Back to Topic 2
Gilded Age Populism |
Unit 1: An Age of Extremes
Topic 2: Gilded Age Populism Lesson Module 9
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Next to Lesson 10
The Populist Party |
Focus Activity - Determining a Purpose for Reading
Lesson Outcomes
Outcomes are what you (the student) will be able to do after the lesson is over.
1. I can explain why the Gilded Age Presidents are called, "The Forgotten Presidents."
2. I can list the positives and negatives that each Gilded Age president had on the U.S. during his presidency.
3. I can judge whether or not each Gilded Age President was a positive influence on the U.S. or a negative influence on the U.S. during the Gilded Age.
1. I can explain why the Gilded Age Presidents are called, "The Forgotten Presidents."
2. I can list the positives and negatives that each Gilded Age president had on the U.S. during his presidency.
3. I can judge whether or not each Gilded Age President was a positive influence on the U.S. or a negative influence on the U.S. during the Gilded Age.
Teaching Activity - Guided Reading
Weak or Not? You Be the Judge.
The people will tell you that the presidents after Abraham Lincoln were weak and that Congress wasn't so strong either. In fact, some people say that after the Civil War it was the new, rich businessmen who ran the country. Now there is something to that - but it's not the whole story. So when you read of the nine men who sat in the White House after the Civil War, keep an open mind. Some of these presidents were stronger than they may seem.
Andrew Johnson
But... not Andrew Johnson who was president from 1865-1869. It probably would have been better for the country if some one else had been vice president when Lincoln
was shot. You may already know that. In case you have forgotten the details, here is a review. After the war, the United States needed a president who could tell leaders from both the North and the South to behave. But Johnson couldn't get Congress to respect or even listen to him. He wasn't a bad person, he was just stubborn. You do have to admire him for a few things. A tailor-shop foreman taught him to read when he was 14 (He wasn't lucky enough to go to school). First he was a tailor; then he became a mayor, a U.S. representative, governor of Tennessee, and a U.S. senator. He was the only Southern senator to support the Union when Lincoln was elected (that was in 1860). After the Civil War, Johnson had a rare opportunity. The country needed to solve its racial problems now that slavery was abolished. Most people believe that President Lincoln would have attempted to solve them. President Johnson didn't even try. Partly because of that failed opportunity, racial hatreds continued to haunt the nation in the l9th and 20th centuries. Andrew Johnson let the same men who had seceded from the Union and started the Civil War take power in the South. He seemed to approve of Jim Crow, the spirit behind segregation and white people's hatred of blacks. He snubbed some of the moderate leaders in the North and South who wanted to compromise. He vetoed a civil rights bill aimed at helping the freed slaves. (It was passed over his veto.) He opposed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that gave African - Americans citizenship after the Civil War. Andrew Johnson was a backward - looking president at a time when the nation needed to go forward. He was so unpopular that some congressmen accused him of crimes and tried to throw him out of office. He was impeached, but saved from conviction by one vote. Ulysses S. Grant
The country needed a strong, capable president. Unfortunately, the next president was another failure. He was the great Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. Being a general isn't at all like being president. In fact, the very things that made him a good general worked against him as president. Like Johnson, he was stubborn. That's not a bad trait for a general who has to keep fighting. It doesn't help a president who needs to be flexible enough to compromise.
There was something else that worked against Grant. He was too nice and trusting. He trusted men who weren't trustworthy; they got rich stealing from the government. There was much corruption and dishonesty when Grant was president, and he didn't realize it until too late. During the Johnson and Grant presidencies, Congress sent troops south to see that elections were open to everyone. Male former slaves were able to vote. Black men were elected to state office and to Congress. Some white southern leaders didn't like that. So when the next presidential election came along they decided to take charge. They wanted to take the vote away from black men, and they began to do it. Rutherford B. Hayes
President Rutherford B. Hayes was president from 1877 - 1881. He didn't do anything to stop the southern leaders who tried to take the vote away from black men. Hayes's election was one of the closest in our history. More people voted for his opponent than for him. He won in the electoral college by one vote, and that made him president. His supporters made a deal to pull the government troops out of the South in return for that vote. That was the end of most attempts to be fair to black people in the South.
Actually, if it hadn't been for that, historians would look kindly on Hayes. He worked hard at being president; he ended the corruption of the Grant years; he was an honest man. Hayes's wife was a supporter of the growing temperance movement. Temperance supporters wanted to prohibit (ban) the drinking of alcohol. So did Lucy Hayes. She was known as Lemonade Lucy because she served only lemonade at White House parties. And that wasn't a bad idea. This was a time of extremes, when some people drank too much. President and Mrs. Hayes set a good example. James A. Garfield
James A. Garfield was our 20th president for less than a year in 1881. He was born in a log cabin in Ohio. As a boy he had a job driving a horse that pulled boats along the Erie Canal. Garfield got a fine education at Williams College, became a school principal, and then a congressman. He might have been a good president, but a man with mental problems shot and killed President Garfield soon after he was elected.
Chester A. Arthur
Chester A. Arthur took over as the 21st president and served from 1881 - 1885. "Gentleman" Arthur, as he was known, was over six feet tall and good-looking. He wore stylish clothes and had whiskers that bushed down the side of his face, though his chin was shaved. He was a reformer: he wanted to make the government as efficient as possible. He did that by making the Civil Service Commission powerful. Civil-service jobs are government jobs. Politicians had been giving government jobs to their friends, usually as payoffs for favors. That was a terrible practice. It meant that the jobs often went to the wrong people. The Civil Service Commission made people take examinations for government jobs. Arthur's reforms angered some congressmen, and he was not nominated for a second term.
Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland, the next president, was a big man with a neck like a bull and the body of a wrestler. He had common sense, courage, and integrity. When he was running for office some opponents told about mistakes he had made in the past. His advisers wanted to pretend they hadn't happened. Cleveland wired his campaign manager:
WHATEVER YOU DO, TELL THE TRUTH. Cleveland was 49 and a bachelor when he was elected. He soon married young Frances Folsom. When they started having children - they had five in all - they really livened up the White House. No president before had ever had a baby while in office. Cleveland was another reformer. The reforms he had in mind had to do with money and organization and honesty. He didn't concern himself with social justice or fairness. He didn't understand the new problems faced by industrial workers or the old problems of racial injustice. During Cleveland's presidency, in the southwest, the Apache chief Geronimo surrendered to army forces. That was the end of the Indians' freedom to live as they wished. At the time, hardly anyone - except the Native Americans - seemed to care. When Cleveland ran for a second term he lost the election. The man who beat him was Benjamin Harrison. Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison was president from 1889-1893. Harrison was born in Ohio, but his family had roots in Virginia and Indiana. His father was a member of Congress; his grandfather, "Old Tippecanoe," was the nation's ninth president; his great-grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence.
During Harrison's administration the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed. It outlawed the monopolies that suppressed competition. Six new states were admitted to the Union while he was president. North Dakota South Dakota Wyoming Montana Washington Idaho Harrison had a problem that today's presidents wish they had. There was too much money in the U.S. Treasury! At least some economists thought so. Congress and Harrison's appointees decided to go on a spending spree. Harrison just let it happen. A lot of money went to modernize the navy. But when Harrison left office the country was in trouble financially. Grover Cleveland Again!
The next president was a man you have met before: Grover Cleveland. He was our 22nd president from 1885 - 1889 and the 24th president from 1893 - 1897. Cleveland came into office at the start of a big, five year long depression, one of the nation's worst ever. The stock market went way down, lots of people lost their jobs, and the times were awful for many Americans. Cleveland and his government didn't do much to reverse the depression, but governments then weren't expected to do that.
Grover Cleveland always seemed to be puffing on a cigar. That probably caused the sore he discovered in the roof of his mouth. The sore was cancerous. It needed to be operated on at once. President Cleveland was afraid that if people knew he was dangerously ill it might make the stock-market panic even worse. He left Washington. Everyone thought he was going to Cape Cod for a vacation. Secretly, he went to New York. A yacht was waiting in the East River. Inside, in a specially equipped operating room, surgeons removed two teeth and the cancer. "My God, Olney, they nearly killed me!" said Cleveland to his attorney general, Richard Olney. Actually, the doctors saved his life. The president was soon back at work. Almost no one knew about that operation. Could that kind of secret be kept today? Should it be? William McKinley
The next president, William McKinley was president from 1897 - 1901. He was chief executive at the turn of the century. He was the first president since Andrew Johnson without a beard or mustache. McKinley had volunteered to fight during the Civil War; that helped make him popular. (Many wealthy men paid a substitute to fight for them.) He was a lawyer, and smart, with good manners and a kindly way. He liked people and they liked him.
The United States fought a war with Spain while McKinley was president. Spain's time as a world power was ending; the United States' time was beginning. After the war-which lasted for 100 days, - the United States controlled the Philippine Islands, Guam, the Samoan Islands, and Puerto Rico. During the war we annexed Hawaii. There were native leaders in each of those places who wanted independence, not U.S. control. McKinley was elected to a second term. Six months after the election, he was at a world's fair in Buffalo, New York shaking hands with citizens who wanted to meet their president. A young man stepped up; one of his hands was wrapped in what looked like a bandage. No one realized it, but the man was an anarchist. He believed all governments were bad. Besides that, he may have been insane. The anarchist pressed the "bandage" against the president's stomach. Inside was a revolver. He fired twice. McKinley fell to the floor. The assassin was caught and beaten. "Let no man hurt him," cried McKinley. Eight days later the president was dead. "l told William McKinley it was a mistake to nominate that wild man," said McKinley's friend Mark Hanna when he heard the news. The "wild man" he was talking about was Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Strong Again With Roosevelt
When Roosevelt took office, the time of weak presidents was over. Theodore Roosevelt acted as if he had swallowed a tornado. He had incredible energy. He also had a sense of fun. The American people had a good time with Roosevelt as president.
Team Activity - Positives & Negatives Chart
In today's team activity, you will work together to determine the good effects and the bad effects each Gilded Age president had on the United States. Only one form has to be completed per group. One person should type. The other members should skim the text for the answers. When every group has completed the chart, we will discuss the answers as a class.
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Tool Box
Remember, anything in the Tool Box could be on the Topic 2 test!
People To KnowAbraham Lincoln: the 16th president of the United States and president during the Civil War. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in the Ford Theater and was succeeded by his vice president Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson: the 17th president of the United States and president during Reconstruction. He was vice president to Lincoln and succeeded him when Lincoln was shot. Before he was vice president, he was the only senator from the south to side with the union during the Civil War. Ulysses S. Grant: the great Union Civil War general who accepted the surrender of the Confederacy that ended the Civil War and became the nation's 18th president. There was much corruption and tension during his presidency. Rutherford B. Hayes: the 19th president of the United states who ended much of the government corruption from Grant's presidency but allowed Jim Crow laws to develop in the South. James A. Garfield: school principal, congressman, then 20th president of the U.S. for less than a year in 1881 until a man with mental problems shot and killed him soon after he was elected. Chester A. Arthur: took over after Garfield as the 21st president from 1881 - 1885; he was a reformer - made the Civil Service Commission powerful. politicians did not like this so he was not nominated for a second term. Grover Cleveland: the 22nd and 24th president of the U.S.; he was an honest reformer; saw the surrender of the Apache chief Geronimo; and felt that it was not the government's job to get involved in the economy. Benjamin Harrison: the 23rd president who implemented the Sherman Anti-Trust Act; admitted 6 states to the union, and put the nation into debt. William McKinley: the nation's 25th president; acquired Hawaii for the U.S. and the president during the Spanish - American war that gained us the U.S. Territories of Philippine Islands, Guam, the Samoan Islands, and Puerto Rico; he was killed by an anarchist and was succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt: the nation's 26th president who brought back order to the U.S. government and economy thus ending the weak chain of Gilded Age presidents. Geronimo: the Apache chief that surrendered to army forces ending Indians' freedom to live as they wished. Vocabulary To Knowracial: when one refers to a group of people that share the same color and physical characteristics.
abolished: to put an end to or do away with seceded: to break away from impeached: formal accusation issued by a legislature against a public official charged with crime or other serious misconduct integrity: to have morals and principles bachelor: a man who is not married reformer: someone who changes things to make them better U.S. Treasury: the department of the U.S. government responsible for printing money, collecting taxes, and managing U.S. bank accounts depression: A long period during which the economy is poor and many people are without jobs. During an economic depression, spending by consumers, businesses, and the government goes down significantly. yacht: a medium-sized to large sailboat equipped for cruising or racing chief executive: the head of the executive branch of the American government - known as the President of the United States anarchist: a person who uses violence against the government because they think the government is bad in some way. assassin: a hired killer Places To KnowTennessee
Indiana
North Dakota
South Dakota
Wyoming
Virginia
Ohio
Montana
Washington
Idaho
New York
Spain
Events To Know1865:
Issues to KnowJim Crow Laws: laws in the South that legalized segregation or separation between blacks and whites. The term "Jim Crow" came from a black character in a play performed in 1828.
civil rights: rights to personal liberty established by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution applied to an individual or a minority group temperance movement: a group of people who wanted to ban alcohol and make it illegal. Other Things to Know14th Amendment: 14th Amendment to the Constitution that gave African - Americans citizenship after the Civil War
Civil Service Commission: made people take examinations for government jobs and stop politicians from giving government jobs to friends who were not qualified Sherman Antitrust Act: outlawed the monopolies that suppressed competition |
Individual Activity - Rating Reflection
Forgotten Presidents Trivia Game
Make sure you play the Trivia game before October 18th with a 100% for your pass off grade for Module 9.
