Last night's film: Life of Andrew Carnegie
This was a very corrupt era; Carnegie's protege "Scott" ran the Penn. legislature for his own benefit.
New Amendments after the Civil War:
14th Amendment - citizenship
15th Amendment - voting
Federal government attempted to bring these amendments into reality; mixed results.
These were focused on former slaves, but not on the Indians. This core difference had a big affect on the rest of the century. After 1872, no more treaties with Indians as if they were foreign nations. In the West, it was OK to redistribute property, but not in the South.
It's a white man's country, but what exactly does it mean to be white? White Southerners resisted the 14th and 15th amendments. It was like a war of terror. Blacks got new positions of power, black office holders, sheriffs, coroners. But they didn't have the real consent of the majority, so violence and terror grew. Like a Civil War continuation guerilla war.
Grant had let the soldiers keep their arms, and they used them in the terror wars. Two Paramilitary organizations faced off: Republican/blacks/citizens rights folks vs. KKK/Democrats/angry white former Confederates. Widespread violence, reign of terror, even aimed at schools like Freedmen Schools.
This was a challenge to the government to act or allow this kind of terror. It reminds me of places like Iraq or Afghanistan today. Political parties who have armed wings is not how it's supposed to work. This is when the South began to be thought of as a poor place of violence, a backward place of corruption.
The South cast itself as the victim to justify the terror. This can be used as an example of successful terrorism.
Meanwhile out west...
USA willing to be violent, but prefers to avoid it - tired of war. But USA wants the land. "Peace Policy" let the churches run the Indian Affairs agencies; worked poorly. The different tribes had their own rivalries and strategies to reach their own aims at the expense of their enemies.
Battle of Little Bighorn - became so well known because it casts the USA as the victim against an evil enemy
The goal was for Indians to be assimilated, give up tribal affiliations, etc. The USA would just have homogenized Americans, no separate groups. Indians declined more in the USA than in Latin America or Canada. This strangely became a reason to move them onto smaller and smaller reservations.
Immigration - New people to be assimilated who seemed to the main stream hopelessly exotic. Poor immigrants, along with blacks and Indians, were seen as strange and less human or less civilized, not candidates for real citizenship. Skin color was very important in sorting out immigrants. Race was important in how people were sorted out in the minds of WASP America.
The German language was as prevalent as Spanish is today; could be seen everywhere.
It's interesting to ponder the issues with freed blacks, Indians, and immigrants during the Gilded Age. Who can be a citizen, who is white, or sort of white, and who isn't, who can join the club. Taken together, their numbers were too huge to ignore or keep out of public life forever. But boy did they try!
