1. A Two-Party Stalemate
2. Intense
Voter Loyalty
to the
Two Major
Political Parties
3. Well-Defined Voting Blocs
Democratic
Bloc
 White southerners
(preservation of
white supremacy)
 Catholics
 Recent immigrants
(esp. Jews)
 Urban working
poor (pro-labor)
 Most farmers
Republican
Bloc
 Northern whites
(pro-business)
 African Americans
 Northern
Protestants
 Old WASPs (support
for anti-immigrant
laws)
 Most of the middle
class
Opposing Political Parties
• Democrats
• Republican
• Appeal to less
• Appeal to industrialists,
privileged urban
bankers, eastern farmers
workers, laborers,
• Want $ backed by gold
southern planters,
(keep inflation down);
western farmers
high tariffs, pensions to
• Want increase of $
veterans; gov’t aid to
supply; low tariffs; high
RRs; limits on
farm prices; less gov’t
immigration
aid to business; less
blue laws
• Enforcement of blue
laws: prohibit activities
seen as immoral
4. Very Laissez Faire Federal Govt.
 From 1870-1900  Govt. did very
little domestically.
 Main duties of the federal govt.:
 Deliver the mail.
 Maintain a national military.
 Collect taxes & tariffs.
 Conduct a foreign policy.
 Exception  administer the annual
Civil War veterans’ pension.
5. The Presidency as a Symbolic Office
 Party bosses ruled.
 Presidents should
avoid offending any
factions within their
own party.
 The President just
doled out federal jobs.
Senator Roscoe Conkling
 1865  53,000 people worked for the federal govt.
 1890  166,000
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1868 Presidential Election
President Ulysses S. Grant
Grant Administration Scandals
 Grant presided over an era of
unprecedented
growth and
corruption.
*
Credit Mobilier
Scandal.
*
Whiskey Ring.
The Tweed Ring
in NYC
William Marcy Tweed
(notorious head of Tammany Hall’s political machine)
[Thomas Nast  crusading cartoonist/reporter]
The Election of 1872
 Rumors of corruption
during Grant’s first
term discredits
Republicans.
 Horace Greeley runs
as a Democrat/Liberal
Republican candidate.
 Greeley attacked as a
fool and a crank.
 Greeley died on
November 29, 1872!
1872 Presidential Election
The Panic of 1873
 It raises “the money
question.”
 1876  Greenback Party formed &
makes gains in congressional races
 The “Crime of ’73’!
*
debtors seek inflationary
monetary policy by
continuing circulation of
greenbacks.
*
creditors, intellectuals support
hard money.
 1875  Resumption Act of 1875
(Specie Redemption Act.)
-U.S. Treasury be prepared to resume
the redemption of legal tender notes in
specie (gold) as of January 1, 1879
-reduce the number of greenbacks in
circulation “contraction”
-all "paper coins" (notes with
denominations less than one dollar) be
removed from circulation and be
replaced with silver coins.
And They Say He Wants a Third Term
Hayes and The Compromise of
1877
1880 Presidential Election: Republicans
Half Breeds
Stalwarts
Sen. James G. Blaine
(Maine)
compromise
James A. Garfield
Sen. Roscoe Conkling
(New York)
Chester A. Arthur (VP)
1880 Presidential Election
1881: Garfield Assassinated!
*Death
causes
reexamination
of the spoils
system
Charles Guiteau:
I Am a Stalwart, and Arthur is
President now!
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
200,000 civil service
federal govt. jobs.
1884 Presidential Election
Grover Cleveland
(DEM)
James Blaine
(REP)
A Dirty Campaign
Ma, Ma…where’s my pa?
He’s going to the White House, ha… ha… ha…!
1884 Presidential Election
Cleveland’s First Term
 The “Veto Governor” from New York.
 First Democrat elected since 1856.
 A public office is a public trust!
 His laissez-faire presidency:
 Opposed bills to assist the poor as
well as the rich.
 Vetoed over 200 special pension bills
for Civil War veterans!
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 mil.
in surplus!
 Lower Tariff 1887- hurts factories and
economy
 Tariffs became a major issue in the 1888
presidential election.
1888 Presidential Election
Grover Cleveland
(DEM)
Benjamin Harrison
* (REP)
Coming Out for Harrison
1888 Presidential Election
Changing Public Opinion
 Americans wanted the federal govt. to deal
with growing soc. & eco. problems & to curb
the power of the trusts:
 Interstate Commerce Act – 1887
 Sherman Antitrust Act – 1890
 McKinley Tariff – 1890
 Based on the theory that prosperity
flowed directly from protectionism.
 Increased already high rates to 48.4%
 The Republican Party suffered big losses in
1890.
1892 Presidential Election
Grover Cleveland
again! * (DEM)
Benjamin Harrison
(REP)
1892 Presidential Election
Cleveland Loses Support Fast!
 The only President to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
 Blamed for the 1893 Panic.
 Defended the gold standard.
 Used federal troops in the 1894
Pullman strike.
Gilded Age Presidents in
a Nutshell
“The Forgettable
“Presidents”
• 18th-Ulysses S Grant (1869-1877)
– Political Corruption
• Credit Mobilier Scandal
– Panic of 1873
• 19th-Rutherford B. Hayes (18771881)
– Electoral Count Act (Compromise of
1877)
– Jim Crow Laws
• 20th-James A. Garfield (1881)
– Assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau on
September 19, 1881 (due to this reform
of Spoils System
• 21st-Chester Arthur (1881-1885)
– Before taking office had benefited from the
system
• In office-works for reform
– Passes Pendleton Civil Service Act 1883
• Classify gov’t jobs and tests fitness
• 22nd and 24th-Grover Cleveland (18851889, 1893-1897)
• Supports RR, business (laissez-faire)
– In 2nd term manages to turn many
voters to Democratic party- sent
troops to break up Pullman strike
– Panic of 1893
• 23rd-Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
• Signed Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• Approves high tariffs
– Hurts economy; dips too deep into
treasury to pay pensions
Writing Prompt
• Evaluate the success of the political
system during the Gilded age. (USE
SFI)?