 Read the Mark Twain excerpt from his famous book, The
Gilded Age (1873).
 Respond:
 Why has Harry Brierly come to pay a visit to Colonial
Sellers?
 What is Colonial Sellers’ response to Mr. Brierly?
 How does this story symbolize the relationship between workers, bosses, big business and government during the Gilded Age?

Chapters 23 - 26

 Gilded —appears gold on the outside but is in fact made of a cheaper metal.
 Symbolizes an era of fabulous wealth, technological innovation, the growth of big business, population growth and the territorial expansion of the United
States…
 …However, these “golden” achievements benefitted a small minority of Americans and concealed serious social, political and economic problems of the majority.

 ~10 days
 Test and DBQ analysis
 Independent note taking (you choose the form)
 Online lectures, quizzes

 Corruption —dishonest of fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery
 Graft —practices, especially bribery, used to secure illicit gains in politics or business; corruption
 Patronage —the power to control appointments to office or the right to privileges
 Jobs or favors for votes
 Connection: Jackson, “spoils system”—democratic?
 Civil Service Reform—meritocracy (what you know rather than who you know)

 “Shaky equilibrium”: Majority party in the House switched six times in eleven sessions 1869-1891; only one Democratic President
 Few economic issues separated parties (agreed on lowering the tariff, civil service reform, currency question)
 Ferociously competitive: fierce loyalty, high turnout, voting along party lines
 Sharp ethnic differences:
 Republicans--Puritan (Anglo-Saxon)
 Democrats—Lutheran and Catholic (German, Irish)
 Geographic divisions
 “Solid Democratic South” and Northern industrial cities
 Republicans strong in Midwest, rural and small-town Northeast, freedmen in South, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)

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 In groups of 3
 Analyze Docs A – C and answer corresponding questions

 James “Jim” Fisk and Jay Gould’s “gold rush”
 “Black Friday” 1869 attempt to control the gold market
 Congressional probe: Grant guilty of nothing but stupidity
 Credit Mobilier (1872):
 Union Pacific insiders formed a construction company, hired themselves at inflated prices
 Bribed Congressmen with stock; Grant’s VP accepted payments
 Whiskey Ring:
 Stole excise-tax revenues from Treasury department
 Grant’s private secretary was involved
 Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall
 Stole over $200 million
 Thomas Nast contributed to capture

 Groups of 3
 Doc D

 Settled the disputed presidential election of 1876 (Hayes-R, Tilden-D)
 Tilden won popular vote, had 184/185 necessary electoral votes with 20 electoral votes disputed in four states.
 Special Electoral Commission appointed—8 R vs. 7 D.
 In an informal, “backroom deal” Hayes
(R) is elected by special Electoral
Commission, 8-7.
 Democrats are promised:
 Reconstruction Ends – 5 militarized zones abolished and military is withdrawn from LA, SC
 Patronage, TCRR construction through Texas (never materializes)

 Why did politics of the Gilded Age seemingly sink to such a low level? Did the Gilded Age Party System have any strengths to compensate for its weaknesses?

 How did the Compromise of 1877 effect freedmen in the South?
 What were the short- and long-term results of the
“Jim Crow” system in the South?
 Why was the sharecropping system so hard to overcome?
 Were blacks worse off or better off after the Civil
War?

 How was the Chinese immigrant experience similar to that of such European groups as the Irish, and how was it different?
 What effect did the racial distinctiveness of the
Chinese have on their experiences in America?
 What were the great problems the Chinese-Americans experienced? How did they attempt to overcome them?

 To what extent were the Populists politically
“radical”?
 Why was the political system so slow to respond to the economic grievances of farmers and workers, especially during the hard economic times of the
1890’s?

 During this time period, what was the government’s political philosophy with regard to the regulation and operation of business?
 How did the relationship between government and business change with the passing of the Pendleton
Civil Service Act of 1833?
 How did the Depression of 1893 affect the relationship between government and business?

 How did the Panic of 1873 and the Depression of 1893 affect Southern and Western farmers? How did the
Panic of 1873 affect Northern factory-workers and urban laborers?
 Throughout the 1880’s – 1890’s, was labor effective at winning union recognition, higher wages and better working conditions? Why or why not?