1869-1896
Chapter 23

After the Civil War, population vaulted upwards despite the loss of many young men
1870 – 39 million people in US because of immigrant surge
US – 3 rd largest Western nation behind
Russia and France

Waste, extravagance, speculation, and graft
Grant – great soldier, but bad politician
War hero – presented with house and
$105,000 for saving
Union

Republicans nominate U.S. Grant
Democrats – former NY Gov. Horatio
Seymour
Grant wins easily 214-80 in E.C.
“waving the bloody shirt”
500,000 former slaves vote for Grant

Era was a very corrupt time
Railroads, stockmarkets, judges, legislators

240 lbs.
Head of crooked
Tweed Ring in NYC
Bribery, graft, fraudulent elections
Milked NYC for $200 million
Protestors had their taxes raised

NY Times – published damning evidence in 1871 and courageously ran it in the paper despite bribe
Cartoons by Thomas Nast
NY attorney Samuel J. Tilden prosecuted Tweed and sent him to jail
Tweed died in prison shortly after

Grafters, corrupted, incompetent
Dent Family – Grant’s in-laws received dozens of high level positions
Spoils system at its worst

Union Pacific Railroad created the Credit
Mobilier company and hired itself with government $ to build railroads at inflated prices
Up to 348% inflation on prices and distributed shares of stock to congressmen
Led to censure of two congressmen

1874-1875
Robbed the treasury of millions in alcohol excise taxes
Grant’s own personal secretary was implicated in the crime
Grant had to write a letter of pardon for him

1872 – some Republicans became disgusted with Grant
A reform party began – Liberal
Republicans

Nominated to run for office on Liberal
Republican ticket in
1872
Editor of NY Tribune
Dogmatic, emotional, petulant, and unsound

Office hungry Democrats also nominated Greeley to run for president
“ate crow” – they were seen as traitors
Greeley was called a communist, freelover, vegetarian, brown-bread eater
Grant won 286-66

Economic Panic
Bankers made bad loans that weren’t repaid
Credit houses crashed
15,000 businesses went bankrupt
Black Americans hit hard – lost $7 mil in investments – began to distrust banks

Debtors clamored for paper money
Greenbacks printed during war
1874 – hard money advocates convinced
Grant to veto a bill that would print more money

Government pledged to pull more paper
$ while redeeming it in gold at face value
Silver – Congress formally stopped coining silver in 1873
Protest over money lasted throughout the late 1860s and all of the 1870s

Gold on the outside, but cheap metal on the inside
Coined by Mark
Twain in 1873
The three decades after the Civil War

Every presidential election was a squeaker
House switched hands 6 times from
1869-1891
Democrats and Republicans were not that much different from one another
They were competitive with fierce loyalty

Puritan lineage
Strict code of personal morality
Government should play a role in economy and society
Blacks voted
Republican

Lutheran and
Catholic
Less stern view on human weakness
Toleration of differences
Solid base in the
South and Northern
Industrial cities

The Republican Party had two factions
Stalwart
Half-Breeds

Led by Roscoe “Lord
Roscoe” Conkling
US Senator from
New York
Swapped civil service jobs for votes

Led by James G. Blaine
US Congressman from
Maine
Flirted with civil service reform
They stalemated each other and deadlocked the party

Grant toyed with idea of running for 3 rd term
Congress passed a reminder 233-18 of
Washington’s 2 term precedent
Republicans nominated Rutherford B.
Hayes – “The Great Unknown” from OH
Democrats – Samuel J. Tilden (NY) – man who bagged “Boss” Tweed

185 electoral votes needed to win the presidency
Tilden got 184
20 votes from 4 states in doubt because of irregular returns
Each state sent 2 sets of returns
1 Republican and 1 Democrat

Electoral Count Act – set up an electoral commission w/ 15 men from Senate,
House, and Supreme Court
Feb. 1877 – Senate met to determine the president
Agreed by partisan vote 8-7 to give the election to Hayes

Democrats reluctantly agreed to allow Hayes the presidency
Only if federal troops were removed from the
South
Reconstruction was officially over

With the end of the bayonet backed
Republican regimes in the South, blacks were left without political power
White Democrats (Redeemer) resumed power in South and used it to force blacks into unemployment, eviction, and physical harm
Sharecropping and tenant farming at mercy of former masters (manipulated the system to keep blacks in debt)

Systematic state-level codes of segregation, literacy requirements to vote, poll taxes, grandfather clause
Hatred and segregation turned into state laws

Supreme Court case that ruled
“separate but equal” facilities were constitutional
Reality: facilities were never equal
Blacks were separated into inferior schools, public facilities, railroad cars, theatres, and restrooms
Second-Class Citizens

75,000 Asians in
California by 1880
Poor, uneducated, single males, mostly from Guangdong
Province
Came to find gold or work on railroads
Extraordinary hardships
“not a Chinaman’s chance”

Hayes was denounced by the
Republican Party
Republican candidate – James A.
Garfield
Democrat – Winfield Scott Hancock, a
Civil War hero
Garfield wins 214-155

Energetic and capable
However, on September
19,1881 Charles J. Guiteau shot and killed Garfield
Guiteau was insane, and killed Garfield because he didn’t get a government job
Guiteau found guilty and hanged

Becomes president (VP)
Was corrupt b4 he was president
Surprised critics by prosecuting fraud cases and turning his shoulder to old cronnies
Garfield’s death shocked politicians into reforming spoils system

Made campaign contributions from federal employees illegal and established the Civil Service
Commission to appoint people to government jobs based on test scores and abilities, not “pull”

Republicans – nominate James G.
Blaine (not honest)
Democrats – Grover Cleveland (NY)
Bachelor, lawyer, 47 years old
“Grover the Good” had an illegitimate son (8 years old) whom he paid money for – Cleveland decided to “tell the truth”

Republican slogan: “Ma, ma, where’s my paw…Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!”
Cleveland won 219-182
1 st Democratic president in
28 years
Man of principle, in favor of laissez-faire, outspoken, unbending, hot-tempered

Tariffs on foreign imports were extremely high (protective of American business)
Drove prices of domestic goods sky high
1881 – US Treasury had a surplus of
$145 million/year from tariff
Cleveland supported lowering the tariff

Republicans – for high tariff
Democrats – wanted to lower tariff
1 st issue that really divided parties
Democrats – Grover Cleveland
Republicans – Benjamin Harrison (grandson of William Henry Harrison)
Harrison won 233-168
Cleveland 1 st president voted out since Van
Buren

McKinley Tariff Act of 1890
Boosted tariff to 48.4%
Hurt farmers who had to buy expensive domestic goods, but sell their crops internationally
They were taxed by other foreign tariffs
1890 Congressional Election –
Reps – lost all but 88 seats to
Dems 235 seat

1892 – est. by frustrated farmers in the West and South
Demanded inflation through coinage of silver.
16 oz silver = 1 oz gold
Graduated income tax
Govt. ownership of RR, telegraph, telephone
Direct election for US Senators
1 term limit for President

Populist – Gen. James B. Weaver (22)
Republican – Benjamin Harrison
Democrat – Grover Cleveland
Cleveland won, becoming the only president re-elected after defeat

Democratic
Congressman from
Nebraska
Silver tongued
Championed cause of free silver

Economic panic that lasted 4 years
8,000 businesses collapsed
Hoboes and “tramps” wandered the countryside
Nation = no more surplus
Gold reserve dropped below $100 million safe mark

Feb. 1894 – gold reserve dropped below
$41 million
Cleveland had to borrow
$65 million in gold from
Morgan, a giant banker
Loan restored confidence in US currency