Through the first two hundred and seventy-five years of English speaking existence in North America, 1608 – 1883, the general idea of coming to the New World was to come to find wide open spaces and a sense of freedom and independence unknown in Europe, even in England were the small size of the island prohibited easy access to land. Americans, as the citizens of the United States called themselves, could generally provide for all of their needs. However, in the next forty years, everything would change; by 1923 half of the country lived in urban areas, no longer “one with the land” or “living off the land.”
That is how Chapter 10 opens from my latest book, Tracking the Storm, which I finished last year. This tenth installment is free for you (find the earlier sections here). You can download a pdf if you enjoy reading on your computer or also purchase a printed copy of the book.
This upheaval was caused by the Industrial Revolution. Historians debate exactly when and how the event fully happened, but suffice it to say that through the 19th century, concepts of industrialism were building, mostly in England. There, an impact was an explosion of urban centers built around industry. In the United States, the transcontinental railroad that we saw contributed to the coming Civil War became the dominant force in the country for the next 60 years, provoking a late 19th century explosion of more “industrial revolution.”
It was in that setting that individuals began to worry about their own independence as more and more goods, and the prices for those goods, were determined by factors and people existing far beyond their farm or house. As urbanism exploded in the US, the cities were largely unprepared for this rush of people. You have to keep in mind the journey we have taken in this book. The desire for personal freedom that fueled the 275 years of development in North America meant that the government did not, could not, dictate to the people. Government, as an active visible construct was still largely an unknown factor except in places such as the Reconstruction South; after the Compromise of 1877, it disappeared in the South as well. Even in the 1880s, most people “saw” the government only at the Post Office. This was the ultimate creation of the Founders.
Yet, in a setting where thousands of people lived on top of one another, where there wasn’t any simple water supply, where food could not be easily grown, questions about responsibility for things like health care, crime prevention, clean water, fire prevention or even education had no easy answer without government. Thus, while rural citizens were concerned about the growth of economic power of corporations and the seeming erosion of “life as we have known it,” urban citizens were feeling a different kind of oppression relative to quality of life.
The push for change would emerge first from the plains of Middle America, but would soon be joined by workers from the urban north. Leaders and reformers like Jane Addams and Jacob Riis would begin trying to raise the consciousness needed for change in the urban cities. They and other groups of concerned citizens would coalesce in the 1880s around a new political party, the Populists.
From the late 1870s through 1896, the Populists, like the Abolitionists before them, would move slowly, creating momentum through consistency. By the 1896 election, there was some evidence that if they handled this election well, that they could supplant the Democrats as the number two party. The election of 1896 would be similar to that of 1856 when the Republicans erupted on the scene. However, it was not to be.
At the 1896 Democratic convention, a young politician, William Jennings Bryan, exploded onto the scene. Much like then Senator Barak Obama’s electrifying moment in the 2004 Democratic convention, Bryan took the convention by storm. Unlike 2004, however, the rules were very different at that time regarding nominations and Bryan was surprisingly chosen as the Party’s nominee (as many Democrats in 2004 wished could have happened with Obama). Bryan’s power came not just from his brilliance as a speaker, but his topic. He addressed the Convention using the same language as the Populists; in effect, he stole their thunder.
The Populists had waited to hold their convention, assuming both the Democrats and the Republicans would nominate fairly normal candidates. Then, they believed, they could ride into the homes of average Americans with their explosive new ideas. See, the Populists were radicals of the time, and largely, their number one agenda was spreading Democracy. To them, the ills of the country, including the corruption with government, could be healed through more government, leadership that could be controlled through more Democracy. At the time, only male property owners could vote, though the 15th Amendment had altered that to open voting to all men, white or black. In the South, Democrats made sure that the newly freed slaves would not be allowed to vote and by the 1880s, the South was a single-party system. Still, the overall percentage of voters was very low compared to overall population in the country, so the Populists hopped on the “Democracy is best” bandwagon that was gaining steam worldwide.
Of course, while not the focus of this paper, as we have alluded to previously, Democracy was NOT what the Founders had intended. The men who wrote the Constitution believed that most people were ill equipped to accurately participate in governing. They believed that Democracy gives way to “mob rule” and a situation where minority opinions could never gain a fair hearing. In fact, the general evidence of participation in voting would seem to support the Founders. James Madison claimed that Democracy were explosive and would not protect private property. However, in the 1880s, the Populists thought that more democracy would protect average people.
The candidacy of Bryan, however, doomed the Populists as a party. . .but not their ideals. In the 1900 election, the Populists were nowhere to be seen, and the Democratic Party started its move from most conservative party to most progressive party. Yet, in the early 1900s, another term was being used to explain the new sense of activism that was sweeping the country—Progressivism. The Progressive movement would become the poster child for the changes emerging from the previous era of the Gilded Age. The majority of those ideas were concepts that started with the Populists, including women’s suffrage, national income tax, direct election of US Senators and an 8-hour work day.
The Progressive movement would lead to a trio of Presidents—Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson—who championed more and more progressive ideas. Wilson would ultimately lead the country through World War I that would dampen many citizens’ support for Progressivism. Wilson’s decision to get into the war was mostly an expression of the values of the Progressive Movement. All three Progressive Presidents had taken the country into more aggressive position in foreign policy decisions, both in our hemisphere and into the Pacific. Now, after the war, the country seemed to explode in a raucous period of living called The Roaring Twenties.
However, there were still serious issues relative to how citizens succeeded, found independence, or experienced their role in the country. They didn’t know it when the 1928 election took place, but the cycle had once again taken place, moving the country through the High of the post-Civil War years, then the Third Great Awakening fed the progressive energy, and after that, the Unraveling of the World War I era. Though the hopes of the Populists had come true, life was not really much better. A huge disparity in income among the citizens was hidden behind the new creation of installment purchasing. The promises of more democracy had not really brought any real change in politics. Government was bigger, supposedly doing more to protect the citizen in broad general terms, but things were still very tough for the rural citizens as well as urban poor. Corruption still seemed ever-present, and though Democracy had promised to decrease the impact of money on elections, the reverse was more true—now money could more easily sway the masses to their bidding and the start of “Senators for life” was upon us.
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You can read the rest of chapter 10 in Tracking the Storm; the book provides powerful clues about what is coming, rapidly, to the United States. There is little doubt that a storm is approaching the country, the outer edges of the winds already swirling around us. What does that portend for the nation? Through the clues of history, we can find direction and steps to undertake to prepare. Many believe there won’t be a storm, or maybe that the worst is over. With history as a guide, I demonstrate that we haven’t yet even reached the Great Crisis.
Gripping and “a scary yet necessary read,” Tracking the Storm moves through the past 400 years of Anglo-American history to illustrate the various clues provided that show the steps to the coming crisis. I will tell the story of political instability, economic distress, rapid technological changes and a growing philosophical divide that challenged previous generations. At the end of each Great Crisis, the nation had been radically changed. Pick up your copy of Tracking the Storm today!