8 America in the 1890s and Early 1900s Jane Addams Progressive Reformer Jane Addams was born in Cedarville Illinois in 1860 In 1889 she and a friend Ellen Gates Starr founded Hull House in Chicago Illinois It was one of the first settlement houses in the United States Settlement houses served as community centers for social reform Hull House became important in civic affairs in Chicago and was a model for other settlement houses that opened throughout America in the 1890s Jane Addams was a true Progressive reformer Although her primary objective was to help the poor improve their lives she also developed interests in other kinds of reform She became a leader in the women’s suffrage movement and was also a pacifist A pacifist is a person opposed to war In 1931 Jane Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize She died in 1935 at the age of 75 William McKinley a Republican was also conservative regarding domestic or American affairs and he did little to advance the Progressive domestic agenda He was largely concerned with foreign affairs and during his term of office from 1897 to 1901 the United States acquired many overseas territories The Progressives were in favor of America playing an important role in the world They believed that Americans should offer aid to foreigners just as they should help the less well-off in their own country The Progressives did agree with some of McKinley’s foreign-affair policies
McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and was succeeded by the young and impulsive Theodore Roosevelt When Roosevelt took on the big corporate trusts and became known as a trust-buster the Progressives thought that they finally had one of their own in the highest office in the land Roosevelt however was willing to support only parts of the Progressive program and throughout his presidency from 1901 to 1909 Congress remained extremely conservative and resistant to Progressive reforms Moreover Roosevelt was not willing to fight Congress on each and every issue He spent much of his time on foreign affairs particularly on expanding America’s role overseas President Theodore Roosevelt presiding over the Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War 1905 America in the 1890s and 9 Early 1900s The Presidency in the Twentieth Century The four presidents who lived in the White House between 1889 and 1909 took the nation into the twentieth century Benjamin Harrison represented the kind of president the country had become accustomed to in the years after the Civil War He believed that the best government was one that governed the least amount possible Twenty years later however the nation had grown used to a youthful and vigorous president who threw himself into the center of almost every conflict Theodore Roosevelt was an activist president one well-suited to facing the challenges of the twentieth century He believed that the best government was one that played an active role at home and abroad In that sense he was truly a Progressive because he believed that action would change things for the better
10 Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison came from a long line of American patriots His great grandfather also named Benjamin Harrison had signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 His grandfather William Henry Harrison was the ninth president of the United States He died in office in 1841 only 30 days after his inauguration Benjamin Harrison was quiet and dignified and he hated the rough and tumble of politics Nevertheless on the rainy morning of March 4 1889 he found himself standing on the steps of the Capitol taking the oath of office as the 23rd president of the United States Born August 20 1833 North Bend OH Ohio North Bend Ternt March 4 1889 March 4 1893 Early Life Benjamin Harrison was born in North Bend Ohio on August 20 1833 the second son of John Scott Harrison and Elizabeth Irwin Harrison In his mid teens Benjamin attended a small preparatory school near Cincinnati Party Republican First Lady Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison Vice President Levi P Morton Died March 13 1901 Indianapolis IN Vice President Levi P Morton
Benjamin Harrison 23rd President of the United States
