Politics U.S.A
Consider: What is the job of our
politicians? What is politics?
How did citizens mobilize to alter
the status quo? Lessons?
Ancient Greeks
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The idea is linked with ethos or character
Aristotle claimed it was a moral enterprise
How do we view the job? Service?
Ultimate purpose is: patronage and spoils
How can we overcome disillusionment?
The Public Good?
Politics in the Gilded Age
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Age of Status Quo & Laissez Faire
Get elected and keep power
Stalwarts v. Half breeds
Series of weak of executives
Legislative Initiatives
Southern Democrats & New South
Impact of Grantism
Constituencies and Issues
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Ethnicity: Irish, Germans, Blacks
Religious Affiliation: Protestants
Regionalism: Solid South
Age and Sex: Males Only
The Issues: Civil Service Reform
Tariffs, Greenbacks & the economy
The Bloody Shirt’s legacy
Scandals, Abuses & Political
Reforms
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Credit Mobilier, Black Friday, Whiskey Ring and
Incompetency
Republicans & Internal Conflicts
Tariffs and Greenbacks
Pendleton Act and Meritocracy
Corporate Practices and Regulation
The I.C.C and Anti Trust Legislation
Popular indignation
Machine Politics
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Bossism and the Cities
Patronage and Spoils
The Bewildered Immigrants
Tammany Hall: Honest v. Dishonest
Urban Scene and Services
State Legislatures and U.S. Senate
Theodore Roosevelt and Reformers
The San Francisco Experience
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Conditions and Terrible 70s
Labor unrest and Workingman’s Party
1879 Constitution
Boss Buckley and the Machine
1900 and Union Labor Party
Boss Ruef and 06 Earthquake
Fremont Older, the Fed & Graft Trials
Progressivism
Assess how the events of the
era helped the reformers in their
efforts to address the abuses.