POLITICS: LOCAL, STATE, AND
NATIONAL
• Political Strategy and Tactics
– major parties normally avoid taking stands on
controversial issues, but that tendency reached
abnormal proportions in the late nineteenth
century
– a delicate balance of power between the parties
as well as new and difficult issues, to which no
answers were readily available, contributed to
the parties’ reluctance to adopt firm positions
• Voting Along Ethnic and Religious Lines
– although major parties had national committees
and held national conventions to nominate
presidential candidates and draft “platforms,”
these parties remained essentially separate state
organizations
– more often than not, a voter’s ethnic origins,
religious ties, perception of the Civil War, and
whether he lived in a rural or urban setting
influenced his decision to vote Republican or
Democrat
– local and state issues often interacted with
religious and ethnic issues and shaped political
attitudes
– the nation’s political leadership, therefore,
based their strategies and chose their candidates
with an eye to local and personal factors as well
as national concerns
• City Bosses
– stresses of rapid urban growth, strain on
infrastructures, and exodus of upper and middle
classes all led to a crisis in city government
– this turmoil gave rise to urban political bosses
– these bosses provided social services in
exchange for political support
– money for these services (and to enrich
themselves) came from kickbacks and bribes
– despite their welfare work and popularity, most
bosses were essentially thieves
– the system survived because most comfortable
urban dwellers cared little if at all for the fate of
the poor
– many reformers resented the boss system
mainly because it gave political power to
people who were not “gentlemen”
• Party Politics: Sidestepping the Issue
– on the national scene, the South was solidly
Democratic; New England and the TransMississippi West were staunchly Republican
– New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois usually determined the
outcome of elections
– only three presidential candidates between 1868
and 1900 did not come from New York,
Indiana, Illinois, or Ohio; and all three lost;
partisan politics was intense in “swing states”
– because so much depended on these states, the
level of political ethics was abysmally low
• Lackluster Leaders
– America’s presidents of the day demonstrated
little interest in dealing with the urgent issues
confronting the nation
– Rutherford B. Hayes, president from 1877 to
1881, entered office with a distinguished
personal and political record
– Hayes favored tariff reduction, civil service
reform, and better treatment for blacks in South
– however, he made little progress in any of these
areas
– Republican party split in 1880 between
“Stalwarts” and “Half-Breeds,” and James A.
Garfield emerged as a compromise candidate
– Garfield was assassinated after only four
months in office, but he had already
demonstrated his ineffectiveness
– his successor, Chester A. Arthur, although
personally honest and competent, had been an
unblushing defender of the spoils system
– as president, however, Arthur conducted
himself with dignity, handled patronage matters
with restraint, and gave nominal support to civil
service reform
– Arthur also favored regulation of the railroads
and tariff reductions
– nevertheless, he was a political failure; the
Stalwarts would not forgive Arthur for his
“desertion,” and the reformers would not forget
his past
– his party denied him its nomination in 1884
– the election of 1884 revolved around personal
issues and was characterized by mudslinging on
both sides
– Grover Cleveland, former Democratic governor
of New York, defeated James G. Blaine by
fewer than 25,000 votes
– Cleveland’s was an honest, if unimaginative,
administration
– his emphasis on the strict separation of powers
prevented his placing effective pressure on the
Congress, and thus he failed to confront the
issues of the day
– in 1888, Benjamin Harrison, a Republican from
Indiana, defeated Cleveland. Harrison’s
election elevated a “human iceberg” and fiscal
conservative to the presidency
– during Harrison’s term, Congress raised the
tariff to an all-time high, passed the Sherman
Antitrust Act and the Silver Purchase Act, and
enacted a “force” bill to protect the voting
rights of southern blacks
– Harrison, however, remained aloof from this
process
– Cleveland reclaimed the presidency from
Harrison in 1892
– by the standards of the late nineteenth century,
Cleveland’s margin of victory was substantial
– Congressional Leaders
– James G. Blaine, a Republican from Maine,
stands out among Congressional leaders, both
for his successes and for his shortcomings
– Congressman William McKinley of Ohio
devoted his efforts to maintaining a protective
tariff
– another Ohioan, John Sherman, held national
office from 1855 to 1898
– although a financial expert, he proved all too
willing to compromise his personal beliefs for
political gain
– Thomas B. Reed, a Republican congressman
from Maine, was a man of acerbic wit and
ultraconservative views
– as Speaker of the House, his autocratic methods
won him the nickname “Czar”
• Crops and Complaints
– if middle class majority remained comfortable
and complacent, the economic and social status
of farmers declined throughout the late 19th
century; and their discontent forced American
politics to confront the problems of the era
– American farmers suffered from low
commodity prices, restrictive tariff and fiscal
policies, competition from abroad, and drought.
Farmers on the plains experienced boom
conditions in the 1880s
– the boom collapsed in the 1890s, and a
downward swing in the business cycle
exacerbated their plight
• The Populist Movement
– the agricultural depression triggered an outburst
of political radicalism, the Alliance movement
– the Farmers Alliance spread throughout the
South and into the Midwest
– the farm groups entered politics in the elections
of 1890
– in 1892, these farm groups combined with
representatives of the Knights of Labor and
various professional reformers to organize the
People’s, or Populist, party
– the convention adopted a sweeping platform
calling for a graduated income tax; the
nationalization of rail, telegraph, and telephone
systems; the “subtreasury” plan, and the
unlimited coinage of silver
– the party also called for the adoption of the
initiative and referendum, popular election of
United States senators, an eight-hour workday,
and immigration restrictions
– in the presidential election, Cleveland defeated
Harrison
– the Populist candidate, James B. Weaver,
attracted over a million votes, but results in
congressional and state races were
disappointing
– opponents of the Populists in the South played
on racial fears, and the Populists failed to
attract the support of urban workers
• Showdown on Silver
– by early 1890s, discussion of federal monetary
policy revolved around the coinage of silver
– traditionally, the United States issued gold and
silver coins
– established ratio of roughly 15:1 undervalued
silver, so no one took silver to the Mint
– when silver mines of Nevada and Colorado
flooded market with metal and depressed the
price of silver, it became profitable to coin
bullion; but miners found that the Coinage Act
of 1873 had demonetized the metal
– Silver miners and inflationists demanded a
return to bimetalism; conservatives resisted
– the result was a series of compromises
– the Bland-Allison Act (1878) authorized the
purchase of $2 million to $4 million of silver a
month at the market price
– this had little inflationary impact because the
government consistently bought the minimum
– the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)
required the government to buy 4.5 million
ounces of silver monthly
– however, increasing supplies drove the price of
silver still lower
– Cleveland believed that the controversy over
silver caused the depression by shaking the
confidence of the business community
– he summoned a special session of Congress and
forced a repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act
– the southern and western wings of the
Democratic party deserted over this issue.
Cleveland’s handling of Coxey’s Army and the
Pullman strike further eroded public confidence
in him, and the public was outraged when it
took a syndicate of bankers headed by J. P.
Morgan to avert a run on the Treasury
– with the silver issue looming ever larger and the
Populists demanding unlimited coinage of
silver at 16:1, the major parties could no longer
avoid the money question in 1896
– the Republicans nominated McKinley and
endorsed the gold standard
– the Democrats nominated William Jennings
Bryan and ran on a platform of free silver
– although concerned over the loss of their
distinctive party identity, the Populists
nominated Bryan as well
– in an effort to preserve their party identity, they
substituted Tom Watson for the Democratic
vice-presidential nominee
• The Election of 1896
– the election of 1896, fueled by emotional
debates over the silver issue, split party ranks
across the nation
– pro-silver Republicans swung behind Bryan,
while pro-gold Democrats, called “gold bugs”
or National Democrats, nominated their own
candidate
– the Republican aspirant, William McKinley,
relied upon his experience, his reputation for
honesty and good judgment, his party’s wealth,
and the skillful management of Mark Hanna
– moreover, the depression worked to the
advantage of the party out of power
– Bryan, a powerful orator, was handicapped by
his youth, his relative inexperience, and the
defection of the gold Democrats
– he nevertheless conducted a vigorous
campaign, traveling over eighteen thousand
miles and delivering over six hundred speeches
– on election day, McKinley decisively defeated
Bryan
• The Meaning of the Election
– far from representing a triumph for the status
quo, the election marked the coming of age of
modern America
– McKinley’s approach was national; Bryan’s
was basically parochial
– workers and capitalists supported McKinley,
and the farm vote split
– the battle over gold and silver had little real
significance; new gold discoveries led to an
expansion of the money supply
– Bryan’s vision of America, and that of the
political Populists who supported him, was one
steeped in the past
– McKinley, for all his innate conservatism, was
capable of looking ahead toward the new
century