From Stalemate to
Crisis
Ch. 19
The Politics of Equilibrium
The Party System
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stability and even division
North = Republican / South = Democrat… five states
in between
voter turnout at 78% from 1860-1900
Campaigns = spectator sports
fierce loyalty based on tradition and personal factors
rather than issues
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Republicans: northern Protestants and citizens of old stock,
nativists
Democrats:
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south, symbol of triumph over Reconstruction
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west and north, Catholics and immigrants
The National Government
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federal government does very little
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delivering the mail
maintaining the national military
foreign policy
collecting tariffs and taxes
Civil War pension vs. believers in “good
government”
“state of courts and parties”
Presidents and Patronage
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series of undistinguished
presidents: analyze cause and
effect
feeding the machine with
appointments
“His fraudulency” v. the Halfbreeds and the Stalwarts
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battle over patronage
Hayes tried to please all and
ended up pleasing none
Opposition from both sides made
his presidency a study in
frustration
 Stalwarts = Republicans who supported
patronage (synonymous with strong or stout)
all in opposition to Hayes attempts to
reconcile with the South! Opposed reforms
 Half-Breeds = Republicans who supported
reforming patronage (moderates) term
coined by Stalwarts
Presidents and Patronage
Cont.
James A. Garfield, a
Half-breed from
Ohio, president for
four months
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showed support for
civil service reform
and opposed
Stalwarts
Pres. for one month,
Shot and died three
months later
discredited the spoils
system
Presidents and Patronage
Cont.
Chester A. Arthur keeps
Garfield’s nominees
and passes
Pendleton Act
The Return of the Democrats

Election of 1884: “frick v. frack” /
Blaine (Rep) v. Cleveland (Dem)
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Mugwumps = Republicans who left
Rep. party in this election by voting
for Clev. Because Blaine was
“corrupt”, so they thought they were
the real leaders of reform.
Changed election in New York and thus
national election
Mugwumps = flip-floppers of today!
President Grover Cleveland
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“veto governor” not afraid to say no
unwavering commitment to economy
(Pullman Strike)
“thought the people support the
Government, the Government should
not support the people”
Election of 1888: economics on the
table… Cleveland v. Harrison
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One of three elections in history where the winner of
the popular vote lost the election
“Benjamin Harrison’s record as president was little
more substantial that that of his grandfather, who had
died a month after taking office.”
II. Tariffs, Trusts and
Railroads
Era of weak
government and
leadership, strong
political parties and
big business
Trusts
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by mid 1880s fifteen western and southern
states had adopted laws prohibiting
combinations that restrained competition…
but corporations found it easy to escape
limitations by incorporating in states such as
New Jersey and Delaware
If anti-trust legislation was going to be
effective it would have to come from national
government…
Sherman Antitrust Act
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Passed without opposition… but toothless
Gave Justice Department authority to take legal
action against combinations
Weakness: failure to specify what combinations
would be forbidden
Not a result of oversight
Results
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in ten years, 14 suits and few convictions
law used more frequently against labor unions
United States v. E.C. Knight Co. weakened the act
The company controlled manufacturing sugar
(90+%) but Sherman Anti-trust Act only defined
interstate trade (aka distributing)
Tariff
 Republicans instead focus on passage of
protective tariff, McKinley Tariff
 Whoops! Weak action on trusts and focus on
tariff = mistake by Republicans and leads to
major backlash
 1890 congress elections… Rep. go from a
majority in the Senate to 8 and only 88 of 323
seats in the House
 1892 Presidential Elections: Cleveland is back…
but still the same…
Railroads
 Grangers helped pass successful legislation to limit
power of the railroads…but the Supreme Court
intervenes in Wabash, St.Louis and Pacific Railway Co.
v. Illinois (Wabash Case) rules Granger Laws as
unconstitutional stating that it limited the power of
Congress
 Courts would go on to limit the powers of states to
regulate commerce within their own boundaries
 Clear that regulation of RR would have to come from
Federal Government
 Congress passes Interstate Commerce Act
Interstate commerce act
 “reasonable and just” rates… although
the bill did not define what it meant
 established ICC, but it had to rely on the
courts for rulings
 haphazardly enforced and narrowly
interpreted by the courts
 without practical effect for nearly 20
years
Enough!
The Agrarian Revolt
The Grangers
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First started as a
organization of social
assistance and self
help
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Oliver H. Kelley
Bring farmers together
to keep up with
technology and
farming techniques
Feeling of community
Cont.
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… 1873 depression changed it into a political
organization
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membership increased 800,000 members and 20,000
lodges
strongest areas were in the South and Midwest
marketing co-operatives to eliminate middlemen
urged political action to curb monopolistic powers of
railroad
July 4, 1873 “Farmer’s Declaration of Independence”
Politics on a small level… “Anti-monopoly” and
“Reform” parties
Agricultural prosperity and railroad power =
Federal/Judicial Defeat
Grange Enterprises
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Grange Enterprises
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cooperative stores, creameries, warehouses, insurance
companies and factories
mail-order catalogs: Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck
failure: opposition from middlemen
The Farmers Alliance
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by 1880 more than 4 million members
similar enterprises to grange movement to
free farmers from “furnishing merchants”
Alliance speakers traveled criticizing
corporations
Women played a large role (Mary Lease
“raise less corn and more hell”)
economic frustrations force the creation of a
national political organization
The Farmers Alliance
Cont.
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Candidates supported by Alliances were part of the reason
for the 1890 shift in Congress
Little open endorsement for Alliances by these candidates…
talk of third party
Ocala Demands (Florida) 1890
July 1892 Omaha Platform, Nebraska formation of the
People’s Party, known as Populists
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Presidential Nominee, James Weaver, pulls 8.5% of popular
vote
1,500 Populist candidates elected to state legislatures
3 governors, 5 US Senators, and 10 Congressmen
also could claim support from many Democrats and
Republicans who were elected by appealing to Populist
demands
The Populist Constituency
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Appealed principally to farmers… small farmers
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Sense of belonging to a community for the geographically
isolated
Failure to gain support of labor: economic interests often at
odds
Miners and “Free Silver”
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Midwest: farmers who were struggling to hold onto land or who had
lost it
South: sharecroppers, tenant farmers or small landowners
make gold, with silver, the basis of currency
expand supply of currency causes inflation, meaning money loses
value but prices (like for farm goods) GO UP!!!!
Rise and fall of “Colored Alliances” Black Populists in the
South
“Southern Demagogues” strong speakers v. “Bourbons”
Chautauquas provided large audiences for ideas to be
spread, as well as entertainment to the masses
Populist Ideals
Issues
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system of “subtreasuries” to replace and strengthen and
replace cooperatives
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government would establish a network of warehouses
where farmers could deposit their crops
crops as collateral… farmers could barrow money from the
government with low interest rates and wait for the price of
their goods to increase before selling them
getting rid of the national banks system
end absentee ownership of land
direct election of US Senators
regulation of government ownership of railroads,
telephones and telegraphs
graduated income tax
inflation of currency (“Free Silver”)
Populist Ideals
Ideology
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Overwhelmingly Protestant… but many openly
anti-Semitic
Strange evolution of leaders: Ignatius Donnelly
and Tom Watson
Rejection of laissez-faire orthodoxies
Offered the strongest challenge to the direction
the American capitalist system was going
Progress should be defined by the needs of
individuals in communities
Wizard of Oz (political allegory?)
The Crisis of the 1890s
Overview of Problems
1.
agrarian protest
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2. labor unrest
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oppression from monopolistic railroads
Populist movement
low wages
violent strikes
3. severe depression
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Panic of 1893
Conservative leadership does nothing… failure
of either major party to respond to growing
distress
The Panic of 1893
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The Collapse of the Stock Market
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Reading and Philadelphia Railroads declare bankruptcy
Two months later, the National Cordage Company
declares bankruptcy
Stock market collapses in response
Many banks collapse in response
Calling in of credit… small businesses begin to collapse
1 million workers lose their jobs
Showed the dependency of the American
economy on the health of the railroads
The Panic of 1893 Cont.
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Populist Jacob S. Coxey and
“Coxey’s Army”
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advocating a massive public
works program… creation of
jobs
inflation of currency
March on foot from Ohio to
Washington
500 make it
Leadership resists pressures
for a more active government
in the face of this crisis
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Congress
President Cleveland
Coxey and his followers
arrested or herded into camps
The Silver Question
 Confusing issue:
 Center of the debate was the basis of the dollar, what would lie
behind it and give it value. People today have trouble
understanding the passion it aroused, because today the value of
the dollar is based on public confidence in the government.
However in the late 19th century it was widely believed that
currency was worthless unless there was something concrete
behind it.
 In the 1870s the mint stopped coining silver because the value
ratio compared to gold was 16:1 (16 ounces of silver = one ounce
of gold)
 Congress 1873 passes law recognizing discontinuation of sliver
 a. conspiracy of big bankers
 b. “Crime of ‘73”
The Silver Question Cont.
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Two opposition groups urged the return
of the coinage of silver
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silver miners (aka SILVERITES)
farmers – inflationist
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raise the prices on farm produce
ease payments of farmers debts
Business, industrialists, bankers, etc. (GOLD
BUGS)
President Cleveland calls a special
session of Congress to repeal the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act…causes a
major rift in Democratic party
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Northeast Democrats: gold standard essential
to the honor and stability of US
South and Western Democrats: “Free Silver”
became a symbol of liberation
“A Cross of Gold”
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The Emergence of Bryan
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Populists: In the middle of a
depression, they realized
they could gain support by
raising the “money question”
Republicans: smelling blood
in the water due to Democrat
division, nominate Governor
William McKinley of Ohio
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opposed free coinage of silver
34 delegates from the mountain
and plains states walked out of
the convention in protest and
joined the Democrat Party
Democrats
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Democrats
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convention of 1896, Southern and Western
Democrats have two goals
1 = neutralize the Populists
2 = gain control of the party from North Eastern
Democrats
But defenders of the gold standard (N.E
Democrat / Republican Platform) dominate the
debate… until…
William Jennings Bryan
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one of the best in the age of
orators
1896 Convention
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1896 Election
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“Cross of Gold” speech brings
convention to a frenzy
age 36, youngest presidential
candidate to ever appear on the
ballot of a major party
Republicans and Conservative
Democrats attack him as a
dangerous demagogue
Admirers hailed him as the “Great
Commoner”
The Populists decide to support
Bryant based on the platform of
free silver… understanding that it
might destroy their party
The Conservative Victory
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Spending
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Republicans, dead afraid of a Bryant victory raise $7 million
Democrats only able to spend $300,000
Campaigning
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McKinley never gets off his front porch in Canton, Ohio
Bryant becomes the first presidential candidate in US history to
stump every section in the country systematically
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traveled 18,000 miles and spoke to an estimated 5 million people
Pleased Protestants, alienated Catholics
Redefined the modern form of presidential politics, but at the time,
many considered the campaign undignified
Results
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McKinley polled 271 electoral votes and garnered 51.1% of the
vote
Bryan polled 176 electoral votes and garnered 47.7% of the
vote
Disaster for Populists who had gambled on Democrats and lost
McKinley and Recovery
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A return to calm
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the exhaustion of dissent
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middle class Americans afraid of labor
decline of agrarian protest
McKinley politically shrewd and gradual easing of the economic
crisis
McKinley tact and issues
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committed himself to the issue that all Republicans agreed: the
need for higher tariff rates (again) and produced the Dingley
Tariff
sent a commission to Europe to explore the option of a silver
agreement with GB and France… as expected, no agreement
could be produced
in response the Currency or “Gold Standard” Act of 1900 is
passed
McKinley and Recovery Cont.
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Conservatives win “the battle of the standards”
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passage of act timed with economic recovery
prosperity and gold standard seem closely allied
lucky that so much more gold was found in Alaska, South
Africa and Australia
New Issue: United States presence in world affairs
and the possibility of the United States becoming
an imperialist nation