Chapter 23
• Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age,
1869–1896
I. The “Bloody Shirt” Elects Grant
• Republicans called for a continued
Reconstruction of the South using the
bayonet if need be.
• They made Grant their nominee and called
for people to “Vote as you shot.”
– Aimed at Union army veterans.
• Grant won 214 electoral votes to Horatio
Seymour’s 80, however, Grant only won the
popular vote by 300,000 votes (3,013,421 to
2,706,829).
II. The Era of Good Stealings
• Corruption was rampant during Grant’s
administration. A great example was the
Tweed Ring in New York City.
– “Boss” Tweed used bribery, graft, and fraudulent
elections to milk the city of at least $200 million.
• He was finally brought down in large part by a New
York Times cartoonist named Thomas Nast. Tweed
had complained that his illiterate followers couldn’t
help but see “them damn pictures.”
p490
III. A Carnival of Corruption
• Grant’s own cabinet proved to be just as bad as
the rest.
– The first major scandal to hit Grant was the Credit
Mobilier scandal in 1872. Union Pacific Railroad
insiders formed the Credit Mobilier construction
company and then hired themselves at inflated
prices to build the railroad line earning returns over
300%.
• When they thought the whistle was going to be blown
they distributed shares of stock to key congressmen.
– A congressional investigation showed not only congressmen
involved, but the vice president as well.
– The second scandal was the Whiskey Ring scandal
between 1874-1875.
• The Whiskey Ring robbed the Treasury of millions in
excise-tax revenues. Even though Grant said, “let no
guilty man escape,” he wrote up a statement to the jury
that helped free his own private secretary.
V. Depression, Deflation, and
Inflation
• The Panic of 1873 – leading up to 1873 there
was a period of major capitalist expansion.
Promoters were laying too much railroad
track, digging too many mines, erecting too
many factories and planting too much grain
for the economy to handle. Eventually, these
bubbles burst into a full blown depression.
– Inflation or Deflation??
• Some wanted inflationary policies by issuing greenbacks…
they reasoned that more money meant cheaper money,
and with that, a rise in prices (of whatever they sold)
making it easier to pay their debts.
• Some wanted deflation, they were known as “hardmoney” advocates. Their policy was a reduction of
greenbacks… they had no desire to see the money they
loaned repaid in depreciated dollars.
VI. Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age
• Gilded Age – a term that meant beautiful on
the outside but cheap on the inside. Given
by Mark Twain in reference to all the
corruption of the era.
• During this time, political loyalty was very
strict with straight ticket voting as the norm.
• This was in large part because of the sharp
ethnic and cultural differences.
– Republicans tended to come from Puritan
backgrounds. They stressed morality and believed
the government should play a role in regulating
both the economic and moral affairs of society.
– Democrats many of which were immigrant
Lutherans and Roman Catholics took a less stern
view of morality. They hated the idea of having the
government impose a one size fits all moral
standard on society.
• Patronage – Party leaders would disburse jobs
in return for votes.
p493
p493
VII. The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876
• Republicans thought better than having Grant
run for a third term so they nominated
Rutherford B. Hayes as their candidate.
• Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden, the one
who had taken down “Boss” Tweed, as their
candidate.
• Tilden received 184 electoral votes (1 shy of the
required 185) with some Southern states
holding irregular returns. These return
numbers weren’t official until every state
submitted their final counts.
– Each state in question produced two sets of return
numbers, one republican and one democrat.
– The question was who would decide which to
count, because whoever decided would pretty
much be deciding who would win - Republican or
Democrat.
Map 23-1 p494
VIII. The Compromise of 1877 and
the End of Reconstruction
• The Compromise of 1877 –
– The electoral deadlock would be legally broken
by an electoral commission of 15 men selected
from the Senate, House, and the Supreme Court.
– When the first state in question went to the
commission for a vote, the results were a
partisan 8 to 7 in favor of the Republicans.
• The democrats were furious.
• They decided to play ball. If Hayes was going to win
they were going to get as much as possible in return.
• The first thing Democrats wanted was the removal of
Federal troops from the last two states in the South,
Louisiana and South Carolina.
• Republicans also promised a little patronage for
Democrats and some subsidies for Texas and a Southern
transcontinental railroad. Note: the last two never
happened.
• As President Hayes withdrew the Federal troops
he also withdrew the idea of a bayonet-backed
reconstruction… Reconstruction ends, 1877.
p495
IX. The Birth of Jim Crow in the
Post-Reconstruction South
• Many blacks were forced into sharecropping
and tenant farming. Their landlords and
creditors were often old slave masters.
• The “Crop-lien” system was how merchants
extended credit to farmers for food and
supplies. This system was often manipulated to
favor the merchant and hold the farmer under
his thumb for years to come.
• Jim Crow laws started as an informal
segragation of blacks and whites, but by the
1890’s turned into a systematic set of legal
codes.
• Plessy v. Ferguson – (1896) ruled for “separate
but equal” facilities.
– Schools, railroad cars, theaters, bathrooms, etc.
– To maintain the codes, southern whites punished
any black who dared violate the racial code of
conduct.
• A record number of blacks were lynched in the 1890’s.
p496
Table 23-2 p497
X. Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes
• Chinese immigrants had originally come to
America for the Gold rush or to build the
transcontinental railroad, but as gold ran out
and the tracks were laid, times got pretty tough
for the Chinese.
– They were forced to work menial jobs:
• Cooks, laundrymen, domestic servants, etc.
– White men resented the Chinese cheap labor which
led to Chinese men being terrorized.
• Chinese Exclusion Act – (1882) prohibited
further Chinese immigration until 1943.
p498
XI. Garfield and Arthur
• “Halfbreeds” and “Stalwarts” –
– “Stalwarts” (Chester A. Arthur) supported
patronage/spoils system
– “Halfbreeds” (James Garfield) hated
patronage/spoils system
• Pendleton Act (1883) –
– made compulsory campaign contributions from
federal employees illegal
– Established competitive examinations for accepting
Federal jobs.
XII. The Blaine-Cleveland
Mudslingers of 1884
• James G. Blaine was nominated the Republican
presidential candidate for the 1884 election.
– He turned many away (especially reformers) from
the Republican brand with his reputation for
corruption.
• Republicans called those who left “mugwumps” which is
an algonquian word for “holier-than-thou.”
• Grover Cleveland had been nominated by the
Democrats.
– He began as a powerful reformer and honest man
(known as “Grover the Good”), but scandal soon
caught up with him.
• Republicans dug up the fact that he had an affair with a
widow during his past, and that he had provided
financially for the 8 year old boy of the widow… hence,
the “I Want My Pa!” cartoon.
p502
XIII. “Old Grover” Takes Over
• After 24 years the Democrats finally took the
White House.
• Cleveland was a man of principles (most of the
time) and a strict supporter of Laissez-faire.
– He vetoed a bill that would help Texans that were
hurt by a severe drought. His statement was,
“though the people support the government, the
government should not support the people.”
XIV. Cleveland Battles for a Lower
Tariff
• During the Civil War tariff rates had been jacked
up, which protected industrialists but raised the
price of consumer goods.
• Cleveland, being a believer in small government
was embarrassed to see the annual federal
surplus over $145 million.
• He decided to lower tariffs.
– This provided the first real division between the
Dem’s. and Repub’s. leading up to the 1888
election.
• Republicans turned to Benjamin Harrison who
Believed in High tariff rates.
• Democrats stayed with Grover CLeveLand who
Liked the Lower tariff rates.
• Harrison inched out Cleveland by a nose.
XV. The Billion-Dollar Congress
• The first congress to appropriate on Billion
dollars.
– They kept the tariff rates high and actually boosted
rates to 48% on dutiable goods by passing the
McKinley Tariff Act of 1890.
• Farmers were hit hardest. They were forced to
pay high prices for consumer goods while
selling their crops in very competitive markets.
XVI. The Drumbeat of Discontent
• 1892 brought the People’s Party or “Populists”
on the scene.
– They demanded inflation through free and
unlimited coinage of silver at the rate of 16 ounces
of silver to 1 ounce gold. (creating more currency
will produce inflation)
– They also called for:
• A graduated income tax, gov’t ownership of railroads,
telegraph and telephone; direct election of U.S. senators,
one-term limit for presidency, referendums allowing
citizens to shape legislation, shorter workday, and
immigration restrictions.
p506
• During the summer of 1892, upset workers and
indebted farmers joined together to fight the
capitalist order.
– The Homestead Strike
• Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead steel plant armed 300
Pinkerton detectives to crush the strike by angry
steelworkers.
• The steelworkers, armed with rifles and dynamite, beat
back the detectives after a battle that left 10 dead and 60
wounded.
• Troops were then brought in and the strike was put down.
p506
• During the 1892 presidential election white
farmers tried to enlist black farmers to vote for
the Populist cause.
– As some blacks mobilized, southern whites
aggressively went after limiting black suffrage via
literacy tests and poll taxes.
• The grandfather clause exempted anyone whose father or
grandfather had voted in the 1860 election.
Map 23-3 p507
XVII. Cleveland and Depression
• Just as Cleveland began his nonconsecutive
term, he faced the devastating depression of
1893.
– It lasted for about 4 years. Contributing cause were:
• Overbuilding and speculation
• Labor disorders
• The ongoing agrarian depression
– Cleveland’s hands off approach left any relief for the
masses to come from the feeble resources of
charities.
• The debate over the repeal of the silver act
heated up in Congress.
– A 33 year old Williams Jennings Bryan championed
the cause of free silver.
• They wanted to add silver to the money supply to create
inflation.
• Gold was also in very short supply and they didn’t want to
go off the gold standard.
– J.P. Morgan ended up lending the gov’t about 65
million in gold. A temporary fix.
XVIII. Cleveland Breeds a Backlash
• Cleveland gets called a sellout for taking the
loan from Morgan. He was called “Morgan’s
errand boy”.