A.P. U.S. History
“The Gilded Age”
POLITICS: 1877-1894
• Problems of the underclass ignored
• Instead, govt. had belief in laissez faire, and
concentrated on only 3 issues:
(1) tariff (2) money supply (3) civil service reform
• House changes majority 5 times
• Previous President Grant’s presidency plagued with
corruption & scandal (“Grantism”)
• Spoils system popular in the time period
• 1873 stock market panic led to depression in 18731878 which had an impact on the period
Major Parties Platforms
and Bases of Support
Republicans
- New England, Upper Midwest,
& Plains
- small towns and rural areas
- Protestants
- Immigrants: British, Swedes, &
Norwegians
- African Americans
- Grand Army of the Republic
(veterans of the Civil War)
- High tariffs
- Temperance
- English-only compulsory education
Democrats
- South & Lower
Midwest
- cities in the North
- Catholics
- Immigrants: Irish,
Germans, & New
Immigrants
- Low tariffs
- Anti-temperance
- No English-only
education
Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican
1877-1881
• Won Election of 1876
• Restores respectability to office of President
• Attacked corrupt NYC customs house and fired
Chester Arthur there
• Sent in federal troops to end the B&O railroad strike
• Munn v. Illinois (1877) ruling supported Granger laws
• Greenback Party formed (1877) – supported
expanded money supply, and benefits to farmers and
industrial workers
During the Hayes administration the
Republican Party was split into two factions:
Stalwarts
- conservative faction
- opposed to Hayes'
efforts
to reconcile with the
South
- opposed all forms of
civil
service reform,
preferring
spoils or patronage
system
Half-Breeds
- moderate
faction
- backed
Hayes'
lenient
treatment
of the
South
- supported
moderate
civil
James Garfield
Republican
1881
• Won Election of 1880
• Half-Breed who won Republican nomination named
Stalwart Chester Arthur as his running mate to keep
party together
• Garfield assassinated by an angry Stalwart who
supported Garfield in hopes of gaining a govt.
position in the spoils system
• Arthur becomes President
Chester Arthur
Republican
1881-1885
• Became President when Garfield assassinated
• Arthur has reputation for corruption from his days in
NY political machine and the NYC custom house
• Partly because Arthur was president the cause of
civil service reform became a hot issue
• Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883) – set up exams
and standards for gaining federal govt. positions,
and forbade workers from giving contributions to
candidates
Grover Cleveland
Democrat
1885-1889
• Won Election of 1884 by gaining support of
Mugwumps (republicans who switched sides as
they felt that the Republican candidate Blaine was
part of the corrupt spoils system)
• Supporter of laissez faire
• Wanted lower tariffs so federal budget surplus
would drop, so Congress not tempted to add pork
barrel projects to laws
Grover Cleveland
Democrat
1885-1889
• Wabash Railroad Strike (1885)
• Haymarket Square Incident (1886)
• vetoed a bill (1887) that gave pensions to all
veterans even if their disability was unrelated to war
• Wabash v. Illinois (1887) – ruling overturned Munn
decision and prohibited states regulation of
interstate RR trade
• Interstate Commerce Act (1887) – overturned
Wabash decision allowing federal govt. to regulate
interstate transportation and trade
Benjamin Harrison
Republican
1889-1893
• gained $4 million “war chest” from industrialists upset
with Cleveland’s low tariffs to win election in 1888
• Increased Civil War pensions by 43%
• McKinley Tariff (1890) – pushed them to all-time high
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) – first major attempt
by federal govt. to regulate monopolies and trusts
• Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) – U.S. to buy
nation’s output of silver
Benjamin Harrison
Republican
1889-1893
• Southern and Northwestern Alliances merged in
1889 and ran candidates in 1890 midterm
elections
– wanted govt. action on behalf of farmers and
workers, such as tariff reduction, graduated
income tax, public ownership of RRs, &
unlimited coinage of silver
– Party split over whether it could operate within
the Democratic Party (which Southerners
wanted)
Benjamin Harrison
Republican
1889-1893
• Democrats won back control of Congress in the
1890 midterm elections as people were upset
about Republican ties to big industry
• People’s Party or Populist Party (1892) – took
alliances platform and added political reforms like
direct election of US Senators, initiative, recall,
and referendum, and called for govt. warehouses
for crops so they could be stored until prices rose
• Homestead Strike (1892)
Grover Cleveland
Democrat
1893-1897
• Won Election of 1892 due to these factors:
– Populists hurt by lack of Southern support as
they kept traditional loyalties to Democratic Party
and because the Populists ran a former Union
general James Weaver
– Republicans hurt by public reaction to labor
violence (Homestead Strike) and McKinley Tariff
– Cleveland grew more conservative and won
back support of businessmen by opposing
populism and by supporting the gold standard
Grover Cleveland
Democrat
1893-1897
• Panic of 1893 – caused by agricultural stagnation,
slumping RR growth which led to crisis in the iron
and steel industries, depletion of the gold supply,
and depletion of govt. surplus due to veterans’
pensions and pork barrel projects
– banks and RRs failed and stock prices dropped
– led to the depression from 1893-1897
– Industrial unemployment 20-25%
– Agricultural prices dropped 20%
Grover Cleveland
Democrat
1893-1897
• Sherman Silver Purchase Act repealed in (1893) to
save the gold supply
• Pullman Strike (1894)
• In re Debs case (1895)
• Bankers like J.P. Morgan loaned the govt. millions
in exchange for discounted US bonds (which
stopped the gold drain)
Lower classes perceived a govt.
and money class alliance that they
couldn’t break:
• Morgan loan for huge profits
• Inability to pass lower tariff by Congress
• Cleveland’s using force to end Pullman
Strike
• End of Sherman Silver Purchase Act
angered farmers as it meant money supply
would not grow
Grover Cleveland
Democrat
1893-1897
• Republicans gained seats in 1894 midterm
elections winning both houses
• Immigrants battered by depression throughout
Cleveland’s presidency left the Democratic Party
• Progressive movement within the Republican Party
emerges and takes votes from the Populists
• Democratic Party split over gold standard and silver
advocates take control of the party’s platform
William McKinley
Republican
1897-1901
• Won Election of 1896
• William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech
made adding silver to the money standard the
major issue for the Democrats
• Populists joined the Democrats giving up many of
their platform goals to try to gain free silver
• Republican McKinley’s victory meant end to the
Populist Party
William McKinley
Republican
1897-1901
• By stressing one issue in the 1896 election the
Democrats couldn’t appeal to factory workers and
the urban middle class
• Protestant revivalist preacher Bryan turned off
immigrants who were Jews & Catholics and against
his temperance stance
• Defeat of Populism led to Republican reign of
power (with exception of Wilson’s two terms) that
lasted until FDR in 1932
William McKinley
Republican
1897-1901
• Dingley Tariff (1897) – pushed rates to a new alltime high
• Currency Act (1900) – officially committed the US to
the gold standard
• Populist movement ended, but a new reform
movement called progressivism would emerge
• Thorstein Veblen’s “Theory of the Leisure Class”
– conspicuous consumption of the rich
Progressive Reforms
in the Gilded Age
• Only three major pieces of progressive
legislation were passed during the period
– Pendleton Civil Service Act
– Interstate Commerce Act
– Sherman Anti-Trust Act