V. Politics and Reform
(1877 – 1900)
A.
Spoils System (or Patronage) – Gov’t
jobs went to supporters of the winning
party in an election.
James Garfield, 20th US President,
Second president to be assassinated.
 “To the victor go the spoils!”
 Republican President Garfield (a “halfbreed” for supporting reforms) was
assassinated a couple months after winning election in 1881.
 From 1877 to 1896, Dems and Reps were so evenly matched that only a
few reforms were possible at the national level.
B.
Pendleton Act – 1883, Congress set up
a civil service system (take exam for
jobs).
George Pendleton, Democrat from Ohio, later became the first Civil Service
Commissioner. Theodore Roosevelt was the most famous Commissioner
from 1889-95, and later the 26th U.S. President from 1901-1909.
 The Pendleton Act put most Federal employees on the “Merit system” and
ended political patronage.
C.
Election of 1884 – Grover Cleveland (D),
NY Governor, opposed political
machines.
In this 1899 cartoon from Puck, all
of New York City politics revolves
around boss Richard Croker.
 Both Dems & Reps were evenly matched in numbers, so came down to the
candidates personal morals (Mugwumps were Republicans that voted
for Cleveland, a Democrat, and helped him win in 1884.
 Cleveland was a bachelor, but fathered a child 10 years earlier; saved his
reputation by telling the truth.
 Cleveland won NY (the deciding state) by 1,000 votes out of over 1 million cast.
Grover Cleveland (1837 – 1908), the 22 & 24 President of the U.S., was
the only President to serve non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and
1893–1897).
He was the only Democrat elected to the Presidency in the era of
Republican political domination between 1860 and 1912, after the
American Civil War.
His admirers praise him for his bedrock honesty, independence, integrity,
and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism. As a leader of
the Democrats, he opposed imperialism, taxes, corruption, patronage,
subsidies and inflationary policies.
"Officeholders are the agents
of the people, not their masters."
-- Grover Cleveland
1888 election poster
Cleveland lost the 1888 presidential election, in part
due to fraud. He actually led in the popular vote
over Benjamin Harrison (48.6% to 47.8%), but
lost the Electoral College by a 233-168 margin,
losing Cleveland's home state of New York by
less than 1%.
Cleveland thus became one of only four men to
clearly win the popular vote but lose the
presidency; there would not be another such
election until Al Gore's narrow loss to George W.
Bush in 2000.
Grover Cleveland,
1888.
D.
Interstate Commerce Act (1887)–
Congress created the Interstate
Commerce Commission (I.C.C.), 1st
federal law to regulate interstate
commerce (railroads).
1. Ended RR
monopolies.
 The ICC's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure
fair rates and to eliminate rate discrimination (ended RR monopolies).
 Signed into law by President Grover Cleveland.
 The agency was abolished in 1995, and the agency's remaining functions were
transferred to the Surface Transportation Board.
The Sherman Anti-trust Act (Sherman Act), July 2, 1890, was the first
U.S. government action to limit cartels and monopolies. It is
the oldest of all federal U.S. antitrust laws.
The Sherman Act provides: “Every contract,
combination in the form of trust or otherwise,
or conspiracy (Monopoly), in restraint of trade
or commerce among the several States, or with
foreign nations, is declared to be illegal”.
John Sherman
In common law legal systems, a trust is an arrangement whereby money
or property is owned and managed by one person (or persons, or organizations)
for the benefit of another. A trust is created by a settlor, who entrusts some or
all of his or her property to people of his choice (the trustees). The trustees are
the legal owners of the trust property, but they are obliged to hold the property for
the benefit of one or more individuals or organizations.
‘Inflation’ is the decline in the value of money.
William McKinley, Jr (1843–1901)
was the 25th U.S. President, and the
last veteran of the Civil War elected.
 To finance the Civil War, the Union issued millions of dollars in greenbacks
which could not be exchanged for gold or silver coins; the rapid increase
in money supply w/out accompanying increase in goods for sale caused
the inflation.
 As paper money lost value, the prices of goods soared (Inflation).
 The opposite is Deflation – increase in value of money and decrease in price
of goods (hurt farmers hard).
 Because of the economic depression, Dems didn’t re-nominate Cleveland, lost
the White House to Republican William McKinley of Niles, Ohio (1897).
The Panic of 1893 was a serious decline in the economy of the
U.S. and was caused in part by a run on the gold supply. The
Panic was the worst economic crisis to hit the nation to that point.
The 1896 Broadway melodrama The War of Wealth was inspired by
the Panic of 1893.
Pullman Strike
began on
May 11, 1894.
The Pullman Strike occurred when 4,000 Pullman Palace Car
Company workers reacted to a 28% wage cut by going on a
wildcat strike in Illinois on May 11, 1894, bringing traffic west of
Chicago to a halt.
McKinley
campaigns on
gold coin (gold
standard) with
support from
soldiers,
businessmen,
farmers and
professions,
claiming to
restore
prosperity at
home and
victory abroad
(1900).
 McKinley presided over a return to prosperity after the
Panic of 1893 and was reelected in 1900.
 As president, he fought the Spanish-American War.
 He annexed Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and
Guam, and set up a protectorate over Cuba. He was
assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, and
succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt.
A sketch of
Czolgosz
shooting
McKinley
(1901).
Police mug shot of Leon Czolgosz.
He was executed by the electric chair.
E.
Poll Tax – 1890, Miss. required all
citizens registering to vote pay $2
(many African Americans can’t pay).
 The 15th Amendment prohibits states from denying citizens the right to vote
on the basis of “race, creed, or previous condition of servitude.”
The Constitution does not bar requirements to be literate or own property in
order to vote (loophole).
1.
Literacy test – read & understand
the state constitution (few AfricanAmericans could read).
 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended the use of literacy tests in all states.
 In a series of cases, the Supreme Court upheld the legislation and restricted the
use of literacy tests for non-English-speaking citizens.
 Since the passage of the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, black registration
in the South has increased dramatically.
 Even those who could read often failed the literacy test because local officials
deliberately picked difficult passages.
 Miss. was first; Other Southern states adopted similar restrictions.
 Only a few thousand African-Americans were registered to vote in several states.
2.
Grandfather Clause – Any man can
vote if their ancestor was on
voting rolls.
 Some states gave poor white voters a break due to low turn-out (restrictions).
F.Segregation separated the races.
1. ‘Jim Crow’ Laws – laws enforcing
segregation.
 1883, Supreme Court overturned the 1875 Civil Rights Act, said the 14th
Amendment only allowed “no state” could deny equal protection, and
allowed private organizations and businesses to segregate.
2.
Plessy vs. Furguson (1896) –
Supreme Court upheld a LA. law
that endorsed “separate but
equal” facilities for African
Americans.
Blacks and whites drank
from separate water
fountains and coolers,
as in this Oklahoma City
streetcar station in 1939.
 Homer Plessy challenged a Louisiana law that forced him to ride in a separate
RR car from whites as unconstitutional.
 Ruling established legal basis for discrimination in the South for over 50 years!!
 Separate, but far from equal.
 "Separate but equal" remained standard doctrine in U.S. law until overturned
in the later Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
 Between 1890 and 1899, violent mobs carried out approx 187
lynchings (executions w/out court proceedings) each year.
 80% of lynchings occurred in the South; 70% of the victims were
African Americans.
G.
African American Response.
1. Ida B. Wells – 1892, she launched
a fearless crusade against
lynchings.
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)
Anti-Lynching Journalist &
Women's Rights Advocate.
 Journalist and former slave, she refused to move to the train’s smoking car
for African Americans.
2.
W.E.B. Du Bois – Worked to get
African Americans the right to vote.
“Color discrimination
is barbarism.”
-- W.E.B. DuBois
 The Souls of Black Folk, 1903.
ACTIVITY
Discriminatory
law or decision.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What region(s)
affected?
Who were the
targets?
How did it affect
peoples lives?