popular
sovereignty, rota- tion in
office, freedom of elections,
and an enumeration of
fundamental liberties:
moderate bail and humane
punishment, speedy trial by
jury, freedom of the press
and of con-

69
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

science, and the right of the states that permitted all taxpayers
majority to reform or alter the to vote (Delaware, North
government. Carolina, and Georgia, in
Other states enlarged the list of addition to Pennsylva-
liberties to freedom of speech, of
as- sembly, and of petition. Their
con- stitutions frequently included
such provisions as the right to bear
arms, to a writ of habeas corpus, to
invio- lability of domicile, and to
equal pro- tection under the law.
Moreover, all prescribed a three-
branch structure of government —
executive, legisla- tive, and
judiciary — each checked and
balanced by the others.
Pennsylvania’s constitution was
the most radical. In that state, Phila-
delphia artisans, Scots-Irish
frontiers- men, and German-
speaking farmers had taken control.
The provincial congress adopted a
constitution that permitted every
male taxpayer and his sons to vote,
required rotation in office (no one
could serve as a rep- resentative
more than four years out of every
seven), and set up a single-
chamber legislature.
The state constitutions had some
glaring limitations, particularly by
more recent standards. Constitu-
tions established to guarantee
people their natural rights did not
secure for everyone the most
fundamental natural right —
equality. The colo- nies south of
Pennsylvania excluded their slave
populations from their inalienable
rights as human beings. Women
had no political rights. No state
went so far as to permit univer- sal
male suffrage, and even in those

70
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
nia), office-holders were required to HISTORY

own a certain amount of property.

THE ARTICLES OF
CONFEDERATION

The struggle with England had

done much to change colonial atti-
tudes. Local assemblies had rejected
the Albany Plan of Union in 1754, re-
fusing to surrender even the smallest
part of their autonomy to any other
body, even one they themselves had
elected. But in the course of the Rev-
olution, mutual aid had proved ef-
fective, and the fear of relinquishing
individual authority had lessened to a
large degree.
John Dickinson produced the
“Articles of Confederation and Per-
petual Union” in 1776. The Conti-
nental Congress adopted them in
November 1777, and they went into
effect in 1781, having been ratified by
all the states. Reflecting the fragil- ity of
a nascent sense of nationhood, the
Articles provided only for a very loose
union. The national govern- ment
lacked the authority to set up tariffs, to
regulate commerce, and to levy taxes.
It possessed scant control of
international relations: A number of
states had begun their own nego-
tiations with foreign countries. Nine
states had their own armies, several
their own navies. In the absence of a
sound common currency, the new
nation conducted its commerce with a
curious hodgepodge of coins and a
bewildering variety of state and na-
tional paper bills, all fast depreciat-
ing in value.

71
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

Economic difficulties after the

reinforcements from Boston and
war prompted calls for change. The
routed the remaining Shaysites,
end of the war had a severe effect
whose leader escaped to Vermont.
on merchants who supplied the
The government captured 14 rebels
armies of both sides and who had
and sentenced them to death, but ul-
lost the advantages deriving from
timately pardoned some and let the
participa- tion in the British
others off with short prison terms.
mercantile system. The states gave
After the defeat of the rebellion,
preference to Ameri- can goods in
a newly elected legislature, whose
their tariff policies, but these were
majority sympathized with the reb-
inconsistent, leading to the demand
els, met some of their demands for
for a stronger central government to
debt relief.
implement a uniform policy.
Farmers probably suffered the
THE PROBLEM OF EXPANSION
most from economic difficulties
following the Revolution. The
supply of farm produce exceeded
With the end of the
demand; unrest centered chiefly Revolution, the United States again
had to face the old unsolved
among farmer-debtors who wanted Western ques-
strong remedies to avoid tion, the problem of expansion,
foreclosure on their property and with its complications of land, fur
imprison- ment for debt. Courts trade, Indians, settlement, and lo-
were clogged with suits for cal government. Lured by the rich-
payment filed by their creditors. est land yet found in the country,
All through the summer of 1786, pioneers poured over the Appala-
popular conventions and informal chian Mountains and beyond. By
gatherings in several states 1775 the far-flung outposts scat-
demanded reform in the state tered along the waterways had tens
administrations. of thousands of settlers. Separated
That autumn, mobs of farmers in by mountain ranges and hundreds
Massachusetts under the leadership of kilometers from the centers of
of a former army captain, Daniel political authority in the East, the
Shays, began forcibly to prevent inhabitants established their own
the county courts from sitting and governments. Settlers from all the
passing further judgments for debt, Tidewater states pressed on into
pending the next state election. the fertile river valleys, hardwood
In January 1787 a ragtag army of forests, and rolling prairies of the
1,200 farmers moved toward the interior. By 1790 the population of
federal arsenal at Springfield. The the trans-Appalachian region num-
rebels, armed chiefly with staves bered well over 120,000.
and pitchforks, were repulsed by a
Before the war, several colonies
small state militia force; General
had laid extensive and often over-
Benjamin Lincoln then arrived with
lapping claims to land beyond the
72
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Appalachians. To those without

would be formed as the territory
such claims this rich territorial prize
was settled. Whenever any one of
seemed unfairly apportioned. Mary-
them had 60,000 free inhabitants, it
land, speaking for the latter group,
was to be admitted to the Union
introduced a resolution that the
“on an equal footing with the
western lands be considered com-
original states in all respects.” The
mon property to be parceled by the
ordinance guaranteed civil rights
Congress into free and independent
and liberties, encouraged education,
governments. This idea was not re-
and prohib- ited slavery or other
ceived enthusiastically. Nonethe-
forms of invol- untary servitude.
less, in 1780 New York led the way
The new policy repudiated the
by ceding its claims. In 1784
time-honored concept that colonies
Virgin- ia, which held the grandest
existed for the benefit of the mother
claims, relinquished all land north
country, were politically subordi-
of the Ohio River. Other states
nate, and peopled by social
ceded their claims, and it became
inferiors. Instead, it established the
apparent that Congress would come
principle that colonies
into posses- sion of all the lands
(“territories”) were an extension of
north of the Ohio River and west of
the nation and entitled, not as a
the Allegh- eny Mountains. This
privilege but as a right, to all the
common pos- session of millions of
benefits of equality.
hectares was the most tangible
evidence yet of na- tionality and
CONSTITUTIONAL
unity, and gave a cer- tain
substance to the idea of national
CONVENTION
sovereignty. At the same time,
these vast territories were a
By the time the Northwest
problem that required solution. Ordi- nance was enacted, American
leaders were in the midst of
The Confederation Congress es- drafting a new
tablished a system of limited self- and stronger constitution to replace
government for this new national the Articles of Confederation. Their
Northwest Territory. The Northwest presiding officer, George Washing-
Ordinance of 1787 provided for its ton, had written accurately that the
organization, initially as a single states were united only by a “rope
district, ruled by a governor and of sand.” Disputes between
judges appointed by the Congress. Maryland and Virginia over
When this territory had 5,000 free navigation on the Potomac River
male inhabitants of voting age, it led to a confer- ence of
was to be entitled to a legislature representatives of five states at
of two chambers, itself electing the Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786. One
lower house. In addition, it could at of the delegates, Alexander
that time send a nonvoting delegate Hamilton of New York, convinced
to Congress. Three to five states his colleagues that commerce was
73
 CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
bound up with large political and
economic questions. What was re-

74
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

quired was a fundamental rethink- debate.” He would be recognized

ing of the Confederation. as the “Father of the Constitution.”
The Annapolis conference
issued a call for all the states to
appoint representatives to a
convention to be held the following
spring in Philadel- phia. The
Continental Congress was at first
indignant over this bold step, but it
acquiesced after Washington gave
the project his backing and was
elected a delegate. During the next
fall and winter, elections were held
in all states but Rhode Island.
A remarkable gathering of no-
tables assembled at the Federal
Convention in May 1787. The state
legislatures sent leaders with expe-
rience in colonial and state govern-
ments, in Congress, on the bench,
and in the army. Washington, re-
garded as the country’s first citizen
because of his integrity and his
mili- tary leadership during the
Revolu- tion, was chosen as
presiding officer. Prominent among
the more active members were two
Pennsylvanians: Gouverneur
Morris, who clearly saw the need
for national government, and
James Wilson, who labored in-
defatigably for the national idea.
Also elected by Pennsylvania was
Benjamin Franklin, nearing the end
of an extraordinary career of public
service and scientific achievement.
From Virginia came James
Madison, a practical young
statesman, a thor- ough student of
politics and history, and, according
to a colleague, “from a spirit of
industry and application ... the best-
informed man on any point in

75
 CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Massachusetts sent Rufus — had to be carefully defined and
King and Elbridge Gerry, stated, while all other functions and
young men of ability and powers were to be understood as
experience. Roger Sher- be- longing to the states. But
man, shoemaker turned realizing that the central
judge, was one of the government had to have real power,
representatives from the delegates also generally
Connecticut. From New accepted the fact that the
York came Alexander government should be authorized,
Hamilton, who had pro-
posed the meeting. Absent
from the Convention were
Thomas Jefferson, who was
serving as minister repre-
senting the United States in
France, and John Adams,
serving in the same capacity
in Great Britain. Youth pre-
dominated among the 55
delegates — the average age
was 42.
Congress had authorized
the Convention merely to
draft amend- ments to the
Articles of Confedera- tion
but, as Madison later wrote,
the delegates, “with a manly
confidence in their country,”
simply threw the Articles
aside and went ahead with
the building of a wholly new
form of government.
They recognized that the
para- mount need was to
reconcile two different
powers — the power of local
control, which was already
being exercised by the 13
semi-in- dependent states,
and the power of a central
government. They adopted
the principle that the
functions and powers of the
national government
— being new, general, and inclusive
76
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

among other things, to coin money, go on endlessly until Roger

to regulate commerce, to declare Sherman came forward with
war, and to make peace. arguments for

DEBATE AND COMPROMISE

The 18th-century statesmen

who met in Philadelphia were
adherents of Montesquieu’s
concept of the
balance of power in politics. This
principle was supported by colo-
nial experience and strengthened
by the writings of John Locke, with
which most of the delegates were
fa- miliar. These influences led to
the conviction that three equal and
co- ordinate branches of
government should be established.
Legislative, executive, and judicial
powers were to be so harmoniously
balanced that no one could ever
gain control. The delegates agreed
that the legislative branch, like the
colonial legislatures and the British
Parliament, should consist of two
houses.
On these points there was una-
nimity within the assembly. But
sharp differences also arose. Repre-
sentatives of the small states —
New Jersey, for instance —
objected to changes that would
reduce their in- fluence in the
national government by basing
representation upon popu- lation
rather than upon statehood, as was
the case under the Articles of
Confederation.
On the other hand, representa-
tives of large states, like Virginia,
argued for proportionate represen-
tation. This debate threatened to

77
 CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
representation in proportion to the
population of the states in one house
of Congress, the House of Represen-
tatives, and equal representation in the
other, the Senate.
The alignment of large against
small states then dissolved. But al-
most every succeeding question raised
new divisions, to be resolved only by
new compromises. Northern- ers
wanted slaves counted when de-
termining each state’s tax share, but
not in determining the number of seats
a state would have in the House of
Representatives. Under a com-
promise reached with little dissent, tax
levies and House membership would
be apportioned according to the
number of free inhabitants plus three-
fifths of the slaves.
Certain members, such as Sher-
man and Elbridge Gerry, still smart-
ing from Shays’s Rebellion, feared
that the mass of people lacked suf-
ficient wisdom to govern themselves
and thus wished no branch of the
federal government to be elected di-
rectly by the people. Others thought
the national government should be
given as broad a popular base as
possible. Some delegates wished to
exclude the growing West from the
opportunity of statehood; others
championed the equality principle
established in the Northwest Ordi-
nance of 1787.
There was no serious difference on
such national economic ques- tions as
paper money, laws concern- ing
contract obligations, or the role of
women, who were excluded from
politics. But there was a need for

78
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

balancing sectional economic in-

system with separate legislative, ex-
terests; for settling arguments as to
ecutive, and judiciary branches,
the powers, term, and selection of
each checked by the others. Thus
the chief executive; and for solving
congressional enactments were not
problems involving the tenure of
to become law until approved by
judges and the kind of courts to be
the president. And the president
established.
was to submit the most important of
Laboring through a hot Philadel-
his ap- pointments and all his
phia summer, the convention finally
treaties to the Senate for
achieved a draft incorporating in
confirmation. The presi- dent, in
a brief document the organization
turn, could be impeached and
of the most complex government
removed by Congress. The ju-
yet devised, one that would be su-
diciary was to hear all cases arising
preme within a clearly defined and
under federal laws and the Con-
limited sphere. It would have full
stitution; in effect, the courts were
power to levy taxes, borrow money,
empowered to interpret both the
establish uniform duties and ex-
fundamental and the statute law.
cise taxes, coin money, regulate in-
But members of the judiciary,
terstate commerce, fix weights and
appointed by the president and
measures, grant patents and copy-
confirmed by the Senate, could also
rights, set up post offices, and build
be impeached by Congress.
post roads. It also was authorized to
To protect the Constitution
raise and maintain an army and
from hasty alteration, Article V
navy, manage Native American af-
stipulated that amendments to the
fairs, conduct foreign policy, and
Constitution be proposed either by
wage war. It could pass laws for
two-thirds of both houses of Con-
naturalizing foreigners and control-
gress or by two-thirds of the states,
ling public lands; it could admit
meeting in convention. The propos-
new states on a basis of absolute
als were to be ratified by one of two
equal- ity with the old. The power
methods: either by the legislatures
to pass all necessary and proper
of three-fourths of the states, or by
laws for executing these clearly
convention in three-fourths of the
defined pow- ers rendered the
states, with the Congress proposing
federal government able to meet the
the method to be used.
needs of later gen- erations and of a
Finally, the convention faced
greatly expanded body politic.
the most important problem of all:
The principle of separation of
How should the powers given to
powers had already been given a
the new government be enforced?
fair trial in most state constitutions
Under the Articles of Confedera-
and had proved sound.
tion, the national government had
Accordingly, the convention set up
possessed — on paper — signifi-
a governmental
cant powers, which, in practice, had

79
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

come to naught, for the states paid judges and state law officers.
no attention to them. What was to
save the new government from the
same fate?
At the outset, most delegates fur-
nished a single answer — the use of
force. But it was quickly seen that the
application of force upon the
states would destroy the Union.
The deci- sion was that the
government should not act upon
the states but upon the people
within the states, and should
legislate for and upon all the indi-
vidual residents of the country. As
the keystone of the Constitution, the
convention adopted two brief but
highly significant statements:
Congress shall have power ...
to make all Laws which shall be
necessary and proper for
carrying into Execution the ...
Powers vested by this
Constitution in the Government
of the United States.
... (Article I, Section 7)
This Constitution, and the
Laws of the United States which
shall be made in Pursuance
thereof; and all Treaties made, or
which shall be made, under the
Authority of the United States,
shall be the supreme Law of the
Land; and the Judges in every
State shall be bound thereby,
any Thing in the Constitution or
Laws of any State to the Contrary
notwithstanding. (Article VI)
Thus the laws of the United
States became enforceable in its
own na- tional courts, through its
own judges and marshals, as well as
in the state courts through the state

80
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Debate continues to this day about HISTORY

the motives of those who wrote the

Constitution. In 1913 his- torian
Charles Beard, in An Econom- ic
Interpretation of the Constitution,
argued that the Founding Fathers
represented emerging commercial-
capitalist interests that needed a strong
national government. He also
believed many may have been
motivated by personal holdings of
large amounts of depreciated gov-
ernment securities. However, James
Madison, principal drafter of the
Constitution, held no bonds and was a
Virginia planter. Conversely, some
opponents of the Constitu- tion owned
large amounts of bonds and securities.
Economic interests influenced the
course of the debate, but so did state,
sectional, and ideo- logical interests.
Equally important was the idealism of
the framers. Products of the
Enlightenment, the Founding Fathers
designed a gov- ernment that they
believed would promote individual
liberty and pub- lic virtue. The ideals
embodied in the U.S. Constitution
remain an es- sential element of the
American na- tional identity.

RATIFICATION AND
THE BILL OF RIGHTS

On September 17, 1787, after 16

weeks of deliberation, the finished
Constitution was signed by 39 of
the 42 delegates present. Franklin,
pointing to the half-sun painted in
brilliant gold on the back of Wash-
ington’s chair, said:

81
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

I have often in the course of the voiced by the press, the legislatures, and
session ... looked at that [chair] the state conventions.
behind the president, without
being able to tell whether it was
rising or setting; but now, at
length, I have the happiness to
know that it is a rising, and not
a setting, sun.
The convention was over; the
members “adjourned to the City
Tavern, dined together, and took
a cordial leave of each other.” Yet
a crucial part of the struggle for a
more perfect union remained to
be faced. The consent of popularly
elected state conventions was still
required before the document could
become effective.
The convention had decided
that the Constitution would take
effect upon ratification by
conventions in nine of the 13
states. By June 1788 the required
nine states had ratified the
Constitution, but the large states of
Virginia and New York had not.
Most people felt that without their
support the Constitution would nev-
er be honored. To many, the
docu- ment seemed full of dangers:
Would not the strong central
government that it established
tyrannize them, oppress them with
heavy taxes, and drag them into
wars?
Differing views on these ques-
tions brought into existence two
par- ties, the Federalists, who
favored a strong central
government, and the Antifederalists,
who preferred a loose association of
separate states. Impas- sioned
arguments on both sides were

82
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
In Virginia, the HISTORY
cen- tral government was only one
Antifederalists attacked the con- cern among those opposed to
proposed new gov- ernment the Constitution; of equal
by challenging the open- ing concern to many was the fear that
phrase of the Constitution: the Constitution did not protect
“We the People of the United individ- ual rights and freedoms
States.” Without using the sufficiently. Virginian George
individual state names in the Mason, author
Constitution, the del- egates
argued, the states would not
retain their separate rights or
pow- ers. Virginia
Antifederalists were led by
Patrick Henry, who became
the chief spokesman for
back-coun- try farmers who
feared the powers of the new
central government. Wa-
vering delegates were
persuaded by a proposal that
the Virginia con- vention
recommend a bill of rights,
and Antifederalists joined
with the Federalists to ratify
the Constitution on June 25.
In New York, Alexander
Ham- ilton, John Jay, and
James Madison pushed for
the ratification of the
Constitution in a series of
essays known as The
Federalist Papers. The
essays, published in New
York newspapers, provided a
now-classic argument for a
central federal gov- ernment,
with separate executive,
legislative, and judicial
branches that checked and
balanced one another. With
The Federalist Papers
influenc- ing the New York
delegates, the Con- stitution
was ratified on July 26.
Antipathy toward a strong
83
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights ments have been added to the

of 1776, was one of three delegates
to the Constitutional Convention
who had refused to sign the final
document because it did not enu-
merate individual rights. Together
with Patrick Henry, he campaigned
vigorously against ratification of
the Constitution by Virginia.
Indeed, five states, including
Massachusetts, ratified the
Constitution on the con- dition that
such amendments be added
immediately.
When the first Congress con-
vened in New York City in Septem-
ber 1789, the calls for amendments
protecting individual rights were
virtually unanimous. Congress
quickly adopted 12 such amend-
ments; by December 1791, enough
states had ratified 10 amendments
to make them part of the Constitu-
tion. Collectively, they are known
as the Bill of Rights. Among their
provisions: freedom of speech,
press, religion, and the right to
assemble peacefully, protest, and
demand changes (First
Amendment); protec- tion against
unreasonable search- es, seizures
of property, and arrest (Fourth
Amendment); due process of law in
all criminal cases (Fifth
Amendment); right to a fair and
speedy trial (Sixth Amendment);
protection against cruel and unusual
punishment (Eighth Amendment);
and provision that the people retain
additional rights not listed in the
Constitution (Ninth Amendment).
Since the adoption of the Bill
of Rights, only 17 more amend-

84
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Constitution. Although a number of HISTORY

the subsequent amendments re- vised

the federal government’s struc- ture
and operations, most followed the
precedent established by the Bill of
Rights and expanded individual rights
and freedoms.

PRESIDENT WASHINGTON

One of the last acts of the Con-

gress of the Confederation was to ar-
range for the first presidential elec-
tion, setting March 4, 1789, as the
date that the new government would
come into being. One name was on
everyone’s lips for the new chief of
state, George Washington. He was
unanimously chosen president and
took the oath of office at his inau-
guration on April 30, 1789. In words
spoken by every president since,
Washington pledged to execute the
duties of the presidency faithfully and,
to the best of his ability, to “pre-
serve, protect, and defend the Con-
stitution of the United States.”
When Washington took office, the
new Constitution enjoyed nei- ther
tradition nor the full backing of
organized public opinion. The new
government had to create its own
machinery and legislate a system of
taxation that would support it. Until a
judiciary could be established, laws
could not be enforced. The army was
small. The navy had ceased to exist.
Congress quickly created the de-
partments of State and Treasury, with
Thomas Jefferson and Alex- ander
Hamilton as their respective
secretaries. Departments of War

85
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

and Justice were also created. Since

At this critical juncture in the
Washington preferred to make de-
country’s growth, Washington’s wise
cisions only after consulting those
leadership was crucial. He
men whose judgment he valued,
organized a national government,
the American presidential Cabinet
developed policies for settlement of
came into existence, consisting of
territories previously held by Britain
the heads of all the departments that
and Spain, stabilized the
Congress might create. Simultane-
northwestern frontier, and oversaw
ously, Congress provided for a fed-
the admission of three new states:
eral judiciary — a Supreme Court,
Vermont (1791), Ken- tucky
with one chief justice and five associ-
(1792), and Tennessee (1796).
ate justices, three circuit courts, and
Finally, in his Farewell Address, he
13 district courts.
warned the nation to “steer clear of
Meanwhile, the country was
permanent alliances with any por-
growing steadily and immigration
tion of the foreign world.” This ad-
from Europe was increasing.
vice influenced American attitudes
Ameri- cans were moving
toward the rest of the world for
westward: New Englanders and
gen- erations to come.
Pennsylvanians into Ohio;
Virginians and Carolinians into
HAMILTON VS. JEFFERSON
Kentucky and Tennessee. Good
farms were to be had for small
sums; labor was in strong demand.
A conflict took shape in the
The rich valley stretches of upper 1790s between America’s first
political parties. Indeed, the
New York, Pennsylvania, and Federalists, led
Virginia soon became great wheat-
by Alexander Hamilton, and the
growing areas.
Republicans (also called Demo-
Although many items were still cratic-Republicans), led by Thomas
homemade, the Industrial Revo- Jefferson, were the first political
lution was dawning in the United parties in the Western world. Un-
States. Massachusetts and Rhode like loose political groupings in the
Is- land were laying the foundation British House of Commons or in
of important textile industries; Con- the American colonies before the
necticut was beginning to turn out Revolution, both had reasonably
tinware and clocks; New York, consistent and principled platforms,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were relatively stable popular followings,
pro- ducing paper, glass, and iron. and continuing organizations.
Ship- ping had grown to such an The Federalists in the main rep-
extent that on the seas the United resented the interests of trade and
States was second only to Britain. manufacturing, which they saw as
Even be- fore 1790, American ships forces of progress in the world.
were trav- eling to China to sell furs They believed these could be
and bring back tea, spices, and silk. advanced only by a strong central
86
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
government capable of HISTORY

establishing sound public

87
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

credit and a stable currency. Openly it acted as the nation’s central

distrustful of the latent radicalism fi-
of the masses, they could
nonetheless credibly appeal to
workers and arti- sans. Their
political stronghold was in the New
England states. Seeing England as
in many respects an ex- ample the
United States should try to emulate,
they favored good relations with
their mother country.
Although Alexander Hamilton
was never able to muster the
popular appeal to stand successfully
for elec- tive office, he was far and
away the Federalists’ main
generator of ideol- ogy and public
policy. He brought to public life a
love of efficiency, order, and
organization. In response to the call
of the House of Representatives for
a plan for the “adequate support of
public credit,” he laid down and
supported principles not only of the
public economy, but of effective gov-
ernment. Hamilton pointed out that
the United States must have credit
for industrial development, com-
mercial activity, and the operations
of government, and that its obliga-
tions must have the complete faith
and support of the people.
There were many who wished to
repudiate the Confederation’s na-
tional debt or pay only part of it.
Hamilton insisted upon full pay-
ment and also upon a plan by which
the federal government took over
the unpaid debts of the states in-
curred during the Revolution. He
also secured congressional legisla-
tion for a Bank of the United States.
Modeled after the Bank of England,

88
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
nancial institution and operated HISTORY

branches in different parts of the

country. Hamilton sponsored a na-
tional mint, and argued in favor of
tariffs, saying that temporary pro-
tection of new firms could help fos-
ter the development of competitive
national industries. These measures
— placing the credit of the feder- al
government on a firm founda- tion
and giving it all the revenues it
needed — encouraged commerce and
industry, and created a solid phalanx
of interests firmly behind the national
government.
The Republicans, led by Thomas
Jefferson, spoke primarily for agri-
cultural interests and values. They
distrusted bankers, cared little for
commerce and manufacturing, and
believed that freedom and democra-
cy flourished best in a rural society
composed of self-sufficient farm- ers.
They felt little need for a strong
central government; in fact, they
tended to see it as a potential source of
oppression. Thus they favored states’
rights. They were strongest in the
South.
Hamilton’s great aim was more
efficient organization, whereas Jef-
ferson once said, “I am not a friend to
a very energetic government.”
Hamilton feared anarchy and thought
in terms of order; Jefferson feared
tyranny and thought in terms of
freedom. Where Hamilton saw
England as an example, Jefferson,
who had been minister to France in
the early stages of the French Rev-
olution, looked to the overthrow of the
French monarchy as vindication

89
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

of the liberal ideals of the

CITIZEN GENET AND
Enlighten- ment. Against
FOREIGN POLICY
Hamilton’s instinctive
conservatism, he projected an elo-
quent democratic radicalism.
Although one of the first tasks
An early clash between them, of the new government was to
strengthen the domestic economy
which occurred shortly after Jeffer-
and make the nation financially
son took office as secretary of state,
secure, the United States could not
led to a new and profoundly
ignore foreign affairs. The corner-
impor- tant interpretation of the
stones of Washington’s foreign pol-
Constitu- tion. When Hamilton
icy were to preserve peace, to give
introduced his bill to establish a
the country time to recover from
national bank, Jef- ferson, speaking
its wounds, and to permit the slow
for those who be- lieved in states’
work of national integration to
rights, argued that the Constitution
continue. Events in Europe threat-
expressly enumer- ated all the
ened these goals. Many Americans
powers belonging to the federal
watched the French Revolution
government and reserved all other
with keen interest and sympathy. In
powers to the states. Nowhere was
April 1793, news came that France
the federal government empow-
had declared war on Great Britain
ered to set up a bank.
and Spain, and that a new French
Hamilton responded that
envoy, Edmond Charles Genet —
because of the mass of necessary
Citizen Genet — was coming to the
detail, a vast body of powers had to
United States.
be implied by general clauses, and
When the revolution in France
one of these authorized Congress to
led to the execution of King Louis
“make all laws which shall be nec-
XVI in January 1793, Britain,
essary and proper” for carrying out
Spain, and Holland became
other powers specifically granted.
involved in war with France.
The Constitution authorized the
According to the Franco-American
national government to levy and
Treaty of Alliance of 1778, the
collect taxes, pay debts, and bor-
United States and France were
row money. A national bank would
perpetual allies, and the Unit- ed
materially help in performing these
States was obliged to help France
functions efficiently. Congress,
defend the West Indies. However,
therefore, was entitled, under its
the United States, militarily and
im- plied powers, to create such a
economically a very weak country,
bank. Washington and the Congress
was in no position to become in-
ac- cepted Hamilton’s view — and
volved in another war with major
set an important precedent for an
European powers.
ex- pansive interpretation of the
On April 22, 1793, Washington
federal government’s authority.
effectively abrogated the terms of the

90
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

1778 treaty that had made seizures. Moreover, the treaty

American independence possible by failed to address the fes-
proclaim- ing the United States to
be “friendly and impartial toward
the belligerent powers.” When
Genet arrived, he was cheered by
many citizens, but treated with cool
formality by the government.
Angered, he violated a promise
not to outfit a captured British ship
as a privateer (private- ly owned
warships commissioned to prey on
ships of enemy nations). Genet then
threatened to take his cause directly
to the American peo- ple, over the
head of the government. Shortly
afterward, the United States
requested his recall by the French
government.
The Genet incident strained
American relations with France at
a time when those with Great Brit-
ain were far from satisfactory. Brit-
ish troops still occupied forts in the
West, property carried off by
British soldiers during the
Revolution had not been restored or
paid for, and the British Navy was
seizing American ships bound for
French ports. The two countries
seemed to be drifting toward war.
Washington sent John Jay, first
chief justice of the Supreme Court,
to London as a special envoy. Jay
negotiated a treaty that secured
withdrawal of British soldiers from
western forts but allowed the
British to continue the fur trade
with the Indians in the Northwest.
London agreed to pay damages for
American ships and cargoes seized
in 1793 and 1794, but made no
commitments on possible future

91
 CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
tering issue of British “impressment”
of American sailors into the Royal
Navy, placed severe limitations on
American trade with the West In-
dies, and accepted the British view
that food and naval stores, as well as
war materiel, were contraband sub-
ject to seizure if bound for enemy
ports on neutral ships.
American diplomat Charles
Pinckney was more successful in
dealing with Spain. In 1795, he
negotiated an important treaty set-
tling the Florida border on Ameri- can
terms and giving Americans access to
the port of New Orleans. All the
same, the Jay Treaty with the
British reflected a continu- ing
American weakness vis-a-vis a world
superpower. Deeply unpopu- lar, it
was vocally supported only by
Federalists who valued cultural and
economic ties with Britain. Wash-
ington backed it as the best bargain
available, and, after a heated debate,
the Senate approved it.
Citizen Genet’s antics and Jay’s
Treaty demonstrated both the diffi-
culties faced by a small weak nation
caught between two great powers and
the wide gap in outlook between
Federalists and Republicans. To the
Federalists, Republican backers of the
increasingly violent and radical
French Revolution were dangerous
radicals (“Jacobins”); to the Repub-
licans, advocates of amity with Eng-
land were monarchists who would
subvert the natural rights of Ameri-
cans. The Federalists connected vir-
tue and national development with
commerce; the Republicans saw

92
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

America’s destiny as that of a vast Navy.

agrarian republic. The politics of In 1799, after a series of sea bat-
their conflicting positions became
increasingly vehement.

ADAMS AND JEFFERSON

Washington retired in 1797,

firm- ly declining to serve for more
than eight years as the nation’s
head.
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia (Re-
publican) and John Adams
(Federal- ist) vied to succeed him.
Adams won a narrow election
victory. From the beginning,
however, he was at the head of a
party and an administra- tion
divided between his backers and
those of his rival, Hamilton.
Adams faced serious internation-
al difficulties. France, angered by
Jay’s treaty with Britain, adopted its
definition of contraband and began
to seize American ships headed for
Britain. By 1797 France had snatched
300 American ships and broken
off diplomatic relations with the
United States. When Adams sent
three commissioners to Paris to ne-
gotiate, agents of Foreign Minis-
ter Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
(whom Adams labeled X, Y, and Z in
his report to Congress) informed
the Americans that negotiations
could only begin if the United
States loaned France $12 million
and bribed of- ficials of the French
government. American hostility to
France rose to an excited pitch. The
so-called XYZ Affair led to the
enlistment of troops and the
strengthening of the fledg- ling U.S.

93
 CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
tles with the French, war of civil liberties and aroused
seemed inevitable. In this support for the Republicans.
crisis, Adams re- jected the The acts met with resistance.
guidance of Hamilton, who Jef- ferson and Madison sponsored
wanted war, and reopened the passage of the Kentucky and
ne- gotiations with France. Virgin- ia Resolutions by the
Napoleon, who had just legislatures of these two states in
come to power, re- ceived November and
them cordially. The danger
of conflict subsided with the
nego- tiation of the
Convention of 1800, which
formally released the United
States from its 1778 defense
alliance with France.
However, reflecting
American weakness, France
refused to pay $20 million in
compensation for American
ships taken by the French
Navy.
Hostility to France had led
Con- gress to pass the Alien
and Sedition Acts, which had
severe repercus- sions for
American civil liberties. The
Naturalization Act, which
changed the requirement for
citi- zenship from five to 14
years, was targeted at Irish
and French immi- grants
suspected of supporting the
Republicans. The Alien Act,
oper- ative for two years
only, gave the president the
power to expel or im- prison
aliens in time of war. The
Sedition Act proscribed
writing, speaking, or
publishing anything of “a
false, scandalous, and mali-
cious” nature against the
president or Congress. The
few convictions won under it
created martyrs to the cause

94
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

December 1798. Extreme declara-

and ceremony of the presidency. In
tion of states’ rights, the resolutions
line with Republican ideology, he
asserted that states could
sharply cut military expenditures.
“interpose” their views on federal
Believing America to be a haven
actions and “nullify” them. The
for the oppressed, he secured a lib-
doctrine of nul- lification would be
eral naturalization law. By the end
used later for the Southern states’
of his second term, his far-sighted
resistance to protec- tive tariffs,
secretary of the treasury, Albert
and, more ominously, slavery.
Gallatin, had reduced the national
By 1800 the American people
debt to less than $560 million.
were ready for a change. Under
Wide- ly popular, Jefferson won
Washington and Adams, the Feder-
reelection as president easily.
alists had established a strong gov-
ernment, but sometimes failing to
LOUISIANA AND BRITAIN
honor the principle that the Ameri-
can government must be responsive
to the will of the people, they had
One of Jefferson’s acts doubled
followed policies that alienated the area of the country. At the end
of the Seven Years’ War, France
large groups. For example, in 1798 had ceded
they had enacted a tax on houses, its territory west of the Mississippi
land, and slaves, affecting every River to Spain. Access to the port
property owner in the country. of New Orleans near its mouth was
Jefferson had steadily gathered vital for the shipment of American
behind him a great mass of small products from the Ohio and Missis-
farmers, shopkeepers, and other sippi river valleys. Shortly after Jef-
workers. He won a close victory in ferson became president, Napoleon
a contested election. Jefferson en- forced a weak Spanish government
joyed extraordinary favor because to cede this great tract, the
of his appeal to American idealism. Louisiana Territory, back to France.
In his inaugural address, the first The move filled Americans with
such speech in the new capital of apprehension and indignation.
Wash- ington, D.C., he promised “a French plans for a huge colonial
wise and frugal government” that empire just west of the United
would preserve order among the States seriously threat- ened the
inhabit- ants but leave people future development of the United
“otherwise free to regulate their States. Jefferson asserted that if
own pursuits of in- dustry, and France took possession of Loui-
improvement.” siana, “from that moment we must
Jefferson’s mere presence in the marry ourselves to the British fleet
White House encouraged demo- and nation.”
cratic procedures. He preached Napoleon, however, lost interest
and practiced democratic simplic- after the French were expelled from
ity, eschewing much of the pomp Haiti by a slave revolt. Knowing
95
 CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
that another war with Great Britain
was

96
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

impending, he resolved to fill his their service.

treasury and put Louisiana
beyond the reach of Britain by
selling it to the United States. His
offer present- ed Jefferson with a
dilemma: The Constitution
conferred no explicit power to
purchase territory. At first the
president wanted to propose an
amendment, but delay might lead
Napoleon to change his mind. Ad-
vised that the power to purchase
territory was inherent in the
power to make treaties, Jefferson
relented, saying that “the good
sense of our country will correct
the evil of loose construction when
it shall produce ill effects.”
The United States obtained the
“Louisiana Purchase” for $15 mil-
lion in 1803. It contained more than
2,600,000 square kilometers as well
as the port of New Orleans. The
nation had gained a sweep of rich
plains, mountains, forests, and river
systems that within 80 years would
become its heartland — and a
bread- basket for the world.
As Jefferson began his second
term in 1805, he declared American
neutrality in the struggle between
Great Britain and France. Although
both sides sought to restrict neutral
shipping to the other, British con-
trol of the seas made its interdiction
and seizure much more serious than
any actions by Napoleonic France.
British naval commanders routinely
searched American ships, seized ves-
sels and cargoes, and took off
sailors believed to be British
subjects. They also frequently
impressed American seamen into

97
 CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
When Jefferson issued a 1809. Relations with Great Britain
procla- mation ordering grew worse, and the two countries
British warships to leave moved rapidly to- ward war. The
U.S. territorial waters, the president laid before Congress a
British reacted by impressing detailed report, showing several
more sailors. Jefferson then thousand instances in which the
decided to rely on economic British had impressed American
pressure; in December 1807 citizens. In addition, northwestern
Congress passed the
Embargo Act, forbidding all
foreign com- merce.
Ironically, the law required
strong police authority that
vastly increased the powers
of the national government.
Economically, it was
disastrous. In a single year
Ameri- can exports fell to
one-fifth of their former
volume. Shipping interests
were almost ruined by the
measure; discontent rose in
New England and New York.
Agricultural interests
suffered heavily also. Prices
dropped drastically when the
Southern and Western
farmers could not export
their surplus grain, cotton,
meat, and tobacco.
The embargo failed to
starve Great Britain into a
change of pol- icy. As the
grumbling at home in-
creased, Jefferson turned to a
milder measure, which
partially conciliated domestic
shipping interests. In early
1809 he signed the Non-
Intercourse Act permitting
commerce with all countries
except Britain or France and
their dependencies.
James Madison succeeded
Jeffer- son as president in
98
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

settlers had suffered from attacks on Lake Erie. General William

by Indians whom they believed had Henry Harrison — who would
been incited by British agents in lat- er become president — led
Canada. In turn, many Americans an army
favored conquest of Canada and the
elimination of British influence in
North America, as well as
vengeance for impressment and
commercial repression. By 1812,
war fervor was dominant. On June
18, the United States declared war
on Britain.

THE WAR OF 1812

The nation went to war

bitterly divided. While the South
and West favored the conflict, New
York and
New England opposed it because
it interfered with their commerce.
The U.S. military was weak. The
army had fewer than 7,000 regular
soldiers, distributed in widely scat-
tered posts along the coast, near the
Canadian border, and in the re-
mote interior. The state militias
were poorly trained and
undisciplined.
Hostilities began with an inva-
sion of Canada, which, if properly
timed and executed, would have
brought united action against Mon-
treal. Instead, the entire campaign
miscarried and ended with the Brit-
ish occupation of Detroit. The U.S.
Navy, however, scored successes.
In addition, American privateers,
swarming the Atlantic, captured
500 British vessels during the fall
and winter months of 1812 and
1813.
The campaign of 1813 centered

99
 CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
of militia, volunteers, and regulars
from Kentucky with the object of
reconquering Detroit. On September
12, while he was still in upper Ohio,
news reached him that Commodore
Oliver Hazard Perry had annihilated
the British fleet on Lake Erie. Har-
rison occupied Detroit and pushed
into Canada, defeating the fleeing
British and their Indian allies on the
Thames River. The entire region now
came under American control.
A year later Commodore Thomas
Macdonough won a point-blank gun
duel with a British flotilla on Lake
Champlain in upper New York. De-
prived of naval support, a British in-
vasion force of 10,000 men retreated
to Canada. Nevertheless, the Brit- ish
fleet harassed the Eastern sea- board
with orders to “destroy and lay
waste.” On the night of August 24,
1814, an expeditionary force routed
American militia, marched to
Washington, D.C., and left the city in
flames. President James Madison fled
to Virginia.
British and American negotia- tors
conducted talks in Europe. The British
envoys decided to concede, however,
when they learned of Mac- donough’s
victory on Lake Champ- lain. Faced
with the depletion of the British
treasury due in large part to the heavy
costs of the Napoleonic Wars, the
negotiators for Great Brit- ain
accepted the Treaty of Ghent in
December 1814. It provided for the
cessation of hostilities, the restora-
tion of conquests, and a commission
to settle boundary disputes. Unaware
that a peace treaty had been signed,

10
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

the two sides continued fighting

the enemy throughout the conflict,
into 1815 near New Orleans,
and some areas actually prospered
Louisiana. Led by General Andrew
from this commerce. Nevertheless,
Jackson, the United States scored
the Federalists claimed that the war
the great- est land victory of the
was ruining the economy. With a
war, ending once and for all any
possibility of secession from the
British hopes of reestablishing
Union in the background, the con-
continental influence south of the
vention proposed a series of consti-
Canadian border.
tutional amendments that would
While the British and Americans
protect New England interests. In-
were negotiating a settlement, Fed-
stead, the end of the war,
eralist delegates selected by the leg-
punctuated by the smashing victory
islatures of Massachusetts, Rhode
at New Or- leans, stamped the
Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and
Federalists with a stigma of
New Hampshire gathered in Hart-
disloyalty from which they never
ford, Connecticut, to express oppo-
recovered. 9
sition to “Mr. Madison’s war.” New
England had managed to trade with

10
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING

By the end of the 18th century, many educated Americans no longer

professed traditional Christian beliefs. In reaction to the secularism of the
age, a religious revival spread westward in the first half of the 19th century.
This “Second Great Awakening” consisted of several kinds of activity,
distinguished by locale and expression of religious commitment. In New
England, the renewed interest in religion inspired a wave of social
activism. In western New York, the spirit of revival encouraged the
emergence of new denominations. In the Appalachian region of Kentucky
and Tennessee, the
revival strengthened the Methodists and the Baptists, and spawned a new form
of religious expression — the camp meeting.
In contrast to the Great Awakening of the 1730s, the revivals in the
East were notable for the absence of hysteria and open emotion. Rather,
unbelievers were awed by the “respectful silence” of those bearing witness
to their faith. The evangelical enthusiasm in New England gave rise to
interdenominational missionary societies, formed to evangelize the West.
Members of these societies not only acted as apostles for the faith, but as
educators, civic leaders, and exponents of Eastern, urban culture. Publication
and education societies promoted Christian education. Most notable among
them was the American Bible Society, founded in 1816. Social activism
inspired by the revival gave rise to abolition of slavery groups and the Society
for the Promotion of Temperance, as well as to efforts to reform prisons and
care for the handicapped and mentally ill.
Western New York, from Lake Ontario to the Adirondack Mountains, had
been the scene of so many religious revivals in the past that it was known as
the “Burned-Over District.” Here, the dominant figure was Charles Grandison
Finney, a lawyer who had experienced a religious epiphany and set out to
preach the Gospel. His revivals were characterized by careful planning,
showmanship, and advertising. Finney preached in the Burned-Over District
throughout the 1820s and the early 1830s, before moving to Ohio in 1835
to take a chair in theology at Oberlin College, of which he subsequently
became president.
Two other important religious denominations in America — the Mormons
and the Seventh Day Adventists — also got their start in the Burned-
Over District.

10 87
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

In the Appalachian region, the revival took on characteristics similar

to the Great Awakening of the previous century. But here, the center of the
revival was the camp meeting, a religious service of several days’ length,
for a group that was obliged to take shelter on the spot because of the
distance from home. Pioneers in thinly populated areas looked to the camp
meeting as a refuge from the lonely life on the frontier. The sheer
exhilaration of participating in a religious revival with hundreds and
perhaps thousands
of people inspired the dancing, shouting, and singing associated with these
events. Probably the largest camp meeting was at Cane Ridge, Kentucky,
in August 1801; between 10,000 and 25,000 people attended.
The great revival quickly spread throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, and
southern Ohio, with the Methodists and the Baptists its prime beneficiaries.
Each denomination had assets that allowed it to thrive on the frontier. The
Methodists had a very efficient organization that depended on ministers —
known as circuit riders — who sought out people in remote frontier locations.
The circuit riders came from among the common people and possessed a
rapport with the frontier families they hoped to convert. The Baptists had
no formal church organization. Their farmer-preachers were people who
received “the call” from God, studied the Bible, and founded a church, which
then ordained them. Other candidates for the ministry emerged from these
churches, and established a presence farther into the wilderness. Using such
methods, the Baptists became dominant throughout the border states and
most of the South.
The Second Great Awakening exercised a profound impact on American
history. The numerical strength of the Baptists and Methodists rose relative
to that of the denominations dominant in the colonial period — Anglicans,
Presbyterians, and Congregationalists. The growing differences
within American Protestantism reflected the growth and diversity of an
expanding nation. ◆

88
 Andrew Jackson, president from 1829 to 1837. Charismatic,
forceful, and passionate, Jackson forged an effective political
coalition within the Democratic Party with Westerners,
farmers, and working people.

TRANSFORMING A NATIO
N
A PICTURE PROFILE
The United States transformed itself again in the 19th and
early 20th centuries. A rural, agricultural nation became an
industrial power whose backbone was steel and coal, railroads,
and steam power. A young country once bound by the Mississippi
River expanded across the North American continent, and on to
overseas territories. A nation divided by the issue of slavery and
tested by the trauma of civil war became a world power whose
global influence was first felt in World War I.

89
 Henry Clay of
Kentucky, although
never president, was
one of the most
influential American
politicians of the first
half of the 19th
century. Clay became
indispensable for his
role in preserving the
Union with the Missouri
Compromise of 1820
and the Compromise
of 1850. Both pieces of
legislation resolved, for
a time, disputes over
slavery in
the territories.

The great champions of

women’s rights in the
19th century: Elizabeth
Cady Stanton (seated)
and Susan
B. Anthony. Stanton
helped organize the first
women’s rights
convention in 1848
in Seneca Falls, New
York. In later years, she
joined Anthony in
founding the National
Woman Suffrage
Association. “I forged
the thunderbolts,”
 Stanton said
of their partnership, “and
she fired them.”

90
William Lloyd Garrison, whose
passionate denunciations of
slavery and eloquent defense of
the rights of enslaved African
Americans appeared in his
weekly paper, the
Liberator, from its first issue in
1831 to 1865, when the last issue
appeared at the close of the Civil
War.

Frederick Douglass, the nation’s

leading African-American
abolitionist of the 19th century, Harriet Tubman, a former slave who
escaped from slavery in 1838. His rescued hundreds from slavery through the
speech about his sufferings as a Underground Railroad. The Underground
slave at the Massachusetts Anti- Railroad was a vast network of people who
Slavery Society’s annual helped fugitive slaves escape to the North
convention in Nantucket and to Canada in the first half of the 19th
launched his career as an century.
outspoken lecturer, writer, and
publisher on the abolition of
slavery and racial equality.
91
Confederate dead along a stone wall during the Chancellorsville campaign,
May 1863. Victorious at Chancellorsville, Southern forces advanced north into
Pennsylvania, but were defeated at the three-day battle of Gettysburg, the
turning point of the Civil War and the largest battle ever fought in North
America. More Americans died in the Civil War (1861-65) than in any other
conflict in U.S. history.
93
Encampment of Union troops from New York in Alexandria,
Virginia, just across the Potomac River from the capital of
Washington.

94
Union General Ulysses S. Grant, who led
Union forces to victory in the Civil War and
became the 18th president of the United
States. Despite heavy losses in several
battles against his opponent, General Lee
(below), Grant refused to retreat, leading
President Lincoln to say to critics calling for
his removal, “I can’t spare this general. He
fights.”

Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Military historians to this day study his
tactics
and Grant’s in battles such as
Vicksburg, Chancellorsville, and the
Wilderness.

95
Engraving of the first African-American members elected to the U.S.
Congress during the Reconstruction Era, following the Civil War. Seated at
left is H.R. Revels, senator from Mississippi. The others were members of
the House of Representatives, from the states of Alabama, Florida, South
Carolina, and Georgia.

Although practically
unknown during her
lifetime, Emily
Dickinson (1830-1886)
is now seen as one of
the most brilliant and
original poets America
has ever produced.

96
Andrew Carnegie, business tycoon and philanthropist. Born in Scotland of a
poor family, Carnegie immigrated to the United States and made his fortune
by building the country’s largest iron and steel manufacturing corporation.
Believing that the wealthy had an obligation to give back to society, he
endowed public libraries across the United States.

Samuel Langhorne
Clemens (1835-1910),
better known by his pen
name of Mark Twain, is
perhaps the most widely
read and enjoyed
American writer and
humorist. In his
Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn and
other works, Twain
developed a style based
on vigorous, realistic,
colloquial
American speech.
97
Sitting Bull, Sioux chief who led the last great
battle of the Plains Indians against the U.S.
Army, when his warriors defeated forces under
the command of General George Custer at
the Battle of
Little Bighorn in 1876.

Custer’s army on the march

prior to Little Bighorn. The Plains
Indians who defeated his army
were resisting white intrusions
into their sacred lands and
U.S. government attempts to
force them back onto South
Dakota’s Great Sioux
Reservation.

98
99
Above, Oklahoma City in 1889, four weeks after the
Oklahoma Territory was opened up for settlement. Settlers
staked their claim, put up tents, and then swiftly began
erecting board shacks and houses — a pattern repeated
throughout the West.

Left, a vessel at the Gatun locks of the Panama Canal. The

United States acquired the rights to build the canal in 1903 in
a treaty with Panama, which had just rebelled and broken
away from Colombia. Under the terms of the 1977 treaty, the
canal reverted to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.

101
102
Left, opposite page, immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in New
York City, principal gateway to the United States in the late
19th and early 20th centuries. From 1890 to 1921, almost 19
million people entered the United States as immigrants.

Below, children working at the Indiana Glass Works in

1908. Enacting child labor laws was one of the principal
goals of the Progressive movement in this era.

103
Thomas Edison examines film used in the motion picture
projector that he invented with George Eastman. The
most celebrated of Edison’s hundreds of inventions was
the incandescent light bulb.

106
Orville Wright, who built and flew the first heavier-than-air
airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, with his
brother Wilbur. Orville is shown here at the controls of a later
model plane in 1909.

Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call

from New York City to Chicago in 1892. Bell, an
immigrant from
Scotland who settled in Boston, invented the telephone
16 years earlier, in 1876.

107
The “Big Four” at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, following the end of World War
I. They are, seated from left, Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando of Italy, Prime
Minister David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau
of France, and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States. Despite
strenuous efforts, Wilson was unable to persuade the U.S. Senate to agree
to American participation in the new League of Nations established in the
aftermath of the war.

108
For the educated and well-to-do, the 1920s was the era of the “Lost
Generation,” symbolized by writers like Ernest Hemingway, who left the
United States for voluntary exile in Paris. It was also the “flapper era” of
frivolity and excess in which young people could reject the constraints and
traditions of their elders. Top, flappers posing for the camera at a 1920s-era
party. Above, Henry Ford and his son stand with one of his early automobiles,
and the 10-millionth Ford Model-T. The Model-T was the first car whose price
and availability made car ownership possible for large numbers of people.

109
110
 5
CHAPTER

WESTWARD
EXPANSION
AND
REGIONAL
DIFFERENCE
S

Horse-drawn
combine harvesting
wheat in the
Midwest, 19th
century.
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

“Go West, young man,

and grow up with
the country.”
Newspaper editor Horace Greeley, 1851

T
BUILDING UNITY
was as essential as political inde-
pendence. To foster self-sufficiency,
he War of 1812 was, in a sense, argued,
a second war of independence that
confirmed once and for all the
American break with England.
With its conclusion, many of the
serious difficulties that the young
republic had faced since the
Revolution dis- appeared. National
union under the Constitution
brought a balance between liberty
and order. With a low national debt
and a continent awaiting
exploration, the prospect of peace,
prosperity, and social prog- ress
opened before the nation.
Commerce cemented national
unity. The privations of war con-
vinced many of the importance of
protecting the manufacturers of
America until they could stand
alone against foreign competition.
Eco- nomic independence, many
11
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
congressional leaders Henry HISTORY

Clay of Kentucky and John

C. Calhoun of South Carolina
urged a policy of pro-
tectionism — imposition of
restric- tions on imported
goods to foster the
development of American
industry.
The time was propitious
for rais- ing the customs
tariff. The shepherds of
Vermont and Ohio wanted
pro- tection against an influx
of English wool. In
Kentucky, a new industry of
weaving local hemp into
cotton bagging was
threatened by the Scot- tish
bagging industry. Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, already a
flourishing center of iron
smelting, was eager to
challenge British and
Swedish iron suppliers. The
tariff enacted in 1816
imposed duties high enough
to give manufacturers real
protection.
In addition, Westerners advocat-

11
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

ed a national system of roads and a state legislature. In McCulloch

canals to link them with Eastern cit- v.
ies and ports, and to open frontier
lands for settlement. However, they
were unsuccessful in pressing their
demands for a federal role in inter-
nal improvement because of oppo-
sition from New England and the
South. Roads and canals remained
the province of the states until the
passage of the Federal Aid Road
Act of 1916.
The position of the federal gov-
ernment at this time was greatly
strengthened by several Supreme
Court decisions. A committed Fed-
eralist, John Marshall of Virginia
be- came chief justice in 1801 and
held office until his death in 1835.
The court — weak before his
adminis- tration — was
transformed into a powerful
tribunal, occupying a po- sition co-
equal to the Congress and the
president. In a succession of his-
toric decisions, Marshall
established the power of the
Supreme Court and strengthened
the national govern- ment.
Marshall was the first in a long
line of Supreme Court justices
whose decisions have molded the
meaning and application of the
Constitu- tion. When he finished
his long ser- vice, the court had
decided nearly 50 cases clearly
involving constitu- tional issues. In
one of Marshall’s most famous
opinions — Marbury
v. Madison (1803) — he decisively
established the right of the Supreme
Court to review the constitution-
ality of any law of Congress or of

11
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Maryland (1819), he boldly upheld HISTORY

the Hamiltonian theory that the

Constitution by implication gives the
government powers beyond those
expressly stated.

EXTENSION OF SLAVERY

Slavery, which up to now had re-

ceived little public attention, began to
assume much greater importance
as a national issue. In the early years
of the republic, when the Northern
states were providing for immedi- ate
or gradual emancipation of the slaves,
many leaders had supposed that
slavery would die out. In 1786 George
Washington wrote that he devoutly
wished some plan might be adopted
“by which slavery may be abolished
by slow, sure, and im- perceptible
degrees.” Virginians Jef- ferson,
Madison, and Monroe and other
leading Southern statesmen made
similar statements.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
had banned slavery in the Northwest
Territory. As late as 1808, when the
international slave trade was abol-
ished, there were many Southern- ers
who thought that slavery would soon
end. The expectation proved false,
for during the next generation, the
South became solidly united behind
the institution of slavery as new
economic factors made slavery far
more profitable than it had been
before 1790.
Chief among these was the rise of a
great cotton-growing industry in the
South, stimulated by the intro- duction
of new types of cotton and

11
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

by Eli Whitney’s invention in 1793 of was maintained in the Senate.

the cotton gin, which separated the
seeds from cotton. At the same
time, the Industrial Revolution,
which made textile manufacturing a
large- scale operation, vastly
increased the demand for raw
cotton. And the opening of new
lands in the West after 1812 greatly
extended the area available for
cotton cultivation. Cot- ton culture
moved rapidly from the Tidewater
states on the East Coast through
much of the lower South to the
delta region of the Mississippi and
eventually to Texas.
Sugar cane, another labor-inten-
sive crop, also contributed to slav-
ery’s extension in the South. The
rich, hot lands of southeastern Loui-
siana proved ideal for growing sug-
ar cane profitably. By 1830 the
state was supplying the nation with
about half its sugar supply. Finally,
tobac- co growers moved westward,
taking slavery with them.
As the free society of the North
and the slave society of the South
spread westward, it seemed politi-
cally expedient to maintain a rough
equality among the new states
carved out of western territories. In
1818, when Illinois was admitted to
the Union, 10 states permitted slav-
ery and 11 states prohibited it; but
balance was restored after Alabama
was admitted as a slave state.
Popula- tion was growing faster in
the North, which permitted
Northern states to have a clear
majority in the House of
Representatives. However, equal-
ity between the North and the South

11
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
In 1819 Missouri, which HISTORYfrom the
people of Latin America
had 10,000 slaves, applied to time the English colonies gained
enter the Union. Northerners their free- dom. Napoleon’s
rallied to op- pose Missouri’s conquest of Spain and Portugal in
entry except as a free state, 1808 provided the signal for Latin
and a storm of protest swept Americans to rise in revolt. By
the country. For a time 1822, ably led by Simón Bolívar,
Congress was deadlocked, Francisco Miranda, José de San
but Henry Clay ar- ranged Martín and Miguel de Hidalgo,
the so-called Missouri Com-
promise: Missouri was
admitted as a slave state at
the same time Maine came in
as a free state. In addition,
Congress banned slavery
from the territory acquired by
the Louisiana Purchase north
of Missouri’s south- ern
boundary. At the time, this
pro- vision appeared to be a
victory for the Southern
states because it was thought
unlikely that this “Great
American Desert” would
ever be settled. The
controversy was tempo-
rarily resolved, but Thomas
Jefferson wrote to a friend
that “this momen- tous
question, like a fire bell in
the night, awakened and
filled me with terror. I
considered it at once as the
knell of the Union.”

LATIN AMERICA
AND THE
MONROE
DOCTRINE

During the opening

decades of the 19th century,
Central and South America
turned to revolution. The
idea of liberty had stirred the
11
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

most of Hispanic America — from great importance, resolved to

Argentina and Chile in the south to block any such action. London
Mexico in the north — had won in- urged joint Anglo-American
dependence. guarantees
The people of the United States
took a deep interest in what seemed
a repetition of their own experience
in breaking away from European
rule. The Latin American
independence movements
confirmed their own be- lief in self-
government. In 1822 Pres- ident
James Monroe, under powerful
public pressure, received authority
to recognize the new countries of
Latin America and soon exchanged
ministers with them. He thereby
confirmed their status as genuinely
independent countries, entirely sep-
arated from their former European
connections.
At just this point, Russia,
Prussia, and Austria formed an
association, the Holy Alliance, to
protect them- selves against
revolution. By inter- vening in
countries where popular
movements threatened monarchies,
the alliance — joined by post-
Napo- leonic France — hoped to
prevent the spread of revolution.
This policy was the antithesis of the
American principle of self-
determination.
As long as the Holy Alliance
con- fined its activities to the Old
World, it aroused no anxiety in the
United States. But when the
alliance an- nounced its intention of
restoring to Spain its former
colonies, Americans became very
concerned. Britain, to which Latin
American trade had be- come of

11
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
to Latin America, but Secretary of HISTORY

State John Quincy Adams convinced

Monroe to act unilaterally: “It would
be more candid, as well as more dig-
nified, to avow our principles explic-
itly to Russia and France, than to
come in as a cock-boat in the wake of
the British man-of-war.”
In December 1823, with the
knowledge that the British navy
would defend Latin America from
the Holy Alliance and France, Presi-
dent Monroe took the occasion of
his annual message to Congress to
pronounce what would become
known as the Monroe Doctrine —
the refusal to tolerate any further
extension of European domination
in the Americas:
The American continents ... are
henceforth not to be considered as
subjects for future colonization by
any European powers.
We should consider any attempt
on their part to extend their
[political] system to any portion of
this hemisphere, as dangerous to our
peace and safety.
With the existing colonies or
dependencies of any European
power we have not interfered, and
shall not interfere. But with the
governments who have declared
their independence, and
maintained it, and whose
independence we have ...
acknowledged, we could not view any
interposition for the purpose of
oppressing them, or controlling, in any
other manner, their destiny, by any
European power in any other light
than as the manifestation of

11
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

an unfriendly disposition ic, picked Secretary of the Treasury

towards the United States. William Crawford.
The Monroe Doctrine expressed
a spirit of solidarity with the new-
ly independent republics of Latin
America. These nations in turn rec-
ognized their political affinity with
the United States by basing their
new constitutions, in many
instances, on the North American
model.

FACTIONALISM AND
POLITICAL PARTIES

Domestically, the presidency

of Monroe (1817-1825) was termed
the “era of good feelings.” The
phrase ac-
knowledged the political triumph of
the Republican Party over the
Feder- alist Party, which had
collapsed as a national force. All
the same, this was a period of
vigorous factional and re- gional
conflict.
The end of the Federalists led to
a brief period of factional politics
and brought disarray to the practice
of choosing presidential nominees
by congressional party caucuses.
For a time, state legislatures
nominated candidates. In 1824
Tennessee and Pennsylvania chose
Andrew Jack- son, with South
Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun
as his running mate. Kentucky
selected Speaker of the House
Henry Clay; Massachu- setts,
Secretary of State John Quincy
Adams, son of the second president,
John Adams. A congressional cau-
cus, widely derided as undemocrat-

12
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Personality and sectional appeal and a strong HISTORY political

al- legiance played important organization. His followers

roles in determining the coalesced to establish the
outcome of the election. Democratic Party, claimed di- rect
Adams won the electoral lineage from the Democratic-
votes from New England and Republican Party of Jefferson, and
most of New York; Clay won in general advocated the principles
Kentucky, Ohio, and of small, decentralized government.
Missouri; Jackson won the
Southeast, Illinois, Indiana,
the Carolinas, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and New Jersey;
and Crawford won Virginia,
Georgia, and Delaware. No
candidate gained a majority
in the Electoral College, so,
accord- ing to the provisions
of the Con- stitution, the
election was thrown into the
House of Representatives,
where Clay was the most
influential figure. He
supported Adams, who
gained the presidency.
During Adams’s
administration, new party
alignments appeared.
Adams’s followers, some of
whom were former
Federalists, took the name of
“National Republicans” as
emblematic of their support
of a federal government that
would take a strong role in
developing an expanding
nation. Though he governed
honestly and efficiently,
Adams was not a popular
president. He failed in his
effort to institute a national
system of roads and canals.
His coldly intellectual
temperament did not win
friends. Jackson, by con-
trast, had enormous popular

12
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

Mounting a strong anti-Adams ness and farming interests in the

cam- paign, they accused the state had hoped that the
president of a “corrupt bargain” for president
naming Clay secretary of state. In
the election of 1828, Jackson
defeated Adams by an
overwhelming electoral majority.
Jackson — Tennessee politi-
cian, fighter in wars against Native
Americans on the Southern fron-
tier, and hero of the Battle of New
Orleans during the War of 1812 —
drew his support from the
“common people.” He came to the
presidency on a rising tide of
enthusiasm for popular democracy.
The election of 1828 was a
significant benchmark in the trend
toward broader voter participation.
By then most states had either
enacted universal white male
suffrage or minimized prop- erty
requirements. In 1824 members of
the Electoral College in six states
were still selected by the state leg-
islatures. By 1828 presidential elec-
tors were chosen by popular vote in
every state but Delaware and South
Carolina. These developments were
the products of a widespread sense
that the people should rule and that
government by traditional elites had
come to an end.

NULLIFICATION CRISIS

Toward the end of his first

term in office, Jackson was forced
to con- front the state of South
Carolina,
the most important of the emerg-
ing Deep South cotton states, on the
issue of the protective tariff. Busi-

12
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
would use his power to modify the HISTORY

1828 act that they called the Tar-

iff of Abominations. In their view, all
its benefits of protection went to
Northern manufacturers, leaving
agricultural South Carolina poorer. In
1828, the state’s leading politician
— and Jackson’s vice president until
his resignation in 1832 — John C.
Calhoun had declared in his South
Carolina Exposition and Protest that
states had the right to nullify op-
pressive national legislation.
In 1832, Congress passed and
Jackson signed a bill that revised the
1828 tariff downward, but it was not
enough to satisfy most South
Carolinians. The state adopted an
Ordinance of Nullification, which
declared both the tariffs of 1828 and
1832 null and void within state bor-
ders. Its legislature also passed laws to
enforce the ordinance, including
authorization for raising a military
force and appropriations for arms.
Nullification was a long-established
theme of protest against perceived
excesses by the federal government.
Jefferson and Madison had proposed it
in the Kentucky and Virginia Res-
olutions of 1798, to protest the Alien
and Sedition Acts. The Hartford
Convention of 1814 had invoked it to
protest the War of 1812. Never before,
however, had a state actually
attempted nullification. The young
nation faced its most dangerous crisis
yet.
In response to South Carolina’s
threat, Jackson sent seven small naval
vessels and a man-of-war to
Charleston in November 1832. On

12
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

December 10, he issued a resound- could force its will on Congress.

ing proclamation against the nulli-
fiers. South Carolina, the president
declared, stood on “the brink of
insurrection and treason,” and he
appealed to the people of the state
to reassert their allegiance to the
Union. He also let it be known that,
if necessary, he personally would
lead the U.S. Army to enforce the
law.
When the question of tariff
duties again came before Congress,
Jack- son’s political rival, Senator
Henry Clay, a great advocate of
protection but also a devoted
Unionist, spon- sored a compromise
measure. Clay’s tariff bill, quickly
passed in 1833, specified that all
duties in excess of 20 percent of the
value of the goods imported were to
be reduced year by year, so that by
1842 the duties on all articles
would reach the level of the
moderate tariff of 1816. At the
same time, Congress passed a Force
Act, authorizing the president to use
military power to enforce the laws.
South Carolina had expected the
support of other Southern states,
but instead found itself isolated. (Its
most likely ally, the state govern-
ment of Georgia, wanted, and got,
U.S. military force to remove
Native American tribes from the
state.) Eventually, South Carolina
rescind- ed its action. Both sides,
neverthe- less, claimed victory.
Jackson had strongly defended the
Union. But South Carolina, by its
show of re- sistance, had obtained
many of its demands and had
demonstrated that a single state

12
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
THE BANK FIGHT development dependedHISTORY
upon ample

Although
money and credit. The Republican
the Party of Jefferson and Madison
nullification crisis possessed doubted its constitutional- ity.
the seeds of civil war, it was When its charter expired in 1811, it
not as critical a political was not renewed.
issue For the next few years, the bank-
as a bitter struggle over the ing business was in the hands of
contin- ued existence of the state-chartered banks, which issued
nation’s central bank, the currency in excessive amounts, cre-
second Bank of the United
States. The first bank,
established in 1791 under
Alexander Hamilton’s
guidance, had been
chartered for a 20-year
period. Though the gov-
ernment held some of its
stock, the bank, like the Bank
of England and other central
banks of the time, was a
private corporation with
profits passing to its
stockholders. Its public
functions were to act as a
deposito- ry for government
receipts, to make short-term
loans to the government, and
above all to establish a sound
currency by refusing to
accept at face value notes
(paper money) issued by
state-chartered banks in
excess of their ability to
redeem.
To the Northeastern
financial and commercial
establishment, the central
bank was a needed enforc-
er of prudent monetary
policy, but from the
beginning it was resent- ed
by Southerners and
Westerners who believed
their prosperity and regional

12
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

ating great confusion and fueling and his supporters

in- flation. It became increasingly
clear that state banks could not
provide the country with a reliable
currency. In 1816 a second Bank of
the United States, similar to the
first, was again chartered for 20
years. From its inception, the
second bank was unpopular in the
newer states and territories,
especially with state and local
bankers who resented its vir- tual
monopoly over the country’s credit
and currency, but also with less
prosperous people everywhere, who
believed that it represented the
interests of the wealthy few.
On the whole, the bank was
well managed and rendered a valu-
able service; but Jackson had long
shared the Republican distrust of
the financial establishment. Elected
as a tribune of the people, he sensed
that the bank’s aristocratic man-
ager, Nicholas Biddle, was an easy
target. When the bank’s support-
ers in Congress pushed through an
early renewal of its charter, Jackson
responded with a stinging veto that
denounced monopoly and special
privilege. The effort to override the
veto failed.
In the presidential campaign
that followed, the bank question re-
vealed a fundamental division. Es-
tablished merchant, manufacturing,
and financial interests favored
sound money. Regional bankers
and entre- preneurs on the make
wanted an increased money supply
and lower interest rates. Other
debtor classes, especially farmers,
shared those sen- timents. Jackson

12
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
called the central bank a “monster” HISTORY

and coasted to an easy election vic-

tory over Henry Clay.
The president interpreted his tri-
umph as a popular mandate to crush
the central bank irrevocably. In Sep-
tember 1833 he ordered an end to
deposits of government money in the
bank, and gradual withdrawals of the
money already in its custody. The
government deposited its funds in
selected state banks, characterized as
“pet banks” by the opposition.
For the next generation the Unit-
ed States would get by on a relatively
unregulated state banking system,
which helped fuel westward expan-
sion through cheap credit but kept the
nation vulnerable to periodic panics.
During the Civil War, the United
States initiated a system of national
charters for local and re- gional banks,
but the nation re- turned to a central
bank only with the establishment of
the Federal Re- serve system in 1913.

WHIGS, DEMOCRATS, AND

KNOW-NOTHINGS

Jackson’s political opponents, unit-

ed by little more than a common
opposition to him, eventually co-
alesced into a common party called
the Whigs, a British term signify- ing
opposition to Jackson’s “monar- chial
rule.” Although they organized soon
after the election campaign of 1832, it
was more than a decade be- fore they
reconciled their differences and were
able to draw up a platform. Largely
through the magnetism of

12
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, presidency would accomplish little other
the Whigs’ most brilliant statesmen, than to establish defini-
the party solidified its membership.
But in the 1836 election, the Whigs
were still too divided to unite
behind a single man. New York’s
Martin Van Buren, Jackson’s vice
president, won the contest.
An economic depression and the
larger-than-life personality of his
predecessor obscured Van Buren’s
merits. His public acts aroused no
enthusiasm, for he lacked the com-
pelling qualities of leadership and
the dramatic flair that had attended
Jackson’s every move. The election
of 1840 found the country afflicted
with hard times and low wages —
and the Democrats on the
defensive. The Whig candidate for
presi- dent was William Henry
Harrison of Ohio, vastly popular as
a hero of conflicts with Native
Americans and the War of 1812.
He was promoted, like Jackson, as
a representative of the democratic
West. His vice presi- dential
candidate was John Tyler — a
Virginian whose views on states’
rights and a low tariff were popular
in the South. Harrison won a
sweep-
ing victory.
Within a month of his inaugu-
ration, however, the 68-year-old
Harrison died, and Tyler became
president. Tyler’s beliefs differed
sharply from those of Clay and
Web- ster, still the most
influential men in Congress. The
result was an open break between
the new president and the party that
had elected him. The Tyler

12
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
tively that, if a president organization withHISTORY considerable
died, the vice president political power.
would assume the of- fice The Know-Nothings advocated
with full powers for the an extension in the period required
balance of his term. for naturalized citizenship from five
Americans found to 21 years. They sought to exclude
themselves di- vided in other, the foreign-born and Catholics from
more complex ways. The public office. In 1855 they won
large number of Catholic im- con-
migrants in the first half of
the 19th century, primarily
Irish and Ger- man, triggered
a backlash among native-
born Protestant Americans.
Immigrants brought strange
new customs and religious
practices to American shores.
They competed with the
native-born for jobs in cit-
ies along the Eastern
seaboard. The coming of
universal white male suffrage
in the 1820s and 1830s in-
creased their political clout.
Dis- placed patrician
politicians blamed the
immigrants for their fall from
power. The Catholic Church’s
failure to support the
temperance move- ment gave
rise to charges that Rome
was trying to subvert the
United States through
alcohol.
The most important of the
nativ- ist organizations that
sprang up in this period was
a secret society, the Order of
the Star-Spangled Banner,
founded in 1849. When its
mem- bers refused to identify
themselves, they were swiftly
labeled the “Know-
Nothings.” In a few years,
they be- came a national
12
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

trol of legislatures in New York and The leadership of Horace Mann

Massachusetts; by then, about 90 in
U.S. congressmen were linked to
the party. That was its high point.
Soon after, the gathering crisis
between North and South over the
extension of slavery fatally divided
the party, consuming it along with
the old de- bates between Whigs
and Demo- crats that had
dominated American politics in the
second quarter of the 19th century.

STIRRINGS OF REFORM

The democratic upheaval in

poli- tics exemplified by Jackson’s
election was merely one phase of
the long
American quest for greater rights
and opportunities for all citizens.
Another was the beginning of la-
bor organization, primarily among
skilled and semiskilled workers. In
1835 labor forces in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, succeeded in
reducing the old “dark-to-dark”
workday to a 10-hour day. By
1860, the new work day had
become law in sever- al of the
states and was a generally accepted
standard.
The spread of suffrage had al-
ready led to a new concept of
education. Clear-sighted statesmen
everywhere understood that uni-
versal suffrage required a tutored,
literate electorate. Workingmen’s
organizations demanded free, tax-
supported schools open to all chil-
dren. Gradually, in one state after
another, legislation was enacted to
provide for such free instruction.

13
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Massachusetts was especially ef- HISTORY

fective. The public school system

became common throughout the
North. In other parts of the coun- try,
however, the battle for public
education continued for years.
Another influential social move-
ment that emerged during this period
was the opposition to the sale and use
of alcohol, or the temper- ance
movement. It stemmed from a
variety of concerns and motives:
religious beliefs, the effect of alco-
hol on the work force, the violence
and suffering women and children
experienced at the hands of heavy
drinkers. In 1826 Boston ministers
organized the Society for the Pro-
motion of Temperance. Seven years
later, in Philadelphia, the society
convened a national convention,
which formed the American Tem-
perance Union. The union called for
the prohibition of all alcoholic bev-
erages, and pressed state legislatures
to ban their production and sale.
Thirteen states had done so by 1855,
although the laws were subsequently
challenged in court. They survived
only in northern New England, but
between 1830 and 1860 the temper-
ance movement reduced Americans’
per capita consumption of alcohol.
Other reformers addressed the
problems of prisons and care for the
insane. Efforts were made to turn
prisons, which stressed punishment,
into penitentiaries where the guilty
would undergo rehabilitation. In
Massachusetts, Dorothea Dix led a
struggle to improve conditions for
insane persons, who were kept con-

13
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

fined in wretched almshouses and first in the history of the world —

prisons. After winning improve-
ments in Massachusetts, she took
her campaign to the South, where
nine states established hospitals for
the insane between 1845 and 1852.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Such social reforms brought

many women to a realization of
their own unequal position in
society. From
colonial times, unmarried women
had enjoyed many of the same legal
rights as men, although custom re-
quired that they marry early. With
matrimony, women virtually lost
their separate identities in the eyes
of the law. Women were not
permit- ted to vote. Their education
in the 17th and 18th centuries was
limited largely to reading, writing,
music, dancing, and needlework.
The awakening of women began
with the visit to America of Fran-
ces Wright, a Scottish lecturer and
journalist, who publicly promoted
women’s rights throughout the
Unit- ed States during the 1820s. At
a time when women were often
forbidden to speak in public places,
Wright not only spoke out, but
shocked audi- ences by her views
advocating the rights of women to
seek information on birth control
and divorce. By the 1840s an
American women’s rights
movement emerged. Its foremost
leader was Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
In 1848 Cady Stanton and her
colleague Lucretia Mott organized
a women’s rights convention — the

13
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
at Seneca Falls, New York. nation of this kind,HISTORY
the Married
Delegates drew up a Women’s Property Act en-
“Declaration of Senti- couraged other state legislatures to
ments,” demanding equality enact similar laws.
with men before the law, the In 1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
right to vote, and equal and another leading women’s rights
opportunities in educa- tion activist, Susan B. Anthony, founded
and employment. The resolu-
tions passed unanimously
with the exception of the one
for women’s suffrage, which
won a majority only after an
impassioned speech in fa-
vor by Frederick Douglass,
the black abolitionist.
At Seneca Falls, Cady
Stan- ton gained national
prominence as an eloquent
writer and speaker for
women’s rights. She had
realized ear- ly on that
without the right to vote,
women would never be equal
with men. Taking the
abolitionist Wil- liam Lloyd
Garrison as her model, she
saw that the key to success
lay in changing public
opinion, and not in party
action. Seneca Falls became
the catalyst for future
change. Soon other women’s
rights conventions were held,
and other women would
come to the forefront of the
move- ment for their political
and social equality.
In 1848 also, Ernestine
Rose, a Polish immigrant,
was instrumental in getting a
law passed in the state of
New York that allowed
married women to keep their
property in their own name.
Among the first laws in the
13
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

the National Woman Suffrage As new states were admitted, the

Asso- ciation (NWSA) to promote a political map stabilized east of the
con- stitutional amendment for Mississippi River. From 1816 to
women’s right to the vote. These 1821, six states
two would become the women’s
movement’s most outspoken
advocates. Describ- ing their
partnership, Cady Stanton would
say, “I forged the thunderbolts and
she fired them.”

WESTWARD

The frontier did much to

shape American life. Conditions
along the entire Atlantic seaboard
stimulat-
ed migration to the newer regions.
From New England, where the soil
was incapable of producing high
yields of grain, came a steady
stream of men and women who left
their coastal farms and villages to
take advantage of the rich interior
land of the continent. In the
backcoun- try settlements of the
Carolinas and Virginia, people
handicapped by the lack of roads
and canals giving ac- cess to coastal
markets and resent- ful of the
political dominance of the
Tidewater planters also moved
west- ward. By 1800 the
Mississippi and Ohio River valleys
were becoming a great frontier
region. “Hi-o, away we go, floating
down the river on the O- hi-o,”
became the song of thousands of
migrants.
The westward flow of
population in the early 19th century
led to the division of old territories
and the drawing of new boundaries.

13
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
were created — Indiana, Illinois, and HISTORY

Maine (which were free states), and

Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri
(slave states). The first frontier had
been tied closely to Europe, the sec-
ond to the coastal settlements, but the
Mississippi Valley was indepen- dent
and its people looked west rath- er
than east.
Frontier settlers were a varied
group. One English traveler de-
scribed them as “a daring, hardy race
of men, who live in miserable cabins
They are unpolished but
hospitable, kind to strangers, hon- est,
and trustworthy. They raise a little
Indian corn, pumpkins, hogs, and
sometimes have a cow or two.
... But the rifle is their principal means
of support.” Dexterous with the ax,
snare, and fishing line, these men
blazed the trails, built the first log
cabins, and confronted Native
American tribes, whose land they
occupied.
As more and more settlers pene-
trated the wilderness, many became
farmers as well as hunters. A com-
fortable log house with glass win-
dows, a chimney, and partitioned
rooms replaced the cabin; the well
replaced the spring. Industrious set-
tlers would rapidly clear their land of
timber, burning the wood for potash
and letting the stumps de- cay. They
grew their own grain, veg- etables, and
fruit; ranged the woods for deer, wild
turkeys, and honey; fished the nearby
streams; looked after cattle and hogs.
Land specu- lators bought large tracts
of the cheap land and, if land values
rose,

13
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

sold their holdings and moved still

did not pass Missouri into the vast
farther west, making way for others.
Western territory acquired in the
Doctors, lawyers, storekeepers,
Louisiana Purchase until after 1840.
editors, preachers, mechanics, and
In 1819, in return for assuming the
politicians soon followed the farm-
claims of American citizens to the
ers. The farmers were the sturdy
amount of $5 million, the United
base, however. Where they settled,
States obtained from Spain both
they intended to stay and hoped
Florida and Spain’s rights to the
their children would remain after
Oregon country in the Far West.
them. They built large barns and
In the meantime, the Far West had
brick or frame houses. They
become a field of great activity in
brought improved livestock, plowed
the fur trade, which was to have
the land skillfully, and sowed
significance far beyond the value
productive seed. Some erected flour
of the skins. As in the first days of
mills, saw- mills, and distilleries.
French explorationinthe Mississippi
They laid out good highways, and
Valley, the trader was a pathfinder
built churches and schools.
for the settlers beyond the Missis-
Incredible transforma- tions were
sippi. The French and Scots-Irish
accomplished in a few years. In
trappers, exploring the great rivers
1830, for example, Chicago, Illinois,
and their tributaries and discover-
was merely an unpromis- ing
ing the passes through the Rocky
trading village with a fort; but
and Sierra Mountains, made pos-
long before some of its original set-
sible the overland migration of the
tlers had died, it had become one
1840s and the later occupation of
of the largest and richest cities in
the interior of the nation.
the nation.
Overall, the growth of the na-
Farms were easy to acquire.
tion was enormous: Population
Gov- ernment land after 1820 could
grew from 7.25 million to more
be bought for $1.25 for about half a
than 23 million from 1812 to 1852,
hectare, and after the 1862 Home-
and the land available for
stead Act, could be claimed by
settlement in- creased by almost the
merely occupying and improving it.
size of West- ern Europe — from
In addition, tools for working the
4.4 million to
land were easily available. It was a
7.8 million square kilometers. Still
time when, in a phrase coined by
unresolved, however, were the ba-
Indiana newspaperman John Soule
sic conflicts rooted in sectional dif-
and popularized by New York Tri-
ferences that, by the decade of the
bune editor Horace Greeley, young
1860s, would explode into civil
men could “go west and grow with
war. Inevitably, too, this westward
the country.”
expan- sion brought settlers into
Except for a migration into Mex-
conflict with the original
ican-owned Texas, the westward
inhabitants of the land: the Native
march of the agricultural frontier
Americans.
13
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
In the first part of the 19th centu- HISTORY

13
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

ry, the most prominent figure asso-

In 1834 a special Native American
ciated with these conflicts was An-
territory was set up in what is now
drew Jackson, the first “Westerner”
Oklahoma. In all, the tribes signed
to occupy the White House. In the
94 treaties during Jackson’s two
midst of the War of 1812, Jackson,
terms, ceding millions of hectares
then in charge of the Tennessee
to the federal government and
mili- tia, was sent into southern
remov- ing dozens of tribes from
Alabama, where he ruthlessly put
their an- cestral homelands.
down an up- rising of Creek
The most terrible chapter in this
Indians. The Creeks soon ceded
unhappy history concerned the
two-thirds of their land to the
Cherokees, whose lands in western
United States. Jackson later routed
North Carolina and Georgia had
bands of Seminoles from their
been guaranteed by treaty since
sanctuaries in Spanish-owned
1791. Among the most progressive
Florida.
of the eastern tribes, the Cherokees
In the 1820s, President
nevertheless were sure to be dis-
Monroe’s secretary of war, John C.
placed when gold was discovered
Calhoun, pursued a policy of
on their land in 1829. Forced to
removing the re- maining tribes
make a long and cruel trek to
from the old South- west and
Oklahoma in 1838, the tribe lost
resettling them beyond the
many of its numbers from disease
Mississippi. Jackson continued this
and priva- tion on what became
policy as president. In 1830
known as the “Trail of Tears.” 9
Congress passed the Indian
Removal Act, pro- viding funds to
transport the east- ern tribes
beyond the Mississippi.

13
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES
OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY
THE FRONTIER, “THE WEST,” AND
THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
The frontier — the point at which settled territory met unoccupied land
— began at Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. It moved in a westward
direction for
nearly 300 years through densely forested wilderness and barren plains until
the decennial census of 1890 revealed that at last the United States no
longer possessed a discernible line of settlement.
At the time it seemed to many that a long period had come to an end —
one in which the country had grown from a few struggling outposts of
English civilization to a huge independent nation with an identity of its own.
It was easy to believe that the experience of settlement and post-settlement
development, constantly repeated as a people conquered a continent, had been
the defining factor in the nation’s development.
In 1893, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner, expressing a widely
held sentiment, declared that the frontier had made the United States more
than an extension of Europe. It had created a nation with a culture that was
perhaps coarser than Europe’s, but also more pragmatic, energetic,
individualistic, and democratic. The existence of large areas of “free land”
had created a nation of property holders and had provided a “safety valve” for
discontent in cities and more settled areas. His analysis implied that an
America without a frontier would trend ominously toward what were seen as
the European ills of strati- fied social systems, class conflict, and
diminished opportunity.
After more than a hundred years scholars still debate the significance of
the frontier in American history. Few believe it was quite as all-important as
Turner suggested; its absence does not appear to have led to dire consequenc-
es. Some have gone farther, rejecting the Turner argument as a romantic glo-
rification of a bloody, brutal process — marked by a war of conquest against
Mexico, near-genocidal treatment of Native American tribes, and environmen-
tal despoliation. The common experience of the frontier, they argue, was one
of hardship and failure.
Yet it remains hard to believe that three centuries of westward movement
had no impact on the national character and suggestive that intelligent foreign
observers, such as the French intellectual Alexis de Tocqueville, were fasci-
nated by the American West. Indeed, the last area of frontier settlement, the
vast area stretching north from Texas to the Canadian border, which Ameri-
cans today commonly call “the West,” still seems characterized by ideals of
individualism, democracy, and opportunity that are more palpable than in the
rest of the nation. It is perhaps also revealing that many people in other
lands, when hearing the word “American,” so often identify it with a symbol
of that final frontier — the “cowboy.” ◆
13
126
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Major Acquisitions of Territory by the United States and Dates of Admission of States

United States of America, showing territorial expansion from

1803 to 1898.

U.S. Department of Commerce

Bureau of Census
1–6 UNITED STATES SUMMARY
NUMBER OF INHABITANTS

12
128
 6
CHAPTER

SECTIONAL
CONFLICT

Slave family picking

cotton near Savannah,
Georgia,
in the early 1860s.
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

“A house divided against

itself cannot stand. I believe
this government cannot
endure permanently
half-slave and half-free.”
Senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln, 1858

N
TWO AMERICAS
whether such rough equality could
survive in the face of a growing fac-
o visitor to the United States worry
left a more enduring record of his
trav- els and observations than the
French writer and political theorist
Alexis de Tocqueville, whose
Democracy in America, first
published in 1835, remains one of
the most trenchant and insightful
analyses of Ameri- can social and
political practices. Tocqueville was
far too shrewd an observer to be
uncritical about the United States,
but his verdict was fundamentally
positive. “The gov- ernment of a
democracy brings the notion of
political rights to the level of the
humblest citizens,” he wrote, “just
as the dissemination of wealth
brings the notion of property within
the reach of all men.” Nonetheless,
Tocqueville was only one in the
first of a long line of thinkers to
13
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
tory system that threatened to HISTORY

create divisions between

industrial workers and a new
business elite.
Other travelers marveled
at the growth and vitality of
the country, where they could
see “everywhere the most
unequivocal proofs of
prosperity and rapid progress
in ag- riculture, commerce,
and great pub- lic works.” But
such optimistic views of the
American experiment were
by no means universal. One
skep- tic was the English
novelist Charles Dickens,
who first visited the United
States in 1841-42. “This is
not the Republic I came to
see,” he wrote in a letter.
“This is not the Republic of
my imagination. ... The more
I think of its youth and
strength, the poorer and more
trifling in a thou- sand
respects, it appears in my
eyes.

13
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

In everything of which it has made reached the height of its prosper-

a boast — excepting its education ity; vessels flying the American
of the people, and its care for poor flag plied the oceans, distributing
chil- dren — it sinks immeasurably wares of all nations.
below the level I had placed it
upon.”
Dickens was not alone. America
in the 19th century, as throughout
its history, generated expectations
and passions that often conflicted
with a reality at once more
mundane and more complex. The
young nation’s size and diversity
defied easy gener- alization and
invited contradiction: America was
both a freedom-loving and slave-
holding society, a nation of
expansive and primitive frontiers, a
society with cities built on growing
commerce and industrialization.

LANDS OF PROMISE

By 1850 the national

territory stretched over forest,
plain, and mountain. Within its far-
flung lim-
its dwelt 23 million people in a
Union comprising 31 states. In the
East, in- dustry boomed. In the
Midwest and the South, agriculture
flourished. After 1849 the gold
mines of Cali- fornia poured their
precious ore into the channels of
trade.
New England and the Middle
At- lantic states were the main
centers of manufacturing,
commerce, and finance. Principal
products of these areas were
textiles, lumber, cloth- ing,
machinery, leather, and wool- en
goods. The maritime trade had

13
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
The South, from the Atlantic to the HISTORY

Mississippi River and beyond,

featured an economy centered on
agriculture. Tobacco was important in
Virginia, Maryland, and North
Carolina. In South Carolina, rice was
an abundant crop. The climate and
soil of Louisiana encouraged the
cultivation of sugar. But cotton
eventually became the dominant
commodity and the one with which
the South was identified. By 1850 the
American South grew more than 80
percent of the world’s cotton. Slaves
cultivated all these crops.
The Midwest, with its bound- less
prairies and swiftly growing
population, flourished. Europe and the
older settled parts of America
demanded its wheat and meat
products. The introduction of la- bor-
saving implements — notably the
McCormick reaper (a machine to cut
and harvest grain) — made possible
an unparalleled increase in grain
production. The nation’s wheat crops
swelled from some 35 million
hectoliters in 1850 to nearly 61
million in 1860, more than half grown
in the Midwest.
An important stimulus to the
country’s prosperity was the great
improvement in transportation fa-
cilities; from 1850 to 1857 the Ap-
palachian Mountain barrier was
pierced by five railway trunk lines
linking the Midwest and the North-
east. These links established the
economic interests that would un-
dergird the political alliance of the
Union from 1861 to 1865. The South
lagged behind. It was not until the

13
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

late 1850s that a continuous line ran owned slaves. There were some 385,000
through the mountains connecting slave owners out of about
the lower Mississippi River area with
the southern Atlantic seaboard.

SLAVERY AND SECTIONALISM

One overriding issue

exacerbat- ed the regional and
economic dif- ferences between
North and South:
slavery. Resenting the large profits
amassed by Northern businessmen
from marketing the cotton crop,
many Southerners attributed the
backwardness of their own section
to Northern aggrandizement. Many
Northerners, on the other hand, de-
clared that slavery — the “peculiar
institution” that the South regarded
as essential to its economy — was
largely responsible for the region’s
relative financial and industrial
backwardness.
As far back as the Missouri
Compromise in 1819, sectional
lines had been steadily hardening
on the slavery question. In the
North, sen- timent for outright
abolition grew increasingly
powerful. Southern- ers in general
felt little guilt about slavery and
defended it vehemently. In some
seaboard areas, slavery by 1850
was well over 200 years old; it
was an integral part of the basic
economy of the region.
Although the 1860 census
showed that there were nearly four
million slaves out of a total
population of
12.3 million in the 15 slave states,
only a minority of Southern whites

13
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
1.5 million white families. HISTORYwith its
plantation government,
Fifty per- cent of these slave personal supervision of the slaves
owners owned no more than by their owners or masters, was still
five slaves. Twelve percent characteristic. Gradually, however,
owned 20 or more slaves, the with the introduction of large-scale
num- ber defined as turning a cotton production in the lower
farmer into a planter. Three- South, the master gradu- ally ceased
quarters of South- ern white to exercise close personal
families, including the “poor
whites,” those on the lowest
rung of Southern society,
owned no slaves.
It is easy to understand the
in- terest of the planters in
slave hold- ing. But the
yeomen and poor whites
supported the institution of
slavery as well. They feared
that, if freed, blacks would
compete with them
economically and challenge
their higher social status.
Southern whites defended
slavery not simply on the
basis of economic necessity
but out of a visceral
dedication to white
supremacy.
As they fought the weight
of Northern opinion,
political lead- ers of the
South, the professional
classes, and most of the
clergy now no longer
apologized for slavery but
championed it. Southern
publicists insisted, for
example, that the rela-
tionship between capital and
labor was more humane
under the slavery system than
under the wage system of the
North.
Before 1830 the old
patriarchal system of
13
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

supervision over his slaves, and movement, an offshoot of the

employed professional overseers American Revo- lution, had
charged with exacting from slaves won its last victory in
a maximum amount of work. In
such circumstances, slavery could
become a system of brutality and
coercion in which beatings and the
breakup of families through the sale
of individuals were commonplace.
In other settings, however, it could
be much milder.
In the end, however, the most
trenchant criticism of slavery was
not the behavior of individual mas-
ters and overseers. Systematically
treating African-American laborers
as if they were domestic animals,
slavery, the abolitionists pointed
out, violated every human being’s
in- alienable right to be free.

THE ABOLITIONISTS

In national politics,
Southerners chiefly sought
protection and en- largement of the
interests represent-
ed by the cotton/slavery system.
They sought territorial expansion
because the wastefulness of
cultivating a sin- gle crop, cotton,
rapidly exhausted the soil,
increasing the need for new fertile
lands. Moreover, new territory
would establish a basis for
additional slave states to offset the
admission of new free states.
Antislavery North- erners saw in
the Southern view a conspiracy for
proslavery aggran- dizement. In the
1830s their opposi- tion became
fierce.
An earlier antislavery

13
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
1808 when Congress abolished the HISTORY

slave trade with Africa. Thereafter,

opposition came largely from the
Quakers, who kept up a mild but
ineffectual protest. Meanwhile, the
cotton gin and westward expansion
into the Mississippi delta region cre-
ated an increasing demand for slaves.
The abolitionist movement that
emerged in the early 1830s was
combative, uncompromising, and
insistent upon an immediate end to
slavery. This approach found a leader in
William Lloyd Garrison, a young man
from Massachusetts, who com- bined
the heroism of a martyr with the
crusading zeal of a demagogue. On
January 1, 1831, Garrison pro- duced
the first issue of his newspa- per, The
Liberator, which bore the
announcement: “I shall strenuously
contend for the immediate enfran-
chisement of our slave population.
... On this subject, I do not wish to
think, or speak, or write, with mod-
eration I am in earnest — I will
not equivocate — I will not excuse
— I will not retreat a single inch —
AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
Garrison’s sensational methods
awakened Northerners to the evil in
an institution many had long come to
regard as unchangeable. He sought to
hold up to public gaze the most
repulsive aspects of slav- ery and to
castigate slave holders as torturers and
traffickers in human life. He
recognized no rights of the masters,
acknowledged no compro- mise,
tolerated no delay. Other aboli-
tionists, unwilling to subscribe to his
law-defying tactics, held that reform

13
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

should be accomplished by legal Congress. Abolition- ists flooded

and peaceful means. Garrison was Congress with petitions calling for action
joined by another powerful voice, against slavery. In
that of Frederick Douglass, an
escaped slave who galvanized
Northern audiences. Theodore
Dwight Weld and many other
abolitionists crusaded against
slavery in the states of the old
North- west Territory with
evangelical zeal. One activity of the
movement in- volved helping slaves
escape to safe refuges in the North
or over the bor- der into Canada.
The “Underground Railroad,” an
elaborate network of secret routes,
was firmly established in the 1830s
in all parts of the North. In Ohio
alone, from 1830 to 1860, as many
as 40,000 fugitive slaves were
helped to freedom. The number of
local antislavery societies increased
at such a rate that by 1838 there
were about 1,350 with a
membership of
perhaps 250,000.
Most Northerners nonetheless
ei- ther held themselves aloof from
the abolitionist movement or
actively opposed it. In 1837, for
example, a mob attacked and killed
the an- tislavery editor Elijah P.
Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois. Still,
Southern re- pression of free speech
allowed the abolitionists to link the
slavery issue with the cause of civil
liberties for whites. In 1835 an
angry mob de- stroyed abolitionist
literature in the Charleston, South
Carolina, post of- fice. When the
postmaster-general stated he would
not enforce delivery of abolitionist
material, bitter de- bates ensued in

13
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
1836 the House voted to precarious balanceHISTORY
of political
table such petitions power in the United States. In 1845,
automatically, thus effec- President James K. Polk, narrowly
tively killing them. Former elected on a platform of westward
President John Quincy expansion, brought the Republic of
Adams, elected to the House Texas into the Union. Polk’s move
of Representatives in 1830, was the first gambit in a larger
fought this so-called gag rule design. Texas claimed that
as a violation of the First
Amendment, finally winning
its repeal in 1844.

TEXAS AND WAR

WITH
MEXICO

Throughout the 1820s,

Ameri- cans settled in the
vast territory of Texas,
often with land grants from
the Mexican government.
However, their numbers soon
alarmed the au- thorities,
who prohibited further im-
migration in 1830. In 1834
General Antonio López de
Santa Anna estab- lished a
dictatorship in Mexico, and
the following year Texans
revolted. Santa Anna
defeated the American rebels
at the celebrated siege of the
Alamo in early 1836, but
Texans under Sam Houston
destroyed the Mexican Army
and captured Santa Anna a
month later at the Battle of
San Jacinto, ensuring Texan
inde- pendence.
For almost a decade,
Texas re- mained an
independent republic, largely
because its annexation as a
huge new slave state would
disrupt the increasingly

13
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

its border with Mexico was the Rio Still, antislavery

Grande; Mexico argued that the
border stood far to the north along
the Nueces River. Meanwhile, set-
tlers were flooding into the territo-
ries of New Mexico and California.
Many Americans claimed that the
United States had a “manifest des-
tiny” to expand westward to the Pa-
cific Ocean.
U.S. attempts to purchase from
Mexico the New Mexico and Cali-
fornia territories failed. In 1846,
after a clash of Mexican and U.S.
troops along the Rio Grande, the
United States declared war. Ameri-
can troops occupied the lightly
populated territory of New Mexico,
then supported a revolt of settlers
in California. A U.S. force under
Zachary Taylor invaded Mexico,
winning victories at Monterrey and
Buena Vista, but failing to bring the
Mexicans to the negotiating table.
In March 1847, a U.S. Army
command- ed by Winfield Scott
landed near Veracruz on Mexico’s
east coast, and fought its way to
Mexico City. The United States
dictated the Trea- ty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo in which Mexico ceded
what would become the American
Southwest region and California for
$15 million.
The war was a training ground
for American officers who would
later fight on both sides in the Civil
War. It was also politically divisive.
Polk, in a simultaneous facedown
with Great Britain, had achieved
British recognition of American
sov- ereignty in the Pacific
Northwest to the 49th parallel.

14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
forces, mainly among the Whigs, at- HISTORY

tacked Polk’s expansion as a proslav-

ery plot.
With the conclusion of the Mexi-
can War, the United States gained a
vast new territory of 1.36 million
square kilometers encompassing the
present-day states of New Mexico,
Nevada, California, Utah, most of
Arizona, and portions of Colorado and
Wyoming. The nation also faced a
revival of the most explosive ques-
tion in American politics of the time:
Would the new territories be slave or
free?

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

Until 1845, it had seemed likely

that slavery would be confined to the
areas where it already existed. It had
been given limits by the Missouri
Compromise in 1820 and had no op-
portunity to overstep them. The new
territories made renewed expansion of
slavery a real likelihood.
Many Northerners believed that if
not allowed to spread, slavery would
ultimately decline and die. To jus-
tify their opposition to adding new
slave states, they pointed to the state-
ments of Washington and Jefferson,
and to the Ordinance of 1787, which
forbade the extension of slavery into
the Northwest. Texas, which already
permitted slavery, naturally entered
the Union as a slave state. But the
California, New Mexico, and Utah
territories did not have slavery. From
the beginning, there were strongly
conflicting opinions on whether they
should.

14
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

Southerners urged that all the

ments, advanced a complicated and
lands acquired from Mexico should
carefully balanced plan. His old
be thrown open to slave holders.
Massachusetts rival, Daniel Web-
Antislavery Northerners demanded
ster, supported it. Illinois Demo-
that all the new regions be closed
cratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas,
to slavery. One group of moderates
the leading advocate of popular
suggested that the Missouri Com-
sovereignty, did much of the work
promise line be extended to the Pa-
in guiding it through Congress.
cific with free states north of it and
The Compromise of 1850 con-
slave states to the south. Another
tained the following provisions: (1)
group proposed that the question
California was admitted to the
be left to “popular sovereignty.”
Union as a free state; (2) the
The government should permit
remainder of the Mexican cession
settlers to enter the new territory
was divided into the two territories
with or with- out slaves as they
of New Mexico and Utah and
pleased. When the time came to
organized without mention of
organize the region into states, the
slavery; (3) the claim of Texas to a
people themselves could decide.
portion of New Mexico was
Despite the vitality of the aboli-
satisfied by a payment of $10
tionist movement, most Northerners
million; (4) new legislation (the
were unwilling to challenge the exis-
Fugitive Slave Act) was passed to
tence of slavery in the South. Many,
apprehend runaway slaves and
however, were against its
return them to their mas- ters; and
expansion. In 1848 nearly 300,000
(5) the buying and selling of slaves
men voted for the candidates of a
(but not slavery) was abolished in the
new Free Soil Party, which declared
District of Columbia.
that the best policy was “to limit,
The country breathed a sigh of
localize, and discourage slavery.”
relief. For the next three years, the
In the immedi- ate aftermath of the
compromise seemed to settle near-
war with Mex- ico, however,
ly all differences. The new Fugitive
popular sovereignty had
Slave Law, however, was an imme-
considerable appeal.
diate source of tension. It deeply
In January 1848 the discovery
offended many Northerners, who
of gold in California precipitated a
refused to have any part in catch-
headlong rush of settlers, more than
ing slaves. Some actively and vio-
80,000 in the single year of 1849.
lently obstructed its enforcement.
Congress had to determine the sta-
The Underground Railroad became
tus of this new region quickly in
more efficient and daring than ever.
order to establish an organized gov-
ernment. The venerable Kentucky
A DIVIDED NATION
Senator Henry Clay, who twice
before in times of crisis had come
forward with compromise arrange-
During the 1850s, the issue of
slav- ery severed the political bonds
14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
that had held the United HISTORY
States together.

14
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

It ate away at the country’s two become a free territory, for their
great political parties, the Whigs state would
and the Democrats, destroying the
first and irrevocably dividing the
second. It produced weak
presidents whose irresolution
mirrored that of their parties. It
eventually discredited even the
Supreme Court.
The moral fervor of abolition-
ist feeling grew steadily. In 1852,
Harriet Beecher Stowe published
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel pro-
voked by the passage of the
Fugitive Slave Law. More than
300,000 cop- ies were sold the first
year. Presses ran day and night to
keep up with the demand. Although
sentimental and full of stereotypes,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin portrayed with
undeniable force the cruelty of
slavery and pos- ited a fundamental
conflict between free and slave
societies. It inspired widespread
enthusiasm for the an- tislavery
cause, appealing as it did to basic
human emotions — in- dignation at
injustice and pity for the helpless
individuals exposed to ruthless
exploitation.
In 1854 the issue of slavery in
the territories was renewed and the
quarrel became more bitter. The re-
gion that now comprises Kansas
and Nebraska was being rapidly
settled, increasing pressure for the
establish- ment of territorial, and
eventually, state governments.
Under terms of the Missouri
Compromise of 1820, the entire re-
gion was closed to slavery.
Dominant slave-holding elements in
Missouri objected to letting Kansas

14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
then have three free-soil neighbors HISTORY

(Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas) and might

be forced to become a free state as
well. Their congressional delegation,
backed by Southerners, blocked all
efforts to organize the region.
At this point, Stephen A. Doug- las
enraged all free-soil supporters.
Douglas argued that the Compro-
mise of 1850, having left Utah and
New Mexico free to resolve the slav-
ery issue for themselves, superseded
the Missouri Compromise. His plan
called for two territories, Kansas and
Nebraska. It permitted settlers to carry
slaves into them and even- tually to
determine whether they should enter
the Union as free or slave states.
Douglas’s opponents accused him
of currying favor with the South in
order to gain the presidency in 1856.
The free-soil movement, which had
seemed to be in decline, reemerged
with greater momentum than ever. Yet
in May 1854, Douglas’s plan in the
form of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
passed Congress to be signed by
President Franklin Pierce. Southern
enthusiasts celebrated with cannon
fire. But when Douglas subsequently
visited Chicago to speak in his own
defense, the ships in the harbor low-
ered their flags to half-mast, the
church bells tolled for an hour, and a
crowd of 10,000 hooted so loudly that
he could not make himself heard.
The immediate results of Douglas’s
ill-starred measure were momen- tous.
The Whig Party, which had straddled
the question of slavery ex-

14
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

pansion, sank to its death, and in its federal territories. Thus, Con-
stead a powerful new organization
arose, the Republican Party, whose
primary demand was that slavery be
excluded from all the territories. In
1856, it nominated John Fremont,
whose expeditions into the Far
West had won him renown.
Fremont lost the election, but the
new party swept a great part of the
North. Such free- soil leaders as
Salmon P. Chase and William
Seward exerted greater in- fluence
than ever. Along with them
appeared a tall, lanky Illinois attor-
ney, Abraham Lincoln.
Meanwhile, the flow of both
Southern slave holders and antislav-
ery families into Kansas resulted in
armed conflict. Soon the territory
was being called “bleeding
Kansas.” The Supreme Court made
things worse with its infamous
1857 Dred Scott decision.
Scott was a Missouri slave who,
some 20 years earlier, had been tak-
en by his master to live in Illinois
and the Wisconsin Territory; in
both places, slavery was banned.
Return- ing to Missouri and
becoming dis- contented with his
life there, Scott sued for liberation
on the ground of his residence on
free soil. A majority of the Supreme
Court — dominated by Southerners
— decided that Scott lacked
standing in court because he was
not a citizen; that the laws of a free
state (Illinois) had no effect on his
status because he was the resi- dent
of a slave state (Missouri); and that
slave holders had the right to take
their “property” anywhere in the

14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
gress could not restrict the HISTORY
June 17, Lincoln struck the keynote
expan- sion of slavery. This of American history for the seven
last assertion invalidated years to follow:
former compromises on A house divided against itself
slavery and made new ones cannot stand. I believe this
impos- sible to craft. government cannot endure
The Dred Scott decision permanently half-slave and half-
stirred fierce resentment free. I do not expect the Union to
throughout the North. Never
before had the Court been so
bitterly condemned. For
Southern Democrats, the
decision was a great victory,
since it gave ju- dicial
sanction to their justification
of slavery throughout the
territories.

LINCOLN,
DOUGLAS,
AND
BROWN

Abraham Lincoln had

long re- garded slavery as
an evil. As ear- ly as 1854
in a widely publicized
speech, he declared that all
national legislation should be
framed on the principle that
slavery was to be re- stricted
and eventually abolished. He
contended also that the
princi- ple of popular
sovereignty was false, for
slavery in the western territo-
ries was the concern not only
of the local inhabitants but of
the United States as a whole.
In 1858 Lincoln opposed
Ste- phen A. Douglas for
election to the
U.S. Senate from Illinois. In
the first paragraph of his
opening campaign speech, on
14
CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

be dissolved — I do not expect the

were coming to accept his view that
house to fall — but I do expect it
he had been an instrument in the
will cease to be divided.
hand of God.
Lincoln and Douglas engaged
in a series of seven debates in the
THE 1860 ELECTION
ensuing months of 1858. Senator
Douglas, known as the “Little Gi-
ant,” had an enviable reputation as
In 1860 the Republican Party
an orator, but he met his match in nominated Abraham Lincoln as its
candidate for president. The Repub-
Lincoln, who eloquently challenged
lican platform declared that slavery
Douglas’s concept of popular sov-
could spread no farther, promised
ereignty. In the end, Douglas won
a tariff for the protection of indus-
the election by a small margin, but
try, and pledged the enactment of
Lincoln had achieved stature as a
a law granting free homesteads to
national figure.
settlers who would help in the
By then events were spinning
open- ing of the West. Southern
out of control. On the night of
Demo- crats, unwilling in the wake
October 16, 1859, John Brown, an
of the Dred Scott case to accept
antislavery fanatic who had captured
Douglas’s popular sovereignty, split
and killed five proslavery settlers in
from the party and nominated Vice
Kansas three years before, led a
President John C. Breckenridge of
band of fol- lowers in an attack on
Kentucky for president. Stephen A.
the federal arsenal at Harper’s
Douglas was the nominee of
Ferry (in what is now West
northern Dem- ocrats. Diehard
Virginia). Brown’s goal was to use
Whigs from the border states,
the weapons seized to lead a slave
formed into the Con- stitutional
uprising. After two days of fighting,
Union Party, nominated John C.
Brown and his surviving men were
Bell of Tennessee.
taken prisoner by a force of U.S.
Lincoln and Douglas compet-
Marines commanded by Colonel
ed in the North, Breckenridge and
Robert E. Lee.
Bell in the South. Lincoln won only
Brown’s attempt confirmed the
39 percent of the popular vote, but
worst fears of many Southerners.
had a clear majority of 180 elector-
Antislavery activists, on the other
al votes, carrying all 18 free states.
hand, generally hailed Brown as a
Bell won Tennessee, Kentucky, and
martyr to a great cause. Virginia
Virginia; Breckenridge took the
put Brown on trial for conspiracy,
oth- er slave states except for
treason, and murder. On December
Missouri, which was won by
2, 1859, he was hanged. Although
Douglas. Despite his poor showing,
most Northerners had initially con-
Douglas trailed only Lincoln in the
demned him, increasing numbers
popular vote. 9

14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

140
14
 7
CHAPTER

THE
CIVIL WAR
AND
RECONSTRUCTION

President Abraham
Lincoln (center) at a
Union Army
encampment in October
1862, following the
battle of Antietam.
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

“That this nation

under God
shall have a
new birth of freedom.”
President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863

SECESSION AND CIVIL WAR for restora-

Lincoln’s victory in the

presi- dential election of November
1860 made South Carolina’s
secession
from the Union December 20 a
foregone conclusion. The state had
long been waiting for an event that
would unite the South against the
antislavery forces. By February 1,
1861, five more Southern states had
seceded. On February 8, the six
states signed a provisional constitu-
tion for the Confederate States of
America. The remaining Southern
states as yet remained in the Union,
although Texas had begun to move
on its secession.
Less than a month later, March
4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was
sworn in as president of the United
States. In his inaugural address, he
declared the Confederacy “legally
void.” His speech closed with a plea

14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
tion of the bonds of union, HISTORY

but the South turned a deaf

ear. On April 12,
Confederate guns opened fire
on the federal garrison at
Fort Sumter in the
Charleston, South Carolina,
harbor. A war had begun in
which more Americans
would die than in any other
conflict before or since.
In the seven states that
had se- ceded, the people
responded posi- tively to the
Confederate action and the
leadership of Confeder- ate
President Jefferson Davis.
Both sides now tensely
awaited the action of the
slave states that thus far had
remained loyal. Virginia
seceded on April 17;
Arkansas, Tennessee, and
North Carolina followed
quickly.
No state left the Union
with greater reluctance than
Virginia. Her statesmen had
a leading part in the
winning of the Revolution
and the framing of the
Constitution, and she had
provided the nation with

14
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

five presidents. With Virginia went known as First Manassas) near

Colonel Robert E. Lee, who Washington,
declined the command of the Union
Army out of loyalty to his native
state.
Between the enlarged Confed-
eracy and the free-soil North lay
the border slave states of Delaware,
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri,
which, despite some sympathy with
the South, would remain loyal to
the Union.
Each side entered the war with
high hopes for an early victory. In
material resources the North
enjoyed a decided advantage.
Twenty-three states with a
population of 22 mil- lion were
arrayed against 11 states inhabited
by nine million, including slaves.
The industrial superiority of the
North exceeded even its prepon-
derance in population, providing it
with abundant facilities for manu-
facturing arms and ammunition,
clothing, and other supplies. It had
a greatly superior railway network.
The South nonetheless had cer-
tain advantages. The most impor-
tant was geography; the South was
fighting a defensive war on its own
territory. It could establish its inde-
pendence simply by beating off the
Northern armies. The South also
had a stronger military tradition,
and possessed the more experienced
military leaders.

WESTERN ADVANCE,
EASTERN STALEMATE

The first large battle of the

war, at Bull Run, Virginia (also
14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
stripped away any illusions that vic- HISTORY

tory would be quick or easy. It also

established a pattern, at least in the
Eastern United States, of bloody
Southern victories that never trans-
lated into a decisive military advan-
tage for the Confederacy.
In contrast to its military failures in
the East, the Union was able to se-
cure battlefield victories in the West
and slow strategic success at sea. Most
of the Navy, at the war’s begin- ning,
was in Union hands, but it was
scattered and weak. Secretary of the
Navy Gideon Welles took prompt
measures to strengthen it. Lincoln
then proclaimed a blockade of the
Southern coasts. Although the ef- fect
of the blockade was negligible at first,
by 1863 it almost completely
prevented shipments of cotton to
Europe and blocked the importa- tion
of sorely needed munitions, clothing,
and medical supplies to the South.
A brilliant Union naval com-
mander, David Farragut, conducted
two remarkable operations. In April
1862, he took a fleet into the mouth of
the Mississippi River and forced the
surrender of the largest city in the
South, New Orleans, Louisiana. In
August 1864, with the cry, “Damn the
torpedoes! Full speed ahead,” he led a
force past the fortified entrance of
Mobile Bay, Alabama, captured a
Confederate ironclad vessel, and
sealed off the port.
In the Mississippi Valley, the
Union forces won an almost unin-
terrupted series of victories. They
began by breaking a long Confeder-

14
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

ate line in Tennessee, thus making vaded Maryland. McClellan again

it possible to occupy almost all the
western part of the state. When the
important Mississippi River port of
Memphis was taken, Union troops
advanced some 320 kilometers into
the heart of the Confederacy. With
the tenacious General Ulysses S.
Grant in command, they withstood
a sudden Confederate counterattack
at Shiloh, on the bluffs overlooking
the Tennessee River. Those killed
and wounded at Shiloh numbered
more than 10,000 on each side, a
ca- sualty rate that Americans had
never before experienced. But it
was only the beginning of the
carnage.
In Virginia, by contrast, Union
troops continued to meet one de-
feat after another in a succession of
bloody attempts to capture Rich-
mond, the Confederate capital. The
Confederates enjoyed strong
defense positions afforded by
numerous streams cutting the road
between Washington and
Richmond. Their two best generals,
Robert E. Lee and Thomas J.
(“Stonewall”) Jackson, both far
surpassed in ability their early
Union counterparts. In 1862 Union
commander George McClel- lan
made a slow, excessively cautious
attempt to seize Richmond. But in
the Seven Days’ Battles between June
25 and July 1, the Union troops
were driven steadily backward,
both sides suffering terrible losses.
After another Confederate vic-
tory at the Second Battle of Bull
Run (or Second Manassas), Lee
crossed the Potomac River and in-

14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
responded tentatively, despite Confederate states,HISTORY
while leaving
learn- ing that Lee had split slavery intact in the border states.
his army and was heavily Politically, however, it meant that
outnumbered. The Union and in addition to preserving the Union,
Confederate Armies met at the abolition of slavery was now a
Antietam Creek, near declared objective of the Union war
Sharpsburg, Maryland, on effort.
September 17, 1862, in the The final Emancipation Proc-
bloodiest single day of the lamation, issued January 1, 1863,
war: More than 4,000 died on
both sides and 18,000 were
wounded. Despite his
numerical advantage,
however, McClellan failed to
break Lee’s lines or press the
attack, and Lee was able to
retreat across the Potomac
with his army intact. As a
result, Lincoln fired
McClellan.
Although Antietam was
in- conclusive in military
terms, its consequences were
nonetheless momentous.
Great Britain and France,
both on the verge of rec-
ognizing the Confederacy,
delayed their decision, and
the South never received the
diplomatic recognition and
the economic aid from
Europe that it desperately
sought.
Antietam also gave
Lincoln the opening he
needed to issue the
preliminary Emancipation
Procla- mation, which
declared that as of January
1, 1863, all slaves in states re-
belling against the Union
were free. In practical terms,
the proclamation had little
immediate impact; it freed
slaves only in the
14
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

also authorized the recruitment of again. Believing that the North’s

African Americans into the Union crushing defeat at
Army, a move abolitionist lead- Chancellorsville
ers such as Frederick Douglass had
been urging since the beginning of
armed conflict. Union forces
already had been sheltering escaped
slaves as “contraband of war,” but
following the Emancipation
Proclamation, the Union Army
recruited and trained regiments of
African-American soldiers that
fought with distinc- tion in battles
from Virginia to the Mississippi.
About 178,000 African Americans
served in the U.S. Col- ored
Troops, and 29,500 served in the
Union Navy.
Despite the political gains
represented by the Emancipation
Proclamation, however, the North’s
military prospects in the East re-
mained bleak as Lee’s Army of
Northern Virginia continued to
maul the Union Army of the Po-
tomac, first at Fredericksburg, Vir-
ginia, in December 1862 and then
at Chancellorsville in May 1863. But
Chancellorsville, although one of
Lee’s most brilliant military victo-
ries, was also one of his most
costly. His most valued lieutenant,
General “Stonewall” Jackson, was
mistaken- ly shot and killed by his
own men.

GETTYSBURG TO
APPOMATTOX

Yet none of the Confederate

vic- tories was decisive. The Union
sim- ply mustered new armies and
tried

14
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
gave him his chance, Lee struck HISTORY

northward into Pennsylvania at the

beginning of July 1863, almost reach-
ing the state capital at Harrisburg. A
strong Union force intercepted him at
Gettysburg, where, in a titanic three-
day battle — the largest of the Civil
War — the Confederates made a
valiant effort to break the Union lines.
They failed, and on July 4 Lee’s army,
after crippling losses, retreated behind
the Potomac.
More than 3,000 Union soldiers
and almost 4,000 Confederates died at
Gettysburg; wounded and missing
totaled more than 20,000 on each side.
On November 19, 1863, Lincoln
dedicated a new national cemetery
there with perhaps the most famous
address in U.S. history. He concluded
his brief remarks with these words:
... we here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died in vain —
that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom — and
that government
of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the
earth.
On the Mississippi, Union con- trol
had been blocked at Vicksburg, where
the Confederates had strong- ly
fortified themselves on bluffs too high
for naval attack. In early 1863 Grant
began to move below and around
Vicksburg, subjecting it to a six-
week siege. On July 4, he cap- tured
the town, together with the strongest
Confederate Army in the West. The
river was now entirely in Union
hands. The Confederacy was broken
in two, and it became almost

14
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

impossible to bring supplies from countryside for food.

Texas and Arkansas.
The Northern victories at Vicks-
burg and Gettysburg in July 1863
marked the turning point of the war,
although the bloodshed continued
unabated for more than a year-and-
a-half.
Lincoln brought Grant east and
made him commander-in-chief of
all Union forces. In May 1864
Grant advanced deep into Virginia
and met Lee’s Confederate Army in
the three-day Battle of the
Wilderness. Losses on both sides
were heavy, but unlike other Union
command- ers, Grant refused to
retreat. In- stead, he attempted to
outflank Lee, stretching the
Confederate lines and pounding
away with artillery and infantry
attacks. “I propose to fight it out
along this line if it takes all sum-
mer,” the Union commander said
at Spotsylvania, during five days of
bloody trench warfare that charac-
terized fighting on the eastern front
for almost a year.
In the West, Union forces gained
control of Tennessee in the fall of
1863 with victories at Chattanoo-
ga and nearby Lookout Mountain,
opening the way for General Wil-
liam T. Sherman to invade Georgia.
Sherman outmaneuvered several
smaller Confederate armies, occu-
pied the state capital of Atlanta,
then marched to the Atlantic coast,
sys- tematically destroying
railroads, factories, warehouses,
and other facilities in his path. His
men, cut off from their normal
supply lines, ravaged the

15
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
From the coast, Sherman HISTORY

marched northward; by WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE

February 1865, he had taken
Charleston, South Caro- lina,
where the first shots of the
For the North, the war
produced a still greater hero in
Civil War had been fired. Abraham Lin- coln — a man eager,
Sherman, more than any above all else,
other Union general, un- to weld the Union together again,
derstood that destroying the not by force and repression but by
will and morale of the South
was as impor- tant as
defeating its armies.
Grant, meanwhile, lay siege
to Pe- tersburg, Virginia, for
nine months, before Lee, in
March 1865, knew that he had
to abandon both Petersburg
and the Confederate capital
of Rich- mond in an attempt
to retreat south. But it was
too late. On April 9, 1865,
surrounded by huge Union
armies, Lee surrendered to
Grant at Appo- mattox
Courthouse. Although scat-
tered fighting continued
elsewhere for several
months, the Civil War was
over.
The terms of surrender at
Ap- pomattox were
magnanimous, and on his
return from his meeting with
Lee, Grant quieted the noisy
dem- onstrations of his
soldiers by re- minding them:
“The rebels are our
countrymen again.” The war
for Southern independence
had become the “lost cause,”
whose hero, Rob- ert E. Lee,
had won wide admiration
through the brilliance of his
leader- ship and his greatness
in defeat.
15
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

warmth and generosity. In 1864 he

Never before that startled April
had been elected for a second term
morning did such multitudes of
as president, defeating his Demo-
men shed tears for the death of
cratic opponent, George McClellan,
one they had never seen, as if with
the general he had dismissed after
him a friendly presence had been
Antietam. Lincoln’s second inaugu-
taken from their lives, leaving
ral address closed with these words:
them colder and darker. Never
With malice toward none; with
was funeral panegyric so eloquent
charity for all; with firmness in
as the silent look of sympathy
the right, as God gives us to see
which strangers exchanged when
the right, let us strive on to finish
they met that day. Their
the work we are in; to bind up the
common manhood had lost a
nation’s wounds; to care for him
kinsman.
who shall have borne the battle,
The first great task confronting
and for his widow, and his orphan
the victorious North — now under
— to do all which may achieve
the leadership of Lincoln’s vice presi-
and cherish a just, and a lasting
dent, Andrew Johnson, a
peace, among ourselves, and with
Southerner who remained loyal to
all nations.
the Union — was to determine the
Three weeks later, two days after
status of the states that had seceded.
Lee’s surrender, Lincoln delivered
Lincoln had already set the stage.
his last public address, in which
In his view, the people of the
he unfolded a generous
Southern states had never legally
reconstruction policy. On April 14,
seceded; they had been misled by
1865, the presi- dent held what
some disloyal citi- zens into a
was to be his last Cabinet
defiance of federal au- thority. And
meeting. That evening — with his
since the war was the act of
wife and a young couple who
individuals, the federal gov-
were his guests — he attended a
ernment would have to deal with
performance at Ford’s Theater.
these individuals and not with
There, as he sat in the presidential
the states. Thus, in 1863 Lincoln
box, he was assassinated by John
proclaimed that if in any state 10
Wilkes Booth, a Virginia actor em-
percent of the voters of record in
bittered by the South’s defeat. Booth
1860 would form a government
was killed in a shootout some
loyal to the U.S. Constitution and
days later in a barn in the Virginia
would acknowledge obedience to
coun- tryside. His accomplices
the laws of the Congress and the
were cap- tured and later executed.
proclama- tions of the president, he
Lincoln died in a downstairs would rec- ognize the government
bed- room of a house across the so created as the state’s legal
street from Ford’s Theater on the government.
morn- ing of April 15. Poet James
Congress rejected this plan.
Russell Lowell wrote:
Many Republicans feared it would
15
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
simply entrench former rebels in HISTORY

power; they challenged Lincoln’s

right

15
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

to deal with the rebel states with- abolish slavery, repudiate all debts that
out consultation. Some members of went to aid the Confederacy,
Congress advocated severe punish-
ment for all the seceded states; oth-
ers simply felt the war would have
been in vain if the old Southern es-
tablishment was restored to power.
Yet even before the war was wholly
over, new governments had been
set up in Virginia, Tennessee,
Arkansas, and Louisiana.
To deal with one of its major
concerns — the condition of for-
mer slaves — Congress established
the Freedmen’s Bureau in March
1865 to act as guardian over
African Americans and guide them
toward self-support. And in
December of that year, Congress
ratified the 13th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitu- tion, which
abolished slavery.
Throughout the summer of 1865
Johnson proceeded to carry out Lin-
coln’s reconstruction program, with
minor modifications. By
presidential proclamation he
appointed a gover- nor for each of
the former Confeder- ate states and
freely restored political rights to
many Southerners through use of
presidential pardons.
In due time conventions were
held in each of the former Confed-
erate states to repeal the ordinances
of secession, repudiate the war
debt, and draft new state
constitutions. Eventually a native
Unionist became governor in each
state with authority to convoke a
convention of loyal vot- ers.
Johnson called upon each con-
vention to invalidate the secession,

15
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
and ratify the 13th new Freedmen’s BureauHISTORY — both

Amendment. By the end of designed to prevent racial discrimi-

1865, this process was nation by Southern legislatures.
completed, with a few Fol- lowing this, the Congress
exceptions. passed a 14th Amendment to the
Constitu- tion, stating that “all
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION persons born or naturalized in the

Both Lincoln and

United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction there- of, are citizens of
the United States and of the State
Johnson had foreseen that
the Congress would have wherein they reside.”
the right to deny Southern
leg-
islators seats in the U.S.
Senate or House of
Representatives, under the
clause of the Constitution
that says, “Each house shall
be the judge of the ...
qualifications of its own
mem- bers.” This came to
pass when, under the
leadership of Thaddeus
Stevens, those congressmen
called “Radical
Republicans,” who were
wary of a quick and easy
“reconstruction,” re- fused to
seat newly elected Southern
senators and representatives.
Within the next few months,
Congress pro- ceeded to
work out a plan for the
reconstruction of the South
quite different from the one
Lincoln had started and
Johnson had continued. Wide
public support gradual-
ly developed for those
members of Congress who
believed that African
Americans should be given
full citi- zenship. By July
1866, Congress had passed a
civil rights bill and set up a

15
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

This repudiated the Dred Scott rul- permanent military government

ing, which had denied slaves their was open to those states
right of citizenship.
All the Southern state legisla-
tures, with the exception of Tennes-
see, refused to ratify the
amendment, some voting against it
unanimously. In addition, Southern
state legisla- tures passed “codes”
to regulate the African-American
freedmen. The codes differed from
state to state, but some provisions
were common. African Americans
were required to enter into annual
labor contracts, with penalties
imposed in case of violation;
dependent children were subject to
compulsory apprentice- ship and
corporal punishments by masters;
vagrants could be sold into private
service if they could not pay severe
fines.
Many Northerners interpreted
the Southern response as an attempt
to reestablish slavery and repudi-
ate the hard-won Union victory in
the Civil War. It did not help that
Johnson, although a Unionist, was
a Southern Democrat with an ad-
diction to intemperate rhetoric and
an aversion to political
compromise. Republicans swept the
congressional elections of 1866.
Firmly in power, the Radicals
imposed their own vi- sion of
Reconstruction.
In the Reconstruction Act of
March 1867, Congress, ignoring the
governments that had been estab-
lished in the Southern states,
divided the South into five military
districts, each administered by a
Union gener- al. Escape from

15
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
that established civil governments, HISTORY

ratified the 14th Amendment, and

adopted African-American suffrage.
Supporters of the Confederacy who
had not taken oaths of loyalty to the
United States generally could not
vote. The 14th Amendment was rati-
fied in 1868. The 15th Amendment,
passed by Congress the following year
and ratified in 1870 by state leg-
islatures, provided that “The right of
citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or any state on ac- count
of race, color, or previous con- dition
of servitude.”
The Radical Republicans in
Congress were infuriated by Presi-
dent Johnson’s vetoes (even though
they were overridden) of legisla- tion
protecting newly freed African
Americans and punishing former
Confederate leaders by depriving
them of the right to hold office.
Congressional antipathy to Johnson
was so great that, for the first time in
American history, impeachment
proceedings were instituted to re-
move the president from office.
Johnson’s main offense was his
opposition to punitive congressional
policies and the violent language he
used in criticizing them. The most
serious legal charge his enemies could
level against him was that, despite the
Tenure of Office Act (which required
Senate approval for the removal of
any officeholder the Senate had
previously confirmed), he had
removed from his Cabinet the
secretary of war, a staunch sup- porter
of the Congress. When the

15
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

impeachment trial was held in the legal organizations as the Ku Klux

Senate, it was proved that Johnson
was technically within his rights in
removing the Cabinet member.
Even more important, it was
pointed out that a dangerous
precedent would be set if the
Congress were to remove a
president because he disagreed with
the majority of its members. The fi-
nal vote was one short of the two-
thirds required for conviction.
Johnson continued in office until
his term expired in 1869, but Con-
gress had established an ascendancy
that would endure for the rest of the
century. The Republican victor in
the presidential election of 1868,
for- mer Union general Ulysses S.
Grant, would enforce the
reconstruction policies the
Radicals had initiated.
By June 1868, Congress had re-
admitted the majority of the for-
mer Confederate states back into
the Union. In many of these re-
constructed states, the majority of
the governors, representatives, and
senators were Northern men — so-
called carpetbaggers — who had
gone South after the war to make
their political fortunes, often in
alliance with newly freed African
Americans. In the legislatures of
Louisiana and South Carolina, Af-
rican Americans actually gained a
majority of the seats.
Many Southern whites, their po-
litical and social dominance threat-
ened, turned to illegal means to
prevent African Americans from
gaining equality. Violence against
African Americans by such extra-

15
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Klan became more and more HISTORY
Republicans remained in power in
fre- quent. Increasing only three Southern states. As part
disorder led to the passage of the bargaining that resolved the
of Enforcement Acts in 1870 disputed presidential elections that
and 1871, severely punishing year in favor of Ruth- erford B.
those who attempted to Hayes, the Republicans promised to
deprive the African- withdraw federal troops that had
American freedmen of their propped up the remaining
civil rights. Republican governments. In 1877

THE END
OF
RECONSTRU
CTION

As time passed, it
became more and more
obvious that the problems of
the South were not being
solved
by harsh laws and continuing
rancor against former
Confederates. More- over,
some Southern Radical state
governments with prominent
Af- rican-American officials
appeared corrupt and
inefficient. The nation was
quickly tiring of the attempt
to impose racial democracy
and liberal values on the
South with Union bay- onets.
In May 1872, Congress passed
a general Amnesty Act,
restoring full political rights
to all but about 500 former
rebels.
Gradually Southern states
began electing members of
the Democratic Party into
office, ousting carpet- bagger
governments and intimidat-
ing African Americans from
voting or attempting to hold
public office. By 1876 the

15
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

Hayes kept his promise, tacitly

ly failed to address their economic
aban- doning federal responsibility
needs. The Freedmen’s Bureau was
for en- forcing blacks’ civil rights.
unable to provide former slaves
The South was still a region dev-
with political and economic oppor-
astated by war, burdened by debt
tunity. Union military occupiers
caused by misgovernment, and de-
often could not even protect them
moralized by a decade of racial
from violence and intimidation.
war- fare. Unfortunately, the
Indeed, federal army officers and
pendulum of national racial policy
agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau
swung from one extreme to the
were often racists themselves.
other. A feder- al government that
With- out economic resources of
had supported harsh penalties
their own, many Southern African
against Southern white leaders now
Americans were forced to become
tolerated new and humiliating kinds
tenant farm- ers on land owned by
of discrimina- tion against African
their former masters, caught in a
Americans. The last quarter of the
cycle of poverty that would
19th century saw a profusion of
continue well into the 20th century.
“Jim Crow” laws in Southern states
Reconstruction-era governments
that segregated pub- lic schools,
did make genuine gains in rebuild-
forbade or limited Afri- can-
ing Southern states devastated by
American access to many public
the war, and in expanding public
facilities such as parks, restaurants,
services, notably in establishing
and hotels, and denied most blacks
tax-supported, free public schools
the right to vote by imposing poll
for African Americans and whites.
taxes and arbitrary literacy tests.
However, recalcitrant Southerners
“Jim Crow” is a term derived from
seized upon instances of corruption
a song in an 1828 minstrel show
(hardly unique to the South in this
where a white man first performed
era) and exploited them to bring
in “blackface.”
down radical regimes. The failure
Historians have tended to judge
of Reconstruction meant that the
Reconstruction harshly, as a murky
struggle of African Americans for
period of political conflict, corrup-
equality and freedom was deferred
tion, and regression that failed to
until the 20th century — when it
achieve its original high-minded
would become a national, not just a
goals and collapsed into a sinkhole
Southern issue. 9
of virulent racism. Slaves were grant-
ed freedom, but the North
complete-

16
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY
THE CIVIL WAR AND NEW PATTERNS
OF AMERICAN POLITICS

The controversies of the 1850s had destroyed the Whig Party, created
the Republican Party, and divided the Democratic Party along regional
lines. The Civil War demonstrated that the Whigs were gone beyond
recall and
the Republicans on the scene to stay. It also laid the basis for a reunited
Democratic Party.
The Republicans could seamlessly replace the Whigs throughout the
North and West because they were far more than a free-soil/antislavery force.
Most of their leaders had started as Whigs and continued the Whig interest
in federally assisted national development. The need to manage a war did
not deter them from also enacting a protective tariff (1861) to foster
American manufacturing, the Homestead Act (1862) to encourage Western
settlement, the Morrill Act (1862) to establish “land grant” agricultural and
techni-
cal colleges, and a series of Pacific Railway Acts (1862-64) to underwrite a
transcontinental railway line. These measures rallied support throughout the
Union from groups to whom slavery was a secondary issue and ensured the
party’s continuance as the latest manifestation of a political creed that had
been advanced by Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay.
The war also laid the basis for Democratic reunification because
Northern opposition to it centered in the Democratic Party. As might be
expected from the party of “popular sovereignty,” some Democrats believed
that full-scale war to reinstate the Union was unjustified. This group came to
be known as the Peace Democrats. Their more extreme elements were called
“Copperheads.”
Moreover, few Democrats, whether of the “war” or “peace” faction,
believed the emancipation of the slaves was worth Northern blood. Opposition
to emancipation had long been party policy. In 1862, for example, virtually
every Democrat in Congress voted against eliminating slavery in the District
of Columbia and prohibiting it in the territories.
Much of this opposition came from the working poor, particularly Irish
and German Catholic immigrants, who feared a massive migration of newly
freed African Americans to the North. They also resented the establish-
ment of a military draft (March 1863) that disproportionately affected them.
Race riots erupted in several Northern cities. The worst of these occurred in
New York, July 13-16, 1863, precipitated by Democratic Governor Horatio
Seymour’s condemnation of military conscription. Federal troops, who just
days earlier had been engaged at Gettysburg, were sent to restore order.

16
152
 OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

The Republicans prosecuted the war with little regard for civil
liberties. In September 1862, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus
and imposed martial law on those who interfered with recruitment or gave
aid and comfort to the rebels. This breech of civil law, although
constitution- ally justified during times of crisis, gave the Democrats another
opportunity to criticize Lincoln. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton enforced
martial law vigorously, and many thousands — most of them Southern
sympathizers or Democrats — were arrested.
Despite the Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in 1863,
Democratic “peace” candidates continued to play on the nation’s misfortunes
and racial sensitivities. Indeed, the mood of the North was such that
Lincoln was convinced he would lose his re-election bid in November 1864.
Largely for that reason, the Republican Party renamed itself the Union
Party and drafted the Tennessee Democrat Andrew Johnson to be Lincoln’s
running mate. Sherman’s victories in the South sealed the election for
them.
Lincoln’s assassination, the rise of Radical Republicanism, and Johnson’s
blundering leadership all played into a postwar pattern of politics in which
the Republican Party suffered from overreaching in its efforts to remake the
South, while the Democrats, through their criticism of Reconstruction, al-
lied themselves with the neo-Confederate Southern white majority. Ulysses S.
Grant’s status as a national hero carried the Republicans through two presi-
dential elections, but as the South emerged from Reconstruction, it became
apparent that the country was nearly evenly divided between the two parties.
The Republicans would be dominant in the industrial Northeast until
the 1930s and strong in most of the rest of the country outside the South.
However, their appeal as the party of strong government and national develop-
ment increasingly would be perceived as one of allegiance to big business
and finance.
When President Hayes ended Reconstruction, he hoped it would be pos-
sible to build the Republican Party in the South, using the old Whigs as a
base and the appeal of regional development as a primary issue. By then,
how- ever, Republicanism as the South’s white majority perceived it was
identified with a hated African-American supremacy. For the next three-
quarters of a century, the South would be solidly Democratic. For much of
that time, the national Democratic Party would pay solemn deference to states’
rights while ignoring civil rights. The group that would suffer the most as a
legacy of Reconstruction was the African Americans. ◆

153
154
 8
CHAPTER

GROWTH
AND
TRANSFORMATION

Building the
transcontinental
railroad, 1868.
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION

“Upon the
sacredness of property,
civilization
itself
depends.”
Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, 1889

Between two great wars — the

Civil War and the First World War
“
The Civil War,” says one writer,
“cut a wide gash through the history
— the United States of America
came of age. In a period of less than
50 years it was transformed from a
rural re- public to an urban nation.
The fron- tier vanished. Great
factories and steel mills,
transcontinental railroad lines,
flourishing cities, and vast
agricultural holdings marked the
land. With this economic growth
and affluence came corresponding
problems. Nationwide, a few busi-
nesses came to dominate whole in-
dustries, either independently or in
combination with others. Work-
ing conditions were often poor.
Cities grew so quickly they could
not properly house or govern their
growing populations.

TECHNOLOGY AND CHANGE

15
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
of the country; it dramatized HISTORY

in a stroke the changes that

had begun to take place
during the preceding 20 or 30
years ” War needs had enor-
mously stimulated
manufacturing, speeding an
economic process based on
the exploitation of iron,
steam, and electric power, as
well as the for- ward march
of science and inven- tion. In
the years before 1860, 36,000
patents were granted; in the
next 30 years, 440,000
patents were issued, and in
the first quarter of the 20th
century, the number reached
nearly a million.
As early as 1844, Samuel
F.B. Morse had perfected
electrical te- legraphy; soon
afterward distant parts of
the continent were linked
by a network of poles and
wires. In 1876 Alexander
Graham Bell exhib- ited a
telephone instrument; within
half a century, 16 million
telephones would quicken the
social and eco- nomic life of
the nation. The growth

15
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION

of business was hastened by the in- came to America from Scotland

vention of the typewriter in 1867, as a child of 12, progressed from
the adding machine in 1888, and bob- bin boy in a cotton factory
the cash register in 1897. The lino- to a job
type composing machine, invented
in 1886, and rotary press and paper-
folding machinery made it possible
to print 240,000 eight-page newspa-
pers in an hour. Thomas Edison’s
incandescent lamp eventually lit
millions of homes. The talking ma-
chine, or phonograph, was
perfected by Edison, who, in
conjunction with George Eastman,
also helped devel- op the motion
picture. These and many other
applications of science and
ingenuity resulted in a new level of
productivity in almost every field.
Concurrently, the nation’s basic
industry — iron and steel — forged
ahead, protected by a high tariff.
The iron industry moved westward
as ge- ologists discovered new ore
depos- its, notably the great
Mesabi range at the head of Lake
Superior, which became one of the
largest produc- ers in the world.
Easy and cheap to mine,
remarkably free of chemical
impurities, Mesabi ore could be
pro- cessed into steel of superior
quality at about one-tenth the
previously
prevailing cost.

CARNEGIE AND THE

ERA OF STEEL

Andrew Carnegie was largely

re- sponsible for the great advances
in steel production. Carnegie,
who

15
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
in a telegraph office, then to one on HISTORY

the Pennsylvania Railroad. Before he

was 30 years old he had made shrewd
and farsighted investments, which by
1865 were concentrated in iron.
Within a few years, he had or- ganized
or had stock in companies making
iron bridges, rails, and lo- comotives.
Ten years later, he built the nation’s
largest steel mill on the Monongahela
River in Pennsylvania. He acquired
control not only of new mills, but also
of coke and coal prop- erties, iron ore
from Lake Superior, a fleet of
steamers on the Great Lakes, a port
town on Lake Erie, and a con- necting
railroad. His business, allied with a
dozen others, commanded favorable
terms from railroads and shipping
lines. Nothing comparable in
industrial growth had ever been seen
in America before.
Though Carnegie long dominat-
ed the industry, he never achieved a
complete monopoly over the nat-
ural resources, transportation, and
industrial plants involved in the
making of steel. In the 1890s, new
companies challenged his preemi-
nence. He would be persuaded to
merge his holdings into a new cor-
poration that would embrace most of
the important iron and steel proper-
ties in the nation.

CORPORATIONS AND CITIES

The United States Steel Corpora-

tion, which resulted from this merg- er
in 1901, illustrated a process under
way for 30 years: the combination of
independent industrial enterprises

15
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION

into federated or centralized compa- rapidly by other combinations — in

nies. Started during the Civil War,
the trend gathered momentum after
the 1870s, as businessmen began to
fear that overproduction would lead
to declining prices and falling prof-
its. They realized that if they could
control both production and mar-
kets, they could bring competing
firms into a single organization.
The “corporation” and the “trust”
were developed to achieve these
ends.
Corporations, making available a
deep reservoir of capital and giving
business enterprises permanent life
and continuity of control, attracted
investors both by their anticipated
profits and by their limited liability
in case of business failure. The
trusts were in effect combinations
of cor- porations whereby the
stockholders of each placed stocks
in the hands of trustees. (The
“trust” as a method of corporate
consolidation soon gave way to the
holding company, but the term
stuck.) Trusts made possible large-
scale combinations, central- ized
control and administration, and the
pooling of patents. Their larger
capital resources provided power
to expand, to compete with foreign
business organizations, and to drive
hard bargains with labor, which was
beginning to organize effective-
ly. They could also exact favorable
terms from railroads and exercise
influence in politics.
The Standard Oil Company,
founded by John D. Rockefeller,
was one of the earliest and stron-
gest corporations, and was followed

16
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
cottonseed oil, lead, sugar, the nation’s dynamic HISTORYeconomic
tobacco, and rubber. Soon forces: vast accumulations of
aggressive indi- vidual capital, business, and financial in-
businessmen began to mark stitutions, spreading railroad yards,
out industrial domains for smoky factories, armies of manual
them- selves. Four great meat and clerical workers. Villages, at-
packers, chief among them tracting people from the
Philip Armour and Gustavus countryside and from lands across
Swift, established a beef the sea, grew
trust. Cyrus McCormick
achieved preeminence in the
reaper business. A 1904
survey showed that more
than 5,000 previously
independent concerns had
been consolidated into some
300 industrial trusts.
The trend toward
amalgamation extended to
other fields, particular- ly
transportation and
communica- tions. Western
Union, dominant in
telegraphy, was followed by
the Bell Telephone System
and eventually by the
American Telephone and
Tele- graph Company. In the
1860s, Cor- nelius Vanderbilt
had consolidated 13 separate
railroads into a single 800-
kilometer line connecting
New York City and Buffalo.
During the next decade he
acquired lines to Chi- cago,
Illinois, and Detroit,
Michigan, establishing the
New York Central Railroad.
Soon the major railroads of
the nation were organized
into trunk lines and systems
directed by a handful of men.
In this new industrial
order, the city was the nerve
center, bringing to a focus all
16
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION

into towns and towns into cities al- cost less to ship goods 1,280
most overnight. In 1830 only one of kilo- meters from Chicago to
every 15 Americans lived in New York than to places a few
commu- nities of 8,000 or more; in hundred kilo-
1860 the ratio was nearly one in
every six; and in 1890 three in
every 10. No single city had as
many as a million in- habitants in
1860; but 30 years later New York
had a million and a half; Chicago,
Illinois, and Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, each had over a mil-
lion. In these three decades, Phila-
delphia and Baltimore, Maryland,
doubled in population; Kansas City,
Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan,
grew fourfold; Cleveland, Ohio,
six- fold; Chicago, tenfold.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, and
Omaha, Nebraska, and many
communities like them
— hamlets when the Civil War be-
gan — increased 50 times or more
in population.

RAILROADS, REGULATIONS,
AND THE TARIFF

Railroads were especially

impor- tant to the expanding
nation, and their practices were
often criticized.
Rail lines extended cheaper freight
rates to large shippers by rebating a
portion of the charge, thus
disadvan- taging small shippers.
Freight rates also frequently were
not proportion- ate to distance
traveled; competition usually held
down charges between cities with
several rail connections. Rates
tended to be high between points
served by only one line. Thus it

16
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
meters from Chicago. Moreover, to HISTORY

avoid competition rival companies

sometimes divided (“pooled”) the
freight business according to a pre-
arranged scheme that placed the to- tal
earnings in a common fund for
distribution.
Popular resentment at these prac-
tices stimulated state efforts at regu-
lation, but the problem was national in
character. Shippers demanded
congressional action. In 1887 Presi-
dent Grover Cleveland signed the
Interstate Commerce Act, which
forbade excessive charges, pools,
rebates, and rate discrimination. It
created an Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) to oversee the act,
but gave it little enforcement power.
In the first decades of its ex- istence,
virtually all the ICC’s efforts at
regulation and rate reductions failed to
pass judicial review.
President Cleveland also opposed
the protective tariff on foreign goods,
which had come to be accepted as
permanent national policy under the
Republican presidents who dominat-
ed the politics of the era. Cleveland, a
conservative Democrat, regarded tariff
protection as an unwarranted subsidy
to big business, giving the trusts
pricing power to the disadvan- tage of
ordinary Americans. Reflect- ing the
interests of their Southern base, the
Democrats had reverted to their pre-
Civil War opposition to protection and
advocacy of a “tariff for revenue
only.”
Cleveland, narrowly elected in
1884, was unsuccessful in achieving
tariff reform during his first term.

16
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION

He made the issue the keynote of manufacturing after the Civil War
his campaign for reelection, but — involved a shift from hand labor to
Repub- lican candidate Benjamin machine farming, and from sub-
Harrison, a defender of
protectionism, won in a close race.
In 1890, the Harrison
administration, fulfilling its cam-
paign promises, achieved passage
of the McKinley tariff, which
increased the already high rates.
Blamed for high retail prices, the
McKinley du- ties triggered
widespread dissatisfac- tion, led to
Republican losses in the 1890
elections, and paved the way for
Cleveland’s return to the presidency
in the 1892 election.
During this period, public an-
tipathy toward the trusts increased.
The nation’s gigantic corpora-
tions were subjected to bitter attack
through the 1880s by reformers
such as Henry George and Edward
Bel- lamy. The Sherman Antitrust
Act, passed in 1890, forbade all
combina- tions in restraint of
interstate trade and provided
several methods of enforcement
with severe penalties. Couched in
vague generalities, the law
accomplished little immediately
after its passage. But a decade later,
President Theodore Roosevelt
would use it vigorously.

REVOLUTION IN
AGRICULTURE

Despite the great gains in

industry, agriculture remained the
nation’s basic occupation. The
revolution
in agriculture — paralleling that in

16
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
sistence to commercial HISTORY
the young prairie town of Chicago,
agriculture. Between 1860 where he set up a factory — and by
and 1910, the number of 1860 sold a quarter of a million
farms in the United States reapers.
tripled, increasing from two Other farm machines were de-
million to six million, while veloped in rapid succession: the
the area farmed more than automatic wire binder, the threshing
doubled from 160 million to (Continued on page 177.)
352 million hectares.
Between 1860 and 1890,
the pro- duction of such basic
commodities as wheat, corn,
and cotton out- stripped all
previous figures in the
United States. In the same
period, the nation’s
population more than
doubled, with the largest
growth in the cities. But the
American farmer grew
enough grain and cotton,
raised enough beef and pork,
and clipped enough wool not
only to supply American
workers and their families
but also to create ever-in-
creasing surpluses.
Several factors accounted
for this extraordinary
achievement. One was the
expansion into the West.
Anoth- er was a
technological revolution. The
farmer of 1800, using a hand
sickle, could hope to cut a
fifth of a hectare of wheat a
day. With the cradle, 30
years later, he might cut four-
fifths. In 1840 Cyrus McCor-
mick performed a miracle by
cutting from two to two-and-
a-half hectares a day with the
reaper, a machine he had
been developing for nearly
10 years. He headed west to

16
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
The silhouette of one of the United States’ most revered Founding
Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, stands in the shrine dedicated to his
memory.
“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility
against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

M O N U M E N T SA N D

MEMORIALS A PICTURE PROFILE

The monuments of American history span a continent in distance and
centuries in time. They range from a massive serpent-shaped mound
created by a long-gone Native-American culture to memorials in
contemporary Washington, D.C., and New York City.

161

16
The snow-covered Old Granary cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts, is burial
ground for, among other leading American patriots, victims of the Boston
Massacre, three signers of the Declaration of Independence, and six governors of
Massachusetts. Originally founded by religious dissidents from England known
as Puritans, Massachusetts was a leader in the struggle for independence against
England. It was the setting for the Boston Tea Party and the first battles of the
American Revolution — in Lexington and Concord.
163
The historic room in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, where delegates
drafted the Constitution of the United States in the summer of 1787. The
Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It prescribes the form and
authority of the federal
government, and ensures the fundamental freedoms and rights of the
citizens of the country through the Bill of Rights.
165
 Statues guard the majestic façade of the U.S. Supreme Court, the
highest court in the land. The words engraved on the lintel over the
Greek pillars embody one of America’s founding principles: “Equal
Justice Under Law.”

166
The Statue of Liberty, one of the United States’ most beloved monuments,
stands 151 feet high at the entrance to New York harbor. A gift of
friendship from the people of France to the United States, it was intended
to be an impressive symbol of human liberty. It was certainly that for the
millions of immigrants who came to the United States in the 19th and early
20th centuries, seeking freedom and a better life.

167
Aerial view of the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio.
Carbon tests of the effigy revealed that the creators of this 1,330-foot
monument were members of the Native-American Fort Ancient Culture
(A.D. 1000-1550).

The Liberty Bell in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
an enduring symbol of
American freedom. First
rung on July
8, 1776, to celebrate the
adoption of the
Declaration of
Independence, it cracked
in 1836 during the
funeral of John Marshall,
Chief Justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court.
168
Two monuments to the central role Spain played in the exploration of
what is now the United States. Top, the Castillo de San Marcos, built
1672-1695 to guard
St. Augustine, Florida, the first permanent European settlement in the
continental United States. Above, fountain and mission remains of the
San Juan Capistrano Mission, California, one of nine missions founded by
Spanish Franciscan missionaries led by Fray Junípero Serra in the 1770s.
Serra led the Spanish colonization of what is today the state of California.
 The faces of four of the most admired American presidents
were carved by Gutzon Borglum into the southeast face of
Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, beginning in 1927.
From left to right, they are: George Washington,
commander of the Revolutionary Army and first president
of the young nation; Thomas Jefferson, author of the
Declaration of Independence; Theodore Roosevelt, who led
the country toward progressive reforms and a strong
foreign policy; and Abraham Lincoln, who led the country
through the Civil War and freed the slaves.

George Washington’s beloved home, Mount

Vernon, by the Potomac River in Virginia, where
he died on December 14, 1799, and is buried
along with his wife Martha. Among other
treasured items owned by the first president on
display there, visitors can see one of the keys to
the Bastille, a gift to Washington from the
Marquis de Lafayette.

171
Six-year-old Mary Zheng straightens a flower placed at the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., April 30, 2000. The names of more
than 58,000 servicemen who died in the war or remain missing are etched
on the “wall” part of the memorial, pictured here. This portion of the
monument was designed by Maya Lin, then a student at Yale University.

172
An autumnal view of Arlington Cemetery, Virginia, America’s largest and
best-known national burial grounds. More than 260,000 people are buried at
Arlington Cemetery, including veterans from all the nation’s wars.

A mother and daughter viewing documents in the

Exhibition Hall of the National Archives. The U.S.
Constitution, the Declaration of
Independence, and the Bill of Rights are on display in this
Washington, D.C., building.
 Fireworks celebrating the arrival of the Millennium illuminate two
major monuments in Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial on
the left and the
obelisk-shaped Washington Monument, center. The Lincoln Memorial’s
north and south side chambers contain carved inscriptions of his Second
Inaugural Address and his Gettysburg Address. The tallest structure in
the nation’s capital,
the Washington Monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885.

175
Top, the World War II Memorial, opened in 2004, is the most recent
addition to the many national monuments in Washington, D.C. It honors
the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the United States, the
more than 400,000 who died, and all who supported the war effort from
home. Above, the planned design for the World Trade Center Memorial
in New York City is depicted in this photograph of a model unveiled in
late 2004. “Reflecting Absence” will preserve not only the memory of
those who died in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, but the
visible remnants of the buildings destroyed that morning, too.

176
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

machine, and the reaper-thresher Turkestan, another imported the

or combine. Mechanical planters, yellow-flowering al- falfa.
cut- ters, huskers, and shellers Luther Burbank in California
appeared, as did cream separators,
manure spreaders, potato planters,
hay dri- ers, poultry incubators,
and a hun- dred other inventions.
Scarcely less important than
machinery in the agricultural rev-
olution was science. In 1862 the
Morrill Land Grant College Act al-
lotted public land to each state for
the establishment of agricultural
and industrial colleges. These were
to serve both as educational
institu- tions and as centers for
research in scientific farming.
Congress subse- quently
appropriated funds for the
creation of agricultural experiment
stations throughout the country
and granted funds directly to the
De- partment of Agriculture for
research purposes. By the
beginning of the new century,
scientists throughout the United
States were at work on a wide
variety of agricultural projects. One
of these scientists, Mark Carleton,
traveled for the Depart- ment of
Agriculture to Russia. There he
found and exported to his home-
land the rust- and drought-
resistant winter wheat that now
accounts for more than half the
U.S. wheat crop. Another
scientist, Marion Dorset,
conquered the dreaded hog
cholera, while still another, George
Mohler, helped prevent hoof-and-
mouth disease. From North
Africa, one researcher brought
back Kaf- fir corn; from

17
 CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
produced scores of new fruits and
vegetables; in Wisconsin, Stephen
Babcock devised a test for determin-
ing the butterfat content of milk; at
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the
African-American scientist George
Washington Carver found hundreds of
new uses for the peanut, sweet po-
tato, and soybean.
In varying degrees, the explosion
in agricultural science and technol-
ogy affected farmers all over the
world, raising yields, squeezing out
small producers, and driving migra-
tion to industrial cities. Railroads and
steamships, moreover, began to pull
regional markets into one large world
market with prices instantly
communicated by trans-Atlantic ca-
ble as well as ground wires. Good
news for urban consumers, falling
agricultural prices threatened the
livelihood of many American farm-
ers and touched off a wave of agrar-
ian discontent.

THE DIVIDED SOUTH

After Reconstruction, Southern

leaders pushed hard to attract indus-
try. States offered large inducements
and cheap labor to investors to de-
velop the steel, lumber, tobacco, and
textile industries. Yet in 1900 the re-
gion’s percentage of the nation’s in-
dustrial base remained about what it
had been in 1860. Moreover, the price
of this drive for industrializa- tion was
high: Disease and child labor
proliferated in Southern mill towns.
Thirty years after the Civil War, the
South was still poor, over-

17
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

whelmingly agrarian, and economi- can-American population.

cally dependent. Moreover, its race
relations reflected not just the
legacy of slavery, but what was
emerging as the central theme of its
history — a determination to
enforce white su- premacy at any
cost.
Intransigent white Southerners
found ways to assert state control
to maintain white dominance. Sev-
eral Supreme Court decisions also
bolstered their efforts by upholding
traditional Southern views of the
ap- propriate balance between
national and state power.
In 1873 the Supreme Court
found that the 14th Amendment
(citi- zenship rights not to be
abridged) conferred no new
privileges or im- munities to protect
African Amer- icans from state
power. In 1883, furthermore, it
ruled that the 14th Amendment did
not prevent indi- viduals, as
opposed to states, from practicing
discrimination. And in Plessy v.
Ferguson (1896), the Court found
that “separate but equal” public
accommodations for Afri- can
Americans, such as trains and
restaurants, did not violate their
rights. Soon the principle of segre-
gation by race extended into every
area of Southern life, from railroads
to restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and
schools. Moreover, any area of life
that was not segregated by law was
segregated by custom and practice.
Further curtailment of the right to
vote followed. Periodic lynchings
by mobs underscored the region’s
determination to subjugate its Afri-

17
 CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
Faced with pervasive them the Great Plains tribes —
discrimina- tion, many Sioux and Blackfoot, Pawnee and
African Americans fol- Cheyenne — and the Indian
lowed Booker T. cultures of the South- west,
Washington, who counseled including Apache, Navajo, and
them to focus on modest Hopi.
economic goals and to accept A mere quarter-century later,
tem- porary social virtually all this country had been
discrimination. Oth- ers, led carved into states and territories.
by the African-American
intellectual W.E.B. DuBois,
wanted to challenge
segregation through political
action. But with both ma- jor
parties uninterested in the is-
sue and scientific theory of
the time generally accepting
black inferior- ity, calls for
racial justice attracted little
support.

THE LAST FRONTIER

In 1865 the frontier line

generally followed the
western limits of the states
bordering the Mississippi
Riv-
er, but bulged outward
beyond the eastern sections
of Texas, Kansas, and
Nebraska. Then, running
north and south for nearly
1,600 kilome- ters, loomed
huge mountain ranges, many
rich in silver, gold, and other
metals. To their west, plains
and des- erts stretched to the
wooded coastal ranges and
the Pacific Ocean. Apart
from the settled districts in
Cali- fornia and scattered
outposts, the vast inland
region was populated by
Native Americans: among

18
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Miners had ranged over the whole

days. The continental rail network
of the mountain country, tunnel-
grew steadily; by 1884 four great
ing into the earth, establishing little
lines linked the central Mississippi
communities in Nevada, Montana,
Valley area with the Pacific.
and Colorado. Cattle ranchers, tak-
The first great rush of population
ing advantage of the enormous
to the Far West was drawn to the
grasslands, had laid claim to the
mountainous regions, where gold
huge expanse stretching from Texas
was found in California in 1848, in
to the upper Missouri River. Sheep
Colorado and Nevada 10 years lat-
herders had found their way to the
er, in Montana and Wyoming in the
valleys and mountain slopes. Farm-
1860s, and in the Black Hills of the
ers sank their plows into the plains
Dakota country in the 1870s.
and closed the gap between the East
Miners opened up the country,
and West. By 1890 the frontier line
established communities, and laid
had disappeared.
the founda- tions for more
Settlement was spurred by the
permanent settle- ments.
Homestead Act of 1862, which
Eventually, however, though a few
granted free farms of 64 hectares
communities continued to be
to citizens who would occupy and
devoted almost exclusively to min-
improve the land. Unfortunately for
ing, the real wealth of Montana,
the would-be farmers, much of the
Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and
Great Plains was suited more for
California proved to be in the grass
cattle ranching than farming, and
and soil. Cattle-raising, long an
by 1880 nearly 22,400,000 hectares
important industry in Texas, flour-
of “free” land were in the hands of
ished after the Civil War, when
cattlemen or the railroads.
enterprising men began to drive
In 1862 Congress also voted a their Texas longhorn cattle north
charter to the Union Pacific Rail- across the open public land. Feed-
road, which pushed westward from ing as they went, the cattle arrived
Council Bluffs, Iowa, using mostly at railway shipping points in Kan-
the labor of ex-soldiers and Irish sas, larger and fatter than when
im- migrants. At the same time, the they started. The annual cattle drive
Cen- tral Pacific Railroad began to became a regular event; for
build eastward from Sacramento, hundreds of kilometers, trails were
Cali- fornia, relying heavily on dotted with herds moving
Chinese immigrant labor. The northward.
whole country was stirred as the
Next, immense cattle ranches
two lines steadily approached each
appeared in Colorado, Wyoming,
other, finally meet- ing on May 10,
Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakota
1869, at Promontory Point in Utah.
territory. Western cities flourished
The months of labo- rious travel
as centers for the slaughter of cat-
hitherto separating the two oceans
tle and dressing of meat. The cat-
was now cut to about six
tle boom peaked in the mid-1880s.
18
 CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
By then, not far behind the rancher

18
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

creaked the covered wagons of the Red Cloud and Crazy Horse,
farmers bringing their families,
their draft horses, cows, and pigs.
Under the Homestead Act they
staked their claims and fenced them
with a new invention, barbed wire.
Ranchers were ousted from lands
they had roamed without legal title.
Ranching and the cattle drives
gave American mythology its last
icon of frontier culture — the cow-
boy. The reality of cowboy life was
one of grueling hardship. As de-
picted by writers like Zane Grey
and movie actors such as John
Wayne, the cowboy was a powerful
mytho- logical figure, a bold,
virtuous man of action. Not until
the late 20th cen- tury did a reaction
set in. Histori- ans and filmmakers
alike began to depict “the Wild
West” as a sordid place, peopled by
characters more apt to reflect the
worst, rather than the best, in
human nature.

THE PLIGHT OF
THE NATIVE AMERICANS

As in the East, expansion into the

plains and mountains by miners,
ranchers, and settlers led to increas-
ing conflicts with the Native Amer-
icans of the West. Many tribes of
Native Americans — from the Utes
of the Great Basin to the Nez
Perces of Idaho — fought the
whites at one time or another. But
the Sioux of the Northern Plains
and the Apache of the Southwest
provided the most significant
opposition to frontier ad- vance.
Led by such resourceful lead- ers as

18
 CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
the Sioux were particularly reservation at Wounded Knee,
skilled at high-speed South Dakota, led to an uprising
mounted warfare. The and a last, tragic encounter that
Apaches were equally adept ended in the death of nearly 300
and highly elusive, fighting Sioux men, women, and children.
in their envi- rons of desert Long before this, however, the
and canyons. way of life of the Plains Indians
Conflicts with the Plains had been destroyed by an expand-
Indians worsened after an
incident where the Dakota
(part of the Sioux nation),
declaring war against the
U.S. gov- ernment because of
long-standing grievances,
killed five white settlers.
Rebellions and attacks
continued through the Civil
War. In 1876 the last serious
Sioux war erupted, when the
Dakota gold rush
penetrated the Black Hills.
The Army was sup- posed to
keep miners off Sioux hunt-
ing grounds, but did little to
protect the Sioux lands.
When ordered to take action
against bands of Sioux
hunting on the range
according to their treaty
rights, however, it moved
quickly and vigorously.
In 1876, after several
indecisive encounters,
Colonel George Custer,
leading a small detachment
of cav- alry encountered a
vastly superior force of Sioux
and their allies on the Little
Bighorn River. Custer and
his men were completely
annihilated. Nonetheless the
Native-American insurgency
was soon suppressed. Later,
in 1890, a ghost dance ritual
on the Northern Sioux
18
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

ing white population, the coming the government for 25 years,

of the railroads, and the slaughter of after
the buffalo, almost exterminated in
the decade after 1870 by the settlers’
indiscriminate hunting.
The Apache wars in the South-
west dragged on until Geronimo,
the last important chief, was
captured in 1886.
Government policy ever since
the Monroe administration had
been to move the Native Americans
be- yond the reach of the white
frontier. But inevitably the
reservations had become smaller
and more crowd- ed. Some
Americans began to pro- test the
government’s treatment of Native
Americans. Helen Hunt Jack- son,
for example, an Easterner liv- ing in
the West, wrote A Century of
Dishonor (1881), which dramatized
their plight and struck a chord in
the nation’s conscience. Most re-
formers believed the Native Ameri-
can should be assimilated into the
dominant culture. The federal gov-
ernment even set up a school in
Car- lisle, Pennsylvania, in an
attempt to impose white values and
beliefs on Native-American youths.
(It was at this school that Jim
Thorpe, often considered the best
athlete the Unit- ed States has
produced, gained fame in the early
20th century.)
In 1887 the Dawes (General Al-
lotment) Act reversed U.S. Native-
American policy, permitting the
president to divide up tribal land
and parcel out 65 hectares of land
to each head of a family. Such al-
lotments were to be held in trust by

18
 CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
which time the owner won full title
and citizenship. Lands not thus dis-
tributed, however, were offered for
sale to settlers. This policy, however
well-intentioned, proved disastrous,
since it allowed more plundering of
Native-American lands. Moreover, its
assault on the communal orga-
nization of tribes caused further
disruption of traditional culture. In
1934 U.S. policy was reversed yet
again by the Indian Reorganiza- tion
Act, which attempted to pro- tect
tribal and communal life on the
reservations.

AMBIVALENT EMPIRE

The last decades of the 19th century

were a period of imperial expansion
for the United States. The American
story took a different course from that
of its European rivals, however,
because of the U.S. history of strug-
gle against European empires and its
unique democratic development.
The sources of American ex-
pansionism in the late 19th century
were varied. Internationally, the pe-
riod was one of imperialist frenzy, as
European powers raced to carve up
Africa and competed, along with
Japan, for influence and trade in Asia.
Many Americans, including
influential figures such as Theodore
Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and
Elihu Root, felt that to safeguard its
own interests, the United States had to
stake out spheres of economic in-
fluence as well. That view was sec-
onded by a powerful naval lobby,
which called for an expanded fleet

18
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

and network of overseas ports as es- ing point in U.S. history. It left the
sential to the economic and political
security of the nation. More
general- ly, the doctrine of
“manifest destiny,” first used to
justify America’s conti- nental
expansion, was now revived to
assert that the United States had a
right and duty to extend its influ-
ence and civilization in the Western
Hemisphere and the Caribbean, as
well as across the Pacific.
At the same time, voices of anti-
imperialism from diverse coalitions
of Northern Democrats and reform-
minded Republicans remained loud
and constant. As a result, the acqui-
sition of a U.S. empire was piecemeal
and ambivalent. Colonial-minded
administrations were often more
concerned with trade and economic
issues than political control.
The United States’ first venture
beyond its continental borders was
the purchase of Alaska — sparsely
populated by Inuit and other native
peoples — from Russia in 1867. Most
Americans were either indifferent
to or indignant at this action by
Secre- tary of State William
Seward, whose critics called Alaska
“Seward’s Folly” and “Seward’s
Icebox.” But 30 years later, when
gold was discovered on Alaska’s
Klondike River, thousands of
Americans headed north, and many
of them settled in Alaska per-
manently. When Alaska became the
49th state in 1959, it replaced Texas
as geographically the largest state
in the Union.
The Spanish-American War,
fought in 1898, marked a turn-

18
 CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
United States exercising the Spanish were responsible.
control or influence over Indigna- tion, intensified by
islands in the Carib- bean sensationalized press coverage,
Sea and the Pacific. swept across the country. McKinley
By the 1890s, Cuba and tried to preserve the peace, but
Puer- to Rico were the only within a few months, believing
remnants of Spain’s once delay futile, he recom- mended
vast empire in the New armed intervention.
World, and the Philippine The war with Spain was swift and
Islands comprised the core of decisive. During the four months it
Spanish power in the Pacific.
The outbreak of war had
three principal sources:
popular hostility to
autocratic Spanish rule in
Cuba; U.S. sympathy with
the Cu- ban fight for
independence; and a new
spirit of national
assertiveness, stimulated in
part by a nationalistic and
sensationalist press.
By 1895 Cuba’s growing
restive- ness had become a
guerrilla war of
independence. Most
Americans were sympathetic
with the Cubans, but
President Cleveland was
deter- mined to preserve
neutrality. Three years later,
however, during the ad-
ministration of William
McKinley, the U.S. warship
Maine, sent to Ha- vana on a
“courtesy visit” designed to
remind the Spanish of
American concern over the
rough handling of the
insurrection, blew up in the
har- bor. More than 250 men
were killed. The Maine was
probably destroyed by an
accidental internal explosion,
but most Americans believed

18
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

lasted, not a single American Officially, U.S. policy

reverse of any importance occurred. encouraged the new territories to
A week after the declaration of war, move toward
Com- modore George Dewey,
commander of the six-warship
Asiatic Squad- ron then at Hong
Kong, steamed to the Philippines.
Catching the entire Spanish fleet at
anchor in Manila Bay, he destroyed
it without losing an American life.
Meanwhile, in Cuba, troops
land- ed near Santiago, where, after
win- ning a rapid series of
engagements, they fired on the port.
Four armored Spanish cruisers
steamed out of San- tiago Bay to
engage the American navy and
were reduced to ruined hulks.
From Boston to San Francisco,
whistles blew and flags waved
when word came that Santiago had
fallen. Newspapers dispatched
correspon- dents to Cuba and the
Philippines, who trumpeted the
renown of the nation’s new heroes.
Chief among them were
Commodore Dewey and Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt, who had
resigned as assistant secretary of
the navy to lead his volunteer regi-
ment, the “Rough Riders,” to
service in Cuba. Spain soon sued
for an end to the war. The peace
treaty signed on December 10,
1898, transferred Cuba to the
United States for tem- porary
occupation preliminary to the
island’s independence. In addi-
tion, Spain ceded Puerto Rico and
Guam in lieu of war indemnity, and
the Philippines for a U.S. payment
of
$20 million.

18
 CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
democratic self-government, a po-
litical system with which none of
them had any previous experience. In
fact, the United States found itself in a
colonial role. It maintained for- mal
administrative control in Puer- to Rico
and Guam, gave Cuba only nominal
independence, and harshly suppressed
an armed independence movement in
the Philippines. (The Philippines
gained the right to elect both houses
of its legislature in 1916. In 1936 a
largely autonomous Philippine
Commonwealth was es- tablished. In
1946, after World War II, the islands
finally attained full independence.)
U.S. involvement in the Pacific
area was not limited to the Philip-
pines. The year of the Spanish-Amer-
ican War also saw the beginning of a
new relationship with the Hawaiian
Islands. Earlier contact with Hawaii
had been mainly through missionar-
ies and traders. After 1865, however,
American investors began to devel- op
the islands’ resources — chiefly
sugarcane and pineapples.
When the government of Queen
Liliuokalani announced its inten- tion
to end foreign influence in 1893,
American businessmen joined with
influential Hawaiians to depose her.
Backed by the American ambassa- dor
to Hawaii and U.S. troops sta- tioned
there, the new government then asked
to be annexed to the United States.
President Cleveland, just beginning
his second term, re- jected annexation,
leaving Hawaii nominally
independent until the Spanish-
American War, when, with

19
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

the backing of President McKinley, ment. Large numbers of Puerto Ri-

Congress ratified an annexation
treaty. In 1959 Hawaii would be-
come the 50th state.
To some extent, in Hawaii espe-
cially, economic interests had a role
in American expansion, but to
influ- ential policy makers such as
Roos- evelt, Senator Henry Cabot
Lodge, and Secretary of State John
Hay, and to influential strategists
such as Admiral Alfred Thayer
Mahan, the main impetus was
geostrategic. For these people, the
major dividend of acquiring Hawaii
was Pearl Har- bor, which would
become the major
U.S. naval base in the central Pacific.
The Philippines and Guam comple-
mented other Pacific bases —
Wake Island, Midway, and
American Sa- moa. Puerto Rico
was an important foothold in a
Caribbean area that was becoming
increasingly impor- tant as the
United States contemplat- ed a
Central American canal.
U.S. colonial policy tended to-
ward democratic self-government.
As it had done with the Philippines,
in 1917 the U.S. Congress granted
Puerto Ricans the right to elect all
of their legislators. The same law
also made the island officially a U.S.
territory and gave its people Ameri-
can citizenship. In 1950 Congress
granted Puerto Rico complete free-
dom to decide its future. In 1952,
the citizens voted to reject either
statehood or total independence,
and chose instead a commonwealth
status that has endured despite the
efforts of a vocal separatist move-

19
 CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
cans have settled on the in re- bellion and declared
mainland, to which they have Panamanian independence. The
free access and where they breakaway coun- try was
enjoy all the political and immediately recognized by
civil rights of any other President Theodore Roosevelt. Un-
citizen of the United States. der the terms of a treaty signed that
November, Panama granted the
THE CANAL United States a perpetual lease to a
AND THE
AMERIC
AS

The war with Spain

revived U.S. interest in
building a canal across the
isthmus of Panama, uniting
the
two great oceans. The
usefulness of such a canal for
sea trade had long been
recognized by the major
com- mercial nations of the
world; the French had begun
digging one in the late 19th
century but had been unable
to overcome the engineering
difficulties. Having become a
power in both the Caribbean
Sea and the Pacific Ocean,
the United States saw a canal
as both economically benefi-
cial and a way of providing
speedier transfer of warships
from one ocean to the other.
At the turn of the
century, what is now Panama
was the rebellious northern
province of Colombia. When
the Colombian legislature in
1903 refused to ratify a treaty
giv- ing the United States the
right to build and manage a
canal, a group of impatient
Panamanians, with the
support of U.S. Marines, rose

19
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

16-kilometer-wide strip of land (the as part of an ill-starred

Panama Canal Zone) between the campaign to influ-
Atlantic and the Pacific, in return
for $10 million and a yearly fee of
$250,000. Colombia later received
$25 million as partial
compensation. Seventy-five years
later, Panama and the United States
negotiated a new treaty. It provided
for Panamanian sovereignty in the
Canal Zone and transfer of the
canal to Panama on December 31,
1999.
The completion of the Panama
Canal in 1914, directed by Colonel
George W. Goethals, was a major
triumph of engineering. The simul-
taneous conquest of malaria and
yel- low fever made it possible and
was one of the 20th century’s great
feats in preventive medicine.
Elsewhere in Latin America, the
United States fell into a pattern of
fitful intervention. Between 1900
and 1920, the United States carried
out sustained interventions in six
Western Hemispheric nations —
most notably Haiti, the Dominican
Republic, and Nicaragua. Washing-
ton offered a variety of
justifications for these
interventions: to establish political
stability and democratic
government, to provide a favorable
environment for U.S. investment
(often called dollar diplomacy), to
secure the sea lanes leading to the
Panama Canal, and even to prevent
European countries from forcibly
collecting debts. The United States
had pressured the French into re-
moving troops from Mexico in
1867. Half a century later, however,

19
 CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
ence the Mexican revolution and stop
raids into American territory,
President Woodrow Wilson sent
11,000 troops into the northern part of
the country in a futile effort to capture
the elusive rebel and outlaw Francisco
“Pancho” Villa.
Exercising its role as the most
powerful — and most liberal — of
Western Hemisphere nations, the
United States also worked to estab-
lish an institutional basis for coop-
eration among the nations of the
Americas. In 1889 Secretary of State
James G. Blaine proposed that the 21
independent nations of the Western
Hemisphere join in an organization
dedicated to the peaceful settlement of
disputes and to closer econom- ic
bonds. The result was the Pan-
American Union, founded in 1890 and
known today as the Organiza- tion of
American States (OAS).
The later administrations of
Herbert Hoover (1929-33) and
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45) re-
pudiated the right of U.S. interven-
tion in Latin America. In particular,
Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy of
the 1930s, while not ending all
tensions between the United States
and Latin America, helped dissipate
much of the ill-will engendered by
earlier U.S. intervention and unilat-
eral actions.

UNITED STATES AND ASIA

Newly established in the Philip-

pines and firmly entrenched in Ha-
waii at the turn of the century, the
United States had high hopes for a

19
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

vigorous trade with China.

territorial or administrative rights
However, Japan and various
and restated the Open Door policy.
European nations had acquired
Once the rebellion was quelled,
established spheres of influence
Hay protected China from crushing
there in the form of naval bases,
in- demnities. Primarily for the sake
leased territories, monopolis- tic
of American goodwill, Great
trade rights, and exclusive con-
Britain, Germany, and lesser
cessions for investing in railway
colonial powers formally affirmed
construction and mining.
the Open Door policy and Chinese
Idealism in American foreign
independence. In practice, they
policy existed alongside the desire
consolidated their privileged
to compete with Europe’s imperi-
positions in the country.
al powers in the Far East. The U.S.
A few years later, President
government thus insisted as a
Theodore Roosevelt mediated the
matter of principle upon equality of
deadlocked Russo-Japanese War of
com- mercial privileges for all
1904-05, in many respects a strug-
nations. In September 1899,
gle for power and influence in the
Secretary of State John Hay
northern Chinese province of Man-
advocated an “Open Door” for all
churia. Roosevelt hoped the settle-
nations in China — that is, equality
ment would provide open-door
of trading opportu- nities (including
opportunities for American busi-
equal tariffs, har- bor duties, and
ness, but the former enemies and
railway rates) in the areas
other imperial powers succeeded in
Europeans controlled. Despite its
shutting the Americans out. Here
idealistic component, the Open
as elsewhere, the United States was
Door, in essence, was a diplomatic
unwilling to deploy military force
maneuver that sought the advantag-
in the service of economic imperi-
es of colonialism while avoiding
alism. The president could at least
the stigma of its frank practice. It
content himself with the award of
had limited success.
the Nobel Peace Prize (1906). De-
With the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, spite gains for Japan, moreover,
the Chinese struck out against for- U.S. relations with the proud and
eigners. In June, insurgents seized new- ly assertive island nation
Beijing and attacked the foreign would be intermittently difficult
legations there. Hay promptly an- through the early decades of the
nounced to the European powers
20th century. 9
and Japan that the United States
would oppose any disturbance of
Chinese

19
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

J.P. MORGAN AND FINANCE CAPITALISM

The rise of American industry required more than great industrialists. Big
industry required big amounts of capital; headlong economic growth required
foreign investors. John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan was the most important of the
American financiers who underwrote both requirements.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Morgan headed the
nation’s largest investment banking firm. It brokered American securities to
wealthy elites at home and abroad. Since foreigners needed assurance that
their investments were in a stable currency, Morgan had a strong interest in
keeping the dollar tied to its legal value in gold. In the absence of an official
U.S. central bank, he became the de facto manager of the task.
From the 1880s through the early 20th century, Morgan and Company
not only managed the securities that underwrote many important corporate
consolidations, it actually originated some of them. The most stunning of
these was the U.S. Steel Corporation, which combined Carnegie Steel with
several other companies. Its corporate stock and bonds were sold to investors
at the then-unprecedented sum of $1.4 billion.
Morgan originated, and made large profits from, numerous other merg-
ers. Acting as primary banker to numerous railroads, moreover, he effectively
muted competition among them. His organizational efforts brought stability
to American industry by ending price wars to the disadvantage of farmers
and small manufacturers, who saw him as an oppressor. In 1901, when he
estab- lished the Northern Securities Company to control a group of major
railroads, President Theodore Roosevelt authorized a successful Sherman
Antitrust Act suit to break up the merger.
Acting as an unofficial central banker, Morgan took the lead in support-
ing the dollar during the economic depression of the mid-1890s by marketing
a large government bond issue that raised funds to replenish Treasury gold
supplies. At the same time, his firm undertook a short-term guarantee of the
nation’s gold reserves. In 1907, he took the lead in organizing the New York
financial community to prevent a potentially ruinous string of bankruptcies.
In the process, his own firm acquired a large independent steel company,
which it amalgamated with U.S. Steel. President Roosevelt personally
approved the action in order to avert a serious depression.
By then, Morgan’s power was so great that most Americans instinctively
distrusted and disliked him. With some exaggeration, reformers depicted him
as the director of a “money trust” that controlled America. By the time of his
death in 1913, the country was in the final stages of at last reestablishing a
central bank, the Federal Reserve System, that would assume much of the re-
sponsibility he had exercised unofficially. ◆
187
19
188
 9
CHAPTER

DISCONTENT
AND
REFORM

Suffragists march
on Pennsylvania
Avenue,
Washington, D.C.,
March 3, 1913.
CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM

“A great democracy will be

neither great nor a
democracy if it is not
progressive.”
Former President Theodore Roosevelt, circa 1910

AGRARIAN DISTRESS AND Midwestern farmers were in-

I THE RISE OF POPULISM creasingly restive over what they
considered excessive railroad
n spite of their remarkable prog- ply pushed the price of agricultural
ress, late-19th century American commodities downward.
farmers experienced recurring pe-
riods of hardship. Mechanical im-
provements greatly increased yield
per hectare. The amount of land un-
der cultivation grew rapidly
through- out the second half of the
century, as the railroads and the
gradual displacement of the Plains
Indians opened up new areas for
western settlement. A similar
expansion of agricultural lands in
countries such as Canada,
Argentina, and Australia
compounded these problems in the
international market, where much
of U.S. agricultural production was
now sold. Everywhere, heavy sup-
19
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
freight rates to move their HISTORY

goods to market. They

believed that the protective
tariff, a subsidy to big
business, drove up the price
of their increasingly
expensive equipment.
Squeezed by low market
prices and high costs, they
resented ever- heavier debt
loads and the banks that held
their mortgages. Even the
weather was hostile. During
the late 1880s droughts
devastated the west- ern
Great Plains and bankrupted
thousands of settlers.
In the South, the end of
slavery brought major
changes. Much ag- ricultural
land was now worked by
sharecroppers, tenants who
gave up to half of their crop
to a land- owner for rent,
seed, and essential supplies.
An estimated 80 percent

19
CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM

of the South’s African-American California. A par- allel African-

farmers and 40 percent of its white American group, the
ones lived under this debilitating
system. Most were locked in a
cycle of debt, from which the only
hope of escape was increased
planting. This led to the over-
production of cotton and tobacco,
and thus to declining prices and the
further exhaustion of the soil.
The first organized effort to ad-
dress general agricultural problems
was by the Patrons of Husbandry,
a farmer’s group popularly known
as the Grange Movement.
Launched in 1867 by employees of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
the Granges focused initially on
social activities to counter the
isolation most farm families
encountered. Women’s
participation was actively
encouraged. Spurred by the Panic
of 1873, the Grange soon grew to
20,000 chapters and one-and-a-half
million members.
The Granges set up their own
marketing systems, stores, process-
ing plants, factories, and coopera-
tives, but most ultimately failed.
The movement also enjoyed some
politi- cal success. During the
1870s, a few states passed “Granger
laws,” limit- ing railroad and
warehouse fees.
By 1880 the Grange was in
decline and being replaced by the
Farmers’ Alliances, which were
similar in many respects but more
overtly po- litical. By 1890 the
alliances, initially autonomous state
organizations, had about 1.5 million
members from New York to

19
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Colored Farmers National Alliance, HISTORY

claimed over a million members.

Federating into two large North- ern
and Southern blocs, the alli- ances
promoted elaborate economic
programs to “unite the farmers of
America for their protection against
class legislation and the encroach-
ments of concentrated capital.”
By 1890 the level of agrarian dis-
tress, fueled by years of hardship and
hostility toward the McKinley tar- iff,
was at an all-time high. Working with
sympathetic Democrats in the South
or small third parties in the West, the
Farmers’ Alliances made a push for
political power. A third political party,
the People’s (or Pop- ulist) Party,
emerged. Never before in American
politics had there been anything like
the Populist fervor that swept the
prairies and cotton lands. The
elections of 1890 brought the new
party into power in a dozen Southern
and Western states, and sent a score of
Populist senators and representatives
to Congress.
The first Populist convention was
in 1892. Delegates from farm, labor,
and reform organizations met in
Omaha, Nebraska, determined to
overturn a U.S. political system they
viewed as hopelessly corrupted by the
industrial and financial trusts. Their
platform stated:
We are met, in the midst of a nation
brought to the verge of moral,
political, and material ruin.
Corruption dominates the ballot-
box, the legislatures, the Congress,
and touches even the ermine of the
bench [courts].....From the same

19
CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM

prolific womb of governmental

The financial panic of 1893
injustice we breed the two great
heightened the tension of this de-
classes — tramps and millionaires.
bate. Bank failures abounded in the
South and Midwest; unemployment
The pragmatic portion of their
soared and crop prices fell badly.
platform called for the national-
The crisis and President Grover
ization of the railroads; a low tar-
Cleveland’s defense of the gold stan-
iff; loans secured by non-perishable
dard sharply divided the Democrat-
crops stored in government-owned
ic Party. Democrats who were
warehouses; and, most explosively,
silver supporters went over to the
currency inflation through Treasury
Popu- lists as the presidential
purchase and the unlimited coin-
elections of 1896 neared.
age of silver at the “traditional”
The Democratic convention that
ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one
year was swayed by one of the most
ounce of gold.
famous speeches in U.S. political
The Populists showed impres-
history. Pleading with the conven-
sive strength in the West and South,
tion not to “crucify mankind on a
and their candidate for president
cross of gold,” William Jennings
polled more than a million votes.
Bryan, the young Nebraskan cham-
But the currency question soon
pion of silver, won the Democrats’
over- shadowed all other issues.
presidential nomination. The Popu-
Agrar- ian spokesmen, convinced
lists also endorsed Bryan.
that their troubles stemmed from a
In the epic contest that followed,
shortage of money in circulation,
Bryan carried almost all the South-
argued that increasing the volume
ern and Western states. But he lost
of mon- ey would indirectly raise
the more populated, industrial
prices for farm products and drive
North and East — and the election
up indus- trial wages, thus allowing
— to Republican candidate William
debts to be paid with inflated
McKinley.
currency. Con- servative groups
The following year the country’s
and the financial classes, on the
finances began to improve, in part
other hand, respond- ed that the
owing to the discovery of gold in
16:1 price ratio was nearly twice the
Alaska and the Yukon. This pro-
market price for silver. A policy of
vided a basis for a conservative
unlimited purchase would denude
expansion of the money supply. In
the U.S. Treasury of all its gold
1898 the Spanish-American War
holdings, sharply devalue the
drew the nation’s attention further
dollar, and destroy the purchasing
from Populist issues. Populism and
power of the working and middle
the silver issue were dead. Many of
classes. Only the gold standard,
the movement’s other reform ideas,
they said, offered stability.
however, lived on.

19
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

THE STRUGGLES OF LABOR were to wealthy industrialists.

The life of a 19th-century

The laissez-faire capitalism
that dominated the second half of
Ameri- can industrial worker was the
hard. Even in good times wages
were low,
hours long, and working conditions
hazardous. Little of the wealth that
the growth of the nation had gener-
ated went to its workers. Moreover,
women and children made up a
high percentage of the work force in
some industries and often received
but a fraction of the wages a man
could earn. Periodic economic
crises swept the nation, further
eroding industri- al wages and
producing high levels of
unemployment.
At the same time, technologi-
cal improvements, which added so
much to the nation’s productivity,
continually reduced the demand for
skilled labor. Yet the unskilled
labor pool was constantly growing,
as un- precedented numbers of
immigrants
— 18 million between 1880 and 1910
— entered the country, eager for
work.
Before 1874, when
Massachusetts passed the nation’s
first legislation limiting the number
of hours wom- en and child factory
workers could perform to 10 hours
a day, virtually no labor legislation
existed in the country. It was not
until the 1930s that the federal
government would become actively
involved. Until then, the field was
left to the state and local
authorities, few of whom were as
responsive to the workers as they

19
 CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM
19th century and fostered huge con-
centrations of wealth and power was
backed by a judiciary that time and
again ruled against those who chal-
lenged the system. In this, they were
merely following the prevailing phi-
losophy of the times. Drawing on a
simplified understanding of Dar-
winian science, many social think- ers
believed that both the growth of large
business at the expense of small
enterprise and the wealth of a few
alongside the poverty of many was
“survival of the fittest,” and an un-
avoidable by-product of progress.
American workers, especially the
skilled among them, appear to have
lived at least as well as their coun-
terparts in industrial Europe. Still, the
social costs were high. As late as the
year 1900, the United States had the
highest job-related fatality rate of any
industrialized nation in the world.
Most industrial workers still worked a
10-hour day (12 hours in the steel
industry), yet earned less than the
minimum deemed neces- sary for a
decent life. The number of children in
the work force doubled between 1870
and 1900.
The first major effort to orga- nize
workers’ groups on a nation- wide
basis appeared with the Noble Order
of the Knights of Labor in 1869.
Originally a secret, ritualistic society
organized by Philadelphia garment
workers and advocating a cooperative
program, it was open to all workers,
including African Americans, women,
and farmers. The Knights grew slowly
until its railway workers’ unit won a
strike

19
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

against the great railroad baron, Jay Chicago. In the ensuing melee, seven
Gould, in 1885. Within a year they
added 500,000 workers to their
rolls, but, not attuned to pragmatic
trade unionism and unable to repeat
this success, the Knights soon fell
into a decline.
Their place in the labor move-
ment was gradually taken by the
American Federation of Labor
(AFL). Rather than open member-
ship to all, the AFL, under former
ci- gar union official Samuel
Gompers, was a group of unions
focused on skilled workers. Its
objectives were “pure and simple”
and apolitical: in- creasing wages,
reducing hours, and improving
working conditions. It did much
to turn the labor move- ment
away from the socialist views of
most European labor movements.
Nonetheless, both before the
founding of the AFL and after,
American labor history was violent.
In the Great Rail Strike of 1877, rail
workers across the nation went out
in response to a 10-percent pay cut.
Attempts to break the strike led to
ri- oting and wide-scale destruction
in several cities: Baltimore,
Maryland; Chicago, Illinois;
Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania; Buffalo,
New York; and San Francisco,
California. Federal troops had to be
sent to several locations
before the strike was ended.
Nine years later, in Chicago’s
Haymarket Square incident, some-
one threw a bomb at police about
to break up an anarchist rally in
support of an ongoing strike at the
McCormick Harvester Company in

19
 CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM
policemen and at least four fighting for better conditions in the
workers were reported killed. West’s mining industry, the IWW,
Some 60 police officers were or “Wobblies” as they were com-
injured. monly known, gained particular
In 1892, at Carnegie’s prominence from the Colorado
steel works in Homestead, mine clashes of 1903 and the
Pennsylvania, a group of 300 singularly brutal fashion in which
Pinkerton detectives the they were
company had hired to break a
bitter strike by the
Amalgamated Association of
Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers
fought a fierce and losing
gun battle with strikers. The
Na- tional Guard was called
in to protect non-union
workers and the strike was
broken. Unions were not let
back into the plant until
1937.
In 1894, wage cuts at the
Pullman Company just
outside Chicago led to a
strike, which, with the
support of the American
Railway Union, soon tied up
much of the country’s rail
system. As the situation
deteriorat- ed, U.S. Attorney
General Richard Olney,
himself a former railroad
lawyer, deputized over 3,000
men in an attempt to keep the
rails open. This was followed
by a federal court injunction
against union interfer- ence
with the trains. When rioting
ensued, President Cleveland
sent in federal troops, and the
strike was eventually broken.
The most militant of the
strike- favoring unions was
the Industri- al Workers of
the World (IWW). Formed
from an amalgam of unions
19
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

put down. Influenced by militant formerly struggling repub- lic

anarchism and openly calling for had become a world power. The
class warfare, the Wobblies gained
many adherents after they won a
dif- ficult strike battle in the textile
mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts, in
1912. Their call for work stoppages
in the midst of World War I,
however, led to a government
crackdown in 1917 that virtually
destroyed them.

THE REFORM IMPULSE

The presidential election of

1900 gave the American people a
chance to pass judgment on the
Republican
administration of President McKin-
ley, especially its foreign policy.
Meeting at Philadelphia, the Repub-
licans expressed jubilation over the
successful outcome of the war with
Spain, the restoration of prosperity,
and the effort to obtain new mar-
kets through the Open Door policy.
McKinley easily defeated his oppo-
nent, once again William Jennings
Bryan. But the president did not
live to enjoy his victory. In Septem-
ber 1901, while attending an expo-
sition in Buffalo, New York, he was
shot down by an assassin, the third
president to be assassinated since
the Civil War.
Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley’s
vice president, assumed the presi-
dency. Roosevelt’s accession coin-
cided with a new epoch in
American political life and
international rela- tions. The
continent was peopled; the frontier
was disappearing. A small,

19
 CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM
country’s political foundations had
endured the vicissitudes of foreign
and civil war, the tides of prosper- ity
and depression. Immense strides had
been made in agriculture and industry.
Free public education had been
largely realized and a free press
maintained. The ideal of religious
freedom had been sustained. The
influence of big business was now
more firmly entrenched than ever,
however, and local and municipal
government often was in the hands of
corrupt politicians.
In response to the excesses of 19th-
century capitalism and politi- cal
corruption, a reform movement called
“progressivism” arose, which gave
American politics and thought its
special character from approxi- mately
1890 until the American en- try into
World War I in 1917. The
Progressives had diverse objec- tives.
In general, however, they saw
themselves as engaged in a demo-
cratic crusade against the abuses of
urban political bosses and the cor-
rupt “robber barons” of big business.
Their goals were greater democracy
and social justice, honest govern-
ment, more effective regulation of
business, and a revived commitment
to public service. They believed that
expanding the scope of government
would ensure the progress of U.S. so-
ciety and the welfare of its citizens.
The years 1902 to 1908 marked the
era of greatest reform activity, as
writers and journalists strongly
protested practices and principles
inherited from the 18th-century rural
republic that were proving

20
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

inadequate for a 20th-century ur-

labor laws were strengthened and
ban state. Years before, in 1873, the
new ones adopted, raising age
celebrated author Mark Twain had
limits, shortening work hours, re-
exposed American society to criti-
stricting night work, and requiring
cal scrutiny in The Gilded Age. Now,
school attendance.
trenchant articles dealing with
trusts, high finance, impure foods,
ROOSEVELT’S REFORMS
and abusive railroad practices be-
gan to appear in the daily newspa-
pers and in such popular magazines
By the early 20th century,
as McClure’s and Collier’s. Their au- most of the larger cities and more
than half the states had established
thors, such as the journalist Ida M. an
Tarbell, who crusaded against the
eight-hour day on public works.
Standard Oil Trust, became known
Equally important were the work-
as “muckrakers.”
man’s compensation laws, which
In his sensational novel, The made employers legally responsible
Jungle, Upton Sinclair exposed un- for injuries sustained by employees
sanitary conditions in the great at work. New revenue laws were also
Chicago meat-packing houses and enacted, which, by taxing inheri-
condemned the grip of the beef tances, incomes, and the property
trust on the nation’s meat supply. or earnings of corporations, sought
Theodore Dreiser, in his novels The to place the burden of government
Financier and The Titan, made it on those best able to pay.
easy for laymen to understand the It was clear to many people
machinations of big business. Frank
— notably President Theodore
Norris’s The Octopus assailed amor-
Roosevelt and Progressive leaders
al railroad management; his The Pit
in the Congress (foremost among
depicted secret manipulations on
them Wisconsin Senator Robert La
the Chicago grain market. Lincoln
Fol- lette) — that most of the
Steffens’s The Shame of the Cities
problems reformers were concerned
bared local political corruption.
about could be solved only if dealt
This “literature of exposure” roused
with on a national scale. Roosevelt
people to action.
declared his determination to give
The hammering impact of un- all the American people a “Square
compromising writers and an in- Deal.”
creasingly aroused public spurred During his first term, he initiated
political leaders to take practical a policy of increased government
measures. Many states enacted laws su- pervision through the
to improve the conditions under enforcement of antitrust laws. With
which people lived and worked. At his back- ing, Congress passed the
the urging of such prominent so- Elkins Act (1903), which greatly
cial critics as Jane Addams, child restricted the railroad practice of
giving rebates to favored shippers.
20
 CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM
The act made published rates
the lawful standard,

20
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

and shippers equally liable with 1906 Congress passed the

railroads for rebates. Meanwhile, Hepburn Act. It gave the
Congress had created a new Cabi- Interstate Commerce
net Department of Commerce and
Labor, which included a Bureau of
Corporations empowered to investi-
gate the affairs of large business ag-
gregations.
Roosevelt won acclaim as a
“trust-buster,” but his actual atti-
tude toward big business was com-
plex. Economic concentration, he
believed, was inevitable. Some trusts
were “good,” some “bad.” The task
of government was to make
reasonable distinctions. When, for
example, the Bureau of
Corporations discovered in 1907
that the American Sugar Re- fining
Company had evaded import duties,
subsequent legal actions re-
covered more than $4 million and
convicted several company
officials. The Standard Oil
Company was in- dicted for
receiving secret rebates from the
Chicago and Alton Rail- road,
convicted, and fined a stagger- ing
$29 million.
Roosevelt’s striking personality
and his trust-busting activities cap-
tured the imagination of the
ordinary individual; approval of his
progres- sive measures cut across
party lines. In addition, the
abounding prosper- ity of the
country at this time led people to
feel satisfied with the party in
office. He won an easy victory in
the 1904 presidential election.
Emboldened by a sweeping elec-
toral triumph, Roosevelt called for
stronger railroad regulation. In June

20
 CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM
Commission real authority in regu-
lating rates, extended the commis-
sion’s jurisdiction, and forced the
railroads to surrender their inter-
locking interests in steamship lines
and coal companies.
Other congressional measures
carried the principle of federal con-
trol still further. The Pure Food and
Drug Act of 1906 prohibited the use
of any “deleterious drug, chemical, or
preservative” in prepared medi- cines
and foods. The Meat Inspec- tion Act
of the same year mandated federal
inspection of all meat-pack- ing
establishments engaged in inter- state
commerce.
Conservation of the nation’s nat-
ural resources, managed develop-
ment of the public domain, and the
reclamation of wide stretches of ne-
glected land were among the other
major achievements of the Roosevelt
era. Roosevelt and his aides were
more than conservationists, but giv-
en the helter-skelter exploitation of
public resources that had preceded
them, conservation loomed large on
their agenda. Whereas his predeces-
sors had set aside 18,800,000 hect-
ares of timberland for preservation
and parks, Roosevelt increased the
area to 59,200,000 hectares. They
also began systematic efforts to pre-
vent forest fires and to re-timber de-
nuded tracts.

TAFT AND WILSON

Roosevelt’s popularity was at its

peak as the campaign of 1908 neared,
but he was unwilling to break the

20
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

tradition by which no president had New Jersey, campaigned against Taft, the
held office for more than two terms. Repub- lican candidate — and also
Instead, he supported William against
How- ard Taft, who had served
under him as governor of the
Philippines and secretary of war.
Taft, pledging to continue
Roosevelt’s programs, de- feated
Bryan, who was running for the
third and last time.
The new president continued the
prosecution of trusts with less dis-
crimination than Roosevelt, further
strengthened the Interstate Com-
merce Commission, established a
postal savings bank and a parcel
post system, expanded the civil
service, and sponsored the
enactment of two amendments to
the Constitution, both adopted in
1913.
The 16th Amendment, rati-
fied just before Taft left office, au-
thorized a federal income tax; the
17th Amendment, approved a few
months later, mandated the direct
election of senators by the people,
instead of state legislatures. Yet
bal- anced against these progressive
mea- sures was Taft’s acceptance of
a new tariff with higher protective
sched- ules; his opposition to the
entry of the state of Arizona into
the Union because of its liberal
constitution; and his growing
reliance on the con- servative wing
of his party.
By 1910 Taft’s party was bitterly
divided. Democrats gained control
of Congress in the midterm elec-
tions. Two years later, Woodrow
Wilson, the Democratic,
progressive governor of the state of

20
 CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM
Roosevelt who ran as the of De- cember 23, 1913, was
candidate of a new Wilson’s most enduring legislative
Progressive Party. Wilson, in accomplish- ment. Conservatives
a spirited campaign, defeated had favored establishment of one
both rivals. powerful cen- tral bank. The new
During his first term, act, in line with the Democratic
Wilson secured one of the Party’s Jeffersonian sentiments,
most notable leg- islative divided the country into 12
programs in American histo- districts, with a Federal Reserve
ry. The first task was tariff
revision. “The tariff duties
must be altered,” Wilson
said. “We must abolish ev-
erything that bears any
semblance of privilege.” The
Underwood Tariff, signed on
October 3, 1913, provided
substantial rate reductions on
im- ported raw materials and
foodstuffs, cotton and
woolen goods, iron and steel;
it removed the duties from
more than a hundred other
items. Although the act
retained many pro- tective
features, it was a genuine at-
tempt to lower the cost of
living. To compensate for
lost revenues, it es- tablished
a modest income tax.
The second item on the
Demo- cratic program was a
long overdue, thorough
reorganization of the ram-
shackle banking and currency
sys- tem. “Control,” said
Wilson, “must be public, not
private, must be vested in the
government itself, so that the
banks may be the
instruments, not the masters,
of business and of indi-
vidual enterprise and
initiative.”
The Federal Reserve Act
20
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Bank in each, all supervised by a

of 1914 established an “extension
na- tional Federal Reserve Board
system” of county agents to assist
with limited authority to set interest
farming throughout the country.
rates. The act assured greater
Subsequent acts made credit avail-
flexibility in the money supply and
able to farmers at low rates of in-
made provi- sion for issuing
terest. The Seamen’s Act of 1915
federal-reserve notes to meet
improved living and working con-
business demands. Greater
ditions on board ships. The Fed-
centralization of the system would
eral Workingman’s Compensation
come in the 1930s.
Act in 1916 authorized allowances
The next important task was
to civil service employees for dis-
trust regulation and investigation of
abilities incurred at work and estab-
corporate abuses. Congress autho-
lished a model for private
rized a Federal Trade Commission
enterprise. The Adamson Act of the
to issue orders prohibiting “unfair
same year established an eight-hour
methods of competition” by busi-
day for railroad labor.
ness concerns in interstate trade.
This record of achievement won
The Clayton Antitrust Act forbade
Wilson a firm place in American
many corporate practices that had
history as one of the nation’s fore-
thus far escaped specific condem-
most progressive reformers. How-
nation: interlocking directorates,
ever, his domestic reputation would
price discrimination among pur-
soon be overshadowed by his
chasers, use of the injunction in
record as a wartime president who
labor disputes, and ownership by
led his country to victory but could
one corporation of stock in similar
not hold the support of his people
enterprises.
for the peace that followed. 9
Farmers and other workers were
not forgotten. The Smith-Lever Act

20
CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM

A NATION OF NATIONS

No country’s history has been more closely bound to immigration than

that of the United States. During the first 15 years of the 20th century alone,
over
13 million people came to the United States, many passing through Ellis
Island, the federal immigration center that opened in New York harbor in
1892. (Though no longer in service, Ellis Island reopened in 1992 as a
monument to the millions who crossed the nation’s threshold there.)
The first official census in 1790 had numbered Americans at 3,929,214.
Approximately half of the population of the original 13 states was of English
origin; the rest were Scots-Irish, German, Dutch, French, Swedish, Welsh,
and Finnish. These white Europeans were mostly Protestants. A fifth of the
population was enslaved Africans.
From early on, Americans viewed immigrants as a necessary resource
for an expanding country. As a result, few official restrictions were placed
upon immigration into the United States until the 1920s. As more and more
im- migrants arrived, however, some Americans became fearful that their
culture was threatened.
The Founding Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, had been ambivalent
over whether or not the United States ought to welcome arrivals from every
corner of the globe. Jefferson wondered whether democracy could ever rest
safely in the hands of men from countries that revered monarchs or replaced
royalty with mob rule. However, few supported closing the gates to newcomers
in a country desperate for labor.
Immigration lagged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as wars
dis- rupted trans-Atlantic travel and European governments restricted
movement to retain young men of military age. Still, as European
populations increased, more people on the same land constricted the size of
farming lots to a point where families could barely survive. Moreover, cottage
industries were falling victim to an Industrial Revolution that was
mechanizing production. Thou- sands of artisans unwilling or unable to find
jobs in factories were out of work in Europe.
In the mid-1840s millions more made their way to the United States
as a result of a potato blight in Ireland and continual revolution in the
German homelands. Meanwhile, a trickle of Chinese immigrants, most from
impov- erished Southeastern China, began to make their way to the
American West Coast.
Almost 19 million people arrived in the United States between 1890
and 1921, the year Congress first passed severe restrictions. Most of these
immi-
200
OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

20
 OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

grants were from Italy, Russia, Poland, Greece, and the Balkans. Non-Euro-
peans came, too: east from Japan, south from Canada, and north from Mexico.
By the early 1920s, an alliance was forged between wage-conscious
organized labor and those who called for restricted immigration on racial or
religious grounds, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Immigration Restriction
League. The Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 permanently curtailed
the influx of newcomers with quotas calculated on nation of origin.
The Great Depression of the 1930s dramatically slowed immigration still
further. With public opinion generally opposed to immigration, even for per-
secuted European minorities, relatively few refugees found sanctuary in the
United States after Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power in 1933.
Throughout the postwar decades, the United States continued to cling
to nationally based quotas. Supporters of the McCarran-Walter Act of
1952 argued that quota relaxation might inundate the United States with
Marxist subversives from Eastern Europe.
In 1965 Congress replaced national quotas with hemispheric ones.
Rela- tives of U.S. citizens received preference, as did immigrants with job
skills
in short supply in the United States. In 1978 the hemispheric quotas were
replaced by a worldwide ceiling of 290,000, a limit reduced to 270,000 after
passage of the Refugee Act of 1980.
Since the mid-1970s, the United States has experienced a fresh wave of
immigration, with arrivals from Asia, Africa, and Latin America transforming
communities throughout the country. Current estimates suggest a total annual
arrival of approximately 600,000 legal newcomers to the United States.
Because immigrant and refugee quotas remain well under demand, how-
ever, illegal immigration is still a major problem. Mexicans and other Latin
Americans daily cross the Southwestern U.S. borders to find work, higher
wages, and improved education and health care for their families. Likewise,
there is a substantial illegal migration from countries like China and other
Asian nations. Estimates vary, but some suggest that as many as 600,000
illegals per year arrive in the United States.
Large surges of immigration have historically created social strains along
with economic and cultural dividends. Deeply ingrained in most Americans,
however, is the conviction that the Statue of Liberty does, indeed, stand as a
symbol for the United States as she lifts her lamp before the “golden door,”
welcoming those “yearning to breathe free.” This belief, and the sure knowl-
edge that their forebears were once immigrants, has kept the United States a
nation of nations. ◆

201
202
 1
CHAPTER

0
WAR,
PROSPERITY,
AND
DEPRESSION

Depression era soup

line, 1930s.
CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION

“The chief business

of the American people
is business.”
President Calvin Coolidge, 1925

WAR AND NEUTRAL RIGHTS

can carriers, confiscating “contra-
T o the American public of
band” bound for Germany. Germa-
ny employed its major naval
1914, the outbreak of war in weapon, the submarine, to sink
Europe — with Germany and shipping bound for Britain or
Austria-Hun-
France. Presi- dent Wilson warned
gary fighting Britain, France, and
that the United States would not
Russia — came as a shock. At first
forsake its tradi- tional right as a
the encounter seemed remote, but
neutral to trade with belligerent
its economic and political effects
nations. He also declared that the
were swift and deep. By 1915 U.S.
nation would hold Germa- ny to
industry, which had been mildly de-
“strict accountability” for the loss
pressed, was prospering again with
of American vessels or lives. On
munitions orders from the West-
May 7, 1915, a German submarine
ern Allies. Both sides used propa-
sunk the British liner Lusitania,
ganda to arouse the public passions
kill- ing 1,198 people, 128 of them
of Americans — a third of whom
Amer- icans. Wilson, reflecting
were either foreign-born or had one
American outrage, demanded an
or two foreign-born parents. More-
immediate halt to attacks on liners
over, Britain and Germany both act-
and mer- chant ships.
ed against U.S. shipping on the high
Anxious to avoid war with the
seas, bringing sharp protests from
United States, Germany agreed to
President Woodrow Wilson.
give warning to commercial ves-
Britain, which controlled the
sels — even if they flew the enemy
seas, stopped and searched Ameri-
flag — before firing on them. But
204
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

after two more attacks — the sink- fall, Americans were key partici-
ing of the British steamer Arabic in pants in the Meuse-Argonne of-
August 1915, and the torpedoing of fensive, which cracked
the French liner Sussex in March Germany’s vaunted Hindenburg
1916 — Wilson issued an Line.
ultimatum threatening to break
diplomatic re- lations unless
Germany abandoned submarine
warfare. Germany agreed and
refrained from further attacks
through the end of the year.
Wilson won reelection in 1916,
partly on the slogan: “He kept us
out of war.” Feeling he had a
mandate to act as a peacemaker, he
delivered a speech to the Senate,
January 22, 1917, urging the
warring nations to accept a “peace
without victory.”

UNITED STATES
ENTERS WORLD
WAR I

On January 31, 1917, however,

the German government resumed
un- restricted submarine warfare.
After
five U.S. vessels were sunk, Wilson
on April 2, 1917, asked for a decla-
ration of war. Congress quickly ap-
proved. The government rapidly
mobilized military resources, indus-
try, labor, and agriculture. By Octo-
ber 1918, on the eve of Allied
victory, a U.S. army of over
1,750,000 had been deployed in
France.
In the summer of 1918, fresh
American troops under the com-
mand of General John J. Pershing
played a decisive role in stopping a
last-ditch German offensive. That

205
 CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
President Wilson contributed
greatly to an early end to the war
by defining American war aims that
characterized the struggle as be- ing
waged not against the German people
but against their autocratic
government. His Fourteen Points,
submitted to the Senate in January
1918, called for: abandonment of se-
cret international agreements; free-
dom of the seas; free trade between
nations; reductions in national ar-
maments; an adjustment of colonial
claims in the interests of the inhabit-
ants affected; self-rule for subjugated
European nationalities; and, most
importantly, the establishment of an
association of nations to afford
“mutual guarantees of political inde-
pendence and territorial integrity to
great and small states alike.”
In October 1918, the German gov-
ernment, facing certain defeat, ap-
pealed to Wilson to negotiate on the
basis of the Fourteen Points. After a
month of secret negotiations that gave
Germany no firm guarantees, an
armistice (technically a truce, but
actually a surrender) was concluded
on November 11.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

It was Wilson’s hope that the final

treaty, drafted by the victors, would be
even-handed, but the passion and
material sacrifice of more than four
years of war caused the European
Allies to make severe demands. Per-
suaded that his greatest hope for
peace, a League of Nations, would
never be realized unless he made

206
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

concessions, Wilson compromised never be capable of maintaining

somewhat on the issues of self-de-
termination, open diplomacy, and
other specifics. He successfully re-
sisted French demands for the
entire Rhineland, and somewhat
moder- ated that country’s
insistence upon charging Germany
the whole cost of the war. The final
agreement (the Treaty of
Versailles), however, pro- vided for
French occupation of the coal- and
iron-rich Saar Basin, and a very
heavy burden of reparations upon
Germany.
In the end, there was little left of
Wilson’s proposals for a generous
and lasting peace but the League of
Nations itself, which he had made
an integral part of the treaty. Dis-
playing poor judgment, however,
the president had failed to involve
lead- ing Republicans in the treaty
nego- tiations. Returning with a
partisan document, he then refused
to make concessions necessary to
satisfy Re- publican concerns about
protecting American sovereignty.
With the treaty stalled in a
Senate committee, Wilson began a
national tour to appeal for support.
On Sep- tember 25, 1919,
physically ravaged by the rigors of
peacemaking and the pressures of
the wartime presi- dency, he
suffered a crippling stroke.
Critically ill for weeks, he never fully
recovered. In two separate votes —
November 1919 and March 1920
— the Senate once again rejected
the Versailles Treaty and with it the
League of Nations.
The League of Nations would

207
 CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
world order. Wilson’s defeat found what would become the
showed that the American Commu- nist Party of the United
people were not yet ready to States. In April 1919, the postal
play a commanding role in service inter- cepted nearly 40
world affairs. His utopian bombs addressed to prominent
vision had briefly inspired citizens. Attorney Gen- eral A.
the nation, but its collision Mitchell Palmer’s residence in
with reality quickly led to Washington was bombed. Palmer,
widespread disillusion with
world affairs. America
reverted to its in- stinctive
isolationism.

POSTWAR UNREST

The transition from war

to peace was tumultuous. A
postwar eco- nomic boom
coexisted with rapid
increases in consumer prices.
La- bor unions that had
refrained from striking
during the war engaged in
several major job actions.
During the summer of 1919,
several race riots oc- curred,
reflecting apprehension over
the emergence of a “New
Negro” who had seen
military service or gone north
to work in the war industry.
Reaction to these events
merged with a widespread
national fear of a new
international revolutionary
movement. In 1917, the
Bolsheviks had seized power
in Russia; after the war, they
attempted revolutions in
Germany and Hungary. By
1919, it seemed they had
come to America. Excited by
the Bolshevik example, large
numbers of militants split
from the Socialist Party to

208
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

in turn, authorized federal roundups its history, at least in urban areas.

of radicals and deported many who Governmen- tal economic policy
were not citizens. Strikes were during the 1920s was eminently
often blamed on radicals and conservative. It was based upon
depicted as the opening shots of a the belief that if govern-
revolution.
Palmer’s dire warnings fueled a
“Red Scare” that subsided by mid-
1920. Even a murderous bombing
in Wall Street in September failed
to re- awaken it. From 1919 on,
however, a current of militant
hostility toward revolutionary
communism would simmer not far
beneath the surface of American
life.

THE BOOMING 1920s

Wilson, distracted by the

war, then laid low by his stroke, had
mis- handled almost every
postwar is-
sue. The booming economy began
to collapse in mid-1920. The
Repub- lican candidates for
president and vice president,
Warren G. Harding and Calvin
Coolidge, easily defeated their
Democratic opponents, James
M. Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Following ratification of the
19th
Amendment to the Constitution,
women voted in a presidential elec-
tion for the first time.
The first two years of Harding’s
administration saw a continuance
of the economic recession that had
begun under Wilson. By 1923,
how- ever, prosperity was back. For
the next six years the country
enjoyed the strongest economy in

209
 CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
ment fostered private business, ben-
efits would radiate out to most of the
rest of the population.
Accordingly, the Republicans tried
to create the most favorable
conditions for U.S. industry. The
Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922
and the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930
brought American trade barri- ers to
new heights, guaranteeing U.S.
manufacturers in one field after
another a monopoly of the domes- tic
market, but blocking a healthy trade
with Europe that would have
reinvigorated the international
economy. Occurring at the begin- ning
of the Great Depression, Haw- ley-
Smoot triggered retaliation from other
manufacturing nations and contributed
greatly to a collapsing cycle of world
trade that intensified world economic
misery.
The federal government also start-
ed a program of tax cuts, reflecting
Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon’s
belief that high taxes on individual
incomes and corporations discour-
aged investment in new industrial
enterprises. Congress, in laws passed
between 1921 and 1929, responded
favorably to his proposals.
“The chief business of the Amer-
ican people is business,” declared
Calvin Coolidge, the Vermont-born
vice president who succeeded to the
presidency in 1923 after Harding’s
death, and was elected in his own
right in 1924. Coolidge hewed to the
conservative economic policies of the
Republican Party, but he was a much
abler administrator than the hapless
Harding, whose administra-

210
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

tion was mired in charges of corrup- ever to most Americans. It was the
tion in the months before his death.
Throughout the 1920s, private
business received substantial en-
couragement, including construc-
tion loans, profitable mail-carrying
contracts, and other indirect subsi-
dies. The Transportation Act of
1920, for example, had already
restored to private management the
nation’s railways, which had been
under gov- ernment control during
the war. The Merchant Marine,
which had been owned and largely
operated by the government, was
sold to private op-
erators.
Republican policies in agri-
culture, however, faced mounting
criticism, for farmers shared least
in the prosperity of the 1920s. The
period since 1900 had been one of
rising farm prices. The unprece-
dented wartime demand for U.S.
farm products had provided a
strong stimulus to expansion. But
by the close of 1920, with the
abrupt end of wartime demand, the
commercial agriculture of staple
crops such as wheat and corn fell
into sharp de- cline. Many factors
accounted for the depression in
American agri- culture, but
foremost was the loss of foreign
markets. This was partly in reaction
to American tariff policy, but also
because excess farm produc- tion
was a worldwide phenomenon.
When the Great Depression struck
in the 1930s, it devastated an
already fragile farm economy.
The distress of agriculture aside,
the Twenties brought the best life

211
 CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
decade in which the ordinary nationalities and ethnic groups —
fam- ily purchased its first Russian Jews, Poles, Slavic peoples,
automobile, obtained Greeks, south- ern Italians. They
refrigerators and vacuum were non-Prot- estant,
cleaners, listened to the radio non-“Nordic,” and, many
for en- tertainment, and went Americans feared, nonassimilable.
regularly to motion pictures. They did hard, often dangerous,
Prosperity was real and low-pay work — but were accused
broadly distributed. The of driving down the wages of
Repub- licans profited native- born Americans. Settling in
politically, as a result, by squalid
claiming credit for it.

TENSIONS
OVER
IMMIGRA
TION

During the 1920s, the

United States sharply
restricted foreign im-
migration for the first time in
its
history. Large inflows of
foreigners long had created
a certain amount of social
tension, but most had been of
Northern European stock
and, if not quickly
assimilated, at least pos-
sessed a certain commonality
with most Americans. By the
end of the 19th century,
however, the flow was
predominantly from southern
and Eastern Europe.
According to the census of
1900, the population of the
United States was just over
76 mil- lion. Over the next 15
years, more than 15 million
immigrants entered the
country.
Around two-thirds of the
inflow consisted of “newer”

212
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

urban ethnic enclaves, the new im- press for admission to the
migrants were seen as maintaining country.
Old World customs, getting along
with very little English, and sup-
porting unsavory political machines
that catered to their needs. Nativists
wanted to send them back to
Europe; social workers wanted to
American- ize them. Both agreed
that they were a threat to American
identity.
Halted by World War I, mass
immigration resumed in 1919, but
quickly ran into determined oppo-
sition from groups as varied as the
American Federation of Labor and
the reorganized Ku Klux Klan. Mil-
lions of old-stock Americans who
belonged to neither organization ac-
cepted commonly held assumptions
about the inferiority of non-Nordics
and backed restrictions. Of course,
there were also practical arguments
in favor of a maturing nation
putting some limits on new arrivals.
In 1921, Congress passed a
sharp- ly restrictive emergency
immigra- tion act. It was supplanted
in 1924 by the Johnson-Reed
National Origins Act, which
established an immigra- tion quota
for each nationality. Those quotas
were pointedly based on the census
of 1890, a year in which the newer
immigration had not yet left its
mark. Bitterly resented by south-
ern and Eastern European ethnic
groups, the new law reduced immi-
gration to a trickle. After 1929, the
economic impact of the Great De-
pression would reduce the trickle to
a reverse flow — until refugees
from European fascism began to

213
 CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
CLASH OF CULTURES

Some Americans expressed their

discontent with the character of
modern life in the 1920s by focus-
ing on family and religion, as an
increasingly urban, secular society
came into conflict with older rural
traditions. Fundamentalist preach- ers
such as Billy Sunday provided an
outlet for many who yearned for a
return to a simpler past.
Perhaps the most dramatic dem-
onstration of this yearning was the
religious fundamentalist crusade that
pitted Biblical texts against the
Darwinian theory of biological evo-
lution. In the 1920s, bills to prohibit
the teaching of evolution began ap-
pearing in Midwestern and South- ern
state legislatures. Leading this crusade
was the aging William Jen- nings
Bryan, long a spokesman for the
values of the countryside as well as a
progressive politician. Bryan skillfully
reconciled his anti-evo- lutionary
activism with his earlier economic
radicalism, declaring that evolution
“by denying the need or possibility of
spiritual regeneration, discourages all
reforms.”
The issue came to a head in 1925,
when a young high school teacher,
John Scopes, was prosecuted for vio-
lating a Tennessee law that forbade
the teaching of evolution in the pub-
lic schools. The case became a nation-
al spectacle, drawing intense news
coverage. The American Civil Lib-
erties Union retained the renowned
attorney Clarence Darrow to defend
Scopes. Bryan wrangled an appoint-

214
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

ment as special prosecutor, then a modernist social and intellectual

fool- ishly allowed Darrow to call revolution most visible in changing
him as a hostile witness. Bryan’s
confused defense of Biblical
passages as literal rather than
metaphorical truth drew widespread
criticism. Scopes, nearly forgotten
in the fuss, was convicted, but his
fine was reversed on a tech-
nicality. Bryan died shortly after the
trial ended. The state wisely
declined to retry Scopes. Urban
sophisticates ridiculed
fundamentalism, but it continued to
be a powerful force in rural, small-
town America.
Another example of a power-
ful clash of cultures — one with
far greater national consequences
— was Prohibition. In 1919, after
almost a century of agitation, the
18th Amendment to the Constitu-
tion was enacted, prohibiting the
manufacture, sale, or transportation
of alcoholic beverages. Intended to
eliminate the saloon and the drunk-
ard from American society, Prohi-
bition created thousands of illegal
drinking places called “speakeasies,”
made intoxication fashionable, and
created a new form of criminal ac-
tivity — the transportation of ille-
gal liquor, or “bootlegging.”
Widely observed in rural America,
openly evaded in urban America,
Prohibi- tion was an emotional
issue in the prosperous Twenties.
When the De- pression hit, it
seemed increasingly irrelevant. The
18th Amendment would be
repealed in 1933.
Fundamentalism and Prohibition
were aspects of a larger reaction to

215
 CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
manners and morals that vividly portrayed the malaise
caused the decade to be wrought by the war in The Sun Also
called the Jazz Age, the Rises (1926) and A Farewell to
Roaring Twenties, or the era Arms (1929). Fitzgerald,
of “flaming youth.” World Hemingway, and many other writ-
War I had overturned the ers dramatized their alienation from
Victorian social and moral America by spending much of the
order. Mass prosperity en- decade in Paris.
abled an open and hedonistic African-American culture flow-
life style for the young ered. Between 1910 and 1930, huge
middle classes.
The leading intellectuals
were supportive. H.L.
Mencken, the de- cade’s
most important social critic,
was unsparing in denouncing
sham and venality in
American life. He usually
found these qualities in ru-
ral areas and among
businessmen. His
counterparts of the
progressive movement had
believed in “the peo- ple”
and sought to extend
democra- cy. Mencken, an
elitist and admirer of
Nietzsche, bluntly called
demo- cratic man a boob and
characterized the American
middle class as the
“booboisie.”
Novelist F. Scott
Fitzgerald cap- tured the
energy, turmoil, and disil-
lusion of the decade in such
works as The Beautiful and
the Damned (1922) and The
Great Gatsby (1925). Sinclair
Lewis, the first American to
win a Nobel Prize for
literature, sati- rized
mainstream America in Main
Street (1920) and Babbitt
(1922). Er- nest Hemingway
216
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

numbers of African Americans

initial American recession became
moved from the South to the North
part of a worldwide depression.
in search of jobs and personal free-
Business houses closed their doors,
dom. Most settled in urban areas,
factories shut down, banks failed
especially New York City’s Har-
with the loss of depositors’ savings.
lem, Detroit, and Chicago. In 1910
Farm income fell some 50 percent.
W.E.B. DuBois and other intel-
By November 1932, approximately
lectuals had founded the National
one of every five American workers
Association for the Advancement
was unemployed.
of Colored People (NAACP),
The presidential campaign of
which helped African Americans
1932 was chiefly a debate over the
gain a na- tional voice that would
causes and possible remedies of the
grow in im- portance with the
Great Depression. President Her-
passing years.
bert Hoover, unlucky in entering
An African-American literary
the White House only eight months
and artistic movement, called the
before the stock market crash, had
“Harlem Renaissance,” emerged.
tried harder than any other
Like the “Lost Generation,” its
president before him to deal with
writers, such as the poets Langs-
economic hard times. He had
ton Hughes and Countee Cullen,
attempted to or- ganize business,
rejected middle-class values and
had sped up public works
conventional literary forms, even
schedules, established the Re-
as they addressed the realities of
construction Finance Corporation
African-American experience. Af-
to support businesses and financial
rican-American musicians — Duke
institutions, and had secured from a
Ellington, King Oliver, Louis Arm-
reluctant Congress an agency to un-
strong — first made jazz a staple of
derwrite home mortgages. Nonethe-
American culture in the 1920s.
less, his efforts had little impact,
and he was a picture of defeat.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
His Democratic opponent,
I n October 1929 the booming
Frank- lin D. Roosevelt, already
popular as the governor of New
stock market crashed, wiping out York during the developing crisis,
many investors. The collapse did
radiated infec- tious optimism.
not in
Prepared to use the federal
itself cause the Great Depression,
government’s authority for even
although it reflected excessively
bolder experimental remedies, he
easy credit policies that had
scored a smashing victory — re-
allowed the market to get out of
ceiving 22,800,000 popular votes
hand. It also ag- gravated fragile
to Hoover’s 15,700,000. The
economies in Europe that had relied
United States was about to enter a
heavily on American loans. Over
new era of economic and political
the next three years, an
change. 9
217
212
 1
CHAPTER

1
THE
NEW DEAL
AND
WORL
D WAR
II

U.S. battleships West

Virginia and
Tennessee, following
the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor,
December 7, 1941.
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

“We must be
the great arsenal
of democracy.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941

ROOSEVELT AND gressive era of Theodore Roosevelt

I THE NEW DEAL and Woodrow Wilson.
What was truly novel about the
n 1933 the new president, New Deal, however, was the speed
Franklin with which it accomplished what
D. Roosevelt, brought an air of con- previously had taken generations.
fidence and optimism that quickly Many of its reforms were hastily
rallied the people to the banner of drawn and weakly administered;
his program, known as the New some actually contradicted others.
Deal. “The only thing we have to Moreover, it never succeeded in re-
fear is fear itself,” the president de- storing prosperity. Yet its actions
clared in his inaugural address to provided tangible help for millions
the nation. of Americans, laid the basis for a
In one sense, the New Deal powerful new political coalition,
merely introduced social and eco- and brought to the individual cit-
nomic reforms familiar to many izen a sharp revival of interest in
Europeans for more than a gen- government.
eration. Moreover, the New Deal
represented the culmination of a THE FIRST NEW DEAL
long-range trend toward abandon-
ment of “laissez-faire” capitalism, Banking and Finance. When
going back to the regulation of Roose- velt took the presidential
the railroads in the 1880s, and the oath, the banking and credit system
flood of state and national reform of the na- tion was in a state of
legislation introduced in the Pro- paralysis. With
214
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

astonishing rapidity the nation’s pollution; creating fish, game,

banks were first closed — and then and
reopened only if they were solvent.
The administration adopted a policy
of moderate currency inflation to
start an upward movement in com-
modity prices and to afford some
relief to debtors. New governmen-
tal agencies brought generous credit
facilities to industry and agricul-
ture. The Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) insured sav-
ings-bank deposits up to $5,000.
Federal regulations were imposed
upon the sale of securities on the
stock exchange.

Unemployment. Roosevelt faced

unprecedented mass
unemployment. By the time he took
office, as many as 13 million
Americans — more than a quarter
of the labor force
— were out of work. Bread lines
were a common sight in most cit-
ies. Hundreds of thousands roamed
the country in search of food, work,
and shelter. “Brother, can you spare
a dime?” was the refrain of a popu-
lar song.
An early step for the
unemployed came in the form of
the Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC), a pro- gram that brought
relief to young men between 18 and
25 years of age. CCC enrollees
worked in camps ad- ministered by
the army. About two million took
part during the decade. They
participated in a variety of
conservation projects: planting trees
to combat soil erosion and maintain
national forests; eliminating stream

21
 CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
bird sanctuaries; and conserving coal,
petroleum, shale, gas, sodium, and
helium deposits.
A Public Works Administra- tion
(PWA) provided employment for
skilled construction workers on a
wide variety of mostly medium- to
large-sized projects. Among the most
memorable of its many accom-
plishments were the Bonneville and
Grand Coulee Dams in the Pacific
Northwest, a new Chicago sewer sys-
tem, the Triborough Bridge in New
York City, and two aircraft carriers
(Yorktown and Enterprise) for the
U.S. Navy.
The Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA), both a work relief program
and an exercise in public planning,
developed the impoverished Tennes-
see River valley area through a se-
ries of dams built for flood control
and hydroelectric power generation.
Its provision of cheap electricity for
the area stimulated some economic
progress, but won it the enmity of
private electric companies. New
Dealers hailed it as an example of
“grassroots democracy.”
The Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA), in opera- tion
from 1933 to 1935, distributed direct
relief to hundreds of thou- sands of
people, usually in the form of direct
payments. Sometimes, it assumed the
salaries of schoolteach- ers and other
local public service workers. It also
developed numerous small-scale
public works projects, as did the Civil
Works Administra- tion (CWA) from
late 1933 into the spring of 1934.
Criticized as “make

216
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

work,” the jobs funded ranged from hit the Plains states. Violent wind
ditch digging to highway repairs
to teaching. Roosevelt and his key
officials worried about costs but
continued to favor unemployment
programs based on work relief rath-
er than welfare.

Agriculture. In the spring of 1933,

the agricultural sector of the econo-
my was in a state of collapse. It there-
by provided a laboratory for the
New Dealers’ belief that greater
regulation would solve many of the
country’s problems. In 1933,
Congress passed the Agricultural
Adjustment Act (AAA) to provide
economic relief to farmers. The
AAA proposed to raise crop prices
by paying farmers a subsidy to
compensate for volun- tary
cutbacks in production. Funds for
the payments would be generat- ed
by a tax levied on industries that
processed crops. By the time the act
had become law, however, the
grow- ing season was well under
way, and the AAA paid farmers to
plow under their abundant crops.
Crop reduc- tion and further
subsidies through the Commodity
Credit Corporation, which
purchased commodities to be kept
in storage, drove output down and
farm prices up.
Between 1932 and 1935, farm
income increased by more than 50
percent, but only partly because of
federal programs. During the same
years that farmers were being en-
couraged to take land out of pro-
duction — displacing tenants and
sharecroppers — a severe drought

21
 CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
and dust storms during the for the pur- pose of soil
1930s created what became conservation. In 1938, with a pro-
known as the “Dust Bowl.” New Deal majority on the Supreme
Crops were destroyed and Court, Congress reinstated the
farms ruined. AAA.
By 1940, 2.5 million By 1940 nearly six million farm-
people had moved out of the ers were receiving federal
Plains states, the largest subsidies. New Deal programs also
migration in American histo- provided loans on surplus crops,
ry. Of those, 200,000 moved insurance for
to Cali- fornia. The migrants
were not only farmers, but
also professionals, re- tailers,
and others whose livelihoods
were connected to the health
of the farm communities.
Many ended up competing
for seasonal jobs picking
crops at extremely low
wages.
The government
provided aid in the form of
the Soil Conserva- tion
Service, established in 1935.
Farm practices that damaged
the soil had intensified the
impact of the drought. The
service taught farmers
measures to reduce erosion.
In ad- dition, almost 30,000
kilometers of trees were
planted to break the force of
winds.
Although the AAA had
been mostly successful, it
was abandoned in 1936,
when its tax on food pro-
cessors was ruled
unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court. Congress
quickly passed a farm-relief
act, which authorized the
government to make
payments to farmers who
took land out of production
218
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

wheat, and a system of planned terests, and labor’s power

stor- age to ensure a stable food increased
supply. Economic stability for the
farmer was substantially achieved,
albeit at great expense and with
extraordi- nary government
oversight.

Industry and Labor. The National

Recovery Administration (NRA),
established in 1933 with the
Nation- al Industrial Recovery Act
(NIRA), attempted to end cutthroat
competi- tion by setting codes of
fair competi- tive practice to
generate more jobs and thus more
buying. Although welcomed
initially, the NRA was soon
criticized for over-regulation and
was unable to achieve industrial
recovery. It was declared
unconstitu- tional in 1935.
The NIRA had guaranteed to
labor the right of collective bargain-
ing through labor unions repre-
senting individual workers, but the
NRA had failed to overcome strong
business opposition to independent
unionism. After its demise in 1935,
Congress passed the National Labor
Relations Act, which restated that
guarantee and prohibited employers
from unfairly interfering with union
activities. It also created the Nation-
al Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
to supervise collective bargaining,
administer elections, and ensure
workers the right to choose the
orga- nization that should represent
them in dealing with employers.
The great progress made in labor
organization brought working peo-
ple a growing sense of common in-

21
 CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
not only in industry but also in poli-
tics. Roosevelt’s Democratic Party
benefited enormously from these
developments.

THE SECOND NEW DEAL

In its early years, the New Deal

sponsored a remarkable series of
legislative initiatives and achieved
significant increases in production and
prices — but it did not bring an end
to the Depression. As the sense of
immediate crisis eased, new demands
emerged. Businessmen mourned the
end of “laissez-faire” and chafed
under the regulations of the NIRA.
Vocal attacks also mounted from the
political left and right as dreamers,
schemers, and politicians alike
emerged with economic panaceas that
drew wide audiences. Dr. Francis E.
Townsend advocated generous old-age
pensions. Father Charles Coughlin, the
“radio priest,” called for inflationary
policies and blamed international
bankers in speeches increasingly
peppered with anti-Semitic imagery.
Most formidably, Senator Huey P.
Long of Louisiana, an eloquent and
ruth- less spokesman for the
displaced, advocated a radical
redistribution of wealth. (If he had not
been assassinated in September 1935,
Long very likely would have launched
a presidential challenge to Franklin
Roosevelt in 1936.)
In the face of these pressures,
President Roosevelt backed a new set
of economic and social mea- sures.
Prominent among them were

220
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

measures to fight poverty, create

To these, Roosevelt added the
more work for the unemployed, and
National Labor Relations Act, the
provide a social safety net.
“Wealth Tax Act” that increased
The Works Progress Adminis-
taxes on the wealthy, the Public
tration (WPA), the principal relief
Util- ity Holding Company Act to
agency of the so-called second New
break up large electrical utility
Deal, was the biggest public works
conglomer- ates, and a Banking Act
agency yet. It pursued small-scale
that greatly expanded the power of
projects throughout the country,
the Federal Reserve Board over the
constructing buildings, roads, air-
large pri- vate banks. Also notable
ports, and schools. Actors, painters,
was the establishment of the Rural
musicians, and writers were em-
Electri- fication Administration,
ployed through the Federal Theater
which ex- tended electricity into
Project, the Federal Art Project,
farming areas throughout the
and the Federal Writers Project.
country.
The National Youth Administra-
tion gave part-time employment
A NEW COALITION
to students, established training
programs, and provided aid to un-
employed youth. The WPA only in-
In the 1936 election,
cluded about three million jobless Roosevelt won a decisive victory
over his Re- publican opponent,
at a time; when it was abandoned
Alf Landon of
in 1943, it had helped a total of nine
Kansas. He was personally popular,
million people.
and the economy seemed near re-
The New Deal’s cornerstone, ac- covery. He took 60 percent of the
cording to Roosevelt, was the vote and carried all but two states.
Social Security Act of 1935. Social A broad new coalition aligned with
Security created a system of state- the Democratic Party emerged, con-
adminis- tered welfare payments sisting of labor, most farmers, most
for the poor, unemployed, and urban ethnic groups, African Amer-
disabled based on matching state icans, and the traditionally Demo-
and federal contribu- tions. It also cratic South. The Republican Party
established a national system of received the support of business as
retirement benefits draw- ing on a well as middle-class members of
“trust fund” created by em- ployer small towns and suburbs. This po-
and employee contributions. Many litical alliance, with some variation
other industrialized nations had and shifting, remained intact for
already enacted such programs, but several decades.
calls for such an initiative in the
Roosevelt’s second term was a
United States had gone unheeded.
time of consolidation. The presi-
Social Security today is the largest
dent made two serious political
domestic program administered by
missteps: an ill-advised, unsuccess-
the U.S. government.
ful attempt to enlarge the Supreme
22
 CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
Court and a failed effort to
“purge”

222
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

increasingly recalcitrant Southern

WAR AND UNEASY
conservatives from the Democratic
NEUTRALITY
Party. When he cut high govern-
ment spending, moreover, the econ-
omy collapsed. These events led to
Before Roosevelt’s second
the rise of a conservative coalition term was well under way, his
domestic program was
in Congress that was unreceptive to overshadowed by the
new initiatives. expansionist designs of totalitarian
From 1932 to 1938 there was regimes in Japan, Italy, and Ger-
widespread public debate on the many. In 1931 Japan had invaded
meaning of New Deal policies to Manchuria, crushed Chinese resis-
the nation’s political and economic tance, and set up the puppet state
life. Americans clearly wanted the of Manchukuo. Italy, under Benito
government to take greater respon- Mussolini, enlarged its boundar-
sibility for the welfare of ordinary ies in Libya and in 1935 conquered
people, however uneasy they might Ethiopia. Germany, under Nazi
be about big government in general. leader Adolf Hitler, militarized its
The New Deal established the foun- economy and reoccupied the Rhine-
dations of the modern welfare state land (demilitarized by the Treaty of
in the United States. Roosevelt, per- Versailles) in 1936. In 1938, Hitler
haps the most imposing of the 20th- incorporated Austria into the Ger-
century presidents, had established man Reich and demanded cession
a new standard of mass leadership. of the German-speaking
No American leader, then or Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.
since, used the radio so effectively. By then, war seemed imminent.
In a radio address in 1938, Roose- The United States, disillusioned
velt declared: “Democracy has by the failure of the crusade for
disappeared in several other great democracy in World War I, an-
nations, not because the people of nounced that in no circumstances
those nations disliked democracy, could any country involved in the
but because they had grown tired conflict look to it for aid. Neutral-
of unemployment and insecurity, of ity legislation, enacted piecemeal
seeing their children hungry while from 1935 to 1937, prohibited trade
they sat helpless in the face of gov- in arms with any warring nations,
ernment confusion and government required cash for all other com-
weakness through lack of leader- modities, and forbade American
ship.” Americans, he concluded, flag merchant ships from carrying
wanted to defend their liberties at those goods. The objective was to
any cost and understood that “the prevent, at almost any cost, the in-
first line of the defense lies in the volvement of the United States in a
protection of economic security.” foreign war.
With the Nazi conquest of Po-
land in 1939 and the outbreak of
22
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

World War II, isolationist sentiment opponent, Wendell Wilkie, leaned

increased, even though Americans
clearly favored the victims of Hitler’s
aggression and supported the Allied
democracies, Britain and France.
Roosevelt could only wait until
pub- lic opinion regarding U.S.
involve- ment was altered by
events.
After the fall of France and the
beginning of the German air war
against Britain in mid-1940, the de-
bate intensified between those in
the United States who favored
aiding the democracies and the
antiwar faction known as the
isolationists. Roos- evelt did what
he could to nudge public opinion
toward intervention. The United
States joined Canada in a Mutual
Board of Defense, and aligned with
the Latin American re- publics in
extending collective pro- tection to
the nations in the Western
Hemisphere.
Congress, confronted with the
mounting crisis, voted immense
sums for rearmament, and in Sep-
tember 1940 passed the first peace-
time conscription bill ever enacted
in the United States. In that month
also, Roosevelt concluded a daring
executive agreement with British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The United States gave the British
Navy 50 “overage” destroyers in re-
turn for British air and naval bases
in Newfoundland and the North
Atlantic.
The 1940 presidential election
campaign demonstrated that the
isolationists, while vocal, were a
minority. Roosevelt’s Republican

224
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
toward intervention. Thus the abandonment of theHISTORY
use of force
No- vember election yielded as an instrument of inter- national
another majority for the policy.
president, making Roosevelt America was now neutral in
the first, and last, U.S. chief name only.
executive to be elected to a
third term.
In early 1941, Roosevelt
got Con- gress to approve the
Lend-Lease Program, which
enabled him to transfer arms
and equipment to any nation
(notably Great Britain, later
the Soviet Union and China)
deemed vital to the defense
of the United States. Total
Lend-Lease aid by war’s end
would amount to more than
$50,000 million.
Most remarkably, in
August, he met with Prime
Minister Churchill off the
coast of Newfoundland. The
two leaders issued a “joint
state- ment of war aims,”
which they called the
Atlantic Charter. Bearing a
remarkable resemblance to
Wood- row Wilson’s
Fourteen Points, it called for
these objectives: no ter-
ritorial aggrandizement; no
territo- rial changes without
the consent of the people
concerned; the right of all
people to choose their own
form of government; the
restoration of self-
government to those
deprived of it; economic
collaboration be- tween all
nations; freedom from war,
from fear, and from want
for all peoples; freedom of
the seas; and the

22
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

JAPAN, PEARL HARBOR, Japan demanded that the United

AND WAR

While most Americans

anxiously watched the course of the
European war, tension mounted in
Asia. Tak-
ing advantage of an opportunity to
improve its strategic position, Japan
boldly announced a “new order” in
which it would exercise hegemony
over all of the Pacific. Battling for
survival against Nazi Germany,
Brit- ain was unable to resist,
abandon- ing its concession in
Shanghai and temporarily closing
the Chinese sup- ply route from
Burma. In the sum- mer of 1940,
Japan won permission from the
weak Vichy government in France
to use airfields in north- ern
Indochina (North Vietnam). That
September the Japanese for- mally
joined the Rome-Berlin Axis. The
United States countered with an
embargo on the export of scrap iron
to Japan.
In July 1941 the Japanese occu-
pied southern Indochina (South
Vietnam), signaling a probable
move southward toward the oil, tin,
and rubber of British Malaya and
the Dutch East Indies. The United
States, in response, froze Japanese
assets and initiated an embargo on
the one commodity Japan needed
above all others — oil.
General Hideki Tojo became
prime minister of Japan that Oc-
tober. In mid-November, he sent a
special envoy to the United States
to meet with Secretary of State
Cordell Hull. Among other things,

226
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
States release Japanese assets and stop HISTORY

U.S. naval expansion in the Pacific.

Hull countered with a pro- posal for
Japanese withdrawal from all its
conquests. The swift Japanese rejection
on December 1 left the talks
stalemated.
On the morning of December 7,
Japanese carrier-based planes ex-
ecuted a devastating surprise attack
against the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii.
Twenty-one ships were destroyed
or temporarily disabled; 323 aircraft
were destroyed or damaged; 2,388
soldiers, sailors, and civilians were
killed. However, the U.S. aircraft
carriers that would play such a criti-
cal role in the ensuing naval war in the
Pacific were at sea and not an- chored
at Pearl Harbor.
American opinion, still divid- ed
about the war in Europe, was unified
overnight by what Presi- dent
Roosevelt called “a day that will live
in infamy.” On December 8, Congress
declared a state of war with Japan;
three days later Ger- many and Italy
declared war on the United States.

MOBILIZATION FOR
TOTAL WAR

The nation rapidly geared itself

for mobilization of its people and its
entire industrial capacity. Over the
next three-and-a-half years, war in-
dustry achieved staggering produc-
tion goals — 300,000 aircraft, 5,000
cargo ships, 60,000 landing craft,
86,000 tanks. Women workers, ex-

22
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

emplified by “Rosie the Riveter,”

THE WAR IN NORTH AFRICA
played a bigger part in industrial
AND EUROPE
production than ever before. Total
strength of the U.S. armed forces at
the end of the war was more than
Soon after the United States
12 million. All the nation’s activi- en- tered the war, the United States,
Britain, and the Soviet Union (at
ties — farming, manufacturing,
war with Germany since June 22,
mining, trade, labor, investment,
1941) decided that their primary
communications, even education
military effort was to be concen-
and cultural undertakings — were
trated in Europe.
in some fashion brought under new
Throughout 1942, British and
and enlarged controls.
German forces fought inconclusive
As a result of Pearl Harbor and
back-and-forth battles across Libya
the fear of Asian espionage, Ameri-
and Egypt for control of the Suez
cans also committed what was later
Canal. But on October 23, Brit-
recognized as an act of intolerance:
ish forces commanded by General
the internment of Japanese Ameri-
Sir Bernard Montgomery struck
cans. In February 1942, nearly
at the Germans from El Alamein.
120,000 Japanese Americans resid-
Equipped with a thousand tanks,
ing in California were removed
many made in America, they
from their homes and interned
defeat- ed General Erwin Rommel’s
behind barbed wire in 10 wretched
army in a grinding two-week
tem- porary camps, later to be
campaign. On November 7,
moved to “relocation centers”
American and Brit- ish armed
outside isolated Southwestern
forces landed in French North
towns.
Africa. Squeezed between forces
Nearly 63 percent of these Japa-
advancing from east and west, the
nese Americans were American-
Germans were pushed back and,
born
after fierce resistance, surrendered
U.S. citizens. A few were Japanese
in May 1943.
sympathizers, but no evidence of
The year 1942 was also the turn-
es- pionage ever surfaced. Others
ing point on the Eastern Front. The
volun- teered for the U.S. Army and
Soviet Union, suffering immense
fought with distinction and valor in
losses, stopped the Nazi invasion at
two in- fantry units on the Italian
the gates of Leningrad and
front. Some served as interpreters
Moscow. In the winter of 1942-43,
and translators in the Pacific.
the Red Army defeated the
In 1983 the U.S. government ac-
Germans at Stal- ingrad
knowledged the injustice of intern-
(Volgograd) and began the long
ment with limited payments to
offensive that would take them to
those Japanese-Americans of that
Berlin in 1945.
era who were still living.
In July 1943 British and Ameri-
can forces invaded Sicily and won
228
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
control of the island in a HISTORY

month.

22
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

During that time, Benito Mussolini the Rus-

fell from power in Italy. His suc-
cessors began negotiations with
the Allies and surrendered im-
mediately after the invasion of the
Italian mainland in September.
However, the German Army had by
then taken control of the peninsula.
The fight against Nazi forces in Ita-
ly was bitter and protracted. Rome
was not liberated until June 4, 1944.
As the Allies slowly moved north,
they built airfields from which they
made devastating air raids against
railroads, factories, and weapon
em- placements in southern
Germany and central Europe,
including the oil installations at
Ploesti, Romania.
Late in 1943 the Allies, after much
debate over strategy, decided to
open a front in France to compel
the Ger- mans to divert far larger
forces from the Soviet Union.
U.S. General Dwight D. Eisen-
hower was appointed Supreme
Commander of the Allied Forces
in Europe. After immense prepara-
tions, on June 6, 1944, a U.S., British,
and Canadian invasion army, pro-
tected by a greatly superior air
force, landed on five beaches in
Norman- dy. With the beachheads
established after heavy fighting,
more troops poured in, and pushed
the Germans back in one bloody
engagement af- ter another. On
August 25 Paris was liberated.
The Allied offensive stalled that
fall, then suffered a setback in east-
ern Belgium during the winter, but
in March, the Americans and
British were across the Rhine and

230
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
sians advancing irresistibly from the HISTORY

East. On May 7, Germany surren-

dered unconditionally.

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

U.S. troops were forced to surren-

der in the Philippines in early 1942,
but the Americans rallied in the
following months. General James
“Jimmy” Doolittle led U.S. Army
bombers on a raid over Tokyo in
April; it had little actual military
significance, but gave Americans an
immense psychological boost.
In May, at the Battle of the Coral
Sea — the first naval engagement in
history in which all the fighting was
done by carrier-based planes — a
Japanese naval invasion fleet sent to
strike at southern New Guinea and
Australia was turned back by a
U.S. task force in a close battle. A few
weeks later, the naval Battle of Mid-
way in the central Pacific resulted in
the first major defeat of the Japanese
Navy, which lost four aircraft car-
riers. Ending the Japanese advance
across the central Pacific, Midway
was the turning point.
Other battles also contributed to
Allied success. The six-month land
and sea battle for the island of
Guadalcanal (August 1942-Feb- ruary
1943) was the first major U.S. ground
victory in the Pacific. For most of the
next two years, Ameri- can and
Australian troops fought their way
northward from the South Pacific
and westward from the Central
Pacific, capturing the Solomons, the
Gilberts, the Mar-

23
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

shalls, and the Marianas in a series secure. There, the Soviet Union se-
of amphibious assaults.

THE POLITICS OF WAR

Allied military efforts were

ac- companied by a series of
important international meetings on
the politi-
cal objectives of the war. In Janu-
ary 1943 at Casablanca, Morocco,
an Anglo-American conference de-
cided that no peace would be con-
cluded with the Axis and its Balkan
satellites except on the basis of “un-
conditional surrender.” This term,
insisted upon by Roosevelt, sought
to assure the people of all the fight-
ing nations that no separate peace
negotiations would be carried on
with representatives of Fascism and
Nazism and there would be no com-
promise of the war’s idealistic objec-
tives. Axis propagandists, of
course, used it to assert that the
Allies were engaged in a war of
extermination.
At Cairo, in November 1943,
Roosevelt and Churchill met with
Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang
Kai-shek to agree on terms for Ja-
pan, including the relinquishment
of gains from past aggression. At
Tehran, shortly afterward, Roose-
velt, Churchill, and Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin made basic agree-
ments on the postwar occupation of
Germany and the establishment of a
new international organization, the
United Nations.
In February 1945, the three Al-
lied leaders met again at Yalta (now
in Ukraine), with victory seemingly

232
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
cretly agreed to enter the war HISTORY
WAR, VICTORY, AND
against Japan three months THE BOMB

The final battles in the Pacific

after the surren- der of
Germany. In return, the
USSR would gain effective were among the war’s bloodiest. In
control of Man- churia and June 1944, the Battle of the
receive the Japanese Ku- rile Philippine Sea
Islands as well as the effectively destroyed Japanese
southern half of Sakhalin naval air power, forcing the
Island. The eastern boundary resignation of
of Poland was set roughly at
the Curzon line of 1919, thus
giv- ing the USSR half its
prewar terri- tory. Discussion
of reparations to be collected
from Germany — payment
demanded by Stalin and
opposed by Roosevelt and
Churchill — was
inconclusive. Specific
arrangements were made
concerning Allied occu-
pation in Germany and the
trial and punishment of war
criminals. Also at Yalta it
was agreed that the great
powers in the Security
Council of the proposed
United Nations should have
the right of veto in matters
af- fecting their security.
Two months after his
return from Yalta, Franklin
Roosevelt died of a cerebral
hemorrhage while va-
cationing in Georgia. Few
figures in U.S. history have
been so deeply mourned, and
for a time the Ameri- can
people suffered from a
numbing sense of irreparable
loss. Vice Presi- dent Harry
Truman, former senator from
Missouri, succeeded him.

23
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

Japanese Prime Minister Tojo. Gen-

view of what they would face in a
eral Douglas MacArthur — who
planned invasion of Japan.
had reluctantly left the Philippines
The heads of the U.S., British,
two years before to escape Japanese
and Soviet governments met at
capture — returned to the islands in
Pots- dam, a suburb outside Berlin,
October. The accompanying Battle
from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to
of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval en-
discuss operations against Japan,
gagement ever fought, was the final
the peace settlement in Europe, and
decisive defeat of the Japanese Navy.
a policy for the future of Germany.
By February 1945, U.S. forces had
Perhaps presaging the coming end
taken Manila.
of the al- liance, they had no trouble
Next, the United States set its
on vague matters of principle or the
sight on the strategic island of Iwo
practi- cal issues of military
Jima in the Bonin Islands, about
occupation, but reached no
halfway between the Marianas and
agreement on many tan- gible
Japan. The Japanese, trained to die
issues, including reparations.
fighting for the Emperor, made
The day before the Potsdam
suicidal use of natural caves and
Conference began, U.S. nuclear sci-
rocky terrain. U.S. forces took the
entists engaged in the secret Man-
island by mid-March, but not before
hattan Project exploded an atomic
losing the lives of some 6,000 U.S.
bomb near Alamogordo, New Mex-
Marines. Nearly all the Japanese
ico. The test was the culmination of
de- fenders perished. By now the
three years of intensive research in
United States was undertaking
laboratories across the United
extensive air attacks on Japanese
States. It lay behind the Potsdam
shipping and airfields and wave
Declara- tion, issued on July 26 by
after wave of in- cendiary bombing
the United States and Britain,
attacks against Japanese cities.
promising that Japan would neither
At Okinawa (April 1-June 21, be destroyed nor enslaved if it
1945), the Americans met even surrendered. If Japan continued the
fierc- er resistance. With few of the war, howev- er, it would meet
de- fenders surrendering, the U.S. “prompt and ut- ter destruction.”
Army and Marines were forced to President Truman, calculating that
wage a war of annihilation. Waves an atomic bomb might be used to
of Ka- mikaze suicide planes gain Japan’s sur- render more
pounded the offshore Allied fleet, quickly and with fewer casualties
inflicting more damage than at Leyte than an invasion of the mainland,
Gulf. Japan lost 90-100,000 troops ordered that the bomb be used if the
and probably as many Okinawan Japanese did not surren- der by
civilians. U.S. losses were more August 3.
than 11,000 killed and nearly
A committee of U.S. military
34,000 wounded. Most Americans
and political officials and scientists
saw the fighting as a pre-
had considered the question of
234
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
targets for the new weapon. HISTORY

Secretary of

23
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

War Henry L. Stimson argued suc-

tion they drafted outlined a world
cessfully that Kyoto, Japan’s
organization in which internation-
ancient capital and a repository of
al differences could be discussed
many national and religious
peacefully and common cause made
treasures, be taken out of
against hunger and disease. In con-
consideration. Hiroshi- ma, a center
trast to its rejection of U.S. mem-
of war industries and military
bership in the League of Nations
operations, became the first
after World War I, the U.S. Senate
objective.
promptly ratified the U.N. Charter
On August 6, a U.S. plane, the
by an 89 to 2 vote. This action con-
Enola Gay, dropped an atomic
firmed the end of the spirit of isola-
bomb on the city of Hiroshima. On
tionism as a dominating element in
Au- gust 9, a second atomic bomb
American foreign policy.
was dropped, this time on
In November 1945 at Nurem-
Nagasaki. The bombs destroyed
berg, Germany, the criminal trials
large sections of both cities, with
of 22 Nazi leaders, provided for at
massive loss of life. On August 8,
Potsdam, took place. Before a
the USSR declared war on Japan and
group of distinguished jurists from
attacked Japanese forces in
Brit- ain, France, the Soviet Union,
Manchuria. On August 14, Japan
and the United States, the Nazis
agreed to the terms set at Pots- dam.
were accused not only of plotting
On September 2, 1945, Japan
and waging aggressive war but also
formally surrendered. Americans
of violating the laws of war and of
were relieved that the bomb has-
hu- manity in the systematic
tened the end of the war. The re-
genocide, known as the Holocaust,
alization of the full implications of
of Europe- an Jews and other
nuclear weapons’ awesome destruc-
peoples. The trials lasted more than
tiveness would come later.
10 months. Twenty- two defendants
Within a month, on October 24,
were convicted, 12 of them
the United Nations came into exis-
sentenced to death. Similar
tence following the meeting of rep-
proceedings would be held against
resentatives of 50 nations in San
Japanese war leaders. 9
Francisco, California. The constitu-

236
 OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

THE RISE OF INDUSTRIAL UNIONS

While the 1920s were years of relative prosperity in the United States,
the workers in industries such as steel, automobiles, rubber, and textiles
benefited
less than they would later in the years after World War II. Working
conditions in many of these industries did improve. Some companies in the
1920s began to institute “welfare capitalism” by offering workers various
pension, profit- sharing, stock option, and health plans to ensure their
loyalty. Still, shop floor environments were often hard and
authoritarian.
The 1920s saw the mass production industries redouble their efforts to
prevent the growth of unions, which under the American Federation of Labor
(AFL) had enjoyed some success during World War I. They did so by using
spies and armed strikebreakers and by firing those suspected of union sym-
pathies. Independent unions were often accused of being Communist. At the
same time, many companies formed their own compliant employee organiza-
tions, often called “company unions.”
Traditionally, state legislatures, reflecting the views of the American mid-
dle class, supported the concept of the “open shop,” which prevented a union
from being the exclusive representative of all workers. This made it easier for
companies to deny unions the right to collective bargaining and block union-
ization through court enforcement.
Between 1920 and 1929, union membership in the United States
dropped from about five million to three-and-a-half million. The large un-
skilled or semi-skilled industries remained unorganized.
The onset of the Great Depression led to widespread unemployment. By
1933 there were over 12 million Americans out of work. In the automobile in-
dustry, for example, the work force was cut in half between 1929 and 1933.
At the same time, wages dropped by two-thirds.
The election of Franklin Roosevelt, however, was to change the status of
the American industrial worker forever. The first indication that Roosevelt was
interested in the well-being of workers came with the appointment of Frances
Perkins, a prominent social welfare advocate, to be his secretary of labor.
(Perkins was also the first woman to hold a Cabinet-level position.) The far-
reaching National Industrial Recovery Act sought to raise industrial wages,
limit the hours in a work week, and eliminate child labor. Most importantly,
the law recognized the right of employees “to organize and bargain collectively
through representatives of their own choosing.”
John L. Lewis, the feisty and articulate head of the United Mine Workers
(UMW), understood more than any other labor leader what the New Deal
meant for workers. Stressing Roosevelt’s support, Lewis engineered a major
 227
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

238
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

unionizing campaign, rebuilding the UMW’s declining membership from

150,000 to over 500,000 within a year.
Lewis was eager to get the AFL, where he was a member of the Execu-
tive Council, to launch a similar drive in the mass production industries. But
the AFL, with its historic focus on the skilled trade worker, was unwilling to
do so. After a bitter internal feud, Lewis and a few others broke with the
AFL to set up the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), later the
Congress of Industrial Organizations. The passage of the National Labor
Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 and the friendly attitude of the National
Labor Relations Board put the power and authority of the federal
government behind the CIO.
Its first targets were the notoriously anti-union auto and steel industries.
In late 1936 a series of sit-down strikes, orchestrated by the fledgling United
Auto Workers union under Walter Reuther, erupted at General Motors plants
in Cleveland, Ohio, and Flint, Michigan. Soon 135,000 workers were
involved and GM production ground to a halt.
With the sympathetic governor of Michigan refusing to evict the strikers,
a settlement was reached in early 1937. By September of that year, the
United Auto Workers had contracts with 400 companies involved in the
automobile industry, assuring workers a minimum wage of 75 cents per
hour and a 40- hour work week.
In the first six months of its existence, the Steel Workers Organizing
Committee (SWOC), headed by Lewis lieutenant Philip Murray, picked up
125,000 members. The major American steel company, U.S. Steel, realizing
that times had changed, also came to terms in 1937. That same year the Su-
preme Court upheld the constitutionality of the NLRA. Subsequently, smaller
companies, traditionally even more anti-union than the large corporations,
gave in. One by one, other industries — rubber, oil, electronics, and textiles
— also followed suit.
The rise of big labor had two major long-term impacts. It became the
organizational core of the national Democratic Party, and it gained material
benefits for its members that all but erased the economic distinction between
working-class and middle-class America. ◆

228
 In the depths of the Great Depression, March 1933, anxious
depositors line up outside of a New York bank. The new president,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, had just temporarily closed the nation’s
banks to end the drain on the banks’ reserves. Only those banks
that were still solvent were permitted
to reopen after a four-day “bank holiday.”

TU R MO I L A N D

CHANGE A PICTURE PROFILE

For the United States, the 20th century was a period of extraordinary
turmoil and change. In these decades, the nation endured the worst
economic depression in its history; emerged triumphant, with the
Allies, in World War II; assumed a role of global leadership in the
century’s twilight conflict known as the Cold War; and underwent a
remarkable social, economic, and political transition at home. Where
once the United States transformed itself over the slow march of
centuries, it now seemed to reinvent itself almost by decades.

229
Men and women strikers dance the time away on March 11, 1937,
during a strike at the Chevrolet Fisher Body Plants in St. Louis,
Missouri. Strikes such as these succeeded in winning union recognition
for industrial workers throughout
the country in the 1930s.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs perhaps the most far-reaching

legislation of the New Deal: the Social Security Act of 1935. Today,
Social Security, one of the largest government programs in the United
States, provides retirement and disability income to millions of
Americans.

230
World War II in the Pacific was characterized by large-scale naval and air
battles. Here, a Japanese plane plunges in flames during an attack on a U.S.
carrier fleet in the Mariana Islands, June 1944. U.S. Army and Marine forces’
“island hopping” campaign began at Guadalcanal in August 1942 and ended
with the assault on
Okinawa in April 1945.

231
Top, General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander in Europe, talks with
paratroopers shortly before the Normandy invasion, June 6, 1944.
Above, General Douglas MacArthur (center) had declared, “I shall
return,” when he escaped from advancing Japanese forces in the
Philippines in 1942. Two years later, he made good on his promise
and waded ashore at Leyte as American forces began the liberation
of the Philippines.

232
 Assembly line of P-38 Lightning
fighter planes during World War
II. With its massive output of war
materiel, the United States
became, in the words of
President Roosevelt, “the arsenal
of democracy.”

Japanese Americans await

relocation to internment
camps in the worst
violation of human rights
that occurred inside the
United States during
World War II.

233
Meeting of British Prime
Minister Winston
Churchill, President
Roosevelt, and Soviet
leader Josef Stalin at
Yalta in February 1945.
Disagreements over the
future of Europe
anticipated the division of
the European continent
that remained a fixture of
the Cold War.

U.S. troops
witness a nuclear test in
the Nevada desert in
1951. The threat of
nuclear weapons
remained a constant and
ominous fact of life
throughout the
Cold War era.

234
In perhaps the
most famous
photograph in
American political
history, President
Harry Truman holds
aloft a newspaper
wrongly announcing
his defeat by
Republican nominee
Thomas Dewey in
the 1948
presidential
election. Truman’s
come-from-
behind victory
surprised all
political experts
that day.
U.S. infantry fire against North Korean forces invading South
Korea in 1951, in a conflict that lasted three painful years.
At a congressional hearing in 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy points
to a map purportedly showing Communist Party influence in the
United States in 1950. His chief antagonist at the hearing, lawyer
Joseph Welch, sits at left. Welch successfully discredited McCarthy at
these hearings, which were among the first to be televised across
the country.

Portrait of President
Dwight Eisenhower,
whose genial, reassuring
personality dominated
the decade of the 1950s.

236
Jackie Robinson, sliding home in a 1948 baseball game. Robinson
broke the color barrier against black professional baseball players
when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and became one of the stars
of the game.

237
America’s first star of rock and roll, Elvis Presley, performing on
television’s “Ed Sullivan Show,” September 9, 1956. Today, years after
his death, he is still revered by legions of his fans as “The King.”

238
Lucille Ball (second from left) with her supporting cast, including husband
Desi Arnaz (standing), on one of the most popular television comedy shows
of the 1950s, I Love Lucy. The show established many of the techniques
and conventions shared by hundreds of the televised “situation comedies”
that followed.

239
Above, Rosa Parks sits in one of the front seats of a city bus
following the successful boycott of the bus system in 1955-56
by African- American citizens of Montgomery, Alabama. The
boycott was organized to protest the practice of segregation in
which African Americans were forced to sit in the back of the
bus. The Supreme Court agreed that this practice was a
constitutional violation a
year after the boycott began. The great leader of the civil
rights movement in America, Martin Luther King Jr., gained
national prominence through the Montgomery bus boycott.

Opposite page, right, Martin Luther King Jr. escorts

children to a previously all-white public school in Grenada,
Mississippi, in 1966. Although school segregation was
outlawed in the landmark Brown
v. Board of Education decision of the Supreme Court in 1954,
it took decades of protest, political pressure, and additional
court decisions to enforce school desegregation across the
country.

240
241
President John F. Kennedy addresses nearly a quarter of a million
Germans in West Berlin in June 1963. Honoring the courage of those
living in one of the flash points of the Cold War, he said, “All free men,
wherever they may live, are
citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, ‘Ich
bin ein Berliner’ (I am a Berliner).”

242
Ratification document
for the 1963 Limited
Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty, one of the first
arms control
agreements between
the West and the
Soviet bloc, which
ended atmospheric
nuclear testing.
 Thurgood Marshall, one of the champions of equal rights for all
Americans. As a counsel for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Marshall successfully
argued the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of
Education case before the Supreme Court, which outlawed segregation
in public schools. He later served a distinguished career as a justice of
the Supreme Court.

244
President Lyndon B. Johnson, born in Texas, was Senate majority leader in
the Eisenhower years and vice president under John F. Kennedy before
becoming president. One of the most powerful political personalities to
serve in Washington, Johnson engineered the most ambitious domestic
legislative agenda through Congress since Roosevelt’s New Deal. The
Vietnam War ended his presidency, however, since it divided the nation.

245
247
Antiwar demonstrators and police clash during violent protests at
the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Antiwar candidates at the convention lost the presidential
nomination to Lyndon Johnson’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey.

Two of the leaders of the women’s movement in the 1960s: Kate Millett
(left), author of a controversial book of the time, Sexual Politics, and
journalist and activist Gloria Steinem.

248
The crest of the counterculture wave in the
United States: the three-day 1969 outdoor
rock concert and gathering known as
Woodstock.

249
Mexican-American labor activist
César Chávez (center) talking with
grape pickers in the field in 1968.
Head of the United Farm Workers
Union in California,
Chávez was a leading voice for the
rights of migrant farm workers,
focusing national attention on their
terrible working conditions.

250
President Richard M. Nixon, with his wife Pat
Nixon and Secretary of State William Rogers
(far right), walks along a portion of the Great
Wall of China. Nixon’s 1972 opening to the
People’s Republic of China was a major
diplomatic triumph at a time when U.S. forces
were slowly withdrawing from South Vietnam.

251
Participant in a demonstration by
Native Americans in Washington, D.C.,
in 1978. They also have sought to
assert their rights and identity in
recent decades.

Oil fires burn behind a destroyed

Iraqi tank at the conclusion of the
Gulf War in February 1991. The
United States led a coalition of
more than 30 nations in an air
and ground campaign called
Desert Storm that ended Iraq’s
occupation of Kuwait.

252
Civil rights leader and political activist Jesse Jackson at a
political rally in 1984. For more than four decades, Jackson
has remained among the most prominent, politically active,
and eloquent representatives of what he has termed a
“Rainbow Coalition”
of the poor, African Americans, and other minorities.

253
A launch of a space shuttle, the first reusable space vehicle. The versatile
shuttle, which has been used to place satellites in orbit and conduct wide-
ranging experiments, is indispensable in the assemblage (beginning June
1998) and running of the International Space Station.

254
 President George
H.W. Bush with
Poland’s Lech
Walesa (center)
and First Lady
Barbara Bush
in Warsaw, July
1989. That
remarkable year
saw the end of the
Cold War, as well
as the end to the
40-year division
of Europe into
hostile
East and West blocs.

President William (Bill)

J. Clinton,
delivering his
inaugural address
to the nation,
January 21, 1993.
During his
administration, the
United States
enjoyed more
peace and
economic well-
being than at any
time in its history.
He was the second
U.S. president to be
impeached and
found not guilty.

255
256
 1
CHAPTER

2
POSTWAR
AMERICA

Moving day in a
newly opened
suburban
community, 1953.
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

“We must build a new world,

a far better world —
one in which the
eternal dignity of man
is respected.”
President Harry S. Truman, 1945

CONSENSUS AND CHANGE unfolded after 1945. They endorsed

The United States dominated

glob- al affairs in the years
immediately after World War II.
Victorious in
that great struggle, its homeland
undamaged from the ravages of
war, the nation was confident of its
mission at home and abroad. U.S.
leaders wanted to maintain the
dem- ocratic structure they had
defended at tremendous cost and to
share the benefits of prosperity as
widely as possible. For them, as for
publisher Henry Luce of Time
magazine, this was the “American
Century.”
For 20 years most Americans re-
mained sure of this confident ap-
proach. They accepted the need
for a strong stance against the So-
viet Union in the Cold War that
263
 CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA
the growth of government
author- ity and accepted the
outlines of the rudimentary
welfare state first for-
mulated during the New
Deal. They enjoyed a
postwar prosperity that
created new levels of
affluence.
But gradually some began
to question dominant
assumptions. Challenges on a
variety of fronts shattered the
consensus. In the 1950s,
African Americans launched
a crusade, joined later by
other mi- nority groups and
women, for a larg- er share
of the American dream. In
the 1960s, politically active
students protested the
nation’s role abroad,
particularly in the corrosive
war in Vietnam. A youth
counterculture emerged to
challenge the status quo.
Americans from many walks
of life sought to establish a
new social and political
equilibrium.

25
8
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

COLD WAR
(1929-40), America now advocated
T
AIMS
open trade for two reasons: to cre-
he Cold War was the most im- possible. Recalling the specter of
portant political and diplomatic is- the Great Depression
sue of the early postwar period. It
grew out of longstanding disagree-
ments between the Soviet Union
and the United States that
developed af- ter the Russian
Revolution of 1917. The Soviet
Communist Party un- der V.I.
Lenin considered itself the
spearhead of an international move-
ment that would replace the exist-
ing political orders in the West, and
indeed throughout the world. In
1918 American troops participated
in the Allied intervention in Russia
on behalf of anti-Bolshevik forces.
American diplomatic recognition of
the Soviet Union did not come until
1933. Even then, suspicions persist-
ed. During World War II, however,
the two countries found themselves
allied and downplayed their differ-
ences to counter the Nazi threat.
At the war’s end, antagonisms
surfaced again. The United States
hoped to share with other countries
its conception of liberty, equality,
and democracy. It sought also to
learn from the perceived mistakes
of the post-WWI era, when
American political disengagement
and eco- nomic protectionism were
thought to have contributed to the
rise of dic- tatorships in Europe and
elsewhere. Faced again with a
postwar world of civil wars and
disintegrating empires, the nation
hoped to pro- vide the stability to
make peaceful reconstruction
263
 CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA
ate markets for American agricul-
tural and industrial products, and to
ensure the ability of Western Eu-
ropean nations to export as a means of
rebuilding their economies. Re- duced
trade barriers, American policy
makers believed, would pro- mote
economic growth at home and abroad,
bolstering U.S. friends and allies in
the process.
The Soviet Union had its own
agenda. The Russian historical tra-
dition of centralized, autocratic
government contrasted with the
American emphasis on democracy.
Marxist-Leninist ideology had been
downplayed during the war but still
guided Soviet policy. Devastated by
the struggle in which 20 million
Soviet citizens had died, the Soviet
Union was intent on rebuilding and on
protecting itself from another such
terrible conflict. The Soviets were
particularly concerned about another
invasion of their territo- ry from the
west. Having repelled Hitler’s thrust,
they were determined to preclude
another such attack. They demanded
“defensible” bor- ders and “friendly”
regimes in East- ern Europe and
seemingly equated both with the
spread of Commu- nism, regardless of
the wishes of native populations.
However, the United States had
declared that one of its war aims was
the restoration of independence and
self-govern- ment to Poland,
Czechoslovakia, and the other
countries of Central and Eastern
Europe.

25
8
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

HARRY TRUMAN’S ment following the Western model.

T LEADERSHIP The Yalta Conference of February
1945 had produced an agreement
on
he nation’s new chief executive, demanded a government subject to Soviet
Harry S. Truman, succeeded Frank- in- fluence; Washington wanted a more
lin D. Roosevelt as president before independent, representative govern-
the end of the war. An
unpretentious man who had
previously served as Democratic
senator from Missouri, then as
vice president, Truman ini- tially
felt ill-prepared to govern.
Roosevelt had not discussed com-
plex postwar issues with him, and
he had little experience in
international affairs. “I’m not big
enough for this job,” he told a
former colleague.
Still, Truman responded quickly
to new challenges. Sometimes im-
pulsive on small matters, he proved
willing to make hard and carefully
considered decisions on large ones.
A small sign on his White House
desk declared, “The Buck Stops
Here.” His judgments about how
to respond to the Soviet Union ulti-
mately determined the shape of the
early Cold War.

ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR

The Cold War developed as

dif- ferences about the shape of the
postwar world created suspicion
and
distrust between the United States
and the Soviet Union. The first —
and most difficult — test case was
Poland, the eastern half of which
had been invaded and occupied by
the USSR in 1939. Moscow
26
1
 CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA
Eastern Europe open to Churchill delivered a dramatic
different in- terpretations. It speech in Ful- ton, Missouri, with
included a promise of “free Truman sitting on the platform.
and unfettered” elections. “From Stettin in the Baltic to
Meeting with Soviet Trieste in the Adriatic,” Churchill
Minister of Foreign Affairs said, “an iron curtain has
Vyacheslav Mo- lotov less
than two weeks after be-
coming president, Truman
stood firm on Polish self-
determination, lecturing the
Soviet diplomat about the
need to implement the Yalta
ac- cords. When Molotov
protested, “I have never
been talked to like that in
my life,” Truman retorted,
“Carry out your agreements
and you won’t get talked to
like that.” Relations de-
teriorated from that point
onward.
During the closing months
of World War II, Soviet
military forces occupied all
of Central and Eastern
Europe. Moscow used its
military power to support the
efforts of the Communist
parties in Eastern Eu- rope
and crush the democratic par-
ties. Communists took over
one nation after another. The
process concluded with a
shocking coup d’etat in
Czechoslovakia in 1948.
Public statements defined
the be- ginning of the Cold
War. In 1946 Stalin declared
that international peace was
impossible “under the
present capitalist
development of the world
economy.” Former British
Prime Minister Winston
26
0
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

descended across the Continent.” demands for control of the

Britain and the United States, he Turkish
de- clared, had to work together to
coun- ter the Soviet threat.

CONTAINMENT

Containment of the Soviet

Union became American policy in
the postwar years. George Kennan,
a
top official at the U.S. embassy in
Moscow, defined the new approach
in the Long Telegram he sent to
the State Department in 1946. He
extended his analysis in an arti-
cle under the signature “X” in the
prestigious journal Foreign Affairs.
Pointing to Russia’s traditional
sense of insecurity, Kennan argued
that the Soviet Union would not
soften its stance under any
circumstances. Moscow, he wrote,
was “committed fanatically to the
belief that with the United States
there can be no perma- nent modus
vivendi, that it is desir- able and
necessary that the internal harmony
of our society be disrupt- ed.”
Moscow’s pressure to expand its
power had to be stopped through
“firm and vigilant containment of
Russian expansive tendencies ”
The first significant application
of the containment doctrine came in
the Middle East and eastern Medi-
terranean. In early 1946, the Unit-
ed States demanded, and obtained,
a full Soviet withdrawal from Iran,
the northern half of which it had oc-
cupied during the war. That sum-
mer, the United States pointedly
supported Turkey against Soviet
26
1
 CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA
straits between the Black Sea and the
Mediterranean. In early 1947, Amer-
ican policy crystallized when Britain
told the United States that it could no
longer afford to support the gov-
ernment of Greece against a strong
Communist insurgency.
In a strongly worded speech to
Congress, Truman declared, “I be-
lieve that it must be the policy of the
United States to support free peoples
who are resisting attempted subjuga-
tion by armed minorities or by out-
side pressures.” Journalists quickly
dubbed this statement the “Truman
Doctrine.” The president asked
Congress to provide $400 million for
economic and military aid, mostly to
Greece but also to Turkey. After an
emotional debate that resembled the
one between interventionists and
isolationists before World War II, the
money was appropriated.
Critics from the left later charged
that to whip up American support
for the policy of containment, Tru-
man overstated the Soviet threat to
the United States. In turn, his state-
ments inspired a wave of hysterical
anti-Communism throughout the
country. Perhaps so. Others, how-
ever, would counter that this argu-
ment ignores the backlash that likely
would have occurred if Greece, Tur-
key, and other countries had fallen
within the Soviet orbit with no op-
position from the United States.
Containment also called for ex-
tensive economic aid to assist the re-
covery of war-torn Western Europe.
With many of the region’s nations
economically and politically unsta-

26
0
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

ble, the United States feared that lo-

American leaders feared that
cal Communist parties, directed by
losing Berlin would be a prelude to
Moscow, would capitalize on their
losing Germany and subsequently
wartime record of resistance to the
all of Europe. Therefore, in a
Nazis and come to power. “The pa-
successful demonstration of
tient is sinking while the doctors
Western resolve known as the Berlin
de- liberate,” declared Secretary of
Airlift, Allied air forces took to the
State George C. Marshall. In mid-
sky, flying supplies into Berlin.
1947 Marshall asked troubled
U.S., French, and British planes
European nations to draw up a
delivered nearly 2,250,000 tons of
program “di- rected not against any
goods, including food and coal.
country or doctrine but against
Stalin lifted the blockade after 231
hunger, poverty, desperation, and
days and 277,264 flights.
chaos.”
By then, Soviet domination of
The Soviets participated in the
Eastern Europe, and especially the
first planning meeting, then depart-
Czech coup, had alarmed the West-
ed rather than share economic data
ern Europeans. The result, initiated
and submit to Western controls on
by the Europeans, was a military al-
the expenditure of the aid. The re-
liance to complement economic ef-
maining 16 nations hammered out a
forts at containment. The
request that finally came to $17,000
Norwegian historian Geir
million for a four-year period. In
Lundestad has called it “empire by
early 1948 Congress voted to fund
invitation.” In 1949 the United
the “Marshall Plan,” which helped
States and 11 other countries
underwrite the economic resur-
established the North Atlantic Trea-
gence of Western Europe. It is gen-
ty Organization (NATO). An attack
erally regarded as one of the most
against one was to be considered an
successful foreign policy initiatives
attack against all, to be met by ap-
in U.S. history.
propriate force. NATO was the first
Postwar Germany was a special peacetime “entangling alliance”
problem. It had been divided into with powers outside the Western
U.S., Soviet, British, and French hemi- sphere in American history.
zones of occupation, with the for-
The next year, the United States
mer German capital of Berlin (it-
defined its defense aims clearly.
self divided into four zones), near
The National Security Council
the center of the Soviet zone. When
(NSC)
the Western powers announced
— the forum where the President,
their intention to create a consoli-
Cabinet officers, and other execu-
dated federal state from their zones,
tive branch members consider na-
Stalin responded. On June 24, 1948,
tional security and foreign affairs
Soviet forces blockaded Berlin, cut-
issues — undertook a full-fledged
ting off all road and rail access
review of American foreign and
from the West.
defense policy. The resulting docu-
26
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
ment, known as NSC-68, HISTORY

signaled a new direction in

American security

26
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

policy. Based on the assumption States, it appeared that

that “the Soviet Union was Communism was spreading out
engaged in a fanatical effort to of
seize control of all governments
wherever possible,” the document
committed America to assist allied
nations anywhere in the world that
seemed threatened by Soviet
aggression. After the start of the
Korean War, a reluctant Truman
approved the document. The United
States proceeded to increase
defense spending dramatically.

THE COLD WAR IN ASIA AND

THE MIDDLE EAST

While seeking to prevent

Com- munist ideology from
gaining fur- ther adherents in
Europe, the United
States also responded to challenges
elsewhere. In China, Americans
worried about the advances of Mao
Zedong and his Communist Party.
During World War II, the National-
ist government under Chiang Kai-
shek and the Communist forces
waged a civil war even as they fought
the Japanese. Chiang had been a
war-time ally, but his government
was hopelessly inefficient and cor-
rupt. American policy makers had
little hope of saving his regime and
considered Europe vastly more im-
portant. With most American aid
moving across the Atlantic, Mao’s
forces seized power in 1949.
Chiang’s government fled to the
island of Tai- wan. When China’s
new ruler an- nounced that he
would support the Soviet Union
against the “imperial- ist” United

26
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
control, at least in Asia. HISTORY

The Korean War brought armed

conflict between the United States and
China. The United States and the
Soviet Union had divided Ko- rea
along the 38th parallel after lib-
erating it from Japan at the end of
World War II. Originally a matter
of military convenience, the divid- ing
line became more rigid as both major
powers set up governments in their
respective occupation zones and
continued to support them even after
departing.
In June 1950, after consultations
with and having obtained the assent of
the Soviet Union, North Korean leader
Kim Il-sung dispatched his Soviet-
supplied army across the 38th parallel
and attacked southward, overrunning
Seoul. Truman, per- ceiving the North
Koreans as Soviet pawns in the global
struggle, read- ied American forces
and ordered World War II hero
General Douglas MacArthur to Korea.
Meanwhile, the United States was
able to secure a U.N. resolution
branding North Korea as an aggressor.
(The Soviet Union, which could have
vetoed any action had it been
occupying its seat on the Security
Council, was boycot- ting the United
Nations to protest a decision not to
admit Mao’s new Chinese regime.)
The war seesawed back and forth.
U.S. and Korean forces were initial- ly
pushed into an enclave far to the south
around the city of Pusan. A daring
amphibious landing at In- chon, the
port for the city of Seoul, drove the
North Koreans back and

26
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

threatened to occupy the entire Soviets out of Iran in 1946. But two years
peninsula. In November, China later, the United
entered the war, sending massive
forces across the Yalu River. U.N.
forces, largely American, retreated
once again in bitter fighting. Com-
manded by General Matthew B.
Ridgway, they stopped the overex-
tended Chinese, and slowly fought
their way back to the 38th parallel.
MacArthur meanwhile challenged
Truman’s authority by attempting
to orchestrate public support for
bombing China and assisting an
invasion of the mainland by Chi-
ang Kai-shek’s forces. In April
1951, Truman relieved him of his
duties and replaced him with
Ridgway.
The Cold War stakes were high.
Mindful of the European prior-
ity, the U.S. government decided
against sending more troops to Ko-
rea and was ready to settle for the
prewar status quo. The result was
frustration among many Americans
who could not understand the need
for restraint. Truman’s popular-
ity plunged to a 24-percent
approval rating, the lowest to that
time of any president since pollsters
had begun to measure presidential
popularity. Truce talks began in
July 1951. The two sides finally
reached an agree- ment in July
1953, during the first term of
Truman’s successor, Dwight
Eisenhower.
Cold War struggles also
occurred in the Middle East. The
region’s stra- tegic importance as a
supplier of oil had provided much
of the impetus for pushing the

26
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
States officially recognized HISTORY Despite
detailed policy making.
the new state of Israel 15 disagreements on detail,
minutes after it was he shared Truman’s basic view of
proclaimed — a decision American foreign policy. He, too,
Truman made over strong perceived Communism as a mono-
resistance from Marshall and lithic force struggling for world
the State Department. The supremacy. In his first inaugural ad-
result was an enduring dress, he declared, “Forces of good
dilemma and evil are massed and armed and
— how to maintain ties with opposed as rarely before in history.
Israel while keeping good
relations with bitterly anti-
Israeli (and oil-rich) Arab
states.

EISENHOWER
AND THE
COLD WAR

In 1953, Dwight D.
Eisenhower be- came the first
Republican president in 20
years. A war hero rather
than
a career politician, he had
a natu- ral, common touch
that made him widely
popular. “I like Ike” was the
campaign slogan of the
time. After serving as
Supreme Commander of
Allied Forces in Western
Europe during World War
II, Eisenhower had been
army chief of staff, presi-
dent of Columbia University,
and military head of NATO
before seek- ing the
Republican presidential
nomination. Skillful at
getting peo- ple to work
together, he functioned as a
strong public spokesman
and an executive manager
somewhat re- moved from

26
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

Freedom is pitted against slavery, Suez Canal and Israel invaded

lightness against dark.” the Egyp-
The new president and his secre-
tary of state, John Foster Dulles,
had argued that containment did not
go far enough to stop Soviet
expansion. Rather, a more
aggressive policy of liberation was
necessary, to free those subjugated
by Communism. But when a
democratic rebellion broke out in
Hungary in 1956, the United States
stood back as Soviet forces
suppressed it.
Eisenhower’s basic commitment
to contain Communism remained,
and to that end he increased Ameri-
can reliance on a nuclear shield.
The United States had created the
first atomic bombs. In 1950
Truman had authorized the
development of a new and more
powerful hydrogen bomb.
Eisenhower, fearful that defense
spending was out of control, re-
versed Truman’s NSC-68 policy of
a large conventional military
buildup. Relying on what Dulles
called “mas- sive retaliation,” the
administration signaled it would
use nuclear weap- ons if the nation
or its vital interests were attacked.
In practice, however, the nuclear
option could be used only against
extremely critical attacks. Real
Communist threats were generally
peripheral. Eisenhower rejected the
use of nuclear weapons in Indochi-
na, when the French were ousted by
Vietnamese Communist forces in
1954. In 1956, British and French
forces attacked Egypt following
Egyptian nationalization of the

26
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
tian Sinai. The president exerted HISTORY

heavy pressure on all three countries

to withdraw. Still, the nuclear threat
may have been taken seriously by
Communist China, which refrained
not only from attacking Taiwan, but
from occupying small islands held by
Nationalist Chinese just off the
mainland. It may also have deterred
Soviet occupation of Berlin, which
reemerged as a festering problem
during Eisenhower’s last two years in
office.

THE COLD WAR AT HOME

Not only did the Cold War shape

U.S. foreign policy, it also had a pro-
found effect on domestic affairs.
Americans had long feared radi- cal
subversion. These fears could at times
be overdrawn, and used to jus- tify
otherwise unacceptable politi- cal
restrictions, but it also was true that
individuals under Communist Party
discipline and many “fellow
traveler” hangers-on gave their po-
litical allegiance not to the United
States, but to the international Com-
munist movement, or, practically
speaking, to Moscow. During the
Red Scare of 1919-1920, the govern-
ment had attempted to remove per-
ceived threats to American society.
After World War II, it made strong
efforts against Communism within the
United States. Foreign events,
espionage scandals, and politics cre-
ated an anti-Communist hysteria.
When Republicans were victo-
rious in the midterm congressio- nal
elections of 1946 and appeared

26
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

ready to investigate subversive American Communists, each bear- ing

activ- ity, President Truman “the germ of death for society.”
established a Federal Employee
Loyalty Program. It had little
impact on the lives of most civil
servants, but a few hun- dred were
dismissed, some unfairly. In 1947
the House Committee on Un-
American Activities investi- gated
the motion-picture industry to
determine whether Communist
sentiments were being reflected in
popular films. When some writers
(who happened to be secret mem-
bers of the Communist Party) re-
fused to testify, they were cited
for contempt and sent to prison.
After that, the film companies
refused to hire anyone with a
marginally ques-
tionable past.
In 1948, Alger Hiss, who had
been an assistant secretary of state
and an adviser to Roosevelt at Yal-
ta, was publicly accused of being
a Communist spy by Whittaker
Chambers, a former Soviet agent.
Hiss denied the accusation, but in
1950 he was convicted of perjury.
Subsequent evidence indicates that
he was indeed guilty.
In 1949 the Soviet Union
shocked Americans by testing its
own atomic bomb. In 1950, the
government un- covered a British-
American spy net- work that
transferred to the Soviet Union
materials about the develop- ment
of the atomic bomb. Two of its
operatives, Julius Rosenberg and
his wife Ethel, were sentenced to
death. Attorney General J. Howard
McGrath declared there were many

27
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
The most vigorous anti- HISTORY
when Truman was president, began
Commu- nist warrior was to see him as an embarrassment.
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, The Senate finally condemned him
a Republican from Wis- for his conduct.
consin. He gained national McCarthy in many ways repre-
attention in 1950 by claiming sented the worst domestic excesses
that he had a list of 205 of the Cold War. As Americans re-
known Communists in the pudiated him, it became natural
State Department. Though for many to assume that the Com-
McCar- thy subsequently
changed this figure several
times and failed to substan-
tiate any of his charges, he
struck a responsive public
chord.
McCarthy gained power
when the Republican Party
won control of the Senate in
1952. As a commit- tee
chairman, he now had a
forum for his crusade.
Relying on exten- sive press
and television coverage, he
continued to search for
treachery among second-
level officials in the
Eisenhower administration.
Enjoy- ing the role of a tough
guy doing dirty but necessary
work, he pursued presumed
Communists with vigor.
McCarthy overstepped
himself by challenging the
U.S. Army when one of his
assistants was drafted.
Television brought the
hearings into millions of
homes. Many Ameri- cans
saw McCarthy’s savage
tactics for the first time, and
public sup- port began to
wane. The Republican Party,
which had found McCarthy
useful in challenging a
Democratic administration
27
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

munist threat at home and abroad corporations in America grew

had been grossly overblown. As the even larger. There had been
country moved into the 1960s, anti- earlier waves of mergers in the
Communism became increasingly 1890s and in the 1920s; in the
suspect, especially among
intellectu- als and opinion-shapers.

THE POSTWAR
ECONOMY: 1945-
1960

In the decade and a half

after World War II, the United
States ex- perienced phenomenal
economic
growth and consolidated its position
as the world’s richest country.
Gross national product (GNP), a
measure of all goods and services
produced in the United States,
jumped from about $200,000-
million in 1940 to
$300,000-million in 1950 to more
than $500,000-million in 1960.
More and more Americans now
considered themselves part of the
middle class.
The growth had different sourc-
es. The economic stimulus provided
by large-scale public spending for
World War II helped get it started.
Two basic middle-class needs did
much to keep it going. The number
of automobiles produced annually
quadrupled between 1946 and
1955. A housing boom, stimulated
in part by easily affordable
mortgages for returning
servicemen, fueled the expansion.
The rise in defense spending as the
Cold War escalated also played a
part.
After 1945 the major

27
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
1950s another wave occurred. Fran- HISTORY

chise operations like McDonald’s

fast-food restaurants allowed small
entrepreneurs to make themselves part
of large, efficient enterprises. Big
American corporations also de-
veloped holdings overseas, where la-
bor costs were often lower.
Workers found their own lives
changing as industrial America
changed. Fewer workers produced
goods; more provided services. As
early as 1956 a majority of employ-
ees held white-collar jobs, working as
managers, teachers, salesper- sons,
and office operatives. Some firms
granted a guaranteed annual wage,
long-term employment con- tracts,
and other benefits. With such changes,
labor militancy was under- mined and
some class distinctions began to fade.
Farmers — at least those with
small operations — faced tough times.
Gains in productivity led to
agricultural consolidation, and
farming became a big business. More
and more family farmers left the land.
Other Americans moved too. The
West and the Southwest grew with
increasing rapidity, a trend that would
continue through the end of the
century. Sun Belt cities like Houston,
Texas; Miami, Florida; Al-
buquerque, New Mexico; and Phoe-
nix, Arizona, expanded rapidly. Los
Angeles, California, moved ahead of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the
third largest U.S. city and then sur-
passed Chicago, metropolis of the
Midwest. The 1970 census showed

27
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

that California had displaced New Television, too, had a powerful impact
York as the nation’s largest state. on social and economic pat-
By 2000, Texas had moved ahead
of New York into second place.
An even more important form of
movement led Americans out of in-
ner cities into new suburbs, where
they hoped to find affordable hous-
ing for the larger families spawned
by the postwar baby boom.
Develop- ers like William J. Levitt
built new communities — with
homes that all looked alike —
using the tech- niques of mass
production. Levitt’s houses were
prefabricated — partly assembled
in a factory rather than on the final
location — and modest, but Levitt’s
methods cut costs and allowed new
owners to possess a part of the
American dream.
As suburbs grew, businesses
moved into the new areas. Large
shopping centers containing a great
variety of stores changed consumer
patterns. The number of these cen-
ters rose from eight at the end of
World War II to 3,840 in 1960.
With easy parking and convenient
eve- ning hours, customers could
avoid city shopping entirely. An
unfortu- nate by-product was the
“hollowing- out” of formerly busy
urban cores.
New highways created better ac-
cess to the suburbs and its shops.
The Highway Act of 1956 provided
$26,000-million, the largest public
works expenditure in U.S. history,
to build more than 64,000
kilometers of limited access
interstate highways to link the
country together.

27
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
terns. Developed in the HISTORY
the immediate postwar period was
1930s, it was not widely to make the transition to a
marketed until after the war. peacetime economy. Servicemen
In 1946 the country had wanted to come home quickly, but
fewer than 17,000 television once they arrived they faced
sets. Three years later competition for housing and
consumers were buying employment. The G.I. Bill, passed
250,000 sets a month, and by before the end of the war, helped
1960 three-quarters of all ease servicemen back into ci- vilian
families owned at least one life by providing benefits such
set. In the middle of the
decade, the average family
watched television four to
five hours a day. Popular
shows for children included
Howdy Doody Time and The
Mickey Mouse Club; older
viewers preferred situation
comedies like I Love Lucy
and Father Knows Best.
Ameri- cans of all ages
became exposed to
increasingly sophisticated
advertise- ments for products
said to be neces- sary for the
good life.

THE FAIR DEAL

The Fair Deal was the

name given to President
Harry Truman’s domes- tic
program. Building on
Roosevelt’s
New Deal, Truman believed
that the federal government
should guaran- tee economic
opportunity and social
stability. He struggled to
achieve those ends in the face
of fierce political op- position
from legislators determined
to reduce the role of
government.
Truman’s first priority in

27
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

as guaranteed loans for home-buy- Roosevelt years.

ing and financial aid for industrial Truman fought with the
training and university education. Congress as it cut spending and
More troubling was labor unrest. reduced taxes.
As war production ceased, many
workers found themselves without
jobs. Others wanted pay increases
they felt were long overdue. In
1946,
4.6 million workers went on strike,
more than ever before in American
history. They challenged the
automo- bile, steel, and electrical
industries. When they took on the
railroads and soft-coal mines,
Truman intervened to stop union
excesses, but in so do- ing he
alienated many workers.
While dealing with immediately
pressing issues, Truman also
provid- ed a broader agenda for
action. Less than a week after the
war ended, he presented Congress
with a 21-point program, which
provided for pro- tection against
unfair employment practices, a
higher minimum wage, greater
unemployment compen- sation, and
housing assistance. In the next
several months, he added proposals
for health insurance and atomic
energy legislation. But this
scattershot approach often left Tru-
man’s priorities unclear.
Republicans were quick to
attack. In the 1946 congressional
elections they asked, “Had
enough?” and vot- ers responded
that they had. Re- publicans, with
majorities in both houses of
Congress for the first time since
1928, were determined to re- verse
the liberal direction of the

27
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
In 1948 he sought reelection, despite HISTORY

polls indicating that he had little

chance. After a vigorous campaign,
Truman scored one of the great up-
sets in American politics, defeating
the Republican nominee, Thomas
Dewey, governor of New York. Re-
viving the old New Deal coalition,
Truman held on to labor, farmers, and
African-American voters.
When Truman finally left of- fice
in 1953, his Fair Deal was but a
mixed success. In July 1948 he
banned racial discrimination in fed-
eral government hiring practices and
ordered an end to segregation in the
military. The minimum wage had
risen, and social security programs
had expanded. A housing program
brought some gains but left many
needs unmet. National health in-
surance, aid-to-education measures,
reformed agricultural subsidies, and
his legislative civil rights agenda
never made it through Congress. The
president’s pursuit of the Cold War,
ultimately his most important
objective, made it especially difficult to
develop support for social reform in
the face of intense opposition.

EISENHOWER’S APPROACH

When Dwight Eisenhower suc-

ceeded Truman as president, he
accepted the basic framework of gov-
ernment responsibility established by
the New Deal, but sought to hold the
line on programs and expendi- tures.
He termed his approach “dy- namic
conservatism” or “modern
Republicanism,” which meant, he ex-

27
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

plained, “conservative when it entered it.

comes to money, liberal when it
comes to human beings.” A critic
countered that Eisenhower
appeared to argue that he would
“strongly recommend the building
of a great many schools
... but not provide the money.”
Eisenhower’s first priority was
to balance the budget after years of
deficits. He wanted to cut spending
and taxes and maintain the value of
the dollar. Republicans were
willing to risk unemployment to
keep infla- tion in check. Reluctant
to stimulate the economy too much,
they saw the country suffer three
economic recessions in the eight
years of the Eisenhower presidency,
but none was very severe.
In other areas, the administra-
tion transferred control of offshore
oil lands from the federal govern-
ment to the states. It also favored
pri- vate development of electrical
power rather than the public
approach the Democrats had
initiated. In general, its orientation
was sympathetic to business.
Compared to Truman, Eisen-
hower had only a modest domes-
tic program. When he was active
in promoting a bill, it likely was to
trim the New Deal legacy a bit —
as in reducing agricultural
subsidies or placing mild
restrictions on la- bor unions. His
disinclination to push fundamental
change in either direction was in
keeping with the spirit of the
generally prosperous Fifties. He
was one of the few presi- dents who
left office as popular as when he

27
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
THE CULTURE OF THE 1950s the culture. StressingHISTORY
spontaneity

During
and spirituality, they preferred
the 1950s, intuition over reason, Eastern
many cul- tural mysticism over Western
commentators pointed out institutionalized religion.
that a sense of uniformity The literary work of the beats
pervaded displayed their sense of alienation
American society. and quest for self-realization. Jack
Conformity, they asserted, Kerouac typed his best-selling
was numbingly common. novel On the Road on a 75-meter
Though men and women had roll of
been forced into new
employment pat- terns during
World War II, once the war
was over, traditional roles
were reaffirmed. Men
expected to be the
breadwinners in each family;
wom- en, even when they
worked, assumed their proper
place was at home. In his
influential book, The Lonely
Crowd, sociologist David
Riesman called this new
society “other-directed,”
characterized by conformity,
but also by stability.
Television, still very limited
in the choices it gave its view-
ers, contributed to the
homogenizing cultural trend
by providing young and old
with a shared experience re-
flecting accepted social
patterns.
Yet beneath this
seemingly bland surface,
important segments of
American society seethed
with rebellion. A number of
writers, collectively known as
the “Beat Gen- eration,” went
out of their way to challenge
the patterns of respect-
ability and shock the rest of

27
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

paper. Lacking traditional punctua- years. During the war they had
tion and paragraph structure, the chal-
book glorified the possibilities of lenged discrimination in the
the free life. Poet Allen Ginsberg mili-
gained similar notoriety for his
poem “Howl,” a scathing critique of
mod- ern, mechanized civilization.
When police charged that it was
obscene and seized the published
version, Ginsberg successfully
challenged the ruling in court.
Musicians and artists rebelled as
well. Tennessee singer Elvis
Presley was the most successful of
several white performers who
popularized a sensual and pulsating
style of Af- rican-American music,
which began to be called “rock and
roll.” At first, he outraged middle-
class Ameri- cans with his ducktail
haircut and undulating hips. But in
a few years his performances would
seem rela- tively tame alongside the
antics of later performers such as
the British Rolling Stones.
Similarly, it was in the 1950s that
painters like Jackson Pollock
discarded easels and laid out
gigantic canvases on the floor, then
applied paint, sand, and other mate-
rials in wild splashes of color. All
of these artists and authors,
whatever the medium, provided
models for the wider and more
deeply felt social revolution of the
1960s.

ORIGINS OF THE
CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT

African Americans became

in- creasingly restive in the postwar
28
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
tary services and in the work force, HISTORY

and they had made limited gains.

Millions of African Americans had
left Southern farms for Northern cit-
ies, where they hoped to find better
jobs. They found instead crowded
conditions in urban slums. Now,
African-American servicemen re-
turned home, many intent on reject-
ing second-class citizenship.
Jackie Robinson dramatized the
racial question in 1947 when he broke
baseball’s color line and be- gan
playing in the major leagues. A
member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he
often faced trouble with oppo- nents
and teammates as well. But an
outstanding first season led to his
acceptance and eased the way for
other African-American players, who
now left the Negro leagues to which
they had been confined.
Government officials, and many
other Americans, discovered the
connection between racial problems
and Cold War politics. As the leader
of the free world, the United States
sought support in Africa and Asia.
Discrimination at home impeded the
effort to win friends in other parts of
the world.
Harry Truman supported the early
civil rights movement. He per- sonally
believed in political equality, though
not in social equality, and recognized
the growing importance of the
African-American urban vote. When
apprised in 1946 of a spate of
lynchings and anti-black violence in
the South, he appointed a com- mittee
on civil rights to investigate
discrimination. Its report, To Secure

28
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

These Rights, issued the next year, tablished in the Supreme Court case
documented African Americans’
second-class status in American life
and recommended numerous fed-
eral measures to secure the rights
guaranteed to all citizens.
Truman responded by sending
a 10-point civil rights program to
Congress. Southern Democrats in
Congress were able to block its en-
actment. A number of the angriest,
led by Governor Strom Thurmond
of South Carolina, formed a States
Rights Party to oppose the president
in 1948. Truman thereupon issued
an executive order barring discrim-
ination in federal employment, or-
dered equal treatment in the armed
forces, and appointed a committee
to work toward an end to military
segregation, which was largely ended
during the Korean War.
African Americans in the South
in the 1950s still enjoyed few, if
any, civil and political rights. In
gener- al, they could not vote.
Those who tried to register faced
the likelihood of beatings, loss of
job, loss of credit, or eviction from
their land. Occa- sional lynchings
still occurred. Jim Crow laws
enforced segregation of the races in
streetcars, trains, hotels, restaurants,
hospitals, recreational facilities, and
employment.

DESEGREGATION

The National Association for

the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) took the lead in
efforts to
overturn the judicial doctrine, es-

28
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, the admission ofHISTORY nine black
that seg- regation of African- students to the city’s previ- ously
American and white students all-white Central High School.
was constitutional if facilities After futile efforts at negotiation,
were “separate but equal.” the president sent federal troops to
That decree had been used Little Rock to enforce the plan.
for de- cades to sanction Governor Faubus responded by
rigid segregation in all ordering the Little Rock high
aspects of Southern life, schools closed down for the 1958-
where facilities were seldom, 59 school
if ever, equal.
African Americans
achieved their goal of
overturning Plessy in 1954
when the Supreme Court —
pre- sided over by an
Eisenhower ap- pointee,
Chief Justice Earl Warren
— handed down its Brown v.
Board of Education ruling.
The Court de- clared
unanimously that “separate
facilities are inherently
unequal,” and decreed that
the “separate but equal”
doctrine could no longer be
used in public schools. A
year later, the Supreme Court
demanded that local school
boards move “with all
deliberate speed” to
implement the decision.
Eisenhower, although
sympathet- ic to the needs of
the South as it faced a major
transition, nonetheless act- ed
to see that the law was
upheld in the face of massive
resistance from much of the
South. He faced a ma- jor
crisis in Little Rock,
Arkansas, in 1957, when
Governor Orval Faubus
attempted to block a
desegregation plan calling for
28
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

year. However, a federal court

powerful, thoughtful, and eloquent
ordered them reopened the follow-
leader in Martin Luther King Jr.
ing year. They did so in a tense at-
African Americans also sought
mosphere with a tiny number of
to secure their voting rights.
African-American students. Thus,
Although the 15th Amendment to
school desegregation proceeded at a
the U.S. Constitution guaranteed
slow and uncertain pace throughout
the right to vote, many states had
much of the South.
found ways to circumvent the law.
Another milestone in the civil
The states would impose a poll
rights movement occurred in 1955
(“head”) tax or a lit- eracy test —
in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa
typically much more stringently
Parks, a 42-year-old African-
interpreted for African Americans
American seamstress who was also
— to prevent poor Afri- can
secretary of the state chapter of the
Americans with little education
NAACP, sat down in the front of a
from voting. Eisenhower, working
bus in a section reserved by law and
with Senate majority leader Lyn-
custom for whites. Ordered to move
don B. Johnson, lent his support to
to the back, she refused. Police
a congressional effort to guarantee
came and arrested her for violating
the vote. The Civil Rights Act of
the seg- regation statutes. African-
1957, the first such measure in 82
American leaders, who had been
years, marked a step forward, as it
waiting for just such a case,
authorized federal intervention in
organized a boycott of the bus
cases where African Americans
system.
were denied the chance to vote. Yet
Martin Luther King Jr., a young loopholes remained, and so activ-
minister of the Baptist church ists pushed successfully for the
where the African Americans met, Civil Rights Act of 1960, which
became a spokesman for the pro- provided stiffer penalties for
test. “There comes a time,” he said, interfering with voting, but still
“when people get tired ... of being stopped short of au- thorizing
kicked about by the brutal feet of federal officials to register African
op- pression.” King was arrested, as Americans.
he would be again and again; a
Relying on the efforts of African
bomb damaged the front of his
Americans themselves, the civil
house. But African Americans in
rights movement gained momen-
Montgomery sustained the boycott.
tum in the postwar years.
About a year later, the Supreme
Working through the Supreme
Court affirmed that bus segregation,
Court and through Congress, civil
like school segregation, was
rights sup- porters had created the
unconstitutional. The boycott
groundwork for a dramatic yet
ended. The civil rights movement
peaceful “revolu- tion” in
had won an important victory —
American race relations in the
and discovered its most
1960s. 9
28
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

274
28
 1
CHAPTER

3
DECADES
OF
CHANGE:
1960-
1980

Module Pilot Edwin Aldrin

Jr. on the moon, July 20,
1969.
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

“I have a dream that one day

on the red hills of Georgia,
sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slave
owners will be able to sit
down together at the
table of brotherhood.”
Martin Luther King Jr., 1963

By 1960, the United States was on politics, many of the offspring of

the verge of a major social change. the World War II generation
American society had always been emerged as advocates of a new
more open and fluid than that of America char- acterized by a
the nations in most of the rest of the cultural and ethnic pluralism that
world. Still, it had been dominated their parents often viewed with
primarily by old-stock, white males. unease.
During the 1960s, groups that
previ- ously had been submerged or THE CIVIL RIGHTS
sub- ordinate began more forcefully MOVEMENT 1960-1980

The
and successfully to assert themselves:
Af- rican Americans, Native struggle of African
Americans, women, the white Americans for equality reached its
ethnic offspring of the “new peak in the mid-1960s. After
immigration,” and Latinos. Much of progressive vic-
the support they received came tories in the 1950s, African Ameri-
from a young population larg- er cans became even more committed
than ever, making its way through a to nonviolent direct action. Groups
college and university system that like the Southern Christian Leader-
was expanding at an unprecedented ship Conference (SCLC), made up
pace. Frequently embracing “coun- of African-American clergy, and
tercultural” lifestyles and radical the Student Nonviolent Coordinat-

276
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
ing Committee (SNCC), HISTORY

composed

27
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

of younger activists, sought reform

themselves, forced his hand. When
through peaceful confrontation.
James Meredith was denied admis-
In 1960 African-American col-
sion to the University of
lege students sat down at a segre-
Mississippi in 1962 because of his
gated Woolworth’s lunch counter in
race, Kennedy sent federal troops to
North Carolina and refused to
uphold the law. After protests
leave. Their sit-in captured media
aimed at the deseg- regation of
atten- tion and led to similar
Birmingham, Alabama, prompted a
demonstra- tions throughout the
violent response by the police, he
South. The next year, civil rights
sent Congress a new civil rights bill
workers organized “freedom rides,”
mandating the integration of public
in which African Americans and
places. Not even the March on
whites boarded bus- es heading
Washington, however, could ex-
south toward segregated terminals,
tricate the measure from a congres-
where confrontations might capture
sional committee, where it was still
media attention and lead to change.
bottled up when Kennedy was
They also organized rallies, the assas- sinated in 1963.
largest of which was the “March on
President Lyndon B. Johnson
Washington” in 1963. More than
was more successful. Displaying
200,000 people gathered in the na-
negotiating skills he had so fre-
tion’s capital to demonstrate their
quently employed during his years
commitment to equality for all. The
as Senate majority leader, Johnson
high point of a day of songs and
persuaded the Senate to limit delay-
speeches came with the address of
ing tactics preventing a final vote
Martin Luther King Jr., who had
on the sweeping Civil Rights Act of
emerged as the preeminent spokes-
1964, which outlawed discrimina-
man for civil rights. “I have a
tion in all public accommodations.
dream that one day on the red hills
The next year’s Voting Rights Act
of Geor- gia the sons of former
of 1965 authorized the federal gov-
slaves and the sons of former slave
ernment to register voters where
owners will be able to sit down
local officials had prevented Afri-
together at the table of
can Americans from doing so. By
brotherhood,” King proclaimed.
1968 a million African Americans
Each time he used the refrain “I
were registered in the deep South.
have a dream,” the crowd roared.
Nationwide, the number of African-
The level of progress initially American elected officials
achieved did not match the rhetoric increased substantially. In 1968, the
of the civil rights movement. Presi- Congress passed legislation
dent Kennedy was initially reluc- banning discrimi- nation in
tant to press white Southerners for housing.
support on civil rights because he
Once unleashed, however, the
needed their votes on other issues.
civil rights revolution produced
Events, driven by African Americans
leaders impatient with both the pace
278
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
of change and the goal of channel- HISTORY

27
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

ing African Americans into main- 1970s and thereafter were over mat- ters
stream white society. Malcolm X, such as busing children out of
an eloquent activist, was the most
prominent figure arguing for Afri-
can-American separation from the
white race. Stokely Carmichael, a
student leader, became similarly
dis- illusioned by the notions of
nonvio- lence and interracial
cooperation. He popularized the
slogan “black power,” to be
achieved by “whatever means
necessary,” in the words of
Malcolm X.
Violence accompanied militant
calls for reform. Riots broke out in
several big cities in 1966 and 1967.
In the spring of 1968, Martin Lu-
ther King Jr. fell before an
assassin’s bullet. Several months
later, Senator Robert Kennedy, a
spokesman for the disadvantaged,
an opponent of the Vietnam War,
and the brother of the slain
president, met the same fate. To
many these two assassina- tions
marked the end of an era of in-
nocence and idealism. The growing
militancy on the left, coupled with
an inevitable conservative backlash,
opened a rift in the nation’s psyche
that took years to heal.
By then, however, a civil rights
movement supported by court de-
cisions, congressional enactments,
and federal administrative regula-
tions was irreversibly woven into
the fabric of American life. The
major issues were about
implementation of equality and
access, not about the legality of
segregation or disenfran-
chisement. The arguments of the

280
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
their neighborhoods to HISTORY
encouraged her readers to seek new
achieve ra- cial balance in roles and re- sponsibilities and to
metropolitan schools or find their own personal and
about the use of “affirmative professional identities, rather than
ac- tion.” These policies and have them defined by a male-
programs were viewed by dominated society.
some as active mea- sures to The women’s movement of the
ensure equal opportunity, as 1960s and 1970s drew inspiration
in education and from the civil rights movement. It
employment, and by others
as reverse discrimination.
The courts worked their
way through these problems
with deci- sions that were
often inconsistent. In the
meantime, the steady march
of African Americans into
the ranks of the middle class
and once large- ly white
suburbs quietly reflected a
profound demographic
change.

THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

During the 1950s and

1960s, in- creasing numbers
of married wom- en entered
the labor force, but in
1963 the average working
woman earned only 63
percent of what a man made.
That year Betty Friedan
published The Feminine
Mystique, an explosive
critique of middle- class
living patterns that
articulated a pervasive sense
of discontent that Friedan
contended was felt by many
women. Arguing that women
often had no outlets for
expression other than
“finding a husband and bear-
ing children,” Friedan

28
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

was made up mainly of members of the United States or by any State

the middle class, and thus partook on account of sex.” Over the next
of the spirit of rebellion that sever-
affected large segments of middle-
class youth in the 1960s.
Reform legislation also
prompted change. During debate on
the 1964 Civil Rights bill,
opponents hoped to defeat the
entire measure by pro- posing an
amendment to outlaw dis-
crimination on the basis of gender
as well as race. First the
amendment, then the bill itself,
passed, giving women a valuable
legal tool.
In 1966, 28 professional women,
including Friedan, established the
National Organization for Wom-
en (NOW) “to take action to bring
American women into full partici-
pation in the mainstream of Ameri-
can society now.” While NOW and
similar feminist organizations boast
of substantial memberships today,
arguably they attained their greatest
influence in the early 1970s, a time
that also saw the journalist Gloria
Steinem and several other wom-
en found Ms. magazine. They also
spurred the formation of counter-
feminist groups, often led by
women, including most
prominently the po- litical activist
Phyllis Schlafly. These groups
typically argued for more
“traditional” gender roles and op-
posed the proposed “Equal Rights”
constitutional amendment.
Passed by Congress in 1972,
that amendment declared in part,
“Equality of rights under the law
shall not be denied or abridged by

282
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
al years, 35 of the necessary 38 states HISTORY

ratified it. The courts also moved to

expand women’s rights. In 1973 the
Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade sanc-
tioned women’s right to obtain an
abortion during the early months of
pregnancy — seen as a significant
victory for the women’s movement
— but Roe also spurred the growth
of an anti-abortion movement.
In the mid- to late-1970s, how-
ever, the women’s movement seemed
to stagnate. It failed to broaden its
appeal beyond the middle class.
Divisions arose between moderate and
radical feminists. Conservative
opponents mounted a campaign
against the Equal Rights Amend-
ment, and it died in 1982 without
gaining the approval of the 38 states
needed for ratification.

THE LATINO MOVEMENT

In post-World War II America,

Americans of Mexican and Puerto
Rican descent had faced discrimina-
tion. New immigrants, coming from
Cuba, Mexico, and Central Ameri- ca
— often unskilled and unable to speak
English — suffered from dis-
crimination as well. Some Hispanics
worked as farm laborers and at times
were cruelly exploited while harvest-
ing crops; others gravitated to the
cities, where, like earlier immigrant
groups, they encountered difficulties
in their quest for a better life.
Chicanos, or Mexican-Ameri-
cans, mobilized in organizations like
the radical Asociación Nacio- nal
Mexico-Americana, yet did

28
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

not become confrontational un- involvement in-

til the 1960s. Hoping that Lyndon
Johnson’s poverty program would
expand opportunities for them,
they found that bureaucrats failed
to respond to less vocal groups.
The example of black activism in
particular taught Hispanics the im-
portance of pressure politics in a
pluralistic society.
The National Labor Relations
Act of 1935 had excluded
agricultural workers from its
guarantee of the right to organize
and bargain col- lectively. But
César Chávez, found- er of the
overwhelmingly Hispanic United
Farm Workers, demonstrat- ed that
direct action could achieve
employer recognition for his union.
California grape growers agreed to
bargain with the union after Chávez
led a nationwide consumer boy-
cott. Similar boycotts of lettuce and
other products were also successful.
Though farm interests continued to
try to obstruct Chávez’s organiza-
tion, the legal foundation had been
laid for representation to secure
higher wages and improved
working conditions.
Hispanics became political-
ly active as well. In 1961 Henry B.
González won election to Congress
from Texas. Three years later Eligio
(“Kika”) de la Garza, another
Texan, followed him, and Joseph
Montoya of New Mexico went to
the Sen- ate. Both González and de
la Garza later rose to positions of
power as committee chairmen in
the House. In the 1970s and 1980s,
the pace of Hispanic political

284
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
creased. Several prominent (AIM), founded inHISTORY
1968, helped
Hispan- ics have served in channel government funds to
the Bill Clinton and George Native-American-controlled organi-
W. Bush cabinets. zations and assisted neglected
Native Americans in the cities.
THE NATIVE- Confrontations became more
AMERICAN common. In 1969 a landing party
MOVEMEN of 78 Native Americans seized
T Alca-

In the 1950s, Native

Americans struggled with the
government’s pol- icy of
moving them off reservations
and into cities where they
might as- similate into
mainstream America. Many
of the uprooted often had dif-
ficulties adjusting to urban
life. In 1961, when the policy
was discontin- ued, the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights
noted that, for Native Ameri-
cans, “poverty and
deprivation are common.”
In the 1960s and 1970s,
watch- ing both the
development of Third World
nationalism and the progress
of the civil rights movement,
Native Americans became
more aggressive in pressing
for their own rights. A new
generation of leaders went to
court to protect what was left
of tribal lands or to recover
those which had been taken,
often illegally, in previ- ous
times. In state after state,
they challenged treaty
violations, and in 1967 won
the first of many victories
guaranteeing long-abused
land and water rights. The
American Indian Movement

28
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

traz Island in San Francisco Bay and early 1970s. Hair grew lon-
and held it until federal officials
removed them in 1971. In 1973
AIM took over the South Dakota
village of Wound- ed Knee, where
soldiers in the late 19th century had
massacred a Sioux encampment.
Militants hoped to dramatize the
poverty and alcohol- ism in the
reservation surrounding the town.
The episode ended after one Native
American was killed and another
wounded, with a govern- ment
agreement to re-examine trea- ty
rights.
Still, Native-American activ-
ism brought results. Other Amer-
icans became more aware of
Native-American needs. Govern-
ment officials responded with
measures including the Education
Assistance Act of 1975 and the
1996 Native-American Housing
and Self- Determination Act. The
Senate’s first Native-American
member, Ben Nighthorse Campbell
of Colorado, was elected in 1992.

THE COUNTERCULTURE

The agitation for equal

opportuni- ty sparked other forms
of upheaval. Young people in
particular rejected
the stable patterns of middle-class
life their parents had created in the
decades after World War II. Some
plunged into radical political activ-
ity; many more embraced new stan-
dards of dress and sexual behavior.
The visible signs of the coun-
terculture spread through parts of
American society in the late 1960s

286
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
ger and beards became common. Blue HISTORY

jeans and tee shirts took the place of

slacks, jackets, and ties. The use of
illegal drugs increased. Rock and roll
grew, proliferated, and transformed
into many musi- cal variations. The
Beatles, the Roll- ing Stones, and other
British groups took the country by
storm. “Hard rock” grew popular, and
songs with a political or social
commentary, such as those by singer-
songwriter Bob Dylan, became
common. The youth counterculture
reached its apogee in August 1969 at
Wood- stock, a three-day music
festival in rural New York State
attended by almost half-a-million
persons. The festival, mythologized in
films and record albums, gave its
name to the era, the Woodstock
Generation.
A parallel manifestation of the new
sensibility of the young was the rise
of the New Left, a group of young,
college-age radicals. The New Leftists,
who had close counterparts in
Western Europe, were in many in-
stances the children of the older gen-
eration of radicals. Nonetheless, they
rejected old-style Marxist rhetoric.
Instead, they depicted university
students as themselves an oppressed
class that possessed special insights
into the struggle of other oppressed
groups in American society.
New Leftists participated in the
civil rights movement and the strug-
gle against poverty. Their greatest
success — and the one instance in
which they developed a mass follow-
ing — was in opposing the Vietnam
War, an issue of emotional interest

28
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

to their draft-age contemporaries. also passed the Water Quality Im-

By the late 1970s, the student New
Left had disappeared, but many of
its activists made their way into
main- stream politics.

ENVIRONMENTALISM

The energy and sensibility that

fu- eled the civil rights movement,
the counterculture, and the New
Left
also stimulated an environmental
movement in the mid-1960s. Many
were aroused by the publication in
1962 of Rachel Carson’s book
Silent Spring, which alleged that
chemical pesticides, particularly
DDT, caused cancer, among other
ills. Public concern about the
environment continued to increase
throughout the 1960s as many
became aware of other pollutants
surrounding them
— automobile emissions, industrial
wastes, oil spills — that threatened
their health and the beauty of their
surroundings. On April 22, 1970,
schools and communities across the
United States celebrated Earth Day
for the first time. “Teach-ins” edu-
cated Americans about the dangers
of environmental pollution.
Few denied that pollution was a
problem, but the proposed solutions
involved expense and inconve-
nience. Many believed these would
reduce the economic growth upon
which many Americans’ standard
of living depended. Nevertheless, in
1970, Congress amended the Clean
Air Act of 1967 to develop uniform
national air-quality standards. It

288
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
provement Act, which HISTORY
gov- ernment’s expanded role,
assigned to the polluter the even as they disagreed about how
responsibility of cleaning up far that expansion should continue.
off-shore oil spills. Also, in Democrats generally wanted the
1970, the Environmental government to ensure growth and
Protec- tion Agency (EPA) stability. They wanted to extend
was created as an federal benefits for education,
independent federal agency health,
to spearhead the effort to
bring abus- es under control.
During the next three
decades, the EPA, bolstered
by legislation that increased
its author- ity, became one of
the most active agencies in
the government, issuing
strong regulations covering
air and water quality.

KENNEDY AND THE

RESURGENCE OF BIG
GOVERNMENT
LIBERALISM

By 1960 government had

become an increasingly
powerful force in people’s
lives. During the Great De-
pression of the 1930s, new
execu- tive agencies were
created to deal with many
aspects of American life.
During World War II, the
number of civilians
employed by the feder- al
government rose from one
mil- lion to 3.8 million,
then stabilized at 2.5 million
in the 1950s. Federal
expenditures, which had
stood at
$3,100-million in 1929, increased to
$75,000-million in 1953 and passed
$150,000-million in the 1960s.
Most Americans accepted
28
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

and welfare. Many Republicans

derly, and create a new Department
accepted a level of government
of Urban Affairs. And so, despite
responsibility, but hoped to cap
his lofty rhetoric, Kennedy’s
spending and restore a larger
policies were often limited and
measure of individual initiative.
restrained.
The presidential election of 1960
One priority was to end the
revealed a nation almost evenly
reces- sion, in progress when
divided between these visions.
Kennedy took office, and restore
John F. Kennedy, the
economic growth. But Kennedy lost
Democratic victor by a narrow
the confidence of business leaders
margin, was at 43 the youngest
in 1962, when he succeeded in
man ever to win the presidency. On
rolling back what the administration
television, in a series of debates
regarded as an exces- sive price
with opponent Richard Nixon, he
increase in the steel indus- try.
appeared able, articulate, and
Though the president achieved his
energetic. In the campaign, he
immediate goal, he alienated an
spoke of moving aggressively into
important source of support. Per-
the new decade, for “the New Fron-
suaded by his economic advisers
tier is here whether we seek it or
that a large tax cut would stimulate
not.” In his first inaugural address,
the economy, Kennedy backed a bill
he concluded with an eloquent plea:
pro- viding for one. Conservative
“Ask not what your country can do
opposi- tion in Congress, however,
for you — ask what you can do for
appeared to destroy any hopes of
your country.” Throughout his brief
passing a bill most congressmen
presidency, Kennedy’s special com-
thought would widen the budget
bination of grace, wit, and style —
deficit.
far more than his specific
The overall legislative record of
legislative agenda — sustained his
the Kennedy administration was
popularity and influenced
meager. The president made some
generations of politi- cians to come.
gestures toward civil rights leaders
Kennedy wanted to exert strong
but did not embrace the goals of the
leadership to extend economic ben-
civil rights movement until
efits to all citizens, but a razor-thin
demonstrations led by Martin
margin of victory limited his man-
Luther King Jr. forced his hand in
date. Even though the Democrat-
1963. Like Truman before him, he
ic Party controlled both houses of
could not secure congressional
Congress, conservative Southern
passage of federal aid to public
Democrats often sided with the Re-
education or for a medical care
publicans on issues involving the
program limited to the elderly. He
scope of governmental intervention
gained only a modest increase in
in the economy. They resisted plans
the minimum wage. Still, he did
to increase federal aid to education,
secure funding for a space program,
provide health insurance for the el-
and established the Peace Corps to
290
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
send men and women overseas to HISTORY

assist developing countries in meeting

their own needs.

29
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

KENNEDY AND THE that Kennedy had risked nuclear di-

P COLD WAR saster when quiet diplomacy might
have been effective. But most
Ameri-
resident Kennedy came into of- nuclear war, the Soviets agreed to
fice pledging to carry on the Cold remove the missiles. Critics charged
War vigorously, but he also hoped
for accommodation and was reluc-
tant to commit American power.
During his first year-and-a-half
in office, he rejected American in-
tervention after the CIA-guided
Cuban exile invasion at the Bay of
Pigs failed, effectively ceded the
landlocked Southeast Asian nation
of Laos to Communist control, and
acquiesced in the building of the
Berlin Wall. Kennedy’s decisions
reinforced impressions of weakness
that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrush-
chev had formed in their only per-
sonal meeting, a summit meeting at
Vienna in June 1961.
It was against this backdrop that
Kennedy faced the most serious
event of the Cold War, the Cuban
missile crisis.
In the fall of 1962, the
adminis- tration learned that the
Soviet Union was secretly installing
offensive nu- clear missiles in
Cuba. After con- sidering different
options, Kennedy decided on a
quarantine to prevent Soviet ships
from bringing addition- al supplies
to Cuba. He demanded publicly
that the Soviets remove the
weapons and warned that an
attack from that island would
bring retali- ation against the
USSR. After sever- al days of
tension, during which the world
was closer than ever before to
292
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
cans and much of the non- HISTORY
divided, with Ho in power in the
Commu- nist world applauded North and Ngo Dinh Diem, a
his decisiveness. The missile Roman Catholic anti-Communist in
crisis made him for the first a largely Buddhist population,
time the acknowledged leader head- ing the government in the
of the democratic West. South.
In retrospect, the Cuban
mis- sile crisis marked a
turning point in U.S.-Soviet
relations. Both sides saw the
need to defuse tensions that
could lead to direct military
con- flict. The following
year, the United States, the
Soviet Union, and Great
Britain signed a landmark
Limited Test Ban Treaty
prohibiting nuclear weapons
tests in the atmosphere.
Indochina (Vietnam,
Laos, Cam- bodia), a French
possession before World War
II, was still another Cold War
battlefield. The French effort
to reassert colonial control
there was opposed by Ho Chi
Minh, a Viet- namese
Communist, whose Viet
Minh movement engaged in
a guer- rilla war with the
French army.
Both Truman and
Eisenhower, eager to
maintain French support for
the policy of containment in
Europe, provided France
with economic aid that freed
resources for the struggle in
Vietnam. But the French
suffered a decisive defeat in
Dien Bien Phu in May 1954.
At an international confer-
ence in Geneva, Laos and
Cambodia were given their
independence. Viet- nam was
29
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

Elections were to be held two years out.” With Project Mercury in

later to unify the country. 1962, John Glenn became the
Persuaded that the fall of Vietnam first
could lead to the fall of Burma, U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth.
Thailand, and In- donesia,
Eisenhower backed Diem’s refusal
to hold elections in 1956 and
effectively established South Viet-
nam as an American client state.
Kennedy increased assistance,
and sent small numbers of military
advisers, but a new guerrilla strug-
gle between North and South con-
tinued. Diem’s unpopularity grew
and the military situation wors-
ened. In late 1963, Kennedy
secretly assented to a coup d’etat.
To the president’s surprise, Diem
and his powerful brother-in-law,
Ngo Dien Nu, were killed. It was at
this uncer- tain juncture that
Kennedy’s presi- dency ended three
weeks later.

THE SPACE PROGRAM

During Eisenhower’s
second term, outer space had
become an arena for U.S.-Soviet
competition.
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched
Sputnik — an artificial satellite —
thereby demonstrating it could
build more powerful rockets than
the United States. The United States
launched its first satellite, Explorer I,
in 1958. But three months after
Ken- nedy became president, the
USSR put the first man in orbit.
Kennedy responded by
committing the Unit- ed States to
land a man on the moon and bring
him back “before this de- cade is

294
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
After Kennedy’s death, President HISTORY

Lyndon Johnson enthusiastically

supported the space program. In the
mid-1960s, U.S. scientists devel- oped
the two-person Gemini space- craft.
Gemini achieved several firsts,
including an eight-day mission in
August 1965 — the longest space
flight at that time — and in No-
vember 1966, the first automatically
controlled reentry into the Earth’s
atmosphere. Gemini also accom-
plished the first manned linkup of two
spacecraft in flight as well as the first
U.S. walks in space.
The three-person Apollo space-
craft achieved Kennedy’s goal and
demonstrated to the world that the
United States had surpassed Soviet
capabilities in space. On July 20,
1969, with hundreds of millions of
television viewers watching around
the world, Neil Armstrong became the
first human to walk on the sur- face of
the moon.
Other Apollo flights followed, but
many Americans began to question
the value of manned space flight. In
the early 1970s, as other priorities
became more pressing, the United
States scaled down the space pro-
gram. Some Apollo missions were
scrapped; only one of two proposed
Skylab space stations was built.

DEATH OF A PRESIDENT

John Kennedy had gained world

prestige by his management of the
Cuban missile crisis and had won
great popularity at home. Many be-
lieved he would win re-election eas-

29
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

ily in 1964. But on November 22, priorities were his predecessor’s bills to
1963, he was assassinated while reduce taxes and guarantee civil rights.
rid- ing in an open car during a visit Using his skills of persuasion
to Dallas, Texas. His death,
amplified by television coverage,
was a trau- matic event, just as
Roosevelt’s had been 18 years
earlier.
In retrospect, it is clear that Ken-
nedy’s reputation stems more from
his style and eloquently stated
ideals than from the implementation
of his policies. He had laid out an
impres- sive agenda but at his death
much re- mained blocked in
Congress. It was largely because of
the political skill and legislative
victories of his suc- cessor that
Kennedy would be seen as a force
for progressive change.

LYNDON JOHNSON AND

THE GREAT SOCIETY

Lyndon Johnson, a Texan who

was majority leader in the Senate
before becoming Kennedy’s vice
president,
was a masterful politician. He had
been schooled in Congress, where
he developed an extraordinary abil-
ity to get things done. He excelled
at pleading, cajoling, or threatening
as necessary to achieve his ends.
His liberal idealism was probably
deep- er than Kennedy’s. As
president, he wanted to use his
power aggressively to eliminate
poverty and spread the benefits of
prosperity to all.
Johnson took office determined
to secure the passage of Kennedy’s
legislative agenda. His immediate

296
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
and calling on the legislators’ agencies, guided by HISTORY
an ethic of
respect for the slain president, “participatory democracy” that
Johnson suc- ceeded in aimed to give the poor themselves a
gaining passage of both voice in housing, health, and
during his first year in office. education programs.
The tax cuts stimulated the Medical care came next. Under
economy. The Civil Rights Johnson’s leadership, Congress en-
Act of 1964 was the most far- acted Medicare, a health insurance
reaching such legislation program for the elderly, and Med-
since Reconstruction.
Johnson addressed other
issues as well. By the spring
of 1964, he had begun to use
the name “Great Soci- ety” to
describe his socio-economic
program. That summer he
secured passage of a federal
jobs program for
impoverished young people.
It was the first step in what
he called the “War on
Poverty.” In the presiden- tial
election that November, he
won a landslide victory over
conservative Republican
Barry Goldwater. Signif-
icantly, the 1964 election gave
liberal Democrats firm
control of Congress for the
first time since 1938. This
would enable them to pass
legisla- tion over the
combined opposition of
Republicans and
conservative Southern
Democrats.
The War on Poverty
became the centerpiece of the
administration’s Great
Society program. The Office
of Economic Opportunity,
estab- lished in 1964,
provided training for the
poor and established vari-
ous community-action
29
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

icaid, a program providing health- In 1965, Congress abolished

care assistance for the poor. the discriminatory 1924 national-
Johnson succeeded in the effort origin
to provide more federal aid for el-
ementary and secondary schooling,
traditionally a state and local func-
tion. The measure that was enacted
gave money to the states based on
the number of their children from
low-income families. Funds could
be used to assist public- and
private- school children alike.
Convinced the United States
con- fronted an “urban crisis”
character- ized by declining inner
cities, the Great Society architects
devised a new housing act that
provided rent supplements for the
poor and estab- lished a Department
of Housing and Urban
Development.
Other legislation had an im-
pact on many aspects of American
life. Federal assistance went to art-
ists and scholars to encourage their
work. In September 1966, Johnson
signed into law two transportation
bills. The first provided funds to
state and local governments for de-
veloping safety programs, while the
other set up federal safety standards
for cars and tires. The latter
program reflected the efforts of a
crusading young radical, Ralph
Nader. In his 1965 book, Unsafe at
Any Speed: The Designed-In
Dangers of the Ameri- can
Automobile, Nader argued that
automobile manufacturers were
sac- rificing safety features for
style, and charged that faulty
engineering con- tributed to
highway fatalities.

298
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
immigration quotas. This triggered a HISTORY

new wave of immigration, much of it

from South and East Asia and Latin
America.
The Great Society was the larg- est
burst of legislative activity since the
New Deal. But support weakened as
early as 1966. Some of Johnson’s
programs did not live up to expecta-
tions; many went underfunded. The
urban crisis seemed, if anything, to
worsen. Still, whether because of the
Great Society spending or because of a
strong economic upsurge, poverty did
decline at least marginally dur- ing the
Johnson administration.

THE WAR IN VIETNAM

Dissatisfaction with the Great So-

ciety came to be more than matched
by unhappiness with the situation in
Vietnam. A series of South Viet-
namese strong men proved little more
successful than Diem in mobi- lizing
their country. The Viet Cong,
insurgents supplied and coordinated
from North Vietnam, gained ground in
the countryside.
Determined to halt Communist
advances in South Vietnam, Johnson
made the Vietnam War his own. Af-
ter a North Vietnamese naval attack
on two American destroyers, John-
son won from Congress on August 7,
1964, passage of the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution, which allowed the presi-
dent to “take all necessary measures to
repel any armed attack against the
forces of the United States and to
prevent further aggression.” After his
re-election in November 1964, he

29
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

embarked on a policy of escalation. Johnson loyal- ist. White opposition to

From 25,000 troops at the start of the civil
1965, the number of soldiers —
both volunteers and draftees — rose
to 500,000 by 1968. A bombing
cam- paign wrought havoc in both
North and South Vietnam.
Grisly television coverage with a
critical edge dampened support for
the war. Some Americans thought it
immoral; others watched in dismay
as the massive military campaign
seemed to be ineffective. Large pro-
tests, especially among the young,
and a mounting general public dis-
satisfaction pressured Johnson to
be- gin negotiating for peace.

THE ELECTION OF 1968

By 1968 the country was in

tur- moil over both the Vietnam
War and civil disorder, expressed
in ur-
ban riots that reflected African-
American anger. On March 31,
1968, the president renounced any
inten- tion of seeking another
term. Just a week later, Martin
Luther King Jr. was shot and killed
in Memphis, Tennessee. John
Kennedy’s younger brother, Robert,
made an emotional anti-war
campaign for the Demo- cratic
nomination, only to be assas-
sinated in June.
At the Democratic National
Con- vention in Chicago, Illinois,
protest- ers fought street battles
with police. A divided Democratic
Party nomi- nated Vice President
Hubert Hum- phrey, once the hero
of the liberals but now seen as a

300
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
rights measures of the 1960s HISTORY
and the military draft, which had
galva- nized the third-party caused so much cam- pus
candidacy of Alabama discontent, was all but dead. A
Governor George Wal- lace, cease-fire, negotiated for the United
a Democrat who captured his States by Nixon’s national security
home state, Mississippi, and adviser, Henry Kissinger, was signed
Arkan- sas, Louisiana, and in 1973. Although American troops
Georgia, states typically
carried in that era by the
Democratic nominee.
Republican Richard Nixon,
who ran on a plan to extricate
the United States from the
war and to increase “law and
order” at home, scored a
narrow victory.

NIXON, VIETNAM, AND

THE COLD WAR

Determined to achieve
“peace with honor,” Nixon
slowly withdrew American
troops while redoubling
efforts to equip the South
Vietnam- ese army to carry
on the fight. He also ordered
strong American offen- sive
actions. The most important
of these was an invasion of
Cambodia in 1970 to cut off
North Vietnam- ese supply
lines to South Vietnam. This
led to another round of
protests and demonstrations.
Students in many universities
took to the streets. At Kent
State in Ohio, the National
Guard troops who had been
called in to restore order
panicked and killed four
students.
By the fall of 1972,
however, troop strength in
Vietnam was be- low 50,000

30
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

departed, the war lingered on into détente. He held several cordial

the spring of 1975, when Congress meetings with
cut off assistance to South Vietnam
and North Vietnam consolidated its
control over the entire country.
The war left Vietnam
devastated, with millions maimed
or killed. It also left the United
States trauma- tized. The nation
had spent over
$150,000-million in a losing effort
that cost more than 58,000 Ameri-
can lives. Americans were no
longer united by a widely held Cold
War consensus, and became wary
of fur- ther foreign entanglements.
Yet as Vietnam wound down,
the Nixon administration took his-
toric steps toward closer ties with
the major Communist powers. The
most dramatic move was a new
rela- tionship with the People’s
Republic of China. In the two
decades since Mao Zedong’s
victory, the United States had
argued that the Nation- alist
government on Taiwan rep-
resented all of China. In 1971 and
1972, Nixon softened the American
stance, eased trading restrictions,
and became the first U.S. president
ever to visit Beijing. The “Shanghai
Communique” signed during that
visit established a new U.S. policy:
that there was one China, that Tai-
wan was a part of China, and that a
peaceful settlement of the dispute
of the question by the Chinese
them- selves was a U.S. interest.
With the Soviet Union, Nixon
was equally successful in pursuing
the policy he and his Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger called

302
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in HISTORY

which they agreed to limit stockpiles

of missiles, cooperate in space, and
ease trading restrictions. The Stra-
tegic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)
culminated in 1972 in an arms con-
trol agreement limiting the growth of
nuclear arsenals and restricting anti-
ballistic missile systems.

NIXON’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS
AND DEFEATS

Vice president under Eisenhower

before his unsuccessful run for the
presidency in 1960, Nixon was seen
as among the shrewdest of Ameri- can
politicians. Although Nixon
subscribed to the Republican value of
fiscal responsibility, he accepted a
need for government’s expanded role
and did not oppose the ba- sic
contours of the welfare state. He
simply wanted to manage its programs
better. Not opposed to African-
American civil rights on principle, he
was wary of large federal civil rights
bureaucracies. Nonetheless, his
administration vigorously enforced
court orders on school desegregation
even as it courted Southern white
voters.
Perhaps his biggest domestic
problem was the economy. He in-
herited both a slowdown from its
Vietnam peak under Johnson, and a
continuing inflationary surge that had
been a by-product of the war. He dealt
with the first by becoming the first
Republican president to endorse
deficit spending as a way to stim-
ulate the economy; the second by

30
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

imposing wage and price controls, was grinding to a halt.

a policy in which the Right had no
long-term faith, in 1971. In the
short run, these decisions stabilized
the economy and established
favorable conditions for Nixon’s re-
election in 1972. He won an
overwhelming vic- tory over peace-
minded Democratic Senator George
McGovern.
Things began to sour very quick-
ly into the president’s second term.
Very early on, he faced charges that
his re-election committee had man-
aged a break-in at the Watergate
building headquarters of the Demo-
cratic National Committee and that
he had participated in a cover-up.
Special prosecutors and congressio-
nal committees dogged his
presiden- cy thereafter.
Factors beyond Nixon’s control
undermined his economic policies.
In 1973 the war between Israel and
Egypt and Syria prompted Saudi
Arabia to embargo oil shipments to
Israel’s ally, the United States.
Other member nations of the
Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Coun- tries (OPEC)
quadrupled their pric- es.
Americans faced both shortages,
exacerbated in the view of many by
over-regulation of distribution, and
rapidly rising prices. Even when the
embargo ended the next year, prices
remained high and affected all areas
of American economic life: In
1974, inflation reached 12 percent,
causing disruptions that led to even
higher unemployment rates. The
unprec- edented economic boom
America had enjoyed since 1948

304
 OUTLINE OF U.S.

Nixon’s
Nixon’s rhetoric about the HISTORY

need for “law and order” in vice president,

the face of ris- ing crime Gerald Ford (appointed to replace
rates, increased drug use, and Agnew), was an unpretentious man
more permissive views about who had
sex resonated with more spent most of his public life in Con-
Americans than not. But this gress. His first priority was to
concern was in- sufficient to restore trust in the government.
quell concerns about the However,
Watergate break-in and the
economy. Seeking to
energize and enlarge his own
political constituen- cy,
Nixon lashed out at
demonstra- tors, attacked the
press for distorted coverage,
and sought to silence his
opponents. Instead, he left an
unfa- vorable impression
with many who saw him on
television and perceived him
as unstable. Adding to Nix-
on’s troubles, Vice President
Spiro Agnew, his outspoken
point man against the media
and liberals, was forced to
resign in 1973, pleading “no
contest” to a criminal charge
of tax evasion.
Nixon probably had not
known in advance of the
Watergate bur- glary, but he
had tried to cover it up, and
had lied to the American
people about it. Evidence of
his involve- ment mounted.
On July 27, 1974, the House
Judiciary Committee voted
to recommend his
impeachment. Facing certain
ouster from office, he
resigned on August 9, 1974.

THE FORD INTERLUDE

30
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

feeling it necessary to head off the Democratic governor of Georgia,

spectacle of a possible prosecution of won the presi-
Nixon, he issued a blanket pardon
to his predecessor. Although it was
per- haps necessary, the move was
none- theless unpopular.
In public policy, Ford followed
the course Nixon had set. Economic
problems remained serious, as
infla- tion and unemployment
continued to rise. Ford first tried to
reassure the public, much as
Herbert Hoover had done in 1929.
When that failed, he imposed
measures to curb in- flation, which
sent unemployment above 8
percent. A tax cut, coupled with
higher unemployment ben- efits,
helped a bit but the economy
remained weak.
In foreign policy, Ford adopted
Nixon’s strategy of détente.
Perhaps its major manifestation was
the Helsinki Accords of 1975, in
which the United States and
Western Euro- pean nations
effectively recognized Soviet
hegemony in Eastern Europe in
return for Soviet affirmation of
human rights. The agreement had
little immediate significance, but
over the long run may have made
maintenance of the Sovi- et
empire more difficult. Western
nations effectively used periodic
“Helsinki review meetings” to call
attention to various abuses of hu-
man rights by Communist regimes
of the Eastern bloc.

THE CARTER YEARS

Jimmy Carter, former

306
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
dency in 1976. Portraying himself HISTORY

during the campaign as an outsider to

Washington politics, he promised a
fresh approach to governing, but his
lack of experience at the national level
complicated his tenure from the start.
A naval officer and engineer by
training, he often appeared to be a
technocrat, when Americans want- ed
someone more visionary to lead them
through troubled times.
In economic affairs, Carter at first
permitted a policy of defi- cit
spending. Inflation rose to 10
percent a year when the Federal
Reserve Board, responsible for set-
ting monetary policy, increased the
money supply to cover deficits. Carter
responded by cutting the budget, but
cuts affected social pro- grams at the
heart of Democratic domestic policy.
In mid-1979, anger in the financial
community prac- tically forced him to
appoint Paul Volcker as chairman of
the Federal Reserve. Volcker was an
“inflation hawk” who increased
interest rates in an attempt to halt
price increases, at the cost of negative
consequences for the economy.
Carter also faced criticism for his
failure to secure passage of an ef-
fective energy policy. He presented a
comprehensive program, aimed at
reducing dependence on foreign oil,
that he called the “moral equiv- alent
of war.” Opponents thwarted it in
Congress.
Though Carter called himself a
populist, his political priorities were
never wholly clear. He endorsed
government’s protective role, but

30
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980

then began the process of dereg-

But Carter enjoyed less success
ulation, the removal of govern-
with the Soviet Union. Though he
mental controls in economic life.
assumed office with détente at high
Arguing that some restrictions over
tide and declared that the United
the course of the past century lim-
States had escaped its “inordinate
ited competition and increased con-
fear of Communism,” his insistence
sumer costs, he favored decontrol in
that “our commitment to human
the oil, airline, railroad, and truck-
rights must be absolute”
ing industries.
antagonized the Soviet government.
Carter’s political efforts failed to
A SALT II agreement further
gain either public or congressional
limiting nuclear stockpiles was
support. By the end of his term, his
signed, but not rati- fied by the
disapproval rating reached 77 per-
U.S. Senate, many of whose
cent, and Americans began to look
members felt the treaty was
toward the Republican Party again.
unbalanced. The 1979 Soviet inva-
Carter’s greatest foreign policy sion of Afghanistan killed the treaty
accomplishment was the and triggered a Carter defense
negotiation of a peace settlement build- up that paved the way for the
between Egypt, under President huge expenditures of the 1980s.
Anwar al-Sadat, and Israel, under
Carter’s most serious foreign
Prime Minister Men- achem Begin.
pol- icy challenge came in Iran.
Acting as both medi- ator and
After an Islamic fundamentalist
participant, he persuaded the two
revolution led by Shiite Muslim
leaders to end a 30-year state of
leader Ayatol- lah Ruhollah
war. The subsequent peace treaty
Khomeini replaced a corrupt but
was signed at the White House in
friendly regime, Carter admitted the
March 1979.
deposed shah to the United States
After protracted and often emo-
for medical treatment. Angry
tional debate, Carter also secured
Iranian militants, supported by the
Senate ratification of treaties ced-
Islamic regime, seized the
ing the Panama Canal to Panama by
American embassy in Tehran and
the year 2000. Going a step farther
held 53 American hostages for
than Nixon, he extended formal
more than a year. The long-running
dip- lomatic recognition to the
hos- tage crisis dominated the final
People’s Republic of China.
year of his presidency and greatly
dam- aged his chances for re-
election. 9

308
 The digital revolution of the past decade has
transformed the economy and the way Americans
live, influencing work; interactions with colleagues,
family, and friends; access to information; even
shopping and leisure-time habits.

21 CENTURY ST
NATI O
N
A PICTURE PROFILE

The first years of the new century unleashed a new threat to

peace and democracy: international terrorist attacks that killed and
maimed thousands in the United States and around the world.
Just as it has with earlier dangers, the United States took up this
formidable challenge in unison with its allies. At the same
time, it coped with changes sparked by globalization, fast-
paced technological developments, and new waves of
immigration that have made American society more diverse
than in the past.
The country sought to build upon the achievements of its
history, and to honor those who have sacrificed for its cause.

293
Malalai Joya, one of
about 100 women
delegates to the
constitutional
council in
Afghanistan, speaks
to the council in
Kabul, December
17, 2003.
Afghanistan has its
first democratically
elected government
as a result of the U.S.,
allied, and Northern
Alliance military
action in 2001 that
toppled the Taliban
for sheltering Osama
bin Laden,
mastermind of the
September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks
against the United
States.
294
 President George W.
Bush (center) meets with
British Prime Minister
Tony Blair (left), National
Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice, and
Secretary of State Colin
Powell (right) at the
White House during his
first term. Great Britain
has been a key
U.S. ally in the fight against
terrorism.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave

goodbye from Gardermoen Airport outside Oslo, Norway.
President Obama was in Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on
December 10, 2009.

295
Top, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates talks with Antwoinette Hayes, a
participant in a Microsoft initiative to provide technology access to
children and teens.
Above, Apple founder and chief executive officer Steve Jobs with his
company’s iPod mini. Gates and Jobs are seen as the most powerful
symbols of the creative and commercial talent that shaped the digital
era.

296
Cable News Network (CNN) report from Moscow: The combination of
hundreds of cable television channels and 24-hour news services like
CNN gives an unprecedented impact and immediacy to news
developments around the world.

Combine youth, rock and hip hop music, and 24-hour television, and you
get MTV, a television network whose influence extends beyond music
videos to fashion, advertising, and sales.
Bales of sorted recyclables are stacked for
processing at the Rumpke recycling center in
Columbus, Ohio.
Growing environmental consciousness in the
United States has led to huge recycling efforts
for materials such as glass, paper, steel, and
aluminum.
298
The massive AIDS quilt, with each square commemorating an
individual who has died of the disease. The United States is a
leading contributor to the fight against this global pandemic.

299
Americans’ love affair with the automobile continues,
resulting in increased traffic congestion as well as
considerable efforts by government and industry to
reduce air pollution.

300
Iraqis queuing to vote for a Transitional National Assembly at a polling
station in the center of Az Zubayr, Iraq, January 30, 2005. More than 8.5
million Iraqis braved threats of violence and terrorist attacks to participate
in the elections. The vote followed the 2003 war, led by the United States
and other coalition members, which rid Iraq of dictator Saddam
Hussein.

302
 With husbands and wives in the typical family both working outside
the home, daycare centers for children are commonplace throughout
the United States.

A new generation peers into its future.

303
304
 1
CHAPTER

4
THE
NEW
CONSERVATISM
AND
A
NEW
WORLD
ORDER

President Ronald
Reagan and USSR
President Mikhail
Gorbachev after
signing the
Intermediate– Range
Nuclear Forces (INF)
Treaty, December
1987.
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

“I have always believed that

there was some divine plan
that placed this great continent
between two oceans to be
sought out by those who were
possessed of an abiding love of
freedom and a special kind of
courage.”
California Governor Ronald Reagan, 1974

A SOCIETY IN TRANSITION availability and increased use of the

Shifts
computer. The informa- tion age arrived,
in the structure of with hardware and
Ameri- can society, begun years or
even de- cades earlier, had become
apparent
by the time the 1980s arrived. The
composition of the population and
the most important jobs and skills
in American society had undergone
major changes.
The dominance of service jobs
in the economy became undeniable.
By the mid-1980s, nearly three-
fourths of all employees worked in
the ser- vice sector, for instance, as
retail clerks, office workers,
teachers, phy- sicians, and
government employees. Service-
sector activity benefited from the

306
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
software that could aggregate HISTORY

previ- ously unimagined

amounts of data about
economic and social trends.
The federal government had
made significant investments
in computer technology in
the 1950s and 1960s for its
military and space programs.
In 1976, two young California
en- trepreneurs, working out
of a garage, assembled the
first widely marketed
computer for home use,
named it the Apple, and
ignited a revolution. By the
early 1980s, millions of mi-
crocomputers had found
their way into U.S.
businesses and homes, and in
1982, Time magazine dubbed
the
computer its “Machine of the
Year.” Meanwhile,
America’s “smoke-
stack industries” were in
decline. The U.S. automobile
industry reeled under
competition from highly ef-

307
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

ficient Japanese carmakers. By new arriv- als from Asia and

1980 Japanese companies already Latin America. In
manu- factured a fifth of the
vehicles sold in the United States.
American manufacturers struggled
with some success to match the cost
efficien- cies and engineering
standards of their Japanese rivals,
but their for- mer dominance of the
domestic car market was gone
forever. The gi- ant old-line steel
companies shrank to relative
insignificance as foreign steel
makers adopted new technolo- gies
more readily.
Consumers were the
beneficiaries of this ferocious
competition in the manufacturing
industries, but the painful struggle
to cut costs meant the permanent
loss of hundreds of thousands of
blue-collar jobs. Those who could
made the switch to the service
sector; others became unfor- tunate
statistics.
Population patterns shifted as
well. After the end of the postwar
“baby boom” (1946 to 1964), the
overall rate of population growth
declined and the population grew
older. Household composition also
changed. In 1980 the percentage of
family households dropped; a quar-
ter of all groups were now classi-
fied as “nonfamily households,” in
which two or more unrelated per-
sons lived together.
New immigrants changed the
character of American society in
other ways. The 1965 reform in im-
migration policy shifted the focus
away from Western Europe,
facilitat- ing a dramatic increase in

308
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
1980, 808,000 immigrants arrived, the HISTORY

highest number in 60 years, as the

country once more became a haven
for people from around the world.
Additional groups became active
participants in the struggle for equal
opportunity. Homosexuals, using the
tactics and rhetoric of the civil rights
movement, depicted them- selves as
an oppressed group seeking
recognition of basic rights. In 1975,
the U.S. Civil Service Commission
lifted its ban on employment of ho-
mosexuals. Many states enacted an- ti-
discrimination laws.
Then, in 1981, came the discov-
ery of AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome). Transmitted
sexually or through blood transfu-
sions, it struck homosexual men and
intravenous drug users with par-
ticular virulence, although the gen-
eral population proved vulnerable as
well. By 1992, over 220,000 Ameri-
cans had died of AIDS. The AIDS ep-
idemic has by no means been limited
to the United States, and the effort to
treat the disease now encompasses
physicians and medical researchers
throughout the world.

CONSERVATISM AND THE

RISE OF RONALD REAGAN

For many Americans, the eco-

nomic, social, and political trends of
the previous two decades — crime
and racial polarization in many ur-
ban centers, challenges to traditional
values, the economic downturn and
inflation of the Carter years — en-
gendered a mood of disillusionment.

309
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

It also strengthened a renewed sus- They included, but were not limited to,
picion of government and its ability Catholics, political con- servatives, and
to deal effectively with the religious evan-
country’s social and political
problems.
Conservatives, long out of
power at the national level, were
well po- sitioned politically in the
context of this new mood. Many
Americans were receptive to their
message of limited government,
strong national defense, and the
protection of tradi- tional values.
This conservative upsurge had
many sources. A large group of
fun- damentalist Christians were
partic- ularly concerned about
crime and sexual immorality. They
hoped to return religion or the
moral precepts often associated
with it to a central place in
American life. One of the most
politically effective groups in the
early 1980s, the Moral Majority,
was led by a Baptist minister, Jerry
Falwell. Another, led by the
Reverend Pat Robertson, built an
organization, the Christian
Coalition, that by the 1990s was a
significant force in the Republican
Party. Using television to spread
their messages, Falwell, Rob-
ertson, and others like them devel-
oped substantial followings.
Another galvanizing issue for
conservatives was divisive and
emo- tional: abortion. Opposition to
the 1973 Supreme Court decision,
Roe v. Wade, which upheld a
woman’s right to an abortion in the
early months of pregnancy, brought
together a wide array of
organizations and individ- uals.

310
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
gelicals, most of whom conservatives” HISTORY
who distrusted
regarded abortion under government in general and opposed
virtually any cir- state interference in personal behav-
cumstances as tantamount ior. But the New Right also encom-
to mur- der. Pro-choice and passed a stronger, often evangelical
pro-life (that is, pro- and faction determined to wield state
anti-abortion rights) dem- power to encourage its views. The
onstrations became a fixture New Right favored tough measures
of the political landscape. against crime, a strong national de-
Within the Republican
Party, the conservative wing
grew dominant once again.
They had briefly seized
control of the Republican
Party in 1964 with its
presidential candidate, Barry
Goldwater, then faded from
the spotlight. By 1980,
however, with the apparent
failure of liberalism un- der
Carter, a “New Right” was
poised to return to
dominance.
Using modern direct mail
tech- niques as well as the
power of mass
communications to spread
their message and raise
funds, drawing on the ideas
of conservatives like econ-
omist Milton Friedman,
journalists William F.
Buckley and George Will, and
research institutions like the
Heritage Foundation, the
New Right played a
significant role in defining
the issues of the 1980s.
The “Old” Goldwater
Right had favored strict
limits on government
intervention in the economy.
This tendency was reinforced
by a signifi- cant group of
“New Right” “liber- tarian
311
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

fense, a constitutional amendment country did not need, and to

to permit prayer in public schools, eliminate “waste, fraud, and
and opposition to abortion. abuse.” Reagan accelerated the
The figure that drew all these
disparate strands together was Ron-
ald Reagan. Reagan, born in Illi-
nois, achieved stardom as an actor
in Hollywood movies and television
before turning to politics. He first
achieved political prominence with
a nationwide televised speech in
1964 in support of Barry
Goldwater. In 1966 Reagan won
the governorship of California and
served until 1975. He narrowly
missed winning the Re- publican
nomination for president in 1976
before succeeding in 1980 and
going on to win the presidency
from the incumbent, Jimmy Carter.
President Reagan’s unflagging
optimism and his ability to
celebrate the achievements and
aspirations of the American people
persisted throughout his two terms
in office. He was a figure of
reassurance and stability for many
Americans. Whol- ly at ease before
the microphone and the television
camera, Reagan was called the
“Great Communicator.”
Taking a phrase from the 17th-
century Puritan John Winthrop, he
told the nation that the United
States was a “shining city on a
hill,” invest- ed with a God-given
mission to de- fend the world
against the spread of Communist
totalitarianism.
Reagan believed that
government intruded too deeply
into American life. He wanted to
cut programs he contended the

312
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
program of deregulation begun by HISTORY

Jimmy Carter. He sought to abol- ish

many regulations affecting the
consumer, the workplace, and the
environment. These, he argued, were
inefficient, expensive, and detrimen-
tal to economic growth.
Reagan also reflected the belief
held by many conservatives that the
law should be strictly applied against
violators. Shortly after becoming
president, he faced a nationwide strike
by U.S. air transportation controllers.
Although the job action was forbidden
by law, such strikes had been widely
tolerated in the past. When the air
controllers refused to return to work,
he ordered them all fired. Over the
next few years the system was rebuilt
with new hires.

THE ECONOMY IN THE 1980s

President Reagan’s domestic pro-

gram was rooted in his belief that the
nation would prosper if the power of
the private economic sector was un-
leashed. The guiding theory behind it,
“supply side” economics, held that a
greater supply of goods and services,
made possible by measures to increase
business investment, was the swiftest
road to economic growth.
Accordingly, the Reagan
administration argued that a large tax
cut would increase capital in-
vestment and corporate earnings, so
that even lower taxes on these larger
earnings would increase gov- ernment
revenues.
Despite only a slim Republican
majority in the Senate and a House

313
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

of Representatives controlled by the production. But the

Democrats, President Reagan suc-
ceeded during his first year in office
in enacting the major components
of his economic program, including
a 25-percent tax cut for individu-
als to be phased in over three years.
The administration also sought and
won significant increases in defense
spending to modernize the nation’s
military and counter what it felt was
a continual and growing threat from
the Soviet Union.
Under Paul Volcker, the Federal
Reserve’s draconian increases in in-
terest rates squeezed the runaway
inflation that had begun in the late
1970s. The recession hit bottom in
1982, with the prime interest rates
approaching 20 percent and the
economy falling sharply. That year,
real gross domestic product (GDP)
fell by 2 percent; the
unemployment rate rose to nearly
10 percent, and almost one-third of
America’s indus- trial plants lay
idle. Throughout the Midwest,
major firms like General Electric
and International Harvester released
workers. Stubbornly high
petroleum prices contributed to the
decline. Economic rivals like Ger-
many and Japan won a greater share
of world trade, and U.S. consump-
tion of goods from other countries
rose sharply.
Farmers also suffered hard
times. During the 1970s, American
farm- ers had helped India, China,
the Soviet Union, and other
countries suffering from crop
shortages, and had borrowed
heavily to buy land and increase

314
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
rise in oil prices pushed up HISTORY
allocation of gasoline. Conditions
costs, and a worldwide began to im- prove in late 1983. By
economic slump in 1980 early 1984, the economy had
reduced the demand for agri- rebounded. By the fall of 1984, the
cultural products. Their recovery was well along, allowing
numbers declined, as Reagan to run for re-election on the
production increasingly slogan, “It’s morning again in
became concentrated in large America.” He de- feated his
opera- tions. Those small Democratic opponent,
farmers who sur- vived had
major difficulties making
ends meet.
The increased military
budget — combined with the
tax cuts and the growth in
government health spend- ing
— resulted in the federal
gov- ernment spending far
more than it received in
revenues each year. Some
analysts charged that the
deficits were part of a
deliberate adminis- tration
strategy to prevent further
increases in domestic
spending sought by the
Democrats. However, both
Democrats and Republicans
in Congress refused to cut
such spend- ing. From
$74,000-million in 1980, the
deficit soared to $221,000-
mil- lion in 1986 before
falling back to
$150,000-million in 1987.
The deep recession of the
early 1980s successfully
curbed the run- away
inflation that had started dur-
ing the Carter years. Fuel
prices, moreover, fell
sharply, with at least part of
the drop attributable to Rea-
gan’s decision to abolish
controls on the pricing and
315
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

former Senator and Vice President

voluntary quota on its automobile
Walter Mondale, by an overwhelm-
exports to the United States.
ing margin.
The economy was jolted on
The United States entered one
Octo- ber 19, 1987, “Black
of the longest periods of sustained
Monday,” when the stock market
economic growth since World War
suffered the great- est one-day
II. Consumer spending increased in
crash in its history, 22.6 percent.
response to the federal tax cut. The
The causes of the crash in- cluded
stock market climbed as it reflected
the large U.S. international trade
the optimistic buying spree. Over a
and federal-budget deficits, the high
five-year period following the start
level of corporate and personal
of the recovery, gross national
debt, and new computerized stock
prod- uct grew at an annual rate of
trading techniques that allowed in-
4.2 percent. The annual inflation
stantaneous selling of stocks and
rate remained between 3 and 5
fu- tures. Despite the memories of
percent from 1983 to 1987, except
1929 it evoked, however, the crash
in 1986 when it fell to just under 2
was a transitory event with little
percent, the lowest level in decades.
impact. In fact, economic growth
The na- tion’s GNP grew
continued, with the unemployment
substantially dur- ing the 1980s;
rate drop- ping to a 14-year low of
from 1982 to 1987, its economy
5.2 percent in June 1988.
created more than 13 mil- lion new
jobs.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Steadfast in his commitment
to lower taxes, Reagan signed the
most sweeping federal tax-reform
In foreign policy, Reagan
measure in 75 years during his sec- sought a more assertive role for the
nation, and Central America
ond term. This measure, which had provided an
widespread Democratic as well as early test. The United States pro-
Republican support, lowered vided El Salvador with a program
income tax rates, simplified tax of economic aid and military
brackets, and closed loopholes. training when a guerrilla insurgency
However, a significant percentage threat- ened to topple its
of this growth was based on defi- government. It also actively
cit spending. Moreover, the national encouraged the transition to an
debt, far from being stabilized by elected democratic government, but
strong economic growth, nearly tri- efforts to curb active right-wing
pled. Much of the growth occurred death squads were only partly suc-
in skilled service and technical ar- cessful. U.S. support helped stabi-
eas. Many poor and middle-class lize the government, but the level of
families did less well. The adminis- violence there remained undimin-
tration, although an advocate of free ished. A peace agreement was finally
trade, pressured Japan to agree to a reached in early 1992.
316
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
U.S. policy toward Nicaragua was HISTORY

more controversial. In 1979

317
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

revolutionaries calling themselves Latin America; in Asia, the “people

Sandinistas overthrew the repres- power” campaign
sive right-wing Somoza regime and
established a pro-Cuba, pro-Soviet
dictatorship. Regional peace efforts
ended in failure, and the focus of
administration efforts shifted to
support for the anti-Sandinista re-
sistance, known as the contras.
Following intense political
debate over this policy, Congress
ended all military aid to the contras
in Oc- tober 1984, then, under
administra- tion pressure, reversed
itself in the fall of 1986, and
approved $100 mil- lion in military
aid. However, a lack of success on
the battlefield, charges of human
rights abuses, and the rev- elation
that funds from secret arms sales to
Iran (see below) had been di- verted
to the contras undercut con-
gressional support to continue this
aid.
Subsequently, the administration
of President George H.W. Bush,
who succeeded Reagan as president
in 1989, abandoned any effort to
secure military aid for the contras.
The Bush administration also
exerted pressure for free elections
and supported an opposition
political coalition, which won an
astonishing upset election in
February 1990, ousting the Sandini-
stas from power.
The Reagan administration was
more fortunate in witnessing a re-
turn to democracy throughout the
rest of Latin America, from Guate-
mala to Argentina. The emergence
of democratically elected
governments was not limited to

318
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
of Corazon Aquino and seized caches HISTORY
of Soviet-
overthrew the dictatorship of supplied arms. In December 1983,
Ferdinand Marcos, and the last American combat troops
elections in South Korea left Grena- da, which held
ended decades of military democratic elections a year later.
rule. The Middle East, however,
By contrast, South Africa presented a far more difficult situ-
re- mained intransigent in ation. A military presence in Leb-
the face of anon, where the United States was
U.S. efforts to encourage an
end to racial apartheid
through the contro- versial
policy of “constructive en-
gagement,” quiet diplomacy
coupled with public
endorsement of reform. In
1986, frustrated at the lack of
progress, the U.S. Congress
overrode Reagan’s veto and
imposed a set of economic
sanctions on South Afri- ca.
In February 1990, South
African President F.W. de
Klerk announced Nelson
Mandela’s release and began
the slow dismantling of
apartheid.
Despite its outspoken anti-
Com- munist rhetoric, the
Reagan ad- ministration’s
direct use of military force
was restrained. On October
25, 1983, U.S. forces landed
on the Ca- ribbean island of
Grenada after an urgent
appeal for help by neighbor-
ing countries. The action
followed the assassination of
Grenada’s leftist prime
minister by members of his
own Marxist-oriented party.
After a brief period of
fighting, U.S. troops captured
hundreds of Cuban mili- tary
and construction personnel

319
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

attempting to bolster a weak, but American foreign poli- cy

moderate pro-Western government, interests in the Middle East and
ended tragically, when 241 U.S.
Ma- rines were killed in a terrorist
bomb- ing in October 1983. In
April 1986,
U.S. Navy and Air Force planes
struck targets in Tripoli and Beng-
hazi, Libya, in retaliation for Libyan-
instigated terrorist attacks on U.S.
military personnel in Europe.
In the Persian Gulf, the earlier
breakdown in U.S.-Iranian relations
and the Iran-Iraq War set the stage
for U.S. naval activities in the region.
Initially, the United States
responded to a request from Kuwait
for pro- tection of its tanker fleet;
but even- tually the United States,
along with naval vessels from
Western Europe, kept vital shipping
lanes open by es- corting convoys
of tankers and oth- er neutral
vessels traveling up and down the
Gulf.
In late 1986 Americans learned
that the administration had secretly
sold arms to Iran in an attempt to
resume diplomatic relations with
the hostile Islamic government and
win freedom for American hostages
held in Lebanon by radical
organizations that Iran controlled.
Investigation also revealed that
funds from the arms sales had been
diverted to the Nicaraguan contras
during a period when Congress had
prohibited such military aid.
The ensuing Iran-contra hearings
before a joint House-Senate
commit- tee examined issues of
possible ille- gality as well as the
broader question of defining

320
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Central America. In a larger sense, the HISTORY

hearings were a constitutional debate

about government secrecy and
presidential versus congressio- nal
authority in the conduct of for- eign
relations. Unlike the celebrated Senate
Watergate hearings 14 years earlier,
they found no grounds for impeaching
the president and could reach no
definitive conclusion about these
perennial issues.

U.S.-SOVIET RELATIONS

In relations with the Soviet Union,

President Reagan’s declared policy
was one of peace through strength.
He was determined to stand firm
against the country he would in 1983
call an “evil empire.” Two early
events increased U.S.-Soviet tensions:
the suppression of the Soli- darity
labor movement in Poland in
December 1981, and the destruction
with 269 fatalities of an off-course
civilian airliner, Korean Airlines
Flight 007, by a Soviet jet fighter on
September 1, 1983. The United States
also condemned the continuing So-
viet occupation of Afghanistan and
continued aid begun by the Carter
administration to the mujahedeen
resistance there.
During Reagan’s first term, the
United States spent unprecedented
sums for a massive defense build- up,
including the placement of in-
termediate-range nuclear missiles in
Europe to counter Soviet deploy-
ments of similar missiles. And on
March 23, 1983, in one of the most
hotly debated policy decisions of his

321
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

presidency, Reagan announced the

THE PRESIDENCY OF
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
GEORGE H. W. BUSH
re- search program to explore
advanced technologies, such as
lasers and high-energy projectiles,
President Reagan enjoyed
to defend against intercontinental unusu- ally high popularity at the
end of his second term in office,
ballistic missiles. Although many but under
scientists questioned the the terms of the U.S. Constitution
technological feasi- bility of SDI he could not run again in 1988. The
and economists pointed to the Republican nomination went to
extraordinary sums of money Vice President George Herbert
involved, the administration pressed Walker Bush, who was elected the
ahead with the project. 41st presi- dent of the United
After re-election in 1984, Rea- States.
gan softened his position on arms Bush campaigned by promising
control. Moscow was amenable to voters a continuation of the pros-
agreement, in part because its econ- perity Reagan had brought. In ad-
omy already expended a far greater dition, he argued that he would
proportion of national output on its support a strong defense for the
military than did the United States. United States more reliably than
Further increases, Soviet leader the Democratic candidate, Michael
Mikhail Gorbachev felt, would Dukakis. He also promised to work
crip- ple his plans to liberalize the for “a kinder, gentler America.”
Soviet economy. Du- kakis, the governor of
In November 1985, Reagan and Massachu- setts, claimed that less
Gorbachev agreed in principle to fortunate Americans were hurting
seek 50-percent reductions in stra- economi- cally and that the
tegic offensive nuclear arms as well government had to help them while
as an interim agreement on inter- simultaneously bringing the federal
mediate-range nuclear forces. In debt and de- fense spending under
December 1987, they signed the control. The public was much more
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces engaged, however, by Bush’s
(INF) Treaty providing for the de- economic mes- sage: No new taxes.
struction of that entire category of In the balloting, Bush finished with
nuclear weapons. By then, the So- a 54-to-46-per- cent popular vote
viet Union seemed a less menac- margin.
ing adversary. Reagan could take
During his first year in office,
much of the credit for a greatly di-
Bush followed a conservative fiscal
minished Cold War, but as his ad-
program, pursuing policies on
ministration ended, almost no one
taxes, spending, and debt that were
realized just how shaky the USSR
faithful to the Reagan
had become.
administration’s eco- nomic
program. But the new presi- dent
322
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
soon found himself squeezed HISTORY

between a large budget

deficit and a deficit-reduction
law. Spending cuts

323
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

seemed necessary, and Bush pos- institutions. Fraud,

sessed little leeway to introduce mismanagement, and the choppy
new budget items. economy produced widespread
The Bush administration ad- in-
vanced new policy initiatives in ar-
eas not requiring major new federal
expenditures. Thus, in November
1990, Bush signed sweeping
legisla- tion imposing new federal
standards on urban smog,
automobile exhaust, toxic air
pollution, and acid rain, but with
industrial polluters bear- ing most
of the costs. He accepted legislation
requiring physical access for the
disabled, but with no fed- eral
assumption of the expense of
modifying buildings to accommo-
date wheelchairs and the like. The
president also launched a campaign
to encourage volunteerism, which
he called, in a memorable phrase,
“a thousand points of light.”

BUDGETS AND DEFICITS

Bush administration efforts

to gain control over the federal
budget deficit, however, were more
problem-
atic. One source of the difficulty
was the savings and loan crisis.
Savings banks — formerly tightly
regulated, low-interest safe havens
for ordinary people — had been
deregulated, al- lowing these
institutions to com- pete more
aggressively by paying higher
interest rates and by making riskier
loans. Increases in the gov-
ernment’s deposit insurance
guaran- teed reduced consumer
incentive to shun less-sound

324
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
solvencies among these thrifts (the HISTORY

umbrella term for consumer-orient- ed

institutions like savings and loan
associations and savings banks). By
1993, the total cost of selling and
shuttering failed thrifts was stagger-
ing, nearly $525,000-million.
In January 1990, President Bush
presented his budget proposal to
Congress. Democrats argued that
administration budget projections
were far too optimistic, and that
meeting the deficit-reduction law
would require tax increases and
sharper cuts in defense spending. That
June, after protracted negotia- tions,
the president agreed to a tax increase.
All the same, the combi- nation of
economic recession, losses from the
savings and loan indus- try rescue
operation, and escalating health care
costs for Medicare and Medicaid
offset all the deficit-reduc- tion
measures and produced a short- fall in
1991 at least as large as the previous
year’s.

END TO THE COLD WAR

When Bush became president,

the Soviet empire was on the verge of
collapse. Gorbachev’s efforts to
open up the USSR’s economy ap-
peared to be floundering. In 1989, the
Communist governments in one
Eastern European country af- ter
another simply collapsed, after it
became clear that Russian troops
would not be sent to prop them up. In
mid-1991, hard-liners attempted a
coup d’etat, only to be foiled by
Gorbachev rival Boris Yeltsin, presi-

325
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

dent of the Russian republic. At the trations. The occupation of Kuwait,

end of that year, Yeltsin, now domi- posing a threat to Saudi Arabia,
nant, forced the dissolution of the
Soviet Union.
The Bush administration adeptly
brokered the end of the Cold War,
working closely with Gorbachev
and Yeltsin. It led the negotiations
that brought the unification of East
and West Germany (September
1990), agreement on large arms
reductions in Europe (November
1990), and large cuts in nuclear
arsenals (July 1991). After the
liquidation of the Soviet Union, the
United States and the new Russian
Federation agreed to phase out all
multiple-warhead missiles over a
10-year period.
The disposal of nuclear materi-
als and the ever-present concerns
of nuclear proliferation now super-
seded the threat of nuclear conflict
between Washington and Moscow.

THE GULF WAR

The euphoria caused by the

draw- ing down of the Cold War
was dramatically overshadowed
by the
August 2, 1990, invasion of the small
nation of Kuwait by Iraq. Iraq,
under Saddam Hussein, and Iran,
under its Islamic fundamentalist
regime, had emerged as the two
major military powers in the oil-
rich Persian Gulf area. The two
countries had fought a long,
inconclusive war in the 1980s. Less
hostile to the United States than
Iran, Iraq had won some support
from the Reagan and Bush adminis-

326
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
changed the diplomatic Bush the author- ity HISTORY
he sought in
calculation overnight. the most explicit and sweeping war-
President Bush strongly making power given a president in
con- demned the Iraqi action, nearly half a century.
called for Iraq’s The United States, in coalition
unconditional withdrawal, with Great Britain, France, Italy,
and sent a major deployment Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other
of U.S. troops to the Middle
East. He assem- bled one of
the most extraordinary
military and political
coalitions of modern times,
with military forces from
Asia, Europe, and Africa, as
well as the Middle East.
In the days and weeks
follow- ing the invasion, the
U.N. Security Council passed
12 resolutions con- demning
the Iraqi invasion and
imposing wide-ranging
economic sanctions on Iraq.
On November 29, it
approved the use of force if
Iraq did not withdraw from
Kuwait by January 15, 1991.
Gorbachev’s Soviet Union,
once Iraq’s major arms sup-
plier, made no effort to
protect its former client.
Bush also confronted a
major constitutional issue.
The U.S. Con- stitution gives
the legislative branch the
power to declare war. Yet in
the second half of the 20th
century, the United States
had become involved in
Korea and Vietnam without
an official declaration of war
and with only murky
legislative authoriza- tion. On
January 12, 1991, three days
before the U.N. deadline,
Congress granted President
327
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER

countries, succeeded in liberating

The talks began in Madrid, Spain,
Kuwait with a devastating, U.S.-led
on October 30, 1991. In turn, they
air campaign that lasted slightly
set the stage for the secret
more than a month. It was followed
negotiations in Norway that led to
by a massive invasion of Kuwait
what at the time seemed a historic
and Iraq by armored and airborne
agreement between Israel and the
in- fantry forces. With their
Palestine Lib- eration Organization,
superior speed, mobility, and
signed at the White House on
firepower, the allied forces
September 13, 1993.
overwhelmed the Iraqi forces in a
land campaign lasting only 100
PANAMA AND NAFTA
hours.
The victory, however, was
incom- plete and unsatisfying. The
The president also received
U.N. res- olution, which Bush broad bipartisan congressional
backing for the brief U.S. invasion
enforced to the letter, called only of Panama
for the expulsion of Iraq from on December 20, 1989, that
Kuwait. Saddam Hussein remained deposed dictator General Manuel
in power, savagely repress- ing the Antonio Noriega. In the 1980s,
Kurds in the north and the Shiites in addiction to crack cocaine reached
the south, both of whom the United epidemic pro- portions, and
States had encouraged to rebel. President Bush put the “War on
Hundreds of oil-well fires, de- Drugs” at the center of his domestic
liberately set in Kuwait by the agenda. Moreover, Norie- ga, an
Iraqis, took until November 1991 to especially brutal dictator, had
extin- guish. Saddam’s regime also attempted to maintain himself in
appar- ently thwarted U.N. power with rather crude displays of
inspectors who, operating in anti-Americanism. After seek- ing
accordance with Secu- rity Council refuge in the Vatican embassy,
resolutions, worked to locate and Noriega turned himself over to U.S.
destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass authorities. He was later tried and
destruction, including nuclear convicted in U.S. federal court in
facilities more advanced than had Miami, Florida, of drug trafficking
previously been suspected and huge and racketeering.
stocks of chemical weapons.
On the economic front, the Bush
The Gulf War enabled the administration negotiated the North
United States to persuade the Arab America Free Trade Agreement
states, Israel, and a Palestinian (NAFTA) with Mexico and
delegation to begin direct Canada. It would be ratified after an
negotiations aimed at resolving the intense debate in the first year of
complex and inter- locked issues the Clinton administration. 9
that could eventually lead to a
lasting peace in the region.

328
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER
OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY
THIRD-PARTY AND INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

The United States is often thought of as functioning under a two-party

sys- tem. In practical effect this is true: Either a Democrat or a Republican
has
occupied the White House every year since 1852. At the same time, however,
the country has produced a plethora of third and minor parties over the years.
For example, 58 parties were represented on at least one state ballot during
the 1992 presidential elections. Among these were obscure parties such as
the Apathy, the Looking Back, the New Mexico Prohibition, the Tish
Independent Citizens, and the Vermont Taxpayers.
Third parties organize around a single issue or set of issues. They
tend to fare best when they have a charismatic leader. With the presidency
out of reach, most seek a platform to publicize their political and social
concerns.
Theodore Roosevelt. The most successful third-party candidate of
the 20th century was a Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, the former presi-
dent. His Progressive or Bull Moose Party won 27.4 percent of the vote in
the 1912 election. The progressive wing of the Republican Party, having
grown disenchanted with President William Howard Taft, whom Roosevelt
had
hand-picked as his successor, urged Roosevelt to seek the party nomination
in 1912. This he did, defeating Taft in a number of primaries. Taft controlled
the party machinery, however, and secured the nomination.
Roosevelt’s supporters then broke away and formed the Progressive Party.
Declaring himself as fit as a bull moose (hence the party’s popular name),
Roosevelt campaigned on a platform of regulating “big business,” women’s
suffrage, a graduated income tax, the Panama Canal, and conservation. His
effort was sufficient to defeat Taft. By splitting the Republican vote, however,
he helped ensure the election of the Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
Socialists. The Socialist Party also reached its high point in 1912,
attaining 6 percent of the popular vote. Perennial candidate Eugene Debs
won nearly 900,000 votes that year, advocating collective ownership of the
trans- portation and communication industries, shorter working hours, and
public works projects to spur employment. Convicted of sedition during World
War I, Debs campaigned from his cell in 1920.
Robert La Follette. Another Progressive was Senator Robert La Fol-
lette, who won more than 16 percent of the vote in the 1924 election. Long a
champion of farmers and industrial workers, and an ardent foe of big business,
La Follette was a prime mover in the recreation of the Progressive movement
following World War I. Backed by the farm and labor vote, as well as by
Socialists and remnants of Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party, La Follette ran on
329
a platform of nationalizing railroads and the country’s natural resources. He
318
 OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

also strongly supported increased taxation on the wealthy and the right of col-
lective bargaining. He carried only his home state of Wisconsin.
Henry Wallace. The Progressive Party reinvented itself in 1948 with
the nomination of Henry Wallace, a former secretary of agriculture and vice
president under Franklin Roosevelt. Wallace’s 1948 platform opposed the
Cold War, the Marshall Plan, and big business. He also campaigned to end
discrimination against African Americans and women, backed a minimum
wage, and called for the elimination of the House Committee on Un-Ameri-
can Activities. His failure to repudiate the U.S. Communist Party, which had
endorsed him, undermined his popularity and he wound up with just over 2.4
percent of the popular vote.
Dixiecrats. Like the Progressives, the States Rights or Dixiecrat Party,
led by South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, emerged in 1948 as a spin-
off from the Democratic Party. Its opposition stemmed from Truman’s civil
rights platform. Although defined in terms of “states’ rights,” the party’s goal
was continuing racial segregation and the “Jim Crow” laws that sustained it.
George Wallace. The racial and social upheavals of the 1960s helped
bring George Wallace, another segregationist Southern governor, to national
attention. Wallace built a following through his colorful attacks against civil
rights, liberals, and the federal government. Founding the American Indepen-
dent Party in 1968, he ran his campaign from the statehouse in Montgomery,
Alabama, winning 13.5 percent of the overall presidential vote.
H. Ross Perot. Every third party seeks to capitalize on popular dis-
satisfaction with the major parties and the federal government. At few times in
recent history, however, has this sentiment been as strong as it was during the
1992 election. A hugely wealthy Texas businessman, Perot possessed a knack
for getting his message of economic common sense and fiscal responsibility
across to a wide spectrum of the people. Lampooning the nation’s leaders and
reducing his economic message to easily understood formulas, Perot found
little difficulty gaining media attention. His campaign organization, United
We Stand, was staffed primarily by volunteers and backed by his personal
fortune. Far from resenting his wealth, many admired Perot’s business success
and the freedom it brought him from soliciting campaign funds from special
interests. Perot withdrew from the race in July. Re-entering it a month before
the elec- tion, he won over 19 million votes as the Reform Party standard-
bearer, nearly 19 percent of the total cast. This was by far the largest number
ever tallied by a third-party candidate and second only to Theodore
Roosevelt’s 1912 show- ing as a percentage of the total. ◆

319
320
 1
CHAPTER

5
BRIDGE
TO
THE
21st
CENTURY

Firefighters
beneath the
destroyed vertical
struts of the World
Trade Center’s twin
towers after the
September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks in New
York and Washington,
D.C.
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY

“As we look ahead

into the next
century,
leaders will be those who
empower others.”
Microsoft co-founder and chairman
Bill Gates, 2007

For most Americans the 1990s in decline.

would be a time of peace, prosper-
ity, and rapid technological change.
Some attributed this to the “Rea-
gan Revolution” and the end of the
Cold War, others to the return of a
Democrat to the presidency. During
this period, the majority of Ameri-
cans—political affiliation aside—
asserted their support for tradi-
tional family values, often ground-
ed in their faiths. New York Times
columnist David Brooks suggested
that the country was experienc-
ing “moral self-repair,” as “many of
the indicators of social breakdown,
which shot upward in the late 1960s
and 1970s, and which plateaued at
high levels in the 1980s,” were now
322
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Improved crime and other HISTORY

social statistics aside,

American politics re- mained
ideological, emotional, and
characterized by intense
divisions. Shortly after the
nation entered the new
millennium, moreover, its
post- Cold War sense of
security was jolted by an
unprecedented terrorist attack
that launched it on a new and
difficult international track.

THE 1992
PRESIDENT
IAL
ELECTION

As the 1992
presidential elec- tion
approached, Americans
found themselves in a world
transformed
in ways almost unimaginable
four years earlier. The
familiar land- marks of the
Cold War—from the

32
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY

Berlin Wall to intercontinental mis- the direction of the economy

siles and bombers on constant high also
alert—were gone. Eastern Europe
was independent, the Soviet Union
had dissolved, Germany was unit-
ed, Arabs and Israelis were engaged
in direct negotiations, and the
threat of nuclear conflict was great-
ly diminished. It was as though one
great history volume had closed and
another had opened.
Yet at home, Americans were
less sanguine, and they faced some
fa- miliar problems. The United
States found itself in its deepest
recession since the early 1980s.
Many of the job losses were
occurring among white-collar
workers in middle management
positions, not solely, as earlier,
among blue-collar workers in the
manufacturing sector. Even when
the economy began recover- ing in
1992, its growth was virtu- ally
imperceptible until late in the year.
Moreover, the federal deficit
continued to mount, propelled most
strikingly by rising expenditures for
health care.
President George Bush and Vice
President Dan Quayle easily won
re- nomination by the Republican
Party. On the Democratic side, Bill
Clin- ton, governor of Arkansas,
defeated a crowded field of
candidates to win his party’s
nomination. As his vice presidential
nominee, he selected Senator Al
Gore of Tennessee, gen- erally
acknowledged as one of the
Congress’s strongest advocates of
environmental protection.
The country’s deep unease over

324
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
sparked the emergence of a remark- HISTORY

able independent candidate, wealthy

Texas entrepreneur H. Ross Perot.
Perot tapped into a deep wellspring of
frustration over the inability of
Washington to deal effectively with
economic issues, principally the fed-
eral deficit. He possessed a colorful
personality and a gift for the telling
one-line political quip. He would be
the most successful third-party can-
didate since Theodore Roosevelt in
1912.
The Bush re-election effort was
built around a set of ideas tradi-
tionally used by incumbents: expe-
rience and trust. George Bush, 68, the
last of a line of presidents who had
served in World War II, faced a
young challenger in Bill Clinton who,
at age 46, had never served in the
military and had participated in
protests against the Vietnam War. In
emphasizing his experience as presi-
dent and commander-in-chief, Bush
drew attention to Clinton’s inexperi-
ence at the national level.
Bill Clinton organized his cam-
paign around another of the oldest and
most powerful themes in elec- toral
politics: youth and change. As a high
school student, Clinton had once met
President Kennedy; 30 years later,
much of his rhetoric con- sciously
echoed that of Kennedy in the 1960
presidential campaign.
As governor of Arkansas for 12
years, Clinton could point to his ex-
perience in wrestling with the very
issues of economic growth, educa-
tion, and health care that were, ac-
cording to public opinion polls,

32
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY

among President Bush’s chief vul- groups without alienating them.

nerabilities. Where Bush offered an
economic program based on lower
taxes and cuts in government
spend- ing, Clinton proposed
higher taxes on the wealthy and
increased spend- ing on
investments in education,
transportation, and communica-
tions that, he believed, would
boost the nation’s productivity and
growth and thereby lower the
deficit. Simi- larly, Clinton’s health
care proposals called for much
heavier involvement by the federal
government than Bush’s.
Clinton proved to be a highly
effective communicator, not least
on television, a medium that high-
lighted his charm and intelligence.
The incumbent’s very success in
handling the end of the Cold War
and reversing the Iraqi thrust into
Kuwait lent strength to Clinton’s
implicit argument that foreign af-
fairs had become relatively less im-
portant, given pressing social and
economic needs at home.
On November 3, Clinton won
election as the 42nd president of the
United States, with 43 percent of
the popular vote against 37 percent
for Bush and 19 percent for Perot.

A NEW PRESIDENCY

Clinton was in many respects

the perfect leader for a party
divided be- tween liberal and
moderate wings.
He ran as a pragmatic centrist who
could moderate the demands of
various Democratic Party interest

326
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Avoiding ideological centrism demandedHISTORY choices that
rhetoric that declared big sometimes elicited vehement
government to be a positive emotions. The
good, he proposed a num- president’s first policy initiative was
ber of programs that earned designed to meet the demands of
him the label “New gays, who, claiming a group status
Democrat.” Control of the as victims of discrimination, had
federal bureaucracy and ju-
dicial appointments provided
one means of satisfying
political claims of organized
labor and civil rights groups.
On the ever-controversial
abortion issue, Clinton
supported the Roe v. Wade
decision, but also declared
that abortion should be “safe,
legal, and rare.”
President Clinton’s closest
col- laborator was his wife,
Hillary Rod- ham Clinton.
In the campaign, he had
quipped that those who
voted for him “got two for
the price of one.” As
energetic and as activist as
her husband, Ms. Clinton
assumed a more prominent
role in the admin- istration
than any first lady before her,
even Eleanor Roosevelt. Her
first important assignment
would be to develop a
national health program. In
2000, with her husband’s
adminis- tration coming to a
close, she would be elected a
U.S. senator from New York.

LAUNCHI
NG A NEW
DOMESTI
C POLICY

In practice, Clinton’s
32
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY

become an important constituency in Congress.

for the Democratic Party.
Immediately after his inaugu-
ration, President Clinton issued
an executive order rescinding the
long-established military policy of
dismissing known gays from the
service. The order quickly drew fu-
rious criticism from the military,
most Republicans, and large seg-
ments of American society. Clinton
quickly modified it with a “don’t
ask, don’t tell” order that
effectively restored the old policy
but discour- aged active
investigation of one’s sexual
practices.
The effort to achieve a national
health plan proved to be a far larg-
er setback. The administration set
up a large task force, chaired by
Hillary Clinton. Composed of
prominent policy intellectuals and
political activists, it labored in se-
crecy for months to develop a plan
that would provide medical cover-
age for every American citizen.
The working assumption be-
hind the plan was that a govern-
ment-managed “single-payer” plan
could deliver health services to the
entire nation more efficiently than
the current decentralized system
with its thousands of insurers and
disconnected providers. As finally
delivered to Congress in September
1993, however, the plan mirrored
the complexity of its subject. Most
Republicans and some Democrats
criticized it as a hopelessly
elaborate federal takeover of
American medi- cine. After a year
of discussion, it died without a vote

328
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
President Clinton was more HISTORY

successful on another matter with

great repercussions for the domes- tic
economy. The previous presi- dent,
George Bush, had negotiated the
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) to establish
fully open trade between Canada, the
United States, and Mexico. Key
Democratic constituencies opposed
the agreement. Labor unions be-
lieved it would encourage the export
of jobs and undermine American labor
standards. Environmentalists asserted
that it would lead Ameri- can
industries to relocate to coun- tries
with weak pollution controls. These
were the first indications of a growing
movement on the left wing of
American politics against the vision of
an integrated world eco- nomic
system.
Clinton nonetheless accepted the
argument that open trade was
ultimately beneficial to all parties
because it would lead to a greater flow
of more efficiently produced goods
and services. His adminis- tration not
only submitted NAFTA to the Senate,
it also backed the es- tablishment of a
greatly liberalized international
trading system to be administered by
the World Trade Organization
(WTO). After a vig- orous debate,
Congress approved NAFTA in 1993.
It would approve membership in the
WTO a year later.
Although Clinton had talked about
a “middle-class tax cut” dur- ing the
presidential campaign, he submitted
to Congress a budget

32
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY

calling for a general tax increase.

stead moderated his political
It originally included a wide tax
course. Policy initiatives for the
on energy consumption designed
remainder of his presidency were
to promote conservation, but that
few. Contrary to Republican
was quickly replaced by a nomi-
predictions of doom, the tax
nal increase in the federal gasoline
increases of 1993 did not get in the
tax. It also taxed social security
way of a steadily improving
benefits for recipients of moderate
economy.
income and above. The big empha-
The new Republican leadership
sis, however, was on increasing the
in the House of Representatives, by
income tax for high earners. The
contrast, pressed hard to achieve
subsequent debate amounted to a
its policy objectives, a sharp con-
rerun of the arguments between tax
trast with the administration’s new
cutters and advocates of “fiscal re-
moderate tone. When right-wing
sponsibility” that had marked the
extremists bombed an Oklahoma
Reagan years. In the end, Clinton
City federal building in April 1995,
got his way, but very narrowly. The
Clinton responded with a tone of
tax bill passed the House of Repre-
moderation and healing that height-
sentatives by only one vote.
ened his stature and implicitly
By then, the congressional elec-
raised some doubts about his
tion campaigns of 1994 were under
conservative opponents. At the
way. Although the administration
end of the year, he vetoed a
already had made numerous foreign
Republican budget bill, shutting
policy decisions, issues at home
down the government for weeks.
were clearly most important to the
Most of the public seemed to blame
voters. The Republicans depicted
the Republicans.
Clinton and the Democrats as un-
The president also co-opted
reformed tax and spenders. Clinton
part of the Republican program.
himself was already beleaguered
In his State of the Union address
with charges of past financial im-
of January 1996, he ostentatiously
propriety in an Arkansas real estate
declared, “The era of big govern-
project and new claims of sexual
ment is over.” That summer, on the
impropriety.
eve of the presidential campaign, he
In November, the voters gave
signed a major welfare reform bill
the Republicans control of both
that was essentially a Republican
houses of Congress for the first
product. Designed to end perma-
time since the election of 1952.
nent support for most welfare re-
Many observers believed that Bill
cipients and move them to work, it
Clinton would like- ly be a one-
was opposed by many in his own
term president. Appar- ently
party. By and large, it would prove
making a decision to conform to
successful in operation over the
new political realities, Clinton in-
next decade.

330
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

THE AMERICAN ECONOMY nesses, greatly enhancing

IN THE 1990s productiv- ity and creating new
By the mid-1990s, the
opportunities for profit. Fledgling
industries that fed demand for the
country had not simply recovered new equipment became multi-
from the brief, but sharp, recession billion-dollar compa- nies almost
of the
overnight, creating an enormous
Bush presidency. It was entering an
new middle class of soft- ware
era of booming prosperity, and do-
technicians, managers, market- ers,
ing so despite the decline of its
and publicists.
tradi- tional industrial base.
A final impetus was the turn of
Probably the major force behind
the millennium. A huge push to up-
this new growth was the
grade outdated computing equip-
blossoming of the personal
ment that might not recognize the
computer (PC).
year 2000 brought data technology
Less than 20 years after its intro-
spending to a peak.
duction, the PC had become a fa-
These developments began to
miliar item, not simply in business
take shape during Clinton’s first
offices of all types, but in homes
term. By the end of his second one
throughout America. Vastly more
they were fueling a surging
powerful than anyone could have
economy. When he had been
imagined two decades earlier, able
elected presi- dent, unemployment
to store enormous amounts of data,
was at 7.4 per- cent. When he stood
available at the cost of a good
for re-election in 1996, it was at 5.4
refrig- erator, it became a common
percent. When voters went to the
appli- ance in American homes.
polls to choose his successor in
Employing prepackaged software,
November 2000, it was 3.9 percent.
people used it for bookkeeping,
In many places, the issue was less
word processing, or as a depository
one of taking care of the jobless
for music, photos, and video. The
than of finding employ- able
rise of the Internet, which grew out
workers.
of a previously closed defense data
No less a figure than Federal Re-
network, provided access to in-
serve Chairman Alan Greenspan
formation of all sorts, created new
viewed a rapidly escalating stock
shopping opportunities, and estab-
market with concern and warned
lished e-mail as a common mode
of “irrational exuberance.” Investor
of communication. The popularity
exuberance, at its greatest since the
of the mobile phone created a huge
1920s, continued in the conviction
new industry that cross-fertilized
that ordinary standards of valu-
with the PC.
ation had been rendered obsolete
Instant communication and
by a “new economy” with unlim-
lightning-fast data manipulation
ited potential. The good times were
speeded up the tempo of many busi-
rolling dangerously fast, but most
33
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY

Americans were more inclined to was an accord with Congress de-

enjoy the ride while it lasted than to
plan for a coming bust.

THE ELECTION OF 1996

AND THE POLITICAL
AFTERMATH

President Clinton undertook

his campaign for re-election in
1996 under the most favorable of
circum-
stances. If not an imposing person-
ality in the manner of a Roosevelt,
he was a natural campaigner, whom
many felt had an infectious charm.
He presided over a growing
econom- ic recovery. He had
positioned him- self on the political
spectrum in a way that made him
appear a man of the center leaning
left. His Republi- can opponent,
Senator Robert Dole of Kansas,
Republican leader in the upper
house, was a formidable leg- islator
but less successful as a presi-
dential candidate.
Clinton, promising to “build a
bridge to the 21st century,” easily
defeated Dole in a three-party race,
49.2 percent to 40.7 percent, with
8.4 percent to Ross Perot. He thus
became the second American pres-
ident to win two consecutive elec-
tions with less than a majority of
the total vote. (The other was
Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and
1916.) The Re- publicans, however,
retained control of both the House
of Representatives and the Senate.
Clinton never stated much of a
domestic program for his second
term. The highlight of its first year

332
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
signed to balance the budget, showed Clinton’s ap-HISTORY
proval rating
fur- ther reinforcing the to be the highest of his six years in
president’s standing as a office.
fiscally responsible moderate That November, the Republicans
liberal. took further losses in the midterm
In 1998, American congressional elections, cutting
politics en- tered a period of their majorities to razor-thin mar-
turmoil with the revelation
that Clinton had car- ried on
an affair inside the White
House with a young intern.
At first the president denied
this, telling the American
people: “I did not have
sexual relations with that
woman.” The president had
faced similar charges in the
past. In a sexual ha- rassment
lawsuit filed by a woman he
had known in Arkansas,
Clinton denied under oath the
White House affair. This fit
most Americans’ defi- nition
of perjury. In October 1998,
the House of Representatives
began impeachment hearings,
focusing on charges of
perjury and obstruction of
justice.
Whatever the merits of
that ap- proach, a majority of
Americans seemed to view
the matter as a pri- vate one
to be sorted out with one’s
family, a significant shift in
public attitude. Also
significantly, Hillary Clinton
continued to support her
husband. It surely helped also
that the times were good. In
the midst of the House
impeachment debate, the
president announced the
largest budget surplus in 30
years. Public opinion polls
33
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY

gins. House Speaker Newt Gingrich regime, designed to allow

resigned, and the party attempted to
develop a less strident image. Nev-
ertheless, in December the House
voted the first impeachment resolu-
tion against a sitting president since
Andrew Johnson (1868), thereby
handing the case to the Senate for
a trial.
Clinton’s impeachment trial,
presided over by the Chief Justice
of the United States, held little sus-
pense. In the midst of it, the presi-
dent delivered his annual State of
the Union address to Congress. He
never testified, and no serious ob-
server expected that any of the sev-
eral charges against him would win
the two-thirds vote required for re-
moval from office. In the end, none
got even a simple majority. On Feb-
ruary 12, 1999, Clinton was acquit-
ted of all charges.

AMERICAN FOREIGN
RELATIONS IN THE
CLINTON YEARS

Bill Clinton did not expect to

be a president who emphasized
foreign policy. However, like his
immediate
predecessors, he quickly discovered
that all international crises seemed
to take a road that led through
Washington.
He had to deal with the messy
af- termath of the 1991 Gulf War.
Hav- ing failed to depose Saddam
Hussein, the United States, backed
by Britain, attempted to contain
him. A Unit- ed Nations-
administered economic sanctions

334
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Iraq to sell enough oil to meet hu- HISTORY

manitarian needs, proved relatively

ineffective. Saddam funneled much of
the proceeds to himself, leaving large
masses of his people in misery.
Military “no-fly zones,” imposed to
prevent the Iraqi government from
deploying its air power against rebel-
lious Kurds in the north and Shiites in
the south, required constant U.S. and
British air patrols, which regu- larly
fended off anti-aircraft missiles. The
United States also provided the main
backing for U.N. weapons inspection
teams, whose mission was to ferret
out Iraq’s chemical, biological, and
nuclear programs, verify the
destruction of existing weapons of
mass destruction, and suppress
ongoing programs to man- ufacture
them. Increasingly ob- structed, the
U.N. inspectors were finally expelled
in 1998. On this, as well as earlier
occasions of provo- cation, the
United States responded with limited
missile strikes. Sad- dam, Secretary
of State Madeline Albright declared,
was still “in his
box.”
The seemingly endless Israeli-
Palestinian dispute inevitably en-
gaged the administration, although
neither President Clinton nor former
President Bush had much to do with
the Oslo agreement of 1993, which
established a Palestinian “authority”
to govern the Palestinian population
within the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip and obtained Palestinian rec-
ognition of Israel’s right to exist.
As with so many past Middle
Eastern agreements in principle,

33
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY

however, Oslo eventually fell apart

cess but left many details to be
when details were discussed. Pales-
worked out. Over the next several
tinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected
years, peace and order held better in
final offers from peace-minded Is-
Northern Ireland than in the Mid-
raeli leader Ehud Barak in 2000 and
dle East, but remained precarious.
January 2001. A full-scale Palestin-
The final accord continued to elude
ian insurgency, marked by the use
negotiators.
of suicide bombers, erupted. Barak
The post-Cold War disintegra-
fell from power, to be replaced by
tion of Yugoslavia—a state ethni-
the far tougher Ariel Sharon. U.S.
cally and religiously divided among
identification with Israel was con-
Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosnian
sidered by some a major problem
Muslims, and Albanian Kosovars
in dealing with other issues in the
—also made its way to Washing-
region, but American diplomats
ton after European governments
could do little more than hope to
failed to impose order. The Bush
contain the violence. After Arafat’s
administration had refused to get
death in late 2004, new Palestinian
involved in the initial violence;
leadership appeared more receptive
the Clinton administration finally
to a peace agreement, and Ameri-
did so with great reluctance after
can policy makers resumed efforts
being urged to do so by the Euro-
to promote a settlement.
pean allies. In 1995, it negotiated
President Clinton also became
an accord in Dayton, Ohio, to estab-
closely engaged with “the troubles”
lish a semblance of peace in
in Northern Ireland. On one side
Bosnia. In 1999, faced with
was the violent Irish Republican
Serbian mas- sacres of Kosovars, it
Army, supported primarily by those
led a three- month NATO bombing
Catholic Irish who wanted to incor-
campaign against Serbia, which
porate these British counties into
finally forced a settlement.
the Republic of Ireland. On the
In 1994, the administration re-
other side were Unionists, with
stored ousted President Jean-Ber-
equally vi- olent paramilitary
trand Aristide to power in Haiti,
forces, supported by most of the
where he would rule for nine years
Protestant Scots-Irish population,
before being ousted again. The
who wanted to remain in the
inter- vention was largely a result of
United Kingdom.
Aris- tide’s carefully cultivated
Clinton gave the separatists
support in the United States and
greater recognition than they ever
American fears of waves of Haitian
had obtained in the United States,
illegal im- migrants.
but also worked closely with the
In sum, the Clinton adminis-
British governments of John Major
tration remained primarily inward
and Tony Blair. The ultimate result,
looking, willing to tackle interna-
the Good Friday peace accords of
tional problems that could not be
1998, established a political pro-

336
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

avoided, and, in other instances, fight when attacked.

forced by the rest of the world
to do so.

INTIMATIONS OF
TERRORISM

Near the close of his

administra- tion, George H.W.
Bush sent Ameri- can troops to the
chaotic East African
nation of Somalia. Their mission
was to spearhead a U.N. force that
would allow the regular movement
of food to a starving population.
Somalia became yet another leg-
acy for the Clinton administration.
Efforts to establish a representative
government there became a “na-
tion-building” enterprise. In Oc-
tober 1993, American troops sent
to arrest a recalcitrant warlord ran
into unexpectedly strong resistance,
losing an attack helicopter and suf-
fering 18 deaths. The warlord was
never arrested. Over the next sev-
eral months, all American combat
units were withdrawn.
From the standpoint of the ad-
ministration, it seemed prudent
enough simply to end a marginal,
ill-advised commitment and con-
centrate on other priorities. It only
became clear later that the
Somalian warlord had been aided
by a shad- owy and emerging
organization that would become
known as al-Qaida, headed by a
fundamentalist Muslim named
Osama bin Laden. A fanati- cal
enemy of Western civilization, bin
Laden reportedly felt confirmed in
his belief that Americans would not

33
 CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
By then the United States had
already experienced an attack by
Muslim extremists. In February 1993,
a huge car bomb was explod- ed in an
underground parking ga- rage beneath
one of the twin towers of the World
Trade Center in lower Manhattan. The
blast killed seven people and injured
nearly a thou- sand, but it failed to
bring down the huge building with its
thousands of workers. New York and
federal au- thorities treated it as a
criminal act, apprehended four of the
plotters, and obtained life prison
sentences for them. Subsequent plots
to blow up traffic tunnels, public
buildings, and even the United
Nations were all discovered and dealt
with in a similar fashion.
Possible foreign terrorism was
nonetheless overshadowed by do-
mestic terrorism, primarily the
Oklahoma City bombing. The work of
right-wing extremists Timo- thy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols, it
killed 166 and injured hundreds, a
far greater toll than the 1993 Trade
Center attack. But on June 25, 1996,
another huge bomb exploded at the
Khobar Towers U.S. military hous-
ing complex in Saudi Arabia, kill- ing
19 and wounding 515. A federal grand
jury indicted 13 Saudis and one
Lebanese man for the attack, but
Saudi Arabia ruled out any ex-
traditions.
Two years later, on August 7,
1998, powerful bombs exploding
simultaneously destroyed U.S. em-
bassies in Kenya and Tanzania, kill-
ing 301 people and injuring more

338
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

than 5,000. In retaliation Clinton oppose him, the

ordered missile attacks on terrorist Republicans chose George W. Bush,
training camps run by bin Laden
in Afghanistan, but they appear to
have been deserted. He also ordered
a missile strike to destroy a suspect
chemical factory in Sudan, a coun-
try which earlier had given sanctu-
ary to bin Laden.
On October 12, 2000, suicide
bombers rammed a speedboat into
the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole, on a
courtesy visit to Yemen. Heroic ac-
tion by the crew kept the ship
afloat, but 17 sailors were killed.
Bin Lad- en had pretty clearly been
behind the attacks in Saudi
Arabia, Afri- ca, and Yemen, but
he was beyond reach unless the
administration was prepared to
invade Afghanistan to search for
him.
The Clinton administration was
never willing to take such a step. It
even shrank from the possibility of
assassinating him if others might be
killed in the process. The attacks
had been remote and widely
separated. It was easy to accept
them as unwel- come but inevitable
costs associated with superpower
status. Bin Laden remained a
serious nuisance, but not a top
priority for an administration that
was nearing its end.

THE PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION OF 2000 AND
THE WAR ON TERROR

The Democratic Party

nominated Vice President Al Gore
to head its ticket in 2000. To
33
 CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
the governor of Texas and thou- sands of ballots were
son of for- mer president disputed. Af- ter a series of court
George H.W. Bush. challenges at the state and federal
Gore ran as a dedicated levels, the U.S. Su- preme Court
liberal, intensely concerned handed down a nar- row decision
with damage to the that effectively gave the election to
environment and determined Bush. The Republicans maintained
to seek more assistance for control of both houses of
the less privileged sectors of Congress by a small margin.
American soci- ety. He
seemed to position himself to
the left of President Clinton.
Bush established a
position on the right wing of
the Republican Party, closer
to the heritage of Ron- ald
Reagan than to that of his
father. He softened this
image by display- ing a
special interest in education
and calling himself a
“compassion- ate
conservative.” His embrace
of evangelical Christianity,
which he declared had
changed his life after a
misspent youth, was of
particular note. It
underscored an attachment to
traditional cultural values
that contrasted sharply to
Gore’s techno- cratic
modernism. Corporate critic
Ralph Nader ran well to
Gore’s left as the candidate
of the Green Par- ty.
Conservative Republican
Patrick Buchanan mounted
an independent candidacy.
The final vote was nearly
evenly divided nationally; so
were the elec- toral votes.
The pivotal state was Florida,
where a razor-thin margin
separated Bush and Gore and
340
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

The final totals underscored the a tax cut in May 2001. Lower
tightness of the election: Bush won taxes would indeed buoy the
271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266, but economy, but at the cost of an
Gore led him in the national popu- omi-
lar vote 48.4 percent to 47.9
percent. Nader polled 2.1 percent
and Bu- chanan .4 percent. Gore,
his states colored blue in media
graphics, swept the Northeast and
the West Coast; he also ran well in
the Mid- western industrial
heartland. Bush, whose states were
colored red, beat his opponent in
the South, the rest of the Midwest,
and the mountain states.
Commentators everywhere
commented on the vast gap
between “red” and “blue” America,
a divide characterized by cultural
and social, rather than economic,
differences, and all the more deep-
seated and emotional for that
reason. George W. Bush took office
in a climate of ex- treme partisan
bitterness.
Bush expected to be a president
primarily concerned with domestic
policy. He wanted to meld
tradition- al Republican Party belief
in private enterprise, low taxation,
and small government with a
sense of social responsibility for
the less fortunate groups in
American society. He had talked
during his campaign about
reforming the Social Security sys-
tem. Impressed by Reagan’s
supply- side economics, he
advocated lower taxes to stimulate
economic growth. The economy
was beginning to slip back from
its lofty peak of the late 1990s.
This helped Bush secure passage of

34
 CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
nously growing federal budget defi-
cit. At the end of the year, Bush also
obtained the “No Child Left Behind”
Act, which required public schools to
test reading and mathematical
proficiency on an annual basis; it
prescribed penalties for schools
unable to achieve a specified stan-
dard. Social Security remained un-
addressed despite Bush’s efforts to
make it a priority in his second term.
The Bush presidency changed
irrevocably on September 11, 2001,
as the United States suffered the most
devastating foreign attack ever against
its mainland. That morn- ing, Middle
Eastern terrorists simul- taneously
hijacked four passenger airplanes and
used two of them as suicide vehicles
to destroy the twin towers of the
World Trade Center in New York
City. A third crashed into the
Pentagon building, the Defense
Department headquarters just out-
side of Washington, D.C. The fourth,
probably aimed at the U.S. Capitol,
dived into the Pennsylvania coun-
tryside as passengers fought the hi-
jackers.
The death toll, most of it consist-
ing of civilians at the Trade Center,
was approximately 3,000, exceeding
that of the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor. The economic costs were also
heavy. Several other buildings near
the Trade Center also were de-
stroyed, shutting down the financial
markets for several days. The effect
was to prolong the already develop-
ing recession.
As the nation began to recover
from the attack, an unknown person

342
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

or group sent out letters containing

and the fundamentalist Muslim
small amounts of anthrax bacteria.
Taliban government of Afghanistan
Some went to members of Congress
that had provided him refuge. The
and administration officials, others
United States secured the passive
to obscure individuals. No notable
cooperation of the Russian Federa-
person was infected. But five victims
tion, established relationships with
died, and several others suffered se-
the former Soviet republics that
rious illness. The mailings touched
bor- dered Afghanistan, and, above
off a wave of national hysteria, then
all, resumed a long-neglected
stopped as suddenly as they had be-
alliance with Pakistan, which
gun, and remained a mystery. In
provided polit- ical support and
2008, the Federal Bureau of Inves-
access to air bases.
tigation announced that the likely
Utilizing U.S. Army Special
culprit was a troubled government
Forces and Central Intelligence
scientist who had committed
Agency paramilitary operatives, the
suicide. The administration
ad- ministration allied with long-
obtained pas- sage of the USA
mar- ginalized Afghan rebels.
Patriot Act in Octo- ber 2001.
Given effective air support the
Designed to fight domestic
coalition ousted the Taliban
terrorism, the new law considerably
government in two months. Bin
broadened the search, seizure, and
Laden, Taliban leaders, and many
detention powers of the federal gov-
of their fighters, however, escaped
ernment. Its opponents argued that
into remote, semi- autonomous
it violated constitutionally protected
areas of Northeastern Pakistan.
individual rights. Its backers re-
From there they would try to
sponded that a country at war need-
regroup and attack the new Af-
ed to protect itself.
ghan government.
After initial hesitation, the Bush
In the meantime, the Bush
administration also decided to sup-
admin- istration was looking
port the establishment of the De-
elsewhere for sources of enemy
partment of Homeland Security.
terrorism. In his 2002 State of the
Authorized in November 2002 and
Union address, the president
designed to coordinate the fight
identified an “axis of evil” that he
against domestic terrorist attack,
thought threatened the na- tion:
the new department consolidated 22
Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Of
federal agencies.
these three, Iraq seemed to him and
The administration, like its pre-
his advisers the most troublesome
decessor, had been unprepared for
and probably easiest to bring down.
the unimaginable. However, it re-
Saddam Hussein had ejected
taliated quickly. Determining that
United Nations weapons inspectors.
the attack had been an al-Qaida
The economic sanctions against
operation, it launched a military of-
Iraq were breaking down, and,
fensive against Osama bin Laden
although the regime was not
34
 CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
believed to be involved in the
9/11 attacks, it had engaged
in some contacts with al-

344
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Qaida. It was widely believed, not contributed assistance. The

just in the United States but governments of Ita- ly and (for a
through- out the world, that Iraq time) Spain also lent
had large stockpiles of chemical
and biologi- cal weapons and might
be working to acquire a nuclear
capability. Why else throw out the
inspection teams and endure
continuing sanctions?
Throughout the year, the admin-
istration pressed for a United
Nations resolution demanding
resumption of weapons inspection
with full and free access. In
October 2002, Iraq declared it
would comply. Nonethe- less, the
new inspectors complained of bad
faith. In January, their chief, Hans
Blix, presented a report to the UN
declaring that Iraq had failed to
account for its weapons of mass
destruction, although he recom-
mended a resumption of weapons
inspections before withdrawing.
Bush in the meantime had re-
ceived a Senate authorization by a
vote of 77–23 for the use of mili-
tary force. The U.S. military began
a buildup of personnel and materiel
in Kuwait.
The American plans for war
with Iraq encountered unusually
strong opposition in much of Eu-
rope. France, Russia, and Germany
all were against the use of force.
Even in those nations whose
governments supported the United
States, there was strong popular
hostility to co- operation. Britain
became the major
U.S. ally in the war that followed;
most of the newly independent
East- ern European nations

34
 CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
their backing. Turkey, long a reliable
American ally, declined to do so.
Nevertheless, on March 19, 2003,
American and British troops, sup-
ported by small contingents from
several other countries, began an in-
vasion of Iraq from the South. Groups
airlifted into the North coor- dinated
with Kurdish militia. On both fronts,
resistance was occasion- ally fierce,
but usually melted away. Baghdad fell
on April 8. On April 14, the military
campaign in Iraq was declared over.
Taking Iraq turned out to be far
easier than administering it. In the
first days after the end of major com-
bat, the country experienced perva-
sive looting. Hit-and-run attacks on
allied troops followed and became
increasingly organized, despite the
capture of Saddam Hussein and the
deaths of his two sons and heirs. Dif-
ferent Iraqi factions seemed on the
verge of war with each other.
New weapons inspection teams
were unable to find the expected
stockpiles of chemical and biological
weaponry. It became clear that Iraq
had never restarted the nuclear pro-
gram it had been pursuing before the
first Gulf War. After his apprehen-
sion, Saddam Hussein admitted that
he had engaged in a gigantic bluff to
forestall attack from abroad or in-
surrection at home.
In the year and a quarter after the
fall of Baghdad, the United States and
the United Kingdom, with increas- ing
cooperation from the United Nations,
moved ahead with estab- lishment of a
provisional govern-

346
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

ment that would assume two major parties, the campaign re- vealed
sovereignty over Iraq. The effort a nation nearly as divided as in 2000. The
occurred amidst increasing violence strong emotions of the
that included at- tacks not only on
allied troops, but also on Iraqis
connected in any way with the new
government. Most of the insurgents
appeared to be Sad- dam loyalists;
some were indigenous Muslim
sectarians; others likely were
foreign fighters.

THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL

ELECTION AND GEORGE
W. BUSH’S SECOND TERM

By mid-2004, with the

United States facing a violent
insurgency in Iraq, considerable
foreign oppo-
sition to the war there, and increas-
ingly sharp divisions about the
conflict at home, the country faced
another presidential election. The
Democrats nominated Senator John
Kerry of Massachusetts, a
decorated Vietnam veteran in his
fourth Senate term. Kerry’s
dignified demeanor and speaking
skills made him a for- midable
candidate. A reliable liberal on
domestic issues, he was a critic of
the Iraq war. Bush, renominated
without opposition by the Republi-
cans, portrayed himself as frank and
consistent in speech and deed, a
man of action willing to take all
necessary steps to protect the United
States.
Marked by intense feelings on
both sides about the war and the
cultural conflicts that increasingly
defined the differences between the

34
 CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
race fueled a voter turnout 20 government lacked the power and
per- cent higher than four stability needed to impose order,
years earlier. Bush won a yet the costs—human and financial
narrow victory, 51 per- cent —of the American occupation
to 48 percent with the eroded support at home.
remain- der of the vote going In January 2007, the president
to Ralph Nader and other adopted an anti-insurgency strat-
independents. The Repub- egy advocated by General David
licans scored small but Pe-
important gains in Congress.
George W. Bush began
his sec- ond term in January
2005, facing challenges
aplenty: Iraq, increasing
federal budget deficits, a
chronic international
balance-of-payments
shortfall, the escalating cost of
social entitlements, and a
shaky currency. None were
susceptible to quick or easy
solutions.
Iraq was the largest and
most vis- ible problem. The
country had ad- opted a new
constitution and held
parliamentary elections in
2005. Saddam Hussein, tried
by an Iraqi tribunal, was
executed in December 2006.
All the same, American
forces and the new
government faced a
mounting insurgency.
Composed of antagonistic
factions—among them Sunni
supporters of Saddam and
dissident Shiites aided by
Iran—the insurgency could
be contained, but not quelled
without using harsh tac- tics
that would be unacceptable at
home and would alienate the
Iraqi population. The
constitutional Iraqi

348
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

traeus—one of outreach and the new American president,

support for Sunni leaders willing to Barack Obama, approved a U.S.
accept a new democratic order in military
Iraq, along with continued backing
of the pre- dominantly Shiite
government in Baghdad. He
accompanied this with a “surge” of
additional troops. Over the next
year, the strategy appeared to calm
the country. The United States
began to turn over increased
security responsibilities to the Iraq-
is and negotiated an agreement for
complete withdrawal by 2011.
None- theless, Iraq remained very
unstable, its fragile peace regularly
disrupted by bombings and
assassinations, its Sunni-Shiite
conflict complicated by Kurdish
separatists. It was not clear whether
a liberal-democratic nation could be
created out of such chaos, but
certain that the United States could
not impose one if the Iraqis did not
want it.
As Iraq progressed uncertainly
toward stability, Afghanistan
moved in the other direction. The
post-Tal- iban government of
Hamid Karzai proved unable to
establish effective control over the
historically decen- tralized country.
Operating from the Pakistani tribal
areas to which they had escaped in
2001, the Taliban and al-Qaida
began to filter back into
Afghanistan and establish signifi-
cant areas of control in the southern
provinces. Using remote-controlled
drone aircraft equipped with guided
missiles, U.S. forces staged attacks
against enemy encampments and
leaders within Pakistan. In 2009,

34
 CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
buildup and anti-insurgency effort
similar to the Iraq surge. As with Iraq,
the outcome remained in doubt.
As the first decade of the 21st cen-
tury drew to a close, the United States
found itself adjusting to a world
considerably more complex than that
of the Cold War. The bi- polar rivalry
of that era, for all its dangers and
challenges, had im- posed an
unprecedented simplicity on
international affairs. The newer,
messier world order (or disorder)
featured the rapid rise of China as a
major economic force. India and
Brazil were not far behind. Post-So-
viet Russia re-emerged as an oil and
natural gas power seeking to regain
lost influence in Eastern Europe. The
United States remained the pre-
eminent power in the world, but was
now first in a complex multipolar in-
ternational system.
At home, the nation remained
generally prosperous through most of
the Bush years. After a weak first
year, gross domestic product grew at
a relatively steady, if unspectacu- lar,
rate and unemployment held at fairly
low levels. Yet the prosperity was
fragile. Most noticeable was the rapid
decline of American manufac- turing,
a trend that was well along by the time
George W. Bush became president
and was in sharp contrast to the rise of
China as an industrial power.
Increasingly, the economy was
sustained by consumer spending,
finance, and a construction boom led
by residential housing. Federal policy,
reflecting the American ideal

350
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

that every person should have an

of Medicare by the addition of a
opportunity to own a home, encour-
vol- untary prescription drug
aged the extension of mortgage
program— proved much more
loans to individuals whose
popular. It ap- peased conservative
prospects for repayment were dim.
qualms about big government by
The financial institutions in turn
subsidizing qualified private
repackaged these loans into
insurance plans, required fairly
complex securities, repre- sented
large out-of-pocket payments from
them as sound investments, and
those who bought into it, but still
sold them to institutional inves-
provided real savings to elderly
tors. These ultimately unsustainable
patients who required mul- tiple
investments were fueled to excess
medications. Yet, as was the case
by an easy-money policy as the
with already existing Medicare
nation’s central bank, the Federal
provisions, the costs of the drug
Reserve System, held interest rates
program were not fully covered. It
at low lev- els. Similar economic
added substantially to a federal defi-
currents flowed in much of the rest
cit that seemed uncontrollable.
of the de- veloped Western world,
The growing deficit became a
but the Unit- ed States was the
major issue among not simply
pacesetter.
oppo- sition Democrats but many
In line with the theme of
Republi- can conservatives, who
compas- sionate conservatism, Bush
thought their party was spending
proposed a major overhaul of the
too freely. In ad- dition, the difficult
Social Secu- rity system that would
war in Iraq was increasingly
allow individ- uals some discretion
unpopular. In the 2006 midterm
in investing the taxes they paid into
elections, Republicans lost control
it. The plan aroused nearly
of Congress to the opposition
unanimous Demo- cratic
Democrats, who more than ever
opposition, generated little public
looked with confidence to the next
enthusiasm, and never got to a
presidential election.
vote in Congress. Bush’s other
major project—the enhancement

35
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY

339

352
340
 1
CHAPTER

6
POLITICS
OF
HOPE

Democratic
presidential
candidate Senator
Barack Obama
(Illinois) at a
campaign rally in
Charlotte, North Carolina,
September, 2008.
CHAPTER 16: POLITICS OF HOPE

“The strongest democracies

flourish from frequent and
lively debate, but they endure
when people of every
background and
belief find a way to set aside
smaller differences in
service of a greater
purpose.”
President Barack Obama, 2009

Alaska. Much admired by Chris- tian

THE ELECTION OF 2008 evangelicals and cultural conser- vatives,
AND THE EMERGENCE she drew almost as much attention as
OF BARACK OBAMA McCain himself.

Having served two terms, Presi-

dent George W. Bush was constitu-
tionally prohibitedfrombeing
elected
again to the presidency. After a
spir- ited preconvention campaign,
the Republicans chose as their
candi- date Senator John McCain of
Ari- zona. A Vietnam veteran
respected for his heroic resistance
as a prison- er of war, McCain
possessed strong foreign policy
credentials and was a relatively
moderate conservative on domestic
issues. He chose as his running
mate Governor Sarah Palin of
342
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

In late 2007, it seemed

nearly cer- tain that the
Democratic nomination
would go to Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton of New
York. The wife of former
president Bill Clinton, she
had quickly established
herself as a leading member
of Congress and possessed a
strong national con- stituency
among women and liberal
Democrats. However, she
faced a phe- nomenon not
unusual in democratic
societies—a relatively
unknown, but charismatic,
challenger whose ap- peal
rested not on ideological or
pro- grammatic differences
but on style and personal
background.
Barack Hussein Obama
was only in his second year
as a U.S. senator from
Illinois, but his comparative
youth and freshness were
assets in a year when the
electorate was weary of
politics as usual. So was his
multi-

34
CHAPTER 16: POLITICS OF HOPE

cultural background. His father was bankruptcy of the venerable

from Kenya; his mother was a Lehman Brothers in- vestment
white American sociologist. Born house and momentarily
in Ha- waii, he had spent his early
years in Indonesia, where he
attended a Mus- lim school. After
his father left the family and his
mother died at an ear- ly age, he
had been raised by his
grandmother. These family crises
notwithstanding, he became a suc-
cessful student at two of the best
universities in the United States—
Columbia and Harvard. His person-
al style mixed a rare speaking talent
with a hip informality that had great
appeal to younger voters.
Americans of all ages could
consider him an emblematic
representative of their society’s
tradition of providing oppor- tunity
for all.
After a close, hard-fought six
months of party caucuses and pri-
mary elections, Obama eked out a
narrow victory over Clinton. He
made Senator Joseph Biden of
Dela- ware his vice-presidential
selection. Most measures of popular
sentiment indicated that the public
wanted a change. The two
candidates were ahead in many
public opinion polls as the fall
campaign season began.
Any chance that McCain and
Palin could pull ahead was ended
by the sharp financial crisis that be-
gan in the last half of September
and sent the economy crashing.
Caused by excessive speculation in
risky mortgage-backed securities
and other unstable investment
vehicles, the crash led to the

344
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
imperiled the entire financial super- HISTORY

structure of the nation. The Federal

Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC), created during the New Deal,
shut down numerous banks without
loss to depositors, but had no
jurisdiction over the giant finan- cial
investment companies that did not
engage in commercial banking.
Moreover, it had only limited capa-
bilities to deal with those corpora-
tions that did both.
Fearing a general financial melt-
down reminiscent of the darkest days
of the Great Depression, the
U.S. Treasury and the Federal Re-
serve engineered a Troubled Assets
Relief Program (TARP) that was
funded by a $700 billion congres-
sional appropriation. The TARP
program kept the endangered invest-
ment banks afloat. What it could not
do was stave off a sharp economic
collapse in which millions of Ameri-
cans lost their jobs.
That November, the voters elect-
ed Obama president of the United
States, with approximately 53 per-
cent of the vote to McCain’s 46.

OBAMA: THE FIRST YEAR

Obama was inaugurated president

of the United States on January 20,
2009, in an atmosphere of hope and
high expectations. In his inaugural
address, he declared: “The time has
come to reaffirm our enduring spir- it;
to choose our better history; to carry
forward that precious gift, that noble
idea, passed on from genera- tion to
generation: the God-given

34
CHAPTER 16: POLITICS OF HOPE

promise that all are equal, all are

prevent unemployment—officially
free, and all deserve a chance to
estimated at 7.7 percent of the labor
pur- sue their full measure of
force when Obama took office—
happiness.” He proclaimed an
from increasing to a high of 10.1
agenda of “remak- ing America” by
per- cent, then receding just a bit.
reviving and trans- forming the
The loans to large investment and
economy in ways that would
com- mercial banks begun during
provide better and less-expen- sive
the Bush administration with the
health care for all, foster envi-
objec- tive of restoring a stable
ronmentally friendly energy, and
financial system were mostly repaid
develop an educational system
with a profit to the government, but
better suited to the needs of a new
a few remained outstanding as the
century. Speaking to the
presi- dent began his second year in
international community, he
office. In addition, the government
pledged U.S. coop- eration in
invested heavily in two giant auto
facing the problem of global
makers
warming. He also delivered a
—General Motors and Chrysler—
general message of international
shepherding them through bank-
engagement based on compassion
ruptcy and attempting to reestablish
for poorer, developing countries and
them as major manufacturers.
respect for other cultures. “To the
Obama’s other major objective—
Muslim world,” Obama said, “we
the establishment of a national
seek a new way forward, based on
health care system—had long been
mutual interest and mutual respect.”
a goal of American liberalism. With
The speech revealed the wide
large Democratic majorities in both
scope of Obama’s aspirations. His
houses of Congress, it seemed
rhetoric and his strong personal
achievable. However, developing a
presence won wide approval—so
plan that had to meet the medical
much so that in October, he was
needs of more than 300 million
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
Americans proved extraordinarily
recognition of his goals. But, as
difficult. The con- cerns of
always in the complex system of
numerous interests had to be dealt
American representative govern-
with—insurance companies,
ment, it was easier to state large
hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuti-
ambitions than to realize them.
cal companies, and the large majori-
At home, the administration ad- ty of Americans who were already
dressed the mounting economic covered and reasonably satisfied. In
crisis with a $787 billion stimulus addition, a comprehensive national
act designed to bring growing un- plan had to find some way to
employment down to manageable control skyrocketing costs. In the
levels. The legislation doubtless saved spring of 2010, the president signed
or created many jobs, but it failed to complex legislation that mandated
health in-
346
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

surance for every American, with AFTERWORD

implementation to take place over
several years.
In foreign policy, Obama sought
From its origins as a set of
obscure colonies hugging the
to reach out to the non-Western
Atlantic coast, the United States
world, and especially to Muslims has undergone a
who might interpret the Ameri- remarkable transformation into
can military actions in Iraq and what political analyst Ben Watten-
Afghanistan as part of a general berg has called “the first universal
war on Islam. “America and Islam nation,” a population of almost 300
are not exclusive and need not be million people representing virtu-
in competition,” he told an audi- ally every nationality and ethnic
ence at Cairo University. In Tokyo, group in the world. It is also a na-
he reassured Asians that America tion where the pace and extent of
would remain engaged with the change—economic, technological,
world’s fastest-growing region. cultural, demographic, and social
While hoping to distinguish itself —is unceasing. The United States is
in tone from the Bush administra- often the harbinger of the modern-
tion, the Obama government found ization and change that inevitably
itself following the broad outlines sweep up other nations and
of Bush’s War on Terror. It societies in an increasingly
affirmed the existing agreement to interdependent, interconnected
withdraw American troops from world.
Iraq in 2011 and reluctantly
Yet the United States also main-
accepted military plans for a surge
tains a sense of continuity, a set of
in Afghanistan. In his Nobel
core values that can be traced to
acceptance speech, Pres- ident
its founding. They include a faith
Obama quoted the celebrat- ed
in individual freedom and
American theologian Reinhold
democratic government, and a
Niebuhr to the effect that evil ex-
commitment to economic
isted in the world and could be de-
opportunity and prog- ress for all.
feated only by force.
The continuing task of the United
At the conclusion of his first States will be to ensure that its
year in office, Obama remained, for values of freedom, democ- racy,
many Americans, a compelling per- and opportunity—the legacy of a
sonification of their ideals of liberty rich and turbulent history—are
and equal opportunity. protected and flourish as the nation,
and the world, move through the
21st century. 9

34
 BI B L IO G R A P H Y
The Comanche Empire By Pekka
Hämäläinen Yale University Press
RECENT PRIZE-
WINNING BOOKS
The Bancroft Prize for
American History
Awarded by the
Trustees of Columbia
University

2010
Dorothea Lange: A
Life Beyond Limits
By Linda Gordon
W.W. Norton & Company

Abigail Adams
By Woody Holton
Free Press

White Mother to a Dark Race:

Settler Colonialism, Maternalism,
and the Removal of Indigenous
Children in the American West
and Australia, 1880-1940.
By Margaret D. Jacobs
University of Nebraska
Press

2009
Killing for Coal: America’s
Deadliest Labor War
By Thomas G. Andrews
Harvard University
Press

This Republic of Suffering: Death

and the American Civil War
By Drew Gilpin
Faust Alfred A.
Knopf

34
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

2006
2008 Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic
The Cigarette By Erskine Clarke
Century: The Rise, Yale University Press
Fall, and Deadly
Persistence of the The Global Cold War: Third
Product That World Interventions and
Defined America By the Making of Our Times
Allan M. Brandt By Odd Arne Westad
Basic Books Cambridge University
Press
The Populist Vision
By Charles
Postel
Oxford
University
Press

Our Savage
Neighbors: How
Indian War
Transformed Early
America By Peter
Silver
W.W. Norton & Company

2007
Mockingbird
Song: Ecological
Landscapes of
the South
By Jack Temple Kirby
University of North Carolina Press

William James: In
the Maelstrom of
American
Modernism
By Robert D.
Richardson
Houghton
Mifflin
Company
34
BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Rise of American Democracy: Oxford University Press

Jefferson to Lincoln
By Sean Wilentz
W.W. Norton & Company

Pulitzer Prize for a

distinguished book upon the
history of the United States
Awarded by Columbia
University Graduate School of
Journalism

2010
Lords of Finance: The Bankers
Who Broke the World
By Liaquat Ahamed
The Penguin Press

2009
The Hemingses of Monticello:
An American Family
By Annette Gordon-Reed
W.W. Norton & Company

2008
What God Hath Wrought:
The Transformation of
America, 1815-1848
By Daniel Walker Howe
Oxford University Press

2007
The Race Beat: The Press,
the Civil Rights Struggle, and
the Awakening of a Nation
By Gene Roberts and
Hank Klibanoff
Alfred A.
Knopf

2006
Polio: An American Story
By David Oshinsky
34
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
SELECTED HISTORY

INTERNET
RESOURCES

American Historical Association

http://www.historians.org

American History: A Documentary

Record
1492–Present
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_
menus/chrono.asp

The Avalon Project at the Yale

Law School: Major Collections
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_
menus/major.asp

Biography of America
http://www.learner.org/
biographyofamerica/

Digital History
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

Documents for the Study of

American History
http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/

Gilder Lehrman Institute of

American History
http://www.gilderlehrman.org

Historicalstatistics.org
http://www.historicalstatistics.org/
index2.html

History Matters
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

34
BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Library of Congress

National Atlas of the United
American Memory: Historical
States http://nationalatlas.gov
Collections for the National
Digital Library
National Endowment for
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
the Humanities: We the
People
The Library of Congress
http://www.wethepeople.gov
American Memory: Timeline
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/
National Park Service:
ndlpedu/features/timeline/
Discover History
index.html
http://www.nps.gov/history/
National Archives and
Organization of American
Records Administration
Historians
http://www.nara.gov
http://www.oah.org/
National Archives and Records
Smithsonian
Administration: Digital Classroom
http://www.si.edu/
http://www.archives.gov/digital_
classroom/
The Historical Society
http://www.bu.edu/historic/
National Archives and Records
Administration: Our Documents:
U.S. Department of
A National Initiative on American
State Office of the
History, Civics, and Service
Historian
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/
http://history.state.gov/
index.php?flash=true&
WWW Virtual Library
National Archives and
History: United States
Records Administration:
http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/
Presidential Libraries
http://www.archives.gov/
presidential-libraries

The U.S. Department of

State assumes no
responsibility for the
content and availability of
the resources from other
agencies and

34
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
organizations HISTORY
listed above.
All Internet
links were
active as of fall
2010.

34
INDEX

I N DE X

Page references in boldface

type refer to illustrations. African Americans
bus boycott (Montgomery,
A Alabama), 240
Abolition of slavery civil rights movement, 240, 258,
Brown’s raid at Harper’s 271-272
Ferry (1859), 139 color barrier broken in sports,
constitutional amendment 237, 271
(13th), 148 Colored Farmers National
Democratic Party and, 152 Alliance, 191
Douglass as abolitionist leader, culture, 210-211
91 Emancipation Proclamation, Freedmen’s Bureau and, 148, 151
144- “Harlem Renaissance,” 211
145 jazz musicians, 211
Freedmen’s Bureau, 148, 151 labor unions and,
Garrison and The Liberator on, 193
91, 122, 133-134 lynchings and violence against,
Missouri Compromise (1820), 80, 150, 178, 271
114, 132, 135, 137 members of Congress, 96
Northwest Ordinance slavery ban, as sharecroppers and
71, 73, 113, 135 tenant farmers, 190-191
religious social activism and, 87 U.S. Colored Troops in
as a sectional conflict/divided Union Army, 145
nation, 128-139 See also Abolition of slavery;
as sharecroppers and Civil rights; Racial discrimination;
tenant farmers, 190-191 Slavery
southern statesmen on, 113 Agnew, Spiro, 290
Underground Railroad, 91, 134, Agricultural Adjustment
136 See also Slavery Act (AAA), 216
Adams, John, 52, 64, 72, 82-83 Agriculture
Adams, John Quincy, 115, 116, 134 farm-relief act, 216
Adams, Samuel, 56-57 Farmers’ Alliances, 191
Adamson Act, 199 Grange movement, 191
Addams, Jane, 196 land grant and technical colleges,
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 152, 177
(Twain), 97 New Deal programs, 216-217
Afghanistan, U.S. relations, 294, Patrons of Husbandry (Grange),
334, 345 191 plantation settlements, 26,
AFL. See American Federation of 28,
Labor (AFL) 113-114, 128-129
post-Revolutionary period, 70

35
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Republican policy, 79, 208 HISTORY
scientific research, 177

35
INDEX

sharecroppers and tenant

significance of, 65
farmers, 190-191
Treaty of Paris (1783), 47, 64
small farmers and agricultural
Yorktown, British surrender
consolidation, 267
at, 47-48, 64
technological revolution, 110-111,
American Sugar Refining
160, 177
Company, 197
westward expansion and, 125
American Telephone and Telegraph
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency
(AT&T), 158
Syndrome)
American Temperance Union,
epidemic, 307
121 Amity and Commerce, Treaty
quilt (Washington, D.C.), 299
of (France-American colonies), 63
AIM. See American Indian
Amnesty Act (1872), 150
Movement Alaska
Anasazi, 8, 20
gold rush, 192
Andros, Sir Edmund, 31
purchase, known as
Anthony, Susan B., 90,
“Seward’s Folly,” 182
122
Albany Plan of Union, 33, 69
Antifederalists, 76
Albright, Madeleine, 329
Antitrust legislation, 160, 187,
Alien Act, 82, 117
196-197, 199
Amalgamated Association of Iron,
Apache Indians, 180, 181
Steel, and Tin Workers, 194
Aquino, Corazon, 312
American Bible Society, 87
Arafat, Yasser, 330
American Civil Liberties Union, 209
Aristide, Jean-Bertrand, 330
American Federation of Labor (AFL),
Arlington Cemetery (Virginia),
194, 209, 227
174 Armour, Philip, 158
American Independent Party, 319
Arms control. See Nuclear
American Indian Movement (AIM),
weapons Armstrong, Louis, 211
281 American Philosophical Society,
Armstrong, Neil, 285
28 American Railway Union, 194
Arnaz, Desi, 239
American Revolution, 50-65
Arnold, Benedict, 62
Boston Tea Party (1773), 50-51, 57
Articles of the Confederation, 69-
British move through the South,
70 Asia, Cold War, 263-264
63-64
Atlantic Charter (U.S.-Britain), 220
colonial declaration of war, 60
Automobile industry
Concord and Lexington
auto worker strikes, 228, 230
battles (1775), 59-60
automobile safety crusade, 287
economic aftermath, 70
environmental issues/traffic
factors leading to, 50-59
congestion, 282, 300-301
first shots fired at Lexington,
unemployment, 227
44-45, 59
Franco-American alliance, 62-63
B
Long Island, battle of (1776), 61
Babcock, Stephen, 177
Loyalists and, 60, 65
Ball, Lucille, 239
Olive Branch Petition,
Banking Act, 218
60

350
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Banking and finance

Brown v. Board of Education (1954),
currency question and
240, 244, 272
gold standard, 192
Bryan, William Jennings, 192, 195,
Federal Reserve Board, 199, 218
198, 209-210
Federal Reserve System, 119, 187,
Buchanan, Pat, 332
198-199
Buckley, William F.,
financial panic (1893), 192
308 Bull Moose Party,
First Bank of the United States, 79
318 Burbank, Luther,
insured savings (FDIC), 215
177
national bank, 79-80
Burgoyne, John, 62
New Deal program reforms, 214-
Bush, George Herbert Walker,
215 regional and local bank
255 budgets and deficits, 315
charters, 119 Second Bank of the
domestic policy, 314-315
United States, 118-119
end of Cold War, 315-316
state banking system, 119
foreign policy, 312, 316-317
stock market crash (1929), 211
presidential election (1998), 314;
Baptists, 87, 88
(1992), 322, 324
Barak, Ehud, 330
“war on drugs,”
Beard, Charles, 75
317 Bush, George W.
“Beat Generation” (1950s), 270
Afghanistan invasion, 334
Begin, Menachim, 292
with Barack Obama, 339
Bell, Alexander Graham, 107, 156
as a “compassionate conservative,”
Bell, John C., 139
332
Bell Telephone System,
domestic and foreign policy, 332-
158 Bellamy, Edward, 160
336
Biddle, Nicholas, 119
on freedom, 322
Biden, Joseph, 343
Iraq War, 334-336
Bill of Rights, 77
on peace, 322
bin Laden, Osama, 331, 332, 334
presidential elections (2000), 333;
Blaine, James G., 185
(2004), 336-337
Blair, Tony, 294-295, 330
with Tony Blair, 294-295
Blix, Hans, 335
Bolívar, Simon, 114
C
Booth, John Wilkes, 147
Cable News Network, 297
Borglum, Gutzon, 171
Cabot, John, 9
Bosnia, 330
Cady Stanton, Elizabeth, 90, 122-123
Boston Massacre (1770), 56
Calhoun, John C., 112, 116, 117, 125
Boston Tea Party (1773), 50-51, 57
California
Breckenridge, John C., 139
as a free state, 136
Brezhnev, Leonid, 289
gold rush, 131, 136, 179
British colonization. See English
migrant farm workers’
colonization
unions, 279-280
Brooks, David, 322
territory, 135
Brown, John, 139
Calvinism, 13, 29, 34, 65
Campbell, Ben Nighthorse, 281
35
INDEX

Capitalism, 187, 193, 214

Coalition,” 253
Carleton, Mark, 177
Truman 10-point civil
Carmichael, Stokely, 278
rights program, 271-272
Carnegie, Andrew, 97, 156-157,
See also Civil rights
187, 194
movement; Individual rights;
Carson, Rachel, 282
Racial discrimination
Carter, Jimmy, 291-292
Civil Rights Act (1957), 273
Cartier, Jacques, 10
Civil Rights Act (1960), 273
Carver, George Washington,
Civil Rights Act (1964), 277, 286
177 Cattle ranching, 179-180
Civil rights movement (1960-80),
Central Pacific Railroad, 179
276-278
A Century of Dishonor (Jackson), 181
“black power” activists, 277-278
Chambers, Whittaker, 266
“freedom rides,” 277
Charles I (British king), 12, 13, 15
“March on Washington” (1963), 277
Charles II (British king), 17, 18, 31
origins of the, 271-272
Chase, Salmon P., 138
riots (1960s), 278
Chávez, César, 250, 280
sit-ins, 277
Cherokee Indians, 125
Civil Service Commission, 307
Chiang Kai-shek, 224, 263, 264
Civil War (1861-65)
Chicanos. See Latino movement
African Americans in U.S.
Child labor, 102-103, 177, 193, 196
Colored Troops in Union Army,
China, People’s Republic of
145 Alexandria, Union troop
Boxer Rebellion (1900), 186
encampment, 94
Taiwan relations, 263, 265, 289
Antietam campaign (1862), 141,
U.S. diplomatic relations, 186,
144 Bull Run (First Manassas), 143
289, 292
Bull Run (Second Manassas), 144
Christian Coalition,
casualties, 92, 144, 145
308 Churchill, Winston
Chancellorsville campaign (1863),
on the “iron curtain,” 260-261
92-93, 145
U.S. support for war effort, 220
Chattanooga and Lookout
at Yalta, 224, 234
Mountain campaigns (1863), 146
CIO. See Committee for Industrial
Gettysburg address, by Lincoln,
Organization (CIO); Congress of
142, 145
Industrial Organizations (CIO)
Gettysburg campaign (1863), 92,
Citizenship, 82, 148-149, 178
145, 146
Civil rights
Petersburg campaign (1865), 146
bus boycott
postwar politics, 152-153
(Montgomery, Alabama),
secession from the Union, 142-
240, 273
143 Sherman’s march through the
desegregation, 272-273
South, 146
desegregation of schools, 240, 241,
Shiloh campaign, 144
244, 272-273, 277
Spotsylvania (Battle of the
desegregation of the
Wilderness, 1864), 146
military, 269, 272
surrender at Appomattox
Jesse Jackson’s “Rainbow
352
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Courthouse, 146 Kennedy Administration, 284-

Vicksburg campaign (1863), 145, 285
146
See also Reconstruction Era
Civil Works Administration
(CWA), 215-216
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC),
215 Clark, William, 47
Clay, Henry
compromise agreements, 114, 136
portrait of, 90
presidential elections, 116, 119
protective tariffs, 112, 117, 118
Whig Party statesman, 120, 152
Clayton Antitrust Act, 199
Clean Air Act (1967), 282
Clemenceau, Georges, 108
Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, 97, 196
Cleveland, Grover, 159, 182, 183,
192, 194
Clinton, Hillary Rodham, 324, 325,
328, 342
Clinton, William “Bill”
Arkansas real
estate investigation,
326
Cabinet appointments, 280
domestic policy, 324-326
foreign policy, 329-331
impeachment hearings/trial,
328, 329
presidential election (1992),
322-324; (1996), 328
presidential inaugural address
(1993), 255
sexual impropriety/intern scandal,
326, 328
Coercive or Intolerable Acts
(England), 57-59
Cold War, 258-267
in Asia, 263-264
Eisenhower Administration,
264-265
end of, 255, 315-316, 324
in the Middle East, 264

35
 INDEX
origins of, 260-261
Truman Administration, 261, 265
College of William and Mary, 27
Colonial period
cultural developments, 27-29
Dutch colonies, 14, 15, 17, 24
early settlements, 10-12, 24
English settlers, 10-12, 13-15, 17, 24
French and Indian Wars, 32-33 German
settlers, 24, 25, 26 government of the
colonies, 29-32 Jamestown colony
(Virginia), 10,
12-13, 16
Massachusetts colonies, 13-14, 24-25
middle colonies, 25-26
Native American relations, 15-17,
18, 39
New Amsterdam, 14, 15, 26 New
England colonies, 24-25 New
England Confederation, 17
Pennsylvania colony, 18, 25, 27-28,
30, 39, 69
rural country daily life, 26-27 Scots
and Scots-Irish settlers, 24, 25, 26
southern colonies, 26-27
Swedish colonies, 15, 24
Virginia colonies, 10, 12-13, 16, 26,
28-30, 68-69
Colored Farmers National Alliance,
191
Columbus, Christopher, 9 Commission
on Civil Rights, 280 Committee for
Industrial Organization (CIO), 228
Committees of Correspondence,
56-57
Commodity Credit Corporation, 216
Common Sense (Paine), 60
Communism, 206-207
Cold War and, 258-267, 315-316
Eisenhower containment policy,
264-265
Federal Employee Loyalty

354
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Program, 266 75
House Committee on
Un-American Activities, 266
McCarthy Senate hearings
on, 236, 266
Red Scare (1919-20), 207, 265
spread of, 263
Truman Doctrine of
containment, 261-263
Communist Party, 206, 263, 265, 266
Compromise of 1850, 90, 135-136
Confederation Congress, 71
Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO), 228
Congress, U.S.
African-American members, 96
first Native American member,
281 Hispanic members, 280
power to make laws, 75
representation in House
and Senate, 73
Conservatism, 307-309
Constitution, state constitutions, 68-
69 Constitution, U.S.
amendments
1st thru 12th, 77
13th (abolishing slavery), 148
14th (citizenship rights),
148- 149, 178
15th (voting rights), 149, 273
16th (federal income tax), 198
17th (direct election of
senators), 198
18th (prohibition), 210
19th (voting rights for
women), 207
amendments process, 74
Bill of Rights, 77
Congressional powers,
75
debate and compromise, 73-75
declaration of war powers, 316-317
on display at National Archives,
174
motivations of Founding Fathers,

35
 INDEX
ratification, 75-76 Currency Act (England, 1764), 53
separation of powers Custer, George, 98-99, 180
principle, 74 signing of,
at Constitution Hall D
(Philadelphia), 164 Dakota Sioux, 98, 180, 281
Constitutional Convention Darrow, Clarence, 209-210
(Philadelphia, 1787), 66-67, 71- Darwinian theory
77 Constitutional Union Party, Scopes trial, 209-210
139 Continental Association, “survival of the fittest,”
58-59 193
Continental Congress, First
(1774), 58 Continental
Congress, Second (1775), 60,
61, 69, 71
Coolidge, Calvin, 204, 207
Cornwallis, Lord Charles,
46-47, 64 Coronado,
Francisco Vázquez de, 9
Corporations, 158-159
Coughlin, Charles, 217
Counterculture (1960s), 281-282
New Leftists, 281-282
Vietnam War
demonstrations, 281
“Woodstock Generation,”
249, 281
Cox, James M.,
207 Crawford,
William, 116
Crazy Horse (Sioux
chief), 180 Creek
Indians, 125
Cromwell, Oliver, 12, 17, 31
Cuba, Spanish-American
War and, 182-183
Cuban missile crisis (1962), 284
Cullen,
Countee, 211
Culture
of the 1950s,
270-271 in
the colonies,
27-29
counterculture of the 1960s,
281-282 See also Libraries;
Literary works; Music,
American
356
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Davis, Jefferson, 142

E
Dawes (General Allotment)
East India Company, 57
Act (1887), 181
Eastman, George, 106, 157
De Soto, Hernando, 9
Economic crisis bailout,
Declaration of Independence, 61,
344 Edison, Thomas, 106,
68 burial site for three signers of,
157 Education
162-163
in the colonies, 27-29
Declaratory Act (England), 55
computer technology and,
Delaware Indians, 18, 39
303 day care centers, 303
Democracy in America (Tocqueville),
No Child Left Behind Act, 333
130
private schools, 27
Democratic Party, 116, 137, 152, 153,
private tutors, 28
192, 218-219
public school systems, 121
Depression. See Great
school desegregation, 240, 244,
Depression Dewey, George, 183
272-273, 277
Dewey, Thomas, 235, 269
Edwards, Jonathan, 29
Dickens, Charles, 130-131
Eisenhower, Dwight
Dickinson, Emily, 96
David
Dickinson, John, 55, 69
civil rights supporter, 272, 273
Digital revolution, 293, 296
Cold War and foreign policy, 264-
e-mail communication, 327
265 domestic policy of “dynamic
mobile phones, 327
conservatism,” 269-270
personal computer (PC)
portrait of, 236
growth, 306, 327
as president of U.S., 264-265, 269-270
Dix, Dorothea, 121
as Supreme Commander of Allied
Dixiecrats, 319
Forces, 223, 232, 264
Dole, Robert, 328
Electoral College, 116, 117
Doolittle, James “Jimmy,”
Elkins Act (1903), 196
223 Dorset, Marion, 177
Ellington, Duke, 211
Douglas, Stephen A., 136, 137, 138-
Ellis Island Monument, 102, 103, 200
139
Emancipation Proclamation, 144-145
Douglass, Frederick, 91, 122, 134, 145
Embargo Act (1807), 84
Drake, Francis, 10
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 59
Dred Scott decision, 138, 149
Enforcement Acts (1870
Dreiser, Theodore, 196
and 1871), 150
DuBois, W.E.B., 178, 211
English Civil War (1642-49),
Dukakis, Michael, 314
31 English colonization
Dulles, John Foster, 265
early settlements, 10-12
Dunmore, Lord, 60
French and Indian War and, 32-33
Dutch colonization, 14, 15, 17
map of, 36-37
patroon system, 14-15
in Maryland, 15
Dutch East India Company,
in Massachusetts, 13-14
14 Dylan, Bob, 281
New England Confederation,
17 English common law, 30
Enola Gay (U.S. bomber), attacks on
35
INDEX

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 226 France

Environmental movement,
282,
298, 344
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), 282
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), 279
Erik the Red, 9

F
Falwell, Jerry, 308
Farragut, David, 143
Faubus, Orval, 272
Federal Aid Road Act (1916), 113
Federal Artists Project, 218
Federal Deposit and Insurance
Corporation (FDIC), 215, 343
Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA), 215
Federal Employee Loyalty Program,
266
Federal Reserve Act (1913), 198
Federal Reserve Board, 199, 218,
291, 310, 343
Federal Reserve System, 119, 187,
198-199
Federal Theatre Project, 218
Federal Trade Commission,
199
Federal Workingman’s Compensation
Act (1916), 199
Federal Writers Project, 218
The Federalist Papers, 43, 76
Federalists, 76, 78, 81, 82, 86, 116
The Feminine Mystique (Friedan), 278
The Financier (Dreiser), 196
Finney, Charles, Grandison, 87
Firefighters, 321
“First universal nation,” 345
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 210
Force Act, 118
Ford, Gerald, 290-291
Ford, Henry, 109
Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922), 207
Foreign policy. See U.S. foreign policy
358
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Louisiana Territory Germany HISTORY
sold to U.S., 83-84 Berlin Airlift, 262
New World exploration, 9-10 Kennedy speech in West Berlin,
U.S. diplomatic 242-243
relations, 82-83 XYZ
Affair, 82
Franco-American Treaty of
Alliance (1778), 62-63, 80,
82
Franklin, Benjamin, 28, 33, 43, 63,
64, 72, 75
Free Soil Party, 136, 137, 138
Freedmen’s Bureau, 148, 151
Fremont, John, 138
French and Indian
War, 32-33 French
exploration, 10
French Huguenots, 24
French Revolution, 34, 79, 80, 81
Friedan, Betty, 278, 279
Friedman, Milton, 308
Fugitive Slave Act, 136, 137
Fundamentalism, religious, 209,
210, 308

G
Gage, Thomas, 59
Gallatin, Albert, 83
Garrison, William Lloyd, 91, 122,
133-134
Garza, Eligio “Kika”
de la, 280 Gates, Bill,
296
Gates, Horatio, 62, 63-64
Gay rights, 307, 324-
325 Genet, Edmond
Charles, 80-81 George,
Henry, 160
George III (British
king), 55, 59 Georgia
colonial royal
government, 31 early
settlement, 18
Native American tribes
relocated, 118
German
unification, 316
35
INDEX

postwar period, 262

H
reparations, World War I,
Haiti, political situation,
224
330 Hamilton, Alexander
Germany in World War II
and Bank of the United
Holocaust (Jewish genocide), 226
States, 79, 118
Nazism, 219, 224, 226
Constitutional Convention
North African campaign, 222
delegate, 71, 72
Nuremberg war crime trials,
Federalist Papers and, 43, 76
226 reparations, 206
as first Secretary of the Treasury
submarine warfare, 204-
(Department of the Treasury), 77
205 Geronimo (Apache chief),
portrait of, 48
181 Gerry, Elbridge, 72, 73
and Republican Party,
Ghent, Treaty of (1814), 85
152 vs. Jefferson, 48, 78-
Gilbert, Humphrey, 10
80
The Gilded Age (Twain),
Hamilton, Andrew, 28
196 Ginsberg, Allen, 271
Harding, Warren G.,
Glenn, John, 285
207 Harrison,
Global warming, 344
Benjamin, 160
Glorious Revolution (1688-89), 31, 32
Harrison, William Henry, 85, 120
Goethals, George W., 185
Hartford Convention (1814), 117
Goldwater, Barry, 286, 308, 309
Harvard College, 27
Gompers, Samuel, 194
Hawaii, statehood (1959), 184
González, Henry B., 280
Hawaiian Islands, U.S. policy
Gorbachev, Mikhail, 304-305, 314,
of annexation, 183-184
315, 316
Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act (1930), 207
Gore, Al, 323, 332, 333
Hay, John, 184, 186
Gould, Jay, 194
Hayes, Rutherford B., 150-151, 153
Grange movement,
Haymarket Square incident, 194
191 Grant, Ulysses S.
Health care, 344
as president of U.S., 150, 153
Health insurance, 344-345
as Union Army general, 144, 145
Helsinki Accords (1975), 291
portrait of, 95
Hemingway, Ernest, 109, 210
Great Depression (1929-40)
Henry, Patrick, 42, 54, 76, 77
decline in immigration, 201
Hepburn Act (1906),
“Dust Bowl” migration, 216
197 Hidalgo, Miguel de,
New Deal programs, 214-218
114 Highway Act (1956),
soup lines, 202-203
268 Hispanics
stock market crash (1929), 211
in politics, 280
“Great Society,” 286-287
See also Latino movement
Greeley, Horace, 112, 124
Hiss, Alger, 266
Green Party, 332
Hitler, Adolf, 201, 219
Greenspan, Alan, 327
Ho Chi Minh, 284
Grey, Zane, 180
Hohokam settlements,
Guadalupe Hidalgo, Treaty of, 135
7
Guam, U.S. relations, 184
Holy Alliance, 115
360
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Homeland Security Department, 334 HISTORY
Homestead Act (1862), 124, 152,

36
INDEX

179, 180
See also Civil rights
Hoover, Herbert, 185, 211
Industrial development. See under
Hopewellians, 7
names of industry
Hopi Indians, 8
Industrial Workers of the
Housing and Urban
World (IWW), 194
Development Department, 287
Interstate Commerce
Houston, Sam, 134
Commission (ICC), 159, 197, 198
Howe, William, 61-62
Inventions
Hudson, Henry, 14
adding machine, 157
Hughes, Langston, 211
airplane, 107
Hull, Cordell, 221
cash register, 157
Humphrey, Hubert, 288
cotton gin, 114, 133
Hungary, rebellion (1956), 265
light bulb/incandescent lamp,
Hutchinson, Anne, 14
106, 157
linotype machine, 157
I
motion picture projector, 106, 157
Immigrants and immigration
reaper (farm machine), 131,
diversity of immigrants, 200-
158, 160
201 Ellis Island Monument,
telegraph, 156
102, 103, 200
telephone, 107, 156
illegal immigrants, 201
television, 268
immigration quotas, 201, 209
typewriter, 157
“Little Italy” in New York
Iran, U.S. relations,
City, 104-105
292
Nativists and, 209
Axis of evil, 334
policy reform, 307
Iraq
restrictions on
elections (2005), 302
immigration, 208-209
provisional government, 335
Immigration Restriction League, 201
U.N. weapons inspections, 329,
Imperialism, 181-182
334-335
Indentured servants, 18-19
U.S.-led invasion, 335
Indian Removal Act (1830), 125
Iron and steel industry, 157, 187
Indian Reorganization Act (1934),
strikes, 194, 228
181 Indian Wars
Iroquois Indians, 14, 16-17, 33
Apache wars, 180, 181
Islam, 345
Custer’s Last Stand at
Isolationism, 78, 206, 220
Little Bighorn, 98-99, 180
Israel
French and Indian War, 32-
Egypt invasion, 265
33 Pequot War (1637), 16
Palestinian relations, 330
and westward expansion,
U.S. policy, 264
124, 180-181
Indians of North America. See Native
J
Americans
Jacinto, Battle of,
Individual rights, 34, 65, 76-77
134 Jackson, Andrew
conflicts with Indians, 125
362
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

as general in War of 1812,

Jobs, Steve, 296
86 portrait of, 89
Johnson, Andrew
as president of U.S., 89, 117-118
impeachment trial, 149-
presidential election (1824), 116
150
presidential election (1828), 117
as president of U.S., 147-149, 153
Jackson, Helen Hunt, 181
Johnson, Lyndon B.
Jackson, Jesse, 253
civil rights supporter, 273, 277
Jackson, Thomas J.
Great Society programs, 286-287
(“Stonewall”), 144, 145
portrait of, 245
James I (British king), 12
space program, 285
James II (British king), 31
Vietnam War policy, 287-
Jamestown colony (Virginia), 10,
288 “War on Poverty,” 286
12-13, 16
Johnson-Reed National Origins
Japan
Act (1924), 201, 209
attack on Pearl Harbor, 212-213,
The Jungle (Sinclair), 196
221, 222
Kamikaze suicide missions, 225
K
surrender (1945), 226
Kansas
U.S. attacks on Hiroshima
slavery issue and, 138
and Nagasaki, 226
territory (“bleeding Kansas”), 137,
U.S. relations, 186
138
Japanese-Americans, internment
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 137
camps, 222, 233
Kennan, George, 261
Jay, John, 43, 64, 76, 81, 82
Kennedy, John F.
Jay Treaty (Britain-U.S.), 81, 82
assassination of, 277, 286
Jazz Age, 210
Bay of Pigs invasion, 284
Jefferson Memorial (Wash., D.C.), 161
civil rights policy, 277, 283
Jefferson, Thomas
Cold War and, 284-285
on abolition of slavery,
Cuban missile crisis, 284
114 as drafter of
as president of U.S., 282-285
Declaration of
space program, 285-286
Independence, 61
Vietnam War policy, 284-285
face of (Mount Rushmore),
West Berlin speech during
170-171
Cold War, 242-243
as first Secretary of State
Kennedy, Robert, assassination
(U.S. Department of State),
of, 278, 288
77 portrait of, 46
Kentucky
as president of U.S., 83
Resolutions (1798), 117
on right of self-government,
statehood (1792), 7-8
68 on slavery, 114
Kerouac, Jack, 270
as U.S. minister to France, 72, 79-
Kerry, John F., 336-
80 vs. Adams, 82
337
vs. Hamilton, 48, 78-80
Khomeini, Ayatollah, 292
“Jim Crow” laws (separate but equal
Khrushchev, Nikita, 284
segregation), 151, 240, 272, 319
Kim Il-sung, 263
36
 INDEX
King, Martin Luther, Jr.

364
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

assassination of, 278, 288 Confederate Army, 144

civil rights movement and, 240,
241, 273, 283
“I have a dream” speech, 276,
277 King, Rufus, 72
Kissinger, Henry, 289
Know-Nothing Party, 120
Korean War, 235, 263, 264
Kosciusko, Thaddeus, 65
Ku Klux Klan, 150, 201, 209

L
La Follette, Robert, 196, 318-319
Labor unions, 121, 193-195
air controllers strike, 309
auto workers strikes, 228
collective bargaining, 217
Haymarket Square incident, 194
membership in U.S., 227-228
migrant farm workers, 250, 279-
280 mine workers
membership/strikes, 194-195, 227-
228
New Deal programs, 217
post-World War I strikes,
206
post-World War II strikes, 269
railway worker strikes, 193, 194
steel worker strikes, 194, 228
textile worker strikes, 195
“Wobblies,” 194-195
See also under names of specific
unions
Lafayette, Marquis de,
65 Landon, Alf, 218
Latin America, U.S.
intervention, 184-185
Latin American Revolution, 114-116
Latino movement, 279-280
League of Nations, 205-206, 226
Lee, Richard Henry, 61,
64 Lee, Robert E.
capture of John Brown at
Harper’s Ferry, 139
commander of

36
 INDEX
declines command 147, 153
of Union Army, 143 presidential inaugural address, 142
portrait of, 95 senatorial campaign (1858),
surrender at 138-139
Appomattox on slavery and the Union, 130,
Courthouse, 146 138 Lincoln, Benjamin, 63, 70
Leif (son of Erik the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858), 138-139
Red), 9 Lenin, V.I., Literary works
259
Levitt, William J., 268
Lewis and Clark
expedition,
bicentennial
commemorative
stamp, 46
Lewis, John L.,
227-228 Lewis,
Meriwether, 47
Lewis, Sinclair, 210
The Liberator,
91, 133
Libraries
American Philosophical
Society (Philadelphia), 28
in the colonies, 27,
28 public libraries
endowed by
Carnegie, 97
subscript
ion, 28
Lincoln,
Abraham
assassination of, 147, 153
at Civil War Union encampment,
140-141
Emancipation
Proclamation, 144-
145
face of (Mount Rushmore), 170-171
Free-Soil Party and,
138 Gettysburg
address, 142, 145
on Grant, 95
as president during
Civil War, 142-147
presidential election (1860), 139
presidential election (1864),
366
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

“Beat Generation” (1950s), 270-271

Marshall Plan, 262
colonial period, 28-29
Marshall, Thurgood, 244
“Harlem Renaissance,” 211
Martin, Josiah, 60
“Lost Generation” (1920s), 109,
Maryland
211 New Deal programs and, 218
Calvert family charter, 15, 30
See also names of individual
Catholic settlements, 15
authors or works
St. Mary’s, first town in,
Lloyd George, David, 108
15
Locke, John, 17, 32, 34, 61, 65, 73
Toleration Act and
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 181, 184
religious freedom, 17
Logan, James, 28
Mason, George, 76
The Lonely Crowd (Riesman), 270
Massachusetts
Long, Huey P., assassination of, 217
Boston Massacre (1770), 56
“Lost Generation” (1920s), 109, 211
Boston Port Bill, 57
Louis XVI (French king), 64, 80
Boston Tea Party (1773), 50-51, 57
Louisiana Purchase, 83-84
colonial government charter, 30-
Lovejoy, Elijah P., 134
31 early settlements, 13-14
Lowell, James Russell,
Old Granary Cemetery (Boston),
147 Luce, Henry, 258
162-163
Lundestad, Geir, 262
Salem witch trials, 35
schools and education,
M
27 Shays Rebellion, 70
MacArthur, Douglas, 225, 232, 263
trade and economic
Macdonough, Thomas, 85
development, 24-25
Madison, James, 43, 72, 75, 76,
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 25,
84-86, 113
31 Massachusetts Bay Company,
as “Father of the Constitution,” 72
18 Mather, Cotton, 28, 40
Mahan, Alfred Thayer, 184
Mayflower Compact, 13, 22-23, 30
Maine (U.S. warship) incident, 182
Mayflower (ship), 13
Major, John, 330
McCain, John
Malcolm X, 277
(2008) presidential election 342-343
Manhattan. See New York
McCarran-Walter Act (1952), 201
Manhattan project (atomic
McCarthy, Joseph R., 236, 266
bomb development), 225
McClellan, George, 144, 147
Mann, Horace, 121
McCormick, Cyrus, 131, 158, 160
Mao Zedong, 263, 289
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), 113
Marbury v. Madison (1803), 113
McGovern, George, 290
Marcos, Ferdinand, 312
McGrath, J. Howard, 266
Marshall, George C., 262
McKinley, William
Marshall, John
assassination of, 195
as chief justice of the Supreme
Hawaii annexation treaty, 184
Court, 49, 113
Maine (U.S. warship) incident, 182
funeral of, 168
Open Door foreign policy, 195
portrait of, 49
as president of U.S., 182, 184,
192, 195
36
INDEX

McVeigh, Timothy, 331

Morris, Gouverneur,
Meat Inspection Act,
72 Morse, Samuel F.B.,
197
156 Mott, Lucretia, 122
Meat-packing industry, 158, 196, 197
Mound builders, 7
Mellon, Andrew, 207
Mount Rushmore Monument
Mencken, H.L., 210
(South Dakota), 170-171
Menéndez, Pedro, 10
Mount Vernon (Virginia),
Merchant Marine, 208
Washington’s plantation home, 170-
Meredith, James, 277
171 Ms. (feminist magazine), 279
Methodists, 87, 88
MTV, 297
Mexican-Americans. See Latino
Murray-Philip, 228
movement
Music, American
Mexican War, 134-135
Beatles, 281
Mexico
“hard rock,” 281
conquest of, 9
Jazz Age (1920s),
revolution, 185
210 Jazz musicians,
Spanish colonization, 11
211
Middle colonies, 25-26
rock and roll (1950s), 271, 281
Middle East
Rolling Stones, 271, 281
Palestinians, 329-330
Woodstock (outdoor rock
peace negotiations, 329-330
concert, 1969), 249, 281
Persian Gulf War, 316-317
Muslims, 344, 345
U.S. policy, 264, 292, 313, 329-330
Mussolini, Benito, 219, 223
Millet, Kate, 248
Mutual Board of Defense (U.S.-
Mining industry strikes, 194-195
Canada), 220
Miranda, Francisco, 114
Missouri Compromise (1820), 90, 114,
N
132, 135, 137
NAACP. See National Association
Mohler, George, 177
for the Advancement of Colored
Molasses Act (England, 1733), 53
People (NAACP)
Molotov, Vyacheslav, 260
Nader, Ralph, 287, 332, 336
Mondale, Walter, 311
NAFTA. See North American
Monetary policy. See U.S. monetary
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
policy
Napoleon, 82, 83, 84
Monroe Doctrine, 114-116
National Association for the
Monroe, James, 113, 115, 116
Advancement of Colored
Montgomery, Bernard, 222
People (NAACP), 211, 244, 272,
Montoya, Joseph, 280 273
Monuments and memorials, 161-
National health care system, 344-345
176 See also under names of
National Industrial Recovery Act
individual memorials
(NIRA), 217, 227
Moral Majority, 308
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA),
Morgan, John Pierpoint (J.P.), 187 217, 218, 228, 280
Morrill Land Grant College Act National Labor Relations
(1862), 152, 177 Board (NLRB), 217
368
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
National Organization for Women HISTORY

36
INDEX

(NOW), 279
New Amsterdam. See under New York
National Recovery Administration
New Deal programs, 214-218
(NRA), 217
New England colonies, 17,
National Security Council (NSC),
24-25, 30-31
NSC-68 security report on Soviet
New England Confederation,
Union, 262-263, 265
17 New Mexico territory, 136
National Woman Suffrage
New World exploration, 9-11
Association (NWSA), 123
New World settlements. See Colonial
National Youth Administration, 218
period
Native-American movement, 280-
New York
281
colonial royal government,
American Indian
31 Dutch settlers, 14, 15, 25-
Movement (AIM), 281
26
Wounded Knee (South
Manhattan, early settlement, 14, 15,
Dakota) incident, 180, 281
25-26
Native Americans
New Amsterdam/New
cultural groups, map of, 21
Netherland settlement, 14, 15, 26
demonstration in Washington
polyglot of early settlers, 25-26
(1978), 252
New York Weekly Journal,
effect of European disease on, 8
28 Ngo Dien Nu, 285
European contact, 9-10
Ngo Dinh Diem,
Great Serpent Mound, Ohio, 168
285 Nichols, Terry,
Indian uprisings, 16-17, 180-181
331
Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, 4-5,
Niebuhr, Reinhold, 345
8 migration across Beringia land
NIRA. See National
bridge, 6
Industrial Recovery Act
mound builders of Ohio, 7
(NIRA)
Northwest Passage and, 9, 10
Nixon, Richard M.
oral tradition, 8
China-U.S. diplomatic relations,
Pacific Northwest potlatches,
289
8 population, 8
at Great Wall of China, 250-251
Pueblo Indians, 8, 20
impeachment and resignation,
relations with European
290 as president of U.S., 288-290
settlers, 15-17, 18, 39
presidential elections (1960, 1968,
religious beliefs, 8
1972), 283, 288, 290
slave trade, 18
Soviet Union détente policy,
Trail of Tears (Cherokee forced
289 Watergate affair, 290
relocation), 125
NLRA. See National Labor Relations
U.S. policy, 181
Act (NLRA)
Westward expansion and, 178
No Child Left Behind Act, 333
See also Indian Wars; and see
Nobel Peace Prize, 344, 345
under names of individual tribes
Noble Order of the Knights of
Nativists, 209
Labor (1869), 193
Naturalization Act, 82
Non-Intercourse Act (1809),
Nebraska, territory, 137
84 Noriega, Manuel Antonio,
370
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
317 Norris, Frank, 196 HISTORY
North American Free Trade

37
INDEX

Agreement (NAFTA), 317, 325 parents, 343

North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), 262
North Carolina colony, 17, 30
Northern Securities Company, 187
Northwest Ordinance (1787), 71,
73,
113, 135
Northwest Passage, 9, 10
Northwest Territory, 71, 113
NOW. See National Organization
for Women (NOW)
Nuclear weapons
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
(INF) Treaty, 304-305, 314
Limited Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty (1963), 243, 284
Manhattan Project (atomic
bomb development), 225
SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation
Talks), 289
SALT II agreement, 292
Soviet atomic bomb testing, 266
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI),
313-314
test bans, 284
U.S. attacks on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, 226
U.S. defense buildup, 314
U.S. military defense buildup, 314
U.S. nuclear testing, 234
U.S. policy during Cold War, 265
Nullification doctrine, 83, 117-118

O
Oath of office, presidential, 77
Obama, Barack H.
background, 342-343
at Cairo University,
345 on democracies,
342
financial crisis, 343-344
health care, 344-345
inaugural address, 343-344
Nobel Peace Prize, 344-345

372
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
as presidential candidate, HISTORY
Quakers as early settlers, 18, 25, 27
341 presidential campaign relations with Native Americans,
(2008), 343 with George W. 18, 39
Bush, 339
with Michelle Obama, 295
The Octopus (Norris), 196
Office of Economic
Opportunity, 286 Oglethorpe,
James, 18
Oklahoma Territory, City,
homestead claims, 101
Oliver, King, 211
Olney, Richard, 194
On the Road (Kerouac), 270
Organization of American States
(formerly Pan American Union),
185 Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC), 290 Organized labor.
See Labor unions Orlando,
Vittorio, 108

P
Pacific Railway Acts (1862-64), 152
Paine, Thomas, 60
Palin, Sarah, 342
Palmer, A. Mitchell,
206-207 Panama,
U.S. invasion, 317
Panama Canal
Gatun locks, 100-101
treaties, 101, 184-185, 292
Paris Peace Conference (1919), 108
Paris, Treaty of (1783), 47, 64
Parker, John, 59
Parks, Rosa, 240, 273
Patroon system, 14-15
Peace Democrats or
“Copperheads,” 152 Peace of
Paris (1763), 33
Penn, William, 18,
25, 30, 39
Pennsylvania colony
colonial government, 30
cultural developments, 27-28
German settlers, 25
population, 25
37
INDEX

schools and education, 27- Know-Nothings, 120

28 state constitution, 69 Populists, 191-192
See also Philadelphia
Pequot Indian War (1637),
16
Perkins, Frances, 227
Perot, H. Ross, 319, 323, 328
Perry, Oliver Hazard, 85
Pershing, John J., 205
Persian Gulf War, 316-
317
Desert Storm campaign, 252-253
Philadelphia
American Philosophical Society, 28
as “City of Brotherly Love,” 18
colonial period in, 18, 25
Friends Public School, 27
Independence Hall, 164-165
Liberty Bell, 168
private schools, 27
subscription libraries,
28 Philippine Islands
elections, 312
MacArthur’s return, 232
U.S. relations, 183, 184
World War II battles, 224-225, 232
Pierce, Franklin, 137
Pilgrims, 13, 22-23, 30, 65
Pinckney, Charles, 81
The Pit (Norris), 196
Pitcairn, John, 59
Pizarro, Francisco, 9
Plains Indians, 10, 98, 180-181
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), 178, 272
Political parties
American Independent, 319
Bull Moose Party, 318
Constitutional Union Party,
139 Democrats, 116, 137, 152,
153,
192, 218-219
Dixiecrats, 319
Federalists, 76, 78, 81, 82, 86, 116
Free Soil Party, 136, 137, 138
Green Party, 332

374
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
Progressive, 318-319 HISTORY
Radical Republicans, 148-151
Reform Party, 319 Republicans
(or Democratic- Republicans),
78, 81, 138, 139,
152, 153, 218
Socialists, 206, 318
Southern Democrats, 139
States Rights, 272
third-party and independent candidates,
318-319
Whigs, 119-121, 137-138, 152, 153
Polk, James K., 134, 135
Ponce de Léon, Juan, 9
Population growth
in cities and towns, 159
household composition, 307
postwar migrations, 267-268
Population, U.S.
in 1690, 24
in 1775, 24
1790 census, 200
1812 to 1852, 124
1860 census, 132
Populist Party, 191-192
Powell, Colin, 294-295
Presidency, U.S.
Cabinet, 77-78, 280
impeachment, 149-150, 290,
328, 329
oath of office, 77 role
of first lady, 324
See also names of individual
presidents
Presidential elections
1789 (Washington, first), 77
1797 (Adams), 82
1800 (Jefferson), 83
1824 (Jackson), 116
1828 (Jackson), 117
1860 (Lincoln), 139
1864 (Lincoln), 147, 153
1868 (Grant), 150
1884 (Cleveland), 159

37
INDEX

1892 (Cleveland), 160

Public Works
1896 (McKinley), 192
Administration (PWA), 215
1900 (McKinley), 195
Pueblo Indians, 8,
1904 (Roosevelt), 197
20 Puerto Rico
1908 (Taft), 197-198
ceded to U.S., 182-183
1912 (Wilson), 318, 328
as U.S. commonwealth, 184
1916 (Wilson), 205, 328
Pulitzer Prize, 347
1920 (Harding), 207
Pure Food and Drug Act (1906),
1924 (Coolidge), 318-319
197 Puritans, 13-14, 40, 40, 65
1932 (Roosevelt), 211
1936 (Roosevelt), 218
Q
1940 (Roosevelt), 220
Quakers
1948 (Truman), 235, 269, 319
abolition movement and, 133
1960 (Kennedy), 283
and British government relations, 59
1964 (Johnson), 286, 308, 309
Pennsylvania settlements, 18, 25
1968 (Nixon), 288, 319
schools and education, 27
1972 (Nixon), 290
Quartering Act (England,
1976 (Carter), 291
1765), 53-54, 58
1980 (Reagan), 309
Quayle, Dan, 323
1984 (Reagan), 310-311
Quebec Act (England), 58
1988 (Bush), 314
Quotations, notable
1992 (Clinton), 319, 322-324
“Ask not what your country can
1996 (Clinton), 328-329 do for you — ask what you can
2000 (Bush), 332-333 do for your country” (Kennedy),
2004 (Bush), 336-337 283 “axis of evil” (Bush), 334
2008 (Obama), 342-343 “The Buck Stops Here,” 260
Presley, Elvis, 238, “city upon a hill”
271 Press (Winthrop), 13, 309
Cable News Network (CNN), 297 “Damn the torpedoes! Full
first newspaper, 28 speed ahead” (Farragut), 143
first printing press in colonies, 27 “a day that will live in
freedom of the, 28-29 infamy” (Roosevelt), 221
Progressive Party, 318-319 “Give me liberty, or give me
Progressivism, 195, 196 death” (Henry), 42
Prohibition, 121, “Go west, young man” (Greeley),
210 Protestant 112, 124
religion “A house divided against itself
Baptists, 87, 88 cannot stand” (Lincoln), 130, 138
Great Awakening, 29 “I have a dream…” (King, Jr.),
Methodists, 87, 88 276 “I shall return” (MacArthur),
revivals in “Burned-Over District,” 87 232 “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am
Second Great Awakening and, 87- a Berliner) (Kennedy), 242
88 See also Pilgrims; Puritans “iron curtain” (Churchill), 260-261
Public Utility Holding “shot heard round the world”
Company Act, 218
376
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

(Emerson), 59
as “Great Communicator,”
“thousand points of
309 Grenada invasion, 312-
light” (Bush), 315
313
“tyranny over the mind of
Iran-Contra affair, 312-313
man” (Jefferson), 161
with Mikhail Gorbachev, 304-305
“With malice towards
Reconstruction Act (1867), 148
none” (Lincoln), 147
Reconstruction Era, 148-151
African-American members
R
in Congress during, 96
Lincoln’s program, 147-148
Race riots, 152, 206 foreign policy, 311-313
Racial discrimination
bus segregation, 240, 273
color barrier broken by
Jackie Robinson, 237, 271
in federal government
employment, 269, 272
“Jim Crow” laws (segregation), 151,
272, 319
lynchings and violence against
African Americans, 150, 178, 271
military segregation, 269, 272
school segregation, 240, 244
separate but equal
accommodations, 178, 240, 272
South African apartheid, 312
white supremacy and belief in
black inferiority, 178
Radical Republicans, 148-151
Railroad industry, 131-132
Great Rail Strike (1877), 194
nationalization of, 192
Pullman Company, 194
regulation, 159, 197
transcontinental link at
Promontory Point (1869),
179
transcontinental railroad, 154-155
westward expansion and, 179
workers’ hours, 199
workers’ strikes, 193, 194
Raleigh, Walter, 10
Reagan, Ronald
conservatism and, 307-309
economic policy, 309-311
37
 INDEX
Reconstruction Finance Corporation,
211
Red Cloud (Sioux chief), 180
Reform Party, 319
Refugee Act (1980), 201
Religion
camp meetings and revivals, 87-88
Christian Coalition, 308
Christian evangelicals, 332, 336
circuit riders, 88
fundamentalism, 209, 210, 308
Great Awakening, 29
Moral Majority, 308
Salem witch trials, 35
Second Great Awakening, 87-88
Religious freedom
Coercive or Intolerable Acts and, 58
freedom of worship, 32
and tolerance, 17, 29, 32
“Remaking America,” 344
Republicanism, 65, 68
Republicans (or Democratic-
Republicans), 78, 81, 138, 139, 152,
153, 218
Reuther, Walter, 228
Revels, H.R., 96
Revolution. See American Revolution;
French Revolution; Latin American
Revolution
Revolutionary War. See American
Revolution
Rhode Island colony, 14, 31, 41
Rice, Condoleeza, 295
Ridgway, Matthew B., 264
Riesman, David, 270

378
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

“Roaring Twenties,” 109, 210

Royal Proclamation (England, 1763),
Robertson, Pat, 308
53 Rural Electrification Administration,
Robinson, Jackie, 237, 271
218 Russian Revolution (1917), 206,
Rochambeau, Comte Jean de,
259
64 Rockefeller, John D., 158
Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), 186
Roe v. Wade (1973), 279, 308, 324
Rogers, William, 251
S
Rolfe, John, 12
Sadat, Anwar al-, 292
Rommel, Erwin, 222
Saddam Hussein, 316, 317, 329,
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 324
334-335
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
San Martin, José de, 114
death of, 224
Santa Anna, Antonio López de,
on democracy, 214, 219
134 Scopes, John, 209
foreign policy, 185
Scopes trial, 209-210
Good Neighbor Policy, 185
Scott, Dred, 138
labor unions and, 227
Scott, Winfield, 135
New Deal programs, 214-218
Seamen’s Act (1915), 199
presidential elections (1932, 1936,
Second Treatise on
1940), 207, 211, 218, 220
Government (Locke), 32, 61
Social Security Act, signing of, 230
Sectionalism, and slavery issue,
Social Security program, 218, 230
128-139
World War II and, 219-220
Sedition Act, 82, 117
World War II
Seminole Indians, 125
peace negotiations,
Separation of church and state,
224
14 Separation of powers
at Yalta (1945), 224, 234
principle, 74 Separatists, 13
Roosevelt, Theodore
Seven Years’ War, 33, 63,
accession to the presidency, 195
83 Seventh Day Adventists,
on democracy, 190
87 Seward, William, 138,
face of (Mount Rushmore),
182
170-171
Seymour, Horatio, 152
foreign policy, 181, 184,
The Shame of the Cities (Steffens),
186 Nobel Peace Prize
196 Sharon, Ariel, 330
recipient (1906), 186
Shays, Daniel, 70
Panama Canal treaty, 184-185
Shays’s Rebellion (1787), 70,
presidential election (1912), 318
73 Sherman Antitrust Act
“Rough Riders” in the Spanish-
(1890), 160, 187
American War, 183
Sherman, Roger, 72, 73
“Square Deal,” 196
Sherman, William T., 146
as “trust-buster” and antitrust
Silent Spring (Carson), 282
laws, 160, 187, 196-197
Sinclair, Upton, 196
Root, Elihu, 181
Sioux Indians, 98, 180, 281
Rose, Ernestine, 122
Sitting Bull (Sioux chief), 98
Rosenberg, Julius and Ethel, 266
Slave family, 128-129
“Rosie the Riveter,” 222
Slave owners, 132
37
 INDEX
Slave population, 132

380
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Slave trade, 19, 25, 133, Social Security, 218

136 Slavery Truman Fair Deal programs,
African slaves, 19, 24
constitutional amendment (13th)
abolishing, 148
Dred Scott decision, 138, 149
Emancipation Proclamation,
144-145
equal rights and, 69
extension of, 113-114
free vs. slave states, 114, 123
Fugitive Slave Laws, 136, 137
Indian slaves, 17-18
Missouri Compromise (1820),
90,
114, 132, 135, 137
Northwest Ordinance ban on,
71, 73, 113, 135
as the “peculiar institution,” 132
plantations in the south and,
113- 114, 128-129
revolt in Haiti, 83
as a sectional
conflict/divided nation, 128-
139
in the territories, 71, 73, 113, 135,
136-138
See also Abolition of
slavery Smith, Capt. John, 6,
12, 36
Smith-Lever Act (1914), 199
Social activism, 87
Social-contract (theory of
government), 61
Social liberalism, 34
Social reforms, 121-122, 195-196
Great Society programs, 286-287
Medicaid program, 287
Medicare program, 286
mental health care, 121-122
New Deal programs, 214-218
prison reform, 121
progressivism, 195
prohibition and the temperance
movement, 121, 210

38
 INDEX
268-269 Stamp Act (England), 54, 55
War on Poverty, Standard Oil Company, 158, 196, 197
286 welfare state
and, 219
Social Security Act (1935), 218, 230
Socialist Party, 206, 318
Society for the Promotion
of Temperance, 87, 121
Soil Conservation Service,
216 Somalia, 331
Sons of Liberty,
54 Soule, John,
124
South Africa, racial apartheid, 312
South Carolina
colonial government, 30
during American Revolution, 63-
64 early settlements, 17, 26
French Huguenots, 24
nullification crisis, 117-118
protective tariffs, 117
secession from the Union,
142
Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC), 276
Southern colonies, 26-27
Southern Democrats,
139 Soviet Union
Cold War, 258-265
Sputnik and the space program, 285
U.S. containment doctrine, 261-263
U.S. détente policy, 289, 291, 292
U.S. relations, 284, 313-314
Space program, 254, 274-275, 285
Spain, and American Revolution,
63 Spanish-American War (1898),
182, 183
Spanish exploration
European settlement, 9, 11,
169 missions in California,
169 Seven Cities of Cibola
and, 9 St. Augustine (Florida),
first St.
John de Crèvecoeur, J. Hector,
24 St. Mary’s (Maryland), 15
Stalin, Joseph, at Yalta, 224, 234
382
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Stanton, Edwin, 153 Talleyrand, Charles Maurice de, 82

State constitutions, 68-69
Statehood, 78
States’ rights, 79, 80
nullification doctrine, 83, 117-118
States Rights Party, 272
Statue of Liberty (New York City),
167, 201
Steel industry. See Iron and steel
industry
Steel Workers Organizing Committee
(SWOC), 228
Steffens, Lincoln, 196
Steinem, Gloria, 248, 279
Steuben, Friedrich von, 65
Stevens, Thaddeus, 148
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 137
Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), 276
Sugar Act (England, 1764), 53, 55
Sunday, Billy, 209
Supreme Court Building
(Wash., D.C.), 166
Supreme Court,
U.S. cases
Brown v. Board of
Education, 241, 244, 272
Marbury v. Madison, 113
McCulloch v. Maryland,
113 Plessy v. Ferguson, 178,
272
Roe v. Wade, 279, 308, 324
decisions, 113
Court’s right of judicial review,
49 Dred Scott, 138, 149
enlargement proposal, 218-219
See also Marshall, John; Marshall,
Thurgood
Swedish colonization, 15, 200
Swift, Gustavus, 158

T
Taft, William Howard, 197-198, 318
Taiwan, 263, 265, 289
38
 INDEX
Tarbell, Ida M., 196 Alamo, battle of, 134
TARP, see Troubled Battle of San Jacinto,
Assets Relief Program 134 territory of, 134
Taxation and War with Mexico, 134-135
Boston Tea Party (1773),
50-51, 57 British right to
tax colonies (Declaratory
Act), 55
colonial period, 33, 53-
59 Committees of
Correspondence, 56-57
“without representation,” 53, 54-55
See also names of individual acts
Taylor, Zachary,
135 Technology.
See Inventions
Television
Cable News Network (CNN), 297
growth of, 268
impact of, 268, 297
MTV, 297
programming, 239, 268
Temperance movement, 87, 121
Tennessee, statehood (1796), 78
Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA), 215 Tenure of Office
Act, 149
Terrorism
anthrax poisoning scare, 333-
334 Cole (U.S. Navy
destroyer) bombing (Yemen),
332
Khobar Towers U.S.
military housing (Saudi
Arabia, 1996), 331
Oklahoma City bombing
(1995), 326, 331
Palestinian suicide
bombings, 330 September 11,
2001 attacks on U.S.,
320-321, 333
U.S. embassies (Kenya
and Tanzania, 1998),
331-332 World Trade
Center bombings
(1993), 331
Texas
384
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

Textile industry strikes, 195 United Auto Workers, 228

Thorpe, Jim, 181
Thurmond, Strom, 272, 319
The Titan (Dreiser), 196
To Secure These Rights, 271-
272 Tocqueville, Alexis de,
126, 130
Tojo, Hideki, 221, 225
Toleration Act (England, 1689),
31 Toleration Act (Maryland), 17
Townsend, Francis E., 217
Townshend Acts (England), 55-56
Townshend, Charles, 55
Trade policy. See U.S. trade policy
Transportation Act (1920), 208
Treaties. See under name of individual
treaty
Troubled Assets Relief Program
(TARP), 343
Truman Doctrine,
261 Truman, Harry S.
accession to the presidency,
224 civil rights program, 271-
272 Fair Deal domestic
program, 268-269
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
atomic bomb attacks, 226
labor unions and, 269
NSC-68 defense policy, 262, 265
as president of U.S., 258, 260
presidential election (1948), 235,
269
Trusts, 158
Tubman, Harriet, 91
Turner, Frederick Jackson, 126
Twain, Mark. See Clemens, Samuel
Langhorne
Tyler, John, 120

U
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe), 137
Underground Railroad, 91, 134, 136
Unemployment, 344-345
Union Army of the Potomac,
145 Union Pacific Railroad, 179

38
 INDEX
United Mine Workers (UMW),
227-228
United Nations, 224, 226 United
States Steel Corporation, 157-
158, 187
U.S. economy
in the 1980s, 309-311
in the 1990s, 327-328
in the 2000s, 344-345
“Black Monday” (stock market
crash, 1987), 311
federal budget deficits, 310-311, 315
migration patterns in U.S., 267
post-World War II period, 267-268
stock market crash (1929), 211
suburban development and, 268
“supply side” economics, 309
unemployment, 215-216, 227, 327 See
also Banking and finance; Great
Depression
U.S. foreign policy, 80-82, 181-186 in
Asia, 185-186
Bush (George W.) Administration,
332-337
Clinton Administration, 328-331
Cold War and, 258-267
imperialism and “Manifest
Destiny,” 181-182
Iran-Contra affair, 312-313
isolationism, 78, 206, 220
Jay Treaty with Britain, 81 in
Latin America, 185 Monroe
Doctrine, 115-116
Obama administration, 345
Open Door policy, 186, 195 in
the Pacific area, 183-184
Panama Canal treaty, 184-185
Reagan Administration, 313-314
Truman Doctrine of containment,
261-263
XYZ Affair with France, 82
U.S. monetary policy, 79-80, 343
currency question, 192
gold standard, 192

386
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

See also Banking and finance; demonstration, 288

Federal Reserve Board
U.S. trade policy
economic impact of War of 1812,
86 Embargo Act (1807), 84
Fordney-McCumber Tariff
(1922), 207
Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930), 207
Massachusetts Bay Company
“triangular U.S. trade policy,” 25
McKinley tariff, 160, 191
Native Americans with
European settlers, 15-16
Non-Intercourse Act (1809), 84
North American Free Trade
Agreement, 317, 325
protective tariffs, 112, 117, 152,
159
slave trade, 19, 25, 133
Underwood Tariff (1913), 198
World Trade Organization
(WTO), 325
U.S. Treasury (Department of), 343
USA Patriot Act, 334
Utah territory, 136

V
Van Buren, Martin, 120
Vanderbilt, Cornelius,
158
Vermont, statehood (1791),
78 Verrazano, Giovanni da,
10 Versailles, Treaty of, 206
Vespucci, Amerigo, 9
Vietnam
French involvement, 284-285
U.S. involvement, 285
Viet Minh movement, 284
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
(Wash., D.C.), 172-173
Vietnam War
antiwar demonstrations, 248, 258,
281, 288-289
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,
287 Kent State (Ohio) student

38
 INDEX
military draft, 288 Revolution, 60-62
U.S. forces in, Constitutional Convention
246-247 Villa, presiding officer (1787), 66-67, 71
Francisco “Pancho,” crossing the Delaware (1776), 62
185 Virginia face of (Mount Rushmore),
Antifederalists, 76 170- 171
colonial government, as first U.S. president, 77-78
29-30 Declaration of Long Island, battle of (1776),
Rights, 77 education by 61
private tutors, 28 Mount Vernon plantation, home of,
Jamestown colony, 10, 170-171
12-13, 16
Resolutions (1798), 117
secession from the Union,
142-143 state constitution,
68-69
Tidewater region
plantation
settlements, 26, 28
Virginia Company, 12, 18, 29-30
Volcker, Paul,
291, 310
Voting rights
for African Americans, 273,
277 church membership
requirement, 14 Pennsylvania
constitution, 69
for women, 122
Voting Rights Act (1965), 277

W
Wallace, George, 288, 319
Wallace, Henry, 319
Wampanoag Indians, 13
War of 1812, 85-86, 112
War on
terror, 345
Warren,
Earl, 272
Washington,
Booker T., 178
Washington,
George
on abolition of
slavery, 113 as
commander in
American
388
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

presidential oath of office, 77 League of Nations and, 205-

retirement from presidency, 206 portrait of, 108
82
at Valley Forge (Pennsylvania), 62
as Virginia militia commander, 33
Yorktown, British surrender, 46-
47
Washington Monument (Wash.,
D.C.),
175
Water Quality Improvement Act,
282 Wattenberg, Ben, 337, 345
Webster, Daniel, 120, 136
Welch, Joseph, 236
Weld, Theodore Dwight, 134
Welfare state. See Social
reforms Welles, Gideon, 143
“The West.” See Westward
expansion West, Benjamin, 39
Western Union, 158
Westward expansion
cowboy life and “The Wild West,”
180
frontier settlers’ life, 123-124
Homestead Act (1862), 124, 152,
179, 180
homesteading in the last frontier/
“The West,” 126, 179-180
Louisiana Purchase and, 83-
84 map of, 127
Northwest Ordinance (1787), 71,
73, 135
in Oklahoma Territory,
101 problems of, 53, 70-71
Whig Party, 119-121, 137-138, 152,
153
Whitefield, George, 29
Whitney, Eli, 114
Wigglesworth, Rev. Michael,
28 Will, George, 308
Williams, Roger, 14, 41
Wilson, James, 72
Wilson, Woodrow
Fourteen Points for
WWI armistice, 205

38
 INDEX
as president of U.S., 198-199,
204-206
presidential elections (1912 and
1916), 205, 328
relations with Mexico, 185
U.S. neutrality policy, 204-205
Winthrop, John, 13, 309
“Witch hunt,” origin of the term, 35
Women
constitutional council (Afghanistan)
delegates, 294 education in the
home arts, 27, 122 labor unions
and, 193
no political rights, 69
role of first lady, 324
role of Native American, 8 workers
in war production (“Rosie the
Riveter”), 222
working conditions, 193
Women’s rights, 122-123
abortion issue, 308
Equal Rights Amendment
(ERA), 279
feminism and, 278-279
Married Women’s Property Act, 122
in Pennsylvania colony, 18
state constitutions and, 69
Women’s rights movement, 90, 248,
278-279
Women’s suffrage, 90, 122
march on Washington (1913),
188-189
“Woodstock Generation” (1960s),
249, 281
Works Progress Administration
(WPA), 218
World Trade Center Memorial
(New York City), 176
World Trade Organization
(WTO), 325
World War I
American infantry forces, 108
“Big Four” at Paris Peace
Conference (1919), 108

390
 OUTLINE OF U.S.
HISTORY

German submarine warfare, 204-

U.S. neutrality policy, 219-220
205 postwar unrest, 206-207
World War II Memorial (Wash.,
U.S. involvement, 205
D.C.), 176
U.S. neutrality policy, 204-205
Wright, Frances, 122
Wilson’s Fourteen Points for
Wright, Orville (and Wilbur), 107
armistice, 205
World War II
X
Atlantic Charter, 220
XYZ Affair, 82
Coral Sea, Battle of the (1942), 223
Doolittle’s Tokyo bombing raid,
Y
223 Eastern Front, 222
Yale University (formerly Collegiate
G.I. Bill (veterans benefits),
School of Connecticut), 27
268-269
Yalta Conference (1945), 224, 234, 260
Guadalcanal, Battle of, 223, 231
Yeltsin, Boris, 315-316
Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic
Yorktown, British surrender at, 46-47,
bomb attacks, 225, 226
64
Holocaust (Jewish genocide), 226
Yugoslavia, post-Cold War, 330
in the Pacific arena, 223-224, 224-
225, 231
Z
Iwo Jima campaign, 225
Zenger, John Peter, 28
Japanese-American internment
camps, 222, 233
Japanese Kamikaze suicide
missions, 225
Lend-Lease Program, 220
Leyte Gulf, Battle of, 225
Manhattan Project, 225
Midway, Battle of, 223
Normandy allied invasion, 223,
232 North African campaign, 222-
223 Nuremberg war crime trials,
226 Okinawa campaign, 225
peace-time conscription bill,
220 Pearl Harbor, Japanese
attack on (1941), 212-213, 221
politics of, 224
postwar economy, 267-268
postwar period, 258
Potsdam Declaration, 225
Roosevelt call for “unconditional
surrender,” 224
Russian defense of Leningrad and
Moscow, 222
U.S. mobilization, 221-222

39
INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Outline of U.S. History is a publication of the U.S.

Department of State. The first edition (1949-50) was
produced under the editorship of Francis Whitney,
first of the State Department Office of International
Information and later of the U.S. Information
Agency. Richard Hofstadter, professor of history at
Columbia University, and Wood Gray, professor of
American history at The George Washington
University,
served as academic consultants. D. Steven Endsley
of Berkeley, California, prepared additional
material. It has been updated and revised
extensively over the years by, among others, Keith
W. Olsen, professor of American history at the
University of Maryland, and Nathan Glick, writer
and former editor of the USIA
journal, Dialogue. Alan Winkler, professor of
history at Miami University (Ohio), wrote the post-
World War II chapters for previous editions.

This new edition was completely revised and

updated by Alonzo L. Hamby, Distinguished
Professor of History at Ohio University in 2005.
Chapter 16
was added in 2010-11. Professor Hamby has written
extensively on American politics and society.
Among his books are Man of the People: A Life of
Harry S. Truman and For the Survival of Democracy:
Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s.
He lives and works in Athens, Ohio.

Executive Editor: Michael Jay Friedman

Editorial Director: Mary T. Chunko
Managing Editor: Chandley McDonald
Cover Design: Lisa Jusino
Photo Research: Maggie Johnson Sliker

392
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Ann MonroeHISTORY
Jacobs

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
2011