Chapter 23:
Politics in the Gilded Age
1869–1896
The Aftermath of Reconstruction
1. Black Codes to regulate freed slaves
2. Sharecropping
3. Rise of White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan (the
invisible empire of the South)
4. Amnesty Act of 1872-removed restrictions on exConfederates, except for top leaders.
5. Attempt at interracial democracy
6. New opportunities-Blacks could vote, form political and
religious organizations, and had some economic
independence.
7. Also-Secretary of State William Seward-Seward’s
Folly-purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2
million.
Were the newly freed slaves truly free?
What are the characteristics of the
word gilded?
A characteristic is
___________________________________
A characteristic of _____________ and
_________________ is ________________
The group has ________________________
All ___________ are ________________
All __________ have ________________
All ___________ are not _____________
All _______________ do not have
______________
Another example might be_______________
because __________________
The phrase “Gilded Age” means to be
covered with gold; Depicted an American
society that on the surface appeared
prosperous and full of opportunities but
underneath was corrupt and scandalous.
Ulysses S. Grant (R) 1869-1877
Rutherford B. Hayes (R) 1877-1881
James A. Garfield (R) 1881
Chester A. Arthur (R) 1881-1885
Grover Cleveland (D) 1885-1889
Benjamin Harrison (R) 1889-1893
Grover Cleveland (D) 1893-1897
William McKinley (R) 1897-1901
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Politics in the Gilded Age, 1870’s to WW I
Main political issues: reforms in the Civil Service, currency, and tariff
legislation.
Voter turnout was as high as 80%, however people were able to vote
more than once due to very few restrictions in place to prevent voter
fraud.
“Voting the Graveyard” was rampant as political machines cast votes
in the name of dead citizens.
The Republican Party was made up primarily of northern White
Protestants (from Northern Europe), Black men from the north and
south, and Union Civil War veterans.
The Democrat Party consisted primarily of southern Whites, Roman
Catholics and immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Many of
the big cities were run by Democratic Party bosses who built effective
political machines to keep themselves in power.
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The power and scope of government at all levels greatly expanded at the end of
19th century. This was due to the expansion of the economy and the task of
governing a rapidly industrializing and urbanizing nation. This made the job of
the government more complicated and required a larger bureaucracy with
increased taxes to support the growing number of government employees at the
municipal, county, state and federal levels.
6
Major scandals during Grant’s two terms as president
Black Friday Scandal (1869)
James Fisk and Jay Gould, railroad and Wall street speculators, tried to corner
the gold market due to their belief that the government would pay back the
credit extended during the Civil War in gold. Fisk and Gould bribed Grant’s
brother-in-law who encouraged an appointment to the Treasury who would alert
Fisk and Gould when the government was selling gold so they could profit.
Grant learned of the scheme and was able to sell enough gold to prevent a
major financial disaster for the government.
Credit Mobilier Scandal (1872)
Major stockholders in the Union Pacific Railroad formed a company, the Credit
Mobilier of America, and gave it contracts to build the railroad. They sold or
gave shares in this construction to influential congressmen. It was a lucrative
deal for the congressmen, because they helped themselves by approving federal
subsidies for the cost of railroad construction without paying much attention to
expenses, enabling railroad builders to make huge profits.
Whiskey Ring Scandal (1875)
Benjamin H. Bristow, Grant’s third secretary of the Treasury, found a group of
distillers falsifying reports. They cheated the government out of millions in tax
dollars. It was then discovered that many of Grant's appointees were also
involved in the scandal. Included in these appointees was Grant's personal
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secretary, Orville E. Babcock.
The Great Panic of 1873
Began in September 1873 when
the important Philadelphia
banking firm of Jay Cooke &
Company declared bankruptcy.
Jay Cooke’s company helped
the Union cause during the Civil
War by marketing federal bonds
to finance the war. After the
war the company became the
government's agent in financing
railroad construction.
The collapse of the company
set off a chain reaction of
bankruptcies and
unemployment.
The New York Stock
Exchange closed for 10 days
in reaction to the economic
disaster as the prices of
stocks rapidly declined.
Almost 25% of the nation’s
railroads went bankrupt.
18,000 businesses failed
between 1873 and 1875.
By 1877 estimates of the
unemployed ranged from
14% to 24%.
9
1876 election results
10
Compromise of 1877
Tilden won the popular vote, but lacked one electoral vote to earn a
majority in the electoral college.
There were 22 disputed electoral votes from the states of Florida,
Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon.
Each state sent two sets of election returns.
Republicans made deals with Southern Democrats which gave Hayes
the presidency.
The Southern politicians gave their support to Hayes in return for his
promise to pull all the remaining troops out of the former Confederate
states.
The South also wanted the appointment of at least one Southerner to
Hayes's cabinet and support for Southern railroad construction.
The Compromise of 1877 is often called the deal that ended
Reconstruction.
The name “Jim Crow” was first used in 1832 for an exaggerated Black
character in a minstrel show. It quickly became a widely-used offensive racial
slur. By the end of the 19th century it had taken on a different meaning, and
was used to describe the segregationist regimen that had spread throughout
the South.
EXAMPLES OF “JIM CROW” LAWS
▪Lunch Counters No persons, firms, or corporations, who or which furnish
meals to passengers at station restaurants or station eating houses, in
times limited by common carriers of said passengers, shall furnish said
meals to white and colored passengers in the same room, or at the same
table, or at the same counter. South Carolina
▪Textbooks Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and
colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them.
North Carolina
▪Prisons The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate
apartments for both eating and sleeping from the Negro convicts.
Mississippi
▪Parks It shall be unlawful for colored people to frequent any park owned or
maintained by the city for the benefit, use and enjoyment of white
persons...and unlawful for any white person to frequent any park owned or
maintained by the city for the use and benefit of colored persons. Georgia
▪Burial The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any
colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white
persons. Georgia
▪Nurses No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to
nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which
Negro men are placed. Alabama
▪Intermarriage All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattos,
Mongolians, or Malaya hereafter contracted in the State of Wyoming are
and shall be illegal and void. Wyoming
EXAMPLES OF SEGREGATED FACILITIES
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WEST COAST
IMMIGRATION CENTER,
ANGEL ISLAND
ELLIS ISLAND IMMIGRATION
CENTER, NEW YORK CITY
15
AMERICANIZATION
MOVEMENT
REACTIONS TO
INCREASED
IMMIGRATION
AMERICAN
PROTECTIVE
ASSOCIATION
INCREASED
IMMIGRATION
NATIVISM
CHINESE
EXCLUSION
ACT
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THIS VICIOUS ANTI-CHINESE CARTOON SHOWS AN “HONEST” AMERICAN
WORKING FAMILY MAN AND COMPARES IT DO RAT EATING CHINESE. WHAT
ARE NEGATIVE ACTIVITIES ARE THE CHINESE SHOW TO BE DOING. (OPIUM
DEN)
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Chinese Exclusion Act of
1882
The law excluded Chinese from
entering the country for 10
years. Later the law was
extended and not repealed
until 1940s
Any Chinese in the country had
to reapply for entry. They were
given permanent alien status
and denied citizenship.
Anti-Chinese
sentiment escalated
into violence
After the completion of the
transcontinental railroad in
1869, some Chinese moved
to the mining areas of Idaho,
Montana, and Colorado. Most,
however, moved to California.
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1880 election results
19
Charles Guiteau, a lawyer with a history of mental illness, shot Garfield in the
back on July 2, 1881. He believed God told him to shoot the president.
Doctors searched for the bullet in Garfield’s wound with unwashed fingers and
unsterilized medical devices (sterilization was a new concept in 1881). A
massive infection developed. After 2½ months, Garfield died on September 19,
1881.
Garfield’s death led to the
passage of the Pendleton Act
which created the Civil
Service System. Potential
federal employees were
required to pass an exam in
order to receive the job,
instead of patronage where a
recipient was hired for
political reasons rather than
qualifications.
20
Guiteau
Cleveland
is the only
president
to win a
second
term 4
years
after his
first term.
21
1888 Presidential election
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"Billion Dollar" Congress
The 51st Congress which had access to
approximately a 1 billion dollar surplus in the
Treasury.
The "Billion Dollar" Congress passed the Pension Act
of 1890, which provided pensions for all Union Civil
War veterans who had served for 90 days and were
no longer capable of manual labor.
This policy solved the dilemma of the existing
surplus.
The situation for farmers during the last decades of the 19th century
The Civil War and its demands for farm
products led to increased production and
prosperity for farmers.
Farmers began exporting their crops
overseas, which made them major players
in international trade. However, they were
subject to the instability of the world
market.
New technology led to the mechanization of
agriculture, and farmers were forced to
purchase expensive new machinery with
borrowed money.
At the same time that U.S. farmers
expanded crop production, nations such as
Argentina, Canada and Australia also began
large-scale farming.
This flooded the world market with many
farm products and led to a drop in crop
prices.
As farm income dropped,
farmers blamed businessmen,
railroads and Wall Street for
their declining incomes.
Farmers began organizing and
entering politics.
They formed new parties as
they began to see the existing
Democrats and Republicans as
tools of business and hostile to
the needs of agriculture.
The issue of free coinage of
silver became a key demand of
farmers and other groups.
Alliances with labor unions and
other progressive groups
became a goal of the newlycreated farmer organizations.
U.S. farmers tried to increase their income
by growing more crops, but that only
lowered prices even more.
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The Grange: National Grange of the Patrons of
Husbandry
Founded by Oliver H. Kelley in 1867
Dedicated to improving the lives of farmers
and ending the isolation and loneliness of
rural life with social functions
Farmers organized themselves into local
“granges” throughout the U.S.
They grew rapidly after the Panic of 1873,
growing to 20,000 chapters with 1.5 million
members
Their main grievances were opposing the
high tariffs because they made manufactured
goods like farm machinery more expensive,
railway freight-rates, the fall of wheat prices,
and the increase of mortgages
Grangers set up cooperatives consisting of
their own marketing systems, stores,
processing plants, factories, grain elevators
and other services. They failed due to a lack
of business experience
Grangers elected members to state
legislatures and Congress who supported
their goals.
A series of laws known as the “Granger
Laws” were passed in several states
which established public regulation on
the rates and operating practices of
railroads.
In 1877 in Munn vs. Illinois the Supreme
Court upheld the right of state
legislatures to regulate railroad rates.
With this victory the Grange became
more of a fraternal social organization for
farm families.
In the 1880s Granger laws were struck
down by other Supreme Court cases. This
meant that any laws regulating railroads
25 not
would have to come from Congress,
the states.
The Greenback Party
The Greenback Party, which lasted from roughly 1876 to 1884.
Party members supported an expansion of U.S. currency as
paper money in order to help the farmers who had been
suffering economically.
The party was also strongly anti-monopoly, and they viewed
banks as their opposition.
In 1878, they received 13.8% of the national vote.
These Green backers formed "the basis of subsequent populist
mobilization".
Many of the ideas and the key people of the Greenback Party
would become important in the rise of the People's Party.
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Farmer’s Alliances
Founded in the 1880’s out of the Granger
movement
By 1890 there were about 1.5 million members
from New York to California in three regional
branches. One of the branches was the Colored
Farmers National Alliance made up of southern
African-Americans with over 1 million members
Their program called for the regulation of the
railroads, currency inflation by using silver to
provide debt relief, lowering of the high tariff
rates, the establishment of government-owned
storehouses and low-interest lending facilities
In the elections of 1890 they won control of
twelve state legislatures, six Governors, five
U.S. Senators, and forty six Congressmen. This
success led to plans for their own political party
William Peffer, Farmer’s
Alliances first U.S. Senator
Farmers Alliance convention
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The Populist Party
Farmers were hurt in the late 1880’s by droughts and the
McKinley Tariff of 1890 which put the highest tariffs yet seen on
manufactured goods.
This lowered farmers’ income because manufactured goods
became more expensive.
In 1892 various farmer and labor groups met in Omaha and
formed the People’s Party which soon was called the Populist
Party.
The party was made up of a merger between the Farmers'
Alliance and the Knights of Labor.
The major issue they addressed was money.
The Populists, and many others, believed that silver should join
gold in being minted for money.
This would put more money in circulation and create inflation
which would help debtors pay off their mortgages with “cheap”
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money.
The Populist platform’s major goals included:
1. The free and unrestricted coinage of silver and gold at ratio
of 16 to 1.
2. The passage of a progressive income tax based on how much
one earns.
3. A plan to support farm price to halt the decline in farmers
incomes by having the government buy the crops at a fixed
prices.
4. Government ownership of key industries such as railroads,
telegraph and banks instead of attempts to regulate them.
5. Direct election of senators by the people not state
legislators.
6. Secret ballots so no one could know how you voted.
7. An initiative and referendum process so the people could
propose their own laws and reject laws by passed by
legislatures.
8. An eight-hour work day for workers. This was offered to win
support of unions and laborers.
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The Populist Party became a
major player in the 1890s
The Populists did better in the election of
1892 than any other third party since the
Civil War.
The Populist Party (People’s Party) virtually
replaced Democrats in the West and
Republicans in the South. They wanted to
win the presidency in 1896.
The People's Party was the main opposition
to the Democrats and Republicans and
believed that they had a chance for control
of the government in the 1896 general
election.
In the severe depression of 1893 President
Cleveland did not provide needed relief to
the unemployed and other victims.
His only solution was a return to the gold
standard, ending massive government
purchase of silver.
Various Supreme Court decisions struck
down causes the Populists supported,
which motivated them to win political
office to achieve their agenda.
Why was the money issue so important to
the Populists?
Farmers who had large debts from
mortgages and farm machinery purchases
wanted to pay back the loans with cheaper
money which would come from inflation.
This meant there had to be more money
created by the government.
The U.S. was on a gold standard which
meant paper money could only be issued if
there was enough gold to back it up. If
someone took a gold backed paper dollar to
a bank they could get a dollars worth of gold
in return. This limited the amount of paper
money in circulation and caused deflation as
gold was a resource.
Populists and others demanded that silver
also be used to back paper dollars in order
to increase the money supply. More money
would cause inflation so that it would be
worth less and therefore farmers could pay
back their debts with less valuable money.
Inflation would help borrowers and hurt
creditors such as banks and mortgage
companies.
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Grover Cleveland 1893-1897
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The Panic of 1893
The Panic was the worst financial downturn in American history up until that
point.
A few major causes included too many people trying to get gold from the
Treasury at once, major railroad lines going bankrupt, and the stock market
going down.
Deflation (fall in prices) and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act caused a run on
gold as silver prices tumbled. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
increased the amount of silver the government bought each year.
This led to a lack of money for loans and investment.
These factors led to a severe depression that lasted for several years.
President Cleveland did almost nothing to end the depression.
He believed, as many did at the time from both major parties, that the ups and
downs of the business cycle was a natural occurrence and should not be
tampered with by politicians.
Strikes increased as workers tried to avoid pay cuts and layoffs.
Hunger and homelessness increased as millions slipped into poverty and there
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was no help from the government at the time.