Anarchy and Progressivism in the Late 19th Century America the Beautiful, Home of the Brave, Land of the

Free, these are all sayings that one can hear on a day to day basis in the present day United States. Hearing or saying such words was not always the case for the late nineteenth century America people. The late nineteenth century was when the U.S. was trying to establish its individuality within the world and to find its identity within government and social structure, but this was not a straightforward path. America had to battle racism, politics, angry societal divisions, such as the rich, poor, white, black, red, yellow, male, and female, and social unions from all different spectrums, in order to become yours truly. She is now known as a democracy and a society for equal opportunity, but Attorney General Richard Olney thought that she was once on the verge of anarchy, and he was right. After the Civil War ended, America had to recreate what it established throughout the previous years. The south lay in reunions, and the north was wallowing in the souths defeat. The Civil War started off with one major conflict, of racism, and by the time it ended there were several new conflicts that arose. The most prominent conflict present in nineteenth century America was racism. The end of the Civil War only resulted in the African Americans receiving their freedom; it did not guarantee them anything else, like the freedom to vote and have an equal opportunity. The south held a grudge from their defeat, and refused to accept the African Americans as freed men and women. As a result, The Ku Klux Klan, founded as a Tennessee social club in 1866, emerged as a potent instrument of terror1 to suppress the African

John Mack Faragher, Mari Jo Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, and Susan H. Armitage, The Election of 1869, Out of Many: a History of the American People, 489

American by using fear and tyranny. They threatened lives, destroyed property, raped, murdered, and did everything else imaginable, but destroy the African American hope of one day being treated as equals to the white Americans.2 The government was separated when it came to issues about the rights of the African Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 banned discrimination against African Americans in public places, like hotels, theatres and roads, but it did not cover or protect the black people from the discrimination by individuals or groups, like the Ku Klux Klan, and Southern societies. The prosecution of individuals or groups would be left up to the state and not the federal government. Consequently that led to a division in the political system, because the southern states were against giving the African Americans any kind of rights or protection, and the Northern states were pro- African American. Years after the slaves were freed, education was offered them and they started to form unions to protect and attempt to give each other a better and equal opportunity. During World War I African Americans began a migration north in search for jobs and better pay, but that just resulted in racial riots and several hundreds of African Americans dead. In 1917 and 1919 mobs of whites rioted outside companies that were offering African American jobs to try to keep African American Union demands down. Groups of whites hunted African Americans down trying to scare them back to the south. The government placed the blame of the riots on the African American people and did not try to help them as hundreds of their homes were burned to the grounds and well over 800 people were injured.

Ku Klux Klan Violence in Georgia, 1871, Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire Into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States. Georgia, vol. I. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1872. 411412.

The African Americans were on there own, and no one would try to help them, except for their own, until well into the twentieth century.3 Women in their own sense were viewed as inferior to the white man too. They were above the social status of the newly freed slaves but not entirely free. The life in the average middle class woman composed of keeping order and civility in the household, bearing children and than raising them. When girls attended school they did not learn of the things of the world but rather they learned how to cook and clean and mend fabrics. The man of the house was the one who went to school and received a decent education. Society did not give women a chance to progress until they had to take it upon themselves to take what they wanted and deserved. In the late nineteenth century women began to build alliances and speak for themselves. Woman suffrage leader believed that with work women would be absolutely free agents in the disposition of themselves.4 Leaders like Frances Willard believed that it was up to women to improve society. If women were allowed the right to vote they could extend their caring and motherly nature into the government and their society would be all the better for it. 5 Prostitution was another prominent issue that haunted the moral code and health of the men and women in the nineteenth century America. It was rampant and a dominant feature in middle class society. Some of the first encounters boys had with women were with prostitutes. It gave men a desire that was hard to repress in the morally strict society that they lived in. One man reported, my sex ambitions run so high that often I could not control myself. Another confessed hat he could think of nothing but sexual indulgence and every girl that

3 4

Out of Many, 663. Ibid, 587. 5 Ibid, 588.

passed was though of in a vulgar manner.6 White women in society were viewed as pure and wholesome and were not to be touched before marriage, but prostitutes were a way for men to indulge before and after they were married. White middle class men often preferred the racially different women like the Indians, Asian and African American, they were exotic, sensual and different. Men would force themselves on women and would leave them with no choice but to enter into prostitution for survival because they were viewed as unwholesome, dirty and left them with little to no chance of entering into a formidable marriage and society.7 The early nineteenth century government was shaky and unstable. It promised one thing and did another, it seemed like it could not make up its mind about anything. In particularly, the Indians learned this the hard way, and were never the same because of it. When America realized the potential of gold and other metals in the West, politicians, land hungry citizens and even President Jackson himself abandoned treaties and reformed alliances and territories with Indian tribes making their land and rights diminutive compared to that of what they had before the Great Gold Rush. The lands that Indians were allotted to live on were too small for their basic needs of survival, so they had to in turn compete with other territories and tribes for food. White men and families that migrated West in search of gold and a better opportunity treated the Indians like mere savages that needed to be converted into respectable citizens and forced their new ways on them. The government did nothing to stop this. They just stood by and watched until it escalated into the Indian Wars, than the government stepped in

John DEmilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Civilized Morality Under Stress, Intimate Matter; A History of sexuality in America, (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1997), 180. 7 Ibis, 87-93.

on the side of the white man and made sure the Indians knew their place by killing thousands through relocation and blood battles.8 The absence of government influence in the business arena caused much hardship for the common man, if one did not own a business or was involved in a trade; you were condemned to the life of the company worker and twelve hour days, bad pay, and dangerous working environments. Workers became disgusted with the condition and the manner in which they worked and that eventually lead to strikes, like the Homestead and Pullman Strikes. In 1982, when Carnegie cut the wages of one of his companies, his employees started a strike. Barbed wire was placed along the building but that did not stop the workers. Gunfire broke out and the city government did little to help until the National Guard was called in to restore order. After the National Guard was called in the company reopened with previous employee strikers working. But that did not stop Carnegie, The Carnegie Company reduced its work force by 25 percent, lengthen the workday, and cut wages 25 percent for those who remained on the job... within a decade, every major steel company operated without union interference.9 The absence of government made it virtually impossible for the workers unions and strikes to cause any commotion within the government until the twentieth century. Only death would wake up the government. The conditions that the common man had to work in were as dangerous as the ones the prostitutes had to work in. There was an almost one hundred percent guarantee that someone was going to get hurt. No safety precautions, no emergency exits, no safety inspections, no guarantee that one would be safe. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire is a prime example of the lack of
8 9

Out of Many, 520- 522 Strikes: Coeur dAlene, Homestead, and Pullman, Out of Many, 591.

control the government had on the condition of in which its citizens had to work and endure. One hundred and forty six women lost their lives because of one door that could not be open. Something as impractical as the regulation of a door and exit signs caused over one hundred young women to die needlessly. Not until one hundred and forty six women dies did the government put safety regulations into practice.10 Anarchy is the absence of government. Even though America had a government system in place during the late nineteenth century, it is sometime hard to find evidence of such a government. Strikes, STDs, hate crimes, corrupt government officials, inequality within classes, lashing natives away from their homelands by force and much more violence for ones own principles is what could be seen and heard of in the late nineteenth century. Attorney General Richard Olney stated that the United Stated was at the raged edge of anarchy11, and the evidence of lawlessness within the government and the society of which is being governed proves him right. Until the government heard the bell of death, it would not step in and try to make pushing issues work for the good of the American people as a whole. America had to be at its worst in order for change to be put into place through the Progressive Era. The Progressive Era set the stage for what America is today. America went from dealing with its own seemingly petty problems in comparison to handling the worlds more difficult problems in World War I. Even though historians link the Progressive Era under one title it was a divided movement. They shared a fundamental ethos, or belief, that America needed a new social consciousness to cope with the problems brought on by the enormous rush of economic

10 11

Leap for Life, Leap for Death, Triangle shirtwaist Fire, Primary source. Quote from Essay one Prompt.

and social change in the post- Civil War decades.12 The issues they sought to improve were different on each community, state, and national level. The Local communities sought out to improve health, welfare, education and urban immigrant neighborhoods, and reform urban politics, make child labor only an eight hour day. On the state level the wanted to improve civil service and have a direct democracy, and to limit the powers of the massive corporations. The National Level wanted to reform national banking, conserve the western frontier, and to include African Americans in the society. The progressives had a lot of issues to work out of the American society. They had some successful ideas and excessive ideas but nonetheless, it helped mold our present day society.13 Southern and northern progressives, though under the same title, varied a great deal. The southern progressives wanted to separate white and black people totally. Separate restaurants, railroad carts, streetcars, and many more public places were put into practice strengthening the Jim Crow laws of segregation. The government spent on average $10.32 a year on white children compared to the $2.89 on African American children per year on education. African American tax payers financed better schools for white children in hope that one day that money would go to better school for their children, but the conditions of the their childrens schools actually depreciated while white schools improved. Southern progressives also rallied for government control on the big companies, like the railroad companies, and control over disorderly citizens, like the African American and lower class. They mandated control over the railroad companied by enforcing a maximum fare for the passenger and freight rates. By 1909, six southern states outlawed the vending and production of alcoholic beverages
12 13

The Currents of Progressivism, Out of Many, 612. Ibid 613

trying to better control the African American crime rate and the victimization of women. The southern progressives were still cross with the outcome of the Civil War, and still treated African Americans as little more than slaves, and one can see that through the pushing of complete segregation. But the south had some very admirable ideas, like mandating railroad fares and trying to control the big business so a monopoly would not be formed. Overall the south had some good economic ideas but its ideas socially were just reflected on their attitudes towards people that were different from them.14 Journalism, in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, wakened up the American people, and helped them get the motivation and insight they needed for change. They opened the publics eye and made them look out side of their own little box and see how other people besides the middle and high class were living. The book How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis shocked New York City and into transforming for the better and also it inspired urban reformers. President Theodore Roosevelt opposed the journalist who spoke out against his favored politicians and labeled them as muckrakers despite their involvement in inspiring America for a positive change. After President Roosevelt spoke out against the journalists, muckraking began to diminish. But Muckraking had demonstrated the powerful potential for mobilizing public opinion on a national scale. Reform campaigns did not need to be dealt with on a communal level, but rather on a national level. The muckrakers awoke the government to engage a national community of informed citizens.15 In the early twentieth century, America started to impose an aggressive foreign progressive policy. Theodore Roosevelt had his big stick policy that made us militarily strong
14 15

Ibid, 616. Ibid, 618

and was fond of the West African proverb Speak softly an carry a big stick, you will go far. Roosevelt put his big stick policy into use when it came time to build the Panama Canal. He tried to negotiate with Columbia, in order to start construction of the Panama Canal, but the Columbian Senate rejected his plan. Than Roosevelt helped Panama revolt against Columbia and make it a nation among itself. The minute that Panama declared itself independent the United States set off to build their canal. Another president who helped America become a strong world power was President William Howard Taft. Tafts plan of Dollar Diplomacy helped America set up connections with other countries by lending them a monetary hand. America invested ninety three million dollars to Central America to help set up railroads, plantations and mines. So the Central Americans were in our debt. Dollar Diplomacy also tried to help China in securing railroads and building new ones, but it actually did the opposite. This opened up China to us even more. But Japan and Russia viewed this act as a threat to the arrangements made in Portsmouth by President Theodore Roosevelt. This prompted Japan and Russia to renegotiate their agreements and make a new treaty with each other, which did not help the Allies in World War 1. As one can see, Dollar Diplomacy had its purposes but it was not entirely the best approach. Opening up these connections with other nations only reinforced our influence in other countries during World War 1. If we would not have helped other nations monetarily and used our big stick to force nations to recognize our legitimacy in matter, President Wilsons fourteen points would not have made it through to Versailles. World War 1 would have a very different outcome if in which the United States had no strong world power in.16

16

Ibis, 647-649

America is now known for its world ties, multicultural integrations, freedom of press, speech, religion, and thought. It has taken America almost two centuries to get where it is today. Through trial and error, hit and miss, the United States has made it to the great world power that it is today. Conflicts still exist, but no nation is perfect, and with time comes progression and perfection. The issues we face today, like abortion, minor taxes, gun control, and immigration seem minute in comparison to the issue faced in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century like racial segregation, womens rights, prohibitions, safety conditions of the common employee, and these are just some of what our ancestors had to face. The anarchy that once faced America was fixed by the Progressive era that followed. The lawlessness of the government, public officials, and society became so prominent and out of control that it took deaths of thousands in order for the government and people to step in and try to repair the issues at had, and that became movement became known as the Progressive Era. The Progressive Era did more than improve America internally; it opened her up to international affairs. It helped her form a powerful foundation on which it built its reputation as a world power. The anarchy that America faced helped put into motion the influential Progressive Era in which shaped our present day United States of America.