The “Gilded Age” 1865-1900
Author Mark Twain
VOCABULARY
GILDED
Covered with a thin layer of gold or a
substance that looks like gold.
The Gilded Age…
• Looked golden, shiny, happy, prosperous
• BUT UNDERNEATH IT ALL…
• [Fill in your own disgusting images]
What was shiny in the Gilded Age?
• Economic growth
– close to the wealthiest country in the world
– People with enormous fortunes
• Big cities
– Exciting, modern places
• Technology
– Telephone, electric light, and thousands more
What Was the [xxxxx] Underneath?
• Massive poverty, hunger, homelessness
• Domination of society by big business and
trusts
• Horrible working conditions & child labor
• Corruption
• Total abandonment of civil rights
• Total lack of rights for women
Labor Conditions in the Gilded Age
Industrialist
Cornelius Vanderbilt
“The public be damned”
“Who gives a damn about
the public? I got the power,
don’t I
Corruption in the Gilded Age
• Grant Administration
– Credit Mobilier Scandal
• Railroad company was overcharging the US
government and giving bribes to govt. officials
– Whiskey Ring Scandal
• Govt officials taking bribes to assist whiskey sellers
break the law
• Public officials for sale
Politics in the
Gilded Age
The Federal Government’s Jobs
During the Gilded Age
• Deliver mail
• Maintain a small army
• Provide a structure by which the dull,
bearded presidents could comb their beards
• In other words: very little power
The Age of Mediocre, Forgettable Presidents
Hayes, 1877-1881
Cleveland, 1885-1889; 1893-1897
Garfield, 1881
Arthur, 1881-1885
Harrison, 1889-1893
Elections, 1876-1896
The Two Parties
• Democrats and Republicans
• Very similar
– Pro business
– Anti-radical
– Republicans a little (not a lot) more responsive
to civil rights
• Your politics didn’t determine your party;
your CULTURE did
Who Belonged to Each Party?
Republicans
• “Old stock” Protestants
– Anti-immigrant
– Pro-temperance
• Northeasterners
• Blacks
• Bankers, Bigger
business owners, etc.
– Pro-tariff
Democrats
• White Southerners
• Catholics & other big
city immigrants
• Westerners
• Farmers
Social Issues in the
Gilded Age
Civil Rights in the Gilded Age
• Total abandonment of Reconstruction
• Blacks had few voting or civil rights
• Staggering number of lynchings an other
forms of violence
Civil Rights in the Gilded Age
• Plessy v. Ferguson
– 1896 Supreme Court decision
– Separate facilities did not violate the 14th
Amendment as long as they were “equal”
• They were never equal
– Law of the land until 1954
• 1890—Force Bill (to enforce 15th
Amendment) is voted down
• Last Black leaves Congress in 1901
– None til 1929
“Strange Fruit”—Billie Holiday
• Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
• Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
• Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter cry.
Women’s Rights in the Gilded Age
• Some western states allowed suffrage
– Wyoming the 1st in 1890
• Overall, women had few rights
– Voting, child custody, divorce, freedom from
violence, property ownership, etc.
Economic Issues in
the Gilded Age
Farm Crisis in the Gilded Age
• Economic
– New technology & new lands meant overproduction
– Low prices & heavy debts made farmers desperate
• Political
– 1800—97% of population was rural
– 1880—only 60% was rural
– Farmers are losing political voice
• Social
– Lonely, boring isolated life on the farms
Farmers Were in Debt To…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Banks
Land speculators
Commercial (corporate) farms
Railroads
Equipment Salesmen
Mills & other middle men
KEY POINT: Farmers had no control over
any of these people
The Solution?
• Formation of the Farmers’ Alliances
– A sort of “labor union for farmers”
• Membership:
– 4,000,000 farmers by 1890
– Both white and black Alliances
• Goals:
– Economic cooperation & assistance to each other
– Political lobbying & candidate support
• Eventually their own political party (The Populists)
– Relieving social isolation through gatherings
Why Farmers Were Going Broke
• Technology & new lands mean overproduction
– Means falling prices (“the more ya got, the less it’s
worth”)
•
•
•
•
Technology is expensive
Middle-men (mill owners, etc.) charge a lot
Banks charge high interest & take land
Monopolistic railroads charge high rates
Alliance Economic Tactics
• Sharing technology
• Pooling resources to start own banks
• Fixing prices at a higher level & limiting
production
– Sort of like the manufacturers’ pools
• Starting non-profit mills, etc.
“Raise less corn
and more…
HELL!!!”
Alliance Leader Mary Elizabeth Lease
Alliance Political Tactics
• Campaign for & Support friendly candidates
– Most often Democrats
– 1890 helped elect friendly legislators
• 50 Congressmen
• 6 Senators
• Lobby for favorable laws
– Railroad regulations, government assistance to
farmers, etc.
• 1892—Formation of the People’s (Populist)
Party
A Texas Alliance Gathering, 1890
1892 Election
The People’s (Populist) Party
• Formed in 1892
• Constituency
– Mostly western and southern farmers
– Attempted to recruit organized labor as well
• Core Beliefs
–
–
–
–
Stronger national government
Public ownership of utilities & railroads
Government loans to farmers
“Free silver”
• Success
– Won 8.5% of vote & three states in for president
in 1892
Money
• Printed money had to be backed by a supply
of a precious metal
• Based only on gold—less money printed
• Based on gold & silver—more money printed
• “The more there is the less it’s worth”
• If the money is worth less, prices are higher
– inflation
Money, Part 2
• People in debt (who owe money) want
– More money available
• Debts are worth less
• Debtors (people who are owed money) want
– Less money available
• Debts are worth more
• Farmers wanted…
– More money available
– Paper money based on gold and silver
3 Early Attempts at Reform in
the Gilded Age
• Pendleton Act (1884)
• Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)
Pendleton Act
Pendleton Act required some government jobs
to be assigned through competitive exams
• More symbolic than effective
Interstate Commerce Act
• Goal was to regulate railroads rate
• Said that railroads must charge “a
reasonable and just rate”
– Gave no indication what that meant
• Set up the Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC)
– Had no enforcement power at all
The ICC can be made of great use to the railroads.
it satisfies the popular clamor for a government
supervision of the railroads, at the same time that
such supervision is entirely nominal…The part of
wisdom is not to destroy the Commission, but to
utilize it.”
--Railroad Corporation Lawyer Richard Olney
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• Put government restrictions on trusts,
monopolies and certain trade practices
• In reality, rarely enforced at all against
corporations
• WAS used against labor unions
– “monopolies of labor”
The Tariff
• 1890—McKinley Tariff; highest ever
• 1894—Wilson-Gorman Tariff
– Democrats controlled White House & Congress
– But still an INCREASE in tariff
– Did include a 2% graduated income tax
• Ruled unconstitutional
• 16th Amendment of 1913