Ch. 23 PPT
Politics in the Gilded Age 1869
Gilded Age
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Term from Mark Twain: gilded - something covered
with gold.
Actually: corruption in politics and businesses ,
but appearance of civility
Marked by: bank failures, labor disputes,
underhanded business deals, currency controversy,
and corruption on large scale
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Gilded Age starts in 1869 with Pres Grant
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Election of 1876: one of the worse elections ever
Political system refused to deal with monetary and
agricultural reform, labor race, and economic issues
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Compromise of 1877
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Unwritten deal settling the disputed 1876 Presidential
election, (2nd “Corrupt Bargain“),
Ended Congressional "Radical" Reconstruction.
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes awarded presidency
over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden IF Hayes removed
federal troops that were propping up Republican state
governments in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana.
When troops left, many Republicans also left (or
became Democrats) and the "Redeemer" Democrats
took control.
Legislation to help industrialize the South, plus
construction of another transcontinental railroad
TMWK CH 23
1.
2.
Map pg 510 Which presidential
candidate did most Northerners vote for?
And the South?
Pg 511 Chart Which political party had
an advantage in the Electoral
Commission?
Compromise of 1877
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Officially marked end of Reconstruction and Civil
War era
White Democrats regained political power in South
Slavery becomes “sharecropping”
Caused South to plummet economically
It made the South “win the Civil War”
TMWK
3. Pg 512 Diagram Describe 3 differences
between a Southern plantation pre-Civil War
and post-Civil War.
4. Pg 513 Picture Describe what is happening
in the picture.
5. Pg 513 Chart Share & write down two
trends or patterns that you see in the chart.
African Americans: Post Reconstruction
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Experienced unemployment, eviction, physical harm.
Many forced into sharecropping and tenant
farming – former masters became their landlords
and creditors.
Crop Lien system: storekeepers gave credit to small
farmers for food/supplies in exchange for a lien on
their harvests.
South enacted literacy requirements, voter
registration laws, and poll taxes (tax to vote) to
ensure Blacks couldn’t vote = disfranchisement.
1890 N. Carolina Sharecropped Farms
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Case
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Jim Crow Laws: Legal codes of segregation
(separation)
Supreme Court validated South’s segregationist
ways: “Separate, but equal facilities” were
constitutional under “equal protection” clause of 14th
Amendment.
But the facilities were not equal.
Segregation: schools, railroad cars, buses, theaters,
restrooms, drinking fountains, restaurants, hotels, etc.
Credit Mobilier Scandal
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1872 Credit Mobilier Scandal: involved Union Pacific
Railroad and Crédit Mobilier, a construction
company in building of 1st Transcontinental Railroad.
Crédit Mobilier would use these checks to buy stock
and bonds in the Union Pacific at par value (face
value), then sell them on the open market to make
huge profits.
Distribution of Crédit Mobilier shares of stock by Congressman Ames along
with cash bribes to congressmen took place in 1868 (Andrew Johnson’s
presidency) . The uncovering of the congressmen who received cash bribes
or shares in Crédit Mobilier took place in 1872 (Pres. Grant’s administration).
The Union Pacific made contracts with Crédit Mobilier, paid by check, to
build the Union Pacific railway. Crédit Mobilier would use these checks to
buy stock and bonds in the Union Pacific at par value (face value), and then
sell them on the open market to make huge profits. These construction
contracts brought huge profits to the Crédit Mobilier, which was owned by
Durant and the other directors and principal stock holders of the Union
Pacific. The Crédit Mobilier would split these huge profits with the
stockholders.
Whiskey Ring
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1875 Whiskey Ring: scandal involving diversion of
tax revenues in conspiracy among govt agents,
politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors.
Whiskey Ring began in St. Louis but was also in
Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, New Orleans,Peoria.
Before caught, group of Republican politicians
siphoned millions of $$ in federal taxes on liquor;
scheme involved extensive network of bribes
involving distillers, rectifiers, gaugers, storekeepers,
and internal revenue agents.
110 convictions were made; over $3 million in taxes
recovered.
Horace Greeley
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Horace Greeley: American newspaper editor,
founder of Liberal Republican Party, reformer,
politician, outspoken opponent of slavery.
Crusading against corruption of Grant's Republican
administration, he was the new Liberal Republican
Party's candidate in 1872 U.S. pres election
Only presidential candidate to die prior to counting of
electoral votes. (his wife died, shortly after -he did
also)
Panic of 1873
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Collapse of banks and businesses