U.S History 1865-1945 Final Exam: Concept Writing

a ) Wade-Davis bill: The Wade-Davis bill was a piece of Congressional legislation championed by Radical Republicans and passed by both houses of Congress in 1864. The bill served as an alternative proposal to that of President Abraham Lincoln for the reintegration of Confederate states and their citizens during the U.S. Civil War. Lincoln’s plan, enunciated in 1863, permitted the return of a seceded state to its full legal standing so long as ten percent of its qualified electorate swore allegiance to the United States, and the subsequent state government that formed acknowledged the stipulations of the Emancipation Proclamation as final. The Wade-Davis bill sought more restrictions, demanding greater rights for the newly freed slaves, excising Confederates from the democratic process, and calling for the national government to appoint a governor to rule formerly rebellious states until the end of the casualty-laden Civil War. Lincoln refused to sign the Wade-Davis bill before the end of the Congressional session—negating it through a so-called pocket veto—mainly on grounds that Congress did not have the constitutional authority to ban slavery, though also because Lincoln believed it would damage reincorporation of the South. Following Lincoln’s death, Radical Republican views took hold, with strict Reconstruction policies retarding the South’s economic, social, and political development for decades.

b) USS Maine: The USS Maine, a late nineteenth-century heavy cruiser in the U.S. Navy, exploded in Havana, Cuba, on February 15, 1898, killing 266 members of the ship’s crew. The Maine was ordered to Cuba by U.S. President William McKinley to protect U.S. interests there and enforce the Monroe Doctrine against the encroaching Spanish. While the origins of the explosion remained unknown at the time, the incident galvanized U.S. support for declaring war against Spain, which the United States did on April 11, 1898, under the rallying cry “Remember the Maine—To hell with Spain!” The brief Spanish-American War of 1898 secured Cuban independence, beginning a long period of U.S. influence in the nation that was upended by Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959, and also won the United States the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, which were purchased for $20 million. While both Puerto Rico and Guam remain U.S. territories, the Philippines achieved independence in 1946.

c) Muckraker: Muckrakers were early twentieth-century journalists who exposed corruption of both business and political leaders, spurring Progressive-Era reforms. The term derives from an April 1906 speech by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who derided muckraker efforts with an allusion to the Man with the Muck-rake from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Roosevelt’s comparison argued that the journalists were so obsessed with unearthing negative stories that they kept the country from greater achievement. While typically based on factual revelations of corruption, muckrakers sometimes strayed into the realm of sensationalist journalism—a tact that spurred periodical sales more effectively than it informed readers. Muckrakers eventually fell out of fashion, in part because advertisers began to boycott publications; however, during their heyday from 1904 to 1908, the political pressure muckraker journalism exercised led to several lasting impacts on U.S. history, including the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act, the dismantling of Standard Oil, and the direct election of U.S. Senators.

d ) Fourteen Points: The Fourteen Points were U.S. president Woodrow Wilson’s fourteen terms of peace to end World War I. Wilson announced his terms during an address to Congress on January 8, 1918. In general, the points sought to create a stable Europe based on free trade and travel, as well as limited military buildup. Germany surrendered to the Allies in November 1918, but acceptance of Wilson’s Fourteen Points was contentious, especially the other Allied powers’ rejection of the concept of freedom of the seas. While the Fourteen Points ultimately served as the basis for the Treaty of Versailles, the European Allied powers also demanded financial compensation from Germany; the resultant economic devastation nurtured an extremist political environment that incubated the rise of Nazism and Adolf Hitler, and thus World War II. Wilson’s inclusion in the points of a “general association of nations,” which became the League of Nations, was rejected by isolationist politicians domestically, leading to his political downfall and also playing a role in the march toward World War II.

e ) Court Packing Plan: The court-packing plan was U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1937 attempt to reshape the U.S. Supreme Court. During 1935 and 1936, the Supreme Court had invalidated several pieces of New Deal legislation supported by Roosevelt. In a February fireside address, Roosevelt argued for a plan to allow the president to add up to fifteen Supreme Court justices for any Supreme Court justice with at least ten years of service and seventy years of age. The plan also sought additions to lower courts and the speeding up of judicial proceedings. In a thinly veiled effort to disguise his political intentions, Roosevelt suggested that his plan supported the aging justices with their burdensome workload. While the plan was not successfully implemented due to a lack of Congressional support, subsequent Supreme Court decisions demonstrated a shift toward Roosevelt’s advocacy of expansive federal powers. Of equal if not greater importance was Roosevelt’s threat to override judicial independence; contemporary charges of ideological Supreme Court appointments often refer back to Roosevelt, whose efforts to remake the court remain unparalleled.

f ) Lend-Lease Act: The Lend-Lease Act was passed by the U.S. Congress in March 1941, following a push by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to sell, lend, or lease supplies to Allied powers during World War II. With domestic U.S. opinion opposed to direct military intervention—until the December bombing of Pearl Harbor—the Lend-Lease Act secured both public support and legal cover for the United States to back Allied powers. The program continued after the United States entered the conflict, totaling $49 billion in aid between 1941 and 1945 to more than forty nations. While recipients ostensibly owed payment on the supplies, U.S. president Harry Truman announced after the war that aid provided to U.S. soldiers abroad during the conflict, as well as sacrifices made by Allied powers during the war, were sufficient compensation. U.S. support through the Lend-Lease Act both provided an important counterweight to early German victories and, by not requiring repayment, expedited the economic recovery and political stability of post-war Europe.