American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 19: FROM CRISIS TO EMPIRE

Primary Sources

1
The tariff issue came to the fore in the election of 1888, with Grover Cleveland favoring lower rates. Read the following excerpt from President Cleveland's State of the Union message in December 1887. Also read the short excerpt from the Minority Report of the House Ways and Means Committee, in which the Republicans expressed their opposition to the Mills bills, which embodied many of Cleveland's tariff revision suggestions. Consider the following questions: How does the first part of the address reveal Cleveland's political philosophy? Is Cleveland's characterization of the protective tariff as a tax on consumers an accurate one? Although in another part of the speech Cleveland disclaims any support for completely "free trade," would that be the logical culmination of his ideas? The Republican Minority Report implies that American prosperity flowed from the protective tariff. Was this a valid claim?

President Cleveland

2
From the Farmer's Declaration of Independence of 1873 through the Ocala Demands of 1890 to the Populist Party's Omaha platform of 1892 the farmers of the South and West expressed their frustration with an increasingly industrial corporate society that they felt was leaving them behind. Read the selection below, which is taken from the Omaha platform, and consider the following questions: Were the Populist demands reasonable and rational responses to the problems facing the Populist constituency? What elements of socialism can be found in the Populist program? How was the platform designed as an attempt to broaden the appeal of Populism beyond farmers?

Platform of the Populist Party 1892

3
The Pendleton Act, passed soon after the death of James Garfield, represented one of the first attempts at civil service reform in American history. Who passed it, and why? Similarly, who opposed the passage of this bill, and on what grounds?

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=48&page=transcript

4
Two of the earlier Congressional attempts to deal with the rapid expansion and consolidation of American business during the Gilded Age were the Interstate Commerce Act (1887) and Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890). What did these two pieces of legislation hope to accomplish, and why are they important? Given the fact that neither of them were adequately enforced until over a decade after their passage, why did Congress choose to pass them in the first place? Are these reasons evident in the language of the acts?

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=49&page=transcript

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=51

5
Read the section of the text under the heading "Stirrings of Imperialism." The selection below is taken from an article by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (R-Mass.) in the March 1895 issue of Forum magazine. Then in the second of his more than thirty years in the Senate, Lodge criticized President Cleveland for his failure to annex Hawaii and stated his general position on American expansionism. Consider the following questions: What motives for imperialism are reflected in Lodge's article? How would Lodge's argument fit with that of Josiah Strong and the Social Darwinists? How much of Lodge's dream became reality during his long service in the Senate?

Henry Cabot Lodge

6
Read the passages of the text and the Patterns of Popular Culture section that discuss the "yellow press" of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Not all major newspapers engaged in such journalistic tactics. One of the nation's most conservative papers was the New York Herald Tribune. Although the Herald Tribune supported the Spanish-American War when it finally came, it constantly editorialized for peace. Staunchly Republican, the Herald Tribune supported McKinley's every move. After the de Lôme letter, the paper counseled caution. Following the explosion of the Maine, the paper downplayed calls for war. The following editorials were written about two weeks before McKinley's war message. The Herald Tribune once again called for peace and then launched a bitingly satirical attack on its "yellow" competitors, the New York World and New York Journal. After reading the editorials, consider the following questions: Were the probabilities on the side of peace in early April 1898? Did the report on the sinking of the Maine satisfy the people? Does it appear that the Herald Tribune was jealous of the circulation gains made by its competition? Were the excesses of the "yellow press" as extreme as the second editorial indicates?

New York Herald Tribune

7
Here is the text of the 1897 De Lôme Letter, one of the spurs to U.S. involvement in the Spanish-American War. What phrases in this letter do you think Americans found most objectionable? Was the U.S. justified in its outrage over the content of this letter, or, given the benefit of a century's hindsight, do you think people were overreacting?

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=53&page=transcript

8
What did the Platt Amendment (below) accomplish, and what was its intent? What do its provisions suggest about the course and conduct of American imperialism?

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=55&page=transcript

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