Other Happenings During the Civil War and Reconstruction Periods

There were additional important developments between 1861 and 1877.

In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, which granted 160 acres to anyone who farmed land for 5 years. This encouraged people to migrate westward. Also in 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, which provided taxpayer subsidies and land in order to build a transcontinental railroad to connect the East Coast with the West Coast. This railroad was completed in Utah in 1869 and facilitated more of a national economy.

There was one more significant piece of legislation enacted in 1862: the Morrill Land Grant Act, which established agricultural colleges. It gave each state 30,000 acres times the state's number of congressmen.

Immigration was controversial in the 1860s. Specifically, Chinese immigration into California caused many union laborers to object, because the Chinese would work more industriously and for less pay than union workers. The Burlingame Treaty was signed between the United States and China in 1868, and it permitted unrestricted immigration by Chinese to the U.S. The Chinese immigrants were the only ones who could complete the building of the railroad over the treacherous Sierra-Nevada mountain range, which finally enabled linking the West Coast to the East Coast by railroad. Afterward, factory owners as far away as Massachusetts would transport Chinese immigrants from California in order to break a strike by union workers (in other words, replace the local striking workers with the transported Chinese immigrants).

Conflicts with Indians continued during the Civil War and afterward. The Sioux Wars lasted from 1864 to 1867 between Indians and the Union army in Colorado, Montana, and the Dakotas (North and South Dakota). The most famous battle of all, however, occurred a decade later. General George Custer was a highly popular and charismatic cavalry officer who sported long yellow hair and the latest fashions in his clothing. But he had also graduated last in his class at West Point, in contrast to many of the Civil War officers who took their coursework more seriously. In 1876, Custer led his men to Little Big Horn (now in Montana) to handle a conflict with Indians. Custer's superiors opposed an immediate attack on the Indians, and told Custer to wait before leading the charge. Overly aggressive and perhaps attempting to become a hero, Custer charged ahead anyway. The Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, then overwhelmed Custer and his men and slaughtered all of them. The warriors scalped all of Custer's men, except Custer himself, whose strange clothing may have misled the warriors into thinking he was an innocent civilian! This massacre at Wounded Knee is popularly known today as "Custer's Last Stand."

Another embarrassing bit of history during this period was corruption in the government of New York City, where the "Tammany Hall" of the Democratic Party ruled from 1805 to 1871. It was finally broken up when its leader "Boss Tweed" was imprisoned for taking tens of millions of dollars from the city and his opponents won the election in November 1871. His famous quote when caught stealing was, "What are you going to do about it?"

In the New York City elections of 1868, Tammany Hall had worked to steal the outcome by giving this advice:^[19]

“

When you've voted 'em with their whiskers on, you take 'em to a barber and scrape off the chin fringe. Then you vote 'em again with the side lilacs and a mustache. Then to a barber again, off comes the sides and you vote 'em a third time with the mustache. If that ain't enough and the box can stand a few more ballots, clean off the mustache and vote 'em plain face. That makes every one of 'em good for four votes.

”

When Boss Tweed was eventually arrested, robber baron Jay Gould posted a multi-million dollar bail for him. A decade later, in 1886, Tammany Hall regained power, and ran New York City politics until 1932, when Fiorello La Guardia was elected. La Guardia airport is named after him.

Offsetting all that bad news was some good news from the late 1800s. Baseball developed as a uniquely American sport during the Civil War, as soldiers found a way to pass the time between battles. After the war, informal leagues began to develop. The first professional team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings (now the "Reds"), formed in 1869. Then, the same year as the massacre of Custer's men in Little Big Horn, 1876, the National League was founded. The American League -- the league for the New York Yankees -- did not arise until 1903.