National Politics in the Gilded Age

1
National Politics in the Gilded Age
2
The Gilded Age

• The term "Gilded Age coined by Mark Twain and
  Charles Dudley in their 1873 novel The Gilded
  Age A Tale of Today.
• It refers to the decades between the end of
  reconstruction and the turn of the century (about
  1877 to 1900).
• The three main themes
• lassiez-faire versus government expansion
• economic and political corruption
• formation of modern political and economic norms

3
Gilded Age Timeline

• 1868 Congress enacts an 8-hour workday for
  workers employed by the government.
• 1869 The transcontinental railroad is completed.
• 1870 Rockefeller forms Standard Oil of Ohio
• 1873 The Financial Panic of 1873 begins. 5,183
  business fail.
• 1876 Bell patents the telephone.
• 1877 Edison invents the phonograph.
• 1879 Edison invents the light bulb

• 1894 The American Railway Unions strike and
  boycott of Pullman cars end in violence.
• 1886 The Haymarket riot occurs in Chicago
  following a demonstration of over 300,000 workers
  for 8 hour work days.
• American Federation of Labor Founded.
• 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act is passed and
  promptly ignored.
• 1892 The Homestead Strike at one of Andrew
  Carnegies steel works ends in violence.

4
The Election of 1880

• After 18 years in Congress, James Garfield became
  the dark horse Republican nominee for President .
• His running mate was Chester Arthur.
• The race between Garfield and the Democrat
  Winfield Hancock centered on the tariff issue.
• Republicans won favor with business, labor, and
  Northerners by advocating a protective tariff.
• Democrats sought to appease the interests of
  farmers and Southerners by opposing such tariffs
  as inflationary and anti-consumer.

5
The Election of 1880
The pie graph of the popular vote on the
electoral map below demonstrates the divided
nature of the American electorate, which would
continue throughout the 1880's and 1890's.
6
The Assassination of James Garfield

• Garfields presidency was cut short after only
  four months, when a disappointed office seeker
  shot and mortally wounded the president.
• The assassination became a catalyst for Civil
  Service Reform Act, which officially made the
  United States bureaucracy a meritocracy instead
  of a system rooted in patronage and graft.

7
The Presidency of Chester Arthur

• Chester Arthur became the twenty-first President
  of the United States after President Garfield was
  slain.
• He was a product of the patronage system.
• It was a surprise when Arthur proved himself an
  independent executive who was able to make
  unpopular decisions.
• He pushed for lower tariffs, though Republicans
  usually sought to appease corporate constituents.

8
The Pendleton Civil Service Act

• One of Arthur's most surprising actions was his
  support of the Pendleton Civil Service Act of
  1883, which created a new system for filling
  vacancies and outlawed political contributions
  from civil servants
• First, for open, competitive examinations for
  testing the fitness of applicants for the public
  service Second, that all the offices shall be
  filled by selections according to grade from
  among those graded highest as the results of such
  competitive examinations.

9
The Chinese Exclusion Act

• Another of legislation that came during Arthur's
  presidency was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,
  which was the first federal restriction on
  immigration.
• Arthur vetoed a more restrictive version of the
  bill, which angered labor groups, but signed one
  that halted Chinese immigration for ten years and
  forbid citizenship for Chinese persons already in
  the country.

10
Mugwumps and the Election of 1884

• Democrat Grover Cleveland narrowly won the thanks
  to divisions within the Republican Party.
• Idealistic Republican "Mugwumps, voted for
  Cleveland because of their disgust over James
  Blaines implication in scandals.
• Cleveland became the first Democratic president
  since James Buchanan.
• The "honest" (Mugwump) Republican voter in this
  cartoon chooses the path of independence,
  following the brains end of the Republican
  elephant.

11
The Election of 1884

• This mass defection of reform-minded Republicans
  became known as the "Republican Revolt."

12
The First Cleveland Administration

• As a "caretaker" president, Cleveland rarely
  proposed legislation on his own.
• However, he pushed civil service reform and
  opposed the costly pensions that Civil War
  veterans clamored for.
• He sided with creditors and conservatives as a
  proponent of the gold standard in the controversy
  over currency.

13
Cleveland and the Tariff Issue

• Cleveland dedicated his 1887 State of the Union
  Address to one of the defining issues of his
  presidency and his time tariff reform.
• After the Civil War, the government routinely ran
  a budget surplus.
• Manufacturers advocated the tariff because it
  allowed them to charge higher prices in the
  absence of foreign competition.
• Farmers opposed it for the same reason.
• Cleveland advocated a reduction in tariffs, which
  alienated the Republican faction that got him
  elected.

14
The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887

• In 1887, Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce
  Act, which established the Interstate Commerce
  Commission (ICC).
• The ICC was first independent regulatory agency
  in the history of the United States Government.
• It was designed to regulate the monopolistic
  railroad industry, which employed discriminatory
  pricing practices and kickbacks to benefit big
  business, like Standard Oil, and politicians,
  like James Blaine.

15
The Election of 1888

• Cleveland's position on the tariff alienated the
  Republicans who supported him in 1884.
• The Republicans chose Benjamin Harrison of
  Indiana.
• The campaign was subdued and narrowly focused on
  the tariff issue.
• Cleveland narrowly won the popular vote, but
  Harrison won with a majority of the electoral
  vote.

16
The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison

• Though he received 100,000 fewer votes than
  Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison became the nation's
  23rd President.
• He was active in establishing trade relations
  with Mexico and Central America .
• He was the first president since 1875 to enjoy
  majorities from his party in both houses of
  Congress.
• Huge appropriations bills increased the national
  budget to over 1 billion.
• Democrats were able to campaign against the
  "Billion Dollar Congress" and win the midterm
  elections of 1890.

17
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act and the McKinley
Tariff

• In return for passing the Sherman Silver Purchase
  Act of 1890, Republicans established the
  protectionist McKinley Tariff of 1890.
• The McKinley Tariff was the second highest in US
  History, raising duties by 50 percent. It also
  had the effect of raising prices for consumers.
• The Sherman Silver Purchase Act put more
  silver-backed money into circulation, but it also
  led to a depletion the government's gold reserves
  because an unexpectedly large number of citizens
  took advantage of a provision in the law that
  allowed holders of US Treasury bonds to redeem
  them for gold.

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The Sherman Anti-Trust Act

• The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 was the
  government's first intervention to remedy the
  restraint of trade caused by monopolies and
  trusts.
• Though the measure passed unanimously in both
  houses of Congress, it was vague in its
  definitions and depended on the courts for
  enforcement.
• It was not until the end of the 19th century that
  the Act was stringently enforced and interpreted.

19
United States v. E.C. Knight and Co.

• The opinion from the 1895 United States v. E.C.
  Knight and Co. is an example of the loose
  interpretation and enforcement of the Sherman
  Anti-Trust Act in its early years.
• According to Article I, Section 8 of the
  Constitution, Congress may, "regulate commerce
  with foreign nations, and among the several
  states..."
• Thus, the federal government cannot control
  economic activity within one state.
• In the Knight case, court declined to apply the
  law to a refining corporation that controlled 98
  of the nation's sugar because it did not consider
  manufacturing to be interstate commerce.

20
The Election of 1892

• In 1892, the Democrats nominated Cleveland and
  the Republicans nominated Harrison.
• Three third parties joined the race for the
  presidency as well.
• Grover Cleveland made history as the only
  president to be elected to two non-consecutive
  terms.
• He won by the largest margin of any other
  president during the Gilded Age.
• He was the first Democratic president to have
  majorities in both houses of Congress since
  before the Civil War.

21
The Election of 1892
22
The Second Cleveland Administration and the
Depression of 1893

• As Cleveland took office for a second time, the
  country was on the brink of economic depression.
• Over 16,000 business went bankrupt, the
  unemployment rate exceeded 20 percent, and wage
  cuts led to violent labor unrest and declining
  standards of living.
• Cleveland, to the dismay of fellow Democrats,
  forced repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
  and a return to the gold standard as one remedy
  for the financial crisis.

23
The Election of 1896 William Jennings Bryan

• President Cleveland's actions during the
  depression alienated Democrats, who were
  pro-silver.
• Instead they nominated the former Congressman and
  electrifying orator William Jennings Bryan of
  Nebraska.
• The populist People's party also endorsed him.
• Bryan was called The Great Commoner because of
  his commitment and appeal to working and middle
  class Americans.

24
Excerpt from Bryans Cross of Gold Speech

• Bryans support for the backing of currency with
  silver instead of gold was due to the presumed
  inflation that it would cause, allowing farmers
  to more easily pay back their debts.
• If they dare to come out in the open field and
  defend the gold standard as a good thing, we
  shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind
  us the producing masses of the nation and the
  world. Having behind us the commercial interests
  and the laboring interests and all the toiling
  masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold
  standard by saying to them, you shall not press
  down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns.
  You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of
  gold.

25
The Election of 1896 William McKinley

• William McKinley won the Republican nomination.
• He was a pro-business protectionist who was
  instrumental in the passage of record-high
  tariffs during the Harrison administration.
• Prior to the twentieth century, it was customary
  for presidential candidates not to campaign
  openly.
• McKinley ran a traditional "front porch" campaign
  while Bryan broke with tradition by touring the
  country.

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The Grand Realignment

• Bryan's emphasis on the silver issue aroused
  fears of anarchy and alienated urban, industrial
  states with increasingly high populations.
• William McKinley won by the biggest margin since
  1872.
• The 1896 is often characterized as a "realigning
  election" because it broke the stalemate between
  the parties to usher in an era of Republican
  dominance that thrived until the 1930's.
• When William McKinley was inaugurated 1897, both
  the depression and the silver issues began to
  fade.

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Citations

• Slide 1 http//us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectu
  res/lecture04.html
• Slide 2 http//www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/spcolli
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• Slide 8 http//teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/fi
  /000000eb.jpg
• Photo of Arthur http//teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_po
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