US Reconstruction & Grant in 1869
US Reconstruction & Grant in 1870
US Reconstruction & Grant in 1871
Grant & United States Elections in 1872
Grant’s US Indian Policy 1869-72
“Boss” Tweed in New York 1863-73
Grant & the US Panic of 1873
Grant & US Depression in 1874
Grant & US Depression in 1875
Grant’s US Indian Policy 1873-76
Grant & United States Elections in 1876
Hayes to 1877
United States & Hayes in 1877
Nez Perce, Cheyenne, Ponca & Apache 1877-80
United States & Hayes in 1878-79
United States & Hayes in 1880-81
United States Elections in 1880
Garfield to 1881
United States & Garfield March-June 1881
Assassination of President Garfield
Chester Arthur to 1881
United States & Arthur July-December 1881
United States & Arthur in 1882
United States & Arthur in 1883
United States, Arthur & Elections in 1884
Cleveland to 1885
United States & Cleveland in 1885
United States & Cleveland in 1886
United States & Cleveland in 1887
Cleveland, Indians & the West
United States, Cleveland & Elections in 1888
Benjamin Harrison to 1889
United States & Harrison in 1889
US, Oklahoma Territory & Wounded Knee
United States & Harrison in 1890
United States & Harrison in 1891
Harrison & United States Elections in 1892
US, Harrison & Hawaii in Early 1893
Grover Cleveland 1889-93
Cleveland, United States & Hawaii in 1893
Cleveland & United States Panic of 1893
Cleveland, Debs & the General Strike in 1894
United States & Cleveland in 1894
United States & Cleveland in 1895
Cleveland & United States Elections in 1896
Morgan’s Capitalism & Rockefeller’s Oil
Carnegie, Steel & Philanthropy
Monopolies Versus Social Control
Henry George & Progress and Poverty
Gronlund’s Co-operative Commonwealth
Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives
Bellamy’s Looking Backward 2000-1887
Donnelly & Caesar’s Column
Unions & Knights of Labor
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Debs & the American Railroad Union
Pullman’s Company & the 1894 ARU Strike
Edison’s Improved Telegraph & Telephone
Edison’s Electric Light & Phonograph
Alexander Graham Bell
Other Inventions 1869-97
Stanton, Anthony & Suffrage 1869-79
Women Reformers 1880-96
Victoria Woodhull
Howe & Mother’s Day
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union & Willard
Lydia Maria Child’s Aspirations of the World
Jane Addams & Hull House
Ida B. Wells & Lynching Statistics
Evolution & Social Darwinism
Fiske & Cosmic Evolution|
Ward & Sociology
Royce on Idealistic Moral Insight
William James & The Principles of Psychology
American Religion 1869-97
Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science
American Learning & Universities
The Education of Henry Adams
Francis Parker on Education for Freedom
Booker T. Washington & Tuskegee Institute
American Writing
Louisa May Alcott & Little Women
George Washington Cable
William Dean Howells
Mark Twain’s Life up to 1869
Mark Twain & His Books 1869-96
Henry James & His American Novels
Ulysses S. Grant 1869-77
Hayes, Garfield & Arthur 1877-85
Grover Cleveland & Benjamin Harrison 1885-97
American Capitalism & Socialism
American Inventions & Women Reformers
American Philosophy & Religion
American Education & Literature
Evaluating United States 1869-1897
General
United States History & Politics
Native Americans
African-Americans
Capitalism & Socialism
Women Reformers
Philosophy, Religion & Education
American Literature
After the Civil War the Reconstruction Era of the United States shifted radicall
in 1869 with the inauguration of President Ulysses S. Grant who worked with the
Republicans in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives
to unify the administration that suffered during the conflict between them and
President Andrew Johnson who had been chosen by President Lincoln
to be Vice President to help reunite the divided nation.
Grant had become the top general in the Union Army and was popular for having
helped to win the war against the Confederacy of seceded southern states.
Grant ran on a slogan to have peace, though he had little political experience.
He and the Republican Congress wanted to help the freed slaves to gain their
civil rights and especially the right to vote that was authorized
by the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The growing economy of the North recovered from the war much more easily
than the South which had been devastated and had to adjust to loss of the cruel
and exploitative institution of slavery based on race and color.
The Freedmen’s Bureau worked to help blacks get education and paid employment
as well as to exercise their rights of citizenship.
When aggressive southerners such as the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists
tried to stop blacks from exercising political influence, Grant had his Attorney Generals
and the U. S. Army work to protect the black minority.
Grant was easily re-elected, and a financial panic in 1873
caused a depression that lasted six years.
When the Democrat Tilden appeared to win the 1876 presidential election,
the Republicans challenged the fairness of elections in southern states,
and a bipartisan commission determined that correcting those wrongs enabled
the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to win the election by one electoral vote.
He promised to end the military occupation of the South.
Hayes continued implementing Republican reforms, and the economy recovered.
He had promised to serve only one term, and James Garfield,
the third Civil War general in a row, was elected in 1880.
When he was assassinated, Chester Arthur of New York became President.
He too continued the Republican policies.
In 1884 New York’s Gov. Grover Cleveland was elected as a Democrat,
the first since President Buchanan left in 1861.
Cleveland was backed by southern states while he aimed to serve all the people.
He was known for his political integrity.
In 1888 he lost a close election to another former general, Benjamin Harrison,
and he opened up more Indian land to white settlers while working to continue
the Republican legacy for civil rights.
Cleveland regained the Presidency in a rematch in 1892,
and he had to deal with a financial depression that began in 1893.
Harrison had approved the annexation of the Hawaiian islands,
and Cleveland reversed that imperialistic policy.
The sometimes violent conflicts with the Indians were diminishing in this era,
and there was no foreign war.
Capitalists were making money on railroads
and other investments as the economy was growing.
When they failed to pay their employees decent wages, unions increased their power
and used strikes to try to get a fair share from their labors.
Morgans, Rockefellers, Carnegie, and others became very rich,
and socialists argued that this was unjust
and could be remedied by paying workers what is fair.
Writers such as Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and others described
in novels and essays how the wealthy corrupted politicians
to increase their wealth and maintain control.
Mark Twain delighted people with his humor and meaningful satire
of corrupt and monarchical governments.
Women were also suffering from a lack of civil rights and fair opportunities.
Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Francis Willard, Lucy Stone, and others
worked for the right to vote that had been given to former slaves but not to them.
Julia Ward Howe proposed Mother’s Day and encouraged women and others
to work for world peace.
Ida Wells made people more aware of the lynching that was occurring.
Life was being improved by extraordinary inventions by Thomas Alva Edison
who used electricity to develop lighting, a phonograph, and motion pictures.
Alexander Graham Bell taught the deaf and got the patent for the telephone
that was a big step beyond the telegraph to enhance personal communication.
There are many inventions in this era that helped improve American life.
Higher education was developing in more universities as public education increased.
Science was improving technology.
William James wrote a comprehensive book on psychology.
Mary Baker Eddy learned spiritual healing and used it to recover from a spinal injury.
She taught people how God and the soul can heal as Jesus had demonstrated,
and she called it “Christian Science.”
Josiah Royce at Harvard taught an idealistic philosophy to develop
moral certainty and spiritual understanding.
William James wrote a comprehensive book on psychology
and the faculties of the soul and free will.
Socialistic ideas were described by writers such as Henry George, Laurence Gronlund,
Ignatius Donnelly, and others.
Frank Ward wrote Dynamic Sociology to develop that social science.
John Fiske in his Cosmic Philosophy predicted that humans are continuing to evolve
and will learn to use democracy and create international peace.