Politics in the Gilded Age
1869-1896
Election of 1868






Impeachment/trial of Andrew
Johnson occurred in 1868
Democrats nominated Horatio
Seymour
Republicans nominated war
hero, Ulysses S. Grant (he had
no political experience)
“waving the bloody shirt”
Grant won 300,000 more
popular votes
the vote of 500,000 blacks
gave the Republicans their
victory
Election of 1868
th
15
Amendment


Republican majorities in
Congress acted quickly in
1869 to secure the AfricanAmerican vote
Reconstruction Amendments:
13th, 14th, 15th
 15th Amendment: prohibited

any state from denying or
abridging a citizen’s right to
vote “on account of race, color,
or previous condition of
servitude.”
Ratified in 1870
Southern Reaction

White Southerners used
literacy tests and poll taxes to
deny blacks the ballot

Grandfather clause: if a
relative voted in 1860, you
were exempted from the
requirements

disenfranchisement
Civil Rights Act of 1875




Guaranteed equal
accommodations in public
places (hotels, railroads, and
theatres)
Prohibited courts from
excluding African Americans
from juries
Law was poorly enforced,
Republicans were starting to
fear the loss of white votes
Frustration over trying to
reform an unwilling South
Reconstruction in the South





Republicans came to dominate
Reconstruction in the South
Democratic opponents gave
nicknames to their hated
Republican rivals
They called southern
Republicans “scalawags” and
northern newcomers
“carpetbaggers”
Northerners who went south
wee often investors,
missionaries, and teachers
Greed and graft existed

A cartoon threatening that the KKK would lynch carpetbaggers,
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Independent Monitor, 1868.
Evaluating the Republican Record
Accomplishments
-
-
universal male suffrage
property rights for women
debt relief
construction of roads,
bridges and railroads
state-supported schools
new tax systems
Failures
-
-
Republican rule seen as
corrupt/wasteful
kickbacks and bribes
However, it was not just
Republicans
Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall




William “Boss” Tweed was the
boss of the local Democratic
party in NYC
Masterminded dozens of
schemes of political corruption
The Tweed ring stole roughly
$200 million from New York’s
taxpayers
The New York Times and the
cartoonist Thomas Nast
exposed Tweed and brought
about his arrest and
imprisonment in 1871
Greed and Corruption
Thomas Nast and
Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed
Thomas Nast
Political Cartoonist



born in Germany
Anti-Catholic and nativist
credited with creating donkey
(Democrats) and elephant
(Republicans)
Election of 1872
Horace Greeley




Scandals of the Grant
administration drove reformminded Republicans to break
with the party and nominate
Horace Greeley, editor of the
New York Tribune
Democrats join them and
nominate Greeley
Grant was nominated by the
Republicans for a second term
“Waving the bloody shirt”
(again playing up his Civil War
reputation)
Election of 1872
Grant’s Administration and Corruption




In 1869 two Wall Street
financiers schemed Grant’s
brother-in-law in a scheme to
corner the gold market
Credit Mobilier affair, stock
given to Congress members to
avoid investigation of profits
Whiskey Ring federal revenue
agents conspired with the
liquor industry to defraud the
govt. of millions of dollars
Grant never involved but his
reputation is tarnished
The End of Reconstruction



During Grant’s second term, it
was apparent that
Reconstruction had entered a
third and final phase
Southern conservatives
(redeemers) took control of
state governments in the south
Most of their political programs
focused on: states’ rights,
reduced taxes, reduced
spending on social programs,
and white supremacy
Amnesty Act of 1872



Seven years after Lee surrendered at
Appomattox, many northerners were ready to
move on
In 1872, Congress passed a general amnesty
act that removed the last of the restrictions on
ex-Confederates, except for the top leaders
This Amnesty Act allowed Democrats to
retake control of state governments
African-Americans Adjust to Freedom




Learning to read and write
Migrating to cities
Founding of black churches
(minister become leaders in
black community)
Colleges: Howard, Morehouse,
and Fisk are established ((to
train ministers and teachers)
Sharecropping
A new form of servitude?





South’s agricultural economy
was in turmoil after the war
Whites lacked a compulsory
labor force
Sharecropping: the landlord
provides the seed and
supplies, in return for a share
(usually half) of the harvest
For the most part,
sharecroppers remained
dependent on the landowners
By 1880 roughly 5% of blacks
were independent landowners
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)



In 1890, Louisiana passed a
law called the "Separate Car
Act." This law said that railroad
companies must provide
separate but equal train cars
for whites and blacks.
Homer Plessy was 1/8 black
and therefore had to sit in the
“colored” car, but he sat in the
“white” car and was arrested
Plessy said this violated his
14th Amend. rights
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)




The case made its way to the
Supreme Court and they
upheld the Louisiana law
requiring “separate but equal
accomodations”
The Supreme Court said the
law did NOT violate the 14th
Amendment’s guarantee of
“equal protection of the laws”
Wave of segregation laws
follow in the South, known as
Jim Crow laws
Segregated washrooms, park
benches, etc.
Election of 1876
(The United States was 100 years old!!!!!!!!!)






Republicans nominated
Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio
Democrats nominated Samuel
J. Tilden of New York
Tilden won the popular vote
In three southern states the
votes were contested (SC, FL
and LA)
A special commission was
created to determine the
electoral votes
All votes were given to Hayes
Compromise of 1877




Republicans and Democrats
worked out a deal
Hayes would become
President
He must: 1.) end federal
support for Republicans in the
South and 2.) support the
building of a RR through the
South
Shortly after his inauguration,
Hayes withdrew federal troops
from the South
Election of 1876
Chinese Immigration

Chinese grocery store - 1898






Many Chinese arrived in the
mid-1800s with the discovery
of gold in California
More than 2 million Chinese
left China for South America,
Hawaii, and Cuba with roughly
300,000 entering the U.S.
San Francisco
Worked on transcontinental
railroad (western portion)
“Chinatowns”
Faced widespread
discrimination
Chinese Immigration

This 1852 photo by J. B. Starkweather shows a rare site: Chinese
and European Americans working together in a gold mining
operation.
Chinese Immigration

Secrettown Trestle
Chinese railroad workers transported dirt by the cartload to fill in this
Secrettown Trestle in the Sierra Nevada Mountain.
Courtesy of Union Pacific Historical Collection
Chinese Immigration



Violence in California against
Chinese workers by EuropeanAmericans who resented the
competition for jobs
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
barred nearly all Chinese from
entering the United States for
six decades
Many Chinese-Americans took
menial jobs, but eventually
opened their own businesses
such as restaurants and
laundries
The People’s Party




Also known as the Populists
Originated from the Farmers’
Alliance
Wanted: a graduated income
tax, government ownership of
RRs and telegraphs, one-term
limit on the presidency,
immigration restriction
Adoption of initiative and
referendum
Labor Unrest





Strikes by blue collar workers
erupted in the late 1800s
Andrew Carnegie’s
Homestead steel plant (near
Pittsburgh)
Steelworkers strike over
wages
Homestead Strike
Federal troops were eventually
called in and broke the strike