The Bank would be able to lend the government money and safely hold its deposits, give Americans a uniform currency, and promote business and industry by extending credit. Together with Hamilton’s other financial programs, it would help place the United States on an equal financial footing with the nations of Europe.

Jackson, the epitome of the frontiersman, resented the bank’s lack of funding for expansion into the unsettled Western territories. Jackson also objected to the bank’s unusual political and economic power and to the lack of congressional oversight over its business dealings.

Northerners and Westerners tended to favor tariffs, banking, and internal improvements, while Southerners tended to oppose them as measures that disadvantaged their section and gave too much power to the federal government.

The Southerners opposed the plan because several southern states had paid off their wartime debts on their own. What would the second part of Hamilton’s plan provide? It would provide a safe place to deposit government funds. The bank would be able to issue paper money that would serve as a national currency.

February 3, 1870: The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave the right to vote to Black men, became law when the required number of states ratified it. July 15, 1870: Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to return to the Union. July 19, 1870: The Franco-Prussian War began.

The Franco-Prussian War , Bismarck’s influence on the German states leads to a year long conflict in which France is defeated. There can be no doubt of Prussia’s dominance over the now unified Germany, and the war has ended France’s presupposed hegemony over European affairs.

The following inventions are created during the 1870s, and most can still be seen today: magic lantern projector (1870), cable car railway (1871), electric street car (1874), dynamo (1875), magazine firearm (1875), carpet sweeper (1876), loudspeaker (1876), stapler (1877), microphone (1877), and cash register (1879).

In the 1890s, the forces unleashed by industrialization, urbanization, and immigration that had been reshaping the nation since thee Civil War, came to a head, setting the stage for a burst of reform in the early 20th century that signaled the growth of a more activist regulatory state and greater U.S. involvement …

The Gilded Age

July–September. July 17 – The Klondike Gold Rush begins when the first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle. September 1 – The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground metro in North America. September 10 – Lattimer Massacre: A sheriff’s posse kills more than 19 unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania.

Common Era