Politics – 1860-1900
Reform, Segregation, Populism and
Imperialism
Election of 1880
• Republicans – James Garfield and
Chester A. Arthur
• Democrats – Winfield Hancock and
William English
Garfield Assassination
• July 2, 1881
• By disgruntled and
unbalanced office
seeker – Charles
Guiteau
• Arthur became
president
1. Civil Service Reform
• Motivated by incompetence and corruption of
Grant Administration
• 1877 – Hayes removed Chester A Arthur from
NYC customs House
• 1883 – Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil
Service Act
Pendleton Civil Service Act
• Standards and competitive examinations of
positions
• No soliciting of contributions from
government workers **
– ** Forced political parties to look elsewhere for
campaign funds. Big Business will gain a
controlling hand in national politics
The Election of 1884
• Republicans: James G. Blaine and
Thomas Hendricks
• Democrats: Grover Cleveland and
John Logan
Blaine
-A referendum on the spoils
system
-Cleveland supported by
reform minded Republicans –
“mugwumps”
- “Rum, Romanism and
Rebellion” – led to high
immigrant turnout
Cleveland
Election of 1888
• Republicans: Benjamin Harrison
and Levi Morton
• Democrats: Grover Cleveland
and Allen Thurman
Harrison
Cleveland
Harrison lost popular
vote, but won electoral
vote
Harrison had massive
support from big
business and The
Grand Army of the
Republic
2. Racial Discrimination
• Black disfranchisement
– Literacy test, poll taxes, property requirements
• The Convict-lease system
– Cheap labor for mines, railroad construction, cotton
farmers
– Kept white labor from protest or strike
• Lynchings
• Civil Rights Cases – declared Civil Rights Act of 1875
unconstitutional
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – “separate but equal
facilities are constitutional”
Black Response
• Booker T. Washington –
“accommodation”
– Blacks must acquire skills and
prove their economic worth
• Bishop Henry M. Turner – return to
Africa
• Frederick Douglas – press for full
equality
• T. Thomas Fortune – violence
• Emigration to northern cities and the
Great Plains
3. Tariffs, Money, and Agrarian Distress
• A. Tariffs and Currency
– Tariffs
• Republicans favored high protectionist tariffs
–Harrison:
McKinley Tariff (1890)
• Democrats (i.e. Cleveland) sought lower tariffs
– To prevent eliminate the surplus and its use for veteran
pension expansion
– Wilson-Gorman Tariff (still very protectionist)
» Included a small income tax
» Pollack v. Farmers Loan and Trust – declared the income
tax as unconstitutional
3. Tariffs, Money, and Agrarian Distress
-Currency
• Big Business, creditors, most politicians supported the
gold standard; limited money supply
• Farmers and other debtors – supported an expanding
money supply
– Pushed for bi-metalism– (i.e. currency backed by both gold
and silver
– Bland-Allison Act (1878) – required gov’t to buy and mint up
to $ 4 million of silver each month
– Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 -- $4.5 million of sliver
each month and to issue notes equal to this amount.
3. Tariffs, Money, and Agrarian Distress
• B. Agrarian Distress and Action
– Farmers’ problems:
• Tight money supply
• Low prices for crops
• Debt
3. Tariffs, Money, and Agrarian Distress
• Farmers organized
– The Grange
• Began as a social and informational organization
• Sought to farmers “self-sufficiency” through cooperatives
– Failed for lack of capital
• Pressured states to regulate railroads -- Granger Laws
– Most repealed through railroad lobbying
– Farmers Alliances
• Sought tariff reduction, graduated income tax, public ownership of
railroads, federal funds of research, ban on alien land ownership,
and “free coinage of silver”
– Populist Party
• Sought Alliance goals plus direct election of senators
Election of 1892
Harrison
Cleveland
Weaver
• Republicans: Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid
• Democrats: Grover Cleveland and Adlai Stevenson
• Populists: James Weaver and James Field
Populists “stole” states from Republicans
Republican campaign ignored farm and labor unrest; and hurt by the
McKinley Tariff
Cleveland came out in favor of the gold standard
The Panic of 1893
• Farm troubles led to a decline in Railroad business, which
affected many industries
• Confidence in gold standard waned:
– Financial Crisis in London l
– Veterans benefits
– Sherman Silver Purchase Act –
– Gold reserves dropped
• Bankruptcy of Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
• Stock market crash
Depression
Reactions to Panic/Depression
• Strikes (e.g., Pullman Strike
of 1894)
• Coxey’s “army”
• Government borrowed $62
million
• Democratic party split
between “gold” and “silver”
Election of 1896
McKinley
•
•
•
Bryan
Bryan
Republicans: William McKinley and Garret
Hobart
Democrats: William Jennings Bryan and
Arthur Sewall
Populists; William Jennings Bryan and
Thomas Watson
Bryan’s campaign did not appeal to urban
workers or stable farmers or many immigrants
A victory for big business and tight
money
-Dingley Tariff (1897)
-The Currency Act of 1900
 Bryan campaigned on the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of
16:1
-“Cross of Gold Speech”
 McKinley supported the gold
standard and protective tariff
-Had massive funding from big
business
-Mark Hanna managed
McKinley’s “front porch campaign
American Imperialism
• Revival of Manifest Destiny
– European imperialism
– Corporate pressure for new markets
– Alfred Mahan: sea power = national greatness
– The Christian missionary movement
– Social Darwinism
American Imperialism
• 1852 – Commodore Mathew Perry used the American fleet
to force Japan to open itself to western trade
• 1889 – joint protectorate over the Samoan Islands
• Hawaii
– 1887 – new constitution imposed on Hawaiian monarch
and U.S. naval base constructed
– 1890 – McKinley Tariff on sugar
– 1893 – Liliuokalani deposed; annexation requested
– 1898 – Hawaii annexed by the U.S.
American Imperialism
• Cuba
– Rebellion against Spanish organized by José Martí
– Popular support in U.S.
• Atrocities of “Butcher” Weyler
• Yellow Journalism (Hearst and Pulitzer)
– Feb. 8 1898 – the Journal published an insult of President Mckinley
by Spanish minister (de Lome letter)
– Feb. 15, 1898 -- the U.S.S. Maine sunk in Havana harbor
– April 11, 1898 – Congressional resolution to recognized Cuban
independence and to support it by force
• Teller Amendment --U.S. would not seek to “control” Cuba
American Imperialism
• Spanish-American War, 1898
–
–
–
–
–
May 1 – Dewey captured Manila
July 1 – Battle of San Juan Hill (Roosevelt)
July 3 – Spanish fleet destroyed
July 17 – Spain requested an armistice
December – Treaty:
• Cuban Independence
• U.S. received Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam
– 1901 Platt Amendment
• U.S. retained U.S. naval base and the right to intervene
• Philippine Rebellion – 1898-1902