Gilded Age Politics

1
Gilded Age Politics

• National politics and influence of corporate
  power
• Agrarian discontent and political issues of the
  late nineteenth century

2
Politics in the Gilded Age

• Gilded Age - covered with a thin layer of gold
• Wealth and prosperity and progress
• VS.
• Urban, labor, and farming problems and big
  business corruption

3
Gilded Age Politics
4
The Business of Politics

• Laissez-faire
• Government should play a very limited role in
  business
• Favored high tariffs on imports (to protect
  American businesses)
• Government subsidies
• payment by government to encourage development of
  certain businesses and/or industries (I.e. RR)

5
Credit Mobilier Scandal 1873

• Govt awarded Union Pacific (UP) RR loans and
  land to build Transcontinental RR
• Credit Mobilier company - hired to build RR
• Credit Mobilier charged UP way too much .
• In order for Congress to keep funding, Credit
  Mobilier offered cheap shares of stock to
  Congressmen who agreed to support continued
  funding
• Investigated in 1872 - both parties, lots of
  indivuduals - guilty

Every Public Question With an Eye Only to the
Public Good
Harper's Weekly March 15, 1873
6
Spoils System - Patronage system

• Started in American politics with Andrew Jackson
  (1828)
• To the victor, go the spoils of war
• Giving of jobs as a reward for loyalty - even to
  unqualified people

7
Political Parties in the Gilded Age

• Republicans
• Appealed to industrialists, bankers, and eastern
  farmers
• Strongest in N and upper Midwest
• Favored tight money supply backed by GOLD
• High tariffs
• High pensions for Union soldiers
• Govt aid to RR
• Strict limit on immigration
• Enforcement of blue laws - prohibited private
  activities many considered immoral

• Democrats
• Attracted those less privileged
• Northern immigrant workers, laborers, southern
  planters, western farmers
• Claimed to represent ordinary people
• Favored increased money supply backed by SILVER
• Lower tariffs
• Higher farm prices
• Less govt aid to big business
• Fewer blue laws

8
Waving the Bloody Shirt

• Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) organization of
  northern Civil War veterans
• Campaigned for Republicans
• Called on former Union generals as candidates

9
Ethnic Divisions and Gilded Age Politics

• Democrats
• Family tradition Irish, immigrants
• Religious affiliation Catholic
• Appealed to common city laborers
• Local issues prohibition

• Republicans
• Family tradition Protestant, old-stock
  northerners,
• Religious affiliation Protestant
• African-Americans
• Local issues against vices and for
  Prohibition in most cases

10
Well-Defined Voting Blocs
DemocraticBloc
RepublicanBloc

• White southerners (preservation of white
  supremacy)
• Catholics
• Recent immigrants (esp. Jews)
• Urban working poor (pro-labor)
• Most farmers

• Northern whites (pro-business)
• African Americans
• Northern Protestants
• Old WASPs (support for anti-immigrant laws)
• Most of the middle class

11

• Figure 18.1 Ethnocultural Voting Patterns in the
  Midwest, 18701892 (p. 521)

12

• Intense Voter Loyalty to the Two MajorPolitical
  Parties
• High Levels of Political Participation

13
The Money Supply

• Most in gold and silver coinage or U.S.
  Treasury notes
• Bankers limit supply
• Debtors expand supply
• Panic of 1873
• Greenback Party of 1877 - expanded supply

14
Money Supply - continued

• Silver demonetized in 1873
• Silver discovered in huge quantities in 1873 in
  Nevada (Comstock Lode)
• Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
• Treasury to buy silver monthly
• Issue Treasury notes
• Increased supply some but not enough for
  farmers and other debtors

15
The Silver Issue

• Crime of 73 - demonetization of silver (govt.
  stopped coining silver).
• Bland-Allison Act (1878) - limited silver
  coinage to 2-4 mil. per mo. (based on the 161
  ratio of silver to gold).
• Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)
• The US Treasury must purchase 4.5 mil. oz. of
  silver a month.
• Govt. deposited most silver in the US Treasury
  rather than circulation.

16
Spoils System Reform

• 1877 - President Rutherford B. Hayes refused to
  use patronage system
• Began attempt at CIVIL SERVICE reform
• Split his party (Republicans) in 1878

17
Rutherford B. Hayes and Civil Service Reform
18
Republican split

• Stalwarts - Sen. Conkling - defended spoils
  system
• Half-Breeds - Sen. Blaine - reform spoils system
  but maintain party loyalty
• Independents - opposed spoils system entirely
  (Mugwumps)

19
James Garfield 1880-1881

• Elected 1880
• Half-Breed faction - to reform spoils system but
  maintain party loyalty
• Assassinated by Stalwart supporter - Guiteau -
  (who expected a job from Garfield and didnt get
  it)

20
Garfield and the Pendleton Act
21
Chester Arthur

• VP w/ Garfield
• Became president after assassination
• Beneficiary of patronage in NY
• Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883

22
Pendleton Civil Service Act

• Civil Service Commission set up
• Tested applicants
• Fed employees not required to contribute campaign
  
• Could not be fired for political reasons

23
Pendleton Act (1883)

• Civil Service Act.
• The Magna Carta of civil service reform.
• 1883 - 14,000 out of 117,000 federal govt.
  jobs became civil service exam positions.
• 1900 - 100,000 out of 200,00 civil service
  federal govt. jobs.

24
Election of 1884 - Grover Cleveland

• Grover Cleveland - Democrat
• Cleveland heavily criticized
• Issues
• Favored tight money policies
• Opposed high tariffs
• Took back 80 million acres from RR
• Supported more govt regulation of RR

25

• Map 18.1 Presidential Elections of 1880, 1884,
  and 1888 (p. 517)

26
RR Regulation

• Many complaints of questionable RR practices
• Rebates - partial refunds to favored customers
• 1877 - Munn v. Illinois - Supreme Court decision
  allowed states to regulate certain businesses
  (including RR)
• 1886 - decision limited state control in Wabash
  v. Illinois (interstate commerce still
  unregulated)
• The Wabash decision led to the creation in 1887
  of the first modern regulatory agency, the
  Interstate Commerce Commission.
• 1887 - Interstate Commerce Act set up Interstate
  Commerce Commission (ICC)
• ICC usually had to file suit against RRs and
  until 1905, lost 15 of 16 cases before the
  Supreme Court

27
Cleveland lost bid in 1888 to Republican James
Garfield

• Bandanna, 1888 Election (p. 514)

28
The Tariff Issue

• After the Civil War, Congress raised tariffs to
  protect new US industries.
• Big business wanted to continue this consumers
  did not.
• 1885 - tariffs earned the US 100 million - In
  surplus!
• Mugwumps (branch of Republican Party) opposed it
  -
• President Clevelands view on tariffs
• Tariffs too high and needed to be reduced
• Tariffs became a major issue in the 1888
  presidential election.

29
President Benjamin Harrison - 1888

• Republican - supported business interests
• Favored an increase in tariffs
• Awarded huge pensions to dependents of Civil War
  soldiers
• Hurt the economy in the long run
• Major Achievement
• Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

30

• Map 18.1 Presidential Election 1888 (p. 517)

31
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

• Outlawed any combination for companies that
  restrained interstate trade or commerce
• Supposed to limit the formation and function of
  trusts and monopolies
• Proved ineffective for over 15 years
• Vague wording - enforced rarely
• Courts ruled pro-business

32
Clevelands second term - 1893-1897 (unpopular)

• Panic of 1893
• Millions of workers lost jobs or had wages
  slashed
• 1894 - Coxeys army demanded govt create jobs
  for unemployed
• Repealed Sherman Silver Purchase Act
• Sent federal troops to Chicago during the Pullman
  strike of 1894

33
Election of 1896

• Populists - Democrats William Jennings Bryan
• Working class and farmers
• Free silver
• Labor reform
• Cross of Gold speech

• Republicans William McKinley
• New tariff bill (raised)
• Stronger gold standard
• A Full Dinner Pail

34
Election of 1896
35

• Map 18.5 The Election of 1896 (p. 540)

36
Election of 1896 Realignment