ITT: Zig Forums in 1888

>drought ravaged my wheat crop last year
>the blizzard killed off all my livestock the year before
>the railroads won't ship my crops back east without charging ripoff rebates
>the bank is calling in the loan I took out to buy that new plow
>my son is weak from tuberculosis and can't help with the farm chores
Kansas was a land of promise they said. Buy a farm here under the Homestead Act they said.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH FUCK THEIRS ANOTHER COMMUNAL RIOT IN THE BRITISH RAJ. PLEASE FUCKING HELP

We need to fight back for the good honest farmer against them corrupted rich varmints in New York City! Some 300k good men spilled their blood to see slavery abolished only to see it reestablished for us folk out here in the West.

>The constant flood of immigrants to the US in the 1880s-90s kept the labor pool large and wages down. Railroads allowed corporations to ship new immigrants and blacks to areas with high wages to bring them down. The individual laborer had little recourse against the might of industrial capitalism. Corporations and their armies of slick lawyers could buy off politicians and judges to pass anti-union legislation and injunctions. Labor strikes could be busted up by local police or the national guard. In 1886, following the Hay Market riots, infamous financier Jay Gould boasted "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."

>Workers could be compelled to sign contracts pledging not to join a union and employers kept "black dog" lists of known union activists. Tired of nonstop strikes, middle class Americans became numb to the plight of the working man. It was pointed out that American wages were some of the world's highest, even if a dollar a day for digging ditches does not now seem excessive. After all, John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie had come up from nothing so why couldn't anyone else?

Why are northerners so cucked?

Grover, he's quite the feller
Hid under a bed back in '61
While his friends were enlisting in the army
Made a baby with a lady of the night
Married another lady half his age
Whom he beats black and blue every night
As he plots to remove the tariff
That preserves our industry

Ol' Ben was there on the front lines
And heard the balls whine
Never a battlefield did he run from
Has been married to the same gal
For thirty five years
And will keep the tariff in place

Make the right choice this November. Our republic depends on it.

A good tin of Johnson's Triple-Action Cocaine will energize a fellow before a game of baseball. Stimulates every nerve in the body.

fuck the Dems
fuck the GOP
vote People’s Party

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>In pre-income tax days, the vast majority of US tax revenues came from tariff duties and Republican administrations had dutifully preserved high tariffs to protect industry. By 1881, the Treasury was running a whopping $145 million budget surplus. What to do with this surplus was a puzzling dilemma. It could be wasted on pork barrel projects and handouts to Civil War veterans groups and other important lobbying organizations, or the tariff schedule could be reduced. President Cleveland took the latter option.

>In late 1887, Cleveland called upon Congress to lower tariffs. In his State of the Union message in January 1888, he focused almost entirely on the tariff. The Democrats started seriously fretting over their election prospects and the GOP began salivating. "There is still another president for us in the tariff issue." boasted James Blaine.

>Since there was no other viable alternative, the Democrats grudgingly renominated Cleveland at their convention in St. Louis that summer. The Republicans dutifully chose Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of William Henry Harrison, and a charter member of the GOP. The election campaign was more restrained than that of 1884. Some drum-beating over the Civil War and Harrison's service as a colonel in the Union army versus Cleveland's non-service was raised, and there was further probing of the latter's personal life. Since taking office, Cleveland had married Francis Folsom, his ward whom he had raised since infancy and 21 years younger than him, and GOP leaflets bizarrely accused him of beating her in drunken rages.

>But the main issue was the tariff and both parties printed vast numbers of pamphlets on the subject. Then it came out that a California man wrote to the British ambassador to the US, Sir Lionel Sackville-West, for his opinion on the election. The ambassador replied that he and England in general would much prefer Cleveland to win since free trade was good for his country. When the GOP found out, they promptly published the letter and used it to stir up Britain-hating Irish voters. A chagrined Cleveland was forced to ask London to recall Sackville-West. In addition, the GOP shook down big business for donations with the promise of preserving high tariffs if they won.

>For the first time in US history, the winning presidential candidate failed to capture the popular vote. Harrison claimed victory on Election Day with 233 electoral votes to Cleveland's 168, but the latter had 29k more popular votes. Harrison had won the election by carrying New York, and just 6500 votes there would have changed the outcome.

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Detestable electoral system!

>Cleveland was the first president to lose his reelection bid since Martin Van Buren almost 50 years earlier. He could claim credit for some genuine accomplishments, in particular the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, the first precursor to anti-trust legislation, and reclaiming 81 million acres of land in the West that had been unscrupulously grabbed by corporations or cattle ranchers. However, despite his gruff no-nonsense attitude and occasional moments of courage, he was tied to the same political strands that held down other Gilded Age presidents. It was not a strong age of political leadership in America and many men came to ask "Where have all the Jeffersons and Madisons and Clays gone?" The answer could be that the industrial colossus drew in most of the best and brightest minds in the country rather than the world of politics. The smartest Americans wanted to get rich and head a railroad or steel company, not serve in Congress.

>The answer could be that the industrial colossus drew in most of the best and brightest minds in the country rather than the world of politics. The smartest Americans wanted to get rich and head a railroad or steel company, not serve in Congress.
Much like today

>Baseball formed into a professional sport with proper leagues during the 1870s and by 1888, an all-star team went on a world tour which included playing in Egypt with the pyramids as a backdrop.

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A Zâmbia é nossa, morte aos filhos da puta ingleses

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>In his State of the Union message in January 1888, he focused almost entirely on the tariff

In case you didn't know, back in that time, presidents didn't sit in front of Congress and read a State of the Union speech like today, they just had some clerk go up there and read it out. This tradition started because Thomas Jefferson thought the president addressing Congress in person was too imperious and monarchical, and Wilson was the first president to break with it.

I wouldn't dispute the notion that Jeff Bezos is a far smarter man than Joe Biden.

Just in general. I’m not too fond of the “Silicon Valley mindset”, but you can’t deny that the people there are much more creative and with the times than the people in Washington.

"The Internet is a series of tubes..."

That and Mark Zuckerberg trying to explain computer things to the imbecils in Congress.

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>Using Anglo, German or Scandinavian names
Why are Brazilians like this?

Seeing almost modern-like sport outfit on those guys during a fucking victorian era is honestly weird.

My Uncle Wilford told me the tales about serving in the 32nd Ohio with ol' Sherman. If anything it was you who were cucked back when he and his comrades stole your grandpappy's pigs and chickens and set all his slaves free.