The Gilded Age

Period of growth in industry and a wave of immigrants
 production of iron and steel rose dramatically
 western resources: lumber, gold, and silver increased
the demand for improved transportation.
 Railroad development boomed as trains moved goods
from the resource-rich West to the East.
 Steel and oil were in great demand.
 produced wealth for businessmen: John D. Rockefeller
(in oil), Andrew Carnegie (in steel), known as robber
barons (people who got rich through ruthless business
deals).
 Gilded Age gets its name from the many great fortunes
created during this period and the way of life this wealth
supported.
 term coined by Mark Twain to represent the prosperity of
the period that gilded or covered the corruption
underneath.
 What
 How
was a robber baron?
did the Gilded Age get its name?
Political Machines

A political machine is a political organization in which
an authoritative boss or small group commands the
support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually
campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts.
The machine's power is based on the ability of the
workers to get out the vote for their candidates on
election day.
 highly efficient organizations in urban areas that ran like
machines in getting candidates elected to city and state
offices. In return, these candidates would kick back
contracts or other benefits to the machine politicians who
generally owned businesses that would benefit.
 best example NYC – Tammany Hall
 Describe
a political machine.
Major Scandals



Boss Tweed – NYC political machine boss – would have
his men work the docks to offer low rent housing and
cheap wage jobs to incoming immigrants. In return, got
the immigrant votes when they naturalized and often
used them to stand in for dead voters (no ids required
back then) to stuff ballot boxes.
Tweed made millions of dollars on government contracts
to build different projects in NYC.
Brought down primarily by the cartoons of Thomas Nast
which ridiculed and exposed the corruption. Also
Samuel Tilden, reform governor of NY, brought
investigations against Tweed Ring.
 Summarize
the scandal that Boss Tweed
was involved with.



“Black Friday” Sept 24, 1869 – Grant’s brother-in-law
caught up in Fisk and Gould’s scheme to corner the gold
market
Credit Mobilier – Union Pacific RR – sold stock to
congressmen and used that to influence them to
appropriate money for subsidizing the building of the RR
– made profits by overcharging for materials and labor
Whiskey Ring – a group of Republican politicians,
including Orville Babcock, Grant’s private secretary, in a
conspiracy to siphon off federal tax revenues from
whiskey taxes – the “ring” was uncovered and brought to
light by Sec of Treasury, Benjamin Bristow
 What
was the scandal involving the Union
Pacific Railroad?
 Describe
the “Whiskey Ring” scandal.
disparity – huge difference
between the wealth of the industrial
capitalists and the low wage workers,
farmers, and small business owners
 Economic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st3_8LEQvck