LAD/Blog #26: William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" Speech

Summary:

• "the most famous political speech in American history"
• the speech was delivered on July 9, 1896 at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
• Bryan- 36 at the time, former Congressman from Nebraska
• used drama and rhetoric to gain the support of the people, which later got him on the Presidential ballot
• states his cause to be humanity
• seems to believe in the people as a whole, instead of just individuals against each other
• "the man who is employed for wages is as much as businessman as his employer"
• speaks of peace and unity
• race is a matter of principle
• supports the Democratic income tax law
• supports the struggling mass of workers who support the US economy

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  Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth is very similar to William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" Speech.  Both of these men talked about their opinions on the difference between the social and economic classes, and how the gap existing should be made smaller.  Both believed in unity, and influenced Americans with their economic opinions.

LAD/Blog #25: The Dawes Act

General Allotment Act/Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

• passed under President Grover Cleveland's first term
• allowed Cleveland to survey and divide up lands in reservations in "severalty" to any Indian on the land
• Cleveland was allowed to do this whenever he felt the land could be useful for agricultural purposes
• also gave him the power to redistribute land, so nothing was set in stone
• in some cases, the head of an Indian family could choose the land
• granted US citizen rights to some Indian tribes
• the amount of land a family gets is based on the head of the family's gender, age, and family status
• act of assimilation, excluded the 5 Civilized Tribes
• further allowed the government to purchase any excess Indian land and sell it to American settlers
• the act failed due to the poor quality of the land, and lack of Indian's experience with a farming lifestyle

The Morrill Act/Land-Grant College Act of 1862 was very similar to the Dawes Act of 1887.  The Land-Grant provided grants of land to states so that they could finance the establishment of colleges that would specialize in "agriculture and the mechanical arts."  Both acts allotted specific pieces of land, but to different groups of people, for different reasons.  This promoted education within the country, and also elevated the quality of education.  The act provided each state with 30,000 acres of Federal land for each member in their Congressional delegation.

LAD/Blog #24: Populist (People's) Party Platform

THE POPULIST PARTY (1892)

1.  The Preamble:

• created during a time of corruption and upheaval for the country
• period of increased censorship by government
• two great classes: tramps and millionaires 
• the value of silver has been decreased in order to form a solely gold-based currency
• the country has lost sight of many things due to the constant rivalry between the two political parties 
• party seeks to restore the government of the Republic to the hands of the ''plain people'' (the original class)
• many similar core values to the original preamble of the Constitution
• believed in increasing the power of both the government and the people

2.  The Platform:

• Omaha Platform was drafted by Ignatius Donnelly of Minnesota
• declared union labor forces should be permanent from that day forward
• believed people need to work to earn things, "if any will not work, neither shall he eat"
• favored strict civil-service regulation
• demanded a national safe, sound, and flexible currency
• believed the government should alter transportation (the railroads) to favor the common man
• land is the heritage of the people, and therefore should not be monopolized

3.  The Resolutions that made up the Expression of Sentiments:

• demanded a free ballot and fair count in all elections
• supported fair and liberal pensions to ex-Union soldiers/sailors
• demanded enforcement of the exiting eight-hour labor law
• wanted to limit both the President and Vice President to one term only

As the current President of the United States, Donald Trump is a great example of a modern populist candidate, even though the party was created in 1892.  He ha lots of appeal to the center, and the broadness of which help him win the election in 2016.  Trump was greatly supported by the South and Midwest, both of which are mainly populist areas.  Trump is indifferent to the issues of sexual orientation that animate the declining religious right, even to the point of defending Planned Parenthood.

LAD/Blog #23: McKinley's War Message

Summary:
William McKinley starts his message by saying how this is his response towards the Cuban Revolution (against Spain).  He also explains that he chose to get further involved in ending this conflict due to the connection between it and the Union.  Trade has suffered greatly during this conflict, money provided by the US has been lost, and Americans are becoming tired of this lifestyle.  All of these things convince McKinley to ask Congress for the declaration of war, in order to put an end to the conflict sooner.  He tries his best to convince Congress to either make a treaty or compromise, or promote one side over the other in order to speed up the process.  Later on, though, McKinley states how he would rather still remain quite neutral throughout this whole process, instead of siding against Cuba.  He stresses the importance of the alliance between Cuba and the US, and how both countries rely on each other for different things (interdependence).

Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality can be used a synthesis for McKinley's War Message because both deal with the US's struggle to remain neutral when various obstacles in the war.  Washington's proclamation introduces the idea of neutrality, stating its importance for the future of America.  McKinley believes in his, saying that the best way to resolve this conflict would be to remain mainly neutral, in order to ensure the conflict doesn't get any worse.

LAD/Blog #22: Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth

Summary:
Andrew Carnegie starts off by discussing the issues in the economy regarding the relationship between the different classes.  The gap between the upper and lower class had gotten much larger due to the changing economy.  However, he also thought that this change was necessary and beneficial, for progress within the nation.  One of the major problems was that wealth was not being distributed equally, but was rather allotted by the government to a small group of citizens.   Carnegie stated that in an effort to remove, or belittle surpluses of wealth, methods such as giving to charity, personal spending, inheritance (passing it down to the next generation), or donating the money for public uses, could not be viable options.  Because he disproved of these methods, he then suggested imposing death taxes as a means to provide state proper share of the fortune, while at the same time allowing many people to have a lot of wealth.  Andrew finishes by declaring that it is the responsibility of the upper class to set good examples and do what is best for the people and the economy as a whole.

The Bank of the United States (the BUS) was very similar to Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth.  For example, both obviously dealt with money, but more importantly, the unequal distribution and benefits of money.  Carnegie explained in his book how a lot of money was given by the government to a select few citizens, instead of being distributed equally throughout the country.  Similarly, the BUS benefited the North more than the South during the 19th century, with more of the deposits being made by the North.  The North was more industrialized, and therefore had a stronger economy and flow of money than the South, which relied more on crops and slave labor.  Because of this, it was argued that the BUS did not support the South enough, and this actually played a role in the causes of the Civil War.