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CHAPTER 1 EarlyAmerica...................................... 4 CHAPTER 2 TheColonialPeriod ............................... 22 CHAPTER 3 TheRoadtoIndependence.......................... 50 CHAPTER 4 TheFormationofaNationalGovernment ............ 66 CHAPTER 5 WestwardExpansionandRegionalDifferences ....... 110 CHAPTER 6 SectionalConflict ................................ 128 CHAPTER 7 TheCivilWarandReconstruction .................. 140 CHAPTER 8 GrowthandTransformation ....................... 154 CHAPTER 9 DiscontentandReform ........................... 188 CHAPTER1 0 War,Prosperity,andDepression .................... 202 CHAPTER11 TheNewDealandWorldWarI ..................... 212 CHAPTER12 PostwarAmerica ................................. 256 CHAPTER13 DecadesofChange:1960-1980 ..................... 274 CHAPTER14 TheNewConservatismandaNewWorldOrder ...... 304 CHAPTER15 Bridgetothe21stCentury ......................... 320 PICTUREPROFILES
BecomingaNation ................................ 38
TransformingaNation ............................. 89
MonumentsandMemorials........................ 161
TurmoilandChange .............................. 229
21stCenturyNation .............................. 293
Bibliography ................................................. 338 Index ....................................................... 341
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CHAPTER
EARLY AMERICA
Mesa Verde settlement in Colorado, 13th century. 4
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
“Heaven and Earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation.” Jamestown founder John Smith, 1607
THEFIRSTAMERICANS
ancestors had for thousands of years, along the Siberian coast and thenacrossthelandbridge. Once in Alaska, it would take these first North Americans thousands 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 lookoutinnorthernAlaska,forexample, may date from almost that time. So too may the finely crafted spear pointsanditemsfoundnearClovis, NewMexico. Similarartifactshavebeenfound atsitesthroughoutNorthandSouth America, indicating that life was probablyalreadywellestablishedin
A t the height of the Ice Age, between34,000and30,000B.C.,much of the world’s water was locked up in vast continental ice sheets. As a result,theBeringSeawashundreds ofmetersbelowitscurrentlevel,and a land bridge, known as Beringia, emerged between Asia and North America. At its peak, Beringia is thoughttohavebeensome1,500kilometers wide. A moist and treeless tundra, it was covered with grasses and plant life, attracting the large animals that early humans hunted fortheirsurvival. The first people to reach North America almost certainly did so without knowing they had crossed into a new continent. They would have been following game, as their 6
muchoftheWesternHemisphereby sometimepriorto10,000B.C. Aroundthattimethemammoth begantodieoutandthebisontook its place as a principal source of foodandhidesfortheseearlyNorth Americans.Overtime,asmoreand morespeciesoflargegamevanished — whether from overhunting or natural causes — plants, berries, and seeds became an increasingly important part of the early American diet. Gradually, foraging and the first attempts at primitive agricultureappeared.NativeAmericans in what is now central Mexico led the way, cultivating corn, squash, andbeans,perhapsasearlyas8,000 B.C. Slowly, this knowledge spread northward. By3,000B.C.,aprimitivetypeof corn was being grown in the river valleysofNewMexicoandArizona. Then the first signs of irrigation began to appear, and, by 300 B.C., signsofearlyvillagelife. By the first centuries A.D., the Hohokamwerelivinginsettlements nearwhatisnowPhoenix,Arizona, where they built ball courts and pyramid-like mounds reminiscent ofthosefoundinMexico,aswellas acanalandirrigationsystem.
ing earthen burial sites and fortifications around 600 B.C. Some mounds from that era are in the shape of birds or serpents; they probably served religious purposes notyetfullyunderstood. The Adenans appear to have beenabsorbedordisplacedbyvarious groups collectively known as Hopewellians.Oneofthemostimportantcentersoftheirculturewas found in southern Ohio, where the remainsofseveralthousandofthese mounds still can be seen. Believed to be great traders, the Hopewelliansusedandexchangedtoolsand materials across a wide region of hundredsofkilometers. 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, Cahokia, nearCollinsville,Illinois,isthought 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, flattenedatthetop,thatwas30meters high and 37 hectares at the base. Eighty other mounds have been foundnearby. CitiessuchasCahokiadepended MOUNDBUILDERSAND on a combination of hunting, foraging, trading, and agriculture for PUEBLOS their food and supplies. Influenced he first Native-American group by the thriving societies to the tobuildmoundsinwhatisnowthe south,theyevolvedintocomplexhiUnited States often are called the erarchical societies that took slaves Adenans. They began construct- andpracticedhumansacrifice.
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In what is now the southwest UnitedStates,theAnasazi,ancestors ofthemodernHopiIndians,began building stone and adobe pueblos around the year 900. These unique and amazing apartment-like structures were often built along cliff faces; the most famous, the “cliff palace” of Mesa Verde, Colorado, hadmorethan200rooms.Another site, the Pueblo Bonito ruins along New Mexico’s Chaco River, once containedmorethan800rooms. Perhaps the most affluent of the pre-Columbian Native Americans livedinthePacificNorthwest,where the natural abundance of fish and raw materials made food supplies plentifulandpermanentvillagespossibleasearlyas1,000B.C.Theopulence of their “potlatch” gatherings remainsastandardforextravagance andfestivityprobablyunmatchedin earlyAmericanhistory.
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had on the indigenous population practically from the time of initial contact. Smallpox, in particular, ravaged whole communities and is thought to have been a much more direct cause of the precipitous declineintheIndianpopulationinthe 1600s than the numerous wars and skirmisheswithEuropeansettlers. Indiancustomsandcultureatthe timewereextraordinarilydiverse,as could be expected, given the expanseofthelandandthemanydifferent environments to which they had dapted. 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 huntedandparticipatedinwar. Byallaccounts,Native-American societyinNorthAmericawasclosely tied to the land. Identification with natureandtheelementswasintegral to religious beliefs. Their life was essentially clan-oriented and communal, with children allowed more freedomandtolerancethanwasthe Europeancustomoftheday. Although some North American tribes developed a type of hieroglyphics to preserve certain texts, Native-American culture was primarilyoral,withahighvalueplaced on the recounting of tales and dreams. Clearly, there was a good dealoftradeamongvariousgroups
NATIVE-AMERICAN CULTURES
heAmericathatgreetedthefirst Europeans was, thus, far from an emptywilderness.Itisnowthought that as many people lived in the Western Hemisphere as in Western 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 historianstendingtowardthelower figure.Whatiscertainisthedevastating effect that European disease 8
and strong evidence exists that Columbus never saw the mainneighboring tribes maintained ex- land of the future United States, tensiveandformalrelations—both but the first explorations of it were friendlyandhostile. launched from the Spanish possessions that he helped establish. The THEFIRSTEUROPEANS first of these took place in 1513 when a group of men under Juan he first Europeans to arrive in PoncedeLeónlandedontheFlorida North America — at least the first coastnearthepresentcityofSt.Aufor whom there is solid evidence gustine. — were Norse, traveling west from With the conquest of Mexico in Greenland, where Erik the Red had 1522, the Spanish further solidifounded a settlement around the fied their position in the Western year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is Hemisphere. The ensuing discoverthoughttohaveexploredthenorth- ies added to Europe’s knowledge of eastcoastofwhatisnowCanadaand what was now named America — spentatleastonewinterthere. after the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, While Norse sagas suggest that whowroteawidelypopularaccount Viking sailors explored the Atlan- ofhisvoyagestoa“NewWorld.”By tic coast of North America down 1529 reliable maps of the Atlantic as far as the Bahamas, such claims coastline from Labrador to Tierra remainunproven.In1963,however, del Fuego had been drawn up, altheruinsofsomeNorsehousesdat- thoughitwouldtakemorethananingfromthaterawerediscoveredat othercenturybeforehopeofdiscovL’Anse-aux-Meadows in northern eringa“NorthwestPassage”toAsia Newfoundland, thus supporting at wouldbecompletelyabandoned. leastsomeofthesagaclaims. Amongthemostsignificantearly In 1497, just five years after Spanish explorations was that of Christopher Columbus landed in Hernando De Soto, a veteran conthe Caribbean looking for a west- quistador who had accompanied ern route to Asia, a Venetian sailor Francisco Pizarro in the conquest named John Cabot arrived in ofPeru.LeavingHavanain1539,De Newfoundland on a mission for Soto’s expedition landed in Florida the British king. Although quickly and ranged through the southeastforgotten, Cabot’s journey was later ernUnitedStatesasfarastheMistoprovidethebasisforBritishclaims sissippiRiverinsearchofriches. to North America. It also opened Another Spaniard, Francisco the way to the rich fishing grounds VázquezdeCoronado,setoutfrom off George’s Banks, to which Eu- Mexico in 1540 in search of the ropean fishermen, particularly the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola. Portuguese, were soon making Coronado’s travels took him to the regularvisits. Grand Canyon and Kansas, but
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failed to reveal the gold or treasure hismensought.However,hisparty did leave the peoples of the region a remarkable, if unintended, gift: Enough of his horses escaped to transform life on the Great Plains. Withinafewgenerations,thePlains Indians had become masters of horsemanship, greatly expanding therangeoftheiractivities. While the Spanish were pushing up from the south, the northern portion of the present-day United States was slowly being revealed through the journeys of men such as Giovanni da Verrazano. A Florentine who sailed for the French, Verrazano made landfall in North Carolina in 1524, then sailed north alongtheAtlanticCoastpastwhatis nowNewYorkharbor. A decade later, the Frenchman Jacques Cartier set sail with the hope — like the other Europeans beforehim—offindingaseapassage to Asia. Cartier’s expeditions alongtheSt.LawrenceRiverlaidthe foundationfortheFrenchclaimsto North America, which were to last until1763. Following the collapse of their first Quebec colony in the 1540s, FrenchHuguenotsattemptedtosettlethenortherncoastofFloridatwo decades later. The Spanish, viewing theFrenchasathreattotheirtrade route along the Gulf Stream, destroyedthecolonyin1565.Ironically, the leader of the Spanish forces, PedroMenéndez,wouldsoonestablish a town not far away — St. Augustine. It was the first permanent 10
Europeansettlementinwhatwould becometheUnitedStates. Thegreatwealththatpouredinto Spain from the colonies in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Peru provoked great interest on the part of the other European powers. Emerging maritime nations such as England, drawn in part by Francis Drake’s successfulraidsonSpanishtreasure ships,begantotakeaninterestinthe NewWorld. 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 barbarouslandes”intheNewWorldthat otherEuropeannationshadnotyet claimed.Itwouldbefiveyearsbefore hiseffortscouldbegin.Whenhewas lost at sea, his half-brother, Walter Raleigh,tookupthemission. In 1585 Raleigh established the first British colony in North America,onRoanokeIslandoffthecoast ofNorthCarolina.Itwaslaterabandoned,andasecondefforttwoyears later also proved a failure. It would be20yearsbeforetheBritishwould tryagain.Thistime—atJamestown in1607—thecolonywouldsucceed, and North America would enter a newera.
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EARLYSETTLEMENTS
he early 1600s saw the beginning of a great tide of emigration from Europe to North America. Spanning more than three centuries, this movement grew from a
trickle of a few hundred English colonists to a flood of millions of newcomers. Impelled by powerful and diverse motivations, they built a new civilization on the northern partofthecontinent. The first English immigrants to what is now the United States crossedtheAtlanticlongafterthrivingSpanishcolonieshadbeenestablished in Mexico, the West Indies, and South America. Like all early travelers to the New World, they came in small, overcrowded ships. During their six- to 12-week voyages, they lived on meager rations. Many died of disease, ships were often battered by storms, and some werelostatsea. Most European emigrants left their homelands to escape politicaloppression,toseekthefreedom to practice their religion, or to find opportunities denied them at home.Between1620and1635,economic difficulties swept England. Many people could not find work. Even skilled artisans could earn littlemorethanabareliving.Poor cropyieldsaddedtothedistress.In addition, the Commercial Revolution had created a burgeoning textile industry, which demanded an ever-increasing supply of wool to keeptheloomsrunning.Landlords enclosedfarmlandsandevictedthe peasants in favor of sheep cultivation. Colonial expansion became anoutletforthisdisplacedpeasant population. The colonists’ first glimpse of the new land was a vista of dense
woods. The settlers might not have survived had it not been for the helpoffriendlyIndians,whotaught them how to grow native plants — pumpkin, squash, beans, and corn. In addition, the vast, virgin forests, extending nearly 2,100 kilometers along the Eastern seaboard, proved arichsourceofgameandfirewood. They also provided abundant raw materialsusedtobuildhouses,furniture, ships, and profitable items forexport. Althoughthenewcontinentwas remarkably endowed by nature, trade with Europe was vital for articlesthesettlerscouldnotproduce. The coast served the immigrants well.Thewholelengthofshoreprovidedmanyinletsandharbors.Only two areas — North Carolina and southernNewJersey—lackedharborsforocean-goingvessels. Majestic rivers — the Kennebec, Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, and numerous others — linked lands between the coast and the Appalachian Mountains with thesea.Onlyoneriver,however,the St. Lawrence — dominated by the FrenchinCanada—offeredawater passage to the Great Lakes and the heartofthecontinent.Denseforests, theresistanceofsomeIndiantribes, and the formidable barrier of the Appalachian Mountains discouraged settlement beyond the coastal plain. Only trappers and traders ventured into the wilderness. For thefirsthundredyearsthecolonists built their settlements compactly alongthecoast. 11
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA
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Political considerations influenced many people to move to America.Inthe1630s,arbitraryrule byEngland’sCharlesIgaveimpetus tothemigration.Thesubsequentrevolt and triumph of Charles’ opponentsunderOliverCromwellinthe 1640s led many cavaliers — “king’s men”—tocasttheirlotinVirginia. In the German-speaking regions of Europe, the oppressive policies of variouspettyprinces—particularly with regard to religion — and the devastation caused by a long series of wars helped swell the movement toAmericainthelate17thand18th centuries. The journey entailed careful planning and management, as well as considerable expense and risk. Settlershadtobetransportednearly 5,000kilometersacrossthesea.They neededutensils,clothing,seed,tools, building materials, livestock, arms, andammunition.Incontrasttothe colonizationpoliciesofothercountriesandotherperiods,theemigration from England was not directly sponsoredbythegovernmentbutby privategroupsofindividualswhose chiefmotivewasprofit.
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JAMESTOWN
he first of the British colonies to take hold in North America was Jamestown.Onthebasisofacharter which King James I granted to the Virginia (or London) Company, a group of about 100 men set out for theChesapeakeBayin1607.Seeking to avoid conflict with the Spanish, 12
theychoseasiteabout60kilometers uptheJamesRiverfromthebay. Made up of townsmen and adventurersmoreinterestedinfinding gold than farming, the group was unequippedbytemperamentorabilitytoembarkuponacompletelynew lifeinthewilderness.Amongthem, CaptainJohnSmithemergedasthe dominant figure. Despite quarrels, starvation, and Native-American attacks, his ability to enforce discipline held the little colony together throughitsfirstyear. In 1609 Smith returned to England,andinhisabsence,thecolony descendedintoanarchy.Duringthe winterof1609-1610,themajorityof thecolonistssuccumbedtodisease. Only 60 of the original 300 settlers were still alive by May 1610. That sameyear,thetownofHenrico(now Richmond) was established farther uptheJamesRiver. It was not long, however, before a development occurred that revolutionized Virginia’s economy. In 1612JohnRolfebegancross-breedingimportedtobaccoseedfromthe West Indies with native plants and produced a new variety that was pleasingtoEuropeantaste.Thefirst shipment of this tobacco reached London in 1614. Within a decade it had become Virginia’s chief source ofrevenue. Prosperitydidnotcomequickly, however, and the death rate from diseaseandIndianattacksremained extraordinarily high. Between 1607 and 1624 approximately 14,000 people migrated to the colony, yet
only1,132werelivingtherein1624. Onrecommendationofaroyalcommission,thekingdissolvedtheVirginiaCompany,andmadeitaroyal colonythatyear.
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MASSACHUSETTS
uring the religious upheavals of the 16th century, a body of men and women called Puritans sought to reform the Established Church ofEnglandfromwithin.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 Separatists — a radical sect of Puritans whodidnotbelievetheEstablished Church could ever be reformed — departed for Leyden, Holland, wheretheDutchgrantedthemasylum. However, the Calvinist Dutch restricted them mainly to low-paid laboringjobs.Somemembersofthe congregation grew dissatisfied with this discrimination and resolved to emigratetotheNewWorld. In1620,agroupofLeydenPuritanssecuredalandpatentfromthe VirginiaCompany.Numbering101, theysetoutforVirginiaontheMayflower.Astormsentthemfarnorth and they landed in New England on Cape Cod. Believing themselves outsidethejurisdictionofanyorga13
nizedgovernment,themendrafted aformalagreementtoabideby“just and equal laws” drafted by leaders oftheirownchoosing.Thiswasthe MayflowerCompact. In December the Mayflower reached Plymouth harbor; the Pilgrims began to build their settlementduringthewinter.Nearlyhalf the colonists died of exposure and disease, but neighboring WampanoagIndiansprovidedtheinformationthatwouldsustainthem:howto growmaize.Bythenextfall,thePilgrims had a plentiful crop of corn, and a growing trade based on furs andlumber. A new wave of immigrants arrivedontheshoresofMassachusetts Bay in 1630 bearing a grant from KingCharlesItoestablishacolony. ManyofthemwerePuritanswhose religiouspracticeswereincreasingly prohibitedinEngland.Theirleader, JohnWinthrop,urgedthemtocreate 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 forallofChristendom. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was to play a significant role in the developmentoftheentireNewEngland region, in part because Winthrop and his Puritan colleagues were able to bring their charter with them. Thus the authority for the colony’s government resided in Massachusetts,notinEngland. Under the charter’s provisions, power rested with the General Court,whichwasmadeupof“free-
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA
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men”requiredtobemembersofthe Puritan,orCongregational,Church. This guaranteed that the Puritans would be the dominant political as wellasreligiousforceinthecolony. TheGeneralCourtelectedthegovernor,whoformostofthenextgenerationwouldbeJohnWinthrop. The rigid orthodoxy of the Puritanrulewasnottoeveryone’sliking.Oneofthefirsttochallengethe General Court openly was a young clergyman named Roger Williams, whoobjectedtothecolony’sseizure ofIndianlandsandadvocatedseparation of church and state. Another dissenter, Anne Hutchinson, challengedkeydoctrinesofPuritantheology.Boththeyandtheirfollowers werebanished. Williams purchased land from theNarragansettIndiansinwhatis now Providence, Rhode Island, in 1636. In 1644, a sympathetic Puritan-controlled English Parliament gave him the charter that established Rhode Island as a distinct colonywherecompleteseparationof churchandstateaswellasfreedom ofreligionwaspracticed. So-called heretics like Williams were not the only ones who left Massachusetts. Orthodox Puritans, seekingbetterlandsandopportunities, soon began leaving MassachusettsBayColony.Newsofthefertility of the Connecticut River Valley, forinstance,attractedtheinterestof farmershavingadifficulttimewith poorland.Bytheearly1630s,many were ready to brave the danger of Indianattacktoobtainlevelground 14
anddeep,richsoil.Thesenewcommunities often eliminated church membership as a prerequisite for voting, thereby extending the franchisetoeverlargernumbersofmen. At the same time, other settlementsbegancroppingupalongthe New Hampshire and Maine coasts, as more and more immigrants soughtthelandandlibertytheNew Worldseemedtooffer.
NEWNETHERLANDAND MARYLAND
H ired by the Dutch East India Company, Henry Hudson in 1609 explored the area around what is now New York City and the river thatbearshisname,toapointprobably north of present-day Albany, New York. Subsequent Dutch voyages laid the basis for their claims andearlysettlementsinthearea. AswiththeFrenchtothenorth, the first interest of the Dutch was thefurtrade.Tothisend,theycultivated close relations with the Five Nations of the Iroquois, who were thekeytotheheartlandfromwhich the furs came. In 1617 Dutch settlers built a fort at the junction of theHudsonandtheMohawkRivers, whereAlbanynowstands. SettlementontheislandofManhattan began in the early 1620s. In 1624,theislandwaspurchasedfrom local Native Americans for the reportedpriceof$24.Itwaspromptly renamedNewAmsterdam. In order to attract settlers to the Hudson River region, the Dutch
encouraged a type of feudal aristocracy, known as the “patroon” system. The first of these huge estateswereestablishedin1630along the Hudson River. Under the patroon system, any stockholder, or patroon, who could bring 50 adults tohisestateoverafour-yearperiod wasgivena25-kilometerriver-front plot, exclusive fishing and hunting privileges,andcivilandcriminaljurisdictionoverhislands.Inturn,he providedlivestock,tools,andbuildings. The tenants paid the patroon rent and gave him first option on surpluscrops. Further to the south, a Swedish trading company with ties to the Dutch attempted to set up its first settlement along the Delaware River three years later. Without the resourcestoconsolidateitsposition, NewSwedenwasgraduallyabsorbed into New Netherland, and later, PennsylvaniaandDelaware. In1632theCatholicCalvertfamilyobtainedacharterforlandnorth of the Potomac River from King Charles I in what became known asMaryland.Asthecharterdidnot expresslyprohibittheestablishment ofnon-Protestantchurches,thecolony became a haven for Catholics. Maryland’s first town, St. Mary’s, was established in 1634 near where the Potomac River flows into the ChesapeakeBay. While establishing a refuge for Catholics,whofacedincreasingpersecution in Anglican England, the Calvertswerealsointerestedincreatingprofitableestates.Tothisend, 15
andtoavoidtroublewiththeBritish government, they also encouraged Protestantimmigration. Maryland’s royal charter had a mixture of feudal and modern elements. On the one hand the Calvert family had the power to createmanorialestates.Ontheother, 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 numberofindependentfarmsgrew in consequence. Their owners demandedavoiceintheaffairsofthe colony. Maryland’s first legislature metin1635.
COLONIAL-INDIAN RELATIONS
B y 1640 the British had solid colonies established along the New England coast and the Chesapeake Bay.InbetweenweretheDutchand thetinySwedishcommunity.Tothe west were the original Americans, thencalledIndians. Sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, the Eastern tribes were no longer strangers to the Europeans. Although Native Americans benefited from access to new technologyandtrade,thediseaseandthirst for land that the early settlers also broughtposedaseriouschallengeto theirlong-establishedwayoflife. Atfirst,tradewiththeEuropean settlers brought advantages: knives,
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axes, weapons, cooking utensils, fishhooks, and a host of other goods. Those Indians who traded initially had significant advantage overrivalswhodidnot.Inresponse toEuropeandemand,tribessuchas the Iroquois began to devote more attentiontofurtrappingduringthe 17th century. Furs and pelts provided tribes the means to purchase colonial goods until late into the 18thcentury. Early colonial-Native-American relations were an uneasy mix of cooperation and conflict. On the onehand,thereweretheexemplary relations that prevailed during the first half century of Pennsylvania’s existence.Ontheotherwerealong series of setbacks, skirmishes, and wars, which almost invariably resulted in an Indian defeat and furtherlossofland. ThefirstoftheimportantNativeAmericanuprisingsoccurredinVirginiain1622,whensome347whites were killed, including a number of missionaries who had just recently cometoJamestown. White settlement of the ConnecticutRiverregiontouchedoffthe Pequot War in 1637. In 1675 King Philip, the son of the native chief who had made the original peace withthePilgrimsin1621,attempted tounitethetribesofsouthernNew England against further European encroachment of their lands. In the struggle, however, Philip lost hislifeandmanyIndiansweresold intoservitude.
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The steady influx of settlers into the backwoods regions of the Eastern colonies disrupted NativeAmerican life. As more and more game was killed off, tribes were facedwiththedifficultchoiceofgoinghungry,goingtowar,ormoving andcomingintoconflictwithother tribestothewest. The Iroquois, who inhabited the areabelowlakesOntarioandEriein northern New York and Pennsylvania, were more successful in resistingEuropeanadvances.In1570five tribesjoinedtoformthemostcomplex Native-American nation of its time,the“Ho-De-No-Sau-Nee,”or League of the Iroquois. The league wasrunbyacouncilmadeupof50 representativesfromeachofthefive member tribes. The council dealt with matters common to all the tribes,butithadnosayinhowthe free and equal tribes ran their dayto-dayaffairs.Notribewasallowed to make war by itself. The council passedlawstodealwithcrimessuch asmurder. TheIroquoisLeaguewasastrong power in the 1600s and 1700s. It traded furs with the British and sided with them against the French in the war for the dominance of America between 1754 and 1763. TheBritishmightnothavewonthat warotherwise. The Iroquois League stayed strong until the American Revolution. Then, for the first time, the council could not reach a unanimousdecisiononwhomtosupport. Member tribes made their own de-
cisions,somefightingwiththeBritish, some with the colonists, some remaining neutral. As a result, everyone fought against the Iroquois. Their losses were great and the leagueneverrecovered.
SECONDGENERATIONOF BRITISHCOLONIES
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he religious and civil conflict in England in the mid-17th century limited immigration, as well as the attention the mother country paid thefledglingAmericancolonies. In part to provide for the defense measures England was neglecting, the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth,Connecticut,andNewHaven colonies formed the New England Confederation in 1643. It was the European colonists’ first attempt at regionalunity. The early history of the British settlers reveals a good deal of contention — religious and political —asgroupsviedforpowerandposition among themselves and their neighbors. Maryland, in particular, sufferedfromthebitterreligiousrivalriesthatafflictedEnglandduring the era of Oliver Cromwell. One of thecasualtieswasthestate’sToleration Act, which was revoked in the 1650s.Itwassoonreinstated,however,alongwiththereligiousfreedom itguaranteed. With the restoration of King CharlesIIin1660,theBritishonce again turned their attention to NorthAmerica.Withinabriefspan, the first European settlements were 17
establishedintheCarolinasandthe Dutch driven out of New Netherland.Newproprietarycolonieswere establishedinNewYork,NewJersey, Delaware,andPennsylvania. The Dutch settlements had been ruled by autocratic governors appointed in Europe. Over the years, the local population had become estranged from them. As a result, whentheBritishcolonistsbeganencroachingonDutchclaimsinLong IslandandManhattan,theunpopulargovernorwasunabletorallythe population to their defense. New Netherland fell in 1664. The terms of the capitulation, however, were mild: The Dutch settlers were able toretaintheirpropertyandworship astheypleased. As early as the 1650s, the Albemarle Sound region off the coast of what is now northern North Carolina was inhabited by settlers trickling down from Virginia. The firstproprietarygovernorarrivedin 1664.ThefirsttowninAlbemarle,a remoteareaeventoday,wasnotestablisheduntilthearrivalofagroup ofFrenchHuguenotsin1704. In 1670 the first settlers, drawn from New England and the Caribbean island of Barbados, arrived in what is now Charleston, South Carolina. An elaborate system of government, to which the British philosopher John Locke contributed,waspreparedforthenewcolony. Oneofitsprominentfeatureswasa failedattempttocreateahereditary nobility. One of the colony’s least appealingaspectswastheearlytrade
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA
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inIndianslaves.Withtime,however,timber,rice,andindigogavethe colonyaworthiereconomicbase. In1681WilliamPenn,awealthy QuakerandfriendofCharlesII,received a large tract of land west of the Delaware River, which became known as Pennsylvania. To help populate it, Penn actively recruited a host of religious dissenters from Englandandthecontinent—Quakers,Mennonites,Amish,Moravians, andBaptists. When Penn arrived the following year, there were already Dutch, Swedish, and English settlers living along the Delaware River. It was there he founded Philadelphia, the “CityofBrotherlyLove.” In keeping with his faith, Penn wasmotivatedbyasenseofequality notoftenfoundinotherAmerican colonies at the time. Thus, women in Pennsylvania had rights long before they did in other parts of America. Penn and his deputies also paid considerable attention to the colony’s relations with the Delaware Indians, ensuring that they were paid for land on which theEuropeanssettled. Georgia was settled in 1732, the last of the 13 colonies to be established.Lyingcloseto,ifnotactuallyinsidetheboundariesofSpanishFlorida,theregionwasviewedas a buffer against Spanish incursion. But it had another unique quality: ThemanchargedwithGeorgia’sfortifications, General James Oglethorpe,wasareformerwhodeliberately
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set out to create a refuge where the poorandformerprisonerswouldbe givennewopportunities.
SETTLERS,SLAVES,AND SERVANTS
M
enandwomenwithlittleactive interestinanewlifeinAmericawere often induced to make the move to the New World by the skillful persuasionofpromoters.WilliamPenn, for example, publicized the opportunities awaiting newcomers to the Pennsylvania colony. Judges and prison authorities offered convicts achancetomigratetocolonieslike Georgia instead of serving prison sentences. But few colonists could finance the cost of passage for themselves andtheirfamiliestomakeastartin the new land. In some cases, ships’ captainsreceivedlargerewardsfrom thesaleofservicecontractsforpoor migrants,calledindenturedservants, andeverymethodfromextravagant promises to actual kidnapping was usedtotakeonasmanypassengers astheirvesselscouldhold. In other cases, the expenses of transportation and maintenance werepaidbycolonizingagencieslike the Virginia or Massachusetts Bay Companies. In return, indentured servantsagreedtoworkfortheagenciesascontractlaborers,usuallyfor fourtosevenyears.Freeattheendof thisterm,theywouldbegiven“freedom dues,” sometimes including a smalltractofland.
Perhapshalfthesettlerslivingin the colonies south of New England cametoAmericaunderthissystem. Although most of them fulfilled theirobligationsfaithfully,someran away from their employers. Nevertheless,manyofthemwereeventually able to secure land and set up homesteads,eitherinthecoloniesin whichtheyhadoriginallysettledor inneighboringones.Nosocialstigmawasattachedtoafamilythathad itsbeginninginAmericaunderthis semi-bondage.Everycolonyhadits shareofleaderswhowereformerindenturedservants.
19
There was one very important exception to this pattern: African slaves.ThefirstblackAfricanswere brought to Virginia in 1619, just 12 years after the founding of Jamestown.Initially,manywereregarded as indentured servants who could earn their freedom. By the 1660s, however,asthedemandforplantation labor in the Southern colonies grew, the institution of slavery began to harden around them, and AfricanswerebroughttoAmericain shacklesforalifetimeofinvoluntary servitude. 9
CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
THEENDURINGMYSTERYOFTHEANASAZI
Time-worn pueblos and dramatic cliff towns, set amid the stark, rugged me-
20
Major Native American cultural groupings, A.D. 500-1300.
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 tradition; 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 dramatic change in Anasazi living was the move to the cliff sides below the flattopped 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 Anasazi 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 factor. 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 record that they left behind, and in the Hopi, Zuni, and other Pueblo peoples who are their descendants. 21
2
CHAPTER
THE COLONIAL PERIOD
Pilgrims signing the Mayflower Compact aboard ship, 1620. 22
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
“What then is the American, this new man?” American author and agriculturist J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, 1782
M
NEWPEOPLES
wereevenmoresoamongthethree regionalgroupingsofcolonies.
ostsettlerswhocametoAmericainthe17thcenturywereEnglish, but there were also Dutch, Swedes, andGermansinthemiddleregion, a few French Huguenots in South Carolinaandelsewhere,slavesfrom Africa, primarily in the South, and a scattering of Spaniards, Italians, andPortuguesethroughoutthecolonies.After1680Englandceasedto bethechiefsourceofimmigration, supplanted by Scots and “ScotsIrish” (Protestants from Northern Ireland). In addition, tens of thousandsofrefugeesflednorthwestern Europe to escape war, oppression, and absentee-landlordism. By 1690 the American population had risen toaquarterofamillion.Fromthen on, it doubled every 25 years until, in1775,itnumberedmorethan2.5 million. Although families occasionally moved from one colony to another, distinctions between individual colonies were marked. They 24
T
NEWENGLAND
he 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. Turningtootherpursuits,theNew Englanders harnessed waterpower and established grain mills and sawmills. Good stands of timber encouraged shipbuilding. Excellent harbors promoted trade, and the seabecameasourceofgreatwealth. In Massachusetts, the cod industry alone quickly furnished a basis for prosperity. Withthebulkoftheearlysettlers livinginvillagesandtownsaround theharbors,manyNewEnglanders carried on some kind of trade or business.Commonpasturelandand woodlotsservedtheneedsoftownspeople, who worked small farms
nearby.Compactnessmadepossible thevillageschool,thevillagechurch, and the village or town hall, where citizens met to discuss matters of commoninterest. The Massachusetts Bay Colony continued to expand its commerce. Fromthemiddleofthe17thcentury onward it grew prosperous, so that Boston became one of America’s greatestports. Oak timber for ships’ hulls, tall pinesforsparsandmasts,andpitch fortheseamsofshipscamefromthe Northeastern forests. Building their ownvesselsandsailingthemtoports allovertheworld,theshipmastersof Massachusetts Bay laid the foundation for a trade that was to grow steadily in importance. By the end of the colonial period, one-third of allvesselsundertheBritishflagwere built in New England. Fish, ship’s stores, and woodenware swelled the exports. New England merchants and shippers soon discovered that rumandslaveswereprofitablecommodities. One of their most enterprising — if unsavory — trading practicesofthetimewasthe“triangulartrade.”Traderswouldpurchase slavesoffthecoastofAfricaforNew Englandrum,thenselltheslavesin the West Indies where they would buymolassestobringhomeforsale tothelocalrumproducers.
William Penn, Pennsylvania functioned smoothly and grew rapidly. By 1685, its population was almost 9,000. The heart of the colony was Philadelphia, a city of broad, treeshadedstreets,substantialbrickand stonehouses,andbusydocks.Bythe end of the colonial period, nearly a century later, 30,000 people lived there,representingmanylanguages, creeds, and trades. Their talent for successful business enterprise made thecityoneofthethrivingcentersof theBritishEmpire. Though the Quakers dominated in Philadelphia, elsewhere in Pennsylvaniaotherswerewellrepresented. Germans became the colony’s most skillful farmers. Important, too, were cottage industries such as weaving, shoemaking, cabinetmaking, 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 indigentstrangers,”asonePennsylvania official called them, they hated the English and were suspicious of all government.TheScots-Irishtended to settle in the backcountry, where theyclearedlandandlivedbyhuntingandsubsistencefarming. New York best illustrated the polyglotnatureofAmerica.By1646 the population along the Hudson RiverincludedDutch,French,Danes, THEMIDDLECOLONIES Norwegians,Swedes,English,Scots, Irish, Germans, Poles, Bohemians, ocietyinthemiddlecolonieswas Portuguese,andItalians.TheDutch far more varied, cosmopolitan, and continued to exercise an important tolerantthaninNewEngland.Under social and economic influence on
S
25
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
the New York region long after the fall of New Netherland and their integration 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.
THESOUTHERNCOLONIES
Ithen middle contrast to New England and colonies, the Southern colonies were predominantly rural settlements. By the late 17th century, Virginia’s and Maryland’s economic and social structure rested on the great planters and the yeoman farmers. TheplantersoftheTidewaterregion, supported by slave labor, held most of the political power and the best land. They built great houses, adoptedanaristocraticwayoflife,and keptintouchasbesttheycouldwith theworldofcultureoverseas. Theyeomanfarmers,whoworked smallertracts,satinpopularassembliesandfoundtheirwayintopoliticaloffice.Theiroutspokenindependencewasaconstantwarningtothe oligarchyofplantersnottoencroach toofarupontherightsoffreemen. The settlers of the Carolinas quickly learned to combine agriculture and commerce, and the marketplacebecameamajorsource ofprosperity.Denseforestsbrought revenue: Lumber, tar, and resin from the longleaf pine provided some of the best shipbuilding ma26
terials in the world. Not bound to asinglecropaswasVirginia,North and South Carolina also produced andexportedriceandindigo,ablue dyeobtainedfromnativeplantsthat wasusedincoloringfabric.By1750 more than 100,000 people lived in thetwocoloniesofNorthandSouth Carolina.Charleston,SouthCarolina,wastheregion’sleadingportand tradingcenter. Inthesouthernmostcolonies,as everywhereelse,populationgrowth in the backcountry had special significance. German immigrants and Scots-Irish, unwilling to live in the original Tidewater settlements whereEnglishinfluencewasstrong, pushedinland.Thosewhocouldnot securefertilelandalongthecoast,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 theywerepouringintotheShenandoah Valley of Virginia. Soon the interiorwasdottedwithfarms. Living on the edge of Native Americancountry,frontierfamilies builtcabins,clearedthewilderness, and cultivated maize and wheat. The men wore leather made from the skin of deer or sheep, known as buckskin; the women wore garments of cloth they spun at home. Their food consisted of venison, wildturkey,andfish.Theyhadtheir own amusements: great barbecues, dances, housewarmings for newly married couples, shooting matches, and contests for making quilted
blankets. Quilt-making remains an England colonies, except for Rhode Americantraditiontoday. Island,followeditsexample. The Pilgrims and Puritans had SOCIETY,SCHOOLS,AND brought their own little libraries and continued to import books CULTURE from London. And as early as the significant factor deterring the 1680s, Boston booksellers were doemergenceofapowerfularistocratic ing a thriving business in works of or gentry class in the colonies was classical literature, history, politics, the ability of anyone in an estab- philosophy, science, theology, and lished colony to find a new home belles-lettres.In1638thefirstprinton the frontier. Time after time, ingpressintheEnglishcoloniesand dominant Tidewater figures were the second in North America was obliged to liberalize political poli- installedatHarvardCollege. cies, land-grant requirements, and The first school in Pennsylvania religiouspracticesbythethreatofa wasbegunin1683.Ittaughtreading, massexodustothefrontier. writing, and keeping of accounts. Of equal significance for the Thereafter, in some fashion, every future were the foundations of Quakercommunityprovidedforthe American education and culture elementary teaching of its children. established during the colonial pe- Moreadvancedtraining—inclassiriod. Harvard College was founded callanguages,history,andliterature in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachu- —wasofferedattheFriendsPublic setts. Near the end of the century, School,whichstilloperatesinPhilathe College of William and Mary delphiaastheWilliamPennCharter was established in Virginia. A few School. The school was free to the years later, the Collegiate School of poor, but parents were required to Connecticut, later to become Yale paytuitioniftheywereable. University,waschartered. In Philadelphia, numerous priEven more noteworthy was the vateschoolswithnoreligiousaffiligrowth of a school system main- ation taught languages, mathemattained by governmental authority. ics, and natural science; there were The Puritan emphasis on reading alsonightschoolsforadults.Women directly from the Scriptures under- were not entirely overlooked, but scoredtheimportanceofliteracy.In theireducationalopportunitieswere 1647 the Massachusetts Bay Colony limitedtotraininginactivitiesthat enactedthe“yeoldedeluderSatan” could be conducted in the home. Act, requiring every town having Private teachers instructed the more than 50 families to establish daughters of prosperous Philadela grammar school (a Latin school phians in French, music, dancing, to prepare students for college). painting, singing, grammar, and Shortlythereafter,alltheotherNew sometimesbookkeeping.
A
27
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
In the 18th century, the intellectual and cultural development of Pennsylvania reflected, in large measure, the vigorous personalities oftwomen:JamesLoganandBenjaminFranklin.Loganwassecretary ofthecolony,anditwasinhisfinelibrarythatyoungFranklinfoundthe latestscientificworks.In1745Logan erectedabuildingforhiscollection and bequeathed both building and bookstothecity. Franklin contributed even more to the intellectual activity of Philadelphia. He formed a debating club that became the embryo of the AmericanPhilosophicalSociety.His endeavors also led to the founding of a public academy that later developedintotheUniversityofPennsylvania. He was a prime mover in the establishment of a subscription library,whichhecalled“themother of all North American subscription libraries.” IntheSoutherncolonies,wealthy planters and merchants imported privatetutorsfromIrelandorScotland to teach their children. Some senttheirchildrentoschoolinEngland.Havingtheseotheropportunities,theupperclassesintheTidewaterwerenotinterestedinsupporting public education. In addition, the diffusion of farms and plantations made the formation of community schools difficult. There were only a fewfreeschoolsinVirginia. The desire for learning did not stop at the borders of established communities,however.Onthefrontier,theScots-Irish,thoughlivingin 28
primitivecabins,werefirmdevotees ofscholarship,andtheymadegreat effortstoattractlearnedministersto theirsettlements. Literary production in the colonies was largely confined to New England. Here attention concentrated on religious subjects. Sermons were the most common products of the press. A famous Puritanminister,theReverendCotton Mather, wrote some 400 works. His masterpiece, Magnalia Christi Americana, presented the pageant ofNewEngland’shistory.Themost popular single work of the day was theReverendMichaelWigglesworth’s long poem, “The Day of Doom,” which described the Last Judgment interrifyingterms. In 1704 Cambridge, Massachusetts, launched the colonies’ first successfulnewspaper.By1745there were22newspapersbeingpublished inBritishNorthAmerica. In New York, an important step inestablishingtheprincipleoffreedomofthepresstookplacewiththe 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 satiricalbarbs,andhadhimthrown intoprisononachargeofseditious libel. Zenger continued to edit his paper from jail during his ninemonth trial, which excited intense interest throughout the colonies. Andrew Hamilton, the prominent lawyerwhodefendedZenger,argued
that the charges printed by Zenger were true and hence not libelous. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty,andZengerwentfree. The increasing prosperity of the townspromptedfearsthatthedevil was luring society into pursuit of worldlygainandmayhavecontributedtothereligiousreactionofthe 1730s,knownastheGreatAwakening.Itstwoimmediatesourceswere George Whitefield, a Wesleyan revivalist who arrived from England in1739,andJonathanEdwards,who served the Congregational Church inNorthampton,Massachusetts. Whitefield began a religious revivalinPhiladelphiaandthenmoved on to New England. He enthralled audiences of up to 20,000 people at a time with histrionic displays, gestures, and emotional oratory. Religious turmoil swept throughout New England and the middle coloniesasministersleftestablished churchestopreachtherevival. Edwardswasthemostprominent of those influenced by Whitefield andtheGreatAwakening.Hismost memorable contribution was his 1741sermon,“SinnersintheHands of an Angry God.” Rejecting theatrics, he delivered his message in a quiet, thoughtful manner, arguing thattheestablishedchurchessought to deprive Christianity of its function of redemption from sin. His magnum opus, Of Freedom of Will (1754), attempted to reconcile CalvinismwiththeEnlightenment. The Great Awakening gave rise toevangelicaldenominations(those 29
Christian churches that believe in personal conversion and the inerrancyoftheBible)andthespiritof revivalism, which continue to play significant roles in American religious and cultural life. It weakened the status of the established clergy and provoked believers to rely on theirownconscience.Perhapsmost important,itledtotheproliferation of sects and denominations, which in turn encouraged general acceptance of the principle of religious toleration.
EMERGENCEOFCOLONIAL GOVERNMENT
Ivelopment,astrikingfeaturewasthe ntheearlyphasesofcolonialdelack of controlling influence by the Englishgovernment.AllcoloniesexceptGeorgiaemergedascompanies ofshareholders,orasfeudalproprietorships stemming from charters grantedbytheCrown.Thefactthat thekinghadtransferredhisimmediatesovereigntyovertheNewWorld settlementstostockcompaniesand proprietorsdidnot,ofcourse,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 companywouldberesidentinEngland. InhabitantsofVirginia,then,would havenomorevoiceintheirgovernment than if the king himself had retainedabsoluterule.
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Still, the colonies considered themselves chiefly as commonwealthsorstates,muchlikeEngland itself,havingonlyalooseassociation with the authorities in London. In one way or another, exclusive rule fromtheoutsidewitheredaway.The colonists — inheritors of the long English tradition of the struggle forpoliticalliberty—incorporated concepts of freedom into Virginia’s firstcharter.ItprovidedthatEnglish colonists were to exercise all liberties,franchises,andimmunities“as if they had been abiding and born withinthisourRealmofEngland.” They were, then, to enjoy the benefits of the Magna Carta — the charter of English political and civil liberties granted by King John in 1215 — and the common law — the English system of law based onlegalprecedentsortradition,not statutory law. In 1618 the Virginia Company issued instructions to its appointed governor providing that free inhabitants of the plantations should elect representatives to join withthegovernorandanappointive councilinpassingordinancesforthe welfareofthecolony. These measures proved to be someofthemostfar-reachinginthe entire colonial period. From then on,itwasgenerallyacceptedthatthe colonistshadarighttoparticipatein their own government. In most instances, the king, in making future grants, provided in the charter that the free men of the colony should have a voice in legislation affecting them.Thus,chartersawardedtothe 30
CalvertsinMaryland,WilliamPenn in Pennsylvania, the proprietors in North and South Carolina, and the proprietors in New Jersey specified that legislation should be enacted with“theconsentofthefreemen.” InNewEngland,formanyyears, there was even more complete self-government than in the other colonies. Aboard the Mayflower, the Pilgrims adopted an instrument for government called the “Mayflower Compact,”to“combineourselvestogetherintoacivilbodypoliticforour better ordering and preservation ... andbyvirtuehereof[to]enact,constitute,andframesuchjustandequal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, andoffices...asshallbethoughtmost meet and convenient for the general goodofthecolony....” Althoughtherewasnolegalbasis forthePilgrimstoestablishasystem of self-government, the action was notcontested,and,underthecompact,thePlymouthsettlerswereable formanyyearstoconducttheirown affairswithoutoutsideinterference. Asimilarsituationdevelopedin the Massachusetts Bay Company, which had been given the right to govern itself. Thus, full authority restedinthehandsofpersonsresidinginthecolony.Atfirst,thedozen orsooriginalmembersofthecompanywhohadcometoAmericaattempted to rule autocratically. But theothercolonistssoondemanded a voice in public affairs and indicated that refusal would lead to a massmigration. The company members yielded,
and control of the government passed to elected representatives. Subsequently, other New England colonies — such as Connecticut andRhodeIsland—alsosucceeded in becoming self-governing simply byassertingthattheywerebeyond any governmental authority, and then setting up their own political system modeled after that of the PilgrimsatPlymouth. In only two cases was the selfgovernment provision omitted. These were New York, which was granted to Charles II’s brother, the DukeofYork(latertobecomeKing 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 representationsoinsistentlythatthe authoritiessoonyielded. In the mid-17th century, the Englishweretoodistractedbytheir Civil War (1642-49) and Oliver Cromwell’sPuritanCommonwealth to pursue an effective colonial policy. After the restoration of Charles II and the Stuart dynasty in 1660, England had more opportunity to attend to colonial administration. Even then, however, it was inefficient and lacked a coherent plan. Thecolonieswereleftlargelytotheir owndevices. Theremotenessaffordedbyavast oceanalsomadecontrolofthecoloniesdifficult.Addedtothiswasthe characteroflifeitselfinearlyAmerica.Fromcountrieslimitedinspace and dotted with populous towns, 31
the settlers had come to a land of seeminglyunendingreach.Onsuch acontinent,naturalconditionspromoted a tough individualism, as peoplebecameusedtomakingtheir own decisions. Government penetratedthebackcountryonlyslowly, andconditionsofanarchyoftenprevailedonthefrontier. Yet the assumption of self-government in the colonies did not go entirely unchallenged. In the 1670s, the Lords of Trade and Plantations, a royal committee established to enforce the mercantile system in the colonies, moved to annul the Massachusetts Bay charter because thecolonywasresistingthegovernment’seconomicpolicy.JamesIIin 1685 approved a proposal to create a Dominion of New England and place colonies south through New Jerseyunderitsjurisdiction,thereby tighteningtheCrown’scontrolover the whole region. A royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros, levied taxes by executive order, implemented a number of other harsh measures, andjailedthosewhoresisted. WhennewsoftheGloriousRevolution (1688-89), which deposed JamesIIinEngland,reachedBoston, thepopulationrebelledandimprisoned 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 colonies quickly reinstalled their previousgovernments. The English Bill of Rights and theTolerationActof1689affirmed
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
freedom of worship for Christians inthecoloniesaswellasinEngland and enforced limits on the Crown. Equally important, John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government (1690), the Glorious Revolution’s major theoretical justification, set forthatheoryofgovernmentbased notondivinerightbutoncontract. It contended that the people, endowed with natural rights of life, liberty, and property, had the right torebelwhengovernmentsviolated theirrights. Bytheearly18thcentury,almost all the colonies had been brought under the direct jurisdiction of the British Crown, but under the rules establishedbytheGloriousRevolution. Colonial governors sought to exercise powers that the king had lost in England, but the colonial assemblies, aware of events there, attempted to assert their “rights” and“liberties.”Theirleveragerested on two significant powers similar tothoseheldbytheEnglishParliament:therighttovoteontaxesand expenditures,andtherighttoinitiatelegislationratherthanmerelyreacttoproposalsofthegovernor. Thelegislaturesusedtheserights to check the power of royal governors and to pass other measures to expand their power and influence. The recurring clashes between governor and assembly made colonial politics tumultuous and worked increasinglytoawakenthecolonists tothedivergencebetweenAmerican andEnglishinterests.Inmanycases, theroyalauthoritiesdidnotunder32
stand the importance of what the colonial assemblies were doing and simply neglected them. Nonetheless, the precedents and principles establishedintheconflictsbetween assembliesandgovernorseventually becamepartoftheunwritten“constitution”ofthecolonies.Inthisway, thecoloniallegislaturesassertedthe rightofself-government.
THEFRENCHAND INDIANWAR
F rance and Britain engaged in a succession of wars in Europe and the Caribbean throughout the 18th century. Though Britain secured certain advantages — primarily in thesugar-rich islands of the Caribbean—thestrugglesweregenerally indecisive,andFranceremainedina powerful position in North America.By1754,Francestillhadastrong relationship with a number of NativeAmericantribesinCanadaand along the Great Lakes. It controlled theMississippiRiverand,byestablishing a line of forts and trading posts, had marked out a great crescent-shapedempirestretchingfrom QuebectoNewOrleans.TheBritish remained confined to the narrow belteastoftheAppalachianMountains. Thus the French threatened notonlytheBritishEmpirebutalso the American colonists themselves, forinholdingtheMississippiValley, France could limit their westward expansion. An armed clash took place in 1754atFortDuquesne,thesitewhere
Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania,isnowlocated,betweenabandofFrenchregularsandVirginiamilitiamenunder thecommandof22-year-oldGeorge Washington, a Virginia planter and surveyor. The British government attempted to deal with the conflict by calling a meeting of representativesfromNewYork,Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the New England colonies. From June 19 to July 10, 1754, the Albany Congress, as it cametobeknown,metwiththeIroquoisinAlbany,NewYork,inorder toimproverelationswiththemand securetheirloyaltytotheBritish. But the delegates also declared a union of the American colonies “absolutelynecessaryfortheirpreservation” and adopted a proposal drafted by Benjamin Franklin. The AlbanyPlanofUnionprovidedfora presidentappointedbythekingand a grand council of delegates chosen bytheassemblies,witheachcolony toberepresentedinproportiontoits financialcontributionstothegeneral 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 eitherthepoweroftaxationorcontrol overthedevelopmentofthewestern landstoacentralauthority. England’ssuperiorstrategicposition and her competent leadership ultimately brought victory in the
33
conflict with France, known as the French and Indian War in America andtheSevenYears’WarinEurope. Only a modest portion of it was foughtintheWesternHemisphere. In the Peace of Paris (1763), France relinquished all of Canada, the Great Lakes, and the territory eastoftheMississippitotheBritish. The dream of a French empire in NorthAmericawasover. Having triumphed over France, Britain was now compelled to face a problem that it had hitherto neglected, the governance of its empire. London thought it essential to organizeitsnowvastpossessionsto facilitatedefense,reconcilethedivergent interests of different areas and peoples,anddistributemoreevenly thecostofimperialadministration. In North America alone, British territories had more than doubled. Apopulationthathadbeenpredominantly Protestant and English now includedFrench-speakingCatholics fromQuebec,andlargenumbersof partly Christianized Native Americans. Defense and administration of the new territories, as well as of theold,wouldrequirehugesumsof moneyandincreasedpersonnel.The old colonial system was obviously inadequatetothesetasks.Measures to establish a new one, however, would rouse the latent suspicions ofcolonialswhoincreasinglywould see Britain as no longer a protector of their rights, but rather a danger tothem. 9
CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD
OUTLINEOFU.S.HISTORY
ANEXCEPTIONALNATION?
The United States of America did not emerge as a nation until about 175
THEWITCHESOFSALEM
In 1692 a group of adolescent girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, became
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 indentured 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 democratic 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.
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 witnesses 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 witchcraft. 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 accused 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 American 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.”
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CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD
Map depicting the English colonies and western territories, 1763-1775.
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
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John Smith, the stalwart English explorer and settler whose leadership helped save Jamestown from collapse during its critical early years.
B ECO M I N G
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NATION A PICTURE PROFILE
TheUnitedStatesofAmericawastransformedinthetwocenturies fromthefirstEnglishsettlementatJamestownin1607tothe beginningofthe19thcentury.Fromaseriesofisolatedcolonial settlementshuggingtheAtlanticCoast,theUnitedStatesevolved intoanewnation,borninrevolution,andguidedbyaConstitution embodyingtheprinciplesofdemocraticself-government.
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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.
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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
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.
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.
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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
Artist’s depiction of the first shots of the American Revolution, fired at Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775. Local militia confronted British troops marching to seize colonial armaments in the nearby town of Concord.
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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, Jeffferson’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.
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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.
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.
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CHAPTER
THE ROAD TO
INDEPENDENCE
The protest against British taxes known as the “Boston Tea Party,” 1773. 50
CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
“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 maturing British North American colonies inevitably forged a distinct identity. They grew vastly in economicstrengthandculturalattainment; virtually all had long years of self-government behind them. In the 1760s their combined population exceeded 1,500,000 — a sixfold increase since 1700. Nonetheless, England and America did not begin an overt parting of the ways until 1763, more than a century andahalfafterthefoundingofthe firstpermanentsettlementatJamestown,Virginia.
ANEWCOLONIALSYSTEM
IIndianWar,Londonsawaneedfor ntheaftermathoftheFrenchand a new imperial design that would involve more centralized control, 52
spreadthecostsofempiremoreequitably,andspeaktotheinterestsof both French Canadians and North AmericanIndians.Thecolonies,on theotherhand,longaccustomedto alargemeasureofindependence,expectedmore,notless,freedom.And, withtheFrenchmenaceeliminated, they felt far less need for a strong Britishpresence.Ascarcelycomprehending Crown and Parliament on theothersideoftheAtlanticfound itself contending with colonists trainedinself-governmentandimpatientwithinterference. The organization of Canada and of the Ohio Valley necessitated policies that would not alienate the FrenchandIndianinhabitants.Here Londonwasinfundamentalconflict with the interests of the colonies. Fast increasing in population, and needing more land for settlement,
they claimed the right to extend their boundaries as far west as the MississippiRiver. The British government, fearingaseriesofIndianwars,believed thatthelandsshouldbeopenedon a more gradual basis. Restricting movementwasalsoawayofensuringroyalcontroloverexistingsettlementsbeforeallowingtheformation of new ones. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 reserved all the westernterritorybetweentheAllegheny Mountains, Florida, the Mississippi River, and Quebec for use by NativeAmericans.ThustheCrownattemptedtosweepawayeverywestern landclaimofthe13coloniesandto stopwestwardexpansion.Although nevereffectivelyenforced,thismeasure, in the eyes of the colonists, constitutedahigh-handeddisregard oftheirfundamentalrighttooccupy andsettlewesternlands. More serious in its repercussions was the new British revenue policy.Londonneededmoremoney to support its growing empire and facedgrowingtaxpayerdiscontentat home.Itseemedreasonableenough thatthecoloniesshouldpayfortheir owndefense.Thatwouldinvolvenew taxes,leviedbyParliament—atthe expenseofcolonialself-government. Thefirststepwasthereplacement of the Molasses Act of 1733, which placed a prohibitive duty, or tax, ontheimportofrumandmolasses from non-English areas, with the SugarActof1764.Thisactoutlawed the importation of foreign rum; it alsoputamodestdutyonmolasses 53
fromallsourcesandleviedtaxeson wines,silks,coffee,andanumberof other luxury items. The hope was that lowering the duty on molasses would reduce the temptation to smuggle the commodity from the Dutch and French West Indies for therumdistilleriesofNewEngland. The British government enforced theSugarActenergetically.Customs officialswereorderedtoshowmore effectiveness. British warships in Americanwaterswereinstructedto seizesmugglers,and“writsofassistance,” or warrants, authorized the king’s officers to search suspected premises. Both the duty imposed by the Sugar Act and the measures to enforceitcausedconsternationamong NewEnglandmerchants.Theycontended that payment of even the smalldutyimposedwouldberuinous to their businesses. Merchants, legislatures,andtownmeetingsprotestedthelaw.Coloniallawyersprotested“taxationwithoutrepresentation,”asloganthatwastopersuade many Americans they were being oppressedbythemothercountry. Laterin1764,Parliamentenacted a Currency Act “to prevent paper 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 currency,thismeasureaddedaseriousburdentothecolonialeconomy. Equallyobjectionablefromthecolonial viewpoint was the Quartering Act,passedin1765,whichrequired
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coloniestoprovideroyaltroopswith liberties.ItassertedthatVirginians, provisionsandbarracks. enjoying the rights of Englishmen, could be taxed only by their own THESTAMPACT representatives. The Massachusetts Assemblyinvitedallthecoloniesto general tax measure sparked appoint delegates to a “Stamp Act the greatest organized resistance. Congress”inNewYork,heldinOcKnown as the “Stamp Act,” it re- tober 1765, to consider appeals for quired all newspapers, broadsides, relieftotheCrownandParliament. pamphlets,licenses,leases,andoth- Twenty-seven representatives from er legal documents to bear revenue ninecoloniesseizedtheopportunity stamps. The proceeds, collected by to mobilize colonial opinion. After Americancustomsagents,wouldbe muchdebate,thecongressadopteda usedfor“defending,protecting,and set of resolutions asserting that “no securing”thecolonies. taxeseverhavebeenorcanbeconBearing equally on people who stitutionally imposed on them, but didanykindofbusiness,theStamp bytheirrespectivelegislatures,”and Actarousedthehostilityofthemost thattheStampActhada“manifest powerful and articulate groups in tendency to subvert the rights and the American population: journal- libertiesofthecolonists.” ists, lawyers, clergymen, merchants andbusinessmen,NorthandSouth, TAXATIONWITHOUT East and West. Leading merchants REPRESENTATION organizedforresistanceandformed nonimportationassociations. he issue thus drawn centered on Trade with the mother country the question of representation. The fell off sharply in the summer of colonists believed they could not 1765, as prominent men organized be represented unless they actually themselves into the “Sons of Lib- elected members to the House of erty”—secretorganizationsformed Commons. But this idea conflicted to protest the Stamp Act, often withtheEnglishprincipleof“virtual through violent means. From Mas- representation,” according to which sachusettstoSouthCarolina,mobs, each member of Parliament repforcing luckless customs agents to resented the interests of the whole resign their offices, destroyed the country and the empire — even if hatedstamps.Militantresistanceef- his electoral base consisted of only fectivelynullifiedtheAct. a tiny minority of property owners SpurredbydelegatePatrickHen- from a given district. This theory ry, the Virginia House of Burgesses assumed that all British subjects passed a set of resolutions in May shared the same interests as the denouncing taxation without rep- propertyownerswhoelectedmemresentation as a threat to colonial bersofParliament.
Townshend,Britishchancellorofthe exchequer, attempted a new fiscal program in the face of continued discontentoverhightaxesathome. Intent upon reducing British taxes by making more efficient the collectionofdutiesleviedonAmerican trade,hetightenedcustomsadministrationandenacteddutiesoncolonialimportsofpaper,glass,lead,and tea from Britain. The “Townshend Acts”werebasedonthepremisethat taxesimposedongoodsimportedby thecolonieswerelegalwhileinternal taxes(liketheStampAct)werenot. The Townshend Acts were designed to raise revenue that would be used in part to support colonial officials and maintain the British army in America. In response, PhiladelphialawyerJohnDickinson, in Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer, argued that Parliament had the right to control imperial commerce butdidnothavetherighttotaxthe colonies, whether the duties were externalorinternal. The agitation following enactment 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-importationagreements,andpeoplemade do with local products. Colonists, for example, dressed in homespun THETOWNSHENDACTS clothing and found substitutes for tea. They used homemade paper he year 1767 brought another and their houses went unpainted. seriesofmeasuresthatstirredanew In Boston, enforcement of the all the elements of discord. Charles new regulations provoked violence.
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The American leaders argued that their only legal relations were withtheCrown.Itwasthekingwho hadagreedtoestablishcoloniesbeyondtheseaandthekingwhoprovidedthemwithgovernments.They assertedthathewasequallyakingof Englandandakingofthecolonies, but they insisted that the English Parliament had no more right to pass laws for the colonies than any colonial legislature had the right to passlawsforEngland.Infact,however,theirstrugglewasequallywith King George III and Parliament. Factions aligned with the Crown generallycontrolledParliamentand reflectedtheking’sdeterminationto beastrongmonarch. The British Parliament rejected the colonial contentions. British merchants, however, feeling the effectsoftheAmericanboycott,threw their weight behind a repeal movement. In 1766 Parliament yielded, repealingtheStampActandmodifying the Sugar Act. However, to mollify the supporters of central controloverthecolonies,Parliament followed these actions with passage of the Declaratory Act, which assertedtheauthorityofParliamentto make laws binding the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” The colonists had won only a temporary respite fromanimpendingcrisis.
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CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
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When customs officials sought to collectduties,theyweresetuponby the populace and roughly handled. Forthisinfraction,twoBritishregimentsweredispatchedtoprotectthe customscommissioners. ThepresenceofBritishtroopsin Bostonwasastandinginvitationto disorder.OnMarch5,1770,antagonism between citizens and British soldiers again flared into violence. Whatbeganasaharmlesssnowballing of British soldiers degenerated intoamobattack.Someonegavethe order to fire. When the smoke had cleared,threeBostonianslaydeadin thesnow.Dubbedthe“BostonMassacre,”theincidentwasdramatically pictured as proof of British heartlessnessandtyranny. Facedwithsuchopposition,Parliamentin1770optedforastrategic retreatandrepealedalltheTownshenddutiesexceptthatontea,which was a luxury item in the colonies, imbibedonlybyaverysmallminority.Tomost,theactionofParliament signifiedthatthecolonistshadwon a major concession, and the campaign against England was largely dropped. A colonial embargo on “Englishtea”continuedbutwasnot tooscrupulouslyobserved.Prosperitywasincreasingandmostcolonial leaderswerewillingtoletthefuture takecareofitself.
thecontroversyalive.Theycontended that payment of the tax constitutedanacceptanceoftheprinciple thatParliamenthadtherighttorule overthecolonies.Theyfearedthatat anytimeinthefuture,theprinciple of parliamentary rule might be applied with devastating effect on all colonialliberties. The radicals’ most effective leader was Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, who toiled tirelessly for a single end: independence. From thetimehegraduatedfromHarvard Collegein1743,Adamswasapublic servantinsomecapacity—inspector of chimneys, tax-collector, and moderator of town meetings. A consistentfailureinbusiness,hewas shrewdandableinpolitics,withthe NewEnglandtownmeetinghistheaterofaction. Adams wanted to free people from their awe of social and political superiors, make them aware of their own power and importance, andthusarousethemtoaction.Toward these objectives, he published articles in newspapers and made speechesintownmeetings,instigating resolutions that appealed to the colonists’democraticimpulses. In 1772 he induced the Boston town meeting to select a “Committee of Correspondence” to state the rights and grievances of the colonists. The committee opposed SAMUELADAMS aBritishdecisiontopaythesalaries ofjudgesfromcustomsrevenues;it uring a three-year interval of fearedthatthejudgeswouldnoloncalm, a relatively small number of ger be dependent on the legislature radicals strove energetically to keep fortheirincomesandthusnolonger
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accountabletoit,therebyleadingto the emergence of “a despotic form of government.” The committee communicatedwithothertownson this matter and requested them to draft replies. Committees were set upinvirtuallyallthecolonies,and outofthemgrewabaseofeffective revolutionary organizations. Still, Adamsdidnothaveenoughfuelto setafire.
THEBOSTON“TEAPARTY”
IAdamsandhisallieswithanincenn1773,however,Britainfurnished diaryissue.ThepowerfulEastIndia Company,findingitselfincriticalfinancialstraits,appealedtotheBritish government, which granted it a monopolyonallteaexportedtothe colonies. The government also permitted the East India Company to supply retailers directly, bypassing colonial wholesalers. By then, most oftheteaconsumedinAmericawas importedillegally,duty-free.Bysellingitsteathroughitsownagentsat a price well under the customary one, the East India Company made smuggling unprofitable and threatened to eliminate the independent colonial merchants. Aroused not onlybythelossoftheteatradebut also by the monopolistic practice involved,colonialtradersjoinedthe radicalsagitatingforindependence. InportsupanddowntheAtlantic coast, agents of the East India Company were forced to resign. New shipments of tea were either returnedtoEnglandorwarehoused. 57
In Boston, however, the agents defied the colonists; with the support of the royal governor, they made preparations to land incoming cargoes 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 anchoranddumpedtheirteacargo into Boston harbor. Doubting their countrymen’scommitmenttoprinciple,theyfearedthatiftheteawere landed, colonists would actually purchasetheteaandpaythetax. A crisis now confronted Britain. The East India Company had carried out a parliamentary statute. If the destruction of the tea went unpunished, Parliament would admit to the world that it had no control over the colonies. Official opinion inBritainalmostunanimouslycondemnedtheBostonTeaPartyasan act of vandalism and advocated legalmeasurestobringtheinsurgent colonistsintoline.
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THECOERCIVEACTS
arliament responded with new laws that the colonists called the “Coercive”or“IntolerableActs.”The first, the Boston Port Bill, closed theportofBostonuntiltheteawas paid for. The action threatened the very life of the city, for to prevent Boston from having access to the seameanteconomicdisaster.Other enactments restricted local authorityandbannedmosttownmeetings heldwithoutthegovernor’sconsent.
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AQuarteringActrequiredlocalauthoritiestofindsuitablequartersfor British troops, in private homes if necessary. Instead of subduing and isolating Massachusetts, as Parliamentintended,theseactsralliedits sister colonies to its aid. The Quebec Act, passed at nearly the same time, extended the boundaries of theprovinceofQuebecsouthtothe OhioRiver.InconformitywithpreviousFrenchpractice,itprovidedfor trialswithoutjury,didnotestablish a representative assembly, and gave the Catholic Church semi-established status. By disregarding old charter claims to western lands, it threatenedtoblockcolonialexpansiontotheNorthandNorthwest;its recognition of the Roman Catholic Church outraged the Protestant sects that dominated every colony. Though the Quebec Act had not been passed as a punitive measure, AmericansassociateditwiththeCoercive Acts, and all became known asthe“FiveIntolerableActs.” At the suggestion of the Virginia 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 Continental Congress, were chosen by provincial congresses or popular conventions.OnlyGeorgiafailedto sendadelegate;thetotalnumberof 55waslargeenoughfordiversityof opinion,butsmallenoughforgenuinedebateandeffectiveaction.The division of opinion in the colonies 58
posed a genuine dilemma for the delegates. They would have to give an appearance of firm unanimity to induce the British government to make concessions. But they also would have to avoid any show of radicalismorspiritofindependence that would alarm more moderate Americans. A cautious keynote speech, followed by a “resolve” that no obedience was due the Coercive Acts, ended with adoption of a set of resolutions affirming the right of the colonists to “life, liberty, and property,” and the right of provincial legislatures to set “all cases of taxation and internal polity.” The mostimportantactiontakenbythe Congress, however, was the formation of a “Continental Association” toreestablishthetradeboycott.Itset upasystemofcommitteestoinspect customs entries, publish the names ofmerchantswhoviolatedtheagreements,confiscatetheirimports,and encourage frugality, economy, and industry. TheContinentalAssociationimmediately assumed the leadership in the colonies, spurring new local organizationstoendwhatremained ofroyalauthority.Ledbythepro-independenceleaders,theydrewtheir supportnotonlyfromthelesswellto-do, but from many members of the professional class (especially lawyers),mostoftheplantersofthe Southern colonies, and a number of merchants. They intimidated the hesitant into joining the popular movementandpunishedthehostile;
beganthecollectionofmilitarysuppliesandthemobilizationoftroops; andfannedpublicopinionintorevolutionaryardor. ManyofthoseopposedtoBritish encroachment on American rights nonetheless favored discussion and compromise as the proper solution. This group included Crownappointed officers, Quakers, and members of other religious sects opposed to the use of violence, numerousmerchants(especiallyinthe middlecolonies),andsomediscontented farmers and frontiersmen in theSoutherncolonies. The king might well have effectedanalliancewiththesemoderates and, by timely concessions, so strengthenedtheirpositionthatthe revolutionarieswouldhavefoundit difficult to proceed with hostilities. But George III had no intention of making concessions. In September 1774, scorning a petition by PhiladelphiaQuakers,hewrote,“Thedie isnowcast,theColoniesmusteither submitortriumph.”Thisactionisolated Loyalists who were appalled and frightened by the course of eventsfollowingtheCoerciveActs.
THEREVOLUTIONBEGINS
G
eneralThomasGage,anamiable English gentleman with an American-born wife, commanded the garrison at Boston, where political activity had almost wholly replaced trade.Gage’smaindutyinthecolonies had been to enforce the Coercive Acts. When news reached him 59
that the Massachusetts colonists werecollectingpowderandmilitary stores at the town of Concord, 32 kilometersaway,Gagesentastrong detailtoconfiscatethesemunitions. After a night of marching, the Britishtroopsreachedthevillageof LexingtononApril19,1775,andsaw agrimbandof77Minutemen—so namedbecausetheyweresaidtobe readytofightinaminute—through theearlymorningmist.TheMinutemen intended only a silent protest, butMarineMajorJohnPitcairn,the leader of the British troops, yelled, “Disperse, you damned rebels! You dogs, run!” The leader of the Minutemen, Captain John Parker, told his troops not to fire unless fired at first. The Americans were withdrawingwhensomeonefiredashot, which led the British troops to fire attheMinutemen.TheBritishthen chargedwithbayonets,leavingeight deadand10wounded.Intheoftenquoted phrase of 19th century poet RalphWaldoEmerson,thiswas“the shotheardroundtheworld.” The British pushed on to Concord.TheAmericanshadtakenaway mostofthemunitions,buttheydestroyed whatever was left. In the meantime, American forces in the countrysidehadmobilizedtoharass 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,
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ithadsufferedmorethan250killed and wounded. The Americans lost 93men. The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 10. The Congress voted to go to war, inducting the colonial militias into continental service.ItappointedColonelGeorge Washington of Virginia as their commander-in-chief on June 15. Withintwodays,theAmericanshad incurred high casualties at Bunker Hill just outside Boston. Congress also ordered American expeditions tomarchnorthwardintoCanadaby fall.CapturingMontreal,theyfailed in a winter assault on Quebec, and eventuallyretreatedtoNewYork. Despite the outbreak of armed conflict, the idea of complete separationfromEnglandwasstillrepugnanttomanymembersoftheContinentalCongress.InJuly,itadopted the Olive Branch Petition, begging the king to prevent further hostile actionsuntilsomesortofagreement could be worked out. King George rejected it; instead, on August 23, 1775, he issued a proclamation declaring the colonies to be in a state ofrebellion. Britain had expected the Southerncoloniestoremainloyal,inpart becauseoftheirrelianceonslavery. Many in the Southern colonies feared that a rebellion against the mother country would also trigger aslaveuprising.InNovember1775, LordDunmore,thegovernorofVirginia,triedtocapitalizeonthatfear byofferingfreedomtoallslaveswho 60
would fight for the British. Instead, his proclamation drove to the rebel side many Virginians who would otherwisehaveremainedLoyalist. ThegovernorofNorthCarolina, Josiah Martin, also urged North Carolinians to remain loyal to the Crown. When 1,500 men answered Martin’s call, they were defeated by revolutionary armies before British troopscouldarrivetohelp. Britishwarshipscontinueddown thecoasttoCharleston,SouthCarolina, and opened fire on the city in early June 1776. But South Carolinians had time to prepare, and repulsed the British by the end of the month. They would not return Southformorethantwoyears.
COMMONSENSEAND INDEPENDENCE
Ia nradical January 1776, Thomas Paine, political theorist and writer who had come to America from England in 1774, published a 50-page pamphlet, Common Sense. Withinthreemonths,itsold100,000 copies. Paine attacked the idea of a hereditarymonarchy,declaringthat onehonestmanwasworthmoreto society than “all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.” He presented the alternatives — continued submission to a tyrannical king and an outworn government, or liberty and happiness as a self-sufficient, independent republic. Circulated throughout the colonies, Common Sensehelpedtocrystallizeadecision forseparation.
There still remained the task, however, of gaining each colony’s approvalofaformaldeclaration.On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginiaintroducedaresolutioninthe Second Continental Congress, declaring,“ThattheseUnitedColonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. ...” Immediately, a committee of five, headed by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was appointed to draft a document foravote. LargelyJefferson’swork,theDeclaration of Independence, adopted July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation, but also set forth a philosophy of human freedom that would become a dynamic force throughout the entire world. The Declaration drew upon French and English Enlightenment political philosophy, but one influence in particular stands out: John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government.Locketookconceptionsofthe traditionalrightsofEnglishmenand universalized them into the natural rights of all humankind. The Declaration’s familiar opening passage echoes Locke’s social-contract theoryofgovernment: Weholdthesetruthstobeselfevident,thatallmenarecreated equal,thattheyareendowed bytheirCreatorwithcertain unalienableRights,thatamong theseareLife,Libertyandthe pursuitofHappiness.—Thatto securetheserights,Governments areinstitutedamongMen, derivingtheirjustpowersfrom 61
theconsentofthegoverned, —ThatwheneveranyFormof Governmentbecomesdestructive oftheseends,itistheRightofthe Peopletoalterortoabolishit, andtoinstitutenewGovernment, layingitsfoundationonsuch principlesandorganizingits powersinsuchform,astothem shallseemmostlikelytoeffecttheir SafetyandHappiness. JeffersonlinkedLocke’sprinciples directlytothesituationinthecolonies.TofightforAmericanindependencewastofightforagovernment based on popular consent in place ofagovernmentbyakingwhohad “combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged byourlaws....”Onlyagovernment basedonpopularconsentcouldsecure natural rights to life, liberty, andthepursuitofhappiness.Thus, tofightforAmericanindependence was to fight on behalf of one’s own naturalrights.
DEFEATSANDVICTORIES
A lthoughtheAmericanssuffered severe setbacks for months after independence was declared, their tenacity and perseverance eventually paid off. During August 1776, intheBattleofLongIslandinNew York, Washington’s position became untenable, and he executed a masterlyretreatinsmallboatsfrom Brooklyn to the Manhattan shore. BritishGeneralWilliamHowetwice hesitatedandallowedtheAmericans
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to escape. By November, however, Howe had captured Fort WashingtononManhattanIsland.NewYork City would remain under British controluntiltheendofthewar. That December, Washington’s forces were near collapse, as supplies and promised aid failed to materialize. Howe again missed his chance to crush the Americans by deciding to wait until spring to resume fighting. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1776, Washington crossed the Delaware River, north ofTrenton,NewJersey.IntheearlymorninghoursofDecember26,his troopssurprisedtheBritishgarrison there,takingmorethan900prisoners.Aweeklater,onJanuary3,1777, Washington attacked the British at Princeton, regaining most of the territory formally occupied by the British.ThevictoriesatTrentonand Princeton revived flagging Americanspirits. In September 1777, however, Howe defeated the American army atBrandywineinPennsylvaniaand occupied Philadelphia, forcing the ContinentalCongresstoflee.Washington had to endure the bitterly cold winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, lacking adequate food, clothing, and supplies. Farmers and merchants exchanged theirgoodsforBritishgoldandsilver rather than for dubious paper money issued by the Continental Congressandthestates. Valley Forge was the lowest ebb forWashington’sContinentalArmy, butelsewhere1777provedtobethe 62
turning point in the war. British General John Burgoyne, moving south from Canada, attempted to invadeNewYorkandNewEngland via Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. He had too much heavy equipment to negotiate the wooded and marshy terrain. On August 6, at Oriskany, New York, a band of LoyalistsandNativeAmericansunderBurgoyne’scommandranintoa mobileandseasonedAmericanforce thatmanagedtohalttheiradvance. AfewdayslateratBennington,Vermont, more of Burgoyne’s forces, seekingmuch-neededsupplies,were pushedbackbyAmericantroops. Moving to the west side of the Hudson River, Burgoyne’s army advanced on Albany. The Americans were waiting for him. Led by Benedict Arnold — who would later betray the Americans at West Point, New York — the colonials twice repulsed the British. Having by this time incurred heavy losses, BurgoynefellbacktoSaratoga,New York,whereavastlysuperiorAmerican force under General Horatio GatessurroundedtheBritishtroops. OnOctober17,1777,Burgoynesurrenderedhisentirearmy—sixgenerals, 300 other officers, and 5,500 enlistedpersonnel.
FRANCO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE
IAmerican n France, enthusiasm for the cause was high: The French intellectual world was itself stirring against feudalism and
privilege. However, the Crown lent its support to the colonies for geopolitical rather than ideological reasons: The French government had been eager for reprisal against Britain ever since France’s defeat in 1763.TofurthertheAmericancause, BenjaminFranklinwassenttoParis in1776.Hiswit,guile,andintellect soonmadetheirpresencefeltinthe French capital, and played a major roleinwinningFrenchassistance. Francebeganprovidingaidtothe coloniesinMay1776,whenitsent14 shipswithwarsuppliestoAmerica. Infact,mostofthegunpowderused bytheAmericanarmiescamefrom France.AfterBritain’sdefeatatSaratoga, France saw an opportunity to seriously weaken its ancient enemy andrestorethebalanceofpowerthat had been upset by the Seven Years’ War (called the French and Indian WarintheAmericancolonies).On February 6, 1778, the colonies and FrancesignedaTreatyofAmityand Commerce, in which France recognized the United States and offered trade concessions. They also signed a Treaty of Alliance, which stipulatedthatifFranceenteredthewar, neither country would lay down its arms until the colonies won their independence, that neither would concludepeacewithBritainwithout the consent of the other, and that each guaranteed the other’s possessionsinAmerica.Thiswastheonly bilateral defense treaty signed by theUnitedStatesoritspredecessors until1949. The Franco-American alliance 63
soonbroadenedtheconflict.InJune 1778 British ships fired on French vessels, and the two countries went towar.In1779Spain,hopingtoreacquire territories taken by Britain in the Seven Years’ War, entered the conflict on the side of France, butnotasanallyoftheAmericans. In1780Britaindeclaredwaronthe Dutch, who had continued to trade with the Americans. The combinationoftheseEuropeanpowers,with Franceinthelead,wasafargreater threattoBritainthantheAmerican coloniesstandingalone.
THEBRITISHMOVESOUTH
W ith 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,withthecaptureofSavannah, Georgia. Shortly thereafter, British troops and naval forces converged on Charleston, South Carolina, the principalSouthernport.TheymanagedtobottleupAmericanforceson the Charleston peninsula. On May 12,1780,GeneralBenjaminLincoln surrendered the city and its 5,000 troops,inthegreatestAmericandefeatofthewar. But the reversal in fortune only emboldened the American rebels. South Carolinians began roaming the countryside, attacking British supplylines.InJuly,AmericanGeneralHoratioGates,whohadassembledareplacementforceofuntrained militiamen, rushed to Camden,
CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
OUTLINEOFU.S.HISTORY
THESIGNIFICANCEOFTHEAMERICANREVOLUTION South Carolina, to confront British forcesledbyGeneralCharlesCornwallis. But Gates’s makeshift army panicked and ran when confronted bytheBritishregulars.Cornwallis’s troops met the Americans several more times, but the most significant battle took place at Cowpens, SouthCarolina,inearly1781,where theAmericanssoundlydefeatedthe British. After an exhausting but unproductive chase through North Carolina, Cornwallis set his sights onVirginia.
VICTORYAND INDEPENDENCE
IXVIn July 1780 France’s King Louis had sent to America an expeditionary force of 6,000 men under the Comte Jean de Rochambeau. In addition, the French fleet harassedBritishshippingandblocked reinforcement and resupply of British forces in Virginia. French and American armies and navies, totaling18,000men,parriedwithCornwallis all through the summer and intothefall.Finally,onOctober19,
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1781, after being trapped at YorktownnearthemouthofChesapeake Bay, Cornwallis surrendered his armyof8,000Britishsoldiers. Although Cornwallis’s defeat did not immediately end the war — which would drag on inconclusivelyforalmosttwomoreyears—a new British government decided to pursuepeacenegotiationsinParisin early 1782, with the American side represented by Benjamin Franklin, JohnAdams,andJohnJay.OnApril 15, 1783, Congress approved the final treaty. Signed on September 3, the Treaty of Paris acknowledged the independence, freedom, and sovereignty of the 13 former colonies, now states. The new United States stretched west to the Mississippi River, north to Canada, and southtoFlorida,whichwasreturned toSpain.Thefledglingcoloniesthat Richard Henry Lee had spoken of more than seven years before had finally become “free and independentstates.” The task of knitting together a nationremained. 9
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 Enlightenment rationalist critique of an old order built around hereditary monarchy 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 community. 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 maintenance 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 disestablishment 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 remained secure in their life, liberty, and property. 65
4
CHAPTER
THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
George Washington addressing the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, 1787. 66
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
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STATECONSTITUTIONS
hesuccessoftheRevolutiongave Americans the opportunity to give legalformtotheiridealsasexpressed intheDeclarationofIndependence, and to remedy some of their grievances through state constitutions. As early as May 10, 1776, Congress had passed a resolution advising the colonies to form new governments “such as shall best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents.” Some of them had already done so, and within a year after the Declaration of Independence, all but three had drawn up constitutions. The new constitutions showed the impact of democratic ideas. None made any drastic break with the past, since all were built on the 68
solidfoundationofcolonialexperienceandEnglishpractice.Buteach was also animated by the spirit of republicanism, an ideal that had longbeenpraisedbyEnlightenment philosophers. Naturally, the first objective of theframersofthestateconstitutions was to secure those “unalienable rights” whose violation had caused the former colonies to repudiate theirconnectionwithBritain.Thus, eachconstitutionbeganwithadeclaration or bill of rights. Virginia’s, which served as a model for all the others, included a declaration of principles: popular sovereignty, rotationinoffice,freedomofelections, andanenumerationoffundamental liberties:moderatebailandhumane punishment, speedy trial by jury, freedom of the press and of con-
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
science,andtherightofthemajority toreformoralterthegovernment. Other states enlarged the list of libertiestofreedomofspeech,ofassembly, and of petition. Their constitutions frequently included such provisionsastherighttobeararms, toawritofhabeascorpus,toinviolabilityofdomicile,andtoequalprotectionunderthelaw.Moreover,all prescribedathree-branchstructure of government —executive, legislative, and judiciary — each checked andbalancedbytheothers. Pennsylvania’s constitution was themostradical.Inthatstate,Philadelphia artisans, Scots-Irish frontiersmen, and German-speaking farmershadtakencontrol.Theprovincialcongressadoptedaconstitution that permitted every male taxpayerandhissonstovote,required rotationinoffice(noonecouldserve as a representative more than four yearsoutofeveryseven),andsetup asingle-chamberlegislature. Thestateconstitutionshadsome glaring limitations, particularly by more recent standards. Constitutionsestablishedtoguaranteepeople their natural rights did not secure for everyone the most fundamental naturalright—equality.ThecoloniessouthofPennsylvaniaexcluded their slave populations from their inalienable rights as human beings. Women had no political rights. No statewentsofarastopermituniversalmalesuffrage,andeveninthose statesthatpermittedalltaxpayersto vote(Delaware,NorthCarolina,and Georgia, in addition to Pennsylva69
nia),office-holderswererequiredto ownacertainamountofproperty.
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THEARTICLESOF CONFEDERATION
he struggle with England had done much to change colonial attitudes. Local assemblies had rejected the Albany Plan of Union in 1754,refusingtosurrendereventhe smallest part of their autonomy to anyotherbody,evenonetheythemselveshadelected.Butinthecourse of the Revolution, mutual aid had provedeffective,andthefearofrelinquishingindividualauthorityhad lessenedtoalargedegree. John Dickinson produced the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” in 1776. The Continental Congress adopted them in November1777,andtheywentinto effectin1781,havingbeenratifiedby allthestates.Reflectingthefragility of a nascent sense of nationhood, theArticlesprovidedonlyforavery loose union. The national government lacked the authority to set up tariffs,toregulatecommerce,andto levytaxes.Itpossessedscantcontrol ofinternationalrelations:Anumber ofstateshadbeguntheirownnegotiationswithforeigncountries.Nine stateshadtheirownarmies,several their own navies. In the absence of asoundcommoncurrency,thenew nationconducteditscommercewith acurioushodgepodgeofcoinsanda bewilderingvarietyofstateandnationalpaperbills,allfastdepreciatinginvalue.
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Economic difficulties after the warpromptedcallsforchange.The endofthewarhadasevereeffecton merchantswhosuppliedthearmies of both sides and who had lost the advantages deriving from participation in the British mercantile system. The states gave preference to American goods in their tariff policies,butthesewereinconsistent, leadingtothedemandforastronger central government to implement a uniformpolicy. Farmers probably suffered the most from economic difficulties following the Revolution. The supply of farm produce exceeded demand; unrest centered chiefly among farmer-debtors who wanted strongremediestoavoidforeclosure on their property and imprisonment for debt. Courts were clogged withsuitsforpaymentfiledbytheir creditors. All through the summer of 1786, popular conventions and informalgatheringsinseveralstates demanded reform in the state administrations. Thatautumn,mobsoffarmersin Massachusetts under the leadership of a former army captain, Daniel Shays, began forcibly to prevent the county courts from sitting and passing further judgments for debt, pending the next state election. In January 1787 a ragtag army of 1,200 farmers moved toward the federal arsenal at Springfield. The rebels, armed chiefly with staves and pitchforks, were repulsed by a small state militia force; General BenjaminLincolnthenarrivedwith 70
reinforcements from Boston and routed the remaining Shaysites, whose leader escaped to Vermont. The government captured 14 rebels andsentencedthemtodeath,butultimatelypardonedsomeandletthe others off with short prison terms. After the defeat of the rebellion, a newly elected legislature, whose majoritysympathizedwiththerebels, met some of their demands for debtrelief.
THEPROBLEMOFEXPANSION
W ith the end of the Revolution, theUnitedStatesagainhadtoface the old unsolved Western question, the problem of expansion, with its complications of land, fur trade, Indians, settlement, and localgovernment.Luredbytherichest land yet found in the country, pioneers poured over the Appalachian Mountains and beyond. By 1775 the far-flung outposts scatteredalongthewaterwayshadtens of thousands of settlers. Separated by mountain ranges and hundreds of kilometers from the centers of political authority in the East, the inhabitants established their own governments. Settlers from all the Tidewater states pressed on into the fertile river valleys, hardwood forests, and rolling prairies of the interior. By 1790 the population of thetrans-Appalachianregionnumberedwellover120,000. Before the war, several colonies had laid extensive and often overlapping claims to land beyond the
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Appalachians. To those without such claims this rich territorial prize seemed unfairly apportioned. Maryland, speaking for the latter group, introduced a resolution that the western lands be considered common property to be parceled by the Congress into free and independent governments. This idea was not received enthusiastically. Nonetheless, in 1780 New York led thewaybycedingitsclaims.In1784 Virginia, which held the grandest claims, relinquished all land north of the Ohio River. Other states ceded their claims, and it became apparentthatCongresswouldcome intopossessionofallthelandsnorth oftheOhioRiverandwestoftheAllegheny Mountains. This common possession of millions of hectares was the most tangible evidence yet ofnationalityandunity,andgavea certainsubstancetotheideaofnationalsovereignty.Atthesametime, thesevastterritorieswereaproblem thatrequiredsolution. The Confederation Congress established a system of limited selfgovernment for this new national NorthwestTerritory.TheNorthwest Ordinance of 1787 provided for its organization, initially as a single district, ruled by a governor and judges appointed by the Congress. When this territory had 5,000 free male inhabitants of voting age, it was to be entitled to a legislature of two chambers, itself electing the lowerhouse.Inaddition,itcouldat thattimesendanonvotingdelegate to Congress. Three to five states 71
wouldbeformedastheterritorywas settled. Whenever any one of them had 60,000 free inhabitants, it was to be admitted to the Union “on an equal footing with the original statesinallrespects.”Theordinance guaranteedcivilrightsandliberties, encouraged education, and prohibitedslaveryorotherformsofinvoluntaryservitude. The new policy repudiated the time-honoredconceptthatcolonies existedforthebenefitofthemother country, were politically subordinate,andpeopledbysocialinferiors. Instead, it established the principle thatcolonies(“territories”)werean extensionofthenationandentitled, notasaprivilegebutasaright,toall thebenefitsofequality.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
B ythetimetheNorthwestOrdinancewasenacted,Americanleaders wereinthemidstofdraftinganew andstrongerconstitutiontoreplace theArticlesofConfederation.Their presiding officer, George Washington, had written accurately that the stateswereunitedonlybya“ropeof sand.” Disputes between Maryland and Virginia over navigation on the Potomac River led to a conferenceofrepresentativesoffivestates at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786. One of the delegates, Alexander Hamilton of New York, convinced his colleagues that commerce was bound up with large political and economic questions. What was re-
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quired was a fundamental rethinkingoftheConfederation. TheAnnapolisconferenceissued a call for all the states to appoint representativestoaconventiontobe heldthefollowingspringinPhiladelphia.TheContinentalCongresswas atfirstindignantoverthisboldstep, but it acquiesced after Washington gavetheprojecthisbackingandwas elected a delegate. During the next fall and winter, elections were held inallstatesbutRhodeIsland. A remarkable gathering of notablesassembledattheFederalConventioninMay1787.Thestatelegislatures sent leaders with experience incolonialandstategovernments,in Congress, on the bench, and in the army. Washington, regarded as the country’sfirstcitizenbecauseofhis integrityandhismilitaryleadership during the Revolution, was chosen aspresidingofficer. Prominentamongthemoreactive members were two Pennsylvanians: GouverneurMorris,whoclearlysaw the need for national government, and James Wilson, who labored indefatigably for the national idea. Also elected by Pennsylvania was BenjaminFranklin,nearingtheend ofanextraordinarycareerofpublic service and scientific achievement. FromVirginiacameJamesMadison, apracticalyoungstatesman,athoroughstudentofpoliticsandhistory, and,accordingtoacolleague,“from aspiritofindustryandapplication... thebest-informedmanonanypoint indebate.”Hewouldberecognized asthe“FatheroftheConstitution.” 72
Massachusetts sent Rufus King and Elbridge Gerry, young men of ability and experience. Roger Sherman, shoemaker turned judge, was one of the representatives from Connecticut. From New York came AlexanderHamilton,whohadproposed the meeting. Absent from the Convention were Thomas Jefferson,whowasservingasminister representing the United States in France,andJohnAdams,servingin the same capacity in Great Britain. Youth predominated among the 55 delegates—theaverageagewas42. Congress had authorized the ConventionmerelytodraftamendmentstotheArticlesofConfederationbut,asMadisonlaterwrote,the delegates,“withamanlyconfidence in their country,” simply threw the Articles aside and went ahead with the building of a wholly new form ofgovernment. They recognized that the paramount need was to reconcile two different powers — the power of local control, which was already being exercised by the 13 semi-independent states, and the power of acentralgovernment.Theyadopted theprinciplethatthefunctionsand powers of the national government — being new, general, and inclusive — had to be carefully defined andstated,whileallotherfunctions andpowersweretobeunderstoodas belongingtothestates.Butrealizing that the central government had to have real power, the delegates also generally accepted the fact that the government should be authorized,
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
amongotherthings,tocoinmoney, representation in proportion to the to regulate commerce, to declare populationofthestatesinonehouse war,andtomakepeace. ofCongress,theHouseofRepresentatives, and equal representation in DEBATEANDCOMPROMISE theother,theSenate. The alignment of large against he 18th-century statesmen who small states then dissolved. But met in Philadelphia were adherents almost every succeeding question of Montesquieu’s concept of the raised new divisions, to be resolved balance of power in politics. This only by new compromises. Northprinciplewassupportedbycolonial erners wanted slaves counted when experienceandstrengthenedbythe determining each state’s tax share, writings of John Locke, with which butnotindeterminingthenumber most of the delegates were familiar. of seats a state would have in the These influences led to the convic- House of Representatives. Under a tionthatthreeequalandcoordinate compromisereachedwithlittledisbranches of government should be sent,taxleviesandHousememberestablished. Legislative, executive, ship would be apportioned accordand judicial powers were to be so ingtothenumberoffreeinhabitants harmoniously balanced that no plusthree-fifthsoftheslaves. one could ever gain control. The Certain members, such as Sherdelegates agreed that the legislative manandElbridgeGerry,stillsmartbranch,likethecoloniallegislatures ing from Shays’s Rebellion, feared and the British Parliament, should that the mass of people lacked sufconsistoftwohouses. ficientwisdomtogovernthemselves On these points there was una- and thus wished no branch of the nimity within the assembly. But federalgovernmenttobeelecteddisharpdifferencesalsoarose.Repre- rectlybythepeople.Othersthought sentativesofthesmallstates—New the national government should be Jersey, for instance — objected to given as broad a popular base as changesthatwouldreducetheirin- possible. Some delegates wished to fluence in the national government exclude the growing West from the bybasingrepresentationuponpop- opportunity of statehood; others ulationratherthanuponstatehood, championed the equality principle aswasthecaseundertheArticlesof established in the Northwest OrdiConfederation. nanceof1787. On the other hand, representaThere was no serious difference tives of large states, like Virginia, on such national economic quesargued for proportionate represen- tionsaspapermoney,lawsconcerntation.Thisdebatethreatenedtogo ing contract obligations, or the role on endlessly until Roger Sherman ofwomen,whowereexcludedfrom came forward with arguments for politics. But there was a need for
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73
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
balancing sectional economic interests; for settling arguments as to the powers, term, and selection of the chief executive; and for solving problems involving the tenure of judges and the kind of courts to be established. LaboringthroughahotPhiladelphiasummer,theconventionfinally achieved a draft incorporating in a brief document the organization of the most complex government yet devised, one that would be supreme within a clearly defined and limited sphere. It would have full powertolevytaxes,borrowmoney, establish uniform duties and excise taxes, coin money, regulate interstate commerce, fix weights and measures, grant patents and copyrights,setuppostoffices,andbuild postroads.Italsowasauthorizedto raise and maintain an army and navy, manage Native American affairs, conduct foreign policy, and wage war. It could pass laws for naturalizingforeignersandcontrollingpubliclands;itcouldadmitnew statesonabasisofabsoluteequality with the old. The power to pass all necessary and proper laws for executing these clearly defined powersrenderedthefederalgovernment abletomeettheneedsoflatergenerations and of a greatly expanded bodypolitic. The principle of separation of powershadalreadybeengivenafair trialinmoststateconstitutionsand hadprovedsound.Accordingly,the convention set up a governmental
74
system with separate legislative, executive, and judiciary branches, each checked by the others. Thus congressional enactments were not to become law until approved by the president. And the president was to submit the most important ofhisappointmentsandallhistreaties to the Senate for confirmation. Thepresident,inturn,couldbeimpeached and removed by Congress. The judiciary was to hear all cases arising under federal laws and the Constitution; in effect, the courts were empowered to interpret both the fundamental and the statute law. But members of the judiciary, appointedbythepresidentandconfirmed by the Senate, could also be impeachedbyCongress. ToprotecttheConstitutionfrom hastyalteration,ArticleVstipulated that amendments to the Constitution be proposed either by twothirdsofbothhousesofCongressor bytwo-thirdsofthestates,meeting inconvention.Theproposalswereto be ratified by one of two methods: either by the legislatures of threefourths of the states, or by convention in three-fourths of the states, with the Congress proposing the methodtobeused. Finally, the convention faced the most important problem of all: How should the powers given to the new government be enforced? Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government had possessed — on paper — significantpowers,which,inpractice,had
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
come to naught, for the states paid no attention to them. What was to save the new government from the samefate? Attheoutset,mostdelegatesfurnishedasingleanswer—theuseof force.Butitwasquicklyseenthatthe application of force upon the states woulddestroytheUnion.Thedecisionwasthatthegovernmentshould notactuponthestatesbutuponthe peoplewithinthestates,andshould legislate for and upon all the individual residents of the country. As thekeystoneoftheConstitution,the convention adopted two brief but highlysignificantstatements: Congressshallhavepower... tomakeallLawswhichshallbe necessaryandproperforcarrying intoExecutionthe...Powers vestedbythisConstitutioninthe GovernmentoftheUnitedStates. ...(ArticleI,Section7) ThisConstitution,andthe LawsoftheUnitedStateswhich shallbemadeinPursuance thereof;andallTreatiesmade,or whichshallbemade,underthe AuthorityoftheUnitedStates, shallbethesupremeLawofthe Land;andtheJudgesinevery Stateshallbeboundthereby, anyThingintheConstitutionor LawsofanyStatetotheContrary notwithstanding.(ArticleVI) ThusthelawsoftheUnitedStates became enforceable in its own nationalcourts,throughitsownjudges andmarshals,aswellasinthestate courtsthroughthestatejudgesand statelawofficers. 75
Debate continues to this day about the motives of those who wrotetheConstitution.In1913historianCharlesBeard,inAnEconomic 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 government securities. However, James Madison, principal drafter of the Constitution, held no bonds and was a Virginia planter. Conversely, some opponents of the Constitutionownedlargeamountsofbonds and securities. Economic interests influencedthecourseofthedebate, butsodidstate,sectional,andideological interests. Equally important was the idealism of the framers. Products of the Enlightenment, the Founding Fathers designed a government that they believed would promote individual liberty and public virtue. The ideals embodied in the U.S. Constitution remain an essential element of the American nationalidentity.
RATIFICATIONAND THEBILLOFRIGHTS
O n 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 Washington’schair,said:
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Ihaveofteninthecourseofthe session...lookedatthat[chair] behindthepresident,without beingabletotellwhetheritwas risingorsetting;butnow,at length,Ihavethehappinessto knowthatitisarising,andnota 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 requiredbeforethedocumentcould becomeeffective. Theconventionhaddecidedthat the Constitution would take effect upon ratification by conventions in nine of the 13 states. By June 1788 therequiredninestateshadratified theConstitution,butthelargestates of Virginia and New York had not. Most people felt that without their supporttheConstitutionwouldnever be honored. To many, the documentseemedfullofdangers:Would not the strong central government that it established tyrannize them, oppressthemwithheavytaxes,and dragthemintowars? Differing views on these questions brought into existence two parties,theFederalists,whofavored astrongcentralgovernment,andthe Antifederalists,whopreferredaloose associationofseparatestates.Impassionedargumentsonbothsideswere voicedbythepress,thelegislatures, andthestateconventions. 76
In Virginia, the Antifederalists attacked the proposed new government by challenging the opening phrase of the Constitution: “We the People of the United States.” Without using the individual state namesin theConstitution, thedelegates argued, the states would not retain their separate rights or powers.VirginiaAntifederalistswereled by Patrick Henry, who became the chief spokesman for back-country farmers who feared the powers of the new central government. Wavering delegates were persuaded by a proposal that the Virginia conventionrecommendabillofrights, and Antifederalists joined with the FederaliststoratifytheConstitution onJune25. In New York, Alexander Hamilton, 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 government, with separate executive, legislative,andjudicialbranchesthat checked and balanced one another. WithTheFederalistPapersinfluencingtheNewYorkdelegates,theConstitutionwasratifiedonJuly26. Antipathy toward a strong central government was only one concern among those opposed to the Constitution; of equal concern to many was the fear that the Constitutiondidnotprotectindividualrightsandfreedomssufficiently. Virginian George Mason, author
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights of 1776, was one of three delegates to the Constitutional Convention who had refused to sign the final document because it did not enumerate individual rights. Together with Patrick Henry, he campaigned vigorouslyagainstratificationofthe Constitution by Virginia. Indeed, fivestates,includingMassachusetts, ratifiedtheConstitutiononthecondition that such amendments be addedimmediately. When the first Congress convenedinNewYorkCityinSeptember 1789, the calls for amendments protecting individual rights were virtually unanimous. Congress quickly adopted 12 such amendments; by December 1791, enough states had ratified 10 amendments tomakethempartoftheConstitution. Collectively, they are known as the Bill of Rights. Among their provisions:freedomofspeech,press, religion, and the right to assemble peacefully, protest, and demand changes(FirstAmendment);protection against unreasonable searches, 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); protectionagainstcruelandunusual punishment (Eighth Amendment); andprovisionthatthepeopleretain additional rights not listed in the Constitution(NinthAmendment). Since the adoption of the Bill of Rights, only 17 more amendments have been added to the 77
Constitution.Althoughanumberof thesubsequentamendmentsrevised the federal government’s structure and operations, most followed the precedent established by the Bill of Rights and expanded individual rightsandfreedoms.
PRESIDENTWASHINGTON
O neofthelastactsoftheCongress oftheConfederationwastoarrange forthefirstpresidentialelection,settingMarch4,1789,asthedatethat the new government would come intobeing.Onenamewasoneveryone’s lips for the new chief of state, GeorgeWashington.Hewasunanimously chosen president and took theoathofofficeathisinauguration on April 30, 1789. In words spoken by every president since, Washingtonpledgedtoexecutethedutiesof thepresidencyfaithfullyand,tothe bestofhisability,to“preserve,protect,anddefendtheConstitutionof theUnitedStates.” When Washington took office, the new Constitution enjoyed neithertraditionnorthefullbackingof organized public opinion. The new government had to create its own machineryandlegislateasystemof taxationthatwouldsupportit.Until ajudiciarycouldbeestablished,laws couldnotbeenforced.Thearmywas small.Thenavyhadceasedtoexist. Congress quickly created the departments of State and Treasury, with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton as their respective secretaries. Departments of War
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and Justice were also created. Since Washington preferred to make decisions only after consulting those men whose judgment he valued, the American presidential Cabinet came into existence, consisting of theheadsofallthedepartmentsthat Congress might create. Simultaneously, Congress provided for a federal judiciary — a Supreme Court, with one chief justice and five associatejustices,threecircuitcourts, and13districtcourts. Meanwhile, the country was growing steadily and immigration fromEuropewasincreasing.Americans were moving westward: New EnglandersandPennsylvaniansinto Ohio; Virginians and Carolinians intoKentuckyandTennessee.Good farmsweretobehadforsmallsums; labor was in strong demand. The rich valley stretches of upper New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia soon became great wheat-growing areas. Although many items were still homemade, the Industrial Revolution was dawning in the United States. Massachusetts and Rhode Islandwerelayingthefoundationof important textile industries; Connecticut was beginning to turn out tinwareandclocks;NewYork,New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were producingpaper,glass,andiron.Shipping had grown to such an extent that on the seas the United States wassecondonlytoBritain.Evenbefore1790,AmericanshipsweretravelingtoChinatosellfursandbring backtea,spices,andsilk. 78
At this critical juncture in the country’sgrowth,Washington’swise leadershipwascrucial.Heorganized a national government, developed policies for settlement of territories previouslyheldbyBritainandSpain, stabilizedthenorthwesternfrontier, andoversawtheadmissionofthree new states: Vermont (1791), Kentucky(1792),andTennessee(1796). Finally, in his Farewell Address, he warnedthenationto“steerclearof permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” This advice influenced American attitudes towardtherestoftheworldforgenerationstocome.
HAMILTONVS.JEFFERSON
A
conflicttookshapeinthe1790s between America’s first political parties. Indeed, the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Republicans (also called Democratic-Republicans), led by Thomas Jefferson, were the first political parties in the Western world. Unlike loose political groupings in the British House of Commons or in the American colonies before the Revolution, both had reasonably consistentandprincipledplatforms, relatively stable popular followings, andcontinuingorganizations. TheFederalistsinthemainrepresented the interests of trade and manufacturing, which they saw as forcesofprogressintheworld.They believed these could be advanced onlybyastrongcentralgovernment capableofestablishingsoundpublic
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
creditandastablecurrency.Openly distrustful of the latent radicalism of the masses, they could nonetheless credibly appeal to workers and artisans. Their political stronghold wasintheNewEnglandstates.SeeingEnglandasinmanyrespectsan exampletheUnitedStatesshouldtry to emulate, they favored good relationswiththeirmothercountry. Although Alexander Hamilton wasneverabletomusterthepopular appealtostandsuccessfullyforelective office, he was far and away the Federalists’maingeneratorofideologyandpublicpolicy.Hebroughtto publiclifealoveofefficiency,order, andorganization.Inresponsetothe calloftheHouseofRepresentatives foraplanforthe“adequatesupport of public credit,” he laid down and supportedprinciplesnotonlyofthe publiceconomy,butofeffectivegovernment.Hamiltonpointedoutthat the United States must have credit for industrial development, commercial activity, and the operations of government, and that its obligations must have the complete faith andsupportofthepeople. There were many who wished to repudiate the Confederation’s nationaldebtorpayonlypartofit. Hamilton insisted upon full paymentandalsouponaplanbywhich the federal government took over the unpaid debts of the states incurred during the Revolution. He also secured congressional legislationforaBankoftheUnitedStates. ModeledaftertheBankofEngland, it acted as the nation’s central fi79
nancial institution and operated branches in different parts of the country. Hamilton sponsored a national mint, and argued in favor of tariffs, saying that temporary protectionofnewfirmscouldhelpfoster the development of competitive nationalindustries.Thesemeasures — placing the credit of the federal government on a firm foundation and giving it all the revenues it needed — encouraged commerce and industry, and created a solid phalanx of interests firmly behind thenationalgovernment. TheRepublicans,ledbyThomas Jefferson, spoke primarily for agricultural interests and values. They distrusted bankers, cared little for commerce and manufacturing, and believedthatfreedomanddemocracyflourishedbestinaruralsociety composed of self-sufficient farmers.Theyfeltlittleneedforastrong central government; in fact, they tendedtoseeitasapotentialsource of oppression. Thus they favored states’rights.Theywerestrongestin theSouth. Hamilton’s great aim was more efficient organization, whereas Jeffersononcesaid,“Iamnotafriend to a very energetic government.” Hamilton feared anarchy and thoughtintermsoforder;Jefferson fearedtyrannyandthoughtinterms of freedom. Where Hamilton saw England as an example, Jefferson, whohadbeenministertoFrancein theearlystagesoftheFrenchRevolution, looked to the overthrow of theFrenchmonarchyasvindication
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oftheliberalidealsoftheEnlightenment. Against Hamilton’s instinctive conservatism, he projected an eloquentdemocraticradicalism. An early clash between them, which occurred shortly after Jeffersontookofficeassecretaryofstate, ledtoanewandprofoundlyimportant interpretation of the Constitution. When Hamilton introduced hisbilltoestablishanationalbank, Jefferson, speaking for those who believedinstates’rights,arguedthat the Constitution expressly enumeratedallthepowersbelongingtothe federalgovernmentandreservedall otherpowerstothestates.Nowhere wasthefederalgovernmentempoweredtosetupabank. Hamiltonrespondedthatbecause of the mass of necessary detail, a vast body of powers had to be implied by general clauses, and one of these authorized Congress to “make all laws which shall be necessaryandproper”forcarryingout other powers specifically granted. The Constitution authorized the national government to levy and collect taxes, pay debts, and borrow money. A national bank would materiallyhelpinperformingthese functions efficiently. Congress, therefore,wasentitled,underitsimpliedpowers,tocreatesuchabank. Washington and the Congress accepted Hamilton’s view — and set an important precedent for an expansiveinterpretationofthefederal government’sauthority.
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CITIZENGENETAND FOREIGNPOLICY
A lthough one of the first tasks of the new government was to strengthen the domestic economy and make the nation financially secure, the United States could not ignore foreign affairs. The cornerstones of Washington’s foreign policy were to preserve peace, to give the country time to recover fromitswounds,andtopermitthe slowworkofnationalintegrationto continue. Events in Europe threatened these goals. Many Americans watchedtheFrenchRevolutionwith keeninterestandsympathy.InApril 1793, news came that France had declared war on Great Britain and Spain,andthatanewFrenchenvoy, Edmond Charles Genet — Citizen Genet—wascomingtotheUnited States. When the revolution in France led to the execution of King Louis XVIinJanuary1793,Britain,Spain, and Holland became involved in war with France. According to the Franco-AmericanTreatyofAlliance of1778,theUnitedStatesandFrance wereperpetualallies,andtheUnitedStateswasobligedtohelpFrance defend the West Indies. However, the United States, militarily and economically a very weak country, was in no position to become involved in another war with major Europeanpowers. On April 22, 1793, Washington effectivelyabrogatedthetermsofthe
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
1778treatythathadmadeAmerican independencepossiblebyproclaimingtheUnitedStatestobe“friendly andimpartialtowardthebelligerent 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 Britishshipasaprivateer(privately owned warships commissioned to prey on ships of enemy nations). Genet then threatened to take his causedirectlytotheAmericanpeople,overtheheadofthegovernment. Shortlyafterward,theUnitedStates requested his recall by the French government. The Genet incident strained American relations with France at a time when those with Great Britain were far from satisfactory. Britishtroopsstilloccupiedfortsinthe West,propertycarriedoffbyBritish soldiers during the Revolution had notbeenrestoredorpaidfor,andthe British Navy was seizing American ships bound for French ports. The twocountriesseemedtobedrifting toward war. Washington sent John Jay,firstchiefjusticeoftheSupreme Court,toLondonasaspecialenvoy. Jay negotiated a treaty that secured withdrawal of British soldiers from westernfortsbutallowedtheBritish to continue the fur trade with the Indians in the Northwest. London agreedtopaydamagesforAmerican shipsandcargoesseizedin1793and 1794,butmadenocommitmentson possible future seizures. Moreover, thetreatyfailedtoaddressthefester81
ing issue of British “impressment” of American sailors into the Royal Navy, placed severe limitations on American trade with the West Indies, and accepted the British view thatfoodandnavalstores,aswellas warmateriel,werecontrabandsubject to seizure if bound for enemy portsonneutralships. American diplomat Charles Pinckney was more successful in dealing with Spain. In 1795, he negotiatedanimportanttreatysettling the Florida border on American terms and giving Americans access totheportofNewOrleans.Allthe same, the Jay Treaty with the BritishreflectedacontinuingAmerican weakness vis-a-vis a world superpower. Deeply unpopular, it was vocally supported only by Federalists who valued cultural and economictieswithBritain.Washington backed it as the best bargain available,and,afteraheateddebate,the Senateapprovedit. Citizen Genet’s antics and Jay’s Treatydemonstratedboththedifficultiesfacedbyasmallweaknation caught between two great powers andthewidegapinoutlookbetween Federalists and Republicans. To the Federalists, Republican backers of the increasingly violent and radical French Revolution were dangerous radicals(“Jacobins”);totheRepublicans,advocatesofamitywithEngland were monarchists who would subvertthenaturalrightsofAmericans.TheFederalistsconnectedvirtue and national development with commerce; the Republicans saw
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America’s destiny as that of a vast agrarian republic. The politics of their conflicting positions became increasinglyvehement.
ADAMSANDJEFFERSON
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ashingtonretiredin1797,firmly declining to serve for more than eight years as the nation’s head. Thomas Jefferson of Virginia (Republican) and John Adams (Federalist) vied to succeed him. Adams wonanarrowelectionvictory.From the beginning, however, he was at theheadofapartyandanadministration divided between his backers andthoseofhisrival,Hamilton. Adamsfacedseriousinternational difficulties. France, angered by Jay’streatywithBritain,adoptedits definitionofcontrabandandbegan to seize American ships headed for Britain.By1797Francehadsnatched 300 American ships and broken off diplomatic relations with the United States. When Adams sent three commissioners to Paris to negotiate, agents of Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand (whom Adams labeled X, Y, and Z in his report to Congress) informedtheAmericansthatnegotiationscouldonlybeginiftheUnited States loaned France $12 million and bribed officials of the French government. American hostility to Francerosetoanexcitedpitch.The so-calledXYZAffairledtotheenlistmentoftroopsandthestrengtheningofthefledglingU.S.Navy. In 1799, after a series of sea bat82
tles with the French, war seemed inevitable. In this crisis, Adams rejected the guidance of Hamilton, who wanted war, and reopened negotiations with France. Napoleon, who had just come to power, received them cordially. The danger of conflict subsided with the negotiation of the Convention of 1800, which formally released the United Statesfromits1778defensealliance with France. However, reflecting Americanweakness,Francerefused topay$20millionincompensation for American ships taken by the FrenchNavy. HostilitytoFrancehadledCongresstopasstheAlienandSedition Acts,whichhadsevererepercussions for American civil liberties. The Naturalization Act, which changed the requirement for citizenship from five to 14 years, was targeted at Irish and French immigrants suspectedofsupportingtheRepublicans. The Alien Act, operative for two years only, gave the president the power to expel or imprison aliens in time of war. The Sedition Act proscribed writing, speaking, or publishing anything of “a false, scandalous, and malicious” nature against the president or Congress. The few convictions won under it createdmartyrstothecauseofcivil libertiesandarousedsupportforthe Republicans. Theactsmetwithresistance.Jefferson and Madison sponsored the passage of the Kentucky and VirginiaResolutionsbythelegislatures ofthesetwostatesinNovemberand
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
December 1798. Extreme declarationofstates’rights,theresolutions asserted that states could “interpose”theirviewsonfederalactions and “nullify” them. The doctrine of nullification would be used later fortheSouthernstates’resistanceto protective tariffs, and, more ominously,slavery. By 1800 the American people were ready for a change. Under Washington and Adams, the Federalistshadestablishedastronggovernment, but sometimes failing to honortheprinciplethattheAmericangovernmentmustberesponsive to the will of the people, they had followedpoliciesthatalienatedlarge groups. For example, in 1798 they had enacted a tax on houses, land, and slaves, affecting every property ownerinthecountry. Jefferson had steadily gathered behind him a great mass of small farmers, shopkeepers, and other workers. He won a close victory in a contested election. Jefferson enjoyedextraordinaryfavorbecauseof hisappealtoAmericanidealism.In hisinauguraladdress,thefirstsuch speech in the new capital of Washington, D.C., he promised “a wise andfrugalgovernment”thatwould preserve order among the inhabitantsbutleavepeople“otherwisefree toregulatetheirownpursuitsofindustry,andimprovement.” Jefferson’s mere presence in the White House encouraged democratic procedures. He preached and practiced democratic simplicity, eschewing much of the pomp 83
and ceremony of the presidency. In line with Republican ideology, he sharply cut military expenditures. Believing America to be a haven for the oppressed, he secured a liberal naturalization law. By the end of his second term, his far-sighted secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin, had reduced the national debt to less than $560 million. Widely popular, Jefferson won reelectionaspresidenteasily.
LOUISIANAANDBRITAIN
O neofJefferson’sactsdoubledthe areaofthecountry.Attheendofthe SevenYears’War,Francehadceded its territory west of the Mississippi River to Spain. Access to the port ofNewOrleansnearitsmouthwas vital for the shipment of American productsfromtheOhioandMississippi river valleys. Shortly after Jefferson became president, Napoleon forced a weak Spanish government tocedethisgreattract,theLouisiana Territory,backtoFrance.Themove filledAmericanswithapprehension and indignation. French plans for a huge colonial empire just west of the United States seriously threatened the future development of the UnitedStates.Jeffersonassertedthat ifFrancetookpossessionofLouisiana, “from that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet andnation.” Napoleon, however, lost interest aftertheFrenchwereexpelledfrom Haitibyaslaverevolt.Knowingthat anotherwarwithGreatBritainwas
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impending, he resolved to fill his treasury and put Louisiana beyond the reach of Britain by selling it to theUnitedStates.Hisofferpresented Jefferson with a dilemma: The Constitution conferred no explicit powertopurchaseterritory.Atfirst the president wanted to propose an amendment, but delay might lead Napoleon to change his mind. Advised that the power to purchase territory was inherent in the power to make treaties, Jefferson relented, saying that “the good sense of our countrywillcorrecttheevilofloose construction when it shall produce illeffects.” The United States obtained the “Louisiana Purchase” for $15 million 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 wouldbecomeitsheartland—and abreadbasketfortheworld. As Jefferson began his second termin1805,hedeclaredAmerican neutrality in the struggle between GreatBritainandFrance.Although bothsidessoughttorestrictneutral shippingtotheother,Britishcontrol oftheseasmadeitsinterdictionand seizure much more serious than any actions by Napoleonic France. Britishnavalcommandersroutinely searchedAmericanships,seizedvesselsandcargoes,andtookoffsailors believedtobeBritishsubjects.They alsofrequentlyimpressedAmerican seamenintotheirservice. 84
When Jefferson issued a proclamation ordering British warships to leave U.S. territorial waters, the British reacted by impressing more sailors.Jeffersonthendecidedtorely oneconomicpressure;inDecember 1807 Congress passed the Embargo Act, forbidding all foreign commerce. Ironically, the law required strong police authority that vastly increasedthepowersofthenational government. Economically, it was disastrous. In a single year Americanexportsfelltoone-fifthoftheir former volume. Shipping interests werealmostruinedbythemeasure; discontentroseinNewEnglandand New York. Agricultural interests sufferedheavilyalso.Pricesdropped drastically when the Southern and Western farmers could not export their surplus grain, cotton, meat, andtobacco. The embargo failed to starve Great Britain into a change of policy. As the grumbling at home increased,Jeffersonturnedtoamilder measure,whichpartiallyconciliated domesticshippinginterests.Inearly 1809hesignedtheNon-Intercourse Act permitting commerce with all countries except Britain or France andtheirdependencies. JamesMadisonsucceededJefferson as president in 1809. Relations with Great Britain grew worse, and thetwocountriesmovedrapidlytoward war. The president laid before Congressadetailedreport,showing severalthousandinstancesinwhich theBritishhadimpressedAmerican citizens. In addition, northwestern
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
settlers had suffered from attacks byIndianswhomtheybelievedhad been incited by British agents in Canada. In turn, many Americans favoredconquestofCanadaandthe elimination of British influence in NorthAmerica,aswellasvengeance for impressment and commercial repression. By 1812, war fervor was dominant. On June 18, the United StatesdeclaredwaronBritain.
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THEWAROF1812
he 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 scatteredpostsalongthecoast,nearthe Canadianborder,andintheremote interior. The state militias were poorlytrainedandundisciplined. Hostilities began with an invasion of Canada, which, if properly timed and executed, would have broughtunitedactionagainstMontreal. Instead, the entire campaign miscarriedandendedwiththeBritish occupation of Detroit. The U.S. Navy, however, scored successes. In addition, American privateers, swarmingtheAtlantic,captured500 British vessels during the fall and wintermonthsof1812and1813. The campaign of 1813 centered on Lake Erie. General William HenryHarrison—whowouldlater become president — led an army 85
of militia, volunteers, and regulars from Kentucky with the object of reconqueringDetroit.OnSeptember 12,whilehewasstillinupperOhio, newsreachedhimthatCommodore OliverHazardPerryhadannihilated the British fleet on Lake Erie. Harrison occupied Detroit and pushed into Canada, defeating the fleeing British and their Indian allies on theThamesRiver.Theentireregion nowcameunderAmericancontrol. AyearlaterCommodoreThomas Macdonough won a point-blank gun duel with a British flotilla on Lake Champlain in upper New York. Deprived of naval support, a Britishinvasionforceof10,000men retreated to Canada. Nevertheless, the British fleet harassed the Easternseaboardwithordersto“destroy andlaywaste.”OnthenightofAugust24,1814,anexpeditionaryforce routed American militia, marched to Washington, D.C., and left the cityinflames.PresidentJamesMadisonfledtoVirginia. British and American negotiators conducted talks in Europe. The British envoys decided to concede, however, when they learned of Macdonough’s victory on Lake Champlain. Faced with the depletion of the British treasury due in large part to the heavy costs of the Napoleonic Wars, the negotiators forGreatBritainacceptedtheTreaty ofGhentinDecember1814.Itprovidedforthecessationofhostilities, the restoration of conquests, and a commissiontosettleboundarydisputes. Unaware that a peace treaty
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OUTLINEOFU.S.HISTORY
THESECONDGREATAWAKENING hadbeensigned,thetwosidescontinued fighting into 1815 near New Orleans, Louisiana. Led by General Andrew Jackson, the United States scored the greatest land victory of thewar,endingforonceandforall any British hopes of reestablishing continental influence south of the Canadianborder. While the British and Americans were negotiating a settlement, Federalist delegates selected by the legislaturesofMassachusetts,Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire gathered in Hartford,Connecticut,toexpressopposition to “Mr. Madison’s war.” New
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Englandhadmanagedtotradewith the enemy throughout the conflict, and some areas actually prospered from this commerce. Nevertheless, theFederalistsclaimedthatthewar was ruining the economy. With a possibility of secession from the Union in the background, the conventionproposedaseriesofconstitutional amendments that would protect New England interests. Instead,theendofthewar,punctuated bythesmashingvictoryatNewOrleans,stampedtheFederalistswitha stigmaofdisloyaltyfromwhichthey neverrecovered. 9
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 BurnedOver District.
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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.
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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.
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TheUnitedStatestransformeditselfagaininthe19thand early20thcenturies.Arural,agriculturalnationbecamean industrialpowerwhosebackbonewassteelandcoal,railroads, andsteampower.AyoungcountryonceboundbytheMississippi RiverexpandedacrosstheNorthAmericancontinent,andonto overseasterritories.Anationdividedbytheissueofslaveryand testedbythetraumaofcivilwarbecameaworldpowerwhose globalinfluencewasfirstfeltinWorldWarI.
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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.
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.
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
Frederick Douglass, the nation’s leading African-American abolitionist of the 19th century, escaped from slavery in 1838. His speech about his sufferings as a slave at the Massachusetts AntiSlavery Society’s annual convention in Nantucket launched his career as an outspoken lecturer, writer, and publisher on the abolition of slavery and racial equality.
Harriet Tubman, a former slave who rescued hundreds from slavery through the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and to Canada in the first half of the 19th century.
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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
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.”
Encampment of Union troops from New York in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from the capital of Washington.
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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Mulberry Street in New York City, also known as “Little Italy,” in the early years of the 20th century. Newly arrived immigrant families, largely from Eastern and southern Europe in this period, often settled in densely populated urban enclaves. Typically, their children, or grandchildren, would disperse, moving to other cities or other parts of the country.
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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.
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. 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. 106
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American infantry forces in 1918, firing a 37 mm. gun, advance against German positions in World War I.
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.
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Horse-drawn combine harvesting wheat in the Midwest, 19th century. 110
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“Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.” Newspaper editor Horace Greeley, 1851
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BUILDINGUNITY
he War of 1812 was, in a sense, a second war of independence that confirmed once and for all the AmericanbreakwithEngland.With its conclusion, many of the serious difficulties that the young republic had faced since the Revolution disappeared. National union under the Constitution brought a balance between liberty and order. With a low national debt and a continent awaitingexploration,theprospectof peace, prosperity, and social progressopenedbeforethenation. Commerce cemented national unity. The privations of war convinced many of the importance of protecting the manufacturers of Americauntiltheycouldstandalone against foreign competition. Economicindependence,manyargued, 112
was as essential as political independence.Tofosterself-sufficiency, congressionalleadersHenryClayof Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of SouthCarolinaurgedapolicyofprotectionism—impositionofrestrictionsonimportedgoodstofosterthe developmentofAmericanindustry. Thetimewaspropitiousforraisingthecustomstariff.Theshepherds of Vermont and Ohio wanted protection against an influx of English wool. In Kentucky, a new industry of weaving local hemp into cotton baggingwasthreatenedbytheScottish bagging industry. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, already a flourishing centerofironsmelting,waseagerto challenge British and Swedish iron suppliers.Thetariffenactedin1816 imposeddutieshighenoughtogive manufacturersrealprotection. In addition, Westerners advo-
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
catedanationalsystemofroadsand canalstolinkthemwithEasterncities and ports, and to open frontier lands for settlement. However, they were unsuccessful in pressing their demands for a federal role in internal improvement because of opposition from New England and the South. Roads and canals remained the province of the states until the passageoftheFederalAidRoadAct of1916. The position of the federal government at this time was greatly strengthened by several Supreme Court decisions. A committed Federalist, John Marshall of Virginia became chief justice in 1801 and held office until his death in 1835. The court — weak before his administration — was transformed intoapowerfultribunal,occupying apositionco-equaltotheCongress and the president. In a succession of historic decisions, Marshall establishedthepoweroftheSupreme Courtandstrengthenedthenational government. Marshall was the first in a long line of Supreme Court justices whose decisions have molded the meaning and application of the Constitution. When he finished his long service, the court had decidednearly50casesclearlyinvolving constitutional issues. In one of Marshall’s most famous opinions —Marburyv.Madison(1803)—he decisivelyestablishedtherightofthe SupremeCourttoreviewtheconstitutionalityofanylawofCongressor ofastatelegislature.InMcCullochv. 113
Maryland (1819), he boldly upheld the Hamiltonian theory that the Constitution by implication gives the government powers beyond thoseexpresslystated.
EXTENSIONOFSLAVERY
S lavery, which up to now had received little public attention, began toassumemuchgreaterimportance asanationalissue.Intheearlyyears of the republic, when the Northern states were providing for immediate 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 imperceptibledegrees.”VirginiansJefferson, Madison, and Monroe and other leading Southern statesmen madesimilarstatements. TheNorthwestOrdinanceof1787 hadbannedslaveryintheNorthwest Territory. As late as 1808, when the international slave trade was abolished, there were many Southerners who thought that slavery would soon end. The expectation proved false,forduringthenextgeneration, the South became solidly united behind the institution of slavery as new economic factors made slavery farmoreprofitablethanithadbeen before1790. Chiefamongthesewastheriseof a great cotton-growing industry in the South, stimulated by the introduction of new types of cotton and
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES
byEliWhitney’sinventionin1793of the cotton gin, which separated the seedsfromcotton.Atthesametime, the Industrial Revolution, which madetextilemanufacturingalargescaleoperation,vastlyincreasedthe demand for raw cotton. And the opening of new lands in the West after1812greatlyextendedthearea availableforcottoncultivation.Cottonculturemovedrapidlyfromthe Tidewater states on the East Coast through much of the lower South tothedeltaregionoftheMississippi andeventuallytoTexas. Sugar cane, another labor-intensive crop, also contributed to slavery’s extension in the South. The rich, hot lands of southeastern Louisiana proved ideal for growing sugar cane profitably. By 1830 the state was supplying the nation with about half its sugar supply. Finally, tobacco growers moved westward, takingslaverywiththem. As the free society of the North and the slave society of the South spread westward, it seemed politicallyexpedienttomaintainarough equality among the new states carvedoutofwesternterritories.In 1818,whenIllinoiswasadmittedto theUnion,10statespermittedslavery and 11 states prohibited it; but balance was restored after Alabama wasadmittedasaslavestate.PopulationwasgrowingfasterintheNorth, which permitted Northern states to have a clear majority in the House of Representatives. However, equalitybetweentheNorthandtheSouth wasmaintainedintheSenate. 114
In 1819 Missouri, which had 10,000 slaves, applied to enter the Union. Northerners rallied to oppose Missouri’s entry except as a free state, and a storm of protest sweptthecountry.ForatimeCongress was deadlocked, but Henry Clay arranged the so-called Missouri Compromise: Missouri was admittedasaslavestateatthesame 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 southern boundary. At thetime,thisprovisionappearedto be a victory for the Southern states becauseitwasthoughtunlikelythat this“GreatAmericanDesert”would everbesettled.Thecontroversywas temporarily resolved, but Thomas Jeffersonwrotetoafriendthat“this momentousquestion,likeafirebell inthenight,awakenedandfilledme withterror.Iconsidereditatonceas theknelloftheUnion.”
LATINAMERICAANDTHE MONROEDOCTRINE
D
uring the opening decades of the19thcentury,CentralandSouth America turned to revolution. The ideaoflibertyhadstirredthepeople ofLatinAmericafromthetimethe English colonies gained their freedom. Napoleon’s conquest of Spain and Portugal in 1808 provided the signal for Latin Americans to rise inrevolt.By1822,ablyledbySimón Bolívar, Francisco Miranda, José de SanMartínandMigueldeHidalgo,
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
most of Hispanic America — from ArgentinaandChileinthesouthto Mexicointhenorth—hadwonindependence. The people of the United States tookadeepinterestinwhatseemed arepetitionoftheirownexperience in breaking away from European rule. The Latin American independence movements confirmed their own belief in self-government. In 1822PresidentJamesMonroe,under powerful public pressure, received authority to recognize the new countriesofLatinAmericaandsoon exchangedministerswiththem.He thereby confirmed their status as genuinely independent countries, entirelyseparatedfromtheirformer Europeanconnections. Atjustthispoint,Russia,Prussia, and Austria formed an association, theHolyAlliance,toprotectthemselves against revolution. By intervening in countries where popular movements threatened monarchies, the alliance — joined by post-NapoleonicFrance—hopedtoprevent thespreadofrevolution.Thispolicy was the antithesis of the American principleofself-determination. AslongastheHolyAllianceconfineditsactivitiestotheOldWorld, itarousednoanxietyintheUnited States. But when the alliance announceditsintentionofrestoringto Spainitsformercolonies,Americans became very concerned. Britain, to whichLatinAmericantradehadbecomeofgreatimportance,resolvedto blockanysuchaction.Londonurged joint Anglo-American guarantees 115
to Latin America, but Secretary of StateJohnQuincyAdamsconvinced Monroetoactunilaterally:“Itwould bemorecandid,aswellasmoredignified, to avow our principles explicitlytoRussiaandFrance,thanto comeinasacock-boatinthewake oftheBritishman-of-war.” In December 1823, with the knowledge that the British navy would defend Latin America from theHolyAllianceandFrance,President Monroe took the occasion of his annual message to Congress to pronounce what would become known as the Monroe Doctrine —therefusaltotolerateanyfurther extension of European domination intheAmericas: TheAmericancontinents...are henceforthnottobeconsideredas subjectsforfuturecolonizationby anyEuropeanpowers. Weshouldconsideranyattempt ontheirparttoextendtheir [political]systemtoanyportion ofthishemisphere,asdangerousto ourpeaceandsafety. Withtheexistingcoloniesor dependenciesofanyEuropean powerwehavenotinterfered, andshallnotinterfere.But withthegovernmentswhohave declaredtheirindependence, andmaintainedit,andwhose independencewehave... acknowledged,wecouldnotview anyinterpositionforthepurposeof oppressingthem,orcontrolling,in anyothermanner,theirdestiny,by anyEuropeanpowerinanyother lightthanasthemanifestationof
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anunfriendlydispositiontowards theUnitedStates. The Monroe Doctrine expressed a spirit of solidarity with the newly independent republics of Latin America.Thesenationsinturnrecognized their political affinity with theUnitedStatesbybasingtheirnew constitutions,inmanyinstances,on theNorthAmericanmodel.
FACTIONALISMAND POLITICALPARTIES
D omestically, the presidency of Monroe(1817-1825)wastermedthe “eraofgoodfeelings.”Thephraseacknowledgedthepoliticaltriumphof theRepublicanPartyovertheFederalistParty,whichhadcollapsedasa nationalforce.Allthesame,thiswas a period of vigorous factional and regionalconflict. TheendoftheFederalistsledtoa briefperiodoffactionalpoliticsand 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 Jackson, with South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun as his running mate. Kentucky selected Speaker of the House Henry Clay; Massachusetts,SecretaryofStateJohnQuincy Adams,sonofthesecondpresident, John Adams. A congressional caucus,widelyderidedasundemocratic, picked Secretary of the Treasury WilliamCrawford. Personality and sectional al116
legiance played important roles in determining the outcome of the election. Adams won the electoral votes from New England and most of New York; Clay won Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri; Jackson won the Southeast, Illinois, Indiana, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, Maryland, andNewJersey;andCrawfordwon Virginia, Georgia, and Delaware. No candidate gained a majority in the Electoral College, so, according to the provisions of the Constitution, the election was thrown into theHouseofRepresentatives,where Claywasthemostinfluentialfigure. He supported Adams, who gained thepresidency. 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 nationalsystemofroadsandcanals. Hiscoldlyintellectualtemperament didnotwinfriends.Jackson,bycontrast,hadenormouspopularappeal and a strong political organization. His followers coalesced to establish the Democratic Party, claimed direct lineage from the DemocraticRepublican Party of Jefferson, and in general advocated the principles ofsmall,decentralizedgovernment. Mountingastronganti-Adamscam-
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
paign,theyaccusedthepresidentof a“corruptbargain”fornamingClay secretary of state. In the election of 1828,JacksondefeatedAdamsbyan overwhelmingelectoralmajority. Jackson — Tennessee politician, fighterinwarsagainstNativeAmericans on the Southern frontier, 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 propertyrequirements.In1824members oftheElectoralCollegeinsixstates werestillselectedbythestatelegislatures. By 1828 presidential electorswerechosenbypopularvotein every state but Delaware and South Carolina. These developments were the products of a widespread sense thatthepeopleshouldruleandthat governmentbytraditionaleliteshad cometoanend.
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NULLIFICATIONCRISIS
oward the end of his first term inoffice,Jacksonwasforcedtoconfront the state of South Carolina, the most important of the emergingDeepSouthcottonstates,onthe issue of the protective tariff. Business and farming interests in the state had hoped that the president would use his power to modify the 117
1828 act that they called the Tariff of Abominations. In their view, all its benefits of protection went to Northern manufacturers, leaving agricultural South Carolina poorer. In1828,thestate’sleadingpolitician —andJackson’svicepresidentuntil his resignation in 1832 — John C. Calhoun had declared in his South Carolina Exposition and Protest that stateshadtherighttonullifyoppressivenationallegislation. In 1832, Congress passed and Jackson signed a bill that revised the1828tariffdownward,butitwas not enough to satisfy most South Carolinians. The state adopted an Ordinance of Nullification, which declaredboththetariffsof1828and 1832nullandvoidwithinstateborders. Its legislature also passed laws to enforce the ordinance, including authorization for raising a military force and appropriations for arms. Nullificationwasalong-established theme of protest against perceived excesses by the federal government. JeffersonandMadisonhadproposed itintheKentuckyandVirginiaResolutionsof1798,toprotesttheAlien and Sedition Acts. The Hartford Convention of 1814 had invoked it to protest the War of 1812. Never before,however,hadastateactually attempted nullification. The young nation faced its most dangerous crisisyet. In response to South Carolina’s threat, Jackson sent seven small naval vessels and a man-of-war to Charleston in November 1832. On December 10, he issued a resound-
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ing proclamation against the nullifiers. 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.Healsoletitbeknownthat, ifnecessary,hepersonallywouldlead theU.S.Armytoenforcethelaw. Whenthequestionoftariffduties again came before Congress, Jackson’s political rival, Senator Henry Clay, a great advocate of protection but also a devoted Unionist, sponsoredacompromisemeasure.Clay’s tariff bill, quickly passed in 1833, specified that all duties in excess of 20percentofthevalueofthegoods importedweretobereducedyearby year, so that by 1842 the duties on all articles would reach the level of the moderate tariff of 1816. At the sametime,CongresspassedaForce Act,authorizingthepresidenttouse militarypowertoenforcethelaws. SouthCarolinahadexpectedthe support of other Southern states, but instead found itself isolated. (Its most likely ally, the state government of Georgia, wanted, and got, U.S. military force to remove Native American tribes from the state.) Eventually, South Carolina rescindeditsaction.Bothsides,nevertheless, claimed victory. Jackson had strongly defended the Union. But South Carolina, by its show of resistance, had obtained many of its demands and had demonstrated thatasinglestatecouldforceitswill onCongress.
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THEBANKFIGHT
A lthough the nullification crisis possessed the seeds of civil war, it was not as critical a political issue asabitterstruggleoverthecontinuedexistenceofthenation’scentral bank,thesecondBankoftheUnited States.Thefirstbank,establishedin 1791 under Alexander Hamilton’s guidance, had been chartered for a 20-year period. Though the government held some of its stock, the bank,liketheBankofEnglandand othercentralbanksofthetime,was a private corporation with profits passingtoitsstockholders.Itspublic functionsweretoactasadepository for government receipts, to make short-termloanstothegovernment, and above all to establish a sound currencybyrefusingtoacceptatface valuenotes(papermoney)issuedby state-chartered banks in excess of theirabilitytoredeem. To the Northeastern financial and commercial establishment, the central bank was a needed enforcer of prudent monetary policy, but from the beginning it was resented by Southerners and Westerners who believed their prosperity and regional development depended upon ample money and credit. The Republican Party of Jefferson and Madisondoubteditsconstitutionality.Whenitscharterexpiredin1811, itwasnotrenewed. Forthenextfewyears,thebanking business was in the hands of state-charteredbanks,whichissued currencyinexcessiveamounts,cre-
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
ating great confusion and fueling inflation. It became increasingly clearthatstatebankscouldnotprovidethecountrywithareliablecurrency.In1816asecondBankofthe United States, similar to the first, was again chartered for 20 years. Fromitsinception,thesecondbank was unpopular in the newer states and territories, especially with state and local bankers who resented its virtualmonopolyoverthecountry’s credit and currency, but also with less prosperous people everywhere, whobelievedthatitrepresentedthe interestsofthewealthyfew. On the whole, the bank was well managed and rendered a valuable service; but Jackson long had shared the Republican distrust of the financial establishment. Elected asatribuneofthepeople,hesensed that the bank’s aristocratic manager, Nicholas Biddle, was an easy target. When the bank’s supporters in Congress pushed through an early renewal of its charter, Jackson respondedwithastingingvetothat denounced monopoly and special privilege. The effort to override the vetofailed. Inthepresidentialcampaignthat followed,thebankquestionrevealed afundamentaldivision.Established merchant, manufacturing, and financial interests favored sound money. Regional bankers and entrepreneursonthemakewantedan increased money supply and lower interest rates. Other debtor classes, especiallyfarmers,sharedthosesentiments.Jacksonandhissupporters 119
calledthecentralbanka“monster” andcoastedtoaneasyelectionvictoryoverHenryClay. Thepresidentinterpretedhistriumphasapopularmandatetocrush thecentralbankirrevocably.InSeptember 1833 he ordered an end to deposits of government money in the bank, and gradual withdrawals ofthemoneyalreadyinitscustody. Thegovernmentdepositeditsfunds inselectedstatebanks,characterized as“petbanks”bytheopposition. For the next generation the United States would get by on a relativelyunregulatedstatebanking system,whichhelpedfuelwestward expansionthroughcheapcreditbut kept the nation vulnerable to periodic panics. During the Civil War, the United States initiated a system of national charters for local and regional banks, but the nation returned to a central bank only with theestablishmentoftheFederalReservesystemin1913.
WHIGS,DEMOCRATS,AND KNOW-NOTHINGS
J
ackson’spoliticalopponents,united by little more than a common opposition to him, eventually coalescedintoacommonpartycalled theWhigs,aBritishtermsignifying oppositiontoJackson’s“monarchial rule.”Althoughtheyorganizedsoon aftertheelectioncampaignof1832, it was more than a decade before they reconciled their differences andwereabletodrawupaplatform. Largely through the magnetism of
CHAPTER 5: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES
HenryClayandDanielWebster,the Whigs’mostbrilliantstatesmen,the partysolidifieditsmembership.But inthe1836election,theWhigswere still too divided to unite behind a singleman.NewYork’sMartinVan Buren,Jackson’svicepresident,won thecontest. Aneconomicdepressionandthe larger-than-life personality of his predecessor obscured Van Buren’s merits. His public acts aroused no enthusiasm, for he lacked the compelling qualities of leadership and thedramaticflairthathadattended Jackson’s every move. The election of 1840 found the country afflicted with hard times and low wages — andtheDemocratsonthedefensive. The Whig candidate for president 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 vicepresidentialcandidatewasJohn Tyler—aVirginianwhoseviewson states’ rights and a low tariff were popularintheSouth.Harrisonwon asweepingvictory. Withinamonthofhisinauguration,however,the68-year-oldHarrison died, and Tyler became president. Tyler’s beliefs differed sharply fromthoseofClayandWebster,still the most influential men in Congress.Theresultwasanopenbreak between the new president and the party that had elected him. The Tyler presidency would accomplish little other than to establish defini-
tively that, if a president died, the vicepresidentwouldassumetheofficewithfullpowersforthebalance ofhisterm. Americans found themselves dividedinother,morecomplexways. The large number of Catholic immigrantsinthefirsthalfofthe19th century, primarily Irish and German, 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 cities along the Eastern seaboard. Thecomingofuniversalwhitemale suffrage in the 1820s and 1830s increased their political clout. Displaced patrician politicians blamed the immigrants for their fall from power.TheCatholicChurch’sfailure to support the temperance movementgaverisetochargesthatRome was trying to subvert the United Statesthroughalcohol. Themostimportantofthenativist organizations that sprang up in this period was a secret society, the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, foundedin1849.Whenitsmembers refused to identify themselves, they were swiftly labeled the “KnowNothings.” In a few years, they became a national organization with considerablepoliticalpower. The Know-Nothings advocated anextensionintheperiodrequired fornaturalizedcitizenshipfromfive to 21 years. They sought to exclude theforeign-bornandCatholicsfrom publicoffice.In1855theywoncon-
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troloflegislaturesinNewYorkand Massachusetts; by then, about 90 U.S.congressmenwerelinkedtothe party.Thatwasitshighpoint.Soon after, the gathering crisis between NorthandSouthovertheextension of slavery fatally divided the party, consuming it along with the old debatesbetweenWhigsandDemocratsthathaddominatedAmerican politicsinthesecondquarterofthe 19thcentury.
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STIRRINGSOFREFORM
he democratic upheaval in politics exemplified by Jackson’s election was merely one phase of the long American quest for greater rightsandopportunitiesforallcitizens.Anotherwasthebeginningof labororganization,primarilyamong skilled and semiskilled workers. In 1835 labor forces in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,succeededinreducing the old “dark-to-dark” workday to a 10-hour day. By 1860, the new work day had become law in severalofthestatesandwasagenerally acceptedstandard. The spread of suffrage had already led to a new concept of education. Clear-sighted statesmen everywhereunderstoodthatuniversal suffrage required a tutored, literate electorate. Workingmen’s organizationsdemandedfree,tax-supported schoolsopentoallchildren.Gradually, in one state after another, legislation was enacted to provide for suchfreeinstruction.Theleadership of Horace Mann in Massachusetts 121
was especially effective. The public school system became common throughout the North. In other parts of the country, however, the battle for public education continuedforyears. Anotherinfluentialsocialmovement that emerged during this period was the opposition to the sale and use of alcohol, or the temperance movement. It stemmed from a variety of concerns and motives: religious beliefs, the effect of alcohol 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 Promotion of Temperance. Seven years later, in Philadelphia, the society convened a national convention, which formed the American TemperanceUnion.Theunioncalledfor theprohibitionofallalcoholicbeverages,andpressedstatelegislatures to ban their production and sale. Thirteenstateshaddonesoby1855, althoughthelawsweresubsequently challenged in court. They survived onlyinnorthernNewEngland,but between1830and1860thetemperancemovementreducedAmericans’ percapitaconsumptionofalcohol. Other reformers addressed the problemsofprisonsandcareforthe insane. Efforts were made to turn prisons,whichstressedpunishment, into penitentiaries where the guilty would undergo rehabilitation. In Massachusetts, Dorothea Dix led a struggle to improve conditions for insanepersons,whowerekeptcon-
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fined in wretched almshouses and prisons. After winning improvements in Massachusetts, she took her campaign to the South, where nine states established hospitals for theinsanebetween1845and1852.
S
WOMEN’SRIGHTS
uchsocialreformsbroughtmany womentoarealizationoftheirown unequal position in society. From colonial times, unmarried women hadenjoyedmanyofthesamelegal rights as men, although custom required that they marry early. With matrimony, women virtually lost their separate identities in the eyes ofthelaw.Womenwerenotpermitted to vote. Their education in the 17thand18thcenturieswaslimited largely to reading, writing, music, dancing,andneedlework. The awakening of women began withthevisittoAmericaofFrances Wright,aScottishlecturerandjournalist,whopubliclypromotedwomen’s rights throughout the United States during the 1820s. At a time when women were often forbidden tospeakinpublicplaces,Wrightnot only spoke out, but shocked audiences by her views advocating the rightsofwomentoseekinformation onbirthcontrolanddivorce.Bythe 1840s an American women’s rights movement emerged. Its foremost leaderwasElizabethCadyStanton. In 1848 Cady Stanton and her colleague Lucretia Mott organized awomen’s rights convention —the firstinthehistoryoftheworld—at
Seneca Falls, New York. Delegates drew up a “Declaration of Sentiments,” demanding equality with menbeforethelaw,therighttovote, and equal opportunities in education and employment. The resolutions passed unanimously with the exception of the one for women’s suffrage,whichwonamajorityonly afteranimpassionedspeechinfavor by Frederick Douglass, the black abolitionist. At Seneca Falls, Cady Stanton gained national prominence as an eloquent writer and speaker for women’s rights. She had realized early on that without the right to vote, women would never be equal with men. Taking the abolitionist WilliamLloydGarrisonashermodel,shesawthatthekeytosuccesslay inchangingpublicopinion,andnot inpartyaction.SenecaFallsbecame thecatalystforfuturechange.Soon other women’s rights conventions were held, and other women would come to the forefront of the movement for their political and social equality. In 1848 also, Ernestine Rose, a Polishimmigrant,wasinstrumental 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 nation of this kind, the MarriedWomen’sPropertyActencouraged other state legislatures to enactsimilarlaws. In 1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton andanotherleadingwomen’srights activist,SusanB.Anthony,founded
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theNationalWomanSuffrageAssociation(NWSA),topromoteaconstitutional amendment for women’s right to the vote. These two would become the women’s movement’s mostoutspokenadvocates.Describingtheirpartnership,CadyStanton wouldsay,“Iforgedthethunderbolts andshefiredthem.”
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WESTWARD
he frontier did much to shape American life. Conditions along the entire Atlantic seaboard stimulatedmigrationtothenewerregions. From New England, where the soil was incapable of producing high yieldsofgrain,cameasteadystream of men and women who left their coastal farms and villages to take advantage of the rich interior land of the continent. In the backcountrysettlementsoftheCarolinasand Virginia,peoplehandicappedbythe lack of roads and canals giving access to coastal markets and resentfulofthepoliticaldominanceofthe Tidewaterplantersalsomovedwestward. By 1800 the Mississippi and OhioRivervalleyswerebecominga greatfrontierregion.“Hi-o,awaywe go,floatingdowntheriverontheOhi-o,”becamethesongofthousands ofmigrants. Thewestwardflowofpopulation in the early 19th century led to the division of old territories and the drawingofnewboundaries.Asnew states were admitted, the political mapstabilizedeastoftheMississippi River. From 1816 to 1821, six states
were created — Indiana, Illinois, andMaine(whichwerefreestates), andMississippi,Alabama,andMissouri(slavestates).Thefirstfrontier hadbeentiedcloselytoEurope,the second to the coastal settlements, buttheMississippiValleywasindependent and its people looked west ratherthaneast. Frontier settlers were a varied group. One English traveler described them as “a daring, hardy race of men, who live in miserable cabins. ... They are unpolished but hospitable, kind to strangers, honest, 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 theax,snare,andfishingline,these menblazedthetrails,builtthefirst log cabins, and confronted Native American tribes, whose land they occupied. Asmoreandmoresettlerspenetratedthewilderness,manybecame farmers as well as hunters. A comfortable log house with glass windows, a chimney, and partitioned rooms replaced the cabin; the well replaced the spring. Industrious settlers would rapidly clear their land of timber, burning the wood for potash and letting the stumps decay. They grew their own grain, vegetables, and fruit; ranged the woods for deer, wild turkeys, and honey; fished the nearby streams; looked after cattle and hogs. Land speculatorsboughtlargetractsofthe cheap land and, if land values rose,
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sold their holdings and moved still fartherwest,makingwayforothers. Doctors, lawyers, storekeepers, editors, preachers, mechanics, and politicians soon followed the farmers. The farmers were the sturdy base, however. Where they settled, they intended to stay and hoped their children would remain after them. They built large barns and brickorframehouses.Theybrought improvedlivestock,plowedtheland skillfully, and sowed productive seed.Someerectedflourmills,sawmills,anddistilleries.Theylaidout good highways, and built churches andschools.Incredibletransformations were accomplished in a few years.In1830,forexample,Chicago, Illinois, was merely an unpromising trading village with a fort; but longbeforesomeofitsoriginalsettlers had died, it had become one of the largest and richest cities in thenation. Farmswereeasytoacquire.Government land after 1820 could be bought for $1.25 for about half a hectare, and after the 1862 Homestead Act, could be claimed by merely occupying and improving it. In addition, tools for working thelandwereeasilyavailable.Itwas a time when, in a phrase coined by Indiana newspaperman John Soule and popularized by New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, young men could “go west and grow with thecountry.” ExceptforamigrationintoMexican-owned Texas, the westward march of the agricultural frontier
did not pass Missouri into the vast Western territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase until after 1840.In1819,inreturnforassumingtheclaimsofAmericancitizens to the amount of $5 million, the United States obtained from Spain both Florida and Spain’s rights to theOregoncountryintheFarWest. Inthemeantime,theFarWesthad become a field of great activity in the fur trade, which was to have significance far beyond the value oftheskins.Asinthefirstdaysof Frenchexplorationint heMississippi Valley, the trader was a pathfinder for the settlers beyond the Mississippi. The French and Scots-Irish trappers, exploring the great rivers and their tributaries and discovering the passes through the Rocky and Sierra Mountains, made possible the overland migration of the 1840s and the later occupation of theinteriorofthenation. Overall,thegrowthofthenation was enormous: Population grew from 7.25 million to more than 23 million from 1812 to 1852, and the land available for settlement increased by almost the size of Western Europe — from 4.4 million to 7.8 million square kilometers. Still unresolved, however, were the basic conflicts rooted in sectional differences that, by the decade of the 1860s, would explode into civil war. Inevitably, too, this westward expansionbroughtsettlersintoconflictwiththeoriginalinhabitantsof theland:theNativeAmericans. Inthefirstpartofthe19thcen-
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tury, the most prominent figure associated with these conflicts was AndrewJackson,thefirst“Westerner” to occupy the White House. In the midst of the War of 1812, Jackson,theninchargeoftheTennessee militia,wassentintosouthernAlabama,whereheruthlesslyputdown an uprising of Creek Indians. The Creeks soon ceded two-thirds of theirlandtotheUnitedStates.JacksonlaterroutedbandsofSeminoles from their sanctuaries in SpanishownedFlorida. Inthe1820s,PresidentMonroe’s secretary of war, John C. Calhoun, pursuedapolicyofremovingtheremainingtribesfromtheoldSouthwestandresettlingthembeyondthe Mississippi. Jackson continued this policyaspresident.In1830Congress passedtheIndianRemovalAct,providing funds to transport the eastern tribes beyond the Mississippi.
In 1834 a special Native American territory was set up in what is now Oklahoma. In all, the tribes signed 94 treaties during Jackson’s two terms, ceding millions of hectares to the federal government and removing dozens of tribes from their ancestralhomelands. Themostterriblechapterinthis unhappy history concerned the Cherokees, whose lands in western North Carolina and Georgia had been guaranteed by treaty since 1791. Among the most progressive oftheeasterntribes,theCherokees nevertheless were sure to be displacedwhengoldwasdiscoveredon their land in 1829. Forced to make alongandcrueltrektoOklahoma in 1838, the tribe lost many of its numbers from disease and privationonwhatbecameknownasthe “TrailofTears.” 9
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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
THEFRONTIER,“THEWEST,”AND THEAMERICANEXPERIENCE
The frontier — the point at which settled territory met unoccupied land
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United States of America, showing territorial expansion from 1803 to 1898.
— 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 stratified 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 consequences. Some have gone farther, rejecting the Turner argument as a romantic glorification of a bloody, brutal process — marked by a war of conquest against Mexico, near-genocidal treatment of Native American tribes, and environmental 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 fascinated by the American West. Indeed, the last area of frontier settlement, the vast area stretching north from Texas to the Canadian border, which Americans 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.” 127
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Slave family picking cotton near Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1860s. 128
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A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. Senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln, 1858
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TWOAMERICAS
ovisitortotheUnitedStatesleft amoreenduringrecordofhistravelsandobservationsthantheFrench 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 American 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 government of a democracy brings the notionofpoliticalrightstothelevel of the humblest citizens,” he wrote, “justasthedisseminationofwealth bringsthenotionofpropertywithin the reach of all men.” Nonetheless, Tocquevillewasonlyoneinthefirst of a long line of thinkers to worry
whether such rough equality could surviveinthefaceofagrowingfactorysystemthatthreatenedtocreate divisionsbetweenindustrialworkers andanewbusinesselite. Other travelers marveled at the growth and vitality of the country, where they could see “everywhere the most unequivocal proofs of prosperityandrapidprogressinagriculture,commerce,andgreatpublicworks.”Butsuchoptimisticviews of the American experiment were by no means universal. One skeptic was the English novelist Charles Dickens,whofirstvisitedtheUnited States in 1841-42. “This is not the Republic I came to see,” he wrote inaletter.“ThisisnottheRepublic of my imagination. ... The more I thinkofitsyouthandstrength,the poorerandmoretriflinginathousandrespects,itappearsinmyeyes.
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In everything of which it has made aboast—exceptingitseducationof thepeople,anditscareforpoorchildren—itsinksimmeasurablybelow thelevelIhadplaceditupon.” Dickens was not alone. America inthe19thcentury,asthroughoutits history, generated expectations and passions that often conflicted with arealityatoncemoremundaneand more complex. The young nation’s sizeanddiversitydefiedeasygeneralization and invited contradiction: Americawasbothafreedom-loving and slave-holding society, a nation ofexpansiveandprimitivefrontiers, asocietywithcitiesbuiltongrowing commerceandindustrialization.
LANDSOFPROMISE
B y 1850 the national territory stretched over forest, plain, and mountain.Withinitsfar-flunglimitsdwelt23millionpeopleinaUnion comprising31states.IntheEast,industryboomed.IntheMidwestand the South, agriculture flourished. After 1849 the gold mines of Californiapouredtheirpreciousoreinto thechannelsoftrade. New England and the Middle Atlantic states were the main centers of manufacturing, commerce, and finance. Principal products of these areas were textiles, lumber, clothing, machinery, leather, and woolen goods. The maritime trade had reached the height of its prosperity; vessels flying the American flag plied the oceans, distributing waresofallnations. 131
The South, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River and beyond, featured an economy centered on agriculture.Tobaccowasimportant 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 commodityandtheonewithwhich theSouthwasidentified.By1850the AmericanSouthgrewmorethan80 percentoftheworld’scotton.Slaves cultivatedallthesecrops. The Midwest, with its boundless prairies and swiftly growing population, flourished. Europe and the older settled parts of America demandeditswheatandmeatproducts.Theintroductionoflabor-saving implements — notably the McCormick reaper (a machine to cut andharvestgrain)—madepossible an unparalleled increase in grain production. The nation’s wheat cropsswelledfromsome35million hectolitersin1850tonearly61million in 1860, more than half grown intheMidwest. An important stimulus to the country’s prosperity was the great improvement in transportation facilities; from 1850 to 1857 the Appalachian Mountain barrier was pierced by five railway trunk lines linkingtheMidwestandtheNortheast. These links established the economic interests that would undergird the political alliance of the Unionfrom1861to1865.TheSouth lagged behind. It was not until the
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late1850sthatacontinuouslineran through the mountains connecting thelowerMississippiRiverareawith thesouthernAtlanticseaboard.
SLAVERYANDSECTIONALISM
O ne overriding issue exacerbated the regional and economic differences 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 toNorthernaggrandizement.Many Northerners,ontheotherhand,declared that slavery — the “peculiar institution”thattheSouthregarded as essential to its economy — was largely responsible for the region’s relative financial and industrial backwardness. AsfarbackastheMissouriCompromisein1819,sectionallineshad been steadily hardening on the slaveryquestion.IntheNorth,sentiment for outright abolition grew increasingly powerful. Southerners ingeneralfeltlittleguiltaboutslavery and defended it vehemently. In someseaboardareas,slaveryby1850 waswellover200yearsold;itwasan integralpartofthebasiceconomyof theregion. Althoughthe1860censusshowed 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 owned slaves. There were some 385,000 slave owners out of about
1.5 million white families. Fifty percentoftheseslaveownersowned nomorethanfiveslaves.Twelvepercent owned 20 or more slaves, the numberdefinedasturningafarmer into a planter. Three-quarters of Southern white families, including the“poorwhites,”thoseonthelowestrungofSouthernsociety,owned noslaves. Itiseasytounderstandtheinterest of the planters in slave holding. 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 highersocialstatus.Southernwhites 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 leaders of the South, the professional classes, and most of the clergy now nolongerapologizedforslaverybut championed it. Southern publicists insisted, for example, that the relationship between capital and labor wasmorehumaneundertheslavery systemthanunderthewagesystem oftheNorth. Before 1830 the old patriarchal system of plantation government, with its personal supervision of the slaves by their owners or masters, was still characteristic. Gradually, however, with the introduction of large-scale cotton production in the lower South, the master graduallyceasedtoexerciseclosepersonal
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supervision over his slaves, and employed professional overseers charged with exacting from slaves a maximum amount of work. In such circumstances, slavery could become a system of brutality and coercion in which beatings and the breakupoffamiliesthroughthesale of individuals were commonplace. In other settings, however, it could bemuchmilder. In the end, however, the most trenchant criticism of slavery was notthebehaviorofindividualmasters and overseers. Systematically treating African-American laborers as if they were domestic animals, slavery, the abolitionists pointed out, violated every human being’s inalienablerighttobefree.
THEABOLITIONISTS
Iersnchiefly national politics, Southernsought protection and enlargement of the interests representedbythecotton/slaverysystem. They sought territorial expansion because the wastefulness of cultivating a single crop, cotton, rapidly exhausted the soil, increasing the needfornewfertilelands.Moreover, newterritorywouldestablishabasis for additional slave states to offset the admission of new free states. Antislavery Northerners saw in the Southernviewaconspiracyforproslaveryaggrandizement.Inthe1830s theiroppositionbecamefierce. Anearlierantislaverymovement, anoffshootoftheAmericanRevolution,hadwonitslastvictoryin1808
when Congress abolished the slave tradewithAfrica.Thereafter,opposition came largely from the Quakers,whokeptupamildbutineffectual protest. Meanwhile, the cotton gin and westward expansion into the Mississippi delta region created anincreasingdemandforslaves. 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 combined the heroism of a martyr with the crusading zeal of a demagogue. On January 1, 1831, Garrisonproducedthefirstissueof his newspaper, The Liberator, which bore the announcement: “I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. ... On this subject, I do notwishtothink,orspeak,orwrite, withmoderation....Iaminearnest —Iwillnotequivocate—Iwillnot excuse — I will not retreat a single inch—ANDIWILLBEHEARD.” Garrison’s sensational methods awakened Northerners to the evil in an institution many had long cometoregardasunchangeable.He soughttoholduptopublicgazethe mostrepulsiveaspectsofslaveryand tocastigateslaveholdersastorturers and traffickers in human life. He recognized no rights of the masters,acknowledgednocompromise, tolerated no delay. Other abolitionists, unwilling to subscribe to his law-defyingtactics,heldthatreform
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shouldbeaccomplishedbylegaland peacefulmeans.Garrisonwasjoined by another powerful voice, that of FrederickDouglass,anescapedslave whogalvanizedNorthernaudiences. Theodore Dwight Weld and many other abolitionists crusaded against slaveryinthestatesoftheoldNorthwestTerritorywithevangelicalzeal. Oneactivityofthemovementinvolved helping slaves escape to safe refugesintheNorthorovertheborderintoCanada.The“Underground Railroad,” an elaborate network of secretroutes,wasfirmlyestablished inthe1830sinallpartsoftheNorth. InOhioalone,from1830to1860,as many as 40,000 fugitive slaves were helped to freedom. The number of local antislavery societies increased atsucharatethatby1838therewere about 1,350 with a membership of perhaps250,000. MostNorthernersnonethelesseitherheldthemselvesalooffromthe abolitionist movement or actively opposed it. In 1837, for example, a mob attacked and killed the antislavery editor Elijah P. Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois. Still, Southern repression of free speech allowed the abolitionists to link the slavery issue with the cause of civil liberties for whites. In 1835 an angry mob destroyed abolitionist literature in theCharleston,SouthCarolina,post office.Whenthepostmaster-general statedhewouldnotenforcedelivery of abolitionist material, bitter debatesensuedinCongress.AbolitionistsfloodedCongresswithpetitions callingforactionagainstslavery.In
1836 the House voted to table such petitions automatically, thus effectivelykillingthem.FormerPresident John Quincy Adams, elected to the House of Representatives in 1830, fought this so-called gag rule as a violation of the First Amendment, finallywinningitsrepealin1844.
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TEXASANDWARWITH MEXICO
hroughout the 1820s, Americans settled in the vast territory of Texas, often with land grants from the Mexican government. However, their numbers soon alarmed the authorities, who prohibited further immigration in 1830. In 1834 General Antonio López de Santa Anna established 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 attheBattleofSanJacinto,ensuring Texanindependence. For almost a decade, Texas remained an independent republic, largely because its annexation as a huge new slave state would disrupt the increasingly precarious balance of political power in the United States. In 1845, President James K. Polk,narrowlyelectedonaplatform ofwestwardexpansion,broughtthe Republic of Texas into the Union. Polk’s move was the first gambit in a larger design. Texas claimed that
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its border with Mexico was the Rio Grande; Mexico argued that the border stood far to the north along the Nueces River. Meanwhile, settlers were flooding into the territories of New Mexico and California. Many Americans claimed that the United States had a “manifest destiny” to expand westward to the PacificOcean. U.S. attempts to purchase from Mexico the New Mexico and California territories failed. In 1846, after a clash of Mexican and U.S. troops along the Rio Grande, the United States declared war. American 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 BuenaVista,butfailingtobringthe Mexicanstothenegotiatingtable.In March1847,aU.S.Armycommanded by Winfield Scott landed near VeracruzonMexico’seastcoast,and fought its way to Mexico City. The United States dictated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in which Mexico ceded what would become theAmericanSouthwestregionand Californiafor$15million. The war was a training ground for American officers who would laterfightonbothsidesintheCivil War. It was also politically divisive. Polk, in a simultaneous facedown with Great Britain, had achieved British recognition of American sovereigntyinthePacificNorthwest tothe49thparallel.Still,antislavery
forces, mainly among the Whigs, attacked Polk’s expansion as a proslaveryplot. WiththeconclusionoftheMexican War, the United States gained a vast new territory of 1.36 million squarekilometersencompassingthe present-day states of New Mexico, Nevada, California, Utah, most of Arizona, and portions of Colorado and Wyoming. The nation also facedarevivalofthemostexplosive questioninAmericanpoliticsofthe time: Would the new territories be slaveorfree?
THECOMPROMISEOF1850
U
ntil 1845, it had seemed likely thatslaverywouldbeconfinedtothe areaswhereitalreadyexisted.Ithad been given limits by the Missouri Compromisein1820andhadnoopportunitytooverstepthem.Thenew territories made renewed expansion ofslaveryareallikelihood. Many Northerners believed that if not allowed to spread, slavery would ultimately decline and die. Tojustifytheiroppositiontoadding newslavestates,theypointedtothe statements of Washington and Jefferson,andtotheOrdinanceof1787, whichforbadetheextensionofslaveryintotheNorthwest.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 onwhethertheyshould.
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Southerners urged that all the landsacquiredfromMexicoshould be thrown open to slave holders. Antislavery Northerners demanded that all the new regions be closed to slavery. One group of moderates suggested that the Missouri Compromise line be extended to the Pacific with free states north of itandslavestatestothesouth.Anothergroupproposedthatthequestionbeleftto“popularsovereignty.” Thegovernmentshouldpermitsettlerstoenterthenewterritorywith or without slaves as they pleased. Whenthetimecametoorganizethe regionintostates,thepeoplethemselvescoulddecide. Despite the vitality of the abolitionistmovement,mostNortherners wereunwillingtochallengetheexistenceofslaveryintheSouth.Many, however,wereagainstitsexpansion. In 1848 nearly 300,000 men voted forthecandidatesofanewFreeSoil Party, which declared that the best policy was “to limit, localize, and discourageslavery.”IntheimmediateaftermathofthewarwithMexico, however, popular sovereignty hadconsiderableappeal. In January 1848 the discovery of gold in California precipitated a headlong rush of settlers, more than 80,000 in the single year of 1849.Congresshadtodeterminethe status of this new region quickly in ordertoestablishanorganizedgovernment. The venerable Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, who twice before in times of crisis had come forward with compromise arrange-
ments,advancedacomplicatedand carefully balanced plan. His old Massachusettsrival,DanielWebster, supported it. Illinois Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the leading advocate of popular sovereignty, did much of the work in guidingitthroughCongress. The Compromise of 1850 contained the following provisions: (1) CaliforniawasadmittedtotheUnion as a free state; (2) the remainder of theMexicancessionwasdividedinto thetwoterritoriesofNewMexicoand Utahandorganizedwithoutmention ofslavery;(3)theclaimofTexastoa portionofNewMexicowassatisfied byapaymentof$10million;(4)new legislation (the Fugitive Slave Act) was passed to apprehend runaway slavesandreturnthemtotheirmasters;and(5)thebuyingandsellingof slaves(butnotslavery)wasabolished intheDistrictofColumbia. The country breathed a sigh of relief. For the next three years, the compromiseseemedtosettlenearly all differences. The new Fugitive Slave Law, however, was an immediate source of tension. It deeply offended many Northerners, who refusedtohaveanypartincatching slaves. Some actively and violently obstructeditsenforcement.TheUnderground Railroad became more efficientanddaringthanever.
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ADIVIDEDNATION
uringthe1850s,theissueofslavery severed the political bonds that hadheldtheUnitedStatestogether.
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Itateawayatthecountry’stwogreat political parties, the Whigs and the Democrats,destroyingthefirstand irrevocably dividing the second. It produced weak presidents whose irresolution mirrored that of their parties. It eventually discredited eventheSupremeCourt. The moral fervor of abolitionist feeling grew steadily. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel provokedbythepassageoftheFugitive Slave Law. More than 300,000 copies 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 forcethecrueltyofslaveryandpositedafundamentalconflictbetween free and slave societies. It inspired widespread enthusiasm for the antislavery cause, appealing as it did to basic human emotions — indignation at injustice and pity for the helpless individuals exposed to ruthlessexploitation. In 1854 the issue of slavery in the territories was renewed and the quarrelbecamemorebitter.TheregionthatnowcomprisesKansasand Nebraska was being rapidly settled, increasingpressurefortheestablishment of territorial, and eventually, stategovernments. Under terms of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the entire regionwasclosedtoslavery.Dominant slave-holding elements in Missouri objected to letting Kansas become a free territory, for their
statewouldthenhavethreefree-soil neighbors (Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas)andmightbeforcedtobecome afreestateaswell.Theircongressionaldelegation,backedbySoutherners, blocked all efforts to organize theregion. At this point, Stephen A. Douglas enraged all free-soil supporters. Douglas argued that the Compromise of 1850, having left Utah and NewMexicofreetoresolvetheslaveryissueforthemselves,superseded theMissouriCompromise.Hisplan called for two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. It permitted settlers tocarryslavesintothemandeventually to determine whether they should enter the Union as free or slavestates. Douglas’sopponentsaccusedhim ofcurryingfavorwiththeSouthin ordertogainthepresidencyin1856. Thefree-soilmovement,whichhad 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 ActpassedCongresstobesignedby PresidentFranklinPierce.Southern enthusiasts celebrated with cannon fire.ButwhenDouglassubsequently visitedChicagotospeakinhisown defense,theshipsintheharborlowered their flags to half-mast, the churchbellstolledforanhour,anda crowdof10,000hootedsoloudlythat hecouldnotmakehimselfheard. TheimmediateresultsofDouglas’s ill-starred measure were momentous. The Whig Party, which had straddledthequestionofslaveryex-
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pansion,sanktoitsdeath,andinits stead a powerful new organization arose, the Republican Party, whose primary demand was that slavery beexcludedfromalltheterritories. In1856,itnominatedJohnFremont, whoseexpeditionsintotheFarWest hadwonhimrenown.Fremontlost theelection,butthenewpartyswept agreatpartoftheNorth.SuchfreesoilleadersasSalmonP.Chaseand William Seward exerted greater influencethanever.Alongwiththem appearedatall,lankyIllinoisattorney,AbrahamLincoln. Meanwhile, the flow of both Southernslaveholdersandantislavery families into Kansas resulted in armed conflict. Soon the territory wasbeingcalled“bleedingKansas.” The Supreme Court made things worse with its infamous 1857 Dred Scottdecision. Scott was a Missouri slave who, some 20 years earlier, had been takenbyhismastertoliveinIllinois andtheWisconsinTerritory;inboth places,slaverywasbanned.Returning to Missouri and becoming discontented with his life there, Scott suedforliberationonthegroundof hisresidenceonfreesoil.Amajority oftheSupremeCourt—dominated bySoutherners—decidedthatScott lackedstandingincourtbecausehe wasnotacitizen;thatthelawsofa freestate(Illinois)hadnoeffecton his status because he was the residentofaslavestate(Missouri);and that slave holders had the right to take their “property” anywhere in the federal territories. Thus, Con-
gress could not restrict the expansion of slavery. This last assertion invalidatedformercompromiseson slavery and made new ones impossibletocraft. The Dred Scott decision stirred fierce resentment throughout the North. Never before had the Court been so bitterly condemned. For Southern Democrats, the decision wasagreatvictory,sinceitgavejudicial sanction to their justification ofslaverythroughouttheterritories.
LINCOLN,DOUGLAS,AND BROWN
A braham Lincoln had long regardedslaveryasanevil.Asearlyas 1854 in a widely publicized speech, he declared that all national legislation should be framed on the principle that slavery was to be restricted and eventually abolished. Hecontendedalsothattheprinciple ofpopularsovereigntywasfalse,for slaveryinthewesternterritorieswas theconcernnotonlyofthelocalinhabitantsbutoftheUnitedStatesas awhole. In1858LincolnopposedStephen A. Douglas for election to the U.S. Senate from Illinois. In the first paragraphofhisopeningcampaign speech, on June 17, Lincoln struck thekeynoteofAmericanhistoryfor thesevenyearstofollow: Ahousedividedagainstitself cannotstand.Ibelievethis governmentcannotendure permanentlyhalf-slaveandhalffree.IdonotexpecttheUnionto
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bedissolved—Idonotexpectthe housetofall—butIdoexpectit willceasetobedivided. Lincoln and Douglas engaged in a series of seven debates in the ensuing months of 1858. Senator Douglas, known as the “Little Giant,” had an enviable reputation as an orator, but he met his match in Lincoln, who eloquently challenged Douglas’s concept of popular sovereignty. In the end, Douglas won the election by a small margin, but Lincoln had achieved stature as a nationalfigure. Bytheneventswerespinningout ofcontrol.OnthenightofOctober 16,1859,JohnBrown,anantislavery fanaticwhohadcapturedandkilled five proslavery settlers in Kansas threeyearsbefore,ledabandoffollowers in an attack on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry (in what isnowWestVirginia).Brown’sgoal was to use the weapons seized to leadaslaveuprising.Aftertwodays offighting,Brownandhissurviving men were taken prisoner by a force of U.S. Marines commanded by ColonelRobertE.Lee. Brown’s attempt confirmed the worst fears of many Southerners. Antislavery activists, on the other hand, generally hailed Brown as a martyr to a great cause. Virginia put Brown on trial for conspiracy, treason,andmurder.OnDecember 2, 1859, he was hanged. Although mostNorthernershadinitiallycondemned him, increasing numbers
werecomingtoaccepthisviewthat he had been an instrument in the handofGod.
THE1860ELECTION
Inominated n 1860 the Republican Party Abraham Lincoln as its candidateforpresident.TheRepublican platform declared that slavery couldspreadnofarther,promiseda tarifffortheprotectionofindustry, andpledgedtheenactmentofalaw grantingfreehomesteadstosettlers who would help in the opening of theWest.SouthernDemocrats,unwillinginthewakeoftheDredScott case to accept Douglas’s popular sovereignty,splitfromthepartyand nominated Vice President John C. BreckenridgeofKentuckyforpresident. Stephen A. Douglas was the nominee of northern Democrats. Diehard Whigs from the border states, formed into the ConstitutionalUnionParty,nominatedJohn C.BellofTennessee. Lincoln and Douglas competed in the North, Breckenridge and BellintheSouth.Lincolnwononly 39 percent of the popular vote, but hadaclearmajorityof180electoral votes,carryingall18freestates.Bell won Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia; Breckenridge took the other slave states except for Missouri, whichwaswonbyDouglas.Despite his poor showing, Douglas trailed onlyLincolninthepopularvote.9
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President Abraham Lincoln (center), at a Union Army encampment in October 1862, following the battle of Antietam. 140
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That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom. President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863
SECESSIONANDCIVILWAR
L incoln’s victory in the presidential election of November 1860 made South Carolina’s secession from the Union December 20 a foregone conclusion. The state had longbeenwaitingforaneventthat would unite the South against the antislavery forces. By February 1, 1861,fivemoreSouthernstateshad seceded. On February 8, the six states signed a provisional constitutionfortheConfederateStatesof America. The remaining Southern statesasyetremainedintheUnion, althoughTexashadbeguntomove onitssecession. Lessthanamonthlater,March4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn inaspresidentoftheUnitedStates. Inhisinauguraladdress,hedeclared the Confederacy “legally void.” His speechclosedwithapleaforrestora-
tion of the bonds of union, but the South turned a deaf ear. On April 12,Confederategunsopenedfireon the federal garrison at Fort Sumter in the Charleston, South Carolina, harbor. A war had begun in which more Americans would die than in anyotherconflictbeforeorsince. In the seven states that had seceded, the people responded positively to the Confederate action and the leadership of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Both sidesnowtenselyawaitedtheaction of the slave states that thus far had remainedloyal.Virginiasecededon April 17; Arkansas, Tennessee, and NorthCarolinafollowedquickly. No state left the Union with greater reluctance than Virginia. Herstatesmenhadaleadingpartin the winning of the Revolution and theframingoftheConstitution,and she had provided the nation with
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five presidents. With Virginia went ColonelRobertE.Lee,whodeclined the command of the Union Army outofloyaltytohisnativestate. Between the enlarged Confederacy and the free-soil North lay the border slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, which,despitesomesympathywith the South, would remain loyal to theUnion. Each side entered the war with high hopes for an early victory. In materialresourcestheNorthenjoyed a decided advantage. Twenty-three states with a population of 22 million were arrayed against 11 states inhabitedbyninemillion,including slaves. The industrial superiority of theNorthexceededevenitspreponderance in population, providing it with abundant facilities for manufacturing arms and ammunition, clothing,andothersupplies.Ithada greatlysuperiorrailwaynetwork. The South nonetheless had certain advantages. The most important was geography; the South was fighting a defensive war on its own territory.Itcouldestablishitsindependence simply by beating off the Northern armies. The South also had a stronger military tradition, andpossessedthemoreexperienced militaryleaders.
strippedawayanyillusionsthatvictory would be quick or easy. It also establishedapattern,atleastinthe Eastern United States, of bloody SouthernvictoriesthatnevertranslatedintoadecisivemilitaryadvantagefortheConfederacy. Incontrasttoitsmilitaryfailures intheEast,theUnionwasabletosecurebattlefieldvictoriesintheWest and slow strategic success at sea. MostoftheNavy,atthewar’sbeginning,wasinUnionhands,butitwas scatteredandweak.Secretaryofthe Navy Gideon Welles took prompt measures to strengthen it. Lincoln then proclaimed a blockade of the Southern coasts. Although the effect of the blockade was negligible atfirst,by1863italmostcompletely prevented shipments of cotton to Europe and blocked the importation of sorely needed munitions, clothing, and medical supplies to theSouth. A brilliant Union naval commander,DavidFarragut,conducted tworemarkableoperations.InApril 1862,hetookafleetintothemouth of the Mississippi River and forced the surrender of the largest city in theSouth,NewOrleans,Louisiana. InAugust1864,withthecry,“Damn thetorpedoes!Fullspeedahead,”he ledaforcepastthefortifiedentrance of Mobile Bay, Alabama, captured WESTERNADVANCE, a Confederate ironclad vessel, and sealedofftheport. EASTERNSTALEMATE In the Mississippi Valley, the hefirstlargebattleofthewar,at Union forces won an almost uninBull Run, Virginia (also known as terrupted series of victories. They First Manassas) near Washington, beganbybreakingalongConfeder-
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ate line in Tennessee, thus making it possible to occupy almost all the westernpartofthestate.Whenthe 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. Grantincommand,theywithstood asuddenConfederatecounterattack at Shiloh, on the bluffs overlooking the Tennessee River. Those killed and wounded at Shiloh numbered morethan10,000oneachside,acasualtyratethatAmericanshadnever before experienced. But it was only thebeginningofthecarnage. In Virginia, by contrast, Union troops continued to meet one defeatafteranotherinasuccessionof bloody attempts to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital. The Confederatesenjoyedstrongdefense positions afforded by numerous streams cutting the road between Washington and Richmond. Their twobestgenerals,RobertE.Leeand Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson, both far surpassed in ability their early Union counterparts. In 1862 Union commander George McClellanmadeaslow,excessivelycautious attempt to seize Richmond. But in theSevenDays’BattlesbetweenJune 25andJuly1,theUniontroopswere drivensteadilybackward,bothsides sufferingterriblelosses. After another Confederate victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run (or Second Manassas), Lee crossed the Potomac River and invaded Maryland. McClellan again
respondedtentatively,despitelearning that Lee had split his army and was heavily outnumbered. The UnionandConfederateArmiesmet atAntietamCreek,nearSharpsburg, Maryland,onSeptember17,1862,in the bloodiest single day of the war: Morethan4,000diedonbothsides and 18,000 were wounded. Despite his numerical advantage, however, McClellanfailedtobreakLee’slines orpresstheattack,andLeewasable to retreat across the Potomac with hisarmyintact.Asaresult,Lincoln firedMcClellan. Although Antietam was inconclusive in military terms, its consequences were nonetheless momentous.GreatBritainandFrance, both on the verge of recognizing theConfederacy,delayedtheirdecision, and the South never received the diplomatic recognition and the economic aid from Europe that it desperatelysought. Antietam also gave Lincoln the opening he needed to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that as of January1,1863,allslavesinstatesrebellingagainsttheUnionwerefree. Inpracticalterms,theproclamation hadlittleimmediateimpact;itfreed slavesonlyintheConfederatestates, while leaving slavery intact in the borderstates.Politically,however,it meantthatinadditiontopreserving the Union, the abolition of slavery wasnowadeclaredobjectiveofthe Unionwareffort. The final Emancipation Proclamation, issued January 1, 1863,
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also authorized the recruitment of African Americans into the Union Army, a move abolitionist leaders suchasFrederickDouglasshadbeen urgingsincethebeginningofarmed conflict. Union forces already had been sheltering escaped slaves as “contraband of war,” but following theEmancipationProclamation,the Union Army recruited and trained regiments of African-American soldiers that fought with distinction in battles from Virginia to the Mississippi. About 178,000 African Americans served in the U.S. Colored Troops, and 29,500 served in theUnionNavy. DespitethepoliticalgainsrepresentedbytheEmancipationProclamation, however, the North’s militaryprospectsintheEastremained bleakasLee’sArmyofNorthernVirginia continued to maul the Union ArmyofthePotomac,firstatFredericksburg, Virginia, in December 1862 and then at Chancellorsville in May 1863. But Chancellorsville, althoughoneofLee’smostbrilliant militaryvictories,wasalsooneofhis mostcostly.Hismostvaluedlieutenant, General “Stonewall” Jackson, was mistakenly shot and killed by hisownmen.
GETTYSBURGTO APPOMATTOX
Y et none of the Confederate victorieswasdecisive.TheUnionsimply mustered new armies and tried again. Believing that the North’s crushing defeat at Chancellorsville
gave him his chance, Lee struck northward into Pennsylvania at the beginningofJuly1863,almostreachingthestatecapitalatHarrisburg.A strong Union force intercepted him at Gettysburg, where, in a titanic three-daybattle—thelargestofthe CivilWar—theConfederatesmade a valiant effort to break the Union lines.Theyfailed,andonJuly4Lee’s army,aftercripplinglosses,retreatedbehindthePotomac. More than 3,000 Union soldiers andalmost4,000Confederatesdied 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 mostfamousaddressinU.S.history. Heconcludedhisbriefremarkswith thesewords: ...weherehighlyresolvethatthese deadshallnothavediedinvain— thatthisnation,underGod,shall haveanewbirthoffreedom— andthatgovernmentofthepeople, bythepeople,forthepeople,shall notperishfromtheearth. On the Mississippi, Union controlhadbeenblockedatVicksburg, wheretheConfederateshadstrongly fortified themselves on bluffs too high for naval attack. In early 1863 Grant began to move below and around Vicksburg, subjecting it to asix-weeksiege.OnJuly4,hecaptured the town, together with the strongest Confederate Army in the West.Theriverwasnowentirelyin Unionhands.TheConfederacywas brokenintwo,anditbecamealmost
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impossible to bring supplies from TexasandArkansas. TheNorthernvictoriesatVicksburg and Gettysburg in July 1863 markedtheturningpointofthewar, although the bloodshed continued unabatedformorethanayear-anda-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,butunlikeotherUnioncommanders, Grant refused to retreat. Instead, he attempted to outflank Lee,stretchingtheConfederatelines and pounding away with artillery and infantry attacks. “I propose to fightitoutalongthislineifittakes allsummer,”theUnioncommander saidatSpotsylvania,duringfivedays of bloody trench warfare that characterized fighting on the eastern frontforalmostayear. IntheWest,Unionforcesgained control of Tennessee in the fall of 1863 with victories at Chattanooga and nearby Lookout Mountain, opening the way for General WilliamT.ShermantoinvadeGeorgia. Sherman outmaneuvered several smaller Confederate armies, occupied the state capital of Atlanta, then marched to the Atlantic coast, systematically destroying railroads, factories, warehouses, and other facilities in his path. His men, cut off from their normal supply lines, ravaged the countryside for food.
From the coast, Sherman marched northward; by February 1865, he had taken Charleston, South Carolina, where the first shots of the CivilWarhadbeenfired.Sherman, morethananyotherUniongeneral, understood that destroying the will andmoraleoftheSouthwasasimportantasdefeatingitsarmies. Grant,meanwhile,laysiegetoPetersburg,Virginia,forninemonths, beforeLee,inMarch1865,knewthat he had to abandon both Petersburg andtheConfederatecapitalofRichmondinanattempttoretreatsouth. Butitwastoolate.OnApril9,1865, surrounded by huge Union armies, Lee surrendered to Grant at AppomattoxCourthouse.Althoughscattered fighting continued elsewhere for several months, the Civil War wasover. The terms of surrender at Appomattox were magnanimous, and onhisreturnfromhismeetingwith Lee,Grantquietedthenoisydemonstrationsofhissoldiersbyreminding them: “The rebels are our countrymen again.” The war for Southern independencehadbecomethe“lost cause,” whose hero, Robert E. Lee, had won wide admiration through the brilliance of his leadership and hisgreatnessindefeat.
WITHMALICETOWARDNONE
F or the North, the war produced astillgreaterheroinAbrahamLincoln — a man eager, above all else, to weld the Union together again, not by force and repression but by
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warmth and generosity. In 1864 he had been elected for a second term as president, defeating his Democratic opponent, George McClellan, the general he had dismissed after Antietam.Lincoln’ssecondinauguraladdressclosedwiththesewords: Withmalicetowardnone;with charityforall;withfirmnessin theright,asGodgivesustosee theright,letusstriveontofinish theworkwearein;tobindupthe nation’swounds;tocareforhim whoshallhavebornethebattle, andforhiswidow,andhisorphan —todoallwhichmayachieve andcherishajust,andalasting peace,amongourselves,andwith allnations. Threeweekslater,twodaysafter Lee’s surrender, Lincoln delivered his last public address, in which he unfolded a generous reconstruction policy. On April 14, 1865, the president held what was to be his last Cabinet meeting. That evening —withhiswifeandayoungcouple whowerehisguests—heattended a performance at Ford’s Theater. There, as he sat in the presidential box, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Virginia actor embitteredbytheSouth’sdefeat.Booth was killed in a shootout some days laterinabarnintheVirginiacountryside. His accomplices were capturedandlaterexecuted. Lincoln died in a downstairs bedroomofahouseacrossthestreet fromFord’sTheateronthemorning ofApril15.PoetJamesRussellLowellwrote:
NeverbeforethatstartledApril morningdidsuchmultitudesof menshedtearsforthedeathof onetheyhadneverseen,asifwith himafriendlypresencehadbeen takenfromtheirlives,leaving themcolderanddarker.Never wasfuneralpanegyricsoeloquent asthesilentlookofsympathy whichstrangersexchangedwhen theymetthatday.Theircommon manhoodhadlostakinsman. The first great task confronting the victorious North — now under theleadershipofLincoln’svicepresident,AndrewJohnson,aSoutherner who remained loyal to the Union — was to determine the status of thestatesthathadseceded.Lincoln hadalreadysetthestage.Inhisview, the people of the Southern states had never legally seceded; they had been misled by some disloyal citizens into a defiance of federal authority. And since the war was the act of individuals, the federal government would have to deal with these individuals and not with the states. Thus, in 1863 Lincoln proclaimed that if in any state 10 percent of the voters of record in 1860wouldformagovernmentloyal to the U.S. Constitution and would acknowledge obedience to the laws of the Congress and the proclamationsofthepresident,hewouldrecognizethegovernmentsocreatedas thestate’slegalgovernment. Congressrejectedthisplan.Many Republicans feared it would simply entrench former rebels in power; they challenged Lincoln’s right to
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deal with the rebel states without consultation. Some members of Congress advocated severe punishmentforallthesecededstates;others simply felt the war would have beeninvainiftheoldSouthernestablishment was restored to power. Yet even before the war was wholly over,newgovernmentshadbeenset upinVirginia,Tennessee,Arkansas, andLouisiana. To deal with one of its major concerns — the condition of former slaves — Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau in March 1865toactasguardianoverAfrican Americans and guide them toward self-support. And in December of thatyear,Congressratifiedthe13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,whichabolishedslavery. Throughoutthesummerof1865 JohnsonproceededtocarryoutLincoln’sreconstructionprogram,with minormodifications.Bypresidential proclamationheappointedagovernorforeachoftheformerConfederatestatesandfreelyrestoredpolitical rightstomanySouthernersthrough useofpresidentialpardons. In due time conventions were held in each of the former Confederatestatestorepealtheordinances ofsecession,repudiatethewardebt, and draft new state constitutions. EventuallyanativeUnionistbecame governorineachstatewithauthority toconvokeaconventionofloyalvoters. Johnson called upon each convention to invalidate the secession, abolish slavery, repudiate all debts that went to aid the Confederacy,
and ratify the 13th Amendment. Bytheendof1865,thisprocesswas completed,withafewexceptions.
RADICALRECONSTRUCTION
B oth Lincoln and Johnson had foreseen that the Congress would have the right to deny Southern legislatorsseatsintheU.S.Senateor HouseofRepresentatives,underthe clauseoftheConstitutionthatsays, “Eachhouseshallbethejudgeofthe ... qualifications of its own members.”Thiscametopasswhen,under theleadershipofThaddeusStevens, those congressmen called “Radical Republicans,” who were wary of a quickandeasy“reconstruction,”refusedtoseatnewlyelectedSouthern senatorsandrepresentatives.Within thenextfewmonths,Congressproceeded to work out a plan for the reconstruction of the South quite different from the one Lincoln had startedandJohnsonhadcontinued. Wide public support graduallydevelopedforthosemembersof CongresswhobelievedthatAfrican Americansshouldbegivenfullcitizenship.ByJuly1866,Congresshad passed a civil rights bill and set up a new Freedmen’s Bureau — both designedtopreventracialdiscrimination by Southern legislatures. Followingthis,theCongresspassed a14thAmendmenttotheConstitution,statingthat“allpersonsbornor naturalizedintheUnitedStates,and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, arecitizensoftheUnitedStatesand of the State wherein they reside.”
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ThisrepudiatedtheDredScottruling, which had denied slaves their rightofcitizenship. AlltheSouthernstatelegislatures, with the exception of Tennessee, refused to ratify the amendment, somevotingagainstitunanimously. In addition, Southern state legislaturespassed“codes”toregulatethe African-American freedmen. The codes differed from state to state, butsomeprovisionswerecommon. AfricanAmericanswererequiredto enter into annual labor contracts, with penalties imposed in case of violation; dependent children were subject to compulsory apprenticeship and corporal punishments by masters;vagrantscouldbesoldinto privateserviceiftheycouldnotpay severefines. Many Northerners interpreted theSouthernresponseasanattempt to reestablish slavery and repudiate the hard-won Union victory in the Civil War. It did not help that Johnson, although a Unionist, was a Southern Democrat with an addiction to intemperate rhetoric and anaversiontopoliticalcompromise. Republicanssweptthecongressional elections of 1866. Firmly in power, the Radicals imposed their own visionofReconstruction. In the Reconstruction Act of March1867,Congress,ignoringthe governments that had been establishedintheSouthernstates,divided theSouthintofivemilitarydistricts, eachadministeredbyaUniongeneral.Escapefrompermanentmilitary governmentwasopentothosestates
that established civil governments, ratified the 14th Amendment, and adoptedAfrican-Americansuffrage. Supporters of the Confederacy who hadnottakenoathsofloyaltytothe United States generally could not vote.The14thAmendmentwasratifiedin1868.The15thAmendment, passed by Congress the following yearandratifiedin1870bystatelegislatures,providedthat“Therightof citizensoftheUnitedStatestovote shall not be denied or abridged by theUnitedStatesoranystateonaccountofrace,color,orpreviousconditionofservitude.” The Radical Republicans in Congress were infuriated by President Johnson’s vetoes (even though they were overridden) of legislation protecting newly freed African Americans and punishing former Confederate leaders by depriving them of the right to hold office. CongressionalantipathytoJohnson was so great that, for the first time in American history, impeachment proceedings were instituted to removethepresidentfromoffice. Johnson’s main offense was his oppositiontopunitivecongressional policiesandtheviolentlanguagehe used in criticizing them. The most serious legal charge his enemies could level against him was that, despite the Tenure of Office Act (whichrequiredSenateapprovalfor the removal of any officeholder the Senate had previously confirmed), he had removed from his Cabinet thesecretaryofwar,astaunchsupporter of the Congress. When the
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impeachment trial was held in the Senate, it was proved that Johnson was technically within his rights in removingtheCabinetmember.Even more important, it was pointed out thatadangerousprecedentwouldbe setiftheCongressweretoremovea presidentbecausehedisagreedwith the majority of its members. The finalvotewasoneshortofthetwothirdsrequiredforconviction. Johnsoncontinuedinofficeuntil his term expired in 1869, but Congresshadestablishedanascendancy thatwouldendurefortherestofthe century. The Republican victor in thepresidentialelectionof1868,formerUniongeneralUlyssesS.Grant, would enforce the reconstruction policiestheRadicalshadinitiated. By June 1868, Congress had readmitted the majority of the former Confederate states back into the Union. In many of these reconstructed states, the majority of the governors, representatives, and senatorswereNorthernmen—socalled 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, African Americans actually gained a majorityoftheseats. Many Southern whites, their political and social dominance threatened, turned to illegal means to prevent African Americans from gaining equality. Violence against African Americans by such extralegal organizations as the Ku Klux
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Klan became more and more frequent.Increasingdisorderledtothe passageofEnforcementActsin1870 and 1871, severely punishing those who attempted to deprive the African-American freedmen of their civilrights.
THEENDOF RECONSTRUCTION
A s time passed, it became more andmoreobviousthattheproblems of the South were not being solved byharshlawsandcontinuingrancor againstformerConfederates.Moreover, some Southern Radical state governments with prominent African-American officials appeared corrupt and inefficient. The nation wasquicklytiringoftheattemptto imposeracialdemocracyandliberal valuesontheSouthwithUnionbayonets.InMay1872,Congresspassed ageneralAmnestyAct,restoringfull political rights to all but about 500 formerrebels. Gradually Southern states began electingmembersoftheDemocratic Partyintooffice,oustingcarpetbagger governments and intimidating African Americans from voting or attempting to hold public office. By 1876 the Republicans remained in power in only three Southern states.Aspartofthebargainingthat resolved the disputed presidential electionsthatyearinfavorofRutherford B. Hayes, the Republicans promisedtowithdrawfederaltroops thathadproppeduptheremaining Republican governments. In 1877
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Hayeskepthispromise,tacitlyabandoningfederalresponsibilityforenforcingblacks’civilrights. TheSouthwasstillaregiondevastated by war, burdened by debt caused by misgovernment, and demoralizedbyadecadeofracialwarfare. Unfortunately, the pendulum ofnationalracialpolicyswungfrom one extreme to the other. A federalgovernmentthathadsupported harsh penalties against Southern whiteleadersnowtoleratednewand humiliatingkindsofdiscrimination againstAfricanAmericans.Thelast quarter of the 19th century saw a profusion of “Jim Crow” laws in Southernstatesthatsegregatedpublicschools,forbadeorlimitedAfrican-Americanaccesstomanypublic facilities such as parks, restaurants, and hotels, and denied most blacks the right to vote by imposing poll taxes and arbitrary literacy tests. “Jim Crow” is a term derived from a song in an 1828 minstrel show where a white man first performed in“blackface.” Historians have tended to judge Reconstruction harshly, as a murky period of political conflict, corruption, and regression that failed to achieve its original high-minded goals and collapsed into a sinkhole ofvirulentracism.Slavesweregrantedfreedom,buttheNorthcomplete-
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ly failed to address their economic needs. The Freedmen’s Bureau was unable to provide former slaves with political and economic opportunity.Unionmilitaryoccupiers often could not even protect them from violence and intimidation. Indeed, federal army officers and agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau wereoftenraciststhemselves.Withouteconomicresourcesoftheirown, many Southern African Americans wereforcedtobecometenantfarmers on land owned by their former masters,caughtinacycleofpoverty that would continue well into the 20thcentury. Reconstruction-eragovernments did make genuine gains in rebuilding Southern states devastated by the war, and in expanding public services, notably in establishing tax-supported, free public schools for African Americans and whites. However, recalcitrant Southerners seizeduponinstancesofcorruption (hardly unique to the South in this era) and exploited them to bring down radical regimes. The failure of Reconstruction meant that the struggle of African Americans for equality and freedom was deferred until the 20th century — when it wouldbecomeanational,notjusta Southernissue. 9
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
THECIVILWARANDNEWPATTERNS OFAMERICANPOLITICS
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 technical 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 establishment 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.
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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 constitutionally 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, allied themselves with the neo-Confederate Southern white majority. U.S. Grant’s status as a national hero carried the Republicans through two presidential 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 development increasingly would be perceived as one of allegiance to big business and finance. When President Hayes ended Reconstruction, he hoped it would be possible 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, however, Republicanism as the South’s white majority perceived it was identified with a hated African-American supremacy. For the next threequarters 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.
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Building the transcontinental railroad, 1868. 154
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
“Upon the sacredness of property, civilization itself depends.” Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, 1889
Betweentwogreatwars—theCivil WarandtheFirstWorldWar—the United States of America came of age.Inaperiodoflessthan50years itwastransformedfromaruralrepublictoanurbannation.Thefrontier vanished. Great factories and steelmills,transcontinentalrailroad lines, flourishing cities, and vast agricultural holdings marked the land. With this economic growth and affluence came corresponding problems. Nationwide, a few businesses came to dominate whole industries, either independently or in combination with others. Working conditions were often poor. Cities grew so quickly they could not properly house or govern their growingpopulations.
toryofthecountry;itdramatizedin astrokethechangesthathadbegun totakeplaceduringthepreceding20 or30years....”Warneedshadenormously stimulated manufacturing, speedinganeconomicprocessbased on the exploitation of iron, steam, and electric power, as well as the forwardmarchofscienceandinvention.Intheyearsbefore1860,36,000 patentsweregranted;inthenext30 years, 440,000 patents were issued, and in the first quarter of the 20th century,thenumberreachednearly amillion. As early as 1844, Samuel F. B. Morsehadperfectedelectricaltelegraphy; soon afterward distant parts of the continent were linked by a networkofpolesandwires.In1876 Alexander Graham Bell exhibited a TECHNOLOGYANDCHANGE telephoneinstrument;withinhalfa century,16milliontelephoneswould “ he Civil War,” says one writer, quickenthesocialandeconomiclife “cut a wide gash through the his- of the nation. The growth of busi-
T
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ness was speeded by the invention ofthetypewriterin1867,theadding machinein1888,andthecashregisterin1897.Thelinotypecomposing machine,inventedin1886,androtarypressandpaper-foldingmachinerymadeitpossibletoprint240,000 eight-page newspapers in an hour. ThomasEdison’sincandescentlamp eventuallylitmillionsofhomes.The talking machine, or phonograph, was perfected by Edison, who, in conjunction with George Eastman, also helped develop the motion picture. These and many other applications of science and ingenuity resultedinanewlevelofproductivityinalmosteveryfield. Concurrently, the nation’s basic industry—ironandsteel—forged ahead,protectedbyahightariff.The ironindustrymovedwestwardasgeologistsdiscoveredneworedeposits, notably the great Mesabi range at the head of Lake Superior, which became one of the largest producers in the world. Easy and cheap to mine, remarkably free of chemical impurities,Mesabiorecouldbeprocessed into steel of superior quality at about one-tenth the previously prevailingcost.
CARNEGIEANDTHE ERAOFSTEEL
inatelegraphoffice,thentooneon 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 organized or had stock in companiesmakingironbridges,rails,and locomotives.Tenyearslater,hebuilt thenation’slargeststeelmillonthe MonongahelaRiverinPennsylvania. Heacquiredcontrolnotonlyofnew mills,butalsoofcokeandcoalproperties,ironorefromLakeSuperior,a fleetofsteamersontheGreatLakes, aporttownonLakeErie,andaconnectingrailroad.Hisbusiness,allied with a dozen others, commanded favorable terms from railroads and shippinglines.Nothingcomparable in industrial growth had ever been seeninAmericabefore. Though Carnegie long dominated the industry, he never achieved acompletemonopolyoverthenatural resources, transportation, and industrial plants involved in the making of steel. In the 1890s, new companies challenged his preeminence. He would be persuaded to merge his holdings into a new corporation that would embrace most of the important iron and steel propertiesinthenation.
CORPORATIONSANDCITIES A ndrew Carnegie was largely responsible for the great advances The United States Steel Corporain steel production. Carnegie, who tion,whichresultedfromthismergcame to America from Scotland as erin1901,illustratedaprocessunder achildof12,progressedfrombob- wayfor30years:thecombinationof binboyinacottonfactorytoajob independent industrial enterprises 157
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
into federated or centralized companies.StartedduringtheCivilWar, thetrendgatheredmomentumafter the 1870s, as businessmen began to fearthatoverproductionwouldlead todecliningpricesandfallingprofits. They realized that if they could control both production and markets, they could bring competing firmsintoasingleorganization.The “corporation” and the “trust” were developedtoachievetheseends. Corporations,makingavailablea deep reservoir of capital and giving business enterprises permanent life and continuity of control, attracted investors both by their anticipated profitsandbytheirlimitedliability incaseofbusinessfailure.Thetrusts were in effect combinations of corporations whereby the stockholders ofeachplacedstocksinthehandsof trustees.(The“trust”asamethodof corporate consolidation soon gave waytotheholdingcompany,butthe term stuck.) Trusts made possible large-scale combinations, centralized 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 effectively. They could also exact favorable terms from railroads and exerciseinfluenceinpolitics. The Standard Oil Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller, was one of the earliest and strongestcorporations,andwasfollowed rapidlybyothercombinations—in
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
cottonseed oil, lead, sugar, tobacco, and rubber. Soon aggressive individual businessmen began to mark out industrial domains for themselves.Fourgreatmeatpackers,chief among them Philip Armour and Gustavus Swift, established a beef trust. Cyrus McCormick achieved preeminenceinthereaperbusiness. A 1904 survey showed that more than 5,000 previously independent concernshadbeenconsolidatedinto some300industrialtrusts. The trend toward amalgamation extendedtootherfields,particularly transportation and communications. Western Union, dominant in telegraphy,wasfollowedbytheBell TelephoneSystemandeventuallyby the American Telephone and TelegraphCompany.Inthe1860s,Cornelius Vanderbilt had consolidated 13 separate railroads into a single 800-kilometerlineconnectingNew York City and Buffalo. During the nextdecadeheacquiredlinestoChicago,Illinois,andDetroit,Michigan, establishing the New York Central Railroad. Soon the major railroads of the nation were organized into trunklinesandsystemsdirectedby ahandfulofmen. In this new industrial order, the city was the nerve center, bringing to a focus all the nation’s dynamic economicforces:vastaccumulations ofcapital,business,andfinancialinstitutions, spreading railroad yards, smoky factories, armies of manual and clerical workers. Villages, attractingpeoplefromthecountryside andfromlandsacrossthesea,grew
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intotownsandtownsintocitiesalmostovernight.In1830onlyoneof every15Americanslivedincommunitiesof8,000ormore;in1860the ratiowasnearlyoneineverysix;and in1890threeinevery10.Nosingle city had as many as a million inhabitantsin1860;but30yearslater NewYorkhadamillionandahalf; Chicago, Illinois, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, each had over a million. In these three decades, Philadelphia and Baltimore, Maryland, doubledinpopulation;KansasCity, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan, grewfourfold;Cleveland,Ohio,sixfold;Chicago,tenfold.Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Omaha, Nebraska, and many communities like them —hamletswhentheCivilWarbegan — increased 50 times or more inpopulation.
RAILROADS,REGULATIONS, ANDTHETARIFF
R
ailroads were especially important to the expanding nation, and theirpracticeswereoftencriticized. Rail lines extended cheaper freight ratestolargeshippersbyrebatinga portionofthecharge,thusdisadvantaging small shippers. Freight rates alsofrequentlywerenotproportionatetodistancetraveled;competition usually held down charges between cities with several rail connections. Rates tended to be high between pointsservedbyonlyoneline.Thus itcostlesstoshipgoods1,280kilometers from Chicago to New York than to places a few hundred kilo-
meters from Chicago. Moreover, to avoid competition rival companies sometimes divided (“pooled”) the freight business according to a prearrangedschemethatplacedthetotal earnings in a common fund for distribution. Popularresentmentatthesepracticesstimulatedstateeffortsatregulation,buttheproblemwasnational in character. Shippers demanded congressionalaction.In1887President 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.Inthefirstdecadesofitsexistence,virtuallyalltheICC’sefforts at regulation and rate reductions failedtopassjudicialreview. President Cleveland also opposedtheprotectivetariffonforeign goods,whichhadcometobeacceptedaspermanentnationalpolicyunder the Republican presidents who dominated the politics of the era. Cleveland,aconservativeDemocrat, regardedtariffprotectionasanunwarranted subsidy to big business, giving the trusts pricing power to thedisadvantageofordinaryAmericans.Reflectingtheinterestsoftheir Southern base, the Democrats had reverted to their pre-Civil War oppositiontoprotectionandadvocacy ofa“tariffforrevenueonly.” Cleveland, narrowly elected in 1884,wasunsuccessfulinachieving tariff reform during his first term.
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Hemadetheissuethekeynoteofhis campaignforreelection,butRepublicancandidateBenjaminHarrison, adefenderofprotectionism,wonin a close race. In 1890, the Harrison administration, fulfilling its campaignpromises,achievedpassageof theMcKinleytariff,whichincreased the already high rates. Blamed for highretailprices,theMcKinleydutiestriggeredwidespreaddissatisfaction,ledtoRepublicanlossesinthe 1890elections,andpavedthewayfor Cleveland’sreturntothepresidency inthe1892election. During this period, public antipathy toward the trusts increased. The nation’s gigantic corporations were subjected to bitter attack throughthe1880sbyreformerssuch as Henry George and Edward Bellamy. The Sherman Antitrust Act, passedin1890,forbadeallcombinations in restraint of interstate trade and provided several methods of enforcement with severe penalties. Couched in vague generalities, the lawaccomplishedlittleimmediately after its passage. But a decade later, PresidentTheodoreRooseveltwould useitvigorously.
REVOLUTIONIN AGRICULTURE
D espitethegreatgainsinindustry, agriculture remained the nation’s basic occupation. The revolution inagriculture—parallelingthatin manufacturing after the Civil War —involvedashiftfromhandlabor tomachinefarming,andfromsub-
sistence to commercial agriculture. Between1860and1910,thenumber offarmsintheUnitedStatestripled, increasing from two million to six million,whiletheareafarmedmore than doubled from 160 million to 352millionhectares. Between1860and1890,theproduction of such basic commodities as wheat, corn, and cotton outstripped all previous figures in the United States. In the same period, the nation’s population more than doubled, with the largest growth in thecities.ButtheAmericanfarmer 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-increasingsurpluses. Severalfactorsaccountedforthis extraordinary achievement. One was the expansion into the West. Another was a technological revolution. The farmer of 1800, using a handsickle,couldhopetocutafifth ofahectareofwheataday.Withthe cradle, 30 years later, he might cut four-fifths. In 1840 Cyrus McCormickperformedamiraclebycutting from two to two-and-a-half hectaresadaywiththereaper,amachine hehadbeendevelopingfornearly10 years.Heheadedwesttotheyoung prairie town of Chicago, where he setupafactory—andby1860sold aquarterofamillionreapers. Other farm machines were developed in rapid succession: the automaticwirebinder,thethreshing
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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 NTS
AN D
MEMORIALS A PICTURE PROFILE
ThemonumentsofAmericanhistoryspanacontinentindistanceand centuriesintime.Theyrangefromamassiveserpent-shapedmound createdbyalong-goneNative-Americanculturetomemorialsin contemporaryWashington,D.C.,andNewYorkCity.
(Continued on page 177.) 161
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.”
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 century, seeking freedom and a better life.
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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. 170
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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
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
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
machine,andthereaper-thresheror combine. Mechanical planters, cutters,huskers,andshellersappeared, as did cream separators, manure spreaders, potato planters, hay driers, poultry incubators, and a hundredotherinventions. Scarcelylessimportantthanmachinery in the agricultural revolution was science. In 1862 the MorrillLandGrantCollegeActallotted publiclandtoeachstatefortheestablishment of agricultural and industrialcolleges.Theseweretoserve bothaseducationalinstitutionsand as centers for research in scientific farming. Congress subsequently appropriated funds for the creation of agricultural experiment stations throughoutthecountryandgranted fundsdirectlytotheDepartmentof Agriculture for research purposes. Bythebeginningofthenewcentury,scientiststhroughouttheUnited Stateswereatworkonawidevariety ofagriculturalprojects. One of these scientists, Mark Carleton, traveled for the DepartmentofAgriculturetoRussia.There hefoundandexportedtohishomelandtherust-anddrought-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-andmouth disease. From North Africa, one researcher brought back Kaffir corn; from Turkestan, another imported the yellow-flowering alfalfa. Luther Burbank in California
produced scores of new fruits and vegetables; in Wisconsin, Stephen Babcockdevisedatestfordeterminingthebutterfatcontentofmilk;at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the African-American scientist George WashingtonCarverfoundhundreds ofnewusesforthepeanut,sweetpotato,andsoybean. Invaryingdegrees,theexplosion inagriculturalscienceandtechnology affected farmers all over the world, raising yields, squeezing out smallproducers,anddrivingmigration to industrial cities. Railroads andsteamships,moreover,beganto pullregionalmarketsintoonelarge world market with prices instantly communicated by trans-Atlantic cableaswellasgroundwires.Good news for urban consumers, falling agricultural prices threatened the livelihoodofmanyAmericanfarmersandtouchedoffawaveofagrariandiscontent.
THEDIVIDEDSOUTH
A fter Reconstruction, Southern leaderspushedhardtoattractindustry.Statesofferedlargeinducements and cheap labor to investors to developthesteel,lumber,tobacco,and textile industries. Yet in 1900 the region’s percentage of the nation’s industrialbaseremainedaboutwhat it had been in 1860. Moreover, the priceofthisdriveforindustrialization was high: Disease and child labor proliferated in Southern mill towns. Thirty years after the Civil War,theSouthwasstillpoor,over-
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whelminglyagrarian,andeconomically dependent. Moreover, its race relationsreflectednotjustthelegacy ofslavery,butwhatwasemergingas thecentralthemeofitshistory—a determination to enforce white supremacyatanycost. Intransigent white Southerners found ways to assert state control to maintain white dominance. Several Supreme Court decisions also bolstered their efforts by upholding traditionalSouthernviewsoftheappropriate balance between national andstatepower. In1873theSupremeCourtfound that the 14th Amendment (citizenship rights not to be abridged) conferred no new privileges or immunities to protect African Americans from state power. In 1883, furthermore, it ruled that the 14th Amendment did not prevent individuals, as opposed to states, from practicing discrimination. And in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Court found that “separate but equal” public accommodations for African Americans, such as trains and restaurants, did not violate their rights. Soon the principle of segregation by race extended into every areaofSouthernlife,fromrailroads torestaurants,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 determinationtosubjugateitsAfrican-Americanpopulation.
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Facedwithpervasivediscrimination, many African Americans followed Booker T. Washington, who counseledthemtofocusonmodest economicgoalsandtoaccepttemporary social discrimination. Others, led by the African-American intellectualW.E.B.DuBois,wanted to challenge segregation through politicalaction.Butwithbothmajorpartiesuninterestedintheissue and scientific theory of the time generally accepting black inferiority, calls for racial justice attracted littlesupport.
THELASTFRONTIER
Ifollowed n 1865 the frontier line generally the western limits of the statesborderingtheMississippiRiver, but bulged outward beyond the eastern sections of Texas, Kansas, andNebraska.Then,runningnorth and south for nearly 1,600 kilometers,loomedhugemountainranges, many rich in silver, gold, and other metals.Totheirwest,plainsanddesertsstretchedtothewoodedcoastal rangesandthePacificOcean.Apart from the settled districts in California and scattered outposts, the vast inland region was populated by Native Americans: among them theGreatPlainstribes—Siouxand Blackfoot, Pawnee and Cheyenne — and the Indian cultures of the Southwest, including Apache, Navajo,andHopi. A mere quarter-century later, virtually all this country had been carved into states and territories.
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Miners had ranged over the whole of the mountain country, tunnelingintotheearth,establishinglittle communities in Nevada, Montana, and Colorado. Cattle ranchers, taking advantage of the enormous grasslands, had laid claim to the hugeexpansestretchingfromTexas to the upper Missouri River. Sheep herders had found their way to the valleysandmountainslopes.Farmers sank their plows into the plains andclosedthegapbetweentheEast and West. By 1890 the frontier line haddisappeared. Settlement was spurred by the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted free farms of 64 hectares to citizens who would occupy and improve the land. Unfortunately for the would-be farmers, much of theGreatPlainswassuitedmorefor cattle ranching than farming, and by 1880 nearly 22,400,000 hectares of “free” land was in the hands of cattlemenortherailroads. In 1862 Congress also voted a charter to the Union Pacific Railroad, which pushed westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa, using mostly thelaborofex-soldiersandIrishimmigrants.Atthesametime,theCentral Pacific Railroad began to build eastward from Sacramento, California, relying heavily on Chinese immigrantlabor.Thewholecountry wasstirredasthetwolinessteadily approachedeachother,finallymeetingonMay10,1869,atPromontory PointinUtah.Themonthsoflaborious travel hitherto separating the twooceanswasnowcuttoaboutsix
days. The continental rail network grew steadily; by 1884 four great lines linked the central Mississippi ValleyareawiththePacific. Thefirstgreatrushofpopulation to the Far West was drawn to the mountainous regions, where gold was found in California in 1848, in Colorado and Nevada 10 years later, in Montana and Wyoming in the1860s,andintheBlackHillsof the Dakota country in the 1870s. Miners opened up the country, establishedcommunities,andlaidthe foundations for more permanent settlements. Eventually, however, though a few communities continuedtobedevotedalmostexclusively to mining, the real wealth of Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and California proved to be in the grass and soil. Cattle-raising, long an important industry in Texas, flourishedaftertheCivilWar,when enterprising men began to drive their Texas longhorn cattle north across the open public land. Feeding as they went, the cattle arrived at railway shipping points in Kansas,largerandfatterthanwhenthey started.Theannualcattledrivebecame a regular event; for hundreds ofkilometers,trailsweredottedwith herdsmovingnorthward. Next, immense cattle ranches appeared in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakota territory. Western cities flourished as centers for the slaughter and dressing of meat. The cattle boom peaked in the mid-1880s. By then, not far behind the rancher creaked
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the covered wagons of the farmers bringing their families, their draft horses, cows, and pigs. Under the Homestead Act they staked their claimsandfencedthemwithanew invention, barbed wire. Ranchers were ousted from lands they had roamedwithoutlegaltitle. Ranching and the cattle drives gave American mythology its last iconoffrontierculture—thecowboy. The reality of cowboy life was one of grueling hardship. As depictedbywriterslikeZaneGreyand movie actors such as John Wayne, thecowboywasapowerfulmythologicalfigure,abold,virtuousman of action. Not until the late 20th centurydidareactionsetin.Historiansandfilmmakersalikebeganto depict “the Wild West” as a sordid place, peopled by characters more apttoreflecttheworst,ratherthan thebest,inhumannature.
THEPLIGHTOF THENATIVEAMERICANS
A sintheEast,expansionintothe plains and mountains by miners, ranchers,andsettlersledtoincreasingconflictswiththeNativeAmericans of the West. Many tribes of NativeAmericans—fromtheUtes oftheGreatBasintotheNezPerces ofIdaho—foughtthewhitesatone timeoranother.ButtheSiouxofthe Northern Plains and the Apache of the Southwest provided the most significantoppositiontofrontieradvance.Ledbysuchresourcefulleaders as Red Cloud and Crazy Horse,
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
the Sioux were particularly skilled at high-speed mounted warfare. TheApacheswereequallyadeptand highlyelusive,fightingintheirenvironsofdesertandcanyons. ConflictswiththePlainsIndians worsenedafteranincidentwherethe Dakota (part of the Sioux nation), declaring war against the U.S. government because of long-standing grievances,killedfivewhitesettlers. Rebellions and attacks continued through the Civil War. In 1876 the lastseriousSiouxwarerupted,when theDakotagoldrushpenetratedthe BlackHills.TheArmywassupposed to keep miners off Sioux hunting grounds,butdidlittletoprotectthe Sioux lands. When ordered to take actionagainstbandsofSiouxhunting on the range according to their treaty rights, however, it moved quicklyandvigorously. In 1876, after several indecisive encounters, Colonel George Custer, leading a small detachment of cavalry encountered a vastly superior forceofSiouxandtheiralliesonthe LittleBighornRiver.Custerandhis men were completely annihilated. Nonetheless the Native-American insurgency was soon suppressed. Later, in 1890, a ghost dance ritual on the Northern Sioux reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, led to an uprising and a last, tragic encounter that ended in the death of nearly 300 Sioux men, women, andchildren. Long before this, however, the way of life of the Plains Indians had been destroyed by an expand-
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ing white population, the coming oftherailroads,andtheslaughterof thebuffalo,almostexterminatedin thedecadeafter1870bythesettlers’ indiscriminatehunting. The Apache wars in the Southwest dragged on until Geronimo, the last important chief, was capturedin1886. Government policy ever since the Monroe administration had been to move the Native Americans beyond the reach of the white frontier. But inevitably the reservationshadbecomesmallerandmore crowded. Some Americans began to protest the government’s treatment of Native Americans. Helen HuntJackson,forexample,anEasterner living in the West, wrote A Century of Dishonor (1881), which dramatized their plight and struck a chord in the nation’s conscience. Most reformers believed the Native Americanshouldbeassimilatedinto the dominant culture. The federal governmentevensetupaschoolin Carlisle,Pennsylvania,inanattempt to impose white values and beliefs onNative-Americanyouths.(Itwas atthisschoolthatJimThorpe,often consideredthebestathletetheUnitedStateshasproduced,gainedfame intheearly20thcentury.) In 1887 the Dawes (General Allotment) Act reversed U.S. NativeAmerican policy, permitting the president to divide up tribal land and parcel out 65 hectares of land to each head of a family. Such allotmentsweretobeheldintrustby the government for 25 years, after 181
whichtimetheownerwonfulltitle andcitizenship.Landsnotthusdistributed, however, were offered for saletosettlers.Thispolicy,however well-intentioned,proveddisastrous, sinceitallowedmoreplunderingof Native-American lands. Moreover, its assault on the communal organization of tribes caused further disruptionoftraditionalculture.In 1934 U.S. policy was reversed yet again by the Indian Reorganization Act, which attempted to protect tribal and communal life on the reservations.
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AMBIVALENTEMPIRE
helastdecadesofthe19thcentury wereaperiodofimperialexpansion fortheUnitedStates.TheAmerican story took a different course from thatofitsEuropeanrivals,however, becauseoftheU.S.historyofstruggleagainstEuropeanempiresandits uniquedemocraticdevelopment. ThesourcesofAmericanexpansionism in the late 19th century werevaried.Internationally,theperiodwasoneofimperialistfrenzy,as European powers raced to carve up Africa and competed, along with Japan, for influence and trade in Asia. Many Americans, including influentialfiguressuchasTheodore Roosevelt,HenryCabotLodge,and ElihuRoot,feltthattosafeguardits owninterests,theUnitedStateshad to stake out spheres of economic influence as well. That view was secondedbyapowerfulnavallobby, which called for an expanded fleet
CHAPTER 8: GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION
andnetworkofoverseasportsasessentialtotheeconomicandpolitical security of the nation. More generally, the doctrine of “manifest destiny,” first used to justify America’s continentalexpansion,wasnowrevivedtoassertthattheUnitedStates hadarightanddutytoextenditsinfluenceandcivilizationintheWesternHemisphereandtheCaribbean, aswellasacrossthePacific. Atthesametime,voicesofantiimperialismfromdiversecoalitions ofNorthernDemocratsandreformmindedRepublicansremainedloud andconstant.Asaresult,theacquisitionofaU.S.empirewaspiecemeal and ambivalent. Colonial-minded administrations were often more concernedwithtradeandeconomic issuesthanpoliticalcontrol. The United States’ first venture beyond its continental borders was the purchase of Alaska — sparsely populatedbyInuitandothernative peoples—fromRussiain1867.Most Americanswereeitherindifferentto orindignantatthisactionbySecretaryofStateWilliamSeward,whose criticscalledAlaska“Seward’sFolly” and“Seward’sIcebox.”But30years later, when gold was discovered on Alaska’s Klondike River, thousands of Americans headed north, and manyofthemsettledinAlaskapermanently.WhenAlaskabecamethe 49thstatein1959,itreplacedTexas asgeographicallythelargeststatein theUnion. The Spanish-American War, fought in 1898, marked a turning point in U.S. history. It left the
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
United States exercising control or influenceoverislandsintheCaribbeanSeaandthePacific. By the 1890s, Cuba and Puerto Rico were the only remnants of Spain’soncevastempireintheNew World, and the Philippine Islands comprisedthecoreofSpanishpower in the Pacific. The outbreak of war hadthreeprincipalsources:popular hostility to autocratic Spanish rule in Cuba; U.S. sympathy with the Cubanfightforindependence;anda new spirit of national assertiveness, stimulatedinpartbyanationalistic andsensationalistpress. By 1895 Cuba’s growing restiveness had become a guerrilla war of independence. Most Americans were sympathetic with the Cubans, but President Cleveland was determined to preserve neutrality. Three years later, however, during the administration of William McKinley, theU.S.warshipMaine,senttoHavana on a “courtesy visit” designed toremindtheSpanishofAmerican concernovertheroughhandlingof theinsurrection,blewupintheharbor.Morethan250menwerekilled. The Maine was probably destroyed by an accidental internal explosion, but most Americans believed the Spanish were responsible. Indignation, intensified by sensationalized press coverage, swept across the country.McKinleytriedtopreserve thepeace,butwithinafewmonths, believing delay futile, he recommendedarmedintervention. ThewarwithSpainwasswiftand decisive. During the four months it
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lasted,notasingleAmericanreverse ofanyimportanceoccurred.Aweek after the declaration of war, CommodoreGeorgeDewey,commander ofthesix-warshipAsiaticSquadron then at Hong Kong, steamed to the Philippines. Catching the entire Spanish fleet at anchor in Manila Bay, he destroyed it without losing anAmericanlife. Meanwhile, in Cuba, troops landed near Santiago, where, after winning a rapid series of engagements, they fired on the port. Four armored Spanish cruisers steamed out of Santiago Bay to engage the Americannavyandwerereducedto ruinedhulks. From Boston to San Francisco, whistlesblewandflagswavedwhen wordcamethatSantiagohadfallen. Newspapers dispatched correspondents to Cuba and the Philippines, who trumpeted the renown of the nation’s new heroes. Chief among themwereCommodoreDeweyand Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who hadresignedasassistantsecretaryof the navy to lead his volunteer regiment,the“RoughRiders,”toservice inCuba.Spainsoonsuedforanend to the war. The peace treaty signed on December 10, 1898, transferred Cuba to the United States for temporary occupation preliminary to the island’s independence. In addition, Spain ceded Puerto Rico and Guaminlieuofwarindemnity,and thePhilippinesforaU.S.paymentof $20million. Officially,U.S.policyencouraged the new territories to move toward
democratic self-government, a political system with which none of them had any previous experience. Infact,theUnitedStatesfounditself inacolonialrole.ItmaintainedformaladministrativecontrolinPuerto Rico and Guam, gave Cuba only nominalindependence,andharshly suppressed an armed independence movement in the Philippines. (The Philippinesgainedtherighttoelect both houses of its legislature in 1916. In 1936 a largely autonomous Philippine Commonwealth was established.In1946,afterWorldWar II, the islands finally attained full independence.) U.S. involvement in the Pacific area was not limited to the Philippines. The year of the SpanishAmerican War also saw the beginning of a new relationship with the Hawaiian Islands. Earlier contact with Hawaii had been mainly through missionaries and traders. After 1865, however, American investorsbegantodeveloptheislands’ resources—chieflysugarcaneand pineapples. When the government of Queen Liliuokalani announced its intentiontoendforeigninfluencein1893, American businessmen joined with influential Hawaiians to depose her. Backed by the American ambassadortoHawaiiandU.S.troops stationedthere,thenewgovernment then asked to be annexed to the United States. President Cleveland, just beginning his second term, rejected annexation, leaving Hawaii nominally independent until the
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Spanish-AmericanWar,when,with the backing of President McKinley, Congress ratified an annexation treaty. In 1959 Hawaii would becomethe50thstate. To some extent, in Hawaii especially,economicinterestshadarole inAmericanexpansion,buttoinfluential policy makers such as Roosevelt, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and Secretary of State John Hay, andtoinfluentialstrategistssuchas Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, the main impetus was geostrategic. For these people, the major dividend of acquiringHawaiiwasPearlHarbor, whichwouldbecomethemajorU.S. naval base in the central Pacific. ThePhilippinesandGuamcomplementedotherPacificbases—Wake Island, Midway, and American Samoa.PuertoRicowasanimportant foothold in a Caribbean area that was becoming increasingly important as the United States contemplatedaCentralAmericancanal. U.S. colonial policy tended toward democratic self-government. AsithaddonewiththePhilippines, in 1917 the U.S. Congress granted Puerto Ricans the right to elect all of their legislators. The same law alsomadetheislandofficiallyaU.S. territoryandgaveitspeopleAmerican citizenship. In 1950 Congress granted Puerto Rico complete freedom to decide its future. In 1952, the citizens voted to reject either statehood or total independence, andchoseinsteadacommonwealth status that has endured despite the efforts of a vocal separatist move-
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
ment. Large numbers of Puerto Ricans have settled on the mainland, to which they have free access and wheretheyenjoyallthepoliticaland civilrightsofanyothercitizenofthe UnitedStates.
T
THECANALANDTHE AMERICAS
he war with Spain revived U.S. interest in building a canal across theisthmusofPanama,unitingthe twogreatoceans.Theusefulnessof such a canal for sea trade had long beenrecognizedbythemajorcommercial nations of the world; the French had begun digging one in the late 19th century but had been unabletoovercometheengineering difficulties.Havingbecomeapower in both the Caribbean Sea and the PacificOcean,theUnitedStatessaw acanalasbotheconomicallybeneficialandawayofprovidingspeedier transferofwarshipsfromoneocean totheother. 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 giving the United States the right to build and manage a canal, a group ofimpatientPanamanians,withthe supportofU.S.Marines,roseinrebellion and declared Panamanian independence.Thebreakawaycountry was immediately recognized by President Theodore Roosevelt. Under the terms of a treaty signed thatNovember,Panamagrantedthe
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United States a perpetual lease to a 16-kilometer-widestripofland(the Panama Canal Zone) between the Atlantic and the Pacific, in return for $10 million and a yearly fee of $250,000. Colombia later received $25millionaspartialcompensation. Seventy-fiveyearslater,Panamaand the United States negotiated a new treaty. It provided for Panamanian sovereignty in the Canal Zone and transfer of the canal to Panama on December31,1999. The completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, directed by Colonel George W. Goethals, was a major triumphofengineering.Thesimultaneous conquest of malaria and yellow fever made it possible and was one of the 20th century’s great featsinpreventivemedicine. 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. Washingtonofferedavarietyofjustifications 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 PanamaCanal,andeventoprevent European countries from forcibly collecting debts. The United States had pressured the French into removingtroopsfromMexicoin1867. Halfacenturylater,however,aspart
ofanill-starredcampaigntoinfluence the Mexican revolution and stop raids into American territory, President Woodrow Wilson sent 11,000troopsintothenorthernpart of the country in a futile effort to capturetheelusiverebelandoutlaw Francisco“Pancho”Villa. Exercising its role as the most powerful — and most liberal — of Western Hemisphere nations, the United States also worked to establish an institutional basis for cooperation among the nations of the Americas.In1889SecretaryofState JamesG.Blaineproposedthatthe21 independentnationsoftheWestern Hemispherejoininanorganization dedicatedtothepeacefulsettlement of disputes and to closer economic bonds. The result was the PanAmerican Union, founded in 1890 and known today as the OrganizationofAmericanStates(OAS). ThelateradministrationsofHerbertHoover(1929-33)andFranklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45) repudiated the right of U.S. intervention in Latin America. In particular, Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy of the 1930s, while not ending all tensions between the United States andLatinAmerica,helpeddissipate much of the ill-will engendered by earlierU.S.interventionandunilateralactions.
UNITEDSTATESANDASIA
N
ewly established in the PhilippinesandfirmlyentrenchedinHawaii at the turn of the century, the
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OUTLINEOFU.S.HISTORY
J.P.MORGANANDFINANCECAPITALISM United States had high hopes for a vigoroustradewithChina.However, JapanandvariousEuropeannations had acquired established spheres of influence there in the form of naval bases, leased territories, monopolistictraderights,andexclusive concessions for investing in railway constructionandmining. Idealism in American foreign policy existed alongside the desire to compete with Europe’s imperialpowersintheFarEast.TheU.S. governmentthusinsistedasamatter of principle upon equality of commercial privileges for all nations. In September 1899, Secretary of StateJohnHayadvocatedan“Open Door” for all nations in China —thatis,equalityoftradingopportunities(includingequaltariffs,harborduties,andrailwayrates)inthe areasEuropeanscontrolled.Despite its idealistic component, the Open Door, in essence, was a diplomatic maneuver that sought the advantages of colonialism while avoiding the stigma of its frank practice. It hadlimitedsuccess. With the Boxer Rebellion of 1900,theChinesestruckoutagainst foreigners.InJune,insurgentsseized Beijing and attacked the foreign legations there. Hay promptly announced to the European powers and Japan that the United States
would oppose any disturbance of Chinese territorial or administrative rights and restated the Open Doorpolicy.Oncetherebellionwas quelled, Hay protected China from crushing indemnities. Primarily forthesakeofAmericangoodwill, Great Britain, Germany, and lesser colonial powers formally affirmed the Open Door policy and Chinese independence.Inpractice,theyconsolidated their privileged positions inthecountry. A few years later, President Theodore Roosevelt mediated the deadlocked Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, in many respects a struggle for power and influence in the northernChineseprovinceofManchuria. Roosevelt hoped the settlement would provide open-door opportunities for American business, but the former enemies and other imperial powers succeeded in shutting the Americans out. Here as elsewhere, the United States was unwillingtodeploymilitaryforcein theserviceofeconomicimperialism. Thepresidentcouldatleastcontent himselfwiththeawardoftheNobel PeacePrize(1906).Despitegainsfor Japan,moreover,U.S.relationswith theproudandnewlyassertiveisland nationwouldbeintermittentlydifficultthroughtheearlydecadesofthe 20thcentury. 9
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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 mergers. 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 established 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 supporting 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 responsibility he had exercised unofficially. 187
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“A great democracy will be neither great nor a democracy if it is not progressive.” Former President Theodore Roosevelt, circa 1910
AGRARIANDISTRESSAND THERISEOFPOPULISM
Iress,n spite of their remarkable proglate-19th century American farmers experienced recurring periods of hardship. Mechanical improvements greatly increased yield perhectare.Theamountoflandundercultivationgrewrapidlythroughout 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 agriculturallandsincountriessuch asCanada,Argentina,andAustralia compounded these problems in the international market, where much of U.S. agricultural production was now sold. Everywhere, heavy supply pushed the price of agricultural commoditiesdownward.
Midwestern farmers were increasingly restive over what they considered excessive railroad freight rates to move their goods to market. They believed that the protective tariff, a subsidy to big business,droveupthepriceoftheir increasingly expensive equipment. Squeezed by low market prices and high costs, they resented everheavier debt loads and the banks thatheldtheirmortgages.Eventhe weatherwashostile.Duringthelate 1880sdroughtsdevastatedthewestern Great Plains and bankrupted thousandsofsettlers. In the South, the end of slavery brought major changes. Much agricultural land was now worked by sharecroppers, tenants who gave up to half of their crop to a landowner for rent, seed, and essential supplies. An estimated 80 percent
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of the South’s African-American farmers and 40 percent of its white ones lived under this debilitating system.Mostwerelockedinacycle ofdebt,fromwhichtheonlyhopeof escape was increased planting. This ledtotheover-productionofcotton and tobacco, and thus to declining prices and the further exhaustion ofthesoil. The first organized effort to address general agricultural problems wasbythePatronsofHusbandry,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 20,000chaptersandone-and-a-half millionmembers. The Granges set up their own marketing systems, stores, processing plants, factories, and cooperatives,butmostultimatelyfailed.The movementalsoenjoyedsomepoliticalsuccess.Duringthe1870s,afew states passed “Granger laws,” limitingrailroadandwarehousefees. By1880theGrangewasindecline and being replaced by the Farmers’ Alliances, which were similar in manyrespectsbutmoreovertlypolitical.By1890thealliances,initially autonomous state organizations, had about 1.5 million members fromNewYorktoCalifornia.Aparallel African-American group, the 191
Colored Farmers National Alliance, claimed over a million members. Federating into two large Northern and Southern blocs, the alliancespromotedelaborateeconomic programs to “unite the farmers of Americafortheirprotectionagainst class legislation and the encroachmentsofconcentratedcapital.” By1890thelevelofagrariandistress,fueledbyyearsofhardshipand hostilitytowardtheMcKinleytariff, 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 politicalparty,thePeople’s(orPopulist) Party, emerged. Never before inAmericanpoliticshadtherebeen anything like the Populist fervor that swept the prairies and cotton lands.Theelectionsof1890brought thenewpartyintopowerinadozen Southern and Western states, and sentascoreofPopulistsenatorsand representativestoCongress. ThefirstPopulistconventionwas in1892.Delegatesfromfarm,labor, and reform organizations met in Omaha, Nebraska, determined to overturnaU.S.politicalsystemthey viewed as hopelessly corrupted by the industrial and financial trusts. Theirplatformstated: Wearemet,inthemidstofa nationbroughttothevergeof moral,political,andmaterialruin. Corruptiondominatestheballotbox,thelegislatures,theCongress, andtoucheseventheermineofthe bench[courts]....Fromthesame
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prolificwombofgovernmental injusticewebreedthetwogreat classes—trampsandmillionaires. The pragmatic portion of their platform called for the nationalization of the railroads; a low tariff; loans secured by non-perishable crops stored in government-owned warehouses; and, most explosively, currencyinflationthroughTreasury purchaseandtheunlimitedcoinage of silver at the “traditional” ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one ounce ofgold. ThePopulistsshowedimpressive strengthintheWestandSouth,and their candidate for president polled more than a million votes. But the currency question soon overshadowed all other issues. Agrarianspokesmen,convincedthattheir troubles stemmed from a shortage ofmoneyincirculation,arguedthat increasing the volume of money would indirectly raise prices for farm products and drive up industrialwages,thusallowingdebtstobe paidwithinflatedcurrency.Conservativegroupsandthefinancialclasses, on the other hand, responded that the 16:1 price ratio was nearly twice the market price for silver. A policyofunlimitedpurchasewould denude the U.S. Treasury of all its gold holdings, sharply devalue the dollar, and destroy the purchasing power of the working and middle classes.Onlythegoldstandard,they said,offeredstability.
The financial panic of 1893 heightened the tension of this debate.Bankfailuresaboundedinthe SouthandMidwest;unemployment soared and crop prices fell badly. The crisis and President Grover Cleveland’sdefenseofthegoldstandardsharplydividedtheDemocratic Party. Democrats who were silver supporters went over to the Populists as the presidential elections of 1896neared. The Democratic convention that yearwasswayedbyoneofthemost famous speeches in U.S. political history. Pleading with the convention not to “crucify mankind on a cross of gold,” William Jennings Bryan,theyoungNebraskanchampion of silver, won the Democrats’ presidentialnomination.ThePopulistsalsoendorsedBryan. Intheepiccontestthatfollowed, BryancarriedalmostalltheSouthern and Western states. But he lost the more populated, industrial NorthandEast—andtheelection —toRepublicancandidateWilliam McKinley. The following year the country’s finances began to improve, in part owing to the discovery of gold in Alaska and the Yukon. This provided a basis for a conservative expansion of the money supply. In 1898 the Spanish-American War drew the nation’s attention further from Populist issues. Populism and the silver issue were dead. Many of the movement’s other reform ideas, however,livedon.
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THESTRUGGLESOFLABOR
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helifeofa19th-centuryAmerican industrial worker was hard. Eveningoodtimeswageswerelow, hourslong,andworkingconditions hazardous. Little of the wealth that thegrowthofthenationhadgenerated went to its workers. Moreover, womenandchildrenmadeupahigh percentageoftheworkforceinsome industries and often received but a fraction of the wages a man could earn.Periodiceconomiccrisesswept thenation,furthererodingindustrialwagesandproducinghighlevelsof unemployment. At the same time, technological improvements, which added so much to the nation’s productivity, continuallyreducedthedemandfor skilledlabor.Yettheunskilledlabor poolwasconstantlygrowing,asunprecedentednumbersofimmigrants — 18 million between 1880 and 1910 — entered the country, eager forwork. Before1874,whenMassachusetts passed the nation’s first legislation limitingthenumberofhourswomen and child factory workers could performto10hoursaday,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 wereasresponsivetotheworkersas theyweretowealthyindustrialists. The laissez-faire capitalism that dominated the second half of the
19th century and fostered huge concentrationsofwealthandpower wasbackedbyajudiciarythattime and again ruled against those who challenged the system. In this, they weremerelyfollowingtheprevailing philosophyofthetimes.Drawingon a simplified understanding of Darwinian science, many social thinkers believed that both the growth of large business at the expense of small enterprise and the wealth of afewalongsidethepovertyofmany was“survivalofthefittest,”andan unavoidableby-productofprogress. Americanworkers,especiallythe skilledamongthem,appeartohave lived at least as well as their counterparts in industrial Europe. Still, thesocialcostswerehigh.Aslateas theyear1900,theUnitedStateshad 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 necessaryforadecentlife.Thenumberof children in the work force doubled between1870and1900. The first major effort to organize workers’ groups on a nationwidebasisappearedwiththeNoble 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
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againstthegreatrailroadbaron,Jay Gould, in 1885. Within a year they added500,000workerstotheirrolls, but,notattunedtopragmatictrade unionism and unable to repeat this success, the Knights soon fell into adecline. Their place in the labor movement was gradually taken by the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Rather than open membershiptoall,theAFL,underformercigarunionofficialSamuelGompers, was a group of unions focused on skilled workers. Its objectives were “pure and simple” and apolitical: increasing wages, reducing hours, and improving working conditions. Itdidmuchtoturnthelabormovement away from the socialist views ofmostEuropeanlabormovements. Nonetheless, both before the founding of the AFL and after, Americanlaborhistorywasviolent. IntheGreatRailStrikeof1877,rail workers across the nation went out inresponsetoa10-percentpaycut. Attemptstobreakthestrikeledtoriotingandwide-scaledestructionin several cities: Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Buffalo, New York; and San Francisco, California. Federal troopshadtobesenttoseverallocationsbeforethestrikewasended. Nine years later, in Chicago’s Haymarket Square incident, someone threw a bomb at police about to break up an anarchist rally in support of an ongoing strike at the McCormick Harvester Company in Chicago.Intheensuingmelee,seven
policemenandatleastfourworkers werereportedkilled.Some60police officerswereinjured. In1892,atCarnegie’ssteelworks in Homestead, Pennsylvania, a group of 300 Pinkerton detectives the 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 NationalGuardwascalledintoprotect non-union workers and the strike was broken. Unions were not let backintotheplantuntil1937. In1894,wagecutsatthePullman CompanyjustoutsideChicagoledto astrike,which,withthesupportof the American Railway Union, soon tied up much of the country’s rail system. As the situation deteriorated, U.S. Attorney General Richard Olney, himself a former railroad lawyer, deputized over 3,000 men inanattempttokeeptherailsopen. Thiswasfollowedbyafederalcourt injunction against union interference with the trains. When rioting ensued, President Cleveland sent in federal troops, and the strike was eventuallybroken. The most militant of the strikefavoring unions was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Formedfromanamalgamofunions fightingforbetterconditionsinthe West’sminingindustry,theIWW,or “Wobblies”astheywerecommonly known, gained particular prominence from the Colorado mine clashes of 1903 and the singularly brutal fashion in which they were
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put down. Influenced by militant anarchism and openly calling for class warfare, the Wobblies gained manyadherentsaftertheywonadifficultstrikebattleinthetextilemills ofLawrence,Massachusetts,in1912. Theircallforworkstoppagesinthe midst of World War I, however, led toagovernmentcrackdownin1917 thatvirtuallydestroyedthem.
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THEREFORMIMPULSE
he presidential election of 1900 gave the American people a chance topassjudgmentontheRepublican administrationofPresidentMcKinley, especially its foreign policy. MeetingatPhiladelphia,theRepublicans expressed jubilation over the successful outcome of the war with Spain, the restoration of prosperity, and the effort to obtain new marketsthroughtheOpenDoorpolicy. McKinley easily defeated his opponent, once again William Jennings Bryan.Butthepresidentdidnotlive to enjoy his victory. In September 1901, while attending an exposition in Buffalo, New York, he was shot down by an assassin, the third presidenttobeassassinatedsincethe CivilWar. Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley’s vice president, assumed the presidency. Roosevelt’s accession coincidedwithanewepochinAmerican political life and international relations. The continent was peopled; the frontier was disappearing. A small, formerly struggling republic had become a world power. The
country’s political foundations had endured the vicissitudes of foreign and civil war, the tides of prosperityanddepression.Immensestrides had been made in agriculture and industry. Free public education had beenlargelyrealizedandafreepress 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 ofcorruptpoliticians. In response to the excesses of 19th-century capitalism and political corruption, a reform movement arose called “progressivism,” which gaveAmericanpoliticsandthought its special character from approximately 1890 until the American entryintoWorldWarIin1917.The Progressives had diverse objectives. Ingeneral,however,theysawthemselves as engaged in a democratic crusade against the abuses of urbanpoliticalbossesandthecorrupt “robber barons” of big business. Their goals were greater democracy and social justice, honest government, more effective regulation of business,andarevivedcommitment topublicservice.Theybelievedthat expandingthescopeofgovernment wouldensuretheprogressofU.S.societyandthewelfareofitscitizens. 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
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inadequate for a 20th-century urban state. Years before, in 1873, the celebrated author Mark Twain had exposed American society to critical scrutiny in The Gilded Age. Now,trenchantarticlesdealingwith trusts, high finance, impure foods, andabusiverailroadpracticesbegan to appear in the daily newspapers and in such popular magazines as McClure’s and Collier’s. Their authors, such as the journalist Ida M. Tarbell, who crusaded against the Standard Oil Trust, became known as“muckrakers.” In his sensational novel, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair exposed unsanitary conditions in the great Chicago meat-packing houses and condemned the grip of the beef trust on the nation’s meat supply. Theodore Dreiser, in his novels The Financier and The Titan made it easy for laymen to understand the machinations of big business. FrankNorris’sTheOctopusassailed amoral railroad management; his The Pit depicted secret manipulations on the Chicago grain market. Lincoln Steffens’s The Shame of the Cities bared local political corruption. This “literature of exposure” rousedpeopletoaction. The hammering impact of uncompromising writers and an increasingly aroused public spurred political leaders to take practical measures.Manystatesenactedlaws to improve the conditions under which people lived and worked. At the urging of such prominent social critics as Jane Addams, child
labor laws were strengthened and newonesadopted,raisingagelimits, shortening work hours, restricting night work, and requiring school attendance.
ROOSEVELT’SREFORMS
B ytheearly20thcentury,mostof thelargercitiesandmorethanhalf the states had established an eighthour day on public works. Equally important were the workman’s compensation laws, which made employers legally responsible for injuries sustained by employees at work. New revenue laws were also enacted, which, by taxing inheritances,incomes,andthepropertyor earnings of corporations, sought to place the burden of government on thosebestabletopay. It was clear to many people — notably President Theodore Roosevelt and Progressive leaders in the Congress (foremost among them Wisconsin Senator Robert LaFollette) — that most of the problems reformers were concerned about couldbesolvedonlyifdealtwithon a national scale. Roosevelt declared his determination to give all the Americanpeoplea“SquareDeal.” Duringhisfirstterm,heinitiated apolicyofincreasedgovernmentsupervision through the enforcement of antitrust laws. With his backing,CongresspassedtheElkinsAct (1903), which greatly restricted the railroad practice of giving rebates to favored shippers. The act made publishedratesthelawfulstandard,
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and shippers equally liable with railroads for rebates. Meanwhile, Congress had created a new Cabinet Department of Commerce and Labor, which included a Bureau of Corporations empowered to investigate the affairs of large business aggregations. Roosevelt won acclaim as a “trust-buster,” but his actual attitude toward big business was complex. Economic concentration, he believed,wasinevitable.Sometrusts 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 Refining Company had evaded import duties, subsequent legal actions recovered more than $4 million and convicted several companyofficials.TheStandardOil Companywasindictedforreceiving secretrebatesfromtheChicagoand AltonRailroad,convicted,andfined astaggering$29million. Roosevelt’s striking personality andhistrust-bustingactivitiescapturedtheimaginationoftheordinary individual; approval ofhis progressivemeasurescutacrosspartylines. Inaddition,theaboundingprosperity of the country at this time led peopletofeelsatisfiedwiththeparty inoffice.Hewonaneasyvictoryin the1904presidentialelection. Emboldened by a sweeping electoral triumph, Roosevelt called for strongerrailroadregulation.InJune 1906 Congress passed the Hepburn Act.ItgavetheInterstateCommerce
Commissionrealauthorityinregulating rates, extended the commission’s jurisdiction, and forced the railroads to surrender their interlocking interests in steamship lines andcoalcompanies. Other congressional measures carriedtheprincipleoffederalcontrolstillfurther.ThePureFoodand DrugActof1906prohibitedtheuse of any “deleterious drug, chemical, or preservative” in prepared medicines and foods. The Meat InspectionActofthesameyearmandated federalinspectionofallmeat-packingestablishmentsengagedininterstatecommerce. Conservation of the nation’s natural resources, managed development of the public domain, and thereclamationofwidestretchesof neglectedlandwereamongtheother majorachievementsoftheRoosevelt era. Roosevelt and his aides were morethanconservationists,butgiven the helter-skelter exploitation of public resources that had preceded them,conservationloomedlargeon theiragenda.Whereashispredecessors had set aside 18,800,000 hectares of timberland for preservation and parks, Roosevelt increased the area to 59,200,000 hectares. They alsobegansystematiceffortstoprevent forest fires and to re-timber denudedtracts.
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oosevelt’s popularity was at its peakasthecampaignof1908neared, but he was unwilling to break the
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traditionbywhichnopresidenthad heldofficeformorethantwoterms. Instead,hesupportedWilliamHowardTaft,whohadservedunderhim as governor of the Philippines and secretary of war. Taft, pledging to continue Roosevelt’s programs, defeated Bryan, who was running for thethirdandlasttime. Thenewpresidentcontinuedthe prosecution of trusts with less discriminationthanRoosevelt,further strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission, established a postal savings bank and a parcel postsystem,expandedthecivilservice, and sponsored the enactment oftwoamendmentstotheConstitution,bothadoptedin1913. The 16th Amendment, ratified just before Taft left office, authorizedafederalincometax;the17th Amendment,approvedafewmonths later, mandated the direct election of senators by the people, instead of state legislatures. Yet balanced against these progressive measures wasTaft’sacceptanceofanewtariff withhigherprotectiveschedules;his opposition to the entry of the state of Arizona into the Union because of its liberal constitution; and his growing reliance on the conservativewingofhisparty. By 1910 Taft’s party was bitterly divided. Democrats gained control of Congress in the midterm elections. Two years later, Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic, progressive governor of the state of New Jersey,campaignedagainstTaft,the Republican candidate — and also
against Roosevelt who ran as the candidateofanewProgressiveParty. Wilson,inaspiritedcampaign,defeatedbothrivals. Duringhisfirstterm,WilsonsecuredoneofthemostnotablelegislativeprogramsinAmericanhistory. The first task was tariff revision. “The tariff duties must be altered,” Wilson said. “We must abolish everything that bears any semblance ofprivilege.”TheUnderwoodTariff, signedonOctober3,1913,provided substantial rate reductions on importedrawmaterialsandfoodstuffs, cotton and woolen goods, iron and steel; it removed the duties from more than a hundred other items. Although the act retained many protectivefeatures,itwasagenuine attempt to lower the cost of living. To compensate for lost revenues, it establishedamodestincometax. The second item on the Democratic program was a long overdue, thoroughreorganizationoftheramshackle banking and currency system. “Control,” said Wilson, “must bepublic,notprivate,mustbevested inthegovernmentitself,sothatthe banks may be the instruments, not themasters,ofbusinessandofindividualenterpriseandinitiative.” The Federal Reserve Act of December23,1913,wasWilson’smost enduring legislative accomplishment. Conservatives had favored establishment of one powerful centralbank.Thenewact,inlinewith the Democratic Party’s Jeffersonian sentiments,dividedthecountryinto 12 districts, with a Federal Reserve
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Bank in each, all supervised by a nationalFederalReserveBoardwith limitedauthoritytosetinterestrates. Theactassuredgreaterflexibilityin the money supply and made provisionforissuingfederal-reservenotes to meet business demands. Greater centralization of the system would comeinthe1930s. The next important task was trust regulation and investigation of corporate abuses. Congress authorized a Federal Trade Commission to issue orders prohibiting “unfair methods of competition” by business concerns in interstate trade. The Clayton Antitrust Act forbade many corporate practices that had thus far escaped specific condemnation: interlocking directorates,pricediscriminationamong purchasers,useoftheinjunctionin labor disputes, and ownership by onecorporationofstockinsimilar enterprises. Farmers and other workers were notforgotten.TheSmith-LeverAct
of 1914 established an “extension system” of county agents to assist farming throughout the country. Subsequent acts made credit available to farmers at low rates of interest. The Seamen’s Act of 1915 improved living and working conditionsonboardships.TheFederal Workingman’s Compensation Act in 1916 authorized allowances to civil service employees for disabilitiesincurredatworkandestablished a model for private enterprise. The Adamson Act of the same year establishedaneight-hourdayforrailroadlabor. This record of achievement won Wilson a firm place in American history as one of the nation’s foremost progressive reformers. However,hisdomesticreputationwould soonbeovershadowedbyhisrecord as a wartime president who led his country to victory but could not hold the support of his people for thepeacethatfollowed. 9
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ANATIONOFNATIONS
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 immigrants 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 disrupted 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. Thousands 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 impoverished 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-
grants were from Italy, Russia, Poland, Greece, and the Balkans. Non-Europeans 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 persecuted 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. Relatives 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, however, 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 knowledge that their forebears were once immigrants, has kept the United States a nation of nations.
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“The chief business of the American people is business.” President Calvin Coolidge, 1925
WARANDNEUTRALRIGHTS
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o the American public of 1914, the outbreak of war in Europe —withGermanyandAustria-Hungary fighting Britain, France, and Russia — came as a shock. At first the encounter seemed remote, but its economic and political effects were swift and deep. By 1915 U.S. industry,whichhadbeenmildlydepressed, was prospering again with munitionsordersfromtheWestern Allies. Both sides used propaganda to arouse the public passions of Americans—athirdofwhomwere either foreign-born or had one or two foreign-born parents. Moreover,BritainandGermanybothactedagainstU.S.shippingonthehigh seas, bringing sharp protests from PresidentWoodrowWilson. Britain,whichcontrolledtheseas, stopped and searched American
carriers, confiscating “contraband” bound for Germany. Germany employed its major naval weapon, the submarine, to sink shipping bound forBritainorFrance.PresidentWilson warned that the United States would not forsake its traditional rightasaneutraltotradewithbelligerent nations. He also declared thatthenationwouldholdGermany to“strictaccountability”fortheloss ofAmericanvesselsorlives.OnMay 7, 1915, a German submarine sunk the British liner Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, 128 of them Americans. Wilson, reflecting American outrage, demanded an immediate halt to attacks on liners and merchantships. Anxious to avoid war with the United States, Germany agreed to give warning to commercial vessels — even if they flew the enemy flag — before firing on them. But
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after two more attacks — the sinking of the British steamer Arabic in August 1915, and the torpedoing of the French liner Sussex in March 1916—Wilsonissuedanultimatum threatening to break diplomatic relations unless Germany abandoned submarinewarfare.Germanyagreed and refrained from further attacks throughtheendoftheyear. Wilson won reelection in 1916, partlyontheslogan:“Hekeptusout ofwar.”Feelinghehadamandateto act as a peacemaker, he delivered a speech to the Senate, January 22, 1917, urging the warring nations to accepta“peacewithoutvictory.”
UNITEDSTATESENTERS WORLDWARI
O n January 31, 1917, however, the German government resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. After five U.S. vessels were sunk, WilsononApril2,1917,askedfora declarationofwar.Congressquickly approved. The government rapidly mobilizedmilitaryresources,industry,labor,andagriculture.ByOctober1918,ontheeveofAlliedvictory, a U.S. army of over 1,750,000 had beendeployedinFrance. In the summer of 1918, fresh American troops under the command of General John J. Pershing played a decisive role in stopping a last-ditch German offensive. That fall, Americans were key participantsintheMeuse-Argonneoffensive, which cracked Germany’s vauntedHindenburgLine.
President Wilson contributed greatly to an early end to the war bydefiningAmericanwaraimsthat characterized the struggle as being waged not against the German people but against their autocratic government. His Fourteen Points, submitted to the Senate in January 1918,calledfor:abandonmentofsecret international agreements; freedomoftheseas;freetradebetween nations; reductions in national armaments;anadjustmentofcolonial claimsintheinterestsoftheinhabitants affected; self-rule for subjugated European nationalities; and, mostimportantly,theestablishment ofanassociationofnationstoafford “mutual guarantees of political independenceandterritorialintegrity togreatandsmallstatesalike.” In October 1918, the German government, facing certain defeat, appealed to Wilson to negotiate on the basis of the Fourteen Points. Afteramonthofsecretnegotiations that gave Germany no firm guarantees, an armistice (technically a truce,butactuallyasurrender)was concludedonNovember11.
THELEAGUEOFNATIONS
Itreaty,draftedbythevictors,would twasWilson’shopethatthefinal be even-handed, but the passion and material sacrifice of more than four years of war caused the EuropeanAlliestomakeseveredemands. Persuadedthathisgreatesthopefor peace, a League of Nations, would never be realized unless he made
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concessions, Wilson compromised somewhat on the issues of self-determination, open diplomacy, and other specifics. He successfully resistedFrenchdemandsfortheentire Rhineland, and somewhat moderated that country’s insistence upon charging Germany the whole cost ofthewar.Thefinalagreement(the Treaty of Versailles), however, provided for French occupation of the coal and iron rich Saar Basin, and a very heavy burden of reparations uponGermany. Intheend,therewaslittleleftof Wilson’s proposals for a generous andlastingpeacebuttheLeagueof Nationsitself,whichhehadmadean integral part of the treaty. Displaying poor judgment, however, the presidenthadfailedtoinvolveleading Republicans in the treaty negotiations. Returning with a partisan document,hethenrefusedtomake concessionsnecessarytosatisfyRepublican concerns about protecting Americansovereignty. WiththetreatystalledinaSenate committee,Wilsonbegananational tourtoappealforsupport.OnSeptember 25, 1919, physically ravaged by the rigors of peacemaking and the pressures of the wartime presidency,hesufferedacripplingstroke. Criticallyillforweeks,heneverfully recovered. In two separate votes —November1919andMarch1920 — the Senate once again rejected theVersaillesTreatyandwithitthe LeagueofNations. The League of Nations would never be capable of maintaining
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
worldorder.Wilson’sdefeatshowed that the American people were not yetreadytoplayacommandingrole in world affairs. His utopian vision had briefly inspired the nation, but its collision with reality quickly led towidespreaddisillusionwithworld affairs. America reverted to its instinctiveisolationism.
T
POSTWARUNREST
he transition from war to peace was tumultuous. A postwar economic boom coexisted with rapid increases in consumer prices. Labor unions that had refrained from striking during the war engaged in severalmajorjobactions.Duringthe summerof1919,severalraceriotsoccurred,reflectingapprehensionover the emergence of a “New Negro” who had seen military service or gonenorthtoworkinwarindustry. Reaction to these events merged with a widespread national fear of a new international revolutionary movement. In 1917, the Bolsheviks hadseizedpowerinRussia;afterthe 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 found whatwouldbecometheCommunist Party of the United States. In April 1919, the postal service intercepted nearly40bombsaddressedtoprominent citizens. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer’s residence in Washington was bombed. Palmer,
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inturn,authorizedfederalroundups ofradicalsanddeportedmanywho werenotcitizens.Strikeswereoften blamed on radicals and depicted as theopeningshotsofarevolution. Palmer’s dire warnings fueled a “Red Scare” that subsided by mid1920. Even a murderous bombing inWallStreetinSeptemberfailedto reawakenit.From1919on,however, acurrentofmilitanthostilitytoward revolutionary communism would simmer not far beneath the surface ofAmericanlife.
THEBOOMING1920S
W ilson, distracted by the war, then laid low by his stroke, had mishandled almost every postwar issue.Theboomingeconomybegan tocollapseinmid-1920.TheRepublican candidates for president and vice president, Warren G. Harding andCalvinCoolidge,easilydefeated their Democratic opponents, James M.CoxandFranklinD.Roosevelt. Followingratificationofthe19th Amendment to the Constitution, womenvotedinapresidentialelectionforthefirsttime. The first two years of Harding’s administration saw a continuance of the economic recession that had begununderWilson.By1923,however, prosperity was back. For the next six years the country enjoyed thestrongesteconomyinitshistory, atleastinurbanareas.Governmentaleconomicpolicyduringthe1920s was eminently conservative. It was baseduponthebeliefthatifgovern-
mentfosteredprivatebusiness,benefitswouldradiateouttomostofthe restofthepopulation. 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 barriers to new heights, guaranteeing U.S. manufacturers in one field after another a monopoly of the domestic market, but blocking a healthy trade with Europe that wouldhavereinvigoratedtheinternationaleconomy.Occurringatthe beginningoftheGreatDepression, Hawley-Smoot triggered retaliation from other manufacturing nations andcontributedgreatlytoacollapsingcycleofworldtradethatintensifiedworldeconomicmisery. Thefederalgovernmentalsostartedaprogramoftaxcuts,reflecting TreasurySecretaryAndrewMellon’s belief that high taxes on individual incomes and corporations discouraged investment in new industrial enterprises.Congress,inlawspassed between 1921 and 1929, responded favorablytohisproposals. “ThechiefbusinessoftheAmerican people is business,” declared CalvinCoolidge,theVermont-born vicepresidentwhosucceededtothe presidency in 1923 after Harding’s death, and was elected in his own right in 1924. Coolidge hewed to the conservative economic policies oftheRepublicanParty,buthewas amuchableradministratorthanthe haplessHarding,whoseadministra-
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tionwasmiredinchargesofcorruptioninthemonthsbeforehisdeath. Throughout the 1920s, private business received substantial encouragement, including construction loans, profitable mail-carrying contracts, and other indirect subsidies. The Transportation Act of 1920, for example, had already restoredtoprivatemanagementthe nation’s railways, which had been under government control during the war. The Merchant Marine, which had been owned and largely operated by the government, was soldtoprivateoperators. Republican policies in agriculture, 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 unprecedented wartime demand for U.S. farmproductshadprovidedastrong 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 decline.Manyfactorsaccountedfor thedepressioninAmericanagriculture, but foremost was the loss of foreign markets. This was partly in reaction to American tariff policy, but also because excess farm production was a worldwide phenomenon. When the Great Depression struckinthe1930s,itdevastatedan alreadyfragilefarmeconomy. The distress of agriculture aside, the Twenties brought the best life ever to most Americans. It was the
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
decade in which the ordinary family purchased its first automobile, obtained refrigerators and vacuum cleaners,listenedtotheradioforentertainment, and went regularly to motionpictures.Prosperitywasreal andbroadlydistributed.TheRepublicansprofitedpolitically,asaresult, byclaimingcreditforit.
D
TENSIONSOVER IMMIGRATION
uring the 1920s, the United Statessharplyrestrictedforeignimmigration for the first time in its history. Large inflows of foreigners long had created a certain amount ofsocialtension,butmosthadbeen of Northern European stock and, if not quickly assimilated, at least possessed a certain commonality withmostAmericans.Bytheendof 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 million. Over the next 15 years, more than 15 million immigrants enteredthecountry. Aroundtwo-thirdsoftheinflow consisted of “newer” nationalities andethnicgroups—RussianJews, Poles,Slavicpeoples,Greeks,southern Italians. They were non-Protestant, non-“Nordic,” and, many Americans feared, nonassimilable. They did hard, often dangerous, low-pay work — but were accused ofdrivingdownthewagesofnativebornAmericans.Settlinginsqualid
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urban ethnic enclaves, the new immigrants were seen as maintaining Old World customs, getting along with very little English, and supportingunsavorypoliticalmachines thatcateredtotheirneeds.Nativists wantedtosendthembacktoEurope; socialworkerswantedtoAmericanizethem.Bothagreedthattheywere athreattoAmericanidentity. Halted by World War I, mass immigration resumed in 1919, but quickly ran into determined opposition from groups as varied as the American Federation of Labor and thereorganizedKuKluxKlan.Millions of old-stock Americans who belongedtoneitherorganizationacceptedcommonlyheldassumptions abouttheinferiorityofnon-Nordics and backed restrictions. Of course, therewerealsopracticalarguments infavorofamaturingnationputting somelimitsonnewarrivals. In1921,Congresspassedasharplyrestrictiveemergencyimmigration act.Itwassupplantedin1924bythe Johnson-ReedNationalOriginsAct, which established an immigration 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 itsmark.Bitterlyresentedbysouthern and Eastern European ethnic groups,thenewlawreducedimmigration to a trickle. After 1929, the economic impact of the Great Depressionwouldreducethetrickleto areverseflow—untilrefugeesfrom Europeanfascismbegantopressfor admissiontothecountry.
S
CLASHOFCULTURES
ome Americans expressed their discontent with the character of modern life in the 1920s by focusing on family and religion, as an increasingly urban, secular society came into conflict with older rural traditions. Fundamentalist preacherssuchasBillySundayprovidedan outlet for many who yearned for a returntoasimplerpast. Perhapsthemostdramaticdemonstration of this yearning was the religious fundamentalist crusade that pitted Biblical texts against the Darwinian theory of biological evolution. In the 1920s, bills to prohibit the teaching of evolution beganappearinginMidwesternand Southern state legislatures. Leading this crusade was the aging William Jennings Bryan, long a spokesman for the values of the countryside as wellasaprogressivepolitician.Bryanskillfullyreconciledhisanti-evolutionary activism with his earlier economicradicalism,declaringthat evolution “by denying the need or possibility of spiritual regeneration, discouragesallreforms.” Theissuecametoaheadin1925, when a young high school teacher, JohnScopes,wasprosecutedforviolating a Tennessee law that forbade theteachingofevolutioninthepublicschools.Thecasebecameanational spectacle, drawing intense news coverage. The American Civil LibertiesUnionretainedtherenowned attorneyClarenceDarrowtodefend Scopes.Bryanwrangledanappoint-
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ment as special prosecutor, then foolishlyallowedDarrowtocallhim asahostilewitness.Bryan’sconfused defenseofBiblicalpassagesasliteral ratherthanmetaphoricaltruthdrew widespreadcriticism.Scopes,nearly forgotteninthefuss,wasconvicted, buthisfinewasreversedonatechnicality.Bryandiedshortlyafterthe trialended.Thestatewiselydeclined toretryScopes.Urbansophisticates ridiculed fundamentalism, but it continuedtobeapowerfulforcein rural,small-townAmerica. Another example of a powerful clash of cultures — one with far greater national consequences —wasProhibition.In1919,afteralmostacenturyofagitation,the18th AmendmenttotheConstitutionwas enacted, prohibiting the manufacture,sale,ortransportationofalcoholic beverages. Intended to eliminate the saloon and the drunkard from American society, Prohibition createdthousandsofillegaldrinking placescalled“speakeasies,”madeintoxicationfashionable,andcreateda newformofcriminalactivity—the transportation of illegal liquor, or “bootlegging.” Widely observed in rural America, openly evaded in urban America, Prohibition was an emotional issue in the prosperous Twenties.WhentheDepressionhit, it seemed increasingly irrelevant. The18thAmendmentwouldberepealedin1933. FundamentalismandProhibition wereaspectsofalargerreactiontoa modernist social and intellectual revolution most visible in changing
manners and morals that caused thedecadetobecalledtheJazzAge, the Roaring Twenties, or the era of “flaming youth.” World War I had overturned the Victorian social and moral order. Mass prosperity enabledanopenandhedonisticlife stylefortheyoungmiddleclasses. The leading intellectuals were supportive. H.L. Mencken, the decade’s most important social critic, was unsparing in denouncingshamandvenalityinAmerican life.Heusuallyfoundthesequalities inruralareasandamongbusinessmen. His counterparts of the progressive movement had believed in “the people” and sought to extend democracy. Mencken, an elitist and admirerofNietzsche,bluntlycalled democraticmanaboobandcharacterizedtheAmericanmiddleclassas the“booboisie.” Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald capturedtheenergy,turmoil,anddisillusion of the decade in such works as The Beautiful and the Damned (1922)andTheGreatGatsby(1925). SinclairLewis,thefirstAmericanto winaNobelPrizeforliterature,satirizedmainstreamAmericain Main Street(1920)andBabbitt(1922).Ernest Hemingway vividly portrayed the malaise wrought by the war in The Sun Also Rises (1926) and A Farewell to Arms (1929). Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and many other writersdramatizedtheiralienationfrom America by spending much of the decadeinParis. African-American culture flowered. Between 1910 and 1930, huge
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numbers of African Americans movedfromtheSouthtotheNorth insearchofjobsandpersonalfreedom. Most settled in urban areas, especially New York City’s Harlem, Detroit,andChicago.In1910W.E.B. DuBoisandotherintellectualshad founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which helped African Americans gain a national voicethatwouldgrowinimportance withthepassingyears. An African-American literary and artistic movement, called the “Harlem Renaissance,” emerged. Like the “Lost Generation,” its writers, such as the poets Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, rejected middle-class values and conventional literary forms, even as they addressed the realities of African-American experience. African-Americanmusicians—Duke Ellington, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong—firstmadejazzastapleof Americancultureinthe1920’s.
THEGREATDEPRESSION
Imarket nOctober1929theboomingstock crashed, wiping out many investors. The collapse did not in itself cause the Great Depression, althoughitreflectedexcessivelyeasy credit policies that had allowed the markettogetoutofhand.ItalsoaggravatedfragileeconomiesinEurope thathadreliedheavilyonAmerican loans.Overthenextthreeyears,an
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initial American recession became part of a worldwide depression. Business houses closed their doors, factories shut down, banks failed with the loss of depositors’ savings. Farm income fell some 50 percent. By November 1932, approximately oneofeveryfiveAmericanworkers wasunemployed. The presidential campaign of 1932 was chiefly a debate over the causes and possible remedies of the GreatDepression.PresidentHerbert Hoover, unlucky in entering the WhiteHouseonlyeightmonthsbeforethestockmarketcrash,hadtried harderthananyotherpresidentbeforehimtodealwitheconomichard times.Hehadattemptedtoorganize business, had sped up public works schedules, established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to support businesses and financial institutions,andhadsecuredfroma reluctantCongressanagencytounderwritehomemortgages.Nonetheless,hiseffortshadlittleimpact,and hewasapictureofdefeat. HisDemocraticopponent,FranklinD.Roosevelt,alreadypopularas the governor of New York during thedevelopingcrisis,radiatedinfectiousoptimism.Preparedtousethe federal government’s authority for even bolder experimental remedies, hescoredasmashingvictory—receiving22,800,000popularvotesto Hoover’s 15,700,000. The United States was about to enter a new era ofeconomicandpoliticalchange.9
11 CHAPTER
THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
U.S. battleships West Virginia and Tennessee, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. 212
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
“We must be the great arsenal of democracy.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941
ROOSEVELTANDTHE NEWDEAL
ID.Roosevelt,broughtanairofconn1933thenewpresident,Franklin fidence and optimism that quickly rallied the people to the banner of his program, known as the New Deal. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” the president declared in his inaugural address to thenation. In one sense, the New Deal merely introduced social and economic reforms familiar to many Europeans for more than a generation. Moreover, the New Deal represented the culmination of a long-range trend toward abandonment of “laissez-faire” capitalism, going back to the regulation of the railroads in the 1880s, and the flood of state and national reform legislation introduced in the Pro-
gressive era of Theodore Roosevelt andWoodrowWilson. What was truly novel about the New Deal, however, was the speed with which it accomplished what previously had taken generations. Many of its reforms were hastilydrawnandweaklyadministered; some actually contradicted others. Moreover, it never succeeded in restoring prosperity. Yet its actions provided tangible help for millions of Americans, laid the basis for a powerful new political coalition,andbroughttotheindividual citizenasharprevivalofinterestin government.
THEFIRSTNEWDEAL BankingandFinance.WhenRoosevelt took the presidential oath, the bankingandcreditsystemofthenationwasinastateofparalysis.With
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astonishing rapidity the nation’s bankswerefirstclosed—andthen reopened only if they were solvent. Theadministrationadoptedapolicy of moderate currency inflation to startanupwardmovementincommodity prices and to afford some relieftodebtors.Newgovernmental agencies brought generous credit facilities to industry and agriculture.TheFederalDepositInsurance Corporation (FDIC) insured savings-bank deposits up to $5,000. Federal regulations were imposed upon the sale of securities on the stockexchange. Unemployment. Roosevelt faced unprecedentedmassunemployment. Bythetimehetookoffice,asmany as 13 million Americans — more than a quarter of the labor force — were out of work. Bread lines were a common sight in most cities.Hundredsofthousandsroamed thecountryinsearchoffood,work, andshelter.“Brother,canyouspare adime?”wastherefrainofapopularsong. Anearlystepfortheunemployed came in the form of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a program that brought relief to young menbetween18and25yearsofage. CCCenrolleesworkedincampsadministered by the army. About two milliontookpartduringthedecade. They participated in a variety of conservationprojects:plantingtrees tocombatsoilerosionandmaintain nationalforests;eliminatingstream pollution; creating fish, game, and
bird sanctuaries; and conserving coal,petroleum,shale,gas,sodium, andheliumdeposits. A Public Works Administration (PWA) provided employment for skilled construction workers on a wide variety of mostly medium- to large-sized projects. Among the mostmemorableofitsmanyaccomplishmentsweretheBonnevilleand Grand Coulee Dams in the Pacific Northwest, a new Chicago sewer system, the Triborough Bridge in NewYorkCity,andtwoaircraftcarriers (Yorktown and Enterprise) for theU.S.Navy. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), both a work relief program and an exercise in public planning, developed the impoverished Tennessee River valley area through a seriesofdamsbuiltforfloodcontrol andhydroelectricpowergeneration. Itsprovisionofcheapelectricityfor the area stimulated some economic progress, but won it the enmity of private electric companies. New Dealers hailed it as an example of “grassrootsdemocracy.” The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), in operation from 1933 to 1935, distributed direct relief to hundreds of thousandsofpeople,usuallyintheform of direct payments. Sometimes, it assumedthesalariesofschoolteachers and other local public service workers.Italsodevelopednumerous small-scale public works projects, asdidtheCivilWorksAdministration(CWA)fromlate1933intothe spring of 1934. Criticized as “make
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work,”thejobsfundedrangedfrom ditch digging to highway repairs to teaching. Roosevelt and his key officialsworriedaboutcostsbutcontinuedtofavorunemploymentprograms based on work relief rather thanwelfare. Agriculture. In the spring of 1933, theagriculturalsectoroftheeconomywasinastateofcollapse.IttherebyprovidedalaboratoryfortheNew Dealers’beliefthatgreaterregulation 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 raisecroppricesbypayingfarmersa subsidytocompensateforvoluntary cutbacks in production. Funds for the payments would be generated by a tax levied on industries that processedcrops.Bythetimetheact hadbecomelaw,however,thegrowingseasonwaswellunderway,and theAAApaidfarmerstoplowunder their abundant crops. Crop reduction and further subsidies through theCommodityCreditCorporation, whichpurchasedcommoditiestobe kept in storage, drove output down andfarmpricesup. 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 encouraged to take land out of production — displacing tenants and sharecroppers — a severe drought hit the Plains states. Violent wind
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
and dust storms during the 1930s created what became known as the “Dust Bowl.” Crops were destroyed andfarmsruined. By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states, the largestmigrationinAmericanhistory.Ofthose,200,000movedtoCalifornia. The migrants were not only farmers, but also professionals, retailers,andotherswhoselivelihoods wereconnectedtothehealthofthe farmcommunities.Manyendedup competingforseasonaljobspicking cropsatextremelylowwages. The government provided aid in the form of the Soil Conservation Service, established in 1935. Farm practices that damaged the soil had intensified the impact of the drought.Theservicetaughtfarmers measures to reduce erosion. In addition, almost 30,000 kilometers of treeswereplantedtobreaktheforce ofwinds. Although the AAA had been mostlysuccessful,itwasabandoned in 1936, when its tax on food processors was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Congress quickly passed a farm-relief act, whichauthorizedthegovernmentto makepaymentstofarmerswhotook land out of production for the purpose of soil conservation. In 1938, with a pro-New Deal majority on the Supreme Court, Congress reinstatedtheAAA. By1940nearlysixmillionfarmers were receiving federal subsidies. New Deal programs also provided loansonsurpluscrops,insurancefor
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wheat,andasystemofplannedstorage to ensure a stable food supply. Economic stability for the farmer was substantially achieved, albeit at great expense and with extraordinarygovernmentoversight. Industry and Labor. The National Recovery Administration (NRA), establishedin1933withtheNational IndustrialRecoveryAct(NIRA),attemptedtoendcut-throatcompetitionbysettingcodesoffaircompetitive practice to generate more jobs and thus more buying. Although welcomed initially, the NRA was soon criticized for over-regulation andwasunabletoachieveindustrial recovery.Itwasdeclaredunconstitutionalin1935. TheNIRAhadguaranteedtolabortherightofcollectivebargaining through labor unions representing individual workers, but the NRA hadfailedtoovercomestrongbusiness opposition to independent unionism. After its demise in 1935, CongresspassedtheNationalLabor Relations Act, which restated that guaranteeandprohibitedemployers fromunfairlyinterferingwithunion activities.ItalsocreatedtheNationalLaborRelationsBoard(NLRB)to supervise collective bargaining, administerelections,andensureworkerstherighttochoosetheorganization that should represent them in dealingwithemployers. Thegreatprogressmadeinlabor organization brought working peopleagrowingsenseofcommoninterests, and labor’s power increased
notonlyinindustrybutalsoinpolitics. Roosevelt’s Democratic Party benefited enormously from these developments.
THESECONDNEWDEAL
Isponsored n its early years, the New Deal 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 senseofimmediatecrisiseased,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.FrancisE.Townsend advocated generous old-age pensions.FatherCharlesCoughlin,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 ruthless spokesman for the displaced, advocated a radical redistribution of wealth. (If he had notbeenassassinatedinSeptember 1935, Long very likely would have launchedapresidentialchallengeto FranklinRooseveltin1936.) In the face of these pressures, PresidentRooseveltbackedanewset of economic and social measures. Prominent among them were mea-
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sures to fight poverty, create more workfortheunemployed,andprovideasocialsafetynet. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), the principal relief agencyoftheso-calledsecondNew Deal, was the biggest public works agency yet. It pursued small-scale projects throughout the country, constructing buildings, roads, airports, and schools. Actors, painters, musicians, and writers were employedthroughtheFederalTheaterProject,theFederalArtProject, and the Federal Writers Project. The National Youth Administration gave part-time employment to students, established training programs, and provided aid to unemployed youth. The WPA only includedaboutthreemillionjobless atatime;whenitwasabandonedin 1943, it had helped a total of nine millionpeople. The New Deal’s cornerstone, accordingtoRoosevelt,wastheSocial SecurityActof1935.SocialSecurity created a system of state-administeredwelfarepaymentsforthepoor, unemployed,anddisabledbasedon matchingstateandfederalcontributions. It also established a national systemofretirementbenefitsdrawingona“trustfund”createdbyemployer and employee contributions. Many other industrialized nations hadalreadyenactedsuchprograms, butcallsforsuchaninitiativeinthe United States had gone unheeded. Social Security today is the largest domestic program administered by theU.S.government.
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
To these, Roosevelt added the National Labor Relations Act, the “Wealth Tax Act” that increased taxes on the wealthy, the Public Utility Holding Company Act to breakuplargeelectricalutilityconglomerates, and a Banking Act that greatly expanded the power of the FederalReserveBoardoverthelarge private banks. Also notable was the establishment of the Rural Electrification Administration, which extendedelectricityintofarmingareas throughoutthecountry.
ANEWCOALITION
Iwonn athedecisive 1936 election, Roosevelt victory over his Republican opponent, Alf Landon of Kansas. He was personally popular, and the economy seemed near recovery. He took 60 percent of the vote and carried all but two states. A broad new coalition aligned with theDemocraticPartyemerged,consistingoflabor,mostfarmers,most urbanethnicgroups,AfricanAmericans, and the traditionally Democratic South. The Republican Party received the support of business as well as middle-class members of small towns and suburbs. This political alliance, with some variation and shifting, remained intact for severaldecades. Roosevelt’s second term was a time of consolidation. The president made two serious political missteps:anill-advised,unsuccessfulattempttoenlargetheSupreme Courtandafailedeffortto“purge”
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increasingly recalcitrant Southern conservativesfromtheDemocratic Party. When he cut high governmentspending,moreover,theeconomy collapsed. These events led to the rise of a conservative coalition inCongressthatwasunreceptiveto newinitiatives. From 1932 to 1938 there was widespread public debate on the meaning of New Deal policies to the nation’s political and economic life. Americans clearly wanted the government to take greater responsibility for the welfare of ordinary people, however uneasy they might beaboutbiggovernmentingeneral. TheNewDealestablishedthefoundations of the modern welfare state intheUnitedStates.Roosevelt,perhapsthemostimposingofthe20thcenturypresidents,hadestablisheda newstandardofmassleadership. No American leader, then or since, used the radio so effectively. In a radio address in 1938, Roosevelt declared: “Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations, not because the people of those nations disliked democracy, but because they had grown tired ofunemploymentandinsecurity,of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of governmentconfusionandgovernment weakness through lack of leadership.” Americans, he concluded, wanted to defend their liberties at any cost and understood that “the first line of the defense lies in the protectionofeconomicsecurity.”
WARANDUNEASY NEUTRALITY
B efore Roosevelt’s second term was well under way, his domestic program was overshadowed by the expansionist designs of totalitarian regimes in Japan, Italy, and Germany. In 1931 Japan had invaded Manchuria, crushed Chinese resistance, and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo. Italy, under Benito Mussolini, enlarged its boundaries in Libya and in 1935 conquered Ethiopia. Germany, under Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, militarized its economyandreoccupiedtheRhineland(demilitarizedbytheTreatyof Versailles) in 1936. In 1938, Hitler incorporated Austria into the GermanReichanddemandedcessionof the German-speaking Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. By then, war seemedimminent. The United States, disillusioned by the failure of the crusade for democracy in World War I, announced that in no circumstances could any country involved in the conflictlooktoitforaid.Neutrality legislation, enacted piecemeal from1935to1937,prohibitedtrade in arms with any warring nations, required cash for all other commodities, and forbade American flag merchant ships from carrying those goods. The objective was to prevent,atalmostanycost,theinvolvementoftheUnitedStatesina foreignwar. With the Nazi conquest of Poland in 1939 and the outbreak of
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WorldWarII,isolationistsentiment increased, even though Americans clearlyfavoredthevictimsofHitler’s aggressionandsupportedtheAllied democracies, Britain and France. Rooseveltcouldonlywaituntilpublic opinion regarding U.S. involvementwasalteredbyevents. After the fall of France and the beginning of the German air war againstBritaininmid-1940,thedebateintensifiedbetweenthoseinthe UnitedStateswhofavoredaidingthe democraciesandtheantiwarfaction known as the isolationists. Roosevelt did what he could to nudge publicopiniontowardintervention. The United States joined Canada in a Mutual Board of Defense, and alignedwiththeLatinAmericanrepublics in extending collective protectiontothenationsintheWestern Hemisphere. Congress, confronted with the mounting crisis, voted immense sums for rearmament, and in September 1940 passed the first peacetime 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 Navy50“overage”destroyersinreturn 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 opponent, Wendell Wilkie, leaned
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
toward intervention. Thus the November election yielded another majority for the president, making Roosevelt the first, and last, U. S. chief executive to be elected to a thirdterm. Inearly1941,RooseveltgotCongress 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 bywar’sendwouldamounttomore than$50billion. Most remarkably, in August, he metwithPrimeMinisterChurchill offthecoastofNewfoundland.The two leaders issued a “joint statement of war aims,” which they calledtheAtlanticCharter.Bearing aremarkableresemblancetoWoodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, it called for these objectives: no territorialaggrandizement;noterritorialchangeswithouttheconsentof the people concerned; the right of allpeopletochoosetheirownform of government; the restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; economic collaboration between all nations; freedom from war, from fear, and from want for all peoples; freedom of the seas; and the abandonment of the use of force as an instrument of internationalpolicy. America was now neutral in nameonly.
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JAPAN,PEARLHARBOR, ANDWAR
W hile most Americans anxiously watchedthecourseoftheEuropean war, tension mounted in Asia. Taking advantage of an opportunity to improveitsstrategicposition,Japan boldly announced a “new order” in which it would exercise hegemony over all of the Pacific. Battling for survivalagainstNaziGermany,Britainwasunabletoresist,abandoning itsconcessioninShanghaiandtemporarily closing the Chinese supply route from Burma. In the summer of 1940, Japan won permission fromtheweakVichygovernmentin France to use airfields in northern Indochina (North Vietnam). That September the Japanese formally joined the Rome-Berlin Axis. The United States countered with an embargoontheexportofscrapiron toJapan. In July 1941 the Japanese occupied southern Indochina (South Vietnam), signaling a probable movesouthwardtowardtheoil,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 aboveallothers—oil. General Hideki Tojo became prime minister of Japan that October. In mid-November, he sent a special envoy to the United States to meet with Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Among other things, Japan demanded that the United
States release Japanese assets and stop U.S. naval expansion in the Pacific.HullcounteredwithaproposalforJapanesewithdrawalfrom allitsconquests.TheswiftJapanese rejection on December 1 left the talksstalemated. On the morning of December 7, Japanese carrier-based planes executedadevastatingsurpriseattack againsttheU.S.PacificFleetatPearl Harbor,Hawaii. Twenty-oneshipsweredestroyed ortemporarilydisabled;323aircraft were destroyed or damaged; 2,388 soldiers, sailors, and civilians were killed. However, the U.S. aircraft carriersthatwouldplaysuchacriticalroleintheensuingnavalwarin the Pacific were at sea and not anchoredatPearlHarbor. American opinion, still divided about the war in Europe, was unified overnight by what President Roosevelt called “a day that will live in infamy.” On December 8, Congress declared a state of war with Japan; three days later GermanyandItalydeclaredwaronthe UnitedStates.
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henationrapidlygeareditselffor mobilization of its people and its entireindustrialcapacity.Overthe nextthree-and-a-halfyears,warindustryachievedstaggeringproductiongoals—300,000aircraft,5,000 cargo ships, 60,000 landing craft, 86,000 tanks. Women workers, ex-
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emplified by “Rosie the Riveter,” played a bigger part in industrial production than ever before. Total strengthoftheU.S.armedforcesat the end of the war was more than 12 million. All the nation’s activities — farming, manufacturing, mining, trade, labor, investment, communications, even education and cultural undertakings — were insomefashionbroughtundernew andenlargedcontrols. As a result of Pearl Harbor and thefearofAsianespionage,Americans also committed what was later recognized as an act of intolerance: the internment of Japanese Americans.InFebruary1942,nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans residinginCaliforniawereremovedfrom their homes and interned behind barbed wire in 10 wretched temporary camps, later to be moved to “relocationcenters”outsideisolated Southwesterntowns. Nearly 63 percent of these Japanese Americans were AmericanbornU.S.citizens.AfewwereJapanese sympathizers, but no evidence of espionage ever surfaced. Others volunteered for the U.S. Army and fought with distinction and valor intwoinfantryunitsontheItalian front. Some served as interpreters andtranslatorsinthePacific. In 1983 the U.S. government acknowledged the injustice of internmentwithlimitedpaymentstothose Japanese-Americansofthaterawho werestillliving.
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
THEWARINNORTHAFRICA ANDEUROPE
S
oon after the United States entered the war, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union (at war with Germany since June 22, 1941) decided that their primary military effort was to be concentratedinEurope. Throughout 1942, British and German forces fought inconclusive back-and-forth battles across Libya and Egypt for control of the Suez Canal. But on October 23, British forces commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery struck at the Germans from El Alamein. Equipped with a thousand tanks, manymadeinAmerica,theydefeated General Erwin Rommel’s army in a grinding two-week campaign. OnNovember7,AmericanandBritish armed forces landed in French North Africa. Squeezed between forcesadvancingfromeastandwest, theGermanswerepushedbackand, after fierce resistance, surrendered inMay1943. Theyear1942wasalsotheturningpointontheEasternFront.The Soviet Union, suffering immense losses, stopped the Nazi invasion at thegatesofLeningradandMoscow. In the winter of 1942-43, the Red ArmydefeatedtheGermansatStalingrad (Volgograd) and began the longoffensivethatwouldtakethem toBerlinin1945. InJuly1943BritishandAmerican forces invaded Sicily and won control of the island in a month.
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During that time, Benito Mussolini fell from power in Italy. His successors began negotiations with the Allies and surrendered immediatelyaftertheinvasionoftheItalian mainland in September. However,theGermanArmyhadbythen takencontrolofthepeninsula.The fightagainstNaziforcesinItalywas bitterandprotracted.Romewasnot liberated until June 4, 1944. As the Alliesslowlymovednorth,theybuilt airfieldsfromwhichtheymadedevastating air raids against railroads, factories,andweaponemplacements in southern Germany and central Europe, including the oil installationsatPloesti,Romania. Latein1943theAllies,aftermuch debateoverstrategy,decidedtoopen afrontinFrancetocompeltheGermanstodivertfarlargerforcesfrom theSovietUnion. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed Supreme CommanderofAlliedForcesinEurope. After immense preparations, onJune6,1944,aU.S.,British,and Canadian invasion army, protected byagreatlysuperiorairforce,landed on five beaches in Normandy. With the beachheads established after heavy fighting, more troops pouredin,andpushedtheGermans back in one bloody engagement afteranother.OnAugust25Pariswas liberated. The Allied offensive stalled that fall,thensufferedasetbackineastern Belgium during the winter, but inMarch,theAmericansandBritish wereacrosstheRhineandtheRus-
siansadvancingirresistiblyfromthe East. On May 7, Germany surrenderedunconditionally.
THEWARINTHEPACIFIC
U .S.troopswereforcedtosurrenderinthePhilippinesinearly1942, 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,butgaveAmericansan immensepsychologicalboost. InMay,attheBattleoftheCoral Sea—thefirstnavalengagementin historyinwhichallthefightingwas done by carrier-based planes — a Japanese naval invasion fleet sent to strike at southern New Guinea andAustraliawasturnedbackbya U.S.taskforceinaclosebattle.Afew weekslater,thenavalBattleofMidwayinthecentralPacificresultedin thefirstmajordefeatoftheJapanese Navy, which lost four aircraft carriers. Ending the Japanese advance across the central Pacific, Midway wastheturningpoint. Other battles also contributed to Allied success. The six-month landandseabattlefortheislandof Guadalcanal (August 1942-February 1943) was the first major U.S. ground victory in the Pacific. For mostofthenexttwoyears,American and Australian troops fought their way northward from the South Pacific and westward from the Central Pacific, capturing the Solomons, the Gilberts, the Mar-
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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
shalls,andtheMarianasinaseries cretlyagreedtoenterthewaragainst ofamphibiousassaults. Japan three months after the surrender of Germany. In return, the THEPOLITICSOFWAR USSRwouldgaineffectivecontrolof ManchuriaandreceivetheJapanese llied military efforts were ac- KurileIslandsaswellasthesouthern companiedbyaseriesofimportant halfofSakhalinIsland.Theeastern internationalmeetingsonthepoliti- boundaryofPolandwassetroughly calobjectivesofthewar.InJanuary attheCurzonlineof1919,thusgiv1943 at Casablanca, Morocco, an ing the USSR half its prewar terriAnglo-American conference de- tory.Discussionofreparationstobe cided that no peace would be con- collectedfromGermany—payment cludedwiththeAxisanditsBalkan demandedbyStalinandopposedby satellitesexceptonthebasisof“un- Roosevelt and Churchill — was inconditional surrender.” This term, conclusive. Specific arrangements insisted upon by Roosevelt, sought weremadeconcerningAlliedoccutoassurethepeopleofallthefight- pationinGermanyandthetrialand ing nations that no separate peace punishment of war criminals. Also negotiations would be carried on at Yalta it was agreed that the great with representatives of Fascism and powers in the Security Council of Nazismandtherewouldbenocom- theproposedUnitedNationsshould promiseofthewar’sidealisticobjec- havetherightofvetoinmattersaftives.Axispropagandists,ofcourse, fectingtheirsecurity. usedittoassertthattheAllieswere Two months after his return engagedinawarofextermination. fromYalta,FranklinRooseveltdied At Cairo, in November 1943, of a cerebral hemorrhage while vaRoosevelt and Churchill met with cationing in Georgia. Few figures Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang in U.S. history have been so deeply Kai-shek to agree on terms for Ja- mourned,andforatimetheAmeripan, including the relinquishment canpeoplesufferedfromanumbing of gains from past aggression. At senseofirreparableloss.VicePresiTehran, shortly afterward, Roos- dentHarryTruman,formersenator evelt, Churchill, and Soviet leader fromMissouri,succeededhim. JosephStalinmadebasicagreements on the postwar occupation of GerWAR,VICTORY,AND many and the establishment of a THEBOMB new international organization, the UnitedNations. hefinalbattlesinthePacificwere In February 1945, the three Al- among the war’s bloodiest. In June liedleadersmetagainatYalta(now 1944,theBattleofthePhilippineSea inUkraine),withvictoryseemingly effectively destroyed Japanese naval secure. There, the Soviet Union se- airpower,forcingtheresignationof
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JapanesePrimeMinisterTojo.General Douglas MacArthur — who had reluctantly left the Philippines two years before to escape Japanese capture—returnedtotheislandsin October. The accompanying Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagementeverfought,wasthefinal decisivedefeatoftheJapaneseNavy. By February 1945, U.S. forces had takenManila. Next, the United States set its sight on the strategic island of Iwo Jima in the Bonin Islands, about halfway between the Marianas and Japan. The Japanese, trained to die fightingfortheEmperor,madesuicidaluseofnaturalcavesandrocky terrain. U.S. forces took the island by mid-March, but not before losing the lives of some 6,000 U.S. Marines.NearlyalltheJapanesedefendersperished.BynowtheUnited Stateswasundertakingextensiveair attacks on Japanese shipping and airfields and wave after wave of incendiary bombing attacks against Japanesecities. At Okinawa (April 1-June 21, 1945),theAmericansmetevenfiercer resistance. With few of the defenderssurrendering,theU.S.Army and Marines were forced to wage a war of annihilation. Waves of Kamikaze suicide planes pounded the offshoreAlliedfleet,inflictingmore damage than at Leyte Gulf. Japan lost 90-100,000 troops and probably as many Okinawan civilians. U.S. losses were more than 11,000 killed and nearly 34,000 wounded. MostAmericanssawthefightingas
apreviewofwhattheywouldfacein aplannedinvasionofJapan. The heads of the U.S., British, andSovietgovernmentsmetatPotsdam, a suburb outside Berlin, from July17toAugust2,1945,todiscuss operations against Japan, the peace settlement in Europe, and a policy for the future of Germany. Perhaps presagingthecomingendofthealliance,theyhadnotroubleonvague mattersofprincipleorthepractical issues of military occupation, but reachednoagreementonmanytangibleissues,includingreparations. ThedaybeforethePotsdamConferencebegan,U.S.nuclearscientists engaged in the secret Manhattan Project exploded an atomic bomb nearAlamogordo,NewMexico.The test was the culmination of three years of intensive research in laboratories across the United States. It lay behind the Potsdam Declaration,issuedonJuly26bytheUnited States and Britain, promising that Japan would neither be destroyed nor enslaved if it surrendered. If Japan continued the war, however, it would meet “prompt and utter destruction.” President Truman, calculating that an atomic bomb might be used to gain Japan’s surrendermorequicklyandwithfewer casualties than an invasion of the mainland,orderedthatthebombbe usediftheJapanesedidnotsurrenderbyAugust3. AcommitteeofU.S.militaryand political officials and scientists had considered the question of targets for the new weapon. Secretary of
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OUTLINEOFU.S.HISTORY
THERISEOFINDUSTRIALUNIONS War Henry L. Stimson argued successfullythatKyoto,Japan’sancient capital and a repository of many national and religious treasures, be taken out of consideration. Hiroshima, a center of war industries andmilitaryoperations,becamethe firstobjective. On August 6, a U.S. plane, the EnolaGay,droppedanatomicbomb on the city of Hiroshima. On August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped, this time on Nagasaki. Thebombsdestroyedlargesections of both cities, with massive loss of life.OnAugust8,theUSSRdeclared waronJapanandattackedJapanese forces in Manchuria. On August 14, Japan agreed to the terms set at Potsdam. On September 2, 1945, Japanformallysurrendered.Americans were relieved that the bomb hastened the end of the war. The realizationofthefullimplicationsof nuclearweapons’awesomedestructivenesswouldcomelater. Within a month, on October 24, the United Nations came into existence following the meeting of representativesof50nationsinSan Francisco,California.Theconstitu-
tion they drafted outlined a world organization in which international differences could be discussed peacefullyandcommoncausemade againsthungeranddisease.Incontrast to its rejection of U.S. membership in the League of Nations after World War I, the U.S. Senate promptly ratified the U.N. Charter byan89to2vote.Thisactionconfirmedtheendofthespiritofisolationismasadominatingelementin Americanforeignpolicy. In November 1945 at Nuremberg, Germany, the criminal trials of 22 Nazi leaders, provided for at Potsdam,tookplace.Beforeagroup of distinguished jurists from Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and theUnitedStates,theNaziswereaccusednotonlyofplottingandwagingaggressivewarbutalsoofviolatingthelawsofwarandofhumanity inthesystematicgenocide,knownas theHolocaust,ofEuropeanJewsand otherpeoples.Thetrialslastedmore than10months.Twenty-twodefendants were convicted, 12 of them sentencedtodeath.SimilarproceedingswouldbeheldagainstJapanese warleaders. 9
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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, profitsharing, 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 sympathies. Independent unions were often accused of being Communist. At the same time, many companies formed their own compliant employee organizations, often called “company unions.” Traditionally, state legislatures, reflecting the views of the American middle 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 unionization 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 unskilled 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 industry, 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 farreaching 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
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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 Executive 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 40hour 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 Supreme 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.
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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.”
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FortheUnitedStates,the20thcenturywasaperiodofextraordinary turmoilandchange.Inthesedecades,thenationenduredtheworst economicdepressioninitshistory;emergedtriumphant,withthe Allies,inWorldWarII;assumedaroleofgloballeadershipinthe century’stwilightconflictknownastheColdWar;andunderwenta remarkablesocial,economic,andpoliticaltransitionathome.Where oncetheUnitedStatestransformeditselfovertheslowmarchof centuries,itnowseemedtoreinventitselfalmostbydecades.
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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.
World War II in the Pacific was characterized by large-scale naval and air battles. Here, a Japanese plane plunges down 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.
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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.”
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.
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Japanese Americans await relocation to internment camps in the worst violation of human rights that occurred inside the United States during World II. 233
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.
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.
U.S. infantry fire against North Korean forces invading South Korea in 1951, in a conflict that lasted three painful years. 234
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.
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.
Portrait of President Dwight Eisenhower, whose genial, reassuring personality dominated the decade of the 1950s. 236
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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.
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.”
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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 AfricanAmerican 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.
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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.)” 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. 242
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.
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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.
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A U.S. Army unit searches for snipers while on patrol in South Vietnam in 1965. From 60,000 troops in 1965, U.S. forces grew to more than 540,000 by 1969, in a conflict that divided the nation more bitterly than any other in the 20th century. The last U.S. combat forces left Vietnam in 1973.
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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.
The crest of the counterculture wave in the United States: the three-day 1969 outdoor rock concert and gathering known as Woodstock.
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.
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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. 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.
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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.
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
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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.
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 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
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Moving day in a newly opened suburban community, 1953. 256
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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
CONSENSUSANDCHANGE
T heUnitedStatesdominatedglobal affairs in the years immediately afterWorldWarII.Victoriousinthat greatstruggle,itshomelandundamaged from the ravages of war, the nation was confident of its mission at home and abroad. U.S. leaders wanted to maintain the democratic 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 wasthe“AmericanCentury.” For 20 years most Americans remained sure of this confident approach. They accepted the need for a strong stance against the Soviet Union in the Cold War that unfolded after 1945. They endorsed
the growth of government authority and accepted the outlines of the rudimentary welfare state first formulatedduringtheNewDeal.They enjoyed a postwar prosperity that creatednewlevelsofaffluence. But gradually some began to question dominant assumptions. Challenges on a variety of fronts shattered the consensus. In the 1950s, African Americans launched acrusade,joinedlaterbyotherminoritygroupsandwomen,foralargershareoftheAmericandream.In the1960s,politicallyactivestudents protested the nation’s role abroad, particularly in the corrosive war in Vietnam. A youth counterculture emergedtochallengethestatusquo. Americans from many walks of life soughttoestablishanewsocialand politicalequilibrium.
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COLDWARAIMS
he Cold War was the most important political and diplomatic issueoftheearlypostwarperiod.It grew out of longstanding disagreements between the Soviet Union and the United States that developedaftertheRussianRevolutionof 1917. The Soviet Communist Party under V.I. Lenin considered itself the spearhead of an international movement that would replace the existingpoliticalordersintheWest, andindeedthroughouttheworld.In 1918 American troops participated in the Allied intervention in Russia on behalf of anti-Bolshevik forces. Americandiplomaticrecognitionof theSovietUniondidnotcomeuntil 1933. Even then, suspicions persisted. During World War II, however, thetwocountriesfoundthemselves allied and downplayed their differencestocountertheNazithreat. At the war’s end, antagonisms surfaced again. The United States hopedtosharewithothercountries its conception of liberty, equality, and democracy. It sought also to learnfromtheperceivedmistakesof the post-WWI era, when American political disengagement and economic protectionism were thought tohavecontributedtotheriseofdictatorshipsinEuropeandelsewhere. Faced again with a postwar world of civil wars and disintegrating empires, the nation hoped to provide the stability to make peaceful reconstruction possible. Recalling the specter of the Great Depression
(1929-40), America now advocated opentradefortworeasons:tocreate markets for American agricultural and industrial products, and to ensure the ability of Western European nations to export as a means of rebuilding their economies. Reduced trade barriers, American policy makers believed, would promoteeconomicgrowthathomeand abroad, bolstering U.S. friends and alliesintheprocess. The Soviet Union had its own agenda. The Russian historical tradition of centralized, autocratic government contrasted with the American emphasis on democracy. Marxist-Leninistideologyhadbeen downplayedduringthewarbutstill guidedSovietpolicy.Devastatedby the struggle in which 20 million Sovietcitizenshaddied,theSoviet Unionwasintentonrebuildingand on protecting itself from another such terrible conflict. The Soviets were particularly concerned about another invasion of their territoryfromthewest.Havingrepelled Hitler’sthrust,theyweredetermined to preclude another such attack. They demanded “defensible” bordersand“friendly”regimesinEastern Europe and seemingly equated both with the spread of Communism, regardless of the wishes of native populations. However, the UnitedStateshaddeclaredthatone of its war aims was the restoration of independence and self-government to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the other countries of Central andEasternEurope.
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HARRYTRUMAN’S LEADERSHIP
he nation’s new chief executive, Harry S Truman, succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt as president before theendofthewar.Anunpretentious man who had previously served as Democratic senator from Missouri, then as vice president, Truman initially felt ill-prepared to govern. Roosevelt had not discussed complexpostwarissueswithhim,andhe hadlittleexperienceininternational affairs.“I’mnotbigenoughforthis job,”hetoldaformercolleague. Still, Truman responded quickly to new challenges. Sometimes impulsiveonsmallmatters,heproved 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 torespondtotheSovietUnionultimately determined the shape of the earlyColdWar.
ORIGINSOFTHECOLDWAR
T
heColdWardevelopedasdifferencesabouttheshapeofthepostwar worldcreatedsuspicionanddistrust 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 USSRin1939.Moscowdemandeda government subject to Soviet influence; Washington wanted a more independent,representativegovern-
ment following the Western model. The Yalta Conference of February 1945hadproducedanagreementon EasternEuropeopentodifferentinterpretations. It included a promise of“freeandunfettered”elections. Meeting with Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov lessthantwoweeksafterbecoming president, Truman stood firm on Polish self-determination, lecturing the Soviet diplomat about the need to implement the Yalta accords. When Molotov protested, “I have neverbeentalkedtolikethatinmy life,” Truman retorted, “Carry out your agreements and you won’t get talked to like that.” Relations deterioratedfromthatpointonward. During the closing months of WorldWarII,Sovietmilitaryforces occupiedallofCentralandEastern Europe. Moscow used its military power to support the efforts of the Communist parties in Eastern Europe and crush the democratic parties. Communists took over one nation after another. The process concluded with a shocking coup d’etatinCzechoslovakiain1948. Public statements defined the beginningoftheColdWar.In1946 Stalin declared that international peace was impossible “under the present capitalist development of theworldeconomy.”FormerBritish Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a dramatic speech in Fulton, Missouri, with Truman sitting on the platform. “From Stettin in theBaltictoTriesteintheAdriatic,” Churchillsaid,“anironcurtainhas
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descended across the Continent.” Britain and the United States, he declared, had to work together to countertheSovietthreat.
CONTAINMENT
C ontainmentoftheSovietUnion 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 articleunderthesignature“X”inthe prestigious journal Foreign Affairs. PointingtoRussia’straditionalsense of insecurity, Kennan argued that the Soviet Union would not soften its stance under any circumstances. Moscow,hewrote,was“committed fanaticallytothebeliefthatwiththe UnitedStatestherecanbenopermanent modus vivendi, that it is desirableandnecessarythattheinternal harmony of our society be disrupted.” Moscow’s pressure to expand itspowerhadtobestoppedthrough “firm and vigilant containment of Russianexpansivetendencies....” The first significant application of the containment doctrine came intheMiddleEastandeasternMediterranean.Inearly1946,theUnited States demanded, and obtained, a full Soviet withdrawal from Iran, the northern half of which it had occupiedduringthewar.Thatsummer, the United States pointedly supportedTurkeyagainstSovietdemands for control of the Turkish
straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. In early 1947, American policy crystallized when Britain told the United States that itcouldnolongeraffordtosupport the government of Greece against a strongCommunistinsurgency. In a strongly worded speech to Congress, Truman declared, “I believethatitmustbethepolicyofthe UnitedStatestosupportfreepeoples whoareresistingattemptedsubjugationbyarmedminoritiesorbyoutside pressures.” Journalists quickly dubbedthisstatementthe“Truman Doctrine.” The president asked Congresstoprovide$400millionfor economic and military aid, mostly to Greece but also to Turkey. After anemotionaldebatethatresembled the one between interventionists and isolationists before World War II,themoneywasappropriated. Criticsfromtheleftlatercharged that to whip up American support for the policy of containment, Truman overstated the Soviet threat to theUnitedStates.Inturn,hisstatements inspired a wave of hysterical anti-Communism throughout the country. Perhaps so. Others, however, would counter that this argumentignoresthebacklashthatlikely wouldhaveoccurredifGreece,Turkey, and other countries had fallen withintheSovietorbitwithnooppositionfromtheUnitedStates. Containment also called for extensiveeconomicaidtoassisttherecoveryofwar-tornWesternEurope. With many of the region’s nations economically and politically un-
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stable, the United States feared that local Communist parties, directed by Moscow, would capitalize on theirwartimerecordofresistanceto theNazisandcometopower.“The patient is sinking while the doctors deliberate,” declared Secretary of State George C. Marshall. In mid1947MarshallaskedtroubledEuropeannationstodrawupaprogram “directednotagainstanycountryor doctrine but against hunger, poverty,desperation,andchaos.” The Soviets participated in the first planning meeting, then departed rather than share economic dataandsubmittoWesterncontrols on the expenditure of the aid. The remaining 16 nations hammered out a request that finally came to $17,000millionforafour-yearperiod. In early 1948 Congress voted tofundthe“MarshallPlan,”which helped underwrite the economic resurgence of Western Europe. It is generally regarded as one of the most successful foreign policy initiativesinU.S.history. Postwar Germany was a special problem. It had been divided into U.S., Soviet, British, and French zones of occupation, with the formerGermancapitalofBerlin(itself divided into four zones), near the center of the Soviet zone. When the Western powers announced their intention to create a consolidatedfederalstatefromtheirzones, Stalinresponded.OnJune24,1948, SovietforcesblockadedBerlin,cuttingoffallroadandrailaccessfrom theWest.
American leaders feared that losing Berlin would be a prelude to losingGermanyandsubsequentlyall ofEurope.Therefore,inasuccessful demonstration of Western resolve knownastheBerlinAirlift,Alliedair forcestooktothesky,flyingsupplies intoBerlin.U.S.,French,andBritish planes delivered nearly 2,250,000 tons of goods, including food and coal.Stalinliftedtheblockadeafter 231daysand277,264flights. By then, Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and especially the Czechcoup,hadalarmedtheWesternEuropeans.Theresult,initiated by the Europeans, was a military alliancetocomplementeconomiceffortsatcontainment.TheNorwegian historian Geir Lundestad has called it“empirebyinvitation.”In1949the UnitedStatesand11othercountries establishedtheNorthAtlanticTreaty Organization (NATO). An attack againstonewastobeconsideredan attack against all, to be met by appropriate force. NATO was the first peacetime“entanglingalliance”with powers outside the Western hemisphereinAmericanhistory. The next year, the United States defineditsdefenseaimsclearly.The National Security Council (NSC) — the forum where the President, Cabinet officers, and other executive branch members consider national security and foreign affairs issues — undertook a full-fledged review of American foreign and defense policy. The resulting document,knownasNSC-68,signaleda newdirectioninAmericansecurity
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policy.Basedontheassumptionthat “theSovietUnionwasengagedina fanatical effort to seize control of allgovernmentswhereverpossible,” the document committed America to assist allied nations anywhere in theworldthatseemedthreatenedby Soviet aggression. After the start of theKoreanWar,areluctantTruman approvedthedocument.TheUnited Statesproceededtoincreasedefense spendingdramatically.
THECOLDWARINASIAAND THEMIDDLEEAST
W hileseekingtopreventCommunist ideology from gaining further 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 Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shekandtheCommunistforces wagedacivilwarevenastheyfought the Japanese. Chiang had been a war-time ally, but his government was hopelessly inefficient and corrupt. American policy makers had littlehopeofsavinghisregimeand considered Europe vastly more important. With most American aid moving across the Atlantic, Mao’s forces seized power in 1949. Chiang’s government fled to the island ofTaiwan.WhenChina’snewruler announced that he would support the Soviet Union against the “imperialist” United States, it appeared thatCommunismwasspreadingout
ofcontrol,atleastinAsia. The Korean War brought armed conflict between the United States and China. The United States and theSovietUnionhaddividedKorea alongthe38thparallelafterliberatingitfromJapanattheendofWorld WarII.Originallyamatterofmilitary convenience, the dividing line became more rigid as both major powers set up governments in their respective occupation zones and continuedtosupportthemevenafterdeparting. In June 1950, after consultations withandhavingobtainedtheassent 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, perceiving the North Koreans as Sovietpawnsintheglobalstruggle, readiedAmericanforcesandordered WorldWarIIheroGeneralDouglas MacArthur to Korea. Meanwhile, theUnitedStateswasabletosecure a U.N. resolution branding North Korea as an aggressor. (The Soviet Union,whichcouldhavevetoedany actionhaditbeenoccupyingitsseat ontheSecurityCouncil,wasboycottingtheUnitedNationstoprotesta decision not to admit Mao’s new Chineseregime.) Thewarseesawedbackandforth. U.S.andKoreanforceswereinitially pushed into an enclave far to the south around the city of Pusan. A daring amphibious landing at Inchon,theportforthecityofSeoul, drove the North Koreans back and
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threatened to occupy the entire peninsula. In November, China entered the war, sending massive forces across the Yalu River. U.N. forces, largely American, retreated once again in bitter fighting. Commanded by General Matthew B. Ridgway, they stopped the overextended 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 invasionofthemainlandbyChiang Kai-shek’sforces.InApril1951,Truman relieved him of his duties and replacedhimwithRidgway. The Cold War stakes were high. Mindful of the European priority, theU.S.governmentdecidedagainst sending more troops to Korea 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 popularity plunged to a 24-percent approval rating,thelowesttothattimeofany president since pollsters had begun to measure presidential popularity. Truce talks began in July 1951. The two sides finally reached an agreement in July 1953, during the first termofTruman’ssuccessor,Dwight Eisenhower. ColdWarstrugglesalsooccurred intheMiddleEast.Theregion’sstrategicimportanceasasupplierofoil had provided much of the impetus forpushingtheSovietsoutofIranin 1946.Buttwoyearslater,theUnited
States officially recognized the new stateofIsrael15minutesafteritwas proclaimed — a decision Truman made over strong resistance from MarshallandtheStateDepartment. Theresultwasanenduringdilemma — how to maintain ties with Israel while keeping good relations with bitterly anti-Israeli (and oil-rich) Arabstates.
EISENHOWERANDTHE COLDWAR
IcamethefirstRepublicanpresident n1953,DwightD.Eisenhowerbein20years.Awarheroratherthan a career politician, he had a natural, common touch that made him widelypopular.“IlikeIke”wasthe campaign slogan of the time. After serving as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Western Europe during World War II, Eisenhowerhadbeenarmychiefofstaff, president of Columbia University, and military head of NATO before seeking the Republican presidential nomination.Skillfulatgettingpeople to work together, he functioned as a strong public spokesman and anexecutivemanagersomewhatremovedfromdetailedpolicymaking. Despite disagreements on detail, he shared Truman’s basic view of American foreign policy. He, too, perceived Communism as a monolithic force struggling for world supremacy. In his first inaugural address, he declared, “Forces of good andevilaremassedandarmedand opposed as rarely before in history.
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Freedom is pitted against slavery, lightnessagainstdark.” Thenewpresidentandhissecretaryofstate,JohnFosterDulles,had arguedthatcontainmentdidnotgo farenoughtostopSovietexpansion. 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 forcessuppressedit. Eisenhower’s basic commitment to contain Communism remained, andtothatendheincreasedAmericanrelianceonanuclearshield.The United States had created the first atomicbombs.In1950Trumanhad authorizedthedevelopmentofanew andmorepowerfulhydrogenbomb. Eisenhower, fearful that defense spending was out of control, reversedTruman’sNSC-68policyofa largeconventionalmilitarybuildup. RelyingonwhatDullescalled“massive retaliation,” the administration signaleditwouldusenuclearweaponsifthenationoritsvitalinterests wereattacked. Inpractice,however,thenuclear option could be used only against extremely critical attacks. Real Communist threats were generally peripheral. Eisenhower rejected the use of nuclear weapons in Indochina,whentheFrenchwereousted by Vietnamese Communist forces in1954.In1956,BritishandFrench forces attacked Egypt following EgyptiannationalizationoftheSuez CanalandIsraelinvadedtheEgyp-
tian Sinai. The president exerted heavypressureonallthreecountries towithdraw.Still,thenuclearthreat may have been taken seriously by CommunistChina,whichrefrained notonlyfromattackingTaiwan,but from occupying small islands held by Nationalist Chinese just off the mainland.Itmayalsohavedeterred Soviet occupation of Berlin, which reemerged as a festering problem during Eisenhower’s last two years inoffice.
THECOLDWARATHOME
N
otonlydidtheColdWarshape U.S.foreignpolicy,italsohadaprofound effect on domestic affairs. Americans had long feared radical subversion. These fears could at timesbeoverdrawn,andusedtojustifyotherwiseunacceptablepolitical restrictions,butitalsowastruethat individualsunderCommunistParty discipline and many “fellow traveler”hangers-ongavetheirpolitical allegiance not to the United States, buttotheinternationalCommunist movement, or, practically speaking, to Moscow. During the Red Scare of 1919-1920, the government had attempted to remove perceived threats to American society. After WorldWarII,itmadestrongefforts against Communism within the UnitedStates.Foreignevents,espionage scandals, and politics created ananti-Communisthysteria. When Republicans were victorious in the midterm congressional elections of 1946 and appeared
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readytoinvestigatesubversiveactivity, President Truman established a FederalEmployeeLoyaltyProgram. It had little impact on the lives of most civil servants, but a few hundredweredismissed,someunfairly. In 1947 the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigated the motion-picture industry to determine whether Communist sentiments were being reflected in popular films. When some writers (who happened to be secret members of the Communist Party) refused to testify, they were cited for contempt and sent to prison. After that, the film companies refused to hireanyonewithamarginallyquestionablepast. In 1948, Alger Hiss, who had been an assistant secretary of state and an adviser to Roosevelt at Yalta, was publicly accused of beingaCommunistspybyWhittaker Chambers, a former Soviet agent. Hiss denied the accusation, but in 1950 he was convicted of perjury. Subsequent evidence indicates that hewasindeedguilty. In1949theSovietUnionshocked Americansbytestingitsownatomic bomb.In1950,thegovernmentuncoveredaBritish-Americanspynetwork that transferred to the Soviet Unionmaterialsaboutthedevelopment 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 American Communists, each bearing“thegermofdeathforsociety.”
Themostvigorousanti-Communist warrior was Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin.Hegainednationalattention in1950byclaimingthathehadalist of 205 known Communists in the State Department. Though McCarthysubsequentlychangedthisfigure severaltimesandfailedtosubstantiate any of his charges, he struck a responsivepublicchord. McCarthy gained power when the Republican Party won control oftheSenatein1952.Asacommittee chairman, he now had a forum forhiscrusade.Relyingonextensive press and television coverage, he continued to search for treachery among second-level officials in the Eisenhower administration. Enjoying the role of a tough guy doing dirtybutnecessarywork,hepursued presumedCommunistswithvigor. McCarthy overstepped himself bychallengingtheU.S.Armywhen one of his assistants was drafted. Televisionbroughtthehearingsinto millionsofhomes.ManyAmericans saw McCarthy’s savage tactics for the first time, and public support began to wane. The Republican Party, which had found McCarthy useful in challenging a Democratic administration when Truman was president, began to see him as an embarrassment. The Senate finally condemnedhimforhisconduct. McCarthy in many ways represented the worst domestic excesses of the Cold War. As Americans repudiated him, it became natural for many to assume that the Com-
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munist threat at home and abroad had been grossly overblown. As the countrymovedintothe1960s,antiCommunism became increasingly suspect,especiallyamongintellectualsandopinion-shapers.
THEPOSTWARECONOMY: 1945-1960
IWorld n the decade and a half after War II, the United States experienced phenomenal economic growthandconsolidateditsposition astheworld’srichestcountry.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 middleclass. The growth had different sources.Theeconomicstimulusprovided by large-scale public spending for World War II helped get it started. Two basic middle-class needs did muchtokeepitgoing.Thenumber of automobiles produced annually quadrupledbetween1946and1955. Ahousingboom,stimulatedinpart by easily affordable mortgages for returningservicemen,fueledtheexpansion.Theriseindefensespending as the Cold War escalated also playedapart. After1945themajorcorporations in America grew even larger. There had been earlier waves of mergers inthe1890sandinthe1920s;inthe
1950sanotherwaveoccurred.Franchise operations like McDonald’s fast-food restaurants allowed small entrepreneurs to make themselves part of large, efficient enterprises. Big American corporations also developed holdings overseas, where laborcostswereoftenlower. Workers found their own lives changing as industrial America changed. Fewer workers produced goods; more provided services. As early as 1956 a majority of employees held white-collar jobs, working as managers, teachers, salespersons, and office operatives. Some firms granted a guaranteed annual wage, long-term employment contracts, and other benefits. With such changes,labormilitancywasundermined and some class distinctions begantofade. 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 theland. Other Americans moved too. The West and the Southwest grew withincreasingrapidity,atrendthat would continue through the end of the century. Sun Belt cities like Houston,Texas;Miami,Florida;Albuquerque,NewMexico;andPhoenix,Arizona,expandedrapidly.Los Angeles,California,movedaheadof Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the thirdlargestU.S.cityandthensurpassed Chicago, metropolis of the Midwest. The 1970 census showed
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that California had displaced New York as the nation’s largest state. By2000,Texashadmovedaheadof NewYorkintosecondplace. An even more important form of movement led Americans out of innercitiesintonewsuburbs,where theyhopedtofindaffordablehousing for the larger families spawned bythepostwarbabyboom.Developers like William J. Levitt built new communities — with homes that all looked alike — using the techniques 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 andallowednewownerstopossessa partoftheAmericandream. As suburbs grew, businesses moved into the new areas. Large shopping centers containing a great variety of stores changed consumer patterns.Thenumberofthesecenters rose from eight at the end of WorldWarIIto3,840in1960.With easyparkingandconvenientevening hours, customers could avoid city shopping entirely. An unfortunate by-productwasthe“hollowing-out” offormerlybusyurbancores. New highways created better access to the suburbs and its shops. The Highway Act of 1956 provided $26,000-million, the largest public worksexpenditureinU.S.history,to build more than 64,000 kilometers oflimitedaccessinterstatehighways tolinkthecountrytogether. Television, too, had a powerful impactonsocialandeconomicpat-
terns.Developedinthe1930s,itwas not widely marketed until after the war. In 1946 the country had fewer than 17,000 television sets. Three years later consumers were buying 250,000 sets a month, and by 1960 three-quartersofallfamiliesowned atleastoneset.Inthemiddleofthe decade, the average family watched television four to five hours a day. Popularshowsforchildrenincluded HowdyDoodyTimeandTheMickey MouseClub ;olderviewerspreferred situation comedies like I Love Lucy andFatherKnowsBest.Americansof allagesbecameexposedtoincreasingly sophisticated advertisements forproductssaidtobenecessaryfor thegoodlife.
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THEFAIRDEAL
heFairDealwasthenamegiven toPresidentHarryTruman’sdomesticprogram.BuildingonRoosevelt’s NewDeal,Trumanbelievedthatthe federal government should guaranteeeconomicopportunityandsocial stability.Hestruggledtoachievethose endsinthefaceoffiercepoliticaloppositionfromlegislatorsdetermined toreducetheroleofgovernment. Truman’s first priority in the immediate postwar period was to make the transition to a peacetime economy. Servicemen wanted to come home quickly, but once they arrived they faced competition for housing and employment. The G.I. Bill,passedbeforetheendofthewar, helpedeaseservicemenbackintocivilianlifebyprovidingbenefitssuch
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as guaranteed loans for home-buying and financial aid for industrial traininganduniversityeducation. Moretroublingwaslaborunrest. As war production ceased, many workers found themselves without jobs. Others wanted pay increases theyfeltwerelongoverdue.In1946, 4.6 million workers went on strike, more than ever before in American history.Theychallengedtheautomobile, steel, and electrical industries. Whentheytookontherailroadsand soft-coalmines,Trumanintervened tostopunionexcesses,butinsodoinghealienatedmanyworkers. While dealing with immediately pressingissues,Trumanalsoprovidedabroaderagendaforaction.Less thanaweekafterthewarended,he presented Congress with a 21-point program, which provided for protection against unfair employment practices, a higher minimum wage, greater unemployment compensation, and housing assistance. In the next several months, he added proposals for health insurance and atomic energy legislation. But this scattershotapproachoftenleftTruman’sprioritiesunclear. Republicanswerequicktoattack. In the 1946 congressional elections they asked, “Had enough?” and votersrespondedthattheyhad.Republicans, with majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time since 1928, were determined toreversetheliberaldirectionofthe Rooseveltyears. TrumanfoughtwiththeCongress asitcutspendingandreducedtaxes.
In1948hesoughtreelection,despite polls indicating that he had little chance. After a vigorous campaign, Trumanscoredoneofthegreatupsets in American politics, defeating the Republican nominee, Thomas Dewey, governor of New York. Reviving the old New Deal coalition, Truman held on to labor, farmers, andAfrican-Americanvoters. When Truman finally left office in 1953, his Fair Deal was but a mixed success. In July 1948 he bannedracialdiscriminationinfederalgovernmenthiringpracticesand orderedanendtosegregationinthe military. The minimum wage had risen, and social security programs had expanded. A housing program brought some gains but left many needsunmet.Nationalhealthinsurance, aid-to-education measures, reformed agricultural subsidies, andhislegislativecivilrightsagenda never made it through Congress. The president’s pursuit of the Cold War,ultimatelyhismostimportant objective,madeitespeciallydifficult todevelopsupportforsocialreform inthefaceofintenseopposition.
EISENHOWER’SAPPROACH
W hen Dwight Eisenhower succeededTrumanaspresident,heaccepted the basic framework of government responsibility established bytheNewDeal,butsoughttohold the line on programs and expenditures.Hetermedhisapproach“dynamic conservatism” or “modern Republicanism,”whichmeant,heex-
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plained,“conservativewhenitcomes to money, liberal when it comes to human beings.” A critic countered that Eisenhower appeared to argue thathewould“stronglyrecommend thebuildingofagreatmanyschools ...butnotprovidethemoney.” Eisenhower’s first priority was tobalancethebudgetafteryearsof deficits.Hewantedtocutspending andtaxesandmaintainthevalueof the dollar. Republicans were willing to risk unemployment to keep inflation in check. Reluctant to stimulate the economy too much, they saw the country suffer three economic recessions in the eight yearsoftheEisenhowerpresidency, butnonewasverysevere. In other areas, the administration transferred control of offshore oil lands from the federal government to the states. It also favored private development of electrical power rather than the public approachtheDemocratshadinitiated. Ingeneral,itsorientationwassympathetictobusiness. Compared to Truman, Eisenhower had only a modest domestic program. When he was active in promotingabill,itlikelywastotrim the New Deal legacy a bit — as in reducing agricultural subsidies or placing mild restrictions on labor unions. His disinclination to push fundamentalchangeineitherdirectionwasinkeepingwiththespiritof the generally prosperous Fifties. He was one of the few presidents who left office as popular as when he enteredit.
THECULTUREOFTHE1950S
D
uring the 1950s, many cultural commentators pointed out thatasenseofuniformitypervaded Americansociety.Conformity,they asserted, was numbingly common. Though men and women had been forced into new employment patternsduringWorldWarII,oncethe war was over, traditional roles were reaffirmed.Menexpectedtobethe breadwinnersineachfamily;women,evenwhentheyworked,assumed theirproperplacewasathome.Inhis influentialbook,TheLonelyCrowd, sociologist David Riesman called this new society “other-directed,” characterized by conformity, but alsobystability.Television,stillvery limitedinthechoicesitgaveitsviewers,contributedtothehomogenizing cultural trend by providing young andoldwithasharedexperiencereflectingacceptedsocialpatterns. Yet beneath this seemingly bland surface, important segments of American society seethed with rebellion. A number of writers, collectively known as the “Beat Generation,” went out of their way tochallengethepatternsofrespectability and shock the rest of the culture. Stressing spontaneity and spirituality, they preferred intuition overreason,Easternmysticismover Westerninstitutionalizedreligion. The literary work of the beats displayed their sense of alienation and quest for self-realization. Jack Kerouactypedhisbest-sellingnovel On the Road on a 75-meter roll of
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paper.Lackingtraditionalpunctuation and paragraph structure, the bookglorifiedthepossibilitiesofthe freelife.PoetAllenGinsberggained similar notoriety for his poem “Howl,”ascathingcritiqueofmodern,mechanizedcivilization.When police charged that it was obscene and seized the published version, Ginsbergsuccessfullychallengedthe rulingincourt. 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 African-Americanmusic,whichbegan tobecalled“rockandroll.”Atfirst, heoutragedmiddle-classAmericans withhisducktailhaircutandundulating hips. But in a few years his performanceswouldseemrelatively tame alongside the antics of later performances such as the British Rolling Stones. Similarly, it was in the 1950s that painters like Jackson Pollockdiscardedeaselsandlaidout giganticcanvasesonthefloor,then appliedpaint,sand,andothermaterialsinwildsplashesofcolor.Allof these artists and authors, whatever the medium, provided models for thewiderandmoredeeplyfeltsocial revolutionofthe1960s.
ORIGINSOFTHECIVIL RIGHTSMOVEMENT
A frican Americans became increasingly restive in the postwar years.Duringthewartheyhadchallenged discrimination in the mili-
tary services and in the work force, and they had made limited gains. Millions of African Americans had left Southern farms for Northern cities, where they hoped to find better jobs. They found instead crowdedconditionsinurbanslums. Now,African-Americanservicemen returned home, many intent on rejectingsecond-classcitizenship. Jackie Robinson dramatized the racial question in 1947 when he broke baseball’s color line and beganplayinginthemajorleagues.A member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he often faced trouble with opponents and teammates as well. But an outstanding first season led to his acceptance and eased the way forotherAfrican-Americanplayers, who now left the Negro leagues to whichtheyhadbeenconfined. Government officials, and many other Americans, discovered the connectionbetweenracialproblems andColdWarpolitics.Astheleader of the free world, the United States sought support in Africa and Asia. Discrimination at home impeded the effort to win friends in other partsoftheworld. Harry Truman supported the earlycivilrightsmovement.Hepersonallybelievedinpoliticalequality, though not in social equality, and recognizedthegrowingimportance oftheAfrican-Americanurbanvote. Whenapprisedin1946ofaspateof lynchings and anti-black violence in the South, he appointed a committee on civil rights to investigate discrimination.Itsreport,ToSecure
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These Rights, issued the next year, documented African Americans’ second-class status in American life and recommended numerous federalmeasurestosecuretherights guaranteedtoallcitizens. Truman responded by sending a 10-point civil rights program to Congress. Southern Democrats in Congress were able to block its enactment. A number of the angriest, led by Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, formed a States RightsPartytoopposethepresident in 1948. Truman thereupon issued anexecutiveorderbarringdiscrimination in federal employment, orderedequaltreatmentinthearmed forces, and appointed a committee to work toward an end to military segregation,whichwaslargelyended duringtheKoreanWar. African Americans in the South inthe1950sstillenjoyedfew,ifany, civilandpoliticalrights.Ingeneral, theycouldnotvote.Thosewhotried to register faced the likelihood of beatings, loss of job, loss of credit, or eviction from their land. Occasional lynchings still occurred. Jim Crow laws enforced segregation of theracesinstreetcars,trains,hotels, restaurants, hospitals, recreational facilities,andemployment.
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DESEGREGATION
he National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)tooktheleadineffortsto overturn the judicial doctrine, establishedintheSupremeCourtcase
Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, that segregation of African-American and white students was constitutional if facilities were “separate but equal.” That decree had been used for decades to sanction rigid segregation inallaspectsofSouthernlife,where facilitieswereseldom,ifever,equal. AfricanAmericansachievedtheir goal of overturning Plessy in 1954 when the Supreme Court — presided over by an Eisenhower appointee, Chief Justice Earl Warren —handeddownitsBrownv.Board of Education ruling. The Court declared unanimously that “separate facilities are inherently unequal,” and decreed that the “separate but equal” doctrine could no longer be usedinpublicschools.Ayearlater, the Supreme Court demanded that local school boards move “with all deliberate speed” to implement the decision. Eisenhower, although sympathetictotheneedsoftheSouthasit facedamajortransition,nonetheless actedtoseethatthelawwasupheld inthefaceofmassiveresistancefrom muchoftheSouth.Hefacedamajor crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, when Governor Orval Faubus attempted to block a desegregation plancallingfortheadmissionofnine blackstudentstothecity’spreviously all-white Central High School. After futile efforts at negotiation, the president sent federal troops to LittleRocktoenforcetheplan. Governor Faubus responded by orderingtheLittleRockhighschools closeddownforthe1958-59school
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year. However, a federal court ordered them reopened the following year. They did so in a tense atmosphere with a tiny number of African-American students. Thus, schooldesegregationproceededata slowanduncertainpacethroughout muchoftheSouth. Another milestone in the civil rightsmovementoccurredin1955in Montgomery,Alabama.RosaParks, a 42-year-old African-American seamstress who was also secretary of the state chapter of the NAACP, sat down in the front of a bus in a sectionreservedbylawandcustom for whites. Ordered to move to the back, she refused. Police came and arrested her for violating the segregation statutes. African-American leaders, who had been waiting for justsuchacase,organizedaboycott ofthebussystem. Martin Luther King Jr., a young ministeroftheBaptistchurchwhere theAfricanAmericansmet,became aspokesmanfortheprotest.“There comesatime,”hesaid,“whenpeoplegettired...ofbeingkickedabout by the brutal feet of oppression.” King was arrested, as he would be again and again; a bomb damaged the front of his house. But African Americans in Montgomery sustained the boycott. About a year later, the Supreme Court affirmed that bus segregation, like school segregation, was unconstitutional. The boycott ended. The civil rights movement had won an important victory — and discovered its most
powerful, thoughtful, and eloquent leaderinMartinLutherKingJr. AfricanAmericansalsosoughtto securetheirvotingrights.Although the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed the right tovote,manystateshadfoundways to circumvent the law. The states would impose a poll (“head”) tax or a literacy test — typically much more stringently interpreted for African Americans — to prevent poor African Americans with little education from voting. Eisenhower, workingwithSenatemajorityleader LyndonB.Johnson,lenthissupport toacongressionalefforttoguarantee the vote. The Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first such measure in 82 years, marked a step forward, as it authorized federal intervention in cases where African Americans were denied the chance to vote. Yet loopholes remained, and so activistspushedsuccessfullyfortheCivil Rights Act of 1960, which provided stiffer penalties for interfering with voting,butstillstoppedshortofauthorizingfederalofficialstoregister AfricanAmericans. RelyingontheeffortsofAfrican Americans themselves, the civil rights movement gained momentum in the postwar years. Working through the Supreme Court and through Congress, civil rights supportershadcreatedthegroundwork foradramaticyetpeaceful“revolution” in American race relations in the1960s. 9
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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
“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 the verge of a major social change. American society had always been more open and fluid than that of thenationsinmostoftherestofthe world.Still,ithadbeendominated primarilybyold-stock,whitemales. Duringthe1960s,groupsthatpreviously had been submerged or subordinate began more forcefully and successfullytoassertthemselves:AfricanAmericans,NativeAmericans, women,thewhiteethnicoffspringof the“newimmigration,”andLatinos. Much of the support they received camefromayoungpopulationlargerthanever,makingitswaythrough acollegeanduniversitysystemthat wasexpandingatanunprecedented pace. Frequently embracing “countercultural” life styles and radical
politics,manyoftheoffspringofthe WorldWarIIgenerationemergedas advocates of a new America characterized by a cultural and ethnic pluralism that their parents often viewedwithunease.
T
THECIVILRIGHTS MOVEMENT1960-1980
hestruggleofAfricanAmericans for equality reached its peak in the mid-1960s. After progressive victories in the 1950s, African Americans became even more committed to nonviolent direct action. Groups liketheSouthernChristianLeadership Conference (SCLC), made up of African-American clergy, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), composed
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of younger activists, sought reform throughpeacefulconfrontation. In 1960 African-American college students sat down at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in North Carolina and refused to leave. Their sit-in captured media attentionandledtosimilardemonstrationsthroughouttheSouth.The nextyear,civilrightsworkersorganized“freedomrides,”inwhichAfricanAmericansandwhitesboarded buses heading south toward segregated terminals, where confrontationsmightcapturemediaattention andleadtochange. They also organized rallies, the largest of which was the “March on Washington” in 1963. More than 200,000 people gathered in the nation’s capital to demonstrate their commitment to equality for all.Thehighpointofadayofsongs andspeechescamewiththeaddress ofMartinLutherKingJr.,whohad emerged as the preeminent spokesmanforcivilrights.“Ihaveadream thatonedayontheredhillsofGeorgiathesonsofformerslavesandthe sons of former slave owners will be abletositdowntogetheratthetable of brotherhood,” King proclaimed. Eachtimeheusedtherefrain“Ihave adream,”thecrowdroared. The level of progress initially achieveddidnotmatchtherhetoric ofthecivilrightsmovement.President Kennedy was initially reluctant to press white Southerners for support on civil rights because he needed their votes on other issues. Events,drivenbyAfricanAmericans
themselves, forced his hand. When James Meredith was denied admissiontotheUniversityofMississippi in1962becauseofhisrace,Kennedy sentfederaltroopstoupholdthelaw. Afterprotestsaimedatthedesegregation of Birmingham, Alabama, prompted a violent response by the police,hesentCongressanewcivil rightsbillmandatingtheintegration ofpublicplaces.NoteventheMarch on Washington, however, could extricatethemeasurefromacongressional committee, where it was still bottledupwhenKennedywasassassinatedin1963. President Lyndon B. Johnson was more successful. Displaying negotiating skills he had so frequently employed during his years as Senate majority leader, Johnson persuadedtheSenatetolimitdelaying tactics preventing a final vote onthesweepingCivilRightsActof 1964, which outlawed discrimination in all public accommodations. The next year’s Voting Rights Act of 1965 authorized the federal governmenttoregistervoterswherelocal officials had prevented African Americans from doing so. By 1968 a million African Americans were registered in the deep South. Nationwide, the number of AfricanAmericanelectedofficialsincreased substantially.In1968,theCongress passedlegislationbanningdiscriminationinhousing. Once unleashed, however, the civil rights revolution produced leadersimpatientwithboththepace of change and the goal of channel-
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ing African Americans into mainstream white society. Malcolm X, an eloquent activist, was the most prominent figure arguing for African-American separation from the white race. Stokely Carmichael, a student leader, became similarly disillusionedbythenotionsofnonviolenceandinterracialcooperation. He popularized the slogan “black power,”tobeachievedby“whatever means necessary,” in the words of MalcolmX. Violence accompanied militant calls for reform. Riots broke out in several big cities in 1966 and 1967. In the spring of 1968, Martin LutherKingJr.fellbeforeanassassin’s bullet.Severalmonthslater,Senator Robert Kennedy, a spokesman for the disadvantaged, an opponent of the Vietnam War, and the brother oftheslainpresident,metthesame fate. To many these two assassinationsmarkedtheendofaneraofinnocenceandidealism.Thegrowing militancy on the left, coupled with aninevitableconservativebacklash, opened a rift in the nation’s psyche thattookyearstoheal. By then, however, a civil rights movement supported by court decisions, congressional enactments, and federal administrative regulationswasirreversiblywovenintothe fabric of American life. The major issues were about implementation ofequalityandaccess,notaboutthe legalityofsegregationordisenfranchisement. The arguments of the 1970sandthereafterwereovermatters such as busing children out of
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
their neighborhoods to achieve racialbalanceinmetropolitanschools orabouttheuseof“affirmativeaction.” These policies and programs wereviewedbysomeasactivemeasurestoensureequalopportunity,as in education and employment, and byothersasreversediscrimination. The courts worked their way through these problems with decisions that were often inconsistent. In the meantime, the steady march ofAfricanAmericansintotheranks ofthemiddleclassandoncelargely white suburbs quietly reflected a profounddemographicchange.
THEWOMEN’SMOVEMENT
D
uring the 1950s and 1960s, increasing numbers of married women entered the labor force, but in1963theaverageworkingwoman earned only 63 percent of what a manmade.ThatyearBettyFriedan published The Feminine Mystique, an explosive critique of middleclasslivingpatternsthatarticulated a pervasive sense of discontent that Friedancontendedwasfeltbymany women. Arguing that women often had no outlets for expression other than “finding a husband and bearing children,” Friedan encouraged herreaderstoseeknewrolesandresponsibilities and to find their own personalandprofessionalidentities, ratherthanhavethemdefinedbya male-dominatedsociety. The women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s drew inspiration from the civil rights movement. It
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wasmadeupmainlyofmembersof the middle class, and thus partook ofthespiritofrebellionthataffected large segments of middle-class youthinthe1960s. Reformlegislationalsoprompted change. During debate on the 1964 Civil Rights bill, opponents hoped todefeattheentiremeasurebyproposinganamendmenttooutlawdiscriminationonthebasisofgenderas well as race. First the amendment, then the bill itself, passed, giving womenavaluablelegaltool. In 1966, 28 professional women, including Friedan, established the National Organization for Women (NOW) “to take action to bring American women into full participationinthemainstreamofAmerican society now.” While NOW and similarfeministorganizationsboast of substantial memberships today, arguablytheyattainedtheirgreatest influence in the early 1970s, a time that also saw the journalist Gloria Steinem and several other women found Ms. magazine. They also spurred the formation of counterfeministgroups,oftenledbywomen, includingmostprominentlythepoliticalactivistPhyllisSchlafly.These groups typically argued for more “traditional” gender roles and opposed the proposed “Equal Rights” constitutionalamendment. Passed by Congress in 1972, that amendment declared in part, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by theUnitedStatesorbyanyStateon accountofsex.”Overthenextsever-
alyears,35ofthenecessary38states ratified it. The courts also moved to expand women’s rights. In 1973 the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade sanctioned women’s right to obtain anabortionduringtheearlymonths ofpregnancy—seenasasignificant victory for the women’s movement —butRoealsospurredthegrowth ofananti-abortionmovement. Inthemid-tolate-1970s,however, 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 Amendment, and it died in 1982 without gainingtheapprovalofthe38states neededforratification.
THELATINOMOVEMENT
IAmericans n post-World War II America, of Mexican and Puerto Ricandescenthadfaceddiscrimination.Newimmigrants,comingfrom Cuba,Mexico,andCentralAmerica — often unskilled and unable to speakEnglish—sufferedfromdiscriminationaswell.SomeHispanics workedasfarmlaborersandattimes werecruellyexploitedwhileharvesting crops; others gravitated to the cities,where,likeearlierimmigrant groups, they encountered difficultiesintheirquestforabetterlife. Chicanos, or Mexican-Americans, mobilized in organizations like the radical Asociación Nacional Mexico-Americana, yet did
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not become confrontational until 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 importance of pressure politics in apluralisticsociety. TheNationalLaborRelationsAct of 1935 had excluded agricultural workers from its guarantee of the right to organize and bargain collectively.ButCésarChávez,founder of the overwhelmingly Hispanic United Farm Workers, demonstrated that direct action could achieve employerrecognitionforhisunion. California grape growers agreed to bargainwiththeunionafterChávez led a nationwide consumer boycott.Similarboycottsoflettuceand otherproductswerealsosuccessful. Thoughfarminterestscontinuedto try to obstruct Chávez’s organization, the legal foundation had been laid for representation to secure higherwagesandimprovedworking conditions. Hispanics became politically active as well. In 1961 Henry B. González won election to Congress fromTexas.ThreeyearslaterEligio (“Kika”)delaGarza,anotherTexan, followed him, and Joseph Montoya of New Mexico went to the Senate.BothGonzálezanddelaGarza later rose to positions of power as committee chairmen in the House. In the 1970s and 1980s, the pace of Hispanic political involvement in-
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
creased.SeveralprominentHispanics have served in the Bill Clinton andGeorgeW.Bushcabinets.
THENATIVE-AMERICAN MOVEMENT
Istruggled n the 1950s, Native Americans with the government’s policy of moving them off reservations and into cities where they might assimilate into mainstream America. Many of the uprooted often had difficulties adjusting to urbanlife.In1961,whenthepolicy was discontinued, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights noted that, forNativeAmericans,“povertyand deprivationarecommon.” In the 1960s and 1970s, watching both the development of Third Worldnationalismandtheprogress ofthecivilrightsmovement,Native Americans became more aggressive in pressing for their own rights. A new generation of leaders went to courttoprotectwhatwasleftoftribal landsortorecoverthosewhichhad beentaken,oftenillegally,inprevious times. In state after state, they challenged treaty violations, and in 1967wonthefirstofmanyvictories guaranteeing long-abused land and water rights. The American Indian Movement(AIM),foundedin1968, helped channel government funds to Native-American-controlled organizations and assisted neglected NativeAmericansinthecities. Confrontations became more common. In 1969 a landing party of78NativeAmericansseizedAlca-
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trazIslandinSanFranciscoBayand heldituntilfederalofficialsremoved themin1971.In1973AIMtookover theSouthDakotavillageofWounded Knee, where soldiers in the late 19thcenturyhadmassacredaSioux encampment. Militants hoped to dramatize the poverty and alcoholism in the reservation surrounding the town. The episode ended after one Native American was killed and another wounded, with a government agreement to re-examine treatyrights. Still, Native-American activism brought results. Other Americans became more aware of NativeAmerican needs. Government officials responded with measures includingtheEducationAssistance Act of 1975 and the 1996 NativeAmerican Housing and Self-Determination Act. The Senate’s first Native-American member, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, waselectedin1992.
THECOUNTERCULTURE
T
heagitationforequalopportunitysparkedotherformsofupheaval. 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 activity;manymoreembracednewstandardsofdressandsexualbehavior. The visible signs of the counterculture spread through parts of American society in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hair grew longer
and beards became common. Blue jeans and tee shirts took the place ofslacks,jackets,andties.Theuse of illegal drugs increased. Rock and roll grew, proliferated, and transformed into many musical variations.TheBeatles,theRolling Stones, and other British groups took the country by storm. “Hard rock”grewpopular,andsongswith 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 Woodstock,athree-daymusicfestivalin rural New York State attended by almosthalf-a-millionpersons.The festival,mythologizedinfilmsand recordalbums,gaveitsnametothe era,theWoodstockGeneration. A parallel manifestation of the new sensibility of the young was theriseoftheNewLeft,agroupof young,college-ageradicals.TheNew Leftists,whohadclosecounterparts inWesternEurope,wereinmanyinstancesthechildrenoftheoldergenerationofradicals.Nonetheless,they rejected old-style Marxist rhetoric. Instead, they depicted university studentsasthemselvesanoppressed class that possessed special insights intothestruggleofotheroppressed groupsinAmericansociety. New Leftists participated in the civilrightsmovementandthestruggle against poverty. Their greatest success — and the one instance in whichtheydevelopedamassfollowing—wasinopposingtheVietnam War, an issue of emotional interest
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to their draft-age contemporaries. By the late 1970s, the student New Left had disappeared, but many of its activists made their way into mainstreampolitics.
T
ENVIRONMENTALISM
heenergyandsensibilitythatfueledthecivilrightsmovement,the counterculture, and the New Left also stimulated an environmental movementinthemid-1960s.Many were aroused by the publication in 1962ofRachelCarson’sbookSilent Spring,whichallegedthatchemical pesticides,particularlyDDT,caused cancer, among other ills. Public concern about the environment continued to increase throughout the1960sasmanybecameawareof otherpollutantssurroundingthem —automobileemissions,industrial wastes,oilspills—thatthreatened theirhealthandthebeautyoftheir surroundings. On April 22, 1970, schoolsandcommunitiesacrossthe UnitedStatescelebratedEarthDay forthefirsttime.“Teach-ins”educatedAmericansaboutthedangers ofenvironmentalpollution. Few denied that pollution was a problem, but the proposed solutionsinvolvedexpenseandinconvenience. Many believed these would reduce the economic growth upon which many Americans’ standard oflivingdepended.Nevertheless,in 1970, Congress amended the Clean AirActof1967todevelopuniform national air-quality standards. It also passed the Water Quality Im-
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
provement Act, which assigned to the polluter the responsibility of cleaningupoff-shoreoilspills.Also, in 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created as an independent federal agency to spearhead the effort to bring abuses under control. During the next threedecades,theEPA,bolsteredby legislationthatincreaseditsauthority, became one of the most active agenciesinthegovernment,issuing strong regulations covering air and waterquality.
KENNEDYANDTHE RESURGENCEOFBIG GOVERNMENTLIBERALISM
B y1960governmenthadbecome an increasingly powerful force in people’s lives. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, new executiveagencieswerecreatedtodeal withmanyaspectsofAmericanlife. During World War II, the number ofciviliansemployedbythefederal government rose from one million to 3.8 million, then stabilized at 2.5 million in the 1950s. Federal expenditures, which had stood at $3,100-millionin1929,increasedto $75,000-millionin1953andpassed $150,000-millioninthe1960s. Most Americans accepted government’s expanded role, even as they disagreed about how far that expansionshouldcontinue.Democrats generally wanted the government to ensure growth and stability. They wanted to extend federal benefits for education, health, and
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welfare. Many Republicans accepted a level of government responsibility, but hoped to cap spending and restore a larger measure of individualinitiative.Thepresidential election of 1960 revealed a nationalmostevenlydividedbetween thesevisions. JohnF.Kennedy,theDemocratic victorbyanarrowmargin,wasat43 the youngest man ever to win the presidency.Ontelevision,inaseries of debates with opponent Richard Nixon, he appeared able, articulate, and energetic. In the campaign, he spoke of moving aggressively into thenewdecade,for“theNewFrontier is here whether we seek it or not.” In his first inaugural address, heconcludedwithaneloquentplea: “Asknotwhatyourcountrycando foryou—askwhatyoucandofor yourcountry.”Throughouthisbrief presidency, Kennedy’s special combination of grace, wit, and style — farmorethanhisspecificlegislative agenda — sustained his popularity andinfluencedgenerationsofpoliticianstocome. Kennedy wanted to exert strong leadership to extend economic benefits to all citizens, but a razorthin margin of victory limited his mandate. Even though the Democratic Party controlled both houses of Congress, conservative Southern Democrats often sided with the Republicansonissuesinvolvingthe scope of governmental intervention intheeconomy.Theyresistedplans toincreasefederalaidtoeducation, providehealthinsurancefortheel-
derly,andcreateanewDepartment ofUrbanAffairs.Andso,despitehis lofty rhetoric, Kennedy’s policies wereoftenlimitedandrestrained. Oneprioritywastoendtherecession,inprogresswhenKennedytook office,andrestoreeconomicgrowth. But Kennedy lost the confidence of business leaders in 1962, when he succeeded in rolling back what the administrationregardedasanexcessivepriceincreaseinthesteelindustry. Though the president achieved hisimmediategoal,healienatedan important source of support. Persuadedbyhiseconomicadvisersthat a large tax cut would stimulate the economy,Kennedybackedabillprovidingforone.ConservativeoppositioninCongress,however,appeared todestroyanyhopesofpassingabill most congressmen thought would widenthebudgetdeficit. The overall legislative record of the Kennedy administration was meager. The president made some gestures toward civil rights leaders butdidnotembracethegoalsofthe civilrightsmovementuntildemonstrationsledbyMartinLutherKing Jr.forcedhishandin1963.LikeTrumanbeforehim,hecouldnotsecure congressional passage of federal aid topubliceducationorforamedical careprogramlimitedtotheelderly. He gained only a modest increase in the minimum wage. Still, he did securefundingforaspaceprogram, and established the Peace Corps to send men and women overseas to assistdevelopingcountriesinmeetingtheirownneeds.
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P
KENNEDYANDTHE COLDWAR
resident Kennedy came into office pledged to carry on the Cold War vigorously, but he also hoped for accommodation and was reluctant to commit American power. During his first year-and-a-half in office, he rejected American intervention after the CIA-guided Cuban exile invasion at the Bay of Pigs failed, effectively ceded the landlocked Southeast Asian nation ofLaostoCommunistcontrol,and acquiesced in the building of the Berlin Wall. Kennedy’s decisions reinforced impressions of weakness that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had formed in their only personalmeeting,asummitmeetingat ViennainJune1961. Itwasagainstthisbackdropthat Kennedy faced the most serious event of the Cold War, the Cuban missilecrisis. In the fall of 1962, the administrationlearnedthattheSovietUnion wassecretlyinstallingoffensivenuclear missiles in Cuba. After considering different options, Kennedy decided on a quarantine to prevent Sovietshipsfrombringingadditional supplies to Cuba. He demanded publiclythattheSovietsremovethe weaponsandwarnedthatanattack fromthatislandwouldbringretaliationagainsttheUSSR.Afterseveral days of tension, during which the world was closer than ever before tonuclearwar,theSovietsagreedto removethemissiles.Criticscharged
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
thatKennedyhadriskednucleardisaster when quiet diplomacy might havebeeneffective.ButmostAmericansandmuchofthenon-Communist world applauded his decisiveness. The missile crisis made him for the first time the acknowledged leaderofthedemocraticWest. In retrospect, the Cuban missile crisis marked a turning point in U.S.-Soviet relations. Both sides sawtheneedtodefusetensionsthat could lead to direct military conflict.Thefollowingyear,theUnited States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed a landmark Limited Test Ban Treaty prohibiting nuclear weaponstestsintheatmosphere. Indochina(Vietnam,Laos,Cambodia), a French possession before WorldWarII,wasstillanotherCold Warbattlefield.TheFrencheffortto reassert colonial control there was opposed by Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese Communist, whose Viet MinhmovementengagedinaguerrillawarwiththeFrencharmy. Both Truman and Eisenhower, eagertomaintainFrenchsupportfor thepolicyofcontainmentinEurope, provided France with economic aid that freed resources for the struggle inVietnam.ButtheFrenchsuffered adecisivedefeatinDienBienPhuin May1954.AtaninternationalconferenceinGeneva,LaosandCambodia weregiventheirindependence.Vietnamwasdivided,withHoinpower intheNorthandNgoDinhDiem,a RomanCatholicanti-Communistin alargelyBuddhistpopulation,heading the government in the South.
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Elections were to be held two years latertounifythecountry.Persuaded thatthefallofVietnamcouldleadto thefallofBurma,Thailand,andIndonesia, Eisenhower backed Diem’s refusaltoholdelectionsin1956and effectively established South VietnamasanAmericanclientstate. Kennedy increased assistance, and sent small numbers of military advisors,butanewguerrillastruggle between North and South continued. Diem’s unpopularity grew and the military situation worsened. In late1963,Kennedysecretlyassented to a coup d’etat. To the president’s surprise, Diem and his powerful brother-in-law, Ngo Dien Nu, werekilled.Itwasatthisuncertain juncture that Kennedy’s presidency endedthreeweekslater.
THESPACEPROGRAM
D uringEisenhower’ssecondterm, outerspacehadbecomeanarenafor 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 itsfirstsatellite,ExplorerI,in1958. But three months after Kennedy became president, the USSR put the first man in orbit. Kennedy responded by committing the United States to land a man on the moon andbringhimback“beforethisdecadeisout.”WithProjectMercury in1962,JohnGlennbecamethefirst U.S.astronauttoorbittheEarth.
After Kennedy’s death, President Lyndon Johnson enthusiastically supported the space program. In the mid-1960s, U.S. scientists developed the two-person Gemini spacecraft. Gemini achieved several firsts, including an eight-day mission in August 1965 — the longest space flight at that time — and in November 1966, the first automatically controlled reentry into the Earth’satmosphere.Geminialsoaccomplishedthefirstmannedlinkup oftwospacecraftinflightaswellas thefirstU.S.walksinspace. Thethree-personApollospacecraft achieved Kennedy’s goal and demonstrated to the world that the United States had surpassed Sovietcapabilitiesinspace.OnJuly20, 1969, with hundreds of millions of television viewers watching around the world, Neil Armstrong became thefirsthumantowalkonthesurfaceofthemoon. OtherApolloflightsfollowed,but many Americans began to question thevalueofmannedspaceflight.In the early 1970s, as other priorities became more pressing, the United States scaled down the space program. Some Apollo missions were scrapped;onlyoneoftwoproposed Skylabspacestationswasbuilt.
J
DEATHOFAPRESIDENT
ohn Kennedy had gained world prestige by his management of the Cuban missile crisis and had won great popularity at home. Many believed he would win re-election
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easilyin1964.ButonNovember22, 1963,hewasassassinatedwhileridinginanopencarduringavisitto Dallas, Texas. His death, amplified by television coverage, was a traumatic event, just as Roosevelt’s had been18yearsearlier. Inretrospect,itisclearthatKennedy’s reputation stems more from hisstyleandeloquentlystatedideals thanfromtheimplementationofhis policies.HehadlaidoutanimpressiveagendabutathisdeathmuchremainedblockedinCongress.Itwas largely because of the political skill andlegislativevictoriesofhissuccessorthatKennedywouldbeseenasa forceforprogressivechange.
LYNDONJOHNSONAND THEGREATSOCIETY
L yndonJohnson,aTexanwhowas majorityleaderintheSenatebefore becoming Kennedy’s vice president, was a masterful politician. He had been schooled in Congress, where hedevelopedanextraordinaryabilitytogetthingsdone.Heexcelledat pleading,cajoling,orthreateningas necessary to achieve his ends. His liberalidealismwasprobablydeeper than Kennedy’s. As president, he wantedtousehispoweraggressively toeliminatepovertyandspreadthe benefitsofprosperitytoall. Johnson took office determined to secure the passage of Kennedy’s legislative agenda. His immediate prioritieswerehispredecessor’sbills to reduce taxes and guarantee civil rights.Usinghisskillsofpersuasion
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
andcallingonthelegislators’respect fortheslainpresident,Johnsonsucceeded in gaining passage of both during his first year in office. The tax cuts stimulated the economy. TheCivilRightsActof1964wasthe most far-reaching such legislation sinceReconstruction. Johnsonaddressedotherissuesas well. By the spring of 1964, he had beguntousethename“GreatSociety”todescribehissocio-economic program. That summer he secured passageofafederaljobsprogramfor impoverished young people. It was the first step in what he called the “WaronPoverty.”InthepresidentialelectionthatNovember,hewon alandslidevictoryoverconservative RepublicanBarryGoldwater.Significantly,the1964electiongaveliberal DemocratsfirmcontrolofCongress for the first time since 1938. This would enable them to pass legislation over the combined opposition of Republicans and conservative SouthernDemocrats. The War on Poverty became the centerpiece of the administration’s Great Society program. The Office of Economic Opportunity, established in 1964, provided training for the poor and established various community-action agencies, guidedbyanethicof“participatory democracy” that aimed to give the poorthemselvesavoiceinhousing, health,andeducationprograms. Medical care came next. Under Johnson’s leadership, Congress enacted Medicare, a health insurance program for the elderly, and Med-
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icaid, a program providing healthcareassistanceforthepoor. Johnson succeeded in the effort to provide more federal aid for elementary and secondary schooling, traditionally a state and local function.Themeasurethatwasenacted gave money to the states based on the number of their children from low-income families. Funds could beusedtoassistpublic-andprivateschoolchildrenalike. Convinced the United States confronted an “urban crisis” characterized by declining inner cities, the Great Society architects devised anewhousingactthatprovidedrent supplementsforthepoorandestablishedaDepartmentofHousingand UrbanDevelopment. Other legislation had an impact on many aspects of American life. Federal assistance went to artists 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 developing safety programs, while the othersetupfederalsafetystandards forcarsandtires.Thelatterprogram reflected the efforts of a crusading young radical, Ralph Nader. In his 1965book,UnsafeatAnySpeed:The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, Nader argued that automobile manufacturers were sacrificing safety features for style, andchargedthatfaultyengineering contributedtohighwayfatalities. In 1965, Congress abolished the discriminatory1924national-origin
immigration quotas. This triggered a new wave of immigration, much of it from South and East Asia and LatinAmerica. TheGreatSocietywasthelargest burstoflegislativeactivitysincethe New Deal. But support weakened as early as 1966. Some of Johnson’s programsdidnotliveuptoexpectations;manywentunderfunded.The urbancrisisseemed,ifanything,to worsen.Still,whetherbecauseofthe GreatSocietyspendingorbecauseof astrongeconomicupsurge,poverty did decline at least marginally duringtheJohnsonadministration.
D
THEWARINVIETNAM
issatisfactionwiththeGreatSocietycametobemorethanmatched by unhappiness with the situation inVietnam.AseriesofSouthVietnamese strong men proved little moresuccessfulthanDieminmobilizingtheircountry.TheVietCong, insurgentssuppliedandcoordinated fromNorthVietnam,gainedground inthecountryside. Determined to halt Communist advancesinSouthVietnam,Johnson madetheVietnamWarhisown.AfteraNorthVietnamesenavalattack on two American destroyers, JohnsonwonfromCongressonAugust7, 1964,passageoftheGulfofTonkin Resolution,whichallowedthepresidentto“takeallnecessarymeasures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and topreventfurtheraggression.”After his re-election in November 1964,
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he embarked on a policy of escalation.From25,000troopsatthestart of 1965, the number of soldiers — bothvolunteersanddraftees—rose to500,000by1968.AbombingcampaignwroughthavocinbothNorth andSouthVietnam. Grisly television coverage with a critical edge dampened support for thewar.SomeAmericansthoughtit immoral;otherswatchedindismay as the massive military campaign seemedtobeineffective.Largeprotests, especially among the young, and a mounting general public dissatisfaction pressured Johnson to beginnegotiatingforpeace.
THEELECTIONOF1968
B y 1968 the country was in turmoiloverboththeVietnamWarand civil disorder, expressed in urban riots that reflected African-American anger. On March 31, 1968, the president renounced any intention of seeking another term. Just a week later, Martin Luther King Jr.wasshotandkilledinMemphis, Tennessee. John Kennedy’s younger brother,Robert,madeanemotional anti-war campaign for the Democraticnomination,onlytobeassassinatedinJune. AttheDemocraticNationalConventioninChicago,Illinois,protestersfoughtstreetbattleswithpolice. A divided Democratic Party nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey, once the hero of the liberals but now seen as a Johnson loyalist. White opposition to the civil rights
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
measures of the 1960s galvanized the third-party candidacy of Alabama Governor George Wallace, a Democrat who captured his home state, Mississippi, and Arkansas, Louisiana, and Georgia, states typically carried in that era by the Democratic nominee. Republican RichardNixon,whoranonaplanto extricatetheUnitedStatesfromthe warandtoincrease“lawandorder” athome,scoredanarrowvictory.
NIXON,VIETNAM,ANDTHE COLDWAR
D etermined to achieve “peace withhonor,”Nixonslowlywithdrew American troops while redoubling effortstoequiptheSouthVietnamese army to carry on the fight. He alsoorderedstrongAmericanoffensiveactions.Themostimportantof these was an invasion of Cambodia in1970tocutoffNorthVietnamese supplylinestoSouthVietnam.This ledtoanotherroundofprotestsand demonstrations. Students in many universities took to the streets. At Kent State in Ohio, the national guardtroopswhohadbeencalledin torestoreorderpanickedandkilled fourstudents. By the fall of 1972, however, troop strength in Vietnam was below 50,000 and the military draft, which had caused so much campus discontent, was all but dead. A cease-fire,negotiatedfortheUnited States by Nixon’s national security adviser,HenryKissinger,wassigned in1973.AlthoughAmericantroops
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departed, the war lingered on into the spring of 1975, when Congress cutoffassistancetoSouthVietnam andNorthVietnamconsolidatedits controlovertheentirecountry. ThewarleftVietnamdevastated, with millions maimed or killed. It also left the United States traumatized. The nation had spent over $150,000-million in a losing effort that cost more than 58,000 Americanlives.Americanswerenolonger united by a widely held Cold War consensus,andbecamewaryoffurtherforeignentanglements. Yet as Vietnam wound down, theNixonadministrationtookhistoric steps toward closer ties with themajorCommunistpowers.The mostdramaticmovewasanewrelationshipwiththePeople’sRepublic of China. In the two decades since Mao Zedong’s victory, the United States had argued that the Nationalist government on Taiwan represented all of China. In 1971 and 1972,NixonsoftenedtheAmerican stance, eased trading restrictions, andbecamethefirstU.S.president evertovisitBeijing.The“Shanghai Communique” signed during that visit established a new U.S. policy: thattherewasoneChina,thatTaiwan was a part of China, and that a peaceful settlement of the disputeofthequestionbytheChinese themselveswasaU.S.interest. WiththeSovietUnion,Nixonwas equally successful in pursuing the policy he and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called détente. He held several cordial meetings with
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in whichtheyagreedtolimitstockpiles of missiles, cooperate in space, and ease trading restrictions. The StrategicArmsLimitationTalks(SALT) culminatedin1972inanarmscontrol agreement limiting the growth of nuclear arsenals and restricting anti-ballisticmissilesystems.
NIXON’SACCOMPLISHMENTS ANDDEFEATS
V
ice president under Eisenhower before his unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1960, Nixon was seen as among the shrewdest of American politicians. Although Nixon subscribed to the Republicanvalueoffiscalresponsibility,he accepted a need for government’s expanded role and did not oppose the basic contours of the welfare state.Hesimplywantedtomanage 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 courtedSouthernwhitevoters. Perhaps his biggest domestic problem was the economy. He inherited both a slowdown from its Vietnam peak under Johnson, and acontinuinginflationarysurgethat hadbeenaby-productofthewar.He dealtwiththefirstbybecomingthe firstRepublicanpresidenttoendorse deficit spending as a way to stimulate the economy; the second by
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imposing wage and price controls, a policy in which the Right had no long-termfaith,in1971.Intheshort run, these decisions stabilized the economy and established favorable conditionsforNixon’sre-electionin 1972.Hewonanoverwhelmingvictoryoverpeace-mindedDemocratic SenatorGeorgeMcGovern. Thingsbegantosourveryquickly into the president’s second term. Veryearlyon,hefacedchargesthat hisre-electioncommitteehadmanaged a break-in at the Watergate buildingheadquartersoftheDemocraticNationalCommitteeandthat he had participated in a cover-up. Special prosecutors and congressionalcommitteesdoggedhispresidencythereafter. Factors beyond Nixon’s control undermined his economic policies. In 1973 the war between Israel and Egypt and Syria prompted Saudi Arabiatoembargooilshipmentsto Israel’sally,theUnitedStates.Other membernationsoftheOrganization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC)quadrupledtheirprices.Americansfacedbothshortages, exacerbatedintheviewofmanyby over-regulationofdistribution,and rapidlyrisingprices.Evenwhenthe embargoendedthenextyear,prices remainedhighandaffectedallareas ofAmericaneconomiclife:In1974, inflationreached12percent,causing disruptions that led to even higher unemployment rates. The unprecedented economic boom America hadenjoyedsince1948wasgrinding toahalt.
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Nixon’s rhetoric about the need for “law and order” in the face of rising crime rates, increased drug use, and more permissive views about sex resonated with more Americans than not. But this concern was insufficient to quell concerns about the Watergate break-in and the economy. Seeking to energize and enlarge his own political constituency, Nixon lashed out at demonstrators, attacked the press for distorted coverage, and sought tosilencehisopponents.Instead,he leftanunfavorableimpressionwith manywhosawhimontelevisionand perceived him as unstable. Adding to Nixon’s troubles, Vice President Spiro Agnew, his outspoken point managainstthemediaandliberals, wasforcedtoresignin1973,pleading“nocontest”toacriminalcharge oftaxevasion. Nixon probably had not known in advance of the Watergate burglary,buthehadtriedtocoveritup, andhadliedtotheAmericanpeople about it. Evidence of his involvementmounted.OnJuly27,1974,the House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend his impeachment. Facingcertainousterfromoffice,he resignedonAugust9,1974.
THEFORDINTERLUDE
N ixon’s vice president, Gerald Ford (appointed to replace Agnew), wasanunpretentiousmanwhohad spentmostofhispubliclifeinCongress.Hisfirstprioritywastorestore trust in the government. However,
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feeling it necessary to head off the spectacle of a possible prosecution ofNixon,heissuedablanketpardon to his predecessor. Although it was perhaps necessary, the move was nonethelessunpopular. In public policy, Ford followed thecourseNixonhadset.Economic problemsremainedserious,asinflation and unemployment continued to rise. Ford first tried to reassure thepublic,muchasHerbertHoover haddonein1929.Whenthatfailed, he imposed measures to curb inflation, which sent unemployment above 8 percent. A tax cut, coupled with higher unemployment benefits, helped a bit but the economy remainedweak. In foreign policy, Ford adopted Nixon’sstrategyofdetente.Perhaps its major manifestation was the HelsinkiAccordsof1975,inwhich theUnitedStatesandWesternEuropeannationseffectivelyrecognized SoviethegemonyinEasternEurope 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 Soviet empire more difficult. Western nations effectively used periodic “Helsinki review meetings” to call attention to various abuses of humanrightsbyCommunistregimes oftheEasternbloc.
dency in 1976. Portraying himself duringthecampaignasanoutsider toWashingtonpolitics,hepromised a fresh approach to governing, but hislackofexperienceatthenational level complicated his tenure from the start. A naval officer and engineer by training, he often appeared tobeatechnocrat,whenAmericans wanted someone more visionary to leadthemthroughtroubledtimes. In economic affairs, Carter at first permitted a policy of deficit spending. Inflation rose to 10 percentayearwhentheFederalReserve Board,responsibleforsettingmonetary policy, increased the money supply to cover deficits. Carter responded by cutting the budget, butcutsaffectedsocialprogramsat the heart of Democratic domestic policy. In mid-1979, anger in the financial community practically forcedhimtoappointPaulVolcker aschairmanoftheFederalReserve. Volcker was an “inflation hawk” who increased interest rates in an attempt to halt price increases, at the cost of negative consequences fortheeconomy. Carteralsofacedcriticismforhis failure to secure passage of an effective energy policy. He presented a comprehensive program, aimed at reducing dependence on foreign oil,thathecalledthe“moralequivalent of war.” Opponents thwarted itinCongress. THECARTERYEARS Though Carter called himself a populist,hispoliticalprioritieswere immyCarter,formerDemocratic never wholly clear. He endorsed governorofGeorgia,wonthepresi- government’s protective role, but
J
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thenbegantheprocessofderegulation, the removal of governmental controls in economic life. Arguing that some restrictions over the course of the past century limited competition and increased consumer costs, he favored decontrol in the oil, airline, railroad, and truckingindustries. Carter’s political efforts failed to gain either public or congressional support.Bytheendofhisterm,his disapproval rating reached 77 percent, and Americans began to look towardtheRepublicanPartyagain. Carter’s greatest foreign policy accomplishment was the negotiation of a peace settlement between Egypt, under President Anwar al-Sadat, and Israel, under Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Acting asbothmediatorandparticipant,he persuaded the two leaders to end a 30-yearstateofwar.Thesubsequent peacetreatywassignedattheWhite HouseinMarch1979. Afterprotractedandoftenemotional debate, Carter also secured Senateratificationoftreatiesceding thePanamaCanaltoPanamabythe year2000.Goingastepfartherthan Nixon, he extended formal diplomatic recognition to the People’s RepublicofChina.
But Carter enjoyed less success with the Soviet Union. Though he assumed office with detente at high tide and declared that the United States had escaped its “inordinate fear of Communism,” his insistencethat“ourcommitmentto humanrightsmustbeabsolute”antagonizedtheSovietgovernment.A SALT II agreement further limiting nuclear stockpiles was signed, but notratifiedbytheU.S.Senate,many of whose members felt the treaty was unbalanced. The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan killed the treatyandtriggeredaCarterdefense build-upthatpavedthewayforthe hugeexpendituresofthe1980s. Carter’smostseriousforeignpolicychallengecameinIran.Afteran Islamic fundamentalist revolution led by Shiite Muslim leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini replaced a corrupt but friendly regime, Carter admitted the deposed shah to the UnitedStatesformedicaltreatment. Angry Iranian militants, supported by the Islamic regime, seized the American embassy in Tehran and held53Americanhostagesformore thanayear.Thelong-runninghostage crisis dominated the final year of his presidency and greatly damagedhischancesforre-election. 9
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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
Thefirstyearsofthenewcenturyunleashedanewthreatto peaceanddemocracy:internationalterroristattacksthatkilledand maimedthousandsintheUnitedStatesandaroundtheworld. Justasithaswithearlierdangers,theUnitedStatestookupthis formidablechallengeinunisonwithitsallies.Atthesametime, itcopedwithchangessparkedbyglobalization,fast-paced technologicaldevelopments,andnewwavesofimmigrationthat havemadeAmericansocietymorediversethaninthepast. Thecountrysoughttobuildupontheachievementsofitshistory, andtohonorthosewhohavesacrificedinitscause. 293
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.
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 walks with African leaders during a side meeting at the Group of Eight Summit in Evian, France, June 1, 2003. Left to right are: South African President Thabo Mbeki, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, Bush, and President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade. 295
Cable News Network (CNN) report from Moscow: The combination of hundreds of cable television channels and 24-hour news services like CNN give an unprecedented impact and immediacy to news developments around the world.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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With husbands and wives in the typical family both working outside the home, daycare centers for children are commonplace throughout the United States.
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.
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A new generation peers into its future.
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President Ronald Reagan and USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev after signing the Intermediate– Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, December 1987. 304
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“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
ASOCIETYINTRANSITION
S
hifts in the structure of Americansociety,begunyearsorevendecades earlier, had become apparent by the time the 1980s arrived. The composition of the population and the most important jobs and skills inAmericansocietyhadundergone majorchanges. Thedominanceofservicejobsin theeconomybecameundeniable.By themid-1980s,nearlythree-fourths of all employees worked in the service sector, for instance, as retail clerks,officeworkers,teachers,physicians,andgovernmentemployees. Service-sector activity benefited from the availability and increased use of the computer. The informationagearrived,withhardwareand
softwarethatcouldaggregatepreviously unimagined amounts of data about economic and social trends. The federal government had made significantinvestmentsincomputer technology in the 1950s and 1960s foritsmilitaryandspaceprograms. In1976,twoyoungCaliforniaentrepreneurs,workingoutofagarage, assembledthefirstwidelymarketed computer for home use, named it theApple,andignitedarevolution. By the early 1980s, millions of microcomputers had found their way intoU.S.businessesandhomes,and in1982,Timemagazinedubbedthe computerits“MachineoftheYear.” Meanwhile, America’s “smokestack industries” were in decline. TheU.S.automobileindustryreeled under competition from highly
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efficient Japanese carmakers. By 1980 Japanese companies already manufacturedafifthofthevehicles soldintheUnitedStates.American manufacturers struggled with some success to match the cost efficiencies and engineering standards of their Japanese rivals, but their formerdominanceofthedomesticcar market was gone forever. The giant old-line steel companies shrank to relative insignificance as foreign steelmakersadoptednewtechnologiesmorereadily. Consumerswerethebeneficiaries ofthisferociouscompetitioninthe manufacturing industries, but the painful struggle to cut costs meant the permanent loss of hundreds of thousandsofblue-collarjobs.Those who could made the switch to the servicesector;othersbecameunfortunatestatistics. 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 quarterofallgroupswerenowclassified as “nonfamily households,” in which two or more unrelated personslivedtogether. New immigrants changed the character of American society in otherways.The1965reforminimmigration policy shifted the focus awayfromWesternEurope,facilitatingadramaticincreaseinnewarrivalsfromAsiaandLatinAmerica.In
1980, 808,000 immigrants arrived, thehighestnumberin60years,asthe countryoncemorebecameahaven forpeoplefromaroundtheworld. Additionalgroupsbecameactive participantsinthestruggleforequal opportunity. Homosexuals, using the tactics and rhetoric of the civil rights movement, depicted themselvesasanoppressedgroupseeking recognition of basic rights. In 1975, the U.S. Civil Service Commission lifted its ban on employment of homosexuals. Many states enacted anti-discriminationlaws. Then,in1981,camethediscovery of AIDS (Acquired Immune DeficiencySyndrome).Transmitted sexually or through blood transfusions,itstruckhomosexualmenand intravenous drug users with particular virulence, although the generalpopulationprovedvulnerableas well. By 1992, over 220,000 AmericanshaddiedofAIDS.TheAIDSepidemichasbynomeansbeenlimited totheUnitedStates,andtheeffortto treat the disease now encompasses physicians and medical researchers throughouttheworld.
CONSERVATISMANDTHE RISEOFRONALDREAGAN
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ormanyAmericans,theeconomic,social,andpoliticaltrendsofthe previous two decades — crime and racial polarization in many urban centers, challenges to traditional values,theeconomicdownturnand inflation of the Carter years — engenderedamoodofdisillusionment.
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It also strengthened a renewed suspicionofgovernmentanditsability todealeffectivelywiththecountry’s socialandpoliticalproblems. Conservatives,longoutofpower atthenationallevel,werewellpositioned politically in the context of this new mood. Many Americans were receptive to their message of limitedgovernment,strongnational defense,andtheprotectionoftraditionalvalues. This conservative upsurge had many sources. A large group of fundamentalistChristianswereparticularlyconcernedaboutcrimeand sexual immorality. They hoped to returnreligionorthemoralprecepts often associated with it to a central place in American life. One of the most politically effective groups in theearly1980s,theMoralMajority, was led by a Baptist minister, Jerry Falwell.Another,ledbytheReverend PatRobertson,builtanorganization, theChristianCoalition,thatbythe 1990s was a significant force in the Republican Party. Using television to spread their messages, Falwell, Robertson,andotherslikethemdevelopedsubstantialfollowings. Another galvanizing issue for conservativeswasdivisiveandemotional: abortion. Opposition to the 1973SupremeCourtdecision,Roev. Wade,whichupheldawoman’sright to an abortion in the early months of pregnancy, brought together a widearrayoforganizationsandindividuals. They included, but were not limited to, Catholics, political conservatives, and religious evan-
gelicals, most of whom regarded abortion under virtually any circumstances as tantamount to murder.Pro-choiceandpro-life(thatis, pro-andanti-abortionrights)demonstrations became a fixture of the politicallandscape. WithintheRepublicanParty,the conservative wing grew dominant once again. They had briefly seized control of the Republican Party in 1964withitspresidentialcandidate, Barry Goldwater, then faded from the spotlight. By 1980, however, withtheapparentfailureofliberalismunderCarter,a“NewRight”was poisedtoreturntodominance. Using modern direct mail techniquesaswellasthepowerofmass communications to spread their messageandraisefunds,drawingon theideasofconservativeslikeeconomist Milton Friedman, journalists WilliamF.BuckleyandGeorgeWill, and research institutions like the HeritageFoundation,theNewRight playedasignificantroleindefining theissuesofthe1980s. The “Old” Goldwater Right had favored strict limits on government intervention in the economy. This tendencywasreinforcedbyasignificant group of “New Right” “libertarianconservatives”whodistrusted governmentingeneralandopposed stateinterferenceinpersonalbehavior.ButtheNewRightalsoencompassed a stronger, often evangelical faction determined to wield state power to encourage its views. The New Right favored tough measures againstcrime,astrongnationalde-
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fense, a constitutional amendment to permit prayer in public schools, andoppositiontoabortion. Thefigurethatdrewallthesedisparate strands together was Ronald Reagan. Reagan, born in Illinois, achieved stardom as an actor in Hollywood movies and television before turning to politics. He first achievedpoliticalprominencewitha nationwidetelevisedspeechin1964 in support of Barry Goldwater. In 1966 Reagan won the governorship ofCaliforniaandserveduntil1975. HenarrowlymissedwinningtheRepublican nomination for president in 1976 before succeeding in 1980 andgoingontowinthepresidency fromtheincumbent,JimmyCarter. President Reagan’s unflagging optimismandhisabilitytocelebrate the achievements and aspirations of the American people persisted throughout his two terms in office. He was a figure of reassurance and stabilityformanyAmericans.Whollyateasebeforethemicrophoneand the television camera, Reagan was calledthe“GreatCommunicator.” Taking a phrase from the 17thcentury Puritan John Winthrop, he toldthenationthattheUnitedStates wasa“shiningcityonahill,”investedwithaGod-givenmissiontodefendtheworldagainstthespreadof Communisttotalitarianism. Reaganbelievedthatgovernment intruded too deeply into American life. He wanted to cut programs he contended the country did not need,andtoeliminate“waste,fraud, and abuse.” Reagan accelerated the
program of deregulation begun by JimmyCarter.Hesoughttoabolish manyregulationsaffectingtheconsumer,theworkplace,andtheenvironment.These,heargued,wereinefficient,expensive,anddetrimental toeconomicgrowth. Reagan also reflected the belief heldbymanyconservativesthatthe lawshouldbestrictlyappliedagainst violators. Shortly after becoming president, he faced a nationwide strikebyU.S.airtransportationcontrollers.Althoughthejobactionwas forbidden by law, such strikes had been widely tolerated in the past. When the air controllers refused to returntowork,heorderedthemall fired. Over the next few years the systemwasrebuiltwithnewhires.
THEECONOMYINTHE1980S
P
resident Reagan’s domestic programwasrootedinhisbeliefthatthe nationwouldprosperifthepowerof theprivateeconomicsectorwasunleashed.Theguidingtheorybehind it, “supply side” economics, held that a greater supply of goods and services,madepossiblebymeasures to increase business investment, was the swiftest road to economic growth. Accordingly, the Reagan administration argued that a large tax cut would increase capital investment and corporate earnings, so that even lower taxes on these largerearningswouldincreasegovernmentrevenues. Despite only a slim Republican majorityintheSenateandaHouse
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ofRepresentativescontrolledbythe Democrats, President Reagan succeededduringhisfirstyearinoffice in enacting the major components ofhiseconomicprogram,including a25-percenttaxcutforindividuals to be phased in over three years. Theadministrationalsosoughtand wonsignificantincreasesindefense spending to modernize the nation’s militaryandcounterwhatitfeltwas acontinualandgrowingthreatfrom theSovietUnion. Under Paul Volcker, the Federal Reserve’s draconian increases in interest rates squeezed the runaway inflationthathadbeguninthelate 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) fellby2percent;theunemployment raterosetonearly10percent,andalmostone-thirdofAmerica’sindustrialplantslayidle.Throughoutthe Midwest, major firms like General ElectricandInternationalHarvester released workers. Stubbornly high petroleumpricescontributedtothe decline. Economic rivals like GermanyandJapanwonagreatershare of world trade, and U.S. consumption of goods from other countries rosesharply. Farmersalsosufferedhardtimes. During the 1970s, American farmers had helped India, China, the Soviet Union, and other countries suffering from crop shortages, and had borrowed heavily to buy land and increase production. But the
rise in oil prices pushed up costs, and a worldwide economic slump in1980reducedthedemandforagricultural products. Their numbers declined,asproductionincreasingly becameconcentratedinlargeoperations.Thosesmallfarmerswhosurvivedhadmajordifficultiesmaking endsmeet. The increased military budget — combined with the tax cuts and the growth in government health spending — resulted in the federal government spending far more than it received in revenues each year.Someanalystschargedthatthe deficitswerepartofadeliberateadministrationstrategytopreventfurtherincreasesindomesticspending soughtbytheDemocrats.However, bothDemocratsandRepublicansin Congressrefusedtocutsuchspending. From $74,000-million in 1980, the deficit soared to $221,000-million in 1986 before falling back to $150,000-millionin1987. The deep recession of the early 1980s successfully curbed the runawayinflationthathadstartedduring the Carter years. Fuel prices, moreover,fellsharply,withatleast part of the drop attributable to Reagan’s decision to abolish controls on the pricing and allocation of gasoline. Conditions began to improveinlate1983.Byearly1984, the economy had rebounded. By the fall of 1984, the recovery was wellalong,allowingReagantorun for re-election on the slogan, “It’s morning again in America.” He defeated his Democratic opponent,
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former Senator and Vice President WalterMondale,byanoverwhelmingmargin. The United States entered one of the longest periods of sustained economic growth since World War II. Consumer spending increased in response to the federal tax cut. The stock market climbed as it reflected the optimistic buying spree. Over a five-year period following the start of the recovery, Gross National Product grew at an annual rate of 4.2 percent. The annual inflationrateremainedbetween3and 5percentfrom1983to1987,except in 1986 when it fell to just under 2 percent,thelowestlevelindecades. Thenation’sGNPgrewsubstantially duringthe1980s;from1982to1987, its economy created more than 13 millionnewjobs. Steadfast in his commitment to lower taxes, Reagan signed the most sweeping federal tax-reform measure in 75 years during his second term. This measure, which had widespread Democratic as well as Republican support, lowered incometaxrates,simplifiedtaxbrackets,andclosedloopholes. However,asignificantpercentage of this growth was based on deficit spending. Moreover, the national debt, far from being stabilized by strongeconomicgrowth,nearlytripled. Much of the growth occurred in skilled service and technical areas. Many poor and middle-class familiesdidlesswell.Theadministration,althoughanadvocateoffree trade,pressuredJapantoagreetoa 311
voluntary quota on its automobile exportstotheUnitedStates. The economy was jolted on October 19, 1987, “Black Monday,” when the stock market suffered the greatestone-daycrashinitshistory, 22.6percent.Thecausesofthecrash includedthelargeU.S.international tradeandfederal-budgetdeficits,the highlevelofcorporateandpersonal debt, and new computerized stock trading techniques that allowed instantaneoussellingofstocksandfutures.Despitethememoriesof1929 it evoked, however, the crash was a transitory event with little impact. Infact,economicgrowthcontinued, with the unemployment rate droppingtoa14-yearlowof5.2percent inJune1988.
FOREIGNAFFAIRS
Iamoreassertiveroleforthenation, n foreign policy, Reagan sought and Central America provided an early test. The United States providedElSalvadorwithaprogramof economic aid and military training when a guerrilla insurgency threatenedtotoppleitsgovernment.Italso activelyencouragedthetransitionto an elected democratic government, buteffortstocurbactiveright-wing death squads were only partly successful. U.S. support helped stabilizethegovernment,butthelevelof violence there remained undiminished.Apeaceagreementwasfinally reachedinearly1992. U.S. policy toward Nicaragua was more controversial. In 1979
CHAPTER 14: THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER
revolutionaries calling themselves Sandinistas overthrew the repressive 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 resistance,knownasthecontras. Followingintensepoliticaldebate overthispolicy,Congressendedall militaryaidtothecontrasinOctober 1984, then, under administration pressure, reversed itself in the fallof1986,andapproved$100millioninmilitaryaid.However,alack ofsuccessonthebattlefield,charges ofhumanrightsabuses,andtherevelationthatfundsfromsecretarms sales to Iran (see below) had been diverted to the contras undercut congressional support to continue thisaid. Subsequently, the administrationofPresidentGeorgeH.W.Bush, who succeeded Reagan as president in 1989, abandoned any effort to secure military aid for the contras. The Bush administration also exertedpressureforfreeelectionsand supported an opposition political coalition, which won an astonishingupsetelectioninFebruary1990, oustingtheSandinistasfrompower. The Reagan administration was more fortunate in witnessing a return to democracy throughout the rest of Latin America, from GuatemalatoArgentina.Theemergenceof democratically elected governments wasnotlimitedtoLatinAmerica;in Asia, the “people power” campaign
of Corazón Aquino overthrew the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, andelectionsinSouthKoreaended decadesofmilitaryrule. By contrast, South Africa remained intransigent in the face of U.S. efforts to encourage an end to racialapartheidthroughthecontroversial policy of “constructive engagement,”quietdiplomacycoupled withpublicendorsementofreform. In 1986, frustrated at the lack of progress,theU.S.Congressoverrode Reagan’s veto and imposed a set of economic sanctions on South Africa.InFebruary1990,SouthAfrican President F.W. de Klerk announced NelsonMandela’sreleaseandbegan theslowdismantlingofapartheid. Despiteitsoutspokenanti-Communist rhetoric, the Reagan administration’sdirectuseofmilitary force was restrained. On October 25, 1983, U.S. forces landed on the Caribbean island of Grenada after anurgentappealforhelpbyneighboring countries. The action followedtheassassinationofGrenada’s leftist prime minister by members of his own Marxist-oriented party. Afterabriefperiodoffighting,U.S. troopscapturedhundredsofCuban militaryandconstructionpersonnel andseizedcachesofSoviet-supplied arms. In December 1983, the last AmericancombattroopsleftGrenada,whichhelddemocraticelections ayearlater. The Middle East, however, presentedafarmoredifficultsituation. A military presence in Lebanon, where the United States was at-
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temptingtobolsteraweak,butmoderatepro-Westerngovernment,endedtragically,when241U.S.Marines werekilledinaterroristbombingin October 1983. In April 1986, U.S. Navy and Air Force planes struck targets in Tripoli and Benghazi, Libya, in retaliation for Libyaninstigated terrorist attacks on U.S. militarypersonnelinEurope. In the Persian Gulf, the earlier breakdown in U.S.-Iranian relationsandtheIran-IraqWarsetthe stage for U.S. naval activities in the region. Initially, the United States respondedtoarequestfromKuwait forprotectionofitstankerfleet;but eventually the United States, along withnavalvesselsfromWesternEurope,keptvitalshippinglanesopen byescortingconvoysoftankersand other neutral vessels traveling up anddowntheGulf. In late 1986 Americans learned thattheadministrationhadsecretly sold arms to Iran in an attempt to resumediplomaticrelationswiththe hostileIslamicgovernmentandwin freedomforAmericanhostagesheld inLebanonbyradicalorganizations that Iran controlled. Investigation also revealed that funds from the armssaleshadbeendivertedtothe Nicaraguancontrasduringaperiod whenCongresshadprohibitedsuch militaryaid. The ensuing Iran-contra hearings before a joint House-Senate committee examined issues of possibleillegalityaswellasthebroader question of defining American foreign policy interests in the Middle
East and Central America. In a largersense,thehearingswereaconstitutionaldebateaboutgovernment secrecyandpresidentialversuscongressional authority in the conduct offoreignrelations.UnlikethecelebratedSenateWatergatehearings14 yearsearlier,theyfoundnogrounds for impeaching the president and couldreachnodefinitiveconclusion abouttheseperennialissues.
U.S.-SOVIETRELATIONS
IPresident nrelationswiththeSovietUnion, Reagan’s declared policy was one of peace through strength. He was determined to stand firm against the country he would in 1983callan“evilempire.”Twoearly events increased U.S.-Soviet tensions: the suppression of the SolidaritylabormovementinPolandin December1981,andthedestruction with 269 fatalities of an off-course civilian airliner, Korean Airlines Flight007,byaSovietjetfighteron September1,1983.TheUnitedStates alsocondemnedthecontinuingSoviet occupation of Afghanistan and continued aid begun by the Carter administration to the mujahedeen resistancethere. During Reagan’s first term, the United States spent unprecedented sums for a massive defense buildup, including the placement of intermediate-range nuclear missiles inEuropetocounterSovietdeployments of similar missiles. And on March 23, 1983, in one of the most hotlydebatedpolicydecisionsofhis
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presidency, Reagan announced the StrategicDefenseInitiative(SDI)researchprogramtoexploreadvanced technologies, such as lasers and high-energy projectiles, to defend against intercontinental ballistic missiles. Although many scientists questioned the technological feasibilityofSDIandeconomistspointed totheextraordinarysumsofmoney involved,theadministrationpressed aheadwiththeproject. After re-election in 1984, Reagan softened his position on arms control. Moscow was amenable to agreement,inpartbecauseitseconomyalreadyexpendedafargreater proportionofnationaloutputonits militarythandidtheUnitedStates. Further increases, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev felt, would cripple his plans to liberalize the Sovieteconomy. In November 1985, Reagan and Gorbachev agreed in principle to seek 50-percent reductions in strategic offensive nuclear arms as well as an interim agreement on intermediate-range nuclear forces. In December 1987, they signed the Intermediate-RangeNuclearForces (INF) Treaty providing for the destruction of that entire category of nuclear weapons. By then, the SovietUnionseemedalessmenacing adversary. Reagan could take muchofthecreditforagreatlydiminished Cold War, but as his administration ended, almost no one realized just how shaky the USSR hadbecome.
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THEPRESIDENCYOF GEORGEH.W.BUSH
resident Reagan enjoyed unusually high popularity at the end of hissecondterminoffice,butunder the terms of the U.S. Constitution hecouldnotrunagainin1988.The RepublicannominationwenttoVice President George Herbert Walker Bush,whowaselectedthe41stpresidentoftheUnitedStates. Bush campaigned by promising voters a continuation of the prosperity Reagan had brought. In addition, he argued that he would support a strong defense for the United States more reliably than theDemocraticcandidate,Michael Dukakis.Healsopromisedtowork for “a kinder, gentler America.” Dukakis, the governor of Massachusetts,claimedthatlessfortunate Americans were hurting economically and that the government had to help them while simultaneously bringing the federal debt and defense spending under control. The public was much more engaged, however, by Bush’s economic message:Nonewtaxes.Intheballoting, Bushfinishedwitha54-to-46-percentpopularvotemargin. During his first year in office, Bush followed a conservative fiscal program,pursuingpoliciesontaxes, spending,anddebtthatwerefaithful totheReaganadministration’seconomic program. But the new president soon found himself squeezed betweenalargebudgetdeficitanda deficit-reductionlaw.Spendingcuts
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seemed necessary, and Bush possessedlittleleewaytointroducenew budgetitems. The Bush administration advanced new policy initiatives in areasnotrequiringmajornewfederal expenditures. Thus, in November 1990, Bush signed sweeping legislationimposingnewfederalstandards onurbansmog,automobileexhaust, toxic air pollution, and acid rain, but with industrial polluters bearing most of the costs. He accepted legislation requiring physical access for the disabled, but with no federal assumption of the expense of modifying buildings to accommodate wheelchairs and the like. The presidentalsolaunchedacampaign to encourage volunteerism, which hecalled,inamemorablephrase,“a thousandpointsoflight.”
solvencies among these thrifts (the umbrellatermforconsumer-orientedinstitutionslikesavingsandloan associations and savings banks). By 1993, the total cost of selling and shutteringfailedthriftswasstaggering,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. ThatJune,afterprotractednegotiations, the president agreed to a tax increase. All the same, the combinationofeconomicrecession,losses from the savings and loan industry rescue operation, and escalating health care costs for Medicare and Medicaid offset all the deficit-reBUDGETSANDDEFICITS duction measures and produced a shortfall in 1991 at least as large as ush administration efforts to thepreviousyear’s. gaincontroloverthefederalbudget deficit,however,weremoreproblemENDTOTHECOLDWAR atic.Onesourceofthedifficultywas the savings and loan crisis. Savings hen Bush became president, banks—formerlytightlyregulated, the Soviet empire was on the verge low-interestsafehavensforordinary of collapse. Gorbachev’s efforts to people—hadbeenderegulated,al- open up the USSR’s economy aplowingtheseinstitutionstocompete peared to be floundering. In 1989, more aggressively by paying higher the Communist governments in interestratesandbymakingriskier one Eastern European country afloans.Increasesinthegovernment’s ter another simply collapsed, after deposit insurance guaranteed re- it became clear that Russian troops duced consumer incentive to shun wouldnotbesenttopropthemup. less-sound institutions. Fraud, In mid-1991, hard-liners attempted mismanagement, and the choppy a coup d’etat, only to be foiled by economy produced widespread in- GorbachevrivalBorisYeltsin,presi-
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dentoftheRussianrepublic.Atthe endofthatyear,Yeltsin,nowdominant, forced the dissolution of the SovietUnion. TheBushadministrationadeptly brokered the end of the Cold War, workingcloselywithGorbachevand Yeltsin. It led the negotiations that brought the unification of East and West Germany (September 1990), agreementonlargearmsreductions in Europe (November 1990), and large cuts in nuclear arsenals (July 1991). After the liquidation of the SovietUnion,theUnitedStatesand the new Russian Federation agreed to phase out all multiple-warhead missilesovera10-yearperiod. The disposal of nuclear materials and the ever-present concerns of nuclear proliferation now superseded the threat of nuclear conflict betweenWashingtonandMoscow.
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THEGULFWAR
heeuphoriacausedbythedrawingdownoftheColdWarwasdramatically overshadowed by the August 2, 1990, invasion of the small nationofKuwaitbyIraq.Iraq,under SaddamHussein,andIran,underits Islamic fundamentalist regime, had emerged as the two major military powers in the oil-rich Persian Gulf area.Thetwocountrieshadfoughta long,inconclusivewarinthe1980s. LesshostiletotheUnitedStatesthan Iran, Iraq had won some support fromtheReaganandBushadministrations.TheoccupationofKuwait, posing a threat to Saudi Arabia,
changed the diplomatic calculation overnight. President Bush strongly condemned the Iraqi action, called for Iraq’s unconditional withdrawal, andsentamajordeploymentofU.S. troopstotheMiddleEast.Heassembled one of the most extraordinary military and political coalitions of modern times, with military forces from Asia, Europe, and Africa, as wellastheMiddleEast. In the days and weeks following the invasion, the U.N. Security Council passed 12 resolutions condemning the Iraqi invasion and imposing wide-ranging economic sanctionsonIraq.OnNovember29, it approved the use of force if Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait by January15,1991.Gorbachev’sSoviet Union,onceIraq’smajorarmssupplier, made no effort to protect its formerclient. Bush also confronted a major constitutional issue. The U.S. Constitutiongivesthelegislativebranch thepowertodeclarewar.Yetinthe secondhalfofthe20thcentury,the United States had become involved in Korea and Vietnam without an officialdeclarationofwarandwith only murky legislative authorization.OnJanuary12,1991,threedays before the U.N. deadline, Congress granted President Bush the authorityhesoughtinthemostexplicitand sweepingwar-makingpowergivena presidentinnearlyhalfacentury. The United States, in coalition with Great Britain, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other
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countries, succeeded in liberating Kuwait with a devastating, U.S.-led air campaign that lasted slightly morethanamonth.Itwasfollowed by a massive invasion of Kuwait and Iraq by armored and airborne infantry forces. With their superior speed, mobility, and firepower, the allied forces overwhelmed the Iraqi forces in a land campaign lasting only100hours. Thevictory,however,wasincompleteandunsatisfying.TheU.N.resolution,whichBushenforcedtothe letter,calledonlyfortheexpulsionof IraqfromKuwait.SaddamHussein remainedinpower,savagelyrepressing the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south, both of whom theUnitedStateshadencouragedto rebel.Hundredsofoil-wellfires,deliberatelysetinKuwaitbytheIraqis, tookuntilNovember1991toextinguish. Saddam’s regime also apparentlythwartedU.N.inspectorswho, operatinginaccordancewithSecurity Council resolutions, worked to locateanddestroyIraq’sweaponsof massdestruction,includingnuclear facilities more advanced than had previouslybeensuspectedandhuge stocksofchemicalweapons. TheGulfWarenabledtheUnited States to persuade the Arab states, Israel, and a Palestinian delegation to begin direct negotiations aimed at resolving the complex and interlocked issues that could eventually leadtoalastingpeaceintheregion.
The talks began in Madrid, Spain, on October 30, 1991. In turn, they set the stage for the secret negotiations in Norway that led to what at the time seemed a historic agreement between Israel and the PalestineLiberationOrganization,signed at the White House on September 13,1993.
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PANAMAANDNAFTA
he president also received broad bipartisancongressionalbackingfor thebriefU.S.invasionofPanamaon December 20, 1989, that deposed dictator General Manuel Antonio Noriega. In the 1980s, addiction to crackcocainereachedepidemicproportions,andPresidentBushputthe “WaronDrugs”atthecenterofhis domestic agenda. Moreover, Noriega, an especially brutal dictator, had attempted to maintain himself inpowerwithrathercrudedisplays of anti-Americanism. After seeking refuge in the Vatican embassy, NoriegaturnedhimselfovertoU.S. authorities. He was later tried and convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, Florida, of drug trafficking andracketeering. Ontheeconomicfront,theBush administrationnegotiatedtheNorth America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)withMexicoandCanada. Itwouldberatifiedafteranintense debateinthefirstyearoftheClinton administration. 9
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OUTLINEOFU.S.HISTORY
THIRD-PARTYANDINDEPENDENTCANDIDATES
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 president. 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 transportation 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 LaFollette. Another Progressive was Senator Robert La Follette, 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 a platform of nationalizing railroads and the country’s natural resources. He 318
also strongly supported increased taxation on the wealthy and the right of collective 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-American 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 spinoff 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 Independent 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 dissatisfaction 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 election, 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 showing as a percentage of the total. 319
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“The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.” President George W. Bush, 2005
For most Americans the 1990s wouldbeatimeofpeace,prosperity,andrapidtechnologicalchange. Some attributed this to the “ReaganRevolution”andtheendofthe ColdWar,otherstothereturnofa Democrattothepresidency.During thisperiod.themajorityofAmericans—politicalaffiliationaside— assertedtheirsupportfortraditional family values, often grounded in their faiths. New York Times columnist David Brooks suggested that the country was experiencing “moral self-repair,“ as “many of theindicatorsofsocialbreakdown, whichshotupwardinthelate1960s and 1970s, and which plateaued at highlevelsinthe1980s,”werenow indecline.
Improvedcrimeandothersocial statisticsaside,Americanpoliticsremained ideological, emotional, and characterized by intense divisions. Shortly after the nation entered the newmillennium,moreover,itspostColdWarsenseofsecuritywasjolted byanunprecedentedterroristattack thatlauncheditonanewanddifficultinternationaltrack
1992PRESIDENTIALELECTION
A s the 1992 presidential election approached, Americans found themselves in a world transformed in ways almost unimaginable four years earlier. The familiar landmarksoftheColdWar—fromthe BerlinWalltointercontinentalmis-
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silesandbombersonconstanthigh alert—weregone.EasternEurope wasindependent,theSovietUnion haddissolved,Germanywasunited, Arabs and Israelis were engaged in direct negotiations, and the threat of nuclear conflict was greatly diminished. It was as though one great history volume had closed andanotherhadopened. Yetathome,Americanswereless sanguine,andtheyfacedsomedeep and familiar problems. The United States found itself in its deepest recession since the early 1980s. Many of the job losses were occurringamongwhite-collarworkersin middle management positions, not solely, as earlier, among blue-collar workers in the manufacturing sector. Even when the economy began recovering in 1992, its growth was virtually imperceptible until late in theyear.Moreover,thefederaldeficit continued to mount, propelled most strikingly by rising expendituresforhealthcare. President George Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle easily won renomination by the Republican Party. On the Democratic side, Bill Clinton, governor of Arkansas, defeatedacrowdedfieldofcandidates to win his party’s nomination. As hisvicepresidentialnominee,heselectedSenatorAlGoreofTennessee, generallyacknowledgedasoneofthe Congress’sstrongestadvocatesofenvironmentalprotection. The country’s deep unease over the direction of the economy also sparkedtheemergenceofaremark-
ableindependentcandidate,wealthy Texas entrepreneur H. Ross Perot. Perottappedintoadeepwellspring of frustration over the inability of Washington to deal effectively with economicissues,principallythefederal deficit. He possessed a colorful personalityandagiftforthetelling one-line political quip. He would be the most successful third-party candidatesinceTheodoreRoosevelt in1912. The Bush re-election effort was builtaroundasetofideastraditionally used by incumbents: experience 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 themilitaryandhadparticipatedin protestsagainsttheVietnamWar.In emphasizinghisexperienceaspresidentandcommander-in-chief,Bush drewattentiontoClinton’sinexperienceatthenationallevel. Bill Clinton organized his campaign around another of the oldest and most powerful themes in electoral politics: youth and change. As a high-school student, Clinton had once met President Kennedy; 30 years later, much of his rhetoric consciouslyechoedthatofKennedy inhis1960campaign. As governor of Arkansas for 12 years, Clinton could point to his experience in wrestling with the very issues of economic growth, education, and health care that were, according to public opinion polls, among President Bush’s chief
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vulnerabilities. Where Bush offered an economic program based on lowertaxesandcutsingovernment spending, Clinton proposed higher taxes on the wealthy and increased spending on investments in education, transportation, and communications that, he believed, would boost the nation’s productivity and growth and thereby lower the deficit. Similarly, Clinton’s health care proposals called for much heavier involvement by the federal governmentthanBush’s. Clinton proved to be a highly effective communicator, not least ontelevision,amediumthathighlighted 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 affairshadbecomerelativelylessimportant, given pressing social and economicneedsathome. On November 3, Clinton won electionasthe42ndpresidentofthe UnitedStates,with43percentofthe popular vote against 37 percent for Bushand19percentforPerot.
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ANEWPRESIDENCY
linton was in many respects the perfect leader for a party dividedbetweenliberalandmoderate wings.Hetriedtoassumetheimage of a pragmatic centrist who could moderate the demands of various Democratic Party interest groups withoutalienatingthem.
Avoiding ideological rhetoric thatdeclaredbiggovernmenttobe apositivegood,heproposedanumber of programs that earned him thelabel“NewDemocrat.”Control of the federal bureaucracy and judicial appointments provided one meansofsatisfyingpoliticalclaims 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,andrare.” President Clinton’s closest collaborator was his wife, Hillary RodhamClinton.Inthecampaign, he had quipped that those who votedforhim“gottwofortheprice ofone.”Shesupportedherhusband against accusations about his personallife. Asenergeticandasactivistasher husband, Ms. Clinton assumed a moreprominentroleintheadministration than any first lady before her, even Eleanor Roosevelt. Her first important assignment would betodevelopanationalhealthprogram. In 2000, with her husband’s administration coming to a close, she would be elected a U.S. senator fromNewYork.
LAUNCHINGANEW DOMESTICPOLICY
Idemanded n practice, Clinton’s centrism choices that sometimes elicited vehement emotions. The president’sfirstpolicyinitiativewas designed to meet the demands of
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gays, who, claiming a group status as victims of discrimination, had become an important Democratic constituency. Immediately after his inauguration, President Clinton issued an executive order rescinding the long-established military policy of dismissing known gays from the service. The order quickly drew furiouscriticismfromthemilitary, most Republicans, and large segmentsofAmericansociety.Clinton quickly modified it with a “don’t ask,don’ttell”orderthateffectively restoredtheoldpolicybutdiscouraged active investigation of one’s sexualpractices. The effort to achieve a national healthplanprovedtobeafarlarger setback.Theadministrationsetupa large task force, chaired by Hillary Clinton. Composed of prominent policy intellectuals and political activists, it labored in secrecy for monthstodevelopaplanthatwould provide medical coverage for every American. The working assumption behind the plan was that a government-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 criticizeditasahopelesslyelaborate federaltakeoverofAmericanmedi-
cine. After a year of discussion, it diedwithoutavoteinCongress. Clinton was more successful on anothermatterwithgreatrepercussions for the domestic economy. The previous president, 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 believed it would encourage the export of jobs and undermine American labor standards. Environmentalists asserted that it would lead American industries to relocate to countries 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 economicsystem. President Clinton nonetheless accepted the argument that open trade was ultimately beneficial to allpartiesbecauseitwouldleadto a greater flow of more efficiently produced goods and services. His administration not only submitted NAFTAtotheSenate,italsobacked theestablishmentofagreatlyliberalizedinternationaltradingsystem to be administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO). After a vigorous debate, Congress approved NAFTA in 1993. It would approve membership in the WTO ayearlater. Although Clinton had talked abouta“middleclasstaxcut”dur-
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ing the presidential campaign, he submitted to Congress a budget calling for a general tax increase. It originally included a wide tax on energy consumption designed to promote conservation, but that was quickly replaced by a nominal increase in the federal gasoline tax. It also taxed social security benefits for recipients of moderate incomeandabove.Thebigemphasis, however, was on increasing the income tax for high earners. The subsequent debate amounted to a rerun of the arguments between taxcuttersandadvocatesof“fiscal responsibility”thathadmarkedthe Reagan years. In the end, Clinton gothisway,butverynarrowly.The taxbillpassedtheHouseofRepresentativesbyonlyonevote. By then, the congressional election campaigns of 1994 were under way. Although the administration alreadyhadmadenumerousforeign policydecisions,issuesathomewere clearlymostimportanttothevoters. The Republicans depicted Clinton and the Democrats as unreformed tax and spenders. Clinton himself wasalreadybeleagueredwithcharges of past financial impropriety in an Arkansas real estate project and newclaimsofsexualimpropriety.In November, the voters gave the Republicans control of both houses of Congressforthefirsttimesincethe electionof1952.ManyobserversbelievedthatBillClintonwouldlikely beaone-termpresident.Apparently making a decision to conform to
new political realities, Clinton insteadmoderatedhispoliticalcourse. Policy initiatives for the remainder ofhispresidencywerefew.Contrary toRepublicanpredictionsofdoom, thetaxincreasesof1993didnotget in the way of a steadily improving economy. The new Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, by contrast, pressed hard to achieve its policy objectives, a sharp contrast with the administration’s new moderate tone. When right-wing extremists bombed an Oklahoma City federal building in April 1995, Clinton responded with a tone of moderationandhealingthatheightened his stature and implicitly left somedoubtsabouthisconservative opponents. At the end of the year, he vetoed a Republican budget bill, shutting down the government for weeks.Mostofthepublicseemedto blametheRepublicans. Thepresidentalsoco-optedpart of the Republican program. In his StateoftheUnionaddressofJanuary1996,heostentatiouslydeclared, “Theeraofbiggovernmentisover.” That summer, on the eve of the presidential campaign, he signed a major welfare reform bill that was essentially a Republican product. Designed to end permanent supportformostwelfarerecipientsand movethemtowork,itwasopposed by many in his own party. By and large, it would prove successful in operationoverthenextdecade.
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THEAMERICANECONOMY INTHE1990S
B y the mid-1990s, the country had not simply recovered from the brief, but sharp, recession of the Bush presidency. It was entering an era of booming prosperity, and doingsodespitethedeclineofitstraditional industrial base. Probably the majorforcebehindthisnewgrowth was the blossoming of the personal computer(PC). Less than 20 years after its introduction, the PC had become a familiaritem,notsimplyinbusiness offices of all types, but in homes throughout America. Vastly more powerful than anyone could have imagined two decades earlier, able tostoreenormousamountsofdata, availableatthecostofagoodrefrigerator, it became a common applianceinAmericanhomes. Employing prepackaged software, people used it for bookkeeping,wordprocessing,orasadepository for music, photos, and video. TheriseoftheInternet,whichgrew out of a previously closed defense data network, provided access to informationofallsorts,creatednew shopping opportunities, and established e-mail as a common mode of communication. The popularity of the mobile phone created a huge new industry that cross-fertilized withthePC. Instant communication and lightning-fast data manipulation speededupthetempoofmanybusi-
nesses,greatlyenhancingproductivity and creating new opportunities for profit. Fledgling industries that fed demand for the new equipment became multi-billion-dollar companies almost overnight, creating an enormous new middle class of softwaretechnicians,managers,and publicists. A final impetus was the turn of themillennium.Ahugepushtoupgrade outdated computing equipment that might not recognize the year 2000 brought data technology spendingtoapeak. These developments began to take shape during Clinton’s first term.Bytheendofhissecondone they were fueling a surging economy. When he had been elected president,unemploymentwasat7.4 percent.Whenhestoodforre-election in 1996, it was at 5.4 percent. When voters went to the polls to choose his successor in November 2000, it was 3.9 percent. In many places,theissuewaslessoneoftakingcareofthejoblessthanoffindingemployableworkers. No less a figure than Federal ReserveChairmanAlanGreenspan viewed a rapidly escalating stock market with concern and warned of“irrationalexuberance.”Investor exuberance,atitsgreatestsincethe 1920s, continued in the conviction that ordinary standards of valuation had been rendered obsolete by a “new economy” with unlimitedpotential.Thegoodtimeswere rolling dangerously fast, but most
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Americans were more inclined to further reinforcing the president’s enjoytheridewhileitlastedthanto standing as a fiscally responsible planforacomingbust. moderateliberal. In 1998, American politics enTHEELECTIONOF1996AND tered a period of turmoil with the THEPOLITICALAFTERMATH revelation that Clinton had carried on an affair inside the White resident Clinton undertook his House with a young intern. At first campaign for re-election in 1996 thepresidentdeniedthis,tellingthe underthemostfavorableofcircum- American people: “I did not have stances.Ifnotanimposingperson- sexual relations with that woman.” ality in the manner of a Roosevelt, The president had faced similar hewasanaturalcampaigner,whom charges in the past. In a sexual hamany felt had an infectious charm. rassment lawsuit filed by a woman He presided over a growing eco- hehadknowninArkansas,Clinton nomic recovery. He had positioned deniedunderoaththeWhiteHouse himselfonthepoliticalspectrumin affair.ThisfitmostAmericans’defiawaythatmadehimappearaman nition of perjury. In October 1998, ofthecenterleaningleft.HisRepub- the House of Representatives began licanopponent,SenatorRobertDole impeachmenthearings,focusingon of Kansas, Republican leader in the charges of perjury and obstruction upper house, was a formidable leg- ofjustice. islatorbutlesssuccessfulasapresiWhatever the merits of that apdentialcandidate. proach, a majority of Americans Clinton, promising to “build a seemedtoviewthematterasapribridge to the 21st century,” easily vateonetobesortedoutwithone’s defeatedDoleinathree-partyrace, family, a significant shift in public 49.2 percent to 40.7 percent, with attitude. Also significantly, Hillary 8.4 percent to Ross Perot. He thus Clinton continued to support her becamethesecondAmericanpresi- husband. It surely helped also that dent to win two consecutive elec- the times were good. In the midst tionswithlessthanamajorityofthe of the House impeachment debate, totalvote.(TheotherwasWoodrow thepresidentannouncedthelargest Wilson in 1912 and 1916.) The Re- budget surplus in 30 years. Public publicans,however,retainedcontrol opinion polls showed Clinton’s apofboththeHouseofRepresentatives provalratingtobethehighestofhis andtheSenate. sixyearsinoffice. Clinton never stated much of ThatNovember,theRepublicans a domestic program for his sec- took further losses in the midterm ondterm.Thehighlightofitsfirst congressional elections, cutting year was an accord with Congress their majorities to razor-thin mardesigned to balance the budget, gins.HouseSpeakerNewtGingrich
P
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resigned, and the party attempted to develop a less strident image. Nevertheless, in December the Housevotedthefirstimpeachment resolution against a sitting presidentsinceAndrewJohnson(1868), thereby handing the case to the Senateforatrial. Clinton’s impeachment trial, presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States, held little suspense. In the midst of it, the presidentdeliveredhisannualState of the Union address to Congress. He never testified, and no serious observer expected that any of the several charges against him would win the two-thirds vote required forremovalfromoffice.Intheend, nonegotevenasimplemajority.On February12,1999,Clintonwasacquittedofallcharges.
AMERICANFOREIGN RELATIONSINTHE CLINTONYEARS
B ill Clinton did not expect to be apresidentwhoemphasizedforeign policy.However,likehisimmediate predecessors, he quickly discovered that all international crises seemed to take a road that led through Washington. He had to deal with the messy aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War. Having failed to depose Saddam Hussein, the United States, backed by Britain, attempted to contain him. A United Nations-administered economic sanctions regime, designedtoallowIraqtosellenough
oil to meet humanitarian needs, proved relatively ineffective. Saddamfunneledmuchoftheproceeds to himself, leaving large masses of his people in misery. Military “nofly zones,” imposed to prevent the Iraqigovernmentfromdeployingits airpoweragainstrebelliousKurdsin the north and Shiites in the south, required constant U.S. and British air patrols, which regularly fended offanti-aircraftmissiles. TheUnitedStatesalsoprovided themainbackingforU.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 manufacture them. Increasingly obstructed, the U.N. inspectors were finally expelled in 1998. On this, as well as earlier occasions of provocation, the United States responded with limited missile strikes. Saddam, Secretary of State Madeline Albright declared, was still“inhisbox.” The seemingly endless IsraeliPalestinian dispute inevitably engaged the administration, although neitherPresidentClintonnorformer PresidentBushhadmuchtodowith the Oslo agreement of 1993, which establishedaPalestinian“authority” togovernthePalestinianpopulation withintheWestBankandtheGaza Strip and obtained Palestinian recognitionofIsrael’srighttoexist. As with so many past Middle Eastern agreements in principle,
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however, Oslo eventually fell apart whendetailswerediscussed.PalestinianleaderYasserArafatrejected finaloffersfrompeace-mindedIsraelileaderEhudBarakin2000and January2001.Afull-scalePalestinian insurgency, marked by the use ofsuicidebombers,erupted.Barak fell from power, to be replaced by the far tougher Ariel Sharon. U.S. identification with Israel was considered by some a major problem in dealing with other issues in the region, but American diplomats could do little more than hope to containtheviolence.AfterArafat’s deathinlate2004,newPalestinian leadershipappearedmorereceptive to a peace agreement, and American policy makers resumed efforts topromoteasettlement. President Clinton also became closely engaged with “the troubles” in Northern Ireland. On one side was the violent Irish Republican Army,supportedprimarilybythose CatholicIrishwhowantedtoincorporatetheseBritishcountiesintothe Republic of Ireland. On the other sidewereUnionists,withequallyviolentparamilitaryforces,supported bymostoftheProtestantScots-Irish population, who wanted to remain intheUnitedKingdom. Clinton gave the separatists greater recognition than they ever had obtained in the United States, but also worked closely with the BritishgovernmentsofJohnMajor andTonyBlair.Theultimateresult, the Good Friday peace accords of 1998, established a political pro-
cess but left many details to be worked out. Over the next several years, peace and order held better in Northern Ireland than in the MiddleEast,butremainedprecarious. The final accord continued to eludenegotiators. The post-Cold War disintegrationofYugoslavia—astateethnicallyandreligiouslydividedamong Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosnian Muslims, and Albanian Kosovars — also made its way to Washington after European governments failed to impose order. The Bush administration had refused to get involved in the initial violence; the Clinton administration finally did so with great reluctance after being urged to do so by the European allies. In 1995, it negotiated an accord in Dayton, Ohio, to establish a semblance of peace in Bosnia. In 1999, faced with SerbianmassacresofKosovars,itleda three-monthNATObombingcampaign against Serbia, which finally forcedasettlement. In 1994, the administration restored ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in Haiti, where he would rule for nine years before being ousted again. The intervention was largely a result of Aristide’s carefully cultivated supportintheUnitedStatesandAmericanfearsofwavesofHaitianillegal immigrants. In sum, the Clinton administration remained primarily inward looking, willing to tackle international problems that could not be
330
avoided, and, in other instances, By then the United States had forced by the rest of the world already experienced an attack by todoso. Muslim extremists. In February 1993,ahugecarbombwasexploded INTIMATIONSOFTERRORISM in an underground parking garage beneath one of the twin towers of ear the close of his adminis- the World Trade Center in lower tration, George H. W. Bush sent Manhattan. The blast killed seven AmericantroopstothechaoticEast people and injured nearly a thouAfrican nation of Somalia. Their sand,butitfailedtobringdownthe mission was to spearhead a U.N. hugebuildingwithitsthousandsof force that would allow the regular workers. New York and federal aumovement of food to a starving thoritiestreateditasacriminalact, population. apprehended four of the plotters, Somalia became yet another and obtained life prison sentences legacy for the Clinton administra- for them. Subsequent plots to blow tion. Efforts to establish a repre- uptraffictunnels,publicbuildings, sentativegovernmenttherebecame and even the United Nations were a “nation-building” enterprise. In all discovered and dealt with in a October 1993, American troops similarfashion. senttoarrestarecalcitrantwarlord Possible foreign terrorism was ranintounexpectedlystrongresis- nonetheless overshadowed by dotance, losing an attack helicopter mestic terrorism, primarily the and suffering 18 deaths. The war- OklahomaCitybombing.Thework lord was never arrested. Over the of right-wing extremists Timonext several months, all American thy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, combatunitswerewithdrawn. itkilled166andinjuredhundreds, From the standpoint of the ad- a far greater toll than the 1993 ministration, it seemed prudent TradeCenterattack.ButonJune25, enough simply to end a marginal, 1996,anotherhugebombexploded ill-advised commitment and con- attheKhobarTowersU.S.military centrate on other priorities. It only housing complex in Saudi Arabia, becameclearlaterthattheSomalian killing19andwounding515.Afedwarlord had been aided by a shad- eral grand jury indicted 13 Saudis owyandemergingorganizationthat and one Lebanese man for the atwould become known as al-Qaida, tack,butSaudiArabiaruledoutany headedbyafundamentalistMuslim extraditions. namedOsamabinLaden.AfanatiTwo years later, on August 7, cal enemy of Western civilization, 1998, powerful bombs exploding binLadenreportedlyfeltconfirmed simultaneously destroyed U.S. emin his belief that Americans would bassiesinKenyaandTanzania,killnotfightwhenattacked. ing 301 people and injuring more
N
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than 5,000. In retaliation Clinton orderedmissileattacksonterrorist training camps run by bin Laden in Afghanistan, but they appear to havebeendeserted.Healsoordered amissilestriketodestroyasuspect chemicalfactoryinSudan,acountrywhichearlierhadgivensanctuarytobinLaden. On October 12, 2000, suicide bombers rammed a speedboat into the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole, on a courtesyvisittoYemen.Heroicactionbythecrewkepttheshipafloat, but17sailorswerekilled.BinLaden had pretty clearly been behind the attacksinSaudiArabia,Africa,and Yemen, but he was beyond reach unlesstheadministrationwasprepared to invade Afghanistan to searchforhim. The Clinton administration was never willing to take such a step. It even shrank from the possibility of assassinatinghimifothersmightbe killedintheprocess.Theattackshad beenremoteandwidelyseparated.It was easy to accept them as unwelcomebutinevitablecostsassociated with superpower status. Bin Laden remainedaseriousnuisance,butnot atoppriorityforanadministration thatwasnearingitsend.
T
THEPRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONOF2000AND THEWARONTERROR
he Democratic Party nominated VicePresidentAlGoretoheadtheir ticket in 2000. To oppose him the RepublicanschoseGeorgeW.Bush,
thegovernorofTexasandsonofformerPresidentGeorgeH.W.Bush. Gore ran as a dedicated liberal, intensely concerned with damage totheenvironmentanddetermined to seek more assistance for the lessprivilegedsectorsofsociety.He seemed to place himself somewhat totheleftofPresidentClinton. Bushestablishedapositioncloser to the heritage of Ronald Reagan than to that of his father. He displayedaspecialinterestineducation and called himself a “compassionate 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 contrastedsharplywithGore’stechnocratic modernism. The old corporate gadfly Ralph Nader ran well toGore’sleftasthecandidateofthe Green Party. Conservative Republican Patrick Buchanan mounted an independentcandidacy. Thefinalvotewasnearlyevenly dividednationally;soweretheelectoral votes. The pivotal state was Florida; there, only a razor-thin margin separated the candidates and thousands of ballots were disputed. After a series of state and federal court challenges over the laws and procedures governing recounts, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a narrow decision that effectively gave the election to Bush. The Republicans maintained control of both houses of Congressbyasmallmargin.
332
The final totals underscored the tightness of the election: Bush won 271electoralvotestoGore’s266,but Goreledhiminthenationalpopularvote48.4percentto47.9percent. Nader polled 2.7 percent and Buchanan .4 percent. Gore, his states colored blue in media graphics, swept the Northeast and the West Coast; he also ran well in the Midwestern industrial heartland. Bush, whosestateswerecoloredred,rolled overhisopponentintheSouth,the restoftheMidwest,andthemountain states. Commentators everywhere dwelled on the vast gap between “red” and “blue” America, a dividetheycharacterizedbycultural andsocialratherthaneconomicdifferences,andallthemoreemotional for that reason. George Bush took officeinaclimateofextremepartisanbitterness. Bush expected to be a president primarily concerned with domestic policy.Hewantedtoreformeducation.Hehadtalkedduringhiscampaignaboutanoverhaulofthesocial securitysystem.Hewantedtofollow Reagan’sexampleasataxcutter. Thepresidentquicklydiscovered thathehadtodealwithaneconomy thatwasbeginningtoslipbackfrom itsloftypeakofthelate1990s.This helped him secure passage of a tax cut in May 2001. At the end of the year,healsoobtainedthe“NoChild Left Behind” Act, which required public schools to test reading and mathematicalproficiencyonanannualbasis;itprescribedpenaltiesfor those institutions unable to achieve
aspecifiedstandard.Projecteddeficitsinthesocialsecuritytrustfund remainedunaddressed. The Bush presidency changed irrevocably on September 11, 2001, when the United States suffered the most devastating foreign attackeveragainstitsmainland.That morning,MiddleEasternterrorists simultaneously hijacked four passenger airplanes and used two of them as suicide vehicles to destroy thetwintowersoftheWorldTrade Center. A third crashed into the Pentagonbuilding,theDefenseDepartmentheadquartersjustoutside of Washington, D.C. The fourth, probably meant for the U.S. Capitol, crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside as passengers fought thehijackers. Thedeathtoll,mostofitconsisting of civilians at the World Trade Center, was approximately 3,000, exceeding that of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The economic costs were also heavy. Thedestructionofthetradecenter tookseveralotherbuildingswithit and shut down the financial marketsforseveraldays.Theeffectwas to prolong the already developing recession. As the nation began to recover from the 9/11 attack, an unknown person or group sent out letters containing small amounts of anthrax bacteria. Some went to members of Congress and administrationofficials,otherstoobscure individuals.Nonotablepersonwas infected. Five victims died, how-
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ever,andseveralotherssufferedseriousillness.Themailingstouched offawaveofnationalhysteria,then stoppedassuddenlyastheyhadbegun,andremainedamystery. It was in this setting that the administrationobtainedpassageof theUSAPatriotActonOctober26, 2001. Designed to fight domestic terrorism,thenewlawconsiderably broadened the search, seizure, and detentionpowersofthefederalgovernment.Itsopponentsarguedthat it amounted to a serious violation of constitutionally protected individualrights.Itsbackersresponded thatacountryatwarneededtoprotectitself. After initial hesitation, the Bush administrationalsodecidedtosupport the establishment of a gigantic new Department of Homeland Security. Authorized in November 2002, and designed to coordinate the fight against domestic terrorist attack,thenewdepartmentconsolidated22federalagencies. Overseas, the administration retaliated quickly against the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks. Determiningthattheattackhadbeen an al-Qaida operation, it launched a military offensive against Osama bin Laden and the fundamentalist Muslim Taliban government of Afghanistan. The United States secured the passive cooperation of the Russian Federation, established relationshipswiththeformerSoviet republics that bordered Afghanistan,and,aboveall,resumedalongneglected alliance with Pakistan,
which provided political support andaccesstoairbases. UtilizingU.S.Armyspecialforces and Central Intelligence Agency paramilitaryoperatives,theadministrationalliedwithlong-marginalized Afghan rebels. Given effective airsupport,thecoalitionoustedthe Afghangovernmentintwomonths. Bin Laden, Taliban leaders, and manyoftheirfighterswerebelieved to have escaped into remote, semiautonomous areas of northeastern Pakistan.Fromtheretheywouldtry toregroupandattacktheshakynew Afghangovernment. In the meantime, the Bush administration identified other sources of enemy terrorism. In his 2002 State of the Union address, the president named an “axis of evil” that he thought threatened the nation: Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Of these three, Iraq seemed to him and his advisers the most immediately troublesome. Saddam Hussein had successfully ejected U.N.weaponsinspectors.Theeconomic sanctions against Iraq were breaking down, and, although the regime was not believed to be involved in the 9/11 attacks, it had engaged in some contacts with al-Qaida. It was widely believed, not just in the United States but throughout the world, that Iraq had large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and might be working to acquire a nuclear capability. Why else throw out the inspection teams and endure continuingsanctions?
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Throughout the year, the administration pressed for a U.N. resolution demanding resumption ofweaponsinspectionwithfulland free access. In October 2002, Bush securedcongressionalauthorization fortheuseofmilitaryforcebyavote of 296-133 in the House and 77-23 intheSenate.TheU.S.militarybeganabuildupofpersonnelandmaterielinKuwait. InNovember2002,theU.N.SecurityCouncilunanimouslyadoptedResolution1441requiringIraqto affordU.N.inspectorstheunconditional right to search anywhere in Iraq for banned weapons. Five days later,Iraqdeclareditwouldcomply. Nonetheless, the new inspections teams complained of bad faith. In January 2003, chief inspector Hans BlixpresentedareporttotheUnited Nations declaring that Iraq had failed to account for its weapons of mass destruction, although he recommended more efforts before withdrawing. Despite Saddam’s unsatisfactorycooperationwiththeweapons inspectors, the American plans to remove him from power encountered unusually strong opposition in much of Europe. France, Russia, and Germany all opposed the useofforce,makingimpossiblethe passage of a new Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. Even in those nations whose governments supportedtheUnitedStates,therewas strong popular hostility to cooperation. Britain became the major
U.S. ally in the war that followed; Australia and most of the newly independentEasternEuropeannations contributed assistance. The governments of Italy and Spain alsolenttheirbacking.Turkey,long a reliable American ally, declined todoso. On March 19, 2003, American and British troops, supported by smallcontingentsfromseveralother countries,begananinvasionofIraq fromthesouth.Smallgroupsairlifted into the north coordinated with Kurdishmilitia.Onbothfronts,resistance was occasionally fierce but usually melted away. Baghdad fell on April 9. On April 14, Pentagon officials announced that the militarycampaignwasover. Taking Iraq turned out to be far easier than administering it. In the first days after the end of major combat, the country experienced pervasive 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. Different Iraqi factions attimesseemedonthevergeofwar witheachother. New weapons inspection teams were unable to find the expected stockpiles of chemical and biologicalweaponry.Althoughneither explanation made much sense, it increasingly seemed that Saddam Hussein had either engaged in a giganticandpuzzlingbluff,orpossibly that the weapons had been movedtoanothercountry.
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After the fall of Baghdad, the United States and Britain, with increasing cooperation from the United Nations, moved ahead with establishment of a provisional government that would assume sovereigntyoverIraq.Theeffortoccurred amidst increasing violence that included attacks not simply on allied troops but also Iraqis connected in any way with the new government. Most of the insurgents appeared to be Saddam loyalists; some were indigenous Muslim sectarians; a fair numberlikelywereforeignfighters. 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 oneifIraqisdidnotwantit.
THE2004PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
B y mid-2004, with the United Statesfacingaviolentinsurgencyin Iraqandconsiderableforeignoppositiontothewarthere,thecountry appearedassharplydividedasithad beenfouryearsearlier.Tochallenge President Bush, the Democrats nominated Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts. Kerry’s record asadecoratedVietnamveteran,his longexperienceinWashington,his dignified demeanor, and his skills as a speaker all appeared to make himtheidealcandidatetounitehis party.Hisinitialcampaignstrategy wastoavoiddeepDemocraticdivisions over the war by emphasizing his personal record as a Vietnam
combatant who presumably could manage the Iraq conflict better than Bush. The Republicans, however, highlighted his apparently contradictory votes of first authorizingthepresidenttoinvadeIraq, then voting against an important appropriationforthewar.Agroup ofVietnamveterans,moreover,attacked Kerry’s military record and subsequentanti-waractivism. Bush, by contrast, portrayed himself as frank and consistent in speech and deed, a man of action willing to take all necessary steps to protect the country. He stressed his record of tax cuts and education reform and appealed strongly to supporters of traditional values and morality. Public opinion polls suggested that Kerry gained some ground following the first of three debates,butthechallengerfailedto erodetheincumbent’scoresupport. As in 2000, Bush registered strong majorities among Americans who attended religious services at least once a week and increased from 2000 his majority among Christian evangelicalvoters. The organizational tempo of the campaignwasasfreneticasitsrhetorical pace. Both sides excelled at gettingouttheirsupporters;thetotal popular vote was approximately 20 percent higher than it had been in2000.Bushwonby51percentto 48 percent, with the remaining 1 percentgoingtoRalphNaderanda numberofotherindependentcandidates.Kerryseemstohavebeenunsuccessful in convincing a majority
336
thathepossessedasatisfactorystrategytoendthewar.TheRepublicans also scored small, but important gainsinCongress. As George W. Bush began his secondterm,theUnitedStatesfaced challenges aplenty: the situation in Iraq,stresseswithintheAtlanticalliance, in part over Iraq, increasing budget deficits, the escalating cost of social entitlements, and a shaky currency. The electorate remained deeplydivided.TheUnitedStatesin thepasthadthrivedonsuchcrises. Whether it would in the future remainedtobeseen.
F
AFTERWORD
romitsoriginsasasetofobscure colonieshuggingtheAtlanticcoast, the United States has undergone a remarkable transformation into what political analyst Ben Wattenberg has called “the first universal nation,” a population of almost 300 million people representing
virtuallyeverynationalityandethnic group on the globe. It is also a nation where the pace and extent of change — economic, technological,cultural,demographic,and social — is unceasing. The United States is often the harbinger of the modernizationandchangethatinevitablysweepupothernationsand societiesinanincreasinglyinterdependent,interconnectedworld. YettheUnitedStatesalsomaintains a sense of continuity, a set of corevaluesthatcanbetracedtoits founding. They include a faith in individualfreedomanddemocratic government,andacommitmentto economicopportunityandprogress for all. The continuing task of the UnitedStateswillbetoensurethat its values of freedom, democracy, and opportunity — the legacy of arichandturbulenthistory—are protected and flourish as the nation, and the world, move through the21stcentury. 9
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BIBLIOGR APHY RECENT PRIZE-WINNING BOOKS
ANationUnderOurFeet:Black PoliticalStrugglesintheRuralSouth FromSlaverytotheGreatMigration ByStevenHahn TheBelknapPressof HarvardUniversityPress
TheBancroftPrizefor AmericanHistory (Awarded by the Trustees of Columbia University) 2005 IsraelontheAppomattox: ASouthernExperimentinBlack FreedomFromthe1790sThroughthe CivilWar ByMelvinPatrickEly AlfredA.Knopf
JonathanEdwards:ALife ByGeorgeM.Marsden YaleUniversityPress
2003 CaptivesandCousins:Slavery, Kinship,andCommunityinthe SouthwestBorderlands ByJamesF.Brooks FromJimCrowtoCivilRights: UniversityofNorthCarolina TheSupremeCourtandtheStruggle PressfortheOmohundroInstitute forRacialEquality ofEarlyAmericanHistoryand ByMichaelJ.Klarman Culture OxfordUniversityPress TheIndianSlaveTrade:TheRiseof theEnglishEmpireintheAmerican ConjecturesofOrder:IntellectualLife South,1670-1717 andtheAmericanSouth,1810-1860 ByAlanGallay ByMichaelO’Brien YaleUniversityPress TheUniversityof NorthCarolinaPress 2002 RaceandReunion:TheCivilWarin 2004 AmericanMemory InthePresenceofMineEnemies: ByDavidW.Blight WarintheHeartofAmerica, TheBelknapPressof 1859-1863 HarvardUniversityPress ByEdwardL.Ayers W.W.NortonandCompany InPursuitofEquity:Women, Men,andtheQuestforEconomic Citizenshipin20th-CenturyAmerica ByAliceKessler-Harris OxfordUniversityPress 338
2001 RoaringCamp:TheSocialWorldof theCaliforniaGoldRush BySusanLeeJohnson W.W.NortonandCompany
2001 FoundingBrothers:The RevolutionaryGeneration ByJosephEllis AlfredA.Knopf
TheChief:TheLifeof WilliamRandolphHearst ByDavidNasaw HoughtonMifflinCompany
SELECTED INTERNET RESOURCES
PulitzerPrizeforadistinguished bookuponthehistoryofthe UnitedStates (Awarded by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism) 2005 Washington’sCrossing ByDavidHackettFischer OxfordUniversityPress 2004 ANationUnderOurFeet: BlackPoliticalStrugglesintheRural SouthFromSlaverytotheGreat Migration ByStevenHahn TheBelknapPressof HarvardUniversityPress 2003 AnArmyatDawn:TheWarin NorthAfrica,1942-1943 ByRickAtkinson HenryHoltandCompany 2002 TheMetaphysicalClub:AStoryof IdeasinAmerica ByLouisMenand Farrar,Strauss,andGiroux
AmericanHistoricalAssociation (AHA) http://www.historians.org/ index.cfm AmericanHistory:ADocumentary Record 1492-Present http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/ avalon/chrono.htm TheAvalonProjectattheYaleLaw School:MajorCollections http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/ avalon/major.htm BiographyofAmerica http://www.learner.org/ biographyofamerica/ DigitalHistory http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/ DocumentsfortheStudyof AmericanHistory http://www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/ amdocs_index.html GilderLehrmanInstituteof AmericanHistory http://www.gilderlehrman.org/
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
HistoryMatters http://historymatters.gmu.edu/
NationalParkService:Historyin theParks http://www.cr.nps.gov/catsig.htm
TheLibraryofCongress AmericanMemory:Historical CollectionsfortheNationalDigital Library http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ TheLibraryofCongress AmericanMemory:Timeline http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ ndlpedu/features/timeline/ index.html NationalArchivesandRecords Administration http://www.nara.gov NationalArchivesandRecords Administration:DigitalClassroom http://www.archives.gov/digital_ classroom/ NationalArchivesandRecords Administration:OurDocuments: ANationalInitiativeonAmerican History,Civics,andService http://www.ourdocuments.gov/ index.php?flash=true&
OrganizationofAmerican Historians(OAH) http://www.oah.org/ Smithsonian http://www.si.edu/ TheHistoricalSociety http://www.bu.edu/historic/ WWWVirtualLibrary:History: UnitedStates http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/ WethePeople http://www.wethepeople.gov
The U.S. Department of State assumes no responsibility for the content and availability of the resources from other agencies and organizations listed above. All Internet links were active as of Fall 2005.
NationalParkService:Linksto thePast http://www.cr.nps.gov/
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INDEX Page references in boldface type refer to illustrations.
A Abolitionofslavery Brown’sraidatHarper’sFerry (1859),139 constitutionalamendment(13th), 148 DemocraticPartyand,152 Douglassasabolitionistleader,91 EmancipationProclamation,144145 Freedmen’sBureau,148,151 GarrisonandTheLiberatoron,91, 122,133-134 MissouriCompromise(1820),80, 114,132,135,137 NorthwestOrdinanceslaveryban, 71,73,113,135 religioussocialactivismand,87 asasectionalconflict/divided nation,128-139 southernstatesmenon,113 UndergroundRailroad,91,134,136 SeealsoSlavery Adams,John,52,64,72,82-83 Adams,JohnQuincy,115,116,134 Adams,Samuel,56-57 AdamsonAct,199 Addams,Jane,196 AdventuresofHuckleberryFinn (Twain),97 Afghanistan,U.S.relations,294,334 AFL.SeeAmericanFederationof Labor(AFL) AfricanAmericans busboycott(Montgomery, Alabama),240
civilrightsmovement,240,258, 271-272 colorbarrierbrokeninsports,237, 271 ColoredFarmersNationalAlliance, 191 culture,210-211 Freedmen’sBureauand,148,151 “HarlemRenaissance,”211 jazzmusicians,211 laborunionsand,193 lynchingsandviolenceagainst,150, 178,271 membersofCongress,96 assharecroppersandtenant farmers,190-191 U.S.ColoredTroopsinUnion Army,145 SeealsoAbolitionofslavery;Civil rights;Racialdiscrimination; Slavery Agnew,Spiro,290 AgriculturalAdjustmentAct(AAA), 216 Agriculture farm-reliefact,216 Farmers’Alliances,191 Grangemovement,191 landgrantandtechnicalcolleges, 152,177 NewDealprograms,216-217 PatronsofHusbandry(Grange), 191 plantationsettlements,26,28,113114,128-129 post-Revolutionaryperiod,70 Republicanpolicy,79,208 scientificresearch,177 sharecroppersandtenantfarmers, 190-191
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INDEX
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
smallfarmersandagricultural consolidation,267 technologicalrevolution,110-111, 160,177 westwardexpansionand,125 AIDS(AcquiredImmuneDeficiency Syndrome) epidemic,307 quilt(Wash.,D.C.),299 AIM.SeeAmericanIndianMovement (AIM) Alaska goldrush,192 purchase,knownas“Seward’s Folly,”182 AlbanyPlanofUnion,33,69 Albright,Madeline,329 AlienAct,82,117 AmalgamatedAssociationofIron, Steel,andTinWorkers,194 AmericanBibleSociety,87 AmericanCivilLibertiesUnion,209 AmericanFederationofLabor(AFL), 194,209,227 AmericanIndependentParty,319 AmericanIndianMovement(AIM), 281 AmericanPhilosophicalSociety,28 AmericanRailwayUnion,194 AmericanRevolution,50-65 BostonTeaParty(1773),50-51,57 BritishmovethroughtheSouth, 63-64 colonialdeclarationofwar,60 ConcordandLexingtonbattles (1775),59-60 economicaftermath,70 factorsleadingto,50-59 firstshotsfiredatLexington,44-45, 59 Franco-Americanalliance,62-63 LongIsland,battleof(1776),61 Loyalistsand,60,65
OliveBranchPetition,60 significanceof,65 TreatyofParis(1783),47,64 Yorktown,Britishsurrenderat,4748,64 AmericanSugarRefiningCompany, 197 AmericanTelephoneandTelegraph (AT&T),158 AmericanTemperanceUnion,121 AmityandCommerce,Treatyof (France-Americancolonies),63 AmnestyAct(1872),150 Anasazi,8,20 Andros,SirEdmund,31 Anthony,SusanB.,90,122 Antifederalists,76 Antitrustlegislation,160,187,196-197, 199 ApacheIndians,180,181 Aquino,Corazon,312 Arafat,Yasser,330 Aristide,Jean-Bertrand,330 ArlingtonCemetery(Virginia),174 Armour,Philip,158 Armscontrol.SeeNuclearweapons Armstrong,Louis,211 Armstrong,Neil,285 Arnaz,Desi,239 Arnold,Benedict,62 ArticlesoftheConfederation,69-70 Asia,ColdWar,263-264 AtlanticCharter(U.S.-Britain),220 Automobileindustry autoworkerstrikes,228,230 automobilesafetycrusade,287 environmentalissues/traffic congestion,282,300-301 unemployment,227
342
B Babcock,Stephen,177 Ball,Lucille,239 BankingAct,218 Bankingandfinance currencyquestionandgold standard,192 FederalReserveBoard,199,218 FederalReserveSystem,119,187, 198-199 financialpanic(1893),192 FirstBankoftheUnitedStates,79 insuredsavings(FDIC),215 nationalbank,79-80 NewDealprogramreforms,214215 regionalandlocalbankcharters, 119 SecondBankoftheUnitedStates, 118-119 statebankingsystem,119 stockmarketcrash(1929),211 Baptists,87,88 Barak,Ehud,330 Beard,Charles,75 “BeatGeneration”(1950s),270 Begin,Menachim,292 Bell,AlexanderGraham,107,156 Bell,JohnC.,139 BellTelephoneSystem,158 Bellamy,Edward,160 Biddle,Nicholas,119 BillofRights,77 binLaden,Osama,331,332,334 Blaine,JamesG.,185 Blair,Tony,294-295,330 Blix,Hans,335 Bolívar,Simon,114 Booth,JohnWilkes,147 Borglum,Gutzon,171 Bosnia,330 BostonMassacre(1770),56 BostonTeaParty(1773),50-51,57 Breckenridge,JohnC.,139
Brezhnev,Leonid,289 Britishcolonization.SeeEnglish colonization Brooks,David,322 Brown,John,139 Brownv.BoardofEducation(1954), 240,244,272 Bryan,WilliamJennings,192,195,198, 209-210 Buchanan,Pat,332 Buckley,WilliamF.,308 BullMooseParty,318 Burbank,Luther,177 Burgoyne,John,62 Bush,GeorgeHerbertWalker budgetsanddeficits,315 domesticpolicy,314-315 endofColdWar,315-316 foreignpolicy,312,316-317 photoof,255 presidentialelection(1998),314; (1992),322,324 “warondrugs,”317 Bush,GeorgeW. asa“compassionateconservative,” 332 Afghanistaninvasion,334 withAfricanleaders,295 domesticandforeignpolicy,332336 onfreedom,322 IraqWar,334-336 presidentialelections(2000),333; (2004),336-337 withTonyBlair,294-295 C CableNewsNetwork,297 Cabot,John,9 CadyStanton,Elizabeth,90,122-123 Calhoun,JohnC.,112,116,117,125 California asafreestate,136 goldrush,131,136,179 343
INDEX
migrantfarmworkers’unions, 279-280 territory,135 Calvinism,13,29,34,65 Campbell,BenNighthorse,281 Capitalism,187,193,214 Carleton,Mark,177 Carmichael,Stokely,278 Carnegie,Andrew,97,156-157,187, 194 Carson,Rachel,282 Carter,Jimmy,291-292 Cartier,Jacques,10 Carver,GeorgeWashington,177 Cattleranching,179-180 CentralPacificRailroad,179 ACenturyofDishonor(Jackson),181 Chambers,Whittaker,266 CharlesI(Britishking),12,13,15 CharlesII(Britishking),17,18,31 Chase,SalmonP.,138 Chávez,César,250,280 CherokeeIndians,125 ChiangKai-shek,224,263,264 Chicanos.SeeLatinomovement Childlabor,102-103,177,193,196 China,People’sRepublicof BoxerRebellion(1900),186 Taiwanrelations,263,265,289 U.S.diplomaticrelations,186,289, 292 ChristianCoalition,308 Churchill,Winston onthe“ironcurtain,”260-261 U.S.supportforwareffort,220 atYalta,224,234 CIO.SeeCommitteeforIndustrial Organization(CIO);Congressof IndustrialOrganizations(CIO) Citizenship,82,148-149,178 Civilrights busboycott(Montgomery, Alabama),240,273 desegregation,272-273
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
desegregationofschools,240,241, 244,272-273,277 desegregationofthemilitary,269, 272 JesseJackson’s“RainbowCoalition,” 253 Truman10-pointcivilrights program,271-272 SeealsoCivilrightsmovement; Individualrights;Racial discrimination CivilRightsAct(1957),273 CivilRightsAct(1960),273 CivilRightsAct(1964),277,286 Civilrightsmovement(1960-80),276278 “blackpower”activists,277-278 “freedomrides,”277 “MarchonWashington”(1963), 277 originsofthe,271-272 riots(1960s),278 sit-ins,277 CivilServiceCommission,307 CivilWar(1861-65) AfricanAmericansinU.S.Colored TroopsinUnionArmy,145 Alexandria,Uniontroop encampment,94 Antietamcampaign(1862),141, 144 BullRun(FirstManassas),143 BullRun(SecondManassas),144 casualties,92,144,145 Chancellorsvillecampaign(1863), 92-93,145 ChattanoogaandLookout Mountaincampaigns(1863),146 Gettysburgaddress,byLincoln, 142,145 Gettysburgcampaign(1863),92, 145,146 Petersburgcampaign(1865),146 postwarpolitics,152-153 344
secessionfromtheUnion,142-143 Sherman’smarchthroughthe South,146 Shilohcampaign,144 Spotsylvania(Battleofthe Wilderness,1864),146 surrenderatAppomattox Courthouse,146 Vicksburgcampaign(1863),145, 146 SeealsoReconstructionEra CivilWorksAdministration(CWA), 215-216 CivilianConservationCorps(CCC), 215 Clark,William,47 Clay,Henry compromiseagreements,114,136 portraitof,90 presidentialelections,116,119 protectivetariffs,112,117,118 WhigPartystatesman,120,152 ClaytonAntitrustAct,199 CleanAirAct(1967),282 Clemenceau,Georges,108 Clemens,SamuelLanghorne,97,196 Cleveland,Grover,159,182,183,192, 194 Clinton,HillaryRodham,324,325,328 Clinton,William“Bill” Cabinetappointments,280 domesticpolicy,324-326 foreignpolicy,329-331 impeachmenthearings/trial,328, 329 presidentialelection(1992),322324;(1996),328 presidentialinauguraladdress (1993),255 sexualimpropriety/internscandal, 326,328 Arkansasrealestateinvestigation, 326
CoerciveorIntolerableActs(England), 57-59 ColdWar,258-267 inAsia,263-264 EisenhowerAdministration,264265 endof,255,315-316,324 KennedyAdministration,284-285 intheMiddleEast,264 originsof,260-261 TrumanAdministration,261,265 CollegeofWilliamandMary,27 Colonialperiod culturaldevelopments,27-29 Dutchcolonies,14,15,17,24 earlysettlements,10-12,24 Englishsettlers,10-12,13-15,17,24 FrenchandIndianWars,32-33 Germansettlers,24,25,26 governmentofthecolonies,29-32 Jamestowncolony(Virginia),10, 12-13,16 Massachusettscolonies,13-14, 24-25 middlecolonies,25-26 NativeAmericanrelations,15-17, 18,39 NewAmsterdam,14,15,26 NewEnglandcolonies,24-25 NewEnglandConfederation,17 Pennsylvaniacolony,18,25,27-28, 30,39,69 ruralcountrydailylife,26-27 ScotsandScots-Irishsettlers,24, 25,26 southerncolonies,26-27 Swedishcolonies,15,24 Virginiacolonies,10,12-13,16,26, 28-30,68-69 Colored-FarmersNationalAlliance, 191 Columbus,Christopher,9 CommissiononCivilRights,280
345
INDEX
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
CommitteeforIndustrialOrganization (CIO),228 CommitteesofCorrespondence,56-57 CommodityCreditCorporation,216 CommonSense(Paine),60 Communism,206-207 ColdWarand,258-267,315-316 Eisenhowercontainmentpolicy, 264-265 FederalEmployeeLoyaltyProgram, 266 HouseCommitteeonUnAmericanActivities,266 McCarthySenatehearingson,236, 266 RedScare(1919-20),207,265 spreadof,263 TrumanDoctrineofcontainment, 261-263 CommunistParty,206,263,265,266 Compromiseof1850,90,135-136 ConfederationCongress,71 CongressofIndustrialOrganizations (CIO),228 Congress,U.S. African-Americanmembers,96 firstNativeAmericanmember,281 Hispanicmembers,280 powertomakeLaws,75 representationinHouseand Senate,73 Conservatism,307-309 Constitution,stateconstitutions,68-69 Constitution,U.S. amendments 1stthru12th,77 13th(abolishingslavery),148 14th(citizenshiprights),148149,178 15th(votingrights),149,273 16th(federalincometax),198 17th(directelectionof senators),198 18th(prohibition),210
19th(votingrightsforwomen), 207 amendmentsprocess,74 BillofRights,77 Congressionalpowers,75 debateandcompromise,73-75 declarationofwarpowers,316-317 ondisplayatNationalArchives,174 motivationsofFoundingFathers, 75 ratification,75-76 separationofpowersprinciple,74 signingof,atConstitutionHall (Philadelphia),164 ConstitutionalConvention (Philadelphia,1787),66-67,71-77 ConstitutionalUnionParty,139 ContinentalAssociation,58-59 ContinentalCongress,First(1774),58 ContinentalCongress,Second(1775), 60,61,69,71 Coolidge,Calvin,204,207 Cornwallis,LordCharles,46-47,64 Coronado,FranciscoVázquezde,9 Corporations,158-159 Coughlin,Charles,217 Counterculture(1960s),281-282 NewLeftists,281-282 VietnamWardemonstrations,281 “WoodstockGeneration,”249,281 Cox,JamesM.,207 Crawford,William,116 CrazyHorse(Siouxchief),180 CreekIndians,125 Cromwell,Oliver,12,17,31 Cuba,Spanish-AmericanWarand, 182-183 Cubanmissilecrisis(1962),284 Cullen,Countee,211 Culture ofthe1950s,270-271 inthecolonies,27-29 countercultureofthe1960s,281282
346
SeealsoLibraries;Literaryworks; Music,American CurrencyAct(England,1764),53 Custer,George,98-99,180 D DakotaSioux,98,180,281 Darrow,Clarence,209-210 Darwiniantheory Scopestrial,209-210 “survivalofthefittest,”193 Davis,Jefferson,142 Dawes(GeneralAllotment)Act (1887),181 DeSoto,Hernando,9 DeclarationofIndependence,61,68 burialsiteforthreesignersof,162163 DeclaratoryAct(England),55 DelawareIndians,18,39 DemocracyinAmerica(Tocqueville), 130 DemocraticParty,116,137,152,153, 192,218-219 Depression.SeeGreatDepression Dewey,George,183 Dewey,Thomas,235,269 Dickens,Charles,130-131 Dickinson,Emily,96 Dickinson,John,55,69 Digitalrevolution,293,296 e-mailcommunication,327 mobilephones,327 personalcomputer(PC)growth, 306,327 Dix,Dorothea,121 Dixiecrats,319 Dole,Robert,328 Doolittle,James“Jimmy,”223 Dorset,Marion,177 Douglas,StephenA.,136,137,138-139 Douglass,Frederick,91,122,134,145 Drake,Francis,10 DredScottdecision,138,149
Dreiser,Theodore,196 DuBois,W.E.B.,178,211 Dukakis,Michael,314 Dulles,JohnFoster,265 Dunmore,Lord,60 Dutchcolonization,14,15,17 patroonsystem,14-15 DutchEastIndiaCompany,14 Dylan,Bob,281 E EastIndiaCompany,57 Eastman,George,106,157 Edison,Thomas,106,157 Education inthecolonies,27-29 computertechnologyand,303 daycarecenters,303 NoChildLeftBehindAct,333 privateschools,27 privatetutors,28 publicschoolsystems,121 schooldesegregation,240,244,272273,277 Edwards,Jonathan,29 Eisenhower,DwightDavid civilrightssupporter,272,273 ColdWarandforeignpolicy,264265 domesticpolicyof“dynamic conservatism,”269-270 portraitof,236 aspresidentofU.S.,264-265,269270 asSupremeCommanderofAllied Forces,223,232,264 ElectoralCollege,116,117 ElkinsAct(1903),196 Ellington,Duke,211 EllisIslandMonument,102,103,200 EmancipationProclamation,144-145 EmbargoAct(1807),84 Emerson,RalphWaldo,59
347
INDEX
EnforcementActs(1870and1871), 150 EnglishCivilWar(1642-49),31 Englishcolonization earlysettlements,10-12 FrenchandIndianWarand,32-33 mapof,36-37 inMaryland,15 inMassachusetts,13-14 NewEnglandConfederation,17 Englishcommonlaw,30 EnolaGay(U.S.bomber),attackson HiroshimandNagasaki,226 Environmentalmovement,282,298 EnvironmentalProtectionAgency (EPA),282 EqualRightsAmendment(ERA),279 EriktheRed,9 F Falwell,Jerry,308 Farragut,David,143 Faubus,Orval,272 FederalAidRoadAct(1916),113 FederalArtistsProject,218 FederalDepositandInsurance Corporation(FDIC),215 FederalEmergencyRelief Administration(FERA),215 FederalEmployeeLoyaltyProgram, 266 FederalReserveAct(1913),198 FederalReserveBoard,199,218,291, 310 FederalReserveSystem,119,187,198199 FederalTheatreProject,218 FederalTradeCommission,199 FederalWorkingman’sCompensation Act(1916),199 FederalWritersProject,218 TheFederalistPapers,43,76 Federalists,76,78,81,82,86,116 TheFeminineMystique(Friedan),278
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
TheFinancier(Dreiser),196 Finney,Charles,Grandison,87 Fitzgerald,F.Scott,210 ForceAct,118 Ford,Gerald,290-291 Ford,Henry,109 Fordney-McCumberTariff(1922),207 Foreignpolicy.SeeU.S.foreignpolicy France LouisianaTerritorysoldtoU.S., 83-84 NewWorldexploration,9-10 U.S.diplomaticrelations,82-83 XYZAffair,82 Franco-AmericanTreatyofAlliance (1778),62-63,80,82 Franklin,Benjamin,28,33,43,63,64, 72,75 FreeSoilParty,136,137,138 Freedmen’sBureau,148,151 Fremont,John,138 FrenchandIndianWar,32-33 Frenchexploration,10 FrenchHuguenots,24 FrenchRevolution,34,79,80,81 Friedan,Betty,278,279 Friedman,Milton,308 FugitiveSlaveAct,136,137 Fundamentalism,religious,209,210, 308 G Gage,Thomas,59 Gallatin,Albert,83 Garrison,WilliamLloyd,91,122,133134 Garza,Eligio“Kika”dela,280 Gates,Bill,296 Gates,Horatio,62,63-64 Gayrights,307,324-325 Genet,EdmondCharles,80-81 George,Henry,160 GeorgeIII(Britishking),55,59
348
Georgia colonialroyalgovernment,31 earlysettlement,18 NativeAmericantribesrelocated, 118 Germanunification,316 Germany BerlinAirlift,262 KennedyspeechinWestBerlin, 242-243 postwarperiod,262 reparations,WorldWarI,224 GermanyinWorldWarII Holocaust(Jewishgenocide),226 Nazism,219,224,226 NorthAfricancampaign,222 Nurembergwarcrimetrials,226 reparations,206 submarinewarfare,204-205 Geronimo(Apachechief),181 Gerry,Elbridge,72,73 Ghent,Treatyof(1814),85 Gilbert,Humphrey,10 TheGildedAge(Twain),196 Ginsberg,Allen,271 Glenn,John,285 GloriousRevolution(1688-89),31,32 Goethals,GeorgeW.,185 Goldwater,Barry,286,308,309 Gompers,Samuel,194 González,HenryB.,280 Gorbachev,Mikhail,304-305,314,315, 316 Gore,Al,323,332,333 Gould,Jay,194 Grangemovement,191 Grant,UlyssesS. portraitof,95 aspresidentofU.S.,150,153 asUnionArmygeneral,144,145 GreatDepression(1929-40) declineinimmigration,201 “DustBowl”migration,216 NewDealprograms,214-218
souplines,202-203 stockmarketcrash(1929),211 “GreatSociety,”286-287 Greeley,Horace,112,124 GreenParty,332 Greenspan,Alan,327 Grey,Zane,180 GuadalupeHidalgo,Treatyof,135 Guam,U.S.relations,184 H Haiti,politicalsituation,330 Hamilton,Alexander andBankoftheUnitedStates,79, 118 ConstitutionalConvention delegate,71,72 FederalistPapersand,43,76 asfirstTreasuryDepartment secretary,77 portraitof,48 andRepublicanParty,152 vs.Jefferson,48,78-80 Hamilton,Andrew,28 Harding,WarrenG.,207 Harrison,Benjamin,160 Harrison,WilliamHenry,85,120 HartfordConvention(1814),117 HarvardCollege,27 Hawaii,statehood(1959),184 HawaiianIslands,U.S.policyof annexation,183-184 Hawley-SmootTariffAct(1930),207 Hay,John,184,186 Hayes,RutherfordB.,150-151,153 HaymarketSquareincident,194 HelsinkiAccords(1975),291 Hemingway,Ernest,109,210 Henry,Patrick,42,54,76,77 HepburnAct(1906),197 Hidalgo,Miguelde,114 HighwayAct(1956),268
349
INDEX
Hispanics inpolitics,280 SeealsoLatinomovement Hiss,Alger,266 Hitler,Adolf,201,219 HoChiMinh,284 Hohokamsettlements,7 HolyAlliance,115 HomelandSecurityDepartment,334 HomesteadAct(1862),124,152,179, 180 Hoover,Herbert,185,211 Hopewellians,7 HopiIndians,8 HousingandUrbanDevelopment Department,287 Houston,Sam,134 Howe,William,61-62 Hudson,Henry,14 Hughes,Langston,211 Hull,Cordell,221 Humphrey,Hubert,288 Hungary,rebellion(1956),265 Hutchinson,Anne,14 I Immigrantsandimmigration diversityofimmigrants,200-201 EllisIslandMonument,102,103, 200 illegalimmigrants,201 immigrationquotas,201,209 “LittleItaly”inNewYorkCity,104105 Nativistsand,209 policyreform,307 restrictionsonimmigration,208209 ImmigrationRestrictionLeague,201 Imperialism,181-182 Indenturedservants,18-19 IndianRemovalAct(1830),125 IndianReorganizationAct(1934),181 IndianWars
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Apachewars,180,181 Custer’sLastStandatLittle Bighorn,98-99,180 FrenchandIndianWar,32-33 PequotWar(1637),16 andwestwardexpansion,124,180181 IndiansofNorthAmerica.SeeNative Americans Individualrights,34,65,76-77 SeealsoCivilrights Industrialdevelopment.Seeunder namesofindustry IndustrialWorkersoftheWorld (IWW),194 InterstateCommerceCommission (ICC),159,197,198 Inventions addingmachine,157 airplane,107 cashregister,157 cottongin,114,133 lightbulb/incandescentlamp,106, 157 linotypemachine,157 motionpictureprojector,106,157 reaper(farmmachine),131,158, 160 telegraph,156 telephone,107,156 television,268 typewriter,157 Iran,U.S.relations,292 Axisofevil,334 Iraq elections(2005),302 provisionalgovernment,335 U.N.weaponsinspections,329, 334-335 U.S.-ledinvasion,335 Ironandsteelindustry,157,187 strikes,194,228 IroquoisIndians,14,16-17,33 Isolationism,78,206,220 350
Israel Egyptinvasion,265 Palestinianrelations,330 U.S.policy,264 J Jacinto,Battleof,134 Jackson,Andrew conflictswithIndians,125 asgeneralinWarof1812,86 portraitof,89 aspresidentofU.S.,89,117-118 presidentialelection(1824),116 presidentialelection(1828),117 Jackson,HelenHunt,181
Jackson,Jesse,253 Jackson,ThomasJ.(“Stonewall”),144, 145 JamesI(Britishking),12 JamesII(Britishking),31 Jamestowncolony(Virginia),10,1213,16 Japan attackonPearlHarbor,212-213, 221,222 Kamikazesuicidemissions,225 surrender(1945),226 U.S.attacksonHiroshimaand Nagasaki,226 U.S.relations,186 Japanese-Americans,internment camps,222,233 Jay,John,43,64,76,81,82 JayTreaty(Britain-U.S.),81,82 JazzAge,210 JeffersonMemorial(Wash.,D.C.),161 Jefferson,Thomas onabolitionofslavery,113 asdrafterofDeclarationof Independence,61 faceof(MountRushmore),170171
asfirstStateDepartmentsecretary, 77 portraitof,46 aspresidentofU.S.,83 onrightofself-government,68 onslavery,114 asU.S.ministertoFrance,72,79-80 vs.Adams,82 vs.Hamilton,48,78-80 “JimCrow”laws(separatebutequal segregation),151,240,272,319 Jobs,Steve,296 Johnson,Andrew impeachmenttrial,149-150 aspresidentofU.S.,147-149,153 Johnson,LyndonB. civilrightssupporter,273,277 GreatSocietyprograms,286-287 portraitof,245 spaceprogram,285 VietnamWarpolicy,287-288 “WaronPoverty,”286 Johnson-ReedNationalOriginsAct (1924),201,209 TheJungle(Sinclair),196 K Kansas slaveryissueand,138 territory(“bleedingKansas”),137, 138 Kansas-NebraskaAct,137 Kennan,George,261 Kennedy,JohnF. assassinationof,277,286 BayofPigsinvasion,284 civilrightspolicy,277,283 ColdWarand,284-285 Cubanmissilecrisis,284 aspresidentofU.S.,282-285 spaceprogram,285-286 VietnamWarpolicy,284-285 WestBerlinspeechduringCold War,242-243 351
INDEX
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Kennedy,Robert,assassinationof,278, 288 Kentucky Resolutions(1798),117 statehood(1792),7-8 Kerouac,Jack,270 Kerry,JohnF.,336-337 Khomeini,Ayatollah,292 Khrushchev,Nikita,284 KimIl-sung,263 King,MartinLuther,Jr. assassinationof,278,288 civilrightsmovementand,240, 241,273,283 “Ihaveadream”speech,276,277 King,Rufus,72 Kissinger,Henry,289 Know-NothingParty,120 KoreanWar,235,263,264 Kosciusko,Thaddeus,65 KuKluxKlan,150,201,209 L Laborunions,121,193-195 aircontrollersstrike,309 autoworkersstrikes,228 collectivebargaining,217 HaymarketSquareincident,194 membershipinU.S.,227-228 migrantfarmworkers,250,279-280 mineworkersmembership/strikes, 194-195,227-228 NewDealprograms,217 post-WorldWarIstrikes,206 post-WorldWarIIstrikes,269 railwayworkerstrikes,193,194 steelworkerstrikes,194,228 textileworkerstrikes,195 “Wobblies,”194-195 Seealsoundernamesofspecific unions Lafayette,Marquisde,65 LaFollette,Robert,196,318-319 Landon,Alf,218
LatinAmerica,U.S.intervention,184185 LatinAmericanRevolution,114-116 Latinomovement,279-280 LeagueofNations,205-206,226 Lee,RichardHenry,61,64 Lee,RobertE. captureofJohnBrownatHarper’s Ferry,139 commanderofConfederateArmy, 144 declinescommandofUnionArmy, 143 portraitof,95 surrenderatAppomattox Courthouse,146 Leif(sonofEriktheRed),9 Lenin,V.I.,259 Levitt,WilliamJ.,268 LewisandClarkexpedition, bicentennialcommemorativestamp, 46 Lewis,JohnL.,227-228 Lewis,Meriwether,47 Lewis,Sinclair,210 TheLiberator,91,133 Libraries AmericanPhilosophicalSociety (Philadelphia),28 inthecolonies,27,28 publiclibrariesendowedby Carnegie,97 subscription,28 Lincoln,Abraham assassinationof,147,153 atCivilWarUnionencampment, 140-141 EmancipationProclamation,144145 faceof(MountRushmore),170171 Free-SoilPartyand,138 Gettysburgaddress,142,145 onGrant,95
352
aspresidentduringCivilWar,142147 presidentialelection(1860),139 presidentialelection(1864),147, 153 presidentialinauguraladdress,142 senatorialcampaign(1858),138139 onslaveryandtheUnion,130,138 Lincoln,Benjamin,63,70 Lincoln-Douglasdebates(1858),138139 Literaryworks “BeatGeneration”(1950s),270-271 colonialperiod,28-29 “HarlemRenaissance,”211 “LostGeneration”(1920s),109,211 NewDealprogramsand,218 Seealsonamesofindividualauthors orworks LloydGeorge,David,108 Locke,John,17,32,34,61,65,73 Lodge,HenryCabot,181,184 Logan,James,28 TheLonelyCrowd(Riesman),270 Long,HueyP.,assassinationof,217 “LostGeneration”(1920s),109,211 LouisXVI(Frenchking),64,80 LouisianaPurchase,83-84 Lovejoy,ElijahP.,134 Lowell,JamesRussell,147 Luce,Henry,258 Lundestad,Geir,262 M MacArthur,Douglas,225,232,263 Macdonough,Thomas,85 Madison,James,43,72,75,76,84-86, 113 as“FatheroftheConstitution,”72 Mahan,AlfredThayer,184 Maine(U.S.warship)incident,182 Major,John,330 MalcolmX,277
Manhattan.SeeNewYork Manhattanproject(atomicbomb development),225 Mann,Horace,121 MaoZedong,263,289 Marburyv.Madison(1803),113 Marcos,Ferdinand,312 Marshall,GeorgeC.,262 Marshall,John aschiefjusticeoftheSupreme Court,49,113 funeralof,168 portraitof,49 MarshallPlan,262 Marshall,Thurgood,244 Martin,Josiah,60 Maryland Calvertfamilycharter,15,30 Catholicsettlements,15 St.Mary’s,firsttownin,15 TolerationActandreligious freedom,17 Mason,George,76 Massachusetts BostonMassacre(1770),56 BostonPortBill,57 BostonTeaParty(1773),50-51,57 colonialgovernmentcharter,30-31 earlysettlements,13-14 OldGranaryCemetery(Boston), 162-163 Salemwitchtrials,35 schoolsandeducation,27 ShaysRebellion,70 tradeandeconomicdevelopment, 24-25 MassachusettsBayColony,25,31 MassachusettsBayCompany,18 Mather,Cotton,28,40 MayflowerCompact,13,22-23,30 Mayflower(ship),13 Mbeki,Thabo,295 McCarran-WalterAct(1952),201 McCarthy,JosephR.,236,266
353
INDEX
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
McClellan,George,144,147 McCormick,Cyrus,131,158,160 McCullochv.Maryland(1819),113 McGovern,George,290 McGrath,J.Howard,266 McKinley,William assassinationof,195 Hawaiiannexationtreaty,184 Maine(U.S.warship)incident,182 OpenDoorforeignpolicy,195 aspresidentofU.S.,182,184,192, 195 McVeigh,Timothy,331 MeatInspectionAct,197 Meat-packingindustry,158,196,197 Mellon,Andrew,207 Mencken,H.L.,210 Menéndez,Pedro,10 MerchantMarine,208 Meredith,James,277 Methodists,87,88 Mexican-Americans.SeeLatino movement MexicanWar,134-135 Mexico conquestof,9 revolution,185 Spanishcolonization,11 Middlecolonies,25-26 MiddleEast Palestinians,329-330 peacenegotiations,329-330 PersianGulfWar,316-317 U.S.policy,264,292,313,329-330 Millet,Kate,248 Miningindustrystrikes,194-195 Miranda,Francisco,114 MissouriCompromise(1820),90,114, 132,135,137 Mohler,George,177 MolassesAct(England,1733),53 Molotov,Vyacheslav,260 Mondale,Walter,311
Monetarypolicy.SeeU.S.monetary policy MonroeDoctrine,114-116 Monroe,James,113,115,116 Montgomery,Bernard,222 Montoya,Joseph,280 Monumentsandmemorials,161-176 Seealsoundernamesofindividual memorials MoralMajority,308 Morgan,JohnPierpoint(J.P.),187 MorrillLandGrantCollegeAct(1862), 152,177 Morris,Gouverneur,72 Morse,SamuelF.B.,156 Mott,Lucretia,122 Moundbuilders,7 MountRushmoreMonument(South Dakota),170-171 MountVernon(Virginia), Washington’splantationhome,170171 Ms.(feministmagazine),279 MTV,297 Murray-Philip,228 Music,American Beatles,281 “hardrock,”281 JazzAge(1920s),210 Jazzmusicians,211 rockandroll(1950s),271,281 RollingStones,271,281 Woodstock(outdoorrockconcert, 1969),249,281 Mussolini,Benito,219,223 MutualBoardofDefense(U.S.Canada),220 N NAACP.SeeNationalAssociationfor theAdvancementofColoredPeople (NAACP) Nader,Ralph,287,332,336 NAFTA.SeeNorthAmericanFree
354
TradeAgreement(NAFTA) Napoleon,82,83,84 NationalAssociationforthe AdvancementofColoredPeople (NAACP),211,244,272,273 NationalIndustrialRecoveryAct (NIRA),217,227 NationalLaborRelationsAct(NLRA), 217,218,228,280 NationalLaborRelationsBoard (NLRB),217 NationalOrganizationforWomen (NOW),279 NationalRecoveryAdministration (NRA),217 NationalSecurityCouncil(NSC), NSC-68securityreportonSoviet Union,262-263,265 NationalWomanSuffrageAssociation (NWSA),123 NationalYouthAdministration,218 Native-Americanmovement,280-281 AmericanIndianMovement (AIM),281 WoundedKnee(SouthDakota) incident,180,281 NativeAmericans culturalgroups,mapof,21 demonstrationinWashington (1978),252 effectofEuropeandiseaseon,8 Europeancontact,9-10 GreatSerpentMound,Ohio,168 Indianuprisings,16-17,180-181 MesaVerdecliffdwellings,4-5,8 migrationacrossBeringialand bridge,6 moundbuildersofOhio,7 NorthwestPassageand,9,10 oraltradition,8 PacificNorthwestpotlatches,8 population,8 PuebloIndians,8,20
relationswithEuropeansettlers, 15-17,18,39 religiousbeliefs,8 slavetrade,18 TrailofTears(Cherokeeforced relocation),125 U.S.policy,181 Westwardexpansionand,178 SeealsoIndianWars;andSeeunder namesofindividualtribes Nativists,209 NaturalizationAct,82 Nebraska,territory,137 NewAmsterdam.SeeunderNewYork NewDealprograms,214-218 NewEnglandcolonies,17,24-25,3031 NewEnglandConfederation,17 NewMexicoterritory,136 NewWorldexploration,9-11 NewWorldsettlements.SeeColonial period NewYork colonialroyalgovernment,31 Dutchsettlers,14,15,25-26 Manhattan,earlysettlement,14,15, 25-26 NewAmsterdam/NewNetherland settlement,14,15,26 polyglotofearlysettlers,25-26 NewYorkWeeklyJournal,28 NgoDienNu,285 NgoDinhDiem,285 Nichols,Terry,331 NIRA.SeeNationalIndustrial RecoveryAct(NIRA) Nixon,RichardM. China-U.S.diplomaticrelations, 289 atGreatWallofChina,250-251 impeachmentandresignation,290 aspresidentofU.S.,288-290 presidentialelections(1960,1968, 1972),283,288,290
355
INDEX
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
SovietUniondétentepolicy,289 Watergateaffair,290 NLRA.SeeNationalLaborRelations Act(NLRA) NoChildLeftBehindAct,333 NobleOrderoftheKnightsofLabor (1869),193 Non-IntercourseAct(1809),84 Noriega,ManuelAntonio,317 Norris,Frank,196 NorthAmericanFreeTradeAgreement (NAFTA),317,325 NorthAtlanticTreatyOrganization (NATO),262 NorthCarolinacolony,17,30 NorthernSecuritiesCompany,187 NorthwestOrdinance(1787),71,73, 113,135 NorthwestPassage,9,10 NorthwestTerritory,71,113 NOW.SeeNationalOrganizationfor Women(NOW) Nuclearweapons Intermediate-RangeNuclearForces (INF)Treaty,304-305,314 LimitedNuclearTestBanTreaty (1963),243,284 ManhattanProject(atomicbomb development),225 SALTI(StrategicArmsLimitation Talks),289 SALTIIagreement,292 Sovietatomicbombtesting,266 StrategicDefenseInitiative(SDI), 313-314 testbans,284 U.S.attacksonHiroshimaand Nagasaki,226 U.S.defensebuildup,314 U.S.militarydefensebuildup,314 U.S.nucleartesting,234 U.S.policyduringColdWar,265 Nullificationdoctrine,83,117-118
O Oathofoffice,presidential,77 Obasanjo,Olusegun,295 TheOctopus(Norris),196 OfficeofEconomicOpportunity,286 Oglethorpe,James,18 OklahomaTerritory,City,homestead claims,101 Oliver,King,211 Olney,Richard,194 OntheRoad(Kerouac),270 OrganizationofAmericanStates (formerlyPanAmericanUnion),185 OrganizationofthePetroleum ExportingCountries(OPEC),290 Organizedlabor.SeeLaborunions Orlando,Vittorio,108 P PacificRailwayActs(1862-64),152 Paine,Thomas,60 Palmer,A.Mitchell,206-207 Panama,U.S.invasion,317 PanamaCanal Gatunlocks,100-101 treaties,101,184-185,292 ParisPeaceConference(1919),108 Paris,Treatyof(1783),47,64 Parker,John,59 Parks,Rosa,240,273 Patroonsystem,14-15 PeaceDemocratsor“Copperheads,” 152 PeaceofParis(1763),33 Penn,William,18,25,30,39 Pennsylvaniacolony colonialgovernment,30 culturaldevelopments,27-28 Germansettlers,25 population,25 Quakersasearlysetters,18,25,27 relationswithNativeAmericans, 18,39 schoolsandeducation,27-28
356
stateconstitution,69 SeealsoPhiladelphia PequotIndianWar(1637),16 Perkins,Frances,227 Perot,H.Ross,319,323,328 Perry,OliverHazard,85 Pershing,JohnJ.,205 PersianGulfWar,316-317 DesertStormcampaign,252-253 Philadelphia AmericanPhilosophicalSociety,28 as“CityofBrotherlyLove,”18 colonialperiodin,18,25 FriendsPublicSchool,27 IndependenceHall,164-165 LibertyBell,168 privateschools,27 subscriptionlibraries,28 PhilippineIslands elections,312 MacArthur’sreturn,232 U.S.relations,183,184 WorldWarIIbattles,224-225,232 Pierce,Franklin,137 Pilgrims,13,22-23,30,65 Pinckney,Charles,81 ThePit(Norris),196 Pitcairn,John,59 Pizarro,Francisco,9 PlainsIndians,10,98,180-181 Plessyv.Ferguson(1896),178,272 Politicalparties AmericanIndependent,319 BullMooseParty,318 ConstitutionalUnionParty,139 Democrats,116,137,152,153,192, 218-219 Dixiecrats,319 Federalists,76,78,81,82,86,116 FreeSoilParty,136,137,138 GreenParty,332 Know-Nothings,120 Populists,191-192 Progressive,318-319
RadicalRepublicans,148-151 ReformParty,319 Republicans(orDemocraticRepublicans),78,81,138,139,152, 153,218 Socialists,206,318 SouthernDemocrats,139 StatesRights,272 thirdpartyandindependent candidates,318-319 Whigs,119-121,137-138,152,153 Polk,JamesK.,134,135 PoncedeLéon,Juan,9 Populationgrowth incitiesandtowns,159 householdcomposition,307 postwarmigrations,267-268 Population,U.S. in1690,24 in1775,24 1790census,200 1812to1852,124 1860census,132 PopulistParty,191-192 Powell,Colin,294-295 Presidency,U.S. Cabinet,77-78,280 impeachment,149-150,290,328, 329 oathofoffice,77 roleoffirstlady,324 Seealsonamesofindividual presidents Presidentialelections 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 1892(Cleveland),160 357
INDEX
1896(McKinley),192 1900(McKinley),195 1904(Roosevelt),197 1908(Taft),197-198 1912(Wilson),318,328 1916(Wilson),205,328 1920(Harding),207 1924(Coolidge),318-319 1932(Roosevelt),211 1936(Roosevelt),218 1940(Roosevelt),220 1948(Truman),235,269,319 1960(Kennedy),283 1964(Johnson),286,308,309 1968(Nixon),288,319 1972(Nixon),290 1976(Carter),291 1980(Reagan),309 1984(Reagan),310-311 1988(Bush),314 1992(Clinton),319,322-324 1996(Clinton),328-329 2000(Bush),332-333 2004(Bush),336-337 Presley,Elvis,238,271 Press CableNewsNetwork(CNN),297 firstnewspaper,28 firstprintingpressincolonies,27 freedomofthe,28-29 ProgressiveParty,318-319 Progressivism,195,196 Prohibition,121,210 Protestantreligion Baptists,87,88 GreatAwakening,29 Methodists,87,88 revivalsin“Burned-OverDistrict,” 87 SecondGreatAwakeningand,87-88 SeealsoPilgrims;Puritans PublicUtilityHoldingCompanyAct, 218
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
PublicWorksAdministration(PWA), 215 PuebloIndians,8,20 PuertoRico cededtoU.S.,182-183 asU.S.commonwealth,184 PureFoodandDrugAct(1906),197 Puritans,13-14,40,40,65 Q Quakers abolitionmovementand,133 andBritishgovernmentrelations, 59 Pennsylvaniasettlements,18,25 schoolsandeducation,27 QuarteringAct(England,1765),5354,58 Quayle,Dan,323 QuebecAct(England),58 Quotations,notable “Asknotwhatyourcountrycando foryouÑaskwhatyoucandofor yourcountry”(Kennedy),283 “axisofevil”(Bush),334 “TheBuckStopsHere,”260 “cityuponahill”(Winthrop),13, 309 “Damnthetorpedoes!Fullspeed ahead”(Farragut),143 “adaythatwillliveininfamy” (Roosevelt),221 “Givemeliberty,orgivemedeath” (Henry),42 “Gowest,youngman”(Greeley), 112,124 “Ahousedividedagainstitself cannotstand”(Lincoln),130,138 “Ihaveadream...”(King,Jr.),276 “Ishallreturn”(MacArthur),232 “IchbineinBerliner”(Iama Berliner)(Kennedy),242 “ironcurtain”(Churchill),260-261 “shotheardroundtheworld” 358
(Emerson),59 “thousandpointsoflight”(Bush), 315 “tyrannyoverthemindofman” (Jefferson),161 “Withmalicetowardsnone” (Lincoln),147
as“GreatCommunicator,”309 Grenadainvasion,312-313 Iran-Contraaffair,312-313 withMikhailGorbachev,304-305 ReconstructionAct(1867),148 ReconstructionEra,148-151 African-Americanmembersin Congressduring,96 R Lincoln’sprogram,147-148 Raceriots,152,206 ReconstructionFinanceCorporation, Racialdiscrimination 211 bussegregation,240,273 RedCloud(Siouxchief),180 colorbarrierbrokenbyJackie ReformParty,319 Robinson,237,271 RefugeeAct(1980),201 infederalgovernmentemployment, Religion 269,272 campmeetingsandrevivals,87-88 “JimCrow”laws(segregation),151, ChristianCoalition,308 272,319 Christianevangelicals,332,336 lynchingsandviolenceagainst circuitriders,88 AfricanAmericans,150,178,271 fundamentalism,209,210,308 militarysegregation,269,272 GreatAwakening,29 schoolsegregation,240,244 MoralMajority,308 separatebutequal Salemwitchtrials,35 accommodations,178,240,272 SecondGreatAwakening,87-88 SouthAfricanapartheid,312 Religiousfreedom whitesupremacyandbeliefinblack CoerciveorIntolerableActsand,58 inferiority,178 freedomofworship,32 RadicalRepublicans,148-151 andtolerance,17,29,32 Railroadindustry,131-132 Republicanism,65,68 GreatRailStrike(1877),194 Republicans(orDemocraticnationalizationof,192 Republicans),78,81,138,139,152, PullmanCompany,194 153,218 regulation,159,197 Reuther,Walter,228 transcontinentallinkat Revels,H.R.,96 PromontoryPoint(1869),179 Revolution.SeeAmericanRevolution; transcontinentalrailroad,154-155 FrenchRevolution;LatinAmerican westwardexpansionand,179 Revolution workers’hours,199 RevolutionaryWar.SeeAmerican workers’strikes,193,194 Revolution Raleigh,Walter,10 RhodeIslandcolony,14,31,41 Reagan,Ronald Rice,Condoleeza,295 conservatismand,307-309 Ridgway,MatthewB.,264 economicpolicy,309-311 Riesman,David,270 foreignpolicy,311-313 “RoaringTwenties,”109,210 359
INDEX
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Robertson,Pat,308 Robinson,Jackie,237,271 Rochambeau,ComteJeande,64 Rockefeller,JohnD.,158 Roev.Wade(1973),279,308,324 Rogers,William,251 Rolfe,John,12 Rommel,Erwin,222 Roosevelt,Eleanor,324 Roosevelt,FranklinD. deathof,224 ondemocracy,214,219 foreignpolicy,185 GoodNeighborPolicy,185 laborunionsand,227 NewDealprograms,214-218 presidentialelections(1932,1936, 1940),207,211,218,220 SocialSecurityAct,signingof,230 SocialSecurityprogram,218,230 WorldWarIIand,219-220 WorldWarIIpeacenegotiations, 224 atYalta(1945),224,234 Roosevelt,Theodore accessiontothepresidency,195 ondemocracy,190 faceof(MountRushmore),170171 foreignpolicy,181,184,186 NobelPeacePrizerecipient(1906), 186 PanamaCanaltreaty,184-185 presidentialelection(1912),318 “RoughRiders”intheSpanishAmericanWar,183 “SquareDeal,”196 as“trust-buster”andantitrustlaws, 160,187,196-197 Root,Elihu,181 Rose,Ernestine,122 Rosenberg,JuliusandEthel,266 “RosietheRiveter,”222
RoyalProclamation(England,1763), 53 RuralElectrificationAdministration, 218 RussianRevolution(1917),206,259 Russo-JapaneseWar(1904-05),186 S Sadat,Anwaral-,292 SaddamHussein,316,317,329,334335 SanMartin,Joséde,114 SantaAnna,AntonioLópezde,134 Scopes,John,209 Scopestrial,209-210 Scott,Dred,138 Scott,Winfield,135 Seamen’sAct(1915),199 SecondTreatiseonGovernment (Locke),32,61 Sectionalism,andslaveryissue,128139 SeditionAct,82,117 SeminoleIndians,125 Separationofchurchandstate,14 Separationofpowersprinciple,74 Separatists,13 SevenYears’War,33,63,83 SeventhDayAdventists,87 Seward,William,138,182 Seymour,Horatio,152 TheShameoftheCities(Steffens),196 Sharon,Ariel,330 Shays,Daniel,70 Shays’sRebellion(1787),70,73 ShermanAntitrustAct(1890),160, 187 Sherman,Roger,72,73 Sherman,WilliamT.,146 SilentSpring(Carson),282 Sinclair,Upton,196 SiouxIndians,98,180,281 SittingBull(Siouxchief),98 Slavefamily,128-129
360
Slaveowners,132 Slavepopulation,132 Slavetrade,19,25,133,136 Slavery Africanslaves,19,24 constitutionalamendment(13th) abolishing,148 DredScottdecision,138,149 EmancipationProclamation,144145 equalrightsand,69 extensionof,113-114 freevs.slavestates,114,123 FugitiveSlaveLaws,136,137 Indianslaves,17-18 MissouriCompromise(1820),90, 114,132,135,137 NorthwestOrdinancebanon,71, 73,113,135 asthe“peculiarinstitution,”132 plantationsinthesouthand,113114,128-129 revoltinHaiti,83 asasectionalconflict/divided nation,128-139 intheterritories,71,73,113,135, 136-138 SeealsoAbolitionofslavery Smith,Capt.John,6,12,36 Smith-LeverAct(1914),199 Socialactivism,87 Social-contract(theoryof government),61 Socialliberalism,34 Socialreforms,121-122,195-196 GreatSocietyprograms,286-287 Medicaidprogram,287 Medicareprogram,286 mentalhealthcare,121-122 NewDealprograms,214-218 prisonreform,121 progressivism,195 prohibitionandthetemperance movement,121,210
SocialSecurity,218 TrumanFairDealprograms,268269 WaronPoverty,286 welfarestateand,219 SocialSecurityAct(1935),218,230 SocialistParty,206,318 SocietyforthePromotionof Temperance,87,121 SoilConservationService,216 Somalia,331 SonsofLiberty,54 Soule,John,124 SouthAfrica,racialapartheid,312 SouthCarolina colonialgovernment,30 duringAmericanRevolution,63-64 earlysettlements,17,26 FrenchHuguenots,24 nullificationcrisis,117-118 protectivetariffs,117 secessionfromtheUnion,142 SouthernChristianLeadership Conference(SCLC),276 Southerncolonies,26-27 SouthernDemocrats,139 SovietUnion ColdWar,258-265 Sputnikandthespaceprogram,285 U.S.containmentdoctrine,261-263 U.S.détentepolicy,289,291,292 U.S.relations,284,313-314 Spaceprogram,254,274-275,285 Spain,andAmericanRevolution,63 Spanish-AmericanWar(1898),182, 183 Spanishexploration missionsinCalifornia,169 SevenCitiesofCibolaand,9 St.Augustine(Florida),first Europeansettlement,9,11,169 St.JohndeCrèvecoeur,J.Hector,24 St.Mary’s(Maryland),15 Stalin,Joseph,atYalta,224,234 361
INDEX
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
StampAct(England),54,55 StandardOilCompany,158,196,197 Stanton,Edwin,153 Stateconstitutions,68-69 Statehood,78 States’rights,79,80 nullificationdoctrine,83,117-118 StatesRightsParty,272 StatueofLiberty(NewYorkCity),167, 201 Steelindustry.SeeIronandsteel industry SteelWorkersOrganizingCommittee (SWOC),228 Steffens,Lincoln,196 Steinem,Gloria,248,279 Steuben,Friedrichvon,65 Stevens,Thaddeus,148 Stowe,HarrietBeecher,137 StudentNonviolentCoordinating Committee(SNCC),276 SugarAct(England,1764),53,55 Sunday,Billy,209 SupremeCourtBuilding(Wash., D.C.),166 SupremeCourt,U.S. cases Brownv.BoardofEducation, 241,244,272 Marburyv.Madison,113 McCullochv.Maryland,113 Plessyv.Ferguson,178,272 Roev.Wade,279,308,324 decisions,113 Court’srightofjudicialreview, 49 DredScott,138,149 enlargementproposal,218-219 SeealsoMarshall,John;Marshall, Thurgood Swedishcolonization,15,200 Swift,Gustavus,158
T Taft,WilliamHoward,197-198,318 Taiwan,263,265,289 Talleyrand,CharlesMauricede,82 Tarbell,IdaM.,196 Taxation BostonTeaParty(1773),50-51,57 Britishrighttotaxcolonies (DeclaratoryAct),55 colonialperiod,33,53-59 CommitteesofCorrespondence, 56-57 “withoutrepresentation,”53,54-55 Seealsonamesofindividualacts Taylor,Zachary,135 Technology.SeeInventions Television CableNewsNetwork(CNN),297 growthof,268 impactof,268,297 MTV,297 programming,239,268 Temperancemovement,87,121 Tennessee,statehood(1796),78 TennesseeValleyAuthority(TVA),215 TenureofOfficeAct,149 Terrorism anthraxpoisoningscare,333-334 Cole(U.S.Navydestroyer)bombing (Yemen),332 KhobarTowersU.S.military housing(SaudiArabia,1996),331 OklahomaCitybombing(1995), 326,331 Palestiniansuicidebombings,330 September11,2001attacksonU.S., 320-321,333 U.S.embassies(Kenyaand Tanzania,1998),331-332 WorldTradeCenterbombings (1993),331
362
Texas Alamo,battleof,134 BattleofSanJacinto,134 territoryof,134 andWarwithMexico,134-135 Textileindustrystrikes,195 Thorpe,Jim,181 Thurmond,Strom,272,319 TheTitan(Dreiser),196 ToSecureTheseRights,271-272 Tocqueville,Alexisde,126,130 Tojo,Hideki,221,225 TolerationAct(England,1689),31 TolerationAct(Maryland),17 Townsend,FrancisE.,217 TownshendActs(England),55-56 Townshend,Charles,55 Tradepolicy.SeeU.S.tradepolicy TransportationAct(1920),208 Treaties.Seeundernameofindividual treaty TrumanDoctrine,261 Truman,HarryS accessiontothepresidency,224 civilrightsprogram,271-272 FairDealdomesticprogram,268269 HiroshimaandNagasakiatomic bombattacks,226 laborunionsand,269 NSC-68defensepolicy,262,265 aspresidentofU.S.,258,260 presidentialelection(1948),235, 269 Trusts,158 Tubman,Harriet,91 Turner,FrederickJackson,126 Twain,Mark.SeeClemens,Samuel Langhorne Tyler,John,120
U UncleTom’sCabin(Stowe),137 UndergroundRailroad,91,134,136 UnionArmyofthePotomac,145 UnionPacificRailroad,179 UnitedAutoWorkers,228 UnitedMineWorkers(UMW),227228 UnitedNations,224,226 UnitedStatesSteelCorporation,157158,187 U.S.economy inthe1980s,309-311 inthe1990s,327-328 “BlackMonday”(stockmarket crash,1987),311 federalbudgetdeficits,310-311,315 migrationpatternsinU.S.,267 post-WorldWarIIperiod,267-268 stockmarketcrash(1929),211 suburbandevelopmentand,268 “supplyside”economics,309 unemployment,215-216,227,327 SeealsoBankingandfinance;Great Depression U.S.foreignpolicy,80-82,181-186 inAsia,185-186 Bush(GeorgeW.)Administration, 332-337 ClintonAdministration,328-331 ColdWarand,258-267 imperialismand“Manifest Destiny,”181-182 Iran-Contraaffair,312-313 isolationism,78,206,220 JayTreatywithBritain,81 inLatinAmerica,185 MonroeDoctrine,115-116 OpenDoorpolicy,186,195 inthePacificarea,183-184 PanamaCanaltreaty,184-185 ReaganAdministration,313-314 TrumanDoctrineofcontainment, 261-263 363
INDEX
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
XYZAffairwithFrance,82 U.S.monetarypolicy,79-80 currencyquestion,192 goldstandard,192 SeealsoBankingandfinance; FederalReserveBoard U.S.tradepolicy economicimpactofWarof1812, 86 EmbargoAct(1807),84 Fordney-McCumberTariff(1922), 207 Hawley-SmootTariff(1930),207 MassachusettsBayCompany “triangularU.S.tradepolicy,”25 McKinleytariff,160,191 NativeAmericanswithEuropean settlers,15-16 Non-IntercourseAct(1809),84 NorthAmericanFreeTrade Agreement,317,325 protectivetariffs,112,117,152,159 slavetrade,19,25,133 UnderwoodTariff(1913),198 WorldTradeOrganization(WTO), 325 USAPatriotAct,334 Utahterritory,136 V VanBuren,Martin,120 Vanderbilt,Cornelius,158 Vermont,statehood(1791),78 Verrazano,Giovannida,10 Versailles,Treatyof,206 Vespucci,Amerigo,9 Vietnam Frenchinvolvement,284-285 U.S.involvement,285 VietMinhmovement,284 VietnamVeteransMemorial(Wash., D.C.),172-173
VietnamWar antiwardemonstrations,248,258, 281,288-289 GulfofTonkinResolution,287 KentState(Ohio)student demonstration,288 militarydraft,288 U.S.forcesin,246-247 Villa,Francisco“Pancho,”185 Virginia Antifederalists,76 colonialgovernment,29-30 DeclarationofRights,77 educationbyprivatetutors,28 Jamestowncolony,10,12-13,16 Resolutions(1798),117 secessionfromtheUnion,142-143 stateconstitution,68-69 Tidewaterregionplantation settlements,26,28 VirginiaCompany,12,18,29-30 Volcker,Paul,291,310 Votingrights forAfricanAmericans,273,277 churchmembershiprequirement, 14 Pennsylvaniaconstitution,69 forwomen,122 VotingRightsAct(1965),277 W Wade,Abdoulaye,295 Wallace,George,288,319 Wallace,Henry,319 WampanoagIndians,13 Warof1812,85-86,112 Warren,Earl,272 Washington,BookerT.,178 Washington,George onabolitionofslavery,113 ascommanderinAmerican Revolution,60-62 ConstitutionalConvention
364
presidingofficer(1787),66-67,71 crossingtheDelaware(1776),62 faceof(MountRushmore),170171 asfirstU.S.president,77-78 LongIsland,battleof(1776),61 MountVernonplantation,homeof, 170-171 presidentialoathofoffice,77 retirementfrompresidency,82 atValleyForge(Pennsylvania),62 asVirginiamilitiacommander,33 Yorktown,Britishsurrender,46-47 WashingtonMonument(Wash.,D.C.), 175 WaterQualityImprovementAct,282 Wattenberg,Ben,337 Webster,Daniel,120,136 Welch,Joseph,236 Weld,TheodoreDwight,134 Welfarestate.SeeSocialreforms Welles,Gideon,143 “TheWest.”SeeWestwardexpansion West,Benjamin,39 WesternUnion,158 Westwardexpansion cowboylifeand“TheWildWest,” 180 frontiersettlers’life,123-124 HomesteadAct(1862),124,152, 179,180 homesteadinginthelastfrontier/ ”TheWest,”126,179-180 LouisianaPurchaseand,83-84 mapof,127 NorthwestOrdinance(1787),71, 73,135 inOklahomaTerritory,101 problemsof,53,70-71 WhigParty,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 FourteenPointsforWWIarmistice, 205 LeagueofNationsand,205-206 portraitof,108 aspresidentofU.S.,198-199,204206 presidentialelections(1912and 1916),205,328 relationswithMexico,185 U.S.neutralitypolicy,204-205 Winthrop,John,13,309 “Witchhunt,”originoftheterm,35 Women constitutionalcouncil (Afghanistan)delegates,294 educationinthehomearts,27,122 laborunionsand,193 nopoliticalrights,69 roleoffirstlady,324 roleofNativeAmerican,8 workersinwarproduction(“Rosie theRiveter”),222 workingconditions,193 Women’srights,122-123 abortionissue,308 EqualRightsAmendment(ERA), 279 feminismand,278-279 MarriedWomen’sPropertyAct,122 inPennsylvaniacolony,18 stateconstitutionsand,69 Women’srightsmovement,90,248, 278-279 Women’ssuffrage,90,122 marchonWashington(1913),188189 “WoodstockGeneration”(1960s),249, 281
365
INDEX
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
WorksProgressAdministration (WPA),218 WorldTradeCenterMemorial(New YorkCity),176 WorldTradeOrganization(WTO), 325 WorldWarI Americaninfantryforces,108 “BigFour”atParisPeace Conference(1919),108 Germansubmarinewarfare,204205 postwarunrest,206-207 U.S.involvement,205 U.S.neutralitypolicy,204-205 Wilson’sFourteenPointsfor armistice,205 WorldWarII AtlanticCharter,220 CoralSea,Battleofthe(1942),223 Doolittle’sTokyobombingraid,223 EasternFront,222 G.I.Bill(veteransbenefits),268-269 Guadalcanal,Battleof,223,231 HiroshimaandNagasakiatomic bombattacks,225,226 Holocaust(Jewishgenocide),226 IwoJimacampaign,225 Japanese-Americaninternment camps,222,233 JapaneseKamikazesuicide missions,225 Lend-LeaseProgram,220 LeyteGulf,Battleof,225 ManhattanProject,225 Midway,Battleof,223 Normandyalliedinvasion,223,232 NorthAfricancampaign,222-223 Nurembergwarcrimetrials,226 Okinawacampaign,225 inthePacificarena,223-224,224225,231
peace-timeconscriptionbill,220 PearlHarbor,Japaneseattackon (1941),212-213,221 politicsof,224 postwareconomy,267-268 postwarperiod,258 PotsdamDeclaration,225 Rooseveltcallfor“unconditional surrender,”224 RussiandefenseofLeningradand Moscow,222 U.S.mobilization,221-222 U.S.neutralitypolicy,219-220 WorldWarIIMemorial(Wash.,D.C.), 176 Wright,Frances,122 Wright,Orville(andWilbur),107 X XYZAffair,82 Y YaleUniversity(formerlyCollegiate SchoolofConnecticut),27 YaltaConference(1945),224,234,260 Yeltsin,Boris,315-316 Yorktown,Britishsurrenderat,46-47, 64 Yugoslavia,post-ColdWar,330 Z Zenger,JohnPeter,28
366
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OutlineofU.S.HistoryisapublicationoftheU.S. DepartmentofState.Thefirstedition(1949-50)was producedundertheeditorshipofFrancisWhitney, firstoftheStateDepartmentOfficeofInternational InformationandlateroftheU.S.InformationAgency. RichardHofstadter,professorofhistoryatColumbia University,andWoodGray,professorofAmerican historyatTheGeorgeWashingtonUniversity,served asacademicconsultants.D.StevenEndsleyof Berkeley,California,preparedadditionalmaterial. Ithasbeenupdatedandrevisedextensivelyoverthe yearsby,amongothers,KeithW.Olsen,professorof AmericanhistoryattheUniversityofMaryland,and NathanGlick,writerandformereditoroftheUSIA journal,Dialogue.AlanWinkler,professorofhistory atMiamiUniversity(Ohio),wrotethepost-World WarIIchaptersforpreviouseditions. Thisneweditionhasbeencompletelyrevisedand updatedbyAlonzoL.Hamby,Distinguished ProfessorofHistoryatOhioUniversity.Professor HambyhaswrittenextensivelyonAmericanpolitics andsociety.AmonghisbooksareManofthePeople: ALifeofHarryS.TrumanandFortheSurvivalof Democracy:FranklinRooseveltandtheWorldCrisisof the1930s.HelivesandworksinAthens,Ohio.
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