A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 3: Reconstruction and UrbanizationPart 7: Labor Pains

PRESIDENTIAL TROUBLES

• Towards the end of Rutherford B. Hayes’ term as President, discontent in the Republican Party meant that the party could not settle on a nominee for the election of 1880.

• Hayes was ousted, with Ulysses S. Grant attempting to make a Presidential comeback, but the party finally settled on James Garfield as a compromise candidate.

• Garfield won the election but was killed by an assassin after only six months in office.

PRESIDENTIAL TROUBLES

• Garfield’s successor was Chester Arthur, who used the remainder of Garfield’s term to complete the civil service reforms that had been a priority of the administrations of both Garfield and Hayes.

• Together, Garfield and Arthur sat for only a single term in office, from 1881 to 1885.

• During this brief time, however, they faced many of the same nativist problems that Hayes and Grant faced before them.

THE KNIGHTSOF LABOR

• Founded in 1869, the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor had about thirty thousand members by 1880.

• Its objective was to promote the social and economic standing of laborers by advocating for an eight-hour work day, higher wages, and a recognition of the value and dignity of the working class.

• In the five years between 1880 and 1885, its membership swelled to 100,000.

SAMUEL GOMPERS

• Labor union leader amongst cigar manufacturers.

• Founded the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881, associating various trade unions and labor unions under one banner.

• Wanted to focus on practical ways to improve the conditions of the working classes after other labor movements, like the Knights of Labor, had been stigmatized by the political agitations of new members who were Socialists or Communists.

THE CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT

• In 1868, the United States had ratified the Burlingame Treaty in conjunction with China. The treaty allowed for the unlimited immigration of Chinese workers into the United States.

• In 1882, however, Chester Arthur signed into law the Chinese Exclusion Act, which suspended the Burlingame Treaty for ten years and brought Chinese immigration to an end.

• The act was renewed in 1892 and made permanent in 1902.

THE CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT

• The passage of the act was a victory for organized labor.

• The ‘robber barons’ and industrial magnates of the Gilded Age hired many Chinese laborers who were willing to work for extremely low wages.

• This arrangement led to complaints from nativist laborers that the Chinese were taking ‘American jobs’ away from American citizens.

• The exclusion of the Chinese thus gave labor organizations a strong nativist base.

MEANWHILE,IN THE WEST…

• Since 1849, the U.S. Army had been fighting the Apache in present-day Arizona and New Mexico. Five wars broke out between then and 1881.

• In 1877, the Army captured one of the most important and respected Apache warriors, Geronimo, and imprisoned him on a reservation.

• In 1881, however, Geronimo fled the reservation with some seven hundred fellow warriors. Over the next two years, they repeatedly attacked American soldiers along the Mexican border.

GROVER CLEVELAND

• Winning the election of 1884, Grover Cleveland became the first Democratic President since before Abraham Lincoln.

• He was one of the so-called ‘Bourbon Democrats,’ fiscally conservative, pro-business, and opposed to organized labor.

• He won with the support of the ‘Mugwumps,’ a faction of the Republican Party that shared his economic principles.

1886: THE HAYMARKET RIOT

• On May 4, 1886, workers in Chicago went on strike to agitate for an eight-hour work day. Their peaceful protest in Haymarket Square turned to chaos when someone threw a stick of dynamite at nearby police officers and the police fired into the crowd.

• A riot ensued. Over a dozen people died and many more were wounded.

• The people charged with inciting the riot were professed anarchists and immigrants of German descent.

1886: GOMPERS FOUNDS THE AFL

• Later in May, in Columbus, Ohio, Samuel Gompers transformed the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions into the American Federation of Labor.

• The AFL was the first and largest federation of various labor unions in America.

• It was founded and attracted many members following a dispute with the Knights of Labor over the membership fees of that organization. Disaffected Knights of Labor turned to the AFL.

1886: GERONIMO SURRENDERS

• On September 4, 1886, thirty years after the first war broke out between the United States Army and the Apache Indians, Geronimo was captured and finally surrendered.

• Since May 1885, he and more than one hundred followers had been launching raids on American encampments along the Mexican-American border.

• His surrender marked the end of the Indian wars in the southwestern United States.

A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 3: Reconstruction and UrbanizationPart 7: Labor Pains